First Steps

by Steel Resolve


Step Six: Stepping In It

There it was: Several thousand tons of steel and wood, twisted and warped into a torture device meant for inexplicably willing participants. Rarity’s eyes followed the track as it rose slowly, dropped at a near breakneck angle, then proceeded through a series of dizzying twists and turns that were making her feel ill before she even got on the thing. She popped a few more chocolate mints into her mouth and felt her stomach settle for the moment.

Pinkie nudged Rarity into the snaking line that led to the front car. “You’re gonna love this ride, Rars! Did you know this used to be the fastest thing in Equestria? Not the fastest coaster. The fastest thing!

A car filled with shrieking ponies rumbled overhead.

“I think they might be exaggerating that claim just a tad,” Rarity said, trying to keep her spirits up. “So, you’ve been on this a few times without success?”

“Twenty-three times!” Pinkie stepped in close and pressed her nose against Rarity’s. “Twenty. Three. That’s more than any other ride ever. It’s that good!

“I’ll... take your word for it. Or... I suppose I’ll find out myself very soon.”

A burly stallion from the next line over poked his head between the two mares. “Sorry, did you say you’ve been on this thing twenty-three times?”

Pinkie nodded. “Ya-huh! Last time I was here, I went on it four times in a row.”

The stallion’s eyes lit up. “So you got the shirt?”

“No,” Pinkie replied with a heavy sigh. “Somepony always loses it at the quintuple corkscrews.”

The stallion winced. “Ooh, tough break.” He pointed over his shoulder to a group of grim-faced, coaster-hardened stallions. “Well, we’re going on this thing until we get one, so if you girls keep it together, we’re golden.” He squinted at Rarity. “How about her? How many times for her?”

“Erm, first attempt, actually,” Rarity admitted.

There was a collective groan from the rest of the group. Their apparent leader barked out a quick retort. “Quit whining, you pansies! You all came knowing we were two stallions down. We’ll just have to keep trying until we get lucky.”

“Hey! Just ’cause she’s totally gorgeous doesn’t mean she’s isn’t tough!” Pinkie said, poking the stallion in the chest with one hoof while pointing at Rarity with the other. “Once, when we were all really scared, Rarity here kicked a manticore right in the face!” Pinkie pulled herself up to her full height and pressed her forehead against the stallion’s, staring him in the eye. “Right. In. The. Face. And she skydived down from Cloudsdale this one time!” Turning, Pinkie hooked her leg around Rarity’s shoulder and pulled her into a tight embrace. “This tough cookie doesn’t toss her cookies. She’ll be the last cookie to crumble, and if any pony knows her cookies, it’s me. That shirt’s as good as ours!”

“Well, I hardly like to brag, darling,” Rarity said quietly. “But... yes! I promised her she would get her trophy, and I am a mare of my word. You’ve nothing to fear. Soon we will all be clad in those... things!”

The stallion’s gaze drifted back and forth between the two mares before he finally nodded. “All right, then. We’re all in it together.” He held out his hoof to Pinkie, smiling as she bumped it. Grinning, he held it out for Rarity. “Good luck!”

Rarity hesitated for the briefest of moments before following suit. “Luck is for ponies who won’t put in the effort to succeed, darling. I make my own.”


Pinkie snatched up Rarity’s hoof as they shuffled forward in line, then pointed to a glistening blob that Rarity had nearly stepped on. “Watch out. Some dirty birdy ponies just spit their gum out any ol’ place. It’s kinda gross. Anyway, I figure that we can go on the Powerdive here seven or eight times, and then maybe head over to The Spindigo. It’s super fun!” Still clutching Rarity’s hoof, Pinkie clasped it between hers and held them all her chest while breaking into a rapturous grin. “It spins around so fast that you stick to the wall and everypony’s just hanging there when they drop the floor out!”

Rarity mouthed the words ‘seven or eight times’ in disbelief. “I...” She stopped herself before finishing what she was thinking. She had been about to say ‘I think this was a mistake.’ But she had given her word. So then, there was only one solution: she had to make sure there was no need for a second time. They would get on, Rarity would hold on for dear life, she would not lose her gorge, and all would be well. “We’ll see about the Spinny thing after we best this ‘Powerdive’.”

“Sure, sure,” Pinkie said, snuggling up to Rarity. “We’ve got all night to hit whatever rides we want! Oh, we’re here!”

The worn steel gate creaked open and Pinkie bounded through. Wiggling her way into the car’s far seat, she patted the nearer one. “C’mon! We gotta get the restraints all locked in!”

Rarity looked around frantically for any and all ways of locking them in place. She knew she was in for a frightful ride, but any additional jarring she could avoid would help her make it through. “Stay still, love.” She proceeded to bring down the restraint bar on both of them, lock the safety belts in place, and just for good measure she said a quick prayer to Celestia and Luna for strength. She then prayed to Cadence as well, though she omitted Twilight, just in case she could actually hear it. She wasn’t quite sure how that worked, to be honest, but it made her feel a little better to do it and harmed nopony, except possibly for bothering a princess who had better things to do... She then said a quick apology to each of the princesses for pestering them.

