//------------------------------// // Rainbow Dash 5 // Story: Unwell // by HazamaBrony //------------------------------// I must have fallen asleep at some point, because when I woke up, Twilight was nowhere to be seen. It only took a moment or two for me to start panicking. She had been in a bad state last night, and I had no idea if she would be better in the morning, or just start wandering around, confused. Oh, man, if she wasn’t aware of what she was doing and somehow got out into Ponyville… I don’t want to even think about how bad that would be. “Twilight!” I yelled, hoping that she would answer and tell me everything was all right. “Down here!” came the reply, from the direction of the kitchen. I scrambled out of the guest bedroom, flying down the stairs to land in the kitchen. Twilight was levitating several pots and pans, and watching Spike intently. “Now all you have to do is put it on the maker and just wait for thirty seconds,” Spike said, pouring some batter onto a waffle maker. “That’s it?” Twilight asked, looking puzzled. “I would have thought that you would add more ingredients to give it more flavor!” Spike glanced at me. “I think that this time, you should put your spices on after it is finished. That way everypony can eat it… with what they want, I mean!” he backtracked. “Oh, okay,” Twilight said. “Anyways, Twilight, I think Rainbow Dash wants to talk to you.” “Is she here yet?” Twilight asked, turning around to face me. “Oh, I guess so.” “Twilight…” I said, not exactly sure what to say. “Hi, Rainbow…” Twilight looked like she was in the same boat. Spike glanced between the two of us. “Hey, Rainbow, why don’t you go freshen up? Your mane is all knotted, and your coat could use a good lather.” “But…” I began, before I saw him giving me a look that said ‘let me handle this.’ “Fine.” I turned and began trotting to Twilight’s bathroom. I took a shower as quickly as I could, which was a little hard considering that I had spent the night on the floor. My coat was matted, and my mane was just a mess. I might not be Rarity, but I still take some pride in looking as awesome as I can. After a quick towel dry, I began to head back to the kitchen, hoping to get some answers. I was really worried about what had happened last night. Before I could enter, however, I heard Spike and Twilight arguing. “… but what if she thinks that I’m weird and wants out of our relationship because of this?” Twilight said, sounding like she was on the verge of a breakdown. “Twilight, I really doubt that Rainbow would leave you for something as little as this. Give her a little credit. After all, she didn’t run after you told her about your A.C.M.S., did she?” Spike said. “No, but…” “He’s right, Twilight. Whatever happened last night, I would never leave you because of it,” I said, stepping into the kitchen. “But, but…” Twilight stuttered. “Please, tell me Twilight,” I said, reaching out a hoof and putting it gently on her shoulder. “Okay,” she said, looking away. “Do you want me to stay here?” Spike asked. “No, Spike, I want to do this on my own,” Twilight responded. Spike nodded and left the room without another word. Twilight and I sat in silence for a few minutes after that. Eventually, my patience wore out. “Twilight…” I said, before realizing that I had no idea what I wanted to say. Luckily, Twilight spoke up. “I had a nightmare, Rainbow.” “I sort of thought that might be it,” I said. “What was it about? Mine are usually about clowns.” Twilight giggled, and I felt relieved. “I can believe that, clowns are scary. No,” she said, going somber again, “mine was more… how should I put it?” “Take your time,” I said, trying to be as patient as possible. “Well, I… in my dream I was back in the hospital… but it was different.” “How so?” “Everypony was telling me that… that I wasn’t special.” I tilted my head. “What, you mean like they were telling you that you were worthless or something? But you are definitely special to—“ “No,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “Not in so many words. They were telling me that… that I wasn’t the student of Princess Celestia, and that I wasn’t a national hero, and that the five of you didn’t exist.” “Oh,” I said, not sure how to respond. “And do you want to know the worst part?” “I guess I do,” I said, feeling a bit of dread creep into my head. “I believed them.” “I don’t understand.” “It’s something that I’ve worried about ever since I met you girls and became an element of harmony. What if it’s all some sort of dream thought up by my sick mind? Sometimes it all seems too good to be true,” Twilight said, her eyes filling with tears. I swept her up in a hug, much like the one that she had given me last night. “You feel this, Twilight?” I asked, holding her tight. “Yes,” she said, nodding. “Feel my fur against yours? My heart beating in my chest?” “Yes.” “Do you think that they are real now?” “Yes. Yes, I do Rainbow,” Twilight said, then burst into tears. We stayed like that for at least ten minutes, us holding each other and Twilight sobbing into my shoulder. I saw Spike poke his head into the kitchen once or