Author's Notes:

Quick note: Bit more on the retcon. The explosion was a few blocks, rather than the whole city... or the whole country. I've been a bit lazy on changing things for the last several months, but it'll be corrected in time.

You found yourself sitting on your couch, another long day's work past you now. You'd been working on Applejack's farm for the last couple of months, and it still never seemed to be anymore fun than the first time.

Then again, apple bucking isn't exactly meant to be fun, but it helps... in its own special way, at least.

The first half of Windfall had finally come and gone, and with each new day that came, the colder it was getting. Rainbow had long since gotten her job back at the Weather Factory, and you had no doubt she was there right now, contributing to the change in weather. It wouldn't be long before it was winter.

You missed the snow. Not everypony does, but you always found it fun to just walk around in the snow, make snow angels, and sit inside, on the couch, by a warm fire.

...

You immediately remembered the last time you did that.

"As long as I'm right here with you, you're safe and sound."

You hated thinking about it. It was only a few weeks ago, but it was still burned into your head.

Grace...

You weren't mad at her. At least, not anymore. It still hurt that she compared you to someone like him, and continued it right up until... right up until Manehattan, but it was best to bury the hatchet before too long.

And it was a good thing too, because you and Dash were making progress. Finally, things felt normal, at least the normal you wished it had been before. You and Dash would meet up from time to time, hang out, and talk to each other whenever either of you had an issue that couldn't be fixed alone.

Gone were the days where she saw you as a rodent.

Was it too harsh? Calling yourself a rodent?

No... No, it was the right word. Was.

Not anymore. You weren't that kind of stallion anymore. No more cheesy love letters, no more love songs. If you ever did it again, you wouldn't do it how you did.

You wanted it to mean something.

But not now. Not today.

"Not for a little while. I just..."

Not until you were ready.

For the rest of the evening, you spent it preparing a quick dinner and listening to the radio for an hour. You sat on your couch, chowing down a bowl of spaghetti and fried potato balls and listening to classical rock—which surprisingly worked.

"Spaghetti and potatoes... why did I never think of it before?" you asked vocally to nopony in particular.

Eventually, the music ended, and on came the familiar voice of Sunny Beat.

"Hello everypony! This is PonyvilleFM with today's Ponyville evening news! I'm Sunny Beat with the latest!"

You missed hearing her voice. You knew her in person only a hoof-ful of times, but it's been a long time since you've seen or heard her. To hear her voice again nearly made you choke on your balls.

"I'll be filling in again for Blossom Meadow, who's unfortunately come down with a case of the flu. Let's all wish her a speedy recovery, shall we?"

Once you finished your meal, you headed into the kitchen to wash out your bowl, turning on the radio in the kitchen as you cleaned your dirty dishes. The talks were all the same as you remembered them. Political, environmental, weather, and—of course—gaming.

Who knew releasing a game in a pre-alpha state was a bad thing?

Once you cleaned the dishes, you turned off both downstairs radios and went up to your bathroom to brush your teeth. As the radio inside played, you spit out the contents of your mouth, and washed it all out for good measure, before getting the shower ready.

"And with my final topic for the evening, I hope you're all ready for a thriving good time tomorrow night, as would-"

"What's going on tomorrow... night..."

Wait... what month was it again?

"In case you've already forgotten, tomorrow is the day you've all been waiting for for the last few months, and that is... the Wonderbolts Wonder Spectacular, of course!"

...

Already? It's here already? What?

Tomorrow?!

With the very mention of the event, you were no longer focusing on the show, and instead looking around your house for the event tickets you won all those months ago. You remember just blurting out the first thing that came to your head. Then you remembered how Twilight was just a call away from winning them, and then giving them to you anyway.

You were so excited to give Dash her ticket the next day.

Come to think of it, why has Dash never mentioned it? These are her idols, coming to Cloudsdale tomorrow, and not once has she mentioned it?

"Maybe it slipped her mind," you suggested to yourself.

The sound of knocking downstairs startled you for a moment.

"... Maybe not?"

You shut all the drawers in the nightstand you were going through and made your way downstairs to the front door. You tried looking through the side windows, but you couldn't see who it was.

"Great," you curse yourself, "the light's out again."

You unlock and open the door, hoping you don't get struck in the face again, only to find that it's not a bloodthirsty thug standing at your door, but Rainbow, looking and breathing like she flew all the way here.

"Oh, good," she sighed through breaths, "you're still up."

"Hey," you said hesitantly. "What're you doing here?"

After a couple of breaths, she held up a hoof containing two golden tickets. The exact same tickets you were looking for just now.

"... Oh."

"Can I... Can I come in for a sec? To catch my breath?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. You okay?"

"Yeah... totally! It's just been a while since I flew that fast. I've been cutting back a bit. Heh."

"I haven't noticed."

"Oh, ha ha," she laughed sarcastically as she sat down on your couch, her breath returned.

"No, really, I haven't noticed."

"... Oh."

After a moment, you sat down beside her, waiting for her to say anything else. When she didn't, you spoke up.

"So... you were listening to the radio too, huh?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It'd been a while since I bothered listening to it. Good thing, too, or else I would've forgotten about it completely."

