Years ago, when the ponies were just fillies, just after the end of the last day of school:
“Rainbow Dash, what does it mean when a colt says a filly is ‘hot’?” Rarity asked.
“Well it can mean one of two things, why who said that?” Dash replied.
“Well Big Macintosh wouldn’t stop saying it to me at school, what does that mean?”
“RARITY! Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?!?! It means that you’re… well… pretty.”
“Well that’s not so bad.” Rarity said, confused why Rainbow was so angry.
“No, not like that.” Dash explained, “It means it in a bad way. It’s DEFINITELY not something you wanna be called, at least not at this age. Here, I’ll explain this later, but right now I need to go teach Big Mac a lesson.”
Rarity didn’t fully understand what Dash meant,—how could being called pretty be bad?—but she trusted Rainbow Dash completely. “Go Dash!” she cheered with a big smile. Dash winked as she flew off, a crash landing here and there, but no pony’s perfect.
When Dash got to the apple farm, Big Macintosh was already outside, no pony else was around.
“What were you thinking?!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
Big Mac got a confused look on his face but said nothing.
“What you said to Rarity today! That she’s hot.”
Big Mac got a devious grin on his face, but still was silent.
“Oh, so now you decide to keep your mouth shut.” Rainbow Dash said then gave him a kick, hard.
“Oww! What was that for?!” exclaimed Big Mac.
“Three reasons: One, so you would talk to me, two, so you’d stop making that creepy face, and three, because of what you said to Rarity!”
“It was a compliment!” Big Macintosh said in his defense.
“Well she doesn’t need compliments like that! She’s still innocent!”
“But I only said the truth.”
“You could’ve kept that to yourself! You didn’t need to be such a perv.”
“Rainbow Dash, you’re a pervert.”
“Well, I guess you’re right.” Dash admitted.
“If you were a colt you would’ve said the same thing.”
“Well, yeah…. I guess we’re more alike than I thought.”
` “Eyup.” Big Mac said satisfied.
There was a short but awkward silence.
“You wanna be friends, or what?” Rainbow Dash said out of the blue to break the silence.
“Eyup.” he said again. And so it was; the beginning of a new friendship.
. . . . . . .
That night, Rainbow Dash had a seriously strange dream. It was of her and Big Macintosh. It was a flash of what could be their future. The two of them got married, they bought a house, they did all of the things that you’re typical newlyweds would do. Then Rainbow was about to have a baby. She had her little foal, and it was an orange pegasus. Dash understood the pegasus part, but why was is orange? Then, a mare walked into the room. She guessed this was Big Mac’s cousin or sister, because of her features, and her cutie mark was three red apples, sort of like how Big Macintosh had one green apple. The mare was orange, like the foal so that explained it’s colors. The doctors were just about to announce whether the foal was a colt or a filly, when Rainbow Dash woke up.
Every time Rainbow had a dream, it had ALWAYS been a message from Princess Celestia. So what the heck was that supposed to mean?! Did Celestia want Rainbow Mac to be a thing?! This was psychotic! Had the princess turned into some gossiping girly girl all of a sudden?! Dash understood that there was some rumor of Nightmare Who’s-a-what’s-it, the evil pony they run from on Nightmare Night, being another princess at some point who did the night jobs, and she somehow got locked in the moon or something, but still! Maybe the princess just decided to hire some random fangirl to be the princess of the night for her. Rainbow Dash didn’t know, but all she knew was that she HAD to tell Big Macintosh about this. This might be the most awkward conversation that she will ever have in her life, but this is what the princess asked for, so it MUST be done.
As Rainbow was flying to Sweet Apple Acres, and occasionally crashing, Rarity called to her. Rainbow decided she could take a break from her extremely important journey, but only if it was SUPER quick.
“So how’d it go?” Rarity asked, all smiles.
“Umm... How’d what go?” Rainbow asked. She’d COMPLETELY forgotten about what she was supposed to do for Rarity.
