Dashed Thoughts

Chapters

Chapter I - Wing Problems
Chapter II - Dragon Crusading
Chapter III - Dashed Memories
Chapter IV - Rubber Party
Chapter V - Aftermath
Chapter VI - Confession
Chapter VII - A Dark Cloud

Chapter I - Wing Problems

Dashed Thoughts
by Chevan

Chapter I – Wing problems

Rainbow Dash’s soft snoring could be heard in her bedroom, as her body rested on her cloud bed in her home up into the skies. Her body started to shift, and her eyes began to slowly flutter open just to be blinded by the sun, which Celestia rose to start a new day. Her head rose to sit on her cloud bed, and she stretched her mouth into a loud yawn. Her eyes were half closed to protect them from the blinding rays. She stretched her joints and flapped her wings a few times, to make sure that they’re in the good condition. Her wings still felt a bit sore after yesterday’s work, but she was rewarded a day off for her outstanding job as a weather team boss past few days. She was clearing or moving all the clouds with her team to make the weather right with the forecast. Today the sky had to be clear, and it is, thanks to her and her team. Blue sky and even a single cloud can’t be seen from Ponyville. It was a rest well deserved.

When her eyes got used to the sudden change of the light level, she turned her head towards the window. She was welcomed by the sight of the cerulean and clear morning sky, decorated by the sun. She smiled, knowing that it was her who provided that weather.

“What a beautiful day,” she said to herself, “I wonder who cleared all these clouds yesterday to make the weather like that!” she chuckled, “It was me, of course! Who else could it be?”

She sat on her bed for a few more moments just gazing at the result of her hard work, which was on the other side of the window.

“Well, it’s time to wake up, I guess,” She got out of bed, and trotted downstairs to the main hall of her home. The pink envelope near her front door caught her attention, and she got closer to it to examine it further.

“I wonder who sent it,” She chuckled, already knowing that it was from Pinkie Pie, picking it up with her mouth.

She made her way to the kitchen, and placed the envelope on the table. Her stomach began to growl, so the first thing she decided to do before opening it is to get something to eat. She made herself a daffodil sandwich, the one she always liked. After the meal, there was a time to see what’s inside the pink envelope.

She carefully tried to open it with her hoof with no satisfying results. She just wrinkled it by her actions.

“This is not going to work!” She growled, “My hooves are not made for hoofwork. I wonder how Pinkie Pie can prepare and tape these without a help of the unicorn. Maybe Twilight helped her?” she winced after the sudden imagination of the lavender unicorn, “M-maybe… well, she’s Pinkie Pie, this pony is capable of everything. I think I’ll just tear it apart. I’m sorry, Pinkie…” She did what she said using her teeth, what caused the envelope to finally reveal its contents.

Rainbow pulled out the white sheet of paper from the remains of the envelope. It was an invitation.

Dear Rainbow Dash,

It’s Gummy’s birthday today, so I’m throwing a party! There would be a cake, cupcakes, balloons, streamers, punch, and a lot more! I prepared lots of games! This is going to be so much fun! Everypony in town is invited!

Party starts today at 8pm in Sugarcube Corner. Please, come and celebrate with us!

~Pinkie Pie

“Another party hosted by Pinkie Pie? Whenever Pinkie Pie throws a party, I’m there!” She said, smiling. She placed the letter back on the table. She extended her wings and looked at them, “But, until then, I think I have to go outside and practice some flying before these babies go completely numb.” She said, chuckling. She decided that washing herself would be the first thing she’ll do.

After washing and drying her coat, she got out from her bathroom, and flared and flapped her wings a few times to check their condition once again. She winced, “They hurt a little,” she said, growling, “But they don’t hurt bad enough to make me be unable to get some training.” They were not in the condition she wanted them to be, but she decided to go outside and practice a little anyway. If she wants to be a Wonderbolt in the future, she has to practice whenever she has a free time.

There were no clouds to be seen, thanks to her well done job, so it was easier to train for her. She could fly as much as she wanted to, without thinking about meeting with a puffy obstacle. The only surface she could hit was the ground, but c’mon, she’s Rainbow Dash, the fastest, bravest, and the most awesome Pegasus in all of Equestria. Because of her bravery and high self-esteem, she didn’t take burying her snout to the ground into account.

But she was about to realize, that anypony is the best, and even the most awesome ponies like Rainbow Dash can have their bad days.

She came out of her house, and stood in front of the door. She looked up into the sky, flared her wings, and took off with the insane speed, leaving a rainbow trail behind her. After making some tricks, when she was flying in a breakneck speed straight to Sweet Apple Acres, she felt a sharp pain in her right wing. She shut her eyes and grit her teeth, “Ow! What the...?” She turned her head to the right to check her wing. What she saw made her eyes go wide in shock, and her pupils turned to pinpricks. One of her primaries was basically ripped out from her wing, which absence created a huge space between the feathers. She was unable to fly with that gap. She could see droplets of blood coming out from the place, where the feather used to be.

“Owww, ponyfeathers…”

It happened to her before, so she exactly knew what to do. She knew she was unable to fly much longer, and if she doesn’t keep the balance, she’ll begin to fly in a corkscrew. The crash was now unavoidable. She had to find something to crash on safely as fast as she could.

The small lake in the distance caught her attention. It seemed to be the only reasonable place to crash. There were no other safe landing spots next to her, so she head over there.

Sadly, she was descending much faster than she expected. She started to wonder if she’ll make it to her safe landing spot. As she got dangerously close to the ground, her hope of crashing safely almost completely faded. She didn’t want to crash too soon, which will result meeting a hard, grassy surface, so without worrying about a pain she flapped her wings as fast as she could, as well trying to keep the airflow equal between her healthy and damaged wing.

“Ow! Come on wings!” she started growling and moaning because of the indescribable pain coming straight to her spine from her right wing, “Owwwwwww, Don’t fail me! Ow! Not now!” She cried as loud as she could, grit her teeth, and flapped even faster. Happily, she managed to accelerate to enough speed to make her safely reach her crashing zone. She stopped flapping, and let herself fall and dive into the pond.

After a second she emerged from the water, and swam to the edge of her crash pond. She came out of it, and shook her body in order to dry her coat. She found herself just mere meters from apple orchards. Well, she preferred crashing the pond instead of being pierced through by a branch… Just a thought about it made Rainbow Dash wince.

She looked at her wing in order to examine the damage a little bit closer. She flapped it once, which made it start to hurt so much that she shut her eyes and hissed, because she couldn’t stand the pain.

She sighed, “Well, Rainbow Dash, remember to preen your wings from time to time…” She said to herself, and made a mental note to write this sentence in bold above her bed, so she could see it every time she wakes up.

She stared at her wing a little bit longer, and moaned, “Darn it, so much flying for now… Without a full set of feathers it’s very hard to fly, but first the pain has to fade to even think about taking off. It will take 2 weeks or more, but I’ll be almost unable to fly before my feather fully recovers, and primaries take a lot of time to recover… unless… somepony helps them…” she smiled, and looked at the library tree, which was visible in the distance, “by magic…”

Rainbow’s mind immediately shown her an image of her lavender coated crush, Twilight Sparkle. She adored and loved this unicorn so much. Her love to this mare grew over time since she came to Ponyville from Canterlot to study magic of friendship. They both with her four friends became the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, her, being the strongest Element of Magic, and Rainbow being the Element of Loyalty. They both saved Equestria twice with their friends, which made her feeling even stronger. She didn’t want to talk to her about it, because she was afraid of her rejection and she had to be completely sure that she loves her back. She didn’t want to ruin their friendship by telling this to her. It became her life’s destiny to find out her feelings, and to finally say straight to her face that she loves her.

Rainbow shook her head, and she came back to reality again. “I guess that nopony would do it better than Twilight…” She retracted her wings to her sides, but as the pain hit her mind again she had to flare the damaged one back open. “Ow! I guess I have to walk with the extended wing…” She said, as she started walking to Ponyville.

***

Twilight’s morning was the same as always – getting up, eating breakfast, taking a refreshing shower and opening the library. She got a party invitation from Pinkie Pie earlier today as well. She always liked parties, but she especially loved these hosted by the pony, who was, after all, a party pony. She opened the library flipping the sign on the front door to “Open”. She decided that this day would be the day, when she will read some more books about unicorn magic, and hopefully learn some new interesting spells. But… was it a different day than the others then?

Spike was still sleeping upstairs. He’s a baby dragon after all, and being Twilight’s number one assistant, he deserved to sleep as much as he wanted to. Owlowiscious could still help her when he was asleep.

She lay down on her cushion near her fireplace and placed a small round table on her right side with a glass of water on it, and hid herself behind a huge pile of books, which she prepared the day before. She made herself as comfortable as possible. Her horn started to glow, and she levitated to herself the book from the top of the pile. She started examining the cover of the book she picked.

“The magic you didn’t know about: Advanced manipulation spells” she read the title out loud. “I didn’t read that yet. This could be interesting.” She said to herself as she flipped to the first page, which contained the table of contents, and started to read it.

One of the chapters caught her attention immediately, “Gravitation spells?” She read aloud, and narrowed one of her eyes like she was surprised, “Let’s see…” She flipped the pages to the one, where the chapter begins.

She spent about an hour reading it. There were various spells allowing a unicorn to change how gravity works on certain objects, to change gravitational interaction between them, and even reverse the gravity of them. They couldn’t be cast on living creatures anyway, and each of them lasted 5 minutes.

“Hmm, interesting… I should try to do some, but I must be careful not to wake Spike up.” She smiled and looked at the table beside her, “Let’s try to make this table a little bit heavier,” Her horn started glowing purple instantly, and after charging some magic, she lowered her head to point it towards her target. It shot a purple beam, which hit it, making a quiet crack. The room was filled with a bright white flash for a split second.

She looked again at the table, “Let’s see if it worked,” She said, and hit it with her front hoof. The table refused to move, it just vibrated in place. It was basically glued to the ground.

She smiled, “Well, it worked perfectly! Now, let’s try it on something else,” The first thing that caught her attention was a brown unicorn statue, positioned in the middle of the library. “Let’s see if I can cast the same spell on this statue,” She said as she approached it. Her horn started to glow purple again, ready to cast a spell.

***

Rainbow Dash had to go through Sweet Apple Acres to reach Ponyville. When she was walking, she saw an orange silhouette galloping in her direction. She narrowed her eyes and put her hoof above her eyes to cover them from the sun, in order to see better the approaching pony from the distance. She realized it was her friend, Applejack, who was running towards her. Applejack started slowing down after she got closer to the Pegasus.

"Rainbow Dash! You’re okay!” Applejack shouted, and put her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, panting.

“Yes, I am, I’m standing in front of you, and I’m still breathing.“ Rainbow said, smiling a bit.

“Aw shucks Rainbow, ah saw you fallin’ near the orchard! Ah ran here as fast as ah could! Thank Celestia you’re okay, ah thought you didn’t make it! Well, maybe you’re Rainbow Dash, the most…” She stopped, “…never mind, I just was worried about you!” She looked to her left, “Ah see your wing is damaged…” Applejack said as she got her hoof off Rainbow’s shoulder, and pointed it towards her extended right wing.

“Well, it is a reason of my crash…” She said, “But I crashed a pond which was mere meters from the orchard, so I’m okay.”

“Ah was afraid you hit one of my trees or a ground!” Applejack shouted back, her face looking worried, ”What happened to your wing anyway?”

“I forgot to preen my wings after yesterday’s job,” Rainbow growled, and looked at her wing, “Stupid, stupid pegasus…” She said, and looked at her front hooves, frowning. “I always forget to preen them… And here we have a result…” She said, and pointed a gap in her right wing with her hoof. “I lost my primary feather, I’m almost unable to fly without them.” She said, looking at Applejack.

“Ah’m so sorry about you Rainbow,” Applejack said, frowning, “It must hurt so much, you were bleedin’!” She said, now seriously worried about her friend.

Rainbow looked at Applejack again, “Indeed it did, but I’m heading to Twilight’s now, so she can… recover my feather…” She looked to her right, trying to hide her flushing cheeks.

Happily, Applejack didn’t notice that, “Thank Celestia we have a unicorn like Twilight, don’t ya think?” She smiled at the pegasus.

Rainbow looked at the earth pony again, smiling, “Y-yeah… You’re right…”

“Okay, then!” Applejack said, “We can walk together back until we reach mah house. Ah have so much work on the orchard today, so ah won’t accompany you on your way to the library.”

“Okay, let’s go then!” Rainbow shouted back, and grinned.

Applejack’s home was visible in the distance, but it was still far away. During the walk, they were talking about today’s events, laughing together at what ridiculous things had happened just since they woke up. It turned out, that Applejack got the invitation from Pinkie Pie as well. It wasn’t surprising, since everypony was invited after all. They finally approached Applejack’s home.

“Here we are, Rainbow Dash.” Applejack said, looking at the pegasus. “Ah have to get back to mah brother, he must be worried about me right now. Say hello to Twilight from her fellow Applejack!” She said, smiling, and poked Rainbow on her shoulder.

“Will do, Applejack! Thanks for the walk!” Rainbow answered.

“No problem, Sugarcube. Get well soon!” Applejack said.

After that, they went their own ways. Rainbow made her way to Ponyville, Applejack went back to her brother.

Not much time passed before Rainbow approached her destination, Ponyville. She headed towards Twilight’s home. After several minutes, she stood at the front door of the library tree, and looked up to the sky. She could see upper branches of the tree, covered by green leaves. She saw some birds flying off them. She looked at the library’s front door once again, and realized there was a sign, which read “Open”.

