It'd never taken much to wake Dash up - from the absence of somepony who should have been next to her to Celestia's sun starting its daily rounds. She didn't sleep outdoors overnight too often, but when she did, she was always surprised at how early she awoke.

Today was no different. She opened her heavy eyes slowly to the sunlight, momentarily forgetting where she was and, when she remembered that, why exactly she was on a cloud. Her marefriend's tearstained, bedraggled face certainly served as a memory jog.

She smiled for a moment, before attempting to stretch - and was greeted with a huge wave of pain. She screwed her eyes shut, feeling them water. Suddenly, everything came rushing back. She realized how stiff she would be today with a quiet sigh.

She cautiously took her forelegs away from Fluttershy before scooting away and standing shakily. A momentary pang of fear took her as she climbed to her hooves - they were way too far above the ground. The cloud below them must have gone through something during the night, but now they were a bit more than three hundred feet from the earth below. This caused her a short panic attack. How was she going to get down? She couldn't fly with her wings in such a state. There wasn't any -

Her thoughts were interrupted by a yawn from below her. Fluttershy sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "Rainbow?"

Dash chuckled. "Took you long enough, Shy. I've been up for hours. It's almost time for dinner already."

Fluttershy blinked, and thought it through for a moment. "Really?"

Dash didn't reply, just shook her head and laughed. "Come on, stand up," she said, offering a hoof. Fluttershy gratefully took it and pulled herself up next to Dash, before stretching her wings and neck briefly.

"So, um..." she began, looking over at the other pegasus, "... you look terrible." She giggled and nuzzled her cheek quickly.

"So do you," Dash replied, smiling. "I would say that we should go take a shower, but..." she motioned with a hoof across the horizon, "... we should probably ge off the cloud first."

"Well, let's go," Fluttershy said, stepping off to the edge and looking down. She gasped. "Oh."

"Yeah."

She backed away from the edge and sat softly in the middle of the cloud. "C - do you think m-maybe you could help me d-down?" she asked.

"That's... that's another problem," Dash said, rocking on her hooves nervously. "I can barely move my wings. They're really sore," she continued quietly.

Fluttershy looked up, worry clear in her eyes. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it, we'll find a w-"

"Dash," she firmly interrupted, standing up cautiously and walking over to her. "What did you do?"

"I - I was rushing around trying to find you last n-"

"Really."

Dash blinked and held Fluttershy's stare for a moment, before turning away and sighing. "Fine. You - you were falling, okay?"

Fluttershy looked apologetic for a second, before looking down at her hooves. "So you... saved my..."

"Don't mention it, Shy. Just - just help me figure out how to get us down."

Fluttershy looked up at the baby-blue pegasus scanning the air in front of her. Now she owed her life to her twice. She noticed with a chill that Dash's wings were shivering slightly. Her muscles were still going through shock - electricity was pumping through them, trying desperately to fix them as she watched. She couldn't stand to live with herself if Dash couldn't fly again because of her.

Without a second thought, the yellow mare jumped to her hooves, screwed her eyes shut, and clasped her marefriend's torso with all the force her forelegs would allow. She heard a short gasp - maybe it was Dash, maybe it was her - before she threw herself off the edge of the cloud.

Wind whipped into her face at a frightening speed. She bit her lip - hard - and extended her wings, her mind stumbling over itself to retrieve her flight training memories. Tighten foremuscles... extend phalanges slowly... and push with everything you've been given.

Time slowed as she flapped her wings furiously and prayed. Maybe she'd made a terrible mistake. Maybe she'd just killed them both. Maybe -

Suddenly, an abnormal sound cut through the screaming wind to reach her. There was a soft thud and a slipping sound. She was propelled by fear to open one eye, and a huge surge of relief swept through her. It was grey. They'd run through a cloud, dense on the bottom but soft in the middle. She put her hooves forward with the last of her strength and collapsed, the weight she forgot she was carrying falling on top of her with a grunt of pain.

Everything was quiet for a few moments, except the sounds of laboured breathing and the seashell-like sigh of the cloud moving around them. Suddenly, there was a shout of "YES!"

Through the dim light, Fluttershy could see the outline of Dash's face. "Fluttershy, you did it! You - we - you got us down! We're not too far up now! How did you-"

"Can we... can we call it even?" Fluttershy interrupted, panting softly.

Dash grinned broadly. "Yes. Yes, definitely. Lemme see if I can go - AAGH!" she shouted, falling on top of her marefriend again.

Fluttershy gasped, and climbed out from under her, helping her quickly to her hooves. "Dash, are you alright?"

Dash groaned. "Yeah, I just can't - just can't move too fast. It s-starts hurting again," she said, her voice slightly strained. "L-let's go see where we are, o-okay?"

Fluttershy nodded.

Much to Fluttershy's relief, she'd done well. They were only a hundred fifty or so feet above the ground. A few good shouts to the town below and they were noticed. Help was on the way.

