Where Your Heart Is

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Epilogue
Chapter 5

Chapter 1

“So he just stares, mouth open,” Rainbow Dash said, a grin budding at the mere memory of it. “And then he starts screaming! ‘My cabbages!’” she put her hooves to her cheeks as she mimicked the poor stallion’s squeaky voice. Pinkie Pie was already on the floor laughing, and the others chuckled or shook their heads. Even Rarity gave a little giggle as she failed to hide her smile.

“Oh, that’s terrible, really,” the fashionista muttered, eyes dropping to inspect one of her hooves. Rainbow Dash waved a foreleg.

“Come on, it’s not like I asked him to be there,” Dash said. “I mean, who parks under a pegasus’ house?”

“So long as you paid him back for it all, Ah guess,” Applejack commented, grabbing the last of the cupcakes on the table.

“Uh,” Dash eloquently replied. She found that she was suddenly eager to change the subject, but more than that, there was something missing. She had half expected a disapproving look at the tail-end of her little tale, but she quickly found out why it never came; Fluttershy was fast asleep, leaning on Applejack with a serene smile across her face.

When no reply was forthcoming, Applejack followed Dash’s gaze. Her eyes softened as she understood why Rarity, Twilight, and even Pinkie Pie had quieted down a little.

“Poor thing was up late yesterday, but all the same, Ah guess we best get going,” Applejack said, chuckling. “She wanted us to head out to Whitetail Woods early tomorrow to check up on some badgers.”

“And I need to finish up my latest report,” Twilight chimed in with a little grin of her own. “But this was fun! Thanks for the party, and congratulations again,” she added with a nod at Pinkie and Applejack both.

“Yeah, thanks for letting us celebrate this here, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack said, gesturing to the room at large with a flick of her head. “You outdid yourself this time, and for a pony like you, that’s saying something.”

This elicited a round of muttered agreements, and it was true enough. Sugarcube Corner had seen its downright unfairly large share of parties, but the decorations for Fluttershy and Applejack’s three-month anniversary were nothing short of opulent. Home-made banners, multi-colored streamers and balloons all covered every inch of the ground floor, and no less than two dozen different types of baked goods were on display. Pinkie smiled broadly at the praise while she helped Twilight get Fluttershy across Applejack’s back. The slumbering pegasus barely stirred, nosing into Applejack’s mane in her sleep.

“It was fun! But it’s not all me, you know. I wouldn’t have gotten half of this done if I didn’t have Equestria’s fastest party-pegasus here to help me!” Pinkie chirped, trying to balance a bag of cupcakes on top of Fluttershy’s back even as Applejack made for the door.

“Well, thanks to you both then,” Applejack called, stepping outside and into the light autumn drizzle. “Ah’ll get this here poor thing to bed. Catch y’all later!”

Dash waved along with the others and turned to see Pinkie Pie disappear upstairs, no doubt to get some bags to start the whole post-party cleanup routine. She knew how that song and dance went by now, so she took a moment to admire at the decorations before they took them down.

It was true, of course. She hadn’t really stopped to think about this before, but the party wouldn’t have been half as awesome if she hadn’t helped. After the Cakes had left for a catering job in Canterlot, the last few days had disappeared in a chaotic mess of decorating and baking. The result wasn’t entirely unlike staring at the clear blue sky knowing she had cleared it with her own hooves. Every cupcake, pastry and tasty treat was another feather in her-

“So,” Twilight said, clearing her throat. Dash stiffened, her entire body going rigid for a second before she turned around.

“I knew you were there!” she said, glaring at the unicorn stood in the doorway. It was hard to affect nonchalance when her voice had a higher pitch than Pinkie’s. “I- I mean, if you were wondering, ah, jeez, don’t do that.” She groaned and ran a hoof through her mane. Twilight seemed utterly unfazed.

“I’ve been wondering, but I never really found the time to ask you about it; do you remember when you made it rain over at the farm during the dry spell this summer?”

Dash suppressed a grin even as she spread her wings. Even if she was a little annoyed that Fluttershy had told everypony about her stunt to help Applejack’s crops, she wouldn’t say no to some grade-A preening.

“Hm? No, I’m not sure I do,” Dash replied, inspecting a hoof while trying to keep a straight face. “Could you be more specific? I do a lot of weather jobs.”

Twilight raised a brow. “You used the clouds from the Everfree forest and razed your house to help, how could you-” she began, her frown deepening as she finally caught on. “Oh, ha-ha, very funny, Rainbow.”

Dash giggled and shook her head. "Yeah, okay, sure. What about it?"

"Well, I’ve been studying the few books and scrolls written on the topic of pegasus magic,” Twilight explained, her eyes shining with that odd luminescence they took on whenever the topic switched to research. “I never got to pick your brains about which theory you applied when you merged the cloud matter."

Dash scratched the top of her head. In one single sentence, Twilight had headed so deep into egghead territory, she couldn’t even spot her tail. "Uh. Which theories? On what? Scrolls?"

"Sternhorn's theory of opposites versus Greylift's theory on greater effects?" Twilight suggested, tilting her head. “It’s all in their treatises and-”

"Who?" Dash interrupted. "Greylift isn’t a Wonderbolt. You’re thinking of Greystar?"

The purple mare stared blankly. "What? No, he's a scholar at the- wait, you mean you don't know how you did it?"

"What? Of course I do!" Dash drew back and snorted indignantly. "It's just hard to explain. You just make it happen. I don’t know, you shove the clouds, kick out with your hooves, flap your wings, yeah? Sometimes you nudge it with your flank or poke it with your snout for precision if it feels right- it's nothing like book stuff. It’s all in the wings!" She shrugged, giving her wings a single demonstrative flap. Clouds were clouds. How dense could Twilight be?

"Ah, so you mean it's an intuitive process?" Twilight asked, her skepticism giving way to a delighted smile.

"Professor who?"

"No, I mean, intuitive?" Twilight repeated.

"Uh, no thanks, I'm good," Dash said with as much conviction as she could muster.

Twilight coughed, and an uncomfortable silence settled for all of two seconds before Pinkie Pie cartwheeled down the stairs trailing a roll of trash bags. She bumped into a wall coming down and slammed face-first into a table, upending a potato chip bowl, giggle-snorting all the while.

"Right. I'll be going then," Twilight suggested by way of conclusion, sending a sympathetic wince in Pinkie’s direction. "You sure you guys don't want any help cleaning up? I can come by tomorrow if you want. It’ll be easy with a little bit of magic."

"It’s okay, we have to finish tonight since the Cakes come back tomorrow noon," Pinkie Pie chirped as she got up, wearing the bowl – and most of the chips – on her head. "We got it covered!" she declared before grabbing a bag and setting to work cleaning the floor over on the other side of the room. Rainbow Dash just shook her head and grinned.

“Yeah, we can handle it,” she echoed. “Pinkie’s probably going to mess it up a little more somehow before we actually start cleaning, though,” Dash muttered with a roll of her eyes. As if to prove her point, there was a thrill of laughter and an odd pop somewhere behind her. She didn’t even turn to look.

“If you say so,” Twilight laughed, turning to leave, but she paused again once she had two legs out the door. Rainbow Dash tilted her head.

“You know, if you want to help,” Dash offered, shrugging.

“No, it’s not that,” Twilight said, turning to look at Dash over her shoulder. She had one brow raised as she bit her bottom lip, visibly hesitant. “It’s not really any of my business, but if cloudcraft is so simple for pegasi, why haven’t you rebuilt your home yet? It’s been months. Do you need a specific type of cloud? Cumulus or cirrus or something?”

Dash opened her mouth to reply, but she found no words. There was no answer to be found because she had never even considered the question before. It was a simple enough feat.

Twilight must have sensed her frustration. She shook her head and found her easy smile again. “I was just curious, really. Thanks for the party, I’ll see you later,” she said, swiftly disappearing down the street with a wave of a hoof and a glimmer of magic to ward off the rain above.

Rainbow Dash stared out the open door still, mulling the words over. Sure, she’d caught the Cakes’ gentle questions about why she was still living at Sugarcube Corner, but she didn’t really see the problem since she slept in Pinkie’s room. They seemed happy enough when she helped out a bit, too. If they actually wanted her to leave, they’d tell her, and if they didn’t think it was a problem, why should she? She’d been so busy having fun with Pinkie, she never saw the harm. Never saw the reason to wonder.

The door stood open still. The scent of rain filled Dash’s head, somehow far stronger than the more immediate smell of the sugary treats that crowded the confectionery. She had half a mind to just run out that door and take flight. It was an odd and misplaced impulse. Usually she only got that when she felt trapped or threatened, even if she’d never tell anypony about it.

There was nothing nearby that was even remotely threatening. She glanced up at the banner that adorned the door and gave a snort. The yellow, orange and pink-toned decorations weren’t exactly her idea of terror.

Before she had torn her house apart to help combat the drought three months ago, she’d leave with the others and head home around now, what with the party being over. Was Sugarcube Corner her home now? Why hadn’t she moved back to her real home?

“Ooh, chilly,” Pinkie Pie giggled, hopping past Rainbow Dash and grabbing the door-handle in her mouth. In one swift motion she closed the door and locked the shop for the night with a click that sounded oddly final. Dash shook her head violently to clear her thoughts, and when she opened her eyes, Pinkie Pie was snout to snout with her.

“Hi!” Pinkie said. “Wanna play pin the balloon on the pony? Balloon fight!”

“Hey, Pinks,” Dash said, chuckling weakly and reaching over to flip the silly bowl off Pinkie’s head. “Actually, can we just clean up and head to bed? I’m a little tired.”

Rainbow Dash finally gave up and opened her eyes. She had lay half-awake listening to the sounds from the kitchen for what felt like forever. Ever since the sun first crested the horizon and filtered in through the curtains, Pinkie had been rummaging around downstairs. How that earth pony got by with so little sleep, she’d never understand. The thought was hardly a new one, and it came with a smile as always.

Except the smile wouldn’t quite stick this morning. She glanced over the rim of the bed at the mattress the Cakes had dragged into Pinkie’s room for Dash to sleep on. She’d tried the lumpy, uncomfortable thing once, and that was enough. She poked the offending mattress and frowned. Lumpy stinky mattress or soft bed with her own pillow-cloud? It was an easy choice, even with Pinkie taken into account.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, she’d gotten used to Pinkie’s snoring, tossing, turning and kicking. She even slept through most of the drooling and nibbling, too. Dash frowned, staring out the window. For a moment, she wondered if she’d miss it all when she moved back home. She had some awesome ideas on how to make her bedroom even bigger this time. She could even have two beds, just because. Who was going to stop her from making it the coolest home ever?

Gummy chose that moment to waddle by, her official limited edition replica Wonderbolt goggles tangled in his tail. Dash stifled a groan and reached out to save the goggles from the little lizard’s schemes, whatever they were.

Home, right, she mused, spinning the goggles on one hoof as she rolled over on her back and took in the loft apartment. All of her clothes rested atop the corner wardrobe, one of her fight suits’ arms hanging down the side. She’d unpacked her other possessions over the course of the weeks and months. Pinkie had even put her signed Spitfire picture up on the wall.

Rainbow Dash shrugged and hopped off the bed, stepping over Tank where he lay on the floor. She could practically feel she was becoming a more boring pony just for having laid still thinking about stupid stuff for so long. She shook her mane and trotted down the narrow staircase, following the scent of baked goods in the making. The Cakes weren’t back yet, the ground floor was clean enough, and the store was closed what with it being Sunday and all. All was quiet except for Pinkie Pie rummaging around in the kitchen whilst humming to herself.

“Morning Pinks,” Dash called, sticking her head into the kitchen. Pinkie Pie was covered in flour and her mane was sprinkled with chocolate chips, but that bit was pretty much par for the course.

“Aw, shoot,” Pinkie giggled, looking up from where she was spooning batter onto a muffin tray. “I was hoping you’d sleep just a teeny bit longer so I could wake you up with chocolate-chip blueberry muffins.”

Dash spread her wings and flew over to land behind Pinkie Pie. The energetic pink pony continued her work, perhaps a tad less perky than usual. It was always like this when Pinkie was at home, though it had taken Dash a little while to get used to it; not every day was a party.

Pinkie Pie turned and reached over with a forehoof to smear some batter on Dash’s nose, giggle-snorting like only she could. Not that she ever dials it down to anything less than eleven, Dash added to her private thoughts as she licked the tasty muffin batter off.

“What’s up today? You going out to stop that nasty evil rain?” Pinkie asked, twirling the spoon she’d used on her nose before flicking it into the washbasin.

“Nah, that’s Cloud Kicker’s job today. The mayor wants a backup go-to pegasus in case I ever hurt my wing again,” Dash said with a smirk and a glance out the window. If she intended to have the sky clear in time, Cloud Kicker was already late. “But hey, I thought I’d head out and see if I can grab some air-time, actually. Maybe grab some of those clouds. Get started on rebuilding my house.”

The idea came to her just then. She couldn’t quite shake Twilight’s words from the day before, and she hadn’t been outside since yesterday evening anyway. Once she’d said it, she couldn’t un-think the thought. The sky called to her, and she was suddenly aware of how heavy the sugary scents of the confectionery were. Besides, all those clouds would go a long way towards fixing her home. It was a perfect opportunity, even if Pinkie would probably insist that Dash help her with today’s baking or give her a hoof in cleaning up. She felt a little stab of annoyance at that.

The muffin tray made a sharp noise as Pinkie missed her target, banging the tray against the side of the oven before she righted herself and slipped the treats-to-be inside. “Oh. That sounds like fun,” she said without looking up, obviously busy watching the muffins or whatever. “I’ll catch you later, Dashie,” she added, a little more quietly.

Dash’s mouth hung open, a protest dying in her throat. Or maybe she won't mind at all. “I, uh-”, she stammered, re-furling her wings as she took a step towards the door. “Yeah. Fun. Um, later, I guess. Are you sure you don’t need my help? With the muffins or whatever?” she asked with a backwards glance.

“Well, I could always use your help eating them later,” Pinkie offered, turning around and breaking into a huge grin. “Those muffins may be too much for just one pony to handle!”

“Heh, sure,” Dash replied with a lopsided smile. She wanted to press the issue, to say something more, but she had no idea what. There was no problem at all. If Pinkie Pie had a problem with her moving back home, then that was her problem.

It was just- whose problem was it if she didn’t have a problem with it? With a wave and a scant few wingbeats she stood before the outer door of Sugarcube Corner. Both lock and door yielded easily to her hooves. Nothing stopped her, and seconds later she stood outside in the noonday rain trying to work out why she felt a painful knot in her stomach. She wasn’t even hungry.

“Rainbow Dash? Got a minute?” a voice called, snapping her back to the present. The streets were bare, everypony hiding from the downpour that soaked the village still. When the voice repeated its plea, Dash realized who it was. It had come from above.

Dash glanced skywards to find a familiar blue-grey pegasus mare sticking her head through the light cloud layer. It was impossible to hold back a face-splitting grin as she took wing and pierced the clouds to join Cloud Kicker atop the layer of puffy white cumulus that covered Ponyville.

“What’s up?” Dash asked, noting with delight that Cloud Kicker herself was looking more sour by the minute in the face of her own delight. The other mare looked like she’d swallowed a bug.

“I think I overdid it, and the rain is scheduled to be over within the hour,” her would-be backup muttered. “And I-”

“And you need some help getting it cleared in time?” Dash finished for her, chuckling. The only reply she got was a frown, but she brushed it off, eager to get some proper flight-time in. “Hey, no problem. Just dump any dry fluffies over the edge of Ponyville, and poke me if you find any solid cores. I might need them.”

Pinkie Pie tilted her head a smidgen and nudged the kitchen curtains further apart whilst reaching for another cupcake. She was eating the leftovers from yesterday, of course. The super-special chocolate-and-blueberry muffins she’d made this morning were for Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. They were extra special, covered with the last of the multi-colored sprinkles Dash liked so much.

The decision to use the last of the sprinkles had not been taken lightly. They were Clopenhagen-imported, and worst of all, very tasty. They were so tasty that it had taken all of Pinkie’s self-restraint not to just gobble them up on the spot. Luckily, at least half of the sprinkles had made it safely onto the glazed muffins, and they looked ever so sweet where they rested on the bench at her side.

But they were special muffins not meant to be eaten alone. She knew she had to bake special muffins when she noticed that Rainbow Dash was looking a little mopey yesterday. Dashie wasn’t supposed to be mopey at all. When her pegasus friend didn’t even respond to their usual good-night hug, Pinkie knew for sure something was wrong.

It was probably nothing big. She didn’t need her Pinkie Sense to tell her either way. She knew when Rainbow Dash had joined her for the longest, biggest and most fantastic sleepover ever that it wouldn’t be forever, and now Dash was finally starting to move out. She would be a terrible friend if she tried to stop her.

She just found that this was one farewell party she didn’t really feel like throwing. For the first time in her life, she just didn’t have it in her to shout ‘Party!’, and she had a sneaky super-secret suspicion that it was all because something was wrong with her.

She’d just come to really appreciate having Dash around. She didn’t really understand why or how, but it was different from hanging out with her friends. Days were always brighter and shinier when Dash was there, and when she was staying at Sugarcube Corner, that was nearly all the time.

Even more than this, Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to mind it when Pinkie was a little less bouncy, either. She thought back to the almost-disaster of her last birthday, immediately reaching for another cupcake. A normal yesterday-cupcake fit for a silly mopey mare who sat in the kitchen sink spying on her friend.

Besides, the colorful pegasus did look a lot happier this morning, shifting clouds around outside. She loved watching Dash at work or at play in the clouds, zipping around like the world’s prettiest, fastest and most colorful kite. She just couldn’t stop wondering if she had done something wrong. If she’d said something. Or worse, if she’d not-said something.

Pinkie Pie shook her head violently as if she could fling that silly thought right out of her brain through her ears. She noted a moment later that she had forgotten to close her mouth, and that there were crumbs everywhere, but it was a small price to pay for sending that dumb notion packing. She smiled and cast a last glance at the two pegasi outside as they set course for Dash’s cloud-home, clouds in tow.

“Silly Pinkie,” she told herself, hopping off the bench to give the kitchen one final pass before the Cakes got back home. “It’s not like you own Dashie,” she giggled, trying not to obsess about how hollow the laughter sounded in an empty room. The muffins were still warm, after all.

When the kitchen was gleaming and spotless again, the rain outside had long since ended. Pinkie Pie was just about to put the muffins away when she heard a knock on the kitchen door. At once, she found the bounce in her step again. Without delay, she put on a her best and brightest smile and trotted over to open the door, muffin tray in her mouth.

“Mffnf!” Pinkie declared proudly as she swung the back door open and thrust the tray at Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, hey, thanks!” the colt who was most certainly not Rainbow Dash said, leaning forwards to seize one of the tasty treats. Pinkie was so surprised she didn’t even have time to protest before one of the muffins disappeared down his gullet. She flicked the slightly decimated muffin tray over on a nearby bench with expert precision and frowned at the brown messenger-colt.

For his part, the unicorn colt seemed utterly clueless, fishing out a letter from a saddlebag with a glimmer of magic and offering it to her. “Letter for a Pinkie Pie? I assume that’s you?” he asked once he’d swallowed, glancing up and down her body. “Yeah, I’m going to go with that.”

