Dawn Stripes

@, "Alright. You go shower and stuff, alright?" Rainbow Dash rolled up sleeves, deriving some energy from feeling like a productive mare again. She hadn't hardly done anything since she showed up on Earth, she reflected, and while a little break from the demanding position of weather manager wasn't harmful in and of itself--and she hadn't noticed it, what with everything else that had been going on--she realized there was a growing seed of disgust at just loafing around various fans' houses not doing anything. Now, how to cook...this couldn't hard. Rainbow Dash held her hands in front of her face and flexed her fingers, fiddling with the dials on the stove until she had a good idea how to control those. Next, she looked at her ingredients...veggies, and...stuff...this would be easy? She threw some of the green things in a pan and turned up the heat a little bit, gently shaking the pan to roll them around like she had watched Fluttershy do on occasion when she had watched her cooking. Hum de dum...

@, "Ahhh..." Rainbow grinned, leaning back further. "That sounds so good right now. Those potatoes man...next best thing to hay..." Eyes snapping open with a disgruntled sigh, she forced herself out of the chair, returning to the world of tile and countertop, no matter how it glared to her post-exuberance crash. "I can't make you do all that stuff and wait on me like some kind of footstool, though. Here. Lemme' take care of the food and you take a shower, okay?" Rainbow Dash knew when to put herself aside for friends; one thing she couldn't stand was being perceived as lazy by those who actually knew her. "Just show me where stuff is, and I'll take care of ya', okay?"

@, (OOC: I had had Rainbow Dash set it down before she took of....but sure.) Rainbow Dash slumped in the nearest chair, enjoying the warmth and the feeling of escaping to a private haven after all that racket. There was only so much a filly could do in one day, after all. She cracked one eye open to keep tabs on Dennis. "You got something to eat, that'd be nice."

@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy tingled as she felt the moisture of Colette's lips on her ear, then smiled and extended her arms, inviting Colette to make a crook so she could link her arm in hers. Together they left the park and continued onward to the party. Just before opening the door, Fluttershy remembered one more thing--what she'd originally been aiming for with asking Colette to slow down. Just before Colette unbuckled, she twisted over and gave her one more peck on the lips--seasoned with a giggle. "Having a girlfriend is fun," she commented before hopping out. --------------------------------------------------------

@, "The ones who made the show, huh?" Rainbow peeled the dripping shirt off, setting it on a rock--then she spun in circles several times, hands behind her back, until at long last she was holding a small (wet) garment in her hands shaped sort of like a big pair of goggles, scratching her head at it before throwing it over her back. "I dunno'. Never thought about it. Might ask her where she GOT her....material, so to speak." She pulled on the jeans last, cinching the belt tight as far as it would go, although she did still have to hold them up in order to stand. "Alright, I'm done. You can turn around now. Sorry for bein' weird about that--I swear I'm not bent n' shit. I was fine with the gang showers in Cloudsdale, it's just...I don't like to look at myself, bare to the...skin, that's just..." She stuck out her tongue. "I dunno', forget it." She leaned against him for a moment, sighing. "Okay. I'm kinda' wiped now. Let's head out--somewhere dry."

@, "Aww...." Rainbow groaned through chattering teeth. Her face had better not be turning red--that was strictly Fluttershy's domain. "Without hair or anything. In...front of you? Featherin' flank...." She pushed his hands away from her blazer and trousers, gritting her teeth to suffer for about a minute--then, having been warned about hypothermia in flight school way too many times, gave in and picked up his jeans. They were a little big for her...but now he was running around in his underwear, so she decided she'd better not complain too much or she'd be a real jerk. Sigh...my fault anyway. Again. "At least turn around, wouldya'?" she said, pulling the towel out of his hands after he'd rubbed most of her exposed surface to dry and scratchy. "Go stand on those rocks, make sure nobody else shows up. Wait..." She took in his boxers again. "Nevermind, just...turn around for a sec."

