Chapter 3
“No, just put it down anywhere,” Rainbow Dash shot over her shoulder with a sigh. Her exasperation quickly gave way to panic once she realized what she’d said. “Wait, no, anywhere but-”
There was a quiet, muffled sort of whomp as her new table fell through the fragile cloud-layer in the center of her living room. Rainbow Dash stared in disbelief at her wall-eyed friend. Of course she had found the one spot where Dash had planned a little observation area. Right now, it was a neat and square hole in the room, providing an excellent view of the coffee table that sailed towards the ground.
“Anywhere but there,” Dash finished to the backdrop of a crash far below.
“Um. Sorry?” Derpy offered with a sheepish smile and a wince. “I could-”
“No, that’s cool,” Dash muttered. “I was done for the day anyway. I got stuff to do.” She made a point of following Derpy to the door - or rather, to what would be the door once she got one. As well as she meant, the grey pegasus’ help was unreliable at best.
“Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help!” Derpy cheerfully announced as she took wing. Dash decided that it was better to say nothing at all for once, ducking back into her house.
She hadn’t bothered to call on Applejack or any of her other friends for help. She’d done so much in so little time simply because she had worked all through the night. Dash had always known that she was fast, of course; she just didn’t need to let everypony else know that. Before she knew it, AJ would start asking for help with more than just the annual applebucking. Besides, cloud-shaping was almost as good as flying for taking her mind off stuff, and she had a lot of stuff she wanted her mind taken off of.
It would all make sense when she finished her house. That’s what she’d thought, anyway. Now that she was almost done, she was starting to doubt it. She still had no idea why she felt trapped, but the fact that part of her didn’t want to finish her house confused her. She was used to other ponies being silly and confusing; it was less cool when she confused herself. Dash stuck her tongue out and flew up the stairs into her bedroom. It was high time for a nap anyway.
Dash landed on the pristine cloud-bed and sighed happily, exulting in the feeling of fresh, fluffy cumulus. She took a moment to simply roll around on the impossibly soft clouds. This, she could appreciate, even if her bedroom was a little bare. She’d need to go collect her stuff from Pinkie’s room sometime soon.
Well, Pinkie’s room, and hers, too. If her stuff was in it, it was okay for her to think of it hers, right? There was no law that said you could only have one room. Dash could have one and a half rooms for a little bit longer. The thought made her smile, and she burrowed her head in the pillows, sleep rapidly claiming her.
Only to be banished by a familiar, insistent voice.
“Rainbow Da-ash!”
Dash lay very still. It was unmistakably Pinkie, and she was far below, her voice only barely piercing the walls of the cloud-home.
“Dashie?” she called again, louder this time. Rainbow Dash lifted her head off the pillows. Normally, she’d head outside right away. “What’s up, Pinkie?”, she’d say, and they’d probably have an awesome time. That was usually how it went, yet she was hesitating now. Why?
“Rainbow Dash! The girls said we need to talk, and I think that’s a great idea!” Pinkie called. “I’m not really sure what to talk about though. How about ludo? Oh, wait, no, we always talk about games, let’s try something different-”
Dash rolled her eyes and giggled. Getting up on all fours, she stretched languidly as Pinkie went on. A quick glance out the window told her she hadn’t actually fallen asleep at all. The desire for a nap was still there, but she wasn’t about to blow off her craziest, funniest friend-
“-cherries. Oh. And then there’s the whole moving thing. Um. Are you up there? Because I miss you. A lot,” Pinkie said. Dash barely heard her, the voice softer now by far.
Rainbow Dash slumped back down onto the bed, beset by a sudden weariness. She writhed and wriggled, but she couldn’t get comfortable no matter what she did. She slipped her head under the pillows and groaned. Clouds weren’t even supposed to be able to feel scratchy, but right now, everything felt wrong.
If she went down there now, she didn’t know what she would say. She didn’t even know what she wanted to say, and that just wasn’t cool on any level. She was missing something. There was something she simply didn’t get, and she had no idea what. It just didn’t feel like the kind of thing you could ask somepony about. It was so much simpler just to pretend to be asleep.
