Graphs

by Mozzarella

Jeez, This is Awkward

"Awesome is an issue of dash over rainbow. If you don't dash, it doesn't rainbow."

Graphs

***

Dash awoke to the sound of rustling downstairs. Her eyes fell over the dark room, searching for any possible reason to be awake (and a blunt object to strike it with). In the unaware stupor of half-sleep, she stumbled out of bed to run a brush through her hair once right before shaking it back to its original unkempt look. She braced herself for the unforgiving first light of the day and opened her curtains…

Nothing. Luna’s moon still hung defiantly in the sky, as if to say, “’tis still nighttime, art thou infuriated?” Dash mumbled curses under her breath and made to get back into bed until the rustling grew louder. She drifted through her doorway and to the stairs where she surveyed the rest of the house.

One of her storage boxes had been opened and its contents were strewn about the floor. In the dim light, and through virtually closed eyes, she couldn’t quite make out what they were. Sprouting from the box were a pony’s back legs. Blitz muttered something giddily under his breath and emerged from the box with something in his hooves.

Officially perplexed, Dash flicked on the lights to her living room and descended the staircase, yawning. “Blitz, it’s late. What are you doing up?”

His head shot back to her and nodded enthusiastically as a greeting. “I had a dream!”

“Uh-huh” she said, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “What about?”

“I had a dream. I was flying. Racing, yeah. Then, these other Pegasi came from behind me. Wearing blue suits. Yeah. Blue suits. I wondered who they were…” Blitz sounded a tad hysterical and nodded his head with each statement.

Dash shifted her gaze to the opened box he stood over and recognized a familiar stamp on the side. She chuckled and shook her head, approaching her clone. “You remembered them?”

“All of them” Blitz confirmed. His smile wavered. He must have grown tired of his recollection induced high. “You’re a fan of them, I’m guessing?”

“You could say that.” Dash looked back on her childhood. She had been quite young when she learned of the Wonderbolts. They had somewhat defined her goals in life up to the present day.

And now, all that fandom had been force fed to the poor colt in one sitting.

She put a hoof on his shoulder to support herself and pushed the Wonderbolt plushie out of his hooves. “Come on. You can look through all that stuff in the morning.”

“Yeah” he responded and shook himself out of his fan trance. “Just one thing. I checked your mail too. Don’t ask why. I don’t know.” (Was that a lampshade? No? Ok.) He moved to the table and took up a paper in his mouth. “Wook a’ dish’.”

The paper showed a white unicorn with purple glasses grinning wildly. Dash squinted at the message below. It read:

Attention Aspiring Flyers of Equestria!

Please join us Saturday night at the cloudiseum for Ms. Vinyl Scratch’s Team Laser Lightshow-down! Equestria’s most talented Pegasus ponies will dazzle you with their weather magic! Participants will compete in the greatest lightshow ever to win the title of “Most Awesome Young Flyer”. Let’s face it, that last competition was a joke. It was in the day time. I mean, come on. Who wants to party in the day time? Don’t even get me started on the music. Join me and the lovely Miss. Octavia for a show that will rock this boring land to its core! Also, our special guests, Spitfire and Soarin of the Wonderbolts, will be putting on a show of their own! I know, right!

Anyway, applications can be picked up at 584 Strum St., Canterlot, Equestria. Sign ups are for teams of two. Don’t miss your chance to wow the crowd!

It then proceeded into a warning about epilepsy. Dash almost found herself shaking with the same excitement her clone found himself afflicted with a few moments ago.

The Wonderbolts will be there! Oh my gosh! She managed to choke out a response. “Sounds fun!”

Blitz placed the flyer back on the table. “I know! And we could totally win!”

Dash froze. “Win? You mean, compete?”

“Yes!”

Dash stammered. She must have been lacking the adrenaline her counterpart had acquired over the night. “B-but it’s in just four days!”

“Three” Blitz corrected. “It’s past midnight. Anyway, we could do this! You already won that other competition- I remembered that one too- and you saw what we did in the sky earlier. We weren’t even trying to put on a show then!”

The part of Dash that was having second thoughts was politely clubbed over the head by confident Dash. They never found the body.

“You’re right! We can do this!” Confident Dash, however, was still tired. “Except, maybe we can do it in the morning.”

Blitz responded with a yawn. “Yeah, sure. Sorry for waking you and all. Goodnight again.” He started to climb back onto his couch but Dash grabbed him and started to drag him through the air up the stairs.

“Oh no. You’re coming with me. I can’t have you waking up and rummaging through my stuff again. I’ve got to keep an eye on you.” Her words carried facetiousness that was poorly disguised as something austere.

Blitz flapped his wings to take up his own weight and moved to her side. “I couldn’t help it!”

“Whatever. Just try to get some rest. Apparently, we have a few long days ahead of us.”

They arrived in Dash’s room. She flicked off the lights in the living room and the house was dark again. She took up her spot on the bed, replacing the blankets. She appeared to be comfortable and asleep instantly. Blitz hovered to the other side of the bed, suddenly aware again of just who he was joining in it. He left plenty of room between them and faced away from her to hide his nervous face. Sure enough, Dash had been doing the same.

They murmured a simultaneous “goodnight” and tried their best to fall to sleep.

…

The warm was trying to get away.

Light shined through the open curtains of Dash’s bedroom and a low quality rock and roll song blared through Dash’s ears. She fought to remain at least somewhat asleep against the static her alarm clock was bleating out. This was a routine of hers whenever she slept at home. The relative warmth of the bed tried to keep her in it while her ears begged her to turn off that damned alarm.

Today, the warmth was winning. Now, cloud blankets are made of water vapor. They are light, fluffy, and the most comfortable material known to ponies (I hear griffon down is better, but you’d have to find a griffon willing to let you shave it). However, it should come as no surprise that they can make a pony a bit damp after a while. And damp meant cold. Today, it wasn’t cold. Today, Dash had the warm.

But the warm was getting away!

Dash had kept her legs draped weakly around the warm since she had become aware that morning. It was quite a treat to not wake up shivering. But, as it moved away, Dash could feel the cold sneaking up on her back. She would be having none of that.

“No!” she chirped stubbornly as she tightened her hold on the warm and pulled it back to her. It complied without much of a resistance and turned to face her. Then, it wrapped itself around her, engulfing her and sending the cold back to its little box in the corner.

Dash nearly purred. She nuzzled the warm as a reward. It felt fuzzy. Well, of course it felt fuzzy! Warmth was always fuzzy! It’s simple logic.

The radio proceeded into commercials. It began to politely offer medication to ponies suffering from depression (How anypony could be depressed in Ponyville, I’ll never know. It was probably an unsuccessful business, given the location.). Dash had to draw the line there. She turned her back to the warm, which continued to hold her tightly, and flailed out a foreleg toward the most annoying alarm clock radio in Equestria.

