The Wind Beneath Her Wings

Timeline: One month later

Twilight raised the test tube to her eye, staring at the contents held within. The once-clear liquid had been stained red by her experimentation, and now bubbled slightly. She noted this down. She raised another tube, this one filled with a slightly frothy green liquid, and stared at it.

It was ready. Twilight had spent all day preparing these liquids from the leaves of two plants that she'd been growing for the past week. They were both imbued with powerful magic that they'd soaked up from the area around her house as they grew, and if her experiment was a success it would shed new light on an area of magical study that hadn't been advanced in generations - the ability to store magic in non-magical objects, and discharge it in a non-magical way.

While enchanted items did exist, and magical scholars had put thousands of equine-hours into researching new ways to improve them, there was one small area that had always fascinated Twilight. Enchantments came in a few flavours - ones cast on a pony that abated naturally, a physical item that could give a constant effect on its bearer, or an item that held charge that could be magically released. What did not exist was an item that could have its charge released by non-magical means, much like the Elements of Harmony.

Twilight lifted the green tube overhead, and began to tilt it. Another few degrees and the two liquids would mix. Do it too quickly and they'd release their power, too slowly and it would evaporate back into the air - but do it just right, and Twilight might be one step closer to creating something incredible.

"Twilight I am so bored!" Dash suddenly cried, flying in through the open window and half-crashing onto Twilight's bed. "What'cha doing?"

Twilight twitched. A few drops of green mixed with the red, and it began to glow. Glowing was bad. Glowing was very bad.

"Dash, fly, you foal!" Twilight yelled, grabbing the confused blue pegasus in a magic field and throwing her back out of the window. An instant later, she followed, teleporting outside and diving to the ground.

"Twilight, what are you doing?" Dash asked after she managed to stabilise and glide down to land next to the cowering equine.

"Waiting for the smoke."

"What smoke?"

Twilight's treehouse trembled. An instant later, thick black smoke shot out of the open bedroom window with enough force to whistle, as if the entire tree was a giant kettle.

"Oh," Dash said, in a deadpan tone. "That smoke. Why'd you do that, Twi?"

Twilight twitched again. Over the past few weeks, Rainbow Dash had been slowly but efficiently driving her completely insane. Against Twilight's advice, Dash had left her job on the weather team to focus on her training - she had enough bits saved up to live off for a long time, and Twilight had enough educational grants coming in to support both of them - several times over.

Thus, Rainbow Dash had discovered just how many hours there were in a day. Too many to fill with just practice and sleep, no matter how much she tried. Twilight had tried to deal with the problem by shipping Dash out to play with one of their friends so she could be left alone to work, which had worked. Until today.

"I was trying," Twilight snapped, "to make a magical breakthrough that would have caused unforeseeable repercussions for generations!"

"Awesome, that's my Twi," Dash congratulated, "So hey, I was thinking, I'm pretty bored. Wanna go do something?"

Twilight's ear spasmed. Rainbow Dash was one of the most annoying ponies she had ever known. "I was doing something, Dash, and you ruined it. That experiment took me a week to prepare, and even if I start again today this means I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. You've completely ruined my schedule!" Twilight shouted.

Dash lowered herself to the ground and sat sheepishly. "Oh. Heh, sorry," she apologised, before standing up and starting to walk towards Twilight very slowly. "I don't suppose," she whispered with a predatory look in her eyes as she slunk towards the angry purple love of her life, "there's anything I could do to make it up to you?"

She punctuated the last few words by slowly running her hoof up Twilight's cheek, before leaning in whispering "Anything at all?" straight into her ear, close enough that every word sent a shiver down Twilight's spine.

"Actually," Twilight whispered back, letting Dash slowly nibble on her ear, "there is one thing," she continued, closing her eyes as she felt Dash's warm body press against hers. "You can help me with my experiments."

Dash continued, running her lips around the curve of Twilight's ear before pulling back just far enough to let her speak. "That can wait, right?" she whispered, letting her lips tickle against the hair on Twilight's body.

"Yeah," Twilight replied, still basking in Dash's attentions, before opening her eyes and pulling the unfairly seductive mare off, dropping her a few feet away and holding her at bay. "But cleanup can't, come on, the library's a mess."

"Seriously?" Dash asked, making her best seductive pout. On any other day, it would have worked, and Twilight would have been putty in her stupid pretty blue hooves, but on any other day she wouldn't have had a week's work ruined by Rainbow's boredom.

"Yes, come on. I'll drag you." Twilight warned, walking back into her house and starting to swing around a magic field to waft away the smoke. At very least, the experiment had proved the two liquids could hold significant magic power, and that the shield enchantments around her bookshelves could hold. Unfortunately, it reminded her of the day her and Dash had finally discovered their love - there was goo everywhere. Everywhere.

Twilight handed Rainbow Dash a wet cloth and a brush. "Okay, you clean the roof, I'll clean the floor, and we'll discuss what to do about your boredom problem later, okay?" she commanded. Dash knew better than to say no - much as she hated housework, she could tell Twilight was kinda pissed.

Three hours later, Rainbow Dash crash landed on top of Twilight. Her mane was dripping wet, partly through sweat, partly through water, and partly through a mysterious magical goo that Twilight hadn't even tried to identify yet. Had Twilight been awake, she would have found the way Dash's mane stuck to her body quite fascinating, in a "oh Celestia just hold me down and rut me now, please" kind of way. As it was, Rainbow Dash soon joined her in slumber.

Housework was surprisingly difficult when you had to clean literally every surface, especially when there was so much scrubbing involved and Twilight had to keep warning Dash not to get any of the goo on her, interrupting her own efforts to remove it from yet another bookshelf. At least the books themselves had remained safe this time.

After a few minutes, Dash sort-of woke up. "Twi?" she whispered, keeping her eyes closed and her legs tightly wrapped around the purple pony's midsection, "you awake?"

"Yeah," Twilight whispered back, her response joined by a tight squeeze and a nuzzle. "I think we got it all now."

"We're filthy. Fancy a shower?" Dash asked. That woke Twilight up.

