Rainbow Dash knocked her hoof on the door of the treehouse library. “Up and at ‘em, Twilight, we’re burning sunshine out here!”

“I’m coming!” called Twilight Sparkle from inside. After a few seconds the door opened and she displayed a soft-looking lavender headband and four ankle weights of the same color. “Good to see you again, Rainbow. I’m ready to work out!”

“You know that for the most part we’re training me, right? If I’m going to win this year’s Best Tween Flyer competition, I’m going to have to step up my game, and that’s where you come in!”

“Well, I’ve studied all I could on athletics and coaching, and I think there are definitely some ways I can bring you to your peak performance.”

“No, no, no. I don’t need all of that. What I need is something nopony’s ever done in a flying competition before, and you’re it!”

“OK, you want me to go back to the books and find something new you can do?”

“No! I already know something that nopony’s ever done: an entire routine while carrying another pony on her back.”

Twilight looked at her quizzically, then the meaning hit her.

“You mean, me?”

“Yeah! Well, starting with you since you weigh the least of all my friends. Except for Fluttershy, but if I do the routine carrying another pegasus, some ponies might think she’s helping out with her own wings. Eventually I’ll want to work my way up to carrying Applejack, but you’ll do for now. So take off those ankle weights.”

“OK, but be careful,” said Twilight, then to herself, “How do I let myself get talked into these things?”

Rainbow Dash knelt on the ground and Twilight straddled her crosswise. The pegasus lifted with her knees, straining until she reached her full height.

“Here we go! It’s a good thing there’s a decent breeze today, that’ll make takeoff easier.”

The wind that Rainbow had spoken of gusted in from the north. She faced that way, which led Twilight to ask, “Don’t you want to face the other way to get the tailwind with you?”

“Aw, Twilight, you don’t know anything about flying, no matter how many books you read. Takeoff is always easier into the wind, because it helps generate lift. Now hold still and don’t talk, this isn’t going to be easy.”

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and started trotting forward before breaking into a run. Still struggling, she pumped her wings several times and leaped in the air. She sank for a few meters, but then another strong gust blew the two of them upward. Rainbow had the measure of the wind and had Twilight’s weight balanced properly, and was able to start controlling her flight.

Rainbow called back to Twilight, shouting to make her voice heard. “Now, I don’t plan on doing any fancy tricks today, just getting the feel of carrying you. Not that that’s really a first, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, as a team, I’m pretty much carrying you on my back all the time, metaphorically speaking.”

“I. . . do you really think that, Rainbow? I like to think I’m a good friend.”

“Oh, you are. You’re great at making me look cool by comparison.”

Rainbow started to pick up speed, creating a greater wind around the two of them.

“I mean, every great champion needs to keep a sidekick around to handle the grunt work.”

“Rainbow Dash, I don’t know why you’re saying all this, but if you’re going to act this way, maybe you don’t need my help in this training, and you can drop me off.”

“Nah, you’re doing fine. Let’s face it, being dead weight is the perfect job for you. Everypony come and look! It’s geek delivery by airmail!”

She soared higher in the air, circling and making tight bank turns.

“Rainbow Dash, stop talking nonsense and bring me down. You’re scaring me!”

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot that in addition to being a geek, you’re also a wuss. You’d think that you’d be easier to carry without any backbone to get in the way. Or maybe you just need a little more sun!” She let out peals of mocking laughter.

And saying that, she started flying straight up, her spectrum mane flapping wildly as the wind whipped and howled around them. Twilight found herself slipping and turned so that she was prone to Rainbow, gripping the rapidly rising torso with her hooves, holding on for dear life.

“Slow down and get back under me, please! I’m losing my grip!”

“You never had much grip to begin with, Twilight! Maybe it’s time I shook off the losers like you and reached the heights I was meant to!”

Rainbow started weaving as she kept rising, perhaps ten thousand feet in the air by now, Twilight’s hooves were getting sweatier, and she slid backwards off the cyan pegasus’s body. She felt herself lose purchase, and with one last desperate grasp, grabbed a hold of a rainbow-colored tail.

“Please!” cried Twilight in desperation.

“Let go of my tail, you crybaby nerd! This tail is much too stylish for the likes of you!”

Twilight felt the strands in her hooves slide, then start to come out, and she fell. Terrible fear took her, and she never had a chance to think of anything but the fear.

Rainbow Dash called from above her, “Looks like I’ll see you at the end of this fall! Anyone order a magical pancake?!”

The endless feeling of plummeting suffused Twilight. She couldn’t turn herself, couldn’t do anything, only stare at the blue sky and the blinding sun. The sun was awfully bright, and she blinked in spite of herself, as the sensation of falling lessened, as the light made her open her eyes, as she landed softly in her bed, as she woke up.

Twilight got out of bed and looked out the window at the town clock. It was just after seven in the morning, and it occurred to her that the peals of laughter she heard in her dream might well have been the chiming of the hour. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs, and spoke out loud to nopony in particular.

“Ugh, what a bad dream. I don’t know which was worse, the falling or the taunting. Thank Celestia that the real Rainbow Dash is nothing like that.” Seven o’clock, she thought. Well, she had gone to bed at eleven the night before, so that was a full night’s sleep.

Spike was still abed, so Twilight started magically opening curtains to let the morning sun in. He woke up and rubbed his eyes.

“And how did my little dragon sleep?” she asked.

“Just fine. You look a little tired still.”

“No, just had a bad dream. Nothing worth mentioning. So what’s on today’s agenda?”

The dragon hopped up and headed over to a stand where a day planner was opened. “Well, I’ve got the important events triple highlighted and circled, those being breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and between those just some work on the card catalog and hunting down a few ponies with overdue books. Then this afternoon you’re going to meet Rarity at the spa.”

Right, she thought. I’d forgotten about seeing Rarity today. Well, that should be the extra relaxation she needed after her scare, so long as she wasn’t stressed out by Spike asking her to put in a good word for him once again.