• Published 15th Apr 2012
  • 13,688 Views, 173 Comments

Where Your Heart Is - Cloudy Skies



Rainbow Dash begins to question where she truly belongs.

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Chapter 5

“You really should hold on,” Flare insisted again. Pinkie responded as she did last time. As she had done the last four times the issue had come up since they had taken wing and Cloudsdale had faded from view below. She giggled.

“I am holding on! All four hooves securely on deck, Ms. Mom, ma’am!” Pinkie replied, snapping a sharp salute that made a lie of her words.

The pegasus carrying her glanced over her shoulder to stare at Pinkie’s hooves. She frowned and shook her head, upping the speed a little more. “I’m not a surfboard, and you’re an earth pony. You should be clinging to my neck or something,” she muttered, but Pinkie barely heard her. It was hard to concentrate with the way Flare’s mane flowed past her legs. It tickled.

“Where are we going anyway?” Pinkie asked, leaning forward to rest her head between Flare’s ears. “I mean, I know we’re going to Dash, and that’s great, but if you’re going to fly into an exploding volcano or a blizzard made of candy, I’d love to know!”

Flare shook her head, her raspy voice further distorted by the wind. “We’re going to the Top.”

“Top of what?” Pinkie asked.

“Top of the world,” Flare replied with a little chuckle. “No, seriously though, it’s just a place really high up, but that’s what we call it. Can’t you see it?” she asked, pointing with a foreleg.

Pinkie squinted, barely able to make out a brighter dot against the night-darkened sky, a something hiding between the moon and a particularly bright star.

“A place,” Pinkie repeated, ooh'ing appreciatively. “I love places, and if they’re high up, I bet that’s bonus points for pegasuses!”

“Well. It used to be ‘just a place’,” Flare said with a huff. “Now it’s a place with a bar and a hayfries stand. It’s an old cloud-mass at the threshold of safe air that’s been used as a bit of a rite of passage for younger pegasi.”

Flare’s voice was so quiet now that Pinkie had to strain to hear. “Rainbow Dash flew up straight after she graduated from flight school,” she said, grinning up at Pinkie. “Not many do that. I told her not to do it. It could’ve been dangerous.”

“But she was fine, right? I bet it went fine,” Pinkie responded, smiling brightly. “Dashie can handle anything, especially flying things! Well, unless somepony puts something in her way, like a building. Or a tree.” She winced. “She was in the hospital for almost a week.”

“Yeah,” Flare agreed. “She can, and she could. That’s why I told her not to do it.”

Pinkie tilted her head so it lay flat against the top of Flare’s head. “Wait. That doesn’t make sense, I think.”

“Probably not, but it’s the best way to egg her on,” Flare laughed. “Of course, I never told her that I followed her at a safe distance, either, and when she came home I grounded her flank for a week.”

Pinkie jabbed the evil mom with a hoof. “That was super sneaky! You can’t ground somepony for doing what you wanted them to do, that’s-”

“Brilliant, is what it is,” Flare finished. “Plus, I got to spend some time with her. Getting a hold of that pony when she wasn’t grounded was never easy, and we both had a great time of it. Frankly, I think she was glad for some time off all the stunts and races she was being pressured into by her peers. She can do anything she wants, but I think somepony needs to hold her down sometimes, too, or she’ll burn out.”

“Anyway, now we’re even,” Flare declared. “You got a secret of mine. Don’t you dare tell her.”

Nodding gravely, Pinkie mimed the familiar routine that had safeguarded so many secrets before, ending with a hoof on her closed eye. “Pinkie Pie swear, I won’t tell her, Mrs. Dash’s mom. Even if I still think you’re kind of sneaky.”

“My husband uses the word ‘driven’. It’s so much nicer,” Flare replied, stifling a yawn with the back of her hoof as she levelled out and put her wings to work hovering straight up. The village-sized cloud-mass was straight above them, now, and all they needed to do was ascend over the rim.

“Besides,” she added, “it can be applied to earth ponies who find themselves in the heart of pegasus society, too. Takes a special kind of something, that. Good luck, yeah?”

