Rainbow Dash had been running damage control for the rest of the morning with her coach. Obviously, she couldn’t cut out on the practices, but she could come in late for one or two. She also had to drop a captain’s meeting this week or she just didn’t see her ‘plan’ working.

Coach had been reluctant to agree, but given the circumstances he didn’t have much choice. Now as the sun rose high, it was time for lunch with Sassaflash, the next person she needed to gain the support of.

Rainbow rode her penny board to their usual meeting place in the quad. Sitting on a bench next to a large maple tree was Sass.

Her vice-captain was giggling as she watched something on her smartphone. Absently, she picked what looked like a leaf out of her hair, which was left loose around her shoulders today.

Rainbow did a fast foot brake when she was near and walked the last few steps to sit next to her friend.

“Hey,” she panted, placing her board down next to the bench.

“Sup!” Sassaflash returned with a jerk of her head. She leaned over so that Rainbow Dash could see what she was watching on her phone. “Dude, check this out.”

“What is it?”

Sass snickered, “Just watch!”

The video started off shaky, and all Rainbow could see was the passing floor. Judging by the carpet pattern, it was Sassaflash’s dorm room. Suddenly, the camera panned up to reveal that many things had been duct-taped to the ceiling. Among the items: textbooks, a chair, shampoo, a hairbrush, and dozens of pieces of underwear.

Spitfire’s underwear.

Rainbow stared at Sassaflash. “You didn’t,” she breathed in awe.

Sassaflash was laughing so hard, she wasn’t even making a sound. She barely managed to squeak out, “I did!”

Spitfire was another member of their soccer team and one of their wide midfielders. She was serious and intense, but patient, making her one of the few capable of putting up with the spunky Sassaflash and her constant hijinks.

Sass waved a hand, literally bouncing in her seat. “Oh! Oh! Look, here’s where she comes in.”

Rainbow grinned and leaned in.

The video showed Sassaflash hastily placing her phone down in a discreet location somewhere on a shelf, then jumping out of the dorm room’s window into the bushes just underneath.

Advantages of living on the first floor, Rainbow thought wryly. You always have a fast escape route.

A second later, the door opened and Spitfire entered the room. She had on her iconic aviator glasses and was distracted by something on her smartphone. Clearly on auto-pilot, she went to her side of the room where indentations on the floor indicated her desk chair should have been.

Without fail, Spitfire turned, started to sit down, and promptly fell through the air.

Rainbow snorted out a graceless round of laughter as her teammate sat bolt upright, her glasses askew on her face. Her eyes were wide as they darted around for the source of the disruption. When she finally looked up, she punched the floor, her face turning red to clash with her fiery hair.

“Damn it, Sassy!” Spitfire hollered, causing many items in the room to shake.

The following next couple of minutes showed their beleaguered friend struggling to find a way to remove her belongings from the ceiling.

The seat was the easiest to remove, but the other items were beyond her reach, even with the added height of the reclaimed chair.

Sassaflash had clearly used a ladder to reach the high ceiling. Poor Spitfire was forced to resort to jumping on her bed—a rare and deliciously hilarious sight that had Rainbow and Sass gasping for breath between their laughter.

Spitfire’s jumping gave her back many of her underthings, but not all, and that still left her textbooks.

This was just what I needed after this morning, Rainbow thought happily. Sass rocks!

By the end, Spitfire was no longer burning red, but she had a fierce grin on her face.

“You are so lucky I don’t have anything important going on today,” the midfielder muttered, just loud enough for the phone to pick up. “I’m going to get you, Sassaflash. Just watch.”

Sassaflash blew a raspberry at the screen as she ended the video. “Whatevs! Like she could.”

“That was good!” Rainbow chuckled. “I did something like that once. For New Years, I completely covered Sunset’s bed and pillows with gift wrapping paper.”

“Geez! What did she do?”

Rainbow snickered. “She fell asleep right on top of them! Didn’t even care! Apparently she didn’t go to bed till like four in the morning.”

She burst into laughter once more as she pointed weakly at her cheek. “Sh-she had the pattern from the paper stuck to half her face from when she drooled on it! Had no idea till someone pointed it out to her later!”

Sassaflash joined in her friend’s new round of good humor.

Wiping away a tear, Rainbow Dash calmed down enough to ask, “So how’d you get your phone back without Spitfire kicking your butt?”

“I had to wait for her to leave. I climbed back through the window, got my phone, and hoofed it over here.” Sassaflash glanced around. “Speaking of which, we should probably get going before she runs up and maces me or something.”

