"Any more questions?" Dash stared out at the gathered pegasi. She had carefully outlined the plan for sending the requisite water up to Cloudsdale, how important the needed eight hundred horsepower lift threshold was, and carefully navigated Derpy's weirder questions. She tapped a hoof on the screen, letting the ancient film run in the background in silence, old black and white pegasi showing off how exactly the yearly send off was performed.
Dash didn't get an answer from the mumbling crowd.
"Okay then, I guess we'll now talk about the planned number we should hit. I think that each of you has a real chance at pumping our numbers up- cause I have seen each and every one of you in some way exceed my very low expectations of meeting that eight hundred horsepower goal. I mean Fillydelphia got like near a thousand score and they had less pegasi than we do here. "
Butterscotch twiddled his hooves as he heard his marefriend say that. He knew Dash very well, from years of having the smaller mare way too close to some intimate parts of his anatomy- and having the mare protect him from smaller bullies. He knew that tone of voice, the bravado, the want of success and exceptionalism. He hid his large and lanky frame as much as he could in the back of the crowd, letting his long and feminine mane cover his eyes as he slid as carefully as he could in the cramped room towards the door so he could prepare to run and hide. "Eep." His low rumbling voice didn't match his looks but he still was absolutely terrified at what he feared. He'd rather lecture a dragon again than deal with the sheer performance anxiety that he was feeling.
"Yes, Cloudkicker, I am saying we could reach over a thousand easy. What with Scotch here, I bet we could reach twelve hundred."
Butterscotch blushed furiously as everypony turned and laid their eyes on him. He could see certain mares stare lustfully at him as he guessed Dash had told them of something. "Well, I don't think I'm that strong."
Thunderlane's voice popped up. "Scotch, you almost broke my front hoof once cause of a hoof wrestling bet."
Butterscotch stammered. "I said I'm sorry for that. And that was Rainbow's idea. I said it wasn't a good thing to do. . ."
Rainbow shrugged. "See? With Butterscotch on our side, we'll totally do great.
Rainbow let the ponies file out of the room, saying her goodbyes and hoofbumping certain mares for fun, letting her mind slightly wander as she did so. She didn't exactly have a problem with Butter and his unwillingness to show off his hidden strength, gained by years of herding unruly mostly wild animals and lifting all the heavy stuff he did for them. No, that was easy. The part that was hard was trying to get him to believe in himself. Cause he could lift heavy things in an 'emergency'- like protecting a small bird in a non life threatening injury was tantamount to an emergency. And he could talk down dragons no problem. But performing in front of others? That was the issue.
Dash knew exactly each and every strong muscle of the lanky yellow pegasus stallion and she knew what hidden depths were there in the tightly corded bands of his, his body not stuffed to the brim with male beef and brawn, but condensed and wrapped around him like a secret sweater- his plush exterior hiding strength that could rival Big Mac in power. His cute little feminine features hiding a tiger, a tiger stuffed with love and plush feelings. And a nice dick. But that was for when Butterscotch really needed a reason to show off.
Dash blushed and breathed, letting her mask of coolness slip for a second as she thought of how nice the butter yellow pegasus was. How close the two had grown after years together, the best of friends developing into something more. "Scotch, you okay?"
Butterscotch looked up, his sky blue orbs a mix of worry and outright fear. "Dash, I know you believe in me. But its different. You know how important the tornado is, with our parents and all- the planning, the preparing, the pageantry of having the Wonderbolts in town. Are you sure we can do this? Or is it just. . ."
Dash shook her head furiously, long locks of rainbow shaking in response. "Scotch, its not cause I want to meet my heroes. I mean its cool that I'll be seeing Spitfire and Soarin' and Fleetfloot and all the rest and maybe, just maybe, I had some sexual feelings towards a few of them when I was younger. But its not cause I think they are hot. Or that I want to show off."
The butter yellow stallion sighed. "Then why?"
Dash shrugged. "Why do I try to show you off any chance I get? I probably like seeing how ponies will react to having the quietest stallion being a big hunk."
Butterscotch sighed. "You need a hobby."
***
"Thunderlane, looking good. Though stop your coughing. I hope that is just some allergies and not the pony pox." Dash groaned as Thunderlane grimaced as he figuratively coughed up a lung. She could only handle so many things going wrong and losing one of her strongest stallions was not in the cards. "Cloudkicker, keep Blossomforth focused please. I'd rather have a well oiled machine than whatever she's doing. Has anypony seen Butterscotch? He was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago."
Flitter spoke up, her voice cutting through the crowd of pegasi working out. "Looked like his cottage lights were on. Might be sick."
Dash shook her head. Butterscotch running away from his problems? She had seen the pegasus soon enough to know that he was perfectly healthy, He had fed his stupid girl bunny, and all the rest of his animals just fine, no cough, no sickness, nothing. She frowned as she pointed at the next best, choice. "Blossomforth, scratch that. Take my place for a bit. I need to check on Scotch. Can't have our secret weapon go soft on me."
Blossomforth laughed. "That's what she said."
Dash blushed. "Well, yeah. I guess I walked into that one. But keep an eye on everypony. Can't have anything go wrong."
Cloudkicker stretched a wing over Blossomforth as she walked up and nodded at Dash. "Will do. And I'll keep Blossom in line."
Dash looked down on Ponyville, keeping her eye on her destination as she did so, the little cottage on the edge of the forest, a cozy, cramped thing when two ponies were there, talking and doing other things. She hummed softly as she thought of all the times through the years the pair, Scotch and her, snuggled together in that place. Reading the newest Daring Do books, taking care of Scotch's animals- or in Dash's case, watching him taking care of his animals since she could hardly stand that bitch of a rabbit. She could not understand how he could pamper her and deal with her little overbearing need for attention, for food, and dominance in a way. Dash frowned as she thought of what exactly she would say to Scotch- it was highly suspect for the stallion to just get sick. Dash joked that he had a constitution of a yak stuffed in his lanky body. He never got sick, or at least rarely enough that she could count on her hooves the times he got so sick he was unable to work. She grimaced at the last time. It was right after the poison joke incident- maybe it was a reaction to Zecora's medicine, maybe those stupid flowers but he had been bedridden for days.
