Diving Head First

Chapters

2) Stormy Weather
3) Bonds, Bindings, and Berating
4) Melodramatic Minds
5) First Finish
6) Introspection
7) Good Morning Beautiful
8) Morning Mayhem
9) Morning Glory (clop)
10) Cleaning Up The Mess
1) Good to Bad in Ten-Seconds-Flat

2) Stormy Weather

Rainbow Dash woke to a tiny clawed hand carefully shaking her shoulder to consciousness. “Mmmm-wha?” as her body roused she found that she’d slid down the staircase through the course of the night and used the bottom step as a “pillow.” Though her neck was slightly stiff this didn’t bother her much. All those naps in Applejack’s trees had prepared her body for sleeping on almost any surface (though clouds were certainly preferable).

“What’re you doing sleeping on the floor?” Spike queried. “And where’s Twilight? She didn’t wake me up this morning so I slept in.”

This caused the Pegasus’ eyes to shoot open and bolt upright “SLEPT IN?!” she shouted. “Oh, what time is it? Did Thunderlane move all the clouds to the orchards for the ten o’clock storm like I told him?” Not waiting for an answer she dashed to the window forcing Spike dodge her so she could check the weather outside. Sure enough the clouds remained where she’d left them the night before. Whipping her head back inside the alarm clock told her it was nearing noontime. “Oh no, oh no, oh no ... We should have already finished raining in the east fields by now. Omigosh, Applejack’s gonna kill me.”

Spike was thoroughly confused tried to query the pegasus for information again. “Why were you sleeping here at the library, Rainbow Dash? And why on the floor of all places?”

“I’m sorry, Spike. I’ve gotta dash and fix this weather crisis,” she replied. “Tell Twilight I’ll be back to help fix the study as soon as I can.” She stopped for a moment to think about when exactly that might be, but without knowing the full extent of the delay there was no saying for sure. “Around Seven o’clock tonight, at the latest, okay?”

“O-okay?” but before he even finished his response the weathermare was out the window.

Spike scratched his head confused by Rainbow Dash’s last statement. “Fix the study?” he repeated. “What broke?” Curious, the dragon made his way upstairs to see what she might be talking about. However, when he tried to open the door he found that it had been locked. That was odd because Twilight almost never locked any room. Most times she didn’t even lock the front door when they left. At a loss for answers the baby dragon shrugged and made his way down to the kitchen. He’d missed breakfast, but perhaps a late brunch would still be okay. He would ask Twilight about the study when she got home.

~~~~

As she flew over the town Rainbow Dash scanned the ground for anypony on her weather crew. Spotting a pair she swooped in. “Cloud Kicker, Blossomforth. I need you two to gather everypony on the weather team and get these clouds rounded up to Sweet Apple Acres. They need to be there for a scheduled rainfall two hours ago. I’m going to try and smooth things over with the Apples and I’ll be right back to help.” Without waiting for either mare to respond Rainbow Dash was off again, but stopped after a dozen paces and turned around and shouted, “Oh, kick that Coltfriend of yours in the throat for me will ya? And tell him he owes me another double-shift for this.”

From there she sped on the rest of the way to Applejack’s barn where she saw her unloading lumberfrom a wagon. “Well, howdy Rainbow Dash. Ya’ll finished rain’n the east field already?”

“I’m afraid we haven’t even started A.J.,” the weathermare replied, trying her best to sound apologetic. “Thunderlane dropped the ball again and I just found out when I woke up ten minutes ago.”

To her credit Applejack tried to keep a cool head, but she couldn’t quite help but show her frustration by throwing her hat on the ground. “Con’flab’t Rainbow, we had this whole week’s weather schedule planned out over a month ago. The fruit there is overripe as it is and we can’t start buck’n till the ground’s dry. Meanwhile all a’ Fluttershy’s critters are tak’n it upon themselves t’ make a buffet of the place.”

“I know, I know. I’ve already called for the whole team to drop what they’ve got to get this fixed. With any luck we should be started sometime in the next Twenty minutes, Forty at the outside.” The cyan pegasus thought for a moment, trying to come up with a solution that would benefit everypony. “Tell ya’ what.” Once we get the clouds set we’ll make it rain for only an hour. Then once you’re done harvesting, I’ll have Thunderlane stay up to finish the rain he was supposed to organize in the first place.”

Applejack sighed, staring down at her hat as though in thought. She was still upset, but staying that way wasn’t going to fix anything. “Alrah’t Rainbow,” she finally said, “we’ll figure someth’n else t’ do in the meantime. Jus’ make sure it’s a light rain like we talked about? A downpour over in that field would be worse than hav’n no water at all.”

“You got it A.J.” and without further delay the pegasus took to the air and was off, leaving a prismatic streak in her wake.

As Applejack picked up her hat to shake the dust out a crash resounded from inside the barn. Peeking her head inside the open doorway, she saw her big brother lying on his back at the bottom of the loft ladder, partially buried beneath a varied assortment of baskets, buckets and bin’s. “Ya’ll right in here Big Mac?” she called.

“Eeyup,”

“Alright, go ahead and leave them there. The weather for the fields got mixed up. I’mma grab the tools and get to work on mak’n the bookshelf Twilight asked me fer.” Big Macintosh struggled to stand, but an upturned bucket broke beneath his weight causing him to pitch forward with another crash, scattering the remaining containers hither and yon (save for one that remained atop his head like an outsized wooden helmet). Applejack cringed, but still had to pull down the brim of her hat to hide a guilty smirk. “W-would you l-like somep-pony to lend you a hoof?” she asked, struggling not to laugh at her brother’s distress.

The red stallion let out a weighty sigh, relenting with a reluctant, “Eeyup.”

~~~~

As Rainbow Dash powered her way back to town she saw a blonde pegasus pushing a cloud towards Sweet Apple Acres. “Derpy! What are you doing?” she chided.

Ditzy winced at the sharpness the weathermare used to call out her nickname. She didn’t much care for it but everypony said it so much she didn’t bother to correct them anymore. “Well,” she tried to explain, “Blossomforth said you wanted all the clouds over in the east fields. So I … well,”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t understand the mumbling that came after that. Though she couldn’t resist doing a facehoof she did feel bad for snapping at the mailmare. “It’s alright … Ditzy. We just don’t have time to do it one cloud at a time right now is all. So,” she thought for a moment, the bubbly mare wouldn’t be able to get back to town fast enough for the big push so she came up with a different task, “tell ya’ what. A lot of Fluttershy’s critters are in the east field eating Applejack’s crops. Go find her and ask her to get them out. Tell her it’s going to rain there and they’ll all catch a cold or someth’n. Got it?”

The gray mare brightened slightly at this and saluted. “You got it Rainbow Dash.”

~~~~

Once Rainbow Dash made it back to town she quickly found her weather team. “Alright everypony, we need every cloud we can manage to round up over in the eastern fields as quick as we can. Flitter, Glitter, Twitter; once we’re all set up there you three are free to go,” she said, continuing to pace as she spoke. “After that the rest of us will start watering the field. Class two field storm only, that means LIGHT rain, low winds, and no lightning. After about an hour we’ll stop so the Apples can get there harvesting for the day in; Blossomforth, Cloud Kicker, you two will be done at that point.” That was when she stopped her pacing and met each set of watching eyes before asking, “Any questions?”

“Ummm…” Thunderlane tentatively raised a hoof, afraid to ask the question she knew his boss had just set him up for.

“You will stay to help the Apples catch up with their harvesting,” she declared. “And I will ask them. After they’re done you’ll be in charge of finishing the storm; class two, the whole field, clouds dry. Got it?” She ignored the sharp intake of breath as somepony winced on Thunderlane’s behalf.

For a moment the colt looked like he was going to object, but lowered his head with a respectful, “Yes, m’am.”

“Alright then, let’s get crack’n.”

~~~~

From there the team pulled together well and the storm went off without a hitch. As Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker departed Rainbow Dash and Cloud Kicker went to turn the orchard back over to its rightful owners. Upon arrival the two ponies followed the sounds of hammering in the barn to find Applejack working on something.

“Hey A.J. we’re all finished with the east field,” she called out. Her eyes focused suspiciously on her friend’s workbench “What’cha got going here?”

“Aww, noth’n much,” she confessed. “It’s jus’ a bookshelf fer Twilight.” At this revelation Rainbow Dash felt her eyes widen and her pupils shrink as the blood drained out of her head and into her hoofs. She’d almost completely forgotten about the night before. “She wouldn’t tell me what for, just said there’d been an accident an’ she needed a new one.”

“Hehehe,” the weathermare chuckled, trying to hide her nervousness, “ya don’t say.”

“Yeah,” the workpony replied, running a hoof over the wood’s smooth finish, “I tried to get details, but she seemed pretty set on not talk’n ‘bout it, so I didn’t press. I’m guess’n one of her spells backfired er somth’n. Seems like someth’n she wouldn’t really wanna talk about.”

“Yeah, seems so.” Eager to change the subject Rainbow Dash motioned for Thunderlane to step up. “Thunderlane’s going to be starting the storm back up once you guys are finished.”

“Pleasure to mee’cha Thunderlane,” she greeted, offering a hoof.

The colt took it as he replied, “And I you, Miss Apple.”

Applejack smirked and grabbed for the hat she’d hung on a nearby post. “Miss Apple? Shoot, I know ah don’t have any makeup on, but ah don’t look that old do I?”

Rainbow Dash jumped in before the colt could respond. “Nah, he’s just saying you look a little … weathered is all.”

“Well I … uhh.” He started to feel his face flush as he tried to find a graceful way to amend what he’d said.

Applejack normally didn’t go in for pranks and such, but she couldn’t help but lay in one more jeer to seal the poor boy’s embarrassment. “Oh, I see. Yeah, he’s a real charmer.”

“Yup. But I think you’ll do fine resisting him while he’s helping with the harvest.”

“Uh … beg yer pardon?”

“Yeah. Since he’s the reason you guys are behind on your harvesting today,” she explained, “he offered to help get you caught up.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at this. “Well that’s mighty nice of you, bu-”

“Ahem.” The cyan mare gave a look and nodding gesture towards him to emphasize that she was trying to make a point with him.

A.J. caught on “bu-because it’s always nice to have an extra hoof help’n out. Go on over to the house. Dinner’s almost ready so Granny Smith‘ll get ya squared away with someth’n t’ eat before we head out.”

