The Sky is Always Green in Cloudsdale

by Basmati

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Original Character
Length: 5143

When Skylar and Rainbow arrive in Cloudsdale, RD's dreams come true while Sky is hated.

Skylar and Rainbow Dash arrive in Cloudsdale, with the intention of staying there for a few days. But when Rainbow, who is extremely popular due to her Sonic Rainboom that occured during her last visit, sees that Skylar is extremely unpopular due to her lack of cutie mark and knowledge of flying, she is caught in between. Now the Element of Loyalty has to choose between standing up for her roommate, and being the most liked pegasus in Cloudsdale - maybe even the world - and even an invitation from the Wonderblots themselves!

The another story in the 'Bindings of Hope' series - sequel to 'Starting Off'

Published 2012-03-17 20:54:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-25 18:21:22 UTC

Chapter 1

Author's Note: Sup. Mata here. You may want to go back and read the stories before this if you haven't already, as you may not understand everything in this story otherwise. I just don't want you to be confused. :) There are only two stories before this one, so it's not that much reading.
First: The New Journey
Second: Starting Off

Cloudsdale - home of pegasi. Almost every pegasi in Equestria were taught how to fly properly in Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash sighed - Cloudsdale always brought back memories for her. This was where she earned her cutie mark after all, when she broke history and performed the legendary Sonic Rainboom. Then, she did it again, a few years ago, trying to save Rarity and the Wonderbolts. That day she won the Best Young Flier Competion and got to hang out with the Wonderbolts.

She hadn't visited Cloudsdale since that day - she just never had an opportunity to go again. She had been so busy down in Ponyville, but when she did have an opportunity, she didn't really want to go.

But now, she was going, and with Skylar - the pegasus who was new to Ponyville. She had arrived in Ponyville two days ago, with seven friends, who were all staying with friends of Rainbow's. This pegasus was different to the other ponies though - she was from a different world.

"Rainbow?" she heard Skylar shout behind her. Rainbow stopped and hovered in midair, as Skylar caught up with her.

"What's up?" she asked.

"How far away are we?" the green pegasus asked, slightly out of breath.

Rainbow Dash looked around, then pointed to a giant cloud in the distance. "It's there."

Skylar looked. From this distance, she could see blobs of colour flying around it. She gasped, smiled then sped off in that direction, leaving a green blur.

"Hey! Wait up!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, speeding off after her.

Even with Skylar's headstart, Rainbow easily overtook her. She landed in the middle of Cloudsdale square, and waited for Skylar to land next to her.

"Well done," the rainbow maned mare said, once Skylar had landed next to her. "It takes a lot for ponies to be able to keep up with me - and you only learnt how to fly yesterday."

Skylar smiled. "Thanks," she said, while the thought 'Oh my God! Rainbow Dash just complemented me!' went around her head.

They started walking through the town, with Rainbow pointing out the sights of Cloudsdale. As they walked Skylar noticed something. The farther they walked into the town, the more looks they were recieving. The green pegasus wasn't sure what the reason for this was - it could've been because she had never been seen before, or because Rainbow Dash was so well known.

"Err...Rainbow?" Skylar finally spoke up.

"Hey! Rainbow!" a voice behind them said. They turned around to find 3 stallions flying towards them.

"Oh, hey guys," Rainbow replied, looking bored.

"How's it going, Rainbow Cr-Dash?" a brown stallion with a dumb-bell for a cutie mark asked her.

"Good."

"Cool," he said, smiling at her and nodding.

"Sorry guys, but we've got to go. See ya later." Rainbow quickly took off, without waiting for a reply. Skylar waved goodbye and took off after her, but could help but notice the look of hatred they had given her.

"Who were those guys?" Skylar asked, when they landed in front of Cloudsdale Hotel.

"Oh, them. They were in Flight School with me, and used to always bully me about being a loser. They refused to believe that I could pull off a Sonic Rainboom, but I proved them wrong a few years ago, when I did it during the Best Young Flier Competion," she answered, smirking.

Skylar thought about this, then thought about that look they had given her. She hoped that she hadn't already made enemies in Equestria, after only being it in for two days.

Chapter 2

"This room rocks!" Skylar said, jumping on the bed. They were now in their room in the hotel - the owner had insisted that they take the penthouse suite on the top floor, free of charge.

Skylar was starting to realise why Rainbow was getting so much attention. The last time she was here, she pulled off the Sonic Rainboom for, not the first, but the second time. Of course that would make her popular amongst the Cloudsdale pegasi, who are sports mad and would definately be impressed by something like that.