“What food are you in the mood for?” Rainbow asked as they started to walk in the direction of the parking lot.

“Subs?” Sassaflash suggested.

Rainbow grimaced. “We always do sub sandwiches!”

Sass scowled at her. “Wha’dya mean? We had dumplings last week!”

“Alternating between the two isn’t exactly my idea of variation, Sass.”

Sassaflash rolled her eyes. “Fine. What do you want?”

“Steak,” Rainbow Dash said without hesitation.

“Ew. Rainbow, you eat too much red meat!”

Rainbow frowned and held up a warning finger. “Don’t you say it—!”

“You should become a vegetarian like me.”

A groan was Dash’s only response.

Sassaflash shot her a dirty look. “I’m telling you, you’ll be a better athlete for it!”

“No way!”

“Fine. You know what? Let’s rock, paper, scissors this.”

Rainbow quirked an eyebrow. “What? Why would I do that?”

“Because, dummy! If you win, I’ll go with you to get steak. I’ll get a smoothie or something instead.”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “And if I lose?”

“You get a salad,” Sass said with an evil grin.

“Pfft. As if!”

“You scared?”

“Man, you suck at baiting.”

Sassaflash held up a fist and wiggled her eyebrows. “C’mon!”

Rainbow looked at her from the corner of her eyes.

“C’moooon!”

When Rainbow failed to lift a fist, Sassaflash pouted and lowered hers. “Wow. You actually didn’t rise to the bait.”

“Nope.”

“You weren’t even a little tempted, huh?”

“Nah.”

“Gosh, you’re so mature, Dashie.”

Rainbow frowned and cast her friend a suspicious glance. “I mean, yeah, but why does that—”

“I just thought you’d want a chance at beating a three time rock, paper, scissors champion of Canterlot County.”

That actually made Rainbow Dash stop dead in her tracks. They were nearly out of the quad. Sassaflash went ahead only a few steps before looking back with a smirk.

“I must have heard you wrong,” Rainbow said, digging a pinky in her ear. She closed the distance between them and said with exaggerated slowness. “You’re the rock, paper, scissors champion?”

“Yep.”

“That is so not a thing!”

Sassaflash sighed dramatically, pulled out her phone from her back pocket with a flourish, and after a few deft taps, held it out to Rainbow. Nonplussed, the soccer captain took it and looked at the display.

It was an online news article. Her jaw dropped to see a younger Sassaflash holding up a trophy under the headline, First Annual Canterlot RPS Champion Crowned! It had even been reported by one of the reputable local news sources.

Rainbow looked at her friend in a new light. “Dude! I had no idea you did this!”

“Dashie, there’s lots of things you don’t know about me.” Sassaflash smiled wryly as she took back her phone and tucked it away. “From freshman year of high school till my junior year I was the best of the best at rock, paper, scissors. Until…”

“Until?”

The vice captain’s face soured. “Until some pink-haired upstart psyched me out in the semi-finals senior year!”

Rainbow froze. Nervously, she asked, “Did this girl happen to have a thing for balloons and cake?”

Sassaflash gave her a creeped-out expression. “Y-Yeah! She even busted out a ‘party cannon’ out of nowhere when she won. How’d you know that?”

A rough sigh. “Because you got beat by my friend Pinkie Pie.”

This revelation seemed to sink in slowly for Sassaflash. When she had fully processed it, her hands buried in her hair and she half-yelled. “That’s who Pinkie Pie is!?”

“Duh! Don’t you guys have to enter your names into the contest to compete?”

“Yes, but it was optional for us to use our real name on stage! I used my real name, but she used a stage name.”

Rainbow had to ask. “What was it?”

“Shewana Bigg Bundts,” Sass deadpanned at the painfully obvious pun.

Ugh… Of course Pinkie would!

Sassaflash started to backpedal, urging her friend to follow her and resume their walk.

She remarked, “Man, that explains why you’re so scared of her—”

“I’m not scared of her,” Rainbow protested.

Sass went on as if not hearing, “Pinkie Pie had, like ESP or something that night. When we were in our match, I couldn’t see past her poker face!”

Rainbow was familiar with this ‘poker face’. It was Pinkie Pie smiling. Non-stop. Not blinking. Not even a muscle twitching. Their group actually had to have an intervention to get her to soften the intensity during card games. Fluttershy had started to get nightmares. Rainbow too, but she didn’t admit this to anyone.

Her secret made explaining away her sudden distaste for cupcakes very difficult.

