When she had left her house, Rainbow Dash had noticed high-heel shoes near the entrance, along with a luxury bag hanging at the coat-rack near the door. As she had suspected, her father had probably gone out during the night.
It was lunch time yet in the absence of the house-cleaning lady and the gardener the house looked empty. In a way, it reassured her since she really didn’t feel like meeting face to face with the woman who had spent the night here.
Her mother had died since five years now and Mr. Rainbow Blaze’s pickups had never appeared in front of his daughter even once. That was for the best. She would have hated a so-called mother figure who would try to get meddled with her own life.
Before meeting the three young Crusaders at the climbing facility, she had gone to her favorite fast-food restaurant to eat a beetroot, arugula and Parmesan cheese salad along with a dish of falafels.
Though the last time they had seen each other was yesterday, and they were going to see each other at the party on the next evening, each of her friends sent text messages to her.
They all were busy today. Applejack was at her rodeo training and attended meetings for the creations of new products along with her brother and grandmother. Rarity worked in her boutique, like she did every day of the week. Sunset Shimmer worked as well, at the tattoo workshop where she earned her allowance. Twilight had to be reviewing harder than ever knowing the next day and a part of the morning after would be all about having fun with her friends. Fluttershy had to visit a kennel with her parents, who wanted to adopt a baby dog. As for Pinkie Pie, she was getting prepared all the necessary stuff for the party.
Despite it all, they were able to find a few minutes to devote time to each other. It had always been this way and Rainbow Dash often wondered what was the point of having a boyfriend when such a strong friendship was shared.
On her way to the climbing facility, after she had parked her scooter in a secured parking lot, she met many couples. They were holding hands, talking while walking together, sharing hot and fresh beverages… Was she envious? She wasn’t too sure.
Her lack of sexual attraction changed a lot of things, she thought, while uncertain of what exactly did it change. She had already fallen in love, after all… Or at least, she thought she had. Maybe it was because of her natural inclinations, that weren’t drawn to sappiness… At the same time, she knew boys also shared an interest in love, though they were supposedly impervious to sentimentality.
One night, on TV, she had seen a scientist saying human beings never fell in love, that love was an excuse for sex and procreation. She remembered she had thought it was tiresome and sounded superficial. She had no interest in sex, but not in affectious and intimate contact with the opposite gender. Dating a boy could be pleasant and according to her what precisely ruined her “feel-good” attitude towards dating was sex.
Rainbow Dash sighed. She was getting worked up for no big deal. None of her friends had an official boyfriend, and they had no issues about this fact. It wasn’t as if she was feeling she was missing something – far from it, even.
Through the window of the climbing facility, she caught a glimpse at the three adorable sweet faces of the Crusaders. They displayed their brightest smile seeing her coming their way.
She kind of liked the fact they were easy to impressed. Each time she spoke, they were hanging at her every word as if she was some important woman of wisdom, particularly young Scootaloo with her short hair and hoarse voice, which reminded her of what she used to be not so long ago – except she always had long hair.
First assessment: none of them except Scootaloo had an appropriate outfit for climbing. Jeans that wore young Apple Bloom would even be quite bothering when she would start to ascent.
Her who was an only child suddenly felt the soul of an older sister blooming inside her heart. It never stopped her from being herself, and so from boasting about being the best, but she tried to refrain herself a little in her bragging, to stay attentive. Partly because if she sent back Rarity and Applejack their youngest full of scrapes, she’d probably be in a rough time.
At the counter, she ordered for rent the necessary items for all four – harnesses, snap hooks, belays, bag and its magnesia and finally, pairs of soft shoes. She rolled Apple Bloom’s jeans up to her knees, making sure they all were comfortable with their movements, with hair tied and no phone in the pockets not to take the risk to lose them once up high. And here they were…
“Well, one of the first thing to learn is how to handle our center of gravity. For a beginner, the most important is the roles of legs and feet. There’s a rule, called “des trois points”: always keep one hand and two feet or two hands and one foot in support. It’s easier to ascent. Be careful, if you don’t follow my advice, you could get hurt and your sisters would kill me.”
