What Happens In Las Pegasus

by BaeroRemedy

Bolt From the Blue

Las Pegasus was a beautiful and unique city, even by Equestrian standards. It was a cloud city just like Cloudsdale, but completely accessible to non-pegasi. The mixed architecture was a marvel and provided a novel experience to ponies in need of a getaway. All over the city ponies spent their hard earned bits on games of chance, saw interesting or exotic stage acts, or some just lounged by the pool.

Shining Armor was a pony who liked to do that last one. Pools weren’t really a thing in Canterlot. The city on top of the mountain had very limited space to build things like big luxurious pools and the altitude made the prospect of swimming outside not appealing in the least. There was a river that started in the city and poured off of the side, but that wasn’t exactly something you could swim in for pretty obvious reasons.

Las Pegasus was all luxury though. The city itself wasn’t incredibly high in the sky and its location in the south of Equestria let it stay all that much warmer. It achieved perfect balance and provided a great climate to enjoy the massive pools all of the hotels seemed to have on their premises.

He was laid back on a chair and had a pair of sunglasses to keep back the sun. A large plastic cup fashioned to look like a coconut was right next to him on a table filled with a pink slushy drink he had gotten from the bar. An aura of pink magic encased it and he brought the straw to his lips and took a long slow drink from it. The drink wasn’t alcoholic, that wasn’t his thing, but it tasted like kiwi and strawberries. If any of the stallions from the guard saw him drinking such a thing they would give him an endless amount of grief about enjoying a ‘mare drink.’

Thankfully, they weren’t here.

“And you’re not supposed to be thinking about them.” Shining Armor mumbled to himself as set the drink back down. That was the whole point of coming here, to relax before the royal guard was something he was incapable of not thinking about. The downtime was important because soon there would be none.

The guard exams had just concluded for the year and he had passed them, with flying colors of course. This little trip was a graduation present from his parents, all expenses paid and exactly what he needed to restore his sore body. The grueling week-long affair to get officially certified as a royal guard had consisted of a lot of very unnecessary physical tasks and very little sleep.

“Yeah this is exactly what I needed…” He let out a contented sigh. The relaxation was a big part of it, but the views didn’t hurt either. There was some sort of big sports competition thing in town and every hotel was full of ponies in peak form and Shining Armor was not going to complain. Not one bit.

Not that he was out here by the water to ogle mares, his eyes just sometimes wandered and he found himself doing so. Who could really blame him? The athletes were very obvious from their sleek and toned physiques and they seemed to draw eyes wherever they walked. Shining’s were just another pair in a sea of very appreciative admirers.

“What would Cadance think?” A treacherous little voice in his head poked and prodded him. At the prodding, his eyes went skyward and focused on a passing cloud.

“Why do I care?” He asked the voice with a grumble. “She’s the one who wanted ‘a break’ while she focused on her princess stuff.” That seemed to kick the voice sufficiently. It had been her whole idea to have a little ‘pause’ while they got their lives together, so why should he feel bad about anything? This wasn’t on him, it was on Cadance.

“Do you think she’s looking at other stallions?” That little voice caught its second wind and poked his brain again.

“Well no…” He knew Cadance. Well, they knew each other. Probably better than any other pony knew them. The last decade or so of their lives had been spent in very close proximity to one another and had given both of them a very intimate understanding of each other. He knew Cadance was not the kind to ogle stallions, if anything she would pay them a kind compliment and be the socialite she had been raised to be.

The train of thought was abruptly derailed by a truly amazing sight. A pegasus mare with confidence that was not contained by her form strode by the relaxing stallion. Every step she took was full of pride and an exertion of confidence that demanded the attention of every set of eyeballs around the pool. If the aura drew the eyes to her, then the sky blue coat and rainbow mane kept them there. It was a whole spectrum of vibrant colors amongst the sea of white and earth tone coats that surrounded her.

She was a visual oasis.

Shining Armor could not peel his eyes away from the pegasus as she trotted up to the edge of the pool. The satisfied grin that crossed her face told him that she did not mind that fact either, she wanted every eye on her. Confidence and self-assuredness oozed from every pore as she stretched a bit, then dove head first into the pool.

When the mare dove beneath the water, the spell that her mere appearance had cast finally broke. Shining shook his head and blinked a few times. A deep breath filled his lungs and he let it out slowly to get some semblance of control over himself. It did not work as his eyes fell to the pool once more.

Even though she was obscured she was not gone from sight, though. He could still see her beneath the water as her wings propelled her across the length of the pool in just a few seconds. Her bright multicolored head popped up, still easily visible even through the crowd of vacationers and athletes, and looked around. A stallion beside her in the water began to chat with her and the mare gladly engaged him and gestured with a wing as she explained something.

Shining tore his eyes away and looked anywhere else. He felt weird just staring at her, he felt creepy. It was not a feeling that fit inside of him easily and he needed to get it out a soon as possible. It did not belong in a stallion such as him, bred from Canterlot stock and a newly minted member of the royal guard. He was better than ogling random mares at a pool.

