One Life to Love

Chapter One: Burnt Out Blaze of a Loyal Heart.

Her fur was hot upon her face as its usual Cyan tint blazed a ferocious fire of red. There was a light tinge of alcohol on her breath, but she hadn’t drank enough that night to eliminate too much of what sense she had within her.  The violet snout of the unicorn in front of her blazed a slightly stronger shade of crimson, the smile on the purple one’s face unmoving as she brought herself closer.

Soon, she was feeling the unicorn’s tongue entangling her own, and she loved every bit of it.

***

Rainbow Dash awoke with a start, her fur was matted with so much sweat that her wings felt glued to her body.  Her eyes were slow to adjust to the light of the sun that was beaming through the nearby windows, but it did not take perfect vision to see that this was not the home she’d made in the clouds.

The bed she was lying on was harder than the cloud she was used to waking up to, and the room was not as bright her usual cloud home, which seemed to fail at blocking sunlight very well. Not only that, but she wasn’t alone in this bed.  She swept her multi-hued bangs from her vision and turned to see the newest stranger she’d spent a night with, and instantly brought a hoof to her maw in fear.

Lying beside her, her dark violet mane disheveled from the night before and her light mauve fur matted far more with sweat than Rainbow’s cyan coat, was one of her best friends. She had woken up next to, and more importantly slept with the night before, her best friend Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight stirred, woken by Rainbow’s waking movements. Right eye opened first, turning toward Rainbow and examining the cyan pegasus with wonder, then closing slowly and reopening groggily as she rose from her laying position in the bed.

“G’mornin’,” Twilight spoke softly, her voice weak with an early morning melancholy.  She rubbed her eyes and turned towards her pegasus friend, apparently unfazed by the fact that the blue intruder was in her bed. Then again, if Dash’s memories served her right, she wasn’t exactly intruding on anything.

Memories of the night before flooded through Rainbow Dash’s mind as Twilight smiled at her: a party their friend Pinkie had thrown simply because she could, there had been cider (the local alcoholic drink of choice), but Rainbow Dash had absconded from drinking it, knowing all too well how she acted under the influence of the drink.  She had hoped to avoid another night with some random pony, but soon found herself alone with her violet unicorn friend.  Rainbow had made to help her friend up to her room, but Twilight seemed to have other plans rather than tucking in and sleeping alone through the night.

"Have a good sleep last night,” Twilight inquired, breaking Dash from her trance of memories. She smiled even brighter at the blush she’d summoned upon the cyan one’s face, even going so far as to let a giggle escape from her lips. The pegasus wasn’t one to be troubled by anything, usually able to keep her cool pony attitude up in even the most embarrassing or nerve wracking of situations, but it gave Twilight great delight to see that she was able to unnerve her brash companion with just one simple question.

“You remember last night,” Rainbow answered nervously. Recalling that Twilight seemed. . .odd night before to say the least the .

Now that she thought about it, Twilight really hadn’t been herself the previous night; the way she acted, the things she said, those weren’t things the rainbow-maned pegasus would expect from her usually calm, collected, and organized friend.  Rainbow remembered all the cider at the party, and hoped desperately that Twilight hadn’t been too wasted to know what she was doing.  She already felt bad about what they’d done, but the thought of her having taken advantage of her best friend.  The thought was too much to bear.

Twilight must have read her friend’s mind as she answered. “Of course silly, what, you don’t think I can be a little flirty when I want to.”

Rainbow felt like doing a double take, flirty was an understatement for how the mare next to her acted the night before.

“But, all the. . .things. . .we did last night,” Rainbow retorted, shuddering. It wasn’t the idea of being with a mare, she actually liked that. It was mare about the idea of whom she was waking next to that scared her.  Rainbow Dash knew how it felt when you started things like this with your friends; just as well, she also knew how horrible it could feel when it ended.

Twilight stepped out of the bed they’d been sharing and stretched her legs. Rainbow followed suit, an silence growing between them as she watched Twilight, waiting for a reply.

“What about them,” Twilight responded in an oddly cheerful tone.

Rainbow eyed her nervously, unsure as how to answer. Why was Twilight acting so, unlike herself?  In any other situation, Twilight would be freaking out about how things need to be a certain way and how something had gone wrong, but here and now she seemed so calm, so cheerful, so…arrogant.

