A Date
Flying High, Falling Hard, by soundslikeponies
“I still have no idea what we’re going to do on this date. I mean, I was going to set it to be a few days from now, but when she asked if it was for tonight I just sorta said ‘yes’ without thinking about it.”
Ditzy Doo pushed away another cloud, her face scrunching up in thought. “Well... there’s, um...”
Rainbow Dash stared at her, expectantly.
She gave up with a shrug. “I don’t really know. It’s been... golly, I guess forever since I’ve been on a date.”
Dash deflated, hanging hopelessly by her wings as they flapped to keep her aloft. Straightening herself out, she banged a hoof against her forehead. “C’mon, Dash, think!” She sighed, turning to Ditzy Doo. “She wants to go flying, but she’s expecting me to take her somewhere before or after that. What if I don’t think of anything? What if this date totally blows?”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
Dash grumbled, flying over to a small cloud and giving it a particularly vicious kick, dispelling it. She crossed her hooves in front of her chest. “There’s nothing to do in Ponyville.”
Slowly, her anger spent, Dash slumped, staring down at the houses below. “Oh man, I can already see the look of disappointment on Twilight’s face.” She sighed once more. Then, suddenly, her face lit up with an idea, a grin split her face, and her ears flip-flopped with excitement. “There’s nothing to do in Ponyville!”
Ditzy raised an eyebrow at Dash’s sudden outburst and change in mood. “Um...” Her eyes went lopsided in confusion. “I don’t get it...”
Dash zipped away, kicking the remaining dozen or so clouds hanging in the air so that the sky rang blue, before darting back to her starting point and turning to face Ditzy.
“Don’t you see? If there’s nothing to do in Ponyville, then I’ll just fly her somewhere else! It could be part of the date! We could have a picnic in the valley, take a relaxing walk through the forest, no one but the two of us around, or have a romantic dinner by candlelight atop a mountain with—” Dash froze, spotting Ditzy giving her a strange look. She cleared her throat. “Or, you know, whatever sappy stuff Twilight’s into.”
Ditzy gave her a knowing smile and nodded. “Sounds like a great idea. I’m sure she’ll love it.”
“Well, I just cleared out the main part of our workload for today,” Dash said, gesturing back at the patch of blue sky she’d cleared. She checked the sun. It sat high and bright, still a long ways before it would even think of getting dark. “Think you can finish up if I clock out early?” she asked.
“Yeah, go for it,” Ditzy said, bucking a cloud into vapor. “Have a good time on your date with Twilight.”
“Yeah, I’m hoping she will, too.” Dash started flying down towards the weather center, calling out over her shoulder, “See ya, Ditzy!”
Ditzy turned and gave her a wave as she sped away. The weather center was just a filly’s flight away, and as Dash touched down outside its doors, she started humming a cheery tune stuck in her head.
The center was empty, save for the receptionist, who yawned and looked up at the first pony she’d seen in hours. Walking up to the clocks, Dash found her card and punched it in the out box.
“Three p.m.? You certainly finished up out there fast,” the receptionist said with a slightly disbelieving drawl, as she flipped through the pages of Canterlot weekly.
Dash just gave her a brilliant smile. “Ditzy said she’d cover the rest.”
The receptionist gave her a slow, single nod, clicking her tongue. “Got someplace to be?”
“I’ve got a date,” Dash announced rather happily.
The receptionist merely snorted. “Well, good luck with that then.”
“Thanks,” Dash said, as she trotted out the door.
The door closed behind her with a definitive click, and she looked up at the blue sky above her, pursing her lips. “Well, now I’ve got plenty of time to kill...” she muttered to herself, glancing around.
She spread her wings. There were a lot of good places on the outskirts of Ponyville she could take Twilight. And, she figured, it would be a better idea to look now, rather than be distracted by it later when they were actually on the date.
Twilight sank into her massage table, the hooves of the twin masseuses working their magic on hers and Rarity’s backs. While many late nights of studying had given her a high tolerance for stress, it still felt good to get a chance to let it all out. As the masseuse reached her shoulders, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she let out a pleasure-filled groan.
Rarity, beside her, let out a giggle. “Everything alright, dear?”
“Ooph.” Twilight took a deep breath, letting her legs dangle off the sides of the table. “Yeah, just great. I didn’t realize how stiff my back had gotten from staying hunched over my books.”
“Oh, I know just what you mean. There is no good posture for a sewing machine. I oftentimes find myself too absorbed in what I’m doing to notice the way I sit.” She wore a cynical smirk. “Such is the life of dedication to one’s craft, I suppose.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed.
“So what happened between you and Dash in Canterlot?”
Eyes widening, Twilight’s sat up and twisted towards Rarity, before the masseuse gently turned her back and pushed her back down onto the table with a slightly irritated look. Twilight cringed. “Sorry,” she said, before lying her head down on the pillow sideways to face Rarity. “That was a bit of a sudden way to ask that.”
“Yes, I know, but it’s been eating at me.”
Twilight’s eyes shifted towards the masseuse working Rarity’s back, and then to the one working on her own. “Maybe when we’re at the mud baths.”
Rarity pursed her lips, as if to protest, but nodded. Still, it wasn’t long before the masseuses finished up, and the two of them left for the mud baths. Twilight stayed silent the whole way, carrying a wooden bucket full of soaps and creams that the two spa attendants gave them for the rest of their stay. It was a bit of a balancing act to keep it on her back, and she wound up simply using magic to float it alongside her.
