Ordinarily, this wide garden wasn’t very useful… Except giving a pleasant view on the morning when she opened her shutters, or when she read at her favorite spot, or when she thought about calling the swimming-pool cleaner because she wanted to do lengths in the summer. It was highly expensive to maintain with its hectares of flowers and plants, arranged in the Japanese fashion, as demanded by her mother when they moved in.
So, seeing it crowded with people, full of life and laughter, it always felt really strange to Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie Pie had made the most of so much room and optimized it at its max. Around the back, a veggie sausages barbecue was crackling and a good smell spread all over the place. She had settled a huge trampoline and sun loungers all around the swimming-pool, cleaned, opened and warm.
Like the previous year, Vinyl Scratch agreed to take care of the music, and this time, the pink-haired teenage girl and her assistant du jour, strangely named Cheese Sandwich, didn’t have to lure her with free food and drinks as a payment. She proposed herself to mix for free, to thank the gang for helping Octavia.
The young woman also was here, in fact, for the first time since Royal Riff arrest, though she still was a bit timid and hadn’t completely found back her past energy – it would take time.
The inside of the house wasn’t outdone. This year, Pinkie Pie had asked the Cakes to help her baking all sorts of sweets, and she also called a caterer in order to supply the house with enough food to feed a hundred of hungry teenagers. Same thing with the alcohol and beverages, with many big buckets of beer and other drinks all over the huge house.
And it wasn’t over. She had prepared a lot of games, to which everyone could take part if they wanted to, with no obligations, like darts, pool (borrowed for the occasion), dance video-games and ping-pong.
The guests, students from CHS or members of the Roller Derby team, plus a few of the contestants at Miss Teen Equestria, like Berry Preppy or Fleur Dis Lee, couldn’t believe it when they crossed the threshold of the house. It wasn’t how huge the house was that stunned them so much, but everything that had been planned.
“This party’s so HOT!” one of the boys of the athletics team shouted to Rainbow Dash.
“Yeah, it’s logic, since I got the best party planners of all Equestria!”
She hadn’t said this to show off, like she liked to. She really meant it. Even by asking this service to a professional, the way her father probably thought she did, she would never get such perfection. Because Pinkie Pie wasn’t working in order to increase the thickness of her contact list, nor for money or fame. She was doing it because she liked to make people happy and see a smile on their faces.
The fact they were best friends, knew Rainbow Dash very well and knew exactly what she liked and expected, of course, contributed a lot to the success of tonight’s celebration.
She had promised one unforgettable party: she hadn’t lied. For sure, the guests would remember it for a long time, and so would she.
The six of them were busy dancing together, chatting and laughing, while Soarin had gone to take something in his belongings. Pinkie Pie was busy taking food out of the fridge to bring them on the large table where the buffet was… Or at least, that was what she said she had gone to do.
Because suddenly music stopped, under the whistles of the crowd of dancers, and the young woman emerged above them, standing on a chair put on one of Vinyl Scratch’s amplifiers. She was holding a mic between her hands worn with hot pink fingerless stitch gloves, of pure 80s fashion.
“What the hay are ya doin’, Pinkie?” Applejack asked out loud, and it made the crowd laugh.
“I’d like to wish Rainbow Dash a good eighteenth birthday by offering her an exceptional gift… It’s time, Soar’!”
Obviously, Soarin hadn’t gone to take anything in his belongings, since he was coming from the basement where the gym room and Mr. Rainbow Blaze’s wine cellar were, when he went between the crowd, along with three young women dressed like popstars. And for a good reason: they were popstars.
Immediately, resounded notes of a song all those following trends knew well, and partiers around moved aside to make room for the singers, while Soarin hurried up to meet the gang.
How on Earth was Pinkie Pie able of such a miracle?
“I know you, you’re a special one/Some see crazy where I see love/You fall so low but shoot so high/Big dreamers shoot for open sky”
Eighteen+. In person. In her living-room. Singing one of her favorite song. She might as well be who she was, she couldn’t control the stars shining in her eyes, and she couldn’t either do the least of moves or say the least of words.
When the lead singer of the band, and also one of her greatest idols (she was a mysterious person known for her “cool” persona) stepped closer to her, and stroked her chin, Rainbow Dash felt like she was eight years-old again, when she attended the concert of her then favorite singer and she waved at her through the crowd.
Soarin also remembered this episode, and couldn’t help a tender smile seeing his girlfriend, usually so boastful, letting her child at heart speak again. It also was a part of her… She wasn’t only made of iron and coal, but also of silk and clay. Just like him.
That, more and more, she was able to accept it and not always hiding behind the aggressive part of her was a really good thing.
