Epiphany

by Ninestempest

Epiphany 3

Rainbow Dash awoke to a knock. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the room she was in. It was a cloud house, and she quickly remembered it was the cloud house she had built near Cloudsdale.

The knocking resumed with three loud bang. She yawned, still waking up. She looked to her clock, and saw it was just past seven am. Unsure of who was at the door at this time, she slowly got up and walked towards the entrance to her domain. The house was small, and one of the ones required to be built for Junior Speedsters Flight school. It only had four rooms, and only three of them were large enough to really accompany ponies. A living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. There was a small pantry she kept for food in case she didn't have much to eat from Cloudsdale, where she typically spent evenings with her friends.

The knocking didn't stop, the same three hits against the wooden door she had fashioned against the clouds. She sighed, figuring it didn't matter who it was, and opened the door. There she saw one of her friends. "Sky Swallower?" Asked Dash, in a tired haze. She then realized who was at the door, and momentarily panicked. "Oh, uhm, hey, what brings you here?"

"You weren't asleep now, were you?" She said, shy as usual. Dash didn't know how the pegasus got up so early every morning, while staying up late almost every day. "It wouldn't terrible if I just popped in for a tad, would it? I wanted to chat."

"Sure, fine. Just let me get some food and maybe a quick shower." Dash yawned again, but she tried to maintain a smile. She was tired from being woken up so early, but she wanted to maintain some sense of composure around her crush. "Don't peek, okay? It was creepy enough when Gilda was joking around last month-"

Rainbow Dash could visibly see her ligthen up a little, having been invited inside. "Oh, come now! Only a filly fooler would do such a thing! And even then... it would be a compliment." Sky Swallower rolled her eyes. As Dash lazily walked to the bathroom, she took a concerned glance at the pegasus behind her, who was watching her without any expression.

Dash sighed. "You ARE a filly fooler, remember?"

Dash closed the door to the bathroom but heard Sky behind the door. "Well, then if you happen to catch me, think of it as nothing more than a compliment." Rainbow Dash started the shower, and smiled. Alone, she sighed happily as the hot water from the cloud over her poured over her, and she let her thoughts float about. The pony she had been quietly pining over for the last year... alone, in her own house! She couldn't stop thinking about the mare.

Sky Swallower had bright-orange fur, an almost black-navy-purple mane, and emerald green eyes. Her cutie mark was that of a dark-grey cloud with a tornado emanating from it. At first, Dash had pegged her for a quiet, shy, soft-spoken pegasus. Yet only after a few days of hanging out did Dash quickly find a slightly argumentative, proud, and carefree friend. She wasn't much of an athlete, but she definitely was well read; she had good understandings of things she’d never do, like direct movies, or how to cast magic. She could take any concept, science or art, and dissect it into its individual parts, and make it incredibly easy to understand, explain, or criticize. It helped her in her one and only career plan: being a weather pegasus, hopefully a team captain for a big city like Hoofington or Manehattan. She was definitely a pony who could handle the weather well; she had earned her cutie mark by calming an accidental tornado over Hoofington that was made by the lead weather pony after he had gotten a little too drunk the previous night.

Though they had basically known each other for two years, it wasn't until seven or eight months prior that Rainbow Dash sometimes felt a little uneasy about the mare. Dash had started combing her own hair and flying more to perfect her own tricks, and generally was more concerned with her attention compared to any other pony's. Sometimes her heart would race, and her voice would crack more around her. She couldn't accept her own feelings for a while, leading her to even isolate herself from her friends for a whole month. It racked her so hard only because of her parents, and how they tended to view the subject of love. In their eyes, everyone was made male and female for a reason, and anything else was very wrong. They had raised Rainbow Dash this way, though where she was from there weren't many ponies like that; Sky Swallower never mentioned it, never asked about it, and never was asked about it. Once they became friends, she somehow thought it was very important they all knew. Ponies in larger cities were a lot more open about these kinds of things, this Rainbow Dash knew, and Sky was never a pony to be concerned with what others said of her anyway.

Dash suddenly slipped, and barely maintained her balance in the shower. She felt like she had been falling asleep, even with the stream of hot water shooting down at her. She yawned, attempting to make the last remnants of exhaustion vacate her body, and it seemed to work. She turned off the shower, and tried to shake some moisture off her body. Still soaking wet, she walked outside into her bedroom, where Sky was lying on the bed. She almost blushed when Sky looked over at her, and threw a towel from her dresser over her own back, to dry herself off. Sky was on her back and gave Dash a very lazy, upside-down look. "Ten minutes, and it sounded like you just stood there." She stared, almost disinterested, at Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus figured she had settled down a bit, realizing it wasn't much of an intrusion being in her house this early.

