I shrugged to myself and looked skyward. The sun was just reaching its highest point, meaning the time was around noon. I figured I still had time to do a couple things during the day.
But first, I think I'll talk to... Fluttershy, was it?
The yellow Pegasus was so shy during the party that I barely got to know her. She seemed to shrink back and hide behind her bright, pink hair. I scratched my head and pondered the similarities she had to Olivia. From what I knew about her, all she needed was the ability to dance and she would virtually blur out my memories of Olivia herself.
The prospects of this worried me. But thinking realistically, there was no reason for me not to familiarize myself with these ponies. Friends are important, after all. I recalled what Twilight said to me about where Fluttershy lives.
Her house is next to the... Everfree Forest, right? That should be right on the edge of town.
I looked around to get my bearings, but I wasn't educated concerning Ponyville's layout. I stood outside of the library... which was definitely located towards the center of town, right? It would just make sense with Twilight's political influence in mind.
Scratching my chin, it occurred to me that I should just ask for directions, when suddenly a deluge of water flooded the space around me. I instinctively closed my eyes and coughed and sputtered for a bit as I was soaked. As I cleared my senses of fluids, a rambunctious laugh echoed from directly above me. I held a hand at my forehead to act as a visor so I could identify my aqueous assailant.
I sighed. "Rainbow Dash?"
The pegasus, situated on an individual, rather dark-looking cloud, kept laughing for a moment before pretending to wipe a tear from her eye. After she calmed down, she responded by shooting me a lopsided grin. I crossed my arms over my chest and held an expectant look.
She waved it away and said, "Oh, lighten up, Robin! This is just my way of introducing new ponies to Ponyville. Pinkie throws parties, but I throw pranks! Ahah, and I think I did a pretty good job of it, too. You should've seen the look on your face, it was priceless," she giggled.
I certainly wasn't expecting it... But I don't think she expects this, either, I thought mischievously. I dropped the serious face and put on a fake smile.
"Alright, Rainbow Dash, I admit it, you got me pretty good there."
Dash smiled and reveled in the flattery. "Hey, thanks Robin, most new ponies around here don't appreciate a good prank even if it hit them in the face... or splashed in their face, rather."
I nodded in exaggerated agreement. "Yeah, you certainly are a master of -- OH LOOK, WHAT'S THAT OVER THERE?" I pointed violently towards a random point in the sky to her right.
She completely fell for it.
"Huh, what is it?"
While she scanned the horizon, I charged up an extremely weak version of a Thunder spell in my other hand.
I stifled my own laughter. "I-It's right over there, don't you see it?"
"I don't see anything, are you sure- waitaminute~"
But she realized her folly too late. With a snap of my fingers I sent a small but visible spark into the cloud she was sitting on. The cloud absorbed the charge and sent a tiny shock through her body. It didn't do much, besides stunning her for a second and making all her rainbow-colored hair stand completely on end. In the moment it took Dash to realize what had happened, I had already burst out laughing at her absurd appearance.
"Hahahah! Oh my gods! Hey Dash, look, a good prank! I'm sure you can appreciate it, being the queen of pranks and all that."
Dash looked up and felt her hair. After surveying the damage, she simply rolled her eyes and huffed. "Yeah, I guess it was pretty good."
I calmed down. "Ah, oh Gods, if only I could get a picture of you like that." ...Or can I?
Dash laughed nervously. "Well, you wouldn't want to do that, right? That wouldn't be too good for my prankin' rep around here, you know? At least you don't have a camera."
A playful grin spread across my face. "Who said I needed a camera?"
The bewildered expression under the hilarious fan of hair meant she didn't catch on in time.
I snapped my fingers again before she could recover, and a small rectangle of yellow light appeared in front of me. Within seconds, the scene before my eyes was redrawn on the object, with Rainbow Dash's stunned expression and new hairdo smack dab in the middle of it. I grinned at the image before me.
"Thanks for inventing that Snapshot tome, Anna..."
"...Robin? ROBIN? WHAT IS THAT? WHAT'S THAT PICTURE?"
I dramatically turned the magically woven cloth to face Rainbow, revealing an identical mirror image of herself in all her ridiculous glory. I immediately burst out laughing at her horrified expression. Lucky for her, I wasn't actually that mean.
"Wait, don't start despairing yet, Rainbow Dash. This picture can be yours as long as you do me a little favor."
"Anything ANYTHING- Just PLEASE don't show that to anypony!"
I sighed and my expression dropped. "Just show me where Fluttershy lives."
Rainbow went slack-jawed and fell silent for a moment. "...That's it? You're not asking me for money, for manual labor, some way to privately meet the Wonderbolts, to go on a date, anything?"
I grew alarmed at this. "Who would go so far as to blackmail you into a relationship?"
She scoffed, "Eh, you'd be surprised what some ponies expect to get away with for me. Anyways, if all you wanna know is where Fluttershy lives," she pulled off a small part of the cloud she was on, "she's just over there. I'd take you there myself, but I'm sorta on duty at the moment." She had tossed the cloud southeast, and it glided for a bit over the roofs of Ponyville before coming to a stop, hovering over a cottage on a hill at the edge of town.
I noted the direction the puff of cloud traveled and nodded. "Thanks, I'd better let you get back to work. Oh, and I believe this is yours." I grinned for a bit again as I blew the piece of cloth at Rainbow Dash with a small Wind spell. She frantically grabbed at it and clutched it as if it were an endangered child.
I started walking off in the direction opposite to her course, chuckling to myself as I overheard the noises of Dash trying to tear the piece of cloth into shreds. It would all be in vain, as a Snapshot tome's picture can only be broken by the caster.
A lesson I learned the hard way, recalling the Shepherd's visit to the Outrealm hot springs. But based on her behavior, I suspect Dash will guard that thing with her life, so no worries. Besides, her friends and I would just laugh it off if anypony ever finds it. I hope she realizes that a funny picture of yourself does little to actually hurt your reputation. Either way, onward to Fluttershy's!
I noticed the squelching noises my soaked clothes were making as I walked.
"Hopefully, she'll have a towel..."