"Dash! I said not to get any on you! I have no idea what that stuff might do!" Twilight said, her voice an equal mix of exasperation and concern. "Come on, go. Shower, now."

Rainbow Dash grinned - if Twilight wanted to pretend what she wanted was science, then so be it. She knew Twilight wouldn't be able to resist getting in too.

"Hold still!" Twilight snapped, trying to keep hold of a struggling Rainbow Dash while the shower water splashed against her, causing her to cough and splutter. "There was enough magic in that goo to turn both of us inside out, so I'm not taking any chances!"

"Why don't you come in here and rub it off yourself, Twi?" Dash asked, as seductively as she could. Which is to say, not very - Rainbow Dash was not a master of subtlety, and most of her attempts at seduction boiled down to crude propositions that thankfully Twilight was usually quite open to. "Maybe with your tongue?"

Twilight sighed, shaking her head, and turned the shower up. Dash spluttered harder as the water flowed over her head, washing out most of the viscous goo. Unfortunately, some of it remained, too entwined with the blue coat to simply wash out.

Twilight closed her eyes and began to concentrate, running her thoughts over every inch of Rainbow Dash's body, finding the areas with stuck goo. Slowly, she began to massage it out, trying to ease its journey and not just yank it so that it wouldn't hurt Rainbow Dash.

Dash moaned happily as Twilight's unexpected massage began to cover her body. There was goo all over her, and Twilight's concentration found itself split a dozen or more ways, leaving each individual massage sloppy and maybe a little more sensual than was strictly necessary. She told herself that was why, anyway - Dash could have pointed out that Twilight had little trouble doing a dozen things at once normally, but she didn't want to make Twilight stop.

Twilight slowly worked the thick substance away from Dash's body, running her magic around in small circles against the pony's skin. She figured that while she was there, she may as well try and rub some of the stresses and strains away - she was the one that had made Dash spend all that time cleaning, after all, it was only fair if she fixed the aches and pains that it would cause.

Within a few minutes, Dash's body was free of contaminants, and Twilight's massage was completely for Rainbow's benefit. Probing a little deeper with her mind, Twilight discovered all the tense spots and the niggling pains, and began to slowly rub and push, working the stresses away in the way only a unicorn could. Rainbow Dash hung in the air, suspended entirely by Twilight's thoughts as she relaxed into the strong grip, letting her head fall back and letting the steaming water flow over her mane. Her lips parted slightly to let yet another happy sigh escape as Twilight's attentions ran over her body, skipping from place to place and making every square inch of her form feel relaxed.

"You're not exactly clean yourself, Twilight," Dash whispered after a few minutes of letting Twilight do whatever she wanted, "and there's enough water for both of us."

Twilight resisted. She was mad at Rainbow Dash, and she needed to restart her experiments. She'd already lost too much time today, and she couldn't afford to lose more time to frivolous pursuits like this. She could clean when she had her shower the next morning, as her routine demanded.

That was what Twilight's mind said. Twilight's body, on the other hand, was already in the shower.

The water hit her in an instant, pushing her mane down into her eyes and across her face, and instantly soaking the entire front of her body. The freshly released Rainbow Dash hovered above her, marvelling at the way Twilight's mane could turn from "pretty" to "sexy" in an instant. Instant sexy, just add water.

Dash's fascination lasted for about five seconds. The instant she became bored with simply staring, she pounced. The slippery bathtub floor provided no grip to stop Twilight from being pushed downwards, and Dash easily pinned her against the slick white surface. "Can the experiments wait now, egghead?" she whispered, her body resting over Twilight's and her mouth a millimetre away from Twilight's ear.

Without waiting for an answer, she immediately began to nibble once more. Ear nibbles were Dash's nuclear weapon - it was very, very rare that Twilight could resist an ear nibble. It happened about once a month, and given that it had already happened once that day, Dash knew it would work now.

Twilight didn't respond to the question verbally, she simply shifted her head upwards to rub her neck against Dash's in the most "oh, just rut me now" way she could. Science be damned, Twilight could only resist Dash for so long - she still planned to force Dash into being her glamorous assistant, but later.

Much later.

Rainbow Dash grinned between nibbles - she had Twilight right where she wanted her, and needed to thank her for the unexpected massage. Twilight didn't really need the shower, she wasn't dirty, but that wasn't about to stop Dash.

Taking her time, she began to lower her nibbles, teasing down the edge of Twilight's ear until there was no ear left to nibble. Slowly, she began to kiss, leaving a leisurely trail all the way down to Twilight's soaking mane covered neck.

Twilight's light sigh was interrupted by a sharp intake of breath as Dash tried her nibble on something that most certainly wasn't an ear. Rainbow Dash took the squeak as a positive sign, and continued, running a ring of kisses around Twilight's neck, punctuating it with the occasional nip. "Still mad?" she whispered, and started to run her hooves along Twilight's wet body, pushing and squeezing at her sides in a sensual parody of a good massage.

"Yes." Twilight whispered back, every part of her voice screaming "No." except the words, and every part of her body letting Dash apologise in as heated a manner as she liked. Rainbow Dash grinned once again, pressing against Twilight's body with her hooves to give herself enough grip to slowly pull down, scraping their bodies against each other as Dash made a calm journey down Twilight's back, leaving a stream of wet licks and kisses all the way down the frustrated mare.

Rainbow Dash slid to the side, slipping off of Twilight's slick body and rolling to the side. The steaming shower water flowed over both of them as they lay at the bottom of the bath, leaving both mares shiny and wet - in more ways than one. "Still mad?" Dash asked, slowly tracing along the lines of Twilight's cutie mark with a lazy hoof.

Twilight gasped as Dash pushed against her sensitive skin, the cold hoof providing a sharp contrast against the heated water and Dash's slow, sensual actions providing a very sharp contrast against all the reasons Twilight was mad with her. Maybe Dash could be subtle, when she wanted. "Y...yes." Twilight gasped, letting her eyelids slide down as her head lowered to rest against the warmed ceramic bath as she let Dash continue her apologies.

