The Waters of March

by Bandy

Saturday Afternoon

That afternoon, Dash negotiated a deal with Rarity. They would spend two hours in the beachside spa getting pampered however Rarity saw fit, then take a hike around the mountain in the center of the island. Rarity had the wherewithal to suggest they take the hike first. Dash agreed. If she tried hard enough, she could just wear herself out and fall asleep at the spa.

“So,” Dash said as they neared the base of the mountain, “I was talking to some of the staff lately.”

“Yes?”

“It was all about the cool things you can do while you’re on the island. I guess they have boat races here a few times a year, but they’re not going on right now.”

“You’d probably beat them anyway.”

Dash beamed. “Anyway, they have all sorts of stuff you can do on these trails, but if we take the trail leading all the way up to the top we can go spee-lunking into the mountain. Turns out, it's not a mountain. It's a dormant volcano. Isn’t that cool?”

Rarity considered the opportunity. “It’s pronounced spelunking.”

“Potato-tomato. Whatever. Point is, we should do it when we get up there.”

“When we get up there?” Rarity squinted at the distant lip of the mountain. “That’s a lot of walking.”

“It’ll take like twenty minutes.”

“For you, maybe. I can’t fly.”

“We don’t have to fly, we just need to attack the mountain.”

“This vacation is not a fitness class, Rainbow!”

“You’re right, I hate classes. This is fitness fun!”

And with that, Rainbow spread her wings and took off. She moved into a slow circle above Rarity, shouting encouragements.

Rarity shouted back, “If you leave me down here, I’m going back to the spa!”

Dash did a loop-de-loop and sped off to the next ridgeline. Rarity sighed and trudged on.

When the two finally found each other, Rarity was out of breath and covered with sweat. Dash laid in a soft bed of moss on the side of the road, humming and taking lazy swipes at the bugs flying around her.

“That was pretty quick,” Dash said. “Are you sure you didn’t sprout wings?”

“I want to go to the spa now.”

“Look there.” Dash pointed towards the mountain. We’re almost there. Just a few more miles and we’ll be at the top. The spa’s probably further away anyway from here.”

“Rainbow--”

“It’s so close! And check it out! While I was up in the air I found a really nice thermal.”

“I don’t care. I can’t ride thermals. Even if I could climb this awful mountain, I don’t want to do it by myself. You can’t keep flying off.”

“Can’t? Listen, the top is just a little bit further. We’ll go spelunking once we’re at the top. It’ll be so much fun.”

Rarity snapped, “Do you even know what spelunking is?”

“That’s--not relevant. Look, we’re on vacation. That means I’m on vacation too. I want to ride this thermal all the way up to the top of this mountain and then spelunk down it.”

“Let’s say for argument’s sake--”

“I don’t want to argue!”

“Yes, but let’s just say for argument’s sake that we are arguing. If I made it up there, and I didn't plan on risking my life going spelunking, how would I get back down? If you’re going to just spelunk back down, how do you propose I make it down in time for the spa appointment?”

Dash shrugged. “They’ve got a zipline.”

Rarity took a deep breath and looked around. Jungle brush enclosed the path on both sides, winding up the side of the mountain and out of sight. A flock of birds droned on in an endless song somewhere high above them.

“If I go up there,” Rarity said, “and mind you, I may not... but if I go, we’re taking an extra hour at the spa so they can redo my hair, which will of course be ruined if I go ziplining.”

“Yeah, sure!” Dash unfurled her wings and shot into the air. “Let’s get moving.”

“Wait a minute! If we go up there, we go up there together.”

Slowly, Dash drifted down to earth. “Yeah, sure.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“I’m not. I’m just--I don’t know. I don’t like walking.” But I’d walk with you, is what Dash almost added.

“I know walking must make your skin crawl. But I appreciate it.” Rarity moved in for a quick nuzzle.

Dash shied away, then gave in. “You’re a better friend than me.”

“No, just a little more thoughtful.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for being more thoughtful.”

When they made it to the top of the mountain, they parted ways with a promise to meet in front of the spa as soon as they were done.

When Dash finally touched down in front of the spa an hour later, she noticed a look of tired contentment on her friend's face. It reminded of of the same look she got after working all day on a thrilling new trick.

"Do you know how long the zipline ride lasts, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked.

"Nope. Was that you screaming?"

Rarity scowled. "It takes under ten minutes. And you couldn't have possibly heard that from inside the mountain."

"So it was you!"

As they walked into the spa, Dash lowered her voice and said, “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to argue with you.”

“You have nothing more to be sorry for. Did you at least figure out what spelunking means?”

Dash nodded. “There was a lot of water down there. I kinda thought you’d just jump down and they’d let you out at the bottom like a log flume ride.”

Rarity cracked a smile. “In many ways, life is like a log flume ride. In this way, it’s not. Good thing I booked us the extra hour--you’ll need it if you want to look presentable when we go to the resort club for dinner tonight.”

“Resort club? Don’t you need a fancy dress to get in there?”

Rarity’s smile grew wider.

Comments

[nemryn]

Oh, Rainbow Dash.

[ExplosionMare]

Oh geez, Rainbow had to bring up dresses, didn’t she?