Always Smiling.

by BigBadBari21

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life, Dark
Length: 3641

Rainbow Dash is stuck in a dilemma. Pinkie, her best friend, was hurt beyond all belief. She found the perfect person, who is Rainbow's other best friend. What is Rainbow going to do?

Pinkie was hurt. Hurt very badly. Now Rainbow Dash comes back into her life, and unknowingly introduces her to a new best friend. What can Rainbow do? She doesn't know whether to stop it or help it. And she can't do anything to stop it.

Rainbow Dash's POV. Absolutely no shipping. Not even a hint.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-20 23:51:54 UTC

So They Meet.

Pinkie always was a happy pony. Always. She always had a bright smile on her face, nothing could possibly wipe it away. She loved smiling, it could possibly be one of her favorite pastimes. She was definitely one of my best friends, despite the fact that she could get ridiculously annoying at times.

A few months ago, my good friend Pinkie met a colt that stole her heart. She thought they were perfect. I thought otherwise, but I could see right through him. He was a nasty, lying colt who only wanted to use her, use her for bad things. Okay, so maybe he actually liked her, but he didn't show it very well. Not very well at all. Because I only saw someone who wanted to use my best friend, use her obliviousness by love. And I couldn't let that happen. So I had tried convincing her for days. Days on end. Eventually, I gave up. Pinkie could learn her own lessons.

I regret that decision to stop talking to her and to ignore her. I regret it now, but I could see why now. I think one of the main reasons I actually ignored her is that I might of had a small crush on him too.

That's a lie.

I had a huge crush on him, and he chose her.

He chose her, and broke her heart. Smashed it. Threw it away like it was nothing, like Pinkie's love wasn't enough. It wasn't enough because he found another pony. He found another pony, and ran off with her. Left Pinkie a note saying nothing more than a goodbye.

Nobody saw her for days. Of course, this information, I've only heard about. I didn't talk for her for months. This split us up pretty bad. She stayed in there for a long time.

A few weeks after they broke up, I gave her a note. I asked Mrs. Cake to give it to her. She said she would, it was nice.

Pinkie-

I'm sorry for what I did in the past. I left because I was scared of getting hurt. I shouldn't of reacted like that, and I'm sorry. I would like to talk.

-RD

I didn't know what else to say. I was confused, and I wanted to help out my friend. She seemed in pain, I didn't like pain. Pain was my enemy. I didn't feel pain. Ever. But I felt her pain. She was my friend that was always there. Never left my side, and I could talk to at 2 in the morning and she'd have no issues with it.

She approached me finally a few days later. We talked like no time had passed. I really had wanted to know why she was hurting, or if she still was.

A week or two had passed. She hadn't come out of her room, again. This time nopony knew why, she evidently wouldn't tell Mr. or Mrs. Cake. She stayed in there for 2 days. She came out again, randomly. We were just walking around, and I had to ask the question: "Hey Pinkie... Why were you up in your room for two days?"

I remember she stopped cold in her tracks. Her hair instantly flooded down towards her face, straighter than a blade, giving her a shelter. All she said on the subject was, "I realize now what big of a mistake I made."

One day, I was talking to my good friend Kaleido up in Cloudsdale, and he said he would check out Ponyville. We flew down, and gracefully landed right in the center.

Naturally, Pinkie raced towards me. She loved talking to me. She said a short hello to Kaleido, but kept on rambling on to me.

Kaleido was obviously very entertained by her. He was a quiet guy, never talked much. He never saw someone talk so fast or so much. A wide smile dawned upon his face, and he giggled. I had never heard him giggle before. It was kind of awkward. I knew he'd never like Pinkie, she would get on his nerves way too quickly. Pinkie needs someone with so much patience it's oozing out of them. I don't think Kaleido is this type of guy.

She turned to Kaleido, and gave a more formal introduction. A formal introduction for Pinkie was: "Hello! Who are you? What's your name? I'm Pinkie. I like to bake. Baking is fun. Laughing is also fun. I like to laugh, a lot. What's your name again?"

At every question, Kaleido's eyes grew bigger and bigger, like too many questions were being shoved down his throat. Kaleido was never this shy, but maybe he's just shy when he meets new people. He laughed and said, "I'm Kaleido." Just that.

She giggled, and asked me what we were doing today.

That was her first encounter with Kaleido.

