Chapter 5
Fluttershy liked to think of herself as a patient sort. In situations where many ponies would likely become frustrated, she tended to remain calm and keep a smile on her face. It was a trait that she valued and took great pride in. Where others would fly off the handle, she was proud to keep her feathers unruffled.
And yet the constant squeaking was starting to drive her crazy.
Pinkie couldn't help it. It wasn't in her being to stay perfectly still...well, pretty much ever. So naturally, for this flight to Cloudsdale, she would be squirming about as she rode on Fluttershy's back. Fluttershy didn't mind that in the slightest, but once one added the latex bodysuits that the two were wearing, it had quickly crossed the line from okay–even comfortable sometimes–to irritating. Every single move she made caused a squeak, and she was making a lot of moves. It certainly didn't help matters that Pinkie seemed to love the squeaking. Fluttershy had taken to breathing exercises learned from Tree Hugger to keep her calm, because a good friend like Pinkie didn't deserve to be shouted at, even if she was being a pain in the rump at the moment. Although the way she was moving was actually starting to relieve the actual pain in her rump, so maybe it wasn't the worst thing.
"So here's the plan," Pinkie said as they breached the surface of the cloud city. "Are you ready for this, Butterfly? Because this is gonna be a doozy!"
"Um...ready as I'll ever be, Pinkie," Fluttershy responded.
"Ah ah!" Pinkie quickly chided. "Codenames!" Fluttershy let out a soft sigh.
"...Pink Wonder," Fluttershy corrected herself. Despite the mild irritation, she couldn't help a small grin. Pinkie's silliness was infectious, like some manner of bubbly virus.
"Good!" Pinkie said, giving Fluttershy's side a little pat with one hoof. "So! We go into Dashie's house...quiiiietly. Then we go into her room...quiiiietly. And then we look through her stuff and see if there's any hints to why she's acting so prissy!"
"...Quiiiietly?" Fluttershy offered.
"How did you know?!" Pinkie marveled. "You're a natural!"
"And what if she sees us?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh, she won't see us," Pinkie said with a smile. "That's what the stealth suits are for, silly! And if we need, we can just hide in the closet or something. Sound good?"
"I...suppose," Fluttershy responded. It might not have been the most carefully thought-out plan, but it wasn't like she had anything better in mind.
The two soon landed in front of Rainbow Dash's cloud house. Pinkie was quick to slide off of Fluttershy's back, causing the pegasus to wince at the squeak she created. The latex-covered party pony kept close to the ground as she snuck towards the front door, and Fluttershy, unsure of what else to do, mirrored her actions. Just before reaching the door, Pinkie took a quick detour, crossing over to the nearby window. She narrowed her eyes and waved for Fluttershy to join her. Not using the door seemed odd, but Fluttershy figured that Pinkie had to know what she was doing and joined her. Pinkie's forelegs were around Fluttershy in an instant, and before she could question the idea of hugging at this very moment, the earth pony lifted her up and hurled her at the window. Fluttershy's limbs flew in every direction as she hurtled through the air, but her natural grace allowed her to not only catch her balance and stop in midair before she landed on the floor of Dash's living room, but look elegant while doing so. She barely had a moment to reflect on her quick thinking and reflexes before Pinkie leapt through the window as well, belly-flopping onto Fluttershy and flooring both ponies.
"Oof!" Fluttershy whined.
"Shhh!" Pinkie whispered. The earth pony stood up and patted Fluttershy's back. "Sorry! Now let's go!" The earth pony took off down the hallway, making a huge show of pressing against walls, rolling along the floor, and high-stepping as if to avoid hidden laser traps that almost certainly didn't exist. Once she had reached the door to Dash's room, she waved for Fluttershy to follow. The pegasus did as requested, opting to simply tiptoe until a prompting wave from Pinkie convinced her to make one graceful leap.
The two ponies huddled by the door, each pressing an ear against it. Once they were satisfied at the lack of noise from within, they slowly nudged the door open, doing their best to keep quiet as they entered the room.
"Um...Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked as she scanned the room.
"Who's Pinkie?" Pinkie responded.
"Pink Wonder..." Fluttershy corrected herself with a sigh. "Is it just me, or does Rainbow Dash's room look more...feminine?"
Pinkie was forced to nod in agreement as she observed her surroundings. A full-length mirror hung from a wall that had previously held a Wonderbolt poster. A new makeup table stood next to the mirror, with various product stacked nearly on its surface. Even her simple-yet-effective bedsheets had been replaced with something more plush.
"Wowie..." Pinkie mused. "Just look at all of this! Are we sure Rarity didn't just make her room float somehow?"
"It's so strange to see her room like this..." Fluttershy said. "I mean...I could almost get her acting differently in public to try and attract Twilight, but to change her private bedroom?"
"I'm pretty sure she wants Twilight to see her bedroom," Pinkie said with a wink.
