Stretching slowly, I yawned and cracked my eyes open. Mmm, that had been an interesting dream adventure. Awareness slowly focused back into place, and I smiled gently as I realized the lavender unicorn was still snuggling softly into my forelegs, muzzle pressed into my chest and a soft smile apparent on her face. She had gotten a lot closer to both of us last night, it felt like. Plus, it was the start of a celebration today! Oh, and my jaw hadn't been impaled on a horn as I slept! The possibility of that happening hadn't eluded me, but hers was kind of rounded, so it probably wouldn't hurt too badly. Regardless, a good day overall!

Fluttershy was snuggled into my back at the same time. I chalked up tomorrow night as when both of us snuggled Twilight, if I had my rotations right. Twilight had made a rather easy to follow schedule which fit rather easily into every month having thirty days, which was divisible by three, of course. She really liked that part. Then each of us would get exactly ten nights getting pancaked between the other two. Secretly, I didn't mind regardless. Watching them snuggle together was beyond adorable as well. The only thing that changed was who I happened to be holding. She started going into a more elaborate formula to figure out which direction the center pony would be facing, but we stopped her there, thankfully.

The yellow mare stirred behind me first, leaning forward and pushing her face into my mane with a pleased murmur, nuzzling the back of my neck softly. Twilight's ears twitched against my chin as she heard the soft noise, and she started moving as well. Both were the gentle sort of wake ups, not that cold sweat jerking awake halfway through a terrified scream as something murdered you. As Redheart had found out, I was no stranger to those either. Ironically, it was usually me that was killing me. Well, maybe it was just my armor. Either way, I was really scary.

Twilight's eyes slowly opened, the two pretty, violet orbs lifted upwards to look at me, her smile widening a little. Ducking her horn, I kissed between them gently, causing her to close them for a second and giggle. I felt Fluttershy smile through our link before she spoke, "I'm glad you two are getting along much better." Her voice was a bit softer than normal with a slight sleepy slur to it that she always had when just waking up.

The lavender mare giggled more at that, seeming in fine spirits indeed. "I think that's an understatement after... Well, after all that,” she murmured, a light blush coming back to her cheeks as she buried her muzzle in my neck again, as if to hide herself.

As cute as it was, it wouldn't do. Feeling Fluttershy think the same thing and urge me forwards, I nodded and used my right forehoof to slip up Twilight's back, raising her head up gently from the side. Fluttershy peeked around my head at the same time and instead spoke for me. "We really love you, Twilight. Um, you don't need to get embarrassed about showing affection and enjoying each other's company, especially when it's just us here," she assured softly.

Twilight watched us for a moment before her eyes softened a little and she nodded, the flushed cheeks still there regardless. "I know. This'll just take me some time to get used to, is all. Um," she started, before hesitating and frowning slightly. I felt her shift around a little under the blankets, and then her cheeks went from pink to red again. "Um, do you think we could take another shower before breakfast?" she asked hesitantly.

Gasping, I pretended to be shocked before pointing out, "Twilight! We just took a shower last night! Why do we need to take another one so soon?" I felt light amusement come from Fluttershy, but Twilight squeaked and held her hooves up to me.

"But... But after all that..." she tried to protest. I started snickering, unable to keep my poker face at that. She gave me a scowl, instantly realizing I'd been screwing with her, and Fluttershy giggled.

"We usually take a morning shower, too, Twilight. Don't worry. We can go get cleaned up,” she assured, letting the mare relax against my chest again.

Twilight exhaled softly in relief, then smirked up at me. "Then what are we waiting for? We have a rather big day ahead of us, after all, and the shower takes at least forty-five minutes!" she reminded, hopping out of bed in an instant and bringing that horrible, dreaded cold in from beyond. Arg! Wait, what?

"Wait, forty-five minutes? For a shower?" I asked, trying to sit up at least as my body screamed in protest. Fluttershy giggled at that, then kissed my cheek and fluttered past. I gave her a confused look until she glanced back over her left shoulder and winked at me, her tail lightly flicking up and smacking me in the nose. Oh. Oh...

Finding motivation from somewhere, I hopped up in bed and stretched. Right. Long showers were cool, too! This day was starting to turn out awesome!