Her hoof met the plushness of her cloud mattress. She continued to flop her hoof around on the cloud three more times before realizing that her mattress was not her radio. Her eyes flickered open and she saw her night table quite a ways away from her hoof.

“Stupid alarm…” she mumbled as she turned to ask the warm to let go so she could silence the repetitive voice repeating “Horn on, apply directly to the horn”.

A wall of blue obscured her vision. Sky blue. The color of her coat. She followed the wall to the head of Rainbow Blitz, who still smiled in blissful sleep.

(Holy buck, guys! Blitz was the warm!)

Holy buck! Blitz is the warm! is what Dash’s mind said. However, muffled through Blitz’s neck, all that came out of her mouth was, “Mph ffmuphmm!”

The colt stirred and opened his eyes. He blinked at the Pegasus staring wide-eyed back at him for a moment. And then he noticed she was in his forelegs.

His mouth went dry, which, when coupled with his morning thirst, was quite uncomfortable. He double checked that they were, in fact, his extremities and that it was, in fact, Rainbow Dash in them. Both were true. However, Blitz didn’t quite know how to react. It didn’t help that part of his mind was busy commenting on his situation.

“Don’t like her” my mental flank. You get choked up from seeing her.

Shut up, self. How do I deal with this?

I think you’re doing just fine. You got her into bed, didn't you? Isn't she cute when she stares like that?

Dude! This is really awkward! She’s freaking out!

And so are you. But you have me to help you see out from that thick skull of yours. Try talking. You seem like a stallion that can run his mouth.

You’re an ass.

Thought Blitz to himself.

Ugh!

Blitz soon saw it fit to say something. He croaked a “Good morning” and started to shuffle out of the bed. Dash did the same and finally shut off the radio in the middle of some political talk show. Evidently, the Mayor would be elected for another term.

Unfortunately, no annoying radio meant no sound at all. Rack up another awkward silence for the Rainbow household.

After making the decision to ignore how she woke up, Dash walked slowly out the door into the hallway. “Well, I’m gonna go take a shower. You can go downstairs and get some breakfast. There should be something down there. Maybe. I really don’t know. Make sure the food’s not actually mold before you eat it.”

“Will do,” he replied and parted ways with her in the hall. Blitz made his way to Dash’s kitchen, avoiding some of the clutter he had made the previous night in the living room.

Through the arches, he found a small and quite messy excuse for a kitchen. A counter of smoothed out cloud stretched across the walls, with cabinets scattered below it. One piece protruded about a meter into the middle of the room, with chairs on each side. On it laid piles of papers and wrappers of unknown origin. Where the counter ended there was a tall grey cloud embedded in the wall, a fridge. A quick look through it yielded some milk that was probably not bad. Next, Blitz decided to try a little memory.

She’s got to have some knowledge of where stuff is. Maybe if I focus…

He tried to visualize a bowl and a box of cereal. Perhaps he hoped the correct cabinet would light up for him. Instead, he succeeded in listening intently to the sound of running water upstairs.

Suddenly, the bowl and cereal became a steam filled shower. He envisioned water falling unevenly off somepony’s multi-colored mane while she whipped it through the air. Droplets of the warm water splashed onto his face. Soap bubbles ran down her flanks. She turned to him and winked.

Why don’t you go join her?

Blitz felt his wings twitch. He would not even dignify the voice in his head with a response (Because that would be weird). He went about searching for sustenance without any more deep thought.

Back upstairs, Dash was wrapping up her shower while trying to map out the next few days.

We’re going to have to get a routine down for the show. Will chief let us have our personal days after what happened yesterday?

She stepped through the curtains and proceeded to shake her head at an unhealthy speed. Risks of whiplash aside, it was a good way to shake the water from your mane. The water spattered on the walls and mirror, leaving her mane dry and just the right amount of untidy.

And what happened this morning? How did we end up…cuddling…again…

A rush of cold, high-altitude air from the hallway hit her as soon as she opened the door. She had only dried her mane. She shivered down to the stairs.

I bet he wouldn’t mind warming you up, said her cheeky inner monologue.

Dash closed her eyes and imagined her self being pressed against a wall. Her breath became heavy. Something brushed past her ear, then her cheek, and then it separated for a moment, breathing hot air onto her neck. It lingered there right before latching onto her skin.

She let out a gasp and shook her head again. She found it hard twist her face into something appalled. With shivers of a different kind, she returned to the bathroom to shake the rest of her hair dry.

After doing away with distractions, Dash made her way to the kitchen. She found Blitz sitting at the counter with a bowl of Cherileeo’s (With cherry shaped marshmallows!). He greeted her and held out the box.

“Want shum?” he asked through a full mouth. A bowl and a spoon were set out opposite to him.

“Sure.” She snatched the box and took a seat, starting to pour the oat rings into her bowl.

As they ate, Dash fished through a pile of papers on the counter and produced a calendar. Blitz peered over, tilting his head to read with her.

“Looks like we’ve got partly cloudy through Monday,” Dash said.

“Cool. We just set them up today and then we’ve got a clear schedule to set up a show, right?”

“Mhm. Anyway, the shower’s all yours when you’re done. Then we can get to work.”

Blitz tilted his bowl towards his mouth and gulped down the rest of its contents. “Alright. I’ll be back in a bit.” Then he flew off to bathe for the first time in his life.

…

Fluttershy hovered low in her cottage, struggling with a large bag of bird seed in her forelegs. She made her way to each box hanging off of her walls and ceiling, methodically pouring each of her feathery little friends their recommended portion in their bowls. As anyone with hooves would think, a heavy bag of seeds is difficult to control mid-air, especially if you are not a strong flyer. Upon filling her third bowl, the yellow Pegasus’s hooves slipped and the bag tumbled to the floor with a small puddle of seeds forming around its opening.

“Oh,” she said after a weary sigh. “Sorry guys. I’ll just be a moment.” Then she left the room.

The remaining unfed birds had lived with Fluttershy long enough to learn manners and to appreciate what she did for them. They had no trouble returning to doing bird stuff while their caretaker retrieved a dustpan.

She returned and lifted the bag up to rest against a table. “Sometimes, I wish I had a little help with all this…” She scooped up some of the fallen seeds and poured them carefully back into the bag. She then felt a tug on her tail.

The Pegasus turned to see her old friend Angel standing at attention with a carrot held at his side like a rifle. He wore a green helmet that must have belonged to toy soldier at one point. Despite his attitude, Angel, too, appreciated Fluttershy’s work. And he wasn’t about to put up with another Iron Will fiasco either.

With a salute, the bunny proceeded to attack the task that had caused his friend trouble. He pushed up against the bag and managed to get one side of it a hair’s width off the ground. Angel was about as strong as one would expect a little white rabbit to be. A yellow hoof managed to grab him before he gave himself a hernia.

