//------------------------------// // Rainbow Dash 9 // Story: Unwell // by HazamaBrony //------------------------------// I glanced down at the doctor’s office for what felt like the thousandth time in as many minutes, but looking at the clock tower told me that it had only been ten minutes since I had set up the cloud. I sighed. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do when Twilight did come out of the doctor’s office. “Hello, Twi! I’ve been following you all day waiting for you to finish your appointment so I could talk to you!” Yeah, that didn’t seem like it would go over too well. Heck, it made me sound like a stalker. Not that I was one. I was just tailing my marefriend around without her knowledge after a big fight. Sure, that might sound like stalking but… but… Thankfully, Twilight walked out into the sunlight before I had to come up with a concrete reason why I wasn’t a stalker. I nearly pushed off the cloud right there and then, but I hesitated. It would look a little weird and desperate if I showed up at the exact moment that she said I could talk to her again, and to top it off, I didn’t even know if she did want to talk to me. For all I knew, Doctor Hooves had told her to cut off all contact with me! Granted, he didn’t seem like the kind of pony that would do that, but he also didn’t seem to like me all that much. Ah, who cares? Even if he did say that, I would just make Twilight mine again, no matter what! Okay, that sounded creepy and possessive. Tone it down, Rainbow. Doctor Hooves wouldn’t do that, and the only way to find out if Twi wanted to talk to me or not was to ask her. I jumped off the cloud and glided down to the street, landing a little ways in front of Twilight, not close enough to cut her off or be rude, but near enough that she definitely saw me. I saw her face flash with… some sort of emotion that I couldn’t quite read, and she increased her pace a little, trotting up to me. “Hey, Twi…” I said awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head with a foreleg. “Are you in the mood to talk a little?” “Yes, but not now. I still have a few errands to run, so could you meet me at the library in about a half hour? That way we can have some privacy as well. Sound good?” she asked. I nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! I don’t have anything else to do for the rest of the day. So, are we cool?” Twilight gave me a flat look. “Let’s wait until after we actually talk before we decide that. But,” she said, smiling, “I have a feeling that we will be.” “Why do things never go according to plan?” I grumbled to myself after waiting in the library for an hour, bored out of my mind. I mean, I could take a look at one of the book, but I had no idea what ones were my kind of awesome, like the Daring Do books, and Twilight’s kind of ‘awesome,’ like something on, I don’t know, theoretical magic physics. Luckily, just as I was about to start climbing up the walls, Twilight marched through the door, and sat down on one of the cushions in the reading area with a huff. “That could have gone better,” she said, glaring at nothing in particular. “What happened?” I asked, putting aside my frustration at being made to wait for the moment. “I ran into that unicorn again. You know, Blood Work,” she said, still glaring angrily off into space. “Oh, boy, what did she say now?” I asked. “It was strange, actually,” Twilight said. “She came right up to me and asked how I was doing first. I thought she might have wanted to take up my offer of being friends, but the second I asked her how she was doing back she got really nasty.” “Nasty how?” “Well, most of it was the usual stuff. I’m better than you, that grant will be mine, and so on and so forth. Then she started accusing me of cheating, at the top of her voice, right in the middle of the market.” “That little piece of… argh!” I said incoherently. “I’m sorry Twilight, that must have been embarrassing. I should have been there to put her in her place. A nice hoof to the face would have solved that.” “No! Rainbow, that wouldn’t have been necessary, or even the right thing to do. Actually, everypony in the market place that was paying attention seemed to be on my side. A couple of them even yelled out things about how I saved Ponyville and the whole world a couple time, and one of them even threw a tomato at her. It missed, thankfully, but it was still a nice gesture… I think…” “Still, if she does keep this up, I don’t know how long I’ll want to keep my temper in check.” “Rainbow!” Twilight said indignantly. “Look, whatever happens, promise that you won’t resort to violence, okay? That’s never the answer.” “…All right, fine. But only if she doesn’t get physical