~Rainbow Dash~
Of all the places I could have landed, I had to land here.
Where was here?
I actually didn’t know! There were trees of some sort, so that lowered it to one of only a million places. Since I didn’t know where Twilight was able to send me, she had sent me to my cloud house before, it could have been anywhere with trees. It might have been better if I had been paying attention when I had been falling.
If Applejack were here, she’d be able to tell me where I was based on the bark of the tree or something.
But she wasn’t, and I wasn’t in any position to be able to see much more than the bark of the tree that was three feet in front of me.
There was only one thing that came to my mind, to keep it focused. I had to figure out why Twilight had bugged out so much. If I figured it out, then maybe I could do something about it. Even if she had gone crazy, or seemed to have gone crazy, she was still my friend. She was my friend, and Spike was my special somepony.
Or was it special somedragon?
Either way, they were both a part of my life.
Some time later
I still had no clue.
Not only that, but I didn’t know how much time had passed. I knew that it felt like forever, but that’s because I had developed this itch that I just couldn’t scratch. It was times like this that I wished I could do magic. I could have magicked away the itch, that would have been awesome.
Either that, or maybe I could have stopped this from happening. One of the two might have happened.
I needed to know what it was that had caused Twilight to freak out. That thought was still on my mind, stronger than ever. It didn’t make any sense to me. I could only remember one time when she had freaked out like this.
The two didn’t mesh in my mind, though.
More time passes
At least the itch was gone.
I still didn’t know what it was that I could do. There didn’t seem to be an easy answer for the Twilight problem, and I had gotten bored trying to think of one. The only thing I could think to do now was take a nap and hope I could move whenever it was that I woke up.
That was a good answer for just about anything, really. Sleep solved a lot.
There was actually one new thought, before I nodded off to sleep. I wondered how Fluttershy was doing, if she was still mad at me.
~Fluttershy~
I felt awful.
I looked in the mirror, and it just made me feel worse. Part of me really wanted to go talk to Rainbow Dash, to figure out what had happened, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t even move out of the house, even though I knew that I needed to go get some things from the market.
Rarity had even come over a little earlier, even she hadn’t been able to cheer me up.
I felt so awful about feeling so awful.
A rumble of my stomach told me that I needed to eat. Another thing on the list of the things that I needed to do that day. I needed to plan another date with Rarity, with the hopes that it might have brightened my mood. I needed to go find Rainbow Dash and I needed to talk to her. I needed to go get my animal friends more food, because we were running low.
All of these things, and yet I couldn’t find the will to leave my bedroom.
I looked at the door, I had to do at least one of those things. If nothing else, I had to get some food for my animal friends. I knew that my friends, even Rainbow Dash, would understand if I didn’t go see them today. Rarity was busy with one of her orders, and that meant she probably had enough to deal with. She also probably had Spike to deal with, who I partially blamed for my current problems.
No, no, I shouldn’t have thought that.
“I have to do this. You can do this, Fluttershy. You can do this.”
I slowly opened the door, and looked out. It wasn’t as if there was anypony there, even my animal friends were out and about. Even Angel-bunny wasn’t there, but it was probably because I hadn’t gone out to get him food yet. He’s normally really supportive, but I knew how he got when he was hungry. Step after step, and it only took five minutes for me to get to the door.
I had gotten there even faster than I thought I would have been able to.
Before I opened the door, I went through my list. I needed to get very specific vegetables, and some bird seed, and some eggs. I also needed to get some cherries, since that was something that I knew Angel-bunny liked. After I got back, maybe I could head over to see one of my other friends. It would have been good if I could have invited Rarity over, but she was busy.
I probably should head over there tomorrow, she probably wouldn’t be busy then.
~Three hours later~
I never wanted to leave my house again.
I just felt so nervous out there, and everypony was staring at me. They saw that I had been crying, they had known. I thought I heard a couple of ponies say something, and it wasn’t nice. Or maybe they had been talking about something else. Oh, I might have just over-thought everything. That would be just like me, I always did that sort of thing.
At least I had the groceries, and I didn’t run into any of my friends. I just needed a couple more days, then I would probably be able to go out again.
At least, I thought it would only be a couple more days before I would be able to go outside again.
For now, though, I had a few things I needed to do. I needed to set up the food for my animal friends, and then I needed to take a nap. Today had been one of the most tiring days this month, but I was sure that tomorrow would be better.
~Rainbow Dash~
The sound of ponies woke me up.