“Show us, please, Rainbow Dash”, Scootaloo intoned with starry eyes.
The preteenager couldn’t believe how lucky she was. Her greatest idol devoted time to teach her a discipline she thought was fascinating. Of course, she also was here for Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, but those two had met more often in the past with Rainbow Dash.
She didn’t need to be asked twice when it came to showing her skills to the three girls, and quickly reached a few feet high, with a deftness that left them musing. Her natural gift for any kind of sport was fascinating for the impressionable Scootaloo.
As far as Rainbow Dash was concerned, it was an easy way to draw quick attention to her, what she admitted she liked a lot. If she boasted so much, it was because she knew she had things to boast about, although she often exaggerated her abilities.
It was a teaching that came from her mother, who had never hidden how proud she was of her own athletic skills and her perfect shape – due to an iron discipline. Always, she had repeated her daughter she shouldn’t wait for sincere compliments from the others, nor should she expect from them to highlight her aptitudes.
While the young girls started climbing, unceasingly climbing and descending, Rainbow Dash showered them with various advices, such as sticking their pelvis against the wall, to always be situated in the supports’ axe and to pick their heels.
To be quite honest, they weren’t made to be climbers and did it rather slowly. It wasn’t because of their natural skills, it was especially because of a lack of organization and of the fact they couldn’t stop quarreling about details instead of focusing on what really mattered. Since this activity was not a team effort, it was hard to teach them any helping spirit in these conditions…
After one hour and a half, tired and sore, when they started to complain about hunger and thirst, she understood it was about time to stop. Something told her the Crusaders wouldn’t specialized themselves as climbers. In fact, their feet barely on the foam mattress covering the floor of the facility, they started to talk about trying ice-skating for next Saturday.
While she was about to bring back the rented items, Rainbow Dash noticed young Sweetie Belle had forgot to tie the shoelaces of her flat boots, and encouraged by this bloom of benevolence like only a sister would feel, she leaned over in order to fix this.
She had barely noticed the boy behind the counter had changed, not really paying attention… until a rather deep male voice, with hints of an accent from the West North of Equestria, called her name.
Shocked, she jumped and bumped the top of her head against the edge of the counter above. When she got up, her eyes started to blink by themselves. The face she discovered looked familiar but she wasn’t sure…
“You don’t recognize me, do you? Well, it’s been ages… It's me, Soarin.”
This time, her eyes opened wider than a plate of desserts. Her neighbor and best childhood friend, whom she spent most of her time with, whom she had thought about last night in the flow of her reflections, when she was trying to escape another headache…
The boy she had left when leaving Cloudsdale behind was a twelve-year-old frail preteen, a bit small, looking constantly tired, who had trouble finding mates to play basketball with him. The one behind this counter was more than 5,90 feet, had an athletic build and though he had the same puppy eyes, she couldn’t help but notice how his skin was smoothed and devoid of rough patches or pimples, his eyes of the brightest green and his hair looked thin and soft as the one of a baby.
There was no doubt that he had changed a lot. It might not be her case if he recognized her so easily…
Unsure of why, her heart started to thrum, like touched by some mystical spark. She had to get together, or else he would be thinking she wasn’t happy she saw him again. It was wrong. She just didn’t really know how she should behave.
Stupid. They were friends, and although their last conversation dated back to seven years, there was nothing to torture her mind about. Even when kept in mind what had been their last contact together.
“I’m sorry… You’ve changed so much I needed time to realize. Are you… living in Canterlot?”
“Yes, it’s been two years since I settled here. I’m at Canterlot University.”
“Oh, I see… But how couldn’t I see you around? I come here at least once a month.”
“I don’t work here. I’m only doing a favor for a campus’ mate.”
Seeing the way he smiled at her, a strange certainty hit Rainbow Dash. If he had changed physically, mentally he was the same person. Soarin had been the most benevolent, empathic and understanding boy she had ever met. This unaggressive personality even was the main reason why the other boys refused to play with him, back then.