With that bit of business out of the way Rainbow Dash returned her attention to the bookshelf. Walking over she put a hoof on it and sighed as she remembered the exchange she’d had with a particular purple unicorn. “So … it’s all finished?” she asked.

Applejack who’d started gathering buckets and ropes was a little surprised by the question. “Well, uhh … yeah. I just finished when you walked in.” Somewhat concerned by her friend’s sudden shift in mood she stopped what she was doing and walked over. “You alright, Sugar Cube?”

“Yeah,” she said, “just thinking is all.”

“Mmm,” replied the workpony, tossing her hat on the shelf, “about a bookshelf?”

To her surprise Rainbow Dash actually nodded in response.

“Ya’ mind if I ask why?”

Biting the inside of her lower lip the speedster debated with herself on discussing this. The day had been so busy she’d hardly had a chance to really think about what happened till now, and she didn’t really know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. After a few more moments of silence Rainbow Dash met heyr friend’s eyes. “I messed up, A.J.”

Even though her friend seemed a bit broken up over it Applejack couldn't quite keep from smiling at that statement. “Now how’d you do that?”

“I-” she cut herself off a moment to form the words properly in her head, “I crashed into Twilight's study last night.”

“Ahh,” replied A.J. “An’ you broke the bookshelf?”

“It wasn’t just that,” she said solemnly, “but yeah.”

Applejack reached over and put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Sugar, this ain’t the first time you crashed an’ broke someth’n.”

“You don’t get it A.J.,” she said. “After she saw the room she started screaming bloody murder. Then she started going all crazy. I mean like she went ‘Smarty Pants’ crazy, freaking out to herself all wonky-eyed and rocking back-and-forth on her bed. Then it was like she went so completely crazy that she’d gone full circle back to being normal angry at me, but worse.”

Applejack cringed at the description of events and reached up to scratched her neck with her hoof. “Ah.”

“Yeah.”

Several tense moments passed between the two friends as they leaned against the bookshelf, neither really knowing what to say. Eventually Applejack’s ears perked up. “Ya know,” she said. “We do have an extra two wheel cart out back you could borrow if ya’ want to take this to Twilight yer’self.”

Rainbow Dash turned and took a few steps away from the bookshelf, as if to distance herself from the potential encounter with the one she’d offended. “I- … I don’t know about that.”

“C’mon, girl,” urged Applejack. “You gotta make amends somehow. This Here’s a perfect way to start.”

“She was just … just so MAD. She’s never been like that before.”

Applejack was starting to run out of ways to encourage her friend so decided to give it one last push before just letting the subject drop. “Look, Rainbow,” she said, “I don’t know what happened between ya’ll last night. And I ain’t gonna claim to know what Twilight’s feel’n inside. But I do know she ain’t one to hold a grudge against somepony will’n to try and make amends.” She paused a bit to let that sink in. “If you’d like, I’ll help ya load the cart and get you hitched up?”

Smiling sheepishly, Rainbow Dash looked to her friend and nodded. “Thank’s A.J.”

Author's Note

So Rainbow Dash has a fairly eventful day following last night's fiasco. But the day isn't over yet. How will Twilight react to her early delivery?

Comments? Questions? Critiques?

3) Bonds, Bindings, and Berating

The trek back to town was a lot harder than Rainbow Dash had envisioned it when she was being hitched up. Granted, the cart was relatively small, but the bookshelf was solid oak. It also seemed to her that most of the journey was uphill. “Whew,” she said, after finally making it to town, “I am not envying Earth ponies any time soon. How can anypony stand getting around without flying?” Inwardly though, she did respect A.J.’s athletic body for doing this on a regular basis with a much heavier cart-load of apples.

As she made it to the town square the mare noticed she was drawing more than a few stares. It wasn’t exactly rare to see a pegasus pulling a cart, but it was at the very least uncommon. It didn’t help matters that Rainbow Dash was one of the most recognizable ponies in town. ‘Ohhh .... this is SO not cool,’ she thought to herself. At least she managed to keep herself from shying away from ponies when they made eye contact.

Finally she made it to the library and knocked. Spike was the one to answer the door. “Uhh… Hey, Rainbow Dash.”

“Hiya, Spike. Is Twilight home?” she asked, turning her head to unhitch the cart from her midsection.

The baby dragon seemed a bit unsure of his answer. “Yeah, but she’s locked up in her study,” he stated, peering further out to see what was on the cart. “What happened last night? Twilight hasn’t said hardly two words to me since she got home from Applejack’s, and she’s been locked upstairs ever since.”

She reached up to tousle her mane. “Yeah,” she said, feeling more than a bit awkward, “I … kinda crashed into the study last night and broke … some stuff.”

Spike cringed at this. “I’m guessing that’s the reason for the bookshelf?”

“Yeah,” she replied, “Applejack made it. I just carted it over.”

“You must’ve been really fly’n if you busted the shelf to the point where we needed a new one.”

“A-actually … the shelf didn’t break until it tipped over,” she paused for a moment before adding, “onto Twilight’s writing desk”

“Whoa,” Spike’s arms dropped to his side and his eyes glazed over, apparently in attempt to picture the scene being described, “how was-”

“Flattened,” she said, heading off his question.

It took a second for Spike’s brain to process the appearance of a flattened writing desk. When he did his cringe had Rainbow Dash thinking the dragon might actually be in pain. “Yikes, Rainbow Dash. That desk was as old as I am.”

The mare quirked an eyebrow at the dragon’s statement, “That … doesn’t sound as impressive as when Granny Smith says it.”

“Okay, fine,” he conceded, “but Twilight loved that thing.”

“I know,” she said, “and I want to make it up to her. I really do. I just don’t know how.”

“Well,” Spike shrugged, “the only way to really start is by talking to her.” At that he swung the door open and turned, motioning for the pegasus to enter.

Rainbow stood in the library and watched as spike made his way up the stairs and around the tree. As he drew nearer to the study door she felt something solidify in her throat and stomach. She wanted nothing more than to just run away and avoid this confrontation all together.

As her to prank a royal government figure and she was there. Set her in front of a dragon so big it makes Applejack’s barn look like a child’s toy and her first instinct was to kick it in the face. Surround her with an army of zombie-bug ponies’ intent on devouring her soul and she grins at the challenge. But the seeing Twilight step out of that office, gazing disapprovingly down her snout had driven Rainbow Dash back on her haunches, cowering away from her, as if expecting a beating.

Spike watched the silent visual exchange between the two mares for almost a full minute before the tension became unbearable. “So ummm… Twilight, Rainbow Dash brought the new bookshelf from Applejack’s,” he said, praying to sweet Celestia that this would help break the tension.

Twilight’s gaze didn’t shift. “She did, did she?” she asked in a passionless tone. If Twilight had been watching a little less closely she probably wouldn’t have noticed the slight nod her friend’s head made to respond.

“Yup, all shiny and new, waiting to be unloaded,” he said. However, the forced cheer in his voice only helped to underscore the apathy in Twilight’s own.

“Well, then I suppose she should UN-load it and put it away, where it belongs. Don’t you agree?”

At this the blue pegasus rose up off her hindquarters and slowly backed her way out through the still open door, not taking her eyes off of the librarian for fear of bursting into flames if she did. She wasn’t even sure if she had blinked ever since she’d met Twilight’s eyes. After a few minutes of consideration and a fair amount of struggling, Rainbow Dash managed to get herself back inside with the bookshelf lashed to her back with the rope Applejack had used to tie it to the cart.

Though her magic could have lifted the heavy construct up to the bedroom landing and into her study in a matter of moments, Twilight simply watched -almost disinterested- as her friend struggled her way up the stairs. As she waited she turned to her number one assistant. “Spike, would you go to the market and get a few things?” she asked, levitating a roll of parchment from within the study.

“Uhh, sure,” he said. He held out his claws and let the list fall from her magical grasp. After this he turned and jumped off the ledge to the floor below. It was a bit high, but he’d done it before. Also he didn’t want to chance knocking into Rainbow. After a few quick paces he was out the door, pausing only briefly to glance at the pegasus and silently wishing her luck.

When the door closed behind the dragon Twilight turned and trotted into the study. Rainbow Dash heard a small amount of shuffling come from the room above, but kept making her way towards the open door, sweat dripping from her brow as she strained under the weight. Getting through the study doorway was a bit of a challenge, but she managed well enough on her own. It wasn’t until she leaned back to set the bookshelf on the ground that things went wrong.

She’d only meant to set two legs on the floor before untying the rope that lashed it to her back. Unfortunately the center of gravity was thrown further back than she thought and ended up getting hoisted into the air as all four legs of the bookshelf came to rest on the ground. What was worse was that the slight amount of slack in the rope allowed her to slip down (or rather from her perspective it allowed the rope to slide up to about her neck). For a moment she thought she was going to hang herself but a bit of squirming allowed it to slip above her head. Although this meant that she was not about to commit suicide, it did mean her front hooves were pinned above the bookcase that she was now tied bodily to, and what little slack there had been in the rope was now gone. Her rear legs were free, and if she stretched them out they could just barely touch the floor, but that wasn’t going to help her get free.

Twilight couldn’t help but snicker at the fact that the fastest mare in Equestria had just rendered herself completely immobile. Having broken the dead silence she’d been keeping with her friend she decided to drop the treatment altogether. “Oh, this is just too good,” she said with a smile.

Rainbow Dash bit the inside of her lip as she looked over to the lavender unicorn. “Can I get a helping hoof?” she asked, in a near whisper.

“I don’t know, are you done punishing yourself?” Twilight quipped back.

Rainbow balked at the casual, and almost friendly tone she’d just heard coming through that question. “A-wha-I-umm …… huh?”

She smiled at the confusion on her friends face. “Look,” she said, levitating several books from behind herself, “the books are fine. Perhaps a few extra dents on some of the covers but no one is going to notice or care so long as the pages remain intact. Last night I was worried about ink. Fortunately, I was nearly out and it didn’t really get on anything.”

“Oh,” replied the Pegasus, feeling foolish. “So …”

“But you still destroyed my desk,” said Twilight, her eyes narrowing again.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “I did.”

“Grrrr, and you still won’t apologize?”

