//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: Dash and Learn 
// Story: Super Pony Roomies 
// by TheManehattanite 
//------------------------------//


1


“You coming?” Spider-Pony asked one week later. 

“Mmm?” Johnnycake didn’t look up from his copy of Under the Sun.

“Ponyville,” Spidey clarified, flipping off his perch on the windowsill. “The Elements’ll be back this evening, Shrui’ll be heading home. Gonna be a little party, Princess Celestia might even swing by! Wanna come?”

“Will we be using your little love connection?” Johnny raised an eyebrow over the brim of UtS’s Sapphire Shores vs Countess Coloratura cover. It was purely to give the impression he wasn’t banking on it, drawing on the reunited couple’s slight apprehension about jumping into a hole in space created by love. 

Although it was also because Peter felt okay walking on his bed, with his hoof boots that’d been all over every roof in Manehattan, pigeon capital of Equestria.

On the plus side, it meant the guy had lightened up since they’d bought the place, now okay with entering it in broad daylight if it was through Johnny’s room since, hey, why would it be weird if Spider-Pony checked in on that other superpony he was always hanging out with? On the other hoof, boundaries.

“Sure, since you’re banned from flying any of the Family’s fancy jets off the clock.” Spidey padded out into the living room. “Any mail?” 

“Uh, flyer for that new place on the corner, usual absence of your fan mail,” Johnny smirked, closing his magazine, “and some student loan stuff. Left it on the coffee table for ya.” 

“The ribbons are a nice touch,” Peter called from his own room. 

“They were on sale.” Johnny limbered up, popping his neck. “Dress code?” 

“Last time I wore a suit around Twilight it…well, guess it didn’t go bad, but no.” Peter emerged from his room and used his teeth to deposit his saddle bag on the couch. “Gonna take a quick shower, mind heating up those care packages Aunt May sent? Dunno where I stand with Spike.” 

“You haven’t talked to him?” Johnny quirked a brow but began rummaging. May Reilly made the best pony potluck stuff. She lived off residuals from a few cookbooks, even. Sue swore by them. 

“Told Twilight I’d back off, so.” Peter gave his teeth a quick brush, using the mirror to check Johnny was indeed using a glowing hoof to weave warmth into the peace offerings. Flame Brain had removed the tin foil, which briefly annoyed him, but the apartment soon filled with the smell of roast potatoes and he got over it. 

“Cool,” Johnny said with rare tact, immediately followed by another smirk. “Want me to quick dry you too?” 

He flamed on, laughing as a retaliatory web-ball disintegrated seconds from his mouth. 

“You coming or not?” Peter called over the water. 

“Eh, I owe Rarity a visit.” 

“…you didn’t? All week?” 

“Portal runs on you, and you were giving Twilight her much needed space.” Johnny shrugged, flaming off to keep up the nonchalance. “Besides, playing chicken with nobility’s fun and all but I’ve seen the kinda crazies who knowingly take the Panther on. Don’t got the fashion sense for it.” 

“Well at least you got Spike something nice,” Peter smirked, stepping out wrapped in a towel. He made a show of sniffing as Johnny squinted. “What, you can’t smell that? Roast chicken!” 

He shuddered as a series of thermal bursts lashed at him, his mane thickening into a Super Sayian mohawk. 


2


Owloysius blinked as the library floor unzipped itself. “Hoo!”

“Nu-uh,” Spike said as he folded his arms, shaking his head firmly. “Not my problem you can’t be bothered to remember the guest list.” He turned and saw who it was. “Oh. Hey, Pete.” 

“Spike,” Peter half-winced. “Ah, hey. Didn’t think anypony’d be around.”

“So you were just gonna…be alone in my house?” 

“Sounds pretty bad when you put it that way, yeah.”

“Like you put it any other way,” Johnnycake said, casually skipping out after his roommate. Peter shuffled out of his way, trying to keep Aunt May’s care packages carefully balanced on his back, and winced as the smaller box under Johnny’s own foreleg brushed his ribs. “Listen Spike, I know Pete’s already dropping a lot in your lap just by being here--”

“It’s cool, actually.” Spike scratched his fins as both 24-year olds blinked at him. “Twilight and Crystal swung by to grab some stuff. She said you guys weren’t fighting anymore and you were backing off, so…”

“So does that mean we’re cool?” Peter hazarded. 

Spike shrugged. “Figured you were here to talk it over.” 

“I meant you and me.”

“Oh,” the dragon blinked. “Well…you backed off, so yeah.” 

“Gonna need some convincing,” Peter smiled, holding out for a hoof bump the dragon returned. “Still want help setting up that O ‘n’ O campaign?” 

“Really?” Spike’s eyes widened. “Sweet, could use a good proof reader, y’know how Big Mac likes to go on, and it’s like, dude, just pack the thing off to Quill Force Eight or somepony, but he’s so worried about going mainstream or whatever, but that Apple pride means he won’t just use a pen name, and it’s like what?”

“Next item on our agenda!” Johnny cut in, trying not to snap. “Is Rarity around?”

“Uh, she and Shuri’re packing for when her brother shows up, yeah.” Spike tried to keep his expression neutral as suspicion dawned. “Why?”

“Lookit us,” Johnny smarmed, “a regular case of journalism 101! I wanna talk to her.”

“Oh yeah?” Peter raised an eyebrow, his eyes themselves flicking to the package. 

“Yeah, so I don’t have to talk to Shuri, and that way T’Challa--”

“Hoo.”

“The Panther Prince, not that it’s any of your business, anyway, so he doesn’t see me talking to Shuri and we don’t have to spend the rest of our lives in a cave in the Frozen North, making a living off my hair styling skills and your creepy web-origami dolls.”

