Three Seasons

by shakealchemist

Bruised Heart

Dash was trotting through the hall between classes that following Monday. She already had enough to be annoyed based on that alone, add to that the fact that Rarity had been so clingy after her confession and Dash was more than ready to spend a relaxing night by herself. 'She's gotten as bad as Sunbeam had been.'

"Misty!" As if on queue Sunbeam flew by and into Misty Dawn, embracing her.

Dash caught Misty Dawn's eye and in turn, Misty blushed and covered it with a hoof. She then turned her attention to Sunbeam to grant him a kiss on the cheek. 'I am glad it worked out for them.' Dash smiled and carried on. Seeing that made her think maybe Rarity's overwhelming affection wasn't so bad, even if it wasn't for the reason she wanted.

"Hey Crash, where are you going in such a hurry?" At Dumbbell's sudden appearance, Dash jumped back in surprise.

For a moment Dash wondered if she had been that lost in thought before she realized he had rounded the corner just ahead.

"what's the matter? The sight of a pony with real talent got you awe-struck?" Dumbbell mocked her with a smirk.

Dash rolled her eyes and went to go around him just to have him step into her way.

"Not even going to say hi? How rude of you."

"What? You just waited in the hallway to harass me, pretty sad if you ask me. You should try getting a life." Dash insulted him with a cocky grin while kicking herself on the inside for opening her mouth. 'Damn it Dash, you're trying to avoid fights, remember?' She cursed herself.

"Ha! That's rich hearing that from a mare pretending to have one. Right Hoops?"

"Yeah." It startled Dash to hear Hoops beside her when she had no clue he was there. She could only turn her head toward him before he sucker-punched her in the gut.

Rainbow's legs betrayed her as they buckled. Her lungs emptied of air as she fought to regain control of her own body. 'Come on, don't fall down. Get up! I've trained for this! Hurry up!' Dash forced herself to stand back up, right when she did Dumbbell threw her up against the wall and he hit her in the gut with a powerful blow. She hadn't recovered fully from the last hit, so she crumpled to the ground immediately and started wheezing. Realizing it was a lost cause she changed her pained, straining efforts to minimizing the damage. Folding her wings in tightly, she rolled so that her back was against the corner of the wall and floor so that her wings were completely covered. Her forehooves covered her chest as she buried her head into them. Her hindlegs covered her stomach to bring any more strikes there to an end. Only her sides remained open and naturally, that's where the kicks started to land. Dash could only wait it out as she caught her breath. It wasn't long before they did stop.

"I don't know how many times I have to remind you where your place is, but I'll gladly keep doing it till you go down to the ground where you belong." Dumbbell said and spat on her mane to exclamation his point. "Oh, and I can't wait to watch you choke in the playoffs again." He added before trotting away with Hoops.

Dash let her hooves drop down and just laid there a moment, watching fellow students ignoring her as they passed, one who had been watching now carried on looking bored. 'How can they ignore a pony in need of help? . . .Because they don't want to end up like me.' Dash answered her own question a little hopefully since the only other option she could think of was that they didn't care. Dash stood up and grimaced as a sharp pain shot through her ribs. 'That's definitely gonna bruise.' Dash limped through her first few steps as she adjusted to the continuing pain. A down feeling set upon her, a familiar one that's haunting she had long grown used to. 'Maybe I should pay Rarity a visit tonight, no doubt it'll make me feel better.' Dash thought thinking about what Rarity had told her to do if she felt depressed.

***

A soft tapping woke Rarity up from her sleep. She tiredly rubbed her eyes and glanced at her clock to see she'd only been asleep for about half an hour at best. 'What even was that noise?' She wondered, no longer hearing it. The tapping returned louder this time and Rarity was able to pinpoint its source as coming from outside her window. 'It couldn't be . . . no, it must be a bird or something.' Rarity lit her bedside candle, deciding it was best to investigate this mystery. The noise had stopped once again as she got out of bed. Undeterred, she carried on to the window anyway. Opening the curtains, she saw her original suspicion had been correct. Rarity quickly pushed the window open. "Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here so late? And on a school night no less?" Rarity asked curiously to the blue pegasus hovering right outside.