“Pinkie?” she said, her hooves firmly planted on the restraint bar.

“Yeah?” Pinkie replied, rapidly batting her eyelashes.

“I... I just wanted you to know, just in case things go badly... Which they won’t!” she added quickly, her eyes wide and frantic. “Everything will be fine, but just in case it isn’t fine... I... I love you, and I’m sorry for being standoffish with you, truly I am.” She wanted to add more, about how horrid she felt about letting her unresolved issues get in the way of a new relationship, and how much she adored Pinkie, but frankly she worried she would start crying and ruin her face paint. “That’s... that’s all.”

Pinkie’s mouth dropped open. “You… love me? For really?”

“So much that it scares me,” Rarity managed to squeak out in a rush. “That’s why I was worried about—” She cut herself off, not wanting to get into her baggage when they could very well be—Perfectly fine! Everything was going to be perfectly fine!

Pinkie took Rarity’s hoof in her own. “Um, well… I-I guess nopony has really told me that before. I mean, sure, my folks have, but it’s not the same thing. Oh, Rarity—Whoa!”

The coaster lurched into motion, loudly clattering up the monstrous hill. Pinkie gave Rarity’s hoof a squeeze. “You told me you’d need some room, but Applejack always says I’m in ponies’ personal spaces all the time. So I tried to be really good and patient and stuff, but I just really hoped you’d like the Expo and, um... me, and so I just thought maybe we’d have a great time, and you’d want to have even more great times in the future, and… and you’d want to have them with me—”

“That’s... that’s never been anything to do with you. I’m the one—” Rarity stopped again, not wanting to delve into that mess. “Suffice to say, yes, darling. I’d love to spend more time with you, and... if you want to... we can call it dating, now.” Rarity made herself a promise: she would not let her past rule her. She would push on, and lie if she must, but Pinkie deserved her all.  

The coaster slowed as it tipped over the crest of the hill. For a moment, all was still. The vast space between their car and the ground below yawn before them. Pinkie wiggled, making room for her tail. With a shy grin, she twined it around Rarity’s hind leg and squeezed. “So I guess we’re taking the plunge?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Rarity replied, grinning with gritted teeth.

Ever so slowly, the car tipped over the hill. Pinkie’s grin widened, and she gripped Rarity as tightly as she could manage. “Okay, now I think it helps to think about candy canes. They’re pretty minty, and this first drop is a doozy! When we start going up again, it kinda feels like you’re turning into a pancake, so, um, candy canes with maple syrup… if that helps.”

Rarity had to laugh at the mental image, despite how nervous she was.

Then they were falling. It started slowly, almost gently, but within a few seconds, the car was whizzing down the hill at a terrifying clip. Behind them, the stallions vocalized as one. Mirroring the speed, they groaned softly, but with ever-increasing volume, until they were shouting at the top of their lungs.

Pinkie’s hair streamed out behind her while she leaned into the wind. “Here we go, Rars!” Tears streamed from her eyes and traced wet paths back to her ears. Pinkie blinked and rubbed her face with her free hoof. Turning slightly, she caught Rarity’s eye and mouthed again. “Here we go!”

Rarity nodded, doing her best to smile despite being terrified. She could survive this. She would survive this.

At the bottom of the hill, the G forces flattened them like a falling boulder. Pinkie and Rarity groaned as they were crushed down into their seats. But almost before they could process the sensation, they were through it and ascending of the second hill.

“How you doing?” the stallion behind Rarity yelled over her shoulder.

“I’ll tell you in a moment. I think I left my stomach at the bottom of that drop. I might need that in the future,” she quipped, hoping she sounded witty. Truthfully, she just felt a little numb. That had been terrifying, but not... not nearly as bad as she’d feared.

The pair floated up from their seats as they reached the top of the hill, and their restraining bar dug into their thighs. Pinkie whooped and threw her hooves up into the air, dragging Rarity’s right hoof along with them. “Okay, now we’re gonna drop into the first loop. Don’t look sideways, or the world will be all whirly! That’s where newbies always lose it the first time.”

“Wait, which way sideways? Or am I meant to close my eyes or—”

The car flipped upside down, slowing for a moment, then accelerating down the back of the loop. “You did it, Rars!” Pinkie cried, squeezing Rarity’s leg with her tail. “You’re a natural!”

“Eheh... N-nothing to it.”

“Well, that’s good, ’cause here comes the triple helix!”

Rarity closed her eyes as tightly as she could, bracing herself against the bar. “Let’s do this!” she yelled out in defiance of her own fears.

The crushing pressure returned when the car tipped sideways and careened through three tightly wound spirals. Behind them, the stallions moaned.

“Keep it together, Flashpoint!”

“Remember the deal! Whoever loses it is buying rounds for a month!”

