The Comfort of Friends
& & &
“Rainbow Dash! Hey, Rainbow Dash!” No sooner had the pegasus in question returned to town than she had found herself being tackled to ground by a certain pink ball of energy and sweets. “Where’ve you been Rainbow? We can’t have a party without you!”
Grunting as she fought to get Pinkie off her, Rainbow retorted. “Sheesh Pinkie! I just had—ung—to talk to…somepony.” She finally got back to her hooves and shook the dust off her coat. Looking around, she saw Applejack, Rarity, Twilight and Fluttershy were with Pinkie. “What’s up?”
“Just wondering what’s up with you.” Applejack said. “You okay sugarcube?”
Rainbow was confused. “Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?”
Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “Well, it’s just that you’ve been through a lot lately and when you left the party…we were worried about you.” She added shyly.
Rainbow Dash smiled. Normally such sappy displays would’ve prompted her to role her eyes or make a face but…she kinda liked it. “It’s cool. Thanks everypony.”
“We just want to make sure that you’re okay.” Fluttershy smiled gently out from behind her mane. “You’re our friend.”
“Best friends forever.” Rarity agreed, her eyes twinkling. “To think, we all got our Cutie Marks after seeing your Sonic Rainboom!”
Giving a small but cocky grin, Rainbow winked. “Yeah, I’m just that awesome.”
“Careful, yer head might get so big it’ll go floating away.” AJ nudged her, chuckling. “So what’s next?”
“Um, next? What do you mean?”
“Well,” Applejack tilted her hat back. “You came to Ponyville because you were having some sort of trouble with the Princess and bein’ compared to her. Now you’ve gone and helped save the world! Ah reckon that means yer troubles are over, right?” Rainbow’s shoulders slumped. “…oh.” AJ grimaced.
Fluttershy gasped, holding her hooves to her mouth. “Oh my goodness, what happened?”
Groaning, Rainbow Dash put a hoof on her face. “Celestia and I—I just wanted to talk to her about why she didn’t tell me about any of this Nightmare Moon stuff and well…we started fighting. *I* started fighting.”
Twilight felt her jaw drop open. “You had a fight with Princess Celestia?!” She exclaimed.
“Hey, it’s not like it’s illegal to have an argument with her or anything!” Rainbow defended herself hastily. “I wanted to find out what she wouldn’t tell me about Nightmare Moon until five minutes before she showed up!”
“What did she tell you?” Applejack asked Rainbow Dash curiously.
Sighing deeply, Rainbow Dash told them everything. That Celestia had known about the Sonic Rainboom, the connection it formed between the six of them, the return of Nightmare Moon, the reasons Celestia hadn’t confronted her directly, and the steps Celestia had taken to make sure that Rainbow Dash would be ready and able to handle it and the ensuing fight between the two of them.
Five sets of wide eyes met Rainbow Dash’s own as she finished.
“Gracious!” Rarity held a hoof to her cheek. “Such a terrible rift to have come between you two!”
Fluttershy gave Rainbow Dash a comforting nuzzle as Pinkie Pie pounced her from behind and wrapped her up in a great big hug. “Are you okay?”
Applejack gave the pegasus a sympathetic look. “Aw shoot Rainbow, ah can understand why yer so upset. Ah know ah hate it when ponies keep the truth from me.” She nudged Rainbow Dash. “Ah expect that’s why ah was so cross when you didn’t tell us you were the Princess’ student.”
She shook her head. “C’mon AJ, that was totally different!” Dash protested. “This was—this was huge!”
“Ah know, ah know.” The cowpony said, placating her.. “Mah point is that while it hurts when ponies don't tell you the truth, ah don’t think you should let that get in the way of yer relationship with the princess. Ain’t nothing more important than family you know and the princess is a part of yours.”
“Aren’t families supposed to trust each other?” Rainbow retorted. “She didn’t trust me! And I don’t know if I can trust her now and…and everything’s ruined.” She said mournfully.
