Just Another Day
Ponyville, some had noted, was in many ways utterly unflappable. Although its residents tended to panic madly in the face of the smallest crisis (and there tended to be a lot of crises for some reason) and the town itself had actually been destroyed (or come close to it) on several memorable occasions, everything and everypony always managed to carry on as normal no matter what had been said and done. Regardless of the manner of disaster that had chosen to strike the town that week, there were always the same ponies roaming the same streets in a Ponyville that subtly but unfailingly was able to retain its own bizarre sameness. Time always passed and things always changed, but Ponyville itself never did, not really.
It was consequently on a perfectly normal afternoon that Pinkie Pie bounced happily as per usual down the main street of a perfectly normal Ponyville, chatting with a particularly cheerful-looking Rainbow Dash who glided smoothly alongside her. The sun shone brightly in a clear, meticulously maintained sky. The same ponies that Pinkie Pie saw every day waved to her from the doorsteps of their houses, from their picnic spots on the grass, from behind the windowpanes of cozy cafés.
Everything was as it always was—it didn't matter to Ponyville as a collective whole that Pinkie Pie had woken up that morning with a curious feeling that had not been there the day prior flittering around in the pit of her stomach, and an alarming, substantial (but at the same time, painfully obvious) revelation buzzing vaguely at the corners of her mind. It also didn't matter that Pinkie had immediately reached out an imaginary hoof and grabbed at that fleeting, shapeless revelation and wrestled it down and gave it a name and a meaning. And it didn't matter that the name she gave it was "Love" (capital-L, of utmost importance, followed by a comma followed by "True") and it didn't matter that the object of her newly identified Love was at present moment occupying that specific patch of open air which happened to be located just above the immediate left of Pinkie's head (incidentally, the perfect place for a restless pegasus to keep pace with an unfortunately earthbound friend). Finally, it didn't matter that Pinkie Pie had decided on an appropriate course of action to deal with all of this, and that she was trying to explain the aforementioned 'all of this' to Rainbow Dash through a long-winded, impossible-to-follow, patented Pinkie Pie monologue.
None of that mattered to Ponyville as a collective whole. Ponies waved, the sun shone.
Then—
"So what I'm saying," Pinkie Pie finished, "is we should get married."
She was sure that was the only thing she said that Rainbow Dash actually heard, which was exactly what Pinkie had intended.
To her credit, Rainbow Dash did not fall victim to either of the two primary candidates for a response to a situation in which your best friend proposes marriage to you out of the blue—that was, she didn't choke and gape at Pinkie in shock, nor did she erupt in a violent fit of laughter. (At least, those were what Pinkie Pie suspected to be the primary candidates for a response in such a situation. She didn't exactly have statistics for this sort of thing, although she had briefly considered asking Twilight about it.)
Rather than choking or gaping or laughing, Rainbow Dash just stopped. There was a shaky stutter in her previously steady flying pace, then another, and then finally she just stopped. Pinkie Pie stopped too, and looked back at her friend patiently as Rainbow hovered beside her. There was a peculiar puzzled expression on the pegasus's face as though Pinkie, instead of having just essentially proposed, had merely made another one of those mildly confusing comments that were so typical for her. Pinkie Pie decided to interpret this optimistically.
"Um, Pinkie?" Dash said (quite calmly), after a beat of silence.
"Yes, Rainbow?" she responded (quite casually), the smile never really leaving her face.
"One problem with that," Dash said, her tone surprisingly mild. A slight smile pulled at the corners of her lips too, but there wasn't a hint of venom or derision behind it. "It's just that I think you're kind of missing a few key steps here."
"Really?" Pinkie Pie allowed some genuine surprise to seep into her tone.
"Yeah. I can't pretend be an expert on this, but you know, don't ponies usually date or something before—you know—getting hitched?" Without any visible cues from one another, Dash and Pinkie resumed flying and walking respectively.
"Yeah," Pinkie agreed thoughtfully, "I think I've heard something like that too. Dating."
"Right."
"But that's not a problem with us! Don'tcha see?"
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash's expression slipped into a frown again. "No. I don't."
