//------------------------------// // Stupid, Stupid, Stupid... // Story: Despondence // by Plotbuster //------------------------------// Stupid, Stupid, Stupid... "Stupid Sam... Stupid me... Stupid EVERYTHING!" Rainbow Dash thrashed around listlessly in the knotted bundle of covers and sheets she'd made of her bedding. Deciding her halfhearted attempts to escape the fluffy prison weren't cutting it, she streamlined her limbs and squirmed her way free of the mess, dropping onto the floor off the side of the bed. The sudden change in equilibrium brought on a surge of nausea, which she fought down fiercely. For a mare that mostly slept on fluffy clouds, bed sheets and wood floors was taking some getting used to. Three months ago, Sam had left Ponyville. Taking nothing but a backpack of clothes and some bits, he'd seemingly disappeared from the face of Equestria. Rainbow, in a perhaps less than stable state of mind at the time, had decided to keep his house in order while he was gone. Because he was obviously coming back. He'd be back any day now. Who wanted to come back to a messy house when they came home? Dash was sure he'd appreciate it. She could just picture it in her mind, the day he came back... "Hi, Dash!" A disheveled looking Sam strode through the doorway into the living room, dropping his battered pack in the hallway on the way in, a weary smile on his face. "I'm back from my very important, super deep journey of self discovery! It took me far too long to realize I'm an idiot that let stupid things that don't even matter anymore get in the way of how I feel about you! Let's get marri-!" BAM! That's when the double back hoofed flying tackle would hit him in the face. Then the house would be on fire, while she sat on a nice cloud outside eating popcorn. Rainbow shook her head vigorously, trying to dispel the disturbingly satisfying images from her brain. Slowly, she wandered through the house. In the kitchen the drying rack for dishes held two glasses, two plates and a fork. She quietly stowed the dishes in their cupboards, her hoof lingering on one of the glasses as she slid it in. *=* "Hey, AJ, teach me how to cook." "What's that, sugar plum?" A bemused Applejack looked up from gathering the apples that had fallen from her latest buck. On top of a nearby haystack, the back of a prismatic head could be seen, an equally multicolor tail spilling off the side. A cyan foreleg lazily waved in slow circles. Rainbow always seemed to be talking with her hooves, Applejack mused. "You know, cooking. I'm more of a take-out kinda girl." Or an invite yourself over to friends houses for dinner kind of girl, Applejack thought with a light chuckle. "You're always cooking for that big family of yours. I thought you could, you know, show me the ropes? It's a good way to save bits, cooking for... Yourself, right?" Oh. The slight catch in Rainbow's voice was telling Applejack a lot more than she wanted it to. Turning back to her apples, she started gathering them up again. "Well, sure hun, never hurt a girl to know her way around an oven or a frying pan. Why, I reckon we could even start tonight if you got time. You free around four?" Applejack sniffled lightly as she carried another load of apples to the waiting bin on her cart. "Yeah, I can swing that. Gotta jet now though, take care of a couple things. Can I get an apple for the road?" Rainbow rose up onto all fours from her supine position on the haystack. A shiny red apple came lofting over from Applejacks direction. Rainbow lightly hopped up, caught it in her mouth, and proceeded to chew it up noisily. "Huh, this apple's kinda salty." "Sorry, hun, shined it up for ya. Mah leg mighta' been a mite sweaty." Rainbow slowly stopped chewing, but then shrugged, and finished the apple. "Eww. We are going to be washing up before we cook, right AJ?" Applejack finally turned around to face Rainbow, her eyes a little shiny, but a wide smile on her face. "Eyup, that there's the first rule of cookin' in the Apple kitchen. Hopefully you can learn it better'n 'Bloom." *=* Closing the door to the cupboard with a sigh, Rainbow turned around and trotted into the living room. A couple bottles of SAA Private Stock were scattered through the room. She shuffled about, picking one up off the floor in front of the couch, another from the small table next to the lounger. She placed them down on the battered table in the middle of the room, deciding she'd wait until she had a saddlebag's worth before she flew the empties out to the farm. Shouldn't take too long. The curved indent in the side facing Rainbow caught her eye, and she reached a hoof out to absently trace the cracked wood, her eyes wandering to the now