Love Potion Number 9

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity were at the Ponyville Café. That day, the girls had agreed to have breakfast together, so the three of them were still waiting for Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to arrive.

“So Dusk is still in the hospital?” Applejack asked her friends, making some conversation while they waited for the others.

“Yes, we went to visit him yesterday and he said he would be discharged tomorrow.” Fluttershy replied.

“It's been a while since we had breakfast alone, the five of us, and those two don't even deign to come home early for once.” Rarity said, a little irritated from waiting so long for her friends.

“Yeah, they’ve been taking longer than usual,” Applejack said with a thoughtful look, glancing up at the sky. “And I don’t think it’s because Rainbow is working. Look at the sky! It’s not even completely clear.” Applejack added, noticing a lone dark cloud in the sky.

“I guess the weather team has been a little lazy.” Rarity replied thoughtfully. “Or maybe Rainbow Dash has been very distracted, and that's why she's late today too.”

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked in confusion. A question that Rarity only answered with a disappointed grimace, looking at Fluttershy for an answer.

“When we visited Dusk yesterday, he told us that his marefriend would now be Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy replied, also with a bit of disappointment in her gaze.

“Wow…” Applejack said in surprise. “I suspected they might get closer by being hospitalized together, but I didn’t think they’d become a couple already… At least Rainbow Dash didn't show it that way.”

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked confused.

“It's just that yesterday Rainbow Dash flew near the farm, but she didn't look cheerful at all.” Applejack replied thoughtfully. “You'd think with how much Rainbow Dash likes to stand out, she would be with her chest puffed out with pride for having become Dusk's new marefriend, but yesterday... she had a sad face, as if instead of proud she was depressed or something." Applejack added, scratching her head in confusion.

“Depressed, huh? That's unfair. I'm the one who should be depressed.” Rarity said, letting out a big sigh and putting on a sad face. “I'm happy for Rainbow Dash, really, but I was really hoping to be next. After all, after being the first, being the third marefriend was the second best option.” Rarity added, looking sadly at the table.

Both Applejack and Fluttershy looked at each other confused, not understanding Rarity 's comment, so the unicorn looked up and looked at them annoyed.

“Are you serious? Am I the only one who calculated the important dates on the calendar to be Dusk’s marefriend?” Rarity said, blushing slightly in embarrassment. “The first marefriend could go to the Canterlot wedding with Dusk, and the third marefriend-”

“Oh! Hearts and Hooves Day!” Fluttershy said in surprise.

“Exactly! Tomorrow is Hearts and Hooves Day, the most romantic day of the year for couples.” Rarity said seriously. Then she looked away and put on a sad look. “I… would have liked to spend this day with my special stallion…” Rarity added in a low voice. A comment that made Fluttershy and Applejack look away sadly as well, since they both thought the same thing.

“Uh… I hope it’s not too hard for Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy said after a long silence. “Seeing all those couples in love after breaking up with Dusk so recently, it might be hard for her.”

“She will not only see other couples in love, but she’ll see her ex-coltfriend in romantic mode with another mare.” Applejack added, lightly pressing her seat with her hooves. The truth was that she herself had gotten over Dusk being with another of her friends, like Pinkie was, but she knew how hard it was at first to see her ex-coltfriend kissing another mare.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t worry.” Rarity added, shrugging. “Dusk said he’d already talked to Pinkie and that she’d taken it very well.”

“Speaking of them…” Applejack said, who just happened to see the two mares they were talking about approaching.

At one end of the path to the Café, Pinkie Pie was coming, curiously walking instead of doing her usual little hops. On the other side, Rainbow Dash's rainbow trail could be seen from the sky, who landed in front of her friends just as Pinkie Pie also arrived. When Rainbow Dash landed, she looked at Pinkie Pie in surprise, who also looked at her with great shock.

“Don’t talk to me! I don’t even want to see you right now!” Pinkie Pie said annoyed, turning her head away from Rainbow Dash.

“Come on Pinkie! I didn’t mean to. I… I’m really sorry.” Rainbow said worried, approaching Pinkie so she could look at her. “Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Well, you did! You hurt me like no one has ever hurt me before.” Pinkie Pie said with her eyes closed, wiping away a tear.

While Rainbow Dash continued to beg for Pinkie's forgiveness, her other three friends stared in shock at the scene. For a moment, they thought it was all a joke orchestrated by the two, who loved pranks. But Pinkie Pie's tears were real, she was definitely upset and hurt by Rainbow Dash. This was more serious than they had imagined.

“I'm your friend, I trusted you blindly and you…” Pinkie Pie said, turning around and looking sadly and angry at Rainbow Dash.

“Pinkie, I’m sorry. What I feel… is something I can’t help.” Rainbow Dash said, also on the verge of tears seeing how she had hurt her friend.

“Girls, calm down.” Applejack said, getting up from her seat to try and calm her friends down.

“Maybe the problem is that you haven’t tasted it properly. You shouldn’t just open your mouth and swallow it, you should taste it!” Pinkie Pie said seriously.

“I… I’ve tried, but the taste… the smell…” Rainbow Dash replied with an uncomfortable look. “It feels so strange in my mouth…”

“W-WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?” Rarity suddenly shouted, red in embarrassment. While Fluttershy also covered her ears in embarrassment. “Just because you’re his marefriends doesn’t mean I’m going to let you do perverted things with my dear Dusk!”

“Huh? What does Dusk have to do with this?” Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie asked at the same time, confused. Leaving Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack very confused.

“W-Weren’t you fighting over Dusk?” Applejack asked, who had also blushed a little. Focusing her sight on Pinkie Pie. “We thought you were arguing because now Rainbow Dash is Dusk's marefriend.”

“What? Don’t be silly. I would never be mad at Rainbow Dash because she's paired with the stallion she loves, even though he's the same stallion I love." Pinkie Pie said with a shrug. She then turned around and looked at Rainbow Dash again, very annoyed. “I'm mad at Rainbow Dash for something much more serious! Perhaps the worst crime there can be in the world!”

Pinkie Pie's friends continued to look at her with completely confused looks, so they turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who finally sighed in resignation and told them what happened…

'Rainbow Dash flashback.'

The day before, Rainbow Dash got up from his bed and immediately groaned as she felt discomfort in her wing. It seemed that not following the doctor's instructions not to work after the accident had taken its toll on her, and the pirouette of happiness she did at night after becoming Dusk's marefriend helped even less to fully recover her wing. So even though it had been three days since she had left the hospital, her right wing was still not one hundred percent.

When Rainbow Dash wakes up saw that her Wonderbolts poster had fallen off the wall, causing her to groan even more. Then, as she went to the bathroom, she saw that the pipe connecting to the water cloud was clogged for some reason, and as she looked through the faucet, all the water burst into her face, leaving her all wet, causing her to groan even louder. Finally, as she opened the door to her house to start a new day, her face was suddenly greeted by her pet Tank, who had just been flying with its magic propeller and had crashed into the door just as Rainbow Dash walked in and opened it.

“Grrr! Are you serious!?” Rainbow Dash growled sulked. Looking up at the sky, she glared at a lonely, dark cloud in the sky near her house. “You hateful cloud! Get away from me!” Rainbow Dash shouted angrily.

The blue pegasus didn't know why, but that cloud gave her a bad feeling. She had tried to break it, but she only passed through it without doing anything. Sometimes, those kinds of clouds appeared in the village, which were difficult to move, and for those cases, it would have been necessary to just call the entire weather team, or make it disappear with a sonic rainboom. But being one of the leaders of the weather team, she was embarrassed to ask for help to get rid of just one cloud, and the option of a sonic rainboom was ruled out, so as not to demand more from her recovering wing. So Rainbow Dash had no choice but to continue living with that annoying cloud.

“Isn’t it bigger than yesterday?” Rainbow Dash thought, growling in a bad mood.

“Hey! Rainbow Dash!” A familiar voice shouted from below. Looking down at the ground, Rainbow Dash saw that Pinkie Pie was under her house, waving happily at her.

Quickly Rainbow Dash flew down and landed in front of her friend.

“Hey Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked, forgetting her bad mood and smiling at the sight of her friend there.

“Well, since you’re now officially Dusk’s marefriend, I thought I’d bring you this.” Pinkie Pie said with a huge smile. Showing her friend a large, freshly baked pie, shaped like a heart. “I know how much you love my pies, so I made you a pie to celebrate your first day as a couple with Dusk!”

“Ohh … So nice… A pie…” Rainbow Dash said with a fake smile.

“Great! This day just keeps getting better and better…” Rainbow Dash thought frustrated.

That was Rainbow Dash's best kept secret, one she had kept hidden from all her friends for years, especially Pinkie Pie... She hated pies!

“Thanks Pinkie! Your pies are always the best.” Rainbow Dash said smiled, taking the pie Pinkie Pie offered her. Something that made Pinkie Pie smile with happiness. “Huh!? What is that!?” Rainbow Dash suddenly added, pointing to the sky, behind Pinkie Pie.

As soon as Pinkie Pie turned around, Rainbow Dash did what she always did when Pinkie Pie gave her a pie. After distracting her, Rainbow Dash quickly threw the pie somewhere out of Pinkie Pie's sight, which in this case, was straight towards that dark cloud in the sky.

“At least that silly cloud is there to hide the pie.” Rainbow Dash thought after threw the pie and pretended like nothing had happened before Pinkie Pie turned around again. “I'll find it later and give it to someone like always.”

After Rainbow Dash's quick reaction, Pinkie Pie turned around to look at Rainbow Dash, shocked to see that the pie was gone, and that Rainbow Dash had her mouth full and was running her tongue over her lips.

“Wow, Pinkie Pie. That pie was extra delicious. I really appreciate it!” Rainbow Dash said, pretending her mouth was full.

“Wiii! I knew you would like it!” Pinkie Pie smiled excitedly. Causing Rainbow Dash to smile as well. She knew it was a little cruel to lie to Pinkie, but she just couldn't tell her that she hated her famous pies.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash stopped smiling when the pie she threw crashed straight into her head.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash said shocked. Touching her head and seeing that her mane was full of pieces of pie.

“I'm sure I threw the pie at the cloud… There's no way it fell back on my head!” Rainbow Dash thought confused.

“That… That’s the pie you said you ate?” Pinkie Pie said in surprise, frowning sadly as she slowly realized what that meant. “You… Were you pretending to eat it? Why would you do something like that?”

'Hehehe…'

For a second, Rainbow Dash was distracted as she swore she heard mocking laughter coming from the sky, but when she looked up, there was nothing.

“What was that laugh?” Rainbow Dash asked confused.

