Duvets and Pegasi

"- so I bucked him in the face! Broke his stupid looking manly jaw too," crowed a gleeful looking Rainbow Dash. "You should have seen the look on his face - priceless!"

The rainbow-maned mare turned to the cream coated pegasus to her left; a look of smug satisfaction on her face. "And that's why you can't trust most stallions these days. Most of them are interested in one thing, and one thing only - they want the vee," she said, trying to sound sagely.

Fluttershy smiled politely at her friend. "I'm just happy that you weren't hurt, Rainbow Dash." She gently cuffed the back of Dash's head with a wing, "Did you really have to hospitalize him, though? I can't imagine it's very pleasant having to eat through a straw."

Rainbow Dash scoffed, "He was asking for it! Besides," she scowled, recalling what had happened, "pretty much everypony in town knows how much I hate it when somepony touches my hooves. Only my special-somepony gets to do that, whoever it ends up being."

Shaking her head to clear it of any mushy thoughts, she grinned at Fluttershy and winked playfully. "Anyway, have I told you about this awesome new move I've been working on? No? Well, prepare yourself to be amazed! So, basically, you get-"

Fluttershy sighed and followed along, listening with half an ear, as her friend kept marching on toward their destination. The day had started out so well too. She had a lovely breakfast. Fed all of her precious little animal friends. Completed all of her work and chores. And finally opened a new romance novella that Rarity had lent her.

"-then I do a quick corkscrew turn at the apex-"

Granted, she had been shocked by the type of book it was at first, but as she read on she slowly found her interest growing more and more. That was probably the reason why Rarity had looked so flustered as she practically shoved the book into her hooves; Of course, she still wondered about that odd twinkle in her fashion conscious friend's eyes, as she all but begged Fluttershy to read the book.

"-and I gotta account for turbulence, but that's not re- "

'I never knew Rarity was into lesbimare fictions,' she thought, trying to puzzle out why Rarity seemed so dead-set on getting her to read it.

"-so I figure with a bit of pegasus magic, I can change the effects on my flow field and-"

Of course that was all a moot point now. Rainbow Dash had barged into her home and somehow gotten her to come shopping with her. She wouldn't find out how the novella ended any time soon.

"-times the mass density, times velocity squared, times the drag coefficient-"

She sighed, 'I can't believe Rainbow Dash conned me into going shopping with her. Why would she even need my help to buy things?' Her eyes widened in panic, 'Oh no! I can't believe I just thought that about my own best friend!' Her eyes watered pitifully, 'I'm a horrible pony!'

Fluttershy was brought out of her errant thoughts as she accidentally bumped into the other pegasus. The rainbow-maned mare turned to face her, a satisfied look on her face.

"Here we are! Ponyville Bed Emporium, the go-to place for everything a sleepy pony wants!"

Fluttershy tilted her head to the side in confusion. "You're looking for a new bed?"

Rainbow nodded cheerfully. "Yup! I kinda, accidentally, maybe... broke mine."

The lavender-pink maned mare seemed even more confused. "How did you break your old bed, Rainbow Dash?"

The mare in question looked around shiftily. "Well, I kind of didn't just stop at breaking that other guy's jaw, and- hey what are we still doing out here? Let's go find me a new bed!"

Fluttershy yelped as her friend quickly got behind her, and started pushing her into the store.

"Your smile is like a sunrise, it sets the clouds on fire. But just being with you, is what I always admire," she whispers into your ear.

'What are these strange feelings in my tummy?' you wonder thoughtfully. 'Is this love?'

You look into her ruby colored eyes - glimmering warmly at you, only you - and understand. 'I'm starting to figure her out. I know she isn't what I should care about. But whenever she reveals something about herself to me, I think we're meant to be.'

Blood rushes to your cheeks as she lowers her muzzle to your own. Was she going to kiss you? You close your eyes and slowly lean forward, eager to explore these new feelings.

She caresses your neck using feathered wing. "You will enjoy this, I believe. Embrace these forbidden feelings with me... Fluttershy."

