A/N: Hey guys, it's about time I brought you that sequel I promised! To those of you who haven't read my previous story I suggest reading it before reading this one, in case you're interested, it will make things clearer for you because there are a few original characters as well as events that took place in the previous story which will be relevant to this sequel. Anyway, to those of you who followed my previous story and me, I hope you enjoy this story as much as you enjoyed the previous one =]
It was another sunny beautiful day in the quiet village named Ponyville, the type of day that would make just about everypony smile after walking out of bed and looking out through the window. With winter freshly out of the way, the ponies of Equestria in general and of Ponyville in particular could look forward to waking up with smiles on their faces every morning. Not only that, but Hearts and Hooves Day was nearing and the ponies of Ponyville, especially those who were planning to spend this one of a kind day with their special ones, were eagerly helping out with preparations such as making decorations and placing them wherever they were noticeable by whoever passed and would pass by. All those types of colorful decorations, (in the different shades of pink, red and purple of course,) were meant to give the village the romantic mood and ambience which were designated to this special holiday.
Those decorations always made Rainbow Dash feel sick. She hated those types of colors in almost every way possible. The only exceptions she made for that were the deep-purple stripe on her mane and tail and the magenta hue of her eyes, because it was her way to believe that on her everything looked awesome and cool. Not only did she not like the decorations that flooded the village during Hearts and Hooves Day, but the whole idea of going out while being surrounded by many other ponies, especially ones who were busy giggling at their dates or speaking to them in a way silly way made her want to throw up even harder. If one wanted her to really freak out and lose her mind he would tie her up and throw her into Ponyville during Hearts and Hooves Day, but anyone who was smart enough to figure this out was also smart enough to figure out that he should never do it unless he was tired of living.
Luckily for the rainbow-maned pegasus she flew so fast that she could fly past the entire village in a matter of seconds, and even during those few seconds she moved too fast in order to actually notice any of the decorations that were being placed all over Ponyville or to hear anypony who was busy singing and whatnot. With Ponyville in its currently sappy condition out of the way, Rainbow Dash went ahead and flew towards Sweet Apple Acres where she intended to say hello to her friend Applejack and to her coltfriend who was usually helping around at the farm during this time of the day. Sure, she had her weather job to perform, but she always did it so quickly that it was never really considered a major part of her 'to do' list, which was rather empty. She and Paint had been together for half a year now. It was a little hard for the pegasus mare to realize how fast those six months had passed by. To her it seemed like the whole mess with Discord and Night Mare Moon occurred only last week and not six months ago. Maybe the fact that she had nearly died twice back then was why it was stuck in her memory harder than the first time she and her friends faced Night Mare Moon or the first time she and her friends faced Discord, or maybe it was because this time they had to deal with both of them at the same time. Well, it could have been worse if they had to deal with the changeling queen as well, but the most important thing was that it was all over now.
When she arrived at Sweet Apple Acres she saw, to her surprise, Applejack sitting with her back against one of the trees and with her hat on her face in order to provide some shade. "Applejack, what are you doing?" asked Rainbow Dash, surprised that her hard working friend was resting on the job.
"What d'ya mean by what am Ah doin'?" asked the earth pony, returning her hat to its usual spot on her head so that she could look at her friend. "I'm nappin'. Ah never though ye wouldn't recognize it when somepony was nappin'. After all ye're the nappin' master."
"Very funny AJ," replied the rainbow-maned mare with a chuckle, "I can tell that you're napping, but didn't you tell me that you have a lot of work to do today?"
"No siree, that was yesterday."
"Was it?"
"Eeyup."
"Oh…" she felt slightly embarrassed for making such a silly mistake. She looked around, trying to see whether there was anypony else around. "I guess your brother went to see Fluttershy."
Applejack chuckled, "Where else would he be then?" At first it was a little awkward knowing that her older brother and one of her best friends were dating, but she got used to it quickly enough. "Well, at least that fact that they're together guarantees that there'll be no love potion in his fruit punch this year."
Rainbow Dash grinned at what Applejack had just said, "I bet that's a relief."
"It sure is."
"Whoever might be their victim this year, I probably won't be there to see it."
"Oh come on Rainbow, even Fluttershy agreed to go to the Hearts and Hooves Day festival, and ye can probably try and guess how long it took Big Mac to convince her." As she said this she looked at her friend while raising an eyebrow.
