Chapter Two – The Great Q&A

The train was still on route towards Vanhoover as Pinkie Pie was about to play host to a fun new game: “Q&A with Rainbow Dash”. Rarity had ordered a refill on Rainbow’s water glass, and five more for herself and the rest of the gang. Pinkie then began to establish some basic ground rules.

“Okay, so here’s how this will work. Each of us will go around in turns, asking our friend Rainbow a question, only once per turn.” She emphasized the last part lyrically, then resumed. “And if you ask a follow up during somepony’s question, you lose a turn.”

“Just to be clear now: I don’t have to answer a question if I don’t wanna, right?” Rainbow inquired skeptically.

Pinkie Pie nodded frantically. “Of course you don’t! This is all about you being comfortable telling all of us, your best friends, all about the new you!”

Twilight simply couldn’t contain herself. “I’m actually excited to be doing this, Rainbow. It will be like getting to know you all over again.” The rest all hummed in agreement. The positive atmosphere had actually given Rainbow a sense of eagerness, perhaps by mere virtue of being the center of attention and fascination.

Pinkie Pie stood up on her seat, making a strange gesture with both fore hooves, as though she were holding two invisible, dangling objects, confusing everypony. “And the time starts…” she said, beginning to swing her left hoof to her right. “NOW! Applejack!”

Oh, she must have been dinging an imaginary bell. Applejack was about to start up her question, when Rainbow Dash burst in. “Wait! I think I should get the first turn,” She said, raising an eyebrow towards Rarity.

Pinkie Pie blinked for moment. “Oh, sure thing Rainbow, but do you have an answer to your own question?”

“No, but Rarity does,” Rainbow said, turning towards the unicorn, who apparently saw this coming. “This is a two part question: How and for how long did you know this?”

Applejack was curious about this as well, joining in, “Yeah, how did you know—”

Pinkie Pie jumped in before Rarity had a chance to answer. “That counted as a question!”

“Huh?!” Applejack was flabbergasted.

“Then after Rarity answers, Twilight’s next!” Pinkie cheered.

“Oh.” Applejack blushed. “I see.”

Rarity then posed herself proudly, feeling at the moment like the smartest pony in the train car. Rainbow wanted to hear everything: how Rarity could know without the slightest doubt the secret she had kept so guarded from all Equestria. “Well?” Rainbow urged the other for a response.

I feel I should take the last question first,” Rarity said, taking a hoof to her chin as she reached back into her memory. “I believe the first hint I caught was right before the parasprites invaded Ponyville, back at my boutique.” She spoke as though it was just a plain old observation.

“But that’s impossible!” Rainbow Dash insisted. “That was four years ago, and I only knew for the past TWO!”

Gasps filled the room, honing in on Rarity, as the excited host Pinkie bade, “Oh, do go on, Rare.”

Rarity giggled and then continued. “Yes, four years, but that’s not to say I was absolutely positive at the start. I just couldn’t help but notice, as I was putting on the finishing touches of your dress for Princess Celestia’s visit and—”

Rainbow then muttered under her breath. “Yeah, that.” It was not a happy memory (what a stupid headdress).

“Rainbow…” Rarity said, rather annoyed by the brief interruption, causing Dash to make a zipping motion across her lips. “Anyway, as I was finishing up your dress, I saw you eyeing through the window a Ms. Lemony Gems.”

Rainbow gaped. She couldn’t remember that: why would she? She didn’t know anypony by the name of ‘Lemony’, but she listened on.

“Curious, to say the least,” Rarity pointed out, “but again, I couldn’t be sure, so I brushed it off and continued on the dress. Twilight came in a moment later, if I remember right.”

Rainbow took a moment to recall as much as she could from that day. She was so bored. How did Rarity even talk her into dressing up for Princess Celestia’s visit? Then it hit her. She must have been so bored that her gaze turned idly towards the window, trapping her gaze on that pony, Lemony Gem. It was all coming back to her: her yellow coat, aqua mane, that pink saddle skirt. Dash focused harder on that memory, recalling how the frilly skirt drew Rainbow’s attention to her...