Entire waves of memories came back to her mind – games of basketball on the field behind their both houses, pirates and explorers’ games, hide and seek with Firefly, this summer camp they went at together…
“I can see you’re still as fond of sports as before. I haven’t really had the chance to be interested into interschool championships lately but I bet you must the heyday of one or two teams.”
“Three teams if you count athletics.”
“I knew it. Always true to form… Wow, I just can’t believe it!”
“Neither do I.”
Soarin took a look at the clock behind him, displaying a quarter to three. He wished he had the possibility to talk more with the girl he never had been able to forget but he was obliged to stay where he was until the end of the day. It was too much of a chance not to be taken yet he felt as if destiny wanted to play with his nerves.
The young woman at the other side of the counter had the same playful eyes, the same extraordinary hair color, but he had to admit she was no longer a little girl with braids, dresses stained with mud and dressings on her face and knees. Though she wore a sleeveless padded jacket, a tee-shirt and sportswear thermal pants, her hair messy hastily in a ponytail, with an enormous line of magnesia crossing off her cheek, she looked as pretty as he remembered.
The only solution if he wanted to extend their conversation was to fight his shyness… Easier said than done. Even though they were friends, they hadn’t seen each other for a while, and she still was a girl. His experiences in this field were rather limited.
One of the preteens with her asked whether they could go and have a milkshake somewhere. Now it was time to act.
“Hey… Well, maybe you’re busy, so if you don’t want to or you don’t have time for this, just tell me, but I thought… Well, I wondered… Maybe we could meet again later today… or tonight, in fact. Like, to have a drink, or I don’t know, anything that would please you. To make up for lost time, you know…”
If he was skillful with his hands and body, it hadn’t always been this way when it came to words. For sure, he hadn’t changed in reality. Rainbow Dash thought it was sweet although it was a side of his personality she knew very well which had never launched anything inside her before.
“Alright”, she answered with a wide smile. “Let’s just do this. A drink together would be a good idea.”
“For real? Great! Do you know the Bellehorse Bar? Let’s meet up there around eight and a half.”
The climbing facility closed at six and a half, but he had to put the items in order, to prepare everything for the next day and he had to have time on his hands to come back home, to take a shower and to change his clothes before going back downtown.
“Every youngster here knows the Bellehorse!”
“Does it mean it’s OK?”
“Yes. Eight and a half in front of the bar. That’s perfect.”
Her plans for the weekend had always been to go in her bed and to sleep until high noon after her time with the Crusaders, but it suddenly didn’t bother her at all to shake her vegging out schedules up. One pair of gorgeous green eyes had convinced her she wasn’t that tired…
And, after all, she placed friendship above everything else and it would have been hypocrite from her to choose sleeping over catching up lost time with a childhood friend that Providence had put on her way.
It didn’t matter that this friend in question also had been her very first kiss…
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Sometimes, although the door was locked, her father was in his office at the second floor, from which he rarely went out. Even just to drink a Scotch or to smoke cigars with members of his executive board, it didn’t grace the first floor with his presence.
“I’m home!’, Rainbow Dash sang out while taking her key off the lock.
Silence answered. Maybe he was having a nap, which meant he wouldn’t want to be bothered. On her tiptoes, she climbed the stairs after she had taken off her sneakers. Once she reached the floor, she found the door of said-office ajar and slipped her head through the tiny opening.
It had happened that she had found him collapsed on his desk, sleeping, or lying spreadeagle on the sofa he had settled there, an empty bottle of whisky at his feet… He hid a mini-bar behind an old master’s painting which key was taped under the lid of his cigars box.
If she knew precisely where this key was concealed, it was because she had searched the room through and through on that gloomy night she had not to talk about.
The most surprising was that despite this, her father had never tried to change its hiding place. Yet the least of her slightly problematic behaviors were giving way to lectures and questionings in order to detect whether or not it was an alarm about her mental health.
