4
“Thank Sun it’s Friday,” Rainbow Dash muttered, banking to home in on some low hanging clouds.
“Everyday is like your favourite day if you want it badly enough,” Pinkie Pie called, voice wavering only slightly as she tried to stuff her anti-parasprite instruments into her party cannon.
“That’s not bad. You should put that on a t-shirt.”
“Aww, Dashie! But would anypony wear it?”
“I would!”
“I might,” Fluttershy smiled as she floated towards them, surrounded by a choir of birds. “It’d be great for gardening. Oh, and Discord might like one! He enjoys little slogans on things.”
Dash squinted. “For real?”
“Yes. He says they make almost less sense than he does.” Fluttershy spread a wing, allowing some of her choir to rest on it. “We’re ready, by the way!”
“Same here!” Dash smirked in satisfaction as she surfed her cloud creation to a few feet above the ground. They glanced at each other as Pinkie bounced up and down on her cannon, trying to force her tuba inside. “We’re sure this is gonna work, right?”
“We…woke them…up this…way!” Pinkie grunted, finally managing to cram the tuba in with a depressing blast of notes. “Phew! So, why wouldn’t it?”
“The sad thing is, we’ve run under worse logic.” Dash looked nervously over her shoulder as a shadow fell over them. “Is your, uh…”
“She’s a friend,” Fluttershy said simply, smiling up at the circus tent coloured dinosaur glaring down at them. Dash focused on admiring its rainbow patterned batwings to drown out the fight/flight reflex.
“Can we all take a moment to appreciate Partyerodactyls are real?” Pinkie grinned, rolling her cannon over.
She followed the others gazes to the distant Ponyville, where three multicoloured blurs shot from street to street. Ponies who weren’t screaming in terror of three psychedelic Everfree monsters were screaming from the area around them randomly morphing into a multi-coloured bubble of different kinds of party music: orange classical, red accordion and blue rave.
“I mean, there’s nuance,” Pinkie amended, ”but still.”
“Can't Mama Bird here just go in and clip their wings?” Rainbow tried again. “How much worse could she do than we have? You’d think they’d be happy to see her.”
Mama growled at her then let out a series of wheezing coughs. Fluttershy’s birds scattered, but not very far, as she fluttered up to pat the poor thing on her shoulders.
“Um, they can’t, not with their current eyesight. And she’s still not feeling very well. Without her roar they won’t identify her. That’s why the poor things are running around town! When we woke them up they thought they were being called home, but she’s not there so they’re just flailing around. If something as big as her goes in, you know how everypony will react!”
“Hey, hey, watch it sister!” Dash snapped, backing across her cloud as Mama’s serpentine neck loomed towards her for better glaring. “It was Pinkie’s idea to try and make a cloud-power cord mix for her party album!”
“Technically it was my fault for booking Fluttershy’s choir on the same day.” Pinkie blushed, sounding a little like the other Pegasus as Mama’s eyes rolled to her. “I should’ve had the courage to ask you both to reschedule, and I really should’ve checked to make sure there was no one around we’d disturb. I’m really sorry!”
Mama coughed noncommittally.
“Fine,” Dash harrumphed, “we’re really sorry. But since actions speak louder than words…”
She raised her forehooves. Pinkie hefted her cannon. Fluttershy drew in a breath, raising two wingtips as her birds’ chests inflated…
“Don’t panic, ladies!” A squadron of blazing toy sized biplanes dived out of the sun, whirling around the Everfree creature and scattering the startled Elements. “I got this!”
“Whadda you think you’re doing?!” Rainbow Dash practically spat, shielding her furious eyes from the glare of the Horseshoe Torch hovering in front of the panicking Partyerodactyl, jabbing with a flame constructed chair and sporting a constructed top hat.
“The Fantastic Family special!” Johnny winked at her. “Saving rookies and stopping monsters!”
“Don’t!” He blinked, the chair and squadron evaporating into embers as Fluttershy desperately flung herself between him and the creature, forelegs spread almost as wide as her flapping wings. “Please, you’re scaring her!”
“I’m scaring her?!” Johnny had just enough presence of mind to hold his hooves out placatingly but not to shut off his hat. “She’s the size of two buses standing on each other’s shoulders!”
“She’s with us!” Rainbow Dash snapped, zooming up to his glowing eye level.
“Um, not to put pressure on you guys,” Pinkie cut in, “but that thing Zecora said not to let happen looks like it’s happening!”
Dash and Johnny stopped glaring at each other to turn and wince from the shimmering town, three bubbles cycling through shades of their respective primary colours as they came closer and closer to merging into one. The Torch’s flames rippled in time with the grass as the discordant sound waves began to screech into a single pitch.
“I’ll deal with you later!” Dash snarled, flapping back to her cloud construct. “Just do what you do best and float there uselessly, we don’t have time to waste on you right now!”
“Plenty of time to take your shot, apparently!” Johnny called back.
