//------------------------------// // 30. An Entire Year // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// “What kind of modern town doesn’t have a train station?” Rarity grumbled for the thousandth time, gently stepping across several large stones sitting in a stream. Rainbow rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, dead tired of listening to Rarity’s complaints “Haysead Swamp apparently,” Rainbow replied for the thousandth time, swinging off a tree branch and flying across the same stream, landing in the melting snow that gave way to brown grass. “Well, it’s quite inconvenient of them!” Rarity harrumphed. “Maybe,” Rainbow shrugged, her hand brushing across the bark of a leafless gray tree as she passed, “but it’s a nice day out. And Haysead Swamp’s so far down south that winter hasn’t quite caught up with it yet.” “I suppose,” Rarity’s wistful reply caught Rainbow’s attention, and she could swear the unicorn got lost in thought for a sec, but before she could press the issue, Rarity smiled. “Though you are right, it is quite a lovely day.” “Good day for cragadile hunting!” Rainbow grinned, getting Rarity to laugh. “Good day for cragadile hunting,” Rarity said in that same wistful tone as she pulled Twilight’s notes on cragadiles out of her bag and ran her fingers across the pages for the hundredth time. “Toldja you’d like her,” Rainbow said with a satisfied smirk, which only widened at Rarity’s blush. “Yes well,” Rarity flicked her mane back and pretended not to be embarrassed, “pardon me for not listening to your sage advice, darling. At least it didn’t take me an entire year!” Rarity’s laugh was good-natured but it rattled Rainbow Dash like a mace to the spinal cord, stopping her in her tracks. Rarity didn’t notice Rainbow had stopped until she asked a question Rainbow couldn’t hear and turned around. “Rainbow Dash?” she called out. “Are you alright?” “Yeah!” Rainbow hollered back, her voice straining with the lie. “I’ll be right with ya!” At least it didn’t take me an entire year! Rainbow knew Rarity didn’t mean anything by it. She knew Rarity was just teasing her. She knew Rarity couldn’t have known how much it bothered Rainbow, how much she felt like a complete idiot and a loser because she couldn’t bring herself to even talk to Applejack, let alone make a proper introduction or ask her out or anything else. But what if Rarity did know? What if Rarity knew exactly how Rainbow felt and was just trying to rub salt in her wounds? Nah, that’s nonsense. Rarity’s not like that; even if she does think I’m a big loser, she wouldn’t say it. “Are you sure you’re alright, darling?” Rarity brushed the back of her hand against Rainbow’s cheek once she caught up. “Uh, hungry,” Rainbow nodded. “Maybe we should sit down and grab lunch.” “That’s a splendid idea, my dear!” Rarity beamed and Rainbow felt relieved that she’d made Rarity smile and gotten Rarity off her case. The two found a brown grassy clearing to set up in and Rarity set out a clean white blanket for the two to sit on, though Rainbow was already sitting on a large rock by the time Rarity had fussed around with the blanket to make sure it was perfect. Rarity helped herself to a pair of cucumber sandwiches, and Rainbow devoured a small mountain of haycakes, each one being destroyed in a more visceral and messy fashion than the last, much to Rarity’s bemusement. “So what’s bothering you, Rainbow?” Rarity asked after she finished her second sandwich and put the rest of her food away, Rainbow still in the middle of her sixth haycake. “You can’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve been staring off into space quite a lot today.” Instead of answering, Rainbow stared off into space, the haycake in her mouth falling out and onto the plate with a plop. Rainbow thought about the other night, when she tried to ask Applejack out but completely choked. She thought about how she’d done the same thing the night before. And probably the night before that one too, and the night before that one, and that one, and on and on and freakin’ on for nearly an entire YEAR! But what could she actually say to Rarity? ‘Oh yeah sorry, I’m just thinking about what a big stupid loser I am and how my life has no value! No biggie!’ Rainbow couldn’t even imagine how pathetic she’d look to Rarity if she admitted that she was feeling all of this because of some girl she had a crush on. Well, it was actually a lot of things. It was seasonal depression, it was Luna, it was thinking about that bugbear mission, it was thinking about how she’d nearly gotten injured in like a dozen other missions cuz she just couldn’t care enough about her own safety to even try. But right now, it was mostly Applejack. “It’s nothin’,” Rainbow stuffed the haycake back into her mouth, ignoring Rarity’s look of complete disgust as Rainbow shoveled the whole thing down in like two bites. “I mean, it’s not nothing, but like, it’s nothing. Y’know?” “Does this mean you don’t want to talk about it?” Rarity said sweetly. Absolutely not. Or wait… do I? Can I? … “Nah.” “If you insist.” Rainbow looked over her shoulder, and a thicket of shady, leafless trees caught her eye as they stood over a small river. She looked down at herself and the mess she had made with all those haycakes. “Hey,” she chuckled, “you mind if I take a minute? Gonna go wash my face in that river over there, get all the cake off and stuff.” “Far be it from me to stand between you and proper hygiene,” Rarity snickered, “it is a rare occurrence for you, after all.” Rainbow forced a smile, and waved as she took off for the trees. She hid under the trees’ shade, where Rarity couldn’t see her, and splashed the river’s water on her face, so when she got back Rarity couldn’t tell she’d been crying.