Of a Feather

Chapters

Negotiation
Complication
Consolation
Sensation
Conclusion
Demonstration

Negotiation

Negotiation

Amongst Ponyville's residents, there are a few long-standing traditions.

There's the Zap Apple Harvest, the Sisterhooves Social, the reliance on Pinkie Pie's inscrutable Pinkie Sense. Amongst these traditions is a well-known axiom: if there is more than one rainbow in the sky, then it's probably a good time to duck.

A blur of cyan blue streaked up the main drag of Ponyville, nearly tearing the signs off of every market cart lined up along either side of the street. It was accompanied by a rapidly fading rainbow trail and a doppler-shifted cry of, "Coming through!"

A certian orange pony scowled, ducking to retrieve her trademark Stetson hat as the blur curved back up above Ponyville. Without the rainbow trail behind that familiar blur, it would have become invisible against the brilliant, clear day. As it was, the rainbow began to weave through an intricate and theoretically impossible series of aerial maneuvers that even Pinkie Pie would have been hard-pressed to make head or tail of.

"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack cried skyward, stomping a forehoof in frustration. Rainbow Dash couldn't possibly hear her, not over the sound of how awesome the mare thought she was, but yelling at her made Applejack feel better all the same.

Looking around, Applejack saw the rest of the Ponyville merchants scowling as they tried to right upset baskets and mend their hoof-painted signs, muttering most unponylike epithets under their breath.

"What in the hay is that pony up to?" Applejack muttered, to nopony in particular, trotting around her wagon slowly to survey it for damage. A basket of apples had toppled over in Rainbow's wake, and scattered ripe red apples to one side of her saleswagon. Applejack sighed at the sight. "She's kickin' up a bigger ruckus than a whole pack o' timber wolves."

"She's been working ever so hard."

"Gah!" Applejack yelped, jumping barrel-high at the tiny voice suddenly at her side.

"Oh!" Came the tiniest squeak of a voice from the tiny yellow ball of a pony beside her, curled up and shivering, equally startled by Applejack's reaction.

Applejack cringed back from Fluttershy, one foreleg still raised, as if afraid to be startled again by the fluff of yellow and pink. "Gosh darn it, Fluttershy!" Applejack groaned, "I thought I told you not to sneak up on me like that!"

"Was I sneaking? I'm sorry." Fluttershy uncurled some. Her pink mane fell over one eye and the side of her muzzle, managing to make herself appear even smaller and more timid than she already was. "I didn't want to cause any fuss."

Applejack sighed and shut her eyes. "It's okay, sugar," AJ replied patiently, "Jes' tell me what the hay is goin' on?"

Both ponies looked skyward simultaneously, to where Rainbow Dash's trademark spectrum was painting arcane symbols in the sky.

"RD's been at this all day, that's the fourth time she's buzzed town," Applejack moaned, waving a hoof accusingly in Dash's general direction. "And this time, she nearly took the paint off the buildings, not to mention upsettin' mah applecart." She frowned over her shoulder. "Almost wrecked mah wagon, too."

"She's just working so hard!" Fluttershy exclaimed, barely managing more than a whisper. "She's trying to work out a new show to do for the next Best Young Flyer competition."

"Bes' Young...?" Applejack echoed, astonished, then shook her head violently. "Sugar, first off, she don't need to be practicin' anything! She's got 'er Sonic Rainboom, what more do they want! An' second, it's not fer ages! What's she practicin' now fer? I figured she'd have better things to do." AJ's eyes darted, searchingly. "Like, er, nappin'."

"But that's just it!" Fluttershy said anxiously, fretting her forehooves against one another. "She's already done the Sonic Rainboom once, she's worried that if she just goes back and does it again, she won't impress anypony. She's trying to come up with something now so she can practice later, but she's having so much trouble with it!"

Applejack boggled. "It's a Sonic Rainboom, fer Celestia's sake! How can that not impress anypony? She's the only one in all o' Equestria that can pull it off!"

"Well, I know that, it's just, I mean, Rainbow Dash is so worried." Fluttershy looked down, prodding at the grass gingerly, as if testing to see if it might leap up and try and nibble at her hooves unexpectedly. "So, I mean, I'm worried too. I'm trying to cheer her on, like last time, but...oh, I don't know."

Applejack looked back Fluttershy, and the sight of her studying the ground so intently melted whatever cutting remark her mind had been working on. "Aw, honey, you cheered louder than all o'us put together at the Competition last time. We were too busy starin' at the Rainboom and you were jumpin' and hollerin' fit to wake an Ursa."

Fluttershy drew herself up, eyes wide. "I did? Oh, I feel so bad, I didn't mean to cheer so loudly, I mean, I hope I didn't..."

"Fluttershy?" Applejack cut her off, before Fluttershy could work herself into a conniption. "What I'm tryna tell you is that you got plenty o'heart, and you can cheer her on jus' fine when you need'ta." Applejack smiled, canting her head to one side, making her Stetson tip precariously along with it. "And right now, I was wonderin' if you could cheer Rainbow Dash into givin' it a rest, before she wrecks town hall or somethin'...drastic."

Fluttershy bit her lip and nodded, and managed to take off with a delicate flapping of her wings, leaving Applejack behind with a little grin on her muzzle, shaking her head.

"Some ponies," AJ muttered, albeit fondly, and then went back to carefully picking up scattered apples.

"Did you see that, Fluttershy, I was awesome! I mean, I'm awesome all the time, but that was really, like, super-awesome..."

"Rainbow Dash?"

"...and I think I almost got this thing nailed down, I mean, I just need to add a few more spins, maybe if I use the cloud trick but..."

"E-excuse me, Rainbow..."

"...but if I make them go vertically this time, or no, if I make them go at all angles, like one going that way and one going that way..."

"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy squeaked desperately.

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow was instantly concerned at the fretful Fluttershy nearby. "What's wrong?"

Fluttershy's cheeks pinkened. "Um, I was just wondering, I mean, the town, I-I mean, Applejack is kinda, well, she's a little..."

Rainbow Dash hovered in place, her expression turning less concerned, and simultaneously less impressed, by the second.

"...she's just, um, they were just wondering if maybe you could just, you know, be a little more...um, careful, and that maybe you could practice somewhere else instead of Ponyville's market and maybe you could practice tomorrow when they're not around? If that's okay with you."

Fluttershy put on her best winning smile. Squee.

Rainbow Dash sighed and facehooved. "Ugh. AJ told you to tell me to give it a rest, huh?" Rainbow's body hung bonelessly in midair, as if suspended entirely by her wings, hooves dangling beneath her.

Fluttershy fidgeted, tapping her forehooves together timidly. "W-well, yes," she began.

"They, and by that I mean AJ, have no idea how hard it is to come up with this stuff!" Rainbow interrupted with a shout. "I'm the defending Best Young Flyer, Fluttershy, I can't just...wing it!"

"I know that it's important for you, Rainbow, but Applejack..."

"Oh, Applejack, Shmapple...jack?" Rainbow Dash began, then paused and looked thoughtful. "That sounded better in my head. Anyway, AJ can't possibly understand what it means to have to defend a title this prestigious! I mean, sure, she's got her rodeo thing and that's important too, but Celestia herself gave me that title!"

Rainbow Dash spun around Fluttershy and pressed up against Fluttershy's back, and made a grand, evocative gesture across the empty sky in front of her. "Stands full of admiring ponies, thousands of them. I got this now, I can do it, but it's gotta be just perfect!"

Dash spun Fluttershy around by the shoulders in midair, and shook her vehemently. "Just perfect! Don't you understand!"

Fluttershy nodded, frantically, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"And don't get me started on the Wonderbolts," Dash tore on, hovering away from Fluttershy to point out towards the distant, fuzzy columns of Cloudsdale. "I have got to impress them too. I can totally use these moves at the tryouts. Practicing anywhere else just isn't the same, I need the buildings for scale and distance and maneuvering training. Sweet Apple Acres is too regular, Everfree is too unpredictable, there's just noplace else that's the same!"

Rainbow Dash paused, expecting to hear some sort of rebuttal from Fluttershy. When silence greeted her instead, Rainbow Dash twirled around, and then groaned.

Fluttershy, faced with all the ferocity of Rainbow Dash on a rant, had curled into a ball again, fairly quivering, only her wings flapping behind her with just enough power to keep her airborne. Her embiggened eyes peered out at Dash, and she made a tiny, warbling sound of deference.

Rainbow Dash blinked at her friend and deflated again, sighing. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy. I mean, you know me, you know how important this is to me, right?" she said, voice cracking just a little.

Fluttershy uncurled a little, mollified, and nodded, "I-I know, Rainbow, b-but you've been working so, so, so hard already. You haven't even taken a nap!" She unwound a little more, just enough to rub her forehooves together anxiously. "If you keep going like this, you're going to get tired and start making mistakes and then you'll get frustrated and oh my Rainbow Dash, I'm just so worried."

Rainbow Dash sighed and drooped even further in midair, defeated and not as afraid to show it as she might be in front of some of the others. Few knew her as long or as well as Fluttershy. "I know," she admitted reluctantly. "But I don't want to waste a whole afternoon that I could be using for training!"

"You know, there's lots of training that doesn't involve flying around, Rainbow." Fluttershy frowned in thought, and then brightened considerably at the prospect of contributing a useful idea. "I bet Twilight could tell us how you can get better without having to fly around all the time."

"But training is flying around!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, exasperated. "What kind of training doesn't involve actually doing what you're supposed to be getting better at?"

"We could go ask? If that's okay with you," Fluttershy smiled, though she was still fretting her hooves.

"Egh. Fine," Rainbow sighed. "Maybe Twilight has some egghead way to make not-training not-boring. She did somehow manage to do the Running of the Leaves that time and ended up placing fifth, after all."

Fluttershy clapped her hooves together, perfectly delighted, and descended towards town with Rainbow Dash in reluctant tow.

"So what's left on the checklist?" Twilight asked, carefully munching on a levitating daffodil and daisy sandwich.

"Uhh..." Spike fumbled with the long scroll that he was rolling up, trying to keep it from spilling over his hay fries. "Lunch, more quills from Quill and Sofa, return Cheerilee's extra blackboard, and visit ... Rarity about getting gemstones for your enchantment experiment." Spike looked up from the scroll, suddenly dreamy-eyed. "Can we get a few spare gems while we're at it? I mean, you know, just in case."

Twilight smirked around her sandwich. "Really?" she said, taking another bite.

"What?" Spike said, self-consciously smoothing down his spines to make sure they all popped back up straight. "I mean, I could help her find more, it'd be no trouble at all."

"Uh huh." Twilight continued, rolling her eyes.

Spike frowned and pointed accusingly with a crispy hay fry. "Judge all you want, Twilight, but one day you'll be there, too."

Twilight arched an eyebrow. "Of course I'll be there, Spike," she replied obliviously. "I'm the one who needs the gemstones."

Spike's facepalm was cut short by the sudden appearance of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who descended abruptly tableside amidst a flapping of wings. Rainbow Dash's arrival was so sudden that the bowl of hayfries on the table wobbled precariously at her hooves hitting the ground beside them, Spike having to scrabble to keep it from toppling off the table.

