An Unlikely Romance

No matter how hard she tried, Rainbow Dash could not get to sleep that night.

She tried drinking warm milk. All that did was make her stomach hurt. She tried fluffing her pillows and swapping her blankets. That just made her toss and turn even more. She even tried flying laps around her house to use up some of her energy, but that sent adrenaline pumping through her veins, making it near impossible for her to sit still for more than a few seconds.

It didn’t matter what she tried to do. She just couldn’t fall asleep.

Finally, more out of boredom than anything, she flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

I don’t know how this is supposed to make time pass faster, she thought. The flat white clouds above her had no pattern, no detail, that could catch her attention. Maybe I should get someone to professionally dye it like Spitfire. That would be pretty interesting, I guess.

She stretched her wings out and dangled them on either side of her bed, swirling the clouds around slightly. When she lost interest with that—which only took a few seconds—she rolled onto her stomach, rested her chin on her pillow, and watched Tank, who was sleeping soundly in the corner. His small nostrils flared and shrank in slow motion, a soft snoring sound escaping him. That quickly grew dull, so she gave a growl of frustration and trudged to her kitchen.

“A midnight snack might help,” she said to herself.

Her fridge was empty.

“You’ve got to be bucking kidding me! Why can’t I just get what I bucking want?”

In a spurt of anger she bucked her hind legs out, plunging them through her wall and leaving a large, gaping hole. That just fueled her irritation.

Before she knew what she was doing she dove through the hole and into the sky, her wings stiff with anger and her tail lashing back and forth.

The crisp night air helped clear her head, but only a little. There was still a livid red fog draped over everything, and she could still feel her hooves twitching with the urge to lash out. Her breath came in ragged bursts.

Up and up she flew until her house, as huge as it was, was only a speck down below. The moon loomed large and proud in her face, so close she felt as if she could reach out and touch it. Quickly she glanced around before stretching her hoof out as far as it would go and pretending that it was resting on the moon’s ashen surface.

The gesture curbed her anger and slowed her heart rate back to normal. When she was a filly she used to beg her parents frequently to fly her up there and let her try to touch it. Her sister, the other Rainbow Dash—or Rainy, as her family called her—had been an earth pony. It had always been Firefly carrying Rainy, Spectrum carrying Dash, and Gilda flying alongside.

Gilda… It seemed like they’d been friends forever…

Every time, Dash insisted she was getting closer.

“Next time I’ll be able to reach it, I swear!” she would say. “One day I’ll get so close I’ll be able to jump right on it!”

“And then what, darling?” Rainy would ask.

Now, Rainbow Dash found herself repeating the words she said so often as a filly. “I’ll reach down and pull you up, Rainy. And then we’ll rule it together, just you and me. We’ll be the awesomest rulers the moon has ever seen!”

Immediately as she spoke she felt silly. Rainy was gone. Her parents were Celestia knows where, and Gilda wanted nothing to do with her. The past was gone, done, over with. So what was the use of mourning? Nopony would hear her. Nopony would comfort her. Nopony would care.

Her previous anger began to boil in her blood once more, and she felt like tiny needles were poking into the back of her eye. Hot, salty tears stung her cheeks.

“Celestia damn it,” she swore, wiping them away with the back of her hoof. “What am I, a filly? Hell no. I’m Rainbow Dash! I do not cry because of something so stupid as trying to touch the moon.”

Glaring at the moon, she shot toward the ground. Just before she hit she pulled up. Her belly fur brushed against the grass.

She didn’t know where to go, just that she had to go somewhere, anywhere, to get her mind off…everything.

Maybe you should talk to one of your friends, a tiny voice in her mind suggested.

“But who?” she asked aloud. “Applejack’s mad at me, I just saw Rarity a few hours ago, Twilight thinks I’m disgusting…the only ponies I could really talk to are Pinkie and Fluttershy, and they’re probably sleeping.”

Pinkie, sleeping? Please. She’d probably be grateful for a reason to wake up. And to talk to you.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Nothing. I just think you should go talk to Pinkie. She always has the best advice, remember? It’s weird, but it helps, and no offense, but you seem like you need some help right now.