"Me too. It slipped my mind."

"Literally."

You looked at her with a straight face, but couldn't help but laugh after a moment, and she laughed with you.

"So I take it you wanted to remind me too?"

"Yeah. Didn't wanna catch you by surprise tomorrow."

"Me neither."

The two of you were silent, unsure of what else to say. It was always like this during the evenings, but daytime was always a different story. Literally.

"So, um..." Rainbow began, but teetered off quickly.

"Yeah?"

She started to blush.

"Alright, screw it, I'm just gonna come out and say it. Will you go out with me? To the show?"

You laughed slightly. "Well, that's what the tickets were for, right?"

But Dash shook her head slightly. "I mean... "go out with me" go out with me."

Your smile faded slightly as you realized what she meant by it.

"Oh! Uh..."

You kicked yourself. How did you not notice it the first time? But now that it was staring you in the face, you hesitated, unsure of what to say. For so long, it was always you being the one chasing her around and trying to score a date with her, and her turning you down—for good reason, of course.

But now... Rainbow Dash was asking you out to a date. And here you were, unsure of what to say—for good reason.

"I... Dash, I..." But before you could say anymore, Rainbow spoke up.

"Look..." she sighed. "I know you wanted to wait. I know what I did to you was wrong, and you wanted space from that, from... from what happened. I know."

She closed her eyes and wet her lips again, trying to plan her next words right, you could tell. You've done the same thing before.

"But I... I... I miss you." She turned away for a moment and sighed again. "Celestia... I know, that sounds selfish and sappy, coming from me, but it's true. I miss you. I miss being able to wake up in the morning and see you there, or just holding you close and knowing you're the one holding me. And every time you kissed me... every time, it told me that someone loved me back, no matter what."

When she noticed you didn't say anything, she continued.

"I know... again, selfish. But I miss that. I miss when we were just always there instead of seeing each other every other day and not knowing the next time we'll meet up." She looked back to you. "I want that back. Not right away, I'm not like that... but I figured that maybe we can try again? Start again? Tomorrow?"

You eyed the tickets, then back to her. You still didn't know what to say. She understood your confusion and nodded.

"If you don't want to, I understand. If you don't want to start again for a while, I mean. But I... I'd still love to go out with you tomorrow. Just for tomorrow, give me one chance, and if you still don't want anything else beyond it, then we won't talk about it again—at least not until you want to. I just... I just want to see you again."

You knew what she meant by it.

It was a tempting offer. You couldn't deny that it was tempting. You couldn't even deny that you wanted nothing more than to be there with her again. Every day you woke up, that empty space on the bed only reminded you of what you no longer had.

But still... there was that big part of you—the part that told you, "You're not ready. You remember what she did to you? What she called you?"

Of course you remember. You remember it all now. The awkwardness, the frustration, the yelling, and everything after it. And every time you remember it, you constantly tell yourself that it was six months ago. For you and everyone else, that was more than a long time.

Rainbow Dash now was not the same Rainbow Dash that looked you in the eyes that night and said the world was better off without you.

So... where was the harm in considering this?

"Okay."

"... Really?" Dash questioned, her eyes quickly beaming with the hope she was looking for.

You nodded. "But just for tomorrow. At least, right now."

Dash toned down her excitement, but was still nonetheless excited. "Okay."

You sighed, pacing yourself. "I'm not gonna lie. I've thought about it too. Us."

"You have?"

"Yeah. So... maybe by the end of the day, I'll think differently. Or..."

"Or...?"

"Like you said: We won't talk about it anymore. At least, not—"

"—until you're ready," Rainbow finished for you, then nodded reassuringly.

It grew quiet in the room, neither of you knowing what to say next. Rainbow looked at you, no doubt looking into your eyes, as she always had. You never told her how often she stared. In honesty... you enjoyed it.

"We'll see where it goes," you spoke after a moment of silence. "Okay?"

She nodded and replied "Yeah, totally," trying to get back into her usual mood.

Rainbow got up from the couch and let out a yawn—which then led to you yawning too.

"Well... I should probably head back home. I still gotta feed Tank before I hit the hay. Got a big day tomorrow."

"And I gotta hit the shower. I smell like a train in the desert."

Dash looked at you. "What—"

"Friend's wedding. Long story."

She snorted and made for the door. Upon opening it, you were greeted to the familiar sound of crickets and other nightly creatures singing away.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

You gave her a nod and waved goodbye to her with a grin. She did the same as she closed the door behind her. As soon as you knew Dash was completely gone, you sighed.

You idiot, you cursed yourself. You're not ready yet, are you?

You wanted to be. You hoped you'd be. Even after a few weeks, you wanted to convince yourself it was more than enough time to move on or try again. In a way, it was, but all the same, you didn't know.

You thought it over in the shower a few minutes later. Neither of you were wrong. Anything can happen in a single day. You yourself were a shining example of that. In a matter of seconds, you were left bedridden for three months of your life. What were the chances something could happen tomorrow?

Already, you were thinking about all the possibilities, even the ones neither of you wanted. But what did you want?

"We'll see where it goes," you repeated, this time to you and only you.

"Just don't buck it up again."