Pillow Thoughts II

Pillow Thoughts II

Chapter 5
Talk, dammit!

Dash opened her eyes. Thankfully, the first thought that crossed her mind was not related to Applejack. At least her morning would start off on a different note.

…unfortunately, her first thought was related to the question ‘Why is the room on fire?’

Dash jumped out of her bed. Her first reaction was to look towards Twilight. Her friend was still sleeping, despite the fact that her bed was surrounded by flames.

“Twilight!!” the pegasus shouted as she made her way towards the unicorn. “Twilight, wake up!!”

She started coughing uncontrollably and barely managed to stand up straight as she finally reached her friend’s bed. She started shaking the unicorn, trying to wake her up, but to no avail.

She must’ve passed out! Lack of oxygen!

Trying to calm herself, she looked towards the windows. The curtains became a fiery shield, therefore all her efforts of breaking her way through would’ve been futile. She quickly turned towards the door and saw that the way was clear, sort of. She bent over the unicorn, preparing to lift her and carry her out. Suddenly, Twilight turned her head towards Dash, scaring the pegasus.

“So that’s how it is! Y’all would help her, but not me!” she said, angrily. But it wasn’t Twilight anymore… it was Applejack.

Dash backed up only to stumble over Fluttershy and Pinkie who gasped. “You must like her in THAT way!”

Fluttershy frowned. “It’s not natural!”

“I’ve seen some crazy things in my life,” continued the pink pony, without smiling at all, “but this is NOT normal!”

Dash backed away from them, completely freaked out, as the flames were getting higher and higher. Ash was rising into the air and it slowly became harder and harder to see. The heat was beginning to be unbearable. She bumped into Rarity who was carrying tons of ribbons and dresses, shouting towards her various numbers and sizes. “We just have to dress you up properly!” the white unicorn concluded.

The pegasus found herself covered in the materials as the ribbons caught fire, lighting up the entire pile. She tried getting out, flapping her wings, pushing away the dresses, but she couldn’t move. She heard Applejack’s voice. “Don’t dress her like that! Everypony will know about her if you do that!”

Dash tried to shout but something got caught around her neck. She couldn’t breathe and she could see the flames through the transparent materials, getting closer and closer.

With her last strength, she gasped for air, waking up in her bed.

***

Dash jerked her head from under the blanket, gasping for air. She looked at Twilight’s bed. It was empty… and so was the rest of the room. No flames, just the old furniture being lit up by the morning sun. Particles of dust could be seen dancing in the air as the rays were gently stroking Dash’s mane, as if to comfort her. She sighed, her heart still pounding hard in her chest.

The pegasus tried calming herself down and rubbed her forehead, relieved that it was just a nightmare. Well, she woke up to a less obvious, but equally scary nightmare. She still felt guilty about not helping her marefriend. Even so, perhaps things would be a little better today.

If only…

A quick shower later, Dash climbed down the stairs to find her friends in a corner, at a nicely arranged table. They were apparently just finishing up breakfast and were joyfully sharing impressions related to the town and its surroundings. Apparently, some of them woke up even earlier than usual and took a stroll around the enchanting little shops. At least that’s what Rarity’s new turquoise material hinted at, as she was showing it to everypony.

The unicorn carefully folded the material with her magic and placed it back in the bag, under the table. The entire mini-restaurant looked nice or, at least, it smelled nice. The tables were simple, yet nicely decorated, and the wooden benches that were used as long rows of chairs gave the entire place a rustic look. Not that the pegasus would care too much, but it was an interesting change compared to the restaurants in Ponyville.

A mare, wearing a dark green dress that went well with her brown hair was carrying a magic-engulfed silvery tray. She was placing various glass and plates on different tables, according to her customers’ requests. No doubt she was the innkeeper’s wife.

Nice place to raise a family, Dash thought as she nodded towards the smiling mare who greeted her.

She looked towards Applejack who looked like she was enjoying herself, eating the last pieces of what seemed to have been fried eggs and salad. Maybe things were getting better after all.

With a silent sigh, Rainbow approached her friends. “Hey.”

“Morning, Rainbow!” Twilight responded amongst the others, scooching on the bench to make room for the pegasus. “We saved you some.”

“Thanks,” she replied as she looked at the freshly made sandwiches in front of her. “How come we’re eating here now? Didn’t you say last night that we shouldn’t spend so much?” she continued as she started eating her food.