“Hey!”

Okay, let’s examine this. You just spent the last few hours watching your pet tortoise sleep, staring at the ceiling, and walking in circles. You kicked a hole in your house once you found out your fridge was empty for some reason, and then you flew up to the moon, tried to touch it, and started crying. Now you’re flying in circles in a field, literally talking to yourself. Yeah, you need a bit of help.

“Buck you,” she told herself, but flew off toward Sugarcube Corner without another word.

Once there, she was surprised to see that Pinkie’s light was off.

“Okay, she’s probably asleep, I shouldn’t bother her. I’ll just be going…”

She flew up and knocked on the window.

For a minute all was still, and Rainbow Dash was afraid she hadn’t heard her. But then the window slowly creaked open and Pinkie stuck her head out, wearing a cute blue-and-yellow cap. When she saw Dash she brightened and broke into a sleepy grin.

“Hi, Dashie Washie! What brings you here so late? Or early. It depends on how you look at it. Did you want to buy something? ‘Cause we don’t open until morning.”

“No, I was just…” She trailed off, her gaze dropping forlornly to the ground far below. “I couldn’t fall asleep, so I thought…”

“Say no more!” Pinkie pushed the window, sending it crashing against the wall outside her room. With a sheepish grin she backed up and spread her arms wide as if inviting Rainbow Dash to enter. “Come in!”

Dash nodded gratefully and clambered in, landing with a thump on her haunches. She sat up and looked around. When Pinkie flicked on the lights her jaw dropped.

The place was a mess! There were candy wrappers, cupcake wrappers, and pieces of uneaten sweets. It was like a bomb had gone off, splattering everything in sight with a bright pink. Her covers were strewn everywhere, and drawings of her and her friends littered the wall. Another prominent theme of Pinkie’s bedroom was Gummy. She had drawings, toys that she had made, tons of squeaky toys that said “Property of Gummy”, and what looked to be an edible statue of Gummy underneath a glass case.

“Wow,” Rainbow Dash said, raising an eyebrow. “I… Just wow. You’ve, uh, redecorated since the last time I was here.” She rested her hoof over a drawing of her and Pinkie pranking Spike. “Hey, when did you take up drawing? These look…actually good, surprisingly.”

Pinkie trotted around, plucking some of the trash off the floor and placing it in a can in the corner. Her ears remained angled toward Rainbow Dash. “Oh, I’ve always loved drawing. It’s just so much fun! I especially love drawing my bestest friends in the entire world!” A moment of thought later, she explained, “That’s you and the girls, in case you were wondering. And Gummy.”

The baby gator, hearing his name, crawled out from under the bed and waddled over to her. She extended her hoof, which he took in his mouth lovingly.

“I love you, Gummy!” She lifted him up and pressed him against her cheek, making little noises as if she were talking to a puppy. “You’re a cutie-patootie, snuggly-wuggly gator-bator, that’s what you are! Yes you are, Gummy, yes you are! I love you so much!”

Rainbow Dash, feeling slightly as if she were intruding, pretended to study the drawings on the wall carefully. One thing she did notice was that she was the central focus of most of the pictures. She decided not to press the issue, though, knowing that Pinkie would probably just make up some weird story as to why that was.

“Dashie?”

“Huh?”

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Were you even listening? I was asking what you wanted to talk about—duh!”

“Sorry, I sort of zoned out. Well…um…anything, I guess.”

Upon hearing this, Pinkie gave a small squeal of delight and was on her bed in a single bound. She patted the space next to her, urging Rainbow Dash to sit down. Once both mares were comfortably seated, Pinkie began to squirm happily, saying, “So, how was your date?” The eagerness in her voice was painfully obvious.

Rainbow Dash sighed and slapped her hoof to her face. “Pinkie Pie, how many times do I have to tell you? It wasn’t a date.”

“Fine, Ms. Party Pooper. How was your completely platonic lunch?”

“It was fine.”

Pinkie Pie blinked. “And?”

