//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Wind Chaser // by Thaylien //------------------------------// Wind Chaser, Chapter 6. In which they play games and have... fun? So, relaxation over, I've got a fiction to write. My editing projects are all done for now, waiting on more chapters and things, let's get stuck in... By the by, over 1000 views already? I haven't even put up a real story image yet, (the temporary filler doesn't count) you guys are awesome! * * * "It's simple, you've got two goals, one ball. Rules say you can't have the ball more than once before the other team touches it, but holding it or carrying it's fine. Both players have to touch the ball before you can score, but you can score from anywhere, even behind the goal if you're fast. There's a time limit too, can't hold the ball for more than ten seconds, other than that, it's do as you please. Oh, and it's non-contact, don't hit anypony, just the ball, okay?" "Got it. What's the plan?" Dash and Chaser saw the 'field' above and ahead of them, flying slowly so she could explain the rules, Cool Star and Tornado were waiting for them, ball being hoofed back and forth between them. "Fly circles round them until they don't know which way is up. Tornado's a good defender, and Cool Star's pretty fast, nowhere near as fast as us though. Just tackle Cool Star, he's the offense, whoever does can hoof the ball to the other to score. Hang back until you get used to it, I could use a good defense." "Nothing's getting past me." He grinned sidelong at her. Off to one side, Fluttershy was flitting up and down from the clouds, depositing her remaining friends on a good viewing platform to see the game. Twilight had obviously used her 'walk on clouds' spell, well, they weren't going to want to miss seeing her whoop these silly foals. They took their positions, Chaser finding a comfortable space to one side of the goal and closer to it than to the middle of the 'playing field'. She could have sworn he'd played this before, that was an advanced tactic... In any case, she faced up to Cool Star at centre court. A vaguely familiar yellow pegasus with a blue mane and an umbrella cutie mark took the ball from Star and gave them both a look. "I'm watching you two." She cautioned them. "Get on with it Drizzle," Tornado called from his distance, "we haven't got all day." "First touch, then the game begins. I don't want this dragging on, there's others that want the court, so you're playing to three." Drizzle told them, Dash grinned at Star, this was hers. "Three, two, one." Drizzle lofted the ball high. Dash was on it like a hawk, blocking Star with her body and bucking the ball back to Chaser. He caught it, a little tentatively, in his front hooves, but pushed himself out to the side, getting an angle around Cool Star who was heading for him fast. His plan was easy to see, but Star couldn't do a thing to stop it; Chaser threw the ball into clear space and Dash pounced on it, teeth clamping on the soft surface and spinning upwards to confuse Tornado, who tracked her confidently. Confidently, that is, until she kept her roll going, flew below him and hoofed the ball through the goal beneath his back hooves. The crowd cheered, and she made a bow as the ball was retrieved and passed back to Drizzle. The referee threw the ball loosely into the middle of Tornado's territory, who caught it on a hoof and winged into a wide-field position. He moved to throw, but then dropped the ball just short of his ten second limit, Cool Star snatching it from underneath him at top speed. Dash rushed to catch up, but Chaser held his ground. The cream pegasus took a rolling path, the reverse of Dash's own earlier, to put Chaser at the disadvantage, and shot the ball at the goal from as far to one side as he could go. She couldn't watch, but had to, and saw a long wing snake out and bat the ball in a wide sweep that sent it right back past Cool Star and high into the airspace of the court. She grinned, this was going to be fun! Mounting the heights at top speed, she looped, catching the ball in her teeth, upside-down, and shot back in a straight line towards the opposing goal. Tornado had made it back, and was turning to spot her. Before he could draw a bead, she used one of her favourite tricks; she aimed and let go of the ball, and then jinked to the side. When Tornado saw her, she was streaking to the side as if to track around him and shoot. He moved to block her and then... She stopped and grinned, showing him empty hooves. The ball sailed past his head and into the goal, as the gathering crowd went nuts. She raced back to Chaser and high-hoofed him, "Nice save." "Nice trick." he grinned back as Drizzle swapped the score over to 2-0. Beyond them Drizzle threw the ball back into Tornado's range. He and Cool Star had been talking really closely before play resumed, she hoped they weren't actually trying to plan something. This