The look on Rainbow Dash’s face told her exactly how the Pegasus felt about her plan. The slight frown, and the way she was biting her lip just slightly to keep herself from yelling again. The flat, unfriendly glare. The way her eyes never left Twilight’s own, and the furious glow that had entered into them not long after she had begun explaining. It wasn’t just her expression, though – the Pegasus was hovering in the air before her, forelegs crossed over her chest and wings flitting irritably.
She had been yelling, before – that had gone on for quite some time, even after Twilight had explained why she was there. Eventually, though, the perturbed Pegasus had calmed down enough to let Twilight tell her exactly what she had in mind.
She didn’t seem impressed.
“That has to be the stupiest thing I’ve heard. Ever.” She mumbled darkly – though the edge had gone out of her voice, replaced with a kind of tired grouchiness. Twilight hoped that was a good sign – she’d already done too much damage today, and she didn’t want to lose anypony else if it could be avoided. Which it could, of course – these ponies were her friends. They wouldn’t turn their backs on her just because she’d said something she shouldn’t have. Dash did that all the time! Never quite so cruelly. And never to her girlfriend. And never…it didn’t matter. They were her friends. They wouldn’t give up on her so easily.
Not that she didn’t deserve it. She knew that. And she was afraid that they would know it too. Because if they did… well, for all that she could be hard to take seriously there wasn’t a pony in their group – except maybe Fluttershy – that they were more protective of than Pinkie Pie. For all the ways she was an incredible, brave, wonderful mare the pink pony was also a scared, easily wounded child in a lot of ways.
And Twilight had destroyed her.
“And believe me,” Rainbow Dash continued emphatically, “I know stupid. Like, I know stupid better than anypony.” Her frown grew a little more intense and she cocked her head to the side, eyes still fixed on Twilight. “Well, anypony except you. What kind of egghead are you!? What’d you do, overload your brain with all those books!?”
Twilight couldn’t keep a blush from creeping onto her face as she glanced away from her friend. The insult, she decided, could stand to be ignored – it wasn’t like Rainbow didn’t have a point, after all. “You don’t think it’ll work?” She whispered, trying to keep the quaver from her voice.
“Like I said, it’s the dumbest plan ever.” The Pegasus landed and took a step closer to her, bending to look Twilight in the eyes once more. “So yeah, it’ll probably work. I mean, it’s Pinkie. You’re not gonna win her back by being all serious and saying stuff. She won’t believe you – she’ll pretend to, but she won’t. It’s a stupid plan – and yeah, I think it’ll work. Sometimes stupid’s all you can do, right?”
She tried to smile, but all that came out was a sob. And then Rainbow was hugging her, and whispering in her ear. “Trust me, Twi. It’s gonna work out. You’ve got me helping you.”
Twilight couldn’t help but snort. “You can’t fail, huh?”
The Pegasus pulled back and shot her a little grin. “Well, yeah, there’s that too. But what I mean is – I wouldn’t be helping you with this if I didn’t think you deserved her. And I definitely wouldn’t be helping you if I thought it’d hurt her more.”
“Then –“
“Shut up a sec. I know you love Pinkie. If I didn’t, I’d have kicked your flanks an hour ago – and you know it too. And deep down, so does she. Try to hold onto that. Because this isn’t gonna come close to easy.”
“I know.” She said, finally managing a little smile. “Thank you. So much.”
“Yeah yeah. A mare’s gotta do what a mare’s gotta do, I guess. Now hurry up and get back in your box-thing and get going. You’ve got a moment to save. I’ll make sure everything’s ready.”
“Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”
Dash rolled her eyes and shoved the unicorn backwards, into the time machine. “Nope,” She agreed casually, “But I sure as heck know what it means to Pinkie.”
And then she was gone, and Twilight was on her was to make things right.