CLEMATIS
"This is...so weird..."
In a seedy nightclub, somewhere in the more disreputable part of Fillydelphia, slouched back in a squashy and very comfortable couch towards the back of the noisy locale sat the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria. The beating lights of the nightclub reflected in her half-closed eyes and combined with the twilight of the club, it made her full-spectrum mane seem muddy and gray. On a scratched and pockmarked table right in front of the beat-down couch stood a quite small, curved-bottomed glass bowl, a bit of rock salt still left in the depression in the middle.
This was certainly a day to remember. Or more more to the point, it was a day to put out of her mind as soon as ponily possible, mused Rainbow Dash as she observed the ponies dancing, sweat gleaming on most coats, bodies swerving around one another and occasionally grinding together, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.
It was a hectic, chaotic place...just the kind of place to try and forget yourself and your worries. She had not thought when she woke up this morning that at midnight she'd be in Fillydelphia, in a nightclub, getting hammered on salt for the first time in her life.
Then again, she had not really thought that she'd mess up her tryout for the Wonderbolts either, she thought morosely as she reached out a hoof and pushed the edge of the salt glass, making it pirouette slowly on the table.
Of course she'd known it was a possibility...in a rational way, she'd know that making the Wonderbolts...the Wonderbolts, the most talented fliers in all of Equestria, as Twilight had helpfully pointed out the very first time she'd met the unicorn, was going to be exceptionally difficult.
But still... "I mean, I never thought that applied to me, too..." she said, her small, heartbroken voice drowning almost entirely in the deafening music. Feeling her eyes stinging and her throat starting to constrict with a sob, she quickly bit her lower lip, and hard. She was going to have no more of that.
By the Sun and Moon alike, she'd done more than enough to cramp her style today; there was no call to go making it even worse, even if nopony else had been around to see her tears or hear her sobs. Nopony except herself, which was more than embarrassing enough in and of itself.
Her mind, apparently ever eager and dead set on having her make a fool out of herself, kept pulling her attention mercilessly to the memories of the day: the nerves as she stoof in the antechamber, waiting to enter the Cloudiseum and show her stuff, exactly how it had been before the Best Young Fliers competition. Except of course, with the stakes set a world apart.
Usually, there was a long waiting list for the chance to try out for the First Formation, and they usually did not allow a direct line into auditions for ponies as young as Rainbow, but it seemed that saving the lives of three of the Main Wing and pulling off a legendary flight maneuvre in the process had scored her some credit.
She was sure she'd done well. She was sure, as she touched down on the clouds that made up the floor of the Cloudiseum, that she'd done great, and that she had a really good chance of making the cut. She'd been right, too...she'd done really well.
Unfortunately "really well" wasn't what the Wonderbolts had expected of her. They'd expected something utterly and thoroughly spectacular. Something...miraculous. And, the most awesome flier in Equestria though she might be, and at least as cool as Twilight was nerdy, she was still just a pegasus.
The look on Spitfire's face when she'd come to talk to Rainbow after the announcement of the new members...it still made her blood boil, even just picturing the pity clearly visible on her face, for once not hidden behind her flying suit.
Rainbow Dash considered herself a self-made mare, which entitled her in her own mind to a fierce pride and a positive loathing for pity; if anypony thought she was deserving of pity, they were clearly underestimating her, and severely so. She'd never needed anypony but herself, and she'd done just fine that way.
Torn between wanting to yell at the fiercely yellow mare, buck her right in the teeth for daring to feel sorry for the fastest flier in Equestria, wanting to hug her and wanting to just escape, the latter had won out in the end, one hard beat of her wings propelling her far into the air.
Leaving a spectral blur behind her, she'd unthinkingly catched onto a strong wing current, not caring where she went as long as it was far, far away from Cloudsdale or Ponyville. Far away from a hero she was furious with, and her best friends whom she didn't have the courage to face in her humiliation.
Returning to the present she lost the fight with her tears and felt a couple sliding down her muzzle, coloring her cyan coat a darker hue as they ran. Her friends...they were probably pretty worried about her by now, having no idea where she'd gone.