“Sass, don’t feel down,” she said to her friend. “There are only three choices in rock, paper, scissors. It’s basically a gamble.”

“What?” Sassaflash looked at Rainbow as if she’d announced the world was flat. She shook her head vehemently. “No, no, no! You don’t understand. It’s totes scientific!”

Rainbow let out a short laugh. “Sure. Like my boxers are scientific.”

Sassaflash puckered her lips and held up her fist. “Fine then, hot shot. Try and beat me!”

Rainbow smirked, “Fine then, you’re on!”

It was only much, much later that she realized Sassaflash had just been baiting her all along.

---

The Canterlot Animal Hospital was buzzing with activity by the time Fluttershy entered through the back door and clocked in for the afternoon.

She had on her scrub uniform and comfortable sneakers, her hair pulled back into a high ponytail with her asymmetrical bangs clipped back. No one was around to greet her as she started down the hallway.

Passing one room, she saw two of the vet techs, Prism and Sugar Spin, drawing blood from a particularly contentious feline patient. In another room was her fellow vet assistant for the night, Honey Grace. She was cleaning out the animal cages, and looked quite content to be doing so, despite the fact that she was scrubbing away dried diarrhea.

Fluttershy understood the feeling. She was certain that even Prism and Sugar Spin were glad on some level to be handling the cantankerous cat in their care. Being in the back rooms meant one thing: they weren’t in the front.

Since she was new and under a special education program, Fluttershy had to report to someone of appropriate authority to tell her what duties she had that night. Typically, she mostly just floated between the more menial positions.

The hospital manager, Sandy Scarab, usually oversaw this, but if she was preoccupied, then Doctor Heartclaw was to give her work.

After the animal lover hurried down the hallway, she crept to the corner and peeked around. No Sandy in sight.

Fluttershy hastily retreated. She did not wish to join Blue Note at the front, and if the receptionist saw her, she might find herself coerced into a job she was ill-suited to. Instead, the meek girl made her way back to the cage room.

“Honey Grace?” she said.

The other girl looked up, her brown hair bobbing as her light brown eyes snapped out of their trance.

“Huh? Oh, uh, hi…Fluttershy.” For some reason, her co-worker still had to fight to recall her name, despite them having most of their shifts together.

“Have you seen Sandy?”

“Actually, she said she’d be back. She had to go to the bank before they closed because of some kind of accounting error.”

Fluttershy bit her lip, then asked. “Did she say when she’d be back?”

Honey only shrugged in the negative and resumed her cleaning.

I guess I have no choice then… Fluttershy thought with a grimace.

She didn’t like reporting to Heartclaw. While she didn’t mind supporting him with the patients, when he was in his office...it was like something was turned off inside of him, and it often led to him misunderstanding her or vice versa.

She went back down the hallway to Doctor Heartclaw’s closed office door and knocked softly.

“Come in,” he called from inside.

When she cracked the door open and peeked in, it was to see her employer sitting at his desk with his doctor’s coat off, typing away at his computer.

He had pale blonde hair and a receding hairline, though his cut figure, strong jaw, and clear green eyes suggested he was far from past his prime. He barely glanced away from the screen as he greeted her.

“Ah, Fluttershy. Hello!”

She cleared her throat and moved a little further into the room. “Hello, Doctor Heartclaw.”

“I guess Sandy isn’t back yet, hmm?”

“No.”

He finished typing out a sentence, then turned to regard Fluttershy fully.

“How are you tonight?” he asked with a polite smile.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said with her chin unconsciously tucking in. She didn’t like the way the doctor was looking at her. He usually only gave her this much attention when she’d done something wrong.

“Fluttershy, you’ve had more experience at the hospital lately, I think it might be time to give the front desk another try.”

Her eyes widened. Without thinking, she blurted, “Please, no!”

Doctor Heartclaw blinked at her in surprise.

Fluttershy winced as though he’d shouted at her and looked down at her tennis shoes.

“I-I mean… Sir, with all due respect, I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

The man chuckled. She peered up at him to see he was leaning on one armrest with a smirk on his face.

“Fluttershy, you really needn’t panic. Sandy told me she needed some basic information entered into the system. Client updates, that kind of thing. You won’t have to deal with anyone that walks in.”

Despite the reassurance, she knew better. Blue Note was like a puppet master. It would start slow, then steadily build…

Fluttershy, dear, can you get this call? I have to talk aftercare with this client. Oh! Hon, actually, this is the mayor calling about her poodle again—can you do the aftercare talk instead? And don’t forget to greet this client. Yes, well if he asks you some questions about the schedule, just take a peek at this planner here. Got all that? Thanks, Fluttershy!

