"Eeeeeep!" Scootaloo shrieked aloud, ducking down behind Daybreaks couch as a flaming pillow soared past where her head had been mere milliseconds earlier! She looked back to see the pillow strike the t.v...but instead of knocking it over, or setting it aflame like it should have done, the pillow just exploded into a cloud of feathers. It had been the same with every pillow she'd dodged. Instead of landing, they all just exploded harmlessly. She peeked up over the couch, hopeful that Daybreak might finally be out of ammo. To her disappointment, it looked to be his pile had not decreased in the slightest since the beginning. Fuming, she reached back and gripped one of her own fluffy weapons tight to her chest.

"Come on Shrimp, this is supposed to be a training session, not a game of hide-n-seek, Get out here and fight back!" She heard his snide tone, mocking her pathetic attempts to dodge his magic fluff sacks.

Screeching her defiance to the roof of his home, Scootaloo dove from behind the couch and flung her pillow with all her might! She watched her feather stuffed sheet, as she dove out and slid across the floor, soar straight and true aiming right for the center of Daybreaks face. Her cheeks spread into a gleeful smile as it neared her target. She was prepared to celebrate joyous victory, but just as it would have made contact with him, the pillow stopped dead in the air. Scrambling to her feet, Scoots watched in awe as outer sheet covered itself in green energy, rotated in the air, and fired itself straight back at her! Realizing her grave error, she made to dive back behind cover, but was too little too late. The pillow struck her square in the chest and folded her in half like paper! She doubled over and fell to her knees.

Kneeled over and gasping for breath, she heard a small pop alerting her to Daybreak appearing above her. She waited to catch her breath before looking up at him.

"Tell me what you did wrong."

Scootaloo grumbled under her breath as Daybreak crossed his arms and looked down at her.

"What was that?"

Scootaloo grumbled again, but this time slightly more audible. "I forgot that you could catch my pillow with your magic...I screwed up ok...Why are you making me do this?"

Daybreak narrowed his eyes "Once you start to get the hang of it, I promise not only will you enjoy yourself, but you'll thank me too. Since you don't have a magical aura to call upon, that makes you the perfect subject for this type of training. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be able to take down any mage in Equestria."

"But before we started you said everyone has magic within them! Now you're suddenly just accepting that I don't?" Scootaloo pointed at him accusingly while her eyes narrowed. Daybreak just sighed.

"No. I stand by what I said before. It's impossible to exist without some form of magical energy flowing through you. Every single being in the world has it. You are just carrying a unique type within you. You're right Shrimp, you do have a defect of some kind. But up until now, you've always treated it like a curse. I'm here to tell you, that it is in fact a great advantage."

Her eyes brightened to the size of dinner plates, and Daybreak realized instantly that she had misunderstood him. "I could cast spells one day then?"

"No" He said it as bluntly as he could, and watched her gaze instantly drop. She had to understand her situation fully before he could get her to move forward with his exercises.

"Oh...ok...Then how is this an advantage again?"

He smiled, then turned to Rainbow Dash, beckoning her to his side with a wave. "Dashie, stand here and use your magical sight on Scootaloo. Try to perceive her as best you can."

"Umm...ok sure." Rainbow stood next to him and shut her eyes. She took in a deep breath, then opened her eyelids wide. When she did, her pupils ignited in a white light that consumed her eye socket entirely. Scootaloo was so shocked she stumbled back in fear. "W-what is that? What's she doing?"

"It's just a spell Shrimp, relax...You have her Dashie, can you see her?"

Rainbow was silent for a moment. Daybreak watched as her eyelids squinted and adjusted. A sure sign his theory was accurate. He looked back to Scootaloo.

"I want you to sneak up on Rainbow Dash. Now. From anywhere you wish, and touch her with this."

With a snap of his fingers, a small, silver pen appeared in his open palm. Scootaloo snatched it up, but looked perplexed. "How am I supposed to sneak up on her, she's looking right at me?"

"Actually I-"

"Thank you Rainbow, that's enough." Rainbow instantly fell silent, his sharp tone more than making his point as he cut her off.

"Just try Shrimp. You might surprise yourself."

She tilted her head. "Umm ok...but how am I gonna 'zap' her with a joke pen?"

Daybreak swiftly swiped the pen back from her grip hand. "Hold out your arm."

"Uh ok." She did as he requested. Without warning, he slowly jabbed the butt end of the pen down onto her skin. Instead of a clicking sound, indicating that the tip was now popping out, or a small vibration like a joke pen would have done...the pen made a loud pop as it touched her skin, and she let out a sharp squeal!

"Yikes! What the shit!" She jumped back a foot. Daybreak looked unimpressed "I thought Dashie said no more foul mouthing? And aren't you a bit old to have never seen a trick pen before?"

Scoots rubbed her tingling arm before quickly retrieving the pen. "I wouldn't have sworn if that thing didn't hurt so much. I've seen joke pens before, but they just vibrate really fast, they don't shock the piss outta you. That really hurt."

Daybreak snickered. "I know, it's to help motivate Dash to reeeeeally try hard to locate you."

"Say what now...but dude I can't-"

"Rainbow I'm aware! This is to train her and prove a point. The great Rainbow Dash isn't scared of a little zap is she? If you catch her, just stop her." He cut her off more loudly than before.

