//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Head In The Clouds // Story: Love Isn't Easy // by Writer12577 //------------------------------// Rainbow sat on the pure white cloud that served as a temporary resting spot, looking at the distant horizon that was cutting the landscape in two: The visible part, the one she could easily see and the non-visible part, what was beyond the border, what she could just guess about. She should have been clearing the skies as the schedule for the next week was only sunny, but she wasn’t feeling like working. Her thoughts were in a completely different place, closing out everything else but the most important thing in the world. And that thing sure wasn’t bucking some stubborn clouds so that the beams of the sun could reach the ground. No, it wasn’t even near that. Her thoughts were on a much more important thing. Or a much more important pony, to be exact. This had been the case for a good week. She had been unable to take her thoughts off that certain mare, not like she would have wanted to, but it was starting to cause damage to her schedule. She had started being late from meetings and scheduled events, she had had some serious trouble with concentrating and she had found it extremely hard to behave normally when around Applejack. Yes, it was Applejack. She had fallen for the farm pony. But why not? Applejack was strong, she was honest, she was beautiful and they seemed to find a certain level of connection every time when they talked or even met. But on the other hoof, Rainbow wasn’t sure if Applejack felt the same. She had seen some hints, or at least she though so, but it could have just been her imagination that was running overdrive due to this sudden wave of emotions. Deep down she wanted Applejack to feel the same way. And if you want something over everything in the world, you mind will start to form up fake pictures, fake memories, fake notifications that it feeds to you and you buy it, because it seems so much better than the other possible options. She was afraid. Not like scared afraid, but still afraid. What if Applejack didn’t feel the same way? What if Rainbow made herself look like a complete fool? What if everything went wrong? What if her friends didn’t like her anymore if she revealed the truth? She was usually so brave. She would face the death itself with no second thoughts. But now, when all she needed to do was to say three small words to another pony, she was too afraid to even open her mouth. A sharp voice interrupted her thoughts. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing? These clouds should have been cleared by now! We need to have a perfect sunshine so that the grand town picnic can be arranged just as planned!” It didn’t take a genius to know who the source of the sound was. Who plans every single event of the town? Nope, it’s not the Mayor. Rainbow looked down from the edge of the cloud. Twilight was standing on the ground, a slightly angry look on her face. “I… Uhh… You know, I ain’t feeling too well. Might be hitting the cold or something…” The excuse was a pathetic one and Rainbow knew it. But it was worth trying. “You’re hitting the cold in the middle of the summer? When the sun is shining almost non-stop?” Twilight’s voice had that certain tone of suspicion on it. “Yeah, you know, the skies aren’t just as warm as the ground is and when you are flying so fast, the wind kinda creates this cold feeling and stuff…” The look on Twilight’s face remained the same. Rainbow knew that her excuses weren’t the best she could do. “Are you sure it’s cold? I mean completely absolutely sure that it’s cold and you can’t clear these clouds and I’m going to have to alert the whole rest of the weather team from their vacation to handle this?” The tone of Twilight’s voice was almost stabbing the insides of Rainbow. “Yeah, I’m completely absolutely sure,” Rainbow answered, spicing up the answer with a nice coughing fit quickly after she had stopped speaking. “Well, if you say so…” Twilight said, turning around and heading towards the distant Ponyville. “You better go and rest, Dash. Don’t want the cold to get worse, huh?” she added in a cold tone, without even looking back. Rainbow knew that she’d have to apologize later on. But that was only later on. Now there were much more important things going around in her head. She needed a break from all this. She needed to relax, to sort her thoughts and to find a way how to deal with this. The best way for her to relax was flying, but knowing that Twilight and the rest of the weather team would spend the whole day clearing the skies, she decided to give up on that idea. The second-most-relaxing thing was spending some quality time with her friends. But which one of them? Twilight was no option. She’d start asking about the cold, find out it was a fake and force the truth out of Rainbow. Applejack would have been an option, but Rainbow didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of her love. Rarity was an option, too, but Rainbow was kinda trying to avoid being used as a model for such a lame thing as fashion. It was cool sometimes, amazing outfits and all, but the waiting was the part that was killing her. She was born to be wild, to move. It was outright cruel to force her stay in the very same spot for hours. Fluttershy could have been a good company, but she was busy practicing with her birds. They