"Hey, Twilight!" Rainbow began, before Twilight could even offer a greeting. "Do you know any not completely lame ways to practice flying that don't somehow involve flying?" Rainbow glared at Fluttershy as she descended to land with hardly a whisper from her hooves.

Fluttershy immediately quailed under Rainbow's look, ducking her head a little.

"Fluttershy here seems to think you know how to help me be radical without using my wings," Rainbow Dash finished, sounding unconvinced.

Fluttershy actually spoke up, distressed by the sudden return of Rainbow's bravado. "B-but Rainbow Dash, you just said that you thought that maybe..."

"I know what I said!" Rainbow Dash said defensively, though she chastened a little at Fluttershy's resulting hurt expression.

"Will you two stop arguing?" Twilight interrupted before Rainbow could manage an apology, setting down her sandwich with a sigh, the purple glow around it dissipating.

"Were we arguing again?" Fluttershy pouted. "I'm sorry."

Rainbow Dash glanced apologetically at Fluttershy, but her bravado instantly returned when she looked back to Twilight, opening her mouth to speak.

Twilight held up a hoof and shook her head. "Let me guess. Applejack vetoed your buzzing market street and now you're looking for some way to keep practicing that won't make AJ any more mad than she already is. Or, anypony else, for that matter."

Rainbow Dash blinked and squinted sidelong at the purple unicorn. "How do you know that?"

Twilight looked across the table, where Spike was one step ahead of her.

"Item number seventeen: Pay back Applejack for the extra bushel of apples last week," Spike read aloud, and looked pointedly over the edge of the scroll at Dash.

Rainbow Dash sheepishly nudged at the ground with a forehoof. "Oh."

"As it happens," Twilight began, with the air of someone starting a lecture - a tone that Rainbow knew well, and dreaded - "I've read several books on the subject of pegasi and flight training. Just in case you ever decided to come to me for advice," Twilight beamed, proudly.

"Ah, ah," Rainbow Dash quickly cut in, before Twilight could truly get on a roll. "Is there, like, a Clip Notes version of this?"

Twilight paused in mid-breath and furrowed her brow a little, annoyed at being denied an opportunity to Dispense Information. Rainbow Dash winced a little as she watched Twilight's internal debate about whether to forge ahead regardless play across her face, and felt a wash of relief when the bookish unicorn relented.

Dash suspected it had something to do with her daffodil and daisy sandwich starting to wilt on the table.

"You should try and do some things that will get your body prepared to work hard tomorrow, rather than training anymore today," Twilight explained, leaning back in her seat a little. "You've been at this all morning. If you're not careful and don't take care of yourself, you could get muscle cramps, loose feathers, who knows. Worse, when you're tired, you start making mistakes. And mistakes lead to..." Twilight eyed Rainbow Dash. "...library fines."

"Uh..." Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, while Fluttershy just looked confused. "Heh, er, yeah. Soooo, what do I do about it?"

"Go see Aloe and Lotus."

Rainbow Dash's muzzle contorted into a look of horror, while Fluttershy brightened up considerably. "The spa?" Both pegasi said simultaneously, one terrified, the other eager.

Twilight nodded, "Yup!"

"You're kidding, right?" Rainbow Dash cried, throwing her forehooves up in exasperation. "The spa is, like, the most boring place in all of Ponyville! You literally lay there, and do nothing, while you get poked and prodded by strangers! And then they put you in mud! And Celestia knows what else!" Dash's expression hardened. "And you know I hate having my hooves touched."

"Oh, it's not so bad, Rainbow," Fluttershy chimed in, quietly. "Aloe and Lotus are ever so nice. Rarity and I go every week and it's oh so comfortable and warm and relaxing..."

"That's what I mean!" Rainbow Dash insisted frantically, shaking her head. "They might do something to my...my hair! I'll get mud in my feathers! It'll...it'll wreck my aerodynamics! There's just no way!"

"Oh, that's nonsense, Rainbow Dash, you're just being silly," Fluttershy said sternly.

This provoked a stunned silence and a long stare from Rainbow and Twilight simultaneously. Spike leaned slowly forward, with a protesting squeak from his chair in the quiet, his disbelieving gaze peering around Rainbow's side inch by inch.

Fluttershy suddenly remembered who and where she was, and cowered with a squeak. "I mean, it's just really nice, and I think it would help and oh please don't be mad."

Rainbow Dash exchanged looks with Twilight, then shut her eyes briefly and shook her head. "Come on, Twilight, isn't there some kinda spell that you could use instead? A 'make pegasi even more wicked cool' spell, maybe?"

Twilight shook her head, and munched on her sandwich as Rainbow spoke, swallowing her mouthful. "Nope," she said, dabbing at her mouth with a levitated napkin. "You've asked me that before."

"I have?"

"On nine separate occasions."

"Oh."

Twilight nodded, "Yup. There's no substitute for genuine pampering. Fluttershy is right, Rainbow, you should at least give it a try. You can always tell them to hold the mud bath, and the hooficure. There's a whole menu!"

Twilight giggled around her next mouthful of daffodil, unable to keep the amusing image of a glowering Rainbow Dash sulking in a mudbath out of her mind, or the memory of Rainbow Dash darting away after Lotus tried to give her a hooficure. She couldn't decide what entertained her more.

"Trust me, Rainbow Dash, I'll tell Aloe and Lotus just what to do so it's extra easy for you. You won't have to worry about anything!" Fluttershy grinned up at Rainbow, nearly prancing.

Rainbow Dash sighed and drooped her head, her normally lively spectral mane somehow managing to take on a sagging appearance as well. She considered the possibility of muscle cramps and lost primaries that would lay her up for days...or weeks. She'd had them before when she pushed too hard. That stint in the hospital. The thought of enduring that again made her shiver in fear, and finally outweighed her reluctance.

"Okay," she said finally. "If you say so."

Complication

Complication

"How much longer do we have to stay here?" Rainbow Dash moaned impatiently, sprawled out bonelessly over a couch. Her sprawling wasn't so much out of relaxation as opposed to mind-numbing boredom. Her wings shifted uncomfortably beneath the fluffy bathrobe that she wore, unused to anything even remotely resembling the fluffy garment covering her wings. She didn't know how Fluttershy could stand it.

Lotus had persuaded Dash into daubing a couple of patches of green...stuff onto her cheeks, and now Rainbow was staring at the wall, trying to count how many different tricks she could be practicing right now instead of sitting here, doing nothing.

Her trademark mane had been mercifully left alone, albeit crammed into a towel and bound up atop her head, but Rainbow figured the ultimate damage wouldn't be anything she couldn't fix with a dunk of her head into a particularly damp cloud and a good shake of her crest.

"Oh, it's not that bad, surely," Fluttershy smiled from beneath her mane, left loose with conditioner and oils brushed through it. In contrast to Dash's discomfort, the fluffy bathrobe Fluttershy had ensconced herself in made her feel warm and safe, pillows propping up her newly hooficured forelegs, almost dry. "Didn't the sauna feel nice?"

"It just made me all sweaty!" Rainbow Dash cried indignantly, and while Fluttershy blushed, Rainbow continued. "If I wanted that, I'd have just flown around some more!"

"Well, we haven't gotten to the best parts yet," Fluttershy replied, trying to sound reassuring. "If it's not too much trouble, just try it for a little longer, Rainbow, I promise that it'll be worth it. Aloe and Lotus are so good at what they do." Fluttershy tried for another smile, though it came out with a nervous curl at the corners of her mouth. "Don't you trust me?"

Rainbow's muzzle worked in an odd way, looking over at her. "Of course I trust you, Fluttershy, it's just..." She looked around, and seeing that they were alone for the moment, she let out a long sigh. "I dunno about this stuff, it's not exactly my thing."

Dash tugged at the hem of the bathrobe with one hoof, still shifting uncomfortably with her wings beneath. "And it's kinda uncomfortable, with these strange ponies." She blushed and lowered her voice, in case they were listening. "I mean, no offense, they're nothing but nice and stuff but it's just weird."

Fluttershy grinned a little, obliviously. "You're just not used to other people looking after you, Rainbow, you're always so busy taking care of yourself, or everypony else. You need to let us take care of you sometimes."

Rainbow groaned and lowered her head back onto the pillow at her forelegs, letting out a soft, undignified snort. "I'm supposed to be the Element of Loyalty, that's what I'm supposed to do, isn't it? Help everypony?"

"That doesn't mean you have to do it all by yourself." Fluttershy sighed quietly, thinking back to the last time that Rainbow had tried to help absolutely everypony in Ponyville by herself, and the fuss that resulted from it. "Or be by yourself all the time. I mean, we all care about you a lot. We want to see you win Best Young Flyer just as much as you do, but there's a lot more to it than that."

Rainbow Dash's raised an eyebrow, pushing the mound of towel on her head back from where it was threatening to cover her brilliant ruby eyes. "Fluttershy, are you turning into Twilight or something? Usually she's the one giving the lectures."

Fluttershy shook her head and her hindbrain leapt forward again, reminding her to maintain a healthy cower. "N-no, I mean, it's just...oh my goodness." Fluttershy faltered, and retreated in her comfortable, warm bathrobe. "I just mean, if you don't think it's too much, that it's okay to ask the others for help too, I mean, you trust me, but you can trust them too. I know it wasn't easy for you to come here after Twilight suggested it."

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow and shook her head a little. "Twilight's suggestion, maybe, but you talked me into it. 'Shy, I've known you since forever, since we were fillies. You...well, you get me, even though I put you through all kinds of crazy stuff. The others...well, they're cool too, but they don't quite get the Dash, y'know what I mean?"

Fluttershy peered out a little, biting her lip. She didn't often hear these sorts of things from Dash.

"You're always around to cheer for me, even if I'm sometimes a little...y'know." Dash's voice cracked a little at the end as a forehoof made a weak pinwheeling gesture in front of her, but she kept an encouraging smile on for her fellow pegasus.

Fluttershy nearly disappeared beneath her pink locks when she tipped her head, returning Rainbow's enthusiastic grin with a more demure smile of her own. "Oh, it's okay, Rainbow. Really. I know it's not easy for you, but ... thanks. That's really nice of you to say." Fluttershy blushed, rubbing at the couch fabric with her hooves gently.

Rainbow Dash's mouth opened to say more, but she was interrupted by the return of the cheerful blue and pink earth ponies that ran the spa.

"If you are ready, missus Dash and Fluttershy, ve haf the massage tables vaiting," Lotus spoke up, both of them smiling cheerfully.

Rainbow Dash's pupils shrank distressingly, her muzzle drooping. "Massage?" she said warily, instantly back to her previous, bravado-layered self.

Fluttershy's knew that tone. She jumped up from her couch, coming to rescue the afternoon before Rainbow Dash could scuttle the affair altogether.

"J-just wait a moment, Rainbow," she said, trotting over to a slightly confused Lotus. There was some discussion in hushed tones, which made Rainbow all the more uncomfortable, until finally Lotus and Aloe bowed and departed.