twice, checking on us, but he didn’t say anything. I guess he felt that he needed to let her get it all out. Finally, Twilight stopped crying and released me. She smiled at me for a moment, before grimacing. “Sorry, Rainbow,” she said. “Don’t be. Now if you ever feel like that again, I want you to come find me and give me a great big hug, all right?” I said, smiling. “I will,” Twilight promised. “But that’s not what I’m sorry for. I’m sorry about your coat. You just finished washing it and…” I glanced over at the spot on my coat where she had been crying and flinched. It was a mess again, all messed up and knotted with Twilight’s tears. “No problem,” I said, “just give me a wet washcloth and I’ll have it back to normal in no time.” Twilight nodded and floated a cloth over to me, then yelled for Spike to come back into the kitchen. As I busied myself cleaning up the mess that Twilight had made of me, Spike and Twilight got back to the cooking lesson. I’ve got to say, I was grateful to the little guy. He had shown a lot of maturity for how he usually acted. He seemed to know just when to let Twilight and I have some alone time. And thank Celestia that he was trying to teach Twilight how to cook something edible. After watching Twilight pile every spice know to pony-kind on her waffle, we had sat down and had a nice chat about nothing important over breakfast. After the meal, Spike excused himself to go play with the crusaders, leaving Twilight and I alone to do cleanup. Not that I minded. It was nice to have some time alone with Twilight without Bon Bon or Lyra or that mean unicorn butting in. Speaking of that unicorn from last night… “Hey, Twi, do you really not remember that unicorn? You know, the rude one from last night?” I asked. Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. “No, I don’t have the slightest inkling where I may have seen her before. So that’s been bugging you as well?” “Yeah,” I said, “she really got on my nerves. Who the hay does she think she is, acting all high and mighty like that?” “Well, judging from what she said, she probably went to school with me. I don’t know of any other place where she could have learned that joke.” “That ‘joke’. Right…” “I’ve got it!” Twilight exclaimed suddenly, causing me to almost drop the dish I was cleaning. “What? What have you got?” I asked. “I know how we can find out who that pony was!” Twilight said, looking at me with a gleam in her eye. “All right, how?” “The yearbook!” Everything clicked into place for me. “Right! If she really went to the same school you did, then she would be in the yearbook! Cool, let’s dig it out and… and… what do we do after that? What good does knowing who she is do us?” Twilight looked taken back at that. “Ummm… I guess if she keeps harassing us, we could tell the royal guards to keep an eye on her. Anyways, it doesn’t really matter, I just want to know why she seems to have a grudge against me.” I shrugged. “Works for me. Come on, let’s go look her up!” “About that…” Twilight said, suddenly looking sheepish. “I, umm… I don’t actually have any of the yearbooks from school…” “Oh. I can actually believe that. Then why did you bring it up?” “Well, I know Lyra went to the school for gifted unicorns, so I figure she has some, being more social than me…” “Cool! Let’s go over to the theater and talk to her! If we hurry, maybe I won’t have to see Bon Bon.” “No.” “What?” I was startled at Twilights blunt answer. “No, you need to hurry and meet up with the weather team. I think you have skipped out on enough of your job already,” Twilight said, glancing at the clock. “In fact, you better leave soon.” “But… But…” I stammered, trying to find some way to avoid the tedium that is setting up a clear day. Dear Celestia, I just used the word tedium. Twilight’s vocabulary was rubbing off on me. “Dash,” Twilight said, putting a hoof on my shoulder, “I know you like spending time with me, but I do need some time to myself. I have research to do, and I don’t think that you would enjoy just sitting around watching me scribble notes on paper. Besides, I don’t think you want to get fired either.” “But… fine,” I said. “That’s the spirit!” Twilight said. “C’mon, let’s finish cleaning up.” “Cloud Kicker! Derpy! I need you to take care of the clouds over Sweet Apple Acres! Thunderlane, Comet, you two take the south half of town! Swift Feather, Zephyr, take the north half! I’ll take the edge of the Everfree Forest and Fluttershy’s cottage! Any questions?” “No, Sir!” the weather team shouted in unison. “Then get to it!” I barked, and I took a certain amount of pride in the way they all scattered instantly on my command. The team may grumble about me being a bit lazy, but when push comes to shove, all of them are right behind me. Still, I thought as I took off towards the forest, looking back over the past week, I think Twilight may have been right. I was getting a little clingy, and I probably had slacked off on more of my weather duties than was smart. But after last night, could you blame me for being a bit worried about Twilight? Sure, she was just walking across town, but I still