The apologetic pegasus continued, bringing her lips to Twilight's rear to give a light suck to the sensitive mark. Her hoof made a lazy and winding journey over to the other side of Twilight's body, to press against her other mark and hold her close. "Can I," Dash asked between kisses, "make it up to you?"

"Yes."

Rainbow Dash used the her grip to pull Twilight's body over, letting the wet bath slide against her slick body as she span, until Twilight was quite upside own in front of her. The shower splattered against her face and the droplets of water ran down her neck and across her head, pulling her mane out in every direction and letting it flow around in the water currents.

Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. Some days, she had to remind herself that the frazzled, exhausted mare in front of her could be this gorgeous, but not this time. This time, it took all of Dash's effort to stop herself from simply ravishing the beautiful purple body in front of her immediately.

Actually, why wasn't she doing that?

Rainbow Dash pounced, diving forward and landing on Twilight's body with a wet squelch. They slid against each other for a moment as Dash approached her target - Twilight's happily contented face. A moment later, Twilight was once more pinned beneath the rainbow maned mare, and the steamy shower splashed down against the back of Dash's head. The water flowed around her, tracing down her mane as it fell around them providing a multicoloured curtain to shield the two mares' face from the outside world. Everything but each other was irrelevant, so why see it?

Dash dived, aiming for Twilight's slightly parted lips with her own as she brought their heads together. Twilight's eyes flew open for just a moment as she felt Dash' mouth press against hers, but they quickly closed again as Twilight gasped at the feeling of Dash's tongue slowly running along her teeth. Dash pulled back almost imperceptibly, leaving their lips still touching so that every word brushed against Twilight's and sent another shiver through her body. "Happy yet?"

"No," Twilight whispered back, lifting her head as she finished the word and pressing her mouth back against Dash's for a quickly stolen kiss, "but you're getting there."

Dash smiled. The movement of her lips pressed against Twilight's, and she pushed forward once more, taking advantage of Twilight's still open mouth to dive in, slipping the very tip of her tongue between Twilight's teeth and into the warm confines of her mouth. Twilight moaned slightly in response as she felt Dash's tongue brush against her own, and felt Dash's weight press into her. Every breath either of them took slightly shifted each other's body, and every slight motion sent shooting sensations through both of them.

The teasing had gone on long enough. Rainbow Dash's body burned with anticipation, and Twilight's flushed cheeks and heavy, stuttered breaths betrayed that she felt the same way. Dash raised her hooves to Twilight's head and gripped it tightly, pulling it closer to her at the same time as pushing her head further to kiss Twilight as deeply as she could.

A few moments later she broke off, leaving both of them breathless and desperate. With a single flap of her wings, Dash spun round, stopping dead as her face aligned with Twilight's soaked behind - even though the shower water didn't reach this far back.

Dash's soaking mane dripped, and every speck of water impacting against Twilight's body was joined by a sharp gasp. Twilight was sensitive enough that the tiniest pressure was enough to send a jolt of pleasure through her entire body, and Rainbow Dash planned to take advantage of that.

Instead, her own body betrayed her. Twilight wrapped her forelegs around Dash's rear and pulled it in, burying her nose between Dash's nether lips before the teasing pony could do the same to her. Rainbow Dash collapsed, letting her head fall to the side as she groaned, unable to resist Twilight's attentions. She felt the writhing hot tongue penetrate slightly inside of her as the shower water ran over her rear.

Twilight's tongue quickly lapped between Rainbow's legs as she tried her best to stop the annoyingly pretty mare from weakening her resolve - Twilight was meant to be mad with her. Twilight took a moment's break from her licking to take a quick breath, and to brush her lips against Dash's quivering clitoris to keep her at bay a little longer. Nobody ruined Twilight's experiments and got away with it, and Dash was no exception.

Rainbow Dash felt her legs turn to jelly as she fought against her own surrender, unable and unwilling to stop Twilight's teasing and tempting tongue from pushing between her folds and sending wave after wave of unhampered pleasure through her body. Her face pushed against the ceramic bathtub as her parted lips let out yet another moan and her body did nothing - Twilight was getting good at keeping Dash under control. Rainbow Dash knew that she couldn't last long when Twilight was trying her best to finish her off, and she knew that something had to be done if she was to succeed in finishing Twilight off first.

Dash may have quit her job as a weather pony, but that didn't mean she couldn't still command it. Her secret weapon - the power of lightening itself - was something that even now could bring Twilight to her knees - or in this case, when she was already on her back, could hopefully distract her for long enough for Dash to take control. Scraping her wing along the side of the bath with every scrap of concentration she had, Dash gathered all the energy she could, and then zapped, letting the lightening arc out of her wing into the water, giving Twilight a light and very distracting shock.

Rainbow Dash hadn't considered that she, too, was soaking wet and lying on top of the soaking wet Twilight. The energy arced through both of them, setting their nerves alight and filling the room with unfettered groans as they both collapsed, breathing heavily and moaning with each movement they made.

Dash recovered first, luckily, and immediately set herself upon Twilight's body, sticking her muzzle straight between Twilight's lower lips and licking with all her might. Dash didn't do subtlety, but what she did do was empowered by sheer enthusiasm and an indomitable energy, and Twilight's back arched immediately while Dash's tongue pressed inside of her.

Twilight let out a throaty groan while her forelegs struggled to grasp Dash's sides and pull her back in -- her every motion was a battle against her own body as it willed her to give in and take it. Through willpower alone, she reached up and pulled down, joining her muzzle and Dash's slit once more and letting her tongue play.

Before long, Twilight felt the heat radiating from Dash's body begin to overpower the steamy shower, and each touch against the blue body caused shivers and quivers. Every time Twilight's nose brushed against the sensitive clit, Dash's actions paused for a moment for her to helplessly moan - and the same for Twilight, whenever Dash took hers between her two lips and gave it a suck.

Finally, the hot water rushing over Twilight's face was joined with Dash's steaming juices when she finally achieved orgasm, happily groaning against Twilight's body as her muscles spasmed and her body writhed in pleasure. Twilight giggled, waiting for Dash to recover so she could be finished off too, and raised her head again to lick the spent mare clean, aiding the fast flowing water from up above.

