In The Rain, Part 1

Warnings and Disclaimers:

Characters in this work are property of their respective owners, I do not own any of them, and do not intend to make any sort of profit off of this work.

This My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction involves shipping. If you don't know what that means, please go read up on it at tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php… before reading.

If you are made uncomfortable by ANY form of romance between ANY two intelligent beings, this fanfiction may not be to your liking. Continue only with caution.

And now, on with the show:




From the relative calm above the clouds, Rainbow Dash looked down with satisfaction at the storm she'd helped create. As far as the eye could see, a field of black roiled beneath her as unseen currents of wind howled through the tempest. The effort that she and her weather ponies had put into creating this had been prodigious, but Dash felt joy in knowing that Princess Celestia had wanted the strongest storm in years, and by the sun she'd gotten it.

The rest of Dash's team had long since gone to ground; it had become impossible to work from within the storm, but she had stayed, ready to handle any last-minute adjustments that could be made from above cloud level. Now, as the sun began to set, Rainbow Dash steeled herself for the journey back to Ponyville. She'd be flying blind for thousands of feet, and she expected that visibility would be poor even below the level of the clouds; it was, after all, the heaviest rain she'd created in her whole career as a weather pony. With a whispered "Bring it on," she dove into the storm.

Wind buffeted Rainbow Dash and her coat was drenched almost instantly as she struggled to control her descent; she knew she couldn't extend her wings to flap, lest a stray gust sprain a tendon or worse. Keeping her wings just a few inches from her body, Dash tried to stay in a roughly horizontal glide, turning in a wide loop to keep herself near her point of origin directly over Ponyville. She squinted through the pounding rain, straining her eyes and hoping every second would be the one she'd break through the clouds.

After what seemed like an eternity, Dash was through the clouds, but she soon found that she was falling far too rapidly; her wings flared slightly, and she tried to level off as she turned her nose into the blasting wind, hoping it would bleed off some of her momentum. Lightning flashed, and Dash could smell the metallic sharpness of ozone in the air. Thousands of feet of altitude turned all too quickly into hundreds, and in a panic Rainbow Dash flapped against the vicious wind just hoping to come in slowly enough for a landing she could walk away from; the storm she'd created had far exceeded her expectations, and she felt a sliver of pride alongside the adrenaline rush and terror of her fight for survival.

As she neared the ground, Dash's heart skipped a beat as she realized that she was coming in too quickly, far too quickly for any shred of safety. She spread her wings and groaned as as she felt her muscles strain to keep them from folding back; the desperate move began to slow her, but it was too little, too late. Rainbow Dash struggled to keep herself a few feet above the ground; the pegasus knew that if she so much as skimmed the dirt at this speed, she'd lose all control.

For a moment, Dash had hope that she'd have room to make a perfect landing, but then a shape appeared out of the pounding rain, directly in her path; she hadn't been able to see far enough ahead to be able to avoid it. Rainbow Dash had just enough time to make out the shape of a huge tree as she shifted in flight, hoping to strike the trunk and absorb the impact with all four hooves to protect her wings and head. A final thought flashed in her mind before she struck:

"Is that a door knob?"

A shock rocked her body as she impacted the door; it absorbed a sizable portion of her momentum before buckling. Rainbow Dash tumbled into the tree, rolling end over end until she impacted a large cushion set against a wall opposite the entrance to the familiar library.

For a moment, Dash was silent and still, hardly daring to hope that she'd escaped without any broken bones. Adrenaline coursed through her as the remnants of mortal panic faded; she gave herself a mental once-over, making sure that she could feel all her limbs, and that they were unharmed beyond bruising. Then, she jumped up, wings flapping as she hovered in the air and threw mock punches in jubilation, "Oh yeah! I need to do that again! Let a storm kill me? That's not how this pegasus rolls! Certain death is my bitch!" She laughed madly, filled with the joy of a habitual thrill-seeker that had once again cheated her way out of serious injury.

Twilight's voice called from across the library, where she was attempting to use magic to repair the door's hinges and keep the rain out, "Dash, are you alright? What were you doing out there in the storm? You could have been hurt!"

Rainbow Dash floated, grinning, arms crossed behind her head, "That's my storm. I was just showing it who's boss. It might as well be a spring sprinkle for all the trouble it could cause me. I'm pretty much awesome. I might have to stop to kick some lightning on my way home tonight."

Twilight smiled, seemingly amused by her friend's bravado. "Seriously, Dash, you need to stop making these crash entrances," she lectured as she set the door back into place, securing it against the wind and rain, "and you can't go back out there. It's dangerous. You should spend the night here in the library with me." She put on a hopeful smile, "Please?"

Putting a hoof to her chin as she turned lazily in the air, Dash considered Twilight's offer. Her adrenaline was fading, and the realist in her knew that traveling through the storm would be nothing short of miserable. Besides, her cloud home tended to get a bit... damp... in weather like this. Nodding at her friend, Dash accepted, "Well, I guess I can stay. I wouldn't want you to have to spend the night alone with this incredible storm raging outside, after all."

Twilight turned from the newly repaired door, a grin on her face, "That's great, Rainbow Dash! This is going to be way better than my last slumber party. Let me just clean up this mess..." Her horn glowed as she levitated a few books that had been knocked down by Dash's passage, putting them back into place on a bookshelf. "It's a shame none of our other friends are around," Twilight said, not sounding even the least bit sincere, "Oh well, I guess it's just you and me tonight, Dash."