herself, okay? I’m not gonna just sit back if she starts actually attacking you,” I said. Twilight sighed. “Thank you, Rainbow. I don’t think it will come to that, though. She seems rude, but I don’t think she’s actually a threat.” She clapped her hooves together once. “Now, on to business. We need to talk about our relationship.” I swallowed the lump that appeared in my throat. “Right. That.” “Forgive my language, but what the buck were you thinking, getting into a fight with Applejack like that?!” Twilight suddenly yelled. “But, but, she said something really bad about you…” I said hollowly. Now that I actually said it, I was surprised at how weak my argument sounded. “I know she did, but you should have let me handle it! That day was supposed to be about me! I was the one telling other ponies my deepest darkest secret, you were supposed to come along to make sure I didn’t chicken out! What you were not supposed to do was get into an argument with one of our friends!” “But—“ “I’m not done yet! I think what I find most insulting about what happened was that you decided to fight my battle for me. Regardless of what I have to deal with in the rest of my life, and for all my shortcomings, the one thing I am not is helpless! If you hadn’t jumped in like that, I’m sure Applejack and I would have been able to come to an understanding.” “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I didn’t mean to make Applejack afraid of you…” “Rainbow, I—“ Twilight began, but suddenly stopped speaking. “No, Rainbow, you didn’t make Applejack afraid of me. I don’t blame you for that. It was my own rash actions that caused that. Granted, your rash actions led to my own, but my actions are my own.” “I see…” I said. “But, Twilight, you can’t just expect me to not try to defend you. I… uh… I love you, and I don’t like hearing other ponies put you down. How am I going to know when to defend you and when to let you fight for yourself?” Twilight, for some reason, was staring at me with her mouth hanging open. “You… Do you really mean that?” she asked. I raised an eyebrow. “Of course I do. I’m your marefriend, so it’s only natural that I don’t want ponies talking smack about you.” “No… I mean the part about… never mind,” she said, shaking her head. “In any case, let’s lay down some rules about when you can defend me, and when to let me defend myself. First off, if I’m not there, of course you can defend me. Verbally at least. As for when I am present, how about only if I’m actually crying, okay? In any other situation, I think I can handle myself. That sound good to you?” “You want me to wait until a pony has actually driven you to tears before I jump in to defend you? Really?” I asked flatly. Twilight frowned, her ears flopping back. “Is that a weird thing to ask?” she said, hesitating a little. “Well,” I said, rubbing the back of my head uncomfortably, “a little, but I can understand it. All right, sure. I can live with that,” I said, lying through my teeth. No way was I going to actually let somepony make Twilight cry before I did anything. I would just have to be careful about how enthusiastically I defended her. “So, are we cool?” I asked hopefully. Unfortunately, the frown on Twilight’s face stayed there. “Not so fast. We still have to discuss what happened at Fluttershy’s.” Drat. “Look, Twilight, I have no excuse. I should have been sneakier when I was talking to Fluttershy. I was just, I was worried about you.” “Why did you go to her in the first place?” Twilight asked. “Heck, when did you go? I left before we could discuss that.” “It was right after you had that nightmare. I was thinking, and I got to wondering how much I should worry about you. So I went to the pony that I knew had some relationship experience. Like I said, I should have been sneakier about talking to her. I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?” I asked. “Like I said on the way to Applejack’s I already have. I just wanted to hear your reasoning.” “Then, are we good?” Twilight smiled. “Yes. We are, as you were saying, ‘cool.’” “Yes!” I yelled, throwing my hooves in the air. I know it was a bit of an overreaction, but—no, you know what? It wasn’t an overreaction. This was our first major fight, and we had come through the other side. I always heard that that was a good sign for the relationship, as long as it didn’t happen again too soon. “Wow, Rainbow, you look happy about something. What’s the occasion?” a familiar voice said from behind me. I spun around to see Lyra standing in the entrance to the library with a smile on her face. “Oh, nothing. Just something between Twilight and me,” I said, a goofy grin on my face. Lyra’s eyes widened. “Oh…” she said in a sultry