@, "WHY IS IT SO COLD!" Rainbow gasped, clinging to whatever slicked part of Denni's skin she could grab onto. "HOLY HORSEFEATHERS!" Teeth chattering, she wrapped her hands around Dennis' arms and let him keep her afloat. It felt like the dark under the surface was trying to drag her down into the silent space beneath the splashing of the waves....where pegasi did not go. She shivered again and clung tighter, almost glad not to have wings so she didn't have to feel the sensation of sodden, useless feathers stuck to her sides. @@Hypn0ticD, "Uh..." Fluttershy enjoyed immensely the sensation of diving into Colette's eyes as they filled her own, replaying the sensation almost, just as she'd imagined. Her breath came in short, shallow laps. Colette had...Fluttershy's brain seemed to skip over details. She hadn't imagined that. It wasn't--bad, just--scary at first. Colette had obviously enjoyed it. Was it okay? There was so much she didn't know--she had no idea what she was doing, and Colette always seemed to... Carefully, cautiously, wanting to give herself a moment to process the sensation she'd just experienced, she let one hand slid down until her head was resting on Colette's shoulder, feet shuffling in a slow dance around the center of the bridge. "Mmm..." She hummed into Colette's shoulder. "How about just...girlfriends?" Distantly, a woodpecker stopped beating, and a dove cooed.

@, "Well that's just weird." Rainbow Dash continued pedaling, and, in what she considered a great show of dexterity, spun around on her heel so that she was backpedaling. If she used her arms to tread as well, she could get a little higher, but then it was hard not to have to deal with the cloudstuff pushing down on her from above, too. Only the fog got imperceptibly thinner as it rose--facts drilled into Dash in foalhood--so she still should be getting some lift this way, and indeed she rose above the distant lifeguard tower, sitting empty on the broader stretch of beach. "I mean, how come you guys have stories about stuff in my world? Think about that for a second--that's crazy. Like, how did you know? Did they visit Earth or something, or did the same kinda' animals just exist on Earth at one time? We should ask Fluttershy and stuff, maybe there used to be manticores here. But I wonder..." Rainbow Dash's musing interrupted the motion of her arms and legs just long enough to stall her focus and take her traction. As though gravity remembered a forgotten item on a checklist, Rainbow Dash plummeted into the lake with a yelp. No more than wordless yells escaped her as an icy shock drove a pick through her bones--"ThiGHF IF COLD!" Then her head when under the brine, came up a second later spitting out a stream of water. "Yagh! I dunno' how to swim!"

@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy giggled helplessly. "And I thought you didn't watch my show," she murmured, burying her nose in what would have been Colette's scruff had she a little more hair. "I don't things like that, Colette. What I mind..." She let herself breathe for a moment, trying to feel how real this moment was. It felt like a dream, and she didn't want it too. She had her arms around another living being, who was feeling for her, right now, the same things she felt. It was what she'd been waiting for, and now that it was here, she couldn't let it pass. She couldn't let anything else slip. "Is wasted time." Fluttershy was sure Colette wanted it now. Brining her face back just enough to bring her lips over Colette's, Fluttershy threw herself into the first romantic kiss she had ever given, keeping one arm wrapped around Colette's back and sliding the other up so that her fingers entwined deep with all the colors of her hair.

@, Rainbow Dash looked up towards the clouds, or at least what she could see of them. Some grey fluff clung to the harbor yet. "Nah, it's okay for now...you're actually makin' me kinda' hungry. Dunno' if I wanna' look at pictures of fish." She blew a puff of air out of her face. "You got a good chapter book about 'em, I might jump for that, though." In a whim, Rainbow Dash wondered if the fog was thick enough to stand on. Probably not, but all the same, she tried taking a few steps out on top of it, as though lifting herself on top of quicksand as Daring Do. Her feet held, hovering over the ground, just barely, sinking almost as fast as she could pump her legs to climb. Running through the geists of clouds in this haphazard manner, she sprinted until she hung several feet over the water of the lake. "So....huff, hufff....you just got...all these stories memorized?" Rainbow looked down. " 'Cause there's like another one every time I hang out with you. You're like Twilight, almost." She ran harder, trying to see if she could get indefinitely high. "Hey, is there anyplace we wanna' grab some food around here? I mean, I dunno', are you gettin' hungry?"