wanted to be there just in case of… I screeched to a stop in midair, and nearly smacked myself in the face with a hoof. I was doing the same thing that Twilight was! I was treating her like some sort of child that need to be watched constantly. I needed to remember that Twilight had done alright without me for years, and that worrying about her was doing her a disservice. However, Twilight was different from a normal pony, and things were obviously different between us now. I mean, we were fillyfriends, for crying out loud! It was kind of expected for us to worry about each other. Gah, this stuff is confusing. Maybe a round of cloud busting would get my mind off of things. Who knows, maybe after I got done I could drop in and give Fluttershy a visit. She had been dating Big Mac for a month or two now, so she might know more about relationships than I would. “Hey, Fluttershy, you home?” No response. “Hello!?” I said while knocking as loud as I could on her door. Still nothing. Maybe she really was out, but I hadn’t seen her in town, so… I spotted a squirrel looking questionably down at me from above Fluttershy’s door. Well… if it worked for her… “Hey, little guy, do you know where Fluttershy is?” I asked. Predictably, all I got in response was a lot of little squirrely noises. “I knew that wouldn’t work,” I said, sighing. I turned around to leave when I heard the door creak open. “Rainbow? What are you doing here?” “Oh hey, Fluttershy, I thought you might be home,” I said, turning to face my friend. Immediately, I crinkled my nose and took a step backwards. “Whoa, Fluttershy, have you been working out or something? No offense, but you kind of stink.” Fluttershy blushed and shrank back. Now that I got a look at her, it really did look like she had been exercising a lot. Her mane was ruffled and her coat was slightly wet. She stunk of sweat and some other scent that I couldn’t quite pin down. Oh well, not like it was important. “Something like that,” she said. “So why did you want to talk to me so bad?” “Right, well… you have more experience with serious relationships than me,” I said, feeling slightly weird that I was coming to Fluttershy, of all ponies, for advice about relationships. “Only by a few weeks…” “Still, that’s more than me!” “True, but… I was kind of in the middle of something.” I waved a hoof. “You can go back to working out later! I really need advice!” Fluttershy frowned, and glanced over her shoulder at something in her house. After a moment, she looked at me. “I guess I could help you, if you promise to make it quick.” “Thank you! I would hug you, but… um, I know,” I said, gesturing in her general direction. “I understand. And you said you needed relationship help? Oh!” she gasped, and held a hoof up to her mouth. “You and Twilight aren’t having problems, are you?” “No, nothing like that! I just, I don’t know, I think I might worry about her too much. Is that even possible?” I asked, feeling a little foolish. “Well,” Fluttershy said, looking thoughtful, “I guess it depends on what you are worrying about. Is it that you think that she might leave you or something, because then it might be—“ “It isn’t that!” I shouted, not wanting Fluttershy to think I was some sort of clingy jealous mare. “No, it’s more like I worry about… her health, I guess?” I couldn’t just out and out say that Twilight was cra—mentally ill, but hopefully Fluttershy wouldn’t push too much. “Her health? Like, some sort of chronic illness?” Fluttershy said, sounding very careful for some reason. “No, no, nothing like that! … but if she did…” I said, feeling very foolish. “Hypothetically speaking, right?” Fluttershy said. “Hypo-what?” “I mean, just as a thought experiment, you want to know how worried to be about Twilight if, and I am not saying that she does, if she had a chronic illness,” Fluttershy said, with a tone in her voice as if she were talking to a child. “Right,” I said, feeling a little annoyed being spoken down to like that. “Well,” she said, rubbing her chin with a hoof while looking at the ceiling, “I think that if that were the case, I would have to leave it up to her.” “But—I—“ “Let me explain, please. I know you feel like it is your job to care for her, but you need to understand, Twilight has her own life. And if she has been dealing with this theoretical illness up until now, then she probably has it under control.” “I guess that’s true. So, are you saying that I shouldn’t worry at all?” I asked, feeling sort of lost. “Oh, no no no! If she has some sort of illness, you should worry about her at least a little. I mean… hypothetically.” “So the trick is to worry the perfect amount?” I groaned in frustration. “How the hay do I do that?” “Well, you should learn the warning signs and how to treat the illness first, so that if your worries do end up coming true, then you can take action. That’s why I read so many veterinarian textbooks! That way when one of my little friends falls ill, I can do more than just worry!” Fluttershy said, looking very happy at the mention of her critters. “I think I see. I mean, I already know what the symptoms are, at