The Wind Beneath Her Wings

Timeline: 2-3 weeks after the day after the night before.

"Dash, where do you keep your shampoo?" Twilight called, her voice echoing around Rainbow Dash's house in the way only a cloud house can, the light, thin walls letting almost all sound pass through unimpeded, and the heavier outer walls blocking it and letting some bounce off. Twilight hated it, it was like living in an opera house. Dash loved it, it meant she got to hear her own voice more.

"My what?" Dash groaned, rolling over and sitting up in her comfortable cloud bed, rubbing her eyes with a hoof and wondering to Celestia why anypony would be awake at the absurdly early time of 10:30.

"Shampoo, Dash! Have you seen my mane? Rarity'd have a fit if I went out like this!" Twilight yelled back, the unmistakable tinge of desperation entering into her voice. Why was her mane such a mess? Dash thought back to the night before, and remembered - the same reason her mane was. The same reason the clouds supporting her were probably going to need cleaning, and the same reason her legs were kinda sore.

"Oh, right, that" Dash awkwardly laughed, scratching the back of her neck with her hoof even though there was nopony around to see it, "I'm all out. Been meaning to buy some more for like, weeks now, heh"

Twilight twitched slightly. Some days she thought Rainbow Dash made it her day's task (Literally, the day's task. Between all of her sleeping and training, Twilight didn't think Dash achieved much else. She'd offered to write up a schedule for her, but Dash had refused) to drive her crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Today was one of those days. Twilight clearly remembered the night before, the way Dash had quite literally swept her of off her hooves and carried her up to her house, intent on ravishing her body and leaving her a sticky mess come morning. Twilight, of course, had complained bitterly - not only was it unplanned, Twilight had a report that needed to be finished by midday and sent off to Celestia. Should she miss her deadline, who knew what could happen? It was unlikely that her report on the life cycles of one of the indigenous species of insect was of critical importance to the running of the kingdom, but Celestia worked in mysterious ways.

Twilight had relented, on the condition that Dash wake her up bright and early so she could go and finish up, there wasn't really more than a few hours work left to it. Dash had, of course, agreed quite enthusiastically and immediately gotten on with the ravishing, and Twilight had found herself quite unable to care about small insects soon afterwards. Now, of course, was quite different. Twilight had a headache from oversleeping, her left hindleg ached every time she twisted it to the right, she hadn't had any coffee, and her mane kept getting in her eyes.

"Dash, I can't believe you! I asked you to wake me, now I'll never get this done! Oh, Celestia's going to be so disappointed" Twilight shouted through, rummaging through Dash's ill-stocked bathroom for something - anything - she could use to clean her mane and coat.

"Just keep it under the water a while, Twi, that's what I do. You like my mane, don't you?" Dash replied, rolling back over in bed and pulling the covers closer to her, relishing in the heat and closing her eyes again.

Twilight sighed, ceasing her search and giving the cloud on the bathroom roof a quick buck. Moments later, it started to rain heavily, and warmly. Shower-clouds were fascinating, the first time Twilight had slept over at Dash's house they'd tried the shower out together. Unfortunately she'd been a little distracted and hadn't looked around for shampoo, else this whole disaster might have been averted. Twilight had looked up how they worked the very moment she got back to her library and spent the rest of the day engulfed in a pile of books on cloud-tech, discovering everything from how rainbows are synthesised, to what the purpose of lightning was. She'd started to gush about it all to Dash the next time they met up, only to find out that Dash already knew it all, and in more detail than the books went into to boot. They didn't sleep much that night, but Twilight didn't mind, she learned an awful lot.

The water was hot - not quite scalding, but hot enough. Twilight preferred her water a little colder than Dash, but she was nowhere near experienced enough to feel comfortable reconfiguring her clouds, and the wet heat rushing against her face wasn't that bad. The water flowed over her body, soaking her to the bone and hopefully dissolving all of the remnants of the last night's activities. It dripped off of the tip of her horn, and rolled down her legs in tiny winding rivers, always bending and shifting as the water took different paths over her body.

Focussing her mind, Twilight imagined a brush. Something simple, with dozens of little spokes on it that she could run through her hair to eliminate the knots and remove the tangles. A simple enough task to make such a shape with her magic, and she was soon running the invisible tool through her mane and tail, wincing slightly every few moments as the magical force caught against a stray loop or bend in a hair. Without any kind of shampoo or conditioner that was the best she could do on short notice.

Imagining the spokes growing shorter, Twilight took her mental device over to her coat, brushing it as clean as she could. She liked this bit, it felt nice - calming. She made a mental note to buy a physical brush that Dash could use, and maybe a bouquet of roses to convince her to use it. Dash always loved a snack after a long shower.

Sighing quietly as she ran her magic over her still-sensitive body, Twilight let her neck stretch upwards and allowed the water to run all over her face, against her closed eyelids and around her mouth and nose. She spluttered slightly as a little water gathered around her tongue - doing that always felt like a better idea before you'd started.

"You done yet, Twi?" Dash casually asked from her position leaning against the open bathroom door, where she'd apparently been standing for quite some time, watching the purple mare effectively grope herself. Twilight blushed and shoved the door closed with a horn-pulse - she didn't mind Dash watching, per-se, but she'd appreciate a warning, If only so she could try and act a little more dignified.