“Thank you, Angel, but that’s too heavy for you. I was thinking maybe another pony. Someone a bit like me, maybe…” she trailed off in thought.

Angel took on his look of disapproval and released it on Fluttershy. He had heard the story the previous night and had taken Twilight’s side.

Fluttershy, he said with his paws and twitching whiskers. I know you think finding- or making- somepony to be with would make you happy. But you can’t just go cloning yourself just because Rainbow Dash seems to be doing well so far.

The mare bowed her head. Angel’s argument must have been working.

I’m sure you’ll find somepony. But, this just isn’t how to go about it. Can you imagine if everypony just cloned themselves to have a relationship? Biodiversity would plummet, population would shoot up, things would just go wrong. An animal expert like you would know things like this. Now, I don’t want you trying to pressure Twilight. Ok? It sounds like she’s against it and she probably knows best when it comes to this type of thing.

“I know,” said Fluttershy with uncanny recognition of the rabbit’s words. “I know you want to help but that bag is just too big for you. Now, go finish your breakfast so you can grow up big and strong.”

Angel gave his forehead a concussive smack and shook his head. Sometimes, being a rabbit just sucked. Nevertheless, wagging his whiskers at her a little more would do no good and his charade skills were probably not good enough to get this particular message across.

I need some coffee, he thought as he hopped toward the kitchen. Meanwhile, Fluttershy finished her clean up and managed to feed the rest of her birds without incident. She started to gather supplies for another bout of caretaking when she heard a rapping on her cottage door. She opened it a crack and found Rainbow Dash with Tank hovering above her.

“Good morning, Rainbow,” she said, letting them in.

“Good morning,” Dash replied. Tank flew in after her up to Fluttershy, who gave him an affectionate nuzzle.

“Hello tank. We’ve missed you around here. Is Rainbow treating you ok?”

As a response, he came to a landing at Dash’s hooves and retracted his propeller. Dash patted his shell. “Yeah, we’re doing fine. I actually have some plans to get this guy some wings and an engine. He’ll be the fastest tortoise alive!”

Fluttershy tried to smile but her motherly instincts were telling her this plan would go wrong in every way possible. She managed a nervous giggle and hoped her friend was joking.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you could keep an eye on him for a few days. Blitz and I are going to the mountains to train.”

Fluttershy jumped at the chance to take Tank away from the well-meaning bad influence that was his owner. She swept him up into the air and hugged his shell. “Of course I’ll watch him! I’ll get his bed set up. Did he have breakfast? I can have Angel make you a nice salad.” She continued her obsessive swooning over the tortoise for a moment before remembering Dash standing in the room.

“Oh, um, what are you and Blitz training for?”

Dash told her about the competition and their schedule for the next three days.

“Wow, that sounds fun. So you’re going around the mountains to practice?” Over the course of Dash’s story, Tank made it about half way across the room.

“Yeah. We need somewhere secluded to practice without anypony seeing anything before the show.” Dash took about four steps over to her pet and rubbed his head. “Isn’t that right, Tank?”

“That sounds nice. You two alone in the Canterlot Valley with the birds chirping and the clouds drifting by with the gentle wind…” She trailed off with her eyes glazed over.

“I mean, I guess it could be like that. We are going to be working, though.”

“Mhm.” Fluttershy may or may not have heard her. “How is Blitz? Did you find room for him? I know you only have one bedroom.”

“Oh, yeah. He’s fine. He just… slept on the couch.” Dash rubbed her neck. Then in the bed right next to me. I could smell him. He was soft. Had she said that out loud, her voice might have cracked more than it already did on a regular basis.

Fluttershy saw something on her mind (It looked sticky). “Um, are you-“

“ANYWAY,” she interrupted, well above her inside voice. “I should be going. Take care of Tank.” She made her way to the door.

Fluttershy followed her halfway out. “Do you want me to tell the others?” Dash was already high above the surrounding canopy.

“Nah,” she called back. “We’ve got it covered.”

…

Blitz regretted having it covered.

It should have been simple. Just go to four ponies he already knew (sort of) and tell them about the show. Nothing big at all.

He visited the Earth ponies first. Applejack’s house was easy to find from his own memory along with Dash’s. He expected as much. What he didn’t expect was being cast off with about a lifetime supply of apple-based food.

“We can find stuff there!” he told them as they stuffed packages into one end of his saddlebags.

Granny Smith responded with a snort. “Nonsense! You’re thin as a tree branch. You need some vittles to get some meat on those bones while you’re out there. I can let one o’ my granddaughter’s friends go around lookin’ all sickly.”

Applejack chuckled. She was a bit less enthusiastic about the Pegasus’s need for “vittles” but she learned not to contradict her Granny Smith from an early age. “Besides, sugarcube, ain’t you and Dash gonna be workin’ up an appetite out there?” She winked.

Blitz eyed her suspiciously. “I guess. We are going to be flying a lot and…” Recognition flashed on his face right before a blush. Applejack got a nice chuckle from that. “I told you we’re not like that!”

“Ah didn’t say nothin’, Blitzy.” Blitz let out a growl, which was much funnier than it was scary. “Well go on, now. You’ve got a few more stops, right?”

He turned and stormed out of the room, mumbling something about stupid, suggestive mares. Applejack watched him from the door with a grin. As he took off, however, longing showed in her eyes. With a sigh, she shut the door and went off to another day’s work in the fields.

Blitz’s visit to Sugarcube corner yielded as much food as his last with a distinct lack of innuendo. Blitz introduced himself to the Cakes, who were surprised to find that he already knew them. Blitz made a mental note to try and separate Dash’s experience from his own. With evenly stuffed saddlebags and a bone crushing goodbye-hug from Pinkie, he was off to see the unicorns.

Carrousel Boutique seemed to be a far cry from “destroyed” on the outside. There was a single broken window on the second floor and a stone gray Pegasus repair pony appeared to be taking measurements to replace it. Blitz landed heavily in front of the door, which appeared to serve as a knock.

Before he could bring his hoof to the door, Rarity burst out into her front yard.

“What was that! Did you break something!? I’ll be having a word with your manager if anything on my shop is out of place!” She looked frantically around her walls before noticing nothing had changed but the colt staring with a cocked eyebrow at her front door. The repair pony glanced at her, grunted, and went back to his work.

Blitz coughed. “Um, that was me.”

Rarity’s eyes narrowed for a moment. Then, she reverted right back to her cheery and excessively proper self. “So it was. Please come in, Blitz. Twilight and I were just talking about you.” She trotted back inside.

That can’t be good, he thought. That can’t be good at all. He followed her in.

They walked through the thoroughly organized displays of clothing on idealistic mannequins. Most were dresses of all shapes and styles with a few suits scattered about the room. Rarity saw him observing the clothes and smiled.