@, Whipfph! Thump. Rainbow found herself conking her head on the sand, at the wrong end of a clever reversal--maybe not so clever considering all Dennis had to do was buck out, but she found herself once more stuck. She was just about to try shimmying out, and even try to kick him again if the tickle torture got too bad--these were her plans when Dennis suddenly turned red and scooted. "Huh?" Rainbow Dash sat up, the pins and needles draining from her skin. Dennis looked...stressed? She thought back over what had just happened, trying to figure out what was bothering him. He didn't hurt his foot on a shell or something, did he? She remembered the spin--it had mostly been a blur of salty wind for her; what could it have happened? Dennis had been a little like this once before though--it came to her that he was without his shirt, and maybe for him...she scanned her memories of the internet, and chanced upon the fuzzy recollections of a few pink-bordered movies she of course had never watched because they were all mushy....but of course she had seem some of the covers, and the positions the actors were in. It matched where Dennis had landed her a few seconds before. Ah. "Well, fuck," she droned, "you had to go make this awkward. I was having fun, too." Nothing for it now. She stood, staring out at the lake for a few minutes, and letting her hair get pulled back in the wind. Maybe she ought to say something more. Dennis was liable to talk himself into a real slump if she didn't forestall his apology, she suspected, and for whatever reason she didn't want to have to listen to him apologizing for this. "So, water!" she coughed, a little too quickly. "You like swimming? What's that like?"

@, "Gyaaah! No no no awwww!" Rainbow Dash collapsed in a fit of helpless, top-volume laughter. Being ticklish was not one of those things she wanted others to learn about her--but it ran in the family, and it looked like it had carried over to her new body, too. She tried flipped onto her fours and bucking, but that was more awkward than helpful--it did less than nothing, because Dennis simply grabbed her weak kick and pulled her in for more torture. She didn't know how to wrestle with these arms and legs. "Shiiiiiiit..." she squeaked out between gales of laughter. That was it--no one, and no one, tickle-tortured The Real Rainbow Dash for more than five seconds! She had to do something. Rainbow scraped through her tickle-scrambled memory, chancing upon a martial arts video that she'd watched at the recommendation of one of her fans a while back. She hadn't tried it before, but at this point, might be worth a try... Rainbow Dash allowed Dennis to drag her around, letting one leg slip over his shoulders as she spun around to keep her head away from him, though it exposed her armpits. She sucked up the immense tickling sensation until she could use her arms to twist her hips, bringing Dennis down and her on top, with leg folded behind his neck. With the step-by-step care of a girl folding a paper crane, Rainbow locked the ankle of her bent leg under the other. She was sitting just below Dennis' neck, looking down at him. "Hah! Reverse triangle choke!" For a couple moments..."You know, I don't think I'm doing this right," she deadpanned. "You look like you can breathe." She screwed up her face for a couple moments. "Oh, wait. I think your arms is supposed to be like...on the other side of here. Dammnit."

@@Hypn0ticD, "No, I'm sorry." FLuttershy leaned into Colette, instantly soothed by the stroking of her hair. "Oh, I just ruined this! Oh....oh...oh....fidddlesticks!" She cried a little then; it would do her good. "I'll never get another chance to make that dream come true." She shook her head, one hand rising automatically to her forehead. "You didn't do anything wrong it's just...." She hugged Colette tightly, pressing herself against her back as if to keep her from escaping. "I don't know. I'm being so silly. If you want the truth, I...I haven't much thought about what might happen when we go home. I'm just scared that I'll mess up my chance with you by being foolish." She nuzzles the back of Colette's neck, drying her tears on the back of her shirt. "I don't know...I....maybe I could stay with you, Colette? I like it here. I..." she sighed. "I know I can't leave all my friends, though..." ----------------------------------------------------------