The mood ruined, Twilight quickly finished up, shutting the cloud off with a magical push and grabbing a set of towels from the corner of the room, wrapping a few around her mane, tail, and body. What was the time? 11:00.

Dash, still slightly dazed from being roughly thrown into the soft wall, was knocked over once more as the bathroom door was flung open. "Dash, I'm do- Dash?" Twilight called out, stopping when she realised the blue Pegasus was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, there you are! Don't stand so close to the door next time, then" Twilight not-apologised, motioning back to the bathroom with a wave of her hoof to tell Dash that it was free now. "Anyway, I've got an hour to do 3 hours of work, so see you around Dash" she continued, punctuating the end of her sentence with a bright flash and a teleport.

"Twi, wait, I... damnit" Dash quickly interrupted, hoping to catch Twilight's attention before she vanished. "Love you" she bitterly added, wandering into the bathroom and giving the showercloud a potent buck. The torrent of water hit her like a tonne of bricks, flattening her mane against her body in an instant. The water was too hot, Twilight liked it colder than this, Dash realised with a grimace. Nopony had told her that having a "special somepony" would be as much work as it was play. When Derpy had sold her that hearts and hooves day card (The one she'd almost, but not quite, gotten the courage to actually use) it hadn't come with a disclaimer.

"Warning", Dash muttered to herself, "Gorgeous purple unicorns are probably too good for you anyway". She sighed, dropping her head and letting the water run over her face, part of the stream running down her nose straight into her mouth and down her throat. Coughing, Dash pulled herself out of the shower and landed against one of the drier walls, the cloud quickly absorbing most of her excess water. No shower today, then. Twilight would nag at her, but Twilight seemed to do that a lot. Dash knew she didn't mean anything by it, but she still did it. Maybe she should take a little more care of herself, and maybe she should take life a little more seriously, but she didn't. That was just how she was.

Dash punched the wall in frustration, her hoof going straight through the thin cloud. Why did she have to be so insecure about all this? Because what, Twilight left without saying "I love you" again? Twilight was right, Dash should have woken her up. She was rushed now, it was entirely Dash's fault. With a sigh, Dash resigned herself to just apologising later and got on with getting ready for work, trotting over to her towel cupboard and pulling out absolutely nothing, because there were no towels in her towel cupboard. Twilight's habit of teleporting back home on a morning had finally robbed her of every towel she owned.

"Okay, no problem" Dash thought to herself, "I live in a house made out of clouds." She shoved her head into the nearest wall, moving around and trying to collect as much cloud against her mane as she could, hoping they'd suck the excess moisture out.

What was the time now? 11:05. The one schedule Dash had let Twilight write up for her was her weather shifts, it proved a lot easier to have them all on one sheet than having to page through dozens of different lists to find where she was meant to be and when. Thus, it took her no time at all to find out that today's shift had started 35 minutes ago.

"Oh, Dash, you featherbrain" she groaned into the inattentive house and set off towards the window at a gallop, jumping through and spreading her wings the moment she was clear. Shaking her head to knock off the cloudbits, Dash began to beat her wings, picking up speed with every flap and feeling the wind rush against every part of her body. If hooking up with Twilight had taught her one thing, it was that when she'd said that flight felt better than sex, she hadn't been lying.

Her wet mane quickly dried as Dash cut through the air as quickly as she felt comfortable going this close to Ponyville. The Sonic Rainboom had long since become her signature move, and she could do it with a hoof tied behind her back, but ponies tended to complain about the noise, never mind the shockwave. Dash kept subsonic most of the time, it was easier. Even so, feeling the air currents whip around her, each feather on her outstretched wings sensing almost imperceptible changes in temperature, air density, wind speed, updraughts, humidity, and more factors - only some of which Dash could pronounce - and shifting slightly to keep her flight steady.

Nothing could touch Dash in the air. In her element, she felt indestructible. Her unshakable self-confidence took over from the part of her that still felt like a scared filly and let her forget her problems - so Twilight didn't say "I love you", so what? She could see it in her eyes. Everyone could, half the town had come to congratulate her on finally getting her mare. Even though she hadn't told them, and she was pretty sure that she'd hidden it perfectly. Dash assumed that Pinkie had told them, even though she swore blind she hadn't.

Even though Dash's shift today was on the outskirts of the land around Ponyville, and basically as far away as you could get without actually entering Manehatten's airspace, she reached it in barely any time at all. Dash was proud of her cruising speed, always straddling the speed of sound but never actually going over it. Twilight said she'd heard the other Pegasi being quite jealous of it.

"Dash!" shouted a stray cloud right in the middle of Dash's territory, shaking slightly as the pony inside of it pulled herself out. Cloud Kicker continued, "You were meant to start half an hour ago!"

"Yeah, sorry, I was too busy having sex with my girlfriend." Dash snapped, her fine mood broken by yet another pony nagging at her. She RAN the weather team, who did Cloud Kicker think she was to call her out on being late? Sure, Dash had delegated her to doing the schedules (Because Dash couldn't be bothered to do it herself), but that didn't give her the right to enforce them, did it?

Dash guessed it kinda did. Then she felt like a bit of a dick, she knew full well that Cloud Kicker was alone, and she knew full well what that felt like - it'd only been a few weeks, after all. Dash didn't apologise for things, though - if you said something, you said it, as far as she was concerned.