"Fluttershy!"

"Eep!"

The canary-cream coated mare blinked owlishly at the rainbow of colors in front of her. Rainbow Dash looked her over with concern. "You alright there, Shy? You were spacing out for a bit. You must have been thinking of something pretty darn interesting! So, what was it about?"

Fluttershy froze, a feeling of horror overtaking her for a moment, after which she forced herself to relax. "Oh, um... Just thinking about how lovely the Grand Galloping Gala will be!" she said, hoping her friend wouldn't catch the lie. She had no intention of telling Dash that she was daydreaming about the romance novella Rarity had given her. That would be so embarrassing!

Rainbow Dash eyed her thoughtfully for a moment before shrugging and rolling her eyes playfully. "Whatever you say, Fluttershy." She turned back to the nearly forgotten shopkeeper; On his vest a name-tag read: 'Hi! My name is Opposite Cheer.' "Anyways, where were we, Tom?"

The stallion's left eye twitched, but a scheming grin remained on his face. "Well, as I was saying, we have beds in many shapes, sizes, and makes to suit our honorable customers' needs. You name it, we probably have it. If we don't, we'll have it made. We also cover a wide assortment of bedding needs, should you be looking for pillows, duvets and such."

Dash rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Well, Jim, I'm finding myself in the need for a brand new bed. I'd like to sleep on something comfortable tonight, and not the couch again."

'Jim' grinned widely, the sound of many shiny equestrian bits ringing in his mind. "If comfort is what you desire, then may I perhaps show you our waterbeds, honorable customer?"

The rainbow-maned mare scrunched her eyes at the thought of a waterbed. "Eh, no thanks. I've had some bad experiences with waterbeds." That, and you can't exactly use them as efficient weapons on idiotic stallions with little to no survival instincts. "What about a cloud bed, Tim? Clouds are some of the most comfortable things I've ever slept on."

The shopkeeper shook his head in denial. "I apologize, but clouds do not make for an ideal permanent bed. They dissolve eventually if they remain in cloud form."

Rainbow gave him a disbelieving look. "But what about pegasi cloud homes? They don't have that problem."

He nodded in agreement. "That is true, however, have you ever tried sleeping on any weather-factory building-grade clouds? They are the furthest thing from comfort, I assure you."

She had never tried sleeping on those kinds of clouds before, but now that she thought about it, the walls and floors of her cloud home, while solid, did not look comfortable at all. "Well, do you have anything super-comfy that isn't a waterbed?"

The smoky-grey coated stallion beamed a winning smile at her. "But of course, honorable customer! We supply anything and everything you might need for your sleeping needs! Right this way!"

Rainbow Dash turned to her friend who had remained silent for the conversation. She face-hoofed herself. Fluttershy was sitting upright, her eyes glazed, with a dopy grin and flushed cheeks. Was she seriously day dreaming again? "Fluttershy!"

The canary-cream coated mare woke from her fantasy, and saw Rainbow's stern face. She bowed her head apologetically. "O-oh! Rainbow, I'm so sorry. I don't know what's going on with me today..."

Dash sighed at her friend's antics. Why did she pick today to be weird? She smirked confidently at her. "Hey, don't worry about it, I do it sometimes too."

Fluttershy felt her cheeks heat up. Did she know? "Y-you too?"

Dash saw the disbelief on her friend's face, and grinned cheerfully. "Of course! There's nothing wrong with doing that kind of thing. Nopony will judge you just because of something silly like that!" After all, she also liked to sometimes just sit down and imagine herself flying with the Wonderbolts.

The timid mare blushed at her friend's words. She never knew Rainbow Dash to be the type to read those kinds of romance novels. Her cheeks burned even brighter. 'Does that mean that Rainbow likes other mares in 'that' kind of way?' she thought.

"Come on, let's go, Timone's gonna show us the most radical beds they have in this joint."

Fluttershy watched as her friend walked off to follow the shopkeeper. With an inaudible grunt she stood up and followed; she froze, however, as her eyes strayed to Dash's well defined flank. "Eep!"

Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise as Fluttershy quickly appeared at her side. The shy mare had her head hung low, bangs of mane hiding her eyes. Rainbow did not miss the flushed look on her cheeks. "Hey, are you sure you're alright, Shy?"

'Shy?' she thought. 'That's almost like a pet name isn't it?' Her thoughts immediately went back to the novella, and her mind unhelpfully started conjuring up images of her and Rainbow Dash doing lewd things with each other. She felt dizzy with all the blood rushing to her head, and walked into Dash by accident.

The rainbow-maned pegasus reached out a wing and steadied Fluttershy. "Hey, whoa! Speak to me, Fluttershy, what's going on? I'm really getting worried here!"

Fluttershy's head sunk in guilt, 'Great. I'm having these shameful thoughts about my best friend, and she's worrying about me. Can this get any worse?'

Perhaps she should not have tempted fate, or perhaps Murphy must have heard her thoughts.

Dash tugged the shy pony's head to her and rested her forehead against hers, ignorant of the reason behind the increasingly bright glow on her face. "My Mum taught me this trick," she said, inordinately proud of herself. "Huh, that's weird. You don't feel like you have a fever."

She tapped her cheek thoughtfully, then clapped her hooves together, now having a new plan. "Aha! Being wet cools ponies off right?" She patted Fluttershy's cheek cheerfully. "Don't worry Flutters! I'll get you all nice and wet in no time!"

Fluttershy couldn't take it anymore, and at Dash's mention of getting her 'wet', she fainted.

"Oh no! Fluttershy!"

You open your eyes and see her sitting there. She smiles beautifully, eyes fixed firmly onto you. "My dear Fluttershy, have you known? Without another, a heart is alone; to truly make a heart feel whole, it needs a tender and understanding soul."

She steps closer to you with heavy-lidded eyes, her smile growing warmer with every step she takes.

"I just want something sugary and sweet. A really romantic treat. The only thing I can think of is when our lips meet," she whispers, her voice husky, as she leans closer to meet her lips to your own.

You shudder, feeling a strange pleasure as your friend- no, your lover, holds you closer. "Rainbow Dash..."

"Hey! Wake up, dang it!"

"Eep!"

Fluttershy blearily blinked her eyes as the shapeless blob cleared up into her friend. "Rainbow Dash?"

The athletic pegasus sighed in relief. "Geez, Fluttershy. You just about gave me a heart attack there! Come on, we're getting you to a doctor."

Fluttershy started panicking. "W-wait! What about your bed?"

Dash scoffed, her wings flared in agitation. "There's no way in Celestia's pale white flank I'm letting you suffer a moment longer. I don't know what the heck is going on, but we need to fix you up. Seriously, you just fainted for no reason, Shy! Now, come on."

The timid mare shook her head. "It's fine, Rainbow, really! I just forgot to have breakfast this morning, so I'm just feeling a bit lightheaded."

Rainbow Dash eyed her dubiously. "Really?"

"Hm!"

She sighed deeply, the tension leaving her wings as they retracted. "Alright, I guess I can buy that. And if you're so hungry that you're passing out, then I'll just have to fix that, won't I?" Her eyes raked over Fluttershy's figure. "You're practically skin and bone, Shy, you're not hard for bits right? I can help out if you'd like? Is it trouble with rent? You can stay at my place, I wouldn't mind. You could have the new bed and I'll just keep using the couch, I guess..."

Fluttershy felt a warm feeling of happiness engulf her being. Who knew Dash could be so caring and selfless? She smiled brightly at her friend, startling the cyan coated pegasus. "I'm not having any financial troubles, Rainbow, don't worry. Thank you for caring all the same."

Rainbow Dash nodded, looking slightly confused at her friend's strange behavior. She shrugged, deciding to think more on it later, she had more important things to do at the moment. Like getting a brand-spanking new bed! Aw, yeah!

"Right. After we're done here I'll take you out somewhere nice and get some food into that hungry belly of yours. Sound good?"

