...is a friend indeed...?
Rainbow woke up to the sound of her doorbell. She checked her alarm clock and managed to divine from it that it was Monday; mail day. After dragging herself out of bed, Rainbow quickly touched up her mane, an attempt to be presentable, and proceeded to open the door.
“Hi, Rainbow Dash! Got some more mail for you!” Derpy shouted, apparently unaware of how close Rainbow was to her.
“That’s... nice, Derpy. I really have to get going now. Busy with the weather patrol and stuff.”
Rainbow closed the door, almost slamming it in Derpy’s face. She didn’t really care. It was early, and Rainbow hadn’t gotten the chance to properly wake up yet. She’d probably regret doing that later, but... now wasn’t later.
Rainbow checked her mail, planning on crawling straight back into bed after she’d made sure that she wasn’t ignoring anything important.
“Taxes... taxes... rent... nope, nothing important,” the cyan pegasus mused, tossing the letters aside. She stopped as she noticed the bottom letter on the pile, though; it had slid out from underneath the rest. “Wait a second, this is for Flutters, not me! Mailmare got it wrong again, huh? How do you even manage to confuse the two of us? This is Cloudsdale for ponies’ sake!”
Rainbow sighed. She’d have to go deliver the letter herself. It didn’t look too important, but looks could be deceiving, so she decided to get ready for a trip to Fluttershy’s.
One short flight and a few dizzying tricks, later, Rainbow arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage. “No animals around... maybe she’s not home right now? Eh, might as well knock on the door. No point in turning around without trying.”
Three knocks and half a minute later, Rainbow stood there, grinning like an idiot at the yellow pegasus in front of her. “Heya Flutters. The mailmare delivered your letter to my place, and I thought it’d be better if I just dropped it off myself, rather than give it back to her.”
“There it is! Oh, thank you Rainbow! I’ve been waiting for this letter for a really long time now!” Fluttershy squeeled, obviously thrilled to finally have her letter.
Huh. I guess it was important...
“Uh... Flutters? What exactly is that letter about?” Rainbow asked, not sure she if was supposed to ask something like that. But... she was curious.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just a letter explaining how I should take care of Rodrick.”
“Rodrick? Who’s Rodrick?” Rainbow asked.
The question was immediately followed by regret as Fluttershy shoved the biggest, most colorful, grotesque tarantula Rainbow had ever seen right in her face. The thing barely fit on Fluttershy’s hoof, and its legs were even more hairy than Rainbow would have thought possible.
“This is Rodrick!” Fluttershy squealed, beaming as she held the gigantic spider, moving steadily closer to Rainbow. “He’s a pet from a pony I know, and he was lost a few weeks ago. When they found him, he was missing a leg, so now I’m taking care of him while it grows back.”
“What in the name of Celestia is that?!” Rainbow shrieked, backing up into a corner of the room as she did so.
Rainbow had never told anypony how afraid she was of spiders. In fact, she had even denied it once. But... it had to happen one day. Rainbow was terrified of spiders, and she had always dreaded the day that her friends would find out. That blue-and-yellow, hairy, enormous, fanged monstrosity staring at her with its beady black eyes did not help to calm her down. At all.
“T... take that thing away from me!” Rainbow screamed.
Fluttershy recoiled at first, obviously startled by the sudden noise. Rainbow felt her heartbeat steadying as the distance between her and the spider increased somewhat... until Fluttershy started to move closer once again.
“Don’t worry, Rainbow. He’s perfectly harmless. Tarantulas have a bad reputation, but most of them really are harmless, you know. Just look at those eyes! Don’t you just want to hug him?!” Fluttershy smiled, obviously enthusiastic about the rather... unusual creature.
“I can think of plenty of things to do to it, but hugging is definitely not one of them!” Rainbow screamed. “Imma tell you one more time, Flutters! Take. It. Away. From. Me!”
