//------------------------------// // Let's Get this Straight // Story: Graphs // by Mozzarella //------------------------------// "Do not worry about your dashes with rainbows, I assure you mine are still more awesome." Graphs *** It was a chore to go to sleep. Dash never thought she would think those words in that sequence. Sleep was amazing. How could it possibly be difficult? You just plop yourself down anywhere comfortable and do nothing. Turns out there are some comfortable places in which one cannot sleep. Also, "nothing" can escalate into "something" rather quickly. Dash's cloud was flattened under the night's tossing and turning. A cloud. Flattened. That shouldn't have even been possible. They're practically made of fluff. The sunrise was an unexpected relief to the poor pegasus. Since Luna appeared to have forsaken her, it only made sense that Celestia would be her salvation. She could finally give up on her apparently hopeless attempt to rest. Rubbing her eyes did not remove her desire to sleep. Neither did her morning stretches. She wanted to go back to bed. However, she knew it would not help. Dash pondered this love-hate relationship as she folded up her sleeping bag. With the package in her mouth, she peeked over her cloud down to where the nightmare began. There had been a flurry of confusion following what both pegasi had chosen not to discuss. At first there was an excruciating silence in the wake of their outburst. It was ages until they gathered their thoughts, separated their bags, and flew to different clouds. Dash preferred to meet problems with an extended hoof. One preferably traveling at several hundred meters per second. For problems where this was not applicable, she preferred ignorance. It was intangible, so it must be insignificant. Eventually, the problem would go away. This problem was going nowhere. She had no clue where Blitz had decided to sleep. She wasn't about to call out for him. The less interaction with him, the better. Except, that would make it somewhat difficult to train. She scanned the skyscape for any sign of the stallion, hoping he would still be in bed. She could sneak in some breakfast and just wait until they started training to have to talk to him. Short-term plans are the Dash's forte. Too bad she made eye contact. Dammit! He saw me! What do I do? She paused, feeling another part of her surface. What's wrong with you? Get out there and practice. I can't! We... We were... You were what? Say it. She choked back a frustrated shriek. The voice was making absurd requests, like facing her problems. She had liked her first plan better. With a poker face that would have cardsharps cracking up, she fluttered down to the saddlebags. Blitz was a step ahead of her, trying to open it. "Hey," she croaked as she approached. Blitz glanced at her before averting his eyes. "Fine. I- I mean, hey." Dash waited while he cautiously manipulated the flaps. It was as if he had never used his hooves before. The buttons wouldn't unfasten and the sleeping bag slipped out of his mouth several times. Dash might have laughed at the display if she could find a place for her hooves on the cloud. She shifted her stance again and again, finding that each position put uncomfortable weight on some part of her. "So," Dash said, opting to just hover in the air. "What's in there for breakfast?" Blitz had just left the sleeping bag on the ground. "Um, there's apple stuff again. Pinkie left some baked things. I don't know if that would be good for flying." "She probably left something breakfast-y. Like a danish or something." "Oh. Right. That's what those are." "What kinds are there?" "Pink, and uh... yeah. Pink." She rolled her eyes. "Figures. I guess I'll take a pink one." "I'll see if I can find one." He let out a halfhearted chuckle. Dash returned to the surface, looking away. A moment later, she blinked back into reality. "Oh. Heh heh. Thanks." Blitz cringed. Wow. Why did I even say that? He passed her a pastry and took one out for himself. The crust was bordering on too flaky. After taking a bite, Blitz found himself struggling to keep the whole thing from falling apart. Still, it was food. And good food at that. Toward the center was some sort of strawberry jam. Something else in it was making it sweeter and much lighter. It wasn't exactly a breakfast of champions, but that's only because they weren't champions yet. Dash wiped some crumbs from her face. Alright, that was fine. We don't even need to talk about it. We can just move on. "So how did you sleep?" she said, returning to normalcy for a few seconds. Blitz choked on his danish. Oh yeah... "No! I meant, uh. Are you ready to practice?" She spat out her words as quick as possible. It was just a slip of the tongue. Like last night, part of her mentally added. She imagined punching that part. Meanwhile, Blitz was finishing clearing his lungs of crumbs. "Oh. Yeah. Totally. Let's go." They ascended to the heavens to prepare the sky. Blitz went to work removing the small, wispy cloud-lets in the way. Dash glided around, setting up the proper "background" as they had come to call it. From the point they had left off at, there would need to be a dense sphere in the center of their stage. The day before, the pegasi had laughed and horsed around during their preparation. Today the wind only whistled through their ears. It