The intense light dimmed in a scalloped shadow and he looked behind him, wondering if Mama had blocked it for both of them or if he’d just happened to be in the way when she stretched her wings. He raised his voice over the cacophony again. “What’re you even gonna do?”
“Finish it the way we started!” Through the gaps in Mama’s wings he could just make out their silhouettes, coming together, Dash in the lead. “Simulate a roar! Fluttershy?”
“Okay…a-one, a-two, a-one-two-three!”
Johnny had been at close range for several monster roars during his career, usually closer to their ravening maws than anypony (or their eardrums) should come. This was the first time he’d been technically behind one and it felt like it should be somehow worse.
Dash’s cloud produced a bone jarring electric bass as she rammed her hooves into strategic spots. Fluttershy’s perfect pitch climbed higher and higher, becoming a whirlwind funnel of sound with her birds’ songs wrapping around it. Pinkie’s thing felt like the world’s most jovial war crime.
The Torch could almost see the combined effect, the air blurring with different textures and combining into cheesy 60’s laser beam rings racing straight for Ponyville. Even with his eyes straining from the light and the noise.
The hurricane roar sliced clean through the blazing disco inferno that was becoming Ponyville…and snuffed it out.
Pulsing silence as the spires and thatch of the town settled back into focus, the only movement grass blades and flower petals that had been blasted into the air floating back to earth.
Then three snake-like streaks, speckled with pastel patterns over a base colour, danced their way into the air towards them.
“Incoming!” Rainbow yelped, hitting the deck as a blue blur almost shaved her trademark mane off.
Pinkie squealed, leaping onto her party cannon like a startled house cat as a red one looped around and around her before darting to it’s mother. Fluttershy blinked, then slowly eased herself to the side to allow a trembling orange one to waver past.
Johnny stared down at the reunited family, the hoarsely croaking Mama flapping her wings in joy as three smaller, snake-like Partyerodactyls fluttered and bounced around her, signature coloured sparks sheeting off their wings and filling the air with tinny, discordant genre notes.
“What just happened?”
“The Elements of Harmony special,” Dash sneered.
“We accidentally woke this family from hibernation,” Fluttershy explained. “But now that they’re all together they can go home!”
“And the light show?”
“Their music magic building to a crescendo that would’ve destroyed Ponyville and everything all the way up to Canterlot.” Pinkie’s smile wavered slightly as she glanced at the rooftops, some of which were still smoking. “Which wouldn’t have happened if I’d just been happy with my good old-fashioned party mix.”
“Hey, nothin' wrong with tryin’ new things, pink stuff!” Rainbow Dash’s own grin faltered as she turned to see the blue baby mimicking her Encouraging Cool One pose.
The Torch tried to smile. “So, you…had everything under control?”
He’d been working on how to put his plan into effect all last night and had been delighted at what looked like a chance for a classic team up to endear himself to his old flight school…friend. Instead, he’d menaced a distraught mother with a bad case of laryngitis and almost thrown off the split-second timing needed to stop most of central Equestria being flattened by a soundwave that’d make Klaw cry from the craftsmanship.
Is this…is this what being Peter is like?
“Um,” said Fluttershy.
“Yeah!” Dash shot back into the stare down space, ignoring the heat from his flames. “Even after you butted in!”
“Okay, okay.” Johnny waved his hooves in supplication, floating backwards to give her some personal space. Because he was a respectful, enlightened 21st century stallion. Not because those intense magenta eyes still felt like they could dissect him and make a couple of artful salads out of his innards.
“It worked out, though!” Pinkie was having a bouncing contest with the ecstatic red baby while its sisters nuzzled their mother. “We’ll just leave you out of the diary.”
“…thanks?”
“You’re welcome!”
“No he’s not,” Dash hissed.
“Rainbow,” Fluttershy said gently.
Rainbow glared down at her then they all followed her gaze, watching the reunited Partyerodactyl family as Mama embraced her children with her wings one final time. Blue fought her way out, flapping abashed wings. Red waved a wing at Pinkie as Mama gently wrapped her foot around her, Orange snuggling happily into the other’s grip, sharing a reptilian smile with Fluttershy. Blue looked at Dash with begrudging respect as Mama gently but firmly clamped her tail in her mouth, nodded gratefully to the Elements and took to the air in a riot of carnival colours.
“Yeah, okay,” Dash muttered.
Summer peace gently rolled over them as they watched the colourful shadow recede, Johnny feeling out of place. He’d never have imagined Rainbow Dash chilling out over something so simple, not the same way as the two radically different mares she was somehow rolling with. But their muscles seemed to be relaxing identically, their breathing slowing to the same pace.
Also, he was still on fire. Not really going with the vibe.
“Is it too soon for a Yay-We-Didn’t-Break-Everything party?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Maybe we can talk about it at our next recording session?” Fluttershy suggested. Pinkie smiled back gratefully.
“Count on it. Just gotta put these clouds back first.” Dash gave her a wingtip up, then whip cracked her glare back on the Torch, who’d folded his arms for something to do. “And take care of some air pollution.”