Well, okay, it didn’t wake me up at first. At first, I was able to ignore it. I would have rolled over and went back to sleep, but I couldn’t roll over at that point. There was some movement, I could feel it, but some things were still beyond me. Actually, this time was going to be another of those times when I just did my best to go back to sleep.
I was actually able to move this time.
I didn’t even bother opening my eyes this time, I just went back to sleep.
I awoke, this time the sight in front of me was something awesome. I hadn’t known where I had been, all I had seen was the tree. Apparently, if this is to be believed, it was a tree that was close enough to where Spike was. He probably even said something to Twilight for me, it was awesome.
How do I know this?
I ended up waking up next to Spike. He was a such an awesome special somepony-dragon-whatever. I actually still didn’t feel like waking up, so I snuggled up close to him and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
Strange, he felt hairy. I wouldn’t have expected that.
“WHAT THE HAY, RAINBOW!”
That definitely wasn’t the voice I had been expecting. It only took a moment for me to realize what voice I had just heard yell that out. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who heard that. Well, that actually made sense. Applejack had yelled really loud, loud enough that her sister had soon opened the door to see me in her sister’s bed.
“Oh, hey there Rainbow. Whatch-” Applebloom’s expression quickly changed, as if she had just seen a ghost, and then she walked away. I didn’t want to know what she saw, though it was probably just the wind with something that was in the room.
I rubbed my eyes, and looked over at Applejack.
“What was that about?”
“Ah don’t wanna know. What ah do wanna know is why you thought it’d be a good idea to kiss me.”
“Ehhh...” I wasn’t sure what I should tell her. If I told her it was a dream, she might have asked what it was about. Of course, that didn’t mean that I had to tell her about what was in the dream itself. I just had to give her something that would explain everything. “Sorry about that, AJ, it was a dream. I didn’t even expect to be here, really.”
Applejack didn’t look amused, or even very satisfied, by that answer. “Well, ah saw ya out there in the South Field, and ah just thought somethin was off. So ah took ya in here and ah thought the bed was big enough to where ah could squeeze in there too.”
I looked over to my side to see about half of the bed left. Apparently, I had moved while I was asleep. I just hadn’t realized it.
“So, why were ya here anyway? Doncha have a house of yer own?”
I rubbed the back of my head, and let out a chuckle. There wasn’t any time for me to think of some better response, so the truth seemed to be the only thing. “Well, Twilight might have teleported me here... after she para...” I normally knew this word, but I was too tired. “Made it so I couldn’t move...”
Well Dash may have not ended up in her home but at least she wound up someplace relatively safe.
Really wanna know about Spike Good job, old friend
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I was tempted to have her end up in the Everfree, but then realized I didn't have any idea of what to do with her after that. And this just felt better.
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Prepare to be disappointed, then. Spoiler alert: Next chapter has 0 Spike. But since I'm moving to a "every few days a chapter" schedule... well, stuff.
2698805 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Oh well.
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That's a nice choice of emoticons.
I'll let you guess as to why I said that.
The ending seems so abrupt.
Ending felt like you didn't post the whole thing, but other than that, a solid chapter.
Huh, kinda sad it wasn't the Everfree, Zecora would be a lot less hot-headed than AJ about what Twilight did and a lot more understanding of the relationship between Dash and Spike (hell, maybe even be able to tell her whether the two are genetically compatible or not, she seems to be the only one to know anything about dragons in the show).
Then again, if she was in the Everfree, she might have been eaten. There's a chance she might have been as it was, Sweet Apple Acres is close to the Everfree, if something spotted her paralyzed she would have been down and out for sure.
Surprised Spike didn't ask Pinkie to help him look for Rainbow. I know that she was teleported home last time, but with Twilights anger, there was no reason for her to be this time. At least she still ended up in one of her favourite places.
Oh look, Fluttershy is blaming things on Spike. Wait, what? The fuck? Ok, I don't know why she was angry at Rainbow for hooking up with Spike, it wasn't said, but that's stupid and only makes sense in one of two scenarios (those being that she also wants Rainbow and wants both mares at once or she's horribly racist against dragons and has only been tolerating Spike until now). The fuck is going on here?
AJ put Dash in her bed. Her family really didn't have a guest bed?
Dash, you need to think more. AJ is about as hot-headed as you are, she's also pretty damn loyal. You just told her that Twilight just teleported you somewhere at random and left you for dead, she's gonna want to go kick Twilights ass. Then again, maybe I'm underestimating her and she'll want to know why Twilight did it. Seeing as you're apparently too tired to lie, prepare to lose another friend because you're with Spike (The Apples strike me as the type to be against interspecies stuff, not to mention that Spike is still technically a child).
