In a Rut

Two Months Later

“Sunset Shimmer!”

The nurse called my name and I made to get up, then paused at the weight on my shoulder that had recently begun to drool. I grimaced at the small pool of liquid on the corner of my jacket, rolled my eyes, and poked at my companion.

“Hey, bitch, wake the fuck up,” I elbowed Rainbow Dash lightly in the ribs and she stirred dozily.

I never understood how it was that Rainbow could manage to fall dead asleep anywhere she sat down. That girl was like a living energy drink right up until she stopped moving, and then she would just nap.

She was like a goddamn shark.

“Huh? Wuzzah?” Rainbow mumbled intelligently.

“I’m going into the back,” I jerked a thumb towards the door as I stood up, stretched, and relished the cracks and pops of my joints. “You good here?”

“Yeah, I’ll just nap here, alph-uhhh…” I raised an eyebrow as a blush crept up Rainbow’s cheeks. “Uh… S-Sunset.”

“R~ight,” I stepped away from her, straightened my jacket, and made my way into the back room of the doctor’s office.

That wasn’t weird or anything.

“Good afternoon,” the nurse, a beta by her scent, was a peppy little thing with a high voice, dyed blue hair, and a too-friendly smile. “My name is Huckleberry, and I’m just going to take your vitals before Doctor Hive comes in, okay?”

“Sure thing, bluebell,” I grunted as I followed her into one of the exam rooms and sat down. “I’m just here to have her write a prescription, though.”

Huckleberry nodded as she pulled out a stethoscope, blood-pressure cuff, and one of those little hammers they used to whack your knee and test your reflexes. I never really got that one, but I was always tempted to kick them in the face when they knocked on my kneecap.

“We still need the information, just in case,” she said, still far too energetic for my current mood. I’d been kinda rancid all day, though, so it wasn’t her fault.

I held out my arm and she took my blood pressure, then checked my heartbeat, took my temperature, took a dainty swing at my knees, and then shone a flashlight in my ear for some reason.

“Hm, your heart rate is a little high, and so is your blood pressure and temperature,” Huckleberry noted as she looked over her notes.

“I’m an alpha,” I said by way of explanation, “I’ve always run hot, and I…” I considered my next words carefully. It’s not like any of them knew Rainbow Dash, so they couldn’t know her breed.

“...I was just next to my omega,” I lied.

The reasoning was sound though since, annoyingly, my body reacted to Rainbow very similarly to how it reacts to omegas, and I didn’t want them thinking I had a fever or something when it was just because I was sitting next to Rainbow who has a serious case of Sleepy Bitch Disease. It’s just that whenever she’s asleep near me and I’m not doing the same my body is instantly geared up to either fuck her or fight to protect her.

“Aha,” Huckleberry clucked her tongue, then chuckled. “That would explain it, I’ll let Doctor Hive know you’re ready, then.”

“Sure thing,” I sat on the exam table as the nurse left and considered my next move.

I had put off getting my suppressant prescription for way too goddamn long. I’d gotten too comfortable just relying on Rainbow Dash to sate my rut, and frankly so had she. If I was eventually going to break things off with her I would need another way to handle my cycle, and the longer I put this off the tougher it would be to come up with reasons to end this.

As if ‘She’s An Alpha’ wasn’t a good enough reason.

For five straight months, and then some, Rainbow had been my bitch. There was no way this was a good thing. I don’t know what I’d been thinking back in the campus gym when I’d bitched her the first time, and that was if I’d been thinking at all which I wasn’t convinced of, but this situation was seriously getting out of hand.

No, fuck that, it had gotten out of hand a while ago and I’d just chosen to ignore it.

I tried to give Rainbow an out a couple of months back, but she’d just blindly blundered past the opportunity and fallen right back into my bed. Since then she rarely left it, to the point that her dad apparently wanted to meet me because I guess I was now Rainbow’s ‘Best Friend’?

That’s according to Rainbow Dash, by the way, and I’d nearly had an apoplectic fit when she’d told me. I mean, I get it. Her reasoning was that she’d had to tell her dad something about why she was always staying at my place, but come on! I routinely pin her to my bed, fuck her ass, and call her a bitch!

‘Best Friend’?!

That is so incredibly fucked up.

A knock came at the door, followed by the Doctor herself. She was pretty in a terrifying kind of way, all sharp, severe, patrician lines, with clear, jewel-tone green eyes, coal-dark skin, and hair that was an incongruously iridescent shade of teal.

I also noted the ring on her finger. So she was married, then, and… I sniffed slightly as she stepped closer.

She was an omega.

“Good afternoon, Miss Shimmer,” she said pleasantly, “my name is Doctor Hive, and I have to say, I was expecting you some time ago.”

I raised an eyebrow at that.

“Why were you expecting me at all?” I asked.

“My wife mentioned you’d probably be coming by here,” Doctor Hive tapped her ID badge, and I looked at it more closely.

Chrysalis Hive-Sonnen, M.D.

Sonnen.

“Seriously?” I looked up at her, and Chrysalis smirked.

