Under the Aurora

by Ardensfax

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Romance, Fluttershy
Length: 7280

On a sleeper train in the frozen north, sleep is eluding two travelers.

In an otherworldly night, a sleeper train is making its way back from the frozen north. Sleep, however, is eluding two travelers. One has a hurt that needs to be mended, the other has a dream that must be remembered. It is the perfect night for secrets to be shared.

A FlutterDash one-shot, set at the end of The Crystal Empire, on the overnight train back to Canterlot; uncomplicated romance with slight sad and comedy elements.

Enormous thanks to NATOstrike and Shadowsreached for their awesome proofreading and feedback-ing! Thanks also to Tarantad0 for letting me use that amazing Jousting Fluttershy picture.

Published 2012-11-20 19:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-20 19:20:01 UTC

Under the Aurora

Under the Aurora
Ardensfax

The low bass rumblings of the train were a strange comfort. The smooth rhythm of the icy rails should have paved an easy route for sleep, particularly after so difficult a day, yet, somehow, Rainbow Dash had to concede that sleep was simply not coming to claim her. Outside the window, the aurora fluctuated, soft and silver-green, high above the glittering tundra.

Silently, unwilling to lie and feel the seconds ticking by, the pegasus slipped out of bed and alighted gently on the floor, feeling the carpet sway a little beneath her with the motion of the carriage. The Princess had ensured that they had been given individual sleeping compartments, and while Dash appreciated the grateful gesture, she would have appreciated a little company even more. Something was picking at her brain, leaving her more restless than usual, and solitude only served to compound the problem.

Most likely, her problem was simply leftover adrenaline from earlier in the day, but whatever the reason, the train felt like a cage. The journey to that strange, unearthly city of crystal had felt nowhere near as long as the return route.

Taking care not to make too much noise, she slid open her compartment door, and crept out into the corridor. The lamps were out, but the hazy, shifting light of the moon and the aurora were enough to cast a faint aquamarine glow over the wood-paneled doors that led to the three other anonymous bedchambers running the length of the carriage. The curtains were all drawn, and Dash turned almost without thinking, striding out purposefully towards the back of the train. She needed to breathe.

She passed soundlessly through another row of sleepers, then two ordinary carriages. Occasionally, one of the compartments held two or three wide-eyed crystal ponies, evidently too excited to sleep, heading for Canterlot to reacquaint themselves with the modern world. They were too caught up in their own conversations to spot Dash slinking past along the corridor, however.

Taking to the air to mask the sound of her hooves, she hovered gingerly past the snoozing guard, lying curled up on his bunk in the caboose. Sliding open the wooden door at the far end, just enough to squeeze through, she slipped outside.

The wind was bitter, the temperature freezing, but it filled Dash’s lungs with the open air she so desperately needed. Releasing her first deep breath in a sigh of contentment, she spread her wings. Just a short flight, she reasoned, could not hurt. Nopony would miss her for a few minutes, and it would clear her head. Maybe even tire her out enough to sleep.

With a single motion, she flared her primaries wide, and leapt up, over the safety rail, throwing herself out into the freezing night.

Immediately, the wind intensified tenfold as she left the train’s protective slipstream, and her body was thrown harshly into a somersault as a wall of air slammed into her. “Whoa there,” she muttered, grinning as she righted herself effortlessly, pulling around with two powerful strokes of her wide wings. She descended a little, swooping down to glide alongside the train like a silent, cyan phantom, effortlessly matching its speed.

The wind howled in her ears, biting at her, but she could not feel the cold. All she felt was that delicious, numbing adrenaline that came to her whenever she left the dull, tawdry ground behind. She looked down, watching the wooden sleepers flick past, flashing into a blur. Glancing to the side, she viewed her reflection for a few seconds in a curtained window, mouth stretched wide in a smile that was almost feral.

It was strangely elating, keeping pace with this machine, knowing that even with all the roaring iron and fire that propelled it, it was still no match for her. The world blurred around her, and she corkscrewed effortlessly over the top of the caboose, feeling her wingtip brush a neat line in the snow that carpeted the corrugated roof. Pulling away from the carriage, she flung herself up, up into the cloudless night. She hovered for an instant, watching the engine snake its way through the icy wasteland far beneath her.

This was her world, and with such a world at her wingtips, it was little wonder that any other seemed cruelly, tortuously slow to her.

Diving again, she swept up the side of the train, as close as she dared to the carriages. The train’s slipstream tugged at her right wing, threatening to throw her off-balance and suck her beneath the wheels, but she never felt so much as an iota of fear or doubt. She knew what she was doing. Striking out with her wings, cutting into the air around her, she put on a spurt of speed, the train’s curtained windows blurring past in a haze of icy burgundy.

