//------------------------------// // Chapter One - Just a Friendly Gesture // Story: Two Eyes, One Heart // by Tropical Applejack //------------------------------// “There are things that you can change, but there are also things you can’t control,” Dash remarked, looking up at the bright blue sky, “Like the weather, for example. We pegasi can clear the clouds, but we can’t change the color of the sky behind them.” “Gosh!” her filly-like friend Pinkie replied, “You sure like talking about weather, Dash!” “Ha! Yeah, I guess so. One of the habits of a weather pony.” Pinkie giggled as a blade of grass tickled her nose. She wondered momentarily what it would be like to be grass - always wanting to follow the wind and swaying in its direction. Talk about being the ultimate party animal. Or plant. It was thoughts like this that kept the pink mare always smiling. That and the time she spent with her friends, obviously. “Anyway,” Dash continued as the wind threw her rainbow-colored mane backwards, “I’m just saying that I don’t think us and our friends being alive after so much is luck. There’s something or somepony making sure we stay safe. There must be.” “What makes you say that?” “Remember when I performed that sonic rainboom and saved Rarity?” Pinkie nodded. “That sonic rainboom wasn’t me. The one when I was a filly? Maybe, but the other one wasn’t. The upward draft of air was too strong, and I almost got flung away by the sound barrier… but I didn’t. Somepony gave me a boost through it.” “Why haven’t you told anypony else?” Pinkie inquired. “Because…” Dash reasoned, “you’re the only one I know who believes in some REALLY weird crud. You’re the weirdest pony I know.” Rainbow heard her own voice leave her mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to sound so-” “It’s okay, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie interrupted, “I know you don’t mean everything the way you make it sound!” Rainbow blushed. Nopony knew her better than Pinkie did. She quickly smiled and ruffled the pink pony’s mane. “Maybe sometimes I do.” “Oh?” “Yeah,” Rainbow replied, “like when I say you’re my best friend. You just listen to me. You don’t care if I’m saying something upsetting or mean. All you care about is putting a smile on my face.” “Silly Dash!” Pinkie Pie giggled in response, “I do that for all my friends!” Rainbow Dash just shook her head with her grin still wide spread from ear to ear. “And yet I always seem to be your top priority every time you see me,” she pointed out. At that, Pinkie didn’t respond. She knew it was true, but she didn’t want to admit it. Instead of answering her friend’s accusation, Pinkie pointed up at a cloud. “Hey, that one looks like you!” Rainbow stared up at the sky. It didn’t look like any more than a vague shape against a blue background. She tried looking at it from every conceivable angle, and she eventually convinced herself that one edge of the cloud bore a level of resemblance to the lightening bolt on her flank. She smiled and looked around for another shape. Spotting a big cumulus cloud directly above her and Pinkie, Dash pointed it out. “And that one reminds me of you!” Pinkie Pie looked at Rainbow Dash, as if confused. “Cotton candy,” Rainbow explained very briefly. “Oh, and that one looks like-” “THAT ONE looks like a storm cloud, Pinkie. So does that one, and that one, and that one….” Rainbow lost count of the gray and black clouds now accumulating above Pinkie and herself. “Come on,” she said with slight urgency, “Let’s take shelter under that tree over there.” Rainbow pointed to a tall oak tree across the clear, grassy meadow. “Isn’t that one of the worst places to be in a storm?” Pinkie asked, although it was also true that it wasn’t fun being in the rain and they were far from the closest actual shelter. “I don’t want you to get wet,” Rainbow answered. They made their way to the tree, and then the first bolt of lightning hit the ground somewhere far away. “Here we go….” Rainbow sighed. The downpour escalated instantly. Pinkie frowned as the rain drenched the grass outside the cover of the tree. She didn’t want to be one of them anymore. “What a horrible way to ruin a beautiful day!” she complained. “Aw, come on, Pinks. It’s not so bad. Look on the bright side!” Dash patted Pinkie on the back. She hated seeing the pink pony not smiling more than she hated not smiling herself. “There might be a rainbow when it’s over!” “What if there isn’t..?” Pinkie asked innocently, turning to her blue friend. “Then I’ll make one for you. In the meantime…” Rainbow laid her head against the tree and used her hooves for extra support, “wake me when the storm’s over. Then we’ll see if it’s me or the weather making the rainbow.” Dash laughed at the last sentence. She closed her eyes and fell asleep with her head resting on the hard bark. * * * “Wake up, Dashie!” Pinkie shouted far louder than necessary. Rainbow shot upward and hit her head on a low-hanging branch. “Ooooowww….” she moaned, “What IS it?” The clapping of thunder and drops of rain still leaking onto Rainbow let her know that the storm hadn’t stopped. “I wanted you to see what I made!” Pinkie explained, “Sorry for scaring you, Dash.” “What’d you make?” “Come look over HERE, silly!” Rainbow pinpointed the sound of Pinkie's voice to be coming from the other side of the tree. She walked over - curious about what crazy thing she spent the past downpour doing. Her answer was a heart engraved on the oak tree’s strong bark. Pinkie threw a stick to the side. “‘R + P forever’?” Rainbow read with a slight blush. “I figured since you said we were best friends, I’d make something to remember it.” “No, I got that, but why’d you put ‘R’ first?” Rainbow asked. “I thought you’d like it more if you came first,” Pinkie replied, smiling widely and waiting for her friend’s critique that would surely follow. “Thanks for, uh… making this, Pinkie. It’s pretty cool.” Pinkie overreacted to the opinion the same way she overreacted to everything.; she took Rainbow’s critique as if she called it the next best portrait of Equestria. Rainbow rolled her eyes. Suddenly, the sky crackled overhead. Lightning struck the tree in a fraction of a second. The sound sent both Pinkie’s and Rainbow’s hearts flying about a hundred miles an hour. For that fraction of a second, they truly felt scared. Pinkie jumped into Dash’s arms, and Dash into hers. After realizing they hadn’t suffered more than a large shock, Rainbow was the first to let go and pretend like, “I- I wasn’t scared..!” Pinkie didn’t answer. She was trying to suppress a giggle at the look of Rainbow’s mane - which had stuck straight up from electricity. Little did she know, Dash was doing the same. The storm hadn’t exactly left Pinkie untouched. “What’s so funny?” Dash asked through clenched teeth. Pinkie Pie couldn’t hold it in anymore. She exploded with laughter - falling in the damp grass. At the very beginning of that pleasant sound, Rainbow also fell flat on her back and let her own laughter mix with Pinkie’s. This kept up for several minutes. Every time they would stop laughing, they would get right back to it after seeing each other’s ridiculous-looking manes, tails, and coats again. When they finally got a hold of themselves, they got to their feet and helped one another pat down their loose strands. “Thanks, Pinkie,” Rainbow said as Pinkie went a step farther by preening the feathers on Dash’s wings. “Don’t mention it!” The storm started to slow down after that. The two ponies frowned as they took notice to the charred tree behind them. The message was gone. “Wait a minute,” Rainbow said with a sudden grin. She walked up to where Pinkie’s art once was, and she began rubbing and scratching at the burnt bark. Sure enough, under a layer of charred wood, there was the heart. Pinkie Pie smiled again, and Dash smiled wider after seeing it. “There we go,” Rainbow said, satisfied.