//------------------------------// // Are you Done? // Story: Graphs // by Mozzarella //------------------------------// "To be cool is to dash. To be awesome is to dash rainbows." Graphs *** It seemed like the right thing to do at first. Let's be honest. Who doesn't dream of pulling some climactic stunt or emotional act to see if it feels as cool as it looks in the movies? We'll slam doors in a huff and wait for a chance to say some line we've been working on for several sleepless nights. But it never works out. We end up worrying about the state of the door and missing the opportunity to use the line. But we'll continue to act in the hopes that some day we will feel awesome. Dash wasn't feeling too awesome. She should have felt awesome. She got closer to her idols than ever before. She was having a nice night out with friends. She was even about to blow everypony's minds with some sick moves. Then Lightning screwed it up. And then Blitz continued to screw up. Seeing as Lightning already had a black eye and a loose tooth, that only left one screw-er up-er to deal with. It took Dash a minute or so of blindly flying around before she considered that she was searching for her clone. Surely, wherever he thought to run off to, she could figure out on her own. So where would I go if I screwed up? A cloud, of course. Not much help there, what with all the clouds in Cloudsdale. So more specifically, a high cloud. No. The highest of clouds. She turned her head upward. Sure enough, there was one small puff higher than the rest, just big enough to conceal a pony that screwed up. "Can't run or hide from me, Blitz." ... Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! went Blitz's mind. He lay on the most hidden cloud he could find, curled up as small as he could make himself while he clutched his head in his hooves. Not the most dignified of states. But hey, at least he wasn't rocking back and forth. Anymore. That kiss, if it could be called that, had made him want to throw up, which was somewhat odd. It's not as if Lightning Dust was unattractive or anything. She had the face and the body that plenty of stallions would be happy to find putting them in a choker hold. So what made Blitz react how he did? "I don't freaking know! It was wrong! It was just wrong!" In reality, he could not care less about what made Lightning Dust repulsive aside from her personality. Hating her was just more pleasant than considering the other, more pressing issue. The stallion groaned and buried his muzzle in the cloud. Why couldn't she have been an assassin or something? Then I wouldn't have to figure out all this bull. I would get to die without pissing anypony off or losing the mare I lo- He stopped himself and sat up quickly as something clicked in his head. "Why am I moping around?" he asked the cloud. "I'm Rainbow-freaking-Blitz! I don't quit 'cause I tripped up. I should fly back there, march up to her, and-" "Blitz!" yelled a familiar and annoyed voice from below. "Come out!" Such a ball of lead dropped into the stallion's gut that he probably should have been worried about lead poisoning. However, the fight or flight response was doing a good job of toning down any other concerns, even if it chose hide instead of its eponymous actions. I can't talk to her right now! How do I even explain what happened? "Yeah I was just walking there and then she kissed me"? She won't believe that. I'm done. I ruined it. He thrust his head back into the cloud along with the rest of him and wished to disappear off the face of Equestria. ... "Seriously?" Dash muttered at the sight of a poorly hidden and shivering Rainbow Blitz. "Does he think that's gonna save him?" She walked silently over to him and pondered how to draw him out of the flimsy cocoon he built himself. Say something? Nah. Startle him? Closer. Blitz yelped as a high velocity hoof collided with his flank, nearly sending him off the edge of his hiding spot. Momentarily forgetting his guilt and fear, he looked up indignantly at his attacker with a threat on his tongue. He promptly froze. An audible gulp could be heard. Quite the contrast from her clone's, Dash's face portrayed absolutely nothing. She frowned, of course. But nothing else could be discerned from that visage. Somehow, that made her even more frightening. Blitz's mind raced, preparing for the inevitable. Excuses and explanations were considered and discarded at a record speed. His dismal outlook seemed to think that none of them would dig him out of this quandary. "Well?" Dash asked with no inflection. The stallion opened his mouth