//------------------------------// // In Which a Barn Isn't Painted Red // Story: Twice as Bright // by Cloudy Skies //------------------------------// “‘Reckon you and Fluttershy can start at the top of the wall, R.D?” “Got it. Let’s go, Fluttershy. Grab the bucket, I get the brush!” “Oh. Okay.” Fluttershy trotted over to grab the smallest of the buckets of paint arrayed by the barn’s southern wall. Out of the corner of her eye, Pinkie Pie saw Applejack nodding and rounding on the two remaining ponies. The only real reason she noticed was that she happened to be one of those ponies; she herself was rather preoccupied. The object of her attention was just too shiny to look away. “The rest of us start from down here. Pinkie and I can begin at the bottom. Rarity, you do the detail-work if you fancy. I was gonna have Twi cover the bits too high for us to reach and get Fluttershy and Rainbow to start on the roof, but I don’t see her nowhere here.” Rarity frowned and joined Applejack in looking to the horizon. The road was clear all the way to Ponyville, not that Pinkie was really looking. The earth mare kept on watching something completely different. It was funny, really. It rose to hang high in the sky every day, but still she felt she could stare for hours. It reminded her a little bit of the time she’d realized how fantastic punch ladles really were, even though she’d used them for hundreds of parties before that point. “I've no idea what may be keeping her, sorry,” Rarity said, eyeing the paint and the tools critically. “Now, this will wash off, yes? I do so detest stains, but if this necessitates a bath, so be it.” Applejack sighed. “Rarity? We’re painting a barn. It’s not exactly gonna be watercolors or foals’ paints now is it?” “Oh. Ah. Well, I may have to head by to Boutique and change into something more, well. Protective.” “Just stick to doing the corners and you’ll be fine, sugar. If you get it on ya, it’s ‘cause you spilt it yourself.” Applejack smirked. “‘Course, if you think you’ll be sloppy, you go get your painting galoshes.” Rarity glowered. “If this ends with me in an emergency spa session, I’m sending you the bill.”         “You do that,” Applejack chuckled when Rarity finally broke into a smile. “Seriously, I’m mighty grateful y’all came to help me out. Let’s get to work, Pinkie. Uh. Pinkie Pie? Fancy painting a barn with me? Hello?” Pinkie finally gave up her little staring contest and turned towards the voice. It didn’t help a whole lot. The world was still deliciously and painfully bright, and somepony had replaced Applejack with a bright glowing blob. As she focused, the blob slowly morphed and settled as a proper, Applejack-shaped—albeit frowning—pony. “You alright there sugarcube? You’ve been starin’ up into the sky for minutes, now.” “Sure! I was just looking at the sun. That’s where it lives during the day.” “Couldn’t help but notice even if I tried. Starin’, just like parents tell their foals not to. What’s the matter?” Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out at an angle and chewed it while thinking. “I don’t think anything’s the matter, really. Everything’s a-okay and getting even better! Where’s Twilight?” Applejack cast another glance at the raw and unpainted barn as if there were answers to be found in the woodwork itself. “I’ve been wondering the same myself. We best just get started.” Pinkie Pie bounced over to grab herself a nice big brush, dipping it in an open bucket of deep red paint. Without hesitation, she slapped it onto the side of the barn and started spreading the colorful goo around. Rarity hummed to herself, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were talking about clouds or clowns somewhere above. Pinkie Pie was barely getting started on contemplating the virtues of a montage to pass the time when a sharp pop interrupted the five busy ponies, depositing a purple mare on the grass behind them. “I’m here! Sorry I’m late,” Twilight called, rubbing her face and groaning. “I’m really sorry, I meant to be on time.” Applejack raised a brow. “Sug’, we’ve barely just gotten started. Grab a brush. Think you can do the stuff in the middle? Saves me and Pinkie getting ladders and everything.” “Ah. Sure. In a moment. I think I’ll just begin... here,” Twilight said, a smile slightly too wide adorning her face as she levitated over a brush. Taking a spot far away from the others—right next to Pinkie Pie—Twilight applied brush to wood without bothering with trivialities such as paint. Her eyes weren’t on the barn, but on Pinkie. “Wow,” Pinkie said around the handle of her own brush. “Are you painting the barn barn-colored?” Twilight glanced about and lowered her voice to a whisper. That, more than anything, drew everypony’s attention, but she didn’t seem to notice when the majority of the other brushes and rollers slowed down. “I received another letter from Princess Celestia.” Pinkie gasped. “Oh, is that why you’re late? What’s she saying? She was here only just a few days ago! Is she coming to visit again already?” “No!” Twilight hissed. “She wrote to thank us for a wonderful time.” Pinkie blinked as many times as her eyes would let her. “That’s a good thing. Isn’t that a good thing? You’re making it sound like the opposite of a good thing, unless