"Rainbow?" Skylar started, jumping down from the bed and landing on the floor.

"You're gonna ask me about the attention we've been getting," Rainbow said, without looking at the green mare. She turned and explained. "They are impressed with the Sonic Rainboom - simple as that. I am the pony who pulled it off not once but twice. Never before in all of Equestria history has anyone ever done that. I've broken history."

"Wow. Hence all this attention."

"Hence?" Rainbow gave Skylar a questioning look. Both the mares burst into laughter and collapsed on the floor. The next few days were sure to be great.

***

"Come on, Skylar! I want to show you great spots of the town, and if we don't leave now, we'll miss them!" Rainbow shouted from the doorway.

"I'm coming!" the green pegasus ran from her room towards the door. "And please, call me Sky."

"Well, Sky, we need to go."

The two pegasi mares left their room, and walked into the lift. Two other ponies were in there - a stallion and a mare. They stood petrified as Rainbow Dash walked in, and throughout the lift journey, would not stop staring at her.

As soon as the lift doors opened, Skylar and Rainbow ran out of the lift, as quickly as their legs could carry them. This was starting to get a bit weird.

Rainbow walked down the street with Skylar, trying to keep her head down. She always wanted nad hoped for attention and fame, but this - this was something else. When she was Ponyville's resident superhero, she was arrogant and always demanded more attention. After Twilight told her that Mysterious Mare Do Well was actually Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and even Fluttershy, she learnt her lesson about being humble, and knew that she didn't want that kind of fame again.

This was worse though, and Rainbow hated it. She knew what fame did to her - it could turn her from being the Element of Loyality to abandoning her friends to hang out with cooler ponies.

"So, where are we going first?" Skylar asked, breaking Rainbow out of her trance.

"Well, first I thought we should go to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory - I took the others there when I entered the Best Young Fliers Competition. It's loads of fun and-"

"Oh my God! Let's go!" Skylar said, then she sped off towards the factory. Rainbow laughed shook her head then sped ff after her.

***

The two pegasi stopped flying as soon as the Weather Factory was in sight, and landed gently on the clouds next to each other.

"You know, you are really good at flying. I mean, for someone who has only been flying for a couple of days," Rainbow said, as the two of them started walking towards the doors of the factory.

Skylar beamed - it had been her dream to hear Rainbow say this. "Thank you, Rainbow. You don't know how much that meant to me."

Rainbow smiled at her as she opened the doors and stepped inside.

"OH MY GOD!! IT'S RAINBOW DASH!!!!!!!" they heard a voice yell.

Skylar put head around the door to see a huge crowd of the factory worker ponies charging directly at Rainbow. Instantly, they swarmed around her, taking pictures and muttering to her about all sorts of things - the Sonic Rainbooms, how great her mane was today, even the fact that they once stood next to each other in Flight School.

Skylar stood next to this crowd, her mouth wide open. Eventually, she was broken out of her trance when she heard Rainbow shout, "Skylar! Help!"

"I'm coming, Rainbow!" The green pegasus immediately took into the air, trying to get a glimpse of her rainbow maned friend. She saw a flash of red, orange, and green, and immediately swooped down to grab her friend. Rainbow grabbed on to her flying friend, and Skylar pulled her out of the sea of ponies, and started flying towards out of the door.

But Skylar wasn't used to flying and carrying weight, so as soon as they were through the doors, Skylar started losing height and eventually collapsed in a heap with Rainbow on the clouds.

The two mares lay confused for a bit, but then hearing the crowd behind them, they jumped into the air and sped off.

"Rainbow, I'm so sorry!" Skylar said, flying next to her.

"Don't worry about it. You got me out there, and for that I'm grateful," Rainbow replied.

They started to slow down, and they turned around to see if anypony was still following them.

"Pssst! Rainbow! Over here!" they both heard below them. Skylar looked down to see the same brown pegasus that they saw earlier today whispering at them, "Follow me!"

He flew behind some buildings and out of sight. Skylar looked at Rainbow, who shrugged then looked around her to see if anyone was watching them. She then dived behind the building and Skylar, seeing no other alternative, followed her.

Chapter 3

Skylar flew behind the building, and saw Rainbow slip into one of the side doors. Skylar followed, carefully shutting the door behind her, and turned around. She was standing in a darkish room - the windows were all blacked out, and the lamps weren't very strong. In front of her were the stallions she and Rainbow had bumped into this morning - the brown pegasus with a pale tan mane and a dumb-bell for a cutie mark, an orange stallion with a brown mane and 3 basketballs as his cutie mark, and finally a grey coated almost black maned pony with american footballs as a cutie mark.

