Chapter 5
The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Rainbow Dash was lying in bed wishing that she had been able to sleep. The previous night had not contained much actual sleeping. Instead Rainbow Dash spent most of the night tossing and turning as her mind repeatedly told her the many ways that her decisions could bring doom on her head.
Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash’s desire to try and at least lie in bed and pretend to sleep was ruined with the sound of somepony hitting her home’s thunder doorbell. She grumpily pulled herself out of the warm embrace of her comforter to go see who had disturbed her sleep. She was not surprised to see Twilight Sparkle sitting on her cloud porch, a checklist hovering in front of her muzzle. To Dash’s irritation, the princess didn’t even realise that Dash was waiting for her to notice her.
“Some of us are trying to sleep, Twi,” Rainbow Dash complained.
“Huh? Oh, there you are,” Twilight jolted and quickly turned to look at Rainbow Dash before returning her attention back to her checklist. “I left you to be the latest as I know you enjoy a good nap or seven, but it’s late morning you know.”
“Your point?” Rainbow Dash huffed, blowing her unruly rainbow fringe out of her eyes. “So, what’s up?”
“Right, give me a second.” Twilight quickly flipped through a few pages of her checklist before finally finding the entry, giving it a quick jab with her quill. “Applejack said yes to joining the herd as well, so we’re having a celebratory picnic for lunch today. Pinkie Pie was very eager to set it all up. She even refused to let the royal estate cover it.”
“So, lunch at SugarCube Corner?” Rainbow Dash asked, knowing that she had definitely missed a part of the conversation.
“Lunch at the field near Fluttershy’s, actually,” Twilight quickly corrected her. “Please try to be there promptly as I wanted to make sure that we have time to cover all of the paperwork.”
Rainbow Dash briefly considered asking about what Twilight meant by paperwork, but instead chose to let things be. Sometimes it was better to not know the mess before you made it. “Okay, midday at Fluttershy’s. I’ll be there.”
“Excellent!” Twilight beamed, before leaning over and giving Rainbow Dash a quick kiss on the cheek. Rainbow Dash fought the urge to wipe off the small amount of drool that she swore was now on her cheek. “I’ll see you there.”
And with that Twilight Sparkle flew off and Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to rub her cheek. Studying her forehoof she couldn’t see anything left on her cheek. Shrugging she headed back inside for a shower and to try and wake up.
As soon as Dash touched down, she knew that the picnic was going to be a painfully awkward experience. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were already there, and were already cuddling in each other's arms. Rainbow Dash was surprised that Fluttershy would be so brazen to kiss Pinkie Pie in public. At least they were mostly chaste. It wasn’t like Pinkie Pie was trying to taste Fluttershy’s tonsils at least.
“Hi Fluttershy, Pinks,” She barely got out a greeting before she was tackled to the ground by Pinkie Pie. Thankfully Pinkie Pie didn’t immediately start trying to kiss her.
“It’s good to see you join us,” Fluttershy quietly smiled, though she made no attempt to help Rainbow Dash escape the clingy arms of Pinkie Pie. “We were so worried that you didn’t want to join us.”
“Dashie was always going to join us,” Pinkie Pie chuckled, finally loosening her grip enough for Rainbow Dash to widdle free.
“It’s good to be here,” Rainbow Dash tried to respond as nonchalantly as possible, but even she had to admit that she didn’t pull it off. “Where are the others?”
“Rarity will be a tad late,” Fluttershy pointed out.
“She is painting her face again,” Pinkie amended, giving a little bounce as she gave Rainbow Dash a smirk.
“Twilight and Applejack are the ones bringing the food as someone entirely forgot to.” Fluttershy continued, giving a good natured eye roll at Pinkie Pie.
“You were too distracting,” Pinkie Pie mock complained, folding her forlegs for a second before jumping at Fluttershy and tackling her to the ground. Rainbow Dash didn’t fail to notice that Pinkie Pie was kissing Fluttershy as soon as the pegasus was on the ground, however she didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to know why Pinkie Pie chose Fluttershy for kisses instead of her.
Thankfully, Rainbow Dash’s bitter musings were interrupted by the arrival of their other three friends. Judging by the blue aura surrounding the floating Rarity, Twilight must have gotten sick of waiting for the fashionista to get ready.
“Sorry that we were late,” Twilight responded through gritted teeth, shooting Rarity a rather icy glare. “Somepony wanted to make sure that every single one of her mane hairs was perfect.”
