Author's Note
Like i said, I DO NOT OWN COVER ART if the respective owner author/ artist would like it taken off, pm me please
Nope
“So are you absolutely positive that this is safe Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked, concerned.
“Well of course it is Dash, since when were you concerned about something as cute as a little spider anyway?” Fluttershy responded, fishing little Rica out of her cage.
“I don’t know, I guess I never actually sat down to see what they are like, and I’m sorry, but something with more than six legs seems to belong in the everfree in my eyes.”
Little Rica, a goliath tarantula straight from a jungle outside Camu, had slowly crawled onto Fluttershy’s butter yellow hoof while Rainbow had been excusing herself for putting off this particular audition. Knowing that Rainbow had kind of a soft spot for her, the only way Fluttershy could get her to let Rica compete in her quest for the best, most awsomest pet was to tell Dash that it would make her feel bad if she didn’t.
“Well that certainly wasn’t an answer I’d expect to hear out of you,” Fluttershy remarked with a smug smirk graced upon her mouth.
“Yeah I well maybe I’m not as one-sided as you think- oh my celestia!” Rainbow exclaimed as Fluttershy pulled out Little Rica, “That thing is enormous!”
“Well yes but isn’t she so cuute?” Fluttershy held out the big hairy spider so Rainbow could have a nice healthy look at the arachnid.
“Maybe if I was born without eyes it would be,” Rainbow began to panic when the spider fidgeted in Fluttershy’s grasp, “Where did you even get it from Fluttershy? Nope jungle in the country of Nopia?”
Fluttershy gently smiled at Rainbow’s remark, “No silly, I got her from a friendly camel trader on our trip to Camu a few months ago.”
Rainbow Dash just stood there, staring at the arachnid in her best friend’s hooves. The gaze never breaking, she began to study the thing’s details. Its hairy back, legs, and head made it a little bit friendlier to the eye. But if Rainbow looked at the spider in a broad way, she realized that the things that made it creepy were the fangs, eight eyes and legs, and... Is that where the silk came from?
Immediately after noticing those things Rainbow gagged as if she was about to puke and honestly, she felt like it. “Nope,” was the last thing Rainbow muttered before taking off into the skies like a rocket.
,,,
Fluttershy was taken aback by the sudden departure of her best friend. She craned her neck up to see where the technicolored Pegasus had taken off to, but at that point, it was basically pointless.
Little Rica slowly inched her way up Fluttershy’s hooves to her shoulder. She then proceeded to whisper into Fluttershy’s ear what she thought of Rainbow in tongue that only arachnids and... Fluttershy could understand.
Fluttershy listened intently, then responded, “Oh Rica, you shouldn’t be so accusing, she is just a bit... Out of it for the moment. I’m sure she will come around.”
The spider just looked at her owner with a look of judgment and disbelief.
“Come on now, don’t give me that look miss. Now how about we go catch some flies for your lunch?”
The tarantula expressed delight in the idea by tapping one of her legs on Fluttershy’s shoulder a couple times.
,,,
"Nope nope nope nope nope,” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she bolted away from the hairy abomination on the ground at high speeds. In the distance, she could see her cloud mansion floating above her “training grounds” just outside the ponyville border.
Rainbow Dash had to admit, it did look very peaceful at her little slice of the world. The whole scene seemed fragile, like still water with no fish, or a glass window that could see everything. Nothing moving except the rainbow flow from her pool.
Then Rainbow decided to wreck what she thought about the whole scene by flying at full speed to her front door, kicking up clouds and yelling “nope” the whole way. Her new perspective of the world was basically throwing a cinder brick into the window of tranquility that was painted her previous view.
But she couldn’t care less, to be honest. Rainbow trotted into her cloud house and swung the soft door shut hard. Deciding she didn’t get enough satisfaction from the soft “pff” sound of the door’s hinges hilting, she opens the door again and slammed it even harder. She was rewarded with another soft “pff” noise. Rolling her eyes, Rainbow continued into her kitchen area.
Pots and pans hung from racks near the celling, with spotless shines graces upon them. They have never been used. Ever since Rainbow had bought the kitchen set from walmane’s she had never touched anything but the glasses and the plates. Hey, when you are training as hard as she does there is nothing better to eat than leftovers from berrygarden or the sugar cube corner. Apples from Applejack were also a rare treat, since Applejack over prices her goods and won’t even let her fellow element of harmony get a discount.
Rainbow opened the refrigerator and pulls out a bottle of hard cider and a styrofoam box that possessed her leftovers from the picnic she and her friends had a few days ago. She pulled out a glass from the cupboard next to the fridge and sets it on the soft counter and begins to pour her cherry flavored hard cider into it. It was a bit early to be drinking, and Dash was well aware of that, but when you know you are the top pony and that you have no fears only to find out what your true fear is pretty rough. Rainbow contemplated putting a few cubes of ice in her drink but overrules the idea with the fact that she needed to forget the past hour as soon as possible so in her eyes getting ice was wasting days. Because screw ice.
