//------------------------------// // Confrontation // Story: Aliens & Rainbows // by Skyro503 //------------------------------// Gusts of wind that change the Tide. And with this I must confide. That not everything is as it seems, Because life is but a dream… So appreciate the things you have done, For tomorrow it may be all gone. ***** Rainbow Dash awoke from her usual slumber in her cloud home. She remembered the pleasant evening she just had, where she found Blaze alone at Sweet Apple Acres, and how they had shared a beautiful moment. Rainbow looked over at the other side of her queen-sized cloud bed. Seeing nothing she grimaced to herself, realizing her true reality. It was just a dream? Silently shedding a tear to herself she walked out of bed and over to a window to inspect the time of day. I just want everything to go back to normal. It was mid-morning, she had slept in. A habit Blaze had almost helped her break. Rainbow hadn’t realized how much she took Blaze for granted. All the little things he did to make her better, to make her happier. She was, although, relieved to finally get a good nights rest. She hadn’t slept well since the accident, and subsequent hospitalization, Blaze had. She couldn’t help but blame herself. I miss him so much. Rainbow felt that if she was their instead of Blaze, maybe all of this wouldn’t have happened. She missed him greatly, and longed for his companionship. At least he’s still alive. With that thought Rainbow Dash flew out of her cloud home, stretching her powerful, yet lean, wings. She took off for the Everfree Forest with amazing celerity. Letting the early morning winds carry her along to her destination she took a moment to appreciate what she had, what she still has. Midway through Rainbow Dashes flight she decided to take a detour, just for the hay of it. She shifted her weight and took a sharp turn towards the North. Thrusting her wings towards her new objective she took off even faster than before. The wind rushed past her mane, making her feel alive. The warm and glowing sun illuminated everything. It made everything so much, happier. After a few more minutes of sustained flying, Rainbow Dash found herself at the base of a daunting mountain, the largest in Equestria. She took a few moments to catch her breath, and take in the tranquil setting that was before her. A vast and beautiful prairie sprawled out across the base of the steep mountain. Animals playfully scurried about, consumed in their own daily tasks of foraging. Squirrels gleaned the landscape of nuts. Little bunnies basked in Celestia’s glory. Butterflies fluttered by, suckling the nectar of the vibrant flora, which was just as spectacular as the fauna. Even the birds took a moment to praise Celestia for the wonderful day through song. Rainbow Dash smiled to herself. I should show Fluttershy this place sometime. Rainbow Dash, almost sad to depart, flapped her wings once again ascending to the heavens above. The entire landscape she just appreciated had become a blur as she took vertical acceleration. She busted through several clouds causing them to disintegrate into oblivion. Rainbow gave her powerful wings one last thrust, intentionally overshooting the peak of the mountain. She then hit the apex of her flight, making sure to take in the jaw dropping scene that was before. She had ascended past the cloud canopy to the tip of the troposphere. Rainbow gazed into the ever expanding world clouds covering most of it. From this high she could see Ponyville, she could even see all of Equestria and its neighboring countries. She just wished she had somepony to share this Radical moment with. But she digressed not wanting to spoil the moment. She was just barely entering the stratosphere when gravity took its inevitable hold of her, and started her haste descent to her, and Blazes, special place. Rainbow Dash spread her wing slowly descending back down to the mountain. Once she was at the same altitude as the mountain she flapped her wings once more, circling around to the other face of the mountainside. She finally landed on the barren mountain to give her wings a rest. I can walk the rest of the way. And so she did. She walked up the side of the mountain following an indiscriminate trail. After a few seconds of thoughtless travel she reached the summit, which was an unsurprisingly desolate place. But the scenery wasn’t the reason she was there, no, it was what was extended beyond this location. Rainbow Dash turned around to