Eventually, Rarity spoke up, seemingly knowing what was on Twilight’s mind. “So?”
“We took a late train to Canterlot because I was insisting that we go apologize to Spitfire.” Rarity arched an eyebrow. “Yes, I know, but when she apologized to me and helped Dash and I get back together again, I felt I owed her. And you should have seen how disappointed with herself she looked when she told me she was leaving.”
“Well, that certainly is noble of you.”
“Not exactly,” Twilight admitted. “I didn’t really feel that things were through between her and Dash, and I guess some part of me needed to know.”
“But this is Dash we’re talking about.”
Twilight snorted and cast her eyes toward the tiles. “Yeah, I know. Stupid, right? I thought so too, until she kissed Spitfire.”
“What?”
“I didn’t see it, but I heard them talk about it afterwards from the other side of a door.”
Rarity wrinkled her nose and gave Twilight a skeptical raise of her brow. “Are you sure? I can’t picture Dash as being somepony who’d ever cheat on someone.”
A moment of silence passed between them. Twilight still had her eyes glued to the floor, her gaze distant. Rarity let out a sigh, noticing the effect her words had on Twilight. “But you two are still together, right?”
“Yeah,” Twilight answered, taking a moment afterward to think of what to say next. “She seemed genuinely regretful of what she did, of the fact that she had feelings for Spitfire. When I was sitting outside the door, listening to them, I couldn’t help but wonder, was I somehow to blame for that? Could I really blame her for not having control over her emotions? Could I really imagine myself breaking up with her?”
Rarity’s ears flattened to her head, a frown making its way across her lips. “It’s not an easy decision, is it?”
Twilight shook her head. “I couldn’t do it. I still wanted to be with her. When she came out of the room, she looked sadly at me and made no excuses for what she did, just apologizing, over and over.” They arrived at the mud baths and Twilight set her bucket down with a sigh. “But the whole time, I couldn’t even see her as Dash. She seemed like a stranger to me, and in a way, even after coming back, it still feels that way.”
Rarity slipped into her mud bath first and stared up at Twilight, her lips in a tight line. “Do you still love her?”
Twilight froze with one hoof in the mud, staring at her like a pony caught in a cockatrice’s glare. She eventually snapped out of it, and finished lowering herself into her bath. “Love?”
“Yes.”
Twilight lifted a hoof to her chin and looked up at the ceiling. “I’ve never really thought about it. I mean, I loved her as a friend, but that’s a different kind of love, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes.”
“So how do I know if I love her in a romantic way? We haven’t even been dating for that long.” Twilight furrowed her brow, trying to sort it out as though it were some sort of puzzle. “And how do I know whether what I feel is real, or just wishful thinking?” She slumped down in her mud bath, exasperated from thought, and blew a dangling piece of her mane out of her face. “I wish love were quantifiable.”
Rarity nodded sagely, relaxing back and sinking down into her bath. “No doubt it would make all our lives easier if it were.” After taking a hooffull of mud and lathering it on her face, Rarity unwrapped a pair of fresh cucumber slices from her basket and placed them over her eyes. “But enough of troubles, do you have any plans for what you’re going to wear tonight?”
No one was happier than Twilight to have a change in conversation. She tapped her chin in thought. “Well, I was thinking I’d probably go without a dress, but I was thinking I’d do something with my mane...”
It was near night, nothing more than a small orange glow on the horizon. Rainbow landed outside the library with a bouquet of disgruntled roses between her teeth. Craning her neck back, she sniffed her coat and make sure the shampoo had gotten rid of the smell of sweat from flying around all day. Once satisfied, she cleared her throat, stood up straight, and put on a smile, before knocking on the door.
“Coming!” a voice called from inside. The sound of scattered hoofsteps came through the door, followed shortly by their owner opening said door.
The first thing Dash’s eyes were drawn to was Twilight’s mane. Whereas before she had a straight edged mane and tail, kept meticulously tidy and even in a way that suited her nature, now she had loosely curled locks that hung around her shoulders, bordering her face. The pink highlight was still prevalent down the left side of her bangs, and her tail seemed to bounce with each movement of her rump.
Twilight smiled, though it seemed the slightest bit uneasy, and held a hoof up to her hair. “Do you like it?”
Dash blinked, managing to nod dumbly. “Uh, yeah, itsh... wow,” she mumbled through the bouquet.
Twilight giggled, setting her hoof back down. “So...” She trailed off, looking at the bundle in Dash’s mouth. “Are those for me?”
“Oh!” Dash felt a small tug at her mouth and let go, letting Twilight’s magic take a hold of the roses. “Yeah, they are.”
“Um…” Twilight glanced back inside, then at the roses, and back inside again. “Let me just go find a vase for these really quickly.”
“Uh, right.”
As she stepped back inside, Twilight glanced over her shoulder. “You can come in if you want, though it’ll only be a moment.”
“Eh, I think I’ll just pedal around outside for a bit.” Dash gave a weak laugh. “Fresh air and all that.”
Twilight nodded, and disappeared inside with her bouquet.
In her head, Dash counted to three, then slapped herself hard across the cheek. “Stupid!” Rubbing the cheek she just slapped, she closed her eyes and took a meditating breath. “Play it cool, Dash,” she muttered to herself. “You are cool.”
Twilight came back outside, the bouquet of roses presumably put somewhere safe for now. “Okay,” she said. She took a deep breath not unlike the one Dash just took moments ago, and faced Rainbow Dash with a smile. “All set.”