“Kicking Big Mac’s butt, remember?”
“Oh yeah! About that, Rarity.... umm.... well, I kinda became friends with him.... and that’s where I’m off to right now because he and I have some really important business to discuss.... so.... umm.... gotta fly!”
Trying to hold down the tears swelling up in her eyes, Rarity yelled, “Oh. My. GOODNESS!!! RAINBOW DASH! I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND! SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING BAD ABOUT ME AND YOU GO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THEM?! AND NOW HE’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME, HUH? GOTTA HURRY, DASHIE! GOTTA GO TALK TO BIG MACINTOSH! THE BIG BULLY! I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY HE’S A BULLY, ‘CAUSE APPARENTLY I’M NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO TELL!” she was shrieking now.
“Rarity... Uggh, calm down. You’re so dramatic sometimes, why don’t you just chill out already?” Rainbow Dash said. It was probably useless; she could barely hear herself over that wailing.
“Calm down, Dash? Calm down? I don’t think I’m the one who needs to calm down! I’m not the one who abandons her friends.” Rarity finished as she slammed the door to her boutique.
“Uggh. That girl.” Rainbow said as she took off, crashed, and took off again.
When she got to Sweet Apple Acres, Big Mac was out pulling the apple cart. She attempted to make a smooth landing, but ended up losing some feathers and gaining some branches. And well, a tree. Big Mac was laughing his head off.
“Okay, I understand me being stuck in a tree must look really funny--she snorted at the idea--but look we really need to talk. See, I got this dream, and whenever I get a dream there’s always a message from the princess involved in it.” she paused to see if he had had any weird dreams the night before but he waited for her to go on, so she did. She told him everything from her dream, down to the very color the doctors were wearing. It got more, and more awkward as she went on. He just stood there listening silently. “And well, I promise you I’m not making this up, and I don’t know why, but for some reason.... Ithinktheprincessistryingtogetustogether.” she squeezed out with every drop of pride she had left.
Big Macintosh waited a couple more seconds to make sure that Rainbow was done talking, then he said, “Well the only thing that really stands out to me about your dream is my sister. You described her perfectly, accept that she was older, are you sure you’ve never seen her before?”
Rainbow Dash thought really hard. “I don’t think so.” she said.
“Then that must be it!” he said with a chuckle, “You’ve never met my sister!”
Big Mac helped her down, then they both started running towards the door. Dash waited outside for Big Mac to come out, but a filly emerged instead. Dash didn’t know why she was so astounded by this filly, but it was just so dejavu. It was like going back in time from the mare she’d seen in her dream. She just had something so.... familiar about her. Like they’d known each other forever even though they’d just met today.
As Rainbow was staring at her, she said, “What d'ya want?”
Big Mac stepped out and introduced the two fillies, “Applejack, this is Rainbow Dash. Rainbow, this is Applejack.”
“Applejack, huh? Well hi, Applejack.” said Rainbow Dash, reaching out her hoof (she was gonna have to say that name later to get the feel of it).
“Uggh. I have work to get to.” said Applejack angrily and stomped out to the orchard.
“She’s just cranky ‘cause she’s tired.” said Big Mac, “Maybe if you come over tomorrow she’ll be in a better mood.”
“Okay.” Rainbow said with a smile. She was starting to like this place.
“Well I’d better get to doing my work as well, we’ve got a big order to fill.”
“Alright.” said Dash, “See you tomorrow?”
“Eyup.”
“Bye then.” she said then took off.
When Big Macintosh was out of earshot, she started saying, “Applejack, Applejack, Applejack, Applejack, Applejack....” Fortunately her next crash was outside of the orchard.
As Dash was flying home, she saw Rarity playing with some new pony. It was still light out, so she flew down to see what they were doing.
“Hey can I play with you guys?” Rainbow asked the two fillies.
“No. We don’t want any bullies playing with us.” Rarity said stubbornly.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” the new filly asked.
