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// 2: The Rainbow Filly 
// Story: Going Home 
// by -Mazer 
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	I’ve lived in Ponyville for over ten years. I moved into Mr. and Mrs. cake’s bakery when I was eleven years old. They were close friends of my parents and gladly took me in once my family realized that I just didn’t belong home on the farm.

I remember my first day here in Ponyville. It was one of the worst days of my life. There were so many ponies wandering around with big smiles upon their faces and laughter within their voices that I really didn’t know what to do. I just stayed in my room watching from my bedroom window as the world passed me by.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake were very understanding of my situation. Even though I had finally discovered my special talent – entertaining others through imagination and parties – I was still unsure on how to introduce myself to those around me. I mean, so far, I’ve thrown only one party and the only real reason that I thought it was such a success was because my parents and sisters had never experienced anything like it before.

It wasn’t until I witnessed a pony by the name of Rainbow Dash fly through the air. Her multi-colored mane and tale whipped through the air violently as she soared through the sky. Her hair reminded me a lot of that rainbow I saw back home. After watching her perform a couple of barrel rolls and loop-de-loops, I noticed that she came on down to the earth. To my surprise and delight, she was trotting on over to the cake shop! I bolted downstairs, excited to finally meet another pony, when something suddenly went off in the back of my pinkie winky mind…

What if she doesn’t like me?

A bolt of fear tore through my chest and for the briefest of moments, I considered locking myself in my room. Instead, I crept on downstairs, peaking through the railing of the staircase to monitor this amazing filly.

“Hi Mrs. Cake!” she exclaimed excitedly. Her voice was not what I had imagined. In fact, seeing her up close like this, was a surprise within itself. While she was flying, she seemed very graceful and lithe, but up close I could see that she was rather athletic. She looked like the type of filly who could kick an apple tree over. I felt that finger of fear press against the center of my chest but before I could escape, Mrs. Cake called my name.

“Pinkie!” She said in her sing-song voice. Swallowing, I trotted downstairs to join her behind the counter. “Ah, there you are,” she said with a warm smile. “Dash, this is Pinkamena Diane Pie. She’s new in town.”

“Hiya!” Dash exclaimed. “I’m Rainbow Dash!”

“Hello,” I whispered with a smile.

“Pinkie, dear, Dash is here to place an order. Could you assist her while I take care of some shopping?”

“Uhm, okay Mrs. Cake!” I replied with a gulp. She nodded in thanks before trotting out. I watched her leave before looking over to Dash who was staring at me curiously.

“Uhm” I swallowed. “H-How can I help you?”

“Yeah, I need, like, twenty cupcakes and fifteen muffins by the end of the day. We are having his awesome party up in Cloudsdale to celebrate everyone getting out of Junior Flight Academy.”

“Cloudsdale?”

“You’ve never heard of it?” She blinked. “It’s just the greatest place to live in all of Equestria! It’s where all pegasi live, well, except Fluttershy, but she’s weird. Who ever heard of a Pegasus who likes living on the ground?” She rolled her eyes. “Weirdo!” Her eyes suddenly grew wide. “Don’t tell her I said that though!”

“I don’t know who she is?” I replied, confused.

“Oh, well, its pretty hard to miss her. She’s pretty timid and is afraid of her own shadow, but don’t worry, she’s cool.” Dash puffed out her chest. “Not as cool as me, though.” She grinned.

“I bet.”

“So,” Dash crossed her left front leg over her right. “About my order?”

“Oh yes!” I exclaimed. “Well, come into the kitchen and I will make them as you tell me what kind you want!”

“Sure, why not.” She followed me into the kitchen. “You get to use all this?”

“Mhm!” I mumbled while using my teeth to turn the dial on the oven. I began to preheat the top portion of the oven to 450 degrees while preheating the bottom to 375. “Mrs. Cake has been showing me how to bake. She says I’m a natural!” I hopped on over to the cabinet and began pulling out ingredients. “What do you want in your muffins?”

“I need five with chocolate chips, five with blue-berries, four with raisins, and one made of peanut butter.”

“Peanut Butter?” I giggled. “That’s pretty silly.”

“It’s for my friend Derpy. She has very particular tastes when it comes to muffins.”

“Derpy?”

“You’ll understand when you meet her.”

“Okay!” My fear was fading fast. I was in the kitchen with a goal in my mind. I began to mix the ingredients while humming a tune to myself. Dash watched with mild curiousity but soon seemed to get bored in watching me work. She rolled onto her back and busied herself by counting the ceiling tiles while I poured the batter into the muffin trays.

