Hybrid Rainbow

For several seconds, the only sound in the room was the steady throb of the ceiling fan's spinning blades.

"Spitfire?"

"Yes, Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash shifted in place. "Why did you come into bed with me? I mean, I know you couldn't sleep and neither could I, but...why here? Why with me?"

Spitfire tightened her grip around Dash's chest, pulling the rookie towards her, tensing up in response. Resting her chin on the blue filly's shoulder, the captain's gesture prompted a wave of crimson to stain Rainbow's cheeks, illuminated by the bars of moonlight from the window blinds and enhancing the tension with her seasonal, pheromone-enriched scent.

"Well..." Said Spitfire, speaking softly into her twitching ear. "I...I just don't like to see you all alone- That is... Well, I like to- I... You see-"

"Well, what?"

Spitfire gulped nervously, feeling a chill from the potential consequences of what she had to say. "Well..." She sighed. "You're a very special pony to me. Growing up in such an impoverished family, drowning my sorrows in sex and fortunes, I just feel like... Like I need something much more. Something from you."

That last sentence made Spitfire regret skipping out on those off-duty creative writing workshops.

Rainbow Dash let out a distressed whimper, hunching into a half-fetal position and dragging the comforter over to her side, pushing herself away from Spitfire, who felt like she just had a nail pounded into her heart. The fire-headed mare was afraid that Dash was rejecting her advances, but her estrus left no room for doubt what was going through her mind right now; her emotions becoming an olfactory sensation.

That smell... Spitfire thought, giving the scent a brief whiff. It smells like...shame, sorrow, anxiety and, above all: fear... She was no writer, but she was certainly no stranger to poetry. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word 'need...'

The captain reached over to place her hoof on Rainbow's shoulder, which recoiled from her on the moment of contact. "Rainbow Dash, what's wrong?" She asked, concern in her voice. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm scared, Spitfire. I'm so scared..." Quivered Dash, her tear ducts starting to moisten.

"Scared? Scared of what? It's okay, you can tell me..."

"I'm scared of, well... I'm scared about sex."

Spitfire was taken aback, not only by her love's anxiety, but also by the feeling that her ulterior moments have been found out. "Well...what is there to be afraid about?"

"Stee-rike two, Spitfire!" Her conscience said.

"Everything!" Dash exclaimed, her back still facing the mare next to her, feeling her voice waver and tears well up in her eyes. "I'm afraid of what it feels like, afraid of how much it would hurt if it did, afraid of getting pregnant, afraid of having to settle down with a stallion I don't love, afraid of having to raise a family, afraid of being rejected by the one I love, afraid of having to give up my dreams and...and..." The mare began to choke up.

"And what?"

"...And...being forced into having sex!" Rainbow Dash finally broke down and buried her face in her pillow, sobbing as she felt the heat of her own tears pressed against her eyes. The athlete was already a nervous, pent-up wreck when it came to the birds and the bees, but the very thought of being raped was like a cold lance through her heart. As she curled herself up into a ball, she pulled her tail forward to cover her nethers and pressed her legs against each other in a vice-grip to prevent even an imaginary intrusion into her most private of places.

It was like the initiation ceremony disaster all over again. Spitfire, feeling terrible for her newfound love interest, slowly and carefully wrapped her fore and hindlegs around her, doing her best not to grab onto her tightly or make any sudden movements that would frighten her when a very certain, special evil was on Rainbow's mind. Spitfire's hooves gently caressed her shoulders as she carefully pulled herself closer to Dash, who although flinching slightly at first, relaxed when she remembered that the warm breath upon her neck came from her most beloved of idols: the Captain of The Wonderbolts herself. She always did have a very motherly touch.

"Oh, you poor thing..." Cooed the yellow mare. "You've really hung up about this, aren't you?" She added, running a hoof through her colorful hair.

Rainbow sniffled. "Uh-huh..."

"Been thinking about this a lot?"

"Yes..."

"See, this is what happens if you bottle up all your feelings, Dash. If you keep them all inside of you, you'll only hurt yourself and eventually snap; It's not healthy at all." Spitfire's hoof briefly made contact with Rainbow's forehead, feeling its feverish heat. The poor thing...

"But...but I don't want to be or be seen as a softie; I never did. I always wanted to be strong and tough and cool... Like...like you, Spitfire..."

The captain pulled Rainbow Dash a couple inches closer towards her, holding her with a few extra ounces of pressure added to her grip. She could feel the muffled thump of her heartbeat, moving her muzzle closer towards her ear, the proximity making her chest pound even faster. "Rainbow Dash," She said, the pity in her heart having swam its way into her voice. "We've been through this before; You don't have to be made of stone just to look or be tough. A lot of tough ponies show their feelings and nopony even thinks of them as weaker for doing so."