Sort of. I sighed, staring at the rather significant crowds of ponies practically everywhere along town square and the paths leading to and from it. The direction heading towards the Southeast field was particularly crowded, and I knew that was both the starting line for the Running of the Leaves, and the main cloud bank they'd set up for the Cloudy Sky Dash afterwards. Several friends were in the first race, with both Applejack and Rainbow Dash competing against each other in it, and Pinkie Pie and Spike doing their annual announcing. They also announced for the second race, too, which I heard was quite a bit rougher. I was a bit concerned for Rainbow, hoping she didn't tire herself out in the first race before even getting to the second. Normally she was fine with pacing, but if she got into her 'hot blooded' mode, that might go out the window.

Still, there wasn't a lot I could do about it. For now, I had a specific list of things I needed to get done, of course. Twilight had given me a lot to do, and I'd only managed a few of them so far. The mass against my back moved again, and I glanced back at Spike as he readjusted himself on top of me, still reading over a checklist.

"Okay, so we picked up the blanket and picnic basket from the library. We got some veggies from both Applejack and Carrot Top. Now we just need to get some sandwich materials from Lily and Daisy, then pick up some refreshments at Sugarcube Corner. Mmm, they do sell those soda bottles there," he read off, checking things off as we finished them. He was looking rather lonely at the library when I arrived with Twilight's list, having spent the night there by himself, so I asked if he wanted to come with and help me get things done. He agreed surprisingly quickly.

"The flower trio’s stand is closer, so we'll head there next," I suggested idly, spotting it in the corner of the market. It turns out they don't just offer flowers for decoration, but also ground and snipped flower product for food purposes, in many tasty and varied types. Given that was one of my favorite sandwich stuffers, I was more than pleased to hear this. Plus, they typically had freshly baked bread there as well, more as a matter of convenience than anything. Sugarcube Corner didn't just make sugary treats, ironically, but also baked a lot of more normal bread products. They shared a bit of the profit with the flower trio for selling at their shop, it would seem.

Spike snickered at that, then pointed out in an amused voice, "You just want to get the sandwich materials!" I rolled my eyes at that. Admittedly, they were my favorite food, but this was just practical!

"Hey, they're closer. Besides, if you behave, we'll pick up Rarity after we get done at Sugarcube Corner," I offered. He froze momentarily, eyes widening before he rapidly nodded and grinned at me. Heh. Predictable, but that wasn't necesarily a bad thing.

Squeezing through the crowd, I slipped closer towards the stand, only to note Rose sitting at it instead, surprising me a little. Normally she tended to their stocks instead behind their stand, conveniently where their house was. Lily and Daisy were nowhere to be seen, however. The cream colored mare smiled at me and waved as I approached, and I gave a less enthusiastic one in return, nodding. Crowds made me uneasy, especially when there were so many ponies I didn't know in it. Lots of visitors had come in from practically the entire nation, with Ponyville's wide open expanse of fields and winding country roads being ideal for the Running of the Leaves. The Cloudy Sky Dash was slightly newer, it would seem, having only become tradition about ten or twelve years ago. It was also more commercial, and seemed to take advantage of the large crowds gathered by the older race to get some nice, sky high advertising going on. It sort of made me wonder what kind of economy Equestria had. I'd never paid that much attention.

"Glad to see a friendly, familiar face!" Rose chirped as I slipped up in front of the stand, Spike leaning over my head to wave at her as well.

I snickered at that, still a bit skittish as my proximity sensors kept pinging against passing ponies. I carefully checked each and every one of them, too, not too keen to be surprised by BEID or something amidst the crowd. "It's strange to hear that, given that I only moved here a month or so back," I admitted, relaxing a little as I turned to look at her again.

She gave me a warm smile as she snickered, then assured, "We make friends fast in Ponyville. You're old hat by now, and a nice stallion to boot, so that's grade A in my book." There were a lot of different phrases in there that I didn't quite get, but she kept going before I could inquire, and instead asked, "You're looking a bit... uneasy, though. Any national emergencies we should know about?" Heh.

"Haha, no, thankfully. I just don't like crowds, is all," I assured, remembering how easily panicked ponies could get sometimes.

She visibly relaxed, then grinned, and I winced. That reaction was usually never good for me. "Aww! You're shy, then! That's really adorable. I thought an important pony like yourself would have been the opposite, but that's just fine regardless! Anyway, are you here for something in particular?" she inquired, perking up afterwards. Whew. I only blushed slightly, having expected something far worse to come out of her mouth. Maybe I was just used to dealing with Rainbow too much?

