Twilight lowered the final sheet of wrapping paper onto the pile and rested it perfectly even on top. Mere hours earlier her new castle’s bedroom floor had been a mess of crinkly paper, loose ribbons, and poofy bows. Now it was spotless save for several neat stacks of wrapping materials lying on the floor organized by color, size, and condition, all ready to be stored away for later use. The mess made by her friends’ gift exchange that morning had been entirely cleaned away. Now Twilight had the rest of the afternoon to enjoy her gifts before Pinkie Pie’s Hearth’s Warming party that evening. Twilight sat back and allowed herself a satisfied sigh.

Then the window burst open, a rush of cold air sent her neat stacks scattering across the floor, and Rainbow Dash swooped in the open window and landed dead center in the newly-disorganized mess.

“Jeez, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said, looking around herself. “You still aren’t finished cleaning up? It’s been hours.”

Twilight’s eye twitched.

“Have you even started yet?” Dash poked over a pile of mismatched bows that had once been three separate orderly piles of matching bows. “There’s still stuff all over.”

Twilight tried to groan, but halfway-through it became a giggle and then there wasn’t anything she could do to stop it from becoming full-breathed, ridiculous laughter.

Dash raised an eyebrow at her. “Um, are you all right?”

The last of Twilight’s giggles dissipated and she closed the window with a quick flick of her magic. She had been Rainbow Dash’s friend, and now marefriend, too long to still have any excuse for being surprised by the pegasus’s ever-untimely habit of making messes, and she was having too good a day to let it be ruined by one little accident anyway. “I did finish. Just now, actually,” Twilight said, putting on a mostly-fake pout. “And then somepony flew in and knocked it all over.”

Rainbow Dash looked down at the mess at her hooves, then looked at the window, then back at the mess. “Oh,” she said. “Heh, woops. Sorry.”

“It’s all right.” Twilight walked over and around the scattered wrapping materials to Rainbow Dash and gave her a small nuzzle. “This just means I get to spend more time organizing. Maybe I can even catalogue it all this time!”

“Eh, sure, go for it. I can help you clean up, if you want. But I won’t help you catalogue it.” Dash’s face darkened. “I’m never helping you catalogue anything ever again.”

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad.”

“It was six hours!” Rainbow Dash cried, flapping her wings and sending even more wrapping supplies tumbling across the floor. “Six hours!”

“You’re kind of a cry baby sometimes,” Twilight said, and frowned at the expanded clutter. “And of course you can help. I can catalogue it all later, and I’m sure Spike will be glad to help me do that, and I’m even more sure he and I will both thoroughly enjoy ourselves while doing so.”

“If I’m kind of a cry baby, you’re kind of insane.” Dash winked. “But that’s okay. Crazy is hot.”

“Fair enough,” Twilight said. “But didn’t you want to go to Applejack’s family’s Hearth’s Warming bonfire this afternoon? What happened? Are they already finished?”

“No,” Dash said, making a face. “They’re probably never gonna be finished. They haven’t even started eating yet. They spent hours just sitting around being lame and talking. Nothing but, like, ‘Remember that time we raised that one barn, or that time we raised that other barn, or, boy howdy, that time we raised that other other barn, that one sure was a doozy!’” Dash grimaced. “And then they started square dancing. Ugh.”

Twilight laughed. “Well, you’re welcome to stay, but I don’t know if you’ll like it here any better. I probably won’t be doing anything other than cleaning up and reading until Pinkie’s party, and Spike is still out with Rarity and Sweetie Belle.”

“That’s fine,” Dash said. “You’re boring, but at least you’re not lame.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“Besides, if I’m going to be bored with anypony, I’d rather it be with you.”

“Aw,” Twilight cooed. “I’d rather be bored with you, too.”

“Yeah.” Dash smirked. “At least that way I get to stare at those flanks of yours. I could do that all day.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “And there I thought you were showing me your romantic side.”

“You think the only reason I hung around the library so much was to read Daring Do? You’ve got hot flanks,” Dash said, trotting in a half-circle around Twilight and looking at her backside. “No reason to be shy about it. Not as nice as mine, obviously, but still, you’re at least a B. Maybe even a B+ on a good day.”

“Well, whatever reason you’re here, I’m glad to have you,” Twilight said, leaning over and giving Dash a light kiss. “Feel free to stare away.”

