Gravity

Our hearts will race, for time and time again
We find ourselves within our friends’ good grace.
It’s fine, sometimes, to part that shady glen.
It’s better to give in than to erase.
A contrast to the colors in your hair
To wash the light away in shades of white.
A fleeting chance. A humble mare’s affair.
A thunderbolt; with fear, her eyes excite.
There is no need for us to be alone.
There is no need for us to be apart.
But when, at last, the pegasus has flown,
She hates the heavy feeling in her heart.
No gain. No time to think of lover’s loss.
Just paint a smile, and coat it thick with gloss.

***

“Quit struggling! It will wrinkle if you don’t stand still!”

Rainbow Dash let out an exacerbated sigh as she began to thoroughly regret so hastily agreeing to be Rarity’s ‘mannequin’ for a day. The task was boring enough without the sound of Rarity’s constant nagging. “I told you I wasn’t made for standing still. I was made for speed!” Rainbow countered. Her hooves began bouncing up and down concurrently and her wings twitched with the pining to move.

“Oh, hush! I can’t do a fitting with you flying around the room at top speed.” Rarity’s tone remained stoic as she chastised her friend, “Besides, when I found you, you were napping anyway. So if I hadn’t asked for your help you’d be sitting still anyway.”

“But I’d be asleep, so I wouldn’t have to suffer through all this boredom.” Rainbow was indeed suffering, but it wasn’t because of boredom. Instead, it was from excitement and embarrassment. Her heart raced faster, not craving the speed that the rest of her body ached for, but instead the proximity of her close friend.

“It wouldn’t take so long if you didn’t spend all of your days off cramming salty snacks down your muzzle in between naps. You’ve become a bit more…” Rarity chose her next words carefully for the sake of her friend’s fragile psyche, “shapely since the last time I had you model my work.” Rarity would never insult her dear friends, but she was always unusually concerned with their outward appearances, and perhaps a little bit with their overall well-being (but most likely the former).

What to most ponies would have sounded like an insult instead jumbled itself into a compliment amongst Rainbow’s selective hearing. The word ‘shapely’, as Rarity had said it, played over repeatedly in her head, taking a more sultry and seductive tone with each repetition. Rainbow was afraid of nothing, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t get nervous from time to time, and now was one of those times. Her fidgeting became more rapid and apparent as she began to falter in her attempt to contain her emotions.

The blood rushing to Rainbow’s azure cheeks turned her a shade more befitting of their studious librarian friend, and her unicorn companion took notice of this. “Are you alright, dear? I know this must be trying for you, but you look almost ill.” Rarity lifted up one of her delicate hooves, brushing a lock of the red and orange hues of Rainbow’s mane out of her face as she pressed her forehoof against the pegasus’ forehead. “Gracious, Rainbow Dash, you’re burning up! If you weren’t feeling well, why didn’t you say so? I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you in such a state.”

Rainbow’s selective hearing acted up again, her only thoughts centered on the words ‘take advantage of’. “I wouldn’t mind that at all,” she said without thinking.

“Hmmm?” A look of confusion formed across Rarity’s countenance.

Rainbow was pulled back into the reality of the situation, and realized how uncool she looked at this precise moment. She continued to fidget, realizing that this was not helping the image she was projecting. “I mean… I feel fine. Really, it’s nothing,” she stammered as she collected what little sanity she had remaining.

“Are you certain? I’ve never seen you like this.” The genuine concern in Rarity’s voice hit Rainbow’s ears with a far more sultry tone than was intended, and Rainbow’s remaining sanity diminished. Rarity inched closer to her, attempting to double check her temperature by placing their foreheads together.

Rainbow began to feel as though she would melt if her temperature rose any further. Her friend’s horn became tangled in her own matted and disheveled mane, and the sensation robbed her of her grip on reality.

“Honestly, Rainbow. Your forehead is on fir—mmmfffhhh!” Rarity’s chastising was suddenly silenced by the fire burning within Rainbow’s chapped lips as they collided with her own. There they stayed, connected and unmoving for a brief moment that seemed to drag on, simply feeling the warmth pass between their connected muzzles. Rarity was too shocked to pull away, and Rainbow too nervous to put forth any passion into their first kiss.

Rainbow’s eyes stayed closed to avoid the possibility of seeing disapproval in her friend’s face with her course of action. She remained motionless, simply enjoying the feeling of being pressed up against the lips she had thought about for so long. When her mind made the connection that they were so much softer than she had imagined, she also came to the realization of what she was doing. Her eyes darted open as she jumped backwards in embarrassment. Every muscle in her fought between the warring options of flying away as fast as possible or pulling back into her friend for more of what she had thought about for so long.

Rarity remained motionless while Rainbow silently debated with her fight-or-flight instincts. The only change in the unicorn’s demeanor was the rapid shrinkage of her pupils, which had nearly disappeared, bringing Rainbow’s attention to the gorgeous match between her coat and Rarity’s irises.

