Of a Feather

Negotiation

--

Amongst Ponyville's residents, there are a few long-standing traditions.

There's the Zap Apple Harvest, the Sisterhooves Social, the reliance on Pinkie Pie's inscrutable Pinkie Sense. Amongst these traditions is a well-known axiom: if there is more than one rainbow in the sky, then it's probably a good time to duck.

A blur of cyan blue streaked up the main drag of Ponyville, nearly tearing the signs off of every market cart lined up along either side of the street. It was accompanied by a rapidly fading rainbow trail and a doppler-shifted cry of, "Coming through!"

A certian orange pony scowled, ducking to retrieve her trademark Stetson hat as the blur curved back up above Ponyville. Without the rainbow trail behind that familiar blur, it would have become invisible against the brilliant, clear day. As it was, the rainbow began to weave through an intricate and theoretically impossible series of aerial maneuvers that even Pinkie Pie would have been hard-pressed to make head or tail of.

"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack cried skyward, stomping a forehoof in frustration. Rainbow Dash couldn't possibly hear her, not over the sound of how awesome the mare thought she was, but yelling at her made Applejack feel better all the same.

Looking around, Applejack saw the rest of the Ponyville merchants scowling as they tried to right upset baskets and mend their hoof-painted signs, muttering most unponylike epithets under their breath.

"What in the hay is that pony up to?" Applejack muttered, to nopony in particular, trotting around her wagon slowly to survey it for damage. A basket of apples had toppled over in Rainbow's wake, and scattered ripe red apples to one side of her saleswagon. Applejack sighed at the sight. "She's kickin' up a bigger ruckus than a whole pack o' timber wolves."

"She's been working ever so hard."

"Gah!" Applejack yelped, jumping barrel-high at the tiny voice suddenly at her side.

"Oh!" Came the tiniest squeak of a voice from the tiny yellow ball of a pony beside her, curled up and shivering, equally startled by Applejack's reaction.

Applejack cringed back from Fluttershy, one foreleg still raised, as if afraid to be startled again by the fluff of yellow and pink. "Gosh darn it, Fluttershy!" Applejack groaned, "I thought I told you not to sneak up on me like that!"

"Was I sneaking? I'm sorry." Fluttershy uncurled some. Her pink mane fell over one eye and the side of her muzzle, managing to make herself appear even smaller and more timid than she already was. "I didn't want to cause any fuss."

Applejack sighed and shut her eyes. "It's okay, sugar," AJ replied patiently, "Jes' tell me what the hay is goin' on?"

Both ponies looked skyward simultaneously, to where Rainbow Dash's trademark spectrum was painting arcane symbols in the sky.

"RD's been at this all day, that's the fourth time she's buzzed town," Applejack moaned, waving a hoof accusingly in Dash's general direction. "And this time, she nearly took the paint off the buildings, not to mention upsettin' mah applecart." She frowned over her shoulder. "Almost wrecked mah wagon, too."

"She's just working so hard!" Fluttershy exclaimed, barely managing more than a whisper. "She's trying to work out a new show to do for the next Best Young Flyer competition."

"Bes' Young...?" Applejack echoed, astonished, then shook her head violently. "Sugar, first off, she don't need to be practicin' anything! She's got 'er Sonic Rainboom, what more do they want! An' second, it's not fer ages! What's she practicin' now fer? I figured she'd have better things to do." AJ's eyes darted, searchingly. "Like, er, nappin'."

"But that's just it!" Fluttershy said anxiously, fretting her forehooves against one another. "She's already done the Sonic Rainboom once, she's worried that if she just goes back and does it again, she won't impress anypony. She's trying to come up with something now so she can practice later, but she's having so much trouble with it!"

Applejack boggled. "It's a Sonic Rainboom, fer Celestia's sake! How can that not impress anypony? She's the only one in all o' Equestria that can pull it off!"

"Well, I know that, it's just, I mean, Rainbow Dash is so worried." Fluttershy looked down, prodding at the grass gingerly, as if testing to see if it might leap up and try and nibble at her hooves unexpectedly. "So, I mean, I'm worried too. I'm trying to cheer her on, like last time, but...oh, I don't know."

