The Sound of Silence

by dog0food

Chapter Two

Chapter Two – Candy Land

The feeling of bouncing. Up and down… Up and down… Rainbow Dash was hopping, her wings useless and broken, jutting out at awkward angles. She was frantic and worried. How could she have let something like this happen? The doctor had turned her away – she had been to the hospital one time too many and they were done. Her wings were broken for good, he had told her, and there was no point in even trying to fix them. Rainbow Dash had begged and pleaded, she had even shed a few tears, but they pushed her away. Alone and dejected, Rainbow Dash took to hopping. Pinkie Pie did it, after all, and she was as close to a flying pony as an earth pony could get…

Rainbow Dash walked through fields of licorice and drank from a stream of chocolate. She sighed and laid down underneath a tree covered in sugar. This wasn’t one of Rarity’s melodramatic moments. This was actually, very literally, and extremely seriously, the worst possible thing to happen to Rainbow Dash, ever.

Even as she was lying down, she still felt herself hopping… She just couldn’t stop… It was inside her, somehow. This need to jump. Just like her need to fly. Is that why her insides were squirming and she felt sick? Without her ability to fly, she was nothing. She might as well just… jump.

“Rainbow Dash!”

How would she spend her nights now, Rainbow Dash wondered woefully. When lingering thoughts that she couldn’t quite interpret, like they were being spoken to her in another language, crept up during her dreams and woke her up, what would she do? Usually, Rainbow Dash took flight. She could soar high into the sky, practice moves, enjoy those stolen moments alone, and ultimately not think. But with her four limbs completely grounded, there was nothing barricading those pesky, nagging feelings from rushing forward and engulfing her in a stampede of confusion and panic.

“Raaaaaiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnbbbbbooooooooowwwwwww…”

Rainbow cried out, shutting her eyes tightly. What was she hiding from? Rainbow Dash was the bravest pony there was, wasn’t she? She had everything she wanted, everything she needed, save maybe being a member of the Wonderbolts. But she wasn’t in the age group to join them yet, and besides, she still had to fine tune her moves before she tried out for them. When that time came, it had to be perfect. So what else was there? She didn’t have a guilty conscious, no regrets, and there certainly wasn’t any dark secret she was hiding. She liked who she was. She didn’t want anything to change. And yet… maybe sometimes being so awesome could be tiring. Maybe there were moments where she felt like she was being who she was supposed to be, not who she actually was. But that couldn’t be it… Rainbow Dash was totally cool, after all, why would she want to be anything different? Maybe…

“…Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssshhhhhhh!”

“Huh? Who’s there?” Somepony’s voice had broken Rainbow Dash’s train of thought, and she blinked and looked around in confusion. She had made sure she was alone. And as Rainbow Dash twisted and turned, it revealed what she had originally discerned – that she was by herself. So then, who called out to her?

“Rainbow Dash!” came the voice again, high-pitched and singsong.

“Pinkie?” Rainbow replied inquisitively, recognizing the voice. “Where are you?”

“Over here, silly!” And Rainbow Dash looked towards the noise and found the tree she was leaning against. Only, it wasn’t a tree. Or, it was a tree. But, it had Pinkie’s face popping out of it.

“Gah!” Rainbow Dash cried out and jumped back, landing in the stream of chocolate. Pinkie giggled and the tree waved its branches at the pegasus pony. Rainbow Dash gulped a mouthful of chocolate, coughed and sputtered, and then began to sink… She fell down and down into the chocolate river, until only darkness remained…

“It’s morning, it’s morning, it’s the day,

Some ponies are out and about eatin’ their hay!

But remember, remember that thing about today?

Wake up, wake up, we’ve a prank to pull!

Wake up, wake up, so my day isn’t dull!”

“What?” Rainbow Dash heard herself saying. And when she opened her eyes she realized she was on the ground in Pinkie’s room, practically flung off the bed due to Pinkie’s exuberant bouncing. Pinkie had her eyes closed and was singing so loudly that she didn’t even notice Rainbow Dash was no longer on the bed with her. “Pinkie!”

“Wake up… Oh, hi Rainbow Dash! What are you doing there on the ground?”

“Ha, ha…” Rainbow Dash stood up and shook herself off. She yawned and stretched out for good measure. Her dream had fled her mind, and so had any memory of its occurrence. “What was with the song and dance?”

“Remember, remember, our prank! It’s morning, so we gotta hurry or we might miss it!”