was more fun yesterday. With a decent ball floating before them, they flew to opposite sides a few meters from it. "You know the drill?" Dash asked. "I guess. Yeah. Ready?" She nodded and let out a halfhearted "Go!". The sky was rather disappointed. It had grown accustomed to a breathtaking takeoff from the two pegasi. This one was just pitiful. Sure, their speed was nothing to shake a stick at. But, one could comfortably point said stick in their general direction. However underwhelming it was, they were still synchronized during their ascent. They flew high above their target, circling around in a shrinking spiral. In moments, they would meet and push off of each other to dart downward into the clouds. The result of that impact was predicted to be "awesome" by Dash. Blitz had agreed at the time. That was the day before. The two grew closer and closer in the air. There was no avoiding it. It had been planned to the individual tilt of the feather. Unfortunately, denial tended to step aside for reality. It won't matter, thought Dash uneasily. It's like a hoof bump. Nothing weird about that, So what if I have to look her in the eyes. Those big shiny purplish-pink eyes. My legs only turned to jelly that one time. It won't happen again. Mhm. Right. The spirals were about to meet. Following the plan, they shifted their bodies ninety degrees upward, flying towards each other as if they were standing on their hind legs. Their hooves were outstretched, ready to meet. Dash went over her checklist for this collision. Hooves in position. Wings flattened to decrease speed. Flying area free of clutter. Partner in position. Face feels extremely hot. Looking away from partner. Clenching teeth. Wait... It is not fun to smack into a pony at a high speed. Bones can handle a lot. They'll still whine about it though. And then the skin and flesh gets involved, crying to mommy brain. The enabler that mother was, it would go ahead and make sure the problem would never happen again. Instead of the parts bucking up, the mother would go to the cabinet, grab a nice bottle of pain, and clean the house with it. "Uf!" The lump of tangled pegasus spun through the air, experiencing great difficulty extending a wing to guide the fall. Disentanglement was all on their minds. It didn't matter that the ground, despite its distance, would eventually rush to meet them. They just needed to get away. Hooves and muzzles flailed about, brushing against that which bound them. That just so happened to include flanks and necks and the like. With plenty of time to spare, Dash and Blitz parted, taking back control of their respective flight paths. Dash held her face in her hooves. Blitz clutched at the sides of his head. At the very least, they were synchronized in their recovery. They landed sloppily onto the nearest cloud, making an unspoken agreement to take opposite sides of the platform. "Look, sorry I-" Blitz began, turning toward Dash but keeping his eyes well away. "No no no, it was me. I lost my focus." She tried to put on a smile. "I wasn't all there either..." Blitz laughed unconvincingly. "Right. Okay. That's fine. We're just a little off." "Yeah. First flight of the day. Happens all the time. No big deal." Somepony should get working on finding a repellent for ticks. The two pegasi were itching the back of their necks like crazy. Because it must have been some sort of tick. Definitely. "Should we go again?" Blitz put out cautiously. "In a minute. I need to... uh... yeah. Hold on." They waited a little, pretending to catch their breaths. Dash shook her head as if it would rid her of her distraction. "Ready?" "I guess." The pegasi had taken their break on the sides of the cloud furthest from their starting positions. Blitz moved to the right to walk around Dash. She moved to the left. Both stopped. Dash jerked right. Blitz jerked left. "I'll just go this-" "Move that way-" "I was." "Just let me go this way and-" They sighed as their heads sagged forward. Blitz motioned for Dash to go. She nodded and took off cringing. Blitz continued on his way, holding his head in his hooves. Why am I an idiot... ... "Anatomy," droned a weary voice. The room would have been much too dark to read in to a pony that had enough sanity to care. "Biochemistry." The ladder on wheels rolled smoothly and boringly across the wooden floors. It normally had something interesting to add to the assistant's day, albeit unpleasant. It could tip on some literary debris or just find another way to expel a little purple passenger off of itself. However, it seemed to lose it's will to wreak havoc in the past few hours. It was bored. Everything had taken on a boring hue of brown and grey. Although that could have just been the lighting. The candles had been replaced several times over, accumulating impressive mounds of wax. "Biology." Spike noted with fledgling appreciation that his matron had at least alphabetized his work to facilitate the process of returning the books to their places. The elation that normally accompanied finishing an assignment had eluded him. The only comfort he had was that his mind could rest. For now. There was motion upstairs. Four hooves gradually thumped against the floor. Then a fifth. That was probably her head, Spike thought. She got home pretty late. And she was mumbling. I should really get her checked out. Maybe