//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Not Words but Meanings // Story: Through Loyalty and Love // by Damocles23 //------------------------------// Through Loyalty and Love By Damocles23 Chapter 3: Not Words but Meanings 12 minutes before the incident Could it be better than this? A few hours after Dash finished gathering the necessary, Luna’s moon stood tall into the night’ sky, everypony slipped into a dreamless sleep, blissfully unaware of everything. And during the day nopony even tried to ask what Pinkie Pie was doing all day. After all, they grew so accustomed to the pink mare unorthodox antics, that she probably could get away with everything. Too accustomed or maybe even too scared to even suspect a thing. It was almost painfully easy. Not even Pinkie could explain how she got away with placing her junk all over Ponyville or even inside their houses but they were so accommodating about everything! Not a question asked, obviously. After all, did she ever asked them for anything for helping them? Being friends with everypony ( and a baby dragon..and a couple of donkeys…and a zebra) will do that for you. Years and years of kindness and goodwill were going to pay off even better than she imagined. For these very reasons, Pinkie felt almost all-powerful. She only lacked a tiara, a horn and a pair of wings to be declared the true Princess of “ Pranks-who-weren’t really-pranks-but just-a-silly-excuse-to-hang-out-with-your-best-friend-and-tell-her-you-have-a-crush-on-her-and-go-out-on-a-a-date-or-something-or-make-out-but-only-if-she-wants-to” … The horn needed too much care and the title was too long to be taken seriously. She didn’t mind a pair of wings, though. A pair of big, fluffy, awesome pink wings so she could fly without balloons or some other silly gimmicks, be all like swoosh and zoom and going so fast that you could fly all over Ponyville before you could say “chimicherrychanga” , sleep on clouds whenever she felt tired or go and visit Dashie without asking Twilight to use that cloud walking spell… And for the umpteenth time her thoughts went to a certain blue pegasus, a blue pegasus who was so brave and cool and the best friend she ever had, somepony who made everything better by just being there, who made the sunny days Pinkie always loved and the rainy days, because she also loved playing in the rain with Gummy, a blue pegasus so awesome and beautiful that it hurt she still had to wait to see her but not for long since the great night was about to start. Their great night, to be precise. She waited for Dash into a old abandoned house with dusty floors ,walls full of cracks, and frameless windows from which they could see Town Hall in all of its glory, a old ,rusty silver chandelier dangled from the ceiling, squeaking at mere breeze of the wind. The house was also spiffy but Pinkie didn’t care one bit. She waited upstairs, walking in circles, leaving a circular trail of hoofprints in the dust, joyously humming a song already hear d before…from herself, obviously, but she couldn’t remember when. All while taking an occasional glance at the white sheet in the center of the room, which covered an unidentified silhouette. She finally heard a familiar voice coming out of the window. Hi, Pinkie Pie!” the pegasus announced loudly. “Hi Dashie ! You came here just in the nick of time. Did ya brought…THE NEXUS!?” a thunder was heard almost immediately, as if to punctuate the last word. Dash was startled because there was indeed a thunder…coming from right behind her…from the rather large stash of rainclouds she brought with her, tightly packed with a long rope. From Dash’ look you could’ve swore she was thinking that the raincloud was indeed trying to punctuate the last word. There are things ponies are not meant to know… “Well, just look at this beauty” Pinkie chirped upon noticing the stash “You just outdid yourself, Dashie! You’re the best!” Dash laughed cockily “Hehehe! You can’t go wrong on the Dash! Now, where should I put this beauty?” Still staring at the pegasus Pinkie said: “Just put them downstairs, on the big red X on the floor!” Struggling a bit to push the big pack of rainclouds trough the small window, all of the while making a squishy sound, and careful not to hit them too hard unless she wanted to unleash another thunder, Dash managed to say a few words during the irritating task. “You’ll never guess…Unngh..who i just saw…Nnngh…just a minute before!” “Who did you see?” “Princess Celestia!” “Whhha….?” “Yup. That’s right. Apparently nopony knew she was coming. Twilight would’ve told us at least a thousand times!” “And what is she doing here?” “I don’t know. Too busy gathering these” Finally, Rainbow managed to squeeze through all the rainclouds to get them into the house. There was so little room that the two ponies were basically forced into the corner after that, Dash still holding on the rope. She looked perplexed before finally stating the obvious: “Maybe I’m stating the obvious, but couldn’t we just…do this some other day? I mean maybe I can gather some other rainclouds, not that I’m running out of space…” She totally was, but that’s beside the point. Before she finished that sentence, Pinkie gasped and interrupted her, with a look on her face that looked like Dash was proposing her to devour a live foal. “Another day? Are you loco? We can’t do it another day this is THE day! If we chose another day, it would be ANOTHER day, not THE day!” “Technically