Sustained Waiting

by Saph

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Romance, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 3572

Twilight has been struggling while Rainbow has been away performing for The Wonderbolts. Now after five years, Rainbow has a six month break from them.

It's been quite a while since Rainbow has left for The Wonderbolts. Since then, she's only been back occasionally for short holidays. Finally, Rainbow has a six month sabbatical. Twilight's not sure this will be enough time with her marefriend.

Popular box 10/20!

Published 2014-10-21 00:50:07 UTC
Last updated 2014-12-12 02:46:13 UTC

Prologue

“Twilight, you did say you wanted to speak with us about Rainbow, yes?”

Twilight was unresponsive for a solid thirty seconds before she began to pace somewhat nervously in front of her two friends. ”How did you girls manage to do it?” Rarity and Applejack blinked slowly back at Twilight.

“Do what, Darling?” Rarity asked Twilight, the goal of her question unclear. Twilight shook her head in mild frustration.

“You know what I mean!" Twilight paused for a moment “You and AJ being so... well off?” Rarity continued looking at her in puzzlement.

“Ah’ think she means how we’ve stayed steady in our relationship,” Applejack offered, causing Twilight to nod emphatically at her suggestion.

“I thought that since Rarity has recently been going on trips to Manehatten for extended periods of time, that you might know something on how to cope with long-distance relationships?”

Rarity and Applejack looked at one another for a second, then back at Twilight. “Twilight, Dear, you do know that Applejack comes with me on those trips, don’t you?”

“Oh,” Was all that Twilight could say, embarrassed she hadn’t noticed the additional absence of one of her friends. She avoided their gazes backing out the door of Rarity’s boutique. “I’ll just be going now,” Twilight blurted out before shutting the door forcefully.

Rarity and AJ now understood just how off Twilight had been feeling recently.

-.-~-~-.-

About 5 Years Later

Twilight paced back and forth impatiently. The only sound in Golden Oak’s library were the thudding of her hooves, not quite helping her wait. Things were quiet around the library this late partly because Spike had already went to bed. It had been for a while with the lack of a certain energetic pegasus had left Ponyville.

It had been five years since Rainbow Dash had joined the Wonderbolts. Twilight was certain that everypony in the town still remembered the particularly explosive party that Pinkie had thrown for Rainbow upon receiving the news. When the party had ended and Rainbow left shortly after, no one could really believe that she was really gone. The resulting chaos in the Ponyville weather team was hard proof of her departure however.

Twilight smiled thinking about Rainbow, her mind traveling to the first time she gathered the courage to ask her out. After that one thing lead to another, leading them to realize things were going to work out in the long run. It really had five years since Rainbow had lived in Ponyville, and almost six years since their first date. Now after all of that time, she was going to be back in Ponyville any minute now. Twilight had made Rainbow promise that she’d visit her first thing when she got back.

Twilight had trouble early on accepting how long she would have to go without Rainbow. She promised herself that she would hold on to their relationship as best as she could. Less than a year after Rainbow had joined the Wonderbolts, Twilight already had grown lonely, causing her to go to her friends with suggestions. It was Fluttershy who submitted the idea of letters between the two of them. This idea was something of a lifesaver to Twilight’s comfort.

While Rainbow and Twilight hadn’t been able to converse often, they still communicated on a fairly consistent basis through the suggested letters. There were certain things that a letter between them just couldn’t accomplish. Twilight couldn’t pull Rainbow close through a letter. She couldn’t kiss her through the letters either. The best she could do was to imagine Rainbow saying the words that were written on the letters to her in person. Somehow the words on the paper seemed more meaningful if she read it like that.

She had consistently sent letters since Hearth’s Warming Eve a couple months ago, which was the last time she had seen Rainbow. That’s was when Rainbow had told her that she’d be able to take a six month break at the end of her first five-year period. The next day, Twilight had already marked an entire calendar counting down the days until Rainbow would be back. It was almost March now.

Twilight deflated a little knowing that after those six months Rainbow would be back on tours, living her dream. Rainbow had been idolizing The Wonderbolts her entire life, there were some days where she talked about nothing else besides them. A smile came to Twilight’s face thinking about the first time she had been into Rainbow’s room in her cloudhouse. There had been a Spitfire plushie resting on Rainbow’s pillow the color of it faded slightly, presumably from years of use. When Twilight had pointed it out, Rainbow had blushed deeply trying her best to hide it under the covers as fast as she could spouting something about the weather.

