The day couldn't have been worse.
At first, since her awakening, Rainbow Dash had been constantly under an assault of messages from all of her virtual friends, some were asking if the video was a fake, others just had to show the world how they could be such great comedians by making terrible jokes about it.
On the bright side, a lot of them were complimenting about her dancing and singing skills. Too bad she didn't feel too bright sided that day.
She left home wearing a sewer with a hood, which wasn't cool, just in order to keep a low profile. As the last touch, she was walking around with sunglasses, in the middle of a rainy and dark morning.
The irony.
Even more ironic, she hadn't taken an umbrella and the rain stopped five minutes after her arrival at school.
That's why, right after she reached her locker, Rarity dragged her into an empty room and changed her wet clothes with one of the ‘emergency suits’ that, unfortunately, were the perfect copy of her usual outfit.
If you're wondering about what is an ‘emergency suits’, know that Rarity is so obsessed with fashion that she has prepared an entire stock of dresses for any occasion, including a change for every model. She rarely left home without it, and of course she had thought to provide assistance for her friends too. But we digress.
Moving forward with the morning of Rainbow Dash, she escaped from Rarity’s clutches and walked through the halls, getting a couple of jokes from few random students. She was pretty peeved.
‘Why is this happening to me?’ though Rainbow Dash.
A pinky blur at the end of the hall quickly reminded her.
‘Oh, right.’
“Raaaiinboooww Daaashh” called the incoming pink meteor, “look at this!”
In front of her, Dash could see her on-trial friend, carrying a big ribbon with the words ‘I’m super duper sorry’ wrote on it. There was even a nice draw of the two friends hugging and sharing a cake.
“Soooo” murmured Pinkie, “what do you think?”
Rainbow Dash turned the ribbon into ashes with a flamethrower.
“Where did you get a flamethrower?”
“From your locker.”
“Why there was a flamethrower in my locker?”
Rainbow Dash skipped the part where she would be dumbfounded and moved away. She didn't make few steps when Pinkie called her back.
“Wait!”
In annoyance, she turned back to her friend. Just in time to catch her on jump between her arms.
Pinkie Pie had just thrown herself on Dash, and now was starting to sing aloud in her cheery style while some music started to play itself.
“
There’s no time - for fussing and fighting my friend
Please allow me - to put our quarrel to an end.
I’m super duper sorry and you kno-ow
Can’t we follow the forgiveness flo-ow?
It can be a wonderful day for two happy pals
And we still have to show educational morals.
So what if you smile now, and say ‘it’s all forgot’
Or do I have to keep talking till I can’t go on?
”
While she was singing, a pink aura started to glow around Pinkie. Then a couple of pony-ears peered from the really-fast growing hairs.
That stopped neither the music nor the singer, who was now singing and swinging in a tight embrace.
“
I know that you’re really mad at me…
And you may have any right to beee.
I made a bad mistake, and you’re feeling down
But I can cheer you up and flip that frown.
So please - listen what this song is about
Because I think we can work it ou uu ut.
Yes, I think we can work it out!
”
The song ended on a strong note and a big happybutpleading smile from Pinkie Pie, who was still holding on Rainbow Dash.
“Pinkie…”
“Pleaspleaseplease I’m reallysuperduper sorry! I beseech your forgiveness, Rainbow-chan...”
“Listen, Pinkie, I just need some time to chill because I’m pretty peeved right now and I could be seeing red at some point of the day. But I promise you that we’re still friends” ‘on-trial’ “and we can talk later at the cafeteria if you want to.”
Pinkie kept looking up at her friend with worry and a hint of sorrow like she wasn’t sure if to believe the words she was hearing or not.
“Pinkie promise?”
Rainbow shrugged and rolled her eyes.
“Sure, stick a cupcake in my eye etcetera.”
Pinkie tightened her hug and squealed, making Rainbow lose her balance and breath.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!”
At last, Pinkie jumped up and came back on her feet.
“See you at lu-unch,” she sang softly. As fast as she arrived, she bounced her way back through the halls humming the notes of her song.
After catching her breath, Rainbow growled and stood up too. She watched her half-pony friend for a few seconds, then she quickly went to the classroom.