“If someone was laughing, I WOULD know it. And trust me, no one is laughing.” Pinkie Pie said seriously. Her expression was a mix of anger and sadness. “I put so much effort into baking that pie for you… Why did you throw it into the sky?” Pinkie Pie asked, dismayed.

“Uh… I…” Rainbow Dash stuttered, cursing her bad luck. Thinking that it couldn't get any worse.

“Oh! Hi Rainbow Dash!” A female voice suddenly said not far from where Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were.

Turning around, both mares saw that the pony greeting them was Cheerilee, who was apparently on a field trip with the school foals.

“Rainbow Dash! What happened to you?” Scootaloo asked, surprised to see her idol with her head covered in pie.

“Isn’t it a little early for ‘Pie Day’?” Cheerilee asked worriedly.

“Pie Day?” Pinkie Pie asked confused.

“Oh, yes. In exactly two months it’s 'Pie Day' at school.” Cheerilee smiled kindly. “I named it that since it has become a tradition. That day, Rainbow Dash always brings us a pie as a gift to school.”

At Cheerilee's response, Pinkie Pie turned pale, finally discovering the truth. As pale as Rainbow Dash, seeing that Pinkie had finally discovered her big secret.

“In… In two months it’s your birthday. You… You give away all the birthday pies I’ve given you!?” Pinkie Pie screamed on the verge of tears. Seeing that for years, all of her gifts had been thrown away by her friend. “You don’t like my pies?”

“N-No… Of course I love your pies.” Rainbow Dash said with a nervous smile. Wanting in vain to hold fast to her lie.

It was in that desperate attempt that Rainbow Dash took a bit of the pie that was on her head and put it in her mouth to show Pinkie that she did like her pies. To Rainbow Dash had never liked pies, none at all! But she still made the effort to taste it and try to swallow it. However, without realizing it, she had also swallowed a hair from her mane, so Rainbow Dash choked on it and tried to spit it out, making it seem like just tasting the pie was making her vomit.

Seeing that gesture of repulsion towards the pie she had made with so much love, Pinkie Pie turned around and ran away crying. Hating that her friend had lied to her for so many years, feeling betrayed. All while Rainbow Dash was still struggling to get the hair out of her mouth, capping off a horrible, horrible morning.

'End of flashback.'

“Pinkie, I’m really sorry.” Rainbow Dash said after told her story to her friends, looking at Pinkie Pie with a pleading look. “I know I lied to you, but I did it because I liked seeing you happy. When you gave me a pie, you smiled and jumped for joy. And I… I didn’t want to ruin your happiness.”

At Rainbow Dash's words, Pinkie Pie opened her eyes in surprise and then looked away, still with a sad look, but at the same time, more receptive.

“I… I was happy because I thought they made you happy.” Pinkie said sadly. “That’s what hurts me, knowing it was all a lie.”

“Of course I was happy to receive your pies.” Rainbow Dash said with a kind smile. “But what made me happy wasn’t the pie itself, but seeing you happy.”

Pinkie Pie was silent again, her gaze filled with emotion as she saw that despite how betrayed she felt, she couldn't get angry with her dear friend, since they had only been seeking each other's happiness.

“So… you don't like anything I bake?” Pinkie Pie asked shyly.

“Of course not, I love your cakes! And all the other desserts you make, it’s just the pies that I can’t stand to eat.” Rainbow Dash replied with an embarrassed smile. “It doesn’t matter if they are from Sugarcube Corner or any other pony bakery, I just don't like any kind of pie.” Rainbow Dash added. A comment that made Pinkie Pie's fur stand up, as if glass had broken next to her.

“That’s even worse!” Pinkie Pie said in alarm. “There are so many types of pies… There’s no way you wouldn’t like any of them! I must remedy this!” Pinkie Pie added, running away back to Sugarcube. Corner.

“Huh!? Wait, Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash shouted in vain, as her unpredictable friend had already left with her always characteristic hyperspeed of madness.

"Seriously, Pinkie got upset because you don't like pie, and not because YOU are now Dusk's marefriend?" Applejack asked incredulously. The same incredulous look that Rarity and Fluttershy had, and that they had maintained throughout the entire argument between their two friends.

“I know. Pinkie Pie is special.” Rainbow Dash said embarrassedly scratched her head. “That’s why I was so worried about hurting her. Huff… It all worked for years, pretending to eat the pies and then giving them away without her realizing it… Everything was perfect until that damn cloud of bad luck appeared!” Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted, pointing at a large dark cloud in the sky.

Rainbow Dash's friends looked up to see where the blue pegasus was pointing and then looked at each other in confusion.

“Bad luck cloud? Is that even a thing?” Rarity asked, looking at Fluttershy. Thinking it might be some pegasus slang she didn’t know.

“Not that I know of.” Fluttershy replied, shrugging.

“Of course they exist! At least I think so…” Rainbow Dash said, first with determination and then with an uncertain look. “B-But it’s the only explanation for the streak of bad luck I’ve had since I became Dusk’s marefriend!”

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked, raising a confused eyebrow.

“Well, nothing has gone right since I became Dusk's marefriend.” Rainbow Dash said with a depressed look. “It’s been days and I haven’t been able to visit him in the hospital because they banned me from visiting hours for sneaking in without permission the last time. And I feel like every day that passes something bad happens to me, like Pinkie finding out I don’t like pies. Every day something bad happens to me.”

“It’s not just your imagination?” Fluttershy said worriedly.

“No! I'm sure something is giving me bad luck, and it must be that suspicious cloud that won't go away. But today things will change!” Rainbow Dash said, looking up and defiantly staring at that annoying dark cloud. “I’ll go to the hospital first thing tomorrow morning to wait for Dusk when he’s discharged. And then everything will get better and my streak of bad luck will end!”

“Hey girls!” Dusk suddenly said from a distance, trotting towards his friends.

“Dusk!” All the girls said very excitedly. All except Rainbow Dash, whose mouth dropped open in disappointment as her plan to greet her coltfriend when he got out of the hospital had been ruined.

“W-What are you doing here!? You were supposed to leave the hospital tomorrow! I was going to wait for you!!” Rainbow Dash said, looking at Dusk with some desperation.

“Well, my shoulder recovered faster than expected, and before Dr. Horse started doing more tests, the nurse decided to discharge me a day early.” Dusk replied, smiling.

Taking advantage of the fact that all his friends were gathered, except for Pinkie Pie, Dusk took the opportunity to sit next to them to have breakfast together. When looking for a seat, Dusk deliberately looked for the chair next to Rainbow Dash and sat down next to her. Which served to bring the blue pegasus out of her daze and disappointment, and into surprise. For a second, Rainbow Dash was shocked forgot that she was now Dusk's marefriend, since they hadn't seen each other since that night at the hospital when she agreed to be his marefriend. For the same reason, Rainbow Dash realized that she had to start acting like one.

While Dusk looked at the menu to see what to order, Rainbow Dash subtly tried to get a little closer to Dusk. Swinging and pushing her chair with little jumps to get closer to Dusk's side.

“Why am I being so shy? Pinkie Pie had no problem approaching and hugging Dusk at all times. She even kissed him when she thought we weren’t looking…” Rainbow Dash thought, annoyed with herself. It was then that she remembered her last encounter with Dusk and that failed kiss, when, because she was so nervous, she ended up rejecting Dusk and hitting him on his injured shoulder. “I must fix my mistake. I can’t screw it up again…”

When finally Rainbow Dash managed to get closer to Dusk, the pegasus smiled when she saw that Dusk was still reading the menu and had not noticed her movement. However, her smile quickly disappeared when she felt watched, and not by who she expected. Indeed, Dusk had not noticed Rainbow Dash's movement, but those who had noticed, watching her throughout the whole process, were her three friends, who stared at her with tender smiles. Amused to see how tender Rainbow Dash acted, trying to hide her desire to get closer to the stallion she loved.

“No… Don’t look at me like that!” Rainbow Dash thought, blushing and looking away in annoyance.

It was already difficult for Rainbow Dash to accept that she had a romantic side and was able to express it in front of Dusk. But having her friends and other ponies in front of her, she found it extremely embarrassing to be seen as a silly mare in love, losing, according to her, her aura of coolness that characterized her.

At that moment, Dusk put down the Café menu and noticed that all his friends were smiling tenderly and staring at his side. Then, when he turned around, he saw that, without realizing it, Rainbow Dash had moved closer to his side and was now looking away, blushing heavily.

“When did she approach? Is she trying to flirt?” Dusk thought a little surprised. Then, he also put on a tender smile.

Dusk had already understood that being Rainbow Dash's coltfriend would be different than with his previous marefriends, now he would have to be the one to take the initiative in the relationship. For the same reason, Dusk turned completely, to face Rainbow Dash gently placed his hoof on her cheek, to move Rainbow Dash's head and look at her. In doing so, Rainbow Dash stared at Dusk… This was the moment! Here and now she could correct the mistake of avoiding Dusk's kiss from last night.

Both Dusk and Rainbow Dash stared at each other, both blushing, but Rainbow Dash felt her face getting redder by the second, almost ready to explode. Her eyes tried to stay fixed on Dusk's face, but unconsciously her gaze glanced to her left, towards where her friends were, staring at her. Rainbow Dash's heart began to beat faster as a growing conflict grew inside her… She wanted to kiss Dusk, right there if necessary! But at the same time, she was dying of shame to do it in front of someone else. There had been countless times that Rainbow Dash had denied being in love and had even scoffed at the romance books and the extremely affectionate couples that sometimes strolled through town, and now… She was one of those silly couples in love!

'Hehehe…'

Suddenly Rainbow Dash thought she heard a mocking giggle from the sky, which made the entire romantic atmosphere shatter in an instant and she recoiled her body in fear. As she backed away, Rainbow Dash just hit one of the Café waiters who was carrying a coffee to another table, causing him to drop the coffee on Dusk.

“Ouch!” Dusk screamed in pain, jumping out of his seat as hot coffee fell on his body.

“I’m sorry!” The waiter said, frightened, at the same time as Rainbow Dash, who had also jumped out of her seat, putting on a look of panic at the sight she had caused.

“D-Don’t worry, it wasn’t hot enough to burn me badly.” Dusk said with a nervous smile. To both the waiter and his marefriend. “I’ll go to the bathroom for a moment to clean up.” Dusk added, heading towards the Café’s bathroom, followed by the waiter, who followed him, apologizing profusely.

Once Rainbow Dash lost sight of Dusk, she fell limply back into her seat, looking completely dejected.

“Did you see it…? My streak of bad luck continues!!” Rainbow Dash said, looking almost panicked at her friends. Pointing with her hoof towards the cloudy sky, where the huge black cloud stood out. “That damn cloud is the culprit. I'm sure it was making fun of me!”