Applejack looked back Fluttershy, and the sight of her studying the ground so intently melted whatever cutting remark her mind had been working on. "Aw, honey, you cheered louder than all o'us put together at the Competition last time. We were too busy starin' at the Rainboom and you were jumpin' and hollerin' fit to wake an Ursa."

Fluttershy drew herself up, eyes wide. "I did? Oh, I feel so bad, I didn't mean to cheer so loudly, I mean, I hope I didn't..."

"Fluttershy?" Applejack cut her off, before Fluttershy could work herself into a conniption. "What I'm tryna tell you is that you got plenty o'heart, and you can cheer her on jus' fine when you need'ta." Applejack smiled, canting her head to one side, making her Stetson tip precariously along with it. "And right now, I was wonderin' if you could cheer Rainbow Dash into givin' it a rest, before she wrecks town hall or somethin'...drastic."

Fluttershy bit her lip and nodded, and managed to take off with a delicate flapping of her wings, leaving Applejack behind with a little grin on her muzzle, shaking her head.

"Some ponies," AJ muttered, albeit fondly, and then went back to carefully picking up scattered apples.

--

"Did you see that, Fluttershy, I was awesome! I mean, I'm awesome all the time, but that was really, like, super-awesome..."

"Rainbow Dash?"

"...and I think I almost got this thing nailed down, I mean, I just need to add a few more spins, maybe if I use the cloud trick but..."

"E-excuse me, Rainbow..."

"...but if I make them go vertically this time, or no, if I make them go at all angles, like one going that way and one going that way..."

"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy squeaked desperately.

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow was instantly concerned at the fretful Fluttershy nearby. "What's wrong?"

Fluttershy's cheeks pinkened. "Um, I was just wondering, I mean, the town, I-I mean, Applejack is kinda, well, she's a little..."

Rainbow Dash hovered in place, her expression turning less concerned, and simultaneously less impressed, by the second.

"...she's just, um, they were just wondering if maybe you could just, you know, be a little more...um, careful, and that maybe you could practice somewhere else instead of Ponyville's market and maybe you could practice tomorrow when they're not around? If that's okay with you."

Fluttershy put on her best winning smile. Squee.

Rainbow Dash sighed and facehooved. "Ugh. AJ told you to tell me to give it a rest, huh?" Rainbow's body hung bonelessly in midair, as if suspended entirely by her wings, hooves dangling beneath her.

Fluttershy fidgeted, tapping her forehooves together timidly. "W-well, yes," she began.

"They, and by that I mean AJ, have no idea how hard it is to come up with this stuff!" Rainbow interrupted with a shout. "I'm the defending Best Young Flyer, Fluttershy, I can't just...wing it!"

"I know that it's important for you, Rainbow, but Applejack..."

"Oh, Applejack, Shmapple...jack?" Rainbow Dash began, then paused and looked thoughtful. "That sounded better in my head. Anyway, AJ can't possibly understand what it means to have to defend a title this prestigious! I mean, sure, she's got her rodeo thing and that's important too, but Celestia herself gave me that title!"

Rainbow Dash spun around Fluttershy and pressed up against Fluttershy's back, and made a grand, evocative gesture across the empty sky in front of her. "Stands full of admiring ponies, thousands of them. I got this now, I can do it, but it's gotta be just perfect!"

Dash spun Fluttershy around by the shoulders in midair, and shook her vehemently. "Just perfect! Don't you understand!"

Fluttershy nodded, frantically, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"And don't get me started on the Wonderbolts," Dash tore on, hovering away from Fluttershy to point out towards the distant, fuzzy columns of Cloudsdale. "I have got to impress them too. I can totally use these moves at the tryouts. Practicing anywhere else just isn't the same, I need the buildings for scale and distance and maneuvering training. Sweet Apple Acres is too regular, Everfree is too unpredictable, there's just noplace else that's the same!"

Rainbow Dash paused, expecting to hear some sort of rebuttal from Fluttershy. When silence greeted her instead, Rainbow Dash twirled around, and then groaned.

Fluttershy, faced with all the ferocity of Rainbow Dash on a rant, had curled into a ball again, fairly quivering, only her wings flapping behind her with just enough power to keep her airborne. Her embiggened eyes peered out at Dash, and she made a tiny, warbling sound of deference.

Rainbow Dash blinked at her friend and deflated again, sighing. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy. I mean, you know me, you know how important this is to me, right?" she said, voice cracking just a little.