“And…nothing. The restaurant was average, our waitress was hot but annoying, and Rarity was fun to talk to. That’s all there was to it.”

“Awww, c’mon, Dashie, please tell me more! What did you two talk about?”

“Just normal stuff.”

“Are you being this vague on purpose?”

“Maybe.” She deadpanned, only to break out in a raspy laugh moments later. “No, I’m just messing with you, Pinks. Let’s see…well, she had a ton of questions about me, like my favorite color, my parents’ names, my middle name, all that kinda stuff.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh! Dashie! You know what I just realized?”

“What?”

“I don’t know any of that stuff! I mean, I know your favorite color—it’s rainbow, right?—but I don’t know who your parents are or what your middle name is or your favorite food or—or anything! I’m a bad friend!” Her brows furrowed into a frown and she wilted visibly.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Pinks, you don’t know because I’ve never told you.”

“Tell me now!”

“…Okay? My parents are named Firefly and Spectrum Dash. Yup! I told you all there is to know. So, uh, let’s talk about—um—weather! Yes. Weather. That’s a good topic. Did you hear we weather ponies are planning a storm for next week?”

Pinkie groaned. “Dashie, are you trying to change the subject?”

“Yes! I mean—no!”

“What’s your middle name?”

“Glittery!” At once she covered her mouth with her hooves. “Urp! No it isn’t! You have no proof!”

“Why would your parents name you that?” Pinkie giggled.

Rainbow Dash considered denying it again, and then realized it was useless. She may as well just explain now. “My sister’s middle name was Daring. I guess they thought I’d grow up to be the girly one and she’d grow up to be the daredevil." Her face melted into a fond smile. "And let me tell you, they were so wrong.”

Pinkie Pie tipped her head to one side and widened her eyes, saying softly, “I didn’t know you have a sister.”

“Had,” Rainbow Dash corrected instinctively. “I had a sister.”

“Well then what happened to her?”

The hair along Rainbow’s spine began to bristle. Her lip curled into a snarl and she leapt to her hooves, snapping, “It’s none of your bucking business what happened to her!” Then, with an angry sigh, she flopped back onto the bed and rolled so her back was to her friend. She immediately regretted her outburst.

Pinkie began to sniffle quietly. “O-okay,” she whispered, her voice cracking more than Sweetie Belle’s ever did. “I u-understand.”

Damn it! Now I went and made one of the only ponies in the world that doesn’t hate my guts cry. What kind of a sick, twisted pony am I? She frowned and sat up, her ears twitching awkwardly and her wings rustling. “I’m sorry, Pinkie, it’s just that that’s a bit of a sore subject for me. There was no way you could’ve known, but she…she disappeared near Cloudsdale a while back. We sent out search party after search party, made posters asking for ponies to help bring her back…we even asked Princess Celestia for help. That went on for years. Eventually we just kind of had to accept the fact that she was probably…d-dead…and move on. Gilda and I enrolled in flight school to take our mind off of Rainy—that’s what I liked to call my sister—and my parents moved to Celestia knows where. They didn’t come back, not even after flight school was over, and I still don’t know where they are.”

“Why did they try to get rid of you, too?”

“Huh?”

Pinkie wiped her tears away and inched closer to Dash. “Well, they already lost one daughter. So why didn’t they take you with them?”

Dash flinched. “I don’t know. They wrote often, and it said the address on the letters, but to be honest, I never really looked at it. During flight school I was really busy, and afterwards they never wrote anymore.” She scratched the back of her neck with a hoof. “I guess if I really wanted to I could write to Celestia and she could help me find them, but I’m happy here, and to tell you the truth, we were never really that close in the first place.”

A gasp shattered the silence that followed. “Dashie! How can you not want to find your parents again? Parents are amazing! I write to my biological parents every single day, and I see Mr. and Mrs. Cake every day, too, even thought they’re not really my parents but they’re still important to me. I want you to get your butt off my bed and write to Celestia this instant, and ask her to find your parents!”

Rainbow waved her hoof dismissively. “Whatever.”