"But being in Ponyville during Hearts and Hooves Day fills me with a terrible vomiting reflex."
"Ah know it does." said Applejack with a laugh.
"Why do you feel the need to tease me all the time?" asked Rainbow Dash in a complaining tone.
"'Cause that's what friends do when it comes to relationships." She chuckled once more when her friend's cheeks became red. "Relax sugar cube. Remember that it could be worse if Rarity was here."
"True." As she said that she began to wonder whether Rarity herself had any plans for Hearts and Hooves Day, if they even celebrated it in Canterlot. "What about the others?"
"Well," began Applejack, "Fluttershy's with Big Mac, Pinkie Pie's runnin' around Ponyville while probably doin' whatever she does to prepare for the festival and Twilight's probably in the library."
"Where's Paint?" asked the rainbow-maned pegasus, letting her friend know that the main reason she asked her question was to know where the stallion was.
Applejack again chuckled. "You're coltfriend's up there." She said, pointing up to the clouds above them.
"Whatever Applejack, keep laughing," said Rainbow Dash with a grin as she rose into the air, "we both know that you're dying to have Soarin' show up here during Hearts and Hooves day."
"Am not!" said Applejack with a frown, jumping to her hooves, "Take that back!"
"I can tell you're lying." said Rainbow Dash with a triumphant grin as she flew up to look for her special somepony. Applejack was always a terrible liar. The sky was rather clear and there weren't many clouds so it didn't take her too long before she found him sleeping on one of them. He looked so peaceful, and the way he was curled up into a ball made her heart melt. Of course, she would never confess to any one that she found it cute, except to him maybe. Paint was no athlete, and the fact that he liked reading from time to time earned him the egghead title Twilight also shared. Despite that, she liked him anyway and enjoyed being in his company. He was also a gentle stallion with a kind nature. Scootaloo and the rest of the Rainbow Dash fan club thought that he and Rainbow Dash did not fit together, and if anybody suddenly walked up to Rainbow Dash and asked her whether she would be interested in dating a pegasus who could not come close to out-flying her she would have probably said no. Still, she cared about him and she never really cared too much about what other ponies said about the fact that they were seeing each other.
For a moment she thought about waking him up, but instead she stood next to him and thought about it. Clouds were very comfortable, (her own bed was made of clouds), and she herself would be quite angry if someone woke her up while she was busy sleeping on a cloud and under the warmth of the sun. In addition to that, Paint proved to be a very good pillow, which often made the naps they shared 20% better and cooler in comparison to regular naps. Deciding to not wake him up, she went ahead and lay down beside him before snuggling close to him, resting her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes. Another good thing about napping on clouds was that the odds of a stranger stumbling across them were low.
A certain amount of time had passed by the time Rainbow Dash had opened her eyes again, because the location of the sun indicated that it was now a later part of the morning. With the sun high in the sky, the warmth provided by it was even stronger. The rainbow-maned pegasus noticed after a few seconds that one of her coltfriend's wing as well as one of his forelegs were wrapped around her, making her feel even cozier than when she first lay down beside him after finding him asleep. She looked at Paint and smiled upon seeing that he was awake. "Good morning sleeping beauty." said he with a smile, bringing her even closer using the foreleg which he wrapped around her while she slept.
Rainbow Dash giggled at the compliment. Giggling was something she rarely did. In fact she held back from doing anything too sappy unless they were alone, another reason to why she didn't like the idea of going out to places where there were other ponies. "Hey…" she said, leaning in and giving him a short nuzzle which he happily returned, "How long have you been up?"
"A few minutes." was the answer. "So how's my Dashie this fine morning?"
Rainbow Dash giggled again, "Fine. Nothing to do mainly…" the only one to who she allowed to call her Dashie was him. Yes, Pinkie did it all the time, but that didn't mean that Rainbow Dash approved of it or liked it. "What about you?"
"Well, not much to do on the farm today, so I guess we're pretty much in the same position." There was a short pause, "Well, I did plan to pass through the library to borrow a book…"
Rainbow Dash sighed and rolled her eyes. "You read too much. You still need to work on your flying." Yes, she was still giving him flying lessons from time to time, but those 'lessons' often ended up with them doing something else and being distracted by each other.
"Hey, just so you know, I've been practicing recently."
"Have you now?" asked she with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. I can show you if we fly to the library." said he with a grin.
Rainbow Dash chuckled, "Figures… Oh well, why not." Despite not wanting to move from their cozy position she got up and stretched.
