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Turn of Events4,935 words

Turn of Events

It happened so fast.

The gasping ponies.

The flying cake.

Rainbow Dash's outburst.

Soarin' sat dumbstruck in his seat, gazing at the empty chair across the table. It took a moment to register that Rainbow Dash left. Once the shock wore off, he felt a complex of emotions stirring inside: embarrassment, regret, frustration, sadness, disbelief, and so much more. Which one to settle on, he could not decide. But the thought of Rainbow Dash brought up a pang of guilt that he hadn't done anything to help.

With a heavy sigh, Soarin' wiped cake off his body and suit. He noticed Rainbow Dash's pastry covered friends were in a similar state of shock and confusion as he. Only the two earth ponies were clean of cake; they were gazing at each other with wide eyes and an expression of horror.

Finally, the orange mare broke out of her trance. “Ugh, Pinkie!” she snapped. “What in tarnation were ya thinkin’? Why didn’t ya just let me bring the cake?”

Soarin' gazed at the abandoned cart that held the large dessert. It lied on its side with crumbs and streaks of frosting scattered all over the carpet as if somepony knocked it over.

Pinkie blinked her shock away as she fumbled with her hooves. Her ears fell flat against her head. “Because dessert was my idea, and I just wanted to make it really special for Dashie.” Then her brows furrowed deep into her eyes as she glared at her friend. “You already served them their dinner - twice!. The least you could've done was let me bring them some cake! After all, we agreed we'd both get a chance to serve!"

"Dessert was your idea?" The orange pony snorted, and leaned forward on the table that stood between them. "Who made the cake? Ah did."

"Because you wouldn't let me," Pinkie growled. "It's only fair that you'd at least let me serve dessert. But nooo - you had to pull the cart away from me like this," she yanked the table towards her so that the orange mare stumbled forward. "You could have just said no."

“Ah did,” the farm pony protested once she regained her balance. “Yah just didn’t listen.”

“You never said anything.”

“Ah did so.”

“No you didn’t. And now Rainbow Dash is gone!”

Well, that explains how the cake went flying, Soarin’ thought as he turned to his focus to the purple alicorn.

She was frantically flipping through her book. Pages were glued together with frosting, and she almost had to tear them apart. “If a date goes wrong… There’s got to be something in here about a situation like this.”

“Twilight!” The orange earth pony cut in. “Put that dang book down! It ain’t gonna help the situation.”

The book slammed shut and pounded on the table with a loud thunk. “Then what do you propose I do, then?”

“Ah’d say we make Pinkie Pie apologize for throwing the cake on her!”

“Um,” a pegasus’, which Soarin’ failed to remember her name, timid voice peeped in.

Pinkie’s hoof went to her chest. “Me? You’re blaming all of this on moi?”

The pegasus tried again. “Actually it’s not-”

“She’s not the only one, Applejack,” Rarity interjected, addressing the orange pony with a stern expression. There was accusation in her tone. “You should have been gentler with the way you handled the cake.”

“Well, it probably-” the pegasus was cut off again.

“Rarity, are yah sayin’ this is mah fault?”

Rarity opened her mouth, but four other voices in addition to her own came out. The yellow pegasus, in contrast to her previous apprehensive approach, started shouting angrily. Pinkie's tone was high by nature, so her arguing sounded like she was shrieking. Twilight and Applejack argued primarily with each other, the latter stomping her front hooves like an angry bull.

Soarin' backed away slowly, creating a safe distance between himself and the screaming mares. Though he could not make out any words that were shouted, it was obvious they shared a core problem. But that would never be resolved if they continued in this manner.

"Hey!" Soarin' shouted as loud as he physically could, "Knock it off!"

To his astonishment, the arguing ceased, and the restaurant became eerily silent as each mare obediently turned her attention towards him.

Within the blink of an eye, the yellow pegasus transformed from an angry beast back into her usual shy and gentle self. She twirled her hooves around each other sheepishly. "I think we angered Soarin'."

