Once we returned to Ponyville, I dove into the tome Celestia had given me like my life depended on it. I had a feeling I knew what was coming, given the rather specific enemy my new magic was created to fight, but that didn’t mean I was going to take it slow when it came to training. Rule number four of being a Ranger, always go in prepared for Hell and expect it to be worse when you get there.

It had taken me most of that day to figure out the style the book was formatted in, given it was more like a collection of personal journals than a textbook. What I was able to make out of the jumbled mess was that Auramancy is based on the control of one’s emotions. If you can shift from one emotion to another by choice, you can create any form of Auramancy casting without having to rely on outside influences. Thus, the first lesson an auramancer was required to learn was the ability to create any emotion on command.

It took me five more days, with near constant meditation, but I managed to get the first lesson down to reflexive speeds. Although my lack of sleep was probably reaching the same levels as my host. Poor Twilight was trying day and night to channel her own aura, even without the help of my texts. Yet all she was getting were variations on spells she already knew, not Auramancy. I felt sorry for her, but I had my own problems to deal with. It helped hugely that I could see what color my aura was when I was trying to find a certain emotion. Most students didn’t even have that when they first started training back in the day. At least that was what the grandmasters always seemed to be complaining about in their journals when they took on a new apprentice.

Finally, I was ready to move on to the next lesson, although I had to enlist Twilight’s help when I read what I was supposed to do. Each master had a different test for their students, but it all boiled down to roughly the same thing. The next step in my training was to enhance my body, using my aura, to push myself beyond my normal limits. Some masters focused on speed while others used strength, but it all revolved around making yourself more than you normally were.

We had collectively agreed to practice my training behind the castle, on the open field between the town and the Everfree Forest. Twilight had warned me about the nasty creatures that lived in the dark and foreboding woods, so I kept an ear trained on the deep shadows as we moved about the open country. I’d rather not have a pack of Timberwolves munching on my ribs thank you very much.

We had also decided to work outside because it would be less dangerous for me, should I lose control of one of my skills. I wasn’t strong enough to survive running into a wall at seventy miles per hour, nor was I fast enough to avoid a pillar falling on me if I broke something I wasn’t supposed to.

Twilight used her magic to carve out a quarter mile track in the grass, leaving just the loose dirt behind as she levitated the unneeded material out of the way. She had also managed to acquire several large boulders from the local quarry for me to practice my strength skills with. Spike was acting as data collector while Twilight was recording my results in a large blank tome she had made for her notes.

Apparently, she was going to be acting in the place of the grandmaster, marking down observations of my progress and other such things since there were no living masters to do so.

First off, we planned on doing some strength testing, given I wanted to save my legs for after we had beaten my noodle arms into little tiny pieces. I stood in front of one of the larger boulders Twilight had collected for our use, one that was about five feet around and came up to the bottom of my ribs in height. I ran a hand over its smooth surface as I tried to get a feel for what I was about to do. After all, it wasn’t every day you powderized a two-ton block of stone with your bare hands, at least according to the journals.

Twilight stood behind me as Spike watched at her side, although their attention seemed to be focused on me rather than the boulder I was going to try and break.

“Are you sure you can do this, Sarah?” Twilight asked as I rolled my shoulders and stretched my wrists, “Maybe you should start with a smaller rock.”

I shook my head as I brought my fists up into a combat stance, my feet sliding into position out of habit as I presented my body on a diagonal to the rock before me, “No can do Twilight. The book said I have to use a big boulder so all the force gets transferred into it on impact. I can’t let my energy go to waste sliding a smaller rock along the ground.”

“Yes, but still,” she muttered as I closed my eyes and clenched my fists.

The energy was ready and willing as I sensed more than saw the color shift to a deep blue. Calm was needed for this test rather than raw power, or else the energy wouldn’t protect my body from harm when I hit the boulder. I opened my eyes and saw the energy coating my arms in a deep sapphire aura, and I couldn’t help the grin that formed as I wound up for my first strike.

“Hah!” I cried as my fist flew forward, the impact with the boulder creating a small shockwave as the energy around my arm flared to compensate for the added force.