When she reached her compartment, she slowed, looking into her own window. She had left the curtains open, and amused herself for a moment wondering if she would be so lucky sneaking past the guard on her way back. The sense of disturbed wakefulness had left her; she was still alert, but she no longer felt troubled. The flight had likely helped her burn off a little of the surplus tension that the day had left with her.

Then, she glided forwards, moving along to the next carriage, and glanced into one of its windows, hoping to catch sight of her reflection again.

She very nearly fell out of the air with shock. Fluttershy was staring back at her, her aquamarine eyes wide, face bathed in the silver moonlight. Her mouth was a perfect ‘o’ of surprise. Dash saw her timid friend mouth the words “Rainbow Dash?”

The cyan mare grinned embarrassedly back through the window, but noticed something strange about the situation. It must have been almost three o’clock in the morning, and yet Fluttershy had been gazing listlessly out of the window, apparently every bit as sleepless as Dash herself had been. Not only that, her eyes were slightly red and puffy, as if she had spent much of the night doing her best to suppress tears.

“You okay?” Dash shouted over the wind, trying her best to stay steady in the train’s wake.

In response, Fluttershy gestured upwards towards the roof of the train. A little confused, the cyan pegasus darted upwards, scanning the snowy roof. Her eyes fell on a hinged skylight in the roof, barely visible through the thick coating of snow. She cursed herself, realizing that her compartment probably had one as well, and that it represented a far easier means of exit from the train than the roundabout route she had taken.

She did not have time to worry about it, though. Fluttershy had flown up to the ceiling and pushed open the skylight, allowing Dash to hop through, landing silently on the carpet of her friend’s dark compartment. She tucked her wings back to her sides as Fluttershy clicked the glass panel shut, and the roaring wind was abruptly cut to silence. Dash stood still for a moment, only now aware of how loud and cold the outside world had been. She allowed her ears to cease their ringing and enjoyed the warmth of being indoors once more.

“Hey,” she mumbled, a little embarrassedly.

“Hi, Rainbow.” Her friend settled at her side, but did not quite meet her eyes.

“’Shy…” Dash did not quite know how to phrase the question without sounding intrusive, so decided on her trademark approach of bluntness. “What’s up? Is something the matter?”

Fluttershy flushed, but did not so much evade the question as ignore it entirely, trotting over to sit down on the bed, wincing a little as she lowered herself onto the mattress. “What are you doing out so late, Rainbow?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” replied Dash, shrugging off the question. “Ya know, busy day. Thought I’d do a bit of flying. But… what about you? Can’t you sleep either?” She trotted over to sit down beside her friend, eyeing her silhouette with concern. The compartment was dark, but for the glimmer of the twisting, greenish lights up in the sky, and she could barely make out the timid mare’s profile. “Have you been crying?”

Fluttershy sniffed, turning away. “It’s… oh, it’s nothing. I’m glad you came by, I need some company. But… but don’t worry about me. It’s my fault; I shouldn’t be so weak.”

Dash let out a sympathetic sigh. Her friend had often suffered these bursts of depression in their youth, but they had regressed somewhat since she found her calling in nature. Fluttershy was not like her brash compatriot; she did not need the sky in order to be happy. Dash had assumed the mare’s physical weaknesses had ceased being a cause of concern for her, and yet, here they were.

“You aren’t weak, ‘Shy,” she began, quietly. “Look at that jousting match today! Okay, ya didn’t exactly win, but ya kept coming back for another round, and that took guts.”

Grinning, she prodded the canary pegasus lightly in the side. Dash knew how delicate she was, and so the contact was incredibly gentle, but Fluttershy let out a yelp of pain at the touch, and shied away as if scalded. Her face was burning scarlet with shame, visible even through the half-light.

Dash let out a small gasp of surprise at her friend’s reaction, her eyes widening with a sudden, unpleasant realization. “’Shy, are… are you hurt?”

She moved towards the compartment’s gas-lamp, hoping to switch it on and get a better look at the pegasus, but Fluttershy squeaked, “Dash, don’t! I don’t want—”

Before she could finish, however, Dash had ignited the light, illuminating the compartment with a yellow, flickering glow. She turned to the primrose pegasus, and saw that she was curled up in a foetal position on the bed, her wings folded around herself to conceal her chest and stomach.

When Dash spoke again, there was genuine concern in her voice. “Shy, I—”

“It’s nothing!” Fluttershy’s voice was a squeak, and Dash felt a stab of fear, wondering what in the world could be the matter with her.

“Look…” her voice trailed away, and she sighed, holding up her hooves in a gesture of capitulation. “Okay, I’m not gonna make you tell me what’s up if ya don’t want to.” She turned to leave. “Just… Fluttershy, just promise me it’s nothing serious, okay? Ya know I’ll always help you, right?”

Fluttershy was silent for a few moments, and when she finally spoke, her voice was barely a whisper. “You aren’t going to sleep a wink if I let you worry, are you?”