"I'm not angry," Soarin' said. "But, you were all getting a little too angry. Right now the problem isn't about whose fault it is. There is no fault here. But I will say that all of you did contribute to this."

"How so?" Though Applejack was no longer bickering, she was no less angry. "What have Ah done to upset Rainbow Dash?"

Before answering, Soarin' had to think what he could say that would explain to the farm pony what happened without offending her. He chose his words carefully. "You didn't intend to upset Rainbow Dash, and it's not just you yourself. It's a culmination of everything. Think about it from Dash's point of view: How would you feel if you were going out with a stallion and your friends followed you into your date?"

“Are you saying,” Twilight replied, gazing between the stallion and her book, “That Rainbow Dash didn't want us to help out?”

Applejack's expression eased after the alicorn spoke. "Ah guess I wudn' wan' mah friends taggin' along on mah date..." She folded her arms and brought her gaze to the floor.

The pale yellow pegasus' ears fell flat against her head. "I never really thought about how Rainbow Dash would feel; I just assumed she'd be happy because we were all trying to help her."

Twilight's eyes sparkled with clarity. "That's the problem. It wasn't just you, Fluttershy. We all assumed what we thought Rainbow Dash needed."

"But," Pinkie began, her lips quivering and her eyes bulging, "but... we just wanted to help her!" She quelled her tears with some steady breaths. "And we never asked if she wanted us to help her make this evening super-duper special."

Rarity patted Pinkie on the back. "We were terrible, and I say it's pretty pathetic that we didn't even realize it until now."

Everypony nodded in agreement.

Twilight gazed at Soarin' solemnly. "We are so sorry, Soarin'. We didn't mean to embarrass you or Rainbow Dash. We just got carried away."

"Apology accepted."

The relief on Twilight's face only diminished a little. "Now we owe Rainbow Dash an apology."

"We can't do much of anything until we clean this mess," Rarity indicated the cake that splattered everywhere, along with tables and chairs that were knocked over from the whole incident. “We can’t just abandon it. This wouldn't be here if it weren't for us.”

Applejack surveyed the room as if for the first time. “Oh yeah. Nopony else but us is gonna clean it.”

“But what about Dashie?” Pinkie whimpered, puckering her lower lip. “She might get really, really mad if somepony doesn't apologize to her soon. Maybe she'll never want to talk to us again!” Tears brimmed her eyes.

"You've known Rainbow Dash longer than I have," Soarin' said to the pink mare. "And I don't think she's going to hold a grudge against you because of that. She's not that kind."

She wiped her blue eyes. "But we never did this to her."

"If she's a true friend, which I believe she is, she won't be mad at you forever," Soarin' handed Pinkie a tissue, and she blew into it noisily.

"But somepony needs t' check on her," Applejack's voice edged with concern. "Ah just can't bear the thought of her bein' by herself in a state she's in."

“Maybe you should give her some time,” Soarin’ said. “I don’t really think she’s ready for apologies right now. But maybe... maybe I should go check on her."

“That actually would be quite a chivalrous thing to do,” Rarity spoke with her usual proper intonations. “A gentlecolt must take care of his lady.”

"Yeah," Pinkie agreed. "You didn't do anything to her."

Twilight smiled sheepishly. "Sorry to quote from The Perfect Date," she indicated the book, "but it does say the stallion should take care of his mare. Even thinking about it logically, it would make sense that you make sure she's okay."

Rarity cleared her throat. “Well girls, let's leave this to Soarin'. In the mean time, this mess won’t clean itself. Let’s go fix this place up. And let me deal with the manager - I will have to explain everything to him. That is, if he’s not too cross with me.”

“I just hope Rainbow Dash will be receptive to me.” Soarin’ sighed.

Applejack eyed him dubiously. “And if she ain’t?”

Shrugging, Soarin’ replied, “Then I’ll just let her be.”

