• Published 11th Jan 2014
  • 4,892 Views, 239 Comments

Cheated Dreams - Kodeake



When Rainbow's dreams are finally within her grasp, a simple rumor may make them slip through her hooves

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7. Morning

Cheated Dreams
Chapter 7
Morning

Rainbow Dash groaned as she felt the sun's bright morning rays piercing straight through her eyelids directly onto her sensitive eyes. She desperately tried to shy away from the intruding light, pulling her damp pillow over her face and rolling away from the window. Unfortunately, just as the intense burning left her eyes as she finished rolling over, she noticed a distinct lack of bed beneath her, and quickly found herself falling towards the floor. Too tired to properly react, all she could do was fling her wings open in a desperate attempt to slow her decent before slamming down on the surprisingly soft floor of her home, pillow still clutched against her face.

Tempted to simply go back to sleep lying on her floor, she let out a long, tired sigh as she sunk a little deeper into the clouds she now found herself laying on. Made for structural support more than furniture, the floor was not quite as comfortable as the bed she had rolled off, but was still much more comfortable than most seats and cushions used by earth and unicorn ponies on the ground below.

However, she was forced to pry the pillow from her face as a knocking sounded at her front door. Begrudgingly she opened her eyes, cringing as the bright light still streaming through her window tore into her sensitive retinas. The first thing she saw was the large wet spot on her pillow, the memories from the previous day filtering back through her mind at the sight. Caught once again between anger and sorrow, another round of knocks snapped her from her mind.

She could just ignore the knocking. She could pretend she wasn't home; eventually whoever was at her door would get bored and leave, surely. Unfortunately, the pony at her door followed no such logic as the knocking continued, becoming more incessant as time passed. Grumbling she pushed herself to the floor to the tune of solid thuds against her cloud door, making her way slowly out of her bedroom and down a flight of stairs to the main level of her house.

“Coming!” Rainbow snapped loudly, the knocking getting the better of her nerves. As her voice faded, so too did the knocking, and she continued her journey in blissful silence. Until the knocking started again.

“I said I'm coming!” She shouted again, rounding a corning into her front room, the door lying on the other side of the room. Groggily staggering across the room, she rubbed her eyes and yawned loudly before opening the door, cringing again as even more bright white light assaulted her eyes. For a second she could see nothing but bright white light and the vague shape of three pegasus ponies on the other side of the door.

“So how's Equestria's newest Wonderbolt doing this morning?” One of them asked loudly just as Rainbow's vision started to clear. There wasn't a single trace of sincerity in his voice. As her eyes adjusted to the light, Rainbow recognized the stallions in front of her from the weather team. Three young stallions fresh out of school in Cloudsdale, having been assigned to Ponyville by their superiors. From the way she'd heard them grumbling, they hadn't been too happy with being assigned to her team If the crude smiles on their faces were any indication, they had no good intentions today.

“Nah man; she got kicked out before she was even in them!” The one on the right corrected, nudging the one in the middle playfully on the shoulder. Rainbow silently grit her teeth as they laughed at his joke.

The one on the left sneered at her. “It's not like she'd have won without that enchanted necklace from her marefriend.”

“Can I help you guys with something?” She barked roughly, cutting them off before their snickering could even evolve to laughter. All three just looked at her for a second, catching the venomous glint in her eyes.

It was the one in the middle who found the courage to continue. “Help from a pegasus who can't even fly without magic? No thanks,” he laughed, the others regaining their confidence through his jeer and laughing along with him.

“Get out of here,” Rainbow growled, turning her back on the stallions and taking a few steps into her house.

“Why don't you?” The leader shot back, standing steadfast in front of the door with a mischievous smile. Rainbow stopped, perking an ear as he went on. “It's not like the rest of the town is going to want you here; you're little stunt's given the entire town a bad name. All of Equestria knows what you did,” he called after her. She heard something hit the floor behind her.

She turned, looking curiously at the object that had been tossed carelessly at her hooves; a newspaper. Rainbow stared uselessly for a second at the cover, before raising her head and glaring at the smugly grinning stallions. “Get lost,” she muttered, swinging out a hoof and slamming the door shut. Muffled laughter flowed through the door for a second as the stallions celebrated their victory and flew away.

Rainbow continued to stare numbly at the newspaper before her, the mass of paper resting on the floor in front of her hooves. She ground her teeth against the tears fighting their way to the surface, closing her eyes and turning away from the news that all of Equestria would be waking up to.

With an infuriated shout her leg shot out, connecting with the newspaper and sending it skittering under a table. Without thinking she took flight, shooting out her front door and flying high into the the early morning sky. She needed to get away, away from her house in the sky and the ponies on the ground. Away from the memories and feelings plaguing her mind, away from the hurt and the pain.

She needed a friend now more than ever. One she could trust; one she could come to with anything. A friend that would stand beside her no matter what and would be by her side to the very end. A friend just as loyal as her. A caring friend that would drop everything to help her with anything.

She looked down, away from the light blue sky above her. She was already almost above the library. The library that she would so often come to when she needed a friend more than anything else.

Biting back her tears she forced herself to turn away from the home of her traitorous friend. No friend would do what Twilight Sparkle did to her. Instead she turned away from the town, away from the small houses and claustrophobic streets.

Instead of the cramped, cozy library she turned to sprawling, empty fields on the outskirts of town. To the wide-spread lands of apple orchards bordering the western half of the town: The fields of Ponyville's own Sweet Apple Acres.