Rainbow scrunched her face up, still disoriented from lack of sleep. And then everything began to piece together. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, working on their prank. Pinkie Pie had been right, it was a doozy. Normally, Rainbow Dash would have spent all that time they were preparing flying around while the town was asleep. It was a nice refresher to hang out with a friend during her insomnia, and they had both been laughing most of the time. She didn’t even have time to think, another plus to her erratic time spent with Pinkie.

And finally, around four or five in the morning, both of them had crashed in a heap in Pinkie’s bed. And now… now…

“Six thirty in the morning?!” Rainbow Dash yelled, jumping up, her wings frantically beating and keeping her in the air. “Did you even sleep, Pinkie?!”

Pinkie replied with a sheepish grin and shrugged. “The prank will only be funny if we see everything through the other ponies eyes! So we gotta get up early and see the early birds get the worms!” Rainbow Dash groaned. But they had worked hard on this project, and it would only be entertaining to see initial reactions, before the prank was ruined. Besides, Rainbow Dash would have plenty of time to nap during the day. That’s what she normally did during her insomnia fits anyway, right?

Rainbow resigned to sigh. “Okay, Pinkie. Let’s go check this best prank ever out.”
Pinkie led the way outside, bouncing with so much energy that Rainbow Dash just stared at her friend in amazement. How could she possibly manage so much energy when she had gotten, at most, an hour of sleep? That wasn’t even a proper nap, in Rainbow’s opinion. ‘It must be the cupcakes,’ Rainbow thought, stroking her mane. ‘She just loads up on sugar and then she just goes.’ She imaged Pinkie Pie as a robot, constantly running around spreading good cheer. But then her batteries were low and Pinkie began to shake as she attempted her usual bouncing. In order to combat this situation, the Pinkie Pie robot opened her hatch and shoved an entire cake without even swallowing, before continuing her bouncing like nothing had happened. Rainbow made a face. She had actually seen Pinkie Pie do that at least once. It gave a strange realness to her story and she regarded Pinkie with a suspicious face.

Pinkie looked back at Rainbow Dash and gave her a look. “What? Are we making silly faces now? Ooh, that sounds like fun, Dashie! Let me try!” Her eyes got all wide, her pupils facing different directions, and she lolled her tongue out, whipping her face back and forth and yelling like a buffalo. Rainbow suppressed a grin and put her hoof in front of Pinkie’s face to stop her.

“Alright, Pinkie, don’t hurt yourself.” But Pinkie couldn’t contain a giant, goofy grin that even Rainbow’s hoof couldn’t suppress. Rainbow managed to laugh at this and removed her hoof. “Okay, you win. You’re the best at silly faces.”

“I wasn’t even making a silly face that time!” Pinkie said, pouting slightly. “I was smiling.”

Maybe Rainbow should have apologized for accidentally insulting Pinkie’s face, but instead she was silent, staring at the now serious Pinkie. And then she felt her mouth curve upwards, but she tried to stop it. But there it went again… Her entire face was wiggling and even with a hoof in her mouth she couldn’t seem to stop it from making her entire body quiver. And then in the next second, she was on the ground cracking up. Laughing harder than she had all last night while they worked on their prank.

At first Pinkie remained with her pouting expression. But then the laughter hit her, too, and she giggled just as hard and loudly as Dash was.

“It’s just you, Pinkie!” Rainbow managed between gaps in her laughter.

“Well, I am just me, silly!”

“No, it’s just you. You’re so random. And hilarious. It doesn’t matter what face you’re making.” Pinkie beamed.

It took them a lot longer than it was supposed to, but they finally made it outside. And the sight that hit them almost brought them back into their giggling, whimpering states.

The entire town was transformed. Completely covering the roads was cake batter, and they could see slip marks in it already where unsuspecting ponies had walked and not realizing they were stepping onto a sugary treat. Pinkie nudged Rainbow and pointed at a patch of flowers on the other side of the caked road. They had replaced the regular flowers with candy duplicates. Some of them had chocolate leaves and gumdrop bodies, others were simply licorice with frosting tops. Regardless, they were all delicious and there was something for everypony. What Pinkie was showing Rainbow was that a couple flowers were missing, half-eaten, and a third was being sniffed at curiously by a hungry passing pony. The pair of pranksters exchanged grins.

The trees had suddenly sprouted cupcakes, and Rainbow Dash pointed out the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they attempted to pile onto one another and pluck one off a tree. Using frosting as glue, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had went around pasting various candies to the houses, turning every residence into an edible treat one way or another. The bell that caused Rainbow Dash’s concussion was encased in syrup. They watched, on the ground in fits of giggles, as the priest attempted to ring the bell. He ended up stuck to it and swaying back and forth with the bells movements as a couple of nuns watched in amazement, suppressing smiles themselves.