Rainbow was silenced once again, but Daybreak could hear her hmph in annoyance.

"Now then Shrimp...zap her."

"Ummm...ok I guess."

Holding the pen outwards with her right hand, Scootaloo slowly began to shuffle to the right. Silently she inched forward, watching Rainbows head remain still, continuing to face forward where she'd previously been standing. Confused, Scootaloo looked over at Daybreak. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped herself when she saw his finger raise to his lips in a shushing motion. He then motioned for her to continue. Now certain Rainbow wasn't going to move, Scoots shuffled up to her right hip, just within her arms length. Gingerly she raised the butt of the pen to Rainbows side and pressed it to her flesh.

The effect was instantaneous, Rainbow yipped in surprise and jumped back several feet, swearing loudly! She turned to where Scootaloo now stood and squinted at her with glowing eyes once more.

"What?...When did you move over there Squirt!?"

Scoots eyebrow raised "What do you mean? Didn't you watch me?"

"No she didn't." Daybreak exclaimed brightly as he strode forward and clapped Scoots on the back. "You can't see her, can you Rainbow? You can turn off the eyes now, by the way."

Rainbows eyes ceased their glow and her pupils found Daybreak instantly. "No, I couldn't. But I guess you already knew that huh?"

He smiled with a nod "Precisely. And I doubt I'd be able to see her either."

"And why is this important again?" Scoots hands shifted to her hips.

"Because it means other spell casters can't sense you." He exclaimed in a matter-of-fact type voice. "If my magical sight can't perceive you, then that means you are likely invisible to all other forms of detection by spells as well. Most mages nowadays use detection spells to locate others by their aura and use that to track, locate or warn them of oncoming danger. If you can't be perceived, no one could ever see you coming."

Realization began to dawn on her as she understood what this meant. "You're not training me to use magic are you?"

He shook his head gleefully. "No. I'm training you to fight magic. By the time I'm done with you, you won't be a kid anymore, you'll be the greatest threat to any magician in the world...and our own little secret."

Her eye grew wider than ever before "Aweeeeeesome!"

Daybreak too shared her joy, but returned to his serious look much quicker. "Of course, you still have a long way to go before that. If you forget something as simple as a projectile being redirected with magic, this is gonna take much longer than it should."

Scoots clambered back over to her pillow couch fortress like she was on fire, and snatched up the dagger he'd given her from within. "I won't! I won't forget again, let's keep going!"

"That's what I like to hear. Now...get ready!"

After another three hours of near nonstop training, and one quick peanut butter and jelly break, Daybreak could tell Scoots was at her limit for the day. After she took three flaming pillows to the face in a row, he knew she was too tired to continue learning anything, and finally told her to stop. Scoots collapsed down into the couch instantaneously. Rainbow, who had been unusually silent for most of the three hours, other than offering occasional moral support, finally came forward to aid in putting away the mountain of pillows. Her lips were pursed together as she grabbed the first three, telling Daybreak she had something on her mind, but wasn't sharing. So he did the only logical thing to do, he prodded her.

"Ya know, whenever I make a face like that, it usually means I ate some really bad sushi and the toilet is too far away for comfort. Should I teleport you in there or is there something you wanna talk about?"

She was silent, other than a light chuckle, as she grabbed two more pillows and carried them towards his room. He followed close behind, with at least a dozen more pillows levitating in his wake. As they reached the closet and she began setting them down one at a time, at a pace way to slow for her, he sighed. With a snap of his fingers the closet door shut in her face, sucking in the pillows like a vacuum as it shut.

"Earth to Dash. Come back down to us...what's wrong?"

After a moment of simply staring ahead at the closed closet, she loosed a sigh of her own and stood up to face him.

"I've been thinking dude...do you know where Discord is?"

The question was so out there, he almost wasn't sure he'd heard her right.

"What?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "You heard me, do you know where your dad is?"

Without thinking he snapped his fingers and the door to his room snapped shut, nearly smacking poor Scootaloo in the face, and sending the pile of pillows she'd been carrying tumbling to the floor. From within his room they heard her release a loud, exasperated groan.

"OH COME ON, REALLY?!"

"Sorry Shrimp, it's not for what you think. We'll be right out, I just need a moment alone with her."

"Five minutes and then I'm coming in there! I'm totally starving from all that work and I demand you feed me more than sandwiches before I don't see you two again for Celestia knows how long!"

"I can't believe I'm being scolded by a kid...geesh are we that bad?"

"Understood miss bossy. Five minutes."

He waited to hear the sound of Scoots socks shuffling away back towards the living room, then sat down on his bed once he was certain she'd left. He motioned for Rainbow to sit down next to him. After letting a full minute of silence pass between them, Daybreak spoke.

"Why are you asking me about that? Why now? It's not like he's gonna help us."

"Don't beat around my question. I want an answer man. Do you know where he is or not."

Daybreak locked eyes with her, half intent on staring her down. He could see the fire behind them as always, her ever burning attitude blazing bright. She would be nearly impossible to reason with like this. But still he wanted to try. This was such an odd question to fire at him out of the blue. He couldn't figure why she'd suddenly crave knowledge of his fathers whereabouts except to go pick a fight. And he really didn't need that kind of conflict of interest in his life right now. Yet he also knew Rainbow wouldn't budge on her question. He could only hope he wasn't right.

