//------------------------------// // Visiting Friends // Story: Do These Waffles Taste Funny to You? // by tin77 //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash darted between the clouds, searching for the clarity of a bright blue sky. With each flap of her wings, she found this more and more difficult. Flying. There was something that never changed. Even if she couldn’t escape her thoughts, she could at least bring them to where they didn’t matter. Up beneath the sunlight, the world was hers, and the destinations were endless. Except aimlessness and silence could not coexist, and her surroundings faded under the volume of her guilt. Was she having a midlife crisis? Her wings began to move faster, a second jolt of panic turning the wind into an unfamiliar obstacle that allowed for no corrections. Yet the idea still remained. A midlife crisis. That doesn’t happen to happy ponies. That doesn’t happen to Rainbow Dash. If she couldn’t keep it together, who could? If every day wasn’t a spectacular event full of wonder, what was the point? Even her vanity was fading. Where were the smug retorts that could sweep this all to the side? Could you even be smug to your own existential hysteria? The questions tied together to create one mess of a pony, their burden ready to drag her straight into the ground. She needed friends. She didn’t know the implications of choosing somepony other than Applejack, but she needed a face that she wasn’t waking up with each morning. If she was going to address this problem, this is where she had to start. Twilight was an easy no. As much as Rainbow missed her, she was the ruler of Equestria, and free time was sparse. The last thing Twilight needed was a new stressor. The same idea applied for Rarity. She wasn’t a princess, but it was easy to be convinced otherwise. As appealing as a detailed discussion with the two sounded, chances are they were probably attending fancy sophisticated gatherings, both getting new experiences delivered on a silver platter. Rainbow wondered if they felt the same way about her. She wondered if they even thought about her in the first place. It felt selfish to want to be on someone’s mind. That left Pinkie and Fluttershy. Could they even relate? Pinkie seemed eternally happy and Dash was sure that Fluttershy had found her peace long ago. Besides, Pinkie was raising a child, which was pretty much as intense as ruling a kingdom. No wonder things are the way they are. Fluttershy. That was the only logical answer. When you know someone for so long, their mere presence is enough to remind you that things are good, and that they may never have been bad in the first place. Plus, she didn’t have a kid, unless her and Discord had discovered some accursed new system of magic. Rainbow Dash shook her head and changed course. In an active world, Fluttershy had remained in place, her cottage an eternal structure of peace. Rainbow could fly there blindfolded. When she arrived, she stood at the hill, half-expecting the entire place to be transformed, Discord’s interior design skills unleashed and out of control. However, one quick examination revealed it to be the same. If there was one thing that wasn’t in place, it was the multi-colored pony standing before it. She couldn’t decipher if the problems were getting deeper or already on their way out. All she could do was knock on the door. Her hoof collided with the wood, the sound of her own actions shaking her once again, each echo a reminder to why she had come here in the first place. Moments later, the door opened. “…Hello?” asked a gentle voice, Fluttershy freezing in place as her friend came into full view. “Oh! Oh my goodness, Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow gave a false smirk and fixed her posture to emulate expectations, the lie attempting to fool not only Fluttershy, but the pony telling it as well. “Thought I’d drop by,” she said, skipping over the half an hour of thought that went into this. “Had to see what was going on with my old pal Fluttershy!” “How wonderful!” Before any more remarks could be made, Fluttershy turned back to her cottage and took a few steps inward. “Discord! Guess who’s here!” Discord. Right. How could I forget. Rainbow Dash tried her best to not let her smile slip, still uncertain if the draconequus was included in her picture of the past. She supposed she had known him as a friend longer than she had as an enemy, or even as a statue, and that counted for something.  