//------------------------------//
// A Fourth Of Cold Blueberry Pie 
// Story: Dashing Through The Stroke 
// by WritingSpirit 
//------------------------------//

	
"Mom, if you would just listen--"





"Enough with your nonsense, Rainbow. I don't care what you said you did. What matters is that you did it."





"It was an accident!"





"Does that change anything? Tell me, Rainbow, does that change anything?"





"I thought you would understand! I thought you would listen!"





"Listen to what?! To your sorry little excuses?! Why don't you admit the fact that you made that mistake?! That you were wrong and I was right?!"





"You want me, your own daughter, to lie?! Is that it?!"





"YOU'RE ALREADY LYING TO YOURSELF!!"






















"T-Tassee?"

Rainbow Dash poked her head from beneath a blanket like a mole, groaning as she rubbed her tired, half-opened eyes, holding back a yawn. She glanced around with one hoof stroking down the sticking hairs of her mane, searching for the only other pony in her house. He couldn't have gone far, she told herself, climbing off the bed. He was probably feeding Tank some lettuce or making breakfast or something like that.
Trotting out of the room, she soon spotted him on the couch, smiling as she approached him. It was only when she saw his sulking face that she realized something was wrong. His eyes were slightly red, with tears dripping from each gentle trembling of his sniffles. Tank was right beside him, staring up at the colt with a look of concern for the past hour now with no way of comforting him.

"Wh-What's wrong?" Rainbow asked frantically.
"What happened?"

"D-Dashie..."

"What is it? You can tell me, Tassee. I'm your guardian, remember?"

Taciturn opened his mouth, but shook his head at the last second, much to her displeasure. With a small hush, Rainbow just wrapped a hoof around him, biting her lip with each shivery pant he lets out. She couldn't understand: what could be so horrible that pushed the colt to his limit this early in the morning? Perplexed, she turned to Tank, who just shook his head, unsure of what it was either.
"You don't have to tell me now," she whispered.
"But I have to know what it is soon. We gotta work it out together, alright?"

A hesitant nod.

The rest of the morning proved to be uneventful. Taciturn had cooked up a good, scrumptious breakfast; Rainbow could see it from a blueberry pie sitting on the table, evenly sliced into quarters with its aroma tingling her taste buds. It wasn't long before the couple finally decided to dig in, the mare quickly dicing it up and licking her lips.
A couple of pieces later, she noticed Taciturn's doleful expression, his knife still sawing down the piece of pie on his plate. Despite still munching on her breakfast, she tried her best to flash him a cheek-bulging smile, though that proved fruitless. It was only when she finished licking the last of the crumbs around her mouth that she spoke:
"That was the scrumptious, most awesomest pie ever! Did you bake it yourself, Tassee?"

Silence.

"I think Pinkie helped you out before I woke up, right?" she teased, before chuckling.
"Just kidding, buddy. I knew it was your work the moment I tasted it!"

Again, no response.

"H-Hey," Rainbow tried again, gesturing to his half-sawed piece of pie.
"You gonna eat that? It's gonna get cold, y'know."

Nothing.

This isn't going to get anywhere, she concluded to herself. Taciturn was hiding something and whatever that something was, she was certainly out of its picture. She would find out sooner or later; she was his marefriend, after all. Maybe he needs some time to cool off, Rainbow surmised.
"I'm gonna go visit some of my friends, alright?" she called out to him, snatching her scarf from the rack.
"It'll take a while or two. In a meantime, why don't you find something to do, like hanging out with Tank or painting something for the gallery? I promise I'll be back soon, okay?"

No response.

Receiving the silent treatment from Taciturn was certainly unwelcoming, especially when Rainbow considered the length of them being together. It was as if she had done something wrong, though she had no idea what it was. Could it be that Tassee hated her for dumping him into painting for the Wonderbolts and get scorned and mocked at by her mother? She never meant for it to happen and Taciturn knew that... did he?
"Maybe I should apologize," she muttered, already landing on the ground. She turned around, though immediately she just turned back, facing Ponyville once again. He needs a little time, she told herself. Apologizing to him right now isn't going to make a difference, knowing how reclusive he is.