psychoanalyzed too, just in case. He sighed unhappily, realizing he had just used the word "psychoanalyzed" in unconscious thought. You win, Twilight. You win. The pony that descended the stairs did not look like a winner. She looked like she had most certainly been beaten repeatedly. She must not have brushed her hair when she woke up. Or done any of her other morning rituals for that matter. Not like I look any better, Spike added. "Spike? Is that you?" She squinted against the flickering candlelight. As if she hadn't spent many a night in the same conditions. Who else was it going to be? Spike thought of saying, deciding against it given his will to live. "Hey. Sleep well?" She rubbed her eyes. "Oh. Sure. Just great." "Crazy night out?" Spike asked, not looking away from his task. Her head throbbed. "You could say that. Do we have anything for a headache?" He almost laughed, but the dullness kept its hold of him. "You were out drinking all that time?" She glared at the dragon who stood temptingly precariously on the ladder on wheels. "No. Just had a lot to think about." "Alright. I'll go whip something up." Spike slid down the ladder without much caution. It would have been an entertaining act of dexterity had there not been an air of gloominess about him. "Thanks," she said, approaching the blinds to let some sun in. As they rose, light much dimmer than she had expected permeated the dark library. Just how late was it? She opened the window too, welcoming any scent that was not paper. Paper meant information. Information meant learning. Learning meant thought. Thought meant decisions. And decisions were awful. While she blew out the now unnecessary candles, she absently wondered just what exactly Spike was going to "whip up". Not like he knows much about cooking, she thought. Doesn't really matter. he's probably just making some tea. As Twilight swatted a hoof at the unpleasant smoke spewing from the overworked candles there was a knock at the door. There's always a knock at the door. Never some time to recover. Always with this nonsense. A friendly smile forced itself onto her lips. She had found at a later age than most ponies that one was more likely to make friends if they act as if they are happy and not extremely tired of everypony's bull. She wouldn't admit that she still didn't really get it. Why lie to everypony around you like that? If you're not in the mood to talk, why attract conversation? Well, some chastising from her parents had done away with that little habit. Five bits says it's her. No way luck is going to turn on me now. A glowing paragon of grace trotted in from the opened door. She contrasted greatly with the unkempt librarian. There was no jealousy, though. After all, Twilight just won five bits. "Good afternoon, Twilight. Sleeping in I see. Good. You need to relax some." "Thanks for the advice," she muttered under her breath. She shut the door and followed the white unicorn into the room. "Nice to see you too Rarity." Rushed banging of pots and cups sounded from the kitchen upon Twilight mentioning that name. Rarity took no notice. "So have you got anything planned for today?" "I actually was just going to relax today. I'll have to move a lot of things around, but I need a break." Rarity smiled. "Lovely. Would you like to go to the spa? The market? Oh I bet we could catch the train to Canterlot and see the sights." Her eyes sparkled with the possibilities. Or maybe she incorrectly applied her glitter. Twilight grimaced at the suggestions. Sure they would be fun, but also distracting. Internal justification of one's past actions would be difficult in any of those environments. "Oh, I don't know. I was thinking I could stay in." Rarity tilted her head, not quite understanding what wasn't appealing about those options. Then she shrugged. "To each her own, I suppose." Spike entered, carrying a tray with two cups above him as if he were in some gourmet restaurant. Twilight magically picked up the purple mug labeled "Tea". "Thanks," she said, sipping at the slightly steaming liquid. There was a hint of honey and something ever so slightly bitter that she couldn't quite place. Surprisingly, the edge of her headache began to fade. Meanwhile, Spike had knelt down soberly before the love of his life as if she were about to knight him. She giggled and graciously accepted her mug "My. Such a gentlecolt." "Dragon," he corrected, actually beginning to smile. It seemed she had the ability to free him from the post-cramming doldrums. Twilight still stood, staring at her mug. "Spike? What did you put in this?" "One of your teabags, some honey, and some other stuff." She felt around her mouth with her tongue to take in more of the strange taste. "What kind of stuff?" "Well, you seemed really tense and you said you had a headache, so I put in something to help." Feeling more nervous, she said, "What is 'something'?" He raised an eyebrow (Or scale? Eyescale?). "Some medicine. Don't worry about it." Twilight had to process the information. Medicine. I was feeling tense. Now I'm relaxed. Am I nauseous? My tongue tingles. Is the room spinning? Everything seems so blurry! What's happening?! "D-did you just feed me ketamine?!" she shrieked, shaking. Spike recoiled. "Of course not! I wanted to help you, not knock you out. I made my own little medicine for you. It's a good few steps