That. Just. Happened.
Rainbow Dash stared up at the ceiling, desperately trying to process the events of the last hour. The moon was descending but still a long ways from the horizon. The room was dark, save for the dim light streaming in through the crystal windows.
She thought she could faintly make out streamers still dangling from the ceiling. She had no idea where the balloons had come from, and she’d been here for it. The blanket was covered in bits of confetti and some had managed to make it under the sheets, creating a faint crinkling sound when she moved.
The heaviest sound to her ears was her own frantic breathing. Next to her came a repeating series of long, high-pitched breaths interrupted by the occasional giggle.
She giggles in her sleep.
Rainbow Dash added that to the long list of things she still couldn’t believe she’d learned tonight.
She turned her head and saw her laying there, still but for the rise and fall of her chest. The large, front-facing curl hung down in front of her face and twitched with her exhalations.
Rainbow Dash looked back up at the ceiling. Her heart was pounding like a drum in her chest. She’d heard Applejack describe a sort of fluttering sensation before, but this felt more like she’d just flown a marathon.
Everything is different now.
She closed her eyes to try to sleep again but her mind was racing too fast. Why did this happen? How did this happen? What did it mean? What was going to happen in the morning? What would she tell the others? Would she tell the others?
She sat up suddenly. She had to get out of here. Had to spread her wings. Had to speak to somepony. Had to do something, anything but lie here next to this amazing, mind-blowing, terrifying mistake that still didn’t seem quite possible.
She slipped out of the bed and crept to the door, opening and closing it behind her as quietly as she could. She knew exactly where she was going.
Rarity was startled awake by a pounding sound at the door to her room. With the Crystal Ball ended, Princess Cadance had been kind enough to put her and her friends up in guest rooms for the night. She’d been looking forward to getting some shut-eye and the last thing she expected was some late-night visitor.
For a brief moment, she thought it might be Fancy Pants. She’d spoken with him at the ball and had a lovely conversation. She shook that thought out of her head, however. It was nothing more than the feverish delusions of morning amnesia still trying to assign dream logic to her situation.
Another, much more likely possibility came to mind. Twilight and Applejack had some argument over the bedcovers and now her services were needed to make their relationship work again.
“Just a minute, darling,” she called out. She resigned herself to whatever this new horror was, but not without coffee. Blinking her eyes to try and chase away the sleep, she approached the door. She let a long yawn pass, then opened it.
“RARITY!” Rainbow Dash screamed into the room, all but tackling her in her enthusiasm. “I NEED YOUR HELP!!!”
“Not without coffee, you don’t.” Rarity stepped out into the hall, trying to remember which direction lead to the kitchen.
“But this is an emergency!” Rainbow Dash insisted.
“Is somepony on fire?”
“No, but--”
Rarity shot a glare at Rainbow Dash. “If nopony is on fire, then it can wait until I have coffee. You remain here. I will return shortly.”
Rarity closed the door in Rainbow Dash’s face, shutting her in the room before she could protest further, and headed down the hall in the direction of the kitchen. Surely, there would be something there that she could brew.
Rainbow Dash nervously danced back and forth across her hooves as she waited for Rarity to return. She knew Twilight talked to Rarity about relationship stuff all the time. Rarity was the big love expert or something like that. She’d know what to do.
While she waited, she thought back about how this had all come about. She remembered inviting Pinkie to go flying with her in the skies over the Crystal Palace. They lit up the sky together with a Sonic Rainboom.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash cheered as they returned to the Palace. The ball had been over for at least an hour by the time their flight concluded and she was more than ready to hit the sack.
“I know!” Pinkie agreed. “My favorite part was the rainboom! I’d always wondered what it felt like to do that. I thought it’d feel like turning into fruit punch, and I was right!” She bounced after Rainbow Dash, following her down the hall to the guest rooms.
Rainbow Dash smiled, thinking about how good those covers were about to feel. “Yeah, that was pretty fun. Thanks for going flying with me, Pinkie.”
“You’re welcome!” Pinkie stopped in the hall, looking at the doors. “So, do we go to my room or your room?”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what Pinkie was asking, nor was she sure she was awake enough to figure it out. “What do you mean?”
“Well, my date never came but then you took me out flying so you’re kind of my date now. Which room do we go to?”
Rainbow Dash blinked, not really sure what Pinkie was getting at. She just knew she wanted bed imminently. “Mine, I guess?” She drifted towards the door to her room and propped it open to enter.