As much as she hated leaving them hanging, and as ashamed she was at acting completely opposite to her deeper nature, this was one instance where the Element of Loyalty could go buck itself. She had no idea how she'd react if she saw any of them right now, so she'd rather not take the chance, for either of their sakes.
A vague intention of getting another glass of salt forming in the back of her mind, she made to unslouch herself, trying to push herself off the couch, only to lose her hoofing and crumple right back onto her rump and back ending up sideways on the couch looking out into the room.
As she tried to reorient herself and get her bearings back through the haze of intoxication, she found herself suddenly face to face with a pair of legs. Blinking slowly to herself, wondering why there were legs right in front of her eyes and why there weren't going away, she tilted her head to the side and upwards, looking straight into a pair of grinning amber eyes.
Her brain finally gathering itself enough to remind her that she had an audience, she went on autopilot and scrambled to the side, nearly falling onto the floor in her haste to distance herself from the severely uncool image of being drunk and miserable.
Quickly sitting up and arranging herself in what she hoped was a suitably careless and aloof position for the most awesome pony ever, she looked the strange unicorn square in the eyes, as if daring her to laugh at the position she'd found Rainbow in.
The stranger did no such thing, however. Merely smiling pleasantly, and also including something in her expression that Rainbow could not identify, least of all right now, she looked from the cyan mare to the recently vacated spot where she had been sitting, to the mostly empty glass on the table, before looking back at Rainbow Dash.
"Is this seat taken?" she said in a raised voice, to make herself heard over the din of the music. Feeling confused and looking around without really meaning to, not wanting to seem like a silly country bumpkin, the rainbow-maned mare all the same noticed that there were plenty of free seats around, it being a weekday and all.
Even so, though she was habitually frank and forthright, Rainbow Dash did not at all appreciate the possibility of being thought of as downright rude to anypony who did not deserve it, and spoke up, desperately trying to get her tongue to cooperate.
"Umm...no. No, it isn't." she said, groaning inwardly almost at once at how lame her reponse had sounded. Feeling her embarrassment mounting further when the other mare just stood there, looking at her questioningly, she tried to force her brain to work properly .
After a long few seconds, the pieces finally clicked together in her head and she blurted out, feeling her face flush: "Do you want to sit down?". Smiling still wider, the unicorn settled herself lightly into the couch, right beside a rather flustered Rainbow Dash, her flank very nearly touching Rainbow's hind leg.
"Please." the mystery pony said with what was unmistakably a wink. "I'm Sunset Ember, by the way. What's your name?" she said, her voice pleasantly sharp around the edges and intriguing. It was the sort of voice that, while hardly beautiful, raised more questions than it answered and made you want to keep listening in order to find out whatever you could.
"I'm, uhh...I mean, my name is Rainbow...Rainbow Dash." Rainbow said, feeling very awkward in present company. The knot of embarrassment tightened further in the pit of her stomach when Sunset giggled at her obvious distress: "Alright, Rainbow Rainbow Dash." the unicorn said with a pronounced smirk, which turned to a look of sympathy in a manner of seconds:.
"Here...let me get us some refreshments." she said as softly as the chaos of the club would allow while waving at the barpony, a slick looking stallion who seemingly knew Sunset well. The wave seemed to be a signal, as he almost instantly filled up two large but otherwise perfectly ordinary cylindrical glasses with a good measure of salt and topped them off with bubbly water, before putting them down on the counter.
Her horn lighting up faintly with a pleasant golden-yellow glow of magic, Sunset nodded at the barpony and mouthed something at him while levitating the glasses across the room and above the heads of everypony in the way, before they landed with light thuds on the table in front of them. Picking up her own glass with her magic, Sunset brought it to her lips and sipped the liquid, smiling as it touched her tongue: "Oh yeah...I love it when Rusty works this shift."
Noticing Rainbow's bewildered expression, she explained: "Sea salt. Extracted, concentrated, triple-filtered...the good stuff." she said, taking another appreciative sip of the fizzy drink: "I bet you'll like it." she said with a smile: "Unless you've had enough already."
Her smirk indicating just the kind of challenge that the rightful Iron Pony could never, ever refuse, Rainbow leaned over and picked up the glass between her hooves and brought it to her lips. As might have been expected in the situation, she ended up taking a rather larger sip than she would have without the subtle implication that she would be chicken if she didn't, or that she was a lightweight.