“I’m-”

“And don’t insult me by saying it now!” she demanded.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth closed with a near audible -click-.

Several moments passed between them as Rainbow Dash struggled with what she might be able to say. Of all the things she could have done after arriving at the library, a simple ‘I’m sorry’ hadn’t even occurred to her. True she wanted to make amends. But Twilight had just been so angry the night before even if the thought had entered her mind it would have been instantly banished out of its sheer simplicity.

Twilight was the first to break the silence. “Look,” she said, “you know how I can be …. kind of picky about certain things?” She waited for a nod so she knew her friend was following. “Well, it’s not just about certain things.”

The cyan pegasus felt her head tilt and her face scrunch from curiosity. “What do you mean?”

She looked at the ground and shuffled her hooves, feeling a bit embarrassed about this. “I mean … I feel a need for everything to be perfect.”

“But-”

“I mean everything,” she insisted. “Like, when two ponies are walking out of step. Or when their mane isn’t taken care of. Or when they wear shoes but don’t tie them in symmetric bows, or if one bow is a different size than the other three. And don’t get me started on when ponies use cutlery that doesn’t have all the fork tines lined up. And right now, even though I know you had weather duty, the knots I see in your tail are torture-”

“Twilight”

“-knot you used to tie the rope was probably supposed to”

“Twilight”

“-square-knot but you made a granny-knot instead and-”

“Twilight! I get it.”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to shut her mouth, if only for a moment. “The point is … I feel a need for everything to be perfect, but the world is an imperfect place. This room is the one place I can go where everything is just the way it should be. And most of the time I spend in here, I’m at my desk.”

“So that means I took away the one place in this world where everything is perfect for you.”

Twilight nodded in response. She knew it wasn’t a hard thing to understand, but she was glad. She just hoped this didn’t affect their friendship.

“Alright, so what should my punishment be?” she asked.

The purple unicorn was taken aback somewhat by this … offer. “I beg your pardon?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged as best she could with her front legs tied above her head. “You said an apology would be an insult now that you told me that’s what I should have done. And I agree,” she said rather matter-of-factly. “So, all that’s really left for us is you doing something to me so that we’re even.”

“I … well,” Twilight stammered. She wasn’t sure why but somehow Rainbow asking for a punishment sounded a bit …. forward; and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She shook her head to banish the thought, ‘You’ve just been reading too many of those books,’ she told herself, ‘that’s all.’ “You’re sure?”

“Well, I mean … don’t like, cut up my wings and bake them into your dessert or something.” Both of the mares laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of that request.

As their laughing subsided Twilight’s magic loosened her friend’s bindings, allowing Rainbow Dash to slide down and sit on the floor. However, to Rainbow’s shock the ropes tightened again, pinning her once again to the bookshelf. “Uhh … Twilight?”

The unicorn’s lips formed a sly smile. “I can’t have you running off before I get the instruments of your torture,” and with that cryptic statement, she turned and left the room.

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard as the study door closed. Now a big part of her was beginning to regret that offer. “Oh boy,” she squeaked, trying not to stress herself over whatever was about to happen.

Author's Note

Alright, sorry for the long wait to the next chapter ... i was having some issues with some of Twilight's lines ... hope you all enjoy it ... do comment on what you think Twilight has in store for our dear daredevil ... i've already got what i'm gonna have her do, though i'm curious to see what my readers think

Likes Comments Critiques Questions are all appreciated

4) Melodramatic Minds

Twilight had to resist the urge to laugh as soon as she closed the door to her study. She knew keeping her friend tied down in her private study was a bit … well, extreme; but she knew it would play merry hell with Rainbow Dash’s mind if she were left to stew over the possibilities long enough. What made it better was that the longer she took deciding and planning out exactly what she wanted to do, the more that her feathered friend would have to psyche herself out.

Though there was another edge to that sword. If Twilight left her alone too long, then then whatever torture eventually occurred would be too tame to compete with whatever wild and crazy fantasy Rainbow Dash came up with. There was the possibility she could calm down and be prepared for whatever was thrown at her. Those instances would spoil the punishment altogether.

This thought jerked the unicorn to a halt on the last step of her staircase. There was that word again. What Twilight had in mind for the next few minutes she’d only seen described as a punishment in a few of her more …. “indelicate” books she’d read in her free time. To think that she would do anything depicted in those stories to a friend on a whim (a very much not-a-colt friend, no less) would be an outrageous suggestion at the very least.

‘But …. But I didn’t suggest it, did I?’ she thought. ‘I’m not even the one who called it a ‘punishment'.’ Now Twilight could feel her heart hammering in her chest. Her face began to heat and her ears started ringing, both indicating a sudden spike in her own blood pressure (almost as if her body was set on proving that this was all real, and thus worth worrying about).

‘SPIKE!’ her mind shouted in desperation, ‘ask him. He’ll talk some sense into to you.’ Her head whipped back and forth so her eyes could scour the library for that wonderfully wise and well-meaning number one assistant ….

… whom she’d just sent out with an oversized list of office supplies that would likely keep him out until the shops’ were all closed.

At that point she laid herself on the ground and covered her head with her hooves in an attempt to shut out the world so she could think. ‘There has to be SOMEpony who can keep a secret who I can talk to.’

As an solution popped into her head Twilight sprang to her feet. ‘CELESTIA!’ her mind exclaimed, as she ran to retrieve a parchment and quill from the nearest end-table. ‘If I send her a letter marked ‘Urgent: Please Respond’ she’ll send a reply-’ That was when she realized Spike’s absence had eliminated that confidant as well.

Now she was back to laying on the floor, worrying her hooves through her mane while she tried to think. ‘I can’t just go back in and say ‘Never mind.’ Not now that Rainbow is expecting SOMETHING.’

That was when it hit her. ‘Wait a minute. I can do whatever I want,’ she told herself. ‘She doesn’t know what I’m going to do.’ Now she was up on all fours again, pacing her thoughts out into the room before her. ‘She just knows that I’m going to do SOMETHING. So I’ll just keep it in my own boundaries and I’ll be fine.’