“Wow,” she said, softly, “I think I did look at her.”

Rarity resumed as quick as she could. “I didn’t make a thing out of it back then, until the others.”

Dash’s ears sprang up. Who else was she caught staring at? “Then there was Golden Glory, Strawberry Sunrise, Silver Spanner...” Rarity nodded to herself. “That’s when I began to keep a closer eye on you.”

Had Rarity simply been mistaken, or did Rainbow truly have such a clumsily wandering eye like that? Rarity continued. “Then there was Golden Harvest, Cherry Berry, Lily Valley…”

Dash cringed at this, feeling as the whole of her life had become an open book. In recognition, Rarity tried to console her, saying: “Now mind you, darling, this was over the course of years.” It didn’t help, as the list still went on. “Sea Swirl, Helia…”

Rarity cocked an eyebrow towards the ceiling, taking a hoof to her chin, thinking, and tapping the other in midair as though to snap her fingers repeatedly, had she the fingers to snap. “Oh yes, and Apple Cobbler!”

Rainbow Dash blushed at this, particularly at the mention of Apple Cobbler. She, in fact, was the last eye-candy Dash could recall, looking somewhat like Applejack, only much prettier. Wait. Applejack. Cobbler was Applejack’s cousin. Her head veered slowly to the left, only to see a stunned expression on the dolled up farm pony’s face. After forcing a chuckle, Rainbow asked,

“Can you blame a girl?” She looked away as her blush intensified. Awkward silence filled the car once more, but it left as quickly as it came, as a drawn out chuckle gradually crept out of Applejack’s throat. No judgement, her reaction told Rainbow, who by now was feeling more secure in her fleeting attractions, even as the others tried in vain to repress their own giggles.

When the mild laughter died down, Rarity concluded: “It had taken me a while to connect all these occurrences, even the little ones, before I drew my final conclusion,” she said, hinting that there were many more instances left unsaid. Yet again, silence filled the air. Even the running sounds of the train had muffled a bit, as everypony absorbed everything Rarity had said.

“Geez Rare,” Rainbow Dash said, “it’s like you know me better than I know myself.” This was answered by a solemn smile from the ever astute fashionista.

Seeing how Rainbow Dash’s question had been answered, Applejack began to raise her question, “So RD, I was wondering—”

“AJ! It’s Twilight’s turn, remember?” Pinkie interrupted. Applejack was puzzled a brief moment, before thinking back to her question alongside Rainbow’s to Rarity,

“Oh yeah. Right.”

Twilight then turned to Rarity, saying: “Well, first, let me just say how impressed I am with you, Rarity. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you have an eidetic memory.” Rarity blushed. “And the scientific observations you made and kept were simply brilliant!”

“TWILIGHT!” Pinkie moaned, eager for this game to continue.

“I’m getting there, Pinkie,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes, turning then to the friend in questioning. “So, Rainbow, you’ve known about this,” she shyly implied Rainbow’s sexuality, “for two years. How did you come to realize it?”

Rarity was also curious, but held her speech after seeing how strictly Pinkie was regulating the Q&A. Dash took a moment to formulate an answer, wanting to be as concise as Rarity had been in her answer. She took a deep breath.

“Well, I guess it happened around the time of tryouts for the aerial relay event of the Equestria Games.” She paused, catching a hint of Rarity’s accent in her own voice. She was trying too hard, so clearing her throat, Dash continued. “Anyway, Helia was there on the train with us, but I don’t think she had anything to do with it. It was when I was practicing with the Wonderbolts, uh…behind my team’s back.” Rainbow imparted an abashed look towards Fluttershy. Another memory which Dash wasn’t fond of having.

“I was passing the horseshoe baton to Fleetfoot. When she took it away I was like, ‘Awesome!’, and that’s when I was flanked by these two cheerleaders, cheering me on and, well,” Rainbow sought out the best words, but failed. “I don’t know. I felt ‘something’.”

Pinkie gasped at this. “Oh my goodness! Rainbow likes Spring Step, or Lilac Sky, or both!”

