A Skip and a Dash

"Need to fly! Have to get back in the sky!"

"Hold still for one second, Rainbow!" Rarity said, holding the frustrated Pegasus to the ground.

Rainbow Dash was wearing Rarity's latest breakthrough: a lilac coloured frock that trailed to the ground, and the restless pegasus was clearly not happy about it.

"Any thoughts, Twilight?" Rarity asked.

Twilight Sparkle looked at Rainbow Dash in the frock. Rarity's tone of voice was slightly impatient, but she didn't look as impatient and annoyed as Rainbow Dash did.

"Rarity, you have nothing to worry about," Twilight said. "This is perfect. A work of art."

"You think so?"

"Sure. It'll be an amazing entry. And Rainbow Dash has been a great model for the day. You should let her go now." She sent Rainbow Dash a wink.

"Of course," Rarity said with a smile.

As the frock was unclipped from her, Rainbow sped out of the front door, sighing with relief once she could feel the cool air brushing over her again.

"Feel better now?" asked Twilight, coming up behind her.

"Phew…much! Thanks, Twilight. I could have been there for hours! I hate how itchy that dress is. And it's so..." She tried to search for a polite word. "...Frou-frou! I hate wearing that kind of stuff!"

Twilight couldn't help but snigger. "I know that dressing up isn't your thing, Rainbow. But still, I think you should take this as a compliment. Rarity's been working really hard on these outfits for the competition she's entering in Canterlot, and she almost immediately decided that you should be the model. That's quite an important role, and she must really like the way you model her dresses if she chose you so quickly."

"Well, I guess so, but Rarity had better remember that I'm not the kind of pony that likes to stand around looking pretty all the time!" Rainbow Dash said with a grumble. She breathed in some fresh air and stretched her legs contently. "It sure is good to be back outside. To be honest, I feel like taking a nap or just chilling out somewhere."

"Well, actually, Rainbow," Twilight said, "I was going to ask you something. You see, I'm still deciding on what to write for Princess Celestia this week and the library is such a mess, on top of the fact that..."

Twilight kept on talking, but Rainbow Dash was not really paying attention, for she had seen a dark shape move across the clouds up in the sky. She couldn't help feeling confused, since she knew that no-one was scheduled to sort out the weather at this time. Who was up there?

"…if you would like to, you can have a rest at my house and give me some ideas and help with tidying up."

Her mind suddenly switched back to Twilight's words. "Erm...maybe later, Twilight. I need to go and check the skies and get some morning exercise." She flexed her strong blue wings proudly.

"Okay, understood," Twilight said with a smile. "See you later, Rainbow."

When Twilight trotted away, Rainbow turned her attention back to the sky. Feeling the desperation to fly, she surged into the air and began to weave her way through the clouds. It was wonderful to feel the air across her body again, since keeping her feet planted to the floor for a long time had made her very restless. Her eyes scanned the area around her, wondering if she would see a member of the weather team that had got their schedule wrong, but she she couldn't see anyone at all. Perhaps she had just been seeing things.

After giving herself some gentle exercise, Rainbow lowered herself onto a cloud, stretching herself out and burying her hooves into the soft, white wool that felt comfortable against her fur. She let out a careless yawn, making a note to herself that she would take care of her weather duties later on. She would just have a quick rest first...

"Hi there, are you all right?"

Rainbow Dash let out a squeaky yelp and fell off her cloud, before her wings held her upright. She immediately recognized the pegasus looking at her. The grey pegasus stallion was hovering before her, giving her a friendly smile.

"Sorry," he said with a chuckle. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"I wasn't scared!" Rainbow Dash snapped, shooting up to him so her eyes were staring sharply into his, "I just..." she hesitated, feeling embarrassed. She let out a growl of annoyance. "What is your problem? First you come crashing into me, and then you sneak up on me when I'm trying to relax!"

"Well, I can assure you I wasn't trying to sneak up on you. Besides, I expected you to hear me pretty easily since you seem like an attentive flyer, despite the fact we ran into each other earlier."

Rainbow Dash was becoming increasingly irritated by this stranger's remarks.

"I don't have time for this!" She propped herself on the white fluff underneath her, her hooves folded. "Don't you have some other place to be?"

The colt looked amused at Rainbow Dash's irritated eyes. "Actually, right here is where I have to be. I'm a weather pony - I just arrived here in Ponyville to do some extra work."

"Oh, really?" Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. "Well, just for your information, I'm the top weather pony around here so you'll be answering to me if you mess anything up!" Her frown then changed to a proud smile. "You should also know that you are talking to the Best Young Flyer in Equestria." She fluttered a little off the cloud, folding her forelegs with a smug look on her face.

"You serious?" the stallion replied.

Another tinge of anger stung in Dash's stomach. "Of course I'm serious!"