it’s night …and the word “day” just lost its meaning…But the Princess is there and all of those guards. What if something goes wrong?” “It can’t go wrong! It won’t wrong! Why it should go wrong?” Pinkie looked even more frantic and desperate while saying that. Dash quizzically tilted her eyebrow, looking suspicious: “You didn’t explain me anything about the prank! You just said go gather the rainclouds and that it was awesome and stuff! Why do we have to do this now? What is all of this stuff? I want to know!” she stomped a hoof on the floor, raising a small cloud of dust from the floor. Dash meant business. When she adopted that look, everypony had to take her seriously and woe unto them if they did otherwise., no exceptions. Dash was still in that room only because of Pinkie, but with anypony else, especially not her friend, well...Let’s just say she wouldn’t be so kind. Dash had to knew, obviously and she was rightfully worried of annoying the Princess. Pinkie was too, but she didn’t show and that didn’t stop her. She knew she had to tell the truth to the cyan mare but that wasn’t just the right moment. If she told her right now, especially in that mood, everything would be lost. The perfect moment to be with Dash…Lost… She couldn’t allow this and, luckily for her, Rainbow Dash wasn’t the only pony with a killer look. Pinkie looked at her with large, shiny, puppy-dog blue eyes, she even looked like she was going to cry and her lower lip started trembling. Her small whimpers were just the icing on the cake. “Y-you mean you d-d-don’t trust me, Dashie?” she loudly sniffed. And that look stung Rainbow like a bee, making her immediately falter. Not that it stopped the pink pony. “I told you it was a surprise!” she continued “Why you don’t like surprises, Dashie? Why should I ruin your surprise, Dash? You don’t like MY surprises, Dashie Washie? Is that it? You don’t like me? Pinkie was on the verge of tears. Fake, manipulative, convenient tears, spiced with a teaspoon of unrequited love just to make it convincing. The best kind of tears. Rainbow looked absolutely lost and a bit surprised, alright. That “Dashie Washie” made the trick, hit her like an hoof to the jaw. Trying to avoid her friend’s gaze looking for a possible escape, difficult since three quarters of the room were still filled by rainclouds. Summoning some courage she tried to blubber an excuse: “It’s not like that! I mean, it’s not I don’t like you…” “You mean you like me?!” Pinkie’s heart skipped a bit, full of hope. She knew it was too early to celebrate but that choice of word was almost perfect! Dash was even blushing a bit. For embarrassment over this whole surreal conversation but who cares. “ No, you got me all wrong! It’s just…” And then Pinkie just exploded. She burst into tears before she could finish that sentence, startling Dash so much that she jumped backward, even getting a little wet from the tears. The pink pony erupted in a fountain of salty sadness. She cried like she was trying to drown the world. Which is a lot. “YOU DOOOOON’T LIKE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! WAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” Somewhere, the ears of a certain marshmallow unicorn where whistling because of the blatant rip-off of her own act. With no way out, her friend crying like a fountain in an old abandoned house filled with junk and rainclouds Rainbow Dash just froze there, dumbfounded, asking herself what went wrong. Pinkie Pie was having the time of her life. Sure, she knew that it was a bit cruel to play with Dash’s feelings like that but… Actually there is no “but”, that was just cruel. And needy. Maybe she went a little too far with this. Scaring Dash by making a scene so over the top and embarrassing was worthy just to go along with the plan? Sacrificing her dignity and her friend’s peace of mind? Continuing a thread of lies that just didn’t want to stop and probably would spiral out of everypony control for the sake of her romantic affection? Yes. Yes, it was. But that didn’t matter for now. Only the plan mattered…Only being with Dash, mattered. If she had to resort to such underhooved methods so be it. She would’ve found new ways to hate herself later. Fortunately Dash managed to utter something to try to calm her down. Exactly as planned. “I’m…I’m sorry, Pinkie. I didn’t want to upset you.” The pegasus fidgeted on her hooves looking at the ground, completely off guard “If it’s so important to you…I’ll just help you out like I said.” The waterworks immediately stopped, precise as a clock. Her expression immediately changed from a watery, blubbering mess to her usual cheery self: “Ok, Dashie! I’m so glad everything turned out to be alright-y! Now go downstairs, the show is about to start!” Rainbow rolled her eyes, and started pulling the rainclouds: “I really hope you know what you’re doing…” Finally, everything was ready. The great night was about to start. The two mares finally found themselves in that dusty room, at the opposite sides of whatever that white sheet was covering, looking at the sleeping village. The pink mare just couldn’t hold her enthusiasm, hopping in her place back to her exuberant self while the pegasus looked completely lost, even though a soft smile was gracing her face. Pinkie finally removed the sheet to reveal an hastily built metal box, covered with duct tape and streamers. Obviously Pinkie’s design. At the top of it a big red button, on which was written