Dash shook her head. There was no point in lying. “’Course not. You’re scared and you’re in pain. You know I wouldn’t feel right walkin’ away from that, but I’d never force ya to talk about something if you’d rather keep it to yourself.”

The canary pegasus nodded, biting her lip guiltily. “Come over here,” she murmured. “But I don’t want you beating yourself up over this.”

Intrigued, though a little afraid, Dash padded across the carpeted floor, sitting down on the bed beside her friend, who was still shielding her chest and stomach from view. “Beating myself up about what?” she asked, warily.

Slowly, unwillingly, Fluttershy unfurled her wings from the protective cocoon they had created, and lowered her hooves. She sat up a little straighter, and Dash felt her breath catch in her throat, her eyes widening in shock.

Fluttershy’s chest was peppered with large, blotchy bruises, some an angry, shiny red, others beginning to grow purple and dull, all of them easily visible beneath her fur. They had not been apparent earlier; it seemed as if they were only now blooming into unpleasant visibility. The timid pegasus looked as though she were bracing herself for something.

Dash gasped. “’Shy… what happened do you? Who did this?” She thought back to the fair, replaying the day’s events in her mind. Fluttershy had never been in any danger; the malignant influence of Sombra had never so much as touched her. But that only left one possible option, and it made Dash feel as though her stomach had suddenly plummeted fifty feet. “Oh Celestia,” she whispered, horrified.

Tears were welling up in Fluttershy’s eyes again. “I had to carry on,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I had to be brave and keep going. For Twilight, for you… I didn’t want to let you down.”

“Let me down?” Dash choked, aware of the way the colour had drained from her cheeks. This was not loyalty. How many jousts had they run for the watching crowds? Six? Seven? “Fluttershy, I didn’t have any idea… I thought the armour would—”

Fluttershy shook her head. “You wouldn’t have known,” she murmured, her gaze laying no blame. “You can take knocks like that; you wouldn’t even have thought—”

“I should have thought!” Dash burst out, but quickly quelled the volume of her voice before she woke the ponies in the compartments next door. “I… I just got carried away; I forgot you don’t do crash training, you never learned how to keep up muscle tension, or any of that stuff. Why didn’t you stop me?” She was aware of tears burning in her eyes. “You kept on getting up; you kept coming back. I should have seen how much it was hurting you, but I just got so caught up in the whole thing…”

Fluttershy rested a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, wincing at the motion, her bruised muscles clearly beginning to stiffen up. Her aqua eyes were glistening in the flickering light. “I wanted you to think I was brave,” she choked out in a tiny voice. “I didn’t want to be a coward.”

Dash could not believe what she was hearing. With infinite care, ensuring the she did not touch her bruised chest, she enfolded her timid friend into a gentle embrace. After emitting a small squeak of surprise, the canary mare relaxed, and leaned willingly against her, resting her chin on Dash’s shoulder.

“’Shy,” the cyan pegasus began, her voice almost exasperated, “you’re not a coward. Ya don’t need to prove that to me or anypony else, least of all yourself. You’re already the bravest pony I know.”

Fluttershy made a noise that might have been a snort of tearfully derisive laughter.

“I mean it,” Dash whispered. “You’re scared of almost everything; even the normal world’s a huge, terrifying place to you, but you’ve never, ever let it stop you.” She stroked a reassuring hoof through her friend’s smooth, luxurious mane. “Look at all you’ve done. You’ve done as much to be proud of as any of us, but you’ve had to overcome ten times more.” She sighed. “Just… never do anything like that again. Never let me hurt you again. Please.” She sniffed loudly, biting back a sob. “I should have stopped the jousting; I could see you didn’t like it, I just didn’t know how bad it was for ya. Can you forgive me, ‘Shy?”

She felt Fluttershy give her a gentle squeeze, nuzzling her neck warmly. “Of course I can, Rainbow.”

Dash let out a sigh of relief. “Now,” she said, her voice soothing but authoritative, the instincts born of her flight school’s first aid training kicking in. “I need to have a look at the bruises; some of them looked pretty bad. Twilight will be able to patch you up when we get into Canterlot tomorrow; I just wanna make sure you’re okay for the night.”

“Thanks,” Fluttershy smiled, wincing as she shifted in place. “It was horrible at first,” she admitted. “It was hard to breathe for a while, it made my ribs burn. It’s not like that now,” she added, hastily. “It’s just… sore. Twilight should be able to fix it up in a second.” She paused, flushing a little. “Rainbow…”

“Mhm?” The cyan pegasus was squinting at the uppermost and largest bruise near Fluttershy’s collarbone, satisfying herself that nothing was fractured beneath the surface.

“Would you mind staying with me?” squeaked out the canary mare, very fast, cheeks turning a still deeper shade of burgundy. “I… I don’t really want to be alone tonight, if that’s okay?”