“You said you liked those,” Peter pouted. 

“No, I just laughed,” Johnny clarified, trotting towards the door. 

Peter’s eyes narrowed. “What’s in the box?” 

“My contribution to tonight’s buffet!” 

“Pretty upscale for a potluck.” 

Spike looked uncertainly between them. 

“Pete,” Johnny breezed, swinging the library door open, “buddy, I love ya, but your idea of upscale is an IKEA box that has ‘this way up’ arrows in Swedish.” 

“Tell me you’re not going where I think you’re going.” 

“What, somewhere secluded to make a dramatic entrance?” Johnny flamed on, one foreleg unlit to protect the box. 

“I can take that--” Spike began. 

“That’s cool, but no.” The Torch pointed at Peter, pouting a blazing lip. “No desserts for him.”

“What’d I do?!” Peter protested. 

“Roast chicken,” Johnny smirked, “and I trust you to explain that reference to young Spike more than I trust you to keep your muzzle out of my hard won pastries now that I’ve made them forbidden fruit!” 

“…I would enjoy the endorphin rush more than the taste,” Peter admitted. He sighed. “Okay, y’know what, on your head be it.” 

“Thanks, pal,” the Torch said and winked. 

Spike blinked. “Be what?”

“All’s fair in love and war, kid.” The Torch took off, arcing over Ponyville and startling a few sunset stragglers with the presence of a low shooting star. 

Peter Trotter simply shook his head and began to carefully slide Aunt May’s leftovers onto Spike’s buffet table. 


3


Luna had raised the moon by the time Johnny turned back. He smiled to himself, imagining how cool the visuals of his blazing self against the shifting sky shades would look. Even with a box of Rarity’s favourite desserts under an unlit foreleg and some of her favourite flowers, freshly picked, in his unlit mouth. 

Taking time out to find them had paid off on multiple levels. Flying out of town kept them from bumping into each other (and Shuri, because that Panther threat was still pretty real), searching for them gave him even more time for a dramatic entrance, full moon would be perfect for presenting them, and the surprise would crank the party up as it was staring to wind down. 

Maybe he should hang back some, draw that angle out? It’d give him some time to put what he felt into words. Rarity liked prepared statements that sounded spontaneous. Of course she did, she was her own marketing department. An entrepreneur! There was a good opening! And she wasn’t making that much money yet, so it wouldn’t come off as gold digging! 

Rarity, Johnny thought. Rarity…okay…Rarity, you’re…just fantastic. 

And I know what that sounds like, but to be fantastic means to be something…something unexpected. Something that you can’t look away from, can never forget! I’ve been at this for forever and I’ve never met anypony quite like you. 

He smiled. No, I mean it. I know Fantastic, I know Family, thought I had a pretty good grasp on friends…and then I met you. And it’s never felt right that you and I could only…

You’re all about friendship…

Friendship, friendship, friendship…

Agh, wanna get OFF friendship! That’s the whole point! 

So a funny thing happened to me on the way to Attilan! Nope! Who in their right mind starts with their ex? 

You’re just the best friend I’ve ever had, okay? And I think that’s because we’re not. Not just friends. I don’t think that’s enough. 

Crystal’s right. We all need options. We all need new. To know what we even want. 

And I don’t just want to be friends with the most amazing pony I’ve ever met. How am I supposed to go back that? I already tried going back to the one certainty I’ve ever had in my life that wasn’t being on fire! And we both know why it didn’t work out. 

Crystal’s a lot of things, Rarity. And I’ll always love her. But she’s not you. And if you’ll just hear me out, I think...I KNOW the two of us, we could…

Sun and Moon, that’s it…

We could be timeless. 

…is that the Aurora Borealis?

It was coming up fast, whatever it was. Like…fast! 


***


Johnny put more oomph into his contrail, banking a hard left and trying not to damage Rarity’s flowers with his acceleration. The serpent of colour curved effortlessly around some clouds to lock back onto him. 

Johnny twisted, heading for the ground and a dense maze of trees. He’d need to slow to avoid starting a forest fire, but moonlight showed him enough of a path from above that he could instinctively navigate once he was level. If this was a machine it’d have trouble following him. Techno-magic flight wasn’t quite there yet, lacking the intuitiveness of a real flyer.

He braked sharply, stunned as his pursuer effortlessly passed him and swung themselves around and up, coming dead on at him again. If this was a Pegasus, they must’ve contorted themselves in seconds to avoid a crash landing. And to swing themselves back on his track like that…! 

He looped, thickening his contrail to give them something to think about and buy himself even more space. He wasn’t nervous at the prospect of a potential dogfight, no matter how fluid this thing was, but he’d never had to carry cargo this precious before. It was taking a lot of concentration not to seal his epidermis, and burn Rarity’s gifts to cinders, as was. 

He darted between two clouds, but it was already arcing up to meet him. He dived and rocketed towards the middle of it’s already fading contrail, passing through sheeting colours. He zig-zagged to buy time, since trying to outpace something this fast on a straight flightpath was a socks with sandals tier idea. Maybe he could throw up some flame constructs to act as roadblocks? But his hooves and mouth were full, and whatever it was might be explosive. 

Rarity deserved better than charred presents. She’d be understanding, though. She was great like that. 

A rainbow corkscrew swirled around him suddenly, overtaking him and pinballing off nearby clouds. Johnny braked hard as they squirted water, turning the air in front of him into an extinguishing maze. He swung his hind legs up and used them to blast off backwards, spotting the blur already lancing under him at a few stories, looping back up to meet him. 

Alright then. Not time to flare or fire off a decoy. Chicken it was. 