down from a tranquilizer. You should be feeling a bit better already." She had to admit, the pain was leaving her rather rapidly, as were her delusions of declining health. "When did you learn to make medicine?" "Since you forced me to read every medical book we have," he growled. Rarity had started chuckling at "ketamine". She nearly spilled her cup attempting to stop herself. "What is so funny about this?" Twilight asked indignantly. "He could have just poisoned me!" "Hey! Spikozine doesn't have any side effects aside from drowsiness!" The dragon folded his arms indignantly. "Spikozine!" Rarity laughed, no longer trying to hide her amusement. "This isn't funny, Rarity!" the drugged unicorn exclaimed. "Of course it is, dear." She leaned over to Spike. "Perhaps you should use the ketamine next time." He let out a laugh of his own. "Rarity!" "Oh fine. Honestly, could you at least try to have fun?" Twilight huffed and turned toward the baggy pillows she had set out for those young and hip readers that like to sit on weird things. "I have plenty of fun. In fact I spent most of yesterday out and about." She plopped down and took another sip of her tea. Despite her objections, she couldn't help but feel invigorated. "So I've heard," the white unicorn replied, finding a seat by another amorphous chair. "Did you ever figure out that apple?" Twilight sighed. "No. I've ruled out everything but dark magic and chaos magic." She remembered her experiences with both of those with a shudder. "I don't need to delve into either of those right now." After returning the tray, Spike walked to the front door. "Where do you think you're going?" called his parental figure. "I cleaned up the library, read all your little books, and relieved your headache. I'm going out and you aren't making me stay in here for another day." With that, he stomped out, slamming the door behind him. Twilight stared aghast at where the dragon had been while Rarity stifled another giggle. "I suppose he's getting around that age. Soon he'll be getting tattoos and going out with the daughter of an upper class family that doesn't approve of him. They'll run off and live a hard life on the countryside." She sighed and took another sip of her tea. "Where do the years go, Twilight?" Twilight raised an eyebrow briefly. "I guess I have been a little hard on him lately. I haven't given him time to himself in a while." "He's got it now, so don't worry about him rebelling or anything. Oh! I just remembered. I heard some nice gossip concerning him." "Oh?" Twilight said, trying not to seem interested. "From who?" Rarity gave Twilight her mysterious grin. "I have my sources, Twilight. On everypony." The librarian made a note to never do anything remotely scandalous within Rarity's network. "So apparently," she continued. "Some little filly fancies our little Spikey." Her cup rotated as Rarity examined it with little interest. She found that seeming nonchalant boosted credibility for whatever reason. There was a sense of elegance about it. Twilight's mouth morphed into an 'O'. That certainly was news. "Now, I wasn't told any names, but I can only suspect that it's somepony he actually spends time with every now and then." Twilight could only recall a group of three fillies that saw him on a regular basis. "You wouldn't happen to be thinking of-" "I'm not thinking of anypony," Rarity said innocently. "Come on, don't be so modest. You must have something more about it." Rarity brushed a hoof through her mane. "I'm not holding back anything. I'm not infallible, darling, however close to it I may be." Twilight pondered the possibilities. "It's such a strange thought. What do you think it would be like if it was your sister?" If there was ever a maliciously benevolent smile, it spread across Rarity's lips. Without hesitation, she began. "I would do everything in my power to make sure he falls head over heels for her. Through fair means or foul, he would see only her and treat her like royalty. They would date faithfully through their younger years and he would propose and I would get to plan a wedding!" She nearly squealed with delight at the scenario. "You don't think there would be any problems with that?" Twilight said, shaking her head. "Like being of different species?" "Oh pish posh. Love has a funny way of making things work out, you know. Haven't you ever read the fairy tales?" Of course she had. However, Twilight had frozen with fear at the mention of the 'L' word. It had far too much relevance to the cause of her now eradicated headache. A diversion was in order. "W-well how do you think Applejack would react if it was Applebloom?" "Applebloom?" Rarity actually had to think about this one for a moment. "I can't imagine that our Applejack would object. She has enough respect for him. Though I doubt that little filly has anything on her mind but her cutie mark." "Then that leaves Scootaloo." Twilight paused to go over what little information she had on the orange filly. "Where are her parents anyway? I don't recall ever meeting them." Rarity closed her eyes and flipped her hair to the side. "Probably one of those snobby Pegasus types that thinks anything beyond the clouds is beneath them. At least Rainbow Dash has taken her under her wing. She needs a parental figure at least somewhat involved in her life, even if that figure is Dash. Oh! That