Fluttershy turned back to Rainbow and grinned. "I told them you were quite sure that your wingfeathers were in just the right places for your aerodynamics, and you didn't want them disturbed, even by well-meaning spa ponies." Fluttershy blushed, tapping the floor with the edge of a hoof. "I said that I'd see to the rest of your afternoon."

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. "Seriously?" She uncurled and hopped to the floor, squinting. "Who are you and what have you done with Fluttershy? Since when did you get so...so..."

"I'm trying to be more assertive, remember?" Fluttershy puffed up with a hint of a giggle in her voice, managing to look proud for a fleeting moment before ducking her head back down, smiling out from beneath her wavy pink mane. "Besides, Aloe and Lotus are my friends, I see them every week. They understand, even if they are a little disappointed. They said, maybe next time."

Rainbow Dash shook her head in disbelief. "So, when you said you'd see to 'the rest of my afternoon', what exactly did you mean by that?" Dash's eyes narrowed, skeptically.

"Well, there's no other customers, and you said you were uncomfortable with strange ponies poking and prodding, so I thought, if it's okay with you, I would help you instead."

"You?" Rainbow Dash tried to keep the surprise out of her voice, and failed miserably. "You're going to...do that stuff? I thought we'd just, y'know." Dash nodded outside, hopefully.

Fluttershy's eyes widened. "But we haven't even gotten to the best parts yet! A massage will help your muscles so much, you always get so tense when you're flying around." Abruptly, Fluttershy realized she was lecturing again, and her head ducked down instantly between her forehooves, with a tiny squeak. "I mean, if you want to, if not, that's okay too, I mean, I just thought that..."

"No, 'Shy, it's fine...it's just..." Dash trailed off as she looked at how hopeful and eager her friend was. She couldn't disappoint Fluttershy, the well-meaning Element of Kindness in front of her, beaming despite her cower.

Rainbow Dash mustered a deep breath to steel herself, and nodded with a helpless shrug of her wings beneath her robe. "Okay," Dash said, resignedly. "We'll...try it your way, I guess?"

Fluttershy perked up and clapped her hooves together a couple of times gleefully, then trotted on through a curtained doorway, leaving Rainbow Dash standing there for a moment, shaking her head, following the oblivious Fluttershy through.

On the other side of the curtains were a pair of massage tables, festooned with pillows. Of course, where Fluttershy would normally occupy one, she was standing beside it, fussing and fidgeting with the pillows.

"So, you're really gonna do...this?" Rainbow Dash began, hesitantly, as she trotted over and carefully stepped up onto the bed-slash-table, stretching out lengthwise on it. It was comfortable enough. "What do you know about, y'know, this?" she said, unable to bring herself to actually talk about this silly mushy stuff like she had become familiar with any of it.

Fluttershy actually managed a reproachful glare for an instant before it faded into apologetic sympathy. "Oh, Rainbow, I take care of so many critters, and sometimes they get so tense and a good, vigorous massage is the only way to get them feeling like their old selves."

She thumped the bed with a forehoof lightly, looking so pleased with herself. "Here, keep your robe on, I know you're not used to this. Hooves can be kind of hard for a first-timer, they were for me, but you get used to them fast." Fluttershy giggled, trying to be reassuring. "I promise I'll be super careful, though."

As Rainbow Dash hopped up and stretched out on the table, she laid her head on a pillow between her forelegs, her movements wooden and hesitant. Fluttershy hopped up on a stool beside her and started to rub at Dash's back just below her wings using the broad pads of her hooves, carefully angling back the sharper, though expertly-manicured edges to use the softer frog in the middle.

Dash jumped a little at the initial contact, but quickly calmed down, still shifting and fidgeting awkwardly as the cloth slid back and forth over her bundled up wingfeathers. "I hate to burst your bubble, 'Shy, but I'm kinda different from your forest friends." Dash arched an eyebrow and looked back over her shoulder at her friend, still unsure.

Fluttershy gently reached forward without breaking her stride, and pushed Dash's head straight and onto the pillow, hushing her with a soft 'shussh'. "Trust me, Rainbow. I've been coming here with Rarity for a long time now, I think I know just as much about ponies as I do about bears and other critters, especially pegasi."

Rainbow's eyes first blinked at the insistent treatment of her snout, and then went wide at Fluttershy's words. "Bears?"

"Shh!" Fluttershy urged, somehow coming across as both stern and distressingly adorable. Dash's head got pushed into the pillow again and this time Rainbow relented, on account of the feeling of 'Shy's hooves on either side of her spine and around her wingbases actually being pretty good, and it was getting better by the moment. As long as she's careful, Dash thought, her resistance fading under the expert attention of her fellow pegasus.

There were ripples of tension across Rainbow's back and down her flanks as the other pegasus' hooves pressed through the cloth bathrobe, but they were lessening in favour of a peculiar tenderness that made Dash want to clench her jaw and sag into the pillows, and before she knew it she was groaning and fidgeting faintly on the cushions, gnawing at the corner of a pillow in front of her.

Fluttershy kept on working the muscles diligently, brow furrowed a little in concentration. "Ohmygoodness, Rainbow, your muscles are nothing but knots!" she muttered, shaking her head. Less intimidated by the quiet, prone pegasus now, Fluttershy had unwittingly shifted her tone to that which she used on her little patients at home, determined and concerned despite her outward timidness. "Goodness, oh, knots here...and knots here!"

Rainbow Dash practically drooled into the pillows, pawing at them weakly with her forehooves, unable to summon the will to crawl away from the simultaneously aching and yet delicious sensation of hooves pressing into her back, rubbing firmly on either side of her barrel, working out the knots of tension that had resided for goodness knows how long.

Dash felt the hooves working down to her flanks, and even when they brushed over her sensitive cutie mark, Dash couldn't work up the energy or coherence to complain much. A few times, she fidgeted when Fluttershy's hooves, despite being carefully manicured, caught and nudged a little through the robe.

Fluttershy wasn't quite the expert masseuse that Aloe or Lotus were, though she was doing an admirable job. Despite her relative inexperience with ponies, it turned out that Fluttershy was right about the whole robe versus hooves thing; Dash felt much better when her hooves were cushioned by the thick terrycloth, though she could see the appeal of the hooves' firmness on her muscles if she was more used to it.

The hooves in question slid up either side of her crest and neck, and Fluttershy pushed down the collar of the bathrobe a little to let her hooves work directly on the soft blue coat. Rubbing in slow circles, Fluttershy worked meticulously, careful not to press on the vertebrae themselves and ending up rubbing right behind Dash's head. The brand new hooficure made Fluttershy's flexible hooves as smooth as glass, all but obviating the need for oil in the short term.

"Even though we fly all the time, we're not meant to stay all squashed up like you for speed, Rainbow," Fluttershy lectured gently while she worked. "You need to take better care of yourself or you're going to strain something important."

Rainbow Dash managed a delirious "Mmnh" in reply, eyes squeezed shut as the tension gradually melted away. The hooves began to descend down her spine again, this time a little further out on her sides, joining together and pressing around her right wing. Dash was slowly getting used to the feeling of the bare hooves on her coat now and then, and actually missed them when they left the nape of her neck; it felt like Fluttershy was finding her stride.

Unfortunately for Rainbow, she grew aware of another sensation as the pinions and feathers on her wings were nudged and pushed and ground into the cloth as well, trapped between the hooves on one side and the muscles beneath on the other. Even though Fluttershy was doing her best to work around them, the feathers were getting tugged and pulled, making them prickle in sensitive ways.

Abruptly, Dash's eyes snapped open, pupils the size of pinpricks again, and she tried desperately to rekindle what semblance of order she had left in her massage-addled mind. "Oh, uh, 'Shy, do you think you could stop for a second?" she said squeakily, voice cracking. "The robe's kinda...catching a bit."

"Oh, well, we can take it off, I've got to get at the muscles beneath at some point. You think you're used to the hooves now? The robe helped for me, the first few times..." Fluttershy rambled easily, not looking up from her work, not seeing the frantic shaking of Rainbow's head.

"Nononono, that's okay, really, just...skip over the wings, they're just..."

"But Rainbow, your wings are the most important part, especially after all the flying you did today!" Fluttershy gasped, shaking her head. "We can't possibly leave those out." Fluttershy kept rubbing on her sides, which made Rainbow's eyes water, and the muscles at the base of her wings get tense and sore again, bundled up inside the robe, fighting to get free.

Of course, now the robe was the only thing keeping her decent.

Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think of something, of anything else than her friend at her back, doing those things. That time she plunged into the dam's reservoir, and it was freezing cold. The time she flew through that cloud full of snow last winter. That time...

"Fluttershy, I r-really need you to s-stop for a minute," Rainbow said, voice falling apart.

"What's wrong?" The hooves paused, mercifully, Fluttershy's voice full of genuine concern. "Omigosh, am I hurting you?"

"N-no, it's just..."

"Omigosh, I did hurt you, I'm soooo sorry Rainbow Dash, did I hurt your wings? I bet I pinched a feather, oh, I'm so sorry, I did that one time by accident when I was preening and I couldn't reach it and I had to get Angel to put it back and..."

Fluttershy was tugging at the collar of her robe. Never having been much for it to begin with, Rainbow Dash hadn't ever tied it properly beneath her stomach. Distracted by Fluttershy's litany, she didn't feel it slithering off her shoulders until it was too late.

"Wait!" Rainbow Dash cried at the top of her lungs.

Foomph.

Silence reigned for a precious few moments, Rainbow Dash's desperate cry echoing through Fluttershy's mind, if no longer the room.

Dash's wings stuck out from under the robe's pulled-back collar, jutting up on either side in an unmistakable fashion, the pinions and primaries spread and straining in broad fans above her back. Some of the feathers were, in fact, out of alignment, but the quivering tension in them belied something much more fundamental and desperate.

Dash's muzzle closed, along with her eyes, screwing shut tightly. With agonizing care, she lowered her head back to the pillows, and then equally slowly, she dragged over another pillow to join them.

Rainbow Dash methodically pulled it over her head and buried herself in velvet, unable to bear the thought of looking at her friend like this. She spent a moment trying to hunch the robe up around her shoulders where it was pinned beneath the base of her unfurled wings, but soon gave up with a defeated sigh, mortally embarrassed by every heartbeat she could feel in her worked-up wings.

Fluttershy stared at the display in front of her, and blushed ferociously. "Ohmygoodness," She managed, in the squeakiest, tiniest voice yet.

Rainbow Dash's grip on the pillow over her head tightened subtly, with a protesting rustle from the velvet of the pillow. A subtle movement of it showed she was shaking her head from side to side beneath it. Stubbornly, her wings refused to retreat, staying fanned out at her sides, aching with their rigid tension.

"Rainbow, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to...I should have...ohmygoodness." Fluttershy sputtered, folding her hooves up beneath her chin anxiously.

"Just...go," Rainbow's voice filtered out. It was strained and on the verge of tears, muffled beneath the pillow pinned over her head.