There were plenty of other things to look at anyway. Like the sky, the sky was a perfectly normal and healthy thing to stare into with no ulterior motive. One could not ogle the clouds or the sun. There was nothing creepy about staring out into the great blue yonder that stretched on forever upwards. There was no guilt up there. He could just lay here and look up with absolutely no temptation whatsoever to bring his head back down and-he was looking at her again.

And now, she was looking right back at him. Bright magenta eyes were focused on him as much as he was focused on her. They were not curious or inquisitive eyes either, they were those of a predator who had just spotted its next meal. It was like she could see through his sunglasses and knew what he had been doing.

Shining Armor picked his glass up with his magic again and quickly brought it up to his face. He did his absolute best to practically bury his face in the drink to obscure it. Beneath the bevy of conversations and laughter that saturated the soundscape around him, he could hear the distinct and threatening sound of hooves hit the stone and a pony drag themself up out of the water.

“Hey Champ-” A voice addressed him, a distinctively feminine yet gravelly voice that was layered with enough swagger that he immediately knew who it came from before looking. “-next time, just say hi.” The tip of a sky blue wing, the feathers dripping wet, grabbed the edge of his drink and pulled it down from his face. “I love the attention, but action is even better.” Her voice dripped with a sense of entitlement, all the while poking fun at his ogling.

Shining Armor felt his cheeks burn and knew that the red was shining through his white coat. The cocky and bemused grin worn by the mare did nothing to abate the blush that overtook the stallion’s face, in fact it only increased it. She didn’t tack on any extra comment, she just sent a wink his way and sauntered off without another way.

He wanted to die. He wanted to shrink down into nothing and fade away. He could feel every eye in the place on him just as they had been on her minutes ago. This time it wasn’t out of admiration, it was pity and amusement. The giggles and snickers assaulted him and only drove the blush to spread from his face up into his ears and down his neck.

There went his relaxation, and there was nopony to blame but himself. With the grace of a newborn foal, he stumbled from his chair and hurriedly trotted off towards the hotel. He needed to spend a long time away from anypony else, at least for a few hours now that he was thoroughly unrelaxed. The tension in his back and shoulders returned and he could feel the soreness worm its way back into his muscles as he half-galloped back to his hotel room.

He did not come back out until it was time to get something for dinner. The little confrontation still loomed in his head and made him worry about who had seen it and hoped that they had forgotten about it by now. It was a silly thing to hope for, that strangers stopped thinking he was some kind of meek idiot, but it was a real need! He was a royal guard! He was supposed to be big and serious and tough. Not a blushing mess!

“Right, just forget about it.” Shining Armor got into the elevator at the end of the hall and hit the button for the ground floor. He had to put the past behind him and focus on the present, and that meant focusing on his rumbling stomach. There was a restaurant in the lobby that he knew had some good food, eating there had been the first thing he had done after he checked in the day prior and he was eager to try something else on the menu.

The elevator dinged and the metal doors slid open and let him out into the extravagant lobby of the hotel. It was supposed to be a facsimile of the palace in Canterlot, hence the name ‘Celestia’s Palace’, with its white marble floors and golden accents. Banners even hung around the place with Princess Celestia’s cutie mark emblazoned on them on a blue background. The staff were also dressed in faux royal guard attire, the armor silver instead of gold and the ponies being visually distinct beneath the armor let him know how much they cared about authenticity.

The throngs of guests, visitors, gamblers, and fake guards all made the journey to the restaurant a bit of a mess, especially for a stallion like Shining. He was not a small pony and getting through tight crowds was not as easy as weaving between individuals. It meant pausing sometimes and waiting for a conversation to reach a natural lull and kindly asking for passage without disrupting the flow of the ponies around him. This was all baked in manners and etiquette from a lifetime in or around high society and never seemed to fail him.

Eventually he did make it to his destination and was stopped by two ‘guards’ crossing their spears. He couldn’t help but sigh and roll his eyes.

“Halt!” One of them asked in a faux baritone. His ill-fitting silver armor hung off of his body but not to the point where it was about to fall off. “Who dares try to enter Princess Celestia’s Royal Banquet Hall?” Shining Armor begrudgingly presented his room key to one of the ponies. They looked it over and nodded. “You may proceed! Please enjoy Her Majesty’s hospitality.”

“Right. Thanks.” Shining Armor bit his tongue so much around this place he was worried it might try to wriggle its way out of his mouth in protest. He trotted past the two ‘guards after they uncrossed their spears and went into the restaurant proper. He offered the two ponies a sincere look of sympathy and understanding, but they just kept looking straight ahead.

The space beyond the door looked nothing like the actual dining hall in the castle. No, this was a bog standard table service place with a theme to it. The tables all looked like highly polished wood with high backed chairs with what were once fancy cushions on them and all of the wait staff were either in stiff suits or maid outfits. Both were incredibly wrong when it came to the castle staff uniform, but accuracy didn’t seem to be the strong suit of this place.