Dash turned around and spread her wings, motioning with a wingtip for Twilight to hop on. “Is your mane okay for flying?” she asked, glancing back. “I wouldn’t want to wreck it. You know, what with how nice it looks.”
“It’ll be fine. Besides, it’s just for tonight,” Twilight said, as she climbed on Rainbow Dash’s back. The warmth of Twilight’s chest, and her hooves wrapping around her neck, were a secret comfort for Dash on their flights. While she might not have been able to pull out all the stops with somepony riding on her back, she enjoyed the closeness it brought.
“Ready?” Dash asked, once Twilight had situated herself.
“Ready.”
After a pair of experimental flaps, Rainbow took off, flying just over a tree’s height above the ground. It was warm that night. Squirrels and owls and insects were all out in abundance and filling the night air with their sounds, and there were fireflies, as they passed over a pond, dancing near the water’s surface.
“I never realized how active the forests around Ponyville are at night,” Twilight said.
“Yeah. I didn’t know until Fluttershy took me out here to see it all one night.” Dash chuckled in memory. “Wouldn’t have ever done it if I didn’t accidentally promise to.”
“You? Not a fan of nature walks?” Twilight asked. Even though Dash couldn’t see it, she could feel her smirk. “I never would have guessed.”
“Well, yeah, I guess it looks cool and stuff, but I flew practically all over the place as a filly, after I left Cloudsdale, so I’ve managed to see a lot of things.”
“Like what?”
“Uh, well...” Dash scratched her head, trying to decide on one thing in particular. “Ever been to Scratchtooth Chasm?”
“No.”
“Uh, Singer’s Valley?”
“Nope. But I know where it is on a map.”
“Mount Peril?”
Dash felt her shaking her head. “Geez, where have you been, then?”
“Just Canterlot and now Ponyville, mostly,” Twilight replied. “I vaguely remember visiting my grandparents in Manehatten when I was a filly.”
Dash couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of staying in one place all the time. “That’s it? You never even got to study a board or anything?”
Twilight stifled a giggle. “Study abroad. And no, I spent all my time in between bookshelves at the Canterlot Library. It’s not that I didn’t want to go see places, there was just never any opportunity to while I was a student there.”
“Maybe I’ll take you there someday,” Dash offered, as she angled down a hill, picking up speed. “We could go wherever.”
“But Cloudsdale was such a short trip, and you were completely winded by the time we arrived,” Twilight pointed out.
Dash winced, remembering how her wings had ached from that trip. “Well... yeah. But I could get stronger.”
Twilight shook her head, but gave Dash a small squeeze to let her know she appreciated her trying. “I’ve already gotten to see so much coming to Ponyville,” she said, adjusting in her seat. “Maybe once I get this spell working we can fly somewhere together.”
“Yeah,” Dash said, smiling at the thought. “If you do that, we could go anywhere!” She glanced back at Twilight. “Ever been to the ocean?”
Hugging Dash, a broad smile spread across Twilight lips. “No,” she said. “But I’d love to go someday.” Her eyes met Dash’s. She looked genuinely happy, happier than Dash had seen her for a while, but there also seemed to be a touch of lingering sadness behind her eyes, so deeply hidden that Dash almost didn’t notice it.
“Can we go above the clouds?” Twilight asked.
The question snapped Dash from her thoughts, and she broke the gaze. “Uh, yeah, hold on.” The hooves around her neck held on tight as they ascended. The forest disappeared beneath them, turning into great green felt that stretched into the distance and met the bases of the mountains. It became shrouded by wisps of cloud as they ascended farther still, eventually vanishing altogether. The air grew cold. The air grew thin. The air grew to be all there was, the rest forgotten long below the clouds.
Slowly, the scared, almost choking, grip around Dash’s neck relaxed. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Twilight, her eyes lit up by the stars as she looked around in wonderment.
“It’s amazing...”
Dash swooped down to a cloud, sticking slightly higher than the rest, and landed on it. There was a brief hum of magic, before Twilight climbed off her back and sat next to her.
Dash craned her neck to look up. Hundreds of stars were already out, hiding in the fading light of the young night sky. “They’re a lot clearer from up high, huh?”
Twilight blinked and gave her a startled look, before following her gaze up. “Oh, wow, I normally never see them out this early!”
“They’re usually out this early up here,” Dash said, rubbing her chin. “I wonder if it’s because we’re closer.”
Twilight nudged Rainbow in the side and pointed up. “Look, you can almost see all of Orion’s belt.”
Dash tried following Twilight’s hoof, but they all looked the same. “Eh... I don’t see it.”
“Here,” Twilight said, scooting closer to Dash. She threw a hoof around Dash’s shoulder, pressed the side of her head up against Dash’s, and pointed at a pair of bright stars sitting side by side. “Those two right there. The third star hasn’t come out yet.”
“Oh...” Dash looked around, spotting another small cluster of stars out. She pointed them out to Twilight. “What about those?”
“Those are the Gemini twins.”
Dash pointed to another. “And that?”
“That’s part of Leo, the Lion. It looks like most of his stars aren’t out yet.”
“Huh.” Dash looked up at the last cluster of stars, stumped. They didn’t look like a lion. They didn’t look like anything, really. “How do you remember all of them?”
Twilight smiled as she pursed her lips and stared at the stars. She thought for a moment, before answering. “I used to look up at the sky all the time. When I started learning magic, I thought that maybe one day I’d be able to fly up and touch them.”
Dash snickered, unable to help herself. Twilight gave her a hard shove. “Hey! I was four at the time! It’s not funny, I really thought I could!”