Rainbow struggled with her feelings for the moment, “Come on, Rainbow. Stop being so scared, Rainbow Dash is never scared of anything!” she closed her eyes, “Let’s do this…” She said, as she pushed the door open.

***

Twilight was just about to cast a spell on a statue, when the door to the library opened.

“Hey Twilight!” the voice shouted so loud, that it startled the unicorn. It caused the spell to double its power, and it came out of control. Twilight immediately turned her head to face her sudden guest. It was Rainbow Dash. The fact that she turned her head was a horrible mistake, which catastrophic results she was going to face in a second.

Rainbow Dash walked a few steps into the library, and saw Twilight looking at her. Her eyes were white, her horn was glowing purple, ready to shot.

“Wha-” Rainbow was cut off by Twilight’s horn, which shot a purple beam and hit the bookshelf just above Rainbow’s head. Rainbow looked up, then back to Twilight, scared. “What was that supposed to mean?”

Twilight exactly knew what was going to happen right then. “RAINBOW! JUMP FORWARD NOW!” She shouted to a pegasus, who, without any further questions, did what she said. The spell was so strong, that the insanely increased gravity caused the bookshelf to shift its weight forward, and it completely shattered on the ground by falling from the height of just 2 meters. Rainbow avoided the falling bookshelf with the insane force at her head just by mere inches.

Rainbow hit the floor by her whole body. She opened her eyes, and saw a pair of purple hooves in front of her face. She looked up to see Twilight staring at her, her eyes full of worry.

“Oh my gosh Rainbow, Are you okay? I’m so sorry!” Twilight instantly took Rainbow by her shoulders, helping her to stand up on her four. Rainbow accepted the help, and got up from the floor.

Rainbow shook her head, “I-I’m fine Twilight, don’t wo-“ She was cut off again, but this time by a sight of Twilight, who started desperately examining every part of her body to find any damage that could be caused by a falling object or an interaction with the floor.

“Sorry sorry sorry sorry Rainbow would you ever forgive me that please please ple-mlrph!” Rainbow silenced the mare by putting her hoof into her mouth.

“Calm down there, Twily. I’m okay! Stop acting like Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow said, smiling, and looked straight into Twilight’s eyes. She placed her hoof back to the ground.

“…What in the name of Celestia is going on there?!” Spike shouted from the room above.

Twilight gasped, and looked up to the room. She completely forgot about a sleeping baby dragon upstairs. “Nothing important, Spike, go back to sleep! I’ll call you when I need you!” Twilight shouted back. The loud groan of the dragon could be heard in the background.

She looked back at Rainbow Dash, tears almost welling up in her eyes. She closed her eyes tight, grit her teeth, and her face immediately switched to an anger expression. She shifted her weight forward. Rainbow moved away from the sudden assault of her friend by shifting her weight backwards, she was shocked by a sudden change of her friend’s expression.

Twilight started talking with a louder voice, but not loud enough to wake Spike again, almost from above Rainbow’s head, “Don’t you ever scare a unicorn when they perform magic! I almost killed you!” Twilight started panting through her grit teeth. She started feeling guilty straight away when she saw this poor, injured and shocked pegasus standing in front of her, looking up at her eyes with her tiny pupils. She- wait… injured?!

Twilight’s eyes shot wide, and her jaw dropped. She came back on her four.

“W-What happened t-to your w-wing?!” Twilight said, and pointed her hoof at Rainbow’s damaged wing.

Rainbow Dash, finally feeling safe, came back to her four too and chuckled a little. She scratched a back of her head and said, “Well, that’s the reason I came here.”

“T-tell me what h-happened!” Twilight said, almost crying.

Rainbow felt her cheeks start to flush. She was happy to see how much her… her lover… is worried about her. She was trying to hide her flushing cheeks by looking away from her.

She started to chuckle, and said, “Heh, well, I just forgot to preen my wings after yesterday’s work, and when I was making some training my feather just got ripped off from my wing and I crashed-“

Rainbow was cut off by a unicorn, “What? Ripped off? You crashed? Where? Are you hurt somewhere else? Gosh your wing must hurt so much right now… can I help you somehow? Maybe yo-”

Rainbow cut Twilight off, “Calm down, Twilight, please. I’m okay in 100%…” she looked at her wing, “…o-okay, in 95%,” she looked back at Twilight again, “But don’t worry, I’m fine. Yes, my wing hurts so much, and, as I said before, I came here to ask you to help me.”

Twilight finally calmed down. “I’d be glad to help. I can recover the feather easily, but it’s going to take some time, so you have to be ready.” She said.

“That’s what I was thinking about, Twilight!” Rainbow said, smiling back. “How much time is it going to take?”

"I haven’t done it for ages now, I have to find a book about the anatomy of pegasus wings to remember how the feather is supposed to look, but I think it won’t be that hard for me to recover it.” Twilight answered.

“Heh, you’re an Element of Magic, nothing can be hard for you about this stuff,” Rainbow said, and grinned.

Twilight blushed in response, “Thanks, Rainbow…” She looked away, “But first off, I have to clean this mess.” She said, pointing her hoof to the remains of the bookshelf.

The gravitation spell had ended, so she easily levitated the parts of the bookshelf by her magic, and fixed it in just a few minutes. She lifted it to a place where it belongs, and put back the books on its shelves.

Rainbow watched in awe as Twilight turned a stack of wood back into the bookshelf. “Wow, you’ll recover my feather in the same way?“ She asked.

Twilight looked at Rainbow, and chuckled, “No, Rainbow. I wouldn’t be recovering anything. I’ll just speed up a process. I have to know the anatomy of a pegasus wing, because I have to know which nerves do I have to work on to make your wing produce a new feather.”

“Uh-huh…” she scratched her chin by her hoof, “But won’t it be weaker because it was recovered too fast?” She inquired, looking concerned.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow, it will be the same feather as the one, for which you would have to wait several weeks to recover itself.” Twilight answered, smiling.

“So, how much time do you think will it take?” Rainbow asked, smiling back.

Twilight scratched her chin, “Hmmm, I was recovering birds’ feathers in half an hour, and since pegasus feathers are more complex, and we’re talking here about a primary feather, I assume I’ll recover it in…” she paused, “…in about 2 hours.” She ended, smiling.

Rainbow smiled back, “Well, It’s not that much! We’ll have plenty of time before Pinkie’s party. You’re invited, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am! I thought she wrote that everypony in town is invited?” Twilight said, chuckling.

"Oh… right. You have a point,” Rainbow said, chuckled, and paused. She thought this is the best moment to make a joke, “But wait a second, you said you wouldn’t be recovering anything!” She grinned.

"Wha-“ Twilight just finished processing Rainbow’s sentence, and facehoofed. “Rainbow… what I meant by that was that I-“

Rainbow cut her off, “Okay, okay, I was just joking,” she said, chuckling.

Twilight started to laugh, “Haha Rainbow… Do you really have to make jokes from my mistakes every time?”

Rainbow laughed too, “Well, I like to do this!”

Twilight stopped to laugh, and smiled, “I see…”

She suddenly remembered that she didn’t ask her the one important question before, “Hey, Twi, what was that what you were doing with that magic anyway?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, I found a book about advanced manipulation spells, and a chapter about gravitation spells caught my eye. There was a spell that makes objects more susceptible to gravity, and I wanted to try it out.” Twilight answered.

“So you basically wanted to make this statue”, she pointed her hoof at the brown unicorn statue in the middle of the library, “um… heavier, but I scared you, and you shot the bookshelf above my head instead of it?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what had happened.” Twilight said.

“Whoops… sorry…” Rainbow’s head dropped down, and her mouth turned into a frown.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow, everything is ok now, you don’t have to apologize.” Twilight put her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, and smiled.

Rainbow raised her head back up, to be welcomed by Twilight’s smiling face. “Aren’t you mad at me?” Rainbow said, still frowning.

“Not at all, Rainbow. I fixed all the damage I’ve done. The only thing that matters is that you’re alive,” Twilight said.

The pegasus smiled, and started to chuckle, “But only thanks to you…” She said, and gave Twilight a hug. Twilight was surprised in the first second, but she returned it with joy.

“If you didn’t tell me to jump, I wouldn’t be here anymore…” Rainbow said, on the verge of tears.

Twilight smiled, “You’re welcome, Rainbow. What are friends for?”

After the time which seemed like eternity, Rainbow broke the hug. Twilight was the first to speak, “Now, let’s go to recover your feather. I can’t stand looking at your damaged wing anymore.” Twilight said.

“Heh, okay… So, what’s the plan?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight began to talk, “Well, it needs a lot of unicorn magic to speed up the recovery. I’ll be speeding it up by interfering with your passive pegasus magic, so we’ll be both exhausted after we finish up the process.” She levitated a cushion from the corner of the room, and placed it beside her own, which was near the unlit fireplace, “You’ll be laying down on this cushion, and I’ll be laying on mine just beside you. Your right wing must be faced towards my horn to let me work on it with my magic. The most important thing is that you mustn’t fall asleep. We’ll have time to sleep later. Do you understand?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, I think I get it.” Rainbow answered.

“So, are you ready to begin?” Twilight inquired.

Rainbow quickly jumped on her cushion, and made herself as comfortable as she could. “Yes, I am!”

“Okay, I’ll bring the book, wait for me a second.” Twilight answered, and went upstairs. She got back about 1 minute later, levitating the book in front of her by her magic. She positioned herself on her cushion, facing Rainbow’s wing. She opened the book, and flipped its pages to finally reveal the part she was looking for.

“Okay, got it. Now, relax, and let me work on your wing.” She said, as her horn began to glow.

“Wait a sec…” Rainbow interrupted, “Do you think we’ll make it to Pinkie’s today?” she asked.

Twilight’s horn stopped to glow, “After the process we have to sleep together to recover our energy. We still have 8 hours to the party, so I think there’s no problem to make a short nap. You like napping, don’t you?” Twilight inquired, and grinned.

“Um…” Rainbow’s eyes shot wide, and her cheeks turned to a deep shade of red. Twilight raised an eyebrow, but after some thinking, she realized what she just said, and her cheeks turned to red as well in an instant. “Um…” She felt so embarrassed about what she just said.

“I-I mean, you on your own cushion and me on my own…” Twilight quickly corrected herself, looking away to not look Rainbow in her eyes.

“I-I know… I know what you meant…” Rainbow answered, her cheeks still red.

Twilight still felt ashamed, “So… a-are you ready?”

“Y-yes… go ahead…” Rainbow answered.

“Oh, almost forgot,” She said as she pointed her horn towards the library’s main entrance. She flipped the sign on the other side of library’s door to “Closed”, and locked them. Then she turned her head to look upstairs, “Spike?” she shouted.

The purple dragon went out from the room after some seconds, rubbing his eyes. “What’s wrong, Twilight?”

“I’ll be working on fixing Rainbow’s wing in the next few hours, so would you be so kind and not interrupt us?” Twilight asked.

Spike faced the laying pegasus, “You damaged your wing again? I feel so sorry for you…”

“It happens from time to time…” Rainbow answered back, sighing.

“I won’t interrupt you then, girls. Thanks for telling me!” Spike turned about and walked back to the room.

“Thanks!” Twilight shouted, and faced the pegasus. “So, for the third time – Are you ready?” She smiled.

“I trust you, Twilight. Do what you need to do.” She answered, a smile grew on her face.

Twilight’s cheeks started to flush again, “Th-thanks, Rainbow… Remember, you mustn’t fall asleep.” Her horn started to glow, and she began the healing process.

Wings are the most sensitive parts of the pegasus body. They are considered as a very private areas, so even looking at them can be sometimes offensive to the pegasus. If he lets another pony to touch his wings, it is a sign, that he has a complete confidence to this pony. Just like Rainbow and Twilight right now.

Rainbow Dash was constantly feeling a tingling sensation in her wing during the healing process, and she felt her feather slowly grow back up. Her wing was constantly covered in a purple aura, which was the working Twilight’s magic. She was looking at her from time to time, just to see her laying down beside her with her eyes closed, and her horn glowing. Sometimes, when Twilight touched Rainbow at the very sensitive spot on her wing by her magic, about which she didn’t even know, she made her squeak lightly. Then the pegasus was facing Twilight, just to see her smiling face. Rainbow was always smiling back. Twilight was proud of herself, that she was the one, who was allowed to heal the pegasus. She finished her work after a bit more than 2 hours.

“I’m done!” Twilight said, her voice quiet.

Rainbow examined her wing, and saw that she has a full set of feathers again. “Thanks, Twilight. I knew I could count on you…” She said, quietly as well. They were both exhausted.

Twilight, seeing that her other feathers are misplaced, wrapped both of Rainbow’s wings by her magic. “Can I?” She asked, smiling a bit.

Rainbow Dash, knowing that Twilight wanted to preen her wings, slowly flared open both of them, and said, “Of course, go ahead…”

Twilight started to fix every misplaced feather by her magic, making Rainbow quietly moan from pleasure. Rainbow didn’t like to preen her wings, but being preened by somepony is totally a different story. She felt so good, knowing that it was Twilight who made an outstanding job preening her wings right now.

“Oh my gosh, Twilight, you are so good at this…” She said, between her moans.

“I’ve never done this before…” She said, smiling. “You know something, Rainbow?” Twilight inquired.

“What is it, Twilight?” She asked, curious.

Twilight began to talk after a second, “I… I love your wings…” She said, as she continued preening. Rainbow started to smile. Then Twilight continued, “Your wings are your life, I would never forgive myself if I let your wings be hurt and not to help you…”

“Th-thanks, Twilight…” was the only thing that Rainbow was capable of saying right now.