“They’re marvelous, aren’t they? The ponies in this town simply don’t know what they are taking for granted!” Rarity’s smile became fierce for a moment. Blitz fell another step behind her. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about your clothes. Or lack thereof. I already have a few designs laid out that would be perfect for a stallion such as you. I’m sure of it!”

Blitz’s face became a faint grimace. “Oh. I don’t want you to go to any trouble. I wouldn’t even be able to pay you.”

“Pay, dear? What nonsense! It’s no trouble at all. Anyway, I’ve been in need of some publicity lately. With a stallion like yourself showing my garments off it would pay for itself.” They reached a staircase and started upward. “Twilight? Make yourself decent, please. We have a guest.”

A somewhat strained voice came from above them. “Rarity, we spend most of our time naked anyway. Why would I care if somepony saw me in this?”

Rarity giggled. “Oh Twilight. I wasn’t aware you were so comfortable with dressing in front of stallions.” They reached the top and Blitz stopped.

“Um, I can wait here if you want. I actually just needed to tell you two-“

“Is that Rainbow Blitz?” came Twilight’s voice from the doorway. “Bring him up here! I need to examine him.”

Blitz did not feel entirely comfortable with a supposedly scantily clad mare “examining” him (Well, that mare anyway). However, he found himself being magically nudged up the last few steps by Rarity. “Really! I don’t even have to come in! Dash and I are just going to be in an air show and I was supposed to tell you we’ll be away training in some mountains near Canterlot for the next few days.”

Rarity whistled beside him. “One day together and you’re already off on a romantic getaway? My, my, you work as fast as you fly.” He looked quite dignified blushing and frowning with his eyes squeezed shut while the telekinesis dragged him across the floor.

He heard Twilight sigh. “Relax, Blitz. It’s just a saddle.”

(Just a saddle. One does not normally use the word “just” when trying to convince another that they are properly clothed. But the obtrusive author digresses)

Opening his eyes revealed the room of his birth. It looked exactly the same aside from the lack of a few boxes on the ground. Twilight stood on a step before an array of mirrors in a white saddle. It was a few sizes too tight and was probably putting some unnecessary strain on the unicorn’s rib cage. Rarity must have been one of those "suffer to be beautiful" kind of ponies.

She hopped down from her perch over to the others. She levitated a quill and paper over from a purple saddlebag on a table and started to circle Blitz slowly. “Your hair seems to grow the same way as Rainbow’s- Oh, well I guess I can’t call her that anymore- the same way as Dash’s.”

“Really?” Blitz muttered sarcastically. “I hadn’t noticed. It’s not like I’m her clone or anything.”

Twilight ignored the remarks and scribbled notes on her paper. She came around behind him and looked at his tail. She frowned and said, “Why is your tail all zig-zaggy like that? Dash’s isn’t.”

Blitz sighed. “I don’t know. I was literally born yesterday. Probably in one of those boxes over there, actually.”

“Maybe you’ve got some kind of special oils to cause stiffness at certain intervals.” Twilight tapped her chin and magically yanked out one of his hairs. Blitz jumped forward with a yelp.

He shot her a withering glance. “Are we done here? Or do you want to shave me as well?”

Rarity laughed. “Oh yes. Go, run along to your date. Don’t let us keep you waiting. It was nice seeing you again.”

“It’s not a- forget it. Whatever. See ya.” He left without another word.

Twilight shook her head and started unbuckling her saddle. “I don’t think he likes it when you talk about him and Dash like that. “

“It’s not like I’ll have any effect. Celestia knows what they’ll end up doing out training. Alone. With Nothing but the clouds and a little exercise to distract them from more interesting activities.”

Twilight cringed. “You know, you act very sophisticated but you say the dirtiest things!”

Rarity scooped up the saddle and attached it to a mannequin. “It’s not dirty! It’s romantic.”

“It’s weird is what it is,” the lavender unicorn mumbled.

Rarity’s expression fell. “Twilight…”

“Well it is! What if they- or they end up- they could- UGH!” She grunted started pacing around.

“What will happen? Tell me. Why are you so against this?

“Something will happen. It’s just so weird. It doesn’t seem right. I don’t want to get involved in this.” She turned away and started towards the stairs.

Rarity watched her lowered head, almost ready to give up. Then the white unicorn blinked. “This isn’t about clones at all.”

Twilight stopped and eyed her suspiciously. “What?”

Rarity put on her triumphant realization face. “No no no. You’re fine with the cloning part. It’s what happens afterwards that has you all nervous.”

Twilight rubbed her forehead. “Please, keep being cryptic. I obviously understand.”

“You’re shy.”

“What do you mean by that? I think I’ve done well by way of making friends since I came here.”

“Sure you have, but how many of those friends are stallions?”

That one hit a nerve. Twilight backed up a step and stammered, “Plenty!”

Rarity seemed unconvinced. “You‘re afraid of meeting stallions.”

“I am not!”

“Yes, yes you are. Don’t give me that look. I saw how you acted when that purple haired fellow came and stood next to you at Applejack’s ceremony. You’re lucky it was hot out and everypony was sweating anyway.”

“I wasn’t sweating!” True or not, she sure was sweating now.

“I can’t really blame you,” Rarity continued. “He was a cute one. Although, his voice could get on one’s nerves after a while.”

Twilight attempted to gather a witty retort to dismiss the accusations.

Perhaps one about reading too many trashy romance novels would do. She thought. No, that would be mean. I could tell her I have somepony in Canterlot. Oh, I can’t lie to her. Come on, Twilight! Think!

Her darting eyes did nothing to reinforce her credibility. Rarity’s knowing smile tore deeper into her thoughts.

Rarity soon had her fill of her mind games. She walked over to Twilight and led her to her self-pity couch. She looked like she could use some self-pity.

“Darling, tell me what’s got you so averse to this kind of thing. Did something happen to you in the past?”

“No!” Twilight’s eyes still wouldn’t meet hers. “I just don’t have any time for a relationship right now.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you use that same argument in Canterlot when you weren’t making any friends?”

Twilight sighed and sagged on her haunches. “That was different. I really was preoccupied with studying. With this…I just feel so nervous. I don’t want to get into any complicated relationship stuff right now. And if that is the likely outcome of this cloning business, I don’t want to have any part in it. Besides, it’s still weird. Something will go wrong. I can feel it.”

Rarity’s ears fell. It seems Twilight had some resolve left over after that emotional discussion. “You don’t think it would be the least bit interesting? To get to talk to yourself?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. I’m sorry, but I have to be a good friend and not do this for you.”

Rarity took up her spot on the couch as Twilight got off. “I suppose I shouldn’t push you if you’ve truly made up your mind…”

“I have.” She hooked her saddlebags onto her back and stepped towards the doorway. “I hope this doesn’t come between us.”

Rarity smiled faintly. “Of course not, dear.”

