Rainbow Dash was in free-fall. Yet, it was not the speed, the adrenaline, or the wind in her mane that she was focusing on. The multicolored Mach cone beginning to form in front of her was not for her; not this time. This time, it was for only one pony in the stands: the only pony that mattered to her. She loved all of her friends and was loyal to her fellow members of the Wonderbolts, but, that one pony was worth more to her than anything in all of Equestria.
No, she thought as she pressed against the speed barrier, in the entire Universe.
She broke through the barrier releasing an explosion of color. She pulled-up, and dived again, releasing another explosion of light and sound. She then flew through the two explosive rings of color, forming a sideways figure-eight pattern with her rainbow contrails.
She had once designed the Sonic Double Rainboom to prove that she was the best. Now, she did it for the only pony in the crowd she could see; the only one that mattered. The one pony who made her feel like a winner even when she lost a race.
She landed in synchronization with her team. The roaring crowd was a million miles away. Faces blurred and became invisible as she focused on that one smiling face with the beautiful dark-pink eyes.
The crowd, her teammates, the stadium; they all faded away until it was just the two of them, floating in the clear sky. They were sitting on the lone cloud looking out at the sunset; the purples and oranges blended and reflected majestically within the pony’s eyes. Rainbow leaned closer as she felt the feathery embrace of the pony beside her draw her in. Rainbow wrapped her in her own wing as they watched the sunset…
…Rainbow jolted upward, nearly falling out of her bed. In her fitful, restless sleep, she had wrapped herself in her sheet. She felt cold. Her cocoon and bed coverings being soggy with sweat were probably not helping. She looked down and saw her copy of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone lying on top of her. She quickly set it on her nightstand. After exhausting Twilight’s copies of the beloved series, she had purchased her own and had begun to reread the series for (what seemed to her) the bazillionth time.
“What is wrong with me?” She mumbled, asking the mustard pegasus on the cover as she bravely escaped the gapping maw of a ferocious crocodile reaching up from the river below. “Maybe, it’s about time I talked to Twilight about these dreams.”
For several weeks, she had been having strange thoughts and dreams. Her wandering mind was not causing any problems with her work or interactions with her friends, so she had not bothered with making an issue out of it by bringing it to anyone’s attention. Now, with her feelings seeming to grow, she felt as though she needed to talk to somepony.
She needed to talk to Twilight.
It took her several minutes to begin the process of getting up and out of bed, then another couple of minutes to get untangled from her bed sheets. Finally free from the soggy cocoon, she balled up her bedding and through it into her laundry room atop the already messy heap of towels and cloths before heading into her raincloud shower.
On her way to the kitchen, she paused, catching the eyes of her hero: the one pony who, in her eyes, was more awesome than she was; more awesome than the Wonderbolts. She quickly looked away and cantered down the hall, and away from her room.
Normally she would wolf down her toast in one bite before flying off to hang out with her friends or her job with Ponyville’s weather patrol. Usually, it was because she had slept in. Today, she was sitting at her small table, nibbling at the toasted bread, a jar of apple-butter left open in front of her.
She had been tapping her hoof, waiting impatiently for her toaster to finish, when she had noticed that her watch claimed that it was just past eight. At first she thought that the battery inside must have died, until a quick check of every other clock in her home revealed the same thing. Even the sun’s position seemed to argue against her theories that somepony (probably Pinkie Pie) was pranking her by turning her clocks back.
She really did not mind the early start. It allowed her to enjoy her apple-buttered toast; something she was only able to do on days she had nothing planned and was not in a rush to go anywhere or train. Licking the knife clean, she threw it into the dishwasher and put the remaining apple-butter away.
“Guess I shouldn’t put this off any longer,” she told herself. She stood in her doorway, frozen in place. She quickly shook herself loose.
Rainbow Dash does not get nervous. I’m the best around, and nopony is going to keep me down, she thought, trying to psych herself up.
She threw herself upward into the (mostly) clear blue sky. She twisted around, plummeting back toward the earth below. The cool morning breeze weaved through her mane and coat as she freefell. There was no better feeling for her. While her friends each had their own vices for conquering and calming their minds, she had this.
She unfolded her wings from her sides and spread them wide, catching the air flying past. She pulled up at the last possible moment leaving an outburst of dust in her wake.
Her eyes grew wide with shock, and then determination, as she careened toward the library’s front door. For a split-second, she doubted that she was shedding her speed fast enough. She dug her hooves into the ground, trying to prevent the inevitable collision. She closed her eyes as dirt exploded all around her.
For several long tense seconds, she stood still, her eyes closed tight.
Cautiously, she opened one eye, and then the other.