pristine wall across the room. *=* Twilight's purple magical aura surrounded the table, and unceremoniously yanked it out of the wall, plaster and boards scattering out from the force of her pull. Floating it over to where she vaguely remembered it had sat, she dropped it. "Hey, Twi! Be careful!" Rainbow flapped lightly over, bending down to examine the floor where the heavy table had landed. Dented. Four nice big dents in the otherwise pristine floor. Well, aside from the rubble strewn over that bit. Nothing a bit of sweeping couldn't put right. Twilight turned toward her with a snort of agitation. "Why should I be? Look at this mess. He could have hurt you, Rainbow. I never would have thought it to be the case, but Sam is dangerous." Twilight stepped aside then as Big Mac trotted over to the wall. He inspected it as Rainbow fluttered over to hover anxiously over his shoulder, patently ignoring Twilight's statement. "Can you fix it, Mac? There isn't all that much damage." Twilight scoffed loudly, tossing her mane in frustration but otherwise holding her tongue. Big Mac rubbed his hoof lightly on his chin, peering into the cavity left by the table. Outside, a light rain was falling on the town, the debris cast out onto the ground slowly darkening as the rain soaked it down. "Eyup. Tomorrow." Turning away from the hole, he started making his way across the living room to the entryway. Rainbow continued hovering right next to him, a beaming smile radiating out from her face. "Awesome! You're the best, Mac! I'll pay you whatever it costs, just hoof me the bill whenever." Big Mac paused on his way out of the house. He turned back to regard Rainbow. "No charge. Ms. Dash, Ms. Sparkle." He nodded to each in turn, then ambled out into the rain. Rainbow waved him off exuberantly, while Twilight waved a hoof absently as she levitated a tarp over the hole in the wall. She affixed it there with a few nails, hammered in with perhaps a bit more force, and perhaps a little more noise than was absolutely necessary. Muttering lightly, she started levitating the debris from around the living room into a sack. "Rainbow, listen to me. Sam is obviously dangerous. From what you told me, he just exploded into violence." Rainbow turned back to Twilight from her position of gazing out the door. She laughed, but there was evident strain in her voice. "Come on, Twi. He was just blowing off some steam. I pushed him to it. You know how I am, sometimes. Don't know when to give up the ghost. We were talking about some heavy stuff." Rainbow waved off Twilight's argument, but her forced nonchalance wasn't fooling Twilight for a second. She could see the stiffness in Rainbow's shoulders, her seeming inability to meet Twilight's gaze for more than a moment. Twilight pressed on. "Are you kidding me? You call this letting off some steam? That's like saying Pinkie is a little strange, or, or, Fluttershy's a bit timid! He really could have hurt you Rainbow, don't you see that?" Suddenly, Rainbow was right in Twilights face. Her forelegs gripped Twilights shoulders in what seemed like a vise. "Of course I do, Twi! I'm not stupid! But what matters is he didn't! He could never hurt me! He loves me!" Rainbow's face, so angry a moment ago, crumpled in on itself. All the fear and worry she'd been holding inside broke out, and her eyes welled up with tears. Her voice took on a manic, pleading tone as Twilight struggled to break out of her hold. "Don't you get it? He just feels bad he made me cry. He's just gotta have some time to himself... Work out some stuff, you know? He could be back any minute..." Rainbow slowly slumped down, her grip on Twilights shoulders loosening as the strength left her legs, and it seemed to Twilight as if the hold on her shoulders was the only thing keeping Rainbow up. Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing. Where had the strong, brash Rainbow she knew gone? Not knowing what else to do, she slid forward, her hooves coming up to cradle Rainbow as she guided her down to the floor. Sobs wracked Rainbows body as she wrapped her hooves around Twilights withers, her face buried in Twilights neck. What in Tarturus was going on? "Rainbow, what are you talking about? What do you mean, he LOVES you? Where did all this come from?" Unable to bring herself to speak, Rainbow pulled one of her forelegs away from Twilight to listlessly wave over her shoulder. Twilight followed the motion to where a rolled up scroll was sitting on the table beside the lounger. She levitated the scroll over, and unrolled it, reading it as Rainbows shoulders continued to heave under her. As Twilight read on, her expression of confusion was replaced by a slowly dawning