”Dash, if I’d known you were participating in the Running of the Leaves I would’ve bet on you too.” You kick some pebbles down the road to punctuate your disdain.
Your smug cyan companion trots alongside you—her wings puffed out to let her torso cool in the summer breeze, ”Well you didn’t, and besides it’s not my fault they didn’t update the participant list 'til the last minute!”
“Well, they didn’t exactly have a whole lot of options. You literally walked up to the officials twenty seconds before it started and joined the race!”
”Oh come on! It's not against the rules and you know it!”
You look down at the mare whose only sign of having sprinted a few miles was a frazzled mane and damp fur, “Yeah, well, you really pushed it hard out there so I’ll think about it.”
“Pfft! Nice try but we had a bet and you’re paying up!” She pushes past you into the open doorway of Ponyville’s ice cream shop.
After a brief conversation about racehorses and jockey’s, Dash had developed an idea to bet on the winner of Ponyville’s annual race. She had a telltale mischievous grin about her but curbed your suspicion by suggesting you write your bets on pieces of paper and keep them secret until after the race ended. That way there would be no cheating. You happen to be neighbors with a stallion who had been training hard for this, so you bet on him. You thought you finally had Dash beat in something.
You'd also thought she was above shenanigans like this.
The cyan pegasus was already drooling over different flavors behind the apparently necessary protective glass. You stop next to her and stare at the myriad of ice cream that lay before you, “Ok fine, but you better eat the whole thing.”
She nods and smiles up at you—blowing a lock of rainbow hair off her muzzle in the process.
You sigh in defeat. She's not going to take it easy on you now, “So which flavor do you want?”
”I want a quadruple scoop of cosmopolitan blast! And with the little uhh…little— ”
“ —Sprinkles?” You finish for her.
”Yeah those!”
You mentally check your wallet and conclude that you could in fact afford the Ferrari of ice creams. You could always fake it and say you don’t have enough, she would never know the difference and Celestia knows your bank account would thank you. No, a bet was a bet and you’d lost. You two had made a promise to buy the winner an ice cream of their choice and you’re a man of your word. Besides, of all the things to spend money on you knew it wasn't going to waste on Dash.
You motion to the stallion behind the counter, “I’ll take one quadruple scoop of cosmopolitan with sprinkles please.”
”And a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone.” She quips.
“…And a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone.” You sigh.
He glances to Dash, then back to you, “Will that be all sir?”
“Unfortunately yes.” You rush before Dash can tack anything else to the tab.
”That’s uhh, fourteen and a half bits.”
You pull out your wallet and retrieve 15 bits—leaving it empty. You can almost feel its tears. You hand over your bits to the clerk.
“Do you want your change back, sir?”
“No, keep it.” At this rate you were going to be on the streets anyways, if you befriend him he might let you have the creamery’s scraps at the end of the day.
The clerk returns with the cosmopolitan monstrosity, ”Here’s your ice cream, and thanks for your business.”
You reach for it but Dash swoops up and snatches it from his hoof, “Thank you.” You nod to him.
You follow Dash out the front door and you find a bench so you can watch her enjoy her ice cream.
”Finally! That took forever!”
“It took about three minutes to walk over here Dash.”
”Point proven.”
You let out another sigh, sometimes you wonder if it was even possible to win against this mare. Silence seems to fall on the town square as Dash’s eyes widen and she prepares to pounce her prey. You half expect her jaw to unhinge and swallow the dessert whole, but she pauses and notices you. You hold awkward eye contact for a moment and you can see her mind working, “Something wrong with the ice cream?”
”N-no, just…uhh…this really cost you your last bit didn’t it?”
“Like you said Dash you won fair and square.”
She looks down at the cone in her hooves and you see guilt cross her features. Good job idiot, now she can’t enjoy it. You’re about to say something else, but get cut off by her shoving the cone underneath your nose.
"You have some first.”
“Uh…what?”
She lets out a surprisingly girly giggle before regaining her composure and checking to make sure nopony else heard her, ”I said have some dummy! You bought it after all.”
It had to be a trick of some sort but the sincerity in her smile told you otherwise. The last thing you wanted was to ruin her ice cream for her, but with your accidental guilt trip earlier, chances were she wouldn’t touch it until she balanced the scales.
“Ok thanks.” You reach out and pluck the cone from her hooves. You bring it to eye level while trying to keep it from toppling under its own weight.
“Just stay on one side and don’t eat the cone any, I don’t want too much human slobber on it.”
