Chapter 9
~Rainbow~
Oh, this was not going to go well.
I still couldn’t tell her that it was Spike. Not only that, but I had to come up with some way of describing him without actually letting her know who it was. That sounded more like something that Rarity would be able to do. Part of me wished that she was here, maybe I’d be able to get some sort of clue about how to answer this.
Then again, if she were here she would probably know exactly who I was talking about. If she didn’t, she’d probably bug me into telling her a name.
I knew this was wrong. It would probably be for the best if I just told her. She might have been angry at me for a while, but eventually it would fade. Our friendship might have even been better for it. For some strange, reason, though, I couldn’t bring myself to say that name.
“Could you be a little more specific? I mean, he’s from Cloudsdale so a name probably wouldn’t be enough.” Every lie I told felt horrible, but it wasn’t that bad. Little things like this would help make sure that she felt better. I knew I was doing the right thing.
~Fluttershy~
I didn’t expect this.
Rainbow wasn’t the type that kept anything. Out of all of my friends, she was the one that I could always trust to tell me what she was thinking. She might not have even told everypony else, but I knew that she would have told me. The only thing that made sense was, of course, that she was telling the truth.
This was somepony that I didn’t know from Cloudsdale.
What exactly could I get her to tell me? Part of me wanted to know what was so special about this pony, obviously there was something. Rainbow didn’t just give advice, she didn’t just do something else instead of visiting her friends. This pony was special, even if he didn’t know it himself. As a good friend, it was my duty to make sure that she was all right.
Yes, I had to get more information about him … for Rainbow’s sake.
“”Oh. Well, maybe you could tell me about him.” I had to think on my hooves for this one, and quickly I knew what to add. “Like … what is he like?”
~Rainbow~
What was he like?
Did she mean what he looked like?
“Well, he’s kind of short, really, but he’s kinda st-”
It was a strange thing to be cut off by Fluttershy. In all actuality, she’d never cut anypony off. There was just a look in her eyes that she got when she wanted to say something. If she said something to ponies, they might stop.
She always told me that it was rude to interrupt.
“Yeah, ‘Shy?”
“Appearance is all well and good, but that isn’t what I meant.” That didn’t make any sense, that was the most obvious thing she could asked about. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I simply looked at her with a confused look. “I mean what is he like to be around. Is he … nice?”
Part of me thought that this was all Gilda’s fault. She was my friend, everyone had welcomed her, and then it turned out that she wasn’t my friend anymore. During the years we’d been away from each other, I had been the one that had managed to grow up a little. If Gilda hadn’t already left a long time ago, I’d go give her a piece of my mind.
I thought about the best way to answer.
“He’s really nice.” That wasn’t likely going to be enough, I would have to continue. After all, Fluttershy was one of my friends that talked the most to me. It might not have seemed that way, but she was almost as curious about the things that happened in my life as Twilight was about … everything and anything. “But I suppose you’ll want to know more about him than whether or not he’s nice.”
Something about saying he was nice seemed to bring a bigger smile to her face, or maybe I just wanted to see one. She nodded, though, so I knew I had to continue. It had been worth a shot, at least.
“Well, what can I say?” I closed my eyes, thought back to every interaction that I had with Spike. There had to be a way of describing the way he acted. The best way that came to mind was just to start naming off everything that I thought when he came to mind.
The first thought that came to mind was what had happened a few days back. He had been the one that had taken the hit, however minor, when he had caught me. “Well, he’s really loyal. Not as loyal as me, obviously, but still up there. That really isn’t much of a fair competition, really.” I was the bearer of the Element of Loyalty, obviously the competition was a bit rigged.
The next thing that came to mind was prank-time. It was awesome when we went and pranked Spike, but even more awesome when he had taken it in good humor. Then there had been the time that he had helped me prank Pinkie, it had been the most awesome moment of that day. I didn’t realize that my smile had grown wider. “He’s also really fun to be around.”
I opened my eyes, part of me hoped she didn’t take that wrong. “Not that you aren’t fun to be around, ‘Shy. You’re loads of fun.” I knew that she could get a little self-conscious about some things, and this was one of them. She always seemed to try really hard to be fun, but it never actually seemed to come to fruition. Well, she wasn’t un-fun. I just didn’t have a lot of interest in the things that she considered to be fun.