Twilight finally finished her work on preening the wings of the cyan pegasus. She was so exhausted, the only think she was thinking about now was a slumber.

“I’m done, Rainbow.” Twilight said, “Are you feeling better right now?”

“A lot better…” Rainbow answered and flapped her wings a few times by her remaining energy. She felt that the tension in her wings completely subsided. “But I need to sleep right now…”

“Yes, me too. Spike?” she called.

The green-scaled dragon appeared upstairs, “What is it?”

“Can you wake us up at 7? We’re going to sleep, we’re exhausted, and we want to go to Pinkie’s today…” Twilight said, quietly.

“I see,” Spike said, “You can count on me, then.” He turned about and disappeared in the room.

Twilight faced Rainbow again. “Well, have a nice sleep, Rainbow,” Twilight said.

“You too, Twilight…” Rainbow answered, and they both immediately fell asleep.

Chapter II - Dragon Crusading

Dashed Thoughts

by Chevan

Chapter II – Dragon Crusading

Spike awoke after just a little bit more sleeping. His mouth stretched by itself, preparing to make a yawn. He didn’t want to wake up the two ponies still sleeping downstairs too soon by his usual yawn, so he managed to do it quietly. Glancing through his half-closed eyelids at the clock just above the doorway, he found out it was 2 PM.

‘Whoa, I’ve slept so much today. I feel like I slept off the whole week. Well, I think it’s time to get up,’ He thought while getting up on his sleeping basket. While exiting it he stumbled on its edge, what caused him to fall forward to the floor causing a loud thud.

“Owwwwwww,” he moaned in an instant after the contact with the hard surface, ‘Jeez, why do I always have to forget about this! I hope I didn’t wake them up…’ He thought when he finally got back to his senses. He rose up from the ground, and cleaned his dirty abdomen using his claws.

He left the room, and went down the stairs to the library. He turned his head to face the fireplace, and in front of it he found the two sleeping ponies – the prismatic-maned pegasus, and the purple unicorn – each on her own cushion. He started walking up closer to them, all the time trying to not make a single sound.

The sight of them in close proximity made his mouth curl up to the smile.

Rainbow Dash was snoring quietly, and her wings were retracted to her sides. The damaged wing looked completely healed and in perfect condition, as Twilight always did a great job. Her wings were in the shape they supposed to be, it was not hard to notice she even preened the feathers in both of them. Spike wasn’t an expert in pegasus anatomy, but he knew a little but about the structure and behavior of the pegasus wing. From what he saw of Twilight and Rainbow, it was enough for him to assess their state. Her front hooves were hanging down from the edge of the cushion, her head was resting between them, and her eyes tightly closed. She looked just like she was sleeping on a cloud, but from much shorter distance.

Twilight was sleeping on her own cushion just beside her. She was laying in the same position as Rainbow, it seemed that everypony liked sleeping like that. Her horn was facing Rainbow’s wing, like during the time she was recovering the feather. Twilight was not snoring, unlike her pegasus friend.

Spike’s stomach started to growl loudly. He put his claws on it, trying to suppress the embarrassing sound of his food-wanting stomach, ‘Heh, it’s time to hunt for some gems,’ he thought as he made his way towards the kitchen.

After eating a delicious meal, he stood at the doorway. Scanning around the library, his attention was caught by an open book laying down on the floor just beside the unicorn statue in the middle. He got closer, and examined it further. By looking at its cover he was informed that the book was about advanced manipulation spells, and it was open on the page which contained gravitation spells. Now he was almost certain what caused this enormously loud crash when Rainbow Dash arrived.

‘Gravitation spells? So Twilight can now control gravity? For the first time I thought Twilight hit or dropped something, or whatever she did with that magic of hers, but now I think that something just fell because of the big change of gravitation… But what could fall with that much force?’ He looked around the room, trying to find an object heavy enough to make the whole library tree shake by an impact with the floor. After some thinking, he came up to the conclusion, ‘I think it was this bookshelf right above the entrance, I can’t see any other reasonable explanation…’ He thought.

He approached the table which was right beside Twilight and put the book on it, then turned around and sit on the stairs.

‘I don’t have anything to do in the library right now, and it’s closed because Twilight’s sleeping.’ He sat there for a while, and after some thinking he finally came up with an idea. “I’ll go to check on Cutie Mark Crusaders, maybe they need some help with their crusading, as always…” He said quietly to himself.

He took a piece of paper and wrote a note that said that he went to the Crusaders, and placed it on the table beside Twilight, in case they wake up sooner and they could not find him around.

He rose up from the stairs and headed to the exit of the library. After unlocking the door, he went outside and closed it behind him. He made his way towards Sweet Apple Acres.

When he was about to get into the orchard, he encountered Applejack with an empty applecart attached to her back, going back to the orchard to continue her work.

“Howdy there, partner! What brings ya ‘round?” She asked.

“Hey, Applejack! I was just thinking if Crusaders needed some help, do you know where they are?” Spike replied.

“Ah reckon they’re in their clubhouse, ‘cos earlier today Applebloom told me that they’re gonna be thinkin’ ‘bout more ways to get their cutie marks…” she chuckled, “…as always,”

“Thanks, Applejack! I’m gonna go and find them,” Spike said as he began walking inside the orchard, Applejack walking just beside him.

“Ah will go with ya, then!” Applejack shouted. After some time walking she looked at the dragon and asked, “So, did Rainbow make it to the library?”

“Ah yes, she did. I was sleeping then, so I don’t know exactly when she entered, but I saw her after Twilight called me to tell me something,” Spike answered.

“How’s that wing o’hers? Ow shucks, it didn’t look so good…” Applejack said, clearly worried about her pegasus friend.

“Yeah, it looked pretty bad, I felt so sorry for her. But Twilight recovered the feather, so let’s say she’s okay now.” Spike said, looking at Applejack with a smile.

“Well that’s good news! Ah reckon she’s happy now,” Applejack said, smiling.

“I’m sure she is. They were both exhausted after the process, so they’re both sleeping in the library right now, that’s why I’m going to check on crusaders, you know, to not wake them up,” Spike answered.

“Ah understand, Ah’m not surprised it was mighta exhaustin' for both of 'em. But they’re gonna come to Pinkie’s today, ain't they?” Applejack said.

“Yes they are, I have to come back home at 7 to wake them up, just as Twilight asked me to. They wouldn’t miss Pinkie’s party for anything,” Spike answered, smiling.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders’ Clubhouse was located deep inside Apple Family Orchards. They walked together for about five more minutes, talking about what could have happened while Spike was asleep.

When the clubhouse was starting to be visible, they parted ways, waving goodbye to each other. Applejack went to the nearest apple trees to buck some apples, and Spike made his way towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse.

He could hear some sounds coming from inside, so he was certain that they were there. Spike knocked at the door, and they were quarreling about who should answer it. Scootaloo was the one who managed to open it after what seemed to be an eternity.

Scootaloo had an angry expression drawn on her face while opening the door. Spike assumed the other ponies made her answer it by telling her like ‘it’s your turn’, or ‘I was answering the door last time’ kind of reasons. But despite that, Scootaloo started to grin immediately after she saw who is waiting on the other side.

“Hey Spike! Sorry you had to wait for so much time, come on in!” Scootaloo said, letting the dragon inside.

“Hey Spike!” said both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in unison as soon as they saw Spike walking in.

“Hey girls, I thought you wanted some help with crusading so I… I…“ Spike cut out when he figured out what was laying on the table right beside Apple Bloom. His eyes got wide, and his jaw dropped.

There laid a big, cyan, probably primary feather.

“W-Where did you g-get this from?” Spike said, pointing at the table with a feather on it.

All of the crusaders turned their heads to face the table. Then they all looked back at Spike, grinning.

“We were makin’ some crusadin’ today ‘round the orchard, and we found this layin’ in a grass-” Started Apple Bloom,

“-we thought it is great to have the feather because it supposedly brings luck-“ Added Sweetie Belle.

“-so we brought it here so we will have more luck and we will have our cutie marks sooner!” Finished Scootaloo. All of them started grinning even more, but the dragon looked still aghast.

“D-Do you know w-who it belongs to?” After that the trio started scratching their chins, thinking about an answer.

After a while Scootaloo said, “To a cerulean pegasus?” she beamed, but in an instant her jaw dropped and her eyes shot wide just like Spike’s own, “…or cyan?… wait a second… is it…?” she said, picking the feather up from the table and examining it closely. She wanted to be sure if she’s right, “Y-Yes, it is clearly cyan… D-Does it belong to…” She said, still staring at the cyan primary with wide eyes.

Spike’s nod was enough to make Scootaloo grin like crazy and shoot up from excitement. She now holds her idol’s feather, the feather of the most awesome and the fastest Pegasus in all of Equestria!

“Aww yeah! If it belongs to Rainbow Dash, we’ll be… wait… we are the luckiest foals in all of Equestria!” she faced the other two crusaders, who looked clearly confused, “Do you know girls what does it mean?” Scootaloo said, beaming.

“We know Scootaloo, but we know who it belongs to, so we simply cannot appropriate it!” Sweetie Belle started.

“We have to return it, or at least ask her for permission to keep it. Don’t you think she may be hurt?” Apple Bloom added in an instant after the unicorn.

“She was hurt, her wing was badly damaged by a feather ripping out, but Twilight used her magic to heal her,” Spike added.

Scootaloo turned her head to Spike immediately, her pupils like pinpricks, “She was hurt? What exactly happened?”

“Well, I don’t know much, because I was sleeping when she came around. The only thing I know is that she lost her feather,” he pointed at the cyan feather, which was still in Scootaloo’s hoof, “and Twilight recovered it by her magic. That’s all I know.”

Scootaloo’s eyes went back to normal, she was evidently calming down, “Is she in the library now?”

Spike answered after a second, “Yeah, she is, but they’re both sleeping right now, and they told me to wake them up at 7 today so they can go to Pinkie’s,” he paused, “you can go with me, but until then, what do you have in plans for today, Crusaders?”

“We wanted to try somethin’ extreme today, wanna come with us?” Apple Bloom said.

Spike gulped, knowing what he is getting himself into, “O-okay, whatever you’re planning, let’s get this over with…”

***

Twilight’s eyelids parted, her vision was blurry. Her body started to shiver a little from coldness. She rose up from her cushion and started looking around trying to find a blanket. When her sight went back to normal she saw a note on the table beside her. It was from Spike. It said that he went to Crusaders’ Clubhouse and he’ll be back at 7, and that he left the note in case they wake up sooner and they couldn’t find him anywhere. Twilight smiled, and resumed searching for a blanket.

She slowly trotted upstairs to her room, where she took two blankets from the drawer using her now weak magic to perform a levitation spell. She turned around, and looking at the clock above the entrance she found it to be 3pm. She went back downstairs, and put one of the blankets around Rainbow, making her move in place a little and lightly smile in response.

Twilight’s lips turned to the smile as well, ‘I know pegasus ponies never feel cold, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a blanket,’

She laid back down on her own cushion, and put the second blanket on her just like she did on Rainbow. She smiled, welcoming a heat that now graced her body. She closed her eyes and immediately continued her peaceful slumber.

***

Apple Bloom was serious when she said that this crusading they planned for today was going to be extreme. They planned… hang gliding. Apple Bloom had done this before with Rainbow Dash before Diamond Tiara’s cuteceañera, but she didn’t make it just because she stumbled, which resulted in a 180-degree forward somersault. She still had the hang glider in a clubhouse, so they didn’t have to worry about making or buying one.

Cutie Mark Crusaders Hang Gliders was really dangerous, it was all basically about jumping off the cliff with a hang glider tied to their back… Happily, they had a pegasus in their squad. Scootaloo had improved her flying skills recently, so if anything had gone bad, she was ready to rescue her friends.

They were jumping off the edge one after one, one at the same time. Scootaloo was flying just below them, ready to catch them if anything went wrong. Her wings were flapping making a buzzing sound like a fly. She wasn’t as fast and agile as Rainbow Dash, but she knew she could catch her falling friends and safely put them on the ground.

Results of the crusading were unfortunately mixed. Sweetie Belle almost crashed against the thorns, thankfully Scootaloo saved her. Apple Bloom and, after some convincing – Spike, managed to reach the ground safely. When Scootaloo had her turn, the wind changed so much that it broke the mounting of the hang glide. She managed to recover herself, and she landed safely on the ground. Sadly, the now unattached hang glide crashed against the tree and shattered to pieces.

Scootaloo frowned looking at the destroyed equipment. Their hang gliding adventures came to the end…

She looked at her flank. It was blank…

Scootaloo groaned, and took off back to her friends, who were waiting up on the cliff.

Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had blank flanks as well, so hang gliding became an another entry on their “To Do”, or “To Crusade” list to strike off. Needless to say, hang gliding is not their special talent.

They all headed back towards the clubhouse, their heads dropped down.

“We tried almost everything, and we still don’t have our cutie marks!” Scootaloo cried.

“Don’t worry Scoots, we still have a lot of ideas on our list!” Said Sweetie Belle.

“But… Guys! We tried almost everything! We’ll never find our special talents!” Scootaloo groaned.

“Hey, but hang gliding was so much fun, wasn’t it?” Spike said.

“Yeah, it was, but the point of it was gettin’ a cutie mark, and we still don’t have it!” Apple Bloom said.

Spike was trying his best to cheer the Crusaders up, “Aw come on, you have plenty of other stuff to do in Ponyville, you’ll surely find something that’s your special talent!” He smiled.

“Psh, yeah… maybe someday…” Apple Bloom huffed.

