Once Rainbow and I both get to the air, neither one of us says anything yet, instead utilizing the time to warm up our wings -- it’s been a long while since I’ve done any fast-paced flying, and in Rainbow Dash’s case, she was just as cold as me, despite not having done any fast-paced flying in a few days. The two of us fly in unison; surprisingly, I am one of an extremely minute number of ponies who can consistently maintain a steady flying pace with Rainbow Dash -- the rainbow-maned pegasus herself has even said that I could easily become a Wonderbolt if I were nearly as determined to do so as she was. What I'm surprised about, however, is that Rainbow Dash isn’t a Wonderbolt already. Right now, however, all of that was irrelevant, as all that currently mattered was getting Rainbow’s thoughts some time away from her feelings. I, in the meantime, was trying not to be the ‘awkward turtle’ of the situation...especially considering that Rainbow already had her pet, Tank, to fill that role for her. After about fifteen to twenty minutes of synchronized, Rainbow finally breaks the silence.

“So...Goldie...Where are we going?”

“Your call, Dashie.”

The cyan pegasus smiles at the pet name. “I was wondering how long it would be before you called me that again.”

I smile back. “That makes two of us, then.”

Rainbow’s smile stretches into a full grin. “Well, it’ll only be one of us if you can’t keep up!” At that, Rainbow Dash turns on the jets, and took off at a high speed, forcing me to do so also.

After several minutes of this, Rainbow slows back down to our previous speed. By the look on her face, it was clear that she had something in mind. Once we were back to flying steadily side-by-side, she asks:

“Hey! Would you like to help me develop some of the new tricks that I’ve been working on lately?” A raised eyebrow from me makes her add, “And by ‘develop’ I mean giving me some feedback on how awesome they are...as well as some suggestions on how to improve them.”

I smile softly. “It would be my pleasure.”

“Ah-right!” She does a backflip in the air in excitement. “Let’s go!” She takes off again -- to where, Celestia knows -- but I know that I’m going there, too.

After a while I notice that we’re heading towards the Ponyville Plaza -- which I assume we’re going to pass -- until Rainbow and I both notice some...strange activity down below. We look at each other, and with a nod we both skydive towards the activity.

As we get closer, I can see what’s going on...well, not the details, due to the distance, but I can determine the situation: the first thing I notice is that there’s a crowd that has gathered around a much smaller number of ponies, one of whom I recognize immediately, which Rainbow was able to read from my face.

“Who is it?” The cyan pony asks frantically.

“No time. We need to floor it!”

We both fold our wings, and divebomb to get much closer, our forelegs along our sides. As we get even closer, we spread our wings and our forelegs out, so that the newly-introduced air resistance will slow us down. By now, we were close enough for Rainbow to see the pony I had recognized, and for me to be able to comprehend the circumstances further.

“It’s...Derpy!”

“I know that already, remember? And...” I turn to look at her, before continuing. “I’m going to put this simply. Are you ready for a fight?”

She gives me a funny, yet acknowledging look. I have a reputation for my instinctively accurate judgement. “Are you certain?”

I nod. “I recognize those other ponies.”

“ ...And I know that they won’t fall for my ‘psychological manipulation’ again.”