She sat next to Clear Skies, who smirked as soon as she noticed her desk-mate.
“So, do you really like big boys?”
Rainbow’s face fell on the desk.
“Hi girls.”
“Hi, darling.”
“Hello, Rainbow.”
“Hey, Rai.”
“Hi, Dash.”
“Uhm, hi.”
Rainbow sat at the table of the cafeteria with her friends: Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Sunset, and Twilight; who greeted her back (in this order, in case you’re wondering).
The latter started doing conversation, “So, Sunset told me what happened yesterday...”
“Yeah, forget that. Why are you wearing that thing?”
“You mean the lab coat?” asked Twilight, lifting her arms in order to take a better look at her outfit.
“Yeah, we don’t have to go to the lab today, right?”
“I’m just going to spend some time with Sunset doing experiments.”
“What about?”
Twilight’s face beamed with pure joy. “Science and magic!” she managed to squeak out.
Alongside with Twi, Sunset lifted her focus from her lunch to give Rainbow a proper answer.
“I told her that my tests on you and the girls didn’t accomplish anything good, but she insisted on performing them anyway.” Sunset talked with a knowing smirk on her face, holding back some laugh. “This is going to be fun.”
“Yes it is!” exclaimed Twilight, far too excited to notice the malice in Sunset’s voice.
‘Beware Twilight, that girl is going to take your innocence,’ thought Rainbow Dash, giggling a little.
From there, Applejack made a call with her cell phone, but the others were too hungry for talking. Every girl at the table ate the food in silence until a set of two pink arms hugged Rainbow and Fluttershy from behind.
“Hello everybody!”
Pinkie pulled out a cupcake from her hairs and gave it to Dash.
“A little gift to remind you that I’ll make up to you somehow.”
“Pinkie, it’s ok,” responded Rainbow Dash. “Honestly, I don’t even care anymore.”
“Really? Because I remember a certain act from yesterday that makes me seriously doubt about that” pointed out Rarity.
“Oh, oh” started Pinkie Pie, “You mean when right after our meeting at the music room ended Rainbow was so infuriated that she threw herself on my chase while I was running through the school’s halls...”
“How you manage to outrun me is still a mystery,” muttered Rainbow Dash.
“...and it was like super scary because, hehe, I mean have you ever seen angry Dashie? Every time I dared to watch back the blurred colors of her hairs were chasing me. I had no idea that a rainbow coming straight at you could be that scary.”
“I had,” countered flatly Sunset.
“Oopsie, sorry. I forgot about that...” said apologetically Pinkie in an attempt to cheer up Sunset.
“I don’t blame you, but I really doubt I will ever forget about that.” Sunset’s eyes were looking at the empty space.
A confused Twilight interjected in, “Sorry but I don’t quite understand... what are you talking about?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “You should have been here, but long story short? I got blasted by a magic rainbow once.”
“A lovely story, really,” said Rarity sarcastically. “But let’s go back to the point here. I would like to know if everything is ok with you, Rainbow dear.”
The girls went silent and turned all their attention to their friend in the corner, who snorted before giving an answer.
“Ok, maybe I still care a little about that. It kinda stings when other teases me about it, but mostly is just some jerk who wants to take an easy laugh. No big deal.”
Like any other time which Rainbow was talking about herself, the girls took with skepticism everything she said. Anyway, no one dared to push on her.
Instead, Applejack made a proposal.
“Well, Y'all know that gossip ain’t my field, but Ah know what’s the first step for gettin’ you out from this big mess of your’s.”
Rainbow was really skeptical about it. “Really?”
“Don’t you worry, by the end of it everything will be as clear as a river in spring.”
As she finished to say those words, Applejack stood up and looked down to the hall. Then she waved her hand, catching the attention of… Big Macintosh.
While an oblivious Big Mac was coming closer to greet his sister, Rainbow opened her eyes wide and felt her heart stop. With her expression of disbelief, she turned towards Applejack, who was smiling with her eyes closed.
She couldn’t have… she didn’t...
“Ah called Big Macintosh earlier and Ah asked him to come here, so now the two of you can have a little chat about...”
Applejack stopped her talking the same moment she opened her eyes. She was expecting to find Rainbow Dash right in front of her but, instead, she realized that she was talking to no one.
