The Delightful Picnic
~~~Heartwarming Moment with Rainbow Dash~~~
You’ve just finished your breakfast and were patiently waiting on your couch. Rainbow Dash said she’d pick you up today to go picnic with her and her friends. It was sure to be fun as you seem to really have gotten a close bond with the ponies, and you didn’t even have to bring food! Everything was already organized and the only thing you have to do is come along and eat.
Knocking can be heard at your door as a tomboyish voice speaks up from behind it.
“Are you ready?” she asks. You know this voice all too well, it was “special” to say the least.
“Yeah, give me a moment.” you say as you stand up from the couch and start walking towards the door. Opening it, you are greeted by the blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane.
“Well, well. You're late." you say teasingly while you step out of your doorway and close the door behind you.
"Not yet we're not." she says. What does she mean by that? Suddenly she dashes towards you and wraps her hooves around your back. Seconds later you are roaming through the air, screaming like a madman.
"Will you stop yelling in my ear!" Rainbow says annoyed.
"Put me down! I don't want to die!" you manage to squeeze out of your throat. You're heart was racing and despite the protests you managed to peep out during the flight, she refused to land until you were at the meeting place. She softly descends to the ground and releases you after the landing. Instantly you dive to the ground pressing your body flat on the grass, burying your face in it as well.
"See, that wasn't that bad was it?" Rainbow exclaims. You barely notice her speak as you’re busy recovering from that frightening, yet enticing, event. Even though the flight was over, the thoughts of it still makes you shudder in fear. Voices were speaking in the background.
"Rainbow, ya should have gone easy on 'm."
"There was no need to traumatize him, Darling."
"I wasn't even flying at full speed, I swear he’s overreacting."
That last line surprises you. That wasn't full speed?! A sudden thought creeps up in your mind. I'm cowering here on the ground where everyone can see me...
Quickly you bolt up and regain your composure. "Ahem, I'm fine. I could even say it was a little bit fun." you lie as you know full well that scared the shit out of you, but you have to keep your reputation high.
"The speeds Rainbow Dash can achieve are seen as frightening to many flightless species, Anon. There is no need to fake courage." Twilight says with a reassuring smile.
An awkward grin creeps on your face. There was no way to counter what she just said. What she just spoke were pure facts, and everyone saw you cowering on the ground. Quick, change the subject!
"Mmm. I'm starving. Let's eat." you speak up once again trying to maintain a straight face. Luckily nopony seemed to have the need to go on over the traumatizing flight and just trot over to a hillside right next to a big tree. The tree creates a shadow that covers the entire hill, creating a seemingly perfect picnic spot. By the looks of it, Pinkie pie brought baked goods, Applejack arranged fruits, and twilight had brought sandwiches. That means you're not the only one who didn't bring any food.
After twilight spread a blanket on the ground and laid the baskets on it, the mares sit down on different spots on the blanket. Much to your amusement, Rarity didn't seem to find a blanket enough of a separation between the ground and her coat. She also had a saddlebag on her back, a white one. She turned it upside down with her magic, revealing the content as it fell on the ground. A purple pillow with gold colored strings marking the sides. Everypony was curiously watching her as she carefully positioned herself on the pillow. She realized that only after she was done with everything.
"What? I'd rather be cautious than dirty." she says with an unsure smile.
"I ain't judging ya for it." Applejack said. The other mares just nodded in agreement, except for Pinkie Pie.
"Ooh, ooh. We should play a game first! Who's up for hide 'n seek?" she says bouncing up and down on the blanket. Nopony seemed to react to it, after some moments of silence twilight does speak up.
"Maybe some other time Pinkie, I don't think anyone wants to do that right now." she says opening one of the baskets with her magic and making a sandwich float out. Instantly Pinkie's ears flop down and her smile is replaced with a frown. Ahh whatever, a quick game won't hurt.
"I'll play. But only one game okay, Pinkie?" you ask. She instantly perks up at your words and seems to be just as happy as before.