"So what can you do with those blue wings of yours?" he asked, showing off his own pewter wings.

"Tons of things," she said in her smug tone. "Including a sonic rainboom."

"Wait... what?" The stallion's eyes were suddenly wide and intrigued. "You can do that? I thought it was impossible!" His expression suddenly changed to a more mischievous and challenging one. "But maybe I shouldn't just believe you. Why don't you prove it to me?"

Rainbow hesitated. Usually, she would be more than willing to show off her flying to anypony who doubted her, but doing a sonic rainboom right above the small town of Ponyville was not a very good idea. She shrugged her shoulders carelessly.

"I would show you, but I'm pretty tired right now, and a sonic rainboom around here would practically destroy the place."

"Ahuh... sure," the colt said, still grinning. "Well, you could show me if we had more space, right?"

"Sure! Besides, who are you to question me? We've never met before, and you probably aren't anywhere near as good a flyer as me!"

He continued to look at her with those proud grey eyes. "Do you want to bet?"

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. She was always in for a little competition. "Yeah. I do."

"Then I'm more than willing to show you what I can do. Why don't you just sit back and watch a good show?"

Before Dash could give him a snide retort, he had already bolted high into the sky and begun a series of backflips and loops through a row of ten clouds. He weaved through every one of them with fearless speed and he looked like a ball of fire as he sped gracefully around the sun. Rainbow Dash forgot how to blink. She just stared with round eyes. She didn't know whether to be annoyed or fascinated. After a while, he landed in front of her, showing off his spiral Cutie Mark. It was clear that his talent had something to do with his flying.

"Clearly you're too tired to show me your own stuff," he said slyly, brushing himself off and keeping his eyes away from Rainbow Dash's. His voice was so offhand and irritating that Rainbow couldn't take it anymore.

"You think you can get the better of me that easy?" she said with fiery eyes, "No one flies better than me! Ever!"

And Rainbow Dash was set to prove that. As she felt the colt's eyes follow her into the sky, she thought of every move she could remember. She twisted in and out of every treetop nearby, she darted straight through a row of fluffy little clouds and performed an incredibly fast loop the loop just above the wide eyed Pegasus. As she landed, she left a long trail of rainbow behind her.

"You gonna admit it?" Rainbow said smugly to the colt, sitting in front of him, "You have met the best young flier in Equestria. And I totally outdid you. Admit it!"

She expected another witty reply, but instead, the grey stallion was staring at her with a look of intense admiration. A huge smile came to his face. "Yeah, I... I admit that," he said breathlessly. "You were... amazing! You're so fast, I could hardly keep track of you!"

Rainbow Dash smiled. She was used to getting praise and she knew that she definitely was amazing, but it felt particularly good to receive compliments from a pony she had never met before.

"I'd love to see that sonic rainboom some time though," the stallion added.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Well, I can't promise anything. But you could see it one day.. if you're lucky."

The stallion chuckled. He said nothing for a few seconds, smiling at her warmly and taking in every detail of her with his admiring eyes. Rainbow Dash wanted to smile, but she kept it in. She hardly knew this stallion, and she wasn't fully sure that she liked him yet.

"Sorry if I came across as irritating," he finally said, shooting her a pleasant grin. "I've got a bit of a competitive spirit and I feel like I should let it out sometimes. Annoying, right?"

Rainbow Dash paused. "N-no, that's not annoying, I... I'm competitive too. I totally get that."

He smiled at her again. There was something in his eyes that made Rainbow Dash feel strange: they weren't threatening, in fact quite the opposite, but the way he was looking at her sent a shiver down Rainbow Dash's body that she didn't quite understand.

"I'm glad you understand. You seem to be the competitive type too." He stepped a little closer to her. "What's your name?"

"Rainbow Dash, if you must know. Yours?"

"I'm Blazedart. It's really good to meet you, Rainbow Dash."

He looked up to scan the clouds that hovered all around them. "If it's okay, I'm going to practice tidying up the Ponyville clouds. Good to get used to them, right?"

"Yeah, but like I said, don't mess anything up," Rainbow Dash said sternly, lifting herself into the air and jabbing a hoof at him. "Captain of the Ponyville weather team right here. Don't be a slacker."

Blazedart gave her a friendly wink. "You've got it, m'am. I'll get straight to it." He began to fly off, then turned back to address her again. "Do you think you and I could hang out again sometime?"

Rainbow Dash felt uncertain again. She crossed her hooves and shrugged. "Maybe."

He laughed at her sarcasm. "Well, we'll see, shall we? Catch you later, Rainbow Dash."

Blazedart whizzed off into the clouds, leaving a slight orange blue in his wake, as Rainbow Dash sat on her cloud in thought, suddenly feeling lonely.