> Cuddles Are Nice
>  by Swift Gale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Cuddles on High
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today was one of those days for you. A day that you needed to be away from most ponies. You had some thoughts that were going through your head as of recent. Stuff involving things that you know weren't true or were just horrifying to you. The ones that like to try to tell you that your friends would think less of you for coming to them with your problems or the thought of one of your stunts goes wrong and...

You stopped that particular train of thought.

You were a pegasus, one who has had their taste of death-defying stunts, insane pranks, and had a habit for cutting things WAY too close for comfort. When it came stunts, however, you absolutely loved performing them. You loved the rush, the adrenaline you got from the moment you start a stunt to the moment it ends, as well as the satisfaction from fully completing a stunt. However, today was not a day for that.

Unfurling your wings, you took to the sky. Your eyes scanned different parts of Ponyville, looking for a very certain pegasus mare. Knowing how fast she moved, you were hoping today was a relaxing day for her. You would never be able to catch her otherwise and you didn't like yelling out her name; it brought too much attention to you.

Thankfully, fate, luck, or whatever it was, was on your side today. The mare in question was relaxing on a cloud nearby Sugarcube Corner; eyes closed, laying on her stomach, head resting on her crossed forehooves as if they were a pillow. You let out a sigh of relief you didn't know you were holding before zipping to her side. Upon approaching, you noticed her ear twitch. She definitely heard you show up.

"D-Dash," you stuttered, slightly nervous.

Her head turned in your direction as she opened your eyes. Upon seeing you, she gave you a smile, far softer than what you usually see her sport. A smile she only gave you.

"Hey, what's up," she greeted.

You watched as she stretched her limbs and wings before standing on the cloud she was on. You let a small smile form on your face before it fell into a straight line. You did a quick breath in and out to push away some of the nerves before you responded.

"It... its happening again," you said, looking away from her.

You felt oddly scared. You knew it was okay, but you still felt scared admitting this to her.

"Another one of those days, huh?" she asked, face now filled with concern.

You gave a small nod before you felt yourself getting a hug from the mare. She whispered a 'it'll be okay' into your ear before letting you go. She gave you a gesture to follow her before unfurling her wings and flying towards the outskirts of Ponyville. You followed her, know what you'll probably be doing for the next few hours.





Warmth.

That was what your face was feeling as Rainbow Dash cradled your head on her chest, stroking your mane in silence. You never knew she had a side like this until the first time you were having your... 'issues' happen, but you had gotten to experience it due to that event. Even since then, every time you'd have an episode happen, she would take you to somewhere on the outskirts of Ponyville and do this. It got to the point that whenever she ended up sleeping at your home or vice versa, going into this position with her cradling your head and stroking your mane ended up being the normal way you two relaxed or ended the night no matter what sort of... activities you two were up to.

Until recently, you hated to bother her for this situation. That was until she told you that she liked to hold you like this during a more recent visit.

"It makes me feel... I don't know," you remember her explaining back then, her face slowly turning a nice shade of red. "I guess the best way to explain it is that it makes me feel like I'm doin' something right between us. That I'm a good marefriend. After all, I'm new to this too."

You and Rainbow Dash had never been in a romantic relationship until about six months ago, when you asked her out. Celestia, number of days it took for you to actually work the nerve to do such was astounding. I think you counted maybe two full weeks of trying to walk up to Dash, freezing in place when you attempted to do so, and then looked at her with, what you sure was, a stupid look on your face as she flew away. You when you finally did ask her, you didn't think she would say 'yes,' but she did!

Of course, things didn't start out as magical as you thought it would. You two were actually pretty awkward around each other for a bit. Hugs and kisses was a thing that just seemed so foreign to you both at the start. However, the more you two hung out, showing affection started becoming easier. Rainbow Dash still had a bit of an issues showing affection in front of other ponies, claiming that she needed to protect her image. However, you've been noticing that starting to wane, she's been more willing to at least give you a hug before going off with her friends lately. Things were progressing slow and steady for a while, up until two months ago.

An incident involving a failed stunt of yours ended up getting your one of your wings injured. You would've been far worse off if it wasn't for the timely save curtesy of your marefriend and her friends. However, that one incident ended up putting in more fear than you thought it would and made you start pushing ponies away, including your best friends. Eventually, your friends asked Rainbow Dash to confront you about it and when she did, you explained to her the best you could about your situation.

Thus began her act of cradling you the way she is currently. She stroked your mane and kissed the top of your head. You were shocked then at how caring she was considering how she usually, and to be honest, it still kind of shocked you. The ultra competitive mare that always claims to want her image protected was there comforting you. Its almost like she was a different pony.

During that comfort session, she told you the story about how she had hurt herself and about how she feared that she would be able to fly anymore. She had admitted that she has more fears than most ponies realize. That its pretty much natural to have that fear, especially for, in her own words, "awesome pegasi like us."

"You don't have to keep your fears all bottled up," you remember her saying in an almost cooing voice. "You can come to me with them and we can just lay like this until you get them out."

So you did. You two did this every time you started feeling that fear rise up and the need to try to alienate yourself from everypony. Sometimes you two exchanged words while cuddling like this and sometimes you both just let the sounds around you fill the silence. You felt safe in her hooves. Like if the world were to end right now, you'd believe that everything would end up just fine as long as she was with you.

You briefly break out of her grasp and gave her a kiss on her cheeks, eliciting a slight giggle from the mare. She returned the kiss before you went back to cuddling. She tried to pull you closer as feathers touched your wings and back. One of her wings was now covering you as if it was a blanket, giving you more warmth from the mare. The small amount of pressure you felt was nice and it made you try to nuzzle into her chest more. She usually didn't do this unless she wanted to spend the whole day cuddling with you. Looks like today was one of those days. You weren't going to argue. Anytime spent with Rainbow Dash to you was always worth it.

Ever since that day when you first opened your heart to her, you had this feeling that you two were inseparable... and you hope it hold true. You hope that Dash and you stay a couple forever. You hope that you can be there for when she laughs or cries, and hope that she would do the same to you in future. You hope that she would be the first and only mare, aside from your mother, that you'd say the words, 'I love you,' to.

You have hundreds, upon thousands of hopes for you two. Will they come true? You didn't know. However, there was one thing that you did know; you had an entire lifetime to figure that out.