Love Conquers All

Two days had come and went, Thursday was here and some of Ponyvile's mares were preparing for the big day ahead of them.

--

Rainbow Dash and Rarity were inside Carousel Boutique; The former was standing in front of a large purple concealing curtain, while the latter was behind said curtain.

"Introducing, the latest, the greatest, the most fabulous, formal, yet informal dress I have ever created!" Rarity's voice boomed from wall mounted speakers, It was no doubt she had them installed them for occasions such as these. Egomaniac.. thought the blue mare with her own fan club. The curtain became enveloped in a shimmering blue aura and was withdrawn into the walls. On the mannequin behind it was a simple green dress, it flowed along the body, yet hugged every curve. The fabric shimmered in the light, making it look beautiful in any kind of light.

"Wow...Rarity. It's...awesome." Dash smiled, while the fashionista frowned.

"Just 'awesome'...?"

"I like it! Seriously." Rainbow trotted up to the mannequin and stated to remove the dress with her teeth, which elicited a gasp from Rarity.

"What are you doing?!" The blue glow of Rarity's magic levitated Dash away from the dress. "Do not touch this dress with your teeth! You will not be taking off this dress with your teeth...that is your date's job." Rarity grinned as Rainbow Dash blushed so deep you could mistake her face for a cherry. Rarity set Dash on the carpeted floor and started removing the dress with magic."Now, see here dear. I've made reservations at Restaurant Chic for you and your date. The reservation is for 5, don't be late, don't be early. I had to pull some strings to get you there."

Rainbow Dash stood there. Stunned. "Th-Thanks Rarity...but really, you didn't have to do that.."

The unicorn waved her off. "Yes I did, it's your first date. I couldn't simply let you go to your house...or Celestia forbid, Sugarcube Corner." Rarity shivered in disgust. "Such a place isn't meant for a first date with a world class athlete."

--

"Oh dear, Sugarcube Corner isn't fit for a date, pish posh, cheerio and all that." A pink mare mocked Rarity in a fake Canterlot accent. She was watching the pegasus and unicorn through one of the windows. "I simply can't let that meanie head Soarin go there..." Her fake accent faded with every word, at the end, her voice still wasn't normal. It held something more sinister in it. Aside from that, she also looked different. Her usually poofy mane was as straight as a line, and not even the slight wind could move it. Her coat, usually a vibrant pink, was now a darker shade of rose, and her eyes...once bright blue orbs of joy, now they were icy blue.

"At least she looks pretty in her dress." She looked to the ground, where Gummy was sitting. "It's green. I like green." The little alligator talked without opening his mouth, not that this bothered Pinkie any.

"It is a pretty dress..." Her eyes seemed to soften when she focused on Dashie.

"You should take it and keep it safe for her, we wouldn't want her to mess it up, would we?" Pinkie's face grew unsure.

"I don't know, Gummy. She seems to really like that dress. I don't want to make her sad.." The former party pony looked down at her pet, who only blinked.

"But Pinkie, don't you want to make her even more happy? Make sure the dress doesn't get messed up, it will make her like you more." The baby gator started to chew on his own tail playfully.

"Hey, yeah! You're right Gummy!" The pony picked up her pet and put him on her head.

--

Rarity decided that she needed to teach Dash how to properly eat at a fancy restaurant, so she led the pegasus over to the dining area. If the duo had been more attentive, they would have seen the baby alligator tied to a stick come through the window, clamp its jaws around the dress and get pulled back out the window.

"Now Rainbow Dash, I must teach you how to dine like a lady." Rainbow Dash groaned, this was going to be long and boring.

--

Pinkie trotted away from Carousel Boutique at a very quick pace. She knew she was doing this for Rainbow Dash, but she doubted Rarity would understand this labor of love. She made it back to her room above the bakery fairly quickly, she locked the door behind her and made her way over to her bed.

"She was going to wear that for Soarin.." Gummy jumped off of her head and waddled over to his ball of yarn.

"Well..yeah. So?" Pinkie took the dress off of her back and set it on he bed gently.