Dash had stayed at his side during that time, only going out to work, and even then she had tried to work as fast as possible so as to keep him company. She had slept near the foot of his bed- something she never spoke about since her coworkers and friends on the weather team might read something more than the concern she had been feeling at the time. And Dash had kept his spirits up by joking that while he had been affected by the poison joke, he had been rather pretty as a mare. She blushed as she wondered if she was bi or something, the thought of being close to Scotch's female form slightly odd and something she hadn't thought of in a while. Her long, luscious locks of pink mane, her still statuesque build, plush rounded butt, huge wingspan, large eyes that Dash could get lost in, and a faint trace of fuzzy pink around her nethers that made Dash think of the trail of pink that Scotch had. She had only seen the wonders of female Scotch's privates when she had flown too close to the mare, upside down thanks to the stupid poison joke, and had got an eyeful of her pussy. Dash furiously blushed, feeling a thin trickle of wetness run down the inside of her leg. She fumed. She tried to keep a sense of professionalism in her dealings with Scotch, or at least pretend to, and here she was making it rain onPonyville, a few droplets of her desire sprinkling over town, just because she was hot and bothered.
Maybe she was worried about Scotch. Maybe there was an ulterior motive of having her check on him. She shook her head. It was just a thing. Sometimes close friends fucked really hard. That was normal.
Dash rolled her eyes as she landed in front of the little cottage. She was getting distracted from her main focus- checking up on Butterscotch and seeing exactly what nonsense he was getting up to. She walked slowly, but forcefully towards the door carefully dodging Angeline, Scotch's little bunny. The female rabbit flipped her off as she walked past and Dash just stuck out her tongue for a brief moment at the rabbit. Annoying, terrible, and obnoxious, but somehow Scotch dealt with that thing. Turning to the door, she knocked a few times with her hoof, careful not to hit too hard so as to not scare Scotch. She was kind of appearing unannounced and the stallion had a fear of being surprised.
"Scotch, you in?"
Dash heard a rather unconvincing number of coughs from the other side of the door. She was dealing with Scotch, not Rarity, so she really wasn't in the mood for fake theatrics, even if she could guess what was wrong with the stallion. He had a real issue with getting it up. Figuratively. Performance anxiety.
"Yeah, I saw you weren't at practice today, so I uh, came to check in on you. Can't have our secret weapon missing out on making a tornado."
"I'm sick." Muffled fake coughing came from the other side of the door. "I can't come."
Dash pawed at the ground with a hoof and sighed. She hated when Butterscotch got like this- passively nonagressive, holed up in his house like a hermit, and away from the world. Just because he probably didn't want to disappoint others. Or something. Dash wasn't a philosopher's stone, that was Twilight's thing or whatever Twilight had said to her. She really hadn't paid any attention to Twilight about relationship stuff once she got out the creepy diagrams. Don't know where Twilight learned that much about sex, but it weirded her out. Dash rubbed her face and tried to think of ways for her friend to open his door. Finally, she came up with one. "If you are as sick as you say you are, I bet I could go call the hospital so you can be picked up. Get Redheart to check you out. Cause you were at the meeting and I can't have a terrible, unknown disease take out all the pegasi here. That'd be awful."
Butterscotch's low, honeyed voice wavered. "N-no. I'm sick, but not that sick. I ate something rather bad."
"You don't have allergies and I've only seen you get sick like four times. And if you are like that, I'm barging in cause you were totally bent out of shape last time."
Dash could swear she heard something like an extremely quiet, and polite curse come from the other side of the door as Scotch slowly opened the cottage's wooden barrier. A long limb snaked out and waved Dash inside. Dash slowly walked in, seeing nothing out of the ordinary- no book out of place, no stench of sickness, not an animal pawing at the windows or doors for food- telltale signs of Butterscotch truly being sick.
Dash turned her magenta eyes on her best friend and almost burst out laughing. Butterscotch was dressed in his normal lounge around his cottage attire- a frilly white bathrobe with purple trim loaned, or more like tossed, by Rarity. It didn't match at all with the stallion's coat and it barely fit him. He wasn't technically too large and stalliony for the garment since he could squeeze into it just fine, though it accidentally left little to Dash's imagination. What truly didn't work was that he was too tall, and it showed, with his wings crammed in there and it having a weird dragging look to it near where his barrel met his legs. What truly drew Dash's eye was not the ill fitting bath robe, but the poorly drawn on spots on his face. Large purple and brown blotches of color, probably an eyeshadow that Rarity had left and Scotch had repurposed for his lie. It looked tacky. "So you are sick."
Scotch nodded and coughed to prove a point. "Yep. Totally. Must have got it when I was out. Cause it just appeared."
Dash hummed as she looked for a glass of water. Something to prove a point. "That's too bad. Everypony was looking forward to seeing what you could do. Guess I have to, like, go back and say that you won't be hoofwrestling Big Mac if we lose. Cause I bet Applejack that we'd help out her farm with that water."
Butterscotch craned his neck in thought, low rumblings a sense of him humming a slight tune. "I don't remember that. Last time Applejack and you were doing stuff, that was something about the Iron Pony race and how you'd compare. Not the tornado."
"Well one thing led to another and it kind of slipped out." Dash was terrible at lying. She inwardly hoped that she wasn't giving away the ruse just by staring at Butterscotch. Though with how bad his attempt at being sick was, he wasn't in a better boat. He could have at least attempted the thermometer under a lamp trick to try and give it some weight- that was a foal's trick. Not paint up his face and fake cough. "So we need you."
Butterscotch tapped a hoof and thought. "B-but I have, the, um, pony pox. Can't go outside."
Dash rolled her eyes and slid up to the slightly imposing stallion. Imposing if he had been scary. But he was more a plush lanky pillow than a tiger barely contained in a cage. She was terrible at metaphors or similes or whatever. She just stared at Butterscotch and got a particularly devious idea. A wonderful tease. Dash stared one of the spots down and poked it with a hoof, careful to aim at the ones closer to the stallion's tickle spots. She poked and prodded his neck, running her hooves over some hardened muscle that she knew of, but due to her mind being elsewhere, she couldn't name it.