Settled against one of the walls was a bar, which seemed more his speed. Not that he was actually going to drink, but it was better than having a whole table to himself. That would just make him feel like a lonely loser, and that particular high school feeling was not one he wanted to relive.

There was a problem with the bar though: the mare from the pool was already sitting there. She once again stood out amongst the crowd like a sunbeam on a cloudy day. One of her hooves rested on the bar while the other held her head up and her whole posture signaled that she was bored out of her gourd and waiting for something.

The bright blue pegasus looked different from the one he had seen earlier. She looked out of her element and lacked the raw confidence he had seen from her earlier. The fact that everpony was more focused on their meal or a conversation drained her of the magnetic power that kept eyes glued to her out by the pool. Well, it wasn’t working on anypony except for Shining Armor. Maybe he was just entranced by the bevy of colors that composed her mane.

“Next time, just say hi.”

The words of the mare echoed through his head and his heart fluttered. It was an increasingly common moment where his own confidence once again failed him. He had always been awkward around mares when he was in high school, but he was pretty sure he was over that now. After all, he was always calm, cool and collected around Cadance so why was it so different now? He could still be that calm stallion.

“What have you got to lose anyway?” He quietly asked himself. “What’s the harm of just talking to her and apologizing for earlier?” There was even a spot open right next to her, just a free barstool. He could play it off too, like he hadn’t noticed her and just wanted a place to sit. “It’ll just be a simple conversation, nothing more. ‘Hey, sorry I couldn’t take my eyes off of you earlier. I’m not usually a creep, I swear.’ Yeah, maybe not that.”

Shining was already on his way over to the bar. He wasn’t focused on the mare, but the spot next to her. The distance between him and it was rapidly closing and he needed to concentrate on sliding onto the stool without tripping over his own hooves or making a fool of himself in some new and interesting way. His hooves hit the bar and he pulled himself onto the barstool with no incident. Thank Celestia for the little miracles.

It did not take long once he had gotten comfortable for the pegasus mare beside him to notice, and then she recognized him. The transformation from bored to delighted was accompanied with a mischievous grin that spread across her face like wildfire. A very similar fire erupted behind her magenta eyes as they sized up the stallion. It once more felt like he was a piece of prey for a relentless predator.

“Oh hey there, Champ.” That rough voice called to him with the same dollop of satisfaction and teasing that had topped her words earlier.

“Oh!” Shining tried to look surprised when he looked over at the mare, but he was pretty sure that it didn’t work. The mare’s grin just grew wider with his fake surprise. “Can’t say I noticed you there, sorry.” A roll of her eyes confirmed to Shining that she was indeed not buying a single word, but that did not stop him. “Uh, well, it’s a good thing right? I can apologize for-”

“-for drooling over me earlier?” The mare finished form him with that same grin. “Hey, who can blame you? If I was you, I wouldn’t take my eyes off of me either.” She leaned back a bit and her wings fluffed up against her sides. “I mean, have you seen me?”

Shining could not help but to laugh. It broke the stammering blush that had been creeping up his neck and cheeks. It was all so wonderfully disarming. He had felt this confidence earlier from the way she walked and acted, but to hear it spoken was something else entirely. There was not an ounce of doubt in those words and it just tickled a certain sensibility of his. It was so…refreshing.

“You’re certainly the most…colorful pony wherever you go.” He meant that in every way possible now that he actually had a sense of her. There was no way that she wasn’t the most magnetic pony in whatever room she happened to be in at the moment. “And hey, who doesn’t like a little more color in their life?”

“Huh.” Her grin became a little more genuinely happy and less predatory. Her eyes still held that certain fire as they gave him a quick once over. “I’m Rainbow Dash, but you’ve probably heard of me. If not, well, now you have and you won’t forget the name anytime soon.”

Shining could not stop his eyes from rolling even if he tried. It was not out of annoyance or exasperation either as the smile that was smeared across his muzzle didn’t leave for a single second. It was so novel to speak with a pony like this. He had spent his whole life around the types of ponies who were sure of their own superiority, but not like this. Certainly not as outwardly. The ponies in Canterlot expected you to already know they were important, but Rainbow Dash here wanted to tell you and never wanted you to forget. It was very…forthcoming.

“A pleasure to meet you, Rainbow Dash.” Shining gave the mare a nod. “I’m Shining Armor.”

“A pleasure? Not yet, Champ.” Rainbow Dash gave him a wink and turned back to the bar. “Say, why don’t you buy me a drink? I’m feeling kinda parched.”

Shining’s wheels were still spinning helplessly as he tried to collect his thoughts after Rainbow Dash’s previous comment. The blush that had been beaten back by the brevity of brashness now barged back up his neck and overtook his usually white face. It was just the forwardness of it all that caught him off guard again, which just kept happening. Next time, hopefully, he would be ready for it.

“R-right.” The ability to speak finally returned and he waved down the bartender. When the scrawny stallion in a very uncomfortable looking suit and tie stopped in front of them, Shining motioned to Rainbow first.

