//------------------------------// // Chapter 2. // Story: Being Homeless // by Hope //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash sat just on the safe side of the yellow caution tape, looking into the distance at her house. It had collapsed partly, the top layer had fallen into the middle floor, tilted at a concerning angle. Without a pegasus putting energy into it, the house would fall within a week. It would drift lower and lower, then give out and collapse. She knew, because she’d seen it happen to abandoned cloud houses before, where the best plan was to let it fall so that the objects inside could be collected more easily. Her home would suffer the same fate, if it wasn’t dissolved sooner. “Rainbow, you’ve barely got any sleep, let’s get back to my house, and you can settle in,” Fluttershy insisted. Rainbow nodded and turned away from Markley Meadow. It wouldn’t be her home for a while. She’d have to find another place to put her new house if she could even get one. “You have a… spare room?” “My entire second floor is storage,” Fluttershy chuckled. “You can have it for as long as you need.” Rainbow smiled a little. “No matter how messy it is?” “We might have to set up ground rules so I can put your things away if you don’t,” Fluttershy said with a nervous smile. Rainbow nodded as they passed through the outskirts of town, and past the road to Sweet Apple Acres, to reach Fluttershy’s road. It wasn’t even labeled, Rainbow finally noted after years of coming to her cottage. The birds that flew between the trees chirped, and the melody was surprisingly relaxing. Rainbow yawned a little, turning the corner to arrive at the cottage. Surprisingly large, the two story structure clearly had a tree as part of it's design but it wasn't until they got inside that Rainbow spotted the trunk, which had become the slanted staircase going up and part of the back wall. Of course Dash had been to Shys house countless times, but she'd never gone upstairs, which now struck her as a bit odd. She'd been all around the house, and inside. She'd probably crashed on the couch a few times as well. "Are you ok?" Rainbow blinked a few times and chuckled. She must really be tired, she thought, if Shy was catching her zoning out. "I don't think I ever realized that you had a second floor," Dash pointed out before following Fluttershy inside. The house somehow felt smaller on the inside than it looked like from the outside, thanks to several animal cubbies that covered the walls. But it was also clear to Dash that the place had been cleaned and tidied recently. There was barely any smell of wild animals. That, and the shelves were absolutely packed with things that must have been taken from upstairs. “I don’t think I’ve ever been up there,” Dash admitted as she started up the stairs, the four bags heavy on her back as Shy found Tank and brought him up alongside her. She’d expected empty, but instead she found home. The slanted walls and ceiling were draped in white fabric to give it the rough appearance of a cloud house, with her original signed Wonderbolts poster hung on one wall in it’s frame. A small stack of awards saved from her home. Not hers, but Scootaloo’s. A brand new TV, smaller than her old one but shiny and clearly fresh out of a box was set on a stand in one corner of the room, while in the opposite corner a new bed stood with freshly washed sheets. Rainbow sniffled, and leaned into Fluttershy’s offered hug. “How…” “Rarity had the cloth. Pinkie got lots of your things, she didn’t say how. Twilight had a spare TV, and AJ helped me clear out the room.” Rainbow trotted over to the bed and laid down before rolling onto her back and staring at the ceiling. Then Tank was set down next to her, and she chuckled through her tears. “It’s so much.” “We just want to help you,” Fluttershy reassured her. “And you need your friends. Go ahead and rest, get some sleep. I’ll wake you up for dinner.” Rainbow nodded and Fluttershy left, leaving her to yawn and look at Tank. She wanted to turn on the TV, but didn’t want to bother Fluttershy, until she heard the back door open and close. Shy was doing chores. Perfect. She found the remote, curled up on the new bed, and turned on the TV with the expectation that she would be able to quickly find some meaningless show to hum in the background as she drifted off to sleep. But the first thing she saw was the crater, with her house floating in the background. “The Markley meteorite is being reclassified as an Unidentified Crashed Object, as it appears not to be natural. The environmental damage done to the meadow is still unknown, but it is estimated to range into the thousands of bits and displace hundreds of local creatures. Back to you, Candle Light.” Rainbow was wide awake now, of course she was. She was livid. The poor mice might be displaced but no mention at all of her. No mention of her losing everything. She had to force