“I– I—” Rarity stuttered as she tried to recollect her ladylike pride for a proper response.

“I’m so sorry, Rarity! I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear!” Rainbow was only second in her lack of ability to lie to Applejack. There was no hiding how overjoyed she was through all her embarrassment. Rarity pulled in closer to the pegasus, and Rainbow closed her eyes in fear of the slap she was sure she would receive for her grievous violation. Her face turned away, only to be pulled back by Rarity’s velvety-soft hooves and pulled in for a much shorter, but more passionate kiss.

Rainbow opened her eyes to see the soft smile forming across the unicorn’s face as she pulled in closer, her lips caressing against Rainbow’s ears. This time the voice she heard was genuinely seductive, with no way for Rainbow to misinterpret her words, “Rainbow Dash?”

“Mmmm?” was the only response Rainbow could muster through the warm breath and silky voice massaging her ears, and in the instant it took for her to blink, Rarity said the only thing Rainbow didn’t want to hear.

“Wake up.”

***

When her eyelids parted from the slightest blink, Rainbow was no longer in the Carousel Boutique. She was laying sprawled out on a cloud, high above Ponyville, with the only shade of blue around her no longer the irises of Rarity’s eyes, but instead the endless expanse of sky above her.

“Horseapples… Not again…”

Rainbow lay outstretched on her comfy cumulus as she cursed her fate. Every night, a similar dream, and now during her daytime nap routine as well! One day it would be Fluttershy needing help collecting migratory birds, then Rainbow Dash would inevitably kiss her and struggle to hear the faint voice of Fluttershy…

“Rainbow Dash, wake up.”

The other day she was helping Twilight clean up the mess she had caused after crashing through her window during another failed fancy-flight routine. The two were sweeping up bits of glass when their lips collided and Twilight would blush with uncertainty as she spoke…

“Rainbow Dash, wake up.”

Bucking apples with AJ… Baking cupcakes with Pinkie… Kiss…

“Rainbow Dash, wake up!”

For every kiss, there was another rude awakening. She pounded her hoof against her fluffy mattress in frustration before realizing that the cloud was unusually moist, despite being made of water. She slowly inched her hoof towards her nethers and confirmed her fears. She was in estrus, and the musky dampness of the cloud was not a naturally occurring part of the water cycle, but her own.

Her hoof remained attached to the southern regions of her body, as she pondered what to do about her situation. What bothered her wasn’t so much the fact that she was dreaming about mares, but that it was her friends that inhabited her subconscious infatuations. She was inexperienced in love and romance, but had found herself pining for mares in the past. In fact, as she wondered about her past objects of affection, she realized she had been infatuated with mares before she even realized that her thoughts were sexual or romantic.

It wasn’t that she had given up on stallions, nor never taken interest in them. What caught her eye when it came to others were things like coolness, awesomeness and radicalness, and yes, she could indeed tell the difference between the three. But from her youngest days, it was speed that attracted her more than anything.

Because of this, it’s no surprise that as she matured from a young filly into a mare, she began to realize that her feelings towards her childhood hero, Spitfire, had become more intense than she initially desired. To her, the coolest of the cool began to feel like the hottest of the hot. She had never taken action on these feelings in her younger days, and how could she? This was her hero! The most skilled flier in all of Equestria (next to herself, of course)! Before meeting Twilight Sparkle, she never dreamed she would even meet the legendary mare, and her fantasies towards her dwindled over time.

She had many objects of affection over the years, but all of them equally as ridiculous in her eyes. Each one was far cooler than she found herself to be, and out of reach. Sometimes it was due to distance, sometimes stature and sometimes by the bonds of reality. For a time, after Twilight helped her connect with her inner egghead, she found herself dreaming not of knights in shining armor whisking her away, but instead of Daring Do sweeping in on a vine to save her from some sort of booby-trapped dungeon. She was not proud of that period. She found it incredibly uncool, and would likely be ashamed had anyone ever discovered such a secret. Fictional characters, no matter how cool they were, were far further out of reach than any of her previous fantasies. Still, it was always the cool ponies that she found herself attracted to.

So why was she now touching herself while she thought about her closest friends? Without a doubt, they were the greatest friends she could have ever asked for, but not a single one of them was ‘cool’ in any way she could measure. She wanted to feel guilt, remorse, shame, for all these feelings and more, but in her current state, all she felt were the basest desires of lust.

