Romp

“Oh yeah! Sorry – duh, heheh.” Rainbow stood up and ran a hoof through the back of her messy mane. “Yeah, I know we were play-fighting or, uh… whatever you wanna call it.” She scrunched her muzzle. “Please tell me there’s a cooler way of describing what we did.”

Unbeknownst to the mare, Twilight’s breath had caught in her throat. She briefly considered using the opportunity to segue into another subject – to just put it all behind them and carry on with the day.

No… I have to do this. I have to tell her.

Steeling her nerves as much as she could, Twilight choked out, “Rainbow, I don’t think you understand.”

“Hm?” Rainbow tilted her head, causing the back of her bed-mane to cascade in thick layers down her shoulder.

Twilight stared at the sight. Now was definitely not the time to be letting her mind drift. With a shake of her head, she blurted out, “I stepped on you last night, Rainbow! Hard! Really hard!”

Rainbow blinked. She added another blink for good measure. “Uuuuhhhh—”

“In the dream world! Er, my imagination! Whatever,” Twilight rambled on, gesturing wildly with her hooves from her seat. “When you flew down to check on me, I took the opportunity to grab you out of the air and… s-slam you against the ground.”

For a few seconds, Rainbow’s expression shifted between confusion and amusement, before finally settling on a smirk. “Huh! So you did have it in you! Sweet!”

“That’s not… ugh!” Twilight slammed a hoof across the table, dragging a yellow and black paperback to lift in front of her. “You see this? This describes verbatim the stuff we did last night – the same stuff that I enjoyed!”

Rainbow leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at the book. “Fetish for Dum—” A spit-take of a snicker escaped her mouth before she bit her lip, fighting to keep from bursting into full laughter. “Mmphmhm… y-you read a book on fetishes? You actually have stuff like that in the library?”

Twilight’s violet cheeks quickly burned to a blush. Glancing away, she said, “I had to, Rainbow! The more I thought about it, the more I realized this sounds like the stuff you’d hear ponies talk about in school!”

Rainbow didn’t even fight it anymore – with a cackle, she sputtered, “D-did ponies at Celestia’s school talk about giant ponies over lunch?!”

“No, not that specifically – I mean other st…!” Without even thinking, Twilight chucked the lithe paperback at Rainbow’s head, barely missing her. “Stop joking around! This is serious!”

Rainbow laughed for a while longer before she finally calmed down. Clutching her chest with a hoof, she said, “Oh… oh man, that’s great, haha!” Looking up at Twilight with moist eyes, she said, “I’m sorry, Twi. Really. You just have the best way of wording things sometimes.”

Twilight scowled at the pegasus, though her expression quickly fell into a more concerned one. “Rainbow, listen to me. I stayed up all night last night researching what happened after you passed out.”

“Hang on,” Rainbow said as she lifted a hoof. “You still haven’t filled me in on the whole… stepping on me part.” She furrowed her brow. With it came a twinge from her headache.

“Oh, right.” Looking down in thought, she said, “So, after I threw you to the ground, I stood up and pinned you down. And… I-I think I might have put too much weight on you or something, because… next thing I knew, you were…”

“Twi,” Rainbow droned. “C’mon. Seriously. Just spill it.”

Twilight drew a deep breath. “I was so caught up in the moment that… I ended up hurting you. Genuinely hurting you.”

“Okay?” Rainbow sat down beside her. “I’m so confused. So, because you stepped on me, something bad happened to… what, my memory?”

“Exactly,” Twilight said with a nod. “When the body is flooded with a substance called noradrenaline, typically during extreme moments of stress, the brain switches its focus to the situation at-hoof, blocking out all non-pertinent information—”

“Rainbow talk, please!”

“It means because I crushed you, you can’t remember what happened!” Twilight finished with a shout, closing her eyes and wrapping her forelegs around her chest.

Several seconds of painful silence passed as Twilight sat on her chair, swaying ever so slightly as she fought to keep from crying. With a strained voice, she said, “I didn’t mean to hurt you – I promise. I had no idea the spell would have such an effect.” Unable to hold back any longer, a single tear escaped one of her eyes, followed by a sniffle. “I’m so, so sorry, Rainbow Dash. I hate that we ever did this. I hate that I dragged you into this whole mess, and I—”

“Stop,” Rainbow interrupted with a firm tone.

Twilight winced at the word, clinging tighter to her body as she turned her head away.

After a moment, she heard hoofsteps approach her. “Twilight. It’s okay.”

Twilight hiccuped. She looked over at Rainbow.

“Really. It’s okay.” Rainbow sat closer, looking up at her with a soft smile. “I know you, Twi. You never would have done anything if you knew it could actually hurt me. That was the whole idea behind this, anyway – we were supposed to be able to go into this knowing nothing bad would happen in real life, right?”

“Mm… mhmm.” Twilight wiped the back of her hoof across her cheek. “But… the thing is, I still enjoyed it in the moment.” She glanced over Rainbow’s shoulder at a sprawled paperback. “I liked the feeling of… c-crushing you.”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “Okay… well, I’ll admit, that’s a little unusual.”