Even unaccustomed as she was with the various flavors of salt, she became convinced fairly quickly that Sunset probably knew what she was talking about. It didn't have much taste at all, really, apart from a slight taste of strong. However, after just a few seconds it felt like someone had struck her brain with a sledgehammer made out of cotton candy, and she felt herself falling backward into the couch with a stupid grin on her face.
"Whoah, there!" said Sunset Amber with a chuckle, having barely catched Rainbow's glass before it fell to the floor, and put it back on the table. With a mischievous grin, she reached out a hoof and gently poked at Rainbow's very exposed midriff: "Not really used to the salt, are you honey?" she said, grinning still wider as Rainbow cringed and giggled: "How old are you anyway, pretty Rainbow?"
Forgetting herself for a few moment, her stomach giving a squirm entirely unrelated to Sunset's tickling, the cyan coated mare turned her head aside, unable to keep a look of shame off of her face: "I'm...I mean, I..." she stammered, feeling very out ot character and hating every second of it.
The unicorn next to her came to her rescue, before the compulsion to admit that she was indeed a bit too young to be here, and to be having salt became too strong: "Oh, but I'm being so rude. Please, forgive me?" she said with an endearing smile, and for the first time Rainbow noted that she was really quite attractive.
"Sure..." she said quickly while pulling herself together, determined to head off the inquisitive mare before she could ask any more uncomfortable questions: "So...what do you do? I mean, when you're not here?" she asked, finding as she said it that she actually did want to know. Sunset's voice was still fascinating to her, and in her muddled state of mind the dawning realization that she was finding the strange mare attractive didn't cause her as much concern as it otherwise might have.
"Ooh...i'm glad you asked." said the unicorn with a smile, bringing her hovering glass to her as she settled down even more, her new position making it so that hers and Rainbow's cutie marks were almost touching. Taking a sip of the drink, she looked over at the rainbow maned pony next to her: "I'm a singer. Or well, I'm a choir pony, you know...one of those ponies that stand in the shadow of more talented, or at any rate more famous, ponies, and sing to their tune." she said with a smile.
As Rainbow didn't answer right away, feeling increasingly fuzzy around the edges of her mind, Sunset went on: "Yep, that's me. Pretty much a nopony. Even though I toured with Sapphire Shores once..." she said, her eyes betraying a hint of disappointment, or possibly resentment.
A spark going off in the static of her head, Rainbow piped up: "Sapphire Shores? One of my best friends, Rarity, designed some outfits for her tour of Equestria a few years ago." Rainbow said, glad to finally be able to contribute to the conversation and not seem like such an awkward dork.
Sunset eyed her with a look of surprise: "You don't mean...those very striking gem-studded outfits from the "Manehattan Dreaming" tour? That's the tour I was a part of!" said Sunset, a look of almost filly-like excitement on her pretty face, making Rainbow's stomach tingle, which was replaced nearly at once with a feeling of panic as she felt the muscles of her wings starting to tighten.
Summoning all her will to try and stop her most prized possessions from betraying the butterflies who had invaded her stomach, she shifted her position slightly to weigh the treacherous things down. It hurt a bit, true, but it would be way, way too uncool if the unicorn noticed what was going on.
For that matter...what was going on? "I mean, I'm not...am I?" she thought to herself, feeling the bone of her wings digging into her back, the pain helping to stem the embarrassing reaction to Sunset's presence.
"Really?" she said, unable to keep her eyes off the unicorn next to her: "That's some coincidence..." she mumbled, starting to feel warm all throughout her body. Something strange was definitely going on. She'd had...the thing, with the wings, happen before.
Not so many times since she left Cloudsdale, at least not in public, but it was a normal part of a pegasus' life, even if it was pretty damn lame. And she knew what it took to make it happen, and how her body felt when it happened, and none of that fit with this situation.
"Yeah..." said Sunset, leaning even closer, nudging Rainbow's stomach with her front leg again, tracing her slender, somewhat unladylike abdomen with the edge of her hoof, making Rainbow shudder as if she was freezing. "It is, isn't it...?" she whispered, her mouth suddenly right next to Rainbow's ear, which flinched out of the way of the unicorn's hot breath.