"Ugghhh...fine...Yes I know where he is. But-"

"Great! Let's go!"

She swiftly stood from his bed and made for the door. Daybreak was dumbfounded.

"Wait...what?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes "Let's go. As in, take me to him."

He stood up just as swiftly and got between her and the door. "Are you nuts?! Hell-fucking-no! Why on earth would we go to him right now?"

Rainbows eyes glanced at the door handle, then back to him. "Because I wanna, that's why."

He blew air from his mouth "You're gonna have to do a lot better than that if you wanna convince me. And besides, even if I was willing, which I'm not, in case you haven't noticed the sky is falling apart outside. I don't fancy freezing solid and then getting electrocuted while being blown halfway across Equestria. Not sure about you, but that's about as far down my list of 'Ways I Wanna Die' as I can get."

Rainbow wafted her hand at him passively "Oh please. Like you couldn't just portal us there if you wanted. If you know where he is, I'll bet you have a way to get to him. I'm not an idiot ya know."

"Kinda wish you were right now."

He shook his head. "Well we still aren't going. You won't even gimmie a reason why we should. No way am I risking my life in this hellish weather if you won't even gimmie a good reason to do so."

"BECAUSE I WANNA MEET HIM ALRIGHT!?" She exclaimed, loud enough for her voice to reverberate around the room once.

"Beg pardon?" He stepped back from the door, befuddled. "What do you mean, you've already met him before. As I understand it you and Twilight and all of your friends battled him didn't you?"

"Ugh...that's not what I meant." She returned back to his bed and flopped her back down onto the sheets. He slowly followed her over and sat down beside her. He waited in silence as she stared up at his ceiling.

"Look...back when me and our friends fought him he was our enemy, and yeah he was a giant pain in the ass. But now...I haven't even really thought about him like that for a long time. Yeah I still wanna deck him in the face... but now that I see the kind of things we are up against, I realize that he really wasn't that bad...but when we defeated him with the Elements of Harmony, he looked like he was gonna die. He was shriveled and nearly powerless. We ended up letting him go because Celestia said he was no longer a threat to us like that. I still wanted to pound his crooked nose in, but Twilight said to let him go, so we did...But now I'm with you..."

She took up his hands in her own and connected their fingers together. "Now that I'm with you I wanna go see him, as your girlfriend, not as his enemy."

He was awestruck into silence. No idea what to say back to something like that. How could he even say no now? As much of a horrid idea as it was, she'd just said something so sweet, he'd have to be heartless to deny her.

"I'm totally gonna regret this later..."

Conceding defeat, he lowered his head in shame. "Fine...How can I say no after hearing that?....I don't remember you being this sentimental and mushy when we first met..."

"Yeah well I guess that was before you became the most important thing in my life, wasn't it?" Her sing-song voice struck a cord and he felt his lips twitching into another grin.

"I think I'm rubbing off on you Skittles."

"Yeah, in more ways than one." Daybreak looked up to see her head cocked to the side, an evil smile of victory plastered on her face.

"Snarky little shit."

Like she could read his mind she flashed him a peace sign and stuck out her tongue. Standing up, she walked to the door and gripped the handle tight, then stopped. Grinning, she turned back around to him and pulled on the fabric of her undergarments. Tugging at it lightly, she cooed to him.

"You knooooow, maybe I should thank you properly." She licked her lips and slowly took a step towards him. In that very moment, the door flew open, and smashed into her face, instantly obscuring her from view as Scootaloo strode in with her arms crossed.

"Times up!"

Daybreak smiled a gleeful smile, slowly standing to greet her "Shrimp! What perfect timing!"

Scootaloo slowly looked around the room. "Where's Rainbow Dash?"

"Behind the door, getting a feel for what justice taste like!" He laughed boisterously as he walked past Scootaloo and patted her on the back. "Come on Shrimp, I'll make you some pasta."

"Yaaaaaaaaaaay!" Not even bothering to check behind the door, Scootaloo took off after him, skipping happily down the hallway as she chanted "Pasta! Pasta! Pasta!".

When the door shut once more, Rainbow slowly slid down the wall onto her behind, twitching at the searing pain her face was in.

"Fucking cock block..."

"Hey Rainbow?"

"Yeah dude?"

"The next time you hear me say I'm going to cook anything, I need you to do me a favor..."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah...slap me upside the head and remind me of this moment."

Daybreak stood staring...just...staring at the bubbling cauldron before him. Within its contents was a swirling mass of slimy tendrils. It looked like pasta sure enough, and judging by Scoots and Rainbows burps from the other side of the kitchen, it must have tasted like normal pasta too. The only problem with that theory was that every time Daybreak attempted to close the lid to the cauldron, the noodles would spring to life and coil around his arms. They went from simple stringy pasta to boiling hot tentacles of death each time he tried, until he released his hold on the lid that is. Then they became just as lifeless as his mothers heart.

Nothing else made it react that way either, not a ladle, not a fork, not even being eaten. Why then was it unwilling to let him simply close a lid?

"Seriously, are you two like, not gonna help me with this?"

A series of burps and then a series of smaller burps preceded their answers. "We are helping you dude. Me and Squirt are helping you get rid of it."

"Yeah, we just happen to be helping by dousing it in tomato sauce and eating it!"

