Nightmares

by unoservix

Chapter 13: Rift

Nightmares
———

Chapter 13: Rift

———

It was another week before Trixie was finally able to start walking around. Twilight Sparkle was thrilled—not in the least because it meant Trixie could come get her own blasted breakfast now—but more importantly, because it meant that she could be more active and social than was really possible holed up in a bed. And hopefully being able to move around would make her less grouchy.

Fluttershy left with evident delight that her charge had for the most part completely healed, and Twilight watched her go with a smile. It was just as well she'd had Fluttershy's help, because she knew she had no bedside manner to speak of, and the thought of trying to get Trixie to cooperate for calisthenics without the use of Fluttershy's terrifying otherworldly Stare was a daunting one at any rate.

Even then, Trixie had refused to leave the library, and she made a point of hiding somewhere else when visitors showed up. Instead, the day saw Twilight once again finding the blue unicorn at the window, staring thoughtfully towards the horizon, her expression unreadable.

"Is something wrong, Trixie?" she asked.

Trixie glanced back diffidently. "Nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing's wrong."

"Well nothing is wrong." She turned around resolutely with an annoyed look on her face. "And that's that."

Twilight frowned but decided not to push her luck. "Okay, well, anyway, I was going to bring over a friend of mine to see if maybe we can't find out what's wrong with your magic. She's a zebra who lives out in Everfree."

Trixie blinked. "A zebra who lives out in Everfree?" Twilight nodded, and Trixie could only shake her head. "This town gets weirder and weirder by the day."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," Twilight chuckled. "Anyways, she's a master of potions and fixing ailments, so if she can't figure it out, I don't know who can."

"How encouraging."

Twilight stepped closer and nuzzled the other unicorn. "If Zecora can't figure it out, then we'll go to the princesses. But I will get your magic back, Trixie. I promise."

Trixie was silent for a moment. "I know," she said at last.

Leaving a resigned Spike in charge of the library, Twilight set out under the morning sun for the Everfree Forest. The last time she'd headed for Zecora's hut had been the start of this whole drama—but then, she'd also eventually scored a marefriend out of the whole deal, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

For her, at least.

———

Another cloud split apart as Rainbow Dash plunged straight through it, then pulled up hard and lanced up into the next one. Breaking up clouds was still a good stress-busting pastime, but nothing quite beat complaining—or having someone to complain to. Unfortunately, today she didn't have Fluttershy around, and Applejack was actually busy and had kicked her off the farm and had made herself unavailable to be picked on—so that left Whiplash. And Rainbow Dash wasn't about to share her deepest darkest secrets with Whiplash. So breaking up clouds would just have to do.

Speaking of which, the demented pegasus rocketed down through another cloud up ahead and then veered left and dove into an even bigger formation. Rainbow landed gently and watched the other pegasus punch holes in the cloud with her own body—and then she dove into the center of the formation and started up a whirling series of tight circles that flung the entire thing apart.

And then Whiplash came to a stop in front of Rainbow's cloud with a triumphant smile.

"Yeah, that was pretty nuts," Rainbow said with an approving smirk. "Surprised you haven't scrambled your brains doing that."

"Oh, it'll take more than that to scramble my brains!" laughed Whiplash as she knocked her hoof against her head and produced a suspiciously hollow sound.

"Right...well, anyway, thanks for covering Thunder Lane's shift." Rainbow glared down towards the ground. "'Flu' my tail, he's probably off flirting with Flitter again or something."

"Wow, you sound super-jealous!" Whiplash giggled. Rainbow looked back up sharply and tried not to think about how her face had just turned red.

"Please! Like I need a mate. Slow me down, that's what they'd do." She took to the air and swatted the cloud beneath her with her tail for emphasis. "No way, you want a piece of the Dash, you gotta keep up with her. And no one's gonna do that."

"If you say so," Whiplash sang, and absently did a loop in midair.

"I do say so," Rainbow said with a pout, "and you know what else I say? I say we're done talking about this."

"You're the boss!"

"Darn straight I'm the boss." She crossed her arms and immediately felt her train of thought go off the rails. "So, um...yeah." She glanced back over Ponyville towards her house, which was slowly drifting southwest. That was what made cloud houses kind of a pain to deal with. They had a nasty tendency to drift, and if you weren't careful you might wake up the next morning in the middle of the desert or whatever. "So, uh, I don't think I've seen you around Ponyville much, actually," she went on. "Where do you live anyway?"