"R-right..." Fluttershy responded, her cheeks coloring. "But still, to make such drastic changes...that mind control idea of Starlight's has a bit more merit now."
"Yeah..." Pinkie answered. Her ears suddenly perked, and before Fluttershy could utter another word, pink forelegs had grabbed her around the barrel and yanked her into the closet. Fluttershy tried to question her actions–something she'd long since learned not to do with Pinkie but figured she'd try anyway–and quickly found a hoof covering her mouth. As it turned out, no questioning was necessary moments later, as Rainbow Dash entered her room.
The two mares had to work hard to keep from reacting to Dash's appearance as they peered through the slats in the closet door. If it wasn't for her distinct coloration, she might have been entirely unrecognizable. Her bangs were perfectly styled and held a volume uncharacteristic of her typical style. The back cascaded down her shoulders and had seemed to gain a good few inches of length, despite how illogical that was given the amount of time that had passed. The spa ponies had clearly redone her makeup, and her eyelashes had so much bounce to them that they could have given the buckballs that Fluttershy and Pinkie had been playing with a run for their money. The pegasus was the picture of beauty and grace as she passed her closet, even doing a little spin to accompany her happy sigh.
"She's gorgeous..." Pinkie whispered. This time, Fluttershy got to do the shushing, though she wasn't exactly wont to disagree. Both sets of eyes watched their friend's actions intently, more out of the need for information than just to enjoy the sight.
"This is so great!" Dash said to nopony in particular–nopony at all, as far as she was aware. "I can't believe she's finally noticing me! I knew this was a good idea!" Then she did a little twirl before falling into her back on the bed, letting out another happy little squee and kicking her hind legs. Her secret audience couldn't help but smile. Despite their concerns over her behavior, seeing her this happy over Twilight was too cute to ignore.
"What do you think?" Dash asked, suddenly sitting up on the bed. "Is there anything else I need to change for her?"
Pinkie and Fluttershy went pale. They had been so careful and quiet in their efforts to hide and spy, and Dash had still seen them? Fluttershy was just about to open the door and apologize when Pinkie's hoof stopped her, then pointed towards Dash. Dash's eyes were not looking towards the closet. Rather, they appeared to be focused squarely on a pink book on her nighttable. It had escaped their notice earlier, perhaps because of its general innocuousness. The fact that Dash seemed to be questioning it, though, brought it to the forefront of their attention. Although that wasn't half as weird as the fact that she appeared to be listening to it as well. The light in her eyes seemed to dull after her question as she stared at the book, and a blank look adorned her face for a good five seconds before her expression snapped back to normal.
"Of course," Dash said, nodding with a calm little smile on her face. She had already been speaking more properly than Fluttershy and Pinkie were used to, but now an extra bit of poshness colored her tone. "I think stockings would be simply divine." The book glowed a subtle red, but if Dash noticed it, she didn't say a word about it. It certainly did not escape the attention of her spies, though, and it took a fair amount of restraint for them to wait until Dash left the room before bursting out of the closet. As soon as Dash had left, both ponies clambered to the nighttable, nearly tripping over each other as they did so.
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked, staring intently at the tome that lay before them.
"Uhhh, Fluttershy? I think it's a book." Pinkie replied. She smiled proudly at her revelation, ignoring the glare from her friend.
"Don't you mean Butterfly?" Fluttershy asked.
"Eh, it's okay if we're alone," Pinkie said with a shrug. Fluttershy took a deep breath and counted to five under her breath before continuing.
"It's clearly not just a book," Fluttershy said. She leaned in to take a closer look at it. "Pony Prettification: A Proper Mare's Guide to Landing the Pony of Your Dreams. It's certainly not the kind of book I'd expect Rainbow Dash to read, but it makes sense given what's going on."
"Yuppers!" Pinkie agreed. A pink hoof reached out to open the similarly-colored book, flipping through until one page made her stop. "Whoa...this is a nice picture of Dashie! But it looks unfinished."
Fluttershy stared at the picture in question for a good while. It certainly was accurate. Every bit of Dash's form had been perfectly, perhaps even lovingly recreated. The only oddity was the coloring. The bottom two-thirds of the picture had been colored in properly, but the top third remained uncolored.
"Why would somepony color so oddly?" Fluttershy wondered aloud. "It all cuts off evenly right here."
"And why would there be a picture of Dashie in a book like this, colored or not?" Pinkie asked.
"I...don't know," Fluttershy responded. She knew it was a rhetorical question, but answering still felt like the polite thing to do.
"I have what you seek..."
The deep, haunting voice sent a shiver down Fluttershy's spine, and she turned to give Pinkie a look.
"Pinkie Pie, this isn't the time for scary voices..." Fluttershy said quietly, a hint of fear behind her voice.
