Tight Fit

“First off, the thermoregulation layer,” the unicorn said. Rainbow sighed, and fitted her back hooves into the legs of the suit. Magic hummed, and pulled the suit up. “Hey, a good idea, taking a bath,” the unicorn commented. “The suit was actually kinda smelly—”

Her stern look silenced him before he could finish. Magic pulled the layer over her rump and her tail got pulled through the appropriate hole. Thankfully, she had fastened the quick release zipper that went across her crotch, herself. Something about letting that task to the unicorn, with all the gently humming and vibrating magic, filled her with less apprehension than she’d care to admit. “It feels tighter than yesterday,” she commented.

“I shortened some of the tube runs,” the unicorn explained, connecting portions of the cooling system. “And I hemmed it in a little. Excuse me.” She felt something smooth and gently vibrating slide over her neck and her chest, flattening the fur, like a gentle hoof caressing her all the way down to her navel. “I don’t want it to be caught in the zipper,” he muttered apologetically before she could object.

“Y-yeah,” Rainbow cleared her throat as the last hints of a tingle disappeared from her midsection. The zipper hissed, and the layer tightened around her. She stretched, and to her surprise found the layer fitting much better than yesterday. “Hey, nice!”

“I’m still working on it,” the unicorn said, with just a hint of pride in his voice. “I think the suit is too absorbent for long stretches of flight. We might have to go with an underlayer.” He smirked and coughed. “I… uh… I have some ideas. I’ll figure something out while you’re in transit.”

“Hey, don’t forget to sleep,” Dash chuckled, and shook her rump. The tubes shook and wriggled. “How about the laces and stuff?”

“The protective layer, yes,” the unicorn nodded, his face crimson for some reason. “That one's put on from your back down, let me just give you a hoof.” He hovered the mess of cloth, zippers, and straps onto her back, and let go. It slumped over her an exhausted jellyfish. “Lift up your front left hoof.” She did, and he began fastening and tightening various parts of the suit, until it neatly enveloped her whole appendage. “Now your hind right.”

They continued the suit-up procedure for a few minutes. The pressure steadily mounted across Rainbow’s body – not entirely unpleasant, but certainly unusually restrictive. “You know,” she commented as she stretched, “if you want anypony to actually use this, it’ll have to be easier to put on.”

The unicorn nodded, and tightened a series of straps around Rainbow’s midsection. “I just put this together to test it,” he explained. “I've had some punctures before.” He went on as he made minor adjustments. “The final version will be a single suit, but it has to be made to size for each individual, using a memory fabric I made...” He went on explaining as Rainbow’s mind drifted off, considering every new tightness and the overall comfort. “There,” the unicorn broke her out of her stupor.

Rainbow tried up a couple of stretches in earnest, and gingerly unfolded her wings. “Could you move the wing holes lower? “A tightening across her midsection, and a release of pressure across her back, then a couple of straps getting adjusted in other places. “Good enough,” she said, moving about.

The two layers slid across each other, and to her disdain, she felt the tubing move about again. She opened her mouth to comment on it bunching up in places, but decided against it. She could just tell him in the evening. Instead, the pegasus flapped her wings, and hovered up.

“It’s... better than yesterday,” she decided. “So far. I’ll put it through its paces.”

He nodded and smiled. “That’s all I'm asking for. I’ll make sure to refill the supplies and prepare the camp for transport,” he agreed, and yawned. “...and maybe have a nap.” The two gems she’d used yesterday flew into view, and placed themselves in two of the other pockets of the suit. “There you go. Don't forget anything!”

“Got a lunch for me, too, mom?” Rainbow asked sarcastically.

The unicorn chortled, and clapped his hooves. In a surprisingly good imitation of an elderly mare, he said: “Of course, dearie!” His magic hummed, and a couple of protein bars hovered towards Rainbow. “Now, you stay safe out there!”

Rainbow burst out laughing, and gave him a salute. “Don’t oversleep!” With that, she was off.

The flight was uneventful at first. The suit was stiffer than Rainbow would have liked, putting more stress onto her muscles. After an hour or so, however, Rainbow got used to the increased strain and got into the zone. She just flew north, enjoying the endless forest below and the cool wind in her mane.