"I was just thinking." Rainbow Dash finally said in response.

"About what?" Sky asked, still with a lazy and uninterested expression.

Rainbow Dash tried to look a little annoyed, but couldn't stay terribly mad at the mare in her bed. "You don't want something to eat do you?" She had brushed off the question, but didn't care.

Sky shrugged, still lying on the bed. "I'm good, ate an energy bar before getting here." She playfully rubbed her stomach. "Feels good sis."

"Why are you up so early anyway? What do you want to talk about?" Rainbow Dash walked through the room and to the living room, opening the cloud-door that lead to the pantry. She grabbed an apple, closed the door, and saw Sky somehow in front of her where the door had been. She almost dropped the apple in surprise.

"Just wanted to chat a bit. Finals are coming up and everypony's been so busy." Rainbow Dash nodded silently as she took a bite of her apple. There were only two weeks left of class, so there was truth to her words. Dash figured there was still another reason, considering they could easily talk over the upcoming weekend.

She tried to be assertive. "Well, is there anything YOU wanted to talk about?" Asked Dash.

Sky replied with mock shock. "Clearly there is, or I wouldn't be here, would I! What right do I have to barge in here and make you talk to me." She grinned. "I was wondering if you had some pony in your life yet."

The casual tone of Sky threw Rainbow Dash off. "G-gossip? Really? You're the LAST one I expected to ask me about that kind of stuff."

"So, is there?" She was unperturbed by Dash's deflection.

"No, there isn't." Dash replied firmly, almost stomping a hoof. "You know I never cared about that stuff. You and Gilda were actually some of my first friends here at Cloudsdale, and I’ve only made a few others since you two.”

"Funny, isn't it?" Sky said, sitting at a chair on the opposite end of the room from her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... look at you, Gilda, and I. Did any of us have friends before we met?" She got up and started walking across the rom. "I certainly only had a very small group of friends growing up here. Gilda more than not mentioned her distaste in griffin company..."

Rainbow Dash had figured the conversation was innocent enough to go along with it. "And I guess my parents were a little too strict to let me hang out with friends."

"Yet, here all three of us are, great friends. It's a little perplexing to me sometimes."

"Well, it's kind of as they say. 'Opposites attract' and all of that. None of us like the same music, tricks, or food, but..."

"... but we've all met and become great friends." Sky was starting to blush now. "Rainbow Dash, there's something I have to tell you." She looked at Dash, and saw that she already had a stunned face. Sky silently cursed herself for being obvious, but continued anyway. "I like you. I really do. Didn't think I'd fall for a friend but I have..." she stared at Dash with an almost sad expression.

Dash almost fell over. She instinctively went defensive, yelling at her, "Why are you telling me this, when you don’t know if I like other mares?!"

Sky shrunk a little. She gave a half hearted smile as she quickly turned toward the door, turning into the shy pegasus who had difficulty talking to those she didn’t know well. "This is stupid. I should just leave. I have no right to ask you to think about this out of the blue before school." She turned around, but Dash grabbed her.

"Wait!" Sky, still a little shook up, didn't move, only turning her head to face Dash. She tended to listen to Dash or Gilda, even if she didn't want to do what they were asking. Dash almost felt ashamed for being forceful, but continued anyway. "How I responded... that was really rude. My parents... you know... were real family ponies. Somepony like you would probably scare them."

Sky only nodded, relaxing a little. "Yeah... yeah, I know some ponies aren't... as understanding about that. I hope you are though, you've never had a problem before."

"Well, Sky, I am." Dash was now standing next to Sky, and they both started blushing at the same time. "And there's a bit more to it than that..."

"I... well, I don't want to say you should ignore your parents, but when it comes to a subject like this... you can't agree with them can you?" Sky was trying to make it sound like she was stating a case, but she sounded as if she was pleading instead.

"No... it's not that... Ummm." Dash was stammering, unsure if she could get herself to say what was on her mind.

Sky looked at her hopefully, but Dash couldn't bring herself to say it. "Hey... let’s just sit down here okay?" She motioned for the couch with her a hoof. "I'd just... like some company after that news. I think you would too."

Sky only nodded, and both of them sat down on the couch, staring into each other's eyes for a minute before Sky broke the silence. They decided that they couldn't go to school and think with this on either of their minds, and agreed to not go to school that day, damned the consequences. They talked for a while, mostly about each other. They talked about their homes more than before, their families, and both of them realized they had never had dated or even crushed on someone before. After a few hours, they both began to tire a bit. Dash had woken up too early, and Sky had been up thinking too late. Slowly but surely, they fell asleep. Sky fell first, her head resting on Dash's shoulder. It was a comfort that Dash had never felt before. A pony that wanted to be with her, and be close to her, and loved her. She was hoping she could somehow give Sky what she wanted as she finally dozed off.

