//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Spike and Rainbow Dash // by winzaur //------------------------------// There she stood at the best young flyers competition where she had just won first place and the coveted prize. This year, the trophy she was receiving was a beautifully stuffed purple dragon plushie and Rainbow loved it. She squeezed it against her as she stood on the platform taking in the cheering fans and the monarchs standing behind her. The chants of the crowd filled her ears as she heard them say over and over. “Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!” “Rainbow Dash!” “Dash wake up!” Rainbow rolled over a bit in her sleep, clutching her prize closer towards her and burying her face in the soft…Scales? Her eyes shot open and she slowly looked up to see Spike staring at her with a confused expression. “Hi…?” Rainbow froze in position, her eyes darting around looking for an escape from this extremely awkward encounter. Unfortunately, in her sleep, Rainbow had managed to entangle herself with Spike in such a way, escape was an impossible hope. “Um, Hi Spike…” Rainbow said, her face turning as red as her mane. “How’s it hanging?” “Rainbow you don’t have to move you know. You’re kinda comfy anyways.” Spike said, a smile on his face. “Friends can be giant pillows for other friends, it’s cool. It’s still dark; we can sleep for a bit more if you want.” He said closing his eyes and pulling her closer and falling back asleep. Rainbow lay there for a couple more seconds, before a giant internal squee took hold of her. She snuggled deeper into Spike’s now willing embrace and sighed to herself. “Best day ever.” ___________ Across town, two ponies were having their own interesting morning experience. It started in much the same way that Rainbow and Spike’s did, but it ended in a rather more violent way. Rarity was standing in the middle of Celestia and Luna’s court, receiving an official certificate of gratitude for the creation of the new royal dress line. She made a low bow to the monarchs, and grabbed her prince charming who swept her up in a hug. They looked deep into each other’s eyes, and as they leaned in for the kiss, he turned purple. Then he screamed in an extremely high voice, “RARITY GET OFF ME.” The next thing that Rarity knew, she was flying across a room that was definitely not the royal throne room. As she “landed” on the bookshelf, Rarity opened her eyes to see a very embarrassed Twilight Sparkle, wings outstretched. “You tried to kiss me!” “Ahem, yes well. I was having the loveliest dream. Then I collided with a bookcase. How has your morning been Twilight?” Rarity said, a combination of annoyance and embarrassment evident on her face. “Well, there was a Rarity on me, and then it tried to kiss me, so I did what any sensible mare would do. I launched it at a bookcase.” Twilight said, attempting to get her wings under control. “What’s the plan for today?” “I was hoping we could get some breakfast together, but I feel like this incident has put a damper on that whole idea. I’m going to the bathroom to find something to put on this nasty terrible scratch from the bookcase event. I shall join you, in the lounge.” Rarity said, walking into the bathroom. Twilight shook her head and trudged off to the kitchen to prepare some sort of food that required absolutely no appliances. When Rarity came down the stairs, Twilight was sitting at the table with her head in her hooves, smoke rising from the glass of milk on the counter. She looked up when she heard Rarity enter and glared, “Don’t even ask.” After a quick run to Sugarcube Corner, Twilight and Rarity were on their way to observe the latest shenanigans of Spike and Rainbow, neither of them noticing that they walked a little closer together. ___________ Spike and Rainbow got out of bed at 10 o’clock; they ate a light breakfast of pancakes -courtesy of Spike - and prepared for the days training. “What do you want to do today Rainbow? We have a lot of time to practice still.” Rainbow looked at Spike and smiled. “Yeah, I was thinking we head over to the hill area we were at last time, makes the crashes less painful.” She laughed with Spike as they both remembered the last time Rainbow practiced. She got quiet though and said to Spike, “Thanks for this morning Spike, I needed the sleep, I've just been so nervous for the competition,” hoping that Spike wouldn’t realize that it was just an excuse for cuddling. Spike looked at her, shook his head and smiled, “No problem Rainbow,” Spike said. The two left the cloud house and sped off towards their practice area. Spike hoped off of Rainbow’s back as they arrived, he said “Alright, you need to really wow the judges with your stunts this time Dash. I say leave the sonic rainboom for the grand finale and focus on the other tricks for now.” Rainbow nodded, took a quick breath, and leapt into the air to begin her routine. She started with a quick roll to make sure she was all warmed up before beginning her acceleration to trick speed. Once she thought she was going fast enough, she began her first loop, leaving a small rainbow trail behind her. In the middle of the loop though, her mind filled with images of her morning encounter with Spike and her wings immediately locked up. She started to fall for a few seconds before her instincts kicked back in and she regained her path. Rainbow shook her head trying to clear the images from her mind. ‘That was weird,’ she thought to herself, ‘He’s an awesome guy but I shouldn't be that distracted by him.’ She looked down and saw Spike watching, looking a little a concerned, but otherwise still smiling. “You got this Rainbow!” He shouted, waving to her. “Thanks Spike,” Rainbow turned back to her path and resumed her routine. She attempted the loop and continued on with the rest of her routine without incident. As she reached the last trick in her routine, Rainbow felt the unfamiliar feeling of fear. Every time she had attempted this trick it had resulted in her crashing and nearly causing Spike injury. She paused for a few seconds and began her dive towards the ground. As she went faster and faster she tried to remember when she needed to pull up, but the speed was becoming too much for her. All of a sudden, she saw a burst of green fire and immediately began to pull up. Spike sighed with relief, as he saw Rainbow pull up at the last minute, narrowly avoiding collision with the ground. He had been trying so signal her earlier but she couldn’t hear him over the noise of the wind. Rainbow landed and ran over to Spike who gave her a huge hug. “Thanks for that Spike, didn’t know when I needed to stop the dive.” Rainbow said, laughing and shivering from how close that was. Spike didn’t say anything as he looked her over, trying to make sure that she was actually all right. Rainbow watched as the dragon checked for any possible injury before sighing and joining her in her laugh. “Hey Rainbow,” “Yeah Spike?” “Let’s not keep doing that. As much fun as you are to look at, I’d rather not actually find an injury.” Spike said, “We still have some time left if you want to go get something to eat before I head home?” ___________ “Well that was pointless.” Twilight said, as she and Rarity entered Sugarcube Corner. “Hey Pinkie are you here?” “Hiya Twilight! What’s new? Ooo or what’s old? Or maybe-” Pinkie continued on as Twilight looked at her. “Pinkie, can we just get some food? Rarity and I had a long day.” Twilight said, pointing to Rarity who was busy using the utensils to plot her next reconnaissance operation. “Besides, she gets a little crazy without food.” “I heard that!” Rarity exclaimed, not looking up from her intricate design. “What do you want guys want? I can pretty much whip up anything back here.” Pinkie said. “We’ll just grab some hayfries Pinkie, nothing to special.” Twilight replied slowly trudging over to her seat. “Okie dokie lokie! Two orders of hayfries on the way!” “Dear, do be careful, your head is resting on the escape part of the plan.” Rarity said, “I need absolute concentration if we are to find where our two mystery friends are!” “How bout right behind you?” Twilight said as she pointed at the two who had just walked in. “Twilight,” Rarity said, her voice taking on any icy tone. “Fetch my box, we have work to do.”