Blue Skies and Silver Lines

It was summer in Equestria, and one of the warmest summers ever. Spring is over, but flowers continue to bloom, with some even beginning to turn to ripe fruit. Ponies all over Equestria find ways to have fun; pool parties, night barbecues, watching stars, sunbathing at the beach, and many more.

Rainbow Dash took advantage of this; the skies were clear because most ponies didn't dare be outside, not in temperatures reaching 38 degrees Celsius, and that was at 3am. But Rainbow refused to back down; she dared against the heat in order to practice her maneuvers.

After setting up and stretching herself, the Pegasus mare tried her new maneuver: the corkscrew-loop-Split S combo. Halfway into the loop however, a silver arrow-like blur sped past her. The blue pegasus was caught off guard, it's sheer speed destabilizes her midway through the loop, forcing her to abort the trick, straighten up,  and land on a cloud.

Unfortunately, said blur also turned around..... right into her path when she was straightening up.  They both collided mid-air at speed,  the sheer force stopping both of them.

Rainbow Dash groaned in pain. "Oww, my head...." as she struggled to open her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Are you all right?" The blur, now a Pegasus stallion, asked her. As he was speaking, he jerked his head upwards slightly, lifting the green visor on the helmet he'd been wearing.

"Yeah I would be all right if it weren't for yo-" Rainbow Dash started to retort angrily, but stopped midway as she got a good look at the Pegasus stallion. For whatever reason, he had no hair. His eyes were deep sapphire, his coat was a dark, shining blue, and his cutie mark was that of a bow and arrow. He also had a sleek, lined figure unlike any stallion Rainbow ever saw.

He was not only handsome, he was certainly a skilled and extremely fast flyer. He could single-handedly beat the Wonderbolts in a straight-up race, and Spitfire and Fleetfoot are going to be too distracted looking at his face to properly fly. Heck, they could end up like Soarin did when he saw two Cloudsdale cheerponies.

-u." Rainbow finished weakly. She just realized, she might had hurt his feelings accidentally during the outburst.  "Sorry."

"Eh, it's okay, I was at fault." The stallion cringed. "By the way, my name's Silver Arrow. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Rainbow replied bashfully. Her mind immediately collapsed into horror as she realized that she was out-of-character. "Dammit!" She thought. "What happened to the awesome, best-in-Equestria Rainbow? Why am I so sweet and bashful all of a sudden?"

"Wow, it's a really hot summer isn't it?" Silver Arrow monologued to himself. "Might need to remove this helm completely. Don't want to get your head too hot or you could faint."

Silver Arrow removed his helmet. Underneath it, he wasn't bald at all; the helmet simply covered his mane. It was glistening silver, and quite long to boot; almost as long as Rarity's. It simply added to his utterly gorgeous form; Rainbow Dash found herself very distracted all of a sudden.

Rainbow tried to reply to his monologue; their faces were quite close together during the conversation however, and that, combined with his utterly handsome looks, had adverse effects on Rainbow's confidence. She found her lips were sealed shut, and worse, her cheeks were flaring hot red, her heart was beating like crazy, and her chest felt very tight. Even her legs got in on the action; they felt like water as she gazed deeply into his deep sapphire-blue eyes.

Even so, her pride finally triumphed, and she replied. "Yeah, it is. Don't wanna stay out in the sun for too long ,or the sheer heat will drain somepony."

"So, Rainbow Dash isn't it? Equestria's most famous flyer?"

Rainbow's ego still in control, she still managed to reply. "Yes indeed. I'm awesome like that you know!"

"Yeah I heard of your exploits. Redeeming Princess Celestia's sister and reuniting them two, defeating the physical embodiment of chaos, and pulling off a legendary maneuver twice, and one at the age of 8. Cool!"

Nothing had prepared Rainbow for what Silver Arrow said next though:

"Though, no one has ever mentioned that you're cute."

Like a viper's strike, it was wickedly-fast and unpredictable. It hit Rainbow's most vulnerable spots; her pride lost again, and the symptoms from earlier returned. Her knees turned weak again, her fierce blush returned, and her heart's mad racing restarted.

Silver himself was blushing fiercely, realizing what he said. He returned his composure quickly though; a voice called from above.

"Silver Arrow? Corporal? Why did you turn around?" The voice called. It was a yellow Pegasus stallion with a black-and-white mane.

"Ah, sorry about that, Private Hallow Angel." Silver replied. "I bumped into this mare and I needed to make sure she's all right. After all, we don't want anything bad to happen do we?"

"Well, but we're running late!"

"All right, i'm finished here anyway." Silver Arrow replied, before looking at Rainbow. "Sorry, I can't stay. I'll catch you later!"

"Well, see you around, Silver Arrow!" Rainbow said, a little louder than she intended to.

As soon as Rainbow was sure that Silver Arrow was out of sight and hearing, she pulled open a cloud with her hooves, dipping them into the water within, and splashes her own face with it.

"What just happened?" She asked.  She then saw Celestia's sun setting over the horizon; Princess Luna was about to raise the moon, and Twilight's friends were gathering up in her castle. She instantly flies towards the castle in a brisk manner.