"Great, Dash, but now your girlfriend is going to have to deal with a storm next week because there's no way you can get enough clouds in position before today's rains." Cloud Kicker countered, not taking pity as she started to explain exactly how Dash wasn't doing her job, "Without those rains, of course, the farm can't grow their crops, and without crops we don't have food. But no, Dash, I'm sure what you were doing was far more important. Pull yourself together and do your job"

"I... I run this team! I could fire you!" Dash yelled after the retreating Cloud Kicker as she flew off to do her own job. "I... I could" she whimpered afterwards, sitting down on one of the few clouds hanging around in the sky. She was right, Dash'd screwed up.

She could worry about that later, though - right now she had about 40 minutes to pull together a decent sized storm. At her regular speed, the weather station was about 5 minutes flight away and Cloud Kicker was right, she didn't stand a chance of making enough round trips to have a good storm going. At her full speed? Dash didn't know, but she was going to find out.

39 minutes, 30 seconds later, Dash crashed onto her thick, wide island of cloud, the huge mass of thick vapour easily supporting her weight and letting her lie there exhausted. She was pretty sure she'd broken the current airspeed record (Which, of course, she'd set) and was absolutely certain she'd get a pile of complaint letters over the next few days whining about the noise. Dash grinned - everybody in town knew about it when she flew that fast. Probably everybody in Manehatten, too. Hell, the repeated rainbooms for each lap were probably noticeable in Canterlot. All in all, a good day's work.

As with every good day's work, Dash punctuated it with a nap. Her body lay sprawled on the cloudscape as she softly slumbered, not even waking up as her shift ended and another team of Pegasi arrived to shift her clouds over into position, watering part of the town. Even as the clouds started to drain and the midday sun began to slink down the sky, growing colder with every moment, Dash remained contentedly napping. Nobody would wake her up like this - she was adorable when she slept, and irritable if she was awoken. Better to let a sleeping horse lie.

"Rainbow, wake up!" Cloud Kicker shouted as she performed her trademark action on the cloud beneath Dash, shocking her awake and immediately putting her on the defensive. Dash held her hooves close to her body and kept her wings on edge, a completely instinctual reaction, and one that would have kept an uncivilised Pegasus alive - not so necessary in modern society.

"Oh, what the hay Cloud? Right in the middle of dreaming about racing, too!" Dash complained as she noticed what'd happened and started to calm down, fighting against the adrenaline still racing through her body. "I got the damn clouds, what more do you want from me?"

"I didn't say you couldn't do it as a challenge, Dash, because I didn't think you were stupid enough to fly that fast immediately above Ponyville, never mind do it a dozen times. Do you even know how many windows you broke?"

Dash grinned - much as she shouldn't be proud of wanton destruction, it always gave her a primal thrill to be told how much damage she could cause even when she was trying her best to keep the shockwave away from populated areas. "Man, I dunno. All of 'em?"

It was Cloud Kicker's turn to grin as she bore the bad news, saying with just the tiniest hint of glee in her voice "Nope! Just one. Twilight's. She shielded the town from the rest, but boy is she pissed." Her grin widened a little as she jokingly added "I think I even saw her jabbing needles through a little Rainbow doll's eyes", enjoying her chance to make Dash squirm without actually putting her job on the line. She knew Dash would never actually fire her, that would mean she might have to do some legitimate work until she could find somepony else stupid enough to take on all the scheduling work, but Dash could still make her life difficult if she wanted to. Normally Cloud Kicker kept it to light teasing or the occasional justified rant if Dash particularly screwed up, but today she finally had an excuse, and she was loving it.

"Aw hay" Dash gulped, her fur somehow becoming noticeably whiter, "just what I needed." Dash figured she should probably go and explain herself. Hopefully she wouldn't have to apologise for being so awesome she could break windows with a beat of her wings, but Twilight didn't always see things that way.

Actually, Twilight never saw things that way. Maybe Dash should apologise, that might come across better. She could work that out when she got there, Dash figured as she mumbled a thanks to Cloud Kicker and jumped off of the cloud, spreading her wings and gliding down into town.

Twilight's library seemed fine from the outside, barely a leaf out of place - and that was justified given the rainstorm. Dash glided around the library, looking for an open window to dive through - Twilight always kept a window open these days, so Dash could pop in whenever she was free and they could do things together. Sometimes they even made it to the door before Dash's impressively awesome, amazingly windswept mane overwhelmed Twilight's senses and caused her to swoon, or so Dash liked to believe.

There were no open windows. Not a one. Not even the bedroom window - that one stung. Hell, Dash deserved it, she'd been nothing but a pain in Twilight's side today - from being useless to her in the morning, to actively getting in the way of her work, to breaking her house and inconveniencing her further by forcing her to protect the town, Dash wouldn't be surprised if Twilight didn't want to see her at all.

Dash tilted a wing and pulled another back, twisting in the air and swooping down, landing perfectly on Twilight's doorstep. If only there had been somepony around to see that, Dash lamented as she raised a hoof to the door, and after a few moments hesitation, knocked.

"Dash, is that you?" she heard Twilight call from somewhere deep within her library. Twilight clearly wanted to be left alone - only a Pegasus (or Pinkie Pie) would have even heard that, and that she was asking for Dash specifically... Twilight clearly wasn't in a good mood.

"Yeah, it's me - you gonna open up?" Dash shouted back, calling through the door and starting to become slightly irritated at how soaking wet the rain was getting her. At least her feathers were waterproof, but her coat wasn't. At least Twilight had all of her towels.