He stared at them both in disbelief. "Does it not bother either of you that the food you are feasting upon has tried strangling me at least five times in the past ten minutes?"

Rainbow stabbed at the last of her noodles and slurped them up into her mouth savagely. With barely enough time for a breath in between, she turned to him after swallowing and said, with a tomato sauce filled grin and her plate held out before her. "Nope! More please!"

"Ugggh...You're unreal, you know that right?" He replied as he snatched up her plate and moved back towards the stove.

"No, I'm hungry! Feed me!"

"Keep your-splash-pants on, I'm getting you more now" He aggressively shoved the ladle into the cauldron and scooped out a larger pile of noodles onto her plate. At this point he was just hoping she'd eat it all so he could be done with it.

"I'm not wearing pants, I'm in my underwear. But I'll keep these on. Wouldn't wanna distract you from bringing me more food."

"Oh! Oh! Oh! I want some more too!" Scoots flailed her arms wildly. She loosed a loud burp, then sat with a smile equal in size to Rainbows. Daybreaks hand slapped to his forehead and dragged down his eyes. He couldn't possibly sigh loud enough.

"Oh for the love of Luna! How can you two eat so damn fast?!" An aggressive snap of his fingers caused Scoots plate to rocket over from the kitchen. Grumbling aloud, he dipped in the ladle again, scooping out a clump nearly twice the size of Rainbows and depositing it on Scoots plate. He grabbed both dishes in his aura and started walking them back over.

"Hey! How come ya gave Squirt even more than me? I'm a growing athlete and I needs my protein!" She lifted up her right arm and flexed, gently patting her arm muscles with the opposite hand. Daybreak could feel his left eye beginning to twitch, but Scoots cut across him before he could say anything.

"Nuh Uh! I need more protein than yoooooou Rainbow Dash! I'm younger so my muscles need even more to grow! And I'm the one getting the special training, so I should get the most food to refuel!"

Daybreak could feel his fists clenching at his sides. "How about I just-"

Rainbow now stood up, pushing her chair back and pressing her palms into the table.

"I just learned how to fly Squirt! To fly! I need waaaaaay more fuel to recharge than you! Besides, you've got a much tinier body, that means LESS space for food! It's science!"

"Actually Rainbow that's not-"

Now Scoots stood as well, slamming her hands down and leaning over the table at Dash.

"My tininess only means I have lots of room to grow! So I need MORE food! Besides, maybe you wouldn't be so tired all the time if you stopped riding Daybreaks dick twenty-four seven!"

"That's it! Come 'ere Squirt!" Rainbow practically flew across the table, tackling Scoots out of her chair. "What did I tell ya about that foul mouth of yours eh!?" She easily pinned Scoots to the ground on her belly, placing a knee on her back to hold her down while her hand pulled both her wrists behind her back. She reached her free hand into Scoots shorts and grabbed a fistful of her undies.

"I warned you didn't I? What I'd do if you didn't quit swearing like that!"

Scoots flailed her legs in a panic! "No! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOO! Please Rainbow Dash don't!"

Rainbow gave her bottoms a single, firm yank upwards! "Nope! This is your punishment, you're lucky I don't spank you like a child!"

"HEY!" Daybreaks magically enhanced voice boomed across both of their yells, easily drowning them out. They ceased their movements and turned.

"ARE YOU TWO FINSHED?!......HERE!"

Eye twitching, Daybreak magically slammed two plates down, each stacked at least two feet high with noodles, onto the table! Both of the girls eyes lit up like starry skies. The whole world must have melted away to them, because they were untangled and back at the table within seconds. Daybreak thought he might have heard them both squeal out a thank you, but was unable to be sure, as the following moments were drowned out by momentous sounds of slurping!

Shaking his head, he returned to the cauldron. "Women...I swear..."

He watched in sickening awe as the two girls absolutely obliterated the pile of noodles before them. He'd figured that would be good to last them for the next hour so he'd have time to actually figure out what had gone awry with his cauldron. But now it looked as though the only thing he'd be doing in a few minutes was the dishes. He lowered his head, loosing a depressed sigh.

"What have I been reduced to? I sacked two kingdoms just to end up as a dish maid for crazy women."

Within the sounds of continuous slurping Daybreak heard Rainbow gargle something at him.

"Whazattwo? Isoughtyouszadonlydagriffons?"

Leaning back against the sink, he didn't even have to make a face to portray his confusion.

"Was that supposed to be English? Haven't you ever heard of swallowing first?"

Rainbow finished chewing and began to grow another wide smirk. His eyes briefly widened, he was not about to let her say it.

"Shut up Rainbow."

Giggling, she finished the mountains worth of noodles in her maw and showed him a greasy smile.

"I said. What do you mean two? You only told me you went to the griffons, and you never said anything about sacking them. What does that even mean?"

Rubbing the back of his head shyly he shrugged. "Well, technically it was the same kingdom twice, just different rulers. So I'm not sure it counts. Besides, I did say I left because of a difference in opinion. That was the truth. Those kings wanted to stay in power, and I disagreed. See, difference in opinion."

Rainbow loosed a boisterous laughed and leaned back in her chair. "Well, that actually explains alot. Now I can tell Twilight the reason why the griffon ruler stopped returning her letters awhile back. So what went down?"

