The Blue Rainbow
Applejack glared down at Rainbow Dash.
"Heh, hey there, ulp, Applejack," the cyan Pegasus said. "What in tarnation are ya doin' in mah prized blueberry bush?" The orange Earth pony asked.
"Um, taking a nap? I heard that blueberries are very good for your complexion!" Rainbow quickly said. "We don't have a complexion. We have fur!" Applejack replied. "Plus, I can see ya've been eating them from the mess ya've got on ya face!"
"Darn!" Rainbow mumbled. She then proceeded to lick the mess of blue juice from the blueberries off her face. "This is the third time this week ah've had to tell ya to stop! Next time, there will be consequences! Serious consequences!" Aj said.
"But-!"
"No buts!"
"They're sooooo good!" Rainbow whined.
"Ah don't care! If yah want some so much, grow your own!" Applejack said angrily. "Fine," Rainbow said, right before she spread her wings and flew through the air.
"Ah'm gonna need Twilight to fix up a potion to regrow these eaten berries," Applejack thought. "Might as well go ask for it now." And with that, Aj started to walk to Twilight's castle.
"Applejack? What a surprise!" Pinkie Pie said. "Hi, Applejack," Fluttershy muttered quietly. "Hey Pinkie, Fluttershy. Have any of y'all seen Twilight around?" Applejack asked.
Instantly, there was a flash and Twilight appeared in front of Aj. "Aj? Why do you need me?" The purple Alicorn asked. "Um, Ah kinda need a potion to regrow some blueberries. Rainbow Dash has kinda been eatin' them from mah prize bush, and Ah don't know why!" Applejack explained.
"Ooo! Ooo! Pick me, pick me!" Pinkie said excitedly, raising her hoof in the air and waving it around wildly.
"What is it, Pinkie?" Applejack said, rolling her eyes.
"I know why she's been eating your berries!" Pinkie said. "Yah do? Why?" Aj asked. "It's because she loves 'em! I know because she's my number one taste tester for all of my blueberry treats at the shop! She'll eat anything with it-muffins, cakes, ice cream, cupcakes, candies, pretty much anything!" Pinkie said with a smile.
"Oh, well, if Ah had known, Ah probably would have been more careful with mah bush!" Aj said.
"After I pour this potion on the bush, I suggest you build a fence with a lock on it around the blueberries, and then put a tarp with holes at the top so the bush still gets the sunlight it needs AND so that way Dash can't get inside," Twilight suggested.
"No! Don't do that!" Pinkie said. "Why not? It seems like a good idea!" Applejack said. "Well, I guess you can do that, but that isn't the fun way," Pinkie said with a frown. "What do you suggest we do, Pinkie?" Twilight asked.
"Come with me, and I will show you!" Pinkie said. She bounced out of her chair and motioned towards the door. Applejack looked at Twilight and shrugged.
"Flutters, you coming?" Twilight asked. "Yeah, I'll come. Just because I'm curious," the shy, yellow Pegasus said.
The four of them trotted quickly out of the castle and into Sugarcube Corner, the bakery where Pinkie Pie lived. They all walked up the stairs and into Pinkie's room. Once inside, Pinkie locked the door, shut her window, and looked around outside to make sure nopony was watching.
"Okay, guys. What I'm about to show you is a secret, and you can't tell anypony, and I mean anypony, about it," Pinkie said with a hushed whisper.
The three other friends nodded.
Pinkie walked over to her dresser and dug around inside until she found a bottle with a light blue liquid inside.
"Um, Pinkie? What is that?" Twilight asked skeptically.
"Yeah, and how will it stop Rainbow from eating mah berries?" Applejack asked.
"Oh, this is just something I whipped up for a prank for Dashie! I got the idea a few years ago when I was eating cupcakes and when Mr. Cake said that if I eat too many cupcakes, I might just turn into one. So then I got this amazing idea for a prank for a certain Cyan Pegasus who loves a certain fruit! I scrapped the idea though, because I thought that this would be taking it too far," Pinkie said cheerily.
"Pinkie, are you saying that-" Twilight started to say.
"Of course not, silly! You can't actually turn someone into a real blueberry! Then they would be tiny and they could be mistaken for real one! No, all this does is make you turn blue and then you fill up with juice!"
"You were gonna do that to Dash?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, I was, but then I thought that I would be taking it too far, so I didn't do it," Pinkie replied.