@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy's eyes were half-lidded. Her heart seemed ready to go to a stop. She was really gong to do it. This was it. Just like she'd dreamed about. A tiny, sharp gasp, inches from Colette's nose. What was she thinking? Could this be selfish? She shouldn't be making this about herself! Quickly, she dived into Colette's eyes. Would this--would this be what she wanted? She had been the one who climbed into bed with her. And this place was almost perfectly magical. It could only have been better with marigolds. Maybe they were here somewhere... Her left hand tightened on Colette's shoulder. What she thinking. She couldn't dare so much. If she reached for so much she'd probably get in trouble....she didn't eve know her that well. Their relationship was based on...well, on being together. Like walking on a cloud, through which Fluttershy had forever been terrified of falling. A diagnosed disorder for a pegasus filly. Was this just as disordered? What if she ended up asking a mare--not even a mare, a female she barely even knew, to be hers? That was asking for trouble! Almost in tears, she moved back an inch, breathing heavily, too undecided to pull away entirely. ------------------------------------------------------ @, Rainbow Dash settled in comfortably as Dennis sat side-by-side with her. "Yeah," she smirked, "I was pretty awesome. 'Course they weren't really scary or anything..." she shrugged. "I can't make it look like it was a bigger deal than it was. 'Cause than it might look like couldn't deal with something a thousand times scarier than that. Like Nightmare Moon." She smiled--good times, right? "Don't listen to that cartoon. I totally wasn't even sweating." She gave him a little punch to the shoulder. "You did good too, man. Hangin' out with the Elements of Awesome is doin' good for you. That was real mellow."

@, Rainbow Dash blinked at the lake, trying to pick out a specific spot, and shivered. "Pegasi and bodies of water don't mix too much man. If you think getting you mane wet is a hassle..." she stuck out her. "Which is kinda' weird considering we eat fish..." She screwed up her face a minute, then shrugged. "Pinkie Pie keeps trying to get me to go swimming in the pond with her, but I can usually bring a book and weasel out of it. And uh..." she gave a wry smile, "Don't have the best history with this particular lake already. Er...." She held up the statue. "This is really nice. I mean, it--pretty, I guess. You musta' laid down some cash for it, and that's really--nice of you. No idea where I'm gonna' put it, but Colette'll probably let me put it on the table or something until I get back home..." As to what it might mean, Dash didn't mention that from any angle. If she was lucky, Dennis wouldn't get too deep about it--oh, who was trying to kid? Oh well, as AJ would say, you couldn't blame a girl for trying... She looked over, and Dennis was shivering from the cold beside. She almost had to roll her eyes--well, dad hadn't raised an unchivalrous mare. Un-chilval-ish? Er...whatever it was, this was her chance to be whatever Dennis had been, and now she'd feel bad if she didn't so she draped both her towels around Dennis' shoulders and, after a little thought, stripped her blazer too, to keep the wind off him. She still had her band T-shirt she stole from Colette, and figured that would take care of any US social mores as regarded keeping herself clad.

@, @@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy gave a soft giggle. "Mmm...I don't know about that," she murmured, tracing her steps alongside Colette's as they passed the brook. "If you want to hear about how wonderful we are, you can always talk to Rainbow Dash. She'll tell you plenty. I just think we were in the right place at the right time. You could have done it, too. After all, the most important thing we've ever done..." She snuck a sly look at Colette's eyes; forgetting to breathe for a moment, she walked even slower, coming nearly to a halt as they arrived at the footbridge where the path wound around back over the creek. "The most wonderful...thing, we've..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash gasped, then guffawed, as Dennis nearly splashed her by crashing down the boulder-strewn shore and splashing deep into the salty lake. She couldn't help laughing, falling flat on her back on the stretch of sand as he swum laps, with half his shoes and articles dumped on the beach. He must be freezing his ass off! "Oh, no way man," she shouted gaily as he challenged her. "I'm not gettin' in any lake! Besides, that stuff's cold!" "Gnr..." slipping off one sneaker, she dipped a few toes in the water and pulled back. "Celeeee--Mary Joseph Luna Cadence, nuh uh." The human was good at this, though--he looked like some kinda' fish running around there.