"Oki doki, This'll be fun! I'm it, better start hiding! One, two, three." she starts counting, then you slowly walk over to a nearby try and step behind it. You did say you would hide, you never did say it would be a great hiding spot. Soon, the counting stopped and you were expecting her to find you any moment now. Unfortunately, it seemed like minutes had passed and yet you were still standing behind this tree, and pinkie pie hasn't found you yet. Curiosity starts to break through, and after another minute you can't take it anymore. You risk a peek behind the tree and to your surprise, you could see the other mare sitting behind the tree on top of the hill, but pinkie was nowhere to be seen.
Where the heck can she be? She probably just forgot about me...
You were about to walk past the tree but suddenly...
"Found you!" Pinkie appeared right next to you. A massive shock flows through your spine as you fall over and land on the ground,
"Aaah what the hell," you yell. "Where were you."
"You should have seen your face!" she says falling over but due to being unable to catch her breath of all the laughing. I've never seen anypony so scared before."
Hmph, there goes another part of my manliness.
"I wasn't really scared, I was just playing alone. If you're done humiliating me, can we go back to the hill?" you ask impatiently. I can't afford to have more scars on my reputation.
"Oki doki." she says as she dashes towards the hill. Holy crap, earth ponies are speed devils as well? Or is it just Pinkie?
You run after her eventually reaching the hill, but still way later than Pinkie.
Exhausted from all the running, you collapse on the blanket and reach out for a sandwich. You can't seem to reach it but are assisted by twilight, who magically floats it towards you.
"Thanks, Twilight." you say taking a bite from the sandwich. Holy crap this is delicious! Instead of swallowing the bread, you play around with the bread within your mouth, savouring all the mouth-watering flavours. It tasted much like jam on earth but this was sweeter and a lot thicker as well.
"Ah hope Pinkie didn't cause ya too much trouble." Applejack says looking over to you. Unwilling, you swallow the piece of bread to be able to speak again.
"Well, until she almost gave me a heart attack it was all fun."
At this Pinkie suddenly starts snorting in laughter once more, "You should have seen his face!" she says barely able to catch her breath. The other mares can't help but smile at the pink party pony.
"Don't worry, it happens to all of us," Twilight says. It was a reassuring thought that you weren't the only one to react in the way you did.
The conversation between you and the mares have carried on for quite some time as the sun seemed to be setting already. You were caught off guard when Rarity asks a peculiarly odd question.
"So Anon, have you found the mare of your dreams yet?" Rarity eagerly asks. The mare of my dreams? She's asking if I'm interested in somepony? Honestly, you've never thought about it, maybe it was time to start looking. It was obvious that there was no way to return home, and alone for the rest of your life didn't sound so appealing... Luckily for you, you didn't need to answer.
"Don't worry too much about it, Darling, there is no need in rushing things. Who knows, maybe the mare of your dreams is closer to home than you thought." She speaks up once again. Closer to home? Does she mean one of them?!
"Err, yeah... I guess." you say. You take a quick glance to all of them, they seemed to be curious to what you're answer was as they all were staring at you. All of them except for Rainbow Dash, she was looking at the ground, it looked as if she was deep in thought.
"H-hey, Anon." She calls.
"Hmm?"
"Have you ever wanted to sit on a cloud before?" She asks. Now that she mentions it, yeah. You have always wanted to feel how a cloud feels. That was seemingly impossible though as you have learned in one of twilights books that only pegasi can stand on clouds.
"I have, its a shame humans can't stand on clouds though."
"Oh but thats no problem! Twilight can fix you up and then you're all ready to go." she says instantly getting up and dashing towards Twilight. "C'mon Twilight, use your fancy magic so Anon can fly with me."
Icy cold shivers flowed through your spine. Flying?! No way! Never, ever again am I going to do that.
"I'm not sure if Anon is okay with that, Rainbow Dash. I think he hasn't recovered from your last flight" Twilight says. You wanted to nod in agreement but before you could, Rainbow was already speaking again.
"Anon is no wus, and by the way, I'm not gonna take him flying again, we're just gonna sit on a cloud... And watch the sun set..." Her attention started to fade and soon she was once again staring at the ground. A barely audible gasp was heard next to you, it was Rarity. You could have sworn that you saw a sparkle in her eyes.