Pinkie grabbed the letter in her mouth and closed the door in the wake of a fragile smile. Alone once more, she carefully opened the envelope that bore her name and scanned the letter, her eyes growing wide as she recognized the mouth-writing.

“Okay, this’ll do for a start,” Rainbow Dash declared. If she hadn’t spent so much time in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner lately, she would’ve been surprised at how much faster things went when you had two ponies at work rather than one. The sun hadn’t even touched the horizon, and the framework was already done. An impressive tower of pristine white clouds shot up from between the rainbow-falls that were mercifully still intact.

“We done?” Cloud Kicker asked, annoyance plain in her voice as she packed another little bit of errant cumulus into the roof. “Seriously, I appreciate you giving me a hoof with the weather and all, but I’m not gonna help you rebuild your entire home from scratch.”

“You’re building history,” Dash protested. “This is gonna be the most awesome house ever!”

“Yeah, let me know how that goes,” Cloud Kicker muttered, rolling her eyes before she set course for Ponyville proper. “I’m off.”

Rainbow Dash watched her go, resisting the urge to make a rude gesture at her back. Some pegasi just lacked perspective. She dove to touch down on the little patio they’d made outside of her bedroom and slipped inside, marvelling at the feel of fresh cloudstuff under her hooves. She hadn’t gotten around to making her bed just yet, but was sure she’d feel at home right away once it was in place. Even without her stuff, this was her home. Even without her wonderbolt paraphernalia, even without her magazines. And even without Pinkie Pie.

Dash licked her lips, trying to cast that last thought out of her head. For lack of anything to do, she began pacing the large, open room. Her hooves made no sound against the soft surface, and the silence bored into her head. For the second time today, she was glad to be interrupted by somepony calling her name.

“Are you up there, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called from somewhere below, her voice almost entirely lost on the winds. Dash darted out onto the patio and peered over the rim to see Fluttershy and Applejack standing on the road below.

“Well how about that,” Applejack chuckled, scratching her chin. “Finally left the nest, eh?”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes a smidgen, forcing a smile at the smug farmpony. “Heh, yeah, something like that. What’s up guys? I’m kinda busy here.”

“Don’t let us keep you,” Applejack retorted, knocking her hat back on her head. “You let me know if you need me for anything, yeah? Ah owe you, and you know it.”

Dash shrugged and glanced over her shoulder at the yawing, empty master bedroom. When she turned her attention back to the ponies below, Fluttershy gave Applejack a quick hug and started ascending towards Dash’s house with calm but efficient wingbeats. The farmpony herself performed a mock salute and trotted off in the general direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

“It’s a bit early for a moving-in party or whatever Pinkie calls them,” Dash suggested, snorting and giving the floor a poke. Fluttershy alighted at her side and nodded briskly.

“I know that. I just thought I could help,” she suggested, glancing about appreciatively. Her zeal slowly petered out as she looked at Dash. “I mean, if- if you want. I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Uh-huh, ‘impose’,” Dash repeated, rolling her eyes and giving Fluttershy a mock glare. “You’re such a terrible pony at times, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy blushed and giggled at that, mercifully enough picking up on the sarcasm. She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I just thought perhaps you’d appreciate another set of hooves. I haven’t really done this before, but I’m sure I can help at least a little?” she asked. “We’ll have this done in no time at all.”

“Yeah,” Dash echoed, poking at a wall and leaving a hoof-sized hole. “No time at all.”

“Before you know it, we’ll be moving your things back up here, and it will all be ever so nice,” Fluttershy continued, her eyes wide as she sailed around the interior of the cloudhome-to-be. “Oh, and we can make sure Tank gets a bigger play area this time around!”

“Yeah,” Dash said yet again, staring out through the hole she’d made. The sun was setting, bathing Ponyville in a dying orange glow that grew fainter by the minute. If she just squinted, maybe she could see-

“Um. Rainbow Dash?”

Dash sighed, turning to face Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus mare had snuck up on her and stood right by her side. It was getting really, really old, this - losing track of her own thoughts and having her own name used as some sort of leash to rope her back to reality. She wasn’t even sure where her thoughts were most of the time.

“What?” she asked, trying to keep the edge from her voice. She apparently didn’t do a very good job of it. Fluttershy took a few steps back.

“Are you okay? Do you want to talk about, um, something?” Fluttershy asked, scratching one forehoof with the other.

“No,” Dash lied, crossing her forelegs and staring at them to avoid looking at those big, pleading eyes.

“Oh. Um, okay,” Fluttershy finally replied after a brief silence, taking wing. “How about I just get started moving-”

“Don’t!” Dash snapped, surprising even herself. Fluttershy squeaked and fell out of the air, awkwardly landing on the cloud-floor again in an inelegant heap. Dash groaned and rubbed her face with a hoof while absent-mindedly helping Fluttershy up with the other. “No. I- let’s not. Okay?”

“Okay, let’s not,” Fluttershy agreed, biting her bottom lip as she got back up. “So, um, what do you want me to do?”

“I want-” Dash began, taking a deep breath and puffing out her cheeks. She had no idea why her stupid brain was being so hard to deal with today, but she knew one thing. She didn’t want to do any more work on her house tonight. Well, that wasn’t true. She knew two things.

“I want muffins,” Dash declared. “So I’m gonna go get some muffins.”

Fluttershy blinked.

“Listen, I appreciate your offer and all, but I’m gonna head over to Sugarcube Corner for the night. I mean, it’s gonna get, uh, cold, here tonight,” Dash muttered, lifting off. Fluttershy was of course far too polite to point out that pegasi didn’t really get cold, and that it was a pleasantly warm autumn evening.

“Okay,” was all Fluttershy said, looking up at Dash. It was impossible to tell what rested behind those eyes, but so long as she didn’t ask any questions, Rainbow Dash really didn’t mind.

With their goodbyes said, the last of the tethers that kept her there broke. Dash flapped her wings and found herself an updraft that would let her sail all the way to Sugarcube Corner. The lights were still on in the top floor, and the front door was conspicuously ajar.

“Uh, Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash called, nudging the door shut behind her. The light above the cash register on the other side of the room provided scant lighting for the large main room of the confectionery. In the soft glow of the single firefly-bulb she could see somepony had made a mess of things, and the Cakes were nowhere to be seen.

Strewn about the floor were half-made banners, crayons and markers spread all about. Packs of balloons lay unopened, and paper of all the colors of the rainbow was scattered around the free tables in preparation of a party - except the central ingredient was missing. No Pinkie Pie. The effect was profoundly unsettling.

“Pinkie?” Dash called again, her voice sounding faint even to her own ears. Only now did she notice a soft yet unmistakable sound coming from the kitchen. Snoring. More than a little creeped out, Rainbow Dash stepped over the discarded party in making and sailed past the counter. The saloon door leading to the kitchen parted with a nudge, revealing a sleeping Pinkie bent over a kitchen bench. The pink mare was drooling on some dough or batter of some description, hugging both the shapeless bakery-goods-to-be and a pack of flour close.

Rainbow Dash landed and approached very carefully. It was a ridiculous sight, and the ridiculous was pretty much normal where Pinkie was concerned, but for some reason her heart was hammering in her chest. “Pinkie Pie?” she repeated for the third time. She got nothing for her trouble except the pop of a bubble of snot.

She’d had enough of silence lately to last her three lifetimes anyway. Dash jabbed Pinkie on the rump with a hoof. “Hey! Pinkie! Wake up!”

Pinkie Pie squeaked, rolled over, scrabbled for purchase and succeeded in doing very little except bring the poor drool-stained dough with her down on to the floor. When the clatter of pans and utensils finally died down, Pinkie peeked out from under the lump of dough, bleary-eyed but smiling.

“Dashie, you’re back!” she chirped. “I was just making a fresh batch of-” she paused, staring at the mysterious substance for a second before giving it a lick. “Well, I have no idea actually, but I bet it was gonna be super tasty!”

“Yeah, uh, how about we put that away?” Dash suggested with a chuckle, flipping the offending dough away. “Are those muffins over on the counter? And where are the Cakes?”

“Yeppers!” Pinkie said, clambering back up on all fours, blinking heavily. “They’re not as fresh as I’d have hoped, and I thought to myself, ‘Pinkie Pie, a pegasus as cool as the Dash deserves only the freshest muffins!’, so I was going to bake some new ones!”

“Right. And the stuff out front?” Dash asked, trotting over to inspect the treats. It didn’t matter if they weren’t warm. They had sprinkles.

“I got carried away, I guess,” Pinkie responded. She added a little giggle, but it sounded odd, disjointed. When Rainbow Dash slipped the tray onto her back and turned around, Pinkie was smiling as bright as ever.

“Uh-huh,” Dash muttered around a growing smile, her brain already filling with the heady sugary scent of muffins. All the worries from earlier were slipping away, one by one. She couldn’t even remember what she was supposed to worry about - other than trying to get answers from Pinkie Pie. “And the Cakes aren’t back because?”

“Oh, that,” Pinkie waved a hoof. “It’s kind of a long story. What do you want to do tonight? We could eat muffins while we play games? Ooh, wait, don’t tell me, muffins and the latest Daring-Do graphic novel? It came in the afternoon post today and I just thought to myself, ‘Pinkie, Dashie would love to read this with you!’, and so I haven’t read it yet! I can’t wait to see if she escapes from the six-headed hydra!”

Pinkie’s eyes were shining with enthusiasm, and Dash couldn’t help but let herself be pulled along by the draft of her mirth. “Sounds awesome,” she replied, cantering past Pinkie and heading for the stairs. “Let’s keep Gummy and Tank outside the room this time, yeah? Gummy keeps stealing my snacks.”

“Aw, he only does it because he likes you,” Pinkie protested, bouncing along.

“No, that’s when he tries to eat my tail,” Dash snorted. “When he eats my muffins, it’s because he likes my muffins, Pinkie.”

Dash awoke with a start. Her eyes were wide open and her entire body ready to fight, wings awkwardly flared as she lay on her back. The display was wasted. All she got for it was a stab of pain when the sleeping Pinkie Pie took this as an invitation to roll over on her side, trapping Dash’s wing.

The pillows gave a desultory puff of their own as she lay back down, finally letting herself breathe again. All was quiet and all was dark. She could spot the silhouettes of Gummy and Tank over by the door where Gummy had fallen asleep biting the tortoise’s tail.

Dash rested her head on a foreleg, gently poking Pinkie in the ribs with the other hoof to elicit a muttered complaint about something involving corn cakes. Whatever Dash had dreamed was gone, but she found herself frowning at Pinkie Pie all the same, as if everything was her fault. And what? Dash snapped at herself. What is even wrong?

She wasn’t trapped other than in the most literal sense of things. Dash gave her wing a tug and sighed. It was well and truly stuck. No, she could leave anytime she wanted to. Pinkie had been happy yesterday, and so had she. They’d had a fantastic time of it with the newest issue of the Daring Do comic book series, and they’d messed around so much trying to clean up the kitchen that they had to clean it twice.

She was free. Any time she wanted, she could fly right out the window and disappear. Except she didn’t. Dash shot an accusatory glance at the window in question. It was even open right now, yet here she lay. Just like she could rebuild her home in a couple of days if she really wanted to.

Yet here and now, when she lay next to Pinkie, she wasn’t sure if she did want to.

Rainbow Dash swallowed, bile rising in her throat. For some dumb reason she couldn’t pin down, her breath was coming faster and faster. Was she sure she could get her wing loose if she really tried? She tugged at it again. Nothing. She closed her eyes and tried to shut up the building storm inside her, but it was futile.

With a great heave, Dash put both hooves to Pinkie’s side and shoved her over. The pink pony toppled over the side of the bed and onto the mattress on the floor with a yelp and a muffled whump. She was up a moment later, peering over the rim of the bed while Dash massaged her wing back to life.

“Morning?” Pinkie asked, resting her chin on the side of the bed. If she took any offense to the rude awakening, she did not show it. “Well, I guess it’s night, but saying ‘good night’ would be super silly,” she giggled.

“Yeah, silly,” Dash muttered. “Hey, uh, Pinks, I gotta go.”

“Go where?” Pinkie asked, and Dash thought she could hear her smile slipping in the darkness. “Go for a walk? Oh, well, or a flight. You know, since you have wings,” she corrected herself with a weak little chuckle. “Or maybe you-”

“No, I don’t know, go,” Dash repeated, having no clue what she actually meant or wanted. It was as if somepony else had taken the reins, and she was almost happy to let them. “Hey, I’ll, uh, see you around, yeah?” she heard herself say.

Pinkie stared at her, eyes reflecting what little moonlight shone in through the window. The silence held for a longer than she had thought it ever could with Pinkie in the room.

“Okie-dokie,” Pinkie said, voice thin. “See you later, Dashie-gator.”

Just like that, Dash was off. She cleared the window before she herself had time to form a reply, relishing the rush of air that muted all other sounds. The feel of wind under her wings made all other sensations obsolete for a blessed few minutes. When her treacherous brain tried to think, she upped the speed so that all she could focus on was how the currents caressed her form as they scattered before her.

Wingbeats came ever faster. Her wing-muscles burned, protesting against the brutal strain so soon after waking up, but she poured herself into it. She refused to think, clenching her eyes shut so hard she couldn’t tell if the tears that budded were from the effort or something else entirely.

Time stretched and yielded. Her abused body was all that was, and it felt glorious. At some point she started giggling, drunk on the sheer thrill of the climb. Lesser pegasi would have broken, but she persevered. Only when she was finally spent did she open her eyes, grinning in defiance of the way simply breathing hurt. The air was thin, and all of Equestria lay bare below her.

Ponyville was a cluster of foal’s toy blocks between her fore-hooves, the miniature village dotted with a few obstinate lights that refused the night. Far in the distance she could see the ever-bright mountainside metropolis that was Canterlot, and Cloudsdale too, though the cloud-city was harder to make out against the horizon. All the little forests, lakes, valleys and hills were so pathetic from up here. Insignificant and weak when viewed from on high.

Weak. The word stuck. Rainbow Dash snorted, but the sound was small up here. She followed it up by spitting out of the corner of her mouth, but it yielded nothing. Nothing happened, no effect.

Suddenly, all the pleasure of the flight was lost. On a whim, Dash started descending at an angle. She couldn’t even get worked up about the promise of an awesome dive ending in a death-defying stunt like pulling up at the very last moment before she became a pancake. Besides, it was so dark, it might even be a little dangerous.

Rainbow Dash grinned as she ate that fear and squashed the thought. That was all she needed to furl her wings and let herself plunge towards the minuscule townscape below. She didn’t dive as much as she simply let herself fall, twisting and turning, laughing at the idea that she could ever be afraid.

Ever falling, she picked up speed. She had no idea where she was going except down. She could see the mess that was her cloudhome in the making, a blotch off to the edge of the steadily growing village. Dash extended a wing a smidgen to adjust her fall, twisting herself around so she wouldn’t have to look at it. The rush of air grew to a roar as her eyes drifted and found a lone third-story window. One light amongst the many in the slumbering town, one that she could pick out at any distance. A very specific room atop a very specific store.

Dash’s wings spread as if of their own accord. She broke her dive above the library tree and sailed off in a different direction. Any direction. He hooves had started itching, and she felt like kicking something, but that would mean stopping, and stopping meant thinking. She gritted her teeth and punished her wings instead, only barely aware of where she was heading.

Chapter 2

“Fluttershy!” the insistent voice hissed. Had she not been clinging to Applejack, face buried in her marefriend’s mane, the poor pegasus would probably have been frightened half to death by the rude awakening. Instead, she was merely scared out of her mind. Fluttershy stiffened and clutched Applejack tighter, scanning the room. Applejack nosed the top of her head in her sleep.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in her cottage bedroom. The mantelpiece clock was quietly ticking away and Angel was sleeping soundly downstairs. All was quiet. The only thing that seemed a little odd was the Rainbow Dash stood in her window.

Fluttershy eeped and shrank back under the covers. Dash was soaking wet, and while her constant heaving for breath and drooping wings might tell part of the tale, it was clear that she wasn’t just tired and sweaty. It also didn’t explain why her mane was matted to her body and speckled with bits of ceramic and flowers, nor did it make her urgent gaze any less unsettling.

“Hey, you, uh, got a minute?” the soaked mare whispered almost casually.

Fluttershy stared. She tried blinking and disbelieving both, but Rainbow Dash just sat there defiantly dripping. When she finally realized how rude she was being, helped along by an annoyed glare, she was quick to nod and extricate herself from Applejack’s embrace. Quiet as she could, she hopped off the bed and tip-hoofed across the bedroom floor.

“Um, not that I mind, and it’s very nice of you to visit,” Fluttershy began, her voice a whisper of a whisper. She was having a hard time rubbing all the sleepiness out of her eyes. “But maybe we could have tea tomorrow instead, if you don’t mind? And... why are you wet? Do you want a towel?”

“Yesterday, you asked me if I wanted to talk,” Rainbow Dash said, brushing the question aside. “Well, I want to talk now,” she added, crossing her forelegs and placing her rump on the narrow windowsill.

“You want to, um, talk. Okay,” Fluttershy repeated, trying her very best to soothe her friend. She made some soft noises before she could stop herself, as if she were trying to soothe some wild animal. It had been an almost subconscious reflex, but Dash must not have noticed, making no comment.

“Yeah,” Dash confirmed, deflating a little and waving a hoof as if swatting an invisible insect. “Talk.”

Even if she wasn’t entirely sure about what was going on, Rainbow Dash was Fluttershy’s oldest friend. She nodded without hesitation and inched a little closer before sitting down, looking up at Dash.

“Okay,” she whispered, offering Dash a quiet smile. “Let’s talk.”

Dash sighed in relief and leaned on the window frame, closing her eyes. Fluttershy re-seated herself and got as comfortable as she could on the wooden floor. Nopony spoke for a long while.

Rainbow Dash opened one eye and pursed her lips. “Well?”

Fluttershy peered over her shoulder to see if there was something vital she’d missed. Was she forgetting something? Had she done something wrong? She opened her mouth to ask, but Rainbow Dash pressed on before she had a chance.

“Aren’t you going to talk?” Dash asked, a little louder.

“I don’t-” Fluttershy stammered.

“What in the name of Celestia’s knickers is going on here?” Applejack groaned, wiggling out from under the blankets. Fluttershy hung her head and sighed softly.

“We’re talking,” Rainbow Dash explained, succeeding only in making the groggy earth pony’s eyebrows seek the roof. “Or I thought we were,” she added with a huff.

“I don’t really know what I’m meant to say, I’m sorry!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“You know, helping stuff,” Dash spat, throwing her hooves up in the air. “I don’t know, I thought you were good at this!” The pegasus turned on the spot, precariously balanced as she was in the window, and made to lift off-

Only to be tugged back in with a mighty heave from Applejack, jaws clamped down on her tail. Fluttershy scrabbled away as Dash thumped to the floor with grunt. The colorful mare was up in a second, rounding on Applejack. She didn’t get a single word in before the farmpony leaned forward and ground their snouts together.

“You come stomping in here in the middle o’ the night causin’ a ruckus, and then try to run off without a word? Oh no, that stuff ain’t gonna fly here, missy,” Applejack snorted. “What in the hay is going on, R.D?”

“I can leave if I want to!” Dash yelled back at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking.

The room was completely frozen. Somewhere down on the ground floor, a couple of animals loudly protested to having their sleep interrupted, but the background noise only emphasized the complete quiet of the bedroom. Fluttershy stared at Dash, her eyes wide with fear.