“I’m good! I’m good!”

The track twisted again, and they were suddenly headed back the way they’d come, threading below and then through the steel structure.  Beams of grimy metal shot alarmingly close to their heads at astonishing speed.

“Okay, this next part is weird,” Pinkie said, trying to point out in front of her. The G forces were making it difficult to lift her hoof properly. One second it weighed several tons, the next it was light as a feather. “Now it’s time for the corkscrews, but this coaster’s are kinda different. It’ll spin us like normal, but then we’ll go straight up and over, then back down again in a vertical corkscrew! After that, we’ll go underground!”

“Fine!” Rarity gasped out. “Just...just warn me when the spinning starts.” Her stomach lurched, and she quickly brought out another mint, chewing it like her life depended on it.

“Right noooooooow!”

It was a sensation quite like being trapped in a taffy puller. The mares’ bodies were flung in one direction, then another, and then yet another, never quite settling. Their manes whipped in the wind, battering the pony next to them, flying into their own faces, standing on end. The world outside twisted and turned like something out of a fevered dream.

“Wheeeeeee!” Pinkie kept her hooves high above her head. “I wish we had one of these in Ponyville! We could ride it all the time!

“That... would be quite a thing,” Rarity said, mostly to herself. It was difficult to tell how she was feeling at that moment. She’d gone in with the worst possible expectations, and found... that this wasn’t beyond her. She wasn’t quite prepared to call it fun, but it wasn’t the worst possible thing either.

“Well, get ready, ’cause now it’s gonna be really dark. It’s all twisty and swoopy under there, but I can’t really describe it. Did you ever get caught in the dryer? It’s kinda like that. You just spin around and around until somepony comes to check on the sheets and pulls you out.”

If Pinkie has ever done that for fun, it explains so much about her, Rarity thought wryly. She then berated herself for being so petty. She’d likely have wallowed in self-recrimination for a while if not for the bottom of the world dropping out from under her at that moment.
 
Her eyes snapped open, seeing nothing but a distant spot of light far in the distance. She had no other points of reference. The dot twisted around, weaving from left to right, becoming a little larger with each passing second.

“I’m... not gonna... make it…!” a deep voice screamed out in the darkness.

“Flashpoint, I swear to Celestia if you flake now...”

The light was coming even closer, and there was a disorientation that came with it. She could see the track ahead, only it was upside down. A quick lurch righted the world once more, and they flew out of the tunnel.

There was a moment of complete shock. She had done it? She giggled giddily, wondering if her sanity was perhaps slipping, but not really caring if it was. Is this the best you can do, you monster? I’ve faced far worse!

Pinkie threw her head back and cackled. Her eyes were gleaming when she gave Rarity a brilliant smile. “Isn’t this the best? First, your stomach’s all up in the air, and then it’s laying on the ground, and then zoom! You’re twisting and turning and forgetting which way’s up! Roller coasters are superduperfunnerific!”

“What’s next?” Rarity asked, not even dreading the answer. She was actively wondering why ponies had such trouble on this ride, now. Yes, it was uncomfortable, and bumpy, and it twisted you about, but unbeatable? Hardly.

“The photo section! Smile!”

“Wait, you never said anything about pictures—”

The night lit up as flashbulbs popped all around them. “Ooh, that’ll be a good one!” Pinkie said while she removed an ‘I heart Rarity’ baseball cap and pushed it deep into her voluminous mane. “Now we go into—whoa!”

The stars swam before them when the car suddenly accelerated and ascended vertically. Pinkie’s cheeks rippled, and a thin line of saliva trailed away from her wide-open mouth. With substantial effort, she turned her head slightly to look at Rarity. “Okay, so we’ll—”

The words were lost when the car dove, then entered a corkscrew teardrop. In the seats behind, the stallions shrieked in unison. Several were yelling prayers to the Sisters, while the stallion directly behind Rarity seems to be apologizing to relatives for his choices in life.  Around them, the horizon spun as though Discord himself were controlling it.

Pinkie screamed and laughed and cried all at the same time. Each turn was a delight. Each twist took away her breath and replaced it with a kind of desperate laughter. It was life on the edge. Pure adrenaline, and she was finally sharing it with somepony. Well, she was when she could still talk.

“Okay, okay,” she said, gasping for air. “This is the famous—”

“Yes, it’s going to be something scary, I get it,” Rarity shouted back. She raised her voice, screaming at the machinery around her. “Bring it on, you monstrosity! You won’t best me!”

“No, it’s—”

A sudden, blinding flash, and they were soaring through the open air. Below them, their shadows sped across the pillowy cloud tops. Pinkie leaned into the wind and spread her wings wide, rising on a current of warm air.

Rarity looked around in alarm. She was in the sky. In the sky, with a pink griffon, and... she looked down at herself. She had claws, and feathers, and wings. “What?!”

