Something Sweet

Sweetie Belle stood, pawing the ground with her hoof and bearing a perplexed expression. She had just asked Rainbow Dash what she had thought to be a simple question, to which the pegasus’s response had been “I don’t know”.

Needless to say, Rainbow Dash was struck with confusion as well, but mostly all that she felt at the moment was a guilty sense of nervousness. What had she said that was wrong?

“You…” the unicorn finally began, breaking the silence. “You don’t know?”

“Oh, uh…no.” Rainbow Dash responded, perhaps a bit too swiftly. “I mean…” Seeing Sweetie Belle glancing at her with a confused look, she felt as if somehow she knew what that young mare was going to say. But for whatever reason, she couldn’t quite process the thought at the moment, so her mouth remained silent and Sweetie Belle spoke instead.

“Rainbow Dash…” she slowly moved closer to the pegasus with a sympathetic smile. “I understand what’s wrong.”

Rainbow Dash twitched, her feelings clashing uncomfortably. Her sudden doubt of anything she had trusted made her sensitive, unsure if she should be grateful or offended by this sudden claim of understanding from a mare she only knew so well. “Why?” she defended with an involuntarily sharp tone. “Have you ever been in a relationship?”

“No, but I know you’ve been in one, and I can tell that something was wrong with yours.” Sweetie Belle managed to keep a calm tone as she spoke. “Something that never really let you go. Tell me. Did you really need Gilda?”

“I…I didn’t!” she burst out, her voice ringing with guilt. Suddenly Rainbow Dash felt awful for not realizing that this young mare was trying to help her, for instead mistaking the ever-considerate helping hoof as some unwise assumption of authority. “So why does it feel wrong to be alone? She’s gone now! I never loved her, so I never cared, didn’t I?”

“That’s not true. You wanted to love her, Rainbow. But you couldn’t.” Sweetie Belle smiled at the bravery of her distressed friend who was trying her best to fight tears. “You can’t force things like this, you just gotta follow your heart.” She placed her hoof on top of Rainbow Dash’s heart as she said this.

Rainbow Dash nodded, looking down at Sweetie Belle’s hoof and then into her welcoming green eyes. “I… I cared about Gilda, I did.” Sweetie Belle nodded as Rainbow glanced away to wipe her eyes and continued. “But I guess I only really stayed with her because she was the coolest friend I had, and there was nothing else to do.”

As her eyes swept about behind her, Rainbow Dash’s attention was briefly caught by the dazzling appearance of the Carousel Boutique.

“…But dating someone who’s cool doesn’t necessarily make me cool. Love doesn’t care about those sorts of things, right?”

Sweetie Belle nodded triumphantly.

“R-right! So I’m going to go and do what I’ve wanted to do all along. Just following my heart, right?” The determined mare turned, ready to begin her short trot back in the direction of the Carousel Boutique.

Sweetie Belle nodded, though showing slightly less confidence this time, and trotted slowly toward the familiar building after her rainbow-haired friend. She wasn’t quite sure what Rainbow Dash’s motives were here, but she had to get back home some time, and she wasn’t about to butt in front of this pony at the last second.

It doesn’t matter if Rarity’s ‘not my type’, Rainbow Dash thought to herself as she held out her foreleg and pushed open the door of an intricately-decorated and elegant building. She casually trotted in a few steps, allowing Sweetie Belle to run inside from behind her as the doorbell let out its usual pleasant chiming.

“I’m home!” Sweetie Belle announced with energy, before giving a quick hug to the busy unicorn at a sewing table and dashing off (still wearing her saddlebag) to do some homework. Her sister’s small greeting had broken Rarity’s concentration from her work, and she looked up to notice that athletic blue pegasus standing in her home once again.

Rarity took off her glasses again and set them on the table ever so elegantly. Just because she’s different from me doesn’t mean that she’s not an admirable pony, Rainbow Dash told herself as she studied the fashionista’s brilliant sapphire eyes, trying to bring herself to adore them. She’s skillful, she’s beautiful, see? Don’t doubt yourself. Rarity began to approach Rainbow Dash with a confused look that almost reminded her of a look she had seen on someone else’s face that day.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash. Is there…anything I can help you with?” inquired the pony with the curly purple mane.

Just follow your heart, Rainbow Dash suddenly heard a soft and caring voice say. But when she looked around her in alarm, there was no one to be seen but Rarity, standing just before her. Brushing off that odd happening the best she could, Rainbow Dash recovered and continued.