Rainbow Dash was only half listening, distracted by the slow drip of water running off her thoroughly drenched coat. "Say, Twilight, do you have a towel or something around?"

Twilight glanced at Dash, and put on an apologetic smile before replying, "Heh, sorry Dash. Let me take care of that for you. Close your eyes." The unicorn's horn began to glow.

Dash didn't know where Twilight was going with this, but decided to trust her. Once the rainbow haired pegasus' eyes were firmly shut, she felt Twilight's magic settle around her her, a ring of force pushing from her nose back across her body to the tip of her tail, squeezing the excess water out of her coat. Dash opened her eyes and watched as Twilight floated an orb of water to the door and squeezed it out through the gap between the door and the frame. The size of the ball surprised Dash; she hadn't realized that she'd been so drenched. Belatedly, she noticed a trail of water she'd dripped over the library floor. She hoped Twilight wouldn't be angry about it; she knew the librarian was overprotective of her books, though Dash couldn't understand why. "Sorry about the mess Twilight. I'll make it up to you somehow."

Surprisingly, Twilight didn't seem to want to take vengeance on Dash in the form of a lecture; she just waved a dismissive hoof as she replied, "Don't worry about it, Dash. You're safe, that's the important thing. Now what do you say we have some fun to forget about the weather? Last time I had a sleepover, Rarity showed me the proper way to do a really great beauty treatment."

Rainbow Dash did her best to force as much disgust and disbelief as she could possibly muster into her next two words, "Beauty treatment?"

Twilight Sparkle giggled, "I know, I know, I was skeptical the first time I read about it in 'Sleepover 101', but once I tried it, I found that it was super relaxing. I know you'll like it once you give it a try. Plus it involves mud."

Dash perked up at that last bit, "I do like mud..."

"So you'll try it?" The unicorn asked, voice hopeful.

"Well...," Rainbow Dash considered it for a moment. She did like to relax after a nice brush with death. And there was mud. Twilight would probably want to do something involving books if Dash turned her down on this; that certainly would be worse than anything involving mud could be. She replied hesitantly, "Alright. But it better not turn out to be, like, the lamest thing anypony's ever done with mud or something."

"Great!" Twilight clapped her hooves, "Wait right here, I'll get everything ready."




***




"This is, like, the lamest thing anypony's ever done with mud." At first Dash had been cautiously optimistic; green mud was cool, and how bad could something called a mud mask be?

But now, as she sat there, face covered in a thick layer of green mud that Twilight had insisted on applying for her (like she didn't know how to cover herself in mud right!), vision blocked by slices of some vegetable Twilight had put over her eyes, she could only think of how ridiculous she must look. Rainbow Dash could stand looking dirty or unkempt, but she wouldn't stand for looking silly. "This stuff sucks, Twilight."

The purple unicorn sighed in annoyance, "If you'd stop talking and start relaxing, you might enjoy it. Just quiet down, and breathe deeply and slowly. Consider it your apology for breaking my door, if that helps."

"Oh... heh. Yeah. Alright, I'll breathe." Dash had forgotten about that whole door thing. Cursing her vulnerability to guilt trips about things that were pointed out to her explicitly, she began to breathe deeply.

Soon enough, Rainbow Dash began to feel the relaxation that Twilight had been talking about. The last bits of twitchiness from the adrenaline that had fueled her arrival at the library began to fade. Her battered muscles began to unknot, and even the pain of her bruises began to dull toward a warm tingle. She sighed happily.

With her eyes shut behind the cucumber slices, Dash was pleased to find that her other senses seemed more acute; they seemed to be getting sharper every moment. Above the dull roar of the storm outside, she could still manage to pick out the soft sound of Twilight's breathing, which didn't seem too far away at all. The subtle smell of Twilight's shampoo grew in her nostrils, its fruity scent becoming sweeter, stronger, and more pleasant by the second. It was almost as if as her senses heightened, the other mare was getting closer and closer. Through some trick Dash's mind must have been playing on her, she thought she could sense her friend's presence just a few inches away, getting slowly closer. It seemed to Dash as if just a few seconds more would sharpen her perception enough that she'd be able to open her mouth and taste Twilight. She parted her lips...

"Hey Twilight, this relaxation stuff is pretty awesome after all!" Immediately following her shout, Dash felt a gust of air, as if something were moving away from her extremely quickly, and then a loud squawk of protest from Twilight, followed very closely by a loud thump. She shook the cucumber slices off of her eyes as she asked with concerned urgency, "What happened Twilight? Are you alright?"

The unicorn in question was on her back, mud-covered face scrunched in pain; she managed a tight smile while replying, "Nothing! Well... I fell. I mean, I must have relaxed too much and fell asleep or something," the mare replied, scrambling to her hooves, "And then fell. On my back."

Rainbow Dash drew out her reply, "Riiiight... And where are your veggie eye things?"

"Oh. Those. They fell. They must have fallen out. When I fell. Heh."

Dash only saw her own cucumbers on the floor, but didn't press the issue. She just shook her head, an amused grin on her face, "Sometimes, Twilight, you can be as random as Pinkie Pie."