“It’s all of Ponyville… as Candy Land!” Pinkie Pie had told Rainbow Dash last night when they had finished their handiwork. And as Rainbow Dash saw it in the morning light, with some of the trees covered in cupcakes and others had their leaves replaced by cotton candy, little candy canes used as small fences around the gardens, and the walls of buildings covered in graham crackers and frosting, she thought for a moment that maybe she had stepped out into Candy Land, and Ponyville was just some distance, faraway land from some other pony’s life.

“It’s Candy Land,” Rainbow Dash affirmed, giving Pinkie a wide grin. Pinkie smiled back, her blue eyes shining with a different kind of laughter.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie gave each other sly grins before whizzing past crowds of interested ponies and straight to one of the cupcake trees they had created. Pinkie jumped up and down, tongue out, mouth drooling, while Rainbow shook the tree and let the cupcakes they had baked together fall.

“I gotta say, Pinkie,” Rainbow started, digging into one of the cupcakes, “you know how to make baking fun.”

“It’s hard to make baking not fun!” Pinkie retorted, stuffing two cupcakes into her mouth at once and swallowing them whole. Her smile grew threefold.

Ponyville had loved the prank. It became a day of eating the streets and laughter. After all, there was no other day a pony could walk out and see Derpy happily licking a street covered in muffin mix during her morning mail route.

After an hour of gorging themselves on sweets, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie made their way to Twilight’s so Rainbow Dash could pick up her book. Rainbow felt a little sick and swore she wouldn’t eat another baked good that day, while Pinkie (who had eaten a considerably larger amount in a shorter span of time) seemed only slightly more Pinkie-like, if nothing else.

She had opened her mouth to talk on the way to Twilight’s and, to Rainbow’s dismay, didn’t stop even once the entire trip. “And then we baked the cupcakes and I’m sorry Rainbow Dash but you really need to work on your baking skills but it’s okay because Auntie Pinkie is here and she’ll teach you all the right moves to do it right and after we made the cupcakes remember how you flew up and stuck them all just right into the tree and it was so cool how you were able to fly up to all the high places and get everything just right it all looked even better than what I had envisioned and my imagination can be a very imaginative place so the fact that you did it even better makes me go,” she inhales deeply to imitate a gasp, then continued with this new arsenal of air, “and everyone loved it did you see Lyra and Bon Bon sharing that cake it was so cute and we made it for them and do you think all of Ponyville knows it was us maybe we’ll get an award for spreading happiness but oh I forgot you already have so many awards for your heroism I guess one for joy and laughter and sweets really wouldn’t make a big difference to you but I think it would be so much fun and we could go up and make a speech and –”

Rainbow Dash had stopped paying attention. She was floating slightly above Pinkie Pie, a tired and irritated expression on her face. It seemed like this is always how it was with Pinkie Pie. Either Rainbow Dash was on the ground laughing, or she was trying her hardest to ignore her best friend. Oh well, nopony was perfect and Rainbow could take the good with the bad. Besides, the rhythmic tones of Pinkie Pie’s voice acted like white noise to Rainbow’s ears. She could match Pinkie’s pace, unthinking, just listening to her voice as it hummed on and on.

Rainbow Dash liked that about her friend. She could even find the pluses in the minuses of Pinkie’s behavior. Rainbow didn’t have to think, didn’t have to talk, didn’t have to listen. She could just fly contentedly along and let Pinkie Pie run her mouth off until she ran out of steam. The funny thing about Pinkie was, she seemed to never run out of steam. Even that, Rainbow Dash didn’t mind. It was strange how Rainbow Dash had found a best friend in such an unlikely pony.

When Rainbow Dash was younger and still in flight school, she had been surrounded by adoring fans (along with a few neigh sayers). Even at that age, she showed remarkable talent and innate ability in every flying test that she took. So what if she skipped school in order to sleep in sometimes, or didn’t go to classes with the written tests? She proved she could fly, better than anypony, better than most of the teachers, and wasn’t that the point of flight school? When the principal of the school eventually told her to stop coming, she took it as early graduation. The ponies that had been jealous of her skills, Billy and Hoops included, considered it failing, but she knew that wasn’t true. Would a pegasus that got kicked out of flight school have as many leadership positions as she did now?