She could feel the stallion's reaction shift immediately as the butter yellow pegasus tried to hold in his laughter. Dash smiled as she felt him lean into the touch, not by much, but with her trained senses she could always feel slight shifts in his frame. She planned for the less fun part of the attack and leaned into him as well, her mane rustling against his neck. She did what any self respecting mare would do in this situation, she kissed his neck right where one of his spots was and felt the paint come off on her tongue, the taste gagging her as did so. She coughed and pulled away.
Butterscotch looked down at her, worry in his blue eyes, his wings cramped even more in his small robe as they wanted to pop a wingboner at Dash's touch. "You okay, Dashie?"
Dash smiled at the pet name that was given to her by Scotch during flight camp. She only really heard it when the two were alone or in rather intimate sessions with each other- the pet name saved for those times only. Dash was perfectly fine with Scotch saying that- the cute name made slightly bearable by his low, masculine voice. It was just that she was scared that Pinkie would pick up on the name and ruin the specialness of it. She shook her head and coughed as she stared at Scotch. "You used paint. On you. Tastes awful."
Butterscotch looked down and tapped his hooves on the boards. "I didn't think you were going to do that. Else I would have used something else. I don't know what, but I would have come up with something else."
Dash rolled her eyes. "I tried coming up with anything else, but all my ideas ended up with you on your back while I ride you." Dash blushed a little. "Not that I would mind. Just have an image to work towards."
Butterscotch smiled and leaned into the smaller mare, her head fitting nicely in his shoulder. "I know that. It would be a bit surprising to know that the town's most dependable weatherpony is a big softie. Wonder what they would think of me sharing that little fact."
Dash laughed. "Is that how it feels when I make ponies hoof wrestle you? Cause I'm embarrassed."
Butterscotch hummed softly as he thought. "More or less. Though I don't particularly mind. Since you only do it every once in a while. Though I still feel bad about Thunderlane, I think I went too far on that one."
Dash groaned. "How was I supposed to know he sprained his leg working out? I mean that wasn't all you. Though it was kind of hot in a messed up way."
Butterscotch felt hot as he blushed in kind. He could smell the faint sweat of Dash, her musk like candy to him as he tried not to think. Just be in the moment. But then Dash moved, her small and lithe form an antithesis to his, small muscles, small everything all due to how she was just undersized for most pegasi, compact, aerodynamic. Built for speed and not endurance like him. Her muscles noticeable right under her fur, light blue. She would have been normal, but her rare mane color made her stand out, made her special. He thought of her small, perky breasts, just right above her love canal, trimmed with rainbow hair that only he got to see in all its glory. He shivered as he tried to keep his dick from inching out of its sheath, the thoughts of her breathing. . .
Dash felt something poke her butt. Long and hard and inching ever so closer to her as it angled down and rubbed against her snatch. She tried not to rub it too hard as it pulsed with life, Butterscotch's dong rubbing pleasantly against her in response to her accidentally waking it up. She grinned as she kissed the tip, the salty taste heaven on her tongue, she felt her insides pulse with need, the last time she felt it truly in her was months ago and she silently wanted it again. it had felt so nice that every once in a while when she got her heat, she wished she could jump Butterscotch's bones and fill herself with his caring yet powerful rod. Dash smiled as she saw Butterscotch's cheeks redden. "Oh, does somepony want to come inside Rainbow Dash." She bent down and nipped his ear, the yellow stallion whinnying in pleasure as she did so.
Butterscotch's balls tensed up and shot his load like a cannon. He had not touched himself in days since he was so busy preparing with Dash and with his own work, he just hadn't had time, so his balls were full of cum and unfortunately Dash had preened his buttons running her perfect and hot body all over him, running her wings over his shaft like a pro in the nicest wingjob, and one of the few wingjobs he had. So he screamed in delight as he came.
Directly in Dash's face. Ropes of white got everywhere as Dash screamed in terror and pain as it got in her eyes temporarily blinding her. She tried to angle herself to stop the waterboarding but the angle the pair was in made it impossible so she just tried to breathe through her mouth and hoping that she didn't drown.
After what felt like minutes, the flow stopped and Butterscotch regained focus and saw his best and oldest friend dripping wet and covered in cum, the stuff making her hair get plastered to her face, she opened her mouth and coughed as she felt really full from her impromptu stuffing. "Holy fucking shit, Scotch, I could have fucking died."
Scotch awkwardly brushed Dash's face, feeling it be all wet and kind of sickening. "Uh, I'm sorry, I'll get a towel."
Dash tried opening her eyes, but couldn't. "Yeah, that's a good idea. I think this was disgustingly hot, but I'd rather not get all this to dry. It would ruin my coat. If you could guide me to your shower, it'd be great cause right now I can't see shit.
***
Butterscotch felt Dash on his chest, her weight pressing into him as he stared up at the ceiling. The moon was up and bright thanks to Luna and he stared out at it, sighing quietly as he did so. He had tried to get Dash to leave, not that he didn't like her, that was out of the question, but after cleaning up his little mess, she had tried to explain why she had come here.
That was hours ago and Scotch could guess that the weather team knew what was up. Dash wasn't exactly subtle about 'going to check on my best friend' and what that might entail. He felt his little bunny hop carefully around Dash and, in the dim light of the moon, stare directly into his face, her tapping foot beating time.
"Angel, I fed you like two hours ago."
A nonplussed bunny shook her head and pointed at her invisible wristwatch.
"I'll spend time with you later. Sorry, Dash kind of popped in. I know you wanted to spend time together. I'll make it up to you tomorrow after. . .practice." He shivered. The word a foreign thing on his tongue. "Going to be fine. I mean Dash will be there and that's fine, right, totally fine. Just have to show off my horsepower. Like I've done that before. What's a bit of light sports fun?" He gulped and tried not to think of the past, flight camp in particular, and failed miserably in doing so.