“Vodka and Buck.” His apparent drinking partner requested. When the bartender gave her a quizzical look she rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Yeah yeah, get it out of your system buddy. I know you have some back there, I saw it.” An energy drink and liquor wouldn’t be his first choice of drink, maybe not even his tenth. To each their own, he supposed.

The bartender then turned to him and waited. He wasn’t really an alcohol guy. In guard training he had gone out a couple of times with his buddies and shared a few Pony Blue Ribbons with them, but that wasn’t something he could do now. He wasn’t some recruit, he was a proper guard at a proper bar. Plus, he had a mare he needed to impress. It needed to be classy, like something his dad would drink.

“Whiskey, neat.” He told the stallion. That was something an important and dignified pony like him was supposed to drink. It was adult and mature. More important of all, it was a proper drink.

The bartender nodded and fired up the horn on his head. In no time flat, the two glasses sat down in front of them. In return, Shining pushed the appropriate amount of bits for both drinks right back to him. The stallion behind the bar picked up the bits and put them in one of his pockets and trotted off without a word spoken between them.

Shining grabbed the glass in his magic and raised it in Rainbow’s direction for a toast, only to find her already downing some of it. He mumbled a word in a foreign language that his dad usually said before drinking, and then took a drink. It burned going down and made him want to cough, but he held off that feeling well enough. Then it settled in his mostly empty stomach and that was a feeling he could not hold off.

“Ooh, bad idea.” He muttered to himself and sat the glass back down. He guessed that Rainbow Dash already had something to eat because half of her drink was already gone and she seemed unfazed by it. “So, why are you in Las Pegasus?” The decision not to tack ‘business or pleasure’ on the end of that was something he thanked himself for immediately. She already thought of him as a fool anyway, no need to confirm it.

“Flying competition.” The wings on her back flexed and twitched with the words. Pegasus body language wasn’t something he was well-versed in, but he knew the language of macho-ness well enough to know physical bragging when he saw it. “There’s a whole bunch of events tomorrow, so I might enter into more than just the flying one, y’know? I need to show everypony just how great I am.”

“And you’re drinking tonight?” Shining nodded towards the concoction in front of her.

“I can handle it, trust me.” To punctuate that, she took another swig from her drink. “My metabolism is just as fast as me, it won’t mess with me one bit!” Rainbow puffed her chest out and gave that cocky grin that she seemed so fond of.

“Hey, you know your body better than I do.” Shining conceded with a shrug. He decided to wave down the bartender again to hopefully get something in his stomach to absorb his drink. Something greasy and full of carbs if he could help it.

“We could always change that.” Rainbow leaned a bit closer and muttered to him.

Once again, that damned blush returned. This time it did not limit itself or work slowly and instead engulfed his entire head in an instant. The blood rushing to his ears made it impossible to hear what Rainbow Dash told the bartender. Shining had to turn away from the mare for a moment and take a very deep breath.

That was the closest they had been so far in their limited interaction and yet something still stuck in his mind, something he could not shake. She smelled like she had just been flying. The smell of ionized air lingered on her fur and the static buildup made his own coat stand on end whenever she leaned in. She smelled like lightning and had a presence like thunder and that was more intoxicating than the glass of whiskey sitting beside him.

“You good?” Rainbow’s words got through to him again and he swiveled back towards her. When she saw his red cheeks, he could see her suppress a laugh. If she wasn’t aware of how much she had been getting to him, she was now acutely aware of it. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” She added with a little chuckle.

“Yeah…uh…sorry.” Shining cleared his throat and took another ill-advised sip from his glass. “I’m not very used to…uh…well, this.”

“What? Mares being a little more aggressive?”

“Flirting in general, really.” He admitted to both himself and Rainbow. “A lot of the flirting I’ve been part of has been…chaste kisses and subtle looks, promises of future dates. Maybe a verbal hint here or there but not…well…you.” Truly, in his life, Rainbow Dash was now unique in terms of personality.

“I’m one-of-one, Shining Armor.” Rainbow declared with pride. “Trust me, you won’t find a pony like me anywhere else in all of Equestria.” A plate of fries dripping with cheese was placed in front of the pegasus and she moved the bar food between the two of them.

“You are certainly one of a kind.” Shining picked up a fry in his magic and popped it into his mouth. He could see the effect of his words immediately as the mare sat up a bit straighter and the grin on her face somehow became even more satisfied. “And again, I just want to apologize for staring so much earlier by the pool. I don’t know what came over me, I was just…entranced by you.” He could not stop himself from staring then and he could not stop himself from talking now. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re beautiful and I’m a sucker for beautiful mares so…”

Now it was time for Rainbow Dash to be flustered. A very slight blush crept up her cheeks and she blinked a few times. There was no doubt why she seemed to revel in how much she made him squirm, it was a little fun to see another pony flustered because of something you said. Especially when it broke through certain walls that pony had pretty visibly erected.

“Beautiful…?” Rainbow Dash turned to him after a few seconds and asked.