Rainbow Dash pushed forward, pressing their sides together. A very familiar smirk appeared on her face. “Speaking of your flanks,” she said, her breath on Twilight’s cheek. “How long did you say Spike was gonna be out for?”

Twilight didn’t pull away. “Probably all afternoon.”

“Good,” Dash said, and leaned in to close the little space left between them and push their lips together.

Twilight delighted in a short moment of letting go. But before the kiss became too deep, she abruptly pulled back. Rainbow moved to kiss her again, but Twilight held her back with a hoof. “After we finish cleaning up in here,” she said.

“Aw, come on.” Dash groaned. “I’ve been waiting for this all day.”

“Well, I guess that means you’ll clean fast.”

“I take back what I said before. You are lame,” Dash said. “And I do everything fast.”

Twilight laughed. “Uh huh. Just help me get this all gathered up and organized and when we’re done I bet I’ll find some way to change your mind again on that whole ‘My marefriend is lame’ subject.”

Rainbow Dash grumbled something about extortion as Twilight stepped away from her and began taking stock of the mess. Wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbon, bows, gift boxes, and gift bags were littered in little piles over almost the entire floor. It wasn’t too bad, really. The room looked just as it had that morning when she and Spike and the girls had finished their present exchange. It was a simple matter of reorganizing, and if there was one thing Twilight was better at than organizing, it was reorganizing.

“Can you go get another trash bag from downstairs?” Twilight asked.

“Sure thing.” With a single flap of her wings, Rainbow Dash was already out the door, but not without first gusting yet another wave of gift exchange refuse along the floor.

Twilight sighed. Sooner or later she was going to have a talk with Rainbow Dash about spacial awareness. She picked up a bow in her magic, but before she could get a hold of a single other, all of the other bows scattered away from her again and Rainbow Dash reappeared, hovering just over the floor in their place and holding a trash bag between her teeth.

“What now?” Dash asked.

“Throw away anything that doesn’t look like it can be reused,” Twilight said, deciding that talk would be coming sooner rather than later. “Anything that’s torn up or worn out—just toss it. I’ll start getting everything that’s still in decent condition organized again.”

Dash nodded and set about to work.

Twilight began using her magic to organize the wrapping supplies. She fell into a steady, relaxing rhythm of tidying and systematizing until she came across a blue scrap of paper covered with crude, crayon-drawn books. It had been folded and ripped more than most of the rest, and was sticky and crinkly with at least a dozen times more tape than should have been necessary. It was the paper Rainbow Dash’s gift to her had been wrapped in.

Rainbow Dash had given her a stack of books, all new copies of ones that had been destroyed along with the library during Tirek’s rampage. Twilight didn’t think she had ever seen Rainbow Dash more excited while watching somepony else open a present. Rainbow Dash had always preferred opening her own presents to sitting around and watching other ponies open theirs. But this time she had refused to open any until Twilight opened that one.

Twilight hadn’t and never would tell Rainbow Dash that she had already received at least one new copy of every book that had been lost in the Ponyville library from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna during the housewarming party at her new castle a couple weeks before. Rainbow Dash had been there, too, of course, but judging by the amount of cider  she had drank at the party, Twilight suspected Dash couldn’t remember a single thing from that night.

Nearby on the floor lay a long, red strip of ribbon, the same color as the streak in Rainbow Dash’s mane. Dash had used it to tie together the books, and it was so overlong that it had practically served as a second and then nearly third layer of wrapping paper over the package. Twilight raised it up to her eyes, and across the room saw Rainbow Dash leaning over the bed, diligently collecting stray wrapping supplies.

Dash faced away from her, both forelegs on the bed and her hind legs long and straight behind her, giving Twilight a full view of her backside. Rainbow Dash began lightly swishing her tail from side to side, giving Twilight the barest glimpses of some of her most intimate of spots, and humming some melody that Twilight vaguely recognized. Twilight found the whole display so unassumingly cute and alluring that she suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to canter across the floor, grab Rainbow Dash from behind, throw her into the bed, and leap right on top of her.

Twilight looked at the mess, then back at Rainbow Dash’s backside, then at the long ribbon still suspended in her magic, and then at Dash’s swishing tail and what lay underneath. Twilight bit her lip and shifted on her hooves and remembered the way Dash’s body had felt pressed to her side just minutes ago, warm and soft. When she thought about it, this all really hadn’t been fair to Rainbow Dash. Dash had given her a very personal gift for Hearth’s Warming, and all Twilight had given Dash in return were some pulpy adventure books. It hadn’t been equal at all.