“And for the cupcakes?”

“Chocolate’s fine.”

I felt my eyes widen. “Oh, no-no-no-no-no! That will just not do!”

She rolled onto her side to look at me. “Huh?”

I felt the ideas begin to form within my head. “This is a celebration, right? You’ll need cupcakes that will mark this as a fantastic, wastic, amazing day!” I was practically bouncing with excitement. “Rainbow Dash, I have some very good ideas for your cupcakes. Would you please let me make them? I promise they will be very delicious, I swear!”

Dash gave me a very strange look. “Uh…”
I bolted right on up to her and took her hooves into mine. “Oh pretty pinkie please with frosting on top? I promise that they will be ready in an hour and that they will be amazing!”

Dash pulled herself away from me while keeping that odd expression upon her face. “Uhm, alright, I guess. But you promise they will taste good?”

“I promise! Don’t worry about a thing Dashy!”

She shivered. “Ug, okay, thanks. I’ll be back in an hour to pick them up.” She turned to leave. “Oh, uhm, and please, don’t call me Dashy, okay?”

“Not a problem!” I chirped – to excited about my cooking ideas to process her request. For the next hour, I worked like I had never worked before. This was my chance to show off my amazing ideas to the ponies of Ponyville (well, Cloudsdale, but hey, its a start!)

I made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting – with little wing sprinkles on top. I made rainbow cupcakes with white home-made frosting, I made some cupcakes with little pegasus outlines on the tops, and some that looked as fluffy as the clouds. I wanted these cakes to be perfect for the graduates of the Flight School.

I even made a special cupcake (another rainbow one but this one had rainbow frosting to match) with “Good Job” written on it in red and blue lettering. This one was for Dash whom I am sure got great marks in her class. How could she not considering how good of a flyer she is!
An hour had come and gone and soon Dash had returned to the shop. With her was a pink-maned pony who looked like she’d rather hide in a bush than enter the shop and a blond pony who looked a bit cross-eyed. I am guessing that these two were Derpy and Fluttershy.

“Hey,” Dash exclaimed upon landing. “We’re here.”

“Oh, I really am glad to see you gals,” I said while wiggling.

“Derpy Hooves, Fluttershy, this is Pinkie Pie.”

I blushed with a nervous smile. “Actually its…”

“I hear you have some muffins for us?” Derpy smiled. As she focused on me, I noticed her eyes suddenly snap back to their proper position. What a strange filly! I liked her!

Fluttershy didn’t look up at me but she managed to squeak a timid hello. I brought the girls back into the kitchen and was delighted to hear their excitement over my creations.
“These are really cool!” Dash exclaimed while looking over all my intricate designs. “You did a fantastic job Pinkie Pie. I’m sorry I doubted you!”

“Thanks,” I giggled. Derpy was oooing over the muffins and it took all of Fluttershy’s courage to try to keep the silly blond filly from taking a bite out of one of them. “Oh, Dash, I made one specifically for you, on the house.” I brought her over to the special cupcake I made and removed the dome lid covering its plate. “For my first customer and congratulations on passing the Academy!”

Dash stared at the cupcake for a while with an expression on her face I couldn’t quite read. “It’s…great,” she finally said. “Thanks, Pinkie.”

“You don’t like it?” I whimpered.

“No, no, I love it and I bet it tastes just great!” She nudges my shoulder with her forehead in gratitude. “I’m just feeling a bit winded right now, that’s all.” She cleared her throat. “Alright ladies, let’s get these to Cloudsdale!” She placed two of the boxes onto her back and left without another word.

Fluttershy and Derpy looked to one another. Derpy nodded to Fluttershy before taking the other boxes. Fluttershy tip-toed over ot me and whispered in a tone I could barely hear.

“Uhm, don’t, uh, tell her I said this…but Dash never graduated.”

My heart sunk deep into my chest. “Oh my…I had no idea!”   

“She dropped out…” Fluttershy stared at the floor. “But, uhm, I am sure she loved the cupcake.” Fluttershy took the last box and whispered an apology and a thanks before walking out.

I just stood there feeling like the most awful filly in the world. All I wanted was to make Dash feel happy but instead I embarrassed her.

I had to make it up to Dash one of these days but first I had to ensure that such a horrible, terrible mistake would never be made again!

It was on that day, so many years ago, that I vowed to learn as much as I could about everypony in Ponyville that I could. I would not stop until I knew every pony by appearance and by name as well as their likes and dislikes. That way I would never again disappoint a friend!

If only I had kept that promise…