I would start to bring Kaleido down with me. The three of us had tons of fun adventures. We pulled pranks on a lot of people. That was great. I think my favorite was when we tied strings to a book and puppeted it around, while Twilight was using her strongest magic to move it back into its proper place, no matter how much magic it took, it would just swung around more. Well, it worked until Pinkie started falling. Kaleido caught her almost in time, but Twilight sure did notice three ponies on the ceiling. She laughed. Which caused Pinkie to laugh. Pinkie loved laughing. And that caused both Kaleido and I to laugh, her laugh was infectious. Kaleido stopped paying attention and slowly started slipping off... Both him and Pinkie fell off the rafter, and Kaleido caught them both, with Pinkie holding onto him for dear life.

She backed away, blushing, but we all just started laughing once again.

We decided to have a campfire that night. It was just the three of us. We giggled and shared campfire stories. Those campfire stories led into stories about our past. Kaleido and I shared a few stories about us. I learned a lot about him, more than I usually had on any given day. He told me stories on how his parents left him, and how he stayed with his grandparents, and how every pegasus had rejected him, as more than friends...

This led Pinkie to tell us her story, and what she had bottled up.

A Day To Themselves.

The next day I woke up sick. Rather really sick. Kaleido had come to my house, and came right in.

"Hey Rainbow, what's wrong?"

"Eehhh... I'm a little sick." Seconds after, I vomited into the bucket that I was holding.

He laughed. "A little? Do you want me to stay with you the entire day?"

"No, I won't need it. I'm almost better anyways." Puked.

"Are you sure?"

I wanted him to stay the whole day with Pinkie. He made her happy. "Yes. Now, go down to Ponyville and hang out with Pinkie! She'd love a friend. And if both of us aren't there for her, she'd flip out and be sad for quite awhile."

"Well... Uhhh..." He turned pink. "I don't know Rainbow, I tend to get awfully shy around people, and she doesn't, kind of the exact opposite."

"Kaleido-" I reasoned. "I'm guessing Pinkie will be lonely without a friend to spend the day with. And since I can't be there due-" I vomited. Gross.

"You okay?" He said when I finally finished puking out my small intestine.

"Yeah. As I was saying, she'll get lonely. I'll just be really gross and... Vomitey all day. Or at least for the first half I will be, and it won't be pretty."

"Well, um... I guess. I just don't know."

"Is it because of what we talked about?"

"Well... Kind of..."

"Kind of? Spit it out, before I spit my stuff out."

"I just don't know how she'll react. When she sees just me."

Kaleido had started talking extremely quietly at this point. He seemed more timid than when I had first met him. And he was extremely timid then.

"Kaleido, what are you talking about? She's been hurt in her past, but she isn't going to let her affect her friendship with another guy!"

"Rainbow..."

"I just don't see why. I'll be fine, and she won't be very happy with either us when we see her again."

"Rainbow..."

"Besides, this will probably only last a few hours, I'm fi-"

"RAINBOW DASH!" He yelled. He was shaking. What the heck was wrong with him? This was my best guy friend, we'd been through thick and thin together, the one who was insanely strong, both physically and mentally, and here he was, shaking beyond all belief...

"Kaleido, what's wrong?"

"I don't want to be just friends with her."

"Ooooooohhhh..." Everything clicked now. "I'm sorry."

He looked at me with a confused look on his face. "Why are you saying sorry? I don't even care if she feels the same. She's funny, pretty, got an infectious laugh, always gives to everyone, extremely smart, but isn't quite perfect." He let out a deep sigh and floated down to the floor, with a big cheesy grin on his face.

"Ummmmm... Who are you and what have you done with my shy friend Kaleido?"

"I don't know." He looked right at me. "But I like it." His cheesy grin was almost too much for me.

"Well aren'tcha gonna go and spend your day with her? Or are you just gonna lay on my floor and dream about it?"

"Oh!" He got up and... Giggled? "Bye Rainbow!" He flew out of my door fast enough to almost beat my record.

"Well... That was eventful." I rolled my eyes and laid back down on my bed.

I guess it was a good thing. Kaleido was a good colt. A secret gentlecolt. He was kind to every pony he met, even if he hated her guts. He was civil as well. Who knows, maybe Pinkie would end up liking him.

Ugh. But love was such a cheesy emotion. All it ever involved was Hearts and Hooves Day and romance... Not my life. I thought Kaleido and I were actually gonna be intentionally alone, forever, just as friends.

But deep in my heart, I thought it was kind of cute. She made him ridiculously happy... And vice versa. I wonder what they would do today without me. Maybe he would pull a move on her. Now- he wouldn't. He's much to cautious. If he did anything at all, he'd start off slowly. Maybe he'd hint it to her today. Just slowly. Maybe a compilation of lots of different hints. Pinkie wasn't stupid, either. She was so much smarter than she looked.

'Rainbow! Why in the world would you keep your mind on this! It's LOVE. You don't care.' My sick brain yelled at me.