Pinkie’s beak pulled into a wide grin. “Isn’t it the best? The griffons spent a ton of bits making this thing so that everypony would know what it’s like to be them!” Tucking her legs tightly against her sleek, muscular body, Pinkie looped over Rarity. “For just a little while, we can flip and flap and fly all over the place. C’mon!” Pinkie banked sharply and made for the nearest cloud.

Rarity’s body moved without thought, pursuing her pink paramour regardless of her apparent species. “How can you be so incredibly blasé about this? We’ve changed species, and I have no idea where we are, and where is the roller coaster?”

“It’s still there,” Pinkie laughed suddenly as a tuft of stray cloud tickled her nose... or beak, rather. “It’s going through this really loooooong, really enchaaaaaanted tunnel. While we’re in there, we’re out here, flying around! In our heads, anyway. Kinda like pretending really, really hard,” Pinkie shot Rarity a wistful glance. “You know, I always wanted to fly. Ever since I first saw the Rainboom, I wanted to go up into the sky and see if I could find where it came from. I even built a machine to take me up there. They said I was crazy to try to do it without a balloon, but I did it anyway!” Pinkie pointed at Rarity’s wings. “But you got to do it for really! I was sooo jealous. I mean, I was happy for you, but I wanted to try, too! But then Twi wouldn’t use that spell again! Something about it being too dangerous and me dying or something.”

“I see... so all of those horrid dives and twists and turns were meant to evoke... flight?” Rarity tried to wrap her head around that concept. It wasn’t how she might have chosen to fly, but she imagined somepony like Rainbow Dash—or Pinkie Pie, for that matter—would find it quite enjoyable to fly in that fashion.

Pinkie pumped her wings. Several moments later she was high overhead. “Yeah!” she called down. “First they show you what to do, and then you get to do it for yourself. Remember that part that was all super-fast and went in a circle like raaawwwmmm? Well...” Pinkie tucked her wings. Aiming for Rarity, she fell like a stone, but at the last moment, she spread her wings wide and twisted hard to the left. Several feathers tore from her back as she screamed through several tight helixes around her marefriend. “You get to do all that stuff yourself now! Well, real in a pretend, not-actually-happening-at-all kinda way.”

“Hmmm. Conditioning the body to know how to move...” Rarity wondered what Twilight would make of such things. Of course, knowing Twilight, she’d have a spell at hoof to change the race of a pony, so the whole point would be moot, but not everypony was friends with the element of magic. “And you’ve done this twenty times, you say? I suppose I see why, now.”

Pinkie grinned broadly. “Twenty-three times! But this is the best one.” With a burst of speed, she pulled ahead of Rarity. Twisting, she spread her wings wide and glided backwards while grasping both of Rarity’s claws with her own. “Flying is fun and all, but, well, it’s kinda lonely up here by myself. That’s why this one is special. ’Cause I’m with you.”

A lump formed in Rarity’s throat, and she forced it down painfully. “You’re... you’re far too kind, love. I...” At a loss for words, she trailed off helplessly. So, this was how she was going to spend these precious moments?

No, no, we can do better. 

She smiled wickedly. “I have an idea.” She flew close, encircling Pinkie’s waist with her forelegs as she brought her beak as close to Pinkie’s earholes as she could manage and whispered: “Catch me if you can.” Then she flew off, cackling madly.

Pinkie flapped in place, blinking for a moment. “Wha-huh? Wait! No fair!” Pumping her wings, she dove after Rarity. “Oh, that’s how it is, huh? Well, you can’t get away from Pinkie Pie! I’ve played more games of Tag than all of Ponyville put together. I’m coming to getcha!”

Rarity gave a strong pump to her wings, ascending into the clouds that drifted lazily over the mountains. She was flying, and it was exhilarating. Of course she was going to be caught soon, but she could lead a merry chase until then.

“Ooo—almost!” Pinkie said while she plummeted past Rarity, who had rolled out of the way at the last second. She shot Rarity a feral grin. “You know how griffons are, right? This is a hunt, and I’m not giving up that easy!” With the lightning fast reflexes her new form offered, Pinkie snatched off a piece of cloud and threw it right into Rarity’s face. She arrowed for her marefriend with a snorted giggle. “Ha! Gotcha!”

Rarity closed her wings, dropping like a stone, opening them again several hundred feet below. “Try again, darling!” She laughed, swooping along the mountaintops.

“Oh, two can play at that game!” Pinkie cried, folding her wings tightly against her body. “And that’s probably more fun, too.” Spreading her wings wide again, Pinkie came to a stop and tapped her chin with a claw. “I mean, who wants to play a one pony—or I guess griffon—game? That would be—hey!” Claws on her hips, Pinkie glared down at the rapidly disappearing Rarity. “Are you trying to distract me?” Tucking her wings again, Pinkie fell. Black spots crept into the edges of her vision, but she gritted her beak and pushed onwards, hurtling toward Rarity at a breakneck speed. “You’re my flying fish, and I’m gonna catch you!”