“Okay,” Applejack said, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. She took a single step back. “You can leave anytime you want, and Ah ain’t gonna stop you. Ah’m right sorry if Ah did wrong by you.”

Dash said nothing, awkwardly scratching one of her knees. Fluttershy walked over to sit next to her. It felt like the right thing to do. While Dash herself hardly even seemed to notice, Applejack offered her a little smile at that, sending her heart aflutter.

“Now what in the hay did you get yourself into? And why’re you all messy?” Applejack pressed. As if on cue, Fluttershy reached out with a gentle hoof to begin extricating from her mane shards of colored ceramic of some sort. The sullen pegasus offered no protest.

“Granny Smith threw it at me,” she offered, shrugging. “A vase. With flowers. And water.”

“Right,” Applejack said, simple as that. In one swift motion she was up, had collected her hat from the nightstand, and was making for the stairs. “Ah’ll go make the tea. Fluttershy, green or black?”

“Green, please,” Fluttershy replied.

“Ow,” Dash complained, but there was no real force behind the word. Fluttershy shook her head and held the rainbow-colored mane parted for a little longer. Only when she was sure that Rainbow Dash only had a harmless scab on her head did she let go and sit back down at her spot by the table.

“Sorry,” she muttered with a final glance at her friend. “You could’ve been hurt. Worse, I mean.”

“So Granny threw a vase at you,” Applejack repeated, trying for the fourth time to pin Dash back on the topic.

“Yeah, the only reason she hit was because I wasn’t exactly expecting that,” Dash said, hunching over and sipping her tea. Apparently displeased with the taste, she stuck out her tongue and started meticulously adding sugar-lumps. First a pair, then a few more. She looked around, confused when the sugar bowl was empty.

“Um, and what happened next?” Fluttershy asked.

“Huh? Well, I tried another window,” Dash said as if it were obvious. “Since when do you drink tea anyways, AJ?” she added with a smirk. The farmpony blushed faintly as she exchanged glances with Fluttershy.

“Nothing wrong with tea,” she growled. “Ah want to know what the hay you were doin’ poking around on the farm!”

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Dash cried, pushing the entire table away. Her cup tipped over with a serene clatter. The sugary tea-sludge she’d made was too solid to spill much. “I was trying to find Fluttershy, okay? I checked your room, and apparently Applebloom was sleeping there. I woke her up by accident, and then I found Granny Smith. When you weren’t there, well, you had to be here, didn’t you?” she groaned, reaching over to salvage what she could of her ‘tea’. She didn’t so much sip it as she nibbled the goop.

“Yeah, she gets to borrow my bed when we’re over here for the night. But why?” Applejack immediately asked. Fluttershy kept meaning to say something, but she couldn’t stop tossing what she’d seen and heard around inside her head. She was trying to make sense of it, but it didn’t add up.

“To- I don’t know, ‘talk’? It was a stupid idea. I should just head... home,” she muttered, hitching on that last word. Dash stole a glance over at Fluttershy, but Fluttershy herself could only look back at her and smile apologetically.

“Is that what’s bothering you?” Applejack asked, tilting her head. “You fretting about your home up there in the sky?”

Dash opened her mouth to reply, finally looking up at the orange mare seated across the table. Perhaps it had been the slightly kinder tone, Fluttershy wondered? At any rate, Applejack had her full attention for a few seconds. Dash’s scrunched her face up, eyes narrowing.

“Yeah, sure, something like that,” she replied, shrugging. “Why not?”

“Well, darn it, do something about it!” Applejack said, leaning forwards to poke Dash in the chest. “You're about the best worker Ah ever saw once you actually put your back into it. At least, that’s what Ah’m guessing, considerin’ as how Ah don’t think you ever tried, but hey now-”

Fluttershy winced at the little stab, even if she knew that was simply how Applejack and Rainbow Dash worked. Dash didn’t seem to take offense. In fact, she sat up a little straighter.

“You’re Rainbow Dash! You can rebuild that house in a matter of days, Ah reckon,” Applejack continued, shaking her head and smiling. “Stop fussin’ about it and get to it, yeah?”

“Heh, hey, maybe it is that simple,” Rainbow Dash agreed, getting up on her hooves. “I got all the cloudstuff I need, I just need to shape it and harden the walls-”

“Yeah. Wall-hardening, there ya go, whatever that means,” Applejack grinned.

“Floors, find furniture, I can do that,” Dash concluded, pausing to gobble down the contents of her cup in one go. “I mean, I already knew that, but, uh. Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Applejack said, tipping her hat.

“Yeah, I mean, for the tea,” Dash clarified, licking the last of it from her snout. “Later guys!”

“Ah swear, sometimes, ponies just lose sight of what they’re doing,” Applejack murmured when the door shut behind the energized pegasus. She must have seen something in Fluttershy’s eyes; her mirth was gone in an instant.

“Sugarcube? What’s the matter?” she asked, sitting down in front of her and nosing into her neck. Fluttershy puffed out her cheeks and simply let her. It was the most divine feeling in the world, and it was almost a shame to ruin the moment with her own worries.

It would have been, at least. She just wasn’t sure these worries were entirely her own. “I don’t know, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy muttered at length. Applejack’s attentions stopped immediately, and a set of strong hooves gripped her shoulders firmly.

“No, none of that sorry business now,” Applejack implored, those beautiful green eyes boring straight into her. It was impossible to look away. “You think Ah did something wrong? And don’t give me that ‘probably nothing’ hooey, sugar, Ah love both you and Rainbow Dash too much for that.”

“I- I’m really sorry, but I don’t know!” Fluttershy stammered. She both hated and loved it when Applejack did that. She could never lie to her marefriend, nor could she hold a secret from her.

What she could do was not trouble her when she had nothing to go on except a silly little hunch that came out of nowhere.

“I just wonder if, um. I think I need to speak to Pinkie Pie sometime soon, that’s all,” she concluded, sighing. “And I really am quite tired. Can we please go back to bed?”

Applejack held her attention for a little bit longer before finally nodding. Her eyes softened, and she leaned forwards to lick Fluttershy’s snout. “Right behind you, sugar,” Applejack murmured, evidently just as tired as she was.

“That’ll be eight bits,” Pinkie Pie chirped, giving the couple her widest and happiest smile. “Two chocolate muffins, two blueberry-pistachio muffins and a baker’s dozen of today’s special muffin-flavored muffins.”

“Thank you,” the stallion replied, levitating the paper bag with a glimmer of magic before making a pointed glance to either side, surveying the shop in its entirety. “Are you planning on stocking anything but... muffins anytime soon?”

Pinkie followed his gaze as he turned, admiring the neat rows of fresh muffins. Most of the shelves held rows, anyway. In some places, they were less-than-neat stacks or towers of muffins, and that wasn’t counting the muffin replica of Sugarcube Corner on the table by the window. Pinkie frowned and considered the question that she didn’t really quite remember any more. The words the stallion had used were already getting a little hazy in her mind, so she settled for considering the muffins, instead.

“I keep trying to get a hold of good colored sprinkles for my muffins,” she replied, tilting her head. “Do you have any?”

“I... am afraid I don’t,” came the reply, accompanied by a nervous chuckle.

“And those would still be muffins,” the mare stood next to him replied. “We just usually buy some toffee every Monday, and-”

“Toffee!” Pinkie interrupted her. Given a purpose, she narrowed her eyes and bounced over to one of the nearby display cases. She could smell toffee nearby, assailing her twitching snout with its sugary, buttery dreaminess.

With deadly precision and a tiny little hoof-fu yell - so quiet as to not scare the customers away - she struck. Muffins fell to her savage hoof-chop, and silence reigned as she surveyed the battlefield. The treacherous vanilla muffins scattered before her, revealing-

“...Toffee muffins?” Pinkie asked. “I didn’t know you could do that. I don’t even remember making those.” She sat back on her haunches, both very pleased with this, and a little disappointed that she’d have to disappoint her customers.

It didn’t matter in the end. The bell above the door jingled, and she caught only a glimpse of the pair as they left the shop. They would likely be her last customers for the day, what with it being five minutes ‘til she was supposed to close the shop. She was left alone.

“Silly filly,” Pinkie Pie giggled, grabbing one of the toffee-muffins and hopping over to sit behind the counter like a salesmare ought to. She wasn’t alone. Not even a little bit. She had tons of friends, and everypony in Ponyville knew her name. She could head over to see what Twilight was doing anytime, or perhaps ask if Rarity had any new hats to show her. She could even trot all the way over to Sweet Apple Acres and see what Fluttershy and Applejack were up to; they were always so sweet, and so much fun to be around, too!

And then she’d come back to Sugarcube Corner to be alone again. Just she, Gummy, a cartload of muffins and all too little sprinkles. That was how it had been for the longest time - the loneliness that wasn’t loneliness at all, not the muffins or the sprinkles.

Pinkie Pie rested her head on the counter like the silly grump she was. Something was missing. It wasn’t just that Rainbow Dash had left and that she’d miss her. She could head out and ask if Dashie wanted to go pranking right now. No, something else was missing, something beyond the super-fantastic feeling that she had the greatest friends a pony could ever want.

She missed the smell of Dash that always lingered when she walked by. She missed the way Dash could make her feel just by being around. It felt like something was missing from inside of Pinkie Pie, and it was a terrible way to feel. She was like a cake without filling or a donut without a hole, but she didn’t know how to fix it.

The bell jingled again. Pinkie Pie looked up and smiled even though it hurt. She was about to tell whomever it was that she was closed and that she was really sorry for forgetting to lock the door, but she didn’t.

“Hi, Fluttershy,” she instead called. She nudged the forgotten, half-eaten toffee thing with her snout. “Want a tofuffin? I think they’re really more toffee shaped like a muffin, but it might catch on,” she said, eyeing the borderline mishap critically. She really didn’t remember a whole lot about last night other than an urge to bake a lot of muffins and an annoyance with the lack of sprinkles.

“Oh, um, that’s okay,” Fluttershy replied, smiling back at her. “Should I lock the door? I mean, if you’re closing-” she offered, turning to do just that when Pinkie nodded.

Pinkie drew breath and got up on all fours. There was no sense in getting somepony else down just because she was silly these days. She shook her mane and stretched, bouncing over to give Fluttershy a nuzzle. “What’s up, Fluttershy?” she asked.

Fluttershy opened her mouth, but hesitated. Pinkie Pie simply tilted her head and waited. Sometimes you just had to give Fluttershy a little time, and that was okay. It worked a lot better than asking her over and over again very quickly, Pinkie had learned. When the timid mare finally found her voice, she was looking away.

“Is Rainbow Dash okay?”

Pinkie Pie flinched, but she kept smiling. “Oh, of course,” she giggled. “She’s going to rebuild her house, and I bet it’s going to be super nice! Tank left this morning, and he hasn’t come back, or, well, come visit since Dashie doesn’t really live here anymore, but I guess that means it’s going really well!”

Fluttershy looked up and wore the beginnings of a frown. “But she doesn’t want to. I think. Did you ask her to move out? I-I mean, if you did, that’s okay, but-”

“No, you silly filly,” Pinkie giggle-snorted. Her face hurt. “She’s really happy with it. She was out of here like a, um. I can’t really think of something faster than Dashie, but it was really really quick!”

Fluttershy’s frown only deepened, and Pinkie’s smile got another crack. The pegasus mare furrowed her brow. “Are you okay, Pinkie Pie?”

Perhaps it was the sweat dripping from her brow that was giving her away. That, or the fact that she could feel her lips trembling, one side of her mouth abjectly refusing to smile. Whatever the reason, Fluttershy saw clean through her. Pinkie swallowed and shook her head from side to side, very carefully.

“I’m maybe not having the best day ever, I think,” Pinkie suggested. She tried clearing her throat, but she still sounded like a very different pony. A tiny Pinkie Pie with a not-so-tiny cold. All the smiles in the world had disappeared once she let go of her own. “I baked so many muffins, and I don’t know why. It was all I could think of,” she sniffled. “And I still don’t have my rainbow-colored sprinkles!”

Fluttershy reached out to hug her, but Pinkie was quicker. She latched on to the pegasus and closed her eyes as she buried herself in Fluttershy’s mane. A moment later she could feel the soothing warmth of the pegasus’ wings wrapping around her.

“You really love her?” Fluttershy asked, a whisper so quiet that Pinkie Pie could pretend she’d never heard it if she wanted to.

It was the missing ingredient and the third layer of the cake. The sprinkles she never found had a name. Once she let herself consider the possibility, her heart started beating faster and faster until she thought she might explode on the spot. At the very least, Pinkie thought, she would make a very pretty explosion, because right now, it felt like all her insides had been turned into multi-colored sugar. She shook.

“Pinkie Pie, you’re hurting me,” Fluttershy squeaked, and Pinkie instantly let go before she choked one of her bestest of friends, condemning her to a life of blue-faced blueness and endless ridicule for looking like a blueberry.

“I think I do!” Pinkie chirped. “I totally do!”

Pinkie got up and bounced in tight little circles around Fluttershy, humming blindly and tunelessly. Of course she loved all her friends and everypony else besides, but there was only one thing that explained the hole in her heart. Rainbow Dash was special to her, and the very thought filled her with joy.

Until she remembered there wasn’t a whole lot of reason to celebrate. Celebrations were like parties, and parties were for when something special had happened, or was about to happen. She didn’t feel like celebrating the last thing that had happened, really. Pinkie halted her bouncing on the spot, staring at nothing at all.

“But Dashie left, and she doesn’t want to be with me,” Pinkie said, the freight train that was her happiness rapidly running out of steam. “She doesn’t want to be with me,” she repeated, coming to face Fluttershy. The yellow mare shook her head with a defiant smile.

“I don’t think Rainbow Dash knows what she wants, even if you do,” Fluttershy said, sitting back on her haunches. “But, um, maybe you should talk?”

“But what if she doesn’t like me anymore? What if she left because she doesn’t like me or my room or Gummy or the way I sometimes pretend I’m sleeping and tickle her because the way she laughs or pokes me back is so cute?” Pinkie said, aghast.

“I, um. That’s- I- I don’t really know about that,” Fluttershy stammered, a faint blush adorning her cheeks. “I think talking to her is the only way to really find out.”

“Talking? I can’t talk!” Pinkie cried. “I mean, I can talk, but I can’t! I have to watch the shop! Sure, it involves a lot of talking, but Rainbow Dash’s house is at the edge of town and I need to bake and clean and get the shop ready for tomorrow! Cakes are at stake!”

Fluttershy hesitated a bit, glancing about the shop. “W-where are the Cakes?”

“No cakes!” Pinkie explained. “Only muffins, that’s the problem! Oh, unless you mean the Cakes you shouldn’t eat. They’re not coming back yet. They had to stay for a little longer because of the foals, and now I have to watch the shop for a whole week!”

“Oh my,” Fluttershy gasped. “All by yourself?”

“Yeppers,” Pinkie responded, frowning. She really hadn’t found a good solution to that yet. As she spoke, she bounced over to fetch the letter from underneath a precariously balanced stack of muffins.

“They thought that since Rainbow Dash had been so nice and helpful so far, it wouldn’t be a problem,” she explained as she hoofed the letter over to Fluttershy. She’d read it many times over the course of the night, but she read along with her all the same.

Pinkie Pie,

We will be staying in Canterlot for another week. Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake have come down with the Pony Flu. We will be in touch soon. Apologies for the late notice, but we are more than confident that you and Rainbow Dash can handle the Corner on your own.

-Mr and Mrs. Cake

“Oh my goodness,” Fluttershy muttered, covering her mouth with a hoof.

“It is too a problem!” Pinkie complained. “Hello? I’m a pony down here! And it’s the most fantastic super-fun pony too, and I can’t go talk to her and tell her that I miss her because she’s not here!”

Pinkie pouted and looked up at Fluttershy expecting a sympathetic look, but the usually shy mare’s eyes were steely determination. Pinkie blinked, tilting her head. It was one of those things that looked funny, but she couldn’t make herself laugh because it was also a little scary.

“Um, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked, watching Fluttershy get up and set course for the door. She had half a mind to ask if Fluttershy wanted to share a muffin and play a game because she didn’t really feel like being alone, but something was clearly up.

“I’m going to go talk to the girls,” Fluttershy said, simply. “Good night, Pinkie Pie. Um, try not to worry too much, okay? I’m sure everything will work out.”

It was so much easier to trust Fluttershy than it was to worry anyway. Pinkie nodded and smiled. It wasn’t the type of grins she saved for when she was about to eat an entire cake in one go, nor was it the huge smiles she kept in reserve for special occasions and parties; it was a small smile that was so honest, Applejack would be proud.

“Okie-dokie,” Pinkie said, feeling a little sleepy already. She was starting to feel the effects of yesterday. She never really managed to fall asleep again after Dash had left, and the time since then was a mess of baking and sales. She was sure she had at least one more batch of muffins in her, though.

Pinkie Pie yawned, stretched, and tapped Gummy gently on his back so he’d let go of her tail. She was already out of bed and halfway to the door when she realized she hadn’t actually gone to bed yesterday. The last she remembered was dragging a pillow to the kitchen sink so she could sit and look for Dashie in the sky. She had been waiting for the muffins to cool enough that she could get them out of the forms.

And then she’d sleepwalked up to bed? Pinkie Pie scratched her head, pausing in the middle of her room. She stole a glance out the window, only now realizing that she should have opened the shop hours ago, but any panic that she might’ve felt at disappointing the Cakes was intercepted by the ring of the cash register from downstairs.

Pinkie Pie was having a very confusing morning, and this confusing morning didn’t involve fireworks or even a single barrel of marmalade. She briefly considered getting her infiltration gear, but before she could even reach for her rubber duck, Rarity’s voice rang out loud and clear from below.

“That’ll be five bits, darling. Thank-you ever so much!”

Pinkie galloped downstairs as quickly as she could, fuelled by an almost painful curiosity. When the last flight of stairs spat her out onto the ground floor, she nearly bumped into Twilight’s flank before she skidded to a halt. The oblivious unicorn was happily chatting away with a trio of young colts, each of them looking very nervous.

“-which is why Starglitter postulated that if we can’t easily identify what makes us ponies, if we have to research sentience, then it’s paradoxically not worth researching in the first place,” Twilight said. “Ah, wait, what was the question again?”

“I just wanted to know if these were any good,” a young green colt admitted in a squeaky voice, gesturing to a nearby set of strawberry treats.

“Oh. Well, I haven’t tasted them,” Twilight admitted. “But if you can give me a list of objective criteria I’d be happy to research-”

“Uh, we gotta go, don’t we? I think mom’s calling,” another of the colts suggested.

“Uh-huh,” the last of them agreed, signalling their retreat out through the open doors of Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie waved at them, but they hardly seemed to notice.

“Good morning, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity chimed from over by the register, gracing her with a smile. “Slept well, I take it?”

“Oh hi, Pinkie!” Twilight added, turning around to face Pinkie. The shop was empty now save for the two unicorns. Pinkie frowned and held up a hoof.

“Twilight, you’re a librarian, not a salespony,” Pinkie explained. “And Rarity, you’re a dressmaker. Are you as confused as I am?” she gasped. Maybe they were sleepwalking too, right now? She experimentally poked Twilight in the chest. This served to do very little except annoy the purple mare.

