Falling
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Wow, I thought I was supposed to be the one freaking out in this situation.”
High up in the clouds overlooking Ponyville floated a rather odd duo. One was a man; young, dark skinned and dressed in a blue jumpsuit. He stood leaning out the side of a hot air balloon, his grip on the thick ropes securing the balloon to the basket being the only thing that kept him from plunging fifteen hundred feet to the grassy field below.
On his back he wore a backpack containing a rip line activated parachute. On his face he wore a brilliant smile. Despite being so far from the ground, the man seemed entirely in his element.
Floating next to the man and the balloon was a woman… well no, that wasn’t really what she was. She had a feminine physique, but covering her entire body was a layer of blue fur. The hair on her head and her tail, because yes, she did have a tail, was multicolored like a rainbow. Her wings, because yes, she had those as well, pumped up and down keeping her level with the balloon.
She was not adorned in a jumpsuit like the man. Instead she wore her street clothes; a light blue t-shirt and tan short shorts.
The flying woman seemed put out by the smiling man’s complete nonchalant attitude towards hanging out from a giant wicker basket waiting to fall to his doom. The pointed blue ears protruding from her rainbow hair fell flat against her head. She flapped her wings and held out her hands to bring the balloon to a stop.
“How are you not freaking out?” asked the woman, flabbergasted. “I mean I’ve seen full grown Mages wet themselves being up this high. Hay, I know a cowgirl tougher than nails who’d faint from looking down like that. And all you’ve got to stop you from splattering all over that field is a fancy umbrella? You’re the crazy one here, Jerome.”
“I’m not crazy,” said the man named Jerome. “Well, maybe a bit, but this isn’t anything I haven’t done before.”
He started to check the pull string on the left strap of his backpack. Then he checked the backup string below the first. It would be his final check before his jump.
“Actually, the newest thing here for me is you, Rainbow. It’ll be fine. The line is functioning properly, hardly any resistance,” said Jerome. He wet his thumb and held it up before his goggles. “The wind is dead today. You said the weather team is planning for a high pressure front over town this afternoon so we don’t have to worry about clouds obstructing visibility. Perfect conditions if you ask me.”
“Listen, dude, I’m definitely fast enough to keep up with your fall, but that doesn’t mean I can stop you safely before you hit the ground if something goes wrong,” said the woman named Rainbow, her words were coming a mile a minute. She was lost in her own train of thought and hadn’t heard her partner’s reassurances. “Even if I did catch you the strain would snap your neck… or a wild updraft could blow you off course and into a tree or…”
Rainbow stopped short. She looked down at her hand and found Jerome holding it in his own. He pushed up his goggles and looked into her magenta eyes. His own eyes showed concern.
He had never known Rainbow Dash, the self-proclaimed fastest flyer in Equestria, to be afraid of anything in all the time he’d known her. Now that he’d finally seen this side her, he found it interesting that her fear was not for herself, but for her friend; him, Jerome Flint, the only living human in this magical land filled with Seraphim, Mages, Earthkin and many other wondrous creatures.
Jerome felt a sense of shame wash over him. He’d ignored her worries thoughtlessly. The fact that he was an experienced skydiver who’d taken all necessary precautions before his first jump in Equestria didn’t matter to Rainbow. He could run through all of his backups and redundant safety protocols with her, but that wasn’t what she needed to hear then.
“Hey, I know you’re worried about this,” said Jerome. He squeezed her hand, trying to pass his feelings onto her. “I trust you, Dash. I’m not afraid because I know I’m here with you. I want you to trust me, too. I want you to trust that I trust you.”
Rainbow stared deeply into his brown eyes. They reminded her of Hearts and Hooves Day chocolates. The thought made her blush and she noticed how tightly she was gripping Jerome’s hand. She tried to pull away, to float back further from the basket, and further from his eyes. But Jerome held firm.
Her momentum carried him out too far. Jerome hung out further than ever from the basket, only the tip of his sneaker and his outstretched hand gripping the side door acted as his last anchors to the balloon.
“Look out!” Rainbow tried to push him back inside, but Jerome locked his muscles, seemingly determined to remain suspended between Dash and the balloon.
“You trust me, right?” His tone was perfectly calm, but also insistent.
“Dude, just get back inside already!”
Jerome ignored her demand. He could’ve been waiting patiently for the Canterlot Express for all the notice he gave to his surroundings. To Jerome, there was simply him, Rainbow, and the balloon. He would wait forever for her answer.
“Alright, alright already.” Dash felt defeated. No one had ever so completely baffled her as much as the human did in that moment. Not even her friend Pinkie—who as far as Dash was concerned was as nutty as squirrel poo—could match up to Jerome then.
“Alright, what?” Jerome relaxed his muscles letting Rainbow glide up to him and wrap her arms around his body. Despite her enormous ego, Jerome could really appreciate then how small Rainbow was.
“I trust you.” The words came out muffled. Rainbow’s face was pressed against the chest of the blue jumpsuit. The hair that was her namesake matted against the fabric and Jerome could feel its silkiness brush his chin. He no longer held onto the balloon.
The two of them were locked in thin air. As they embraced, waves of energy passed through them, and between them. Back and forth, the energy pulsed. They breathed as one. Their hearts beat as one.
Forever. It was forever and eternity before Jerome spoke.
“Either you’re way stronger than I thought with those wings or I’m flying right now.” He watched the balloon sail by out of the corner of his eye.