So... Rarity/Fluttershy chapter next, with confrontations involving AJ, Dash and possibly Twilight.
I just realised where the easiest and best jobs for Spike to get would be. In Ponyville, it would be as a maildragon (you haven't established if he can only send letters to the princess, if he can send them to anyone as long as he knows them, that would be invaluable), working for Rarity (he's done it before, now he just has to ask for payment, and she's generous enough to do a bit of back pay as well, should she find out his current living conditions. Unfortunately, that means that Fluttershy will likely see him and abuse him in some way for what he's done and thus somehow made her do. Because that's how irrational blame works, it will be his fault that she got mad at Dash), or he could simply go and dig for gems (considering we've seen that a tiny gem can buy a massive machine, he should be pretty set doing that, as long as he doesn't eat them). Other than those, there's probably other places to get jobs in Ponyville that I didn't think of, but if more ponies are about to get up in arms about this, it might be better if he moved away to find work, and with Celestia coming there's probably something in the castle she can give him. It's probably what, an hours flight for Rainbow to go see him?
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Irrational blame is irrational.
There will be no Spike abuse in this story. >_>
Like I said... I'm planning on putting out small chapters with more of a focus over the next few weeks on a "multiple a week" basis. That way, each thing gets its own chapter and we're not going from "and now this over here far away from this other thing I just mentioned". There will still be a change of focus, but I'm moving away from "and this chapter has 100 different plot points that won't be resolved in the next chapter".
That being said, I put some plot points in this chapter that won't be resolved in the next one.
2699003
And her role won't end there, I have plans for her.
awesomeee chap :DD
Nice chapter! saw a few errors here and there but nothing to big cant wait for the next one
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Thanks.
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It should be out by Tuesday. Should.
2698991 Why the ever living fuck does everyone make the apples out to be redneck, interspecies hating, jerks!: Just because they have an accent and a big family doesn't mean they're a bunch of racist's! I'm sick and tired of you people. Use some of those stereotypes on someone who actually acts like a racist.
2700273 Who said anything about being racist? I said they'd just likely be against interspecies relationships. I'd expect most ponies to be, in all honesty, considering that there's so few other species in Equestria and the only ponyxanything hybrid is considered ugly and its and the other parentage's name are used as insults.
On top of that, despite my also not liking them being portrayed that way (that is, as racists), there's plenty of parts in the show that can be used as evidence towards that end.
Finally, 'you people'. Yeah, because that's something good to say in an 'anti-racism' rant. The part of that last sentence after the comma are worded oddly as well. Just saying.
2700740 I apologize, it's just that when you seemingly single out the apples by saying "The Apples strike me as the type to be against interspecies stuff." people tend to assume you think they were racist, cuz generally that is is how racist folk respond to interwhatever relationships.
Second, couldn't you have just said "(Ponies generally seem like they'd frown upon interspecies relationships, including Applejack.)" instead? Saying just the Apples seemed like it was intentionally put there to hve them in a negative light. I could make the argument that all Ponies are fairly racial... impaired I guess you could say.
Also, yeah could have used a better phrase, but honestly in the context it was in the only thing you can accuse me of being is biased, not racist and I happen to like commas, right or not... either way I fixed it, rage makes a person stupid you know?
2697669 To be fair, Spike really does not know Cloud Kicker as much more than a face and a name so it is not hard to believe he would not think of her when Pinkie is not a bad option. Remember, Twilight cannot stand being hit on continuously so she tries to avoid Cloud Kicker at all costs, and she especially does not want Spike exposed to that so she tries to minimize contact there even more.
That said, there are good odds Rainbow will want to set up a fallback after this mess and she knows she can trust Cloud Kicker with anything (and that she will not be judged for her relationship), so it would make sense for her to set something up as an emergency plan. The other big benefit is that Twilight cannot force the issue because Cloud Kicker can and will beat her down if needed. After all, Cloud Kicker has military combat training which will have covered dealing with powerful unicorns and she has wing blades to make herself crystal clear so her house is about the safest place possible without getting the royal guard and/or a princess involved.
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On a semi-related note... I love the Winningverse
2702349 Me too. It is awesome and so are the characters it adds to the universe.
Aaaaaaah, so short. ANOTHER, PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!
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Another chapter should be up tomorrow.
And then another a few days after, and so forth.
I had a good laugh with this chapter. The nod to AppleDash was brilliant. Oh, and Fluttershy's internal dialog is great too.