as if he was about to speak, despite the fact that there were no words in that head to begin with. No good ones, anyway. But silence definitely wasn't the right answer. This was clear enough given the mare's look of growing impatience. Alright. Words. I should do words. The croak that escaped his mouth was not a word. To his displeasure, it strongly resembled the voice of somepony who had been crying or was about to start. And Blitz was neither of those things. Definitely. "I-I... I didn't...I..." He had become stuttering personified and it was not helping his case in the slightest. Dash, still unamused, leaned her head closer in the hopes that one of the I's would be followed by a sentence. "You what?" Although it had only been a few days, it would still be mostly correct to say that Blitz's life flashed before his eyes. Most of said life just so happened to center on the angry mare in front of him. He saw their shocking meeting and their awkward interaction. He saw the determination on her face whenever they flew. He saw the realization in her eyes as they finally gave in to what they wanted. The laughs. The taunts. The banter. All of his memories involved her. And all of them were happy. Pretty good, quipped a voice inside him that had been silenced not long ago. Yeah, he answered darkly. The voice sighed. Listen. I'm only gonna tell you this one more time. Don't give up with this just because you're an idiot. Thanks, but it's too late. I betrayed her. True to its word, the voice remained silent. The stallion's attention snapped back to his double, a more somber image than he saw in his dreams. But it was a pleasant sight nonetheless. Well, she deserves an explanation. He gathered his courage, swallowed his pride, and prepared for the worst. "Look. I- I didn't mean to do it, alright? She just sort of popped up and jumped me. I hated it, like, a lot. I shouldn't have even let her get that far, but she surprised me, alright? I said before she was acting weird, right? I told her to stop, you know! And she went on with it! I mean, come on! What the hell?!" Dash blinked lazily. "I know! That doesn't make it okay. I'm sorry, alright? Really sorry! I've really liked what we've had going on, whatever it is. I wasn't trying to screw it up! It just happened! I would never want to betray you! I- I love you!" The blink was not at all lazy this time as she sucked in an inaudible breath. Blitz slouched forward and bowed his head. "I'm sorry. I love you and I'm sorry." The words hung in the cool night air, neither pegasus making an attempt to disturb them. Not that they were even able to do so. Blitz didn't have much left in him after pouring his heart out, however incoherent its contents may have been. Dash's ears were still ringing from the bombshell he just dropped. But it's much easier to recover from shock than from helplessness. After setting aside one particular remark that would be addressed later, Dash took another step forward. "Are you done?" she asked, still without much emotion. The stallion nodded without raising his gaze from the worst hiding spot ever. Given time, he might have continued his spiel in a more elegant manner. Or said goodbye. Or maybe he might have walked off in a nice climactic, tear-jerking display that would leave the audience with a large debt to tissue manufacturers. But instead, he was met with yet another high velocity hoof. This time to the face. Dash shook the aching recoil off of her hoof as her clone fell onto his side. "I could almost care what you and your secret admirer were doing back there." Dash's inflection was back in full force, which was both refreshing and painful. Blitz rubbed his cheek and felt around his mouth for his teeth. "W-what?" "Is that really why you think I'm here?" "You're not mad?" he asked, thoroughly confused. "Mad? I'm furious!" "I'm sorry!" "Sorry isn't gonna cut it. You're making me miss the Wonderbolts right now! The Wonderbolts!" The stallion's eye twitched. He didn't know whether he should laugh, sob, or both. "What?" "No what's," she said, grabbing him by the foreleg. "Now come on. We can still catch the end." Blitz yanked his hoof away and turned Dash to face him. "Hold up. You don't care about Lightn-" She rolled her eyes and sat back on her hind legs. "Please. You think I feel threatened by your little stalker?" She ran a hoof along her back, emphasizing her own flanks. "You wouldn't give this up for her. You're not that stupid." Blitz fell onto his haunches with a tired expression. "I don't understand anything anymore. Am I in trouble?" "Not if you move