the thing is upside-down.” Twilight sighed, and Pinkie Pie peered past the unicorn to where Rarity and Rainbow Dash were slowly working their way closer, ears perked. Applejack merely rolled her eyes, and Fluttershy was powerless but to follow since she held Rainbow Dash’s paint bucket. “It is a good thing,” Twilight said, puffing out her cheeks and exhaling. “It is, and it really is great to hear, but the reason I’m telling you this is because she also admitted she felt a little confused by your words.” “That’s okay. My words are a little confusing to me, too.” Pinkie nodded with grave sympathy. “Yesterday I said ‘framdulendipitous’, and I don’t even know what that means except that it’s probably great.” “No!” Twilight groaned. “Your comments about her. You’re sending some very, very weird signals.” Pinkie Pie tilted her head. “No I’m not.” Twilight let her brush drop and turned around to face Pinkie full-on. “Pinkie Pie? You’re making her think you’re, well, that you’re into her.” Pinkie squinted, let the words bounce around her head a few times, then tilted her head the other way. When this yielded no results, she looked past Twilight to where Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all crowded around Twilight. “Y’all should be ashamed,” Applejack muttered from the other edge of the wall. “What she’s saying,” Rarity said, making Twilight jump in surprise when she stepped up to her side. “Is that you may be giving Celestia an impression that isn’t altogether correct. I doubt she blames you, but it’s probably terribly confusing.” Pinkie Pie sat down on the ground and twisted around to put her brush down on the paint bucket with the utmost care. So prepared, she turned to face her friends again; a rather massively uncomfortable Fluttershy, a smiling Rarity, a broadly grinning Rainbow Dash, and a Twilight who still looked back and forth between the first three with no small amount of indignation. “Okay. Try again,” Pinkie said. She perked both her ears up for good measure and rolled her shoulders, preparing to be the best listener in all of Equestria for at least half a minute. Give or take twenty seconds. When it became obvious none of the others intended to leap at the chance, Fluttershy took a single step forward, her eyes flitting about and ears pinned to the back of her head. “Well. Um. Do you remember last summer when Lyra kept visiting Bon-Bon’s candy stand just to talk to her, even though she rarely bought anything?” “Uh-huh!” Fluttershy nibbled her lip before she continued. She spoke very slowly, much like how Pinkie had seen her try to coax scared animals out of their dens. “Maybe you also remember how, in the end, Bon-Bon told her that she couldn’t loiter unless she really had something she wanted to buy. She was very nice about it, but—” “And then Lyra asked her out!” Rarity clopped her hooves together. “Oh my word, it was terribly romantic. Love from a distance forced into bloom by a gentle misunderstanding, and then become a relationship full of passion. Oh, I can see it now.” “You saw it then,” Applejack said, nudging Rarity on the rump so she could get working on the wall behind her. “Was me and you at market when it happened, and as I recall, it was pretty darn straightforward. Knew there was a reason I liked Lyra.” “Yes, well. The memory is rather more elaborate in my head by now, and I think I prefer my version to Lyra’s awkward words of ‘Uh, yeah, wanna grab a snack? You’re cute.’” Rarity muttered to herself and crossed her forelegs in front of her chest. Pinkie Pie poked Fluttershy’s snout with her own. “Of course I remember it. I staged a party for their half-year-getting-together anniversary! I really do love a good story, but what does this have to do with me?” Rainbow Dash snickered. “Pinkie Pie, Princess Celestia thinks you want to smooch her.” “Oh. Oh!” Pinkie Pie gasped, her mouth forming a perfect circle until it didn’t any more. She shrugged and bent one of her ears. “That’s not the same at all.” Twilight leaned in, eyes trained straight on Pinkie Pie, though she smiled and her voice was calm and patient. “You’re confusing her by sending some mixed signals, that’s all.” Pinkie thought about that, and the more she did, the sillier it sounded. She didn’t laugh or even smile, but the idea was stranger to her than a milkshake with salt. She began to nod. She had, after all, heard Twilight’s words, but it resolved itself as a shake of the head in the end. She hadn’t been trying to fool anypony. That would be lying, and Pinkie Pie rarely lied unless there was a very specific and very good reason for it. Princess Celestia really was pretty, and she was far more fun than Pinkie had thought for the longest time. She was twice as important as even the cashier at the local joke shop, but she wasn’t half as snooty. Rather, the princess was as nice as the sun was bright. As her still-aching eyes confirmed, the sun was really bright. Beyond that, much more important than everything else put together with a cherry on top, Pinkie knew there was even more to see if she could only get Celestia to smile. She wanted that more than anything, and not just for the joy it would bring herself. For the pretty princess, too. Kisses fit well into it, all things considered. “I don’t think