"Would she be like that forever?" Twilight asked.
"Nah. Right after I made this concoction, I built an extra, extra, extra, extra, extra large Dashie sized juicer!" Pinkie said happily.
"You did what!?" All three of the friends asked in unison.
"So, do you guys wanna do this, or what?" Pinkie said, ignoring their question.
"I think we should let Applejack decide. After all, it is her bush," Fluttershy said quietly. Twilight nodded in agreement.
"So, Aj, whaddaya say?"
Believe it or not, Applejack didn't want to do this. It seemed dangerous and unpredictable, but the one good thing about it was that it would teach Dash a lesson.
"Okay. Let's do this!"
Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie were all sitting in a fluffy cloud in the sky, watching the blueberry patch from afar. "I sorta wished we tested it first, guys. It sounds a bit dangerous," Twilight said.
All of a sudden, Rainbow Dash walked into their view.
"Look! There she is!" Pinkie said, looking at the Pegasus through some binoculars.
"All I need is one bite, and then I'll leave," Dash said to herself. She walked over to Applejack's blueberry bush, looked around to make sure nopony was near, and ate a blueberry. Her eyes went wide as dinner plates as she chewed the savory fruit.
"Oh, no! She's gonna taste it and spit it ou-!" Applejack started to say, but was interrupted by Rainbow.
"Mmmm!" Rainbow said as she swallowed. "Man, these are the best berries I've ever eaten!" She dove her head into the bush and started eating berry after berry.
"Heehee! The more berries, the better!" Pinkie said with a snicker. "Oh, I think it's starting!"
The four friends pulled out their own binoculars and peered down at Dash. Sure enough, something was happening; her nose and muzzle were turning bluer.
Twilight pulled out a notepad and a pencil. "I might as well take some notes on this while I'm here," she explained.
Rainbow Dash, having not noticed the fact that she was changing color, continued to eat the tainted berries. By now, she was a deep, cobalt blue, head to hoof. The only parts of her body untouched by the color were her mane and tail.
"Subject...turns...entirely...blue!" Twilight said as she wrote down some notes in her notepad.
*GURGLELURGLEURGLE!*
The loud noise startled the five ponies, meaning Dash stopped eating berries. "Huh, wha...what's goi-!" She started to say, but then she noticed that she wasn't the cyan blue she normally was and she shrieked.
*GLURGLE*
"Oh, I don't feel too hot," Dash said to herself. She felt full, as if she just had an insanely huge meal with dessert to go with it. She reached down to rub her sore midsection, when she noticed something didn't feel right. It felt like her gut was changing. She looked down to see, and to her surprise, it was changing, only not in the way she expected. Her stomach was growing!
"GAH! WHA-WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!" She cried, her tummy still swelling more and more. The growing didn't just stay in her stomach, though. She noticed that her back and her legs were filling up and getting bigger and rounder as well.
Twilight's jaw nearly fell to the floor. She dropped her notepad and pencil and started asking Pinkie questions. "How is that even physically possible? Do you know if it hurts her?"
"Cmon, Twilight. You know I would never let you guys do something that would hurt Rainbow Dash. She's my friend, too," Pinkie answered.
Rainbow Dash whipped her head around, frantic for help…but at the same time, she didn't want help. "Thank Celestia nopony can see me right now!" Dash said outloud. Her belly was so big now that it pushed her hooves off the ground, rendering her immobile. She tried to take to the sky, but her newfound weight kept her anchored to the this point, she didn't care if anypony saw her; she needed help, and she needed it fast. "Somepony, please help me!" She whined.
"I don't think she seems too happy about his, guys.I actually feel bad for her. I think we should go and help," Fluttershy said.
"What, are ya suggestin' we should've asked her permission before using this stuff on her?" Applejack asked sarcastically.
"Yes. I mean, at least she wouldn't be as scared when it started to happen," Fluttershy said meekly.
Applejack opened up her mouth to respond, but closed it when she remembered who she was talking to.
"Anyway, I think Fluttershy's point was that we should go and help her. She does look really scared," Twilight said. "Okey-dokey-lokey!" Pinkie said. Out of nowhere, she pulled out a boat motor and started to direct the cloud down to the ground.
Rainbow shrieked when she saw her friends.
"Guys, ask questions for later. You gotta help me!" Rainbow said frantically, flailing her hooves.