I pulled my hand back and was surprised to see a large spider web of cracks spreading out from where my fist had connected. Before Twilight could say anything I brought my arms up again and began punching the boulder over and over. The cracks spread rapidly with each strike, and I finally stopped when a large chunk fell off and nearly landed on my foot.

“Wow.” Spike said as he walked up and picked the slab off the ground, “You pounded that thing into submission like it was nothing.”

I shook out my hands as the energy faded from my arms, “Yeah, but the test is supposed to make me strong enough that I can shatter the boulder in one hit. I’ve got a long way to go if it takes over a dozen to break off one chunk.”

“At least your hands don’t seem to be taking any damage,” Twilight said as she scanned over my fingers and knuckles with her magic, “I’m not sensing any cracks or fractures in your bones, nor anything worse that some mild muscle bruising around the knuckles.” She smiled as she looked up at me, “Not bad for your first try.”

I snorted as I placed a hand on the severely damaged boulder, “‘Not bad’ isn’t good enough. I won’t be satisfied until I’ve cracked these boulders like eggshells, otherwise I won’t have the strength to take on some of the more advanced techniques.”

Twilight placed a hoof against my real leg, her eyes concerned but knowing, “You’ll get there someday, Sarah. You just need to practice some more.”

I nodded, “Alright, let’s try one more boulder before we move onto speed training.”

Twilight nodded as she and Spike took several steps back. I walked up to the next boulder and concentrated, feeling the power surge through my body as flashes of yellow sparked through the blue aura. I took a moment to calm myself, letting the yellow fade from the energy before I turned to the next rock. This one was a little bigger than the first, roughly as tall as I was and about seven feet around. I closed my eyes, focusing purely on the energy as I fell into my stance. I was going to break this boulder. My power is stronger than some random stone. I am the master of my body. I am the master of my mind. And I will not be held back by anything that gets in my way.

My eyes snapped open as the aura surged to cover my shoulders and upper body, “Break you damned pile of rubble!”

I poured everything I had into that one punch, my fist making a thunderous bang as it impacted the rock. A cloud of dust kicked up and made me cough into my hand as I pulled away from the boulder. Twilight coughed a few times before she used her magic to clear the dust. I opened my eyes as my lungs got themselves together, and saw that the boulder was still standing there, without a scratch on its pristine face.

My shoulders slumped as Twilight walked up to my side, “I really thought I had it that time.”

She nodded slowly, “It wasn’t like you didn’t try. That was more energy than I’ve ever seen you use before. I’m actually surprised that the rock isn’t marked in some way.”

“Maybe it’s just a harder rock to crack.” Spike added hopefully.

I ruffled his spines with one hand, “Thanks Spike, although I think I just don’t have enough strength yet. The masters wrote that it usually took students months to break a boulder this size.”

Twilight nodded, writing down a note in her book, “We’ll just have to keep trying until you get it. After all, practice makes perfect.”

I nodded, turning around to face the track, “Speed trial now?”

Twilight nodded, “Speed trial.”

We walked away from the boulder, leaving it standing alone in the grass. Yet what none of us had seen, was the hairline crack that ran through the boulder, splitting it from top to bottom into two perfect halves.

I walked up to the track that Twilight had made, stretching out my legs as Twilight sat down next to Spike. The tiny dragon had procured a lounge chair from somewhere and took his seat as he pulled out a stopwatch.

I took my place at the starting line, glancing over my shoulder at the duo as Twilight dipped her quill into a nearby inkpot, “I’m ready when you are Spike.” I called out to him.

He nodded, holding up three claws as he replied, “Baseline quarter mile time trial, starting in three, two, one, GO!”

I pumped my arms as my legs pounded through the loose dirt, and I fell into a semi-run that had been beaten into me from the instant I started basic training. It was a lope any Ranger could keep up for miles without tiring, and I knew it would be the best option to getting a fast time around the track. While it wasn’t an all-out sprint, it would keep me in shape so that I wasn’t exhausted upon finishing the lap. After all, I was going to be doing a lot of these today, I might as well save my energy for the long haul.