“Seriously,” she replied with a playful chuckle. “My wife has always had a soft spot for you, Miss Shimmer, and I think if she’d met you years ago she probably would have tried to adopt you.”

“That would’ve been weird,” I said with a weak laugh. “Chancellor Celestia is like…” I paused as I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. Celestia did kind of mom me a lot. “It would just be weird, alright?”

Doctor Hive just nodded, then straightened and held out her hand.

“Well, since this is the first time we’ve met officially,” she started, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Shimmer.”

“Uh, likewise,” I took her hand and shook it. She had a nice, solid handshake.

“So, I understand you’re here for a suppressant prescription?” Chrysalis said as she looked over a clipboard covered in charts and notes. “How regular are your cycles?”

“Not very,” I admitted. “My next one should hit in about two or three days though, and they last about three to five.”

“How bad are they?”

“Agonising,” I replied flatly, and Chrysalis winced. “Did Celestia tell you she-?”

“Shared one of her suppressants?” Chrysalis answered wryly. “She did, and while it’s not strictly allowed, I know everyone does it… did it help?”

“Barely,” I replied, and Chrysalis frowned. “Seriously, between that and an ice-cold shower it was barely noticeable, and I think I burned right through it.”

“I see, that’s problematic,” Chrysalis’s tone took on a concerned cadence. “Normally suppressants serve a dual usage,” she explained. “The first is that you take it about twelve hours prior to your Rut and it prevents your hormone levels from spiking, the second is taking it mid-Rut to decrease its intensity.”

“Yeah, I know all that, what’s your point?” I rolled my hands in a ‘move along’ gesture.

“My point,” she stressed the second word, “is that if your rut is both that intense and irregular, that could seriously decrease the efficiency of the suppressants.”

“What?” I sat up straighter at that, feeling worry gnawing at my gut. “Why?”

“Because if you take your dose too soon,” Chrysalis took out a pen and tapped a timeline chart on her wall, one of a standard, regular heat cycle, “you could lose a whole day and still suffer your heat.” She prodded the ‘early stages’ marker of the heat chart. “See, you need to take it in an eight-to-fourteen hour window prior to your rut to stop it from happening, but if your rut is irregular you might miss the window.”

“Can’t I just take another one?” I asked, feeling my heart sinking.

Chrysalis shook her head.

“It’s a suppressant, Miss Shimmer,” she pressed, “it dampens your hormones, meaning you’ll be left lethargic and sleepy, which is why most alphas take their dose the night before their rut starts and just sleep through the side-effects.” She pointed to another chart showing dosage levels. “But, the problem isn’t your irregularity, if it was that then I’d just prescribe you a couple of weaker doses to thin out your hormone levels, the issue is your intensity.”

“Aw beans,” I grumbled.

“Beans, indeed,” Chrysalis smiled wanly. “The dose I’d need to prescribe you to stop your rut would be far too high for you to risk taking a second dose too close to the first one, you could go into shock and end up in the hospital.”

“So what am I supposed to do?!” I looked back up at her and she gave me an apologetic shrug.

“I’ll write you the script,” Chrysalis said. “But if you want my honest, personal advice?”

“Shoot.”

“Find nice omega, invest in some industrial-grade birth control, and have at it,” Chrysalis replied blithely, and I rocked back a little at her bluntness. “Don’t give me that look,” she said with a small laugh, “it’s not exactly ‘medical advice’ but the hard truth is that your rut is going to be very hard to control… maybe prohibitively hard.”

“But how am I supposed to just find an omega?” I was grasping at straws. I couldn’t exactly tell her I had the perfect solution sitting thirty feet outside in the waiting room.

Now it was Chrysalis raised an eyebrow.

“Honey, have you smelled you?” she asked plainly. “You could drop an omega’s panties at ten yards with a look… the trick is finding the right one and having a healthy relationship.”

Ooh, damn. If only you knew.

“If I could, I’d prescribe you a dating app and couples counseling,” Chrysalis continued. “It would probably work a lot better, but as it is, here.”

She handed over a slip of paper and I took it.

“You’ll have to take it in yourself,” she continued. “The dosage is extremely high, meaning it’s past the threshold where I’m allowed to send it in electronically.”

“Balls,” I stood up and sighed, pocketing the script. “Thanks for the advice, though.”

“No problem, sorry I couldn’t be more helpful,” Chrysalis sounded genuinely apologetic. “Also, if you don’t mind my asking, don’t you have an omega out there with you?”

I tensed. Chrysalis was Chancellor Celestia’s wife, meaning it was possible she might mention Rainbow to Celestia who knew damn well that Rainbow Dash was no omega. Unfortunately, I’d already let that particular cat out of the bag with the nurse and, if I knew nurses, that little tidbit would slip out eventually.

“Y-Yeah,” I started cautiously, “but it’s not like… serious or anything.”

Bullshit it wasn’t serious. It was serious as the fucking grave by this point.

“I haven’t marked her,” I added.

“Hm,” she leaned in a took a tentative sniff before wrinkling her nose. “I don’t smell another scent on you either, but honestly that might just be your natural pheromones covering it up… Lord, girl, you are a potent alpha.”