'My dad says any pegasus who can't fly is better off dead. What's the use of a flightless bird. Nothing.' The bullies stared down at Butterscotch, the tall colt an abnormality at such a young age. He hid as best he could, ducking down and trying to make himself less noticeable to the bullies, their jabs and prying words hurting his pride more than anything.
"Lay off. If you want to pick on somepony, pick on me."
Butterscotch glanced up at the small filly that he had only seen every once in a while, not exactly sure what her name was, he focused more on the crazy shock of mane, rainbow colors a rarity in the pegasi world. It made her stand out, though Butterscotch would have noticed her anyway. She had been the first pony to stand up to his bullies. He would have, but his mom told him not to. Made things easier, she said. He wasn't so sure.
"Well if it isn't Rainbow Trash. Are you and your chicken going to stand up for this freak? Cause that'd be precious." The main bully walked up and stared down at this filly.
"Name's not Rainbow Trash, or Crash, or Bash. It's Dash. Get that through your head, Hoops." Rainbow Dash looked up at the taller colt and smiled. "And Gilda's not here. Else you'd be scared to speak. Wasn't your dad a Wonderbolt? Though I'm surprised cause you sure ain't much to speak of."
Hoops blushed in rage, his voice cracking as he tried to speak. "Yeah, well, my dad says your dad is a washed up Wonderbolt. Drunk. Don't know what that means, but if my dad says it- it must be true."
Dash's eye twitched. "Well, I could say your dad is a bag of rocks and he'd not be any smarter. Cause your dad is dumb."
Butterscotch looked away as the three bullies ganged up on Dash.
Butterscotch looked down, his marefriend, or something close to it, snuggled close in his hooves. He smiled briefly and turned to Angel. Or he would have, if the rabbit hadn't decided that he was taking too long. Butterscotch groaned and flexed his wings in bed, the feeling of pinpricks ran down his spine as he did so. Maybe he had spaced out too long. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he grimaced as he saw it was three in the morning, too late for a good night's sleep. Too early to go to bed truly comfortable and rested- mainly because Dash on training days was oddly hyper, excited, and ready to go instead of her normal lazy demeanor. He sighed and leaned into her, letting his wings cover Dash like a blanket and closed his eyes. He drifted into a fitful sleep where echoes of his past haunted him.
***
"This is an aerometer, Dash. It measures the horsepower your wings exude from your being." Twilight smiled as she patted the little machine, its propeller like ends spinning lazily as wind hit it ever so slowly.
Dash groaned and rubbed her eyes. "Twilight, speak normal please."
Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed, too used to dumbing down her ideas of sheer brilliance for the common pony. "Machine makes horsepower readings for pegasi. Equal 800, good. Not equal 800, bad."
Dash nodded. "Wow, I understood egghead language. All it took was for you to act like you had a stroke." Dash hummed as she left Twilight to her own devices.
Twilight just silently cried, thinking of all the different possibilities she could have had if she had just stayed in Canterlot- Archmage of the town, princess, librarian of the Canterlot Archives. She wasn't completely angry at Celestia for shunting her here and forcing her to learn friendship. Just some days were harder. And dumber than normal.
Butterscotch slid up the the crowd of ponies as Dash finished her speech, the echo of her words, 'TEST' in big, scary letters made the stallion nervous. He was always so bad with tests. Not that he didn't know what to do- just fly and be tested, that wasn't hard, but the idea of comparing his wing speed to another scared him. He felt inadequate.
"Good job, Thunderlane, Flitter, and Cloudchaser. With that we have up to 700 horsepower in our readings- sure I got like most of that due to me being so awesome and cool and aerodynamic-"
A voice piped up, "More like tiny,"
A smattering of laughs went through the crowd of pegasi as Dash continued. "-yes. . .well, some ponies are just small and compact and I don't see anypony else pulling my horsepower numbers. These are some rookie numbers. I know we could jack up the numbers easily since we have like only a few left. And Butterscotch is one of them."
Butterscotch's eyes went to pinpricks as he heard his name and felt the eyes of the crowd turn on him. He felt sheer panic rise up as he imagined the crowd not as normal ponies, but huge, unblinking eyes rolling on the ground, their pupils black and terrifying as they stared into his soul, He wanted to bolt away in fear, but Dash was the only normal pony in his sights, her blue coat a thing that centered him a tiny bit as he crept up to the silly looking machine. "Celestia, help me." he whispered before turning to Twilight and asking what he had to do.
Twilight spoke some technobabble that he could only partially understand and the butter yellow pegasus took his position and launched himself into the air and zoomed towards the machine, his wings going as fast as he could with how scared he was at failing Dash.
Twilight frowned for a moment as she read the data and quickly tossed that worry away as she went into fully clinical mode. "Good first attempt, Scotch. I mean 3.3 horsepower isn't bad. For a. . .you, I mean."
Thunderlane scoffed. "Scotch, you broke my hoof. I doubt that's your maximum. Cause that's. . .weaksauce. Dash was all like 'he's our best shot at doing this' and you come and pull that shit?" A mumbling of voices echoed Thunderlane's sentiment, their discontent truly noticeable.
Dash tried to calm them down, quickly walking in between the crowd and her stallion friend, glaring at any pony that decided to take a step closer to them. "All right, all right. Everypony calm down. That was just a fluke. A perfectly normal fluke. I mean Scotch here doesn't really do what we do here- shape clouds, weather control, the like- so his muscles are warming up. Thunderlane, I doubt you could do a portion of what he does on a regular day for him, so like chill." Dash nodded at Twilight who just yawned and wished she could just not be there. "Okay, Twilight. Scotch. Round two. And this time be snappy. . ."
The yellow stallion took position, his wings fluttering in the breeze uncharacteristically fast for him due to nerves. Due to having to see if he was truly good enough- and everypony was watching. He swallowed in reflex as he felt every eye turn to him, their stares burning a hole in his back as he took position and trued again. He pushed his body to the absolute limit, making sure he was zooming as fast as he could, the wind on his face making him sure he would do it- get a good score and make the team proud- and he panted as his dash to the finish line was tallied and counted by a silent Twilight, her face a complete mask as she crunched the data.
"1 horsepower."