“But... they really are very nice pets.... Are you sure you don’t even want to try stroking him?” Fluttershy asked, moving even closer to her rainbow-maned friend.
That was the limit. That hairy... thing was just inches away from Rainbow’s face now. She could see its eyes. Cold, black, and hollow. The eyes of a true killer. That’s what they looked like to her, anyway.
She took off faster than she ever had before, leaving Fluttershy confused and in a cloud of dust. Rainbow flew straight for the nearest window, one that was, rather conveniently, open. Just the thought of having that huge, hairy spider touching her, crawling on her sent shivers down her spine.
How in the name of Celestia can Fluttershy stand to touch that thing? I’d have dropped it and kicked it straight back to where it came from!
Rainbow flew straight home, crawled back onto her bed, and hid her head underneath her pillow, trying to shake off the mental image of that monster that had come so dangerously close to devouring her in a single, massive gulp.
Rainbow spent the rest of the day in her house, cowering beneath her pillow as she tried to forget about her near-death-experience. At least, that’s what she would have done had it not been for a certain rather energetic voice coming from her door.
“Heya Dashie! We heard about what happened at Fluttershy’s, so we came over to let you pet Rodrick yourself!”
Rainbow had actually been in the process of getting up, but froze as she heard that monster’s name. She glanced at her alarm clock, noticing that it was barely three PM. It seemed her friends had come to harass her some more, and they had brought the beast with them.
Her door was slammed open, and Pinkie barged in, leaving a stream of confetti in her wake. “You really don’t have to be so scared of him, you know! Spiders are fun! With eight legs, well... seven, for this one, you’ll never find a better dance partner for a party!”
Rainbow tried to fly away once again, but Applejack, who had come running in right after Pinkie, had gripped Rainbow’s tail between her teeth.
“Oooh no ya don’t!” Applejack hissed through gritted teeth. “You’re gonna pet that spider, wether ya like it or not!
“No! Get away from me! Take it away!” The rest of her friends, all except Twilight, who hadn’t made her way into the room yet, had trouble keeping a straight face.
Twilight walked into the room, and Rainbow fell silent. That... thing, that monster, was sitting on top of her head, staring directly at Rainbow as it proceeded to dangle from the lavender unicorn’s horn by a thread. Twilight giggled as she tried to focus on the spider, swinging from side to side right in front of her eyes.
“Oh, isn’t he just the cutest?” Fluttershy squeeled. “Yes you are, Rodrick! Yes you are!” Her voice sounded like she was speaking to a filly, which earned a frown from Applejack.
“Oh, right. We’re here for Rainbow, not me,” Fluttershy mumbled as she retreated to the back of the room.
“How did you guys even get in here?! We’re in Cloudsdale! You guys ought to be falling to the ground right now!” Rainbow yelled, trying to steer the conversation away from what she feared was coming.
“Well, duh,” Applejack grinned. “We got Twilight, don’t we?”
Rainbow’s thoughts returned to the spider. She started to sweat as she realized that Twilight was showing more courage than she was.
If... if Twilight can stand to touch that... thing,then horseapples, so can I!
Twilight had, in the meantime, taken the spider off of her horn, and was holding it out for Rainbow to pet. Rainbow closed her eyes, and raised a hoof. Slowly moving it forward, her hoof touched nothing but air for a few seconds. But then, with a jolt, Rainbow hit something. It... tickled. That... monster... tickled? Rainbow opened her eyes, looking at the spider as it crawled up her leg. She burst out laughing.
“Hey, that tickles!” she shouted, barely managing to do so between her roars of laughter. “That tickles! Stop it, make it stop, please!” she continued to yell, tears of laughter forming in her eyes as the relentless tickling continued.
Her group of friends merely watched in delight, the occasional giggle escaping from the five ponies as they continued to stare at the rather... eccentric display.
Rodrick had made his way to Rainbow’s head and settled down on top of her mane. The spider stayed very much awake, staring around the room with its beady little eyes, but Rainbow suddenly no longer felt the need to bolt. She felt... at ease.
