//------------------------------//
// the next day (edited) 
// Story: the rumour 
// by Derec mc coy 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash landed in the centre of Ponyville square. She picked up her shopping list and walked to one of the stands of the market.

“Hey, Carrot Top” she said when she reached the stand.

The orange earth-pony turned around and saw the cyan pegasus standing at her stall. She giggled a little.

“Why hello Dash. What brings you here?”

Dash cocked an eyebrow “Well… I’m here to buy some carrots! It’s not like you’ve got much choice here.” And she mentioned the stall that was filled to the top with carrots.

“I thought that you didn’t like ‘carrots’” Carrot Top said while she tried to sound sarcastic.

Rainbow Dash, who was even more confused, saw now that there were some ponies gathering around and looking at her. ‘What’s going on here?’ she thought. ‘Is this another prank of Pinkie's as revenge. Is there a paper pinned on my back?’ she turned her head and tried to see her own back and hind legs. ‘Nope. Nothing there.’ She double-checked her whole body awkwardly to find the reason as to why all these ponies were staring at her. ‘Nope, I’m still awesome. Maybe they're just impressed by me.’ And she nodded to herself. ‘Yeah, that’s why. They’re just jealous.’

“Rainbow?”

Rainbow Dash awaked from her day-dream. “Oh, uh sorry Carrot.” She scratched her mane. “No, I don’t really like carrots. They’re for somepony else.” She heard a few giggles from behind.

“And is that ‘somepony else’ a mare?” Carrot Top asked. And she gave Dash a plastic bag with a few carrots in it.

“Yeah, why?” Dash looked around and saw that there were even more giggling ponies around her.

“Oh, nothing – that makes three bits please.”

Dash put the carrots into her saddlebag and took the bits. “Here you go.”

“Thanks. Have a nice day.”

“Yeah…uh, bye” Dash said and she walked away to the next stand.

‘Okay, let’s see...’she took her shopping list again. ‘so I’ve got carrots, now I need cucumber.’ She walked to the stand with a big, dirty, brown stallion behind it. ‘I hope that he still has some cucumbers.’ As she walked, she noticed that everypony was looking at her. Like something big changed with Rainbow Dash. And the worst thing of all is, she didn’t know what. It made her feel uncomfortable.

“Why hello miss Dash. How are you doing?” the market-pony asked kindly.

‘What the...?’ Rainbow was stunned. ‘Normally he’s cruel to me’ she started to think about the time that she destroyed his stall, months ago. Although it was an accident, he was still mad. ‘And he never calls me by my name. Normally he would just say ‘rampage’ or ‘kid’ ’

“Well, uh, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Dash replied. She knew that, if she wanted to be polite, she would actually have to ask him the same, but she had suspicious thoughts about all of this, so all she wanted to do was buy the vegetables and leave.

“Do you still have some cucumber, sprouts and tomatoes?” Dash asked.

“Well, yes of course I have.” He took all the greens Rainbow Dash asked for and put them into a bag. “Here you go miss. Especially for you, my best products. And, just because, for free.” He gave the bag to Rainbow Dash and smiled.

The smile on the stallion’s face reminisced her of a mean sales-manager who gave one of his employees a nasty and tuff course. Just to troll him.

“huh… thanks?” Rainbow took the bag and left before he would asked weird questions too.

‘The only thing left on my list are…flowers.’ Rainbow Dash thought. She walked towards Roseluck’s stand.

Roseluck was standing with her back to the front. It seemed that she had dropped something and was trying to clean it up

“Hey Rose.” She said in the hope that she would act normal.

“Hello Dash. What would it be?” Rose turned around and smiled.

“One bouquet roses please.”

“Of course.” Roseluck took medium sized posy red roses and gave them to Rainbow Dash. “Five bits please.”

‘Finally, somepony normal.’ Dash thought while she gave her the money. “Hey, do you know why everypony is acting so weird this morning?”

“What do you mean?” Rose asked slightly confused.

“Well, everypony is staring at me like I've changed and they behave differently when I talk to them.” Dash answered.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t worry about that Dash. Just ignore them. It’s not your fault that they’re not so tolerant.”

“Not so tolerant?!” Rainbow repeated mystified. Before she could ask Roseluck more about it,  she was already busy with another customer. “Tolerant? What the hay is she talking about?” she thought out loud.

“Hey, Dashie!” She heard from behind. Rainbow turned around and saw Lily with a nasty smirk. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine Lily.” Dash turned around and made herself ready for a lift of, but the pink earth-pony blocked her.

“Not so fast Dashie. There is so much I want to ask”

“And so less I want to answer.” Dash flapped her wings and wanted to fly away, but Lily stopped her again.

The yellow maned pony put her hoof upon Dash’s wings. “Please, it won’t take long Dashie.”

Rainbow turned around to face the annoying pony. “Listen Lily. First of all, I’m in a hurry and I’m not in the mood for talking right now. And secondly, why are you calling me ‘Dashie’? Only Pinkie Pie does that.”

Lily smiled. ‘This is too easy.’ She thought to herself. “Pinkie, huh? Well, I guess that those flowers are meant for her then?” she pointed at the roses coming out Dash’s saddlebags.

“What? No…those are for Fluttershy.” Rainbow gave a puzzled look.

“What?” Lily asked, astonished. “No…I didn’t know that you liked HER”

“Of course..I...like..her…?” Dash said. “We've been friends since our fillyhood.” ‘gees, those ponies are acting weird’.

Lily couldn’t hold in her laughter anymore. All the ponies around her started to giggle too.

“Okay then. See you all later!? Maybe?” Dash turned around and with a few strong wing beats and she was already away from the market.

‘What just happened?!’ She thought to herself. ‘I hope that my friends aren't like that too.’ She landed at the balcony of her cloud house. She then dropped her stuff into the kitchen.‘Maybe Applejack knows why they’re all acting odd.’ But before she could go to the orchard, she had to stop by Fluttershy’s cottage for the shopping she asked for