“Well,” responded Twilight after taking a few sips from her orange juice, “Dinner is always more expensive than breakfast. Besides, I also ordered some extra food for the road. It seems only fitting to grab fresh food when we have the chance.”

“We don’t know what’s out there!” confirmed Rarity who probably had the most sophisticated breakfast in all of Equestria. Dash couldn’t even tell what she ate from the looks of her plate. ‘Plates’ actually.

“Always planning ahead, huh Twi?” responded the pegasus without raising her gaze from her food.

“Always!” said the unicorn, smiling cheerfully. She discreetly looked at her friend, trying to see if there were any signs of last night’s discomfort. Not being satisfied with a clear conclusion, she returned to her orange juice wishing there was some way of helping her friends.

Dash took another bite of her sandwich. It tasted good. Everypony around her seemed to have enjoyed their breakfast.

At least we can all pretend that nothing happened, thought Rainbow, shifting her eyes unnoticeably towards her marefriend.

“I just hope my friends will be fine as long as I’m gone,” said Fluttershy, staring down at her barely touched food. Rainbow barely noticed that her gentle friend was not as cheerful as the others were. “What’s the ma—“

“Oh, Ah’m sure they will be, sugarcube!” replied the cowpony, tilting her hat as she intentionally cut off Rainbow. “Animals sure do know how to take care of themselves! Ah can assure you, everythin’ will be fine.”

Rainbow felt that the remark was somehow aimed at her, rather than Fluttershy. It could’ve been just her guilt playing tricks… or not. Whichever it was, the next few bites of the sandwhich would go down a lot harder. She looked directly at Applejack, but the earth pony completely ignored her gaze.

The yellow pegasus smiled towards her friend and, appeased, started eating some more of her salad. If an outsider would look towards this group of friends, he’d see nothing wrong with it. There they were, six mares enjoying breakfast and conversations. However, something was wrong. Pinkie was uncharacteristically quiet. She seemed to have forgotten all about the waterslide idea.

Everypony knew that the pink-energetic-furball was smart, despite her moments of complete naivety. However, she did rely a lot on the visual and tactile elements when it came to forming a conclusion (i.e. a pony who smiles is a happy pony; a pony who doesn’t smile is a less-than-happy pony… and so on). She clearly saw that Applejack was smiling and that Rainbow started talking about the weather all of a sudden (which was actually quite a controversial subject amongst pegasi… kind of like politics amongst unicorns). Despite that, Pinkie clearly felt something was not okay.

Her tail didn’t twitch at all, she didn’t feel anything related to the Pinkie-sense… but something was off about this situation… especially around Rainbow and Applejack. She did remember another moment that was… not entirely okay. When was that…?

Think, Pinkie, think! she thought to herself, rubbing her forehead in silence. She was convinced that she saw this before… sometime… It was something only she noticed, even though the others wouldn’t have remembered if she just asked directly.

Think! When have you felt this before? Think! she continued, rubbing her forehead in silence, concentrating. She started replaying various scenes in her head. Think!

Was it at the Gala? No… but that was fun! Sort of… Does many animals running around = a party?

She had to concentrate. Food… eating… ah, parasprites? Was that awkward? Well, aside from eating half of Ponyville, everything went normal that day. The mini-parade was nice, too! I should do that again sometime soon.

This was getting her nowhere. She knew that if she didn’t find the answer now, she wouldn’t be able to do anything else all day. She would just sit down and be quiet… and think. And that would be too much for her to handle. Well, she WAS already sitting down and WAS quiet. This was already unbearable.

“Think! Think! Think, Pinkie, think!” she said, starting to poke herself with her right hoof. “Think!” Poke. “Think!” Poke. “Think!” Poke. “Think!” Poke. “Think!”

She realized about a minute later that her friends have gone quiet and were focusing their attention on her.

“Are you… alright, Pinkie?” asked Twilight, not sure if she should interfere with Pinkie’s way of handling internal monologue.

The pink pony stopped poking her head and shrugged as if it was something completely normal. “Yeah, duh, why wouldn’t I be?”

Her friends blinked, confused. She let out a sigh, knowing that she had to explain herself (again). “I just have to figure something out but I don’t know what! If I did know what, I wouldn’t need to figure it out and I would just sit here and smile. Otherwise, I’d sit here and not smile, because I couldn’t do anything else ALL day, except sitting but I was doing that already! Really, what’s so hard to understand?”

After a few quiet moments of confusion, Dash spoke up: ‘”So… as I was saying… I once met a pegasus who tried walking on this gray cloud…” Everypony else turned their attention towards her since her story would’ve probably made a lot more sense, despite the fact that the subject was rather boring.