“Oh! Yes. There’s something I forgot to tell you,” she said. The pegasus mare laughed nervously, and then swallowed in attempt to recover her serious approach. “Um, Rarity… I would like to ask you… There’s something I… I’d like to ask you quickly…”

“Whatever is it, dear?” Rarity said, using an impatient tone to try to hide her blatant curiousity.

“Raritywillyougooutonadatewithme?”

There, Rainbow Dash thought with relief. She had said it.

Rarity’s expression told her that perhaps she had said it too fast. She sighed and repeated her hopeful question, more slowly this time. Still, the look on Rarity’s face barely changed.

“I’m…terribly  sorry, wh…what do you mean?”

Rainbow Dash sighed, trying to gather her thoughts without taking too long. “What I mean is I, uh, I really admire you, Rare. I have for a long time and I thought, um… Well, you know, you’re smart and you’ve got great sewing skills and a nice personality and I just think you’re a really pretty pony. I’ve felt that way for a while now, and I thought I’d finally let this out… So whaddaya say?”

Rarity stood there for a moment, not sure what to say.

If it had been any other moment, she probably would have burst out in a fit of anger and confusion upon realizing what had just happened.  It was crazy. Had her Rainbow Dash, a kind friend though she rarely had so much as a friendly stroll with her, just asked her on...a date? With the spa incident, she had been ever so confused. Rainbow Dash's invitation to one of Rarity's favorite pastimes had seemed to her like a way for the Pegasus to reach out to her as a friend. But then, she ditched her. Was it because Rainbow Dash realized she didn't want to participate in this activity, or had she lost interest in her friendship altogether? Rarity thought that maybe it was just a mistake, that their had been something else important that Rainbow Dash had planned that happened to be that same time. But now, after all of that...a date? With all of the things this mare had just said, did she just express desire for a romantic date? Was this Rainbow's way of apologizing?

Rarity almost downright didn't know what to say. But Rainbow's apology must have been a good one, because there was that something that made the unicorn reply with, “Why… of course, dear.”

It was a well-known fact that Rarity couldn’t refuse a compliment anyways, but what made this compliment even more meaningful to her was that (confusing as it was) the pony who had given this compliment wasn’t even really her type. It was those few clumsy yet kind words stumbling out of the sky-blue mare’s mouth that had opened her eyes to a whole new view of the situation.

After what had happened concerning their plan for a spa trip, maybe Rainbow Dash wasn’t that careless after all, Rarity thought. Rainbow had always been the one to only express disinterest in all of Rarity’s hobbies and interests and passions, only to dismiss Rarity’s hopes and dreams for her own. Rainbow's greatest desire was fueled by the rush of the wind through her mane as she flew freely, and though in their hearts the two mares had startlingly similar intentions that wouldn’t be difficult to discover if they ever just took the time to sit down and talk, to really talk. Of course that time never came. But perhaps that wasn't for the reasons Rarity had thought. Maybe rather than avoiding Rarity, she had been afraid to approach her because she felt this way.Truly, that wild-spirited pegasus must have really been quite a humble pony to say such kind things to her on that day.  As she considered it, she realized maybe there wasn’t any harm in giving this pony a chance.

“So, uh… Is lunch time tomorrow fine? At the Ponyville Café?”

Rarity gave a cheerful “mhmm”, nodding her head.

“Thanks!” was all Rainbow Dash could think to say as she gave an almost awkwardly wide grin, said a proper farewell and… well, dashed off.

*     *     *

Rainbow Dash entered her room accompanied by the pleasant new knowledge that she was no longer alone. She realized that she wouldn’t have to life her life as a lonely mare, constantly fretting over being left out of a wonderful relationship. Now that she had a marefriend, things were finally going to return to the way they should be, with no awkward interruptions from the expected happenings of her life. And at last she had eliminated something that had somewhat distanced her from Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle before.

Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle. Her friends. As she plopped down on her bed, Rainbow Dash wondered if she should tell any of them about what had happened between her and Rarity that day. No, she decided, there was no reason to announce a relationship that had barely begun to unfold. She would just wait and see how things went tomorrow. And maybe the next day.

On days like these when Rainbow had the time to relax for a while after cloud-busting, her thoughts would rarely be organized. She simply let her guard slip and allowed some time for her mind to drift along in whatever direction it happened to take through the twists and turns of her mind. Today, they didn’t seem to leave the memories of what she had asked Rarity earlier that day. The events before the sudden visit, awkwardness of the invitation. She also recalled with disappointment during this moment that she had never taken the time to thank the one who had given her the courage to let this all happen. But most of that disappointment was clouded by the excitement that currently engulfed her. Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait for the day that was to come.