“See? That’s exactly what—”

“Hang on,” Rainbow continued, raising a hoof in protest again. “But would you have still done it if you knew it would actually hurt me?”

Twilight’s ears folded back. She considered the point for a moment. It was true – at the outset of it all, she was certain no negative effects would transition into real-life. It was one of the very few times she had chose to use a spell without contextual research, as it came from a tome she had used since she was a little filly. Because of that, they flew into the spell blind to the actual risks.

But she still couldn't deny the thrill she had of pinning Rainbow’s body beneath her hoof. Or the elation she felt to see and hear the destruction of her massive size. Or the pleasant tingling of Rainbow’s tiny body sliding down her throat—

“UGH!” Twilight jumped off her seat away from Rainbow, knocking the wastebasket over in the process. “None of that matters, Rainbow! None of it!”

Rainbow stood up and walked around the chair. “Twi, what are you—”

“Don’t you see?!” Twilight spun around with a look of desperation. “I like hurting you! I like destroying things!” Knocking a random book on the floor across the room, she shouted, “It’s a fetish, Rainbow! I’m into a bucking fetish!” She panted from her outburst, staring straight at her friend who stood only a few hooves away.

Rainbow stared back, deadpan. “So?”

“S… so?” Twilight chuckled bitterly. “You mean to tell me you think it’s alright?!”

“Um…” Rainbow cleared her throat. “Everypony has different things they like, Twi.” Although her mind wanted to rest on a certain thought, she smirked instead at a memory of an old friend. “Even griffons.”

Twilight tilted her head at that.

“But seriously,” Rainbow continued, walking up to Twilight. “We may not hang out one-on-one often, but I still know you Twilight. If you had any clue that you could actually hurt somepony – or… y’know, somepony that isn’t trying to steal your friends away, or turn a city into black crystal, or brain-wash an entire town – then I know you wouldn’t do it.” She glanced back at the book Twilight had tossed earlier. “Just how far did you read into that junk, anyway?”

Twilight peered around Rainbow’s side at the book in question, her breath still coming in short, rapid waves. “I-I don’t know. It was the last thing I picked up after researching the spell. All I know is everything I felt last night fit perfectly with some of the things listed in there.”

“Well,” Rainbow drawled as she looked back at the mare. “Congratulations. You’ve just discovered a whole new side to yourself.”

“But… wh-what…?!” Twilight squinted at the mare. “How can you say that so calmly? I thought you of all ponies would find it strange!”

“And I do!” Rainbow quickly replied. “It’s just not my thing, that’s all. The only reason I find it strange is ‘cause I can’t relate to it.” She ran a hoof across her muzzle with a groan. “All I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t be so upset over this.”

“But I hurt you, Rainbow—”

“Oh for pete’s sake, GET OVER IT!” Rainbow shouted at her friend, her voice echoing off the walls of the empty library.

Twilight stepped back at the sudden ferocity of her friend’s voice.

“You of all smart ponies should know better than to miss the point here,” Rainbow continued with a strong inflection. “First off, I’m more than familiar with post-trauma memory loss. I already know it’s not a big deal. It’s not like I got the nickname ‘Rainbow Crash’ in flight school just because it rhymed with Dash.”

Twilight’s eyes darted between Rainbow’s as she took another step back.

“Secondly, you didn’t know you were really going to hurt me!” Rainbow stepped forward again. “So what if you get off on romping around as a big-flank pony? That doesn’t change who you are in here,” she said as she jabbed a hoof against Twilight’s chest, causing the alicorn to fall to her haunches. “I know you, Twi. I know the kind of pony you are when it comes down to what matters the most.” She leaned her head forward, narrowing her eyes. “And I know for a fact that Twilight Sparkle would never mean to hurt one of her friends.”

Panting, shaking, Twilight stared into Rainbow’s intense gaze. Slowly, the pegasus sat down as well, allowing her expression to soften slightly.

“And by the way,” Rainbow said as she looked away, “I’m… sorry for yelling at you.”

With a whimper, Twilight muttered, “S-so… y-you don’t think I’m weird?”

“For liking that stuff?” Rainbow scoffed, returning her friend a smirk. “Like I said, it isn’t exactly my thing, so some of it does seem a bit strange. But trust me, if you knew some of the things I did about some of the ponies I’ve met… among other winged creatures,” she added with a wry grin, “then you’d know it’s not that big a deal.” She shrugged. “Least not to me, anyway.”

Twilight blinked once more, before sighing in relief. Just like that, the tension in her began to melt away, though in its place came the fatigue of a long night spent awake and far too much stress. Slumping in her spot, she said, “Thank you, Rainbow.”

Rainbow smiled. “Don’t worry about it.” Reaching a hoof out to her, she said, “Now c’mon. You look like you could use some real sleep.”

“Yeah… that actually sounds perfect.” Twilight grabbed hold of Rainbow’s hoof, pulling herself upright.

“Then let’s get you to bed.” Rainbow cantered alongside her friend as the two walked out into the hall, leaving behind a mess of books and two empty plates for a drake to most likely clean up later.