The door glowed almost imperceptibly and swung open, as if by an invisible hand, and Dash quickly stuck to her name and dashed inside, away from the chilling rains she herself had created.

Immediately, she was jumped at, attacked from every direction at once by magically enchanted items scraping against her coat and pushing against her wings, while other magical tendrils pulled them taut, presumably ready to be attacked by other waiting instruments. "I- ow!- I'm sorry, Twilight! I didn't think, okay?" she called out as the great planes of something wrapped around her, binding her limbs and holding her tight. She didn't know what Twilight wanted with her, but it was surely not good.

"Ow, jeez, look, I'm sorry, okay? I should have listened to you! I didn't mean to annoy you, I'm sorry!" Dash continued as Twilight's assault continued, the white, fluffy towels pressing themselves against her body and rubbing around, soaking up the rain and leaving Dash much drier. Unfortunately, it also left her coat and mane standing on end, making her look completely ridiculous.

Apt, given how she felt as she came to understand that the "unprompted" and "brutal" "attack" was a kind and soft towelling, the previously distant and shadowed Twilight now more clearly just one standing across the room, laughing at Dash's messy coat and terrified expression. Dash silently thanked that Unicorns didn't have anywhere near as good hearing as she did and started to walk over, shrugging off the towels wrapped around her wings.

"You... aren't mad at me?" Dash squeaked, her body still shivering slightly as she fought off the fight or flight instincts and instructed it to do neither.

"Huh? No, why would I be mad at you?" Twilight replied, raising an eyebrow as if she actually didn't understand what Dash was talking about. Knowing Twilight, she probably didn't.

"But... your windows were closed, and you seemed really mad earlier, and then Cloud Kicker told me I broke your window and you were even madder!" Dash explained, not entirely convinced that Twilight was bring completely honest and that she wasn't actually mad.

"It's raining, Dash. I closed the window so everything didn't get wet." Twilight explained, speaking as she would to a small foal as she explained the concepts so obvious to her, "and as for your stunts earlier, you looked great! I can't believe you didn't pass out, we'll have to make use of that endurance later. I fixed the window and held back the shockwaves, I was glad for the practice, honestly." she continued, making Dash blush with the way she'd so plainly weave plans for a late night rendezvous into a conversation, not stopping to think how it'd sound. It was exciting when they were alone, but embarrassing when they weren't.

"So... you aren't mad at me?" Dash grinned, wanting to make sure she hadn't misheard, "you got your report off and everything?"

"Sure did, it didn't take as long as I'd thought, not once I made Spike help. That was everything on today's to-do list, too, I wanted to keep this evening free. Of course, I've sent Spike out, he's looking after Applebloom and her friends - or they're looking after him, I'm never quite sure which" Twilight laughed, "but anyway, tonight's free"

Dash took the hint, leaning forward and giving Twilight a light kiss on the corner of her mouth, tilting her head slightly and breathing in deep. The relief of knowing she hadn't, in fact, screwed everything up felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off of her wings, and she felt ready for everything - even if her body still ached slightly from the day's overexertion, she didn't want to disappoint Twilight again.

Twilight closed her eyes in return and rested her forehead against Dash's, the edge of her horn resting against her mane for just a moment until she pulled back. "No, Dash, I mean I need to talk to you" she said in a serious tone, shattering Dash's false sense of security.

"Oh?" Dash croaked, the rising dread in her stomach telling her what was coming. She'd learned to trust her gut from years of flight, where a split second's hesitation could land you in hospital, or worse. Her gut was telling her run, just dart for the window. At this distance she knew she could build up enough speed to break through it, and if she kept her wings close to her body while she did it she'd have no trouble fitting through. Then she could be away, flying through the open sky where there wasn't a force in Equestria that could stop her.

Dash mentally slapped her body - reactions like that were no help here. Running away wouldn't solve anything, and anyway, if Twilight really wanted to talk it's not like she wasn't capable of teleporting Dash to her. She'd done it before, after all - not that she'd wanted to talk.

"Yeah. I was talking to Cloud Kicker earlier, eventually I managed to stop her ranting for long enough to actually figure out what her problem with you was, and I agree. You're kinda out of control, Dash. It's not just this morning, it's you. I don't want to say you're lazy, but really, I think something has to change"

Dash felt her heart forcibly rip itself out of her chest and start pulling its way around inside her body, trying to fly out of her mouth and presumably fall onto the floor where it could die with dignity. She fell back, resting on her rear and barely holding herself up with her forelegs, her wings resting weakly by her side, too distracted to even fold in beside her. All thoughts of escape had fled her mind, leaving it preoccupied with the complete collapse of everything she held dear. How would the Wonderbolts ever accept a pony who couldn't even keep the mare of her dreams for a single month? What did that say about her dedication?

"So, I've been wanting to do this for a while, but it can't really wait any longer or we're both going to get hurt. I know this won't really seem fair right now, but it really is the only way, you're going to have to move in." Twilight continued in her stable, serious voice, completely oblivious to the way Dash's dreams were lying in a confused and broken pile in front of her. "It just makes too much sense, I'll be able to work better, you'll be closer to the town, I can wake you up so you're not late and make sure we have all the essentials, and we can fix this stupid towel problem. I have towels behind bookshelves now, you know? I don't want them, please take them back! Anyway, I think it's important we do this. I don't want to force you into making any snap decisions, but my timetable is completely free until tomorrow, so we could go bring anything you want over here right now"

Dash's brutalised and devastated heart meekly shuffled back into position, reducing the load on her chest and starting its work gluing her dreams back together, starting with the twin revelations that she hadn't lost Twilight, and that Twilight really needed some lessons in tact.