voice, walking up to me and putting a hoof around my shoulder. “I see… the first time is always magical, you know…” she whispered in my ear. It took a second for the implications of what she said to sink in. “No, no, no! Not like that you perv!” Lyra laughed. “Relax, I was just kidding. I bet you two do it like rabbits.” I swear, if my face got any redder, I would faint. “I wish,” I mumbled. Lyra drew back. “Really? And how long have you two been going out? A couple weeks now? I guess that’s not unheard of… but still…” “Not everypony wants to move that fast.” “Said Rainbow Dash.” “What are you two talking about? And what was that about rabbits?” Twilight asked, cutting into our conversation. “Nothing!” I yelled, at the same time as Lyra said “Rainbow wants to do it, Twilight.” Twilight cocked her head. “Do what?” she said, a completely innocent look on her face. Lyra’s jaw dropped, and I took the opportunity to jam my hoof in there. “Look, greenie, one more word about this and you’ll be in a world of hurt. Understand?” I hissed at her. Lyra just nodded, and I took my hoof out of her mouth. “Um, what’s going on?” Twilight asked, looking confused. “Nothing you need to worry about Twilight.” I said, shaking my hoof to get the drool off. “Right, Lyra?” “Right. Nothing you need to worry about,” Lyra said, still looking shocked. “Really, though?” she asked me. “Just drop it, Lyra,” I said. She threw up her hooves in defeat. “Okay, I won’t mention it again. Anyways, Twilight, are you ready to get this done?” “Sure thing, Lyra! Just let me get my stuff together,” Twilight said cheerfully. I looked between the two of them curiously. “Get what done?” I asked. “What’s going on?” “Oh, right, I didn’t get the chance to tell you, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “I was so far behind schedule because of Blood Work that my timeline is all thrown off. Anyways, Lyra and I have started collaborating on her project for the Canterlot Charity Society.” “Really?” I asked. “I thought that you were working on a solo project for that. Are you allowed to have two entries for the project?” “Not… not technically, but Lyra has already done most of the work. I’m really just double checking everything. It’s not really enough to justify putting my name on it.” “But what about your own project?” Twilight laughed. “I’ve pretty much finished it. I just need to put the finishing touches on it, and then all I have to do is practice my presentation.” “Oh, that’s cool! I didn’t know you were that far along!” “Well, over the past week, I managed to get a lot of work done. Since I wasn’t hanging out with you, I did a lot of work to distract myself from how badly things went,” Twilight said. Lyra looked at Twilight, then at me. “Um… what was going on between the two of you? Or is that none of my business?” “Oh, it’s nothing you need to worry about, Lyra,” Twilight said cheerfully. “Why don’t you head on down to the lab and get your stuff ready, while I get my notes from my bedroom.” “Sure thing, Twilight!” Lyra chirped, and turned to the entrance to the lab. “Wait,” she said, pausing, “why were your notes in your bedroom?” Twilight blushed. “I may have been reading them in bed.” Lyra chuckled. “That does sound like you. All right, meet you downstairs.” Twilight began to trot up to her room, while Lyra turned and made her way down into her basement. After a moment of hesitation, I followed Twilight. “Yo, Twi, wait up,” I called after her. When she paused, I caught up with her. “I thought that we were going to spend the day together. What happened?” “But we didn’t make any plans like that. We were just supposed to talk about our relationship. I thought that I would have the rest of the day free,” Twilight protested. “Well, we didn’t make an explicit plans, but it was sort of implied…” “Oh,” Twilight said. “Oh!” she repeated, a distressed look on her face. “That should have been obvious, right? A whole day together after our first big fight? Rainbow, I am so, so sorry. I’ll go tell Lyra to leave right now!” “No, wait!” I said, blocking her before she could leave her room. “Twilight, that would be incredibly rude! Listen, what are you doing tomorrow afternoon? I have it free.” “I don’t have any plans yet…” “Then let’s hang out then!” “Okay!” Twilight said, cheering up. “But wait…” she said frowning. “If you expected to hang out with me today, you must not have any plans for the rest of the day. What are you going to do?” I shrugged. “I’ll think of something.” Twilight’s eyes lit up. “In that case, can I recommend a book for you? I know you finished the latest Daring Do, so you aren’t reading anything at the moment, right?” “Uh… sure. What kind of book is it?” “It’s a history