The girl wrung her hands, feeling on the verge of tears.

“D-Doctor Heartclaw, please forgive me, but I must insist! Can’t Prism go instead of me? She’s so much better at speaking to people than I am!”

Doctor Heartclaw shook his head firmly.

“No. You need to get over your fear of the clients if you ever hope to be a vet, Fluttershy. Besides, Sandy asked for you specifically.”

“She did?”

Fluttershy was beyond bewildered by this. That was until she thought about it for a moment longer. The only other person Sandy Scarab could have realistically asked to do data entry for her was the spacey Honey Grace.

Poor Honey… I think she’s had too much cleaning duty. Those fumes make her so out of it!

Heartclaw nodded, already turning back to his screen. “If that’s all, Fluttershy. I need to finish this documentation.”

“Yes, Doctor Heartclaw.” Feeling defeated, Fluttershy turned to leave.

---

They were sitting in a booth at a local diner off the interstate. Rainbow, having lost in a best-out-of-three set of rock, paper, scissors, was forced to order a garden salad.

Not that she bothered with it, much.

“Rainbow,” Sass groaned. “Dude, give it a rest!”

“Uh uh!” Rainbow Dash held out her fist. “Let’s go! One more time! I think I got it!”

“Can I just tell you my secrets already!?”

“Shut up! Don’t ruin it! I have to beat you first, dummy!”

“I’m the dummy, huh?”

Sass grabbed a piece of untouched lettuce from the other girl’s bowl and flung it at her friend. “This coming from the chick who insisted on playing rock, paper, scissors for the last hour.”

“Bite me.”

“Bite your salad, you nut! You’ve barely touched it and we need to leave here soon!”

Rainbow glowered and sat back in her seat. Her knee bounced under the table, her jaw tight. She was just stalling. She didn’t want to talk about what had happened earlier in Psychology. But she knew she had to. She had a lecture on environmental sociology she had to go to, and of course, an unpleasant meeting with her dad. They couldn’t sit there forever. Sass had things of her own to do.

“Sass,” Rainbow finally forced out. “I need to tell you something.”

Sassaflash sat up at the sudden seriousness in her friend.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, uh… I have some personal stuff going on. I can’t put it off. I already talked to the coach, but you need to know too—I might be around a little less.”

“Huh? Around less? But Rainbow, we have a game coming up and you’re team captain—!”

Rainbow held up her hand. “I know that. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t necessary, but I’ll need you to take point whenever I’m gone.”

She shrugged. “It’ll be just for a little while. I have to drop a meeting this week, and I might be late for a practice or two. Do you think you can handle it?”

Sassaflash looked almost insulted by the question. “Of course!”

Rainbow smiled, though it was weary. “Awesome.”

“Dashie, it’s not like…life-threatening, is it?”

“Naw, nothing like that.”

Sassaflash heaved a sigh. “Phew!” She chuckled and gave Rainbow a small kick under the table.

“You ass! You scared me!”

Rainbow snickered. “D’aww, poor baby! Afraid you’d lose your sugar mama?”

Sass batted her eyes and blew a kiss. “I’ll always be your bottom bitch, babe.”

“Yowza!”

They managed to keep straight faces for all of a second before they burst out laughing.

The humor was cut short when Sassaflash’s phone buzzed. When she checked it, the smile wiped from her lips.

Rainbow, flicking a piece of tomato with distaste, paused at the sudden change in her friend.

“Sass?”

Sassaflash glanced at her before unlocking her phone. “Yeah?” she said distractedly. Her eyes clouded over as she tapped out a quick text message.

“You look like you just got some bad news.”

“Oh. Yeah, this.” She dropped her phone in distaste. “It’s Caramel.”

Rainbow’s face tightened. “What’d that knucklehead do now?”

Sassaflash ran a hand through her hair, her eyes flickering to the table. “We’re just having a little fight. He forgot we were supposed to have dinner last night.”

“He stiffed you?”

“H-he just forgot!” Sassaflash giggled and tried to smile, but it was stiff. “Caramel, right? He’s so absent minded…”

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and sneered. “Give ‘im to me for a bit. We’ll see how much he ‘forgets’ things after I’m through!”

“Rainbow, don’t. He’s got a condition.”

“Yeah, yeah. What I don’t like is how unconcerned about it he is half the time. I mean, come on Sassaflash. When he missed your birthday—?”

