"Quote-Unquote"

"Quibble." Rainbow Dash called softly.

The stallion mumbled something and rolled over. Rolling her eyes, she pushed a hoof against his back. "Quibble. It's morning."

Lifting his head drowsily, Quibble Pants looked around the room with detachment. He blankly stared at Rainbow Dash as she stood wrapped in a soft white robe. Looking down, he saw turtle slippers on her hooves as she turned around to pull a cart with a silver-domed breakfast platter closer to the bed. "I've got pancakes." She announced, taking the dome off to reveal two stacks of still-warm golden-brown pancakes.

Confusion crossed his muzzle. "What are you doing in my room?" He asked, ruffling his messy black and gray mane. He licked his lips and grimaced at the taste of apples, alcohol and something he couldn't quite place in his mouth.

"Uh, this is my room." Rainbow clarified, rummaging through the syrup collection. "Now, do you prefer strawberry, blueberry or..."

The choices were lost to Quibble, as memories of their activities last night came flooding into his brain. His eyes went wide and he turned to Rainbow Dash. Oblivious to his woe, Dashie spread some butter on her stack, the maple syrup standing by. "Did...I...we...?" Thoughts wouldn't form correctly as he tried to process what happened.

Rainbow Dash glanced up and had to keep herself from laughing. Quickly, she looked back down at her pancakes, a hoof coming up to cover her smile. Quibble's expression was priceless. It was one part unbelieving and another part awed. At her lowered glance, his look took on a semblance of mortification. Leaping from the bed, he was at Rainbow Dash's side before she realized he'd moved.

"Rainbow Dash, I hope you know that I have nothing but the utmost respect for you. I value our friendship and I am so sorry if I did anything that would jeopardize that. This is so awkward, I can't believe we did...and I'm not looking to get involved either so--"

He found Rainbow Dash's hoof on his lips. Her shoulders shook with repressed mirth as she tried in vain to get control of herself.

"Uh, Rainbow Dash?" Quibble asked, muffled somewhat by her hoof.

She removed her hoof and faced him. He saw her smiling, shaking her head slightly as she wiped tears from her eyes. Before he could apologize again, she smacked him upside the head with a wing.

"H-hey!" Quibble protested, confused.

"Just what silly little thought did you get into your big thick head? That you took advantage of me? Puh-leaze, you were a perfect gentlecolt through it all! To tell you the truth, I was a little worried I'd have to coax you into everything and I only had the one bottle of cider. Thankfully, you must have realized that I wasn't going to disappear if handled too roughly and we got to enjoy some truly mind-blowing se--" His hoof held in the name of the game from last night.

"I'm sorry." At her muffled 'hey!' he clarified. "I'm sorry for being sorry. I just couldn't believe that something like that happened to somepony like me. I repeat, you are amazing, Rainbow Dash."

She batted his hoof away playfully. "And let me repeat, you are pretty amazing yourself, Quibbler. Now are you going to join me for breakfast or are you more intent on slinking away in shame? Because, let me tell you, you have nothing to be ashamed about." To emphasize her point, she kissed his neck and turned around, swishing her tail merrily.

"Do we have butter pecan?" He asked, pronouncing the last word like pea-can.

"I believe we have butter pecan." She replied, pronouncing it puh-cahn.

He snorted sitting on the edge of the bed and taking up his knife. "Tomato, tumahto."

She snorted in response, sitting back in her chair and shooting him a dirty look. "Who the hay pronounces it tumahto?"

Before he could respond, there was a knock at the door. Dash was at the door in a blink, pulling her robe tight before opening. Daring Do stood in the doorway, a look of triumph on her face. "I have the best surprise for you, Dashie." When she spotted Quibble on the bed, both eyebrows shot up. "Okay, maybe the second best surprise."

Quibble blushed deeply, pulling the sheets to cover his body. "Rainbow Dash and I were just having pancakes!"

Daring Do strode in, taking stock of the surroundings. "Uh-huh. Sure. That's why you're naked on her bed."

"Lots of ponies go naked." Quibble argued feebly.

Sauntering over to Rainbow Dash's unattended chair, Daring Do sat and helped herself to a strawberry. "My apologies. I must keep myself cooped up too often if ponies are now having breakfast with other ponies in their hotel rooms, naked, with messy bedhead and what appears to be quite the case of morning--"

Glancing down, Quibble pushed the offending appendage into a less provocative position. "Okay, okay. Can we just drop this?" Quibble asked miserably.