“Hey, we can all go back with me to the library, you’re going to Pinkie’s anyway. I have to wake Twilight and Rainbow up.” Spike said.

“Okaaay,” they all said in unison, not showing a single sign of happiness.

They were walking to the library for almost half an hour. During that time they were all talking about the other ideas to get their cutie marks, about what are they going to do at Pinkie’s party, and what are they going to do tomorrow together. Spike always had great ideas, the foals were so grateful for his help.

As they arrived to the library, they slowly opened the door and walked inside. In the background they saw the two ponies sleeping near the fireplace, but they were now covered in blankets. They silently walked closer to them, and looked with a smile at the sleeping mares in front of them. They decided to wake Twilight first.

Spike lightly poked her shoulder, and whispered to her ear, “Twilight,” he paused, “Twilight, wake up, it’s 7!”

Her eyes started to slowly open. She rubbed her eyes, and looked at the group in front of her, “Oh, hello Spike, hello girls,” She inhaled, and stretched her mouth to a quiet yawn. She slowly got up on her hooves, and took the blanket off her using her magic. She folded it and placed it on the cushion, “Thanks for waking me up.”

“No problem, Twilight! We came back with Spike, he said you wanted him to wake y’all up,” Apple Bloom said, grinning.

Spike began to talk, “You know, Twilight, I was-“

He was cut off by Twilight, “I know where you were, Spike, I read the note you left. Thanks for remembering to do that. Now, let’s wake our prismatic friend up,” Twilight said, getting closer to Rainbow Dash with a smirk. She poked her shoulder, wanting to bring her back from her dreamland.

***

Rainbow Dash was dreaming about flying, flying above the clouds… flying with Twilight. Twilight wasn’t a pegasus, she was a unicorn, but she flew. She flew… somehow… she couldn’t see how she did it yet. She was just up in the clouds with her.

They both landed on a puffy surface. Wait… is she standing on it? She didn’t fall through? That wasn’t right. Something was wrong.

All of the sudden, the magical, transparent purple wings appeared, spreading out from her sides. Rainbow Dash was surprised by a sudden appearance of the magical pegasus wings, shining a purple light. They were sparkling. Something felt so weird, she’s not a pegasus, she can’t walk on clouds, she can’t fly. Once she told her that’s impossible for a unicorn to have permanent and true pegasus wings, since it’s impossible to make an exact copy of pegasus magic… But she managed to make them somehow… she managed to make them work… she was with her up in the clouds. It was… magical. Truly magical.

Rainbow Dash was so happy she had her there. She spread her own wings, smiling widely. She wanted to exhibit them to her, she wanted Twilight to know that her wings perfectly matches her own in shape.

She felt a sudden warmth all across her body. She didn’t know where it came from. She moved in her place and smiled a little as she felt a pleasant heat coming through her spine. It was like… like somepony put a blanket on her.

She looked at Twilight, “Will you ever do something with that magic of yours that will not surprise me, egghead?”, she said, poking her chest.

Twilight smiled in response, “I don’t think so, Rainbow.”

They took off, they were flying around for a time that seemed like eternity. They were above Ponyville, in Cloudsdale, they were almost everywhere from Las Pegasus all across to Fillydelphia. They were performing tricks together, playing around, even racing each other!

After some time they both landed on a cloud just beside each other. They were laughing. Laughing out loud! Rainbow Dash was so happy about the last events. They were the best times in her life. When they finally stopped laughing, she came closer to a now alicorn Twilight Sparkle, her eyes a bit narrowed, and said, “I wish we could hang out like that some more…”

Twilight chuckled, “Rainbow Dash, wake up!”

Rainbow moved away from her, her face showing a confused look. It wasn’t an answer she expected from her, “Huh? What did you say?”

“Raaainbooooow…”

Everything around her started to turn black. Everything except smiling Twilight Sparkle sitting in front of Rainbow. She recoiled back, full of shock, and spread her wings, preparing for something dangerous to come. Then, the alicorn Twilight started disappearing as well. Rainbow rushed to her, but before she reached her, Twilight vanished into thin air.

“WHAT? WHAT’S HAPPENING?” She cried out loud, her eyes shot wide open, what made all four ponies plus one dragon around her scared to the limit. They all jumped backwards to the ground. Rainbow took off with an insane force straight up. She was hovering a few meters above the floor, panting heavily.

Everybody below got up from the ground, and started to look at the frightened Rainbow Dash above them.

“We’re so sorry Rainbow, we didn’t mean to scare you,” Spike said with his claw scratching the back of his head.

Rainbow Dash turned her head to face all of them below, “What? Me? Scared? Rainbow Dash has no fear! Rainbow Dash is not scared of anything!” She said, puffing her chest to show her endless braveness and awesomeness.

“Yeah, right,” all of them said in unison and chuckled at the irritated Rainbow Dash.

“Fine…” she growled, and started to descend, landing on the ground in front of the rest a second later.

She looked at her extended wings and flapped them strongly a few times, letting the air flow through them. She tried to flap them at the speed that will not lift her up. The wind behind her was so strong that it opened the book about manipulation spells on the table behind her and flipped some pages, strangely opening it exactly at the page with gravitation spells.

“Aww yeah, it feels so much better…” She said with a pleased look on her face, and stopped flapping.

She faced Twilight, “Thanks, Twi! You’ve done an amazing job. My wings are in a perfect condition right now! My feather is back, and my wings are preened. You should be the one who preens my wings, even I can’t do it as good as you,” Rainbow said, looking at Twilight with a smile.

Twilight visibly flushed red, and chuckled, “N-no problem, Rainbow,” she got closer to her and nuzzled her neck, “You know I would never leave you hanging, and you can always count on me.”

Rainbow got surprised by a sudden warmth of Twilight’s breath on her neck. She winced in response, her cheeks flushing red a little too, “I-I know you wouldn’t…” ‘oh my gosh don’t go away…’

Sadly for Rainbow Dash, Twilight backed away, and said, looking at her, “What was so scary anyway? What were you dreaming about?”.

Rainbow started looking pouty, “Y-yeah, kind of…” her face shown anger again, “Argh, never mind! I don’t want to talk about this… let’s just go to Pinkie’s...” She said as she started walking towards the door. Tears almost started welling up into her eyes, she tried her best to hide them from view. She didn’t want this dream to end… ‘Come on Rainbow, you are the most awesome pegasus in all Equestria, Rainbow Dash doesn’t cry!’ She thought.

“Rainbow Dash, wait!” Scootaloo shouted, raising her hoof.

Rainbow turned her head, her face still angry, “What do you want, Scootaloo?”

“D-don’t be mad Rainbow, we just wanted to give this to you,” she said, pulling the cyan feather from under her tiny wing, and hoofed it to Dash.

Rainbow Dash was surprised. Her eyes got wide again, she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t expect somepony to bring her back her feather. When she lost them, she always considered them as lost forever. She wanted to go to search for it, because right now she needed it desperately. She knew that if she loses her feather, it’s almost impossible to get it back.

Almost…

“W-where did you g-get this from?” Rainbow asked the orange filly, retrieving the feather from her.

“We were crusading today, we found it laying in the grass near Sweet Apple Acres,” Scootaloo told her.

Rainbow flared her right wing and matched the feather to the one which was recovered by Twilight.

“Shape is correct, color too, size as well… It’s perfect… They’re exactly the same… It’s my lost feather, I’m 100% sure! You have no idea how thankful I am to all of you!” Rainbow said, beaming.

“Do you need it? Because-“ Scootaloo said, but was cut off by Sweetie Belle’s hoof and both of her friends shouting her name.

Yes, Rainbow needed it. She had a plan. She had a secret plan nopony could know about… She pretended she didn’t hear what Scootaloo said.

She put the feather under her right wing, and said, “Thanks Crusaders, I owe you one,” she winked to the trio, “But now, before I go to Pinkie’s, I have to go back to my cloud house and put this feather off. We’ll see at the party, okay?” She said, making her way to the exit.

“No problem, Rainbow!” Scootaloo said,

“We’ll meet there!” Twilight added.

Rainbow smiled at them, “Okay! See you there! Thanks again!”

She got out from the library, closing the door behind her. She took the feather from below her wing to her mouth, and took off towards her home.

‘This is going to be so awesome!’ she thought.

***

“Why did you cut me off? We could have Rainbow Dash’s feather!” Scootaloo shouted to her friends, angry.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, got closer to her, and whispered, “She’s plannin’ somethin’, Ah can see it… Didn’t ya see how happy she was?”

Scootaloo, after some thinking, sighed, “I guess you’re right… You have a point…”

“Come on everypony, let’s go to Pinkie’s, we don’t want to be late, do we?” Twilight said, looking at the three fillies and a dragon in front of her. All four of them nodded in response, and they made their way towards Sugarcube Corner.

Chapter III - Dashed Memories

Dashed Thoughts
by Chevan

Chapter III – Dashed Memories

Rainbow Dash loves flying. You don’t have to be wise to see it, anypony who has seen her flying high above the ground at subsonic speeds, and doing amazing tricks is sure to know about it. She loves the feeling of the wind against her, transforming her prismatic mane and tail into many different messy shapes. The Pegasus magic flowing through both of her wings, all the way up to the tip of her feathers make her feel like a lord of the skies. Each flap of them make her accelerate even more, further increasing the amount of adrenaline her body produces.

Her cyan wings. A pegasi’ treasure. What would she do without them? Flying is her whole life, joining the Wonderbolts is her life’s destiny. What’s the point of being a Pegasus if you can’t, or don’t want to fly? The thought of being unable to fly and being grounded for the rest of the life always makes her wince and shiver.

None of her dreams would be possible without her wings. She wouldn’t be able to do what she always loved. Thanks to Twilight, she’s flying right now, her wing was healed by her magic after an accident she had. She didn’t have to suffer anymore because of the pain and the inability to fly, and she didn’t have to wait the whole two weeks to come back to her aerial world. She started to care about her wings a lot more. She decided to preen them twice a week and check their condition very often by practicing, perfecting her moves, and going to the doctor from time to time.

The lavender unicorn appeared in her imagination again. That damn lavender unicorn, all the time having that smiling face and sparkling, crystal clear magical wings. Her awesome lifesaver and… her love. Rainbow couldn’t get her out of her mind; she got completely distracted by the view of that stunning purple figure. She wasn’t sure if it was oka- *PWUFF*

She was cut off by a suddenly-appearing fluffy obstacle in her way, which she hit against. It made a thunder strike instantly because of the strong impact with a hard body of the Pegasus.

“Waaa! Ponyfeathers!” She growled. Opening her eyes, she was welcomed by a snow-white color - The color of the not-so-big cloud.

She dismounted from it, rubbing her forehead, “Darn it, at least clouds are plush…” She said to herself. She made a mental note to look straight and not get distracted again. She resumed her flight to her cloud house.

After she arrived, she flew into her room through the window, like she always did. She gently placed her hooves at the fluffy ground just beside her bed. Next to it, there was a small nightstand with a drawer. The Wonderbolts alarm clock was placed on it, showing 7:28. She turned to face it, and smiled a little. She placed the feather on the nightstand, just beside the clock, and opened the drawer below using her teeth. Inside, she found a picture. Her eyes got wide as she picked it up with her hoof, and examined it closer.

It was a picture of her and Twilight…

“Rainbow! Want to come to the lake and swim a little?” Asked Twilight, a huge grin painted on her face.

Rainbow loved sunbathing, but she wasn’t a huge fan of swimming. However, she liked to immerse herself in the beautiful lake from time to time. She thought that having some fun on the lake with Twilight was a very good idea after the long day taking care of weather in Ponyville.

“Of course! How could I say no?” She said happily, “Just… lemme bring my sunbed and my totally awesome shades! I'll be back in ten seconds flat!”

When she was about to get back into her house, she realized something strange. How is a unicorn standing in front of her house on a cloud?

She faced Twilight with a slightly surprised face, “Twilight? How did you…” She paused for a second. It just now hit her. It was so obvious since the beginning. She chuckled, “Heh, n-never mind. I’ll be back in lightning speed!”

Twilight put her forehoof to her mouth and responded with a quiet chuckle.

As Rainbow said, she was back in exactly 10 seconds. They were both ready to go.

“Okay, I’m ready to go!” Rainbow exclaimed, going out from her house.

Twilight smiled, “We three are going to have sooo much fun today, don’t you think?”

Rainbow grinned, “Yeah! It’s going to-” she made a confused look, “Wait… three?”

Twilight instructed her with her hoof to look down and see for herself who this third somepony was.

Looking down, Rainbow noticed a certain pink pony, dressed with various swimming accessories and bouncing in place like… like Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow looked at Twilight, “She’s coming with us?”

“Yes, she is,” Twilight responded, nodding.

“Ow yeah! I know it’s gonna be so awesome!” Rainbow beamed.

They caught up together on the ground, Twilight by teleporting Rainbow’s sunbathing accessories and herself back, Rainbow by flying off her cloud home to the ground. They quickly greeted each other and happily made their way towards the lake. They arrived there in almost no time, since it was very close to Rainbow’s house.

Rainbow quickly deployed her sunbathing equipment. Just when she was about to lay on her sunbed and lose herself in the huge ocean of sun rays, she was stopped by a certain overjoyed pink pony.

“Hey Dashie! Wanna come swim with us? This is gonna be so much fun! All three best friends playing in water, weeee! I’m sad that the other girls couldn’t make it but I’m sooo sure we’re going to have sooo much fun together! We can sunbathe, swim, play with a ball, and make sandcastles… but how we’re going to make sandcastles if we don’t have sand here? What do you think Dashie? I don’t think we can make sandcastles with grass, and mlrphhhh-“ Pinkie was silenced by Dash’s hoof. She continued speaking into it with no satisfying results, she was just mumbling into it.