match was hers! Cool Star took the ball, which was a change of play order, and the two of them charged together, a straight line for the goal with Tornado taking the lead. The charge took Dash by surprise, though she hated to admit it, but she aimed carefully and tore down through the middle, hoping to rip the ball from Star as she passed between them. She made it through, but the ball wasn't in his teeth or his hooves as she passed, his face as he saw her was smug. By the time she'd recovered from the dive and turned, she had time to see Tornado try to bull straight past Chaser with the ball on his shoulders. Chaser took the full weight of Tornado to his chest, wings flaring and stopping them dead, as was their talent, but the ball skittered off Tornado's shoulders, up his neck and flicked off the end of the stallion's nose into the goal. There were a few cheers for a goal, and a scattering of boos, particularly from her friend's section of the clouds. It was even worse when she saw Drizzle putting up the marker for a goal! "What?! That has to be a foul, ref!" She yelled over the noise of the pegasus crowd and her friends yells of outrage. "Sorry Dash, he had the ball, if anything it's a foul by Wind Chaser." the put-upon referee stated, she'd signed up for an easy summer job, she wasn't expecting grudge matches. "That's outrageous!" "Look, I gave them the goal rather than charge him with a foul, if I did that he'd have to sit out for a time penalty and then how would you win?" Dash didn't know what to say to that... she'd been about to get even further in the ref's face, but... it seemed like Drizzle wanted them to win. She gave her a questioning look. "Just go put that idiot Star in his place." Drizzle pretended to glare at her and shoo her back into the playing area, so the other team wouldn't get any ideas. "Chaser, go high, I'll go low and whichever side you throw." She muttered as she passed him, he nodded and thrust his wings to catch the ball as it was thrown back into play. She dove under the center point and watched for his play, he went left, Cool Star tracking up on him from the right, but Tornado was tracking her even more closely. She grabbed the ball, then had to make a hasty retreat, pulling up hard and fast to avoid crashing into the burly purple pegasus that charged from goal at her. Before she could do anything more, Cool Star had cut her off above as well! Chaser was back a ways, waiting for her move, but she had none... Chaser had already had his touch, and he knew it, she could practically hear him counting down her seconds as she hesitated. A desperate idea struck her, and she threw the ball straight at Tornado, the stallion's eyes widened and he ducked, but the ball hit exactly where she wanted it to; his wing. The upstroke bouncing it clear into space in Chaser's general direction. He was grinning as he dove for it, streaking ahead of Cool Star and latching onto it with his teeth. The crowd, even the ponies below on the sand, cheered at the move, both for him making the catch and for Dash's quick thinking. He hauled his head around and threw for the goal, ball soaring on a clear line for the victory... until Cool Star got a hoof to it and knocked it clear. The ball spun lazily out of bounds and was caught, returning to the referee for her to restart. "Close... I can't believe they shut you down like that..." His eyes were fixed on their opponents. "They're jerks, look at at the stupid stunt they pulled on you." She tried to see if they were any marks on his white coat from the impact earlier, but aside from a light mussing there wasn't anything. "Me I can take, it's you I worry about." He flicked his eyes to her, briefly in something between humour and friendly protectiveness. For some reason, she didn't want to snap back her usual 'I can take care of myself' line, so she shrugged and let him continue. "I've got an idea, hang back and watch my roll, when I throw the ball out I'll pop it straight, take it for the goal, think you can keep up?" She grinned her usual grin, who the heck did he think she was? "Think you can keep up?" They broke, Drizzle tossing the ball in and Chaser winging to meet it. When he caught it, he tucked it into his chest and aimed himself, Dash nearly didn't catch on to the move until he did it. He thrust once, hard, with his wings, throwing his whole body forward, but wrapped his wings down around the ball and used their funky gravity-defying powers to let him arc like an arrow from a bow aimed straight at the goal. She followed, watching his roll as he spiralled gracefully through the air, almost lazily for all he had some major momentum going. Cool Star darted in, trying to find a way past the wings to snatch the ball, but the roll threw him off and he had to make a desperate turn to catch up. Tornado stood his ground, expecting Chaser to attempt the same move as he'd pulled before, but the white