Not one to take anything slowly, her hoof worked betwixt her moistened lips at a furious speed. All her instincts told her that fast was always the way to go, and her quick movements sent shivers down her body as she began to feel different sensations activate within every nerve she had. She tried to bite her lower lip down, but found herself breathing too heavily to contain any sort of action her mouth was responsible for. The pressure was building as her motions turned faster and faster, the rest of her body struggling to keep up with the syncopated rhythm her hoof kept up against the most sensitive of her swollen parts. Her wings wrapped tightly around her body as her back arched on the precipice of release and—

Nothing. The sound of Rarity’s voice as her warmth caressed her ear continued to echo in her head. It carried her to the brink of emancipation, but as hard as she tried to imagine her fashionista friend’s lips moving to say anything else, the only words she could hear come out were those of the disappointment that always robbed her of the fantasy. Her hoof, soaked in the shame of her sexual frustration, collapsed at her side as she caught her breath. Right now, the only thing that bothered her more than her inability to release her mind and body from its erotic imprisonment was the boredom. She hated the time spent just lying there, waiting for her exhaustion to calm back down to as close as she could be to ‘normal’ in this state.

Though a rare occasion, the feeling of dried sweat against her coat bothered her, and she slowly rose to her hooves. She leaned forward, stretching her front hooves out as far as she could push them. The cracks and pops as she craned her neck out were the closest thing to relief she had felt all day, and finally awoke her wings from slumber as well. With a few quick pounces, she coaxed a short, but heavy rain from her former mattress. Then with a burst of tremendous speed, she flapped her wings as she raced gravity towards the ground. She landed with a harsh thud, quickly followed by the cold shower that fell on top of her, rinsing away the sweat and shame.

Her wings parted wide, and with a series of quick flaps and shakes, she blew her coat dry, and her mane fell back into its naturally disheveled, yet color-coded, state. At last, she felt the slightest bit better after how her afternoon had begun. She breathed a sigh of relief, only to have the relief robbed by the sound behind her.

“Phbbt! Phbbt! Oh, now look what you’ve done, Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow turned around to see the figure from her most recent dreams glaring back at her with a glare that somehow broke through the wet mane that draped over her face, obscuring her vision. At a moment when she should have felt shame and embarrassment, the only thing Rainbow could conjure up at the moment was laughter. She held a hoof towards her mouth as she snorted, but quickly broke in a heavy chortle as she pointed at her friend in case it wasn’t obvious enough what she found so funny. “Bwah! Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaah!!”

“I fail to see what’s so funny about this,” Rarity scolded. “Now I need a shower. Perhaps you’ll join me, Rainbow?”

Rainbow’s laughter came to an abrupt halt. “Wait, what now?”

“I said my I just got my mane styled and now it’s ruined!”

Rainbow tried to conceal how much she was blushing as she came to grips with reality. “Oh, right. I thought you said… Never mind what I thought you said. Sorry, that was totally uncool of me.” She brushed a hoof against the back of her messy mane in embarrassment.

“Indeed. A lady doesn’t just shake herself dry in public,” Rarity lectured.

“No offense, milady, but have I ever come off as a lady to you?” Rainbow said with an upturned eyebrow and mischievous smirk.

“Touché, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to start.” Rarity tried to regain the upper hoof in the situation, but broke into a sweet giggle. “Ah, Dash, you know I can’t stay mad at you. Besides, there’s not much I find more relaxing than having my mane done anyway, and I have no excuse but to go again now.” The glow from Rarity’s horn emanated through the wet locks of her mane as it lifted out of her face. For the sake of playful revenge, she made sure to gently smack Rainbow Dash with her mane as it whipped back over her head.

“That wasn’t very ladylike,” Rainbow teased.

“Oh, hush. You deserved it. Now come, let’s make haste.”

Rainbow looked back at her in confusion. “Um… Where?”

Rarity held her head back with grace and confidence as she answered, “The spa, of course.”

“And why do I have to come?”

Rarity looked back at her with a sinister grin. “Penance.”

***

The chime of a small bell rang as the door to the spa swung open. Aloe looked up from the counter and saw the spa’s most faithful customer standing in the doorway in shambles, and quickly rushed to her side. This was far from the first time she had seen Rarity visit the spa twice in a single day, but she was surprised to see the companion she had in tow. She quickly gave the athletic pegasus a once-over before sarcastically asking, “Can I help you?”

“It’s alright, Aloe,” Rarity responded. “She’s with me.”

Aloe’s tone quickly turned friendly and patronizing as she addressed the white unicorn. “Of course, Miss Rarity. Whatever you say. And what brings you back so soon?”

Rarity pointed a hoof at Rainbow. “She does. Look what she did to my coiffure!” Rainbow would have felt guiltier if Rarity was trying so hard to play the pity card.

“Oh that’s such a shame,” Aloe said. Rainbow felt like she would feel sick if she had to watch any more of Aloe kissing-up to Rarity. “The usual, then?”

“Of course,” Rarity responded.

“Um, Rarity? If you’re just going to get your mane redone, what am I doing here?”

“Indeed,” Aloe concurred. “What would you like us to do with your… friend? The usual, as well?”

Rarity looked over Rainbow carefully as she carefully picked out her friend’s punishment. “Oh no, that won’t do at all. Give her the works.”