look upon her world. She was once again able to look upon the far reaches of Equestria, her sight no longer hindered by the cloud canopy. She looked upon the gracious prairie below. The tall grass looked as if it were a golden quilt upon the lush and green landscape. She observed the sylvan territory that was the Everfree Forest, the site of the horrific accident. And finally, trying to take her mind off the bad, Rainbow looked upon Ponyville. Ponyville, it seemed to be located in the center of everything, it certainly was the center of her life. All the good, and bad, memories she had there, too many memories. For Rainbow Dash just the thought of all that was going on, and all that had happen, was too much for her. She just wanted everything to go back to normal, to be like it was before the incident. She even contemplated flying away, forever, and leave everypony behind, all the memories behind. No… I can’t do that to everypony, not again… And so, with a thrust of her wings, she took off for Ponyville. The Center of her life… ***** Rainbow Dash, finally reaching her original destination, touched down in front of a cozy cottage that sat on the edge of the Everfree Forest. She couldn’t help but remember how kind the Pegasus inside the cottage was, always willing to help anypony. But now was the time that she needed help the most, she needed somepony to talk to, and Fluttershy was always the most understanding. Rainbow Dash trotted up to the door and raised a hoof to knock, until she heard a commotion from inside. She listened in closer to hear a loud bang, the shattering of porcelain, and the squeal of Fluttershy. “Hang on Fluttershy, I’m a comin!” Rainbow shouted sensing trouble. Rainbow bashed open the door, and expecting the worst, flew inside to the source of the commotion. But what she saw nearly broke her heart. She saw her best friend lying on top of Blaze, both of them blushing wildly. “What is this?” Rainbow said with a tear starting to form in her eye. She felt betrayed by her best friend, taking advantage of Blaze in his vulnerable state. Both of the stunned ponies looked over and noticed Rainbow Dash. “It’s not what it looks like!” Fluttershy yelped, which was out of character for a pony such as herself. She jumped off of Blaze, both of them got up on their hooves. Indeed it wasn’t what it looked like. “You better start explaining NOW!” Rainbow screamed, slowly approaching the flustered Fluttershy. “Woah! Everyone calm down!” Blaze finally spoke up, coming between the two pegasi. ***** Several minutes earlier… Blaze trotted down the stairs of his temporary living arrangements. He felt a renewed sense of vigor, having finally gotten a good nights sleep since this entire ordeal started. He was starting to adjust to his new life, starting to accept it. He noticed a very enticing smell coming from the kitchen. As he trotted into the kitchen he ran into the mare he met with last night, the owner of the house he found himself in. Fluttershy was spreading out a delicious home-style meal across the table. “Oh good, you’re awake!” Fluttershy spoke softly, “You can help me set up our meal.” “Sure, what do you need me to do?” “Can you take that pot on the stove over there, and put it on the table? Carefully though it’s still warm.” “Alright” Blaze said trotting over to the pot, observing its contents closely. He noticed that it contained the source of the aroma he smelled seconds earlier. Blaze sniffed at it voraciously. “Wow! This smells great! What is it?” Blaze said as he started to get up on his hind legs to pick up the over-sized pot. “Well, it’s nothing special.” She started off shyly, “It’s just carrot stew with some seasoning.” She turned to Blaze noticing his peculiar way of holding the pot. Blaze slung the pot over his head, still standing on his hind legs. As he made his way to the table he started to lose his balance. “Oh no!” Fluttershy screamed softly, dashing at Blaze with surprising speed. She got up on her hind legs, shooting out her forelegs to help support the falling pot. But her attempts were in vain as it was too late to save the soup. Fluttershy yelped quietly as the pot came crashing down upon the table, spilling its contents and breaking a good many of her plates. Fluttershy soon lost her balance as well, with nothing supporting her she fell on top of Blaze sending him tumbling to the ground, with an audible bang. Both of the pegasi found themselves lying on the floor, Blaze on his back and Fluttershy placed