were supposed to sing at the picnic and she was just too busy trying to fix every single out-of-tune note that came out of the pecks of those winged little things. But Pinkie Pie was the perfect answer. She was fun to be with, she sure had a lot of energy to consume and was never too busy for some good time with a good friend. Plus, the fact that she was a master baker made Rainbow’s mouth water. She had skipped breakfast due to the fact she wasn’t feeling too hungry, but she would never say no to a sugary treat with a crown made out of frosting. So, she jumped up from the cloud and headed off towards the best bakery of the town. ----»«---- As Rainbow entered the always-so-cheerful atmosphere of the Sugarcube Corner, the smell of freshly baked cake made its way into her snout. Mr. and Ms. Cake seemed to have an order to fulfill and judging by the smell, the result was going to be delicious. But she wasn’t here to judge the cakes the Cakes baked. She was here to get some emotional support from her friend in the form of pulling off some mighty nice pranks on innocent residents of the town. She walked over to the desk that served as a counter and knocked on it three times. A secret code Pinkie had taught her. Soon enough Mr. Cake appeared from the kitchen, wearing the always-so-classy brownish apron he just happened to like to wear. “Yes?” he simply asked, sounding a little nervous. “Is Pinkie home?” Rainbow asked. She could swear that she saw a slight relief on his face when she didn’t order anything. “Yes, I believe she is. She should be in her room by now,” Mr. Cake answered before rushing back to the kitchen to fulfill the apparently stacked-up orders. Rainbow thanked even though he couldn’t hear her anymore and went upstairs, leaving the beautifully decorated café below and entering the more home-like second floor. Pinkie actually had two rooms. The second-floor room and the special attic hideout. But judging by the noises, Pinkie was in her regular room. The room was on the very other side of the house. Rainbow didn’t quite like the long hallways of the house. You never knew where the twins were and for some reason they believed that her mane and tail were made of candy. So, almost every time when she came to the house they would immediately be circling her, trying to sink their sharp little baby teeth into her mane. It would have even been tolerable, but when they got saliva all over it, ugh. It was hard to get off. Rainbow made sure that the hallway was clear and all the doors were shut before dashing towards the so distant-looking door. After good three seconds she had reached the door, still completely clear of any incoming attacks. She sighed out of relief and knocked on the door. Never interrupt Pinkie. She had learned that lesson the hard way. You really don’t wanna know how many of those cupcakes she can stuff into her mouth. For her slight surprise, Rainbow could hear Pinkie calling her in immediately. No hiding stuff into the closets, no swallowing the stash of cupcakes she had found two days ago, nothing like that. Rainbow opened the door. The room was just like it had always been. Pink and disturbingly delicious-looking. “Hi Dash! What brings you here?” Pinkie asked. She had the usual grin on her face, pure white teeth showing. How she managed to keep them in such good condition was beyond Rainbow’s level of understanding. “Just wondering if somepony would like to go pranking…” Rainbow said in an inviting tone. If somepony was going to come, it would be Pinkie. “I would! I would!” Pinkie raised her hoof up and literally jumped up in the air. “Well, get your pranking supplies out of the closet, we are about to take over Ponyville!” Pinkie immediately ran over to the small closet that withheld their awesome supply of pranking supplies. They had everything. Invisible ink, a wide range of water-soluble colors that did no harm to what—or who—they would paint, loads of some good ol’ classics and most importantly, a pair of creative minds. They grabbed only the necessary, packed them into a small bag and headed off to the town. ----»«---- The pranks had been good. They had caused some confusion around the marketplace with their rubber carrots, had arranged a fake street maintenance at the main street, causing the unluckiest residents of the town to either wait for a couple of hours or take another way around and painted Granny Smith with a bright pink color Pinkie had managed to find from some shop in Canterlot. It had been such a cracker to see Granny wake up and walk to the kitchen—to the front of the whole Apple family—with a brand new coat color. Though, Rainbow did have some minor thoughts about the last one. What if Applejack didn’t find it funny? What is she was mad at Rainbow? What if she didn’t like her anymore, even as a friend? The thoughts were back, continuing with their obsession of driving her crazy. The afternoon with Pinkie had managed to keep them out but as soon as she had started thinking, using her brains, they had found a way to interfere her thoughts. She would need some help. She couldn’t withstand all these thoughts. She had to find somepony who was good with such things. “Are you okay Rainbow? You have been standing there for a minute now. It’s looking kinda weird…” Rainbow snapped out of her thoughts and turned to face Pinkie. The pink pony had been smiling all day and the smile wasn’t going anywhere as the day was starting to turn into night. “Actually, Pinkie, I’m not feeling too well…” “Ooh, are you cold? Is it like cold cold or just like breezy cold? Does your stomach hurt? Is it because of the cupcakes? Did you eat too much? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Pinkie immediately started bombarding Rainbow with questions, jumping on her and pinning her to the ground. “No, Pinkie, it’s not like that. I’m fine, but I’m not. It’s, like, inside me…” she answered, pushing Pinkie off of her and getting up before the pink pony would get another of those sudden energy spikes. “Are you in love?” Pinkie asked, still grinning, after getting up on her hooves. Rainbow didn’t know how that was even possible, but she could swear that Pinkie’s mouth had just got a bit bigger, showcasing the perfect white smile. “Uh, I guess I am…” “Ooh! Who is it? Do I know her? Or is it a him? Where did you meet this pony? Did you meet her here? Of, but if it was a him then I just mmm mphh…” The only way to stop the flow of speech was to stick a hoof to the mouth of the pink pony. Whilst it wasn’t feeling very nice, your hoof getting all soaked up in saliva, it was still better than having to listen to the speech. Rainbow had tried once. It hadn’t been cool anymore after Pinkie had spoken for two hours straight. “Yes, Pinkie, you do know her. Yes, it’s a her. And please, stop asking so many questions. I need your help!” Rainbow said. Pinkie stopped talking into Rainbow’s hoof and concentrated fully on her. Rainbow thought that it was safe to remove the hoof from Pinkie’s mouth by now. “As I said, I need your help. I love this one pony. I just don’t know what to do!” she repeated now that Pinkie was concentrating. “Is it Applejack?” Pinkie asked. “Yes it… What? How did you know?” Rainbow was honestly surprised. Pinkie had knew all the time? “Well, it was just a lucky guess. Plus, I have seen the way you look at her. Your eyes tell everything.” Pinkie’s grin was just growing and growing. “Well, that’s not important right now. I need help? What should I do?” Rainbow asked. She was starting to regret telling to Pinkie. The grin of hers was not too comforting. “Ask her out!” Pinkie shouted. Rainbow was afraid that somepony had heard her, but luckily they were in the path leading from Sweet Apple Acres to Ponyville. It was almost always deserted at this hour. “But I just… I just can’t! It’s so hard!” she shouted back. She didn’t mean to shout at Pinkie, but rather answer with a shout. “Well, if you can’t say it, do it some other way. Send her a card and some beautiful flowers, maybe. But you have to do it. It only hurts once and all of a sudden you are enjoying the sunset together.” Pinkie answered. “Well, I think I could give it a shot…” Rainbow was still hesitating a bit. But if Applejack didn’t like her, it would hurt for more than once. “Well, I say that you should give it a shot. You deserve her, Dash.” The look on Pinkie’s face started getting more and more confronting as the grin started getting smaller and smaller, still maintaining the dimensions of a mighty good one. “Gee, thanks Pinkie. You’re a true friend,” Rainbow said and hugged Pinkie. She really didn’t believe she was doing it. She was hugging Pinkie just like that. “Hey, you’re welcome. I’m your friend and I’m here to help you!” Pinkie answered. Rainbow was glad to have such a great friend. Rainbow pulled off from Pinkie, breaking the hug. It was getting late and she had a long and painful day ahead tomorrow. “I think I better get home. Getting a little sleepy and all…” she said, yawning to boost the expression up a bit. “Well, I’ll see ya tomorrow! I guess!” Pinkie cheerfully shouted before starting to bounce towards the distant town. Rainbow was about to turn and go home as well, but after a second she decided that she wanted to be sure. “And Pinkie, I’d like you to Pinkie promise that you won’t tell anyone!” she shouted to the distant pink dot that stopped mid-bounce, performed a series of silly-looking moves, waved at Rainbow and kept on bouncing. Rainbow smiled. Pinkie was so random. She looked at the dot until it had disappeared, turned around and dashed towards her home. She wanted to hit the hay as soon as possible. The cloud house she lived in was not too far from the Sweet Apple Acres. It was only a couple of minutes of high-speed flying and she was standing in front of the huge cloud door of her house. It only took a gentle push and the door was open, granting her access to the awesomely decorated house that belonged to her. It was kinda lonely to live all alone in such a huge house. She had many rooms she almost never visited and loads of empty space all over the house. But the most interesting thing about the house at this hour was the location of her bedroom. She didn’t even bother to eat anything or to take a shower or to even brush her teeth like Colgate always told her to do. She just wanted to get some sweet, sweet rest. The bedroom was big, just like the rest of the house. Plenty of room for somepony else to crash in. Even the bed was big enough for two to share. As soon as she reached the soft cloud bed, she just fell limp and let the bed do the catching. The softness embraced her, allowing her aching muscles to have a deserved rest. It was no long until she was well asleep, dreaming of a certain mare, judging by the happy smile she was wearing.