Dash shook her head as her snickering quieted down. “No, no, I wasn’t laughing at it.” She wrapped a wing around the pouting Twilight, rubbing her shoulder. “It sounds like a nice dream to have had. I was just thinking of all the weird stuff I thought I’d grow up to do when I was a filly. I once told all my friends I’d fly to the moon.”
Twilight stifled a giggle. “Oh, yeah? How did that turn out?”
“Well, let’s just say that the lesson we had that year about the atmosphere was a real bummer.”
Twilight’s cheeks puffed up with contained laughter. “How old were you?” she asked, barely keeping it together.
Dash’s cheeks grew crimson, and she looked down at the cloud. “I was eight,” she answered, in a small, embarrassed tone.
Twilight hid her face against Dash’s shoulder, her body shaking from the effort of holding in her laughter.
“Hey!” Dash said, her face hot. “No one ever told me there wasn’t any air up there! How was I supposed to know?” Despite her indignity, she couldn’t help the smile spreading across her face from Twilight’s barely contained laughter. “I seriously thought I could fly to the moon. I thought I’d be the first to do it, too.”
Twilight sat up and rubbed her eyes. They were red and puffy, almost as though she’d been crying, and there was an obvious but failed attempt on her part to force her smile down. She cleared her throat, trying to maintain her composure.
“Do you want to get something to eat?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Dash said, happy to be off the topic. She stood and spread her wings, allowing Twilight onboard. “Ready?”
“Yep.” Twilight shifted, trying to get more comfortable on Dash’s back. “Where are we going?”
“I found a place,” Dash answered mysteriously with a smile.
“—So Silvertrail and Fleetfoot came out of the changing room with it and said, ‘We couldn’t find any spare uniforms, only this pink jumpsuit!’”
Spitfire’s lips curled into a smirk against her glass as she let out a laugh. “And then?”
“It was my only one,” Soarin’ said, tipping his empty wine glass, a light intoxication across his cheeks. “But the instructor hated me. If I didn’t show up in uniform, she would have had my head, so I wore it.”
Spitfire was forced to put down her drink as she burst into laughter. Soarin’ wore an embarrassed smile and put a hoof to his forehead. “They couldn’t get new uniforms until the end of the month, so for a week and a half, everyone called me ‘Private Periwinkle Pink’.”
Spitfire covered her mouth, a few giggles spilling out. “Ms. Howl was always nice to me.”
“She was a demon of Tartarus in disguise!” Soarin’ hissed, keeping his voice low as though Ms. Howl herself might hear him and make him do laps. “She made me repeat an exercise thirty times because I apparently wasn’t doing it right.”
Spitfire traced the rim of her glass. They ordered a short while ago, but truth be told, she didn’t feel very hungry. “You ever feel like those first few weeks at the Wonderbolt Academy are something you’ll never get back?”
“Huh?” Soarin’ asked. “What do you mean?”
“Well, those were probably the best days of my life. It feels like everything after those first few weeks has just been downhill.”
“What about being accepted into the Wonderbolts? Or being promoted to Captain?”
“Yeah...” Spitfire gave a nod of weak agreement. “But the reality of those set in before I could even get a chance to celebrate. They were both a humongous step up in responsibility, and I had to hit the ground running if I wanted to do a good job at either of them.”
Soarin’ hummed in thought. “Yeah, I guess things were a lot more carefree back then,” he said. “But so what? We’re on top of the world right now.”
Spitfire fell silent, staring at her unfinished glass of sparkling pear juice. Its tiny bubbles continuously floated up to the surface behind her reflection on the glass. “You ever think that, at some point in all the time we spent learning, we forgot how to discover things for ourselves?”
Soarin’ chuckled. From his look he thought she was making some kind of joke. “Can’t say I have.”
A frown marred Spitfire’s face. “You don’t feel like you lost something along the way, moving forward?”
Soarin’ put on a thoughtful look, though it seemed mostly for show. “No, not really,” he answered with a shrug after some time. “Why? Is something bothering you?”
“Well...” Spitfire stalled and thought back to all the times she’d flown recently. With the Wonderbolts. By herself. With Dash. She wound up shaking her head. “I can’t put my hoof on it.”
Their waiter arrived shortly after with their food and set it on the table. A pair of plates, with miniscule portions, sat in front of them, as the waiter hurried off to attend to what had quickly become a busy night.
Soarin’ looked at their meals and let out a shaky laugh. “I didn’t realize I ordered the small...”
Spitfire looked down at her own, three-bite-sized portion, and began to giggle.
Rainbow Dash touched down atop the flattened peak of a small mountain just a long glide away from Ponyville. Individual homes, and the light in their windows, were still visible at their distance.
Twilight climbed off her back and looked around at the small plateau, a slab of which stuck up and formed a flat, barrel-high platform.
“It’s a table,” Dash said.
“Huh?” Twilight looked around, before settling back on the rock she had been looking at. “That?”
“Yeah.” Dash hopped down to a lower ledge and brought up a cooler in between her teeth. She set it down at Twilight’s hooves. “I thought we’d have dinner up here.”
Twilight spun around, her smile growing as she took in the view. “From the way you were talking before, I figured you were going to take me to a restaurant.”
“Oh, were you looking forward to going to one?” Dash asked, as her smile faded and her ears flattened against her head apologetically. “Because if you want, we could just leave this here and go—”
Twilight interrupted her with a kiss on the cheek, a smile slipping across her lips at Dash’s nervousness. “It’s fine. I love it.”