Just like that, they were over the top. Pinkie hadn’t really thought to build up any expectations of what the place would look like, but while she was fairly sure she could deal with a lack of balloons and streamers, the sheer emptiness of the place was staggering. Aside from a shoddy and un-operated hayfries stand and a parasol-topped mini-bar, the place was nothing but raw and untamed clouds. She’d never pretended to know cloud types; Dash usually just sorted them into “sleeping clouds” and “not sleeping clouds”, but this place reeked of old.

As she took in the bumpy, lumpy, musty and boring clouds, she suddenly realized what Dash’s mom had said. She whirled around to face her just as the pegasus spread her wings, forestalling her departure with a hoof.

“Wait! You’re leaving?” Pinkie squeaked. “But-”

Flare tilted her head and waited, making for an awkward silence. Pinkie really didn’t know what to say except ‘but’. It was more of a general protest.

“Do you really think I should be here for this?” Flare asked. It was one of those silly questions that were already answered. Twilight probably had a word for them. Pinkie folded her ears and shook her head.

“Good luck, kid,” she repeated. The older pegasus flashed a smile that looked so much like Rainbow Dash’s confident grins that Pinkie couldn’t even think to reply before she was gone.

Turning on the spot, Pinkie squared her jaw and surveyed the area again. There were precious few hiding spots, and absolutely nopony in sight. If Dash’s mom was sure that Rainbow Dash was up here, she would have to be-

Pinkie’s eyes were pulled up a column of darker clouds on the far side of the Top. The sharp incline of the hill-like mass rose further up into the air as if it wanted to touch the moon itself. Dash was the most awesome pony, so clearly, she would be on the highest point here. Pinkie set off at a gallop.

Clouds, as it turned out, were not all created equal. The greying clouds she walked on were squishy, not fluffy. With every step, her hooves would sink into them, and they felt almost sticky when she pulled her hooves up again. Pinkie stuck her tongue out and crinkled her nose at the mess. It was exactly like how she envisioned walking on old cotton candy would feel. Matters weren't helped by the fact that the air was so thin, she was short of breath just from a little run. If she had to name the least fun place in Equestria, this would be a solid candidate. The chill was almost an afterthought.

She had just started her ascent up the little hill when she became aware of a familiar sound. A sound that always filled her with peace and happiness. A sound that now made her feel so very scared in a way she doubted any amount of laughter could banish. Rainbow Dash was snoring softly.

She tried to laugh anyway. Pinkie climbed over the rim to the little plateau on top of the hill, smiling and giggling softly to herself. She tried to think of how silly this all was; Rainbow Dash was her friend, and it would all work out somehow.

The smile and laughter both faded as Rainbow Dash came into view. The pegasus lay on what must be the highest point in all of Equestria, wings folded and snout hidden under her own tail. All around her, nothing but the night sky; so far up, the ground was completely hidden by the clouds called the Top. The horizon around them became all that was.

Pinkie tentatively approached the sleeping pony, but could not bring herself to touch her. It would work out somehow, she just didn’t know how. This wasn’t something she could solve with a party or a smile, much less the Elements of Harmony or any of the other fancy stuff. She had the best friends ever, and that had gotten her this far. The rest was up to her.


Rainbow Dash awoke, again. She’d lost track of how many times she’d dozed off, but she never seemed to be able to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time. The plan to sleep until the end of days wasn’t going very well.

When she made the climb all those hours ago, she had this thought, this image in her mind that when she lay on top of the world with nothing but the open sky surrounding her, she’d finally feel free again. Now that she’d gotten some distance from these shackles she couldn’t understand, everything would make sense if only she could get enough air. There was no place airier than this.

It hadn’t worked. The unnameable tightness in her chest didn’t relent. Instead, it grew spikes that stabbed and tore at her. She had no idea for how long she had paced the cloudscape when she first arrived. She had shouted and raged at the unfairness of it all. She’d even tried to break apart the venerable plateau, but the clouds were old as time itself and would not yield.