suggestively on top of him. “You’re not a human anymore; you can’t do things like that anymore.” Fluttershy giggled to herself. Fluttershy stopped giggling. The tone of the situation quickly changed, as she looked at him intently noticing his many fine features. No wonder Rainbow Dash likes him so much! She thought to herself lustfully, suddenly realizing the position that they were in Fluttershy unknowingly shot up her wings. She looked back at her wings, noticing what she had done she started to blush wildly. “What is this?” said the shaky voice of a familiar pony. Fluttershy looked over to see Rainbow Dash standing in her living room, in a very aggressive stance. “It’s not what it looks like!” The wide eyed pony exclaimed before she jumped off of Blaze. “You better start explaining NOW!” ***** “Well, I guess that explains the spilt soup.” Rainbow Dash said mild mannerly, “But that doesn’t explain that.” Rainbow Dash pointed to the still flustered Fluttershy. “What?” Fluttershy looked over her shoulder to see her wings, still flared open. She embarrassingly closed her wings, and looked pitifully to the ground. A few moments of awkward silence followed, between the two pegasi, as Blaze had walked out a few moments earlier to wash some of the stray soup that had found its way onto his mane. “So, when were you going to tell me Blaze was staying here?” Rainbow Dash finally spoke up. Are you trying to steal away Blaze from me?! She thought ferociously to herself. “I only found out last night, Spike just dropped him off at my doorstep. He said he was going to need to stay here for a while.” A likely story! “Besides I think it’s best that he does stay here so I can make sure he’s healing well, both physically and mentally. I also feel like this is the only way I can give back to him for what he did.” “Wait, wait, wait, what you’re telling me is that you want to observe Blaze?” Rainbow said disregarding the last part of her statement. “Yes...” Rainbow Dash started to get furious. “NO, No, no not like that!” Fluttershy said picking up on the hostility. “Major traumatic events, like the one we were in, have detrimental effects on not only the body, but the mind as well! I just want to make sure he’s alright.” There was a state of uneasiness that filled the room. Fluttershy couldn’t keep eye contact with Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash picked up on this. “Alright, what aren’t you telling me?” She said interrogating the pink maned Pegasus. “Well…” Fluttershy spoke even softer than before. “Well WHAT!” Fluttershy recoiled back at the harshness of her tone. “Well… you see he isn’t exactly himself…” “I already knew that! He has amnesia!” Rainbow Dash shouted obviously getting frustrated. Fluttershy recoiled back even more. “It’s not that, he doesn’t have amnesia…” Fluttershy explained barely audibly. “What aren’t you telling me!?” Rainbow Dash yelled not hearing Fluttershys previous statement. Fluttershy started to curl up into a ball, obviously unable to cope with the diatribe Rainbow Dash was giving. She started to cry softly to herself. “TELL ME!” Rainbow Dash screamed, not realizing the volume of her voice. “Hey!” shouted a stern voice, “What’s wrong with you! Yelling at her like that!” Rainbow Dash looked over to see Blaze trot over to Fluttershy, and whisper something into her ear. Fluttershy sniffled to herself and got up. Blaze turned over to Rainbow Dash. “What kind of friend are you!” Blaze’s mordant words stung Rainbow Dash like wasp stings. She backed up against the wall, hurt by Blaze’s harsh tone. She was distraught over the change in personality of her close friend. Tears started to well up in her eyes, and before Blaze could say anything else she stormed out of the house, and took off into the sky. “What is wrong with her?” Blaze said turning to Fluttershy. “I thought everyone was nice here in Ponyville!” Fluttershy wiped away the last of her tears, “You just don’t realize what she’s been going through lately.” “That doesn’t give her the right to yell at you like that!” “She was just trying to figure out something.” “What could be so important that she would treat her friends like crap?!” Fluttershy was silent for a few moments. “You…” She finally managed to say. ***** Blaze and Fluttershy exited the Cottage. They were on their way to a ‘super-secret special meeting’, or at least that’s how Applejack put it. The meeting, however, was located at Sugar Cube Corner, which Fluttershy found very suspicious. She