“Fucking tell me about it,” I grumbled, shoving my hands in my pockets

I said good-bye to Doctor Hive and made my way back out into the waiting room. I figured I’d fill the script tomorrow, I was in a shitty mood and the appointment hadn’t helped, and I just wanted to go home.

Dash stirred as I approached, opened an eye, yawned, and then stood up, moving beside me and nuzzling against my neck submissively as she did.

That made me feel a little better, which I hated to admit.

I slid my arm around Rainbow Dash, bringing it to rest on that comfortable place at her waist, and tugged her close. For her part, Rainbow just molded against me, her narrow hips moving with mine and her head half-leaned on my shoulder.

To anyone else it would look like an odd way to walk or move together, but for us it had become comfortable. Rainbow had this thing where she had to have as much contact with me as she could manage and eventually I just let her do it, which led to us moving like a single unit most of the time. Rainbow wasn’t particularly heavy, and she matched the lead of my stride easily, so we never tripped over one another even when it looked like we should.

I never should have let myself get this comfortable with her.

We stepped outside into the cold bite of the chilly February air, and Rainbow shivered at the breeze before pulling the fur-trimmed hood of her winter coat up over her head. For my part I just tugged my jacket a little closer around myself and kept moving.

Alphas run hot, it’s in our nature. Rainbow Dash seemed to be the exception though… she got cold easily, at least it seemed that way lately, and I wondered if it was my fault.

She acted more and more like an omega every day.

“You hungry?” I asked.

“Nah, I’m fine,” Rainbow replied, but she turned to nuzzle my neck in thanks for asking. “You?”

“Not really.”

“I figured,” Rainbow chuckled, and I frowned.

What was that supposed to mean?

Before I could ask my question, though, Rainbow locked her arm around my elbow and tugged me into the shadows of an alleyway we were passing by. I stumbled slightly as she laughed, and I found myself smiling as she turned and put her back to the wall, pulling me closer to her and giving me that warm, smarmy grin of hers as she stared up at me.

“What the hell?” I grumbled, but there wasn’t much steel in my tone, and what little remained was probably stolen by my smile.

Rather than answer, Rainbow leaned in and pressed her lips to my neck then began kissing up my jaw until her lips found mine, and I let out a small sigh of relief against her mouth as it felt a pressure uncoiling from my spine.

I hated how good Rainbow was becoming at getting me to relax.

Quill… why couldn’t she have been an omega?

I indulged her anyway, or maybe I just indulged myself. Either way, I leaned into her, the fur fringe of her hood tickling my cheeks as I pressed close and returned her kiss. My hands found her waist easily, and I pulled her against me, and she hummed delightedly as our tongues met and tangled.

The moment was disturbed by the sound of laughter and a wolf whistle, and I looked up in annoyance at some smiling passersby, fixing them with a sharp look and issuing a low growl.

“Hey, don’t waste time with them,” Rainbow reached up and laid a hand over my cheek to turn my head back to her. “They’re just jealous.”

The growl at the back of my throat turned to a rumble as I met those cerise eyes of hers, and I forced a smirk onto my face.

“Naturally,” I leaned down to nip playfully at Rainbow’s ear, and she laughed, a surprisingly light sound for her normally raspy voice. “Who wouldn’t be jealous of someone who has all this-” I reached down and squeezed Rainbow’s ass, prompting a squeak of embarrassment from her, “-to herself, huh?”

“You say that like I belong to you or something,” Rainbow replied with a smirk, but there was something else lurking underneath her tone and smile.

Another growl rumbled out of me, and I leaned in, pinning Rainbow to the wall with my weight.

“You’re my bitch,” I snarled softly, “so who else would you belong to?”

I expected her to smirk back at me, or say something smarmy and bratty like she usually did. Something I learned relatively quickly was that Rainbow Dash was a massive brat pretty much all the time by nature, and as much as it frustrated me, I actually enjoyed our little arguments.

She didn’t smirk or smile.

She didn’t say anything bratty.

Instead, Rainbow just got this incredibly intense look on her face that caught my breath for a moment before she leaned against my neck a muttered a single, quiet word.

“Noone.”

Another growl rumbled up from my chest, this one born of frustration. I couldn’t keep doing this… I tried to let her go, to force her away, to give her every chance to step away from me, but then every chance I actually had to make it happen myself, I said shit like that.

Pushing away with one hand, pulling her back with the other.

Fuck it, I’m too tired and too irritated for this right now. I just want to go home, sleep for a few eternities, and wake up when this isn’t my problem anymore.

I pulled back from Rainbow, slung an arm over her shoulder, and stepped back out into the chilly sunlight of Canterlot City. She leaned against me as we walked that odd two-step we did when we were together.

Too comfortable.

This was far too comfortable.

“Aren’t we going to the grocery?” Rainbow asked.

“Nah,” I grumbled, “I’ll take the script in tomorrow… I’m too tired, and besides, everyone is off work by now, the place is gonna be fuckin’ packed.”

“Tomorrow?” Rainbow gave me an odd look, “you sure?”