horror. Her magic fading, the scroll fell to the floor and rolled itself back up, forgotten. Twilights gaze slowly lowered to the cyan pony, her limbs locked around Twilight as if the hold was keeping her from drowning. Maybe it was. "Oh, Celestia. Oh, Rainbow..." *=* Rainbow trotted down the hallway from the living room, her hooves taking her into the bathroom. She felt like this day was taking forever to start. She should be out there, rocketing through the sky. Her tryout routine for the Wonderbolts must be getting stale by now. She idly ran a bath as her mind wandered over the tricks she had planned, the intervening choreography. "I really shouldn't do the Rainboom. They've seen it, they now I got it. But the only other finisher I've got for the routine is the Buccaneer Blaze, and I come out of the Gravity Well too low and slow to set it up..." Rainbow climbed into the steaming bathtub, her hoof reaching over to the side shelf and retrieving a bar of soap and hoof cloth. "Maybe I could try a Hoofshot, throw in a couple inverted corks on the climb..." Her hooves working methodically, Rainbow dash scrubbed her fur. The absent, practiced motions relaxed her as she continued muttering. "Once I get up there, I'm gonna be short on time. A straight dive would do the job... But it's boring. I could pull a low yo-yo..." Pulling the plug on the bath, Rainbow rinsed herself off, the sudsy, dirty water sliding down the drain. She broke off her soliloquy to watch the water swirl into the hole, then plugged it and filled the bath again. Sliding back into the clean water, Rainbow sighed, her mind wandering. A twinge in her back startled her, and she leaned forward, bringing her wings out to her sides to inspect them. "Bedwings. Argh. I hate that." Her feathers were ruffled madly, disordered and poking out in odd places along the length of her cyan wings. Sighing, Rainbow began to preen. "Geez, if Rarity could see me now. 'Oh my goodness, dear! Why, your wings are all of a kerfuffle. Tsk tsk tsk, you MUST take better care of yourself, darling. Now get in the dress. do iiiiit.' She'd have kittens! Then put me in a dress." The mental imagery wrung a chuckle out of Rainbow, until the thought of half a dozen mini Opalescences lounging around, their tiny claws digging into her like a pawful of hypodermics stopped her short. She shuddered, and returned to her preening. Running her mouth across her left wings primaries, she happily noted the feather she'd lost was fully regrown. Rarity really had helped her out, she shouldn't get so down on her... *=* "I really must insist that you hold still, dear. Imping feathers is a delicate art, and with all this shuffling about, I'm likely to break a blood feather." Rainbow lay on her stomach, her left wing extended into Rarity's hooves as her magical aura shifted the yellow feather Fluttershy had donated to Rainbow and applied another tiny splint. Rarity tsked lightly, cocking her head this way and that as she inspected her latest addition, eventually nodding in satisfaction and picking up another splint to apply. "Really, dear, you treat these wonderful appendages far too roughly. All those crashes. It's a wonder you're not constantly anemic from the blood loss." Rainbow took another swig from her bottle of cider, silently grinding her teeth in aggravation. This was not her idea of a fun afternoon. Unfortunately it was necessary. She really had been losing a lot of feathers lately, and the lost primary had been protecting a dense area of growing feathers. Without it, an injury there could get really messy. And so she lay, like a beached whale, wishing the cider could anesthetize her to Rarity's constant nattering. At least she hadn't propositioned her for another fashion show. yet. "I hear ya Rarity, but what am I supposed to do? Strap pillows to my wings? You can't be the number one flyer in Equestria without pushing the limit. The road to pure radicalness is paved with the bruises and blood of past mistakes. Or something like that." Rainbow shifted position slowly, trying to find a more comfortable position without jostling her wing. Rarity humphed lightly, her gaze steady on Rainbows wing as her magic continued to implant the donor feather. "To each their own, I suppose. I am perfectly content to walk my own less... brutal path to personal excellence. Speaking of, what new maneuver lost you your feather? I haven't heard any loud thumps or explosions in the last few days." Rainbow stiffened. This was a conversation she could really do without, especially with this pony. "It just fell out, Rarity. Maybe it got loosened up from one of my crashes." Rainbow took a hasty gulp of her cider, turning away from