At Rainbow Dash's desperate cry, her friends simply looked at each other, with worried looks.

“We didn’t hear anyone laughing or making fun of you.” Rarity said, looking very worried at her friend.

“It’s… It’s just that only I can hear it when it makes fun of me.” Rainbow Dash said very frustrated. “I'm telling you, that cloud is not normal! I've already tried to break it and I just go through it, it's a cloud of bad luck!”

“Sugarcube, maybe it’s not that a cloud of bad luck…” Applejack said, still looking worriedly at her friend. “Maybe... it’s just you betraying yourself.”

"What are you talking about?"

“I mean... It seems like you get too nervous thinking that you're Dusk's marefriend now.” Applejack replied, scratching her head in embarrassment. She felt uncomfortable not knowing how to explain what she and her friends were thinking, so as not to hurt her friend.

“It shows on your face, darling. You’re too worried about everything around you.” Rarity said with a small, sympathetic smile. “Your mind is playing against you, when what you should be doing is letting everything flow naturally.”

“Maybe you should go with Dusk somewhere where you can be alone and be calmer.” Fluttershy smiled tenderly to support her friend. “That way you can see that there is no such thing as bad luck clouds.”

“I… I’m not nervous! I don’t care if others see me with Dusk!” Rainbow Dash shouted filled with frustration. Red with shame when she saw that her friends did not believe her.

Wiping away a tear that she inevitably shed knowing that her friends were partly right, although she would never admit it, Rainbow Dash abruptly stood up from the table and quickly took off to fly away, very annoyed.

As they watched their friend fly away, the three mares left at the table watched as the blue pegasus flew straight towards the huge black cloud in the sky in the distance, passing through it several times, as if she wanted to break it into a thousand pieces, but without success. Causing Rainbow to stop in the air in the distance and scream in frustration. Meanwhile, on the ground, the three mares looked at each other, all three thinking exactly the same thing... They had to help their friend.

Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy's first mission was to find Pinkie Pie, who was in Sugarcube Corner's kitchen, preparing dozens of pies in the kitchen, looking for new pie recipes that Rainbow Dash wouldn't have tried before. At first, Pinkie refused to go with her friends, thinking that at that moment the most important task in the whole world was to convince Rainbow Dash that the pies weren't bad. However, after the girls explained to her what happened at breakfast and how the situation was so critical that it could harm Dusk and Rainbow Dash's relationship, it was that Pinkie finally agreed to follow her friends.

Once the four of them were gathered, the next thing was to find a place where they could calmly plan their next move, and for that they needed a place where neither Rainbow Dash nor Dusk would think of going by chance. That was how the four mares finally ended up going to the small clubhouse that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had near the Apple farm.

“Hehe… Just one more ingredient…” The four mares heard Sweetie Belle say from inside the clubhouse, just as they were about to open the door.

As they entered the clubhouse, the four mares saw that only Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were there, both stirring some kind of liquid inside a small cauldron. Both fillies froze when they realized that someone had caught them red-handed when they suddenly entered their secret headquarters.

“What are you two doing?” Rarity asked suspiciously, knowing that her little sister was a mess in the kitchen and that it was best to keep her away from any possible food preparation.

“N-Nothing!” Scootaloo said quickly, quickly hiding the ladle she had been stirring the cauldron with behind her back.

“W-We’re making lemonade!” Sweetie Belle said with a nervous smile. “You know, to try and get our cutie marks of… Lemonade sellers?” Sweetie Belle added nervously, realizing how absurd her answer sounded.

“Well, I don’t see any lemons around here.” Applejack added, immediately noticing that both fillies were lying and hiding something.

“Uh… Well…” Sweetie Belle replied nervously, not knowing what to say.

“And why are YOU here!? This is our secret club!” Scootaloo said, skillfully deflecting the blame so she could have more time to hide the truth.

“We came here because we were looking for a place where neither Dusk nor Rainbow Dash thought to look for us.” Fluttershy replied, interceding to reassure everyone. “We want to find a way to help Rainbow Dash, now that she is Dusk's marefriend.”

“What!? Rainbow Dash and Dusk are a couple now!?” Scootaloo asked in surprise. “That’s great! They’re definitely the perfect couple! They’re made for each other!” Scootaloo shouted very excitedly, jumping for joy.

"As good as a couple they may be, their relationship could be in trouble if we don't find a way to help Rainbow Dash.” Applejack said worriedly.

“What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked, frightened. Going from excitement to concern in less than a second.

“Rainbow Dash has been having a bit of a streak of bad luck, or at least that's what she thinks.” Rarity said worriedly. “So much so that she even blames the clouds for her bad luck!”

“Pffft! That’s dumb, there’s no such thing as a cloud of bad luck.” Scootaloo said, dismissing the silly idea.

“We know.” Rarity said. “That’s why-”

“The ones that bring bad luck are the ‘gremlins’.” Scootaloo interrupted, with a thoughtful look. “They’re little pink creatures with bat wings that hide in the clouds to bring bad luck to the pegasi.”

Seeing that Scootaloo had easily dismissed the absurd idea of bad luck clouds, in favor of an even more absurd idea, like gremlins, made everyone look at her with unimpressed expressions. As if they suddenly understood why that filly admired Rainbow Dash so much… They both believed in absurd and senseless things!

“There are no such things as bad luck clouds or gremlins! It's just that Rainbow Dash gets too nervous when she thinks she's Dusk's marefriend now!" Applejack said, raising her voice slightly. Seeing that the conversation was going nowhere.

For a second, Scootaloo just stared at Applejack. Until she suddenly let out a disbelieving giggle and looked away.

“Hah! Rainbow Dash nervous, now that’s crazy.” Scootaloo said with a smug look, shrugging. It was impossible for her to imagine her idol as a mare who would be nervous about something as simple as being in love. “No… it must definitely be gremlins…” Scootaloo muttered, with a thoughtful look.

“By the way, what is 'Plan: Match for Ms. Cheerilee'?” Pinkie Pie suddenly asked. She had approached one of the walls of the clubhouse, where many sheets of paper with maps and drawings were pasted. Pulling out from the wall a sheet that said 'Plan: Match for Ms. Cheerilee', with a drawing of the school teacher's face next to a question mark.

Seeing that one of their latest plans had been discovered, the two Cutie Mark Crusaders present became very nervous, not knowing what to respond.

“Uh... It’s a wrestling match!” Scootaloo said, thinking of the first thing a 'match' could mean other than finding a romantic partner. “W-What happens is that Ms. Cheerilee is going to fight for the world wrestling championship... Yeah, that’s right! B-Because she has a twin sister who is a professional wrestler and... uh... she hurt her leg, so Ms. Cheerilee is going to have a match, a match against another wrestler!” Scootaloo finished, puffing out her chest with pride, having finished her story convincingly. For her part, everyone once again looked at Scootaloo with unimpressed looks, because it was more than obvious that this was an absolute lie.

“Ms. Cheerilee a professional wrestler!?” Sweetie Belle said angrily. She approached her friend to scold her. “Seriously, you couldn’t think of anything better!?”

“C-Could be real…” Scootaloo said confused, not understanding how no one had believed her brilliant lie so well told.

“What about this other plan?” Rarity asked, also walking over to the clubhouse wall and taking out another sheet of paper to hand to her little sister. A sheet of paper that had the faces of a very well-known lavender stallion and five mares drawn on it. “What is ‘Plan H’?”

Once again, both fillies froze and looked away, very nervous.

“That… Well…” Sweetie Belle replied very nervously. Knowing that she couldn’t reveal her precious ‘Plan Harem’ to anyone, especially not the mares present there. “It’s… It’s the Plan Hippo!” Sweetie Belle said, saying the first thing that came to her mind.

“Hippo? Really? And then you say my lies are bad.” Scootaloo said, this time being the one to scold her friend. “How are you going to make up a story that involves hippos!?”

Before the interrogation could continue, the club's door suddenly flew open. Through it appeared Apple Bloom and, to everyone's surprise, little Deer Prince Bramble, who had become friends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders since they were captured by the Deer Kingdom months ago.

“We did it! The last ingredient!” Apple Bloom said proudly as she entered the clubhouse, hoisting a glass jar with a golden liquid inside.

Apple Bloom and Bramble's proud smile instantly faded when they saw that the clubhouse was filled with adults, causing them to instantly put on frightened looks.

“Alright lil’sis. I know that look, what are you and your friends planning?” Applejack asked, approaching her sister and looking at her seriously.

As Apple Bloom looked down in sorrow, Bramble turned around and started to leave. However, just before he did, he saw Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle staring at him with huge eyes, wondering what he would do next.

Just a few days ago, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had decided to name the little deer prince an honorary Crusader. Something that made him very happy, even though he couldn't leave the forest very often, due to his father's restrictions. For the same reason, it hurt him to abandon his new friends to their fate, so Bramble decided at the last minute to stay with them to face the adult ponies and any possible punishment. And so the interrogation finally continued, only instead of two interrogated, now two more had joined.

Seeing that their sisters wanted to know about the two plans they had, the Cutie Mark Crusaders exchanged fleeting glances with each other to make a decision. On the one hand, revealing the 'Plan: Match for Ms. Cheerilee' would surely imply a punishment, since what they planned to do was completely unethical. On the other hand, revealing 'Plan H' would probably imply getting away with it, since they hadn't made much progress on it yet. However, that would completely destroy their future idea of being able to get their sisters all to be Dusk 's marefriends. Therefore, the three of them made a decision.

Assuming a possible punishment, the three fillies began to talk in detail about their 'Plan: Match for Ms. Cheerilee', in order to divert attention and avoid talking about ‘Plan H’…

A couple of days ago, the fillies had hatched a plan to find a worthy stallion for their beloved teacher, so that she would not be alone on Hearts and Hooves Day. That was how the three fillies came to the conclusion that the best partner for Cheerilee had to be Big Mac, however, after trying to get them together, they realized that both were too shy to express their love, or at least that was what the fillies thought. When looking for a solution, the fillies found a storybook that told the story of the first Hearts and Hooves Day, where the recipe for a love potion appeared. After preparing it, the fillies tested it on Cheerilee and Big Mac, but they did not get any results.

'Of course it's not the real recipe for the potion. The book was edited years ago. It would be very irresponsible to leave such a dangerous recipe in a storybook.' Dusk had told them, when they went to ask him at the hospital.

After being disappointed at not being able to complete their potion, they came up with the brilliant idea of visiting their newest club member, so they could look for the book with the original legend in the library of the Deer Kingdom. For better or worse, the library of the Thicket Kingdom did not suffer from the censorship of Equestria's books, and that was how the fillies were finally able to get the original recipe for the love potion.