reminds me. Free up your schedule for Saturday. I need to get your ticket to you." Twilight tilted her head for a second. "For wha- Oh right! Their show. You got me one?" "Yes dear. Did you expect otherwise? From me?" "Well, no. But it's not as if I just expected you to take care of things or anything." "Mm. Well, you can pay me back by getting a hold of a balloon and getting that wing spell prepared for me." She blinked hopefully. Twilight was unaffected. "I think we'll just stick with the hoof enchantment. We don't need you falling to your death again." "Aw. Why not? I bet you could give them to all of us ground-bound ponies. I bet you would look stunning!" The more powerful unicorn blushed at the praise. "Oh stop. Could you imagine? Me? With wings?" Rarity laughed. "I do admit, it would be a silly sight. But you don't understand. It was such a thrill!" "To almost die?" Twilight quipped. The whiter unicorn shuddered. "Well the part before that was thrilling." "Yeah. I'm thinking no wings. We'll all gather here before we get going for the spell." She started to scan the shelves for that particular charm, noticing that said shelves were in better condition than she had remembered leaving them. I guess Spike does deserve a break, she thought. She felt Rarity's hoof on her shoulder. "I understand if you don't want to go on some wild excursion for your day off, but at least allow me to treat you to lunch. I still feel I owe you for...well, I haven't been quite fair with you recently." There was sincerity in those eyes behind what some would consider to be too much makeup. It felt as if a rather uncomfortable thorn had been removed from Twilight's temple but she gathered that it would be best kept from her. "Thanks, but you don't have to do this. It's alright, really." However, her stomach grumbled indignantly as it had been given nothing but tea since the previous day. Drugged tea, no less. "No. I insist." Rarity hurried her out of the library, which would evidently be left unattended for another day. "But I didn't even brush my hair." She immediately felt Rarity's magic weaving through her tangled mane. "There's no need to worry, dear. Now where would you like to go? It's entirely up to you." ... "This sucks this sucks this sucks this sucks," is what would have been coming from Rainbow Dash's mouth had her face not been thrust into a cloud. Her various bruises throbbed, but they were given none of her attention. They contributed only a background annoyance to her suffering. Practice was not going well, to say the least. Little to no progress was made since the previous day, largely due to the previous night. Although the routine was laid out in their minds, the two pegasi had yet to pull off a single maneuver without incident. The performance was littered with close flying and occasionally outright contact. This proved to be a problem when they attempted to meet. More attention was paid to the texture of each other's touch rather than their collective trajectory. Often times the results were "velvety" and "into something painful". Still, persistence could not be listed among their shortcomings. The craters in the mountainside could attest to that. Blitz flew sluggishly over to his partner's cloud, not bothering with any sort of acknowledgement of her presence. He probably would have messed it up anyway. He collapsed into the fluff, far more weary than he should have been given the activity. Flying was in his blood, or so he'd been told. Dash looked over to him. His chin rested on the floor as if he'd lost a boxing match, minus the small critters that normally circled the loser's head. He was tired. So was she. Not just fatigued physically. That would have been no problem. It was the thought. The wondering. The incapability of understanding what was going wrong. Or rather, the incapability of accepting it. "I don't know what to do," she thought out loud. No anger, no conviction. Just a statement of the truth. "We can't keep going on like this," Blitz continued for her. "We're getting nowhere." "We're running out of time," the mare added. "We need to do something." Dash didn't finish their game of "Finish my sentence". It would have been redundant anyway. The atmosphere was already screaming "But what?" She sighed and moved closer to her clone. She met his eyes for a fraction of a second, negotiating a tentative truce in whatever one could call conflict they were having. With her remaining courage sufficiently mustered, she spoke to him directly. "Alright. No more of this. No more sulking." Blitz rose and nodded his head sternly. "Yeah. We need to just get it all out in the open." "So. We're both a little..." She groped for the words. "Unsure?" he suggested. "Right. Unsure about how to handle what uh, went on last night." "And if we just say what's on our minds, it'll all be over and we can get back to work." "Yeah." A silence they were all to familiar with descended upon them. A silence of reluctance. Of doubt. Of discomfort. Neither wanted to begin what was sure to be an unenjoyable experience. Blitz faked a cough poorly. "You wanna go first?" "Um, no. You go first." "How about we take turns?" "That's fine. You can go first." "Dammit," he muttered. "So. Last night. We cud-c-cuddl, ugh." The words were cumbersome on his tongue. "We were laying pretty close together," he finished