Dash sat there quietly as the crowd turned mocking and hostile, their words of ridicule hitting Butterscotch's ears, the memories of flight school barely hidden as he felt tears on the corners of his eyes, the wetness making it hard to see as he tried to navigate past some of the more vocal members.
"Dash, we're totally fucked. Scotch was our last shot and he's trash at flying. Come on we could just get an untrained foal to do a better job than that. All that hype and we are down 50 horsepower. You know how disappointed Cloudsdale will be? Very. Cause they need that water and without it, the weather is a mess. Ponyville, the important town that caused a widespread drought."
Dash hesitated as she looked at who exactly said that, the crowd giving some anonymity to dissent and worry as she tapped her hooves. "That just means we have to work harder. Pick up the slack."
Flitter walked out, followed by Cloudchaser, their twin stares angry and annoyed. "We wouldn't have to if Butterscotch wasn't bad at flying."
"Don't worry. Just have to-" Dash turned around, ready to talk to the butter yellow pegasus, calm him down and deal with all this discontent in the group. Like normal. Everything was perfectly fine.
Scotch was gone.
***
"Oh Angel, I just couldn't handle being there. I know I just ran off, but all the stares and the laughs and the unkind words just-" Butterscotch curled up in a ball, his eyes watering as he remembered back to the very recent past and he slowly rocked back and forth in an attempt to calm down. "And now I'll never see Dash again cause I humiliated her." He broke down into a new wave of tears.
Angel tapped her foot, its rhythmic thrum beating in time with her rising anger. She had known that the white pony was a bad influence on her caretaker, the histrionic and babbling mare so much like Opalescence, a howling cat too proud to see how toxic and terrible she was. Though Angel tolerated the cat. Really only because she couldn't kick her in the head. Not because she didn't want to, she did. Just Opal would try to bite her head off and then what would Butterscotch do? She was his backbone. Without her, he was just a spineless thing that could be. . .she sighed and hopped on her caretaker's head. She was rather hungry and her supply of carrots was running thin- so she needed to get past this existential crisis of his and fast. She poked Scotch in the face to get his attention. She would have kicked him in the dick or somewhere more private since those were massive targets, but it would be easier to play charades with him when he wasn't holding his family jewels and howling in pain. She chittered away, broadly gesticulating how he could get back into the good graces of Dash and the others- even if she thought that was both a terrible idea and really dumb. Dash was an idiot, a big idiot that took all the focus away from the animals when she was here. Taking out the one thing that made Butterscotch rut like a feral animal and ruin all the hard work he did raising and dealing with all these wild animals by spreading copious amounts of musk everywhere? A net positive good thing. Plus Dash was super hard to get along with. Angel couldn't reason with the simpleton and could barely recognize what her caretaker saw in her besides lithe musculature and a bright noticeable mating display of colors. A male mating display of bright, loud colors. She smirked and continued, outlining a series of rather simple challenges to not really help Scotch's overall strength- the bunny knew better, but to help regain the lost confidence that he needed.
Butterscotch breathed. "Yeah, I guess that could work. But what if I still fail? I mean Dash had been-"
Angel hit her head, the female rabbit sighing as she hopped up and booped the pegasus on the nose. slightly shutting up the circular train of thought. Angel loved seeing ponies running around in circles, but she had carrots to eat and better things to deal with. And if she wanted to hear waffling nonsense hypothetical things she'd just talk to Gummy. His blank stare held uncountable multitudes of almost smart things and good points wrapped up into an incomprehensible mess. Angel chittered in anger at her owner and ran up his leg, firmly planting herself on his back. With a light kick, she piloted the pony towards the door telling of all the plans she had.
Butterscotch looked askance at the gathering of woodland creatures. The deer and bears and the myriad butterflies had all gathered by a long chain of summons from their own sort of leader. Or dictator, the case might be. Angel looked from on high, standing like a conductor ready to start a performance, her self importance written plainly on her grinning face. She pointed and jeered at the crowd, partially humiliating them because she could in the context of this gathering- telling them how cowardly and how sad their good friend was, how completely trodden down he was in his little cottage, how good it would be to one up that colorful pony that most of the creatures tolerated at best and were hostile to at worst- mostly because a few rather miffed contenders for Dash's pet still resented how they had been looked over for a measly tortoise, the gall of that peacock of a pony. Angel looked down as she fished her rallying cries for animalian justice and tapped on Scotch's head, the pink mane ruffling as she did so.
"Oh, I guess that means its, uh, ready?"
Angel crossed her arms and nodded, quickly sorting the butterflies into a tight regimented group. Angel dragged a rope, a very light one, over and handed it to the gathered mass of butterflies who gripped it in their stick like legs and held onto it firmly. Angel nodded and quickly did a few paw motions that told the group exactly what to do- throw the match convincingly.
Butterscotch crept up and gripped the rope in his mouth, pulling with a weak and experimental tug. He didn't want to hurt the insects, especially if they were being so generous with their time. He grunted and nodded at Angel who yawned and pulled out a small watch that Scotch had given her once, waiting ever so patiently for the hands to crawl to a new minute. She nodded as the time started, counting down the seconds.
Butterscotch pulled with a fraction of his mighty muscles, years of doing hard work for tons of animals chiseling him into a perfect specimen of sheer quiet stallion perfection. Though he tempered the rumbling horsepower beneath because he didn't want to hurt any butterflies, especially since some of their familial lines had caught him in his fall to Ponyville.
After a minute or two of both sides attempting to struggle in a comedic farce of letting the other side win, Angel did her little signal. With a great and overacted huff, the mass of butterflies let them be dragged into a light heap.
Butterscotch quickly ran to the side of the insects, checking each for any kind of damage to their wings and bodies. Finding none, the pegasus leaned back and quietly cheered as he had actually completed a task he had gone out and tried to lose. The butterflies had put up a good fight, their pulls equal to his weak one and he had expected to toss the win. But somehow he had succeeded.
