//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Through the Trials and Tribulations // by Stryker12324 //------------------------------// Chapter 3         Rainbow was immersed in the world of Daring-Do. Her eyes danced across the colorful panels and she breathed in the awesome imagery laid out in front of her. No matter how often she read Daring-Do, she always felt as if it was the first time. All the excitement of following Daring’s adventures, close calls with death, and the thrill of emerging triumphant with a priceless artifact in her hooves never faded away. Here, with these comic books containing colorful and well drawn pictures, was no different. She was currently on the part where Daring had been left for dead in the chamber by Ahuizotl, tied to a sacrificial stone table in the center of the room with quicksand pouring in and poisonous snakes and spiders huddling around her helpless form. Dash knew Daring would escape, she had read the book several times after all, but that did not diminish the tension filling her body. She was reluctant and eager to turn the pages, to see what would be revealed in the next panels. Would Daring escape? Or would she be gotten rid of by Ahuizotl?         Dash turned the page.         Several spiders were crawling over Daring’s body. In response, Dash felt a chill run up her spine. She felt something touch her left shoulder and quickly slapped her right hoof across it in a panic to feel... nothing. It was just her hyperactive imagination. With mounting anxiety and excitement, she moved on to the next panel. She could have sworn she felt something prick at her right shoulder and she anxiously swept her left hoof across it to feel, once again, nothing.         Was it just her, or was her mane getting tugged at by something?         Dash slowly turned the page to see Daring attempt to launch her hat through the chamber. Letting out a tense breath, she ran a hoof across her sweaty forehead. As she continued to run her hoof backwards through her mane, she felt three separate appendages poking at her foreleg. Freezing in fear, she tentatively lowered her foreleg just a bit farther down the back of her neck. What she felt next made her eyes widen and jaw drop in a silent, horrified scream of terror. She felt another five digits move onto her limb, accompanied by a prickly sensation of tiny hairs brushing against her skin. She felt a light pressure on her foreleg as something lowered itself to rest on her coat.         “AAAHHHHH!” Dash screamed as she leaped into the air and flew around the room, thrashing about in midair. “GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!” Dash kept flying around the room in a blind panic before she finally bounced off the wall and came to rest on the floor with a soft thump while the ‘spider’ flopped down about a meter away from her head. Curling up into a ball, Dash hyperventilated as she waited for her heart to stop trying to leap out of her chest. Eventually, her heart returned to a more normal rate of activity.         Dash eventually calmed down enough to turn her head and take a closer look at the ‘spider’ that had crawled its way up her neck. It was a fake, but in her wound up state of mind earlier, she had no intention of pausing to make that distinction. ‘Wait a minute! A fake?! How was it even able to move if it’s a fake?!’ Dash became aware of a certain lavender unicorn currently caught up in the throes of a laughing fit. She narrowed her eyes and her lips turned downwards in a scowl. ‘Of course.’         She got up and, quite irritably, kicked the stuffed spider out of her way before stomping over to Twilight. Her eyes took in the sight of the unicorn tossing and turning on the floor, still broken down in hysterics. She then looked over the table next to her and saw the papers that contained Twilight’s hypotheses and experimental procedures. Moving closer to get a clearer view of the papers, Dash rolled her eyes at Twilight’s typically eggheaded motives.         Giggling, Twilight caught her breath and shakily stood up. “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash... well, actually, no. I’m not sorry at all. Now I know why you and Pinkie love to play pranks on other ponies so much.”         Rainbow rolled her eyes again. “Well, glad you enjoyed that little experience,” she said sarcastically.         “I sure did! I got great results for both my experiments! Plus, a little payback,” remarked Twilight with a smirk as she took up a quill in her magical grasp to record the results of her prank.         “Payback?! You said you weren’t mad at me!”         “And I wasn’t. But I didn’t say anything about forgiveness,” Twilight said with a cheery tone, finishing off her notes.         “So, do you forgive me now?” asked Dash.         Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Hmm... yes, I forgive you,” she said with a smile at Rainbow.         “Okay, then,” Dash replied with a smile as well. Her face then adopted a more serious look. “You know, you still pulled a prank on me. It was mean and I feel very hurt,” Dash said with a slightly exaggerated tone, trying to elicit a certain reaction from Twilight.         Twilight’s smile was instantly wiped off her face. “Oh no, I’m sorry Rainbow. I never wanted to hurt you. Can I make it up somehow?” Twilight’s voice was sincere.         ‘Success!’ cheered Dash internally. “I’ll need to think about it. But you’ll have to agree no matter what,” Dash said as she gave Twilight a poke below her ribs. Twilight responded to the poke with a small ‘Eeep!’ and a jump of surprise.         Dash raised an eyebrow. “What’s this? Don’t tell me you’re ticklish, Twi.”         “No! I’m not. Don’t do that again,” Twilight quickly said with a small blush while backing up a step.         Dash’s eyes narrowed and she smiled. “Well, I think I just figured out what I want.” She slowly advanced upon a still retreating Twilight with an evil glint visible in her eyes. “Roses are red, a deep crimson hue. Once you get tickled Twi, you sure will be too!”         Twilight turned and tried to run before Dash leaped forward and pinned her to the floor. Unfurling her wings, she brought them down to Twilight’s sensitive sides. Using just her wingtips, she started running them over Twilight’s struggling form, making her seize up with a new fit of hysterics.         “NO... stop! Please... stop... Rainbow... Dash!” Twilight managed to choke out before shrieking with laughter.         “What’s that? You’re going to have to speak clearly, Twi!” Dash kept tickling Twilight mercilessly.         “RAINBOW! I CAN’T BREATH!”         Dash relented and climbed off of Twilight to let her catch her breath. After taking a few deep breaths, Twilight sat up and glared at Dash. “I swear, you can be so evil sometimes, Rainbow Dash.”         “Oh, you know you love it,” Dash replied with a cheeky grin and poked Twilight’s chest.         “Well, I know you’ll love this,” Twilight said as her horn lit up. The next thing Dash knew, she was flat on her back and couldn’t move. Looking up, she saw her legs were pinned to the floor by a bright purple hue. She squirmed and tried to break free of the magical field. “My turn,” said Twilight with a cheerful voice as she placed her front hooves against Dash’s belly. “Hey, wait! Can’t we talk about this?” Dash pleaded. Apparently not. Twilight ignored Dash and began rubbing her belly, causing Dash to thrash around in her magical restraints and shriek with laughter much like Twilight had just moments earlier. Twilight vigorously tickled Dash’s belly, showing no mercy to the chromatic pegasus. Dash’s peals of laughter echoed around the room, accompanied by Twilight’s own gleeful giggles. “Twi! TWI! I’m sorry!” Dash squealed between her laughter induced convulsions. “Please! Stop!” Twilight stopped tickling for a second, pretending to go deep in thought. “Weeeell, since you said please.” Twilight got off of Dash to sit back on her haunches and relaxed her magical hold. The purple aura surrounding Dash’s limbs faded and she sat up to catch her breath. Dash’s current state of mind was something akin to bliss with a mix of restlessness; a heightened sense of things. There she was, simply playing around and having a good time with her best friend and object of affections. In addition, the way they were sitting now had Twilight angled in front of a window from Dash’s point of view. Several hours had passed since she decided to pay Twilight a visit, so the sun was already halfway below the horizon. The effect was stunning. Behind Twilight, a natural backdrop had been created. A myriad of radiant spectrums emphasized Twilight’s lavender coat and navy blue mane, giving her a kind of ethereal glow in the remaining sunlight. She looked so beautiful, it was as if Princess Celestia herself was orchestrating this moment. The scene was simply too magnificent. The moment, too perfect. Dash’s mind went blank and she simply made her move. The effect was instantaneous. Twilight jerked back, her jaw hanging slack and her eyes wide in shock. Dash crashed back down into reality and she realized what she had just done. ‘Oh no. No, no no, nononono. I didn’t just-’ But she had. The look on Twilight’s face told Dash everything she didn’t want to know. She had just blown everything. There was no hope now. She just had to get out of there before her dignity and self-respect got torn to shreds. Again. There was a moment of silence. It was as if the air itself was holding a breath. The tension in the room was so thick it could have been sliced with a knife. Twilight was still staring at Dash in shock, and Dash was beginning to shrink back as the implications of her deed started to sink in. Twilight closed and opened her mouth and then closed it again, at a total loss for words. Dash made a sort of squeaking noise that could have been mistaken for Fluttershy and made a snap decision. Dash flew straight and true, intending to fly out the open window as fast and as far away as she possibly could. The brightly hued sky filled Dash’s vision, but it no longer looked so beautiful to her anymore. She reached the window and flew outside to find herself flying towards... -a window? ‘What the hay just happened?’ She kept flying. She flew out the window again, only to find herself hurtling towards the same window again. Suddenly, she was jerked to a halt and she hung limply by her tail. It had been seized in a purple glow. Twilight was glaring at Dash and her horn was glowing with the same bright purple. ‘Oh no, oh please Celestia, no. Please don’t let this be happening.’ “Rainbow. Dash. You steal my first kiss, and you think I’m going to just let you fly away?” Dash’s mettle broke. She covered her face with her hooves and cried out, “Please don’t hate me, Twilight! Please, please, please!” Dash felt herself drifting downwards until finally coming to rest on the floor. She curled herself up and kept her forelegs covering her face. A gentle voice reached Dash’s ears. “Rainbow Dash-” “I didn’t mean to kiss you! It just happened! I lost control!” “Rainbow Dash-” “I’m sorry, Twilight! Please! It’ll never happen again, I promise!” Dash felt a hoof rest upon her shoulder, and she risked a glance from behind her hooves. Twilight was standing above her, with the kindest, gentlest face Dash had ever seen. “Rainbow Dash, I don’t hate you. I don’t think I could ever hate you. But, I have to know... why?” And there it was. The moment of truth. The moment that Dash had been dreaming of and dreading. Dash felt infinitely worse than she had in the performer’s lobby of the Best Young Fliers Competition, switching her number with everypony else’s, trying to delay her own performance for just a little longer. But she was in Twilight’s library now. There was no way of delaying the inevitable. Dash slowly removed her forelegs from her face and sat up. Twilight removed her hoof from Dash’s shoulder and sat back, calmly giving her friend her full attention. Dash herself wasn’t so calm. Her eyes were darting around the room and her hooves scuffed against the floor. She nervously cleared her throat before speaking up. “Soo... uh, I -I kinda...” Dash fell silent and stared at the floor blinking rapidly. She tried again. “For a while now, I... I kinda, sorta had...” Dash took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “A crush on you, Twilight.” “...” “...” “...Really?” “Yea.” “But... why? Rainbow looked up in confusion. This wasn’t exactly the reaction she had been expecting. “Well, why not?” Twilight looked flustered. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered that you like me. But, I just can’t understand why somepony like you would like somepony like me.” Now Dash was really confused. She had been expecting some kind of anger or rejection. What she got instead was nothing of the sort. “Wait, wait. Back up a sec. So... you’re okay? With fillyfoolers?” Twilight’s face took on a scowl. “Don’t use that term, Rainbow. It’s a derogatory and condescending word. Just call it what it is.” “Um, okay then. So you’re okay with lesbians?” “Of course I am. What kind of narrow-minded pony did you take me for?” Twilight asked, irritated. Rainbow dropped her gaze and shuffled her hooves again. “Well, since you came from Canterlot, I was kinda afraid that you were raised to look down on that sort of thing.” “Rainbow, since Princess Celestia was my teacher, I spent a lot of time with her. She became almost like a third parent to me. And what time I spent with my family wasn’t spent talking about romance.” “So, how did you get your own ideas of romance?” Rainbow was curious. “Well, since I was getting private lessons from Princess Celestia, the topics would range from complicated magical spells to simple things like why grass is green. Occasionally, the conversation would stray to things like love. Plus, I also spent quite some time in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, so I would sometimes just watch other students interact with each other.” “And just how did they interact with each other?” Twilight’s face darkened. “I remember one time, there were two fillies that had kissed each other during break. Everypony who saw them immediately went into an uproar. The news spread like wildfire: there were two ‘fillyfoolers’ in our midst. Almost everypony was