“Okay Pinkie, I don’t know! Let’s go play in the water first.” Rainbow Dash said.

They both got to the edge of the lake, in which Twilight was already in. “Come on girls! Get in and let’s have some fun in the water!” Twilight said, grinning.

Suddenly, Pinkie gasped and exclaimed, “Be right back!” She disappeared, leaving the white dust shape of Pinkie Pie, which disappeared after a second.

Rainbow looked in the direction Pinkie was heading, but she was nowhere to be seen anymore.

“Oh Pinkie Pie, you’re so random!” Rainbow said, laughing.

She touched the surface of the water with the tip of her hoof, checking the temperature of the lake.

“The water’s perfect Rainbow! Come on, get in!” Twilight exclaimed.

The spectral Pegasus didn’t have to be told twice. She smirked to Twilight, “Well, if you insist.” She clapped her hooves together and squealed happily. She flew straight up like 10 meters, closed her wings, and curled herself up into a ball.

“Coming in hot!” She screamed as she hit the lake with a huge splat that completely startled and sunk the unicorn underwater. When Rainbow emerged and saw the completely wet and angry Twilight, she started to laugh. Twilight finally joined her a while after. Rainbow smirked at the still laughing Twilight and splashed the water towards her, making it splash loudlyin her laughing face, making her recoil back.

There was a flash…

Great memories... It felt to her like it was just yesterday. Tears started welling up in her eyes, but she didn’t want to cry. She couldn’t, it wasn’t in her style!

“Rainbow Dash doesn’t cry!” She growled, and tightly shut her eyes. She dropped the picture to the floor and jumped on the bed. She couldn’t help it anymore. She started to sniffle loudly.

“Come on, Rainbow! S-Stop it! R-Rainbow D-Dash... does... NOT... CRY!” She screamed sobbing, her face buried in the soft cloud pillow, which was constantly absorbing all of her tears. She was rapidly hitting her fluffy bed with her hoof; she was so broken, she was fluctuating between love and fear. It was indifferent to her right now if she cries or not, she just wanted everypony to leave her alone right now. She didn’t want anypony to see her in that state.

After some minutes that seemed like eternity, she rose from the bed on her front hooves. She was hyperventilating, looking around the room, searching for any “hostile” ponies. She was completely destroyed. Her eyes were red, her face completely wet. The cloud pillow was filled to the brim with her tears.

She hit the cloud mattress of her bed with an insane force with her hoof and screamed at the top of her lungs, “NO! YOU ARE BRAVE, RAINBOW DASH! STOP BEING SO SCARED! YOU WILL TELL HER!”

She buried herself in the pillow. “But HOW?”

***

Fluttershy, after a long day of animal care, was on her way to Sugarcube Corner to Gummy’s party. She was so happy, she always loved parties hosted by her party pony friend. She was flapping her wings very gently, creating a very small and calming breeze behind her. She was humming a very catchy tune.

When she was flying near Rainbow Dash’s home, she decided to drop by and pick her up, so they could fly there together.

She looked through one of the windows. What she saw made her elicit a small “Eep!”, but she made it quiet enough to not catch her attention.

‘Is she... crying?’ She thought to herself. It was strange to Fluttershy, she had never seen her friend in that bad state before. She decided to wait for something to happen, staring at her crying best friend on the bed through the window.

***

Rainbow Dash didn’t know what to think about it right now. On the one side Twilight was her best friend, the Element of Magic, but on the other, she loved that unicorn for life, she wanted her to be her marefriend.

She growled and started exclaiming again, “Why does it have to happen to me? Why ME?” She hit her cloud pillow with an insane force that made it start to rain her tears to the cloud mattress below.

She hid her eyes behind her hoof and sniffed, “Am I... Am I a...” she stopped, and started crying even more, “A f-fillyfooler?” She fell on her back, and burst into tears, sobbing loudly.

She heard a loud gasp coming from the other side of the window. She stopped weeping immediately, and looked in the direction where the sound came from. Her vision was too blurred to see anything clearly, so all she saw was a yellow and pink blur passing through her window for a split second, disappearing as soon as it appeared.

Her mouth was agape. She didn’t think somepony was looking at her through the window, she regretted she didn’t check it out before.

She rubbed her eyes, and rushed to the window and looked out, just to see a disappearing light pink tail around the corner of her house in the nick of time. Was it... Fluttershy?

“Oh buck...” She frowned and sighed, “Now she knows... This will not turn out good for me…”

Rainbow was thinking about being watched by Fluttershy in that state. ‘For how long was she standing there? How much did she hear? Is she going to tell Twilight about that? I hope she doesn’t… I hope she’ll understand…’

She came back to her bed, and, still frowning, picked up the photo from the ground. She kissed it, and smiled a little, “I love you, Twilight...” she whispered to herself, and placed the photo in the nightstand, still sniffing from time to time. “You have no idea how much...” She said, picking up the feather from the nightstand. After examining it closer, she placed the feather into the drawer, and closed it, “I’ll have to tell this to you… but not yet…”

Rainbow realized that she needed a shower after so much crying. She made her way to the bathroom, in order to refresh herself and clean all the dilemmas off her coat before going to Pinkie’s party. She bucked the cloud, which started raining first an enormously cold, which made Rainbow wince, but then very hot water, which ran down her body, washing her coat ever so gently. She let the water wash her multi-colored mane and tail, wash away her dashed thoughts, and calm her after the very long weep she had. It was all she needed right then.

After drying herself she flew out the window, and headed towards Sugarcube Corner.

‘I hope Fluttershy will understand…’

A/N: The chapter is much shorter, but has some feels. I'll update this story more frequently now with shorter chapters.

This time, the chapter was proofread by my friend, BigMacDavis. Huge thanks to him! Go check out his stories!

Chapter IV - Rubber Party

Dashed Thoughts

by Chevan

Chapter IV – Rubber Party

That one topic was constantly repeating in Fluttershy’s mind when she was on her way to Sugarcube Corner after she ran away from her house. She was thinking about the shocking information she accidentally overheard from Rainbow Dash. She knew that snooping on her friend was a bad idea; she wasn’t sure if she was spotted by her. Should she tell this to her friends? No, she couldn’t do this to her. They knew each other for too long, ever since they were just little fillies.

Rainbow Dash, THE Rainbow Dash, admitted to being a fillyfooler? Fluttershy thought Rainbow was into stallions all this time, ever since they’ve known each other. She even had a crush on one in flight school, she told me about it.

Now she loves mares? How could it happen? Who is this mare? Is she one of their friends?

…Is she a pony anyway? Uggggh, she winced just thinking about it…

Too many questions were in her head at once, she put her hooves on her face and squealed quietly, “I don’t know how to think about this!”

She tried to analyze any possibility. She tried to search through her own friends, anypony! She made a little brainstorm during her flight.

‘Is it Pinkie Pie? She loves to prank ponies with her, they have their infamous prank Saturdays which forces me to hide all my critters to protect them from these two…

Rarity? Nooo, no way, she doesn’t like it when she dresses her up… It pis… um… annoys her…

Applejack? She’s a farmpony, she’s the strongest of us all… It’s not likely they’re in love with each other, because they’re always fighting about who is a better athlete…’

'Maybe it’s me?’ She squealed just thinking about it, ‘B-but I’m not into mares! She can’t! She just ca-‘ She gasped. Something just hit her, ‘Wait… is it… T-Twilight?’ she stopped flying for a second, trying to process whether or not her thoughts were true. ‘It might be her! I saw a picture of her and Twilight dropped on the floor near her bed when I was… um… snooping at her… eep!’

Fluttershy was not able to completely comprehend what was going on with her friend. She saw that Rainbow was acting very odd when she was close to Twilight many times, it made her thoughts more clear and true.

After a second, Sugarcube Corner finally appeared in her sight. There were a lot of ponies gathered in front of the bakery, waiting for something to happen. She found Twilight and Applejack standing beside each other in a crowd, along with Spike and three fillies, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

They all greeted Fluttershy in unison. In order to outshout the surrounding crowd of chattering ponies, their greeting was a little louder than it should've been, which startled the poor Pegasus, “Ahh!” She hid her face behind her pink mane, “H-hey girls, h-hey Spike. You scared me a little…” she said coyly.

“Sorry Fluttershy!” They all exclaimed again in unison, which completely shocked the already startled yellow mare and made her recoil back, fall on her knees to the ground and completely hide herself into her mane, squealing loudly.

Applejack was the one who was standing the closest to Fluttershy, so she tried to help her stand up on her four legs.

“C’mon, Sugarcube, get up! Ah’ll help ya!” Applejack gave her a hoof, which Fluttershy happily accepted. She stood up on all fours, but she was still hiding her face behind her mane.

“We’re mighta’ sorry for startlin’ ya, we didn’t mean to!” Applejack said, smiling, “Have you seen Rainbow Dash on your way here? Twilight here said she went to her home.”

“Y-yes, I did…” the yellow mare said coyly, making circles in the dirt with her hoof.

“So, were ya talkin’ to her? Is she comin’?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, I talked to her, she said she’ll be here soon,” Fluttershy lied.

Suddenly, there was a huge explosion. The whole crowd gasped and looked up in unison. Streamers, confetti and fireworks were shooting out the Corner’s chimney. All the windows opened at once, shooting out the balloons. The fast, catchy dance music started playing from the inside. After a few seconds, the bakery’s door violently opened, revealing the beautifully decorated interior. Ponies were flabbergasted. They started slowly getting close to the door, but were stopped by the suddenly appearing Pinkie Pie on the threshold of the door, having a party cannon between her rear hooves, which was pointing up.

“Hello everypony! You thought the party was a prank? Oh, you silly fillies! Let’s get this par-tyyyyyyyyy STARTED!” She screamed out loud, and pressed the button on the cannon, making it shoot out confetti and streamers above the crowd of ponies. All of them started cheering and applauding with their hooves. They all had huge smiles on their faces.

“Come on in, everypony! Let’s celebrate the Ponyville way!” She turned out of the way, letting the guests in. She greeted them one by one.

When the last pony entered in, Rainbow Dash suddenly appeared, landing at the door, “Hey Pinkie Pie! Am I late? Can I come in?”

“Of course silly! How couldn’t I let Dashie in?” She grinned, and hugged Rainbow’s chest.

It was noticed by Fluttershy, who elicited a small “Eep!” when she saw it.

‘Oh my… Maybe it’s Pinkie Pie?’ Fluttershy thought to herself.

Rainbow was greeted and talked with many mares and stallions, all the while being watched by Fluttershy. She felt afraid each time Rainbow Dash approached every mare. She couldn’t lose the sight on her.

“STAND BACK!” The scream coming from the door startled her, and it immediately made her head turn towards it. It was Rarity, wearing one of her fancier gowns. “I said, BACK OFF!” she pointed her hoof at one of the guests, “You don’t want to spill that punch on my gown, do you?!” Rarity began slowly trotting into the bakery, turning her head left and right, searching for that threat that may stain her gown.

Fluttershy chuckled a little, but then realized that she lost sight of her test subject. She started to search for her in panic; she was nowhere to be seen.

She found her standing and laughing with Applejack. She continued her research.

Suddenly, Rainbow put her hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. Tears started welling up in Dash’s eyes from laughter.

It made poor Fluttershy gasp, ‘It’s Applejack? It can’t be! No, this can’t be right, this can’t be right…’

“…What are you doing, Fluttershy?” the sudden, frightening voice beside her made her squeak and back off a little.

“Wha-! Oh, hey, Twilight! N-nothing! I-I’m j-just standing here, n-nothing else!” Fluttershy said, hiding her face behind her mane again. “Can you tell me how Rainbow Dash is doing? I heard you healed her wing after a terrible accident she had… if you want to…” she said faintly.

“Well, her whole wing wasn’t damaged. She just lost her primary feather, which I recovered today…” Twilight said.

They were talking with each other about a healing process, which Fluttershy wasn’t familiar with. It was a very interesting topic to her nonetheless.

They were talking for several minutes, and this made Fluttershy completely forget about her research.

***

“Hahahahahahahaha! That’s just hilarious!” Rainbow laughed as loud as she could, putting her hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. She wiped the tears out of her eyes, “M-more, Applejack, please!” she pleaded.

Applejack smiled, “Hahaha, okay, here goes,” Applejack grunted, and started to talk. Rainbow was standing just beside her, grinning from ear to ear.

“Soooo what lives in apples and is an avid reader?” Applejack said, smiling.

“I have no idea! Tell me!” Rainbow bit her lip, getting ready for another dose of laughter.

“A bookworm!” Applejack said, and started to laugh.

Rainbow Dash, instead of joining Applejack, deadpanned and stood frozen. She stood there for several long seconds. Applejack noticed it, and quickly started waving her hoof in front of her Pegasus friend’s face.

“Hello? What in tarnation is wrong with ya, Rainbow?” Applejack said, a little bit concerned.

“Applejack?” Rainbow said, not moving any of her eye muscles, “Give me some punch. NOW.”

“Um… yeah, sure, Rainbow…” Applejack said, and quickly brought her a glass with punch in it. She hoofed it to Rainbow, who immediately absorbed it into her mouth. She felt the tasty, alcoholic beverage slowly running through her esophagus and down into her stomach.

She shook her head, and extended her wings, “Awwww yeah, that’s what I needed. Thanks, Applejack!”

“Errr… you’re… welcome?” Applejack said, still a little bit concerned. “Are you okay, Rainbow?”

