“What’s taking her so long?”
The young girl laying down on her friend's bed, positioned with her legs extended upwards and a book balanced on top of them, stopped concentrating on her procrastination and turned to see her ever more agitated friend.
The friend in speaking, whose bed the prior girl happened to be laying on, had an expression somewhere between aggravated and incredibly nervous, something most unlike her.
Even though they were round about the same age, the second girl was much shorter than the former, but she liked to think that her large personality—or ego as some would say—made up for her annoyingly late growth spurt.
“What time did you say she would get here again?” Dash asked after the lack of response from her first question.
Pinkie glanced at the clock on Dash’s wall, confirming that it had only been five minutes since she said Rarity might be a bit late.
Facing back up, her foot flopped, letting the book fall straight down to be caught by her hand just before it hit her face. She then spun round to give her friend a wide smile.
“Dashie, are you feeling okay?” she asked innocently.
Dash hesitated, backing down from her tall body language. “Yeah, of course.”
Pinkie gave her an inquisitive look. “Hmmm, I’ve missed something.”
“Huh?”
“You’re really worried about this and I can’t figure out why,” she said, stroking an imaginary beard.
“Hey, I’m not worried. I don’t get worried.”
Pinkie giggled. “Awh, such a cliche hard girl line.”
Dash grunted. “You know, you’re really not helping.”
Pinkie pushed herself up. With a skip, she pounced next to Dash, slinging her arms around her, who was too startled by her friend's speed to stop the now tight hug she found herself in.
“There there Dashie, Pinkie’s here to make everything feel better.”
Dash tried in vain to wiggle out of the hug. “I’m fine, Pinkie.”
“Step one in making Dash better is confronting that denial,” she said as her hug tightened. “Now just tell me what you’re thinking and I’ll do what I can to help.”
Dash grunted. “It’s beginning to hurt.”
Pinkie squeezed even more. “Well done, you did phase one. Now you just need to trust me enough to tell me what’s hurting you.”
“The hug, the hug is what’s hurting.”
“Oh, sorry.” Pinkie released Dash from her grasp, causing her to stubble slightly. “I’ve really gotta stop doing that.”
“Yeah, that would be great,” she said with a pant. After giving herself a second to catch her breath, Dash straightened her posture and started awkwardly scratching the back of her hair. “Hey, listen Pinkie. If I’m honest—”
Dash was interrupted by the sudden sound of her doorbell ringing.
“That must be Rarity,” Dash said as she flashed out her room and down the stairs, before quickly rushing her friend into her room by the arm.
“Hello, Pinkie.” Rarity said upon entering Dash’s room and being let go. “I’m glad to see you’ve been keeping an eye on Dash as she seems so... earnest.”
“Yeah, yeah, enough yapping, let’s get on with the dying,” Dash said as she sat on her bed.
“I would have preferred to be asked more nicely, but I will, of course, comply,” Rarity placed a full paper bag in front of her. “I don't want to waste these colours after all.”
“Why did you buy those? I’ve brought the hair dye’s already,” Dash said with a frown, “I did tell you that.”
“Yes, and I took an educated guess that you brought the wrong colours.”
“I know what colours are in a rainbow. It’s not hard.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “What shade of blue did you decide on?”
“Blue? My hair's already blue. Why would I dye over it in the same colour.”
Rarity sighed. “You really are so lucky you have me as a friend.”
“What are you talking—“
Rarity simply held up her hand to silence Dash, who reluctantly complied, and knelt down to start looking through her bag. “The colours we use must be very specific. If we get the wrong shade of red or yellow, it will look terrible together, and the blue you have in your hair right now won’t look right in any rainbow I can think of.”
Dash looked as though she was about to argue but simply sighed. “Fine.”
“And?” Rarity gave her an expectant look.
Dash rolled her eyes. “Thank you for being such a good friend and going through all this trouble for me.”
“Much better.” Rarity smiled, putting on her plastic gloves. “Now if you want to sit down in front of me, I can begin.”
Dash gulped, before moving with a weird stiffness to her position in front of Rarity, who began clipping up little bits of Dash's short hair in order to get to the bits she wanted.
“Luckily your blue hair is quite light, meaning we won’t have to bleach your hair first,” Rarity explained.
Dash didn’t reply to that, and she instead stayed perfectly still.
“Now, I’m going to start with violet. Are you ready?”
Dash didn’t move an inch, and instead replied with a quiet, but affirmative hum.
Rarity raised an eyebrow at her friend's sudden odd behaviour. But, seeing how she’d finished preparing and could think of no good reason to stop, she decided to press ahead.
She placed her brush into the dye, moved it over it over to Dash’s hair, and with a delicate little—
“No. stop. I can’t!”
Dash jumped up and out of Rarity’s grasp. Her arms were frantically waving about, as if trying to grab onto thin air, desperate to regain control of her now frantic breathing.
“Dash, what’s wrong?” Rarity said, taken aback by the sight.
Dash turned back round towards her worried friends. “I can’t do this. I-I can’t.” She tried to focus but she was still visibly panicked.