A tuft of cloud and a bright rainbow's glow had been no problem to get, however, there was one ingredient they couldn't get in Ponyville or in the kitchens of the Deer Kingdom... Flash bee honey. Those were aggressive bees that lived in a remote swamp, so it would be impossible for them to go and collect it, however, Bramble came up with another idea to get the last ingredient. While Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle prepared the rest of the potion, Apple Bloom and Bramble would go visit Zecora, since they both got along well with her, since they both visited her sometimes to consult about potions and plants, and they knew that the zebra shaman had a multitude of strange and unique ingredients to create their own potions.

“We knew Zecora wouldn’t give us the honey if we told her what it was for, so… while I was distracting her, Bramble took the opportunity to take the honey without her noticing.” Apple Bloom said with a sad look, after finishing telling her story.

“That's stealing, Apple Bloom, and you know damn well that's wrong.” Applejack said, giving both Apple Bloom and Bramble a scolding look.

“It’s my fault…” Bramble said, very remorseful. Wanting to take the blame to help his friends.

“W-We were just going to use a little and then return the rest…” Apple Bloom muttered embarrassedly. Feeling very guilty at being scolded by her sister.

“It was for a good deed.” Scootaloo said nervously. “We tried eight different kinds of honey and none of them worked! It had to be just the right honey for the recipe to work.”

“Yes. With this, we'll finally get Ms. Cheerilee a coltfriend worthy of her.” Sweetie Belle said, with a sad look on her face. Still believing that what they were doing was a good deed.

“Wait… That’s it!” Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted, jumping up. A shout that surprised everyone. “You’re coming with me!” Pinkie Pie suddenly added. Grabbing Bramble by the paw, she opened the door and ran with him quickly out of the clubhouse.

That sudden and unexpected reaction left everyone with a completely confused look for a few seconds, until finally Applejack coughed and looked seriously at the three fillies again. Deciding that for the moment she would let Pinkie Pie's madness pass, since she still had to reprimand her sister.

“Okay, young lady, you’re coming with me.” Applejack said, taking Apple Bloom with her as they headed out of the clubhouse back to the farm.

“And you’re coming with me.” Rarity added, looking very seriously at her little sister. Who just lowered her head in shame and followed her sister out of the clubhouse as well.

Finally, only Scootaloo and Fluttershy remained in the small clubhouse. For a moment, Scootaloo looked at Fluttershy with a small, nervous smile, thankful that she had been left with the kindest of mares. However, Fluttershy understood that she would have to be the one to act as Scootaloo's older sister and she also scolded the filly with a stare.

“What you did wasn’t right. First you stole and then you tried to trick two ponies into falling in love.” Fluttershy said seriously.

“We just wanted to help… There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help a pony you love so much.” Scootaloo replied, lowering her head in shame.

“Still … It’s not right to meddle in another pony’s love life, even if… it’s to help her…” Fluttershy replied, only this time, with a more insecure and thoughtful look.

As Applejack walked with her sister to the farm, Apple Bloom was silent for a few moments, until she finally decided to speak again.

“Sis, you know how shy Big Mac is and how bad he is at expressing his feelings, although he is a good stallion…” Apple Bloom said with a worried look. “The potion was only supposed to help him express his feelings better.”

“That’s not something for us to deal with. Besides, Big Mac is already in love with another mare. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even seen him at the farm today.” Applejack said, with a thoughtful look. “You have to understand that Big Mac will find a good match in due time. He’ll properly express his feelings to the mare he loves… someday…” Applejack added, feeling unsure as she realized that she was thinking of someone else even though she was talking about her brother.

In the opposite direction of Sweet Apple Acres, Sweetie Belle was trying to talk to her older sister while Rarity just remained silent, walking with an indignant look.

“We weren’t going to do anything bad. We were just going to give Big Mac and Ms. Cheerilee’s relationship a little boost.” Sweetie Belle said with a shy smile.

“It’s not right to interfere in someone else’s relationship if they don’t want it.” Rarity replied seriously. For a second she imagined Big Mac and Cheerilee looking at each other with love and then looking at each other with contempt. An image that suddenly changed to that of Rainbow Dash and Dusk Shine in the same situation. “Although… Although they really need it to be happy…” Rarity added with a worried look. Remembering the initial reason why she and her friends had come there in the first place.

Even further away from the clubhouse, running quickly while dragging Bramble with her, Pinkie Pie had gone deep into the Everfree Forest, and after a lot of running, she finally arrived at the deer's home: The Thicket Kingdom. Once there, Pinkie Pie asked Bramble to take her to a local baker, so they both went to the castle kitchen.

“Oh! A pony! It’s so exciting to see ponies in our kingdom now that the King has opened the gates to the kingdom.” The castle’s cook, a doe named Almond, said once Bramble and Pinkie Pie approached her. “Still, there are still only a few ponies who come around these parts… Tell me, prince, what can I do for you and your friend?”

“I’m not sure…” Bramble replied, scratching his head in confusion. Not understanding why that crazy pink pony had dragged him back to his home.

“I wanted to ask you a question.” Pinkie Pie said, looking expectantly at the cook. “Do deer eat pies?”

“Pies? Of course.” The cook replied, raising a confused eyebrow. “Though I suppose our pies will be a little different from the pies the ponies eat in their villages.”

“That’s great! The more different and unique it is, the better!” Pinkie Pie said, her eyes shining with excitement.

As Almond led Pinkie Pie through baking, Bramble watched them. Initially, he kept an eye on the suspicious mare, since, although his father had accepted that he could occasionally see ponies, such as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, he still told him that it was not advisable to trust all ponies. After seeing that Pinkie Pie was only there to cook and was laughing with Almond, Bramble accepted that she did not represent a danger and considered leaving, but when he began to smell the pie cooking in the oven, the young deer decided to stay there to see if he could try the pie.

“That's it! I'm sure Rainbow Dash won’t be able to turn down this delicious mushroom and berry pie!” Pinkie Pie said with a big smile, once she took the pie out of the oven. “She doesn’t like pie? That’s impossible! She just hasn’t had the right pie… She said she’s tried a lot of pies from different places and she never liked any of them, but I’m sure she’s never had a pie with ingredients from this kingdom!”

“Rainbow Dash was the blue flying pony that Scootaloo admires, wasn’t she?” Bramble said, moving closer as he smelled the delicious smell of the pie. “Sorry, I have a hard time telling ponies apart sometimes. If it weren’t for the color of their fur and manes, I’d think you all looked the same.” Bramble added with a rueful chuckle. He moved closer to the pie to take a bite, but Pinkie Pie pulled it out at the last second and saved the pie.

“That’s absurd, all ponies are very different, just like deer.” Pinkie Pie said, feeling slightly offended. She held the pie up with her hoof, so that it was out of reach of the hungry fawn. “Everyone has different personalities, different tastes…”

“Hmm, but why do you all want to be the same?” Bramble asked in confusion.

“What? We don’t all want to be the same.” Pinkie Pie laughed at that absurd statement.

“But you said your friend didn’t like pie and you want to force her to like it.” Bramble said, still innocently confused. “I thought that was proof of what I was saying, that deep down all ponies are the same.”

At Bramble's words, Pinkie Pie opened her eyes and froze, as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her. For a second she thought Bramble was talking nonsense, but now that it was said to her face, Pinkie Pie realized that the only one who had been acting nonsensically was her.

“I… I'm forcing Rainbow Dash to like what I like..." Pinkie Pie murmured in shock. She looked down at the pie she had prepared with a sad look.

Seeing that Pinkie Pie had lowered the pie within his reach, Bramble quickly approached to take a bite, but was stopped again, this time by Almond. Poor Bramble put on a scolded puppy look when he saw that no one would let him eat that pie, but his look changed and he put on a smile when he saw that Almond offered him another pie identical to the one Pinkie Pie was holding. Knowing that Bramble would want to try the pie, Almond had cooked another one for the little prince.

“This is wrong… I can’t force my friend to like the same things as me! We’re both different ponies and that’s what makes us special!” Pinkie Pie yelled, annoyed with herself. For a second she raised her hoof and thought about throwing the pie because of how upset she felt with herself. However, at the last second, she stopped and just stared at the pie.

'What made me happy wasn't the pie itself, but seeing you happy.' That was what Rainbow Dash had told her that morning. Something that had made her finally forgive her friend after lying to her for years.

“I want to see you happy too.” Pinkie Pie murmured, visualizing Rainbow Dash’s face in the pie. “And I know that unlike cakes, there is SOMETHING that we both like, and that can make you very happy if you let it into your heart...” Pinkie Pie added, with a look full of determination. Running to return to Ponyville as soon as possible.

“Shee yooh!” Bramble said goodbye, saying ' See you! ' with his mouth full as he happily ate the pie that had been prepared for him.

Back in Ponyville, night had already fallen and everything was very dark, especially that distant part of the Apple farm, where the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse was located.

Making sure that no one was watching, Pinkie quietly opened the door to the clubhouse and crept inside, closing the door behind her. Inside, Pinkie saw that everything was dark but that several things could still be seen, and among those things, was the small cauldron in which Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had prepared the ingredients for the love potion, and next to it, on a table, was the jar with the honey that Bramble and Apple Bloom had stolen from Zecora's cabin, the last ingredient to create the perfect love potion.

Pinkie Pie took a couple of steps and approached the cauldron, however, just at that moment her pinkie sense warned her of something, but it was too late. Pinkie Pie only managed to hear a magical 'Poof!' and suddenly felt someone fall on top of her.

“Ouch!” Rarity moaned in pain, after teleporting into the clubhouse and landing right on top of Pinkie Pie.

“Rarity? What are you doing here?” Pinkie Pie asked in pain, still on the floor with her friend on top of her.

Before Rarity could answer, the door to the clubhouse opened, revealing Applejack carrying a lamp. Both Rarity and Pinkie Pie stared at Applejack in surprise, the same look that the country mare gave them, who had not at all expected to find her two friends there.

“What are you doing here?” Applejack asked.

“What are YOU doing here?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow as she stood up with Pinkie Pie.

“Huff … Looks like we all came here for the same reason…” Applejack replied sadly. She walked over to where her friends were. “Where’s Fluttershy?”

“She’s not here.” Rarity said, looking around the room, now illuminated by Applejack’s lamp. “I guess she has better moral fiber than we do.”

“Waaah!” Fluttershy suddenly screamed, falling from the roof, right behind her friends.