“Hah!” She laughed at the door inches from her nose. She nearly fell over in surprise as it opened without warning.
“Rainbow,” Twilight almost asked in confusion before realizing she had nearly scared her friend. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you were standing right there.”
Rainbow Dash quickly composed herself, inspecting one of her hooves as if everything else was boring and nothing had happened. “No prob, Twilight; was just coming by to visit.”
Twilight studied her friend skeptically as she posted the “open” sign on the door before inviting her inside. “You know you are always welcome to visit: it is a public library, after all.”
“Cool! You know, ever since I got my own copies of the Daring Do saga, I haven’t been her as often.” Rainbow pretended to be looking through the bookshelves. “I was wondering if you had any suggestions.”
Real cool Rainbow. That excuse got you inside, now you just have to bring up ‘her’.
Several minutes of discussion and a pile of books later, Rainbow felt that the time was right.
“Are you alright?” Twilight asked. “You seem to be a little uneasy. Well, more uneasy than you normally are in a library.”
Well, that saves me having to think of a way of bringing it up.
“Nope. Nothing’s wrong with me,” she said a little too quickly. She looked at her friend and her wings quivered slightly. “Okay, you got me.”
“You don’t have to be afraid; you know you can talk to me, to any of our friends, about anything.” Twilight glanced down apologetically at her wings. “You girls helped me to realize that just because I look different now, doesn’t mean that I am different. I feel like someponies in town still look at me as a Princess now; but I know that I still have you girls. I am still Twilight Sparkle. I am still your friend. You can talk to me about anything.”
“Yea! You can tell us anything.”
“Gah!” Twilight shot up into the air. “Pinkie! What did I tell you about sneaking up on me like that?” She looked down at her friend crossly, before hovering back to the floor, beside a doubled over, guffawing Rainbow Dash.
“I’m sorry, Twilight; I really didn’t mean to. You have to admit that it was pretty funny.”
Twilight chuckled lightly. “So, what did you need to talk to us about, Rainbow?”
Rainbow Dash pulled herself back to her hooves, looking anywhere but at her two friends in a vain attempt to hide her reddening face.
“You have nothing to be worried about.” Pinkie had streaked to the front door, removed the “open” sign, and locked the door behind her.
“Spike is out delivering some documents to the Mayor, so it will just be the three of us.” Twilight added.
Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. It’s now or never, she gulped.
“I think I have a teensy, tiny...” she mumbled the last word.
“What was that? You need to speak up.” Twilight offered, calmly.
“I have a cr…”
“You have a crumb bush! Twilight? What’s a crumb bush?”
“I have a crush!” Rainbow almost screamed. She flung her fore hooves over her mouth and plopped down, her ears folded over. “I think I like somepony,” she almost whispered.
“Aww, our little Dashie’s falling in love.”
“I’m not in love, Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash was blushing even more now. “I don’t even know how you can fall in love with a fictional character.”
“Wh-Huh!?” Twilight gasped.
“You have a waifu,” Pinkie stated with a nod of understanding.
“A what now?” Rainbow’s reddening face began to return to its normal sky-blue as confusion took over.
“You have nothing be worried about,” Twilight sat down beside her.
“Yea, plenty of ponies have at least one waifu in their lives.” Pinkie hopped over, sitting opposite Twilight.
After a few moments of thought, Rainbow asked, “So… what is a waifu?”
“While I have never heard of it being called a waifu before,” Twilight explained. “What you seem to be referring to is when a pony begins to see traits that she is attracted to in a fictional character; sometimes it is a character that she aspires to be. Other times… well, they say love works in mysterious ways for a reason. I’m sure it applies to a waifu as well.” Twilight’s own face reddened a bit.
Rainbow got the awkward feeling that she was thinking about her own fictional crushes. “So, what am I supposed to do about it?”
“Your crush?” Twilight blinked a few times, her train of thought broken.
“You don’t need to do anything,” Pinkie beamed. “As long as you are treating the pony of your dreams as being real,” she added. “Even imaginary ponies deserve respect and compassion.”
Rainbow Dash took offense at that, jumping into the air. “Daring Do is the greatest pony ever! I would never think of hurting her.” She collapsed again, hiding her face amongst her forearms.
Pinkie and Twilight shared a quick glance, before comforting their friend as she recoiled in embarrassment. Her face was as red as the streak in her rainbow mane.
“We would never doubt you,” Twilight soothed, stroking her pegasus friend’s mane.
Pinkie took the opportunity to barrage Rainbow Dash with questions. “So, have you asked her out yet? How often do you see each other? What do you do together?”
Twilight glared at Pinkie, mouthing, Not now.