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie followed her through the door, closing it behind her, and then the world changed forever.
The door opened and Rarity returned through it, shaking Rainbow Dash out of memory. A mug levitated beside her with faint wisps of steam emerging from it. She took a sip, then addressed Rainbow Dash. “Okay, explain.” She lifted the mug for another drink.
“I JUST HAD SEX WITH PINKIE PIE!!!” The truth exploded out of Rainbow Dash, hitting Rarity dead-on. She gasped and choked on her coffee, pushing the mug away with magic and coughing. She turned away from Rainbow Dash and coughed up fluid, spattering the crystal tile. “Uh…are you okay?”
Rarity coughed twice, then glared at Rainbow Dash out of the corner of her eye. “I have coffee in my lungs because of you, how do you think I feel?” She let out another cough and gasped up more fluid, then stepped back from the mess and grimaced at it. “I need a rag,” she muttered, then turned her focus back to Rainbow Dash. “Why in Celestia’s name would you possibly think I wanted to hear about this?! And with Pinkie?! I…no, I have so many questions but I do not want the answers to them. Please, leave me to clean up this mess in peace.”
Rainbow Dash’s heart sank. She needed help desperately and Rarity was supposed to be the pony that provides it. “No, you don’t understand, I had sex!” she insisted.
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Yes, and I’m so proud of you. Another notch in the bedpost and all that. Good, uh…good job, tiger. Whatever validation you’re looking for, pretend I said it and let us be finished with this dreadful conversation.” She muttered to herself, “I can’t believe I woke up from a perfectly good dream for this.”
Rainbow Dash circled around Rarity so that she could see her again, much to Rarity’s ire. “You can’t kick me out. You’re supposed to know what I do next!”
“What, in bed?” Rarity frowned. “I don’t know what terrible rumors you’ve been listening to but--”
“No, I mean with Pinkie!”
Rarity stared at Rainbow Dash for a few seconds, then repeated, “I don’t know what terrible rumors you’ve been listening to--”
“Rarity, you have to help me!” Rainbow Dash started to hyperventilate. “I don’t know what this means. What do I do now? Does this mean we’re a couple? Is she going to want to do sappy stuff like Twilight and AJ? Is she in love with me? Has she been in love with me?”
Rarity stared flatly at Rainbow Dash. “These are all very good questions that you should be asking her.”
“But I don’t know what to do,” Rainbow Dash insisted. “Everything just seems so different now. It’s like she isn't the same pony anymore or maybe I'm not the same! I don't know! Applejack said that love’s supposed to feel really good, but this just feels weird.”
Rarity huffed. “For pony’s sake, Rainbow Dash, it’s just sex. We’ve all done it; it’s not like this was your--” Suddenly, everything clicked into place for her. Her snout hung open for several seconds and she stared at Rainbow Dash in a combination of shock and wonder. “Celestia have mercy,” she whispered.
“What do I do now?” Rainbow Dash asked and, for possibly the first time since Rarity had known her, she just looked scared and vulnerable.
Rarity leapt into action. She put aside her coffee cup on the bedstand table and levitated a bench beside the window, scooting it across the floor to prop up Rainbow Dash. Next, she snatched the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around the pegasus for comfort. “Explain everything,” she told her friend.
Rainbow Dash blinked. “Everything? Well, she started kissing me and--”
“No, not about that!” Rarity hesitated then sighed and retracted. “Wait, actually I might need to know a little about that. You said she started kissing you. Did you want to be kissed?”
“I had no idea what was going on,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “I just wanted to go to bed. I’m not upset that she did it, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It’s not,” Rarity answered flatly. Concerns were beginning to grow in the pit of her stomach. As much as she hated to pry into this, she needed to know more. “Did you give Pinkie any indication that you wanted this to occur?”
Rainbow Dash stared at Rarity for a few seconds, trying to puzzle out her question. “Wait, are you asking if I was…yes, when she saw that I was confused, she asked if this was okay. I told her yes. She didn’t take advantage of me. She’s Pinkie. You know she’d never do something to make somepony unhappy.”
“If only it were that simple,” Rarity answered, “but thank you for answering that honestly. It’s a weight off my shoulders to know for certain.”
“What the hay am I supposed to do?!” Rainbow Dash asked again. “I’m freaking out over here. Did you know that Pinkie’s lips actually taste like cotton candy?! Because I do! I know that now!”