your ass! Let's go!" She crouched to take off, but just as her hooves left the cloud, she felt her weight disappear as two blue hooves tucked under her back and lifted her. Before she could look up and give a flirtatious grin, the stallion had already brought her lips to his. Relieved to see her clone being forward, she closed her eyes and wrapped her forelegs around him. They drifted lazily in the direction of the stadium, Dash no longer in much of a rush to see the show. Breathing, however, remained a pressing issue. So they parted, panting, content to simply look at one another. Blitz sighed and shook his head. "Have I ever told you how cool you are?" The mare laughed and pulled in closer. "Love you too, Blitzy." ... "Doooooooooooouble Raaaaaaaaaaaaaainbow!" called Vinyl Scratch into her microphone. "Where aaaaaaaaaaare you?" "Settle down, Vinyl," reprimanded her co-MC. "We have rules, remember? If they don't show up promptly, we have to disqualify them." "What!? Nononono. We're not disqualifimying this one." "Why's that?" "'Cause they're gonna be cool, that's why! Would you disqualify cool?" The sound of the grey mare's sigh had become very familiar to the audience over the course of the competition. "How do you know they will entertain? Have you met them?" "Uh. Sort of. I spoke to them, like, twice." "Have you seen them fly?" "Err..." "So what makes them so special?" "They chose Pendulum, Tavi! Pendulum! Can't you feel the goosebumps just thinking about it? I want the rush so bad!" There was the sigh again. "We're waiting whether I want to or not, aren't we." The unicorn nodded emphatically. "Very well. Please excuse us while we take yet another intermission. A brief-" she shot her partner a sharp look, "-intermission." ... Rarity huffed and raised her chin. "Hmph. And here I was thinking that mare had class. She wants to skip over our Dash's performance!" "Here we go again," sighed Twilight. "She doesn't want to skip them. They just have a schedule to keep." "Don't tell me you believe that. In case you haven't noticed, this isn't the best organized event out there.They have a second to spare." "I don't know, Rarity," Fluttershy chimed in. "They shouldn't give anypony any special treatment. That wouldn't be fair." The purple unicorn grinned. "Thank you Fluttershy. Good to see that somepony understands rules." The white one readied a rebuttal only to be interrupted by a less proper voice. "Aw, settle down both a' ya'. Ya'll have been bickerin' all night. Jus watch like the rest of us, alright?" "We were not bickering," Rarity objected. "We were having a discussion." Pinkie's forelegs somehow managed to shush all of them. "Everypony be quiet! Something's happening!" A silent moment passed among them. Long enough for Pinkie's elongated arms to begin to look rather creepy. Fluttershy daintily removed the pink appendage. "Um. Pinkie? I don't see anything." The party pony pouted and scanned the sky. "That's weird. I could have sworn I felt a tickle on my neck." "What does that one mean?" "Something cool is about to happen!" That's when the lightning struck. ... There it was. That feeling. The pounding in her heart. The grin that wouldn't go away. To call it a swarm of butterflies would be insulting to the tempest in her stomach. It was a good tempest, though. Like the kind that would give the fillies and foals a day off of boring school. Across the stadium, her partner met her gaze and wagged his eyebrows. She responded in kind. The crowd was silent. That was new. Dash preferred some fanfare, but awe was good too. "I take it the two ponies who rode in on two rainbow lightning bolts are the members of team Double Rainbow?" Octavia asked her partner, eliciting from her an exasperated sigh. "You would find a way to ruin a moment like that," she grumbled. "Sorry folks. She's got a rod up her rump like this big." "This again? I thought you said you'd be coming up with new jokes." "They've had enough of this for one night. Can we just get to the show?" "You're the one on the records." Vinyl glared at her and turned back to the two ponies who came in so awesomely. They gave her a nod and she flipped the switch. ... Alright. So they haven't broken up or emotionally scarred each other. Whatever. There's still no real reason to make more clones. Twilight's concentration was broken after an electronic groan pierced her skull. It was short lived, thankfully, and the song moved right into some nice, intellectually stimulating lyrics. Said lyrics were accompanied by some loud drums but hey, she wasn't picky at the moment. Of course the