Rarity. Just drop it, please. "Come now, dear, I've probably done this a hundred times. I'm staring right at the socket, and I can tell this feather was pulled out. Whatever reason could you have for pulling one of your primaries out, Rainbow? Wouldn't that impair your ability to fly? Can't exactly be pushing the limit when you're not at one hundred percent." Rainbow shuffled guiltily, then turned back to Rarity, who had paused in her work to look up into Rainbows face. "...Fine. I gave it to someone, okay Rarity? Now you can go all gaga about ancient Pegasus traditions, squeal at me about how UTTERLY romantic it all is, and pester me unstoppably about who I gave it to. Bring it on." Rainbows slightly petulant gaze was met by Rarity's thoughtful one. "No. I think not. You gave it to Sam, correct?" Rainbow flinched back at the casualness with which Rarity spoke his name. Everyone had been so careful about not mentioning him around her. "While it might be a wonderfully romantic gesture, I won't be 'squealing', as you so eloquently put it, about circumstances that are more in keeping with Romareo and Muliet than When Harness Met Chalet." Rainbow regarded Rarity quizzically, her curiosity momentarily overshadowing her jumble of conflicted feelings. "Whozit and what? What are you talking about?" Rarity sighed. "Never mind, dear. They're stories, ones that I'm not surprised you haven't perused. Suffice it to say that what you are going through needs to be addressed in a more serious manner than, ahem, squealing. You aren't talking about this to anyone else," Rarity raised her hoof to stall the objection Rainbow was about to make, "I asked the girls. So, you are going to talk about this with ME. This is not up for discussion." Letting go of Rainbow's wing, Rarity settled into a more comfortable position while Rainbow did the same, flexing the new feather. "Stop me any time, but this is how I understand the situation so far. After more than a year of flying ever smaller circles around each other, you decided to force the issue while confronting Sam on a pretext." Rainbows eyes widened, then narrowed, a slightly hurt and angry look settling on her face. "It wasn't a pretext! He was sad all the time, you even agreed with me when I brought it up!" Rarity nodded, her gaze even. "That I did. If you'll remember, I also had certain reservations about you being the one to approach him about it. Regardless, you pushed him into making admissions he wasn't ready to deal with. Dragged out emotions that were all twisted up together into a messy knot he was still trying to unravel. Of course, this isn't to say that his reaction was warranted. He obviously overreacted in more than one way. Be that as it may, a stallion, or man as the case may be, has to own up to his actions. I can only say that he was childish and cowardly." Rarity nodded her head once, emphatically, expelling a small hmph of displeasure. Rainbow regarded her friend, surprised she could be taking this so seriously. A thought occurred to her. "You're not just talking about the table, are you?" "Well of course not! I'm talking about how he abandoned you in your hour of need!" Rarity exploded, her hooves wildly gesticulating, a look of almost fury dancing in her eyes. "How could he just run out on you like that? He should have held you close and comforted you! He should have whispered phrases of endearment into your ear until you calmed down, then worked out his issues with you instead of gallivanting off into the sunset to most likely brood in isolation! He should have taken you into his arms and shown you how special you were to him, as only a stallion can show a mare!" As her diatribe continued, her forceful tone became more of a dramatic one. "After you both admitted your feelings for one another, no barrier should have been able to keep you apart! You should be sharing this house right now, an intimate dinner in the dining room, a shared laugh while relaxing together in front of the fireplace! This flies in the face of all that is ro-MANCE!" At this last statement Rarity jumped up onto her hind legs, throwing her fore hooves into the air, her head dramatically tossed back. A feint sound brought her out of her moment, and she dropped down onto all four hooves again, regarding Rainbow quizzically. "REALLY not helping, Rarity." Rainbow ground out through clenched teeth. Her eyes overflowing with anguish, she turned away from Rarity into the couch, smashing a fore hoof into the armrest hard enough for the crack of wood to be heard. Rarity stood gaping at Rainbow, unable to believe what she was seeing. Tossing her mane, she seemed to come out of a fog, and nearly flew across the intervening