It felt good to run after being cooped up in the castle for far too long, and I let out a cheerful whoop as I poured a little more power into my strides. Energy saving be damned, I was going to smoke this baseline. My feet kicked up small clouds of dust as the servos in my leg hissed under the pressure. I came screaming around the final curve and practically tossed myself over the finish line, skidding to a halt as my shoes dug twin ruts in the soft earth.

Spike looked down at the stopwatch as I bent over and rested my hands on my knees. His eyes widened before he called out, “Baseline time for the quarter mile was one minute and forty-three seconds.”

Twilight nearly snapped the quill in her magic grip as her eyes snapped over to her assistant, “A minute forty-three?! Are you sure?”

Spike nodded as Twilight snatched the stopwatch from his claws, “I’m sure. The stopwatch was working fine the whole way.”

Twilight stared at the numbers before her as I walked up, having regained my breath enough for my chest to stop heaving, “But that’s within ten seconds of the quarter mile Equestrian record!” She looked up at me as I wiped the sweat from my brow, “How did you do that?”
I smiled as I pounded a fist against my biological thigh, “Basic training puts you through hell and back. Compared to that this is a walk in the park.”

Twilight seemed frozen for a moment before writing my score down in her book, “One minute forty-three seconds for baseline quarter mile. Estimated passing time limit is,” her eye twitched slightly as she ran the numbers in her head, “thirty-five seconds.”

I whistled as I leaned back and cracked my spine a couple times, “Wow, I knew magic was powerful, but dividing my time by three? Now that’s something I can look forward to.”

“And that’s just the basics!” Twilight fumed as her face reddened, “by the time you get through all of your training you’ll be able to cut your time six times over!” She growled as she closed the book with a resounding snap, “Oh this is so frustrating! All of these new magical skills and I can’t even learn the basics! Gah! Why can’t I do this? My special talent is magic for Celestia’s sake!”

I snickered for a moment at Twilight’s choice in oath, but collected myself before I walked up and rested a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, cheer up. Not even Celestia could use the most basic of Auramancy techniques, so it’s not the end of the world that you can’t either.”

Twilight sniffed as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek, “I know that, but it still bothers me that there’s a type of magic I’ll never be able to use. It’s not something I’ve ever had to deal with before.”

I smiled, feeling a pinch of sympathy for the mare as I rubbed her back gently between her wings. She hummed as her wings spread slightly, and I spoke softly as I added my other hand to my ministrations, “Like I said, it’s not the end of the world. You must really be good at magic to have mastered all eight schools of normal magic. I’m sure not even the other princesses would be able to boast as much. Why don’t we take a break for now and come back to this later?”

Twilight’s eyes had closed in pleasure as my hands worked their magic, and she seemed to not hear me at first as she leaned into my body to increase the pressure of my fingers, “Oh, um, what? What was that?” She opened her eyes a crack and looked over her shoulder at me, clearly out of it.

I rolled my eyes but said nothing, instead leaning into my work and really working my fingers into the rather tight muscles of her back and wing bases. Twilight let out a breathy moan as her wings extended to full span, and I blushed slightly at the noises she was making.

Thinking it was better to quit while I was ahead, I slowly let off the pressure before rubbing soft circles into her fur. Then, I let go of her completely and stood up.

For a moment Twilight simply sat there, a content expression on her face and her wings fully erect above her back. Then, she seemed to realize that I was no longer working her muscles, and opened her eyes to look back at me with a smile.

“Thank you Sarah.” She said as she stood up and stretched out her front legs like a cat, “I really needed that.”

“Anytime.” I replied as I picked up her tome and handed it back to her.

She glanced at the book and took it in her magic before moving over to stand next to Spike, “Ready to try adding some power into your run?”

I nodded, “Oh yeah. I can’t wait to shatter that speed record.”

Twilight chuckled as I walked up to the starting line, “Just don’t push yourself too hard. Remember that the book warned you about using too much energy at one time. We don’t want you passing out from overextending yourself.”

I threw her a sarcastic salute, “Yes ma’am.”