With this reassurance Twilight gave herself a metaphorical scratch behind the ears as she headed to the bathroom to get her hoof-i-cure kit.

~~~~~~~~

Rainbow Dash found herself squirming with nervous adrenaline as she awaited Twilight’s return. ‘When I offered to take a punishment I didn’t REALLY think she’d do it,’ she thought to herself. ‘Well,’ she corrected, ‘okay, maybe I did. But I didn’t think she’d do it right NOW; much less that she’d feel a need to keep me TIED UP for it.’

She tried taking deep breaths to calm herself down. ‘Twilight’s my friend,’ she thought, ‘she isn’t going to do anything to HARM me…. Right? It’s just an elaborate prank.’ Unfortunately her mind didn’t seem to be doing a good job of convincing her body of this. In fact her body seemed to be convincing her imagination of all manner of monstrosities that could be trotting around in that unicorn’s mind. Perhaps some ancient text of torture taken from the ponies back in the paleo-pony period was teaching her how to be terrible. She was taking deep breaths so fast that now her head was feeling lighter and lighter, not an easy feat for a species of pony built to breath at almost any altitude.

She closed her mouth and held her breath for a few moments and that seemed to do the trick. Though her heart was still thumping like it was auditioning for a piece in one of Vinyl’s Dubstep Albums, her head started to come out of the clouds and her body relaxed … sort of. Twilight might be weird, and her sense of humor may seem a bit off at some times, but she wasn’t by any means sadistic or cruel. ‘Tying me down was just to freak me out and get in my head,’ she assured herself. ‘So long as I stay calm everything will be fine.’ Inwardly she laughed at herself for nearly going Smarty Pants crazy over something so simple.

‘Nowadays ponies only talk about tying each other down for-’ Rainbow Dash felt her heart suddenly leapt up into her throat and stopped her breathing. ‘No…. No,nonononono no,’ she told herself, ‘Twilight’s not like that. She’s … not a … She’s not a fillyfooler.’ Once again she found herself swallowing hard, trying to get her heart back down where it belonged. ‘Of course she’s not ….’

‘Is she?’

Author's Note

So ... both Twilight and Rainbow are freaking each other out ... or rather they're freaking themselves out

I'm beginning to wonder if i should make this "teen" rated or not ... i've never really understood these subjective maturity ratings because there are some 10 year old children i know who are way more mature than some middle-aged "adults" i know ...

Actually i'm going to make this Teen-rated just to be safe for the next chapter but If you all could help me out a bit i would greatly appreciate it

As always, Likes, Questions, Comments, and Critiques will be greatly appreciated

5) First Finish

Twilight carefully opened the door to her study and slipped inside, levitating her kit bag and a basin of warm water behind her to set in front of the tied up daredevil. The sound of the lock sliding into place caused her heart rate to quicken as she committed herself past the reservations she felt. ‘It’s just a little hoof-i-cure’ the unicorn told herself. ‘It counts as a punishment because she doesn’t like other ponies touching her hooves. And besides, it … it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a hoof-i-cure.’

It took Rainbow Dash a moment to realize what was in store for her. When she did the pegasus felt her eyes widen and her pupils contract as they focused on the damnable toiletries bag; drawing her hind legs up to her chest in effort to create some distance from it.

This didn’t bother Twilight, as she didn’t really need Rainbow Dash’s hooves to be in the water. Using her magic, she plucked the sponge from the water and reached it towards the mare’s hooves … only to have her move them away … then back … then forth … then down … and left. Twilight’s brow furrowed into a scowl in response to her friend’s deft dodging (which in turn elicited a sheepish grin from one feathered mare). But as the unicorn assessed the situation her expression softened as the glow of her horn grew just a hint brighter.

Rainbow Dash yelped as the librarian’s magical grip tugged on her multicolored tail, causing her to involuntarily buck her hooves down into the water with a small splash. ‘This is really happening,’ she thought. ‘She’s really going to do this, and there’s nothing I can do to stop her.’ However, there was something strange about this realization. In her mind Rainbow Dash knew she should feel some sense of despair, but what she actually felt was a bizarre sense of thrill. And it wasn’t all that different to the rush she got when speeding through the skies above Ponyville.

With her friend’s hooves submerged Twilight began scrubbing them clean, working the dirt out of the chips, scuffs, and scratches in her hooves. Once cleaned Twilight toweled them both dry and removed the basin before procuring the file.

Rainbow Dash swallowed and shut her eyes tight. ‘It’s okay,’ she told herself. ‘Calm down …. caalllm down. Just relax and don’t let it get you worked up.’

Although Twilight tried being as gentle as possible with the tool, every time she even touched it to a hoof Rainbow shied away. Once again becoming frustrated, this time the unicorn levitated a portion of the basin’s water and splashed it in Dash’s face.

The weather mare gasped and spluttered at the dousing and struggled against her restraints in a futile attempt to retreat from the sudden assault. As the, now cool, water ran in unpredictable paths down her fur coat Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but whimper in apology.

Twilight took the small towel in hoof and patted her charge’s cheeks neck and chest to a more comfortable dampness. To prevent any more defiant behavior, Twilight chose to lay herself across Rainbow’s hind legs, pinning them to the floor. She also noted that this added her body’s heat to that of her captive, which would assist in drying her damp coat. And with nothing left to stop her, Twilight levitated the file and dragged its rough edge against Rainbow’s hoof.

The pegasus shuddered and squirmed against the sensation that vibrated all the way up the inside of her leg. She fought to keep her breathing under control, but her heart hammered with such force in her chest it felt like she was punching Twilight in the shoulder. Much as she hated the sensation of another pony filing away at her hooves, a deeper, guilty side of her relished and desired it all the more.

The conflict inside combined with the numbing pleasure of Twilight’s expert hoof-care made Rainbow Dash’s head spin and fog up. After only a few moments it already became maddening. She couldn’t think, she could only feel. The warm press of Twilight’s fur rubbing against her own. The pull of the ropes on her fore-hooves that kept her bound in place. The Luna-be-damned file sending chills and shivers up her legs. All of these sensations transmitting to the inner reaches of her core nopony had ever touched before unknowingly being stimulated by the mare before her.

‘Oh, Celestia, have her finish soon,’ she prayed, ‘I don’t think … I … I can’t-’

“G-gguuhhh.”

The unsuppressed groan and shudder that then emanated from Rainbow’s throat and legs shocked the unicorn to the point where she nearly leaped away. Instead her head whipped around, unwittingly putting her nose to nose with the prismatic pegasus who was blushing furiously as she bit her lip.

The sight of this DID cause Twilight to leap away. “Did … D-d-did you … I-I-I’m sorry … I just … You … I didn’t …”

Rainbow Dash’s hazy mind fought to catch up and she stammered along with Twilight, trying to explain her way out. “I-I-I- … I didn’t- … It’s … I just …”

Embarrassed beyond belief, Twilight’s horn lit with a spell that cut the ropes binding Rainbow to the bookshelf. Having finally freed her friend Twilight turned and bolted from the study. Rainbow winced as the slamming door reverberated off of the study walls.

The silence that followed was crushing.

Still sitting in the place where she’d been bound, Rainbow looked around the room. It felt good to be free of her bindings but the idea of moving didn’t feel right, and not just because the mare was sure if she could even stand. Part of her wanted to go try to smooth things over with Twilight. Another part wanted to open the window and fly home with whatever false sense of dignity remained. But the part that won out had her curl up there on the floor and wait for Twilight’s return.

It was a tear-filled wait that would last on into the morning.

6) Introspection

Upon departing the study, Twilight ran downstairs straight to the bathroom (the only other room in the tree that could be locked). Her racing pulse, labored breathing, ringing ears, and crawling skin made it almost impossible to sit still though. So she did the only productive thing she could think to do in a bathroom and began taking a hot shower to relax her tense nerves.

The warm water pounding against her body didn’t seem to help stave off the uncontrolled and undesired thoughts. So she turned up the heat to near scalding levels, quickly filling the bathroom with steam. She always liked the steam sauna at the spa for clearing the mind and calming the nerves. Only now the warm smell of wet warm fur brought Rainbow Dash to mind after being splashed, dripping wet wearing that adorable sheepi-.

“NO!” Twilight refused to finish that thought and instantly switched off the hot water. The result of this being that the shower water was now practically sleet. Twilight shrieked at this and leapt from the tub. Slipping on the wet tile, the unicorn fell in a heap on the floor; a shivering, wet, miserable heap.

All her life Twilight prided her analytical steel trap of a mind. It was always taking in every detail, examining outcomes and reasons for them. She’d spent her entire life honing her ability to remember and now she cursed every moment of that life as random jumbles of thoughts swirled haphazardly about the proverbial TOILET BOWL that was apparently now her brain.

“Ohh… what is wrong with me?” she groaned. She wanted nothing more than to purge the last hour from her mind, the last DAY even. She just couldn’t comprehend how a simple joke with a friend had turned out so … so … confusing.

After what felt like hours (but was more probably a minute or two) of trying to suppress, repress, eliminate, purge, and expunge the memory from her mind, Twilight eventually gave up and allowed herself to slowly give her mind a chance to think about what exactly had just happened. Twilight sighed as she gathered herself into a more comfortable position, but remained where she lay on the floor. She used the water dripping off her nose to help her focus and concentrate her thoughts.

It made a fair amount of sense, really. Although very similar on a basic structural level, Pegasi physiology was vastly different to, and innately much more delicate than, their flightless equine counterparts. Their bones were porous to allow for a lighter (though still surprisingly durable) frame which was much more suited for flight. Also, ponies such as Rainbow Dash who were almost constantly flying would tend to have much softer fur and more tender skin. This was a direct contrast to the labor intensive Earth ponies, like Applejack or Big Macintosh, who couldn’t help but have coarser fur and tougher skin to stand up to the work they performed. That meant that it was perfectly natural for Rainbow Dash to be more easily aroused by an act that any of the rest of their friends would merely find to be enticing and pleasurable.

And the kicker was … Twilight had already known all of that when she was gathering her hoof care tools. In fact, in the back of her mind she’d down right counted on it. But that wasn’t the worst of it. No, the worst part of it was that Rainbow Dash’s … crescendo hadn’t really bothered her at all. What had really bothered her … (she swallowed hard at this internal realization) … was her own reaction to that … that “peak” in her friend’s pleasure.

But why? Why did she react that way initially? What did it mean? Why did that reaction bother her so much? Did the answer to that question somehow change the meaning of her initial reaction?