“Oh? I thought you were my fish,” Rarity called back, flying upside down and sticking her avian tongue out.

“Not right now! I’m doing the catching today. Speaking of, how about this?” With a twist of her wings, Pinkie disappeared into a nearby cloudbank. Listening intently, Pinkie crouched. Rarity was out there. Waiting. Wondering. Probably sweating or panting or whatever it was that birds and/or cats did. Pinkie coiled her strong rear legs and waited for the perfect moment. With a wiggle of her hindquarters, she pounced, erupting from the cloud with a roar.

Rarity waved from her perch on top of the cloudbank. “Ooo, that was ferocious! Opal would be so proud!”

“Aww, that was a good one, too!” Pinkie drew a deep breath and spread her wings wide. “Okay, so you’re agile and sneaky, but what about—” The air behind Pinkie collapsed in a sharp pop as she shot forward “—pure speed?

“Oh, that does sound fun!” Rarity wiggled her hindquarters, springing forth in a direct collision course with Pinkie. At the last possible second she did a barrel-roll, reaching out with a wing tip to tickle Pinkie’s underbelly. She then banked upwards, landing on another cloud and watching below with curious eyes.

Pinkie dropped several feet while she attempted to get her giggling under control. Her belly had always been ticklish, but the wind pulling at her feathers made it especially sensitive. “Ooh, you!” she snarled with mock-ferocity. “You’ve done it now!” Pinkie locked eyes with Rarity and worked her wings into a blur. “Did you know the princesses-es-es outlawed brocade yesterday?”

“Oh?” Rarity called from her perch, diving into the cloud as Pinkie was just about to catch her. “Because I heard it was frosting. Are you sure?”

Pinkie’s eyes flew wide, and her jaw dropped. Spreading her wings, she pulled up short. “What?! How could they—Why would—I mean… hey!” Pinkie set her claws on her hips. “Now that’s just downright underhoofed! Underclawed! Whatever!”

Rarity cackled in delight. “All’s fair in love and war, darling!”

Pinkie paused for a moment, then alighted on the nearby cloud top. “Rars,” she said softly.

Rarity poked her head out of the cloud. “Yes?”

Pinkie rubbed her foreleg, then swallowed hard. “I-I wanted to be all hunty, but I’ve never really been all that good at it. Unless it’s a pie. Mrs. Cake says I can find her pies no matter where she hides them. But… but the thing with Hide and Seek or Tag is that once you catch the other pony, the game might be over, and I don’t want things to be over for us. Ever.” Pinkie held out a claw in invitation. “Maybe I’m not a ferociously huntariffic griffon, or even a sorta scary pony, but I was thinking about things when I was flying after you. I’m pretty sure that I’m a fish after all. I’m hooked. I… well, I just hope you’re hooked, too.” Pinkie grinned. “We don’t have much time left up here. You wanna be flying fish together?”

Rarity smiled, as much as a griffish face can be said to smile. On her, it looked a bit like a cat that has finally caught the mouse and has decided to stop toying with it. “I’ve been hooked from the start, darling. Forgive me for teasing you, I just thought it might be fun to play like you play for a change.” She came out of her cloud, joining Pinkie on hers.

“It was!” Pinkie replied, her tail feathers wagging. “And it totally doesn’t even count as a lost game of Tag! Everypony knows that Mindtag doesn’t count.” Twining her claws into Rarity’s, she unfurled her wings. “On three?”

“One.”

Pinkie crouched, her rump wiggling as she tamped down the cloud with her back paws. “Two.”

“Three!”

In unison, the griffons leapt from the cloud and shot out into the open sky. The cold air pulled at their feathers, and Pinkie tried to move in closer, only to get her wings tangled momentarily with Rarity’s. They giggled as the fell several yards, then rose again.

“Oh, phooey.” Pinkie released Rarity’s claw and gave her wings three hard pumps. Rising, she angled over until she was above her marefriend. “I don’t know how griffons get any snuggle time in. Fold your wings up.”

“Hmmm, as much as I understand this all to be a projection into my mind... I don’t think I wish to fall to the earth.” Rarity tittered nervously, looking down at the ground below. “I’ve had some bad experiences if you recall.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “No, silly! I’m gonna carry you.” Drifting down, she wrapped both her front and rear legs around Rarity.

“Ah, that makes more sense.”

“Just making sure you can’t get away!” Pinkie whispered into Rarity’s earhole. Sighing, she raised a claw and pointed off into the horizon. “Just look at it, Rars. It’s a whole sky, and it’s here just for you and me. We’re the only two ponies—err, griffons—in the world right now.” Pinkie gave Rarity a squeeze. “It’s nice, just maybe for a little while, to know that some prettier pony, or… or one with better table manners or something, isn’t going to come along and sweep you off your hooves. Claws.” Pinkie’s brow furrowed as she thought for a moment. “Clooves, maybe?”

“Jealousy? Who are you and what have you done with my Pinkie?”