With that done I took my runner’s stance with my fingers pressed into the soft ground and my legs staggered behind me. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Spike held up his claws again. I closed my eyes and channeled my energy into my legs as the little dragon counted down, feeling the slight pressure and heat that accompanied the presence of my energy. I wasn’t sure how I could channel into my mechanical leg, but it worked anyway so long as I pumped a bit more power into it than my right leg.

“GO!” Spike yelled, and I surged out of the start in a cloud of dust.

Already I could feel my speed was higher than when I was running normally, and I smiled as my legs seemed to skate over the dirt and pebbles. I kept a sharp eye out for pits or large rocks, hoping to avoid landing on my face today, and poured a bit more power into my legs. My speed kicked up once again, and I couldn’t contain the excited cry that escaped my lips as I thundered around the second half of the course. If this was how fast I was running with only a little energy used, how fast would I be if I poured all of it in? The warnings of multiple masters echoed through my head as I blurred past the finish line, and I performed a perfect hockey stop as my shoes collected small piles of dirt under them.

I straightened as my breathing came under control, and was surprised to feel that my legs weren’t tired at all. If anything I felt like I could run some more and not feel the burn for a good hour. Spike and Twilight were staring at the stopwatch in his claws, their eyes wide as I walked up to them.

“So,” I asked as I leaned over Twilight’s shoulder to look at the watch, “How’d I do?”

Her gaze met mine as she smiled widely, “A minute even. Nicely done.”

I pumped a fist in the air as I hissed out a “Yes”, feeling like I deserved a little credit for my success, “Sweet, first day of training and I’m already halfway there.”

“It could be because of your physiology that you’re doing so well.” Twilight mused as she jotted down my time in the book, “Your legs are longer than the average pony’s, so when you put energy into your strides the difference is multiplied compared what it would be for us.” She glanced up at me as a glint reached her eyes, “It could be that the multiplier for you is not the same as a pony. After all, dragons and gryphons don’t have the same magical potential as ponies, so it’s safe to assume that it would be the same for you. It could be possible that you could surpass the limits ponies have if you work hard enough, although I would need to do some number crunching to determine if pushing your limits that far would be detrimental to your health.”

“Oh, come on Twilight,” I whined as I walked back to the starting line, “don’t you have any faith in me?”

Her sarcastic grin was all the answer I needed, “I have every faith in you, although your survival instincts seem to be a bit lacking.”

I chuckled as I got into my stance again, “Comes with being an Army Ranger. We don’t know the meaning of the words ‘half way’.”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she turned her gaze to Spike, “Might as well get this over with.”

Spike nodded, holding up his claws again as he counted down, “Three, two, one, G-”

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!” A familiar rasp called out from above as a rainbow contrail streaked into the air above my head.

I instinctively ducked as my mind flashed to RPG attacks back in Afghanistan, although I managed to get myself under control once Rainbow came to a stop and became clearly visible.

“If you’re doing a race,” she said as she hovered above me, “then I’ll give you the honor of facing the fastest pony in Equestria.”

“Pinkie Pie on a caffeine high?” I called up with a grin.

Rainbow paused for a moment, then rolled her eyes as she came in for a landing, “No, I’m talking about me.” She puffed out her chest and tilted her chin into the air as she continued, “I am the only one who can perform the legendary Sonic Rainboom after all.”

“Yeah, don’t know and don’t really care,” I said as I waved off her comment, “I’m in the middle of training, not running a race. Now if you want to watch then I’d be more than happy to let you sit over by Twilight and Spike, but try not to be too loud. I need to concentrate to keep my aura flowing correctly.”

Rainbow sputtered as I turned around and got into my stance, “Ready when you are Spike!”

He glanced between me and Rainbow a few times before holding up his claws, “Alright then, three, two, one, GO!”

I poured a bit more power into my legs than I had before, spotting the thin yellow flames that began to ripple around my limbs as I kicked into the next gear. I smiled as I glanced behind me, seeing I was actually leaving a cloud of dust in my wake as my feet kicked up the loose dirt. Rainbow had taken a seat next to Twilight as I made my way around the second half of the course, her eyes narrowed like some kind of inspector as she watched my every move. Not really comfortable with the way she was scrutinizing me, I poured a bit more power into my legs, making the aura around them flare to about an inch thick as my speed increased again.