The shy pegasus was wearing a black outfit with a hood that had green bunny ears on it. She had been the first to arrive at the clubhouse, dressed in her 'stealth suit', but had jumped to hide on the roof when she heard Pinkie Pie enter.

“Is that the outfit I made you for Nightmare Night that you never wore?” Rarity asked, more surprised by Fluttershy’s outfit than the fact that she was there.

“Well, as I was saying, it looks like all four of us are here to commit the same crime.” Applejack said, looking unsure.

“It’s not a crime, we’re just… helping our friend.” Pinkie Pie said, also a little nervous.

“We all saw how nervous Rainbow Dash was this morning, and she wouldn’t even listen to us when we told her that the bad luck cloud thing was crazy.” Rarity said worriedly. “If there’s a potion that makes her able to express her feelings without being nervous, maybe… it can help.”

“It's not right to give someone a potion without asking them, but she will never accept our help or accept that she gets nervous about something.” Fluttershy added, with an equally sad look.

Seeing that everyone was in agreement, the four mares looked at each other and nodded, slowly approaching the cauldron with the potion.

They all read the book with the potion recipe and checked that the fillies had mixed the ingredients correctly. Then, they opened the jar of honey, which was the last ingredient, and added it to the potion while stirring it. Each one participated in everything, as if they wanted to ensure that they would all be equally guilty of the sin they were about to commit.

“The book doesn’t say how much honey to add.” Fluttershy said worriedly.

“The jar isn’t even half full. I don’t think we’ll have a problem with putting in the rest of it.” Pinkie Pie replied, emptying the jar of honey into the potion.

“Good. It’s ready.” Rarity said after finishing stirring. As she and her friends looked with pride and mysticism at the potion they had created.

“Love potion number nine…” Applejack added, remembering the eight attempts at a potion her sister and the others had tried, which had all ended in failure. “The ultimate love potion.”

Dawn was breaking in Ponyville and it was once again a cloudy day, with a large dark cloud covering much of the sky. In her home in the clouds, Rainbow Dash opened the door to her house to go out and start a new day. Just by looking at the face of the blue pegasus it was easy to guess that she was in a bad mood. She had a banana peel on her head, because she had tripped on the trash of the kitchen while preparing breakfast, and under her eyes she had large dark circles, because she spent much of the night grumbling to herself for not being able to think of a way to fix her bad luck and be able to get closer to Dusk without ruining the moment.

Leaving her house, Rainbow Dash immediately looked up at the sky and raised her hoof defiantly.

“Damn bad luck cloud! Leave me alone!” Rainbow Dash growled, and for a second, thinking she heard the cloud mocking her, made her even more upset.

After removing the banana peel from her head, Rainbow Dash took flight and headed towards the center of town. There, she was surprised to see her friends gathered at the same Café they had met at the day before. Rainbow Dash remembered how upset she was with them because the day before they told her that her bad luck was just her imagination and that it was only her own nerves that betrayed her in her attempts to get closer to Dusk. Despite that, Rainbow Dash decided to swallow her anger and go see them, after all, it was bad enough having a streak of bad luck, so she didn't want to be angry with her friends on top of that.

“Hey girls.” Rainbow Dash said, landing in front of her friends.

“Hi Dashie! We've been waiting for you!” Pinkie Pie said with a huge smile. Running towards Rainbow Dash and hurried her to sit next to them.

“Pinkie … Are you not upset about the pies anymore?” Rainbow Dash asked worried.

“Huh? Oh! No, not at all. All is forgiven.” Pinkie Pie said with a nervous smile, sitting back down in her chair. “I understand what one is willing to do to see a friend happy.”

“I'm glad to hear it.” Rainbow Dash said smiled. She then looked at her friends and saw that they were all looking at her with huge nervous smiles. As if they wanted to run away at any moment. “Is something wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked confused.

“I-It’s nothing, darling” Rarity replied, noticeably nervous. “I-It’s just that we know it’s an important day for you, and we were hoping to cheer you up.”

“Huh? Important day? What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked, even more confused.

“Uh… You know…” Applejack said worriedly. Realizing that her friend had forgotten. “Today is Hearts and Hooves Day…”

Rainbow Dash stood still for a few seconds, as if what Applejack had told her had taken too long to be processed by her brain. Then, Rainbow Dash's pupils became very small, her face turned pale and she put on a face full of panic.

“Noooo! No way! No way!! How come no one told me that day was today!?” Rainbow Dash screamed, breathing heavily. “This is just my bad luck! It was the perfect opportunity to repair my relationship with Dusk and all I did was ruin it!!”

“C-Calm down, Rainbow. Everything will be okay. The day is just beginning.” Fluttershy said with a worried look, trying to calm her friend down.

“You don’t understand! I can’t!” Rainbow Dash screamed, increasingly upset. “My bad luck follows me wherever I go! Even if I try to do something with Dusk, I know I'll ruin it, I'm doomed! I can't do anything with that damn cloud of bad luck chasing me!” Rainbow Dash added, holding her head and letting it fall on the table. Not managing to calm down at all, seeing that she would lose the opportunity to spend the most romantic day of the year with the stallion she loved.

While Rainbow Dash dropped her head onto the table, her four friends looking at each other with very worried looks. They had all ultimately opted to try and talk to Rainbow Dash that morning to see if they could solve her insecurity problem just by talking, but seeing her in such a state of panic, they all knew they had no choice but to execute the plan they had planned the night before.

“Here Rainbow, I'm sure this will calm you down.” Pinkie Pie said. Placing something in front of Rainbow Dash.

Raising her head, Rainbow Dash's panic seemed to subside as she looked confused. Pinkie Pie had left a pie in front of her.

“Pinkie, I… I told you I don’t like pie.” Rainbow Dash said with a very sad look. Feeling that her bad luck was increasing again that day.

“I know, but this is a pie you've never tasted before.” Pinkie Pie said with a small smile. “I made it in the deer kingdom, with special berries and… a very special extra ingredient.” Pinkie Pie added with a nervous smile.

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment about continuing to refuse the pie, however, her mood was so deplorable that she simply let out a deep sigh and resigned herself.

“Okay, Pinkie Pie … For you, I’ll try to taste that pie.” Rainbow Dash said with a sad smile.

Rainbow Dash cut a piece of the pie and looked at it with some disgust, although she tried to hide it so as not to hurt Pinkie Pie's feelings. Then she opened her mouth and prepared to eat it.

“Stop! First we have to blindfold you.” Rarity said, standing up and approaching Rainbow Dash to bandage her.

“What? Why do you have to blindfold me?” Rainbow Dash asked confused as she was being bandaged. The last thing she saw was Applejack running.

“I-It’s an experiment.” Fluttershy replied nervously. “Since you don’t like pie, we thought that if you don’t see yourself eating it, you might like it.”

“Huff… Whatever…” Rainbow Dash sighed resigned. No longer in the mood to argue about anything.

Finally, Rainbow Dash reluctantly opened her trembling mouth and took a small bite of the piece of pie she cut. Thus, Rainbow Dash kept biting the piece of cake for quite a while until she finally made an effort and swallowed it.

“It’s definitely a pie with ingredients I don’t recognize.” Rainbow Dash said with a nervous smile. “I think it has honey or something.” Rainbow Dash added, lifting her hoof to remove the blindfold.

“Wait! You should at least eat that whole piece of pie.” Pinkie Pie said, jumping to avoid Rainbow Dash would take off the blindfold, as they still needed more time.

“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked exhausted. “Pinkie, my opinion is not going to change because-”

“Pleeeease!” Pinkie begged, looking into the distance for a glimpse of Applejack.

Reluctantly, Rainbow Dash lowered her head, resigned to her bad luck, and picked up the piece of pie she had tried again, this time devouring it quickly to get out of this suffering as soon as possible.

“Yuck! Sorry, Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash said sadly. “I know you probably tried really hard, and I know that all of you would love this pie, but I still don’t like it.” Rainbow Dash added, finally taking off the blindfold.

“I don’t understand. What was so urgent?” Dusk Shine asked when he arrived where everyone was. He had been taken out of the library by Applejack and had been pushed there by her.

When the blindfold was removed, the first thing Rainbow Dash saw was Dusk, who, for his part, also stared at her, not understanding why his marefriend had her eyes covered. While they both looked at each other, the four mares looked expectantly at Rainbow Dash, seeing what her reaction would be now that she had eaten the pie that had love potion number nine in it.

“The book said that after taking the potion, the pony who drank it would open his heart and fall fervently in love with the first pony it saw… Why Rainbow Dash hasn’t reacted at all?” It was the question that was going through the four mares’ minds.

“Pinkie, now that I've eaten your pie, I hope we're all at peace and you understand that I just don't like them.” Rainbow Dash said, turning to see Pinkie Pie.

“Huh?” Pinkie Pie said in surprise, seeing that Rainbow Dash was still the same as always. “O… Okay…”

“Was that the emergency?” Dusk asked confused. Knowing about the problem Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had regarding the pies, but not believing it was so important that Applejack would take him there for that. "By the way, since I'm here, I have something for you." Dusk said with a smile.

With his magic, Dusk made four gift boxes appear, which he gave to Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

“They are chocolates, to… well… show you at least a little how special you are to me.” Dusk said, looking away blushing. Then, he put on a firmer look and looked at them again. “I've been thinking about it a lot and I know that all this we're doing is so that we learn about love and so that I can also be a better coltfriend. For the same reason, I want to be a good coltfriend and I hope you understand that I want to spend this day alone with Rainbow Dash.”

Hearing that, Rainbow Dash blushed deeply and looked away. Meanwhile, the other four mares looked at each other and put on friendly smiles.

“We understand.” Applejack smiled, a little proud of Dusk.

“We know that our relationship is special, and I think what you're doing is the right thing.” Rarity said, partly sad, but also happy to see that Dusk was learning to be more decisive.

“I hope you have a beautiful day together.” Fluttershy smiled, also showing her support.

"Well, if you hadn't brought chocolates, I don't know if I would have forgiven you." Pinkie Pie joked, pretending to be upset. She immediately opened Dusk's gift and began to devour the chocolates.

“Well? Are we leaving?” Dusk asked, turning to look at Rainbow Dash again into her eyes. Handing her a hoof to accompany him.

“Huh!?” Rainbow Dash said, still blushing and stunned by the unexpected attitude and initiative that Dusk was showing.

“Come on, silly! Your coltfriend is waiting for you!” Pinkie Pie said, pushing her friend out of her chair.

“You can do it, Rainbow!” Fluttershy whispered from behind Rainbow Dash.

“This is your day. Make the most of it.” Rarity said, also whispering to her friend from behind.

“Everything will be fine, just be yourself.” Applejack whispered, touching Rainbow Dash’s back with her hoof.