Pinkie dropped her eyes. “I know. I’m a silly pony about stuff, and that’s mostly good, I think. But sometimes I’m bad-silly. Sometimes I look at myself in the upstairs mirror, and I…” Pinkie swallowed. “I think you must think you’ve made a mistake, and… and I don’t wanna be a mistake.”

Pinkie squeezed again. Longer this time, before running her claws across the soft, downy feathers on Rarity’s chest. “But you said you’re hooked, and that makes me the happiest, fishiest griffon-pony in all of imaginary Sky-Equestria. When I get home, I’m gonna march right up to that mirror upstairs and tell it that I really am being bad-silly.”

“You are being very silly, yes,” Rarity replied, nuzzling the top of her head into Pinkie’s neck. “Fortunately, it’s part of your charm.”

Pinkie adjusted the angle of her wings and sent them arcing gently around a blindingly white cloud. “Look, Rarity. Isn’t it just like lots and lots of vanilla cotton candy? I always love it here, but it makes me hungry. At least this time I’m not kinda lonely, too.”

Pinkie flapped a few more times, then held her wings out wide, gliding on the warm, rising currents the spell provided them. “We’re almost out of time, but I wanna show you what it means to me. What you mean to me.”

With a deft twist of her wings, Pinkie snapped into a barrel roll and launched Rarity into the air above them.

For just a moment, Rarity panicked, then she remembered she was not going fall, could not fall, in fact. Instead, she allowed her momentum to carry her up into the air, forgoing the fear response of flailing her limbs about.

Giggling, Pinkie snatched her marefriend out of the air and drew her close again, snuggling their chests together. “Now hold on.”

Rarity laughed lightly. “Easier said than done. Warn me the next time you plan to toss me about!”

“Roger, roger! But, see? Now we’re both hooked!” Pinkie poked her beak down at their interlocked limbs. “You’ve got me, and I’ve got you. Always and forever, and I’ll…” Pinkie looked away for a second, swallowing again. “I’ll try to stop being bad-silly. You deserve better than that.”

Rarity’s heart welled up in her chest, making it difficult to speak. The constant praise was both wonderful and terrible for her ego. For a brief moment, she worried what the fall would be like from this pedestal Pinkie had her perched on. She hoped she could maintain her balance. “I’m... not so great as you might think, but—”  

Pinkie leaned in, and for a moment, the world fell away. Beaks pressed firmly together, limbs intertwined, they glided instinctively without destination or worry. They drifted through several clouds, emerging trembling and dew-covered on the opposite sides, but aware of none of it. Together, chest to chest, their hearts beat as one.

For several moments, Rarity was quite speechless. She’d been admired, lusted after, but in the face of such deep, unconditional love she had no idea how to respond. Eventually she found her voice. “Pinkie, I... please don’t take this the wrong way, but you simply can’t think of me as some perfect creature—”

“Uh, Rars? You’re probably gonna want to hold on.”

“I... I already am?”

All around the pair, the clouds twisted and smeared across the sky. Reality itself seemed to undulate and tear, and behind it, rust-stained steel track screamed by. Shrieks, bizarrely disjointed and distorted, rose and fell in volume and pitch, growing steadily more persistent as the sky unraveled. As the final remnants of spell broke, the ground flew up at them at breakneck speed.

“Wait! What’s going on now?” Rarity demanded, looking around wildly. After ascertaining that she was apparently back from their shared dream, she immediately closed her eyes tightly,  focusing only on remaining calm, and not losing the contents of her stomach.

Beside her, Pinkie melted back into her seat, her body compressing under incredible g-forces as the car rocketed through the hill’s nadir and into a double loop. Around them, the horizon flipped, then flipped again, while the battalion of battle-hardened coaster enthusiasts in the cars behind groaned pitifully.

Struggling against the crushing pressure, Pinkie slowly reached over and took Rarity’s right hoof in her left again. Her right hoof was busy covering her mouth. Pinkie’s eyes were startlingly blue against the newly green cast her face had taken on.

Rarity’s eyes fluttered open at the contact, and she looked in surprise at Pinkie’s visage. Surely they wouldn’t lose this chance because of Pinkie! That would be horrid! “Pinkie, are you going to be all right?”

Pinkie swallowed. “Almost done. Just keep it together!”

Both ponies slammed right, then left, before flipping upside down and diving back toward the earth. Below them, trembling ponies cringed when the car flashed by them, with several of them shaking their heads in wide-eyed denial. The coaster crested another hill, dropped back into a vertical dive, then curved into a banking turn so tight that Pinkie’s cheeks rippled.

“All right, this is just getting downright discourteous!” Rarity screamed out over the wind. “Are they trying to kill us?”

Growling, beads of sweat erupted on Pinkie’s brow while she fought to lift her hoof from the bar. “Look, Rars. Almost! There!” Pinkie’s leg wavered wildly as pointed to the station, which was approaching far, far too quickly.

