Crimson light gave way to amber skies.

Hollow wind faded beneath the sound of chirping birds.

The sweltering heat of a tropical climate fell upon the back of two mares.

Two giant mares with the widest of grins.

__________

“Let’s go.”

Twilight and Rainbow rocketed through the air over the jungle, plunging toward a giant griffon.

Gilda had only a moment to form a stupefied face at her new surroundings before the pegasus and alicorn pummeled into her side. All three rolled through the jungle, flattening the thick, lush trees into little more than mulch. When they finally came to a halt, Rainbow Dash was the first to act.

Scrambling to her hooves, Rainbow grabbed a fallen Gilda by the scruff of her neck and leapt into the air with a flap of her wings. Gilda seethed against the mare’s tight grasp, but whatever chance she had to react vanished, as Rainbow barreled over to toss her higher in the air. “Your turn!”

Down below, Twilight stood up and cast her gaze to the sky, bringing her horn to a fierce glow. In the span of only a few seconds, the hazy tan of the sky was blotted out by a surging storm-mass, enveloping the flailing griffon far above. “Go!”

Rainbow Dash sped off for the storm, the wind of her wings beating down upon the trees below with the force of a gale. Once she squared off with the storm’s wall, she allowed instincts to carry her forward, skimming and kicking the cloud with nimble hooves.

When the cloud shuddered with the first roll of thunder, Twilight took to the air as well, leveling the few standing trees around her with the wind of her wings. Placing a short distance between herself and the cloud, she began to cast a spell like a glass shell around the storm.

“Not so fast,” an angry voice called from within.

Twilight and Rainbow backed away as Gilda beat the storm away with frantic wings, spreading dew across the sky. Gilda spun her head toward Twilight. The whistle of magic pierced the air.

Suddenly, Twilight found herself free-falling. Although her wings remained, they beat uselessly against her sides, catching no wind beneath their plumes. But worse still, directly below sat another change in the landscape – a small town, nearly identical to the one earlier in the dream, with a crowd of ponies staring petrified up at her.

The determination Twilight had struggled to conjure within the last few minutes threatened to shatter at the sight. What little organization she had gained in her mind began to unravel, until— “Rubber ponies!”

Twilight’s ears flicked to the sides. She looked out to the horizon where Rainbow hovered.

“Pretend they’re rubber ponies!” Rainbow shouted.

Twilight blinked. She focused again on the town below.

Two leviathan hooves smashed into the center of town, obliterating every building beneath and surrounding them. Timber and dirt scattered into the air, temporarily blinding Twilight. When the debris began to clear, she lifted a hoof and looked down.

A group of stretchy, rubbery ponies bounced all the way up to her muzzle. One pink one in particular procured a straw hat, placed it over her plush mane, and booped a tiny hoof on Twilight’s snout. “Arigatō, Twilight-chan!”

Twilight blinked. She watched as the tiny villagers hopped away into the sunset, casting thanks and good will to the giant alicorn on their way.

Shaking her head, Twilight redirected her attention skyward. Gilda hovered overhead with a look split between shock and rage. Just behind the griffon, Rainbow carefully crept her way closer.

Before Rainbow could reach out to grab her, Gilda slanted her eyes and grabbed the whip from her coronet, spinning around to lash around one of Rainbow’s hind legs.

“Wha– a– aaAAHH!” Rainbow smashed headlong into the ground. The whip around her leg tightened, and Gilda sped off to drag the mare through standing jungle.

A flash of brilliant light shone from beyond Rainbow’s eyelids, followed by a scream overhead. The whip around her leg suddenly loosened, just before she heard Gilda collapse over the jungle.

Rainbow jumped to her hooves and spat up the foliage that filled her mouth. Off to the side, Twilight shouted, “A rope, Rainbow! The whip’s your rope!”

Rainbow paused for only a moment before returning a nod. By the time she looked back at her hind leg, the whip had become her rope from before. “Neat.” Pulling the noose off her hoof, she grabbed a segment and began to spin the noose overhead. With a bit of awkward finesse, she launched her makeshift lasso at Gilda, who lay sprawled on her side just a mile away.

The noose hit its target: Gilda’s closest arm. Yanking on the rope with a shout, Rainbow flung Gilda in Twilight’s direction. “Let ‘er have it!”

Twilight had already brought her horn to light. Flying high enough to let Gilda pass beneath her, she shot a beam of magic squarely against the griffon’s back.

Gilda flopped onto open ground, forcing a voiceless scream out of her lungs. Before she could stand again, Twilight landed over her shoulders, straddling the griffon. She bent her head beside her own. “Where d’you think you’re going?”

An amber eye stared back at her, filled with rage.

“Jeez,” a raspy voice called nearby, “loosen up a little, will ya?”

Gilda strained her neck in time to see Rainbow flying into the side, with a balled hoof outstretched. In a blink, her head snapped to the side from a punch, though Twilight held her to the same plot of ground. Through a bleary eye, she could just make out Rainbow hovering to a landing in front of them. “Ready to finish this, Twi?”

“So ready.” With a single flap of wings, Twilight lifted off the griffon. Gilda tried to spin around and grab the mare, but Rainbow had already taken action, grabbing her by the arms to flip her onto her back. Using the rope from before, she quickly bound both the griffon’s talons and wings, then backed away.