Rainbow looked back at Rarity in horror as she heard Aloe excitedly squeal, “Yes, ma’am! Oh, Lotus~~~! One ‘Pretty Pampered Pegasus Package’ for Miss…” Rarity leaned in and whispered into Aloe’s ear. “—Rainbow Dash!”

A similar voice echoed from one of the back rooms, “Coming right uuuuup~~~!!”

Rainbow continued to stare at Rarity as she finally spoke up. “You can’t be serious. There’s no way I’m agreeing to this. It’s undeniably, unmistakably uncool.”

“Argue all you want, but you’re doing this, and you’re going to enjoy every second of it,” Rarity responded.

“Like Tartarus I am!” Rainbow took off to escape, but found her wings weren’t carrying her anywhere.

“Not so fast!” Rarity’s horn glowed brightly as she strained herself to hold the fugitive in place. “You owe me, and by Celestia, you’re getting everything short of a hornicure this spa has to offer!” Rarity looked off at Aloe and beckoned, “Get her!”

Unable to struggle much from the spell, Rainbow quickly found herself subdued and restrained in one of the soft fluffy spa robes nearby. Lotus appeared from the backroom to help Aloe tie a few extra sashes around the midsection to contain Rainbow’s wings, and soon she was being carted off towards one of the many torture chambers in the back room.

“You win this round, Rarity!” Rainbow yelled as she was dragged down the hallway.

“Too-de-loo~~~! I’ll see you in the steam room! Oh, and Lotus?” The spa sister paused as Rarity called out to her. “One final request: make it… slow.”

“NNNNNOOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOooooo!!!”

***

“I bucking hate you so much.”

Rarity couldn’t help but snicker at her friend’s expense, “Language, Rainbow Dash. I swear, you’ll never be a lady at this rate.”

“Fine by me,” Rainbow shot back at her.

The two had at last reconvened in the steam room, and Rarity couldn’t wipe the evil grin off her face. Not only was Rainbow Dash at last looking radiant, it was obviously bothering her greatly. Looking radiant was much further down the spectrum than looking cool, and the two definitely never happened at the same time. In the end, some of the treatments hadn’t bothered Rainbow Dash as much as she let on (particularly the much-needing preening), but she had a reputation to uphold, and wasn’t about to let Rarity know exactly how much she enjoyed herself, nor how happy she was to be alone with her at this moment. Or how scared…

“What’s the point of a steam room anyhow?” Rainbow asked. “This all seems pretty silly and hokey to me.”

“It opens up the pores and exfoliates the– Oh, who cares? It just feels reaaaaally bucking good.”

Rainbow Dash found herself taken aback by her friend’s response. “Did you just swear?” She raised her scratchy voice a couple octaves for the sake of mimicry, “Whatever happened to ‘I’ll make a lady out you yet, Rainbow Dash’?”

“Okay, you found my dirty little secret.” Rarity blushed slightly and turned her face away as she stretched out her hooves and lay prone on the bench they shared. “Every week when I come to the spa, I’m so relaxed by the time I reach the steam room that I forget all about that ‘lady’ and ‘image’ junk that I worry about all the time. Honestly, being a lady takes a lot of energy, and right now, I just don’t have it in me, and I couldn’t care less.”

“Really? I thought that image stuff was what mattered most to you in the world.” Rainbow secretly felt a bit of shame at this. She thought the one thing she had in common with Rarity was that they both cared so much about their image, and it saddened her to know that they truly were complete opposites.

“Well, I do take a certain amount of personal pride in my appearance, but honestly, I’ve come to realize that I act like lady more for professional gain than personal preference. You girls taught me that. Every time I came close to the success I craved, I realized what I really wanted has been here all along.”

Rainbow felt a little better hearing that, but it also brought another question to her mind. “So, I take it Fluttershy knows about your secret too?”

“Indeed. The spa affects everypony differently. Fluttershy for example, sh—” Rarity quickly covered her mouth and refused to say another word, her cheeks ripe with the sudden rush of blood.

“She what? This I gotta’ hear.” Rainbow found herself half intrigued by the supposed gossip, and half by the adorable blush on Rarity’s face, just like she had appeared in her dreams.

“I shouldn’t say…” Rarity fidgeted her hooves a bit, which only caught Rainbow’s attention further. “It wouldn’t be ladylike for me to say.”

“I thought you said you stopped caring about being ladylike,” Rainbow chastised.

“Then I just don’t want to tell you, okay?” Rarity said defensively.

Rainbow inched closer, her eyes fixed on Rarity’s as she sternly spoke, “Rarity, I may have ruined your precious manestyle, but boo-hoo, you get another trip to the spa out of it. What you just had me put through was a level of Tartarus I didn’t imagine existed! You. Owe. Me.”

“…”

The sound of the sudden evaporation of water to steam created a similar effect on their conversation to crickets in an open field.