“I wanted to make our first herd date perfect,” Rarity shot back, though she didn’t sound all that annoyed. Twilight lowered Rarity down before finally cancelling the levitation spell. “I think your telekinesis may have actually properly straightened my mane anyway.”
“Would you two knock it off!” Before Twilight and Rarity could continue their mock argument, Applejack shoved past them and put down the picnic basket that had been balancing on her back. “Anyway, here’s the spread from Sugar Cube Corner, delivered courtesy of not Pinkie Pie.”
“I totally could have run down there and gotten it,” Pinkie Pie complained, however her complaints were soon muffled by a nuzzle from Twilight.
“And yet here I am carrying it,” Applejack responded with a laugh.
Normally Rainbow Dash would describe the spread of food as excessive, but she knew all too well that Pinkie Pie was capable of consuming a frightening amount of food. So the spread of food was probably better described as almost adequate. Naturally this meant that Rainbow Dash had to dive for the food to grab a nice share of cupcakes and a full jug of cider before Pinkie Pie could vacuum it all away.
That was the plan at least, Rainbow Dash forgot that Twilight Sparkle was there with her million entry checklist. So as soon as she dived forwards she was captured in the telekinetic grasp of Twilight, though Rainbow Dash was relieved to see that Pinkie Pie was also stuck as well.
“Hold your ponies you two,” Applejack chuckled, stepping past the two floating ponies. Rainbow Dash was doubtful of the intelligence of standing between Pinkie Pie and food, it was almost as dangerous as standing between a muffin and Ditsy. “We planned out this Pinkie, there is no need to try and grab everything you can before the rest of us get something.”
“Dashie was gonna do it too,” Pinkie Pie pouted.
“Only because you were going to do it,” Rainbow Dash tried to defend herself, but gave up knowing that she wasn’t going to win this argument.
“Twilight is going to let you two free,” Applejack lectured them, “and then you are both going to act like proper ponies and only take a fair share. Does that sound fair?”
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash nodded. Twilight rolled her eyes and finally released her grip on them. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to hover back onto the ground. Pinkie Pie instantly face planted into the grass before jumping up with a smile on her face and probably a few less brain cells. “I wanna do that again!” Pinkie Pie begged.
The food was excellent, and barely half an hour had passed before they were all sprawled on the lawn with full bellies. The conversation slowly drifted between subjects and soon Rainbow Dash found herself lying on her back, staring up at the clouds, Fluttershy lying next to her. Rainbow Dash passively noticed that Fluttershy was lying so close that their folded wings were practically touching, but pushed it out of her mind.
Rainbow Dash felt at peace as she laid there. Listening to Applejack and Pinkie Pie arguing over recipes, Twilight and Rarity quietly chatting about a recent celebrity scandal, and Fluttershy’s soft breathing beside her. It was nice to just spend time with her friends, and she hadn’t had to do any of the awkward lip stuff yet.
“Rainbow?” Unfortunately Fluttershy took this quiet moment as her chance to roll closer, until her forehooves were practically on top of Rainbow’s own. Rainbow Dash did wish she could just keep lying there enjoying her almost nap, but wasn’t about to ignore her first best friend.
“What’s up Fluttershy?” She asked, trying to not sound sleepy.
“I was wondering if you wanted to try some things with me?” Fluttershy asked timidly, even more so than normal. “Only if you want to, of course.”
“What kind of things?” Rainbow Dash asked hesitantly, knowing that Fluttershy’s begging voice would make her do anything the shy pegasus wanted. Well, not anything, but almost anything. “You know I’m up for anything.”
“You know.” Fluttershy muttered, hiding her face behind her fringe.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t ask,” Rainbow Dash shot back with an eye roll, wincing as she saw Fluttershy recoil from the bluntness in her voice. She quickly lowered her voice in the hopes it would put Fluttershy at ease. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to put you off. It’s okay, you know I care for you.”
Fluttershy murmured something, forcing Rainbow Dash to lean in closer to try and hear what she was saying. However as soon as she got close, Fluttershy wrapped her fore hooves around Rainbow Dash, pulling her off balance, before Fluttershy’s lips mashed against her own. Rainbow Dash froze, feeling Fluttershy’s awkward attempts at a kiss.
Rainbow Dash had been friends with Fluttershy for years. Ever since they had met in flight school they had basically been inseparable. Over the years there had been a lot of jokes at Rainbow Dash’s expense about the nature of the connection between them. Jokes that she was now realising were very inaccurate. Rainbow Dash was not enjoying kissing her friend, it felt weirdly awkward.