Twilight smiled back. “Thanks. See you later.” Exit Twilight Sparkle.

It would have been dramatic of Rarity to stare out at the clouds in disappointment, but the surly Pegasus fixing the window sort of messed with the mood.

…

Strum Street was quite a ways away from Ponyville. The stuffed bags on Blitz’s back didn’t make it seem like any less of a trek.

Suck it up, he told himself. It’s exercise.

He figured the writer of the flyer sounded a bit too cool to live in one of the big, snobby mansions that were found so close to the Princesses’ castle. He flew until the houses shrank to a modest one or two floors before noticing a decent sized empty circle in the moving crowd.

In its center was Pegasus with broad brown wings and a particularly long tail. It probably would have been easier to just ask the one closest to him, but no one ever accused Rainbow Dash’s mind of excessive thought. He pushed his way into the circle and tapped the shoulder of the pony in its center. “Uh, hey. Do you know where I can find Strum Street?”
The pony turned to reveal a small yellow beak on its white head. Feathers hung over her face with purple highlights on the ends with lining of the same color around her eyes. Further examination exposed two clawed forelegs that did not match the paws in the back. Blitz, along with many other ponies had never met such a creature.

That being said, he recognized her immediately.

“Oh, hey Gilda.” He held up a hoof for one of the greeting rituals going through his head along with an entire childhood friendship. He saw vague images of sharing mischievous antics with the griffon before him. To his joy, they were accompanied not by a fainting fit, but by a mild throbbing behind his eyes.

Gilda appeared disturbed by seeing him. She raised an eyebrow and backed away a step. “Do I know you?” she said with suspicion.

Blitz tilted his head. “Of course you know me. I’m Rainbow Bl-“ he stopped as his taunting voice whispered in his ear.

No she doesn’t, dumbass.

Crap. This is going to be really awkward. Blitz let out an uncomfortable laugh and moved his hoof to the back of his head. “I mean-uh- I’m a friend of Rainbow Dash’s.” Gilda’s face tightened in anger as he spoke the name, then just as quickly softened with sadness.

“Oh,” she mumbled, failing to completely maintain her level voice.

“Yeah,” Blitz continued. “She’s told me all about how cool you are and stuff. So I figured the cool looking griffon on the street was probably you.”

Surprise, thy name is Gilda. “Wait- she said what?”

Dammit! I was sure that would work. Change the subject!

“So,” he said, ignoring the inquiry, “how have you been? Have you been to Ponyville recently?”

“No,” she mumbled and stalked closer to him. “What did Dash say?”

Blitz fought to maintain the calm and confident look. That was important when being threatened and there was no doubt the Griffon was the predator in this situation. Meanwhile he played the perfect part of the prey by backing slowly toward a nearby alley. (Okay, maybe not the “perfect” prey. That was a pretty dumb move. But whatever).

“N-nothing. Anyway, do you know where Strum Street is?”

“I asked you a question,” growled Gilda. The possible witnesses got further and further away (Never mind what I said about being good prey. He kind of sucked).

My, what big claws you have. Say that. It’ll be hilarious, said the voice.

Buck no! replied Blitz. He had to admit, though. She did have some pretty big claws. They glinted in the shadows of the alley.

Somewhere along the line, Blitz’s eyes snapped shut and he stumbled over a trash can. When it finished falling noisily to the ground, he decided that Gilda was most likely directly over him and about to rip into him with those talons. Survival instincts overtook image and Blitz decided to face the beast before him.

“For Luna’s love! Don’t kill me!”

Blitz trembled on the ground holding his hooves over his all too vulnerable neck. After a few moments of his life flashing before his eyes (Or Dash’s life, whatever) he found his organs strangely in tact. He chanced opening his even more delicate eyes in time to see Gilda inhale deeply and mouth the digits one to ten. After her count, she exhaled and focused her gaze back upon Blitz. She seemed…

…sorry?

“I did it again. I did it again!” Gilda smacked her head a few times. “Sorry dude. I’ve been a little angry lately. I’m trying to work on it, but you mentioned Dash and I just…ugh.” She picked Blitz up off the ground. “You alright?”

“Uh huh,” he rasped. “Just fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” The response came out a bit more bitter than he wanted.

Gilda winced at his tone. “What was it you were looking for?”

Blitz picked up his saddlebag that had evidently fallen at some point. He considered just walking away and leaving her there to think about what she’d done. He would never have to hear from her again…

She endured his cold shoulder for a minute, and then turned towards the street.

…However, the idea of simply leaving a friend (or friend of a friend, whatever) alone didn’t sit well with him. He actually almost gagged on it.

“Wait.” He trotted after her. “Hold on. You don’t have to-“

“No, it’s fine. I need to get over this. You don’t want to spend any more time with me than you have to, believe me. No one does.”

“Well you can’t just walk off.”

“What?”

“Not without showing me how the hay you get around with these Canterlot jerks showing me their chins. You owe me.” He flashed a grin. “I need to get to Strum Street.”

That cheered her up. Not too much, mind you. She just wasn’t all sad and emo in her makeup anymore.

“Deal. I was just coming from there anyway.” They returned to the light, the street, and the witnesses.

“Oh? Were you signing up for the show too?”

“Nah. Team flying isn’t really my thing.” (I can’t imagine why) “I was getting tickets, though. The Wonderbolts are gonna be there!”

“I know! It’s gonna be awesome!”

They shared a moment of daydreaming over their idols. Then Gilda turned to him.

“Hey. I never caught your name.”

“Heh, yeah. That happens when I fear for my life. I’m Rainbow Blitz.”

She blinked at him and frowned in thought. “And you’re a friend of Rainbow Dash.” Then she glanced over at his flank. “Are you two-uh- related at all? I never really asked her about her family before.”

“I-I-“ Blitz fumbled for the answer. He never really did get any details on clones. All he really got from Twilight was a reassertion that he was, in fact, a clone of Rainbow Dash.

I'm not supposed to tell anyone, though.

“I don’t think so?”

Gilda pursed her beak (Can beaks be pursed?) “It’s just that you look a lot like her.”

“Oh… I don’t see it…” Blitz glanced around the cobblestone street.

“And you have the same cutie-mark.”

“You think so?” He tried to remain calm about it. “You don’t think hers is a bit different?”

“Well, it’s a lightning bolt with three colors.”

“Which colors?”

“I forget, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same.”

“I’m positive her ass doesn’t look like mine.”

“Oh, and you’ve gotten a good look?” she said with a wry look.

“Well ye- I mean no, never- but I-“ Blitz stammered.

Gilda snickered. “Relax, dude. I’m kidding. And I guess it does look a little different. It must be the light.”

“Yeah,” breathed Blitz. “The light.”

…

“Sign here. And here. Aaaand here.”

“Mmph.” Dash let out a frustrated sigh through her quill.

