Too Close for Comfort?
Chapter 3 - Too Close for Comfort?
Over the next few days a pattern was established: Rainbow Dash woke up, had breakfast with Twilight and Spike, then retreated to her bed. She spent her days curled up under the covers, emerging briefly only for food or to use the bathroom. Twilight had a pile of Daring Do books on standby, but so far Rainbow hadn't done much beyond eat and sleep. Rainbow herself was in a daze. She was aware of days passing, but took no interest in them though she had enough brain power left over to tell Twilight that this was normal for her and stop her worrying.
About a week after she had first arrived on Twilight's doorstep, Rainbow woke early and stretched each part of her body in turn. She was starting to feel like her old self until she noticed the itch in her wings again, but this time when she fluffed up her feathers, it flared up stronger. She pulled her left wing around and began preening only to have feathers soon fill her mouth. Groaning as she spat feathers, she tried again but another feather detached.
"Rainbow! Breakfast is ready!" Twilight called up the stairs.
Giving up on preening, Rainbow grabbed the duvet and wrapped it around herself as she usually did before heading towards food.
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Breakfast occurred with little conversation, all parties focused on eating. Spike was the only one to break the silence with the occasional crunch of eggshells. Once everyone had finished, Twilight levitated all the dishes into the sink.
"Thanks for breakfast, Twilight," Rainbow said, feeling a little more energetic than yesterday.
"You're welcome."
Rainbow left the kitchen and made her way back to the bedroom, intent on more sleep. She trotted back up the stairs, duvet and all, and slid back onto the bed. She tucked herself into bed and was about to close her eyes when she heard Twilight's hooves on the stairs.
Twilight paused as she saw the feathers scattered on the floor. Quickly checking her mental list, Twilight checked off the first stage of moulting as she moved towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow knew what was coming, but didn't react fast enough to prevent Twilight whisking the duvet away from her.
"Let me see," Twilight ordered, leaving Rainbow in no doubt that she wasn't about to leave her alone until she'd performed her self-appointed duties.
At first it had bothered her when Twilight had checked her wings, but she had passed that off as a concerned friend who didn't quite understand pegasus taboos. A pegasus' wings were both important limbs and tools for their weather work. A pegasus putting the care of their wings into another pony's hooves was something only especially close friends or partners did. True, Twilight was her friend, but she hadn't known her nearly as long as she had Fluttershy, and even when dealing with the timid pegasus Rainbow was reluctant to let Fluttershy preen her. Rainbow knew Twilight meant well, and, though unwilling to admit it aloud, she kind of liked having somepony to fuss over her while she wasn't one hundred and ten percent awesome.
"Feeling any better?" Twilight asked.
Realizing her friend had finished, Rainbow fluffed up her feathers again and stretched.
"A little," Rainbow replied with some of her usual attitude, "Though I'm probably going to go mad if my wings don't stop itching."
Twilight grinned as she knew this had been coming and with a flash of magic, produced a pile of books that landed beside Rainbow's bed.
"I've got these for you to read, Rainbow." Twilight tapped her hoof against the pile of books she'd deposited beside the bed. "Every Daring Do book in the library and more of the same kind of books. This should keep you occupied."
Rainbow gawped at the pile of books that was almost as tall as Big Macintosh before grabbing the one from the top.
"Thanks, Twilight." Rainbow called as her friend went back down the stairs.
Opening the first book, Dash launched herself into the world of Daring Do.
-------------
Hooves thundering against the ground, Daring Do raced around the last turn in the cave and burst out into the jungle. She was dazzled for a second in the bright sunlight, but couldn't afford to slow. Spreading her wings, she launched herself into the air just in time to avoid the giant boulder that had been rolling down the tunnel after her. Daring soared up into the canopy, banking around the trees without effort despite the treasure-laden satchel on her back. Heading up into the canopy of the trees, Daring was about to break through into the open sky when a vine lashed out and tried to snare her. Managing to avoid the plant by the skin of her teeth, Daring was confronted by a waving mass of plant mouths.
Dash twitched, ignoring the itch in her left wing.
The giant Venus flytrap was the only thing blocking her route out of the canopy. But despite being fixed to the branch of a sturdy tree, it wasn't about to let her escape the jungle without a fight. More vines whipped out to snatch the pegasus out of the air. Diving and looping, Daring flew around the around the plant. The creature tried to catch the nimble pegasus, but Daring avoided every vine and stem as she flew rings around it.
Rainbow rubbed her back against the bed covers in an attempt to ease the itch spreading across her wings.
Daring flashed the plant a smirk as it tried to untangle it's vines and mouths from the tangle that it had gotten itself into by trying to follow the pegasus. Without a backward glance, Daring shot upwards through a gap in the sea of leaves, up into the sky and...