“…”

“Touché,” Rarity conceded. “But you have to promise not to repeat this to anypony.”

“Promise! Now spill it!” Rainbow eagerly responded.

“Pinkie promise!”

“Um, hello? Element of loyalty?”

“Fair enough… Well, Fluttershy gets pretty relaxed herself after her preening. For obvious reasons, I don’t understand the ecstasy behind it.”

Rainbow’s eyes diverted elsewhere as she lied about how much she had enjoyed it herself. “Yeah, it’s alright, I guess.” She shook her head to reaffirm her attitude, “As long as it makes me go faster, I don’t mind.”

“What I mean is, Fluttershy isn’t so shy by the end of a spa visit,” Rarity said with a wink and a nod.

Rainbow feared what Rarity was trying to imply. “I’m not quite following.”

“It makes her…” Rarity motioned Rainbow closer with her hooves.

“There’s no need to whisper, we’re alone.”

“Oh, just play along, will you? It’s no fun if you don’t.”

Despite her nerves wanting to hold her back from getting too close to Rarity in her current state, Rainbow leaned in closer. Rarity gently pushed back one of the pegasus’ ears as she whispered into it, “It makes her… frisky.”

The robe that was tightly wrapped around Rainbow’s body ripped to shreds as her wings broke free of their bonds as a result of the shock and excitement. She leapt up and hovered away quickly towards the other side of the room as she reassured herself that she heard the unicorn correctly. “She what?!” she exclaimed. Despite finally having freedom from her captivity, the last thought on her mind was escape after this revelation.

Rarity giggled a bit, regaining a bit of her ladylike qualities as she held a hoof to her mouth to hide her laughter. “Oh my, yes. She becomes quite the excitable mare towards the end of our spa engagements.”

Rainbow stared at the elegant unicorn as her image of her was shattered by the visions dancing in her head. The mature scenes that played out in her mind between her friends broke her heart, possibly because it wasn’t her in them, but more because she didn’t have anything like that in her memories to compare to. Her voice took an unusually sheepish tone as she asked Rarity about the sordid details. “So, then you’ve…?”

Rarity’s pupils shrank away as her mouth hung agape. “Oh goodness gracious, NO!” Her pride and ladylike demeanor returned in full force, “I mean– I couldn’t!”

The remnants of Rainbow’s shattered heart crumbled to dust as she grasped the situation. Her hopes of Rarity weren’t dashed by affections for someone else, but an aversion to mares. She stammered as she tried to apologize for her assumptions. “Oh, sorry, Rarity. I didn’t mean to…”

Rarity ignored her as she continued to explain, “What I mean is, her… ferocity varies. There are some days where I wonder how she even gets home without mounting every stallion she passes. There are even a few times in recent memory where gender stopped being an issue to her, and I nearly feared for my life.”

“But you didn’t—?”

“Of course not. I mean, I’m indifferent to the whole scenario, and Fluttershy is a lovely friend, but when she’s in that state, it just wouldn’t be… proper to take advantage of the scenario. I may lose my sense of pride and proper behavior a bit after these sessions, but I value our friendship too much to risk it based on her fleeting feelings.”

“I… see.” Rainbow’s wings flapped a little harder to sweep back in the ashes of her broken heart. The breeze from her flapping concealed the fact that her tail was wagging like a dog’s, and she set herself back down on the humid bench of the steam room. Her confidence slowly returning, she resorted to teasing the unicorn a bit, “You know what this means, right?”

Rarity’s head nervously backed away in horror. “What?”

“It means you’ve thought about it,” Rainbow said as she prodded a hoof in Rarity’s direction, concealing the fact that she herself had thought about it as well on multiple occasions.

Rarity huffed a bit as she stuttered to defend herself. “Well who wouldn’t? She’s a lovely pony. A bit boring, yes, but she has grace and beauty!”

“Uh-huh. Drop the act, sister. Who else does the princess of fashion and style have the horn-on for?”

“I’ll thank you kindly not to speak to me in such a crass way. I do not have a ‘horn-on’ for anypony. That would be vile… and messy. Feelings get hurt that way.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed deviously as she hatched a plan in her head. “What’s wrong with a little mess?” she said. “After all, just like today, you can always come to the spa afterwards to clean up the wreckage.” She mocked the unicorn with a wink and nod.

“I– I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because… I haven’t…” Rarity said without bothering to look in the pegasus’ direction.

Rainbow tried to contain her grin as she motioned for Rarity to come closer.

“There’s no need to whisper,” Rarity sheepishly said.

Rainbow’s smirk widened. “But it’s no fun if you don’t play along.”

Rarity leaned in, and as Rainbow pushed the unicorn’s ear back, her lips instead went straight for Rarity’s. There was a sudden squeak from the unicorn as her friend’s hoof held her from backing away before Rainbow had left her mark on the mare’s lips. The heat of their breath was lost in the steam as the two collided, and Rainbow felt the softness of Rarity’s mane only toppled by the sensitive lips she now claimed as her own. She released Rarity from the grasp of her hoof, but didn’t feel her backing away, so she did on her own, as difficult as it was to leave the moment she had dreamt of for so long.