space to wrap her hooves around Rainbow from behind. "Oh, Rainbow, I'm so, so sorry. How insensitive could I be? I've read so many stories of love, I was so happy to see it coming true for you! This isn't how it's supposed to go at all!" Rarity felt the unbelievable tension slowly leak out of Rainbow as she let out a long, aggrieved sigh. "Tell, me about it, Rares. Tell me about it." Turning back toward Rarity, Rainbow hugged her lightly, then reached down to the floor, picking up her half-empty bottle of cider and draining it. Rarity watched her mournful expression for a moment, before screwing up her courage to ask Rainbow the question that had driven her to this conversation. "I just don't understand though, dear. You are not the kind of mare to take this lying down. Why haven't you gone after him? I feel like I should still be feeling the aftershock of your Rainboom as you sped off after him. Why aren't you trying to find him?" Rainbow looked at Rarity, and the war of indecision was evident behind her eyes. Rarity could tell that was the first thing she would like to be doing right now, but something was holding her back. Eventually, Rainbow broke her gaze away, looking and motioning toward a scroll lying on the small table on the other side of the lounger from them. "He asked me not to." *=* Finished preening, Rainbow hopped out of the tub and pulled the drain plug. Trotting across the bathroom, she retrieved a towel from the shelf and dried herself off, taking special care with her wings. It would be a couple hours before the natural oils on her feathers she'd washed off in the bath came back, so it didn't look like she'd be flying for a bit today. It was raining, and without that oil, her feathers would become plastered to her if they got wet. Big no-no in the flying handbook. Picking up the towel in her mouth, she walked down the hall and back into the bedroom. Moving over to the clothes hamper, she hooved the floor lever that popped the top open and dropped the towel inside. Or at least, she tried to. How were clothes hampers always full? Shrugging, Rainbow turned back to the bed, resigned to filling up some of her flightless time with clothes washing. She untangled the sheet and covers, and remade the bed. Glancing around the room to she if she'd missed anything, her eyes fell across a long yellow feather on the bedside table. Turning back to the hamper, she awkwardly picked it up in her fore legs, and duck walked it out of the bedroom, making her way across the hall and into the laundry room. As she filled the scrub bucket up with hot soapy water, her mind wandered back to the sight of the yellow feather, and a tiny smile wandered across her face... *=* "He said what about my animals?" Fluttershy was crouched down in an aggressive stance, her wings spread and face clouded with fury. Rainbow waved her hoofs negatively, trying to calm her down. Angel, looking from one pony to the other wide eyed, was slowly backing out of the room, his paws up defensively as if to ward off one or both of them. "Sam didn't mean it like that, Shy! He was trying to tell me something about how he was raised. I'm not explaining this right, dammit. Calm down, ok?" Rainbow considered taking a page from Angel at that point. Fluttershy could actually get kind of... Scary when she got like this. She seemed to be calming down, though. Her outbursts never seemed to last long, they were just intense. Fluttershy's breathing slowed, and she straightened up almost reluctantly, her wings folding themselves down onto her sides. "Well, if you say so. But I still think me and Sam are going to have a long talk before I let him around my little friends again." Fluttershy turned and hopped back up onto her couch, patting the seat next to her in an indication for Rainbow to join her. Rainbow cringed, but mentally blew a sigh of relief at the averted near disaster and rejoined her on the couch. "So, where he comes from humans are the only thinking creatures on the planet? That must be awfully lonely." Rainbow shrugged. "From some of the things Sam told me, they've got bigger things to be worried about than a touch of loneliness." Like each other, Rainbow mused. "The point is, people there still did, well, things with these animals. Even though they couldn't, I dunno, reciprocate? I guess Sam had some really, what did he call it? Racist? Yeah, racist parents. He grew up hearing stuff about how everyone was beneath them except other people like them, like every day. I guess he actually got into a lot of trouble because of it after he moved away from home to go to school. But anyway, I guess these people with the animals, they were right up there with foalfeelers