“Roger that cap’n.” You manage a salute with your off-hand to complete the charade—earning a chuckle from her. With the grace of a drinking swan, you run your tongue up the side of the cone. You’d never had cosmopolitan before, at least not in Equestria. It was pretty good, not mind-blowing, but pretty good.
“Mmmm…wow Rainbow this is pretty good.”
”Don’t push it bub.”
“Right, sorry.”
To her credit, she sits there and watches you lick down about half the cone without saying anything other than to turn down your offers to hand it back. But all good things must come to an end, ”Ok that’s enough, my turn!”
You relinquish it without reservation and wipe your ice cream covered hand on the table, “All yours.”
She snatches it out of your hand and starts lapping at it like a deer on a salt lick. You can’t help but smile at the scene, “Take it easy, you don’t want to get brain freeze.”
”Mmmph…mmmm.”
“Use your words Dash.”
She swallows what she had before sputtering, “This is great why didn’t you tell me!!”
“I…yeah.”
She takes a few more ravenous licks before pausing and looking at you, ”Heheh” her scratchy chuckle makes you self-conscious for a moment.
“What’s so funny?”
”Heh-Hahahahahaha!”
“What?”
”You have a, heh, a-a little something there.” She motions to your face.
“Where? On my chin?”
She’s trying her best to contain her laughter by biting her bottom lip and pinning her ears back, ”Yes, well no, here just let me…” She gets off her bench and trots over to your side of the table. She has you hold her ice cream before she stands on her hind legs and rests her forehooves on your knees—bringing you to eye level.
“Do you have a napkin or something?” You offer.
She leans forward to the point it starts to become uncomfortable for you.
"Because I don't have a— "
—*lick
Her tongue flares out over the tip of your nose, cleaning up some cosmopolitan residue, “Uhh…”
*lick
This time it darts across your cheek. How did you get ice cream on your cheek? She lets out another chuckle before pulling back and giving you a toothy grin, ”All clean now, can’t have you walking around with ice cream war paint!”
You must admit, you’d never seen this side of her before…but you like it, “Uhh…yeah.”
You must look shocked because she answers one of your unspoken questions, ”What? You don’t want any of your fourteen and a half bits to go to waste do you?”
She’s got you there, “N-no.” Think of something fast so she doesn’t think you’re being weird about this. You reach out and poke the tip of her nose.
“Boop.”
It wasn’t wet like a dog’s. A very fine, soft fur like pegasus peach fuzz kept it nice and blue to match the rest of her body.
"What's that for, do I have some on my nose now?"
“No.”
She squints her eyes at you, “Ookaay…”
You do it again, “Boop."
"Stop that!" She scrunches her nose and turns away but you see a smile crack her facade.
“Boop!”
”Hahaha stop!”
You relent and she grabs her cone back before swatting the intrusive digit away with a wing. She finds a spot next to you on the bench and wastes no time digging in. She finishes her half much faster than you and chomps down the chocolate cone in a flash. The sweet treat settles in her stomach and she lets out a loud burp that turned some heads before leaning back and letting the sun warm her face. The most content of smiles graces her features, that smile’s definitely worth fifteen bits.
She actually looked rather cute, but there was no way you’d ever mention it to her, “You’d better not fall asleep right now, you might go into a glycogen-induced catatonic state.”
”A what!” Her eyes shoot open.
“A food coma.”
”Oh.” Her fear subsides but not before she punches you on the shoulder. She wasn’t trying to hurt you, but it got her point across nonetheless.
You sit quietly next to her, savoring the moment. It wasn't often she slowed down like this. Heck, it wasn’t often she licked your nose, or let you eat half of her ice cream. But today seemed like a day of firsts. The sound of her breathing next to you was relaxing, and you couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t the last you’d see of her fuzzy side.
”Hey.”
You snap out of a trance you didn’t know you were in and find her magenta eyes.
”Thanks, for the ice cream I mean.”
“Sure Dash, I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“And uhh…if you ever, you know, need anything you can just ask me.”
Did she still feel guilty about that? You decide it’s best not to question it, “Sure thing, thanks Dash.”
For some reason she keeps staring so you stay there appreciating each other’s smiles for a moment, ”But for the next bet I win, I want a chocolate volcano from Haymaker’s!”
Your grin grows to betray your feelings, “Remind me again why I hang out with you?”
”Heh, because I’m awesome!”
She beams while you ruffle her messy mane with a grin, “Yes you are.”
