I'm experimenting with longer stories. I honestly did not in any way expect to be writing MLP fics, but I like the characters and universe, so here we go!
Rating: T, honestly I think the rating could be even lower but I like to play it safe. I think vague drug jokes are the worst thing in this.
Disclaimer: I don't own MLP! Not in any way!
Warnings: There's no sexual references or smut, so don't go in secretly hoping for any. Much cleaner than my previous fic. Also, Rainbow Dash may have a bit less moral integrity than usual, but that's kind of the side of her I'm exploring, so slight OOCness from her, sorry if it bothers you!
The Rainbow Heiress
The alarm clock went off, its shrill ringing filling the room.
Rainbow rolled over in her bed, feeling the night's warmth trapped under the covers. I could stay here all day if I wanted, she thought, with a content smile. The smile began fading, however, as shrill alarm reminded her she couldn't reach the shutoff from her bed.
Tossing the warm covers aside, she stood up on the bed, stretching her back and legs. There was a thud as she hopped to the floor, walking over to the shelf and switching off the alarm. Time to get the mail, AGAIN, she thought, scratching her flank as she moved to the door.
The sun was filtering through the windows as she made her way down the stairs and across the foyer. Opening the front door, she saw the usual mail pegasus standing on the doorstep, looking through his letter bag. He heard the door open and looked up. "Ah, hey Rainbow! Sorry there was no mail yesterday, there was a small fire at the post office." Rainbow's eyes shot open. "Whoa, did anyone get hurt?"
"No, luckily we all got out in time, but the safety bureau was all up in our business and we couldn't get anything delivered. Here's your mail from yesterday." He held out an envelope. "Huh. Well, thanks!" Rainbow said, taking the letter before cocking an eyebrow. "So are you sure I didn't get anything for today then?" The pegasus checked around in his bag some more. "No, that's all there was for this address. Sorry!" he turned and prepared to take off. "Well, have a nice day, Dash!" he said, lifting off and flying away." Rainbow waved bye, stopping when she realized she was probably outside his line of vision anyways. She closed the door, eying the envelope with a glint of curiosity as she began walking back to the stairs.
Ripping open the top, she pulled out a sheet of paper and unfolded it, looking it over.
'To Miss Dash,
We regret to inform you of the passing of a very distant relative, Madame Mittie Dash. You are her only surviving heir, and as such, you are the sole recipient of the Dash family estate. The executor of the final will has taken ownership of all physical assets to pay for their services, but the remainder, as listed here, shall pass to you. To the account of Rainbow Dash of Ponyville, the sum of 10,795,367 gold bits shall be transferred as a non-revokable bank transaction by noon on the day you receive this letter. The transaction shall be….'
The letter dropped to the floor. Rainbow's jaw was practically touching the floor. She was trying to think but her brain didn't seem to be cooperating at the moment. Her legs were shaking as she began hobbling over to the cloud couch, collapsing face down onto the cushions. What did she just read? Did she actually have ten million golden bits in her bank account? No. That amount was just too much to imagine. She felt her nerves tingling. I've gotta tell someone, before I go insane! No, I must've read it wrong. I must've, right? She got up, feeling a bit more stable, and walked over to pick the letter back up off the ground. Her eyes scanned it, finding it to say the exact same thing. She pinched herself on the leg. Okay, I'm not dreaming. There's gotta be something else I'm missing… what if this is a prank? She saw a wax seal stamped onto the letter, and felt an embossed ring under her hoof. The paper even had a watermark, she saw, holding the paper up to the light. Maybe I can get Twilight to inspect it for me? She's pretty smart..
A few minutes later she was cutting through the air, swooping down to the center of Ponyville. She slowed down, her hooves touched down right outside Twilight's Library. "Would Twilight be home?" she wondered, clopping over to the door. She raised her hand up to knock on the door, hesitating at the last second. Wasn't there an old pony rhyme or something? "Never tell your friends you're rich; they'll beg, then leave you in the ditch", wasn't it? No, Twilight wouldn't. Good ol' Twilight wouldn't do that, right? I mean, the library did need a new roof.. maybe she could pay for that later? She snapped from her train of thought as she heard the door open.
"Hey, Rainbow, aren't you gonna knock to come in or something? You've been standing there for a minute already." Rainbow took a step back, thinking about the letter and trying to keep her voice steady. "Oh, h-hey, Twilight! Uhhhh, I was just over here to… to… to wish you happy morning!" Her cheeks began to pinken as she realized how awkward that sounded. "I mean.. you know, like a good morning wish?" She tried to fake a smile. Twilight cocked her head to the side, appearing not to be buying it. "Uhh, Dash, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I mean, I'm fine! It's not weird to wish people good morning, right!" There was a silence as Twilight continued to eye her.
Rainbow looked up at a nearby clock tower. "Oh, would you look at that? I've gotta go eat breakfast! I guess I must've skipped it to come wish you happy morning. Haha! I'm so silly, right? Well, see ya later!" She turned around and took off as fast as she could, feeling her forehead cooling from the air rushing over her now sweaty forehead. Am I really that bad at lying? And I wasn't actually afraid Twilight would start begging for money, right? Right, I mean, I may not be as generous as Rarity, but I wouldn't be afraid of paying for the roof, would I? No, she reasoned, she just didn't feel ready to reveal the news. Yeah, that was it! That sounded good.
She came back to reality, realizing she'd been running aimlessly for a few blocks by now. Where'd she tell Twilight she was going again? She felt her stomach grumble and remembered she was on her way to the bakery.
Opening the bakery door, she smelled the familiar scent of baked goods wafting around her as she walked in. Pinkie Pie was behind the counter, loading some cookies into the display cabinet. "Hey, Rainbow, you're up early! Something going on?" Rainbow's face froze. "Uhmmm, nooo, I was just hungry."