"Yeah, we're here to pick up sandwich supplies for the events later! We're having a picnic after the first race," Spike cut in, slipping the list down over my face and letting it unfurl, completely blocking my sight of Rose as he pointed out the ingredients Twi had written down. Well, this worked, too...

The cream colored mare giggled again before starting to move about behind her stand. "Ah, Twilight sent you, then. I'd recognize her writing anywhere. Where's she at, then?" she asked, shifting to a 'polite conversation' tone while grabbing what I assumed was the ingredients on the list. I hoped.

"She's the organizer for the events, so she had to go and help them set up about two hours ago. Fluttershy's at Rarity's and awaiting my arrival," I explained idly, shifting about as I stared at the back of the list paper, still keeping an eye on my proximity sensors. Thankfully I didn't need to be able to see in order to detect threats.

Rose let out a wistful sigh as she started putting things in the basket for me. "I guess all of us know what it's like to be stuck working during the festivities. Lily and Daisy are down at the field, getting the decorations set up right now. Sometimes, I kinda wish I was a tourist instead, so I could just enjoy the show," she revealed, sounding a bit sad at that.

I shook my head, then suggested, "Can't you close up shop after the festival starts?" Of course, the Cakes weren't either, as ponies came in all during the day to get food and drinks. It was unfortunate that Equestria didn't have some sort of broadcasting ability for situations like this.

She let out another, softer giggle before hesitating. "No, I really shouldn't. I have morning shift, and ponies are going to be coming all day for food. We're taking turns with watching the shop so the other two can watch the races. They get to see the first race, then I get to see the second with Daisy," she explained, putting the last of the ingredients into the basket. Spike rolled the scroll up again and put it into my saddlebag as I set the pink coin purse on the stand and slid six bits out of it. Spike shook his head at that as I counted out the tiny coins. This was harder than it looked with hooves, but I didn't want to draw undue attention using my magic.

"So Daisy gets to see both races? That doesn't seem fair," the dragon pointed out, sounding surprisingly irate about it, despite it technically not being any of our business.

Rose blushed lightly at that, then snickered and shook her head. "Oh, well, uh, no, Daisy's paying us both back for it later," she assured vaguely. Huh.

"Oh? Okay! I guess it's really none of my business. You're all my friends though and yeah..." he excused, scratching the back spines behind his head in a sort of awkward manner. That I could relate to. My special talent should have been the faux pas. Although what would that Cutie Mark look like? Two ponies in one of those awkward hugs that lasted two seconds too long?

My proximity alert going off again snapped me out of it, triggering right behind me and almost making me freak out and fall into a guard stance. Almost, thankfully, or I might have caused another one of those situations. A glance over my shoulder, however, only showed another mare slipping into the queue behind me, looking up at the 'menu' that was hung under the "Three Flower's Delights" sign. Okay, Fluttershy was right. Maybe I should release some tranquilizers into my system.

I moved out of the way as I slid my bits forward, Rose taking them and nodding, sliding my basket to me in return with a smile. "I understand, Spike. I know you're just concerned," she returned, giving him a happy expression before, without missing a beat, turning to the mare and adding, "Hello, Miss! How may I help you?" Okay, she'd definitely done this before.

I glanced over at the white mare as she trotted up, still looking up at the menu as she brushed a bit of her dark green mane out of her lighter green eyes. Something about her seemed strange, but I was probably being paranoid again. "Um, I'm still looking. Give me a moment," she requested in a gentle sounding voice. Rose gave her a pleasant nod before looking back to me instead. Scratch that. It was probably her vacant, spaced out looking stare as she looked at the board that gave me the strange vibes.

"Don't think we forgot what you requested, either! We wanted to let you know that the day after the festivities, we're open for talking a bit about herds, if you're still interested. Lots of ponies have herd troubles," she reminded. Oh! Admittedly, between everything that happened in Canterlot, then falling out of a train while on fire, I'd totally forgotten that I'd requested to talk to them about that. Still, it wasn't too bad of an idea.

Nodding, I agreed with, "I should be fine for then. We do have to go back to Canterlot a few days after the festival, but I should still have plenty of time." Assuming nothing disastrous happened, of course. Given my luck, I could be anywhere at that point. The moon, swimming away from sharks in the ocean, Pony Hell if it existed, or far more likely, in the hospital. Again.