quickly, if not aptly. He motioned to Dash. She cringed. "So then, you went and, uh..." She swallowed. "...smelled my mane." Her cheeks approached the slightest shade of red. "Then I smelled your mane." Letting out a breath, she passed the conversational reins over to Blitz. There was no good way to say it, given the situation and the ponies involved. No way of dancing around the issue. "And..." He coughed again, genuinely this time. "At some point..." There didn't seem to be enough oxygen in the air. It must have been the altitude. Yeah. The altitude. "We..." How am I supposed to say this? Time ticked by and his momentum began to fade. He felt like flying away. He could too. Just pick a direction, go that way, and never see anypony ever again. He sucked in a breath, clamped his eyes shut, and loudly sputtered out the contents of his mind. "We made out! We made the hell out! You were on top of me and I felt you up!" He swallowed and flung his head back and forth. The well was opened and ready to flood the world. They were in much to deep to stop now. She frantically dumped what she had to say. "And it was hot! Really hot! I felt your hooves all over me and I tasted your tongue!" "So did I!" "Ugh!" "Ugh!" They howled in frustration and fell to the cloud, burying their faces. No effort was made to hide their now firmly propped up wings. It was out in the open. There would be no use hiding anything. Right? It wouldn't be long until sunset. The sky was becoming a slightly darker shade of blue and the wind was building up its chill. The echoes of two screams were all that permeated the otherwise serene valley landscape. And, of course, two trembling lumps high above it. Gradually, the pegasi emerged from the cloud. Looks of calm acceptance adorned their faces. With their eyes held shut, they took deep, synchronized breaths and adjusted their postures, trying to regain some dignity. Dash let out one more exhale before opening her eyes. Blitz looked back at her and nodded. "Alright," he said. "It's all there." "Uh huh," Dash replied. "Are we good now?" Blitz looked around, as if that would confirm whether or not he was good. "Sure. I think so." "Good," Dash said, sounding relieved. "Yeah." Blitz turned and trotted over to the edge opposite to Dash, looking out at the valley. Dash turned away from him as well. He laid back down on the cloud and tried to finally take in the landscape. There had been no time yesterday and no focus today. He could finally see the bushy trees, the specks of distinct color where small birds flew, and the thin streams that ran down and away from Canterlot Mountain. If he were a more poetic pony, he would see some sort of symbolism in the calm of nature and the new found calm in his life. The problem that nagged him all day was gone. "Hey Blitz?" the mare called, her voice quivering slightly. Blitz waited before answering uneasily, "Yeah?" "D-do you feel any different?" There was another pause. A double checking. Triple checking. Wouldn't want to be mistaken about this sort of thing. "Nope." A lump of some sort of heavy metal formed in his chest. His eyebrows crawled upward with concern. He didn't dare look back. "Neither do I..." Her voice trailed off, sowing the foreboding seeds of conflict in the air. The stallion didn't want to say it. To tip the precarious fantasy they had haphazardly built up. However, he feared he would burst if the topic was left to fester in his imagination. "Th-" he began hesitantly. "That didn't help at all, did it?" Some heat in his cheeks combated the weak wind at his face. "Nope." Their heads fell forward, their chins colliding with the cloud. On their stomachs, they shared a weary and frustrated sigh. "Dammit." "Dammit." Dash wore her least favorite expression as she scrutinized the water vapor that held her aloft. Defeat. Yup. Definitely water, she thought. So I guess we're screwed. No chance now. I wonder if I could just play off the whole contest like it's no big deal or I'm not interested or something. Her stomach churned with grief. Abject misery was not a very desirable feeling. And of course, it was accompanied by the resurfacing of inner Dash. What the hell are you doing? Moping. If abstract mental constructs could roll their eyes, this one would have. I can tell. Why is that? Cuz' we're screwed? Oh my Celestia. Seriously? Still with this? Get over it. Dash snorted inwardly. Easy for you to say. The voice snorted back. Yeah, it is. Which means it's just as easy for you. Now get up. I can't... Excuse me? "I can't"? Who are you even? I'm Rainbow Da- Rainbow Dash! You are Rainbow Dash! You saved Equestria several times and you're upset about this? About a boy? You know what? This isn't even about him anymore. You don't even have to pay attention to him. But, you are going to finish this. Come on. Up and at 'em. Dash reluctantly pushed herself onto her haunches. Optimism comes more naturally with a head held higher. She glanced at Blitz, who remained in the emergency sulking position. She racked her brain for any clue on how to deal with things. This sort of problem was relatively common among younger pegasi. Bashful fillies and foals have trouble being quite so close to one another in most cases. Luckily, instructors devised a fun greeting exercise in order to integrate the class when they were less than eager to cooperate. It