Rainbow Dash eased the door shut quietly as she snuck into the cottage. A few animals spotted her coming in and watched long enough to confirm the nighttime intruder was someone they new before returning to their nocturnal rituals. Rainbow slid off her yellow saddlebags with pink cloud fastener and hung them on the rack next to the door, alongside the blue bags with a rainbow winged butterfly buckle. She smiled at the sight of the bags.
She would unpack in the morning, or she would try to unpack but instead be herded to comfy spot on the couch repeatedly until she forgot about the bags completely and her housemate would sneakily unpack them. It was as underhanded as she would ever admit to being, even though Rainbow knew she was manipulated by her in a dozen other tiny ways everyday they spent together, and probably more that she wasn’t aware of. Any other pony she would likely object to the little ways she found to manage Rainbow, but this pony was special, her special somepony, and she knew that that pony would sooner smother a bunny than do something that wasn’t in Rainbow’s best interest.
And, Rainbow conceded, if it ever became really annoying she could just have them talk about it and they would come up with some way for both of them to be happy, even if it meant one of them would have to learn a lesson. Over the years Rainbow had come to appreciate those “fights” almost as much as the periods where they got along with no issue at all. They’d come so far by helping each other in ways Rainbow was sure she would never have managed on her own, and vice versa. Not that she would admit that to anypony, the two ponies involved both knew what they did for each other and rarely felt the need to point it out.
Rainbow shook herself out of her thoughts and slid out of her uniform, scratching herself in phases as she peeled it off. She’d never have thought, back when she started out, that the tight uniform pressing on her coat all day would be itchy when it came off. With a final negligent flick she kicked it to land next to the door where one of the critters on their way out dragged it outside for her. She nodded and started for the stares before halting and rushing back to her bags.
She rummaged for a moment inside before withdrawing with a wrapped box in her teeth alongside a plastic wrapped chocolate carrot. Anything she left in the bags would certainly be found by tomorrow evening. Anything she hid in the house would be found only a bit later than that. She flew silently over to where Angel was sleeping in his bed and placed both items next to him. The usual pay for the usual job, the present would be hidden until later that week when Rainbow needed it to give to Shy.
Nodding to herself she again silently flapped her way through the house to alight outside the room they shared. She nosed open the door and saw that Fluttershy was already tucked into bed, not moving except for the easy raising and lowering of her breath. Rainbow smiled and tip-hoofed into the room. She recognized Shy was still awake since Shy had an adorable whistling noise she made when she slept, but she let the illusion stay and as quietly as she’d flown, slipped into the bed. Shy’s habit of staying up to make sure Rainbow got home on the nights before her breaks was one of Shy’s nervous habits, and Dash knew she wouldn’t sleep until she was sure Dash was home and safe. She had tried to work out a way to get rid of all of Fluttershy’s crazy fears but eventually had come to the realization that it was easier to let the yellow mare have some of the harmless ones if it would let her rest her mind, and it opened up the opportunity for Dash to help her put down her worse crippling fears, like her self-doubt and social anxieties.
Those same fears had been what Fluttershy had used to settle Rainbow Dash in the early days of their relationship. She was ashamed to admit it, but Rainbow had suffered some pretty outlandish fears where Fluttershy was concerned as well, especially considering her worthiness to be with the yellow pony. It had taken both of them a long time and some conflict to get to the point where they could accept that the other pony wasn’t hurting herself by being with them.
Rainbow wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy and nosed her way into her mane, inhaling the deep flowery scent and feeling her body relax as she exhaled her mind’s final signal that it was rest time now and she was home where she belonged. She heard Fluttershy inhale deeply as well and had no doubt she could smell the sweat from her flight home. Rainbow had realized after the eighteenth time or so that Fluttershy demanded she bathe before bed after practicing that she probably should shower before bed after the nights she had to get home late. The one time she’d done so however Fluttershy had slept so fitfully that Dash had sworn never to do so again, and since Fluttershy had still never uttered a single complaint.
Rainbow closed her eyes and waited, and after a minute heard a gentle whistling fill the room. She smiled and moments later the whistling was drowned out by the rainbow pegasi’s, still loud but not as bad as they used to be, snores.