Pinkie quickly picked up Rarities paper bag of supplies, poured everything out onto the bed and handed it to Dash. “Quick, breathe into this.”
Dash didn’t waste any time arguing and did as she was told. A few fast breaths into the bag and she was already managing to gain a little bit of control back, and before long, she had stopped shaking.
Once her breathing was normal, she took it away from her mouth and let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, I just… I just can’t.”
Rarity took a step forward. “Dash, are you okay? It isn’t like you to get so panicked over dying your hair.”
“Seriously Rarity?” Dash snapped. “You still think this is just about me having my hair a new colour? I’m going to have rainbow hair, what do you think that means?”
Both Rarity and Pinkie hesitated, giving each other a little glance.
“Well, I guess now that you mention it,” Rarity said, “it does have some pretty strong connotations.”
“Dashie,” Pinkie began, “you know you can talk to us about this, we both promised we’d support you when you told us, and we were being serious.”
Dash stepped back from her friends so she could lean against her wall. “I know, I know, and I’m really grateful for everything you’ve done, but…”
With a little sigh, Dash slid down so she was sitting on the floor. “This is different to that. This isn’t just me telling you guys, this is me telling everyone. Everyone who sees me will know, and even if I denied it, they’d still have their suspicions. Everyone from my classmates to my parents. I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
Pinkie moved forward and sat on the floor next to her friend, wrapping her arms around her in a comforting hug. “That’s okay, no one expects you to make such a big jump, you’ve been super strong and amazing enough.”
Dash let out a sad little chuckle. “I expected me to do it, and I really thought I could for a second there.”
Rarity, still standing awkwardly above her friends, stared helplessly at them. “Why did you want to do this?” she asked. “It’s such a big thing to do, especially considering you’ve only told us.”
“I don’t know.” Dash looked down. “I guess I wanted everyone to know, regardless of if I wanted them to, if that makes sense. I’ve just spent so long trying to figure this out for myself, and now that I have, I still deny it, and I hate myself for that.”
Dash stopped. Realising she was about to cry, she clenched her fists to force herself not to. “I just wanted something to show that I’ve actually changed. Something that shouts ‘I figured this out about myself and I’m never going back’, but I guess I’m not there yet.”
The room fell silent as Dash stopped talking, focusing on not letting out any tears.
This silence lasted until Rarity coughed to get her two friends attention. “Well, seeing how you’re not going to dye your hair, and I went through all the trouble of buying this dye, I guess I have no choice but to dye my hair like a rainbow.”
Dash looked back up to Rarity with a frown. “But people will think you’re gay.”
“So?” Rarity confidently replied.
“You’re straight.”
Rarity’s confidence wavered. “Well… that’s not exactly—”
Both Dash and Pinkie gave her a shocked look. “You’re—”
“I don’t know, alright. I know my highly feminine tendencies make me seem straight, but I’m becoming increasingly unsure of that.” She paused for a breath, visibly uncomfortable. “But, you know what, I’m fine with not knowing. Because even if I am gay, or something else, I know that’s okay. And I know that because I have an amazing friend whose own confidence in herself helps me every day.”
Dash didn’t say anything, and instead just stares up at Rarity with a little smile.
“So if dying my hair the colours of the rainbow will help give her the confidence to do the same, then I can think of no better thing to do.” A flash of panic spreads across her face. “Please dye your hair with me, I don’t think I can do it alone.”
Dash clenched her fists once more and give rarity a strong nod.
“Aww, Dashie, are you crying out of joy.”
“Shut up, I don’t cry.”
***
Rainbow Dash quickly got out her phone to check her messages now that break had begun. “Come on, where are they,” she mutters in her seat located at the back of the classroom.
Unlocking her phone she sees a picture that Pinkie has sent her. It’s a selfie showing both her and Rarity in their classroom with their new rainbow hair, Pinkie looking much more confident about it than the blushing Rarity.
Rainbow chuckled at the picture. Pinkie, of course, had felt left out and also dyed her hair, and now they all look like some kind of club.
She leant back in her chair, waiting for her friends to make their way over to her, doing her best to ignore the occasional glances coming her way. Eventually, she ended up just closing her eyes as if to nap.
“Erm... excuse me.”
Rainbow opened her eyes to see her shy classmate in front of her. She seemed very uncomfortable, looking down at the ground instead of Rainbow and fiddling with her long, pink hair.
“Hey, Fluttershy, what’s up.”
Fluttershy jumped back a little. “Oh, hi, I, erm, just wanted to say that I, well, I really like your hair,” she said as she began to blush profusely.
Rainbow froze up slightly, just staring as the girl, but then tried desperately to make her body language seem casual. “Thanks, I… like it too.” She coughed. “I think your hair is really nice as well.”
Fluttershy didn’t say anything, and Rainbow just watched at the girls blush continued to brighten.
“Erm, if you want,” Rainbow continued despite herself, “I could show you how to dye it like this.”
“...that, erm, that sounds nice.”