Dash still couldn’t sleep. Pinkie’s muffled utterings had eventually stopped, and absolutely nothing had happened since. As tired as she was, as hard as she closed her eyes, all she found was the insides of her eyelids. It was getting really annoying. Just when she was about to head out for a flight, Dash heard a faint buzzing. The odd sound grew louder and louder until she could make out a quieter rattle and some odd squeaks interspersed. Even though she was certain she had heard this sound before, she couldn’t quite place it. Dash sat up and cocked an ear. It sounded like it was very close. If she could only-
Her bedroom wall exploded in a huge yet spectacularly silent cloudy puff. Pinkie tumbled out of her flying contraption and crashed to the floor, the copter itself plummeting straight through and onwards. The out-of-control device took half of Dash’s kitchen with it as it tore through her poor house, joining the coffee table on the ground below. Dash was upright on her bed in the blink of an eye, staring at the dazed earth pony by the foot of her bed.
Pinkie lay splayed out on the floor wearing a pair of saddlebags bursting at the seams. She must’ve gotten Twilight to cast a cloudwalking spell on her. Pinkie was not going to give up, then. Dash would’ve tried to run, to fly away from Pinkie, except that never worked. She just couldn’t talk to her right now. There was something she didn’t understand, but she had a feeling that if she left her house with Pinkie now, she would never come back again. Her whole body tingled and froze. Her mouth was dry, and her heart hammered in her chest, rebelling against- or agreeing with that last notion.
Pinkie stirred. Out of time, and utterly confused, Dash lay straight down on the bed again and pretended to be asleep. She’d closed her eyes and commenced her very best snoring imitation just as she heard Pinkie getting up, praying to the Sun that Pinkie would fall for it. That, and hoping Pinkie wouldn’t question how a pony could sleep through such an entrance.
“Aw, shoot,” Pinkie said in a whisper so loud, she might as well have saved herself the effort. “Dashie is asleep, and I promised the girls I’d talk to her!”
Dash clenched her eyes shut tightly and couldn’t hold back a little smile. This was almost too easy.
“Oh, wait.” Pinkie gasped. “I said I’d talk to her, not with her! I’m sure that’s almost as good. Hm. Or is this talking at her? Hey, Dash, what do you think?”
There was a brief pause during which Dash did exactly nothing save for a muffled sigh into her bed. She forgot to keep making snoring noises, but Pinkie didn't seem to have noticed. The pegasus just lay there doing the most boring thing one could possibly do: nothing at all.
“Oooh, right, still asleep,” Pinkie said, voice full of wonder. “This is tricky. I guess that means that Pinkie needs to make an executive decision. Fine! We’re talking! Or, I am talking. You’re listening. Well, you’re here anyway. I’m sure you’d listen if you were awake. Or pretend to listen to me. Ponies do that sometimes too, I think,” she giggled, but the laughter faded quickly, leaving the room quiet for a moment. Pinkie’s hoofsteps were swallowed up by the floor as she paced.
“I baked some more. Or, I baked a lot, really. I think I’m a little sick of everything with flour in it, now. Yuck,” she muttered, though Dash could hear the smile in her tone a moment later. “Guess that means I’m on a strict toffee, taffy and candy diet for a while! Oh, but that wasn’t why I was telling you this. Or, saying it. Does it count as telling if you don’t listen?”
Dash rolled her eyes despite them being shut. She had a sneaky suspicion she’d be pretending to be asleep for hours at this rate. With some luck, maybe she’d actually fall asleep for real.
“Anyway! That wasn’t my point! I was going to bring you something tasty. You know, since you probably need something to eat up here? I didn’t have room for a whole lot since my bags were already full. Oh, and Twilight said she thought the food might just fall through the clouds unless you touched it and pegasus-magicked it all up somehow. I didn’t really understand all of it. I don’t think she did, either, actually.”
