“Stupid... so... so stupid...”
Rainbow had been whispering the self targeted insults on and off since the morning, when the two pegasi had shot out of the window of the inn. At first, Fluttershy had valiantly tried to convince the mare that it wasn't her fault, that it wasn't either of their faults, but Rainbow had ignored every one of her reassurances. Of course the stubborn rainbow maned pegasus refused to believe that it wasn't her fault. Even if she saved Fluttershy, thank Celestia she did, the fact that it had almost happened was enough to make her stomach churn. What if she had gotten there five minutes later than she did? What would've happened to Fluttershy then? How could Rainbow ever live with herself, let alone how Fluttershy could live like that? One thing was for certain though, she would have never forgiven herself.
And on top of that, she still wasn't entirely comfortable with the fact that she and Fluttershy... well... did it. Sure, she had accepted the truth of the matter, but comfortable with it? Not quite. Not only that, but what that meant for her, and her... sexual preferences confused her further. Of course, she had had this conversation with herself for a long time the night before, but with the exception of a new found admiration of Fluttershy's flank, there wasn't any progress made for her on that subject. Rainbow had decided that if she couldn't think of it after so much time on that cloud to herself, the idea that she would now come up with an answer to that question while flying across the freaking continent with an injured pegasus in her grip was silly at best. Still, she knew that the conversation with Fluttershy about that would happen at some point, and she was totally not ready for it.
Thankfully, for now at least, the mare in question that Rainbow was carrying was content to peacefully nap. Looking down for a moment, she stole a quick look at the quiet and beautiful mare. For everything that she had gone through, the small smile that appeared to be permanently placed on Fluttershy's face always made sure to remind Rainbow that the mare was indeed the Element of Kindness. Sure, Pinkie had that toothy grin every hour of every day, but that was different from this. While Pinkie's was more of a excited and silly smile, this was more of a comfortable and genuinely pleasant smile. It was sad that she always hid it behind her mane, because Rainbow wish she never hid that smile she had.
Rainbow gripped Fluttershy a little tighter at the thought.
It was several more minutes before the cyan mare felt a stirring under her as Fluttershy slowly woke up. Rainbow never saw it, but she felt the yellow pegasus take a large yawn, then slowly tried to wake up, “Mmmm... Rainbow?”
Rainbow smiled, “Yeah, Fluttershy?”
“Do you know how much longer we have until we get there? Or at least stop for the night? I'm getting a little tired, you know... if you don't mind.”
“You're getting tired?” the cyan mare chuckled, “You've been sleeping for hours! How could you be tired?”
Rainbow could feel the heat from Fluttershy's face increase, “Oh... I mean... I didn't mean that...”
“Heh, I'm just teasing you 'Shy. Don't worry about it. But yeah, I'm planning on landing in a few minutes. I think we're getting close to wherever we're supposed to go. According to the map thing, we were supposed to head towards some plateau nearby or something, and considering I can only see that huge one up there,” Rainbow motioned with her head, “that's where I think we're supposed to be.”
“Oh... I see...” Fluttershy trailed off. Rainbow felt like Fluttershy was holding back something, but she was somewhat nervous on what the mare was thinking. Reason being that the cyan pegasus was fairly sure that she knew what the yellow mare wanted to talk to her about, but was still holding out hope against it.
Finally, Fluttershy spoke again, “Rainbow... umm... about last night...”
Crap.
“It didn't mean anything!” Rainbow blurted out without thinking, regretting it the moment she said it.
The yellow mare tensed for a few seconds, but then sagged in Rainbow's grip, “Oh. I... umm... I meant when you saved me...”
“... Oh...”
“I just wanted to thank you for saving me from those stallions...”
Rainbow felt her mood slightly increase at the complement, temporarally forgetting about her earlier outburst, and Fluttershy's deflation, from just before, “Hey, no problem 'Shy. Its going to take more than a few losers to take me down!”
The cyan mare felt Fluttershy giggle slightly, “Yeah, that is pretty true, you are pretty awesome.”
“I am, aren't I?” Rainbow smiled for a few minutes, but the smile slowly faded, until only a focused frown was left on her face, the thoughts of the events of the night coming back full force. “Hey... Fluttershy,” Rainbow said quietly, “about the reason I wasn't there when they came in...”