Johnny smirked, channelling even more heat into speed, tucking his one lit foreleg against his chest to minimise drag. He began letting his shoulders tip him to the right for the swerve, then realised that’d put the underside of Rarity’s candy a hairsbreadth from shearing past this thing, and adjusted to the left. 

He could see the distant lights of Ponyville behind his wannabe nemesis, all he’d have to do was barrel roll past and kick it into overdrive, back to where he could make a stand. Distance between him and the multicoloured menace was evaporating. 

The…multi…coloured…

Johnny blinked and jack-knifed, hind legs scrabbling on nothing as he tried to brake. His opponent swung herself around identically. Was she seriously trying to prove a point right now?! No, she was—

Her wings lashed, simultaneously spinning her and putting out a wall of air. Johnny bit down, almost through Rarity’s flowers, as it crashed into his side, completely killing his forward momentum. He watched as she tumbled away from him, using her last rotation to drive her hind hooves into a cloud and bounce herself back up to eye level. 

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash muttered, “figures you couldn’t even crash into me properly.” 


***


“R’nb’gh’ D’gh?!”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full!” Her hoof slashed out and Johnny’s mouth fell open both from surprise and the intrusive feeling of Rarity’s flowers sliding between his teeth. 

Dash gave them a sniff. “Her favourites. That figures too.” 

The Torch glowered. “Give those back.”  

“And candy too, huh?” She was craning her neck to take in the box still under his foreleg, folding both her own while still keeping a grip on the bouquet. “I remember that. Of course, back then you didn’t know my favourites, so your little touch was buckball tickets. Still got ‘em somewhere.” 

“I’m real happy for you.” Johnny held out a hoof. It had reignited from annoyance, but it was the principle. “Give.” 

“Threw out most of the photos,” Dash continued casually. 

“Dannii, for Celestia’s sake!” 

“Don’t call me that!” Her wings bristled. Johnny was too irritated to take any pleasure in that. 

Her sigh caught him off guard. She looked like she was trying to hold back a small sun inside herself. “Look, I just wanna talk.”

“Cool. I don’t.” The Torch swung around, trailing flames. “If you won’t give those back, I’ll just go pick up more.” 

“Well, when ya put it like that.” A cyan blur at the corner of his eye. 

He’d barely felt the box slip out of his grasp. Johnny turned, flames curling furiously even as he kept his face neutral. Dash glared back, Rarity’s gift in each hoof. 

A beat. 

“What, you’re gonna make me race for ‘em?” the Torch scoffed, sending sparks out his nose. 

“Uh, that’d imply you could keep up.” 

Johnny killed the flames around both forelegs and shot forward to grab…only an already translucent rainbow contrail. 

“What’re you doing?” he demanded. 

“Stopping you from making a mistake.”

He stared at her. 

“C’mon, man!” Dash held Rarity’s gifts out like she was demonstrating why siblings shouldn’t marry. “Crystal didn’t work out, so you’re gonna ask Rarity again, and tank the healthiest thing you’ve had going with a mare in forever!” 

“What do you care?” Johnny muttered, his epidermis darkening. 

“Friends look out for each other!” Dash bit down on the outburst, sighing and suddenly avoiding eye contact. “And I…didn’t know you wanted to be friends.” 

“That was then,” Johnny said coldly. 

“Look, I shouldn’t have said those things, alright?” She was almost nose to nose with him all of sudden, alarmingly unperturbed by his flames. “You don’t wanna hear it from me, fine, but we both care about Rarity, so the least you could do is hear me out! For her!”

“You--”

“Please.” 

That knocked the wind out of him like one of Water Mane’s fire-hose routines. 

She’d had to pull it from somewhere deep inside, he could tell by the look on her face. 

That night in Canterlot was still fresh…but she’d just said the magic word she hated the most. For Rarity.

“Alright, alright!” Johnny threw up his hooves. “So how’re we doing this? Couple laps ‘round your dinky little town, winner sets terms? Duke it out, tell everypony it’s just a big misunderstanding on your way to the burn unit?” 

“Hey, remember that time you totally smoked me on the track?” Dash’s eyes glinted as he looked away, huffing sparks. “Yeah, exactly. As for a fight, you’re in the air surrounded by clouds full of water, trash talking the fastest weather team captain in central Equesteria. Check yourself.” 

“Way I remember it, you needed bailing out an awful lot.”

“Way I remember it, you dove in front of me every third punch!” 

“Yeah,” Johnny snapped, “so sorry I was watching your back! Y’know, like a team is supposed to!” 

“Agh!” Dash clamped her gift filled hooves to her temples. “This! This right here! This is what I’m talking about!” 

“You never talked about any of it!” The Torch’s golden eyes were wide with incredulity. “You just threw me out one day!” 

“It was about way more than just one day, you—!” Sparks almost shot from between the Pegasus’ teeth as she ground them, forcing a few layers over her anger. “We’re supposed to be giving each other a chance here!” 

Johnny folded his forelegs. “I thought we were talking about Rarity.” 

“Yeah, real classy the way you just zinged the dinky little town she was born in,” Dash muttered. 

Her face fell as Johnny’s blazing head whipped over his shoulder to guilty take in the distant lit windows and chimney smoke of Ponyville. She indicated a sturdy tree beneath them with her head, raising an eyebrow. 

A beat. 

Then the Torch nodded, following her spiral back to earth. 


***


“So is this about Rarity or you?” he called after her. He hadn’t quite forgiven her yet but was also legitimately asking. 

Dash shot him a seething look but clamped down on it, focusing on her landing in some thick branches. 

“This is about a lotta things. Rarity. Me. You. And what you do to people.”

“Save the planet they’re all standing on?” Johnny muttered, flaming off so his rapid cooling body could slump comfortably on a branch opposite hers, as she stashed Rarity’s gifts somewhere off camera. 