Rainbow dropped the book and screamed as she attacked her own feathers.
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Twilight looked up from her spell scrolls as Rainbow's cry filled the library. She scrambled to her hooves and shot up the stairs, wondering why Dash was making such a racket. The answer was evident as she reached the top of the staircase. Bed clothes in disarray, feathers scattered across the floor and Rainbow was half hanging off the bed. Lying on her side with her left wing in her mouth, she was clearly trying to get to a patch of feathers that were just outside her reach. Most of the feathers on her wing were dishevelled, having been pushed out of the way in Dash's efforts to get at the one that was irritating her.
"Rainbow, are you alright?"
Rainbow only muttered something unintelligible as was she focused on attacking her feathers. The cyan pegasus was contorting in ways Twilight didn't know ponies could in an attempt to get at her itchy skin. Fearing Rainbow would damage her pin feathers, Twilight felt forced to intervene. She pounced on Dash, pinning her against the bed.
"You're going to wreck your new feathers if you go on like that!"
"But they're so itchy," Rainbow whined. "I'm going mad if I don't scratch them."
Twilight shook her head, realizing there was only one option open to her.
"Rainbow, I'm going to have to preen your wings."
Rainbow went rigid, immediately stopping her haphazard preening.
"There's no need to go that far," she tried to object, "I can handle this-"
Twilight's stern glare quashed Rainbow's argument. "If your feathers grow in wrong, your aerodynamics will be off. What if that causes you to crash and break a wing?"
Silence descended as Rainbow looked away from Twilight's glare. She really didn't want to let Twilight at her wings, but the unicorn was giving her little choice. Rainbow rolled onto her front and spread her left wing for Twilight to start on. Twilight wasn't doing this blindly—she'd read the passage in A Pegasus' Guide to Moulting about preening so as to prepare—but she was still nervous. Twilight knew Rainbow was placing a lot of trust in her, so she had decided to stick to the tried and trusted method. The book said that hooves were more often than not too clumsy for preening, and that the mouth provided the best results. The book didn't include any mention of unicorn magic, so Twilight wasn't about to risk something she didn't know .
"Let me know if I'm being too rough, OK."
Rainbow grunted, not looking back at Twilight so she took that as consent. With slow and gentle movements, Twilight started checking each of Rainbow's feathers, talking each in her mouth and checking to see if it was going to come loose. There were a few feathers that did come away from Rainbow's skin while others remained stubbornly in place, these she lined up with the others. In between the older feathers, Twilight found new pin feathers breaking through Dash's skin, and made sure to be especially gentle with them. Rainbow was used to Fluttershy preening her, but where Fluttershy was as delicate as a butterfly, Twilight was careful and controlled. She doubted Twilight had ever preened another pegasus, but the unicorn seemed to know what she was doing.
And did she have to breathe so hard on her wings?
Twilight switched wings and repeated her actions on the rest of Dash's feathers.
"There's a patch at the base of each of my wings, just between my shoulders." Rainbow muttered, voice muffled by the sheets, "they're glands that make a kind of oil. They're what makes my feathers waterproof."
Twilight found the area Rainbow meant and proceeded to make sure all Rainbow's feathers were covered. Sitting back on the bed, Twilight decided she'd have to brush her teeth to shift the oil left on her lips. She looked down at Rainbow and saw she was asleep. Sliding off the bed carefully so as not to wake her friend, Twilight headed back down stairs to the bathroom.
But Rainbow wasn't asleep, she had her eyes shut pretending to be asleep. Twilight had just done something that had taken Fluttershy years to let Rainbow get close enough to do. And she was alright with that. There was something about Twilight that Rainbow liked, beyond her being a friend. She'd found Twilight easy to talk to, and they shared an interest in the Daring Do books. When Dash had appeared on the library doorstep, Twilight had been eager to help a friend. She had been forced to admit, if only to herself, that she liked Twilight looking after her, but it was more than that. Fluttershy had taken care of her for years before she'd met Twilight and she'd never felt like she did now.
Deciding she'd have to talk to Fluttershy later to figure this out, Rainbow rolled onto her back again and picked up her book from where it had dropped. The adventures of Daring Do soon pushed thoughts of Twilight to the back of her mind.
Downstairs, Twilight left the bathroom and found Spike in the kitchen. He was trying to balance a pile of gems between two slices of bread and failing to keep it steady.
"I'm going out to see Rarity," Twilight told him, "I need to thank her for the raincoat. Will you be alright looking after Dash while I'm gone?"
Spike was obviously disappointed that he wasn't going to get to see his crush, but he didn't complain.
