FLUFF!!
“…198…199…200!” Rainbow crashed to the ground. Her wingup record (with the lead weights on her back) was growing, but it still exhausted her every time.

“Nice job!” Soarin congratulated her from where he was doing his daily 500 wing-ups. It still made Rainbow jealous that he was so much stronger then she was. She had been practicing with Soarin for the past 10 days in the evenings. 4 more days until the competition. In the last two days, she could fly the course with the saddlebags with barely clipping a single obstacle.

“Thanks.” Rainbow stretched her wings, loosening the shoulder muscles.

“498…499…500!” Soarin dropped from the bar, barely panting. Rainbow huffed in her head, but kept a straight face. “For today’s flying, you can take the bags off,” Soarin told her, gesturing at the saddlebags.

“YES!!” Rainbow ripped the bags off and let them clatter to the side. “Ahhh! So much freedom!” She wiggled her wings and back. Soarin grinned, remembering how he had felt when he took them off.

“Try flying the course now,” he suggested, pointing to where the obstacles were dangling from the arched ceiling. Without hesitation, Rainbow leaped into the air. She was so used to wearing the saddlebags that, without the extra weight, she almost hit the ceiling.

“Whoa!” She pulled up at the last second and began flying the hoops, diving and plunging through them with ease, not even a hair brushing them. She wove through the poles well at first, but began clipping her wing tips on the tighter clusters. She flew through them again twice more, but still encountered the same problem. “Grr!!” she growled. “What is wrong with me?!”

“Come down!” Soarin called from the ground, looking up at her. Rainbow swooped towards him.

“I don’t get why I keep hitting those! I’ve made it through before.”

“It’s your primaries,” her ‘instructor’ replied, nodding towards her wing tips. “You aren’t tucking them in enough when you bank or twist.” He lifted off the ground. “I’ll show you.” Flapping up to the poles, he began, weaving and rolling through them, not even close to brushing a single one. When he came back down to the ground, Rainbow stared at him in awe.

“How did you do that!” she gasped.

“I tucked my primaries.” Soarin spread one of his wings. “You keep splaying yours like this,” he said, flexing the last couple primaries on his wing, “for balance. It’s good for open-air performances, but not in obstacle courses.”

“Why?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head. “Don’t you need balance when you come out of the rolls?”

“Yes,” he admitted, “but you don’t have enough time or space in a Weaving performance to drag your wings around.”

“I wasn’t dragging my wings around!” she replied indignantly.

“I beg to differ,” he said, grinning a bit. “When you splay them like that, it slows down your curl into the next roll.” He lifted his wing again. “When you curl your wings in like this,” he curled his primaries inwards, “it cuts through the air and swings you into the roll.” Rainbow nodded.

“Got it.” She leaped into the air and flew through the poles again. She managed to avoid bumping some of them but she lost her balance on three and knocked into them. Disappointed, she flew back down. “What’d I do wrong this time?” she asked.

“You turned your feathers down as well as up. That swung you around too fast,” Soarin explained. Rainbow stared at him blankly. Yes! he thought, grinning. “I’ll show you. Look,” he said, talking as he sidled up next to her. He reached his wing over her back and slid his primaries down her wing. Rainbow stiffened, but Soarin kept talking, hoping to distract her. “When you went around those poles, you were tucking your wing like this.” Using his wing, he pushed her primaries in towards her body and towards the ground.

“Oh, s-so I was c-c-curling them,” Rainbow stammered, not daring to look at her wing. She could feel her feathers fluffing up.

“Yeah.” Soarin lifted her wing up, but held the primaries in. “You should just leave it in this position. It will cut through the air, but still slow you a bit so you don’t over-roll.”

“G-great,” Rainbow said, all her fur and feathers fluffed up. Soarin wasn’t moving his wing off hers. Rainbow had never really hung out with colts that much, and even touching one made her uncomfortable. But right next to her and putting his wing over her back and holding her wing was straight out terrifying. “Er, S-S-Soarin?”

“Yep?” he asked, grinning down at her.

“I-I’ll go t-try out the new move, ’k-kay?”

“Okay.” He still didn’t move. Colts! Rainbow moaned in her head. _So weird!

*“As in…now,” she explained, stiffly raising a hoof and pointing at the ceiling.

“If you really want to,” he replied. He slid his wing agonizingly slowly off of her wing and over her back. “I’ll watch from down here.”

“Okay.” As soon as his wing was a ‘safe distance’ from her, Rainbow shot into the air, ruffling her feathers and fur. Her stomach was flip-flopping like crazy. _Whew!! That was close!* She breathed a sigh of relief. Close to what? her mind asked her. Soooarin? The thought made her stomach do a few backflips. What?! EW!! Only sissies fall for that! But she couldn’t stop the fluttery feeling inside. She took a few deep breaths.

“Are you going to go?” Soarin called. The sound of his voice seemed to scare her even more. She nodded curtly and dove into the course. The adrenaline was rushing so hard through her that she was aware of everything. She wove and plunged through the poles, not touching a single one. “Nice job!” Soarin shouted. “That was awesome!”

“Thanks!” Rainbow landed on the ground, keeping a few yards between herself and Soarin.

“I’ll race ya!” he challenged, spreading his wings. Rainbow grinned. A good competition always helped her gain control of herself.

“You’re on!”

---

Oooh!!! Dashy don’t like no romance!!

Just so I can explain it a bit better: Rainbow always spends time with either the other Mane 6 or with the guys around Ponyville, who are all a lot older then she is (25 and up). She never really hung out with guys around her age (who also happen to be very, very attractive ;P) so when Soarin acts a bit flirty she just freezes up.

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