The faint smell of salt washed over her nostrils, and she wondered faintly if this was all the doing of the salt as she felt her skin tingling, and her mind racing along at supersonic speeds. Not that thinking fast and on her feet was uncommon to the rainbow mare, but she would have felt a lot more relaxed and in her element if she had been able to follow what exactly she was thinking.
"Oh, yeah...I have a small confession to make. Don't be too angry with me, 'kay?" Sunset said, still speaking directly into Rainbow's ear and making her even more flushed. She would have moved away, but if she did, her most apparent problem would become very apparent indeed.
"I may have put a teeny, tiny something extra into our drinks." she said, making Rainbow frown in suspicion: "...like what?" she asked in a hoarse voice, her tension mounting further as to what the unicorn was talking about.
"Oh, nothing bad...just a little bit of Clematis..." she said, her voice even rougher and more ragged than before, and Rainbow's mind struggled between feeling aroused and feeling shock at what the other mare had just said. Clematis...she'd heard about it before, of course. This kind of thing was virtually unknown in small places like Ponyville, at least as far as she knew, but from her time in Cloudsdale she knew about the secretive trade in rare and special flowers, fungi and mineral salts, with...special effects.
She knew for a fact, from her nearly obsessive reading of the history of the Wonderbolts, that one captain of the Second Squadron had resigned his position nearly 40 years previous, after it had become public that he had been under the influence of Clematis during most of his flight shows.
Being a strong stimulant, it made sense for a flier to take the stuff before a demanding show, to speed up reaction time and responsivity...on paper, anyway. Apparently, it wasn't all that rosy in reality, since it could make you...lose...control...
Damn.
Feeling her stomach lurch from the sudden realization of what had just happened, her eyes narrowed as she glared at the unicorn next to her, trying to muster as much ire as she could into her voice to over power the other conflicting feelings in the pit of her stomach.
"What the...why the buck would you do that?!" she yelled at the choir mare. That was, the strangely...attractive choir mare who was suddenly - or possibly not so suddenly - moving her flank just the tiniest bit, so that her cutie mark was rubbing against Rainbow's own pride and joy...
Barely supressing a groan at the unfamiliar and disproportionately stimulating bodily contact, the instinct to flee finally overwhelmed her, and she sat bolt upright. "Double damn", she cursed inwardly with her eyes closed as she felt her wings snap out behind her of their own accord, standing straight out from her body.
Even in the dim, chaotic lighting of the club, and through the haze of her own immense embarrassment, Rainbow could see Sunset's face taking on a smug, contented expression, like a cat who had just trapped a mouse in a corner.
"I thought as much..." she murmured into Rainbow's ear, both of which were now drooping low along with her eyes, making her look more like Fluttershy than herself. Whatever Sunset had put in her drink, it had to be strong, judging from the intensity of the sensations coursing through her body.
It felt like...she had become a lot more physically sensitive...and suddenly it came to her exactly what it felt like: acrobatic flying and pleasuring herself, at the same time. The same sucking sensation of defying gravity, her heart pumping furiously and making the adrenaline assault her senses, accompanied by the tingling, searing sensation in her skin and...well...there...
Rainbow was taken out of her reverie by a hot, wet, rasping feeling on her muzzle that made her start. Looking wide-eyed at the pony next to her, she realized she'd just been licked. Rainbow Dash had not been licked by anypony since she was a foal, and her mother had certainly never, ever done it like that.
Her embarrassment over everything that had happened since Sunset had come over gave way suddenly to a bout of annoyance and frustration, and despite herself she blurted out, loudly enough to be heard over the music: "Buck it all! Why does everypony always just assume I'm a filly-fooler out of the blue?!"
Taking in the aggrevated, sweating, panting mare, Sunset Ember gave what seemed to be an actual, heartfelt warm smile: "Do they? Well...not that I would know, but have you ever entertained the thought..." she said, looking Rainbow straight into the eyes, her deep orange eyes giving the impression that her name was well-earned, mischief, lust and the flickering lights of the club making it seem as though flames were dancing in her irises as she came closer again.