"Well, we pretty much go on 'dates' all the time," Pinkie explained brightly. "I mean, we've hung out together lots and lots of times, sometimes with all our other friends and sometimes it's just us, which is even more like a 'date,' but I do that with Rarity and Twilight and everypony else too, so I wonder if that counts, but anyways we're best friends—and we will be forever!—so we're always around each other. So it's like dating! Kind of. Sorta, maybe." She grinned shamelessly at her own impressive logic.
"Except... not really," was Rainbow's inspiring reply.
Pinkie Pie shrugged. "I mean, it doesn’t really matter, 'cause in any case I think being best friends and having fun like we do all the time is a lot-lot better than whatever it is a real 'date' is supposed to be, if what we were doing wasn't actually dating. Don’tcha think?" She giggled. "So I guess it's like dating, but not, because we're doing it right!"
"Oh. Okay," Rainbow Dash said, after another beat of silence. "You're right. I guess."
"Right!" The familiar colourful buildings of Ponyville seemed to coast lazily by them as neither pony said anything for a while.
Then, without warning, Dash landed with a soft thud beside Pinkie Pie and began trotting effortlessly in step with her. The pegasus seemed to hesitate. "...Pinkie Pie. Do you actually really get what marriage is?"
Pinkie smiled, shaking her head patronizingly at her friend. Silly Dashie. Of course she 'got' what marriage was, and she told Dash so. "I even asked Mr. and Mrs. Cake about it recently!"
"'It'," repeated Rainbow. "'It' as in marriage."
"Right!" Pinkie nodded. "And 'recently' as in just this morning, actually. Since the two of them are married and all."
"Right." Rainbow Dash looked at Pinkie curiously, but otherwise the pegasus's expression was indecipherable. Pinkie made another conscious decision to interpret this optimistically.
"Wanna hear what Mr. and Mrs. Cake told me?" she asked.
"Sure."
"They said 'marriage' demands powerful mutual trust; total comfort with one another and the relationship; an ability and readiness to support each other; and, of course, a strong connection and bond, both physically and emotionally."
Rainbow's jaw dropped, just a little. "Uh, Pinkie? Did they really say that to you?"
"Nope! But I heard all that stuff somewhere before too and I think if Twilight made a checklist in regards to our relationship out of everything I just said, we could totally check it all off."
Rainbow Dash, surprisingly enough, just smiled in response. "Heh. I guess so. But—" She suddenly cut herself off and awkwardly started again after a short pause. Pinkie shot her a questioning glance. "Uh, anyways. So what did Mr. and Mrs. Cake really say about it?"
"Right, 'it' as in marriage." Pinkie grinned. "They said if you're doing it right, it should happen between two ponies who are best friends. And that the two ponies have to love each other (obviously!), and be sure that they want to be together forever and that they can make each other super-duper happy."
As Pinkie waited for Rainbow Dash to process all of that, she noticed for the first time that their surroundings had changed during their fun little walk-and-talk. And that they had reached their original destination, although she had to admit that she had until now forgotten that they even had a destination. Everything was a lot quieter; the air around their favourite little lake seemed to be cooler than that of the Ponyville marketplace and Pinkie Pie was suddenly struck by the usual impulse to dive headfirst into the smooth, tranquil waters. For once though, she didn't act on this impulse, because Rainbow Dash had stopped walking and was giving her a strange look.
"So, uh," the pegasus started to say, shuffling her forelegs. Then, silence.
"Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie prompted her friend.
"So, uh," Rainbow said again. "D'you think if Twilight made a second checklist, this time of what Mr. and Mrs. Cake said... D'you think we could also check that all off?"
"Of course!" she answered readily. "That's why I think we should get married."
"Because..." Rainbow drew out the word, enunciating it slowly and uncertainly.
"Because—well, because of what I just woke up knowing this morning!" Pinkie Pie said, abruptly excited again. "I tried to explain it to you earlier, right before I said we should get married—"
"Right." Rainbow coughed, shifting her gaze from Pinkie to the lake that stretched out (invitingly) before them. "I guess I didn't really catch all that."
There was obvious guilt in Dash's words, which made Pinkie feel sad and a little guilty herself, because that was all kind of her fault that Rainbow wasn’t paying attention, so Pinkie said, "It's okay, Dashie. I didn’t really explain it properly. So I'll tell it to you now! Okay?"