“I said stop.” Sassaflash was glaring now.

Rainbow Dash tongued her cheek and held up her hands.

Fine. She already knows how I feel about him anyway. Namely that she had a backhand with Caramel’s name on it.

In an effort to lighten the mood again, Rainbow picked up her fork and speared a piece of lettuce from her salad. With a grimace, she took a bite out of it.

Sassaflash, apparently keen to move on as well, smirked at her. Rainbow worked the lettuce in her mouth, squinting one eye at the wet crunchiness of it.

After a hard swallow, she griped, “Ugh, it’s like rabbit food!”

Considering the one rabbit she was familiar with, this did not sit well with her.

Sassaflash only laughed.

Another outing saved from total suckdom, Rainbow thought sarcastically as she and the other girl prepared to leave.

---

Blue Note had done just as Fluttershy had feared.

Step by step, she somehow found herself saddled with more and more responsibility, until the receptionist was gone entirely from the front desk. The girl didn’t have the heart to say no. How could she? The hospital was short-staffed enough as it was, and nothing in Blue Note said to Fluttershy that she was doing it out of laziness. But even the small look of relief in the receptionist’s eyes did nothing to assuage the girl’s building stress at having to field weird and complex questions that she was technically not licensed to answer.

Fluttershy was tired, tense, and already feeling the weight of situations outside of work. In five hours she was going to have to somehow rush to meet Rainbow Dash at the Freenote Library. All attempts thus far to call and change the time, or at least explain why meeting at eight was impossible, had failed thanks to Fluttershy’s debilitating self-doubt when it came to her friend.

What if eight is the only time she can work tonight? What if she isn’t free the rest of the week, so we can’t reschedule? What if she feels like I’m letting her down?

As this pressure built up inside of her, Fluttershy’s breaking point came in the form of an awkward phone conversation with a clueless dog owner:

“Hello?” said a very taut metropolitan male voice.

Fluttershy tried to keep the tremors out of her voice. “Y-Yes, this is Canterlot Animal Hospital. How may I—we—help you?”

“Oh thank heavens! You have got to tell me what to do!” The caller gasped. “My dogs— Darn it, they’re tied together!”

Her sweaty brow wrinkled. “Pardon?”

“Y’know... Stuck? I don’t know how else to say it!”

Fluttershy took a moment to stare at the phone as if it could somehow elucidate what the client was talking about.

“Sir, can you please describe what you’re seeing in more detail?” she eventually asked with a little tremble. This didn’t sound good...

“I have two golden retrievers,” he explained impatiently, “and it’s like they’re attached at the butt! They’ve been like that for nearly twenty minutes!!”

Fluttershy could feel the blush from the top of her scalp right down to her toes.

Cupping the phone receiver, she spun her office chair to face the wall. She leaned on her arm rest, her hand on her damp forehead. She felt feverish.

“Have your dogs been spayed and neutered?” she asked, unable to keep the mortification out of her voice.

“Uh, maybe? They were a gift from a friend. I guess I just assumed they were.”

She felt a flash of frustration break through her horror. Oh for heaven’s sake, it’s not that hard to tell!

“I’m v-very sorry for the distress you’ve been feeling, b-but you should know this is nothing to worry about,” she said haltingly instead.

“Really?” the man asked, sounding surprised.

“Mm hmm.” Even this hummed response held a note of panic. Fluttershy prayed the call would end. Immediately.

“But what’s causing them to be stuck together?” The man pressed stubbornly. “I keep pulling but—”

“Oh no, no, no!” Fluttershy’s eyes popped wide with a new kind of alarm. “Don’t do that, you might hurt the poor things!” There was no way around it. She had to explain. “Y-You see, your dogs were just—” She bit her lip.

Gosh, how do I put this? I really, really don’t want anyone to hear me talking about this. It’s so embarrassing!

Fluttershy leaned onto her knees and said as low as possible: “Sir, your dogs were…m-making puppies.”

“What?” he snapped.

She raised her voice just a teensy bit. “They were making puppies, sir.”

“Hello? Are you still there?”

“Puppy making!” she hissed a bit louder.

Her anxiety was hitting its peak. She’d been at this sort of thing for hours, the equivalent of a grueling marathon to Fluttershy’s social tolerance. Worn down, and on edge about her upcoming meeting with Rainbow, this phone call was long past intolerable.

“Please, please just take my word for it that this is nothing to worry about!” she said next, the strain unmistakable in her tone.