“Now you have,” Rainbow said with a coy smile.

Rarity gasped, her body finally realizing its desperate need for oxygen. “Did we just—?!”

Rainbow let off a small shrug, refusing to be embarrassed anymore, especially now that things had escalated this far. She was hoping to cover how uncool her last words sounded to herself. “Um, yeah. I think…”

The shocked unicorn raised a hoof to her lips, and Rainbow feared this reaction. Her eyes glanced downward, seemingly making a fruitless effort to see the edge of her lips, and the damage that Rainbow had caused. “I… I…”

Rainbow could feel her wings twitching with the urge to run away, lest she lose what little friendship she had remaining with the unicorn. She hovered off the bench, but the rest of her body refused to let her leave before she got some sort of response. She closed her eyes, certain that things were taking a turn from how they went in her dreams. This time, it would surely end with a hoof across her face.

“I always imagined you’d taste like sweat,” Rarity spoke softly, as though she were simply pondering to herself instead of sharing her thoughts with Rainbow.

Rainbow peeked open one of her eyes, and her face flushed itself of color, leaving behind a sheepish casing of pegasus cast in a multi-hued mane. She wasn’t sure how to respond, but too scared to tackle the problem head on, she resorted to humor to break the ice between them. “Well, you did just put me through a dozen or so treatments designed full of flowery sweet scents and soaps. I—” Rainbow suddenly froze as she sensed the weight of Rarity’s words. “You mean… you’ve thought about this?”

Rarity struggled to gather her thoughts into words, stammering a bit before giving up and thrusting herself back onto her friend’s lips in an effort to keep from embarrassing herself further. The shock made Rainbow’s wings grow stiff, and the resulting lack of upward thrust sent her crashing to the floor, along with the unicorn whose hooves were wrapped around her mane.

The pearly unicorn landed atop Rainbow, breathing heavily, and her spa robe slipping a bit to reveal the pulsing veins in her neck. Rainbow struggled to breath between Rarity’s theft of all local oxygen, and the surprise from the situation she now found herself in. She wondered what to do next as her hooves acted on impulse, pulling the unicorn down closer for another kiss. The fearless pegasus was awash in scent of the her friend as she was forced to continue taking strong whiffs from her neck to avoid breaking the contact between their lips. The scent was less like the flowers and perfumes she imagined, but that of Rarity’s trade. She smelled of fabric; clean laundry drying in the breeze and the backdrop of a summer sunset. Twirling locks of the luxurious purple mane in her hooves, Rainbow could only compare its silky texture to that of her favorite napping clouds.

Too lost in the moment to not enjoy it with every single one of her senses, Rainbow opened her eyes to gaze at the love conjoined with her. She was taken aback by their proximity, and she wondered why kissing had to bring somepony so close as to not be able to gaze on the full beauty of the pony in their hooves. As Rarity’s eyes opened, Rainbow saw why when their eyes met. All the beauty she was looking for in that moment was contained in the conjoined gaze they shared just inches away from one another.

Rarity’s eyes closed and Rainbow’s widened as the pegasus felt a third lip parting through their kiss into her mouth. Rarity’s tongue quickly found its way to Rainbow’s, and the athlete in her pushed back against the intruder, wrestling it back into Rarity’s maw to establish her dominance. Their tongues scuffled back and forth, both enjoying winning equally as much as losing. There was no outstanding taste for Rainbow to take notice of, her focus clearly diminished at this point and centered on enjoying the feeling that had woken her up from so many dreams before.

The thought of her dreams quickly occupied the still-sentient parts of Rainbow’s mind. Of all the times she had dreamed of a moment like this, it always ended with that first carnal embrace. She wondered what was supposed to happen now that she knew she wasn’t waking up anytime soon. Or would she? The heavy breathing, the speeding of her heart, the soft embrace she was entrapped in, these were all the last things she would feel before that inevitable call to reality.

Doing the one thing she didn’t wish to do, Rainbow pushed Rarity back, breaking their elongated kiss. “Rarity?” she gasped with concern.

Unnerved by the tone in Rainbow’s voice, Rarity responded, “What’s wrong, darling?”

“Is this… Is this really happening? I mean, this isn’t some sort of spa hallucination or… a dream, right?”

A sly and graceful smile came across the lips that Rainbow wanted to pull back onto her own. Rainbow shuddered with fear and excitement as Rarity leaned in close to the pegasus’ ear. Rainbow braced herself for her world to come crashing down around her, simply trying to enjoy those final moments of warm breath grazing against the edges of her ear lobe. The pleasure running through her body ran still, and she harnessed a new sensation… pain.

