After long day of flying, Rainbow Dash walked to Flutterhy’s house for some massage. Going to the spa was right out, seeing as there was way too high of a chance of running into Rarity and being kidnapped for mane-styling, not to mention that unlike the Cloudsdale spas, Ponyville’s did not usually see pegasi and therefore was inexperienced in the idiosyncrasies of wings. However, her wings were quite sore after rolling in clouds in the morning to keep the temperature down with a cold rainstorm and then practicing her flight skills over those clouds for some privacy as she perfected new stunts.

When the technicolour-maned pegasus got to her yellow friend’s house, she still had forgotten their pervious conversation, so she was surprised at Fluttershy’s enthusiastic greeting. Both ponies prepared for a massage as usual, Fluttershy preparing some warm towels and Rainbow taking her place on the sofa.

Fluttershy ran her hooves over Dash’s wings, feeling the texture of her feathers and relaxing her muscles. ’Shy pressed her hooves into the tensed muscles of her blue friend’s sides, easing into Dash’s primary flight muscles. While Fluttershy’s hooves moved up and down over Rainbow’s wings, the younger pegasus felt her mind relax, but still noticed that her friend was leaning over her to massage her wings instead of caring for them one at a time. For the first time in a very long while, Rainbow Dash remembered that having another pony so close was a very nice feeling. Fluttershy continued to make sure her friend’s wings were relaxed for successful recuperation after her friend’s obsessive stunt practices. She made sure to keep the pressure symmetrical and decided that her best pegasus friend would be the best pony to try a position that ensured equal massaging, not to mention that it put the ponies even closer together. ‘Shy looked to her friend and saw her breathing was slowing and her eyes were not focused. She continued her massage until she was sure her was asleep.

While Dash’s mind was on the verge of drifting away entirely, she heard Fluttershy’s avian choir tweet a tune she recognised Vinyl Scratch, the town’s expert on that beep-boop computer music, naming ‘Oxygen-Four’. Rainbow then felt herself falling backwards through the sky. Opening her wings, she felt herself smack into a cloud and bounce, only to continue to fall until she hit another cloud and bounce off it. Although she would normally panic in such an uncontrollable flight, she instead was calm, enjoying the buffet of each cloud upon her body, confident she would never hit ground. The infinite sky through which the cobalt pegasus fell was very warm, but not stifling, providing a lovely contrast to the damp cool of the clouds.

Rainbow felt her head spin as she landed on a cloud and stopped falling, as if she were going to sleep again. She next noticed that somepony else was cuddled into her. She thought it was Big Mac, then realised that Big Mac could not be wrapping his wings around her. Even though it was not the handsome draft pony, she did enjoy the feeling of another pony with her very much. Her next suspicion was Princess Luna, since it was still light out, but she did not feel a horn poking her anywhere. She turned around to see Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash dashed up off the couch and into a shelf containing various kinds animal feeds, although nothing fell off, since the bags were heavy. She saw that it was now morning and Fluttershy indeed had cuddled into her sometime that night instead of waking her up or going to her own bed. Fluttershy, startled by the disappearance of her cuddle partner, jumped up and then went back to her sleeping position. Rainbow went over to her friend and put one hoof over her wings and leaned in to whisper that it was morning and time for some breakfast. Fluttershy reached her hooves out to pull Rainbow Dash in for a kiss. Dash, residual sleepiness returning after her adrenaline-powered wake-up, used her wings to steady herself as she put her hooves over her yellow friend’s body and returned the kiss. She ran one hoof through Fluttershy’s mane, stroking the fine pink hair. The other hoof massaged the base of Fluttershy’s right wing. After both ponies readjusted themselves to take a quick breath and get into a better kissing position, Dash’s hoof was knocked away when Fluttershy’s mobile wing sprung out.

The spell bringing the ponies together was broken, and the last of the morning dreaminess vanished. Fluttershy retracted into a sitting position on the sofa, trying to avoid being seen and being frustrated her wings did not cooperate in minimising their area to hide her. She was not sure what caused her to grab her favourite pegasus and kiss her, especially since she believed she was still dreaming. It would have been an unusual dream for her, but it would not have been entirely out of the realm of reality there.

Dash looked back and realised her own wings were not entirely flat against her sides any- more. She decided that she ought to give all those lovey-dovey horse-apples everypony else kept insisting were so great a go. She then noticed that her partner was trying to hide, either from a blind pony or from her wings, and muttering some kind of apology to the air. Hearing her friend’s distress, she sauntered over to the sofa Fluttershy was cowering and placed a hoof on ’Shy’s back before leaning in to ask what was wrong.