Almost at once, her muzzle was only inches away from Rainbow's: "...that it's not that we assume that you are, but that we really wish you were? Because, you know, you're gorgeous..." she said, as Rainbow felt herself drowning in her eyes, her mind finally giving out to all the new feelings and sensations that were emerging from deep within.
-
She did not remember much of what happened after that, until they arrived at Sunset's place. There were vague memories of stumbling through the cobbled streets of Fillydelphia, supporting herself on the unicorn, her brain still putting up a fight and wondering what in the world she was doing going home with somepony who had drugged her against her will, and who really seemed very flimsy and slapdash altogether.
But, then again...she herself, while generally trustworthy to the extent of embodying the Element of Loyalty, was at heart impulsive, impatient and quite unafraid to follow her own whims to whatever end. This applied almost exclusively to times when she was not responsible for anyone else, admittedly, but it was still a pretty damn integral part of who she was.
And this whim, to follow the unicorn despite all the misgivings Rainbow managed to have even now, and the many more prodding at her hind-brain, had overpowered her completely. Before she knew it, she was in a bright, sleek apartment, done up mostly in shades of white, grey and green. She'd felt water dripping from her mane, and supposed that it must have been raining even though she hadn't noticed it at all.
Sunset had offered her a towel, and when she'd accepted, the unicorn had come over and started towelling her hair with her hooves, cooing and telling Rainbow how beautiful her rainbow mane was. And then, Rainbow's head still covered in the fuzzy, white towel, she'd had...her first kiss, ever.
It had been...indescribable, and nothing like she'd thought a kiss would be. Like the leader of her own personal fan club, the little orange filly Scootaloo more commonly known to Rainbow as "squirt", she had been far too focused on her skills and her goal of joining the Wonderbolts to think about "all that mushy stuff".
Come to think of it, the day that the Wonderbolts had blown her off seemed as good a time as any to try out some of that silly stuff; she vaguely recognized that her hurt pride and the salt and...lots of other things were conspiring to make her reckless, and giving her a Nightmare-may-care outlook on things.
Trying to reconcile her urges with her common sense, she found to her surprise that it suddenly didn't bother her one jot to have control over her own situation wrested from her; the burning need that was building inside her, crying out for some kind of release might have had something to do with.
The unicorn who'd taken her home seemed quite eager to help her out of that particular predicament, and Rainbow Dash found her first kiss broken as she thudded onto a big, soft bed, her wings splayed suddenly and roughly to the sides. It hurt for a moment, until she felt a teasing hoof running down her side and a tongue licking her muzzle playfully.
After that, her recollections ran like watercolors, vivid hues blurring at the edges and making it hard to separate one thing from the next: the feeling of the bed against her back, so unlike the clouds she was accustomed to sleeping on; the sensation of having a rough, warm tongue lapping at her most private parts; the feeling of that self-same tongue tracing up her abdomen and reaching her wings; the warmth of another body against hers...
All the while, coming and going in intensity but staying with her all the same, was a sensation she could only equate to that split second of suspension, of ultimate strain and excitement, right as she broke the barrier of a Sonic Rainboom. The feeling of cruising along at her penultimate speed for minutes and minutes, tingling through her body seemingly endlessly was entirely beyond words. That was, until it finally peaked.
Even though it was diametrically opposed to what she had always assumed to be her deeper nature, she knew right then and there that she would do anything, absolutely anything to experience this ultimate, artificial rush once more, sooner rather than later. It came, it peaked, it lingered...and for a few seconds she felt drained, completely empty and completely and utterly at peace, before her conscious was snuffed out like a candle in a gale.
-
She woke to the sound of an argument, the sound flowing in from outside through a half-open window. "Window...?" she thought, taking in the desaturated daylight coming in the window through squinting, sleepy eyes. Her house didn't have windows like that... or a bed. Or anypony even nearly within earshot, for that matter.
Forcing her brain to start working and finding the resistance a good deal more insistent than usual, she finally succeeded in opening her eyes completely, taking in the room she was in, the previous day starting to come back to her slowly.