pegasus had some serious speed going and sweat was forming on the defender's brow, Cool Star was barely making any headway, lagging behind Dash by too many lengths to catch up. He was cutting it close, she started to try predicting when he'd throw the ball, hanging far enough back that she would see it, but it ended up being ridiculously, even comically, easy for her. His spin brought him belly up in the air within inches of Tornado, and he snapped to a halt, wings flaring and stopping all his momentum, the ball popping straight up in the air. Laughing at Tornado, cowering behind his hooves as Chaser failed to plow into him after all that build-up, she leapt high, grabbing the ball and looping around to fly bodily through the goal, high-hoofing the upside-down Chaser as she coasted past. To the cheers of the crowd, she and Chaser left Tornado and Cool Star staring after them, "Don't forget to pay for the court!" She laughed over her shoulder before skimming the distance back to her friends. * * * "Dearest Sister, this land I find myself in is strange and more than a little worrisome. The úlfur are not like ponies at all, they seem to take an entirely different approach towards Harmony. I would suppose that it stems from them being a species of predators, but that only accounts for so much. In the wild a pack of timber wolves will stake out a territory, patrol its borders and hunt within it for food, the úlfur do not content themselves with such. They seek constantly to expand their territory, their diplomacy taking the lead role, thankfully, but in a way it seems like the whole country is still marking out its territory on the world. I apologise for the delays in my letters, the wards placed on the palace dull all but basic levitations and my guards are getting nervous. In all honesty I cannot blame them, I would feel truly lost were I not still connected to the Sun. I pray that the succession passes quickly and without incident. Only a day has passed and even still I miss our land, our subjects and you more than I believed possible. Signed Tia." "Excellent." Margier looked up from the letter, "The wards are working perfectly my lord Regent, and I can detect no hidden code within the wording to show she suspects anything, shall I send this one?" "I think it wise, her sister is a whelp, but even a whelp can cause trouble for us if she suspects anything. Send the letter, but no matter what the content, do not send the next. Keep a copy of this one for comparison." "Yes, my lord Regent." the ambassador turned to leave "And Margeir," the Regent turned his gaze to the sunlight pooling in through the large windows, "It's good weather today, take our princess to view the gardens." "Of course, my lord Regent." * * * It probably was more a credit to the unpopularity of their rivals, than it was to how well they'd played, but she and Chaser were minor heroes for the day, ponies were still occasionally approaching them with congratulations. Obviously she'd been asked out by a round of guys, not to mention some rather forward fillies, they all came to the Dash, but none of them were cool enough. And Chaser, the lucky stud, was practically beating the fillies off with a stick, even one or two colts too. What was weird here was that she was weighing her admirers up, checking them out a little each time one approached her, but he was just... shutting them down... He was diverting the conversation, ignoring flirts and pointed questions, and not even giving them a chance. Could he really not be interested in any of them at all? The seven of them, plus Spike, spent the rest of the day leaping in and out of the sea, making a truly epic sandcastle thanks to Twilight sculpting with magic and Spike breathing fire to quick-harden the shell into place, and sipping frosty drinks out of tall glasses on their beach towels. Chaser actually seemed embarrassed every time the drinks came round and when Rarity had pushed to find out what was wrong, he said he thought they were being too generous, he wouldn't be able to pay them back for all this. The others had heard the phrase 'too generous' when talking to Rarity and giggled at him. Element of Generosity, what else? "So Chaser, you honestly've never played skyball before?" She raised her sunglasses to show that she was narrowing her eyes at him. "Well, no, but I've played a few games that are similar. It's different as a pony, and even more different being able to use my powers in front of a crowd without worrying about secrecy." "In any case, glad you were here, Cool Star and Tornado have been bothering everything female up there all day and tricking ponies into betting on their games, it's about time somepony put them in their place." "Want me to go put them someplace even more uncomfortable? They sound like idiots." He offered, parasprite bouncing around his head, grinning its diamond-sharp grin. "Nah, everypony saw us hand their tails