“Oh, Rainbow, you don’t have to worry about that. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
I could tell that she didn’t like it being brought up, though. There was something in her voice, when she had said that, that told me that she was just being nice. That was the type of thing that Fluttershy did a lot, she tried to be the nicest that anypony could ask for, and I would say that she went above and beyond the call. I would never tell her, but she probably embodied her Element a lot better than I did.
I would never admit that to anypony.
“Tell me more about this pony. He sounds really … nice.”
That was the word of the day, and for Fluttershy it seemed like the word of her life. I couldn’t fault her for it, she didn’t really know a lot about whatever she normally described as nice. This time, it was Spike, I had just given her a couple of descriptions. My mind went back, I had to think of what it was that I really thought about him. “Okay, if you’re sure.”
I thought about all of the times that he wrote those letters. That might have seemed like a small thing to a lot of ponies, except maybe Applejack and Twilight, but that was dedication. I heard he even worked until he got claw cramps. “He’s definitely dedicated to his job. I mean, there have been times when he’s actually been hurt on the job.”
This elicited a shocked gasp, but I shook my head.
“Nothing too major, though. He still works there, after all.” I couldn’t tell her that he didn’t have a choice, she’d probably want to be to try to get him out. Then I’d have to tell her it was Spike, which was the thing that I had been trying to avoid this entire time. “Believe me, I’d be the first trying to get him to quit that job if it was too dangerous, or maybe his boss would be the first. She’s a pretty awesome pony, if I do say so myself.”
Twilight was also kind of scary sometimes.
“He’s a good friend, ‘Shy. I don’t really know much more to say about him, though.” That wasn’t going to work, I knew it. I would just have to throw it out there. “He’s kind, loyal, compassionate ... I don’t think he could hurt another living creature if he wanted to. But he’s also really fun to be around, smile and laughter all around.”
I laid my head back, and I looked up at the ceiling. Out of all of my friends, I spent the least amount of time with Spike. It didn’t just happen, he was always too busy to go out with us on the picnics. It seemed, though, that he was one of the friends that I needed to spend more time with. He deserved it, he was awesome.
“He’s pretty awesome.”
I closed my eyes, and thought about it. I really needed to spend more time with him, there couldn’t be any excuses. It might be nice to find out even more about him.
~Fluttershy~
Oh my.
I knew that Rainbow wasn’t the type who could be described as a great speaker. She wasn’t bad, but I knew several ponies who she could probably learn from. There was something different about this description, though I couldn’t place my hoof on why she would be this way. It seemed to me that she was vague. That happened sometimes, but not when she was describing somepony.
But more importantly, she didn’t have a single bad thing to say.
I would be the first to say that saying good things was important, but even I knew that everypony had flaws. When somepony asked me about my friends, I normally told them the good things like Rainbow just did. This was different, though. I told Rainbow everything about Angel, and he was my best animal friend. Either she was being purposefully vague, or she wasn’t trying to think of anything negative.
Oh, if only Twilight were here. She’d know exactly what to ask to get the right answer. I didn’t have a way of getting in touch with Twilight, though, so I would just have to think like her. I would just have to do my best to use the deductive reasoning that she always went on about.
Actually, maybe I could come up with something from the last thing she said about him. Kind, compassionate, caring, and fun to be around sounded like all of the traits that somepony would describe somepony else that they really cared for. If I didn’t know Rainbow better, I would think that she had some sort of feelings for this pony.
Rainbow had never been the type to care about those sorts of things, though.
“He does sound pretty amazing, and a good friend.” I had said that before, I knew it. “That must be why he went to you for advice, and of course you had to help him.”
~Rainbow~
That wasn’t why.
I still wasn’t sure why Spike came to me for advice about love. He could have gone to a book, or maybe another of our friends. I hadn’t said anything about it at that point, he had come to me for advice and I had felt the need to provide. “No, I’m not really sure why he came to me for advice. I mean, he asked me about … love.”