"I... uh, yeah! Twi I'd love to! I guess I don't really have much to bring, just all my weather stuff and few clouds but sure, let's get this over with!" Dash almost-squeed, grinning an enthusiastic, relieved grin as she hopped around on her hooves just a little, unsettling the towels still wrapped around her body. Twilight was right, between them they had way too many towels. Dash could get official government towels through her weather patrol status, and she did so often - it was the only way she knew to get towels with her cutie mark emblazoned on them. Dash loved government funding.

"Excellent!" Twilight agreed, knocking her hooves together in something resembling applause as she jumped past Dash and opened the door, staring out into the pouring rain, punctuated by the occasional clap of thunder. Her vision was limited, and Dash's capable Pegasus eyes weren't much better. All things considered, going out into it would be a terrible idea.

Twilight closed her eyes, concentrating on the world around her. Everything grew still as her horn began to glow, and she started to draw upon her magic once more. One of the first things Twilight had been taught, back at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, was the tool she'd need to control the vast reserves of power she could command - the ability to clear her mind of distractions and concentrate on what was really important.

Using just a little of her power to help see the world around her still and unchanging she could perform tasks needing incredible accuracy or co-ordination. At first, it had been difficult, but as the years went by it became as natural as breathing. She could do anything from fixing a shattered window pane to plucking raindrops out of the air to keep a pair of ponies dry.

She sensed Dash's mouth begin to open, the electrical impulses in her brain firing off and telling various muscles to expand or contract in the right sequence to form the words "Got an umbrella?"

"I... oh", Twilight blushed, letting the glow of her horn dim slightly as she came out of her trance, imagining an umbrella made for two and effortlessly creating an appropriately shaped lump of magic. Maybe she'd been going for overkill just a little. "Come on, then, we can make it in under 10 minutes if we run"

"Or under 2 if we fly!" Dash replied with the sort of grin that Twilight had come to know as her "I have a terrible idea, but I haven't realised just how terrible it is" grin.

"I've never even done that spell on myself, Dash, and I wouldn't feel comfortable flying in these winds anyway" Twilight patiently explained, telling Dash exactly why her idea wasn't going to work. The small part of Twilight's mind that always said "Oh, go on, what's the harm?" was very angry at her for doing it, but she only listened to that part of herself when she was desperate.

Dash's grin widened as she set off on a run, straight at Twilight, shedding the towels wrapped around her body as she went. "That's not what I meant!" she laughed, pouncing at Twilight and knocking both of them out of the door as she wrapped her legs around Twilight's body, holding her tight as she spread her wings and flapped hard, pulling both of them up into the sky.

Twilight, to her credit, even managed to keep them dry, concentrating on keeping the magical umbrella in the right position to block the rain to stop herself from being absolutely terrified. "DASH!" she started to yell as that plan faltered, "DASH PUT ME DOWN YOU'RE GOING TO DROP ME, DASH!"

Dash answered by hugging her tighter, squeezing Twilight's body snugly against her and keeping her secure. "C'mon, Twi, you know I can do this. Just stop wriggling and we'll be fine!" she said with a confident, slightly irritating grin. Nothing could get Dash down in the air, the air was her home. Twilight repeated that to herself, hoping that if she said it enough, she'd start believing it - not all of the crashes she'd seen had been intentional, after all.

Twilight fell silent, holding on to Dash's hooves with all the strength she could muster. Dash's face was hardened in concentration, and neither of them were speaking. The air was filled with the sound of raindrops splattering against the ground beneath, and splashing against the magic field Twilight was holding a few inches ahead of them. Each slow, strong beat of Dash's wings cut through the air almost silently, throwing what seemed like a strong gale against Twilight's body - it made sense, Dash had a lot of weight to hold up.

Dash may have been steely and determined on the outside, but inside she wanted nothing more than to start loop-the-looping, whooping and cheering, and anything else that came to mind. Twilight - in her arms! Sure, Twilight could probably catch herself if she fell, but that wasn't the point, Twilight wasn't even struggling. There were a dozen ways she could escape Dash's arms, but she wasn't. Dash wouldn't have minded staying like this forever.

"Dash? Dash! Your house! Dash!!" Twilight screeched as Dash, lost in thought, plowed straight through one of the walls of her house, breaking through and crashing on the room's floor, thankfully unhurt.

"Heh, I uh... I meant to do that! I always hated that wall anyway!" Dash grinned, almost convincing Twilight she hadn't just come within an inch of death.

"Right. Let's just grab your stuff and head back, okay?" Twilight said as she pulled herself up onto her hooves and started to walk around. They'd landed in the bedroom. Twilight knew her way around Dash's bedroom quite well, and wasted no time in locating all of the various papers, folders, and inserts that comprised Dash's weather patrol paperwork. It was a mess - none of the sheets were dated, and those that were just included the day, not the month. Some just had the year hastily scrawled on the upper left, and others were practically illegible. Twilight assumed that Dash's position had more to do with her ability to get stuff done than her ability to document it.