“She has been bullying me, and I refuse to play with someone who might hurt me.” Rarity said.
“What? You didn’t even give me a chance to explain what I was doing.” Rainbow Dash said in her defense.
“Well I don’t give second chances to bullies.”
“That’s it!” Dash said with a charge in Rarity’s direction.
Before any physical harm was made, the other filly stepped in between the raging ponies.
“Stop!” she said, “You both have two totally different stories, and I don’t think we’re going to get to the bottom of this by fighting. Why don’t we go to Sugarcube Corner for some cupcakes to fix our problem?” she said with a grin.
Dash and Rarity gave each other one last glare then started walking in agreement with the new filly.
Once the three of them were at Sugarcube Corner eating their cupcakes in silence, or silence for the most part, the new filly spoke up.
“Alright guys, let’s tell each other some stories, to get to know each other better.” she said, still smiling, “I’ll go first. My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but you can call me Pinkie for short. I just moved here a couple days ago. The reason behind my move was because my parents didn’t think I was suited to work at the family rock farm. When I got my cutie mark that means I’m good at throwing parties, making friends, etcetera, they decided I belonged somewhere else. At the time, Mr. and Mrs. Cake had just gotten married, and wanted to have foals, but were too busy with their shop to have one. When Mr. and Mrs. Cake found out that I didn’t have a home, they decided that if I could help them by working at the store, I could live in their extra room upstairs. And that’s why I moved to Ponyville.” she finished.
“Ooooh! Me next, me next!” Rarity said. The excitement of getting to talk about herself had made her forget about her grudge against Dash. “Okay, okay, so first I was born. My parents were gonna call me Sparkles, but then when they saw me they were like, ‘a baby as beautiful as this must be a rarity’ and so....” she went on. And on. And on, “so then last week my parents told me they were gonna have another baby, and they don’t know if it’s gonna be a boy or a girl , if it’s a boy they’re gonna name him Curio. If it’s a girl they’re gonna name her Sweetie Belle. I really hope it’s a girl. I don’t want a brother ‘cause I heard they’re really annoying. If it’s a girl I can dress her up, and do her hair, and teach her everything I know about being a girl. And today I met Pinkie, and we were about to play dress up when Rainbow Dash came over.” she FINALLY finished.
“Your turn Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie said, cheerfully.
“Do I have to?” she asked.
“Well of course silly goose!” said Pinkie, who didn’t catch the worry in Rainbow’s voice.
“Well umm.... there’s not really much to talk about....” She actually had a LOT to talk about, she just didn’t WANT to remember it. “Well, I guess I have something.” she said. She looked around, the others were both waiting patiently. “Alright, well yesterday I became friends with Big Macintosh.” Rarity got a little upset about Dash bringing up the topic, but she was enjoying herself too much to say anything. “So then last night, I had this really weird dream involving him, and I knew it was from the princess.” Rarity gasped in envy of Rainbow’s contact with royalty. Rainbow Dash went on, “So Big Mac and I found out that the reason behind the dream was that I needed to meet his sister, Applejack. She wasn’t very hospitable, but I didn’t really mind. There was just something about that filly....” Dash drifted off into the fascinating memory for a second, but then snapped back. “I don’t really know what it was, but I know that she is who the princess wanted me to meet. I could just feel it. These last couple of days have been kinda weird, I’ve become friends with so many ponies, but I guess Ponyville is a pretty small town.”
When Rainbow Dash ended there was a short moment of silence. But that was soon broken by Pinkie Pie’s overly energetic clapping.
“That was great!” she said.
Rainbow Dash noticed that Pinkie was quite happy for someone with such a harsh past. She must’ve been ignoring it, like Rainbow was.
“How about,” Pinkie said, “we all get together and hang out tomorrow?!”
The ponies agreed, and all headed home. It was getting dark out, so they all went to sleep.
. . . . . . .