“’Course I will, Shy.” She replied almost without thinking, and as Dash inspected the purpling stains under Fluttershy’s coat, she realized that she was still holding the mare tightly, her forelegs wrapped closely and protectively around her. Her friend’s hooves were draped over her shoulders, gripping her almost fearfully. “I’m not gonna leave you.”

Looking up at Fluttershy from her lowered position, Dash was struck by the quiet, understated beauty that the timid pony radiated so effortlessly. She felt Fluttershy cuddle unconsciously closer to her, letting out a low, happy sigh. The atmosphere in the compartment had changed almost imperceptibly; a strange, pleasurable tension hung in the air.

Her eyes leaving the primrose mare’s bruised chest, Dash traced her gaze over the smooth, seemingly-infinite curve of Fluttershy’s neck, the ghostly aurora playing across the surface, washing her fur with luminous greys and greens of every pastel shade, lending her an otherworldly aura as if she were underwater. Dash, of all ponies, was hardly the most likely to appreciate subtle beauties, but she felt her heart rising to her throat as she watched the ripples dancing in the carnation mane above her.

Unthinkingly, she craned up her own neck to nuzzle just under Fluttershy’s chin, and she felt she mare shiver ever-so-slightly at the touch. “You do know you don’t have to hurt yourself to prove you’re brave, right?” she murmured. “There are better ways.”

“I know there are,” Fluttershy whispered. “I’m sorry, Rainbow.”

“Don’t be,” breathed the cyan mare, tracing her muzzle in a long, slow caress down her friend’s neck. “I’ll never hurt you again, Fluttershy.” This kind of intimacy felt deeply strange to her, shared as it was with a pony she considered to be practically a sister to her. Yet somehow, out here in the wide-open tundra, with the glimmering snow flashing outside the windows, and the alien gaze of the northern lights shimmering in the sky, it felt natural, and right, to both of them.

Fluttershy’s fur seemed like a shining tundra all of its own, but sweetly-scented and infinitely warmer, filling Dash’s senses as it lay, pale and shining before her. They had both atoned, and now was the time to heal one another.

Blindly, instinctually, Dash reached up, and pressed her lips with an exquisite gentleness against the soft side of her friend’s neck. Fluttershy shivered, a low noise of surprise spilling from her lips. “Rainbow Dash?” she gasped out, eyes widening sharply.

The moment shattered, its threads unraveling and dissolving in the briefest of instants, and Dash suddenly realized with a horrible, crushing embarrassment what she had just done. Her cheeks flared an angry, blotchy red, and she pulled hastily away from Fluttershy’s embrace. “Oh Celestia, ‘Shy, I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, clapping a hoof over her treacherous mouth. The pegasus was staring at her; her gaze was surprised, but she did not appear reproachful. “I dunno why I did that, it just… it just sort of happened!” Her eyes were pleading. “Please, don’t hate me, ‘Shy. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

“Hate you?” Fluttershy blinked, still looking rather taken aback. Then, slowly and thoughtfully, she beckoned her mortified friend back over to her bed, and Dash, with some reluctance, yielded and approached her, looking anywhere but into her friend’s deep, inscrutable eyes.

Dash shook her head as she reached Fluttershy. “I’m sorry, ‘Shy. That’s the second time I’ve let you down today, isn’t it?” She groaned, still unable to meet her friend’s gaze. “I just… I lost track of myself, just like earlier, an’ ended up doing something stupid. I’ll just go, you don’t need–”

She broke off, because Fluttershy had draped a foreleg around the back of her neck, and was staring straight into her eyes with a determination that was almost harsh, her cheeks furiously red. Both mares, for a moment, were quite still. “I don’t want you to go, Rainbow,” she whispered, leaning forwards to nuzzle Dash’s cheek, tracing the soft lines dappled on the pegasus’s face by the aurora’s light.

“’Shy…” Dash began, something close to nervousness in her voice. “Wh-what’re you doing?”

“Something brave,” Fluttershy murmured, and her voice had a warm, smoky purr to it that Dash had never heard there before.

Then, Dash was aware of a warm pressure against her lips, of the zephyr's bloom of breath breaking across her face, of forelegs wrapping tenderly around her, burying themselves amongst the feathers of her wings and pushing her inexorably downwards. She was powerless to resist, chasing after the sensation as it led her gently down onto the mattress. Unthinkingly, she pulled herself closer to the soft warmth.

It took her several seconds to process the fact that Fluttershy, her foalhood friend and confidant, that shy, beautiful, unattainable mare, was kissing her. Even when she resolved the matter in her head, and fixed it indelibly in her memory should this night prove to be the dream it should so rightly be, she could still not conjure up the faculties to question the situation.