“Don’t you ‘whatever’ me, missy!” Pinkie’s hurt from before seemed to have vanished into thin air, only to be replaced by frantic concern. “See? Parents are great for saying that! They comfort you, take care of you, make sure you go to sleep on time—”

“And I don’t need them,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Can we not talk about my parents right now?”

“Okay, fine…” Suddenly she brightened, as if stricken by an ingenious idea. “Dashie! I just realized something else!”

“What?”

“You said you liked to call your sister Rainy.”

“Yeah? And?”

She leaned so her face was mere inches from Dash’s. “Is your sister that Raindrops you were talking about, Dashie?”

Her hackles began to rise again. “What? No! There’s no way Rainy would ever stoop so low as to do what Raindrops did. Well, does. Whatever! The only reason I called her Rainy was because her name was Rainbow Dash, too, and so to tell who was who we called her Rainy and me Dashie.”

“Just like me! I call you Dashie! I’m psychic!”

“Or a good guesser.”

“Or psychic!”

“…”

“Dot dot dot!”

“What?”

“What?”

Rainbow Dash groaned and trotted over to the window, sticking her head out and purposefully ignoring Pinkie Pie, if only for the sake of preserving her sanity. Instead, she studied the stars, a secret interest of hers that she hoped Twilight would never, ever find out.

They were pretty tonight; a peaceful array of glistening diamonds. Sort of like Rarity’s cutie mark—but millions and millions of them! she thought, grinning to herself. Her love of the night’s display reached all the way to her foalhood, when she, Gilda, and Rainy had used to sneak out at night, sit on whatever cloud they would find, and search for constellations. Dash would never admit it to anypony, though. That was between her, Gilda, and her most likely dead sister.

“Dashie?”

Why did everything all of a sudden remind her of Rainy? It may have been because they’d just been talking about her, but still… It was almost uncanny.

“Dashie.”

Tonight, not only were the stars countless, but also they were colorful. Just from her view from the window, blocked by a thin layer of pale clouds, she could see stars of every color. They’d begun to regain their rainbow quality after Luna had escaped from the moon; being the Princess of the Night, Luna’s nights were undoubtedly prettier. Not that Rainbow Dash cared about things being pretty.

“Dashie!”

Giving up, Dash turned to Pinkie Pie, surprised to see that she had joined her at the window. “What is it, Pinks?”

“I’m sorry I brought up your sister again.”

“It’s fine. It just hurts to think about her, y’know, and this is the second time today I’ve had to explain everything to somepony. It’s a lot to take in.”

“Second time?”

She fixed her gaze on the stars again. “Yeah. At my lunch with Rarity she asked about my family, so I told her.”

“Oh.” Pinkie’s voice was drenched with bitterness, though only for a moment before it returned to its normal peppy state. “Well then let’s do something really fun to get your mind off it. Like—like flying! Oooh, Dashie, can you take me flying with you?”

“You don’t have wings.”

“You could carry me!”

Rainbow Dash thought about it, then shrugged. “Yeah. I could.” Pinkie continued giving her the best puppy-dog eyes she could manage until finally Rainbow sighed and conceded, “Fine.”

Before either she or Pinkie could change their minds, Rainbow scooped Pinkie up and darted out the window, soaring into the dark sky beyond. Only once they were above the first layer of foggy clouds did she decide to reposition Pinkie.

“I’m going to throw you upwards, but I’ll catch you on my back, so don’t worry,” Rainbow Dash told her. “It’s bad for a pony’s legs to be carried like I’m carrying you.”

Without further ado she tossed her into the air; Pinkie landed with a jolt on Dash’s back, holding on for dear life.

“You alright, Pinks?” Dash laughed.

Instead of answering, Pinkie bobbed her head up and down swiftly. Really, she was terrified, but the urge to find out how it felt to ride a pegasus was too great to give up now.

“Good. You can hold on, but don’t touch my wings no matter what, and please don’t choke me. It’s going to feel weird when I start flying faster, because of the way my wings move and whatnot, but no matter what, don’t let go. You ready?”