was demeaning. It was humiliating. It was shameful, foalish, and any number of adjectives that Dash particularly did not approve of. Dash cracked her neck and rose to her hooves. "Get up. I've got an idea." Blitz complied without enthusiasm. "Alright." "Now," she began. "This is going to sound stupid." "Okay?" the stallion replied with uncertainty. "Like, I wouldn't be suggesting this if I didn't think we needed to." "Go on." "It actually is really stupid." "Just tell me already!" She sighed and drew upon the memories of flight camp. "Okay. Do you remember school at all?" Blitz checked his brain, which was little help as usual. He shook his head. "Well, in gym class, everypony usually didn't want to play any games where they had to fly close together and all that." She and Blitz shared a grimace at the likening of their predicament to the troubles of a young, shy child. "So, to fix that, the teacher would put us all in pairs and..." She trailed off. Blitz leaned in expectantly. "And what?" No, I'm not dragging this out again. she thought as she felt herself begin to falter again. "We would dance." The stallion blinked at the simplicity of the suggestion and also the bluntness with which his partner had shared it. "Dance?" he asked. "Dance," Dash repeated. "Together?" "Together." "Like, a slow dance?" "He- he called it a 'waltz'." The word "waltz" conjured images in Blitz's mind of snooty stallions in tight suits with snootier mares in too puffy dresses walking slowly and stupidly around the floor of some event that one would be very likely to try and miss. Dash could be accused of having to "tend to" her poor, sick friend "Bonburry" at a candy shop in Trottingham to miss just such an event. At any rate, he was not at all eager to be "waltzing". Especially with a mare he couldn't stand to lock eyes with, much less hooves. "Are you sure it will help?" he asked, doubt practically shouting through his eyes. "No," Dash admitted. "It probably won't. But I'm running out of ideas and we're running out of daylight." Indeed, the light was receding, but there was a whole day and the following morning before the deadline. Plenty of time to orchestrate their performance. A wave of exasperated apathy swept over Blitz. He felt there to be nowhere left to fall but off the cloud, and he was certain he could handle that drop. There was no reason not to try. "Okay," he said with some difficulty, rising to the air. "How are we going to do this?" Dash followed him up, hovering before him. "I never really paid attention to what exactly we were doing. To me, it just looked like we were flying around in circles-" "That sounds easy," Blitz said, sounding relieved. "-holding each other. Like this," she finished with a look that did not exactly inspire confidence or comfort. One foreleg curled around an invisible pony with the other held out on the opposite side, presumably holding the invisible pony's hoof. Blitz awkwardly mimicked the positioning, looking at her and imagining himself replacing the invisible pony. She would be holding on to him and he to her. Her hoof would be in his. He shivered. No, I can't. Can't do it. The voice brought forth its most disappointed tone. Oh no. Not this again. Can't do it, he repeated in his mind. Why not? And don't start with me on you being afraid. You both agreed. He offered no response to himself. If you can think of one reason to be afraid, I will gladly stop arguing with you. Go ahead. Name one. Still no reaction. His eyes were fixed upon the invisible pony. And, what with him being invisible and all, they naturally fell on Dash. Her legs were still held out in the air, of course. Inward conversations are notorious for brevity. She looked back at him, almost feeling the sensations of his invisible pony. Almost wanting to feel them. "I guess we should start," Blitz said quietly. He drifted toward her at a maddeningly slow pace. "I guess we should," Dash whispered. They had what could loosely pass as a collision, eyes held on their hooves as if they were paying all of their attention to their pose. Dash placed one on his shoulder and one off to the side. Blitz caught that one and held it aloft, perpendicular to their bodies. His other hoof wrapped around her waist, well above her tail. A protective father would have been satisfied. They spent some time just hovering in the air. Their wings eventually synchronized, bobbing them up and down as one. They made minute shifts in their positions and definitely did not pay attention to the soft, warm fur they each held before them. A thought crossed Dash's mind that made her want to throw up a little more. There was no music, save for the whistling breeze. There would be nothing to give them any indication of when and how to begin. In short, things were about to get awkward. Not if I start this first, she thought. "Okay," she said much more confidently than she felt. "Let's go." She gave a short flap of her wings to set them in motion. The maneuver at first propelled her muzzle further into Blitz's neck. She sighed, remembering the sensations from the previous night, then she quickly aimed her attentions elsewhere over his shoulder. The stallion held his head high, though not for dignity or any such delusion. He simply wanted to keep his nose as far from her mane as possible. Still, the tantalizing scent of fruit and flowers