From here she could jump off the edge and glide to anywhere in Equestria with zero effort, yet she didn’t. Instead, she dozed, and she dreamed. She let time pass, and time grudgingly obliged. The sky was finally coming alive with the golden blaze that heralded the rising of the Sun. It was a time of day that Dash rarely had the pleasure of observing, preferring to be snoring in bed around now. She had to give the morning ponies their dues. It was quite a sight.

Still, she couldn’t see in the sunrise what most other ponies did. If there was hope to be found in the way the yellows and oranges bled into the blue sky, it wasn’t an offer extended to Dash. The sunrise would change nothing. It was an empty promise. She had accomplished nothing up here, and she was stuck more surely now than she had ever been before.

Part of her wanted to keep trying to sleep. To chase the dream she’d woken from. She had been back in Ponyville for a blissful moment, back in that cramped little loft she had fled so many times now. Pinkie had fallen asleep on her wing. Again.

While Rainbow Dash was an experienced napper, it seemed she was reaching an entirely new level of sleep-drunk madness. Her mind always came creeping back to the cause of this all, sure, but usually Pinkie Pie and Sugarcube Corner stayed safely within her dreams where she couldn’t harm them. Right now, she could swear she felt a pull on her wing and a warmth against her side.

Dash’s gaze quested along her own body, trying to locate the source of the soreness in one of her wings. She half expected she’d just slept on her wing, or that the unruly clouds of the Top were acting up.

Nestled against her body, half-sunken through the clouds, a certain pink pony rested. Pinkie was fast asleep, hidden under the cover of one of Dash’s wings, hugging it close. She even had her muzzle gently clamped down on an errant feather.

“You’re not here,” Rainbow Dash muttered groggily, turning away. The memory of Pinkie mocked her, as unassailable and impossible to outrun as the real thing. If she kept seeing Pinkie Pie everywhere, that probably meant something. She kept running when she should think, but when Pinkie had said that Dash was special to her, she had no comeback. And so she ran.

Dash blew her mane out of her face and staggered up on all fours. She was getting hungry, but nopony minded the stands up here except on holidays. The only option left was to fly ‘home’, wherever that was. Cloudsdale, Ponyville or-

Her wing wasn’t following.

Dash frowned in annoyance as she glanced back over her shoulder. Her left wing was stuck. Stuck on Pinkie Pie. Rather, Pinkie was holding her wing in a death-grip, humming in her sleep. It was a very real pony.

“You’re kidding,” Dash breathed, giving her wing another tug. Pinkie pulled back and sunk a little further into the greying clouds, apparently not kidding at all. The realization sent a jolt through her, and despite herself, Rainbow Dash smiled.

After the sheer joy of seeing Pinkie subsided a little, she jabbed her with a hoof. Dream or no, her wing hurt. “Pinkie, wake up!” Dash muttered, poking her again and again. “Pinkie, come on. Pinkie!”

At length, Pinkie stretched and reluctantly let go of Dash’s wing, putting it aside as one would with any other blanket. After a few blinks to clear her eyes, she hopped up on her hooves with more energy than any pony had a right to have after waking up.

“Hi, Dashie!” she chirped. She smiled widely, but it lasted only for as long as it took her to glance around and take in their surroundings. “Oh. Yeah. We’re here and all that. Uh. Hi. Again,” she repeated, a tad less chipper now and shivering in the cold.

Rainbow Dash settled for rolling her eyes. That always worked. “Hey Pinks. I’m guessing you’re not here for the hayfries.”

Pinkie bit her lower lip. Only now did Dash notice her eyes were rimmed with red, and she doubted it was because Pinkie was having trouble sleeping, too. Dash sat down on her haunches while she waited for a reply, even as her mind drifted.

“Nopers!” Pinkie finally managed, dropping her gaze to stare at a speck of cloud between the two of them. “I came to say that, um, you mean a lot to me, but you probably already know that. And maybe you were being a sneaky muffin-munching pony who also knows something I thought you probably maybe didn’t know and shouldn’t know and-” Pinkie bubbled. With every word, she seemed to speed up, fidgeting and gesturing almost at random.