@@Hypn0ticD, @, Rainbow Dash blinked--she held the statue, half-frozen. How to react to this? He was wishing off her crowd, well, she could have expected that much--but then there was this statue. It was shiny. Was he asking her to marry him? That was a little too... She shook her head. No, that was silly. Humans didn't just ask with any random piece of jewelry. She knew that by now. Get it together. With a sheepish smile, she turned towards the few gathered followers--mostly bronies, plus a number of extras that had dropped by just to watch the race through town--and grinned. "Er...yep! This was all about donating blood--the whole time! Eheh... " She petered out for a moment, but kept her footing. "So that's all we got for today folks! Really; show's over. Nothing more to see here, really." She coughed as fringes began to disperse. "B-but I have a tumblr! Everyone check out TheReadDash, and watch my videos, and don't be afraid to leave comments, even then I won't get to all of 'em...and, uh, and I might put up a public appearance schedule sometime soon! Or...no, wait, maybe that's a dumb idea..." Facepalming, she forced her motor-mouth to grind to a halt. She didn't know what she was doing. "You know what, forget that, uh, that last bit. My gmail's RealDash337, okay? Just hit me up and we'll get pizza sometime. There. That's better." ------------------------------------------------ Flutterhsy smiled again and hummed, giving Colette's hip a little squeeze as she walked by her side. "Oh," she murmured, "I don't know that I do anything special. I do take care of a lot of animals. But kindness resides in everyone, you know; it's what makes us alive as much as our ability to walk and talk and eat...." She giggled--feeling like a helpless schoolfilly and for once not minding overmuch. "It turns the circle of life. And all I really do is wear some pretty jewelry and help people discover how to be kind, if they really want to." Surely Colette could hear her heart hammering; it was the only other sound out in this forest, besides the occasional song of a bird struggling to find its friend through the mist that wound her and Colette in the picture frame of a white bench, a dash of honeysuckle and a laughing brook.

@, @@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy was careful to hide her face at first when Colette led her halfway to the mouth of a trail--she made a study of the deciduous leaves overhead--more birch, she had always liked birch, there wasn't much near Ponyville, of course you could take a trip to white-tail some times--and elm, ho hum...This mist was getting awfully thick out here, and it was starting to look a bit like Everfree, if only because Fluttershy couldn't see what was farther in. But Colette wouldn't take her anywhere dangerous, would she? And as Colette began talking about music again, and scary games--Fluttershy had been scared of as much, but it didn't come as any real surprise to her after what her computer had done to Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy made a promise to herself never to get too curious with that thing. No good could come of it. Then she watched Colette's face, still trying to figure out what her date was planning, what she was doing. Then it hit her. Colette didn't know. That's why they weren't walking down the trail, or even holding hands. Maybe she was even still trying to figure out what Fluttershy was doing. Maybe.... could Colette possibly be nervous? It didn't diminish the beauty of the girl in front of her. Fluttershy stopped dead on the center of the path, with an uncontrollable smile blossoming across her face as she watched Colette continue to stammer. ----------------------------------------------------------- (OOC: Get your post in an hour, nonois. Have a test to take. Also, do you still want me to take control of David (still waiting on a history of his char.'s actions) or is Meteorite back for good now?)

@@Hypn0ticD, "Huh? Nnn...noo..." Fluttershy awkwardly unbuckled her seat belt to follow Colette, but cracked open her door in leiu of getting out of her seat. This wasn't what she had expected! She had expected time for a little kiss before they went in for the dance. Should she do it here? It was kind of romantic...but oh, what if Colette took it too far! There was no excuse to leave. This was way to scary to try now! They would definitely beat Applejack in showing up late now...and yet they wouldn't get in her and Logan's way, either. Fluttershy's mind raced as she studied Colette's expression. Had she planned this? Did she notice everything and do it on purpose? She stepped out, shoes tapping the asphalt, uncertain. She had to say something now...she was practically lost, treading water in a dark stream. "It's...a very pretty park," she said breathlessly.