Instead, she focused on bathing in this delicious connection, exploring the shape and feel of her friend’s full, yielding lips. She wrapped both forelegs closely around this most wonderful of prizes, and let out a soft groan of longing into the kiss, feeling the canary mare’s wings rise slightly in reaction. After a few more eternal seconds, Fluttershy pulled away, tugging a little on Dash’s lower lip in a remarkably assertive parting gesture.

Then, the world returned. Time and space made sense again, and Dash realized that she was lying supine on Fluttershy’s bed, and that an angelic mare was straddled atop her panting form, her eyes dancing delightedly in the light thrown out by the gas-lamp, her wings spread unabashedly wide in the confined space.

“Fluttershy, I—”

“Aww,” Fluttershy pouted with a faux-sulkiness, made brave by the night’s strange sense of unreality. “Do we have to talk now?”

“Uhh…” Dash grinned a little nervously, amazed by the way her coolness had quite deserted her. In her head, she knew precisely what to do, she knew exactly how to take control of a situation like this, to maintain her composure and steer the night as she wished. Tonight, though, she was a schoolfilly again, exploring a strange, unknown world with the one friend she trusted above all others. “I guess not,” she conceded with a small smile.

Slowly, she craned her neck up again, and kissed Fluttershy, kissed her until they were both quite drunk and lightheaded, and the air hung heavy with pleasurable little moans and giggles.

Eventually, they broke apart, and Fluttershy relaxed on top of her newfound lover, snuggling into her chest. She winced a little as her bruised ribs pressed up against the cyan mare’s belly, but it was nowhere near enough to make her pull away. Dash’s mind was utterly, blissfully blank, and she fell to stroking Fluttershy’s mane, feeling the timid pegasus sigh happily into her shoulder.

“Where’d that come from, ‘Shy?” she murmured, her tone wonderingly contented.

Fluttershy giggled. “More to the point, I want to know why it didn’t happen sooner,” she replied, quietly.

“Huh?”

The canary mare let out a low sigh, running an idle hoof down Dash’s side, tracing the lithe muscles. “Remember the time I taught you to dance?”

Dash’s eyes widened a little. “You mean at flight school? The Hearth’s Warming dance?”

Fluttershy nodded, cheeks a little pink. “Yeah… Fire Streak stood you up for Cloud Kicker, and nopony invited me, so we went together.” She stretched her neck forwards, feathering her lips against Dash’s forehead for a moment, smiling at the shared reminiscence. “You knew they’d laugh at us if they saw us dancing together, so you led me out of the hall when the music started.” A low giggle escaped her. “You had that silly old battered record player with you, and you put on all the music you knew I liked…” she looked almost tearful at the memory. “We danced, don’t you remember? Away from the party, up in the sky above the empty thunderball stadium.” She suddenly grinned as if at an amusing recollection. “You were wearing that hat you always wore back then, weren’t you? You weren’t much of a dancer, but…”

Dash smiled. “I remember, ‘Shy,” she murmured. “You taught me to dance, and I helped ya to fly. You told me it was the first time you’d flown and not felt afraid. You held onto me like you thought you were going to fall, but you weren’t scared. You told me… you said it was the first time you’d taken off, but not wanted to land again.”

The primrose pegasus nodded. “And we sat on the edge of the stadium, looking out over the mountains, and you got all tearful… I didn’t know why. We just sat and talked, about everything and anything, until the sun came up. You kept stroking my mane, and looking at me like… like you are now.” She giggled again, a little ruefully. “I felt like I knew everything there was to know about you next morning.” She sighed. “And then things went back to normal. Nothing came of it, even though we both knew what we wanted.” She looked suddenly serious. “Why was that, Rainbow?”

“Because we both knew what would’ve happened,” Dash replied, her tone heavy. “We knew what it would’ve meant. We’d have either had to keep it a secret, or we’d never have been given any peace again.”

“I wouldn’t have minded keeping that secret.”

Dash shrugged, nuzzling Fluttershy’s ear. “You know what that place was like; there was no such thing as a secret. They’d have given you more hell than they already did; I wasn’t worth that.”

“Says who?” smirked Fluttershy, letting out a drawn-out sigh. “But why did it take so long?” she moaned out the last word, pressing herself closer to the mare in her forelegs, and Dash felt her wings stiffen out a little straighter. “After we left Flight School, we were always together. We had so much time, so many chances… why wait until tonight?”

Dash was silent for a few, long moments. “I guess it just needed one of us to be brave,” she said, simply. Then, she giggled, running a hoof playfully through her lover’s butter-yellow feathers, eliciting a coo of pleasure from the beautiful mare. “I told you,” she whispered. “I told you that you were braver than me.”

Before Fluttershy had the chance to protest against this pronouncement, Dash had engaged her smiling lips again, curling one hind leg around the delicate mare’s hips, feeling a shudder run through her velvety form. Fluttershy was panting into the kiss, and each exhaled breath was a low purr. Dash felt her tentatively extend the tip of her tongue, letting it encroach just enough to ask shyly if it might be allowed to take part in their game, offering up a coy, implicit request for permission.