“Y-yeah, I’m okay, I just needed a little… “shot”” Rainbow answered. She saw Berry Punch near the bowl of punch. “Hey, Applejack, your jokes made my day, seriously! I have never laughed so much before!”

“Haha, Ah’m so glad ya liked 'em,” Applejack said, chuckling.

“I’m going to talk with Berry Punch now; I have to say, this punch is the best one she’s made!” Rainbow stated, looking at Berry Punch.

“Yeah, you’re right, Rainbow, it really is a masterpiece! So, enjoy the party, Rainbow!” Applejack answered.

Rainbow turned her head to face Applejack again, “You too, Applejack! See you later!” They both split up, each of them heading a different way.

‘What’s wrong with this mare?’ Applejack thought, making her way to the dance floor.

“Hey, Berry Punch!” Rainbow shouted, “You know, this is the best punch you’ve ever made! I really love it!”

“Hey Rainbow Dash! I’m so glad you do. I try my best to improve my punch recipe every time I make a new bowl. I’m so happy you like it!” Berry Punch answered, her mouth curling up to a smile.

“Oh awesome! Can I drink some more?” Rainbow asked, hovering in the air, and drooling a bit.

Berry Punch was a bit frightened by the state of the Pegasus in front of her, “G-go ahead, I’m not stopping you, everypony can drink! Just remember I “spiked” it a little, so don’t overdo it too much!”

Rainbow Dash didn’t hear that last sentence. She got to the bowl, instantly picked up the ladle, and filled her glass with the tasty alcoholic drink. Berry Punch walked away, leaving Rainbow Dash and the bowl with punch alone together. She drank, drank, and drank… She couldn’t stop drinking. After the 5th glass she started to feel a little bit dizzy, but it wasn’t enough for her. She wasn’t very resistant to alcohol due to her very low weight and athletic body.

***

Everypony was dancing on the dance floor; they were all enjoying their time at the party. Fluttershy was still chatting with Twilight; she was really interested in the topic. She was examining her own wing when Twilight was explaining how the recovery process of Dash’s feather worked. Suddenly, they were interrupted by an appearance of a certain drunk Pegasus. She put both of her hooves around their necks and pulled them closer to her.

“Hai gurlz!” She screamed, “Whatchu talkin’ about?” Rainbow said, looking at Fluttershy.

“R-Rainbow? Are you okay?” Fluttershy said, turning her head, so as to not look straight into Rainbow’s eyes.

“Of course I’m okaaaaay!” Rainbow answered, and turned her head to Twilight. She narrowed her eyes, and said in a very calm and almost seductive voice, “And how are you, hot stuff?” She started nuzzling Twilight’s cheek, scaring the poor unicorn.

“Rainbow! Stop it! You’re completely drunk!” Twilight shouted, trying to free herself from the grip of the strong Pegasus.

“I’m not!” She got closer to her. “…Okay, maybe a little.” She sniffed the unicorn’s cheek, inhaling the beautiful smell of that lavender perfume she was wearing. “You smell so beautiful, Twilight…”

“A little? Rainbow! We must go before you damage something or somepony!” Twilight screamed, trying her best to free herself from the Pegasus’ assault.

“I’ll even go into fire with you, sweetheart…” She closed her eyes, and formed her lips to a kiss.

Fluttershy just stood beside Rainbow, her hoof to her mouth, scared to the limit. “Oh… my…”

Twilight instantly wrapped the Pegasus with her magic, pulled her off of her, and lifted her up. The Pegasus was struggling inside the magic, with no satisfying results. “Let me gooooo!” Rainbow screamed, shuffling her hooves in midair.

“You can’t just break the magic of the Element of Magic, Rainbow.” Twilight smirked, “We’re going to calm you down and put you to sleep!” she said, and trotted over to Pinkie Pie, who was dancing on the dance floor with Gummy in her hooves.

“Hey Gummy! It’s your birthday! Hey Gummy, It’s your birthday!” Pinkie kept on repeating while dancing.

“Hey Pinkie? Got a free room upstairs? Certain pony got drunk…”

“Dashie?” Pinkie looked up, not looking a little bit surprised. She was just smiling.

“I’m not surprised, I told Berry Punch to “spike” the punch, it means it has far more alcohol than it should have! Well, it’s not surprising to me she got drunk, Berry is a master at making punch! A very high proofed punch! I always have an emergency bed upstairs, so you can leave her there, she’ll be okay soon!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing in place.

Twilight heard rumbling coming from above her head. She looked up to see Rainbow’s cheeks starting to bulge. She instantly took the sign, and noticing a bowl with cookies, she wrapped it with her magic, emptied the contents on the table, and hovered it over to Dash’s mouth.

Rainbow puked into the bowl; the contents of her stomach contained almost nothing else than a recently drunk punch.

Twilight, and some other ponies around, were disgusted by the look of the vomiting Pegasus above them. “Ugggh, Rainbow, didn’t you know that drinking on an empty stomach never ends well?” Twilight levitated her and the bowl to the bathroom, and emptied the vomit into the toilet. She picked a piece of toilet paper and cleaned Rainbow’s muzzle, then threw it into the toilet as well.

Rainbow’s mouth was agape, her eyes closed. She was sleeping. Twilight filled another bowl with clear water, and levitated both upstairs.

Getting into the room, she placed the sleeping Pegasus on the bed, and put the bowl with water beside it. She wrapped Rainbow in a blanket.

“The party’s over for you, Rainbow.” She got closer to her, and started stroking her mane.

“What are you up to, Dash?” She smiled lightly, continuously repeating her actions.

After some time, she started to walk out of the room. “Sleep well,” she chuckled. “Dashie…” She said, quietly closing the door behind her.

A/N: There we go! Chapter with many random and even funny events, written in one day! :D

The chapter was proofread by my friend, BigMacDavis. Huge thanks to him! Go check out his stories!

Chapter V - Aftermath

Dashed Thoughts

by Chevan

Chapter V – Aftermath

“Oh my gosh… W-what happened?” said the getting up Pegasus, scratching the back of her head, totally unaware of what was going on last night. She was suffering from pain, her head was badly hurting her. Her wings were flared up; she could see nothing but a blur. Noticing, that the room she’s in is completely quiet, and the loud music can’t be heard from downstairs, she assumed that the party is already over.

“W-Where am I?” she said, looking around, searching for anything that can help her answer this question.

The room had blue walls and pink furniture. Colorful streamers and balloons were hanging everywhere; she was lying covered by a purple blanket on a pink bed with a white mattress. She had to still be in Sugarcube Corner, she believed she’s now in one of Pinkie’s beds.

“Owww, w-why is my head hurting so much? What did I do yesterday?” she asked herself, slowly trying to get out of the bed. She managed to stand up on her four, but in the state she was in, there was no way she could keep her balance for very long. She hit the nearest wall by her side, making one of her upright wings elicit first a very pleasant, then a bit painful feeling straight to her spine. She hissed, initially not comprehending the source of the sensation. Looking at her side, she realized that both of her wings were inflexible and straightened upwards. The realization made the rainbow maned pony facehoof and chuckle a little.

“I guess I have to get rid of this wingboner before somepony walks in.” claimed the mare, carefully trotting forward, watching every step she made. After a minute or so walking around, she finally achieved to full control of her body.

Loud hoofsteps could be heard outside the door. It blew the mare out of the water completely, she knew she was in the worst, most flustering state anypony could see the Pegasus. They started getting louder, and louder… Rainbow couldn’t hide anywhere, but she didn’t start to panic, she’s not like Fluttershy. She stood there in the middle of the room bravely, wearing a grin.

The door knob got wrapped by the purple aura. Now it was clear for Rainbow who this somepony was. The door slowly opened, revealing the newcomer, Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight realized that the certain pony she went to check on, instead of being in the bed sleeping, was standing in the middle of the room, smiling weirdly at her. Rainbow started sweating; her cheeks began to flush red. She tried her best to suppress this reaction, successfully achieving her goal so far.

Twilight slowly proceeded towards the awkwardly and a bit unsteadily standing Pegasus in front of her, beaming, “Hey Rainbow, I see you’re awake!”

“Hey Twilight! Yeah as you can see I woke up… What brings you here?” inquired the cyan pony.

The unicorn didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she first moved to the right side of her friend, wanting to check the feather she recovered, “I got here to check you out. You know, Rainbow, you overdid it a little with punch yesterday… I think you know what happened next. Are you feeling okay?” she said, carefully examining Dash’s wing.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Rainbow lied, “Did I…”

“Yes, you did.” claimed the purple unicorn, wrapping the wing by her magic.

“What are you…? Uh-oh…” was the only thing the Pegasus could respond, feeling a tickling sensation in her wing. She turned her head towards Twilight.

“Don’t worry, lemme just… wait…” the lavender pony started, realizing that both of Rainbow’s wings are completely stiff. She smirked, making the cyan mare turn her head to look anywhere but not straight into the unicorn’s eyes, trying to hide her blushing cheeks. Rainbow was feeling disgraced, she has never been caught in that embarrassing state by anypony before.

Her friend didn’t laugh as she expected, instead she asked with a soft tone, “Well well well, what do we have here? I think somepony got excited? Or is it because I’m checking your wing like that? I’m sorry if it made you feel bad…”

“Yes! I mean n-no! It’s normal, it happens every time I wake up, I swear!" Rainbow said, getting lost in her own words. “D-don’t stop… It feels so good…” she said very quietly, trying her best not to make the lavender mare hear her.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” asked Twilight, wanting Rainbow to repeat louder what she just murmured.

“N-Nothing, Twilight, just continue what you’re doing…” replied the Pegasus, her heart starting pounding more rapidly.

“I know it happens very often to you Rainbow, I think it’s a very interesting phenomenon. I should do research about it,” Twilight acknowledged.

“M-maybe another time… Now let’s get out of here, shall we?” Rainbow pleaded, though part of her didn’t want the unicorn to stop her actions at all.

Twilight let Dash’s wing go, and moved to the front of the Pegasus, “You want to get out in that state? Your mane is messy… well, it usually is, but not that much, you have a wing-“

“Okay I know how it is called, don’t make me more embarrassed than I am now…” the blue pony interrupted.

Twilight chuckled, “Okay, so I’ll go back downstairs, we’re cleaning after a party with Pinkie and the others. I’ll give you time to prepare yourself, get down to us when you’re ready, okay?”

Rainbow felt a sharp pain in her head again, “Ouch! Okay…”

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Twilight smirked at her friend.

“About that if I’m feeling okay… Do you have a painkiller or something?” the Pegasus inquired, “My head is going to explode in a second…”

The unicorn giggled, “I know it, Rainbow. I wasn’t going to go anywhere without giving you something to ease your headache you surely have. Of course I brought you one. Here, take it.”

Rainbow didn’t need to be told twice. Twilight levitated a small pill and a glass close to the Pegasus’s nuzzle, who swallowed it and drank the water right away.

“Thanks, Twi. Hope this helps.” Rainbow said.

“I’m sure it will. See you soon!” Twilight replied, turning to walk out of the room.

“See you!” Rainbow shouted back.

After the door closed, Rainbow let out a long sigh. Her mane was messy; Rarity would call the fashion police for sure if she saw her. She was caught by the mare she loved in the state she didn’t want anypony to see her. Twilight was somehow an exception for her, it turned out that Rainbow actually liked and very appreciated the presence of the unicorn close to her right then. Her wings almost immediately retracted to their usual position after the unicorn went out.

Maybe she really was… excited?

“Ugh, let’s not think about it right now, I have friends in need downstairs…”

Rainbow quickly stretched herself, her joints making audible cracks as she did so. It looked like the painkiller helped a bit, her head wasn’t hurting as much as before, she was feeling so much better, and she was able to walk normally again. She made a few laps around the room on foot. Eventually she began to fly around, all the time trying not to break anything. After some more laps she landed in front of the door, exited the room, and headed for the stairs.

Now Rainbow had to find out what happened last night…

***

Twilight, after checking a certain drunken pony out, went back downstairs to the main hall of Sugarcube Corner. The four of her friends were there, each one of them doing different tasks. Spike went home, wanting to sleep after crusading with Cutie Mark Crusaders the entire former day. Pinkie Pie was bouncing around collecting streamers and balloons with Fluttershy, Applejack was collecting dirty plates and food remains from tables and taking them to the kitchen, Rarity took the responsibility of cleaning, all the time being careful. It was an easy task for her, thanks to her unicorn nature. But even then, she didn’t want to stain her gown by any means.

“And? How is she?” asked the white unicorn, seeing her friend getting closer to her.

“She’s fine,” she chuckled, “but I guess I chose the wrong moment to go check on her.”

That visibly surprised Rarity, “What do you mean, darling? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything is okay, it’s just… I don’t know if she felt comfortable with me seeing her like that. Let’s just say that she didn’t want anypony to find her in that state. Never mind.” Twilight responded, looking amused.

Rarity shrugged, and didn’t say anything more; continuing back to her work. Twilight decided to help her out, so she didn’t have to do everything on her own.

“Hey gals!” the Rainbow maned pony shouted after some minutes as she trotted downstairs to the hall.

“Hello Rainbow Dash!” shouted back the yellow mare, landing in front of her friend. The other ponies stopped their work and walked to the Pegasus, standing in a row near Fluttershy.

“How did our star of the evening sleep?” asked Applejack, wearing a smirk.

“Star of the evening? What do you mean? I-I know I got drunk… a bit… but I don’t remember anything else! Can you tell me what in Equestria I did yesterday?” Rainbow asked, afraid of hearing the truth.