Rarity raised a hoof to try and calm her friend. “What you do next depends on you. You should talk to Pinkie first thing in the morning and find out if she wants for this…encounter…of yours to mean anything or if this was just supposed to be the one night.” Rarity looked Rainbow Dash in the eyes. “More importantly, you must decide if you even want this to mean anything.”
Rainbow Dash shot back confusion. “What? Why wouldn’t I?”
Rarity sighed. She wasn’t exactly sure how to broach this issue. “Let’s talk about your feelings, Rainbow. Do you even have any feelings for Pinkie? Did you before tonight?”
“Well, no,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “I mean, she’s fun and all, but kind of weird at the same time and not always in a good way.”
Rarity nodded. “Quite. Does Pinkie at all resemble the kind of pony that you would want for a partner?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head, looking up thoughtfully. “I always thought that if I ever did settle down, it’d have to be with somepony awesome! Like Spitfire! Or Soarin! It’d need to be a pony who’s super fast and can try to keep up with me! We’d shoot through the air like a pair of shooting stars, spiraling around each other until we--”
“Right,” Rarity cut her off. “Does that sound like Pinkie?”
Rainbow Dash awkwardly scratched her mane. “Not really. I mean, when she’s really upset, it’s impossible to lose her but that’s not the same thing. But Twilight wasn’t really that into AJ when those two hooked up, and that’s worked out great!”
Rarity stared sarcastically at Rainbow Dash, willing her to listen to her own words.
“…except for the rock.”
Rarity stared even harder.
“…and the ball.”
Rarity thought her eyes might explode from the staring.
“…and the broken leg…okay,” Rainbow Dash admitted, “There’s been some problems. Minor problems that only occasionally threatened Equestria as we know it.”
“The point,” Rarity clarified, “is that Twilight and Applejack are hardly the measure of a successful, healthy relationship. If that’s truly what you wish to aspire to then be my guest, but I should hope you see reason. I don’t believe that what you’re feeling right now is love, Rainbow Dash.”
“What else would it be?”
Rarity sighed. “Twilight could probably explain this better, but there’s this…thing. It doesn’t happen to every pony, but usually the act of love-making does something to a pony’s mind. It creates feelings of attachment. I believe this is what’s happening to you. You aren’t in love with Pinkie. You’ve simply become addicted to her.”
Rainbow Dash considered Rarity’s words but they sounded like crazy to her. “What, you’re saying that having sex flipped some switch in my brain and forced me to like her? That’s stupid! You’re supposed to be helping me! I thought you were good at this!”
“I am helping you,” Rarity insisted, more defensively than she’d wanted to. “But I’m not about to tell you to run off and pursue some half-baked relationship with somepony you don’t even like based on one night of wild mistakes!”
“Wild mist--the only mistake I made was thinking you’d understand me!” Rainbow Dash bolted out the door before Rarity could get another words out.
“Rainbow, wait!” Rarity shouted futilely at the door. When no response came back, she sighed, closed the door, and mentally braced herself for yet another impending disaster. “Why couldn’t we all just be friends?” she murmured to herself.
Rainbow found herself pounding frantically on another door.
Twilight. Twilight gets me. Twilight will know what I’m supposed to do.
She danced back and forth on her hooves as she waited for Twilight to answer. After several seconds passed, she pounded again. “Come on, Egghead!” she shouted. “I need, like, smart pony stuff from you!”
She heard the sound of shuffling from within and then, after several more seconds, the door slowly opened to the sight of a very angry orange pony. “What in tarnation do ya think you’re doin’, Rainbow?”
Oh. Right.
“I, uh…I needed to talk to Twilight,” Rainbow admitted. “Because she’s smart and stuff.”
Applejack scowled. “Do you know what time it is?!”
“Uh…awesome o’clock?” Rainbow Dash grinned, trying very hard to sell her terrible answer.
Applejack sighed and pressed her hoof to her forehead. “Twi just stopped bathin’ in crazy. Don’t you start up now. I need time to get my head screwed back on.”
“No crazy,” Dash offered weakly. “Can I just talk to--”
“Good night, Rainbow.” Applejack punctuated her request by closing the door, leaving Rainbow Dash alone in the hall.
Dejected, Rainbow Dash returned to her room. Closing the door quietly behind her, she spied Pinkie snoozing contentedly.
“Does Pinkie at all resemble the kind of pony you’d want for a partner?”