Once again, Rainbow marched forward towards Ponyville, alone on her quick journey for the first time since she met Taciturn. The last time she remembered trotting down the road without anypony keeping her company was last year, when she rushed to find Scootaloo to get into a snowball fight, only to wound up doing a favor for Fluttershy and letting fate entwine both her and Taciturn's lives.
Nowadays, it became a custom for Rainbow and Taciturn to walk down the path together, knowing the colt to be the one that was stuck to her like glue. For him to break the custom was pretty unlikely, if not strange, leading her to wonder what could've thrown him into such deep despair that made him ostracize her, of all ponies. What could've happened in the morning when she was asleep?
"Tassee, Tassee..." Rainbow muttered despondently, shaking her head.

"What have I done wrong...?"









"Ya sure it ain't just him wakin' up with a bad temper?"

"I don't know..." Rainbow grumbled in frustration at Applejack's question.
"He... He never does that to me before. It's like I'm nothing to him. I thought if I went out, he would suddenly tag along and stuff like he usually would, but he just... didn't care..."

Rainbow forgot how she got here in the first place. Sure, she was going to stop by at the booths to get some carrots to munch on (and saving one to build a snowpony) before she stumbled upon Applejack, Twilight and Rarity, the trio in high spirits while on their hunt for a Hearth's Warming gift. It was when they saw her glum self that, for some reason, propelled all of them to Twilight's library for a little counseling session.
"Perhaps he's in some pattern of a mood swing," Rarity speculated.
"After all, he is still a pony. I'm certain every pony in Equestria has got their bad days."

"Maybe, but he wouldn't show it if it did," the mare stated.
"Something must've happened to him. I don't know what it was, but it didn't sit well with him. I don't know if it was me, or if it was about yesterday, but no matter how I tried to talk to him after he cried, he just... kept quiet. It's like he doesn't want to speak to me anymore."

"Now, now, sugarcube," Applejack hushed, comforting her friend with a pat on the back.
"Why in the hay would Tassee hate you? If he does, he wouldn't still live in your house now, would he?"

"Maybe he's just taking matters into his own hooves," Twilight theorized.
"Maybe he just doesn't want you to get involved."

"But I'm his marefriend! I could help him out if he had stuff he wanted to do, right?"

"W-Well, maybe he wants to do it by himself for once. Maybe he didn't want to trouble you and tried to be independent about dealing with it."

Rainbow would've gone against that conjecture, though that resembled Taciturn the most. She could imagine him standing up for himself instead of letting her do his work, knowing how kind he was. If it were true, she just hoped it wouldn't be too much for him to handle; she did find Taciturn sobbing on the couch, after all.
"But he could at least tell me," she muttered.
"Maybe I can just... oh, forget it."

"He was a little upset yesterday..."
Twilight recalled it clearly, mostly because the book fortress that the colt built during his stay here was still standing at the corner. Spike called it the best sculpture he had ever seen, probably because it looked more like an elegant castle than just some random box of bounded paper in leather covers; just goes to show that Taciturn could create art even without meaning to.
Rainbow, on the other hoof, could not believe her ears. Taciturn was upset? Was it because of the rants he got back in the gallery for painting a banner? She thought he had gotten over it the moment they stepped out of the room, though that didn't seem like the case. For the love of Celestia, she's gonna smack herself so badly once she gets home...

"Tassee was upset?" she asked her friend.
"How... upset was he?"

Twilight just cocked her head towards the book fortress, which practically surprised not only Rainbow, but Applejack and Rarity as well.
"He just stayed in there until you came to get him," she said.
"I thought at least he just wanted to paint something in private. You know, to pass the time. Instead, when I opened the uh... book drawbridge, he was just sulking at the corner. I tried to ask him if he needed anything, but... well..."

"Well what?"

"Let's just say he has a pretty good aim when it comes to throwing books."

"Tassee wouldn't do that!!" Rainbow exclaimed, shocked. For the colt to harm her friends were unheard of! She knew Taciturn was capable of hurting others -- she learned that the hard way -- but the fact that he would throw a book at Twilight for no reason whatsoever was simply beyond her! What's he gonna do next, slam Pinkie's face into a cake? Sure, her pink friend might not mind, but still?
"He probably didn't mean to do that! Maybe... M-Maybe that book was not supposed to hit you."

"Well, it certainly did," Twilight stated, rubbing the one sore spot on her head.
"It's not a big deal, Rainbow. It's just a bruise, after all. At least he had the decency to not throw an encyclopedia into my face or something. That one I definitely can't deal with."