The closer the auditions for The Wonderbolts had came, the more time Rainbow had spent training as hard as she could. Twilight wasn’t sure Rainbow had even needed the training in the first place. After all, how many pegasi could do half the tricks Rainbow could? It didn’t stop Twilight from avidly watching her during her practices however.

So when the tryouts had finally come around, and Rainbow had finally gotten accepted, there was no way Twilight was going to push Rainbow into staying in Ponyville. The subject had come up multiple times before Rainbow had left however, each time ending with Twilight’s firm denial of Rainbow staying for her. She wasn’t about to let Rainbow give up her dream just like that. Since then, Twilight had second guessed herself a couple times about her decision on days she felt particularly lonely. Twilight shook her head as if to push that train out thought out of her head. She would have a whole six months with Rainbow now, certainly that would be enough to balance it out?

Twilight finally sighed, before sitting down not far for the door and stared into it. Twilight had been quite oblivious during the beginning stages Rainbow’s absence. Her thoughts had been quite scattered during this period of time, to the point that she had lost track of what her friends had even been doing. She could remember talking a while ago, and several times after, to Rarity and Applejack for advice in her general situation in her relationship with Rainbow. It hadn’t quite been the insight Twilight was looking for once she realized that her friends hadn’t exactly spent long periods of time apart yet. The visits to her friends after that one however, had certainly helped cope with the feeling of loneliness that accompanied the whole situation.

She tried to push those thoughts away, refocusing her attention on the door the library. Twilight could imagine very clearly the knock that would come at the door, or perhaps one of the windows, in the pattern that Rainbow had always knocked with. She was tempted to keep one eye on the window as well, which for some reason Rainbow had taken a habit of crashing through as a secondary form of entering the library.

Twilight got off the floor once again, her impatience not yet having ebbed away. ‘Maybe a book can take my mind off this wait,’ Twilight thought, making her way over to the bookshelves. Her eyes scanned the spines of the books, hoping something would catch her interest.

As her mood would have it, the only ones that caught her eyes were various romance novels. Twilight levitated one off of the shelf reading a couple pages, before putting it back on the shelf. She had always found it the slightest bit annoying there weren’t many books concerning pairings of the same gender. Twilight smiled slightly. ‘Maybe I’ll write the story of how Rainbow and I’s first date, that was certainly unique to say the least.’

Twilight began to pace back and forth across the library floor. Nighttime had began to slip away, draining away to make way for dawn. She could tell that it was now approaching the early hours of the morning by the slight tinge of light filtering from the horizon. It was worse when Twilight realized that she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all the entire night. ‘Rainbow said she’d be back this morning,’ thought Twilight, trying her best to suppress her urge to sleep right there on the library floor.

Twilight perked up again at the sound of something outside of her house. She listened carefully for a moment before deciding it had just been the wind and sighed impatiently.

“Can you hurry back Rainbow?”

-.-~-~-.-

Author's Note

No title image because everyone here has probably already seen the TwiDash images on google way too many times. More coming soon hopefully. I can't be the only one that gets nervous submitting a fic, can I?

Chapter 1

“Those amongst us who have reached a five year interval as a Wonderbolt, if anyone didn’t remember, have a six months respite as opposed to just a few weeks,” Spitfire said, pausing for a moment. “In case anyone has forgotten, the ponies on leave are as follows: Soarin, Surprise, and Rainbow Dash.”

Calls of congratulations chorused around the room to those who were called, causing Spitfire to attempt to gain order in the room once again. Rainbow watched Spitfire somewhat absentmindedly. Spitfire was a great flier and an excellent team captain, but those things didn’t quite prevent her from lacking skills in formal speaking.

As Spitfire moved onto other areas related to the closing of the Wonderbolts’ year, Rainbow’s mind began to wander to thoughts of her home back in Ponyville, causing her to smile. Home meant seeing her friends again. Home meant seeing Twilight again.

Strangely enough, when Rainbow thought of her home, her cloud house was quite possibly the last thing that was important about it. More importantly, it was the ponies around her location that made everything just that much better. Her house was just a house, high up in the sky, isolated from everyone else…

Rainbow’s thoughts were interrupted by another round of claps rose from the Wonderbolts around her; Spitfire had finished her speech. Rainbow clapped her hooves along with the rest, before Spitfire motioned for everyone to stop.

“Alright everypony, next time I see all of you it’ll be back to training!”

Some of the ponies filed out of the room, eager to enjoy their short vacation time as much as possible. So it happened, the only ponies left in the meeting room were Spitfire, Soarin, another member of team, Fleetfoot, and Rainbow. Rainbow would’ve been long gone as well if Spitfire and the rest of the remaining ponies hadn’t called her over as she was getting ready to leave.

