Chapter 2: Gotcha and Best Night Ever.
All was calm amongst the clouds; or at least, amongst the wild herd that moved away from the bustling noise emitted from the cities of the sky, shied away from the adoring looks cast by ponies below, and diverted away from the usual airways that the flocks of birds flew. It was amongst such cottony aerosols that two pegasus were able to lie down and relax, with no discomfort of noise pollution to disrupt their tranquillity, small talk, and brief naps.
Rainbow Dash was one of the ponies, a pony one would not usually expect to enjoy the comforts offered by an area of seclusion, but she appreciated where she was now. It was not a place she had been too before, but it was a type of place she had been too, trekking the surface of wild clouds yet to be reformed into architecture or weather duties. She would seek them out to take naps, finding herself at ease not only to touch hooves down against the clouds damp but always cushiony surface that she preferred over the solid dirt her other friends trotted, but also enjoying the wild curled appearance it all had, a messy look that cried out, "Freedom!"
Fluttershy, the other pony atop the clouds, was a flying creature that would much rather have her hooves set firmly on the ground and yet, at the moment, she did not want to be anywhere else more so than upon the savage mass of liquid droplets. In part it was the peace and quiet, which while she could also obtain at ground level said quiet would lack the slight trickle of snoring emitted from her nearby friend. In part, it was the memories of where they were at, and while she had plenty of memories in places on Equestria's dirtiest dirt, those memories were not her finally being able to fly confidently with the pegasus she admired to a destination that said pegasus had been longing to take her too. Most of all though it was the chance to be in the company of the bold and courageous flier who made her heart soar, and who to her was undoubtedly best pony (though she wouldn't say that aloud in case her other pony friends were disheartened at not being best pony as well).
So the two pegasus laid there, wings outstretched, breathing regulated, and looks of bliss on their faces. Fluttershy watched the snoozing Rainbow Dash, a soft smile on her face as she witnessed the energetic speedster dream away the day. So it surprised the sunflower yellow coated pony when the snorer snorted, and her eyes began to flicker open.
"Hey Fluttershy," The rosy eyed pony struggled to grumble out the words, fighting against the sweet dreams that wished to enrapture her; "Do you remember when we first flew out of Cloudsdale? To rest on the wild clouds like this one?"
Such a precious memory to her was one she always remembered, vividly so when they hung out together on said wild clouds, "Yes."
Rainbow paused for a second, at first mumbling something incoherently to herself, but as she sat up she began to speak clearly, "And you remember how we played tag right?"
"Yes."
"Well...you're it." Rainbow practically shouted with how much energy had sprung into her voice as she prodded the gentle pony gently and began to lightly trot away from her friend.
Fluttershy wasn't quick to react, in fact, the action of rising up and chasing after Rainbow Dash on the clouds was sluggish, and if Fluttershy could have seen herself she would have actually compared her response to the slugs she had cared for. The slowness of all this was possibly caused by her overwhelmed mind as it processed the immense levels of happiness and circulated it, evident from the grin that came to bare on the ponies face. Once up though, still grinning like Pinkie Pie, the animal caretaker gave chase to the weather mare.
Rainbow Dash had been skidding on the curly curves for quite some time, zipping and sagging, waiting for Fluttershy to begin chase. When the mare jogged up to her, she scooted out of the way, but with her wings kept tucked to her body. Thus they played like they did when they were fillies, running across the cushiony area they had discovered, without the advantage of a certain blue ponies greater flying ability. Even without it, the sport loving pegasus of blue rarely got caught in any game of tag, except when she would get cocky and thus proceed to not look where she was going, or when she allows herself too, in order to have the fun of being it.
"C'mon Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash said as she nonchalantly hopped away from her friend at the last second, done on purpose though as a close call was more fun for the athlete, "It's not going to be fun if you're it for the entire game."