A few hours later, she realized she wasn’t foaming at all. In fact, she was surprisingly comfortable – cool as a cumulus, possibly owing to those churning pipes snaking all across her body. As the sun began climbing steadily up to its zenith, Dash hummed, idly thinking about one day being a Wonderbolt.

The sun beat down on her, but thanks to the suit, she felt almost nothing of it. Usually, the wind would be enough for a couple of hours, but not much longer. Pegasi were built for bursts of speed, not so much for endurance flight. Today, however, she found herself in a steady climb thanks to the hot currents, and steady glides when those currents disappeared, all without breaking foam.

Around mid-day, Rainbow started to feel her wing muscles ache, and decided to make a brief stop. Underneath her, the forest had slowly shifted into a sea of evergreens, and the brook had grown into a substantial river flowing towards the mountains now clearly visible beyond the northern horizon. The pegasus glided down, careful to mind the suit’s added mass. She landed next to the river and took a breather, sitting down on the ground and massaging some life into her stiff back muscles.

Even the pointy rocks didn’t feel so bad through the suit’s multiple layers. The water churned and bubbled through the pipes as Rainbow chewed on her protein bar. When she was done, she stood up, stretched, and took a long and refreshing drink from the river. She headed north, feeling lighter than ever, leaving behind a small trail of silvery mist.

For some reason, that was when the suit started giving her trouble. Maybe an hour after her stop, she’d started feeling a warmth at her sides, which she first attributed to soreness. But just a couple of minutes later, she realized her back was growing hotter as well, and the churning of the suit was growing louder and more gurgly. She landed again, inspecting her sides, unbuckling some of the top layer, and found the network of tubes flat and soft to the touch.

“What the…” she started, before she realized she was feeling a strange moisture around her cutie mark. Looking down, she spotted it – a small jagged gash in the fabric, surrounded by a shrinking stain of liquid seeping out, and down her right leg.

“Buck!” she swore again. The tubes – no doubt enchanted in some way – wriggled as though in acknowledgement of her frustration. For a moment, she considered her options.

“Okay,” she told herself out loud. “Think, Rainbow. You can make camp here,” she looked around the forest. “You could use that magical thingy to call the dude to fix his stupid suit…” She pondered it, frowning. The idea of giving up in the middle of her journey didn’t sit well with her, but she lacked the self-awareness to realize that was her ego talking. “Or,” she continued, “you could go on flying. Take a few more stops maybe. Yeah.”

The picture of the map appeared in her mind, and she added: “Just follow the river. That way, you can cool off whenever you wanna.” She briefly considered leaving the suit behind. That wouldn’t be very professional, Dash, she chastised herself.

Rainbow nodded resolutely. She walked to the river, and washed her face and her neck, then drank thirstily, and finally, flew off. With a determined frown, she headed north, climbing up quickly in hopes of finding cooler air.

The pegasus quickly discovered two things: one, the suit was an excellent insulator. Two, her muscles apparently produced a lot of heat. Not only an hour later, she was foaming like a mare in estrus. With a defeated groan, she dove again, seeking the river beyond her. As she pierced the hotter air close to the ground, she decided to expedite the process, and simply dove into the cool, refreshing water.

Her muscles immediately cramped, the suit took up twenty pounds of water, and Rainbow found herself gurgling and fighting for air. After a panicked scuffle in the shallow rapids, somehow, she made it to the riverside, coughing and cursing at crap-stained cirruses. Now that she was out, the water and air cooled her down too quickly, and she shivered. With more cursing, Rainbow Dash stretched her wings, did a couple of quick stretches, and took flight again.

She knew not to climb up too far at least, until she dried up. What she didn’t realize was how the wet suit would wrap around her, how its layers would brush against each other, and how annoying all those still-wriggling tubes would end up being.

Oh, the tubes. Especially the tubes.

Half an hour later, the suit chafed and itched, and those darn tubes had somehow managed to coalesce into a wriggling, undulating rope running right through her crotch area. The pegasus muttered and tried to push the tubes out of the way at first, but wrestling with them in flight, through the layer above, was a lost cause. In the end, she just decided to suffer through it.

And suffer, she did.

Back when she was younger, one day Rainbow found a magazine filled with muscular mares and stallions in cheap-looking Wonderbolt uniforms. And mostly out of these uniforms, or in various levels of disrobing. That was one of those times when she’d found her dream affirmed, and her loins itchy with hereto unknown excitement.

