Ch. 3
Loyalty
Rainbow Dash was not having a good morning. From the moment she got up, she had felt off.
She woke up suddenly, which was odd in itself. Normally she took her time getting out of bed, shaking off sleep, doing her morning routine. Today it had been so abrupt, like something jolted her awake. As she sat up, her bed seemed impossibly large and empty. Was that what had woken her? She looked around and saw the mattress was the same size. Her house, however, struck her as far larger than usual. She tried to write it off as tiredness or something. After all, it had been a rather full day yesterday. Dodging tentacles, acid bubbles, and numerous other things would make anypony jittery for a bit, right?
The feeling refused to go away. Throughout breakfast, she could hardly focus on her food. Her home seemed incredibly cold, and every time she tried rubbing her arms to warm herself up, the feeling of her own body seemed so disturbing. Like her coat was dirty, or too dry, or far coarser than it should be. She finally abandoned her food halfway through and went to take a shower. The water felt nice, but the creak of plumbing didn’t quite hide the silence. The water drops and their echoes sounded so loud. It felt like her house was trying to run away from her, leave her vulnerable. It was just so empty.
The pegasus cut her shower short. After hastily drying herself, she ventured into town, certain some fresh air would clear her head.
The streets were empty this time of day, aside from a few ponies walking to other places. Dash couldn’t identify any of them, but she didn’t know her neighbors that well.
She began to fly in no particular direction, scanning the faces of every pony she saw. None of them were familiar, and as the list of ponies she had never seen before grew larger, she became mildly concerned. She knew a fairly large chunk of Ponyville. They had spent plenty of time fawning over her, after all. And yet she couldn’t name any of the ponies she passed by.
It’s just…a weird time of day, that’s all, she thought to herself. I bet they’re all…at the market. Yeah…the market!
She didn’t question her own train of thought and immediately flew towards downtown Ponyville.
Her flight was freezing. That was just altitude, though. It’s colder higher up. Even after flying lower, however, nothing seemed to change. When she tried to warm herself up by rubbing herself again, her body still felt inexplicably odd.
Finally, she made it to the town square. The marketplace bustled with ponies, and stalls peppered the area. The gentle hum of talking and the shuffling of hooves made her feel better, a reaction she couldn't really explain. She scanned the crowd, trying to find someone she recognized. Even after several minutes of searching, nopony popped out at her. Every one of them seemed like a stranger. It was unsettling. For the first time that day, Dash couldn’t write it off, and she started to panic.
Then she heard it. A voice she definitely knew. It was Spike talking to…somepony. It was faint but clear as day.
She tried to follow the noise, scan the mass of ponies, and finally she saw it: a big blotch of orange and an unmistakable ten gallon. The elation of recognition overrode her better judgment, and she shot towards Applejack. She rammed into the pony at nearly full speed, but it didn’t matter. The moment she made contact with Applejack’s body, she instantly felt better. The warmth of her skin, the feel of her hair, the way she was breathing: it was all such a contrast to the way she had felt all day.
They tumbled for a while and smacked into something, but Rainbow didn’t care. All that mattered was that she was with Applejack, her friend.
“Rainbow Dash!? You direction’ly challenged maniac! Get offa me!”
Rainbow felt hooves trying push her away, but she resisted. After several shoves, she finally took her face out of AJ’s chest.
“Finally, I found one of you guys… I’ve been feeling really lonely ever since I woke up.” That was it. She was lonely. She was not sure why it had taken so long to figure out, but it normally didn’t feel this way. Rainbow wrapped her arms around Applejack’s chest, giving her a large hug.
Spike watched as the two mares shuffled around a bit longer. Applejack tried to stand up and push Rainbow off of her, but Rainbow successfully resisted every attempt. They eventually rose off the ground, awkwardly.
“Well, uhm, that’s weird,” he muttered.
“Don’t just stand there, Spike! Help me!”
“What do you want me to do? She’s just hugging you.”
“She tackled me! And her breath is terrible! I ain’t exactly feelin’ affectionate right now!”
“Oh, right. Sorry about that, AJ, I was just happy to see you.” Rainbow was uncharacteristically sheepish as she explained herself.
Rainbow finally unclamped her hooves but kept one draped around Applejack, pressing their bodies together, oblivious to her friend's increasingly obvious discomfort.
Wow, AJ’s fur is really soft.
“Rainbow Dash, there’s this thing called personal space…”
Dash smiled confidently. “Oh, c’mon, you know you like me.”
“Well, of course I like you, but we can’t very well walk this way through all of town…”
“Why? Where are we going?”
“Somethin’ is wrong with Twilight. Apparently she’s gone on a studyin’ bender or somethin’, and Spike couldn’t find anyone else t’ help.”
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go help her!”
“And we will, soon as ya take your hoof off me.”
“Oh, uhm, can’t I just leave it there?”
Applejack answered with a withering glare.
“Fine.” Dash reluctantly removed her foreleg. “Could we hold hooves, at least?”
“Well, that’s a perplexin’ an’ creepy question…”
“Pleeeeeeeease?”
The look in Rainbow’s eyes was genuinely forlorn. Applejack tried her best to remain irate, but as Dash continued to stare pleadingly at her, it quickly became impossible. With a heavy sigh, Applejack finally flung her hoof at the clingy crybaby. Rainbow let out a quiet squeal of joy and wrapped her hoof in Applejack’s.
