A large thump sounded at the door to the old tree. Its inhabitant didn’t know what to do at first; it was about midnight after all. ‘Who in Equestria could that be, especially at this hour?’ Twilight thought to herself as her horn flared and lights lit up all around the old tree that is the Ponyville library. As the unicorn cautiously walked towards the door, she could hear something she didn’t notice at first. Just before she reached the door she froze in her tracks. She heard a pony crying.
She didn’t know who this pony was or what he or she was doing at the library door at this hour. She hesitantly opened the door to a cyan Pegasus heaped on the floor leaning against the door that had no moved so the body fell even more onto the ground. The pegasus’ mane fell into the library.
“Rainbow Dash!” the lavender unicorn yelled as her horned flared and lifted the cyan Pegasus up with her magic. She rested the crying Pegasus onto her sofa, not caring if it got dirty. The unicorn then dashed into the kitchen to get a warm mug of tea.
When the lavender unicorn returned the Pegasus was still lying on the couch, crying much less now.
“Are you ok, Rainbow?” the unicorn asked with concern easily noticeable in her voice.
The Pegasus sneezed, “y- yes” Rainbow was trying to hide the truth as much as she could in her current state.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, I’ll go run a hot bath and prepare the spare bed.”
“Th- thanks.” The Pegasus said, still crying a little. The unicorn smiled and walked off to run the bath.
She returned several minutes later to find the cyan Pegasus standing next to the couch looking at the wall.
“The bath’s ready for you.” The unicorn said, “I’ll prepare the spare bed upstairs and then we can get some sleep.” The Pegasus walked past the lavender unicorn and smiled at her as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door. She walked upstairs to prepare the spare bed. Her horn glowed and as the cupboard opened the bedframe, sheets, mattress and a pillow flew out of it and were set up next to her own bed. It wouldn’t normally take as long as it did but she had one thing on her mind that kept bugging her while she performed her task: what happened to Rainbow Dash.
When she finished her task she walked over to the main room but stopped when she reached the bathroom door. Dash was crying again. Twilight frowned and continued into the main room of the library and sat down on the sofa, avoiding the patch of dirt that was created when the unicorn brought in her friend. She sat down and started to think. It was lonely in the library without Spike. He was with Fluttershy doing something Twilight didn’t really care too much about. She decided to do a little bit of reading, so she picked up the book on the table near her and started to read.
Dash came out of the bathroom a few minutes later looking better than she did when got to the library but still not all that good compared to her normal self.
“Ah, you’re out. Are you sure you’re ok? I mean you didn’t sound ok when I walked past the door.” Rainbow sighed and let a tear drop from her eye and slowly onto the floor. She walked over and sat down next to the unicorn who looked concerned. This was going to be a long night. Twilight looked at her, her concern turning into deep worry for the Pegasus.
“I… I don’t know what to say first…” the Pegasus said, trying to break the awkward silence between the two friends. “She…I…”
“It’s ok, take your time. You can talk in the morning if you want,” Twilight said trying to comfort Rainbow, she really wanted to know what happened but she could wait ‘till the morning.
“Tha… that would be nice.” So the two of them stood up and walked upstairs, side by side, to the bedroom. When they got up there Twilight showed Dash her bed and she sleepily got in, the unicorn got in her own after Rainbow was in. They fell asleep quickly, well, at least Twilight did. Rainbow was turning over constantly in bed, not finding that one comfy spot where she could get to sleep nice and easy. She would often turn over and look at Twilight. ‘What’s happening to my life, it started out so awesomely! But now it’s ruined, I’m a wreck’ she thought. Her dreams started to drift from new flying tricks to her time with her and then finally they rested on the mare across the room, sleeping soundly in her bed. Rainbow drifted to sleep quickly after she thought of the lavender unicorn.
Twilight was first to wake, when she opened her eyes she noticed Dash sleeping heavily and moving about a little. She decided to get breakfast before Dash wakes up. When she got downstairs she let out a big sigh and decided she needed to know what was on Dash’s mind, she wanted to know mainly because she was incredibly worried for her, but something else was happening in her mind. She didn’t know what and she didn’t understand it so she ignored it.
She finished the breakfast and laid the table when Dash was walking slowly down the stairs, thankfully no tears running down her face. Twilight smiled at her, and Dash smiled weakly back at her.
“Please, sit down.” Dash couldn’t even think of why she wouldn’t sit down and eat something; she didn’t care what she ate, since she didn’t get any food last night due to her unfortunate event. “Please enjoy, this may not be much but it is something nice to start the day.”
“Thanks, I will,” Dash thanked her and looked down at the food on her breakfast plate: a sandwich of some kind. The Pegasus thanked the unicorn once more before starting to eat the food.