with a marker “BIG RED BUTTON”. The sight of this was so silly that Rainbow Dash finally started to relax, and started chuckling a bit, even if there still was a hint of nervousness in that little laugh. “I hope this isn't what I think it is...” “What do you think it is, Dashie?”she giggled “I really gave up on that…Guess you won this time.” “Hhhm?” “You just wouldn’t explain anything about this prank, you even made that scene earlier. I tried to reason with you, I tried asking politely…Heck, I even tried to look angry but nothing worked with you. I guess I’ll finally know now. “ An awkward moment of silence between the two, lasting like a lifetime only to be once again broken by Rainbow. “You’re weird, Pinkie. You know that?” “Yes, indeed-y!” she chirped. Dash’s face immediately went “go figures” “I’ll give you that, Pinkie: you’re weird, random, I can’t understand almost anything about you, I think nopony could. And when you get this stubborn you can be a real pain…But you know how to entertain a mare!” “Really?” she flashed a smile so big that it was a miracle it fit her face. “Yeah! Maybe I’m just too confused about everything, but I really want to see where you’re going with this. You’re not even worried about the Princess being here! It’s strangely…appealing for some reason.” Pinkie nearly swooned. Was this the right moment? Too little and too early, but it was so close… “I saw your preparations for this all over the village. You just worked all day doing…whatever you did and you never stopped. And from what I can see you’re not even tired!” Actually the pink pony was exhausted, completely and totally exhausted, but she didn’t want to show it. Not this close to victory. “Nothing and nopony can stop you, Pinkie. Even you started acting like a crying foal, I’ll have admit that worked out for you” they both started giggling at that part. Pinkie sighed with relief at the end of it. Luckyly, Dash didn’t judged her too harshly for that little, albeit completely faked, outburst. “Just like nothing and nopony can stop the Dash. Guess I never noticed this about you. Well, I kinda figured it out but I never thought about it seriously.” Pinkie was completely silent, staring into the cyan pegasus eyes with profound admiration. “I really like that about you…” And for one brief, perfect moment, Pinkie was part of something greater and beautiful. Her spirit left her body to visit pony heaven itself and she knew about true joy and the meaning of her existence and the universe. It’s cupcakes, by the way, but nopony else had to know. “But…”Rainbow added. And that single “but” brought the pink pony back from the celestial plane the instant it was uttered. Curse you, “but”! Destroyer of happiness! Pinkie swore to get her revenge by destroying all the “buts” in the world. “I can’t help to think that there’s something more on this prank, if you don’t count the part you’re deliberately not telling me” Dash’s smile became a sly one. Pinkie followed that sentence with shifty eyes, looking suspicious at hell: “ W-What makes you think that, Dashie? It’s just a prank, just the way you l…” “Cut it out, Pinks. This time I got you” Pinkie nervously gulped. Dash leaned forward, looking right into Pinkie’s blue eyes, so close that she could feel her breath. “I’m the one being pranked, right?” Rainbow was completely deadpan. This time Pinkie froze, dumfounded. “You sent me fetching all of the rainclouds, so you can place junk all of the village. Then you tell me we have to set up everything in a old abandoned house, in the middle of the night, while the Princess herself comes to visit and none of our friends show up to say anything or search for us…It’s a prank and everypony is involved! Princess included” Dash stood on all fours, her chest swelled with pride for reaching such an awesome conclusion. Pinkie totally didn’t predict about HER be the surprised pony. She figured out her everything, well almost everything. Unless the Princess wasn’t secretly planning this, too. You never know. She couldn’t play along with this, she had to continue with this charade. Thank Celestia, not for long. “What’cha talking about, Dashie? You silly pony, you do the pranking this time! You can’t prank the prankster!” she nervously laughed. “Well, I sure felt pranked, alright! Look if you just keep stalling…” she turned and started to leave, until she felt a strong, pink hoof on her shoulder keeping her. She turned out to see something she never thought she would: Pinkie. Serious. No silly smiles, no nervousness, nothing noticeable. For once she looked like a blank state. SOmething that could only work trough precise instructions. Forze in time, taking her "now-or-never" stance almost too literally. And that's how she felt. One of the very few times she found herself at loss of words and actions. Almost on the verge of tears, true tears this time. Without a single word she delicately placed Dash’ hoof with her own on the big red button, almost mechanically. Then she finally spoke: “Please, have some faith me Rainbow Dash. Only this time” Dash complied, silently. She looked in her eyes with a mixture of compassion and trust and together, without ever leaving the other mare gaze, they pushed the button. And. All. Hell. Broke. Loose. Author’s Notes: Sorry for a whole chapter made of flashback, but I really needed to get rid of this part. I noticed that everytime I write something it turns out a lot darker than it should be. Is that good or bad?