“Does any of you know what has gotten into Rainbow?” asked Rarity as she glanced at Rainbow who seemed to be smiling at nothing.
“Did anything happened to her?” asked Fluttershy worriedly.
“Don’t cha see? She’s been sighin’ and smilin’ at nothing since we got here,” answered Applejack.
“And not only this, it seems like she’d gotten deaf. She can’t hear us. She’s completely out of space!” added Rarity.
“Let me try,” said Pinkie. “Hey, Rainbow? Rainbow? Rainbow Dash? Dash? Dashie? RAINBOW DASH!”
“Did you call me?” said Rainbow finally.
“Wha…” was all Sunset could let out.
“What happened ta ya? Did ya fall in love or somethin’?” asked Applejack.
“I… guess,” replied Rainbow with a happy sigh.
“WHAT?” shouted all of the girls at once.
“Wow! I sure didn’t expect that!” stated Pinkie with a confused look.
“But… how? Who? Where?” asked Twilight.
“I’m still not sure but I’ve been like this since yesterday. I just… can’t get this guy out of my head,” explained Rainbow.
“Who’s the lucky guy anyway?” asked Rarity with a wink.
Another happy sigh escaped Rainbow’s mouth as she heard Rarity’s question. Then she smiled and answered her dreamily, “I think it’s Soarin…”
“At least ya won’t yell that ya two are only friends anymore,” exclaimed Applejack with a roll of eyes.
“So… are you really, truly in love?” asked Sunset somewhat eagerly.
“How many times should I said this?” said Rainbow with a frown. But her expression quickly changed to a dreamy one as she continued, “Of course I am.”
“YEEEEES!” screamed Sunset happily. Then she started jumping up and down excitedly as she kept repeating, “Yesyesyesyesyes!”
“Ahem...” Sunset quickly turned her head to Twilight who made the sound and was soon greeted with her hard glare. “Why should you get excited when Rainbow is in love?”
“Because… because… we’re… friends?” answered Sunset doubtfully as a dumb smile formed on her face.
“Don’t lie!” exclaimed Applejack. Sunset quickly gasped. No wonder, she was dead. Anyone in school could lie but not when you were in front of Applejack, the most honest girl in the entire school. Besides, even if you lied to her, she would quickly find it out.
“Well…I… kinda… um… gave her love potion…” said Sunset as she trailed off at the end.
The first reaction belonged to Rarity who gasped and stared at Sunset unbelievably. “What had you done?”
“So what? There was no volunteer for the potion so I just had to make a move,” answered Sunset sadly. “I… know I did the wrong thing. I’m… I’m sorry.”
“You were a meanie to give her the potion buuuut…” exclaimed Pinkie. “HOW DID YOU DO THAT? EVEN I DIDN’T NOTICE!” she asked enthusiastically.
“Sure you didn’t notice. Love potions were mixed with chocolates,” said Sunset with a small smile.
“Wait a second…” muttered Twilight. “I ATE THE CHOCOLATES TOO!”
“REALLY?” asked Sunset happily. “I thought you didn’t. I was thinking of a way to give it to you somehow!”
“EXCUSE ME?” asked Twilight with a glare.
“What? I have to test two couples to get a proper conclusion,” explained Sunset. “That’s at least. I used it on my cousins too.”
“I really pity them…” said Rarity.
“Couldn’t ya use it on an animal or somethin’?” asked Applejack.
“Don’t ask me. Ask Fluttershy,” replied Sunset flatly.
“I won’t let any of you use animals for any kind of harmful scientific experiments. I WON’T!” said Fluttershy a little louder than her usual voice.
“But I did apply a few experiments on the hamsters she gave me,” whispered Sunset to Applejack.
Unfortunately, Fluttershy suddenly heard it… “WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!”
“That doesn’t matter now. The important thing is that you, Sunset Shimmer, are responsible for this accident,” exclaimed Twilight.
“Won’t Dashie be startled now that she knows everything?” asked Pinkie suddenly. Girls’ eyes went wide as they quickly turned to Rainbow.
“Nah. Her love is standing there. She’s now literally outta space,” said Applejack as she motioned to Soarin who was busy talking with Spitfire just few meters away from them.
“Now that we know Rainbow had ate love potion we’ll need an adult’s help. She’ll have a rather hard time,” explained Twilight. “I hope you know an antidote for this potion.”
“I… might. I still have to work a little more on it,” mumbled Sunset.
Twilight sighed. “As I guessed…” she said. “Now, we have to tell either Rainbow’s mother, brother or father.”