Fluttershy’s lips were soft, but that was probably the only nice thing that really passed through Rainbow Dash’s mind as Fluttershy kissed her. Fluttershy’s breath, however, wasn’t so good to experience, and it was far from the only thing she didn’t like. Fluttershy’s hooves were wrapped around her, pulling her a lot closer than she liked. Her wings were squashed against her back beneath Fluttershy’s hug. Of course, she was more than strong enough to shove Fluttershy away if she didn’t like it, but that did little to make her comfortable with her wings getting so restricted.
The whole exchange had been painfully awkward for Rainbow Dash. She couldn’t stop herself constantly worrying that Fluttershy was expecting her to do something. She couldn’t work out if Fluttershy was expecting her to do something back. When they were kissing, did Fluttershy want her to poke out her tongue or something? She wasn’t so sheltered that she didn’t know what prench kissing was, but she wasn’t sure if that was what Fluttershy wanted. So she just sat there and waited for her closest friend to stop shoving their lips together.
Eventually Fluttershy pulled away, a soft smile on her face, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t help smiling a little at seeing Fluttershy happy. Sure she did not enjoy the weird kissing stuff, but she still liked to see her friends happy. If she had to do some kissy stuff to make them happy, then she could just mare up and do it for them.
“Oh, is it Dashie kissy time?” Pinkie Pie asked, not even waiting for a response before shoving her own lips against Rainbow Dash’s own. This time it was not nearly as tolerable for Dash. Pinkie Pie clearly had not wiped her lips off and Rainbow was now experiencing the feeling of a half eaten cupcake being smeared on her face.
“Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash didn’t hesitate before shoving Pinkie Pie off of her, wiping the cupcake residue from her mouth. “Seriously, ask next time.”
“You should also wipe your mouth,” Rarity chuckled, “just going in for a kiss with half eaten cake on your muzzle is rather unsanitary.”
“Sorry Dashie,” Pinkie Pie apologised before rubbing her face with Rarity’s tail, earning her a squeal and a flick in the face from the now cake encrusted tail. “Can we do it now?”
“I think you are being a bit much for Rainbow Dash, Pinkie.” Applejack told them with a shrug. Sitting down on the other side of Fluttershy and giving her a nuzzle, that was eagerly returned. Well, as eagerly as Fluttershy could manage while still hiding behind her fringe.
“Nothing is too much for me,” Rainbow Dash argued, but didn’t push it any further. Thankfully Pinkie Pie turned her attention to Fluttershy and the two were back to being on the edge of inappropriate. Applejack joined the pony pile, giving Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy the best hug that she could manage. Rainbow Dash quickly turned her attention away from them, doing her best to ignore any sounds she could hear as well. It was only a short visual search before she spotted Twilight Sparkle.
The princess was sitting next to Rarity, however she was so engrossed in the book in front of her that she had failed to notice anything that had happened. Rainbow Dash quickly slid up next to Twilight and looked over her shoulder at the book in her hooves, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Rarity. However it was the cover of the book that really grabbed Rainbow Dash’s attention.
“Are you seriously reading the trotter series?” Rainbow Dash pulled the book from Twilight’s hooves, ignoring the flaring magic as Twilight tried to catch it. “You know they ruined the series in the fourth book.”
“They did not, that was the best one,” Twilight countered, snatching the book back out of Rainbow’s hooves with a flash of magic. “Watching their romance blossom was the best part of the series, and the story had only evolved with it.”
“You mean that they took away the cool stuff and replaced it with namby kissy stuff,” Rainbow Dash complained, “The main character acts like a complete idiot whenever the romance comes up and it ruins the action scenes every time. Face it, Twi, the series is ruined.”
“It’s a coming of age story, it was inevitable that romance would play a part in it,” Twilight shot back, “That’s what a coming of age story is meant to have in it.”
“It’s about a teenage filly who fights off robots. It’s not a ‘coming of age story’, it’s an awesome story.”
“It’s literally about her growing up and learning about herself. The superpowers are meant to be metaphorical representations of her learning about herself.” Twilight lectured. “The third book was the transition point between when the story evolved from just being about robot and laser fights, into the real storyline.”
“Then explain why she starts to act uncool and get all stupid and googly eyes at a stallion,” Dash grabbed the book and quickly flicked through the pages before shoving the book into Twilight's face. “See, here she just suddenly starts smooching him for literally no reason. Because of that she is distracted so the bad mare was about to steal a bunch of stuff.”