Applejack turned her head towards Twilight. The unicorn nodded at her friend, hinting she can tell Rainbow everything that happened last night. Applejack was the one who remembered the most, because she was with Rainbow Dash most of the time at the party.

“Well, Rainbow… What is the last thing you remember?” Applejack started.

“I don’t remember much of anything from yesterday’s party. The only thing I recall… are your jokes!” Rainbow responded.

“Well, after the last joke you drank almost the entire bowl of punch.” Applejack stated.

“It wasn’t a normal punch Dashie; it was made by Berry Punch, the best one around! It had some veeeery special ingredients in it… just for you!” Pinkie Pie laughed.

Rainbow made a quizzical look at her friend, “Special ingredients? What do you mean by that?”

Pinkie giggled, “Of course, silly! I have no idea what she puts in there, but it tasted like candy!”

“Pinkie Pie, everything tastes like candy to you…” Rainbow remarked.

“Well, duh! These things were surely good according to what silly things you were doing after drinking it!” Pinkie claimed, laughing out loud.

“What? What did I do? Tell me!” Rainbow fumed, starting to get a little bit impatient.

They all explained to their friend what silly and funny things she’d done when she was drunk. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard; she couldn’t believe what embarrassing things she did yesterday. The puking and the behaving weirdly wasn’t that bad at all, the worst thing was… that she almost kissed Twilight, and somehow shared her feelings to her. It destroyed her; she thought she would be a laughing stock, because she did this in front of everypony from Ponyville!

“WHAT?! Oh my gosh I’m so sorry Twilight, I didn’t mean it at all!” the cyan pony exclaimed worriedly.

“It’s okay Rainbow Dash, you don’t have to apologize,” Twilight reassured the Pegasus. She got closer to her and put her hoof on her shoulder, “It was kinda funny for me, too.”

The lavender unicorn hugged her friend. Rainbow felt a little bit taken aback at start, but she returned the hug eventually.

“I need to have a closer look at your wing, meet me at the library later today.” Twilight whispered to the Pegasus’s ear.

“Okay,” Rainbow whispered back, shocked a bit by her friend’s words.

The Unicorn broke the hug, and smiling at the Pegasus, returned to her friends. She looked around the hall, where the mess of the last night’s party was still visible. Balloons and streamers were still hanging everywhere, the food was scattered all around the place, even on the floor. It looked like Discord was at the party, because this was a pure chaos.

“Okay everypony, let’s finish cleaning up this mess and go back to our homes,” hinted Twilight, receiving nods from all five of her friends.

“Let’s do this!” Rainbow shouted, taking off and starting collecting the party accessories which hung above.

When six ponies are working at once, things were done lightning fast, especially when there are two of every kind of a pony. Gummy was sitting on one of the tables, watching everything that was happening. With a bit of cooperation, everything was cleaned and shining in mere minutes. Sugarcube Corner was looking just like before the party, even cleaner.

“Partying is so much fun, and cleaning after the party is fun too! Don’t you think Dashie?” Pinkie inquired, giggling.

“Well of course it is!” Rainbow said hoof-bumping with her pink friend.

“Well that’s what Ah call a job well done!” Applejack said happily.

“I think it’s time for all of us to go back home…” Twilight proposed. The other ponies agreed, and after saying their goodbyes, all of the Elements made their ways to their homes.

Just as soon as Rainbow Dash was about to take off to her cloud home, she was stopped by Twilight, “What’s up, Twi?”

“Remember, this evening in the library, okay?” Twilight reminded the Pegasus.

“I remember about that, I’ll be there. I’ll see you later then!” Rainbow answered, taking off to the sky.

“See you later, Dashie!” Twilight said joyfully.

Rainbow kept on flying, but she realized something strange, “Wait… did she just call me… Dashie? That’s how only Pinkie Pie calls me!”

One question was bugging her all the way back to her home. Why did she do that?

Author's Note

Sorry for a little delay everypony, I didn't have any time to write lately... Hope you enjoyed it! ^^

HUGE thanks to Sallythemanatee for proofreading it!

Chapter VI - Confession

Dashed Thoughts

by Chevan

Chapter VI - Confession

It was a very long night for all the Elements. Everypony went to sleep immediately after arriving home, because partying, thus staying awake the whole night, means less productivity and the overall tiredness. On the other hoof, Rainbow Dash wasn’t fatigued at all. Her night was different from the others’. She still had this little bit of dizziness in her head after the hangover, but it didn’t bother her at all. She flew straight to her home, at least she tried to fly like that, avoiding contact with any obstacle on her way.

Flying into her bedroom through the window, she landed flatly on her cloud bed on her back, sighing. This bed was surely more comfortable than Pinkie’s classic one with a mattress, but her own bed contained her memories, the good, and the bad ones.

Laying like that for several minutes, she made a slideshow of her whole life in her imagination. She pictured her foalhood, the good times with her dad – Spectrum Bolt, learning to fly, performing a Sonic Rainboom which gave her a Cutie Mark, winning flying contests, meeting with the Wonderbolts. These were the memories she didn’t want to forget about, it was the most memorable time of her life.

But life is never as beautiful as you want it to be. The bad memories were still in her head, and even though she wished to forget them, it wasn’t possible for her to wash them away. She couldn’t forget about the bad times at Flight School, when she was constantly bullied by the two ponies. Badly bullied. It was all because of her unusual mane and tail color. Only two ponies in all of Equestria had a rainbow hair by then, Rainbow Dash and her dad. She always thought that having a rainbow mane was something she should be proud of, even her parents said that to her. But school reality was completely different. She was accused for various things, for being an idiot, a slowpoke, and even a fillyfooler. More and more ponies started joining her teasers; therefore she became a laughing stock in the whole class. Nopony could help her, nopony believed her, even the teachers. Only her parents were on her side. They tried to cheer her up, but with no avail. Rainbow always tried to be tough, but when she was listening to the ever increasing amount of insults towards her, she became more and more depressed, despite her tomboyish character.

She once stood up for one of her friends – Fluttershy. Fluttershy was a bad flier, she was bullied by the same ponies as her. She raced them, and proved that she was the only one who could perform the legendary Sonic Rainboom. After that, she immediately gained respect from the whole school, even from her domineering ponies, and as the first pony in her class, received a Cutie Mark. Since then, Rainbow Dash became best friends with Fluttershy. And Dash still is the only living pony who can perform that legendary move.

In all of these retrospections, she didn’t notice tears slowly flowing down her cheeks. It was always a bad experience for her to reveal all the memories from the time when she was a filly. She sat up on the bed and wiped the tears off her face. She realized that she was laying there for almost an hour.

She had to remember to go to Twilight’s in the evening. After she called her in a very sweet way (only Pinkie calls her that jokingly), she was more and more afraid to go there. She wasn’t scared of the unicorn, her presence always warmed Rainbow’s heart, but she saw a big change in the purple mare’s behavior. Every time she was around Rainbow, she was giving more attention to the Pegasus all of a sudden, and she was becoming sweetier - just towards her. She didn’t mind helping Rainbow out when she was drunk, and she wasn’t mad about her weird actions at the party. Instead, she was visibly glad to help and take care of her.

She gasped and facehoofed. How could she be so blind? It hit her. She just realized that the other mare returned her feeling! Or maybe not? Twilight hadn’t said those three magical words straight to her muzzle yet... Or was it just a cruel teasing? Maybe she was just making fun of her? She was hesitating, she had no idea what to think about it at all.

She fell down on her back eventually, and closing her eyes, she said to herself, “Ugh… I’m here again, crying like a baby. It is SO not like me. Yesterday was the same before the party, I was here weeping and weeping about my life. And now I’m in love with a mare. My bullies were right about me being a fillyfooler… But what about my other friends? What will they think about me? They’ll finally find out that I have a crush… What if they… hate me after they find out?”

The silence enveloped the room for several more minutes.

“Okay… enough of this monologue…” she said, slowly starting to get out of the bed. “…It bugs me so much, I’m not the Rainbow Dash all my friends know about. I’m so… sappy lately… It’s so uncool…” she finished, making her way to the exit of the room.

She trotted downstairs to the main hall of her cloud home. She saw her pet Tank, flying around everywhere. She was following him with her gaze, smiling. His magical propeller attached to his shell was buzzing like a helicopter, he was bouncing off the cloud walls of the home.

She took him down to the ground, “Well, Tank, I think it’s enough flying exercises for you for now. Do you want something to eat?” asked the cyan mare, receiving the very slow nodding from the turtle. I mean, tortoise.

They made their way to the kitchen. She realized that the bowl where Tank eats his food from was almost empty, so Rainbow decided to fill it up. She began searching for her pet’s food, standing on two hind legs, opening drawers and cabinets, searching high and low. “Where the heck did I put it? I swear I filled this up not too long ago…” She kept on searching for several more minutes.

“Found it!” Exclaimed the mare happily, getting back down on her four legs, and she had the bag with the picture of the tortoise on it in her mouth. She looked at her pet and emptied the contents of the bag into the bowl.

“Go ahead, Tank, chow down!” she instructed the turtle, grinning, her eyes closed.

Tank, instead of eating his food, got closer to the Pegasus, and putting his head on the left hoof of his owner, he started to fawn. This took Rainbow Dash aback. As soon as she opened her eyes to look down, she saw a very sad face on her pet, looking at her with a very worried expression and a frown. Rainbow was hesitant for a moment, but she knelt down eventually and became eye to eye with him, and asked worriedly, “What’s up, Tank?”

The tortoise slowly licked Rainbow’s cheek. Very, veeery slowly. Tortoise slowly. The lick lasted almost half a minute, maybe even more. This completely shocked her, Tank would rarely do something like that.

“Really, what’s on your mind, Tank?” She asked apprehensively.

The tortoise hid his head in his shell, and pulled it out a second later, with the picture in his mouth. It was a picture of Twilight Sparkle, one of many that Rainbow had in her drawer.

“Ahh… that…” Rainbow’s ears drooped, and she set her chin down on the cloud floor. She loved this mare, she had to admit that. Millions of questions started flowing through her mind again. She felt something sliding under her hoof from behind. Realizing that it was Tank, she let him go there, and put her hoof over him. The tortoise started fawning against Rainbow’s neck, making the Pegasus close her eyes and elicit a long sigh.

“At least you are here with me, Tank. You are a very loyal pet, just like me. I love you so much, but not just because of that…” she started pressing him more tightly against her side, “I love you because you might be the only one who truly understands my feelings…”

They were laying down like that for several minutes. Rainbow was thinking about what she should do now, various ideas were popping up in her head, good and bad ones. She decided to try one, and it was very important she did it before going to Twilight’s today. She decided to go to one of her best friends for advice. This pony will surely know what to do in this situation, and she’ll be perfectly understanding. Hopefully.

Rainbow finally raised up on all fours, and looking at Tank, said, “Thanks for your support, Tank. But I really should keep going with this. I have to see somepony for advice… and I think Fluttershy would be the best pony around. I trust her with my life… I just… hope she’ll understand me…”

She received a warm smile and a very slow nodding from her pet. She smiled back, and made her way to the window. They exchanged their goodbyes, and the Pegasus, unfurling her wings, flew out of her home.

She arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage. It wasn’t a long flight - she got there in mere minutes. Rainbow wasn’t a frequent visitor to this place, so Fluttershy would surely be surprised to see her friend there, instead of up in the skies, practicing. She just stood in front of the door, staring at it, not doing anything at all for several minutes. She was collecting words before the very important and serious talk; one that could change the whole friendship with her yellow friend.

“Let’s do this…” She gulped, and finally managed to knock on the door.

She stood there waiting for an answer for several long seconds. She decided to knock again, but as soon as she lifted her hoof up to do so, the door opened, revealing Fluttershy on the other side.

The pink-maned Pegasus was seriously taken aback - in front of her muzzle was one of her friends from her foalhood, completely destroyed, she looked like a walking cyan Pandora’s Box.

“R-Rainbow D-Dash? W-what’s going on?” she inquired, her eyes wide with shock.

The cyan Pegasus avoided answering that question for now, “Can I come in, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy’s reaction was immediate, “O-Of course! Make yourself comfortable.”

Rainbow slowly trotted to the table, and sat on one of the chairs, putting both of her forehooves on her cheeks. Fluttershy took a seat on the other side of the table.

“What’s going on, Rainbow? Oh, I’m sorry, do you want some tea? If you’re okay with it…” asked the yellow Pegasus.

“Whatever…” Rainbow responded, sighing, her eyes started watering.

Fluttershy started to become more and more worried about her friend, “Oh my goodness… Rainbow… please, tell me what’s going on…”

Rainbow started weeping audibly, “Fluttershy, I… I have a serious problem…”

Fluttershy gasped, she was now in an utter shock. “What?”

“And I came to you specially, because I’ve known you for so long, and you’d be the only one who would understand me…”

“Tell me, Rainbow! You know I’m here to help you anytime!”

“Fluttershy… It’s hard for me to say it… I… I…” She hid her face between her front hooves, wanting to cover her now red eyes so that nopony would see.

“You…?”

There was a very long pause. This pause seemed like an eternity for both of them, especially for Rainbow Dash, who was about to share her deepest secret with her friend. The only sounds that could be heard at the moment were sounds of chirping birds and a crying rainbow maned Pegasus sitting on the chair.

“I… I’m in… in love…”

Fluttershy elicited a long sigh, and put her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, “Oh my goodness, Rainbow Dash! I thought it was something serious! It’s nothing to be afraid of! I’m so glad you found a stallion that suits you!”

“Fluttershy, you don’t understand…”

Fluttershy wasn’t completely sure on what her friend just said to her. What couldn’t she understand? “What do you mean?”