“Did a fucking stutter, bitch?” I snarled, and Rainbow wilted back a little. I sighed, pulled her closer, and nuzzled her affectionately by way of apology. “Sorry, I’m just in a crappy mood… the doctor didn’t exactly have great news.”

“That sucks,” Rainbow leaned into my affection before brushing her lips over mine and then going back to resting her head against my chest. “Anything I can do?”

“If there was I’d’ve slapped your ass and told you to do it,” I replied with a dry chuckle, and Rainbow laughed along with me.

We walked to the bus stop in companionable silence, and I found myself turning multiple times to take in Rainbow’s scent. I hated how the cold made it harder to catch the smell of her, and it felt like my nose was about to freeze off half the time.

“You heading home?” I asked quietly as we got to the stop.

“Yeah,” Rainbow grumbled. “Dad wants to have a movie night, and then maybe go out tomorrow and hang, y’know?”

“Not really,” I replied honestly.

Parental bonding time wasn’t exactly something I had in spades with any of the mother figures I had in my life, my total lack of father figures notwithstanding.

“Oh, r-right, sorry,” Rainbow sagged a little, and I let out a huff.

“Don’t be, I’m fine with it,” I said as the bus creaked to stop in front of us.

I paid our fare and tugged Rainbow along with me. To everyone else on the bus I was just an alpha taking her omega out, and I was happy enough for them to keep on believing that. It was a lot easier to let everyone just assume everything was normal than have to deal with the weirdness of the truth.

We settled into a pair of seats in the back, and Rainbow started to doze against me again, once more proving her ability to nap even in the cloying mire of public transit.

I would’ve just taken my bike here, but between Rainbow not having riding leathers and the total dumpster fire that was trying to find parking in downtown Canterlot, I opted to just let someone else do the driving today.

Besides, the old town clinic was in a cramped part of town I’d rather not leave my ride unattended in, so maybe it was all for the best.

Pulling out my phone, I made to leave a reminder for myself to take in the script tomorrow when I noticed the blinking red line on the battery reader.

“What the hell?”

“Sunset?” Rainbow snapped awake at my tone. “What’s wrong?”

“Ugh, nothing,” I flicked my phone off and tucked it away. “My phone’s almost dead… I coulda swore I plugged it in last night.”

“Maybe you did that thing where you plugged in the cord but the charger wasn’t in the socket?” Rainbow said with that bratty smile of hers.

“Yeah, maybe,” I sagged back against the seat and sighed. Today was just getting crappier and crappier, if only by inches.

“Hey… you alright?” Rainbow asked, her tone a little softer now. “Seriously, you look beat.”

“I’m just having a bad day,” I said, waving my hand casually. “Forget about it, okay?”

Rainbow continued to frown, then looked around, said ‘fuck it’ softly under her breath, and moved closer to me, pulling down her hood, weaving her fingers into my hair, and then pulled me down to press my nose to her neck, and cradled me there for a few minutes.

I wanted to push her away. I should push her away, but I don’t. I don’t have the energy or the wherewithal or, fuck, I dunno… the care.

“Thanks,” I muttered quietly, taking a deep breath of her scent and just leaning into her.

All I could smell was that gentle, barely-there musk of her, like fresh-cut grass and rain. Rainbow’s scent was so calming to me, it was something that chased away the restless irritation in my limbs and the growing throb at the back of my head. I was stressed out, I knew, and she knew it too… so she was doing what a good omega was supposed to do, and calming her alpha down.

If only she was one.

“I’m… I’m a good omega, right?” Rainbow asked quietly, and I sighed, then breathed deeply, and nodded.

“You’re the best omega,” I replied wearily.

Rainbow Dash drew away slowly, put her hands on my cheeks , and looked me in the eyes. There was a moment there, one I hadn’t expected, and it struck straight through whatever caked on malaise of apathy and irritation was congealing around me. Her eyes were warm, and lined just slightly with concern.

She was worried about me.

It was more than just hearing her say it, or hearing Rainbow ask if I was alright. I could see it plain as day in her eyes.

“I’m fine,” I choked the words out, and they emerged a little raw.

Rainbow leaned in and kissed me, and I hugged her close, returning the kiss before pulling back and sighing as we came up on my side of town.

I pulled the cord to signal a stop, stood up, and sidled out of my seat. Before I could leave, though, Rainbow took me by the hand and pulled me down for one last, quick peck on the lips.

“I…” Rainbow started, then cut herself off, before trying again. “I… I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Yeah,” I straightened, brushed my thumb over her lips playfully, and gave her a smile. “See you soon, ‘omega’.”

I have got to be the world’s worst hypocrite.

Snow filtered down in lazy drifts as I stepped off the bus and started towards my complex, pausing only to turn and wave as the bus carried Rainbow Dash towards the nicer Whitetail neighborhood.

A dull, angry ache settled in my heart as she left my sight. I didn’t like it, but that was the problem, wasn’t it? I was getting attached to Rainbow Dash the same way I should have been getting attached to an omega. At this point I was as much of a freak as she was, moreso actually since I was the one who was keeping this fucked up matter going.

Alphas weren’t meant to mate with alphas. It didn’t happen, or it shouldn’t anyway. Alpha’s, especially potent ones like me, ought to be with omegas… we were made to breed strong pups, not waste ourselves in meaningless debauchery which was really all I was doing with Rainbow.