“Ma’am, I can’t hear—”

“They were just having sex, sir!” she snapped into the receiver. “This isn’t an emergency! They’ll separate on their own once the male’s penis goes flaccid!”

The moment the words left her throat, Fluttershy sat up straight and slapped a hand to her mouth.

Where did that come from? What have I done!?

“Geez!” was the stunned response. “You didn’t have to be so rude about it! You just lost yourself a client, missy!” And the line went dead.

“Fluttershy!” Blue Note exclaimed.

She turned in her seat with a deliberate slowness to see Blue and Sandy Scarab staring at her in shock. The hospital manager was younger than the receptionist, with flinty gray eyes, and wavy brown hair. Sandy had on her beige trench coat, keys clutched in her hand on the counter. It appeared she had just returned from her bank trip.

Fluttershy’s eyes welled with tears as she felt the shame and guilt punch her in the stomach.

“I-I didn’t mean to say it that way! I was just embarrassed!” she whimpered.

Sandy shot Blue a scathing look. To Fluttershy she said, “I know, Fluttershy. Blue Note shouldn’t have left you alone for so long. But if you’re going to bother picking up the phone, you have to conduct yourself like a professional. Understand? That means no barking at clients,” she smirked. “No matter how silly they are.”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

“Fluttershy, you’re finished with my data entry, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Sandy Scarab smiled. Fluttershy returned it nervously. She liked Sandy. True, she was intimidating at times, but she seemed fair.

“I just got through speaking with Prism down the hall,” the manager said. “I think they could use your persuasive touch to help with a blood draw from a squirmy ferret. Can you please help them?”

Fluttershy nodded eagerly, jumping from her seat. “Yes, ma’am!”

As she hurried out from behind the front desk and down the hallway, she could hear Sandy address Blue Note in what the manager must have thought was a quiet voice.

“Blue, I realize you’re stressed, and you know I’m looking for more help, but you can’t rely on someone like Fluttershy to work the front desk.”

Fluttershy slowed to a stop, her eyes widening as she turned to gaze back down the hallway. Sandy and Blue’s shadows stretched into view.

“She means well,” Sandy went on. “But she’ll just cause you trouble! Let her stick to the things she’s good at—”

“You mean animal witchery?” Blue snorted.

Sandy chortled. “You said it, not me!”

“Honestly, what is it with that girl? She’s bright, but she’s so strange!”

“Who knows? She hasn’t caused any irreparable disasters yet, but I just don’t see her lasting.”

Fluttershy recoiled and fled down the hallway. Her heart stung with each beat, and all she could think of was fleeing to somewhere safe. She thought of her brother. Her friends.

She thought of Rainbow Dash.

She visualized the soccer player grinning as she performed ball tricks; skateboarding across campus with her colorful hair flowing behind her; strumming her guitar on stage, her eyes closed and sweat on her brow as she lost herself in a rock song—one they had written together.

But Fluttershy still had over an hour left on her shift and she couldn’t afford to retreat into her head. It was not for her co-workers’ sake though, but more for the animals in their care.

As much as it hurt, she needed to focus and stay connected. Faced with this, she had to let go of her rainbow-streaked thoughts.

It’s a lie anyway, she thought miserably. We haven’t been that close in a long time.

Denied any solace, Fluttershy spent the remainder of her work shift trying not to cry.

---

After lunch with Sassaflash, Rainbow Dash had her weekly environmental sociology lecture to go to. She didn’t concentrate much. Unlike psychology, the course was far more passive. Instead, she paid more attention to her text conversation with her father.

>R: Dad, we need 2 talk

>B: I’m working

>R: Plz. It’s important

The next message took a long time—nearly the entirety of her class. Rainbow could feel the anxiety creep into her gut.

Great. I’ve bothered him. Now he’ll get on my case about it later.

She loved her father, but it was like loving a wild animal in captivity; you kept your distance and always needed to be on your guard. Rainbow didn’t want to talk to Blaze, especially about bad news.

The trouble was, she couldn’t really see how she could get through the rest of the month without him finding out about her latest predicament. As unpleasant as it was to tell her father, it would have been worse if she had tried to keep it a secret from him. He’d make her regret it somehow.

Family should always be honest with one another, even if it hurts, she told herself. Whether she meant this with regards to herself or Blaze, Rainbow was content to leave it vague in her mind.

Her father’s reply came just before the lecture ended, making her phone growl with vibrations on her desk.

>B: My office. 5pm

Rainbow Dash scowled at the message, resenting it for its simplicity. Was it just that her father was too old to understand the severity of his tone in his texts? Would it kill him to show a little concern? To use a smiley face, just to show she was still in his good graces?