“I’m in love… with…”

“With?”

Rainbow knew the next sentence she was going to say would either change her life for good... or for bad. She wasn’t sure what would happen, but she begged Celestia for it to turn out positively, and that this would not make her friends hate her.

“With… Twilight…”

Author's Note

And there you go, another chapter! This was again proofread by BigMacDavis! Thank you so much! :D

Anyway, heard you like cliffhangers... :3

Chapter VII - A Dark Cloud

Dashed Thoughts

by Chevan

Chapter VII - A Dark Cloud

Twilight woke up from a short nap she took after the party in the library at noon. Spike was still sleeping, he was well known for his very long dragon slumbers. He deserved that, he was up all night after all, and after the crusading with the Cutie Mark Crusaders the former day, there was no doubt he was tired.

The unicorn had to make sure everything was set and ready before the important guest’s arrival in the evening after she closes the library. She even had a gift for her, which was, thanks to Princess Celestia, the newest, not yet released publicly, Daring Do book with a lot of extra content. She knew this would be a perfect gift for her friend.

But first, she had to do her usual daily tasks. After getting off the bed, and trotting downstairs, she headed to the bathroom in order to completely wash the tiredness off her muzzle. She brushed her mane with a purple brush, and used the perfume she loved to make herself smell like lavender.

But even after that, she couldn’t wake up completely without drinking a small cup of coffee, and some stretching. Yes, Twilight Sparkle has to exercise a little, she is just a librarian, not an athlete like Dashie at all. She’d read a lot of books about staying fit even if one’s lifestyle is not active at all, like Twilight’s, so it wasn’t a problem for her.

After finishing everything that had to be done to completely wake up, she used her magic to unlock the front door, and flipped the sign on the other side of them to “Open”.

She set two big cushions near the fireplace, placed the gift on one of them, and picked a random book from one of the shelves. After making herself comfortable on her cushion, she opened the book and started reading it. This was a very interesting pick. The book was about different kinds of love between ponies, and how to handle them. Twilight read this one before, of course she did, but nothing’s better than reading a very interesting book once again, right?

***

Fluttershy just kept sitting on the chair, her mouth agape. She was completely shocked about the confession of her best friend to her; she didn’t know what to say. She looked like she saw a ghost.

“Oh... my... Rainbow Dash... that’s... that’s... um... unusual...” muttered Fluttershy, hiding her face behind the pink mane.

“Please, don’t act like you didn’t know about it, Fluttershy...” said Rainbow Dash, rising her head from between her hooves, making herself look through her teary eyes at the mare in front of her.

The yellow mare’s eyes widened at what her friend said. All of the efforts to hide the embarrassing truth went to nothing. She was now sure that Rainbow knew her secret that she spied on her but she tried to defend herself anyway.

“Whatever do you mean, Dash?”

“Fluttershy, please. Just... tell me... tell me! Please!” Rainbow pleaded, increasing the volume gradually.

Fluttershy hid under the table, quietly peeping at the sudden assault of the rainbow maned Pegasus, “I... I’m so sorry, Rainbow... I didn’t mean to...”

“No, you don’t have to apologize, you would know about it eventually...” Rainbow paused, “Just tell me... Are you okay with it? Are you okay that your friend... your best friend... is a fillyfooler? That she loves...the other mare?”

Fluttershy got back on the chair, and involuntarily put her hoof on her friend’s shoulder, frowning.

“Rainbow... You’re a completely different mare that I used to know before... You’re not the same pony since Twilight healed your wing... You’re now completely broken. Don’t hide this feeling, show her that you love her! If you hide it, you’ll never be your true self again, you’ll keep living in uncertainty, and you’ll have dark clouds over your head.” Fluttershy looked up, and blew away the small black cloud that appeared over Rainbow’s head all of the sudden, “At first I wasn't sure if it's good or bad. But after some thinking, I realized that it really is a true love between you two building up, so now I’m completely okay with it, Rainbow. More, I’m happy for you! We are happy for you!” she finished, beaming.

Rainbow was now in an utter shock, “Wait... other girls know about it too?”

The pink maned Pegasus giggled, “Of course, Rainbow! It’s hard to miss the true love building between the two of your closest friends!”

Rainbow Dash was a lot happier than at the time she came to the cottage. She was so glad that all four of her best friends are okay with it, and instead of hating her, they support her in this situation.

“Fluttershy... Thank you so much for being such an awesome friend! I knew you wouldn’t let me down in this situation! You’re the best!” she said, jumping on the yellow mare’s neck, tightly squeezing it.

“I... am glad... to help... ugggkk! Can’t... breathe!” said the yellow mare, short of breath because of the very tight grip of the rainbow maned pony’s strong hooves. Rainbow released the grasp, making Fluttershy pant heavily.

Rainbow Dash, realizing that she almost strangled her friend, scratched the back of her head, “Oopsie, sorry about that Fluttershy...”

“I’m fine, don’t worry...” Fluttershy said, coughing.

There was still one very important thing that bugged Rainbow’s mind so much since the beginning of this day, and the very long time before that - Will Twilight return her feeling? What if she wouldn’t?

“Hey ‘Shy... Do you... Do you think Twilight... Do you think she... loves me back?”

Fluttershy paused for a second, thinking whether she should answer that question or not.

“Well... about that...” Fluttershy started slowly, hiding her face behind her pink mane again.

Rainbow was now ready for everything, “W-what’s up?”

The shy Pegasus wasn’t sure if she should say the truth to her friend, “Twilight... um... eep!”

The cyan weather pony grew even more impatient, her pupils grew almost to the size of her eyeballs, “Tell me! What is it?”

“She... I talked with her when you were... “asleep” today...”

Rainbow Dash was now muzzle to muzzle with her friend, her pupils so big that Fluttershy felt like she used her new, self-discovered “rainbowstare” on her, “Aaaaaand?”

Fluttershy started lightly shaking from fear, “She said... that-”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie appeared in the flower pot in one of the corners of the room, and screamed, “FOREVERRRRRRR...” It made both of the Pegasi look in the direction where the sound came from, looking completely shocked at the sight. Pinkie instantly hid back in the pot, disappearing as mysteriously as she appeared.

“How did she do that?”

“It’s just Pinkie Pie, Rainbow. As you can see, I Pinkie promised... I’m sorry, but you have to find it out yourself...”

Rainbow got back to her chair, “Oh... I see... sorry for harassing you... So there’s no other way than pulling myself together and... and sharing my true feelings with her to find out if she loves me too... and it has to happen today. I can’t take this uncertainty anymore. Oh sweet Celestia, this will be so hard... Please make her return the feeling...”

Fluttershy went back to her chair as well, “Do you want me to assist you, Rainbow?”

“Thanks, Fluttershy. I really appreciate the help, but it’d be better if I do this on my own. Wish me luck.” she answered, trotting to the window.

“Take care, Rainbow. Good luck.”

After that, they waved their goodbyes, and the cyan Pegasus flew out of the cottage through the open window, leaving the rainbow trail behind her.

***

Twilight got completely lost in the lecture. This book was very interesting to her; she spent several hours reading it, making breaks only when the new guest came to the library in a wish of borrowing a book. Spike woke up around 3 PM, so Twilight had an extra pair of claws to help when in need.

Outside the library, Twilight saw a group of Pegasi creating a thick layer of black thunder clouds. Looking at the forecast she got from Rainbow Dash a while ago, she realized that the huge thunderstorm was scheduled for today, in order to water the crops and clear the air. She just hoped her guest would come before it starts raining cats and dogs.

***

Rainbow Dash, as a boss of one of the best Cloudsdale Weather Patrol teams, had to check if her minions were making the forecast accurate weather right now. She wanted to make sure the storm would be as good as it needed to be, so she flew closer to the working team, and talked to Cloud Kicker, one of the best weather ponies in the squad.

She landed on one of the clouds which were floating around, and screamed, “Cloud Kicker! C’mere for a second!”

Cloud Kicker flew over to her boss, and landed on the other cloud in front of her, saluting, “Yes, ma’am? What’s going on?”

“Make sure this storm is so big that not a single hair on anypony’s coat stays dry! Don’t overdo it; we don’t want to flood Ponyville! The crops need a lot of water, so make thicker clouds over Sweet Apple Acres and Carrot Top’s carrot field. I have some very important tasks to do, so you’ll be the one responsible for the weather in Ponyville today. You’re the best in the team, I’m counting on you! Understood?”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am!”

“Any questions?”

Cloud Kicker looked at Rainbow, and realized one strange thing about her boss, “Ummm, yeah, just one, ma’am...”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Were you... ummm... crying?”

Rainbow loudly gasped, and covered her eyes instantly by her hoof. It was so "unrainbow", and one of her co-workers just saw her in this state. This was the most embarrassing thing that happened to her at work ever.

“What? No I wasn’t! Rainbow Dash is not crying! Come on! Why would you think about such a thing? Well gottagobye!” she turned about in an instant and uncovering her eyes, she took off with an enormous speed towards Ponyville. Cloud Kicker was totally shocked, she had never seen her boss in that state before.

After a while, Rainbow landed in the middle of Ponyville, and put on her shades, to prevent anypony from seeing her teary eyes. She had to keep being at least 20% cooler than the others.

She decided that the best thing to do before her life changing confession would be to buy some chocolates at Bon Bon’s. She opened the door to the shop, which rung the bell, indicating the newcomer.

“Oh, hey, Rainbow Dash!” said Bon Bon from behind the counter, “Welcome to my shop! What do you need?”

“Um... I am completely cool as you can see, and I’ll never stop to be-”

Rainbow was cut out by Bon Bon, “Oh yes, these shades are really cool! Can I try them on?”

“NO!!!” she shouted in an instant, startling the mare in front of her to the limit, “Oh... sorry... Didn’t want to scare you...” she sighed, “Can I have a bunch of chocolates in a heart-shaped box, please?”

“Oh, is it for somepony special?” asked the salesmare.

Rainbow’s head dropped down, “Yes... very, very special...”

“So, would you like that giftwrapped?”

The cyan mare nodded, “Oh yes, please. It’d be awesome.”

“So, what’s the forecast for today?” asked Bon Bon while preparing the order for her client.

“Meh, just a thunderstorm with flying and screaming from pain rainbows here and there...”

The Earth Pony made a very weird look at her Pegasus friend, “Uh? What do you mean, Rainbow?”

“Never mind... I’m sorry for shouting again...”

“It’s okay, Dash. Please, here are your chocolates.” Bon Bon said, giving a box to Rainbow. It was in a shape of a heart, wrapped by the yellow tape with a bow on the top of it.

“Thanks. How much do I pay?” the Pegasus asked, putting the box on her back.

“Free of charge, Rainbow. I can’t take money from a mare in the state that you are in now...”

“Thanks, Bon Bon.” said Rainbow Dash, turning to the exit, “You’re a great friend. See you later!”

“Good luck!” the salesmare said, waving her hoof.

Rainbow Dash, after going out from the shop, started slowly trotting to the library. Her head was full of different thoughts, different solutions of the problem. She was tensed like never before, her heart was pounding rapidly all the way to the destination. The upcoming events were going to change not only her and Twilight’s lives, but all of their friends too. Rainbow just hoped everything would turn out okay...

But those were just pure dashed thoughts...

***

Twilight thought she should start getting ready for welcoming her guest. She closed the library, flipping the sign on the front door to “Closed” and went to the kitchen to make some cocoa for both of them. After she finished, she placed two cups filled with the brown liquid on the table beside the cushions, the one she was experimenting with a day before. She placed some wood in the fireplace, and lit it up. It was always relaxing for her to lay down on a soft cushion near a warm fireplace, drinking hot, freshly prepared cocoa. But this time, she expected a very important guest. Her best of best friends. The one she admired so much, and was glad to help her. Rainbow Dash.

***

Rainbow Dash finally managed to arrive to the library’s door. The sign on the door said “Closed”. This meant that she was the only one who could come in, because she was appointed for the meeting with the librarian. But she was still hesitating. She just stood there, doing nothing except looking around. She hadn’t enough courage to knock on the door. It wasn’t possible for her right then.

As she stood there for several minutes, the sky went darker and darker. The wind started blowing; small droplets of water began to pour from the sky. But she still stood there, unsure about what to do. She wasn’t ready to come into the library yet.

The loud thunderclap could be heard in the background. Rain started falling heavily, making the cyan mare completely wet from the top of her mane to the end of the rainbow tail. She made a mental note to reward Cloud Kicker for her outstanding job later. She didn’t care about how wet she was right now; it didn’t matter to her at all. The most important thing right now was the life changing event that was just around the corner.

Or behind the door in front of her...

***

15 minutes passed since it started raining, and there was still no sign of Rainbow Dash. Twilight knew that even a Pegasus like her is not capable of flying in that huge storm. With each second that passed, she started getting more and more afraid for her. She tried not to panic. She got closer to the window, but the only things she saw were droplets hitting the glass, behind which a dark, flashing sky could be seen. Nothing seemed to look as vibrant as Rainbow Dash in the sky.

She decided to go out for a second to take a better look at the sky. When she opened the door, the sight in front of her completely petrified her. She recoiled in shock and gasped at what she saw.

In front of her stood Rainbow Dash, completely wet, her back had a heart-shaped red box on it. On her muzzle she had her favorite sunglasses on. She was looking at the unicorn from under the eye.

“R-Rainbow D-Dash?”

“H-Hey, Twilight...”

Author's Note

And here we go, the chapter you've all been waiting for! :D

This was again proofread by BigMacDavis! Thank you so much! :D

No serious cliffhangers this time! ^^