Rainbow Dash watched her sleep for a few seconds, then shrugged. Whatever she was supposed to feel, it wasn’t happening. Maybe she was broken. She’d heard so much sappy gook from Applejack and Twilight, but all she had in her was the light tinge of a physical craving. She wanted to wake her; not to talk, certainly not about what Rarity had said, but to kiss her, to touch her, to breathe her intoxicating scent.
There was a heat burning inside of her that thirsted for Pinkie. But not tonight, she told herself. She laid herself back down beside Pinkie and tried to close her eyes, but sleep still didn’t want to come.
Maybe just a little.
She rolled over on her side and put a hoof around Pinkie, snuggling up behind her. She closed her eyes again and sank into the pillowy softness of Pinkie’s hair, at last quieting her mind enough for sleep to come.
“Good morning, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie’s wide grin was the first thing Rainbow Dash saw when she woke up. She jerked up with a shout and scrambled back until there was no longer a bed to support her. As she crashed to the ground, the memory of last night’s events began to emerge again.
“Are you okay?” Pinkie bounced onto the bed and peered down at Rainbow Dash, who was uncomfortably lying on her shoulders with her hindquarters still propped up against the bed.
“Yep,” Rainbow Dash lied. “Meant to do that. It was practice.”
“Oh, wow!” Pinkie bounced off the bed, landing lightly behind Rainbow Dash. “I used to practice falling on my head too. You need a strong noggin’ for when you’re hanging things and something goes wrong.” In an instant, she was in Rainbow’s face, whispering, “Something always goes wrong.”
Rainbow Dash blinked from surprise and Pinkie seemed to return to her spot between blinks. “That’s great,” she responded with as much interest as she could feign. She righted herself and climbed to her feet, then ran a quick check over herself. Hind legs? Working. Forelegs? Fine. Wings? A couple feathers out of alignment but she could fix that.
“Anyways,” Pinkie intoned sweetly, “I just wanted to say good morning before heading out. Thanks for everything! I had a lot of fun last night.”
Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches and stretched her wing forward. She could see where the feathers had become skewed from her fall. “Yeah, me too,” she answered absently. She wrapped a foreleg around the wing to hold it in place, then used the tip of her other hoof to press the feathers gently back into place.
With her wing properly fixed, Rainbow Dash released her wing. It suddenly occurred to her that she was supposed to be having a conversation. “Pinkie, wait!” she shouted, but her friend was already gone.
Frustrated, Rainbow Dash punted a cloud across the sky. It had been two days since her night with Pinkie and she’d seen neither hide nor hair of the pony since. Was Pinkie avoiding her? Was she too embarrassed about what happened to face her? That didn’t sound like Pinkie Pie.
What if Rarity was right? What if it didn’t mean anything to Pinkie? If it wasn’t supposed to mean anything? But then why would she have done it? Rainbow Dash certainly hadn’t asked her to. Her mind swam with stupid questions she hated not having stupid answers to. It was like that whole mess with Twilight all over again, except not knowing actually hurt so that was, at least, an improvement.
Twilight.
She’d meant to talk to Twilight before, but the more she thought about it, the stupider the idea sounded. What would Twilight know about trying to figure out love and junk? Applejack fell into her lap. She’d probably never faced even a second of uncertainty like this. Well, except the rock. And the ball. But that was different, because she’d never had to wonder about AJ’s feelings!
At least, I don’t think she did. Gah! This is stupid!
Twilight didn’t have the answers she needed. She made up her mind on that. She could talk to Applejack, since she’d been the one who actually wrestled with uncertainty about Twilight in the past, but she put that thought out of her mind entirely because she would rather do literally anything else in Equestria than talk to Applejack about sappy romance stuff.
“Hey, AJ, would you teach me how to quench the burning desire in my heart? Give me as many details on how to create a romantic scene as you can. If you could put it in poem form, that’d be perfect.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. That was definitely a conversation that was never going to take place. Rarity, of course, had been a complete dead end and Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure why she’d even bothered. That just left….
“Hey, Fluttershy, do you have a minute?” Rainbow Dash found Fluttershy working with a den of bunnies in the glen behind her house. She’d laid a few carrots out in front of the opening, which Rainbow Dash assumed was meant to coax them out.
“Oh, good morning, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy smiled. “I do. We just had a few new baby bunnies born and I wanted to introduce them to the world, but they aren’t going to come out until they feel safe.”
“So they need us to leave them alone, is what you’re saying?”