How should I act tomorrow? She wondered. As would be expected for a mare going on a first date, this was one of many questions that surrounded her while her mind wandered. But of course Rainbow wasn’t one to stress herself out with the responsibility of planning ahead, and before she knew it, she was dozing off.

*     *     *

Rarity’s idea of a perfect date was a good deal more formal than what Rainbow Dash had planned for that day. If she had thought about the date beforehand, Rainbow Dash might have realized that if it was Rarity she was going out with, this date probably should have been more than just some casual lunch date. Then again, Rainbow Dash wasn’t a mare known to think much beforehand in any situation. Rainbow Dash liked to get things done right, and she liked to get them done when they needed to get done. But that wasn’t usually hard to do, she thought, since whatever ideas she came up with on the spot were almost always the right ones.

…Right?

As Rainbow Dash stood in the beaming sunlight and leaned on a small, round, purple-painted table outside the café that was quite well-known in Ponyville, she briefly considered whether her choice in restaurants had been the right one. But upon noting that it was now too late for a change of plan anyways, she let her mind dart forward to the next subject. And that was…

The idle pegasus stopped and thought. Actually, she didn’t stop or think; she hadn’t been doing anything in the first place other than standing around and perhaps looking around a few times to see if Rarity had arrived, and her mind was blank except for that constant awareness of her surroundings that she carried with her on a usual basis. Rainbow Dash just took a few seconds to do nothing, as she had been doing every now and then between her little moments of thought ever since she took her place near the table.

There was really nothing to do now but wait, she realized, and she was running out of interesting thoughts to occupy her. She would rather have been at least remotely involved in something interesting that was happening right then and there than try to dig up something from her dusty memories. The typically active pony made what must have been the first of many sacrifices made for her new girlfriend, Rarity. Sitting and waiting wasn’t much of a sacrifice, in all of reality, but compromises like this were something Rainbow Dash had a hard time coping with, stubborn pony she was.

At last, a new figure entered her view. A stunning white unicorn with an ever-so-delicately curled purple mane could be seen moving toward the spot outside the café where the pegasus pony stood waiting eagerly. Soon the easily recognizable Rarity stood at the other side of the table to face her date, smiling with an excited look. Not having considered stopping to think of a nice compliment for this occasion, Rainbow Dash was simply relieved to see the pony she’d been waiting for. She greeted her with a genuinely cheerful tone but an almost painfully casual manner.

“Hey, Rare! It’s good to see you.”

“Hello, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity responded.

Good, Rainbow Dash thought. Things seemed to be off to a good start. Her girlfriend was here and seemed happy, which made her feel similarly. Of course, Rainbow Dash was also very hungry. She did realize there must have been much more patient waiting to be done, so that’s what she tried to do.

She glanced about her surroundings again: the multiple chattering ponies sitting or standing about near their own individual tables in the grassless area outside of the little white-and-green wooden building that almost resembled a cottage, and the bright, mostly cloudless sky that stretched above. There was nothing interesting going on, and the poor pegasus soon found herself bored. Patient waiting was not her strong suit. Rainbow’s father had always told her ‘you’re not bored, you’re just boring’. But in this case there truly wasn’t much that she could do to make things interesting. What was there to talk about?

The first idea that came to mind in an awkward situation like this was to make a friendly joke to see how the conversation would go from there. “It’s funny that they call them waiters, you know? Because… we’re the ones doing the waiting here. Heh heh.”

Rarity nodded, seeming mildly amused. Her smile couldn’t help but strike Rainbow Dash as a bit awkward, though. They weren’t getting anywhere in their conversation. Rainbow Dash decided that must have been just because her joke was really lame, almost like a joke Rarity might make while trying to entertain the adventurous pony while working on a gala dress for her. Rainbow didn’t tell her that, though; while the jokes were sometimes cheesy, she wouldn’t want to offend the caring fashion designer. It wasn’t that she truly disliked Rarity’s talkative manner, of course.

Besides, Rainbow Dash told herself, she might learn to find it lovable.

“It’s… really nice weather, isn’t it? The sky’s lookin’ pretty clear…” Rainbow Dash began again, changing the subject to something that she was familiar with: weather. Suddenly she realized that hadn’t been a good decision—what had been an honest attempt at finding something simple and everyday to talk about had seemed like an attempt to change the subject to something centered toward her. And while Rainbow Dash couldn’t deny she liked attention, she knew this wasn’t the time for it.

But Rarity spoke before Rainbow Dash could fix her wording. “Yes, the weather is looking quite lovely today. I see you’ve done a good job with clearing the clouds just the right amount as always.”

“Y-yeah…uh, thanks. So how are things going with you?”

