Rebuilding a Rainbow

"Are you sure you don't want any toast?" Rainbow Dash asked as she nibbled on a piece of toast she had cooked with a small thunder cloud that she kept to use as a toaster.

"Yeah, I don't really like toast, but you seem to have an obsession with it." Soarin replied as he took a seat by her at the kitchen table.

"I do not have an obsession with toast," Rainbow said flatly. "I just eat it a lot because Pinkie usually brings a couple loaves of her homemade bread over every time she visits me. "She explained.

"All i've seen you eat the days i slept over was toast ,and i doubt you eat anything different when i'm not around. I mean do you even have food in your fridge?" He said with a chuckle as he got up and opened the fridge the reveal just what he had said, nothing. "You really don't have anything in your house, but toast? Why don't you go fill this thing up?" He asked.

Rainbow just shrugged, not really knowing the exact reason why she chose to live off of Pinkie's bread instead of shopping for more food.

"Well have you gone shopping even once since you got back three months ago?" Soarin asked and Rainbow shook her head no, so he got lost in his thoughts, trying to piece the mystery together. "I know why your living off bread then!" He announced a couple minutes later, now sitting by her at the table again.

"Okay why am i living off bread then?" She asked with a sigh as she played with the crumbs of toast that were left over from her eaten breakfast.

"Well, this had to have started after you got back, since i always seen you eating some little snack you brought from home around the practice area before that. So, i figure that you are living off of bread because it is delivered to your house by Pinkie , which means you don't have to leave your house to eat and you don't have to face your fear of being out in public alone where somepony could grab you again," He said with a smile, proud that he had figured out the small mystery.

Rainbow just shrugged again and stayed quiet, still playing with the crumbs of toast.

"Dash i think it's time you get out of the house and face your fear, because chances are nothing is going to happen to you so you'll get over it and not have to live off that toast," He added.

"No, i don't think it is time to do that," Rainbow said, her facial expression becoming angry. "I'm perfectly fine with my toast."

Soarin sighed and rested his head on his hooves. "Calm down killer," he said as he watched her mad expression fade. He then offered, "I can help you shop if you want."

"Your morning practice begins soon and you have to go get some breakfast before you go, so you should leave," Rainbow said, calmly as she glanced away from Soarin's stare. She was trying to get him to leave so she wouldn't have to talk about her fear any longer because she knew she would probably start tearing up again and she hated those stupid tears.

"I guess i should," he mumbled as he glanced to the large, self standing clock that was placed in front of them. "Well i'll see you at the academy, i guess," he mumbled on and got up, walking to the door. He sighed as he stood in the doorway and then opened his wings to take to the skies. He hated seeing her so afraid like this and could sense she wanted him gone, so he left even though he still had plenty of time to do everything that he needed to.

"Lock the door," Rainbow called after him, brushing the crumbs off the table with a sigh.

"Get your flank down here Rainbow Dash," Apple Jack roared into a megaphone from below Rainbow's cloud house.

Rainbow heard this yelling from the couch she was lounged on, a Daring Doo book sitting wide open in front of her, but she didn't  even get up. "Ignore her," she told herself as she tried to find the last word she had read in the book and pick up from there.

"Rainbow Dash lets go ya' missed the last eleven meetings and Ahm not lettin' ya miss this one," Apple Jack continued to roar over the megaphone.

At this point Rainbow had lost her concentration in the book she was reading and closed it with her nose. "I'm missing this one too Apple Jack, give up already, you always do," she mumbled to herself as she got off the couch, hitting the book to the floor.

"Hey! ah heard that," Apple Jack said this time without the megaphone because she was walking through the front door and knew she could be heard perfectly fine.

"How did you unlock the door?" Rainbow asked as she turned to face the farmer pony. "I'm pretty sure i told Soarin to lock it on his way to practice this morning."

"Well that fancy colt-friend of yours didn't listen," Apple Jack responded as she walked closer to Rainbow Dash. "Now lets go, the girls and ah are meetin' at ma farm and your commin,'" she added, skipping right to the reason why she had entered the home anyway.