book!” Twilight said cheerfully. I could feel my face fall. “That isn’t… really my kind of book, you know, Twi. Do you have anything cooler?” “No, wait, hear me out. It’s the first in a series, written by a famous comedian. It’s actually really funny as well as educational. Just give it a chance please?” Twilight said, giving me the puppy dog eyes. I sighed. I never could resist her when she looked so cute. “All right, fine. I’ll give it a shot.” Three hours later, I nearly fell out of my cushion laughing. “Slightly odd!? Oh man, talk about an understatement.” The book was actually really good. It made history sound more like a comedy of errors than anything, and I think that I learned more in the last three hours than I had in all my years of school. “Well, darling, you seem to be in a good mood.” I glanced up from the book. “Oh, hey, Rarity!” I said, smiling. Then I remembered what had happened last week. “Oh, hey, Rarity,” I repeated, much colder this time. Rarity winced. “I take it you are still upset about what happened last time we met? I assure you, it wasn’t my intention to offend or hurt you in any way.” “It wasn’t about me,” I said, scowling a little. “It’s about Twilight. She’s the one you should apologize to.” “Actually, darling, that’s why I’m here. I don’t want any bad blood between the three of us, so I came to smooth things out.” “Oh, good. Unfortunately, you might have to wait a bit. She’s doing some sort of science thing right now, and you know how single minded she can be when working on a project.” Rarity’s face fell. “Oh. Well, I don’t really have any plans for the next few hours, but I will have to get back to the Boutique at some point.” “I see,” I said neutrally. “Funny, I would think that patching things up with your friend would take first priority. But that’s just me.” “Listen, Rainbow,” Rarity said, frowning, “I know you’re still upset about what happened, but that was a low blow. You don’t actually think that I wouldn’t leave without talking to Twilight unless it was really important, do you? It’s a big chance for my business, and I simply cannot miss it.” “How big?” “Why, it is the best chance I have had in a long time to impress the upper echelons of the Canterlot elite. It would give me a whole new sort of name recognition.” I paused. I didn’t like the idea of Twilight being second on anypony’s list of priorities, but what Rarity was saying did make some sense. She would have to be nuts to pass up such a big chance. “All right,” I said grudgingly. “Well, maybe we should check on how Twilight and Lyra are doing. It’s been a couple of hours since they went down there, so I don’t think they could get too upset over a quick peek.” Rarity’s eyebrows climbed. “Lyra’s here?” she asked. “Um, yeah, she and Twilight are going over her notes together. Why, what’s up with her?” I asked. “Nothing. It’s just… she is the one I was supposed to meet. Talk about a stroke of good luck.” I felt my own eyebrows climb. “Lyra is supposed to help you suck up to those snobs in Canterlot? How is she supposed to do that?” Rarity let out a grunt of frustration. “This magic project of hers is going to be entered into the Canterlot Charity Societies contest, you see. If I have my name attached to one of the more successful entries, it will help me, as you so crudely put it, ‘suck up.’” “I didn’t know you knew much about magical theory, Rarity,” I said. “I don’t really,” she said with a flip of her mane. “Lyra needed some outfits made to very exacting specifications, and made out of some exotic materials to boot. And of course, she knew that I was the only pony that could meet those standards and still make everything look fabulous. But just think of it. ‘Produced by Rarity’, right there next to Lyra’s name on the winning project!” “That’s all well and good, but there is one problem with your plan,” I said, struggling to hide a grin. “Oh? Well then, darling, don’t keep me in suspense. What is this proverbial fly in the ointment?” “Twilight’s entering the contest.” “Oh,” Rarity said, drawing back. “I do recall her saying something like that. Well then, I just have one thing to say. May the best pony win!” she said with a smile. “Oh, I’m sure Twilight will,” I said, grinning. Rarity matched my grin. “Well then, ruffian, let us go check on our respective champions of science.” “Buck it all!” Lyra yelled, throwing a stack of papers into the air. “Just, just… Ah, buck it!” Rarity and I took a step back. We were not two paces into the room, and Lyra was having some sort of outburst. “Calm down, Lyra!” Twilight pleaded, oblivious to our presence. “Look, it’s no big deal, you just have to rework some figures.” “Yeah, all of them! I just, I just