This time Pinkie Pie tried to speak. “Y-yes—”

“Perfect!” Before she even finished her sentence, Rainbow Dash shot off like a rocket, weaving and ducking and tumbling and swerving like she was performing some weird ritual. The clouds around them vaporized wherever they hit, and Pinkie could hear the wind whistling around Rainbow’s wings. To Rainbow everything was perfect—the stars gleamed, the wind sang, and the night air smelled faintly of rain—but to Pinkie Pie it was just the opposite. The stars, to her, were a jumbled smear of silver movement, the wind snarled and howled like some kind of creature, and the air whipped by so fast that even if she did manage to take a quick breath, she could smell nothing. It took her a while, but she eventually realized that when she closed her eyes and pinned her ears back, it was pretty fun. It was like a roller coaster; thrilling, unpredictable, and fierce.

They flew like this for some time, Rainbow Dash bobbing around like she was caught in the path of a tidal wave and Pinkie trying her best to hold on. Then, at last, Rainbow Dash calmed down and slowed her pace to a peaceful glide.

“Well?” the pegasus panted. “What did you think?”

Pinkie Pie opened her eyes and looked down. The ground was mere feet away from them. “That…was…AWESOME!”

“Your eyes were closed,” Rainbow Dash accused.

“When they were open I felt sort of dizzy. But it was still awesome! You were like—ZOOM! And then you were like—TWIST! SWERVE! ZOOM! And that was so fun! It felt like a roller coaster. Ooh, they should make a roller coaster where it’s like you’re flying on a pegasus and there’s a thunderstorm and lots of lightning and stuff. I would so ride that! Wouldn’t you? Oh, wait, you’re a pegasus. You’ve probably already been in a thunderstorm. Oh, well, you could still ride it! That was fun! But I’m not tired anymore. I don’t think I’d be able to go to sleep if I went back to Sugarcube Corner.”

Rainbow Dash touched her hooves to the ground. “Then do you want to walk around Ponyville? It’s really cool at night. Sure, hardly anything’s open, but it’s still fun.”

“Well…okay, but instead of walking around, can we fly around? That was super duper awesome.”

“If you say so!” Once again the pegasus lifted into the air, this time with an air of peace to her. Rather than flapping her wings and causing her passenger discomfort, she let the air currents lift her into the air, pulling her higher and higher until Ponyville was just a cluster of bright lights down below.

“It’s pretty,” Pinkie Pie breathed.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t listening. She scanned the streets down below until something caught her eye. Then, with a broad smile, she began to glide down toward it. “Look, Pinks, it’s Rarity. What’s she doing up at this time of night?”

“Probably taking a walk alone. We shouldn’t bother her.”

It was too late. Rainbow Dash had made up her mind. As they drew closer, she waved and hollered, “Rarity! Hey, Rarity! Look up!”

The white unicorn tilted her head back. Seeing Pinkie riding on Rainbow Dash’s back as Rainbow gestured frantically appeared to surprise her. “Dashing, is that you? Whatever are you doing up at this time of night?”

Rainbow landed with a thump in front of her, allowing Pinkie to climb off. “Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing, Rare.”

Rarity smiled and tossed her mane. “As a matter of fact, I rather enjoy going for late night walks when I am unable to fall asleep. And you?”

“Couldn’t sleep, visited Pinkie Pie, took her flying with me. You know. Pretty much the same as you.” She smirked, stretching her wings out and flapping them a few times. “Hey, speaking of which, do you want me to take you for a ride? I forgot how fun it is to take ponies flying with me, and Pinks already got a turn.” Seeing Rarity’s doubtful expression, she added quickly, “I promise I won’t do anything too dangerous.”

“I shouldn’t. I couldn’t.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, looking to Pinkie for help. “Pinks, tell her how awesome it was.”

Pinkie, not taking her eyes off Rarity for a second, said, “It was really awesome, but I don’t know if you would like it. It was kind of like a roller coaster, and no offense, but you don’t seem like a roller coaster kind of pony.”