Motion out of the corner of my eye drew my attention again, snapping me out of my various imagined scenarios of differing degrees of doom. Proximity scans had nothing new, and I turned to note the white mare now staring up at Spike instead of the menu. Oh, I guessed it was a little weird to be walking around with a small dragon on my back. He didn't notice her attention until she spoke, however.

"Uhm, I don't mean to intrude, but did you say your name was Spike?" she inquired softly, in a polite but curious tone. The lack of energy behind her words made me a little tired just hearing her talk, but I kept a smile on all the same. Shining Armor had said I needed to at least attempt to appear confident and assured of myself, even when I was totally the opposite. It hadn't been really applicable until now, however.

The dragon perked and looked over at her curiously, but I saw no dawning recognition on his face. So he didn't know her, then. "Oh, yes, I am. Heh. Ponyville's resident dragon," he confirmed, giving a somewhat awkward smile.

There was a long, even more awkward pause as she just blankly stared at him for almost five seconds. Even Rose blinked slowly and frowned towards the mare after it started to get strange. "Oh. As in, Element Bearer Twilight Sparkle's assistant? A dragon?" she inquired next, still not blinking towards him as she took in details of his form, then slowly lowered her eyes to me instead. They were a pretty bluish green in color, and held surprisingly more warmth than her general presentation betrayed. I got those strange vibes again.

"Uh, yeah. I live with Twilight at the library. Um, and yeah, I'm a dragon," Spike answered, shifting to a more confused expression, probably also wondering where this was going. My subdermal armor folded up just in case.

Even more startling, she frowned the second my armor went up. Before I could even tilt my head, she asked, "Are you all right, Sir? Your life force just significantly deminished." What?! Alert flags went off in my head and I frowned at her. She could see my life force? She had training of some sort. Lately, 'training' was a bad sign for me, I noted. I couldn't do a scan of her with my eyes while she was looking right at me, but I could use my magic instead.

My energy drifted up into my eyes for just a moment, giving me a flickering image of her inner energy paths. That instant was all my computer side needed to get a snapshot, and I examined it while staring at her. To my surprise, while she had a normal web of energy running through her body like a standard unicorn, a huge amount of pooling was behind her eyes, forming two additional 'pockets' of reserved energy that I normally only saw in the chest and head of a pony. Even weirder, instead of 'veins' of energy extending up into her horn, her head reservoir bulged upwards and pushed right up against the base of it. What that would do to her magic, I couldn't really guess.

She smiled, however, a heartbeat later, in a disarmingly warm manner. "You don't have to scan me. I'm really a pony. I'm just a necromancer. We train our eyes to be able to see things more readily missed by others. I was only concerned for your wellbeing, but you appear unharmed. And an Earth Pony with the ability to perform magical scans?" she asked, a bit of energy shifting into her voice, coming off as what I could only assume was excitement. A necromancer? Yet again, I had to banish the image left behind by the Keldarian version of that profession, it definitely clashing violently with the Equus varient, it would seem. They almost reminded me more of seers than some 'raising of undead' variety.

"Uh, I'm not exactly a normal stallion. Is there a reason you were interested in Spike?" I asked, trying to focus her back on the prior event. Wait, I didn't even know her name.

She paused, expression blanking out for a moment as she was apparently caught completely off guard. Rose continued giving her a questioning stare, looking a little creeped out herself. Finally, she seemed to remember with a small start, then smiled again. "Oh, right. I was looking for the library, and knew Twilight Sparkle lived there. I was looking for Twilight Sparkle so I could find the library, and knew Spike was her assistant. Could you please show me where the library is, Mister Spike?" she requested politely, drawing that series of connections out about three times more than needed.

He stared blankly at her still, then frowned, looking down at me instead. "Do you think we have time, Mender?" he asked, sounding beyond unnerved by this entire encounter. Admittedly, I sort of agreed with him. My mouth started to open again when the white mare let out a little gasp, eyes widening as she locked onto me instead. There was a surprisingly intense amount of focus in them, as if she was memorizing exactly what I looked like. Okay, I was tempted to see if I could just arrest her right now on account of highly suspicious behavior. I didn't feel comfortable leading her to the library at all.

"Did you say his name was Mender?" she asked quickly, her speed belaying a certain eagerness to her. Okay, that made it even worse. Was she trying to be as creepy as possible?

"Uh, yeah. Moon Mender. Why do you want to find the library so-" I started to ask. All of my proximity alerts kicked on less than an instant later, and my eyes widened as I started to shift to the left in order to brace, a fast moving object coming in from my right.