"Just try not to throw up on all the decorations when we pass there." He said, grinning at her once more as he too got up.
"You know me well enough." said she with a smile.
"You know," he added, putting on a disappointed look, "I was kind of hoping we could do something special on Hearts and Hooves Day…"
"Of course we can." She said, "Just not there." She pointed towards the village with a hoof. "But if you want," she added, walking closer to him with a grin, "we can always head over to my place…"
"That's sounds very tempting." He smiled as he stared into her magenta eyes.
"Come on egghead," as she said that she rose into the air, "Let's go get your stupid book."
The trip to the library didn't take long. Indeed Rainbow Dash noticed that Paint had improved his speed, but she was still not satisfied enough as to let him off the hook and told him that he still had a long way to go before he would be allowed to call himself a fast flyer. They did talk to Twilight and Spike a bit while they were there. The talking was mainly divided to between Spike and Paint and to between Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Spike felt more comfortable about voicing all his complaints to another guy, about how he wished Rarity was in Ponyville now or how he felt like throwing up whenever he thought about her and Prince Blueblood within less than a minute of each other. Twilight asked Rainbow Dash whether she and Paint were planning to go to the Hearts and Hooves Day celebration together. Rainbow Dash only shook her head at the question before asking Twilight whether she was planning on asking somepony out or whether she was expecting somepony to ask her, a question at which Twilight shook her head and blushed. It made Rainbow Dash slightly uncertain whether Twilight was telling her the truth or not. Either way, it was really none of her business. Any other friend of theirs, especially Rarity and Pinkie Pie, might have pushed the unicorn for a more detailed answer though.
The two pegasi then left the library. At first Rainbow Dash resisted the idea of staying in Ponyville for more than the time it was going to take to fly away from it but Paint managed to convince her to take a walk with him, saying that they didn't have anything better to do anyway. "Fine." said Rainbow Dash, defeated, "You owe me. Just you wait." Paint only chuckled and they went towards the main part of the village.
At first Rainbow Dash would wince or make vomit noises at almost everything they saw, from decorations to happy looking couples, but eventually she stopped her complaints. "It's not so bad is it?" asked Paint, earning an eye-roll as a response from his marefriend.
They passed by Sugar Cube Corner at some point and, despite the risks that came with it, decided to go in and say hello to Pinkie Pie. She wasn't there though, and the two realized that there would be no finding her. Finding Pinkie Pie was considered quite an impossible task unless you happened to stumble across her when coming to places that were considered to be her usual hangout spots like, Sugar Cube Corner for example. It wasn't surprising to them when they didn't find her, because Pinkie Pie was usually a staple in the preparations not only for Hearts and Hooves Day but for pretty much every holiday, and therefore she was probably running around the village at the speed of light right now.
Seeing as talking to Pinkie Pie was not an option the couple decided that going to say hello to Fluttershy and Big Macintosh was the best option they had, not that it was a bad one. Rainbow Dash was more than pleased at the idea, because it meant going out of Ponyville and away from the silly decorations. On their way towards out of the village they passed by a large looking house. Rainbow Dash stopped there, "Hey look," she said, getting Paint's attention, "They finally finished building this house." If she remembered correctly, the constructing of what seemed to be a very large home began a few months ago.
"Oh yeah, looks like the workers finished it…" said Paint, examining the place. The house had a front porch slightly above the ground, which meant that in order to reach the door one would have to climb a few stairs. It had 3 floors and the outside of it looked fancy in a way that would make one wonder whether the inside looked better than the outside. "It looks like they did a great job to me."
"I wonder who lives in such a place." The house was even bigger than Rainbow Dash's cloud home in size.
"Whoever they might be, they have to be really rich in order to afford buying and maintaining it." The two pegasi continued to stare at the house for a few more moments. "Okay, I think we've had enough of staring at this house, let's get going."
As they began to walk away from the house and in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage the door opened but they paid no attention to it. Somepony walked out on to the porch and Paint stopped dead in his tracks when his name reached his ears. "Paint? Is it you?" His eyes went wide. That voice was familiar. It was the voice of a mare he thought and hoped he'd never see again. He continued to stand there as the mare walked down the stairs, and only when she was standing right behind him did he turn around and face her. When he did turn around his fears were confirmed.
"Mom?!"
A/N: Well, that's it for this first chapter. Reviews will be most welcome!