His intuition was right. Rainbow Dash had not gone very far. Judging by how the glass doors to the gardens hung open unevenly, the stallion conjectured that she had blown through. Wind beaten plants indicated the direction she went, and Soarin’ followed the makeshift path until it led him towards a small pond. The soft, wet ground revealed hoof-prints, which only stretched a few paces until he came across a familiar figure. She sat on her haunches with her back towards him. Frosting coated her dress, fur, and mane. As he neared, he could see her shoulders shaking, and he could hear little sobs.

Soarin’ spoke softly. “It’s me.”

“Hey,” her voice was cracking.

Good. She didn’t turn me away.

“Look, Dash, I’m really sorry.”

Rainbow Dash sniffled but managed to keep her voice leveled. “For what? You haven’t done anything.”

“I know,” he replied. “But I’m not apologizing for anything I’ve done. I’m just sorry about the whole thing. I’m sorry that I have to
see you crying like this.”

“I’m not crying!” Rainbow Dash choked. “It’s all this makeup in my eye.” She turned around to face him. Black eyeliner, mascara, and cake smeared beneath her red eyes, trickling down her tear-stained cheeks. Frosting dangled on her forelock, ready to fall off at any given moment. The neat rainbow curls of her mane now had strands of random colors pointing in every direction.

Soarin' realized he spent too much time observing her when fresh tears streamed down her face and she wailed, "I'm a mess! I know! I'm going to be the laughing stock in all of Ponyville!" And she buried her face in her hooves.

Before Soarin' attempted to respond, Rainbow Dash removed her hooves so she could look at him and said, "I'm really sorry, Soarin', I never meant for things to happen the way they did; I just wanted to spend the evening with you and have a good time. Had I known this would happen, I wouldn't have told my friend. But I did... because... because we’re so close, and I felt that it was something I wanted them to know about. I had no idea that they would…”

Her voice faded as another stream of tears broke loose. She barely could utter: “that… they would… ruin it.”

Soarin’ waited; she still had more to say.

Gasping, Rainbow Dash spent a moment to recollect herself. “Now you probably think I’m a total freak with crazy friends who don’t know how to respect boundaries.” She wiped her face again. Makeup stained her hoof. “But I guess I wouldn’t blame you. I’m sorry I wasted your evening and made a fool out of you. If you want, you can leave me; I'm not worth your time.”

As sad as the situation was, Soarin' could not withhold a small smile from her. “If you think your friends scared me away from you, then I take it you don’t know me very well.”

Her response was an uneasy stare, but she stopped crying. “So you don’t think that we’re all just crazy freaks? That my friends went haywire getting themselves involved in something that’s not their business?”

“They love you,” Soarin’ replied. "Listen, right after you left, they realized what they did. You should've seen the look on their faces. I think one of them started crying."

“Is that true, or are you fluffing that up to make me feel better?”

“I promise, Dash, it’s true.”

The skepticism did not leave her face. “Really?”

Soarin’ tried as best as he could to express his sincerity. “I don’t know how else I can prove it to you, but they really do feel bad.”

“Pinkie promise?”

“What’s a Pinkie promise?”

She narrowed her eyes and locked her gaze on his with an iron grasp. “Nopony breaks a Pinkie promise. Once you make it, you have to keep it. That means you better be telling the truth.”

The severity in her tone of voice implicated that this was no child's play. Soarin’ did as best as he could to convey how seriously he was taking his word. He mimicked the gestures Rainbow Dash demonstrated for him and said clearly, “I Pinkie promise, it’s true,” while consummating the promise with a hoof over his eye.

Rainbow Dash still kept her gaze strong, studying him intently. "Do you know what happens when a Pinkie promise is broken?"

Soarin' gulped. "Probably something not good."

Without warning, she flung herself towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face into his chest. Soarn’ stiffened, his eyes slightly wide as he rested a hoof on her back. He didn't realize a Pinkie promise could be that powerful.

“Thanks,” Her muffled voice was warm against his body. She lifted her head and looked at him straight in the eye. “By the way, this is just between us, right?”

“My lips are sealed.”