“Its ok, I know it must have been... umm... awkward to wake up like that.” The yellow mare giggled emptily, “Like you said though, it didn't... it didn't mean anything, right? So we might as well just forget about it.”
Rainbow's heart held a mixed bag of emotions at the depressing words. Fluttershy was giving her an out, a way to avoid this whole 'mistake' that the two had made the last night, and act like that it didn't happen, and go back to what they used to be. Earlier, when she was panicking on that cloud, it was exactly what Rainbow had wanted: a way to stay best friends, while not completely complicating their friendship with each other, or their other friends, with anything weird like a relationship. This was her chance to effectively rewind the clock, and fix everything.
Instead of responding, Rainbow decided to stay silent as she carried Fluttershy through the air, and settled to simply allowing the minutes to tick by with nothing but the wind against their ears to break the horrifically awkward silence. Soon, the pair made their way closer and closer to the mesa that Rainbow had pointed out a few minutes ago. The terrain around it, with the exception for this single blemish in the landscape, was a relatively flat sea of browns and grays. All around them, wilderness expanded in every direction, with not a single village, town, city, or even a cottage in sight. In fact, Rainbow wouldn't be surprised, even if it was somewhat odd, if there wasn't a single soul that lived within sight of the plateau. Looking back in the direction of Sarlaka's domain, she couldn't even see the mountain range that his lair was located in, though if her memory served her correctly, she was pretty sure that she couldn't see those mountains days ago.
The mesa itself was massive in scale. The height that it stood at was as high as most mountains that Rainbow had ever laid eyes on, while the cliffs on all sides were the most sheer of cliff faces that she had ever seen in her life. The reason for putting Fluttershy's element here, where non-pegasi could never possibly get to, was becoming more and more clear by the second. Rainbow wasn't even sure if Twilight, on the best of days, could teleport from the ground level all the way up here. Over a mile and a half high, the mesa was the single largest landmark in the landscape. The top of the mesa was most likely completely barren, but Rainbow wasn't entirely sure considering how much higher the top of the plateau stood compared to her altitude. Though there wasn't anything of note from this distance, the cyan mare was sure the place where Fluttershy's element was hidden was up here.
Beating her wings harder and faster to gain altitude, the strong pegasus finally started to notice the amazing strain that flying for so long with Fluttershy in tow had on her body. The muscles in her back and chest instantly started to cramp up from overuse, and the sudden feeling of muscles burning, pleading for rest entered her mind. Ignoring every single one of these pains, she pushed herself to her limit and, like she always loved doing in Ponyville before, blew past it. The pair ascended, and after several long minutes, and hard fought final hooves of distance, she cleared the lip of the mesa edge.
Rainbow carefully hovered as she set Fluttershy down onto the sandy ground, the yellow mare a little wobbly after not using her legs for several hours, but otherwise was fine. Quickly moving to the side to make sure she didn't land on top of her friend, she finally put her weight on her hooves. Her wings finally giving out, Rainbow found that the rest of her body decided to follow suit, and she quickly found herself on the ground with her wings folded to her sides, and her belly pressed hard against the dusty mesa. Her breathing heavy and haggard, she heard Fluttershy slowly walk up to her, sit down next to her, and, with a hint of timidity, pressed hooves carefully on Rainbow's thick flight muscles on her back.
A sigh instantly escaped the cyan mare's throat as the pleasant feeling of Fluttershy's hooves on her back sent waves of relaxation though Rainbow, the circular motions loosening the tight flight muscles before they could cramp up further. Slowly, the cyan mare let her wings relax, unfurling them from their folded position, until both of her powerful wings lay limply at her sides, her entire body putty to the careful kneading of the yellow forehooves of the Fluttershy. Several minutes of this went by, time blending together until she was certain that she was literally drooling from the relaxing massaging. Still, as much as she wanted the moment to last forever, there was something that Rainbow needed to get off of her chest.
“Hey... Fluttershy,” Rainbow spoke quietly, her voice barely carrying to the yellow mare's ears. Even though Fluttershy nearly stopped, the cyan pegasus knew that she had her undivided attention. Taking a deep breath, she sighed, and felt her face heat up slightly. “I... I didn't really mean what I said earlier... you know... about that night not meaning anything...”