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, followed up by a glare from Rainbow Dash.

“It wasn’t like that, I just felt something. Maybe it was the thrill of the tryouts,” Rainbow said, with an uncertain expression. “Well, long story short, I went to bed that night, and began the next day wondering about myself.” About what specifically, Rainbow didn’t need to say.

Pinkie Pie, unable to contain herself, or withhold her thoughts, contributed to Rainbow’s answer: “…after a night of super sexy dreaming!”

“PINKIE!” Everypony else shouted in unison, topped by Rarity’s line. “Vulgar!”

It had suddenly hit Pinkie what she had just said, since she did not always think before speaking. It brought out a crimson blush through her pink coat.

“How embarrassing to be suspected of having such lewd dreams,” Twilight thought to herself. Considering the thought, she gave Rainbow a warm smile of understanding, and spoke up. “Not to say it’s wrong to have those kinds of dreams. I mean we all have them from time to—”

“Hey!” Rainbow interrupted, revealing no blush of her own, but rather, sheer annoyance. “I don’t remember what I dreamt the night before. Let me finish this story.”

Everypony straightened back up, Pinkie doing so with a sheepish grin. Dash sighed, thinking about where she had left off. “So anyway, the next day, I just thought ‘Am I…?’” She abstained from saying the next word. “But I couldn’t figure it out in one sitting.” Twilight nodded at this, steeling herself to hear about what happened the following two years.

“I started to mingle with a lot more ponies, both mares and colts, and saw how I felt with each one. It didn’t help, so I took to just watching other ponies. Eventually, it felt more like spying, which was not cool,” Rainbow added, scratching the back of her head contritely. Twilight cocked an eyebrow at what Dash had just expressed. Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, who had quite a notorious habit of spying, eavesdropping, pranking, sneaking up behind her friends to startle them out of their coats! Despite the sense of inconsistency, she urged her friend to tell more.

Rainbow let out a rough sigh. “The question just came and went, like—” She cast about for a metaphor. “Like the wind. You don’t know where it comes or where it’s going and not knowing just bugged me.”

Twilight understood well what she meant. Pegasi didn’t really have full dominion over the forces of nature, but were simply able to control and maintain them. Not knowing meant no control, which meant merely being cast about by the ‘wind’. Twilight had spent her whole life organizing, prioritizing, and planning out everything so as to not find herself in this situation. She read every book she could get her hooves on over the fear of not knowing something. Whenever it happened that Twilight couldn’t hold supremacy or some sense of omniscience, it drove her crazy. A flood of events came to her mind: Pinkie Sense, the future Twilight incident, the time she forgot to send Princess Celestia a report on friendship resulting in her enchanting her Smart Pants doll to create a friendship problem to resolve, and so much more. This wasn’t quite comparable to Rainbow Dash’s own problem she’d been grappling with, but Twilight sympathized all the same in those recollections.

In seeing her comprehend, Rainbow finished the statement.“Eventually, I had enough,” she said, waving her forehooves apart. “I just accepted and took it for what it was. The thoughts, the feelings, they were there, and that’s all there was to it.” She smiled with eyes shut, as though sharing a snapshot of the day she had made peace with herself.

It took only a second to realize that Rainbow was finished with her answer to Twilight when Pinkie Pie bounced. “My turn! My turn! My turn!” Dash’s eyes opened wide, fearing the absolute worse to come. This whole Q&A thing was Pinkie’s idea in the first place, and after experiencing her craze on the train so far, she braced herself. Pinkie was about to speak, but stopped, took a pondering hoof to her chin, and thought. Time seemed to stand still as she let out occasional giggles and snorts. It was the longest minute Rainbow had experienced, which ended with her barking out.

“Oh come on—”

“Have you ever kissed a mare?!” Pinkie Pie finally asked, soon after the complaint, fast as a flick of a switch. Dash rolled her eyes, answering neutrally,

“No, Pinkie, I’ve never kissed anypony before.”

“Never?” It was Applejack that raised the question again. Why was that so shocking? She flinched suddenly as Pinkie’s face shot forward and spoke.