“Y’know, I actually miss that caustic Cloudsdale sarcasm.” Johnny chanced a smile. “Was hoping we could catch up! Talk about the good ol’ days!”
Rainbow Dash let out a snarl that reminded him of a timberwolf, both the animal and the Hex-Pony, and blasted off so hard she almost whipped out his flames.
Johnny shared a few awkward seconds blinking with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie before she swooped back down, her muttering muffled by the cloud corner she had clamped in her mouth and jetted back into the sky, dragging the entire thing behind her like Father Hearth’s Warming’s sack.
“Huh. She has mellowed.” Johnny blinked at the furious rainbow contrail then smiled at the other Elements. “Well, wish me luck. Nice to see you both…again.”
He’d leaned in slightly as he was talking and terrified Fluttershy’s birds with his flame form, sending them racing from her shoulders in a torrent of feathers. She looked as if she was about to cry.
“You too!” Pinkie Pie, now somehow wearing oven mitts, clasped his hoof and shook it vigorously, almost dragging him out of the air and setting fire to the grass she was standing on. “And good luck, I guess!”
She sighed to herself as the Torch recovered, winked at them and took off in a jet of flame.
“She only growled a little bit,” Fluttershy assured, putting a wing around her shoulders.
“Oh, it’s not that. It’s just…” Pinkie scuffed the ground a little. “Following Rainbow Dash where other ponies dare not tread used to be my thing.”
“I can smell you back there,” Rainbow snapped into the wind, 300ft above Ponyville’s fields and climbing, pushing her cloud construct ahead of her with both hooves.
“Did you get faster?” Johnny pushed down on his internal accelerator, trying to pull alongside her. “Swear that’s not a come on, genuinely asking.”
“Go. Away. Storm!”
Still so mad that not even flattery worked. He was going to have to go Nova Flame with the charm here. Assuming he didn’t run out of breath first, he was channelling half an exploding zeppelin into his thrust and she was still accelerating!
“Look, don’t you want to know why I came all the way out here?”
“The Great Pony in the Sky is punishing me?”
“Ha! Your banter’s really gotten better!” He was grinning in spite of the tension, which did make her finally look at him but did not make anything better.
She braked suddenly. He shot past her, twisting upside down as he tried to slow himself. He hung there until the upside down construct came back into focus then executed a loop to come back up alongside her.
“Y’know I’m a Wonderbolt now?” Her glare only wavered as she glanced at the specific knots of cloudstuff she was kneading with her hooves. “Well. Wonderbolt cadet.”
“Wait, for real?” He had a sudden impulse to hug her. It was all she’d talked about back at flight school. Well, okay, all he clearly remembered her talking about, but to be fair his immediate memories of Rainbow Dash included a lot of swearing. “Oh man, congrats!”
“I’m only telling you so you understand somethin’.” She leaned towards him in a very Fin Fang Foom kind of way. “I’m getting even better at busting up jerks like you than I already was. HYUGH!”
She executed a near perfect Krav Maga kick, the cloud construct bursting into plumes that shot back for miles, some of them almost reaching Ponyville. She’d just restored an entire section of sky in seconds. Only one was left in front of her, and it had a horseshoe and lightning bolt impression stamped into it.
Johnny had been intimidated by the best of the best for almost a decade of super heroism now and had foolishly spurned women far more skilled in the art of vengeance than Rainbow. This helped, but also some cavepony instinct told him not making any sudden moves right now would be a good idea.
“You’re still in my airspace,” Dash muttered. It had been kinda better when she was refusing to look at him, but at least he had her attention now.
“I thought about writing but...” Johnny shrugged. “Well, figured you’d either burn it or worse, return it.” He smiled. “Man, remember that epic reverse letter bomb you pulled on, what was his name, Turnbuckle? With the…”
He pantomimed, because that thing had been a crime and he wasn’t going to use his flames to recreate it.
“The mohawk and the widows peak? Oh yeah, that was epic!” That grin was nice to see again. He’d moved on, but still. And she was taking the bait. “I had this griffon friend in freshman lag displacement, it’s where I got all the meat for…No, nope, not happening!”
“What’s not happening?” Johnny grinned. All he’d needed was a crack. Flames were good at finding holes in defences.
“We’re not bonding!” Rainbow Dash snapped. If she’d been on the ground or a cloud she could’ve stamped her hoof the way she really wanted to. “You blew all those good times away. If there even were any!”
“That’s what I wanted to talk about.” Johnny chanced drifting closer, altering his flames and temperature for better mood lighting and atmosphere. “Rainbow, we haven’t seen each other in years! You won Best Young Flier and I didn’t even know until I asked Soarin’ about it!”
“You always did take it for granted,” she muttered, folding her forelegs.
“What?”
“Flying!” He almost flinched at how high the indignation in her voice was. “The only reason you were even there was ‘cause somepony decided you need to re-certify your flight certificate every few years. And you’d missed the class the year before.”