singer was yelling. She'd expected as much after the past few performances. But tone was meaningless in the face of meaning, so the unicorn pushed through the unpleasant sounds to hear the words. The singer began with a diatribe concerning some forgone conclusion or event. Despite the anger, there was a bitter satisfaction in the voice. Twilight smirked at the relevance. Just as the singer had begun, the colorful pegasi burst from their perches toward the clouds spread out around the performance area. At speeds only attainable by comic book superheros, the duo set about gathering the fluffy mounds in a vortex at the stadium's center I couldn't possibly make clones just for the fun they might have with them, said the part of her mind still obsessing about the issue. There's no reason to do it. So I won't. Once all the clouds were drawn into a single, pulsating mass, the performers began to widen their circle and decrease their speed, their rainbow trails growing shorter in the process. It was at this moment that Twilight heard a rather troubling lyric that contradicted the resolve she had built up. "'Cause it's simple. You were wrong.You must have known that we'd end up alone." What? Who's wrong? I'm not wrong. The singer proceeded to dismiss the subject's intentions. He also uttered a dirty word that was poorly edited out. Everypony could tell what he said. Without any warning but the song's crescendo, Dash and Blitz bolted into the center of their arc, bursting the clouds into a colorful shock wave that would have harmed the audience had the pegasi not appeared before its wake to guide it back inward. The pair began to corral the storm of now rainbow-colored clouds back into the stadium's center to the tune of the song's wordless chorus, allowing it to expand each time the bass got louder. Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder and then reacted to it three pokes later. It was Rarity wearing an expression of absolute awe. "Do you see this? How do they even do all of that?" The purple unicorn had to fight through some awe of her own to find the answer in the cavernous database that was her brain. "Well, uh, they're focusing some of their power on shaping their trails and leaving- wow- leaving a whole lot of it behind in those clouds. There must be a lot concentration to keep those things stable for so long after being released! And to be flying like that must be taking so much effort and synchronization on their part! How do they- they shouldn't- nopony should be able to do that!" Rarity shook her head, still looking just as bewildered as before. "Huh. They really are amazing. And they've accomplished all this in just a few days! Can you believe this Twilight?" Seeing is believing, as the old saying went and it would have been hard for her to not see it. But there were other things she was seeing at the moment if her mumbling under her breath was any indication. She kept mouthing the word "accomplish". Double Rainbow pushed their props back into the center while the song repeated what must have been its refrain a couple more times. When it was about to repeat for a fifth time, the tune abruptly and momentarily slowed. At that point, the duo looped upwards as one, crashing through the clouds and splitting into two oddly distinct colored bullets. Dash pulled ahead in their path around the borders of the Cloudiseum, flying in smooth, graceful arcs as a relatively high-pitched synthesizer played. Blitz then cut in when a guttural bass played, leaving a trail of vertical zigzags that looked sharp enough to slice a cloud in half. Granted, that wasn't difficult. But come on. You can't expect magically enhanced water vapor to be that high on Mohs scale of hardness. They continued their back and forth with each change in the melody until a new higher pitched grind of a synthesizer appeared. With it, Dash and Blitz corkscrewed around one another until their nearly opaque auras merged into one straight line circling the stadium. "Alright," growled a griffon in front of the pony posse. "I'll admit it. You ponies are making me a little jealous with all the magic and crap. That really does look cool." Spitfire nudged her foreleg. "Hey, come on. You griffons have cool stuff too. I mean, look at how much bigger your wings are." Gilda snorted. "Yeah yeah. They're great in the bedroom. But we still don't get awesome light shows. You know what we have in the Griffon Kingdom? Freakin' interpretive dance! Like, seriously?" Soarin shrugged. "Well, you've got the whole 'perfect killing machine' thing going for you. That's gotta