Crossing Lines

by TheTalentlessPony

Talking it Out

Pinkie Pie shifted the blanket over the fainted Rainbow Dash, who laid silently on Rarity's couch, then backed away, mane slightly deflated. "T-that wasn't funny at all..."

"I agree..." Rarity said solemnly, "to think that Rainbow Dash would get so frightened as to pass out." She frowned, then went over to comfort Fluttershy, who was sobbing to herself in the corner, riddled with guilt.

Twilight sighed. "Perhaps I didn't think everything through. I thought we had everything planned out perfectly. It was only meant to give Rainbow a little scare, but maybe it would've been best for everypony to stick to smaller pranks."

"We did kind of make her think that our minds were basically dead..." Spike pointed out matter-of-factly, though seeming rather sad reflecting on that.

"W-well, yes, but I didn't think she'd care that mu..." Twilight's voice trailed off, realizing that her words sounded pretty terrible out loud. "I-I... didn't know she'd think it through to such degrees." She cleared her throat, looking away ashamed.

"Now we're the pranksters who went too far," Pinkie added sadly, not taking her eyes off of Rainbow Dash. "I-it's my fault. I wasn't with with you guys when you were trying to get her to stop. I was still laughing and it made her want to keep pranking..."

"Y'can't blame yerself for who ya are, Pinkie," Applejack assured, hat held to her chest. "We shoulda just never invited you along."

"We shouldn't have mistook dear Rainbow Dash for who she is either," Rarity admitted. "We got so caught up in her pranking side that we never imagined how this would affect her personally."

She took a brief glance at Applejack. "Though, if I may add, I think you only added fuel to the proverbial fire when you suggested that her prank was lazy or a shortcut, Applejack."

Applejack gave a stubborn huff, mentally but not outwardly admitting that. "Ah don't think it very much helped when ya went and said they had a lack of effort either."

Rarity glared at first, but relented and gave a soft sigh. "Fair enough... I suppose we all messed up rather terribly..."

"I-it was probably her last too..." Fluttershy sniffled, slightly more calmed down. "A prank on all of Ponyville; she probably wanted to go out with a bang. A-and we couldn't let her..."

"Easy now, Fluttershy..." Twilight said, not wanting the reverberating sound of sobbing to distract her from thinking of what to do next.

There was a long moment of silence that wasn't entirely comfortable, but she eventually spoke up again. "I think... we can all agree that it'd be best if we not tell Rainbow Dash about this, right? At least not for now. Maybe we will eventually, or maybe we won't. The point is, we don't have a plan right now to tell her."

A unified nod was her response. Rainbow Dash was brash; they couldn't risk the consequences of her learning what they did to drive her into this state.

"Spike, I need you to go tell the town about this and how not to tell Rainbow Dash about it," Twilight said, eyes to her assistant.

Spike gave a small salute, then left with his orders clear. Those remaining in the room felt thankful for him.

The tension settled somewhat, Twilight letting out a weak chuckle as she turned to Applejack. "Though, I didn't know you were such a good actor, Applejack. Even the Cake twins got in on things pretty well."

Applejack raised a brow, then shrugged. "Just luck, ah guess."

"I'm more surprised that it went off as well as it did in general," Rarity commented, "but, ah... perhaps that was the biggest issue..."

Everyone suddenly jumped as Rainbow Dash shifted on the couch, breathing slightly louder. She stirred, making everypony else stiffen on alert. She pushed herself up quickly, though it seemed her energy was drained, her forelegs slightly shaky. She glanced around the room, her back pressing against the couch warily. It was easy to tell that she was tense.

"...G-guys? I-is that you?" she asked, wanting to check things before doing anything hasty.

Pinkie Pie nearly teared up, feeling happy to see that her friend was at least okay. "D-Dashie."

Rainbow Dash's face lit up, and she flew fastly from underneath her blankets, leaving them entirely to nearly crush Pinkie Pie in a hug, who was feeling rather uncomfortable in it.

"You guys are okay! I mean, you're all okay?"

"U-um, yeah!" Twilight chimed in. "In fact, everypony's okay! The, ah, cookies wore off and we just got rid of them. It was only temporary!" Her gut twisted slightly at the lie, but the logical part of her mind told her firmly that this was best. Still, she mentally kicked herself for spouting out such things without thinking about them first.

At a speed so fast, you'd think she was about to cause a rainboom in the building, Rainbow Dash flew around and hugged the rest of her friends, an awkward atmosphere forming in the room.

"This is awesome! I really thought I'd lost you back there! I'm so sorry about the cookies!" she said at a quick pace; it seemed like her mind was going a million miles per hour. "...Oh! How long was I out? I have to go feed Tank!"

Rainbow trail flowing behind her, Dash flew out of Rarity's house and up into the sky. Everypony else was still stiff at first, waiting a moment to relax, then gave a soft sigh of relief.

Twilight gazed off to where Rainbow Dash had flown off to. "W-well... that was relatively painless, I suppose."

Comments

[TwibraFlattercordlover]

[MonBom]

A really good leader always suport honesty. Isn't it Celestia?