But what she found when she looked inside was the same that reigned in the huge house – absence and silence. No hint indicated if he had gone back to his head office, for a meeting for example, or if he had followed the woman who, in all likelihood, he had spent the night with.
After she closed the door behind her, Rainbow Dash took the opposite way to go to her room.
The first floor was wider than a six-stars hotel lobby, so big it could make you feel dizzy. As for the other two floors, they were as impressive with two huge bathrooms, another office, eight rooms and her former playroom little by little transformed into a storeroom stuffed with various items.
What was the use of so many rooms for a supposedly family of three, she never understood? Applejack’s family was as wealthy as hers, if not more, yet it seemed to her that their house was less snobbish, more of a human scale.
Anyway, she spent most of her time in her own room reading, listening to music, doing her homework (sometimes), or watching movies. Even her meals, she preferred having them in here, and the only other rooms she used were the basement’s gym or the upper floor bathroom… the other one, closer, reminding her too many bad memories.
She opened her gym bag, threw her keys inside the tumbler on her chest of drawers beside the door, and when she sat on her bed to take off her socks and put herself at ease before her well-deserved nap, she found a post-it note stuck on a thick envelope on her bedside table.
This, on the other hand, was nothing unusual. She couldn’t remember how many messages of this kind she had received, as if it was too complicated to pick up the phone to call her.
“Went back to work. Will be back next week for one afternoon. Here is a little something to have fun with those little friends of yours.”
She opened the Kraft paper envelope, and discovered a thick wad of banknotes folded in two and tied with a rubber band. No need to count… there might be something like one thousand dollars. Allied with the possibility of the debit card he left on a permanent basis, there was enough money to have a party like a Hollywood star, or to go on a wild shopping spree on the Silk Street, where were gathered all the most famous luxury brands.
All it inspired her was a deep sigh. She only took something like twenty dollars, plus twenty other dollars in case she’d have to take a cab, and opened her drawer to put the rest inside a jewelry box that had belonged to her grandmother, in which she placed the banknotes her father had given to her on many occasions.
She had gathered a pretty sum. Enough to make a substantial donation to Canterlot’s orphanage, where were other children who had never known their parents, or had lost them too soon, and who never had her chance to grant access to so much money.
No one had to know she hid this soft spot inside of her. This well-kept secret was even a secret for Applejack and Twilight and she had the intention of making it last as much as she could. It was enough that her friends had seen her so many times on the verge of a panic attack, or bursting into tears for no apparent reasons.
Her phone settled to ring around seven, she slipped under her blankets after she had taken off her bra from under her tee-shirt. It only took her one minute before she fell asleep, exhausted physically and mentally.
She slept in one go and didn’t wake up at all until her phone rang. With a groan, she pressed the lower bottom of the screen to silence the strident electronic music, all this with her head under her blankets… One minute passed, then two and three…
And suddenly, she woke up in a jump, not because she was shaken by a nightmare, but because she had just remembered she hadn’t the time to veg out under the blankets. For how long had she slept since her phone had rung?
When she realized a quarter had passed, she fell off her bed, bringing her quilt with her. If she wanted to get prepared for her rendezvous, she’d better hurry. Not even thinking about cleaning the mess she had just created, Rainbow Dash got up and opened her closet.
In the full-length mirror of the piece of furniture, her reflections sent her back the image of a young woman wearing a crumpled tee-shirt, rumpled sportswear thermal pants, her hair like a battlefield after a fight, eyes half-stuck because of sleep, with a faint trace beside her mouth proving she probably had drooled.
“I’m a walking cataclysm … No, I’m a walking natural disaster.”
Alright, Soarin was her childhood best friend, and earlier he had invited her although she had a huge trace of magnesia on her cheek, but that didn’t mean she was allowed to appear in front of him in such a miserable state. Especially since they would be going at the Bellehorse Bar, where everyone worth knowing in Canterlot probably would be as well. She had a reputation to stand for, after all.
And, to be honest, she wanted to make a great impression on the student. So he would think she had really grown up and no longer was a reckless little girl but a woman on the making.