Remember how I talked about the cases where Rainbow Dash would get caught in a game of tag, when she got cocky and made a mistake and when she wanted to be caught. Well as she tripped on one of the many raised tufts of cloud and promptly fell flat on her face, it was the former. Seemingly forgetting the approaching Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash lifted her head out of the damp surface, coughing out wisps of the cottony area, before she felt her friend's hoof dab against her back.
"You're it!" Fluttershy tried to shout out but it came as more of a faint whisper that tickles the ears, and proceeded to turn round and run.
Fluttershy squealed with joy at playing the childish game, for its simplicity, it's good nature (nopony has ether got hurt in a game of tag, right?), the memories it brought back and for the pony she was playing it with. Her elation at the experience came forth as she skipped, being adorable and no one could stop her.
Except Rainbow Dash, "Gotcha!" She cried as she leapt forth and missed Fluttershy, leaping right over her head.
Coming to a stop in front of the currently ducking pegasus, Rainbow Dash spun round with a frown of annoyance and somewhat embarrassment from having missed, plastered on her face.
"Can't believe I missed," She grumbled before shouting out once again, "Gotcha!"
Before Fluttershy could turn round or back away the rainbow mane pony leapt into her, causing them to tumble together and sending the two rolling across the cloud. It only lasted for a while though, for as excited as Dash was she knew from prior experience how dangerous it was to lunge forth when playing on a cloud with your wings tucked, memories of only just managing to stabilise her descent before touching down on the ground being a pretty darn good reminder. When the tumbling did end Fluttershy found herself in a position she was not sure if she should be pleased or uncomfortable with.
Rainbow Dash stood over the fallen pony, fore hooves to either side of her, pressing Fluttershy's tucked wings against her body, and back hooves between Fluttershy's own. Their tummies hovered just above one another, their faces further away but still close enough that a simple nod of the head would be all that was needed for their lips to brush up against one another. Fluttershy felt a slight blush and a small smile emerge on her face as she looked up to the inexpressive Rainbow Dash, who stared back blankly.
"R-Rainbow Dash, I'm it now. You have to run so I can catch you." Fluttershy reminded her friend softly, hoping to snap her out the odd moment of daydreaming, "Also, you're umm, you're invading my personal space..."
As Fluttershy let out a soft squeak she could tell that something had changed on her friend's face. From the pink eyes that stared down at her she could tell that Rainbow Dash was now looking at her, actually looking at her rather than simply staring in the general direction, and with her own teal eyes witnessed a sneaky grin pop up on the speedster's face.
"Fluttershy, how about I show you how to be assertive?" The grin still present on her friend's face, Fluttershy watched it grow wider and wider, and be accompanied by a small blush matching the shy mare's own.
"I...I don't understand. What do you- Fluttershy cut herself off as she watched Rainbow Dash break the rules of their tag game, unfolding her wings and letting them shoot out with a barely audible 'pomf' sound, "Oh my...I, eep!"
Her thoughts were lost to her, and her attention was only focused on her very forward friend whose eyes appeared to be delighting in pleasures unseen by the caretaker. Fluttershy's body had frozen up, but she could still feel familiar blue limbs press harder against her sides, and the soft furred body dropping down slowly onto her own. Most of all she could see Rainbow Dash's face, a face of laughter, longing and lust, getting ever closer, bringing her smirk in for a kiss. Fluttershy was both happy and confused, making no action to prevent something she wished to happen (though much, much later in any relationship that was happening), but making no action to speed up the meeting of their lips.
As their mouths drew so close that they could feel each other's breaths, Fluttershy could feel the clouds rumble beneath her, and somehow managed to hear over her own thundering heartbeat an energetic and familiar voice yell out "Woo-hoo! There's the action!"
Normally the mare would have wondered on how Pinkie Pie had managed to get up there, but now such questions were barely in the back of her mind, her focus being on the lips edging closer to her own, about to touch.