"Okay."
Pinkie shifted into her serious face. "You sure you're ready, Rainbow Dash? This is really, really, really important, so I have to make sure you hear me. In fact, I can get my megaphone if you want—"
"No," Rainbow Dash said quickly, her expression a funny mixture of panic and amusement. "I promise to hear you."
Pinkie fought back a smile, something she rarely did because smiles were meant to be set loose on the world whenever possible, but in this instance she had to admit it would completely ruin her carefully constructed serious face. "All right," she said gravely. "No megaphone, then."
"Okay," Dash said again.
Pinkie Pie cleared her throat. "Ready?"
Rainbow Dash nodded.
Pinkie Pie took a deep breath.
Then—
"I love you."
Even Pinkie Pie was surprised by how matter-of-fact she managed to sound.
"...Dashie," she added as an afterthought.
"..."
"..."
"...Oh," Rainbow Dash said.
"...Yeah," was Pinkie Pie's reply. Then she said, "That's what I've been saying. Or, well, implying. This whole time."
"Oh," Rainbow Dash said again. She exhaled, then took a deep breath as though she was about to say something of incredible significance, but all the pegasus ended up muttering was, "Huh."
"Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie studied her friend's still-unfathomable expression. It was almost a little frustrating, really; usually Rainbow Dash couldn't keep even an ounce of what she was feeling off her face, but today she was somehow master of the blank expression. Pinkie Pie didn't really mind all that much though, even if a part of her was actually starting to feel uneasy—besides, it was all more interesting this way, and she was still interpreting everything optimistically, after all.
Rainbow turned fully towards her. "Well, uh." She let out a breath, slowly. "Um. I guess I didn't know you felt that way, Pinkie," Dash finished lamely.
Pinkie Pie's smile, which had become softer and more subdued, widened again. "Neither did I!" she admitted cheerfully. "If I did, I would have done something way sooner!"
"No kidding," Rainbow mumbled. She swallowed. "So, what, you just woke up today and decided you lo—" A pause. "Decided that you love me?" Rainbow Dash finished, seeming to really work to sound casual.
"Pretty much," Pinkie affirmed happily.
Dash sighed, but Pinkie thought she caught a faint trace of a smile return to the pegasus pony's lips. "Pinkie Pie, you're just so..." Rainbow caught her eye, apparently incapable of finishing her sentence.
"Blow-up-your-mind beautiful?" Pinkie offered. "Completely and awesomely in love? Heart-stoppingly, tear-jerkingly, super-amazingly romantic?" By that point, she found herself draped dramatically over her pegasus friend.
Underneath Pinkie, Rainbow's body shook with quieter-than-usual laughter. "I was really just gonna say 'random' actually," she said, a real smile in her voice, "but I guess those might work too." Pinkie slid off of her friend and resumed her previous position beside Dash, and there was some more silence (somehow there was a lot of that today) while Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow time to say something and Rainbow Dash couldn't seem to find anything more to say.
As always, Pinkie Pie would have to take matters into her own hooves.
"Do you want to know why you, Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie Pie said softly. "Out of all the friends I love, and of the friends that we both love, why I decided I love-love you, Rainbow Dash?"
"I..." Rainbow's voice broke. The pegasus looked—there was no other way to describe it—utterly panicked.
"I had this whole song planned out," Pinkie said, still softly. "Full orchestra. Dancing. Porpoises, the works. After a while, though, I decided I was just going to tell you." She had decided a lot of things that morning.
"I..." Rainbow said again. Pinkie noted that her friend's voice seemed to have stopped working.
"Well, here's the gist of it, I guess." Pinkie smiled. "You ready?"
Dash didn't say anything. Her eyes were wide and fixed on Pinkie's face.
She took a deep breath, and then spoke sweetly, excitedly. "It's because when I think about when I'm going to see you I feel all happy and tingly like you're already with me. And 'cause when I think of smiles I think of rainbows and it used to be that rainbows don't come every day, but with you, they do. And even though I want everyone to smile and I'm super happy whenever I make anyone smile I'm extra extra happy when I get to see you smile so I think your smile might maybe possibly probably be my favourite.