Rainbow had discovered a lot about herself that afternoon alone behind a cloud, and in the following few weeks. Now she was older, of course, and a bit more used to being a bit hot and bothered. But she wasn’t exactly used to a near-constant wriggling and rubbing of tight fabric across her nethers, her stomach, around the base of her wings, across her chest…

“B-buck!” she swore again, and landed quickly. There, by the brook, she jostled for the relief zipper in the crotch of her suits, until she froze with the memory of a certain wiry unicorn, mentioning the smell the suit took on after she’d worn it. She considered how doing what she was about to do would add to that, and what the unicorn would say, how big he would get in the morning, how it would make her feel to grab—

No, no, no! She’d have to live with it for the time being. The cool air around her exposed lap was a blessing, at least. Through the hole, she tried her best to rearrange the forest of the still-undulating tubing, biting her lip as her hoof slid to the usual good places.

No. She was a professional, and she wouldn’t let some unicorn weirdo smell her juices on a frigging flight suit!

As if to tempt her further, the tubes closed like a curtain, and Dash gasped.

“Stringy... stratus…!” she moaned, and bit her lip. Then, mustering her willpower, she closed the zipper and stood up. Stretched now, the tubes’ teasing reduced somewhat.

“Good…” Rainbow said breathily, and looked at the skies. “Gotta... just... get going.”

After a brief drink, she flew up, and did her best to ignore the everpresent stimulation as she continued north.

The afternoon was hell. Time passed about as slow as it did in class, especially during those weeks after she'd find that magazine, before she could fly to a cloud and chase all the itches out of herself again and again.

"I'm a professional!" Rainbow grunted through gritted teeth and tried to distract herself by identifying the steely clouds which began gathering on the horizon. But for whatever reason, all of them seemed vaguely phallic to her.

"A professional!"

Evening found Rainbow by a small lake at the edge of the forest. She wasn’t upset, or twitching, no siree. In fact, she even had the presence of mind to wash herself – suit and all – in the lake. The water was positively freezing this far north, but she welcomed the numbing sensation of it.

Once she got a grip, Rainbow stood up, then placed the two gems on the ground, and waited for the magical transport to happen.

It did, a bit later than before. The unicorn stumbled but didn’t faint this time, simply looking around and blinking. “You made it pretty far—”

“Shut up and get this stupid thing off!” Rainbow snapped at him.

He was taken aback, but nodded, and started unbuckling and unzipping with his magic. Relieved, Rainbow almost tore the suit off of her, then the underlayer, and splayed herself onto the ground, sighing. “Thank Celestia…!”

The unicorn’s magic hummed again and he hissed. “You pierced the tubing.”

“Well duh!” Rainbow mumbled into the ground, still unwilling to move. “You call that layer ‘armor’? All I did was sit on a pointy rock!”

“I told you was just improvised,” the unicorn grunted, and frowned. “Wait, did you try to… swim in it?”

“Do you even know how hot it was?!” Rainbow rolled onto her back and spread herself wide.

He nodded, and frowned. “Didn’t it get… uh… itchy?”

Rainbow just burst out laughing. When he kept staring at her, waiting, she continued. “Look, it got super hot. I didn’t want to call it in early.”

He scoffed, and struck the ground with his hoof. “You should have!” He shook his head and inspected the suit. “I could probably have patched this up in a few minutes, and you'd be on your way again.” He pulled out a bit of the tubing, showing it to the pegasus. “See? It’s just a small hole. Huh.” He smiled when he realized the tubing was still wriggling. “I see my peristaltic enchantment is still working...”

Rainbow groaned in exasperation, and fell onto her back again. She stared up into the darkening skies, and tried to not imagine splitting this nerd into two. Or being split into two herself. She huffed. When she rose again, she found him staring absently in her direction. Moments later, she realized her spread-eagle position and the day’s excitement probably gave him an ample look at her—

“Hey! Eyes up here!” she bounced up, crimson with embarrassment.

His eyes shot up, and despite the expression of terror in his face, they held the same excited fire from before.

“Stop staring at me!” Rainbow commanded. “Fix the stupid suit. And make it not… wriggle, if there’s no water in it.”