“Fathers and brothers are usually overprotective. I believe that telling her mother would be the best option. Also, since her mother is a female, she knows how to advise her daughter,” suggested Rarity.
“Rarity’s right. We’d tell her mom. Not only she’s a teacher here but also, her reaction would be much better than her brothers’,” added Applejack.
“Then it’s settled. We’d better do it now. Before it’s late,” said Twilight.
“Just…” squeaked Fluttershy. “Twilight, don’t you think that since we’re gonna Rainbow’s mother the whole thing, we should do the same thing for you two?”
“Fluttershy has a good point,” stated Sunset. “So?...”
“Um… I… don’t need it. Because… I can control myself,” answered Twilight.
“You sure about that?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Of course I’m sure that I can control myself,” she replied with a roll of eyes.
“HEY RAINBOW DASH!” shouted Pinkie as loud as she could.
“Yeah?” replied Rainbow.
“DON’T MOVE. WE’LL BE BACK AGAIN,” she shouted again.
Rainbow turned her head to her and raised an eyebrow. “Pinkie, there’s no need for shouting, I’m right here. Now that I’m in love doesn’t mean that I went deaf.”
“Unfortunately, you did,” murmured Sunset. Others giggled silently as they heard her statement.
“Now are we gonna go or are we gonna go?” asked Pinkie.
“You do know that it’s not a true statement right? Actually…” And with that, Twilight started teaching them grammar as they all rolled their eyes and started walking to Ms. Firefly’s office.
Canterlot High school had many rooms. So much that a new person there would definitely get lost. That was the exact reason that Principal Celestia chose a person to show the new ones around, so they won’t get lost.
The big number of rooms was probably due to each teacher’s own office. Apart from teachers’ office, each teacher had a separate office where each student could communicate the teacher privately.
Teachers usually spent the first hour at the central teachers’ office and spent rest at their own. Most of the students were aware of this routine so finding Ms. Firefly wasn’t hard for girls.
Since the girls’ second hour had end and they were at their break time, Ms. Firefly was at her room, sorting her files. She rarely got free time to order the files and with her sickness that prevented her from coming to school for a whole day, her room was a disaster. Therefore, although she wasn’t still fully healed from her illness, she was sorting out her room.
As she sniffled and placed each folder on its proper place, many thoughts ran through her head but they were majorly about the one and only Hearts & Hooves week.
Hearts & Hooves ‘week’ couldn’t be found anywhere else. It was a made up tradition in Canterlot High. In this week, students could have fun with their beloved family, friends or even girl/boyfriend. Finally, at the big night of Hearts & Hooves Day, a big celebration was held in school as everyone celebrate the day of love. To students, Hearts & Hooves Day was the best day in their school time because it was the only day that they could stay in school all day and get ready for the big party along their friends. For teachers, however, it was a whole different story…
To most of them the week meant relief. A week without teaching. They all let students prepare school and themselves for the day. And at the big day that all of the students partied, they relaxed at home and spent their own times with their loved ones. But some other teachers were kind enough and shared their free time with students. They partied along, laughed along and had fun along all of the people there.
Ms. Firefly was one of the teachers that always stayed for the party. Principal Celestia, vice Principal Luna and she were the only teachers that always stayed for the party. Maybe that was one of the many reasons students loved their P.E. teacher, Ms. Firefly. Not only she was super kind, but also she was more like a good friend to them than a teacher.
And at the moment, though Ms. Firefly was dying of fatigue, she just couldn’t stop being excited about the party, and more importantly, her own daughter. She had some plans for her.
She had a lot of boys that admired her but she seemed to have no interest in any of them. Soarin had been the same and with the action his mother took, he was now more interested in girls. If it worked for Rainbow’s best friend then it would work for her too.
“MS. FIREFLY! MS. FIREFLYYYYYYY!” shouted a girl as she entered the office suddenly.
Ms. Firefly winced at the loud voice and stared at the new arriver with wide eyes. “Pinkie Pie? Is everything okay?”
“NO IT’S NOT! YOU’RE DAUG-” a purple hand quickly covered her mouth and prevented her from blabbering more.
“Pinkie, was that how you wanted to tell Ms. Firefly?” asked Twilight with a frown. Pinkie grinned sheepishly from behind of Twilight’s hand and said something that was muffled because of Twilight’s hand.
“Girls, had anything happened to Rainbow?” asked Firefly worriedly.
“Rainbow? No, why would you say that?” answered Twilight with an awkward smile.
“Don’t lie,” said Applejack from their behind.
Twilight’s awkward face turned to a flat one as she heard. Great, no way back for her. “Well… there might be a little, teeny tiny thing that happened to her…” whispered Twilight.