"I love you"—she moved her face closer to Rainbow's, and the petrified pegasus's dark eyes threatened to swallow her—"because when somepony calls for help, you're always somehow the first one to be there. I love you because whenever I'm with you I always feel like I'm about to laugh, and even though I feel like that a lot of the time, it's even more like that with you. And every day with you seems a little bit brighter and funner and even more exciting and smiley than usual, and when you're gone, it's like a song that used to be there's suddenly stopped but then I see you and everything's better again.
"I love you because when I hear your name I want to giggle. I love you because you do silly things, like try to hide that you're a really good and nice and special pony. I love you because you're my friend, and you laugh with me when I'm happy and you try to make me feel okay again when I'm sad. I love you because when other ponies see you, they smile. I love you because you have a really, really funny voice and foals adore you and think you're a hero and I think there's a very good reason for that." She pressed her face against Rainbow's cheek, her grin softening. Her voice grew quiet. "And even though I'm lucky to have five super best friends, and Gummy, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and a whole lot of other great friends, you're my ultra special amazing Rainbow Dash best friend. And I don't know if this is my Pinkie Sense or not, but I always, always, always know when you're about to come see me or if you're close to where I am because suddenly I'll feel weird and light and laughter-y and like my whole body wants to sing.
"I love you because I know you love me even if I don't know if you know." She let out all her remaining breath, leaning into the still-frozen pegasus. "And you wanna know what made me think of all that today?"
"...What?" Rainbow Dash finally croaked.
"Because I woke up and realized that you're probably this"—she pulled away from Dash and shoved her hooves together in front of the pegasus's face—"close to finally joining the Wonderbolts. To having all your dreams come true for you like magic, and..." Pinkie Pie grinned crookedly, dangerously. "And I wasn't happy with that."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Wha—huh?"
"I'm supposed to want you to get what you want, and be happy when you're happy. But the idea of you being a Wonderbolt didn't make me happy like I thought it would," she said matter-of-factly. "And that's different. Really, really different. Because I always, always want my friends to be happy. But I was really scared anyways, because I thought you were going to become famous and fly around Equestria and be a hero and be too busy to just have fun with me. What if you never came to Ponyville again? I didn’t want that at all. And I was thinking such meany-pants, Selfish Sally thoughts, I realized that it must be because I'm in love with you!"
Rainbow Dash blinked. And blinked again.
Then, she started laughing. Really laughing—the fall-to-the-floor, whole-body-shaking, nothing-held-back kind of laughing. The Pinkie Pie’s favourite kind of laughing.
She watched, impatient but smiling and bouncing in place, as Rainbow Dash finally caught her breath and struggled her way back to a standing position, a few more throaty laughs and coughs rippling through her.
"What's so funny?" Pinkie asked. There was no anger in her voice, of course, because really she just wanted to be in on the joke and even though she wasn't sure why Dash was laughing so hard, there was an inexplicable sense of euphoria flooding her chest, like something wonderful had just happened. (Then again, Rainbow Dash's laughter was always something wonderful.)
"It's—I just—" Dash grinned, shaking her head and restarting. "I don't know, what you just said was so crazy, but it made so much sense for you. I mean, you... You're, like, in your own weird way, pretty much the nicest pony I know, Pinks." Her dark eyes twinkled warmly at her, and Pinkie glowed. "You want everyone to be happy, s-sometimes even if it means you're not happy, and so then when you suddenly say that you know when you're in love with somepony because you wanna throw away some of their happiness for yours for a change"—Rainbow paused, apparently at a loss for words to describe her amusement—"I guess even though that sounds completely insane, it just makes so much sense." She laughed again. "You're insane, Pinkie Pie, you know that?"
"Maybe," Pinkie sang. "It doesn't stop you"—she flicked Rainbow Dash's nose—"from loving me, though!"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "I'm supposed to be the one to tell you that I love you." She didn't appear to have as much trouble with the 'l' word this time. "You can't just decide that for yourself," she informed her, playfully bumping Pinkie's shoulder.
Pinkie Pie just beamed. "Yes, I can," she said, with effortless conviction. "But go ahead, Dashie! Tell me anyways."
"W-What?" Abruptly, some of the earlier uneasiness returned to the pegasus's face.