Pinkie turned back to poking her head, and just when she was about to move the poking-point somewhere above her left eye (in case the information somehow got stuck there again… don’t ask, Pinkie-logic), she finally remembered! Her frown turned into an instant smile as she repositioned herself completely, like a tank ready to fire, with a smile on its face.

…that is, if tanks could smile.

Rainbow was just finishing up explaining the reasons why you can’t stand on certain types of clouds, when Pinkie burst: “Did you have trouble with bedbugs again, Applejack?”

Applejack froze as she was drinking her cider and it took quite a lot of effort to keep the drink in her mouth. Twilight and Rarity just cringed and Rainbow could’ve sworn that one of her own eyes started twitching.

Out of reflex, the orange pony ran her hoof along her neck. She knew she didn’t have any marks. Since she and Rainbow started sleeping together, checking herself in the mirror for bite marks and covering them up with scarves or clothes became a semi-cute semi-annoying habit she developed. She did it that morning too, until she realized that it was her first night in a very long time since she slept without her pegasus. Except that particular night in which Rainbow almost forgot to kiss her.

Gee, thanks fer reminding me all those great things, Pinkie…

“Uh, no, Pinkie. No trouble whatsoever. Why d’you ask?” replied the pony, trying to ignore her own train of thoughts.

“Well, I’m not sure but something is not really okay. I mean, everypony seems okay and eating but something tells me not everypony is okay when eating and last time not everypony was okay when eating was when everypony slept at Twilight’s house and you got bitten by bedbugs and that morning we were eating and it was the same not okay feeling!” she responded, in one breath. She then crossed her front legs and proudly lifted her head up. “You do NOT want to know how hard it was to reach that conclusion!”

“Yup! You’re right!” said Applejack, making Rainbow’s heart skip a beat. Was she really going to tell her the truth?

“Of course I’m right!” replied the pink pony who then blinked once and turned towards her friend. “Right about what?”

“Ah do NOT want to know how hard it was to reach that conclusion!” said Applejack, grinning. Dash, Rarity and Twilight let out a unison sigh. “Now, if y’all would excuse me, Ah need to prepare for the trip ahead of us,” and with that, she got up from the table.

As she got up, Dash was still looking at her and their eyes met for a second. Her look sent chills down the pegasus’ spine.

Nope… the ‘multi-colored broomstick’ thought to herself. Things are definitely not getting better.

***

“Good morning, gentlecolts! Had a good night sleep?” asked the purple unicorn.

The drivers looked up and nodded, smiling. “We sure did, Miss Twilight,” replied Tons. “Thanks for asking! Are you ladies ready to leave?”

“Yup!” she responded cheerfully. Twilight did her best to maintain a cheerful disposition amongst the ponies but she would soon discover that it will become hard… very hard to do so.

Leaving the inn behind, the mane six continued their journey towards the sea. The carriage drivers got their deserved rest and started out with fresh new forces as the wheels seemed to have caught wings of their own, the vehicle soaring with all its might. Field after field, hill after hill, they covered quite a few good miles and the drivers didn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Maybe they still felt a bit guilty after the thieves-incident.

Inside the carriage, the ride was definitely less enjoyable now with the awkward silence dwelling upon the ponies. Twilight knew that Applejack and Rainbow wouldn’t talk no matter what… and they knew she knew, therefore trying to stir up a conversation would only be annoying for them. Rarity didn’t quite catch on yet, regarding the entire situation, but she knew it had to be bad. Then she just drifted into images of pattern designs and, coincidentally, ribbons.

Fluttershy was quiet by nature. She seemed to have recovered from yesterday’s shock. Her friends’ presence definitely helped her a lot and she was grateful for them. She looked sheepishly at the gang, only to feel intrigued by the fact that they all seemed very… out of it. Except for Pinkie.

The pink vortex-of-balloons (a nickname she got from a certain time-travelling pony) was restless. “So if there were no bedbugs… what’s going on?” she said, as if the conversation never stopped an hour ago.

“Huh?” responded Applejack, pricking up her ears. “Oh, drop it Pinkie… everythin’s fine and dandy!”

“But you guys are not… Something is weird! Am I in a dream? I think I’m in a dream… do I get icecream?” she asked, with a big smile as the last words came out of her mouth.