Dash rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine, this is what ya do when you’re not doing that.” 

“Which is what exactly?” 

“Stop interrupting! This is just like all those adventures back in the day! You keep jumping in front of everything I do! Then you’re all like ‘why’re you so crabby, babe?’!” 

“Yeah, if you’d care to shed any light on that I’d appreciate it!” Johnny threw himself against the trunk so hard a few leaves tumbled loose. Now his back hurt a little as he folded his forelegs. “Okay, I did…whatever in school and now you hate me. What does that have to do with Rarity?” 

“’Cause you’ll probably treat her like you did me.” 

She’d been looking right at him when she said it. So he noticed the slight shimmer in her eyes. Rainbow Dash sounded strangely calm, but she was this close to angry tears.

Johnny gave her a minute, also buying time to figure out where to go from there. Dash wiped her eyes and glared back. He had to keep from bursting into flames and taking down the whole tree from the ‘well?’ look on her face. 

He settled on, “And how’d I treat you?” 

“Not like Crystal, I’d bet.” 

“Hey, whatever this is between us, she’s not--”

“Yeah, obviously!” Dash waved a dismissive hoof, rolling her eyes. “She’s not the reason everypony after her was the rebound girl. That’s all you, babe.” 

“Rebou—?” Johnny squinted. “It’s not…why would you…? Rarity’s not a rebound anything! She’s just…she’s Rarity.” 

“She’s who you’re going for ’cause you can’t have what you really want.” 

Dash was trying to keep her voice steady and her eyes clear. He was too stunned by her descriptions to really feel anything yet. 

“One question. How soon after Crystal was I? You really wanna put this to bed, you really wanna understand, I need to know.” 

“You weren’t…” Johnny started, but trailed off, trying to process what felt like a lifetime ago. As if life was just a bunch of magazines you could single out in stacks for easy opinion forming. “You were the first serious one.”

“Oh, that makes me feel better.” 

“How do you feel?” He couldn’t keep the frustration out of his voice. “Dash, for Celesita’s sake, what is this? You won’t tell me anything! You won’t let me back in, you won’t let me start anything, but you don’t answer any questions either! I know you need me to be the bad guy but how’re you gonna sit there and talk to me about how unfair I am when you won’t tell me the rules?” 

“The Johnnycake I knew didn’t have much use for rules.” The corner of her mouth twitched. She was trying to hold back a smile. She squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled. “You’re right. I’m not…I’m not good at this, man. You’ve no idea how much it takes to learn how to let this sorta thing just…just happen.” 

“Should I come back after you’ve gotten into some zany shenanigans?” 

“You kid, but…” 

A beat. Then they both let out these weird, exhausted chuckles. 

“Whatever I did.” Johnny leaned his cheek against the trunk, feeling tired but needing to maintain eye contact. “Was it really so bad?”

“Yeah,” Dash snorted, mirroring him. “Worse part is, I think I figured it out. You didn’t know you were doing it.” 

“Treating you like the rebound girl?” Johnny arched a brow, smiling despite himself. “’Cause you were the one flying rings around me.” 

“And I’ve only gotten better with age.” Something strangely reassuring about that smirk. “But yeah. That’s fair. I’m the one who put the moves on ya.” 

“And, what, I’m a bad person for saying yes?”

“Trying not to think of you that way, so you could help with that.” Dash folded her forelegs, oddly dignified despite their poses angling her slightly sideways. Johnny held up a hoof in submission and resignation. “See, you’re saying I was your first serious fling but, real talk, you didn’t take me seriously at all.” 

“Because I didn’t let A.I.M. fry you, or Giganto eat you?” 

“Hey, I’ve taken on way worse!”

“Yeah, sure: now!” Johnny tried to stop his raised hackles jolting him out of the tree while also staying lose to roll with it if she lunged at him. “Look, if this is a powers thing it wasn’t that--”

“Discord you ain’t,” Dash snorted. “Trust me.” 

“I’m flattered to be that far down your list. But I’m trying to say I had at least five years experience on you!” 

“Sez the guy who was only there to get his licence renewed!” 

“Says the guy who was at this longer than you!” 

“You’re only a year older than me! I was the better brawler, you know I’m the better flyer--” 

“And you didn’t have the experience I did!” Johnny felt his epidermis manifesting across his face and chest and forced it down. “I’m sorry if that makes you feel…whatever, but that’s your problem! You know why I was all over you in the middle of those sky pirates and fake ghost scams and all of that?!” 

“Because you have a serious problem with sharing the spotlight!”

“You’d know!” Johnny snapped. “But pretending for a second that if anything happened to you there might not be an Element of Loyalty when Nightmare Moon came back?!” 

The look of shock in her widening, realising eyes got to him. His face softened along with his tone. “…can you imagine how I’d’ve felt if anything happened to you?” 

Silence. A few night animals skittering about somewhere but so far away they may as well have been on the moon. 

Dash shut her eyes, leaning against the trunk. “No fair,” she muttered. 

“Yeah, well.” Johnny leaned back to look up at some stars through overhanging foliage. “Neither was yelling at me to get out. And I know we were practically pulling each other’s hair out at the time, but…I went back and you’d just…gone? I had to practically live in the RA’s office to make sure you hadn’t been kidnapped or something!” 

“What, I go missing and it’s all about you?” Dash scoffed. 

“Hey, it happens! Web-Head tell you girls any Goat Goblin stories yet?”

“No…”

“There’s a reason.” 

Johnny leaned forward. He almost wanted to take her hoof, but the gap was too wide, and she’d probably punch him in the head for it anyway. 