“Dash, I was wondering…” Twilight started to say but trailed off as the Pegasus realised what she was going to say, she politely finished her mouthful before speaking,
“What happened last night?” she said,
“Do I have to talk about it?”
“Yes, I’m concerned for you Dash, you look really sad and I want to make sure you’re happy.”
“Fine.” Dash composed herself before continuing the conversation, “…She left me!”
“WAIT, WHAT?” Twilight was very surprised to hear that somepony ‘dumped’ Dash. She was completely unaware that the cyan Pegasus was in a relationship, not to mention with a mare! “You were going out with another mare?”
“Yes, Twilight, I was. Her name is Storm Fire…”
“Why didn’t you tell us, your friends? We wouldn’t have objected to the fact that you are a ‘filly-fooler’.”
“Really, you guys would have been ok with it?” a small smile spread across the cyan pegasus’ mouth.
“Yes, anyway, so what happened?” Twilight tried not to make eye contact with the other mare, “I was really worried when you were at the door last night…”
“I guess you should deserve to know… uh…” Dash seemed to be at a loss for words, “It started out so awesomely… she was SO AWESOME...”
A flip here, a loop there. Yep, everything seemed perfect, everything but that one move.
“Hey Rainbow Dash!” a voice sounded through the skies knocking Dash off guard and causing her to spin and hit a cloud. “What’s up?” The cyan Pegasus was surprised to see her up here.
“Nothing much, just trying out a new trick.”
“I noticed; looks like if you replace the third loop with a barrel roll then it would be easier to achieve a higher speed on the descent.”
“Erm, I guess you’re right, thanks!”
“Not a problem for a friend.” Storm said, with a tone she used quite often when she wanted to hint at something. ‘Oh sweet Celestia, why did I just say that like THAT? I hope Dash doesn’t think I’m hinting at anything. Now that would ruin my day.’ She thought. “Hey, anyway I was wondering if you would like to hang out sometime soon. I know you’re busy practising new tricks…” She was cut off by the cyan Pegasus speaking,
“Sure, what time?”
Storm was taken by a bit of surprise to hear her friend reply so fast, “Um, later today maybe, I got some stuff I need to do first though.”
“Sounds good, see you later then!” and with that the rainbow maned Pegasus flew off and continued to practise tricks.
‘What did she mean by hang out anyway, we do that all the time don’t we?’ Dash thought as she flew straight through a cloud leaving a trail of water droplets chasing her. She stopped and let the refreshing drops land onto her coat. ‘I can’t wait though. I don’t know why, I just have this feeling that it’s going to be a good day. And with her it’s going to be great!’ With that thought in her mind she decided to head back to her cloud home and prepare for the day out doing, whatever. How do you prepare for whatever anyway?
She flew through the clouds at a more casual pace than when she was practising, 'got to keep my energy up just in case something happens' she thought. It took a lot more time to reach her home going that speed. But when she did reach it she wondered why it looked slightly different, maybe it was just the sun reflection on her home. Normally she would be out practising at the time. She landed in front of the door and slowly opened it, she trotted inside and started to get ready…
As she turned the dial the warm water trickled out of the shower head, it quickly turned into more than a trickle. The water was refreshing on Dash’s coat and if made her mane fall in front of her face losing any form of strength it had. She stepped out of the shower and let the water run off her coat. She shook her head and water droplets flew from her head and all over the floor, she’ll clean it up later. She opened the cabinet and picked a brush, she then continued to brush her mane and tail.
When she was finished in the bathroom she went and sat down in the living room. She looked at the clock: 2:37. ‘I wander what time later meant for Storm? I can’t wait forever…’ she though. Just as she was about to get up and walk out of the door and go find her friend, she heard a knock at the door.
Storm decided that she would walk back to her house, it took much longer than Dash to hers’ but she was fine walking. When she eventually reached her house she stopped at the door and just looked at the front of the house. It was a last minute buy really. She got fed up of staying with her sister in Canterlot. She decided that it was time to move out of the city and move more to the country. What she did was a bit rebellious in most pony’s’ minds.