"He isn't my colt-friend, i don't know where you and Rarity got that idea from, but your wrong," Rainbow corrected. "And i'm still not going!"

"How bout' this, we hoof wrestle for it. If ah win then your commin' down to the farm with me, but if you win then ah will leave ya alone. Deal?" She asked, already predicting Rainbow's answer simply because she knew how competitive the cyan mare was.

"You've got a deal," Rainbow said with a smile and walked to her kitchen so that they could hoof wrestle on her kitchen table, Apple Jack followed not short behind. "Alright ready?" She asked.

"No first i want ya to Pinkie Promise that you will come down to ma farm with me if i win," Apple Jack added with a smile and Rainbow frowned, but nodded and then went through the verbal agreement they knew as a Pinkie Promise.

"Now come on sugar cube, the girls are over here," Apple Jack said as she walked through the fields of Apple trees until they reached the barn. Rainbow Dash trailed behind her cautiously checking the rows for a sign of any pony else hiding behind them. "Hurry up Rainbow, i thought you were the fastest in Equestria," Apple Jack added and Rainbow sighed then ran to catch up with her.

"Rainbow darling, It's so nice to see you someplace rather than that filthy house of yours," Rarity said with a smile as she got off a purple cushion she had brought to sit on and walked over to great the cyan mare.

"Rarity your being a big meenie," Pink said as she walked over to stand by Rarity.

Rarity simply sighed and apologized as Twilight called everypony over to have a seat.

Rainbow sat on a barrel of hay in between Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy as the other five friends began to chat amongst each other. "Um, Rainbow Dash are you okay?" Fluttershy suddenly whispered towards Rainbow so that she wouldn't draw any attention to their side conversation. "Yeah, i'm fine Flutters," Rainbow whispered back as she glanced to the butter colored mare who didn't seem to believe her, but she said nothing more, not wanting to bother her friend. "Okay, maybe i'm a little less than okay," Rainbow whispered still looking at Fluttershy who nodded and said, "I knew that, i just didn't want to bother you." Rainbow smiled at Fluttershy and said, "You could never bother me Flutters, your far to kind." Fluttershy smiled back at her and then was about to ask her what was wrong when Apple Jack interrupted their conversation.

"So how was your weekend Fluttershy?" She asked as she glanced to Fluttershy who in return glanced to her.

"Oh it was fine, thank you. Angel bunny and i were learning some new recipes out of a book i borrowed from Twilight," She responded. "He wasn't very happy with the outcome though and threw the book at me, but i managed to calm him down with his favorite treat from Sugar Cube Conner." She explained with a smile even though the other mares were clearly not pleased with her spoiled bunny's behavior. But, they didn't say anything, not wanting to hurt her feelings because they knew she and that bunny were very close. The group instead turned their attention to Rainbow Dash, since the rest of them had already shared their weekend stories before Fluttershy and Dash began paying attention.

"So Rainbow, how was your weekend?" Twilight asked and Rainbow merely shrugged.

"It was okay i guess, i didn't really do anything," she said and notice Rarity begin shuffling through her saddle bags.

"Oh Rainbow Dash, there is no need for you to hold back on your exciting weekend for us. Go ahead tell everypony what you did. Start with when i brushed your mane for you," Rarity said, trying to buy herself more time to find the item she was looking for.

"Well, Rarity came over with Scootaloo and she brushed my mane, put some of her make-up on me and then stuffed me in a dress, it was horrible," Rainbow said flatly and Rarity rolled her blue eyes.

"She looked amazing, but then she took off and i guess got rid of all my hard work," Rarity said with a sigh and then brought her attention back to her saddle bags. "I actually have a picture from Dash's weekend in here somewhere." She added. "Just give me a second to..ah! I found it, never mind," She said with a smile as she used her horn to levitate a picture from the saddle bags and onto the floor. "Everypony take a look."