"Um...that wasn't me," Pinkie responded. Her voice was shaky as well, and Fluttershy knew in an instant that this wasn't a prank. Both ponies stared at each other before turning their attention to the book. Its pages flipped suddenly, turning to reveal two blank pages. The faintest hints of pony outlines began to form on either page.
"I have what you seek..." the voice said once more. Its tone, disconcerting as it was, sounded almost as if it was trying to invite the two mares to stick around. Their twin shrieks, however, were rather handy indicators that they had no intention of doing so. Quicker than a hiccup, Pinkie's forelegs were around Fluttershy's barrel, and she once again found herself being hurled through a window, this time to exit Dash's house rather than enter it. Fluttershy managed to snap out of her fear-induced paralysis and catch herself in midair just as she had before, and this time she was ready for Pinkie to land on her. As soon as her passenger belly-flopped onto her back, the two took off, Ponyville bound to share their intel–once their hearts stopped racing, of course.
~~~~~~~~~~
Applejack's trot was powerful and determined as she made her way across town. Spike counted himself lucky that she had allowed him to ride in her back, because it was unlikely that his short baby dragon legs could keep up with her gait. Instead, all he had to deal with was holding on for dear life. This was nothing compared to her rodeo bucking, but for a dragon used to Twilight's calm trot, this was turbulence to the highest degree.
"Could you maybe slow down just a little?" Spike asked his steed. "I really liked the lunch we had before the buckball game. I kinda don't want to lose it." He felt Applejack's speed drop, albeit slightly.
"Sorry, Spike," Applejack replied. "Don't mean to rattle you up like an apple barrel, but the sooner we find Twilight, the better."
"I guess," Spike said. Truthfully, he didn't quite understand what difference it made finding her sooner, but that didn't mean he felt like having a discussion over semantics. Some battles weren't worth picking. Besides, she did slow down a little bit.
"Good," Applejack said. With that settled, she set her eyes back on the path, scanning the area for any signs of Twilight. As it turned out, very little scanning was needed.
"Twilight Sparkle off the port bow!" Spike called, pointing off to the left. Sure enough, there she was, walking towards Sugarcube Corner with Rarity in tow. Without a moment's hesitation, Applejack veered off of the path and headed in their direction, Spike's arms wrapped firmly around her neck so as not to be thrown off.
"Twilight!" Applejack shouted, startling the two mares as she approached. "We need to talk to you." It only took her a brief moment of noting Rarity's expression before quickly throwing in a "Hi hon."
"Hello to you too, dear," Rarity said, mildly bothered but mostly appeased. "And hello, Spike. Now what's this all about?"
"Is there a friendship problem?" Twilight asked. The excitement in her voice was palpable.
"Well...yes, in a way?" Applejack replied. "But not like a Cutie Map problem."
"Oh," Twilight responded. "Well, whatever it is, I'd be happy to help solve it. What's the problem?"
"Rainbow Dash," Spike answered.
"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight gasped. "What happened? We just saw her at the spa a little while ago!" Twilight always looked concerned when a friend was in trouble, of course. Applejack and Spike expected nothing less of her. Still, they couldn't help but note the urgency behind her query. The filly clearly had it bad for Dash.
"We don't know exactly what happened," Spike explained. "But we have a few ideas."
"Vague ideas," Applejack added.
"Well what are they?" Twilight asked. "I need to know so I can help her!"
"It's complicated," Rarity chimed in. "I mean, if it's the problem I'm thinking of and not something new that's popped up. Is this the thing you've been concerned about, Applejack?"
"The same!" Applejack agreed. "And some other stuff we need to talk about too."
"Will somepony just tell me already?!" Twilight shouted. Spike let out a groan.
"Rainbow Dash is acting weird," Spike said. "And it's really out of character for her and Applejack was worried. The rest of us thought it was just because she likes you but Applejack still thought it was messed up. And now we're all starting to agree with her and Starlight thinks it's mind control and we're also surprised that you're only just noticing her now because she's acting more feminine." He looked to Applejack and Rarity's dumbfounded expressions. "Was that so hard?"
"Wait!" Twilight exclaimed. All eyes turned to her, and she stayed silent for a few moments before blushing softly. "Rainbow Dash likes me?"
"Please tell me that's not all you got out of that," Applejack said flatly.
"Of course not!" Twilight insisted. "I'm just...surprised! When did this start?"
The others just kind of stared at their friend for a bit. Finally, Rarity opted to step up.
"Twilight, darling," Rarity started. "The poor dear's been hung up on you for some time now. You can't tell me you haven't noticed."
"But I haven't noticed!" Twilight told her.
"Sugarcube, she's been flirting with you something fierce," Applejack said. "Only way she could have been more obvious was if she grabbed you and smooched the stuffing out of you right on the spot."
