“Wait here for me, I’ll be right back!” Rainbow Dash said to Twilight Sparkle as she took off, zipping towards some mystery destination. Probably for some sort of last minute preparations, Twilight assumed.

The two of them were in Cloudsdale. Rainbow had opted in to fly in a minor race and had invited her friends to come watch. Ironically, only the new princess had an open schedule. None of their other friends had the time to spare for a trip to Cloudsdale on a one day notice.

And so she sat on the cloud, wrapped her tail around her right side and waited. I hope she gets back soon. We only have twenty minutes before she is disqualified for tardiness! She got antsy and fidgeted in place until she heard somepony clear their throat.

“Mmmhm!” Came the proud announcement of phlegm removal. Twilight turned her head to look behind her.

There stood a rather large black pegasus with a mohawk style mane with broad stripes of white and sky-blue. He had a short tail and a cutiemark with a thunder cloud and a yellow lightning bolt. He looked quite nervous and a little bit familiar.

He did nothing for a moment before he stood up straight, puffed his chest out and stared out at infinity. Then he began to strut around in a rather goofy manner.

What…? Twilight was rather shocked at the strange display as the mystery pegasus awkwardly maneuvered himself in front of her. For some unknown reason, she felt the beginnings of a blush and her wings filled with tension trying to push them open.

He took his time as he walked around her right side in a manner that displayed his well developed muscles. Twilight, in spite of her confusion, found herself enjoying the sight of the pegasus parading around her. She realized how loudly her heart was beating and absentmindedly raised her left hoof to her chest.

When he had arrived at a point directly in front of her, he spun to face her and lowered his head to the cloud they were on and stuck his rump into the air and spread his wings. She bit her lower lip as her eyes were greeted with a pair of big, strong, firm, and well preened wings.

Twilight belated realized that her own rather oversized wings were spread in a similar manner but the discovery slipped out of her mind as she stared at the display.

After a beat he spoke, “Art thou wooed yet, milady?”

All she could do was emit an un-princess-like squeak.

Just then, Rainbow Dash flew out of nowhere and put her forelegs around the shoulders of both them, all the while shining a world class devious grin. She hovered as she pushed them towards the stadium. “Hey you two, we have a race to go to. Twilight, why don’t you sit with Thunderlane here while you watch, okay? Okay. See ya!”

At that, she flew off to wherever she had to go as Thunderlane and the mentally impaired princess found their way to a cloud platform to watch the race. Only then did she manage to escape the daze she had been floating in.

As her senses came back to her, she realized that she was sitting rather close to Thunderlane.

“Um, so…” She trailed off as she realized that she could feel his heartbeat which was hammering away faster than hers was. Twilight, being as completely unprepared as she was, said the first thing that came to her mind, “I, uh, I like your wings!”

She blushed again as the words came out completely differently from the way she wanted. In other words, she practically yelled them. She immediately tried to find something else to talk about to deal with the awkwardness.

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” She asked in a slightly shrill tone.

“Um,” he responded, “I was around when we were practicing for tornado day, and… I went to the Wonderbolts Academy at the same time that Dash did.” He paused. “I-I like your wings too.” His voiced cracked with embarrassment.

Twilight giggled behind a hoof as the beginning of the race was announced. Before long the racers were off and Rainbow Dash was in an ever growing lead.

Twilight watched the race, but her attention was on Thunderlane whom she kept sneaking glances at for the duration. Before she knew it, the race was over and Rainbow had first place. She hardly noticed.

The two of them had exited the stadium and both of them were trying to find ways to pick up their conversation when Rainbow suddenly returned and began directing them the same way that she had before. “Hey you two, how’s it going? Did you like the race? I’m starved, let’s get something to eat!” She took a few heavy breaths. She noticed that Twilight had a distant, concentrated look on her face. “Twilight.”

“What?”

“Stop thinking about books.”

“How did you-”

Rainbow cut her off, “Your name is Twilight Sparkle. Isn't that evidence enough?”

Twilight fell silent. She mentally admitted that she had been thinking about books. She was regretting the fact that she hadn’t read anything on dating or romance. She also wondered how she became so predictable.

They arrived at some restaurant when suddenly Rainbow chimed in again, “Oh, a contrived distraction just came up. I’ll have to have the two of you go on without me.”

Rainbow’s use of the word contrived threw Twilight off balance as she and Thunderlane were directed to a table. They sat down and looked at the menus. Twilight had a hard time reading the blurry words. She was instead focusing on trying to cope with the situation. She also realized that again she was alone with Thunderlane.

They each managed to order something. Twilight suddenly missed having a menu to hide behind.

Thunderlane was the first to break the ice. “So, what’s it like to be a princess?”

“Well, it’s a lot of work and it can be exhausting but it’s worth it.”

Rainbow Dash watched the two ponies through a window from a distance. She smiled as they began to talk more actively after Thunderlane finally got over his nerves.

She laughed to herself. All according to plan. Planning the trip around Twilight’s schedule, having her other friends make up excuses to not go, everything.

Satisfied, she flew off to get something to eat. Racing is a lot of work.

At the last moment, she heard Twilight’s laugh.

Author's Notes:

So this was a spur of the moment thing and was fun to write. I hope everyone enjoyed this!

Edit: Feel free to add to other groups.