Rainbow sat down at her comfy couch and begins to drink her problems away over hay and cheese sandwiches.
,,,
The next day Fluttershy went out to the spot outside Ponyville that she and rainbow would be meeting at for auditions every day that week. She had brought Little Rica with her, just in case Rainbow had changed her mind about her. They had been waiting for Rainbow for a heavy hoofful of minutes now, and Little Rica began to get restless. Rica looked up at Fluttershy with a look of disbelief, yet in there was a tinge of hope.
“Oh, I don’t know Rica, she said she would be here but let’s wait a few more minutes?” Rica responds by clicking her fangs together in disapproval, “Well okay, perhaps I could go and take a look around her place, but if I don’t find her, I think we might have to call this all off Rica.”
,,,
Fluttershy arrived at Rainbow Dash’s mansion and softly knocked the soft door, resulting in a small “pff” noise for her troubles, “I don’t know Rica... Do you think she will appreciate it if we came into her house without knowing if we are allowed?” The arachnid just glared at her in response.
“Okay... Here I go...” Fluttershy slowly pushed the door open with her creamy yellow hoof.
Fluttershy took a single hesitant step into the mansion, “Hello? Rainbow?” she asked nervously. Only the words that graced her lips where lost into a void with no response and only she and a spider could have called back. She continued into the floating mansion that housed a currently distressed and shocked rainbow pegasus.
Fluttershy and her arachnid companion meekly traversed the house, “Rainbow dash? I have someone here who wants to see you,” Fluttershy said as she reaches he best friend’s bedroom, with yet again no answer.
Rica pushes the soft door ajar so her owner could have a look inside, “Rainbow?” Fluttershy asks yet again, taking a look in the room. Wonderbolts merch littered the room, from posters to old unused action figures in the corner. Everything Rainbow could ever contain and love was in the room, except for the technicolor pegasus herself.
Rainbow Dash woke up in a tree. Live, uncomfortable wood dug into her back as she leaned forward with the smell of fresh juicy apples gracing her nose. Taking a deep, deep breath in through her nose, she rubbed her eyes lazily. As she exhaled, she began to release a mighty yawn, and with it, a mighty feeling that she had been hit by a train. Rainbow quickly wrapped her hooves around her poor throbbing head in pain and resided back to her former position laying in the tree. She opened her eyes with some difficulty and rubbed her temples, looking around her. Trees riddled with bright red dots lined neatly around a rundown dusty path.
She knew precisely where she was.
“And just what in the hay do you think you’re doin missy?” Applejack glared at the brightly colored winged pony in her tree. Rainbow groaned and rubbed her temples some more at the introduction of noise in the new day.
Rainbow slowly pushed herself up into a position where she could sit, face AJ, and rub her fiery head with her hind legs hanging off the side of the branch, “wha...?”
“Oh I see what happened,” Applejack let a southerney guffaw escape at the sight of a hung over rival waking up on her property.
“Shtop laughing AJ I had a reason...” This only allowed Applejack to let out a pleasant “Yeeha” and a fit of laughter.
“Rainbow, he he, what in tarnation made you think it was a great idea to nap in my trees ya airhead?”
“I don’t know,” Rainbow rubbed her head some more, “What made you think it was a good idea to wake me up you mud roller?”
“No seriously, heh, Rainbow why were you drinking?” Applejack hasn’t seen her friend hung over this much since she once was told she could never reach her goal of being a Wonderbolts by some butt-head stallion that her friends chased out of town.
“Promise not to tell anypony?”
“Ah pinky promise Rainbow,” Rainbow then proceeded to tell her orange friend the details of what had happened the prior day, well, as much as she could remember. When she got to the part where she bolted off Applejack stopped her there.
“Think ah get what’s goin on Dash,” Rainbow looked at Applejack with anticipation to see if her friend could answer her problems, “You’re arachnophobic, aren’t you? And you are too high up and too self-praised to admit it.”
Rainbow Dash reeled back in the tree in disapproval, “I am not!” Applejack just rolled her eyes, “AJ, if I was arachnophobic I would almost never land on the ground. I mean having a fear of something is intense enough to make you do things like that, right? The only ponies I ever see scared outta their skin are Fluttershy and Rarity.”
“He he, not everypony expresses their fears the way they do. See, I’m afraid of heights yet remember when you asked me to help ya with a stunt during apple bucking season and ah had to jump off that high platform, I didn’t complain.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean anything, you were a sleep deprived zombie mare then. I could’ve asked you to buck yourself in the face and you would probably have tried it,” Rainbow countered with a small chuckle.