Fluttershy nodded. “Exactly. Let’s go back to my cottage. We can talk there.”
Rainbow Dash followed behind Fluttershy as she walked back towards the cottage. She’d never known a pegasus as averse to flying as Fluttershy was, but she’d been friends with her long enough to be used to it by now. “So, listen,” Rainbow Dash started. “Let’s say there, uh…there’s a bunny. And she wants to know if this other bunny likes her. What would she do?”
“Bunnies are very social creatures,” Fluttershy answered without missing a beat. “It’s very rare for them to dislike one another.”
“Right….” Rainbow Dash landed as they arrived at the cottage. “But, I mean, let’s say this bunny wants to know if the other bunny wants to…uh…to make more bunnies with her.”
“Oh!” Fluttershy opened the door to the cottage and led Rainbow Dash inside. “You’re talking about a mating ritual. Bunnies do have one. The male will chase the female until she turns around and lightly swats at him with her front paws.”
“…okay.” Rainbow Dash thought about her question for a moment. “But let’s say a bunny wants to figure out if the other bunny wants to do this ritual with her? How does she know whether the other bunny is interested in her or if they were just mating for fun?”
Fluttershy blinked. “…they usually mate after the ritual.”
“Right, no, I get that!” Rainbow Dash racked her brain to think of another way to ask this. “Okay, let’s say there’s a bird.”
“What kind of bird?” Fluttershy asked curiously.
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. “It doesn’t matter what kind of bird. There’s just a bird. And she wants to know if another bird wants to pair up with her.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “You can’t just dismiss the question of species, Rainbow Dash. There are a variety of mating rituals for different--”
“I’m not talking about mating rituals!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “The mating already happened! I don’t need a ritual!” Rainbow Dash huffed a few times, then stopped and looked back at Fluttershy whose naked confusion was clear on her face.
“Why would a bird not know if the other bird liked her if they’ve already mated?”
“Because life is complicated!” Rainbow Dash answered and stormed towards the door. She was beyond done with this conversation. Fluttershy didn’t get it, just like Rarity didn’t get it. She bolted out the lower door and caught a flash of pink in her eyes, prompting her to skid to a stop.
Pinkie Pie was standing just to her left, having successfully avoided Rainbow Dash trampling through her. Proudly, she beamed at Rainbow Dash. “Ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch! Works every time.”
“Pinkie?!” Rainbow Dash was shocked. After two days of nothing, here she was just standing here like it was the most normal thing in the world. “Where have you been?!”
“That’s what I came to talk about! I’m glad you’re here too, Dashie, because it saves me time filling the balloons I need to get to your house. Where’s Fluttershy?”
“I’m here.” Fluttershy stepped out the door to join the conversation.
Pinkie smiled an uncanny smile. The kind she only got when it was party time. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, Rainbow Dash. You were right. The Crystal Ball wasn’t really a super-Pinkie party pony party! So I thought we should have one tonight! I wanted to invite you both to the “Congratulations! We made it through the Crystal Ball and everypony was happy and Applejack didn’t even break up with Twilight or anything Party!”
Rainbow took a moment to process the name, then looked at Pinkie. “Is that where you’ve been? Planning this party?”
Pinkie smiled chipperly. “Mmhmm! It’s going to be the Pinkiest Pinkie Pie party you’ve ever attended! Will you be there?”
“Of course I will,” Fluttershy answered.
“Yeah, count me in! Let’s live it up!” Rainbow Dash agreed.
“Great!” Pinkie turned to leave. “I’ve got more invitations to make, but I’ll see you both tonight! Prepare to be amazed!”
“Pinkie, wait!” Rainbow Dash shouted. Her mind filled with what she needed to say.
What was that night at the Crystal Ball about? Are you in love with me? Am I supposed to be in love with you? Are we a couple now? Were we a couple then? Am I supposed to do something? Do you even have any feelings for me at all? Do you even remember it? Did it mean for you what it meant to me? Were you using me? Was I using you? Is it ever going to happen again?
Pinkie looked curiously at Rainbow Dash. “What is it, Dashie?”
“Nothing,” Rainbow Dash answered, giving herself a self-conscious laugh. “Don’t worry about it. See you tonight, Pinkie.”
As the sun approached the horizon, Rainbow Dash spotted Applejack standing outside Sugarcube Corner, with Twilight still seated in her wheelchair beside her. Twilight’s eyes were fixed on the banner Pinkie had made. Rainbow Dash flew low on approach and fluttered up beside Applejack. “Hey, you two ready to party?”