I couldn’t breed her, no matter how much we faked it in bed.

My slow, heavy steps came to a halt in front of my door, and I blinked in surprise. I’d been so lost in thought I’d auto-piloted straight to my flat. I really was lost in my own head. Lost in thoughts of a certain rainbow-headed alpha.

I fitted the key, unlocked the door, and stepped in. My flat felt empty knowing Rainbow wasn’t here, moreso than usual I mean. I had lived alone for years though, so why should it bother me now?

The door shut with a noticeably loud clatter as I elbowed it closed. I really was in a crappy mood, and this time there was no bitch in my bed for me to take it out on.

I tossed my keys on the table, followed by my wallet, hung up my jacket, and unlaced my boots before kicking them off towards the door. I was feeling slow and heavy, and my body was way too warm despite how cold it was. I’d always run hot but today I was a furnace, and it caused me to reconsider whether or not I might actually be getting sick.

It was incredibly rare, but it had happened before and it was always miserable.

“Fuck it,” I grumbled as I opted to forgoe a shower and head straight to bed despite it only about five in the evening.

It’s not like I was doing anything useful anyway, I had classes tomorrow so an early night wasn’t going to hurt me.

Burrowing under the covers, I wrinkled my nose at the scent that was clinging to them. Rainbow had spent the night last night, like she did most nights, and the smell of us was still hanging around the sheets.

There was no one here but me, meaning there was no one to judge me, so as I curled up in the blankets and sheets I pulled them up to my nose to took a long, deep breath.

“Rainbow…” I shivered, feeling myself getting painfully hard. I wanted her and badly, I wanted my bitch beneath me.

I took another breath of our mingled scent as I slid my hand beneath the sheets to take a grip on my cock, squeezing in pulsing motions as I stroked myself.

This was wrong, but I didn’t care. It was my flat, my room, and my bed, and I could think about whoever the fuck I wanted while I jacked off.

The fact that I was thinking about the alpha I’d bitched and dominated only to keep firmly under my bootheel for the past four months and not the cute, pink-haired omega I shared a couple of classes with that had been giving me bedroom eyes for the past month and a half was irrelevant.

“Shit,” I swore quietly.

I tried thinking of Fluttershy instead, of her soft lips and that cute little pink tongue of hers. I tried to think of her on her knees, mouth open and waiting for me, and those beautiful baby-blue eyes looking up at me as she serviced my dick, and I pumped my hand up and down my length as I did.

“C’mon,” I groaned softly, “c’mon, just…” I kept jerking but it wasn’t working, rather than pushing me closer it was just frustrating me.

It wasn’t working. I tried imagining how wet she would be for me, for an alpha as strong as I was. I tried thinking of how good she would feel squirming beneath me.

Not nearly as good as Rainbow feels, my traitorous brain replied.

“Shut up!” I snarled, trying to refocus.

All I had to do was close my eyes, think of her, and… and her eyes turned cerise. Pink hair became streaks of prismatic color…

“R-Rainbow…” I moaned her name softly again.

Alpha…

Why couldn’t I do it? Why couldn’t I hear that word in anything but Rainbow’s voice? Why couldn’t I see anything but cerise eyes and that infuriatingly bratty smirk of hers?!

“Rainbow!” I cried out her name, my voice muffled by the sheets that I bit into as I took another deep breath and found my rhythm again, my hand moving up and down with swift, furious strokes until I came to a shuddering climax.

White sprayed across my stomach and breasts, and I sagged back against my bed, breathing heavily and shaking slightly.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” I muttered bitterly.

I reached for the bath towel I’d left by my bed from my shower this morning and used it to clean myself up before pitching it at the hamper and rolling over to grab my phone and plug it in, making sure the stupid charger was in the wall this time.

My whole body was buzzing slightly, and I knew it was because my instincts were griping about there being no omega, or more accurately no bitched alpha, in my arms after I just came.

For a moment I considered calling Rainbow up, but I had no idea what I would say to her.

What was I supposed to say? ‘I just wanted to hear your voice’?

Written’s Quill, if that sounded half as lame out loud as it did in my head I would never live it down, and yet… it didn’t change how miserable I was feeling.

Maybe I would have her over tomorrow night after whatever she was doing.

Yeah, I’d tell her to get over here and warm up my bed for me. That always got her moving in my direction. If I wanted her, I could have her anytime and she knew it just as well as I did.

At least until this mess was over.

Quill, I really hope those suppressants worked.

I woke up on fire just after seven in the morning.

“Shit!” I snarled the word out practically as soon as I opened my eyes.

My whole body was covered in a sheen of sweat, and I kicked the covers off as I sat up. My limbs were shaking, my head was pounding, and I was breathing hard… hard enough that my brain was filling with leftover scent of Rainbow Dash and it was driving me up the fucking wall.

What the hell?!

“No…” I murmured, horror creeping into my gut as I shook the sleep from my head and staggered out of bed.

It must have been freezing in my flat but I couldn’t feel it. I was so hot it was like my skin was about to boil right off of my bones.