The pair collapsed against the marshmallowy cloud wall. Dash looked over at Fluttershy, who'd closed her eyes and was trying to regain control of herself. She'd underestimated her. In the right situation, she could do amazing things. She leaned over and gave her a soft kiss. "We'll be on the ground in a minute," she said quietly, before adding a few more 'thank-you's.

~~~~~

A sudden ray of light illuminated the dark grey hollow in which the pair was sitting. A younger tan stallion climbed through the aperture, clothed in a bright orange vest and a belt stocked with all kinds of ropes and kits and other accessories.

"I suppose you're wondering why I've called you here today," a voice tinted with fatigue rang out from the darkness. The stallion jumped, and flicked his flashlight on hurriedly, pointing it at the voice.

He sighed when he saw them. "Hey there. I've been sent from the Stranded P-"

"Stranded Pegasus Safety Patrol. Double Salt and Pepper. I know," Dash finished for him, grinning as amicably as she could. "Been there, done that."

He returned the smile nervously. He was still pretty new on the job; it was only his third rescue, and he hadn't gone solo before - especially not in a cavernous semi-dense. Semi-dense clouds and cavernous clouds were both taught to be home to wrickets, cloud demons, and the like. "I-I'm going to have to ask you a few questions. Medical stuff, nothin too complicated. First, d-"

"My head is fine, my pulse is normal, my stress level is average to low, I'm not questioning reality, and your cutie mark is a... um... a plus sign on a circle," she finished, that confident grin still on her face.

He was surprised. She really had been in the service before. "Thanks for saving me a bit of time, miss..."

"Rainbow Dash," Dash replied, standing with a soft groan and approaching him, a hoof held out in greeting.

"Oh!" the stallion's face brightened. "You're in the news a lot with the, um, the Elements of Harmony, right?"

"Yup!" Dash confirmed, smiling.

"Oh, well, I'm Sky Rover. Nice to meet -"

There was a soft whimper that interrupted their short conversation. Dash turned back to the corner where she was sitting and clicked her tongue nervously. Without another word, she trotted lightly over to a small, brightly-coloured shape Rover hadn't noticed before. Dash knelt by the bright yellow body, and lifted her head up slowly. It was another of the Elements, um... what was her name?

"Fluttershy?" Dash whispered. "Shy, are you okay?"

Rover trotted over to them, kneeling down nearby. If he knew anything, it was medical science. "Can you open one of her eyes for me?"

"No need. It's magical psychosis."

Rover groaned. Stop doing my job for me. I'm coming off as an idiot. "So, she's going through an episode?"

No response from either mare. "... She just had one last night," Dash said quietly after a short pause. "... I'm worried. They haven't been so close together before. Shy, are you there?"

"Yes," came the uncomfortably soft reply.

"Can you open your eyes for me?"

"... I don't know."

"Try," Dash urged, worry crossing her face once more. "Try and open your eyes."

Slowly, Fluttershy obliged, looking with dilated pupils at Dash - or rather, through her. Dash's bottom lip quivered for a moment. "Wh-what's your name?"

"Fluttershy."

Stress was visibly lifted from her. "So it's not quite as bad as it was last time?"

No response.

"... Shy? Shy, you have to talk to me."

Fluttershy looked away for a moment, before looking back, her pupils returning to normal with a quiet pop and a wispy wave of purple sparkles emanating briefly from her head.

Dash lifted her up closer to herself as her eyes closed. "Shy? Shy?" Her voise began to rise, becoming more frantic. "Shy?!"

"Woah, woah," Rover said, putting a gentle hoof against her chest. "You don't want to cause any more mental problems than there are already. However, you have a physical problem, and that's what I need to address first."

"What are you talking about?!" Dash snapped, taking her gaze away from her marefriend for a moment.

"Your wings are bruising. That's internal bleeding. We need to take you out of the air first."

Dash glanced behind her, trying in vain to look at her wings. She noticed for a second that her nerves were on fire, but chose to ignore it. "No. Take Fluttershy."

Rover shook his head, the rigorous determination that came with his line of work finally setting in.. It was going to go down like this. "Ma'am, your friend's wings are in better condition. The other SPSPs should be here in about ten or twenty minutes, but you need to be taken down quickly and safely by an escort now. And for that, I need your coopera-"

"Sky Rover, you're going to listen to me right now." Dash stood quickly, wincing momentarily in pain. She leaned in close to his face. "You're going to take Fluttershy down first. Okay?"

Rover didn't flinch. In one smooth movement, he pulled a pair of hoof-holds out of his vest and snapped them onto the exhausted blue pegasus' front hooves. "I'm sorry, ma'am."

Dash looked down at her restraints, and back at the unconscious yellow mare resting in the darkened corner. She looked forwards again, scowling. She gave Rover an icy glare through tearing eyes. "If this cloud loses density, or something that lives here comes for my Fluttershy - I'll find you. And you will be."

~~~~~

After being dragged kicking and screaming into the nearest clinic, Dash fell into a fitful, sedative-induced sleep. She'd probably made her wings worse. She didn't care, though. She wanted Fluttershy back. If something happened to her now, after everything they'd been through, life would lose meaning.