least in the most general way. I just don’t know what to do if she starts acting that way. How do I find out what to do?” “Talk to Twilight, of course.” Fluttershy said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. In hindsight, it probably was. “Right!” I said, feeling sure of myself again now that I had some idea of what to do next. “Thanks, Fluttershy! I’m going to head to Twilight right now to talk to her about her… um… plants?” Oh man, what had I almost done? I had nearly let the cat out of the bag! I couldn’t exactly say that I was going to talk to Twilight about something that, as far as Fluttershy knew, was just something I made up! “Right! Go talk to Twilight about her, um, plants!” I said, desperate to salvage the situation. “You know how she is, always wanting to talk about her plants!” I plastered the biggest smile I could on my face and hoped that Fluttershy would buy it. Thankfully, she just smiled sweetly at me. “You really should get back to her,” she said. “Oh, but Rainbow, don’t tell her about our conversation. It would be awkward for her. I mean, can you think of how strange it would be to Twilight, who is perfectly healthy, to know that two of her friends were talking about her as if she were sick?” Oh, good. For a moment there, I thought that I would have to find some way to keep Fluttershy quiet. “Thank, Fluttershy. You’re a good friend,” I said. Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something, but then somepony sneezed. Somepony very male. Somepony inside of Fluttershy’s house. My mind kicked into overdrive. Fact one: Fluttershy looked as if she had just had a very tiring exercise session. Fact two: There was a stallion in her house, hiding from me. Fact three: Fluttershy was in a relationship with Big Mac. Conclusion: Too mortifying to think about. “For Celestia’s sake, you stopped in the middle of doing that to talk to me!?” I shouted. “We were, um, kind of taking a break at the moment…” Fluttershy said, blushing madly. I opened and closed my mouth in shock a couple of times before I found my voice. “Thank you, I guess?” “Oh, um, you’re welcome…” “Just do me a favor, next time, Fluttershy, and ignore me if I come around when you are doing…that…” I said, running a hoof through my mane awkwardly. “Right… I guess you should get going now… you did want to talk to Twilight, right?” Fluttershy asked. “Right. I’ll see you later, Fluttershy,” I said, and I took off as fast as I could without waiting for her reply. “Twilight! I need to talk to you about your plants!” I said as I burst into the library through the second story window. Thankfully, Twilight had been keeping them unlocked for me, now that I was a frequent visitor to the library. That would probably change once winter rolled around, but for now I was just happy that Twilight was leaving a way into the library just for me. Twilight glanced up from the book that she was reading. “Hi, Rainbow! Um… what plants are you talking about?” “Never mind that! I need to talk to you about… hey, is that Lyra’s yearbook?” I asked, as I noticed what Twilight was reading. “Yep! Lyra loaned it to me, just so I could find out who our mystery mare is,” Twilight said, as she turned another page and glanced at it. “I did manage to find out who she is.” “Really?” I asked. “That’s good! So who is she and why does she not like you?” “Well, her name is Blood Work, and she was actually in several clubs, mostly intellectual ones, and competed in several events like science fairs and academic debates. She got first place most of the time… except…” “So she is really smart. I don’t care. Did you find out why she was so mean?” “Well, the only times she didn’t get first place were the times that I was competing for one reason or another. Every single time, I got first place and she got second…” I laughed. “Oh, I get it, she’s just bitter that you tarnished her perfect record! Who cares if she got second place some of the time?” Twilight shot me a look. “Said the mare that has often said that second place is for losers.” Oh, that hurt. “So, Twilight, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about,” I said, desperate for any way to change the subject. “Really? What about?” Twilight asked. “Well, last night got me thinking…” Twilight actually flinched. “Please don’t break up with me! I know I haven’t been the best fillyfriend, but I promise I’ll try harder! Please don’t—“ “Twilight, calm down! I’m not breaking up with you!” I said, interrupting her. “I just want to talk about it!” “Oh, sorry…” Twilight said, ears flat against her head. “Listen, I know you told me all about your A.C.M.S., but I don’t really know what to do if something like that happened. Is there a book or something that I could read?” “I see…” Twilight said, glancing at the ceiling as if deep in thought. “There isn’t really a book to read, maybe some pamphlets somewhere, but not a book. But I think there is another, better way for us to discuss this.” “Well, what is it?” I asked. “Rainbow,” Twilight said, looking me dead in the eye. “How would you like to come visit Doctor Hooves with me next week?”