Seeing all her friends pushing and supporting her, Rainbow Dash gulped heavily, deciding not to say anything so as not to ruin it again and try not to invoke her streak of bad luck. Then Dusk and Rainbow Dash began to walk together away from the Café.

As they disappeared from sight, the smiling faces of the four mares slowly changed to looks of disappointment and sadness.

“Huff… I really support them, but it’s still hard.” Rarity said with a sad look.

“I don’t know what’s more frustrating.” Applejack added with a sad smile. “Watching the stallion you love ask out another mare, or that damn love potion not working.”

“Yeah… Rainbow Dash still looked nervous.” Pinkie Pie said confused.

“Maybe it doesn’t work on ponies that are already in love, or maybe we didn’t put enough honey in it.” Fluttershy said, moving closer to the pie to sniff it closely and examine it. Opening her mouth to take a small bite…

Away from Coffee, Dusk and Rainbow Dash walked through the streets of the town towards the park. Along the way, pony couples began to appear showing their love, either by giving each other flowers or kissing, all taking advantage of that special date.

“I was thinking of taking a walk in the park and then going on a picnic at the lake.” Dusk said, smiling as they walked. “Maybe we could read some Daring Do books together, what do you think?”

To Dusk's surprise, his marefriend didn't seem to be paying attention to him. Rainbow Dash kept walking looking at the ground, as if she didn't want to look up to look at Dusk.

“Rainbow, is something wrong?” Dusk said worriedly. Stopping and touching Rainbow Dash with his hoof. As soon as he did so, the pegasus almost jumped in surprise.

“I-I’m fine! I-I was just a little distracted.” Rainbow Dash said quickly, with her face completely red.

“You seem a little nervous.” Dusk said, noticing that Rainbow Dash was acting strange.

“O-Of course not! Why would I be nervous!? Just because we’re now a couple, you think that’s enough to make me nervous!?” Rainbow Dash replied almost screamed, very nervous. Then she realized that she was ruining the moment again and closed her eyes tightly. “I-It’s not that I’m nervous, it’s that cloud giving me all this bad luck!” Rainbow Dash added, pointing angrily towards the sky.

“Bad luck cloud?” Dusk asked confused, looking at the huge dark cloud that Rainbow Dash aimed.

“Yeah! Everything has gone wrong ever since that cloud appeared!” Rainbow Dash said, still bright red in embarrassment at the thought of acting somewhat hysterical. “I haven’t been able to visit you in the hospital, I haven’t been able to sleep well at night, I’m on edge all day, Pinkie Pie found out I was lying to her about the pies, I burned you with the coffee at breakfast yesterday, everything has gone wrong for me since…”

"Since we became a couple?" Dusk asked, noticing that the first bad luck she mentioned was since the hospital.

“Exactly!” Rainbow Dash said firmly; however, she immediately realized her mistake. Just as her friends believed yesterday, Dusk could believe that she was crazy, or even worse! With what she had just said, it seemed that she was blaming her bad luck on him and their relationship. “T-That’s not what I meant, I…”

“Well, if it is a cloud of bad luck, I guess we’ll have to do something about it.” Dusk said, looking at the cloud with a thoughtful look. “I guess we could change the plans I had…”

“Huh…? You… You believe me? Do you think that really is a cloud that is giving me bad luck?” Rainbow Dash asked with a disbelieving look.

“Hm? Well, I don’t know. I’ve never heard about bad luck clouds.” Dusk said with a nervous smile, scratching his head. “But after being Pinkie’s coltfriend, I learned that sometimes there are crazy things that I can’t explain, but I still have to trust my marefriend.” Dusk added with a big smile. Starting to walk and signaling for Rainbow to follow him. “Come on, we have to find a way to get rid of that silly bad luck cloud, hehe.”

As Dusk walked away, Rainbow Dash's face turned even redder as her heart beat a thousand times a second. She even felt dizzy for some reason, and it all seemed to increase every time she looked at Dusk.

“What's wrong with me…? Am I getting sick?” Rainbow Dash thought with her breathing ragged. Looking up again to follow Dusk, and feeling her vision blur and her eyes could only see Dusk's body moving, nothing else...

Elsewhere in downtown Ponyville, an embarrassed Cheerilee was trying to silence her most mischievous and beloved students, who were standing on crates, using megaphones so that all the stallions passing by could hear them.

“This is Cheerilee, our beloved teacher!” Apple Bloom shouted over her megaphone. “There is no mare more perfect than her! She is smart, kind, cute, funny…”

“Come on bachelor stallions! It’s your chance to become the special pony of the best mare in the world!” Sweetie Belle shouted from her own megaphone.

“Girls, please stop! This wasn’t necessary.” Cheerilee said, totally embarrassed, trying to get the fillies out of the boxes. “How could you think I would want to get a coltfriend like this!?”

“This was Plan B. We had another plan, but it fell through.” Scootaloo replied, shrugging.

Suddenly, the three fillies were distracted when they saw two familiar and peculiar beings appear on one of the streets. They were Bramble, who was approaching with a sad look on his face, as if he had been scolded; and next to him was Zecora, walking firmly towards where the fillies were with a very serious look on her face.

“Uh-oh…” The three fillies said in fright at the same time. Knowing that they had been caught because of what they did the day before…

Returning with Dusk and Rainbow Dash, both had arrived at the outskirts of the town, where the hot air balloon rental stand was. There, Dusk begged Cherry Berry to rent him the balloon for just one hour, which at another time Cherry would have done without problems, if it hadn't been for the fact that she had already rented the balloon to Dusk once and he ended up indirectly destroying it when he flew it over the Northern Storm. However, after promising that he would only fly within the town, Cherry Berry accepted, for an extra payment in advance.

“Well, I managed to reach an agreement.” Dusk said smiling, returning to Rainbow Dash. “We can go up in the balloon together and I’ll try to get rid of that cloud with magic. Since neither you nor the weather pegasi have been able to get rid of that cloud with their innate pegasus magic, perhaps unicorn magic will work. Besides, it might be romantic to take a balloon ride just the two of us.” Dusk added with a flirtatious look.

Seeing that look, Rainbow Dash lowered her head, blushing heavily and quickly shook her head to deny Dusk's proposal.

“What's wrong with me!?” Rainbow Dash screamed in her mind. “I can’t even talk to him anymore! Every time he looks at me, every time I hear his voice… I can’t stop thinking about Dusk and how much I love him!” Rainbow Dash screamed in her mind, her face red with excitement and her breathing growing more labored.

“Is something wrong?” Dusk asked, noticing how red Rainbow Dash’s face was. Reaching out to tap her on the side.

“Waaah!” Rainbow Dash screamed blushed red with shame and panic. Feeling a shiver run through her body as soon as Dusk touched her.

Seeing that she could barely stand due to that strange and sudden illness that was afflicting her, Rainbow Dash helplessly closed her eyes and ran away from there, since her wings were so tense, she probably wouldn't even be able to take flight and would look even more ridiculous in front of Dusk...

Back at the other end of Ponyville, Zecora stood in front of the three fillies and the little fawn, scolding them with just her gaze, which was enough to make the four culprits feel bad about what they had done.

“We’re sorry we stole the honey.” Apple Bloom said sadly. “We wanted to give it back to you, but when we went to get it this morning, the jar was gone.”

“We don’t know who took it.” Scootaloo added timidly.

“KYAAA!” The shrill cry of a mare in distress was heard not far away.

Hearing the strange scream, Zecora, Bramble and the fillies were immediately distracted, and knowing that something very bad must have happened for a mare to scream so scared, the five of them rushed to her aid. After running a couple of blocks, the five of them arrived at the origin of the scream and were stunned by the bizarre sight before them.

In front of the Ponyville Café was Bulk Biceps, who was the one screaming high-pitched like a scared filly while Fluttershy was on top of him trying to forcefully kiss him, with Applejack, trying to forcefully restrain her.

“Kyaaa! Noooo! I must save my purity for my dear Twilight!” Bulk Biceps shouted blushing and scared. Trying to get Fluttershy off of him.

“I was afraid this would happen.” Zecora said, rushing to grab something out of her bag. She then ran up to Fluttershy and threw a small sack at her face, which as soon as it hit Fluttershy’s face, it burst open, releasing several blue spores.

The instant Fluttershy breathed in those spores, her face changed radically from a look full of desire to kiss, to a face that seemed to be lost.

“Huh!? What happened?” Fluttershy said very confused. Finally stopping struggling to kiss Bulk Biceps. Who, upon finally seeing himself free, ran scared with tears, to get as far away as possible from that stalker of Fluttershy.

Not far away, Pinkie Pie and Rarity appeared running, who approached Fluttershy, Applejack and Zecora, also approaching the Cuties Mark Crusaders.

“Fluttershy, are you okay now?” Rarity asked upon arriving, relieved to see that her friend had finally regained her sanity.

“I… I don’t understand what happened to me.” Fluttershy said shyly. She began to blush deeply as she remembered what she had done.

“You used the honey from flash bees to make a potion, didn’t you?” Zecora said, looking seriously at Rarity and her friends. They didn’t say anything, but their gazes showed their guilt. “Did you read the legend of the prince in love?”

“We followed the instructions to the letter.” Pinkie Pie said with a rueful smile.

“That’s not a love potion, it’s love poison!” Zecora said angrily. “True legend has it that the prince who drank the potion became so absorbed in his love for his beloved that he abandoned all his royal duties, letting himself be carried away only by his love, leading his kingdom to disgrace.”

“But why did it only affect Fluttershy?” Rarity asked, confused. That was why neither she nor Pinkie Pie had been there when Zecora arrived.

As soon as Fluttershy had tasted the pie with the love potion, the first stallion she saw pass by was Bulk Biceps, and then she threw herself at him to try to kiss him. Seeing that something had obviously affected Fluttershy, Applejack took it upon herself to restrain Fluttershy while Rarity and Pinkie Pie went after Rainbow Dash, thinking that the potion must have affected her as well. However, seeing Rainbow Dash from afar, she continued walking normally with Dusk, without acting like a crazy mare in love, it was then that Pinkie Pie and Rarity came back to help Applejack.

“What do you mean it only affected Fluttershy?” Zecora asked confused.

“Scootaloo, no!” Applejack screamed in fright. Seeing that in her carelessness, the three fillies and the fawn had approached the abandoned pie, ignoring the adults, and were ready to devour it. Scootaloo was the first to manage to take a bite.

Seeing that Scootaloo had eaten a piece of the pie, everyone freaked out, thinking that she would go crazy with love like Fluttershy did. However, Zecora remained calm and slowly approached where the fillies were.