For some reason, I started to giggle. At the same time, though, I thought about exactly what he had asked. Spike had wanted me to help him land the mare of his dreams, or at least the mare who he assumed was the mare of his dreams. “He has his heart set on a mare, and he just didn’t know how to approach her.”
Amazingly enough, when I looked over to ‘Shy she was simply nodding. It was almost as if Spike’s problem resonated with her. That’s because it did, really. She didn’t know how to go over to Rarity any more than Spike did.
Rarity really was lucky sometimes.
At the same time, I could feel a little bit of jealousy. It wasn’t something that happened a lot, but it happened. I knew why ponies had their crushes on Rarity. Everypony saw her as a vision of beauty, and she was. Not only that, but everypony saw a beautiful mare that also happened to be one of the most generous friends I had.
Well, she would make a good marefriend for Fluttershy, when that eventually happened.
I knew it would happen, and I knew they’d be happy together.
I hadn’t noticed that a slight grimace had shown on my face, but Fluttershy did. I don’t even know how long I had that look before she tried to get my attention. I had just been focused on thinking about the advice that I gave, and the fact that I was now regretting that advice.
“Umm … are you all right?”
That was the million bit question.
I wanted to say yes, even if it was a lie. “She’s an awesome mare, the one that he wanted to get the advice for.” That didn’t help much, I knew, but I had to get this off my chest. “But I sometimes have to wonder what she has that I don’t. I mean, I see the way stallions look at her all the time. She’s got ‘pose’ , ‘sophistication’ , ‘beauty’. She’s generous. But I can be those things.”
I had started, it would likely be a while for me to stop.
This likely wasn’t the best way to tell Fluttershy about my problem, but it was going to have to be it.
“It’s just like when we all went to the Gala. I thought that it was going to be an awesome night spent with the Wonderbolts, and maybe I’d get to know Soarin some more.” My anger was at a boiling point by now. “But he just ignored me the entire night, so focused on himself. Oh, and pie.” I looked to see that my expression was scaring Fluttershy a little, or at least it worried her.
“I’m sorry, ‘Shy, it’s not your fault. I’ll just … think about something else.”
“No!” Fluttershy’s expression quickly changed to a look of determination. “You need to tell me what’s going on. You’ll never start to feel better if you just keep this bottled up.” A kind expression quickly took over. “You’ll feel better after this, I promise.”
“Okay, if you say so.” I didn’t really want to talk about this, but something told me that she might have been right. “That night had been a complete bust, until we ended up meeting up later. But it hadn’t just been everything that went wrong, the whole destroying everything part anyway, but it was something else.” How could I describe it? “I guess I had put Soarin on some sort of pedestal, and he decided to jump off.”
That wasn’t the best way of putting it.
“It didn’t end there, though. I mean, I had kind of hoped that we might have something, some sort of … I don’t know. I just thought he was special.” It sounded weird to say that I had been hoping he would ask me to be his special somepony. It also sounded farfetched, the more that I thought about it. “I even went to Rarity later, to get some advice on that sort of thing.”
I winced, but Fluttershy motioned for me to continue.
“But she just tried to get me to go out on a date with you.” I chuckled a little, then put on a serious expression. “There’s nothing wrong with dating you, ‘Shy, I just don’t feel that way about you.” I had to move on, this wasn’t going to get me anywhere, “And then he came by, my friend, and he started to ask me about love.”
Yep, my anger had come back full force.
“There’s nothing wrong with me, is there? No, there isn’t. I can be as beautiful as she can, I can have poise.” That was the word I had meant earlier, not pose. I don’t even know why I had said that other word. “But dates don’t come to me. And they all seem to think I like mares for some reason, I just don’t get it at all. It’s like I might as well be a stallion. He came to me for advice, ‘Shy. Not for a date, for advice about how to get one.”
Right after I said that, I just stopped talking. That didn’t make any sense. I didn’t want Spike to date me, did I?
~Fluttershy~
I was used to this sort of thing, or so I had thought.
When somepony got discouraged, or mad, sometimes they needed somepony to listen to them. This had actually happened a few time before with Rainbow, though they were about different subjects. This time, though, something had turned out to be different. I didn’t expect that she would go on about love, she hadn’t seemed to care about that before.