count for something, right?" "Yeah, that does help sometimes," the bird creature admitted, examining her claws. "Of course, with anger issues..." she trailed off. A pair of yellow hooves wrapped around her shoulders. "Don't say things like that," Fluttershy said in her most soothing voice. "You're doing a great job already. Right girls?" A round of disinterested agreements washed over them from those in the vicinity. Excluding Twilight, of course. She still sat with her mouth hanging open staring at the flyers. If they can do all of this together, what could I do? What could everypony do? She remained so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the victorious smile on her fellow unicorn's face. The performing ponies traveled skyward together, carrying their rainbow payload in the air around them as the music took up a slower and bouncier pace. We could do so much. We could help so many ponies. "Here we go again," echoed an electronic voice from the speakers through the Cloudiseum. The magically infused cloud continued its relatively sluggish ascent with the ever intensifying build up. The crowd strained their necks to see the shrinking orb in the night sky. Just before the music reached its climax, the duo plummeted toward the poorly placed safety floor. At their increasingly dizzying speed, it seemed unlikely that they would avoid it. So they charged ahead anyway. Screw consequences. The synthetic screech grew louder and flames began to engulf the colorful comet approaching Equestria's atmosphere. When it reached the height of the edifice's highest floor, the singer let out a primal howl. Right on queue, the comet exploded with an ear-shattering boom. Oddly enough, there was some legislation in Canterlot that was trying to ban low altitude sonic booms. After the show, the bill would be edited to include the apparently not mythical Sonic Rainboom. It was overwhelmingly vetoed on the grounds of trying to decrease awesomeness. Arguments for ear health fell on ironically def ears. Don't worry about the audience's ears, though. With all the speed they had built up, Dash and Blitz had no problem moving faster than the product of their velocity to yet again corral the shock wave around the rim of the stands. They may or may not have caused irreparable damage to the floor in the process, but who cares. The pulsating whirlpool seemed much more violent this time around. Its edges crackled with magical electricity and it produced a rather strong gust that swallowed a few scattered pieces of food debris. Over the course of the refrain, the pegasi managed to compress the torrent into a blob too unstable and too gelatinous to be called a sphere. As the song reached its final verse, the pegasi launched into a tilting orbit about the prismatic mass to surround it from all angles. What would have been a good example of electronic music phased into a tune that would have been more appropriate for the shower scene of a horror movie. Dash and Blitz increased their angular speed until their trails formed a complete sheath around the cloud bomb they created. The sound grew along with the bomb along with the anxiety of the audience. For some reason, a crackling and pulsating ball in the middle of a crowded area made them nervous in spite of its eccentric hue. Rainbows were usually friendly, but these looked angry. In an awesome way. The music intensified. Ponies inched forward on their seats. Eyes widened. With a rapid drumbeat, the two showponies burst out of their mind-boggling path from opposite sides. In a split second, they arced under the bomb and unleashed the beast. Had one been listening to the song without a show, it would have faded to silence. Very tasteful. But those who attended the show- and ponies from several miles around- were treated to the loudest crash of thunder they would ever experience with the brightest flash they'd ever be lucky enough not to see head on. Blindness lingered for a few moments. When everypony managed to rub the light out of their eyes, they looked up to see a single, massive bolt of white lightning reaching far beyond the heavens. Weird, I know. Those things usually fade pretty quickly. The applause was immediate and overwhelming. Simply yelling wouldn't do for this one. They would have to clap their hooves together to properly praise that performance. Soon, the lightning faded enough to reveal the pegasi who created it: a mare hovering effortlessly back to back with a stallion. Both wearing sunglasses, of course. The crowd only went more wild at their nonchalance. "Hey Blitz?" the mare