Fluttershy uncurled a little, mollified, and nodded, "I-I know, Rainbow, b-but you've been working so, so, so hard already. You haven't even taken a nap!" She unwound a little more, just enough to rub her forehooves together anxiously. "If you keep going like this, you're going to get tired and start making mistakes and then you'll get frustrated and oh my Rainbow Dash, I'm just so worried."

Rainbow Dash sighed and drooped even further in midair, defeated and not as afraid to show it as she might be in front of some of the others. Few knew her as long or as well as Fluttershy. "I know," she admitted reluctantly. "But I don't want to waste a whole afternoon that I could be using for training!"

"You know, there's lots of training that doesn't involve flying around, Rainbow." Fluttershy frowned in thought, and then brightened considerably at the prospect of contributing a useful idea. "I bet Twilight could tell us how you can get better without having to fly around all the time."

"But training is flying around!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, exasperated. "What kind of training doesn't involve actually doing what you're supposed to be getting better at?"

"We could go ask? If that's okay with you," Fluttershy smiled, though she was still fretting her hooves.

"Egh. Fine," Rainbow sighed. "Maybe Twilight has some egghead way to make not-training not-boring. She did somehow manage to do the Running of the Leaves that time and ended up placing fifth, after all."

Fluttershy clapped her hooves together, perfectly delighted, and descended towards town with Rainbow Dash in reluctant tow.

--

"So what's left on the checklist?" Twilight asked, carefully munching on a levitating daffodil and daisy sandwich.

"Uhh..." Spike fumbled with the long scroll that he was rolling up, trying to keep it from spilling over his hay fries. "Lunch, more quills from Quill and Sofa, return Cheerilee's extra blackboard, and visit ... Rarity about getting gemstones for your enchantment experiment." Spike looked up from the scroll, suddenly dreamy-eyed. "Can we get a few spare gems while we're at it? I mean, you know, just in case."

Twilight smirked around her sandwich. "Really?" she said, taking another bite.

"What?" Spike said, self-consciously smoothing down his spines to make sure they all popped back up straight. "I mean, I could help her find more, it'd be no trouble at all."

"Uh huh." Twilight continued, rolling her eyes.

Spike frowned and pointed accusingly with a crispy hay fry. "Judge all you want, Twilight, but one day you'll be there, too."

Twilight arched an eyebrow. "Of course I'll be there, Spike," she replied obliviously. "I'm the one who needs the gemstones."

Spike's facepalm was cut short by the sudden appearance of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who descended abruptly tableside amidst a flapping of wings. Rainbow Dash's arrival was so sudden that the bowl of hayfries on the table wobbled precariously at her hooves hitting the ground beside them, Spike having to scrabble to keep it from toppling off the table.

"Hey, Twilight!" Rainbow began, before Twilight could even offer a greeting. "Do you know any not completely lame ways to practice flying that don't somehow involve flying?" Rainbow glared at Fluttershy as she descended to land with hardly a whisper from her hooves.

Fluttershy immediately quailed under Rainbow's look, ducking her head a little.

"Fluttershy here seems to think you know how to help me be radical without using my wings," Rainbow Dash finished, sounding unconvinced.

Fluttershy actually spoke up, distressed by the sudden return of Rainbow's bravado. "B-but Rainbow Dash, you just said that you thought that maybe..."

"I know what I said!" Rainbow Dash said defensively, though she chastened a little at Fluttershy's resulting hurt expression.

"Will you two stop arguing?" Twilight interrupted before Rainbow could manage an apology, setting down her sandwich with a sigh, the purple glow around it dissipating.

"Were we arguing again?" Fluttershy pouted. "I'm sorry."

Rainbow Dash glanced apologetically at Fluttershy, but her bravado instantly returned when she looked back to Twilight, opening her mouth to speak.

Twilight held up a hoof and shook her head. "Let me guess. Applejack vetoed your buzzing market street and now you're looking for some way to keep practicing that won't make AJ any more mad than she already is. Or, anypony else, for that matter."

Rainbow Dash blinked and squinted sidelong at the purple unicorn. "How do you know that?"

Twilight looked across the table, where Spike was one step ahead of her.

"Item number seventeen: Pay back Applejack for the extra bushel of apples last week," Spike read aloud, and looked pointedly over the edge of the scroll at Dash.