So I took my brain off of it for the rest of the day. I had to get better anyways. I spent the rest of the day vomiting, every time getting farther apart between trips to my bucket. Well, the rest of the day until about 10:45, when Kaleido tumbled through my door. To tell me how his day went.

"Oh. My. Gosh." He almost picked me up and spun me around, before he realized that might make me vomit again.

"What happened?" I was WAY too interested in this for a pony who didn't like love. It was my best friends, okay?

"Well, first, I had to explain to her why in the world you weren't there. She was kind of depressed because of it, but she had made cupcakes for the three of us, so we just ate them outside the shop. Then we went to one of the lakes, and we tried a little fishing. Mostly we just scared all of the fish by laughing so much. Oh well. Then we decided to walk around the lake and just talk. We talked for hours, until it was almost dinner time. Obviously, we were a little hungry. I took her out for dinner! I literally did it! I was really scared though... I wouldn't know how she'd take it."

"Did she take it alright?" I had to interject sometime.

"Shhh, I was just getting to that." This colt was seriously in love. "It was fun, and we just talked the entire time. Until closing time, which was about 10. Then I walked her home, and she thanked me for the wonderful day, and then..."

"Yes?" I said. He started giggling to the point of no return.

"She leaned over..."

"Yes?" I was on the edge of my seat now. (Why was I doing this? Love is so stupid.)

"And kissed me on the cheek!" He erupted into giggles.

"And THAT'S what you couldn't tell me?" I didn't think it was funny at all.

"Oh Rainbow Dash, I could kiss you right now, I don't even care that you don't care..."

I shooed him out of my house.

What had happened to him?

I had to get my best friend back.

Don't Fix What Isn't Broken.

I woke up at the crack of dawn, possibly a few minutes before then. I was still a little woozy, a little sick, but I needed to make it to Ponyville and back before Kaleido noticed. Hopefully Pinkie is a good morning person...

Pinkie was setting up shop for the day, cooking, so that Mr. And Mrs. cake could have the shop for the day.

I burst in. I didn't care how rude I was, I HAD to talk to Pinkie.

"PINKIE!" Her back was turned away from me, she was taking a few cookies out of the oven.

"Dashie!" She turned around, platter steaming, with a big wide smile on her face. "You came alone! Is Kaleido sick with what you had yesterday? Weren't you throwing up?"

"Not to my knowledge!" I winced at remembering vomiting. Yuck. "But I need you to help me. Answer a few questions."

"Sure Dashie, anything! Well, of course within reason, I wouldn't--"

"Do you... Take a special interest in Kaleido?" Man, this was awkward, and hard. Never played matchmaker before.

"Dashie, I already told you! I don't know yet. I mean, he's kind of the best--" she quieted herself before saying anything more. She didn't want to spill too much, or let something happen to herself.

"Wait, so you like him??" Oh... This wasn't going to be good.

She took a deep breath in, set down the cookies, and readied herself for a VERY long rant.

"WellIjustdon'tknowrightnowbeacusehe'sfunnycuteattractivesweetandawesomebutIjustreallydon'tknowbecauseofmypastandIreallywanttotrusthimbutI'vehadotherguysthathaveruineditforhimbutsofarhe'sthegreatestbeinginallofEquestriaandgoshdarnit... I REALLY LIKE HIM!!!" She spun around twice and collapsed to the ground.

My brain was spinning. Halfway because of Pinkie talking a mile a minute, and the rest because they both secretly liked each other. 'Maybe Twilight can help me...' I thought to myself. "Hey Pinkie, I'm gonna go outside, I'll be back with him." I raced out of there.

Before returning to Cloudsdale, I wanted to ask someone. Maybe Twilight knew some psychology! Maybe this would give a brilliant reasoning on what to do.

"TWILIGHT!!!"

"Rainbow! This is a LIBRARY." She said in a hoarse whisper.

"Oh. Sorry." I whispered back. "I have an issue."

"Yes?" She looked eager to solve it.

"Pinkie and my best friend both like each other."

She nodded and smiled. "That's great, Rainbow! What's the issue with it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" I gawked.

"No, it isn't. You should explain it." She started sorting books and putting them back on the appropriate shelves.

"They're both my best friends! If I let them fall in love, I'll just be the pointless third wheel!"

"So you want to stop it?" She looked at me.

"Well of course! Who wouldn't?"

"I wouldn't! Com'on Rainbow, is there any legitimate reason behind you don't want your friendship to change that you aren't allowing this to happen?"

"Well, um..."

"And besides, if they actually wanted to be together, you wouldn't be able to stop it."