"Surely there must be a reason for his brash actions, is there not?" Rarity asked.
"I mean, think about it! He's been a sweet little colt whom we all simply adore and know as Taciturn Bleach! We all know that he wouldn't do something horrid unless something else made him do it, right?"

"Mus' be somethin' ya know about, RD," Applejack said after a moment of thought.
"Ah'd reckon he ain't too happy about somethin'. Did it have somethin' to do that with hoodingy banner he made for the Wonderbolts?"

"I don't know... maybe it is about that..."
Rainbow still remembered her mother's insults about Taciturn: a liar, an over-pampered foal stuffed with too much pride, a dim-witted colt with nothing else to do except for painting the worst things in the world... those words hurt the both of them. She gritted her teeth; that mare just had to be there to ruin their day.
"If she didn't come, it would be different," she declared.
"Tassee wouldn't be like this. I wouldn't be like this!"

Nopony dared to speak, not when it comes to the topic of Firefly. Only two ponies knew what happened the day mother and daughter had their blazing argument, with the latter being stuck in this room. Rainbow would always be angered every time her mother's name was mentioned, leaving the rest to wonder.
"Ya just need to talk it out," Applejack advised.
"She probably might listen now, wouldn't she?"

"Would she?"

"You'll never know, Rainbow," Twilight said.
"I got into arguments with my mother myself, but we still talked to each other after a while. Who knows? Maybe it's time you paid her a visit or something."

"You guys don't understand!" Rainbow exclaimed, throwing her hooves up.
"My mom's different from all of yours, okay? Once she says 'no', she really means it!"

"Perhaps she did back then," Rarity said.
"But surely she must've changed after... how long has it been since the uh... disagreement?"

"Five years."
The jaws of her three friends dropped out of their consternation. Rainbow chuckled to herself: she could practically hear them screaming what she said in their heads. Nevertheless, it was the profound truth; it was five years since she had talked to her mother. It was five years of a bitter mother-daughter relationship, to the point that she doesn't even go back home for Hearth's Warming every year since.
"My dad wanted us to leave it in the past," she added.
"On the other hoof, my mom expected me to apologize for that day."

"What did you do wrong?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It must've mattered somehow," Twilight pressed on.
"What could've been so bad that made you guys do this to each other?"

"You don't have to know!!"
Rainbow panted lightly, realizing what happened only when she saw the shocked faces of her three friends. After a brief moment of trembling silence, the cyan mare suddenly turned around, marching towards the door with a hefty flap of her wings, her hoof snatching her woollen magenta scarf draping over one of the many hooks screwed tight into a nearby shelf.
"I-I'm gonna go back and check on Taciturn," she stammered profusely, wrapping the scarf around her neck.
"Thanks f-for the uh... advice and everything... you know... the stuff you guys told me..."

In a huff, the cyan mare left the library, slamming the door shut behind her as she emerged into the snow-covered town of Ponyville. The harsh, cold wind was blowing her scarf about, tossing it violently as she trudged forward without a glance back, heading down the path to her house in the distance.
That was a close one, her inner self said. On the contrary, she didn't mean to shout at them like that. Sure, there was always a time where they were going to know too much, but she knew it wasn't their fault. They were trying to help her, after all. Great, she scolded herself. Now she felt guilty for Taciturn and for yelling at her friends!

"Don't worry," she said, trying to comfort herself.
"You'll get over this rough patch soon. I'm sure of it."

Hopefully.









"I'm back!"

Rainbow Dash placed a few paper bags full of Hearth's Warming treats onto the table, tossing her scarf up and smiling proudly once she saw it float languidly down, hanging itself onto the hook of the coat rack, right next to Taciturn's own black one.
The pale stallion was nowhere to be seen. He must be sleeping already while waiting for her, she said to herself. She never meant to make him wait; after leaving Twilight's house, she got a little sidetracked once again, this time from helping a few fillies with some flying tricks. All those bright faces of awe after her demonstration made her smile, reminding her that it was worth it. Oh, if only Taciturn could amaze them with his talent as well.

"Tassee?" she called out, ruffling through one of the bags.
"Tassee, I got dinner for you!"