“I swear to Celestia if I die, I will haunt whoever was responsible for this travesty for several generations!”

The platform was strangely crowded. Several official-looking ponies stood beside large flower displays that seemed to have been hastily dragged to the ride. Behind them, several rows of park-goers cheered and waved. All parties blinked and rubbed their eyes as two young and apparently eager photographers snapped a seemingly endless series of flash photographs.

Rarity blinked away the white spots in her eyes, flailing about madly. “If this is the light at the end of the tunnel, I will be very cross!”

The air was blasted from their lungs as the coaster’s brakes engaged, and only the shoulder restraints keep Rarity and Pinkie from slamming their heads on the sweat-slicked safety bar before them. Behind them, the stallions laughed weakly. Some were still groaning, but the mares could hear congratulations and hoof bumps being passed around.

“We did it.” Pinkie’s eyes were shining when she turned to Rarity. The green in her cheeks was slowly fading. “Rarity, we did it! You did it! Oh, Rarity, you’re amazing!”

Rarity didn’t answer, slowly allowing her senses to report on her body’s current condition. Bruised seemed to be a start, but pain meant she was in fact alive. She was breathing, raggedly, but it was in fact happening. Either this was some heretofore unknown state of death or... actually thinking like that was pointless, since all the researchers who attempted to research death had come to the conclusion that dying to test a hypothesis was literally suicide. So, she was either alive, or she could not tell the difference, in which case she might as well be alive since she would never know otherwise.

Distantly, she got reports from her stomach, but she was busy with what her eyes were telling her. There was a crowd of excited ponies and other creatures gathered all around her, pointing hooves and claws in her general direction, and some were snapping pictures. Her ears were relaying a cacophony of sound, there being far too many voices to make out what was being said.

Pinkie twisted in her seat as far as the restraints would allow. “See? See? I told you guys that she was a tough cookie! Like one where you rolled the dough too many times and put in way too much flour! That’s what my Rarity is! She’s full of flour!” Pinkie looked away for a second and brought her hoof to her chin. “Or… or maybe flowers. Yeah! That’s why she smells so good! You put too many flowers into your cookie dough and it’s gonna be tough, and that’s what Rarity here is! She’s like a lumpy cookie with petals and stems and stuff sticking out. That’s how tough she is!”

A rousing cheer erupted from the cars behind them. The overjoyed stallions turned Rarity’s name into an enthusiastic victory chant. As the cars neared the station, several onlookers shared questioning looks and shrugs between each other, then picked up the chant, as well.

Pinkie hopped in her seat and squeezed Rarity’s leg with her tail again. “Look, Rarity! They’re all waiting for you ’cause you did it! It’s been years!” Pinkie’s wide smile retreated slightly. Her marefriend still hadn’t released her death grip on the restraints. “Uh, Rars. You okay?”

Rarity simply glanced about in utter confusion. If this was in fact the afterlife, the smell left much to be desired. Her eyes finally fell on a pink hoof next to hers, and she let go of the restraining bar to snatch it up before it could get away.

Pinkie wanted to continue grinning, but the squeeziness of Rarity’s grip was a little bit painful. It was adding some grimace to the smile, but this wasn’t really a frowny sort of time, no matter how bone-crushing the grip might be. After a brief conference with her face, one which did not involve free conference donuts, she inventing the Smimace, which had lots of smile still in it, but maybe a little worried look around the eyes and a certain tightening of the cheeks and lips. “I-I’m not going anywhere, Rars. Look!” Pinkie pointed to the shoulder restraints with her other hoof. “We’re still locked in.”

Rarity obediently looked at the restraints, though they meant very little to her at first. After some consideration she decided they annoyed her. How was she meant to get on with the business of haunting locked up like this? The reports from her stomach were becoming more urgent, but she was still coming to terms with her other senses. Touch checked in to tell her the hoof she had clenched to her chest was warm. Smell continued to report all sorts of horrible things. Sight and sound were a little muddled, since there was a lot of input coming in. And finally, taste told her a horrible amount of stomach acid had made its way up her esophagus when her middle had been crushed at the sudden stop.

All of this seemed to more or less confirm her earlier supposition; she was alive after all. Which meant she should logically be able to interact with the world in a more meaningful way than haunting it. She tested this by opening her mouth, the abruptly snapped it shut when a loud belch made its way from her lips.

“Good one!” Pinkie gulped down a huge breath, then another. Concentrating, she opened her mouth and issued a three note belch of her own before shooting glance at one of the stallions in the next car. “Your turn.”

The next ringing burp was just fading when the restraints finally snapped open. The crowd roared with renewed vigor, and the park officials and photographers rushed forward. A rotund, moustached unicorn stallion sporting a somewhat thread-worn tuxedo jacket knelt slightly and offered Rarity his hoof. “Might I be the first to congratulate you, my dear? It’s been eleven years!”