“And- and, well, that’s okay, because it was silly, and also 'cause, well, you’re my best friend, and you mean so much to me, and I don’t want that to go away like we thought maybe Twilight had to do that one time when she made everypony go crazy, because I need somepony special, even if you don’t want to be super extra special, and I don’t even know-” she continued.

As she spoke, the words slowly ceased to have meaning to Dash altogether. It wasn’t entirely unlike the usual way Pinkie’s gibberish coalesced into an incomprehensible ball of nonsense, but as Dash zoned out staring at Pinkie’s muzzle whilst it worked, she realized something profound.

Pinkie Pie was here. Her earth pony friend was sitting in front of her, ranting on like it was nothing. She sat here with her on top of the world, and Dash had been worried about Pinkie holding her back? About being trapped? It seemed an almost absurd notion now, as silly as any of Rarity’s hats.

She tentatively rummaged around for that uncomfortable tightness, for that mysterious something that made her afraid, and she found nothing. There was no choking tightness. Dash shook her head slowly, tuning back in just in time to catch Pinkie’s final words.

“-so if you just want to be friends, then that’s okay. Pinkie Pie is your gal-pal number one, and nothing more!” Pinkie declared with a smile that was a little too wide and cracked. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.

“We’ll just pretend I didn’t say it,” Pinkie added a moment later, a little more quietly. Her mask wobbled precariously. “Friends?”

“Wait, you’re taking it back? Just like that?” Dash asked, spitting out the question with more force than she’d intended. Pinkie’s face went blank.

Dash felt her cheeks flush and her body tense. It was almost a relief. Anger, she could work with. Anger, she could understand, even if it wasn’t directed at Pinkie so much as it was at herself.

“You can’t just choose what you are, you haybrain,” Dash hissed. “I mean, what we are. You can’t just come up here and pretend you didn’t say it! It doesn’t work like that. It can’t work like that!”

“I need you,” Pinkie whispered. She didn’t so much as flinch, voice urgent as she stared back at Dash. “I don’t want to lose you, Dashie. I can’t.”

“If you can do this,” Dash continued, her voice cracking on that final word. The burst of anger was gone as quickly as it had come. “If you can just take it back, if you can decide you don’t love me or whatever, then what’s to stop you from not wanting to be friends, either?” she said, swallowing and blinking to try to clear her stinging eyes.

“What’s to stop you from deciding I’m not cool enough for you or whatever, from walking right out of my life-” Dash bit off her words, clenching her jaws shut and looking away.

For once, Pinkie looked at a loss for words. Dash would have laughed at the notion. She didn't.

“How could you even have said it if you didn’t mean it?” Dash asked, her voice thin. She shook her head. “I- I can’t believe this.”

Pinkie brought a hoof up to wipe her eyes. The movement, small as though it was, shut Dash up and drew her attention back. “I did mean it,” she whispered. She looked up at Dash and damned her with those big blue eyes of hers. “I did, but it just made you leave. No party, no banners or telegrams that said ‘I kinda like you too, at least a little’. You just left.

Dash winced. The words were a buck to the chest, and her entire body ached. She tried to be angry, she tried to be indignant, but she couldn’t even pretend. There was no audience to fool, no point. She folded her ears and nodded.

“Yeah. I think that’s what I’m saying, Pinkie. I get it. I’m the worst element of loyalty ever,” she said. Her voice sounded tinny to her own ears. She rubbed at her snout, and her hoof came away sticky with snot. “Maybe that’s why I’m here. I’m bad at this. I’m the one who ran, and I’m trying to blame you,” she snorted. “I’m pretty stupid sometimes.”

“Oh,” Pinkie said. No cheery "No you're not, silly!". Just "Oh."

Dash thought for a moment that perhaps it would end like that. She couldn’t even work up any tears over it. She just sat there staring at the sun cresting the horizon and the sky at large, looking at everything but Pinkie Pie. Sun or no sun, pegasus or no, she felt cold. It was easy to imagine that they could sit like that until the sun completed its journey, all without either of them speaking up. A terrible sense of loss was welling up inside of her until it was all she could do to keep from screaming.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Pinkie finally said, tentatively poking at the silence. Rainbow Dash rubbed her temples and sighed.