thought that I could do something right for once in my life,” Lyra said, the fire going out of her eyes, and she just sagged where she stood. “I should have known better.” “Um, what’s going on?” I asked, confused. Twilight gave a small start at my voice, and glance at Rarity and I, seemingly noticing us for the first time. “Well, Lyra and I were going over her notes, and I started noticing some discrepancies. We took a look at some of the experiments that she did earlier, and when we tried to replicate them, we got different results.” “Oh, okay… so?” I asked, not following. “So… that means one of three things. One: there is some chaos magic in the mix. Unlikely, since I didn’t sense any,” Twilight said, slipping into lecture mode. “Two: there was a contamination in the experiments we just ran, an outside interference, if you would. Unlikely, as this lab is state of the art and built precisely to be a sterile environment in which to do testing. So that means that—“ “That means that the experiments that I ran at the start of this whole thing weren’t completely free of outside contamination. And since I have no idea what that contamination was, the results and everything based on them are useless,” Lyra said bitterly. “Weeks of work, down the drain. Buck it. I give up.” “No, don’t do that!” Twilight said, sounding alarmed. “If we can just figure out what that contamination was, then we can adjust the rest of the figures. Maybe. Where did you hold you initial experiments?” “My basement.” “Oh. And what precautions did you take to keep contamination out?” “None. I just rushed in without thinking about that. As usual.” “Oh. Well then, it’s no wonder your results got skewed. Seriously, the testing environment is one of the first things you should consider when beginning a new project. You really should have thought harder about—“ “Twi!” I yelled. When she whirled to face me, I said “I think Lyra feels bad enough already.” “Oh,” Twilight said in a small voice. “I’m sorry, Lyra. I didn’t mean to rub it in like that. Forgive me?” “Yeah, whatever. It doesn’t matter,” Lyra said, not looking up from the ground. “I guess I just wasted a lot of time going after a wild goose chase.” “No!” Twilight said sharply, catching the rest of us by surprise. “Your figures may be off, but that doesn’t mean that your work is useless! There’s a lot of potential there, you just need to make sure your tests are sound. Tell you what, I’ll let you use my lab, as so long as you are careful. That way you can make sure your results are sound.” “But I don’t know how to use half the stuff in here…” Lyra said, but her voice had a hopeful tinge to it. Twilight smiled gently. “I’ll show you, okay? There’s still some daylight left, so we should have plenty of time.” Lyra sniffed, but she stood a little straighter. “All right. Sorry, Rarity, I guess our meeting is canceled for today. Rain check?” Rarity nodded. “Sure thing, Lyra,” she said. “After all, if you are starting from scratch, then you can hardly give me any specifications. I understand. Now, Twilight,” she said, turning to the mare in question, “I came here to talk with you, but I suppose you will be busy with Lyra. Is there another time we could talk?” Twilight rubbed her chin. “Well, Rainbow and I are going to hang out pretty much all day tomorrow, so how about the day after?” she asked. “That sounds lovely. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to be in my idea room for the rest of the day, seeing as I have a blank schedule now. See you the day after tomorrow, if not actually tomorrow,” the white unicorn said, turning tail and trotting up the stairs. “See you then, Rarity!” Twilight called up after her. She then faced me. “What are your plans for the rest of the day, Rainbow?” “Nothing, really. I was just going to keep reading that book. It’s actually fascinating,” I said. “Well, then, how about you spend the night?” Twilight asked. I nodded. “Sure. I’ll go set up the guest bed.” “Really!?” Lyra blurted out. Twilight gave her a strange look, while I just ignored her. I was halfway up the stairs when Twilight called after me. “Rainbow, could you do me a favor?” “Sure!” I hollered back. “What is it?” “Could you throw away my old prescription bottles? They’re the empty ones on the sink. The new ones are in a bag behind the side mirror. If you could just put them on the sink, that would be great,” she yelled up to me. “Got it!” I shouted, and turned back towards the top of the stairs. The last thing I heard before I shut the door behind me was Twilight saying that the first rule of the lab was not to touch anything unless you were sure it was safe. The second rule was the same, oddly enough, just at a higher volume.