Fluttershy stammered out, “I should have known better than to be assertive. I didn’t want t’...,” she trailed off as her rainbow partner nuzzled against her cheek. Feeling reassured, she continued, “I... I... Rainbow Dash, I really wanted to thank you for being friends with me when we were fillies.” She then noticed she Rainbow had pulled up along side her had was still close and turned to kiss her friend on the cheek. Dash, formerly confused as to why Fluttershy was acting in her present manner, now knew that Fluttershy had romantic feelings for her and was not surprised to hear Fluttershy continue, “You’re very beautiful and I can’t help but have an ulterior motive,” the last few words pinched off into a squeak. The next sound to fill the room was the rumbling of a stomach followed by Angel thumping while sticking his head into his food dish, as if that action could satisfy his hunger. Dash, sensing that the conversation could get a bit more awkward from there, realised that it was time for breakfast and pointed out that Angel did have a point.

Both ponies ate fresh bowls of oats while Angel munched on hay and alfalfa. Over the meal, the pegasi talked about their time at the flight camps.

“I’m glad I found you way back when,” Dash started, “everypony but you and Gilda loved to make fun of me because they’re jealous of my awesome flying abilities. Now that I spend most of my time around Ponyville and not near the tropopause, I don’t see my favourite gryphon often, so you’re the only friend from Cloudsdale I have left.” She continued, “Not that I don’t find our new friends lame or anything, but you’re one I’ve had the longest to get to care about. Besides, after helping you out so much back then, I take your happiness personally,” not allowing enough pause for anypony to collect her thoughts, lest they second-guess themselves.

After a short silence, filled only with the final nibbling of Angel, Fluttershy decided it was her turn to reminisce. “I’m so glad you were my friend then. I needed somepony to care for me and tell me that I could fly. All the teasing about not being a good flier, well...” Fluttershy trailed off into nothingness before continuing, “Anyway, on to better things. You’re the only pony who can fly fast enough to make Cherenkov radiation, and I got to learn from you.”

“I see you’ve talked about my sonic rainboom with Twilight. I also talked to her about flight, but about you. Although I didn’t find it important when we were fillies, you had really long legs. If you were an earth pony, you could have been able to keep up with some of the best runners. It’s a shame that body proportions like that do not lend themselves to flight at a young age, although you should be able to fly as well as most pegasi by now,” the cobalt mare encouraged.

“I do have a question for you, and I need to ask it before I—‘Do you love me?’ ”

“Of course I do, you’re...”

“No, as in are you into mares?”

Rainbow Dash knew she needed to choose her words carefully, but still wanted to be honest, lest she cause more problems later. “The truth is, I’ve never been into mares. For that matter, I haven’t really into stallions. I haven’t even put that much thought into those lovey-dovey matters; only into flying and being awesome. However,” Dash leaned over the breakfast table and Fluttershy a quick yet tender kiss on the muzzle, “I can be into you.”

Fluttershy got up and put her hooves around Rainbow in a hug, then announced that she had a new massage she had wanted to try, but wanted it to be with somepony special since it put the ponies in closer contact than normal.
After the proclamation, Fluttershy left her friend standing and disappeared behind her with an order to stand still. Rainbow Dash was confused about what was going on, especially considering the conversation they just finished when she felt a hoof on her left flank, right about the cutie mark. This was joined by a second hoof massaging her flank. The hooves moved in small circles, greatly pleasuring the cerulean pegasus. To Rainbow’s surprise, suddenly both her cutie marks were being massaged, her tail pushed out of the way. She soon realised that her yellow companion had something else entirely on her mind when she felt warm pegasus breath between her Flanks. That sensation alone was enough to cause her to shudder with unexpected excitement. She felt her wings, previously massaged to the point of limpness, start to rise as she became more and more excited with each warm and light breath. Dash was becoming very aroused and enamoured with her friend when Fluttershy apprehensively leaned in and—

“AAAAHEEP!”

As Rainbow Dash made a shout of joy and Fluttershy squealed in retreat when her experimental lick got far more response than planned. Now extremely horny, Dash approached her scared friend and put her hooves around her and leaned to kiss her neck. At first, a light kiss midway up, then a harder one. Next, mostly light kisses going up the yellow neck and toward the pink mane, at which point Fluttershy craned her neck to return the kiss as Rainbow Dash stroked her mane.

The ponies continued to run their hooves over one another’s bodies while placing kisses anywhere from the neck up, seemingly remembering how to make out properly. Each tender stroke of hoof seemed to bring the pegasi closer together, until they seemed to merge into one mass of pony. After a brief while, Fluttershy, embarrassed, mentioned, “I wanted to try something with you, but I have no idea what I’m doing. I hope you don’t hate me now for being incompetent and scaring us both off.”

“I know what you were trying to do and I’m really excited for you to be this awesome with me.” Dash reassured her spooked friend, “Come to Twilight’s place with me; I’ve peeked at her ‘hidden’ collection of books, and I know she’s got interesting stuff for you—and me,” she added in a whisper.