"This all the weather stuff?" Twilight asked as she started to pull the papers together into a stack, putting them into the best order she could. She'd have to look over them more closely later, perhaps have a look in Canterlot's library for any spells that could help identify how old something was.

"Huh? Oh, most of it. The rest is down in the kitchen" Dash replied, her head poking around her bathroom door as she momentarily stopped trying to pull her shower-cloud out of the roof. A few moments of awkward staring and silence later, she added "What? I do it with breakfast sometimes. It's only a little stained!"

Twilight sighed and dutifully trotted downstairs to gather the other papers, thankful that at least once she had Dash safely back home she could start stamping out behaviour like this.

A little while later, the two looked at the small pile of things resting on Dash's floor. "Y'know, I thought I had more stuff than this" Dash said as she realised how impressively few things she really had. Other than the various pieces of paperwork for her job, every one covered in ink and her hatred, she had a few utility clouds, a stack of flight magazines, the dictionary she'd bought on the cheap because Twilight had implied she didn't have one, and a couple of reference books she hadn't opened since her Flight School days. Other than that, her house could blow away on the wind and she'd never really miss anything.

"Nothing wrong with living light, Dash" Twilight comforted her, noticing the vaguely pained expression on the rainbow mare's face. "You remember when I moved in? The deliveries didn't stop for weeks. I thought Spike would sleep for days by the end of it, but he didn't, the little trooper." She smiled, resting her hoof against Dash's neck - Twilight knew these moments of weakness didn't come along often, Dash was by far the strongest pony she knew. She wanted to be there for her, knowing that Dash would always be there in return.

"Heh, yeah, you're right. Come on, let's get this stuff back to yo... home" Dash grinned, hiding behind a veil of indestructibility once more. "I can't carry all this AND you, though"

"Oh, I can do that" Twilight nonchalantly admitted, concentrating for a moment and raising the small pile into the air, surrounded by a translucent red layer, protecting it from the elements. Turning around and facing away from Dash, Twilight lowered her neck and invited Dash to mount her. In a manner of speaking. "What're you waiting for, Dash? Get on." she added after a few moments of Dash being slightly distracted by Twilight pushing her behind straight into her field of vision.

Hopping up, Dash grabbed Twilight once more, being more careful this time, given that she was the only thing securing literally all her early possessions. And the mare of her dreams, that too. Slowly flapping, they rose up, and flew out of the same hole they'd entered, straight back out into the storm.

Dash's mane was instantly pressed against her face as the torrential flood of water slammed into her, the very tip of it rubbing against Twilight's upper body as she received much the same treatment, albeit lessened due to hiding beneath Dash. "Twilight! What happened to the magic?" Dash spat, clearing a small pool of rainwater out of her mouth as she spoke.

"I can only do so much at once, Dash!" Twilight lied, "Do you want all your stuff getting wet?" Twilight was, of course, more than capable of shielding both of them. Were she to really concentrate, Twilight was pretty sure she could stop every raindrop in the sky dead, but she was willing to take the ego hit if it meant enacting the second part of what she'd spent the afternoon idly planning.

"I... I guess" Dash shouted over the deafening roar, the storm now very much in full swing. Maybe a little more rain than was asked for, and Dash slightly regretted showing off when building it. Powering on, Dash went as fast as she felt comfortable while carrying Twilight - which turned out to be her regular cruising speed anyway. She was in the air, even in heavy winds and heavier rains, and far less aerodynamic than normal, the Pegasus imperative to fly never left her.

30 seconds later, they dived down at the library, Twilight remotely opening the door and sending the pile of things in ahead of them. Unbeknown to Dash, she was also pulling out the towels strategically hidden throughout the room to make a fluffy, comfortable crash landing pad. Not that Dash knew she was going to crash yet.

"Hey, Dash!" she yelled as they neared the end of their dive, "Think you can make it through the door before we land?"

"Uh, yeah!" she screamed back, narrowing her eyes and subconsciously working out a flight vector, adjusting for wind as naturally as she breathed, and twisted a wing just a little to take her on a smooth curve through the door.

As they passed through the doorframe, Twilight sprung her plan into action, grabbing hold of Dash's wings with a magical force and pulling them to her side, sending both of them tumbling to the comfortable, water-absorbent floor beneath, and twisting them around in the air.

"Gah, Twi, don't d-" Dash started, her words cutting off as her back impacted against the towelled support and the sudden change in momentum drove Twilight straight at her, just as planned. Her mouth open, halfway through her vocalisation, Twilight found no issue meeting her in an unprompted kiss.

Dash, despite her normal insanely fast reactions, found herself frozen and slightly zoning out as she felt Twilight's tongue roll around her mouth, pressing against her cheeks and entangling with her own, which was reacting without her acknowledgement or care. Twilight's body pressed against Dash's, a hoof stretched out to either side to keep herself balanced and hold Dash in place for a much-anticipated ravishing.

"All day I've been planning this" Twilight breathlessly panted as she broke the kiss, pulling slightly away and resting her head against Dash's chin to catch her breath. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to leave your stupidly pretty body alone in the morning?" she continued, jokingly complaining, but secretly very happy she could schedule morning activities now.

"Heh. Hey, we should go get cleaned up" Dash suggested, fully aware of what dirty rainwater would do to her wings if she left it alone too long, and fully aware that Twilight wouldn't let her do it alone.