Fluttershy stepped back from the table a step or two, turning for the door. Her normal run and hide instinct pushed her halfway to the threshold before something else made her stop in her tracks, her ears flicking back and forth as she thought about her friend.

Her friend, who was embarrassed and in pain.

Fluttershy frowned, looked back at Dash, shaking slightly beneath her meager pillow cover, and shook her head. "I'm not leaving, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow's hooves pulled the pillow down just far enough for one crimson eye to peek out the side at her, brimming. "What?" she said, tone laden with something between indignation and anger.

Fluttershy put her forehoof down, dramatically. "I'm not leaving, Rainbow Dash," she repeated, with only the slightest quiver in her voice, trying not to lose her newfound nerve under the stare of her friend.

Her nerve promptly vanished without a trace when Rainbow pulled the pillow back and confronted her with a baleful expression, shaking her head slowly. Her eyes were curled at the corners, quivering and fighting tears, and the red of her irises dominated her gaze. "I told you to go, Fluttershy," she said, her voice breaking. "It's bad enough as it is. J-just leave me alone."

Fluttershy cowered, looking at her hooves. "It's not the first time I've seen...that, Rainbow." Fluttershy glanced fleetingly up at the straining wings on Rainbow's back, and then hurriedly returned her attention to her hooves, studying the carpet.

"Wh-.." Rainbow began in confusion, and then shook her head violently, remembering to be hurt. She was hurt. "That's not the point!" she cried, rapidly working up to a sob, her brow furrowed angrily. "I'm not supposed to...this isn't right! It's all messed up!"

"Rainbow, it's okay, really," Fluttershy began, only to get angrily cut off by her friend.

"No, it's not okay. Nothing's okay now. I should have said something earlier. It was okay before, but now it's not." Rainbow Dash shook her head, standing up on the massage table and then hopping off of it gingerly, trying to hide her wings behind her angry glower. "It's all messed up now. So, if you're not gonna go, then I am."

Fluttershy closed her eyes and summoned every fiber of her being, every last ounce of strength that she had, and rose to all fours from her timid crouch. Somepony's feelings were hurt, and worse yet, she was the one to hurt them.

She had to make it right.

"No, you're not, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy replied sternly. Her brow was knitted and her face wore an expression that Rainbow Dash had scarcely seen before. Only before when dragons were involved if she'd been in a position to see it, and when the prospect of Discord ruling Equestria forever reared its ugly head. It made Dash stop in her tracks, wings tightening almost imperceptibly behind her, eyes wide and bewildered at her friend's change in demeanour. Rainbow Dash actually felt ashamed for a moment, as she looked deeply into Fluttershy's deep blue eyes.

"We're going to sit here, and we're going to talk about this," Fluttershy finished, stubbornly. Then Fluttershy's eyes shifted. "Um. If you don't mind. Too much," she added, in quieter tones.

Dash shook her head, regaining her senses now that the Stare was broken. She reached up and pulled her gradually unknotting towel off of her head to let her rainbow-hued mane down, somewhat the worse for wear but still as brilliant as ever.

Angrily, Rainbow balled the towel up in her hooves and threw it aside, a shake of her head making the frizzy, messed up mane wave around atop her head. "What's there to talk about?" she croaked, looking back at Fluttershy with eyes rimmed in red in more ways than one, now.

"I've seen your wings do that before, Rainbow, but never like...like this. I mean, I know that...well, was...was it because of me?" Fluttershy began, hesitantly. After she said it, Fluttershy cringed and mentally bucked herself. She meant it one way, but of course it meant something else. She didn't want to go there. Of course she'd said it wrong.

Rainbow Dash chuckled bitterly and lowered her head. "You don't want me to answer that, 'Shy."

A chill dousing some hopeful little spark in the back of Fluttershy's mind, a spark she barely even remembered existed until it was gone.

"See?" Rainbow blubbered helplessly into the silence, a tear running down her cheek. "See? I don't want to hurt you, Fluttershy, you're my best friend. My best friend ever. One of my only friends. And now I'm gonna...it's just..." Rainbow Dash shrugged, not knowing where to put herself.

Wearily, heavily, Rainbow sat slowly down on the enchanted, permanently warmed tile, just as her wings finally started to furl behind her, instinct giving way to emotion. Dash shook her head slowly, head sagging downward. "It's just...what you were doing with my wings, it made me..."

"Gilda," Fluttershy said, suddenly, in a burst of understanding.

Rainbow Dash was silent.

"Gilda did that, didn't she? Oh, Rainbow," Fluttershy shook her head, fretting her forehooves around and around each other desperately. "That's what you meant when you said it was weird, having strange ponies poke and prod. I remember now, you said one time, about her, her hands, and and oh Rainbow, I'm so sorry, I should have known, I should have remembered!"

Rainbow let her head hang. "It was...a long time ago, 'Shy. When she came back to Ponyville last year, I was hoping that maybe she was, y'know, still cool." Rainbow Dash took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to steady herself. "But she'd been gone home in the meantime, overseas. I thought we could still be friends, but...she'd changed. Gotten jealous and...and angry. You remember her, how she yelled at Pinkie. Yelled at everypony."

Fluttershy remembered all too well now, though she hadn't ever had the heart to tell Rainbow Dash about the ducks in the market. Pinkie had wisely avoided the topic too, in an uncharacteristic display of good judgement.

Rainbow Dash shook her head slowly, making tears fall from the end of her muzzle. "I wanted to remember the old Gilda. But now," Rainbow sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of a hoof crudely. "We haven't written each other since. And I just...what you were doing, it made me think..." she trailed off lamely, shrugging.

Fluttershy had managed to close the distance between herself and the distraught Rainbow Dash, working her way to within a few inches. "I'm so sorry, Rainbow Dash. I didn't want to hurt you, or remind you of something you didn't want to remember, I just wanted to help."

Rainbow bit her lip, unable to bring herself to say anything for a long moment. "I know, Shy, I know you were trying to help and I-I just...I don't know," she trailed off, silent for a long moment, while Fluttershy leaned in and brushed Dash's foreleg with a hoof.

Rainbow just looked up at her with eyes full of tears and a muzzle full of apologies to be greeted, not by jealousy or anger or disappointment as Rainbow feared, but by understanding and a gentle, patient smile spread across Fluttershy's pale yellow muzzle.

"It's okay, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said, quietly.

"R-really?" Rainbow said, unable to hide the doubt in her voice. Her brain seized on the opportunity for a quick fix, to make it all better, but the smaller, wiser part of her didn't think it'd be that easy. Didn't want it to be that easy.

"I mean, I understand." Fluttershy said, leaning in to give Rainbow a gentle nuzzle on the withers. Her voice was like silk, and something resembling calm found Rainbow Dash for the first time in what felt like an eternity. "You're my best friend, Rainbow Dash, you've always helped me, ever since we were little fillies. I'd like to think that maybe I've been able to help you too, even if only a teensy little bit. And I'm sorry if I've...if I've done something I shouldn't have."

Fluttershy moved to sit beside her friend, side to side, reaching up and laying a hoof over her withers to squeeze fondly, which made Rainbow Dash puff out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, chuckling weakly.

"Aw, Fluttershy, you're...you're so...oh, man." She rubbed the bridge of her muzzle with a forehoof, trying to find herself. "I know this isn't all just about me, 'Shy," she said thickly, snuffling back more tears. "I appreciate that. I mean, I know I don't say it much, but you're a...a good friend, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy paused, at Dash's hesitation. The skittish pony recognized that tone.

She'd heard it often enough in her own voice. She'd heard it so many times, when she was searching for something to say and ended up stammering out something diplomatic instead of what she really wanted to say.

Fluttershy bit her lip, and fretted her hooves. That spark was back in her hindbrain again.

Assertive.

"Rainbow Dash?"

Dash's muzzle turned, her mane still a frizzy, puffy mess on top of her head. Her brilliant red eyes were heavy, wearied. Fluttershy almost lost her nerve when she saw them.

"Yeah?"

Fluttershy's muzzle worked soundlessly, for a moment. "You were going to say something else," she whispered, in a tiny voice.

Rainbow fidgeted. "Uh. No, I wasn't."

Fluttershy waited patiently. That spark reignited, and glowed ever so faintly.

"Are you telling me I'm wrong?" Rainbow Dash accused, frowning.

Wrong way. "No, Rainbow Dash, I mean..." Fluttershy squeezed her eyes tightly, shaking her head. "You said earlier, what I was doing, it made you think. Made you think...what?"

Rainbow Dash squirmed in place beside her, feeling the back of her neck. But said nothing. No off the cuff remark. No casual dismissal. It wasn't just because Dash didn't want to say something hurtful.

The spark flickered into a tiny flame. "Do I remind you of Gilda just because she was just the last one to give you a massage?"

Silence.

Fluttershy reached out and grabbed Rainbow Dash by the shoulders, turning the rainbow-maned pony towards her gently, but insistently. The sudden movement made Rainbow Dash straighten and blink in surprise at the normally timid pony in front of her, drawing a forehoof up defensively.

"Please," Fluttershy insisted, not backing down.

Rainbow Dash's expression fairly melted at the near-whisper of Fluttershy's gentle voice. She glanced down and away, her brow furrowing, her eyes quivering at the corners like she was going to tear up again.

Trying to say the right thing, just the same way she was. Afraid to be vulnerable.

Fluttershy realized they were dancing around each other fruitlessly, and that words weren't going to cut it anymore.

Unerringly, Fluttershy darted forward, and planted a kiss on Rainbow Dash's cheek. A fleeting contact, just a brush of her lips on her cyan coat. But it was enough to make Rainbow Dash stop stock-still and her eyes go wide. Slowly, they refocused on the offending pegasus, who flushed furiously.

A long silence persisted, in which Fluttershy quailed, slowly letting her forehooves drop. She glanced towards the floor, sheepishly, and was a hair's breadth from turning away, before Rainbow Dash broke the silence.

"You made me think of Gilda," she croaked, her voice cracking, "Because you're...you're somepony that I care about."

Fluttershy's muzzle rose again, peering up through her pink mane. "Really?"

Rainbow Dash nodded, looking away after but a fleeting moment of eye contact, clearing her throat. She pretended to study ceiling tiles, the columns, anything but 'Shy's face. "Y-yeah." she stammered out, hesitantly.

Something thrilled in Fluttershy's throat. It was butterflies and mice and Angel doing backflips all at the same time. She stood up slowly, and leaned over to stroke Rainbow Dash's side. Dash flinched, but didn't shy away.

"I care about you too, Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy felt the words leaving her mouth, but they felt weird. Not because she didn't mean it, but it didn't feel like her saying them. This was somepony else.

She wasn't having this dream, was she?

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and stood up suddenly, shrugging off her bathrobe, shifting her wings restlessly. "I, uh..."

Fluttershy knew what Rainbow was going to say. "You need to think," she finished for her, gently.

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Uh...y-yeah."

"I know," Fluttershy said, with a sidelong smile. You're not good with this mushy stuff, Rainbow Dash. "You think better when you fly."

Rainbow Dash's expression softened a little, and she even managed a tiny smile. "Yeah."