“Stunning, really.” Shining confirmed. That was not even an exaggeration. He had been stunned the first time he had seen her. It was the honest truth. “I couldn’t look away because you are just something else.”

“You are so corny.” Rainbow Dash laughed and gave him a light tap in the chest with a hoof. “Sweet Celestia, you are trying sooooo hard!” She picked up a fork with her wing and stabbed a few fries before stuffing them in her mouth.

“What?” Now it was Shining’s turn to be incredulous. “Really? I’m sitting here being honest and you’re calling me corny? I wasn’t even trying, I was just talking from the heart!” He couldn’t stop himself from laughing as he pulled the little plastic basket of fries away from her.

“Then I think you need to try a little harder, Champ.” Rainbow spoke as she chewed. “Where are you from?”

“Canterlot, why?”

“Yeah, see of course that stuff would work up there.” Rainbow nodded at her own analysis as a few more cheese covered fries were stabbed by her fork. “You tell a mare up there that they’re the most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen and I bet they swoon onto a big fainting couch or something. I bet all it takes to get some action is a few lines from a bad romance novel.”

The fact that his mother wrote romance novels almost spilled out, but he wisely held that back. The last thing he needed to do was give Rainbow Dash anymore ammunition. At least he knew what came naturally to him, and what he had been raised around, was no use here. He needed to find out just exactly what buttons to press to get her as much as she got him.

“So why are you here all the way from Canterlot? Bachelor party? Some business conference? Honeymoon?” That last word sounded suspiciously curious.

“Just celebrating.” Shining shrugged and snagged a few more of the fries from the basket. “Just passed the final exam for becoming a royal guard and I figured I deserved a little vacation.” There was no reason to tell the whole truth, that his parents had paid for the whole thing. Some things were better kept to himself.

“The royal guard, huh?” The wry smile that wound its way across the mare’s features signaled that there was yet another barb headed his way. “What’s that training like? Do they have you help little old ladies cross the street and see how long you can stand in the same place without smiling?”

“Okay, hey!” Shining sat up a bit straighter and huffed. “The final qualification exam is a pretty long and very physical, I’ll have you know. We have to hike up that entire mountain, then us unicorns have an offensive and defensive magic test, then we do some combat training…then comes the patience test.” He made sure to whisper out that last one. “It’s not easy alright!”

“Pffft puuuh-lease!” Rainbow waved a hoof at him. “That sounds like a total cakewalk! I train harder than that every week!” She leaned over and poked his chest a bit firmer than before. “Hmm, not bad.”

“Not bad?” Shining scoffed. “I workout every morning. I work pretty hard to keep in shape!”

“Imagine working to stay in shape.” Rainbow reached out with one of her wings and touched the tip of his nose with a feather. “You should just try being naturally awesome like me.”

Shining Armor had no answer for that or any reply. He was once again left speechless by the audacity of the mare in front of him. It wasn’t even grating, if anything it left him all the more enamored. His whole life had been filled with reserved ponies who thought they were great and expected you to think it without questioning why. The reserved aura of importance that radiated from the alicorns who were present in his life was soft and warm, but Rainbow was like being near a blast furnace with the door open.

“Hey wait-” Rainbow Dash tilted her head to the side and stared him dead in the eyes. “-you’re in the royal guard and you chose to stay at this hotel?” She motioned grandly at the tacky space around them. “I mean, really? Don’t you see enough of this already?”

“It wasn’t my choice.” Shining had to defend himself even if it meant he opened himself up to more jabs from the pegasus sitting by him. “My parents paid for the room, I guess they thought they were being cute.” He looked around and pointed at the chandelier that hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room. “I mean, look, the actual dining hall chandelier is a mid-millennium abstract design not…mass produced like that. Then the staff…” Shining Armor groaned and rolled his eyes. “...castle staff don’t have a required uniform and they haven’t for at least two-hundred years. I don’t think they ever wore maid dresses. Then there’s the guard armor, dear sweet Celestia the guard armor-”

“-you’re such an egghead!” Rainbow Dash burst into laughter so hard she began to teeter off of her seat. “I-I believe you, don’t worry. I just wasn’t expecting you to do that. I thought you were some braindead guard, not a nerd.”

“I can be both!” He closed his eyes and kicked himself as soon as the words left his mouth. “I mean, I can be a nerd and a guard. I’m not braindead…not usually.” Today felt like an exception rather than the rule. “Maybe sometimes…listen-I’m just passionate about accuracy.”

“Oh I’m sure you are, Champ.” Rainbow downed the rest of her drink and sat the empty glass on the bar. Her magenta eyes focused on it for a few moments and one of her wings twitched for a split-second. “So I’m racing tomorrow and you should totally come see me, I mean if you have the time.” She shrugged like she didn’t care if he did or not, but the way she spoke said otherwise. “Everypony deserves a chance to see greatness in action, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Shining smiled and nodded. “I’ve heard this place is full of amazing shows, but something tells me you’ll beat them all.” He truly did mean that. If her actual skill lived up to the boasting, then she might be the most marvelous mare in Equestria. It was a high bar, but she had thoroughly convinced him of her own awesomeness.