Those last words, though, they seemed to even shock her.
This friend of hers, he was definitely important to her. I should have been able to see the signs, and I should have said something about that. It would have even been all right if I just started to talk now, yet I couldn’t come up with a single thing to say about what she had just said.
What should I have said?
I couldn’t really do anything. She didn’t want me to know who he was, or much about him. There hadn’t even been the intention to let me know that she cared about him like this, she had probably come here with the intention of keeping it some sort of secret. Part of me knew that I should be offended by that, the idea that she would have kept something secret from me.
I couldn’t, though.
If she wanted to have it kept as some sort of secret, I would have let her. Now, though, I had to come up with something to say. There had to be something that I could have said that would have made her feel better. Nothing came to mind, because these weren’t the types of situations that I was used to dealing with.
I didn’t know what advice to give, I just sat there quiet for a few minutes.
Only one question came to mind, so I figured that this was as good of a place as any to start.
“Have you told him about how you feel?”
~Rainbow~
Had I ever told anypony about how I felt?
It seemed like that question was a good, or at least it probably was. I didn’t know what to say, though. Part of me still didn’t believe I could have said something like that, it didn’t make any sense. Spike was my friend, and he was a good friend.
I didn’t love him, did I?
“I don’t know why I said that, he’s just my friend.”
I couldn’t look at Fluttershy, but I didn’t need to. When things happened to one of her friends, she always had a similar expression. Fluttershy was always so supportive, and that was just what I needed right now. “He’s obviously more than just a friend to you, Rainbow.”
I looked at her, she was being so understanding. For the life of me, though, only one thought came to mind. I didn’t love Spike like that, and I had to make sure that Fluttershy knew as well. “I’m just a little frustrated, ‘Shy. I haven’t been on a single date, and we’re both adults. Even you’ve been on a date. I just … I have no clue how to find a special somepony.”
She draped a wing around me, and gave me a hug. “Don’t worry, Rainbow. It will happen when it’s meant to. And it will start when you tell this pony that you care about him.”
She wasn’t getting the message, so I had to just say it.
“Nah, ‘Shy, that was a heat of the moment thing. I couldn’t go out with him.” I chuckled, and looked up at the ceiling. It would have ruined everything if I did. It would have been even worse it if turned out that I really didn’t have any feelings for him. “He’s a good friend, a great friend, but that’s about it. I mean, it’s not even about the fact that we’re both busy. He’s the type of guy you spend a day with and have some fun.”
I didn’t love Spike, I just had to repeat that to myself.
“I really shouldn’t have worried you about this, ‘Shy.” I started, though I knew she would disagree. Fluttershy was my best friend, my sister, she wouldn’t have thought that any of this was wasted time at all. “But you were right, I feel a lot better.” She had helped me out, she always seemed to be helping me out in one way or another. “And you’re also right about it happening when it’s meant to. I’ve been worrying about this for no reason.
I’m the Rainbow Dash. It’s totally going to happen.”
Fluttershy just chuckled. I had come here to help her feel better, but it turned out that we had both helped each other out. “That’s the Rainbow I know. It’ll happen, I know it.”
It felt good to get that type of response.
“Well, ‘Shy, I’m gonna have to head off.” She looked a little disappointed, as if she thought that I was going to stay forever. “But I’m definitely going to spend a lot more time with you, now that I’ve got my head sorted out. Maybe we could even go to one of those animal events that you like going to so much.”
Part of me knew that I was going to regret this.
“Well, there is another Butterfly Migration this year. Oh, it’d be so wonderful to go see it.”
It was really good to get that last subject removed, and this one to replace it. Of course, I hated the idea of going to see butterfly migrate. Or was it buterflies? Either way, it was incredibly boring. At the same time, though, I had brought up the idea of going to see something with her. Not only that, but this was always a good way to spend time with Fluttershy.
She loved these things, though I had no clue why.
It probably had something to do with her Cutie Mark.