Dash helped her intrigued friend off the sofa and up onto the floor. Fluttershy started to pack her saddlebag in case she visited at Twilight’s overnight, as ha happened in the past. Rainbow saw what was happening and thought to stop Fluttershy to get to their destination faster and make sure they could have alone time once they had found their prize, if it was really there.

Nothing notable happened on the way to the treehouse-library, save for Fluttershy jumping and flying the rest of the way when she heard somepony sneeze. Once at the library, the scene was one of surprise. Twilight Sparkle was not used to having only one of the two pegasi at her library at any one time, save for full gatherings of her friends, and was interested in what had brought them to her home.

“What brings you two over here together?” asked Twilight.

“We’re um...” Fluttershy started to say, desperately trying to think of some fib to feed Twilight to prevent her from knowing about the feelings the pegasi has for one another.

Rainbow stepped in, offering that they were interested in some flight manuals for Fluttershy. Twilight did not entirely believe this explanation, since Dash usually only showed up for Daring Do books, and never would consider the teaching of flight something that could be contained in a book. However, Twilight was not one to deny ponies entrance to the library just because their alibi did not check out and let the pegasi pair in.

Once inside the library, Fluttershy glanced around nervously before dashing to the far side of the library and looking slowly at the wall, before remembering that there would be no books there. She then started her search in earnest on the nearest shelf. Her quest would have been tolerable if the books were organised by subject, but titles are not always good indications of the book’s contents, and the primary organisation the library was in that week was by colour.

Rainbow Dash was thinking on a cloud she summoned in the middle of the library’s open space, pretending to look for a new Daring Do novel. Much to her frustration, the actual Daring Do series was scattered since they all have very different colours and the monochrome mass-market editions were not the ones found in Twilight’s library. Trying to think of where an erotic guide would be, Rainbow invited herself into Twilight’s bedroom to converse with a sleeping Spike. Fluttershy found a hole in the stack of books, hardly unusual, considering the nature of a library, but this was in Twilight’s personal collection, identified by the thickness of the volumes and the predominant leather hue. Thinking it highly unusual for all of Twilight’s books to be up, and even more so with just one missing, she asked Twilight what tome she had just started studying.

“It’s... it’s...” Twilight started, her mouth continuing to move without any further sound production.

“Is something the matter? Is it super secret work for Celestia that needs to be read separately from the other books lest they absorb its knowledge? Will it contaminate them? Will I be locked in a dungeon and sent to magic kindergarten for knowing about it?” Fluttershy worried herself into a frenzy, nearly tearing up by the time she was finished with her frantic inquiry.

“No, nothing like that.” Twilight reassured her friend. “It is a bit of a very, very different kind of magic, though, if you think of it that way.”

Dash returned from Twilight’s bedchamber with a grin on her face and a full saddlebag. Looking at Fluttershy and Twilight, she could tell they were discussing a missing book in a section that looked like it would definitely contain her current prize. Taking a closer peek and pretending to look at the different binding techniques, she read the list of titles surrounding the hole: Magic Mares: An Anthology, ... , Magic Zoology: Taking Your Pets to Town, Mapping: The Art, Mapping: The Long History, Maps of Equestria and Outlying Lands, the hole for the missing book, Mares of Magic, Mares of Mo-Town....

Knowing the title of her purloined book, Dash tried and mostly failed at hiding her devious grin. Fluttershy borrowed a book on animal psychology, not only to provide cover for their mission, but also to get Angel to act in a more consistent manner.

After saying their good-byes to Twilight, the pegasi made quick time back to Fluttershy’s treehouse to read their new acquisition. It was a very old book, with many notes in unfamiliar hoof-writing, one much too good to have been written with actual hooves, betraying its likely origin in Canterlot. There were even pages that obviously were inserted later and substantial appendix and errata sheets. Opening the mysteriously marked volume, since she did not see the title, Fluttershy opened to the half-title of the one and only Mare’s Mating Manual. If Twilight were there, she cold have explained that it was the third edition because of the extensive discussion of Mewtwo carbonyl bonding that is only present in this particular edition, presumably added after the printer had a few too many cider. However, the pegasi did appreciate the organization of the book. Two halves, originally two separate volumes: one for stallions, the other for mares. Sandwiched in between was the racial guide to special tricks for making love with unicorns and pegasi, and the font contained a substantial preface on pleasuring oneself with tips for partnered fun depending on what felt best. It was Rainbow, of all ponies, who then suggested she go home and sleep so they could be fully awake to enjoy the ideas of the text.

Author's Note

Well, here it is. Hopefully I didn't kludge too much formatting; that would reflect unprofessionally on the Firm. See Chapter 1's description for the list of books, since they are best served with explanatory footnotes.