I didn’t even bother trying to stop as I crossed the finish line, instead running around the track again as my speed bled off on its own. By the time I came back I was walking at a normal pace, and I was starting to feel the burn in my thighs. I walked over to the others and sat down with a huff, rubbing my upper legs to try and get the energy to dissipate faster. It took a few seconds, but eventually the aura around my limbs faded away, leaving me feeling sore and worn out.

“Fifty-two point six seconds.” Spike called out before glancing over at me, “Are you feeling alright?”

I nodded as I pushed myself into a standing position again, “Yeah, just a little winded. I’ll be fine in a minute.”

Rainbow was glancing between the track and the stopwatch, her eyes narrowed as she tapped something out with her hoof. Her lips were moving as she muttered under her breath, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

Finally, after a moment or two of reflection, her eyes widened in shock as she rounded on me, “No way, you beat my personal best lap time by almost fifteen seconds!” She leaped to her hooves as she flared her wings and began doing stretches, “Alright, that’s it. Time to see how fast you really are.”

“Rainbow, what are you talking about?” Twilight asked as she finished her notations, “Are you challenging Sarah to a race?”

“You bet I am.” The prismatic pegasus snarled as she marched up to me, taking off so she could look me in the eyes as she pushed into my chest with a hoof, “I challenge you to a race to see who really is the fastest mare in Equestria, no, who’s the fastest mare in the universe.”

“Well technically Sarah is from a different world, but that doesn’t make the winner the best in the universe.” Twilight said to absolutely no effect.

“Yeah, whatever,” Rainbow replied as she pressed the end of her snout into my nose, “so you up for it two-legs, or are you just an overgrown chicken?”

My blood flared as heat rushed to my cheeks, “Oh you are so on.” I turned to face Spike and Twilight as a bright red aura began to snap and fizzle around my hands as I clenched them into fists, “Spike, make sure to keep that timer ready. I want to know how badly I beat this turkey into the ground when this is over.”

“Hah!” Rainbow snarked as she crossed her hooves in front of her chest, “You’ll be eating my cloud trail by the end of the first lap. However, I’m feeling like a good sport today. I won’t even use my wings and race you on my own four hooves, sound fair?”

I turned to face her with my best shit-eating grin, “Oh you’re going to regret those words when I pound you into the dirt. How about a little wager for this here competition? The winner gets to make the loser do one thing, no questions asked, and the loser can’t back out no matter what that request is.”

Rainbow held out her hoof with a matching grin, “Oh you are so on.”

I closed my hand into a fist and pounded it against hers, and I could practically feel the sparks flying between our eyes.

Spike cleared his throat as he walked up to the starting line, “Alright, I guess we’re going to do this after all. Take your marks on the starting line.”

I fell into position again as Rainbow walked up beside me, her lips curled into a confident smirk as she dug her hooves into the soft dirt. Spike glanced at Twilight, who shook her head in defeat, before turning back to us.

“One mile timed race between Rainbow Dash and Sarah Lovegood.” He announced like some kind of referee, “Starting in three, two, one, GO!”

We leaped out of the starting block like the world was standing still, and I felt my lips curl into a smile as I began to pull ahead of Rainbow. Yet my blood was up, and I wasn’t going to take wining by a little bit as a satisfactory way to beat her. Oh no, I was going to obliterate Rainbow, and she was going to feel the burn when I kicked her sorry flank into next week.

I glanced over my shoulder as I led Rainbow around the first turn, noticing the calm determination that was present on her face as she galloped along behind me. She was keeping her word, at least for now, and kept her wings pulled tight against her sides. She was right behind me as we came around the back stretch, but I felt like it was time to show how much better I really was.

I called over my shoulder as we rounded the next turn to head back towards the start, “It’s been real Rainbow, but I think it’s time I kicked this into the next gear.”