“Oh no…” Rainbow Dash’s face fell into a horrified frown as her eyes looked right past him and towards the door to the restaurant. “Nononono please. Not now!” The pegasus began to get up but stopped and placed a hoof on his leg. “Look, I have to go. Sorry. It’s…uh…I just have to get out of here.”

“Hey.” He gripped her hoof with his own and furrowed his brow. “Are you okay? How can I help?” Shining began to stand up with her, his hoof still on top of hers. “Seriously, whatever it is-”

“Rainbow Dash! There you are!”

Shining spun around to find another pegasus mare walking right towards them at a brisk pace. She was a dead ringer for Rainbow Dash herself except for the short coral pink mane on her head. If that were to be covered up then there was a good chance he might confuse the mares for one another. She had a positively massive smile across her face and her magenta eyes twinkled as she approached the two ponies at the bar.

“Hi mom…” Rainbow Dash groaned out from behind him.

“I’ve been looking all over for you!” Rainbow Dash’s mom rushed up to her and immediately entombed her daughter in a hug. “You know you have a race tomorrow, you need to get in bed early tonight and get plenty of rest!” One of her sky blue wings picked up the glass that Rainbow had recently finished and gave it a sniff. “Is this alcohol, you shouldn’t be drinking that!”

Shining had to stifle a laugh at his compartiot’s misfortune, and for that Rainbow shot a heated glare right back at him. Her ears pinned to her head in frustration and her nostrils flared out as her mother berated her actions and habits. It was good to know that even somepony like Rainbow Dash could be humbled a little. That didn’t mean he didn’t feel bad for her at the same time, though.

“Mom, pleeeaaaase.” Rainbow Dash pleaded and pried herself away from her mom with a huff. “I was just taking a little break after flying and I got to talking with-”

“-with a stallion!” Windy twirled on her hooves to face Shining Armor, her eyes full of stars as she looked him over. “Did you know my Dashie is the fastest pony in all of Equestria? She was the first pony to do a Sonic Rainboom in-”

“Mom.”

“-you know, she’s single and would make a fantastic partner for somepony such as yourself.”

“Mom!”

“We’ve never had a unicorn in the family before. Imagine the foals-”:

“MOM!”

Rainbow Dash’s face was now about as red as it could get. The blush reached the very tips of her ears and spread down her neck and into her chest, turning her fur a light shade of purple. The entire restaurant was now silent around them and every pair of eyes were glued firmly on the mother and daughter by the bar. While the daughter was embarrassed and ashamed of the little outburst, the mother remained oblivious to the obvious faux pas.

“Uh…I can…go.” Shining Armor whispered and motioned to the door. “It was really nice talking to you Rainbow, and it was a pleasure meeting you too, ma’am.”

“Windy Whistles.” Rainbow’s mother said with a smile and took his hoof to shake it. “But please, don’t let me interrupt your little date! If I had known this was what Dashie was up to I wouldn’t have cut in!”

“Mom, it’s not a date.” Rainbow hissed at her mother as politely as she could. “We were just talking, okay? Seriously, I just met the guy. We were just having a fun conversation.” She then turned to Shining Armor, still red as a tomato. “I-I’m really sorry…about her. Uh…enjoy your night.” She then leaned in and whispered. “If you don’t want to see me race, I get it. It’s whatever.”

“Hey, I’ll be there.” He responded with a smile. After all, she had invited him and it would be rude to just bail. Even if her mother was one of the most embarrassing mares he’d ever seen. He would just have to find a spot far far away from Windy if anything.

“Bye Shining Armor!” Windy waved at him as she was dragged away by Rainbow. “If you want to talk to my Dashie more our room number is-” Before it could be uttered, a hoof was slapped over her mouth. A chorus of chuckles and laughs flew from the patrons, which only served to make the mares move faster from the premises.

Then every eye fell on him instead. He only offered them a genuine shrug, which everypony returned in kind then went back to their own conversations. His stomach grumbled and he was reminded exactly why he came down here in the first place, he still needed to eat.

—-

Shining had spent most of the evening in one of the casinos, mainly just testing his luck. He had gone from game to game and played as long as a hot streak followed him and then bailed once he started to lose. It had netted him a small gain of about one-hundred bits but most of that had been hard won at a blackjack table with a dealer who seemed to be his lucky charm.

Now he was out on the balcony right outside of his room. A city of mirth and vice spread out before him, the neon lights pushed back against the night to create a false dawn to keep the ponies that prowled the streets in a stupor of spending. He could see pegasi flitting about the sky as they brought in clouds to lightly sprinkle the city with rain, just enough to keep the greenery watered without interrupting the sunshine the area was known for.

He stood on his back legs and leaned against the railing and just basked in the night air. It was so much cooler here once the sun went down, but there was still that hint of hot desert air on the breeze. It tousled his mane and moved the fronds of the palm trees in the courtyard below.

“Hey.”