Rainbow Dash nodded as she casually pulled away. “Good.”

She walked towards the pond and looked at her reflection. For a moment, she just gazed at it before suddenly splashing her hooves into the water. Soarin' watched in the faint moonlight as she brought the water to her face, the makeup and frosting dripping down her cheeks and into the wet ground.

Rainbow Dash continued in this manner for a few more moments, getting both her dress and mane sopping wet. All the curls were now matted flat against her neck as if she had just climbed out of the pool. When Soarin' looked heard, he could see that all the smeared makeup around her cheeks and eyelids were nearly gone. Her face was free of the catastrophic dessert as well. Besides for her slightly reddened eyes, there was no evidence of tears.

Rainbow Dash sighed in contentment and approached the stallion. “Is it all off?”

“You missed some over here,” Soarin’ bopped the tip of his wing against her nose.

Rainbow Dash’s head snapped up. “H-hey!” There was laughter in her voice. A good sign.

She prodded his chest with her hoof. “Don’t do that again. I am the master prankster, and nopony pulls a prank on me and gets away with it. Even you.”

Soarin’ raised a brow. “I’m not sure if I should be scared.”

“It’ll come when you least expect it.”

“Then I’ll just have to be on my guard.”

“It will go down. And when it does, I’ll be ready.”

Whether or not she meant that as a threat, Soarin' was not worried in the least. Maybe one day she'd get him back, but in the meantime, he managed to help her feel better. She was smiling, even if it was a bit mischievous, but it was better than seeing tears. Despite her wet and disheveled appearance, she was very pretty. The moonlight glimmered off the water droplets across her face and mane, which gave her a majestic glow. At some point he would tell her how stunning she looked, but he would save that for another time.

"Thank you," Rainbow Dash said quietly.

"For what?"

"For finding me," she replied. "And for making this night end somewhat nicely."

"It doesn't have to be over just yet," Soarin' replied as he looked to the sky. He climbed onto all fours. “Come on."

“Where are we going?”

Soarin’ stretched his wings open. “Let’s go for a flight. The night’s still young, and the date doesn’t have to be a total disaster. Why don’t we make the last of it?”

He inwardly smiled when he heard the sound of unfurling wings and feathers ruffling. A second later, a shadow hovered above him and he saw the familiar figure of one of Equestria's best flyers climbing higher into the sky.

When it came to flying, there was a certain kind magic that gave the energetic rainbow pegasus a special power that any unicorn's or alicorn's horn failed to provide. Despite the evening's unfavorable events, being in the air brought upon a sense of euphoria as Rainbow Dash soared through the sky, the moon being her only source of light and the pony beside her being her only company. Ponyville was nothing but a little lit up dot in the center of blackness. It was time to go home.

Soarin' must have known that, too, for he hovered right in front of her. They gazed down at the sleeping town.

"Well," Rainbow Dash began, her voice breaking the silence, “Can’t say this is the best date, but I can say that these last couple of hours really helped.”

The moon highlighted the details of Soarin's face. “Glad I can help.”

“I guess we should probably call it a night,” Her voice lowered a little more than she intended.

Soarin’ sighed. “Well… would you like to do this again? I mean, go out?”

She could not help but smile. “Yeah! Totally! But…”

"But what?"

Seeing his disappointed expression, Rainbow Dash quickly replied. “I shouldn’t have said ‘but’. What I meant is that I’d like to go out with you again. I just need to have a word with my friends.”

“I don’t think they’ll bother you about that again.”

“It’s not that,” Rainbow Dash flapped harder; she was starting to get tired and her wings felt that they would give out soon if she did not rest them. “I want to let them know that we’re still dating, and that they didn’t sabotage the opportunity.” She folded her arms and added, “And I’d also like to hear an apology directly from them.”

Soarin’, too, was losing altitude. “Well, I don’t think that’ll be an issue. That’ll probably be the first thing they’ll do once they see you.”

“And that’s going to be tonight,” She could feel the intensity in her voice, so she toned it down. “Anyways, I’ll take care of that. In the meantime, I guess we’ll be in touch about next time.”