"Thats a wonderful Idea Rainbow Dash, I'm sure Anon would enjoy it as well." The white unicorn says looking over to you now. Well, Twilight obviously knows me way better than Rarity does. You wanted to decline so badly, but curiosity roams through your mind. How do clouds feel? Are they spongy? Can I bounce on them? After a long moment of silence, you have finally made up your mind.
"Okay Twilight, do the magic stuff." you say trying to sound confident. Unfortunately your voice decided to squeak mid sentence making it sound all but confident.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Twilight asks as she lowers her head, pointing her now glowing horn towards you.
"Y-yes, fire at will." You nervously say as you close your eyes. Please no pain, please no pain. You felt a small amount of warmth travel through your body for a brief moment, after that it was gone.
"There you go, be careful up there." Twilight says.
Now that she confirmed that the spell had indeed succeeded and that she was done, you carefully open your eyes. A quick inspection on your body revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
"Thanks, Twilight. Are you ready to go, Anon?" Rainbow asks. Oh yeah, how the hell are you going to get up there?
"How are you going to bring me there?" You ask curiously.
"Don't worry about that, just hold on," she says as she positions herself behind you, she wraps her forehooves around your chest and under your armpits and with a might flap of her wings you both take off into the skies. She was going a considerable amount slower but that was probably due to the fact that she was flying straight upwards.
Rainbow eventually reaches the nearest cloud and lands on it. The cloud itself was immense as it had more than enough space for a dozen ponies. When she releases you, you instantly sit down. When you were on the ground you were actually considering to jump on the cloud and test random things, but now that you were on the cloud and on such a massive height, you lacked the guts to even walk around on it. Not that it mattered though as the view was still nice.
"Phew, flying straight was a breeze but this was a challenge. You're heavier than I thought." Rainbow says as she sat down next to you.
"Are you calling me fat?" You ask jokingly. She simply grins at your words and stares into the distance. It was an amazing view. You could see all of Ponyville, the Everfree Forest, the mountains, and in the distance you could see Canterlot floating in the sky. The minutes pass as both of you were enjoying the moment in silence. Suddenly the silence is broken.
"H-hey, Anon... I-Is it cool if I... Lay my head on your shoulder?" Rainbow asks looking over to you. Was she tired or something?
"Be my guest." you say smiling. She slowly shuffles closer and lays her head on your shoulder. You notice the extremely awkward position she's in as she a huge gap in between her body and yours. You resolve that problem by extending your right arm and pulling her close. Her cheeks glow a vivid red as she lets out a satisfied sigh.
The cloud feels so soft and the view was amazing, back on earth this would be the perfect spot to go with your loved one... Back on earth... Maybe the mares were right, you should start looking for someone to spend the rest of your life with, how awkward it might be. But who? Is somepony already interested in you? If anyone knows, it must be Rarity, and if so, it would make it a lot easier.
"We should go back down." You say shuffling a bit sideways preparing to stand up. Even though you knew clouds were solid to you because of the spell, you didn't trust it completely.
"What? Why so soon? Don't you like this?" She sends a barrage of questions towards you. Wow, talk about overreacting.
"Well, the picnic wasn't over yet. Besides, There's something important I need to ask Rarity." You say.
Suddenly Rainbows face goes completely pale, as if she saw a ghost or something.
"W-why don't you ask me." She says in a broken tone.
"I don't think you're the right one to-" you are cut off by Rainbow.
"B-but I am, don't do this to me ,Anon." She says, sounding desperate. What is wrong with her?
"It's kind of personal, and maybe even embarrassing. Besides, how much do you know about the towns gossip."
"W-what?" The normal bluish color is slowly returning to her face as she is visibly recovering from whatever just happened.
"I doubt you know where I can find the perfect mare, Rarity mentioned something about it, thats why I wanted to ask her." You explain. By the looks of it, Rainbow was back to normal.
"Phew, you got me worried there. I thought that you were...you know, gonna ask her out or something." She says nearly mute at the end of the sentence.
"You think I should take her out?" You ask confused.
"No! Eh, nevermind. Lets just go ok?" She grabs ahold of you around your waist and takes off into the skies. Phew, she's going a lot slower this time.
