//------------------------------// // 5 - Raising the Cloud Curtain // Story: Let Byhooves be Byhooves // by Outlaw Quadrant //------------------------------// As the radiant moon rose higher into the sparkling skies, the dim lights inside Carousel Boutique persisted against the enveloping darkness. What kept the ponies within awake was not stitching dresses but weaving together the stories told by both Rainbow Dash and Flying High. Sitting on the bed within Rarity’s room, a hat-less Applejack stretched her limbs, trying to keep her yawn silent. “Are you done yet, Twi? I’m gettin’ a little tired.” The farm pony caressed her forehead, “That and I still have a bit of a headache.” Twilight, flat on the floor next to Pinkie, worked her quill on a large parchment. “Sorry, Applejack. I know it’s late but I wanted to do this now before we forget what Rainbow and Fly told us.” As she dinked her utensil onto an inkwell, “Oh, and thanks again, Rarity for letting us stay here.” “Not a problem, darling,” she replied, standing by a pony mannequin which wore a green rubberized suit. “I know you didn’t want to wake up Spike at the Tree House or run into Flying just in case he’s wandering about outside.” Her horn lit up, its target a pair of metallic instruments which she then moved to inside the suit. “Besides, this alteration is taking much longer than I thought. I have the proper measurements but this material isn’t easy to work with.” Pinkie leaned toward the sheet of paper, eyes set to scan. “It’s not ready yet!” she snapped, shifting her workspace a few inches to the left. “Read this while I finish!” Twilight placed a book next to her peeping friend. Pinkie poked the cover. “What’s this?” The bookworm groaned. “That’s the book where I got my idea, Pinkie. It’s called Conflicts in Friendships – A Repair Guide.” Flipping open the tome, she mumbled a few words from the blocks of text before falling chin-first onto the page. “This is boring,” she bemoaned. “Can’t you give me the Hoof Notes version, instead?” “I’d like that too,” added Applejack, raising her hoof. “Never mind that,” Rarity chirped. “How about just telling us exactly how that book’s fits into our plan, Twilight.” She was going to explain right when she finished but with a few more strokes remaining, there was no harm filling them in now while she finished. In fact, she had to restrain her nerdy glee before talking. “You see, I asked all of you to remember as much as you could about the stories Rainbow and Fly told us. I then jotted every single detail in my notes here.” She padded the yellow sheets stacked next to her. “Then, I used a blueprint in the book to diagram their stories in a way so that we can see the root cause of the conflict. From that point, we can figure out how to resolve it with screwing it up. The book did say there was a fifteen percent degree of error but in this case, what both of them told us lined up pretty well, so I don’t think that we’ll have a problem. Now, I did have to leave out a lot of the non-essentials out in order to get a clearer picture but I still think that with—” Twilight’s brow furrowed, hearing snoring, lots of it. On her right, Pinkie used the book as makeshift pillow. Behind, Applejack’s head hung by the bed’s edge, her drool dripping onto a rug. Rarity’s horn fizzled out, leaving her instruments at the mercy of gravity. Even the immediate clanks only brought her back into consciousness for a second before she leaned against the mannequin. “A-hem,” Twilight barked. The other girls woke up, muttering that they heard every single word. “Uh, huh,” she responded flatly. After one final scribble, she rolled up the wide sheet. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to show you what I have, then. Ta-da!” With magic, she unfurled the parchment above her head as wide as her grin. “So, what do you think? Isn’t this great?” Applejack squinted as her foreleg followed the plethora of lines and symbols. “What in tarnation is that? What does that little doo-hickey mean? Is this one of ‘em eye chart things?” “Look at all the pretty shapes,” Pinkie remarked as she pulled out a camera. “I didn’t know you were an artist!” With a click, her device spat out a permanent color image. “That should go in a museum and I know just who I can reach!” “You have absolutely no taste, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity spoke, yanking the photo away so she could rip it into two. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but I would not submit that. The color scheme is all wrong and it simply lacks inspiration.” Twilight snorted. “It’s not a work of art.” Rarity nodded, “Yes, I know that but don’t let that deter you from trying again.” “Never mind,” she growled, tossing the scroll into the nearest trashcan. Guess I’ll just have to tell you girls the key points to my analysis.” Pinkie gasped, startling those around her. “Story time!” In seconds, Pinkie grabbed everyone into a circle in the middle of the room. Then, she clapped her hooves together and like magic, the room ceded to the darkness, save for a solitary bulb flickering over everypony’s heads. Once Pinkie sat on her haunches, she placed on both her forelegs knitted socks. The one on her left was gray with short, blue yarn glued on the rear, two buttons plastered in the front and a mouth drawn by a marker. Pinkie’s other sock had similar treatment, save that it was cyan cotton with six colors for the longer and messier string. “Oh-kay,” said Twilight, raising a twitching eyebrow. “So, let’s go over the facts. Rainbow and Flying first met in Weather Camp many years ago.” Pinkie moved the sock puppets closer together. “One day, Flying helped Rainbow join a colts game. Because of that, they soon became friends, doing everything together.” The puppets bumped together once and then moved in random directions, with sounds of joy coming from the puppeteer. “Before camp ended, they had one last project together so Rainbow and Flying chose to perform a really cool weather technique called the Cloud Burst. Outdoors, the teacher would create a small but resilient cloud. Then, two little ponies would fly inside and perform certain maneuvers inside. If done correctly, they will wipe out the cloud in one fell swoop. Pinkie scratched her head; translating technical mumbo-jumbo to sock puppets was beyond her capabilities. After a shrug, she moved the puppets around in a circle. “The problem is the Cloud Burst is such a difficult thing to do. Even though practiced so hard for it, when it was time to do it for real, they crashed out in spectacular fashion.” Twilight shook her head, “Everypony laughed at them.” Slam! The puppets hit the floor and a moment later, the yellow hue within the semi-circle vanished, replaced by ribbons of light crashing down right outside the window. Standing on her hind hooves, Pinkie bellowed a sinister cackle, its echo matching the thunder’s rumble. “Nice touch,” Applejack whispered to Rarity. “I agree,” Rarity responded in kind. Twilight tapped on the floor until Pinkie ceased the dramatics. “Anyways, the moment was so humiliating, they started to blame each other for what happened. Rainbow called Flying an egghead because he was the smarter of the two and Flying came back with Rainbow Crash since she knocked over half the spectators.” “And that’s where Rainbow Crash came from,” Pinkie interjected, addressing nopony in particular. Ignoring the interruption, “They did not speak to each other after that. Once Camp ended, they went their separate ways back to their respective hometowns.” Pinkie moved the puppets apart, her tear ducts leaking water. Her voice downcast, “From then on, the never wrote or saw each other again.” After a long pause, she beamed, “At least, that was the case until by—” Tears sprinkled onto the orator’s face. She rushed to place a hoof on her wailing friend. “Oh, Pinkie. Please don’t cry. It’ll be all right.” Like a faucet, the waterworks stopped. “Oh, you silly. I wasn’t really crying. I was just—” She slid into the center of the circle, hooves extended –“acting!” Suddenly, light flooded the room, as did fervent stomping from Rarity. Then, out of nowhere, the fashionista levitated a golden statue toward Pinkie. “Bravo! Bravo! Encore! Encore!” Pinkie bowed to her admirer. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She grabbed onto the statue, holding it close to her chest. “Wow. You know, I just have so many ponies to thank.” Pinkie wiped a tear. “First, there’s my acting instruct—” “Pinkie! Rarity!” Twilight and Applejack shouted, teeth clenched. Rarity’s face turned tomato red; she wasn’t one to be drawn into Pinkie’s antics. Meanwhile, Pinkie peeled off the golden wrapping and with one bite, brown mush splattered onto her lips. Twilight sat back down, and with a quick exhale, released hot steam. “Okay, girls. Based on my diagraming, what we have here is a situation where two friends allowed their emotions to say hurtful things to one another. The book outlines several solutions but it did say we, as friends, should come up with some of our own first. That way, we can narrow down our choices.” Her magic brought over an hourglass between the mares. “All right. Let’s think!” She flipped over the timekeeper, its sand starting its slow downwards trickle. Right away, Twilight rubbed her chin while Rarity found it best to ponder while fluffing her mane. Meanwhile, Applejack drew circles on the floor, hoping that an idea would magically pop into her head. Pinkie nibbled on her chocolate statue, her eyes focused on Twilight’s stack of