Grumpily, Twilight read the banner aloud. “Congratulations! We made it through the Crystal Ball and everypony was happy and Applejack didn’t even break up with Twilight or anything Party.”
Applejack put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder to reassure her. “I’m sure it’s nothin’,” she insisted.
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “That only happened once.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Yeah, but AJ’s--” She caught herself midsentence when she noticed the intense glare she was receiving from Applejack.
“She’s what?” Twilight asked curiously.
“Oh, uh….” Rainbow Dash shot a frantic look at Applejack, then back at Twilight. “She’s just so happy she's with you! We all are! We’re, uh…we think you two are going to make it! You’ve got all the right stuff! Uh…good job, tiger?” Rainbow Dash put the widest fake smile on her face she could muster. Her eyes glanced back to Applejack, who was busy shaking her head and facehoofing.
“Oh,” Twilight answered. She flashed a much more sincere smile in return, closing her eyes and resting her head on Applejack’s hoof. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I’m glad you’re not feuding with me anymore. I have a good feeling about us too.”
Nailed it!
“Give me a hoof with the stairs?” Applejack asked Rainbow Dash. She wheeled Twilight around so that the back of the chair faced the two steps in front of the door.
“Of course,” Rainbow Dash agreed and landed. “What do you need me to do?”
“I’m gonna lift up the back of Twi’s chair, then you push and lift the front end over the step.”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Uh, girls?”
Rainbow Dash nodded, taking up position in front of the chair. “I’ve got this. How long is she supposed to be in the chair, anyway?”
“A few more weeks,” Applejack answered. “Doc says she needs to keep off the leg ‘til it’s healed up enough.” She wrapped her forehooves around the chair and prepared to lift.
“Girls!” Twilight shouted, grabbing their attention. “I appreciate this. I really do. But it’s two steps.” Her horn crackled with magic for a second and then she and her chair vanished in a flash of purple, re-emerging at the top of the stairs next to the door.
“Oh.” Applejack looked down sheepishly.
“Right. Magic.” Rainbow Dash found something in the sky to pretend she was looking at.
“To be honest,” Twilight consoled her friends, “I was tempted to let that continue. It’s a relief to see you, Rainbow Dash, and not have to feel like I’m supposed to apologize for being with Applejack.”
“Yeah, I guess I was kind of a jerk,” Rainbow Dash admitted.
Applejack climbed the stairs and took her place behind Twilight’s chair. “I’m just glad you’re over it, Rainbow. Get the door?”
“Got it.” Rainbow Dash leapt to the top of the stairs and held the door for the pair. Watching them enter, her thoughts drifted to Pinkie again. Despite their setbacks, those two seemed to be handling each other just fine. Every time she saw them, she could practically feel the love emanating from them. Is that what she could have with Pinkie? Is it something she wanted?
The party was everything Rainbow Dash expected. Streamers and confetti filled the air. Balloons of every shape and color filled the ceiling above their heads. DJ PON-3 had her stand set up in the corner and her music blanketed the store. Pinkie had even set up a series of delicious treats on the counter, watched over by her pet gator, Gummy, wearing a pink party hat.
Rainbow Dash shook to the beats coming out of the DJ’s speakers as she stepped away from dancing to grab a cupcake off the counter. She spied Pinkie Pie coming out of the kitchen with a tray of tarts in her teeth, and Rainbow Dash seized up. There she was. Everypony was focused on the party. If she wanted to talk to her, now might be a good time. There was no way to be sure she wasn’t going to vanish again tomorrow.
Leaving her plans for the cupcake behind, Rainbow Dash approached Pinkie. “Hey, Pinkie. How’s stuff?”
“Cmmt cmmpln.” Pinkie answered around the tray, prompting Rainbow Dash to slap herself in the forehead with her hoof. She waited until Pinkie reached the counter and set the tray down.
“Great party. I’m having a lot of fun.”
“Thanks!” Pinkie smiled, then started back towards the kitchen. “I was thinking about Pin the Tail on Celestia later tonight.”
“That sounds like a great idea!” Rainbow Dash followed her to the door. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve got some more pastries to make,” Pinkie answered. “The cupcakes look like they’re about to go. Some of the balloons are getting low, too, so I’m going to fill up more.”
“Cool! I’ll help,” Rainbow Dash offered.