"Really? You've never been here anywhere near this early before."
"Well, maybe I just wanted to go on a morning flight around the town and got hungry! What's it to you?" Pinkie was now looking a bit upset. Rainbow cringed. "Ughh, sorry for yelling at you, Pinkie, I must be crabby because I'm so hungry… yeah! That makes sense, right?" Pinkie's face softened a bit. "Oh, yeah, anything particular you had in mind? We have a new egg muffin, but Derpy's been buying out all our stock. I hid a few, in case you'd like one, hmmm?"
Rainbow was now staring into the display cabinet intently. Maybe a nice cupcake? A breakfast panini?
The gilded croissant?
She'd never been able to afford one of those before, they were just too expensive… at least they used to be….
"Hey, Pinkie, can I have the croissant?" Pinkie looked over. "Uhhh, you're not talking about the gilded one, right? We only keep those there for the pretentious big-spender pegasi, you know..."
"Pinkie, you know I'm not pretentious! I don't think so, at least... It's just, you only live once, ya know?" Pinkie leaned over the counter. "Uhm, Rainbow, I know it's not my place to say this, but are you sure you want that?" she whispered, "It's seventy gold bits!" Rainbow looked her in the eye. "Pinkie, I can afford it. I swear. Please?"
"Rainbow, they're not even very good, they taste like yeast!"
"Pinkie! I just wanna try one, okay? Don't worry, I set aside some money for it. I can afford it just fine!"
Pinkie was eying her with a suspicious look in her eyes. "Okay, I guess, if you want it that much…." She grabbed the croissant from the cabinet and handed it to her over the counter, little bits of flaky gold leaf falling off. "That'll be seventy golden bits.." she said. Rainbow recognized her faint tone to imply the croissant was a waste of money, but decided to just ignore it. She reached into a satchel around her waist and grabbed a handful of bits, setting them on the counter. "Does that look like around seventy?"
The pony behind the counter now had her mouth hanging open. "Rainbow," she almost hissed, "why are you throwing away so much money without even so much as counting it?!" Rainbow shrugged, adding to the pile of bits on the counter. Pinkie's face was now completely confused. She finally shook her head and began counting the bits. "Rainbow, I'm not keeping the change. You're going to pay the proper amount fair and square, no more and no less, okay?" Rainbow nodded, taking a bite of the croissant. She chewed for a second, her face contorting. "Bleck!" she yelled, throwing the remaining pastry in the trash.
Pinkie was beginning to look annoyed. She leaned over the counter, checking to make sure nobody else was in the room. "Okay, Rainbow, now this is just a one time thing, but I'll give you the money back. They're so overpriced just to turn a higher profit, and I think Mr. Cake would understand if you didn't know what you were buying. But you can't tell anyone, okay?" Rainbow chuckled. "Thanks, but don't worry about it. I bought it, and have to pay for it, that's just how it works."
Pinkie closed the door to the display cabinet. "Uhhh, Rainbow, are you feeling alright today? You've been acting a little off since you came in, you know." Rainbow jerked up from the display cabinet. "Are you kidding me? I'm just up and out a little early, remember?"
"No, I mean you were never really a big spender, no offense… and just now, you jerked your head around so quickly, are you on edge about something?"
Rainbow let out a forced chuckle. "I gotta go home, I… I probably forgot to lock my front door! Don't want those neighbors snooping around, right?" Just then, the doorbell rang. The two ponies turned to see Twilight walking in. "Hey! Watcha talking about?"
Pinkie was looking back and forth between Rainbow and Twilight. "Uhhh…. I'm not allowed to discuss customer transactions without permission, so…" Rainbow's face was turning a faint red. Twilight seemed to notice, her curiosity obviously piqued. "Rainbow, you're not buying stuff with illegal ingredients, are you?"
"Uhhh, I gotta go! See ya guys later!" She made a break for the door, letting it slam behind her. "Pinkie, what's going on?" Twilight walked over to the cabinet. "She was acting weird over at my house too this morning."
"What?! Did you guys have another sleepover without telling me?!" Pinkie whined. "You said you weren't gonna do that anymore!"
"Pinkie, calm down! We weren't having a slumber party! She just showed up this morning, acting all nervous. I'm honestly a little worried something might be going on with her." Pinkie thought for a few seconds. "Well, I'm not allowed to talk about what she bought or how much she paid, but go look in the trash can, I might've seen her throw something of hers away." Twilight walked over to the bin in the corner, peering down into it.
"Is this a… a gold covered croissant?! Pinkie, why do you even sell these?!" Pinkie gave a giggle. "You'd be surprised, we only sell one a month, but they still turn a ridiculous profit. It can be the difference between a bad day and a great day in terms of sales." Twilight glanced at the door for a second, squinting. "How did she afford something like that? I mean, her house is huge and all, but building with clouds is practically free! This is just… completely unlike her!"
Pinkie nodded in agreement. Twilight had begun pacing in front of the counter. "I don't know if I should be worried, but I can't help it. Maybe this was just a one-time splurge?" Pinkie sighed, walked out from behind the counter. "She did say she'd been saving up… you know, Twilight, I really don't like doing this sort of thing, but if you're that worried, we do know somepony who could probably collect some insider info for us, you catch my drift?" Twilight stopped pacing, a devious smile forming on her lips. "You know, I think I do. It is for her own good, after all..."
I'm writing this as kind of an exercise to get my writing up to MLP fanfic par. I just read some pretty good stuff and it's making me feel like I need more practice. So, constructive criticism is highly appreciated, even encouraged. Don't feel pressured to though! :)