“You know how it is when you’re saving Equestria!”
“Yeah, goin’ on three years now. Four next Summer Sun Celebration.” How did somepony this passionate manage to make her eyes glint that metallically? “This one guy still thinks we’re just rookies, though.”
...whoops.
“That guy sounds like he, ah, has a lot to make up for.”
“He could start by turning around and going back to Manehattan.” She jerked her head over her shoulder towards the mountains. “On the other hoof, Tartarus is over that-a-way. Leave now, there might be a good cell left by the time you get there.”
Johnny fought down the grin and the impulse to shoot back, even though that was a good one, and heaved a sigh.
“You’re right, Dannii--Whoa, whoa, whoa, put down the cloud!”
It was less the cloud, more the spikes of flash-frozen moisture she’d punched out of it and was taking aim with. Like a mace.
“Don’t. You. EVER. Call me that.”
He’d been gambling on the confidence entrusted pet name, derived from her full one, conjuring Fall/Spring memories of dorm rooms, the cloud campus, that thing with the sky pirates, and malt shops. He must’ve really blown it, but in his defence even back then it had never taken much to set off Mt. Rainbow.
“Iwassayingyou’reright!”
“…go on.” She let the cloud drift back into its orbit but didn’t take her hooves off the makeshift chain.
“Well, you are!” Johnny shrugged, knowing another sigh would break the illusion she was only marginally buying into now. “I could feed you a line about how I’ve changed, but please believe I was a different pony when you knew me. I was so wrapped up in trying to be my own pony, away from the team, that it never even occurred to me to ask you to come along.”
“You were condescending a lot, too,” Dash said, voice cold but warming to this Johnnycake-Is-Wrong topic.
“I was?” Oh, right. They’d been the fun, getaway-from-it-all dynamic duo of Cloudsdale campus, but the FF, he’d argued, had been seriously major league for a freshman flier. He’d meant major league dangerous but there was the distinct possibility he hadn’t actually phrased it that way? They’d been arguing a lot by this point. “I mean, yes, I was!”
“But not to Soarin’.” She was doing the foreleg folding thing now, which was promising. She wanted him to try harder, which meant she was drawing him in, which meant he could go with the flow.
And Peter said this stuff was complicated!
“Soarin’ was just kinda, y’know, around.” He began to slowly circle her as she half turned away, trying to make it look like he was trying to keep control and that she had all of it. Even though she was now having to work a little harder to pay attention to him. “We were roomies! Sue liked him! Like she liked you, remember?”
“I don’t remember you mentioning you went to college with a Wonderbolt all-star reserve.” She glared over her shoulder, unable to stop herself following him. “Woulda been a nice contact to have.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like you needed it!” Because game should respect game, he let a little actual admiration into the Whatever-Did-I-Do-To-Deserve-You? face. The one he used for the delusion of grandeur cases when he was stalling so Reed could free the hostages. “You’re a Wonderbolt cadet now and you didn’t even need flight school!”
“Yeah, and even if I wasn’t part of the sisterhood on Princess Celestia’s speed dial?” She waited until he was floating back in front of her so he could see her eyes. “I still wouldn’t need you.”
“And why would you?” He stopped circling because she’d been foolish enough to make actual eye contact. “We were so good together, y’know, as partners, and I never really let you spread those wings.”
Rainbow Dash demonstrated how much her prowess with her wings had increased since he’d last seen her by holding herself aloft with one and pointing the other’s wingtip at her mouth for Gag Me, complete with sound effects. It sounded distressingly more organic than it had on H.E.R.B.I.E.’s recording.
“Gag you may, Rainbow, gag you may! It’s not even a fraction of what I deserve!” Hanging your head in mid-air was hard if you didn’t mean it, so he tried to make his puppy dog eyes glow more. “I was a heel! A jerk! A veritable scoundrel!”
“Are you seriously tryin’ that three times for emphasis trick on me?”
“I’m trying to make amends!” Johnny clasped his hooves over his 4 logo, great heart substitute. “Look, we’ve always been on the same level and we’ve only gotten better with age. We’re part of the first line of defence and your friend is dating my Spider-Pony! Big stuff, little stuff, we’re gonna run into each other.”
“So obviously I should cut out the middle pony and just run you over, is what I’m hearing.” Dash smirked. How had it taken this long for the armed forces to notice her?
“No jury in the land would convict you! But just because we can’t be what we were doesn’t mean we can’t try to make something new!”
“Oh what, we’ll be our own lil’ spin-off?” Dash scoffed. “Flames and Feathers! Because of course the guy has to get top billing!”
“We don’t have to put labels on it,” Johnny assured, filing Flames and Feathers away for trademarking once he got back to the city, possibly a mini-series, studios loved those. “Although if we had to? I’d like to think of it as a new friendsh--”
“Do not finish that sentence,” Dash warned.