The next morning, Rainbow Dash got up bright and early: 10 o’clock, am. She took off roughly to Rarity’s boutique to get her to come out and play, but then was surprised to see Rarity riding away in the backseat of a carriage. They were both out of earshot of the other, so there conversation went like this: Dash shrugged as if to ask a question. Rarity did that coo coo sign where you make circles around the side of your head and pointed to her parents, then she made a disappointed face. Rainbow shrugged again, but this time only with one arm while pretending to eat a cupcake and gesturing to Sugarcube Corner with her hind legs. Rarity made a sad face. Then the carriage took a turn out of sight. Uggh. Dash made her way to Sugarcube Corner to see if Pinkie was able to keep her promise.
She walked into a crowded shop of exhausted looking ponies drinking mugs at a time of coffee and scarfing down donuts.
“Pinkie!” Rainbow called over all of the noise.
“Yes?!” Pinkie asked, peeking her head out of the kitchen.
“You busy?!” Dash asked, okay that sounded really stupid. She snorted but doubted Pinkie heard it.
“Uh, kinda!” she said noticing the mistake, “I might be able to play later though!”
“Okay, bye then?!”
“Yeah! See ya later!”
“Bye!”
Then Rainbow took off stumbling, and went to Sweet Apple Acres. She went to the barn and knocked on the door. She waited. And waited. And WAITED. Eventually some elderly pony came to the door. She was on a walker, and Rainbow could see why it took so long for her to get to the door.
“You must be Rainbow Dash.” the pony said.
“Uh, yeah, that’s me alright.” Dash said with a brief smile, had they been talking about her? “Can Applejack and/or Big Mac hang out?”
“Oh no filly, they’re out workin’ in the orchard right now. Big Mac wasn’t doing his job yesterday, so I’m ‘fraid they’ll be busy all day. I can tell ‘em you were here though. What’s your name sweetie?”
Dash felt guilty about distracting Big Mac now, but that feeling was soon change to confusion, “Umm... Rainbow Dash...”
“What are you here for?”
“Umm... Nevermind.” Rainbow said, “Bye.”
The old pony mumbled something then closed the door. Dash headed home. What was she going to do now? Rainbow Dash thought while crashing into the ground. She had got to stop doing that. Well no pony who’d said they could play could play.
Once home, Dash practiced flying. Though she needed the practice, Rainbow Dash easily got bored. What was the point in doing this anyway? She would just keep crashing. She needed something entertaining to do.
“Well this town obviously has nothing to offer.” she mumbled to herself and took to the skies.
She arrived in Cloudsdale, her birth city. It just seemed so hidden. Like every pony on the street had a secret that they never planned to share with you, and weren’t gonna give up without a fight. Everypony was so unfriendly, and every building so uninviting.
“Home, sweet home.” Dash said with a sigh of sarcasm.
She kept walking, avoiding that street. Rainbow eventually found herself walking in circles around the city. She discovered that boredom exists everywhere, and decided to test her knowledge. She closed her eyes and moved her feet, she was right, she knew every twist and turn of this place. Okay, maybe not every twist and turn she thought as she bumped into a trash can. Was she walking on.... gravel? What the heck, this was CLOUDSdale, and it was named that for a reason. Rainbow gave up and opened her eyes as she had no clue where she was anymore. This wasn’t gravel, this was dirt. Not even that, this was filth. Dash took to hovering with her wings to avoid walking on this stuff as she learned the purpose of pony shoes. Wait, was that.... a smear of blood? Rainbow looked up to see where she was. OH NO. No, no no no. She was in the alley. Trying to fly away, memories soon flooded her into a trauma.
Rainbow Dash is walking with her parents through the narrow alley.
“Dad, are you sure this is the right way?” says Dash.
“Yes honey, this is a shortcut. It’s going to get dark out soon and your mother and I think it would be best if we got home as quickly as possible.”
“Okay. Dad, why do we always need to be home before dark?”