Dash was an athlete, and recovered quickly, as always. The moment she could, she dived back in, mercilessly ravishing the purple pony with all her might. Without the distractions down below, she could ravish at her full potential, and Twilight was taken to the edge within moments. Dash's writhing, teasing tongue and rapidly moving lips quickly took Twilight to ecstasy, and she made it known - the groan filled the bathroom with noise, echoing off the walls and drowning out the pitter patter of water against ceramic.

"So," Dash asked while she pulled the towel around her hair a little tighter, and rubbed another towel against her body, "you still mad?"

Twilight didn't answer for a moment, too busy concentrating on wringing her hair dry with a magical twist and drying her coat with a magical heat. When she was satisfied with herself, she looked back up at Dash. "Yes I am, Rainbow."

Twilight pulled the towels away from Dash, and gave her a similar treatment - she knew Dash usually liked to let her mane and coat dry naturally to preserve "her stunning good looks", but that took too long and Twilight needed her now.

"But that's not the point, Dash. The point is that your boredom is becoming a problem for everybody, not just you. I did say you shouldn't have quit."

"Yeah but Twilight, what's the point! I'm gonna be a Wonderbolt, what's the point in carting clouds around when I should be practising?" Dash protested, unfolding her wings so that Twilight could pull the water out of them too.

"The point is keeping you occupied, Rainbow, and seeing as you clearly can't do that yourself, now I have to find you something to do!" Twilight said, more exasperated than angry. "So, starting now, you're my new research assistant. Don't argue, you're doing it." Twilight commanded, threateningly pointing her hoof at Dash.

Rainbow Dash tilted her head to the side, considering it. On the one hand, that sounded like work, but on the other Twilight did have a point, and she was bored out of her mind. Her plans usually included sleep, practice, and Twilight - unfortunately while the first two were always there for her, Twilight often had things to do that weren't sleeping with Rainbow Dash whenever she wasn't practising. Unfortunately.

"Awesome," Dash grinned, "When do we start?"

"Oh, tomorrow morning!" Twilight responded, pleasantly surprised that Dash wasn't against the idea. "We need to start early, so wake me up when you get up, okay?"

Dash nodded, and the two tired ponies went to get some lunch before separating again - Twilight had a goo to analyse, and Dash was going to be very busy napping.

Twilight groaned. "Dash, the sun isn't even up yet!" she complained, pulling a pillow over head head and rolling over.

Dash yanked the pillow away and rested her head against Twilight's neck, waking her up with a playful nibble. "We could always stay here if you don't want to science, y'know?" she whispered, running a hoof up Twilight's neck.

"Science isn't a verb, Dash." Twilight sighed, pushing the mare away and regretfully leaving her warm, comfortable bed to enter the awful cold sunless reality that Rainbow Dash called 'morning'. Twilight aught to show her a dictionary some day, because it wasn't morning, it was still night.

"Whatever, bookworm," Dash yawned, jumping out of bed with an annoying amount of energy and enthusiasm. "Want some breakfast, I can uh..."

Dash paused for a moment, considering her culinary options.

"I can go and grab us some flowers from outside?" she continued, gliding down to the main room.

"No, I've got some expedition supplies ready in those saddlebags, just grab something from there." Twilight responded, yawning and trying to clear her eyes while she stumbled along to the bathroom for her morning shower.

Dash moaned happily to herself as she swallowed another fruit bar down, lying on the floor next to the saddlebag and wiggling her hooves in the air while she waited for Twilight. Eventually, the bathroom door opened, and a perfectly dry Twilight walked out among the steam and condensation. "Mmm, these are good, Twi, where'd you get 'em?" Dash asked, finishing off the bar.

"How many of those have you eaten?" Twilight sighed, pulling the away and affixing them to her back. "They're meant for both of us, and lunch too."

"Oops."

"Whatever, I'll grab some more later. Just, try not to mess anything else up, okay Dash?"

"Yes Ma'am." Rainbow Dash mock-saluted, following Twilight out of the door on their way to Science and Adventure!

"I thought you were doing this so I'd be less bored?" Dash complained an hour or so later, hanging from a tree and occasionally spinning around the branch, using her wings to propel her. Rainbow Dash was bored out of her mind. "All you've done so far is take notes, why are we even out here? Can I go grab a cloud to sleep on?"

"That is why we're here, that is all I've done, we're here to test long range teleportation, and no you can't." Twilight responded without so much as looking up from her journal. She was writing by hornlight, and by her calculations the sun wouldn't be up for hours. That may work well for her purposes, she thought.

A few moments later, she stood up. "Right, I've written down everything relevant. Are you ready to begin the first test, Dash?"

Rainbow Dash fell from the tree, righting herself in mid air and landing on her hooves. "I've been ready for the past hour, Twilight." she complained, ignoring the fact they'd barely been there for half that time.

"Good," Twilight responded. "I'm going to need you to catch me, okay?"

Without further explanation, Twilight closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Her ability to teleport was incredibly useful, but still limited. She had to know where she was, where she wanted to be, and where those two places were relative to each other in intimate detail, making the act difficult to perform under pressure or over long distances. Twilight had been researching the best way to fix that - Celestia's explanation of how she teleported had helped, and Twilight had devised a plan.

Magic permeated everything, from the ground she walked on to the air she breathed. More importantly, the magical background of the world wasn't completely flat - it had landmarks, just like the physical world. Most ponies couldn't see this, but just like how a pegasus could see the imperfections in a cloudscape, Twilight could see the imperfections in the realm of magic itself.

Where was she? In reality, about a mile south of Ponyville, next to a tree. In magic, she rested at the bottom of a three dimensional trough. Where did she want to be? Up. A mile or so up. In physical terms, she could both not know exactly where she was going, nor exactly how far away that was - but in magical terms, she already knew. She could see it before her as clearly as a pony could see their own hoof.

Twilight vanished, casting her spell. She opened her eyes, and was immediately blinded by the sun just peeking over the distant horizon. She looked down, and saw the ground a very, very long way away. Success!