AJ put a hoof on her shoulder. “Dash…”
The blue pony bit her lip. “Why couldn’t she trust me? Is—is it something I did? Is it something I said? Was I just not…good enough?” She blinked rapidly, her eyes moist. “Is there something wrong with me?” Regardless of her reasons, Celestia’s decision not to trust Rainbow Dash with the information of Nightmare Moon’s return was interpreted as a lack of trust and a lack of faith. The idea that the pony who literally took Rainbow under her wing didn’t have faith in her, hurt. It chipped away at her own feeling of self-worth and left the pegasus feeling very vulnerable. On the eve of her greatest triumph, she felt miserable because the one pony whose opinion she had valued the most had not seen fit to trust her.
“Aww…Dashie.” Pinkie bit her lip as Fluttershy made to rest her head on Rainbow’s shoulder.
“Sugarcube.” Applejack had a pained look on her face. “Don’t you ever be thinking that.”
Twilight hesitated before hazarding an answer. “Rainbow Dash I—I don’t know why the Princess did everything she did. But…maybe she wanted you to seek us out and become friends with us on your own? I mean, if the Princess had come up to me and said that I had to meet some friends as some kind of order, I probably would’ve maybe resented it a little.” She admitted sheepishly. “And whoever I was meeting, I guess. I mean, you can’t become friends just because somepony told you to. It was meeting each other and going through everything we experienced together that made us all friends.” She smiled at her gently. “It was all of us—being friends—that stopped Nightmare Moon in the end. You did that yourself, bringing us all together. Nopony and nothing forced us to be friends with you, not a royal order or a magical artifact: just you.”
“R-really?” Rainbow squeaked.
Twilight nodded. “Princess Celestia might’ve guided us and helped make sure we were in the right place at the right time, but everything after that…that was just US. We made the choices, we became friends and we stopped Nightmare Moon. Nopony else did that, not even Princess Celestia.”
Rainbow Dash smiled, feeling buoyed. Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin with her hoof. “Hmmmm.”
“What’re you thinking Pinkie dear?” Rarity asked.
“I was just thinking about the platypus. I mean those things are so weird! It’s like somepony just randomly tossed a bunch of random parts from different animals together to create an all new seriously WEIRD creature. I was wondering if the presence of platypus—or is it platypi?—can be used to predict the downfall of order and the rise of chaos.” Pinkie asked, her lip jutting out as she pondered.
Rainbow Dash just looked at the pink earth pony. “I DARE you to make less sense.”
Grinning patronizingly, Pinkie gently mussed Rainbow’s mane. “Silly Dashie! Of course I make sense! I make sense all the time and sometimes I even think deep, deep, deeeeep deep deep thoughts! Thoughts so deep I need a shovel to get to the bottom of them! Like whether or not free will is an illusion, why Jimmy cracks corn if nopony cares, is Michael Bay worse than Joe Horshoemaker and where on Earth IS Carmen Sandiego? And I’ve thought a lot about you and the Princess Dashie, so let your Aunt Pinkie explain!”
“But you’re not—” It was too late, Pinkie was on a roll.
“The thing is Dashie that just because somepony you love doesn’t tell you something doesn’t mean that they don’t trust you! It’s like how a mommy pony doesn’t tell her daughter where filly’s REALLY come from because she isn’t ready to know and then the filly spends the entire night waiting in the cabbage patch looking for Mr. Stork!”
“Um—Pinkie?”
“Oooh! Or how parents don’t want their foals to know when one of them isn’t feeling well because they don’t want you to feel sad and worried but then you find out and then you throw them a big party with lots and lots of ice cream and cake—and then they tell you that daddy wasn’t feeling well because of all the cake he ate at the LAST party you threw the day before....”
“Pinkie Pie…”
“…and how sometimes feeding zed-neutrino rays through a tesla coil into the event horizon of a temporal quantum singularity can be used to rewrite the fabric of space and time so it can interact with a tesseract field in order to power the flux capacitor to make blueberry jam…”
“PINKIE PIE!” Rainbow shouted, finally getting her attention and—more importantly—her silence. She panted. “Can we not…talk about this…for a bit?”