In the ensuing silence, there was a rustle, a shuffle, a bounce and a vague feeling of closeness. Dash nearly lost her concentration on nothing-doing when she felt Pinkie grasp her hooves in her own. Was she supposed to resist or be limp? Rainbow Dash had very little experience with sleeping ponies except Pinkie Pie, and that pony was as likely to hug you in her sleep as she was to compose a ballad. Before she had time to decide how to react, Pinkie had tucked something soft in her grasp.
“Huh. It didn’t fall. Neat!” Pinkie said, obviously satisfied. “I only really brought that one, because I have all your other stuff too. I thought you might want it all up here if you’re gonna live here.”
Dash swallowed. This was getting way awkward. When she heard Pinkie move over to the other side of the room, she stole a peek. The pink pony was putting her signed Spitfire picture on the crude shelves she’d sculpted, and apparently, she herself was cradling a muffin. Dash grabbed a bite, barely managing to shut her eyes in time as Pinkie turned around. Ponies sleep-ate all the time, right? Compromising her cover was a small price to pay for a chocolate chip muffin anyway.
“I’m really glad we had this talk,” Pinkie chirped. “I’ll put your other stuff by your bed. Oh, and you look cold. Well, you don’t really look cold, but that’s what ponies say when they give other ponies a blanket or something snug, and who wouldn’t want to be snug under a blanket if they could? Nopony, that’s who!”
With the rustle and flap of unfurling cloth, Dash felt a light weight settle around her. She knew the texture of that fabric against her body well. It was the Wonderbolts blanket she only really used once in a while. It was meant to be for special occasions. Perhaps Pinkie didn’t know the blanket was special. Perhaps Pinkie never had a reason to think it was, since Dash’d always brought it out when they sat up until the early hours of morning talking and playing games - which was almost every night. Had been almost every night. Rainbow Dash sighed through her nose and grabbed another covert bite of muffin, hidden by the blanket.
The thought didn’t go away, and apparently, neither did Pinkie Pie. Dash cracked an eye open and saw Pinkie standing near the balcony with her back turned. The quiet and the stillness always looked so odd on her. Even when it was just the two of them, when Pinkie wasn’t quite ready to party her heart out, she was usually moving, buzzing with some semblance of activity that left her twice as alive as anypony else.
She was no doubt just wondering how to get down again. The zany mare tended to have a solution to everything, but what if she really was stuck? Would Dash have to pretend to wake up and hope she could fly her down before Pinkie had time to ask any questions? Morning Dashie, let’s talk about all this weird stuff between us! That would be really awkward. Perhaps she could-
“Oh yeah, and I miss you a lot, too,” Pinkie said, her voice so thin and frail that Dash almost jumped up in search of the third pony in the room. “I think I said that already, I just hope it’s not my fault that you wanted to leave, because I don’t know what I would do if it was. Just thinking about it feels icky, like a kelp cupcake.”
Dash could feel her chest tighten almost painfully. This was wrong on so many levels. More than she didn’t want to hear this, she wasn’t supposed to hear this. Perhaps it was Applejack rubbing off on her, but this was like a prank gone bad. She tensed, and opened her eyes, about to tell Pinkie she was awake.
“Fluttershy asked if I love you,” Pinkie added, shaking her head as she addressed the sky beyond. “I told her of course I love Dashie!”
Rainbow Dash froze with one hoof parting the covers. Her mouth hung open in an unformed protest that never came. Dash thought she could hear a faint sniffle, and the cheer in Pinkie’s voice was forced, now.
“The others were all, ‘We don’t mean like that, not like a friend, because we know you love everypony since you’re so happy and bouncy and sweet’,” Pinkie pressed on, punctuating her words with a hollow giggle.