Then she fell. Within moments, the wind rushing past her ears was deafening, and the ground was getting very close very quick. Where was the tree she'd been sitting next to? Where was Dash? She had just gone straight up, right? Twilight was fairly sure she'd converted between physical and magical co-ordinates right, but she was growing less sure every meter she fell, and the ground was getting awfully close. How did that parachute spell go again?

"NEVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!" Rainbow Dash screamed, grabbing Twilight out of the air a few dozen meters above the ground with a solid rainbow trail streaking behind her. Immediately, she pulled up, looping back on herself and carrying Twilight away at, by Twilight's best estimations, about three times the speed of sound. "What the hay were you thinking, Twilight? What's wrong with you?!"

The sound of Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom hit her ears a few seconds later. Twilight blinked, screwing her eyes together to try and block out the wind and tried to steady her breathing - Rainbow Dash had her in a hold so tight it made it difficult to breath.

"I... I thought I converted right!" Twilight protested, keeping her eyes closed to shield herself against the heavy winds while Rainbow Dash slowed down and glided back towards the tree. Twilight had almost been right, she had indeed gone a mile or two up - she'd just also gone a few dozen miles to the left, as well.

"I barely saw you up there, you stupid mare," Dash snapped, "Next test I'm going with you, and don't you dare argue." Dash said, matter of factly as she dropped Twilight the last foot and landed in front of her, holding her body up with a hoof while Twilight steadied herself. Twilight didn't argue - she'd never seen Rainbow Dash this angry.

As soon as Twilight was standing on her own hooves, Dash walked off to rest against the tree in silence, staring at Twilight with accusatory eyes.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I screwed up my calculations, but it worked!" Twilight said, laughing half through elation and half through the delayed terror of realising how close to death she'd come. "I did it, Dash! With more practice, I should be able to teleport much further than I could before!"

Rainbow Dash sighed - still about the science. "Okay, I'm gonna go grab a cloud, don't you dare try anything without me, okay?"

Twilight nodded enthusiastically, before returning to her books to try and figure out what she did wrong. Dash slowly flew off, looking behind her as she went to watch Twilight work.

"Aha, of course! The polar axis here is reversed from the magicscape! All I need to do is invert the polarity of the hornflow metastasis effect and the tele-position will reorient to the new vector!" Twilight explained, grinning. She didn't actually say that, of course, Rainbow Dash had absolutely no idea what she actually said. Rainbow Dash concentrated on Twilight smiling, and tried to pretend to pay attention.

"Are you listening, Dash?" Twilight asked.

"Ye... no. I have no idea what you're saying," Dash admitted, "but I'm still going with you."

"Okay, good, climb on my back." Twilight demanded, giving her notes one last read to ensure she hadn't missed any crucial mistakes. This would either work, or leave them stuck inside the ground. Twilight felt fairly certain the latter wouldn't happen, and even if it did the teleportation effect should still generate enough room for them, and she could just reverse the calculations to escape. It was a perfect plan!

Rainbow Dash was less sure, but she was absolutely positive she wasn't letting Twilight do something that stupid alone again. She got on, holding Twilight tightly and preparing to carry her.

Twilight closed her eyes, and found a new target to concentrate on. An instant later, they vanished in a flash of light.

Twilight opened her eyes. Rainbow Dash's wings were spread wide, and illuminated with the glow of sunlight. She looked down and saw the ground far below - too far to make out any details. "Hey, Dash!" she shouted above the winds, "Is that our tree down there?"

Dash looked down, searching around for something obvious. Within a few moments she noticed Twilight's notebook lying on the ground. "Yeah, can we go down now? It's freezing up here." she curtly replied.

Twilight agreed - it was chilly. Dash was colder, though. The moment they touched down, Twilight pulled away and turned around. "You okay, Dash?"

"Yea- No," Dash replied, losing the defensive edge in her voice, "You could have died back there, Twi, I barely caught you, and I'm me. I... I dunno if you're used to taking risks like that with yourself, but I'm not."

Dash turned her head away, as if she was trying to tell herself to stop talking before she said something she would regret. "What, Dash?" Twilight prompted, wanting everything to be out in the open at least.

"Just don't dare do anything like that to me again, okay?!" Dash snapped, "What if I hadn't been here, huh? Think I'd ever have found your... yeah. Just don't do that again." Dash continued, ending her sentence with a whisper.

The wind continued to lightly blow through the field as the two ponies stood there. Twilight bowed her head in thought, and Dash just looked away, waiting for Twilight to say something.

Twilight picked up her notebook - that was enough research for the day, she thought. "Okay, I'm sorry. I screwed up, Dash, okay? This is just really important, I can feel it. Come on, let's go home - you up for flying, or shall we just walk?"

"Let's just walk." Dash replied, landing next to Twilight and resting a wing over her body, pulling her a little tighter. They walked silently side by side back towards Ponyville, Twilight's house, and a good hot meal, letting each others bodies rub against them.

Halfway home, Twilight tilted her head to rest against Dash's, and whispered "You still mad at me?"

"Yep."

"Can I make it up to you?"

A week later, Twilight checked on her magical plants, and grinned, seeing them in bloom - she could run her experiment again, hopefully less ruined this time! Twilight had had the foresight to grow a few batches of plants this time, not just the one, so she could take a failure or two.

Rainbow Dash's anger had quickly abated, but her protective streak hadn't, making Twilight's experimentation problematic. Her work into teleportation had proved quite fruitful, even with Dash making her triple check all her calculations (a second time) and come along with her. Twilight appreciated the company, at least, magical research was usually such a lonely pursuit - though the occasional nuzzle proved more distracting than helpful, and productivity was down. Her tail was up, though, so things tended to balance out.

Regardless, Twilight had a solid theory of long-range transportation written down onto a small stack of papers, ready to be sent to Celestia once Spike returned from his personal work in Canterlot. Twilight didn't know what he was doing, and had made a mental note to question him when he returned, but she kept forgetting until he left again.

"Dash?" she called, wondering if the protective pegasus was still in her house, or whether she'd gone for one of her frequent practice or nap sessions. She got no reply - perfect, no distractions. Twilight picked up two of the flowerpots and cleared her experimentation table, starting the process of extracting their essences.