@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy was a little quiet, unsure what to say to Colette until she was asked a more innocuous question. And that one made her giggle. The very idea! Might as well ask if Pinkie Pie had ever thrown a party so small...."Mm," she hummed, "she has. This will be...not too much for Pinkie Pie...d-" Her tongue hovered on the tip of a sugar drop. It was a piece of midnight fantasy, broken and bit off like peanut brittle; but it still tasted too awkward between Colette, so she let it drop. "Colette."

@, Rainbow Dash, with a huge breath, swung herself back onto her feet. "M'okay," she cried. "Clouds are pretty soft--OH YEAH!"" Taking off like a rocket, leaving fog twirling in windy pinwheels in her wake, she ran again, this time making sure to let herself go through the vapor mass. Gosh, she would have felt so stupid if there were pegasi watching, pulling such an amateur mistake. But then, that was why she'd done it--she hadn't known she could still touch the clouds. Somehow that made her feel immeasurably better. The other racer was standing slackjawed with his toes near the finish line. He jolted as Rainbow Dash burst out of the fog in a prismatic roar of fiero, but his reaction time was far too late to stop her diving and throwing her fingers over the edge of the street. She looked up. "I win! ...Right?" Her opponent nodded, looking back. "Yeah...got me fair and square. Would have felt wrong to win that way anyhow." He shrugged. "Actually, winning wasn't part of the dream. You always won in the dream." Grinning nonetheless, Rainbow Dash got up and knocked him on the head with one knuckle. "And there's your problem!" She looked back. "Hey," she yelled, cupping her hands, "anyone got that!" A few thumbs-up appeared in the mist. "Yep! 'Rainbow Dash derps into cloud'. That a decent title?" "Yeah, that'll do," she yelled back. "Just make sure to tag it with 'TheRealDash'. I want all my videos to have that tag!" She stopped smiling for a second when she saw Dennis, standing over the spot where she had fallen, looking concerned. Aw, buffalo biscuits. She was making him worried just like all her other friend. Keep a lid on it, Rainbow. She trotted sheepishly back to him--she was also pretty sure Dennis wasn't too fond of her hanging out with fans like this--or making a fool of herself like this--or getting a big head like this, well, something like that. It annoyed him. "I'm okay, really," she said, more softly this time--and since she'd done it once already, why not, she laid a hand on his arm. "You okay? It startled me too, but trust me, I'm used to it. I've run into clouds before. It's not so bad." She flexed her shoulders. "See? Good as knew. Bet I'm still resistant to electricity, too. Wanna' find a car battery and try it?"

@, (OOC: We should have more than a couple posts, judging by how long they're taking to drive there. Also, noogies is rubbing someone's head--rather uncomfortable. Also, no idea what your plan is) Rainbow Dash toed the line, both racers bouncing eagerly on their toes in anticipation of the event. Dash had just enough time to reflect that she'd never sprinted before as a human before Dennis yelled, telling her to go. She went. Rainbow Dash took off like lightning, sending the pavement cringing before her tap-tapping sneakers; wind caught her fiery rainbow mane and flung it back, and she laughed as the wind whistled around her, seeming to return to her. She was fast. She was damn fast. Looked like this human body wasn't so bad after all! Racine petered out pretty quickly. Rainbow Dash coudl see the distant line of trees that marked the edge of Lake Michigan at the end of the road--her competitor wasn't even in sight, so she slowed a few notches down from an all-out sprint so she could enjoy it a little more. This was kind of close to flying, she thought, if she pretended that all this fog was really the middle of a big cloud, and in truth, it wasn't that hard. As she approached the finish line and the thickest layer, she thought about what it would feel like as a pegasus to drop out of the sky onto a fluffy blanket like this. Smack. Rainbow Dash didn't catch what had happened until several seconds later, when her four splayed limbs began to peel by force of gravity from the fog bank that had suddenly turned into a solid wall for her. As another pair of running feet, echoeing dizzily as though distant, passed her, Rainbow Dash fell on her back. "~Owww....."

