Sunny Cerulean Skies

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The clock on the wall continued to drum out a steady beat into the library, its monotonous voice grating against the uneasy pegasus’s ears. Rainbow Dash fiddled with her hooves as she sat across from her silent friend, anxiously awaiting a reply. Any reply, any answer at all would be better than the dreadful silence.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight asked quietly, leaning forward slightly over the table and pressing her hooves into a steeple. “I want you to explain to me precisely why you would tell me something like that.”

Dash flushed deeply, her wings tightening against her sides.

“I dunno,” she shrugged, almost itching toward the door. She froze at Twilight’s sharp gesture with her hoof, causing her to halt.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight Sparkle breathed heavily through her nose, still showing no emotion. “Sit back down.” When the pegasus made no further move in either direction, Twilight simply sighed again and patted the table with the flat of her hoof a couple of times.

“You can relax, Dash. I just want you to be a little more honest; both with me, and with yourself,” she explained, narrowing her eyes a little. Rainbow Dash finally caved in, shuffling restlessly back into the creaky wooden chair and back into the piercing gaze of the unicorn.

Instead of speaking, Rainbow Dash resumed tapping her hooves together, unable to quite meet her eyes.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight spoke again, her voice keeping its even tone. “You and I both know exactly why you asked me, and I want you to know that you can trust me. But I want to hear you say it first.”

“Because I wanted to try it out,” Rainbow Dash’s cheeks burned, but she held her head high. “And I didn’t think that it would be this… this…!” she mimed holding something in the air, and shook it.

“Well, whereas I certainly am glad that you came to me,” Twilight brushed a lock of mane from her face, small smile settling on her lips, “you really should have guessed that the nature of the conversation would take a few turns like this when you ask about something like sexual activity. Namely, bukakke.”

“So…” Dash coughed into her hoof awkwardly, trying to hide her embarrassment. “Can-can you help me, or not?”

“Absolutely!” Twilight nodded with surprising enthusiasm, magically levitating a small pad of paper and quill from a nearby drawer, slapping both on the table before scribbling quickly. “Just follow these exact instructions. Go to this address, and make sure that you remember the code.”

This time, it was Rainbow Dash’s turn to stare, and she had to take action to keep her mouth from hanging open. Twilight slid the paper across the table the moment that she finished, calmly steepling her hooves again.

“… Just like that?” Rainbow Dash blinked, a hint of confusion showing on her features.

“Just like that,” she nodded again.

“It’s-it’s really that easy,” Dash furrowed her brows in skepticism, thinking heavily. “Really?”

“Really,” Twilight reassured her, shuffling her own wings in a much more confident manner. “Trust me. It is a very secure location, and it won’t cost you a single bit. So long as you give them the code words on this sheet, that is.”

“… Really?”

“Yes, really!” she grabbed her hoof forcefully, sharp gleam in her eyes. “It is, it really is. Didn’t I tell you to trust me?”

Rainbow Dash started to reply, but shied away from the odd look that her friend was giving her. It was all just too convenient.

“Uh… thanks, Twi,” Dash pulled away eventually, and Twilight crossed her forelegs in satisfaction. She rose from her spot, and treaded over the cold wooden floor toward the exit of Golden Oaks library. “I’ll be seeing you, okay?” Rainbow Dash threw a weak wave over her shoulder.

Again to her surprise, Twilight stopped her just as she pried open the door.

“Er, actually…” the unicorn scratched the back of her head, and Dash was still unable to identify the look that she wore. “Er-hem. Actually, Rainbow Dash, I have a question for you as well. I mean, if you don’t mind, that is.”

“Wha-? Oh, sure, sure!” Dash bobbed her head furiously, multihued mane flapping over her eyes as she did so. She didn’t want to seem crude after the help Twilight had just given her, after all.

“Do you – do you want to go and… do? I mean, do something? Sometime?” Twilight asked restlessly. It seemed a bit odd to the pegasus for her friend to grow so uneasy now, when she had been so comfortable discussing her particular ‘needs’ during her time of heat.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Rainbow Dash shrugged nonchalantly. “Just, you know. Whatever. We can hang tomorrow, if you want. I guess.”

“Oh good!” Twilight answered a little too quickly, bumping Dash out the door. “Okay then, see you Rainbow Dash!”

The door slammed behind her with unanticipated alacrity, and after another moment Dash finally let out her breath. She shook her head slowly as she walked away, her heavy thoughts distracting her from her slowly rising spirits. Maybe for something like this, it was better to wait it out and prepare for everything herself.