Angel hopped up and pointed at the next challenge, pulling out all the stops as she flailed her tiny paws to explain how Butterscotch's challenge was super important. Mainly it really wasn't supposed to do much. Just have a mass of flowers to release their payload of flowery insides and spread them across all of Ponyville. For reasons. The little female bunny grinned as she thought of the possibilities of that cloud of fun just descending upon the town.
Butterscotch leaned back and looked at the darkening sky. "Angel, honey, I think its rather late. We could do that tomorrow." The yellow pegasus smiled slightly since he actually felt like he had accomplished something good.
***
It had been three days since Butterscotch had run away from practice and Dash was starting to get rather worried. Not that she had an issue with meeting the 800 horsepower for a tornado. Not at all, that was the furthest thing from her mind. Just that there was something off with her fliers- Thunderlane and a few others came to practice complaining heavily of allergies and that was terribly impossible. The air was clear of anything that could set off somepony. Okay so maybe the earth pony weather service said that there was an unseasonably late pollination for flowers. Maybe Dash saw a few more sneezing ponies than usual, but she chalked it up to circumstance and her mind quietly counting the horsepower she would need. She breathed out. Maybe she was slightly worried about the goal since with the quality of the air and the widespread allergies. she woke up yesterday dreaming that Spitfire had gone home disappointed in her.
"Dash? You're the weather leader of Ponyville?" Spitfire walked slowly through the prep area of the tornado, her movements precise and focused through more than a decade of being a Wonderbolt. "And Soarin' here thought that I was wrong. Guess somepony has to pay me what we agreed on." Spitfire winked at Soarin' who blushed furiously. "Now I would love to catch up with one of the ponies that made the Gala semi bearable but Cloudsdale is on a tight schedule. I'd be spreading these things out all the time, a week here, a week there. I mean this is a vacation to me. Get to see the sights of Equestria."
"And pies." Soarin' awkwardly piped up.
"-and the food too. Sorry about him. But no matter, let's get this over with. I would be staying here longer but you know how the Cloudsdale Weather Service can be. Once they replaced the last weather manager with the new stallion, its been a mess." Spitfire shook her head. "But if a pony such as yourself is the leader here, then it's settled. Everypony ready?"
Dash's eyes bugged out as she felt weirdly faint. Meeting her heroes and having Spitfire, the Captain who she might have had a slightly unhealthy fillyhood crush on speak words to her and compliment her, here in front of Dash, her toned and nice looking body on slight display with that air of confidence that she just exuded. . .well, she was at a loss. "Sure, sure, I'll just have to count our numbers."
Spitfire nodded. "Sounds good. And you know, if you need help, we are always here. I mean we can't get your team to be tip top, but I keep hearing the manual on these things weren't updated. Something about there being a holdup in the print business, but as long as a tornado is made, Cloudsdale's happy."
Soarin' yawned. "Yeah, don't be Appleloosa from five years ago. That was a disaster."
Dash laughed, her voice hollow. "Yeah. That'd be awful."
\
"Twilight, how many are sick or gone?" Dash paced cautiously as she kept her voice down. She could see Soarin' and Spitfire chatting happily between one another their faces close to each other. Dash gulped, worried that they were talking about her. She didn't want to be Appleloosa, whatever that meant. She hadn't even looked at the horror stories about failed tornado calls because she was confident. Almost too confident.
Twilight, who had been forcibly awoken by a rather nervous Dash four hours ago at the crack of dawn, grumbled as she pulled out her notes, careful to flip through her gather data and double checked it with a speed honed by years of reading the Detrotsky Method in shelves upon shelves of books. "Seems like we have six outright missing with no reason, and we have four in the hospital with the pony pox. Also about half are showing some symptom of allergies since the pollen count is abnormally high for this year."
Dash tapped a hoof as she heard the news, her heart falling in her chest as she tried to figure out exactly how she could make a tornado. "What does that mean?"
Twilight's ears picked that up and robotically answered. "Well, since pegasi were so isolated in the historical record, they have an increased chance-"
Dash facehoofed. "Twilight, I know that. Not talking about allergies. What does that mean about our chances."
Twilight shrugged. "I don't know, but your margin for error is decreased, and with the losses, I'd say you have to hope for a miracle to pull this off."
Dash looked down. "We're so fucked."
"Angel, I can't be late for the tornado." Butterscotch had double and triple checked if he had done everything before setting out for the worst part of today- being in front of ponies and helping with this tornado. He felt a slight tremble as he thought about it and even with the few days of training or at least using his animals as a simulated group of ponies, he still felt jittery. He hadn't asked why Angel had had a set of masks, he didn't really like the implications so he just chalked it up to her being supportive. The rabbit in question was tapping her hoof and saying she was so hungry for carrots. "Okay, Angel, one more carrot. But then I need to go. Dash expects me to be there even though I doubt I can help all that much."
Angel rolled her beady little eyes and grabbed a carrot, miming flipping off the blue pegasus as her caretaker turned. She thought Butterscotch's little flings with the small one rather stupid. He could do better. Or at least not have an idiot near her. She had been with Butterscotch the longest, and a new old friend for the pegasus cramped her style of control. She lived well here, and had ways to get him to give her what she wanted- more food, more space, et cetera. Having him rut like an animal whenever the blue one came over? That mucked up her day.
Butterscotch smiled as he put his white and red sweatband on, careful to keep his pink mane out of his eyes. "Okay, well, I'm off. Now Angel, be good for me."
Angel nodded carefully. She didn't want to chance getting a taste of Butterscotch's Stare. He liked the demure stallion, but that thing, that thing she hated. When he turned his eyes on her and actually focused. Then it felt like the tall yellow stallion had lost all pretenses and become a snake in the grass, staring at the rabbit like a juicy morsel. Wheneveir that happened she felt her stomach drop and all the repressed guilt of taking advantage of him come back in a flood. It wasn't like she wasn't going to stop taking advantage of the stallion- he made it too easy and the rest of the animals respected her out of fear and admiration- but in those moments, she almost felt bad for doing it.
Butterscotch smiled and took off to the air.