He felt a strange note in her voice knife through his epidermis and deep into his bones. A wine glass fragility to the air between them. Had sparks come out of her cutie mark or had the sun gotten in his eye?
She sighed through her nose, her wing beats slowing slightly. She suddenly looked like she’d been awake for all the years since the breakup. “Johnny, man…what’re you doing? We said what we said. Sorry isn’t nearly enough.”
“You don’t have to apologise,” Johnny insisted and felt his brain trying to roll over since it didn’t have its own eyes.
“I didn’t say I did!” Theeere was the Rainbow he’d been expecting, like she’d never left. Like somepony like her would ever want to look vulnerable.
“You just said it wasn’t enough if I did!” He quickly turned the protesting spread forelegs into a penitent hoof clasp. “…and you’re so right! But there must be something that comes close? A trip! An adventure! An all you can eat on my bit at A Lume di Candela, Cloudsdale’s best old-world restaurant!”
…actually he hoped she didn’t take him up on that, she had a nigh-Giganto appetite and he had to pay rent now.
“Pfft, that place?” Dash was trying not to laugh. “It’s been gone for years, you poser.”
“Wait, really? What happened?”
“Burned down.” She enjoyed that, he could tell. “Troppa luce di candela!”
“Huh.”
Johnny blinked as he tried to process, then felt the slot machine part of his brain click. Jackpot. The perfect opening.
He risked heaving another sigh, sparks trailing out with his breath and mournfully turned away like a depressed birthday balloon. “Guess that’s a sign then. Guess neither you nor the universe want this. Guess I’ll have to tell Grim and the gang to cancel the reservation…”
He hung his head this time because his back was to her and it helped him bob forward miserably, a flaming lost little puppy. Who could feel her starting to vibrate behind him. Wait for it, wait for it…
“Grim?” Dash’s voice said in his ear suddenly, over the rush of air that almost blew his flames out. “You mean Grim Skies? Captain Grim Skies? Saved The Dawn Treader Grim Skies? Pink heart for courage and compassion Grim Skies? Four consecutive buckball touchdowns Grim Skies?”
“Oh, you know Grim?” Johnny made sure the smirk was off his face when he turned to blink innocently at her.
“Did you not see the poster on my dorm wall?!” There was a strange squeal he didn’t remember ever hearing in her voice but that manic smile felt like the dental equivalent of a pair of favourite slippers. He remembered it from a few concerts and mostly A.I.M. brawls.
“Which one? You had like a million, and the lights were off most of the time.”
“The Grim Skies one, dummy!” She grabbed his shoulders, mercifully spared hospitalisation as he rapidly lowered his temperature. “The stallion for all seasons!”
“All seasons? Grim?” He shook his head. Right, right, Pegasus mare and, incredible as it seemed, the old crank had lived a whole other life before the Life Fantastic. “That is…not how I’d describe him.”
Sparks burst from his eyes as the grip on his shoulders tightened suddenly.
“But then,” Johnny wheezed through his constricting chest, “can mere words really do him justice?”
“A lot, but I’m too excited to say all of ‘em!” If they’d been on the ground, she’d be jumping up and down. “Are you for real? You can introduce me to Grim Skies?!”
“Sure, if you want!”
“Want,” Dash hissed through teeth clenched shut by fangirl grinning. It was worse than that time Annihilus had tried to swallow Johnny’s head.
“Well, there’s this thing on Saturday…” He looked her up and down as if inspecting an airship component and nodded. “You know what? Yes.”
“Yes what?” Dash whispered, pupils too tiny to allow suspicion in.
“Rainbow, not only am I going to introduce you to the Idol of Millions himself, I’m going to make up our entire career to you.” He let his right hoof glow more warmly as he placed it on her shoulder. “Daniella Sacharissa Rainbow. Will you do me the honour of taking my place on a Fantastic Family mission this weekend?”
He’d expected her to eye him with that Cloudsdale back-stratus-streets suspicion that she’d always displayed whenever spare change, other fillies, or forgotten birthdays had come up. Spinning him around by his forelegs while somehow also holding him close enough to fuse his ribs together not so much, although he was familiar with this part of her. But the noisecoming out of her mouth! Like Peter’s face sliding slowly down a window pane!
“OmigoshomigoshomigoshI’mgonnameetGrimSkiesI’mgonnameetGrimSkiesWe’regonnabebestfriendsomigosh--”
“Yes, you are!” Johnny winced, trying to keep smiling even if it felt like his one still open eye was about to be popped right out of his head. “Just show ‘em this tomorrow.”
He managed to produce the fire-proofed messenger tube, containing proper documentation and pass, with a magician’s flourish, despite the agonising pressure. And bonus, the fact she was a legit Wonderbolt (cadet) now meant she had her own paperwork that’d skate her past almost everything, including Sue’s glare.
She almost sliced his leg off snatching it, clutching it to her chest like Annihilus’s Cosmic Control Rod. “This doesn’t make up for everything.”
“Yeah?”