She could feel her friend tense up slightly, the mare's hooves stopping their delicate work as the words escaped Rainbow's lips, but the rainbow maned mare continued, “I don't know what it really meant, or what will happen because of it, or what it means if we acknowledge it happened, or...” Rainbow paused, and let out a slight chuckle, “I know, I know, I'm terrible at this sappy romantic stuff, but what I'm trying to say is... that I don't want us to forget what happened, because it had to mean SOMETHING... right? I'm not kidding you, I'm really confused right now, and before we do anything like that again, I think we need to have a long talk about this after all this Discord stuff is taken care of, but...” Rainbow rolled over onto her side slightly so that she could place a forehoof on one of Fluttershy's hooves, “... I'll think about it... ok?”
She noticed then that Fluttershy was holding her breath as Rainbow spoke. The mare finally let the air out of her lungs and lowered herself to hug Rainbow from behind, moving her yellow forelegs to wrap around the cyan mare under her loosely hung wings, pulled Rainbow into a deep embrace, “I... I think I'll be ok with that...”
Rainbow allowed Fluttershy to hold her like that for a while, until she opened her mouth again, “Hey Fluttershy, could you do me a favor though?”
Rainbow could feel the timid mare's smile grow as she whispered her response, “Anything.”
“Could you keep massaging my back? That felt sooooo totally awesome.”
There was a moment of silence from both of them, until Rainbow snorted a laugh, and the two started giggling like little fillies in school. The pair laughed for a long while, Rainbow's sides splitting in pain at the amount of deep breaths that she was forced to take in between deep laughs. At the end of it all, Fluttershy wiped a tear from her face, and whispered into Rainbow's ear again, “Sure Dash, anything for you.”
____________________________________________________________________________
Pinkie watched as the pack of timberwolves encircled Applejack's stetson, all of them confused about the nature of the strange object that fell in the middle of them. A few of the more curious, and less injured, of the group slowly approached the brown and weathered hat, and with a hint of trepidation, sniffed the cowpony's garment. They must have smelled the scent of the owner, for instantly, one of the wolves grabbed it, and attempted to run off with it. Before the thief could get far, another wolf came up upon its packmate, and with a fluid motion, threw the wooden animal to the ground, forcing the victim's jaws to open and release the stetson. It wasn't long after that that the rest of the pack rushed forward, and the “Battle for the Brown Headpiece” commenced.
Pinkie now, panicking at the sight of this, finally looked up at Applejack, who was still looking down at the initial carnage below, “Applejackie! Give me your claws! I'll go get it for you.”
The sudden talk snapping Applejack out of her daze, the currently brown pony turned towards the mare that she was still leaning on for support, confusion all over her face, “Wha'cha mean your gonna go get it?”
Pinkie took a step back, nearly causing her friend to fall over as she reach down towards Applejack's scratched forelegs, “You're too tired too climb down the big tunnel thingy, Jackie! I know that you love your hat, so I'm going to-”
Applejack swatted Pinkie's hooves away, careful not to catch her with the claws themselves, “Pinkie Pie, Ah know your crazy an' all, but tha' is downrigh' insane! You're not goin' down there!”
The currently orange tinted pony slowly pulled her forelegs back, her face showing that she was slightly hurt emotionally from her companion’s swats, “But... but...”
“Bu' nutin'! Why are ya so insistent on gettin' tha' hat anyways? Can't ya see the pack of timberwolves surroundin' it? Unless a pony was down there, which there ain', ain't either of us is goin' back down there. Got it?”
Pinkie couldn't make up her mind. On one hoof, Applejack was right. Pinkie wasn't stupid; she knew that going down there with all the wolves, even if all five of her friends were with her, was completely bonkers, never mind if she tried to go down there and retrieve it by herself. If the fight with the wolves just an hour before showed anything, its that while confetti was good at distracting and disorientating Sarlaka's meanie guards, it wasn't very good at distracting bloodthirsty timberwolves that wanted nothing more than to gobble her up in one bite. And this was after she told them how tasty of a cupcake she could make for them instead, which was saying something considering nopony had ever turned down a Pinkie Cupcake before.
Of course, on the other hoof, it WAS Applejack's hat, and Pinkie knew how much that hat meant to the pony. She tried to think back to a time where the cowpony was seen without her hat, and other than once or twice, she couldn't remember a moment where the mare wasn't seen without her hat. This was including when they were at the gala for Celestia's sake! That would be like Pinkie without cupcakes! Twilight without magic! Rainbow without wings! Fluttershy without shyness! Rarity without... swoopy hair? Either way, it was wholly unnatural, and if left this way, could likely lead to the downfall of the Princesses, and spell the end to Equestria as everypony knew it!