***
"Where's Scotch?" Dash looked out at the sky, expecting the lithe yet strong pegasus to come swooping in. He was her last chance at getting this tornado off the ground. She paced back and forth, checking the time. It was almost noon and the the sendoff of the reservoir was supposed to happen in a few minutes. Spitfire and Soarin' had places to go and things to do and they couldn't just be held up all day waiting for this. She held a hoof above her eyes and scanned the horizon, checking the area for any slow moving pegasi. Since most were here, it made the skies clear of most obstructions. For a moment, all she saw was a few birds. The small blue pegasus tapped her hooves in fear. Scotch knew when this supposed to happen. Dash had spent weeks talking up this event, planning everything, and she was feeling nervous.
"Dash, who are you waiting for?"
Dash turned ready to explain the predicament she was having. She opened her mouth and turned her eyes to the voice and was greeted by the exact pony she was waiting for. Butterscotch, his hair in a sweatband- a look she hadn't expected from the slightly effeminate stallion, but he pulled it off well. The yellow stallion was glistening in a slight sheen of sweat and the slight musk that he was giving off made her slightly disoriented. A slight idea of riding his meat pole until he knocked her up and made her sure that she was carrying his foal ran through her mind, the idea of having a swelling belly with new life weirdly hot to her in a completely antithetical way. She just hadn't seen the stallion actually kick up a sweat in forever, him work making him so used to heavy labor that it was second nature to him. It was exceedingly hot to the small mare. She closed her mouth and tried to inch closer, trying not to lose the professionalism that she had cultivated through years of training for the Wonderbolts and running a tight ship of weather ponies. She cleared her throat and rubbed her inner thighs together as she walked. "Good, I was just trying to look for my secret weapon. I thought I told you to be early and here you are being nearly late for the biggest pegasi event in Ponyville."
Butterscotch blushed. "Yes, well, Angel was being persistent about having a few extra carrots. And then I got nervous about this. And I trained for a few hours trying to get my horsepower up." Butterscotch tapped his hooves as he tried to look in Dash's eyes. "Shoot, I forgot to shower." The yellow stallion groaned. "I knew I forgot something."
Dash felt a bead of sweat run down her face. "I mean its fine, I don't even notice. I mean you smell good. I mean better than a lot of these meatheads. So like get in line cause Twilight's timing the exact moment we need to start."
Twilight stared at the lake. She wished she was in the lake surrounded by little floating chalkboards, able to relax with her friends and complete Firenze the Mad's final theorem of alternate universe thermodynamics since she had an inkling of how they should work with actual science and tweaking certain variables. If only she had firsthoof knowledge of an alternate universe, she'd have the final bit of it solved. But here she was timing a thing Dash could time- if they didn't need all hooves on deck to make this tornado work. She lightly let her horn light up and activated an amplification spell. Her voice boomed out, not like the Canterlot Voice of Luna's or even a loud Celestia, but audible to all pegasi around her. "Alright, its time. Now everypony I'm using a model on how these things work. So once Dash takes to the air, we will follow one by one in her draft and build up from there. I'll shout out every hundred horsepower. We should get easily 800 by this method." Twilight crossed her hooves since she was technically not wrong but it relied on a lot of variable factors. "All right, on your mark, get set, go!"
Dash nodded and took off to the skies, her rainbow trail a beacon for her air draft letting each and every pegasi know exactly where she was at every moment. Using a recognizable trail like Dash's was Twilight's idea. Streamlining the group's air draft to create the greatest amount of suction? That was all Dash. She banked into a turn and picked up speed, the days of gathering good air flow paying off with her wings hitting good patches of air immediately. It gave her a bit of a boost in speed since she didn't have to spend time expending as much energy. She felt the wind behind her pick up speed as a cavalcade of pegasi started joining her air stream.
She almost felt like she could do it. Then she heard Twilight's voice boom through the air.
"500."
"Spitty, they sure look like they can't seem to get it off the ground." Soarin' pointed at the water in the middle of the lake slowly stretching out like a snake as it gyrated back and forth. It pulled to the side as the wind hit it, the pegasi magic slowly forming it into a cone of water that would be shot off like a rocket towards Cloudsdale.
Spitfire crossed her hooves. "I know that. But we can't just jump into it until we're sure. That'd be unfair. Plus you know why we're actually here."
Soarin' looked nervously at the water. He really didn't want an Appleloosan situation here. That flood was horrible and a papertrail nightmare to deal with. "Yeah, yeah. Vacation plus Wonderbolt scouting."
Spitfire grinned. "Exactly, and Skittles here is doing perfect. Almost reminds me of me when I was younger."
Soarin' grimaced. "Don't remind me. You almost broke my pelvis the first time we met."
Spitfire blushed. "I made it up to you. Plus you dick still works. And anyway it got us together."
The blue stallion nodded nervously. "Yeah, but I couldn't walk for weeks."
Spitfire grinned. "And here most stallions would love to be able to say that about me." She quickly nuzzled her stallion. "But I'm a one stallion mare. And I have needs too."
Soarin' felt his costume become tight in the crotch as he stared at Spitfire who was giving him fuck me eyes. "Oh Celestia, we're in public."
Spitfire nodded. "Yes, but if we play our cards right, nopony's watching." She slowly bent down and smiled as she saw the stallion's bulge. "And it looks like somepony's up and raring to go. You heard Celestia's hottest student, according to the silly Wonderbolt poll I stole from you. Going to take a few minutes probably like ten and you know how much you love my pie. Nopony's on the ground and the bleachers are always my favorite spot to lay out and peel off these spandex clothes."
Soarin' bit his lip as Spitfire kissed the tip through his suit.
***
"Twilight, we got this right?" Butterscotch looked up at the winding tornado.
"Well, we need you to do your best." Twilight twiddled her hooves. "What with everypony getting allergies the moment we need them, Dash's plan is kind of tight on numbers."
Butterscotch thought back on the last few days, feeling his own wingbeats stir up entire fields of flowers, letting their pollen sweep over the land like the comfiest plague of disease ever. He felt a shiver run up his spine. "Oh, that's just positively terrible. I mean, the allergies. Must have been a fluke or something."
Twilight didn't catch the slight hint of worry in the stallion's deep voice. "Yeah, something like that. But usually the weather service's ground section is good on pollen counts. Can't believe that the earth ponies would just forget to warn all of us. Especially with how important this is."