“Don’t worry. It doesn’t work as fast on foals as it does on adults,” Zecora said quietly, digging into her bag for another bag of spores and spreading it over Scootaloo. “Fillies don’t have a libido yet, the potion affects ponies that have that desire awakened faster.”

“What is libido?” Scootaloo asked innocently.

“That… is a question for another day.” Zecora replied blushing, avoiding answering the question.

“You better stay away from the pie, young lady.” Rarity said, pulling her little sister away from the pie. Leaving Sweetie Belle confused.

“As adults, you already understand and control your own desires and emotions. But for ponies who have not yet awakened certain desires or repressed certain emotions, it can be very dangerous.” Zecora said, sighing in relief at seeing that they had avoided a greater problem. “The potion will act slower on them, but at the same time, it will act more strongly, as if a volcano finally exploded after many years without having an eruption.”

Hearing Zecora's explanation, Applejack and the others looked at each other with pale, terrified faces. They all knew exactly what a mare with her emotions and repressed libido had done, and who had eaten that poisoned pie...

Elsewhere in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash had run away from Dusk. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with him, but exactly the opposite. She always thought about Dusk and how she was in love with him, but since that morning that feeling had multiplied exponentially, making it unbearable. Every time she heard Dusk's voice, Rainbow Dash's body tremble, his touch alone made her body want to faint, when he looked into her eyes, her head was spinning and all she could see was his smile... It was too much! She needed to run away from Dusk before she made a fool of herself.

After leaving the park, Rainbow Dash slowed down her pace until she finally stopped. It seemed like everything had been useless. Even though she had run away from Dusk, she couldn't get away from the image of him in her head.

“Rainbow Dash! Wait!” Dusk shouted, who had followed his marefriend.

Hearing Dusk's voice, Rainbow Dash opened her eyes in surprise and tried to run again, but her body didn't react. It was as if thousands of voices were screaming in the pegasus's head to pounce on Dusk and kiss him while a very small part of her continued to fight to be a rational mare and not get carried away by her desires.

“Rainbow… Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?” Dusk asked worriedly. Approaching his marefriend to touch her.

“G-Get away!” Rainbow Dash screamed, took a quick step back to avoid being touched. With her head down to avoid looking at Dusk. “You didn’t do anything wrong, I promise. I just… I need to be alone for now… Please…” Rainbow Dash begged, using the last of her willpower to push Dusk away.

Dusk remained silent for a moment, with a worried look. Until he finally spoke.

“Okay…” Dusk said with a sad look. Starting to walk away.

“I’m sorry… I’m really sorry!” Rainbow Dash thought, getting angry with herself. Still with her head down so as not to see Dusk. “I don't know what's wrong with me today, but if you keep coming closer, I don't know what I'm going to do!!” Rainbow Dash thought, relieved to hear Dusk moving away.

“One last thing.” Dusk added quickly, trotting up to where Rainbow Dash was and lifting her face to touch her forehead with his horn. “Your face is too red, it seems you have a bit of a fever. It would be best if you go home and rest.” Dusk said smiling.

That last gesture from Dusk took Rainbow Dash by complete surprise, and the worst thing was that he had done the worst thing he could do. Dusk had touched her, putting his horn on her forehead, his face being extremely close to hers. Having Dusk so close, Rainbow Dash could feel his breath, smell his body, see his face, hear his voice up close, feel the touch of his hoof as he lifted her face… That was too much for even Rainbow Dash to bear in the state she was in and it was as if a volcano had erupted.

Without warning, Rainbow Dash pushed Dusk with all her might, causing him to fall on his back against the ground, with Rainbow Dash on top of him.

“R- Rainbow Dash!?” Dusk said surprised and blushing at having Rainbow Dash over him, with her head pressed against the side of his head.

“I don’t care anymore… I don’t care about anything anymore!” Rainbow Dash said breathing heavily next to Dusk's ear. Moaning as she pressed her body as close to Dusk's as possible, as if she wanted to merge both bodies into one.

While Dusk remained paralyzed by Rainbow Dash's sudden action, the pegasus began to move her hips to get even closer to Dusk, moaning as she did so. That filled Dusk with terror... They were about to do it in public!!

“Watch out!” Zecora shouted from afar, throwing a sac of spores at Rainbow Dash just in time.

As soon as the spores spread into the air, Rainbow Dash froze, as if a bucket of icy water had suddenly fallen on her entire body. Then she quickly raised her head, seeing that she was sitting in a compromising position on top of Dusk.

“Waaah!” Rainbow Dash screamed in terror, immediately standing up. Blushing furiously at the sight of what she had almost done.

As she stood up, Rainbow Dash still felt dizzy but she understood perfectly what she had done. Such an outburst of desire was not like her, and therefore, she froze, feeling extremely confused and more embarrassed than she had ever felt in her life.

As Zecora and the rest of her friends approached, Rainbow Dash thought she heard laughter mocking her again. She looked around, still panicked and dizzy, not knowing if her friends were making fun of her or if it was someone else. Then, she looked up and saw the huge black cloud covering the sky of Ponyville, thinking that the mocking laughter was coming from that cloud.

“You… Damn bad luck cloud! You’re ruining my life!” Rainbow Dash screamed, full of shame and helplessness. She looked angrily at that cloud. Then she opened her wings and flew away quickly, just before her friends arrived.

While watching Rainbow Dash fly away, her four friends put on very sad looks, knowing that they had done something horrible and should apologize to their friend for having poisoned her and having interfered in her love life. For her part, Zecora also stared at Rainbow Dash fly away, but as she did so, she noticed that large dark cloud that she hadn't been paying enough attention to until that moment, a cloud that curiously seemed to grow larger at that very moment.

“How curious… A ‘dreary’.” Zecora said, looking up at the cloud.

“Dusk, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. Seeing that Dusk was still on the ground, with his back to all of them.

“Y-Yes, I’m fine. I just… need to calm down a little…” Dusk answered embarrassed, adding the last bit almost in a murmur. Well, even though he hadn’t drank love potion number nine, he had had a beautiful mare on top of him, moaning in his ear and moving her hips sensually, which obviously made his body react, and now he was the one who felt embarrassed of being so ‘lively’ in public.

After almost an hour, Rainbow Dash was still locked in her room, her face hidden in her pillow, unable to believe that she had done something so embarrassing with Dusk. And so her bad mood and depression would have continued to increase if it hadn't been for someone knocking on the door of her house.

With her house floating in the sky, she knew that only pegasi could knock on her door like that, or maybe Pinkie Pie floating with balloons. Anyway, as long as it wasn't Dusk, there was no problem, so Rainbow Dash stood up to see who it was. As soon as she opened the door she tried to slam it shut, scared, but Dusk Shine avoided it, putting his hoof on before she did it.

“Rainbow Dash, calm down, it wasn’t your fault.” Dusk said quickly, knowing that his marefriend was very embarrassed and that he had to convince her quickly before she ran away. “You were poisoned.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked, confused, opened the door a little more to get a better look at Dusk. In doing so, she finally saw how Dusk had managed to knock on her house's door. He had used the same spell he used in the Cloudsdale flying competition, creating beautiful transparent butterfly wings on his back.

“Do you like them?” Dusk asked, striking a small pose. Knowing that he looked ridiculous with those butterfly wings, but wanting to make his marefriend laugh. “Come with me. The day is not over.” Dusk added, looking at Rainbow Dash and offering her his hoof to get her out of the house.

“I… I’ll just screw it up… Again.” Rainbow Dash muttered embarrassed.

“You won’t. Trust me.” Dusk said, looking at Rainbow with a loving smile.

After much hesitation, Rainbow Dash finally opened the door and agreed to go with Dusk. However, she refrained from getting too close or looking at his face, because just seeing his face made her blush in embarrassment as she remembered what she had done in the park. That was how they both took flight, with Dusk still flying awkwardly, not getting used to her magic wings. For her part, Rainbow Dash was so distracted that she realized too late where Dusk was taking her.

“You want to go towards that dark cloud!?” Rainbow Dash asked terrified, stopping in midair.

“I promise you that everything will be fine.” Dusk said, taking her by the hoof so that she could continue flying.

Once they flew over the cloud, Dusk told Rainbow to land on it, managing to stand on it thanks to Rainbow Dash being a pegasus, and Dusk used his spell to walk on clouds.

“Even though you were going through it at full speed, it is dense enough to support us.” Dusk said with a smile, once they both landed. Then, he used his magic to make a blanket and a basket appear. “We’ll have our picnic here.”

“What!?” Rainbow Dash screamed, confused and incredulous. “Having a picnic here is crazy. The cloud isn’t stable enough, and this one especially isn’t reliable at all.”

“Well, I promised you we would have a picnic.” Dusk replied with a look full of pride. “Also, fortunately, I’m very good with magic. I can hold all of this without problems.” Dusk added smiling, stretching the blanket over the cloud, sitting on it and looking for some snacks he had brought in the basket.

Everything Dusk was doing seemed crazy to Rainbow Dash, what was his obsession with wanting to do all that on that strange and annoying cloud? All Rainbow wanted to do was get as far away as possible from that cloud that she believed brought her bad luck. However, Rainbow Dash remembered how Dusk was the only one who trusted her when she told him about the cloud of bad luck, so the least she could do was to trust him too.

This is how Rainbow Dash sat next to Dusk and the two began their couple's picnic. Dusk had prepared several sandwiches to eat, which they shared while they watched the sunset approach, and without realizing it, Rainbow Dash became absorbed in the conversation and how relaxing it was to be there just the two of them, quickly forgetting all the worries she had had up until then, slowly returning to acting like the determined and cheerful Rainbow Dash everyone knew.

Among the first conversations they had, Dusk told Rainbow Dash what their friends had told him about the love potion they had made and how they had hidden it in the pie they made her eat. That filled Rainbow Dash with anger, but Dusk quickly rushed to tell her that they were all very sorry and that they had only done it because they wanted to help her.

“They didn’t do it with bad intentions.” Dusk said with a sad smile. “They just thought you were too nervous and that you were sabotaging yourself.”

“What!? That’s not true!” Rainbow Dash said looked very upset, feeling offended. However, on second thought, and now with a clearer mind, she was able to realize how she had been acting the last few days and realized that, although she hated to admit it, she had indeed been excessively nervous and depressed. “I… I wasn’t nervous… Or well… Maybe just a little.” Rainbow Dash added, slightly blushing.

“So… How will we get revenge?” Dusk suddenly asked.

“Huh? Get revenge?” Rainbow Dash asked confused.