“Ok Twilight, this is starting to tick me off,” Rainbow snorted, glaring at the overly cheerful Unicorn. “You don’t just wake up to your best friend laying beside you in bed and brush it off like it’s nothing. It’s just not right. . . it’s not you.”

Twilight frowned at Rainbow’s remark and pointed her head downward. An awkward silence fell between them, accompanied by the loud snores of Twilight’s dragon-scribe Spike.  Rainbow kicked herself even harder than she had before, but she couldn’t help it, she’d broken a promise she’d made to herself. She couldn’t help but feel angered, but she was taking it out on her best friend, and that just didn’t seem right.

“Why are you so angry Dashie,” Twilight asked, and Dash’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of pained affection in her voice,”don’t you like me?”

Rainbow Dash’s heard dropped to the pit of her stomach, “Twi, it’s not that I don’t like you, you’re an amazing mare and all,” Rainbow answered, walking closer to her friend, all the while unable to gaze into the other’s eyes.

“Then why does the thought of what we did make you so angry,” Twilight retorted, leaning her head forward in such a way as to force her rainbow-maned friend to look at her.

Dash turned her head away, unable to face the violet unicorn, “Twilight, you’re not the first pony that I’ve...um,” she paused, unable to find the right words, “been with; in fact, Twilight, you’re actually on quite the list of ponies that I’ve done this with.” Rainbow Dash hung her head in shame, she felt like trash saying that.

“So,” came Twilight’s response, one which left Rainbow Dash flabbergasted. She had expected so much more from her purple companion, some kind of scolding, not some blatant disregard for her past exploits.

“Well, it’s just that, well,” Rainbow began, not totally able to explain the situation. "It’s like this Twilight, when I feel anything for someone, even simple lust, it feels like I’m in love, I don’t understand why, but I think it’s something to do with my element,” Rainbow finished.

The element she was speaking of, of course, was the Element of Harmony that been bestowed upon her at birth. She had been endowed with the element of loyalty, that meant she could never turn her back on somepony she felt was close to her; however, it also seemed to have a downside, she gave her heart up too easily. In other words, any one simple fancy she took to somepony felt like real love. It brought a tear to her eye, a display of the one emotion her friends never seemed to see her in: sorrow.

“Oh,” Twilight began, turning her head to the nearby open window, putting two and two together as it finally made sense.  The silence that had been walking in and out on them reappeared as Twilight thought deeply.  She wanted to tell Rainbow Dash that everything would be alright, but she was unsure how. Sure, she was able to pull a miracle the night before and get Rainbow Dash to spend the night with her, but that in itself seemed a miracle for the usually socially inept unicorn.

Look,” Twilight spoke up, after realizing the time, “I have to get things ready for the Summer-Sun Festival tonight, but we can talk about this later, OK.” Twilight began for the door, but stopped as she noticed Rainbow Dash, her head pointed low in a melancholy display.

“That’s what they always say,” Dash said, noticing that Twilight had not yet left, “before they break my heart.”

Hearing this angered Twilight slightly, the thought of Rainbow Dash doubting her seemed madness to her. She stepped over to the pegasus, making sure every hoof fall was audible.

“Listen to me Rainbow Dash,” Twilight spoke, a tinge of irritation in her voice, “I don’t care how many ponies you’ve been with, I don’t even care if you made some sort of promise to yourself about not being with me, I had fun last night.” Twilight was right upon her now, her maw pinned close to her cyan companion’s own.

And I would do it again, Rainbow Dash,  in fact I wouldn’t mind doing it a lot more with you Dashie,” she finished, picking up Dash’s head with her hoof. Rainbow Dash blushed brighter than she had all morning when she caught Twilight’s gaze and smiled awkwardly in response.

Twilight returned Rainbow’s gape with a triumphant grin and turned on the spot, walking out of the room and into the hall leading to the rest of the library in which Twilight lived. Rainbow Dash watched her walk away in shock, then suddenly smiled, lifting her wings high. She quickly made her leave, flying out of the library through the open window.

She needed advice, and every mare in her situation knew who to go to if they needed help like she did.  Only the sweetest candy maker in all of town and her musical angel could give her the help she needed.