Whiplash looked around with sudden, strange nervousness. "Oh, y'know, um, around," she stammered.

"Around," Rainbow said skeptically. "Uh, Whiplash, seriously, if you've got a problem you can tell me about it. I'm not gonna kick you off the weather team or anything. Is everything okay?"

"Yes! Everything's fine! All good! Okay!"

"You sound like a filly caught with her hoof in the cookie jar."

"No ma'am, no cookies for me!"

Rainbow stared back, eyebrow arched dubiously. "If you say so." She shrugged. "Your shift is over, so you're free to go—"

"Okey dokey! Bye Rainbow Dash!" Whiplash cried, and stayed still long enough for a sharp salute before she rocketed off into the sky. Rainbow watched her go with a frown.

———

It remained a mystery of the universe where Pinkie Pie got all that energy. Rarity had only stopped at Sugarcube Corner for a slice of cake—a richly deserved reward for completing yet another mammoth order in record time—but instead she stood by the counter and watched as Pinkie filled orders of her own, greeted patrons, and darted around the room like a balloon with the air let out. She disappeared behind the counter in a pink blur—and then rematerialized a moment later with a plate in tow.

"Here we go! One Manehattan-style strawberry cheesecake, made to order!"

"Thank you, darling," Rarity sighed, and made her way to an empty table. Pinkie plopped down in the opposite seat, still grinning.

"So what's up? Didja finish that big order?"

"Indeed!" She took an appreciative bite and nearly melted in delight at the taste. Irony of ironies, the best Manehattan-style cheesecake she'd ever had was in a little town miles away from Manehattan. "Things have finally slowed down here enough to where I can get some work done." She paused. "Which reminds me...I've been busy with work, so you haven't seen Twilight lately, have you? I wonder how she and Trixie are doing."

Pinkie shook her head. "The last time I saw her was when we were at her place and you won five bits from all of us!"

"Oh yes, that," Rarity thought back with a grin.

"Anyways it's still all weird," Pinkie said. "'cuz all Rainbow Dash ever does is brood and break up clouds and pick on Applejack, and then Applejack gets mad and throws overripe apples at her, and then Fluttershy is busy with her animals and with helping Twilight take care of Trixie, and you had the dresses to make, and," she sighed, "it's all still weird."

Rarity frowned and looked down at her cake, suddenly not feeling quite so hungry anymore. "So I suppose Rainbow Dash still isn't very happy about this?"

"I guess not," Pinkie mumbled.

"Well, I will talk to her, then," Rarity said with a resolute nod. "Don't you worry, darling. Eventually everything will go back to normal."

"You think so?" Pinkie asked.

"I know so. Twilight is just caught up in the novelty of being in love. Eventually she'll want to spend time with us again." She shrugged. "And besides, maybe she'll make Trixie more tolerable too."

Pinkie seemed to cheer up. "Hey, that's right," she said, "and when that happens then we'll have to have—"

"A party?"

"A PARTY!"

"Capital idea, darling," Rarity said, punctuating with a stab of her fork—and as Pinkie bounced away victoriously, she let a frown cross her face. "I hope..."

———

"A curious ailment resides in your soul," Zecora said, as candles burned, fumes swirled in the air, and Trixie and Twilight both began to get lightheaded in the upper floor of Twilgiht's library. "To heal it, this pony must once more be whole."

Trixie glared over at Twilight. "Meaning...?"

Twilight coughed. "Does that mean the Nightmare really is interfering with her magic, Zecora?"

The zebra nodded and then tilted Trixie's chin up and stared thoughtfully into her eyes; Trixie squirmed under her gaze. "Two minds in one body cannot long exist. You must purge that on which the Nightmare subsists."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, as Twilight has said a thousand times—"

"Speaking of which, time is not on your side," Zecora interrupted pointedly, "for suppression spells won't always keep it inside."

Twilight's ears went flat. "I was afraid they'd start wearing off. Is there anything you can do?"

"Potions and herbs are the tools of my art," answered Zecora, "but Trixie's dilemma's an affair of the heart. But the Nightmare's control is as clear as the sun," she looked back at Trixie, "so to regain your magic, it must be undone."

"Well that certainly was helpful," grumbled Trixie—and a moment later Zecora grabbed her by the chin again.