“I can see a rainbow/In your tears as they fall on down/I can see your soul grow/Through the pain as they hit the ground”
Once the song was over, everybody gave a roaring applause. It was the small detail turning this birthday party into a spectacular event, and making it even more unforgettable as it already was. It was obvious that the various Marebooks of the present students were soon going to be invaded with pictures and videos of this exceptional performance.
The young women signed a few autographs before being brought out of the house, this time by bodyguards who had discreetly hid all over the house.
Time for her to realize what had just happened, Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie Pie’s arm to ask her the question on her lips.
“How did you do that? Eighteen+ only perform at private parties if they’re paid a lot of money, and I mean A LOT. I know the budget I gave you was substantial, but even so…”
Pinkie Pie giggled in her usual manner, before she answered.
“It’s simple… By chance, I’ve discovered Canterlot Airlines and Sweet Apple Acres were among the most important sponsors of their next Equestria Tour.”
“What?” Applejack claimed, in all likelihood also ignorant of this fact.
“Granny Smith confirmed it to me. And Cheese Sandwich got an aunt working in a record company, not their record company but a record company anyway, so we called her so she would get in touch with Eighteen+ manager, but she’s changed last year and his aunt didn’t know how to get in touch with the new one, so we had to call the record company directly, but the record company didn’t want to believe us when we said we called for Canterlot Airlines CEO’s daughter, so we had to call your father, except your father was flying, which means not in touch so in the end, we asked Granny Smith and it’s Granny Smith who called the record company and they agreed for the band to sing for free at your birthday party since your father has given a lot of many to the record company to finance their next tour. Voilà.”
“Thank goodness, you said it was simple”, Rarity pointed out.
After which everyone burst out laughing, and the party resumed.
All the same, each time she thought about it while dancing or when someone told her how awesome her party was – to which she always answered it was logic, since it was supposed to be like her awesome personality – Rainbow Dash thought about the fact her father’s company was amongst the financers of her favorite band’s tour. Was it an accident or one of her father’s many indirect and devious attempts to get back in her good books?
Maybe it was a decision taken by his directorate in which he had played no part whatsoever. Though less satisfying, according to Rainbow Dash it was the most coherent explanation.
Nevertheless, whatever had been Mr. Rainbow Blaze’s role in this investment, it was Pinkie Pie’s idea to have the band in person for a one-song private performance in her living-room, and nobody else.
All the efforts and steps she had made during the last four years; she knew who she owed them to and it wasn’t her father. If she could move in the right direction, it particularly was thanks to those seven marvelous persons she had the chance to meet in six years – and also thanks to Soarin, but she had thanked him enough for his contribution this afternoon.
Important declarations never been her forte. She was good at motivating crowds, to lead troops toward glory, to inject self-confidence into others, even when she obviously lacked it, but for everything about expressing her feelings, she still had a lot to learn.
Yet, she wanted to thank them, with words and not only actions, the girls who were so dear to her heart. It probably would be a bit clumsy and wobbly, but too bad.
She went to Vinyl Scratch’s mixing table, and whispered something in her ear. The young woman nodded, and lowered her music’s volume, while this time, Rainbow Dash took the mic and climbed not on an amplifier, but on a table, in order to make an announcement.
A part of the guests, obviously expected new superstars to come and sing. They surely were going to be disappointed. They would only get her, Rainbow Dash, supposed to be this party’s superstar.
“Please, let me toast”, she said, putting up her bottle of alcohol-free beer. “To the six women of my life.”
Immediately, all eyes and heads conveyed in the direction of her small group of friends. Fluttershy, Twilight and Sunset Shimmer were a bit embarrassed from all the attention, but the three other girls only looked proud to have been called this way, no matter if they were observed.
“Each of you is dear to me, and each of you represents something unique and beautiful to me. I’m probably not worth of your flawless friendship but I want you to know that each and every day, I’m trying my best to deserve you. I don’t know where I’ll be now without you… And I wish we’ll never part. I’m very lucky to have you by my side, and I hope you girls know it.”
“Yes, we know it, darling”, Rarity said, with tears in her voice.
“So, tonight… Let’s put up our drinks to the best friends ever, the most awesome girls you could ever meet. I love you.”
Following her example, the other guests put their glasses or bottles up, and drank in the honor of the six young women, who all were now blushing from embarrassment, and moved to tears, some of them expressing them more soundly than others.
As soon as Rainbow Dash met them, Pinkie Pie fell on her neck, crying theatrically, like she often did. She was quickly imitated by the rest of the group who gathered around their friend, for a group hug that was in some kind of way their trademark.
It felt as if no one else existed outside of their small circle. They all knew it, deep inside their souls… They could be in different classes next year, finding jobs that wouldn’t allow them to see each other as often as now, they could start their own family, nothing would ever break the connection between them. This unique connection they had made little by little, by dint of patience and sometimes arguments.