“Because swee--”
Two stallions with ski masks approach the family quickly from behind. The mother and father start walking quicklier and pushing Dash ahead. They halt when three other stallions approach them from the front. Dash starts shaking.
“Give us all your bits.” says one of the stallions.
“Oh, we don’t have any money on us.” Dash’s mother says terrified.
“Hand it over!” another stallion says and picks the mother up by her shirt collar.
“No we really have nothing to give you!” says Dash’s dad.
A stallion starts swinging at her father.
“Run.” her mother whispers down to Rainbow, a tear escaping her eye.
Dash looks to see a space between two stallions and darts through. She runs away from the stallions that are now chasing her until she reaches a dead end. With no other logical escape, she takes to the skies. Though she is not usually a strong flyer, her skills exceed when she is in a time of need. The stallions are already starting to get tired, and they could not keep up with the filly. Eventually they gave up and flew back. Taking a moment to process what just happened, Rainbow Dash started to bawl. She reached the edge of Ponyville and began her new life.
She blinked back into reality. She backed away from that horrid place as if it were one of the stallions itself. She turned around and took off in a sprint. She rammed into a random pony, who asked if she was okay, but Rainbow didn’t stop to answer, she just flew off. And this wasn’t one of her extraordinary flying buzzes, this was a full fledged hot mess of a flight. Rainbow’s tears blurred her vision, which didn’t help.
Why was she so stupid?! Boredom?! That was no reason to come HERE! What was wrong with this demented pegasus?! She crashed into Ponyville about a mile from her house. Dash ran the rest of the way there. She didn’t need these stupid limbs on her back to remind her of her birth place. She got to her cloudhouse and just sat on her bed and continued her tear session. Then she heard somepony yelling outside of her door. She arose to see who was there. An earth pony stallion was on the ground looking up frustratedly at her house.
“Hello.” Rainbow said wiping her eyes and flying to the ground.
“Uh yes, is your mother or father home?” said the stallion.
What was he, a foal molester? “And why exactly should I tell you?”
The stallion looked exhausted. “Look, all I want to talk to an adult about paying the payments due on the house. Can you PLEASE just tell me if somepony is here presently who can discuss this with me?”
“No. Well I mean yes I’ll tell you, but the answer is no. You got that?”
“Dad?” said a small voice coming from inside the closed roof carriage the stallion had arrived.
“Hold on. Yes, sweetie?” said the stallion.
“Umm, can I get out of the carriage? Please? It’s just that there’s a rabbit... outside. It looks hurt. I really wanna help it. If that’s okay...” said the voice.
“Okay, but be CAREFUL this time Fluttershy. You know what happened last time.”
Wait, Fluttershy? That name sounded familiar....
“Thanks dad.”
The stallion got back on track as a yellow pegasus with a butterfly cutie mark stepped out of the carriage. “Anyway, will you please tell the owner of this house that a stallion from the bank stopped by to speak about mortgage payments?”
“Fine...” Rainbow said slowly, more interested in the filly in the near distance.
This disturbed the stallion. “Alright, well we need to be goi--”
Fluttershy was swooped into the air by the wind. That girl always was such a lightweight... Rainbow Dash realized what she had to do as she took off after the helpless pegasus. No flying problems.
“Rainbow Dash, is that you?” Fluttershy said astounded.
“Yeah, long time no see Fluttershy!”
“How did you get here?! I fell here during that pegasus race, and I loved it so much I wanted to stay, and my dad needed a new start, so we moved here!”
“Oh my gosh, everypony thought you’d run away! I got here, ‘cause well.... I needed a new start too....” Dash said pushing away memories.
“That’s so great! We need to get together soon!”
“Totally!”
The stallion cleared his throat and tapped just above his hoof to signal the fillies that it was time for them to leave. Fluttershy was still in Dash’s arms making this a quite awkward moment.
“Oh yes, I’d better be going.” said Fluttershy with a blush, “I guess I’ll see you around.”
“See ya later, Fluttershy.” Dash said with a smile.
Her day had just been made.