“Just wonderful, darling!” she didn’t seem to be making an effort to start a conversation. Rainbow Dash couldn’t blame her, she realized with guilt, after the pegasus’ poor choice of words.

“How’s the, uh… fashion business going?”

“Oh! Well… It’s been a bit slow as of lately, but something’s telling me things are probably going to pick up soon.”

“Oh, really?” Rainbow Dash said with only partially faked interest. “Tell me about it!”

“You see, my friend Bon Bon—You know Bon Bon, right?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, she’s the curly-haired one who bakes the sweets, right?”

Rarity nodded back with a bright smile.

“She’s a nice pony,” Rainbow said with confidence, gradually feeling relieved that she at least knew something significant about this unicorn.

“Oh, certainly! And she has been ever so kindly spreading the word of my fashion sales to other ponies around this town! In fact, she claims a pony she knows named Twinkleshine has seen a bit of my work with dresses, and that she has some relatives in Canterlot who she thinks might possibly by interested as well!” her sudden excitement faded into a dreamy sigh. “It’s finally going to happen—my business just may be fit for Canterlot ponies.”

“Wow, Rare, that’s great news! I’m surprised I hadn’t heard this from you before now!”

“Ah, yes, but isn’t it simply divine? Hopefully someday soon the conditions will be right, and I’ll be able to pursue my dream of becoming…” she giggled as she recited well-known old saying of hers. “That pony everypony should know.”

Rainbow Dash smiled warmly at this fond memory. “And maybe I could help you when that day comes.”

“Oh. Y-yes…” Rarity trailed off. Her tone wasn’t exactly hesitant, nor did it express repulse, but she seemed surprised at the pegasus’s sudden commitment, despite this friend of hers being known for being the element of loyalty. Rainbow could have sworn she saw that ever-so-slight, ladylike blush appear on Rarity’s face.

Before the conversation could pick up again (it might have been a good thing that the conversation had been interrupted, since chances are it would just collapse again), Rainbow Dash and Rarity noticed a cream-coated stallion approaching them. It was the refined Horte Cuisine, with a slicked-back, gleaming, royal blue mane and a moustache of matching style and neatness. Standing before the two unlikely marefriends, he awaited their request.

“Oh, um…good morning!” Rarity smiled sheepishly at the waiter, then looked over at Rainbow Dash.

“Do you know what you’ll be having today, Rarity?” the pegasus asked. Not that there was much purpose in asking that question anyway. This café was such a common spot for them to have lunch, these two needn’t even pick up the menus to know what they wanted to order.

“Yes, I will have a fuschia salad, please.”

“And grilled hay sandwich for me. Uh… please,” she added, trying not to forget her etiquette.

The unicorn stallion walked off nodding and swiftly jotting down their orders on a clipboard. Rainbow Dash and Rarity watched him go, until their eyes gradually drifted back to the table where they sat.

“Yeah, anyway…” Rainbow Dash started the conversation again. “I’d love to help you with dress designing, y’know?”

“You would?” Rarity looked surprised to hear this.

“Well, yeah.” Rainbow had originally meant that as purely a demonstration of how she cared for Rarity, but she just went on with what she was saying, trying to make it sound natural. Rainbow found a shocked reaction like that especially unpleasant, as it reminded her of how unintentionally rude she’d been in showing disinterest in Rarity’s fashion business in years passed. “I’ve always found the thought of designing dresses a bit cool, in its own way.” In Rainbow’s mind, there really wasn’t anything “cool” about dresses.

What was she doing?

“Wow…It’s just, I really wouldn’t have guessed, no offense,” she relaxed, and sighed comfortably after saying this. “Ah, it’s just so surprising how much we have in common after all, and I never would have guessed if we hadn’t just sat down and talked!”

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash said, her voice trailing off.

She looked at Rarity, then sat in the silence once more, with nothing more to add. The conversation had nowhere left to go. After Horte Cuisine eventually arrived to deliver their order, the two new marefriends began to eat, making an effort to chat a little in between with a friendly attitude.

“So,” Rainbow started when they were both done and Rarity had been called to attention while in the middle of wiping her mouth daintily with a napkin. “How about after this we head to your place, to have some dress-designing time?” She suddenly realized she should lower her voice and try not to seem bossy to the lady. “Uh… I mean, is that okay with you?”

But there was nothing to worry about. “Sure!” chimed Rarity. The pegasus guessed that her fashionable friend wasn’t used to ponies casually asking to partake in her own favorite hobbies. And as she recalled, she had requested it in her own, overconfident nature. So for now, Rainbow was assured that she wasn’t hurting Rarity’s feelings.

But what was she getting herself into?