//------------------------------// // Chapter V - Aftermath // Story: Dashed Thoughts // by Chevan //------------------------------// Dashed Thoughts by Chevan Chapter V – Aftermath “Oh my gosh… W-what happened?” said the getting up Pegasus, scratching the back of her head, totally unaware of what was going on last night. She was suffering from pain, her head was badly hurting her. Her wings were flared up; she could see nothing but a blur. Noticing, that the room she’s in is completely quiet, and the loud music can’t be heard from downstairs, she assumed that the party is already over. “W-Where am I?” she said, looking around, searching for anything that can help her answer this question. The room had blue walls and pink furniture. Colorful streamers and balloons were hanging everywhere; she was lying covered by a purple blanket on a pink bed with a white mattress. She had to still be in Sugarcube Corner, she believed she’s now in one of Pinkie’s beds. “Owww, w-why is my head hurting so much? What did I do yesterday?” she asked herself, slowly trying to get out of the bed. She managed to stand up on her four, but in the state she was in, there was no way she could keep her balance for very long. She hit the nearest wall by her side, making one of her upright wings elicit first a very pleasant, then a bit painful feeling straight to her spine. She hissed, initially not comprehending the source of the sensation. Looking at her side, she realized that both of her wings were inflexible and straightened upwards. The realization made the rainbow maned pony facehoof and chuckle a little. “I guess I have to get rid of this wingboner before somepony walks in.” claimed the mare, carefully trotting forward, watching every step she made. After a minute or so walking around, she finally achieved to full control of her body. Loud hoofsteps could be heard outside the door. It blew the mare out of the water completely, she knew she was in the worst, most flustering state anypony could see the Pegasus. They started getting louder, and louder… Rainbow couldn’t hide anywhere, but she didn’t start to panic, she’s not like Fluttershy. She stood there in the middle of the room bravely, wearing a grin. The door knob got wrapped by the purple aura. Now it was clear for Rainbow who this somepony was. The door slowly opened, revealing the newcomer, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight realized that the certain pony she went to check on, instead of being in the bed sleeping, was standing in the middle of the room, smiling weirdly at her. Rainbow started sweating; her cheeks began to flush red. She tried her best to suppress this reaction, successfully achieving her goal so far. Twilight slowly proceeded towards the awkwardly and a bit unsteadily standing Pegasus in front of her, beaming, “Hey Rainbow, I see you’re awake!” “Hey Twilight! Yeah as you can see I woke up… What brings you here?” inquired the cyan pony. The unicorn didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she first moved to the right side of her friend, wanting to check the feather she recovered, “I got here to check you out. You know, Rainbow, you overdid it a little with punch yesterday… I think you know what happened next. Are you feeling okay?” she said, carefully examining Dash’s wing. “Yeah, I’m okay,” Rainbow lied, “Did I…” “Yes, you did.” claimed the purple unicorn, wrapping the wing by her magic. “What are you…? Uh-oh…” was the only thing the Pegasus could respond, feeling a tickling sensation in her wing. She turned her head towards Twilight. “Don’t worry, lemme just… wait…” the lavender pony started, realizing that both of Rainbow’s wings are completely stiff. She smirked, making the cyan mare turn her head to look anywhere but not straight into the unicorn’s eyes, trying to hide her blushing cheeks. Rainbow was feeling disgraced, she has never been caught in that embarrassing state by anypony before. Her friend didn’t laugh as she expected, instead she asked with a soft tone, “Well well well, what do we have here? I think somepony got excited? Or is it because I’m checking your wing like that? I’m sorry if it made you feel bad…” “Yes! I mean n-no! It’s normal, it happens every time I wake up, I swear!" Rainbow said, getting lost in her own words. “D-don’t stop… It feels so good…” she said very quietly, trying her best not to make the lavender mare hear her. “I’m sorry, what was that?” asked