From the side, a potted plant was soon replaced with a head, Discord taking form to inspect the arriving guest. “Ah, well if it isn’t my good friend Rainbow Dash, how wonderful! Truly a pleasure to see you, yes, quite certainly.” Discord pulled himself from the dirt and moved next to Fluttershy, wiping the clumps of ground off him with one quick swoop. It was then that Rainbow Dash noticed a slight change in his demeanor, one invisible to anypony who wasn’t looking. Despite being an immortal being, Discord looked… older. Be careful Dash. You only have space for one midlife crisis. Can’t go adding Discord’s on top of that before you even figure out anything for yourself. Besides, he has all the time in the world to figure it out. He always does. “Good to see you too Discord!” she blurted out, increasingly aware of how forced this was. “Don’t go thinking that I forgot about you!” Fluttershy beamed, waving Rainbow along. “Why don’t we all go inside? We can all catch-up over some tea.” The three of them moved inside. Before they could take a seat at the table, Fluttershy stopped in place, remembering a small detail erased by the new arrival. “Oh, let me take care of one tiny thing, and then I’ll make the tea, okay? I won’t be long, I promise.” With that, Fluttershy vanished into another room, leaving Rainbow Dash alone with Discord in a room that felt much tinier than she remembered. They stared at each other, waiting in silence. Somewhere across the cottage, a door closed again. Rainbow Dash went to speak, but Discord had already sprung to life, peering in with a knowing leer. “Now is it just weary old me,” he said, narrowing his eyes, “or is something not quite right with my good friend Rainbow Dash?” Whatever defense Rainbow was ready to give was lost, her feigned stature growing weak. “I don’t know what you’re... what you’re...”  Without even changing his expression, the assertion had already fallen apart. “…How did you know?” A snap of the fingers dropped Dash into a lounge chair, Discord sitting across from her with a pencil, a notebook, and glasses. “Please, it wasn’t difficult. Oh, good to see you too Discord! Don’t go thinking that I forgot about you! Did you expect me to believe that?” “Hey, I meant it!” “I’m sure you did, but tell me, when have we ever talked like that?” Rainbow Dash was ready to make a thousand more arguments, but the truth was out, and Discord could deflect every single one. Besides, they only had so long before Fluttershy returned. “Tell me,” he said, scribbling some notes despite having no new information, “what so ever is the matter?” “I missed Fluttershy. That’s all.” “A valid reason as any, but I have a feeling there’s more to it than just that. Could it be that a certain somepony is just not treating you right?” Discord held up his notepad to reveal a crude drawing of Applejack, her hat far bigger than her face. “No! That’s not—” Rainbow Dash looked in disbelief at the drawing, the farm pony holding a great big smile. “That isn’t any of your business anyway!” “Oh, but it is! Friends look after one another, do they not?” Another comment that couldn’t be fought. At the end of the day, Discord was someone she had known for most of her life, and they had been through a lot together, even if not all of that was as pleasant as they wished it to be. “Could it be that the great Rainbow Dash has found her life is no longer what it once was?” On the other side of the room, the great Rainbow Dash turned pale. Discord’s ability to unravel minds was something that kept her up at night, even after he was reformed.  “Trust me, I know the feeling. When did it happen for you?” “Uh…” “For me it was when we were playing board games. But you know what?” A box appeared in Discord’s paw, and he drew it close, cradling the memory. “I realized that I didn’t mind one bit. I was happy. Can you believe that? It was quite wonderful, and I can only wish you the same feeling.” “I was eating breakfast.” “Excuse me?” “I was… eating breakfast with Applejack and I couldn’t recognize… anything.” “Well now we’re getting somewhere!” With another snap, the board game vanished and a chart materialized between them, one-word descriptions scattered around a detailed diagram of Rainbow Dash. “Hm, yes… This does seem like a very ‘you’ type problem… In fact, I’m surprised that it hasn’t happened earlier.” “Discord, this is serious!” Dash tensed at the sound of her own raised voice, afraid Fluttershy might hear. She wasn’t sure why exactly, but her emotional turmoil was not something that had to be brought up so soon. What was taking Fluttershy so long anyway? “It is serious! It’s very serious! And that’s why you’ve enlisted the best person for the job! Who better to spice things up a bit than Discord, hmm?” “I’m not sure you can help,” said Dash, grumbling. She wasn’t sure anyone could help, but she was going to keep that part to herself. “Watch me.” Before Rainbow Dash could react, Discord snapped his fingers once more, and together they vanished.