Black Clouds & Silver Lining

by Lucky Seven

Just Stop

As Tenna walked down the main street of Ponyville, she found herself wondering why Rainbow Dash hadn’t met her yet. She had been told to meet her on this street, and yet, she wasn’t anywhere to be found. With how busy the street was today, it seemed unlikely that she’d even find her.

“Hey, bugbrain, how ya doin’?”

‘Scratch that,’ the changeling thought with a sigh, ‘she’s here...’

“I-I Told you not to call me that, Rainbow Dash...” Tenna muttered to the pony floating above her. “My name is Tenna.”

“Lighten up, would ya!” Rainbow Dash landed in front of Tenna, stopping her in her tracks. “I give everyone nicknames. Fluttershy’s is ‘Nutter Butter’,” she added, laughing at the name. Even Tenna had to laugh at that one.

“Okay, um…” Tenna tried desperately to come up with a nickname for the pegasus in front of her, but found herself unable to.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Rainbow chuckled. “Now, I suppose you’re wondering why I wanted you to meet me here.”

“Um, yes?”

“Today, we are going to...” Rainbow started, but didn’t seem like she was going to finish.

“Um, why did you stop talking?”

“To pause for dramatic effect!” Rainbow exclaimed. “But you just ruined it, so now I have to start over. Ahem. Today we are going to… teach you to be assertive!”

“B-but why?” was all Tenna could manage to ask. Not many ponies had been mean to her in the six months she’d been in Ponyville, and they’d been chased off by other ponies anyways.

“Because standing up for yourself is important if you really wanna show that you’re not like the other changelings. You have to be able to help out other ponies if they need help. No offense, but I bet you’d just tuck your tail between your legs and run off, right…?”

It wasn’t a lie, and Tenna knew it. At any sign of confrontation, all she seemed to do was run away or just take the verbal abuse without fighting back. “Y-yes…”

“And that’s exactly why we’re going to do this,” Rainbow said confidently. “You need to stop letting other ponies walk all over you.”

“W-well, if you say so…”

“Alright, then follow me,” Rainbow took to the air, beginning to fly towards one of the many open fields around Ponyville. Sighing, Tenna decided she didn’t really have a choice, and spread out her own wings. The action seemed to garner the attention of a nearby pony, who called out to her.

“Hey, nice wings weirdo!” he exclaimed, making Tenna pause. Maybe this would be a good time to try being more like Rainbow Dash? She had seen her be assertive before, doing what she called, oh what was it…? ‘Garbage speech!’ she yelled internally. “How can you even fly with such puny things?”

Taking the time to land in front of the pony, Tenna saw a slight hint of nervousness work itself onto his features. “T-the same way you’d better fly away if you don’t want to get h-hurt.”

‘Hah, good one! I’m so tough,’ thought Tenna to herself. ‘Rainbow Dash would be so proud if she saw me.’ Little did she know, Rainbow Dash had stopped flying, and was observing the altercation from above.

“Me, run away from you? Don’t make me laugh, you’re so puny!” the pony laughed, and Tenna couldn’t help but get very angry. If there was one thing she didn’t like ponies making fun of, it was her height. Instead of replying with words, she took a step towards him, growling ferally. This time, it was the pony’s turn to look like he didn’t want to be there. As Tenna took another step forward, he turned around and high-tailed it.

“That’s right, you better run!” Rainbow Dash called from above, laughing her butt off the whole time. Flying down and landing next to Tenna, she grinned. “You did it without even needing my help!”

“W-well, not exactly. I just thought of what you might do, and d-did it.”

“Well you did a great job,” Rainbow congratulated her. “We don’t even need to do the training!”

“R-really?” Tenna asked, hoping it was true. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Rainbow Dash, it was that she didn’t want to find out just what kind of teacher she was. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, definitely. Just don’t go being assertive too much,” she warned Tenna, “I wouldn’t want you to end up like Nutter Butter did.”

“Wh-what did Fluttershy do?” Tenna asked, scared of hearing the answer. She had seen her get angry a few times in her six months in Ponyville, and it was never a pleasant sight.

“She went crazy and started being mean to everyone, then she locked herself in her home for like two days and had her rabbit tie her up.”

“Wow.” That was all Tenna could really say in response to the story, silently thanking god that she hadn’t been in Ponyville for that.

“Yeah, she took lessons from this big minotaur, and way too seriously. From what I could tell, he actually seemed nice.”

“So then he was kind of like you?” Tenna joked, making Rainbow Dash blush. “Hahaha!”

“Yeah, I guess… but I’m a better teacher than him!”

“You didn’t even teach me anything, though,” Tenna said, giggling. “So how can you be better?”

“You learned by example, didn’t you? Remind again who you observed to learn how to trash talk,” Rainbow replied, grinning the whole time. At that, Tenna could only giggle again before closing the gap between the two and pulling her into a hug.

“Aww, come on, I hate lovey dovey stuff…” Rainbow whined, but Tenna ignored her.

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash.”

“For what? I didn’t really do anything, you took care of that jerk all by yourself!”

“For being my friend,” Tenna clarified herself, and a silence fell between the two. After a couple seconds, she could hear Rainbow mutter “Aw, what the heck”, and return the hug.