Dash’s ears perked back up. “Oh. Well, in that case, great!” She darted away like a nimble ferret and began poking her nose through the cooler, bringing out a stack of plates between her teeth, and setting them on the land-made table. “There’s apples and strawberries, yogurt, fresh croissants with butter—or, well, they should still be sorta fresh.” She put the items out on the plates as she listed them. Rummaging in the cooler box one last time, she pulled out a few candles and a matchbox. “And candles. To, um, see and stuff,” she finished lamely.
Dash looked down at the food she’d set out, her lips forming a small grimace. “It’s not exactly restaurant food, but the strawberries are fresh from Fluttershy’s garden, and the croissants are really good.”
“I’m telling you, I’m fine with this,” Twilight said, smiling to reassure her. She glanced around at the forests down below them, and up at the stars. “It’s really nice up here.”
“Are you sure?” Dash asked. “You just sorta seem a bit... put off.”
Twilight chewed her lip, debating whether or not to be honest with her. “Can you promise to answer something honestly for me?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“What was flying with Spitfire like?”
“So, I gotta ask,” Soarin’ said, as Spitfire was about to take her first bite.
“Ask what?”
“Why’d you run off?” he said. By his tone he clearly wasn’t mad at her, but he did seem to feel slightly betrayed that she hadn’t been willing to tell him. “What happened in Ponyville?”
Spitfire wiped her mouth slowly, thinking. “It’s where that one flier we saw in Cloudsdale lives.”
“Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah.” Spitfire stared at her plate, nudging her food with her fork. “There was something about the way she flew... Didn’t you feel it?”
Soarin’ shrugged. “She was pretty good, for an amateur, but her form was sloppy.”
“But she never even went to the Wonderbolts Academy. I’ve seen her pull off turns I couldn’t, even with all the training we’ve done on those. And she’s fast, Soarin’. Really fast.”
“So... what, that’s it? You left to do a scouting trip? You could have just sent someone. We have ponies who are paid to do that, you know.”
A frown tugged at Spitfire’s lips. “It’s not just that. I needed to go to Ponyville and have a chance to fly with her.”
“Did you get a chance to fly with her?”
Spitfire nodded.
Soarin’ shrugged, asking the next, obvious question. “Well then, what was it like?”
After almost a full minute of internal debate on what to say, Twilight’s stare piercing her soul, Rainbow Dash finally answered. “It was magical.”
Twilight remained silent after she said it. Dash wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but she took it as her cue to elaborate. “Nopony’s ever really been able to keep up with me. So finally getting a chance to fly with someone as good as me, someone who didn’t slow me down, was amazing. I was always looking for somepony who could fly with me, who shared my love of flying. And with Spitfire, that was just...”
Twilight’s eyes had grown watery as she spoke. Rainbow Dash flapped across the table and wrapped a wing around her. “But that’s something completely different! It doesn’t affect how I feel about you, or about us. What we have doesn’t need that. It’s perfect just the way it is, so why do you keep trying to change it?”
Twilight shook her head and pushed Rainbow Dash away. She turned to Rainbow Dash with tears in her eyes. “There’s a huge part of your life that I’m locked out of. Don’t you see? Without being like her, all I’ll ever do is slow you down.”
Rainbow Dash winced, hearing her own words. “You know I didn’t mean that! I’ve never cared about having to carry you places.” She let out a sigh, trying to think of some way to convince Twilight she was right. Moving closer to her, she tried to wrap her wing around her again. “C’mon, Twilight. Let’s just forget about this and finish the date.”
Twilight shook her head and stepped back. “I’m done.”
Spitfire’s food lay half-eaten, forgotten, on its plate as she spoke emphatically of her time with Dash. “—and there was just this feeling I can’t describe. It was like I was lighter than air—like I was completely free. I remember feeling something like it once, when I first learned how to fly. Flying with her, I felt as though I rediscovered that passion that made me want to fly in the first place.”
As Spitfire told Soarin’ of what flying with Dash was like, a realization slowly began to grow within her. Forgetting the crush, forgetting what happened between her and Dash, and forgetting the two kisses, she still wanted to be with Dash. Not romantically, but as wings.
“I think...” She paused, making certain she was really sure what she wanted. “I think I’m done.”
“Huh? Done with what?”
Spitfire stared down at her plate. The next words were so strange, they didn’t even sound as though they came from her. “I think I’m done with the Wonderbolts...”
“What?” Soarin’s mouth hung open, his lips looking like they were trying to form words but had forgotten how. He leaned over the table, keeping his voice low in front of the other patrons. “B-b-but the team! You’re the youngest captain of the Wonderbolts, and you still have plenty of golden years left in you. Why quit now?”
“I just...” She tried to think of a good way to phrase it. There was none. “I found someone else I want to fly with.”
“And what about us? What about you and me?” Soarin’ asked, his voice filled with hurt as he glared at her.
Spitfire sighed. “Soarin’, we’ve been over this. I don’t—”
Soarin’ took a deep breath, running a hoof through his mane. He took a moment to cool down, though Spitfire understood it must have been difficult for him to do so. “I know, I know,” he said with frustration. “But I always thought we might be able to give it another shot, you know? Maybe even with tonight, with the restaurant and everything—”
“Wait, that’s why you did this?”
“Well, no, but—” He cut himself off. His shoulders slouched. “You haven’t seemed happy for a while. I just want to see you smiling again, whether or not we ever...”
Spitfire sighed, reaching across the table and rubbing the hoof he had resting on it. “I had a great time, for a while,” she said, stroking his hoof gently. “But I want to move onto something new.”