"Isn't my Applejack such a romantic?" Rarity said with a roll of her eyes. The two gave each other a grin, but their expressions changed when they saw the worry in Twilight's eyes.
"Have I really been that oblivious?" Twilight asked. Her ears were pinned down against her head, and she looked for all the world like the most miserable pony in Equestria.
"There there, darling..." Rarity said, patting her on the back. "It's okay. You know now."
"But that still doesn't answer the other stuff," Applejack said.
"Do you really think it's mind control?" Twilight asked, her previous misery now replaced with more of a concerned expression.
"Starlight sure does," Spike said. "And even though we can't figure out why somepony would want to mind control Rainbow Dash to be more feminine, it's pretty much the only answer we've got."
"I mean...it's possible, but it makes no sense," Twilight said, logical mind always at the ready. "I think she's just acting like that to get my attention...and that sounded really conceited now that I think about it."
"And that's another thing," Applejack said, taking a step forward. "It doesn't seem like you to only start noticing her when she starts acting like this. What's up with that?" Applejack gave a resolute nod, but that confidence faded when she saw the look Rarity gave her.
"I..." Twilight stammered, embarrassment blossoming on her face. "It's not exactly that...I've always thought she was rather attractive...but I mean, I think all of my friends are rather attractive in one way or another. I guess it was just her putting the extra effort forth for me that opened my eyes more to her." She looked away, hanging her head. "But I don't need her to do that for me...I'd like her just the way she usually is. I'd feel awful if she thought any different..."
Rarity's death glare at Applejack persisted as she moved in to comfort Twilight. The farmer's ears fell back, and she joined in on the hug.
"Sorry for sounding so accusatory, Twi," Applejack said. Twilight looked up and gave her a weak smile and nod of forgiveness.
"Either way, maybe we should look into this mind control thing," Spike said.
"I really don't think it's that," Twilight told him. "I cant figure out a logical reason for it. She must just be doing this because she thinks it's the only way I'd notice her. But I'll talk to her tomorrow, okay? We're meeting for lunch."
"Excellent," Rarity said, letting go and smiling earnestly. "And we wish you all the luck in the world. Right, you two?"
"Of course," Applejack and Spike replied. The group watched Twilight walk off towards her castle, and it was a good few seconds before Rarity broke the silence.
"Mind control, Applejack?" Rarity asked.
"I mean it!" Applejack insisted. "She's obviously-"
"I didn't say I was discounting the idea," Rarity interrupted. "Rainbow Dash is absolutely acting strange. The concept seems ridiculous...but perhaps you're on to something."
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Storylover-Vodhr · 3.2k words · 118 4 · 3.1k views
- insanity_w0lf · 8.1k words · 48 5 · 2.3k views
- Harmony Split · 2.2k words · 113 15 · 3.8k views
- HarmonyRapids · 2k words · 76 6 · 3k views
- Kodeake · 5.9k words · 90 1 · 2k views
- Storylover-Vodhr · 1k words · 75 0 · 2.2k views
- TimesX · 7.6k words · 96 13 · 3.6k views
- Sweetheart_a_Light · 5.1k words · 65 6 · 3.3k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.167 seconds
Total duration
998 users online
69,517 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.®
Yes. Rarity should have some damn sense in her head, what with her experience with the Inspiration Manifestation.
IT'S HERE! Good job on this chapter, it's hyping up the next one super hard, and I don't think I'm prepared. Loving your work!
Great chapter. It's good to see ponies not acting oblivious and stupid just for the sake of a plot. Bravo.
yay
IT'S ALIVE!!!!
Mental reconditioning via unknowingly cursed object. How to beat it? *checking files* Oh dear. Outside help required. Let's hope Rainbow's friends realize it before it's too late.
Oh my gosh Twilight was using the book too.
data.whicdn.com/images/304284848/large.jpg
Apples!
You think Pinkie and Fluttershy will start acting lady-like too?
9073460
I feel like that's what we call "perfect"
Oh god.
Great !
"with various product stacked nearly on its surface"
"with various products stacked neatly on its surface"?
Nice to see this back. :)
I've been wondering (especially seeing your newest story), is this story still in production? And do you have any plans when you might get back to it again if it is?
10124544
Heh, this one is actually one of the top two I intend to get back to. I have a terrible habit of not getting back to stories, and I really really need to fix that
10124549
Preaching to the one-horse choir, sister. I am well acquainted with the problem.
Looking forward to whenever you get around to it again, then.
Oooo what happens next? This is great
Well??? What's happening next? This is so good!
10588184
Hah, yes, I suppose. :D
Amusing interpretation of the text, at least. :)
I can’t decide whether I regret reading this. On the one hand, you stopped writing at a cliffhanger, so thanks, jerk. On the other, this partial story has been delightful. All the pieces are in place for a thrilling adventure, not to mention an emotionally satisfying conclusion. I’ll track this, but I’m not holding my breath.