“Fashionista, not dressmaker, if you please,” Rarity corrected her.

Pinkie chewed her bottom lip. They weren’t denying the sleepwalking bit. She wasn’t entirely certain whether or not sleepwalking ponies could speak, though. She leaned forwards and peered into Twilight’s eyes, bumping snouts with her. She looked very discomfited, but it could just be a very convincing sleep.

“New batch of cinnamon swirls coming up next,” Applejack called, sticking her head out from the kitchen. “Oh. Morning Pinkie Pie. Uh. Beg pardon, but why’re you- uh, whatever you’re doin’ right now?”

Pinkie gasped. “You’re not all asleep, and I’m not asleep because I just woke up!” she exclaimed. “That explains everything! Well, except for why you’re all at Sugarcube Corner baking and selling and doing what I was supposed to be doing except that I fell asleep,” she added, frowning hard at the three ponies, each in turn.

“Fluttershy told us you were stranded running the Corner all alone,” Twilight explained. “So we all decided to help! Spike could stand to get to try having some more responsibility at the Library, and this is tons of fun,” she concluded, beaming.

“When we came by early this morning, you were asleep in the kitchen,” Rarity said, shaking her head with a little tsk. “The place was a mess, to say the least.”

“So here we are,” Applejack shrugged and grinned. “Don’t you worry about a thing, sugarcube.”

Pinkie nudged Twilight on the flank. Though she initially objected wordlessly, it was easy enough to corral her over to Rarity and Applejack. When best-of-best friends did super-nice things, it called for a group hug. She snared them all and hugged them tightly, sharing the warmth that glowed deep within her.

“You guys really are the best,” Pinkie chirped, sighing. “I think I got it from here though. Gummy can watch the shop while I bake some more muff-”

Applejack shook her head, slipping out from under the hug. “Oh no missy, that ain’t the plan.”

Pinkie tilted her head, looking askance at her friends, but none of them spoke. Fluttershy had come in from the kitchen, and was half-hiding behind her mane as she sought Pinkie’s eyes.

“Um, I sort of told them everything,” Fluttershy said, swallowing. Surrounding Pinkie now were sympathetic smiles, or worse, sympathetic not-smiles. Rarity put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulders, and Twi rubbed a knee with a hoof.

Pinkie Pie giggled and nudged Rarity’s hoof away with her snout. “Aw, it’s no big deal. Why are you all so sad?” she asked, receiving a bunch of uncertain, hesitant looks in return. “Is that why you’re here? To mope at me?” she laughed and hopped about.

Fluttershy was the first one both to drop the silly frowny mask and to speak. “Oh, you’re not mad at me?” she asked.

Pinkie grabbed her in a hug, tackling her to the ground with a thud. “Mad at you? You are the silliest, cutest thing ever! Thank you so much for helping me! Ooh, and for all the baking!” she chirped, glancing around. Her friends had filled the shop up with all manner of tasty treats from apple tarts to zeppoles.

“I’m sure that I’ll do the Cakes proud now. So many tasty things to sell,” Pinkie concluded, still standing over Fluttershy. The prone pegasus muttered something too faint for Pinkie to hear. Pinkie cocked her ear, but she didn’t seem keen on repeating herself, burying her face in her pink mane.

“She said that that’s not why we’re here, darling,” Rarity said, pursing her lips. “We’ll handle the Corner for as long as it takes.”

“Aw, you’re really sweet, but I got a handle on it,” Pinkie protested, bringing a hoof up to perform a mock salute. “All systems are go, captain!”

Twilight cleared her throat. “We’re here so you can go talk to Rainbow Dash,” she said, her voice slow and clear.

“Oh!” Pinkie said, blinking as things suddenly made a lot more sense, even though she almost wished it didn’t. “She told you that everything. I thought she told you about the tofuffin failure.”

“It’s plain to see you got some things you need to work out,” Applejack added, shrugging.

“I’m fine, really,” Pinkie began. “I feel like I could throw a-”

“No!” Rarity cut her off. “Absolutely not. No parties,” she snapped, putting her head to Pinkie’s flank and pushing her towards the door. “Get out there and do whatever it is you have to do to make both yourself and Rainbow Dash happy, and tell us if you need anything else. No parties!”

“But-”

“None! Out!”

Pinkie Pie soon found herself sitting on the ground outside of her own home and store. Fluttershy gave her an apologetic look from the window, and there was little for her to do except smile back before her gaze was inevitably pulled to a certain spot in the distance.

If she looked high over the rooftops, she could barely catch a glimpse of an indistinct heap of clouds at the edge of town. Pinkie licked her lips. She had no idea what she was going to say to Dash that wouldn’t just make Dash dislike her more, but she owed it to her friends to at least try to talk to her. She could always share her little tofuffin story. Surely that would count?

Chapter 3

“No, just put it down anywhere,” Rainbow Dash shot over her shoulder with a sigh. Her exasperation quickly gave way to panic once she realized what she’d said. “Wait, no, anywhere but-”

There was a quiet, muffled sort of whomp as her new table fell through the fragile cloud-layer in the center of her living room. Rainbow Dash stared in disbelief at her wall-eyed friend. Of course she had found the one spot where Dash had planned a little observation area. Right now, it was a neat and square hole in the room, providing an excellent view of the coffee table that sailed towards the ground.

“Anywhere but there,” Dash finished to the backdrop of a crash far below.

“Um. Sorry?” Derpy offered with a sheepish smile and a wince. “I could-”

“No, that’s cool,” Dash muttered. “I was done for the day anyway. I got stuff to do.” She made a point of following Derpy to the door - or rather, to what would be the door once she got one. As well as she meant, the grey pegasus’ help was unreliable at best.

“Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help!” Derpy cheerfully announced as she took wing. Dash decided that it was better to say nothing at all for once, ducking back into her house.

She hadn’t bothered to call on Applejack or any of her other friends for help. She’d done so much in so little time simply because she had worked all through the night. Dash had always known that she was fast, of course; she just didn’t need to let everypony else know that. Before she knew it, AJ would start asking for help with more than just the annual applebucking. Besides, cloud-shaping was almost as good as flying for taking her mind off stuff, and she had a lot of stuff she wanted her mind taken off of.

It would all make sense when she finished her house. That’s what she’d thought, anyway. Now that she was almost done, she was starting to doubt it. She still had no idea why she felt trapped, but the fact that part of her didn’t want to finish her house confused her. She was used to other ponies being silly and confusing; it was less cool when she confused herself. Dash stuck her tongue out and flew up the stairs into her bedroom. It was high time for a nap anyway.

Dash landed on the pristine cloud-bed and sighed happily, exulting in the feeling of fresh, fluffy cumulus. She took a moment to simply roll around on the impossibly soft clouds. This, she could appreciate, even if her bedroom was a little bare. She’d need to go collect her stuff from Pinkie’s room sometime soon.

Well, Pinkie’s room, and hers, too. If her stuff was in it, it was okay for her to think of it hers, right? There was no law that said you could only have one room. Dash could have one and a half rooms for a little bit longer. The thought made her smile, and she burrowed her head in the pillows, sleep rapidly claiming her.

Only to be banished by a familiar, insistent voice.

“Rainbow Da-ash!”

Dash lay very still. It was unmistakably Pinkie, and she was far below, her voice only barely piercing the walls of the cloud-home.

“Dashie?” she called again, louder this time. Rainbow Dash lifted her head off the pillows. Normally, she’d head outside right away. “What’s up, Pinkie?”, she’d say, and they’d probably have an awesome time. That was usually how it went, yet she was hesitating now. Why?

“Rainbow Dash! The girls said we need to talk, and I think that’s a great idea!” Pinkie called. “I’m not really sure what to talk about though. How about ludo? Oh, wait, no, we always talk about games, let’s try something different-”

Dash rolled her eyes and giggled. Getting up on all fours, she stretched languidly as Pinkie went on. A quick glance out the window told her she hadn’t actually fallen asleep at all. The desire for a nap was still there, but she wasn’t about to blow off her craziest, funniest friend-

“-cherries. Oh. And then there’s the whole moving thing. Um. Are you up there? Because I miss you. A lot,” Pinkie said. Dash barely heard her, the voice softer now by far.

Rainbow Dash slumped back down onto the bed, beset by a sudden weariness. She writhed and wriggled, but she couldn’t get comfortable no matter what she did. She slipped her head under the pillows and groaned. Clouds weren’t even supposed to be able to feel scratchy, but right now, everything felt wrong.

If she went down there now, she didn’t know what she would say. She didn’t even know what she wanted to say, and that just wasn’t cool on any level. She was missing something. There was something she simply didn’t get, and she had no idea what. It just didn’t feel like the kind of thing you could ask somepony about. It was so much simpler just to pretend to be asleep.

Dash still couldn’t sleep. Pinkie’s muffled utterings had eventually stopped, and absolutely nothing had happened since. As tired as she was, as hard as she closed her eyes, all she found was the insides of her eyelids. It was getting really annoying. Just when she was about to head out for a flight, Dash heard a faint buzzing. The odd sound grew louder and louder until she could make out a quieter rattle and some odd squeaks interspersed. Even though she was certain she had heard this sound before, she couldn’t quite place it. Dash sat up and cocked an ear. It sounded like it was very close. If she could only-

Her bedroom wall exploded in a huge yet spectacularly silent cloudy puff. Pinkie tumbled out of her flying contraption and crashed to the floor, the copter itself plummeting straight through and onwards. The out-of-control device took half of Dash’s kitchen with it as it tore through her poor house, joining the coffee table on the ground below. Dash was upright on her bed in the blink of an eye, staring at the dazed earth pony by the foot of her bed.

Pinkie lay splayed out on the floor wearing a pair of saddlebags bursting at the seams. She must’ve gotten Twilight to cast a cloudwalking spell on her. Pinkie was not going to give up, then. Dash would’ve tried to run, to fly away from Pinkie, except that never worked. She just couldn’t talk to her right now. There was something she didn’t understand, but she had a feeling that if she left her house with Pinkie now, she would never come back again. Her whole body tingled and froze. Her mouth was dry, and her heart hammered in her chest, rebelling against- or agreeing with that last notion.

Pinkie stirred. Out of time, and utterly confused, Dash lay straight down on the bed again and pretended to be asleep. She’d closed her eyes and commenced her very best snoring imitation just as she heard Pinkie getting up, praying to the Sun that Pinkie would fall for it. That, and hoping Pinkie wouldn’t question how a pony could sleep through such an entrance.

“Aw, shoot,” Pinkie said in a whisper so loud, she might as well have saved herself the effort. “Dashie is asleep, and I promised the girls I’d talk to her!”

Dash clenched her eyes shut tightly and couldn’t hold back a little smile. This was almost too easy.

“Oh, wait.” Pinkie gasped. “I said I’d talk to her, not with her! I’m sure that’s almost as good. Hm. Or is this talking at her? Hey, Dash, what do you think?”

There was a brief pause during which Dash did exactly nothing save for a muffled sigh into her bed. She forgot to keep making snoring noises, but Pinkie didn't seem to have noticed. The pegasus just lay there doing the most boring thing one could possibly do: nothing at all.

“Oooh, right, still asleep,” Pinkie said, voice full of wonder. “This is tricky. I guess that means that Pinkie needs to make an executive decision. Fine! We’re talking! Or, I am talking. You’re listening. Well, you’re here anyway. I’m sure you’d listen if you were awake. Or pretend to listen to me. Ponies do that sometimes too, I think,” she giggled, but the laughter faded quickly, leaving the room quiet for a moment. Pinkie’s hoofsteps were swallowed up by the floor as she paced.

“I baked some more. Or, I baked a lot, really. I think I’m a little sick of everything with flour in it, now. Yuck,” she muttered, though Dash could hear the smile in her tone a moment later. “Guess that means I’m on a strict toffee, taffy and candy diet for a while! Oh, but that wasn’t why I was telling you this. Or, saying it. Does it count as telling if you don’t listen?”

Dash rolled her eyes despite them being shut. She had a sneaky suspicion she’d be pretending to be asleep for hours at this rate. With some luck, maybe she’d actually fall asleep for real.

“Anyway! That wasn’t my point! I was going to bring you something tasty. You know, since you probably need something to eat up here? I didn’t have room for a whole lot since my bags were already full. Oh, and Twilight said she thought the food might just fall through the clouds unless you touched it and pegasus-magicked it all up somehow. I didn’t really understand all of it. I don’t think she did, either, actually.”

In the ensuing silence, there was a rustle, a shuffle, a bounce and a vague feeling of closeness. Dash nearly lost her concentration on nothing-doing when she felt Pinkie grasp her hooves in her own. Was she supposed to resist or be limp? Rainbow Dash had very little experience with sleeping ponies except Pinkie Pie, and that pony was as likely to hug you in her sleep as she was to compose a ballad. Before she had time to decide how to react, Pinkie had tucked something soft in her grasp.

“Huh. It didn’t fall. Neat!” Pinkie said, obviously satisfied. “I only really brought that one, because I have all your other stuff too. I thought you might want it all up here if you’re gonna live here.”

Dash swallowed. This was getting way awkward. When she heard Pinkie move over to the other side of the room, she stole a peek. The pink pony was putting her signed Spitfire picture on the crude shelves she’d sculpted, and apparently, she herself was cradling a muffin. Dash grabbed a bite, barely managing to shut her eyes in time as Pinkie turned around. Ponies sleep-ate all the time, right? Compromising her cover was a small price to pay for a chocolate chip muffin anyway.

“I’m really glad we had this talk,” Pinkie chirped. “I’ll put your other stuff by your bed. Oh, and you look cold. Well, you don’t really look cold, but that’s what ponies say when they give other ponies a blanket or something snug, and who wouldn’t want to be snug under a blanket if they could? Nopony, that’s who!”

With the rustle and flap of unfurling cloth, Dash felt a light weight settle around her. She knew the texture of that fabric against her body well. It was the Wonderbolts blanket she only really used once in a while. It was meant to be for special occasions. Perhaps Pinkie didn’t know the blanket was special. Perhaps Pinkie never had a reason to think it was, since Dash’d always brought it out when they sat up until the early hours of morning talking and playing games - which was almost every night. Had been almost every night. Rainbow Dash sighed through her nose and grabbed another covert bite of muffin, hidden by the blanket.

The thought didn’t go away, and apparently, neither did Pinkie Pie. Dash cracked an eye open and saw Pinkie standing near the balcony with her back turned. The quiet and the stillness always looked so odd on her. Even when it was just the two of them, when Pinkie wasn’t quite ready to party her heart out, she was usually moving, buzzing with some semblance of activity that left her twice as alive as anypony else.

She was no doubt just wondering how to get down again. The zany mare tended to have a solution to everything, but what if she really was stuck? Would Dash have to pretend to wake up and hope she could fly her down before Pinkie had time to ask any questions? Morning Dashie, let’s talk about all this weird stuff between us! That would be really awkward. Perhaps she could-

“Oh yeah, and I miss you a lot, too,” Pinkie said, her voice so thin and frail that Dash almost jumped up in search of the third pony in the room. “I think I said that already, I just hope it’s not my fault that you wanted to leave, because I don’t know what I would do if it was. Just thinking about it feels icky, like a kelp cupcake.”

Dash could feel her chest tighten almost painfully. This was wrong on so many levels. More than she didn’t want to hear this, she wasn’t supposed to hear this. Perhaps it was Applejack rubbing off on her, but this was like a prank gone bad. She tensed, and opened her eyes, about to tell Pinkie she was awake.

“Fluttershy asked if I love you,” Pinkie added, shaking her head as she addressed the sky beyond. “I told her of course I love Dashie!”

Rainbow Dash froze with one hoof parting the covers. Her mouth hung open in an unformed protest that never came. Dash thought she could hear a faint sniffle, and the cheer in Pinkie’s voice was forced, now.

“The others were all, ‘We don’t mean like that, not like a friend, because we know you love everypony since you’re so happy and bouncy and sweet’,” Pinkie pressed on, punctuating her words with a hollow giggle.

“Okay, they said something almost like that I think, I don’t really remember, I wasn’t paying attention when they were talking about that,” Pinkie admitted soberly. Dash was still staring at her back, lost in the curls of her mane. “I’m super smart, you know! I knew what Fluttershy meant right away. I think you’re somepony very super-extra special to me, but that’s not really why I’ll miss you. Well, not the only reason!” Pinkie scratched her head, her voice dropping further, contemplative now. “Words are really confusing sometimes. I just know I really like being around you. It’s the best feeling in the world!”

Pinkie gave a thrill of laughter at that, a pure little giggle-fit that sounded as Pinkie Pie as anything ever had, instantly banishing the gloomy pall of the room. “This would be really silly if you were awake, because I Pinkie promised myself I wouldn’t tell you. I don’t want to tell you this because then you might stay when you don’t want to stay, and that would be wrong. Oh, and I don’t know if you even like me. Thanks for the chat, though! You’re the best sleepy-listener ever!”

Before Dash could say anything; before she could protest or even decide to not say anything, Pinkie pulled a string attached to one of her saddlebags. A gaggle of balloons burst forth just as she hopped off the balcony with a gleeful “wheee”, descending at a leisurely and riotously colorful pace. Dash was left alone in her bedroom with her half-eaten muffin.

Rainbow Dash gave the muffin an accusatory glance. When she squinted, she could almost imagine the spongy treat stared right back at her.

“What’re you looking at?” Dash muttered, letting go of her chocolaty adversary. She left it behind while she hopped off the bed to root around the stuff Pinkie had left behind. All her things were there, from her flight goggles to her musty old pillow.

“Telling her I was listening would just make stuff weird. Weirder, anyway,” Dash explained, tossing the pillow onto the bed. The worn cloud landed with a puff.

That, or it would’ve made her stop. Or take it back? Dash swallowed heavily at the thought as she trotted back over to her bed. She rested her head on her hooves, seeking answers in dark baked good. Her snout was right in front of it. It was impossible not to steal another nibble. The muffin was as delicious as ever.

“She said she didn’t want me to know. That means it’s not true, right?” Dash asked. The thought sparked something in her. A surge of half-baked anger that never really made it past annoyance. “If she doesn’t mean it, then why did she say it?”

The muffin was mute. Pinkie’s little cohort yielded not a single word.

“You’re on our blanket,” Dash growled. “I mean my blanket,” she corrected herself with a groan. The muffin had heard too much, anyway. She darted forward to devour what remained of the hapless treat in a single bite.

“Thrervf you righf,” she grumbled, spraying crumbs everywhere.

Pinkie Pie liked her. It should be simple enough to decide what it all added up to, even for a pegasus who slept through most of her maths classes - but it wasn’t. Even if Pinkie did mean it, any attempt to get at an answer was eclipsed by the fact that she was making Pinkie sad. She, Rainbow Dash, was making one of her best friends miserable.

Once she let that thought into her head, another joined it. She remembered a certain party last year, and all that had come of it. Sure, ponies fought and made up all the time, but making others feel sad because of something she did? It was never any fun, always uncool, and this was different.

When she closed her eyes, she could see Gilda making her exit from Sugarcube Corner all over again, clear as the day it had happened. They’d been close friends, wingmares, even. She had thought that meant something, and then she’d gone and ruined it. Of course she knew it was really Gilda’s fault, but it was impossible to help but wonder if a better friend would’ve done something different.