on the totem pole of hate his parents erected for him." Fluttershy's eyes had rounded through this explanation. Sam had never said anything about this to her. Then again, most of their conversations had revolved around her animals. And Rainbow, of course. "I don't know what to say Rainbow. That sounds just awful. He must have been so sad growing up like that." Fluttershy's eyes were already tearing up at the thought of it. Rainbow ducked her head a little, not particularly happy about this next part. "Well, I guess until he got out of his house, he didn't really think anything of it. He grew up in a house that thought like that, in a neighborhood that thought like that, and all his friends thought like that, too. I could tell when he talked about it that it still made him mad, and I guess a bit ashamed." Rainbow could still see the expression on Sam's face when he told her about it. He hadn't been able to meet her eyes, and his cheeks were rigid. She'd been able to tell his teeth were clenched hard enough that Rainbow was afraid he'd break a tooth. "But Rainbow, this still doesn't explain why he thinks he can't be with you." Fluttershy's face screwed up in consternation. "If he put those attitudes behind him, what's keeping you two apart?" Rainbow sighed. She pulled a scroll out of her saddlebag and, hesitating slightly, handed it over to Fluttershy. "I'm still not sure I really get it, Shy, but I guess that helped. It at least helped me see that wasn't the only reason Sam felt like he had to leave. You might not want to read it, honestly. There are some things in there I almost couldn't believe until I saw it with my own eyes." Fluttershy was obviously unsure, but after a moment she gained a determined look and reached out for the scroll. Rainbow handed it to her, and sat silently while Fluttershy read. She tried not to look too closely at Fluttershy, but she could tell exactly where she was in the letter as sadness, anger, disbelief and finally resignation crossed her visage. After a while, Fluttershy set the scroll down beside her. A few moments later, she spoke up. "Rainbow... This is a lot to take in. I know Sam isn't a liar, but some of the things he said in there... I just don't want to believe. I think, umm, I think I need some time. Some time to deal with this." Rainbow nodded, picking the scroll up and putting it back in her bag. She slid off the couch and walked over to the door of Fluttershy's cottage. As she opened it, she turned back to Fluttershy, sadness and understanding plain on her face. "I understand, Shy. I'll get out of your mane. Thanks again for the feather." She waved her left wing in goodbye, the yellow Pinion standing out against the cyan background. "See you later, Rainbow. I'll be here for you whenever you need me." Rainbow nodded, a sad smile on her face as she trotted out the door, closing it and shooting up into the sky. Turning slowly, Fluttershy looked out her window in the direction of Ponyville. She wondered if she'd ever see it the same way again. "Angel," Fluttershy called, her voice cracking lightly, "Come here, please. I think mommy needs a hug..." *=* Rainbow finished hanging the laundry up on the drying rack, and dumped the bucket of suds into the drain set into the stone floor of the laundry room. Her hooves clacked lightly against the floor until she stepped back onto the wooden floor of the hallway. She probably had another hour of so before it would be a good idea to fly. Turning her head one way down the hallway then the other, she shrugged, deciding a nap wouldn't be a terrible idea. She turned in to the bedroom, trotting over to the bed and hopping up. pulling the covers aside, she turned a circle, then settled down on her side, pulling the covers up to her chin. As she settled in, her eyes drifted to the scroll sitting innocuously on the bedside table. Rainbow stared at it blankly. Sighing, she reached out and grabbed it. Unrolling it, she scanning the lines for what seemed like the thousandth time. Her eyes misted up, and she blinked back the tears. "This is all so wrong." Rainbow muttered. "I feel like I'm having a nightmare. I just want to wake up. If this could all be a dream... I'd give anything. Sam, sometimes I wish I'd never met you..." In a fit of anger, Rainbow smashed the scroll in between her hooves, crumpling it up into a ball. "AGH!" Rainbow threw the ball of parchment away from her, turning away and rubbing her cheeks roughly with her fore legs. She lay there for a few minutes, staring at the wall. After an unknown amount of time she stiffly threw the covers off, hopped off the bed and walked over to the ill treated ball of parchment. She gingerly leaned down and