“I know you’re not. I’m the one who did,” Dash muttered.

“But if I fell through the clouds right now, you’d catch me, wouldn’t you?”

Dash spun around, wings flared and eyes wide. “Of course I would!” she snapped. The thought was absurd. She didn’t dare think what she would do if Pinkie got hurt. “What kind of stupid-”

“See?” Pinkie interrupted, beaming. “Just because you suddenly wanted to take a little camping trip to some musty old cloud doesn’t make you a bad pony. If you say you’ll catch me, you’ll catch me.”

“It’s not that simple!” Dash yelled, striking at the cloudstuff with a hoof. “You can’t know. I don’t know. How can you know I’m not just gonna fly off again?”

“Does it help that I believe in you?” Pinkie asked. “Because, you know, I totally do.”

Pinkie Pie hadn’t moved an inch. That bright and chipper voice came with a smile that looked so hopeful and sincere, she could almost believe it. For a second, Rainbow Dash let herself believe in Pinkie Pie. For one fleeting moment, she believed that Pinkie Pie believed in her, and that was enough.

“Maybe,” Dash said, clearing her throat. Her hooves itched, and the gentle tingling feeling that started there worked its way up her legs and passed through her entire body. “Yeah. Maybe it does. A bit. So what?”

“Neat! Because I’m thinking. Maybe I think you’re super sweet, and that you make me happy. Maybe that’s being more than friends. Maybe I’m not going anywhere,” Pinkie said. “And maybe I believe you’re not gonna go anywhere, even if you’re not sure.”

Dash tugged at the phantom chains, pretended that they were there. She tried her very best to imagine Pinkie Pie weighing her down, holding her back, and it was all she could do not to laugh out loud at the notion. Only now did she realize they weren’t something she feared. That she should ever lean back and not come to rest against Pinkie, that was the real fear. She needed them to be strong. She needed her to be strong. Her heart hammered, and her breath came ever quicker.

“Yeah, well, what if I am?” Dash asked, licking her lips. “What if I am going somewhere? Anywhere? Huh?”

“Then I’ll bake you muffins for when you come back?” Pinkie responded, giggling.

No,” Dash shot, bridging the distance between them in a flash. She locked eyes with Pinkie Pie as she leaned closer, their muzzles not a hoof-breadth apart. “No, don’t you dare let go, Pinks. Don’t you dare let me go,” she growled, her body trembling.

Pinkie’s smile slowly grew until it well and truly went from ear to ear. She nodded once, a serene and almost languid motion. “Okie-dokie-lokie,” she whispered quietly, leaving no doubt in Dash’s mind that she understood.

They stayed like that, frozen in time for however long it was. Dash was content simply to look into Pinkie’s eyes and let her mind wander. In them, she found not the closed doors she had once feared, but a second bright blue sky with endless possibilities. Pinkie’s ever-more-rapid glances over her shoulder at the rising sun eventually drove her to distraction, though.

“Uh, Pinkie? What’s up?” Dash asked. She followed Pinkie’s gaze, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

“I wasn’t kidding with the falling and catching and Pinkie pancake thing,” Pinkie chirped. “Twilight said the spell would wear off at sunrise, and it’s way past sunrise already. It would be very silly if I just kind of went all zoom through the cloud right now when I was hoping for a kiss!”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but grin, shaking her head from side to side. “Yeah, not gonna happen, Pinks,” she said.

“The falling, the catching, the pancakes or the kissing?” Pinkie asked, frowning with exaggerated suspicion.

Dash smirked and leaned forward until their snouts touched. “Pegasuses’ stuff doesn’t fall through clouds. I have furniture and all kinds of stuff you know. And at least one muffin.”

“I’m a pony, silly,” Pinkie giggled. “Even if the Cakes sometimes joke that I’m half cupcake, too!”

“What you are,” Dash explained, speaking very slowly and resting her muzzle atop Pinkie’s. Spreading her wings to cover the two of them from the Sun and sky all, she lowered her voice to the barest of murmurs, an urgent rumble. “Is mine.”