Dash snorted loudly and focused on the pile of stuff that Pinkie had returned to her. Sometimes she wondered why she was picked out to be the element of loyalty. For all she cared, Applejack could have the title instead. How hard could it be to be honest?

Dash paused, thinking back to her little ruse a few minutes hence. Perhaps she’d just keep the whole loyalty gig then. Equestria would just have to live with having an element that was terrible at her job. Too bad for everypony else. She pushed her flight suit and one of her scarves aside, digging deeper until she found what she was looking for; a pair of empty saddlebags emblazoned with the likeness of her cutie mark. She grinned at the awesome multicolored lightning bolts that adorned each bag.

Rarity had insisted on making them for her after their trip up the mountain all those months ago. Something about the fashionista’s sense of ‘social symmetry’ didn’t allow her to not gift Dash a pair of saddlebags, even if Dash had declined the offer initially. Dash held the almost-unused containers aloft with a foreleg as she thought. Her own house was ten times as big as Pinkie’s little loft, yet it felt infinitely smaller. The more free she thought she was, the more it hurt, and just when she had convinced herself she didn’t belong there, the very sight of her blanket on her own bed sickened her.

The air tasted sour and everything was backwards, but none of this mattered half as much as the thought of Pinkie Pie in pain. She was making the happiest, perkiest, second-coolest pony of Ponyville sad because she couldn’t work this out. Because she was weak. She had no answers.

If she was truly trapped, then why was she filling her saddlebags? If she truly couldn’t break free, then why was she already halfway out the window? She wasn’t holding herself back, and it seemed Pinkie wouldn’t stop her either.

“You know, I wonder if this is what Twilight feels like all the time,” Pinkie mused, scratching her snout. She leaned forward to drain her strawberry milkshake in one fel slurp, and the poor swizzle straw soon reported yet another empty glass.

“Twilight Sparkle?” came the query. Lyra nudged a few of the empty glasses aside so they could see each other more clearly. The turquoise mare rifled through her saddlebags before telekinetically wiping the table with a wet-wipe she procured.

“Yeah! Who else, silly? I mean, feeling smart. She’s so super smart and everything, she must have great plans all the time!” Pinkie said, signalling Brain Freeze for another round of ‘shakes. “She plans everything, you know.”

“So your great, smart plan is to drink lots of milkshake? I guess that... makes as much sense as anything you do,” Lyra admitted with a shrug, a snort and a grin. When the proprietor of the milkshake bar came around, she happily seized one of the glasses for herself with a glimmer of magic.

“Yeah! Kind of? Actually, I guess not,” Pinkie decided. “I’m here because I’m even smarter than that! I’m so smart, I outsmarted myself. At least that’s what I think happened,” she hummed, frowning at that as she tried to run it by herself one more time. It seemed less amazing and fantastic by the minute, now.

“See, I promised my friends I would talk to Rainbow Dash, and I kind of sort of did, too!” Pinkie explained, fidgeting with her hooves. “But, um, kind-of-sort-of-true isn’t really true, is it? I mean, I didn’t Pinkie Pie swear!” she exclaimed, already half-way over the table, giving her friend an imploring look. Lyra merely raised a brow as she steadied the ominously wobbling glasses.

“I didn’t swear, it’s just a normal almost-lie,” Pinkie assured her, but it was futile when she didn’t even believe it herself. She deflated a little, sinking back to sit on her haunches. “But nopony likes a lying mclyingpants. I don’t like being a lying mclyingpants.”

Lyra sighed and gave her drink a sip before depositing it on the battlefield of milkshakes that was their table. “The question is, what’re you going to do about it?” she asked. “I’m sure your friends will understand, even if I don’t,” she offered with a gentle smile.

“Maybe,” Pinkie admitted, pinning her ears to her head. “They’ve been really nice about everything now with Sugarcube Corner and stuff. Rarity and Applejack are minding the store even now! I just kind of went in hiding before I had time to even ask my magic seven-ball what to do.”

Lyra blinked. “Hiding?”

“Yeah! I’m hiding from them, duh,” Pinkie said, rolling her eyes at the silly mare. “That’s why I’m wearing my invisible hiding hat! If they see me, they’ll ask ‘So hey, Pinkie Pie, did you talk to Rainbow Dash?’, and I will have to say ‘Kind of’, and they’ll ask what I mean by that! I’ll break, Lyra! I can’t handle torture! I’ll be on the floor begging for it to stop!”

The entire outdoors area of the milkshake bar had gone quiet at Pinkie Pie’s little dramatization. Pinkie lit up and did a little bow, but nopony clapped. She sat down again with a huff.

“You’re not wearing a hat,” Lyra retorted once conversations resumed all around them. “And in danger of asking the obvious question that I know will somehow backfire; how can you call it ‘hiding’ when you’re at a bar right across the street from where Twilight Sparkle works and lives?”

Pinkie stole a covert glance to the side. Sure enough, the library tree hadn’t moved an inch. Lyra’s power of observation were substantial, but she failed to comprehend the depths of Pinkie’s devious plot. Even if Pinkie hadn’t really considered this before, it made perfect sense now. Sometimes, you just had to roll with the cards that the lemons dealt you.

“It’s clear you don’t know how undercover operations work,” Pinkie commented, grinning. “Ever heard of hiding in plain sight, huh?”

“Spike is staring at you. He’s in the window, right now,” the unbelieving unicorn chuckled.

“He’s looking, but does he see?” Pinkie asked, licking the foam off the top of her sixteenth yummy milk-and-sugar treat.

“He’s waving at you. I’d say there’s a fair chance he’s looking at you, yes.”

Pinkie Pie pursed her lips and shook her head at the implausibility of the whole thing. Lyra looked as if though she wanted to carry on the debate, but before either of them could say anything more on the matter, a pink and yellow blur streaked overhead. The pair watched as Fluttershy careened to a stop outside of the library, predictably enough pausing to knock on the public building’s door even in the middle of its opening hours.

“What’s she flying about like her tail’s on fire for?” Lyra asked. Pinkie made no move to reply. She had noticed the direction Fluttershy had come from.

Not only did Pinkie know everypony in Ponyville, she also knew who knew who, and none of Fluttershy’s other friends lived in that direction. Only Rainbow Dash. No doubt she’d gone to visit, and they would have talked. Pinkie wasn’t the only pony who talked to her friends. Others did that too, and if Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had talked, the lie would be plain.

Pinkie didn’t dare look any more, busying herself with the suddenly-less-sweet milkshake instead. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Fluttershy trading words with Spike. A claw was pointed in their general direction, and Fluttershy’s eyes met hers. Pinkie Pie was terrible at not daring to look, she realized. Fluttershy was trotting in their direction, and the fact that her clever hiding plan had failed was suddenly the least of her worries.

“Hey, uh, I’m gonna go be elsewhere for a while and stuff. You take care,” Lyra said, getting up and slipping into her saddlebags. “If everything goes south, you can crash at my place tonight. Bon-Bon and Berry are coming over for board games, but no Pinkie sense cheating this time, okay?”

Pinkie smiled back at Lyra as the unicorn mare made her egress, offering a nod before turning around to face her doom again. She was a cheating, lying no-good pony, and her jig was up. She could feel a trickle of cold sweat running down her face as she further loosened the cravat she wasn’t wearing.

Fluttershy slowed her approach, watching Pinkie intently. She didn’t even look mad, but Pinkie Pie knew that judgment lurked just below that tranquil and concerned look. That worried frown. Any minute now, Fluttershy would declare her a liar and a terrible friend.

“Um, Pinkie Pie? Are you... okay?” Fluttershy asked. "You look a little pale."

Pinkie’s bottom lip quivered. It was all too much. She collapsed like a card house in a storm, throwing her hooves up for the manacles that would no doubt slam down on her legs any minute now.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to lie but it all just happened so fast - or, actually, it happened really slowly. I was going to talk to Dashie, but she was asleep and looked so cute and happy while she was sleeping and no doubt dreaming about nicer things than having silly Pinkie Pie bother her and ask her about things she probably doesn’t want to talk about because I can’t help but think that she doesn’t really want to be around me! I mean, how can she? She’s always flying off without telling me what’s up, but I don’t want to ask because if she doesn’t want to tell, that’d be really mean, but sometimes not asking is even more mean and it all makes my head hurt!”

“Um,” Fluttershy offered, gingerly stepping back when Pinkie Pie threw herself at her hooves.

“And sure, maybe she did notice the sprinkles, but now I’m all out! What if the sprinkles were the only thing she really cared about? What if she thinks I’m a silly, stupid earth pony with fancy sprinkles? I feel so used,” Pinkie sniffed, grabbing a hold of one of Fluttershy’s forelegs.

“I don’t-” Fluttershy began, only to be savagely cut off when Pinkie Pie remembered the other problem. The pink pony curled up around the captive pegasus’ leg and clenched her eyes shut.

“I didn’t talk to her. Now you know!” Pinkie wailed. “And I’ve lost not one, but two friends! Lay it on me, give me your worst! I deserve it. I deserve the worst you can do!”

Fluttershy bit her lower lip as she stared down at her, looking more than a little lost. Pinkie popped an eye open and looked right back up at her.

“One and a half friend?” she asked. “Or friends? Does half a friend make it, um, whatchacallit, plural? I have to ask Twilight about this!”

“I was just going to ask if you know where Rainbow Dash was going,” Fluttershy admitted. “I don’t- I don’t know anything about the rest,” she said, retreating another step and saving her hoof in the process.

“Going?” Pinkie echoed, bouncing back up on all fours. She felt a little cold inside, and that never meant anything good. “Going or coming? Where?”

Fluttershy pinned her ears against her head and shrank back, glancing about. “I- I was hoping you knew. None of the girls could tell where you had gone after you went to see Rainbow Dash. It’s probably nothing-”

“I did see her!” Pinkie shot, relishing that little victory.

“-but, well, I saw her fly away. She had packed and everything. She usually never wears saddlebags, so I thought it was a little mysterious. I tried to follow, but she was flying far too fast for me,” Fluttershy finished, pawing at the ground.

“Away?” Pinkie asked. “No, no-no and no, away is like, twice as far as coming and going put together in one Dash-less soup!”

“I’m sure it’s nothing big,” Fluttershy said. “Maybe she just needed to pick up something from the Weather Office?” The soft-spoken mare offered Pinkie one of her it’ll-all-be-okay smiles, and it was almost enough to convince Pinkie. Almost. Pinkie made a noncommittal noise.

“I’m going to go ask Twilight if she’s heard anything. Are you going to be okay, Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy asked.

She didn’t lie and say ‘yes’, but nor did she say ‘no’. Pinkie smiled back as best as she could, and Fluttershy leaned forward to hug her around the neck at that.

“It’s not your fault, I’m sure it’ll all work out,” Fluttershy murmured before she let go. “Now don’t, um, don’t do anything too silly. I’ll see you at Sugarcube Corner, okay?”

Pinkie Pie didn’t want to lie. She just smiled still and waved as Fluttershy trotted off down the road. She didn’t want to promise not to do something stupid. She was pretty sure the plans she was making even now were stupid on some level. Probably a lot of levels. If her plans were a cake, all the layers would be made of stupid, and the cream filling was concentrated stupid, but it didn’t matter so long as the cake was topped with strawberries.

Strawberries that may have heard something that they weren’t meant to hear. Strawberries that she couldn’t bear to lose no matter what, even if it meant lying and saying she only wanted to be their- her friend. If she had to hide away the love she’d so recently discovered, she would, if only it meant she could have her strawberries back.

Strawberries that were so special to her, losing them was unthinkable, even if she kind of did think about it anyway, and it made her feel terrible.

Strawberries that were Rainbow Dash.

Chapter 4

“So this here, that’s yer new plan, girl?” Mr. Burner asked in his tell-tale gravelly voice. His flame flickered with obvious skepticism.

“Yeppers!” Pinkie replied, sketching a salute. “This is my plan, gas-can!”

“Deceit and grand theft is a legitimate plan now? Times sure have changed, hmph.”

Pinkie bit a hold of some rope that was lying about in the bottom of the basket, tossing it overboard with a flick of her head. With precious little else left to do, she began pacing. Given that the basket of the hot air balloon wasn’t really all that big, it amounted to little more than hopping in place.

“Are you absolutely positively one-hundred-and-forty-four-percent sure we can’t go any faster?” Pinkie asked.

“Like I told you ten minutes ago, I’m giving’er all I’ve got,” Mr. Burner retorted, sputtering indignantly. “Besides, I’m telling you, this is a terrible idea.”

“Hey!” Pinkie protested, sitting down and crossing her forelegs. “I’ve had just about enough of your attitude. I need to get to Cloudsdale, pronto. I got something really important to do, and I don’t need you being such a sour-waffle, okay? If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

“Right,” the surly burner unit grumbled, rolling his lack of eyes. “So, forgetting the acts of piracy, I’m still sayin’ you could do better if your goal is to look for your beau in Cloudsdale.”

Pinkie pouted. “What do you know, anyway?”

“I know that talking to stuff what don’t usually talk probably means you’re suffering from altitude illness. You haven’t really checked outside th’ basket for a while, have you?”

“Altitude illness?” Pinkie asked, getting up on the tips of her hooves to peer over the rim of the basket. How long had it been since she’d flown off in Twilight’s balloon anyway? She wasn’t quite sure how far Cloudsdale was by balloon, but-

“Oh wow, is Equestria supposed to be this tiny?” Pinkie asked, her mouth forming a little ‘O’. Far below, she could see a mass of clouds, white, silver and gold blending in glorious symphony. Cloudsdale looked very small, very far below, the cloud-city growing ever more distant by the second. The world below that again was but a blur of greens.

“Oh yeah. S’called hypobaropathy. I had a book about that thrown at me once!” Pinkie exclaimed triumphantly as she suddenly remembered. For some reason, her voice was oddly deep. In hindsight, she had sounded a little bit like Mr. Burner. Not wanting to be accused of aping his mannerisms in case he was sensitive about his voice, she turned to apologize.

The hot air balloon’s burner unit reflected a glimmer of sunlight, but otherwise remained mute.

“I guess that means I can’t really ask you for help in getting down, can I?” Pinkie asked, frowning. It was just as well, really. Sometimes, things became so confusing, complicated or scary that thinking only made it worse. It usually worked out if you just hoped hard enough, anyway.

“Well, send me a postcard from the moon, Mr. Burner!” she called, bouncing over the rim of the basket.

Pinkie gave a loud squeal and a giggle as she fell towards the city below. The curls of her mane and tail were immediate casualties to the speed, pointing straight back up to the sky and giving her a dark pink contrail. For a moment, she wondered if she’d done the right thing in throwing her parachute overboard in her earlier haste to gain speed. Still, the cloud-walking spell Twilight had cast on her earlier would last for almost a full day, so she wouldn’t miss Cloudsdale. She might become a Pinkie-pancake, but that was okay. She happened to like pancakes.

Just as she was deliberating whether or not the moment called for a song, Pinkie spotted a streak of gold and white rushing up towards her far faster than the rest of the city. Somepony was rising to meet her. Seconds later, the small shape became a not-so-small shape; a brilliant white pegasus in immaculate golden armor reversed her ascent and folded her wings, falling alongside Pinkie Pie with expert precision and control.

“Sergeant Straight Edge, ma’am,” the newcomer called over the rush of wind. The city below was getting steadily larger, and Pinkie could make out individual buildings now. Of course, that was no excuse for being rude! She extended a hoof.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” she chirped. It was so nice to have somepony to fall with, especially when it was a somepony who didn’t scream and flail and all that stuff most other ponies wasted lovely falling-time on.

The pegasus squinted at the proffered hoof, pursing her lips. “I cannot accept your greeting just yet, ma’am. I need to ascertain your intent as protocol demands as per regulations nineteen through twenty-three. Are you approaching Cloudsdale with intent to invade?”

Pinkie tilted her head and failed to hold back a little giggle. “Invade? Um, I don’t think so! I’m just looking for my friend, Rainbow Dash. Maybe you’ve seen her?”

“I know of her, but no, sorry. Not invading? Are you sure?” Edge asked again, one brow cocked. She looked almost disappointed.

“Nopey-dopey! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie affirmed. The city wasn’t just a collection of little toy houses on little fluffy toy clouds any more. The sprawling metropolis was sprawlier by the second.

She looked over at her new-found friend. The other mare had procured parchment, quill and ink. It was quite impressive how she managed to mouth-write in free fall, inkwell held upside-down. When she saw Pinkie was seeking her attention, the pegasus nestled the quill under a wing.

“Form 3-C. I swear, none of the other ponies in the Cloudguard care even the slightest bit about proper procedure,” she explained. “3-C is the abortive invasion response form. I haven’t had the pleasure of filing one in- well, ever.” Indeed, she looked like she was enjoying herself perhaps a little too much.

“Oh, I’m really happy to have helped!” Pinkie beamed. “I’m actually kind of falling, though, and I’m not a pegasus except during costume parties, sometimes, though I usually go for something more fun, like a jar of butter or a chicken. Anyways! Do you think you could maybe give me a hoof?”

The guardpony stared, blinked, and shook her head briskly. “Sorry?”

“Falling,” she repeated. “Not a pegasus, no wings. Could you be a pal and give a gal some help?” she asked with her most hopeful of smiles. There was really rather more cloud-city than there was anything else below, now. She wished she had packed those extra balloons, or indeed, the non-extra balloons. Anything at all, even.

“Ah, aerial rescue request?” the guardpegasus asked, her face lighting up in understanding.

“Sure!” Pinkie agreed. “I think most ponies would call it oh my gosh I’m falling, heeelp!” she screamed, ending in a fit of giggles.

“Nope,” Straight Edge said, gingerly putting the lid back on her inkwell. “That’d be form 73-D, leisure-related aerial rescue during on-duty time. I don’t have one with me. Sorry. I have no desire to have to reprimand myself for breaking regulations.”

“Oh,” Pinkie said, shrugging and smiling. “Well, thanks anyway! You’ve been really nice. And really shiny, too! Maybe I’ll see you around-”

In one massive poof, everything became white, shortly followed by a resounding crash and a scream. The world was soft and wonderfully colorful all of a sudden. Pinkie Pie surfaced from Cloudsdale Clothes’ bargain bin wearing a pair of socks on her ears. The guardpony peered back down at her from the hole in the roof that Pinkie’s entry had provided.

“Are you entirely sure it’s not an invasion? You’re starting to fill some of the criteria, and I doubt I’ll ever get another chance to fill out that form. It’s not like we have a procedure for what to do in case of invasion anyway,” she said, putting on a cautious smile. It was almost sad to have to disappoint her.

“Sorry!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing out of the bin to stand next to the prone form of the fainted proprietor-pegasus. “I really just need to find Rainbow Dash. Um. Where’s the weather place?”

“The weather place,” Straight Edge echoed.

“Yeah! Where Rainbow Dash would go!” Pinkie replied.

“The weather factory? The weather consortium? Weather control? The weather command? Ma’am, I could go on for hours,” Edge said, flying down from her perch to alight on the ground floor of the shop.

“Um, yes?” Pinkie tried. “She makes all sorts of weather for us in Ponyville. Rain, clear skies, all kinds of stuff! Once, she even made me my very own rain cloud that I could keep on a leash. I miss Puffy so much.”

“Right. Probably the central weather office, then,” Edge said, leaning forwards to poke at the near-forgotten proprietor pony. “It's next to the weather factory, before you hit the weather council, can’t miss it. I’d give you a lift, but I need to wake the owner of this establishment up and get her to fill out a form or two.”

