//------------------------------// // Joy // Story: Whatever It Takes, I Love You // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// 3. Joy As Rainbow finished up her work with the clouds in the skies over Canterlot, she glanced around for Luna. Although it seemed strange to expect a Princess to be waiting for her, Rainbow really looked forward to their talks. In addition to their general discussions of whatever came up, Rainbow felt safe in venting to the night princess, telling her any worries or concerns plaguing her mind. She'd talk about ehr worries over Scootaloo, her concerns about ehr friends, the direction her own life was taking...yesterday, since winter was approaching, she'd spoken with Luna regarding her concern about explaining to her parents that she'd gone and adopted a little sister. It wasn't a conversation she looked forward to, and she had needed reassurance that it would go well. However, since today would be the last day running Canterlot weather - Fancy Feet was fully recovered and would be back on duty tomorrow - Rainbow Dash really wanted to talk t Luna more than usual. Although it seemed selfish to think like this, she didn't want to lose their talks. Seeing Luna's cloud, she flew up to land with a smile. "Hey Luna!" she said happily, settling into the cloud. Luna smiled. "Hello Rainbow Dash. Are you well?" Rainbow grinned. "Yeah, everything's going great." She sighed. "Kind of a pity this will be the last night we get to talk like this." "Oh?" Luna looked rather surprised. "Why?" "Fancy Feet is back on active duty starting tomorrow...which means I'm off Canterlot duty." She smiled sadly. "Gotta put taking care of Scoots first, which means I won't be flying up here every day like this. ...I'm gonna miss it." Luna smiled. "Yes, it is a joy to speak so freely with you. I have enjoyed our chats as well. It is a most enjoyable way to end my nights before I sleep." She looked at Rainbow Dash. "So, now that it has been a few weeks, how has the adoption affected your personal life?" "Huh?" "Socializing and the like?" "Oh, I still get to hang out with all my friends, if that's what you mean!" Rainbow said happily. "We just arrange our schedules with a bit more care is all." Luna smiled. "And what of your...more personal life?" Rainbow tilted her head. "I'm not sure what you mean..." Luna blinked at her, her eyes wide. "Surely a mare as awesome as you," she said, her voice somewhat teasing, "has been beating the suitors off with the proverbial stick?" She hesitated. "Did I get that colloquialism right? I have little experience with the use of the modern ones." Rainbow Dash's face paled a little, but she smiled. "You got it just right Luna. As for your question...I've never really looked for a special somepony." She turned her head away, closing her eyes. "It...it's just never been something I was interested in, so I kinda chased them all away when I was younger." She gritted her teeth as the memory from behind the door played through her mind. She didn't try to stop it. She'd learned that the best way to deal with it was to let it run its course, then put it away. "And when I'd begun to see the appeal somewhat, they'd all learned to stay away. That kind of...companionship just isn't in my future." Luna closed her eyes, cursing herself internally. "Rainbow, I'm sorry. I should not have brought that up-" "It's okay!" Rainbow interrupted. "You were just worried about me. Pinkie's the same way...although she expressed her concern by trying to play matchmaker...trying to hook me up with Soarin'!" Rainbow laughed. "Most embarrassing moment of my life right there. I mean, he's twice my age and SO together with Spitfire." Luna struggled hard to restrain her laughter. "My goodness! Did everything work out okay?" Rainbow shrugged. "For some reason, when Spitfire found out about it, she just laughed uproariously. I just don't get it." Luna smiled, somewhat sadly. "I see." She shifted herself as she returned to the original subject. "Rainbow Dash, you should not deny the possibility of finding somepony to be happy with. I am sure the right pony for you is out there, somewhere..." Rainbow smiled. "Yeah, I guess. And...it is something I think would be nice. Heck, maybe it won't even be a pony, like Rarity and Spike." Luna's eyes widened. "They are a couple?" Rainbow grinned. "Well, they've been keeping it on the low key recently, but I've seen Spike leaving the library every night this week 'to get some fresh air,' as he tells Twilight, and then walk straight out to the feilds where he meets up with Rarity, and they just sit there until morning, cuddling. That's all they do, I can tell by scent." She shook her head. "I'm surprised Twilight hasn't noticed." Luna smiled. "I wonder when theyfinally started to act on their feelings..." "Dunno. Maybe I'll ask them." Rainbow grinned. "Can't wait to see their faces when they find out I spotted them." Luna laughed. "You are positively wicked, Rainbow Dash!" "I try!" Rainbow stood up, stretching. "Well, I'd better get back. Scootaloo gives her oral report in class today, and I want to be near enough to hear it." Luna smiled. "Goodbye, Rainbow Dash. Have a safe flight." Rainbow grinned. "It's me. What could possibly hurt me?" "A nocturnal dragon." Rainbow blinked. "And what are the odds-" "One in every 300 dragons prefers to fly by night." Rainbow frowned. "Are you pulling my leg?" "How could I? It's over there." Luna grinned at Rainbow. She smirked back. "Good one. Till next time!" Luna watched as Rainbow Dash flew back towards Ponyville. "Farewell, Rainbow Dash. I hope your life brings you joy." ----------------- Cheerilee leaned over her desk, inwardly sighing. She probably should have predicted this, but somehow she'd hoped her class of preteen fillies and colts would be a little less...shallow. 