“Fine then, what if ah told you that Big Mac was terrified of the dark? Ah don’t see him complaining.”
“Applejack...” Rainbow began.
“Mah cousin Braeburn is actually scared flankless of large birds, yet his friend is a hawk breeder and they hang out almost as much as you and me,” Applejack ranted.
“Applejack where is this going?” Rainbow dash asked, rubbing her forehead firmly.
,,,
“Dash what I’m saying is that you gotta overcome this fear of yours,” Applejack told Rainbow Dash, Sliding a mug of nice hot dark coffee made from fresh ground coffee beans grown right there at the farm. Rainbow Dash knew this because the last time she questioned why it was so fresh Granny Smith went off on a rant about how nopony appreciates how well the Apples can grow pretty much anything and how other ponies put miniature stereotypes on the Apple family that they only grow apples. Currently, Granny Smith was napping in her rocking chair beside the window in the next room over, but Dash decided to play it safe and keep her mouth shut.
“Overcome my fear...” Rainbow Dash resounded, spacing out slightly at the idea. She had never had to do that before. Was it hard? Did it take time? Does she have to touch Rica or something? Rainbow took a deep breath though her nose, enjoying the strong scent of her coffee the color of spruce tree bark, and putting a lid on the sputtering, bubbling pot of boiling water that was her brain and preventing any drops to fly from it as simple questions. Instead she lets one big drop fall out that was every other question combined, “So, how does one “Overcome their fear” so to say?”
“Well dash I will let ya drink your coffee first then I’ll see what I can do for ya, if ah can’t, well then I guess ah would leave you a list of what to do. Or you could go see a therapist, I doubt your fear is as bad as others but I’m sure they could at least try to help you through your condition.”
“Wait so you’re not going to help me?”
“Ah have to see if my schedule can match yours sugarcube, but ah will try to the best of my ability to help you Rainbow. Now drink your coffee and hustle on outta here, unless ya wanted to help me and Mac plow the east field today,” Applejack stood on all fours, picked up her empty mug, placed it in the sink, and trotted up the stairs.
Rainbow proceeds to gulp down the delicious hot dark liquid and exit the Apple family residence.
,,,
Fluttershy rushed down ponyville main street saying “Sorry, I’m in a big hurry!” to almost everypony she bumped into. Her saddlebags only contained one thing while on her crusade to every single one of the element’s households, minus her and Rainbow’s of course. So far every house was a bust with no sighting of Rainbow Dash. Worried about her dear friend, Fluttershy picks up her pace as she rounds a corner off main street and on to the dirt path that led to Sweet Apple Acres. Ahead, she saw the red barn and crème house atop two different rather dusty knolls
Approaching the house at a slower pace, Fluttershy began to raise a hoof to knock upon the white door.
Caught with her hoof half way to the door, the door opened seemingly by itself to reveal a curious looking cyan pegasus, “Oh, hey what’s up Fluttershy? I totally forgot about our meeting, sorry.”
“Oh it’s okay Rainbow Dash I just got a little bit worried is all. We could make up for it right now if you’d like.”
“Sure lets head on over there,” Rainbow Dash smiled, a bit sobered up and feeling much better thanks to the coffee.
“Of course, but this time little Rica gets to go first, okay?”
“S-Shure, heh,” Rainbow Dash replied nervously, taking flight with Fluttershy to head on over to the clearing somewhere in between their houses.
,,,
Fluttershy begins to open her saddlebag to reveal the hairy arachnid when Rainbow Dash tells her to stop, “But what for?” asked Fluttershy, closing the bag.
“Look, Fluttershy, I’m going to be straight forward with you okay?”
“Okay... About what?” Fluttershy asks nervously.
“I’m... Arahnoimumba,” Rainbow trails off into a barley audible mumble at the last word.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that?”
“I’m Arachnosmelborp...” Rainbow mutters again.
“Rainbow?” Fluttershy asks, concerned.
“Look, me and AJ were talking and, we’ve come to the conclusion that... I’m arachnophobic,” Rainbow muttered, audible this time, while looking in the distance with and upset and furrowed brow.
“Oh, I see,” Fluttershy says, a bit crestfallen for poor Rica.
“Fluttershy? Its okay, I know it sucks, but AJ and I are going to be trying to get me over it. Look,” Rainbow put a hoof around her friend’s shoulders, "If worst comes to worst I can go see a therapist, though as of right now the best pet games tryouts will be postponed.”
“Okay Rainbow,” Fluttershy agrees, choking back a light sprinkle of tears.
“Okay, now look,” Rainbow pulled away from Fluttershy slowly, “I have some work to get done so let’s set this audition week back a bit okay?”
“Okay,” Fluttershy wasn’t holding tears for Rainbow Dash, though she did feel for her friend, she was holding back tears because was wondering if poor little Rica waould ever find a home.