“I mean it, Rainbow. The business can be intense, even the low stakes stuff we did at flight school. You can absolutely walk that off when you’ve played the odds ponies like us have, but it takes time to get there, and it’s still a hard balance to strike. You’re on the fast track now, but you were on the bottom rung when we were together. I’m sorry if that makes you feel like I was babysitting you but I’m not apologising for being the responsible one.”

“Alright, alright!” Dash’s wings spiked out as she threw up her hooves. She sighed, settling back down. “Alright. So what about everything else?” 

“What everything else?” Johnny moaned. “How I can take responsibility for stuff you won’t tell me about?” 

“Pretty telling ya didn’t realise you were doin’ it,” Dash muttered. She shut her eyes. “Okay, see, yeah, I shoulda known you were just looking out for me. But what about all those times you were away?” 

“Hey, I was working two jobs,” Johnny countered, shrugging. “Exploring the world and saving it.” 

“Cool, but you kept your medal collection in your dorm,” Dash said, her voice level to keep out any bitterness. “I saw that the couple times you deigned to let me in there.” 

Johnny squinted. “You’re complaining I was away all the time but also I swung by to be with you?” 

“I’m sayin’ you didn’t have enough medals for that excuse to work. And you didn’t hang out in my dorm all the time. You swung by when you decided to. Because that’s how our relationship worked. However you wanted it to, whenever it was convenient for you.” 

“Dannii--”

“I mean it!” Twigs and leaves whip cracked as Rainbow Dash sprang to her hooves, furiously but still perfectly balanced on her branch. “Don’t call me that! You always break it out when something’s going wrong and you wanna cute your way out of it!” 

“I’m just--”

“Thinkin’ of yourself! That’s the problem! No, th-that-that-that-that’s part of the problem!” She was half in the air now, wings flapping furiously, hooves clenched. “I can’t be angry at ya because you don’t realise! Because you’re not a bad person, but you do all these things that aren’t good! Did it ever occur to you to ask me why I hate it when you call me that?!”

“You’d just smack talk me!” Johnny blinked incredulously. “Look, calm down! You’re gonna put an eye out or knock us down or something!”

Dash was breathing hard but eventually nodded, forcing herself back down on her perch. It swayed almost in time with Johnny’s heartbeat as she struggled to force her wings back under control. 

“I hate seeing you like this,” he admitted gently. “I always have. You’re so cool but you get so angry. I hate the idea I did anything to…” He trailed off as she hung her head. He hated making her feel bad about it too. 

“I’m sorry.” 

That voice was too small to belong to Rainbow Dash. 

“It’s...” Johnny began, but this entire conversation wouldn’t be happening if it was okay. He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you want me to call you—” Her head snapped towards him, but he managed to keep going. “—that?”

Dash took a fortifying breath. “It’s dumb but…no, it’s not, it’s just this whole situation…” 

She put a hoof over her eyes. Johnny kept quiet, partly letting her collect herself. Mostly just having no idea what in the universe he was supposed to say. 

“Look, Dannii…that’s not me anymore. Call Me Danniiiii,—” She blew a raspberry and snorted at his spontaneously laugh. “—she was a pony who…she wasn’t happy.” 

Her eyes flicked to him, then away. “Except when she was with you. For a while.”

“I know those classes were brutal,” Johnny said carefully. 

“And you got to skip most of ‘em 'cause your licence was so specialised.” Her eyes glinted. “And you didn’t really wanna fly. Not fly. Not like me.”

“You kidding? I’d kill to fly like you!” 

“Yeah, so how come you never worked at it?” She stretched a wing. “Seriously man, what you do is nifty but you’re literally coasting on it. You don’t think about how to loop or adjust, you don’t think about how to make it work, you just settle for the fact it does! You don’t have to make these things work, it was all just monkey see, monkey do!” 

“Still had to do the written stuff,” Johnny countered. 

“Ugh! That stuff. It was just glorified flyers ed!” 

“No kidding. So…you just really hated it? Because that’s not my fault.” 

“Didn’t say it was,” Dash sighed. “But are you gettin’ the picture? Dannii is everything about that time I never wanna be again! She was away from home, scared out of her mind, she was realising this scholarship was never gonna get her what she wanted, and her boyfriend was either too hooves on or in the wind! And then you’d turn up with pizza or buckball tickets, and everything was supposed to keep going while I was this close to a nervous breakdown!” 

“I didn’t know--” Johnny began. 

“You didn’t ask!” 

“You didn’t tell me! You didn’t tell me any of this!”

“I know, alright?!” Dash shocked herself with the echo of her own voice as the night threw it back at them. 

She wrapped her wings around herself. 

“I know. And I get it, I shoulda, but I was trying to tough it all out! And what would I have even said? What would you have done?” 

“I’d have tried to make you feel better!”

“Would you even have been around?”

She was genuinely asking, which was what made the question so terrible. 

“I’d have tried to be,” Johnny said eventually. 

“Yeah,” Dash scoffed, shakily, sardonically, “because that was my life but I was your college fling. Gotta make sure it was running smooth for when you needed to unwind.”

“So I, I what, I used you?!” 

“Kinda! That’s what I’m trying to say! You didn’t realise you were doing it!” 

“I wasn’t—!” Johnny stopped himself. Dash waited through his bewildered silence. “Dash, I promise, whatever you think of me, I didn’t think of you like that. You were cool! I loved hanging out with you!”

“But you didn’t love me.” 

It was the flat way she said it. He should be used to running into walls at full speed by now, this entire conversation had been made of them. 

“We were in college,” Johnny sighed. 

“No, I was in college. You just came to get your flyers licence renewed.” Dash looked up at the stars again. “And that’s…that’s on me. I was 18. I had no idea what I was doin’. Y’know when I surprised you out on the track by flying all those circles around ya?”