Rarity laughed, “Pinkie Pie, dear, you don’t think I’ve ridden my share of roller coasters? While I do prefer browsing the gift shops, from time to time I enjoy a good ride.”

Rainbow’s cocky smirk slowly drooped into a dark scowl. Pinkie was obviously upset for some reason; the air crackled with tension like they were in the midst of a thunderstorm, though she couldn’t for the life of her think why. To try to lighten the atmosphere, she elbowed Pinkie and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get another ride soon enough. So, how about it, Rare? You up for a ride on the Dashing 5000?”

“I suppose so.” She reached her hoof forward and pulled Rainbow’s face to her, adding in a low voice, “But if I say stop, you stop, are we clear?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

In a flash Rainbow Dash had repeated the whole process from Pinkie’s ride; warning Rarity, tossing her up, and catching her in a position that would be more comfortable for both of them. Instead of resting the mare on her back, though, she opted to cradle her in her arms like she would a foal. And, surprisingly, Rarity didn’t protest.

“Please keep your hooves and tail inside the vehicle at all times,” Dash commanded in a robotic voice. “And enjoy your ride!”

They soared higher and higher, the sky gradually growing inkier, and throughout it all Rarity kept surprisingly quiet. Rainbow Dash would’ve expected her to be squealing in fright by now. After all, they were pretty high up. Ponyville looked like a village of ants down below, and she couldn’t even see Pinkie anymore.

This reminded her of the olden days, with Rainy and Gilda and her parents. Only this time, it wasn’t her being carried in somepony else’s arms.

The nostalgia, however bitter, gave her an idea. Her previous grin returned and she shot straight up; she could feel Rarity shivering slightly from the cold, yet still remaining silent.

Up and up they went, until the clouds rushed in and blocked Ponyville from view. Around them was a pale cascade of stars—close enough that Rainbow Dash swore she could smell them, even though she knew that was impossible. Only then, the moonlight pooling around them, did she stop and look down at Rarity.

“You all right, Rare?” she said, tearing her eyes away and glancing around. The nearby clouds were too thin for a normal non-pegasus pony to walk on. But if she used some of her weatherpony techniques…

Carefully she gathered a few armfuls of them; using her wings, of course. Then she began to pat them together until they formed a small, compact wad. She repeated the process several times, only stopping once the wad became a cluster large enough to fit a full-grown mare.

It was a trick she had learned long before, in her first few years of bucking clouds. They had actually been teaching it to her to keep her from accidentally bundling them up instead of bucking them, but she had morphed it to her own uses. She often used this when bringing her flightless friends for a little ride. Though she would never admit it, carrying a pony while flying was difficult, too difficult to do for a long period of time without taking a break.

It was true that normally non-pegasi couldn’t walk on clouds, but there was some scientific mumbo-jumbo and equations and a whole bunch of other stuff that Rainbow Dash had never really cared about. And honestly, to her it didn’t matter how it happened. All that mattered was that it happened, and it happened well enough that her friends wouldn’t fall to their doom.

“Okay, you can open your eyes now,” Rainbow Dash teased, setting Rarity down on the makeshift platform.

Rarity huffed indignantly; she insisted fervently that she had indeed not been closing her eyes, but her jumpiness and frequent glances downward said otherwise.

Dash, not needing to make her seat quite so compact, dragged a cloud over and sat by her friend. “Hey, just don’t look down, and you’ll be fine. Look at the stars, or the moon, or the clouds…just don’t look down. It makes things a lot more complicated.”

A minute or two later Rarity had calmed down. Now she fixed her gaze on the stars spread out above them. Her deep blue eyes widened and caught the light, and she gave a small shiver. “Oh, my. I find myself watching the stars quite often, but I have never, ever seen a sky quite like this.”

“Yeah. It’s one of the perks of being a pegasus. I might even go so far as to say that this sky tonight isn’t as awesome as it usually is.” It was a blatant lie, of course. The way the stars glistened and twinkled tonight…well, Rainbow Dash would be lucky if she saw another sky half as good as that in her lifetime.

“Well, then, you’ll have to take me up here some other time when it is that awesome,” Rarity said, smiling.