"Oh, great idea! Hang on, I'll go get the shampoos" Twilight agreed, bouncing off of Dash and trotting over through to another room, retuning a moment later with several bottles floating by her head. Impatiently, Twilight picked Dash up and had her join the bottles behind her as she forcibly dragged the lot up her stairs and into the bathroom, setting each item down where it belonged - one shampoo bottle on the shelf, one inside the cupboard as a spare, and a Rainbow Dash inside that bathtub directly underneath the already running shower head, just as hot as she always liked it.

Jumping in behind her, Twilight pulled the shower curtain shut around them - her bathroom wasn't made of water-absorbent clouds, after all - and stared at Dash from the opposite end of the bathtub with 'that look' in her eye. The one that would terrify fillies, confuse stallions, and excite Rainbow Dashes.

Though Twilight wasn't as athletic as her multicoloured target, her dive was still impressive, striking Dash in the middle of her chest and knocking her backwards, pressing her against the smooth back of the bathtub and keeping both of them directly in the path of the arcing water shooting from the showerhead above, the constant stream of water rushing over their bodies and beginning to clear away the day's dirt.

Grabbing a conveniently placed cloth in her mouth, Twilight got to work - if Dash wanted to be clean, Twilight was going to make sure of it. After squeezing a little shower gel onto it, Twilight gripped it more securely in her mouth and lowered her head to Dash's neck. Slowly, she began to rub, keeping Dash pinned in place with a hoof while she slowly ran the soft, frothy cloth over Dash's neck and upper chest, paying special attention to making sure every inch of her beautiful blue body was made spotless.

Dash wasn't used to such pampering - though Rarity had once tried to convince her to visit the spa, the ensuing minutes of laughter ensured she never tried again. This was new - this was nice. Most of their sessions so far had been snatched hours from a busy schedule, more frantic and heated than this slow, intimate encounter.

Twilight continued, spurred on by Dash's happy sighs, as she moved a little lower, across Dash's stomach. Most importantly, the bases of her wings. Dash gasped as she felt the silky fabric start to tease against her feathers, closing her eyes as Twilight carefully rubbed further down, cleaning the dirty water away and leaving a soft trail of bubbles in her wake, across the entire length of Dash's wing. Twilight was especially careful given that she knew from experience just how sensitive Dash's wings could be, and didn't want to tire her out too quickly.

Quickly giving the other wing the same treatment, Twilight continued onwards, grinning with the material between her teeth as she saw that Dash was quickly being reduced to putty in her hooves by the slow pampering. Moving down further, Twilight rubbed lower, scraping the soft sheet over Dash's stomach and teasing the very top of her thin pink pony slit, tickling over the tip of it just enough to wake Dash up.

"Mrow", Dash whispered as she looked down at Twilight, her head practically touching the bottom of the bath as she leant down in front of Dash, her hindquarters sticking upwards into the air and her tail prominently raised, making her arousal quite clear. The hot shower water didn't help matters, splattering against Twilight's body and getting her coat damp and slick, the beads of water rolling down her body and dripping off of every exposed area. Dash grinned as she took advantage of the helplessly presenting mare, wrapping her hindlegs around her neck and pulling her further down.

Twilight spat the cloth out as she felt Dash close around her, realising that the time for cleaning was over. Moments later, she found her head roughly jerked downwards, scraping the edge of her nose against Dash's fur and filling it with her scent as she was brought face to face with Dash's slightly parted nether lips. Twilight licked her upper lips as she figured out the best plan of action - but her planning was interrupted as Dash gave her neck an impatient squeeze, pushing her closer in.

Twilight took the hint and released her tongue. Letting the shower water roll down her body, across her chin, and down it to splatter against Dash's centre of arousal she took a dive in, twisting her head slightly as she started to kiss. Letting the water lubricate her lips, Twilight pressed them against Dash's, letting her tongue teasingly push ever so slightly inside, only moving a little further in every time Twilight's rolling lips slid a little too close to Dash's exposed and sensitive clit. Each time, she elicited a low moan as Dash let her head fall back and her soaking mane fall over the side of the bath as she lay there, resting backwards and holding herself steady against Twilight with her forehooves.

Dash grinned - this was the life, for sure. Twilight's licks were growing more enthusiastic as her tongue tunnelled deeper, her jaw straining to open wider now as she tried to insert her wet, sloppy length even further inside Dash and her entire body shifting as she moved her head back and forth, giving Dash quite a spectacular view of her rear end bobbing around in front of her eyes. Dash's only regret was that she was unable to get more hooves-on with it, as moving would let Twilight pull back and that simply wasn't an option either of them wanted to pursue.

Dash let her head fall back once more, resting her neck against the side of the bath as she gave in and let Twilight do what she wanted without resistance. She felt the probing tongue delve deep inside of her, scraping about against her sensitive inner walls and feeling Twilight's heartbeat race through it, pulsing against her and raising her pleasure each time. Twilight's hot breath was heavy, and mixed with the occasional moan as she satisfied herself entirely through the service of another.

Every couple of long, slow licks and penetrations, Twilight would turn her head and take a different approach, shifting positions to keep it interesting and keep her exactly where Twilight wanted them. Twilight's wet, matted mane was covering her eyes and sticking forward, and every time she shifted it would tickle against Dash's clit yet again, sending waves of pleasure through her body and punctuating the regular beat from Twilight's attentions with pleasurable metaphorical exclamation marks, and the occasional interrobang as Dash was momentarily overwhelmed, letting a happy groan escape her mouth to echo off the bathroom walls.