Johnny smiled at the memory. “Yeah?” 

“I did that ‘cause I was terrified if you came over to me I’d have no idea what to say to you.” Dash smiled despite herself. “Before it goes to your head, it wasn’t the celebrity thing.”

“You really know how to hurt a guy.” 

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” She winked, though it was a little shaky from suppressed giggling. “But…yeah. You were…somethin’ else. I had all these stupid lil’ movie ideas of what flight school was gonna be like, and then there was this burning pony doing basic yo-yos through the cloud hoops.” 

“Would you believe that was because I was trying to keep a low profile?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’d rigged the sprinklers in the senior’s gym because this guy called Reverse Thrust--”

“Oh, that guy. Did anypony like that guy?”

“He was okay when he wasn’t trying to prove something.” 

“It was flight school, Johnny, we were all trying to prove something.” 

“Fair,” Johnny chuckled. She was smiling so he pressed his luck and flexed a foreleg. “Okay, so you put the moves on the handsome young super stud! Where did we go from there?” 

“You said yes. And for real, who could blame you?” She tossed her mane. It legit sparkled in the moonlight. “But I wanna say…I’m sorry.” 

“For?” 

“For using you too. You were my first adult relationship and I only went for you because you were so…different.” 

“Dash, I like being different. Seriously, I get the Hex-Breed’s struggle and all, but you’re one of the best flyers I ever met, you know what a kick it is up there! And to be able to do what I’m not supposed to? You’ve no idea what that’s like!”

“Sonic Rainboom,” she countered. 

“Hey, gimme time.” He winked. 

She laughed. “I’m tryin’ to bare my soul up in here!” 

“Alright, alright,” Johnny grinned. “But you don’t sound mad at me anymore…?”

“Never say never,” Dash muttered, but still smiling. Her face fell. “But yeah, what you did wasn’t right but I’m no better. I think I just started the whole thing up because I was trying to avoid freaking out about school. You had your own stuff to take care of and I didn’t think about that.” 

She looked down. “Like the fact that maybe you actually wanna be friends.”

“That’d be cool,” Johnny said gently. “And hey, you’re right, nopony could blame you. I have amazing eyes.” 

“Yeah, blue with a blonde mane, that’s so outside the box!” She rolled her wonderfully wine coloured own. “But I shoulda been your friend first. Instead I jumped into 5th gear and expected everything else to catch up. And school wasn’t your fault. I’m sorry I put all that on you.” 

“Cool.” Johnny shifted on his branch, settling in. “So what else are you putting on me?”

“What you do without realising you do it,” Dash sighed. “I get you wouldn’t knowingly do this to me, but for real. I wasn’t really your girlfriend either. I was the mare you could play with when you had to go to flight school.”

Johnny exhaled through his nose but kept his mouth closed. The air temperature didn’t so much as flicker. He should have been proud of himself. 

“No, see, this is what I’m talking about!“ Dash stared at him almost imploringly. “You didn’t realise that was what we were! Okay, so I wasn’t your groupie, but…maybe we were both just friends who needed different stuff from each other.” 

“Then you could have told me what you were going through!” Johnny spurted. “I swear I’d have listened! I hang out with the Thing and Spider-Pony, trust me, you had way realer stuff to deal with! Half the business is in their ’30s and talk like a teenager’s diary, you were trying to become a Wonderbolt!”

“And now I’m the number three mare in your number one competitor,” Dash smirked. She shrugged at his look. “Twilight brought it all together, and you’ve met AJ.” 

“Point,” Johnny chuckled. “Look, I just mean…yeah, I wanna be friends. You’ve been keeping up with me since flight school, of course I wanna.” 

“Oh, I can do way more than keep up, colt, you’d best believe.” Dash’s eyes flashed again. “But I hear ya. Friends should be able to talk to each other.” 

“So say what you’re gonna.” 

“It’s a lot,” Dash warned. 

“What,” Johnny smirked, “you’re backing down now?” 

“This is about Rarity, so couldn’t if I wanted to.” Dash made herself comfortable on her perch. Totally not buying time. “Look, we’re cool now if you wanna be…”

“Sounds like you wanna be, so.” 

“Cool. But you said I was your first serious deal since Crystal. What was everypony else between us? A distraction?” 

“Some of them were a Skrull, but I get what you mean,” Johnny muttered. “Not saying all my rep is totally undeserved, but there’s a lotta context.”

“Well in this context, you went from dating a princess to having to settle for me.” Dash held up a wing as he began to protest. “First, I’ve been through so much with Twilight that Canterlot castle legit has a whole wing dedicated to stained glass windows of us. And we’ve been with her for everything since her coronation, I know it’s the pony under the crown, not the other way around. But Crystal was your first serious anything, right?” 

“Right,” Johnny said carefully. 

“And then you had to let that all go.” She held a hoof over her chest. “You wanna talk about it, that’s what friends do. But as your new numero uno friend, the loyal thing here is to tell ya what that did to you. See, all those mares before me, they were like me.” 

“Not really,” Johnny smirked. 

“I can be pretty generous.” Dash shrugged with terribly genuine modesty, “but yeah, they were who came after Crystal. They were who you had to be with because you couldn’t be with her. And seriously, you think being an Element is living a storybook? You met your perfect princess and you didn’t get to make it to the end of the book with her!”

“Crystal’s incredible,” Johnny said neutrally after a while. 

“Yeah, she’s awesome!”

“Wait…” Johnny almost fell out of their tree whipping towards Ponyville. “Crystal’s here?!” 

Dash shrugged. “Twilight got back a while ago. She came with. We hung out some. She asked after you.” 

“That’s…cool of her.” 

“But it complicates things, right?” She was watching him carefully as he turned to her. “You weren’t planning on her even being on the same continent when you asked Rarity to take the plunge.” 