Her introspective line of questioning was halted when she heard the front door to the library open and close, followed by the voice of her number one assistant. “Hey, Twilight?” he called out. “Most of the market carts closed up early today. So I wasn’t able to get hardly any of the things on your list.”

“I’m in here Spike,” she called back as she levitated a towel to herself and shut off the shower water. “It’s alright about the list,” she added, quickly toweling herself dry and mopping up most of the water on the floor. “That’s all stuff we’re going to get tomorrow. I just wanted a chance to talk to Rainbow is all.”

“Yeah, I figured,” he responded. “You seemed pretty upset with her. Is everything alright between you two?”

‘Oh Luna-be-damned, how am I supposed to answer THAT?!’ “Uhmm … it’s,” she hesitated, trying to find something neutral to say that wouldn’t be a lie but wouldn’t beg more questions, “complicated.” She immediately wished she could take that word back.

Spike, who’d only been taking cursory interest in how the two friends had mended their relationship, was now quizzically attentive. “Complicated? How is it complicated?” he demanded, walking up to the bathroom door so their conversation could continue more easily. He knew better than to enter though. Even though he and Twilight almost never wore clothes outside of special occasions it was an unspoken rule that neither would ever enter the bathroom whilst it was occupied by the other.

“She … I … We …” Twilight stammered for a moment, wracking her brain to come up with a viable explanation that would get him to drop the subject. The only problem was that none came to mind. “I don’t know,” she said weakly.

Spike sighed at this. “Well, she seemed pretty sorry about what happened to me,” he said.

“I know.”

“And that desk was practically as old as I was.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and held them up toward the ceiling, wishing nothing more than for that baby dragon to just stop let her think. “I know, Spike.”

“I’m sure she’d do almost anything to make it up t-”

“I GET IT SPIKE! Okay?!”

Twilight winced at herself for attacking him like that, and judging from the tense silence coming through the door she knew she’d probably hurt his feelings. It wasn’t his fault. He was just trying to help. Twilight sighed and draped the towel over her shoulders as she opened the door to stick her head out.

“I’m sorry,” she said gently, “I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m going to be talking with her again … soon. It’s just …” she paused a moment to try and find the half-decent explanation he deserved. “Things … aren’t really sorted between us yet? … I’d just like a chance to figure it out by myself first, is all.” She reached a hoof out to chin up the little dragon who was shuffling his feet. “Thank you for trying to help, though.”

Spike looked up as she explained the situation to him. Vague though it was, he nodded and smiled at her thanks. This in turn lifted her own spirits, seeing his closed mouth yet adorably toothy smile. “Now get cleaned up for bed,” she said, stepping out of the bathroom and ushering him in. It wasn’t particularly late, but it was justifiable for bedtime, and of course Spike was never one to argue with the chance for a little extra sleep.

As the door closed behind her a thought occurred to her. ‘I don’t really want to explain the mess in my study,’ she thought, figuring Rainbow Dash had already left. “Umm, Spike?”

“Yeah, Twi?”

“The study is pretty disorganized right now,” she said, “but just leave that for me tomorrow so I can arrange it properly for my new desk.”

“You got it.”

Turning away from once more she drew a breath for a sigh which turned unexpectedly into a lengthy yawn. “I guess I’ll just deal with that in the morning,” she said to nopony in particular and with that she decided to turn in.

Author's Note

Quick little chapter to sum up how Twilight ended the night. We'll see how things go between them in the morning

Comments, Critiques, Questions and Suggestions are always appreciated

7) Good Morning Beautiful

Twilight rose from a dreamless sleep, preceding Celestia’s sweet sun due to her early retreat to bed last night. As such, Spike was still curled in his basket, which she now noticed was beginning to look a bit small for the baby dragon. While he grew considerably slower than compared than an average pony, he still did grow. She resolved to add ‘Get Spike a new bed’ to the list of tasks today. She considered also adding ‘Make sure Spikes clothes still fit,’ but resolved that such a task be reserved for another day. Neither of them really wore clothes that often anyways.

Quickly scrawling the new task on the list, Twilight yawned and began to go through her morning routine. ‘Make bed? Check. Ensure bedroom is still clean? Check.’ Heading downstairs, she crossed the library to the bathroom … only to be stopped by something odd in the corner. Backing up a few steps she looked out the window. ‘What’s a cart doing out front?’

Trotting out the front door she examined the two-wheeled contraption and noticed apple carvings in the wheels. That meant it was probably one that belonged to Sweet Apple Acres. But why was it here?

A blue feather that had remained caught in the pony-hitch answered that question. But why hadn’t Rainbow Dash taken it back when she left? Had she forgotten? Did she intend to come back for it later? Or had she-

Twilight’s eyes widened at the new question and found herself running up the stairs to her study. Carefully turning the handle, Twilight winced as the door squeaked open to reveal the cyan pegasus, sprawled out on the floor, snoring, effectively dead to the world. Twilight found herself banging her head against the doorframe. ‘Why?’ she pleaded. ‘Why does she have to still be here?’

What in the wide world of Equestria possessed her to stay after what happened last night? It looked like she’d hardly moved from where she’d been tied up just hours before.

Twilight sighed, ‘I don’t want to DEAL with this right now.’ She hadn’t had a chance to think about it. And trying to do so now almost made her skin crawl, so she didn’t really even want to think about it.

Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. ‘Okay,’ she told herself, ‘think about this logically. She stayed behind yesterday because she wanted to apologize and I wouldn’t let her. So … that’s probably what this is.’ The only issue now was whether she should let her friend continue sleeping, or if she should wake her. On the one hand Twilight wouldn’t feel right just letting Rainbow Dash continue sleeping on the floor, but on the other she didn’t want the awkward discussion about what happened last night. However, judging from how tightly the pegasus body was curled she was obviously cold.

Guilt override her own personal wishes and she found a comfortable middle-ground. Levitating a blanket from her bed Twilight approached the blue bundle of fur and feathers. If she woke from the act Twilight would oblige whatever Rainbow Dash had to say, if not then such discussion would wait until later.

Twilight bit her lip as the blanket was draped over the sleeping form. The mare stirred as the new heat source allowed her body to relax, but she did not wake. Twilight sighed and turned to leave, but paused as she heard a murmur. ‘Is she … talking in her sleep?’ she wondered, leaning closer. She’d read books on pony sleeping patterns and various nighttime occurrences such as sleepwalking and the like but never had a chance to study first-hand.

Unfortunately, nothing discernible seemed to emanate. Twilight sighed, “Well that's too bad,”

Rainbow Dash’s ear perked at the sound. “Mmuh ..wha?” Her eyes fluttered open to see Twilight’s snout, mere inches from her own. “BAH!?”

“GAHH!” Twilight shouted, leaping back.

Rainbow Dash tried scrambling to her feet, but the combination of a right hindquarter fallen asleep, only partially functioning brain, and the blanket getting caught under-hoof caused the pegasus to fall face first right where she’d started. The only difference being that the blanket now covered her face as she groaned out an, “Owwww.”

Twilight winced sympathetically, “Sorry.”

“G’morning to you too,” she said half-heartedly. “It is morning, right?”

“Almost.”

Rainbow Dash lifted the blanket from over her eyes. “What were you doing?”

“Nothing … I just …” Twilight realized how saying ‘nothing’ sounded more like ‘something bad’ so tried approaching the subject at a different tack. “I didn’t realize you stayed till I saw the cart out front. So I brought you a blanket and you … you … woke up.” She decided stating her passing interest in Rainbow Dash’s sleep behavior wasn’t the best thing for the situation.

“Oh.” The weathermare tried to scrutinize the explanation, but her tired mind wasn’t up to speed yet so she let it go. “Okay, I guess … Thanks?”

“Yeah.” Twilight scratched her mane awkwardly, looking to the study door and trying to calculate the best exit strategy. “So … I’ll just … let you get back to sleep?”

Rainbow Dash stretched and yawned. “No, I’m good,” she said, standing in hopes she could keep her friend from running out again. “Actually I … well … I wanted to talk with y-”

“N-no” Twilight interrupted. “I’m sorry. I-i just … I wasn’t thinking … or paying attention … and I … I just … got carried away. I didn’t mean to … umm … make you-”

“Yeah,” Rainbow interjected, not quite wanting her to say the word. “It’s just with being tied down … and my hooves being so sensitive … and you getting all,” she swallowed, trying to calm her quickening heart-rate, “being all alpha-mare. It’s just something I’ve always pictured somepony … er … some stallion doing for me.”

Twilight gaped at the sudden confession. Sure, everypony had their own personal fantasies. She just never expected anypony to come out and tell her about them. “I’m sorry, I didn’t … I mean I don’t … I’m not a…” she found her eyes shifting back and forth to check that nopony could hear her whisper, “a fillyfooler.”

“You … you’re not?” Rainbow Dash immediately realized how that question made her sound. “I mean, of course you’re not.

“No”

“I didn’t even...”

“I mean, I see how you might think-”

“and even if you were-”

“-it’s not like I’ve been out with anypony else.”

A tense silence filled the void between the two mares as they finished their hasty explanations; each hardly even registering what the other was saying.

“So,” Twilight was the first to break the silence, “breakfast?”

“Breakfast!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, thankful for a topic that didn’t involve awkwardness. “Breakfast sounds awesome.”

8) Morning Mayhem

Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash headed downstairs to the kitchen/dining room (tucked in a back room of the lower library) leaving Spike to sleep in as the sun had only just risen. Twilight offered pancakes and the pegasus eagerly accepted. “Is it alright if I use your shower first, though?” she asked, having realized that falling asleep right after … what had happened didn’t exactly help somepony to wake up feeling daisy fresh.

“Oh,” Twilight blushed slightly, understanding the reason for the request. “Yeah, right in there,” she motioned to the next door over. “Towels are in the cupboard.” She turned away as her blush deepened at the thought of Rainbow in the shower. ‘But … why is that embarrassing?’ she wondered as she began to levitate flour, eggs and other ingredients for her intended morning confection. ‘It’s not like she’d be tied-eye-yaie-I am not finishing that thought.’

However, Twilight was not able to avoid the unfortunate truth about thoughts. The more one thought about not thinking them, the more the thinking mind thinks about the thought you wish to not be thunk. And the fact that she had a recent memory on which to draw further imagery from didn’t help. Twilight slammed her own head down against the counter with a force that would have startled anypony who’d seen her do it. This was partially from frustration but more in futile hopes she could induce short-term memory loss. The image she had of Rainbow Dash hogtied in the bathtub was decidedly not normal and she hated herself for having it emblazoned on the back of her star-spangled eyelids.