It’s meant to be a metaphor.”
“They aren’t meta-whatevers. The story is just a load of rubbish,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Ever since she lost her powers the series has been super boring. It’s all about asking out stallions or getting crushes. In the fifth book she even crushes on the evil stallion, it’s stupid.”
“Hey, no spoilers!”
“Would you two stop arguing already!” Rarity interrupted, wedging herself in between them before leaning in and giving Twilight a kiss. The argument instantly dissolved, Twilight distracted and Rainbow Dash unwilling to interrupt the two.
“I think that we are out of cupcakes!” Pinkie Pie called out before shoving seven into her gullet. Rainbow Dash wasn’t surprised to see that Pinkie Pie wasn’t lying and she had just eaten the entire plate of remaining cupcakes. She was still kind of annoyed that she hadn’t gotten a chance to have a third, but she expected nothing else from Pinkie Pie. The fact that Pinkie Pie had resisted eating the last few cupcakes for literal minutes was honestly an impressive show of self control.
“Guess it’s the end of the picnic,” Rainbow Dash declared, hoping that she could head off soon and get away from the awkwardness of the group date. She pulled herself back onto her hooves, planning to fly off before Applejack guilt tripped her into help clean up. She did have a good excuse to leave, the weather team had actually asked for her help on a storm for the evening.
“Wait, I forgot!” Twilight suddenly pushed off Rarity and quickly began nosing her way through her saddlebags, in search of something.
“It can wait for next week,” Rarity nuzzled Twilight in an effort to calm down the panicking mare, but it was not very effective. “Let’s not end our first wonderful picnic as a herd with paperwork.”
“It’s not just paperwork,” Twilight shot a glare at Rarity and returned to her saddlebags, before finally pulling out a bundled collection of scrolls. She smoothly separated them into six tightly wrapped scrolls, her magic depositing one in the lap of each member of the herd.
“What’s this?” Rainbow Dash asked, unrolling the scroll and feeling her eyes cross as she lost herself in the endless legalese. “I am like ninety percent sure that this is just gibberish.”
“I think it’s something about marriage,” Applejack mused.
“It’s legal protection for the six of us,” Twilight told them, unrolling her own scroll and signing it in one smooth motion. “Celestia warned me that there would be a bit of complexity with the princess parts of my life. This should mostly dodge it, I hope.”
“I followed none of that,” Rainbow Dash admitted, Fluttershy nodded in agreement.
“It’s just marking us as connected in a legal sense,” Rarity sighed, her voice becoming somewhat wistful.
“This looks like it took a while to work out,” Fluttershy mused as she studied the complex document. “You must have been working on this day and night to get done so quickly."
“Not exactly,” Rarity admitted with a blush, “Twilight and I have been discussing this for a while, and this particular agreement took the better part of a month to work out.”
Rainbow Dash frowned as she looked through the document, however she knew that it didn’t really matter what it said in it. She trusted Twilight with her life and the princess wanted Rainbow Dash to sign it. Rolling her eyes, Rainbow Dash snatched a quill from Fluttershy and scrawled her name on the dotted line, before throwing the quill back.
“I trust you, Twi.” Rainbow Dash told her quietly as she pushed the scroll into Twilight’s hooves. “I’ve got to head off, but it’s been fun.”
“You don’t have to sign it now. We can go over it next week, is that okay?” Twilight quickly asked. “We were planning on having a sleepover in Canterlot and I can properly run you through what it all means. I need to start using the other castle more often anyway.”
“I trust you, I don’t need to read it,” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Anyway, I have a two week tour with the Wonderbolts, so I am going to be away next week. So I trust you to deal with it all, okay?”
“If you’re sure?” Twilight asked, hesitantly. "I would have preferred to at least walk you through it."
“With you five, I am always sure.” Rainbow Dash told her quietly, giving Twilight a quick nuzzle, before throwing her wings down and rocketing into the sky. Twilight frowned, but rolled up the scroll for safe keeping.
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where evreone ?
Yeah no don’t get your hopes up
Yeah she is going to regret signing that paper
Poor Dash. Having a cool book series be ruined as time goes on... I see what you're doing with that metaphor, too.
Also the date. It's interesting to see how long these ponies can go on not really noticing what's up with Dash.
11298620
For sure. I can't wait to find out what's on it...
11300054
Same
You see this is why you read the contact and fine print before signing it.
Also doesn’t feel like she is having a group mentality where she is being forced to sign it