“No problem, ‘Shy. It’ll be awesome.” I didn’t have to force a smile, it came on its own. The idea of spending the say watching those bugs wasn’t the part I liked, it was knowing that my sister was going to have a good day that day. “I’ll see you in a couple of days, ‘kay. It’d be tomorrow, but I’m gonna have to try to get my weather team back…”
Right now, I needed to head home to take a nap.
Fluttershy simply nodded to me, the smile hadn’t left her face, and she quickly moved to do something that probably involved Angel-bunny. I didn’t know for sure, but that little thing seemed to be one of the few animals that controlled her life. The others seemed to be a little nicer, but she would never listen to me when I offered to scare him into behaving.
It would have been fun.
Either way, I soon found myself back at my favorite cloud. It was fluffy, it was comfortable, it was big enough to hide me if somepony thought they could find me. The best thing was that I moved it from time to time, just to make sure that Pinkie couldn’t just figure out where I was and try to stop me from napping.
She always had a reason, but I needed a good nap.
And since I had nothing else to do, I patted the cloud a couple of times before laying down and closing my eyes.
I awoke to find that it was night.
That didn’t make any sense, it hadn’t been that late when I had decided to take a nap. Those things lasted an hour tops. The worst one had been was two hours, but I had been really tired that day. Today didn’t have a lot of weather-work, so there was no real reason for me to have slept through so much of everything.
I should have headed to home, if it was night, but I wasn’t tired at all.
Besides, this seemed like a perfect excuse to go apologize to Twilight. If she was still up, she would be focused on studying. That would be the perfect time for me to come in, say I’m sorry, and leave before she could zap me again. It seemed like the perfect plan, so I hopped off the cloud and drifted down to the ground.
Had the cloud moved?
I wasn’t even twenty feet away from the library, this didn’t make any sense. The cloud had been over Bon-Bon’s house before I had gone to sleep, that was on the other side of the town. It might have been Cloud Kicker’s idea of a prank, she always seemed to have some of the best ideas. Then again, I don’t know how she would have known to do this.
I really needed to figure out how she did these things.
My thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of a familiar voice. It wasn’t Twilight, it was Spike. I looked up to see that he was looking down from the balcony, not a single bandage on him or anything. The real shock came when he actually jumped down for me to catch him.
He was lucky I did, since he hadn’t given me any warning.
“You really gotta be more careful about that, Spike. I’m awesome and all, but a little warning would have been good.”
“Nah, I knew you’d catch me.”
Why was he so sure? I knew I was fast, but even I made mistakes. At least if I had made a mistake this time, it wouldn’t lead to anything too bad. “And how’d you know that? I could just … get suddenly weak, and drop you.” I feigned that my grip was faltering, and then I landed.
“You’re too awesome for something like that to happen.”
That was true, I was awesome.
“Besides, everypony knows you don’t let your special somepony fall to their deaths…”
Yeah, that was true. Wait, what? How had Spike gotten the impression that I wanted him to be my special somepony. “I … what?” It was at that point that I felt like I was thrown out of my body. I felt myself float up, and all I could do was watch myself from above. “How long have you know?”
“I didn’t, until now.”
This didn’t make any sense. That was my voice, that was my body, but it wasn’t me. I was up here, trying to move back down. There was something keeping me there, though.
“So, Spike, how about we head out to dinner tomorrow? That’s what couples do, right?”
I opened my mouth, tried to say something, but not a single sound came. It didn’t make any sense, the fake me was going to get a date with Spike. I didn’t even want the real me to go out on a date with Spike. How could something like this have happened?
It was then that I heard a voice, the one from before. I looked over to see that it was Nightmare Luna, or whatever she had called herself. Or was it Princess Moon? I really couldn’t think straight right now, I simply had to get my focus on anything that wasn’t the train-wreck that was about to happen.
“Now we see your true heart’s desire.” A hoof moved, she was pointing over at the fake me.
Wait, was this all just a dream? That didn’t make any sense at all.
I looked where her hoof pointed. It seemed as though I had ignored the conversation for a few minutes, because the strangest thing was happening. The two of them weren’t talking anymore, it seemed as though Spike had kissed me. Or, well, it wasn’t me but it looked like me.