“It’s actually a mixture of alcohol and—”

“Save it, nerdlinger!” Rainbow called, spinning around and heading for the lake again. “Ugh! I need a bath!”

He was smart enough not to speak, and wise enough to make hot cocoa for her when she came back. He even had a towel ready, made warm by the fire, hanging right next to the two suit layers. Rainbow pierced the suit with an angry glare and took the towel, giving the unicorn a nod of thanks. She sat by the fire and dried her mane up, sipping the hot beverage in peace.

“Sorry about the suit,” the unicorn said after a while.

“Nah,” Rainbow replied, having cooled off physically and emotionally. “Sorry about being all...” she shrugged. “It's not your fault… uh…” She blinked. “What’s… uh… what was your name again?”

For some reason, the unicorn blushed, and ran a hoof through his mane with a laugh. “I guess never told you. I… uh… It’s kinda embarrassing.”

“Your name is embarrassing?” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “Dude. I just spent an afternoon getting fondled by—” she stopped herself, and took a deep breath, then laughed to hide her blush. “Is the name, like… silly?”

“Hm…” he thought. “More like… suggestive? I guess?”

“Well now you definitely have to tell me,” Rainbow laughed in earnest. “You know," she leaned in conspirationally, "one of the pegasi from my class was called Chad Thundercock?”

The unicorn burst out laughing, spraying cocoa into the fire. “Is that— Is that even legal?!” he asked between bouts of coughing.

“Nah,” Rainbow replied, “I made that up.” That was just what us girls called him, she didn’t say. And according to his filmography, what he decided to call himself later in his career.

“Well, my name is not that bad,” the unicorn said. “It is kinda ironic though.” He gave one last laugh, then stood up, wiry and pale, and offered his hoof. “Hello, my name’s Fit.”

She shook his hoof, still curious. “Just ‘Fit’?” She looked him up and down. “I can kinda see the irony…”

He sighed.

“It’s Fit,” he repeated, and added: “Tight Fit.”

As if to add insult to injury, the suit took this exact moment to fall from the impromptu drier.

Rainbow burst out laughing. Tight Fit – another burst of laughter – joined her after a moment. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she tried to control herself. “I’m just glad you’re not—” another laugh “—a mare!”

“Now, that would definitely not be legal,” Tight replied with a chuckle, putting the suit back. “But I do have a sister…”

She looked at him expectantly.

“She’s called Just Fit,” he snickered.

“Is that—” Rainbow forced herself not to laugh again, “Is that real, or are you pulling my leg?”

“Oh, it’s very real,” Tight nodded solemnly. “She’s a judge, back in Tall Tale.”

“At least she’s not a por— uhm— a movie star.”

“Like Chad Thundercock?”

Rainbow Dash chortled as she turned crimson.

“Oh yes,” Tight nodded solemnly. “I know of the legendary Chad Thundercock. He was great with Jolly Rump and Lightning Gash.”

“I didn’t even see that one…” Rainbow said under her breath. She eyed Tight and shook her head. “At least you have other hobbies beside making wetsuits.”

“Hey!” the unicorn objected with a laugh. “You're the one who makes them wet!”

Silence fell on the camp as Rainbow blushed, looked away, and sipped the cocoa.

“I should… I should see if I can fix that puncture,” Fit muttered. He stood up, and quickly departed, the suit flying after him.

Rainbow sat staring into the fire. By the time she stood up, Fit was already hard at work fixing the suit’s hole. She wanted to say something, but didn't really know what. So instead, she departed into her tent, and zipped herself up in a sleeping bag. The sounds of cloth being cut, metal clinking, and rubber groaning failed to sent her off to sleep like it did yesterday.

She still felt the day’s ordeal in her muscles and her lap. Her hoof traveled between her legs absently, and she bit down on her other hoof. The sounds of work from just outside the tent deterred her as much as they excited her. A trickle of moisture stained her hoof and a moan escaped her lips.

The work outside paused. “Ouch!” the unicorn’s voice came clear as day. “Friggin’ needles!”

Rainbow stopped herself, despite her aches, pent-up desires, and beating heart. Slowly, she managed to drift off into uneasy sleep. She dreamed of an old classmate and an old magazine, and of a morning wood she’d never imagine on a wiry nerd like Tight Fit.