Her lips met air. Though she had never kissed a pony on the lips before, Fluttershy at the very least knew that they must feel like something, not nothing. Regretfully, her senses told her she was lying back on something harder than a cloud, that her eyes were in fact closed, and that inevitably, as she opened her eyes to see, that she was not in the sky but in her bedroom instead.
Even in the midst of the night, or what the great amount of darkness about her lead her to assume, she could still make out the colourful bird houses hanging from her dull acorn brown ceiling. In order to discover the source of light, as well as to confirm it was indeed night time that she had awoken too, she brushed aside a lock of her pink mane, seeing now from the corner of her eye the world outside. The sky held a wide array of stars that were all visible from her window, but their light was nothing in comparison to the large pearl moon trickling the sightseeing matter through the window.
When she had lifted her hoof she felt resistance, her thick and warm bed cover laid neatly over her being the cause. The butterfly blanket of acorn red and pinkish purple weighed upon her, it's thickness due to meeting the demand of protection from autumn's growing chill, winter's definite chill, and springs waning chill.
Fluttershy had three things confirmed; she had been dreaming, it was night time, and she was in bed. As she tried to sit up in bed though she confirmed a fourth thing, a headache that made her vision waver.
"Wha-why does my head..?" The room had started to shake and quake, a slight throbbing in her head accompanying the rocking effect.
Fluttershy gently rested her head of pink hair back onto her large plush pillow, the soft texture rubbing the back of her head, as she rubbed her forehead with a once again raised hoof. The headache she suffered from wasn't too bad, it disorientated her and she couldn't think straight at the moment but it didn't hurt too much. As her mind was trapped within a hazy maze temporarily, the shy mare let her peeking peepers scan the darkness, trying to pick up anything to suggest where she had been. To the left she spotted a cider mug, and she could just make out on the other side of her room, another property of Sweet Apple Acres mug laid down on the floor, as if a pony had entered the room and tossed it aside carelessly.
The cast aside wooden mugs did the trick, memories seeping back into her head at Sonic Rainboom speeds, "I remember, today was the day of the contest between Sweet Apple Acres and those brothers. I'm glad everything worked out in the end."
Fluttershy lifted herself up again, the pain having dulled down to the point where she could ignore it with ease, unlike the thoughts that entered her mind, "I must have had a lot of cider, but I don't drink all that much so why..? Oh yes, everyone had a lot of cider after the competition and with all my friends drinking I couldn't possibly have refused."
The butterfly blanket covered pony with a cutie mark to match delved further back into her thoughts and feelings, remembering the happier occasion of celebration. Fluttershy may not be much of a drinker, with only a slight fondness for the apple family cider and its season, but she did not wish to break the cheery mood of her other five friends social drinking and so went along with the experience. In particular she remembered Rainbow Dash, who after longing for the sweet taste of the alcoholic apple beverage, finally got some...and promptly became drunk by her second mug. Everypony else handled it much better, Pinkie Pie drinking pint after pint with changes made only to her slurring speech and not to her behaviour, Twilight seemingly used to heavy drinking, Rarity guising the affects of alcohol quite well although she did start to giggle and grin at random, and Applejack refusing to have too much what with having to still tend to the customers. As for herself, Fluttershy wasn't much better than Rainbow Dash when it came to the foamed beverage, but she drunk slower, and while the others would be on their third or fourth (and in the case of a certain pink pony, seventh or eighth) mug, the slow paced mare would only be on her second. Still, with so much cider to go around she got around to drinking past her limit and the impending fog was still taking its toll, only slowly dispersing to reveal memories of what happened.
More of the fog lights activated and she remembered bits of conversation they shared, and actions such as pats on the backs and hugs and leaning on one another for support. At the same time her memory recalled the dream she just had, and these not only impeded the progress of the lights but also heated the ponies face until it flushed as red as a tomato.
"I...I can't believe I would dream of, of that. I only wanted to snuggle in bed with her the other day but that...to think I would dream of kissing her...on the lips." The yellow pegasus mused aloud, "But maybe one day..."