“Okay, they said something almost like that I think, I don’t really remember, I wasn’t paying attention when they were talking about that,” Pinkie admitted soberly. Dash was still staring at her back, lost in the curls of her mane. “I’m super smart, you know! I knew what Fluttershy meant right away. I think you’re somepony very super-extra special to me, but that’s not really why I’ll miss you. Well, not the only reason!” Pinkie scratched her head, her voice dropping further, contemplative now. “Words are really confusing sometimes. I just know I really like being around you. It’s the best feeling in the world!”
Pinkie gave a thrill of laughter at that, a pure little giggle-fit that sounded as Pinkie Pie as anything ever had, instantly banishing the gloomy pall of the room. “This would be really silly if you were awake, because I Pinkie promised myself I wouldn’t tell you. I don’t want to tell you this because then you might stay when you don’t want to stay, and that would be wrong. Oh, and I don’t know if you even like me. Thanks for the chat, though! You’re the best sleepy-listener ever!”
Before Dash could say anything; before she could protest or even decide to not say anything, Pinkie pulled a string attached to one of her saddlebags. A gaggle of balloons burst forth just as she hopped off the balcony with a gleeful “wheee”, descending at a leisurely and riotously colorful pace. Dash was left alone in her bedroom with her half-eaten muffin.
Rainbow Dash gave the muffin an accusatory glance. When she squinted, she could almost imagine the spongy treat stared right back at her.
“What’re you looking at?” Dash muttered, letting go of her chocolaty adversary. She left it behind while she hopped off the bed to root around the stuff Pinkie had left behind. All her things were there, from her flight goggles to her musty old pillow.
“Telling her I was listening would just make stuff weird. Weirder, anyway,” Dash explained, tossing the pillow onto the bed. The worn cloud landed with a puff.
That, or it would’ve made her stop. Or take it back? Dash swallowed heavily at the thought as she trotted back over to her bed. She rested her head on her hooves, seeking answers in dark baked good. Her snout was right in front of it. It was impossible not to steal another nibble. The muffin was as delicious as ever.
“She said she didn’t want me to know. That means it’s not true, right?” Dash asked. The thought sparked something in her. A surge of half-baked anger that never really made it past annoyance. “If she doesn’t mean it, then why did she say it?”
The muffin was mute. Pinkie’s little cohort yielded not a single word.
“You’re on our blanket,” Dash growled. “I mean my blanket,” she corrected herself with a groan. The muffin had heard too much, anyway. She darted forward to devour what remained of the hapless treat in a single bite.
“Thrervf you righf,” she grumbled, spraying crumbs everywhere.
Pinkie Pie liked her. It should be simple enough to decide what it all added up to, even for a pegasus who slept through most of her maths classes - but it wasn’t. Even if Pinkie did mean it, any attempt to get at an answer was eclipsed by the fact that she was making Pinkie sad. She, Rainbow Dash, was making one of her best friends miserable.
Once she let that thought into her head, another joined it. She remembered a certain party last year, and all that had come of it. Sure, ponies fought and made up all the time, but making others feel sad because of something she did? It was never any fun, always uncool, and this was different.
When she closed her eyes, she could see Gilda making her exit from Sugarcube Corner all over again, clear as the day it had happened. They’d been close friends, wingmares, even. She had thought that meant something, and then she’d gone and ruined it. Of course she knew it was really Gilda’s fault, but it was impossible to help but wonder if a better friend would’ve done something different.
Dash snorted loudly and focused on the pile of stuff that Pinkie had returned to her. Sometimes she wondered why she was picked out to be the element of loyalty. For all she cared, Applejack could have the title instead. How hard could it be to be honest?
Dash paused, thinking back to her little ruse a few minutes hence. Perhaps she’d just keep the whole loyalty gig then. Equestria would just have to live with having an element that was terrible at her job. Too bad for everypony else. She pushed her flight suit and one of her scarves aside, digging deeper until she found what she was looking for; a pair of empty saddlebags emblazoned with the likeness of her cutie mark. She grinned at the awesome multicolored lightning bolts that adorned each bag.