Twilight raised the test tube to her eye, staring at the contents held within. The once-clear liquid had been stained red by her experimentation, and now bubbled slightly. She noted this down. She raised another tube, this one filled with a slightly frothy green liquid, and stared at it.

They were ready. There were to be no distractions this time. Twilight put the two tubes safely within the wooden stand and went to seal the windows, ensuring there wouldn't be any bothersome blue buzzing.

Twilight was too late - Dash was sitting on her bed. "Hey Twi, what'cha doing?" she asked, peering around Twilight's body to her table.

Twilight froze. "An... experiment." she cryptically answered, hoping Dash would leave it at that.

"Is it dangerous?" Dash asked.

"Not at all, not if I do it right."

"Can I help?"

"Not really, I've got this."

"Oh, okay." Dash said, and lay back on the bed. That was unexpected, but very much welcome.

Twilight wandered back to the table, and held the tubes up to her eye, gauging how much liquid she should mix together for the optimal effect.

"Oh, is this that one that exploded last week? Maybe you should do that outside?" Dash suggested. She had a point - she was getting better at the whole 'assisting' thing.

Twilight agreed, and wandered outside. Dash quickly joined her, watching closely.

"Hey, can I do it?" she suddenly asked, a moment before Twilight could begin pouring.

"I've got this, Dash."

"Yeah, well, it kinda exploded last time. It took a few seconds to blow, I could have it a mile up by then if something went wrong." she suggested. Nice thought, but...

"I've got this, Dash." Twilight repeated, more sternly this time. Rainbow Dash backed down and let Twilight pour. The two liquids slowly mixed, and the whole compound began to solidify. The glass cracked and broke as the solid expanded, and soon Twilight held a fully formed crystal in her magical grip.

"It worked!" she laughed, as surprised as anybody else at the result - she'd expected something that could discharge energy, but a proper crystalline structure straight off? That was completely unpredicted. "I... I need to get this back to my lab immediately. Dash, the library's closed, I don't want anybody interrupting me unless it's an emergency - and I mean that. Kingdom in danger or worse, nothing else."

Twilight ran back into the library with the crystal trailing behind, slamming the door behind her. Rainbow Dash shrugged and flew off to find a cloud, dragging it back to the library and taking up her post as a guard. By sleeping in front of the door.

That night, Rainbow Dash sneaked down into Twilight's laboratory to check up on her before the night's sleep. It was late, and both of them should have been in bed hours ago.

"Dash, come here!" Twilight enthusiastically prompted the moment Dash got inside the room - so much for stealth. "This is incredible! This is... monumental, this is world changing!"

"It looks like a crystal to me, Twi." Dash questioned - she'd seen crystals before.

"Not just any crystal. Look, touch it!" Twilight prompted, grabbing Dash's hoof and pressing it against the semitransparent object. It grew warmer, but nothing else.

"O... kay, I think you've been awake too long, Twi. I've seen hoof warmers before."

"Not that, Dash! This isn't a hoof warmer, it's just acting like one. The crystal can absorb magic, and then cast a spell on command - as far as I can tell, any spell, but I haven't properly checked yet. But look, you could use it! Anybody could use it! Dash, this is going to change the world! Earth ponies that can fly, pegasi that can do magic, unicorns that can grow crops, everything! And I couldn't have done it without you!" Twilight gushed half-breathlessly, before diving at Dash and hugging her to the floor. Rainbow Dash didn't know why she deserved credit, but she wasn't about to turn it down.

Twilight looked back at the crystal with awe. "I need to do more tests." she stated.

"No, you need to come to bed, it's late. It'll still be there in the morning, come on. I'll drag you if I have to." Dash warned, in no uncertain terms. Twilight might not need the rest, but Dash needed to know she was getting it.

"I... yeah, you're right. Fine, come on." Twilight relented, skipping up the stairs with a grin on her face. Her first major magical breakthrough was waiting in the morning to be even more rigorously tested, and Twilight's timetable had been completely rewritten to allow for further experimentation.

Several days later, Twilight's squeal of joy woke Dash from her mid-day nap. A moment later, the tired pony was knocked out of her cloud by a leaping Twilight, and she found herself pinned to the floor and passionately kissed, with her limbs pressed against the ground and her mouth held open by the sheer force of Twilight's embrace.

"I've done it, Dash!" she gasped, a moment after pulling back.

"Done what?" Dash asked, after taking a break to nibble on Twilight's lower lip for a few seconds.

"Okay, you know the second crystal I made from the other plants?" Twilight whispered in response, drawing her lips across Dash's cheek.

"Yeah?" Dash replied, nibbling the corner of Twilight's ear and whispering straight into her.

"And you know the teleport spell I was working on last week?" Twilight moaned, melting in Dash's hooves.

"Yeah?" Dash asked, only semi-paying attention as she stroked Twilight's mane and continued her nibbling.

"I've managed to combine them - one crystal teleports to the other, and vice versa! This could replace trains, carriages, everything!" Twilight excitedly chattered, pulling herself off of Dash and bouncing away, "And we need to go test it, come on."

A few minutes later, Twilight and Dash arrived at the field with the tree. Twilight placed one crystal on the ground, and handed the other to Dash. "Can you go fly this a few miles that way?" she asked, pointing off into the distance. Dash took the crystal and shot off, flying on a long arc off beyond the horizon.

Twilight gave Rainbow Dash a few minutes to ensure she'd set the crystal down, and then tapped her hoof against the side of her own crystal. She vanished in a flash of light.

Twilight felt like she was floating on nothing. She looked down her her hooves, but found nothing there. No ground, no hooves, nothing. Looking around, she realised that there wasn't anything at all, even herself. That seemed strange to her, but she was oddly calm, like there was no reason to be concerned at all.

After a few minutes, or whatever passed for time in wherever she was, she realised "nothing" wasn't quite accurate. After a few more minutes of studying the almost imperceptible landscape, she realised that she knew exactly where she was - the field with the tree in it. Not physically there, but magically. That wasn't meant to happen.