“That counted as a question!”

“What?! Now wait just a cotton-picking minute!” This won the laughter of every other pony.

Fluttershy was still lost in residual giggles when she felt an elbow jabbing at her shoulder. “You’re up next, Flutters,” Pinkie Pie sang in a single note.

Had it been her turn already? Maybe she should pass. Could she? Would the rules of Pinkie’s game allow that? Did she even want to ask? Fluttershy had many such questions flowing in her mind as she tapped her hooves together, avoiding eye contact with anypony. Rarity hid her impatience as she addressed the hushed pegasus.

“Well? Go ahead, darling.”

Fluttershy opened her mouth, only to let out a high pitched short yelp. “Eeek! Um, maybe I shouldn’t,” she suggested.

“Come now, dear,” Rarity protested, “I’m sure it can’t be as outlandish as whatever Pinkie Pie would ask.” The aforementioned pony let out a dissenting “Hey!”. Rainbow, in the meantime had attempted to read Fluttershy’s mind, or at least her face, but she failed.

“Hey, Flutters,” Rainbow said, drawing Fluttershy’s attention, “you said I could tell you anything, right?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she nodded, to which Rainbow continued, “Then don’t be afraid me to ask anything.” At this, Fluttershy straightened herself up, cringing back a bit. Her blush grew like a burning ember that was just blown upon, and she asked:

“Well, it’s just that...” Hesitation caught her tongue for a moment, then at Pinkie Pie speed by the end. “You never looked at any of us like that, right?!”

The bluntness of the question caused everypony to gasp through their nostrils, in an attempt to avoid the audible open mouthed gasp. It was to no avail, as the five ponies’ rushed inhalation resembled the roll of a snare drum. Fluttershy’s eyes were locked onto Rainbow Dash’s, which blinked a few times.

“No,” she replied in neutral tone, shaking her head slowly. Her face began to scrunch up as she continued. “Sweet Celestia…”

Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion, unsure how she took to the question. The confusion ceased when Rainbow released a full on belly laugh, “BWAh-haha-ha-ha…” It dragged on to high squeaks. The others were speechless as they witnessed what seemed to be a more familiar Rainbow Dash, who by this point was rolling on the floor, laughing her flank off. Nopony else, safe for Pinkie, thought it was that funny; nevertheless, Rainbow’s infectious laugh was getting to Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy, who looked amongst themselves to see how each of them were holding up. Again, the train car had became a hotbed of hilarity.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Fluttershy followed up, working through her giggles. “I wouldn’t want anything getting awkward amongst us,” she added, shaking her head at her own silliness.

“Well now!” a disgruntled Applejack said, not taking well to Rainbow’s reaction. Twilight was still recovering from her merriment, prying open her right eye towards the only pony not laughing.

“Oh, come on, AJ, don’t be like that,” Twilight said. Like what, thought, suddenly occurring to Twilight? A possibility dawned on Twilight, and she resumed in a more curious tone. “AJ?”

“Now, don’t you be going there, Princess,” Applejack answered back, taking Twilight aback from being addressed so formally by a close friend.

Pinkie Pie intervened between giggles. “Yeah Twi, Applejack’s just all grumpy wumpy cause she keeps losing her turn.” It caused said pony to roll her eyes. “OR…she’s feeling all jealouscause Dashie likes her cousin Cobbler instead!”

“WHAT?!” Rainbow and Applejack blurted out together, with the latter’s voice seemingly lost. Dash outright denied Pinkie’s claim. “Oh no-no-no-no!”

Applejack, finding her ‘WHAT?!’ to be sufficient enough a denial towards Pinkie, fixed her glare on Rainbow Dash. “You know we both are practically twins, right?”

Rarity let out a rather vocal sigh. “Ehhh, sorry, dear, but your cousin’s coat is toffee, not orange, and her figure is more gracile—” Applejack blinked. “... Slightly more gracile,” Rarity amended. “Not to mention you two have quite different dispositions, which have a tendency to shine more than physical features.”