The others crowded around the picture quickly, leaving Rainbow and Fluttershy to wait for them to clear up to get a glimpse of the picture, but they seemed to be looking at it for an awfully long time which aggravated Rainbow. So, she grabbed onto Fluttershy's left hoof and flew up into the air, pulling the shy mare behind her until she started to use her own wings to fly over the picture with Rainbow. "All i see is me napping, but i do that all the time, so whats the big deal?" She asked and the others backed up a little bit to reveal the second half of the picture.

"Rarity told me this was after you and Soarin had a little fun! I wish i could have been there too! I like fun!," Pinkie chuckled and Rarity sighed.

"Pinkie! You were not supposed to say that!" She said as the other mares looked to Rainbow, shocked.

From that moment on everypony seemed to be talking over each other, while Rainbow sunk to the ground and tried to listen to what they all had to say.

"I hope you were safe, i have a whole book on this stuff from my studies in school. You should really take it out and look over to make sure everything is okay."

"Pinkie! I told you not to tell anyone that until we had solid proof!"

"Well, you should have made me Pinkie Promise, silly!"

"Oh my, Rainbow i'm sorry if i upset you earlier. You seemed down about the whole thing."

"Rainbow Dash you know what Granny Smith thinks bout' that sorta thing, and ah think that way too. Ya shouldn't have done it, ya should have been waitin' for marriage!"

After Apple Jack's comment Rainbow was mad. So, she stood up and yelled so that everypony would stop talking and look at her, it worked. Each face in the room was now directed at her, waiting to hear what she had to say about the picture they had been presented with. "Listen everypony, that isn't what you think it is," she began and then the others picked up again. They were talking to her, but all at once making her unable to follow what each of them had to say, but she didn't care and yelled, "I said listen!" Which brought every pony's attention back to her once more.

"What really happened is Soarin and i were leaving practice when he offered to fly me home, but i didn't want to fly i wanted to race and he agreed so that's what we did. Once we arrived at my house we were both tired and sweaty so i sent him to get a towel from my bathroom so that i could wipe the sweat off my face before going to bed while i sat on my bed waiting. I was exhusted from the racing and i fell asleep before he got back, so he wiped my face and then sat for a minute to try and get the strength to fly back to his house. But, we had raced pretty fast and a far distance, so he couldn't do it and decided to sleep over at my house, he must have been smiling because it felt good to rest, not because we just had 'fun'," she explain making all the mares in the room nod, like they had wanted it to not be true in the first place because they didn't.

"Oh, i'm so very sorry we accused you of that," Fluttershy said, being the first pony to speak which was a rare thing for her, but she felt a strong need to apologize. "We should have asked if you minded sharing with us before we jumped to conclusions."

"Yeah, ahm' real sorry Dash, i shouldnt' of gotten so angry at ya, before asking you if it was really try or not." Apple Jack added as she dipped her hat to Rainbow.

"You can still check out that book if you want, I don't think its been used since i was back at school with Celestia," Twilight offered but Rainbow refused the offer, not wanting to do any reading that didn't have to do with her favorite character Daring Doo.

"Oh Rainbow dear, i am so sorry as well. I shouldn't have told Pinkie to spy on you and take this picture and then none of this would have happened, I'm as bad as that Gabby Gums column was. I hope you can forgive Pinkie and I for it all." Rarity apologized.

"Yeah Dashie, i'm so sorry that i did that i didn't want to make you all angry like that, because i love to see you smile!" Pinkie added, raising her voice on the last part about the smile and flashing a big smile of her own. Her smile was so large it made Dash smile back at her even though she still didn't like being called Dashie.

"Alright, alright, i forgive all of you," she said with a chuckle as they all closed in to wrap their hooves around her.

"Group hug! I love group hugs!" Pinkie shouted as she squeezed Rainbow happily.

Dash smiled at this and let them hug her back. She felt so loved in that moment that she totally forgot about her fear of leaving the house. She had her friends and that was all she needed to coax her out of her fearful shell because she believed as long as they were there nothing bad would happen to her again. "I guess Soarin was right," She thought as the girls slowly began to break off of the hug.