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"Thanks Spike. See you later!" Twilight called as she left the dragon to finish fixing his snack
-------------
Rarity looked up from her sewing machine as she heard somepony knocking on the door of her boutique. She was sure she'd put up the 'closed' sign in the door window, but nonetheless, somepony was outside. Leaving her work on the table, she crossed to the door, navigating through the sea of discarded material. She made a futile attempt to tidy as she did, but it made little difference. Opening the door she called out, "We're closed for restocking."
Rarity was delighted to see Twilight standing on the doorstep.
"Twilight, I wasn't expecting you today. Come in dear."
Twilight stepped inside the boutique, avoiding the piles of stray material.
"Excuse the mess." Rarity lead Twilight around the piles of cut-offs and stray thread.
"I was out shopping and I wanted to thank you for the raincoat. I was lucky you gave me one before that storm arrived."
"Think nothing of it," Rarity replied, clearing space on the table before a table cloth. "With you advertising my raincoats, I've received a flood of orders for them. Tea?"
Twilight nodded, "Thank you."
Rarity summoned a teapot and cups, pouring a cup for Twilight before she sent it, complete with saucer, spoon and napkin, towards Twilight.
"But I must speak with Rainbow Dash about that storm," Rarity continued, "We're supposed to get the week's weather in advance, and then we get all that wind and rain thrown at us. It's just not good enough."
"Rainbow wasn't on weather duty that night, she's taking a little time for herself at the moment."
Rarity raised an eyebrow as she analysed Twilight's words.
"She's shedding her feathers, isn't she?"
Twilight choked on her tea. "How did you figure out that?"
"I haven't seen her or heard anything about her for almost a week now. It also helps that Fluttershy was around yesterday and happened to let it slip."
"I've given her all the Daring Do books in the library, but I suspect she'll run out of them too soon for my liking."
"It must be awful for somepony as active as Rainbow dash to be unable to do anything physical for a while.
"I think she'll be back on her hooves soon. I've been helping her preen, so she'll soon be back in the air."
Rarity looked at Twilight in silence for a moment, sipping her tea thoughtfully.
"Twilight darling, you know that preening is a very intimate thing for a pegasus." Rarity's cheeks took on a pink hue. "I think a unicorn equivalent would be cleaning your horn."
Twilight went scarlet. Every unicorn's horn was a no-go area to others except between the most romantically involved ponies.
"How do you know that?" she squeaked.
"One reads romance novels, dear." Rarity levitated her glasses from her nose to the table in front of her. "It's often a mark of trust that a pegasus lets another pony, especially an earth pony or unicorn, preen them. Rainbow and Fluttershy know each other well enough to be let each other be that close, but..."
Rarity trailed off, her silence implying more than anything she might have added. Twilight eventually broke the silence by banging her head against the table. The cups jumped, spilling tea across the table as Twilight hit the wood.
"Twilight! Are you alright?"
Twilight didn't reply. How could she have been so stupid? She'd wanted to help Dash get back to normal quickly, but hadn't realized she'd crossed a line.
"I've just...”
"What are you talking about, darling?"
"I didn't even ask Rainbow if she'd let me preen her feathers. I just did it without thinking. She'll probably never forgive me.”
Rarity shook her head. "Rainbow isn't the kind of Pegasus to hold a grudge. Just explain to her that you didn't know and apologize to her."
"I hope you're right."
-------------
Twilight was dragging her hooves, reluctant to return to the library. More accurately, she didn't want to face Rainbow Dash again. She was petrified that Rainbow wouldn't want anything to do with her after the preening that she'd given her. Twilight was so deep in her own thoughts, she didn't notice the comet screaming towards her at mach nine. The next thing Twilight was aware of was that the sky and ground had switched positions. For a second, she thought Rainbow Dash had collided with her, but the comet was only one colour.
Pink.
"Hello, Pinkie." Twilight sighed as she picked herself up.
Pinkie seemed unperturbed by her collision with Twilight as she was bouncing in place.
"Hiya Twilight, I just finished at Sugarcube Corner, so I decided to go and see Fluttershy because one of her cats just had kittens, and I thought I'd get a head start on planning their first birthday party-"
Twilight pressed her hoof against Pinkie's lips as she took a breath in an attempt to get a word in edgeways.
"That sounds like fun." Twilight's voice held no enthusiasm. "let me know how it goes."
She made to go, but Pinkie stopped her with a hoof on her shoulder.
"What's got you so gloomy, Twilight? You look like somepony forgot your birthday." Pinkie suddenly stopped bouncing, "I didn't forget your birthday, did I?"
Twilight stopped Pinkie with the same method as before.
"No Pinkie, you didn't forget my birthday. I'm just worried about something I did."