Twilight looked down at the ribbon and grinned. Rainbow Dash really deserved another gift. It was the right thing to do. And, really, what else could an almost all powerful alicorn princess get for her marefriend on Hearth’s Warming day? The shops were closed for the holiday, after all.

Convinced of the appropriate fairness, reasonableness, and sexiness of her plan, Twilight guided the ribbon out towards Rainbow Dash. It stretched out in an arc through the air, at least several adult ponies in length. She swung it behind Dash, just below her swishing tail, and then up to one of the bed posts. Twilight tied the ribbon around the bedpost and began trotting forwards, hopping over and around the litter on the ground.

Rainbow Dash looked down at the ribbon that had appeared beside her. “Hm?”

Working quickly so Dash wouldn’t have a chance to move away, Twilight levitated another section of the ribbon around one of Dash’s forelegs and tied it.

Dash pulled at the the ribbon that had tied her hoof to the bedpost, but it stayed tight. She started to turn around. “Twilight, what the—”

Twilight leaped forward and into Rainbow Dash. Hooves outstretched before her, she knocked Dash over onto the bed. While Dash lay dazed, Twilight jumped on top of the covers and then over top Rainbow Dash. She straddled Dash stomach-to-stomach and placed a single hoof on the pegasus’s chest to hold her down.

Rainbow Dash didn’t make any attempt to get up. Instead, she flashed a smirk up at Twilight. “What’s this supposed to be?”

“A late Hearth’s Warming present,” Twilight said, leaning down and thinking of all the ways she could wipe that cocky little smirk off of Dash’s face, and kissed Rainbow Dash on the lips, long and warm and deep.

Twilight was always surprised by how easily Dash gave in to her advances. Anywhere else Dash was loud and smug and strong-willed, but in bed she seemed happy to lie back and let Twilight take the lead. Intimacy was the only occasion Dash ever let anypony else be in control, and Twilight loved being the one she had chosen to allow to take charge of her. And Twilight did take charge. She slipped a hoof along Dash’s cheek and kissed her neck, and Dash’s lips parted slightly in a moan, and Twilight’s slipped her tongue into Dash’s open mouth took lead in a heated dance of tongues and lips and hot, short breaths.

As they kissed, Dash pulled at the ribbon that restrained her hoof and ran her other hoof up Twilight’s neck and into her mane. Twilight reached out along the Dash’s side and slid her own hoof along the very edge of Dash’s semi-flared wing. Touching her wings drove Dash crazy and Twilight knew it, and it worked again. Dash moaned into her mouth and arched her back and neck and flared her wings and gave up struggling with the ribbon. Twilight took advantage of the moment to pull Dash’s hoof out of her mane and wrap another section of the ribbon around it and then tie the end around the bedpost. She made sure it was tight.

Twilight leaned back to get a good look at the pegasus tied and prone beneath her. Dash’s forelegs were stretched out away from her head by the ribbons. Dash pulled at them, but the ribbon didn’t give any slack. She wasn’t going anywhere without Twilight’s say-so, and they both knew it.

“I could get out of this if I wanted to, you know,” Dash said.

Twilight smiled. “Then do it.”

Dash bit her lip and then flashed another smirk, but it didn’t look quite right. “Well, uh, I never said I wanted to.”

Sitting on top of her, Twilight could feel Dash’s heartbeat going crazy. “Aw, are you nervous?” Twilight asked. She lowered herself back down onto the pegasus’s chest and stomach and wrapped both of her hooves around Dash’s neck, pulling Dash’s face and mouth the littlest bit closer to her own.

“No!” Dash said, squirming a little beneath her, her quickening breath on Twilight’s chin, her heartbeat still wild.

“Well, don’t be,” Twilight whispered. She kissed at the side of Dash’s neck, just below her chin. “I’ll only bite if you want me to.”

“I’m not—”

Twilight bit down on Dash’s skin and heard Dash’s breath catch. Twilight suckled at the sore spot she had left and felt Dash’s heart beat ever faster beneath her. “Oh, do you want me to bite?”

“Y-yeah,” Dash breathed out, raising her chin slightly, giving Twilight easy access to her neck.

Twilight eagerly accepted the invitation. She moved to another spot along the Dash’s neck and bit down again, harder this time.

