Rainbow Dash flipped over in the air again, feeling the cool, fall night breeze playing with her mane. She was doing some late night trick practice, and so far her latest, most complicated trick was working. She felt her rainbow mane whip past her hooves as she did a backward roll, and then tickle her belly when the blue pony attempted a sideways twist. That was when she accidentally bumped both her wings with her hind hooves and broke her concentration in the process. She did a triple somersault while falling before Rainbow caught herself. "Nice recovery!" she heard a vaguely familiar voice call from a cloud a few yards above her.
Dash whipped around to find that the voice belonged to Soarin, her idol, and the Wonderbolt she loved. "O-oh, hey, Soarin, what are you doing here?" she stammered. The Wonderbolt tilted his head to the side inquisitively. "I could ask you the same thing." Rainbow had a very easy answer for that. "Just practicing some tricks. The night air helps you keep cool." Rainbow's crush nodded. "That makes sense. I just heard somepony flying and came to see what was happening, and when I saw that awesome move you were working on, I stuck around to watch. Maybe we could share some flying techniques?" Dashie nodded her head frantically, relishing the idea of a night of flying alone with Soarin.
Soarin did a quadruple backflip off his cloud and stopped in the air right next to Rainbow. He was so close that she could see every color in his brightly shining blue eys. "You wanna go first?" Soarin offered. Dash nodded, and flew up higher for some space. "I call this one the Bucaneer Blaze!" the mare announced. She flew in rotating circles like an electron around an atom. Eventually she picked up the pace and she could see an electric spark extending off her side. Good, it was working. She went even faster, and soon the spark grew, just like it was supposed to. After a while, it had expanded, and began to take on a spherical shape around Dash while she pumped her wings as hard as she could. Finally, just before Rainbow's wings failed on her or just stopped altogether from pure exhaustion, bolts of electricity bounced off in every direction, lighting up the far corner of her vision. After she flew down to Soarin, who had returned to the cloud he had been sitting on when he called down to her, noticed he was staring at her with an amazed look on his face.
"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" the Wonderbolt proclaimed. Rainbow blushed and looked at her hooves. She wasn't used to being praised, much less by the stallion of her dreams. "You liked it?" Dash checked. "Of course I did!" Soarin said, laying a wing over her shoulder for a split second. He looked as if he had something else he wanted to say, but he didn't actually mention anything bothering him. He just turned and flew up to where Rainbow had been a few minutes ago and said, "My turn. The Wonderbolts call this the Artist Flash." He promptly began to fly around in such a pattern that Rainbow Dash soon lost track of him. Eventually it became apparent what he was doing. He had outlined a rectangle with his smoke trail, and then flew inside it and traced the Wonderbolts' symbol. Panting, Soarin landed beside Dash once again.
"How was that?" he prompted. "Awesome!" Dash answered enthusiastically. They watched as the rain cloud-like trail faded from sight, dispersing into the air, and Dash particularly enjoyed sitting next to Soarin, and for the first time that night, she felt completely content. She shivered at his touch, and he asked if she was cold. Dash admitted, "A little," and Soarin extended a wing. Rainbow accepted the means of keeping warm, and leaned in towards the inviting heat of his body. For a moment, as they cooperated to scare off the late night chill, Dashie considered telling Soarin how she felt, but then she cut off her train of thought when she realized Soarin had snuggled closer to her, trying to keep warm, and blocking out the cold wind coming from the north.
Dash was tired, and she unconsciously rested her head on Soarin's shoulder. He responded by wrapping his wing further around her, a hint of a blush on his cheeks. The Wonderbolt seemed to be deep in thought, so Rainbow didn't interrupt, and just rested against Soarin, who didn't even seem to notice. She watched his eyes reflect the moon and stars, and dozed off. Dreaming, she was walking across a room in a house, noticing it was her own. She heard Soarin calling in the distance, and woke up when the call came louder. It turned out Soarin had been saying her name in her ear to wake her up. He gave the mare a light shake to make sure that she was awake. "I... have something improtant to tell you, Rainbow." Heart pounding, Dash snapped to attention. "I, for a while, have been thinking about you. I can't stop! I've been having dreams about you. I can't focus on practice. One night, lying in bed, I just accepted that I couldn't run from it. I love you, Rainbow Dash."
That wasn't what Rainbow had expected, and at the same time it was. She barely noticed Soarin's eyes soften with affection. Then her instincts took over. Just was Soarin asked if she was okay, with tears of joy in her eyes, Dash stopped Soarin's sentence with a hoof on his mouth. "I love you more than life." and kissed him. At first Soarin jolted in suprise, but then relaxed, and allowed Dash pull him down onto the cloud, still keeping close together. They stayed that way for a while, ecstasy overtaking them and their minds. Their dreams had come true and nothing could ever hurt them again. Everything was perfect.