Pinkie nearly missed the weather office. Bouncing through what little Cloudsdale offered by way of streets was hard enough; excepting the main thoroughfares and commercial districts where the city was solid, it seemed that the clouds that led from one place to another were there by chance more than courtesy. This wasn’t about to stop Pinkie, though. It was amazing how far you could get with a hop, skip and a jump. No, the real obstacle was the fact that the city was full of ponies.

If the pegasi of Cloudsdale were amused to see an earth pony traipsing along amidst their arches and columns, Pinkie was twice as happy for it. Every time she looked around, there was a new pony to meet and greet. The majority of them even seemed pleased to make her acquaintance, but it wasn’t all fun, games and smiles.

With every such encounter, the sun’s light faltered and changed. The bright orb slowly and inexorably sunk below the cloud-line, its rays filtering through the city. The resulting ethereal light was unlike anything Pinkie had ever seen before; the cloudstuff of the city itself glimmered and came to life in a blaze of fiery golden hues so vivid, even the residents of Cloudsdale paused to watch.

For Pinkie’s part, all the beauty did was remind her why she was here, and that she was running out of time. As pretty as the light-show was, it was just one color, and she was a pony chasing a rainbow. When she finally spotted the silver-wreathed sign that marked a huge and ostentatious building as “Central Weather Office”, a pegasus was already locking the front door, glasses perched on his nose and a stack of ledgers on his back. Pinkie nearly barrelled down the poor stallion in her haste.

“No no no, you can’t lock it!” Pinkie protested, placing herself in front of the door. The bright red pegasus paused, key in his mouth.

“Mpfh?” he asked, frowning and shifting the weight of the books on his back.

“Rainbow Dash is in there!” Pinkie said, bumping her snout against his. “Or maybe not, but she has to be somewhere, and this is really the only place I can think of, so she has to be here! It’s logic. You can’t argue against logic, that’s what Twilight says, and she usually says stuff that makes sense at least to her!”

The short-maned pegasus stallion took a measured step back, gingerly tucked the key under a wing and gave her a blank look. “There’s no Rainbow Dash here today, miss...?”

“Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie muttered, ears drooping. “But you can just call me Miss Terrible Friend. I should have known she was awake. Nopony can eat just half a muffin while asleep. It was a dead give-away. If she’s not here, she could be anywhere,” she said, reaching out to grab her tail. The bushy pink thing was listless and utterly unresponsive.

“Um, if she’s associated with us, I could-”

Pinkie pouted and glared at her tail. “Why can’t you wobble? Wobble once for ‘Rainbow Dash is okay and is waiting by the pond’, twice for ‘Rainbow Dash is extra okay and is right above you, look up, Pinkie’?” Unable to help herself, Pinkie Pie peered skywards. Plenty of pegasi were about but none of them had rainbow-colored manes, and none of them had Dash’s shade of blue. None of them would help her pass the time while she left dough to rest. No Rainbow Dash.

“Miss,” the stallion broke in, a little louder now. He was peering at her over the rim of a huge ledger carefully balanced on a hoof. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but have you tried her registered home address here in Cloudsdale?”

“Stop fidgeting,” Pinkie Pie whispered to herself, praying to the Sun, the Moon, and to the sugar stores back in Sugarcube Corner that she’d listen. After she knocked again, her treacherous hooves went right back to drumming the ground heedless of her plea.

The house really was something else. There were a lot of things in Equestria that were different. In fact, most things were different from most other things, but the entire neighbourhood of the large puffy cloudy mansion qualified as something very else. Straight, clean-yet-soft walls stood two, three or even four stories tall in places, and to either side of the walkway were neatly kept cloud gardens. Clouds of all sizes and types adorned the area, cut and molded into ponies, animals and other things besides.

Pinkie had no idea why Rainbow Dash had a place like this. She also had no idea why Dash had never told anypony about it. She had even less of a clue as to what she would say when she saw her.

“I’m sorry?” Pinkie quietly asked, practicing. It sounded odd. Insufficient. “I’m really sorry?” she tried instead, a little louder. It was very odd to apologize when you didn’t even know what you were sorry about. Even so, she knew she meant it.

Light hoof-steps on the other side of the door made Pinkie’s ears perk up. She bounced on the spot with raw excitement and wonder as the ornate door slid open, and when she glimpsed a rainbow-colored mane, all she had learned during her rigorous fifteen-second training session went out the window. The missile that was Pinkie Pie impacted and clung to the pegasus mare with all her might.

As she wracked her brain for something to say that didn’t involve balloons or parties or all that, Pinkie couldn’t help but wonder at how much softer Dash felt. She was bigger, a little less bony, and the mane that Pinkie had buried her head in was decidedly longer. Pinkie experimentally moved her hooves around a little poking at Dash’s side and back.

“An earth pony? Is this a new salesmare trick?” the pony who was decidedly not Rainbow Dash asked. She sounded amused, her voice a little raspy but decidedly upbeat. “I’m flattered, but, uh, what are you selling again?”

Pinkie held on for a second longer before letting go. A hug was a hug, after all, but she was beginning to feel very tired in a way she hadn’t felt in a very long time. It was as if she was a balloon that had been forgotten under a table for a week, deflating and shrinking even if nopony could tell how or why. Well, Twilight might know. She would have to ask Twilight about balloons sometime later. For now, she was stuck being a balloon.

“You’re not Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie declared, sitting back on her rump and giving the strange mare a look. Once she’d said it, she doubted her own words just a little. The pegasus in front of her was a slightly deeper blue than Dash, and her eyes were a bright red, but the mane was unmistakably the same rainbow of colors.

“I’m not. Sorry kid,” she chuckled. “Close, though.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. There was only one thing that could explain a pegasus that looked almost like Rainbow Dash and lived in a house that she’d listed at her job office.

“Twilight messed up a spell and you’re Rainbow Dash from the future, but the spell messed up your head too, so you don’t remember me!” Pinkie said, feeling panic build up inside of her.

“Yeah, no,” the enigma replied. “I’m-”

Pinkie bounced up on all fours and pointed an accusing hoof coupled with a smile. “You’re Rainbow Dash’s sister!”

That got a soft laugh out of the strange mare. “Flattering, cutie. I’m her mother.”

“Oh. That was gonna be my next guess,” Pinkie retorted. “I’m Pinkie Pie! Hi!” she said. Even she herself could notice her voice sounded a little worn. It really had been a long day.

“Yeah, I figured. I’m Hurricane Flare. Why don’t you come in?” the older pegasus suggested. Rather than offer a hoof for a hoofshake, she simply flew deeper into the house. Perhaps she felt hugs doubled as hoofshakes? Pinkie shrugged and bounced after her.

Clouds were amazing. Pinkie had always known this, of course, and it became twice as true after she started hanging out with Rainbow Dash. All the same, the best part about clouds became apparent as she followed the trailing rainbow tail of Rainbow Dash’s mom through the mansion.

The best part was everything. Apparently, a crafty pegasus could do just about anything with clouds, and nopony had ever told Pinkie you could dye clouds. Rather than carpets, the floors had colorful patterns where they weren’t overlaid with tiles. The walls had well-defined shelves and closets that were half cloud, half wood or stone.

There was so much to look at, and matters were certainly not helped by other pony in the house. When they came to a stop in a large and open room populated by a smattering of sofas and tables, Pinkie had to give her eyes a little rub just to make sure it wasn’t Rainbow Dash herself who sailed over to take a seat. If she just had a shorter mane or tail, was a little lighter, had a different eye color-

Pinkie shook her head. It really was the mane. She bounced over to take a seat right next to her. If Hurricane Flare minded the proximity, she made no comment. Even so, Pinkie decided not to press for a second hug.

“Thanks for letting me in, Mrs. Rainbow Dash’s mom!” Pinkie chirped, offering her a smile. “Um, how did you know who I was? I mean, other than me telling you? I think you said something like, ‘I know’, or ‘I remember you’ or ‘I have been told of your coming’, I can’t really remember which.”

“It’s Hurricane- ah, never mind. Just call me Flare, okay?” Flare suggested.

“Aw, okie-dokie,” Pinkie agreed.

“Anyway, yeah, Dashie told me about you. And, um. You’re very pink,” she gave Pinkie a warm grin. Pinkie stared down at her belly-fuzz and poked it.

“I guess I am kinda pink,” Pinkie started to giggle, but she stopped mid-mirth, eyes growing wide. “Wait- wait a minute, hold your ponies!” she squeaked. “Dash talks about me? Dash talks to you? You call Dash ‘Dashie’ too? But wait, if she talks to you about me, why doesn’t she talk to me about you? I didn’t even know she had a mom!”

Flare laughed, a clear and loud laughter unlike that of any other older ponies Pinkie had ever known. “Oh she wouldn’t. I don’t know if she’s embarrassed of her old mom or if she’s afraid that people will realize I’m just cooler than her,” she said. Pinkie giggled at that.

“She still doesn’t dare challenge me to a race you know, but don’t tell her I said that,” Flare whispered conspiratorially as she smirked. Pinkie mimed zipping her mouth shut, nodding grimly.

“No, she writes home once in a while,” Flare continued, her smile becoming wan. “Usually when she’s got some trouble, some problem, something that worries her. If you’re one of her friends, you know that’s hardly often. She’s strong.”

Pinkie nodded again, twice as earnest. There was an unmistakable note of pride in Flare’s voice, but she said no more, gaze distant.

“I, um, is she here?” Pinkie asked tentatively. “If she doesn’t want to see me I understand, or well, I don’t understand, but that’s the point-”

“She’s not,” Flare interjected. Pinkie felt the balloon inside of her deflate further, but Dash’s mom held up a hoof. “She’s not here, but she was.”

“Where? Where is she?” Pinkie asked, standing up so fast she nearly bounced straight off the couch. “I need to talk to her! Ohmygosh you have to tell me!”

To her dismay, all Flare did was lean back. She crossed her forelegs and lay back against the puffy armrest of the couch they shared, pursing her lips. Pinkie tilted her head in confusion.

“What, is it nap time?” she asked. “You can sleep all you want later, I need to find Dash now!”

Flare shook her head slowly. “I know my Dashie considers you one of her closest friends. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but she shows up at my doorstep this morning, sulks in her room without telling me anything, and then flies off? I want answers, first. I want to know what’s going on with my only daughter.”

Pinkie blinked. “Answers? Oh, I got plenty of answers! Do you want to hear how I found Fluttershy’s missing squirrels using a broken plough handle and Daisy’s new dress? I can answer that!”

“I meant about Rainbow-” Flare tried to interrupt, but Pinkie Pie was all too happy to start at the beginning. In fact, she wasn’t quite sure if it was the right beginning, but it was a beginning.

“-and then you asked me about answers, and I said, ‘Answers? Oh, I got-’” Pinkie continued, frowning in concentration as she tried to get her own voice just right. She was stopped by a noise of protest from Flare who nearly dropped her glass of soda in her haste to interrupt. They’d had to light the firefly globes around the room as the evening dragged on, and at times, Flare had wandered off around the house. She sat down and listened when Pinkie got to the end of last week, though.

Flare made a warding gesture and shook her head, gingerly putting her glass back on the table. “That’s enough, thank you. Let’s not go for round two, okay?” Pinkie thought she heard her mutter something about “Dashie wasn’t kidding.”

“Aw, you don’t want to hear about when I told you about the time I told you about when you asked me about answers?” Pinkie asked.

“No?” Flare asked after a moment’s contemplation. “No, I don’t. I want to hear what you think happened.”

Pinkie sank deeper into the cloud-couch and buried her muzzle in her own chestfluff. She didn’t really want to think about it, but she knew she had to have an answer of sorts. She needed an answer for Dash’s mom. She needed an answer for herself. Perhaps Dash needed answers too? Pinkie sighed, sticking out her bottom lip.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think she’s running away from me, from Pinkie Pie, from her bestest gal-pal, just because I said something silly and stupid.”

Flare leaned over to the table to give her soda a casual sip. “Rarity is one of your mutual friends right? The fashionista?”

Pinkie nodded vigorously, all too happy to leave the subject behind. “She is! She’s super-fantastic, as is Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, Spike, Carrot-”

“That’s okay. That will do. Let’s say Rarity told you that she was in love with you. How would you react?”

Pinkie blinked. “But- she’s not. She’s a super neat friend and all, but-”

“Just pretend,” Flare pressed, shrugging.

“Oh wow, that would be super flattering because she’s one of the prettiest unicorns in Equestria, and she’s really smart and funnier than most think, too, but...” Pinkie’s voice trailed off. It was so hard to imagine, even if she was really good at most games.

“Would you run away from her?”

“No,” Pinkie giggled, shaking her head. “That would be silly, and what if she got sad or worried? Oh my gosh, no, you have to help me,” Pinkie squeaked. “I don’t know what to tell pretend-Rarity!”

“How about telling her you really like her as a friend? That you’re not interested in her like that?” Flare suggested with a smile. Pinkie sighed in relief and wiped her brow with a hoof.

“Sorry Rarity,” Pinkie said to nopony at all. “Um, why are we talking about this again?”

Flare unfurled her wings and resettled them on her back, nursing her cold beverage with a cryptic smile. “No reason, Pinkie Pie. I’m just thinking, too.”

Pinkie nodded, and the thoughts that she didn’t want to think returned almost immediately as the silence settled. Time was wasting. “Okie-dokie-lokie! Can we go see Dash now?”

Flare glanced out the window on the far wall, a faint scowl on her face. “It’s a little late for altitude flying. Too late and too cold for you. You won’t get there on your own. I’ll take you in the morning, okay?”

“But-but-” Pinkie protested. “I need-”

“I need to sleep,” Flare said, her tone final. It was frightening how much she reminded Pinkie of Dash in that one moment, but where Dash would make bold and brash statements left and right, these words carried an infinite weight and authority. “I’m tired, I got work in the morning, and getting lots of sleep is a family tradition.”

“Okay,” Pinkie said, pouting. Truth be told, she was tired too, but she wanted to sleep about as much as she wanted to bake and eat a fresh batch of baked bads. She felt like one of her old wind-up toys; all the joints and gears were worn and threatening to break, but she kept getting wound up time and again to play a little more, to move a little further. She couldn’t stop until she knew Dash didn’t hate her.

She was numbly following Flare as she thought. The pegasus mare had probably asked her to follow, and together they went up a flight of stairs, but Pinkie’s mind was in a different place altogether. She had no idea why she let herself think that Dash hated her, but it was a stupid and resilient thought. It was a little like the time she had upended a box of salt in her waffle batter. She couldn’t get rid of the salty thought. Worse, she couldn’t even start anew.

“Here’s Dashie’s room. You can sleep here. I’ll take you tomorrow before work,” Flare said, leading the way into a room not much larger than Pinkie's own loft. It looked as Rainbow Dash as anything in the world, walls lined with posters of bands, DJ’s and Wonderbolt members. Pinkie’s heart did a little skip as she saw Dash’s saddlebags at the foot of the bed. She’d brought their blanket and everything else besides. Part of her wanted nothing but to leap atop the bed, pull the blanket over her head and pretend that Dash was here with her.

It would just be so terribly wrong if Dash didn’t want her to.

“What’s the hold-up?” Flare asked from the center of the room. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, tons of things!” Pinkie chirped. “The price of sugar these days? Some of the farm-ponies near Clopenhagen are trying to push the prices up, and that’s so silly! I mean, without sugar, there’ll be no cupcakes! And don’t get me started on the part where nopony seems to buy my raspberry delight treats. Ponies have no taste!” Pinkie rolled her eyes.

Flare sighed and pointed at Pinkie’s hooves. “I mean the part where you’re standing frozen outside the door.”

“Oh yeah. Um. That’s probably because it’d be wrong for me to sleep here. I think,” Pinkie suggested, scratching her head. She was still working on the exact reasoning.

“You’re going to have to explain that one,” Flare replied. She sounded tired now indeed.

“I have to ask Dashie first,” Pinkie said, not moving a single smidgemeter.

“And you can’t right now, so you’re going to stand there all night,” the older of the two finished for her, shaking her head. For the longest time, she just regarded Pinkie, unblinking. Pinkie was just about to ask if they were having a staring contest when she spoke up again.

“Right, no. Come with me,” she said, again in that tone that brooked no argument. Pinkie obediently bounced after the wavy tail that led the way down the hall until the two ponies entered what Pinkie could only assume was the master bedroom of the house. Flare flew over to the large collection of fluffy clouds that dominated the centre of the room. It looked a little bit like an all-vanilla ice cream dessert, only without the chocolate sauce.

“Traditional pegasus bed. Nest. Whatever you wanna call it, it’s soft. Husband’s away on a trip anyway. Do you snore?” Flare asked.

Pinkie nodded and beamed. “Yep! Dash doesn’t mind, so I don’t think it’s that loud, but then, I haven’t had the chance to hear my own snoring. Do you think maybe-”

“Good enough”, Flare cut in, stretching before she curled up atop the cloud-mass. “Go to bed. We’ll fly in the morning.”

Pinkie complied at least partway. Picking a particularly fluffy little cloud, she hopped onto the bed and got comfortable. It wasn’t very hard. In fact, it was hard to imagine how anypony could possibly be uncomfortable in a bed like this.

“Wow, this is really soft. I don’t think I’ve ever slept in a bed like this before! Dashie sometimes brings in clouds, but they’re all puffy and airy. I just fall straight through them without Twilight’s help. Well. Dash used to bring clouds in. Back when she was staying in my room, I mean,” Pinkie corrected herself, feeling a little less sugary just for having thought about it. Flare apparently noticed, her head poking out from under a cloud.

“Kid, listen. Stop beating yourself up over this. Have a little, I don’t know, faith or patience or whatever makes you not think about this,” she suggested. “No more about this, okay?”

“Okay,” Pinkie promised, smiling back before burrowing under an errant cloud that looked so soft and cushy, she feared it might fly away if she didn’t hug it close. It entertained her for all of half a minute.

“Hey, Mrs. Rainbow Dash’s mom? Hey, are you awake? Hey!” Pinkie whispered as loudly as she could.

“What?” Flare replied after a moment. She sounded even more tired now, and she didn’t even look at Pinkie Pie.

“What do you do? Do you work with the weather too? Your name is really cool. Do you make hurricanes? Your house is the coolest house I’ve ever seen!” Pinkie declared, staring up at the roof and the beautiful colored patterns woven in the cloud-stuff.

“I’m head of security over at the weather factory,” Flare murmured. “Great fun. Please, go to sleep.”

“Oooh, I bet that’s super neat too. I just thought you’d be flying around all whoosh!” Pinkie said, making a little furrow in the clouds between them. “You look really pretty and fast and everything.”

“Thanks,” the pegasus muttered. “I used to do stunts and stuff, yeah. Still do, a bit. Close your eyes.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie chirped, closing her eyes. It didn’t help all that much, but she figured she’d give her hostess a few minutes’ peace. She counted to a hundred, skipping the numbers between ten and ninety.

“Where’s Mr Mrs. Rainbow Dash? What’s he busy doing? Is he as much fun as you? Is he a security-pony too?” Pinkie asked. When she received no reply, she figured she may as well make a guessing game out of it. “Oh, wait, no, don’t tell me. He’s a baker? A Wonderbolt? A baking Wonderbolt?”