shrugged it off though. “Wait, I’m still trying to get this straight. I was her what?” Blaze said continuing their conversation from inside. “Fiancé…Or at least you were…It’s more complicated than you think…” Blaze looked at Fluttershy with incredulity and pondered the word for a moment. Fiancé? Blaze had a mixture of emotions about that statement, suddenly regretting the way he treated Rainbow Dash. Great now how do I handle this? “She just wants you back…” Blaze remained silent for a few moments, and then stopped. Fluttershy turned around to look at Blaze. Blaze just stared back at Fluttershy. “What do I do?” Blaze said quietly. Fluttershy looked off into the distance. The day had been so hectic for her, an unpleasant change of pace from the usual tending of animals. She took little relief in the harmonious chirping of birds that she usually sang along with. Everything had changed since the accident. “I don’t know…” She finally managed to say. Fluttershy turned around gloomily and spoke to herself, “Nothing is going to be the same again…” The two of them continued their semi silent walk to Sugar Cube Corner. ***** The two pegasi finally made their way to the Confectionery. The lights were peculiarly shut off. And Fluttershy was able to make out the silhouettes of several ponies inside the building. “Huh? That’s weird, are buildings usually closed in the afternoon here in Ponyville?” Blaze asked. Fluttershy just smiled at him realizing the true meaning behind the secret meeting. “Blaze, can you please open the door for me?” she said with a slight giggle. Blaze trotted up to the door still ignorant to the crowd of ponies anxiously waiting on the other side. He pushed open the door slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the light, or the lack there-of. Just as he stepped inside, followed closely by Fluttershy, a familiar pink pony sprang into the air, simultaneously turning on the lights, and screamed, “SURPRISE!!!!!” Blaze reeled back in excitement, nearly bumping into Fluttershy. “Bwaaah!” He yelped. Before he could even react, the pony, seemingly, flew toward Blaze and wrapped her forelegs around him. “I was so happy when I saw you out and about in the streets that I decided to throw you a combination surprise, welcome back, get well soon, and welcome to Ponyville party!” “Welcome to Ponyville? Wait!” Blaze looked back at Fluttershy who was equally confused, “How did you know I’m not the Pony you think I am?” The pony was quick to reply, “Well it’s not exactly the best kept secret! Duh! Everypony in Ponyville knows what happened now!” Blaze was a shocked at how quickly word spread in this town. He was equally surprised at how accepting and friendly everypony was in Ponyville. “Okay silly, enough with all this standing around, LET’S PARTY!” And with those words streamers and confetti burst into the air, and a catchy tune started to play. All of the ponies started to mingle, eager to start the party. As the crowd started to shift Blaze was able to make out the figure of a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane. She quickly noticed him also and moved deeper into the morphing crowd. Blaze, eager to apologize about before, pursued Rainbow Dash. Just as Blaze was able to get to Rainbow Dash, she left the main crowd and ran into another room. Blaze wasn’t ready to give up chase, as he readily followed her into the room. Upon entering the room though, he found that she was nowhere to be found. Puzzled by this he turned around to exit, but heard the distinct sound of somepony crying. He quickly spun around and walked deeper into the room. With each step he took the crying became louder, until he finally found himself looking up a door, which he suspected to lead to a closet. He opened the door only to be surprised that it had a staircase inside of it that led to the basement. Blaze, eager to find the source of dismay and Rainbow Dash, followed the pathway into the cellar. As he neared the end of the staircase he came into a dimly lit room, only illuminated by a ray of dirty light coming from a window. He was, although, able to make out the shape of a pony curled up in the center of the room. She was the source of the crying. Blaze drew nearer to the pony and tried to comfort her. “Hey, why are you crying?” Blaze said caringly. “You wouldn’t understand…” The voice said dejectedly. “Try me.” The pony sniffled to herself and started to speak up again, “Have you…Have you ever loved somepony, but they didn’t