All too willing to comply, Dash parted her lips just enough to allow the primrose pony to slip her intoxicating, if inexperienced, tongue experimentally into her mouth. Ordinarily, Dash would have playfully resisted allowing the other party’s entry, but tonight she was in no mood for wrestling; tonight, for the second time in her life, she felt like dancing.

“Mmm…” She breathed the inarticulate, intimate sound directly into the kiss, and felt Fluttershy give a delightful squirm against her as their tongues made their first greeting, each bathing in the other’s warm caresses. For a long time, the mares were quite content to lie back, allowing their tongues to dance their sensuous dance as they pawed almost desperately at each other, each trying to map out every little facet of the other, their exploration dragging sharp gasps and moans from their deliciously occupied mouths. Fluttershy’s body felt the softest of silk, her smooth skin flushed and burning beneath her fur.

Fluttershy broke the connection of their tongues for an instant, but did not break contact between their lips. “Do you have any idea how many nights I’ve spent imagining this?” she moaned the words into Dash’s mouth, muffled by her valiant attempts to kiss and speak at the same time. Giving up on the latter, she reinitiated the link that she had so briefly separated.

A storm of butterflies was roiling in Dash’s stomach, and even when their lips eventually pulled apart, their tongues stayed in contact for a few moments longer, unwilling to part after so short an acquaintance. Fluttershy’s luxuriant tail was raised and swishing madly, brushing tantalizingly against Dash’s legs, rendering her emotions and desires quite obvious.

Dash’s wings were poker-straight, the edges hanging over the edge of the bed, as she gazed up at the vision above her, their lips connected for the briefest of instants by a single, shining strand of saliva, which quickly broke and vanished into nothingness.

Suddenly though, they both felt quite exhausted, as their busy day and active, emotional night finally caught up with them. They both wanted more than anything to continue their explorations, but the future held more than enough nights for such lovely activities, and the grip of sleep was overthrowing them with its insidious, calming waves.

They lay still for a few long moments, feeling the gentle, lulling sway of the train beneath them, listening to their own breathing, and the distant rumble of the engine.

Relaxing, Fluttershy nestled into Dash’s fur, planting a teasing, lingering kiss just below her ear. “We’d better get some rest,” Fluttershy murmured. “Do you want to go to sleep?”

“Heh, not even slightly,” Dash replied, her eyes twinkling, even though she was clearly fighting to keep them open. She stifled a yawn, nuzzling her lover’s neck. “But I need to… we both do.”

“Rainbow…” Fluttershy bit her lip. “This won’t be just tonight, will it? I couldn’t stand for this to be like the dance all over again… I don’t want things to just carry on like this never happened.”

Dash chuckled. “Can you see one good reason for us to act like this never happened? Because I can’t, and even if I could, you know what? I’d ignore it. I’m not going to let you go a second time.” She kissed her marefriend on the tip of her nose, blushing at the difficulty she was finding in what she was trying to express. Words were not her strong suit. “I really, really like you, ‘Shy. I know I can’t say it like you can, but I wanna give this a try, if that’s okay with you.”

“It’s more than okay with me,” Fluttershy whispered, her gaze inexpressibly grateful and relieved as she rolled off Dash’s sleepy form, her eyes flickering. “I really like you too, Rainbow,” she mumbled, sleepily.

The last thing Dash remembered, before sleep claimed her, was stretching out her wings to wrap closely and protectively around her lover, and Fluttershy snuggling up by her side, her breathing even and peaceful, her bruises forgotten. She remembered finding a deep, genuine contentment in the stillness; an internal warmth that ordinarily only the open sky could give her.

She remembered wondering if things could really work out between them, or if tonight’s intimacies were a mutual dreamlike wish that would be swept away by harsh realities when they left this magical, unearthly place. In the end though, she knew that she had been given a chance. It was all she could ask for, and she determined that she would not walk away this time.

She remembered gazing wonderingly at the timid mare’s face, unmarred for once by fear, until the oblivious hand of sleep forced down her eyelids, and she could think no more.

*

When the next morning came, Dash’s return to consciousness was a slow, unwilling one, as the low rumbling and swaying that had coaxed her to sleep pulled her inexorably back to reality again. She did not want to wake. The bed felt so very warm, and to return to her dreams seemed so very inviting, strange though they had been.

Fluttershy… something about Fluttershy. Even in her half-asleep state, her cheeks bloomed a deep blush at her own imagination’s vividness. She recalled a few disparate pieces of what she knew must have been a particularly lovely dream; she remembered flying, then a chance meeting. She recalled asking forgiveness for a terrible mistake, and being given that forgiveness by one who meant a great deal to her. Fluttershy.