Pinkie Pie’s smile was so wide, it simply couldn’t be contained. The world was no longer upside-down or frowny-pouty, and the little string that had stung and tugged her along for days was gone. There was really nothing to do except bounce in place and stare at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, the prettiest smartest coolest pegasus pony in all of Equestria. Dashie, who loved her back.

Pinkie hopped, skipped and snuck a little closer, coming to a rest with her head atop Dash’s. She idly nibbled on Dash’s mane while tracing her gaze to the world below.

There was a lot of world to see. Dash was peering over the rim of the old cloudscape to where Equestria was nothing but a vague blur. Ahead, the horizon curved ever so slightly, a reminder of how far up they really were.

“What’re you looking at?” Pinkie chirped. The sun was already crawling across the other side of the sky, an obvious reminder of how long they’d spent alone up here. “Wanna head back?” she asked.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Dash said, grinning and blowing a strand of Pinkie’s curly mane out of her face. “Getting up here is a drag, but the dive is really awesome.”

Pinkie squinted and leaned further forwards. She felt Dash steady her with a hoof, but when she craned her neck, she could just barely catch a glimpse of what lay straight below them. There was something very familiar about that one particular blotch of colors. She could smell the sugar.

“Is that Ponyville?” Pinkie asked, pointing.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Huh, yeah, I guess. Never actually flew here from Ponyville, but-”

“I know how to get down!” Pinkie declared, beaming.


“I just hope nothing’s happened to them,” Fluttershy said once Rarity surfaced from the spa’s hot tub. She herself sat by the edge, idly poking at the water with a hoof. “I mean, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash,” she clarified when Rarity made no reply.

“Yes, I gathered,” Rarity offered with a wan smile. Her mane was splayed out in the water around her like a purple sea of its own. “This is only the sixth time you’ve said as much.”

Fluttershy nodded and sighed. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, glancing over at Applejack as she spoke. The farmpony had her eyes closed and was half asleep as she soaked in the hot tub, tired after working two jobs in the same day. Even so, Applejack smiled as if she could feel Fluttershy's attention upon her.

“Don’t be sorry for caring, sugarcube. Try trusting Pinkie for a second, instead,” Applejack murmured. “She may be a bit nutty, but she ain’t stupid. Least Ah don’t think so.”

“Still, stealing Twilight’s hot air balloon,” Rarity chimed, lifting her muzzle just barely out of the water. “She could have let us know what she was planning.”

“‘Planning’?” Applejack retorted, deadpan.

“Point taken,” Rarity replied.

Fluttershy finally let herself slip into the warm and soothing waters that had tempted her for the past few minutes. Sitting here worrying wouldn’t get them anywhere. Instead, she resolved, she would join her friends in the hot tub - while worrying just a little, of course. She’d just gotten comfortable when the rustle of curtains nearby alerted the trio to Twilight’s arrival.

“You’re late,” Rarity said. “Well, rather, more late than usual,” she quickly amended.

“I got a letter from the princess,” Twilight announced as she mounted the stairs to the rim of the hot tub, taking a seat where Fluttershy had sat a moment ago. She was blushing ever so faintly, but she was most certainly not smiling.

Applejack cracked an eye open. “About R.D. and Pinkie? That can’t be good.”

“No,” Twilight said, her ears pinned flat against her head. “Asking me exactly why my balloon was found speared on the highest spire of Castle Stalliongrad.”

Fluttershy whipped around so fast she sent the water sloshing. Rarity gave a little yelp at the watery assault.

“Are they okay? Did they find each other? Where are they? Did they talk?” Fluttershy asked, her heart hammering in her chest. She was halfway out of the tub towards Twilight. When the surprise faded from Twilight’s face, it was replaced with an amused grin.

“They weren’t there at all. Pinkie must have left it unsecured or something,” Twilight said. “But why are you-”

“Hopeless romantic,” Rarity shot, rolling her eyes. Fluttershy hid her blush behind her mane and slowly sank back down into the tub, trying to make herself disappear.

“Pot, kettle,” Applejack muttered around a smirk as she closed her eyes again. “Stop worrying. Ah’m sure they found each other, for whatever that’s worth. Ah’m just not sure that’s a good thing.”