"Really, Dash? Ya think ya are just randomly inflating and ya didn't even think about what I told ya yesterday about there being serious consequences next time ya ate mah berries?" Applejack said, ignoring Rainbow's plea for help.
"Wait, do you seriously mean that you're turning me into a blueberry?!" Rainbow asked.
"Yep, Ah'm afraid I am. And actually, it was Pinkies idea," Applejack said.
This didn't make Dash feel better at all. "Pinkie? Why would you do this to me? I thought we were friends!"
"Yeah, I know, and we still are. But then I found out that you had been misbehaving, and I had an idea on what to do to teach you a lesson! Turning you into a blueberry!" Pinkie said ecstatically.
"What?! I can't be a blueberry! I have a life to live and mmph! Mmph mmph mmph! M mphh mmph!" Rainbow said, but her words were reduced to muffles as her back and chest closed in on her chin and as her mouth filled with excess juice that wouldn't fit in her body, causing her cheeks to puff up with the sticky, blue liquid.
"MMPH! MMPH! MMPH MM MMPPH!" Rainbow Dash squealed. She tried to flail her arms, but found that they had been sucked into the giant blue ball that was her body. The only way you would've been able to even recognize Dash as herself, much less as a pony, would be from her enormous, now-blue cutie mark, her rainbow mane and tail, and by the four stubs that used to be the tips of her fore and hind legs.
The group kept backing up as Rainbow swelled to incredible sizes, and she showed no signs of stopping.
"Umm, Pinkie? Is it going to stop soon?" Fluttershy asked.
"Uh-umm, y-yeah, i-it should stop very soon. But you know, we should also worry about ourselves, y-you know, too," Pinkie said, her voice wavering a bit.
"Pinkie, A-Ah thought ya said she would-wouldn't be ha-harmed!" Applejack said, her voice cracking. She knew she shouldn't have done this.
"I TAKE THAT BACK!" Pinkie screamed. She then ran behind the blueberry bush and hid. "DUCK FOR COVER!" She screamed. The others listened and dove behind the bush. From nowhere, Pinkie pulled out an umbrella big enough for the four of them and held it above their heads.
Meanwhile, Dash, accepting her fate, started praying her last prayers to Celestia.
"Oh, sweet, merciful Celestia, please don't let me pop, please don't let me pop, please don't let me pop, PLEASE DON'T LET ME POP! I have Life to live! I can't die, not like this! I'm too awesome! Scootaloo graduates from junior school tomorrow, and I just can't miss that! Plus, if I explode, I can't get revenge on the others for doing this to me! So, PUH-LEASE, MAKE IT STOP!" Dash thought in her head, her eyes wide as dinner plates.
*GUUuuurgle!*
It stopped. She finally stopped growing.
"Oh, thank Celestia!" Rainbow thought, her eyes still wide open.
Pinkie peered over the blueberry bush. She saw Rainbow, all in one piece, and not splattered all over the side of Applejack's barn.
"Guys! It's done! Rainbow stopped growing!" Pinkie said excitedly. The others looked up and hopped over the bush.
Pinkie Pie walked over to Dash, raised a hoof, and gave the giant berry a poke.
"MMPH!"
"Heehee, sorry Dashie," Pinkie chuckled sheepishly.
"My! She must be 20 feet across in all ways!" Applejack exclaimed.
"Yup, she is!" Pinkie said, measuring the giant blueberry.
"Okay, time to negotiate," Applejack said.
"What're you going to say?" Fluttershy asked.
"You'll see. Twilight, if ya will," said Applejack, sitting on the purple Alicorn.
The two flew up to the height of Dash's head, so the two of them could talk, face to face. Except, only Applejack would be doing the talking, as Rainbow Dash couldn't, being in her current state.
"Now, after some thinking, Ah've made some deals. Ah've recently learned that ya really, really like a certain blue fruit, and Ah'm gonna respect that. So that's why, once Ah'm done harvesting them, Ah'll grow ya your own patch of berries, just for ya. But only if ya stop eating mine, starting today. And if you don't agree, we'll keep ya like this until ya do, whenever that may be. Do we have a deal?"
Rainbow Dash did her best to nod, seeing as how she couldn't speak.
"Good. Now, I think Pinkie has something she would like to say," Applejack said, finishing her negotiation.
