Time Marches Onward

As I woke up, I found that Rainbow had positioned her head on top of my chest some time in the night. I put my arm around her shoulders and held her close to me, and decided to savor the moment rather than waking her up so early. After about fifteen minutes, she woke up yawning and stretched her wings. She stood up and made coffee over the fire, then we both drank a mug and re-packed our things for the next part of the journey. The morning was beautiful. The rich green trees and a cool layer of fog from the nearby lake, the sun shining on us in the brisk air. I'd never slept better in my life, not even at applejack's farm where it was warm and comfortable. I was head over heels in love.

The rest of the trip went normal. We sat out and watched the sunset each night, and Rainbow and I would sleep in the same tent every night, cuddling together to keep the cold out. We would wake up each morning, drink Rainbow's amazing coffee, and continue moving on. We really got to know each other. And... I even learned a bit about myself. I'd always thought that love was for weak ponies who refused to accept that the only reason we felt it was purely the drive for sex. I was wrong. I loved Rainbow Dash, whether we were going to have sex or not. This is what everypony meant when they said love. Almost six days later, we got home. I was excited to see Vinyl and Octavia. They would be coming back with their foal in a few hours, and I wanted to be there to see their faces at Pinkie's surprise party. I went back to Applejack's, and was supplied with a dress to give to Rainbow as well as my own dress clothes for the party by Big Mac. He looked at me and opened his mouth to speak. It almost seemed hard for him to do, after all of his years of barely talking.

“So, you love Rainbow Dash then? I'd expect that much,” This left my mouth gaping. You had to know the guy. For the first two months I knew the guy, I thought the only words he knew were yes and no.

“Yeah. I-I guess I do, Big Mac. Yeah, I love her. A lot.” I said, still recovering from the mental blow of Big Mac speaking more than his usual monosyllable one word sentences.

“Listen. I'll tell you this for your own sake. My sister's head over heels for you. She's gonna be hurt when she finds out about you and Rainbow. And Celestia as my witness, if you hurt her any more than that, I will make it painful for you. Drinking buddies or not,” Big Mac had just used sentence structure. Holy fucking shit. I was going to be in deep shit if I didn't listen. He didn't need to tell me what would happen. Forty plus years of bucking apples give somebody damn strong legs.

“I'd never hurt her Big Mac. She's one of the kindest ponies I've ever seen. She took me out of that damned bar and brought me here. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry I have to hurt her at all with this whole Rainbow Dash thing,” I said, hoping to preserve our friendship.

“Right,” he said, monosyllable as ever. Than god, I thought. Back to the usual order of the universe.

Rainbow and I got dressed and ready for the party, and arrived just before Vinyl and Octavia. Pinkie almost gave us away while she was bouncing around. As Octavia and Vinyl walked in, Pinkie flicked the lights and we all yelled, “Surprise!”. But... something was off. Octavia was sobbing, and Vinyl's eyes were red. They came on holding one another, lokking at us with pained expressions. Octavia ran up the stairs to her room sobbing even harder than before, and Vinyl dismissed the party other than me. I followed Vinyl up the stairs to her and Octavia's room where she was still on the bed sobbing into her pillow.

“What happened? Where's the new foal?” I asked frantically. Octavia sobbed ever louder at the mention of the foal, and Vinyl began to cry as well.

“It... I-It's gone, Calico. It was taken on the way back, and we, we just don't know what to-” Vinyl began sobbing too hard to finish the sentence, and I tried my best to comfort the both of them. Of course this would happen to them, just when everything was going our way. I ended up staying the night there, intending to find their new child.