When the class ended, she packed her things and left the lecture hall with her body coiled tight.

Blaze refused to discuss matters of importance over the phone. Rainbow Dash wasn’t stupid. She knew the reason he always wanted to meet face to face, and usually at his office, was to maximize his influence over her. She knew her father was controlling, and self-absorbed, and impatient.

But even as the recollections of these facts caused the resentment to creep up her body and into her face, twisting it into a snarl that made others give her wide berth on her trek to the parking lot, she tried to remember there were reasons he was the way he was. Those same reasons were what made Blaze hardworking, ambitious, and protective of his only daughter.

She soothed her ire with some loud music in her car.

Not everyone’s parents can be sappy like Rarity’s and Twilight’s. Wishing for my dad to be someone different is dumb. Tigers don’t change their stripes.

The fact that Rainbow Dash kept equating Blaze to dangerous predatory beasts was not lost on her.

When she arrived at Blaze’s work, she shut off her engine and sat in her car with her eyes fixed on the woodcut sign on the accent lawn. Prism Performance Center, it read in large bold letters. Underneath it in a smaller font the slogan could be found: Bringing out the best in athletes!

The building itself didn’t look like much on the outside—it was large, but had the stylings of a warehouse, not some top of the line training facility. Blaze always had preferred substance to style.

When she knew she couldn’t stall any longer, Rainbow Dash exited her car and entered the building. Inside she shivered at the cool air conditioning. Not wanting to spend more time there than needed, Rainbow hurried through the front lobby and rounded the corner.

She hugged the wall, the weight lifting area to her left. Some of the regulars waved to her in greeting. She flashed a practiced smile, then ducked her head and ran up the stairs to her father’s second floor office.

Rainbow Dash knocked on Blaze’s door.

“Come in,” he hollered.

Squaring her shoulders, she entered to find her father leaning against the front of his desk, his arms crossed and an irritable scowl on his chiseled face.

“Rainbow,” he greeted with a short nod.

“Sup, Dad,” she greeted in what she hoped was a lighthearted tone.

“All right, let’s cut to the chase. What’s this about?”

Rainbow Dash shifted her weight to one foot, her eyes casting down. “Remember how I told you I was gonna ask my coach to talk to my psych professor?”

Blaze’s only response was to raise his eyebrows in a, Go on, gesture.

“Well, uh, he did. But my professor, Dr. Axon, was pretty unhappy with me cutting out on his class, so instead of letting me do some quick make-up work, he decided I had to turn in a big project at the end of the month.”

Blaze betrayed nothing at this news, his face as smooth as still water, but Rainbow knew that he could change in a heartbeat.

“And what happens if you don’t do this project?” he asked.

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck and said with a grimace, “He’ll kick me out of the class.”

Blaze straightened. She could already see the tightness creeping into his shoulders.

“Does that pencil neck even know what he’s doing? If he kicks you out of the class, you lose your scholarship! That means Everfree loses its team captain at a critical time during the soccer season!”

“He knows, Dad. He just doesn’t care.”

The man’s face twisted into an ugly scowl.

“No. He can’t do this to us. We’ve worked too hard to have some self-righteous ass ruin it over his wounded ego. I’ll talk to the university dean—”

Rainbow shoved her hands into her pockets, her shoulders hunching. “Yeeeah… About that. Axon has the support of the dean and the head of the psychology department.”

Blaze stared at her. “What?”

With effort, she raised her head and looked her father in the eye. “I know you have some pull at the school Dad, but I don’t think that’ll work this time. These guys are serious!”

“How could the dean agree to this!?” Blaze seethed. “He knows me!”

Rainbow Dash just managed to keep from rolling her eyes.

That’s probably why he agreed to it!

Blaze started to pace.

“I warned you, didn’t I?” he snarled at her. “Keep fooling around and you’re going to lose everything!”

He ran a rough hand over his cropped hair. “I just got through paying for the renovations to the facility this month. I won’t have enough to float you the rest of the year!”

The man growled and kicked at one of the guest chairs in front of his desk. “Damn it, Dash! If you drop out, this could ruin me!”

Crap, he’s starting to freak out!

Rainbow Blaze in a state of heightened anxiety was almost worse than when he was in a frothing anger. When her father began to stress and worry, it almost always snowballed into a giant meltdown about whatever had gone wrong in his life.

Dash quickly drew herself up. She couldn’t freak out if he was going to freak out. Someone had to keep their head.

