Who Knew She Could Even Do That?
Rainbow Dash was awakened by a pinecone hitting her right on the snoot.
"Hey!" she yelled. She looked around, but nopony else was on the little cloud where she'd been napping. She rolled onto her feet and walked to the edge of the cloud.
On the ground below, Lyra and Bon Bon were looking up at her. "Sorry!" Bon Bon said. "But we're running out of time!"
Rainbow leaped off the cloud and dived. "Time for what? Do you need to win a race? To beat up a changeling invasion? Or just some general awesomeness?"
Rainbow flared her wings just before reaching the ground, landing smoothly next to the other two ponies.
"You know," Lyra said, "Hearts and Hooves Day is coming up."
"So it is," Rainbow agreed. "Have you two found your special someponies yet?"
The musician and the confectioner smiled at each other. They blushed.
"Looks like a yes," Rainbow said. "Okay, I think I'm done here." Rainbow spread her wings to take flight.
"Wait!" Lyra said. "We have this idea..." Her blush deepened.
"If you interrupt my nap, you gotta at least tell me what you want. Or I'm gonna nap on a higher cloud that you can't hit." Rainbow's wings twitched.
"I'LL tell her!" Bon Bon said. "Rainbow, you know that everypony is an individual, and every pony is different. Especially...some ponies."
Rainbow nodded.
"Some ponies are ashamed of being different. But we want to help ponies that are different feel good about themselves. We're planning something for right before Hearts and Hooves Day. Would you come give a pep talk?"
"No problem!" Rainbow said cockily. "I'd be happy to do it. Tell me the deets. You know, where and when, anything else I need to know."
***
The next day, a crowd of ponies had gathered around the raised porch of Town Hall. Rainbow Dash walked out of the building and faced everypony.
"I think you all know who I am," Rainbow said.
Ponies shouted, "Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow stood on her hind legs for a moment to clasp her front hooves beside her head, then returned to a normal stance. "That's me! And I've been asked to give you a motivational talk."
Rainbow looked out at the crowd. "There sure are a lot of you here today. Hundreds of you. All here to listen to me. I've given pep talks before. But that was to one or two ponies at a time. And now I get to talk to all of you at once!" Rainbow laughed nervously.
She rubbed her head with one hoof. "Twilight would love this! She'd think doing a few hundred ponies at once is more efficient."
Some ponies in the crowd started murmuring.
"Anyway!" Rainbow Dash said, "Everypony is different! And that's part of what makes us special! Everypony is awesome in their own ways! Twilight is super smart and likes to read all the time, Applejack is...very hardworking, and honest. Fluttershy is very...she's very good at loving animals. I've never seen anypony make an animal so happy."
At the back of the crowd, Twilight whispered, "This is a problem! I think Rainbow Dash has stage fright!"
Applejack rolled her eyes in disbelief.
Fluttershy said, "I've never seen Rainbow Dash give a speech to a crowd of ponies before. She's just good at wowing ponies with sports and stunts."
Twilight whispered, "What about school? Oral reports? In front of the whole class?"
Fluttershy said in her usual very quiet voice, "Rainbow used to skip school a lot. I guess she missed all the oral report days? I think maybe they just let her pass because the cloudball team didn't want to lose her."
Rainbow Dash was rubbing her face with both forehooves. "Like I was saying! Rarity is very good at fashion and clothes and makeup, if you like that kind of thing. And Pinkie...throws great parties! She's catering the party today. Yes, everypony is special and awesome in their own way!"
Rainbow looked out at her confused audience, and struggled for more words. "Hurray for everypony?"
Ponies started asking questions.
"Why did she only talk about her own friends? Doesn't she think anypony else matters?"
"Does this mean ALL those ponies she talked about are marecozies?"
"What exactly did she say Fluttershy gets up to with all those animals? I can't figure out how a pony and a bunny would even work! And isn't Angel a boy? THAT doesn't make sense!"
"Rainbow! Are all your friends lesbians? Even Spike?"
"I always thought maybe Twilight was trans. Because...you know. She's so polite and prim and girlish, it can't just be natural."
"I thought every alicorn had...you know. A full set of everything."
"How do the Elements of Harmony REALLY work?"
"Is Rarity looking for a girlfriend?"
Twilight grabbed Fluttershy and Applejack, and started trying to press through the crowd towards the front.
Bon Bon, holding forehooves with Lyra, dragged her friend onto the porch with her. "Rainbow Dash?" Bon Bon whispered, "Aren't you going to talk about pride?"
Rainbow half-whispered to Bon Bon, "That's all I did talk about! I just didn't talk about it very well. I don't know how to talk to crowds. I only know how to be so awesome WITHOUT talking, that nopony makes me SAY anything."
Lyra said, "I just thought, you're so brave, you could do anything."
Rainbow Dash said, unthinkingly letting her volume grow to a normal level, "There's a lot of stuff I can't do. It's really hard for me to do well on written tests. Oral exams...don't get me started. And all those things I said those other ponies are good at? I'm not very good at any of those. When I said everypony is special because we're all different, I meant it."
Bon Bon remarked, "I thought you were going to at least mention lesbian and gay stuff. Aren't you an expert on that?"
"What?" Rainbow exclaimed. Ponies below the porch were starting to eavesdrop. As the porch conversation grew louder, many ponies hardly had any other choice.
Lyra said, "I mean, look at you! You're really good at sports. I've never met anypony better at tennis."