whispered without turning her head. "Wanna give 'em one more show?" "You know it," he replied, turning and taking her in his forelegs. They made out to the hollering of Vinyl and the rest of the audience. ... "The library. Tomorrow. Early." Four faces brightened at those words and turned to the purple source. "Are you sure, Twilight?" Pinkie said with puppy dog eyes that would put actual puppy dogs to shame. "No. So we might as well do it before I change my mind." Satisfied, the pony posse turned their attention to their two friends approaching from the air. "Hey everypony," they said in unison. "What'd ya think?" A wave of praise met them, ranging from "Nice" to "Ohmygoshthatwassuperamazingfantasticdoitagain". "Yeah," Blitz said with his smug face. "It was, wasn't it?" Spitfire rested a foreleg casually on Soarin. In reality, she needed the support to remain upright. It looked innocent enough, though. "It certainly was impressive. We might have to break out the real moves next time, eh Soarin?" Soarin lost in poker a lot. "Heh heh. Yeah. I guess so. You ready to go?" "Mhm. Later everyone!" The Wonderbolts received a few puzzled looks and one sad one from the veteran party pony. "Leaving? But it's not over!" "Eh, Pinkie?" Dash said with uncertainty. "I'm not too sure the next one's gonna be all that great." "Ohhh, that's right! The meanies are up next!" "Ya ain't even gonna wait to see if y'all won?" drawled the farmer. Dash yawned. "They have our address. Besides, it's been a long day. I'm about ready to turn in myself." "I wouldn't mind skipping ahead of the crowd," Twilight added. "I have a few preparations to take care of for tomorrow anyhow." Rarity shot her a knowing smile. "Splendid. To the balloon, girls. It's been a lovely evening, but I must get my beauty sleep." Those with wings took to the air, not bothering with silly things like doors and hallways. Excluding one shy pegasus, of course. The rest started up the stairs. ... "Remind me to work the team harder tomorrow," Spitfire mumbled into her ride's ear. She might have fallen asleep on his back had she not been afraid he would pass out mid-air. "We don't have a practice scheduled for tomorrow," he replied. "Did you or did you not see their show? Did you not hear how they were talking about it? Those two thought that thing up in a few days! We've got to get to work or they'll blow by us!" "Will do, Captain. Can't promise I'll be too much good, though. You're lucky I have the strength to carry you right now." She squeezed his neck harder. "Don't worry, Soarin. I'll work you extra hard" she whispered into his ear. The stallion hoped the mare on his back was being flirtatious and not serious. Although, with his fickle luck, it was probably both. ... "Really, though. I mean it. Early. I don't want anypony seeing five ponies come in and ten ponies come out over the course of the day. Before daybreak." The balloon's basket rocked with the force of several nods. They had nearly reached the ground. "I'm so glad you came around, Twilight," Rarity said with genuine gratitude. "Yeah, sure. I'm doing this for the good of Equestria, not for us to have fun. Okay?" They nodded again, this time failing to rock the basket on the ground. The purple unicorn hopped out. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few runes to draw." The others exited as well, off to their respective homes. Applejack stuck to her most fashionable friend for a moment. "Ah gotta say, ya really are good at this." "Thank you, darling. You know I do try." "Ah just hope it don't blow up in our faces," AJ said having forgotten the sadistic humor of the fates. "Oh come now. What could go wrong?" Somewhere in the cosmos, three old ladies cackled as they plucked a string. ... What they had done could only roughly be considered brushing of the teeth, even by Dash's standards. But there was sleeping to do. And sleeping is much higher on the list than hygiene. They sighed as they melted into each other beneath the blankets, squirming slightly just to feel the sensation more. "What's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Blitz asked into Dash's mane where his muzzle currently resided. The mare turned her face up from the crook of his neck. "Work, then whatever. Never too much to do on a weekend. I usually nap, fly around a little, reread some Daring Doo..." "Daring Who?" "Daring Do. You know, that book series with-" Her eyes popped open. "Oh yeah. You don't know. Huh." "Is it good?" "'Is it good?'" she laughed. "Well I know what we're doing tomorrow. I've got to get you to the library!" ...