Pinkie stopped, raising an eyebrow. “You’ve never offered to help me bake.”
“Yeah, but that was before.” Rainbow Dash dismissively waved a hoof. “Now, I’m totally interested! In, uh…in baking.” She gave her fake smile again, hoping it would work as well here as it had with Twilight. She knew that helping Pinkie in the kitchen would give her a chance to talk about things or, at least, see how Pinkie reacted to her.
“You are?” Pinkie sounded more confused than ever. “You’ve literally never wanted to bake. You even told me once that you would never be caught dead baking. What’s changed?”
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and cursed Pinkie’s memory. “I just thought baking seemed nicer than I might have thought before, and I wanted to give baking a chance to see if baking and I might enjoy each other’s company.”
“Yeah, I don’t get it.” She opened the kitchen door to return inside, then stopped suddenly. “Wait, I think I know what you’re after. You don’t need to make up excuses, you silly-billy.” She whispered in Rainbow Dash’s ear, “Meet me in the kitchen in one hour.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. Despite herself, she hadn’t expected any kind of actual results. She thought she might finally be feeling that fluttering sensation Applejack had talked about, but it was in the pit of her stomach rather than her heart. Her heart seemed to still be beating steadily, unmoved by the events of the night.
She returned to the dance floor and tried to enjoy herself, but all she could think about was her upcoming rendezvous with Pinkie. She needed to figure out what she was going to say. She barely even noticed the other ponies around her and her desire for a cupcake was far forgotten. She couldn’t even consider eating right now, not with the way her stomach was moving about.
Pinkie, I’ve been thinking about you since our night together. I’m full of feelings I can’t make sense of and they’re all about you. I feel like I’m craving you and it gets harder every day not to see you, to touch you and hold you and taste your lips again. There’s some kind of magic in what you did to me that I don’t understand.
I need to understand this better. I need to know what these feelings you’ve put inside me are, and I want to explore that with you. But before I can do that, I need to know what you’re feeling about me.
Yeah. Something clever like that. She was sure that’s what she’d say.
Pinkie returned to the group once she laid the tarts out and pinned up the tailless Celestia. “Hey, everypony! It’s Pin the Tail on Celestia!” she shouted to the cheers of their friends. “Who’s first?”
Rainbow Dash took a turn, but her mind was so distant she wound up pinning the tail to Rarity by mistake. She excused herself shortly after and went outside to get some fresh air. The moon was already approaching its apex in the sky. She knew it would be time to meet Pinkie soon. She wasn’t sure what she wanted the others to know, so she decided to creep around behind the building. There was a backdoor to the kitchen she knew she could use.
Once inside, she waited for a few minutes, watching time tick away. Finally, she heard Pinkie announce to the party, “I’ll be back, everypony! I’ve got to reload my party cannon.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. Here she came.
Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches and waited as the door opened. She didn’t say a word as Pinkie closed it carefully behind her and made sure it was shut tight to keep sound out. Once Pinkie was satisfied with the volume, she turned her focus to her companion.
Rainbow Dash stood up and took a few steps towards Pinkie. “Pinkie, look, I’ve been—mmmf!” Her attempt to talk was silenced by Pinkie’s lips slamming into hers and pressing her back. Rainbow reared up onto her hind legs and fell back against the counter, but Pinkie stayed locked with her, standing upright and pressing her against it.
Rainbow Dash broke out of the kiss and whispered, “Pinkie,” but any will to talk quickly escaped when Pinkie started kissing the side of her neck.
Pinkie stopped for a moment, asking, “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
Rainbow Dash nodded slowly. “Yeah. This is perfect.” As Pinkie returned to her neck, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and enjoyed herself.
“Have you y’all seen Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked her friends.
“I believe she went outside,” Rarity answered. “Perhaps she decided to call it a night.”
“That’s weird,” Twilight pondered. “Why wouldn’t she say goodnight to us? Did we do something to upset her?”
Applejack opened the door and glanced around. “I don’t see her.” She shrugged and closed the door. “Eh, y’all know Rainbow. She don’t like folks frettin’ over her. She probably just went home. Shame, ‘cause I been meanin’ to talk to her.”
“Hmm.” Twilight’s sour look communicated her feelings. “Maybe she’s helping Pinkie.” She wheeled over to the door. Opening it with her magic, she wheeled inside and called out, “Pinkie, have you seen – CELESTIA!!!”