~~~~

Rainbow Dash stood just inside the bathroom for a minute, contemplating the workings of the land-shower that stood in Twilight’s bathroom. She knew that Earth Ponies and Unicorns couldn’t simply gather a sun-heated cloud for a real shower. However, knowing the difference existed was a far cry from actually experiencing the difference first-hoof.

The concept had seemed simple enough, ponies on land just stored and heated water on the ground and used pipes to bring the water to them. She just never expected that the contraption attached to the pipes on the tub would have so many knobs. Why the hay did they need FOUR knobs just to activate the water? Well … to be fair it was three knobs and some … switch looking thing. And of course nothing was labeled. Taking a shower should just be common sense.

She thought about asking Twilight for help, but her pride and independence squashed that option almost as quickly as it had presented itself. ‘You can figure this out Dashie’ she told herself, ‘All your friends deal with this thing every day. Just take it one step at a time.’

She started with the biggest knob, giving it a good quarter-turn. There was a small -thunk- in the drain, but no water. Rainbow tried turning it the other way, causing another -thunk- in the drain, but still no water. “Oh! That must be the plug for the bath,” she exclaimed. “Go figure.”

Next she tried the switch thing, but nothing seemed to happen. She flipped it several more times but the pipes didn’t seem to care about its position one way or another. Rainbow Dash gave a snort and glared at the contraption, almost willing it to do as she commanded. ‘Leave it to Twilight to make something complicated out of something simple.’

So with two-down and two-to-go she picked the knob on the right and gave it a quarter-turn. After a moment the shower head above began to spurt and splutter a pathetic trickle of water. It was progress, but hardly useful. ‘maybe the other one has a different source?’ she hoped and gave the left knob a quarter turn. The water-flow increased … marginally.

Fed up with the Celestia-forsaken contraption Rainbow Dash decided to buck her pride and get some help. She was sore, smelly, in desperate need of a shower, and her patience with the fake shower was done. “Hey, Twilight can I get some help in here?” she called out.

Twilight’s head was still embedded into the counter, though she’d managed to continue mixing the batter with her magic due to its simplicity. Upon hearing Rainbow’s ambiguous request her head snapped up and the mixing bowl dropped to the counter with a clatter. “WHAT!? … err … I mean … just a second,” she replied, glad that the thick batter hadn’t spilled.

Trotting to the bathroom door Twilight hesitated to open it. “Ummm … what’s wrong?” she asked, hoping she was only required for verbal assistance.

“Ummm … don’t tell anypony but … I don’t know how you get this to work,” Rainbow explained. “Is there some special magic you use to touch this with? It’s not coming like it should.”

Twilight stood outside the closed door, aghast. Had she really just been asked about- ‘No … no this HAS to be a misunderstanding.’ she thought. “W-w-what?” the unicorn stammered out, hoping some clarification would destroy this horribly disturbing fantas- … er … situation.

‘Oh great,’ thought Rainbow Dash, ‘now she thinks I’m silly for not knowing something this basic.’ “C’mon, Twilight, please don't make a big deal out of this,” she pleaded, “I’ve never done this before. Just get in here and show me once and I’ll never ask again. I promise.”

‘No,’ she thought, ‘there’s just just … no. She can’t possibly be serious.’ Yet even as she thought to deny, reject, and rebuff the request; Twilight found her hoof reaching for the door handle all of its own volition. ‘No,’ she told herself, ‘Spike is just upstairs and he could wake up any minute now.’ Still … though the thought was immediately abhorrent … there was an amount of intrigue to it. Just another academic curiosity that came with a critically thinking mind that wanted to know about all perspectives of everything. ‘She …. She did say just once.’ Her hoof met the handle.

“Alright,” she sighed, resigning herself to curiosity. ‘Just to figure out why my brain keeps coming up with these thoughts’

“Just once.”