Flare’s head surfaced from the cloudy sea, brow furrowed. Pinkie instantly flattened her ears and shrank back a little. The scary mom-pony didn’t say anything, but those three seconds of silence spoke volumes. Pinkie lay back down and pulled an errant tuft of cloud over her body, once again staring at the ceiling.

The second the silence settled, the thoughts came sneaking back. The darkness of the room hid all the thoughts she kept wanting to not think.

“I just don’t want her to feel bad because of me,” Pinkie muttered. She wasn’t sure if Dashie’s mom was still awake, but she didn’t want those words inside her head anyway.

“I don’t think I’ve ever lost a friend, and I don’t really want to know how that works,” Pinkie whispered, pouting. “If she doesn’t even want to be friends anymore though, she should get to tell me so she can come home to Ponyville. I think.”

“Is that what you came here to do?” Flare asked, her voice startling Pinkie a little. She sounded strangely calm, neither angry nor weary. “An earth pony up in the clouds, chasing after somepony they claim to love, and you’re going through all this just to tell her you take it back? ‘Nevermind’?”

“That’s not at all what I said!” Pinkie protested, standing up and fixing the clouds that hid Flare with a frown that lasted all of a quarter of a second. “I think?”

Flare sat up and stretched, scratching the back of her head in a gesture that seemed so very familiar. “Right. You’re not going to let me sleep until I do my part, are you?”

“I tried!” Pinkie said. “I closed my eyes, too, but that usually never works anyway. Oh yeah, and then there’s the whole falling through the clouds when Twilight’s spell ends thing, too.”

“I did wonder about that,” Flare admitted. “Just look me in the eye and answer one question before I decide whether to kick your flank out of my house or not.”

Pinkie nodded and shuffled around a little until she sat comfortably enough for a marathon of staring contests.

“Do you love my daughter?” she asked. It was a casual and simple question with infinite gravity. She stared at Pinkie Pie as if though her eyes could burn right through her.

“Oh, I have no idea!” Pinkie admitted, giggle-snorting. “I mean, I think so?”

Flare blinked. She looked as if she would object, but Pinkie didn’t really notice. She was floating back to the past three months hence, and further besides.

“She’s fun. Probably the funniest, coolest pony I’ve ever met, and she never really, um,” Pinkie gave a muted little giggle. “She’s the only pony who never tells me to stop, even when I’ve had a few too many cupcakes. Well, she did think my prank with the frosting in the brook was stupid, but that’s okay. She never gives me that look other ponies give me. You know, the ‘Pinkie Pie, you’re being weird again’ look!” Pinkie said, making a face so silly it made even herself laugh.

“Everypony knows Dash loves napping, but most ponies think I always party. Sometimes I want to nap, too. Dashie was there when, um, things got a little weird,” she said, fidgeting with her fore-hooves. “I felt safe and happy when she was around, then, and I still do.”

Pinkie closed her eyes, trying to relive one of those little moments they had shared, just one more time. As recently as last week, Rainbow Dash had come back in from setting up another autumn rain storm, as wet as any pony could ever aspire to be. They had spent the entire evening together trying to get her dry. When they had a mug of cocoa each in front of the crackling flames of the fireplace, all was right. Perfect, even.

“Sometimes, we would even tell our friends that we were going to have a little party, just the two of us, but you know what we did?” Pinkie whispered, smiling. “We just ate pastries, and Dashie would read aloud for me. I think she likes it when I listen to her reading.”

When Pinkie blinked, she realized exactly where and when she was.

“Oh, no no, those were secrets!” Pinkie squeaked. “I mean, I think so, but you can’t tell-”

“I’m her mother,” Flare said, shaking her head. “And you are either a terrible liar, or a very silly pony if you think you have ‘no idea’ how you feel, ha.” she grinned around a snort. “I always told myself that there was no pegasus stallion out there who could keep up with my Dashie. Guess I was right.”

Pinkie tilted her head at what she was sure had been praise, somehow. She sat there watching as Flare gave a few mighty flaps of her wings to sail over to a nearby window. The pegasus crouched down and peered back at her.

“Hop on. Let’s go find her.”

Epilogue

“If you could use your signature, that would be good. A lot better, in fact,” Mr. Cake suggested, frowning at the three crude balloons above the dotted line of the scroll. “Do we have another form?”

“Pha’ if ma phigmafhure!” Pinkie proudly declared, the quill in her mouth dancing around like a kite in a storm before she had the sense to spit it out.

Dash snickered, quite proud of the little scribble next to Pinkie’s. Her own scrawl was properly illegible while maintaining the illusion of being actual words. She had spent time practicing her signature for her inevitable Wonderbolts gig, of course.

“I’m sure that will do just fine,” Mrs. Cake said, forestalling any further discussion on the matter by slipping the papers off the counter and into her saddlebags. “The Corner is yours. Take good care of it now, girls.”

It was impossible to keep from smiling. Rainbow Dash knew she had a big, goofy grin on her face, and she didn’t care. “Awesome,” she mouthed, doing a private little hoof-pump behind Pinkie’s back.

“You guys sure?” Pinkie asked, looking up at the kindly couple who had owned Sugarcube Corner for the longest time. “I kind of liked my cozy little roomie-broomie up there. I don’t mind. I mean, we don’t-”

Mrs. Cake chuckled and shook her head before fishing out her keys, putting them on the counter. “We’re sure, Pinkie Pie. We know you two will do a great job, just like we knew the corner was in good hooves when we had to extend our stay,” she said.

“Oh, you should probably thank Fluttershy too, then! Oh, and Twilight and-” Pinkie began. Dash jabbed her with a hoof and kept smiling all through the awkward little silence until Mr. Cake cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Anyway, it’s a bit of a relief, to be honest. Canterlot has more opportunities for the foals, and we found a nice big place with more space for us to open up a bigger bakery,” he concluded. “We’ll drop the papers off with Mayor Mare, and that’s that.”

“If you say so!” Pinkie chirped, leaning forwards to grab the Cakes in a hug that they were happy to return. “But you have to come visit! I promise we’ll take good care of Sugarcube Corner, but you have to come see, soon!”

“We will, promise,” Mr. Cake said, echoed by a nod from Mrs. Cake. There was precious little else to add, and goodbyes were exchanged. Only when the door shut, leaving Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash alone, did Dash turn to look at Pinkie in earnest.

There was no fancy sunlight to frame her face, no wind to tug at her curls. They just stood there smack dab in the middle of the sales floor of Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie wasn’t even smiling - she didn't glow with that particular energy that seemed to make the world a better place; she was staring at something on the floor, a speck of dirt or whatever, brow furrowed and tongue sticking out of her mouth.

For some inexplicable reason, this all just proved Dash’s point. She finally knew where her home was.

Pinkie darted forwards to lick at the floor with expert speed and precision, her face morphing into a disgusted frown straight after. “Eugh, okay, that was not chocolate!” she complained, pouting at Dash. “Oh, whatcha lookin’ at, Dashie? Did you want it? I think it was dirt.”

“Just looking at you,” Dash shrugged, stretching and unfurling her wings.

“Oh!” Pinkie said, smiling. “That makes sense. Why?”

“It’s been what, a full minute already? You haven’t said anything about a party to celebrate,” Dash said, grinning. “What’s up?”

“Oh yeah!” Pinkie gasped. “This totally calls for a party! How could I forget? Oh my gosh, I am losing my touch! I may no longer be Ponyville’s premier party pony!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I don’t think you need to worry about that, Pinks,” she snickered. “Come on, let’s make this the biggest one yet! We gotta invite all the girls. Oh, and we need to make a sign for the ‘Corner, something to put above the door! You know, let everypony know the coolest pony in Equestria lives here, too.”

“Ooh, we could have Applejack bring some of her special apple cider, the cider she pretends she doesn’t have!” Pinkie chirped. “You know, down in her cellar?”

“Awesome!” Dash cheered. “And I bet we could get some fireworks, too. Didn’t Rarity make a dress for Big Boom? I think he owes her.”

“A suit, silly,” Pinkie corrected her, giggling.

“Whatever,” Dash muttered, waving a hoof in Pinkie’s general direction. “This is gonna be awesome.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed.

Dash settled her wings on her back again and pursed her lips, her heartbeat slowing down to a manageable level again. Pinkie let herself fall backwards to rest across Dash’s back, staring up at the ceiling in the ensuing silence.

“Tomorrow?” Dash asked with the beginnings of a smile.

“Tomorrow is a great day for a party,” Pinkie agreed. Her body shook against Dash’s as she giggled. “Tonight is a super-fantastic time for... battleclouds?”

Dash gently extricated herself from under her marefriend, making sure she didn’t fall. “I’ll get the blanket and the games, you get the cocoa and the muffins?” she asked, her body tensing up, ready for flight.

“Race you!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing over Dash and setting course for the kitchen.

Dash cracked an eye open. Pinkie Pie had poked her in the face with a foreleg in her sleep and she’d somehow gotten both of her own hindlegs tangled in Pinkie’s tail. Carefully and quietly as she could, she disentangled herself from her marefriend, pausing only to rub her eyes before she got up on all fours.

The living room was a mess. Battleclouds pieces and muffin crumbs littered the area in front of the dying embers of the fireplace, and the poor old blanket they shared had another set of cocoa-induced stains. Another set of scars. She’d have to ask Fluttershy or Rarity if they knew how to safely wash it.

That was the extent of her worries. That was the worst her brain could do to her when she slowed down to think for a second.

Rainbow Dash cast a glance out the open window on the far wall, and the only thing that came to her was that she hoped Pinkie Pie wasn’t cold. She bit down on the blanket and pulled it up to Pinkie’s neck, nosing into her coat as she did. The pink pony was hugging her old cloud-pillow, drooling into it in her sleep.

It was too early to get up and start preparing for the party anyway. Dash smiled at the thought even as she wiggled in under the blanket again. Slipping a wing under pinkie’s body to hold her close, Dash slept again, free and safe.

End

Author's Notes and Other Things

Right! First off, thank you for reading. If you made it this far, it hopefully means you liked this little fic, but I'm always glad to receive feedback of all types; notes, email or whatever, I reply to each and every one!

It felt liberating to get to write this fic. While it may not be terribly innovative, I've had a lot of ideas for a PinkieDash fic that I never quite got to use. When Where Earth Meets Sky ended as it did, I finally saw an opportunity to use at least some of these ideas.

I just wanted to write a classical, uncomplicated ship fic for the heck of it. I never wanted to try to do something crazy. I write limited third person PoV ship or adventure-ship fics. I'll let other, more daring writers reinvent the wheel. For me, writing Pinkie's PoV is an adventure in itself.

That said, this fic wouldn't exist if not for friends and fellow writers. I owe my all to Kits for his cover art, his ideas, his continued assistance,feedback and general keeping-up-with-me-being-me. Kits, you are a champ. Also, he writes fics that are absolutely amazing, so you should go read them all.

I also want to give a huge thanks to everypony who gave of their time to help me with proofreading/feedback in the final stretch. Whiteout, Stillwaters, Cormacolindor and Mister Morden. Thank you!

And thank you, gentle reader, if you actually read the author's notes and the thank-yous. You are now my favorite pony of the day!

Chapter 5

“You really should hold on,” Flare insisted again. Pinkie responded as she did last time. As she had done the last four times the issue had come up since they had taken wing and Cloudsdale had faded from view below. She giggled.

“I am holding on! All four hooves securely on deck, Ms. Mom, ma’am!” Pinkie replied, snapping a sharp salute that made a lie of her words.

The pegasus carrying her glanced over her shoulder to stare at Pinkie’s hooves. She frowned and shook her head, upping the speed a little more. “I’m not a surfboard, and you’re an earth pony. You should be clinging to my neck or something,” she muttered, but Pinkie barely heard her. It was hard to concentrate with the way Flare’s mane flowed past her legs. It tickled.

“Where are we going anyway?” Pinkie asked, leaning forward to rest her head between Flare’s ears. “I mean, I know we’re going to Dash, and that’s great, but if you’re going to fly into an exploding volcano or a blizzard made of candy, I’d love to know!”

Flare shook her head, her raspy voice further distorted by the wind. “We’re going to the Top.”

“Top of what?” Pinkie asked.

“Top of the world,” Flare replied with a little chuckle. “No, seriously though, it’s just a place really high up, but that’s what we call it. Can’t you see it?” she asked, pointing with a foreleg.

Pinkie squinted, barely able to make out a brighter dot against the night-darkened sky, a something hiding between the moon and a particularly bright star.

“A place,” Pinkie repeated, ooh'ing appreciatively. “I love places, and if they’re high up, I bet that’s bonus points for pegasuses!”

“Well. It used to be ‘just a place’,” Flare said with a huff. “Now it’s a place with a bar and a hayfries stand. It’s an old cloud-mass at the threshold of safe air that’s been used as a bit of a rite of passage for younger pegasi.”

Flare’s voice was so quiet now that Pinkie had to strain to hear. “Rainbow Dash flew up straight after she graduated from flight school,” she said, grinning up at Pinkie. “Not many do that. I told her not to do it. It could’ve been dangerous.”

“But she was fine, right? I bet it went fine,” Pinkie responded, smiling brightly. “Dashie can handle anything, especially flying things! Well, unless somepony puts something in her way, like a building. Or a tree.” She winced. “She was in the hospital for almost a week.”

“Yeah,” Flare agreed. “She can, and she could. That’s why I told her not to do it.”

Pinkie tilted her head so it lay flat against the top of Flare’s head. “Wait. That doesn’t make sense, I think.”

“Probably not, but it’s the best way to egg her on,” Flare laughed. “Of course, I never told her that I followed her at a safe distance, either, and when she came home I grounded her flank for a week.”

Pinkie jabbed the evil mom with a hoof. “That was super sneaky! You can’t ground somepony for doing what you wanted them to do, that’s-”

“Brilliant, is what it is,” Flare finished. “Plus, I got to spend some time with her. Getting a hold of that pony when she wasn’t grounded was never easy, and we both had a great time of it. Frankly, I think she was glad for some time off all the stunts and races she was being pressured into by her peers. She can do anything she wants, but I think somepony needs to hold her down sometimes, too, or she’ll burn out.”

“Anyway, now we’re even,” Flare declared. “You got a secret of mine. Don’t you dare tell her.”

Nodding gravely, Pinkie mimed the familiar routine that had safeguarded so many secrets before, ending with a hoof on her closed eye. “Pinkie Pie swear, I won’t tell her, Mrs. Dash’s mom. Even if I still think you’re kind of sneaky.”

“My husband uses the word ‘driven’. It’s so much nicer,” Flare replied, stifling a yawn with the back of her hoof as she levelled out and put her wings to work hovering straight up. The village-sized cloud-mass was straight above them, now, and all they needed to do was ascend over the rim.

“Besides,” she added, “it can be applied to earth ponies who find themselves in the heart of pegasus society, too. Takes a special kind of something, that. Good luck, yeah?”

Just like that, they were over the top. Pinkie hadn’t really thought to build up any expectations of what the place would look like, but while she was fairly sure she could deal with a lack of balloons and streamers, the sheer emptiness of the place was staggering. Aside from a shoddy and un-operated hayfries stand and a parasol-topped mini-bar, the place was nothing but raw and untamed clouds. She’d never pretended to know cloud types; Dash usually just sorted them into “sleeping clouds” and “not sleeping clouds”, but this place reeked of old.

As she took in the bumpy, lumpy, musty and boring clouds, she suddenly realized what Dash’s mom had said. She whirled around to face her just as the pegasus spread her wings, forestalling her departure with a hoof.

“Wait! You’re leaving?” Pinkie squeaked. “But-”

Flare tilted her head and waited, making for an awkward silence. Pinkie really didn’t know what to say except ‘but’. It was more of a general protest.

“Do you really think I should be here for this?” Flare asked. It was one of those silly questions that were already answered. Twilight probably had a word for them. Pinkie folded her ears and shook her head.

“Good luck, kid,” she repeated. The older pegasus flashed a smile that looked so much like Rainbow Dash’s confident grins that Pinkie couldn’t even think to reply before she was gone.

Turning on the spot, Pinkie squared her jaw and surveyed the area again. There were precious few hiding spots, and absolutely nopony in sight. If Dash’s mom was sure that Rainbow Dash was up here, she would have to be-

Pinkie’s eyes were pulled up a column of darker clouds on the far side of the Top. The sharp incline of the hill-like mass rose further up into the air as if it wanted to touch the moon itself. Dash was the most awesome pony, so clearly, she would be on the highest point here. Pinkie set off at a gallop.

Clouds, as it turned out, were not all created equal. The greying clouds she walked on were squishy, not fluffy. With every step, her hooves would sink into them, and they felt almost sticky when she pulled her hooves up again. Pinkie stuck her tongue out and crinkled her nose at the mess. It was exactly like how she envisioned walking on old cotton candy would feel. Matters weren't helped by the fact that the air was so thin, she was short of breath just from a little run. If she had to name the least fun place in Equestria, this would be a solid candidate. The chill was almost an afterthought.

She had just started her ascent up the little hill when she became aware of a familiar sound. A sound that always filled her with peace and happiness. A sound that now made her feel so very scared in a way she doubted any amount of laughter could banish. Rainbow Dash was snoring softly.

She tried to laugh anyway. Pinkie climbed over the rim to the little plateau on top of the hill, smiling and giggling softly to herself. She tried to think of how silly this all was; Rainbow Dash was her friend, and it would all work out somehow.

The smile and laughter both faded as Rainbow Dash came into view. The pegasus lay on what must be the highest point in all of Equestria, wings folded and snout hidden under her own tail. All around her, nothing but the night sky; so far up, the ground was completely hidden by the clouds called the Top. The horizon around them became all that was.

Pinkie tentatively approached the sleeping pony, but could not bring herself to touch her. It would work out somehow, she just didn’t know how. This wasn’t something she could solve with a party or a smile, much less the Elements of Harmony or any of the other fancy stuff. She had the best friends ever, and that had gotten her this far. The rest was up to her.

Rainbow Dash awoke, again. She’d lost track of how many times she’d dozed off, but she never seemed to be able to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time. The plan to sleep until the end of days wasn’t going very well.

When she made the climb all those hours ago, she had this thought, this image in her mind that when she lay on top of the world with nothing but the open sky surrounding her, she’d finally feel free again. Now that she’d gotten some distance from these shackles she couldn’t understand, everything would make sense if only she could get enough air. There was no place airier than this.

It hadn’t worked. The unnameable tightness in her chest didn’t relent. Instead, it grew spikes that stabbed and tore at her. She had no idea for how long she had paced the cloudscape when she first arrived. She had shouted and raged at the unfairness of it all. She’d even tried to break apart the venerable plateau, but the clouds were old as time itself and would not yield.

From here she could jump off the edge and glide to anywhere in Equestria with zero effort, yet she didn’t. Instead, she dozed, and she dreamed. She let time pass, and time grudgingly obliged. The sky was finally coming alive with the golden blaze that heralded the rising of the Sun. It was a time of day that Dash rarely had the pleasure of observing, preferring to be snoring in bed around now. She had to give the morning ponies their dues. It was quite a sight.

Still, she couldn’t see in the sunrise what most other ponies did. If there was hope to be found in the way the yellows and oranges bled into the blue sky, it wasn’t an offer extended to Dash. The sunrise would change nothing. It was an empty promise. She had accomplished nothing up here, and she was stuck more surely now than she had ever been before.