Shining spin around to face the direction of the voice and found Rainbow Dash hovering a few feet above his patio. A few bits of cloud stuck in her polychromatic mane which she quickly shook off. She looked at one of her hooves nonchalantly and checked it for any imperfections with half-lidded eyes.

“Oh, hey!” Shining couldn’t stop a dumb grin from crossing his face. “Didn’t think I’d see you until tomorrow at your race.” When she raised an eyebrow he stammered for a second before he found the words. “N-not that I’m complaining! Just surprised!”

“Yeah, well I was just out flying and trying to clear my head. Then I saw you and decided to stop by.” Her words were cool and carefree, a far cry from the teasing firebrand from earlier. A hoof came up to her mane and picked a few more bits of cloud fluff from the colorful strands. “I mean, I feel like I gotta apologize about my mom again.”

“Nah, c’mon.” Shining waved a hoof at her words dismissively. “We both know you just couldn’t stay away. You wouldn’t be the first mare.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow and suppressed a smile that was threatening to break out across her features. “Well-okay, maybe you would be. Not a bad first though, right? I mean, I feel honored.”

“You’re such a nerd.” Rainbow Dash let the smile win and laughed at his little act. She went from hovering vertically to horizontally and looked as if she was laying down on her back in the air above him. “I’m here trying to be cool and sincere and junk and you’re just being a goofball!”

“I’m just trying to lighten the mood! …is it working?”

“A little.”

Shining reached up and offered his hoof to the mare floating above him. Rainbow looked at his hoof, then him, rolled her eyes and placed her own hoof in his. An arc of static electricity jumped between the two of them and caused the fur on his leg to stand on end. She contorted herself in the air so she was right side up once again, all the while not letting go of his hoof, and lowered herself down to the balcony. He could see her cheeks start to get a hint of red across them, but it faded once all four of her hooves hit the concrete.

“And you don’t have to apologize about your mom, really.” Shining reassured his conversation partner. “I get it, parents can get weird about their kids.” He puffed out his cheeks and thought of his own family. “You should see the way my parents freak out about my little sister. They might be as bad as your mom.”

“My dad is just as bad.” Rainbow muttered. The two ponies both leaned on the railing. “Thank Celestia he’s not here or I might’ve died from embarrassment. Uuugggh I can’t stop thinking about how lame she made me look.”

“I don’t know, I think you’re cute when you’re being publicly humiliated by your mother.” For that he received a swift punch in the shoulder from Rainbow and a little glare. “Ow!” He said with a chuckle and rubbed the spot she had struck. “I was kidding, I don’t think you could ever be cute.” This time he was hit a little harder, which elicited a bigger laugh from the stallion. “Well I don’t know what you want me to call you now!”

When Shining had first laid eyes on her, and even when he had first started talking to her, he had felt something akin to being intimidated by the mare. Now though, while he still didn’t feel totally relaxed in her presence, it was something he was more familiar with. It was just tension. The same tension he had felt around Cadance when they had first spent real time around one another. The difference here was that he was a grown stallion now and could control himself better, well at least a little better.

“How about ‘awesome’, or ‘amazing’, or ‘the best thing you’ve ever seen.’ Those are all better than ‘cute’.” Rainbow huffed and her wings twitched on her back. Despite the agitated body language there was still that hint of a smile, so Shining knew he wasn’t too far off of the correct path forward.

“Okay then, you’re all of the above. I mean it, and I see both of the princesses pretty regularly so that’s saying something.”

Rainbow did not have a rebuttal or anything to say after that. She smiled and shook her head a bit, but said nothing. The pegasus did lean towards him a bit though and he could feel her wing brush against his side. The feathers flexed out enough so he could feel their delicate yet sturdy touch. They stood like that and just enjoyed the night air and the closeness for a few minutes before Rainbow broke the silence.

“Y’know, I don’t think I believe the whole thing about me being the first mare unable to stay away from you.” She nudged him with a shoulder. “Be honest, I bet you have mares falling all over you back in Canterlot. I mean c’mon. You’re a royal guard, your name is Shining Armor for Celestia’s sake! It’s like you were designed by a committee for a bad romance novel.” The whole spiel was accompanied by wild hoof gestures and exaggerated, if not cartoonish, expressions. It got a pretty good laugh out of Shining Armor.

“Well, to be honest, not really?” Shining just shrugged. “If they are falling over me then I guess I’m blind or oblivious, which I wouldn’t doubt.” The smile on his face died and he let out a deep sigh as the familiar visage of a pink alicorn pranced through his head. “There’s only ever been one mare I’ve ever really…well, I guess noticed isn’t the right word. She’s the only one whose attention mattered to me.” His eyes fell to the ground far below and he tracked the movements of a few ponies across the courtyard. “That’s…uh…over now, I guess.”

“Oh…sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be.” Shining waved a hoof at her. “She’s a very important pony, and at the end of the day what she does is a lot more important than me.” He took a long deep breath to beat back some emotions that were creeping up his throat from his heart. “It’s tough, but…whatever.” He shrugged.