Twilight started to walk again and Pinkie followed, walking like a normal pony rather than her normal bouncing.
"You didn't forget her birthday, did you?
"This has nothing to do with birthdays, Pinkie!" Twilight snapped, immediately regretting it. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried about losing Rainbow as a friend."
"What would make you think that?"
Twilight hesitated but the story seemed to come spilling out of its own accord. She told Pinkie about Rainbow arriving at her door, that she was getting ready to shed her feathers and Twilight had let Dash stay in the library. She told Pinkie that she'd pounced on Rainbow and practically forced her to let Twilight preen her feathers. She finished with Rarity telling her that preening was an intimate thing between pegasi.
"So what's the big deal?" Pinkie asked, cocking her head to one side. "I help Fluttershy preen all the time."
Twilight missed a step and almost fell over again.
"What?"
"Whenever she goes to visit some of her animals in the forest, she always comes back with twigs and leaves stuck in her mane, tail and wings. She says that I make preening so much easier."
"And she doesn't mind?"
"No silly, she wouldn't let me preen her if she wasn't comfortable or didn't trust me."
"But-"
"No buts, no coconuts," Pinkie interrupted, "if she wasn't comfortable with you preening her wings, she would have run away. But even then, if she doesn't want you to preen her, you say you're super-duper-sorry and you won't do anything without her permission again, then she has to forgive you."
It was odd for Twilight to be receiving advice and to be talking normally with Pinkie. Normally conversation's with Pinkie twisted and turned to the point where trans-magical algebra was easier to follow. The two ponies had reached the library while they had been talking, crossing Ponyville without noticing. Twilight turned to face Pinkie as she stood on the Library's front step.
"Thanks Pinkie."
The pink party pony hugged Twilight tightly.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
Twilight returned the hug, grateful for somepony to offer advice, even if it was from the most unlikely source. She watched Pinkie bounce away before turning back to the library door and pushing it open.
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Still as high quality as the first two chapters. You wrote good Pinkie Pie.
A little late, yeah, but it is still good. keep it up, Bro. Meglio tardi che mai
2702997 - I thought I didn't do her any justice at all.
2703014 - Hopefully the next chapter will be on time.
An excellent chapter!
2703224
I thought you captured the kind of stream of consciousness attitude she has, while not descending into "lol, pinkie is so random. watch her break the fourth wall!"
It's not wrong to make her somewhat insightful just because she isn't particularly wise in the show/comic; it's designed to be understood by kids, and if you aren't willing to give the cast the benefit of the doubt for that reason then the conclusion is usually that they're all morons.
I had completely forgotten about this story...
2703224
Writing can't be forced. I tried once back when I was still writing fanfiction and was losing my momentum. My quality degraded to the point where a grade schooler would probably have written better prose than I. These days I only write when inspiration strikes, which is few and far between anymore. I have a few stories for this place but won't post anything until I'm certain I won't leave readers hanging.
I do like this story and am patient enough to read your best efforts. Take your time.
Nice chapter. I love the interaction between Twi and Dash.
2703950 - preaching to the choir. I used to be prolific in what I wrote, I dabbled in every genre, some more successfully than others. Now I find it very hard to write anything. About lunchtime I find I want to write things but then I get home after work and I can't muster anything. Still, I've found that instrumental music helps and once the ball is rolling I'm good for another chapter.
I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
Very cute.
I'm enjoying this fic a lot.
I had completely forgotten about this fic
Amazing chapter and I think i speak for most of us when i saw that we can wait
Never force writing
On time? Pah! No fanfiction can be "on time" unless it's prewritten.
Goddesses I love this story!
2708842 - I aim to please.
2717745
I would say so. it clear that you put a lot of work into this story
2718729 - I find it quite hard to write ponies as I have to constantly ask myself 'can a pony do X?' or 'Can a pegasus do Y?'.
And ponifing (is that a word) the language is also tricky.
More please!!!!
2896010 Well then.
Mission accomplished!
Seriously though... I freakin' love that pic...
I need to say, I've adly never seen any fanfiction about this.
It's just something most persons don't think of.
I hope you are planing to continue this?
CLIFFHANGERS!!!! Good story though. Looking forward to the next chapter!
3906501 Hopefully next chapter will be up before the end of February. Providing my brain gets in gear.
Your formating is a lot clearer in this one, though I'm not sure why you use indents for the dialogue when the paragraphs are spaced. It's not a problem or anything, but it's not really necessary either. Oh well.
The part with Pinkie puzzles me. Is it forshadowing some kind of Pinkyshy subplot? Because otherwise I'm not sure why it's there, since Pinkie basically just says the same thing as Rarity, while also lowering the tension.
Is this perchance a foreshadowing of pinkie and fluttershy?