"Thanks guys," Rainbow said, walking into the middle of the room. She turned around and saw Skylar standing there.

"Oh, Sky. Let me introduce you - these guys used to go to Flight School with me. This is Dumb-Bell, Hoops, and Score," she said, gesturing to each of them as she said their name.

Skylar waved at them, looking at Dumb-Bell in particular. He seemed to have the same expression as this morning. But Skylar wasn't put off by this and said, "I'm Skylar."

"Skylar lives with me back in Ponyville," Rainbow said, standing next to her friend. Immediately, Dumb-Bell started smiling at the both of them and said, "Well, it's always nice to meet a friend of Rainbow Cr-Dash's."

"So...err...what happened anyway? Why were you guys running away?" Hoops asked.

Rainbow explained about Skylar's first visit, and how they were going to the factory, and immediately were ambushed by the worker ponies.

"Yeah. You haven't been here since your Sonic Rainboom at the contest. It was what everypony was talking about for months. They're still talking about it really," Dumb-Bell said, leaning back against one of the walls.

Skylar watched him carefully; not once had he even acknowledged her existance - all his questions had been for Rainbow - and she couldn't help but wonder if he hated her, and if so, why.

Rainbow and Dumb-Bell starting chatting - meaning that Dumb-Bell was talking and Rainbow was looking bored and not wanting to talk back to him. Skylar couldn't blame her. If they did everything that Rainbow had told her about, she was surprised that Rainbow could even stay in the same room as them.

"Hey, Bell," Hoops called over to his mate. Everyone turned towards the orange pegasus, standing by the door. "It looks like the coast is clear."

"Great. Let's go back to our room, Sky," Rainbow said walking towards the door. Skylar immediately took to the air and started flying towards the door.

As soon as they got outside, Rainbow immediately looked around to check for any straying fans.

"Hey, Sky!" She turned around and saw Dumb-Bell gesturing to her.

"I follow you - you go on," she said to Rainbow. Rainbow nodded at her and flew off. Skylar immediately flew back down towards Dumb-Bell.

"What's-"

"Look," he said, quietly. "I don't know who you are, or why you're even friends with Rainbow, but if you know what's good for you, you'd stay away from Rainbow. She's cool - you're not. No-one's gonna want to hang around a blank flank like you."
Skylar stood there, her mouth open. What the hell is he talking about, she thought.

"Well, it's none of your business if I'm friends with Rainbow or not. She certainly isn't one of your friends, I can tell you that," she retorted.

Dumb-Bell laughed. "Look, Losar or whatever your name is, Rainbow won't want to hang around with you anymore, not that she's got us now. She's hung out with the Wonderbolts - why would she want to hang out with you?"

"Losar. That's the best you could come up with. That's pathetic."

"Shut up, Losar! Just stay away from Rainbow, ok?"

Skylar took to the air once more. "And what if I don't?"

Dumb-Bell flew up so he was head to head with Skylar. "Once we're done with you, you'll never fly again. You won't be doing anything else either. Understand?"

Skylar gluped and nodded. She understood perfectly well.

Chapter 4

"So, where would Skylar like to go next?" Rainbow asked, while hovering above the bed that Skylar was curled up on.

"You really want to go anywhere, after what we just encountered?" Skylar said, looking up at the rainbow maned pegasus in surprise.

"I know it seems bad, but if I get out there and show my face a few times, eventually people will get tired of it," Rainbow landed next to the bed. "Also, I promised you that I would show you the sights of Cloudsdale, and Rainbow Dash does not break her promises!"

Skylar looked at the pegasus mare smiling at her. What she would have given just to hang around with her when she was back in her old world. But now that she was here, she didn't want to? Of course, that wasn't down to her - it down to those pegasi stallions. If they didn't want Skylar around Rainbow, they would make sure that she wasn't around Rainbow.

Then Skylar realised what she was saying. Was she really going to let some good-for-nothing stallions run her life? Those stallions knew nothing about her, and she knew nothing about them. There were insignificant in her life, and they should stay that way.

I am NOT going to let some...losers tell me how to live, she thought.

"Why don't you choose?" Skylar said, getting out of bed and smiling at Rainbow.