"Ehehe..." He laughed nervously, then turned his back to them. With a light waft of his hand, the cauldron sprung up from the stove and floated over to him, settling itself neatly in the sink. He took a deep breath before he spoke again.

"Well, I lived in the Griffon Kingdom for a few years after I left my fathers home for the final time. This is after I'd already left Celestia's school, if you want a timetable. Anyway, being as powerful as I am, I eventually grabbed their kings notice. I was invited into the palace, he probably intended to use me as some kind of weapon. He was a good drinker, but a fool. He wanted to wage war with other nations to expand his land, and was convinced he could win. So after learning of this ploy I arranged a coup and had him overthrown...semi-peacefully. Having all your guards turn on you at once is usually a good route to surrender...The second king was hardly any better though. It only took a year of him ruling for me to realize he would make the same mistakes. Though this coup didn't go over quite as well. Me and him ended up battling it out in his palace. After the fight I had the new king exile him and I left Griffonstone. I was tired of politics and wanted to continue my travels. To be honest, things didn't turn out the way I wanted back then. The current ruler of the griffons is certainly better to his people, but he had...has the same ambitions as his predecessors. I left things in a barely satisfactory manner in the end."

Scootaloo, who had become so enthralled by his tale that her noodles still clung to her fork and face, drew a excited breath "What did you do?"

His reply was unenthusiastic. "I made it clear to him to stay put in griffon territory or I'd be back, and he understood what that would mean for him...Griffons just don't seem to be capable of picking good leaders, or maybe all of them suck. Hard to tell sometimes."

Rainbow gave a hearty laugh. "Probably the last one! I had a griffon friend once. We were cool for awhile, and I thought she was really chill. Then she came to visit me here, and when I tried to introduce her to my friends I saw how things really were. She wasn't cool, she just wanted me all to herself. So I told her to beat it. We haven't spoken since."

"Sometimes that's what needs to happen." There was a certain offset to his voice. Rainbow could hear it as he turned on the faucet and went to work scrubbing away the frothy muck from the cauldrons insides.

"Is that what you thought with Twilight too?" Rainbow watched the sponge stop moving almost as quickly as it had started. She knew she'd struck that particular nerve when he didn't respond right away. He just stood there, as if admiring the soapy sponge in his palm. She suddenly wished she'd just kept quiet.

Scootaloo, not realizing the sudden tension, stood from her chair and slowly trotted over to Daybreaks side, with her plate still showing plenty of noodles.

"Hey bro? You want some?" She chirped, poking at his side.

Broken from whatever trance he just gone into, Daybreak shook his head and looked down. "What?...oh...umm...sure Shrimp, thanks. Just set it down on the counter and I'll eat it after I finish here."

Rainbow watched as Daybreak lightly patted Scoots head, then gently shooed her away. As she trotted by, she stuck out her tongue at Rainbow. "I finished first Rainbow Dash, meeeeeeeeh!" Then bolted away giggling before Rainbow could swipe at her. As she watched her bolt towards the couch, and more likely the t.v, Rainbow briefly tried to imagine sweet little Scootaloo fighting with Jackie's knife and beating down other mages...she couldn't see it.

Daybreak must have guessed what she was thinking, because he cut right across her thoughts "She's a good kid. But her condition is too useful to pass up. I don't intend to teach her haphazardly, so don't worry. By the time I'm done, you won't have any trouble imagining what you're thinking of right now."

Rainbow couldn't help but get a warm feeling whenever he did that. She smiled in spite of herself. "Ya know there's a real problem when we start to know each to the point of reading the others mind."

"Oh do we?" He scoffed. Snapping his fingers, the dishwasher next to the sink opened its jaws wide, and allowed the oncoming cauldron to float neatly inside and await further cleaning. With a slightly aggressive WHACK Daybreak smacked the dishwasher shut and turned his full body to face Rainbow. Leaning back against the sink, he stared at her as he flicked on the cleaner.

"So tell me then...do you know what I'm thinking right now?"

Rainbow could feel her face redden, but not like normal. She wasn't feeling embarrassed, but she still wished she could turn invisible in that moment. If her ears could droop like a sad puppy, they would have. Slowly, she nodded her head.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it like that. It was insensitive."

She looked up to see him shaking his head with a sigh. "Huuuuuh...Rainbow..."

She lowered her head again, but almost immediately jumped in surprise as two warm arms wrapped themselves around her from behind. Quickly looking up, she saw he was no longer leaning on the sink, and realized he must have quietly teleported behind her.

"Rainbow look...I get why you asked, it's just...huuuuuh...I get it's natural to be curious, but please understand. I still don't really wanna talk about the stuff I did back then. I'm not proud of it, but I did what I thought was right. But to answer your question, yes. That is what I thought with Twilight back then, and I still believe it was the right thing to do. She turned out better without me around."

Rainbows arms reached back behind her body and embraced him, it was uncomfortable for her, but she made her point. "If that's true, then why are you ok with being her friend now?"

She felt him shiver slightly through his hug, whether from a temperature change, or something else, she could not tell.

"It's complicated Dashie. Like I said, I still don't wanna talk about everything that happened back then...and I doubt Twilight does either, so If you're thinking of asking her-!"

"No! No I wasn't!" She quickly sputtered defensively. "It's just...You've got me now. You know you can trust me with anything. I'll never abandon you no matter what happens, now or in the future. So...you don't have to go bearing the burdens of your secrets all by yourself. We can share."