@, @@Hypn0ticD, Oh, drat! Fluttershy caught up to Colette just in time to see Applejack conspiring with her new boyfriend; linking her arm with her own special someone in a copycat manner, she silently berated herself for being too slow; she had been planning to go slower than everyone else so she and Colette could share a kiss before getting out of the car and going to the party! She had been hoping to find out what it was like if she actually initiated a kiss herself. She murmured, with a little cough, as the couples walked side by side to their cars. "Um, Colette, i can ride with you, right?" she asked. "And maybe you know a shortcut to the party because you live here? Err...you know, like a shortcut that's actually sort of....longer than the other way?" (OOC: Yeah, let's do something morel lighthearted. I'm likin' this)

@, (OOC: To y'all, gonna' try to get Dash and Dennis to the party eventually, but someone's probably going to have to call Denniss' cell eventually to remind him that's happening) "Yeah, man, whatever you think is..." A younger, similarly gangly young man jumped up from the back, pushed forward by a trio of slyly smiling girls, and though panicked, quickly amassing a wide grin on his own face. "Hey, Rainbow Dash! I wanna' race!" Rainbow Dash lit up by a lightbulb. "That'll work!" * * * "We're not gonna' have enough space inside, so we're taking this to the street!" The unseasonal fog Rainbow Dash had promised had descended by now, and in the east edge of Racine the fog was thick as soup. Visibility towards that side of town was a little better from here, but it seemed the fog banks were advancing on the racers and their chalk-white starting line. "Here to the T-junction at the end of this road," said her opponent, pointing. "You'll be pretty near the lake." He was struggling to keep lightning-crackling excitement from consuming his energy before they even began to fulfill what was obviously a life-long dream. "You sure you don't wanna' walk it?" Rainbow Dash awkwardly pawed the ground--or, that's what it would have been if she still had hooves. Now, it looked like she was just more raring to race, which was all to the good. "Y-yeah, I'm good. I've actually....seen that spot before..." A stopwatch had been thrown to her, which she handed Dennis. "Time us for me, Dennis?" "Hey!" one of the girls protested. "He'll just say you win. It should be someone who's friends with both of you." Rainbow Dash bristled visibly--her long hair seemed to stiffen and straighten for a second before laying flat. "He will not! Who's been in the Equestrian 500, thank you? You wanna' race, I'm gonna' say who times this race." "Why's he hanging around you all day, anyway?" another man in the crowd protested. "Trying to keep Dash all to himself? What does he think, he's gonna' get with you or something?" Rainbow Dash's automatic stress valves kicked in--as Rarity and Twilight had drilled into her, she took a deep breath, and pushed out with one arm--just like a princess, who's always calm--as she exhaled. Some of these guys were pretty cool, she thought to herself, in an effort to remain rational, but every now and then... To nip anything in the bud, she gritted her teeth and decided on a course of action. Rainbow Dash skipped the two steps to Dennis' side and hung off his arms, pressing her cheek to his shoulder and even--with a small roll of her eyes--lifting one foot the way she had seen some human girl in a chick flick do. The fog, though it didn't thicken, started to seem as though it smothered the small crowd. "I hang out with whoever I want!" she declared hotly. "However I want," she added after another second's thought, just to rub it in, "and our relationship is none of your business. Any of you got a problem with that, you can fuck off. Got it?" "Yeah," came a reply instantly, from several other bronies who made no great secret of their whispered chastisement and punitory noogies for the one who'd spoken out of line. "We always had it, Miss Dash. Pay no attention to this joker. We just wanna' see the race. We still cool, right?" She relaxed, loosening her grip on Dennis. "Yeah, yeah, we're cool. I know how it is." The crowd bobbed their heads in assent. "If we interrupted your date or something, we're sorry. We didn't think o' that. After this race, you want us to buzz off, that's just fine." And Rarity thought she didn't know how to manage a crowd--hah! With a smug grin, Rainbow Dash looked up into Dennis eyes, feeling a startled jolt, as, due to her, manuevres, they were surprisingly close. She retired with a blush, onto her own too feet, scratching the back of her neck. "Like I was sayin'; you wanna' do the honors at the finish line?"