“Absolutely,” Soarin’ replied.

Rainbow noticed the scenery had changed and started to wonder why until she realized that both she and Soarin' had been descending; now they were in level with the trees. There was no point in staying in the air, so they both headed for the ground.

Once their feet touched the earth, Soarin’ took her hoof in his. “We have to end with formalities, you know.” And he kissed it.

Rainbow Dash yanked her hoof free as if he had bitten it. “Knock it off,” she tried to yell, but it came out as a garbled chuckle. “You'll make me sick.”

“Just following the protocols of The Perfect Date.” Soarin’ nodded back towards the direction of the restaurant.

“Don’t be an egghead and follow something because a stupid book says so,” Rainbow Dash folded her hooves and tried futilely to frown. It only made Soarin’ chuckle.

“Usually a date ends with a goodnight kiss.” And he gave her a mischievous grin. "Afraid of catching cooties?

"I'd be lucky if that's all I had to worry about with you," Rainbow Dash shot back, reflecting that same smirk.

But she couldn't stay happy for too long. Turning her head towards her hometown, a combination of different emotions welled up inside her chest, each one either encouraging or discouraging her to do what needed to be done. Rainbow Dash knew exactly what it was that she had to take care of, but it did not abate the doubts and fears that plagued her mind.

What if Soarin' was wrong and they really hadn't learned their lesson? Then what? Would they make Rainbow Dash crazy again? Or even if they had learned, Rainbow Dash felt afraid to face them. What was so scary about that? They would apologize and make amends. But for some reason, the cyan pegasus felt reluctant upon encountering them. Maybe she was afraid that-

"Would you like me to come with you?"

His question broke her out of her thoughts. After she asked him to repeat himself, she replied, "No. I think I need to do this myself."

"You sure?"

Rainbow Dash nodded a lot more confidently than she felt. "Yes."

"It'll be fine, I promise," Soarin' gave her a gentle squeeze on her shoulder. "Good night, Rainbow Dash, and good luck. Looking forward to next time." He opened his wings and flapped into the air.

“Goodnight,” She called back, watching him disappear into the night.

His absence was so palpable that Rainbow Dash felt so cold and lonely. Never in her life was she so apprehensive to see her friends. With some internal encouragement, she quelled all her dubious thoughts that invoked trepidation. She repeatedly told herself that everything would be fine, so she headed towards the Carousal Boutique, where her intuition told her that he friends would be there.

Waiting for her.

Rarity, her usually neatly curled and clean mane now in disarray and coated with frosting, propped herself up from her red couch as soon as Rainbow Dash entered the room. Initially, the pegasus assumed that the unicorn was lying in her usual dramatic rampage about how terrible something is or was. After seeing the dark lines under her eyes and how slow and awkward she moved, Rainbow Dash realized that Rarity was purely exhausted.

The others looked just as beaten up. All, except for Pinkie and Applejack, were stained with cake remnants. The pink mare rested her chin on one of Rarity’s sewing tables, her blue eyes gazing upwards and her mane completely deflated. Applejack stood against the window, her gaze flickering between outside and the pony who had just entered the room. Fluttershy seemed too busy fiddling with the strands on her tail to notice anything outside of her thoughts. Twilight, who had been holding a book that she probably had not opened at all, snapped her head up and looked at Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash,” the alicorn began. Indications of uncertainty were evident in her tone. All the other ponies, including Fluttershy, turned their focus towards the rainbow maned pegasus. “Welcome back… how was the rest of your evening?”

Rainbow Dash was not sure how to honestly answer that question. “I guess you could say things turned out a little better.”

“Come on, girls, let's cut t' the chase and apologize,” Applejack began, and turned her attention away from the window completely. “Look, Dash, we’re awfully sorry fer what we did back in that fancy facility.”

“We just wanted to make sure that you had a really good time,” Fluttershy added.