Rarity had insisted on making them for her after their trip up the mountain all those months ago. Something about the fashionista’s sense of ‘social symmetry’ didn’t allow her to not gift Dash a pair of saddlebags, even if Dash had declined the offer initially. Dash held the almost-unused containers aloft with a foreleg as she thought. Her own house was ten times as big as Pinkie’s little loft, yet it felt infinitely smaller. The more free she thought she was, the more it hurt, and just when she had convinced herself she didn’t belong there, the very sight of her blanket on her own bed sickened her.
The air tasted sour and everything was backwards, but none of this mattered half as much as the thought of Pinkie Pie in pain. She was making the happiest, perkiest, second-coolest pony of Ponyville sad because she couldn’t work this out. Because she was weak. She had no answers.
If she was truly trapped, then why was she filling her saddlebags? If she truly couldn’t break free, then why was she already halfway out the window? She wasn’t holding herself back, and it seemed Pinkie wouldn’t stop her either.
“You know, I wonder if this is what Twilight feels like all the time,” Pinkie mused, scratching her snout. She leaned forward to drain her strawberry milkshake in one fel slurp, and the poor swizzle straw soon reported yet another empty glass.
“Twilight Sparkle?” came the query. Lyra nudged a few of the empty glasses aside so they could see each other more clearly. The turquoise mare rifled through her saddlebags before telekinetically wiping the table with a wet-wipe she procured.
“Yeah! Who else, silly? I mean, feeling smart. She’s so super smart and everything, she must have great plans all the time!” Pinkie said, signalling Brain Freeze for another round of ‘shakes. “She plans everything, you know.”
“So your great, smart plan is to drink lots of milkshake? I guess that... makes as much sense as anything you do,” Lyra admitted with a shrug, a snort and a grin. When the proprietor of the milkshake bar came around, she happily seized one of the glasses for herself with a glimmer of magic.
“Yeah! Kind of? Actually, I guess not,” Pinkie decided. “I’m here because I’m even smarter than that! I’m so smart, I outsmarted myself. At least that’s what I think happened,” she hummed, frowning at that as she tried to run it by herself one more time. It seemed less amazing and fantastic by the minute, now.
“See, I promised my friends I would talk to Rainbow Dash, and I kind of sort of did, too!” Pinkie explained, fidgeting with her hooves. “But, um, kind-of-sort-of-true isn’t really true, is it? I mean, I didn’t Pinkie Pie swear!” she exclaimed, already half-way over the table, giving her friend an imploring look. Lyra merely raised a brow as she steadied the ominously wobbling glasses.
“I didn’t swear, it’s just a normal almost-lie,” Pinkie assured her, but it was futile when she didn’t even believe it herself. She deflated a little, sinking back to sit on her haunches. “But nopony likes a lying mclyingpants. I don’t like being a lying mclyingpants.”
Lyra sighed and gave her drink a sip before depositing it on the battlefield of milkshakes that was their table. “The question is, what’re you going to do about it?” she asked. “I’m sure your friends will understand, even if I don’t,” she offered with a gentle smile.
“Maybe,” Pinkie admitted, pinning her ears to her head. “They’ve been really nice about everything now with Sugarcube Corner and stuff. Rarity and Applejack are minding the store even now! I just kind of went in hiding before I had time to even ask my magic seven-ball what to do.”
Lyra blinked. “Hiding?”
“Yeah! I’m hiding from them, duh,” Pinkie said, rolling her eyes at the silly mare. “That’s why I’m wearing my invisible hiding hat! If they see me, they’ll ask ‘So hey, Pinkie Pie, did you talk to Rainbow Dash?’, and I will have to say ‘Kind of’, and they’ll ask what I mean by that! I’ll break, Lyra! I can’t handle torture! I’ll be on the floor begging for it to stop!”
The entire outdoors area of the milkshake bar had gone quiet at Pinkie Pie’s little dramatization. Pinkie lit up and did a little bow, but nopony clapped. She sat down again with a huff.