"A little more gratitude you'd do well to acquire," the zebra growled, "lest your attitude make your situation more dire."

"Trixie, don't fight with Zecora, please," Twilight groaned. "She's just trying to help."

Trixie wrenched herself from Zecora's grasp. "Fine. Whatever. What now?"

"Purge the Nightmare, or all will be lost," the zebra said with an air of finality, "and from you it will claim a terrible cost."

Trixie's cooperation apparently reached its maximum capacity as she stomped off to pout, and Twilight instead led Zecora to the door. "Thank you for coming over, Zecora," she said quietly. "I know Trixie was cranky, but, well, she can't do magic and it means a lot to her, and, you know..."

"I am happy as always to help friends in need," Zecora replied with an enigmatic smile, "and I'm hopeful, as well, that your love will succeed."

Twilight blushed. "O-Oh! Thank you—"

"But a word of advice between friends, I should add," the zebra added with a look of concern. "Chasing love at the expense of all else is mad."

Zecora bowed her head and took her leave, and left those words ringing in Twilight's ears. At that, her ears went flat. Everyone looked at this blossoming relationship and thought it was crazy, that Trixie was awful, that it was doomed to fail. Couldn't anyone just be happy for her?

She went back upstairs and found Trixie brooding on the bed, staring out at the horizon again. "Is there any reason why she kept talking in rhyme?" the blue unicorn grumbled.

"Y'know, I never asked her about that—"

"Well anyways," Trixie went on, "that was useless."

"No it wasn't." Twilight sat down next to her. "We eliminated a bunch of other possibilities—"

"And filled our lungs with incense, yes," Trixie added.

"—so the next thing we'll do is write to the princesses and see what else we can try," Twilight continued. "But she is right that it's stuff you'll have to do. Not stuff I can help you with."

Trixie sighed and her grumpy expression softened as she slumped down onto the bed. "I thought giving you a shot as my partner would've gotten rid of this thing," she sighed.

Twilight pulled her close. "I know. But we've still got options. I promised you I'd get your magic back."

"That's true..."

———

Long after sundown, Twilight Sparkle finally stretched and decided to give up for the night. Copious research of the Codex pages and assorted magical ailments had yielded no hints as to how to restore Trixie's magic—not without purging the Nightmare, at any rate. And that was something Twilight had no idea how to help. Nightmare Inferno had an answer, perhaps. But the princess's order on that front was clear, and it frustrated Twilight to no end to think that she had to leave that route unexplored.

She poked her head into what had rapidly become Trixie's bedroom to check on the blue unicorn, and to her surprise found Trixie sitting up in bed, bleary-eyed and exhausted. "Trixie? Are you alright?"

Trixie arched an eyebrow. "Do I look alright?"

Twilight came to a stop next to her. "What's wrong?" Her heart began to sink at the thought of yet another problem to overcome.

"My sleep," Trixie sighed, and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Bad dreams. Always something haunting me."

Twilight put a foreleg around her. "I wish I could help...I think the only thing we can do now is talk to the princesses about it."

"I suppose." Trixie glanced out the window, into the night sky. "I can't do much of anything without my magic, y'know."

"I know, I know. We'll get it back."

Trixie settled into Twilight's embrace. "I was going to move on to Los Pegasus after I did the show here. I always wanted to see it, even if I couldn't actually get up there."

"Err, actually," Twilight said with a smile, "I could get you up there if you wanted. I have a spell that lets Earth ponies and unicorns walk on clouds."

Trixie stared back at the purple unicorn for a moment. "Where the heck did you get—oh right, Princess Celestia's student." She shook her head. "Well, once I get my magic back, I'm taking that spell and I'm going wherever I want." She shifted uncomfortably. "Los Pegasus, Manehattan, Vanhoover...everywhere."

Twilight frowned. "You're not staying here?"

"Of course not. What's there to see here?" She paused and then cringed at Twilight's hurt expression. "Err, besides you."

"Well," Twilight said, pushing down the sting, "there's the Everfree Forest—"

"I think I'm well acquainted enough with that," snorted Trixie.

"Um, the ruins—"

"Archaeology is not my thing, bookworm."

"There's...um..." Twilight's ears went flat. "Well, I guess I really am the only thing you'd be interested in here in Ponyville, huh."

Trixie smirked. "Well, you could always come along. The Great and Powerful Trixie would see no harm in an understudy."

"But I'd be away from all my friends..."