Although one of them really hoped this intuition also applied to herself…
Sunset Shimmer was aware to be the last one to integrate the gang, after Fluttershy. Since she already knew there were chances that next year, she wouldn’t be a part of Canterlot University’s students, she prayed she could still be a part of this gang, despite the bracelet around her wrist, despite the fact she no longer was described as a simple “awesome buddy”, but like a best friend, a soulmate, just like the others.
Despite distance. Despite life.
--------------------------------------------
The moment to distribute gifts and to eat the cake was coming around. It undoubtedly was the moment Pinkie Pie was waiting for the most. She couldn’t wait to see Rainbow Dash’s face when she’d discover her present, and above all, when she was going to see the giant layer cake she’d baked especially for her by the Cakes.
They needed it to satisfy all those guests, although a lot of them couldn’t care less about pastries and were here for beers and flirts.
She’d decided Fluttershy would be her assistant to help her bringing everything to the living-room. The young woman didn’t think this to be a particularly bright idea, especially as she was really scare to do a blunder and that the cake would crush against the floor because of her. If that happened, she would die from shame, for sure. The raspberry-flavored cream was so thick she also feared to splash it against Mr. Rainbow Blaze’s expensive furniture – though it was covered with plastic to avoid accidents of the kind.
When she tried to suggest her friend to cut parts for everyone rather than transferring it in the other room, Pinkie Pie scarcely listened to her, arguing Rainbow Dash would need to climb on a chair in order to blow all the candles, which would probably me much fun. Especially if she got cream on her face and it ended up in a giant cake battle.
So be it. They both didn’t have the same definition of fun, but she was the expert in laughter, after all.
Before she decided it was about time to move the huge layer cake to the living-room, Fluttershy didn’t really know how to help. Pinkie Pie was busy putting down the candles, and already had brought plates and spoons out there.
“Will it still be long, Pinkie?” Twilight came to ask, standing on the step of the door.
“Ten little minutes and it’ll be perfect.”
“Ok. I’ll confirm Vinyl to play the birthday song in ten minutes, then…”
“Oki doki loki!”
Ten minutes?! What would she do else during ten minutes? If her role was only to help bringing the cake, Fluttershy wondered for what obscure reason her friend wanted so much that she came that early with her in the kitchen, especially if it was to watch her thrashing about.
“EEEEWW!!!” she suddenly gasped, a candle in her hand, and her right cheek already decorated with pinkish cream.
Fluttershy jumped, though she started to be used to the young woman’s sudden yelps.
“I’ve forgotten the champagne bottles in the basement! There’s no birthday cake without champagne!”
“I got this”, her friend immediately replied, very glad to be suddenly useful.
Mr. Rainbow Blaze’s wine cellar was in the basement, which was accessible from the kitchen, this, she knew. On the other hand, what Fluttershy ignored, was the exact location of said-wine cellar.
It wasn’t a place she’d gone very often, if not at all. And the basement was almost as large as the house itself. It wasn’t a cold and damp place, with a concrete floor like in her own house… The walls were painted white and the floor was a parquet.
On those walls hung pictures of Rainbow Dash surrounded by her two parents, in various occasions. No pictures of the kind were to be found upstairs, to the extent that Fluttershy had often wondered whether it existed family portraits under this roof. It seemed like they all had been put down there, as if it was something to be ashamed of, and that seeing them on a daily basis was way too embarrassing.
It was so sad. In her house, family was at the center of everything and although Zephyr took a lot of room with his exuberant character, unity was the most important of all things.
Many closed doors were in front of her, but she didn’t know which of them was the right one.
Getting closer, she noticed one of them was ajar. Fluttershy then drew the conclusion that this might be the wine cellar. Earlier, Pinkie Pie and her “assistant” had got back up from here with new bottles of beer. They probably had forgotten to close the door.
When she pushed it, however, she was surprised to see the light was on, and that it wasn’t at all a place where wines and alcohols were gathered. In fact, it was a real complete gym, and immediately, Fluttershy guessed this was the place Rainbow Dash trained every morning, and sometimes at night, the place her mother had converted.
She probably would have turned off the lights, closed the door and gone away in the opposite way provided the place had been empty. But it wasn’t empty. And the person here wasn’t just anybody.
Big Macintosh was standing next to a device called a pec-deck, which was a small leather seat with a large leather backrest and two iron arms with cushions to reunited together. He looked absorbed by his device’s contemplation, and didn’t immediately reacted when he had a glimpse at Fluttershy in his field of vision.
“I’m… I’m looking for the wine cellar”, she finally whispered.
“It’s the door of the back.”