This is no monster, she realised. This is just another animal, like a deer... or a squirrel! Maybe I should’ve listened to Fluttershy.
Rainbow turned to look her friends in the eye, each of them for a few seconds. She took slightly longer for Fluttershy.
“I... I’m sorry... you guys. Everypony has something they’re afraid of, and spiders were kind of... my thing,” Rainbow spoke. “I know that I’ve told you guys before that I wasn’t afraid of spiders, but that’s because...”
“We understand, Rainbow,” Twilight interrupted. “You just didn’t want to admit that you were afraid of something so... silly. No offense.”
“Uhm... yeah,” Rainbow stuttered. “I just... spiders aren’t very common in Cloudsdale, obviously, and I never really knew them. Starting out with such a... handsome... little fella, was a bit... much.”
Applejack couldn’t hold back a chuckle, much to Rainbow’s annoyance.
“Oh, like you’ve never been afraid of something, Applejack!” Rainbow yelled at the orange earth pony.
Applejack touched her hoof to her chin in mock thought. “Uhhh... nope, ain’t nuthin’ I can think of.”
Rainbow rapidly, but carefully, took Rodrick off of her head, and proceed to advance on Applejack, the spider on her hoof, leg outstretched.
“Now, now, Rainbow. I sure ain’t afraid of no little spider,” Applejack said, although she had started backing away.
“You sure?” Rainbow asked with a slightly evil grin on her face, still moving closer to Applejack. A thud sounded through the room as Applejack hit the wall on the other side of the room, panic in her eyes as she realised that she was cornered.
“Alright, ya win! I hate spiders just as much as the next pony, now please, take that... that... thing away from me!” Applejack screamed.
“Too late,” Rainbow said, as she placed the spider ever so carefully on Applejack’s muzzle, so that he was staring her right in the eye.
“No, no, no, no!” Applejack almost started shaking her head in an effort to remove the enormous spider from her face, but she stopped and looked into the spider’s eyes, and something about her changed. She... relaxed.
“Aw... shucks. Is this what I’ve been afraid of? He’s cute as a button!”
Fluttershy took the spider back from Applejack, carefully placing him on her back, although Rodrick quickly walked up to sit on top of her head. The giant spider seemed to like that spot. Fluttershy suppressed a giggle as the spider crawled up her spine, the hairs on his legs tickling her much like they had Rainbow a few moments before.
“I told you he was harmless,” Fluttershy gloated. She had known all along that the spider wouldn’t even harm a fly. Well... maybe he would harm a fly, but never a pony. They were too big.
Rainbow still seemed a little weary of the giant, blue-legged spider on top of Fluttershy’s head, but she definitely wasn’t as terrified as she had been when she first laid eyes on the... ‘little’ critter.
Fluttershy started laughing as she thought back to earlier that day, when rainbow had panicked like she had never done before, and flown away without so much as a glance backwards. The sudden noise caught the other ponies’ attention, and earned her several strange looks as the yellow pegasus tried to catch her breath in order to explain her laughing fit.
“I was just thinking back to earlier this day, when Rainbow couldn’t fly fast enough to get away from poor little Rodrick,” Fluttershy said, still laughing.
The other ponies shared a smile, and Rainbow felt her cheeks redden as the other ponies burst out laughing.
“I sure wish I could’ve been there to see that,” Applejack laughed.
Rarity, who had been quiet so far, decided to speak. “Oh, this is terribly rude of me,” she said, all the while still laughing. “But I can just about imagine the look on your face, Rainbow Dash!”
Twilight didn’t really share the fun. She was giggling slightly, but quickly assumed a blank expression as she turned to face Rainbow. “I’m not really sure why you’d be afraid of such a thing, Rainbow, but I feel like you’ve learned something today. If you agree, perhaps you should write a letter to the princess about it?”