“Okay!” Pinkie smiled and gave a little nod. “So whooo wants to have some fun? Tag your it!” She beeped Rainbow’s snout playfully. “Try and catch me slowpoke!”
Rainbow Dash bared a fierce, competitive grin more akin to that of a shark. “Oh you did NOT just say that!” She zoomed off after the giggling pink blur, soon accompanied by the rest of her friends as they ran off, laughing like they were always meant to be together.
Watching the six ponies as they ran and played in the crispness of the night, illuminated only by moonlight and the twinkling of fireflies, stood Princess Celestia. A sad, proud smile graced her muzzle as she watched her student and her friends. Much as Rainbow Dash had sought advice and comfort from her friends, so too had Princess Celestia. At her feet rested a reminder of the aid and wisdom Celestia had received from one of her ponies.
It was a muffin.
& & &
Stats
Page generated in 0.055 seconds
Total duration
850 users online
1,270,745 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
muffins...
Pinkie Pie is a Quantum Theorist?
I love the emotional depth you convey in this story!
Why is Derpy so smart, anyways? I don't prefer her stupid, but she's like, above average in this fic. It's strange.
Unless... The Doctor is somehow involved.
Or something.
That Pinkie Pie
What kind of muffin was it? Blueberry? Banana nut? Oatmeal?
1265797
Derpy/Ditzy is a blank muffin. She can be any flavor in any story, as long as she's still a delicious muffin.
I see Ditzy as something of an absent-minded professor type, myself....smart but sort of out of touch with everyday reality.
The redo of Celestia and Dash's argument is much better now. Nicely done.
1265797
I see Ditzy as something of an absent-minded professor type, myself....smart but sort of out of touch with everyday reality.
1265783
Pinkie Pie is anything and everything. Nothing more, and nothing less.
where on Earth IS Carmen Sandiego?
I loved that game. Especially the sequal: Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?
1265783
No, no, no, Pinkie Pie writes the reality code for Quantum mechanics. She's the Universe Admin. The old one accidentally left his system logged in and Pinkie Pie found it.
1265827
I wasn't referring to you specifically. There were some critics who felt that Rainbow Dash was just an ingrate regardless of what was said and done and that Celestia had no reason or cause to apologize. That I think shows a pretty shallow understanding toward both characters if you cannot see why Dash was upset or why Celestia felt the need to apologize. If you were one of those who said that scene with the Wonderbolts was OOC, then you were right. But I do not hold a brief toward those who think that Dash should've just sat down and nodded and "Thank you ma'am, may I have another" to Princess Celestia.
1265869
I bet the Doctor could've solved the second one.
1265906
Nice. Seriously though, it was a pretty awesome game and I learned some fun things along the way. If you played WITWICS, I highly suggest finding and playing Where in Time.
or it it platypi? do you mean is it?
1265783 Nope, she just used her Randomoid Gypsie powers to tap into the spirit of Nikoli Tesla, who then shared his wisdom with her.
1265903 Wait. you rewrote it? Why the hell would ya do that?
MUFFINS!
1265783 No, Pinkie Pie is insane. So she is, and can be, and always will be the source of any information the author needs to convey or anything the author needs to say because it's established that she doesn't follow any of the ordinary rules of reality and doesn't need to have a reason to know the things she knows to know those things
The Princess asked Derpy's advice?...That is just awesome.
1265949
I made some changes because I felt the point about Celestia deliberately telling the Wonderbolts not to let Rainbow Dash in was a bit OOC. So I made some minor changes.
1265962
Don't forget comic relief. X3
Great update to the story that won't stop! (That's a good thing!)
MICHEAL BAY.
1265981 Well, OK. It's a shame, tho... my own opinion was that that chapter was as perfect as it could get to convey what you were trying to tell readers.
"Why Jimmy cracks corn if nopony cares..." Nice reference to one of the funniest and best-known P&B "AYPWIPs"
1265783 Pinkie Pie is everything.... EEEEVERRRRYTHING!
You get to be my first ever fave on this site
1265630
Derpy, yes. But also Twilight. Gotta remember that even though Twi didn't become Celestia's student, Celestia is still the reason Twi started studying magic to begin with.