***

"I remember growing up here, and thinking that when I was older I would be the best flyer in Equestria and everypony would know my name," Rainbow said. The two pegasi mares were flying towards the centre of Cloudsdale, hoping to get some fun out of the end of a not-so-good day.

"Well, that's obvious. I know that Adara has always dreamed of being a famous musician," Skylar replied, remembering her unicorn friend from back home.

"But now, I don't really want fame. After the Mysterious Mare Do Well incident, I learnt my lesson - fame does terrible things to me."

Skylar looked at the rainbow maned mare flying next to her. It was starting to get dark, but she could still make out Rainbow's face, and see the two tears falling down her cheeks.

Adara had always told her about the kind of fame she wanted - she wanted to be known, but not obsessed over. She didn't want flocks of paparazi following her and documenting her every move. She wanted people to like her, wanted some people to see her in the street and say, "Hey, that's Adara!" But that's it.

Skylar had never really wanted vast amounts of fame - sure, the odd fan would be quite nice, but it was always Adara who was the big dreamer. Not that Skylar didn't have dreams - she had dreams, and they were big, but they were things like get into government and become Prime Minister. Not become an A-list celebrity.

"Rainbow."

They stopped. Rainbow turned towards the green pegasus she had grown quite close to.

"You are Rainbow Dash." Skylar just let the words come from her heart. "You are the best flyer I know. You are the Element of Loyality, and helped defeat both Nightmare Moon and Discord. You are one of a kind."

"Yeah, but-"

"Fame doesn't do terrible things to you. When you were Ponyville's resident hero, you took the fame the wrong way. You wanted more, and didn't take it graciously. But you've learnt your lesson - you said so yourself. You know how to handle fame now, so you won't make the same mistakes." She smiled at the cyan mare, and got a smile in return.

"Thanks." Rainbow gave her hug. And they flew into the twilight together.

Chapter 5

"Cotton Candy Clouds?"

"Yeah, it's a bit like Sugarcube Corner, but without Pinkie Pie, and the cakes aren't as good. But it's still a great place."

Skylar and Rainbow stood outside the cake store, looking at it.

"I remember that they always had great parties in here, and I always said that when I was old enough, I would go to all of them."

Skylar looked at her rainbow-maned friend, staring into the distance, thinking about her childhood. Suddenly, Rainbow shook her head, snapping herself out of the trance, and started walking over to the door of the shop.

"Actually, I say it's without Pinkie Pie, but there is-" Rainbow started as she pushed open the door.

"DASHIE!!!!"

A white blur came out of nowhere, towards Rainbow, pinning her to the clouds. Skylar jumped back in surprise, then looked around for her friend. She turned around to find a white coated, yellow maned pegasus mare standing above Rainbow, with a large grin on her face. Skylar, with a puzzling look on her face, trotted up to them.

"Oh my Celestia, Rainbow! Is that you? Oh, it's been ages since I last saw you! Have you been having fun? Of course you've been having fun - I mean, you're Rainbow Dash! That is you, right? Do you remember me? A lot of ponies remember me, but there are a few who don't, so you may be one of those ponies who doesn't remember me. Oh, I hope you do remember me - it'd be sad if you didn't. Not too sad though, because I would just make you remember me by talking about all the good times that we spent together! Like when you beat Dumb-Bell in Flight School! And when you did that Sonic Rainboom! Well, I wasn't there there, but I was still there - remember? I was in the audience, cheering you on... Do you remember me?"

Rainbow tilted her head back, and sighed. "Yes, I do remember you, Surprise. I'm not that forgetful."

Surprise started grinning again. "That's great, because it would've been sad if you hadn't, because you wouldn't remember all the great things we did together, like...like the cake eating contest when we were fillies. If you hadn't remembered that...well, that would've been sad, because that was fun, and-"

"Well," Rainbow interrupted, before the pegasus mare could go off on another one of her Pinkie Pie-like, one-sided conversations. "I do remember, so it's ok. Can I get up now?"

Surprise nodded enthusicastically, and stepped off her. Rainbow got up, brushed herself off, and walked up to Skylar.
"Skylar, this is Surprise - my friend from when I was a filly. Surprise, this is Skylar - a pony I met in Ponyville."

Skylar waved at Surprise, who in returned jumped in front of her, and quickly said, "Hi! I'm Surprise! I love making new friends, and it's even better when those new friends are friends of other friends, because then my friends are friends and my friends' friends are friends, and we're all just one big group of friends! I love making friends!"

"Err...yeah," Skylar said quickly in reply. She looked at Rainbow, who just stood there, holding back her laughter.