"Not for you, it was especially made to impress Soarin." The reptile started rolling around with the ball between his scaly feet.

"Y-Yeah..." Pinkie scowled at the dress.

"Why does he get special treatment?"

"Yeah!"

"Why doesn't she wear that for you?"

"It's not fair!" The pink mare shouted as she batted the dress off of the bed. "I like her just as much! I deserve her!" She stomped on the dress angrily.

"No it's not! In fact, why should they get to have the fun date? It should be you." The Gator took the end of the yarn in his mouth and dragged the now unraveling ball around the room.

"I deserve this date...not some...Wonderbolt." She stamped on the dress one more time, adding a tear in it in addition to all of the dirty hoofprints.

"Then go get it.."

--

Dash and Rarity had spent an agonizing thirty minutes going over proper etiquette and table manners before Rarity had to excuse herself. It had only been a couple of seconds of Dash tapping her hoof against the table when Rarity rushed back in.

"The dress is gone!" Dash sat up, eyes wide.

"What?! What do you mean, it's 'gone'?" Dash got out of her seat and flared her wings in anger.

"I went in there, and it's not where I left it! I don't know what happened to it.....oh dear, oh dear...this is not good." The unicorn started pacing, a frightened look in her eye.

"Rarity, calm down. I know we can find it.." She was keeping herself from getting angry so she could be there for her friend. "I'm sure you just thought you put it there, it's not like the dress just got up and walked away. Plus, we have time." Then the doorbell rang.

--

Soarin had been flying around Ponyville for about 45 minutes looking for Rainbow Dash, but he had found neither hide nor tail of his date. He had looked in the local library, in a cottage near the forest, in a cloud house in the sky that had Rainbow waterfalls(He guessed that was Rainbow Dash's house), and it wasn't until a nice pink mare at the local bakery told him where Rainbow Dash was that he actually had an inkling of what he was doing.

He was now standing outside of what could only be described as a giant carousel. He wasn't sure of whether or not Rainbow Dash was actually here or not, but, it was a place he hadn't checked yet. So, he strode up, looked down at his Wonderbolt uniform to make sure it was still unwrinkled, and knocked on the fuchsia colored door. As he stood there, he could here yelling and scrambling from inside...and he couldn't decide whether or not that was a good thing.

A white unicorn opened the door, but just enough so that her head could poke through. "Yes, Hello. Hi. I'm Rarity, how may I help you today" She took a good long look at him "S-S-Soarin...." She immediately moved back and slammed the door. Some more hushed conversation and scrambling for something could be heard from behind the closed door. Eventually the door opened again and a naked, blushing Rainbow Dash was pushed out.

"H-hey Soarin.." She looked down, draping her mane over her face nervously.

"Hey there Rainbow Dash." He looked her over. "Now I feel overdressed." He chuckled at his own joke, which made Dash blush even harder.

"Sorry, I had this dress that Rarity made me...but...well..we lost it.." The mare kicked at the ground nervously.

Soarin raised an eyebrow. "You lost a dress?"

"Well, not really lost...more like, misplaced. We put it down, then we went to go...umm..eat. When we came back, it was gone." Soarin was about to say something but Dash cut him off. "Hey, can we just get going?" The colt nodded and they started off.

"So, where we headed?" Soarin looked around the quaint little hamlet known as Ponyville. It was simplistic, the thatched roof houses and farmer's markets gave a very fresh feeling to the town. Better than most cities in Equestria.

"Oh, I was thinking we could, y'know, maybe go to Sugarcube Corner first, then walk around, talk, then-" She was cut short when her date was tackled into a doorway by three blurs.

--

Pinkie had said that a strange colt had been looking for Rainbow Dash. Now, usually this wouldn't upset the three little fillies known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But seeing as how Rainbow Dash had saved Scootaloo's life and earned the title of "Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader", they felt the need to take this upon themselves.

They had started their search with a resounding "Cutie Mark Crusader Interrogators!" and started galloping all over town in search of the couple. They had searched high, low, far and wide. From The Everfree Forest to the train station, and still, nothing. They were just about to give up when they spotted them.