“Pinkie,” started Twilight. “This is not a dream…everypony is fine. We’re probably lost in our own thoughts, admiring the view…”

“Well, don’t worry, everypony,” Pinkie shouted joyfully, as if she didn’t even hear Twilight, “I’ll get to the bottom of this and make everything better again!” and with that she started poking her forehead again in various places.

A few minutes passed in silence. The sound of the carriage almost had a certain hidden rhythm to it. The rocking and the scenery flying past them could’ve easily put anypony in a semi-trance state. Rainbow rested her forehead on the window, trying to think of her flying routine and realizing that it’s been more than two days since her last practice. If this went on, she would be out of shape soon enough… and that meant cramps and pulled-muscles and--

“AHA!” shouted the pink pony making everypony else jump in their seats. “I almost forgot!” she continued and pulled a small object out of nowhere. “Twilight can you fix this for me, please?”

The unicorn looked closer at the object. “What is this? It looks like… the bottom part of a key.”

“Yup, I accidentally broke it when I locked the room this morning. Can you fix it?”

“You’re telling me this, now!?” asked Twilight, who was already calculating how much would it cost to replace it and if they should go back and apologize. “Wait, where’s the other half?”

“In the keyhole,” replied Pinkie. She slowly started to figure out that it might have been smarter to keep that tiny detail to herself.

Fluttershy started to chuckle all of a sudden at the idea, followed by Rarity. Soon, the group started laughing together, imagining and sharing different scenarios of the innkeeper trying to figure out why his guests can’t enter that specific room.

“Oh my,” said Rarity, “I wonder if he’ll start charging ponies for sleeping on the hallway!”

“We certainly can’t spend another night there, ever again!” replied Twilight, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Imagine what would happen if we just came back one day and say ‘We think we might have forgotten something’!”

“The look on his face would’ve been priceless!” continued Rainbow, happy that Pinkie managed to lighten up the mood. Even Applejack had a good laugh out of this.

“Pinkie, darling, you truly are a unique pony,” remarked Rarity, with a hoof placed on her chest. “We all needed that to lift our spirits… Element of Laughter indeed.”

Dash lifted her gaze for just a second, glancing at Applejack. The earth pony stared right back at her. They both were thinking the same thing… Dash’s element. They quickly shifted their eyes towards something else, but not quickly enough. Not even Celestia would know how in the world Pinkie got that… but she did. She noticed the awkward exchange between them. Just when she was about to say something about it, the carriage suddenly stopped.

“Woah! Easy there!” shouted Gus.

“Miss Twilight! I think you’d better come see this,” followed Tons, a trace of concern being heard in his voice.

The girls looked at each other.

“If we found some bandits again, or burglars or…whatever,” started Rarity, “As Celestia is my witness, I swear… I am Going. To. Scream.”

Twilight tried ignoring the image of a frustrated Rarity screaming at thieves and made her way towards the door. She climbed out of the carriage only to discover a young mare. Apparently, she ran… a lot. Her olive coat was covered in sweat and she was gasping for air. Her black mane was a mess and she kept shaking her head to get it out of her eyes.

“Easy, calm down…” started the unicorn. She then noticed that the pony she was talking to was an earth pony. The town was near, judging by Twilight’s calculations, so why would this pony be in this state… since all earth ponies have a distinct resistance to effort and—

“I’m frightened!” the olive pony managed to say, between gasps.

“It’s alright, we’re safe here—“

“No! No we’re not! I’m sweating… I ran… I’m scared. I don’t like sweat.”

“Just… calm down… tell me what’s wrong…”

“I don’t know what happened! I’m confused! And I think that rainbow-colored mane looks stupid on your friend there.”

“Hey!” said Rainbow as she was looking out the window, along with the other ponies. “Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face!”

“Rainbow, stop,” replied Twilight.

“Well, even though I may agree with her, that’s no way to talk to somepony you barely met!” confirmed Rarity, running a hoof through her own mane, as if she tried to make sure it was still ‘perfect as always’.

“Didn’t you hear what she just said?” continued Twilight, a worried look stamped on her face.

“Yeah, she insulted me!” replied the pegasus, climbing out of the carriage. The gesture made the olive pony flinch a little, unsure of what the pegasus might do.

“Leaving that aside, she analyzed her own reactions and she blurted out everything that was on her mind… Girls, she was telling the truth about what she’s feeling.”

Fluttershy took a step back as the other ponies just stared at the olive mare. Twilight turned to her and, calmly, asked: “It’s alright… just tell us where is the alicorn who did this to you.”

End of Chapter 5