The Cloudsdale Underground

Artic Rush

Rainbow awoke in a bleary haze. She pulled her heavy sleep-encrusted eyelids apart and looked up, trying to fight against her swirling head. The glow against cabin wall showed that Celestia's sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon outside the window. She opened her eyes wider with confusion, having no memory of the night before. Then, as her sense began to reactivate, she felt something weighing her down on her body. Rainbow became even more baffled to see an extra lump underneath her covers. She quickly removed the blanket, and suddenly the memories came flooding back. Soarin' was fast asleep, happily cuddling against Rainbow's soft chest, like a mare against her stallion.

"Son of a-" Rainbow cursed to herself, wiping her eyes in disdain.

Immediately, she wanted to get up out of bed. But the satisfied stallion holding her like a teddy bear was not making it easy. With minute, subtle movements, Rainbow slowly slid herself out of Soarin's clutch and instantly replaced her presence with her pillow. Fortunately, Soarin' only moaned in his sleep, and squeezed the pillow. Rainbow slumped out of the lower bunk and wobbled on her hooves.

The feeling of being airborne was no help at all, as her legs felt like jelly and her head was light as a balloon. She looked in the mirror. Her messy mane was flayed in all directions, and her blue fur was matted from frantic movements in bed. With a tired groan, Rainbow grabbed her towel and prepared to make her way to the bathroom, when she then heard a friendly voice.

"Morning!" Soarin' awoke, lying on his side and staring at her with an affectionate smile.

Rainbow spun around in a fright. "Oh! Uh, hey...buddy!" she said sheepishly.

Soarin' gave a long yawn. "How'd you sleep?"

"Uh...pretty good." She couldn't say for sure. "How about you?"

"Oh man, last night was amazing!" he rolled onto his back, reminiscing. "I've never felt more alive."

Rainbow scratched her mane. "Wow, uh, what time did we get to sleep?"

"Heh, probably not for a few hours." Soarin' smiled giddily. "You really let me have it last night. It was like you were hooked on the adrenaline from racing. I didn't know you had it in ya." He gave her a knowing wink.

Rainbow began to feel queasy. She recalled that the only reason she made that kind of jump on Soarin' was because she had sampled the steroid known as Shift, and the reaction caused her to go into an adrenaline-induced heat. Everything else was still a blur, but it quickly dawned on her that she had gotten herself into a big misunderstanding.

"Yeah well," she said, trying to find an excuse. "I better go freshen up. Mind if I step out?"

"Take your time." Soarin' said with a wink. "The next race doesn't start until later today, so I think I'll sleep in." He looked at her suavely. "See ya later, hot stuff."

Rainbow forced a chuckle then exited the cabin, filling with regret.
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She took her time with freshening up and decided as well to head to the dining room for some breakfast in solitude. Rainbow rested her face on her hoof with a mug of coffee, extra sugar no cream, and mulled over her rash action last night. It was true that she cared about Soarin' and felt close to him, but had never planned to get that close to her friend any time soon, especially since she wasn't in the right mind. She didn't have the heart to tell Soarin' that she only seduced him because she was under a drug-filled tirade. But it was the truth, and she didn't want her dear friend to be fooled by false love. If this was the kind of affect that Shift had on her, then she never wanted to go through its influence again. It was simply too dangerous.

"Somepony had too much fun last night, huh?" came the voice of Volt, as he sat in the adjacent table.

"Ugh, I am so not in the mood to deal with you right now!" Rainbow dropped her head on the table.