“So, Dash, Got any plans back in Ponyville for your break?” Spitfire asked.

“Nothing in particular,” Rainbow replied, trying her best to avoid the question. Admittedly, Rainbow had already begun preparing something like a list of things she was aiming to do with Twilight and her friends when she got back. She wouldn’t dare admit this to anyone though, she had a reputation to uphold.

“Are you sure?” Fleetfoot asked. “Nothing planned with that marefriend of your’s?”

By now, everybody on the team knew of Rainbow’s existing relationships. One of the key elements to any team performance is trust, at least that was Spitfire’s motto. In order to maintain trust, everything that could possibly cause discomfort amongst the team had to be in the open so it could be dealt with if needed. Much to Rainbow’s relief, and a couple other ponies in the room, same gender relationships hadn’t been a problem for anybody on the team.

Rainbow shoved Fleetfoot back gently with one of her hooves. “Shouldn’t I be asking you and Spit the same question?”

Spitfire chuckled. “Touché, though we usually prefer to keep our activities rather private if you catch my drift.”

“Can we stay away from these topics please?” Soarin groaned. “I’d like to not hear about your latest escapades.”

“Damn, that’s too bad,” Spitfire said with a predatory grin on her face approaching him, “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to join us sometime?”

“Nope,” Soarin said, scooting away from Spitfire, causing himself to bump into Fleetfoot then jump back again. Fleetfoot had the same look on her face as Spitfire as she advanced on him as well. “Can you stop please?” He whined.

“Alright guys, knock it off,” Rainbow said, barely able to contain her laughter at Soarin’s expense. Rainbow looked out one of the windows in the room, seeing the sun’s low position in the sky. “What do you guys say about a quick dinner before we go our separate ways?”

“Sure, It’ll be fun.” They said.

(~-.-~)

It wasn’t much later before they were all seated at a table in a neighties styled diner around the edges of Cloudsdale. The dated establishment was actually founded and maintained by a retired wonderbolt. They had intentionally chosen this location because of that fact. Going to any other restaurant would no doubt draw in reporters or just fans if anyone who worked there noticed who they were.

Silver Streak, Spitfire knew, they could count on to not make a publicity stunt out of a simple attempt to eat dinner. The diner itself was rather empty as it was somewhat later than one might normally eat dinner at. Other than the four wonderbolts, there were only a couple patrons who were seated at the bar giving them the occasional glance.

It wasn’t long before they had ordered and their food had been delivered to them.

“This is even better than I remember it being,” Soarin said around a mouthful of his food. The only replies he got were muffled sounds of agreement.

As the night wore on, and they lapsed into general conversation about past events and other interesting stories, Spitfire tapped Rainbow on her shoulder. Rainbow glanced at her.

“What’s up?” Rainbow asked.

“I just wanted to talk to you quick about a couple things before you left for Ponyville about work.” Spitfire replied, gesturing to come away from the table with one hoof. “We’ll be right back,” She added noticing Rainbow’s apprehension.

Rainbow followed Spitfire outside the diner into the cool night air. She blinked rapidly as if to make sure that it was actually as dark as it was. “Did it really get this late already?” She was about to just take off, but was stopped by Spitfire’s expression. “Oh right, sorry, Cap’,” She said, feeling embarrassed.

“I know you’re a bit pressed for time right now, so I’ll try to make this quick,” Spitfire said. “Your marefriend’s waiting for you still back in Ponyville, correct?”

“Yes?” Rainbow asked, confused at her question.

Spitfire nodded slowly. “It’s just that you’ve been talking about her quite a lot recently coming up to this break,” Spitfire paused, “You miss her a lot don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “I thought that much was clear.”

“It’s just…Let’s just say I think I know how you feel, Rainbow.” Spitfire pawed at the clouds beneath her.”I’m not sure I could imagine living so far away from Fleet without seeing her for so long if she wasn’t in the Bolts with me,” she murmured almost inaudibly. They were both silent for a minute before Spitfire spoke up again, “You don’t have to come back next season if you don’t want to.”

Rainbow stared at her, the words that Spitfire had just said catching up with her thoughts. “I…I’ll think about it.”

Spitfire smiled almost sadly before pulling Rainbow into a hug, “Go her, Dash.” Rainbow grinned, giving her a quick salute before taking off.

(~-.-~)

Rainbow propelled herself through the night sky, taking a moderately fast pace in Ponyville’s direction. It was late, Rainbow knew that. She was on track to arrive at Twilight’s place early morning. She felt bad for being delayed that much by deviating from her original plans. She shook these thoughts out of her head as she pressed on faster to her destination.