"I'll be waiting for you. Pinkie Promise."

Rainbow Dash's muzzle opened to say something, then closed again, her smile getting a little wider. Then she nodded. "Thanks," she said finally, her voice cracking again.

Then she was gone.

Fluttershy barely stirred when Aloe and Lotus stepped back in, looking concerned. "Iz everythink allright?" Lotus began, frowning. "Miz Rainbow Dash seemed upzet about zomething."

"Oh, it's allright, we were just having a bit of...um, girl talk. She'll be fine," Fluttershy covered with surprising ease, pawing at the tile with a hoof timidly. "Um, could we put this on my tab, um, I don't have my bits with me."

"Of course, miz Fluttershy. It iz no problem. Oh, let miz Rarity know that we have her new mineral zalts in for her bath, if you zee her!"

Fluttershy nodded, mustering up a cheerful smile for the twin earth ponies as she trotted out past them.

She heading first for her cottage. Angel needed food, so did the other animals. For all his faults, and his attitude, Angel could still be counted on to do the right thing when it really mattered. She needed him to take care of things for the night.

When Rainbow was ready, she would be there.

Consolation

Consolation

Fluttershy's journey back to her cottage was uneventful, stopping briefly in Ponyville to pick up some extra fruits, veggies and grains for her animals before the shops closed, rushing out to her cottage as fast as her hooves - and occasionally her wings - could carry her.

Her first stop was to go see Tank, Dash's pet tortoise. Tank, being a tortoise, didn't get along so well with clouds. As a result, he'd still spent most of his time sleeping at Fluttershy's and in the nearby forest tree she had hollowed out to act as a sort of shelter during bad weather at the edge of Everfree.

Rainbow Dash diligently visited him every day, even if only for a few minutes, but often she stayed for quite a while. According to an annoyed Dash, the enchanted contraption that Twilight came up with let him buzz around worked stunningly well, but only for a few hours at a time before needing to be recharged, so she reluctantly was forced to keep him on solid earth.

Tank seemed to prefer it that way regardless. Fluttershy hadn't the heart to tell Rainbow that clouds made him nervous.

Fluttershy took a few minutes to let Tank know what was going on, but put most of the emphasis on, 'the next time you see Dash, make sure you give her a hug. Or, the tortoise equivalent'. A sluggish nod and a crooked smile from the tortoise's beak was all the reassurance Fluttershy needed that he understood.

The next hurdle was Angel. It took a lot of coaxing from Fluttershy, but eventually, she convinced the feisty bunny that her friend was in trouble, and that she needed to be there for her. After that, she was rewarded with a crisp salute and a dutiful hop towards the chicken pen. Fluttershy made sure to leave a few extra strawberries out for her capable, if fickle bunny assistant, and then winged it for Rainbow Dash's house.

By the time she arrived, she was a little breathless, but fortunately, Rainbow hadn't beaten her there. She took up a position on the fluffy porch of Rainbow's tall, tower-like cloud home, finally settling down to do a little thinking herself. Since Rainbow Dash's admission, it was like she had a gale at her back, and couldn't slow down. She didn't even think she could move that fast.

Now, it was catching up to her, and she stretched out on the fluffy stoop. Thinking.

Item: Rainbow Dash was very nice.

Item: Rainbow Dash was her best friend, in the whole world.

Oh, certainly, the others were her greatest friends too, she could never say otherwise, but Rainbow Dash was the pony she'd known the longest, and trusted the most.

Item: She kissed Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash hadn't burst into tears or instantly fled the premises.

Fluttershy folded her hooves beneath her, nudging them into the soft cloud stoop. She peered over the edge at the mailbox, far below.

The thought of someone actually liking her, not just liking her but like-liking her was nerve-wracking. She wasn't sure if she was going to have a heart attack or giggle.

Absently, Fluttershy wondered if this was how Pinkie Pie felt all the time.

Still, on the whole, it felt...nice.

Fluttershy's brow knitted together. Right after she finished learning how to be assertive - and she was very proud of how assertive she'd been today - she would pester Twilight as politely as she could for a thesaurus.

Rarity had called her out on using 'nice' for everything whenever she wanted to shy away from actually saying what she meant, and told her discreetly one day at the spa that proper ponies do not 'obfuscate their feelings...in such simple terms'.

So not just nice, Fluttershy thought. Everypony is nice.

What, then?

Even growing up, she'd always admired Rainbow Dash's strength, her...how did she put it. Radicalness? Fluttershy was pretty sure that wasn't a word, but it seemed to fit Rainbow perfectly.

Rainbow Dash was everything that Fluttershy had hoped to be, when she was a filly. She tried so hard at flight school. Somewhere along the way, after she had got her cutie mark, Fluttershy had accepted that she really was pretty weak and helpless. Fluttershy had settled that with herself a long time ago, she was okay with that.

She turned instead to Rainbow Dash as the best friend she hoped she could have. She tried her best whenever she could, when they needed her for Winter Wrap Up, for delivering water to Cloudsdale, to help her find a pet.

Dash was everything Fluttershy wasn't, and that made Fluttershy just a tiny little bit stronger every time she was around, all the parts she was missing right there at her side. At first, it had just been about that. She thought she could soak up some of Rainbow Dash's qualities by sheer osmosis, and then maybe they'd stop laughing at her quite so much, but that changed.

They'd been through a lot together. Fluttershy nodded, and watched the sun crawl across the sky. She rolled on her back and felt the breeze through the pillow of the cloud beneath her, wafting through the coherent vapour, made tangible by her touch and a liberal sprinkling of inherent pegasi magic.

Before Ponyville, they drifted together and apart. Dash stood up for her at school, kept the bullies away, kept her safe and tried to teach her what the other ponies wouldn't. Afterwards, Dash had gone to Junior Speedsters' Flight Camp and continued through Cloudsdale Middle School, while Fluttershy had apprenticed at Hoofington's Veterinary Hospital. They wrote to each other every week or two.

Dash had talked about Gilda in those letters using terms that made Fluttershy blush even now. Dash had been so pleased with herself that she had gotten the reluctant, normally somewhat cantankerous Gilda to open up to her. Rainbow Dash, being Rainbow Dash, couldn't settle for anything less than courting the only gryphoness at Flight Camp.

Of course, when Gilda had showed up in Ponyville that time, Fluttershy had been taken totally off guard. The Gilda that bumped into her in the market was nothing like the Gilda that Rainbow had written about. It wasn't until much later that remembered some of the similarities; Rainbow Dash had sometimes described her as gruff and distant, but after what happened, Fluttershy had concluded that even Rainbow was as confused as she was by Gilda's behaviour. She had stayed by her for so long, Fluttershy knew it had broken Rainbow's heart to see Gilda go.

But of course Gilda had played with Rainbow's wings, all that time ago, when they were marefriends. Fluttershy mentally bucked herself for not seeing that connection sooner, after all that she'd read. It was just so naturally intimate, and then to have Fluttershy come along...

Fluttershy sighed and buried her head in her hooves. Oh, goodness.

She really had made such a mess of things.

Time to fix that. Fluttershy knew she'd been nursing this ember around ever since Rainbow Dash had joined her in Ponyville. It had wavered, faltered, come perilously close to going out, on more than one occasion.

But that spark had never gone out completely.

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow began, tentatively. She was a hoof's length from Fluttershy's curled up, napping body.

"Eeep!" Fluttershy jumped up and bolted straight through the cloud wall of Rainbow's House, puffing out a pony-shaped hole in the fluffy white stuff.

Rainbow Dash's eyes lowered a little, and she waited on her stoop patiently for Fluttershy to return to the door of Dash's very own house, the clouds tinged orange with the slowly setting sun. A few moments later, the door dutifully swung open to reveal the sheepish Fluttershy.

"Um, hi," Fluttershy smiled, biting her lip. "I'm, um, so sorry about the, um, wall."

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but chuckle and shake her head, her now appropriately-gnarly rainbow mane cascading to one side. She reached out and smoothed over the wall with a stirring of her hooves, and mentally noted to scrounge up an appropriately sized cloud to augment her stingy patch job later. "It's okay, 'Shy. I was gonna say to come on in, but you managed to beat me in here too." Rainbow Dash stepped carefully past Fluttershy, smiling wryly.

Fluttershy scuffed her hoof at the floor, and squeaked in fright when a puff of cloud rose where she dug at the floor, the cloud coloured to look like checkerboard tile. She wasn't used to clouds, especially tailored, permanent ones like these. It'd been years since she lived in Cloudsdale. Before Rainbow could see, she frantically patted the patch of floor back down, stood on it with all four hooves, and reminded herself that it was very important not to do that.

Fluttershy stood in a cylinder of a room with a sweeping staircase that led up one side, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, glowing with electric light from a captured thundercloud, which roiled in a chamber built into the middle of it.

There was a couch and an assortment of pillows strewn around the room, with more than a few Fluttershy recognized as being arranged in formations for Rainbow Dash's aeronautical planning efforts. Orange light from the sun streamed in through peaked windows on the walls, and through the walls themselves, casting the whole room in a brilliant hue that almost matched part of Rainbow's mane.

Colonnades were arranged around the room, spaced evenly to support the floor above, traditional pegasi architecture. Fluttershy had been in here before, a few times, but never for very long. Now, she took in all the details. Stacked up those columns were takeout boxes and other mess from Rainbow Dash's day to day life. Rainbow wasn't exactly one for homecooked meals. Or keeping the place tidy. Fluttershy tried to remember just when the last time she had been to Rainbow's house was, and whether it had been quite this messy.

By now, Dash had returned from the kitchen counter with a couple of mugs of water. Of course, the mugs themselves were enchanted, specially made in Cloudsdale for pegasus ponies, the water a product of another captive raincloud Dash kept above her sink. Even left on a cloud, they wouldn't fall through.

"Listen, Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash began.

"I'm so sorry," Fluttershy interrupted suddenly, then as Rainbow Dash stared at her, she squeaked and ducked. "Oh, um, I'm sorry for interrupting. I just...oh." Fluttershy stopped as she noticed Rainbow's withering stare, and muted herself with a tiny squeak.

"Fluttershy, just...come here," Rainbow sighed, flopping onto one of the myriad pillows strewn around her floor, dragging another close for Fluttershy. "What are you sorry for now?"

Dash leaned her muzzle on one hoof, already looking annoyed, but she had enough concern written on her brow that Fluttershy had the courage to slink over and sit carefully on the other fluffy cloud pillow, taking a sip of the mug of water Rainbow Dash had left in front of it.

"Um, about Gilda," Fluttershy replied, finally. "And...your wings. I should have thought that through. Really. That was silly and foalish of me and I'm sorry."

Rainbow Dash shut her eyes and shook her head, wings rustling uneasily on her back. "'Shy, it's okay, really. I mean, I have a lot of good memories with Gilda, and you just kinda...brought 'em back and I wasn't expecting it and you...you made me feel, well..." Rainbow blushed, ducking her head to one side, trailing off helplessly.

Fluttershy blinked, mind working on that for a long moment. "But you miss her terribly, I can tell," she said, hurrying past the point that Rainbow left hanging.