-_-_-_-

Twilight woke up to the peaceful chirping of the many birds that called her tree's branches home. The sweet songs drifting through her open bedroom window and caressing her ears as she slowly banished the fog of sleep from her mind. It was a brand new day marked by the rising of the burning sun already well on its way up into the sky. The golden rays poured in through the cracks in her blinds as she peeled her eyes open.

From downstairs she could smell the undeniable scent of her draconian assistant’s best pancakes being made. The perfect breakfast for the night the unicorn had just had. Sleep had been anything but kind to Twilight Sparkle this night. Tossing and turning had been but one of many problems for the unicorn, among such others as nightmares. Nightmares of things that had already happened and were already coming true.

Nightmares of Rainbow Dash never accepting Twilight's word as truth. Nightmares of Rainbow Dash being permanently expelled from the Wonderbolts. Nightmares of the speedy pegasus's dreams crushed under the hoof of the very mare she had turned to for help. It was with a heavy heart that Twilight Sparkle raised her head this beautiful morning. With bloodshot and tired eyes she pulled herself from the warm, protective embrace of her blankets and pillows.

She knew not what road she had to take to fix it all, but she new for sure it would be long. This problem was not one she could simply magic away, no matter how complex the spell nor how many books she read. This was a test, one she had not studied for. One she had not been given the topic for. A test worth 100% of her final grade. A test with only one question:

How do you fix this, Twilight Sparkle?

-_-_-_-

Spike hummed a merry tune to himself as he went about his morning cooking. The sound of pancakes sizzling on the pan and the smell of batter cooking filled his nose and ears as he watched over his cooking with a trained eye. Shutting out the world he focused solely on making this breakfast perfect; Twilight deserved no less on a day like today. Many times during the night he'd seen her wake up, or mumble the word “no” or Rainbow's name. It was clear that the events of the previous day weighed heavily on her mind, and if that was true then she would do everything in her power to set things straight.

Which meant starting with a hearty meal. One that he fully intended to provide.

With an experienced flick of his wrist the pancakes flew up into the air, flipping over and landing perfectly down on the pan on the opposite, uncooked side. The top was a delectable golden brown. His eyes were drawn away from his work by a quiet, tired 'good morning Spike' from behind him. He turned, smiling gently at the tired purple pony that had stumbled into the kitchen and was sitting down at the small table.

“Morning Twilight,” he chirped happily, “go ahead and help yourself,” he said, motioning to the stack of fresh pancakes already on the table.

Twilight smiled gratefully, grabbing a stack of three large pancakes and putting them on the plate set in front of her. “These smell great,” she noted happily, taking a deep breath of the intoxicating aroma.

“I hope so,” Spike started, flipping the final pancakes of the batch from the pan in his claw to the stack on the table. “I dove into the Canterlot cookbook for these bad boys.”

“Well it certainly shows,” Twilight giggled, stuffing a forkful of puffy pancake into her mouth, moaning lightly from the delectable taste. Spike sat in the chair opposite her, grabbing a stack of pancakes of his own and putting them on his plate before smothering them in syrup. The sound of a fork clinking against his plate soon followed, and quickly became the only noise audible in the small kitchen as the two ate the amazing meal with gusto.

“Got any plans yet?” Spike asked with a mouthful of food, making Twilight shake her head in disappointment at his terrible manners.

“Spike,” she scolded gently, “what would Rarity think if she saw you acting like that?”

The reaction was instantaneous; he quickly clamped his mouth shut, chewed slowly, and swallowed silently. Rarity's name had a lot of influence when teaching him proper manners, as Twilight had found out long ago. He asked again, this time much more politely and properly.

“No, I don't, but I need to talk to her. I just don't now how I'm going to convince her. Or the Wonderbolts for that matter,” Twilight admitted with a sigh, setting her fork down on her empty plate. Spike frowned.

“Well I'm sure you'll think of something. Besides, she might be stubborn but she's not downright irrational; she'll listen to reason,” he reassured, giving his best most confident smile. She gave a light smile, but it did little to truly lift her spirits.

“She might not; in her current emotional state... she might need more time...” Twilight trailed off. Spike opened his mouth to continue, but was silenced by a sharp and quick knocking on the door.

“I'll get it,” Spike volunteered quickly, standing from his chair before Twilight put her hoof out in front of him.

“No; it's all right. Finish your food and I'll get the door,” she said, getting up from her own seat as Spike sat back down and started making her way out of the kitchen and into the front room of the library.

The knocking came again as she rounded the corner to the entryway of the library. “Coming!” She called as cheerfully as she could at the early morning visitor. Hiding her minor annoyance behind a happy smile, she approached and opened the door, her smile falling from her lips the second it swung open.

“R-Rainbow?”

Author's Note:

Another short chapter, and admittedly not my best writing. This took a while to write, simply because I was busy at the time. You'll notice a style switch during that first Twilight scene. When I wrote that I was in a very... philosophical mood and wanted to toy around with some different writing styles. I hope it's not too bad or jarring.

Anyway, not much happening here. What's the deal with those colts? are they right; does the town want Rainbow out? What is Rainbow doing back at Twilight's house? Are either of them ready for this? Does Rainbow want something in particular? Find out next chapter! No seriously, pretty much all of those questions are answered next chapter.

Oh, and happy Hearts and Hooves day everyone! Even though it ended, like, an hour ago for me.

As usual, everything you have to say can be said in the comments below.