She wavered for a few seconds, then listened to the coward side of her while hating herself for doing so, and turned around in order to get to the cellar. Though she’d told herself a thousand times Big Macintosh and her needed to have this conversation about their flickering love affair, now that she was in front of him, she was too scared of what he might say.
“Wait, Fluttershy! Don’t leave…”
On the threshold, the young woman froze. His voice was soft and quiet, and even if deep inside she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to talk with him, she decided not to behave selfishly and turned around again, before taking a few steps in his direction.
“Ya look very pretty in this dress. Well, ya always look very pretty…”
“Thanks”, she answered quietly, unsure of what he was expecting from her.
His compliments still pleased her, although they shouldn’t do so. Each time he complimented her, and this although they had kissed more than once since then and had held each other hands through the streets of Canterlot, she couldn’t help blushing like a naïve young flower.
The positive thing about it was that she had stop tormenting herself about it. That was what she was made of, simple as that. If he couldn’t accept her the way she was, then it probably meant they weren’t at all made for each other.
“Can we talk?”
Fluttershy nodded and took three more steps forward, while he sat on a bench press. She joined him timidly, both a hand between their two bodies.
“So?”
“So…”
Together, they never been of a great eloquence, it was a fact. Fluttershy even still couldn’t believe Applejack when she said that, as a younger boy, Big Macintosh used to be a real chatterbox, never listening to what she had to say.
“Ah really screwed it up, uh?” he started. “Ah mean… We were not so bad together.”
She shrugged. What did he want her to reply?
“If yar mad at me, I’d understand. Ah think if Ah was in yar shoes, Ah think Ad been a real scumbag.”
“That’s what I thought so… for a while. Then, I eventually got over it.”
Just like him being fond of her, she thought without control. It probably was what was making her the saddest in all this, the fact she hadn’t been able to keep him interested long enough to make him fall in love.
But was it completely her fault?
“Ah don’t deserve yar kindness. But Ah hope ya’ll be able to forgive me one day. Ah didn’t mean no harm. Ah really thought it would eventually work…. Ah mean… Ah still mean what Ah told ya. Yar beautiful with many beautiful qualities, but Ah don’t have the stomach.”
“I know”, she whispered. “I know you didn’t want to hurt me, but you hurt me, anyway. I was in love with you and I’m still in love with you today…”
This was difficult for her to admit. Not because of her pride, but because she was always, no matter what she started, scared of anything she could say or do. It wasn’t something she could control. It was her deep nature.
And in a sense, she understood what Big Macintosh meant when he said he didn’t have the stomach. He was struggling too hard with his own issues to be able to look after hers. Of course, he didn’t look as if he lacked self-confidence, yet Fluttershy was convinced that if he hadn’t confessed to Pinkie Pie yet, it was because he didn’t believe he had his chances.
To be honest, they were slim. Nothing in the young woman’s behavior seemed to indicate that she was fond of him, but appearances were to be not trusted when it came to Pinkie Pie.
And as simple as that, she realized she actually didn’t want to go back to Big Macintosh as his girlfriend. She wanted him to be happy and it seemed clear he wouldn’t be happy by her side, just like she wouldn’t be with him.
They were perfect as friends but as lovers, both their demure and shy characters didn’t match very well, unable as they were to motivate each other towards the right direction. Every love stories weren’t meant to be successful, after all, it was a reality of life, perhaps terrible but also terribly common.
“But I could never be with a boy whose heart is set on another girl. Sometimes, feelings aren’t enough. It hurts a little but I know the best for us to do is to call it quits.”
“Eeyup. Ah also think that’s the best for us.”
“Hey, Fluttershy! Are you lost or something? Pinkie Pie freaks out because there’s no champagne yet!” Sunset Shimmer’s voice suddenly resounded from the corridor.
“Coming!” she claimed with a self-confident voice that surprised even herself.
She got up and dusted the bottom of her dress. Big Macintosh was still on the bench, watching her from his seat, a smile she didn’t know how to interpret on his face.
It seemed clear for Fluttershy that she wasn’t ready to forget their story. He had been her very first love, and although it hadn’t ended in the best of ways, when she looked back, she thought, for the most part, it hadn’t been so bad. However, now, she was ready to keep this story as a bittersweet memory, and to stop crying over everything she supposedly had lost. Both had agreed that things were much better this way.
But right before she told him goodbye in order to meet with Sunset Shimmer, and also before she finally got the champagne for Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy felt Big Macintosh catching her wrist.
“One final kiss? For good ole times.”
This request was a bit odd and colored her cheeks pink, however she didn’t see why she couldn’t grant him this one last wish. It probably was a softest way to part, in his opinion. It could also be a way to make sure she would keep a pleasant memory of their separation, so it would replace tears and allow them both to start afresh.
So, she slightly leaned over and let her lips fall against his lips.