A mirthless chuckle escaped Soarin’s lips. For a while, he just stared quietly at the table cloth, a faraway look in his eyes. “So I guess this is it, then?”
Spitfire chewed her lip. “I’ll let the team know at practice tomorrow. Fleetfoot will take my place. I’ll keep showing up to practices for a week or so, to help everyone get settled in with the new setup.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with what happened between us, right?” Soarin’ asked, staring at her uncertainly.
“This is about me,” Spitfire answered in a firm tone. “I don’t want you to think differently.” She looked down at her unfinished food, wincing as she was reminded of the lengths Soarin’ went to for this evening. “I’m sorry this night didn’t turn out so well.”
“Yeah...” Soarin’ looked down at his finished plate and snorted. “I guess I’ll see you at practice tomorrow morning then, huh?”
Spitfire gave a subdued nod as Soarin’ motioned a waiter over to bring them their check.
Rainbow Dash blinked and shook her head, like somepony had hit her snout. “You’re done?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t think tonight was a good night to have this date. I...” Twilight sniffled, wiping her nose. She smiled and let out a weak laugh. “I guess I’m not really over what happened as much as I thought I was.”
Rainbow Dash stared at the ground with her ears pressed flat and a guilt-ridden face. “Look, I know it can’t be easy getting over what I did. You have every right to feel hurt, or be mad at me, or not trust me.” She looked up and met Twilight’s eyes. “But we need to work through this together. Let me show you how much I care about you!”
Twilight bowed her head and remained silent, her hair covering her eyes as her body shook.
“Come on. Let’s just sit together and have something to eat.” Dash tried to give an friendly, encouraging smile, wishing that Twilight would look up and see it. “The fruit’s freshly picked. You could put it in the yogurt or something. There’s also a few slices of cheese to go with the croissants. I’m not really sure if you’re supposed to have cheese with them, but it always tastes good, so—”
“I’m sorry, Dash,” Twilight interrupted, turning away. “Not tonight.”
Before Dash could so much as open her mouth in reply, Twilight blinked away in a bright flash of pink light.
The smile Dash wore slowly faded as she realized she was alone, with only a cooler full of food she wouldn’t be able to finish by her side. Staring out at Ponyville, she let out a sigh as a light breeze tossed her mane. She reared back and stomped the ground with her front hooves.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Well, the length plus the corrections I did to the last two chapters took a little while, sorry for the wait. I didn't want to have another chapter where it didn't seem clear that things were still happening.
The idea with the last couple chapters has been that they're trying to go back to their normal lives, but, as it becomes obvious with this chapter, they can't. I promise that I don't plan to have this story continue on forever. Just consider this the last stretch of unresolved issues.
2466024
Soooo freaking true lol
Well this was unexpected.
Wow, Dash, way to be stupid.
Mood = destroyed.
WHY WAS I ON FACEBOOK WITH MY BOYFRIEND WHILE READING THIS OMG
Man, this is really getting dragged out. I don't really get what Spitfire is going to do. Convince Rainbow to form a flying team with her? Just go off an fly by herself, what?
They are all going to do something really REALLY stupid.
Dammit Spitfire! Leaving the 'Bolts to go stalk a pony who wants to join the Bolts is a terrible plan!
Dammit Twilight! Hollowing out your bones to give yourself wings is going to end in tears and possibly a funeral.
Dammit Dash! That was... actually, I can't find much to be mad at her about. That was a pretty good idea for a date, and I can't fault her honesty – maybe just her timing.
The FEEEEEELLLSS.
I am starting to see an end to the problems, and I'm happy to be able to see that.
I think Twilight and Dash have been through a lot of shit together, and they deserve to have their problems solved soon.
Drama, drama everywhere, and you are the best of them all
2532336 I'm still mad at Dash for kissing Spitfire, and you should be too!
I have a feeling Rainbow Is going to do something reaaally stupid in the next couple chapters. This fic is kinda making me hate Spitfire.
This was my first TwiDash fic, and it firmly established TwiDash as OTP. So it had damn well better have a happy ending!
Harsh
Great chapter though
I can see something I don't want to see
Please don't ruin their relationship only for Spitfire to be with Dash
And the feels in the story.... "I'm done" from Twilight... Poor Dash, I felt that on my own face, can't even imagine how she just felt now.
Overall for the chapter, as usual, amazing, this story is by far the top1 TwiDash on the whole website.
Its almost depressing that its comming to an end
*sigh* And it looked like things were going well. I wonder what Dash and Twilight are gonna do now.
wow... this story is only getting better and deeper
2532277
what dose FB have to do with anything?
Disgruntled seems a really strange word choice here. I know I immediately stopped to go look it to make sure it meant what I thought it meant. I guess poetic license and all that, but it still seems really weird to me.
>Ditzy Doo
1 off 2000 upvotes
2532674 One does not simply say yes when Twilight rejects Dash as said boyfriend asks...
Ah shit, the good ol' feminine partner asks an impossible question.
Also, 2000 up votes. Yay.
Yeah... well, Twilight's turned into a massive drama queen. Dash is still as clueless as ever. And Spitefire is going to throw her career away to complicate things even further.
I wonder if you could call this reader fatigue, but I'm about ready to see this story end, or mayhap just get off if it doesn't. It feels like an emotional roller-coaster for the sake of having one more and more, leaving little of the actual story intact.
I guess I'll just have to hope something happens next chapter, cause this light switch relationship is just starting to grate.