Pulling herself up into a sitting position in the bed and nearly continuing to fall flat on her face from a sudden wave of dizziness, she became aware of how groggy she was, and the sluggish feeling in her usually fine-tuned muscles.As she yawned and stretched out her forelegs, she stretched her wings out of reflex, only to yelp out loud as they were about half-extended.
Groaning as she realized she must have fallen asleep on them, and that they would probably be too stiff and sore to fly with at least for the next few hours, she warily folded them close to her body and rolled over to the side,
A glass of water with a note propped up against it caught her attention, bringing a faint smile to her face as she reached out and took the glass between her hooves, emptying the glass greedily, not having realized before then just how dehydrated she'd been.
Putting the glass back gingerly on the nightstand, she hesitated for a moment before picking up the note, which she noticed was addressed to her by name...well, more or less so anyway.
Beautiful Rainbow,
Thanks for last night, it was a lot of fun. Though from the way you reacted when I told you I’d given you some Clematis, and how innocent you seemed with the salt, I doubt you remember half of it.
Much as I’d have liked to cuddle the morning away, the life of a backing mare is a constant uphill battle, and I had to get to work beyond early. I hope your head isn’t beyond the powers of a glass of water, since that’s all I can offer at five in the morning.
While you were absolutely delectable in many ways, and gorgeous to boot, I should make it clear that I’m not looking for a marefriend or anything like that. Just some fun and R&R, you know. Maybe this makes me sound like a right plothole, and I’m sorry if I got your hopes up or something.
Maybe we’ll meet again some day,
Sunset Ember
Sitting in the bed, the cyan mare held onto the note, not knowing exactly how to feel. The unicorn had every right not to be on the lookout for a marefriend, of course, and she’d never said or done anything to indicate that she was as far as Rainbow could remember.
And she herself certainly hadn’t been, or wasn’t...stallion or otherwise. The majority of her life up to this point had been focused on one thing and one thing only, from the moment she’d first seen the Wonderbolts in show years and years ago.
All the same...what she and the unicorn had done was pretty intimate. Rainbow knew very well that she had very little grounds to judge that kind of conduct; the extent of her experience of love and all that came with it had been some distant flirting in flight school. She’d had a few colts chasing after her, and she’d enjoyed teasing them and keeping their hopes up with an errant note here and a whispered temptation there.
She and Gilda had laughed about it at the time, but now...it seemed cruel somehow, in a way she was all but unaccustomed to. Sighing and letting herself fall back on the bed, the note taking to the air from the impact and falling to the floor, she stared morosely up into the roof, taking in the light being reflected onto it by a vase on the nightstand next to her.
Feeling her persona returning to her, she became aware of an insistent part of her mind scolding her for being so weak and inexperienced about this unnecessary bucking stuff. Being all emotional would not help her become a Wonderbolt, after all.
Rolling over and swinging her hind legs over the edge of the bed in an unthinking move, she pulled her forelegs to her and stood defiant on the floor, whereupon a slight wave of dizziness hit her.
Closing her eyes and fighing the nausea that came with it, it soon passed. When she opened her eyes again, she found that she was looking straight down at the scribbled note from her bygone lover, and with a sudden jolt of excitement she could not explain to herself she noticed there was a postscript.
PS: I hope you can forgive me, but I wrote a small white lie before. What kind of host would I be if all I could offer you was a glass of water? I left a little something for you out in the kitchen. Whether you take it is up to you, of course. But all things considered, you seemed to like it.
A few minutes later Rainbow stood in the sunlit streets of Fillydelphia, squinting her eyes slightly to better look over her surroundings. She was apparently in front of a smallish brownstone apartment building that lay by a sheltered cul-de-sac, which on a moment’s reflection seemed like a rather appropriate locale for an artistic pony.
Giving it a last look-over, she turned and eased into a steady trot. It was somewhat humiliating, true, but by the shooting pain that hit her when she tried to unfurl her wings, it seemed she would be forced either to run the distance back to Ponyville, or to take the train. For now, her pride would have to bear a train ride.
As she made her way towards the city center to find the train station, the cyan mare unconsciously hummed a tuneless melody to herself. From her softly smiling mouth hung a small, cheap pouch made out of a hemp-like material ideal for carrying, say, an unimpressive-looking blue flower.