Seconds later, both of you are back on the ground where you are greeted by the other mares.
"Had some fun?" Rarity asks giving Rainbow Dash a wink. Instantly her face goes beet red.
"Yea, it was fun. I would totally do it again anytime." You say making the awkwardness disappear, you knew all too well what Rarity meant by it but decided to ignore it. Rainbow however, eyed you quizzically, it was hard to read her thoughts with this strange expression. A bit startled, you simply walk away of this situation, moving closer to the other mares.
"Sooo, what's the plan?" You drawlingly ask in general, not really focusing the question on anypony in general.
"Well the picnic is over, we could share some personal thoughts." Twilight replies with an uncomfortable amount of confidence. Ugh, no. Not that again. The so called 'personal thoughts' always led up to questions about your homeland, that usually resulted in freaking them out and making things extremely awkward.
"Err, I'll pass this time, maybe some other day." You answer trying to sound as polite as possible.
"Well, do you have any better ideas?" Twilight asks with a slight frown. So much for being polite...
"Actually, if you don't mind of course. I think I'm going to take my leave now, today was fun but I still have some things to do, Bye girls." You say turning around and about to walk away after the other mares had said there goodbye''s. A voice behind you stopped you, however.
"Wait, I'll take you." It was Rainbow that before you could even reply once again had you in her grip and was taking off. Several seconds later, both of you were freely soaring through the sky. Luckily, this time Rainbow was flying at a relaxing speed. This way it actually felt quite comfortable. Several minutes later, both of you had arrived back at your house and you now stood in front of your door.
"Thanks for the ride, Rainbow. I guess I'll see you tomorrow." You say as you’re about to open the door.
"Wait, I-I wanted to ask you something." She says a bit hesitantly. It was strange to see her like this because most of the time, she was the most confident person you knew.
"What is it?"
"H-have you ever slept on a cloud before?" She asks looking down at the ground while she rubbed her front hoof on the ground."
"No, today was my first ever actual interaction with a cloud."
"Well, if you want to... Y-you could sleep with m- err, sleep at my house tonight." You noticed the small vocal slip she had. We all make mistakes
"You mean a sleep over?"
"Yea, a sleep over." She says more clearly this time.
"Sure, but eh, how will I even get there." You ask a bit confused.
"Don't worry about that, just be sure to get your stuff ready before 8pm." She says quickly before dashing off into the distance. You could have sworn you could hear her yell 'woo hoo' but you weren't sure about that. A sleep over it is then.
While thinking about the recent events and about tonights sleep over, you turn around and walk into your house to start packing your stuff. It wasn't all that much. A toothbrush and your pyjamas. Enough time to take a small nap...
~~~~
"Hey, Anon, you in there?!" Loud yelling could be heard as you are abruptly awoken from your slumber.
"Fmrg, wa what? Yea! I'm coming, give me a minute!" You shout as you stand up from your couch and quickly scoot towards your bag, grabbing it and returning to the door. Once you open the door you are greeted by the overly excited rainbow-maned mare.
"C’mon slowpoke, lets get going." She says as she grabs hold of you and rockets into the sky without warning, thus leaving you screaming as a little girl once more throughout your trip.
"Please! Slow down or I am going to-" you start emitting fake gagging noises to catch her attention.
"Hold on buddy, no vomiting allowed." She states as she slows down to a reasonable speed. "Besides, we're already here.
Once you look up, you see the majestic cloud fortress before you as it floats silently through the sky's. How is that even possible, why don't the clouds just spread apart. After all these months here in equestria, you've learned a few things. One of them being 'There is always an explanation, magic.'
"Wow, this place is amazing!" You enviously say as Rainbow lands safely on the clouds and releases you from her grip.
"Like this? Wait until you see the inside."
You follow the grinning mare in to her house and immediately realise what she was talking about. Everything was made out of clouds. The walls,the furniture, the kitchen, the doors and as for the windows... well they were simply holes.
"And this, is where we sleep tonight." She says as she leads you into a relatively small room.
"We?" You ask confused.
"Well, yeah... There is only one bed."
