//------------------------------// // Momentum // Story: New Perspective // by Arbiter Balemead //------------------------------// "S-so... you want to... go on a date with him?" "It's for him, not me. I told him it'd just be as friends." I felt my lip quiver for a second, and swiftly stopped it, trying not to let Rainbow notice. Her face fell a little bit. "Fluttershy? You can say no, you know." "N-no, It's fine. You can go. I-I'm okay with it." "I don't think I should... You don't look too happy about this." "W-well... What exactly would you be doing?" "I think it'll just be dinner." I guess I didn't look very sure about this because she kept going. "And it's just as friends. He knows that, I know that, and you know that.... He's really a sweet colt. He reminds me of you, which is why I'll be thinking about you the whole time." I felt myself blush as she said that. She nudged me gently with an elbow. "I-it's fine. Go ahead." I said, a little more earnestly this time. "Thanks, Flutters." She said before kissing me on the cheek again. I felt me cheeks heating up again. "Rainbow?" "Yeah?" "C-can I uhm..." What am I doing? I shouldn't ask her this. "Can I ..." "What is it, Shy?" "I-I uhm... N-nevermind..." "Come on. What is it?" Rainbow asked with a smile. "I was just wondering i-if it would be okay if I-I...." I quieted down against my will. "K-kissed you... b-back..." "Wh-what do you mean?" She asked, her smile fading slowly. "L-like uhm... like this." I said, quickly leaning over and pecking her on the lips. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Woah. I didn't see that coming. It made me feel all warm and... gooie on the inside as her lips brushed on mine. I felt my wings begin to straighten so I flapped them a few times to keep them from stiffening. "I-I don't think I'll mind if you do that." I responded quietly. I sat there a moment, simply staring at her as she hid behind her mane. I don't know how long it took, but after a moment I finally remembered that Blaze was waiting for an answer. "R-right. I need to go. Blaze is waiting." "O-okay." I walked out the door, taking a few deep breaths in hopes of relieving the heat in my cheeks. It seemed to work, so I went downstairs to meet Blaze. I found him standing just outside the building like I'd asked him to. "What did he say?" Blaze asked hopefully. "They said yes." I answered, avoiding gender words for now. "Grea- erm- *ahem* Okay." He half cheered, half cowed away at the news. "Okay... so time and place?" "Uhm... next Friday?" "Sure." "Uhm... How about a movie?" "I don't see why not. Okay, is that it?" "Eh- yeah, I think so." "Alright. See you Friday." I said with a polite smile. "Yeah... Yeah!" He beamed from ear to ear as he lifted off and flew away in glee. "*sigh* This isn't gonna end well." The next day was nerve wracking. I finished first and second hours without much of a problem. But the real Tartarus was wondering when Flash would say something as I sat in Third hour. He waltzed in like he owned the place, spotted me and his empty desk next to mine, and strode over like some kind of big shot. He sat down in his chair, glancing my way with a wink, to which I replied with a disgusted face. He sat there, looking around the room with a cocky attitude that really began to get on my nerves. After half the class he finally decided to say something. "So how are things with Klutzershy?" He asked, grinning at me. "Fine. Great, in fact." "I wonder.... nah." He said in a mock-thoughtful voice. I didn't say anything, but simply quirked an eyebrow at him. He gave me a wicked smile. "I wonder what would happen if our peers found out about the two of you...." He said smugly. "I don't much care." I said, glaring at him. "We'll see about that." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh no... Rainbow doesn't look too happy right now. I sat next to her at the lunch table, sitting a tiny bit closer than I normally would. "A-are you okay, Rainbow?" "Scoot a little closer, please." What? Why? I obliged, scooting until our flanks were almost touching, then she gave me a kiss on the cheek and went back to eating. "Wh-wha-" "Flash is gonna start spreading rumors. Might as well beat him to it and confirm them now, right?" She asked, giving me her signature brash grin. I smiled politely back at her, although I was still a little confused. A tray suddenly hit the table in front of us, causing us both to jerk our heads to look. "You lovebirds having fun?" Gilda asked. "Heh, sure are, Gilda." Rainbow replied. "Well don't let me stop you. Have fun. Go ahead. I won't be a bother." "Shut up." Rainbow chuckled lightly as she bowed her head in embarrassment, while I pulled my mane in front of my face to hide my blush. "Okay, fine, don't kiss. Whatever." Gilda joked at us. "Oh, leave them alone, Gilda." I heard Quick Silver say. I looked up to see him sitting across from me. Gilda and I stared at him for a second before I noticed that Rainbow didn't even look up from her tray as he said something. She finally looked up after a moment of silence, obviously curious. "Was Thursday a one time deal?" Silver asked. "I don't know, was it?" Rainbow asked, glancing between me and