to 'em up there, and Drizzle's not letting them back on the skyball court while she's on duty, we've done enough." Further down the row of sun-loungers, the other girls were having a whispered discussion led by Rarity. Had the two known about it, they would have laughed, but to those five it was quite serious. "So, dears, what do you think?" Rarity tried to call some order out of the debate. "We could give it a try," volunteered Fluttershy, "I mean, if you want to, it's not a bad idea, I don't think so at least..." "Ah still think yer seein' things that just ain't there, but why not?" AJ agreed. Rarity ignored that, confident in her surmise, "Twilight?" "Rainbow Dash and... Wind Chaser?" She questioned again, "I dunno girls, I just don't see it, and interfering with it seems kind of... wrong?" The opinion came out as a question, she wasn't sure why she wasn't all for this idea, Rainbow Dash finally had somepony who could keep up with her afterall, but something about Wind Chaser didn't exactly make room for romance. "Oh come ON Twilight, anypony can see that they're already super-special best friends, and if we help them out I can finally throw a Dash Gets a Coltfriend party!" Amazingly, neither Dash or Chaser seemed to have heard this outburst from the pink party master. "I say we try it. If y'think it'll work, then go fer it, Dash could do a lot worse'n him." Applejack finally gave in, leaving Twilight the only doubting face among the five of them. "Fine..." She dropped her head onto her hooves. "Okay then girls, listen, this is what we'll do." The four of them leaned in, leaving Twilight torn between listening in and watching the other two to check they weren't. * * * "Well that was weird..." Dash commented, confused and a little suspicious. She eyed the door of their holiday hut, a broad term for the extensive multi-roomed accomodation Rarity had picked out for their stay, complete with small swimming pool in back. "I think they're trying to get rid of us." Chaser mused with an unoffended smile on his face, sometimes when girls kicked him out there was entirely no reason for it, he didn't mind as long as he had somepony still to talk to, Kirianna did get a little caustic after a while What was that, tart? You heard. "So why don't we find out what-" She lowered her body into sneak mode as she spoke, but Chaser turned away from the door and started walking. He was enjoying, in an odd way, spending time in his transformed state. He'd only ever had a whole day in this state during his basic training, when they forced him to get used to it. And since... well, since then for safety he'd never spent more than a few hours at a time transformed. Even during drawn out battles he'd revert to human for a short time to preserve Transcendant secrecy. Here was wonderful, he'd had the whole afternoon since the game to just relax and be himself. So he wanted to use this gorgeous evening to just be out in public, as much as that ever was here in Equestria, as himself. "Hey! Where're you going?" Dash called after him, "Nowhere in particular, want to come with?" He called back over his shoulder, wings moving to take off. Kirianna buzzed carelessly around his head watching her for him as he rose into the air, looking for a good spot to watch the sunset. With a last look at the door, and a "But..." Dash gave up and followed him. Unseen behind them, now that Kirianna wasn't watching, the door cracked open and a tower of big, clear eyes peered out. The white pegasus took his time, lazily looking for a good spot, the blue right behind him. What'cha think-in'? As if you didn't already know. I want to hear it from you properly, I can't deal with all this fluff. Well, it's so nice here, and I mean really nice. The ponies leave their doors unlocked, their belongings on the beach, carts and stalls unattended... they know that nopony would steal from them. And even those two before, Cool Star and Tornado? When we beat them there wasn't any... you know what I'm thinking of... malice. They were hurt, in the pride and ego way, and they didn't like losing to Dash at all, but they didn't hate us for it. No malice... that's a good way of putting it. Yeah. No... real drive to hurt anypony. To win, yes, to threaten, yes, sometimes they actually mean to insult a pony deliberately, but it's as if the idea of hurting somepony is a last resort. Know something? What? You've been using 'anypony' and 'nopony' for a while now. The fact that I didn't realise that is a little odd... Dash is asking you something. Oh, right. "I'm sorry, my mind was wandering," He gave the other pegasus his full attention, "What were you saying?" "I said 'where are you going?' We're heading in circles." It was true, he'd made almost a complete circuit of Neighmouth town, heading back to the beach. "Oh... sorry, just enjoying the flight." He paused, now that his mind was back in the present, he spotted a place quickly