"Tennis isn't lesbian!" Rainbow said. "It just...CAN be lesbian. It doesn't have to be."
"And I thought I saw you and Rain Prancer on a date last year."
"I didn't KNOW it was a date! Not until the end when she grabbed me and kissed me. I guess she's a good kisser if you're into cute mares? But let's not change the subject."
Lyra giggled. "So you've been on ONE date with a mare in your whole life, and you know hardly anything about lesbians or gays or any of that."
"Maybe not just ONE date," Rainbow said. "If you count EVERY date I went on by mistake. And everypony knows summer camp doesn't count."
"But why did you agree to come give this speech when you don't like to give speeches and you don't know anything about what you were supposed to talk about?"
"Hey, I know plenty about pride and why ponies should feel good about themselves! I just didn't know you wanted me to talk to a hundred jillion ponies all at once! And I didn't know it had anything to do with gay and lesbian stuff!"
Bon Bon said incredulously, "But didn't you see me and Lyra holding hooves and blushing at each other?"
"Just because you and Lyra are marefriends doesn't mean your entire lives have to be about lesbian stuff! Sure, you two are lesbians. But you can do anything you want, it doesn't have to be only special gay stuff. You can make delicious candy, or play beautiful music, or protect Equestria from--oops, nopony's supposed to know about that. Anyway, a pony can be lesbian and also do anything else, and be really good at it. And you should be proud of it!
"And I believe you two are really good at being special someponies to each other, even if sometimes it might take some hard work. And you should be proud of that too."
Bon Bon grinned. "Hey, Rainbow, look who's listening." She pointed outward.
Rainbow saw the entire crowd of ponies, paying attention to every word of the conversation. "Eeep," Rainbow said. "So, uh, I hope that's motivational. Please work hard at anything and everything good that makes you feel proud. And being a good marefriend or stallionbuddy is part of that. You should feel proud of that too. If you don't have a special somepony, you should feel proud of, um, looking for one, or not looking for one, and being supportive of other ponies whether they're looking for one or not. And if you feel you're not good enough, everypony has to start somewhere. And don't let anypony make you feel ashamed for trying!"
Ponies started stomping their hooves in applause.
"I just want to tell you all," Rainbow Dash said, "I had no idea I was supposed to give a pep talk to more than one pony today. I've never been any good at talking to a crowd. And I'm still pretty bad at it. So that's all I have to say today, except shame on you for tricking me, Bon Bon and Lyra, even if you didn't mean to."
Bon Bon said, "I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash. I really didn't mean to trick you. Thank you, Rainbow, for not being too afraid to try and give us all a speech today even if so many ponies was the last thing you expected. You should be proud too, Rainbow."
Ponies stomped more applause.
Twilight climbed up the steps and whispered into Dash's ear for a minute.
"One more thing," Rainbow said. "I didn't mean to make you think all my friends are lesbians. I'm just really bad at speeches, is all. If you want to find out whether my friends are lesbians or straight or trans or baby dragons or whatever, you'll have to ask them yourself. Nicely."
Somepony below the porch shouted, "Twilight? Is it true alicorns got it ALL goin' on?"
Twilight whispered into Rainbow's ear again.
Rainbow said, "Except about Fluttershy. I can tell you that Fluttershy and Angel are NOT dating. I did NOT mean to make you confused about animals. Sorry about that."
"Aaawww!" somepony said. "I just lost ten bits."
Bon Bon said, "Thank you all for coming to our first annual Hearts and Hooves Warmup Day. Everypony has something to be proud of, and we're only getting started."
***
Later that day, Twilight Sparkle and the other Main 6 sat around one of many tables in the outdoor party area. Twilight sighed happily. "This is one of the best parties you've ever thrown, Pinkie."
"I know!" Pinkie said. "Because every time you get to throw a party to celebrate a brand new holiday, that's like the best party ever! Nopony has ever thrown a better party for that holiday before! And you're practicing to make all the parties that come afterwards better than they would be otherwise if you hadn't practiced!"
"Speaking of practice," Twilight said to Rainbow Dash, "how do you feel now that you've practiced giving a talk to more than one pony at a time?"
"I guess it's a start," Rainbow admitted. "I don't know if I'll ever feel really comfortable with it."
Pinkie said, "Dashie, you seemed to be doing better at speechifying at the end, than at the start. Ponies could understand what you were talking about, and I think everypony felt inspired. So I think practicing with just one speech of practice has already helped you some!"
Rainbow rubbed her head with a foreleg. "Maybe," she said. "Or maybe I was just a little better when I was warmed up. But for the second part I didn't even know ponies were listening until the very end. That hardly even counts."
Fluttershy remarked, "It was very kind of you to give a speech to everypony, when you hadn't even known you were supposed to and you were scared half to death."
"You could tell, huh?" Rainbow asked.
"I know what stage fright is like," Fluttershy said, "and I've known you for a long time. I remember how you used to always skip school whenever you were supposed to give a report in front of the whole class. I think you've gotten braver."
Rainbow chuckled awkwardly. "You really think so, huh?"
Twilight said, "I think having practiced facing your fears today will help you someday when you're trying out for the Wonderbolts."
Rainbow guffawed. "You don't need to worry, I am pretty much best at sports. I'll just do a sonic rainboom and they'll have to let me in."
"The sonic rainboom is good," Twilight agreed, "but there's also a written exam, in front of a proctor."
"Awww, I'll worry about that when I come to it."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
As usual, I'm curious about your reactions, thoughts, and feelings about this story.