"Yeah, 'Shy, I do." Rainbow looked down at her mug, swirling the water around in it slowly. "I really do. Gilda and I had a lot of good times together. But, that's gone now. And now..." Rainbow trailed off, her happy thought cut short as she thought better of the company she was with. "Sorry."

"No, Dash, it's okay, really, um." Fluttershy stirred the cloudpillow between her hooves carefully. "I understand."

Rainbow Dash nodded, clearing her throat nervously. "I mean, I just...I wanted to think, y'know, and..." She shook her head, desperately, setting her water aside. Forcing herself to think. "What you said," Dash's cheeks flushed. "What you did."

Fluttershy's heart thrilled a little. "Yeah. I guess I got a little carried away."

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but laugh a little. "I guess so, I mean, I've never imagined that, here's little ol' Fluttershy and, well." Rainbow Dash shook her head, smiling softly. When Dash looked at her Fluttershy could see something had changed in her expression.

Flying really does help her think. She can face it on her terms.

She owns her feelings, after she's done flying.

Fluttershy smiled right back. She could tell Dash was still terrified as it was, the little quiver in her smile at the corners, but she was hiding it better.

But Fluttershy had to say it out loud, not let it linger between them, or let it descend into niceties and rationalizations. Not after their conversation in the spa, not after all this. Now.

Fluttershy realized she didn't want to be just best friends. There was more than that.

They both deserved more than that.

Fluttershy scratched at her mug a little more, mustering up the nerve she needed to keep going. "I really...really like you, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said finally, letting out a long nervous breath and blushing brightly. "You're special. Not like anypony else. You're...real."

Fluttershy furrowed her brow, trying to keep her momentum going, trying to find words beyond 'nice' platitudes and vague non-things like that.

Don't stop, don't think about it, just keep going. Assertive. Articulate. Just like Rarity talked about.

To her credit, Rainbow didn't interrupt, though Fluttershy could tell she was struggling. This was normally when Dash would make a hurried excuse, fly away, and Fluttershy could see Dash's wings fidgeting. But she forged on ahead; after all, where could Dash go now that they were in her home?

Dash could have asked Fluttershy to meet her anywhere. Where she could have had an avenue of escape. Fluttershy thought maybe a part of Dash didn't want to fly away this time.

"I care about you, Rainbow Dash. You're my best friend. In flight school, you saved me I don't even know how many times from those big mean bullies." All the things that Fluttershy had been ruminating about on Rainbow's stoop came spilling out at once.

Dash nodded, her muzzle and her eyes tightening. Fluttershy wasn't sure if it was pride or admiration or affection, or all three mixed with a healthy dose of sheer terror, but she forged ahead anyway.

"You helped me get my cutie mark, even if it was because I fell off a cloud, but your Sonic Rainboom changed everything. You're always around to help everypony. You're selfless and courageous and amazing. You helped me learn how to fly properly, when most of my other teachers just gave up. You were always there, even in letters, even when you were with Gilda, you always sent me letters that made me laugh."

Fluttershy looked up, blinking herself back to awareness, finally meeting the uncertain, brimming gaze of Rainbow Dash across from her for a fleeting moment before having to duck away again, fidgeting in place, voice momentarily lost after seeing the other pony's expression.

Rainbow rubbed her hoof back through her mane, trying to appear nonchalant, but her muzzle was screwed up in that way it always was when somepony was about to burst into tears.

"Fluttershy, that..." Rainbow trailed off, snuffling wetly again. "Aw, man, mushy. Um." Rainbow Dash looked skyward and took a deep breath, blowing a few strands of errant rainbow mane out of her brimming eyes. "That really means a lot. I mean...aw, I'm no good at this sorta thing." Dash tried to chuckle, laugh it off like she always did, but she faltered. "You really...really think I'm...that special?" She croaked, throat tight.

But Fluttershy just nodded, slowly, and was silent for a long moment. When the silence dragged on, Fluttershy started again, almost apologetically. "I know you're not good with that sort of thing, and it's not like I'm great either I mean I just read those silly books that Rarity always makes me read but it seems like the right thing to say and it's okay if you don't feel the same way, but..."

"I do, though," Rainbow Dash interrupted firmly, slowly rubbing at her own damp cheeks with a forehoof. "I really do, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy paused and stared at Rainbow Dash, who lay her head against the back of her couch, sprawling bonelessly on the cushions. She pointed her muzzle upward because Fluttershy knew that talking to the ceiling was easier than talking to her right now, and that was okay.

"Like you said," Dash gamely continued. "Even when I was with Gilda, I kept writing to you. Because you're my best friend too. I know that was probably a mean thing to do now, but at the time..." Rainbow's voice kept cracking, but she kept talking anyway, barrelling on as she was wont to do, stubbornly committed now. "Gilda was...was a lot of fun. But she wasn't you. I wrote to you and told you everything because I knew you'd understand. Because I cared about you and I wanted to be honest and, I don't know. You were important. I wanted you there with me."

Fluttershy said nothing, merely nodding a little in encouragement. She ventured a hoof out to lay it across Rainbow Dash's, and was pleasantly surprised when she locked wrists with her, squeezing their hooves tightly together.

The timid pegasus smiled a bit wider, but didn't dare close the gap between them just yet. Rainbow needed the space for what she was saying. She let her hoof be the bridge for now.

Rainbow Dash sucked in a deep breath, furrowing the cloudy floor with her hooves as she tipped her snout back down, resting her chin on her chest. "You always understand, even when I rant and go on and even when I get crazy about my tricks and stuff. You're patient and helpful and you're the only pony that always comes to cheer me on, even when all my tricks turn to horseapples and ponyfeathers."

Dash managed a tiny chuckle at that, anxiously pawing at the cloud-floor, her hooves making a substantial divot in the fluffy material as she kept digging.

"I always looked forward to coming back to Cloudsdale and Ponyville because I knew I'd see you and you'd make me feel better, when the other ponies teased me. 'Rainbow Crash'. I always remembered you, even when..." Tears streaked down Rainbow Dash's cheeks from her trembling, crimson eyes, even as she pursed her muzzle tightly and fought them, shaking her head slowly. "And sometimes," she said, voice cracking, "I sometimes left you behind."

"Oh," Fluttershy gasped, and abruptly got up from her pillow, sliding over and pressing close to her friend's side before she even realized what she was doing. "You never left me behind."

"I did, though," Rainbow Dash began, only to be silenced by her friend's hoof at her cheek.

"No, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said firmly, in the kindest voice she could still manage, trying not to cry herself. "You said it yourself. You always came back. I always knew you would."

Fluttershy smiled kindly at her best friend, even as Rainbow sagged against her, blue coat resting heavily against yellow. Not knowing what else to say, Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut and nosed firmly into Fluttershy's neck and chest, letting out a couple of stifled sobs, her muzzle working as she tried to find her voice, to say something appropriately brave for the moment.

Fluttershy simply tucked her head over Rainbow's brilliant mane, holding her close until Rainbow realized she could stop trying to find something clever to say. Eventually she relented and they simply clung to one another, each enwrapping the other in hooves and legs, rocking to and fro as the evening deepened and darkened.

They stayed that way for an eternity, with tears occasionally streaking down each other's cheeks until both were wrung dry of years' worth of missed opportunities and wasted time.

Fluttershy's calming scent filled Rainbow's senses, meadow grasses and flowers and faintly, the fruits she'd give to her animal charges. Rainbow's scent kept Fluttershy company all the while, smelling like freshly outdoor-hung linens from her endless forays through misty clouds, with a hint of some peculiar spice from her mane.

Each basked in each other's presence, their eyes opening occasionally to look over the other, neither quite at the same time, as if to reassure themselves that the other was still there, still real. The last rays of Celestia's majestic sunset faded from the windows, leaving them in the ethereal glow of Luna's night, the rising moon catching and casting through the cloud-made walls of Rainbow's home, giving them an eerie, but smooth white glow throughout.

On any other night, Fluttershy might have been frightened by it, but now, with brave, strong Rainbow Dash at her side, she felt as safe as she did in her cottage, surrounded by her animal companions. And on any other night, where Rainbow Dash would have tossed and turned, fearing missed opportunities in the day to come, she found her normally restless mind and body warmly becalmed.

For the first time that either of them could remember, both pegasi wanted for nothing.

Sensation

Sensation

[ Mature Content Ahead ]

It was deep into the night when Fluttershy woke up again. The moon was still up, shining eerily through the soft cloud walls of the floating home. The glow from the chandelier above was muted, a dim glimmer, with nobody bothering to turn it up when they came in. Fluttershy looked around the tall, narrow room carefully, and then froze when she felt warmth against her mane.

Looking to her right side, Rainbow Dash lay on the cloud pillow at her side, folded up with her bulk resting at her hip and her head on Fluttershy's chest. She wore an expression of absolute contentment, a small smile and no creased lines at the corners of her eyes, not even snoring. Fluttershy's eyes lidded and she smiled at her fellow pegasus while she slept, reaching out to brush a hoof oh so carefully through her six-coloured mane, letting it pass through each hue one at a time.

She really is beautiful, Fluttershy thought, looking down at her sleeping companion, watching over her. Brash, defensive, vulnerable, beautiful.

That thought seemed to satisfy her so much more than anything else. Somepony else might suffice her...more basic needs, but Fluttershy needed so much more than that. She knew that. Now she knew Rainbow did too. All those years of keeping everyone at arm's length. Intimacy, understanding, a pony's shoulder to rely on.

Fluttershy hadn't imagined before just how much of that was already satisfied by Dash, even if neither of them took the time and realized it. Rainbow Dash was real. There was nopony she could rely on more than Rainbow Dash, when it really counted. Element of Loyalty notwithstanding.

They might drift apart, and together, Dash would get upset and impatient, Fluttershy would do headsmackingly silly things, but that was the status quo for them. The animosity never lasted, not for five minutes. Apart and together, they always found each other again. Since forever.

And now they both wanted more. Fluttershy knew that now, and she knew Rainbow Dash did too. At last.

Rainbow Dash's expression stirred briefly as Fluttershy's hoof slid carefully through her mane for the umpteenth time, and Fluttershy withdrew her foreleg with an embarrassed start. Dash's left eye cracked open and she let out a mighty yawn, groaning as she stretched and flexed on the pillow beside her. "Ummh. What time is it?" she groaned, in her gravelly, not-quite-awake voice. It made Fluttershy giggle.

"Oh, um, I'm not sure, but it's not even sunrise yet." Fluttershy glanced out the window, where the stars still shone brightly, the moon producing a pale cast over the countryside far below.

Rainbow Dash blinked herself awake and chuckled, rolling over on the pillow beside Fluttershy. "Well, I guess we kinda messed that up," she observed wryly, rolling her eyes. "I'm gonna mess up weather patrol tomorrow too, at this rate."

"We both slept for so long!" Fluttershy giggled, rubbing her eyes carefully with the side of a hoof.

"Well, I guess that's what, uh, mushy stuff does to ya'," Rainbow Dash replied with a blush. "It kinda takes a lot out of a pony," she bit her lip, her ruby eyes sliding around the room evasively. "Well, uh, it takes a lot out of me, anyway."