There was a first to everything…
The problem was that she’d never really been the kind to take good care about herself. The makeup she used was more than discreet, just a matter of refreshing her complexion. In reality, she didn’t even know how to use most of the articles, her mother being dead before she was in age, and anyway, Firefly had herself never been an example of femininity.
For her hair, all she did was a shampoo and a conditioner, with her bangs and tips cut every four months, and she had never cleaned her face with anything else than soap and water.
As far as her style was concerned, if it was elaborated, it was above all to match with her reputation. She had a few dresses and skirts, however she never wore them according to what was fashionable, but rather according to what was comfortable and practical for her movements.
Spending hours in her bathroom to get pampered? No thanks! She made her biggest efforts only on special occasions.
This simple rendezvous, did she claim, was one of these occasions. In order not to make a mistake or a fashion faux-pas, there was only one solution: to call an expert.
A few rings resounded before, at the other end of the line, Rarity’s a bit snobbish voice answered – yes, she was the fashion and seduction expert of her bunch.
“How are you, darling? I thought you wanted to sleep until high noon tomorrow…”
“I thought that too. My plans have changed. In fact, earlier, I’ve met my childhood best friend, Soarin. I’ve already spoke about him; you know…”
“Yes, I remember. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“I have to meet him at eight and a half to have a drink, what gives me a maximum of twenty minutes to get prepared and I feel as if my brain was a strainer.”
“Oh, you have a rendezvous with a boy. Congratulations!”
“Rarity, please… I’m in a hurry.”
While talking, her phone stuck between her shoulder and cheek, she was rushing around everywhere in her room, opening wide the doors of her closet, the drawers of her chest, not knowing which way to turn.
“First, I want you to calm down. Think about the latest breathing exercises from our yoga class… Keep in mind this isn’t a government matter, it’s just a drink. Where are you going?”
“Bellehorse.”
“Of course. What was I thinking?”
High school students, university students, young working persons, they all met there on the weekends, no matter their social status or fields of study. It was a classical bar, and there were much more luxurious or trendy places in Canterlot, but the choice of beverages and appetizers was one of the largest ever, and broadcasts of sports event or comings of promising young DJs had made the place’s reputation.
It was the perfect place for a relaxing rendezvous, neither too formal nor too lenient. Rarity knew this Soarin only through what Rainbow Dash had said about him, but she already liked him a lot thanks to this evidence of good taste.
“You need a skirt or a dress, but not something too sophisticated. Something which is going to say “I haven’t made a lot of efforts in the way I dressed” although it’s wrong. I would advise against this fishnet pantyhose you’re so fond of… Black and sober are the best for pantyhose. Do a one-side bread, a little bedhead, and no heels, you have to be comfortable in case you guys won’t be able to sit, and it happens all the time at the Bellehorse.”
“Alright, I think I can do this.”
“Fine. Now, for your makeup, don’t do more than usually, but try to force a little with mascara so you would highlight those gorgeous magenta eyes of yours. If you have gloss, put it on, but just a little bit, so it won’t shock with the rest. And most of all, the most important thing…”
“What is it?”
“Be yourself. I can feel how nervous you are from here, darling. There’s absolutely nothing to freak out about. If you’re natural, it will be perfect.”
It was easy to say this when you were Rarity. With her dreamy figure and face and her expertise, she had all the men at her feet. Being herself, she already was everything the opposite gender liked. She, Rainbow Dash, was nothing like this… Not only had she very little interests in sentimental and sexual matters but she also scared a lot of boys with her boasting attitude, her brash approach, and her indifference for most of what was gendered as feminine.
However, she had to admit her friend was right in a certain measure. There was nothing to be restless about… Soarin knew her well, he knew the way she was, there was no surprise. He already had seen her dirty, injured, crying, screaming, smelling blood with boys taller than she, being upset because she had lost a game, falling off her bike and getting up without a tear, and many other things.
The best she had to do was being herself, as advised by Rarity. Because what had Soarin’s attention was obviously who she was.