Twilight pulled back, moving by force of will alone to see more of the magical landscape. She turned her viewpoint (for she was unwilling to think of her bodyless form as having a head) around, looking for one thing in particular - herself. Twilight Sparkle, as modest as she tried to be, made quite an impact on the magical landscape - she was a spike. Twilight recognised herself immediately, and quickly shot over to it - a pony's mind and body weren't meant to be separated, that wasn't a good thing. If she moved just right, though, she could...

"Twilight? Twilight, are you okay? Doc, her eyes are open, is that good?" Rainbow Dash's voice shouted as Twilight's senses began to come back under her control, and everything stopped being so hazy. Slowly, the soup in front of her began to resolve into an image.

"H-" Twilight coughed, trying to talk without realising how dry her throat had become. Rainbow Dash immediately turned to the noise, and the sight terrified Twilight - Dash's eyes were red and puffy, and twisted with concern and fear.

"Twilight? Are you okay? Do you need water? There's some here, come on, drink it." Dash said, mostly talking to herself as she handed Twilight the glass of water and watched her drink.

"What happened?" Twilight hoarsely asked after the first couple of gulps took the worst of her aching throat away. She was in a hospital bed, surrounded by bright white walls. She recognised it as one of the intensive care rooms in Ponyville General Hospital. At the far side of the room stood one of the doctors, though he was staying back to let Twilight and Dash talk.

"I took your stupid gem out and waited a few minutes, and then you appeared and collapsed. I brought you here, and you've been here ever since. Its been days. Everybody else went home to sleep, but... The... the doc didn't know what was wrong, and without Spike here I couldn't get a message through to Celestia." Dash explained, taking Twilight's hoof between her own and squeezing. "You promised not to ever do this to me again, Twi." she whispered, pressing her forehead against it and scrunching her eyes closed.

Twilight took a moment to clear her throat and take another couple of sips from the glass. The water, much like the room itself, tasted stale and over-cleaned. Twilight let her head fall to the side and looked towards the table at her bedside. Her friends had left a card - a tiny helium balloon was tied to the corner. Twilight knew they must have been so worried.

"I... had to, Dash. It'll work, I know it will. It has to, I know what went wrong, I think. I can do it again, I'll get it right this time. There wasn't enough energy in the gem, it didn't complete the transfer and it clearly took some time for my mind to notice. It just needs more of a charge time, that's all, it'll work."

"No." Dash said.

"Dash, I have to." Twilight plead. The room seemed to grow still as the atmosphere froze - Twilight knew that she couldn't stop, but she couldn't imagine doing something Dash was so adamantly against either.

"No, Twilight. I said no," Dash replied harshly. "I can't take it, okay? I can't take not knowing if you're going to come home at night, I can't take being scared for you every time you go down to your damn lab, I can't take it any more. I won't let you risk your own life like that, Twilight. It might not mean much to you, but it's everything to me."

Dash pulled back and wiped the tears from her eyes. Her voice had grown unsteady throughout her rant, and she'd cried enough over the past few days - no more. "I'll do it. Whatever your testing is, I'll do it."

Twilight gasped in shock. "Dash, you can't, it's not safe!"

Rainbow Dash shook her head in disbelief and laughed bitterly. "That's the point, Twilight." she snapped. With that, Rainbow Dash turned and left the room, and Twilight was left quite alone with a suddenly very cold glass of water.

"You don't have to do this, Dash, I'll call the whole thing off." Twilight hopefully suggested as she made the last few adjustments to the crystal, adding another layer of safety fallbacks and emergency spells. Twilight was 99.9% certain that that crystal was now the safest method of transportation that had ever been devised. Twilight had tied her mane back with a stray piece of hay after the sweat and lack of brushing over the last week had started to annoy her.

"I heard you talking, Twi. I trust you, okay, this is gonna be big, and I'm happy to put my name to it." Dash responded, her voice dripping with confidence. Her eyes betrayed her true feelings, however. She hadn't been the same since the accident, and Twilight just hoped that finally getting this over with would get things back to normal.

"Okay, when you're ready, just touch the crystal with your hoof," Twilight instructed, stepping back. "Oh, and before you go..." she added a moment later, before pulling Dash's head towards her and kissing her. "For good luck," she explained, resting their foreheads together. "Come home safe."

Their faces lingered together wordlessly for a moment before Dash broke away. The weather was perfect - there was barely a cloud in the sky, and the air flowed slowly with a warm breeze. It was not the sort of day that things could go wrong on.

"I always do, don't I?" Dash cracked, before slapping the side of the crystal with her hoof. A second later, the charging was complete, and Rainbow Dash vanished in a puff of magic.

Twilight already had her eyes closed, and was concentrating as hard as she could. The crystal was an incredibly complex piece of magic now - if it failed, Rainbow Dash's spirit would be trapped inside of it, rather than just being cast out where even Twilight would probably never find it. A quick test proved that that wasn't the case, however - Dash must have made it through intact.

An instant later, Twilight teleported - she'd spent the past week practising every bit as hard as Rainbow Dash, and while long-range teleports still weren't quite second nature to her in the same way short range ones were, she was getting more comfortable with them.

"Dash?" she immediately asked, not even waiting for the magical glow to subside.

"Right here, Twi." Dash replied, standing next to the other crystal. It had worked.

"How do you feel?" Twilight asked, keeping her eyes closed as she probed Dash's body. Everything was within acceptable tolerances - heartrate was up, she was sweating and her muscles were all tensed, but that wasn't completely unusual, just indicative of fear.

"Okay, I think. I don't ever want to do that again, but I'm glad it worked," Dash answered, walking over to Twilight and nuzzling her for the first time in a week. "Are you done yet?"

Twilight sighed. "Dash, don't you get it? You just teleported! Anypony could have done it, and the only thing it needs to do a longer distance is more time to charge. I can't just stop now!"

"That's not what I meant, Twi. You sure this thing'll work?"

"Of course, it just did!"

"Well go show it to the unicorn council or something, then."