"Can I come in Rares? It's been a . . . rough day for me." Dash spoke softly.

Now typically she would've scolded Dash for ignoring her question and asking her own, but Rarity could tell Dash did this not out of rudeness but because of something important. She could sense the pain emitting from her marefriend. So she stepped to the side. "Yes, of course . . . what's troubling you?" She added as Dash flew in and landed.

"I-. . . Can . . . can we just cuddle in bed for a minute? School seemed to last so long and I'm tired." Dash said awkwardly, avoiding eye contact as well.

"Uh . . . sure, anything you need darling." Rarity could tell Dash needed at least a minute before she talked about it, and now she knew it was school related. Rarity was surprised that as soon as she had laid down Rainbow immediately snuggled up against her. 'What could've driven her to come over?' She wondered, putting a comforting hoof around Dash's shoulders, and using her magic she pulled the covers neatly over the two of them. It wasn't long before Rarity heard Dash make an odd sound. 'she fell asleep already? Wait, she doesn't snore when we are cuddling.' Rarity thought and also felt Dash shaking. Now she realized Dash was sobbing. "Oh! Rainbow . . ." Rarity sat up a little and started stroking Rainbow's mane caringly. "Shhh. . . it's okay. Just let it all out." Rarity said in a hushed loving voice after a moment Dash's only response was more crying. 'Poor Rainbow, whatever happened must've been horrible.' Rarity feared what it could've been as she had seen Dash severely beaten before and she had seemed unaffected by it. Even in the low light Dash appeared unharmed. 'Maybe it was all verbal . . . whatever it was if I get my hooves on whoever did this to my Dashie I'll make them pay.' Rarity thought bitterly and kissed Dash's forehead in her continuingly ineffective efforts to soothe her. The bedroom door opening suddenly stole Rarity's attention.

"Dearie, are you doing okay? I- oh. . ." Cookie Crumble paused as she caught sight of Rainbow Dash crying. She shared a glance with her daughter. "I'll be right back." She said backing out of the doorway. Sure enough, it was only a minute before her return, and she brought with her a tray of cookies with two glasses of warm milk. She set the tray down at the end of the bed. "Is there anything else I can get her?" Cookie asked Rarity who carried on stroking Rainbow's mane as she cried into her neck.

"I think she needs a little time." Rarity answered with a little nuzzle to Rainbow.

"All right. I'll be in my room if you need me." Cookie left once more.

Shortly after her departure Dash sniffled a few times and raised her head. She wiped her eyes and Rarity took the chance to offer her a tissue, which she accepted. "Thank you." Dash muttered then blew her nose.

"Here. . ." Rarity used her magic to pull the tray of sweets up to them. "Help yourself." She gave Dash a little space yet stayed somewhat close to her.

Dash meekly took a cookie and dipped it into the milk before taking a bite. It seemingly perked her up a bit as she ate the rest of it rather quickly and then reached for another.

"So what was that all about?" Rarity asked as Dash dunked her second cookie.

Dash ever so slowly raised the cookie to her lips and paused just before she took a bite as she thought of a response. "Sorry, I- . . . it just . . . everything kind of built up and I've been holding it in for a while now. I thought seeing you would ease that pressure but I ended up opening up the floodgates. Sorry about that." Dash spoke softly and nibbled at her cookie.

"No need to apologize darling. It's a good thing to have a little cry every now and then. You can't just bottle up your emotions. I'm right here for yo-" Rarity reached a hoof out and placed it on Dash's side just to have her violently jerk away from her touch. "Dashie . . ." Rarity whined, hurt that her beloved had had such a surprisingly negative response to her affection.

"No, no, no. I didn't mean it like that! It's only that . . . my sides are sore . . . from . . . from getting beat up." Dash murmured at the end.

"Again? But what about all that training?" Rarity said still off guard.

"It was just one afternoon, not that any amount of training would've changed anything when Dumbbell and Hoops don't fight fair." Dash sighed deciding she had to admit some fault in the matter. "I had it coming this time as it was. Told myself to fly away but I had to smart-mouth him."

