//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Friendly Advice // Story: 20% Sweeter // by VinylWub67 //------------------------------// Sunset in Ponyville was truly amazing. There was something about the way the reds and purples and oranges melded into one perfect color that graced the early evening sky. Rainbow Dash had seen plenty of sunsets in her life, but she found tonight's to be especially beautiful. After a hard day of setting up rain clouds and then clearing them away, she decided it would be a good idea to just go home and rest. From atop her cloud home, she watched as the amazingly bright orange orb slowly decided behind the hills of Equestria and tinged the skies a lovely magenta. Just as the sun was finished setting, Rainbow decided to retire to her bedroom for the night. As she laid her head down on the soft clouds she used as a pillow, her thoughts began to drift again towards Twilight. Since she had come to terms with the fact that she did indeed like her best friend more than a friend, she had attempted to push it form her mind. She was afraid of the effect it was going to have on Twilight, on their friendship. But the setting sun coupled with the warm feeling she got from being enveloped in her bed during a summer's eve caused her mind to drift towards more romantic thoughts... ------- Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were sitting on a hill just outside of Ponyville, embraced with each other. Rainbow was sitting in Twilight's lap, who had her hooves wrapped around the upper body of the cyan pegasus. As they sat there in the early hours of the day, they both started to think of how lucky they were for finding each other. "You know, Twilight, you really are the best marefriend a pony could ask for," Rainbow remarked to the unicorn sitting behind her. Twilight blushed slightly, and replied simply, "I'm sorry, Dashie, but I'm afraid that title has already been taken by a certain rainbow maned pegasus pony." Rainbow looked around at Twilight's smiling face and her heart instantly melted. The first thing she had ever noticed about her marefriend was her smile, but it had not lost its luster. "Twilight, I think I..." Rainbow trailed off. "You think you what, Dashie?" "Never mind. It's really stupid." Close one there, Rainbow. Rainbow gasped as she felt herself falling backwards towards the ground. She hit the grass, and rolled over to see Twilight standing above her, a playfully stern look on her face. The light breeze flowing through the air caused her mane to blow slightly, and gave her an extremely majestic look. "Look here, Rainbow Dash," Oh crap. She used my full name. What did I do? "you took far too long to admit your feelings for me. I won't have you tip toeing around anything now. Come on, now. Tell me what you were just thinking." Rainbow wasn't about to say that. Not here, not now. It was just too much too soon. As she sat there deep in thought a voice rang out from seemingly nowhere. "Rainbow Dash..." What in Celestia was that? "Rainbow Dash..." She attempted to pinpoint its location, but it seemed to be coming from her head. "Rainbow!" "Umm Twilight, do you hear that?" she asked. "Hear what?" Twilight replied with a puzzled look on her face. "Rainbow Dash!" the voice was starting to become clearer, and soon picked up frequency. Rainbow was sure she could also hear...bouncing? ------- Rainbow Dash awoke with a start back in her bed. She groaned loudly as she realized that the entire romantic scene she had just been a part of had been nothing but a dream. But what woke her up so suddenly? It was then that she became aware of the sound of bouncing somewhere below her. "Rainbow Dash, don't make me go get my flying machine to come up there after you sleepy head!" She could recognize that bubbly voice from anywhere in Equestria. "Pinkie Pie what are you doing here?" "Don't you remember, silly? You promised me that you would come help me set up Gummy's birthday party! We were supposed to do it yesterday, but you were too busy making it rain, so I asked you if you would help me today and you said yes." The entire time she talked, Pinkie bounced up and down in place, her enthusiasm reaching dangerous levels of annoyance. Rainbow did remember Pinkie saying something to her yesterday, but she was too busy and too tired to pay her any attention. She had agreed with her just so she would leave her alone, and had apparently enlisted herself as Pinkie's personal assistant for the day. Rainbow groaned as she stretched out her wings. This was the last thing she wanted to do today, but she wasn't about to let Pinkie Pie down. "Give me five minutes." "Okie Dokie Lokie," Pinkie replied enthusiastically, still bouncing in place. ------- As she trotted out her door in the early sun towards the Ponyville market, Twilight Sparkle levitated her checklist in front of her to check it for the 5th time that day. She had needed to go shopping for the past few days, but had finally found the time to do so. "Grain, flour, milk, eggs, and sugar. Looks like I've got everything here," she remarked out loud, reading off the last few items of an extremely long list. As she trotted down the road, sun beaming onto her fur, the bits in her saddlebag jingled merrily, as if they were happy that they were about to get spent. Once in town, she was surprised at the number of ponies darting here and there, visiting the many booths that were set up in the town square. There were people buying carrots, cherries, flowers, and pretty much anything imaginable. She decided to start at the top of her list and visit Applejack's booth to buy a much needed bushel of apples. "Howdy, Twi! Whatchy'all doin' out here so early?" Applejack greeted her friend heartily. She was standing in front of her booth that she had apparently just opened. Big Macintosh was standing behind the booth, putting apples form their cart into baskets. "Hey, Applejack, Big Mac! I just needed to get a bushel of your amazing apples. Spike went on an eating spree a couple days ago and completely cleaned out the cupboard," Twilight responded with an extremely cheery smile on her face. "Well here then! Have these, on tha house." Applejack grabbed a basket from her completely full stand and and put in on Twilight's back. Twilight beamed even wider, and responded, "Thanks, AJ! You really shouldn't have though." "It ain't a problem fer friends, Twi," she said as she