The canary-cream coated mare nodded happily and followed along as Dash headed towards the patiently waiting shopkeeper. She paused, 'Wait a minute. She said 'take you out'. She's taking me out on a date?' Her cheeks were quickly growing accustomed to the new bright red color.

Dash nodded at the seedy looking shopkeeper.

He rose an eyebrow, "Is your marefriend better now?"

Not really knowing the significance of the word, but figuring that Fluttershy was both a mare and her friend, she nodded. "Yeah, she skipped breakfast so she's low on energy, no big." She didn't notice the squeak behind her, and continued. "So, where's this super-comfy bed you were bragging about, Gary?"

The dodgy looking shopkeeper puffed his chest out proudly, and gestured to the bed to his left. "What we have here is a feather bed, known for providing absolute comfort."

Rainbow Dash looked unimpressed.

Fluttershy looked horrified. "F-feathers?! This bed is made with duck and geese feathers?"

Right as the shy mare was about to start a rant the shopkeeper shook his head. "Oh, don't worry, this specific model doesn't use duck or geese feathers. It wouldn't make for a very impressively comfortable bed if that were the case, now would it?"

Rainbow Dash looked at him with a deadpan expression. "What's so special about it then, Gordon?"

'Gordon' grinned stupidly. "I'm glad you asked, honorable customer! What's special about this bed, is that pegasi feathers were used to make it! You won't find any more comfort than on a bed like this."

The athletic pegasus scrunched her nose in confusion. "What's so special about pegasi feathers?"

He beamed at her. "Glad you asked, again! The feathers of a pegasus still retain weather magic, making them far lighter than any other common feather could. A single feather on its own is not really that impressive, but a bed full of the weightless little things, makes for an incredible experience. Like sleeping on a cloud, I've been told."

At the word 'cloud' Dash was sold. She quickly got onto the bed and lay down. She gasped in delight, it really did feel like a cloud! The pegasus buried her face into the bed and sigh happily. "This feels greeeeat."

There was just one thing missing. She got up and gave the shopkeeper a questioning look. "Why doesn't this bed have any pillows? I wanna try out some feather pillows too, get the full experience, you know?"

The shopkeeper sighed sadly. "Ah, you noticed? Well, this is the only pegasus featherbed we have in stock, I'm afraid. They are quite expensive, you know? The matching pillows seemed pointless to get unless somepony actually intended to buy both the featherbed and pegasus feather bedding. I could fetch you some of the geese feather pillows if you'd like?"

Rainbow scowled at the thought of using 'normal' feather pillows. Her face brightened as an idea came to her. "That wont be necessary. I've got a walking, talking, pony feather pillow right here."

She turned to face Fluttershy, who was off in her own dreamworld, again. She sighed.

"Fluttershy!"

"Eep!"

The timid mare looked guiltily at her friend. "S-sorry. I did it again..."

Dash rolled her eyes, and shook her hoof dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Get over here will you? This bed feels incredible, I want you to try it out."

Fluttershy perked up, missing the glint of mischief in her friend's eyes. "Really? I wonder what a pegasus feather bed would feel like."

As soon as she laid down she froze as Dash moved closer and placed a hoof on her side. The shy mare yelped as she was unceremoniously flipped around. Her body went limp as she felt Rainbow snuggling her head into her canary-yellow feathers. She felt the blood rushing to her head, and promptly fainted again.

An hour later at a slightly busy restaurant.

Rainbow speared a mini-tomato with her fork, popped it into her mouth and chewed happily. Today was a pretty good day. She got to hang out with the most awesome friend in the world. Bought the most radical bed in the world. And now she was having a wicked cool lunch with said awesome friend. The day just couldn't possibly get any better!

Sitting opposite of her, Fluttershy slowly nibbled away at her lasagna. The shy mare had felt slightly insulted that Dash had ordered so much for her, but quickly dropped it after realizing that she was only worried about her. Evidently fainting a second time in front of Rainbow Dash was a quick way to get her to go into full-on mothering mode.

