//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: Rainbow's Song 
// by DMDash71 
//------------------------------//

	“Fluttershy, dear, do be still for just a few moments longer, I’m almost done here.”  The horn on Rarity’s brow glowed a bright, effervescent blue.  “Just a few more alterations and we’ll be done.”
Standing motionless on the low platform in front of Rarity, Fluttershy gave her friend an odd look.  “That’s what you said an hour ago.”
“Well, yes, but your gown was frightful at the time, and now it’s almost perfect!”  The unicorn beamed.  “Why, it was practically in tatters, but it’s all fixed up now.”  She sighed.  “I do wish I’d had time to make an entirely new ensemble for all of you, but there just wasn’t enough time between preparing my presentation, repairing your gown, making alterations for everyone else, and trying to get Sweetie Belle ready-“  She broke off and looked around abruptly.  “Where is that girl, anyway?  Do you smell anything burning?”
“Relax, Rarity, she’s fine.”  Twilight Sparkle trotted into the room and sat down near Rarity’s workbench.  “She’s outside with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and Applejack’s keeping an eye on them.”
“Ah.  Well, that’s fine, then.”  Rarity turned her attention back to the hem of Fluttershy’s dress.  “Just don’t let her…cook anything.”
“You have my word.”  Twilight tilted her head for a moment, peering intently at the work in progress.  “You really did a great job on our gowns, Rarity, I appreciate it.”
With machine precision, the needle Rarity was levitating began a rapid-fire stitch along the lower hem of Fluttershy’s gown, pulling the thin golden hem close to the green fabric.  “I just did what I could.  They’re just our gala dresses, with a few new touches here and there, and frightfully out of date.”
“Oh, no, they look wonderful.”  Fluttershy glanced down at the activity near her hooves, her eyes widening as she watched the silver flash of the needle humming busily away.  “I’m definitely not going to mess mine up again after you worked so hard to fix it.”
“Well of course, dear.”  Rarity stopped her work for a moment.  “Just stay clear of those horrid gardens.  I can’t believe how those gardeners could let the topiaries get in such a sad state; you go out to enjoy the scenery and dis-ASTER!  The thorns on those rose bushes must have been simply frightful.”
Fluttershy blinked and slowly ducked her head.  “Um…yeah.  They were…pretty bad.”
As Rarity resumed her work, Twilight stood up and walked over to the stands where their gowns were laid out neatly on display.  “Hey, Rarity,” she said, glancing over the new additions and alterations, “did Rainbow Dash come by to get fitted?”
“Actually she did, early this morning.”  Rarity paused, her eyes narrowed in concentration as she worked.  “I only had a few touches to make on her dress.  It really wasn’t much, I just had to take it in a bit.”  She glanced at Twilight Sparkle for a moment, and then back to the hemline that was rapidly finishing up under her guidance.  “The poor dear’s lost a bit of weight, those horrible weather ponies must be running her ragged.”
“Wow, you saw Rainbow Dash awake before noon?  That’s gotta be one for the record books.”
“There, all done.  Now you look smashing!”  Rarity stood back and flipped the hemline of Fluttershy’s dress down into place.  “Perfection!”  The needle and thread levitated across the room to the workbench as she turned and walked over to where Rainbow Dash’s gown lay draped on its stand.  “Yes, I was rather surprised at it myself…actually, I got the impression the girl hadn’t slept at all last night.”
Fluttershy stepped carefully down from the platform, glancing over her own dress for a moment.  “She was upset yesterday afternoon when we talked about our songs.”
Twilight blinked.  “Do you think it’s stage fright again?”
Rarity straightened one fold of the sky blue gown in front of her before replying.  “Not this time.  When she was practicing for the Young Flyer’s Competition last year, she was nervous…but she knew what she wanted to do, and was completely focused on it.  This morning, she seemed…oh, I don’t know, at a loss, almost, with no direction.”  She sighed deeply and glanced back at Twilight.  “I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”
“I know, but I still have this feeling-“  Twilight stopped for a moment.  “All I know is that I feel like she’ll be okay.  We just have to trust her.”
“I do, dear, I do.”  Rarity began fussing over Rainbow’s dress again.  “I just wonder if she does.”