reached him, beckoning him into the multicolored thicket below him. He tried very hard to ignore the urge, though her surge toward him made this more difficult. Their straight line path hardly seemed like a dance, so some part of Blitz concerned more with style then desires beat one of his wings, sending the two pegasi into a slow spin. The new movement necessitated a slightly stronger hold on one another. However, they overestimated the force and drew each other inward tighter. Neither recoiled. Dash's breath grew heavy and hot. She could tell that Blitz's had done the same, given his quickly rising and falling chest. You're both nervous, her mind said softly, for once without disdain or sarcasm. Sooner or later, you'll have to accept that you're pretty much the same, said Blitz's. Afraid of the same things. But, Dash's continued. You have to remember, you probably want the same things too. They floated without change for several minutes. Their bodies relaxed as attention shifted from fidgeting to thought. "The same things..." Blitz breathed, staring off into the sky. Dash leaned her head back to look at him. "Hm?" "Oh, nothing," he dismissed. "Oh." She held her eyes on his face for a moment, then looked back over his shoulder. "You know, I never really liked how we always did this silly dance thing all slow." "I can see why," Blitz agreed. "It gets a little boring." "What say we bump it up a notch?" Fire kindled in her eyes, replacing the fear. He mouth curled up in the faintest of grins. He couldn't help but reciprocate. "You read my mind," he said. Then, with a swift motion of his wings, he sent them twirling faster. The increasing speed fueled her smile. The air once again became her element. That's all a situation needed to become fun again. A little speed. As she reveled in new found comfort, Blitz's smile grew mischievous. "Yo Dash. Heads up!" She hardly had enough time to say "What?" before the stallion pushed off of her, sending her spinning even faster. It was disorienting, but a pony that can handle the dizzitron can handle a little spinning. She scanned the world as it spun around her, looking for her partner. He appeared behind her, wrapping his hooves around her in a way that would make the aforementioned protective father somewhat uneasy. He didn't really absorb the impact so much as he simply matched her speed. His head leaned down next to hers, grinning wildly. "How's that?" he asked against the cold air blowing in their ears. Dash tilted her head back to rest on him. "Not bad, Blitzy. Not bad at all" She twisted back around to face him, pressing her hooves against his shoulders. "Only, I was thinking something a bit more like this!" As the words left her mouth, he felt himself being flipped upside down so his hind legs pointed toward the sky. Just as quickly, Dash shot off above him, leaving him only able to crane his neck downward, which was actually skyward, to watch her. A second of obscenely fast dashing later, she instantly stopped her upward motion and aimed back down for a dive. Eyeing Blitz's rotation carefully, she launched toward the ground with one powerful flap of her wings. The mare rocketed in the direction of the stallion's face, barely giving him enough time to move it out of the way, assuming he wasn't already going to spin into her. Her streamlined body was ground bound. Time slowed as she reached him. Her hooves pointed in front of her and her mane waved dazzlingly, seemingly suspended in the air. Without thinking, he clamped onto her, around her furled wings and slender frame. Their united entity still maintained most of Dash's speed and Blitz's spin, but he didn't really care much. His snout thrust into a wall a blue fur. With his eyes closed, he twisted his wings, arcing their course until they were parallel to the ground. All on instinct. Her neck closed around his head and her hooves clutched onto whatever part of him they could find. Blitz could feel every beat of her heart and every elated breath she took in. Suffice to say that he and she were well and truly enthralled. So enthralled, that neither saw the rather large clump of clouds that floated in their way. The pegasi drilled into the obstacle, feeling both their forward motion and their rotation abruptly slow down. The deceleration left them dazed and a bit woozy, but covered in fluff and clutching warmth. When they decided which way was up, they squirmed through the natural pillow until their upper halves were free. Dash took in gulps of unobstructed night air, throwing her head back to take in its cooling wind. Blitz just laid back, content to cool off without having to move. Dash found herself falling to the very same exhaustion soon enough and fell to the cloud. Rather, she fell to what separated her and the cloud, which turned out to be Blitz. She caught herself not an inch away from his face, breathing heavily onto him and looking directly into his half closed eyes. The world left them behind as they stayed in that position. The night just proceeded around them as they processed their options. One reason... Blitz reached to her head to gently sweep her mane from her face. The same things... Dash's forelegs grew week and tucked themselves over his shoulders as she fell. Her mouth closed around his. Their eyelids fell. Instincts took over as their conscious minds went blank. ...