“You always did have a way with words,” Johnny muttered. 

“You’re my buddy now, it’s my responsibility to bust your chops.” She wasn’t smiling. “And to stop you making the same mistake you’ve made your whole life since Crystal.” 

“Which is what? Treating you like the rebound girl? Rarity’s different!” 

“Rarity isn’t Crystal, man. She’s just who’s closest now you can’t be with your first love.” 

“She said never say never,” Johnny muttered almost petulantly. 

“Oh, that’s a huge help!” Dash’s eyes almost popped out her face from the swelling sarcasm. “Johnny, listen, it’s so great you didn’t mean to make me feel like a used innertube, but you still did it! If Rarity goes for this then hey, I’ll be behind ya both 5,000%! But what if she says no? Or what if she says yes, and you get bored someday? What if she gets bored first?” 

The immediate world turned blood orange as the Horseshoe Torch spontaneously ignited, hovering inches from her face. “I’m trying to move past Crystal!”

Rainbow Dash didn’t blink. “Have ya?” she asked calmly.

A beat.  

“…no,” Johnny admitted, melting under his flames, “not yet. But—!”

“Johnny.” 

Dash reached out, hesitating, but she felt him lowering his temperature and carefully placed a hoof onto his shoulder. 

“If Crystal is what she is to you, then how is every girl after her not the rebound girl? That’s what you’ve gotta work on. I’ll help! Rarity’ll help! But c’mon man, right here, right now, after everything I’ve just told ya…you’re gonna do that to her?” 

Another beat. 

Johnny flamed off, lowering into her embrace. Dash stroked his back gently, surprised at how pleasant the warmth under her hooves was. 

“You good…?” she asked after a while. 

“I’m out 50-bits on pastries with names I can’t pronounce, for one thing.”

“That’s the spirit,” Dash smiled. “C’mon, race ya back. Might even let ya win out of pity!” 

“No you won’t,” Johnny smirked, taking his head off her shoulders. 

“No I won’t.”


4


“But it turned out we couldn’t get the rights for the actual lyrics,” Pinkie Pie explained, “so I had to improvise a whole new version of Under the Sea!”

“Did you manage to take a picture of Namor’s face?” Crystal asked gleefully. 

“Nope, but this nice scribe promised me there’d be a teeny tiny, eenie weenie mosaic to commemorate the occasion!” 

“So tagging along on Triton’s next trip to Aqualusia,” Crystal shared grins with Shuri. “Wanna come with?” 

“You kidding?” the zebra laughed. “I haven’t finished mining this town for mysteries yet! You know how many secret tunnels there are around here?!”

Rarity chuckled nervously from the corner of the library she was sharing with the Panther Prince and some Dora Milaje. “Uh, we're still a work in progress."  

“Aren’t we all,” the Panther replied gently. He held up a hoof gauntlet, packed with enough Vibranium micro magi-tech innovations to hold most of the world’s major militarise at arm’s length, and diplomatically coughed into it. “I hope my sister was not…”

“Oh, she was a—!” Rarity hesitated. “She was herself! And I’m very glad to have made her acquaintance.” 

“That is gratifying, but I would still be willing to offer compensation for any and all…events she may have been involved in. I understand she became quite enamoured with these…” T’Challa held up the glove with his Kimoyo card, quickly scanning a hologram of the incident reports. “Cutie Mark Crusaders.” 

“…there’re some rather steep Canterlot parking tickets now you—” Rarity peered around his shoulder. “—mention it. Hello, girls!”

“Hi, sis,” Sweetie Belle beamed as she, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked up at the Prince. 

The Dora Milaje looked uncertainly at each other. Wakanda began training it’s children in the art of self-defence at adolescence, as it was never too early to start preparing for a new Panther Priest, but while this trio lacked any clear training there was…something in the air around them. 

“Uh, your majesty,” Rarity hastily networked, “this is my little sister, Sweetie Belle, and her friends from, well, you read that report.” 

“Howdy,” Apple Bloom supplied. 

“’Sup,” Scootaloo chimed in. 

The Panther inclined his head. “Greetings.” 

“Are you Shuri’s big brother?” Apple Bloom asked, craning her head. '’Cause if not you sure are big.” 

“I am, yes,” the Panther said as Rarity locked eyes with Applejack across the room. The farm girl pulled her hat down over her eyes. “A pleasure to meet you.” 

Scootaloo cocked her head. “Is it true you’re a superhero?” 

“Sometimes.” 

“Only sometimes?” Apple Bloom shared confused expressions with the other Crusaders. 

“I am prince of a small African nation.” 

“I am going out for some air!” Rarity announced with a porcelain smile, and tried to quickly but daintily scurry around the buffet table and out through the back door. 

“Coward,” she muttered as she passed Applejack.

“Girl, I spent a week on an island with a magic portal to an alternate future universe where I swapped bodies with Rainbow, and that was only the first day, do not start nothin’ with me!”

“Hmph!” 

Rarity hesitated as she almost walked into somepony’s tail by the kitchen. “Oh, do pardon me!” 

“It’s okay, I was just…” Crystal trailed off as she turned to meet her. “Um.”

“Princess Crystal,” Rarity smiled quickly, bowing. 

“Just Crystal please,” the Unknown cut in hastily. “Nice to, ah, see you again! Under better circumstances. Johnny’s told me a lot about you.” 

“Oh,” Rarity said, wondering what to do with that. “That’s nice of him! I suppose.” 

She brightened. “Crystal it is, then. Of course any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine!”

“Great,” Crystal smiled back, then indicated the door with her head. “Wanna get the drop on them?”

“This is the beginning of something beautiful,” Rarity beamed. 