began to smile as well. It was then that she noticed the giant list levitating in a purple aura beside Twilight. "Golly, that ain't what all y'all gotta buy is it?" she said in a concerned tone. "Well, actually yes. It's been a while since I was able to do some shopping, and I really need a lot of stuff." "In that case, I'm gonna help you out. Ain't no need fer you tah be carryin' all that stuff around all by yer lonesome. Big Mac, will you watch the stand fer a few hours till me an Twilight get her shoppin' done?" she inquired, looking back at her big brother, who had stepped around front having filled all the baskets up with apples. "Eeyup," he replied with a smile towards Twilight. The two ponies set off towards the other shops, stopping at each one and making sure they didn't have anything on Twilight's list. As they walked, Aj talked about the CMC sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres last night, and about how happy she was that Babs was back in town. "So yeah, that's purdy much it. Them girls sure had a good time last night. But what about you, Twi? Anything interestin' happen to you in the past couple days?" "Well, now that you mention it, I was paid a visit by the one and only Rainbow Dash the other night," she replied. "Oh, well wasn't that sweet of her." "Not really, considering it was at about 3 in the morning," Twilight said with a slightly comical tone her voice. Applejack couldn't hold her surprise. "Boy I sure am tired. And hungry. Let's go grab a bite to eat and I'll tell you all about it" They headed into a small diner just outside the shopping district in Ponyville, and were seated at a small booth near the back. After the waitress had come and taken their orders, Twilight launched into her story about her late night encounter with Rainbow Dash. ------- Rainbow fluttered along slowly behind Pinkie Pie as she bounced towards Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie had informed her that Fluttershy was also going to be helping them set up so it wouldn't take as long as if it was just the two of them. As they reached the bakery, Rainbow noticed the pink maned pegasus standing outside, waiting for Pinkie before she went in. "Come on in, silly," she said to Fluttershy as she opened the door and hopped inside. "You ponies stand right here, and I'll go get everything we need to make this place look superduperlicious for Gummy's birthday partaaaay," she squeaked as she hopped into another room. Rainbow suddenly had an idea. It was very risky, and might not work, but if anyone knew about how to deal with unnatural tendencies, it would be Fluttershy. "Hey Flutters, I've got a question for you. What do you do when an animal starts doing something that it wouldn't normally do? Like if it developed an unnatural tendency or something like that." "Oh, Rainbow Dash. Animals may have certain ways they normally act, but there's nothing wrong with them acting a little bit differently than the others. Every animal is a unique creature with a unique personality. When it comes down to it, as long as they aren't harming themselves or something else, there isn't anything they can do that I would consider wrong," Fluttershy said softly, a smile creeping onto her sheepish face. "So, do you think that same policy applies to ponies?" "Of course! Like I said about animals, everypony is completely unique and different in their own ways, and there is nothing wrong with that. Why do you ask, Rainbow Dash?" This was what Rainbow was afraid of. She didn't know what to say in response. She gulped silently, and then said the first thing that came to mind. "Oh no reason. I just know a mare who is, well, let's just say she thinks she has feelings for another mare, and I was wondering if there was anything wrong with that." "If somepony truly has feelings for somepony else, whether it's two mares or a mare and a stallion, there shouldn't be anyone who could say anything negative about that. True love is hard to come by, and when it happens, ponies shouldn't be worried about what everypony else thinks." Fluttershy had seem to have given this a lot of thought. "Thanks for the advice, Fluttershy," Rainbow said to her friend with a quick smile. "Okay, here's what I want you girls to do!" Pinkie Pie had just bounded back into the room carrying a basket of streamers, bows, ribbons, noisemakers, and tissue paper of every color imaginable. The three mares proceeded to cover every square inch of the walls and ceilings of Sugarcube Corner with the colorful papers. When they were done, it looked like a rainbow tornado had gone through and thrown colorful paper everywhere. But Pinkie insisted that Gummy enjoyed bright colors, so Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash went along with it. ------- Back in the diner, Twilight had just finished telling her story to Applejack, who was listening intently while she munched on her carrots and daisy salad. "I tell yah what, that Rainbow Dash sure can be awfully odd sometimes," she said to Twilight through a mouthful of carrot. Twilight took a sip of her lemonade and replied, "But I'm worried about her AJ. It seemed like something was really wrong with her. Like she had something weighing pretty heavily on her mind. Don't get me wrong, it's flattering that she would come to me for advice, but I get the feeling that there's something else at work here." "Well maybe y'all need to sit down an' have a talk about it. After all, yah ain't gonna know anything more than yah already do without askin'," The orange earth pony suggested. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I do need to talk to her. After all, what are friends for? She obviously trust me and respects my opinion. It's settled then. I'll ask her to come over tomorrow, and we'll take it from there." Twilight and Applejack both munched at their salads for a few more minutes before deciding they were full. They payed the waitress separately and walked back outside. Once they had purchased the last few items on the list, Applejack helped Twilight carry everything back to the library. "Alright, Twi. I need tah be gettin' back to the apple stand. Big Macintosh is liable to have a fit if I stay out much longer. Let me know how things work out with y'all tomorrow. I'm real curious to see what's eatin' Rainbow." "Don't worry I'll keep you in the loop," Twilight smiled to AJ, who departed with the tip of her hat.