“It’s too fucking early!” I barked the words out as I staggered into the bathroom and stared at my reflection.

My face was flushed, and my red and gold hair was matted to my face and shoulders with sweat. I was hard again, painfully so, and my heart was going about a thousand miles an hour.

“I should still have at least a day!” I punched the wall, bruising my knuckles and leaving an indent. “I SHOULD STILL HAVE A WHOLE FUCKING DAY!”

My rut had started earlier than it ever had before.

And it was worse than ever, too.

I thought my rut had been agonising before, but this one was an order of magnitude worse. I could barely see straight, and my brain was filled with the shrieking sound of metal on metal as I tried to organise my thoughts into something resembling coherency.

It wasn’t working. I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t… couldn’t…

I dropped bonelessly back into my bed and grabbed my phone. I needed to call someone… Rainbow Dash, so I hit the power button. I needed to call-

Dead.

No matter how many times I clicked the button the screen remained stubbornly dark. A desperate fear flooded my belly as I rolled over to look down between my bed and the wall, hoping I had just fucked up last night and forgotten to plug it in.

It was plugged in.

I grabbed at the charger plug. Maybe it was just a dead outlet! I stood and staggered over the living room, dropped onto the couch and plugged it into the socket on the wall furthest from my room.

Nothing.

No power symbol, no charging sign.

“SHIT!” I pulled the phone out and hucked it across the room, then curled up on the couch and started to shake.

It felt like someone was filling every inch of my skin with needles. What the hell?! What kind of messed up mistake of biology could possibly result in a rut this intense?! There was no way this was fucking natural!

Briefly, I considered making a run down to the pharmacy at the grocery near my place to fill my suppressant script, but immediately discarded the idea. I was in no state to drive and there was no way in hell I was getting on public transit in this state. Even if I didn’t jump the nearest omega I came across, the sheer magnitude of the pheromones I must be putting off would probably make them jump me.

I couldn’t call anyone… couldn’t go anywhere…

“Shit!” I sobbed.

I stood shakily, stumbled toward the bathroom, and cranked on the cold water before crawling into the tub and hunkering down as the icy spray sluiced over my head and shoulders.

Steam started to rise off of my skin and I watched as the water would strike me and roll in droplets down my flesh, only to immediately start to evaporate.

That’s probably not a good sign.

Tears rolled down my face as I took sharp, heaving breaths. The pain was fucking unbelievable and it was only getting worse. This was just the start of my rut, and if my experience held out then it would only climb from here until I either sated it or it burned itself out.

In three to five days.

“Fucking kill me,” I muttered hollowly as I rocked back and forth in my bathtub.

I’m not sure how long I sat there, but it was long enough for me to finally scrabble some semblance of control back from my rebellious biology. I couldn’t stay under the shower spray forever, as much as I might want to, so eventually I forced myself up, cranked the water off, and stepped out. I only shivered for a moment before my rut sent my temperature sky-rocketing again.

An idea hit me as I passed my sink, and I immediately whipped around and yanked open the medicine cabinet.

I pulled out the little white bottle of sleep aid pills. I used to have these brief, weird fits of insomnia that left me lying awake for hours on end and I'd finally gotten the bottle just to have it in case I needed to sleep.

Right now, I’d really like to be asleep.

I cracked the bottle open, took out a triple dose, and dry-swallowed it before capping the bottle and stumbling back to my bed.

The bottle went onto my night stand, and the only thing I did before collapsing onto my mattress was crack open the window. Hopefully the winter air would keep me cool enough to stay asleep through today.

The dosage worked quickly and my eyelids started getting heavy, but my brain was shrieking at me all the same. Eventually, a half-sleep delirium settled onto my brain, and it left me torn somewhere between deep, cloying slumber and manic wakefulness.

I felt sick, and between fits of delusion I wondered if maybe those pills hadn’t been the brightest idea after all.

Dreams filtered into my reality. Voices and whispers… along with the nostalgic sound of the great waterfall that cascaded down the Canterhorn in Equestria, feeding into the mighty river Canter, filled my ears. It was a familiar, deafening noise I’d accustomed to during the years that I’d lived with Princess Celestia.

I had been able to see the waterfall from my tower window, and I’d loved watching it fall and watching how the light cascaded off of the droplets of water.

So many rainbows…

My breathing was harsh and ragged as I tossed and turned in my bed. I was sweating like crazy, with the cool air only barely keeping me in check.

I could smell the clean mountain air of Canterlot, my Canterlot, mixing with the eastbound winds carrying the scent of the great plains that stretched beyond the marble peak.I

I could smell the cold trash and asphalt stink of the human city of Canterlot. The rust and burnt rubber cloy of the Ponyville Commons.

The rancid slums of Canterlot never really change, even between dimensions.

Fire was burning inside my chest and belly and loins. I needed relief but my limbs weren’t working right. My hands were dull and numb… those pills were definitely a bad idea.