"Mender!" the cyan mare called out as she dove in. That was all the warning I got to throw a shield up over the surprised Spike, locking him to my back. She hit us with a surprisingly soft thud and kept going, wings a blazing flare of rainbow light as she arced sharply upwards, taking us with her. Slipping my forelegs around her shoulders, I just held on as she grabbed me, and we rocketed upwards and away from Ponyville at about a forty degree angle and at least a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. Damn it!

I really didn't know why her house had a door. Rainbow shot right in through the open window, and before I even had a chance to ask her where we were going, Spike and I were spilled out onto a rather soft surface, coming to a stop abruptly as we hit a stack of pillows. Ah, she had a convenient landing platform. That's why she didn't use the door.

The 'landing platform' turned out to be a bed when I finally got my face out of the distinctly Rainbow smelling pile of pillows. The room was smaller in size, housing only the bed, a dresser and mirror combo, and a bookshelf filled to the brim with Daring Do novels. Rainbow herself stood up slowly on the bed, flexing her wings a bit before tucking them up again. I helped Spike out of the overly fluffy pile, and both of us gave an inquiring stare at the mare that had delivered us here. Well, he had a stare. Mine was more of a glare.

"Don't mares usually ask for a date first?" I asked, shifting to a more skeptical expression once my irritation died down.

Dash and Spike both flushed lightly, and the mare flailed her hooves at me. "No teasing! I need your help, Mender! Really, really bad! Can you please, please help me?! I'll do anything!" she requested, oddly enough tossing a 'blank check' into my lap, so to speak. Whatever it was, it must have been really important.

"I kinda need to know what it is before agreeing to it, Dash. Are you okay?" I asked, frowning as I took in more of her appearance. She had darker circles under her eyes and her coat and mane were slightly more disheveled than usual. She also had a strange scent about her that definitely wasn't from the shower. This was more feminine, yet smelled distinctly like Rainbow. Weird...

She huffed momentarily before tossing out, "Okay, so I didn't really sleep more than a few hours last night. No, I'm too freaked out over the races today! Especially the second one! I need more practice, Mender. Bad! You need to help me practice with my wings more! Please? I'll do literally anything you want if you do!" Admittedly, the 'begging' tone didn't fit her very well.

Spike frowned finally, looking around the room while doing so. "Uh, why'd ya have to bring us up here just to ask for practice?" he asked, rubbing the side of his head with a claw. Rainbow's ears drooped a little as she sat up fully on the bed, averting her eyes and hesitating.

"Look, I... I'm not comfortable with other ponies seeing me like this. You and Mender I trust, and I know you aren't gonna laugh at me or anything. I'm a mess right now. I need to win the race today, big time, but..." she muttered, sounding just as freaked out as she looked.

“But…?” I encouraged, tilting my head as I leaned back against the pillows instead. This was still better than crashing us into hay, I supposed, although she could have had better timing. I was still a bit concerned about the ‘necromancer’ mare who so badly wanted to find the library. It explained her abilities to see life force, but she was still a bit strange.

Rainbow fidgeted back and forth for a moment before rapidly spitting out, “I just found out that the Wonderbolts are going to be there, too! They might even be competing in the race! If they're going to be there, I'll need a serious edge to win. Plus, both you and Fluttershy seem to think that confessing with the sky writing thing is a bad idea! Now I'm starting to have second thoughts about that, too, and I don't know what I'm going to do about it."

Taking a moment to process all of that, I exhaled softly and stood. Wobbling a little on the unstable surface, I walked over to Rainbow instead, who gave me a confused look. She didn't move, however, as I shifted behind her instead and brushed down her twitching wings, kneading my hooves gently into her back. She got the hint and relaxed a little, shivering as I massaged her flight muscles and lower back. She was a mess of knots and spasms, of course, hinting at the stress that lay beneath, even if I couldn't feel it directly at this range.

"Rainbow, calm down. In my honest opinion, you've staked too much on this one event. Putting all of your hope in one maneuver or tactic is never a very sound strategy unless you're confident of its outcome. You're not, so maybe you should consider confessing to Applejack at some later time?" I suggested, massaging along her lower back. She groaned, then huffed at that, starting to open her mouth to probably refute that, but I pushed a knot down at the same time and turned it into a stifled moan instead, causing her to shiver. I was kind of surprised she was even able to fly us up here with her muscles like this...