“But where...”
Her question was interrupted by a ringtone from her phone. She turned the display on and saw that she just received a skimpy message from her missing friend: ‘Sry gtgo by.’
“Consarnit!”
Phone in hand, Rainbow Dash was sitting beneath the school canteen’s windows, sitting in the garden outside. She had dashed through the window right before Big Mac could see her, at least she hoped so, now she only had to go around the campus and reach her next class without being seen.
‘Easy, just duck, move slowly and stay quiet.’
The blatant sound of shattering glass right behind her abruptly stopped her line of thought and her stealthy going.
“Watch out, Scootaloo!” yelled an angry Sweetie Belle. “You just ballowned the window!”
Scootaloo stared motionless at her friend for a moment. Then chirped happily, “So did you like it!”
“Ah think you're losing the point here?” piped AppleBloom.
From inside the canteen came the angry voice of an old but strong lady, loud enough to make the earth tremble. “WHERE ‘RE THE VERMINS THAT BROKE OUR WINDOWS?! COME HERE AND SHOW YOURSELF YOU LITTLE PUNKS!”
In front of such a weighted and legitimate request, the CMC members unanimously and instantly decided to smoothly decline in favor of a fast and graceless escape.
After some meters, they noticed that even Rainbow Dash had added herself to the group.
“Hey, watcha doing squirt?” asked her, sounding as calm as possible.
“Meh, just running away from my misdeeds,” replied her little fan, imitating the master of awesomeness.
“Cool.”
“What about you?”
“Uhm, running away from boys I guess?”
“Why, do they want to hit you?”
“Maybe they want to hit on me.”
“Ooh, that makes more sense.”
Continuing to run, the girls arrived at the front doors of the school. They instantly checked the surroundings looking for witnesses and entered the building. Thankfully, nobody had seen them flee from the crime scene.
“All right, good run brats.”
“Yeah, that was really awesome, Rainbow Dash!” said an excited Scootaloo before turning to leave with her pals. “No one can catch us!”
Rainbow Dash was about to turn and leave alone the three younger, but after hearing those words something started bugging her from the inside.
‘O yeah, my conscience.’
After a good exhaling from the nose, Rainbow put on a smirk. “Scootaloo!”
“Yes, Rainbow Dash?”
“You know what’s even cooler and braver than running and get away from your mistakes?”
“What is?” asked Scootaloo with a query look.
“Stand up for yourself and face your responsibilities.”
The answer has come straight, without malice or menace in its tone.
In response to the look of disbelief on Scootaloo’s face, Rainbow simply watched her with an encouraging smile but severe eyes.
“Just saying,” she added in the end.
Then she left her little sis to think about that.
“Sheesh, Ah can’t believe how she made such a fool outta me!”
Applejack was fuming, not only her best friend had dumped her like a big bag of rotten apples but she also did it in front of her family. Just to avoid a simple confrontation with her brother about their feelings.
“Ah swear, sometimes that girl keeps her thoughts to come out more than a rattlesnake keeps his head under the sand.”
“Eyup.”
“But don’t you worry Mac, she won’t skip next class just in order to avoid us.”
Next hour Applejack and Dash would have attended math class, furthermore, they used to sit next to the other during math. It was an old tradition recently restarted in honor of how they met and known each other.
Funny story, maybe for another time.
Anyway, the two eldest Apple siblings arrived at the right door and Applejack immediately leaned over searching for Rainbow Dash. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in sight.
Applejack let escape a groan. “Ah suppose it’s for the best if you go to your class.”
Big Mac got the message clear and gave her sister a nod before leaving.
Applejack entered and went directly for her chair. As soon as she sat, she spoke looking in front of her.
“You can come out now.”
A rainbow hair sprang up from under the desk on her left side.
“Oh, hum… hey, hehe. What’s up? I was just, you know, something fell and… yeah.”
Applejack just turned her eyes towards Rainbow Dash, who was smiling sheepishly.
“Sure, sugarcube,” she replied. Then she looked in the other direction.
Rainbow noticed that her friend had spoken with a rather bitter tone.
“Hey, you’re not mad at me, right?” asked Rainbow with a little concern.