Pinkie Pie smiled at her mischievously, pleased at having caught Rainbow Dash off-guard. She was really good at that today. "Do what I just did! Tell me that you love me, or that you don't"—that last part Pinkie really just included as a joke—"and then tell me why. Easy peasy!"
"Pinkie, I don't—" Dash stopped herself, breathed in slowly. A trace of a familiar defiance glimmered in her eyes. "Y'know what? Fine. But Pinkie, I swear—we're not doing this lame, weird love confession thing your way, taking turns to spill our feelings and stuff. 'Cause you kinda just did that and you already said that I love you. And I don't really know how to say it. At all. Okay?"
Now Pinkie Pie was the one silent, fixated, even though she was singing inside, because Rainbow Dash just said the three words ohmygosh—
"Okay. So there." Dash took another deep breath. "And I guess all I can really say is that if you were anypony—anypony—but you right now, this would all be really, really weird and this conversation would have ended a long while ago. But if Twilight made a checklist for the kind of pony that I'd be okay with saying all the things you just said, I guess the list would only say something like, 'Be Pinkie Pie.' And if it's you, maybe it's not so bad. It. I think I'd be more than okay with it."
"'It'," repeated Pinkie, an uncontainable excitement building up inside of her. "'It' as in marriage."
"Right," Rainbow Dash said. She smiled, almost shyly, pawing at the ground so Pinkie nearly thought Rainbow had switched places with Fluttershy. "So, I guess that's a 'yes' then, huh?"
And Pinkie Pie almost exploded. A million impulses raced through her mind, from screaming to hugging to bursting into flames to banging her head on something to crying to laughing and laughing and laughing.
In the end, all she did was fling herself at a grinning Rainbow Dash in a fit of unadulterated excitement, sending them both tumbling into the glistening lake and pulling them back down into reality as they remembered where they were.
And, Pinkie Pie thought, it was pretty much the best first kiss and best underwater kiss in the history of ever.
Even after they broke apart, Pinkie refused to loosen her grip on Rainbow's neck, not allowing them to return to the surface. Rainbow Dash mimed drowning, which prompted Pinkie to finally let go of Rainbow and launch into an intricate pantomime of giving the pegasus intense medical attention.
Their heads broke the surface of the water, Pinkie Pie beaming and Rainbow Dash snorting with laughter.
Pinkie tackled the pegasus in another hug. "I cannot find the words to express my happiness," she said, sounding sort of like Twilight, if Twilight was trying to catch her breath while squealing with excitement.
"I think I've got a good idea," Rainbow replied, smiling and a little breathless herself.
"In all fairness though," Pinkie Pie said, releasing Rainbow Dash and grinning as a new thought occurred to her, "I never actually asked you to marry me. You didn't have anything to say 'yes' to; I just told you that we should get married!"
"In that case," said Rainbow Dash, "I agree with you." Abruptly, she was laughing again. "But you know, this is really kind of ridiculous if you stop and think about it."
Pinkie stopped to think about it. "Mm... Nope!" she chirped. "Lots and lots of things are ridiculous, like going ice skating with only two skates, or a cupcake without the cup because then it's just a cake, or that thing that Twilight does where she hits the books instead of just reading them, but this isn't like any of those things!"
"Jumping from being friends to getting married doesn't seem weird to you? At all?"
"Nope!" For her part, Rainbow Dash at least didn't look at all surprised by Pinkie's answer. "I mean, I love you and you love me and so that means we should skip the part where I ask you out, and then you panic and run away, and then you try to deny your feelings for me as you're overtaken by doubt, and then there's drama, and then eventually we hug and make up and make out."
"Uh, what?" said Dash, sounding a little alarmed.
Pinkie Pie ignored her. "So let's just skip all that, and go to the part where we live happily ever after! Okay?"
It was a childish and naïve idea, some tiny, logical part of Pinkie knew, but she also knew that if anypony could pull off childish and naïve alongside her, it was Rainbow Dash.
On cue, Rainbow Dash let out another breezy laugh, drifting a little closer to her. "Heh, sounds good to me." Dash leaned against her, the pegasus's smile turning roguish. "Skipping to the 'making out' part seems like a cool idea too."
"We already did that, silly filly."