“What? What has happened to her? Speak up!” said Firefly hurriedly.
“Don’t worry Ms. Firefly,” said Rarity. “She’s only in love!”
“Oh my dear! I thought something awful had happened,” said Firefly with relief.
“But that’s not only that. She’s in love with her best friend, Soarin,” continued Fluttershy.
“Aaaaand, let’s don’t forget that all of this is because she had drunk love potion!” said Pinkie as she pushed Twilight’s hand away.
“L-love potion? B-but how?” asked Firefly.
Twilight glared at Sunset who was lowering her head in shame and answered, “Ask Sunset.”
“I didn’t mean to. I-I just wanted to test my potion. That’s all,” said Sunset quickly. “And I know that what I did was wrong. I’m sorry.”
Firefly smiled kindly at her. “It’s okay. In fact, I’m happy that you did it. I always believed that Soarin is the one for Rainbow and not to mention I had enough of Soarin and Fury’s relationship.”
“But ah didn’t somethin’. Ah thought ya didn’t know how ta boil an egg let alone bakin’ chocolates! How did ya do that?” asked Applejack.
Sunset winced and chuckled awkwardly. “Actuallyyy… Bluey helped me.”
“Then both of you have to find a cure for this,” said Firefly. “No matter how beneficial it is, neither my daughter nor me want a fake love.”
“Yes ma’am,” replied Sunset sadly.
“In the meanwhile, if Rainbow needed help, tell her that I’ll be here to help at any time,” continued Firefly. Girls shook their head yes and started walking out of her office. Once they were out of the office, they glanced at each other and waited for one to speak up and say something.
Finally, it was Pinkie who spoke up first, “Sooo… now what?”
“Um… I think we’d better go and find Bluey. We have to start working on the cure as soon as we can,” replied Sunset.
“Then what are we waiting for? Do you wanna go or do you wanna go?” exclaimed Pinkie happily.
“Last time she said that, everything was ruined,” mumbled Twilight but she started walking after her friend anyway, so did her other friends.
“Don’t you think that your brother is a little weird today?” whispered Fleetfoot to Spitfire.
“I don’t think so. I know this. Guess what? Yesterday he was sighing all the time,” answered Spitfire.
“I guess he’s in love,” said Fleet with a giggle.
“Probably,” mumbled Spitfire. “I just hope it won’t be with Fury.”
“Well, why don’t you ask him?” questioned Fleet. Then she pointed to somewhere meters away from them and continued, “He’s standing there. Go ahead, do something.”
“What do I say? ‘Hey Soarin! How are you? Are you in love?’ that’s stupid!” replied Spitfire.
“Well, you don’t have to do it. That was just a suggestion,” said Fleet with a shrug.
“Yeah, and his answer would be definitely no, even if it isn’t,” answered Spitfire. “However, instead of standing here, let’s see what he’s telling that boy.” she motioned to a boy that was talking to Soarin.
With a glance toward each other, they started walking up to them. From Soarin’s expression, it was visible that he was either unsatisfied about something or was only making a hard decision.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” said Fleetfoot casually.
“Hey girls. Nothing important,” answered Soarin with a sigh. Then he turned back to the boy and answered him, “I don’t think that I can. But I’ll still think of this.”
“C’mon boy, I don’t want to kill you!” the other boy answered.
“What’s goin’ on? Who are you?” asked Spitfire.
The unfamiliar boy looked at Spitfire and answered, “Me? Oh, I’m Star Song. I’m here to give Soarin an offer. I’ve heard his voice at the music class and my cousin and I need his help. We’re gonna plan celebration’s music together but we don’t know any good slow song for king and queen’s dance. So I decided to ask Soarin to perform a song with a girl. He doesn’t have to record it in front of everyone. We just wanna record it for the party.”
“Let me guess, he said no?” said Fleet.
“Unfortunately,” he answered with a sad smile.
“That was obvious,” answered Fleet with a roll of eyes.
“C’mon Soar. Your song will be played on the party! Isn’t awesome?” said Spitfire happily.
“It may seem ‘awesome’ but I told Star too. I can’t perform with a girl,” answered Soarin.
“Why? Because you’ll be disloyal to Fury?” said Fleet sarcastically.
“Fury? Pff, who care about her? I just can’t.”
“Don’t you wanna be useful for this school for once?” asked Spitfire. Fleetfoot chuckled and Star Song covered his mouth to hide his smile.
“Well, I have to agree on this one,” said Star Song as he finally let out a chuckle.
“I told you, I can’t and that’s my finale answer,” said Soarin with crossed arms.