Rainbow sniffled. "Really...?"

"Of course, Rainbow. In fact, a lot of tough ponies who act really soft in public are considered all the more...tougher for being soft because they're, well...so tough that they're not afraid of looking soft!" Reassured Spitfire, fumbling and tripping over her own words. That sounded a lot better in my head... "You know what I mean?"

The cyan mare nodded. "Yeah, I do. Kinda."

Spitfire hugged her tighter, a yellow hoof gently traced circles on her partner's chestfur. Her estrus got the better of her for a split second and found herself gently nibbling Dash's ear, tasting its sweet flesh. "Good, I'm glad you do." Rainbow Dash tensed up and began panting - sweating, even; letting out a pitiful whimper. "What's wrong, Dashie?" A certain smell helped answer her question.

Rainbow Dash was now beet-red in the face, sweating bullets and hyperventilating; her anxiety only adding to her stress. "It's so hot..." She panted, tears welling up in her eyes all over again. "This heat, it's too much!" Her voice wavered in distress, shivering as if there was a draft. "Help me, Spitfire. Please...help me..."

Spitz felt so terrible, perhaps even more so than Rainbow Dash's nervous breakdown some two weeks ago. As much as she wanted to "help" Dash with her estrus, she had self control and knew much better than to simply throw herself at the young Pegasus. Thoughts buzzed around her head like hornets in a soup can for what seemed like hours until she felt a shining lightbulb appear over her head in epiphany. The eco-friendly kind of lightbulb, mind you.

The captain got back on her hooves and made her way towards Rainbow's bathroom door, which was to the immediate right of her bed. Opening the door just wide enough to slide a foreleg through, Spitfire's hoof blindly groped against the wall on the other side before coming across a hard, plastic nub; which she promptly flicked downwards. Shielding her darkness-widened retinas from the sudden burst of white light, the golden girl fixed her eyes towards the hexagon-tiled floor until her eyes acclimated to the brilliance of the recessed florescent lights, which carved an argent tower of luminescence onto the far side of the bedroom.

Maybe letting Thunderlane select the replacement bulbs at the hardware store last week was a mistake after all...

Catching her reflection in the mirror with her peripheral vision, Spitfire stopped to take a look at herself in front of the medicine cabinet. And boy, did she look like a trainwreck! Her eyes had dark brown shadows under them from near-sleepless nights spent tossing and turning and thinking about Rainbow Dash, their whites stained with a subtle shade of light pink. Her pumpkin-hued hair, once barbed and wind-slicked like the fire of her namesake, looked battered, matted and frazzled like she'd been electrocuted. Her soft yellow cheeks and petite muzzle still preserved her sex appeal, but they were powerless to save her from looking like a stay-at-home mother who hadn't had her morning coffee yet.

Spitfire let out a heavy, ragged sigh. "What in Equestria am I even doing?" She said to herself, quietly enough so Dash wouldn't hear. "I'm losing sleep over wanting to sleep with Rainbow Dash. At this rate, I may as well retire to a cave in the Appleoosan Alps and subsist off of pebbles and raw fish like some hermit. What am I to do?" She scratched her chin before another idea came to her head. "Ah, of course! Cadence has plenty of sex and dating seminars when she's in town. Maybe I can ask her if there are any kind of 'high-flying' techniques I can teach Dash..." A devilish smile crept onto her face. "Yeah, that'll work. I'll just tell Dash I'm running errands and she'll be none the wiser!" She paused, realizing what she just said. "Come to think of it...why am I hiding my feelings from her? And why do I get the feeling I'm just going in circles? Oh well..."

A few minutes later, Spitfire returned with a cool, damp washcloth from the bathroom clamped firmly in her teeth. Rainbow Dash's distressed frown melted into a creamy smirk of contentment as she felt the cold towel wick away her seasonal heat; like crawling into a tub full of ice water in the Appleoosan Desert at high noon. A barely-audible "thank you" escaped the heated mare's lips.

"How about this, Rainbow Dash," Proposed Spitfire. "Princess Cadence is in town for the upcoming Running of The Rutting festival in the next two weeks and I was thinking of seeing if she had or knew of anything that could help you out with your estrus, is that okay with you?"

Dash gave only an affirmative nod and a smile in response.

"Good to know." Said Spitfire. As she watched her slumbering partner, curled up in a fetal position and slowly regaining her composure, she could not restrain herself from gently lifting up her washcloth and giving her a light kiss on the forehead before trotting out her door and heading back to sleep in her own bed. After the door creaked shut and the captain was gone from her room, Rainbow Dash smiled ear-to-ear as she slept, soon falling into a sweet, sweet dream about the two mares learning new techniques in mid-air.

A dream that made her thighs very, very wet.