Rainbow Dash squeaked and shuddered and she kicked her hindlegs, rustling the sheets.

Twilight brushed her lips along Dash’s neck and got her teeth around a little bit of soft, thin flesh. She only barely bit down, but Rainbow Dash had already begun kicking her legs again so that Twilight had to stop and hold her down.

“Get my other legs, too,” Dash said, half out of breath.

Twilight pulled back a little and saw another ribbon lying on the floor. She lifted it up in her magic and brought it over to the bed and then tied both of Dash’s hindlegs to their nearest bedposts so that her hindlegs were bound tight and stretched far apart.

Twilight slowly leaned back down over top of Dash, sliding both of her hooves up Dash’s neck and into her tangled mane.

 Dash leered up at her, panting softly, eyes half-closed and half-hidden underneath her mane. “Hurry up.”

Twilight tsked and brushed Dash’s mane away from her eyes, and underneath they were sharp and longing. “You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Twilight whispered. “But maybe if you asked very nicely, showed me just how sweet a little pegasus you can be...”

“Make me,” Dash said, and a little of her old smirk reappeared.

Twilight grinned and pushed forward and threw their lips together. Dash was less compliant this time, slower to yield, and that only drove Twilight to go at her more and then more harshly until finally she slipped her tongue past Dash’s parted lips and pushed Dash’s tongue down and away, and took Dash’s mouth from the inside. Rainbow Dash squeaked and shivered underneath her.

While they kissed, Twilight slipped her hoof down Dash’s neck and over her chest, slowly and deliberately, making sure Dash knew just where she was going and that she was going to take just as long she felt like taking getting there. Twilight slid her hoof down Dash’s chest, pushing against Dash’s hard, sinewy muscles, and then over among the feathers of her outstretched wing. The wing flared and flapped slightly underneath Twilight’s touch, and she made sure to slip along the whole outside of the wing, feeling every soft feather, not breaking the kiss and feeling Dash’s mouth tremble with every stroked feather. Twilight moved her hoof out of Dash’s wing and next over onto her stomach, still slow, feeling her all over. Dash’s body tensed beneath her and relaxed and tensed again and relaxed again.

Twilight’s hoof reached the bottom of Dash’s stomach and then the top of her thighs and she stopped, massaged up and down, up and down, never getting any closer. Rainbow Dash squirmed underneath her. Twilight never let up on the kiss, and one moment her tongue was slipping underneath Dash’s, and another her teeth were around and pressing down on Dash’s bottom lip, and always their breaths were hot and shallow and intermingling between them. Dash’s breath still smelled sweet like the cherry pie they had eaten together that morning, and the sweet mixed with the damp, heady air rising up from below them both.

“Hurry up,” Dash breathed out, voice gone, and she bucked her hips up against Twilight’s stomach.

But Twilight’s hoof stayed put, just underneath Dash’s belly button. Twilight finally allowed their lips to pull apart, and caught her breath in quick deep breaths of air. She grinned, her mouth still only a hair’s breadth apart from Dash’s. “Or else what?”

Rainbow Dash pulled at the restraints on her legs, wriggling about underneath Twilight but going nowhere. The ribbons didn’t give any at all, and she was stuck with her legs spread wide and open. Twilight could do anything and nothing to her, whenever or never.

Dash gave up on the ribbons and bucked her hips again. “C’mon, Twilight…”

“Is that how you ask nicely?” Twilight cooed, and kissed at Dash’s neck.

Rainbow Dash’s face contorted between pleasure and lust and stubborn pride, and Twilight saw pride win out, and then a weak smirk. “No,” Dash said.

And that was exactly what Twilight had hoped. She slid her hoof farther down then, along Dash’s thighs, quick this time, straight to burning spot between Dash’s legs. She touched the very edge of Dash’s mound, and it was wet and hot. She massaged its edge, gently and slowly, never close or firm enough to give Dash anything but more frustration.

Dash whimpered, but said nothing, didn’t give in.

Twilight frowned, slightly disappointed. But that only meant she had to work harder. She bit down into the skin at Dash’s neck, much more sharply than before, and then brushed her hoof over Dash’s slit. She pressed down, enough to give Dash the barest bit of relief, and Dash gasped. Then Twilight immediately moved her hoof away. She massaged Dash’s thigh again, gently, frustratingly gently, she knew.