Rainbow perked up at the idea of writing Celestia a letter. It had been a long time since they had last learned something new about friendship, and Twilight had been growing increasingly annoyed at their lack of discoveries.
“Yeah, sounds like a plan to me!” Rainbow said, grateful for the opportunity to lead the conversation away from her own... experiences. “You got something I can write with?”
“Not yet, but give me a moment,” Twilight said, stepping back slightly. The unicorn closed her eyes, her eyebrows formed a frown and a magical glow enveloped her horn. Not too long after that, she released the magic, and a quill, bottle of ink, and piece of parchment appeared in midair, as if out of nowhere.
“I’m afraid I didn’t ask Spike to come; he was too busy with his chores, but I’m sure you can write the letter yourself, Rainbow. We’ll be waiting in the living room, so just come and tell us whenever you’re finished, or if you need something.”
“Yeah, that’ll work fine,” rainbow said, grasping the quill between her teeth as Twilight levitated the other two objects over to a nearby table. “I’ll try to make this quick.”
Rainbow sat there for a second, pondering what to write. Writing had never really been something for her, as anypony would be able to tell you. After a few moments of thought, Rainbow set quill to parchment, and began to write.
Dear princess Celestia,
I know that it’s been a while since you’ve received a letter from us, and even longer since you’ve gotten one from me, but I’ve learned something important about friendship today that I’d like to share with you.
I’ve learned that no matter how different, strange, or even scary a pony (or animal) looks, you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Rainbow laughed to herself as she wrote this, thinking back to the time when she refused to open a book, only to fall in love with the adventures of Daring Do when her boredom finally got the best of her.
She continued writing:
I know that this sounds like something anypony could tell you, but trust me, it’s not. Sometimes, it’s hard to see past somepony’s outside, and if you don’t take that extra step, you just might miss out on a really good friend.
Anyway, that’s just something I thought you’d like to know. I hope you’re well, and all of that stuff.
Future wonderbolt,
Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow took a second to examine her writing. It looked clumsy, even to her, but it would have to do. She rolled up the piece of parchment and made for her living room.
Her five friends were still giggling as Rainbow entered the room, each of them trying to stop as they noticed her. They succeeded, briefly, until Applejack burst into laughter once more.
“I wouldn’t be so quick to laugh, Applejack, or have you already forgotten about your own problems with Rodrick?” Rainbow snapped.
Applejack’s laughter stopped immediately, a look of shame on the earth pony’s face as she realised just how scared she had been of the innocent, yet still slightly frightening spider.
“Well, I guess we should get this letter to the princess!” Twilight said rather enthusiastically as she took the rolled up parchment from Rainbow, Pinkie bouncing away after her as she made for the door.
“See you around, Dashie!” Came Pinkie’s voice.
“Heh. See you around, guys. And don’t you dare bring another monster into my house like that!” Rainbow yelled after the lavender unicorn, assuming a mocking voice.
“You should stop by to visit again sometime soon, Rainbow,” Fluttershy smiled, Rodrick still on her head as she walked past Rainbow, and out of the door. Rainbow merely grinned sheepishly.
“Oh, this was quite entertaining, darling. We simply must do this again sometime.” Came Rarity’s voice as she too passed Rainbow.
“I’m sorry for makin’ fun of you like that, Rainbow. I deserved it just as much as you did.”
“Oh, lighten up, Applejack. No harm done, right? In the end, I’ll still beat you in a race, and that’s all that matters to me.”
“We’ll see about that, Rainbow,” Applejack said, frowning slightly as she left the cyan pegasus’s house.
Rainbow closed the door behind her friends, letting out a sigh of relief as she realised that the ordeal was over.
Actually... that wasn’t so bad. Flutters was right all along, Rainbow thought to herself. Maybe I ought to listen to that pony more often.
Rainbow grinned to herself, remember the feeling of Rodrick creeping up her leg, tickling her as he went.
I wonder if Tank would mind having a spider as a best friend...?