“But…” She stopped fighting her smile. “It’s a start.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” he smiled back, massaging his sides. She’d almost cracked his epidermis open like a lobster shell! “So, friends again?”
“No,” Dash said bluntly. “But maybe if the princess sends a scroll and you happen to be in the same airspace, I wouldn’t mind being paired up with you. Much.”
“As long as we don’t get stuck Spider-sitting.” He held out a hoof for a shake.
“Tell me about it.” She didn’t take it, instead clutching the tube even tighter. “And, y’know, if Mr. Grim isn’t too busy helpin’ the stretchy dude out, I could. Maybe. Sorta. Y’know.”
Her eyes darted back and forth.
“Become his official Elements/Fantastic team buddy.”
“You can ask him Saturday?” Johnny tried, sensing this might be the only way he got out of this conversation alive.
“Oh yeah!” Dash beamed, practically squeezing the tube open. “’Cause I’m gonna meet him!”
She hovered there for a beat, her whole body shaking almost faster than her wings then squealed again, looping around the startled Torch from so many different directions it was almost as if he was being attacked by the Planet of the Rainbows before shooting off in a crazed zigzag pattern back to Ponyville.
“I’m gonna meet Grim Skies! I’m gonna meet Grim Skies!” she chanted so hard Johnny was surprised the words weren’t following her in a receding cartoon trail. “I’mgonnameetGrimSkiesI’mgonnameetGrimSkies!”
Johnny waved after her as he floated back to earth, mostly so the echoes would fade away faster.
So that’s what somepony else having fangirls was like. Sweet Celestia. But it had been worth it. Rainbow Dash was off the board. His plan could begin.
After he relished things a little, of course.
Making sure nopony was around he reignited his top hat construct. “Hahahaha,” he said softly to nopony.
He began rubbing his hooves together, dancing flames becoming sharper. “Mwuhahaha!”
A flaming monocle burst into existence over his right eye as he threw back his head. “BWAHAHAH--”
“Excuse us!”
Johnny almost broke his neck whirling around. He’d been so focused on Rainbow he hadn’t paid attention to the landscape beneath and it turned out he was now floating only a few feet above one of the town’s main roads.
The orange Pegasus who’d called for his attention was at the handles of a well maintained scooter, her friends sharing space in the cart behind it with what he would’ve sworn was a sarcophagus.
“Um. Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah?” Johnny tried.
“Only you were sorta rubbin’ your hooves and laughin’,” the one with the bow said.
“Yeah?”
“Do you know you’re on fire?” the Unicorn with curls asked.
“Yeah?” He had to take control back somehow. He let his gaze drift back to the sarcophagus, prompting them to follow it. “What’s that for?”
“We’re not supposed to talk to strangers,” the Earth Pony said a little too quickly.
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” the Horseshoe Torch said diplomatically.
“What’s there to tell?” the Pegasus agreed, pawing the ground. “See ya, mister fire monster!”
“Stay in school!” Johnny called, waving after them.
“C’mon girls!” They took off down the nearby hill, hooves thrust to the sky for the group chant. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Archaeologists, Yay!”
“Where does Peter find these people?” Johnny stared after the dust cloud. He looked over his shoulder at the distant town. “Oh. Right.”
6
“So, how’s the new job?” Twilight asked as they trotted up a Midtown street.
“Should be asking you!” Peter nuzzled her. “Been a while since, uh--”
“Since Night Light rushed out to borrow a copy of Fantastic Beasts so he could make sure you weren’t an Everfree monster wearing the guise of a pony to lure Twi to her doom?” Spike asked, lagging behind and engrossed in a trade paperback.
“Thank you, Spike. Honestly though, can’t blame him.”
“I can.” Twilight scowled as Peter blinked at her. “Well, we were at lunch! It was rude! And he used my copy!”
“The library’s copy,” Spike said, a talon raised over the fold.
“…so he used Ponyville’s copy. We were at lunch! Thank gosh May showed up.”
“Your mother wasn’t being that bad, hon,” Peter lied.
It hadn’t been the honestly innocuous questions, it’d been Velvet's eyes. Watching everything he did. Assessing for weaknesses.
“Only because there were witnesses,” Twilight muttered, rearranging their levitated shopping bags. “I’m glad they bonded though! Our families should get on.”
“Aunt May said she’s meeting your mother for tea up in Canterlot next week, even!”
“Twilight knows!” Spike smirked. “Velvet put it in their new weekly letter, which I’m to make sure Twilight sends on time from now on.”
“We’ll talk about saving the world and boundaries in the next one,” Twilight muttered as Peter got the restaurant door for her. “And put that thing down, you’ll walk into something!”
“Look who’s talkin’,” Spike muttered, then flinched as he trod in something cold and purple that hadn’t been there before. “Yeek!”
“Oh, did I say walk into?” Twilight smirked over her shoulder now that the cover of Jack Staff wasn’t between them anymore, horn glow fading. “I meant step in.”
