A Story of Love (Among Others)

by TheMareWhoSaysNi

It Happened One Night

That was downright horrible. Absolutely awful. I couldn't believe I was going to parade like this. I looked like an enormous cream puff with this bridesmaid dress. And why was I even a bridesmaid? I hadn't even met the bride yet! My sensation was that Fire Streak's wife to be, Fleur de Lis, was very fond of sappy romance novels. It was a shock after you saw her sexy swimming-wear pictures for mens magazines, but as I saw this dress, I couldn't help telling myself she had read too many stories by Joanna Lindsey!

I was SO regretting I accepted to be a bridesmaid after Fire Streak insisted. I looked very much ridiculous with this frilly aqua dress. I felt like I was getting prepared for a costume party!

Coloratura and Pinkie knocked on the door of my room before getting in. From the moment they appeared in front of me we all three burst out laughing. They both were wearing that same stupid bridesmaid dress. It was a very clever move, by the way, to have her groom's sex friend as a bridesmaid. What a brilliant interpretation of the saying "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". That was the evidence she was not as silly as some would thought.

"So," Coloratura said while admiring herself in the mirror. "It's going to be difficult to look more like an idiot! How will I even pick up if dressed like this?"

"It's only for the ceremony. Thankfully, we'll be able to change clothes for the party..."

Coloratura, true to form, was thinking of nothing else than the boys and men she would be able to seduce during the night. For a while she had tried to get her hands on Cheese Sandwich but that didn't work out much. I was even pretty surprised she didn't insist much knowing the person she was in competition with was no one else than Pinkie Pie. Who she was in competition with already regarding our friendship.

"Mah, I quite like that dress, actually," Pinkie cheerfully added.

"What a surprise..." was Coloratura sardonic answer.

"I don't care much about the dress. I can't wait for the party and the cakes. What's it going to be?"

"A wedding cake?" I asked, scratching my back. "Three parts, with a sponge cake and too much cream... I just want to go home!"

Not that I didn't like weddings. Well, I didn't like weddings, actually. A romantic atmosphere where everyone would be in love and want to cuddle each other while I would be bored to death in the middle. Definitely not my type of girls' night out!

"Oh, don't be such a party pooper," Coloratura told me. "Are you going to look like you're furious all the time again?"

"I don't look furious!"

"You already do look furious, in fact. We know you well, Dashie."

"Pinkie, please... I'm not furious! Just not ecstatic, that's all."

"Yeah, yeah, if you say so."

"Well, I mean, what else do you want me to look like, dressed like that?"

We burst out laughing. Maybe I was wrong, maybe with these two with me, this wedding would actually be much fun. Never say never, they say, uh?

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I wasn't having fun. This wedding was the epitome of bore. My suspicions about Fleur de Lis happened to be justified. Everything around me reminded of romance novels or romantic comedies, sappy and honeyed as could be. The ceremony had been pompous and long and my bridesmaid dress kept on scratching my back while I had to stay here, smiling as if I were happy to be where I was. After this, we had a dinner, very heavy, with best men speeches (guitarist and drummer from Lumiere) trying to make funny jokes. Flash news, they were better at music than they were at jokes. During this dinner, at our table, an old man shamelessly tried to hit on Coloratura and that was more or less the funniest thing that had happened.

Now was the time of the reception, like Fleur de Lis would say. In Pinkie's language, that would be time to party. Except there was no DJ playing club music but a classic orchestra. It wouldn't have bothered me much if they had played famous classic pieces but instead they were on traditional Equestrian songs. In other words, it was fun... for the eldest only, because no young persons danced except Fire Streak and his wife. It felt so awkward to think he was now a married man... I hoped it would prevent him to chase everyone with a miniskirt passing him by.

I didn't know where Coloratura was, she ran out on me earlier and I hadn't seen her ever since. Rarity was changing clothes in her room. Because she had years of ballet classes behind her, Fleur de Lis wanted her to perform something for her guests. But she didn't have dancing shoes nor outfit so they had to find her one and it took time.