This was going to be one confusing dream.
“Did you do this, Princess?” I finally could talk, and that was the first thing that I said. I moved my eyes from the couple, the fake couple, and back to the mare that had caused all of this. There couldn’t be any other explanation, really, she had manipulated my mind using some sort of weird-o magical powers that only she had.
“We can only enter dreams, and give our guidance. We could not force you to do something you did not already want to do.” A sly smile appeared on her face. “But what we can do is this.” A hoof moved toward me, and I flinched. Then it touched my face, and she simply said one word. “Boop.”
My eyes shot open, I looked around to see that I was still over Bon-Bon’s house.
That had all been some weird dream.
None of it made sense, really. I knew I didn’t love Spike, right? It didn’t make any sense for me to love him, he was just a great friend. The dream was still fresh in my mind, I couldn’t force it out. My mind moved back to the kiss, the one with fake-me, and my face started to feel warm. It wouldn’t really be so bad if Spike was my special somepony.
It would actually be really awesome.
I nodded my head, I had to figure out a way to tell him. First, though, I knew what I had to do. I had to go back to Fluttershy’s, and I had to make sure that she knew that this wasn’t over. I was going to make sure that she found a way to tell Rarity how she felt.
It was for purely good reasons, I told myself as I started to head back.
Regardless, the first step would be assuring her that this sort of thing was still possible. I didn’t have much of a plan after that, but we had time. She had waited this long, there was no way that she would rush things now.
Things were going to be just fine.
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Epic finale. Amazing, as always, especially considering that you have written a story with F/F shipping that I'm OK with. No joke, I hate these things, but you can write it down with no problems from me. You are the only one to do this.
*rubs hooves together* Good.... Good... Realize your feelings Rainbow and grant me a grand feast of emotion.
What? Emotions are delicious.
I feel the conclusion will soon be upon us. I can't wait for the next chapter. I believe it will be filled with deliciousness.
Great story.
Now the prequel is done is their going to be a sequel?
Ties into it's sequel quite well, in my opinion. Most excellent story and i'm now looking forward to more from this universe.
AWESOMEE !!!!
^italicise + punctuation.
^ You're missing a 'home' or something there? o.o
K since the story is now over, I have a few things to say.
Pros
In the initial chapters, what struck me wasn't the standard love-story, or even the triangles, but the complexity of the relationship. I adore a good puzzle. The last part about every pony wanting beauty only for their dates. That's realism right there. Done quite okay as well. The last chapter seemed to slow down for the better, but pacing was decent throughout anyways.
The twist at the end where Rainbow goes for Spike instead works nice, but I can't help but ponder if Spike is willing to give Rarity up. It's not easy to do so o.o I hope Rainbow is ready for a ride.
Cons
I can't seem to imagine the place you set out for your characters to be at. Try expanding the scenery a bit to help with the mood.Some mistakes here and there, and going through your work once through before submitting is highly advisable. Or engage a proofreader of some sort.
E.g.
^ replace the comma with a period, or a semicolon. Up to you. Semicolon seems more fitting though, but you could also do an em-dash, and continue as to elaborate on that one awesome time. A smile? The most painful, most memorable laugh ever? Something like that
I felt at some point in the story where it's just all "Oh I love her, but she loves someone else." etc... Other than your twists, yours is just a standard deviation of the typical love story. A door is open, but its how you walk in that matters.
TBH, the story is ... bland. The only reason I read on is because of that twist of yours. That changed a lot, and I wished for more. I even wished for a conclusion, but you made a sequel, so I'll check that out.
If I'd give a rating, 6.5/10, 10 being impossible to get, and 1 as a first fic with poor grammar and stuff. 0's are just mean.
Bloody fantastic, mate
Excellent dialogue, slow pacing, interesting story arcs, ya got it going good, mate
Now onto the next!
Sure it's for purely good reasons Rainbow Dash! Sure it is! Whatever you have to tell yourself in order to be able to live with yourself!
Holy shit, that has to be the best transition from dream to real world I've ever seen written.
Gotta use that sometime...
Princess Moon is a certified trademark of Star vs The Forces of Evil under the Disney corporation.