Gilda confusedly. "N-no." I answered while Gilda just shrugged. "Guess it wasn't." Rainbow shrugged at Silver and went back to eating. We dropped into an awkward silence as I nitpicked at my food, and Gilda didn't even eat. Silver ate his food slowly, but he at least ate more than I did. "So, how did it go with that note, Rainbow?" Silver asked. "I never got to write back. Get this, the writer showed up on my doorstep." Rainbow replied. "What? No way!" "Wait... what?" Gilda interjected. "Didn't I tell you about this?" Rainbow asked. "Uhmmm.....maybe? I was probably asleep. You know Sundays are my hibernation days." Gilda answered, rolling her eyes. "Right... Yeah, I got a letter and the writer showed up. I guess his buddy wanted to mess with him, and he showed up....wait... Did you sleep all day?" "Yeah." "So you slept through my chat with him?" "Most likely." Gilda shrugged, taking a bite of her food. Rainbow facehoofed for a second, eliciting a giggle from me, the continued with what she was saying. "So, anyway, he seemed like a nice colt, so I told him I'd let him take me out to a movie this Friday." Silver quirked an eyebrow at me. "And you're okay with this?" "Y-yes." He eyed me for a moment, maybe thinking that I was lying. I'm pretty sure I wasn't, but he didn't seem as confident. "Well, okay then." He said after a moment. Rainbow wrapped a wing around me and pulled me closer. "I promise I won't let him touch me, okay Shy?" She said in an only half-joking tone. "O-okay." I replied, feeling my cheeks heat at the thought. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I stepped out of my seventh hour to use the filly's room, and when I got back I sat down and opened my notebook to the page I'd left it on. What I saw made my eye twitch and my nostrils flare. It was a crudely drawn, crayon image of me and Fluttershy. Two, actually. The first was of us making out, and the second.... I don't wanna talk about the second. Across the top of the paper the word 'Fillyfooler' was scrawled in horrible hoofwriting. I felt my wings beginning to straighten in anger, so I flapped them a few times to keep the blood flowing and stop them from showcasing my feelings. I heard some kids snickering, but when I looked up all but one had stopped smiling. Some kids looked upset, worried or even angry at the other kids. Of course, that was like a three to one against them type thing. Apparently, the teacher, Mrs. Paria, had noticed the snickering, because she looked up and asked, "What's so funny?" suspiciously. "N-nothing." The one who was smiling answered right away. Mrs. Paria eyed him for a second, tilting her head forward to look over her glasses at him. The kid was obviously bad at poker, 'cause he glanced right at me, then back to the teacher. She switched her gaze to me as I was closing my notebook quickly. Guess I don't have room to talk about being a bad poker player... "Rainbow, may I see what's in your notebook?" She asked. "I'd rather you didn't." "Let me say what I meant the first time: Rainbow, show me your notebook." The class was dead silent as I grabbed it with a wing and brought it over to her. I opened it to the... intimate pictures and let her see. Now she had a good poker face. She looked the page over for a moment, then looked up and took her glasses off. "Do you know who drew this?" She asked me quietly. I shook my head. "Please sit back down, Miss Rainbow." "O-okay." I obliged, sitting back at my desk quietly. The teacher was quiet for a moment, then stood up and brought the notebook over to the chalk board, propping it up so the class could see. Then she walked over and closed the door. She took a deep breath then looked up, scanning the class with her eyes. "This kind of thing..." She gestured to the notebook. I could feel my cheeks getting hotter the longer that thing was up there. "...is bull crap." My eyes widened as I decided that I knew who my favorite teacher was gonna be. At the end of class two colts and a filly had been sent to the principals office with a note for punishment. I really didn't want any of this to happen, but then again, I didn't want to see that kind of thing scribbled in my own notebook. Mrs. Paria held me after to ask if I was okay and if the note had offended me. I kinda felt like it might be a good idea to enlighten her a tad since she gave me the feeling that she was the only pony in that room that didn't know about me and Fluttershy. I have to admire the way she just rolled with the punches there. It's not every day one of your students tells you the note you thought was just an insulting joke was actually right, but she went with it. She gave me the whole 'things will be hard, but don't let those kids get to you and blah blah blah...' speech and then let me go. I met up with the other three on the way out. I'm a little surprised at how quickly Silver adjusted to being friends with us. Okay, maybe just me. He seems to be on rocky terms with Gilda (still wondering why she visited his room), and Fluttershy just seems to trust him, but... not trust him at the same time... It's weird. "Sup, dude." Gilda greeted. "Hey, G." I said as I landed by Fluttershy. I wrapped a wing around her as