Fluttershy and Big Mac were smooching somewhere, with other lovey-doveys in action. I did my best not to look at them and want to throw up... or worse, be jealous! Pinkie was with Cheese Sandwich. They weren't smooching or anything, only shamelessly flirting. Five minutes ago, he was trying to make her sit on his laps. I wondered where they were now...

I scanned the room but all I could see was Pinkie playing with a young children (easy, they more or less got the same mental age). Actually, Fire Streak had disappeared as well, no longer dancing with Fleur de Lis. Where did everybody go?

A girl with two shades of blue hair sat beside me. She looked a little like Lyra... Her haircut was a very complicated bun with braids and twists and curls and she wore a frilly lime dress, almost the carbon copy of my bridesmaid dress, but worse since the girl looked like some kind of decayed wedding cake.

"Gosh! Weddings totally are my thing! I like that so much, it feels so... romantic!" she said, leaning her elbows against my corner of table. "Don't you think so?"

"Don't f*cking kid me, weddings are crap!"

She stared at me with eyes wide opened, as if I had just said I had killed babies and ate them at breakfast. I couldn't help it, each time I saw this kind of ninnies, my anti-sap instinct took over me and I had a urge to destroy all of her illusions. I was ready to bring it up again, murdering her last hope in the eternity of true love (true love, my a**) when suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and got me off my chair.

Cheese Sandwich. What the hell was he doing? He pulled me through the room and we left the reception to stop somewhere in the corridors of the inn the party was at.

"Cheese... Have you gone mad or something? Why aren't you with Pinkie?"

"Don't ask questions. Just follow me."

Being a bit firm probably was the best method with me. A little less reluctantly, I started to follow his lead when suddenly, I had a glimpse at Coloratura, leaning against a wall. I tried to go to see her but Cheese Sandwich pulled me back. He hid us in a recess and pinned his hand on my mouth.

I won't lie, I thought then Cheese Sandwich had changed his mind and was trying to seduce me until I noticed there was someone with Coloratura - Fire Streak. All Cheese Sandwich wanted actually was to conceal our presence because something important and serious was seemingly happening. Curious, I tried to get glimpses of them. It was rather easy to hear their conversation.

"Is that really the reason why you've asked me to come here?" Fire Streak asked.

"It is..."

"Nonsense!"

Upon this word, Coloratura looked up with shining eyes and a frown. It was the first time I saw her that vulnerable and I wasn't used to it. Just like me, she was always strong and proud, never accepting anybody walk over her, especially not men.

"But you're married now. And I can't keep on doing such a thing. It's... It's wrong!"

I always thought the story of Coloratura and Fire Streak was only a matter of sex, the "no string attached" kind of relationship my friends were so fond of. But tonight, as I saw the tears on Coloratura's face, I knew it was much more than that.

"Yet you had no problem with that when I was engaged. What does it change?"

"It was a mistake from night one. I want us to stop. Right now."

A scene I would never think I would ever see unfolded in front of my eyes. And it was no movie, it was real life... Coloratura tried to leave but Fire Streak grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back against the wall. It was so unexpected I jolted from where I was. Cheese Sandwich looked down and mimicked a silent hush with his forefinger.

Back there, Coloratura was staring at Fire Streak with eyes filled with echoes of shock.

"I refuse to let you go!" he said, looking straight into her eyes.

"You had to think about it before you proposed to your girlfriend."

"Oh, please stop acting so prudish! I know very well I'm not the only one you're having sex with so your jealous stuff, it's seriously..."

"My jealous stuff? What's the name of the game you're playing now, uh?"

Coloratura pushed him too, in order to escape but once again, he pinned her against the wall, grabbing and clenching her arms.

"Listen, Rara... Maybe you won't believe me but I need you!"

Coloratura swallowed then looked straight into his eyes as well, apparently irritated.

"I don't believe you indeed!"

I saw another wave of tear washing away her face. It felt really inappropriate for Cheese Sandwich and I to be the witness of such thing. And I was so sad for Coloratura and her pain. If only I could have rushed to her and held her in my arms. If only I could be there for her the way she always was there for me, though in her own personal style.