Another scent hit me from the edges of my delusions. The smell of clean-cut grass, rainfall… and… and there was something cool on my forehead, something-

A moan left my lips as I pleasure rocked through me. Warmth was wrapped around my painfully hard erection. Something warm and wet, and I lasted all of about ten seconds before my hips were bucking in instinctive reply to the sensation and seconds later I was falling off the edge of my climax.

My hips rolled and jerked as I pumped out streams of seed, and suddenly my head began to clear. The haze of lust and borderline insanity lifted just enough to me to turn my head and see-

“R-Rainbow?” I muttered her name, not quite sure if she was actually here or if I’d really lost it. “What-?”

Rainbow Dash was lifting her lips from my cock and smiling at me with a faint look of worry in her eyes as she brushed hair from her face.

“Hey,” she moved up the bed to my side and leaned in to kiss me, and I moaned again at the skin-to-skin contact.

A damp cloth tumbled from my face as I sat up, although I couldn't properly account for when it had gotten there.

“What’re you doing here?” I finally asked, “what… what time is it?”

“Like, noon-ish?” Rainbow answered as she stood up and pulled her shirt off, then tossed it to the side before smirking at me again. “You look like shit, Shimmer.”

“Feel like shit, too,” I replied, too tired to admonish her for her tone as I slumped back onto the mattress.

Rainbow frowned at that.

Before she could say anything, though, a notion occurred to me. Something that Rainbow had said yesterday about going out.

“Weren’t you spending the day with your dad?” I asked, rolling onto my side and fixing her with a suspicious glare. “Why’re you here?”

Rainbow shrugged as she pulled her pants off and sat down on my bedside.

“Because when you didn’t answer,” she held up her phone, “I figured your rut must’ve gotten pretty bad pretty fast once it started,” I raised an eyebrow at that. “So I told my dad that my friend had hit her rut early and was in bad shape, and I needed to help her out… no big deal, okay? Me and pops can hang out another time.”

She slid into bed next to me, nudging me to the side to make room for her, which I did, and then wrapped herself around me. Her skin was blessedly cool, and I sighed in relief as I pressed myself against her, my alpha instincts finally balancing out as I took hold of Rainbow Dash.

“How did you even know my rut had started?” I asked as Rainbow buried her face against my neck and started scenting me, running her tongue calmingly over my neck and throat.

“Because today was when you were gonna start?” Rainbow said between small licks, then pulled back and smirked up at me again. “You barely ate anything yesterday, remember?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“So what?”

“And you were acting like a total jerk,” Rainbow added.

“I’m always a jerk,” I countered, and Rainbow laughed.

“I mean like, moreso,” she replied. “But c’mon, you never noticed?”

“Noticed what?!” I was starting to get frustrated, but Rainbow calmed me down again with a soft kiss as she took my hardening length into her hands.

“You always get super cranky and lose your appetite, right before you rut,” Rainbow answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I noticed it months ago.”

My jaw dropped.

I… I hadn’t noticed. It was all just the same thing to me, I hadn’t connected the dots the way Rainbow apparently had. Maybe I’d just been too close to the matter, but I hadn’t noticed my shift in mood or appetite at all, or rather I had but it just hadn’t occurred to me that they were connected.

And yet Rainbow Dash, an alpha, had been so attentive to my moods and cycle that she had almost immediately noticed the pattern and had begun predicting my rut cycle faster than even I could.

I knew omegas that weren’t that good.

“Sorry I was late, by the way,” Rainbow said demurely as she began stroking me. “I should’ve been over here hours ago, I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

“It’s… it’s okay.”

I quivered as Rainbow pulled her hand from me and turned over onto her belly, getting on her elbows and knees.

“C’mere,” Rainbow offered quietly. “I know what you need.”

She did. Rainbow always knew what I needed and she was always oh-so-happy to give it to me. Maybe if I weren’t such a spineless asshole I wouldn’t be just as equally happy to take it.

I moved over her anyway and she accepted the weight of my body with a satisfied sigh as I mounted her. I pressed my tip to her entrance, pushed, and let out a relieved sigh of my own as I slid inside of her. Now, finally, I was right where I belonged, and so was she.

Slowly, I began to move, thrusting in and out while I wrapped my arms around her, pumping against her as she found the familiar tempo with her hips and began moving with me. Maybe it was the intensity of my rut, but she felt even better than usual… she was so tight and soft, she felt like an omega; wet and hot and willing to take me for as long as I needed her.

“Alpha…” Rainbow moaned the word with quiet need. “You f-feel good, alpha.”

Her voice always pitched a little higher when she was submitting and it drove me crazy, which I think she knew, because no matter how hard I was she always seemed to be able to coax a little more out of me.

“Of course I do,” I snarled, my voice deepening to a growl as I leaned forward and nipped at her ear. “You’re my bitch… bitches always feel good when their alpha takes them, don’t they?”

“Y-Yes!” Rainbow cried. “I’m a good bitch!”

“Fuck yes, you are,” I pushed hard, my knot swelling with record speed, and with a grunt of effort I locked us together, prompting an ecstatic cry from Rainbow. “And good bitches thank their alpha when they get knotted!”

“Thank you!” Rainbow shivered and shook under me as I rocked inside of her. “Thank you, alpha! Thank you for kn-knotting me!”