Rainbow Dash sheepishly nudged at the ground with a forehoof. "Oh."

"As it happens," Twilight began, with the air of someone starting a lecture - a tone that Rainbow knew well, and dreaded - "I've read several books on the subject of pegasi and flight training. Just in case you ever decided to come to me for advice," Twilight beamed, proudly.

"Ah, ah," Rainbow Dash quickly cut in, before Twilight could truly get on a roll. "Is there, like, a Clip Notes version of this?"

Twilight paused in mid-breath and furrowed her brow a little, annoyed at being denied an opportunity to Dispense Information. Rainbow Dash winced a little as she watched Twilight's internal debate about whether to forge ahead regardless play across her face, and felt a wash of relief when the bookish unicorn relented.

Dash suspected it had something to do with her daffodil and daisy sandwich starting to wilt on the table.

"You should try and do some things that will get your body prepared to work hard tomorrow, rather than training anymore today," Twilight explained, leaning back in her seat a little. "You've been at this all morning. If you're not careful and don't take care of yourself, you could get muscle cramps, loose feathers, who knows. Worse, when you're tired, you start making mistakes. And mistakes lead to..." Twilight eyed Rainbow Dash. "...library fines."

"Uh..." Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, while Fluttershy just looked confused. "Heh, er, yeah. Soooo, what do I do about it?"

"Go see Aloe and Lotus."

Rainbow Dash's muzzle contorted into a look of horror, while Fluttershy brightened up considerably. "The spa?" Both pegasi said simultaneously, one terrified, the other eager.

Twilight nodded, "Yup!"

"You're kidding, right?" Rainbow Dash cried, throwing her forehooves up in exasperation. "The spa is, like, the most boring place in all of Ponyville! You literally lay there, and do nothing, while you get poked and prodded by strangers! And then they put you in mud! And Celestia knows what else!" Dash's expression hardened. "And you know I hate having my hooves touched."

"Oh, it's not so bad, Rainbow," Fluttershy chimed in, quietly. "Aloe and Lotus are ever so nice. Rarity and I go every week and it's oh so comfortable and warm and relaxing..."

"That's what I mean!" Rainbow Dash insisted frantically, shaking her head. "They might do something to my...my hair! I'll get mud in my feathers! It'll...it'll wreck my aerodynamics! There's just no way!"

"Oh, that's nonsense, Rainbow Dash, you're just being silly," Fluttershy said sternly.

This provoked a stunned silence and a long stare from Rainbow and Twilight simultaneously. Spike leaned slowly forward, with a protesting squeak from his chair in the quiet, his disbelieving gaze peering around Rainbow's side inch by inch.

Fluttershy suddenly remembered who and where she was, and cowered with a squeak. "I mean, it's just really nice, and I think it would help and oh please don't be mad."

Rainbow Dash exchanged looks with Twilight, then shut her eyes briefly and shook her head. "Come on, Twilight, isn't there some kinda spell that you could use instead? A 'make pegasi even more wicked cool' spell, maybe?"

Twilight shook her head, and munched on her sandwich as Rainbow spoke, swallowing her mouthful. "Nope," she said, dabbing at her mouth with a levitated napkin. "You've asked me that before."

"I have?"

"On nine separate occasions."

"Oh."

Twilight nodded, "Yup. There's no substitute for genuine pampering. Fluttershy is right, Rainbow, you should at least give it a try. You can always tell them to hold the mud bath, and the hooficure. There's a whole menu!"

Twilight giggled around her next mouthful of daffodil, unable to keep the amusing image of a glowering Rainbow Dash sulking in a mudbath out of her mind, or the memory of Rainbow Dash darting away after Lotus tried to give her a hooficure. She couldn't decide what entertained her more.

"Trust me, Rainbow Dash, I'll tell Aloe and Lotus just what to do so it's extra easy for you. You won't have to worry about anything!" Fluttershy grinned up at Rainbow, nearly prancing.

Rainbow Dash sighed and drooped her head, her normally lively spectral mane somehow managing to take on a sagging appearance as well. She considered the possibility of muscle cramps and lost primaries that would lay her up for days...or weeks. She'd had them before when she pushed too hard. That stint in the hospital. The thought of enduring that again made her shiver in fear, and finally outweighed her reluctance.

"Okay," she said finally. "If you say so."