Once more, she tried to get herself off of Fire Streak's grip but he brought her in his arms and forcefully kissed her. Right after that, Coloratura slapped his face so strong he had no other choice than to let her go. There was a pretty large red trace on his cheek. Then, Coloratura ran away but he caught her back and held her close. She fought his embrace again, though.

Because they were far from us now, Cheese Sandwich grabbed my wrist back and walked me through the corridors with him. With what happened between Coloratura and Fire Streak I completely forgot why we both were here in the first place. Though, in reality, I had never really known.

Once arrived at destination, he finally let me go and I discovered we were on a huge balcony overlooking on a very beautiful French-style garden. From where we stood, the sounds of the party were vague and even if the spot was romantic in a way, I wasn't thinking Cheese Sandwich was trying to seduce me. I could sense there was something else in his process.

"Come on," he said suddenly.

"Come on, what?" I asked, puzzled.

"From here no one would hear you, so I thought it would be the perfect spot for you to scream out loud everything that's been bothering you lately."

"Why would I do that? Have you gone mad or something?"

"Well, you're looking so furious..."

"I'm not furious!"

Why did everyone want me to be furious? It was really annoying! And I started to think about it. When completely honest with myself, I could see they all were right. I was absolutely outraged and I kept everything locked deep inside of me. That was the way I had learned to harden myself and it was very complicated to do otherwise.

"I thought if you could scream out loud, you would feel much better afterwards. And you'll be able to relax a little and party. Life's too short to spend it sulking."

A philosophy that I could understand, more than anyone. Surely he was right. Screaming out loud would do me much good.

"Come on, what you're afraid of? I won't laugh, I promise."

I got nearer of the guardrail, still a little wavering. The idea was tempting but my stupid pride kept on holding me back. Closing my eyes, I breathed out deeply and thought about all the negative things of my life. This wedding, Soarin's promotion tour and next shooting of another "The Greatest Show Off" movie meaning additional long months without hearing of him elsewhere than on TV, Filthy Rich who seemed to be particularly holding a grudge against me, so much that I sometimes felt like trash... And that strange unexpected miscarriage I just can't get out of my mind nor comprehend.

Cheese Sandwich was right, if I could scream all this out loud, it would take off at least a part of my buried frustration (not so-well buried since everybody seemingly read me like an open book). Maybe it wouldn't last but only for tonight, I could get rid of a weight crushing my back.

"I hate this f*cking wedding!!! I hate Filthy Rich with all my heart!! And I hate to be taken for a fool!!!"

I've screamed on top of my lungs, so loud my voice echoed back to me. When I opened up my eyes, I knew Cheese Sandwich had been right all along. Crazy how good it felt! I was feeling like I had threw all my worries at the meanders of this garden and that they got lost along the way.

I turned to look at him and saw him smiling at me.

"What did I say? Each time I let myself get worked up, I hide somewhere and I scream. And each time, it helps me!"

"Thanks for the tip. It's very useful."

"Well you know, it's no big deal... I have to tell you the truth. I really respect you. You're good people."

"Oh? Ah yeah, I know that already."

Of course, I was going to boast a little. Would that be me if I didn't?

"You really are one of my best friends. In a way, I can understand why Soarin's so in love with you. I mean... You're maybe a show off, a bit self-centered and sometimes unsensitive but you're always there for the ones you love and you never let anything defeat you, you're always fighting. I consider it to be a great quality."

I didn't know what I could say. Something told me a boasting sentence wasn't quite appropriate at that moment. So, I redirected the conversation on him.

"You're a very good friend too. And I have trust in you. That's why it would be great if you and Pinkie could date. You two are perfect for each other."

"Yeah, that's right!" he claimed with pride.

"So what the hell are we still doing here? Do you want some rockstar to steal her to you or what?"

Cheese Sandwich and I burst out laughing before we went back to the reception room. The beginning of the night had only been a warm-up now the real party was about to start!

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After Cheese Sandwich and I were back, we saw Rarity dancing and Fire Streak and Lumiere did a little gig. With Pinkie, we couldn't stop hopping around, singing and dancing, especially when they played our favorite song of the group, "A Story After Break of Dawn". It really enhanced the party and after that, instead of the orchestra we finally had modern music to unleash ourselves and the mood turned electric. I also really liked when, by the end of the party, they played slow jams and Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie danced together.