"Oh don't worry about it, I'll sleep on the couch. " you say walking out of the room.
"Nonono, I insist, there is plenty of room for the both of us." She says, refusing to give in.
You weren't a fan of this, not at all actually. Back on earth, if you truly wanted to remain friends, this was a taboo. Even though you knew Rainbow Dash very well and know that she would never try anything funny, this was still going to be extremely awkward.
Your mind returns to reality when Rainbow suddenly stretches her muzzle extremely wide and lets out an overly exaggerated yawn.
"A-are you tired yet?" She asks after finishing the yawn. Tired? Its not even 10pm yet, there's something strange happening here.
"Are you?" You ask.
"W-well yeah, kinda. You know, with the picnic n stuff." Hmm; seems legit.
"If you insist." You say calmly. Her face turns from insecure to a beaming smile.
"Ok quick, follow me!" What the heck is wrong with this mare?
She was way ahead of you and when you reach her room, she was already laying on the bed tapping the open spot next to her. Awkward...
"Ehh, okay..." you say carefully sliding onto the bed. "I guess this is goodnight." You turn around facing your back towards Rainbow Dash. Instead of hearing a normal 'goodnight' you hear a slight gasp from behind you and nothing more but silence. Moments later you could feel a soft object pressing against your back.
“G-goodnight An-” Rainbow’s voice slowly cracks away. Quickly you turn around facing yourself towards Rainbow again, it was too dark to see but you could hear she was letting out soft whimpers.
“Hey, what's wrong, Dash?” You say patting randomly around you, after you turned around she was nowhere to find, only focussing on the sound could you guess where she had shuffled off to. After a while you finally feel something soft and pony shaped.
“Nevermind, you shouldn’t worry about it.” She answers in a depressing tone.
“Okay, but remember; I’m here if you want to talk about it.” You say pulling her close into an embrace. You could feel her relax from your friendly gesture, and after a couple of moments you break the hug, slowly moving away from her and just before she was out of reach, you place a small kiss on her cheek.
“Goodnight, Rainbow Dash.” I hope that cheers her up a bit, what could have caused the sudden breakdown? Just when you turned your body around once again you could feel the cloud bed shifting, the next moment Rainbow had her wings around you and was softly nuzzling the back of head.
“Thank you...” She whispers softly. “C-could you hold me?”
A small smile crept on your face. Instead of answering, you simply wrapped your arms around her, pressing her softly against your chest as you could feel her breath softly pouring over your you.
“Now try to get some sleep.”
~~~~
Slowly you sit up straight on the cloud bed and stretch your body. Hmm, no pops? Damn clouds are comfy! Internally smiling, you look around the room for Rainbow, but she is nowhere to be seen. Last night... Once again you smile. I’m pretty sure I know who the perfect mare is. You stand up and exit the room, leading yourself to the living room.
For some odd reason, it was completely dark. What? I’m pretty sure there were holes all over the walls yesterday... You creep in a couple of steps.
“SURPRISE!!!” A whizz of Pink catches you off guard, making you tremble.
“Wha-what Pinkie Pie, The hell you doing here?” You ask confused as you stand back up again.
“Don’t be silly, we know all about last night!”
“We?” Only then you realize that behind the Pink pony, there were several other ponies. Mares to be specific, the ones who you picnicked with yesterday.
“Ooh Ooh, Anon has something important to say! C’mon c’mon!” Instantly, the mares move aside and reveal Rainbow standing sheepishly behind them.
“Psst, what are you waiting for. Ask her out!” Pinkie whispers in your ear. Hmm, seems they are a step ahead of me. Not that I mind...
You scrape your throat and get ready for the big words.
“Rainbow, wi-” Once again you are cut off, not in an unpleasant way this time. Rainbow dashed over in a split second grasping you in a tight hug as she pressed her lips firmly against yours, you could hear a small squeak escape her mouth during the kiss. Hehe, not so tough after all. After a few seconds, she breaks the kiss.
“I already know, big guy. But why did it have to take so long!” She says playfully hitting your shoulder.
“Better late than never,” you say with a small smile.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Lets get this party started!”
THE END?!?!