enough, "How about there? The view's going to be awesome." "What view?" She was closer now, able to talk to him without raising her voice, "Sunset." He smiled, waving a hoof at the slowly descending orb, and started down, "Plus from there we can also get a good view of moon-rise if you want." She smiled back and followed him down. His target was a tall sand-dune, a mountain among the hills, even though that didn't make it all that high. The top was covered in the spiky beach grasses native here, similar to the ones back home even, but a shallow depression right in the middle, probably hollowed out by ponies doing just this over the summers, was sandy and soft, sheltered from the breeze. He flopped unceremoniously onto the sand and rubbed his shoulder into it. That was nice, he liked that, so he folded his wings, and rolled to do the other side, legs kicking at the air briefly. Dash laughed at him, "What are you, a little colt?" She snickered, "Don't knock it 'til you try it. Little colt or not, this feels goooood..." He rolled some more on the dry, wispy sand of the dune-top, pointedly ignoring her. Kirianna saw for him as the cyan pegasus watched him for a second or two more, gave a shrug of her wings, and flumped down to give her own shoulders a scratch. "See, I toooold ya." He quoted an old line, channeling Chip the Teacup. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Mmmnah!" She finished her own scratch and sat back up, he'd had enough too so he did the same. Just in time too, the sun had just gotten to the horizon. The air shimmered and broke the bottom of the sun into a flutter of liquid pieces, only bearable to look at due to his stronger eyes in this form. Dash was staring with her shades on, her expression beneath them a mystery. "Thought so, the sea always has amazing sunsets." He murmured, "Hey, Dash?" "Hmm?" She roused from whatever thoughts had been going through her head, "You work the weather, right? Back in Ponyville at least. Don't suppose you know when tonight's moon-rise is?" "Whenever Princess Luna thinks is best, I guess." He stared at her now, sunset forgotten temporarily, and the silence stretched uncomfortably. "What?" She eventually cracked, "Whenever Princess Luna thinks is best?" He tried to keep some of the disbelief out of his voice, but even for a land of talking ponies, there had to be some explanation. "Yeah, it's her job to raise the moon and bring on the night 'n all that stuff." She punctuated her words with lazy flicks of her hoof at the sky. "How... uh... literally is that?" He asked, carefully. "Literally?" Dash lowered her sunglasses to meet his cautious question with some skepticism of her own, she thought he was joking obviously, "Dude, the royal Princesses raise the sun every morning and the moon every night, except that Princess Celestia did it all on her own for about a thousand years because her sister went all Nightmare Moon on the world so she had to banish her. But when Nightmare Moon broke free, it was up to us to stop her! And Twilight, well at first I thought she was a spy, because she knew all about it, but she got us all together to search for the Elements of Harmony. I totally saved them a couple of times, it was so cool! And then when we found the Elements, Nightmare Moon was waiting and was all 'The night shall last forever!' and broke the Elements, and Twilight was all 'No, we are the Elements!' and we totally zapped that big blue floozy with an Element beam! And Celestia came back and thanked us, and Nightmare Moon turned out to be her sister Luna under some whacky spell which we'd broken with the Elements, and now they're both back in charge and Princess Celestia doesn't have to raise the moon anymore." He sat watching in complete surprise as Dash told the story, complete with pantomime. Obviously this world wasn't quite what it seemed. When she was finished, he had to sit and think about it, the idea that this could be magic, real magic, and not some religious thing was quite the concept. Literally raising the sun? What a world... "Heh... sorry..." Dash seemed a little embarrassed, one hoof stirred the sand in front of her as her head drooped a little, "Kinda got into the story a bit." "What? No, don't be sorry, it was great." He quirked a grin at her, "I'm just thinking about it. My world is very different. Actually... pretty much every world I've ever been to is different from here." "You've been to others?" She leaned in, and the full beams of sunset caught her face side on, Those are... really pretty eyes... Kirianna's words also sent over some rather odd feelings, which he clamped down on, hard. "Yeah," he kept the tone light, just like a friend would, "there's hundreds, thousands... millions of worlds out there. I've only visited a few and they're nothing as awesome as here." "I can believe that." She nodded sagely, "None of them had me!" She grinned her trademark grin at him. "True, but