-----

Fluttershy jumped, giving a small yell. She looked around, panicked. What just touched my face? She kept thinking. She looked down finally, and saw a squirrel. It squeaked at her, and she smiled at it, petting it once before shooing it away. It was still completely dark, but she felt wide awake. Awake enough to go up and look at the sky just a little bit.

Now I wish I could look at the moon and figure out what time it was... she thought to herself, floating up to the tops of the trees slowly, hoping there may be a tiny bit of sun poking out of the horizon. Poking her head out of some leaves, she looked to the sky. It was completely clear, a half-moon giving some light to everything around her. The tree tops looked like a sea of green, almost level, as if a creature was meant to walk on them. She looked again to the stars. She recognized a few constellations; Twilight loved letting her friends know which were which, and Fluttershy was the only one who was ever out and about late, sometimes caring for certain nocturnal animals.

Oh I hope you aren't all worried about me. I know you wanted to see me tonight Twilight, about magic and animals, but there've been problems. Rainbow Dash should be making a full recovery, and will be all better soon... she smiled. She realized that she had been thinking to Twilight Sparkle, all alone on the highest branch of a tree. Even acting like someone was around comforted her, but she felt a little more liberated in the forest. Even with a sleeping wounded Dash below her, she felt secure. Even all alone in the top of a tree, she felt like nothing could hurt her.

Her face turned thoughtful. Well, actually, a lot of things could hurt me. There might be a cockatrice up here, or maybe a wild manticore... she shook her head quickly, forgetting such thoughts. No, it's okay. Nothing in this forest is like Everfree so far, even if it is wild. It's so peaceful... she smiled to herself again, feeling happier already. She floated down slowly toward one of the stream near their camp, her wings letting her glide down gradually. She went around trees, doing large figure eights, and landing softly in the stream. She yipped a little to herself, never having tried something like that before. I'm not much of a flier but I can see why Dash likes it so much... she got a quick drink of water before heading back to camp, retrieving some of the flowers she had left there, and filling them with water as well.

When she arrived with the flowers filled with water, she noticed Dash was squirming a bit. Her face looked worried, and her working foreleg kept moving to grab something. Fluttershy had no idea what was going on in her friend's head, and wasn't sure if she should do anything. She approached Dash slowly, on the ground, when Dash's eyes popped open, and she let loose a frightened scream. Fluttershy flew up and back, her wings pumping with her own fear and surprise, as she smacked head first into a tree almost twenty feet away. She fell down to the ground, and started rubbing the back of her aching head before looking over at Rainbow Dash was looking around, as if in panic. She saw Fluttershy behind her, and got up slowly, hobbling on one leg as she walked over slowly.

"Augh... you look hurt." Rainbow Dash said. Her face was difficult to see in the dark.

"You're more hurt." Fluttershy said, pointing at the splinted hoof.

Dash only shrugged. "Heh, I guess so. I was having a terrible dream back there, you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I was wondering what you were dreaming about, and then you yelled, and, you know, it startled me, so I just kind of took off, and then this tree was here..." Fluttershy's voice had grown more quiet over the discussion, but Dash put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.

"Just a bad dream, it doesn't matter." She looked around, as if examining every tree and leave she could see. "How long have I been out?"

"I have no idea... maybe a few hours? It's still dark out so-"

"It wasn't dark out... I don't think it was when I fell asleep, right?" She raised he hoof, gently tapping her own forehead as if to juggle memories around. "Around six hours then right?"

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "No, it was definitely very late evening when we fell asleep."

"We? You went off to get more medicine, and then I passed out." Said Rainbow Dash, as if the memories were vivid to her.

Fluttershy gave her a concerned look. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" She shook her head. "Whatever, let’s just get moving. You remember the way to Ponyville?"

Fluttershy had her protests about traveling at night, but the fully awake Rainbow Dash was being too assertive. "Y-yeah..."

Dash lifted off with her wings, not even wincing. Fluttershy's mouth fell open, astonished at the fast recovery of her friend. "Then let's go. You lead the way; I don't want to fly too fast yet."

Comments

so that is what happend with dash and sky but what happend after

[sillyfillybowilly]

There was another story I read with a similar flashback for dash. I hope it turns out ok with sky.

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Pft...

Sky Swallower... I'm sorry, but that name...

Anyway... So far I'm liking what I see.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Rainbow87dash]

3838264 pfft someones dirty minded

[Nightmare mare]

OH SHIT…this is AMAZING