An eyebrow arced above the almost opaque glasses of the white unicorn behind the counter. She laughed and pushed the paperwork aside. “Alright, let’s take a break from the boring part.”

Dash spat out the quill. “There’s a fun part to this?”

Vinyl lifted her trademark shades for an oblique glance towards Dash (For some reason, she couldn’t tell what color the eyes were). Vinyl moved away from the counter and gestured for her to follow. They made their way down aisles of music memorabilia to the wall of the store. An array of monitors and speakers were set up along a long shelf. Vinyl beckoned Dash over to one and thrust a pair of headphones onto Dash’s head.

“What’s this for?” Dash asked. Her voice resonated in her head.

“Well you didn’t think you were going out to perform without music, did you? That would be lame.” The unicorn’s voice sounded muffled, but intelligible.

“We’ve got all the good music in these computers. You can search our library by name, artist, genre, all that stuff.” She magically manipulated a device on the table to demonstrate how to go about searching for “all that stuff”. The extensive list of Canterlot’s greatest hits flew by on the screen. “And just click on one to listen to it. Call me when you’ve got one, I’ll hook you up, and we’ll be all set. Groovy?”

“Groovy,” Dash agreed and then set about her work.

Turned out that Vinyl Scratch knew what she was doing when it came to amassing music. The counter at the bottom that tallied the aggregate length of the songs was numbered in upwards of 300 days. Seeing that the event was in significantly less time than 300 days, Dash opted for the “random” button and hoped for the best.

First of all, Vinyl must have had the ears of gods, because the sound that boomed out of the headphones was still clearly audible after Dash threw them off of herself in shock. She quickly found the volume bar and slid it over to the speaker with fewer waves coming out of it.

Now able to listen without destroying her ears, she found that the song had been some sort of classical music.

I just got blown away by some stuck up symphony… she thought.

She decided to never share that little incident and move on to something a little cooler. It’s not that she couldn’t look good flying to this “Philharmonica” pony’s orchestra. She just didn’t want to.

The next few selections were pretty good, but Dash just couldn’t imagine a crowd of ponies going crazy with them in the background. It needed to have energy. It needed to be almost as awesome as her (Settin’ the bar 20% higher).

The next song was heavy on the synthesizer and bass with a steady drum beat driving it. She grinned and shut her eyes, bobbing her head in time with the music and putting together her performance piece by piece as the song played.

Some ponies can do math in their heads, some ponies can sew up a half dead cart crash victim, and others can orchestrate an aerial feat of athleticism to go with a musical accompaniment before it’s done playing. Dash happened to belong to the third category.

She stood by the monitor for an undeterminable amount of time (Well, she could have just looked at the length of the song). She found herself so engrossed that she tried very hard to ignore the hoof poking her and the muffled voice yelling in her ear.

She sighed and removed the headphones. With a flip of her mane, she turned to the party pooper.

Blitz continued to yell as if he was still competing with a subwoofer. “Dash! Are you alive!”

Dash flicked a strand of his hair to get his attention and flashed a grin. “I’m fine, Blitzy. How about yourself?”

Blitz rolled his eyes (And straightened his wings). “I thought you were signing us up for the show.”

“We’re almost done that, but listen to this first.”

Dash then fixed the headphones on her clone’s head and restarted the song. Within moments, he was bobbing his head and nodding approvingly. He lifted them off one of his ears to speak.

“What’s this?”

“Our background music. C’mon, we’ve got to finish the paperwork.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said while removing the headphones. “But first, there’s someone that wants to talk to you.” Blitz then motioned behind him. Dash glanced in that direction and then back at him.

“Uh, did you hit your head or something?”

“Well, I did trip over a garbage can. Why? Is there another bruise?”

“No. It’s just that there’s absolutely nopony there.”

Blitz frowned and followed where he was pointing. Sure enough, there was not a pony or Griffon to be found. There was, however, a shaking brown tuft of fur on the ground behind one of the aisles. Blitz sighed and walked over to the tuft.

“What’s the problem here?” he whispered.

“I can’t. She’s probably still mad at me.” Gilda replied.

Blitz seemed confused. “Why would she be mad?”

Gilda smiled sheepishly. “Well, I did kind of insult and yell at all of her friends.”

“What!? Why?”

Dash’s voice came from behind them. “Is everything alright back there?”

Blitz groaned. “Yeah. Just a sec.” He turned back to Gilda. “Look. I’m sure she was angry with you, but I don’t think it was that big of a deal.”

Gilda frowned at him. “What makes you think that?”

“What makes who think what?” said Dash as she rounded the corner. “And who are you talking t-Gilda!?” Her eyes popped out as she saw her old friend again.

Said friend quickly picked herself up to move into a slightly more respectable stance. He chin was held high and her limbs where placed confidently on the floor, but her expression betrayed the nervousness she was feeling. “H-hey Dash. It’s, uh, been a while.”

Dash’s face grew conflicted (Perhaps leaning a bit towards “disturbed”). “Um, yeah. I guess it has.”

“How’s Ponyville?” Gilda inquired. However, it seemed a bit more like a suggestion as to how to proceed through the encounter. Meanwhile, Blitz was experiencing being on the outside of an awkward silence for the first time. He could almost see why Rarity had liked inducing them so much.

Unfortunately, he thought, I’m responsible for how this turns out.

“Fine,” Dash replied. She then regretted dismissing the subject so early without milking it for occupying the quiet atmosphere that surrounded them. Some bits of drum beats could be heard out of nearby ponies’ headphones. “How…um. Where have you been?”

“Oh, you know. All over…”

Blitz rubbed his forehead. It was pathetic. They both had such confident demeanors. But after one fight, they turned into this?

Alright, time to bail them out of this.

Blitz glanced at their faces, both of which were pointed anywhere but at each other, and extended his wings out to them. The girls were met with a light brush of feathers to the face. The following twitches and coughs cut the tension not quite as well as a knife, but desperate times, etc.

“Well,” Blitz began. “If we’re all done stalling, how about we get to what is on all of our minds. Gilda, you wanted to share something? You are…” He drew out the last word, tilting his head to indicate her queue.

“Oh! Um, yeah. I’m…” she closed her eyes and made a look comparable to that of a convict under a guillotine.

“What was that?” Blitz held up a hoof to his ear.

This earned him a prompt withering glance before Gilda returned to her epic battle against pride.

“I’m…” Blood started to rush towards the griffon’s head. A vein could be seen pulsing under her feathers. Then, she suddenly let out a deep breath and hung her head. “I’m a stupid jerk.”

Well now! Most ponies were unaccustomed to this side of the griffon, her best friend amongst them. For a moment, her ego actually shrunk below the geosynchronous point of orbit above Equestria. Dash was awestruck.