“Heh, heh. Yeah.”

A comfortable silence weaved its way between them until Rarity’s small sigh broke it. “Dashing, dear, please tell me I wasn’t the only one to notice how Pinkie was acting earlier.”

Rainbow Dash scowled. Pinkie’s tension hadn’t been lost on her. “Yeah. What do you think was up with her? She’s not usually like that.”

“Well, forgive me if I’m wrong, but I believe she may be a bit…jealous.”

“Jealous? Of who?”

“'Whom' would be correct in that situation. And I think it may be all of us.”

“What?”

Rarity pursed her lips, deep in thought. Finally she said, “Let me put it this way. Who do you think she considers her best friend?”

“All of us.”

“Rainbow Dash…”

“Okay, fine, me. But what does that have to do with anything?”

“For the past few weeks, who has been the pony that she’s hung out with the most?”

“Me.”

“And who’s the pony that, out of nowhere, seemed to want to invest all her time in their other friends, somewhat neglecting Pinkie?”

“Oh.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes slid over the edge of her cloud, breaking her own rule as she tried to make out Ponyville far below. “So you’re saying she’s upset because I’m not spending as much time with her?”

“Precisely.”

“But that doesn’t make sense! I spend plenty of time with her. I mean, when I couldn’t sleep, who was the first pony I went to for help? Pinkie! Heck, she even helped me get ready for our da—er—completely platonic lunch.”

Rarity reached over and rested her hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “And yet as soon as you saw me, you pretty much abandoned her. And Dashing, tell me, did you take Pinkie up this high to show her the stars? Or did you just fly around doing tricks to burn off some steam?”

To that, Dash had no answer.

“That’s what I thought. All I’m suggesting is that perhaps she’s feeling a bit mistreated at the moment, and you should take that into consideration. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Yeah, well maybe you should just keep your nose out of other ponies’ business and stop trying to control my life,” Rainbow Dash said quietly, a sudden rush of indignation spurring her to raise her defenses.

“Pardon?”

“Never mind.” Suddenly Dash wanted nothing more than to curl up in her own bed at home, with Tank and her Wonderbolts posters, with Rarity and Pinkie Pie far away and nothing more than dreamlike wisps. “We should probably fly back down now.”

Rarity touched her hoof to Rainbow Dash’s, her eyes filled with concern. “I’m sorry, Dashing. I didn’t mean to make you think I was trying to control your life. I had no way of knowing this was a sensitive topic for you. Our friends want us to connect more, though, and it was my impression that this entails helping each other when needed. While you might not think this is a huge problem now, it may very well become one, and I’m simply trying to nip it in the bud, so to speak.”

“Whatever. You’re not my mom, so stop telling me what to do.”

“Rainbow Dash, that’s hardly fair. All I did was—”

“Look, Rare,” Dash interrupted with a sigh, “I’m really tired and grouchy and all I really want right now is to lay down and go to sleep, so can we just go back down to the ground? I’m sorry to be so rude, but this is something I can handle on my own.”

Rarity looked like she wanted to say more; to Rainbow Dash’s relief, she just shut her muzzle and nodded, allowing Dash to lift her from the clouds and begin to carry her down.

The descent was nowhere near as exciting as the ascension. It was spent in cold, sleepy silence.

At last they touched down. To neither of their surprise, Pinkie was there waiting for them, shivering from the cold but happy nonetheless. She kept saying something excitedly to Rainbow Dash, but Dash didn’t hear her. Everything was a blur now; whether it was from exhaustion or frustration she did not know, but what she did know what that if she spent one more second away from her bed she was going to pass out.

So she brushed past Pinkie—somewhat rudely—and took off, the calming allure of her destination calling to her like a song.

She didn’t know what time it was; she didn’t know how long the flight had taken; she didn’t remember trotting inside; but what she did know was that she suddenly found herself sliding under the covers of her own cloudy bed, the sound of Tank’s snoring filling her ears and the Siren-like murmurs of slumber fogging her mind.

And then she let the darkness take her as she drifted asleep.