Starswirl Academy - Original Rainbow Dash Route

Early Morning 2

Description: Deciding to put their differences aside to help AJ, you and Rainbow make a deal.

My alarm clock shouted me awake. I prayed for another hour of sleep, and rolled out of bed when my prayers were not answered.

I could barely keep my eyes open as I walked to class. The bad mood Rainbow put me in kept me awake for most of the night. I didn’t remember what time I finally got to sleep.

Oh, the nerve of her! The mere thought of what she said last night was enough to make my hair stand up. Where did she get the nerve of going off like that?

That genuineness about her, the initial awe of inspiration I felt when I first met her…it was a fluke. I was wrong about her. She was weird. And stubborn and too narrow-minded for her own good. Just like everyone else said she was.

Twilight followed me slowly as we walked to homeroom. She knew I was tired and I knew she was still upset I didn’t call her yesterday.

“Are you okay?” She asked without sounding worried.

“I didn’t sleep well.”

“Why not?”

“Rainbow Dash kept me up all night.”

“She…she…uuh-”

“Twilight!” She fainted! Thankfully, I caught her before she hit the ground.

“Uh, what...what happened?!” She rubbed her forehead as I helped her back on her feet.

“You fainted.” She shoved me when she was fully conscious “Hey!”

Twilight: “Why were you up all night with Rainbow Dash?!”

“I wasn’t! We had a fight. I mean, she yelled at me. For stupid reasons too. I couldn’t sleep after that!”

Twilight: “Oh…OH!” She smiled. “Well…then, forget about her. She is really rude and not a good student. I told you she was trouble. It’s not worth hanging around people who make you mad and start fights.”

“Why are you suddenly so happy?”

“No reason.” Twilight skipped as we walked onto campus. Some of the other students stared at her.“Um, are you...going to study with Rainbow Dash after class?”

“I don’t know. I’m starting to think the whole studying together thing was a bad idea.”

Twilight nodded a few times. “It was nice of you to try, but it’s good that you realize this before you wasted too much time on her.”

“…well, I wasn’t wasting time. I was trying to help. She needed it.”

“Er, yeah. I know. I didn’t mean…I meant…some people can’t be helped because they don’t want to be helped. Or because they don’t accept help the same way others do. You can’t force someone to change. You can only do your best and hope they copy you.” Rainbow Dash speech popped back in my head. “You tried but, like you said, it wasn’t working out.”

“It was….only for a few days..”

“That still counts as trying.”

Did it?

Now that I put it in perspective, the more I thought about it, the more I started seeing Rainbow Dash’s point.

“What was the fight about anyway?” Twilight asked me.

“I told Applejack-”

“Hey!” My headache in a skirt reappeared. Rainbow Dash ran to me from across campus.

“What do you want?” I reminded myself I was mad at her. Forget rational thought!

“Help.” She said bluntly.

“More help? You have to kidding?”

“Not for me. For AJ. I told you I’d find a way!”

“What are you talking about?”

“This!” Rainbow handed me a pile of flyers from under her arm. These were the yellow papers around school. A crudely drawn picture of an apple was rendered the middle of it, and, beautiful cursive exclaimed above the drawing “Eat your lunch at The Apple Family Store”.

“You can’t be serious.”

“We’ve got a school full of hungry students who like eating, and apple pies don’t suck. Plus, if we put them around town, the local stores could always use more food for shipments or whatever. So what are we waiting for?”

“Rainbow Dash, don’t you think you should at least ask ___if he wants to help?” Twilight tried to stand up for me.

“Nice to see you too Twilight. And ___is always onboard. Right dude?” Dash poked the badge sewed on my uniform, reminding me that she gave it to me.

“I don’t even get an apology for last night?” I asked.

“Nope. No time, we got work to do.”

“Dash, I know I’ve been your tutor for only a few days, but you’ve half-assed the whole thing since we started.”

“Are you still harping on about that?”

“Why should I believe you’re not going to half-ass this too?”