Regardless of the technical terminology, Rainbow Dash had acquired her first taste of fame while at school, something which followed her throughout her career. But even with so many foals running after her and asking her to show off her tricks, Rainbow Dash didn’t have many friends. Even Fluttershy, who was in Rainbow Dash’s class, didn’t become an actual friend until much later. Sure, Rainbow Dash stuck up for her, as she did with every other foal that got picked on in school. She was the class hero, keeping Billy, Hoops, and the others in check. They could call her Rainbow Crash all they wanted, she did crash a lot, after all. It came with the title of daredevil stunt pony. In the end, she always showed them up in every single performance, so it didn’t matter. She practiced and messed up so much so that when she did it for real, she could see the slack-jawed, amazed faces of all her admirers, as well as her enemies, despite themselves.

But friends? She could never have been friends with Fluttershy or any of the other ponies that followed her around like a groupie. It was the same thing now with Scootaloo and her fan club that chased after her. She loved the attention and she showed off for them… but friends? A friend implied a special connection, a certain intimacy that she could never have with a fervent fan. For the followers, she had to maintain a certain mystique in order to keep them begging for more.

For a true friend, Rainbow Dash had Gilda. The griffon was almost as good of a flier as Dash was, didn’t fawn over her, and, most important of all, wasn’t clingy. She provided Dash with a challenge and quenched her competitive spirit. Until recently when she learned that Gilda was just as much of a bully as the people who despised Dash at school, Gilda had been her best friend.

That was why Rainbow Dash, when she eventually befriended the five other ponies that made up their group today, had always assumed that Applejack would replace the recently emptied slot of number one. At first Rainbow Dash considered Fluttershy. They were already friendly from school and the yellow pegasus could also fly. But it quickly became apparent that, while they became much better friends than Rainbow Dash would ever have guessed from defending her honor back at school, Fluttershy just didn’t have the hardy personality and athletic prowess that Rainbow Dash needed in a best friend. Twilight was way too concerned with books and, although Rainbow Dash would never admit it out loud, the fact that she was so well-versed and articulate intimidated Rainbow Dash a little bit. Besides, she was no fun, anyway. Although Twilight had helped Rainbow Dash discover her own love of reading, this one shared interest wasn’t enough to make Rainbow Dash consider Twilight her best friend. Rarity was obviously out almost immediately. The prim and proper pony absolutely refused to get dirty and almost always was busy with a fashion project. While Rainbow enjoyed dressing up for special occasions, she hated modeling Rarity’s less than cool designs and really didn’t have anything to say about the apparently very intricate world of clothing. But, Rainbow had to admit, Rarity was good for gossip and they often went out for breakfast to discuss Equestria’s latest scandals while sharing a few laughs. Plus, Rarity would sometimes share her upcoming designs with Rainbow, saying that Rainbow’s bluntness helped Rarity get an honest opinion from an “everyday pony with an untrained eye”, as she so delicately put it.

Applejack, Rainbow had thought for sure, would become her best friend. Pinkie was that overly happy, confusing pony that was way too much like every single fan Rainbow Dash had ever had combined into one pink ball of concentrated energy. Applejack, on the other hand, was much more down to earth and wasn’t one to gape at Rainbow Dash’s overtly awesome, raw talent. In fact, Applejack could give Rainbow a run for her money as most athletic pony, even being just an earth pony. It was just like having Gilda again, only this time Rainbow had found a friend that wasn’t a complete jerk behind her back.

But that wasn’t how things turned out. Sure, Applejack became a really, really good friend. But surprisingly enough, Fluttershy ended up surpassing Applejack in the friend category, the pony out of all of them that Rainbow found she had the least in common with (their only tying factor, she had thought, was the fact that they both had wings). And, even more surprisingly, Pinkie became her best friend.

Pinkie was exactly what she had not been looking for in a best friend. She was basically just another fan, one of the pony’s in the audience who gaped and admired her skill… Except, Pinkie was different. She had something special about her, a quality or a charm, that made Rainbow Dash smile despite herself. And Pinkie had her own talent, an ability Rainbow would probably never understand, that made her the most interesting pony Rainbow had ever met. Despite the fact that she was an earth pony, Pinkie seemed capable of doing amazing feats that Rainbow had a slight suspicion were actually just physically impossible. And that had been the hook that intrigued her and initially kept Rainbow coming back. Somehow, this pony could outrun her, jump out of places Rainbow could only dream of fitting into, and she seemed to smile knowingly, seeing right through Rainbow’s exterior.

Pinkie made Rainbow Dash uncomfortable in her own skin, frustrated beyond belief, and unquestionably, undeniably, upbeat. Once Rainbow had seen past the fan club status of Pinkie and realized that the pink pony and her shared a lot of similar likes, pranking being the most prominent, they quickly became close friends. And then best friends. In the end, Pinkie was so random, and Rainbow liked that. Even now, in this moment, where she was listening to her friend’s voice, although not the words, as they washed soothingly over her.

