//------------------------------// // 31 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Rainbow just watched as Twilight popped the last of her sandwich into her mouth and chewed it thoroughly and slowly. After the unicorn swallowed it, Rainbow suddenly found herself being very bored as soon as the sandwich was gone. “Now that I’m done entertaining you apparently, what was it that you wanted?” Twilight didn’t know if this was a friend she wanted, she seemed flighty and easily distracted. Well Fluttershy made that last point somewhat clear if Rainbow ignored her for the most of a year. “Huh? Oh yeah what I came here for in the first place!” Rainbow watched as Twilight threw a hoof in her face and wondered if that hurt. It looks like she does that a lot. “I’m looking for a pony.” “Can you be more specific? We’re in a town full of ponies.” Twilight couldn’t help but feel this was a opening to some horrible joke on her. “Well… she looks like a mare.” Rainbow answered simply. “Can you tell me about this mare you’re looking for?” Twilight wondered if it was Fluttershy. “Well she’s feminine. Like a mare kind of feminine, she could just be a very pretty stallion with a falsetto voice though.” Rainbow was quite certain that it had been a mare and not a stallion wearing a wig, it happened in Cloudsdale often enough. “Could you please be more descriptive, like say what does her cutie mark look like?” Okay Twilight felt like this was going somewhere and she felt a migraine coming on. Maybe that was just her brain cells committing suicide in protest of having to deal with Rainbow Dash. “Well it was a feminine cutie mark and it looked like something that a mare would have. Thus she definitely looked like a mare.” Rainbow honestly didn’t know why Twilight’s face was turning into a frown. “Okay let’s try a different line of questioning before my brain implodes.” Twilight really didn’t want to continue the direction this conversation was starting to take. “That would actually be kind of cool to see, though you dying won’t help me find the pony I’m looking for. Okay then, shoot the next one at me.” Rainbow smiled cheerfully. “Oh I’d like to shoot something alright… what were her coat or mane and tail colors?” Twilight continuing to her attempts to be amiable in the face of adversity. “Well they were like my colors; they were pretty bright and cheerful. You know, like a mare.” Rainbow looked to the ceiling wondering if she could eat off of it if she suddenly gained spider powers, it was really clean up there. “Well is she tall or short?” Twilight was beginning to really lose her cool. “Well she wasn’t shorter then a bread box and I doubt there’s a mare taller than Celestia. So yeah, somewhere between there and mare shaped.” Okay why was the unicorn looking angry and lighting her horn? “Please answer this one correctly or I may do something I’ll regret later. Did she have a long or short mane?” Twilight was getting to a point that she was expecting Rainbow to aggravate her further and was having none of it. “It was pretty long and looked pretty classy.” The unicorn calmed down, Rainbow seriously didn’t know what her problem was. “Yeah like a mares, she was quite a looker too.” “It’s okay Twilight… you wouldn’t know how to hide the body anyway, so it’s better that you don’t assault the customer…” Twilight mumbled to herself very quietly so Rainbow couldn’t hear her. “Okay is there anything that you can tell me that would help me help you find this mare you’re looking for?” “Uh… other than that fact that she looks like a mare and had a strange creature with her that could talk, not really.” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. Twilight wondered if Rainbow was really so dense that she couldn’t have mentioned that earlier, she went to face hoof but her hoof was already in her face by the time she came back out of her thoughts. “Okay can you describe the creature that was with her and can you give me any details?” If it was who Twilight thought it was, then this was going to be a simple ten bits at least. “Well it was small, female, had bat or dragon wings, was purple with green hair, with dark blue eyes and kind of resembled a small dragon. How would that work though? I mean dragons are really large, breathe fire and would sooner eat a pony then fall in love with one.” Rainbow paused when she saw the strained twitchy eye on Twilight’s face. How did Rainbow, who was having problems with giving descriptions of a pony, just give a perfectly good description of Barb? How come she couldn’t just give a defined description of Tress? Twilight’s mind was so boggled she could just… Meanwhile at the apple stand with Applejack. “That’ll be two bits please; my today sure is going pretty swell.” Applejack then heard the sound of a blood curdling scream in the distance. “Whoa Nelly, sounds like Twilight is having a really bad day and that sounds like it came from clear across town. I sure hope she’s alright. Ah well, I have to keep selling my apples.” Meanwhile at the Carousel Boutique with Rarity “My word, what was that?” Rarity looked entirely confused, she just shrugged and went back to work on the dress, she had to get the trim just right. Oh Tress was going to look so fabulous in it. At that moment where Fluttershy currently resided in her cozy little hovel she called a home. “Was that mom just now?” Barb asked as she petted a rabbit, she carefully placed it aside and stood up on the couch. “I’ve never heard her scream quite like that before… well ever since the fudge brownie incident that is.” “Something tells me she has recently met Rainbow Dash. Let’s go Barb.” Tress immediately set out the door to go rescue her best friend, with Barb riding on her back. “Excuse me my little angel, but I have to go help my friends with something. I’ll be back in an hour or so.” Fluttershy flew off after Tress hoping of all hopes that she didn’t outright hurt Rainbow. Back with Twilight, Rainbow