“Oh don’t say such things!” Fluttershy gasped.

Applejack chuckled. “Not like that, sugar. Just saying that Pinkie herself could start a riot with a salt shaker and half a head of cabbage.”

The roof exploded with sudden agreement.

When the dust settled, sunlight spilled in from a large hole in the ceiling. Bits of wood floated amidst the wide-eyed ponies in the half-empty tub. Twilight was soaked from horn to tail, and the entire room was in disarray. Potted plants and tables were upended and incense bowls shattered.

Pinkie Pie popped up from the water, her mane slick and a roof-tile precariously balanced atop her head. “You said you’d catch me!” she giggled just as Rainbow Dash surfaced right next to her. Dash rolled her eyes and poked her in the chest even as she grinned.

“You jumped. Four times! That totally doesn’t count,” Dash said. Her grin faded a little bit as she stared up at the evidence of their entry. “What’s with you and breaking stuff anyway? First my house, and now this? You’ve messed up two places in less than a week!”

“Nuh-uh!” Pinkie protested. She crossed her forelegs and kept her face carefully neutral for all of two seconds before she broke into a beaming grin that went from ear to ear. “Three places! I landed on something crunchy when I came to Cloudsdale!”

“Well, fine, but I want half the credit for this one,” Dash replied, poking at a plank that floated by. “I guess they’re gonna make us fix the roof, and no way am I letting you do that alone.”

In her defense, Pinkie did look a little repentant. It was a rare sight indeed. The pink pony dropped her gaze and nodded. “Aw, I guess Lotus and her sister won’t be very happy. Sorry, and, um, thanks, Dashie.”

Rainbow Dash snuck a hoof under Pinkie’s chin, lifting it back up. For a moment, all they did was stare at each other, completely oblivious to the others’ presence. Blue and pink eyes met, and the two ponies shared a tranquil smile.

“Nah. Totally worth it, Pinks,” Dash muttered, her eyelids drooping. Licking her lips, she slowly spread her wings as she leaned closer to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie, for her part, tilted her head to the side, parting her muzzle.

Fluttershy couldn’t hold back a little noise. Her entire body glowed and tingled as Pinkie and Dash’s lips met; it felt like her heart would burst. She’d wrapped a wing around the still-stunned Applejack as her friends closed their eyes, but it was impossible to keep from squeaking in delight just as Dash caressed Pinkie’s cheek. It was enough to shatter the magic. Rainbow Dash drew back, blinked and shook her head, spinning in place as she looked about.

“Oh, hey girls,” she said. The shameless pegasus didn’t even have the courtesy to blush, wiping a strand of saliva with the back of her hoof. “When did you get here?”

“Wow, everypony’s here! Hi!” Pinkie chirped, waving frantically.

“Welcome back,” Twilight offered as she dried herself off with her magic, echoed soon after by Rarity.

“Um, hi,” Fluttershy added, shrinking back a little, still wishing she’d kept quiet.

“Ah take it you found each other all right,” Applejack chuckled, fishing her soggy hat from the hot tub. “How’re y’all doing?”

“Oh we’re great!” Pinkie said, wading a little closer to Applejack and Fluttershy. “I stole Twilight’s balloon and flew up, or well, I fell down to Cloudsdale-”

“I’m happy for you, really, but we need to talk about that,” Twilight muttered.

“-and then everything was clothes, and I met Dashie’s mom, who is super nice-”

“Wait, oh horseapples, you met mom?” Dash said, her voice cracking just a tiny bit.

“-and then a bunch of stuff happened, I don’t really remember everything but oh! And then Dashie kissed me, just like this-”

Fluttershy didn’t have time to protest as Pinkie Pie grabbed a hold of her and planted a sloppy kiss right on her muzzle. Rainbow Dash covered her mouth and snorted whilst Applejack’s jaw dropped.

“Pinkie, what the hay?” Applejack shot.

Pinkie Pie giggled and pointed at Fluttershy. “Oh, and her wings did that thing too, yeah!”