Spike nodded at my words before pointing out, "Yeah, Applejack's not going anywhere, and seems to really value your relationship already, so you can honestly tell her any time, can't you? I mean, it might not be as flashy as a huge air show, but maybe she'd appreciate 'subtle' a little more?" Surprisingly wise words for somepony who didn't know the meaning of subtle in his own infatuation. Still, I wasn't one to give good relationship advice either.

Rainbow exhaled wearily, then fell forward onto her stomach, letting me follow her back down and get more leverage against her as she relaxed and closed her eyes. "Mmm. I just wanted it to be 'awesome', ya know? She deserves my best, but... I suppose if I scare her off with it, it's definitely not sending the right message. Arg! Feelings and relationships are so complicated!" the mare groaned out, whacking her forehead into her thankfully soft sheets.

"I hear you there. I'm sure you heard all about the little event two nights ago by now," I pointed out, deciding that was probably a perfect example of 'complicated' as far as relationships go.

Rainbow started snickering at that, and I knew I'd guessed right, a little flush coming to my cheeks. She assured, however, "Don't worry. We made Pinkie swear to not tell anypony else. Rarity doesn't normally gossip either, but there's no secrets between us Elements. That sounded seriously painful." Her tone was surprisingly sympathetic rather than teasing, and I relaxed a little and nodded. 'Painful' was one word for it. I'd have used 'Mind-numbingly Agonizing and Traumatic', but that was just me.

"Aww, nopony told me," Spike complained, frowning at the sudden realization of being left out. Exhaling softly, I debated it for a moment before shrugging.

"Don't spread it around. It was kind of traumatic for me. Twilight made a discovery about my anatomy and ended up blasting me with an unexpectedly horrendously agonizing spell in a very sensitive and private area," I summarized. Sonic vibrations sent up something with a metal core didn't feel the greatest, it turns out.

The dragon winced almost instantly, lowering himself a little closer to the bed and pushing his legs together. "Oh... That's horrible! Why did she do that?!" he demanded, voice strained with sympathetic empathy pain.

Dash rolled her eyes at that one before reminding, "It's Twilight. When it comes to 'science', she doesn't exactly pull punches. That's already gotten her in trouble before. This time just caused somepony else to get hurt instead of just her." Ah. Honestly, that didn't surprise me either.

Shaking my head, I felt compelled to at least defend the mare, as she wasn't here to represent herself. "She felt truly bad for it already. She made it up to Fluttershy and me," I assured, only realizing the implications of that statement after I'd said it. Unfortunately, the implications in this case were true, which Rainbow undoubtedly knew already.

It didn't stop her from grinning, however. "Oooh, you'll have to give me the juicy details later!" she cooed, eyes opening again as she looked back up at me. Shooting her a mildly annoyed glare, I leaned in more and cracked her back in three spots, earning a wince and sharp exhale from her due to my weight. She went right back to smirking after, however, and I just rolled my eyes.

"Uh, ew. She's kinda like my sister. I don't wanna hear about it," Spike groaned, covering those fins along the side of his head that I assumed aided his hearing in some way.

"Aww, are ya sure? Sometimes sisters and brothers do kinda-" Rainbow started to tease before Spike let out a pained yelp and squeezed his head harder.

"Nope! Definitely not! Helping her into the bondage outfit back in Canterlot was bad enough!" he exclaimed, quickly denying her as I chuckled. Ah, right. That was an experience. First time I learned about those anti-magic horn ring thingies. And learned that they violently combust and explode if the unicorn overpowers them with a pure ocean of magic. All in the same evening! I should start keeping a quota for explosions. It might help me make more sense of my life, giving a bit of organization.

Rainbow almost choked on her tongue, however. "What?! Why didn't I hear about this?! I have to hear about this!" she exclaimed, sounding absolutely gleeful. I suspected it was less to do with gossip and more to do with laughing hysterically at the story...

“As much as I hate to remind you, we’re kind of on a time limit right now, Rainbow. Are you sure you should be practicing this soon before the race, though?” I reminded, not really knowing much about competition events like this. Also, it got me out of having to tell that story, which was always a good thing.

Dash groaned, then buried her face back into the sheets instead. “No, it’s a bad idea. I’ll probably get ‘dead wings’ and not even be able to fly up to the starting line,” she admitted, scraping her right forehoof along the mattress. I shifted up to working with her upper back muscles, and she switched to a soft sigh, relaxing against my hooves. “Mmm, I probably shouldn’t even run in the Running of the Leaves, but the two races are four hours apart, so I should be able to rest up between,” she tacked on, starting to plan out things better already.