"Anyway," Surprise said, turning around and walking towards the front door of Cotton Candy Clouds. "It's starting to get dark, and you guys better not stand out here all night."

Skylar and Rainbow walked towards the door, and entered the bakery with Surprise.

Skylar gasped; she had seen the inside of Sugar Cube Corner, and figured that it would look about the same. But instead, she found that most of the tables and chairs floated off the ground, as if they were filled with helium. This was obviously due to the fact that the population of cloudsdale were all pegasi, so there were no need to have chairs and tables on the ground like in Ponyville.

"Oh my," she just managed to utter.

Rainbow laughed at the green mare's reaction. "Yeah, that's pretty much what I said when I was a filly."

She led Skylar to a table, where Surprise immediately appeared with 3 cupcakes, and sat down with them.

"So what are you doing in Cloudsdale?" Surprise asked, shoving the cupcake whole into her mouth.

"I thought Skylar might enjoy a visit here, considering that she had never been before," Rainbow answered.

"Never been to Cloudsdale?!" Surprise exclaimed. A few pegasi in the neighbouring tables looked over for a bit, then saw Surprise and turned back, shaking their heads, muttering "Just Surprise."

"But all pegasi have been to Cloudsdale! Where did you learn to fly then?"

"Err...my mother..." Skylar said. She glanced over at Rainbow who was nodding her head. "Err. yeah, my mum, she taught me."

"Skylar comes from outside Equestria, that's why she's never been to Cloudsdale," Rainbow quickly added.

"Really? That's awesome! Where are you from?" Surprise asked.

"Umm...a place called...England. You probably haven't heard of it. It's not very well known," Skylar said, hoping that it would be true.

"I haven't heard of it. Where is it again?"

"Oh, it's a small...island, in the...sea. I think east of Equestria. Very east."

"Wow. Sounds cool!" Surprise said. Skylar smiled at her.

"If you would excuse me, I think I'm going to get another one of those cupcakes," Skylar said. She floated down, and then made her way up to the shop front.

"She seems nice," Surprise said, turning to Rainbow.

"Yeah, she is." Rainbow looked over at the green pegasus, standing at the till, smiling at the owners. "A few of her friends came over from...England with her, and they're all really nice. But I think Skylar's the best."

"But it is weird..."

"What's weird?" Rainbow turned to the white pegasus.

"She doesn't have a cutie mark." Rainbow turned towards Skylar, standing at the till. Rainbow was used to the idea that Skylar didn't have a cutie mark, but she still knew that others weren't. It was only now that she realised what that would mean. If Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were teased for not having a cutie mark, imagine what would happen to Skylar, a fully grown pony without a cutie mark.

She, of course, knew the reason why Skylar didn't have a cutie mark - where she was from, nopony did - but other ponies might think it weird for a fully grown pony to be walking around without a cutie mark.

Rainbow looked around - there were a few ponies who had noticed Skylar, and there was a bit of muttering around them.

"Yeah. She's not really worried about it- it'll come in time."

Surprise nodded. Rainbow looked down at the cupcake in front of her.

"Hopefully."

Chapter 6

"Hi. How may I help you?"

Skylar smiled at the blue maned pony standing at the till. "Please may I have a cupcake?"

"Just the one?"

Skylar nodded.

"Anything else with that? A drink perhaps?"

Skylar hestitated for a moment and looked around.

"I...don't suppose you have any...tea?" she asked.

"Of course we do."

"Oh, thank God you have tea!" Skylar exclaimed. "I don't know what I would've done if there was no tea here. Just imagine that - having to go around for God knows how long without a single drop of tea!"

"Err..." the salespony stood, looking at Skylar with a confused look on his face. "So a cupcake, and a pot of tea?"

"Yes, thank you."

The salespony handed Skylar the cupcake and then said, "I'll bring the tea to your table."

Skylar flew up and joined the others at the table.

"So," she said, as she landed on her chair. "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing," Rainbow said, quickly. Skylar turned to look at the rainbow-maned mare, who was starting to turn red.

"Umm...ok then," Skylar said, a bit startled. "Oh, by the way, I have tea!"

"Oh! I love tea! It isn't as good as soda though. Or cupcakes - nothing is better than cupcakes. Well, maybe hanging out with friends, but you can't really eat that. Imagine if somepony tried! They would look so stupid. I wonder what it would taste like though, if you could eat it. Would it taste nice, because hanging out with friends is nice? But it could taste horrible! But the taste might change whether it was cooked, or raw, or fried, or baked, or - maybe you could use it in cakes? I wonder how you could find out. Somepony must know how - maybe they could invent a machine that turns everything into flavours! So you could have every single flavour imaginable! Imagine what 'Waking Up' would taste like, or what 'Birthday Party' would taste like!" Surprise added.