Fluttershy looked over at Rainbow, and then shifted, leaning right over the sprawled out pony, nuzzling atop her head and into her mane to hug her close. Both pegasi blushed reflexively at the close contact, but didn't shy away from each other.

"I think you did very well," Fluttershy said, confidently. "I know that must've been so hard for you to say, but," Fluttershy paused, and ducked her head a little, hiding behind half of her mane. "I'm really glad you did."

Rainbow Dash smiled back at Fluttershy, the nervousness fading from her expression for a few precious moments, leaving Fluttershy with a rare glimpse of a Rainbow Dash sans her usual defenses and walls of fake emotion. It was rare enough that Fluttershy fairly sighed in delight at the sight, returning it with the gentlest of smiles.

Of course, Rainbow Dash snapped out of it first, suddenly realizing where she was with a little chuckle, if not who she was with. "Um, so, I dunno what you wanna...do now," she began, her anxiety returning, showing through her voice. "I mean, you know how good I am at this mushy stuf--"

Rainbow Dash was abruptly cut off as yellow muzzle suddenly pressed firmly to blue. Fluttershy's hooves draped around Rainbow's, keeping her close when Rainbow's wings instinctively fanned in surprise at the contact. Silencing her objections and her questions, Fluttershy kissed Rainbow hard, her smooth, soft lips gliding against Rainbow's, Fluttershy's eyes closed and squeezing with concentration.

Enough of that, now, thought Fluttershy, from an unusually stern corner of her mind. I'm not waiting another minute.

Rainbow Dash's eyes, in contrast, snapped as wide as her wings at first, her eyes tiny pinpricks in surprise, but a few seconds later she cobbled together enough composure to respond. At first aggressively, typical Rainbow Dash, twisting her snout to one side and pushing her tongue out to meet Fluttershy's own, tentatively nudging at her lips. Both awkwardly tried to find what the other wanted, and it wasn't until their eyes opened and met, both now lidded and nervous, that they stopped pretending - Rainbow more than Fluttershy - and found their rhythm.

Rainbow quieted her aggressive advances, and Fluttershy found the strength to go a little further, and the two compromised at a gentle, pleasing back and forth of lips and tongue. Little by little, their muzzles tilted at angles to each other and locked together, each pony's warm breath washing out at the other's cheek. Soft, wet noises filled the room, muffled by the cloud-walls, as the two embraced each other firmly, an electric tingle spreading from the contact of both pony's chests as they squeezed in tighter.

Each slowly crept a hoof behind the others' side, Rainbow followed by Fluttershy, unhooking her forelegs from around Rainbow's shoulders. The two cradled their snouts together, tongues meeting in the middle and carefully plying along each other, moist and warm and sticky. Each tasted the other, their tongues duelling lightly, muzzles working to grind their lips together ever-tighter as the kiss grew longer, negotiating before allowing the other to pass by, each whirling over the other in a back and forth akin to the tide.

Eventually, Fluttershy relented with a soft smack of parting lips, both of them panting softly, looking straight at each other. A gossamer thread of saliva hung between their retreating tongues, finally parting as Fluttershy lifted her snout a little further. For a moment, the only sound in the room was their hot, panting breaths, filling the tiny gap between them.

Dash's half-lidded, crimson eyes gazed back at her, a lock of multi-coloured mane hanging down over one eye in a mimicry of Fluttershy's. The tightness in the corners of her eyes and the wrinkles at her muzzle were both gone, Dash's ears now perked and eager. Both finally let out a little nervous chuckle almost simultaneously, a giddy laughter that gave way to a more hungry, satisfied groan on Dash's part.

Fluttershy finally saw the Rainbow Dash that she enjoyed being with the most; the Dash that was comfortable, if not entirely relaxed. The Dash that let her guard down, who could show when she was afraid and let somepony in to help her.

"Like that. I think," Fluttershy said, quietly. "If that's okay with you."

Rainbow Dash nodded a little, permitting herself a grin and a little chuckle once again. "Y-yeah. Okay. I think...we can do that," she replied, voice cracking just a tiny bit. Rainbow Dash stroked a foreleg through Fluttershy's mane slowly, letting the pink strands cascade off of the back of her hoof. Fluttershy shivered at the contact, recalling she had done the same not moments before, and felt a little thrill at the shared gesture.

"If...you're sure." Rainbow finished, cautiously.

Fluttershy knew Rainbow wasn't asking for Fluttershy's sake, she was asking for her own. Always looking for the way out. Just in case.

"I'm sure, Rainbow Dash. Really, really...really sure," Fluttershy replied, trying her hardest to keep a tremor from her voice. She turned her head and reached up, pressing her lips to Rainbow's hoof, kissing it once, twice, a third time, before nuzzling into it firmly, nodding. When she let go, and looked up, she was rewarded by Rainbow Dash blushing, smiling, and nodding all at once.

"O-okay then," Dash said shakily, clearing her throat with a little cough. "Um. Okay. I'm cool with that."

Fluttershy blushed and grinned, and then glanced around the dark, narrow room, looking around and up at the spiral staircase at the edge, an idea glimmering inside her mind. "Uh, I was thinking, maybe...if you'd like, of course, you certainly don't have to..."

"'Shy?" Rainbow prompted gently, head tipping to one side.

"Oh, um, sorry. I was just thinking that maybe, if you still wanted, you never...did get that...massage." Fluttershy continued with a demure lowering of her head, struggling not to stutter and stumble over her words. She could feel anxiety creeping up and wrapping around her throat as she tried to keep from thinking too hard about what she was proposing. "I know it might be too soon, especially with...you know. But I'd like to do...to do that for you."

Rainbow Dash's eyes got big and her irises small, and her ears dropped back as she considered the idea. It still had frightening implications, Fluttershy could tell, but at least she was thinking about it. But Fluttershy had been told that the best way to face one's fears was to confront them with a giggle and a friend at your side.

Thanks, Pinkie, Fluttershy remembered fondly.

Rainbow Dash pressed her lips together into a thin line and stared off to one side, brow furrowed, as if searching for something. Fluttershy just stayed close to her, quiet, patient, letting her make up her mind, though she could practically see the tangle of anxiety knotting up her barrel. Her patience was rewarded a few moments when Rainbow Dash gulped audibly, and then nodded. "Okay," she said, and then let out a long breath, biting her lip and looking back up at Fluttershy, eyes full of trepidation. "Let's...try it, at least."

Fluttershy's heart leapt into her throat, but she confined herself to a tiny, elated shimmy of her hips as she got to all fours beside Rainbow Dash, and then trotted up the spiral stairs to where Rainbow Dash's bedroom lay, glancing back over her shoulder with what she hoped was a come-hither look.

Fluttershy felt a little thrill at the flush in Rainbow's cheeks and the subtle tense of Dash's taut, wiry hind legs as she sat upright and looked after her, letting out a nervous little laugh. Before she could manage a disarming quip, Fluttershy disappeared upstairs, hoping the time it took Rainbow to compose herself gave her enough lead-time to get things ready.

It has to be perfect, Fluttershy thought sternly. We're going to do this right. For Dash.

Thus fortified, Fluttershy started raiding Rainbow Dash's upstairs bathroom for supplies.

By the time Rainbow Dash tentatively made her way upstairs, after some self-directed pep talk that Fluttershy was polite enough to ignore, Fluttershy had managed to scavenge everything she needed.

A few fluffy towels embroidered with Dash's cutie mark (a birthday gift from Rarity, some time ago), some relatively decent oil that Dash obviously used to brush her coat to its typical stunning shine, and a hoofful of candles.

Of course, she was mostly relying on what the romance novels that Rarity had loaned her told her on the subject of setting a 'romantic' scene, but it wasn't so important as simply being in the room with Rainbow Dash. Alone. Regardless, Fluttershy thought the effect looked nice.

Fluttershy arranged everything around the expansive bed that Rainbow Dash had, with its bespoke linens adorned with her cutie mark - more Rarity, goddess were they soft, her fabric suppliers were amazing - and elaborate, cloud-shaped headboards. Pegasi construction teams worked fast, and to order, and this residence had all the hallmarks of a healthy budget, what with the rainbow waterfalls and the neoclassical-style colonnades outside.

Fluttershy remembered that Dash's parents, though aloof, still supported her from afar, letting her focus on developing the talents they knew she carried within. She'd met them once, and had been rewarded with the answer to how in Equestria Dash got her mane when she saw Dash's sire.

Not that it answered the question how he ended up with it, but she suspected that was a question akin to asking Pinkie Pie about where she kept her party cannon. Cloudsdale had been good to Rainbow Dash's family, and in turn, they had been good to Dash, even if they couldn't always be there for her. Another reason why Fluttershy knew Dash was more hungry for friendship than she let on.

The bed had been installed in the uppermost floor, the dome-shaped ceiling overhead semi-transparent, though there was a dial on the nightstand to turn that up and down, revealed now that Fluttershy had set Rainbow Dash's stack of Daring Do books aside. Piled haphazardly, Rainbow lacked any book-cases to put them in, so Fluttershy let them be.

The moon was nearly setting, and dawn was still a few hours off, prompting Fluttershy to line up more than a few candles as backups. A patch of cloud-floor nearby was illuminated through the almond-shaped window on the wall next to the bed by moonlight, and the far wall had a horseshoe-shaped spot where the waning crescent moon shone through the dialled-down skylight.

She was glad to have found clean towels in the bathroom. At least Rainbow Dash kept up with the laundry for her linens. After all, it wasn't like she had a lot of clothes to worry about, and the cloud-washer mostly took care of everything itself.

Fluttershy had barely managed to get everything in place before Fluttershy heard the muffled thupf sounds of hoof-falls on the stairs. Rainbow Dash poked her head up over the edge and her eyes went unnaturally wide, blinking a few times. "Oh, wow," she said, with the air of somepony who was genuinely impressed.

Fluttershy took the indirect compliment to heart and beamed as wide as she could, folding her hooves one over the other in a little curtsey, as she'd seen Applejack do occasionally. "I hope it's alright," she murmured, modest despite her little thrill.

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but laugh and shake her head. "You make my place look pretty cool, 'Shy," Dash replied, with a little, nervous smile. "If I didn't know better, I'd say I was back at the spa. So, uh...what do I do?" Dash eyed the candle-lit bed like it was going to leap up and bite her.

"Oh, uhm, just lay on the bed, and relax? Please. I'll take care of everything," Fluttershy smiled. Rainbow Dash nodded hesitantly, but obliged her, though Fluttershy could see the tension building already in Rainbow's haunches and withers as she hopped up onto the bed, making it bounce slightly.

In a display of false, devil-may-care bravado, Rainbow bounced once and then sprawled onto the soft, fluffy cloud-mattress, rumpling up her sheets. All Dash's legs splayed out with her multi-hued tail swaying above, flirting with letting Fluttershy see beneath it, giving Fluttershy a little grin over her shoulder.

Fluttershy knew better. Rainbow was trading anxiety for nonchalance, like she always did. After this long, she could read Rainbow like a book.