Part of her wanted to keep trying to sleep. To chase the dream she’d woken from. She had been back in Ponyville for a blissful moment, back in that cramped little loft she had fled so many times now. Pinkie had fallen asleep on her wing. Again.

While Rainbow Dash was an experienced napper, it seemed she was reaching an entirely new level of sleep-drunk madness. Her mind always came creeping back to the cause of this all, sure, but usually Pinkie Pie and Sugarcube Corner stayed safely within her dreams where she couldn’t harm them. Right now, she could swear she felt a pull on her wing and a warmth against her side.

Dash’s gaze quested along her own body, trying to locate the source of the soreness in one of her wings. She half expected she’d just slept on her wing, or that the unruly clouds of the Top were acting up.

Nestled against her body, half-sunken through the clouds, a certain pink pony rested. Pinkie was fast asleep, hidden under the cover of one of Dash’s wings, hugging it close. She even had her muzzle gently clamped down on an errant feather.

“You’re not here,” Rainbow Dash muttered groggily, turning away. The memory of Pinkie mocked her, as unassailable and impossible to outrun as the real thing. If she kept seeing Pinkie Pie everywhere, that probably meant something. She kept running when she should think, but when Pinkie had said that Dash was special to her, she had no comeback. And so she ran.

Dash blew her mane out of her face and staggered up on all fours. She was getting hungry, but nopony minded the stands up here except on holidays. The only option left was to fly ‘home’, wherever that was. Cloudsdale, Ponyville or-

Her wing wasn’t following.

Dash frowned in annoyance as she glanced back over her shoulder. Her left wing was stuck. Stuck on Pinkie Pie. Rather, Pinkie was holding her wing in a death-grip, humming in her sleep. It was a very real pony.

“You’re kidding,” Dash breathed, giving her wing another tug. Pinkie pulled back and sunk a little further into the greying clouds, apparently not kidding at all. The realization sent a jolt through her, and despite herself, Rainbow Dash smiled.

After the sheer joy of seeing Pinkie subsided a little, she jabbed her with a hoof. Dream or no, her wing hurt. “Pinkie, wake up!” Dash muttered, poking her again and again. “Pinkie, come on. Pinkie!”

At length, Pinkie stretched and reluctantly let go of Dash’s wing, putting it aside as one would with any other blanket. After a few blinks to clear her eyes, she hopped up on her hooves with more energy than any pony had a right to have after waking up.

“Hi, Dashie!” she chirped. She smiled widely, but it lasted only for as long as it took her to glance around and take in their surroundings. “Oh. Yeah. We’re here and all that. Uh. Hi. Again,” she repeated, a tad less chipper now and shivering in the cold.

Rainbow Dash settled for rolling her eyes. That always worked. “Hey Pinks. I’m guessing you’re not here for the hayfries.”

Pinkie bit her lower lip. Only now did Dash notice her eyes were rimmed with red, and she doubted it was because Pinkie was having trouble sleeping, too. Dash sat down on her haunches while she waited for a reply, even as her mind drifted.

“Nopers!” Pinkie finally managed, dropping her gaze to stare at a speck of cloud between the two of them. “I came to say that, um, you mean a lot to me, but you probably already know that. And maybe you were being a sneaky muffin-munching pony who also knows something I thought you probably maybe didn’t know and shouldn’t know and-” Pinkie bubbled. With every word, she seemed to speed up, fidgeting and gesturing almost at random.

“And- and, well, that’s okay, because it was silly, and also 'cause, well, you’re my best friend, and you mean so much to me, and I don’t want that to go away like we thought maybe Twilight had to do that one time when she made everypony go crazy, because I need somepony special, even if you don’t want to be super extra special, and I don’t even know-” she continued.

As she spoke, the words slowly ceased to have meaning to Dash altogether. It wasn’t entirely unlike the usual way Pinkie’s gibberish coalesced into an incomprehensible ball of nonsense, but as Dash zoned out staring at Pinkie’s muzzle whilst it worked, she realized something profound.

Pinkie Pie was here. Her earth pony friend was sitting in front of her, ranting on like it was nothing. She sat here with her on top of the world, and Dash had been worried about Pinkie holding her back? About being trapped? It seemed an almost absurd notion now, as silly as any of Rarity’s hats.

She tentatively rummaged around for that uncomfortable tightness, for that mysterious something that made her afraid, and she found nothing. There was no choking tightness. Dash shook her head slowly, tuning back in just in time to catch Pinkie’s final words.

“-so if you just want to be friends, then that’s okay. Pinkie Pie is your gal-pal number one, and nothing more!” Pinkie declared with a smile that was a little too wide and cracked. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.

“We’ll just pretend I didn’t say it,” Pinkie added a moment later, a little more quietly. Her mask wobbled precariously. “Friends?”

“Wait, you’re taking it back? Just like that?” Dash asked, spitting out the question with more force than she’d intended. Pinkie’s face went blank.

Dash felt her cheeks flush and her body tense. It was almost a relief. Anger, she could work with. Anger, she could understand, even if it wasn’t directed at Pinkie so much as it was at herself.

“You can’t just choose what you are, you haybrain,” Dash hissed. “I mean, what we are. You can’t just come up here and pretend you didn’t say it! It doesn’t work like that. It can’t work like that!”

“I need you,” Pinkie whispered. She didn’t so much as flinch, voice urgent as she stared back at Dash. “I don’t want to lose you, Dashie. I can’t.”

“If you can do this,” Dash continued, her voice cracking on that final word. The burst of anger was gone as quickly as it had come. “If you can just take it back, if you can decide you don’t love me or whatever, then what’s to stop you from not wanting to be friends, either?” she said, swallowing and blinking to try to clear her stinging eyes.

“What’s to stop you from deciding I’m not cool enough for you or whatever, from walking right out of my life-” Dash bit off her words, clenching her jaws shut and looking away.

For once, Pinkie looked at a loss for words. Dash would have laughed at the notion. She didn't.

“How could you even have said it if you didn’t mean it?” Dash asked, her voice thin. She shook her head. “I- I can’t believe this.”

Pinkie brought a hoof up to wipe her eyes. The movement, small as though it was, shut Dash up and drew her attention back. “I did mean it,” she whispered. She looked up at Dash and damned her with those big blue eyes of hers. “I did, but it just made you leave. No party, no banners or telegrams that said ‘I kinda like you too, at least a little’. You just left.”

Dash winced. The words were a buck to the chest, and her entire body ached. She tried to be angry, she tried to be indignant, but she couldn’t even pretend. There was no audience to fool, no point. She folded her ears and nodded.

“Yeah. I think that’s what I’m saying, Pinkie. I get it. I’m the worst element of loyalty ever,” she said. Her voice sounded tinny to her own ears. She rubbed at her snout, and her hoof came away sticky with snot. “Maybe that’s why I’m here. I’m bad at this. I’m the one who ran, and I’m trying to blame you,” she snorted. “I’m pretty stupid sometimes.”

“Oh,” Pinkie said. No cheery "No you're not, silly!". Just "Oh."

Dash thought for a moment that perhaps it would end like that. She couldn’t even work up any tears over it. She just sat there staring at the sun cresting the horizon and the sky at large, looking at everything but Pinkie Pie. Sun or no sun, pegasus or no, she felt cold. It was easy to imagine that they could sit like that until the sun completed its journey, all without either of them speaking up. A terrible sense of loss was welling up inside of her until it was all she could do to keep from screaming.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Pinkie finally said, tentatively poking at the silence. Rainbow Dash rubbed her temples and sighed.

“I know you’re not. I’m the one who did,” Dash muttered.

“But if I fell through the clouds right now, you’d catch me, wouldn’t you?”

Dash spun around, wings flared and eyes wide. “Of course I would!” she snapped. The thought was absurd. She didn’t dare think what she would do if Pinkie got hurt. “What kind of stupid-”

“See?” Pinkie interrupted, beaming. “Just because you suddenly wanted to take a little camping trip to some musty old cloud doesn’t make you a bad pony. If you say you’ll catch me, you’ll catch me.”

“It’s not that simple!” Dash yelled, striking at the cloudstuff with a hoof. “You can’t know. I don’t know. How can you know I’m not just gonna fly off again?”

“Does it help that I believe in you?” Pinkie asked. “Because, you know, I totally do.”

Pinkie Pie hadn’t moved an inch. That bright and chipper voice came with a smile that looked so hopeful and sincere, she could almost believe it. For a second, Rainbow Dash let herself believe in Pinkie Pie. For one fleeting moment, she believed that Pinkie Pie believed in her, and that was enough.

“Maybe,” Dash said, clearing her throat. Her hooves itched, and the gentle tingling feeling that started there worked its way up her legs and passed through her entire body. “Yeah. Maybe it does. A bit. So what?”

“Neat! Because I’m thinking. Maybe I think you’re super sweet, and that you make me happy. Maybe that’s being more than friends. Maybe I’m not going anywhere,” Pinkie said. “And maybe I believe you’re not gonna go anywhere, even if you’re not sure.”

Dash tugged at the phantom chains, pretended that they were there. She tried her very best to imagine Pinkie Pie weighing her down, holding her back, and it was all she could do not to laugh out loud at the notion. Only now did she realize they weren’t something she feared. That she should ever lean back and not come to rest against Pinkie, that was the real fear. She needed them to be strong. She needed her to be strong. Her heart hammered, and her breath came ever quicker.

“Yeah, well, what if I am?” Dash asked, licking her lips. “What if I am going somewhere? Anywhere? Huh?”

“Then I’ll bake you muffins for when you come back?” Pinkie responded, giggling.

“No,” Dash shot, bridging the distance between them in a flash. She locked eyes with Pinkie Pie as she leaned closer, their muzzles not a hoof-breadth apart. “No, don’t you dare let go, Pinks. Don’t you dare let me go,” she growled, her body trembling.

Pinkie’s smile slowly grew until it well and truly went from ear to ear. She nodded once, a serene and almost languid motion. “Okie-dokie-lokie,” she whispered quietly, leaving no doubt in Dash’s mind that she understood.

They stayed like that, frozen in time for however long it was. Dash was content simply to look into Pinkie’s eyes and let her mind wander. In them, she found not the closed doors she had once feared, but a second bright blue sky with endless possibilities. Pinkie’s ever-more-rapid glances over her shoulder at the rising sun eventually drove her to distraction, though.

“Uh, Pinkie? What’s up?” Dash asked. She followed Pinkie’s gaze, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

“I wasn’t kidding with the falling and catching and Pinkie pancake thing,” Pinkie chirped. “Twilight said the spell would wear off at sunrise, and it’s way past sunrise already. It would be very silly if I just kind of went all zoom through the cloud right now when I was hoping for a kiss!”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but grin, shaking her head from side to side. “Yeah, not gonna happen, Pinks,” she said.

“The falling, the catching, the pancakes or the kissing?” Pinkie asked, frowning with exaggerated suspicion.

Dash smirked and leaned forward until their snouts touched. “Pegasuses’ stuff doesn’t fall through clouds. I have furniture and all kinds of stuff you know. And at least one muffin.”

“I’m a pony, silly,” Pinkie giggled. “Even if the Cakes sometimes joke that I’m half cupcake, too!”

“What you are,” Dash explained, speaking very slowly and resting her muzzle atop Pinkie’s. Spreading her wings to cover the two of them from the Sun and sky all, she lowered her voice to the barest of murmurs, an urgent rumble. “Is mine.”

Pinkie Pie’s smile was so wide, it simply couldn’t be contained. The world was no longer upside-down or frowny-pouty, and the little string that had stung and tugged her along for days was gone. There was really nothing to do except bounce in place and stare at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, the prettiest smartest coolest pegasus pony in all of Equestria. Dashie, who loved her back.

Pinkie hopped, skipped and snuck a little closer, coming to a rest with her head atop Dash’s. She idly nibbled on Dash’s mane while tracing her gaze to the world below.

There was a lot of world to see. Dash was peering over the rim of the old cloudscape to where Equestria was nothing but a vague blur. Ahead, the horizon curved ever so slightly, a reminder of how far up they really were.

“What’re you looking at?” Pinkie chirped. The sun was already crawling across the other side of the sky, an obvious reminder of how long they’d spent alone up here. “Wanna head back?” she asked.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Dash said, grinning and blowing a strand of Pinkie’s curly mane out of her face. “Getting up here is a drag, but the dive is really awesome.”

Pinkie squinted and leaned further forwards. She felt Dash steady her with a hoof, but when she craned her neck, she could just barely catch a glimpse of what lay straight below them. There was something very familiar about that one particular blotch of colors. She could smell the sugar.

“Is that Ponyville?” Pinkie asked, pointing.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Huh, yeah, I guess. Never actually flew here from Ponyville, but-”

“I know how to get down!” Pinkie declared, beaming.

“I just hope nothing’s happened to them,” Fluttershy said once Rarity surfaced from the spa’s hot tub. She herself sat by the edge, idly poking at the water with a hoof. “I mean, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash,” she clarified when Rarity made no reply.

“Yes, I gathered,” Rarity offered with a wan smile. Her mane was splayed out in the water around her like a purple sea of its own. “This is only the sixth time you’ve said as much.”

Fluttershy nodded and sighed. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, glancing over at Applejack as she spoke. The farmpony had her eyes closed and was half asleep as she soaked in the hot tub, tired after working two jobs in the same day. Even so, Applejack smiled as if she could feel Fluttershy's attention upon her.

“Don’t be sorry for caring, sugarcube. Try trusting Pinkie for a second, instead,” Applejack murmured. “She may be a bit nutty, but she ain’t stupid. Least Ah don’t think so.”

“Still, stealing Twilight’s hot air balloon,” Rarity chimed, lifting her muzzle just barely out of the water. “She could have let us know what she was planning.”

“‘Planning’?” Applejack retorted, deadpan.

“Point taken,” Rarity replied.

Fluttershy finally let herself slip into the warm and soothing waters that had tempted her for the past few minutes. Sitting here worrying wouldn’t get them anywhere. Instead, she resolved, she would join her friends in the hot tub - while worrying just a little, of course. She’d just gotten comfortable when the rustle of curtains nearby alerted the trio to Twilight’s arrival.

“You’re late,” Rarity said. “Well, rather, more late than usual,” she quickly amended.

“I got a letter from the princess,” Twilight announced as she mounted the stairs to the rim of the hot tub, taking a seat where Fluttershy had sat a moment ago. She was blushing ever so faintly, but she was most certainly not smiling.

Applejack cracked an eye open. “About R.D. and Pinkie? That can’t be good.”

“No,” Twilight said, her ears pinned flat against her head. “Asking me exactly why my balloon was found speared on the highest spire of Castle Stalliongrad.”

Fluttershy whipped around so fast she sent the water sloshing. Rarity gave a little yelp at the watery assault.

“Are they okay? Did they find each other? Where are they? Did they talk?” Fluttershy asked, her heart hammering in her chest. She was halfway out of the tub towards Twilight. When the surprise faded from Twilight’s face, it was replaced with an amused grin.

“They weren’t there at all. Pinkie must have left it unsecured or something,” Twilight said. “But why are you-”

“Hopeless romantic,” Rarity shot, rolling her eyes. Fluttershy hid her blush behind her mane and slowly sank back down into the tub, trying to make herself disappear.

“Pot, kettle,” Applejack muttered around a smirk as she closed her eyes again. “Stop worrying. Ah’m sure they found each other, for whatever that’s worth. Ah’m just not sure that’s a good thing.”

“Oh don’t say such things!” Fluttershy gasped.

Applejack chuckled. “Not like that, sugar. Just saying that Pinkie herself could start a riot with a salt shaker and half a head of cabbage.”

The roof exploded with sudden agreement.

When the dust settled, sunlight spilled in from a large hole in the ceiling. Bits of wood floated amidst the wide-eyed ponies in the half-empty tub. Twilight was soaked from horn to tail, and the entire room was in disarray. Potted plants and tables were upended and incense bowls shattered.

Pinkie Pie popped up from the water, her mane slick and a roof-tile precariously balanced atop her head. “You said you’d catch me!” she giggled just as Rainbow Dash surfaced right next to her. Dash rolled her eyes and poked her in the chest even as she grinned.

“You jumped. Four times! That totally doesn’t count,” Dash said. Her grin faded a little bit as she stared up at the evidence of their entry. “What’s with you and breaking stuff anyway? First my house, and now this? You’ve messed up two places in less than a week!”

“Nuh-uh!” Pinkie protested. She crossed her forelegs and kept her face carefully neutral for all of two seconds before she broke into a beaming grin that went from ear to ear. “Three places! I landed on something crunchy when I came to Cloudsdale!”

“Well, fine, but I want half the credit for this one,” Dash replied, poking at a plank that floated by. “I guess they’re gonna make us fix the roof, and no way am I letting you do that alone.”

In her defense, Pinkie did look a little repentant. It was a rare sight indeed. The pink pony dropped her gaze and nodded. “Aw, I guess Lotus and her sister won’t be very happy. Sorry, and, um, thanks, Dashie.”

Rainbow Dash snuck a hoof under Pinkie’s chin, lifting it back up. For a moment, all they did was stare at each other, completely oblivious to the others’ presence. Blue and pink eyes met, and the two ponies shared a tranquil smile.

“Nah. Totally worth it, Pinks,” Dash muttered, her eyelids drooping. Licking her lips, she slowly spread her wings as she leaned closer to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie, for her part, tilted her head to the side, parting her muzzle.

Fluttershy couldn’t hold back a little noise. Her entire body glowed and tingled as Pinkie and Dash’s lips met; it felt like her heart would burst. She’d wrapped a wing around the still-stunned Applejack as her friends closed their eyes, but it was impossible to keep from squeaking in delight just as Dash caressed Pinkie’s cheek. It was enough to shatter the magic. Rainbow Dash drew back, blinked and shook her head, spinning in place as she looked about.

“Oh, hey girls,” she said. The shameless pegasus didn’t even have the courtesy to blush, wiping a strand of saliva with the back of her hoof. “When did you get here?”

“Wow, everypony’s here! Hi!” Pinkie chirped, waving frantically.

“Welcome back,” Twilight offered as she dried herself off with her magic, echoed soon after by Rarity.

“Um, hi,” Fluttershy added, shrinking back a little, still wishing she’d kept quiet.

“Ah take it you found each other all right,” Applejack chuckled, fishing her soggy hat from the hot tub. “How’re y’all doing?”

“Oh we’re great!” Pinkie said, wading a little closer to Applejack and Fluttershy. “I stole Twilight’s balloon and flew up, or well, I fell down to Cloudsdale-”

“I’m happy for you, really, but we need to talk about that,” Twilight muttered.

“-and then everything was clothes, and I met Dashie’s mom, who is super nice-”

“Wait, oh horseapples, you met mom?” Dash said, her voice cracking just a tiny bit.

“-and then a bunch of stuff happened, I don’t really remember everything but oh! And then Dashie kissed me, just like this-”

Fluttershy didn’t have time to protest as Pinkie Pie grabbed a hold of her and planted a sloppy kiss right on her muzzle. Rainbow Dash covered her mouth and snorted whilst Applejack’s jaw dropped.

“Pinkie, what the hay?” Applejack shot.

Pinkie Pie giggled and pointed at Fluttershy. “Oh, and her wings did that thing too, yeah!”