“Dad I’m not going to mess this up,” she said with a confidence she didn’t feel. “I’ve got a plan.”

Blaze stopped to gaze at her wildly. “A plan?” he spat.

“Yeah, a plan.” Conviction fired up her words. “Y’know—that thing you do when you have a goal in mind and you think out your steps toward it?”

Her father got in her face then, every muscle in his body tightening as he tried to loom over her.

“How nice that you still have a sense of humor about things when it’s my money and reputation that’s on the line!”

He gestured at his Wall of Success.

“This is what got you to where you are today—on track to go pro and living the good life. What will people say when my kid turns into a loser? They’ll shut this place down!”

He stepped back, his eyes sweeping over her in disgust. “You have never appreciated what I’ve done for you. All those hours and resources I’ve poured into making you the best, and this is how you repay me? By almost losing it all?”

Rainbow steeled herself against his verbal assault. “Will you calm down? I already told you, I’ve got a plan! That project will get done on time, and I’m taking Everfree to the regional championships! This is just an inconvenience!”

“And does this plan of yours take into account that you’ve got an important game coming up, and you can’t afford to split your time and energy into something as pathetic as make-up work?”

She smirked, but her eyes were dull and flat. “It does.”

Blaze snorted and he put his hands on his hips. “This ought to be good.”

Rainbow Dash’s mind went blank.

Oh. Yeah. I should’ve known he’d want to hear what I plan on doing.

With less confidence, she stammered out, “You see, I’m best friends with the top student—”

“So?” he interjected with an impatient shrug.

“So, this is a good thing, because she totally has a crush on me! Like big time!”

Blaze narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin. A sly smile appeared on his face. “You’re going to get this girl to do your project for you, aren’t you?”

Rainbow knew it was perverse to feel happy right at that moment, but she did.

My dad is smiling at me! He thinks my plan is good!

Her spine lengthened as she mirrored his smile. “Yep.” She waved a hand through the air. “I mean, this first week is gonna be hard cuz’ I have to butter her up for it first, but after that? Consider that problem handled.”

Blaze took her by the shoulders and squeezed. “That’s good, Rainbow. Really good. Y’know, you’re a real chip off the old block, kiddo.”

Kiddo. Her father only ever reserved this nickname for her when he was especially pleased with her. She seldom heard it, so to hear it at that moment… Rainbow could feel the pride almost choke her. Her chest swelled. She felt light and energized.

She felt like a good daughter.

But the moment was almost ruined when her father got real close and wagged a finger at her nose.

“But you listen to me… When you told me you preferred girls, you know I didn’t object. It took guts to own up to that. Just make sure that you keep your head straight with this ‘friend’ of yours.”

His face tensed like he was handling something bothersome. “You’re young and hormonal, and that makes you think with your crotch instead of your head. Don’t go falling for her. Don’t even give her the courtesy of a pity fuck. You hear me? It’s a distraction.”

He waved a careless hand. “After the championships you can screw who you want, when you want, but you keep it in your pants for now, Rainbow.”

Blaze’s eyebrow arched high. “I know you. You get sentimental. You get it from your no-good mother. So long as you remember that it’s no good then you’ll be all right.”

He patted her cheek. “Got it?”

The good feelings Rainbow Dash had experienced became muddied. She was annoyed, both for the fact that her father would dare try to dictate her love life, and also for his belief that she was some emotional sap.

She brushed his hand away and took a step back. “Give me some credit, will ya? You know I don’t go for that mushy crap!”

“Not just the mushy crap, Dash,” was his heated retort.

He glared at her warningly. “You can’t stick a chip in the dip and expect things to still be perfect. There’s always repercussions, and you should know by now that everything you do affects this family.”

Rainbow glowered, a blush on her cheeks. “Geez! I won’t screw her, all right!? Can we stop talking about this now? It’s skeeving me out!”

Blaze chuckled and glanced at his wristwatch. He put an arm over her shoulders and started to guide her toward the door.

“Well, I’ve got an hour of free time. How about some dinner? My treat. You can tell me about how your last team practice went.”

Rainbow Dash wanted to say no. She was tired and wanted to take a nap before she met up with Fluttershy later. Plus, the meeting had gone reasonably well. Better than she had expected.

Spending more time with her father would’ve been pushing her chances. It would have been better to end things on a good note before she tripped down some other pitfall.

Ultimately, Rainbow went along with it, because she knew Blaze wasn’t really asking her.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5 (2020 3rd Draft Edit) Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 6 Minutes