He felt her warm hands crawl under his shirt and gently rub across his belly, leaving a pleasant trail of goosebumps along their path. Shivering, he quickly spun her around to face him.

"You ass...you know just what to say to get me to melt...Since when did you get so philosophical?"

She smiled into his frustrated face "Well I have been hanging around you, and I've know Twilight for years now, bound to rub off...Why? Are you complaining?" She watched his head slowly shake. "Then come here."

Moving her hands out of his shirt to around his neck, she pulled him into a passion filled lip lock. Instead of her usual aggressive kissing, this time she just let it ride out and enjoyed the feeling of his lips mashing onto hers. It wasn't particularly aggressive, but it wasn't super mushy and slow either. It was a happy medium, both of them simply pulling against each others lips while at the same time trying to keep the others in their grip. She pulled away from his lips for only a brief second, just to lean up and plant a quick smooch right below his ear. "Love you."

Daybreak felt a whole wave of shivers corkscrew up his spine as her breath tickled his ear and her whisper tickled his heart. He almost choked on his next attempt at words as she barely allowed him a moment to speak. "Ch-cheater...that's not playing fair". He heard her giggle through the kiss, and break away for another moment.

"Oh, are we competing here?" She nuzzled her rainbow hair into his neck, planting light kisses just below his chin as she did "I thought I was just showing you how much I loooooooooove you? No one said this was a competition."

She nipped a particularly sensitive spot under his chin, and earned herself the lightest of light squeaks from him. "E-Everything is a competition with you Skittles."

She giggled "Touché. And as always, I'm kicking your ass."

"Not playing fair." He mumbled under his breath.

Rainbow pulled him tight against her body and looked him dead in the eyes "What was that now? Are you suggesting I have to cheat to beat you?"

He adored the moments when their eyes locked, especially if they weren't arguing. He could get lost staring into her magenta eyes without even trying. His stupidly happy smile must have made it all the more infuriating for her when he said, in the most calmest of voices "I'm not suggesting it, I'm saying it. You can't win without dropping the L-bomb on me."

Without missing so much as a beat, he watched the spark of competition engulf her vision. "Let's go to your room and we can find out!" Lust and passion fueled by competition poured out of her voice. Daybreak felt his stupid grin grow even larger. "Gladly!"

He turned to the living room. "Hey Shrimp!"

He heard the volume of the, until recently silent, t.v suddenly start climbing dramatically before Scoots answered.

"Yeah yeah, go plow each others brains out! Just please put up a sound spell...geesh I can hear you guys being Evergreen levels of sappy from here!"

Grinning, Daybreak decided to do something he knew Rainbow would never expect. So as she turned around to make her way towards his room, he swiped her up from under her legs and brought her up to his chest. She shrieked as he flopped her into his arms like a bride and looked down at her stunned expression.

"Comfy?"

"Asshole..." She retorted, but he could see the blush on her cheeks. He happily carried her all the way to his room, grinning like an idiot.

"Goodnight Shrimp!" He yelled back down the hallway. He heard a brief reply, and that was enough for him. He kicked open his door with no hesitation.

By the time Daybreak actually got to his bed, Rainbows clothes were off and scattered across the floor before she ever touched the sheets. He set her down with such sweet grace she almost didn't know how to react. Considering just a few moments prior he'd challenged her, but was now being so gentle...she didn't know what to do other than lay there and wait.

Daybreak on the other hand, knew exactly what to do. In order to give himself an early lead he had to get her as turned on as possible before she caught on to him. He took his time taking off his shirt and pants, making doubly sure that Rainbow was staring at him the whole time. He'd never really practiced trying to strip tease before, so in his mind he looked like a total fool. But Rainbows expression told him otherwise. Her mouth was wet as she smacked her lips together in anticipation. Her eyes locked to his abs as his shirt came off and he flung it aside like a sweat rag. He could practically hear her breathing increase as his boxers came off and she stared at his crotch with an unsubtle amount of want in her gaze.

Rainbows eyes widened with surprise as he leaned down over her face and pressed his lips onto hers. She'd expected him to jump on her or attack her with the ferocity he normally had, but she never expected this. He wasn't even touching her. He was just leaning over and kissing her. Not that she was complaining, the kiss was amazing. But she couldn't help but wonder what he was doing. That is, until he brought his kiss up to her ear. He gently bit on her ear lobe, then tenderly whispered to her.

"Gotcha." He stepped back and snapped his fingers. Yellow beams of light erupted to life around her legs and arms, pinning her spread eagle on the mattress! The moment Rainbow realized she was being bound, she attempted to resist...but it was too late. As soon as she tried to move her arms, or legs, the yellow energy around her tightened. Daybreak chuckled seductively.

"Oh no, now you can't move Dashie. What a shame. I guess that means I can do whatever I want to you now, right?"

She growled up at him "You cheater! You totally tricked me!"

He shrugged "Yeah, pretty much. You do the same thing to me all the time, just with your mushy mushy words. I'm just evening the field by using magic. That's all."

She continued to struggle, but to no avail. The energy rings wouldn't give an inch. "Let me up right now and I might not beat your ass."