Oh wait... that happened already. Still, it was weird.
If not for the simple fact that Applejack still had the claws strapped onto her forelegs, Pinkie would already be climbing down the passageway, and well on her way to getting the hat back. Unfortunately, Applejack was, for admittedly justifiable reasons, guarding those claws from the scheming mare. Trying to think of other ways that she could possibly get down, using the exploding launcher thing as some sort of flight tube or something like that was on the top of the list. Trying to scheme for more ideas, Pinkie brought a forehoof to her chin, and allowed the hamsters to run on their wheels.
With a hoof carefully placed on her shoulder, Applejack brought a quick end to the thought processes, “Pinkie, trust me, it ain't worth losin' either of us for. Why don' we jus' grab your element, an' see if we can find a way out of this place from up here. Ok, Sugarcube?”
A few seconds passed, before Pinkie nodded her head in defeat, shame and sadness from earlier that day returning in her heart in full force. Turning her head towards where her element was placed, she jogged over, making sure to avoid the pieces of metal that lay all around, and stopped just before taking the necklace. The piece of magical jewelry was curiously placed on a mannequin that looked very similar to her, but it was... off. While whoever, or whatever, had created this place knew enough about her to know the big details, like her coloration and the style of cutie mark, there were, like the door before, pretty major differences. Not only was the cutie mark off in the same ways as the entrance, but the mane was too purple as well.
Shrugging her shoulders, the currently orange pony slowly removed the necklace, making sure that she didn't drop the delicate artifact, and placed it inside her saddlebags, which were still tightly strapped to her back. The element secured, she turned, and trotted her way back towards her friend, who was slowly, if a little wobbly, limping her way towards Pinkie to meet her halfway. Upon meeting Applejack in the middle, her quickly took her place at the mare's side, and side-by-side, the two started their search of the cavern.
It didn't take long before Applejack finally pointed a forehoof, “Hey, Pinkie Pie! Ah think Ah see somthin' over there!”
Looking at where the mare pointed, Pinkie saw that against the pasty green light, there appeared to be some natural light coming through some kind of crack in the otherwise pristine cavern walls. Slowly, Pinkie making sure that her friend was able to keep up, the two made their way to the crack. It must have been created somewhat recently, some kind of earthquake or other cataclysmic event causing the rocks and crystals to fracture perfectly on a line, though luckily the cavern itself was spared. Inside the crack, more crystals, though not nearly as abundant, gave a small glow. However, the light source that was far more heartwarming came from a small crack above them, the exit about twenty hooves high.
Before Applejack could resist, Pinkie let her instincts take over, and grabbed the cowpony by the tail. With a mighty jump, she nearly scaled half of the distance in a single leap, landing onto a tiny ledge along one of the walls. Her strength not nearly as depleted as her friend's, the now quite pink mare didn't take too long to climb the height of the crevice. The entire time, the pink mare could hear Applejack yelling and screaming about something, a lot of the words definitely not appropriate for any filly's ears, but she ignored them, because she knew that the dirty mouthed pony was such a kidder like that. Like an acrobat, the party pony leaped from one tiny ledge to another, the pink blur seeming to defy physics itself as she jumped with her friend's tail in teeth. Finally, with a last skip off of an outcropping, she jumped her way onto the rocky ground above, and released her potty mouthed friend from her death grip.
Applejack, who had fell onto her after the death defying jumps, her legs unable to hold her up, turned her head towards Pinkie, “Wha'... wha' was tha' for!?”
“Well silly,” Pinkie started, and while her words showed their usual happiness, her tone was mostly neutral, “you were all tired and everything, and I was not tired and nothing, so I decided to do what you did when we were running away from the hydra a while back, and carry you up. Why? You think you can carry me and I can't carry you?”
Her friend worked her mouth uselessly, words not really coming out, before she stammered out a response, “Ah... Ah didn' mean it like that! Ah jus' meant that... Ah... uhh... Ah wasn' ready!”
The pink mare leaned in close, their noses touching as Pinkie brought her eyes right up to Applejack's, “Are you SURE that's the reason?”