She aslo understands it a LOT better than Dash, especially if she reads the EoH refference guide.
1266095
And I thank you. It was clearly the most controversial chapter as the paragraph length reviews and arguments indicate. Above all, I maintain that I portrayed the characters in a way that did not contradict how they were portrayed in the series or in the rest of my story and was actually pretty realistic. Some disliked how I portrayed Celestia, that I had an axe to grind, or otherwise didn't like her. Really though, I've re-read what I wrote several times and I can't see that. That particular act of Celestia's, telling the Wonderbolts that RD was off-limits wasn't really in keeping with how Celestia would act, as I mentioned in the intro to the redone chapter. But at the end of the day I think that's more-or-less how Celestia and Dash would've reacted given the situation: Celestia explaining why she acted as she did, while noting that she is not infallible and apologizing if her actions hurt Dash (which is not the same as repudiating said actions) and Dash being hurt by being kept in the dark and by Celestia's rationales behind not telling her.
While maintaining respect for my readers and reviewers, I can't help but roll my eyes at the idea that Celestia would just be completely UNapologetic about the whole thing and go "Yeah, shuddup Dash. I'm the Princess, I rule and I know what's best. Now close your mouth." Or that Dash is somehow a brat or an ingrate for not having an issue or two with the whole "By the way, can you deal with the worst evil known to Ponykind while I'm out? Thanks" scenario.
Muffins...
1265981
You did in chapter 31, but you should probably also remove the comment Dash makes to Luna about it in chapter 32, because that one is still there.
( She even told the Wonderbolts not to let me join—knowing it was my lifelong dream to become one—behind my back just so I wouldn’t be too distracted to stop you when you came along.” )
1266486
*Facepalm* THanks.
1266480
Hmm...an interesting point. I will have to reflect on this a bit more. Again this is kinda difficult to write because if Celestia has a perfect answer for everything then it makes it harder for Dash to get any sympathy for basically being left in the lurch and I really wanna reflect how hard this was for both of them, on a number of levels. And this is also compounded by the fact that, since I have no clue why Celestia acted the way she did canon-wise, I have to pull an answer out of my...hat. And frankly, I don't know what the 'right one' could or should be.
1265903 I wasn't among the people who took issue with the Wonderbolts thing (though, come to think of it, that didn't really fit). I was among the people who had a general problem with how the chapter went down, but the following two chapters have done a lot to remedy that. (Also, I was the guy who got called out as a grammar Nazi for asking someone else to put at least a few commas in five paragraphs of comment text, but that's a different kettle of fish.
Speaking of which, it's "hold a brief for," not "towards.")
Remember, we as readers only see what's on the page. We have no way of knowing whether something resolves in a particular way, and after what happened in the chapter, things could have gone wrong in fifty different ways. They didn't, for which I'm grateful.
1266603
Ah, okay. My apologies for not intervening on the 'grammar nazi' thing sooner. That is one of two n-words that should not be tossed about at whim.
1266627 Not your fault. No one expects you to police your comments section all the time, and I'll admit I might have overreacted a teensy bit to that particular term - while I accept that I do indeed sometimes show grammar Nazi tendencies, I don't think this particular occasion warranted that term. Also, I just so happen to be German, and having someone fling this N-word at me might trigger unfortunate responses.
[youtube=rdtsqE8N-qM]
1266733 LMFAO that video was priceless. I am astounded I've never found that before.
1265783
Pinkie Pie is an Eldritch being, whose body was hewn from the living bones of the First World as it was torn asunder in the creation of our current universe. She is older than time itself, was there when the Firmament took form, and is amused by the ideas mortals use to shield themselves from the madness of reality. Concepts like "Causality", "Relativity", and "Too Much Cake", all are but thin veils that keep our fragile sanity from being overwhelmed by the chaos of the world.