picked it up, trotting back to the bed with it, and gently smoothed it down. A little worse for wear, the scroll still rolled up, and she placed it back on the bedside table. She curled up in bed again, covers wrapped around her, her back turned to the scroll and all the emotions it represented. Rainbow slowly drifted off into a fitful slumber. What seemed to her like only a few minutes later, she was woken up by someone knocking on the front door. She knew that knock, and the cheerful voice that followed it... *=* *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* "Dashy!" *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* "Dashy!" *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* "Dashy!" Rainbow opened the front door to the House, blinking owlishly. "Pinkie, do you know what time it is?" The boisterous pink mare bounced in place, a smile beaming out onto Rainbow. "Of course I do Dashy! It's just past midnight! The witching hour! Spooooky!" Pinkie waved her forelegs in Rainbow's direction, making what she assumed were Pinkie's approximation of ghost noises. "I know you've been feeling down, with the whole Sam disappearing into the ether thing, so I thought I'd bring you to a party!" Rainbow stared at Pinkie, her tired brain trying to process this. After a moment, she shook her head tiredly. "This isn't one of those times where I can tell you to go to bed and close my door and it will make the slightest difference, is it?" "Nope!" "Let's go, then." Rainbow stepped out the door, closing it behind her. She let out a yawn as she followed the happily bouncing pony through town, but frowned as she noticed they were walking right past Sugarcube Corner without slowing down. "Hey Pinkie, where exactly is this party?" "I don't know!" The pink pony pronounced, continuing to bounce happily down the street. "Then... Who's it for? Or what's it about?" Rainbow asked, becoming a little aggravated. "I don't know!" Pinkie proclaimed again in her usual exuberant manner. Rainbow groaned. "So... We're going someplace you're not sure where it is, to go to a party we don't know anything about? Pinkie, are you sure there's a party?" Pinkie halted, turning to Rainbow with an eyebrow lifted and an incredulous look on her face. "Really? Come on, it's this way." Pinkie turned tail and continued on her bouncy way, a reluctant Rainbow trailing behind. The pair continued down the byways of Ponyville, Pinkie humming a catchy little ditty while Rainbow lifted off, flapping along slowly behind her. Eventually they came up to a modest looking house, well-lit from the inside compared to the surrounding houses of the neighborhood, who seemed to all have taken to their beds. As they approached the door, it opened, and a pony Rainbow vaguely recognized from around the marketplace trotted out, waving his hoof over his shoulder. He turned his head back to the path, and blanched as Pinkie and Rainbow came into his view. Skirting them quickly, he hurried off down the road. Pinkie followed his retreating back with her gaze for a few moments before shrugging. "I wonder what Prim was in such a hurry about. Oh well, let's get in there Dashy!" Rainbow sighed, following Pinkie into the house through the still open door. There weren't many ponies inside, mostly twos and threes scattered around the rooms in the first floor. Rainbow didn't really recognize any of them more than vaguely. For the most part Pinkie greeted them all, so she imagined they must all be residents of Ponyville. Everypony seemed to be reacting to Pinkie and Rainbow the same way the pony at the door had, though. They all seemed to notice them coming through, nod vaguely or squeak at Pinkie's greetings, then quickly shuffle off toward the exit. Rainbow was getting a bad feeling about this, but her sleep fogged brain couldn't seem to connect the dots. Pinkie and Rainbow moved into the last room on the first floor of the house. It was large, sparsely decorated, and a small crowd of ponies seemed to be finishing up a toast. Upon entering the room, Pinkie's hair instantly drooped. Her eyes darted frantically to the banner, the decorations, and finally the cake. Her eyes locked onto it. Rainbow, still bleary from lack of sleep, strained her eyes to see what had gotten Pinkie in such a state. She gave up on the banner, the decorations were meh, but the cake seemed to be... It was shaped just like... "Sam..." Rainbow turned to the small crowd of ponies, who hadn't seemed to notice her and Pinkie yet. As she did, one of them raised their glass. "Thank Celestia he left when he did. Who knows what might have happened if he hadn't moved on. He was obviously dangerous. As a parent, I feel my foals are much safer with that monster gone." Rainbow's eyes slowly tracked to the banner hung above the mantle. To a chorus of quiet "Hear, hears", her eyes took in what she hadn't been allowing herself to. 