“Thanks for the tea, Shy.” Rainbow Dash had never been big on tea, but it was good enough.
“Oh, it was no problem.” Fluttershy zipped to and fro about the living room, clearing away the mess of their most recent break.
Rainbow stretched her arms and creaked her neck, fighting an uphill battle against her most grueling nemesis – math, to get back into a decent enough mindset for studying. Dark magic had nothing on this evil. “Ugh, kill me already.”
As if math weren’t enough of a mortal enemy, to make matters worse, studying at Fluttershy’s place always meant a dance with another devil. As Fluttershy turned her back to head to the kitchen, Rainbow had to instinctively lean her head to dodge a flying projectile. The white little demon didn’t actually have a snowball’s chance in heck of hitting her, but he was nothing if not determined.
She locked gazes with Angel. “That all you got, Angie?”
He hated that nickname, and she knew it. He responded in kind by throwing a flying, sharper projectile. In the middle of the exchange, Fluttershy returned, and both combatants did their best to act natural.
“Are you ready to go on, Dash?”
She let out a groan to make her suffering known. “Don’t get me wrong – it’s always fun hanging out with you, but I’m literally dying over here. Can’t we worry about this, I don’t know, tomorrow?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Trust me, you’ll feel a lot better when you don’t have to worry about this set tomorrow. Here, let's try this one.”
That went on for another hour and a half. Points were plotted, functions were graphed, Rainbow struggled to understand where the hell the unit circle came from and why she would ever need it, and pot shots were taken whenever Fluttershy so much as rested her eyes.
Eventually, the page of the textbook ran out of torture instruments, and Rainbow nope’d out of anymore, faster than she’d done anything that day. “I think that's enough for a Saturday, don't you?”
Fluttershy bit the bottom of her lip, ready to pass judgement. “Well, you did get the practice problems right on your first try…”
“Exactly. So, how about we celebrate, and leave the books behind a while? Just you and me?”
Satisfied with the progress, they both pressed their books shut. “I suppose it has been a while since we’ve been together like this. What should we do?”
Rainbow took a moment to pretend to think, as if she hadn’t been planning for this invitation for days now. A day of studying had given her a perfect segue. “You wanna go back to Equestria Land? It felt like we were having a good time, and maybe it’ll be a lot more fun, without all the vignette headache.”
For all her bravado, she’d never actually given an invitation like this, and her face was starting to heat up. She just hoped to high heaven that it wasn’t turning red.
“I think that sounds like a wonderful idea, actually. We can ride everything!” She tapped the screen of her phone, and looked at the temperature. “We need jackets, though. Winter is sneaking up on us.” And she went upstairs, in search of a winter jacket.
Distracted visualizing the evening ahead, Rainbow Dash’s guard dropped, and a flying projectile finally met its mark. In moments like these, Rainbow sorely wished her Equestrian magic had come with rainbow laser vision. Poof.
She inched her way closer to the assailant, while he focused on gloating over the small victory. “Alright, rabbit, I’ll give you that one for free.” She brought her hand down hard next to him on the counter. For several seconds, they just passed nasty glares.
“But how’s about you level with me, for once?” she started. “I don’t like you, and you sure as heck don’t like me. So let’s cut to the chase.” She nodded to the stairs. “Do I, or do I not, have a chance?”
Angel contemplated a moment, never dropping his distasteful gaze. Then he looked away, his head held high, apparently determined to be as difficult as possible.
“You really not gonna tell me?”
No response whatsoever.
“I bet I can make it worth your while.”
Still, nothing. He turned his body away, completely.
Seeing as how she was going to get nowhere, she settled for a draw in their little struggle. “Alright, fine. Be cryptic.” She stood straight, and moved for the door. “Maybe that’s why Fluttershy’s been talking about officially adopting that new pika at the shelter.”
As clever as the little devil was, pushing his buttons was incredibly effective, and ridiculously easy. He did a complete one-eighty, as if the very insinuation of an adoption was an affront to his honor.
“You think maybe the pika’ll be easier to please?”
Before Angel’s head could explode, Fluttershy’s light steps could be heard descending the stairs. They both went back to lounging about, facing anywhere but towards each other.
“Just chew on this a bit, rabbit.” Rainbow said, loud enough that only he could hear. “If she starts dating, she and the lucky person are going to spend a lot of time here, getting acquainted with the animals.”
Angel’s eyes furrowed at the very prospect.
“Now, would you rather deal with me on a regular basis, or some random who probably isn’t good enough for her?”
At that moment, Fluttershy descended into view, now garbed in her winter getup. A sight for sore eyes if there ever was one, Rainbow thought.
“Ready, Shy?”
“mm-hmm. But I think we should hurry. If it gets later, the roller coaster lines will fill up.”
And just like that, Rainbow Dash tensed up for an entirely new reason. As they made their way out, she shared one last glance with Angel. She’d never admit it, but the begrudged nod he gave almost made her forget about the still-developing pit in her stomach.
Now she just had to figure out how to level with Fluttershy.