It was a nice chapter, but..inner me wants to see Twilight and Rainbow happy!
Nooooo! The feels!
How will it end? Who will be with who?
I'm not going to lie, even though I loved this fic and thought it was great at first it's beginning to grow stale. A lot of the same drama and problems are occurring, and it's just starting to get old. I'm hoping the drama ends soon and the fic either takes a new better direction, or it comes to a close.
Of course that being said, it'll probably pick up soon and end before I know it and then I'll regret saying that it needs to come to a close
2532336
Dash has all the subtlety and tact of a Caterpillar D10
2532858
Disgruntled is not an adjective I would ascribe to flowers either.
I have this weird vision of angry, sentient flowers yelling and swearing at Rainbow in a thick Geordie accent...
Reminds me of this CitiCard commercial.
No not the cliffhangers!!
ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4824804054991478&pid=1.7&w=276&h=188&c=7&rs=1
Sooo emotionally torn in this chapter. I freaking about had a conniption fit when things started to go south between Rainbow and Twi in this chapter. I was in a state of crisis for short second or two. I must know what will happen next... sooo great, yet so grrr brilliant!
Yes Twilight that's exactly what you wanna do... keep pushing her away, so when Spitfire swoops in (literally) to sweep Rainbow off her feet she will feel like there is no better choice cause you no longer love her. Honestly I can not see a good resolution to this story anymore. While I do believe Twilight is 100% in the right to be upset and hurt, shes being overly dramatic and whiny. Rainbow has done everything in her power to try and prove herself after her (admittedly) stupid mistake, and yes that doesn't mean she has to be forgiven immediately but treating her like shes some kind of monster doesn't help. And honestly... Spitfire, STOP... just... no, go back to the wonderbolts, give that poor guy Soren a chance and stop interfering in Rainbows life... haven't you caused enough damage?
Hmm i really enjoy this story so far but the amount of drama every other chapter is starting to bother me.
Tho i have still no clue what the story is building up to any more, I had a vague idea of what it was building up to but now not so much.
Spitfire quitting the wonderbolts to find a reason to fly again or some thing i don't even know.
Twilight starting to dwell in to dark magic to give here self wings from a book she found in a collection of necromancy books and other bad things.
Even after shes been told that dark magic never leads to some thing good.
She keeps pushing rainbow away from here even tho she really tries to make up for here stupid mistake.
I mean sure she can be angry and such but shes being a worse drama queen then rarity at this point.
And i don't even know if she even wants to be with rainbow any more.
Don't get me wrong i still want them to be together in the end, But the way things are going i don't know if that's even possible.
Rainbow is being well rainbow but you would think she would heave learned some thing by this point.
Jet she keeps making similar mistakes over and over again.
Urgh soundslikeponies i'm trusting you to make it all pay off in the end.
But i cant shake the feeling that it wont be the chase.
Any way im looking forward to the next chapter.
Where the fuck is soundslikeponies who wrote this shit
I mean yeah it's good but a few chapters ago like when they went to canterlot, that's where I felt this was a totally whole different story.
It's not longer Flying High, Falling Hard. It's like... just... Falling Hard.
Sorry if I'm not good with words, but soundslikeponies, you should and need to take a rest. Get drunk, fucking drunk and a break, like a whole week of doing nothing but fuck all. It'll get better and thing's will seem bigger.
Best wishes and hopes dude.
2535852i think thats kinda the point...first loves that dont really end well or when those involved dont really know what to do end up calling it off and everyone has a hard time dealing with the outcome...as you said...falling hard...life sometimes sux and folks have a hard time with it
Twilight is a fool. Sure, there's a part of Rainbow's life she'll never be a part of but you don't really need to share absolutely everything with somebody to love them. She's never known how to breathe dragon fire or wear scales, and never raised the sun or been immortal, but that doesn't stop her loving Spike and Celestia, right? And plus, why ask for truth if you can't handle it? Foolish Twilight.
2535852>>2535721>>2534825>>2533579
Well, shit. It's going to be hard finding motivation to write after this.
I worked hard to put out what I thought was one of my better chapters. I planned it, and the remaining chapters, so I'd have a clear direction up to the end and now people are saying something needs to happen in the next chapter? Something just happened this chapter, I didn't plan to have anything major happen again. I thought with the last two chapters I had cut back on the drama. Even this one felt less drama-filled than other previous chapters: Twilight and Dash aren't on the verge of breaking up, no one's cheating on anyone, and no one's having a mental breakdown.
I get that their relationship is a light switch, but that's what I was going for, that's what kind of couple I wanted to make them out to be because there are couples like that. I don't know if that's just something people don't want to read about for very long, or what. I tried to vary the drama and keep it from feeling like they were just going through the same motions over and over again, but apparently I didn't enough.
I probably shouldn't even be responding to this, but just... ugh. I feel like shit.
another amazing chapter....that left my heart hurting....
as always cant wait for next chapter.... really wish I could stop reading sad story's....
i think that Twi is probably going to finish her spell before she feels better... i also have this feeling that the spell is not going to turn out right at first....
2536240 Please continue the story how you intended! I love this story and it is the best one I have ever read. I know what people are saying but I say your doing a great job! So please continue what you're doing and give us those great chapters I know you have!
"The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings."
— Sir James Matthew Barrie
2536240
Less drama-filled than previous chapters is the right way to put it. It's still drama, and when you keep readers there for too long you get reader fatigue. This chapter (in my opinion) should have had everything go right for once, no Twilight running away or asking Dash hard questions, and Spitfire and soarin' simply having a good night out.