'Good Riddance' the banner proclaimed in bold letters. Rainbow landed on the floor with a heavy thud. At the sound, all eyes turned toward her, but were quickly shifted again to a violently twitching Pinkie. Her mane twitching spasmodically, Pinkie leapt at the table with a cry of, “Cake! Yum!” In a not unusual moment of Pinkie being the mare she was, she landed on the table belly first, sliding along and ingesting the three foot long cake in one go. Coming to the opposite edge of the table, Pinkie landed back on the floor in a foor hoofed slide, her impetus bringing her to a skidding halt in front of the collection of toasting ponies. Her eyes wide and frantic, with a manic grin plastered across her face, she regarded them. “Boy oh boy, that was a yummy cake. Not some kind of half-eaten effigy, nope nope nope. Effigies always make Pinkie Pie a little off, and my smiles a mile wide, right?” To the confused and slowly horrified ponies, Pinkie’s grin became something most likely impossible for another pony to replicate, an almost deaths head grin. Her gums showed as all her teeth flashed at the more than slightly discomfitted partiers. “I really gotta say, though. These decorations are totally inadequate for such a big occasion. Whatever it is. No telling, I’ll figure it out!” Bouncing frantically around the room, Pinkie haphazardly tore streamers, balloons, and most emphatically that damning banner off the walls. Her eyes darting around the room, her gaze came to rest on the open fireplace, a merry blaze crackling away inside. She unceremoniously pitched the lot into it, practically smothering it. One of the ponies seemed to snap out of their almost entranced state, clearing her throat. “I say, What are you doing? This is a private gathering!” Instantly Pinkie was right in her face, breathing heavily. Her left eye twitched, her disturbing grin unchanged as she stared down the mare. Something that might generously be described as a chuckle ground out of Pinkie’s throat. “Well, I’m cleaning up this disgusting mess, silly. As the premier party pony of Ponyville, I can’t let this kind of terrible work stand. Don’t worry, I’ll spruce these decorations up!” Reaching back into her saddlebag, Pinkie pulled out a rumpled streamer and some un-inflated balloons and dropped them on the floor behind her. “See, all better? Now that my work is done, I’m going to take my friend home. Parties should be fun, and I don’t think she’s having any.” With that, the pink party mare pivoted, nearly crashing her rump into the dumbfounded and slightly terrified mare, and bounced back to Dash’s side. Dash hadn’t moved, her gaze locked forward. She muttered something under her breath, too lightly to be heard, but made no sign of moving as Pinkie nuzzled her lightly. “Come on Dashy, Time to go home.” Pinkie murmured as she slid her neck under the stunned pony’s midriff, settling her on her back and trotting back through the house and out into the night. No one said a word, their eyes riveted on the face of the multicolored mare, and her expression of disbelief. As Pinkie made her way through the darkened streets, she felt Rainbow begin to shudder. She stopped, carefully sliding Rainbow off her back and onto the ground. She lightly lay a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “I’m sorry Dashy. That was a terrible party. I wanted to make you smile. Those ponies…” Pinkie broke off suddenly, her hair completely deflating. Rainbow wasn't just crying. As the tears spilled from her eyes, broken chuckles could barely be heard. Pinkie watched, unable to say anything as the black mirth spilled out of Rainbow. “I didn’t want to believe it… Man, what a joke.” *=* Rainbow rolled away from the noise, wrapping herself deeper in her cocoon of blankets. Eventually the knocking faded. She wasn't up to seeing Pinkie today. Seeing that smiling face, and the pain behind it, wasn't something she wanted to deal with. No matter how many times Rainbow told her it was alright, and wasn't her fault, she could tell Pinkie still felt like it was HER that had hurt Rainbow, not some ignorant ponies. Screwing her eyes shut, Rainbow sighed. Maybe flying practice wasn't such a good idea today. Going out was getting more and more complicated. So many ponies would want to talk to her about things she'd as well leave be. It was easier to just stay in. And what if Sam came home while she was out! That would be terrible. Rainbow couldn't handle terrible right now. Besides, there was always tomorrow.