some of them would have been too much for even the great Rainbow Dash." He didn't mean to, but his eyes betrayed just how serious some of these places had been, there were very few happy memories from the places he'd had to help before. When he met her eyes again, there was a sort of understanding, like she knew he was remembering bad times. "But here... wow..." He looked out at the sunset again, more than half down now. "What's so different? About Equestria, I mean?" "We'll start with... ponies. And work from there, okay?" He grinned his own lopsided grin again. * * * "Twilight, you're on." Rarity cued the purple unicorn. "Here goes..." Twilight's horn glowed, hidden from sight in a dip in the gorse-thick ground of the dunes, the wind that played about the hill suddenly began to move with a little more purpose. She used little movements to cut the tops from a half a dozen patches of dry grass and reeds, and suddenly, there was music. It was soft, and the grasses made it pitch high and lilting, as if from a long way away. Then she made sure to funnel that little breeze over the top of the tall dune. * * * "And you should have seen her face," Chaser laughed, Dash rolling around in laughter, "I thought she'd flip her stetson clean over when she saw me!" Dash just laughed harder. Music was playing off in the distance, and the cool breeze was keeping the air clear, while their little hollow on the dune top was sheltered and warmed by the last rays of sunset. Before they knew it, it was gone and the sunset nothing but a fading glow. * * * "Well laughing weren' rightly necessary..." AJ muttered to herself, hauling her load of boxes along the shore. "Wait, wait!" Pinkie bounced, "That's the signal!" She saw Fluttershy waving from the midpoint between themselves and where Rarity was conducting the whole thing. Applejack dumped the boxes and hoofed open the lids, there were a few well chosen fireworks, ready to launch. In her excitement, Pinkie dropped half the matches onto the sand before she managed to spark one and touch it to the taper cord. They both ran for safe distance, heading around from their point of launch through the brush to meet up with Fluttershy before joining Rarity and Twilight to watch. * * * There was a scream of noise, Chaser was immediately on his feet, wings flared, eyes flashing. It was so fast that Dash didn't know if she was more scared of the noise or of him, but before she could blink his wing was shielding her from whatever the noise was. A hitch of silence, and a bang, and Chaser relaxed with a sigh of relief. It was a firework. Another rocket screamed into the twilight air and went off with a burst of colour and sound. He sat down next to her at that, watching the sky in happy surprise. "Pfft!" She cracked, "Jumpy much?" "Yeah..." He blushed a little. "Last time that happened I really needed to react that fast, somepony would have been hurt if I hadn't. I should have known Equestria was different." His grin quirked at her again and those huge golden eyes reflected the fireworks. She sat up next to him, shoulder-to-shoulder, even if he was a good couple of hooves taller than her there, and turned her gaze to the evening sky as well. More colours burst and bloomed, thumping into the air and making the night sky shudder with their bass cracks and rolls, her chest feeling the deep shocks as if another heart beat erratically on the other side of her skin. Wow... that was girly of her... what brought that on? But there was music from somewhere, the fireworks were magical, and just as they were fading out... the moon rose behind them. She turned to see, the brilliant white orb rising quickly at first due to the rush of magic that lifted it, but then... He was turning too, and their eyes locked. It was a beautiful evening, perfect, and his eyes held her. Taller, muscular, perfectly white coat, a shock of brown mane, and those deep golden eyes, one completely clear in the moonlight, the other hidden and dark with... secrets, in the shadows. He was strong, good looking, a great flyer... maybe... maybe she could... * * * Before he knew it, he was staring at her. He'd turned, Kirianna making 'ooh' thoughts at the rising moon, but managed only to get half way. She was close, so very close, the music still filtered over them and the moonlight cast half her face in silver, the other half in shadow. The eye he could see was gazing at him, and he could swear that there was no limit to it... just fathoms of depth, right down to her core... So much of her resembled the one he loved, so much of her was just so familiar. The petite strength, the tomboyish attitude that hid her real feelings half the time and really were her feelings the rest, the coarsely cut hair with sharp colours, even though her voice was different, and she was so obviously a different species entirely, Dash was so much the twin of the woman he loved. The moment hung there, both