“You’re not wearing a hat,” Lyra retorted once conversations resumed all around them. “And in danger of asking the obvious question that I know will somehow backfire; how can you call it ‘hiding’ when you’re at a bar right across the street from where Twilight Sparkle works and lives?”
Pinkie stole a covert glance to the side. Sure enough, the library tree hadn’t moved an inch. Lyra’s power of observation were substantial, but she failed to comprehend the depths of Pinkie’s devious plot. Even if Pinkie hadn’t really considered this before, it made perfect sense now. Sometimes, you just had to roll with the cards that the lemons dealt you.
“It’s clear you don’t know how undercover operations work,” Pinkie commented, grinning. “Ever heard of hiding in plain sight, huh?”
“Spike is staring at you. He’s in the window, right now,” the unbelieving unicorn chuckled.
“He’s looking, but does he see?” Pinkie asked, licking the foam off the top of her sixteenth yummy milk-and-sugar treat.
“He’s waving at you. I’d say there’s a fair chance he’s looking at you, yes.”
Pinkie Pie pursed her lips and shook her head at the implausibility of the whole thing. Lyra looked as if though she wanted to carry on the debate, but before either of them could say anything more on the matter, a pink and yellow blur streaked overhead. The pair watched as Fluttershy careened to a stop outside of the library, predictably enough pausing to knock on the public building’s door even in the middle of its opening hours.
“What’s she flying about like her tail’s on fire for?” Lyra asked. Pinkie made no move to reply. She had noticed the direction Fluttershy had come from.
Not only did Pinkie know everypony in Ponyville, she also knew who knew who, and none of Fluttershy’s other friends lived in that direction. Only Rainbow Dash. No doubt she’d gone to visit, and they would have talked. Pinkie wasn’t the only pony who talked to her friends. Others did that too, and if Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had talked, the lie would be plain.
Pinkie didn’t dare look any more, busying herself with the suddenly-less-sweet milkshake instead. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Fluttershy trading words with Spike. A claw was pointed in their general direction, and Fluttershy’s eyes met hers. Pinkie Pie was terrible at not daring to look, she realized. Fluttershy was trotting in their direction, and the fact that her clever hiding plan had failed was suddenly the least of her worries.
“Hey, uh, I’m gonna go be elsewhere for a while and stuff. You take care,” Lyra said, getting up and slipping into her saddlebags. “If everything goes south, you can crash at my place tonight. Bon-Bon and Berry are coming over for board games, but no Pinkie sense cheating this time, okay?”
Pinkie smiled back at Lyra as the unicorn mare made her egress, offering a nod before turning around to face her doom again. She was a cheating, lying no-good pony, and her jig was up. She could feel a trickle of cold sweat running down her face as she further loosened the cravat she wasn’t wearing.
Fluttershy slowed her approach, watching Pinkie intently. She didn’t even look mad, but Pinkie Pie knew that judgment lurked just below that tranquil and concerned look. That worried frown. Any minute now, Fluttershy would declare her a liar and a terrible friend.
“Um, Pinkie Pie? Are you... okay?” Fluttershy asked. "You look a little pale."
Pinkie’s bottom lip quivered. It was all too much. She collapsed like a card house in a storm, throwing her hooves up for the manacles that would no doubt slam down on her legs any minute now.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to lie but it all just happened so fast - or, actually, it happened really slowly. I was going to talk to Dashie, but she was asleep and looked so cute and happy while she was sleeping and no doubt dreaming about nicer things than having silly Pinkie Pie bother her and ask her about things she probably doesn’t want to talk about because I can’t help but think that she doesn’t really want to be around me! I mean, how can she? She’s always flying off without telling me what’s up, but I don’t want to ask because if she doesn’t want to tell, that’d be really mean, but sometimes not asking is even more mean and it all makes my head hurt!”
“Um,” Fluttershy offered, gingerly stepping back when Pinkie Pie threw herself at her hooves.