12 papers on "The Happiest Day of My Life," and nine in a row should have been titled, "How I got my Cutie Mark." She smiled as she sat up as Diamond Tiara finally finished her - heavily embroidered - tale of getting her Cutie Mark. "Alright class," she said with a smile. "Who's next? Apple Bloom, why don't you go?" At least this report was guaranteed to not be about Cutie Marks. Apple Bloom stood at the front of the class. "I've had a lot of happy days in my life, so it's kinda hard trackin down exactly which one was the happiest. However, I'd say most of the recent ones have been in my adventures as one of the foundin' members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders-" Cheerilee stifled a groan. She'd thought too soon. "-so I'd say that the happiest day had to have been when the Crusaders was founded, the day I became friends with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. It was actually the day of Diamond Tiara's cutsinera-" Apple Bloom went on to tell the story of how she'd tried to get her Cutie Mark all day, then hide the fact she didn't have one at the party...and then when she, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had stood together against Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's teasing. "I realized then I didn't need a Cutie Mark to tell me who I am. I'm Apple Bloom, a Cutie Mark Crusader, and I've got my whole life to learn what mah Cutie Mark is and who I'm gonna be!" Apple Bloom was joined by Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo as she shouted, "Cutie Mark Crusaders: Crusaders for life!" There was light applause as Apple Bloom returned to her seat. "Very nice, Apple Bloom," Cheerilee said with a smile. "Who's left? Oh, Sweetie Belle, go ahead." Sweetie Belle unfolded her paper. "The happiest day of my life, I'd have to say, actually stretched over two days, surprisingly enough. See, it started a while back, when my parents left me to stay at Rarity's while they went on vacation for a week. I was really excited to be spending time with my big sister, but she was super busy. I kept trying to help, but I kept messing up." She went on to detail each of her attempts at helping and how it had gone wrong, how she'd gone to Apple Bloom and Applejack for advice, and how she - in anger - had decided that Applejack would be her sister instead of Rarity. "Then when the Sisterhooves Social actually happened, Apple Bloom told me I could run with Applejack that year. But nearly at the beginning, she fell in the mud. Then we ran the obstacle course together...but at the end I discovered it wasn't Applejack under the mud and hat...it was Rarity! She'd gone all out to show me how much having me as her sister meant, and ever since that day we've done all we could to work through any problems we have from bumping heads, and I've never been happier." As applause greeted this report's end, Cheerilee smiled. This was what she'd hoped for in their reports, a story of happiness with others. She'd have to be more specific when she assigned the next report. "Thank you, Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo? It seems you're up last." Scootaloo came up to the front and opened her paper. "The happiest day of my life...while there's been quite a few days when I've been happy - spending time with friends or Rainbow Dash-" she paused as that sent a few titters through the class, "-the day that truely takes the cake actually happened the day before this report was assigned, on my 11th birthday. It was certainly the best birthday ever, and all because of two presents I received...but to explain this, there's something else I need to explain. "I'm an orphan." The silence that greeted this statement was deafening. "I was left at the orphanage on my first birthday...I don't know why. The orphanage...wasn't a nice place, and as soon as I was strong enough, I started taking the ferry to Ponyville every day, to spend as little time there as possible. Here I met my friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle...and Rainbow Dash. "I'd always looked up to Rainbow Dash. She took the world by the thunderbolts and made it her own, nopony keeping her down. Wild and free and in control...she was everything I wanted to be. And when she actually acknowleged me and encouraged me...it always made me so happy. "A while back, I was on a camping trip with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. One night on it, after talking with Rainbow Dash, she said she'd take me under her wing, like a big sister. For a long time, THAT was the happiest moment of my life...but on my 11th birthday, Rainbow Dash did something that topped it. "She asked me that day what it was I wanted for my birthday. I admit it was kind of silly when I told her all I wanted was her autograph, but it was how I saw it. Each time she's given me an autograph - and there's been several - she's put a different message of encouragment with it. Each autograph told me that I mattered to her, that she cared about me. And this one said it all the more clearly...because she put it on the line that read 'Guardian' on my Certificate of Adoption. "That's why my 11th birthday will always be the happiest day of my life. It was the day I gained a sister. The day I gained a home." As Scootaloo folded her paper up and sat down amidst the stunned silence, she turned to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. "I wanted to tell you two about all of this sooner...I just didn't know how." As Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle piled onto Scootaloo in a group hug - which for once she didn't resist - Cheerilee blew her nose noisily. "Thank you, Scootaloo. That was..." She hesitated. She didn't know what words to use. "Thank you." As she took a moment to compose herself, the bell rang, and she waved the fillies and colts to go to lunch. Outside, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat with Scootaloo - as usual - and talked. "Scootaloo...how come you never told us before about all that?" Scootaloo smiled. "Up in Cloudsdale, all the fillies and colts knew if you were an orphan, especially if you were in the orphanage I was in, and they avoided you. When you accepted me...I was afraid if I told, it would be the same. Your friendship was too important to risk." Sweetie Belle hugged Scootaloo again. "Aw, Scoot...we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, best friends for life. Nothing's ever gonna change that. I just wish I'd have known sooner. If nothing else, I'd have tried to arrange a LOT more sleepovers." "Me too!" Apple Bloom said, also throwing her forelegs around Scootaloo. Scootaloo laughed. "I'm so lucky I got such awesome friends. You girls are the best!" In a nearby tree, just out of sight, Rainbow Dash smiled as she watched over her little sister. She'd heard the report and the reactions. She had wondered at first how her classmates would take it...but she was soon happily surprised as various students came up to talk to Scootaloo. From what she could see from reading lips, most were either apologies for giving her a hard time in the past or invitations to various events. That was one thing Ponyvillians were good at, whatever their age: once they knew you and your problems, they'd go far to make you feel welcome and make things better. Rainbow had heard that it took a village to raise a foal...they must have been talking about Ponyville.