“Storm! I’m going out! Wonderbolt show and that kind of stuff to do! See you later sis!” Spitfire called down the hall as she opened the door to her apartment. She stretched her wings and gave them an experimental flap. She then took off and flew down to the Wonderbolt stadium. Storm was in her room when Spitfire left, listening to some of her sisters records,
“BORING!” she exclaimed to nopony in particular. “Uh, I’m so bored of living here, there’s nothing to do…” She said to herself. She would only talk to herself when she was incredibly bored…
Suddenly an idea hit her: move out. There was one problem with that though, money. She had none. ‘How am I going to get some money, I need to move out. I HATE living in Spitfire’s shadow, there’s no rewards for it. OOOOH I know, I wander if I can get her safe open… let’s try it.’ With that thought in her head she walked into her sister’s bedroom and opened the large cupboard at the end of the room. She sat down in front of the metal cube, the door didn’t seem that strong but she learnt that it was much stronger than it looked when she slammed her hoof into the door without leaving even a single dent. Storm was a very strong mare compared to all the other ones in Canterlot. She decided to take another look at the door and saw a keypad with buttons with numbers 1 to 9. She thought about what the code could be… ‘What about something she likes… she likes hay bacon but how do you put that into a 4 digit number? Ooooh it may be somepony she likes. Now who does she like?’ she sat there thinking for a few minutes before she hit a brain wave. ‘She spends a lot of time with Soarin’, maybe she likes him… let’s try that. Now how to put Soarin’ into a number… what about his house number, 47. But what about the other 2 numbers… how about this house number, or floor number.’ With that idea in her mind she moved closer to the safe’s door and pressed the numbers, 4713 into it. It beeped and clicked open.
She stared at the contents of the safe with a mouth wider than it has in all her life. Stacks upon stacks of bits, just sitting there, so easily stolen… she knew what she had to do in order to move out of her sister’s shadow. She reached out and grabbed a saddlebag sitting next to the cupboard with one hoof and dragged it to her, with the hoof she reached into the safe and grabbed a load of coins and shoved them into her saddlebag, she did that about 4 times before the bags started to become rather heavy. She put the saddlebags on her back and adjusted to the additional wait. She then walked over and opened the front door, quickly realising that the bags were too heavy for her to fly for any length of time she decided to head down the station and catch a ride to somewhere.
It took her about half an hour to reach the station. When she got there she went up to the ticket desk too purchase a ticket.
“Hello, where would you like to go?” the stallion behind the desk asked, he was a regular looking pony. Grey coat, blue mane, but Storm couldn’t see his cutie mark from where she was, and she wasn’t bothered.
“Um, anywhere away from here, far away preferably.” Storm replied in her usual voice.
“Ok, how about Ponyville, it’s a nice place to go if you want to get away from the city.”
“sounds great, whens the next train?” Storm handed a few bits over the counter and watched the stallion check them before putting them beside him.
“Just arriving now, have a nice trip” the pony said while handing a ticket to Storm who picked it up and walked over to the conveniently arriving train. She hopped onto the train and handed her ticket to the pony standing at the door, clearly after the ticket. She walked to the end of the train and sat down on the bench. Hopefully this won’t be too long a trip.
She was quite wrong, the trip lasted for hours, but she was glad that it finally ended. She got off the train at the nearest exit and walked onto the platform. She could smell nothing but fresh air, compared to the city she described the place as heaven and she only stepped onto the platform, she hasn’t even had a look around the town. She had a good look around the town and found a nice little cottage for sale. She ran up to the town hall to find the Mayor and ask if she could buy that house. When she found the Mayor she asked straight away saying she will introduce herself later, and that buying the house was an emergency. She was allowed to buy the house and she easily had enough bits for it. After the purchase she could feel that the saddlebags were much lighter now. She managed to fly to her new house and look at her new home…
When she opened the door it felt like a new place, like when she first bought the house. She closed the door and looked around the house and remembered how much she wanted to move here, and how happy she is here. She headed up stairs to take a quick shower and get ready for her time with Dash this afternoon. She stepped in the bathroom and closed the door behind her, she knew nopony else was in or coming into the house, she just wanted some privacy. When she came out she had something on her mind: Rainbow Dash. She was one of Dash’s friends but for her for some reason she didn’t feel like that was enough. She wanted to be something more than a friend. She didn’t know why, it was just in the back of her head and she wanted to act on it. She looked at the clock: 2:17. Time to go to Dash’s house.
It wouldn't normally take that long to get to Dash's house but Storm wanted to spend as much time as possible with her friend. She flew over to Sugarcube corner to grab some snacks. She opened the door and was hit by a wall of smell. A smell she wasn't at all familiar with, it was sweet and sugary nothing like in Canterlot.
A voice called from the counter in the end of the room. "Hello, what would you like today?"
Storm looked over at the pony and noticed Mrs Cake behind the counter. "Oh, just some snacks please." She said thinking of what she was planning, a nice fly then maybe relaxing in a field.
"Of course, how about some croissants?" The pony replied, clearly happy.
"That would be great thanks." The Pegasus handed over some bits and took the bag of croissants from the counter and bit the handle, she didn't think to bring any saddlebags. She waved goodbye and left the shop slightly nervous about her plan for the day, she was worrying about Dash's reaction.
After her little trip she headed down to Dash's cloud home. The weather was perfect for a fly; she would be there in a few minutes. When she got there she felt like she was late, but she knew she wasn't. It was just a door knock away from her plan being put into action. She knocked on the door and almost immediately the door opened to a smart looking Rainbow Dash.