Twilight wheeled backwards out of the kitchen immediately. “I AM SO SORRY!” she shouted, slamming the door and teleporting out of the building for good measure.
A few seconds later, Pinkie emerged from the kitchen, looking frantically around. “Have you girls seen Twilight?” she asked the confused partygoers. “I think she was looking for Princess Celestia.” She looked up thoughtfully. “It’s strange because I don’t think I invited her. It was just supposed to be the six of us.”
Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy exchanged glances before Applejack stepped forward. “Is everythin’ okay in there?”
“Peachy as pie!” Pinkie answered, then giggled to herself at her own joke.
At the bottom of the stairs into Sugarcube Corner, Twilight stared up into the night sky and tried to burn the images she’d just witnessed out of her retinas. She had no idea how she was going to face her friends again after what she’d seen. She didn’t have long to decide, either, as Rainbow Dash slunk out from behind the store.
“Uh, hi,” Rainbow Dash sheepishly greeted Twilight.
“…hi.” Twilight returned the greeting just as awkwardly.
“So.” Rainbow Dash sat down next to Twilight’s chair. “About that.”
Twilight’s beet red blush lit up her purple face. She couldn’t even look at Rainbow Dash. Her eyes remained fixed on Luna’s stars. She found the constellation she’d declared to be hers and Applejack’s and kept her focus there. “I’m sorry for walking in on you,” she offered.
“It’s okay,” Rainbow Dash replied. “We probably shouldn’t have been going at it in the kitchen anyways.”
Twilight nodded. “So. You and Pinkie. How did that happen?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I’m still not sure if it even did.”
Twilight managed a sarcastic glance out the corner of her eyes before returning her line of sight to the sky. “It looked pretty ‘happening’ to me.”
Rainbow Dash blushed purple. “Yeah, I guess so. Huh. I think I might have a special somepony. What do I do now?” She asked the question more to herself than to Twilight, but Twilight was happy to answer.
“Meet me tomorrow for lunch. I’m sorry, but I need some time to get past…that…before I’ll be able to look you in the eyes again.”
“Yeah, sure.” Rainbow Dash thought about going back inside to see Pinkie, but after everything that had happened, she just wanted to be anywhere but here. She flapped her wings and lifted herself into the sky. “See you tomorrow, Egghead.”
A couple minutes after Rainbow Dash disappeared into the night air, Applejack emerged from the store. “There y’are. You okay, sugarcube?”
Twilight whirled around in her chair, looking straight into Applejack’s eyes. “You. Me. Home. Now.”
Applejack lay in her bed at Sweet Apple Acres, holding Twilight close to her chest. The unicorn nuzzled into her neck, ever mindful of her horn. “So,” Applejack offered conversationally. “Rainbow and Pinkie. Don’t reckon I ever saw that coming. If it was a snake, it might’ve bit me ‘fore I even noticed.”
“I don’t think anypony did,” Twilight replied. “For a few minutes, I was sure I couldn’t have just seen that. I thought I might have contracted hysterical blindness or something. I want to say I’m happy for them but I just don’t see it. Or I wouldn’t if I hadn’t…seen it….”
“Love don’t always make good sense,” Applejack countered. “We should be happy for them.”
“I know. I just hope they know what they’re getting into. Love isn’t always easy, either.”
Applejack shook her head. “No, it ain’t. But they got their friends to help them through. All they need’s to trust each other, to love each other, and everythin’ should work out fine.”
Pinkie Pie let out a long yawn as she finished cleaning up the storefront. She’d cleaned up the kitchen first, making sure to pay special attention to that particular spot of the counter. The kitchen might not have been the best place for that, she realized, but excusing herself to her bedroom would have been much harder in front of everypony else.
She felt bad that Twilight had interrupted, but she’d hoped Rainbow Dash at least had fun before that. She’d expected she might hear from her for a follow-up, but didn’t think it would be this quickly. Rainbow Dash must have had an even better time at the Crystal Ball than she’d thought.
As she climbed the stairs towards her bedroom, she made a mental note to thank the Cakes for letting her have this party while they were in Canterlot. She felt bad about what had happened in their kitchen, though, and resolved to work extra hard for the next couple days to make it up.
As she slid into bed, she spent a single spare thought towards Rainbow Dash. She hoped her friend had appreciated the nice things she’d done for her. She didn’t want it to become too much of a regular occurrence, of course, and she hoped Rainbow Dash wouldn’t get weird about it.
But there’s nothing wrong with every now and then, is there?