Twilight nodded in agreement. “We just got so carried away with our own ways of how we could make this evening absolutely perfect, that we forgot to take into consideration if that was something you wanted.”

“More than that,” Rarity gently brushed down the untame strands in her mane, “we shouldn’t have stepped in to help in the first place. I’ll speak for myself; I just had an idea of what would make your evening with Soarin’ very special that I thought very little about you and a lot about me. What I wanted for your date. I never asked you if you wanted to eat at Bon Appétit, or if wanted me to make you a dress, or give you a makeover. I just acted out of complete selfishness to satisfy my own ego, which ended up ruining your whole experience. I'm so sorry.”

“It’s not just you, Rarity. We all played a role in this,” Fluttershy spoke lowly, gazing at her tale.

“We just wanted to make you happy,” Pinkie lifted her head. “But instead, we made you very, super, duper unhappy. Miserable!” Plunk! Her face hit the table.

“Bottom line,” Applejack concluded. “We are very, very sorry.”

Silence befell them while Rainbow Dash soaked up what they had just told her. She was not sure what to say, or if she should say something at all.

Finally, she decided to speak. “I appreciate your apologies, and I know you guys all feel really bad.” She smiled at them. “This is definitely something to write about in the Princesses’ journals.”

Pinkie’s head popped off the table. “Does that mean you forgive us?”

“I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash replied, “You guys really embarrassed me, especially in front of Soarin’. I want to forgive you, but I think I’ll need time.”

Twilight sighed as her ears gently dipped down. “We understand.” A collective, yet reluctant nods followed in agreement.

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing. “Ha! The look on your faces!”

Applejack frowned at the laughing mare. “What the hay is all this about?”

“Come on,” Rainbow Dash breathed. “You really thought I wouldn’t forgive you? ‘Course I do! You’re my best friends, after all!”

Wiping her brow in relief, Rarity gently hugged Rainbow Dash. “Well, that’s good to hear, darling.”

“Woohoo!” Pinkie’s mane poofed back to its usual fluffiness as she hugged Rainbow Dash. “You forgive us!”

“We promise we won’t do anything like that again next time,” Fluttershy said once Pinkie released her hold on the rainbow mare. “Unless there won’t be a next time…”

“Yeah!” The pink pony nearly gasped. “What happened with Soarin’? Is he really embarrassed to be with you that he’s all like ‘oh my gosh, I can’t be with this mare with super crazy friends who can’t leave us alone on our date?’ and he never, ever wants to go out with you ever again?”

Four faces glared at her, and Pinkie shrunk back. “What?”

But Rainbow Dash answered her. “No, Pinkie. He did not say anything like that.”

“So, you two will go out again?” Rarity asked with obvious hope in her voice.

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Yes. But we’re still trying to figure out when. He’s pretty busy, with the Equestrian games coming so soon.”

“I’m just so glad that he’s willing to give you a second chance,” Fluttershy gave her friend a gentle squeeze.

Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest. “A second chance? Soarin’ wasn’t put off with me; I’m so awesome that he’d be willing to go out with me no matter what.”

Of course the Element of Honesty had to give her piece. “That’s almost true, Dash, except for the whole you-are-so-awesome business. Ah think Soarin’ likes you fer you.”

“In any event,” Twilight interceded, “when he’s got some time, we’ll know to steer clear from you,” she gestured towards Dash.

“Yeah, we’ll just leave ya two alone,” Applejack took her hat off. “Ah promise.”

“And each of us will hope that you two have a wonderful time,” Fluttershy added.

Rainbow Dash smiled, and for the first time that evening, she felt sincerely happy. “Thanks, guys.”

Launching her hooves in the air, Pinkie screamed, “GROUP HUG!!!” And all six mares huddled together. Hooves intertwined with each other, and cheeks rested against one another. Rainbow Dash could have sworn she felt a tear trickle down her face, but she would not admit to anypony that it came from her eye.

Soarin’s right, Rainbow Dash thought, My friends really love me. And I really love him.

...Er, I love them.

Them.

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