Rainbow Dash's Burning Question
It was a rainy day in Ponyville, and Rainbow Dash was in Golden Oaks Library. She was doing some storm flying training to perfect a new stunt when she crashed through the window, knocking all the books off the shelves. At that moment, Twilight decided to walk in the door and found Rainbow in the pile of books. She was furious until Rainbow promised to help reorganize the books. Which she had said only out of panic.
Rainbow had been going through the books knowingly hating the kind of work she was doing. It was so tedious and mind numbing. When she got to her third shelf, a question popped into her head. It was one that had occurred to her before, but she was ashamed to have thought of it. In fact. It had come to her quite a few times. And this time, she kind of wanted an answer to her question. She put down a history book and made a sigh. Twilight heard the abnormally loud sigh and asked about it heatedly.
"Something wrong Rainbow Dash?" came the question from the alicorn, thinking she was going to complain about the work she was doing.
"Nothing much Twilight. It's just a question that keeps coming back to me, and I'm tired of asking myself the question."
"Well, what's the question Rainbow?
Rainbow was a bit reluctant to ask the question because she was worried about what Twilight would think if she knew what the thought that Rainbow had had. Twilight felt the apprehension from the multi-colored Pegasus and assured her. "Rainbow, you can ask me anything, we're friends."
"That's just it Twilight. Why are we friends?"
"You mean, why are you and I friends? Because we care about each other?
"No Twilight, not just you and me. I mean all six of us. Why are all six of us friends?"
Twilight was a bit taken back by the question from her friend. "That's easy, because we have that magic connection that will always keep us together."
"But that's just it Twilight, we have the fact that we are the Elements of Harmony, but that won't last forever. It can't last forever. We will change, some of us may want to do other things with our lives and want to leave Ponyville. What happens to us then? I don't see us staying friends. And that brought me to the question of why are we even friends to begin with. I know the elements brought us together. I just don't see what is keeping us together other than sheer force of will."
"Well, that's just it. It's the same with anypony. They are friends because they want to be."
"But, for example, I don't see why you and I are friends. I mean, I know we are friends, but I don't see why we are. I don't like a lot of the things that you do, I don't like quiet, you introduced me to reading, but other than Daring Do, I don't do a lot of reading. I hate studying. You don't like speed like I do, you like stability and lists, whereas I like excitement and unpredictability.
"And that made me think of all my friendships, which ones would I have if it weren't for the Elements? I know I was friends with Fluttershy because of our past, but for how much longer? I already sensed that we wouldn't be friends much longer, especially with me wanting to be a Wonderbolt, and her taking care of her animals. I knew our paths would split. I was friends with Applejack because that grew from a rivalry. It was out of mutual respect that we are friends. So me and AJ would be friends, I don't doubt that. I know that Rarity and I wouldn't have been friends. We almost never talked and I barely even knew her before that day. And then there is Pinkie Pie. Sure she wanted to be friends with everypony, but I know that she doesn't actually have as many friends as she wants to say she does. It's impossible. You can't just be good friends with so many ponies. Sure you can know a lot about a lot of ponies, but that doesn't make you friends. Anyway, it's also not like I wanted to be great friends with her. I found her invading and annoying for a long time, even after the elements brought us together.
Twilight had heard all of this, and saw some of Rainbow's point but was wondering what else she had to say. "Is that all, Rainbow?"
Rainbow knew that now that she had started talking about her thoughts, that the floodgates would open, and she didn't know how this would end. "No Twilight, that's just the start."
"After thinking about why you guys are all friends with me; that got me wondering why all you guys are friends? Like you Twilight, I can see why you are friends with Fluttershy, you both enjoy peace and quiet. You both are very kind when you want to be. You enjoy a lot of the same activities. But what about you and AJ? She has a very big family, and you have a small family. She is a hard worker physically, where you are more of the egghead and smarts kind of worker. So you wouldn't have that in common. The only thing you guys have in extreme common is your stubbornness. But that tends to push ponies away more than bring them together. But who knows. I know Pinkie Pie is too loud for you a lot of the time, and you wish she would calm down. And I know she can think you're a stick in the mud, even though she would never admit that's what she thinks. So I don't see you being long term friends with her. Rarity, you might be friends with, but she could also be too high maintenance with you. You might get over that and be a completely different pony than you are now."
"I don't how much of that is true." Twilight tried to interrupt but couldn't over the flood of thoughts and feelings coming from her rainbow friend.
"Then there is AJ, she's one of the most stubborn ponies I've ever met, there's no way she'd be friends with Rarity. They are complete opposites. Pinkie is too random and unstable for AJ to make much sense of her. She may be friends with Fluttershy because they have animals in common, but they have completely different thoughts about them.
"Rarity may be friends with some ponies in Canterlot or Manehatten, but until we came along, she was really too stuck up to be great friends with anypony in Ponyville. So of us, the only pony I see her being friends with is Fluttershy. Pinkie is too loud and messy for Rarity to want to be around. And unless Pinkie calmed down at least a bit, she wouldn't be friends with Fluttershy either. Just saying Pinkie is too much for any one pony."
"It just seems sometimes we seem less like friends, and more like acquaintances… or coworkers or something. I mean, I know we're all friends, it's just… I don't know. Do you kind of get what I mean?"
Twilight was taken aback by all that Rainbow had said. "Wow Rainbow, that's a lot to take in. I mean, I see your point. But all of that shouldn't matter. The fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter whether or not we should or shouldn't be friends. All that really matters is that we are friends. I know we may not be the most conventional of friends. Nor that we have a great deal in common like most friends do. But that's what makes our bond so strong. That we want to be friends and hang out and do things, not because it's convenient. But because we want to. And yes, it's true that some of us may want some things to change at some point. But that's no reason to not have a friendship. If you only made friends with ponies that will always be there, then no pony would ever have any friends. That's one of the things that makes our friendship something we should cherish more than ever. We help each other grow and expand our likes and feelings. We help each other grow more mature and keep from being stagnant and bland. We bring out the best in each other, and we make us try harder for the betterment of each other. And if that's not a good enough reason for us to be and stay friends, then I don't know what else to tell you Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow had felt the words that Twilight had said deeply. How could she have been so blind to this truth? It was as if she was avoiding the truth to such an obvious answer. It really didn't matter why they all were friends. And it didn't matter whether or not they would be friends without the Elements. All that mattered was the here, the now, and the future.