Her eyes widened as she met my gaze, “What do you mean? Aren’t you already going as fast as you can?”

The glee in my smile would have made Pinkie Pie take a step back, “Just watch me.”

I turned around as we thundered past the starting line, and in that instant I poured everything I had into my legs. My body from the hips down became enveloped in a red and yellow aura that had to be a good five inches thick, and I nearly cried out in surprise as my speed increased exponentially. I shot forward so fast it was like Rainbow was standing still, and I had to struggle for a moment so keep my upper body in line with my legs. It took a mighty effort of my core muscles, but I managed not to fall backwards because of my sudden speed upgrade, and I leaned into my strides as I zipped around the first bend. I glanced to my side as saw Rainbow was still going strong, although her eyes were wide open and openly staring at me as I gained almost half a lap on her.

The dust that I was kicking up was starting to cloud the air, and I coughed once as I came around to the start of the track again. I hoped it wouldn’t get too bad if I continued going at this pace, and did my very best to keep my energy stable as I began to catch up with Rainbow. The one thing the masters had stated was the absolute worst thing an auramancer could do was let their casting get away from them. At that point, running into a wall at high speed was the least of your concerns.

Rainbow saw me coming up on her tail and seemed to put everything she had into her strides, her head bowed low and her eyes narrowed in concentration as I gained on her. Yet it only delayed the inevitable. As I came up alongside her I reached out and pat her on the withers.

Her head snapped to look my way as she panted like a dog, “What, *pant*, was, *pant*, that, *pant*, for?”

I smiled as I began to pull ahead once more, “For trying your best and for keeping your word. Next time you should use your wings. It might make it an even fight.”

Her head slumped in defeat as I pulled ahead, and her speed noticeably dropped as I began my final lap. Now that I didn’t need to make a point anymore, I pulled a good portion of my energy back, hoping to avoid burning myself out. My speed dropped off as well as I finished the final lap, coming in around the bend at a light jog before walking to a stop after I crossed the finish.

Spike looked at the stopwatch and then back to me, his eyes wide in shock as he called out the times, “Lap times for Sarah Lovegood, one minute five seconds, forty point three seconds, thirty-eight point seven seconds and one minute twelve seconds. Overall time was three minutes and thirty-six seconds even.”

There was a loud snapping sound, and I turned to see Twilight had broken her quill tip against the page of the book, her left eye twitching slightly as she glanced over at Spike, “Did I hear you correctly? Sarah nearly beat a three-and-a-half-minute mile?”

Spike nodded, ducking behind the chair as Rainbow trotted up to us. The poor mare was sweating buckets and was panting so hard she couldn’t even speak. Her tongue hung out the front of her mouth as she hung her head, and I felt genuinely sorry for her as she flopped down on the grass and rolled onto her back, fanning her face with her wings as she stared up at the partly cloudy sky. Then again, I wasn’t much better. My shirt clung to my chest and back as sweat ran down my face in rivulets, dripping to the ground as I tried to calm my racing heart.

I walked up to her, feeling my own body protesting the movements as my muscles realized what kind of strain I had put them under. I sat down next to Rainbow and lay back with my hands behind my head, choosing to ignore the heated words flying between the princess and her aide.

“Nice work on that race.” I said as I watched a particularly fluffy cloud float by, “If I didn’t have the added power of this Auramancy stuff you wouldn’t smoked me.”

Rainbow chuckled as she got her breathing under control, “Yeah, well that doesn’t make losing any easier.” She rolled her head to the side to meet my gaze, “We are so having a rematch.”

I laughed as I ruffled her mane with one hand, “Yeah, I guess I owe you that much after pounding your flank into the track. Use your wings next time we do this, it’s make thing even between us.”

She smirked as she flipped her mane back into its normally scruffy appearance, “I’ll look forward to it.” Her expression fell as she glanced at me again, “So, I lost. What are you going to do to me for the bet?”

I tapped my chin with a finger, “Oh I’ll think of something. I think the best part about something like this is I don’t have to cash it in right now. I can save it for the perfect moment and then really let you have it.”