More vividly than anything else, however, she remembered the kisses. With a tiny groan, she tried to force herself back to sleep, but to no avail. Fluttershy’s exquisite softness had been so real. She could relive every detail, every wandering hoof and loving whisper. She could recall with perfect clarity that delicious little sound that the delicate pegasus had made when their tongues had first met, the intimate little twitches of her wings, and the shivers that had passed gently through her form.

She cursed herself for having so masochistic a mind, determined as it was to torture her with visions of the unattainable.

It was strange, though; ordinarily, her recollections of dreams slipped away from her, piece by piece as her waking mind took priority, until little more than vague sensations and thoughts remained. This dream, however, was growing ever clearer in detail, the more she thought back over its painful little subtleties.

She shifted, beginning to truly wake, snuggling into the wonderful, unidentifiable warmth at her side. Then, mere inches away, she heard a low, sleepy mumble, and felt the warm mass press closer against her.

Oh Celestia. Her first internal exclamation was one of shock, but the second was almost a prayer. Oh Celestia, please…

Her eyes cracked open at the precise same time as Fluttershy’s, and for a few eternal moments, they gazed at one another in mute stupefaction, one thought etched in their expressions.

It really happened. All of it.

“Hey, ‘Shy,” Dash croaked.

Fluttershy stared at her, opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again.

Utterly unable to think of anything witty, romantic, or even sensible to say about their situation, Dash blurted out the first thing that came into her head, as she recalled the previous night’s events. “H-how’s your chest feeling now?”

Before Dash knew what was happening, she had been enveloped in a hug that must surely have stood for years as the hug that all other hugs would look upon with envy and reverence. Fluttershy was babbling delightedly, peppering Dash’s face with kisses, and the cyan mare was giggling, trying to keep up with her lover’s words and return her kisses as best she could.

“Oh, Rainbow, I can’t believe it! I never thought I’d ever be able to work up the nerve, but I actually told you, and I kissed you, and I know I’m probably a terrible kisser and I’m sorry if I was, but oh, it was all real, and you don’t hate me for it!” She suddenly froze, her excitable verbal tsunami waning instantly to silence, and she looked a little fearfully down at the pony beneath her. “You… you do still want to be with me, right?” Her voice was suddenly worried, a little of its old nervousness creeping in. “I mean… now we’re going back to Ponyville? I know last night was like a dream; when I woke up this morning, I thought… but… but I don’t want things to just go back to the way they—”

She fell silent; Dash had stopped her lips quite effectively, replying in the most immediate and honest way she could think of. It was not a passionate kiss, but the brash pegasus tried to inject a tenderness into it that she rarely practiced, and she felt Fluttershy relax, her excitable mania, and sudden fear, fading.

Slowly, Dash stroked a rear hoof down along the velvety length of Fluttershy’s hind leg, breaking away from the kiss. “I’m not going to carry on like nothing happened,” she whispered. “You’re right; last night was like a dream, but it was a good one… it was the best. You’re offering to let me live that, so… well, ya know. I’d be pretty crazy to refuse, wouldn’t I?”

“Mmm,” Fluttershy gave a grateful sigh, craning upwards with her neck, nuzzling every inch of Dash’s face that she could reach. Outside the window, the tundra was gone, the snow giving way to the familiar rolling fields and mountains of Equestria. The city of Canterlot glimmered in the distance, and the warm, clear sun bathed both of them with its morning rays. “Thank you, Rainbow.” Fluttershy shifted in place a little, and winced at the pain in her chest.

“I’m sorry I hurt you yesterday,” Dash said, her voice quiet and uncharacteristically serious.

Fluttershy stroked her cheek with a soothing hoof. “You didn’t. I should be the one apologizing to you; I wanted you to think I was brave, but I knew that if you found out what had happened, it’d cause you as much pain as it did me. But… I had to keep going. We needed to, for Twilight, and I knew you wouldn’t have carried on if you’d known you were hurting me.” She sighed.

Slowly, Dash slid downwards on the bed, tangling her hind legs with her marefriend’s, and feathered the gentlest possible kiss against one of the bruises. Fluttershy jumped a little, letting out a miniscule, drawn-out “ohh,” and Dash retreated, fearing that she had hurt the delicate mare.

“Keep going,” Fluttershy purred, settling back, her eyes half-lidded and contented. “Kiss me better.”

The prismatic-maned mare was all too happy to comply, and fell to nuzzling and licking each sore patch with exquisite care. She knew that this diligent, intimate behaviour was most unlike her; she knew that sensuality and slow, romantic gestures were not her natural forté, but she was more than willing to slow down, if it meant moving at her lover’s pace. With each kiss, Fluttershy became all the more sensitive and shivery, relishing the care that Dash was paying to the wounds that she had unknowingly inflicted. When she reached the final bruise, she looked up into her marefriend’s eyes, suddenly almost submissive. “There,” she whispered. “All better now?”