Pinkie pulled out a ladder from nowhere, leaned it in the gigantic Pegasus' underside, and climbed up.
"Uh, h-hi, Dashie. Um, I'm really, really, really, really, really, REALLY sorry we had to do this too you, but let's not dwell on the past. I'm here to talk about the future. Um, when I'm done here, we're all going to roll you through town, behind Sugar Cube Corner, where I have a juicer I built, just for you! But, um, we'll just roll you inside off that, juice you, and you should be back to your normal size and normal color! Oh, and I bet you're thinking: why a juicer? Well it's simple! You're full to the brim with blueberry juice!" Pinkie said.
Upon herring that, Dash's eyes went wide. "Juicing? Blueberry juice? Why don't I get a say in this matter in what happens to me? Oh, right, I forgot! I can't have a say, because I can't speak, because of my stupid condition!" Dash thought.
If you know Rainbow Dash, you would know that she doesn't like anyone touching her hooves; or anywhere else for that matter. The fact that she was being touched by her friends, and the fact that they were only doing it to roll her to Sugar Cube Corner, was all too embarrassing and uncomfortable for her.
"Boy! She sure got heavy very quick!" Applejack said, rolling her friend to town.
"You got that right!" Replied Twilight with a grunt. All Rainbow did was stare at them disapprovingly.
Her friends must've noticed, because they stopped talking about her after that.
Once in town, they were met with dozens of stares, along with murmurs like: "Is that Rainbow Dash?" "What in Luna's name happened to Rainbow Dash?" "That's one way to win first prize at the county fair!"
This was one of those moments where Rainbow wished her rainbow mane and tail were also blue. She also wished she was a blank flank, or at least one for a few minutes until they got to Sugar Cube Corner.
It didn't help when The Cutie Mark Crusaders slammed into Dash, sending a spray of juice gushing through her mouth, splattering the dry ground with wet liquid. "Woah! What is that?" Scootaloo asked.
"Please don't see my mane or tail, please!" Dash prayed, hoping her adopted sister wouldn't realize what had happened to her.
Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle were about to leave, when all of a sudden, Fluttershy said "Oh, don't worry, Scootaloo! That's just Rainbow Dash! She'll be fine, in case you were wondering!"
"What…what happened to her?" Scootaloo asked, terrified.
"We poisoned some blueberries with a potion that Pinkie Pie made, and Dash ate those berries!" Fluttershy responded.
"Y-you guys did that? How is she supposed to fly now?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Ah don't really think she can, sugarcube," Applejack said.
"Wait till Rarity finds out about this! She's gonna be so weirded out!"
Dash's eyes went wide and she started shaking her head and trying to say something.
"Mm! Mmmmmm mmmm mmmm mmmmmmm mmmmm mmmmmmmm mm mm! (No! Please don't tell anypony what's happened to me!)
"What's she sayin, Big Sis?" Apple Bloom asked.
Applejack grinned and said, "We have no idea. But don't tell anypony, especially Rarity."
By now, Scootaloo was petrified and didn't know how this could happen. She was worried for Dash's safety, and she wanted to help find a way to bring her back to normal.
"I-I'll help you guys t-to try and fix Dash."
"Thanks for the offer, but we don't need any help! We already know how to fix her!" Pinkie replied, bouncing up and down. "Thanks for the offer though!"
"Now, Pinkie, I think if Scootaloo wants to help, let her. She does with Rainbow, after all," Twilight said.
"Yeah, and Ah think we could use the help. Ah'm all tuckered out already, and we're barely halfway Sugar Cube Corner!" Applejack replied. "So, Scootaloo, come and help us push her. The rest of y'all, go home, and don't. Tell. Anypony. And Ah mean it!
With that, two thirds of the Cutie Mark Crusaders took off running.
The six of them rolled her for another half hour, when they finally reached Sugar Cube Corner. They rolled her behind the bakery, where sure enough, there was a giant, "Dashie sized" juicer.
"Mmmmmmm! M mmmmm mmmmm m mmmmm mm mmmm mm mmmm mmm mmmmmm! (Finally! I didn't think I would be done in time for dinner!" Rainbow grunted.
"Okay, let's push her inside the juicer, and then she'll be done!" Pinkie said happily.
"Pinkie, if it's alright, I'd like to examine this before we use it. If it was built wrong, it might end up just smashing Dash. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have her be a blueberry than a pile of mush," Twilight said.