of them examining the other. And she leaned in. At the last, before her slow progress could bring her closer, before her eyes could drift closed and miss his intentions, he turned away. "Sorry..." He apologised to her. They both knew where that would have gone, and he couldn't do that to her. "Chaser?" She sounded hurt, "I'm sorry. There's a girl waiting for me, back home." "Oh..." Under scrutiny, she seemed to shrink. "You're a wonderful girl, Dash, and I feel so glad I can be myself around you... but I can't take it further, even if I do think you're wonderful." "No, I... I get it, it's not right. I should be apologising to you," She sniffed, hard, "sorry for just..." No, don't let her leave! But Kirianna's words were unnecessary, Chaser wrapped the small pegasus in a hug. "Don't do that to me, Dash, you're not the sort of pony that apologises for stuff like that. I'm sorry, I'm the one that's an idiot, I don't want to make you feel weird about this." She mumbled something non-commital to the ground. She needed something to break the mood, something to draw her out... "This isn't my world, Dash, it's yours. So I'm going to leave again sometime soon. But before then I want to be able to say that I became best friends with the fastest flyer in Ponyville." She snorted, pulling away, "You mean fastest in all Equestria." She made a passable attempt at her trademark grin. "You have to be able to catch me before that's true." Dash hoofed him in the ribs for that, then they both sighed, in unison, which made them both stop and look at each other. For no other reason, they started to chuckle, finding humour in the silliness of simultaneous sighs and looks. Finally, they looked around and noticed it was fully night by now, the moon hung in the sky, slightly gibbous Why can't you just say 'more than half full'? You make things complicated on purpose. Shut it, tart, I'm watching the stars. Go fly about for a bit, you're making my mane itch. "We should get back." Dash suggested, "You go first, I'll be back once I've got this sand out of my ear." He excused himself, "Sand?" She cocked her head back at him, He tilted his head on one side and patted the other side of his head with his hoof for emphasis, "I think I rolled too much." "You're such a little colt, you know that?" This was a true Dash grin, bright and breezy. "You said that before. Go on, Kiri can dig it out for me in a few minutes." He made a show of tilting his head while Kirianna circled back to him and peered into the offending orrifice. Dash waved once and jetted off, the sand beneath her poofing with the force of lift-off. Going... going... gone. Right, let's get 'em. He turned and jumped over the wall of grasses around the hollow, wings coasting him in a high arc until he landed in front of a bush that squeeked. "Subtle, girls." He chuckled to the now-silent gorse shrub. "You'd better head on back to the hut, because she's going to need her friends. Top marks for the fireworks though, you're a genius Pinkie." "Thanks!" The voice was shushed immediately. "You knew all along?" Twilight's voice preceded her out of cover. "Nope, heard you whispering just now, and figured the rest out from there." He now stood facing the five of them, all looking suitably chastised. I heard them whispering, you big fibber. Shut it, tart, they don't know that you can pass that kind of stuff on yet, the less we let them know about that, the more comfortable they'll be around you. "You're not mad, are you? We're sorry, we had no idea you were in love already, and you and Dash looked so super-duper sweet together..." Awwww... that little face... I want a Pinkie Pie for Christmas, can I have one? "Why would I be? Well... except that I didn't want to hurt Dash's feelings like that, but... no, I can't be mad at you. You wanted to help out your friend." They perked up, "But seriously, you should go girls, I don't know how much of that was just Dash putting on a good face." "Aren't you comin', Chaser?" Applejack said, as she started to go. "I'll... stay out here a while, she probably won't want to see me again tonight." He watched them leave, walked up to the hollow instead of flying, and lay back down on the cool sand. "Zoe..." He whispered, knowing there wasn't anypony around to hear him anymore, and then he went to sleep. * * * Games and... having fun? Yep, day two of Chaser's adventures in Equestria is now over, what more can I say? This is the reason there's no romance tag here, because seriously readers... there's way too much of that stuff going on with OCs in Equestria. They arrive, they meet, they greet, they fall in love within... eesh, even the first chapter, half of them. I didn't want that for my guy. In any case, I'm going to go start on the next one! There's still not a single waiting Edit project to do, pony related or otherwise, so I'm going to keep writing. Onwards and upwards, and once more: Thanks for reading!