A few seconds passed before Fluttershy's mind caught up with her tongue, her blush growing even greater in colour. Steam practically shot out her twitching ears, and she felt they could. Fluttershy began to shake her head furiously as if she could throw such thoughts away, but soon halted as it had begun to aggrivate the dulling headache.
"No, no, no. I just want to cuddle up with her as good friends, really, really good and close friends who give each hugs and kisses on the cheeks and, and stuff." Fluttershy sighed; her ears drooping as she quietly whispered to herself, "I can even hear her snoring still."
"Hmm, cider."
A familiar voice mumbled amongst her snoring and Fluttershy, after letting off a quiet squeak of fright, turned round to see a sleeping Rainbow Dash. In her bed. Next to her, in her bed. Next to her, in her bed, with her also in the bed.
Fluttershy couldn't process a thing as she watched the faintly blushing pegasus smile beside her, as she saw how the blue athletic hooves pinched the covers closer, and took into account the insignificant distance of millimetres between them. Her line of sight ignored the addition of many more cider mugs on the other side of the room, its focus entirely on the friend of hers who was close to her in more ways than one at that moment. Fluttershy grinned, a small blush matching that of the content Rainbow Dash who continued to mumble about the taste of the beverage she finally got to savour.
"I-I can't believe it! Rainbow Dash, in bed, snuggling!" Her happy thoughts of accomplishment were soon pushed aside though as two worrying and distressing thoughts popped into the yellow mare, ruining her joy, "What am I going to tell Rainbow Dash when she wakes up? And why can't I remember cuddling up with her?"
These concerns were worth noting, even if noting them did nothing to improve her situation and simply caused alarm bells in her to ring. She thought of how, even if they had both been in stupor at the time, how Rainbow Dash might react. Also present were the worries that she had finally got what she wanted only to be intoxicated to the point of never being able to remember it.
Her time of thinking soon ended and her thoughts settled when a cyan foreleg came upon her and pushed her flat down onto the bed. Fluttershy was taken aback by this out of the blue action, and as she hit the pillow she turned to face Rainbow Dash, whose dreaming face simply smiled back at her as she tucked her other hoof against the conscious mare. Fluttershy couldn't help but meet a smile with a smile as Rainbow nudged closer, tightening her loving grip, and letting their muzzles bump into one another.
Pinned down by a hug, Fluttershy heard many mumbles emitted from the mouth of her friend, incoherent mumbles but one she swore carried her name upon. It didn't matter though, whether her dearest friend meant to or not, for she was currently snuggled up against her.
Fluttershy moved her own hooves, mirroring Rainbows, and snuggled up to her friend, all while whispering, "Thank you cider."
I have noticed that on this site author notes are rarely used in comparison to Fanfiction.net and thus I decided I too would try and avoid using author notes (my usual notes being better placed in my profile's blog) unless I had something important I needed to explain to the readers. This is important. This is intended to be the last chapter of 'Thank You Cider' (I did say in my summary it was a short story) however, even though I feel it wraps up rather nicely here, I may find further FlutterDash artwork to which I can interpret a third and most definitely final chapter. If you feel a third chapter is unnecessary and/or potentially harmful to the quality of this story please say. If you would like a third chapter to follow up this one then feel free to say so in your comments because I may do as such.
If this is not the final chapter of my first Friendship is Magic fanfic then I hope you can look forward to the third one. If it is though then I would like to thank you all here and now for this incredibly warm welcome to the site, I never expected for this little story to be placed on 80 authors track lists or to receive 12 comments on the first chapter alone (two of them were mine so I don't count those). I hope you will look forward to future works of mine on this site and if you are interested in knowing the progress of my fanfiction on this site or my views on recent episodes then feel free to check out my profile's blog (I update each week and it would be nice to discuss recent episodes with you all). Once again thank you all and cheerio!