Coloratura hadn't come back at all and was nowhere to be found all night long. I supposed it was related to her conversation with Fire Streak and even thought she had left the place for good.

I was rather wobbly when I returned back to my bedroom. Not that I wasn't as plastered as on my birthday/House-warming party but we drank the rest of champagne with Pinkie, in order to not waste it.

Pinkie was sharing a room with Rarity and no, Cheese Sandwich and her weren't dating yet but I knew it was only a matter of time. It was so obvious that they liked each other and they were so much alike. All I hoped was that, in case Cheese would become famous, Filthy Rich would leave them alone. They both deserved to be happy.

As I said, I wasn't quite expecting to see Coloratura when I came back to the room we shared. Yet I found her dressed in a jersey, sitting on the balcony, with a bottle of champagne on her side. There was another one, empty, a little farther in the room. She obviously wasn't alright. Her eyes were red and her complexion looked off-color.

Slowly, I stepped closer to her and sat by her side. I wasn't supposed to know about her fight with Fire Streak so I tried, as best as I could, to act like I were ignorant.

"What's wrong, Rara? Are you sick?"

It felt so weird to see her this way. Usually, she was always smiling or smirking and really energetic.

"I'm such a f*cking idiot, damn!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Stop that, please, Dash! You know all about Fire Streak and I!"

Had she seen Cheese Sandwich and I when we left the spot we were hiding? My hands turned damp. She was looking in front of her, as if staring at some invisible speck of dust suspended in the air, that she was the only one to see.

"I've always promised myself I'll act with boys the way they act with us girls. You know, going from one to another, no strings attached... I was doing so great until then..."

She burst out crying. Deep inside, I've always known there was a part of Coloratura that was softer and sensitive. Human beings couldn't always be tough, and everybody had weaknesses, even myself. Especially myself. We two were the same side of a different coin. We didn't want others to exploit our hypersensitiveness so we hid it behind concrete walls and did our very best for no one to see behind them. Inevitably, there comes a moment where the concrete cracks and all the pain floods freely.

People don't cry because they are weak. They cry because they have been strong for too long.

I took her in my arms for a comforted hug but Coloratura rejected me and curled herself up. She looked like an abandoned child afraid of the dark. It hurt.

"Why have I been so stupid I have grown attached to the only one who it was a forelong conclusion with?"

"Rara... Are you in love with Fire Streak?"

She didn't answer and simply curled even more, crying, her head buried in her arms. I couldn't do or say anything. It was a bad idea to try to comfort her earlier. In these kind of circumstances, I knew that well, there was nothing anybody could do to help you feeling better for real. It would have been pointless from me. All I could do was wait for her to confess. It wasn't much but talking about what's hurting you when it hurts was a relief. It helped to put words on the feelings.

That was precisely why I rarely spoke about my feelings. It had to remain contained behind the walls.

"I should have never come to this wedding! I knew it would kill every last bit of me but... I wanted to see that with my own yes. Him. With her."

And I was annoyed because I didn't like weddings and with it, I had to endure it on my own, without Soarin to mock everyone and everything with me. I had been such a fool. Coloratura had to endure a ceremony uniting the man she loved to another woman.

I was feeling so guilty I had wallowed on myself like this when I had one of my closest friends suffering so much, right by my side.

"Do you think... they're carrying out their wedding night, right now?" she told me, rubbing her face off her makeup and letting additional furrows on her cheeks.

Then her hands went up her head and I saw Coloratura tearing puffs of hair off her head.

"It makes me so sick... F*ck it!!"

And Coloratura threw the empty bottle of champagne by her side and threw it against the wall. It was so unexpected I jolted. It was a shock, because suddenly I had a mirror of what I might have looked like on the night Soarin called me all the time and I was ignoring him, way too wrapped up in my own pain. It was really painful to see.

When smashing against the wall, a small shard of glass bounced back on Coloratura's face, right under her left eye. A tiny trickle of blood appeared. I flew off the handle.

"You're bleeding, Rara! Let's clean the wound right now!"