Daring Do laughed. "Sorry, Quibster. Teasing you is just so fun."

"And easy." Rainbow Dash agreed as she pulled up another chair.

"Who's side are you on?" Quibble asked, casting a scathing look at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow picked up a strawberry from the same plate as Daring Do. She spoke around the morsel. "Who said there were sides?"

"Besides, I'm sure that you'll find it's a lot more fun with a partner who plays both sides." Daring suggested idly, quirking an eyebrow.

Rainbow snorted at the look of confusion on his face. Nonplussed, Quibble contented himself on eating some of his own pancakes. His plate was heaped with chocolate chip pancakes. With a frown, Quibble wondered if he'd mentioned his preference for chocolate or if Dashie made a lucky guess.

He saw a flash of red and suddenly, a splash of melted chocolate struck his muzzle. Looking up in surprise, he frowned at both mares. Their carefully averted gazes failed to faze Quibble. Although, with both looking equally guilty, it would be difficult to put together exactly which one threw the offending strawberry.

"As if it isn't obvious." Quibble sighed, reaching his conclusion. "Sure, you both are sharing the strawberries, but this one..." Here he lifted the fruit in question. "...has maple syrup on it. So it obviously came from Dash's stack of pancakes."

He reached for his napkin, but Daring knocked it away with a wing. "Well, once again, Mr. Smarty Pants has solved another mystery. I suppose he should get some kind of reward. Wouldn't you say, Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash nodded emphatically, her mouth full of pancakes. With an effort, she swallowed the bite and piped up. "Oh, definitely. Then again, aren't you just saying that because you want to reward yourself?" She asked Daring Do with a nudge.

Daring feigned ignorance. "I have no clue what you mean. I'm certain an adventurous mare like me has never felt such a base desire as to exchange a job well done for a fleeting pleasure."

Rainbow Dash nudged Daring Do with an elbow and a wide grin. "It's too late. He's already read the Barleyquin story about you and Dr.--"

Daring buried her face in her hooves. "I swear, I wish my fans would forget that story! That whole sordid affair was one big mistake after another. The biggest of them all was publishing it."

Quibble hit his head with a hoof. "Oh, tartarus! That wasn't based on a real story, was it?" He asked, turning an incredulous look on his idol.

"Some of the parts were...exaggerated. Whinny and I are still good friends, but I cleared it with him and changed his name before I put it out there. I just...didn't expect the story to get picked up by a mushy romance publisher." Flapping her wings irritably, Daring turned a glare on Rainbow Dash. The mare still wore a huge smirk. "Let's not bring up some of your less-cool moments, eh Dashie? Like when you told me about Soarin and his love for pie--"

Rainbow Dash picked up a forkload of pancake and crammed it in Daring Do's mouth. "Shh!" At Quibble's questioning look, Rainbow rolled her eyes. "I mean, uh, sure, let's change the subject. You said you had a surprise?"

Daring nodded. "Sure do! I mean, not as good as you and Quibble deciding to get together--"

"We're not together!" They both protested. Rainbow and Quibble looked at each other. Blushing, Quibble turned to focus his attention on his breakfast.

"We're...having fun together. But we both live really far from each other and who knows when we'd ever see each other again, so we're both okay with this being just a part of this convention."

"Yeah." Quibble agreed.

Daring looked at Quibble for a moment, then turned back to Rainbow Dash. "Okay, well this surprise is something i have to show you, so once you're ready to go, both of you, then we can see the surprise!"

"Cool, I'll hit the shower. Coming, Quibble? It'd save water and time?" Rainbow offered.

"Uh, no thanks." He said nervously. His blush spread again as he realized Daring Do was looking at him.

Rainbow shrugged, glancing at Daring Do and throwing her a knowing smirk. "Okay, suit yourself." Trotting to the bathroom, she entered and closed the door behind her.

At the click of the door, Quibble realized how awkward things were. Here he sat, naked in Rainbow Dash's bed. On top of that, he was pitching a tent in the sheets that just wouldn't quit. How he was supposed to make polite conversation with a pony he admired was beyond his ability to problem-solve. The awkward silence consumed him.

Daring decided to break the ice. "So, you read my Barleyquin romance novel."

It wasn't a question, really, but Quibble nodded. "It was kind of a silly joke with my friends back home. So, I bought it and read it."

"So." Daring started, steepling her hooves at the table. "A more adult themed Daring Do is a joke with you and your friends? Is sex really that funny?"