"They'll still be here when you get back."

Twilight tried to imagine herself on the road with Trixie—even, heaven forbid, as part of her magic show. It was nearly inconceivable. Marching around with a wagon under the hot summer sun, moving to a different town every day or two, hiking up and down mountains and through deserts, separated from her books and her friends...

"Well," Trixie grumbled, "I guess this is all pointless if I can't get my magic back."

"We will get your magic back, Trixie. I promise."

"I know."

They settled into an uncomfortable silence. Twilight studied Trixie's face carefully, but the blue unicorn's expression was unreadable—and Twilight's heart ached to think that she might be serious about never staying in Ponyville. If that were the case, then what would happen to them?

Constantly on the road, separated from her friends, unable to study, no longer as Princess Celestia's student researching the magic of friendship...how could she live like that? How could Trixie ask her to live that way?

"Does that mean you'd leave me?" Twilight asked, trying not to cry.

Trixie noticed her tears and gave her a quick nuzzle, but said nothing.

———

It took Rarity a week after her conversation with Pinkie Pie to finally corner Rainbow Dash for a talk. It was intolerable, but Rarity supposed it was also inevitable, what with Rainbow Dash's pesky ability to fly and all.

Nevertheless, Rarity was nothing if not resourceful, and that was where Twilight Sparkle came in—or rather, the book from which Twilight had drawn the spell to give her those beautiful butterfly wings, and that handy spell for walking on clouds.

And so it was that Rarity simply flew up to Rainbow Dash's cloud house as the sun set on yet another day and waited for her to show up. Rainbow Dash landed softly on one of the clouds by the door and blinked in absolute confusion at Rarity, resplendent wings and all.

"Well," she said, "this is new."

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Rarity said with a flutter. "But alas, we'll have to get down to business. You see, the other day I had a lovely conversation with Pinkie Pie."

"And you're up here to tell me about it...why?"

"Well, about this whole ordeal with Twilight and Trixie—"

Rainbow Dash tensed up. "Y'know, I keep trying to just ignore it and pretend it'll go away, and it doesn't help when everyone else keeps wanting to talk about it."

Rarity arched an eyebrow. "That's not how it works, darling."

"I guess not," Rainbow agreed, and slumped down with a sigh. "I just want things to go back to the way they were before this whole thing got started. When Twilight wasn't so impatient with all of us and Trixie wasn't around and all."

Rarity sat down next to the moping pegasus and offered a gentle hug. "I know, dear. Everything has been rather strange these days. And we haven't see much of Twilight lately either." She smiled knowingly. "I suppose the novelty of being in love hasn't worn off yet."

"Ugh," groaned Rainbow, "don't even remind me. I still can't believe that actually happened."

"Oh, Rainbow Dash, are you really so against them?" She grinned maliciously and sent a shiver of horror down Rainbow's spine. "You're not jealous, are you?"

Rainbow frowned back. "Oh, come on! Why does everypony think I'm jealous? Yeah, sure, fine, I'm just mad because I was secretly in love with Twilight the whole time and Trixie swept in and stole her and I can never forgive her for depriving me of my one true love. Whatever." She rolled her eyes as Rarity seemed to droop in disappointment. "Sorry, no juicy romance for you to gush over here."

"Must you always crush my hopes?" sighed Rarity. "Well, if you aren't part of a jilted love triangle, then what exactly is the problem? You're not still mad about—"

"No, I'm not mad about the magic show," Rainbow groaned. "It's not that either. It's just...everything that's happened. Everything that's been happening right now." She waved her hooves futilely. "We're all drifting apart now. It feels like we're not friends anymore. We're all drifting apart. And...I just can't deal with that." She buried her face in the cloud. "I know it's silly, but...I kind of feel like a bad friend for it, y'know?"

"Rainbow Dash, darling, you're not—"

"I mean, my friend has a girlfriend now, and she's happy about it, and I'm supposed to be happy for her, I get it," sighed Rainbow, "and here I am getting all mad about it anyways. And I know I have good reasons to worry, like that whole Nightmare thing, and the fact that she's, y'know, Trixie, but..." She shook her head again. "Life was a lot easier when all I had to do was clobber Changelings or whatever."