“Ah, too bad. Guess I have to tell my cousin to that she has to choose someone other than Rainbow,” said Star as he picked up his phone.
“Wait… did you say Rainbow? As in Rainbow Dash?” asked Soarin quickly.
“Yeah. Why? Did you change your opinion?” he asked.
“Can I see the lyrics?” asked Soarin with a smile.
“YES!” said Star Song as he pumped his fist in the air.
“So what do you say?” asked Bluey.
“I’m… still not sure. I’ve never done this before. And now, not only you want me to record a song, but also you want me to do it with Soarin?” said Rainbow.
“Don’t worry. I know you can do it,” said Bluey as she placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Uh! There you two are!” said Twilight as she walked to them with a smile.
“DIDN’T I SAY DON’T MOVE?!” shouted Pinkie as she glared hard at Rainbow.
“Pinkie, now that I’m in love, it doesn’t mean that I’ll do something stupid,” said Rainbow as she rolled her eyes. “What are you guys doing here?”
“We had a small job with Bluey,” answered Sunset.
“Oh, right. Few minutes after you guys left she came to me and said that she wanted to talk about something. I accepted and started walking with her. She said that she wants me to record a slow song with a boy. She wants to use it at the party. I said that I’ll probably do it. I mean, how can’t I? I’M GONNA RECORD A SONG WITH SOARIN!” said Rainbow excitedly.
“Oh… about that… don’t get mad but… your mother knows everything now,” said Twilight with an awkward chuckle.
“What have you done?” whispered Rainbow unbelievably.
“Don’t worry Dashie. She said that she’s super duper happy that you’re in love,” continued Pinkie with a smile.
“And she said that she’ll be ready to help you anytime darling,” added Rarity.
“We thought that asking advice from an adult would be better so we told her. We’re sorry if it made you mad,” explained Fluttershy.
“No, it’s better. I gotta thank you for it. If you left it to me, I wouldn’t have done it myself,” replied Rainbow with a warm smile.
“Wow, she’d changed a lot,” whispered Twilight.
“Sure she did. One of the effects is that it changes behavior. Not for everyone but it looks like Rainbow’s had changed. She’ll probably be more girlie than before. Not so much but a little more,” explained Sunset in a low tone.
“Well, it’ll look se weird on her,” stated Applejack.
“That’s why she has to find a cure soon,” said Twilight.
“Oh, about that. Bluey?” called Sunset.
“Yeah?” answered Bluey.
“We’re spoiled,” said Sunset simply. “And not only that. We have to find a cure together.”
“Oh…” said Bluey. “It’s gonna be hard.”
“You had to think of that before you helped Sunset,” said Twilight flatly.
“Okay, I’ll help but don’t complain if I weren’t useful at all,” she warned.
“We’ll figure it out somehow,” said Sunset.
“But not now. I have a song to record. You guys can come along if you want but no noise making,” said Bluey.
“Fine, fine, can we get going now?” said Rainbow eagerly.
Bluey rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, Soarin won’t fly away you know.”
Everyone laughed and started walking after Rainbow who was practically running and Bluey who was trying to stop her.
“What’s this? Lovers dance when they’re feeling in love?” asked Soarin as he looked at the lyrics with a raised eyebrow.
“Stop complaining. It’s just a song,” said Spitfire with an annoyed tone.
“It’s a love song you know. It has to be like this,” continued Fleet.
“Well, it’s ridiculous,” said Soarin with crossed arms.
“Look at Rainbow. She’s trying to do it as good as she can,” said Spitfire as she looked at the other side of the room where Rainbow and her friends were sitting. “We’ve been here for hours and each time you wanna end practicing this, you blurt out something and ruin it.”
Star Song who was rubbing his temples looked at him and said, “Maybe it’s because his ready. Anyways, we don’t have any time left for practicing. We have to end it before school ends. If we don’t start recording the song now, we’ll never get to do it again.”
“That was what I was about to say,” shouted Bluey from the other side of room. “Let’s do it. Stand up, stand up!”
Soarin and Rainbow both got up with so much stress inside of them. Rainbow felt nervous, excited and happy all at once. First it was that she was going to record the song with someone she really loved and then it was that she was ACTUALLY going to record a song of her own. And finally, another reason of her excitement was that it was going to be played at the party for others. And not only that, she had to dance with it herself since she was going to be the queen of the year.
“Are you two ready?” asked Star Song.
“Yep,” answered Soarin confidently.
“Kinda…” mumbled Rainbow.