“Mhm…” Fluttershy smiled down at her, breathing quickly through her nose.

“So…” Dash murmured, gently turning her marefriend over, wrapping both hooves around her belly from behind, and pressing a lingering kiss into the indentation between Fluttershy’s wings, a spot that she knew would make any pegasus melt. The canary mare tipped her head back onto Dash’s shoulder, letting out an adorable little whine. “All those nights you spent imagining us… care to let me in on the details?”

Fluttershy giggled, her cheeks staining a deep rose as she reached blindly behind her, forehooves rising to stroke along each side of her lover’s waist. She was about to reply, when the compartment door slid ajar, and Twilight’s voice sounded as she stepped briskly inside.

“Morning, Fluttershy! We’re nearly there, so I thought I’d check that everything’s—whoa!” Her gaze had fallen on the scene within, and specifically upon the two mares entwined together on the bed.

Dash felt almost as if steam were issuing from her ears, and Fluttershy’s face was a similar colour to the compartment’s curtains. The mares scrambled apart, trying to force their uncooperative wings back to their sides. Twilight, showing a typical inability to react appropriately in awkward situations, did not avert her eyes, but instead stared at her two struggling friends with blank, open-mouthed astonishment. Of course, her surprise was hardly a surprise in itself. Of all her friends, Fluttershy was by far the least likely to be found in so compromising a situation.

For several seconds, all was silent.

“Eh… Morning, Twilight,” Dash faltered, grinning a little awkwardly. Fluttershy looked perfectly mortified, but as she met Dash’s eyes, the cyan mare could have sworn she almost smiled at the absurdity of the situation.

“I… are you…?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening. Then, she seemed to come to her senses. “Oh Celestia, sorry, sorry! I’ll go wake the others, I’ll leave you to… to whatever it is you’re doing!” She flushed, if possible, a deeper red than Fluttershy. “I mean, not that I saw you doing anything, it’s just a figure of—”

“Twilight?” All eyes fell on Fluttershy, who, to universal consternation, had spoken up, cutting off Twilight’s embarrassed ramblings. She was still blushing furiously, but seemed fortunately to have kept her presence of mind. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind, it’s not like we could have kept it quiet.” She smiled slightly. “Just… please don’t write to the Princess about this, okay?”

The lavender unicorn nodded slowly, obviously thankful that her intrusion had not traumatized the timid Fluttershy. “O-okay then. I’ll just… I’ll just wake the others.” Still looking a little shell-shocked, she turned, sliding the door shut behind her. Doubtless they would all discuss their newfound involvement later, and break the news to their other friends in a less abrupt manner, but for the moment, Twilight seemed simply glad to escape.

The flustered Twilight’s hoof-falls retreated a short distance along the corridor, and Dash turned to her marefriend, deeply impressed. “Wow, ‘Shy,” she grinned. “I’m impressed. I thought I’d be trying to coax you out from under the bed for half an hour.”

Fluttershy, still a little pink around the nose, smiled shyly. “It’s not worth panicking over, really.” She giggled at how unlike her the words seemed to sound, and hastened to justify herself. She waved an airy hoof, but her eyes were warm and genuine. “You make the world look a bit less scary, I guess.”

It was Dash’s turn to blush, and she would have replied, but unfortunately, another distraction arose.

Further down the corridor, the sound of another door sliding open met Dash’s ears, and there was another loud yelp of surprise.

“Rarity, I—Oh Celestia!”

There were three perfectly-synchronized gasps from Rarity’s compartment, and the noise of a pony significantly more heavy-hoofed than Rarity scrambling out of the alabaster unicorn’s bed, accompanied by a loud country-accented protestation.

“Twilight, this isn’t what it looks like!” spluttered Applejack, her mortified voice easily audible through the partition walls. The sound of Rarity’s carefree, delighted giggle followed almost instantaneously.

“Oh Applejack, darling, don’t be so coy! This is exactly what it looks like, and you know it!”

There followed a rather inarticulate noise of panicked apology, and then Twilight rushed past Fluttershy’s compartment door, face glowing redder than the setting sun.

For a few silent moments, the two pegasi stared at one another in open-mouthed astonishment.

“Doesn’t learn her lesson, does she?” murmured Fluttershy, thoughtfully.

Then, in perfect synchronicity, they both burst out laughing.

Leaning across, Dash pressed a warm kiss against Fluttershy’s still-giggling lips, prompting her to blush a delightful rose. In a renewed fit of laughter, the mares toppled back onto the bed, tangling together in a warm embrace, drinking in their newfound world.

Neither of them had the faintest idea of what the future held for them, but it was a roll of the dice that they were both more than happy to make.

Once in a while, Dash reflected, the timid pegasus deserved for her bravery to be rewarded.