Spike, who had been standing there, dumbstruck by the entire conversation, finally gathered his wits and started back towards the library.
“Geez, finally. Can we go now?”
“Lead on, ya impatient pipsqueak.”
“Yeah, impatient!” Rainbow parroted.
The three of them headed briskly to Twilight’s house, Applejack keenly aware of Rainbow’s hoof in hers the entire journey. All Rainbow noticed was how soft AJ’s coat seemed to be and how warm she was. She floated along happily, oblivious to her friend’s discomfort and the numerous looks from passerby.
They arrived quickly enough, and Spike gingerly cracked the door and peeked inside before waving the other two onwards.
As they entered, it was…actually surprisingly clean.
“Uhm, everything looks normal ‘round here, Spike. Cleaner than usual, even.”
“I don’t get it. When I left, Twilight was in the middle of a hoard of books…”
“Maybe she snapped out of it and cleaned up?” Dash offered.
“Maybe…”
They didn’t have time to wonder long. A few moments later Twilight Sparkle levitated into the room, a dense cloud of magical energy holding her aloft. Several very thick, ancient tomes floated about her.
“Uhm, Twilight, why are you floatin’?”
“Oh, I got tired of walking everywhere. Too much work.” She didn’t bother to look up from her books as she answered.
“Hi, Twilight! Can I have a hug?”
“Sorry, Dash. Busy.”
Rainbow’s ears drooped, and she began to inch back towards Applejack.
“Easy there, clingy. Bad enough I agreed to hold your sweaty hoof through half of Ponyville.”
Applejack turned to Spike, keeping Dash at bay with her hind leg as the pegasus tried to grab hold of her hoof again.
“What did you want me to do, Spike? Honestly, she doesn’t seem that much worse than her usual over-studious, lazy self.”
“I agree with Applejack!”
“You know I can hear both of you, right?”
“Lookie here, Twilight.” Applejack turned to face the unicorn, who still didn’t bother to look up from her reading. “I know a good book is a fine way ta pass the time, but don’t ya think this might be takin’ it a little too far? I mean, what about exercise? What about some sunlight? What about—”
“Don’t be absurd, AJ. Between my rejuvenation spell, my muscle toning spell, and this mental stimulation spell I’m working on, I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been!”
“Don’t you think relyin’ on all them spells is a mite dangerous?”
“You should listen to AJ, Twilight. Her advice has always been good before! She’s practically perfect in every way.” Rainbow had managed to cling to Applejack again without being noticed, and her comment prompted a withering glare from the earth pony. “So ponies say…” Dash turned away, scratched her cheek, but her backpedaling was as blatant as ever.
“Oh, don’t be silly—there’s no problem magic can’t solve if you apply enough of it.”
“Well, that’s an unsettlin’ sentiment—almost as unsettlin’ as the way Dash is caressin’ my coat!”
“Sorry, you’re just really soft…”
The two ponies had another minor row as Applejack tried to shove Rainbow away with limited success.
Meanwhile, Spike had been studying the large, leather-bound tomes scattered about the floor and floating around Twilight.
“Twilight, where did these books come from? They’re not from the library.”
“Oh, I got those from Canterlot.”
“What? When?”
“I dunno, I teleported there a little while ago.”
“You…teleported to Canterlot?”
“Yep.”
The statement stalled the scuffle as everypony present let it silently sink in.
In the midst of the calm, there was a series of loud thunks and bangs from the library basement, and, a few moments later, a dust-covered Fluttershy emerged at the top of the stairs.
“Twilight, I finally finished organizing everything! Oh, uhm, hi, Rainbow, Applejack, Spike.”
“Fluttershy? What in tarnation are you doin’ here?”
“Oh, uh, I just… I ran out of things to do at my house, so I thought I’d stop by. I noticed the mess and thought I’d help out a bit. Twilight didn’t seem to mind…”
“So you cleaned the entire library? On a whim?” Rainbow scratched her head, clearly confused by the idea.
“Well, no, uhm, everything just seemed like it needed it. I couldn’t just leave it like that! All those books and papers everywhere, it was just so messy. Twilight obviously needed my help, and so I just volunteered. She seemed fine with it, really.”
“Right, I think I’m startin’ ta see a pattern here,” Applejack muttered.
“What?”
“Everypony has gone crazy.”
“Yeah, no kidding!” Dash draped her arm over AJ’s shoulders as she agreed.
“Oh, don’t be silly, AJ. Affection, loneliness, and amazing, powerful, and well-controlled magical ability are not the same as—” Twilight suddenly snapped one of her books shut. “Done!” she merrily interrupted herself, tossing the book aside. It made a loud THUNK on the floor as it landed, and in the blink of an eye she had already summoned a huge replacement.
“Oh, here, let me get that for you.” Fluttershy immediately picked up—well, dragged—the heavy book over to a shelf and slid it into place. She picked up a duster and brushed the shelf off before beaming at her handiwork. “There. All neat and tidy.”
Applejack looked around at her friends, Fluttershy dusting a bit too enthusiastically, Rainbow still clinging to her, and Twilight still lost in three separate books, and she got the distinct feeling that things were only going to get worse.