She hooded her eyes as Twilight pushed the door open, freezing at the sight of them and jolting forward slightly as Peter Trotter walked into her, smoothing down his mane. 

“And what were you two up to?” Rarity trilled.  

“Um,” Peter said. 

“Talking,” Twilight smiled warningly. 

“Just talking?” Crystal smirked. 

“I hope you appreciate just how far back you’re setting Equestiran-Unknown relations,” Twilight said pleasantly, her eyes narrowing. 

“Don’t care,” Crystal beamed, stepping around her, holding out a hoof. “Hi! A pleasure to see you again!” 

“We haven’t officially met,” Peter said carefully. 

Crystal rolled her eyes. “Oh, naturally.” 

“Peter Trotter, rooming with your ex.” Peter smiled as they shook. “So if you wanna unload I’m good at keeping a secret.” 

“So I hear,” Crystal smiled. 

Rarity left them to it because Sweetie was currently on the Panther’s back for some reason, and if Applejack was just going to keep standing in the corner then she wasn’t about to stick her spa treated neck out. She indicated Peter with her head and gave Twilight a raised eyebrow. Twilight smiled and nodded. Rarity smiled back, stepping out through the kitchen door. 

She sighed in the crisp night air, looking around at the lights of Ponyville’s windows, wondering how her dinky little town could hold so very much of the world. She blinked as a soft radiance winked off, noticing it for the sudden gloom and chill of the surroundings. 

“Oh,” she and Johnny said as he came around from the side of Twilight and Spike’s tree. “Um.” 

“Good to see you…” Johnny said. He sounded…she wasn’t sure what he sounded like. 

“You too,” Rarity smiled. 

“How was Genoshia?” Johnny perked up. 

“That was me,” Rainbow Dash muttered, flapping around to join them. 

“Oh, right.” 

“I wondered where you were rushing off to, darling.” Rarity looked Dash over carefully. “I hate to pry, but does this mean…?”

“We’re good,” Dash said, landing to put a hoof on Johnny’s shoulder. 

“Magnificent!” Rarity beamed, clapping her hooves. “And just in time for Twilight and Peter to do more than talk as well! Timing truly is everything!”

“Geez Rarity, people are eatin’ here!” Dash squirmed. Rarity blinked as she fumbled to stop a slightly askew box from tumbling out of her grip. 

“Just something for the party!” Johnny said quickly. 

“Oooh, are those from that place on 23rd street?” 

“Wa’ u’n?” Rainbow Dash asked through a freshly inserted mouthful. She opened the box, wrinkling the lid so badly Rarity flinched. She peered at the decimated remains, which did not include any of her favourites, side eyed the cream covered smile and bulging cheeks of her friend’s cyan face, and shook her head. 

“I’m going to be helping clean up far too much tonight, darling.” She smiled sincerely. “Though I’m glad you can count yourselves off my list. Is it odd to say I’m proud of you?” 

“Dunno,” Johnny smirked, “maybe we should get a second opinion. Still got the diamond dogs number?” 

“North or South?” Dash asked, in between licking cream off her hoof. “She’s connected, y’know!”  

“Ah,” Rarity deadpanned, turning back to the certainty of Sweetie and political figures, “I see what I have to look forward to and the flaw in the design.” 

She shuddered as she heard them hoof bump behind her. She paused on the doorstep, squinting as she thought she caught a familiar scent. Then shook her head, smiling, and continued on. 


***


“Thanks,” Johnny breathed once she was out of sight. 

“You so owe me.” Dash flipped the remains of the box onto his back, frowning as she rubbed her stomach. “I hate profiteroles.”

“Tell you what. Tie Rarity and Crystal up for the rest of the evening and…” She turned as he scuffed some imaginary shoes. “The Mets game on the 3rd. Press box seats. My treat.” 

“The Nets, centre court,” Dash shot back instantly, “the 10th. And I’ve got a search and rescue test to ace the day before, so I’ll be bringing a date.”

“Deal,” Johnny smirked. 

“Probably gonna be Soarin’,” she smirked back. 

“So are you punishing him or me?” 

“The 10th,” she called over her shoulder as she flapped inside. “Hey, homewrecker.” 

“Hey,” Peter said, ducking under her as he stepped outside. He raised an eyebrow at Johnny. 

The Torch shrugged. “We’re good.” 

“Parallel universe or sleeper agent clone?” 

“I’m one of a kind.” 

“Inconclusive,” Peter mused, stroking his chin, “so perhaps it’s Rainbow they’ve gotten to.” 

“Hey, have you tried changing Rainbow Dash’s mind?” 

“I heard that!” drifted out over the stereo.

“For real,” Peter chuckled, leaning in the doorway once they’d settled down. “You were away for a while. Long enough for me and Twilight to make out. Up! Shut up.” 

“Happy for you,” Johnny said, holding up a hoof, “but didn’t ask. Me and her, we’re good.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “Which her?” 

“Dash is gonna keep ‘em both busy tonight,” Johnny sighed, feeling oddly relived, “and she’s gonna be around to make sure I don’t…y’know.” 

“Wow. This has been a long week.” 

“I know, right?”  

“Wanna talk about it?” 

“Wouldn’t even know where to start.” Johnny shrugged. “I’m glad you got your princess, at least. You blow that, I’ll make sure you never taste soda that isn’t room temperature for the rest of your life.” 

“You would make a hay of a supervillain.” Peter beckoned with his tail as he turned back to the light and music. “Now stop standing around like a homeless Photo Finish model and help me save some of those little hay dogs, before Rainbow Dash and Applejack snag ‘em all.”

“Okay, but pace yourself,” Johnny smirked, “we’ve got work tomorrow.” 


To be Continued