Blitz, meanwhile, shook his head. “Well, I would have said “sorry”, but whatever.” He turned to his double, who seemed to have spaced out. With a roll of his eyes, he nudged her and gestured towards Gilda with a look that said “She’s bucking sorry, what do you say back?”

She blinked. “Oh, right. It’s f-”

“No it isn’t,” Gilda interrupted. “I’m no better than those jackasses we used to make fun of in flight school.” Blitz’s eye twitched.

Jackasses. Flight school. Got it. Ow, that one hurt a little.

“Come on. You so are. Look, maybe I pushed you a little too far at the party. I should know better than to screw with you too much.” Gilda looked up at her doubtfully.

Dash smiled. “Really. It’s cool.”

Gilda smiled back and they bumped hooves/claws. “Thanks.”

“Yo Dash!” echoed Vinyl’s voice from elsewhere in the store. “You done yet?”

“Yeah yeah. We’re gonna use song #1352.”

“1352…1352…Ah! There it is. Oh, nice one. And is your partner here yet? I need them to sign stuff.”

Dash nodded her head off in the direction of the voice. “That would be you, Blitz.”

“Coming!” he said and cantered over into the aisles, leaving Dash and Gilda without their mediator.

“So…” Gilda drawled. “You two. What’s happening there?”

“What do you mean?” the Pegasus replied, still looking where Blitz had left.

“Come on. Blitzy? Really?” A more cautious griffon would have waited a bit after a conflict to begin teasing again. They probably wouldn’t have blown up at a group of ponies throwing them a party either.

“That doesn’t mean anything!” Dash shot back. “He calls me ‘Dashie’ sometimes too. It’s just something we do.”

Gilda snickered. “That’s so cheesy! Do you guys share milkshakes with two straws too?”

“It’s not like that!” Dash protested. She was looking a little redder than she would have liked.

“Are you sure?” Gilda asked. “Cause you were kind of giving him the eye back there.”

Mild horror plastered Dash’s face. “I was? Wait, how long were you there?”

“Don’t change the subject. Are you two a thing or what?” Yes, relationship teasing is immature. But it’s also fun.

“Well, he sort of lives with me, but-”

“Oh my gosh. He lives with you? I bet you snuggle too.”

Dash looked away. In hindsight, that probably was the wrong move.

“No way! You totally do! This is hilarious!”

“Shut up! It’s usually an accident anyway.” The griffon began to say something again, but Dash’s eyes told her that would not be good for her health.

Gilda made a resigning gesture. “Whatever, dude. You know I’m kidding. Besides, it’s not like he’s lame or anything. You could have done worse.”

Dash growled. “I forgot what a pain in the flank you could be.”

“It’s a gift,” Gilda said with a shrug. “Anyway, that reminds me. Could I see your cutie mark for a sec?”

…

“…and once you’re done, you can sign here, here, and here.”

“Ugh! What is with all this paperwork?” Blitz groaned before continuing to fill out his waiver.

“Hey, I don’t like it any more than you do. If it was up to me, I’d let ponies sign up at the door. But nooooo. I need to get all this stuff done so I’m not responsible for anyone getting hurt. Because it’s totally my fault if some stupid Pegasus goes and gets injured on a cloud. How would that even happen?” Vinyl shook her head. It seemed to her that life would be so much easier without all the bull.

“Yeah, yeah. I understand.” Blitz scribbled in his signature and nudged the stack of papers on Vinyl’s counter. “Are we good now?”

The white unicorn adjusted her glasses (They probably weren’t even reading glasses) and examined the paperwork. At one point she frowned and peered over them at Blitz.

“In the ‘Relationship to Partner’ area, you wrote ‘friends’?”

Blitz tilted his head. “Yeah. Why? Should I have written ‘roommate’ or something?”

“Well, you could have. But, aren’t you two, like, related?”

Blitz frowned back. “I don’t think so, no.”

Vinyl looked him over. “Are you sure?”

“I’m pretty sure. Why?”

She let out a relieved breath. “Well, it makes things a bit less weird. Now I have some new thoughts on your little trip you’re going on after this.”

“Uh, what?” Blitz replied with the average male “I don’t get it” face.

“Let’s just say I can hear everything everypony says in this store.”

The face remained. “But I didn’t say anything.”

Vinyl sighed, amused. “Alright, we’ll take this nice and slow for you. Are you two together?”

“Together for what?”

“Are. You. Dating.”

Well, the face was gone. In its place was Blitz’s scowl and blush as he realized where this conversation was going.

“No,” he responded with no small amount of ire.

Vinyl backed up a step. “Settle down, dude. It was just a question.”

He let out a breath, taking the edge off his glower. “Sorry. It’s just that everypony keeps saying stuff like that. And to our faces too. It’s embarrassing.”

Vinyl gave him an understanding nod. “That sucks. I’ve had a situation like that myself.”

Blitz gave a grunt of acknowledgment.

“So have you two screwed yet?”

The Pegasus appeared stunned for a moment before proceeding to attempt to shake his head off his shoulders.

“N-we-I wouldn’t-it’s not-”

“I guess that’s a no,” Vinyl chuckled. “But, I can tell you’ve thought about it.”

“You’re annoying, and unoriginal.” Blitz practically snarled.

“Oh, come on!” she exclaimed, still smiling. “Guys are normally more eager to talk about this kind of stuff.”

“Well I’m not,” Blitz huffed, tucking his wings back to his sides. They had unfurled for some reason.

Vinyl eased up on the teasing look. “Mhm. And you don’t think it will be awkward being alone with her for several days if you can’t even joke about it?”

His anger fought valiantly to hold the line right before deflating into something more helpless as Blitz's chin fell to the counter. “I have no idea what will happen. I don’t even know what I want to happen.”

Vinyl’s horn lit up as Blitz’s head was lifted off his paperwork. “C’mon, you’ll screw up if you think like that, or think at all for that matter. Everything will work out fine if you just do what feels right.”

“How did it go with you?” Blitz asked, not quite cheering up.

The DJ flashed a wolfish grin. “Now I’m going out with my sexy roommate.”

With that, Blitz turned his red face around and began to walk away.

“Just tell me if you want to add ‘with benefits’ to your file, alright? The insurance won’t cover the clap otherwise.” She laughed up until a thrown pair of headphones lodged themselves in her mouth.

(For the record, that was the second time Blitz put something in a mare’s mouth. You know, in case you were counting.)

Said Pegasus examined himself in the back side of a small disc he found in an aisle to be sure he was presentable. It would not have sit right with him to return to Dash with anything less than complete confidence and composure. Not that he needed to have any sort of impression on her or anything. That would be ridiculous.

This was rendered redundant, however, when he happened upon a griffon scrutinizing the flank of a Pegasus. She was mouthing “red, yellow, and blue” repeatedly.

“What are you looking for there, Gilda?” he laughed. “A pot of gold?”