“Well -” Rainbow, slowly got up, although was still hesitant about her situation being normal “- in my dreams and imaginations, I think we already are together. Usually, I dream about being captain of the Wonderbolts. I focus and feed on the roar of the crowd as I wow them with my radicalness.” She looked at her friends and grinned, striking a heroic pose. “I do try to do at least one trick for my friends though.
“But, lately, my shows have been for her. Not just one trick for her and the rest for me: the whole entire show is for her.” She relived her dream from the night before, and how she had even given the mustard pegasus her greatest trick. “After the show, we usually just sit on a cloud and watch the sunset, or maybe it’s the sunrise, I’m not sure. But we’re together.”
“That is sooo sweet.”
“I’m going to have to agree with Pinkie. I didn’t even know you had a sweet side.”
Rainbow palled and looked to each of her friends, “I am not sweet! I’m awesome! If you tell anypony about this…” She could not bring herself to threaten her best friends and took a step back. “Just, please don’t tell anypony. Please!” She was on her knees, her front hooves clasped together.
Pinkie and Twilight looked to one another and in perfect synchronization crossed their chests, flapped their arms, and tapped their left eyes while uttering the “Pinkie Promise”:
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
Rainbow Dash let out a puff of air in relief. “You guys are awesome. I still feel a bit weird about this though.” Rainbow sat in thought before asking another question, “What if she isn’t in character?”
Twilight sat in thought, pondering what Rainbow had said.
“I mean, she’s brave and adventurous and everything; so why would she go to a Wonderbolts show only to end up sitting on a cloud with me?”
“She is in character,” Twilight began after giving Rainbow’s question some thought. “Well, at least how you interpret her.”
“You know that she has a sweet side just waiting to burst out, and you are the lucky pony who gets to see it!” Pinkie added while bouncing up and down.
“So, what you’re saying is that I get to see the real Daring Do, not just her awesomeness.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin in thought.
“Well duh, that’s exactly what we said,” Pinkie replied. “Story books can’t show you every detail of a pony’s life, so they cut out all the stuff that the author thinks is boring. Your brain” – Pinkie tapped Rainbow’s head – “fills in all that missing personality stuff that makes a character from imaginary into something real.”
Rainbow looked at her cheerful friend in awe, “That, actually seems intelligent.”
Pinkie giggled in response.
“Pinkie’s logic is sound,” Twilight finally added, attempting to hide her own amazement. “I have held the theory for some time that a waifu, as Pinkie called it, is just our minds reaction to a well-developed character. Although,” she trailed off, “I have found instances where the opposite is true. I have found ponies that develop feelings for underdeveloped characters as well. I usually explain that away as them just supplementing another pony they actually know in that character’s place.”
Feeling much better, Rainbow glared at her friends; a mischievous grin worked its way across her face. “Now that I’ve told you mine, you should tell me yours.”
Twilight stepped back, her eyes darting to-and-fro, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Oh, come on, Twilight,” Pinkie pleaded. “Even Princesses can have a waifu.”
“Well…” Twilight hesitated a moment. Rainbow Dash maintained her grin while Pinkie gave her puppy dog eyes. “Alright, fine. My current fictional crush is on Con Mane.”
“The secret agent? Dude! That’s awesome. Would have pegged an egg-head like you for going for one of them science-y or bookish characters.” Rainbow Dash chuckled, elbowing the blushing alicorn.
“Yes, well, he’s strong and independent. And yes, Rainbow, he is very intelligent and resourceful. I put some of his books in that pile for you, if you’ll remember.” She turned to Pinkie, “What about you? Surly, you have had a crush or two.”
“No way,” Rainbow answered for the pink mare. “Pinkie Pie only has eyes for cupcakes.”
“I too have had a crush,” Pinkie countered, glaring at Rainbow and then turning her glare to Twilight, “and, don’t call be Shirley.” She resumed her smiling once again, while looking up into her memories, “Well, first I liked Queen Frostine, and then moved on to Lord Licorice.”
“Isn’t Lord Licorice the villain in the Candy Land series?”
“Silly, Twilight. He’s not a real villain, he’s –” Pinkie twirled her mustache as she tried to think of the best word “– misunderstood.”
Rainbow almost asked where Pinkie’s mustache had come from, but stopped herself. She had one last question that was repeatedly poking her mind with a pointy stick. “Have either of you written anything about it?” she asked. “You’re relationships, I mean.”
“Like a self-insert fan fiction?”
“Nope!” Pinkie responded. “I’ve been in a couple, though.”
Rainbow Dash and Twilight stared at their odd friend. They rolled their eyes and just marked it as Pinkie being Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie waved at the air, as if saying hello to a pony only she could see.