"Why not?"

"Love always wins. True love does, but do we really know if it's true love?"

"And it might not be, so why would we let them waste their lives on someone that doesn't matter?"

"Because Rainbow," She said matter-of-factly, "You should let your friends make their own decisions. And besides, they should always be your friend, no matter what.

That last one hit like a bullet. That isn't what I did the first time.

"Besides, is he really that bad? He'll treat Pinkie quite nicely, won't he? What does Apple Jack always say? Don't fix what isn't broken?"

Little did she know, I was already out of the door.

"Kaleido!" I jumped on him to wake him up. "What's wrong with you boy, get up!"

"Rainbow! You usually wake me up an hour after this! Why are you waking me up so dang early?"

"I don't know what to do..." I paced around his room. I wanted my best friend back. But I also wanted him to be happy, and make his own decisions.

"What's wrong?" He rolled out of bed.

"I don't know what to do about you and Pinkie."

"Do nothing! Heck, I don't care!" He seemed pretty awake, more awake than usual. Usually he doesn't get out of bed for awhile. Awhile being 45 minutes after I wake him up. And even when he gets out then, it's really reluctant.

I just kind of stared at him.

He noticed after about 3 seconds. "What?!?"

"You're up earlier than usual. Like, out of bed and talking."

"The same I could say for you. What time did you get up?"

Goodness, when DID I get up?

"A lot earlier than usual... I have no idea. Why are YOU awake??" The tone came out nastier than I had previously expected.

"The question is, why didn't I sleep?"

"You didn't sleep?"

"Not a wink."

This was ridiculous. "Stay home and catch up on your sleep, will ya?"

"Why? There's a world down there! Memories to be made!"

"And that world will be there tomorrow too! Go to sleep." This was out of hand. Seriously, he probably was doing his gross giggling thing all night.

"Rainbow Dash, can't I have a little freedom?"

"Well of course. I'm not constricting you!"

He glared at me.

I actually thought about it. So maybe I was being his mother. And besides... Twilight told me not to do that such thing...

The fact hit me like a train. "Well... I guess. I'm not your mother anyways."

"Yeah you aren't!" He smiled, and his old self was back again, even for the time being. He flew down, and I closely followed him.

Both of us went into Sugarcube Corner, once we hit the ground. It had become almost natural for us after about a month.

"Hey Pinkie!" A wide, almost natural smile came on Kaleido's face when he called her.

"Oh hey Kaleido! Dashie! You're back!" This almost seemed like it was written out in a script.

Kaleido gave me a weird look, mixed in with a lot of confusion. "Again? Wait-- there's something I'm missing out on. Again?"

Bottled Up.

"I met him, right?"

Pinkie started, tears already streaming down her face, hair, already straight.

"I thought he was who I was meant to be with. I thought I could tell him anything I needed to, and he would listen. I thought he was sweet, kind and my best friend. I thought so."

She took a deep breath in.

"I got a letter from him a few weeks ago. He said he was doing fine. Just. Fine. And he said it was okay with him if I went to live with him there. The girl he went there for left him. And he wanted me back. I started remembering everything he did to me in our relationship. I wrote him back. And I gave him my opinion. Oh yes Pinkie did. I told him all my feelings. Little did I know, I never told him my true feelings. I let him know that I was hurt, that he had flat-out disrespected me. And that in the entirety of the world would I ever be in a relationship again, because he hurt me. I could never trust another colt, ever again. It just wouldn't happen. All because he used me. I let him use me. I let him."

Tears were now cascading down her face. She was shaking so badly. I sat next to her and held her hoof, as a friendly gesture.

"I was so stupid, I let him use me. Gosh dang it, I was his sex toy!"

She bawled to the point she couldn't continue. I felt ridiculously guilty. I left my best friend in the midst of this... She didn't know what was going on, and I couldn't help her... I promised myself I'd never leave another person like this ever again. Both Pinkie and I were crying... I couldn't help but notice Kaleido shaking uncontrollably, crying...

She shook her head. "Never... Never... Never again."

Kaleido shakily stood up. "I need to go. Good night you two."

He flew off into the blackness, towards Cloudsdale.

Pinkie stood up. "It's late, we should really go to bed now."

Her hair was slowly becoming frizzier and frizzier, each curl bouncing back into place...

"Hey Pinkie?" I needed to ask her one last question before I went to bed.

"Yes?" A small smile appeared on her face. She obviously had felt a little better about telling someone.

"What do you think of Kaleido?"

"Oh. Ummm... Well... He's nice, a good friend..." Knowing where I was going with this, she finished her reply, "I don't know yet. I just don't know much anymore."