Rarity smiled. "Clobbering Changelings is much easier than dealing with your friend having a new marefriend." She hugged an uncomfortable Rainbow Dash again though. "But you are hardly a bad friend, Rainbow Dash. You have every right to feel concerned and every reason to feel like you miss her. I miss her too. But I'm sure she misses us as well and she'll come back to us soon enough." She paused. "And perhaps all this time she's spent cooped up in the library means she's made Trixie a bit more agreeable."

"'Agreeable,' yeah," snorted Rainbow, "speaking of Changelings..."

Together they sat and looked down towards Ponyville and the library. "Well," Rarity said, "if Twilight won't come out, we'll just have to go see her, won't we?"

"And put up with Trixie?"

"If Trixie is going to be Twilight's marefriend, and we're still going to be Twilight's friends, then we're going to have to learn to get along with Trixie." She paused. "Although perhaps we should get that process rolling along..."

Rainbow paused. "You think I should just go talk to her myself about all this?"

Rarity blinked. "Err, well—"

"'cuz, I mean, maybe that would help, you know?"

"M-Maybe, but—"

"Yeah, I should go do that!" she exclaimed, and got up—and then blinked and looked at the sky, and the sinking sun on the western horizon. "Um...later, I guess."

"Rainbow, darling," Rarity said, "just be careful about it. I must confess I'm worried that since some of us aren't very happy about this relationship, we'd wind up inadvertently making it harder on the two of them. And even if Trixie is still so difficult, I'd hate to think we would wind up driving them apart."

"Oh, I won't do that, no," Rainbow said with a shake of her head. "Just, I dunno, I gotta get all this stuff off my chest." She smiled sheepishly. "Although, uh, it kinda helped to talk about it now."

Rarity beamed. "Glad I could help, darling!"

Silence descended awkwardly. Rainbow blinked. "So, um..."

"Yes, well, can I, um," she blushed, "have a ride back down to the ground?"

Rainbow blinked again—and then noticed that at some point during their conversation, Rarity's shimmering butterfly wings had vanished.

"I can only cast the spell for a short while," she said sheepishly, "so, um..."

"Yeah, yeah," Rainbow sighed, "hang on..."

———

"Trixie, just 'cuz you're Twilight's girlfriend or whatever does not mean I have to listen to all of your crazy stories."

And with that, Spike stomped off with his broom to go spend the rest of the morning avoiding Trixie at all costs. Twilight watched him go with a hint of annoyance. Yes, Trixie's stories were probably embellished, for the most part, but that was no reason to be difficult about it.

"Obviously he's never encountered a vicious nine-headed hydra in the oppressive depths of the Hayseed Swamps," scoffed the Great and Powerful Trixie.

"Well, um, we did run into a four-headed one—"

"Hah! Four heads, really. How pedestrian."

Twilight rolled her eyes and pushed down the twinge of sympathy she felt for Spike's annoyance. After all, she had a letter to write, detailing all the steps she'd taken to try to restore Trixie's magic. Now if only she could just get enough peace and quiet to write the blasted thing—

The door swung open and Twilight grimaced. Who could that be?

"Hey Twilight," Rainbow Dash said with a start as she drifted into the room—and then landed and tensed up the instant she caught sight of Trixie. "Oh, right."

Trixie turned up her nose, and Twilight felt her heart sink. Here we go...

"Ah, Rainbow...Crash, was it?" sneered the blue unicorn—and immediately Rainbow's ears went flat.

"Dash, thank you very much," she snarled. "What do you want?"

"Trixie, Rainbow, please," groaned Twilight, and she turned towards the pegasus. "What brings you here, Rainbow?"

"Well, I was actually coming to talk to you," Rainbow said awkwardly, "but if she's here," she paused for a glare at Trixie, who sneered back, "then I don't know."

"Charming," Trixie scoffed. "Still not over your failure to best the Great and Powerful Trixie, are you?"

"Excuse me?! Failure?! Who are you calling a failure?!"

"Girls, please!" Twilight yelled, and she pulled Rainbow Dash aside. "Rainbow, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, um, it's not really something I want to talk about in front of her." Rainbow shuffled her hooves awkwardly. "It's just, you haven't really come out to see the rest of us lately, and—"

"Ha! With friends like you, why would she?" laughed Trixie.

"That's it!" snapped Rainbow Dash, and she whirled around on the blue unicorn. "I've had it with you—"

"Rainbow!" Twilight shouted, and she jumped in between the two ponies. "Stop it!"