Smiling, I nodded to that, feeling her relax a little already. “I’ll give you a long massage between races, too, don’t worry. We’ll get you back in top shape for the second one,” I assured. She blushed a little at that, a warmer smile on her face as she rested on her tummy.

“Mmm, that sounds awesome. Gotta make sure I’m nice and rested up. Might even take a nap right now…” she contemplated, sighing contentedly.

Spike lifted an eyebrow at that before inquiring, “Uh, how are we gonna get down then? We kind of need to get our basket back. We accidentally left it at the flower stand.” Oh, oops. He was right. Well, I’m sure Rose would hold onto it for us…

Cue snickering. Ugh. “Even if I have a reputation to keep, there’s nopony to see us all the way up here, so I can afford to get a bit of snuggle time in with the two cute boys I got hostage,” she deduced, rose colored eyes opening again to smirk back up at me.

I rolled my eyes at that. “Suck up. You just want more massaging. You owe us for the kidnapping, though,” I warned her, smirking right back. She outright grinned, then giggled as she relaxed again.

“I’m cute?” Spike asked, sounding genuinely perplexed by that concept, which was kind of sad now that I thought about it.

Not losing a beat, Rainbow immediately answered, “Of course! Of course, I’m not going to get in the way of you and Rarity. Looks like she’s finally starting ta get the hots for ya, after all!” Oh, that wasn’t fair! The little dragon blushed furiously as his eyes widened quite a bit. Of course, maybe the encouragement was justified. I thought Rarity was still in the ‘tentative consideration’ stage, but considering there were no secrets between the Elements of Harmony, maybe she knew something I didn’t?

“R-Really?! She is?!” he quickly asked, earning an even wider grin from the cyan mare.

Sighing, I cut him off and asked, “Do you need anything else, Rainbow? If not, we really do need to finish getting the food for the picnic later tonight after the races.” It was interesting having a ‘picnic’ in the evening, honestly. I always thought they were more an afternoon sort of thing, but I guess that wasn’t completely true.

She paused for a moment, and I knew there was something else. “Uh, yeah, actually. I have sort of a… Well, it’s a problem of mine,” she started to explain, hesitating and frowning for a moment. A problem? Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long while coming up with dreadful possibilities for what it could be, as she immediately continued with, “Right. I’ll just say it. I like using my wings. Like, a lot. I have to physically tie them down in order to run hoof races now, as it’s just second nature for me to open them and take to the sky. I’m a bit… Well, I’m worried that it’s going to take a bit more than hemp rope to tie them down after you put the rockets in them.” Oh. Right, those.

“Ah, yeah, that’s a legitimate problem. Do you want me to build a kill switch into them?” I offered, that being really the only solution that I could think of.

Rainbow blinked, then swallowed at that. “A w-what?!” she asked almost immediately. Oh, right. They weren’t really familiar with electronics here at all. That being so, that undoubtedly sounded horrible.

“Ah, no, not like that!” I quickly assured, nudging her back down into a more relaxed position before continuing with, “A kill switch is something that ‘kills’ the functioning of something else. In this case, it’s a switch that I’ll give you that will manually turn off your wing jets. It’ll take me a little bit, though. I have the basic one set up, but I’m going to have to give you control over it.”

She nodded back at me, then let me spread her wings out as I brought up the linked node system that was connected to each jet. It wouldn’t be too complicated, but would take a bit of time. Making an actual energy interrupter at the base of the system would be fastest, but the fraction of a second lag that would introduce into the system each time she gave her wings an ‘order’ would be bad. Instead, I used the ones that reworked the base jets themselves, to also get around having to re-calibrate them all to her movements and nerves again. Besides, they were already basically in place, and I was really lazy. Of course, at this point, her ‘enchantment’ was practically cybernetics themselves, given that they were ‘wired’ up to her nervous system. So yeah, a kill switch was strangely appropriate. This one would just turn the jets off. The energy coating on the wings when they powered up was more than likely harmless and gave no speed benefits, so that could stay. I hoped…

The process itself took about twenty minutes or so. Showing her how to access the newly implemented toggle switch took a little longer. Given that I knew she had nanites in her body at this point, I simply broke down and took the easy way out, having them project an image onto the inside of her eye, like they do with mine. That showed her the status of her wings and let her toggle them with her mind, which unsurprisingly, she found all sorts of awesome. Heh.