And Pinkie Pie, the Opener of Ways and Means, the Muses' Muse, Laughter Incarnate, the Wallbreaker, the Pink One, she of many names, looked upon the vastness of reality and was saddened by its morose nature. The other eldritch beings hide or sleep, or consume, but Pinkie Pie chose to cast about the universe, and was joyed to find life beginning. Joy and laughter are her domain, and she finds that the form of a pink pony suits her well. But make no mistake, she could put Discord into a jar, turn Celestia and Luna into sock puppets, and rip Equestria asunder with her mind. But such is not her way. Fear not and laugh with her, for life is fleeting and friendship is the magic that gives even the immortal ones hope.
So basically, she can do whatever she wants, so long as it's funny. So LAUGH, DARNIT. LAUGH OR FACE THE PIE-THROWING WRATH OF THE WALLBREAKER.
F'in Beautiful
...
Also, this finally explains why my jams never come out right - I just thought I needed more pectin.
That's a pretty tall order.
On that note, is it a bad sign that I can usually follow Pinkie's train of thought? You know, before it jumps the track?
The scene with Pinkie Pie is now in my top scenes with her ever. That platypus thing was epic!
I feel I should also say that I didn't find Celestia's manipulations and subsequent apology disagreeable, they both felt fine, as did Rainbow's reaction.
Was Pinkie trying to hint at the similarities between Platypode and (Insert plural of draconequus here)?
I love that bit at the end and the implication that Derpy put Celestia in her place. I love the way you have portrayed her here, and that was a great touch.
I see what you did there
1265783 and all the theory does is make infinite blueberry jam? huh.
1266516
Well, I can provide you with my advice and my headcanon, and maybe one of those will be helpful.
The sympathy keeps sliding and being uneven due to the fact that Celestia can understand the nature of Dash's pain better than Dash can understand Celestia's. This leads Dash to treat Celestia more indignantly while Celestia just sits and takes it.
To counter this, you gave validity to some of Dash's emotional accusations, showing apparent errors in judgement on Celestia's part leading to some of the pain she caused Dash appearing to have been unnecessary.
Unfortunately these validations are a poor patch job since they do not seem very believable to some readers, including myself.
So how to even the sympathy between the 2? Answer: there's no need. The sympathy can be concurrent with each point of contention for both characters.
For instance. Celestia not forewarning Dash was right, but it hurt Dash, which damaged their relationship, which hurt Celestia. Both were legitimately and believably hurt and we can sympathize with the emotional angst said conflict causes on both sides. Just because the original decision that triggered the conflict is unimpeachable does not actually lessen the sympathy for either side. It in fact increases it for both sides because since there is no villain to blame, the true impact of the tragic circumstances can sink in.
For instance, Dash's outrage at how her friends were put at risk does not need to be laced with the implication of cowardice motivating Celestia to "work". They were put at risk, and Celestia was not there to protect them. She is Dash's guardian and was not there to guard her. Doesn't really matter why, that's still gonna hurt. It's gonna shake Dash's faith and confidence in what was once her ultimate safety net.
You don't need to validate the reason; you don't need to justify a viewpoint. You can just let the pain speak for itself and damn the rightness or wrongness of the reasons behind it, for that is the domain of the mind, not the heart. The heart doesn't discriminate between hurt caused by right or wrong acts.
Also the Wonderbolts thing, while no longer silly, still makes little sense. Of course Celestia could speak to the Wonderbolts at any time. But Dash could probably also apply at any time. I just don't understand why this issue is even contentious. At most Celestia should imply that the Rainboom makes it much more likely to be recruited. Why would she even need to speak to them? It's no longer "offensive", it just seems meaningless and shoehorned in as an added argument.
As for my headcanon. I always felt that the elements were not working properly for Celestia and might not have worked for her again because of what she used them for.
Banishing her own sister.
Loyalty? Fractured.
Laughter? Nope.
Generosity? In doubt due to Nightmare's jealousy.
Honesty? Probably OK.
Kindness? Probably OK as well.
Magic? Undoubtedly weakened due to the lack of Harmony.
th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/031/d/c/mlp___fim_derpy_vegeta_by_toaster_nator-d4o6t7a.jpg