//------------------------------// // Anxieties // Story: Shining Dash // by Ianpiersonjdavis //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash awoke in the guest room she had been for the duration of her stay in Canterlot. Needless to say, she was quite impressed with the bedding she was provided, it was almost as soft and comfortable as sleeping on a cloud…almost. Her sleep had been completely uneventful, yet when she awoke it was still night and Luna’s moon could be seen glowing high in the sky through her large bedroom window. She was no longer tired, so going back to sleep seemed like a futile option. --- Shining Armor awoke to light knocking on his bedroom door before he groggily noted to himself that it was still dark out. “This better be an emergency…” he muttered before getting out of bed to answer the door. Normally, getting up at odd hours was something he had been trained to handle in case of surprise attacks on Canterlot or the Princesses, but the last twenty-four hours hadn’t been to kind to him physically or emotionally. To his surprise however, upon opening the door instead of Flash Sentry, one of the Princesses, or another member of the guard; there stood Rainbow Dash. “Dash?” he asked, confused. “What are you doing up?” “Uh…couldn’t sleep.” She replied. “I didn’t wake you, did I?” “No, I was already up.” He lied, not wanting to make her feel bad in case something was bothering her. “Can I come in?” “Uh, yeah…sure.” Once inside, Dash sat on the foot of the bed. “I’ve been thinking about the Changelings….” She began. “I mean creatures that can change into anyone and feed of love-it’s like something out of a horror movie.” “Yeah…” Shining agreed. “What’s really bugging me is that if they can change form like that, then how can we know if we really got them all? How can we ever be sure if Ponyville, Canterlot, Cloudsdale, or all of Equestria is really safe?” “Well, based on what we know about the one that impersonated your boss; their not the best actors in the world, right?” Shining reasoned. “Well yeah, but after a screw-up like that, won’t others try harder not to make the same mistake?” Dash pressed. “Maybe…” Shining conceded. “But then again, maybe not.” Dash gave him a skeptical look. “Look, I’m sure Princess Celestia will have some kind of plan or at least an idea of how to deal with these things, I suggest we hear her out first before we start worrying too much…why don’t we talk about something else to get your mind off it?” “Like what?” Dash asked, curiously. “Well, even after all of this time I don’t feel like we know each other very well-so it would feel kind of weird telling others we’re friends when we don’t know all that much about each other…is there anything in particular you want to know about me?” Shining replied. “Well, how are you holding up?” Dash asked delicately. “I mean if I cared for a stallion as much as you do for Cadance, this would be pretty brutal for me-and I’m pretty tough.” “It hasn’t been easy…” Shining admitted. “But, I think I’m starting to come to terms with it-I’m actually pretty proud of myself for handling my conversation with Cadance as well as I did-especially with everything else going on.” “Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best person to talk to about things like this…but, I just want you to know that if you ever just want to vent or get things off your chest-I’m willing to listen.” “Thanks Dash, I appreciate that.” Shining smiled at her. “Would you mind if I asked you a few personal questions?” “Sure.” “Well back on the train you said that you hoped it would ‘work out better for me than it ever did for you’ I take it there’s a story behind that?” Shining asked. “Oh yeah, that.” Dash sighed as plopped down onto the bed with her hooves behind her head as she blew a strand of yellow hair out of her eyese. “You can pretty much tell by my mane why my parents decided to call me ‘Rainbow Dash’, but those, my raspy voice and my attitude didn’t always give me the best kind of attention-especially during flight school.” She replied. “I’d also crash into things a lot, the flight instructor said that I could be ‘a little overenthusiastic’, but others like those jerk we ran into after we first me would make fun of me and call me stupid names like ‘Rainbow Crash’ and later ‘Rainbow Trash’.” “Ouch.” Dash merely shrugged. “Maybe, but it made me tough-really it became more annoying than anything else-especially since that was all they had to work with when they weren’t picking on others like Fluttershy.” “Did she feel the same way about the bullying?” Shining pressed. She shook her head. “No, Fluttershy’s not as tough as me-emotionally, I mean so as soon as I found out they were picking on her, I stepped in.” “That’s good.” Shining replied with a sigh of relief. “But, what did you do-fight them?” “Nah, that would get ALL of us kicked out of flight school and I wasn’t going to risk ruining my dream of being a Wonderbolt over those jerks, so I challenged them to a race.” “Good thinking.” Shining commended. “I assume you won?” Dash flashed him a cocky grin. “Of course, that’s also when I did my first Sonic Rainboom!” “And they still gave you problems?” “Yeah,” Dash sighed. “Some of them didn’t believe it was a real Sonic Rainboom and others just thought I was making it up for attention or had a Unicorn friend to cast a mirage spell to make it look like I created one.” “That’s terrible…” “Well, it gets better; I stayed up for nights on end practicing so I can do the Sonic Rainboom again, but because of that I slept through classes and got into fights with those jerks whenever I ran into them because if it wasn’t me or Fluttershy, they’d be picking on some other kid-so eventually I got kicked out.” Dash continued. “They labeled me as a ‘troublemaker’ and thought that I was too lazy or just didn’t care about flying-do you have any idea what that’s like?” “I do actually…” Shining replied quietly. “I was what I guess you’d call a nerd…I was always playing RPGs with my friends.” Rainbow Dash gave him a blank stare. “Role-playing games like Oubliettes and Ogres.” Still blank. “Card games like; ‘Hocuspocus: The Get-Together’?” “Oh, Geek stuff.” “Yeah…‘Geek stuff’.” Shining sighed, exasperated. “Anyway, I know what it’s like to be treated like crap for being different-there was this one jerk-Buck Withers, he did everything in his power to make me and my friends’ lives a living hell.” “Like what?” “Trip us in the hall, steal the stuff we use for our games and throw them in the trash or destroy them, rip up our trading cards, and try to steal Cadance.” “Couldn’t you do anything to him?” Dash asked. “Not much you can do to the Captain of the Canterlot Dragons polo team-especially when he was their most valuable player-so everyone in authority pretty much just looked the other way.” “But, you were able to win Cadance over-right?” “What do you think?” Shining Armor replied flatly. “Okay, but what’s the point in telling me this-aren’t you in the same boat as me because of her?” “…Yes.” He reluctantly agreed. “But, that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up just because I’ve had a few bad experiences and you’ve never struck me as the kind of mare who would, either.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” she challenged, her wings flaring aggressively. “It means, don’t act like none of this has ever bothered you when I saw that you were clearly more than just a little agitated when we were talking that night on the train-this is something that’s been building up inside you for a while now, I swallowed my pride and put my faith in you as a friend all of the times of spoken to you about me and Cadance-all I’m asking is that you put the same trust in me without any pretense of trying to look cool, because you’re lying to both me and yourself when you do that.” He replied. Rainbow Dash’s wing relaxed a little before folding again. “I-I’m sorry…” “It’s alright,” Shining replied. “It’s just that you’re a good friend and I like you, but I can’t trust you if you can’t learn to do the same for me.” “Yeah…” she replied, averting her gaze. “I think I’ll go back to bed, to see if I can get anymore sleep before sunrise.”