"Oh please" He teased. "The only person here whose ass is in danger, is yours. But don't worry, be good and I won't put you on your stomach. If I recall, it took all of your strength to break these rings when you fought with...my other half...let's see if you can manage that while writhing in ecstasy."

With a simple twirl of his of his finger, Rainbows body began to rotate on the matress until her spread legs were facing Daybreak. With another wrist flick, her body dragged across the sheets until her pelvis hung just over the edge of the bed. Her feet were now suspended in the air, rather than hanging down over the mattress.

Barely having to take a step forward, Daybreak reached out and gripped her legs. Upon his touch her legs were no longer forced still, but the yellow rings still remained, presumably in case she tried to resist again. So she let her legs relax in Daybreaks grip. He smiled a sinister smile down to her as he took up one leg in both hands, allowing the other to fall back onto the bed. For a moment, she thought of using her free leg to kick at him, but knew it was pointless since she wouldn't get free even if she gave him a good one. Not as long as the rings were still present.

Her thoughts broke as a pair of warm lips kissed her just above her inner thigh. She squeaked adorably and glared at him, but he merely responded with another kiss, and a gentle bite. She couldn't hold in her moan as his teeth pressed into her flesh. She watched as her moans excited him, and encouraged another bite. Struggling to contain herself, she was not willing to let this be an easy victory for him.

"Nnnnnaaaaaah...I-If you t-think you're gonna make me break with foreplay like that...Then I'll be here all night."

He smiled "That's the spirit. Always defiant. That just turns me on so much Dashie. Maybe that's why I've always wanted to tie you up like this. Let's see how you act when you're totally helpless."

She blew wind from her lips "If you wanted some bondage action, you could've just asked."

"Yeah... But where's the fun in asking?" He responded by sticking out his tongue at her.

For a moment, she thought that was it, but then he took his extended tongue and dragged it, slowly, up her thigh. He flicked it along her skin, allowing her to feel absolutely every inch as he neared her neithers. He brought his lips to just shy of touching her soaked skin, then pulled back. He could hear Rainbows sigh, of both relief and disappointment. Snickering, he released one leg and took up the other, repeating the same process. Once again, he heard her sigh as he stopped just shy of bringing her pleasure.

He raised his head up, staring at her up her chest. She wore a dirty and defiant look, which only increased his eagerness to beat her.

"Let's play a game Dashie. I won't let you get off, until you beg me too, AND you admit that I totally beat you this time."

Even with her hands bound above her head, she still managed to flip him off. "Never."

He shrugged. "Then this is gonna be a long, fun night for me. I'm gonna do absolutely everything I can think of to you. You know what that means right?"

Daybreak watched her arch her neck up and blow a raspberry at him. "You'll break before I do. You always do. You'll get so desperate to fuck me, you won't be able to help yourself. Even tied up like this, I'm still gonna beat your ass-eeeeeeeeeep!"

Rainbow gave a high pitched squeal as he roughly shoved two fingers deep inside of her. He did not hide his snicker even as she attempted to regain her self composure. "Yeah. We'll see about that." He brought his lips to just above her clit and gave it a harsh lick. "Doing everything I can think of doing to you might take awhile. Hope you're comfy Dashie."

She couldn't hold back her visible shiver of fear. She was in for one long night.

Rainbows body had betrayed her. Defiant though she might have remained, in the end it was not enough. She laid there, twitching in the afterglow of an amazing series of climaxes. Her tongue was just rolled to the side of her mouth, causing her to dribble drool down on the pillow next to her. Her bindings had vanished quite sometime ago, the only that was holding her in place now was herself. She could barely muster the will to look over to Daybreak, now sitting on the side of the bed and struggling to look calm himself. He hid his own tiredness well, she could just barely make out the rapid panting he was hiding by just barely keeping his mouth open as he breathed.

Still, the knowledge that he was tired too didn't change the fact that he'd beaten her. He'd never gotten her to beg while denying her orgasm, and for that she was proud. But he'd surprised her by suddenly changing tactics, and that was how he'd achieved victory. At the absolute height of her pleasure, instead of pulling away from her and denying her again. He'd cast some kind of extra sensitivity spells on her, and gone to town on her hips. The unexpected assault on her brains senses had her screaming his name within seconds. The moment she began climaxing, she'd been reduced to a drooling mess...and had to have more. He'd stopped just long enough to let her whimper for more, and then given her what she wanted. She wanted to be angry at him for reducing her to this, but she couldn't help but admire his creativity. Besides, she certainly couldn't complain about being given too MUCH pleasure, that just seemed stupid.

Looking over again, she saw him chug a glass of water that he'd probably made appear from nowhere. Then, he looked back at her. She quickly tried to look away, or at least look up and pretend that she hadn't been looking at him, but he saw right through that.

"Want some water cutie? You probably need it after that."

She hmphed and stuck her nose up at him.

"Oh don't be salty. Skittles are supposed to be sweet. Besides, I'm sure your body isn't complaining at all, is it?" He sounded so amused with himself, she wished she had the strength to punch him. But he was right.

"Not at all..." She whispered to him. "In fact, I think I should let you tie me up more often. You've got a real kinky side to you."

Shyly rubbing the back of his head, he reached under her and helped sit her up against the headboard.

"I'm not sure if that's actually a good thing or not."

Mustering the energies of the universe to her tired limbs, Rainbow forced herself to stretch out her legs. She yawned loudly as she moved them about.