"No!" Rarity's sharp objection startled Dash. "It doesn't matter what you said to him, it doesn't justify him hitting you. I don't ever want to hear you blame yourself for being bullied again. You don't deserve to be treated like that, by them or by yourself."

"I- . . ." Dash almost stammered as she momentarily became lost for words. She didn't expect Rarity to respond in such a way. So she said the only words on her mind. "Thank you." She cuddled up to Rarity.

"I love you Dashie." Rarity said and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you too, Rares." Dash reached a hoof over and grabbed another cookie. "I also love these cookies." She added with a soft chuckle.

***

When Rarity woke up the following morning to find herself snuggling her pillow instead of Rainbow in fact, there was no sign of Rainbow Dash in her room whatsoever. Though while looking around her room she spotted the tray of now crumbs and empty glasses sitting on her dresser with a note left on it. Getting out of bed and trotting over, Rarity plucked it off and read it.

~Had to go to school, didn't want to bother you any more than I already had. Sorry about that. See you after next practice, Love R.D.~

Rarity set the note back down and did her mane before heading downstairs to have a word with her parents. 'I'll see what they say about the possibilities of getting you help, Dashie.' She told herself determinedly.

***

Rainbow was going through a few post-workout stretches after practice when Derpy approached her.

"Excuse me, Rainbow Dash, could I ask you something?"

Dash did a mild eye roll as she thought, 'you just did', but knew Derpy got enough smart mouthing from everypony else, not that it seemed to bother her any. "Sure Derpy, fire away."

"I was wondering . . . I heard how you hooked up Sunbeam and MistyDawn and I was wondering if you could . . ." Derpy's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as her eyes went extra derp.

"Hook you up with somepony?! Derpy that was a one-time thing. I'm not trying to-"

"Please Rainbow! Do this one favor for me. I want to tell him so badly, but I keep getting too nervous. All I want you to do is tell him I like him." Derpy pleaded desperately.

Dash sighed. "Fine. Who is it?" She scanned the field ready to spot whomever she named, she figured it was somepony on the team and she wanted to get to them before they left.

"It's . . . Hondo Flanks."

At those words, Rainbow deadpanned back to Derpy. "Coach?"

Derpy nodded.

"You do realize he's married and has two daughters, right?" Dash asked, wondering if Derpy had lost her mind.

"I know, but he's so nice to me and he has so many interesting stories. Oh, and he's handsome." Derpy said staring over at Hondo in a dreamlike state.

"Well that's obviously not gonna work, so . . . let's find you somepony else." Dash said, thinking quickly as she saw that Hondo was talking to Misty Dawn, which meant they were waiting on her for sparring. "Huh, let me think . . ." Dash, antsy, halfheartedly tried to buy time as she realized she was drawing a blank. "Twister!"

". . . I don't think he likes me very much." Derpy responded confused.

"Nonsense. He's right over there, go talk to him."

"O-okay." Rainbow heard Derpy stutter as she hurried away toward Hondo and Misty Dawn.

***

"Dashie, are you alright?!" Rarity asked hurrying over as Dash stepped out of the locker room.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." She replied reassuringly, albeit with a nasally voice as both of her nostrils were plugged up with tissues and taped over. Hondo had decided to teach Dash some new moves and much like last time, Dash learned quickly. And in her cockiness ended up catching a buck straight to the muzzle. "You should've heard Misty Dawn apologizing to me, she only stopped when I congratulated her on getting that hit on my face in that she wanted. That was worth a good laugh . . . what's up with that?" Dash asked pointing to the plushie on Rarity's back. A welcome change of subject seeing that Rarity failed to see any humor in the accident.

Rarity used her magic to pull the plushie off and hold it between them. "Just a little something I made for you. Do you like her?" Rarity asked with a gleeful smile.

Dash took the Rarity lookalike plush with her wing and looked it over.

"I realized you had nothing to remind you of me at home, well besides a couple of dresses, but I know how you are about that . . . but I know how you are about that . . . and well this is something you could snuggle or sleep with if you want." Rarity added trying to provoke the thankful response she was expecting.

Dash had been smiling at first but then suddenly frowned. "Rarity, are you really doing this right now?"