Twilight, wanting Rainbow to repeat louder what she just murmured. “N-Nothing, Twilight, just continue what you’re doing…” replied the Pegasus, her heart starting pounding more rapidly. “I know it happens very often to you Rainbow, I think it’s a very interesting phenomenon. I should do research about it,” Twilight acknowledged. “M-maybe another time… Now let’s get out of here, shall we?” Rainbow pleaded, though part of her didn’t want the unicorn to stop her actions at all. Twilight let Dash’s wing go, and moved to the front of the Pegasus, “You want to get out in that state? Your mane is messy… well, it usually is, but not that much, you have a wing-“ “Okay I know how it is called, don’t make me more embarrassed than I am now…” the blue pony interrupted. Twilight chuckled, “Okay, so I’ll go back downstairs, we’re cleaning after a party with Pinkie and the others. I’ll give you time to prepare yourself, get down to us when you’re ready, okay?” Rainbow felt a sharp pain in her head again, “Ouch! Okay…” “Hey, what’s wrong?” Twilight smirked at her friend. “About that if I’m feeling okay… Do you have a painkiller or something?” the Pegasus inquired, “My head is going to explode in a second…” The unicorn giggled, “I know it, Rainbow. I wasn’t going to go anywhere without giving you something to ease your headache you surely have. Of course I brought you one. Here, take it.” Rainbow didn’t need to be told twice. Twilight levitated a small pill and a glass close to the Pegasus’s nuzzle, who swallowed it and drank the water right away. “Thanks, Twi. Hope this helps.” Rainbow said. “I’m sure it will. See you soon!” Twilight replied, turning to walk out of the room. “See you!” Rainbow shouted back. After the door closed, Rainbow let out a long sigh. Her mane was messy; Rarity would call the fashion police for sure if she saw her. She was caught by the mare she loved in the state she didn’t want anypony to see her. Twilight was somehow an exception for her, it turned out that Rainbow actually liked and very appreciated the presence of the unicorn close to her right then. Her wings almost immediately retracted to their usual position after the unicorn went out. Maybe she really was… excited? “Ugh, let’s not think about it right now, I have friends in need downstairs…” Rainbow quickly stretched herself, her joints making audible cracks as she did so. It looked like the painkiller helped a bit, her head wasn’t hurting as much as before, she was feeling so much better, and she was able to walk normally again. She made a few laps around the room on foot. Eventually she began to fly around, all the time trying not to break anything. After some more laps she landed in front of the door, exited the room, and headed for the stairs. Now Rainbow had to find out what happened last night… *** Twilight, after checking a certain drunken pony out, went back downstairs to the main hall of Sugarcube Corner. The four of her friends were there, each one of them doing different tasks. Spike went home, wanting to sleep after crusading with Cutie Mark Crusaders the entire former day. Pinkie Pie was bouncing around collecting streamers and balloons with Fluttershy, Applejack was collecting dirty plates and food remains from tables and taking them to the kitchen, Rarity took the responsibility of cleaning, all the time being careful. It was an easy task for her, thanks to her unicorn nature. But even then, she didn’t want to stain her gown by any means. “And? How is she?” asked the white unicorn, seeing her friend getting closer to her. “She’s fine,” she chuckled, “but I guess I chose the wrong moment to go check on her.” That visibly surprised Rarity, “What do you mean, darling? Is everything okay?” “Yeah, everything is okay, it’s just… I don’t know if she felt comfortable with me seeing her like that. Let’s just say that she didn’t want anypony to find her in that state. Never mind.” Twilight responded, looking amused. Rarity shrugged, and didn’t say anything more; continuing back to her work. Twilight decided to help her out, so she didn’t have to do everything on her own. “Hey gals!” the Rainbow maned pony shouted after some minutes as she trotted downstairs to the hall. “Hello Rainbow Dash!” shouted back the yellow mare, landing in front of her friend. The other ponies stopped their work and walked to the Pegasus, standing in a row near Fluttershy. “How did our star of the evening sleep?” asked Applejack, wearing