"Well...I definitely think its a good thing, you work me out almost as much as training routines do. Soooooooo...What do you want?"

"Hmm?" He wasn't quite sure what she was referring to.

"Your prize dude. You beat me. Not exactly fair and square, but you still won. So what do you want?"

"Oh." He hadn't actually expected anything for that victory. Though now that he gave it some thought, there was one thing that had been in the back of his mind for a few hours now.

"Ok Dashie, I know what I want..."

"Oh goodie." He could still hear the saltiness in her voice. Luckily for her, what he wanted wouldn't give her any reason to complain.

"Yeah, it's nothing major. We just need to make a quick pit stop after we visit my father."

Rainbow, finally acknowledging her need for liquid nourishment, reached over and snatched up his water glass. Tipping the bottle to her lips, she replied sarcastically "Oh yeah? Where?"

"Your dads place! Kindly mark it here on this map!" From nowhere he unfurled a map in front of her face with a giant grin....which instantly became drenched in water as she spit up the gulp she'd just taken from his bottle.

Rainbow pulled up the sheet from his bed and helped him start wiping off his face, and the map while he desperately tried to withhold his chuckles. "Sorry sorry dude! You just caught me off guard with that one. It's not the kinda thing you really seem into."

"Why? You asked to meet my father. It's only natural I'd wanna meet yours too. I've kinda been thinking about it ever since I saw his picture."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, but before now you've literally mentioned squat about it. Not that I mind. It's not like we're getting married or something. There's no requirement to meet my dad if you don't want to. Don't ask just cause you feel like you should because I did."

Now successfully dry once more, he recoiled the map in his palm and let it vanish into nothingness, then he leaned back into the feathery pillows of his bed. Reaching back and putting both his arms back under his head, he laughed aloud. "Please Dashie, I'm not the kind of person who feels obligated to do anything. I really do wanna meet him. Honest."

Rainbow covered a laugh with her hand, and laid down with him, snuggling up into his chest. "Yeah, you're right. What was I thinking? You feeling obligated to do something nice out of courtesy. I must be nuts."

"Glad we got that out of the way......Say...since this feels like bed time, you wanna see something cool I haven't shown you yet?"

"Dude I swear to your mother, if I feel a tentacle start crawling up my thigh I might actually punch you."

He actually cracked up that time. "Oh geez Skittles! No no, nothing like that. I just wanna show you this..."

Pointing his right index finger up towards his ceiling, he slowly traced a magical green line straight down its center. Rainbow watched with awe, as the ceiling started to fade away, revealing the thunder snowstorm from hell raging outside. For just a moment, Her hands tightened against the bed sheets, expecting to be suddenly pulled up by the wind. But then she remembered, he had a barrier around the house. "Umm dude...this is cool and all, but isn't this dangerous? I mean I know if that barrier falls we're toast anyway, but this just feels like we're asking for trouble."

He smiled "Really? Tell me Rainbow, do you hear anything?"

"What" That was an odd thing to ask.

"Do. You. Hear. Anything? He repeated. "As in the storm, do you hear it?"

He waited as she returned her gaze to the snow blizzard, lightning and rain stricken sky above. Rainbow was silent for a moment, her eyes closed as she tried to listen to the raging typhoon just beyond them.

"N-no...I don't hear anything at all....How come? When I open the front door I can hear the storm just fine."

He smiled. "The ceiling is still there Dashie. This is a transparency spell cast only on my room. I can make any part of my walls or ceiling seemingly disappear, but only from our side. So no one out there could see in here. Like a two-way mirror. This spell is what I use to create my drawings. I can just lay here, and watch sunrises, sunsets, or in this case, a massive hell storm."

Rainbows hand flew up to her face. She sighed as she face palmed herself. "Of course! Your drawings. They're all still in our dorm room...which you no longer use. Geez I should've brought them here a long time ago."

He waved his hand casually. "Think nothing of it. I'll get them back at some point."

"Oh, ok then." She snuggled even more against his chest and watched the snow/rain/lightning filled sky dance across their vision. It was like watching a silent movie.

"Wait a sec...How come you haven't shown me this before, or made any new drawings since we've met? I just realized that I haven't seen you draw a single one!"

He couldn't tell whether she was pouting or actually asking him, so he went with the latter.

"Well...I mean I used to do this every night and just lay here drawing...But...Well since I met you...my mind's become distracted....And now, I've gotten used to looking at something else in my bed besides the sun. If you want, maybe I'll draw you when we return."

Her blush returned in full force and she was too close to his face to try and hide it. So this time she didn't even try. "That's...so sappy...but it's just the right kind. I'm sure my dad will love to meet you. AFTER we see yours though, right?"

He nodded and she grinned. "Good." She looked up and planted a loud smooch on his neck. "Can you leave the ceiling like this all night, it's really cool."

Again he nodded, though slower this time. He was clearly starting to drift off. "It's a special enchantment...won't disappeared....unless I make....zzzzzz"

He made a cute little buzzing sound as his mouth closed while still trying to speak. Rainbow planted another kiss on him and returned her gaze to the ceiling. "Nighty night Daybreak."

Author's Notes:

Surprise! You all thought we were gonna meet the parents this chapter! But it is in fact in the next chapter!
Honestly, just wanted to separate the two last minute, don't really know why.