herself to look at Tank. Not everything. She hadn’t lost everything. She hugged him close, and glared at the TV while they talked about the Summer Sun Celebration and the many new permits granted for temporary shops and pop-up restaurants in Vanhoover, where this year’s ceremony was being held. Finally they switched to weather, and the calmer explanation of the schedule lulled her to sleep. She dreamed of her house collapsing. Bit by bit, but the door never opening. The walls coming in on her, her shelves toppling and pouring her belongings across the floor. She dreamed of clinging to one of the support beams, sobbing, as it lashed around in a windstorm. The cloud walls always there, blocking her sight of the sky or ground. Finally, soaked in cold sweat and panting, she woke up. She couldn’t quite remember if she’d hit the ground in the last moments of her dream, but it felt like it, everything felt so awful, and she was so upset. But at least she felt a little more rested. She opened the window, and took off into the sky, focused on a low flying decorative cloud. It would do. Punching a hole through a cloud would get most pegusi in trouble if they didn’t check in with the weather crew first, but Dash was sort of allowed to do what she wanted, as long as she cleaned up after herself. Close up the holes, make sure the cloud didn’t dissipate, and she could lay on top of it as the fresh rainwater evaporated off her in the sun. “I just wanted things to stay how they were,” she muttered, watching a distant pegusi pushed a cloud a bit further into the wind current to get it on track towards the Southern tip of Ponyville. It was probably Cloud Kicker. She tended to pick up the evening shifts when all the heavy lifting was already done and attention to detail was needed. It’s what she was good at, and Rainbow appreciated that.  She wondered what Cloud Kicker would do if her house was destroyed. Turn to her boyfriend? She had to have friends. Everypony in Ponyville had pretty much followed Pinkie’s example in finding a friend group, most of which included the pink pony. Rainbow sat up, frowning a bit. She hadn’t heard from Pinkie in days, and she hadn't come up more than once in conversation. Normally Pinks would stop by and be offering Rainbow a cupcake or two. Maybe she needed a friend to stop by. Spreading her wings and stepping off the cloud, Rainbow Dash dove to gain speed until finally she leveled out to zip just above the trees and towards Ponyville proper. It was a nice place to live, she admitted to herself. It was her home and any other town just felt a little off. The town hall was just big enough to create a nice updraft too, which Rainbow avoided this time to instead land in front of Sugarcube Corner. Whoever had named the cafe and confectionary combo sure had undersold it’s charm. Sugar cubes were bare minimum for the place, icing palace might be a better fit, she mused as she ducked inside and the bell over the door rang softly. “Dashie!” Pinkie cried out as she hopped over the counter and skidded to a stop on the tile just before running into the pegasus, putting her hooves to Rainbow’s cheeks. “Dashie I’m so sorry I haven’t delivered you your gifts yet!!! The cakes had an emergency and then AJ told me what happened, and then I had to cover three shifts here in a row which really just means a whole day and--” Rainbow, grinning, stuck a hoof in Pinkie’s mouth, knowing there was no way that she’d be able to just put them to Pinkie’s lips to stop her rant, since every time she tried, Pinkie ended up eating her hoof. “I’m fine Pinkie. I figured you were busy. I just woke up, actually, so you haven’t missed much.” She extracted her hoof with a pop and Pinkie giggled, offering her a towel to dry it off. “Not missed much?! Dashie, your house kinda got exploded. That’s a lot.” “Not exploded exactly,” Rainbow said as she shrugged. “That… thing just put a huge hole through it, and now it’s off limits because it’s too close to the impact or something. They got Scoot’s trophies and Tank though, so… at least there’s that.” Pinkie looked into Dash’s eyes, and Dash ducked her head slightly, though she didn’t break that gaze. There were moments when Pinkie just… knew too much, when she was too wise, and Dash didn’t like it. She liked when Pinkie and her were on the same playing field, when they were both the jokesters and impulsive ones. But sometimes Pinkie just wasn’t the same. “You’re not alright, right now,” Pinkie said gently as she finally guided Dash to sit down in a booth. “But you will be, ok Dashie? Here, sit.” A moment later, there was a cup of hot tea and a cupcake with a thin layer of lemon frosting sitting in front of her, as Pinkie sat down across from her and smiled. “Happy birthday.” Rainbow blinked several times, before tears started to come to her eyes, and she chuckled. “I forgot, you know. It felt like yesterday just… stretched out into today and took it over. I… Slept through most of my birthday.” “Sounds like a decent birthday,” Pinkie giggled. Dash laughed, and wiped her eyes dry before taking a nice big bite out of the cupcake. “Thansh Pinti,” she said around a mouthful of moist cake. “It’s like, gift one out of twelve,” Pinkie said with a happy sigh. “The more I felt bad about not seeing you, the more gifts I came up with. Still have to buy half of them.” Rainbow rolled her eyes but kept smiling as she polished off the cupcake and sipped a bit of tea to wash it down. “You really really don’t have to go buying stuff for me, Pinkie. I promise.” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Well duh. Of course I don’t have to. It’d be like… a bribe or something then, not a gift. Oop!” The door bell rang and Pinkie hopped up. “AJ!” The farm pony slid smoothly into the booth where Pinkie had been sitting, and laid down a package wrapped in brown paper and twine in front of Dash. “Can I get you anything?” Pinkie asked eagerly. “Sure, sure,” AJ looked her over with a chuckle. “Pear, ah’m feelin somethin’ pear.” Pinkie ran off to fulfill the vague request as Dash looked over the package and then looked up to AJ. “It’s yer gift,” AJ clarified. “Birthday an all that.” “I know what it is, Jack,” Dash said with a smirk. “Just… Trying to figure out what you’d get me, and also how you knew I was here.” “Done flew right over me as I got to Shy’s place,” AJ said, one corner of her mouth pulled up in an amused smile. “So, followed ya.” Rainbow tugged loose the twine bow with her teeth and unwrapped the package to reveal a carefully folded and preserved Wonderbolts uniform. Not the reserves, and not the new version with cost cutting measures either, an original, and by the crisp fold lines it had never even been worn. Rainbow gaped, looking up to AJ, then back down at the clear plastic box. “How. How? I’m in the wonderbolts and I don’t have one of these. Spitfire only has two, she told  me!” AJ polished a hoof on her chest and shrugged, looking quite pleased with herself. “Ain’t no big thing. Just pulled a few strings.” “You’re a farmer,” Rainbow said flatly. “What strings do you have to pull that aren’t on your clothes?” AJ huffed, taking off her hat and setting it aside. “Now I know that you didn’t mean that, Dash. So I’ll let it slide. But ah’ll have ya know that’d be the second suit ever made. Got it from Celestia.” Rainbow resumed gaping, before regaining her bearings and nodding. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. Thank you. I don’t know how you got ahold of Celestia in a single day and got a priceless antique for my birthday but it’s awesome, thank you.” “Well, she was stayin’ over last night to share stories with Granny, and the subject came up in the mornin’ that you’d lost your uniforms an she had the solution.” Dash smirked, expecting a joke before looking up and seeing AJ serious. “AJ, I can get free uniforms for being in the reserves, and this… This is perfect and amazing and I’m never gonna take it out of its box ever.” AJ’s eyebrows raised slowly as she stared at Dash. “Then… What’s the gosh darned point, Rainbow?” A plate with a pear tart was put down between them, and before Pinkie could say anything, another pony walked in and she ran off to help them. “It’s… important! Like trophies, and collector’s items, AJ. This is so incredible, because it’s part of the Wonderbolts!” AJ nodded, and her smile slowly returned. “Alright. That’s fair, and… Well, I suppose it’s not a bad trophy at that.” “It’s a trophy from one of my best friends, that’s what it is,” Rainbow chuckled as she hugged the box to her chest. “Doesn’t hurt that isn’t super super awesome.” “Well I’ll leave ya to it then, got to get back to the farm, but stop by sometime fer dinner. Glad ya found someplace ‘sides our barn to sleep.” AJ stood and took her tart as she left, and Rainbow nodded, watching her go before looking at the uniform and grinning. Maybe she’d put it on… Just once. “You were going to live in AJ’s barn?” Pinkie asked as she finally sat down again. “Well yeah,” Rainbow nodded, smiling a little as she thought of it, a bed tucked in the hay loft, AJ opening the door to check on her. It was a shame that she would’ve been forced to wake up way too early every single day to do that. “Because you like her,” Pinkie concluded. Rainbow stared at Pinkie for a full minute, trying to process the words but failing, as Pinkie’s smile got bigger and bigger. “No, no! No, that’s not why,” Rainbow finally objected. “Then why?” “Because I wouldn't have had to clean up or anything!” Dash got up from the booth bench, still hugging the Wonderbolts suit. Pinkie giggled, standing up as well. “Well that’s not true at all, you would never leave a mess in AJ’s barn.” Rainbow chuckled nervously, then zipped out of the door and into the wide open sky, head a mess of confusion, but still holding onto that gift so tight.