“I think… I mean guess it’s magic.” Rainbow held him firmly, despite the miracle. She could trust her friends, but trusting random magic was something even her Mage friend Twilight would advise against. Of course, this particular phenomenon did remind her of something.
“Maybe, I mean don’t really know… But it’s like when I first learned to fly. My parents flew me up and held my hand until I could feel the wind on my wings. They say all children need to been shown love from their mom or dad before they can fly. Maybe it’s something similar. Y’know like our trust is so super strong.”
“Well I don’t have wings so I doubt it’ll work the same when you let go.” Jerome wiggled his feet. Despite there only being air below him, he could definitely feel something. He imagined a sheet of feathers resting on a cloud.
“You’re probably right.” Rainbow let out a long breath. So much had happened in such a short span of time. She thought she would be used to that by now. Someone who moved as fast as her didn’t have much of an excuse. “Well, we came all the way out here. I’m ready now if you are.”
Jerome nodded and fixed his goggles back over his eyes. Rainbow could see the reflection of the balloon drifting off in the lense of the goggles. She checked below her to make sure they were still safely over the landing area.
“Looks like we’re good to go,” she said. Her fear was gone now. Only the anticipation of seeing something totally cool raced within her. It was like how she felt sitting in the stands of a Wonderbolt show. She smiled up at Jerome, a fire burning in her gaze.
Jerome swallowed and was thankful the rim of the goggles covered his blush. He couldn’t help himself when Rainbow showed that kind of expression.
“Hey, Dash.”
“What?”
“I think I’m about to fall hard for you.”
A look of surprise on Rainbow’s face was the last thing Jerome saw before he fell back into the air and the rush of wind and adrenaline overtook all other thought.
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Jerome counted the passing seconds of his free fall internally. He leveled out from a rolling somersault by the sixth second. And by second number eight, he was vaguely aware of a blue figure in his peripherals. But the rushing mass of green coming up to meet him kept most of his attention.
At second number eleven his hand found the pull string on his pack. In an instant, he slowed from terminal velocity to seventeen miles per hour. The g-forces he experienced in the deceleration felt like hitting water after jumping from a diving board; it was a feeling he loved.
Rainbow was there beside him then. She twirled up to inspect the parachute canopy for any holes and to make sure the strings weren’t tangled.
“Looks like you’re all clear.” Looping around in the air, she drew level with him once more. Jerome thought he could see actual stars in her eyes. “That was incredible, dude! You didn’t tell me you were gonna do a flip too.”
“Heh, well it was kind of spontaneous,” Jerome admitted. “Just wanted to show you you’re not the only one with some tricks up their sleeves. You can just go ahead and sign me up as Spitfire’s replacement in the next Wonderbolt show.”
Rainbow snickered as she followed alongside the human, now directing the parachute over a tree line and towards the center of the field below.
“When you pull off a Sonic Rainboom then maybe I’ll consider it.”
Jerome’s feet touched down quickly, running along the ground to stave off the rest of his momentum. Dash landed on the canopy and began squashing out the excess air in it like she was helping Berry Punch make a new batch of grape juice.
Rainbow was full of laughs as she jumped freely along the parachute. Jerome found it infectious. He ran up to her after tossing away his now empty backpack and began to chase her around the ever-deflating white blob of canvas. The two were like school children at recess. They were both still riding high on their adrenaline.
Somewhere along the way the ended up tumbling over one another in the tall grass of the field. Of course, Rainbow had somehow managed to pin Jerome under her despite the human having about a foot on her. His goggles had disappeared someplace, but that was the last thing on either of their minds.
“You know I met Princess Cadence the other day,” said Jerome. Rainbow looked taken aback by his sudden non-sequitur.
“Uh yeah?” She wondered why he was bringing up one of the princesses at a time like this. In fact, she didn’t really want him to bring up anything at the moment. Now was not the moment for talking, instead his lips should be… his lips… well, she definitely wanted them doing something else.
“Yeah.” Jerome reached up and brushed a red lock of hair out of Dash’s eyes. “She was telling me that love is the most powerful form of magic, even more than friendship. I guess because without love there’d be no friendship.”
Rainbow was having a hard time focusing at the moment. Lectures were never her strong suit. And the way Jerome’s fingers kept tucking strands of her hair behind her ear was making it even more difficult to concentrate.
“Yeah, that makes sense, I guess.” She could feel his heartbeat against her chest.
“She said that the magic of love was so strong that it could even awaken other magic.”
His eyes... They were chocolates. They had to be. They looked so sweet to her.
“So I think it wasn’t just our trust in one another that got me floating up there.”
There was something about those eyes. Chocolates. Hearts and Hooves Day. It was soon right? Maybe they could…
Rainbow’s lips met Jerome’s. They were flying then. They were lying amidst the tall grass kissing and they were flying.
Jerome was falling out of a portal into a library, falling into the lap of a blue furred young woman with rainbow-colored hair. He was walking down the streets of Ponyville and seeing that woman through the glass window of Sugarcube Corner. He was suddenly hungry for a cupcake.
Rainbow was practicing her flight maneuvers over Sweet Apple Acres. That weird tall, dark man was working in the fields collecting apples. Well, an apple did sound like a good break from all that exercise.
The two of them were in the park reading a copy of the latest Daring Do adventure. They were sitting with their feet hanging off the barn loft, watching the sunset. They were laughing and joking around. They were angry and not speaking and hating every moment of it. They were making up without the need for apologies.
It was there in their kiss; the trust and the love shared between the two. All of it was there, had always been there. And maybe it would always stay there.