"The Corral of the Wise?" Twilight asked absent-mindedly. Now that Dash mentioned it, she probably should. The Corral were responsible for ensuring safe and fair use of magic, and using it for the good of the kingdom. The members themselves were a closely guarded secret, but Celestia had once told her that every single one of them had once taught at the school for Gifted Unicorns. "I suppose they would be interested, yes. I'll write a letter explaining my findings at once!"

Dash smiled - maybe now they could put all this stuff behind them and Twilight could stop risking her neck every couple of days.

"Denied?!" Twilight shouted a few days later, the force of her voice shaking the walls of the library. "What do you mean, denied?!"

"Aaagh!" Spike yelled, hiding behind a bookshelf. "I didn't write it, Twilight!" he protested. Spike had just burped up a reply letter from the Corral of the Wise, and Twilight had opened it enthusiastically expecting a personal invitation and a congratulations on becoming Equestria's newest benefactor. Instead, she held in her hooves a short, to the point letter.

Dear Misses Dash and Sparkle,

Your research paper's claims, if true, are extraordinary. However, due to your lack of recognition in the field, as well as insufficient research and evidence for the effect at hoof, we are forced to deny your request for an audience. Please feel free to respond with a more solid proof, and we may reconsider.

-The Corral.

"Lack of recognition?!" Twilight screeched, tearing the letter up in a puff of angry magic, "What does that even mean?"

"Well, Twi," Dash said, gliding through the bedroom window, having heard Twilight as she was flying overhead, "We have only saved Equestria, oh... seven, eight times?"

"Shut up, Dash, this isn't funny. This was my big chance, and I blew it. My chance to really make something of myself. Remember when I said I didn't know where I was going in life? I thought I'd finally figured it out, and I was going to help everyone. Now here I am, back at square one." Twilight pouted, walking over to a bookshelf and collapsing against it.

She pushed herself into the wood and rested her head against one of the shelves, staring upwards into the ceiling as she started to lose herself in thought. What was she meant to do now?

A few moments later, Rainbow Dash joined her, sitting by her side and resting her head against a book. They stared outwards in silence for a few seconds before Dash began to talk. "So don't take no for an answer. Go up there anyway."

"I can't do that, Dash. These guys are meant to be the best, I can't go against them." Twilight sighed.

"Sure you can, Twi. You think I'd just lie back and take it if the Wonderbolts had said no?"

"I can't do that. You're stronger than me, Dash." Twilight admitted, leaning against Dash's body and resting her head on a blue shoulder. Rainbow Dash sighed and stretched a wing around Twilight's back to hug her a little closer.

"Nah, I'm just good at pretending. Look, let me tell you a story, okay? I grew up in Cloudsdale, but I was never really one of the cool foals. I wasn't an outcast or anything, but I didn't get invited to all the parties either. Then I did my first Sonic Rainboom, and it felt like everything was gonna change, I was gonna be everything I'd ever dreamed of. It wasn't, nopony believed it and some of them just made fun of me for it." Dash admitted, her face growing a little grim as she remembered that not all of her memories were so sweet.

"So I made some bad friends - you've met one of them - and by the time flight camp came around my heart just wasn't in it any more. I dropped out so I wouldn't get kicked out and drifted a while doing weather jobs whenever they were open, then I came here." Dash continued, talking out into the air and resting her head on the side of Twilight's, taking care to avoid the horn. "They had a proper opening on the weather squad, so I took it. I'd lost contact with Fluttershy back when I dropped out, but I found out she was here too, and it just felt right, y'know? I felt like everything was gonna change, like I'd finally found where I was meant to be, blah blah blah.

"It didn't, I was still drifting, just in one place now." Rainbow Dash sighed, not enjoying the trip down the worse parts of memory lane, "Didn't feel right leaving, though. Then you came along, and you know how I felt about that. Now look at me, I'm gonna be a Wonderbolt and I feel like I'm finally going where I want to be, and I owe it all to you. I'm not stronger than you, I've just got somebody holding me up." she continued, growing more enthusiastic as her tale turned to brighter times.

Dash looked away. She knew Spike was listening, but it didn't really seem important. Twilight opened her mouth, but Dash quickly shushed her, "I'm not done."

After a few moments to gather her thoughts and think through what she had to say, Dash continued. "So don't you dare give up, okay? You drive me mad sometimes, Twi. You take risks I wouldn't dream of, you don't think about how things'll make me feel, and I hate it, but I'll stand by you every step of the way. You're everything to me, you stupid mare, and I'm not ever letting you go, even if that means I've gotta do stupid things just to keep you safe." she monologued, squeezing Twilight as tightly against her as her wing could manage and trying her best not to tear up.

"Anyway, the point is, I believe in you. I think you know what you're talking about, I think you think you're right and I think that's good enough for me, because I love you. Screw what they think, go shove that paper down their throats." Dash finished, ending her rant far more aggressively than she'd intended.

The room was silent, save for Twilight's sniffles. The silence was almost deafening to Dash - she hated pouring her heart out. Hated all of it. Why couldn't Twilight just know these things, like she did? Why did she have to be told?

"You can talk now." Dash whispered.

Twilight rolled over, burying her head in Dash's shoulder to silence the tears and holding herself there. They stayed like that for minutes, with Dash holding her close just to say "I'm still here." even as Twilight's body shuddered with each sob. Spike hid behind the bookshelf as silently as he'd ever done anything in his entire life.

"I love you too, Dash," Twilight eventually whispered, turning her head to simply rest it against Dash's tear-stained coat. "And okay, I'll go down there in person and make them look."

"We." Dash corrected.

Both of them were interrupted by a quiet snort as Spike blew his nose on a hastily procured napkin.

"Spike?" Dash asked, raising her head. "If you-"

"tell anyone, you'll leave me on a cloud heading Celestia knows where, I know. I won't."

"I was gonna say, if you want you can join in, I think Twilight wants you here too." Dash retorted. They laughed, and Spike emerged with tissue in hand before taking his place on the other side of Twilight.

Everything was going to be just fine, Twilight thought. There wasn't a force in Equestria that could stop her and Dash, and it was time Canterlot's elite unicorns found that out.