Fluttershy felt her cheeks warm up again. Was it selfish of her to like the attention her friend was showering onto her? It was that silly novella of Rarity's fault. If she hadn't read it, then she wouldn't be feeling all of these conflicting thoughts and feelings right now. One good thing to come out of this whole mess, was her seeing a whole new side to her athletic friend.

As soon as she returned home she would burn that accursed book and forget all about it.

...Okay, maybe she wouldn't burn it. It was after all her friend's property. She simply wouldn't finish reading the book, and just return it. There, problem solved!

Then again, she observed the cheerful cyan coated pegasus in front of her, maybe a peek wouldn't hurt?

Rainbow caught her eye and winked teasingly.

Fluttershy averted her eyes and lowered her head, trying to hide the crimson blush she knew was showing. Maybe finishing that darn book wouldn't be so bad. It was only a stupid, silly little book. She had absolutely no interest in it whatsoever. She only intended to finish reading it because Rarity asked her, because that's what good friends do!

With that thought in mind, the timid pegasus nodded resolutely to herself and returned to eating.

Even later

Rainbow Dash let out a silent burp of satisfaction as both she and Fluttershy walked to the shy mare's cottage. Those sure were some good eats. She was happy to have spoiled herself with some delicious, if unhealthy food for a change. She usually followed a strict diet to keep her body in optimal shape for her air stunts.

She revisited an earlier thought. Today really WAS a good day! She felt inordinately pleased with herself. Looking to her left she saw her timid friend frowning, deep in thought.

Fluttershy's thoughts were racing. Today was a very strange day, even by Pinkie Pie standards. Okay, maybe not quite that drastic, but still, it was not a day that she was prepared for. Granted, she did not regret anything that had happened. If anything, she really enjoyed herself.

The only problem she faced now was in trying to sort out the feelings of confusion that muddled her thoughts. She turned to face the subject of her confusion addled mind. Gorgeous ruby colored eyes met her own. She froze in panic.

Rainbow Dash rose an eyebrow at the nervous expression on Fluttershy's face. Why was she looking at her like that? She blinked thoughtfully, then nodded to herself as she understood. The shy mare probably felt guilty about all of that expensive food she was treated to. Yeah, that's it.

Now how on earth could she go about reassuring the timid mare that she didn't mind picking up the tab? She grinned widely as an idea came to her. 'I'm a genius!' she thought.

Dash smiled warmly at her friend. "Hey, cheer up Fluttershy! Don't give me that sad look, alright? You don't have to worry about anything, because it doesn't matter to me. Just be happy, and then I'll be happy, pretty simple, yeah? Today was a pretty good day, so let's not end it on a sour note, hm?"

The nervous look on Fluttershy's face slowly melted away into a warm smile. She nodded happily. "Hm!"

Rainbow Dash grinned confidently. "Besides, I'm really glad we hung out today. In fact, I think I'm really starting to like you now, Shy. You're a pretty awesome pegasus. Of course, nowhere as radically awesome as me, but you get the idea. We should go flying together some time, I could show you so many things up there in the sky. It's like a whole new world up there."

Fluttershy froze as her mind got stuck on and repeated Rainbow's words over and over again. 'She likes me? Like, likes me likes me?' Her blushed returned, even greater than before. 'She thinks I'm awesome? She wants to fly with me, together?'

The shy mare giggled happily. It all made sense now! She knew exactly what she had to do. Why hadn't she realized this sooner? She slowly inched closer to her friend, who looked like she was busy spacing out.

Dash felt pretty good about herself. There probably wasn't another pony alive who was such an awesome friend as her. Yup. Today ranked pretty darn high as far as good days went. Her friend seemed to quickly cheer up after her wicked cool speech. She had to jot that down some time. It was something that should be immortalized for generations to come! Today couldn't possibly get any better than this!

She heard Fluttershy walking closer to her and started turning to face her, but froze as she felt a warm and gentle sensation on her right cheek.

Did Fluttershy just kiss her?

The rainbow-maned mare recalled her previous thought, and laughed boisterously. 'Well, I guess I stand corrected. Today just got better!'