While Applejack considered these differences, Rainbow started to feel bad, as if somehow, she had made her friend feel less attractive. It was kind of too late to backpedal from this, so thinking quickly, Dash said:

“It’s okay, AJ.” She leaned her head on Applejack’s shoulder, getting her full attention. Then, switching to a hyper-feminine voice, she continued. “Even if I don’t feel the same way, we can always be friends.” She ended the tease with a huge grin and fluttering eyes. Applejack jumped back, almost sitting on Twilight.

“Whoa-ho there, silly filly! It ain’t like that, I swear!”

Not a second passed before laughter ensued again, causing Applejack to sigh. Rainbow elbowed the discouraged country pony, giving her an amused smile, bobbing her brows a couple of times. Applejack sent an annoyed glare back, but seeing her colorful friend wouldn’t blink, a smile began emerge, followed by a throaty chuckle.

It took a moment for the car to calm down, but laughter eventually was replaced by heavy breathing. Pinkie Pie announced:

“Next up, a pony who needs no special introduction! She’s the owner of TWO five star boutiques, giving her a TEN in my book! You know her, you love her, you can’t live without her—” Pinkie stopped herself a moment. “Well, you can live without her, but I wouldn’t want to. Who would? That’d be so super-duper sad.” She hanged her lower lip sadly, then resumed cheerfully. “Our one and only, not to mention fabulous,” she talked up, at some point producing a confetti explosion. “RARITY!”

The group turned to Rarity, who was seen vainly basking in Pinkie Pie’s flattery, taking the moment to fluff her mane. “Yes, thank you Pinkie,” she began, turning to Rainbow Dash. “There is one thing I do wonder. Are we the first?”

Rainbow blinked. The first what? Then it hit her.

“The first ponies I told? Yeah!”

Every mouth was agape, safe for Rainbow’s, which only gave a bashful grin. What were they all to make of this?

“Really?” Applejack asked. “We five here are the first?” Rainbow said nothing, but only returned a smug smirk. Realizing her repeated mistake, Applejack ground her teeth together and groaned. “Grrr, consarnit!”

“You really must be more careful, dear,” Rarity advised the aggravated farmmare. After snickering for a bit, Rainbow spoke up,

“It’s fine AJ, I’ll answer you anyway.” She gave her friend a wink.

“Don’t bother,” Applejack whispered, as her question was merely a rendition of Rarity’s, so she expected the same answer. Rainbow Dash, however, had a little more to say this time, and elaborated:

“I wanted you five to be the first because, well, you’re not just my friends. You are kinda my family.”

This had filled her friends with an odd mixture of both pride and humility. Even Applejack forgot how frustrated she was getting before.

What Rainbow Dash had just said may have moved Applejack more than any of her other friends, who reflected back to the day Flim and Flam almost manage to take away her farm and home in an ill-conceived gamble. The moment she recalled specifically was after Mare Mayor asked Applejack how she’d feel about her friends as “honorary family members,” joining in the cider competition. She remembered saying: “I think I'd love to have the rest of my family helping out,” and the five cheered.

“Oh shucks, RD, you old softy you,” Applejack sniffed, with watery eyes. She stopped herself as her lips began to quiver, and proceeded to give Rainbow the biggest hug she had ever given her. Meanwhile, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity just sat in endearment, taking a hoof to their hearts. They each knew what the other was feeling, and that was enough.

Rainbow, however, was beginning to feel something else entirely. “Owww! AJ, my wing!” She cried, causing Applejack to release her hold of her friend, and blush in embarrassment.

“Sorry, got a might carried away there, huh.”

After shaking off and flexing her pained wing, Rainbow smiled and nodded. Another silent moment passed, as everypony basked in the love they felt for one another. What happened next, nopony would remember, but another wave of laughter, seemingly from nowhere, filled the car yet again.

Rainbow Dash could only think: Friendship really is magic.

Author's Note

[Definitely add more q&a, as more time is needed to reach Vanhoover]

PS
If there are any issues, such as accidental plagiarism, or anything of the like, let me know and I will try to correct it.