“And sure, maybe she did notice the sprinkles, but now I’m all out! What if the sprinkles were the only thing she really cared about? What if she thinks I’m a silly, stupid earth pony with fancy sprinkles? I feel so used,” Pinkie sniffed, grabbing a hold of one of Fluttershy’s forelegs.
“I don’t-” Fluttershy began, only to be savagely cut off when Pinkie Pie remembered the other problem. The pink pony curled up around the captive pegasus’ leg and clenched her eyes shut.
“I didn’t talk to her. Now you know!” Pinkie wailed. “And I’ve lost not one, but two friends! Lay it on me, give me your worst! I deserve it. I deserve the worst you can do!”
Fluttershy bit her lower lip as she stared down at her, looking more than a little lost. Pinkie popped an eye open and looked right back up at her.
“One and a half friend?” she asked. “Or friends? Does half a friend make it, um, whatchacallit, plural? I have to ask Twilight about this!”
“I was just going to ask if you know where Rainbow Dash was going,” Fluttershy admitted. “I don’t- I don’t know anything about the rest,” she said, retreating another step and saving her hoof in the process.
“Going?” Pinkie echoed, bouncing back up on all fours. She felt a little cold inside, and that never meant anything good. “Going or coming? Where?”
Fluttershy pinned her ears against her head and shrank back, glancing about. “I- I was hoping you knew. None of the girls could tell where you had gone after you went to see Rainbow Dash. It’s probably nothing-”
“I did see her!” Pinkie shot, relishing that little victory.
“-but, well, I saw her fly away. She had packed and everything. She usually never wears saddlebags, so I thought it was a little mysterious. I tried to follow, but she was flying far too fast for me,” Fluttershy finished, pawing at the ground.
“Away?” Pinkie asked. “No, no-no and no, away is like, twice as far as coming and going put together in one Dash-less soup!”
“I’m sure it’s nothing big,” Fluttershy said. “Maybe she just needed to pick up something from the Weather Office?” The soft-spoken mare offered Pinkie one of her it’ll-all-be-okay smiles, and it was almost enough to convince Pinkie. Almost. Pinkie made a noncommittal noise.
“I’m going to go ask Twilight if she’s heard anything. Are you going to be okay, Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy asked.
She didn’t lie and say ‘yes’, but nor did she say ‘no’. Pinkie smiled back as best as she could, and Fluttershy leaned forward to hug her around the neck at that.
“It’s not your fault, I’m sure it’ll all work out,” Fluttershy murmured before she let go. “Now don’t, um, don’t do anything too silly. I’ll see you at Sugarcube Corner, okay?”
Pinkie Pie didn’t want to lie. She just smiled still and waved as Fluttershy trotted off down the road. She didn’t want to promise not to do something stupid. She was pretty sure the plans she was making even now were stupid on some level. Probably a lot of levels. If her plans were a cake, all the layers would be made of stupid, and the cream filling was concentrated stupid, but it didn’t matter so long as the cake was topped with strawberries.
Strawberries that may have heard something that they weren’t meant to hear. Strawberries that she couldn’t bear to lose no matter what, even if it meant lying and saying she only wanted to be their- her friend. If she had to hide away the love she’d so recently discovered, she would, if only it meant she could have her strawberries back.
Strawberries that were so special to her, losing them was unthinkable, even if she kind of did think about it anyway, and it made her feel terrible.
Strawberries that were Rainbow Dash.
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Next time I'll post on EqD :V
Posting a comment is more than 10 sconds flat. Rainbow Dash I ain't
Stop trying to make me cry Cloudy. Goodness. Especially those last few lines about strawberries. They're such simple, but deep sentences. Goodness I can't even handle them.
Sometimes, you just had to roll with the cards that the lemons dealt you.
Best. Pinky line. Ever.
I love how Pinkie's big confession to sleeping Dash scene is a mix of funny and heart-breaking. I loved Pinkie destroying half of Rainbow's house, and I loved Rainbow sneaking bites of the muffin. These two always have such a fun, lovely dynamic when you write them.