Finally, the pleasure became too much for Dash to handle, and she started to lose control of her body. At first, it was just her hips subconsciously thrusting, easing Twilight's work and exciting her further as eash thrust pushed her further inside. Soon after, however, Dash found her powerful wings failed to respond as her body decided now would be a good time to test stretching all of her muscles, sending her wings shooting to her back and pushing her away from the bath's side, sending her tumbling forward and pushing Twilight's neck backwards.

It didn't take Twilight long to realise that Dash probably shouldn't be trying to bend her neck that way quite so much, and she quickly closed her eyes and concentrated - harder than it looks when you have a Rainbow Dash shoving her delicious, sensitive, moan-y self in your face, but Twilight managed anyway - and teleported a few feet upwards, landing on Dash's back a moment later as she hit the bath with a splash.

Dash's tail was tickling Twilight's nose, and Dash could feel Twilight's quivering marehood against her upper neck. Both of them quickly realised that Rainbow Dash was entirely the wrong way around for this.

"Uh, I can turn over if you just..." Dash started, prompting Twilight to awkwardly lift herself up, each leg pushing against the bath as she tried to give Dash room to move. Dash grunted as she pulled herself around, accidentally knocking Twilight's leg with her own as she span and sending her tumbling down to land exactly where Dash would like her to be - spread across her chest, legs to each side of her head, and with her gorgeous purple behind mere inches away.

Wasting no time, Dash dived forward, gripping Twilight's flanks with her hooves and pulling her in as she tried to give Twilight the treatment she'd been receiving so shortly before.

Twilight wasn't so lucky. With Dash holding her in place, Twilight found her tongue falling slightly short. Licking Dash's stomach didn't really hold the same appeal, but it was all she could reach. As Dash got to work, though, she quickly forgot her troubles, letting herself melt down into Dash's hooves as her wonderful tongue started to roughly twist around inside of her, wasting no time and going straight for the goal. Twilight quickly found herself pushing her face down into Dash's stomach, desperately attempting to muffle the moaning as Dash reminded her of just another thing she could do quickly - make Sparkles cum.

Seconds later, Dash's over-active, eager tongue brought the familiar tingling feeling back to Twilight's groin as she sensed her oncoming orgasm. Twilight knew that she was never left in any useful state after Dash left her floating in a sea of post-coital bliss, and that meant Dash would have to go unsatisfied. No.

Twilight's eyes were already scrunched closed, but she made sure to close them harder as she started to concentrate, feeling like she was getting ready to slay a dragon with how much effort she needed to control her magic as she spawned the smallest tendril and sent it outwards, searching across Dash's body for the small, wet, sensitive nub she was looking for. Quickly finding it, Twilight set about distracting Dash with a two-pronged attack - one magical force would lightly rub and tease her exposed clitoris, while another one tried its best to tease her soaking wet vagina, pushing its way in and parting her with an invisible force. To any onlookers, they would have been quite the display, both fighting against each other to not cum first - Dash out of her sense of pride, and Twilight out of duty.

Dash lost first, Twilight's powerful magical attack overwhelming her already highly stimulated body. The ripples of pleasure shot through her body, every muscle quivering in turn as she completely lost touch, her last actions as a concious being being one final, heartfelt penetration. Twilight had stopped trying to resist by that point, and that was all she needed to finally tip over the edge with her lover, screaming unintelligible profanity into her light blue coat and beating her hooves against the bathtub's side as her magic dissipated.

Then, there was silence. Apart from the constant pitter-patter of the shower, still happily putting out gallon after gallon of steaming hot water, just the way Dash liked it, and the roar of the outside storm, there was nothing. Other than the heavy breaths of two happy ponies.

Apart from the rise and fall of their chests, or Twilight's lazy shuffling as she tried to turn around and lie next to, not on top of, Rainbow Dash, nothing moved.

Several minutes later, when Twilight had stopped being a completely uselessly happy lump of smiling pony, she realised that Dash still hadn't washed her hair. Clambering a little higher up, she rested her chest on Dash's shoulder and started to nibble on the edge of her ear as a hundred different magical forces awoke and pulled Dash's mane out for inspection.

Unscrewing the shampoo bottle, she got to work...

"Twi-liiiiiiight" Dash moaned, "My mane smells funny!"

"No, Dash, it smells nice. Now shut up or I'll make you help Spike file away all your things" Twilight threatened as she idly brushed Dash's hair, using the threat of hard work to keep her in line as she slowly, and painfully, brought Dash's mane closer to something resembling respectable, knowing full well that heavy winds and rains would ruin her hard work the very moment Dash left for her shift. Twilight didn't mind, it meant she got to do it all over again.

"Oh, and Spike? Take a letter:" Twilight called down, impatiently waiting for Spike to finish tidying up what he was currently doing, and grab a notepad.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned a very valuable lesson about love. Today, I asked Rainbow to move in, and she accepted. Sometimes, in order to help someone you really care about, you need to be willing to take risks, and tell them how you really feel - because if you trust them to never let you down, they can do the same.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle"

"Got anything to add, Dash?" Twilight asked, waiting a moment before instructing Spike to send it.

"Oh, no, not really" Dash said, absent mindedly lost in thought. Twilight was right, and it was high time she started trusting that.