“This should let me do the races without being tempted to cheat, then!” she chirped as she flexed her wings out to each side of her, stretching the now relaxed muscles to full extension. I smiled and nodded in return as Spike watched the whole process with a certain curiosity.

“Does it feel weird to have tiny little things floating around inside of you?” he asked a moment later, surprising me somewhat. That was one of those awkward questions, considering Rainbow technically didn’t give her consent to have them implanted.

If she was bothered by it, it didn’t show, however. “Nope! I feel exactly like my old self still. Actually, so far, they’ve only made me even more awesome! Totally clipped my wing on my window earlier. Uh, I don’t always fly the greatest when I’m stressed out. Got a really fun bruise on my left wing tip, but it healed up and went away in, like, thirty seconds! Totally awesome. The talking in our heads is kinda cool, too, at least when Pinkie doesn’t go all out and make everything go crazy…” Ugh. She had to remind me of that.

“Crazy?” Spike asked, looking a little uncertain over it suddenly. Wait, was he…?

“Yeah! She’s so hyperactive, and the faster she starts thinking, the faster things start happening from her link and all sorts of images and stuff start appearing everywhere. To be honest, I kinda felt like throwing up,” Rainbow admitted.

Smirking, I inquired, “You were thinking about asking for them, too, weren’t you?” His eyes widened a little, followed by his cheeks tinting pink again as he wiggled his claws together. Yup. Thought as much.

“Well, um, yeah! They sounded really cool and everything, and… Being able to talk to Rarity and the others in my head would be really nice,” he admitted, turning even redder as Rainbow got a knowing grin on her face.

“Careful there, lover boy. If she can hear things from your mind, what if she hears things you don’t want her to hear?” Rainbow teased, having had that exact problem herself, if I remembered properly. Well, it was a valid concern, but she didn’t mention to him that it usually takes a conscious effort to send actual words along. Empathy was the only thing transferred automatically, with no real decision on the pony’s part. Oh, and biological information, but that was only sent to me.

His eyes widened a little, a look of dawning horror on his face, of course. I sighed and shook my head, bonking Rainbow on hers and earning a snicker from the mare. “Don’t scare him, Dash. The links don’t transmit actual words unless you consciously tell them to, so relax. It’s a moot point, however, as I’m still not entirely sure how to make more of the disks. In theory, I know how, but I’ve never actually tried to before, so you’ll have to wait for a little bit,” I warned. Adding him to the list of ponies that wanted it so far, which was four and counting. Could the Crusaders technically give their own consent, though? Babs had wanted one, too, after learning about the ones from the others. I hadn’t had time to give her an enchantment yet, however, but had already explained that I wasn’t comfortable with her being so far away from me, just in case something went wrong with it.

Relaxing a bit at that, Spike sighed and flopped back against the pillows. “Eh, I can wait a bit. We should get going, however, and get our basket back. Twilight won’t be happy that we’re late as is,” he reminded after a moment’s thought. Ah, right.

The cyan mare rolled her eyes at that and hopped to her hooves. “Eh, Twilight plans too much. She needs to be more spontaneous. Don’t worry, I’ll let her know that I was the one who distracted you two. It was important, though! I was seriously freaking out. Uh… don’t tell anypony else that,” she assured, adding the last thought as a suddenly realized afterthought, by the sounds of it. It was kind of sweet that she trusted us enough to not remember until afterwards to tack on the nondisclosure request. Heh.

“You didn’t have to worry about us gossiping in the first place, Rainbow. Anyway, can we get a ride back down? Preferably close to the market if you can,” I requested, gesturing towards her window.

She gave us a warmer smile before stretching her back out and fluttering her wings a little. “Heck, after an awesome massage like that, I’ll fly ya both to Canterlot and back. Probably safer than the train for you anyway,” she suggested, winking as she hopped off her bed and trotted over to the window. I just snickered, unable to actually disagree with that assessment. She was probably right!

Pointedly ignoring the mare’s sudden blush as I climbed up onto her back, I nodded at Spike, who scrambled off the bed and hopped onto mine as well. Grinning, Dash hopped into the air almost effortlessly, despite having the huge amount of extra weight on her back. With a flick of her wings and a burst of energy, we cleared the window in a fraction of a second, and Equestria opened up underneath of us, expanding off into the distance…