***

Bon-Bon’s shop was almost always busy, even with it being so deep into Ponyville’s town limits, though the reasons were not always her sweets. She and her lyre-playing lover Lyra were probably the best in Ponyville for relationship advice. So it came as no surprise to her and her mate Lyra when Rainbow Dash burst into the shop, sweat covering her body, and a confused look on her face, it was once again that time for their rainbow-maned friend. They quickly went to work after Dash landed, Bon-Bon turned the sign on the door so that the “closed,” side faced the outside world, and Lyra set up a table in the middle of the room, motioning for Rainbow Dash to sit as she did so.

“What were they like this time,” Lyra asked nonchalantly, having been through this same conversation quite a few times before.

Bon-Bon shot a look of annoyance at her green furred lover before turning to Rainbow and speaking in a cheerful manner, “please forgive Lyra for that Rainbow Dash, she’s been in a bit of a rough spot with her latest concerts.” It was Lyra’s turn to be annoyed now, her music problems were something she didn’t like to talk about publicly, but she couldn’t stay mad at her fluffy-maned lover and sighed in defeat, giving Rainbow Dash her best ‘I’m sorry,’ face.

“It’s ok Bon-Bon, I think I deserve the attitude this time,” Dash answered, hints of sorrow and anger in her voice. Dash pointed her head at the floor and sighed, causing Lyra and Bon-Bon to glance worryingly between each other, they knew exactly what Dash meant.

“Someone close this time,” Lyra started, “but I thought you promis-“

“Well I guess I couldn’t keep that promise huh,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, slamming her hoof on the table they’d been sitting at, causing many different colored candy wrappers to go flying like confetti from a cannon. A silence spread through the room like plague, medicated by a sudden screeching from a stove in the dimly lit back corner. Bon-Bon stepped across the large kitchen and  the removed the teapot that had been making the horrible screech from one of the eyes, turning off the stove and taking out three dull cups from a nearby cupboard.

Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said as Bon-Bon returned, placing the three tea filled cups upon the table, “it’s just, it feels like I’m loyal to everyone but myself, stupid element of loyalty.” Dash took a sip of her tea and glanced outside, watching the birds in their nests, suddenly mesmerized by their simple existence.

“So, was it,” Bon-Bon began, unsure of what she was about to say, not wanting to incur the wrath of her cyan friend, “one of the other elements of harmony.” Bon-Bon flinched after asking the question, waiting for some kind of reaction, but was pleasantly surprised when Dash nodded solemnly instead.

“It was Twilight wasn’t it,” Lyra spoke up, her assumption causing Rainbow Dash’s body to stiffen in confusion as she slowly turned toward her green friend.

“How did you know?”

“Well,” Bon-Bon started up, turning to her mate as she spoke, “the whole incident with you-know-who kind of threw that one in the trash.”

“And of course there’s Rarity, we’re pretty sure she’s taken,” Lyra continued, both she and Bon-Bon turning toward Rainbow Dash.

“Same with Fluttershy, and we’re pretty sure you’re other friend is pretty much a straight arrow,” Bon-Bon finished, she and Lyra smiling awkwardly at their little moment.

“Wow, you two are just made for each other,” Dash said admiringly, always happy to see her two friends at their happiest, “but back to the problem at hand, what do I do.”

“Well it’s not as simple as asking yourself if she’s ‘The One,’ all the others held that title too,” Lyra said matter-of-factly, frowning at the prospect of all the others that Rainbow had referred to as ‘The One.’

“I guess the question you should ask yourself is whether you want to keep this thing you’ve got going,” Bon-Bon said a couple of silent sips of tea later, “I mean, this is Twilight we’re talking about, she had to have picked you for a reason. The mare can’t even go to a spa without a checklist in order.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled at Bon-Bon’s quip, then thought generously about her situation, she’d be lying if she didn’t say that she didn’t think Twilight was a certain kind of cute, the kind of cute you’d pay precious bits to look like. It was also a pretty well known fact that Twilight was quite easily the most organized pony in all of Equestria; therefore, for Twilight to want Rainbow Dash like that, she obviously saw hope in this…whatever they had going on.

“Thanks girls,” Dash said smiling at the happy pair. Her wings flipped outward and she took to the air, flying out of the shop, gaining a huge amount of altitude, but even the highest height she reached was nothing compared to how high in the sky her heart felt. She had her answer; she knew what she had to do now.  Once she reached her peak height, she blasted towards the Everfree forest, toward her favorite clearing. She’d remembered that Twilight liked flowers.

Dash had some flowers to pick.