Swiftly as he could, Taciturn suddenly lunged from out of their room, galloping frantically towards the table before throwing himself onto the chair and actually spinning on it in one circle like a vinyl record. His tongue was reaching out as he tottered about impatiently on his seat, his eyes sparkling at its brightest of the day.
"Dashie!" he squeaked happily, hooves knocking repeatedly onto the table. Rainbow, on the other hoof, just stared wide-eyed at the colt, completely taken aback by his sudden change of behaviour. What happened to the sulking colt this morning? Why was he acting like the time he drank ten cups of coffee? Of course, Taciturn didn't bother, as he suddenly stuffed his head into the bag greedily, trying his best to reach for its contents.

"Woah there! Slow down, Tassee!" Rainbow exclaimed, pulling the bag off his head to see the colt's tight, relentless grip onto the green tip of the leaf of a carrot. She nearly guffawed at the sight, though she held it back at the last second; she needed to know why he was acting like this.
"What's gonna into you all of a sudden?"

Taciturn just smiled, teeth still retaining its grip on the carrot. Again, Rainbow held back her laughter, though she managed a grin as she herself searched the bag. There's no need to question him for now, she told herself. What matters most is that he is happy again.
"Well, that carrot is not your dinner," she stated.
That's for the snowpony we're planning to build."

A glance down at the vegetable, then up at Rainbow, before the colt sheepishly placed the carrot at the very edge of the table, gently pushing it as it rolled towards his marefriend. With a chuckle, Rainbow placed it back in the bag, before actually handing to him his meal: a plate of stuffed potatoes, finely diced with other assortments of vegetables spilling from its core. Taciturn let out a loud gasp at that, wings flapping ecstatically, before gladly accepting the plate, nuzzling the mare's cheek fondly.
"Aw, no biggie, buddy," Rainbow answered, giggling.
"I'm glad you liked it."

It was a delicious meal, the both of them agreed, having finished it in only a couple of minutes. With a satisfied sigh, Rainbow plopped herself onto the couch, with Taciturn following shortly after. The mare closed her eyes, relishing the moment of silence and tranquillity that encapsulates the entirety of the house, with only the sounds of the night to croon and charm her ears.
A sudden warmth over a body snapped her eyes open as she turned her head around, surprised to see one of Taciturn's large wings draped over her. Her gaze lifted to his face, his mysterious, sparkling black eyes staring straight into her own. The both of them just stared at each other for a long moment, and before Rainbow could declare the awkwardness of the situation, he tilted his head to the side, suddenly asking:

"Sleep?"

"What? Oh, not so soon, Tassee," she said, chuckling at his misunderstanding.
"I'm just enjoying the moment, y'know. Every mare has to relax once in a while."

Taciturn glanced about for a minute, hooves fidgeting about. Just as he was about to peel his wing off of her, Rainbow suddenly gripped onto one of its tinted tips, stopping him immediately with a squawk of pain. The colt could only watch his marefriend slowly draping it over her again, her face bearing a sheepish grin.
"I like it better this way," she said, a faint red growing in his cheeks.
"If you don't mind, that is."

Great. Now she's sounding like Fluttershy. Rainbow would grumble at herself for that later; for now, it's just her and her most favourite pony in the world. Taciturn's gripe became a grin when she said that, happily complying by worming his way up the couch, his head soon propped right next to hers.
"Dashie?" he asked a question, to which only the other pony could understand.

"Yes," Rainbow assured him, sighing.
"Of course you can be right next to me."

Taciturn's peachy grin could've lit up the world when she said that, the both of them proceeding to close their eyes, once again enjoying the moment. Rainbow, of course, had to wonder: what actually happened to him that made him so depressed in the morning? Why was he so angry yesterday that Twilight had to have a book thrown onto her head? Moreover, what made Taciturn become the happiest colt she had ever seen?
A small lick on her forehead broke into her thoughts, the mare opening her eyes to see Taciturn's tongue grazing at one very special, painful spot that had lingered since Hearts and Hooves Day. He stopped to whimper once Rainbow realized what he was doing, instead just turning away.

"Tassee, you know that's a long time ago," Rainbow said, edging closer towards him.
"It's all in the past now, alright? What matters is that I'm still here and I love you."

"Dashie?"

"Really," she answered. Without further ado, Rainbow just leaned her head against his, nuzzling cheek to cheek and making him purr, before she bring her lips to his, giving a gentle kiss. This kiss was different, somehow; it was stinging her heart, her gut aching with doubt. Of course, Taciturn didn't seem to mind.
"Okay then," she muttered, letting out a yawn.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Taciturn just grinned, nodding happily as he squealed one more time:

"Sleep!"