Realizing his mistake, he groaned and put a hoof to his head. "No. I just...it's. I mean, I didn't think any of your stories were real. Daring Do was just a character, not a real pony."

"Well, as the last 24 hours has shown you, I am most certainly a real pony." Daring said, standing up to cross over in front of him. "A living, breathing pony."

Fixated on her gaze, Quibble realized he'd stopped breathing. Inhaling sharply, he caught her scent. She smelled slightly of dust, a touch of sweat and faintly of jasmine. Startled by her proximity, Quibble opened his mouth to say something when she leaned forward to kiss him.

As they parted, Quibble looked at her with wide eyes. Had he not just had her lips on his own, he wouldn't have believed it to be real. "What?"

She smiled. "I just wanted to thank you. You reminded me of how I was when I started out. I used to really think things through."

Quibble smiled in return. "You know, Dash and I were talking about that. I really loved the puzzle-solving, critical-thinking Daring Do, and Dash loves the adventurous, death-defying Daring Do."

"I'm mare enough to admit that I am more impulsive than I used to be." Daring said with a sigh. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "But you know what?"

"What?" Quibble asked.

"Some impulses shouldn't be ignored." She said, teasing her hoof underneath the sheet covering his lap.

"Oh?" Quibble asked, oblivious at first. "Oh. Oh!" He looked over at the bathroom door while Daring Do toyed with him. "I don't know if we should, I mean...not that I don't want to but--"

"This is Rainbow Dash's room? Please, it's a hotel, not her bedroom. And I happen to know that she takes really long, luxurious showers. Especially when stallions tease her without joining her." Daring pulled the sheet away to reveal him completely.

"I didn't...she's not...how would you...?" Three questions jammed themselves out at the same time and Quibble's brain shuddered to a stop. In his defence, Daring's attention on his most sensitive places wasn't helping his higher thinking.

Pushing him down with a hoof, Quibble laid back in stunned awe. Before she returned her attention to his lower region, she tapped his shoulder lightly. "One question before we continue. It's been in the back of my mind this whole time. That's obviously not a wig, otherwise it would have fallen off long before now. So, natural or dye?"

Blinking a bit in confusion, Quibble ran a hoof through his mane. Then it hit him. "Oh. The mane? Dyed. I'm naturally--" He was cut off by a moan as she went down again.

The analytical side of his brain couldn't help but draw immediate comparisons between this moment and the one last night. Dash has been patient, but firm. Daring was much more vigorous, almost to the point of intensity. He had to stop her before he reached the peak of his pleasure too quickly. The effort almost pained him, and his body protested.

So did Daring Do. "What?"

"I don't want to, at least not this way. It's too one-sided." Quibble argued.

Her eyes twinkled as she smiled fiercely. "So, you want to do 'The Do?'"

The joke almost took him completely out of the moment as he laughed. "That has to be the corniest, most ridiculous thing anypony could have said. Might as well have been written by some cheesy two-bit--" Her hooves cradling his bits brought him back into the moment.

"You were saying?" Daring Do asked, arching one brow meaningfully.

He gulped. "Uh, let's do 'The Do' Miss Do."

As she straddled him, she ran a hoof through his mane. "Here's something you won't read about in any of my main novels. Something to dye for." She promised as she leaned over to kiss him passionately. While still intwining her tongue with his, she lowered herself down his length. Their hips touched and she kept still for a moment to adjust to the penetration.

Again, Daring Do surprised him as she kept him held down with a strength he wouldn't have expected just from looking at her. She drew herself up and down in a steady rhythm that grew more intense. Her wings flared, and she drew back up into a seated position. She continued the rhythm and Quibble reached up to rub his hooves on her chest, stomach and legs. Her moans started low but grew in pitch and volume as she brought herself to the edge.

As she brough herself to completion, she fell back against him so that they lay chest to chest. Still unsatisfied, Quibble flipped them both over and found his rear hooves on the floor. With her open and waiting, Quibble availed himself of his new position by returning to her the intensity she'd displayed. Every inch of it.

Her forehooves locked around the back of his neck as she drew him down to kiss her. He lavished attention on the kiss, breaking only to take nips at her neck and ears. As he pumped into her he let out a cry that mingled with hers.

As they panted and puffed, applause rang out behind Quibble. Turning in alarm, he spotted Dash at the table, mane a bit damp as she ate more strawberries. "A little bit of a surprise, I'll grant you, DD, but I hope you have more than that in store. Or, at the very least, more of that."

Quibble's face turned deep crimson as both mares laughed.