Storm put the bag of snacks down in front of the door before speaking, "Hi, Dash. Are you ready?" Storm asked.
"Yeah, I was wondering when you would get here, I was just about to leave and find you. Anyway where exactly are we going today?" Dash asked, being as curious as ever.
"I thought we could go for a fly round town, then maybe relaxing in the north field?" Storm was hopeful that Dash would enjoy the day out.
"The fly sounds good, not sure about the relaxing..."
"Oh come on, you should at least try it." The only response Storm got was s shrug and a groan. "I brought snacks..." Storm said and immediately Dash's face went slightly annoyed to excited.
"Ooh, what you got then?"
"You'll have to wait and see."
"Alright, let's go!" Storm nodded and flapped her wings, and off they went.
Clouds bursted as two specks flew across the sky at blinding speed. Dash did her usual routine, the young flyer competition routine. Slalom, spins and a sonic rainboom. Storm, like always, was hovering and watching Dash impress het crowd. And, like always, feeling dazzled at how awesome her 'crush' is.
"Yet, again another great performance from the amazing Rainbow Dash!" Storm said in the best presenter voice she could muster. A chuckle could be heard from a nearby cloud as the cyan Pegasus was laying down motioning for Storm to come and at least sit down next to her. The fiery Pegasus flew over and landed on the other side of the cloud to her friend.
"Hehe, come on Storm, lay down. I don't bite." Dash said as she patted the cloud. "Please..." Storm turned around and looked at her friend. 'She wants me to lie down? Does she know how I feel? That would ruin the plan, not that it would matter that much... Unless she doesn't like me, oh please no! calm down, your just making yourself worried again.' She thought until she was roused from her thoughts by her friend speaking,
"Hey, Storm. Why are you staring at me?"
"Huh, oh, sorry I drifted off three for a second. Sorry." Storm strolled over to her friend and sat down.
"Why are you lying down?"
"You said to try relaxing, so I am."
"Oh, ok." Storm casually sat down next to the cyan Pegasus. Dash sighed as she felt her muscles relax, and gently leaned onto Storm
"Uh, Dash, what are you doing?" Storm asked on impulse, she wanted to be with her friend, but for some reason this felt wrong.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I er… don’t know. I hope I didn't scare you in anyway." She laughed at the last comment. She sighed. The wind made Dash’s ear twitch, she shook her head. ‘She actually looks kind of cute when she does that’ Storm though. She decided it was time to put the next phase of her plan into action. Little did she know that Dash was thinking the exact same thing?
“Uh, Dash. C-can I ask you something?” Storm asked with hesitation deep within her voice.
“Yeah? What’s up?” she replied, quite confused at the hesitation in her friend’s voice.
“I- Uh, just want to ask you something…” she found it hard to say the next part of her plan, so she changed it a little, a slightly more subtle and longer approach to her goal. “D-do you have someone you… ugh! What’s the word? Oh, do you have a crush?”
Dash was very shocked at that question. “Uh, no. why?” she was trying her best to keep her cool while lying like that, she just didn’t want Storm to know she has a crush on her. Not yet anyway.
“I was just wondering if you could help me, I have a crush… and it just gets me down some times…”
“Oh, to be perfectly honest, I do.” She gave up lying.
“You do? Do you think you could er, help me?”
“Maybe.”
They sat there in silence for quite some time, before Dash broke the silence.
“So, tell me about this crush”
“Oh, uhm… she’s…” Storm tried to say but alas, Dash couldn’t help but interrupt at that point.
“She!?” Dash interrupted, incredibly surprised.
“…Yes… it’s a mare... got a problem?”
“No, actually I think its fine. I mean, my crush is a mare too!”
“It is?”
“Yep!” They both went silent for a moment thinking very similar things: Her crush is a mare… that might mean… “Anyway, carry on with what you were saying Storm.”
“Oh, um… She really cool and awesome! I see her laying on clouds quite a lot, and she looks really cute when she naps on them.”
“This pony sounds familiar… do I know her?” Dash asked. Storm thought for a second… ‘Great! What have I done now… she’ll work it out soon. I… I guess that wouldn’t be so bad…’
“Yes”
Dash started to think, ‘This is starting to sound very much like that new Pegasus that moved in from Prance a few weeks ago…’ “What’s her name?”
Storm shifted uncomfortably in her seat on the cloud. “Do I have to tell you?”
“Yes if you want me to help you.” Dash said, trying to pry as much info of Storm as possible. Storm just sat there, thinking… ‘Maybe now might be the right time… but what if she doesn’t like it. Oh its worth I shot!’
It took Storm a minute or two to get the courage to perform her task, she looked at Dash and Dash looked back. ‘Perfect’ she thought. She leaned in and kissed her.