“Good girl,” I breathed, running my tongue along the back of her neck. It was an indulgence, and one I let myself have too often. “Who’s my perfect little bitch?”

“M-Me!” Rainbow shivered, rolled her hips, and I felt her jerk as she came, staining my bed sheets again.

Knowing that I’d done that to her sent a fresh wave of lust through me. She was intoxicating in every sense. Rainbow Dash’s presence dulled my senses and soothed me, she made me bold and stupid in equal measure and I wasn’t sure I was alright with it.

I wonder if this is what it feels like to be an alcoholic.

This thing, whatever it is, is toxic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was killing us both.

Right now, though? I didn’t give a damn.

“Fuck, I’m… I’m gonna-!” I gasped, and Rainbow looped her arm up and around to the back of my head, drawing me down until my nose was pressed against her neck.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, and my mind went blank with ecstasy as I hit my peak, filling Rainbow tight ass with my seed and drawing out a long, satisfied moan from her as we both went limp at the same time and collapsed to the side, panting and slick with sweat.

There was little passion and no romance to it, but neither of us cared. I was half-delusional with rut and sleep-meds, and despite that Rainbow still wanted to sate me. If I had a spine and anything resembling a moral compass I would have pushed her away… but I didn’t. Instead I chose to keep eroding whatever was left of the alpha in her for my own pleasure.

Guilt gnawed at me as I pulled Rainbow close, and it was only made worse by the small, pleased noise she made in the back of her throat.

My head had barely hit the pillow before darkness closed over me like a gestapo’s black bag, dragging me down to where my dreams were just a cool, empty darkness that I floated comfortably inside of, barely aware of reality.

Amongst the dark there was a gentle sensation I couldn’t quite place that surrounded me, and I was vaguely aware of drifting in and out of consciousness, briefly waking multiple times to see long sweat-stained prismatic locks filling my vision before feeling as though I’d satisfied some need and passing out again.

It was night by the time I truly woke up, and Rainbow Dash was still in my arms, dozing happily.

I was sore, and there were numerous new scratch marks across my body I didn’t remember earning. Rainbow was also, I noted, in a drastically different position than when I’d gone to sleep last, on her back now and mostly underneath me. That suggested that we’d had sex one or more times beyond the first one I recalled, which wasn’t really suprising since I was mid-rut and half-high on sleeping pills.

Fuck, those pills were a stupid idea.

I sat up, shivered, and freed myself from Rainbow Dash. My erection had gone away for now, although I was certain it would be back in short order, but it had thankfully taken the feverish delirium with it.

As I made to move from the bed, Rainbow Dash made a noise of irritation, reached out, and grabbed my arm, tugging me back to her.

“Come back t’bed, alpha,” she grumbled. “S’late…”

I looked out the window and grimaced.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” I replied softly. “Just… lemme shut the window, okay? You know you get cold easier than me.”

“Mm… fine…” Rainbow grumbled, grudgingly letting go.

I stood up and walked to the window, muscled it shut, and then turned to go back to Rainbow’s side.

The moment I turned around, I froze.

Even now I can’t say exactly what it was that caught my breath at that moment. I don’t think it was one thing, actually, I think it was a bunch of things all coming together at once and swatting me across the skull like a ball-peen hammer.

Rainbow was a mess, the bed was stained and she was tangled half-in and half-out of the sheets. The comforter was hanging mostly off of the bed although she’d tugged some of it over her while leaving my side of the bed free of it so I wouldn’t overheat.

Her hair was matted and tangled, her face was flushed and a little blotchy with sleep. Rainbow’s bare asscheeks were red, her back had a few marks, but probably nowhere near as many as mine, and frankly she looked like some kind of sex fiend.

And…

And she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen in my life.

Very slowly, I closed my eyes, blew out a breath, and tried to focus on reality. The reality was that I was in the middle of my rut, I’d just finished a sex marathon, my brain was pickling in dopamine and oxytocin, and I was not in my right mind.

My rut would end in a few days and these feelings would go with it because they had to, because the alternative was completely untenable.

Because alphas did not mate with other alphas.

“Alpha~…” Rainbow whined, waving her hand blindly in my direction.

“Sorry,” I said softly before flicking the light off, slipping into bed and curling up around her. “I’m here now.”

“Mm…” Rainbow hummed a wordless noise of approval as she nestled against me. “You can wake me up with your dick if ya need to,” she said in a playfully sleepy voice as she turned her head to kiss me. “I know how your rut gets.”

“Like you need to tell me that,” I grunted, grabbing her waist and rubbing myself against her sore ass to make my point, and she groaned pleasantly. “I’ll fuck my bitch whenever I want to.”

“Mhm, yeah y’will,” Rainbow agreed, then brushed her lips on mine once more, and nuzzled my neck. “G’night, alpha.”

I buried my face in her hair, sweaty as it was, as she settled back into sleep, and I took a deep breath before replying.

“Goodnight,” I said quietly.

That’s right… alphas don’t mate with other alphas.

They sure as fuck didn’t fall in love with them.

Damn it. This had to end… I needed to end this.

I’m sorry, Rainbow.