“Don’t worry. It’s gonna be alright,” said Soarin kindly. He grabbed her hand and stared at her with a warm smile. Rainbow lowered her head and smiled weakly. She couldn’t even raise her head and stare at his kind eyes. She knew that her heart would kill itself for it. Instead, she blushed lightly as she felt his warm hands wrapped around hers.
She sighed happily. “I guess I’m ready now.”
“Great. Now stand at your places and wait for the song. When it played, start singing as we practiced. That’s all!” explained Bluey with a smile.
Rainbow took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Song will start in 3, 2, and 1!” said Star Song. The whole room went quiet and song started with a soft tone. Few seconds passed and no body spoke. Not even Rainbow who had to sing.
Song was quickly cut and Bluey said, “Rainbow, why didn’t you sing? Concentrate!”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Let’s start again,” said Rainbow. With another deep breath, song started. This time, Rainbow concentrated and started right where she should. Soon after, Soarin joined her too and everyone listened as song was played and Soarin and Rainbow sang after that:
Song ended as Soarin and Rainbow sang the ending softly and together. Then they stared at each other’s eyes with a smile. With Bluey’s motion that showed song had ended, a voice of clapping hands was heard.
Soarin and Rainbow both turned their head to the door, where voice was coming. Soarin’s eyes went wide as he noticed who was standing there. Rainbow gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. But Ms. Firefly only continued clapping and looking them with a happy smile.
“Mom…” whispered Rainbow.
“Bravo! That was wonderful!” said Firefly happily.
Rainbow’s friends who saw the expression on Ms. Firefly, started clapping their hand along with her. Slowly, cheering was added to it and Soarin and Rainbow found themselves in the middle of a heartwarming cheering from their friends and family.
And Rainbow smiled, no grinned, as she saw the people that were cheering for her and her heart filled with pride and small butterflies started flying in her belly as she saw the kind smile at Soarin’s face and the look that said, ‘You did well.’
Twilight was happy along the others but there was something nagging on her and made her uncomfortable. Like… she had forgotten something. She wasn’t sure what, but she had forgot something rather important.
At a second, a small memory of yesterday entered her head and her smile disappeared. Instead, a horrified look took over her face as she realized something important. So she started tiptoeing and walking out of the room as quiet as she could. Fortunately, no one noticed due to their happiness. She breathed a sigh of relief as she started running to somewhere. In her mind, there was only one thing, ‘I’m late.’
“I’m… here…” said Twilight between her pants. After few seconds, she caught her breath again and straightened up. Then she checked hallways to make sure that they were alone, then she turned to the boy in front of her again.
“Finally! So what was that thing you said yesterday?” asked the boy who was looking at her. “All I understood was that I shouldn’t eat the chocolates in my locker. Why?”
“Oh! I almost forgot. I wasn’t sure yesterday but I’m sure now. Didn’t you eat the chocolates, did you?” asked Twilight.
“As much as I wanted to, but no. I didn’t,” he answered.
“Oh, thank God! There was love potion in the chocolates!” said Twilight happily. But her happiness didn’t last for a long time. Her expression turned to a nervous one as she remembered something. “But I screwed up everything anyway. Now Sunset thinks that I’d drank the love potion too”
“But… how… what?” he asked. Those news had come to him like a huge bomb so Twilight thought that his expression was much better than what she imagined. “What are you gonna do know?” he asked after few minutes of silence.
“I don’t know but one thing is for sure. I have to act like a lover,” she replied with a sad sigh. “The problem is that I don’t know how. I’ve never been in love or liked someone to act like one.”
“You… I… can help you,” he said doubtfully then he quickly added, “I mean if you want.”
“But… how are you gonna do it?”
“I’m the same as you. I’ve never been in love or liked someone before but I’m a boy. And you’re a girl. With a boy along you, you can act better. I’m not forcing you to like me or anything all I’m saying is that it would be more natural,” he explained. “But still, it’s all up to you.”
“That would be wonderful! But… you don’t have to. It was my false that those words slipped my mouth. You’re free to do whatever you want. I can tell the truth to Sunset that you hadn’t eat the chocolates.”
“But then again, you have to come to me for acting so it’s better to help each other instead of this.”
“I… don’t know what to say. I think the best thing is thank you.”
“It’s a pleasure for me,” he answered kindly. “So, I guess we’ll start tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Thanks for everything. Again,” said Twilight with a smile.
“Good bye Twilight.”
“Good bye Flash,” answered Twilight with a sigh. It was only the second day of Hearts & Hooves week but troubles just had started for her and anyone who was stuck in the incident of love potion. Sunset, Bluey, her, Flash, Rainbow, Soarin and Ms. Firefly. Twilight knew that a big trouble was waiting for all of them…