The shadow crept over the paper before her, creeping over the words she had been laboring over all morning.  It moved over the last line of the song Rainbow Dash had been writing, flowing up over the words to cover the entire work in gloom.
“Tank!”  Rainbow glanced over her shoulder and glared.  “No peeking!  Besides, you’re blocking my light.”
The tortoise hovering at her side croaked apologetically and tilted himself, the spinning blades strapped to his shell adjusting to the motion and backing him away.
“Thanks, buddy.”  Rainbow lay on her back in the low lawn of grass where she had met with Scootaloo last night, her head propped up on a hummock.  She’d tried working at home, but trying to concentrate when you’re lying on ultimate cloud fluffiness hadn’t been particularly conducive to concentration, and she’d dozed off twice.  Tank had woken her up both times, and she’d brought her pet down with her to keep an eye on her just in case.  The tortoise had been vigilant, and she’d felt bad about ignoring him while she fussed over her project.
“Don’t worry, buddy.  When we’re all done with this, I’ll give you an encore performance, just for you.”  She patted his side absently, the shell emitting a hollow thonk thonk.  Tank emitted a satisfied croak and landed beside her, wandering around slowly and looking for something to munch on as she turned back to her work.
She’d tossed and turned all night before, running lyrics through her head until the words became babbling nonsense, random sounds that didn’t convey anything to her brain.  Giving up, she’d gone outside and glided around for hours, swooping down and then slowly returning back to her cloud, climbing up to its summit, and launching herself into the void once more.  It was unstressful on her sore wing, and uncomplicated, something that cleared her head as she glided through the dark and listened to the sound of the wind in her ears.
As soon as the sun had risen to a decent height, she’d headed to Rarity’s shop, wanting to get her dress refitted and have that task out of the way.  The unicorn had been unusually soft spoken and quiet, and seemed concerned about something.
“Eh, maybe she’s nervous too, and didn’t get much sleep either.”  Rainbow tilted her head and examined the lyrics of the mostly finished tune before her.  “After all, we’re only gonna be singing this at the capital in front of the Princess, and the other Princess, and all of Canterlot and everybody else that got invited, including all of my friends and their guests, and aw, man...”  She broke off with a groan.  “This is pathetic.”  She read over the tune in front of her again, her expression pained.  “Why can’t I write something that’s awesome?  Better than awesome, even?”
Tank uttered another low croak, eyeing his mistress with concern.
“Yeah, I know.  I guess I’m not awesome at everything, yet.”  Rainbow folded the paper up so the hateful lyrics would quit staring back at her for a little while.  She stretched out, letting her wings flick out to her sides, and lay back, staring upward into the vault of blue overhead.  At least she didn’t have to work today; her boss had heard of the goings-on yesterday and had happily given her three more days off.  She closed her eyes for a moment, the breeze fluttering her forelock over her face.  With her eyes shut, she could almost imagine she was just gliding along somewhere, with her work finished early for a change, the rest of the day before her and nothing planned, just taking things as they came along and having fun.
I love fun things, she thought sleepily.  Why can’t this just be fun?
Beside her, Tank uttered a warning croak and spun his heli-rig into motion, levitating himself off the ground and moving to hover beside her head.
“Yeah, I know, buddy, time to get movin’.”  Rainbow opened her eyes again and just looked up for a moment.  She contemplated going up and heading over to buzz the Ponyville town square just to get a rise out of someone, but quickly decided against it.  She wasn’t in the mood for games today; she was tired, her wing was still sore and she just wanted to get it all over with tonight so she could coast home in the moonlit air and enjoy the starlight before crashing and trying for the world sleeping record.  Flying at night was always nice, especially when Luna banked the fires of the moon, dimming its light so that only the faint stars shone your way home.  The world became a dark vault, a place of only sensations: the damp smell of clouds in your nose, the wind in your mane and the sky holding you up by your own force of will.
Tank started to emit another warning croak when Rainbow sat up suddenly, her violet eyes grown wide.  She looked at him soundlessly for a moment, then picked up the sheet of paper with her song written on it.  She read it over one more time, then took a deep breath, turned the sheet over to the blank back.
“Here goes nothin’, buddy.”
Tank watched quietly, on guard, as his mistress picked up her pencil in her teeth and began to write again.