Chapter 4:
"Wha..?!" asked Rainbow Dash, her eyes widened to at least twice their normal size and her mouth hung open, like it was just about to fall away from her skull; she quickly shook her head, bringing her jaw close again and blinking several times, before looking at the Pegasus and Unicorn cousins and saying, "Well….that was something that I most certainly not expecting that." Rarity nodded, smirking slightly at Rainbow Dash's shock, and said, "Thunder Light and I used to be really close; though when he from Fillydelphia to Las Pegasus, he couldn't reply to my letters as often as he used to while he was in Fillydelphia. This was his suggestion of use trying to get into contact again and make up for the time he was in Las Pegasus." Thunder Light nodded in agreement to what Rarity said, and added, "Plus, I just wanted to get away from the busy city life of Las Pegasus, especially when Rarity mentioned how quiet Ponyville usually is."
Rainbow Dash glanced a look at Rarity, and she asked, "What did she forget to mention that time when Nightmare Moon tried to make it permanently night? Or when Discord caused chaos throughout Ponyville, and we're the only ones who managed to stop him, AND turn him good? Well, technically, that was Fluttershy, but still… Did she tell ya any of that?" Thunder Light looked at Rainbow Dash with wide-eyes, before glancing a look at Rarity, who shrugged innocently before Thunder Light said, "No…she didn't mention any of that, funnily enough…" Rarity rolled her eyes and said, "Well, nothing seriously bad has happened recently, so I thought this would be a good time to agree with Thunder Light here to come here." Thunder Light then looked at Rarity, and muttered, "By the way Rarity, did you get my satchel that I sent on ahead?" Rarity glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was trying to listen in on what they were talking about, before she whispered, "I did get it, though I can't believe that you actually thought about sending that on ahead!"
"Uh, 'scuse me, but I am standing right here, you know?" said Rainbow Dash, clearing annoyed that they were talking about something they didn't want her to see, yet they were talking about whatever they were talking about with her a few feet in front of them. Thunder Light straightened up, and cleared his throat awkwardly, saying, "Well, it's been very nice meeting you, Rainbow Dash, though my ankle's starting to hurt again." Rarity tilted her head towards her house/shop, saying, "Come on now, Thunder Light; I've already prepared the guest room for your arrival. I'll help you get there, if you so-" Rainbow Dash interrupted her by suddenly blurting out, "I'll help him to your place if you want to!" Both Thunder Light and Rarity looked at Rainbow Dash, who was standing there awkwardly from her sudden and unexpected outburst, before saying, "Well…I have helped him from Zecora's to here, so I might as well help him the rest of the way."
Rarity did seem to be against this, but Thunder Light was able to say anything before Rarity had a chance to, and he said, "Sure, I've got nothing against that; what about you Rarity?" Rarity turned to look at Thunder Light, before she slowly nodded; though there did seem to be a little reluctance in her eyes as she nodded. Rainbow Dash smiled, for some strange reason in slight happiness, and trotted over to Rarity and Thunder Light and stood on the opposite side of Thunder Light, with Rarity on his other side and they made their way to Carousel Boutique. The short journey from the Day Spa to the Carousel Boutique was relatively quiet; the three ponies didn't really have anything to talk about.
When they got to the Carousel Boutique, the only things that were in the lower level of the Boutique were several manikins around the side of the shop, along with several fabric roles either rolled up on Rarity's desk or partly over the pony manikins; Sweetie Belle was most likely hanging around with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. "I'll help him up from here," said Rarity, and with that, she and Thunder Light walked up to the upper tier of the building.
Rainbow Dash looked around, now feeling bored, and tried to find something to do while she waited for Rarity to come back down. She slowly trotted over to one of Rarity newest dresses, which had a white fabric making up a skirt, with green fabric curved around the edge of the skirt; there were daffodils dotted around the sides of the dress, along with a single daffodil attached to behind the manikin's right ear. "Not bad…though it isn't really my style," muttered Rainbow Dash to herself, flicking a bit of her mane out of her eyes, before she heard Rarity coming back down from the upper tier of the building. "He's just settling in," said Rarity, thinking Rainbow Dash would want to know about Thunder Light; this was what Rainbow Dash wanted to know, and nodded. "I'll just get going now; can't leave Ponyville too long without my awesomeness," said Rainbow Dash, turning to walk out of the front door.
"Uh, Rainbow Dash; could I talk to you for a moment before you go?" asked Rarity while she walked over to one of her work desks, a light blue aura covering her horn and a pair of red-edged glasses were soon covered in the same light blue aura, and floated into the air from the desk and rested themselves on Rarity's head. "What about?" asked Rainbow Dash, taking a few steps over to Rarity as the white coated unicorn began work on one of her new dresses. As Rarity began sewing two sides of a dark purple fabric together, she kept glancing between Rainbow Dash and the fabric she was sewing, and said, "Well, those looks you were giving Thunder Light weren't very discrete, now were they?" Rainbow Dash's eyes widened at what Rarity said; seconds later, she had shaken her head and looked at Rarity, this time, in a look of astonishment, and said, "What?! Y-You think I gave him LOOKS? Wha-How?! Well, I didn't! A; I next to know nothing about him, B; I don't give 'looks' as you call it to anypony; and C, I only do what you said, 'the looks', to ponies that are at least as awesome as me; if not that, then at least 20% as awesome as me!"