“Uhhh... yes?”
Pinkie eyed her a little bit longer, but after a few seconds pulled away, “Okie dokie lokie!” she said, though the tone was still a little off, not as chipper as she wanted the words to come out, but it was good enough.
An audible sigh emanated from the orange mare's lips in relief, causing Pinkie to roll here eyes slightly, the terrible lying job of the Element of Honesty if Pinkie ever heard one. Carefully, the now bright pink mare walked up to her friend's side, and with a gentle nudging of her nose, helped the mare onto her feet. Once again, they found each other walking side-by-side, their sides pressed together as Pinkie helped her friend keep her balance.
The going was slow. Very slow. So slow, that Pinkie would rather watch the grass grow than walk this slow, and there wasn't even any grass to watch grow, so she would have to find grass, plant it, then wait for it to sprout, then watch it. Either way, the pair traveled onwards, Applejack pointing out which way to go the entire time, commenting every so often on how far Pinkie had ran earlier that day when she was in that trance like phase. It was then that Pinkie realized that the pair had not slept the night before, and even if she was the embodiment of energy, she could feel her body getting tired. Still, if Applejack wasn't complaining, then she assumed that they should walk until nightfall.
However, one thought was still weighing heavy on her heart, “Hey... Jackie...”
The orange mare turned her head slightly to the side as to only somewhat meet her companion's eyes, while still making sure they didn't bonk heads together, “Huh? Yeah Pinkie? Wha's up?”
She stopped, nearly causing Applejack to fall down from the sudden stop, “I'm... I'm...” she sniffed slightly, fighting back a small trickle of tears.
Before she could respond, the cowpony that she was trying to talk to turned, and put her orange forelegs around her pink neck, holding the sniffling pony close, “Don' worry 'bout nutin'. There's nutin' to be sad about, Sugarcube.” They held each other like that for several long minutes, which allowed Pinkie to regain her composure and let the welled up tears dry up slightly. Applejack pulled back, holding her at leg-length, and with a small smile, spoke again, “Now Pinkie Pie, wha's got ya all worked up?”
Pinkie took a few deep breaths before responding, “I'm... I'm really sorry about your hat... I didn't mean to knock it off your head and everything when you were climbing. You were saving my life, and I was just knocking hats off of heads...”
The blonde maned pony merely smiled, “Hey, don' get upset over that. It's only a hat. No harm, no foul.”
The pink pony blinked twice, “But... but I thought it was super duper special to you. You wear it all the time, I mean you even wear it swimming! I just thought it was... well... you know... super duper special.”
It was now Applejack's turn to blink, “Wha'? Uh... no? Ah wore it 'cause it kept the sun outta my eyes when Ah was applebucking. Ah mean sure, it was a nice hat an' all, but ah reckon you can find one of those anywhere. If it was so special, why would Ah wear it on all of our crazy adventures?”
“But... but I thought it was, like, the last thing that you had of your father before he died or something!”
For a long while after that, there was a long, and slightly awkward silence, where the two mares just looked at each other, separated by two fully extended orange forelegs on two slightly tensed pink shoulders. A full minute went by, before the orange mare finally spoke, her voice very soft and neutral, disbelieving what she just heard, “Pinkie Pie... my mama and pappy lived in Neighvada... an' they were as healthy as a pair of oxen...”
Again, silence reigned over the two, with only the wind and their breathing to pierce the void. Slowly, a smile started to build on Applejack's face, and Pinkie felt a warm, bubbly feeling that she had been missing out on for what felt like forever now. The feeling slowly grew, starting in her belly, and slowly rising and spreading to her entire body. Finally, the warm feeling spread to her face, and she couldn't resist the smile that slowly started to grow on it. With her smile continuing to widen, the warm and bubbly feeling continued to grow. Finally, she couldn't resist the single small chuckle that escaped her lips.
And the second.
And the third.
Finally, the floodgates broke for both of them as they started laughing at the situation, the cowpony forced to release her friend as she reached for her sides. It wasn't long before the two of them fell onto their backs and, with their sides in stitches, burst out into a stronger wave of laughter. They stayed like that for longer than they imagined they could, but the only things that were certain was that by the time that the laughs were finally gone, the sun had gone down, both were exhausted, and Pinkie couldn't stop smiling.
A/N: If I did my math right, I'm back to being on schedule now. BAM!