Rainbow Dash groaned and bucked again, but still didn’t go anywhere. “You’re really lame when you want to be.”

“And you’re really cute when you beg,” Twilight said, kissing Dash on the lips again. “So beg.”

Rainbow Dash merely grunted.

Twilight frowned and leaned back and looked down at the bound pegasus. Rainbow Dash’s mane, lightly damp with sweat, had fallen back over her half-lidded eyes. Her breath was loud and short and her wings fluttered and twitched in time with each breath. Her legs pulled at the ribbons, not because she was trying to get away, but only unable to keep herself from moving.

Twilight had seen her like this before, the pent-up nervous energy and the desperate futile and final attempts to stay in control. Rainbow Dash was just on the verge of letting go, of giving in, giving herself to Twilight. She only needed one more push, and Twilight knew exactly how to give it to her.

Twilight leaned down and whispered into Rainbow Dash’s ear, “You know how good I can make you feel.” She kissed Dash’s neck again. “All you have to do is ask.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything, but her next breaths were shallow and quick.

Twilight kissed at a lower spot on Dash’s neck, the skin there tender and warm against her lips. Then a lower spot, and then a lower spot, and she made sure to make each kiss linger. She reached Dash’s chest, and Twilight kissed at a lower spot and then a lower spot, and her mane was low and all about her eyes, tickling her cheeks and lightly brushing Dash’s coat. Twilight moved down Dash’s chest, sometimes biting and sometimes suckling, and Dash twitched and trembled. Again Twilight wanted Dash to know exactly where she was going but not when or even if she would ever get there, and that there was only one thing she could do to get Twilight there any faster, and that was submit and give herself up. But she wouldn’t give up, not until she couldn’t stand anymore and Twilight had pushed her to the very edge. And that was exactly what Twilight was going to do. She reached Dash’s stomach and now her every kiss, then bite, then suckle lasted longer than the one before. Twilight went a little lower and then a little lower, going slower and slower every time, slower and slower the closer she got to the one spot she knew Dash wanted her to be, but still Dash didn’t give in and only groaned and shook.

Twilight reached the top of Dash’s thigh, and here she went slowest of all. A little lower and a little lower, she made every kiss, bite, and suckle last for Dash an eternity. Dash kicked her legs but the ribbons held her in place, and Twilight only went a little lower then a little lower, always more slowly than before.

Twilight’s lips brushed down Dash’s thigh and touched the very top of her stiff, swollen knub, and Rainbow Dash’s whole body tensed with anticipation. Twilight stopped. She kissed once, slowly, her chin just over the burning and wet folds below, and then moved back up Dash’s thigh and away, and could feel Dash’s desperation break and spill as she moved away and how much Dash wanted it and that Dash knew there was only one way she would get it. Twilight lowered again and pressed her lips lightly to Dash’s moist slit, one blissfully long and tender kiss, and then pulled back. She went just as slowly back up as she had gone down, another bite and another kiss to her thigh, and back up and away.

Rainbow Dash shuddered underneath her and then let out something like a squeak or a groan, and Twilight knew that Dash was hers.

“Twilight…” Dash whined.

Twilight stopped and looked up past Dash’s trembling stomach and chest. “Yes?”

“Okay,” Dash said.

Twilight bit Rainbow Dash’s thigh again, softly this time. “Okay what?”

“Okay, whatever,” Dash said, her voice shallow. “Okay, please and just do it, and I’ll do whatever you want or whatever, or whatever you don’t want, and I don’t even care, you win and just please.”

Twilight laughed, moving lower again, her bottom lip brushing along Dash’s skin. “And am I still lame?”

“No!” Dash practically shouted. “You’re super awesome and great and not lame at all. Now please, please, please just do it.”

“Do what?” Twilight asked, and her mouth was hovering just over Dash’s slit, and both it and her mouth were hot and damp.

“Anything!” Dash cried.

And with that Twilight pushed forward, tongue out, and got her whole mouth over Dash’s folds and her slit, and it burned against her lips and her tongue. She lapped with her tongue quickly and sharply, anywhere and everywhere, and her tongue slid easily over the moistened flesh.

“Nnngh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Dash said and arched her neck and let out a long and loud moan.