Author's Note

Well .... That escalated quickly

you all should know the drill by now.
Like, Comments, Critiques, Complaints, Questions, and Suggestions ... i loves 'em all

Warning: The next chapter is clop. However as far as story development goes nothing really happens so it can be skipped. Twilight goes in asserting herself sexually. Rainbow is initially freaked out but is unable to object until it starts feeling too good for her to want to object. And at the end Rainbow makes a statement that makes Twilight realize the mistake she just made.

So for those of you who don't wish to read clop don't have to in order to follow the story, which i hope you'll continue to do.

9) Morning Glory (clop)

Twilight spared no time to hesitate or talk herself out of it. No planning or thinking would help. Now was the time to act. If she stopped to second-guess herself she'd freeze up and chicken out.

Rainbow Dash least expected Twilight’s intentions when she opened the door. “I just can’t gemm-ffm-mumm.” Her mind reeled and her eyes bugged as she tried to comprehend, ‘What the HAY is she DOING?!’

In that moment when Twilight’s lips were planted on her own several things happened. Rainbow backpedaled, but wasn’t able to break oral contact from her friend’s aggressive advance. Upon making contact with the cool wall with her rump Rainbow’s wings flared out and she reared back, but Twilight rose with her and planted her hooves on the wall. This just so happened to pin bunches of feathers against the hard surface and ever so slightly pulled at the “arm” of her wings. These numerous unexpected tugs registered a light pain response, but only served to send a shudder through the mare’s back and chest. ‘Th-tha-that’ Rainbow felt her mind fogging up as her body refused to obey conscious command, ‘n-nuh- … n-no don-… doh-ohhhh Sweet Celestia that feels so good.’

Instinctively, she wanted to fight. She wanted to kick the unicorn away and demand an explanation … but … there was that thrill again. That unexplained rush of excitement she’d felt last night; after all sense of control over the situation had been lost. She still had a chance to retake that control, to squash this unicorn’s clout and take charge. So she raised her hooves to Twilight’s chest.

But … was this really so bad? Was what happened last night honestly that bad?

Thinking about how she’d actually felt. Rainbow realized she hadn’t really felt bad … at least … not until Twilight ran away. She didn’t understand why this was, and the haze currently consuming her mind didn’t help. However, the more she examined what she wanted, the more her resolve for resistance ebbed away. And her hooves dropped back down to her sides.

Feeling Rainbow’s body relax, Twilight let up; allowing her cyan partner to sit more comfortably. Now, Twilight had to draw upon a combination of her knowledge of pony anatomy as well as some of her other … less educational readings, for she had no true “experience” to speak of.

Once her partner was seated, Twilight experimented with the wings again, breaking the kiss so she could watch her hoofwork. She felt up and down the humerus with her hooves, gently massaging the muscles and working out their tension. She was surprised at how solid their structure felt beneath the feathers. Though considering they almost constantly carried all of the pony’s weight it made sense.

All pegasi were notoriously sensitive in their wings and Rainbow was no exception. They needed to be able to detect those subtle changes in air currents or risk spinning out, overcompensating for a change in pressure, or missing a treacherous downdraft and slamming into the ground. The dangers went up exponentially at higher speeds so the faster a pegasus went the more sensitive their wings needed to be. So it was no surprise that Rainbow Dash's eyes had already glazed over and rolled back at the careful kneading of Twilight’s hooves. What was even better was that purple mare was being careful to work in such a way that any ruffled feathers fell back to their properly ordered place. The few stallions she’d ever allowed to touch her wings didn’t seem to understand how important that was to a precision flyer. She’d had to spend hours of preening to get them in proper working order again after one particular pony. ‘Should have given those eggheads in flight school a bit more consideration,’ she thought allowing any grooming concerns she harbored to melt away into further relaxation.

Twilight’s snout traced its way under Dash’s jawline, following its trail back to the neck where it curved up. There at that corner she placed a kiss before continuing up. This action brought her neck near Rainbow’s nose. So when she began to suckle on the pegasus ear she would gasp and taste Twilight’s pleasing musk and the faint scent of lilacs.

‘REALLY should have considered eggheads,’ and with that thought breathed deep through her nose to savor the essence.

Twilight moved her hooves from the avian appendages and placed one on Rainbow’s withers while the other drew her chin up for another kiss. As their lips locked once more she traced her hoof along her partner’s keel and around the pectoral muscles attached to it. This was the core of a pegasus’ power, the rippling strength that produced those powerful wing-beats capable of producing their celebrated speed and agility. From there her hoof continued its journey south, across the soft, flat planes of Rainbow’s cyan stomach.

As she began to feel the moist heat of Rainbow’s marehood the pegasus’ legs stiffened but did not move to prevent access. Taking this as a good sign Twilight shifted to where she was sitting next to her friend and began nipping and biting her neck. She searched the varying contours of Rainbow’s withers with her tongue, eliciting a cacophony of whimpers, panting, gasps, and groans in a cryptic staccato which formed her carnal chorus of desire. A song Twilight was finding herself more and more eager to decipher as she led this one-mare orchestra.

After a few more stanzas Twilight moved her hoof into the wet folds of Rainbows heat, toying with her clitoris and spreading the nectar to the surrounding areas. This conducted the pegasus into a crescendo of ecstasy, arching the instrument of her body to the minstrel. The song welled up inside of her, notes and chords filling her up in ways her body could not yet express. Her forehooves sought purchase and alternated between bracing on the floor and wall as well as clutching the unicorn, urging her to continue the number. Her wings shuddered and her feathers shook, growing tenser and tenser; visually counting down the moments till the climax.

Twilight caught this and relaxed her tempo. This provoked a whinny from Rainbow, who felt she had been so close. Twilight was beginning to discover a certain level of … satisfaction in this it wasn’t so much that she liked that she was getting her way, but that she was asserting her will, waiting until she deemed the time to finish was just perfect. And alhough her partner was not restrained, she’d still obtained control. To prove this she resumed her previous pace, causing Rainbow’s body to bend with the tension of an archer’s bow, but withdrew enough to relax that tension. The cyan mare’s means of articulation had been reduced to nonsensical whimpering as she begged for an end to the senseless torture to her body.

Twilight drew the mare up in her free hoof and kissed her for a final time. Once again playing against her companion’s sex, Twilight brought Rainbow up to the peak of her concerto, crying out as her body rocked and spasmed uncontrollably.

Endorphins and adrenaline flooded Rainbow’s system as her shaking limbs grasped hold of the unicorn. The lavender mare seemed to be the only thing her eyes could focus on as the world around her spun and warped. She’d been with stallions before, one even knew what he’d been doing, but she’d never came like that before.

Though it felt slightly awkward, Twilight curled up with Rainbow on the floor. Of all the books she’d read and all the times she’d thought about such a scenario, she’d never expected her first experience to be quite like this. She pondered these new feelings, but knowing she was in no state of mind to properly analyze them the scientist in her simply cataloged them for later study.

In her reverie she’d almost completely missed Rainbow Dash speaking. “Hmm?”

Rainbow’s body shook in what could have been a laugh, but was more probably leftover adrenaline. “I said, I’m pretty sure that’s not how you turn on the shower?”

‘Turn on the…’ she looked to the forgotten bathtub and saw the trickle of water coming from the showerhead. A moment later the pieces of the puzzle all began to fit together. 'Oh .... she just didn't-' her eyes widened at this revelation.

"Y-you don't know how to turn on the shower?"

Rainbow blushed and buried her face in Twilight's chest. A small voice in her mind said this was the kind of lame thing Fluttershy would do, but it was the only thing she could think of. "No."

"Oh"

'Oh horseapples'

10) Cleaning Up The Mess

Rainbow Dash lay there alone on the cold bathroom floor, not quite sure what to make of the purple blur that had just bolted out. The shower was running now. One better it seemed to be a hot shower judging from the steam already rising from the tub. But as wonderful as that sounded, she couldn’t get away from the empty feeling that now dominated her body. For the second time in recent memory she didn’t feel like moving, even to the warm massaging stream of water beckoning her to its embrace.

However, she didn’t want to waste Twilight’s hot water. So she forced herself to stand under the stream. The cascading water felt good at first, soaking her fur like a warm hug that reached every inch of her body. But then she remembered Twilight’s embrace just moments before, and that made the water’s warmth feel foreign and unnatural. It didn’t draw her in and lift her up with that not-quite awkward tilt that came from dodging a head-butt with a unicorn. The torrent just seemed to weigh her down, and beat her into submission, forcing her to accept it.

Then the heat changed from hot to burning. She winced and turned to shift the heat to a cooler part of her body as her hoofs scrambled to turn the knobs. The water turned cold but then with a few more twists the stream shut off. Instinctively she shook herself from head to toe, shedding the water from her fur and feathers. However, instead of getting out of the tub and toweling off properly she laid down in the tub, crossing her hooves under her head.

‘What is WRONG with you?’ her mind demanded. ‘She literally JUST said she wasn’t a fillyfooler and you go and call her out like that?’

“I don’t know” she mumbled to herself.

‘You don’t KNOW?! Come on Dashie. From the moment she walked in the door you knew she’d OBVIOUSLY misunderstood something you said. And you just went and let it happen.’

Her chest heaved with repeating sobs. No longer able to retort to herself her mind continued its berating.

‘Now she’s out there freaking out again. What’s that … the third time in the past two-days? Are you waiting for Spitfire to walk in the door and say ‘That’s a new Academy record’ and pat you on the head? Twilight probably thinks you get off on her tears or something.’

The cruel internal montage was cut off at the sound of the bathroom door opening. Rainbow Dash went rigid and held her breath. Had Twilight come back? Was she okay with what had just happened? Or was she still upset? Was she going to tell her to get out? Rainbow Dash certainly felt like that’s what she deserved.

The pegasus lifted her head up and drew the shower curtain aside, startling the little purple dragon who’d just waddled in. “Ahhhh! Rainbow Dash …. What … how … why are you … I mean … … … Huh?”

“Uhh, sorry,” she said, rising to step out of the tub, “Twilight said I could use the shower and I … kinda … spaced out afterwards?”

“Oh.” It may have been pretty early in the morning, especially by Spikes standards. But he still managed to catch on to how Miss Confidence herself seemed to be trying to convince herself of that last statement. “So, did you and Twilight patched things up this morning?”