we walked back towards the dorms. We were all pretty quiet for a while as we walked. A shadow passed over us suddenly and I looked up, quickly pulling my wing away from Shy as I turned to look at who was landing behind us. "H-hey, Rainbow... C-can we talk?" It was Blaze, thank Celestia, not one of the random 'Flash-cronies'. I looked over at Fluttershy, who was standing next to me. She shrugged, so I gave Blaze a cautious smile. "Sure..." I answered, following him away from the other three. When I glanced over my shoulder Fluttershy was patiently sitting on one of the benches around the school while Silver and Gilda were still making their way to the dorms. We got to a table and sat down. "What's up?" I asked. "Well.... I've been hearing... things today... about you and Fluttershy." He glanced at her, then back to me. "And considering your wing being around her and her being the only one waiting on you..." He trailed off. I glanced over at Fluttershy. With the way she was sitting there so patiently, and I was over here talking to a colt... I felt guilty and.... disloyal. I've always valued friendship above other things because it was something that I always had so little of, and what me and Fluttershy have now is so much more valuable... I really shouldn't be treating it like some kind of flimsy, rusty, old thing. I shouldn't be going to a movie with a colt, when I have Fluttershy sitting there like a faithful dog... I can't do this. "*sigh* Yeah... I need to tell you something, Blaze...." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They talked for a few more minutes, then finally came back over, Blaze looking a little more nervous. "Fluttershy, would you like to go to the movie with us this Friday?" Rainbow asked me. "U-uhm..." I blinked at her, a little surprised. "Y-yes?" "Great! Okay, Blaze, you wanna hang with us or..?" She asked, turning to the bronze colt. "N-no. I think I'll go hang out with my friends." He said, smiling at me kindly. This confused me a tiny bit, seeing as I have no idea why the colt who has a crush on Rainbow would like me. "Oh, okay. See ya later, Blaze." Rainbow replied. He flew off and she turned back to me. "So, what now?" She asked with a smile. I smiled back, momentarily forgetting my confusion. "I don't know; just fly some more?" "Will this end up as another game of tag?" She asked, her smile turning into a sly grin. "Maybe?" We got back to the dorms late after a multi-hour long game of tag. We were still giggling and chuckling lightly when we got back to my room. As we stood at the door laughing together I turned to face Rainbow. I looked her in the eye, and when she looked back at me, I couldn't look away. She didn't seem to want to look away, either. As we stood there, our eyes locked and no longer laughing, my heart began to race. My mind began to fuzz up and blur as it neared blanking on me. The only coherent thought that came to mind was if I leaned in, I wouldn't even have to take a step to kiss her. My heart raced even harder. She began to lean towards me and my mind switched to one thought: Lean in, too! So I did. Our lips met and fireworks went off in my head. They stayed together for a few seconds before I felt something push against my tightly shut lips. After a moment I realized it was Rainbow's tongue trying to play with mine. I pulled back with a gasp, trying both to get some air and a second or two to think. "I-it's too soon, isn't it?" I said, hoping she knew what I meant. "I-is it?" She asked, and I swear she almost looked shy. I mean, she looked like she was worried I was mad at her. I felt like I was looking in a mirror for a second, but I didn't think about it much, because another thought overlapped it. Is it? I thought for a brief second and came to a near instant decision: No. I practically dove at her, our lips meeting again and eliciting a tingling warmth all through my body. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ She surprised me for a second, but I quickly returned the favor. This time, though, it was her that initiated the tongue, and who am I to deny her that? We stayed that way, playing with each others tongues for a few seconds, and the passion began to grow until Fluttershy pulled away, both of us gasping for air. "W-we should s-stop b-before we go too far." She said, her pupils tiny. "Wha- oh! Y-yeah..." I took a step back. "R-right." We stood there awkwardly, neither of us wanting to initiate something that dangerous, but not knowing what else to do. Or I at least I didn't... "S-so uhm... I-I'll see you later?" She asked after a moment. "Y-yeah." I answered, giving what felt like the weakest smile I've ever given. "O-okay, so I'll just... go write or something." "Right. And I'll go- uhm... hang with G, I guess." "Okay..." "Yeah..." Another awkward pause. Suddenly, she gave me a peck on the cheek, then opened her door and stepped inside quickly, closing it quickly but gently behind her. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, and the heat in my cheeks that I hadn't noticed began to fade ever so slowly. "Wow..." I murmured to the floor. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Wow..." I whispered in the mirror.