they’re mixed at all! I should probably try that. The smooching thing.” Pinkie said. Her friends had been rather understanding of her silent little introspective lapse, all things considered, but those words got a reaction. Rather, a host of them. Twilight’s jaw dropped, Rarity’s eyes widened, Fluttershy squeaked, Dash laughed, and Applejack gave a single short guffaw before she picked her own brush up and nudged Dash aside, continuing her efforts to paint her barn. Twilight ground a hoof against her forehead. “Pinkie, I know I’m saying this a lot, but that’s impossible.” Dash frowned, taking to the air above Twilight. “Hey, Celestia asked you to butt out like, three times already.” “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Fluttershy said, shrinking back to hide behind Rarity with a muttered ‘sorry’ when Pinkie glanced her way. Rarity herself raised a brow, lips pursed for a moment. “Well, it is terribly romantic, even if it’s implausible. I mean, if I were to play advocate for possibilities here.” Twilight looked like she was about to say something very loud, but instead she closed her eyes for a second and sat. “Alright, fine. That is, ignoring that she’s a princess—” Pinkie nodded along. “Yes sirree, ignoring!” “—the ruler of the kingdom, and really busy!” “Hey, Luna rules Equestria too.” Dash crossed her forelegs. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yes. And you’re not looking to go and ask her out on a date, are you?” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, and promptly shut it again, rubbing her jaw with a free hoof. A grin slowly spread across her face. “Oh come on!” Twilight cried, triggering a burst of laughter from the colorful flier. “Of course not! Jeez, calm down. She couldn’t keep up anyway.” Applejack grunted as she pushed Pinkie Pie out of the way. “Comin’ through. Don’t mind me. Just painting my barn here.” Twilight grabbed a hold of the farmpony. “Applejack. Please, please talk some sense into her.” Applejack put her brush down, gave a rather demonstrative sigh, and turned to face the crowd. Pinkie beamed. Applejack always said really clever stuff when she paused before she spoke. “Ooh, you look like you’ve got a speech! Want me to grab my port-a-podium?” “Speech? Sorry to disappoint you there, Pinkie.” Applejack shrugged. “I just thought Rainbow already said what needs to be said at the start. The Princess can make her own decisions. She doesn’t need you actin’ as some kind of secretary, Twi’.” Twilight swallowed and nodded, looking away for a moment. Pinkie stuck her tongue out and squinted, looking for an opportunity for a make-up hug, but Twilight looked like she was in a talky mood, not a huggy mood. “It’s just that the princess said she’s not looked into anything like love or romance, that she’s not had any suitors for as long as she could remember. I still don’t understand, and I think you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.” Fluttershy wrung her hooves. “That’s not really, um, well. Like Applejack says, it’s not really what you—I mean. Don’t you think you’re just being a little protective?” Dash waved a leg in the air. “Hey, if it was important, then maybe we should remember I’m the one who said it?” “And if that’s the case, that’s understandable,” Rarity added, neatly stepping in front of Rainbow Dash. “The princess has always meant a lot to you.” Pinkie nodded and smiled. “It’s okay!” she said, though she’d quite frankly lost track of exactly what she was agreeing to or with, but everypony else seemed to be getting happier, and fast. Twilight deflated visibly, her attention flitting between all her friends. “I—okay. Fine. It’s besides the point. It’s not my place. I know. I know.” “If you know, then act like it. And it’d help if y’all could give me a hoof with my barn while you’re at it,” Applejack said, picking her brush up once more. “Paint’s gonna dry uneven if we wait much longer.” Twilight looked up and locked eyes with Pinkie Pie, who smiled right back. “I’m sorry, Pinkie Pie, I really am. Just promise me one thing, okay? Think this through. Don’t do anything rash. You’re very important to me, and so is the princess. I mean it. Think for a bit. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” The look Twilight gave her was one of those that spoke of a moment of infinite gravity. Pinkie Pie paused the song in her head for a moment and forced herself to stop. To take a short few breaths and nod. Her eyes kept trying to dart up past Twilight and past the barn to steal a glance at the sun, but she kept her attention solely on Twilight. Without hesitation, her left hoof sketched a simple gesture across her chest. “I promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly.” Twilight’s sigh of relief was immense. “Okay. Thank you. Just, um, yeah. That. That would be great. Give it a little while, and a lot of thought. Thinking is great.” Pinkie nodded once more, but the second she’d done so, her eyes widened with sudden realization. “Wait. Does ‘suitor’ mean what I think it does? Does this mean Celestia hasn’t kissed anypony in a thousand years, or maybe even never before? Ohmygosh! Do you think she’ll need practice partners? Rainbow Dash, Equestria needs you!” Applejack smacked her head against the barn.