I leaped on my feet and went to take the first-aid kit I had spotted in our bathroom. When I came back, Coloratura was sitting on her bed with her head low. I sat by her side and started to clean the small wound. It wasn't much but it was the least I could do, taking care of her while she obviously wasn't able to, as her best friend.

While I was busy on her wound, Coloratura kept on talking to me. She needed to say everything that was weighing on her heart and it was understandable. There comes a moment in life where pain had to get off of us. Or else people would never be able to keep on going forward.

"Back in High School, when I started to see boys, I always had full control. No one ever dumped me or tried to hurt me. When I wanted to have someone, I had him and when I didn't want him anymore, I got rid of him. That's the way it was. Easy... Isn't it exactly what they do to us?"

"Well, I'm not sure, Rara. You know, conflations are dangerous."

I considered myself a feminist and I knew, as true as there were headstrong, tough, persistent, rude women that there also were men who were soft, kind and weren't so wrapped up in toxic masculinity they knew how to express their feelings. Of course, they weren't always the one you fancied or that you even met and I knew I was lucky I had. But as far as Coloratura logic was concerned, treating men the way she did was a way to protect herself. This way, if she met some jerks, it didn't matter to her, she wasn't attached. Except this time, she fell in her own trap. Life really was stranger than fiction, sometimes.

"I thought that Fire Streak was nothing but another pastime. But... Conversely to the others, he showed he care about me, he was always considerate. He wanted to talk. So, I thought... Before him, when I had a regular sex friend, we were doing our thing and at the end of the night we both went our separate way, casually."

I was done cleaning her wound but I couldn't go back to the bathroom to put the kit back in place. I didn't want to cut her off. I would never have thought Coloratura would one day confess things that intimate to me or was even able to open her heart to anyone the way she opened it with me that night.

"The first time I've slept with Fire Streak, I was expecting him to act like all the others especially since he was engaged. But he didn't... He always had compliments for me, saying I was pretty and he could fall in love with me, he was nice and affectuous and without even noticing, I... When he told me he was going to marry her, right after sex, I felt as if..."

"The world was crumbling under your feet?"

"Exactly!" Coloratura said, looking straight into my eyes for the first time.

Of course, our both situation weren't the same but better than anyone I knew how much one single declaration could erase everything you thought you knew about life and about yourself.

"That's how I understood I was in love with him. I wish I could say he was the only one to blame but I know perfectly well this is all my fault. If only I could have stopped those stupid feelings!"

I hardly swallowed the lump in the back of my throat. I knew exactly what Coloratura was feeling. I have thought the same thing on the day Soarin had to leave for New Zealand after Filthy Rich had told us we couldn't see each other the way we did before. I had learn an important lesson about that strange thing called love on that very day. Feelings can't be controled, you can't decide to use them as you please. They're the ones controling you. Like a beast to a prey, they're lurking in the bushes and wait for the right moment to go for your throat and not let go, until you're obliged to yield and bow down to them. They're your masters. And too bad for you if it hurts to death.

"Have I disappointed you?" Coloratura suddenly asked me, her eyes staring back at the horizon.

"Why would you disappoint me? I'm glad you've told this to me. It's a proof of trust. Although... There isn't much I can do."

"You listened to me. You haven't judged me nor scolded me for being a homewrecker and it's already a lot. Thank you."

"Don't thank me for this! Friends are there to help each other in bad moments. It's no big deal, you know. And you did the same for me, so it's only fair."

Coloratura finally started some kind of smile. I didn't know what her story with Fire Streak was going to be but I hoped, with all my heart, that it would get better really soon. Coloratura deserved to have a good guy in her life as well. Tonight, she showed her weakness to me but deep down, she was a strong person and I knew she would keep her head up. We all had to. What else could we do? Sinking in the depth of ocean? That's not the way we do things here!

Comments

[Midday Giggle]

Woah, Fire Streak really is an asshole! And how sad, I was really expecting for Soarin to show up when Cheese dragged Dashie away. But I bet she really need that, I do that too! I think we all do, screaming when fed up, only I press my face against the pillow as a sound barrier.