//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Through the Trials and Tribulations // by Stryker12324 //------------------------------// Chapter 1 The sun burned fiercely in the bright blue sky, spreading light and heat down upon the citizens of Equestria. And, in a certain small town called Ponyville, a cyan blue pegasus was busy practicing her daring aerial tricks. She flawlessly executed her usual tricks; the Super Speed Strut, Fantastic Filly Flash, and Buccaneer Blaze. Whooping and cheering herself on, she moved on to other stunts, each one more awesome then the last. Whiling away the midday hours, Rainbow Dash finally concluded her flight practice with a well-deserved power nap.                  Hours later, Rainbow Dash stirred on her fluffy cloud and woke with a giant yawn. Sleepily opening her eyes, she stretched and listened to the satisfying pops of her joints and muscles. She smiled and closed her eyes again, ready to relax, but instead tensed up as she was alerted by an angry growling. Her eyes snapped open and she took a moment to listen with bated breath, hoping the noise was just her imagination. But the angry growling returned, even louder than the first time, demanding her utmost attention. It was her arch nemesis, the most nefarious of fiends to ever plague Rainbow Dash when she was at her most weakest, her most vulnerable. Something that could be defeated with one, and only one, thing. It was an empty stomach. Rainbow rolled over and placed her front hooves on her belly. “Oh, it’s just you wanting to be fed again,” she sighed. “Always when I’m napping. It’s like it follows me.” Quickly running through her options, she considered heading towards Sugar Cube Corner for lunch. Unfortunately, she had to disregard this idea. As nice as the Cakes were, she didn’t have any bits on her person and they did have a business to run, after all. Applejack was usually an option but at this time of day, she’d still be working the orchards, so that meant waiting for several more hours before she’d be able to eat. Unable to think of anypony else that was available at the current moment, she decided to just head home and throw something together. Dragging herself to her hooves, she stretched out the kinks still in her body and spread her wings. Leaping into the air, she flew towards her cloud home to make herself some lunch. Landing on her “porch,” she pushed through her front door and moved into the kitchen. Grabbing all the necessary equipment, she quickly assembled a weapon that no stomach could withstand. A daffodil sandwich with lettuce and tomato on lightly toasted and buttered rye bread with an apple on the side and a glass of milk. Indeed, all empty stomachs quake in fear of daffodil sandwiches. Or would it be anticipation?         Sitting at her dining table, she munched at her sandwich while restlessly looking around the room. She didn’t like to just eat. That was so boring. She was a mare of action. She couldn’t just sit still and mechanically chew. Looking around for something to do while eating, her eyes fell on the new Daring-Do book that she had borrowed from Twilight just two days ago. Rainbow Dash grinned. It was about high time she finished it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~          ‘And with a final taunting laugh to Ahuitzotl, Daring-Do shot off into the breeze. Soaring off into the sunset, she left behind only one thing.’         “Curse you, Daring-Do!”         With a content sigh, Rainbow closed the book and fell back onto her cloud bed while hugging the book adoringly. At some point after finishing her meal, she had lazily floated up to her bedroom while remaining buried snout deep in the novel. Who would have guessed that she, Rainbow Dash, most radical pegasus to ever grace the land of Equestria with her awesomeness, would become a book loving egghead. ‘Maybe now I can get closer to Twilight.’ Rainbow’s thought processes went from content to worry, uncertainty. This wasn’t the first time she had tried to figure out a way to get closer to that lavender unicorn. Ever since the day when Twilight first walked into Ponyville, Rainbow hadn’t been able to get her out of her mind. She had initially hoped that the feelings would simply disappear, that it would be just another silly little crush. But as time went on, all the adventures that they went on and the things she learned about Twilight only served to make the feelings grow. She wanted to tell Twilight how she felt, but how was she going to do that? They didn’t exactly have a whole lot in common or spend all that much time alone together. Most time spent with Twilight was usually spent with some of their other friends at the same time. And what if when she told Twilight about her feelings, she scorned- No. Rainbow couldn’t, wouldn’t, let herself think like that. She knew her well enough to know that she would never abandon or hate a friend, no matter what. At least, that’s what she believed, and hoped for. She didn’t know if she could handle another heartbreak. The first time had been bad enough, and it was that, that had made her the mare she was today. Sighing, Rainbow closed her eyes and thought back to her days as a filly in Cloudsdale. Airheart. The pony that was responsible for shattering Rainbow’s heart and the instigator of her less-than-awesome personality traits. The arrogance, cockiness, brashness. All of it could be traced back to that single defining moment in her foalhood. The reasons why she always pushed herself to be the best at everything she did, to take everything in stride, and ignore all the ponies who didn’t believe in her, could, once again, all be traced back to her: Airheart. Not that Rainbow did what she did for her, but rather, because of her. She still sometimes wondered where things went wrong. Airheart had been one of the nicest fillies Rainbow knew before meeting Fluttershy. What changed? She still asked herself that question, even though she would never find out. Airheart had been her first love, so she would probably always remain engraved as Rainbow’s biggest what if. Shaking her head to dispel the unpleasant memories, Rainbow returned to her original dilemma of how she was going to investigate Twilight’s feelings on the rather touchy subject of, for lack of a better term, fillyfooling. Just how was she going to unearth Twilight’s beliefs without accidentally revealing something herself? Plus, the fact that Twilight was born and raised in Canterlot didn’t help out with Rainbow’s little situation. After all, they weren’t exactly the most liberal of ponies and were very much old-fashioned, if her past visits were any indication of the so-called “higher society.” ‘So what if she’s from Canterlot? She’s not like those other stuck-up snobs!’ she exclaimed to herself. ‘But what if she is? What if she hates fillyfoolers? Just like HER?’ whispered the darker side of her consciousness. “Augh, shut up brain,” snarled Rainbow as she thumped herself on the head. This was the price Rainbow had to pay for reading books and liking them. A little side effect that she didn’t really appreciate. She couldn’t stop thinking. She wondered how ponies like Twilight could stand thinking all day long. No matter what Rainbow did, the nagging doubts refused to go away. It just couldn’t be helped. Even though her parents had taught her to keep an open mind about things, society in Cloudsdale was, for the most part, very much like Canterlot.  At least in Ponyville, it was much less so, but Rainbow wasn’t sure about Twilight’s own beliefs on the subject, seeing as how she had been raised there.                  It had been like this for months. Constant back and forth mental banter with herself, trying to either convince herself to drop it and forget the whole thing, or to scrape together the courage to take a leap of faith. She hated this internal division. It just left her weak and confused and afraid. And she was supposed to be Rainbow Dash! She wasn’t supposed to have all these lame feelings. She was too cool and awesome and radical for them! … wasn’t she? Sighing, Rainbow tossed her head around to find something that would distract her from her mental self-agonizing. Glancing down as she remembered the book held in her grasp, another thought crossed her mind. Twilight had recently told her of newest Daring-Do book that was going to be delivered that day. Her eyes lit up. Maybe they could read it together! That would be a perfect way to spend some time with her and maybe, just maybe, subtly find out how she felt about dating other mares. And if she were really, really lucky, maybe she could even let Twilight know how she felt. Looking out her window, and seeing that there were several more hours of sunlight, she decided to go pay Twilight a visit. With her plan floating around her head, Rainbow felt her heart swell with confidence. Things would turn out her way. She could feel it. She jumped up with the Daring-Do she just finished still held in her hooves and zipped off towards Twilight’s library.