“Of course! What the girls did wasn’t with bad intentions, but it still wasn’t right.” Dusk said, pretending to be indignant. “Even if they’re my best friends, I can’t forgive them so easily for messing with my marefriend, so we’ll have to play a really good prank on them to make up for the damage.” Dusk added, looking mischievously at Rainbow Dash.

Hearing Dusk's idea, Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, realizing how fun it would be to prank their friends in revenge, loving Dusk's idea. Also, hearing that Dusk called her marefriend and that he had thought about getting revenge to defend her honor, was something that filled her heart with even more joy.

The rest of what was left of the afternoon Dusk and Rainbow Dash spent the time laughing while coming up with crazy plans to play pranks on their friends. The laughter increased until the afternoon became brighter, just reaching its maximum brightness when the sun began to set behind a beautiful, almost completely clear sky.

“Huh? How come the sky is so clear?” Rainbow Dash suddenly said in surprise, thinking out loud as she watched the sunset.

Rainbow Dash looked around, seeing that the entire cloudy sky had disappeared, and the only dark cloud left was the one they were standing on, which had greatly shrunk in size, leaving barely enough room to keep the two of them and their picnic blanket floating.

“It seems Zecora’s suspicions were correct.” Dusk said, looking out at the sunset with a smile. “After you fled the park, I spoke to Zecora for a moment to ask her if she had heard about bad luck clouds. And it turns out… there are no bad luck clouds.” Dusk added, turning to look at Rainbow Dash shrugged. “What does exist are ‘drearies’, very strange clouds, which are normally very small but are capable of growing very large if you are not careful.”

“A ‘dreary’? I’ve never heard of that.” Rainbow Dash said looked down at her, where she was sitting, in surprise. “What is that thing? How did it grow so big? And why did it shrink like that?”

“You can’t guess?” Dusk said with a small, kind smile. “A dreary grows from the bad feelings a pony can have, like anger, fear, confusion, nervousness… This cloud stuck to you because it fed on your bad feelings. It wasn’t that the dreary itself gave you bad luck, but believing that you had bad luck filled you with anger and confusion that fed the dreary.”

“So… I wasn’t cursed by a streak of bad luck…” Rainbow Dash said in shock. She then looked up at Dusk and hugged him tightly. “Hahaha! I don’t have bad luck!” Rainbow Dash shouted, full of happiness. Hugging Dusk, finally at peace, they both remained silent with their eyes closed, enjoying that warm hug.

With Rainbow Dash's scream, the dreary was finally able to disappear, turning into a normal white fluffy cloud. While that was happening, and Rainbow Dash was hugging Dusk, the lavender unicorn could have sworn that he heard some small growls. When he opened his eyes, Dusk could have sworn that he had managed to see two small pink creatures with bat wings, fleeing from the dreary once it became a normal cloud. However, there was sunlight right in that direction, so Dusk could not see well, and when he was able to narrow his eyes to try to see better, there was nothing to see.

“Heh… It can’t be, gremlins don’t exist.” Dusk thought, smiling amused at that absurd thought he had, remembering a silly foal story that Scootaloo once told him, about little pink beings that hid in the clouds to bring bad luck.

“Bad luck or not, I acted like a scared fool.” Rainbow Dash said, embarrassed, once they finished hugging, looked at Dusk in shame. “I was so nervous about ruining everything with you, that I actually ended up ruining everything.”

“What are you talking about? You haven’t ruined anything.” Dusk said smiling. Then he put on a more thoughtful look and put on a tender, nervous smile. “It’s true that it hurt me the time you hit me in the hospital when I tried to kiss you, or yesterday when you hit the waiter and he spilled coffee on me, but that’s part of your charm.”

“Do you like that I’m clumsy when I’m nervous!?” Rainbow Dash asked, feeling offended.

“No.” Dusk said tenderly, touching his marefriend’s face with his hoof. “I like to see how hard you try to achieve something. You don’t always achieve your goal, but every time you fail, I don’t see the mistake, I see how hard you’re trying to get closer to me or be nice to me, and that’s something I love about you.”

At those words, feeling Dusk's warm hoof on her cheek, made Rainbow Dash blush and get excited when she looked into Dusk's eyes. However, this time it wasn't the effect of any potion, but her own feelings that called her to want to be there with that stallion for all eternity.

Glancing around, seeing that sunset was almost over, Rainbow Dash saw that they were coincidentally standing over the same lake where they had first kissed. A lake that was surrounded by couples in love who had come there to watch the sunset in that romantic place, all happy that the sky had magically cleared up just before sunset.

The only cloud in the sky was the one Dusk and Rainbow Dash were on, right at the angle where the sun was setting, so all those ponies only had to look up slightly to see them both there.

“Maybe you want to go somewhere else.” Dusk said with a kind smile. Realizing that Rainbow Dash had glanced sideways at the ponies down by the lake.

“No… I'm not a coward in love anymore.” Rainbow Dash said, with a look full of determination. “I want everyone to know that I’m in love. I want everyone to know that you’re my coltfriend and I’m your marefriend!”

“That sounds good to me.” Dusk said blushing, approaching his marefriend.

Both ponies finally shared their first kiss as a couple, under the beautiful light of that beautiful sunset. Right in the same place that was the scene of their first kiss, repeating that beautiful postcard for the second time in their lives, only now, as a couple. A beautiful coincidence that happened, either by chance or… good luck.

Ending a new day in that beautiful world, Celestia made the sun set, ready to finally rest from that exhausting day. Because, after her absence, there was still a lot of pending work.

As Celestia was about to leave the castle balcony, she saw Luna coming in, yawning, still tired from waking up earlier than usual. This was because, ever since Celestia had returned, Luna had been trying hard to wake up a little earlier from her afternoon sleep, in order to spend more time with her beloved sister.

“Good night sister.” Luna said yawning, walking over to where Celestia was.

“Good night Luna. I hope you had a nice afternoon of rest.” Celestia said smiling, walking in the opposite direction to leave. Then, a thought came to her mind and she stopped in her tracks. “By the way, didn’t you send Dusk Shine any gifts this day?”

“Hmm? A gift? Why would I need to send him a gift today?” Luna asked confused.

“Well… Today is Hearts and Hooves Day.” Celestia said, smiling. Seeing her sister’s still confused look, she remembered that Luna didn’t know about that holiday. “It’s a celebration that ponies created in the times when you weren’t here. It’s a holiday where couples in love celebrate their love, usually by giving each other gifts.”

“Is there such a holiday!?” Luna said almost in shock. She then put on a nervous and thoughtful look as she thought about whether it was too late to send Dusk a gift or if it would even be wise to send him one, and what could she give him!? However, Luna's flow of thoughts suddenly stopped as she glanced at her sister. Which made her look change to a sadder one.

“Don’t worry about me, Luna.” Celestia said, smiling calmly, guessing what her sister must have been thinking. “Despite all the pain I went through, I had some beautiful memories with the stallion I loved. So, I hope you can also create beautiful memories with the pony you love.”

Luna had been very happy after Celestia returned to the castle, and even though Luna tried not to touch on the subject of Sombra or what happened in the Crystal Empire, Celestia seemed to look calmer and not suffer when the subject accidentally came up. However, one topic that neither of them had talked about yet had been Luna's love for Dusk Shine, at least, until that night.

“Tia…” Luna said excitedly, lowering her head with a sad look. Understanding that Celestia was now giving her support in love, despite how much she had suffered with her own lost love.

“Lulu, I think you know this, but the path you are about to choose may be even more painful than the one I chose.” Celestia said, her expression changing to a more serious one. She looked worriedly at her sister.

Luna kept her head down, understanding what Celestia was referring to. They both knew about the Future Mirror's vision, which had predicted a dark future for Dusk and Luna. And even if the vision didn't come true, the present was just as complex, because if Luna chose to pursue Dusk's love, she would be fighting against six other mares for her beloved's heart.

“I… I’ve made my decision!” Luna said, raising her head. Looking at Celestia with a look full of determination.

Hearing Luna's answer and seeing that firm gaze without a doubt, Celestia smiled tenderly, recognizing the look of a mare in love who would give everything to follow her heart, even if she herself was against it. Celestia had long since forgotten the feeling of fear she felt when she found out about Luna's love. After seeing Sombra again, she had learned how cruel love was, but that it was also beautiful and that it could not be denied to anyone. Therefore, now what Celestia thought was how happy she would be if Luna experienced the happiness that she and Sombra once experienced, and that she would give everything of herself to support and protect her if that was her choice.

“That was the answer I wanted to hear.” Celestia said, smiling lovingly. Then she put on a thoughtful look and her smile changed radically to a much more mischievous one. “Well… Now we have to make a plan for you and Dusk to get together…” Celestia added, beginning to plan fun situations in which she could have fun with Dusk and Luna.

“Stop right there! I know that smile!” Luna said quickly, raising a hoof to stop Celestia. “This is something I want to do for myself. Promise me that you won’t ‘help’ me with Dusk.” Luna said, knowing that Celestia’s possible ‘help’ would only be based on how much fun her prankster older sister could have at her and Dusk’s expense.

“But…” Celestia said, with a scolded puppy look. As if a filly had had her toy taken away.

“Promise.” Luna said seriously.

“Huff… Fine.” Celestia said reluctantly. “I, Celestia, Princess of the Sun, Guardian of Ancient Magic and blah blah blah, all the other titles. I promise not to interfere in your relationship with Dusk.”

“Thank you.” Luna said, staring at her sister and then making her way to the balcony. As soon as she turned her back, Celestia put on a mischievous smile again. She then brought out a battered and crushed golden necklace, which was her secret necklace that she used to transform into ‘Golden Feather ’ whenever she needed to.

“Celestia promised not to interfere, but no one said anything about a certain white pegasus I know…” Celestia murmured with a mischievous smile. Thinking that, as an older sister, she had to make sure that her little sister didn’t suffer when falling in love. And just as important, she couldn’t miss out on how fun it would be to mess with Dusk and Luna, now that she knew they could become a couple in the future.

End of chapter 44

Author's Note

Many thanks to 'Silveranon' for his great help

PS1: I managed to do another chapter before the end of the year, so happy holidays!!

PS2: If I count that the first season had 55 chapters, the 'Interlude' as 1 extra chapter, and the current 44 chapters... This would be the 100th chapter!!!! It's been more than 8 years with the story of Dusk !!!!!!!! and more than 1,200,000 words written!!!!! !!!!! Honestly, they have flown by xD
As I said at the beginning after doing my 2 comics, this story was too long to do it in comic mode, and well it was like that haha Anyway, we're already more than halfway through the story and well, I hope you can follow the story until the end
As I always say, thanks for all the comments, because really! they are what motivate me to continue
Greetings and happy holidays!!!