Dash and a particularly mirth filled Zecora who had been watching the events from off to the side. Rainbow was covering her ears and cowering away from Twilight, wondering what she did to get that kind of reaction. Was this unicorn bipolar or just really high strung? “I know how to find the pony you’re looking for.” Twilight sighed lowering her head in defeat; she had gotten all that anger out of her system in one furious scream. “Ten bits and I’ll tell you how to find her.” Rainbow smiled, she was getting somewhere at least. She pulled out the required bits from somewhere and Twilight simply took them. “Wait here for five minutes, that’s all you need to do.” That was all Twilight needed to say as she was going to go to the fridge and pull out some ice cream. She really needed the comfort food right about now her throat was raw after that scream. In all likelihood Tress probably heard the scream that Twilight just let out and was running in the general direction of the house. It would take a few minute getting back if anything. Of course, Twilight could be underestimating Tress and she could be back within the next forty seconds if she was really pushing it. So she guessed a nice safe five minute time limit. “What? That’s it? Is that all I have to do to meet that mare again?” Rainbow didn’t know how to feel at the moment. On the one hoof she just paid ten bits to a mare for doing nothing. On the other hoof the mare in question was awesome enough to get those bits from her without a fuss. “If it is the mare I think it is that you do seek, then maybe it’s a good idea to wait unless in patience you are weak.” Zecora could see Rainbow ready to go off at her and in a cantankerous manner that a pegasus would be known for. She simply stopped Rainbow before she could get started. “For if you have no patience then the mare you will not find, I hope at least a lesson you can learn and maybe you will teach one in kind.” “Wha… who are you? Also what’s up with all the rhyming?” Rainbow had stumbled when she heard Zecora speak and was about get angry with her until she spoke again cutting her off from saying anything. “I am a zebra and Zecora is my name, rhyming is a common trait as among any other zebra you’ll hear the same.” Zecora thought the mare was a bit dense, but just regularly friendly. “Hey Zecora have you ever had to come up with a rhyme with orange in it before?” Rainbow smiled at the zebra wondering if she would take the bait. “Ah, if it’s oranges of which you need to hear, an orange is easy to rhyme with just to be clear.” Zecora smiled back at Rainbow. “Well, I guess that counts as a rhyme with orange in it.” What could Rainbow say to that really? She did use the word and she did rhyme. She just didn’t use the word as the rhyme; she must have been pretty smart. “So do you live here or something? Also what’s up with the unicorn, Malachite was it?” “Twilight Sparkle is just feeling a might bit tense. Maybe something you said to her didn’t make much sense.” Nobody was ever stumping this zebra. “I’m only living here for a short time; I’m lending my aid as well as my rhyme.” “I don’t know about that, I was pretty clear that I was looking for a mare and what she looked like.” Rainbow tilted her head in confusion. “So… do you know anything about The Wonderbolts?” “A wonderful sky fairing lot they are, they go everywhere near and far.” Zecora remember seeing one of their shows when she went through Saddle Arabia. “They travel the world far and wide, to show off their strange form of pride. They usually stick to the lands of Equestria with their apparent fame, a bunch of flying show offs that are mostly tame.” “Yeah and I’m going to fly with those brave ponies some day.” Rainbow flew up throwing her hoof into the air. “Not if I beat the tar out of you first you won’t.” Tress said walking through the front door. “Huh? Oh hey there, I’m so glad I found you. I didn’t get your name earlier and...” Rainbow landed on the floor and held out a hoof to Tress. Tress passed Rainbow to trot into the kitchen at a brisk pace and Rainbows wings wilted, why was she being ignored? She thought the mare was a pretty good prankster and wanted to congratulate her on getting one over on The Dash. Tress found Twilight eating ice cream, apparently something Rainbow did really got to her if she was eating frozen cow juice mixtures. Well that’s what Twilight called them anyway. “Are you okay Twilight?” Looking out the window it was getting pretty late into the evening, Tress sighed as she hugged the poor unicorn. Then grabbed a bowl and started spooning out some ice cream for Barb, she didn’t forget she was just going to do it homemade, they had strawberry syrup, bananas and the ruby she could stomp on. “Yeah, I’m fine Tress. It’s just Rainbow is so dense. It’s like she’s never cracked a book in her life!” Twilight wouldn’t believe it could possible that a pony has never read a book before. “Huh, but books are for eggheads and squares.” Rainbow watched as Twilight flinched at her sitting right there at the table. “So what are we talking about? Oh and what’s her name, she won’t tell me. Can I have some of that ice cream?” Twilight didn’t know what to say about Rainbows disrespect of books in general, because she personally loved to read. Rainbow was also a tad hyper and it was a distinctly annoying kind too. “Tress, I hope I’m not asking too much of you, but could you please try to at least be nice to her?” The soft exceedingly familiar voice caused Rainbow to freeze up and he wings went stiff but didn’t unfold. Rainbow slowly turned her head and stared wide eyed at her old friend Fluttershy with that strange creature on her back. “It’s been a long time Rainbow, I hope we’re still friends. Well that is if you want us to still be friends, we don’t have to be if you don’t want to.” Fluttershy squirmed under all the attention she was receiving from every pony; she rubbed her legs with her right wing shyly.