Rarity blinked, then long-ingrained social etiquette training took over. She smiled, letting go of Pinkie’s hoof. Extending her own to the portly unicorn, she stood up gracefully, lurching only slightly at the sudden stillness of the ground. “Um... thank—”

“That’s no way for a hero to return!” Pinkie bounded over Rarity’s head and twisted in midair to land facing her marefriend. Her hooves were a blur as she trotted in place. “We gotta do this right! C’mon, you guys! Get her up!”

Hooves wound their way around Rarity, and she suddenly found herself high overhead on the shoulders of several of the wildly cheering stallions. The mob continued chanting her name while they jostled back and forth on the uneven ground, trying to stay in their close supportive formation while negotiating the platform. Nearly falling, Rarity’s hoof shot out and searched for some sort of anchor.

“Rari—Ow!” The stallion tried to turn his head to look up at her, but her crushing grip on his ear made the movement difficult.

The sudden jostling was making her poor middle seize up in a tight, painful ball full of searing fire. While she clutched desperately to the poor stallion beneath her, she rummaged her saddlebag for the sack of mints.

Pinkie waved at the group over to where a mousey brown pegasus mare in a faded orange Expo staff vest stood next to a table stacked high with neon-bright t-shirts. Pinkie plucked the top one from the pile and waved it overhead. “The shirts! Guys, over here!”

The mare held up a tentative hoof. “I-if I could, um, just—”

Pinkie thrust her head deep into the shirt. Wiggling, she seemed lost for a moment before her head squeezed its way out of one of the leg holes. “Oops. Wrong way.”

The timid mare tried to gently pull Pinkie onto a line of tape that had been laid out on the splintered coaster platform. “No, but if y-you could—”

“Hold on, um—” Pinkie’s eye suddenly peered out from one of the shirt’s leg-holes and scanned the mare’s name tag “—Scirocco. I think I’ve almost got it.” Diving back into the recesses of the shirt, Pinkie somehow managed to nearly disappear. Muttered growls mixed with a few snorts of frustration emerged from within, while Pinkie’s hooves and mane poked out every so often. Finally, while a triumphant cry, Pinkie popped back out and stood proudly.

“There! Oh.” Pinkie frowned at the shirt, which was nicely covering her rear half, rather than the front. Her bushy tail waved at her from the hole her head should have gone through. “Eh, close enough. Guys, hurry up!”

The stallions nearly ran Rarity into a rusting metal sign overhead when they surged forward. They dipped down at the last second, and interrupted their chanting to point hooves at each other briefly. Like a mythical, many-legged beast of yore, they scuttled over the platform to the table. Scirocco, who was still trying to get Pinkie into a photo op position, took one look at the mob and shrank away into the shadows.

“P-Pinkie,” Rarity gasped out, trying to keep her mouth closed to avoid another embarrassing expulsion of gas. “I need a moment to find my mints—”

“We’ll go get more candy later, Rars. This is your big moment, and we’re gonna make it really special for you!” Pinkie leapt up onto the nearest stallion’s head. Balancing on one hoof between his ears, she opened the shirt wide and stuffed Rarity into it. She frowned when it caught on the unicorn’s horn, then reached in to unhook the stubborn cloth before forcing Rarity’s head through. “Ah! There! You look great! Well, besides the smeary face-paint, but overall, doesn’t she look great, guys?”

Cheering, the stallions hoisted her as high as their legs could manage several times, and the crowd roared its approval.

“Can you please stop shaking me around? I—” Rarity clamped her mouth shut as another acidic bubble made its way up her esophagus. “I need something—”

“Picture time!” Pinkie trotted over to the photographers and nudged them into place. “Everypony get those shirts on!”

Rarity dipped and swayed like a boat tossing on high seas while the stallions below her wiggled into their prizes. From the mass of madly grinning face, one set of concerned eyes stared up at her. “Hey. Hey are you—” he began before the stallion next to him threw a shirt into his face.

“This is going to be so huge, Rars!” Pinkie said as she skidded to a stop in front of the assemblage. Kneeling, she threw her front hooves wide and gave her best party photo smile. “It’ll be just the way you like it! Your name in all the papers! Your face plastered up all over Equestria! Everypony remembering who you are ’cause of what you did here! Could this date be any more perfect?”

Rarity opened her mouth to answer, and at that moment flashbulbs popped all around them when the remnants of ‘The Matrimonial’ erupted forth from her violently.


Several long seconds of silence stretched out between them while Applejack sat blinking at Rarity. “You mean you… You...”

Rarity dropped her eyes to her glass and nodded.

“All over everypony?

Rarity knocked back another shot, signalling for one more. The daiquiris were no longer quite cutting it for her, and she’d changed to stronger and stronger drinks as the tale wore on.

“Huh. Okay, so, uh... what’d you do next?”

Rarity grimaced as she drank, tapping the bar for yet another shot. “I did what any sensible pony would do: I bolted out of there like my mane was on fire, found the nearest thing that passed for a restroom, and locked the door, intending to never come out again.”