"Why, Twilight?" Rainbow turned on the purple unicorn with an angry flash in her eyes. "What's so special about her anyway? Why do you like her more than us? Huh? Tell me!"

"I—but—"

"You know what a jerk she is! Why are you choosing her over your real friends? Why do you even trust her?"

A look of pure outrage flickered across Twilight's face. "You know, I thought my friends would have been happy for me, but if you can't do that, then maybe you really aren't my friend!"

Everything went silent and even Trixie watched in surprise. Rainbow stared back in shock, the hurt evident in her eyes.

"Alright," she said at last with a wavering voice, "fine. Be that way."

And with that, she turned tail and marched out of the library. Twilight huffed in anger and stormed off into another room.

"Well," Spike's voice spoke up, catching Trixie by surprise, "that was ugly."

Trixie glanced over at the stairs and found Spike standing there with his arms crossed. "And how long were you watching all this?"

"Long enough."

The blue unicorn looked back after Twilight with a satisfied smirk. "Well, good to see where I rate, at least—"

"Yeah, I bet you are," Spike shot back, and hopped off the stairs. "Y'know, if you really cared about Twilight, you wouldn't be so happy to see her fighting with her friends."

"Excuse me?"

Spike shook his head and made for the door. "You know everything's messed up when I have to be the sensible, mature one..."

———

All things considered, Rainbow Dash had to consider this probably the worst day of her life.

Stupid Trixie. Stupid Twilight. Stupid everything. She sat in one of Applejack's trees, on the most remote part of the farm she could find, and ran through the conversation over and over again in her head.

It was all coming true. They really were coming undone. Trixie really was tearing them apart. She shook her head. Who would've thought that after Discord and Changelings it was actually going to be some stupid blue unicorn who ruined everything?

It was all so crazy. How could Twilight trust her? Didn't she know that Nightmare was there? Didn't she care? How could she believe Trixie? How could anyone believe that Trixie actually had any love for Twilight? That Nightmare was still there, that was proof that she didn't—right? Why—

"Hi Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow yelped in surprise and scrubbed away her tears, just in time for Pinkie Pie to materialize from within the leaves above her and send them both crashing to the ground. Rainbow shook her head and looked back up at the crazy pink pony—but her usual mile-wide grin was gone, replaced with a look of concern.

"Y'know, usually I don't find you crying," Pinkie said.

"I-It's nothing—"

"That's not what my Pinkie sense told me! Two ear flops, three tail twitchies, and seven strokes from four separate eyelashes means two of my friends just had a fight." She plopped herself down next to Rainbow Dash. "So what happened?"

Rainbow thought about it for a moment and decided that trying to get Pinkie to drop it was most likely futile. "I don't think I'm friends with Twilight anymore."

"Say what?!"

Rainbow briefly described their fight, and hung her head sadly when she finished. "It's all coming true. We're not going to be friends anymore because of all this. I can't believe it's happening."

"That's not true," Pinkie insisted. "Nothing will break us apart. We're just all being doodyheads to each other, which is totally crazy, but we can totally stop too."

"How?" moaned Rainbow. "She said if I can't be happy for her, I'm not her friend. And I can't be happy for her. I can't believe that Trixie really cares about her. Someone like Trixie couldn't possibly be really interested in her, because..."

"Because...?"

Rainbow frowned. "You know everything I'm saying right now is all protected by a Pinkie Pie Promise, right?"

Pinkie promptly pantomimed zipping up her lips, then locking them, then burying the key, then made a bunch of other motions that Rainbow assumed were supposed to symbolize destroying the key in a variety of increasingly thorough ways. Or something. For all she knew Pinkie was trying to do a rain dance or something.

"Trixie is too much like me," Rainbow sighed.

Pinkie blinked. "Say what?"

"Well isn't she?!" Rainbow groaned. "Isn't that what you guys were trying to tell me with that whole Mare-Do-Well thing? I'm too full of myself?" She buried her face in her hooves. "But Trixie's a million times worse and how am I supposed to just be happy that Twilight's giving her heart away to someone so awful?"

Pinkie frowned. "Gosh, you really don't like Trixie."

"It's not that," Rainbow said, "it's...well, I actually did do some dating and all that when I was younger, and you know something about love, Pinkie?"

"Besides that it tastes like chocolate?"

"Besides—wait, chocolate?"

"Well, yeah!" Pinkie said with a grin. "Why else is there chocolate all over the place on Hearts and Hooves Day?"