Skylar and Rainbow sat, staring at Surpise, only to be broken from their trance when the salespony arrived.

"Umm..your tea, Miss," he said, placing the teapot on the table.

"Thank you," Skylar said, as he flew back down. "Would you guys like some?" she asked, carefully picking up the pot.

"Sure," Rainbow and Surprise said in unison.

Skylar signaled to the stallion at the till. "Yes?" he asked, when he flew up to our table.

"May I have two more cups please?" Skylar asked. He nodded, and immediately flew down, quickly returning with the teacups.

Skylar slowly poured in tea into the cups, and handed them to each of them.

"Cheers," she said, raising her teacup to the others. Rainbow and Surprise followed in suit and all of them raised their cups to their lips and sipped at the same time.

Suddenly, Skylar dropped her teacup, exclaiming, "Oh my - Argh! That's not tea!"

Rainbow put her teacup down. "What are you talking about? Of course it's tea."

"No, I've had tea. Tea is lovely. This is horrible. Therefore, it's not tea."

"What do you mean? This is what tea tastes of."

"Clearly you have never been to England." Skylar pushed her teacup away from her.

"Hi Rainbow."

The 3 mares turned to find to origin of the voice. Hovering next to them was a yellow mare, with a bright turquoise mane, in a similar style to Rainbow's.

"Oh, hi Raindrops!"

"You - you remember my name?"

"Raindrops, we went to Flight School together. We were in the same class. We sat next to each other. I think I would remember you."

"Oh. Right."

Rainbow looked over to Skylar. "Sky, this is Raindrops. We used to be classmates in Flight School." She then turned back over to Raindrops. "This is my friend, Skylar. She lives in Ponyville with me."

"Hi," Skylar said, smiling and waving at Raindrops.

"Yeah, hi," was the reply.

Skylar got out of her seat. "if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get a better drink, because I'm not drinking that," she said, gesturing to the discarded cup of tea on the table. She immediately flew back down and walked over to the stallion at the till, who didn't look to thrilled to her again.

"Raindrops, why don't you bring a seat over and with us?" Rainbow asked.

"With all of you?" she replied. Her eyes flicked over to Skylar, who was in the middle of a discussion with the stallion. "Including...the blank flank?" She looked back over at Rainbow. "No, I need to go. It was nice meeting you though."

"Er...yeah." Raindrops flew towards the door, glancing back at Skylar at the till just before she opened the door and flew outside.

Rainbow sat, staring at the door thinking about what Raindrops said. Was there something wrong with Skylar? Was she considered 'not cool'? Would everypony act that way when they saw that she was, as Raindrops put it, a blank flank?

"What did I miss?" Rainbow jumped and looked behind her. Skylar was sat back in her seat, smiling at Rainbow. "He didn't have any real tea, so I suppose I'll just have to go without now. Raindrops gone?"

"Err...yeah. She had to go. Actually, it's getting late. We should probably start heading back now," Rainbow said, flying out of her seat.

"Ok. Surprise, it was lovely meeting you," Skylar said, giving the white pegasus mare a hug, just before she flew out of her seat, and floated to the ground. As she walked out of the door, a group of younger stallions rushed pass her, pushing her out of the way.

"Outta the way, Blank Flank!" One of them shouted as they took off outside.

"What the..." Skylar said, picking herself up from the ground.

Rainbow immediately flew to her friend's side. "Come on, let's get out of here," Rainbow said, looking at the ponies at their tables, who were all staring at them and muttering to themselves. She started gently pushing Skylar towards the door.

"Rainbow? What's wrong?" Skylar said, turning to face her.

"Nothing. Let's just go."

Skylar looked around at all of the ponies whispering amongst themselves, then turned back to Rainbow. "Are...are you embarrassed of me?"

"What? Of course not."

"You are!" Skylar said, taking a step away from the cyan mare. "What? Are you ashamed to be hanging out with...with a blank flank? Is that it?"

"Skylar, please-"

"Oh, just forget it." Skylar turned and starting walking away. Suddenly, she stopped and turned to face Rainbow again. "You know, for the Element of Loyalty, you certainly know how abandon friends." And with that she flew off, leaving Rainbow standing alone.