Still, Rainbow wore a scowl and continued her charade of annoyance, because that was what their relationship was. Pinkie was all smiles and talkative, and Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and sighed, but ultimately gave her friend her way. Rainbow wasn’t one to fawn over anypony, except the Wonderbolts. She was the one to get fawned over. She wasn’t clingy or overly excitable in any situation, except for maybe something involving the Wonderbolts. Ponies were clingy and excited about her. So Rainbow kept her face into a decided frown and usually acted slightly exasperated around Pinkie, even when Rainbow realized her friend could do no wrong… And then Rainbow noticed that the beautiful background noise had deceased, which meant that Pinkie had stopped talking. She gave her friend a surprised glance and saw that Pinkie was staring back at her with a reverent smile playing across her face.

And suddenly Dash was tackled to the ground, pulled into a vice-like grip by Pinkie. She struggled for a moment, but then sighed and let Pinkie hold her. Besides, as much as she hated to admit it, her friend’s affection was actually quite nice. And since it was always Rainbow Dash that broke their hugs, they ended up staying that way, Rainbow Dash on the ground with Pinkie wrapped all around her, for a long time.

Finally, Rainbow rolled out from underneath Pinkie and shook herself off. “What was that for, anyway?”

Pinkie just smiled and hopped forward. “We’re at Twilight’s!” she said cheerily. Rainbow noticed the giant tree-turned-library and shook her head. She hadn’t even realized they were right in front of Twilight’s. She had been so busy blocking out whatever Pinkie had been saying, then couldn’t see past the rain of pink during the hug.

“Great! Let’s grab my book, then we can do whatever you were saying you wanted to do earlier.”

Pinkie had been saying, during her long rampage of talking, that there was something else she wanted them to do together, but Rainbow had been assaulted by her nonstop talking that either she hadn’t heard exactly what it was or she had just forgotten. All Rainbow could remember was that she had interrupted with, “I was in the middle of something before you came with that prank idea, you know. And I’d like to finish my book sometime in this century.” Pinkie had just smiled widely and said, “Great! You can read where we’ll be going.” And then it was decided that they’d stop at Twilight’s, grab Rainbow’s book, and continue on Pinkie’s epic adventure.

But when they entered Twilight’s house, she wasn’t alone. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all gathered around with Twilight looking frantic and serious in front of them. They all looked when Pinkie and Rainbow entered, grave expressions on all of their faces.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re alright,” Fluttershy said, coming forward to nuzzle them both.

“Alright?” Rainbow questioned. “Why wouldn’t we be alright?”

“We just ate an entire house of treats! Of course we’re okie-dokie-lokie!”

“Now, you two migh’ wanna join us over here,” Applejack said, and Rainbow Dash could tell from her friend’s face that whatever they were discussing before Rainbow and Pinkie had arrived, it was quite serious.

“Awful, just awful,” Rarity muttered. Pinkie suddenly looked scared and Rainbow Dash shared her worried expression. If Rarity wasn’t using her usual theatrics, but rather talking quietly and even… yes, she was definitely withdrawing into herself… There had to be something very wrong going on here.

Twilight stepped forward and led both of them into the group’s circle. “We’ve got a serious problem.”

Comments

[dog0food]

And now that I've edited everything, I can continue updating with new content. So here's an early release to make up for yesterday's sort of republish of edited old chapters (if that makes sense). I'm planning on updating once a week, so expect more words soon.

[Frozen Shepard]

A very nice story. My only complaint is that it is a bit smushed together. Try spacing out the paragraphs. It's easy to lose one's place when everything is bunched up like that.

[UnlocalEntity]

Ohno
Notaseriousproblem
Thisissrsbsns

[FreezingShock]

There's a lot of exposition here, perhaps a bit too much. Parts of this chapter seemed more like a manifesto on why Pinkie is Dash's best friend than an actual story. Still, it's not badly written at all and I'm a sucker for PinkieDash, so I'll definitely keep an eye on this. And it's good to see you updated the description, this is indeed a lot clearer.

[Inferno demon Dash]

1081989 NO Really? Could not tell by your profile pic Nah, I'm kidding, I love Pinkie Dash, one of my favorite pairings but I'm glad to read this and I like hearing of how Rainbow Dash liked Pinkie even more then Fluttershy, this is a very well written story but again with spacing the pargrpaghs, be sure to do such and you'll have an amazing story on your hooves, always I saw an error that things got out of hand.....hand.....HAND!!!!!!!!!!!