"There they are!" Sweetie Belle hollered. Applebloom immediately silenced her squeaky friend with a hoof .

"Shh! They might hear ya! We have ta get him away from Rainbow Dash ta question 'im." The farm filly took her hoof from Sweetie's mouth.

"And how do we do that?" The rust colored pegasus saw no such opportunity.

"Ain't that your house over there, Scootaloo?" Applebloom pointed to a small cottage down the street from the meandering couple. The purple maned filly nodded. "Looks like your brother left the door open again, too."

"Ugh, stupid Thunderlane..."

"Why don't we just tackle him in there and shut the door?" She looked at the other two Crusaders, who nodded and got in position.

When the time was right, they all three charged and tackled the colt into the open doorway. When they tumbled inside, and while the colt was still dazed, Applebloom bucked the door shut and locked it, while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood on the colt. The latter lit up her horn and focused the light on the blue pony's face.

"Who are you?"

"Why were you looking for Rainbow Dash?"

"Why are you wearing a Wonderbolt's Uniform?"

The fillies barraged the famous flier with questions, who looked at them all through squinted eyes.

"Girls! Girls! Calm down!" The fillies just glared at him. "My name is Soarin, I'm on a date with Rainbow Dash, and I'm a Wonderbolt." Scootaloo gasped.

"Ohmygosh! You're THE Soarin!" She quickly booted off Sweetie with a swift kick to the flank, then hopped off herself. "A real life Wonderbolt, and you're....wait....did you say date?"

"Rainbow Dash dating a colt? My sister always said that she didn't like colts like that." Sweetie Belle looked back at the window, which Rainbow Dash was looking through...and she didn't look happy.

"WHAT?!" The cyan pegasus banged on the windows and yelled some words that the fillies shouldn't have heard.

The pale blue pegasus raised his eyebrow at the comment the unicorn filly made. He shrugged it off and went to unlock the door, when he did, the door was pulled open and he was promptly dragged out by a raging Rainbow Dash.

"Did we get our Cutie Marks?" Asked Applebloom. All three fillies looked at their flanks, only to be met with the same blankness that made them start this group. "Darn...guess we're not interrogators. Say, what do y'all reckon those words that Rainbow Dash said mean?" The other two shrugged. "Let's find out!"

All three raised their hooves to the air. "Cutie Mark Crusader Word Finder-Outers!"

--

"I'm SO sorry about that, Soarin. They're just looking for their cutie marks, they didn't mean any harm." Dash quickly brushed the dirt off of Soarin with her tail as they walked.

"It's okay Rainbow Dash. Really. They're just fillies, I understand." He laughed and helped clean himself off.

"This has been the worst date ever, hasn't it..?" the mare stopped walking and just looked down, sulking.

"Not the worst, no.." Dash looked up and smiled a little. "Not exactly the best either." She looked back down. "But hey, I'm having fun. That's what matters." He used his hoof to raise her chin so she was looking him in the eyes again. "Okay?"

Dash stared into his emerald eyes, she felt as though she could become lost in them. They were just so perfect. "O-Okay..." She blushed and started to look away, but couldn't. She closed her eyes, she could feel his hot breath upon her muzzle, drawing closer to her.

"Hey Rainbow Dash! Hey Soarin!"

Both pegasi jolted and opened their eyes, quickly separated, looking equally embarrassed. They both looked to the source of the voice.

"Spitfire?" Soarin asked his teammate, which had intruded upon a very intimate moment.

"Hey you two! I was just on my way to get something to eat, wanna come with?" Dash and Soarin looked at each other awkwardly.

"Well...actually Spitfire, We have dinner reservations for later.." Dash felt bad for telling her idol this, it made her feel like a bad fan.

"Oh cool, I'll join you. I'm sure they can add one more to your reservation, I am a Wonderbolt after all." She smiled and walked in between the two ponies who were trying to have a date.

"O-kay.." Soarin sighed and resigned himself to silently cursing his friend.

"We'll have a great night, i'm sure of it!" Spitfire smiled even wider and put a wing around each of them.