a smirk. “Star of the evening? What do you mean? I-I know I got drunk… a bit… but I don’t remember anything else! Can you tell me what in Equestria I did yesterday?” Rainbow asked, afraid of hearing the truth. Applejack turned her head towards Twilight. The unicorn nodded at her friend, hinting she can tell Rainbow everything that happened last night. Applejack was the one who remembered the most, because she was with Rainbow Dash most of the time at the party. “Well, Rainbow… What is the last thing you remember?” Applejack started. “I don’t remember much of anything from yesterday’s party. The only thing I recall… are your jokes!” Rainbow responded. “Well, after the last joke you drank almost the entire bowl of punch.” Applejack stated. “It wasn’t a normal punch Dashie; it was made by Berry Punch, the best one around! It had some veeeery special ingredients in it… just for you!” Pinkie Pie laughed. Rainbow made a quizzical look at her friend, “Special ingredients? What do you mean by that?” Pinkie giggled, “Of course, silly! I have no idea what she puts in there, but it tasted like candy!” “Pinkie Pie, everything tastes like candy to you…” Rainbow remarked. “Well, duh! These things were surely good according to what silly things you were doing after drinking it!” Pinkie claimed, laughing out loud. “What? What did I do? Tell me!” Rainbow fumed, starting to get a little bit impatient. They all explained to their friend what silly and funny things she’d done when she was drunk. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard; she couldn’t believe what embarrassing things she did yesterday. The puking and the behaving weirdly wasn’t that bad at all, the worst thing was… that she almost kissed Twilight, and somehow shared her feelings to her. It destroyed her; she thought she would be a laughing stock, because she did this in front of everypony from Ponyville! “WHAT?! Oh my gosh I’m so sorry Twilight, I didn’t mean it at all!” the cyan pony exclaimed worriedly. “It’s okay Rainbow Dash, you don’t have to apologize,” Twilight reassured the Pegasus. She got closer to her and put her hoof on her shoulder, “It was kinda funny for me, too.” The lavender unicorn hugged her friend. Rainbow felt a little bit taken aback at start, but she returned the hug eventually. “I need to have a closer look at your wing, meet me at the library later today.” Twilight whispered to the Pegasus’s ear. “Okay,” Rainbow whispered back, shocked a bit by her friend’s words. The Unicorn broke the hug, and smiling at the Pegasus, returned to her friends. She looked around the hall, where the mess of the last night’s party was still visible. Balloons and streamers were still hanging everywhere, the food was scattered all around the place, even on the floor. It looked like Discord was at the party, because this was a pure chaos. “Okay everypony, let’s finish cleaning up this mess and go back to our homes,” hinted Twilight, receiving nods from all five of her friends. “Let’s do this!” Rainbow shouted, taking off and starting collecting the party accessories which hung above. When six ponies are working at once, things were done lightning fast, especially when there are two of every kind of a pony. Gummy was sitting on one of the tables, watching everything that was happening. With a bit of cooperation, everything was cleaned and shining in mere minutes. Sugarcube Corner was looking just like before the party, even cleaner. “Partying is so much fun, and cleaning after the party is fun too! Don’t you think Dashie?” Pinkie inquired, giggling. “Well of course it is!” Rainbow said hoof-bumping with her pink friend. “Well that’s what Ah call a job well done!” Applejack said happily. “I think it’s time for all of us to go back home…” Twilight proposed. The other ponies agreed, and after saying their goodbyes, all of the Elements made their ways to their homes. Just as soon as Rainbow Dash was about to take off to her cloud home, she was stopped by Twilight, “What’s up, Twi?” “Remember, this evening in the library, okay?” Twilight reminded the Pegasus. “I remember about that, I’ll be there. I’ll see you later then!” Rainbow answered, taking off to the sky. “See you later, Dashie!” Twilight said joyfully. Rainbow kept on flying, but she realized something strange, “Wait… did she just call me… Dashie? That’s how only Pinkie Pie calls me!” One question was bugging her all the way back to her home. Why did she do that?