A First Glance

by Isolation

Chapter 4

A rose eyed pegasus idly waited on the inside of a bar as a single flashback raced through her mind.

“We regret to inform you Miss Rainbow Dash but-”
The rainbow maned pegasus quickly interrupted her two guests “Inform me what?”
“You have been relieved from your duties as being responsible for the weather of Ponyville.”
“Come again?”

The two colts shared an annoyed look. “You, are no longer, responsible, for Ponyville’s weather.”
Rainbow Dash let out an enormous laugh. “I’m sorry but you’re telling me Cloudsdale’s greatest flyer is not-”
“We don’t care about that. It’s just that you have failed to follow the Equestrian-”
“Well then who will take care of the weather?”
“Somepony else!” The colts snapped back. “The Equestrian Weather Conference was indeed a very, very important conference. Did you not attend?”

“I did!” pleaded the mare. “I sat through the whole thing!”
“Did you not pay attention to the weather plans!?”
Rainbow Dash looked away, tears already racing down her checks.
“Then that explains it then! Starting tomorrow somepony else will be taking your position.” The colts gave each other a finishing nod. “Good day Miss Rainbow Dash.”

~*~

“Pinkie Pie, I’m leaving the shop in your hooves.” The voice of Mrs Cake was distant.
“Okie dokie lokie!-”
Mrs Cake quickly butted in. “I just hope nothing like last time will happen…again.”
“You mean when I brought Applejack over? Oh don’t worry. I won’t bring anypony over this time! I’ll make sure this place is super duper quiet and I won’t let nopony, anypony at all-”

Mrs Cake glanced at the wall clock. Realising she was short on time; she managed to let out a “Goodbye Pinkie Pie!” and in a flash, she was gone.

“-And I promise you everything will be exactly the way…” Pinkie Pie opened her eyes and found she was isolated. That fast huh she thought. She too took a glance at the clock. She let out a sigh of relief as she figured it was almost closing time.

Pinkie Pie retreated to the thoughts of her mind. The only thing I heard is that they are meeting tonight. I can’t believe my best friends would keep secrets from me… They were indeed. That same afternoon Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had kept Pinkie Pie waiting on the porch so long she got fed up and left herself. She only made it to the grounds of Ponyville half an hour ago and Mr and Mrs Cake were ecstatic to see her.

The clock struck seven o’ clock. Instantaneously Pinkie Pie headed upstairs. Something caught her hoof and made her tumble.
“Sorry Gummy. Didn’t see you there.” Pinkie Pie quickly picked herself up and gathered her disguise which consisted of a pair of black glasses and a fake nose.

“Time to do this PINKIE PIE STYLE!” After only one minute of hearing the clock strike, Pinkie Pie was well onto the street of Sugarcube Corner trying to locate her target. She tried as best as she could to remain hidden, but there were too few objects to hide behind in the deserted street.

Not long after something had caught her eye. A certain pink maned, lightly yellow coated, cyan eyed pegasus had appeared and was leading her to a path to somewhere.
“Bingo.”

~*~

Fluttershy entered the same building with the huge florescent sign hanging on both sides of the building, the entrance and the exit. What am I doing here? She asked herself. She paid no attention to the occupants of the bar and they didn’t pay any attention to her, however this reduced Fluttershy to back into a corner and hopelessly try to find her friend. Among the sea of ponies, Fluttershy noticed a very obvious shattered pane of glass surrounding the entrance.

“HEY FLÜTTERSHY!” a voice called out with a distinct accent.
“Photo…Finish?”
“No it’s me! Rainbow Dash!!”
Fluttershy was confused. Rainbow Dash never sounded that way. Never sounded so hung over she thought. Delighted to see her friend, Fluttershy quickly made her way across the room.

Upon approaching she froze. “Rainbow, what is that you’re drinking?”
Rainbow Dash gave a smirk “It’s the same stuff we had last night remember?”
“Um, if it’s okay I want to talk to you about tha-”
“Get us another round!” she screamed to the bartender. “Yes so go on Fluttershy.”
“Well, you see,” she paused unable to phrase it out. “I-I went to the clinic today…”
“Yes, yes.” Rainbow Dash showed little interest.
“S-s-so I went to the clinic today and they told me, that it was um called a hangover.”

“What the heck is a hangover?”
“Well that’s what I said, except for the heck part, but they told me it was sorta like an unpleasant feeling you get after drinking too much alcohol.”
“Well I’ve been feeling completely fine.” Rainbow Dash lied. “By the way, what’s alcohol?”

Fluttershy was trying her best to remember the facts. “Um alcohol is…something found in…what you’re drinking…” Half finishing her sentence, she eyed that Rainbow Dash had gone from her first bottle to her third bottle. “Umm, I think you should stop drinking now, if it’s okay with you…”

A slap was suddenly delivered across her face.
“YOU THINK YOU CAN TELL ME WHAT TO DO FLUTTERSHY?” the bar was silent now. Paralysed, she refused to say anything.
“I’ve just been fired Fluttershy! And here you are telling me what to do?!”
No response.
“ANSWER ME!”
Silently sobbing, Fluttershy managed to croak out a sentence. “I-I-I just think it’s not healthy that-”
“So you wanna fight now?!” Rainbow Dash couldn’t control her temper.
“N-No I don’t want to fight!-”
“Hit me! Hit me with your best shot!”

Completely appalled and utterly terrified of Rainbow Dash’s behaviour, Fluttershy made a run for the door but was tripped by one of Rainbow Dash’s hooves and fell face first onto the ground. She tried to pick herself up but found that Rainbow Dash was continually pounding at her body with her two front hooves. Fluttershy tried to avoid dodge the beatings but her athletic friend overpowered her.

“Get up, GET UP!” screamed Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy felt a bone breaking pull on her front hooves forcing her to barely stand. Like a well co-ordinated dance she felt hits on her head, chest, shoulder then leg. It repeated itself like an endless cycle. Powerless, Fluttershy collapsed onto the ground coughing up blood bruised from head to hoof. Why? She asked herself barely able to hear her own thoughts from the cheering of the bar crowd. Why has my friend become like this?

Moments from passing out, Fluttershy somehow acquired additional strength. Clumsily and hastily, she managed to crawl out towards the exit of the bar leaving a tangled mess of blood and hair.
Watching her prey escape, Rainbow Dash casually returned to her seat and continued to wash down her fourth bottle of orange-yellow alcohol mixture.

Standing outside the bar eying a figure crawling pathetically out of the building, Pinkie Pie stood emotionless, unable to react to the events that unfolded in front of her.