Rarity’s porcelain smile clamped down around the ear, gripping tight enough to register the feeling, but holding back from breaking the seal on the rushing capillaries. The pain only lasted a second, but left small marks around Rainbow’s ear. The pegasus muffled out a scream as a soft white hoof collided with her mouth to silence the voice. Rarity bit down again, gentler this time, but tugging slightly at the ear and caressing the indentations left by her teeth with her tongue, easing the pain back into a sensuous pleasure that squandered any remaining worries Rainbow had about this being a product of her unconsciousness.

Rarity lifted her head back up, and Rainbow felt her ear collapse back against her fur, damp with saliva, and, as she could only guess, red with blood and lip gloss. “Okay,” Rainbow said, her voice returning to its usually gruff tone, “that was most definitely real.”

Rarity giggled a bit, then leaned in for a short peck. “So, no more worries?” the unicorn asked.

The wave of pain and pleasure rocking from her ear to the rest of her body had only quenched half of Rainbow’s concerns, and she was far more nervous to ask about the other. Her voice was raspy and dotted with nerves and genuine concern as she answered, “Well, I– What are we supposed to do?”

Pondering what to say, Rarity raised one her front hooves to her chin as she gazed upwards. Her other forehoof continued to pin Rainbow to the floor of the steam room, gently tracing its way down Rainbow’s extended wing. It quickly became apparent to both mares that there was more condensation going on in the room than just steam, as a musky scent poked its way to both their senses, neither one sure whether it belonged to themselves or the other.

Not one for improvisation, Rarity’s voice sounded nervously seductive as she answered, “You? You do nothing. I think I like you just like this.”

“Then how do I—” Rainbow was quickly interrupted by a firm kiss from the unicorn atop her. Her eye’s drifted shut slowly as she felt their chests pressing against each other and Rarity’s hoof finding ticklish and sensitive nerves between her feathers that she didn’t know existed.

Rarity broke the kiss, quickly follow it up with several in succession that worked their way down the throbbing arteries in Rainbow’s neck, now running rich with oxygen and lust. Rainbow’s head craned backward, inviting further caresses from Rarity’s cloudy lips. Rarity offered a response slowly, a couple words at a time in between each kiss that worked its way down past Rainbow’s neck and onto her ribcage. “You do– absolutely– nothing– did you– forget—? I’m the– element of—” Rarity paused just above the toned line between Rainbow’s upper thigh and lower abdomen, tickling it with just the heavy heat from her breath.

Rainbow couldn’t even hear it as Rarity said “Generosity,” as she was too lost in the feeling of Rarity’s mouth now suckling on the rich stockpile of nerves at the apex of her thigh. Her other thigh shuddered with jealousy, only quelled by the tease of Rarity’s hoof moving slowly up it from her knee towards the prize resting above.

Rainbow leaned her head downward, lying through her teeth and gasps as she pleaded, “Rarity, don’t…”

Rarity refused to even return her gaze or halt her motions, only responding with a glow of her horn. Rainbow felt her head grow heavy from the combination of magic and a lack of blood, and it collapsed backward, avoiding a harsh collision with the floor as the tattered remnants of her robe manipulated themselves beneath her head with the magic concentration from the unicorn pulling away any resistance the pegasus had remaining.

As Rarity traced around the outline of Rainbow’s privacy with her hoof, the pegasus noticed something that she had always taken for granted. Speed was her life, but right now, with Rarity dragging her tongue torturously slowly down her thigh, she gained a harsh clarity on that eldest of phrases, ‘slow and steady wins the race’. She only wished that right now, this race would become a marathon.

She would only be so lucky.

Rarity’s tongue pierced its way past the doors blocking the way to what had now become the center of Rainbow’s entire nervous system. Swollen with anticipation, blood and pent-up frustration from lonely nights, Rainbow cursed between moans as the marathon she craved quickly turned into a dash for the finish line. She felt her flanks lift off the floor as Rarity’s hooves pulled them upward to gather her closer and reach as many of Rainbow’s activated nerves as she could with each slow drag of her tongue.

The rest of Rainbow’s body left the ground, as her brain lost control of her wings. Her hooves reached downward to the silky mane protruding between her lower extremities, pressing firmly against it to keep from losing the opportunity for release she craved so desperately. Rarity only tightened the grip of her hooves around Rainbow’s flank, keeping the pegasus firmly in place where she was now hovering. Panting heavily, she again pleaded to the unicorn, “Don’t– Don’t! Don’t stop!”

This time, she received only compliance.

Rarity finally gave Rainbow the feeling of speed her psyche so carnally craved. She ran laps around the pink riches of Rainbow’s center with her tongue, drawing tighter and tighter circles around it, and releasing the pegasus from her anticipation.

The last sentient thought Rainbow felt, as her body began to shake with the first waves of orgasm, was color. It was the colors that made up the essence of her body, mind and spirit, exploding into fireworks, leaving behind a blank canvas. Leaving… white.