love you back?” “She wasn’t a pony, but I know what you mean.” “Well, there’s this pony that I really loved, and I mean a LOT!” she said starting to cheer up a little bit. “But this thing came up…and…well he changed, he may never be the same, but I still love him!” The pony started to shift a little to look upon Blaze. “He’s the reason I get up in the morning. He’s the joy in my heart, the love in my soul! The source of my inspiration, the wonder in my world…” She paused for a moment, and stood up. “and I just want him to love me back, to love me again!” She stuck out her fore legs and gave Blaze a tender hug. She started to cry uncontrollably. Blaze felt her warm tears fall upon his back. He shifted his head a little to look the pony in her eyes. Her beautiful magenta eyes sent chills throughout his body. “I’ll learn to love you again.” Blaze said passionately taking Rainbow Dashinto a tender embrace. Rainbow Dash continued to cry even more. She shifted her weight towards Blaze to draw him in closer. As they held each other for a few moments Rainbow Dash felt Blaze nuzzle her gently, causing her to fill with love. She had finally gotten him back. “Thank you.” She spoke softly. Rainbow looked up at Blaze, for a few moments she drew closer to his face, until she found herself less than a hair away from touching his lips. She held that position for a moment, quietly admiring his gentle, but warm breath. Before she could react Blaze touched his lips to hers, passionately kissing her deeply. She eagerly returned the long awaited kiss, and held it for several minutes. Both ponies reluctantly pulled away to regain their breath. They both fell to the ground, so that they could draw closer to one another. They held each other for a few minutes without saying a word. Blaze was the first to break the silence. “RAINBOW DASH WAKE UP!!!!” he shouted loudly. “Huh?” ***** Rainbow Dash wiggled awake, finding herself in a new place. She was lying face down on a cloud. The cloud itself was surprisingly moist. That’s when she remembered where she was. After she flew away hastily from the confrontation with Blaze, she came to her favorite cloud perch. Still distraught over having Blaze yell at her, she cried herself into a pleasant dream state. “RAINBOW DASH WAKE UP!!!!! WE’RE GONNA BE LATE!!!!” said a familiar southern voice. Rainbow Dash peeked over the side of her cloud to see a familiar orange earth pony. “Late for what Applejack?” she shouted lazily. “The party!” Oh right! She thought to herself, jumping down from the cloud, descending to meet Applejack. “How long do we have?” “The party’s not fer nother hour.” “Wait, what! Then why did you wake me?!” She just smiled back at Rainbow Dash, “You seem like you need somepony to talk to.” “What would make you think that, AJ?” Applejack just continued to give a soft smile, and pointed up towards the sky. Rainbow Dash looked up to see that the cloud she was perched upon was dripping down precipitation. “We aren’t scheduled fer any rain today.” She said looking back at Rainbow Dash, “Now seriously RD, what’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash looked back at the mare before her. She couldn’t help but feel a sense of insecurity in Applejacks presence. She didn’t want to show any weakness to her rival and longtime friend. Rainbow sighed to herself, “You wouldn’t understand.” She quietly whispered, turning away to look back to the skies. It was a beautiful summer day, not too cloudy, not too windy, and just sunny enough, a perfect day for Rainbow Dash, as these were the best flying conditions. That and the sight itself was amazing. Applejack took a few steps closer to her distressed friend, joining her in the quiet appreciation of the sky, “Try me…” Dashes ears perked up. Déjà vu. She thought to herself. Rainbow Dash was silent for a few seconds, and looked sullenly upon the ground. She didn’t know quite what it was that made her open up to her friend, but she accepted the relief it brought. “Applejack, have you ever loved someone who didn’t love you back? Have you ever been cursed to spend your days with that person, knowing that they may never love you again?” She paused for a moment to regain her composure. “Have you ever wondered, what could’ve been, had the circumstances changed?” Tears cascaded gently across Applejack’s face, trickling down to drench the parched soil. Rainbow Dash looked over to see the tears of the strongest pony she’d ever met, fall to the ground ungraciously. “Yes…”