Twilight could have held Dash like that all night. She could have brought her right to the edge and then pulled her back, again and again, held her on the brink of release until Rainbow Dash’s body physically couldn’t take anymore. She knew she could have even untied Dash and Dash still would have done anything she wanted, because Rainbow Dash was hers now, wholly and completely. Rainbow Dash had given her control, trusted her to take it, and Twilight could have used it any way she liked. And it was for just that reason that Twilight didn’t do any of that, and instead did exactly and only what Dash had asked.

Twilight pressed a hoof to either side of Dash’s thighs and pushed her slit apart. She slipped her tongue inside, and inside Rainbow Dash was tight and burning and wet and tasted like sweat and lust, and Rainbow Dash moaned and squeaked and shivered and kicked and flapped her wings, and Twilight let her do all of it. Twilight slipped her tongue deeper and deeper in, and Dash’s inner flesh tugged and pulled and clenched on her tongue all the way, and Twilight went deeper until she couldn’t go any further, and then she let her tongue come all the way back out, and then back in again, more quickly. Rainbow Dash rocked her hips against Twilight’s face, and Twilight thrusted and lapped her tongue with every rock of Dash’s hips, and Dash rocked faster and Twilight licked and stroked faster, too.

While Dash bucked and she licked in rhythm, Twilight slipped one of her hooves up and found Dash’s clit and she kneaded it roughly, and Rainbow Dash cried out and went crazy and her bucking lost all rhythm. She thrashed her hips and legs and wings, and one of the ribbons snapped. But Twilight held Dash down, her tongue still deep inside, and she pressed Dash against the bed with both hooves, and inside Dash contracted and clenched and pulled hard at her tongue, and all of Rainbow Dash’s squeaks and cries had become one long, uninterrupted moan.

Twilight got her mouth out of Dash’s slit and got it around her clit instead. She held the pegasus down while her tongue stroked and swirled along and across and under the hard knub. Rainbow Dash’s wings flared and her legs stretched out and her whole body tensed and she arched her back so far she nearly lifted off the bed and she cried out in something like a scream and a deep breath. Twilight held her there, tongue on Dash’s clit, sucking now, and now blowing cool air into her slit, and now licking and then just barely biting and sucking again.

 And then all at once every bit of Rainbow Dash’s body relaxed and she slumped down into the sheets.

Twilight sat up and wiped sweat off her face and looked down at Rainbow Dash. Dash lay on the bed, breathing quickly, looking up but not seeming to really look at or see anything. She was wet all over with sweat or something else, and Twilight knew this was something only she would ever get to see, a bit of weakness and helplessness that Rainbow Dash never shared with anyone else, something she only ever trusted to Twilight.

Twilight moved over the bed and lay down in the sheets beside her. She undid the ribbons with her magic, but Dash didn’t move. Twilight rested her head on Dash’s shoulder and reached a hoof out to Dash’s chest and lightly stroked up and down, up and down. She felt Rainbow Dash’s heartbeat and breath slow.

They lay together in easy silence for a long time.

“That was awesome,” Dash finally said, sounding tired.

“Mm hm.”

“You’re awesome.”

“Thanks,” Twilight said, her head still on Dash’s shoulder.

Rainbow Dash shifted, stretched her legs and wings, and then reached a foreleg around Twilight and pulled her closer. They lay like that for a while longer, and Twilight felt Dash’s heartbeat and breath slow more.

“I really don’t think you’re lame,” Dash said.

“I know.”

“I really don’t, though,” Dash said. “I think you’re one of the coolest ponies I’ve ever met, and I really like you.”

“I love you, too."

“I seriously don’t think you’re lame.” Dash's voice got quieter and her heartbeat and her breath went slower still. “Not even a little bit. You’re not lame at all.”

“I know you don’t.”

Rainbow Dash yawned, long and loud. “I shouldn’t have ever said you were. It was a stupid joke. You’re not lame.”

“It’s fine.”

Rainbow Dash murmured something Twilight didn’t understand, and then went quiet. The next sound Twilight heard from her was a snore.

Twilight didn’t know how long she stayed lying beside Dash, but it felt like a long time, and she felt like she could have laid there for a long time more. But she sat up and got out of the bed. She could never fall asleep in a messy bedroom.

She grabbed the cover and pulled it up over Rainbow Dash and wrapped her tight. She watched Rainbow sleep for a while and then went away and cleaned herself up. Then she came back and started cleaning the room again, this time while listening to Rainbow Dash’s slow, sleeping breath.