“Because it’s not about me.” Dash pouted. “It’s about helping a friend. And when your friends are in trouble, you’ve got to do something to help them. You have to! You just have to!”

“Rainbow-”

“And secondly, like you said, it’s only been a few days. Like four days total if you count this afternoon, which we’ll have to skip because we have to help AJ.”

“See, that is what I am talking about. You don’t care about your math grade or the study session. Why should I?”

“Here-here!” Twilight backed me up.

Rainbow only grew more frustrated with me. “What do you want from me, a signed contract? I asked you to help me study, I didn’t sell you my soul.”

“Okay, that’s it.” I turned my back on her. “You want to study math, do it on your own. Have fun bombing the next test.”

“What!?”

“You heard me.”

Newbie, come on, I need your help. And right now AJ does too. Don’t ditch.”

“We better hurry Twilight. Homeroom will be starting in a minute.”

“Lead the way.” Twilight looked proud of me.

“Wait, don’t…Newbie, come on!” I tried my best to ignore Rainbow’s whined. “…I’m sorry okay!”

“…what?”

“I’m…sorry.”

“…sorry for what?”

“…for…yelling at you last night?”

“…go on.”

“…and…for…not taking…studying more seriously. Even though everything about studying sucks.”

“...uh huh. And?”

What else did I do?!” I stared her down, waiting for more. Eventually, she sighed in defeat and whispered…“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.” She cleared her throat and looked over her shoulder. No one was listening to us. “Is that enough?”

She may have just said that to get me to calm down, and perhaps deep down she did not truly meant it…but it made me feel better.

It’s weird how much an apology can mean, especially when you’re angry.

“Okay. I forgive you.”

“Good. So will you help me? For AJ’s sake?” The bell rang. A stampede of students shuffled inside.

“Can we talk about this later?”

“I guess. I’ll find you.”

I followed Twilight inside. Rainbow stayed behind and handed flyers to the people around her, telling about AJ’s shop.

I still partially mad at the aggressive tomboy, but was willing to give her yet another chance.

RD wasn’t in Math Class when I got there. She ran in seconds before the teacher started talking, still grasping flyers under her arm..

“I’ll talk to you after class ends.” She whispered to me as she sat down She yawned at her desk. It looked like she had been up all night too.

The second class ended, Rainbow by my side.

“I figured the next step is to go around town and ask every small shop if they need extra food shipments and stuff.”

“Rainbow...” I tried to say something.

“Like bakeries, restaurants. Anyone who likes apples and sweets. We shouldn’t even ask them, we just tell them that AJ’s store is doing them the honor of offering to do business with them.”

“Rainbow, slow down.”

“And tonight, like at around seven...”

“Rainbow!”

“...yeah?”

“Okay, I know you want to help Applejack, but in all seriousness why do you need to bring me along with you?”

“Cause. Three people are better than two.”

“Three?”

“AJ, me, and you. We can do more work than one person.”

“And the studying thing?”

“What about it? This is more urgent.”

“I didn’t agree to help you advertise your friend’s shop.”

“A-hem! Our friend’s shop. Right?”

“Fine, our friend’s shop. What I told you was I’d help you study. That was all I promised. This goes a bit out of my jurisdiction.”

“Are you saying you won’t help?”

“I...” Another flash of empathy got the better of me. I imaged Rainbow Dash failing math and Applejack going back home to her farm a failure. “...I’ll only help you IF you promise…I mean it, you need to promise...you’ll start taking your studies more seriously.”

“It’s a deal!” Rainbow made a vile hacking noise with her throat, hocked a loogie into her palm and held it towards me.

(In the game, you could make a choice here: [Spit and shake] or [Gross!])

“So, we’ll study tomorrow afternoon.” Rainbow Dash said. “Tonight, we’re gonna be busy!”

“Fine. But you better show up tomorrow.”

“A promise is a promise. But after school…girl’s dorm, room 3-F. Be there after class Egghead.”

“You’re room? Why?”

“Just cause.”

“...a-alright. I will.”

“Awesome. Later.” She ran off again, continuing her crusade with her best foot forward.