Butterscotch nodded. "Yeah. Well, what's the number anyway?"
Twilight stared at the machine, tapping each hundred as she went to make sure she was exact in her measurements to the decimal point. "Look's like 795.8. Though there is always a chance that we could get the Wonderbolts to help." Twilight turned, ready to see where Soarin' and Spitfire were supposed to be. "Wait, they were right there. Where the buck are they?" She could have sworn she had heard the pair mumble amongst themselves mere minutes ago, but the landing strip was bare of any other pegasi. "Crud. Well. Scotch, I know this is going to suck for you, but you need to get up there to help cause I can't figure out what else to do."
Butterscotch wavered. "But what if I do bad again. I mean I have been training, but what if I don't get us above 800."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I don't care if you do or not. Just do it for Dash and it'll be fine. I'll try and tell you the number so you know how to hit it. We just need to try something."
Butterscotch breathed out and tried to think of happy thoughts as his nerves kicked in. He kept one eye in the sky, seeing Dash's trail loop circles around the tornado. "Fine, I'll do it for her." He shot off into the sky.
Twilight groaned as she measured the additional horsepower. The bar went up another four, which was very respectable for Butterscotch, his wings unused to speed. But it was still two-tenths of a horsepower off of actually meeting the goal.
***
Dash grunted as she hit the wall on her speed. She tried to push harder, but her body was not giving her that second wind that she needed and with the disorienting spin on the tornado, she didn't want to lose focus to gather more. She was in full leader mode, keeping her wings flapping as fast as she could, her muscles flexing hard as she tried to push the tiniest bit out of her team. Every rotation she bumped into another pegasi, her motions influencing the rest. She turned this way and that and so her team followed, honing their own flight pattern as they did into a tightly wound machine. She griamced as she heard Twilight's final number echo like a death knell through the air. 798.8. She could feel her team almost start flagging as that reality set in. She did another quick spin, trying to bolster the team, keeping their spirits up and making sure the high number didn't drop.
Then as she worried she wasn't going to meet the number, she saw a very familiar stallion edge ever closer to her, his wingbeats slow but methodical as he inched closer and closer. Butterscotch's wings pistoning slowly but surely, like Dash's very own tortoise, towards his end goal. His breaths were heavy since his body was unsure and unused to speed, but with how focused he was, she could guess his exact destination.
"Dash!" Butterscotch whisper shouted in the whipping and howling wind, his voice barely audible against that maelstrom.
Dash lowered herself towards him, closing the distance and letting the pale yellow stallion in her draft. "I thought you were going to be too scared to come up here."
Butterscotch smiled, his eyes terrified as he realized where he was. "I'm completely mortified that I'm here. But I'm here."
Dash nodded. "Wouldn't have it any other way. But unless you come up with a way to push us past 800, we're screwed Scotch."
Scotch thought long and hard, thinking back on everything he learned through the last few days. He had pushed his body to the limit with his speed, the training sessions with Angel all recent and forefront in his memory. But he remembered something, something that had kind of lost its importance in the last few days with the training and his loss of confidence- an image of Dash from months ago. Their first time being more than just friends. He had buried it- especially since the most recent time that the blue pegasus had tried the same maneuver, he had came all over her backside, matting her fur with his cum. But here she was in his memory, his shaft hilted in her, stretching her nearly to her breaking point due to how mismatched their sizes were. And her face was a mask of pure bliss as she hit her orgasm, the wings on her back fluttering at a speed that he rarely saw from her- almost like a hummingbird's, her insides fully painted with his seed. Butterscotch dropped back to the present, his cheeks burning with heat as he realized what he needed to do, the sheer horror of fucking his not a marefriend, but totally his marefriend, in public etched on his face. "Dash, this is going to be awkward."
Dash looked at him, unsure of what he meant. And then she felt his dick slide fully into her, hilting and resting fully against her womb.
***
Twilight watched as the tornado, full of the town's excess water, shot up with a massive amount of force and shot off towards Cloudsdale. She noticed there was a strange pulsing in the middle of it, but it held together and zoomed off perfectly fine, so she just chalked it up to some odd time thing.
Then she saw Dash and Butterscotch come down from on high, the two of them in an embrace, their separate bodies close but a bit too close for Twilight's personal taste. She was going to comment something when they walked up, but then her nostrils got a whiff of the pair and she stopped and looked down. Dash's insides were leaking. Not of blood but of white and she was kind of in shock. Not that she was surprised since Rarity had bets that the pair was an item since like forever.
But moreso that the day was truly saved by fucking.
***
Celestia giggled as she read Twilight's explanation of events, her immortal mirth highly amused by Twilight's terse and scientific explanation of how the pair of pegasi were now kind of inseparable and how she was highly worried that it would impact morale in the Elements. Celestia loved her student but sometimes she wondered if Twilight truly got the point of friendship. Sometimes there was something hidden deep within there, an extra layer that was just under the surface ready to bust out. Celestia smiled, wondering if she had to plan for a gift for the pair, since she knew exactly how that accidental falling in love feeling truly felt. And with how Twilight explained in great and somehow boring detail, it seemed that rainbow Dash had a little bit of a glow about her. For a moment, she wondered what to do with Discord, it being years since she had a real connection with the draconequus. She hummed softly as a myriad of nice memories flooded her mind. Yes, that would be rather nice. She stared out at the statue garden and glanced at Discord's imposed statuesque self.
She had walked out every day and talked to him, just sitting there and sharing a cup of tea as she set the sun. It was her favorite part of the day, and she wished that she could one day do the same with the actual living and breathing version of Discord. She thought slowly, wondering about that idea, letting it ruminate in her mind.
She would have to get Luna's permission to attempt something as radical as reformation, but with some cajoling and maybe some light words of encouragement, the blue alicorn might be perceptive on doing that. Celestia rolled up the weekly letter from Twilight and grinned ever so deviously, a hint of that emotion barely crossing her face. "Now that could be truly interesting."
Author's Note
Wrote this as a joke from seeing the cover art.