notes. Twilight cleared her throat just loud enough to draw attention. “You know, maybe what we should do is—” “Waiiitttttttttttt!” the party pony shouted, reaching toward Twilight. Her eyelids dropped halfway. “What, Pinkie?” “I know exactly what to do!” Pinkie held her dessert close to her mouth. “Nothing!” She bit off half her edible statue. “Nothing?” Twilight fell onto her back. “Nothing,” she muttered to herself. “All this planning and your answer is nothing.” Applejack clasped her forehead, “What in tarnation are you sayin’, Pinkie? Why’d you think we’re stayin’ up for?” We’re trying to fix a friendship here!” Rarity nodded. “I know I always respect your opinion, Pinkie, but in this situation… well, actually, most situations, I fail to see what you are getting at.” Without a word, she grabbed onto Twilight’s notes and spread them out across the floor. “Well, do you remember all the good stories Dashy and Fly-Fly told us about their time together while in Weather Camp?” Still staring at the ceiling, Twilight pulled over one of the pages and began skimming through it. “Hey, girls?” She returned to a seated position, stifling a giggle. “I have here the first hoof match between Fly and Rainbow. Poor Fly went straight through the cloud and it took him a while to reach back up to her. Rainbow was laughing it up when she told us and Fly said he wasn’t mad about that day at all. He was impressed at how strong a filly she was.” Applejack scanned over the closest yellow page to her. “And right here. Gots me the story when Rainbow was gettin’ homesick and some bad little pony was givin’ her grief about it so Flying snuck in a rain cloud and drenched that bad pony away! That Rainbow sounded so darn grateful he did that and that Flyin’ fella told us it was worth being punished for.” “Oh,” Rarity added, holding up a sheet with some red on her cheeks. “The comedy skit they did together on… wind. Rainbow wrote most of the jokes but she had some stage fright. Flying calmed her down before their performance. Based on what they told us, they had fun with that project, so I suppose that’s what really matters.” “There’s so many great moments here,” Twilight remarked as she skimmed through the scattered documents. “And you know something? They seemed so happy when they told us those stories.” “Except when they talked about their fight,” Rarity added, ears drooping. “I was a little surprised that neither Flying nor Rainbow sounded angry about the whole incident. Actually, I think they were a little sad.” Twilight rose up, “That’s it!” She paced around her friends, “Don’t you see? There’s so many positives and even with the one negative, they regret it! That means if they simply apologize, then they’ll be friends again! We just have to tell them that!” “There’s still time,” said Applejack, glancing through the closest window. “If we hurry, we can catch—” “We can’t!” Pinkie grabbed hold of the cowpony’s tail as she tried getting on all fours, causing her to trip. “Ow!” Applejack gripped the top of her head. “Consarn it, Pinkie! Let me go!” Shaking her head, “But we can’t tell Fly-Fly or Dashy anything!” “And why not?” “Why did you think I said we don’t have to do anything? Our job is done!” Steam escaped Twilight’s nostrils. “What?” Pinkie placed a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. “Don’t be so frowny-wowny. Think what we’ve already done. We were there for Fly-Fly and Dashy when they wanted somepony to talk to and we all heard their wonderful stories. If we’re so sure they want to be friends again, then they’ll realize that too. Besides, don’t you think it would mean so much more if they tell each other without hearing it from us first?” Twilight’s lips mouthed a wow. All this time, she expected Pinkie’s logic to make no sense and yet, she understood her message. “Well, I suppose but what if they end up not saying anything at all?” “And both of them would have to say sorry first,” Applejack added, sighing. “Flying strikes me as a fellow that would but Rainbow Dash—” The cowpony tsked—“she sure can be stubborn with that kind of stuff.” Rarity nodded, “That’s very true. Also, let’s not forget that the next time they’ll see each other is tomorrow night and they’ll be working on that assignment. I worry that Rainbow and Flying will keep it strictly business.” Pinkie brought the girls into a group hug. “Oh, don’t you worry, girls! Just believe in the magic of friendship! They’ll be best of friends again! You’ll see!” Applejack and Rarity looked at each other, wanting to believe that credo could apply in a situation like this. They turned to Twilight for answers but even the element of magic had none to say. When she stared at Pinkie’s indomitable smile, the unicorn made her final decision. “Okay, Pinkie. We’ll let them handle it.”