so cruel to them. It broke my heart and I cried about it to Princess Celestia. She told me that things like that are ever present in pony society, and it wasn’t just in the school too.” Twilight took a small breath before continuing. “As I grew older, I learned that almost all of the media denounced same-gender relationships as well. But the princess told me that I should always keep an open mind about everything. She said what had happened at the school was a clear demonstration of fundamentalism versus modernism, and that it is a constant in pony society. She told me that I could look in any history book about pony culture and see it at work in society.” “Wait, what’s fundamenta-something versus modern-thing?” “Fundamentalism versus modernism. It means a clash of old ideals and new ideals. In this case, the belief that two ponies of the same gender can love each other as a couple.” Rainbow absorbed the information in silence. It sounded a lot like Cloudsdale alright. But she never thought that Canterlot would be as bad as what Twilight had just described. Sure there were a lot of mean ponies up in Cloudsdale, but not everypony was like that. There were even several that openly supported same-gender relationships, and she knew that number was slowly increasing daily. “So, Rainbow, back to my original question. Just how did somepony like you come to like somepony like me?” Dash just shrugged. “Well, why not somepony like you?” “Stop avoiding the question.” “I’m not!” “Yes, you are!” “No, I’m not!” “Yes, you are!” Dash facehoofed. This foalish exchange was completely counter-productive. “Do I really have to explain this?” “Yes, you do! How did you come to like me? We have almost nothing in common!” Twilight had a strange look on her face. Dash couldn’t quite place it, but it looked a little like... fear? Uncertainty? Shaking her head to rid it of those distracting thoughts, Dash sighed. “Well, for starters, I think you’re really cute.” Twilight blushed at the statement. “And secondly, I don’t think we’re as different as you say we are. Whenever you get focused on something, it’s like there’s a fire in your eyes. It kinda reminds me of me when I’m pulling off one of my awesome tricks.” Twilight didn’t know whether to accept that as a compliment or roll her eyes at Dash’s typically boastful speech. “And you’re smart, funny, nice... usually,” Dash winced as she rubbed the top of her head. “And I really enjoy just hanging out with you.” Twilight sat there, silently absorbing what Dash said. She spoke up. “But what about Pinkie Pie? Or Applejack? Wouldn’t you be better off with them? I mean, you love playing pranks and spending time with Pinkie. And you’re always competing with Applejack. Or even Fluttershy. You’ve known her the longest out of all of us!” Dash gave Twilight a piercing look. “Why do you keep asking me this, Twi? It seems like you’re trying to avoid the idea of me wanting to be with you.” “IT’S BECAUSE I’M SCARED, OKAY?!” Twilight’s shoulders sagged, her head drooped towards the floor, and she started to quietly sniffle. Dash was taken aback. Yup, this wasn’t what she was expecting. At all. Dash moved up and sat beside Twilight. “You’re scared, Twi? Of what?” Twilight sniffed. “What if something happens between us? What if we start arguing? What if we hate each other? What if we never want to see each other again?” Twilight raised her head to look Dash in the eye while blinking tears out of her own. “I don’t want to lose you as a friend,” she whispered. “Hey, come here,” Dash said, before wrapping Twilight with her forelegs. She could feel Twilight trembling slightly in her grasp. “Things aren’t going to be like that. We’re already best friends. Even if things don’t work out we’ll always be best friends. Besides, we’re the Elements of Harmony, remember?” Dash pulled back a little to look at Twilight. “Not even Discord was able to tear us apart.” “Well, technically, he did. He managed to corrupt us one by one until-” Twilight’s rant was abruptly cut off by a cyan blue hoof. Dash removed her hoof from Twilight’s mouth. She chuckled and shook her head. “Glad to see you’re back to normal, Twi.” Twilight gave a small smile in return. “Thanks for that, Rainbow.” Dash let go of Twilight and moved so she was standing back in front of her. “Alright, how about we try this again?” Dash took a breath. “Twilight Sparkle, would you like to go out with me sometime?” Twilight looked into Dash’s eyes for a moment. She smiled and leaned forward to nuzzle her cheek. “I have the whole day off tomorrow. How does that sound?” Dash closed her eyes and nuzzled Twilight back. “I’d like that.” A/N: If somepony manages to spot at least one of the references in this chapter, I’ll give her/him a cameo in the next chapter. Good hunting!