Applejack re-established the eye contact with her friend, and her face gradually softened until it became a genuine smile.
“Of course not, sugarcube,” she replied, this time with a much more gentle voice.
A lot more confident, Rainbow smirked at her friend. “So, we’re cool?”
“Mhmm, thought Ah still think mah way of solving this kind of things is the right way.” Applejack turned completely to her left side, with her arms crossed, while Rainbow cockiness was trembling a little. “But Ah reckon it’s up to you to sort this mess as you think is for the best.”
That was enough for Rainbow Dash to feel a lot less weight on her shoulders. She chose to change the subject of the conversation.
“Thanks, dork,” she whispered to her friend.
“Will you ever stop to call me like that?”
“Mmm,” Rainbow pretended to look like she was thinking about it. “Sorry, not gonna happen.” Then she leaned closer to her friend and quickly added, “dork.”
Applejack pretended to be annoyed, but that nickname was an integral part of their ritual during math class and she grew the love for it in a way.
...
You should have been there to understand.
As the bell rang, Rainbow left her classroom eagerly, not just because her time as a slave was finally over, but also to escape all the jokes and the serious quiz about the video.
So, in order to avoid as many students as possible, she entered the hall that any student feared. The one in front of vice-principal Luna’s office.
As any of the plans that she tried to pull off that day, it failed.
To her surprise, in the middle of the hall were standing Scootaloo. She was still but her knees were shaking a little, her fist was raised just above Luna’s door.
All of Scootaloo's attention was focused on the wood in front of her. Looked like she had to face some terrifying mythical monster right on the other side of it.
Rainbow Dash got closer and tapped the kiddo shoulder, causing her to jump and yelp.
Scoots turned with eyes wide open, only to put on the bravest face she could master when she saw who just touched her.
“Hi Dash, I’m just… I want to get my ball back.”
Rainbow giggled, “Way to go, squirt. Do you really have the stomach to walk into Luna’s office?”
“Well, apparently she took my ball, so…” Scootaloo pointed her eyes down. “I mean, not a big deal, right?”
“Yeah, she’ll just give you a small lecture.” Rainbow winked down at the kid.
“I guess I should get in and hear it.” Scootaloo scratched her head watching at her feet. Then she added, “that’s what you would do.”
Those six words confused Rainbow Dash. “Huh?”
“Yeah, you said it too. We have to face our responsibilities to look cool, even when we don’t want to.”
“Oh, yeah,” murmured RD, “I said that.”
“And I know you would never let somebody down, or refuse a challenge just because you’re a little scared.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rainbow was lost in thought, barely listening to her little fan anymore.
Scootaloo thought that she was embarrassing her idol. “Not that I’m trying to be like you, just… looking at the guidelines.”
Rainbow simply smiled at her. “Thank you, sister.”
In that moment, a couple of voices interrupted their talk.
“Here you are, Scoots.”
“We’ve been looking for you all over the school.”
Scootaloo turned apologetically to her two best friends.
“Sorry girls, I have to apologize for breaking the windows.”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo in silence for a couple of seconds. Then they gave her a big smile with eyes closed.
“Good!”
“We go in with you.”
Now Scootaloo was surprised. “Really? There’s no need to...”
“Silly Scoots, we’re a team!”
“Blame for one, blame for all!”
Rainbow walked away, leaving the kids having their moment. She took a minute to think about what Scootaloo had just said, trying and failing to deny the obvious conclusion.
In the end, she knew what she had to do.
Big Mac was still at his locker, preparing himself to leave for home. He would have left sooner, but somehow all his pals wanted to congratulate him for having such a success with girls.
He just let them say what they wanted, but now he had stayed behind .
Not that he minded, he was used to be alone with his thoughts. It was quiet and peaceful.
Then a raspy (but cute) voice interrupted his solitude.
“Hi, Mac.”
Turning his head, Big Macintosh saw the captain of every sports team in the school, leader of Rainbow Rocks and occasionally-winged daredevil.
And she was looking really embarrassed.
“I-I wanted to see you.”
Rainbow Dash took a big breath, trying to look calm and confident. It couldn’t be more different from how she was feeling, of course.
It was time for a serious talk.