“Her loss, right?” Dash nudged him again. “I don’t care how big or important I get, I could never forget the ponies who mean a lot to me. Like my parents, I know they’re…suffocating, but I wouldn’t be me without them. I wouldn’t be me without my friends either.” That kind of loyalty was just as refreshing as her overconfidence at this point of his life, and for much of the same reason.

“Yeah, her loss.” Shining mumbled. “Sorry for bringing the whole vibe down.” Shining chuckled bitterly. “I really didn’t mean to, Rainbow. Late nights, heavy hearts. I’m sure you know how it goes.”

“Well, not really.”

“What?” He had to scoff. “You’re talking about me having mares all over me, but look at you.” Shining motioned at her entire body, from flank to face. “You're a walking cyclone of charisma and color and you’re telling me you don’t have ponies frothing at the mouth to get a piece?”

Rainbow Dash’s chest puffed out at the praise and he felt her wings ruffle with pride. That smug satisfied grin, the one she had been wearing for most of the day, appeared once again. The high passed as quickly as it came and it died with a little shrug.

“When you move as fast as I do, it’s hard for ponies to keep up when they keep falling over themselves to get close.” Shining felt the mare press against his side as she spoke. Her wing lifted and settled across his back. The primaries tickled the ridge of his spine and made his fur stand on end.

“Sometimes you have to slow down to let them get close, y’know.”

One of his hooves went over her back below her wings and he gave the pegasus a squeeze. Rainbow was very squeezable, and even a light squeeze drew her body a bit closer to him. Her coat was sleek and short and felt different than anypony else’s he had felt before. There was a certain amount of fluff in the coats of most ponies, but it felt like the wind had stripped a majority of Rainbow’s away. It was short and smooth, it felt like anything that hit it would slide right off without much effort.

“I’m slowing down now, aren’t I?” Rainbow her head so she was looking at him. There was not a hint of hesitation in those eyes, not one shred of uncertainty. Fire filled her eyes as she stared into his.

“Or maybe I’m just the first pony to keep up.” He retorted with an eyebrow raised.

“Not a chance, Champ.”

Rainbow Dash leaned in. She smelled of ozone and of fresh rain. It was like he was about to dive headfirst into a thunderhead, and he felt no fear at that notion. Instead, he did just that and pushed forward into the storm that drew ever closer. Both of them closed their eyes as their lips connected. Shining brought his hoof up to rest against her cheek.

Even her kiss was electric. He could feel Rainbow restrain herself and resist from pushing for more for too fast, he could feel her slow down for him to catch up. He, likewise, did his best to not overtake her. He wanted to go just as fast as she was willing and no more.

There was no telling how long the kiss lasted, but both ponies were out of breath by the time it broke. Both the unicorn and the pegasus had deep blushes and could not control the smiles plastered across their faces. Rainbow pushed her cheek against his hoof and rubbed against it approvingly.

“You’re definitely coming to my race tomorrow, right?” Rainbow was once again the one to break the silent stalemate between them. He was more than happy to let her because his brain was still failing to grasp at anything material. It was still lost in the newly formed memory.

“Y-yeah…yeah, definitely.” He nodded.

“Good, because…because I really need to get some sleep before then.” Rainbow Dash looked away for a moment and cursed under her breath. “Sorry to kiss and run, Shining.”

“Hey, I get it. You gotta be great, don’t let me stop you.”

Rainbow Dash smiled and pulled away from the stallion. He let her go and watched as she took to the sky, leaving nothing but a rainbow trail in her wake and a stallion with a heart full of butterflies.

Comments

[LonePigeon]

Is the chapter title also a reference to the first couple lines of a well known New Order song?

Every time I think of you
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue

[BaeroRemedy]

11761896
Can't say I know the song. "Bolt from the blue" is just a saying I know I've heard before. Or maybe it's "Bolt out of the blue." Either way.

[Yoshifan30]

Okay this is a very interesting one here and I never really thought of that so it looks like shining armor wanted to celebrate in Las Vegas of all places after his test to become the royal guard but then he met a female Pegasus named Rainbow Dash and apparently he really was mesmerized by her and she knows it too and he really can't get out of his mind of her and he saw her again and this time they talk to each other and it's really Pleasant until Rainbow's mother showed up and talking about some embarrassing things of course but I know she means well after that he returned back to the room and basically just hang out at the balcony but he wasn't alone again rainbow return to him again and apparently they have a pretty strong connection with each other and I got to say it is pretty cute and both of them share a kiss with each other which that's pretty sweet and it looks like she really wants him to be at the race and he won't miss a thing let's see how this will work out next time

[Yoshifan30]

[Alticron]

Pretty nice story so far. One minor thing, and I may be wrong on this, but it seems Windy Whistles knows Shining Armor's name without anyone saying it.

[spoonlol]

Man, I’ve got a real soft spot for this ship, dunno why but it’s always felt just right to me.
Anyway loving it so far, the flirting at the bar was fun but Windy coming in the end was hilarious