“Play nice, dear,” Peter said, holding her chair out for her because Aunt May instilled habits died hard, and also, yeah, they both loved it.
“Represent, bro.” Spike hopped up onto his own as Peter took his.
“No, I just meant that’s an omnibus edition. We should treat it with respect.” Peter craned over as the dragon spread two almost Pegasus wing sized pages. “Ooh, see, this is what I was telling you about, isn’t that the best spread?”
“Yes, a Caesar salad burger, easy on the tofu, and a diet hay-shake, please,” Twilight told their waitress. “Oh, and two sunny meals for the children.”
“Sweet potato steak, side of hay-fries and onion rings, glass of mango juice, please,” Peter said and smirked at her. Twilight, not the waitress, that would’ve been creepy. “Spike?”
The drake unenthusiastically poked his head over the omnibus. “Uh, you guys do fish?”
“Yes sir, if you’d like,” the waitress said kindly, “but it’s just one of the options on our dragon menu.”
Peter winked at Twilight. He’d told her about this option when they’d been looking for something to keep the kid occupied in Midtown Comics and it was worth the wait. Spike blinked, looking around the room to realise there were dragons, just…sitting there. A lot of mixed species tables, actually.
“Spike?” Twilight smiled.
“Uh, r-right!” Spike looked around, unable to keep the smile off his face or put his oversized paperback down so Peter mercifully nosed his own menu over. “Uh, uh, does the ruby special come with, y’know, actual…?”
“Oh, afraid not, sir! We keep meaning to change the name. Sanitary concerns, y’see. It’s the geology around here.”
“Then two double baconators, extra cheese and bacon, please!” Spike grinned as the two (relative) adults fought to keep their faces from turning green. Twilight glanced at her menu and went a little white at the price, though.
“He’ll have a Sunflower soda. Um, a small one.”
“We could hit Dragon Town again?” Peter offered as Spike kept glancing between the dragoness in the business suit on the left and the dragon family on the right. “Y’know, out of costume and when whatshername with the hat hasn’t been conned into opening a doorway to the Dark Dimension through fireworks of dubious origin.”
“You guys’ll have work, but thanks,” Spike smiled, fins colouring as he went back to Jack Staff. The dragoness about his own age at the family table had been looking back at him.
“There’s always another time,” Twilight tried. “And that antique store we managed to banish the Mindless Ones back through had some good looking pieces!”
“Sure,” Spike smiled genuinely this time as the waitress brought their drinks. “And hey, they won’t have a festival every night, right?”
“Y’know, as much as that was so typical of Trixie, you really do have to admire the mastery of pyromagikinetics and gravithuamic geometry it took to pull that off.” Twilight put her hoof on Peter’s. “Ooh, listen, are you free this weekend? Rarity was angling to use our portal, and I thought, well…”
She shrugged, wings moving more easily with her shoulders than they had the last time they’d seen each other.
“I might be working,” Peter said, ears flattening. “Uh, like, actually working not, y’know, the business. If not for the Plunder Seeds they wouldn’t even put me on a site this early. Paperwork to make up. Sorry.”
“It’s alright,” Twilight smiled reassuringly, giving his hoof a squeeze. “She says she’s coming up for business and pleasure, and I’m not sure I want to be involved in that either.”
“I could--” Spike began.
“No you couldn’t.”
“Uh, could leave her a key?” Peter suggested. “Y’know, let her get in and out. Or! You guys could stay over!”
“Oh! That would be fun!” Twilight’s smile wavered slightly as she looked at Spike. She could send him home through the line, but what’d be her excuse? “Would, uh, would your roommate mind?”
“Pfft, Johnny?” Peter struggled not to squeeze her hoof into putty from the suppressed laughter. He was honestly surprised one of his web-shooters hadn’t gone off.
“Who’s Johnny?” Spike said suspiciously.
“Now there’s an idea!” Twilight’s wings fluttered slightly in excitement. “Maybe he could, what’s his thing, flame on and cover for you?”
“No.” Peter tried to smile but it felt like stirring molasses. “Johnny’s responsibilities aren’t mine. I can’t just pawn them off on him.”
“You use that word an awful lot, man.”
“Spike,” Twilight warned gently.
“No, I just mean…! It’s like you’ve gotta quota to fill or something.”
Not wrong, Peter thought, it’s just that I never will.
A thousand lives. A million. They’d never balance. Not when there’d always be that unforgivable one.
“Sorry to bring down the mood,” he sighed.
“You’re not!” Twilight assured. “Look, we knew there’d be difficulties on both sides when we went into this. But we knew what we wanted.”
“And I’ve wanted to be there,” Peter smiled. “But before the Carrot and Stick--”
“That place is going to haunt me forever, isn’t it?” Twilight fumed. “Maybe I should tell the princess it’s actually haunted. Well, occupied by outside entities, hauntings aren’t--no, Spike, hauntings are not real. Banish it to the Phantom Pasture is my point.”
“Is this about the prep week?” Spike asked Peter. “’Cause you know you only missed a fake murder mystery, right?”