Even once the final tides of her bonds left, she found herself collapsed on the floor. Her heart still racing, her breathing still rushed, and neither showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. Her focus began to return, only to be robbed by the efforts of the smile that threatened to rip her face in half if it grew any wider.

A soft mumble emanated from the lower half of her body, and the vocal vibrations tickled Rainbow uncontrollably, as she realized she had not released the unicorn’s head from her hooves yet. “Oh, um, sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” Rainbow apologized.

Catching her breath, a seductive smile grew on Rarity’s face. “I think I do…”

Rainbow’s heart continued to beat fast, but the release of her sexual frustration allowed blood to return to the rest of her, bringing out a deep blush in her cheeks. Her gaze wandered away in embarrassment, and she didn’t notice the unicorn leaning in for a kiss, lips still moist with her own secretions. Still, she was too inebriated in her current state to care, and welcomed it as Rarity’s tongue strangled her own. This brief tango went back and forth between the two, each unwilling to break the embrace until a separate voice broke the tension holding the two together.

“Are you two okay? I heard a terrible crash and I—” The door swung open as Aloe stood frozen in the doorway, the scene before her censored enough by the thick steam to not see the empty water pail, enveloped in a white aura, flying directly for her face.

“Get out! Get out! GET OUT!!!” screamed Rarity as she still stood in embarrassment with an indisposed pegasus lying beneath her. The distraction averted, she turned her gaze back to her prey. “Now where were we?”

“Um, is she gonna’ be okay?” Rainbow asked.

Rarity snapped back to her senses a bit, and shook her head back and forth vigorously. “Oh no! What did I just do?” she wailed with concern and embarrassment. She hopped off of the pinned pegasus and opened the door slowly, fearing there might be a corpse waiting on the other side. She found Aloe rubbing her swollen forehead with a hoof, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Aloe hopped up from the floor as the steam cleared from the crack in the doorway, and feared another thrashing was coming if she didn’t vacate quickly. She took off down the hall yelling, “I’m sorry! I didn’t see anything! Take your time, ladies! Enjoy yourselves!”

Rainbow playfully crept up around the shapely flank of the unicorn in the doorway. “Well, I guess she’s okay.” She lifted up the end of the robe and smacked her lightly on the flank with her hoof, emitting a short, high-pitched yelp from Rarity. “You heard the lady. ‘Enjoy yourselves’.”

Rarity turned around, but didn’t immediately return Rainbow’s seductive gaze. “I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’ve had about as much of the spa as I can handle in a single day,” her tone ripe with embarrassment and shame. “We should go.”

Saddened by the change in her friend’s demeanor, Rainbow offered no counter to the request. She only wished to fulfill whatever desire Rarity had, and right now, that desire was to leave. Still, she wished to quell her friend’s fear, and pulled her in for one last kiss before saying, “It will be fine. It better be. I kinda’ want to have another spa visit with you in the future.”

Rarity offered back a gentle smile as she fought back a tear, kissing Rainbow back before seeing the tattered remains of Rainbow’s spa robe in the corner of her vision.

“I need to buy them a new robe…”

***

The pair left the spa in silence, and walked towards the Carousel Boutique equally quiet. Rarity had avoided all eye contact with Aloe during their final interaction, leaving a sack full of bits with at least twice what she owed on the counter as a silent apology, as well as a sign that more bags of bits would await her if she kept her mouth shut.

Rainbow hovered slowly in exhaustion as the two stood outside the door to the boutique. Both were still happy with the outcome of their day, but resolved to themselves to end the evening as friends instead of as lovers. They said their goodbyes, and Rainbow leaned in for a hug, squeezing a little too hard and long for them to remember that they were only just friends hours before.

With a flap from her tired heavy wings, Rainbow made her way skyward. She didn’t get far before she stopped to turn and ask her friend one final question for the evening. “Rarity?”

The unicorn paused in the doorway to her home, and addressed her friend in the ladylike manner Rainbow was accustomed to hearing from her. “Yes, darling?”

While the back of her mind debating what the use of ‘darling’ now meant between them, Rainbow remained focused on her question. “That stuff you said about the spa affecting ponies… I can’t really tell. Did it really affect me that much?”

Rarity let a small smirk form across her lips as she embraced one last chance to tease her friend. “Mmmhmm,” she moaned sensuously. “It made you… soft.”

“Soft? What does that mean?”

Rarity’s smirk grew a bit more as she turned back to her home. “Goodnight, Rainbow Dash.”

Still a bit peeved and confused, Rainbow was quickly distracted by her exhaustion and desire for rest. She made her way to the nearest cloud she deemed comfortable enough, and sprawled out her body, enjoying the sensation of each pop and crack that made its way through her joints.

She wondered to herself what dreams awaited her now that she had made one of them reality. She closed her eyes. She thought of her heart. She thought of her friends. She thought of Rarity.

And she smiled.