“I told you it was weird,” Dash groaned.

Protests were met with a waved claw. “Yeah, yeah. Keep whining. Get over here stand next to her.”

“What? Do you want me to help you look?”

Gilda rolled her eyes. “No, but I know how much you’d like to.”

Blitz gulped as he concentrated on taking no more than one glance at Dash’s flank. Suddenly, he did not need anyone poking around near his back-half.

“Um, Dash? Shouldn’t we be-?”

“Oh just do it or she won’t shut up.”

The stallion reluctantly complied and stood next to the mare. The sensation of knowing someone was behind him and examining him was very uncomfortable. The three received an odd look by a passing customer.

“Are you almost done back there?” Blitz said impatiently.

“It would be a lot easier to compare you two if you weren’t flicking your tails all over each other. We’re in public, sheesh.”

“I’m not!” the pair said, as one.

“Uh huh. Whatever.” She gave Dash’s rump a slight push right into her clone’s. She let out an undignified yelp she toppled into Blitz, who not only reciprocated her response, but also collapsed onto the floor.

“Sorry,” Gilda said through snickers. “I slipped.”

Dash stared daggers at her old friend from the pile of cyan pony. Blitz, on the other hand, had to focus a little more on ignoring the sensation of rubbing up against the mare. He settled on facing his head in no particular direction while maintaining a generally displeased look.

“Well? Did you find what was so important to you?” Dash said to Gilda as she clambered off of her clone.

“Huh? Oh yeah. You two have the same cutie-mark. It’s a lot less interesting now that I know for sure.”

Blitz sighed and stood up. “It’s nice to know we cleared that up for you.”

Gilda gave him a grin before turning back to Dash. “What I really want to know is where you found somepony that looks and acts exactly like you.”

The pegasi shared a nervous glance and kept quiet. However, the already calm atmosphere of the scarcely populated store made the prolonged lull in conversation intolerable.

Dash scratched her neck. “Oh yeah. Heh. That’s a funny story. Why don’t you tell her, Blitz?”

Blitz gave her a brief scowl before returning his attention to the topic at hoof. “Why don’t you? I always screw it up when I try to tell it.”

“Really. I think you should.”

“But your side is so much more interesting.”

“So tell the story from my side!”

“That’s stupid!”

“You’re stupid!”

“Guys!” Gilda interjected. “It’s fine if it’s too embarrassing or mushy to tell me here. You don’t have to.”

“It’s not mushy!” they yelled together.

Gilda rolled her eyes. “Mushy, X-rated, whatever.”

Dash hung her head. “Pain. Flank. You.”

“C’mon Dash,” Blitz said, walking towards the door. “We’ve got to go before she wants to check our tongues or something.”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” she said back.

A few steps later, Gilda called out behind her.

“Hey, Dash.”

Dash turned back to her fillyhood friend. The griffon opened her mouth to speak then she paused and shook her head.

“I’ll, uh, see you later?” The normally casual farewell expressing desire to meet up at a later date came out as more of a question than a statement. Her usually confident voice shook with uncertainty.

Dash caught the significance of her tone and finally absorbed what had happened between them just then. She hadn't usually been one to make friends of her enemies. Her nature did not sit well with malicious behavior. If one was to always stand by their friends, then one was to always stand against their adversaries. It had served her well in the past.

But that was no way to act. The prospect of regaining a friend was too great. There were plenty of times she had been forgiven for her behavior and it was time to reciprocate.

One nice pause later, Dash gave her friend a grin. “Sure. See ya.” Then she hurried to catch up to her clone as the walked out the door.

It seemed odd to fully put an end to such a conflict with three words, but Dash knew that was all that needed to be said.
They took off toward the peak that dominated the sky, Blitz trailing behind with his saddlebag full of supplies. Gilda glanced up at them upon exiting the shop before continuing to prowl through Canterlot’s streets. This time, the crowd only felt the need to give her a small berth.

…

-Hello again.

Comments

[Riptid3]

Yay new chapter

[Dusty Sage]

I have only one mild complaint: Exeunt is plural. Unless Twi had cloned herself, that line should read "Exit Twilight Sparkle."

The tone, however, is perfect, and even the fourth-wall author intrusions are funny.

[vinilscratchedmynose]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[MellowMabari]

Aw, I really liked the reconciliation with Gilda. As for Dash and Blitz - its weird shipping them, because they're like the same pony, but you make me want to because they're so darn adorkable together. I've actually laughed at quite a few of your little author jokes, so continuing them is fine by me. Anywho, quite enjoying this so far - I'm not great at criticism, but nothing jumped out at me feeling glaringly off or anything. Hope to see more of this whenever you have time

[batran]

I call butterscotch is next!

[batran]

...more plz?

[Mozzarella]

Don't worry batran, it's all more or less planned out.

[LittleBoyBlue]

lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oG269TT6K3E/UNjsZ8TnoXI/AAAAAAAAAOs/GYawlPB-QZs/w480-h480/RB.jpg

[Tyek]

The (comment) things in this chapter are a lot less rage inducing. Thank you for that, lol.

[werebrony]

“It’s a gift,” Gilda said with a shrug. “Anyway, that reminds me. Could I see your cutie mark for a sec?”
awkward....
I love the wither notes added in

[Punguinhelper]

Vinyl, you so silly.

[Bread Shot]

Hello again dumbells! -The Spy.

[WorldWalker128]

So if they DID have a foal, would that mean it was a Triple Rainbow?

[tastygrapepony]

Just keep on putting then in odd situations

[Fire_Burst9278]

3895909 Spy, what are you doing here?

[OmnipresentMicroorganism]

This was rendered redundant, however, when he happened upon a griffon scrutinizing the flank of a Pegasus. She was mouthing “red, yellow, and blue” repeatedly.

encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRKnjq1j-uWLUlgyJuAUJe0A2mJghfXkgVfHAUkgWjpXpwc0i_J2w

[Sirflysalot]

so this question needs to be asked

if RD and her clone had a baby
would it also be a clone?

[jxj]

8039518 the short answer is that Rainbow Dash couldn't have a kid with her actual clone because her clone would be female as well. Because Rainbow Blitz is male, he has an xy chromosome pair while Rainbow Dash has xx. So they aren't technically clones.
However if they could, it'd be possible but not super likely. The standard genetics still apply. If they both had, say Gg for an allele then their kids would be 25% GG 50% Gg and 25% gg. So theirs plenty of variation.
Then Meiosis (how the cells involved in reproduction divide ) can have crossover events. So if there's the allele sequence GgSs, one chromosome would have GS and the other gs. However it's possible for the sequence to get scrambled during Meiosis so one chromosome has Gs and the other gS. The genes all build off each other so one change could have a large effect (or a neglible one).

[Aether Spark]

"He flew upstairs to bathe for the first time in his life"
XD