Maybe she wouldn’t try out her little fantasy after all. Not today, at least…

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Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably, heat rising in her face as the mare behind the counter stared at her. The gleaming light from the frosty tinted glass windows gave the receptionist an oddly surreal appearance, like she was looking at a ghost.

“I’m sorry, could you say that again?” she stopped polishing one of her hooves, bored expression unchanging as she lifted a hoof to cup her ear. Dash cleared her throat again, nervously looking around the bathhouse entry room again.

“I’m-I’m here for a, uh… a reservation,” Rainbow Dash mumbled a little more loudly, suddenly finding the patch of floor directly between her hooves far more interesting. She swiftly found reason after reason to simply walk right back out the door she had crept through, after spending so much time in debate with herself. Dash’s wings felt a little too cramped, her blood pressure was high, she was beginning to develop a terrible sweat in uncomfortable places. Any and all excuses she could think of, and not one of them made it past her lips.

“Mare’s bathing area is down the hall on the left,” the receptionist pointed promptly, face remaining as stony as the grey wall behind her. “Steam room on the end, massage parlor just before it and after the restrooms.”

“Oh. Oh, uh. Uh,” Rainbow Dash rubbed her foreleg furiously, scratching an imaginary itch.

“Do you need me to repeat it?” the mare asked with a hint of irritation in her voice, and Dash cleared her throat for the umpteenth time.

“No, no. I’m… actually here for the, you know… stallion’s place.”

“Oh!” she perked up immediately, smile growing on her face. “Why didn’t you say so? Are you here for the refreshment courses, or will you be paying for the deluxe gentlecolt’s show?”

“Um, actually,” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck, forcing her gaze upward to the inexplicably chipper receptionist. “I was supposed to give you a code.”

“Ah, I see. One of the Founder’s Favorites?”

Rainbow Dash resisted the urge to ask her what she meant, but instead shook her head.

“I was supposed to come in and-and ask for a ‘pearl necklace,’ I think…?”

“Oh. Oh!” her eyes widened a little, and she pursed her lips before nodding slowly. “Right, of course. I didn’t realize, madam, my deepest apologies. Right this way.”

Dash trotted tensely after the mare, who led her down a thin hall on the right side of the building. After passing through a couple of thick wooden doors and taking a couple of turns into oddly identical rooms that seemed to be used for no more than storage, the receptionist revealed a small intercom set into the center of the wall.

Rainbow Dash started to inquire about the oddity, confused by it all, but nearly jumped out of her skin when the mare turned sharply around. Still remaining utterly silent, she peered about to ensure that they were completely alone before activating the little grey button on the intercom, leaning in close before speaking in a voice hardly above a whisper but still retained her professionally bored tone.

“Tulip cantering right, pearl necklace on a bit. Yellow, yellow, green.”

Further baffled by the apparent code speak, Dash just started to lean in to inspect the small intercom box a little closer – however, before she could get the chance to do so, the entire blank wall to her side slowly slid open, revealing yet another hallway; this one much more brightly lit, surprisingly long and traveling downward at a very slight incline. Just how large this place was continued to bewilder Rainbow Dash. It had looked so much smaller from the outside.

“… Huh,” Dash blurted.

“The waiting room is at the end,” the receptionist explained sharply, marching squarely out of the room. “Don’t touch any of the other doors on your way, please.”

“Didn’t I just come from a waiting room?” Rainbow Dash asked with a frown, but she was already gone.

Although she first felt a rush of cold air upon tentatively entering the hidden hallway, the temperature and humidity slowly began to rise the closer that she reached the door at the end. Either that, or she had grown so nervous from anticipation that she had unknowingly caught fire; for all Dash knew, it could have been either one.

Rainbow Dash trotted a little more quickly when she heard the passageway door snap shut behind her with a woosh, and she kept her eyes on the steel doors set into the walls as she passed them. Not a single one was indistinguishable from another, aside from a small flaky painted number on each one. Remembering the receptionist’s warning, Dash was still slightly tempted to take a peek behind one of the doors anyway. Perhaps there were other mares like herself who were indulging in similar fantasies…

She shook her head harshly, her cheeks beginning to burn again. She was here for her own business.

That didn’t make her any less curious, though.

Finally reaching the end of the hall and the sound of her hooves ceasing at last, Rainbow Dash knocked awkwardly a couple of times before bracing herself and entering.

She held her breath, fighting the sudden bizarre urge to spread her wings out as far as they would go. It was too cramped down here for her to feel comfortable, but the waiting room revealed before her alleviated some of that tension. With expansive walls, bright lights and high ceilings, it brought her a slight amount of relief to stretch her wings a little. At least until she discovered that she was not the only one in the waiting room, that is.

“Oh, Celestia, Soarin?”

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