Rarity stepped back both surprised and offended. "Excuse me? Rainbow Dash, I put a lot of time and effort into that . . . what difference does it make for what time I give it to you?!" She huffed.

"It's more like 'where', Rarity. If I get seen with this here I'll never hear the end of it. My bullying will only get worse." Dash spoke in a hushed voice.

"All right then, give her back to me." Rarity stated like it was a matter of fact.

"No!" Dash pulled the plush in close to herself. "I mean I already have it and it's late enough that I don't think anypony is still around." Dash explained flustered.

"And?"

"Thank you." Dash said quickly and gave Rarity a peak on the cheek. "I'm not sleeping with it though." Dash added wanting to make that clear, even if Rarity didn't believe her for a second.

"Mhmm. Well, how about me? Will you be sleeping with me tonight?" Rarity wondered.

Dash smirked. "That depends on how you mean that . . . ow." That got her a sharp elbow to her leg.

"Sleeping only." Rarity made clear.

"I was joking. In reality, I can't. It's a school night and . . . last time I was dead tired at school . . . I may have napped through one or two classes." Dash admitted.

"Speaking of-"

"No. We are not talking about that night. It never happened." Dash cut off sternly.

"Rainbow-"

"No! Don't 'Rainbow' me. That night didn't happen, end of story." Dash stomped a hoof to exclamation her point.

". . . Fine, but do me a favor Rainbow, and talk to somepony about it. Like your parents." Rarity pleaded softly and once again was surprised by Dash's reaction.

"My parents?! Ha! They are the last ponies I'd tell!" Dash bit her tongue after that outburst, realizing her mistake.

"What? Why?" Came the obvious question from Rarity.

"Me and my parents don't really . . ." Dash paused to think of a way to put it and found herself annoyed with her own mouth breathing. 'It'll be hard enough to explain this injury to them.' ". . .get along. We don't see eye to eye on a lot and- . . . well I prefer to spend as little time around them as possible." She finished, not wanting to ramble on about it.

"Rainbow . . ." Rarity bit her lip, not wanting to believe it. "Are your parents abusive?"

"What? No . . . well . . . not in a traditional sense, maybe. If you count it." Rainbow rubbed her chin thinking about it only to flinch her hoof away from her sore muzzle.

"Rainbow! I'm serious, are they?" Rarity desperately asked her emotions a mess.

Rainbow sighed. "Fine, no. Just super annoying and nosey. I barely get a second alone at home, it's why I'm away from home so much."

"Yeah, I could see that. My parents can be that way too. That's why I spend so much time in my room." Rarity nodded relating.

"Oh no. I know your parents. Trust me, if you ever met mine, ha, mine are a million times worse." Dash laughed at Rarity's comparison.

"Hmm, good point. I'd like to meet your parents." Rarity stated, realizing she'd never had the pleasure.

"Pft, uh what?" Dash fumbled her words, modified by how terrible that idea sounded for herself.

"You've met my parents, my goodness, you work closely with my dad. So I'd like to meet yours. Get to know them and see what they think of me. Wouldn't you want to know that as well?"

Dash rolled her eyes at that. "Trust me, they'll love you."

"Well, then there's no reason for you to worry, right?" Rarity added an affectionate nuzzle to help win her over.

Dash sighed knowing that she still had her reasons for worry as well as the fact that Rarity wouldn't take no for an answer. "Fine. I'll talk to them about setting up a date."

Rarity gasped. "Ideaaa!" Rarity said with a sing-song voice. "Hearts and Hooves day! Your parents can come over for a double- or triple date of sorts. So our parents can meet as well. It works out so well since I can't very well visit Cloudsdale, and it could be your gift to me. Hearts and Hooves day may be a while away but that will leave me plenty of time to make new dresses for the two of us. I have been working on some things I could use for them."

With that, any backdoor way out of the meeting was dead before Dash could think of one. She knew as soon as she told her parents the plan they'd agree wholeheartedly. She couldn't really be upset though with how happy Rarity was about it. So she smiled a bit as well. "Sounds good, except I'm getting you a real gift for Hearts and Hooves day."

Author's Note:

Not much to say this time around. Hope you all enjoy! Much love!