“I-uhh …. Well we … it’s ummm… ”

“Wait, let me guess,” he said holding his claws to his head mocking psychic telepathy. “It’s complicated”

Rainbow deflated slightly at the sound of that word. “Well … yeah.”

He couldn’t resist smacking a claw over his forehead and sliding it down his face. ‘What is it with mares and ‘complicated’?’ he asked himself. “Okay … what’s complicated about it?”

Rainbow didn’t particularly want to have this conversation with him. She didn’t even know if he’d been told about the birds and the bees … let alone the bees and the bees. ‘Or would this be the birds and the birds?’ Her parents had never really had ‘The talk’ with her until she’d already been through her flight school’s compulsory first semester Sex-Ed course … which had been a few months after she’d already met Cloudkicker … and anypony who knew Cloudkicker for more than five minutes would understand how redundant that little story had been for the cyan pegasus.

All of this to say that Rainbow Dash felt she was the last pony who should be having this sort of talk with the diminutive dragon. “It … it just is,” she said finally, hoping beyond hope he would just let the subject drop.

The glare that tainted Spikes features said otherwise. “Fine … we’ll do this the hard way.”

~~~~

-bang-

‘How could I have been so STUPID,’ Twilight demanded, her forehead now beginning to wear a dent in the countertop.

-bang-

‘First there’s what happened last night. I mean … she probably bought that it was an accident, which it WAS … but now with this- … this- … THIS.’

-bang-

‘No … she probably doesn’t believe last night was an accident anymore now. She CERTAINLY doesn’t believe I’m not a fillyfooler. Hay, I’M having a hard time believing it now.’

-bang-

Twilight let out a soft groan as an understandably large headache began to materialize. 'She probably thinks I’m some sort of sort of … unFaustly …sex-crazed … clop-happy … DEVIANT of some sort.’ The unicorn looked up to flip the pancakes she’d put on the griddle immediately after returning to the kitchen. Then, looking at her reflection in the pans hanging in front of her, promptly resumed her self-loathing. ‘I pretty much FORCED myself onto her in there too.’ Her mind tried to comprehend the implications of what that meant for a moment. 'Oh no… She could even have me arrested for this if she wanted.’

-bang-

‘I’m going to have a worse reputation than Cloudkicker after this.’ Her mind wailed. ‘And I haven’t even lost my virginity yet.’

She pushed herself away from the counter and took a deep breath. Self-abusing her forehead obviously wasn’t getting her anywhere. Plus on that last one she’d glanced the tip of her horn on the countertop. That had compounded the headache’s still growing pain almost ten-fold for a few moments.

Returning her attention to the griddle she set the cooked pancakes onto a plate and started baking more. It was a welcome distraction that was over all too soon.

What bothered her most about what had happened, wasn’t so much what she’d done, but that she’d liked doing it. That sounded like she was the villain in a Horror book, or some sick … Thriller Romance novel. She’d literally just assaulted one of her best friends and now looking back on it she could pretty much say she’d enjoyed doing it. She had half a mind to go turn herself in right now.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that sometimes a demented FREAK of a pony cannot always resist certain urges they have. But at least I’m in JAIL now. So Rainbow Dash will be able to begin therapy for her trauma without having to worry about a crazed SEX-DEVIANT raping her in the middle of town-square anymore. Prison may be rough, but since I’m a unicorn at least I won’t have to worry about dropping the soap.

Your Faithful Felon,

Twi-

“Oww Spike … oww …. Stop it-Oww Oww OWWW.”

-crash-

“Come ON, Rainbow. We’re going to fix this and we’re going to fix it- YAOWW… you bit me!”

“You were pulling my mane out.”

“I can’t believe you BIT me.”

Twilight burst into the main library to see Spike and Rainbow literally butting heads and glaring daggers into each other’s eyes. “What the fracas is going on in here?!”

Each pointed to the offending other and shouted in unison “(S)He started it!” They both wheeled on each other still shouting in a unified manner, “I started it?! YOU started it!” The situation would have almost been comical had Twilight’s headache been a few thousand decibels lower.

“SIT DOWN!”

To her surprise, the angered glares immediately morphed into apologetic pouts as both creatures firmly planted their rumps on the ground. Looking them over Twilight could see a bruise already forming on Spike’s arm where Rainbow had bit him. However in his other claw the multicolored strands of hair said that his injury had certainly been well-earned. The overturned end-table next to the bathroom door appeared to be the only collateral damage from the brief scuffle.

“What do you two think you’re doing?” Upon seeing their mouths open she could tell that unified shouting was the only answer she was going to get. “DAT … no,” she said, cutting them off. Seeing as how they weren’t going to do this civilly on their own she pointed a hoof to Spike, “Your story.”

The little dragon took a deep breath and began rambling out his explanation as if he were on a timer of some sort to make his case. “Rainbow Dash was lying in the tub and I asked her if you patched things up. She said it’s complicated which is stupid because you guys should either be friends or not and all you need to do is talk this out. Even though I’m not sure what’s going on anymore I’m sure you’ll still be friends.”

Twilight took a moment to process exactly what he’d said and nodded slowly. “And you thought pulling her hair out would get her to do what you want?”

“Well … when you put it like that, it sounds all mean,” he grumbled.

Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head. There wasn’t a whole lot of point reasoning with him at the moment because in a way he was right. She and Rainbow did need to talk, but not with him in the room. “Go flip the pancakes and eat your breakfast. Rainbow Dash and I need to talk.”

Spike leaped from his spot on the floor and dashed to the kitchen, a mild look of triumph on his face.

“Ahh ah,” Twilight said stopping him half way, “you still owe an apology.”

Spike groused and turned back to the pegasus. “I’m sorry you and Twilight had a fight.”

“That is NOT an apology.”

“… and for pulling your mane.” With that she let him depart. But before disappearing through the door he turned back and stuck his tongue out. Rainbow Dash returned the gesture which earned them both a glare from Twilight. ‘Well at least they’re not destroying the library anymore.’

Satisfied that Spike would be sufficiently distracted Twilight laid down on her stomach. She wanted to talk about what had just happened. There wasn’t exactly a guide on how to start a conversation ‘accidental sex’ (at least that was the only thing she could think to describe what had happened). So she went by that old conversation starting standby of, “So…”

Rainbow Dash forced an awkward grin, hoping to disarm some of the tension in the room. “Heheh … So…”

Twilight reached up and scratched a nonexistent itch on the back of her neck. “So … you … showered?”

“Yeah,” she answered. “It was … nice.” It was true she never really ‘dried off’ but pegasus fur and feathers were pretty efficient at shedding water so she was practically dry now anyways. “I mean … up until the mane pulling.”

“Yeah … sorry about that.”

“N-no, it’s not you,” Rainbow reassured. “Spike just … he just doesn’t know everything and is trying to help.”

“Yeah.”

Silence filled the void between them for the next few moments until Rainbow Dash finally cracked. “Ugh, okay look,” she said, trying to sound like a calm voice of reason. “This ‘beating around the bush’ stuff is getting us nowhere. I vote we just say what we’re thinking, see where the chips fall, and work from there.”

Twilight swallowed and nodded. If they both just sat there and waited for the other to talk then Spike would come back out and start asking questions nopony wanted to answer. And Spike probably wouldn’t appreciate the answers he got either.

“Alright, you go first,” the pegasus insisted. True it wasn’t exactly fair of her to do that, but this mushy inner feeling stuff wasn’t exactly her strong point. So she’d just go off of what Twilight thought was important and work out from there.

Twilight took a deep breath, and shut her eyes. “PleasedontbemadIdontwannagotojail,” she blurted out, dropping her head to the floor and covering her face in shame that the first thing she could say about the situation was probably the most selfish thing possible.

Rainbow Dash shook her head as if she’d just been smacked with a two-by-four. “Wait … What?”

“I mean, just look at me,” Twilight lamented. “I’m not exactly gorgeous, but nopony in prison is. As much as I hate to admit it I have ‘Defenseless Egghead’ written all over me. And after being charged with a sex crime? My virginity won’t last an hour in there.”

Despite all the shock, horror, dread, and obvious distress the librarian had while expressing her fear, Rainbow couldn’t exactly help but give a snicker-snort at that last statement. She covered her mouth with her hooves to hold it in, but the damage had been done and there was no hiding the obvious delight her mind was having at Twilight’s expense.

“I’m serious,” she said, her worry turning to rage. However, this only caused Rainbow’s restrained snorts to evolve into roaring peals of laughter. “Do you have any idea what happens to ponies in prison?”

“Oh my gosh. You, you, you,” Rainbow tried to speak, but her laughs and cramping stomach prevented coherent speech.

“This isn’t FUNNY!”

Spike’s inquisitive mind couldn’t help but see what the new commotion was about and stuck his head out to see. “Umm, Twil-”

“WHAT?!” Any curiosity he may have had died with the look of death she whiplashed around in his direction and the baby dragon retreated back to the warm embrace of pancakes and syrup. To keep the dragon from actually hearing anything not meant for his ears Twilight cast a sound-dampening spell to fill the area between the two mares and the kitchen. It wouldn’t STOP sound, but as long as they both spoke at normal levels he wouldn’t be able to hear them.

Dash was starting to get her laughter under control, though giggles and chuckles still threatened to start the whole thing back up again. “Oh wow, Twilight. I’m sorry but just … WOW.”

“Oh come ON, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight insisted, “I was worse than Cloudkicker in there. And she’s almost been thrown in prison several times for lewd behavior.”

“No, no, not that,” she said, waving a hoof dismissively. “I just can’t believe you’re actually still a virgin.”

“Oh Luna,” she lamented, covering her face with her hooves on the floor again. “That is the only thing you got out of this conversation isn’t it?”

Rainbow Dash scoffed at the melodrama. “Now look who’s not listening. What I meant was that … THAT,” she waved her hoofs to the open bathroom door, “was not something I would expect from somepony who’d never had sex before.”

“What?”

“I mean … if you’ve never done it before then how would you learn …” her voice trailed off as her eyes drifted over to the looming bookshelves. “Oh I see,” she said, a knowing smirk now tainting her features. “little sheltered egghead doesn’t just read history and spell-casting does she?”

“I … well” Twilight’s eyes shifted about the room, looking for anything that could help her change this subject.

The pegasus flew up and began scanning titles. “So where do you keep the juicy stuff?” As the fates would have it Rainbow Dash’s search took her straight to the intended section. “Oh wow … you have three shelves dedicated to Manehattan’s Harlequin Publishing?”

Okay, you know a publishing company has a high level of notoriety when the least bookish mare in Ponyville knows they print a lot of clop.

“High Fever; All Riled Up; Ha … VIRGIN RIVER?!” Twilight leaped through the air, tackling Rainbow dash to the ground and blushing furiously with embarrassment. The pegasus’ voice had been steadily rising as she named off books and that dampening field could only prevent so much volume.

“Rainbow, stop,” she chided through gritted teeth, “Spike’s going to hear you.”

“TWILIGHT, STOP!” she yelled, wrapping her hooves around the librarian’s neck so she couldn’t get away, “SPIKE’S GOING TO CATCH US.”

As expected, the baby dragon heard the commotion and once again couldn’t resist the temptation to investigate. “Okay … if you don’t want me to hear what you’re saying then you-” His eyes went wide as he saw the compromising position the two mares were currently in.

The unicorn thrashed and tried to get away, which only served to make the position appear that much more awkward. Rainbow cackled with delight as her plan to mortify Twilight had just gone better than she’d hoped, her grip loosening only because she had to grip her sides to keep from bursting at the seams.

Twilight turned to Spike, coughed, and resisted the urge to fix her frazzled mane. “Spike, this isn’t what it looks like.”

He raised an eyebrow at this. “Well, what does it look like?” he asked, feeling more than a little confused.

“Yeah, Twilight, tell us what it looks like that’s got you ‘All Riled Up’. ”

“I- … you … guhh … nothing. It’s nothing, and you need to go back in the kitchen.”

“But I’m not-”

“NOW!”

“Yes ma’am.” He didn’t have the slightest clue what was going on, but he could tell that Twilight was quickly reaching the end of her rope. But no matter how little rope there was left, there was always just enough left to hang him with. Better to just let Rainbow Dash take the brunt of the storm and see what was left over to clean up afterwards.

With that little nuisance gone for another minute Twilight returned her attention back to the pegasus laying on her lobby floor. “And you ... What are you doing?”

Rainbow Dash wiped a laughing tear away. “I’m sorry Twi’,” she said, “I’ve just spent the last while worrying that I’d offended you or taken advantage of you, just to find out that’s exactly what you’ve been doing. So, yeah, I’m just glad to know we’re both … more okay than we thought we were.”

Twilight heaved a sigh of relief, glad to know she wouldn’t need to send her last friendship report from within the walls of the Ponyville Penitentiary. “Okay,” she breathed, “so we’re-”

“We’re cool,” said Rainbow, standing back up. “Is that breakfast invite still open?”

Twilight smiled. “Breakfast sounds awesome.”

1) Good to Bad in Ten-Seconds-Flat

Dusk had to be Rainbow Dash's absolute favorite time in the day. That time in which light of the sun began to wane, yet still cast its warm glow throughout the world. She especially enjoyed the varying colors reflected throughout the sky and in the clouds, stamping the region with unique hues that changed not only every night, but every few moments. At times Rainbow Dash would take to the air and climb higher and higher as the sun sank lower and lower so that her eyes could savor a particular moment of beauty just a little bit longer.

Then, once she could climb no higher, and the moment had past she would let herself fall. Neither gliding nor diving, she would let her body relax, basking in the last of the sun's warmth so it could caress her body while gravity pulled her down through other lesser moments of beauty. This was the time when she truly appreciated being born a Pegasus. Having been given the chance to view the world from many different perspectives and enjoy its natural beauty in any way she chose. Rainbow Dash’s speed and agility were what made people notice her and called her gifted for. But this choice in moments of beauty and bliss where the true gifts that life had provided for her and her alone.

Normally she reserved such a practice to end days that were particularly stressful, which required the special relaxing time to unwind. However, she would also do so on days that were exceptionally good too, punctuating it with one last occasion to make the day distinct. With all the ups and downs of recent times though, Rainbow had begun to simply turn it into a daily practice. There was no reason to deprive herself of it. Besides, every day was special in its own way.

Tonight’s view was particularly gorgeous. With the wide scattering of clouds she’d set up for the next day there were so many shades of oranges, purples, blues, pinks and yellows she almost wanted to go ask Princess Celestia to hold the sunset where it was for a few more hours. Yet, like all other moments, this one was eventually forced to pass and Rainbow Dash tumbled back to terra-firma, letting relaxation consume her body for a few extra moments than were technically safe. As the ground approached she pointed her head down into a dive and snapped her wings open, and pulled up as sharply as she could. It was only then she realized that Twilight’s massive oak library was looming directly in her path.

The Pegasus turned sharply to avoid a collision, but in her haste she’d forgotten to steer to the lee side and was promptly smashed through an upper story window by a gust of wind. After shattering the window events were a jumble of indistinguishable flashes, but she did recall annihilating a table and bouncing off of at least 3 walls before pin-wheeling wildly into a bookshelf. It was fortunate she felt the weighty shelves behind her lean otherwise she wouldn’t have managed to scramble from beneath its crushing trajectory (Twilight’s writing desk was not nearly so lucky). As the dust settled Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief that she’d made it out unhurt. Unfortunately, the chaos the room had suffered in her stead probably set a new personal record.

Twilight stormed up the stairs to investigate the commotion. “What in the wide world of Equaaaa….” If the room hadn’t been given a busted window the purple unicorn’s gasp at that moment would have created a temporary vacuum. Her eyes darted back and forth around the room taking in every detail of the devastation done to her precious office, her personal sanctuary of study, the place where she kept her most advanced works and materials. “I-i-bu-bu-bu-bu-b-y-y-yo-y-y-m-m-my.” Unable to form a coherent thought to voice any portion of what she felt, Twilight shut her mouth and took a sharp breath of air.

Rainbow Dash afraid for her own wellbeing tried to head the unicorn’s retribution off with an apology. “Twilight, I am SOO sorry. I-I-I can fix this, really!” But instead of rebuking her flying friend Twilight turned and left the room, closing the door almost as if nothing was wrong at all. Confused by this action Rainbow Dash took a few tentative steps toward the same door. “Umm .... Twilig-”

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” The force of Twilight’s scream nearly forced the door off its hinges. “This can’t be happening, this isn’t happening. My desk, oh my precious desk; my parents bought me that desk and now it’s just a pile of splinters. I had all my own personally invented spells written in that desk. I’ve been working on those since before I came to Ponyville. And my latest report to Celestia was right on top. And the bookshelf was destroyed. Most of those books were on LOAN. And not just on lone. They were on loan from the ROAYL ARCHIVES. Starswirl’s ancient texts and scrolls were in there. I’ve never damaged a book before; I’ve never even folded a page. Okay, there was the time I fell asleep and drooled in the middle of Clover the Clever’s account of the Saddle Arabian Uprising, but everyone knows about that.”

Hearing Twilight freak out to herself like that seemed even worse than if she’d just take it out on her. She hadn’t meant to crash into the office like that. She hadn’t even been doing anything all that crazy like was normally the case when she crashed into somepony’s business or residence. Rainbow Dash opened up the door and timidly made her way down the stairs into Twilights bedroom. Spike, having taken up the habit of sleeping with ear-plugs had somehow managed to not awaken. Rainbow Dash stopped behind Twilight who had now begun what seemed to be deep breathing exercises on her bed while clutching a pillow with an increasingly frightening desperation. “Twilight I-”

“Get out.”

Though spoken at a near whisper, those words carried the weight of an anvil on Rainbow Dash’s heart, causing her head to drop in shame. “Please, Twi just-”

Twilight turned her head, revealing the tears streaking her face. “I said get out.”

Seeing her friend in tears like this nearly clamped a vice around her own throat. “I’m sorry Twilight, I-”

“No.” she commanded, interrupting her friend for the third time in a row with a tone in her voice that would chip flint. “You don’t get to be sorry right now,” she declared as she rounded on the cyan pegasus. “You just destroyed my study; my sanctuary. The one, singular place I have in this entire town where everything is always perfect, just for me.”

“I didn’t me-”

“No. No talking,” she demanded. “You listen. Not only did you ruin my study, but you probably damaged at least a dozen ancient texts from the Royal Archives. I realize that may not mean anything to you, so I’ll spell it out. Royal Archive texts don’t get handed out to anypony. In most cases they are only permitted to be read within the walls of the Royal Library itself. And none of them are permitted to leave the castle, and are protected by several enchantments to prevent their theft. The only reason they can be sent all the way here, an entire day’s journey from Canterlot, is because Princess Celestia herself removes those enchantments so I can keep up with my studies.”

Rainbow Dash now had to fight back tears under the assault of Twilight’s passionless, icy diatribe. She felt smaller than Applejack after they all had their run in with Poison-Joke so long ago. She didn’t dare look up into the unicorn’s hard, tear-filled eyes because she knew it would probably break her. How could so much go wrong after a day that had felt so right?

Twilight turned away and trotted back up to her demolished study. Rainbow Dash followed to help clean up some of the damage, but just before she made it to the doorway Twilight used her magic to slam the door. Peeking through the keyhole she watched Twilight curl up on the back broken bookshelf and sob to herself.

Rainbow Dash wanted nothing more than to go and comfort her friend; to apologize for the hurt she’d caused. She wanted to beg and plead for forgiveness she knew she didn’t deserve. She wanted to help try and fix at least some of what she’d broken. But she also knew that Twilight didn’t want anyone right now, least of all her.

However, she couldn’t bring herself to leave either. Even after being told to ‘get out’ Rainbow Dash couldn’t bring herself to turn away from the unicorn she’d caused so much pain. So she did the only thing she could do. She curled up on the stairs as best she could and waited. Though a slight draft in the air gave her chills she didn’t move to get a blanket. She didn’t even try to wipe the tears from her eyes. She didn't deserve any of those small comforts a person gave themselves when they felt this way. So she just lay there on the steps just outside the door holding back her sobbing until her body couldn’t take the stress anymore and passed out just to force its owner to stop punishing it.

Author's Note

So ... Rainbow Dash's crashing into things finally turned into something more than just a "hehe, oops, sorry" and everything's all better ... This turned a bit sadder than i'd hoped for it to be but hopefully things will get better in the morning ... hopefully

Comments Questions and Critiques are all greatly appreciated