They laughed together.
"So why do you want to get married, then?"
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash turned towards Pinkie, looking slightly startled.
"I mean, if you find this strange, Dashie"—Silly conformist thinking!—"then why do you think we should get married?"
Rainbow paused. "Same reasons as you, I guess. I mean, why not, right?" She chuckled.
"That's it?" Pinkie tilted her head, searching.
"Weeellllll... Yeah." Rainbow was smiling, but Pinkie could swear that the pegasus was also blushing faintly, and that her eyes were suddenly trained on a space just to the left of Pinkie's head. "I mean," Dash started again, "I really like you. That doesn't even begin to cover it actually, but you know that. And I can definitely get behind this idea of yours. You know, just to be able to go, 'That's her. Pinkie Pie. Yeah, we're totally married.' Eheh... Yup. I can definitely get behind that."
"Aw, Dashie," Pinkie chided, "stop getting embarrassed and just say it already!"
One corner of Rainbow's mouth lifted reluctantly. "Okay," she said, "okay. Jeez." A full-blown grin stretched across her face as she spread her wings and elevated herself slightly above the water, her coat dripping and glistening in the sunlight. "You ready, Pinks?"
"Super-duper-ultra-hyper-mega-totally-truly-genuinely-utterly-sincerely-indubitably ready!"
Without missing a beat, Rainbow swept herself into a smooth bow, lifting up her head to look down at Pinkie. "I, Rainbow Dash," she began, a goofy grin stretching across her lips, "best young flyer in the nation, future Wonderbolt, resident hero, bearer of the Element of Loyalty, do hereby declare my love for Pinkamena Diane Pie... awesomest pony in Equestria."
As Rainbow Dash let herself drop back down into the water, a smug look in her eyes, there were probably a gazillion things Pinkie could have said. In the end though, her only responses were, "You're so funny, Rainbow Dash," and "I thought you were the awesomest pony in Equestria."
"Guess I finally lost that title," Rainbow replied with a shrug. She suddenly smirked. "Heh! And ponies think I can't express my feelings."
"I always knew you were a big marshmallow, though," Pinkie pointed out buoyantly. "And I looove marshmallows! Oh, but we'd better keep you away from any open flames. What if my fiancée gets all toasty and burnt and speared on a pointy wooden stick? That would suck." By that point, she was draped dramatically over Rainbow Dash. Again.
"You know," said Rainbow Dash, a joking edge to her voice, "I guess being friends with you was already always a few paces short of being married anyways."
Pinkie Pie slipped off with a splash. "Right! Exactly! I have no idea what you're talking about!"
They laughed again.
"...Oh, and Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash said casually, after another brief bout of silence. Dash gave her a sideways look that was startlingly soft. "Don't worry 'bout the Wonderbolts thing. I mean, I'm Rainbow Dash. And you're Pinkie Pie. We can figure out anything, take anything, right?"
Pinkie giggled and swam closer, bumping against Rainbow Dash. "I already knew that, silly. That’s another reason why I love you, you know. I trust you."
Rainbow Dash smiled.
The two friends drifted around in a content silence. Rainbow flipped onto her back and Pinkie splashed around, and it was almost like any other afternoon spent at one of their favourite hangouts, only a lot quieter than normal.
The sun shone.
It didn't matter to Ponyville as a collective whole that there were two ponies floating in a lake together, giddily in love and at that moment insanely happy about every single thing in their life. But it will matter soon, Pinkie vowed. She was going to plan an 'I'm-gonna-marry-the-greatest-pony-ever' party so huge that Ponyville would collectively pee its nonexistent pants.
That was when a final curious thought struck Pinkie like a lightning bolt. She turned around in the water to look back at her new fiancée. "Rainbow Dash?"
"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash smiled, floating closer to Pinkie so their bodies were touching.
"I was just wondering, y'know, about which part finally made you say yes. I need to know what I did or said that worked best—you know, in case I ever need to do this again."
"Honestly, Pinkie?" A sly smirk formed on Dash's lips. "I wanted to say yes from the very beginning."
Pinkie Pie gasped. "Rainbow Dash!" she cried reproachfully. "How could you?"
And with a final laugh, the two went tumbling under the surface again.