Rarity rolled an eye, before focusing on the sewing of the fabric for a few seconds to make sure that it was just as perfect as when she started; once she was sure that it was still perfectly aligned, she turned back to Rainbow Dash and said, "Well, be that as it may, I still saw you giving my dear cousin those looks; even if you deny that you did. Just a word of friendly advice; please, don't, try to have those sort of feelings towards my cousin; he has already been through that with another mare; apparently, they were together as marefriend and coltfriend for a while. But they knew they couldn't keep it up with their line of work."
"Mind if I ask what his line of work is? 'Cause if it's something awesome, then I wanna know about it," said Rainbow Dash, interrupting Rarity mid-sentence; though she didn't cause faults in Rarity's sewing in the slightest. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you that, dear," said Rarity simply, focusing back on her sewing for the moment to try and avoid trying to think about talking about it. "But why can't you tell me?" asked Rainbow Dash impatiently, having always hated being left in the dark about something. Rarity stopped sewing the fabric for a second and suddenly slammed her hoof down gently on the desk; not enough to startle Rainbow Dash, but enough to get her attention. Rarity sighed wearily and used her unicorn magic to take off her sewing glasses; once the glasses were back on the desk, Rarity looked up at Rainbow Dash completely, her eyes showing begging in her eyes; something Rainbow Dash hadn't seen before in her eyes.
"Please, Dash dear; Thunder Light asked me, almost begged me in the letter he sent me, to not tell anypony about his past. He said he'll tell anypony when he thinks is the right moment," said Rarity, gently rubbing the side of her head as she used her magic to return the glasses back onto her head as she went back to work on her sewing. Rainbow Dash could see the slight stress that Rarity was going through at the moment, and sighed, saying, "Alright, alright; so, don't get close to Thunder Light in that way, and don't try to get any info out of 'im?" asked Rainbow Dash, wanting to make it clear.
Rarity smiled at Rainbow Dash slightly, tipping her glasses forward slightly for a second, and she said, "Yeah, Dash, dear; I'd really appreciate it, and I'm almost certain that Thunder Light would thank you as well." Rainbow Dash smiled slightly at her friend, before saying, "Well, I'd better get going; can't leave Ponyville without my awesomeness for too long," as she began to turn to door at the front of the building. "Ta-ta, dear," said Rarity, waving a hoof at Rainbow Dash as she continued to work on the basis of the new dress she was designing, having finished on the dark purple fabric and have now turned to cutting some more fabric of the same shade of purple into the shapes she needed them to be.
Rainbow Dash smiled back one last time at Rarity before she exited the building, the bell jingling as she opened and closed the door. She unfolded her wings and was about to fly off, when she suddenly heard a whistling sound coming from behind her. Rainbow Dash looked up and saw Thunder Light's head looking out of one of the windows; once he got Rainbow Dash's attention, he jerked his head back, trying to tell her to come up to the window. Rainbow Dash seemed to get the message and flapped her wings, quickly flying up level with the window and flying over to Thunder Light. "What do you want?" asked Rainbow Dash, trying not to sound rude, but unable to get the natural attitude out of her voice when she asked that. Thunder Light rolled his eyes slightly, and said, "I heard Rarity talking to you about me."
Rainbow Dash folded her front hooves, one over the other as she said, "Didn't know it was alright to eavesdrop from where you came from." Thunder Light chuckled softly before he said, "Well, you certainly have an attitude about you, eh? Anyway...I was wondering; wanna hang out for a bit either tomorrow or later? Since I'm kinda restricted to the ground for the best part of a week, and you're the first Pegasi I met, and well-"
"Look; you wanna hang out with me, yeah?" asked Rainbow Dash, her hooves still folded, as she raised an eyebrow as she looked at Thunder Light. Thunder Light innocently shrugged, and Rainbow Dash rolled an eye, and said, "Well, I only hang around with awesome ponies; do you think you're awesome enough to hang around with me?" Thunder Light shrugged calmly, saying, "Dunno; probably. How awesome do you have to be to hang around with a Pegasus like you?" Rainbow Dash smirked victoriously and said, "You have to be pretty awesome if you not one of my friends; if you are one of my friends, then it doesn't matter how awesome you are." Thunder Light smirked in return, saying, "Well then, I think that I am kinda awesome; always been a good flier, if that means anything towards it." Rainbow Dash tilted her head to the side slightly, making it look like she was thinking about it, before nodding slightly, saying, "Hmm; well, I am pretty awesome at flying myself; hopefully, I'll get to see how good a flier you are."
Thunder Light smirked slightly, and said, "Alright; so, we meet up tomorrow? Here? Rarity'll probably be still asleep." Rainbow Dash, for a second, was against the idea of going against Rarity's wishes, but she was just hanging out with her cousin for, like, a day? Where could the harm be in that? "Sure; meet you here, sun up," said Rainbow Dash, smirking at Thunder Light as she unfolded her forelegs, her wings still flapping to keep her up. "Alright; see ya then," said Thunder Light, smiling back at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash smiled at Thunder Light, feeling a slight different feeling in her chest that she hadn't felt before. "A-Alright, see ya," said Rainbow Dash, surprised at herself that she actually stuttered slightly.
Shaking her head, she bid another goodbye to Thunder Light and flew away from the boutique, heading into Ponyville again; yet, for some strange reason, she just couldn't get Thunder Light out of her head…
Look, if you don't like how I'm writing the chapters, then don't read it; pure and simple.
Anyway, yeah, fourth chapter out and such.
Nf991