Her eyes widened in fear as she rolled over onto her stomach, “Oh please, just get it over with. It was bad enough losing to you, now you’re going to keep this bet hanging over my head until you think I deserve whatever it is?”

I smirked as I jabbed her gently in the shoulder, “Ah come on, you’re the legendary Rainbow Dash. I thought you could handle anything?”

She blushed as she averted her gaze, “Well, sure, I mean, obviously. I just don’t like the idea of doing something, you know, uncool.”

I smiled, knowing the feeling of wanting to be accepted as the tomboy I was, “I’ll try to make it manageable Rainbow. Just don’t expect me to go too easy on you. A bet’s a bet after all.”

She giggled as she stood up, “I guess that’s all I can ask for.” She held out her hoof to me as I sat up, “Friends?”

I glanced at her hoof for only a second before I pounded it with my fist, “Friends.” I acted before she could move and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her chest into mine as I rested my cheek against the side of her neck.

“Hey! What’s with the hug all of a sudden?!” She yelled as her wings flared and her body stiffened, “I don’t do the mushy stuff, alright?”

“Oh shut up and hug me back you moron.” I retorted, pulling her tighter against me as my fingers began to rub circles over her wing bases, “It’s alright for friends to give each other hugs now and again isn’t it?”

She hesitated for a second, as if unsure if she wanted to break her code of cool. Yet as my deft fingers started working her wings and back muscles, she let out a murr of pleasure before wrapping her hooves around my ribcage.

“I guess I can let this one slide,” she muttered into my hair as her muscles began to relax under my care, “just this once.”

I caught Twilight smiling in our direction through Rainbow’s mane, and I felt my own lips curling into a smile as Rainbow began to hum in contentment, going so far as to extend her wings to let me get at all the muscle groups as we sat there on the grass. Rainbow might be a hothead, but she was the type of hothead that you could depend on to do the right thing when things got sticky.

As we sat there under the midday sun, I couldn’t help but feel like I was getting along with these ponies better than even my old squad-mates. It was a new feeling to have so many people caring about me and doing their best to make my life a happy and productive one. I just couldn’t really come to terms with how that made me feel. Was I happier here than back on Earth? No, not happier per say, just a different kind of happy. I liked my life while I was in the Corps, and even when I was growing up I had a loving family that supported me in my life choices. So, what was it about these tiny colorful ponies that made my chest tighten and my heart skip a beat?

As Rainbow leaned into me I lay back in the grass, allowing her to rest on my body as the ground pressed into my back. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, given she must have weighed seventy pounds or more, but I couldn’t bring myself to question her as she curled up on my stomach like an oversized cat. Her wings were spread wide and her hooves tucked under her body as her muzzle nestled between the valley of my cleavage. She was the absolute image of contentment and was so adorable that I wished I had my phone on me. She would have made the best screensaver ever, although she would probably be mortified at the very idea of being cute.

Twilight and Spike made their exit, leaving me and Rainbow to relax in the sunshine, or in her case, sleep in the sunshine. I wrapped my arms around her body and leaned my head back, allowing my eyes to drift closed as the activities of the day caught up with me.

“Maybe just a short nap.” I muttered to myself as my head came to rest on the soft grass, a gentle breeze washing over us as we fell asleep together.

Author's Note

A little shorter chapter than the last couple, but one that several of you have been asking for. Finally, the race between Rainbow Dash and Sarah has come to pass, and it was a blowout! Well, Rainbow had a huge handicap, so I guess the final jury is out on who's the fastest being in Equestria.

Anyways, hope you guys are liking the book as it is so far. The next post is going to be the first in a little side story that I cooked up with one of my friends. You don't have to read it, but it'll be a barrel of laughs and will be sporting Easter Eggs later in the book for those with a keen eye. The chapters pertaining to this little side story will be marked with a .5 on the chapter number and will have the word Interlude as the first part of the chapter title. The only other chapters that will be marked with a .5 will be the clop chapters, also completely skip-able for those who don't want to read it.

Alright, now that we have that out of the way, the usual altro.

See you all next chapter,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.