It was meant to be for special occasions. Perhaps Pinkie didn’t know the blanket was special. Perhaps Pinkie never had a reason to think it was, since Dash’d always brought it out when they sat up until the early hours of morning talking and playing games - which was almost every night.
Oh my gosh, my heart cannot even handle this level of adorability. You are totally in love with that girl, Rainbow Dash. Don't even play like you're not, 'cause you are.
I liked the bit of Lyra/Pinkie friendship, how Lyra seemed to genuinely enjoy Pinkie's company even as she was fully aware of Pinkie's ridiculousness. Also, is this story the first time you've written from Pinkie's POV? I can't really recall you doing so to any great extent before--which is a shame, because Pinkie is AMAZING here.
Pinkie Pie didn’t want to lie. She just smiled still and waved as Fluttershy trotted off down the road. She didn’t want to promise not to do something stupid. She was pretty sure the plans she was making even now were stupid on some level. Probably a lot of levels. If her plans were a cake, all the layers would be made of stupid, and the cream filling was concentrated stupid, but it didn’t matter so long as the cake was topped with strawberries.
Seriously, there is absolutely nothing not to love in that paragraph. Pinkie's self-awareness, her hilarious metaphor of the cake, the funny-then-bittersweet metaphor of the strawberries. This is a serious Pinkie who's still very Pinkie, and I love her.
You capture Pinkie's mind so perfectly. The most ridiculous things make sense, sort of, when she's thinking of them. I love every bit with her, but expecially the total breakdown and confession at Fluttershy's hooves.
"Sometimes, you just had to roll with the cards that the lemons dealt you."
This won the award for Best Line Ever. Thought you'd like to know.
The Strawberries might be you. The Strawberries might be me. The Strawberries are definitely Rainbow Dash.
Once more a great little chapter to read and you captured the girl's personalities spot on, are you sure you don't have a direct link up to the people that make the show >___>
Also I think I am becoming fully infected by Pinkie Pie as well.......when Dash was talking and eating that muffin Pinkie brought her to the cloud house I got a mental image.....funny one though.
I mentally pictured the muffin suddenly being able to talk and screaming 'YOU'LL NEVER GET ME TO TALK!' while rainbow dash tortures{eats} it.......I'm not crazy I swear
"Her bedroom wall exploded in a huge yet spectacularly silent cloudy puff. Pinkie tumbled out of her flying contraption and crashed to the floor, the copter itself plummeting straight through and onwards. The out-of-control device took half of Dash’s kitchen with it as it tore through her poor house, joining the coffee table on the ground below. Dash was upright on her bed in the blink of an eye, staring at the dazed earth pony by the foot of her bed."
Oh god! Pinkie's a terrorist! That's why Rainbow Dash was waterboarding the muffin (with her saliva)!
Anyways, the cuteness, Pinkie's strawberry metaphor was silly and sad at the same time...I don't even know if that's possible...
Great chapter, I wonder where Dash is running to?
Oh, and:
"Sometimes, you just had to roll with the cards that the lemons dealt you."
-this line was great!
And I love how Pinkie tried to be all clandestine and undercover and what-not with Twilight's tree RIGHT THERE!
I wonder if Rainbow ever told Pinkie that she was listening...just curiosity.
Karalian Air Force-
Silver: Hmm...the song although the song appears to be working, we are still taking heavy casualties. But no matter, we are still big enough to push forward!
Soldier: Sir, we are engaging Cloudy Skies last remaining elite units now, but some of them are escaping deeper into the city. We believe that they are covering his main force's retreat. Also, Kalinigrad fell today.
Silver: WHAT!? We lost our capital!?
Soldier: Uh... yes sir. The defenses we had were top-notch but the enemy overwhelmed them with sheer numbers.
Me: That's awful news. We better wrap this up.
Me: Ensign...wasn't your little brother fighting in Kalinigrad...
Silver: .......
Silver out!
Two important things to mention here.
Nextly.
Sorry this is now a long comment but
this is just to cute and so extremely pinkie. I... I.. just Wow