Clouds rolled on by her as time passed, and she was suddenly over Ponyville. The sun was beginning to show its early morning rays of rose to the east, creating a picturesque landscape as she touched down in front of Twilight’s library.

She smiled thinking back to previous times she had visited Twilight, landing in this same spot, back before they had been a thing. Rainbow realized just how long ago that had been. Now she was back to a normal life for a bit, as normal as life could ever get in Ponyville at least. She raised one hoof to the door knocked in a familiar pattern.

There was a thump from the other side of the the door, before it swung all the way open. A purple blur slammed into Rainbow, knocking her onto her back.

“You’re finally back!” squealed Twilight, clinging to Rainbow without another care in the world.

It took a while for Rainbow and Twilight to physically make it back into the library, drowning each other in shows of affection. Rainbow pulled back, gasping for air.

“I missed you too, Twi,” Rainbow said, pulling Twilight into another hug similar to the one that Twilight had given her moments before.

“I’m glad you’re home too, Rainbow.”

They stayed in each other's embrace for a long while, simply enjoying the fact that they were together once again. They could’ve stayed there all night, until Twilight let out a loud yawn, then stared sheepishly at the ground. Rainbow couldn’t resist the smirk spreading across her face.

“Let’s get you to bed, Egghead.” Twilight giggled at this, leaning on Rainbow all the way up the stairs, collapsing onto Twilight’s bed and snuggling up close. Sleep came instantly.

(~-~)

Rainbow awoke to the the pleasant feeling of another pony being held in her embrace. Rainbow smiled, it had been a while since she had had the pleasure of a good nights rest with her marefriend. Rainbow checked outside through the window to see that the sun was already high in the sky, signaling that it was not morning for much longer. She could see ponies already at work on their daily activities in the town.

Rainbow chuckled, knowing that Twilight would probably have been up for several hours already on a normal day. She looking down at Twilight, still pulling one of her forelegs into her chest with a smile clearly evident on her face. Rainbow could have stayed like this for hours more had not a loud noise came from her stomach. Rainbow blushed, and checked to see if Twilight had woken up. Thankfully, she hadn’t.

Carefully, Rainbow carefully extracted herself from Twilights grip. She could have sworn she heard Twilight mumble something that sounded like, “Don’t leave me cloud!” but Rainbow could have been mistaken. Rainbow made her way out of the bedroom and down the stairs to see Spike already working on tidying up various things around the library.

“Hey, Spike.” Rainbow called out, walking up next to him. Spike jumped slightly, looking up from his current task or reshelving books.

“Oh, it’s you. I didn’t know you were back in town already, did you just get in last night?” Spike asked.

“Just this morning actually,” said Rainbow, moving into the kitchen area. “Twilight was still awake waiting for me, can you believe it? Sometimes I think she’d make a better Element of Loyalty than me.” Spike chuckled at that while continuing his task again.

“If you’re looking for food by the way, we kind of ran out of everything yesterday,” he called to Rainbow. A few seconds later, Rainbow popped out the kitchen, looking slightly disappointed.

“Oh,” said Rainbow dejectedly. “I’m going to pay a visit to Sugarcube Corner then, I might even run into some of the girls there too.” Spike nodded as Rainbow took off through one of the open windows of the library.

High in the sky, Rainbow had a clear view of Ponyville now that she was seeing it once again in daytime. She was flying in a relaxed fashion, making several loops in the air. She was enjoying the feeling of stretching her wings when a call from below brought her back to her senses.

“RAINBOW DASH!”

She could see a pink pony jumping up and down seemingly trying to get her attention. Of course she’d be the one looking to the skies. Rainbow turned into a dive, landing in front of her.

“Hey, Pinks,” Rainbow chuckled as she was pulled into a quick hug.

“Ohmygosh, it’s been like SO long! Everyday I’d be like ‘Is Dashie back yet?’ and they’d be like, ‘Not yet, Pinkie.’ so-” She was interrupted by a hoof being placed over her mouth.

“We can catch up later with the rest of our friends, alright Pinks?” Pinkie nodded her consent. “Okay, now I was wondering if you could whip Twilight and I up some breakfast quick?”

Pinkie gave her a quick nod, and ran off inside Sugarcube Corner leaving Rainbow alone with her thoughts.

Author's Note

I was going to put a pun here pertaining to the title but deemed it too painful to subject anyone to.

...

Okay I can't help myself.

Sorry for the sustained wait everyone. I swear this was my only chance I'll get to use it, (hopefully).