“A what,” Peter said flatly, as if a brick wall had decided to cut out the middle man and just get in the car with him.
“Pinkie and Rarity convinced themselves the staff were out to get me.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “They were my old classmates and teachers in disguise! They were acting all weird because they wanted to throw a little surprise party for me. Mind you, Mrs. Final Act did always have a thing for steepling her hooves and chuckling in the shade.”
“The point is,” Peter tried again, thankful the table was isolated enough that other diners didn’t turn around at the emphasis, “that it’s been a while since I’ve seen you. And I’m sorry we might have to lose this weekend too.”
“We both have responsibilities.”
“I know, but all that time with the new job…you and Spike had to do that mirror universe thing all alone!”
“I had to anyway! It was my Element, Peter!” She glanced at her wings. “And it…helped. In its own way. I know Spider-Pony will always be just as big a part of your life. I’ve accepted it.”
“And that’s why I don’t deserve you.” It was so much easier to smile this time.
Before they could smooch and wipe the whole thing away, there was a scraping sound. Twilight blinked to suddenly find the space behind her filled with another table, ponies and griffins practically clambering over it to stare at her.
“Load Bearer?” Peter blinked. “I mean, uh, Load Bearer! Guys. This is Twilight and Spike.”
“Oh, your work friends?” Twilight face lit up with delight as she turned around to shake Load Bearer’s hoof. “So nice to meet you! I’ve wanted to do a study on friendship in the work place for forever!”
“Nice to meet you too, your, uh…” Load Barer glanced between her, Peter and Spike.
“Oh, just Twilight. We’re all off duty, right? Where are those legendary Canterlot manners? Sit down, sit down!”
She used magic to better organise the tables, Peter sharing a smirk with her as he noted the telekinetic dance allowed them to sit closer together, while safely depositing everyone else in positions that would let them see Twilight but have to go one at a time to ask questions.
“So,” Twilight beamed. “Damage Control. Can I just say what you do is inspiring? So many species working together!”
“We like to keep it tight,” Load Bearer smiled, buoyed by the enthusiasm, which Peter half suspected was Twilight’s method of getting around her still fresh title. “Right, Pete?”
“We’ll always have our mutual fear and loathing of Anne at least.”
Twilight and Spike blinked as the entire company, Peter included, shuddered in nigh-Wendigo dread. “Anne?” they asked in unison.
“Aniseed,” Pathfinder, the crew’s griffon excavator explained, trying not to claw her menu in half from trepidation. “She works on the 21st floor. They’re all nuts up there. We think it’s the high altitude. But Anne...!”
“Wait,” Spike frowned, “Ms. Grace’s assistant? Yeah, she’s pure evil!”
“Spike!” Twilight scolded.
“What? We’ve been face to face with nightmares and ghost kings!”
“No, that filly is absolutely evil, it’s just the word choice. Implications of the word pure aside, evil, by definition, cannot be pure.”
“Love it when she does this,” Peter leaned over to whisper to Load Bearer.
“I heard that, buster.” Twilight smiled at Load Bearer. “I hope it’s okay we sort of attached ourselves to your work today…Bleecker street, right?”
“Yeah, Ms. Grace said. It’s fine! If this water idea works, think you could help clear out a few other places? Hate to ask, but we’ve been hauling these things out for weeks. It’ll be good to finally start fixing the city!”
“No problem, as long as it takes,” Twilight agreed. “If I pace myself, I could probably help you guys clean out the whole Village. Between you and me, I’m just trying to nab a free invitation to the Sanctum Santorum.”
The tables laughed and Peter felt the easing of a weight he hadn’t realised he’d been gathering. This wasn’t going to be so bad. He liked the new job, he really did. Helping without the mask, and with Twilight along, if just for today? That was fair compensation for a lost weekend.
The conversation flowed from what Controlling Damage actually entailed to the Mets' chances to Spike’s own adventures to what Sapphire Shores was wearing this month to poor Honey Tea and Ice Crystals. It was like sinking into warm water, like when he and the gang had carved out their own little niche in the Coffee Bean back in the day.
Which was why it took him a while to notice the reflection of a camera flash in Spike’s fork.
“Dude!” Spike yelped as Peter sprang from his chair and bounded to the door, part rottweiler, part enraged komdodragon.
“Pete?!” he heard Load Barer, pretty sure it was only audible over the pounding in his ears because she’d spent years yelling over construction equipment.
The air of the city slowed him down a little, making him take stock. Manehattan was that kinda town so pedestrians only gave him a once over before going about their business. Crowded. Alleyway a few blocks up. But a subway kiosk right across the street. Nuts.
He blinked, turning to see Twilight’s startled face, frozen in half turning to follow him and gave her a weak grin. “Uh,” he called, not even sure she could hear him, “thought I saw somepony I know!”
And if it’s who I think it is, his inner spider hissed, I’m gonna go WAY further than just webbing the old hack to his office chair!
To be Continued