"Okey-dokey-lokey!" Pinkie said.
The juicer was a giant metal box with a door on it. The door was 20 feet across and 20 feet tall. Inside the door, there was a giant hammer-like machine, which Twilight inferred was the thing that squeezed all the juice out. To her surprise, the machine was well built. Twilight had no need to fix it, at all.
"Wow, Pinkie! I didn't know you were so good at building machinery!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Yup! I don't know why, but it's just like a second nature to me!" Pinkie replied.
"Okay, let's hurry up and get her in there," Fluttershy said.
"Yeah, Ah still gotta go buck some trees for a customer by tonight!" Applejack exclaimed.
The five ponies rolled Dash into the juicer, Dash protesting all the way.
"Don't put me in there!" Rainbow Dash screamed. "I'll be reduced to nothing but a pile of mush! I beg you, DON'T DO THIS!"
Although, it did sound a little more like this:
"Mmmm mmm mm mm mmmmm!" Rainbow shouted. "Mmm mm mmmmmmm mm mmmmmmm mmm m mmmm mm mmmm! M mmm mmm, MMMM MM MMMM!"
"What do y'all think she's sayin?" Applejack asked.
"I don't know, but we can ask her when she's done!" Pinkie said.
"If she still wants to ask, that is," Scootaloo chimed in. "I mean, you guys did turn her into a blueberry. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't want to be friends with you again!"
"Right. Ah hadn't even thought of how she might react. Well, Ah guess we'll find out soon enough. Alright guys, roll her in!" Applejack said.
When they rolled her in, Dash got stuck in the door. They had to ram into her a few times just so she was all the way in the juicer.
They closed the door, Pinkie pressed some buttons, and the whole procedure was started up.
"Now what do we do?" Applejack asked.
Pinkie pulled out a lawn chair and some sunglasses from out of thin air. "We wait," she said.
It was almost night time in Equestrian, and a certain Pegasus was almost done being juiced.
The juicer stopped making a weird rumbling noise, and a light above the doorway turned green.
"Oh, guys! It's done!" Pinkie said happily.
"Finally! I thought she wouldn't be done until next week!" Twilight said.
Pinkie opened the door, and a small flood of juice streamed out of the doorway.
"Yoo-hoo! Rainbow Dash! Are you alright?" Pinkie asked.
Her response was a few groans and a mumble,
Applejack walked up to the door. "Rainbow Dash? Y'all right? Ah'm mighty sorry about today, if it's any consolation," the orange farm pony said.
"It's, ulp! okay," Rainbow said with a gag.
Applejack walked inside the damp metal box and lifted Dash into her back, ignoring the uneasy feeling of juice dripping onto her fur.
"I've never wanted to not eat blueberries so badly in my entire life," Rainbow groaned.
She was soaked, head to hoof, in blueberry juice. After this, they'd have to ask Rarity for her secret to removing these stains.
"Rainbow! You're okay!" Scootaloo said, hugging her idol and adopted sister.
"Hey, Scoots. Thanks for helping me. When we get home, you can choose what to have for dinner, as a reward," Dash said with an uneasy smile.
Scootaloo smiled back and hugged Dash once again.
"What do you mean I'll be blue for a month?!" Dash screamed.
"It means, blueberry stains are a pain and they are difficult to get out!" Rarity replied.
"But my job at the rainbow factory! I can't go to work looking like this!" Dash complained.
"I'm sure a simple trip to the manager will fix things right up," Twilight said.
"I am the manager! I own the place!" Dash shouted.
"Well, maybe you should look both ways to see if a blueberry cart is passing by before you fly at 200 miles per hour!" Rarity said.
Dash looked confused, but then quickly remembered. They had told Rarity that Dash had crashed into a blueberry cart at the market, and that's why she was blue.
Rarity noticed Dash's confused look. "Is there something else I should know about?" Rarity asked.
"Ooo! Ooo! Yes! I'll tell! We turned Dashie into a blueberry and then we juiced her and the juice soaked her fur and that's why she's all blue!" Pinkie said quickly.
Rarity looked disgusted. "Oooo...okay," she said.
"Pinkie, Ah thought we agreed not to tell anyone!" Applejack said.
"Yes, I know. But it just slipped out, that's all!"
The 7 of them all had a good laugh after Pinkie said that. Even Rarity.