Rainbow stared down sadly at the ground and Pinkie's grin faded. "Well, the thing about love is that it means giving someone else the power to hurt you really, really bad. And that's what's gonna happen to Twilight, somehow, someway, and I'm not gonna be able to do anything to stop it, and what kind of friend am I then?" She squeezed her eyes shut and put her hooves over her head. "But now I wound up hurting her anyway and now we aren't friends anymore and I just don't know what to do."

Pinkie immediately pulled Rainbow into a bone crushing hug. "I think you need a Pinkie Pie Hug, to start with."

"I think it's gonna take more than that—"

"Then an extra super ultra big Pinkie Pie hug!"

"Ow, okay, can't breathe, seriously Pinkie—"

Pinkie loosened her hold just enough to let Rainbow Dash breathe. "And in the meantime let's just get rid of that great big silly idea that you're not being a good friend for worrying about Twilight," she said, "because somepony has to, because, I mean, golly, what if nobody did, then if something bad really did happen we'd all just have to sit there and be confused, y'know?"

"I-I guess..."

"And besides, if you look at all this stuff that's going on and you don't feel a little worried about Twilight then you really would be an awful friend! But you're Rainbow Dash the super duper most loyalest pony in all Equestria and you'd never do something like that!"

Rainbow sniffled. "That's not what Twilight seems to think."

"Well Twilight can't be right about everything."

"I know, but—"

Pinkie immediately put a hoof over Rainbow's mouth. "'I know, but' nothing, Rainbow Dash! You remember what I said the first day we brought Trixie back to Ponyville?"

"...um, that kumquats are secretly conspiring to take over Equestria?"

"No, before that!" Pinkie exclaimed. "About how sometimes we're all great big stupid meanieheads to each other but it's okay because at the end of the day we're still friends and that's more important than all the mean stupid things we say to each other?"

"Oh, um, yes..."

"Then you just keep that in mind, Rainbow Dash!"

"O-Okay..." Rainbow sighed. "So now what?"

"Now we sit back and wait a while and let Twilight calm down and then you go over and you apologize to each other and then we'll have a party."

Rainbow smiled sadly. "I dunno about the party, Pinks."

"Nonsense! There is never an inappropriate time for a party!" Pinkie paused thoughtfully. "Except for surgery. Maybe. Or maybe only during surgery and then after you come out of surgery there's a party. Well, maybe it depends on the kind of surgery. Like, if you had surgery on your party gland, then you wouldn't be able to use it..."

As Pinkie rambled off into a rant on the many uses of the "party gland," Rainbow glanced back towards Ponyville and thought of ways to apologize. She hated apologizing, but maybe in this case, it would be worth it. The alternative, after all, was awful.

———

Comments

[Aki_Iokua]

Why's part of it in all italics?

I'd have to say that both Trixie and RD are at fault here. Obviously Trixie shouldn't have tried baiting Rainbow, but by rising to it, Rainbow only made things worse.

[unoservix]

2278168
derp. fixed. >>

[RTStephens]

Forgot to mention this last time, but Spike's really showing some surprising insight on things. I guess writing all those friendship letters rubbed off on him!

It's good to see Trixie able to move now. Her laying on the bed all the time was getting repetitive.

Rainbow Dash and the Friendship Crisis! Stay tuned for relationship rekindling reconciliation!

It's a wonder Rarity or the others ever get anything done with all their adventures. Rarity should write a book on time management.

The drama is getting heavier and the Nightmare (both of them) are still out there. Looking forward to how this turns out!

[ForSpite]

There's something weird going on with this story. New updates don't always show up in my 'unread favorites' list. They're still visible when I look at the story in my 'view all favorites' option but, as you might expect, I don't check that as often.

I don't suppose you know who I should complain to about this?

Well, the updates themselves are enjoyable once I track them down.

[unoservix]

2279560
i'm not sure what's going on there, really. i don't see any options on my end that might have anything to do with that. maybe try un-faving and re-faving it? something might have gotten screwed up over the course of the past two site updates.

[ForSpite]

This is one of those cases where Rainbow having made it clear she's not happy with Trixie pretty much every time they've seen each other has left her extra unhappy with Rainbow and then things escalate because they really are too much alike. Both being temperamental and prideful. It's easy for small stuff to add up when you have two people who rub each other the wrong way.