I should apologize for my original comment. It's not that the story is moving too slow, it's moving too fast. We've had a few 'ups' in the beginning of the story, but after that there have been so many 'downs' that we're underground by now.
Suspense and drama are good things to be able to do, but like everything: too much is a bad thing.
Another apology for the fact that my comment discouraged you. I'm trying to help by stating how I feel about the story. Not make you feel bad.
2536429
Maybe I'm just receiving too many mixed messages. I felt like the last conflict needed to emerge this chapter based on the feedback I received on the last two; people were saying that they weren't really feeling where the story was going.
I always considered this story to more or less be a drama-filled soap opera, though I'm still trying to figure out why this one point has so many people groaning.
At any rate, I am trying to wrap this story up, but there'll be a few more chapters before it does.
2536541
The reason people feel that way is that we're still reading about the same problem.
Since as far back as chapter 11 the entire story has been hovering around this theme:
-Twilight is afraid that her relationship with Rainbow Dash is falling apart.
-Dash is torn between her loyalties to Twilight and her desire for Spitfire.
-Spitfire is doing all sorts of things that endanger her career to get closer to Dash.
This has been going on for 18 chapters now. Different iterations obviously, but the same general idea behind the chapters.
Believe it or not, moving away from the drama for a chapter or two would silence a lot of the complaints, simply by showing that they can have some good times without the drama every second.
I really don't want to rag on an author that's down in the dumps. And I get having to slog through some chapters you know probably aren't going to be received amazingly well, in order to get to a finish. I sympathize.
I do agree, however, with others that are hoping we're getting to the wrap up. And I'm glad to hear that it's the plan. The story is getting... stretched. I don't really have any emotional investment in the relationship(s) anymore. And I've more or less gotten to the point where I don't like the characters involved, and wish they would all just break up. Twi has reached the martyr point of just setting herself up to be offended. Spitfire is like a celeb destroying herself, and all she's built, with a heroin addiction (Or a heroine addiction, in this case. I'm so clever). And Dash...
...actually, I'm not so against Dash. She made stupid choices, but at least she's earnest and trying her best. She's the one saving grace keeping me from reader apathy, at this point. And I rather like her bullheadedness. It's very... Dash. Unfortunately, it takes more the one to make a relationship.
It's just like watching a real-life dysfunctional relationship. You just know everyone would be so much better off, and happier, going their separate ways, but nobody listens. And it's just as depressing to see in fic-form as it is in real life.
I'm starting to think the best way to end this one is a bittersweet one where Twi and Dash separate, but manage to remain friends. Not exactly the sunshine and rainbows ending you expect out of a romance. And like others have said, it hurts, since this was one of my first TwiDash fics too, and made me rather like the pairing. But first time, teenage loves aren't exactly known for their success. And it's getting hard to picture any other outcome.
In any case, still going to give this story the benefit of the doubt, and stick with it. I'm sure we'll all, as readers, feel a lot better and more refreshed if we either get some tangible hope, which doesn't get redacted the following chapter, or things are resolved with a break-up. If soundslikeponies is on a final arc, then some resolution more or less guaranteed, and this last bit was liable to have been a necessary evil.
2536240
I think Karrakaz pretty much sums up what I was trying to say. It's not that the story is bad in anyway, and as I said it's one of my favorite stories. It just needs a change of direction, for the last 10 chapters or so you've had this same constant drama between RD, Twilight, and Spitfire. I think if you just took a complete break from the drama and had a few good chapters where everything is working out for them like the beginning of the story, it'll probably end all the complaints and "reader's fatigue" that everyone is getting.
Also I'm sorry if I discouraged you, I meant to warn you that the story was getting slightly stale, not make you feel like I hated the story
Commence read.
Wow...that didn't end happily. Though it seems revelations have been had.
Well, this sucks.
2536541 i´m loving the story, you are doing a great job, this is the sort of "realistic" (while portraying it as ponies ) story of how relationships works sometimes, people seem to forget that the drama that happened between them was not a simple one, and resolutions doesn't always happens just because you wish them to happen, your brain can be screaming at you with logical arguments, urging you to look at the future, but your heart can let the softest of whispers out and froze you in place, feelings will always win over rational thinking 100% of the times
i enjoy greatly this story, you seem to have the sort of talent for "realistic" when relationships becomes the topic, a talent that i enjoyed greatly while reading Lets Find You a Date, We´ll Keep In Touch, and of course this one
sad to hear this story is coming to an end, but such is the fate of all things and good stories, but yeah after if either they overcome that hurdle in their relationship or not, it would have been difficult to continue the story without it feeling weaker, since the problems they have now seems like they would have been the hardest of the couple.
Gah... Twilight, when you exact a promise from the Element of Loyalty to be honest, and the ask a question you don't want the answer to, it's your own damn fault if you don't like the answer!
Dash screwed up. But Twi really needs to learn that decisions need time to be made. Dash has been trying to make things better, but without a time traveling spell she can't fix it. Give her some credit for trying though!
Well done though, at capturing that first "stupid love". Just grateful I never did that myself.
I apologize for waiting so long to read this chapter, but I was quite preoccupied.
Oh man, this whole chapter was going so well! I can totally understand Spitfire's actions, and I'm not upset about that. I think that might be a good step in her life. But sad, hurt, and betrayed Twilight? My heart was not built with the capacity to handle this.
I just want a happy ending. I know you'll provide us with one, of course, but still. Sad Twilight = sad me.
2540293 Must we mock Oak's crippling mental disability?