Twilight was already working hard to gather new precipitation overhead. Once the clouds gathered close enough, Rainbow shot into the air and worked as fast as she could to compact and ready the new storm.

Gilda yelled and flailed on the ground below, staring up with slit eyes at the forming cloud overhead. It wasn’t long before the first roll of thunder sounded, followed soon by a far louder wave.

Giving the cloud one last kick against the side, Rainbow sped beyond the top, spun midair, then dove into the center of the storm. A short distance away, Twilight hovered, watching as the storm heaved and shuddered just as the one had before that fell on her – only this storm was headed straight for a griffon below. Blasts of lightning illuminated the jungle surrounding Gilda before the grey mass slammed over her body, drowning out her angry screams.

“Alright…” Twilight inhaled deeply, drawing a hoof to her chest. Expelling the breath and extending her hoof, she gazed out at the storm now grinding itself against the earth. Beside her, Rainbow Dash landed with a deep thud. “Let’s see if this works.”

Pressing their sides against each other and bowing their heads once more, Twilight and Rainbow closed their eyes. Calling upon the same spell as before, Twilight’s horn lit with focused magic, casting an indigo shell around the storm.

When Rainbow heard the familiar whistle of magic, she did as she was instructed to do: “Think small.” Just as they had done to rebuild the jungle by imagining the start of Daring Do’s novel together, it was Twilight’s hope that the same principle could be used in a number of ways – in this case, shrinking Gilda back to size. Rainbow wasn’t exactly sure how to ‘think small,’ but she wasn’t about to let something so simple break the progress they had made.

The two mares stood side-by-side, silently focusing their minds together. Slowly, the shell around the storm began to contract, packing the already dense storm even tighter on itself. Twilight felt the natural resistance of mass against the borders of her spell, but she had to remember: this was a dream. Anything was possible. All she needed to do was focus on one thing, and trust that Rainbow could do the same.

Trust me, Twi. I’ve got this.

Twilight shuddered. Her eyes flung open. “Rainbow Dash?”

Focus, egghead. Rainbow briefly glanced her way with a smirk. Let’s be awesome together.

Twilight stared at the mare blankly for a moment, until she felt the pressure of the spell rising. Closing her eyes once more, she realigned her thoughts, though she tested one other first. Rainbow Dash?

Yep. We’re totally mind-readers now.

Twilight exhaled. Her mind threatened to become a jumbled mess once again, logic demanding a reasonable explanation for why she could now hear Rainbow’s thoughts. But instead of letting panic dictate her actions, she listened to her friend.

Focus.

And so she did.

__________

Twilight and Rainbow’s storm whirled against the jungle, shearing off grey cloudstuff in between angry fits of lightning. The roar of thunder and destruction sounded across the land, forcing a number of birds to evacuate the area.

The magical shell surrounding the storm continued to shrink in size, piling and collapsing together the cloud matter atop itself. At the base of the shell, a number of slits acted as a vent, allowing tufts of cloud to spill out and spread over the jungle like a cascading fog. In time, the shell had shrunk to no larger than a couple trees tall, and the storm became little more than wet air encased in magic.

Beneath the setting sun, Twilight and Rainbow stood together with eyes shut, their slow breaths drawn and expelled in perfect harmony. When the last round of thunder echoed pitifully against the jungle, Twilight lifted her head and opened her eyes.

Rainbow Dash continued to stand still and wordless, entrenched so far into her focus that she didn’t even notice Twilight move. She continued to think small – small clouds, small critters, small cupcakes – in hopes of proving not only to Twilight, but to herself that for once, she could actually think something all the way through. Even if it was weird and redundant.

It wasn’t until she heard somepony clear their throat that she finally realized the absence of body heat next to her. She slowly opened her eyes, shielding them from the sun that sat in her periphery.

Twilight stood silhouetted off to one side of the sun a few paces away, trotting casually her way. Rainbow didn’t dare a calming breath until she was sure. “Did it work?”

Twilight didn’t answer. Instead, she continued forward.

Rainbow squinted at the mare. She couldn’t see her clearly enough before the sunlight, though she was sure at least that it was Twilight. Unless, she thought, Gilda had come up with a new trick.

Tensing her hooves, Rainbow shifted back and away. “Twilight. Did it work or not?”

Twilight remained silent, her gait steady.

Rainbow flexed her wings, preparing to fly.

And that was when a cloud meandered in the way of the sun, bringing to light the reason why Twilight was silent. Rainbow blinked the hardest she had yet.

Beneath Twilight’s clenched teeth hung a normal-sized Gilda, dangling by her tail. Rainbow stared blankly at the sight for a moment before her thoughts turned once more to Twilight. “What are you doing, Twi? I thought we’ve been over this enough already.” Letting her ears droop, she watched as Twilight finished closing the gap, a feeling of unease settling deep within her. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to go through with it after all that’s happened.”

Twilight came to a halt in front of Rainbow. She shook her head gently. With a slight grin tugging at the corner of her mouth, she locked her gaze with Rainbow’s.

Swallow your fears.

Rainbow blinked. She stared into the violet eyes of her friend, then down at the griffon in her grasp.

Her lips curled into a grin of her own.

Meeting Twilight’s gaze once more, she stepped forward.

You better not regret this, Twi.

Twilight leaned forward.

I won’t.

And the lips of two friends met.

Author's Note