//------------------------------// // Asked // Story: It's Not If, It's When. It Just Ain't Now. // by Bysen //------------------------------// She’d slept so well last night. Woken up nice and late in the day. No work today. Today was going to be awesome! Rainbow Dash could tell. Plan for the day: Fly around, find comfortable cloud, perform tricks until passed out on said cloud, repeat, ????, awesome! She was resting on the best cloud she’d found, laying on her back legs and tail flopped over the side as she lay there. “Um… Rainbow Dash. Are you awake?” “I am now. What’s sup Flut?” Dash replied without moving off the cloud as Fluttershy flew up beside her. “What?! Oh, ‘Flut’, I thought you called me… never mind. I um… I need to talk with you, I mean, if you’re not busy. If you are, we can…” “Na, I’m just resting. We? “ Dash asked as she got up and looked down past the cloud to see Applejack looking up from the ground. “Hey AJ.” “Howdy.” AJ called back as Dash jumped off the cloud and plummeted towards the ground. She just flapped her wings a few times at the last moment and come to near stop before hitting the ground with a stomp. It was the type of thing that would’ve horrified any pony who didn’t know Dash and her ways. Even though Dash knew AJ was used to her style she had hoped to get a little bit of fright out of her. Instead she looked dead serious… then completely calm, then… nervous? “I’ll be right down… wait, meant ta say that sooner.” Dash said trying to gauge what was happening to AJ with her joke. She didn’t get anything though. “So what’s up?” she asked as Fluttershy came to a gentle landing beside AJ. “We, uh, have some news for ya Raindow. You’ll be the first of our friends we told. Not that we meant ta tell you first, just that we found ya first ah mean.” Applejack said and Dash could tell she was nervous, stumbling over her own words. “We’re together.” Fluttershy spoke up. “Ya, I can see that, now what where ya going ta tell me?” Dash replied, missing what Fluttershy had really meant. “What she means ta say Dash, is… we’re together. A couple.” AJ added and had the statement backed up by Fluttershy giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. They both then looked at Dash who was staring at them in turn. She didn’t expect this. Her friend’s had been half right, Twilight, Rarity... and Fluttershy! She’d accepted that her friends had made an assumption about her and was over it, seems they now knew the truth and had learnt it the hard way! But, that Fluttershy had accused her of ‘being that way’ as she had put it and now was that way herself. It hurt just like it had then. Wait… maybe, “You’re not gay Fluttershy! I, I can’t believe you AJ!” “Calm down RD, ah ain’t doing this ta hurtchu or nothing.” “Calm down? Hurt me!? How the hell could you do this to Fluttershy!? You wanna test it out so you try it on the one pony who wouldn’t say no? That’s horrible! That’s down right evil!” Dash screamed as she was shut up by AJ smacking her across the face. “Don’t you dare say something like that! I would never harm her like that. Ah ain’t e-evil…” AJ stammered as she trailed off. She knew Dash was wrong and just saying what she’d said out of hurt and ignorance but AJ had now been called evil by two of the ponies she cared most about. She just hated that the ones she cared for, cared so little for her. She didn’t have much time to think about it though before Dash returned a blow of her own, much harder than AJ had hit Dash. Dash had seriously hit her, knocking her in Fluttershy’s direction. AJ fell into Fluttershy slightly dazed before returning to her hoof just to be knocked down again. This time she fell in the opposite direction and Fluttershy wasn’t there to catch her. “Get up!” Dash yelled. “Get up now! We’re going at it! You understand!? YOU UNDERSTAND!!!” Applejack slowly got to her hooves once more. She didn’t want to fight but she didn’t want to stay on the ground either. She was wobbling slightly; not so much from being hit but how she felt about being hit by her friend. Dash hesitated to strike her again but eventual raised a hoof to go again. Fluttershy jumped in front of AJ and Dash froze. “She isn’t using me Dash! I, I…” Fluttershy stammered as Dash lowered to hoof back to the ground. “I love her.” Dash stared at Fluttershy. She hadn’t been wrong… Fluttershy had just been tricked! “No she’s using you! How did she do it? What did she say to you? Just walk up to you and say she wanted you or something? Are you really that naïve?!” “I was the one who asked her!” Fluttershy yelled back at Dash. But… why? Why had Fluttershy made up those rumours then? Dash couldn’t figure it out. She didn’t have time to either. She had to go… somewhere. Just somewhere. Anywhere! Not here! She took off, pushing pasted Fluttershy and Applejack both as she did, before pulling up and soaring into the sky. “Why the hell would you say that stuff about me and her if you where?... ARGH!!!” she screamed to nopony. She was alone all the way up here and could scream as loud as she wanted. Or so she thought. They could hear her. Only just, making out every second or third word but they got the idea. Dash was angry, confused and hurt. Just as much as Applejack was.