She leaned over, grabbing the bottle of oil with her teeth. She squeezed carefully to daub oil onto her hooves, and rubbed the oil briskly around the soles. Before Rainbow Dash could get too nervous, she reached out and started to stroke at her side slowly, her hooves together on her right side, just below the base of her wings. The bare, blue coat made Fluttershy concentrate much more than if she was working with a towel, but she didn't want to put anything between her and Rainbow Dash. She'd just have to be extra careful.

After all, when she wanted to be, Fluttershy was the exemplar of a light-hooved pony.

Fluttershy settled into a familiar rhythm as she worked, gliding her hooves around in slow, concentric circles, working outwards and then down Dash's side. Dash began to relax almost immediately into the attentions, fidgeting from time to time, but trusting in Fluttershy's efforts.

Before long, that tender ache returned to Rainbow Dash's body as the muscles as they began to unknot and untense, gnarled from so much exertion through the day, the stress of rather weighty conversation and Dash's second lengthy bout of flying.

Fluttershy remained quiet, not wanting to tip her hoof to Rainbow Dash as to what she had planned, even though she imagined Rainbow Dash's over-eager, excitable imagination was probably already dancing circles around the idea.

Expertly, her hooves traced long elliptical ovals around Dash's tense haunches and along either side of her spine, switching sides frequently so that no one part of her would become 'unbalanced', so to speak.

Soon, Dash was sprawled with her head on her pillow in a familiar way, cuddled mercilessly between her forelegs, her face going through all manner of amusing contortions as the muscles pinged and popped away with releasing tension. Occasionally, her hindlegs would twitch and kick just a little, as Fluttershy passed a particularly sensitive area around the base of her wings, and again on her hips, near her cutie mark.

Rainbow Dash was rife with spots where Fluttershy's hooves were too much for her directly, contact with them provoking a sharp twitch and a boyish grunt. As soon as Fluttershy found them, there was a tiny squeak by way of apology and then massaging with the soft frog of her hoof, kneading out the areas of heightened sensation along the top of her rump, near her wingbases, the connection of haunch and spine forward of the croup, the base of her neck. Gradually, Fluttershy felt her way along, and settled into applying just the right pressure for the sensitive, novice Rainbow Dash to enjoy.

"Oh, wow. 'Shy...how did you get so good at this?" Dash slurred, speaking for the first time in ages and pulling Fluttershy out of her reverie, rolling her head to one side and looking back over her shoulder at the carefully working pegasus behind her. Her eyes were sleepy and lidded, and her whole face was slack with bliss.

Fluttershy giggled. "Hoofington. I volunteered at the animal hospital there, since there's a lot of farmland out that way, there's a lot of animals to look after. Not as many as here next to the Everfree forest, but Hoofington's bigger than Ponyville, and with a proper school for it."

"Why don't you work with that veter...veteran..." Rainbow Dash trailed off with a low groan as Fluttershy's hooves found another knot of muscle above her right foreleg, and started to work in patient circles.

"Oh, but I do, lots of times. But I'm not, um, formally trained. Well, I am, but I'm not certified. I never actually finished the courses at Hoofington."

Rainbow Dash frowned and glared back at Fluttershy. "Why not?"

Fluttershy's stroking faltered. "Oh, well, um, I never got around to writing the last few exams. They were right as Ponyville was doing Winter Wrap Up, that year, and I couldn't just leave all the bunny-wunnies asleep in their dens," Fluttershy pouted, as she picked up her pace again, brow furrowed in concentration.

"And you never went back?" Rainbow Dash persisted, disbelieving.

"Oh, well, I never really thought I needed to. I mean, I've never met an animal yet that I didn't know how to help. And with one vet already here, I didn't think we really needed two. Anypony around here knows that I'm here to help."

"I suppose..." Rainbow Dash thought, the wheels turning in her head slowly. "But couldn't you get more money, if you were?"

Fluttershy paused again, but only for a moment. "What would I do with more money? I have everything I need."

"Psh', it's not about that, 'Shy. If you got your papers, you could do everything you do now, and still get more bits out of Celestia for your stipend. Could get a new chicken coop for that kind of dough." Dash looked back over her shoulder again, head tipped inquisitively.

Fluttershy sighed softly. "I'll...think about it, I guess. But we're not here to talk about that right now. We're here to look after you."

With that, Fluttershy dealt her ace, and put her forelegs to the base of Rainbow's wings. Smoothly, carefully, Fluttershy pressed with the edge of her hooves, just underneath where the wing-arms met the crook of her back. The edge of her hooves slid deeply into the joint in a motion that would have many any other pony wince just looking at it.

The sharp hooves would dig in and hurt badly anywhere else, but right there, the deep sensory tendons that spanned along the wingarms were impossible to reach any other way, meeting at a crux of muscles and nerves deep beneath the wingbases. Few non-pegasi even realized how important they were, and how sensitive, and even most pegasi ignored them.

Now, Fluttershy's polished, perfectly maintained hooves met them directly.

The effect was immediate, and electric.

Rainbow Dash arched out in front of her with a whinnying cry and thumped her head into the pillow, her forehooves pinwheeling slowly in front of her. She tried to gasp out something, but ended up just sprawling breathlessly in front of Fluttershy, her wings twitching weakly at her sides as they attempted to spread out wider. Fluttershy could see Dash's face contorted into a ridiculous grimace, and stifled a giggle.

Fluttershy didn't even need to move her hooves. The mere act of pushing at the tendons from that angle, a direction that they were never flexed naturally, released the tension and idle numbness that built up from thousands upon thousands of wing-strokes.

Dash ached, in the most wonderful way possible, in muscles that she honestly didn't know that she had. It took what little fight Dash had left right out of the cocky pegasus. Her frantic mumbles and incoherent protests became wheezing groans of contentment, Dash's eyes rolling back in her head for a moment.

Fluttershy held her hooves there determinedly, letting the muscles release on their own in good time. Gradually, Rainbow Dash's energetic squirming calmed to a quiet, deep puffing of breath through her nose as she stopped struggling and started to bask in the protracted sense of warm, tingly release from the formerly taut muscles, her eyes shut and occasionally squeezing tightly with the intensity of the feelings spreading through her back in waves.

With a determined tongue stuck between her lips, Fluttershy carefully moved and shifted, sliding up and over to straddle Rainbow Dash's flanks, keeping her hooves in place while she slid atop the prone pegasus.

Her thighs slid past the rainbow lightning bolt on Dash's blue flanks, barely thinking about the connotations of the gesture, and moved to a better position to keep up the pressure for as long as she could. When she finally let up, Rainbow Dash sucked in a breath and groaned, flopping like a fish.

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash croaked, eyes narrowed to tiny slits. "What was that?"

Fluttershy couldn't contain her amusement. "You really need to take better care of yourself," she lectured smoothly, leaning over with a drape of her pink mane that brushed Rainbow Dash's spine and made her shiver at the ticklish feeling, to say nothing of the hot breath that she suddenly felt on the nape of her neck. Fluttershy bent forward and planted a kiss on either side of Rainbow's withers, semi-chastely. "I needed you good and relaxed for this next part."

"What next part?" Rainbow Dash groaned weakly, trying to turn her head back to look Fluttershy in the eye. She didn't get the chance.

Now in position, straddling Dash with her hindlegs splayed out to either side, Fluttershy's muzzle was in range of Dash's wings. Carefully cradling the rainbow pegasus's right wing in her hooves, she bent her head forward and started to preen at the feathers along the leading edge, teeth finding the first of many feathers and tugging delicately.

The mere brush of Fluttershy's teeth and lips was enough to make Dash's wings tense. She let out a cry, pushing her head into the pillow beneath her chin, gritting her teeth and grimacing at the delicious wave of pleasure. Dash's wings stiffened slowly, their response sluggish after Fluttershy's manipulation of the muscles at their base. This was something Fluttershy had been hoping for in lieu of Dash's earlier, almost explosive reveal, sans bathrobe.

Dash's wings soon reached their full prominence, albeit in slow motion, fanning out on either side of her arching back with the muscles slowly turning rigid and quivering. The primaries spread out before her, and the leading edge taut, Fluttershy set to work carefully pushing with her hooves, isolating the feathers one at a time, and painstakingly nudging them into a neat line with her lips and teeth.

First one side and then the other went under Fluttershy's tongue, creeping like steps of a ladder up Dash's wings, each with their own turn being bathed beneath the kind pegasus's tender love and care.

Each time she tugged at a feather with her teeth, Fluttershy let her tongue slither out around the quill and the sensitive follicle that held it, just brushing and stroking, making Rainbow Dash gasp and moan repeatedly. After a time, these groans became husky and heated with urgency verging on desperation at the maddeningly tender, jaw-clenching sensations creeping up her wing-edges. Fluttershy's ears pricked at them, and she could feel the heat and tension between her hindlegs mounting with each new, fevered noise that reached her.

Fluttershy recalled some of her anatomy courses at Cloudsdale's schools as she worked, making sure to hit every sweet spot she could think of. It was hard to overstate just how sensitive pegasi wing-feathers could be, after all. A thousand nerve endings at each feather's base, each tuned to sense humidity, air currents, electrical activity, heat and pressure and a hundred other inputs that only pegasi have names for.

Preening was one thing. Every pegasus did that. Even Rainbow took the time to nibble and tug and push her feathers back into position occasionally. But it was a chore, like brushing one's teeth or mane. Much like trying to tickle oneself, preening alone wasn't particularly fun or even pleasant. In good company, however, things changed.

That said, without the complex network of information-gathering nerves, all pegasi would be about as coordinated as Derpy. Rainbow Dash's wings, suiting her extraordinary talents, were extraordinarily sensitive.

All of those nerves and inputs slowly became overwhelmed at the wet heat from Fluttershy's diligent, patient muzzle and tongue, her hooves isolating one feather at a time to let her manipulate each one with expert skill. It was painstaking, and if she hadn't already disarmed Rainbow's flight reflex with that hoof-press earlier, Fluttershy knew Rainbow would have zipped away long ago in desperate impatience. Even as she worked, Fluttershy's wings began to unfurl behind her, until they stood out just as proudly as Rainbow Dash's, fanned and twitching eagerly in sympathy.

By comparison, Fluttershy was an artist in her movements, shifting with infinite care and grace. The few mis-steps that she made were drowned in a sea of pleasure, tiny twinges of pain that, if anything, just honed and sharpened the feeling of ecstasy that Rainbow Dash was basking in. A rich tingling spread through Dash's wings, pins and needles that set the nerves abuzz, stinging delightfully along the spasming, flexing wingarms like a swarm of tiny prickling insects, and Fluttershy could watch and feel the twitches of those muscles as they responded, working in tune with them.

By now, Fluttershy noticed that what little composure that Dash had was totally gone. Her head lolled from side to side, muzzle twisting alternately between grimaces of what looked like pain to open-mouthed, incoherent moans. "Oh Celestia oh goddesses fuck me sideways 'Shy what how are you doing oh please...!" she finally blurted out all at once, her voice tightening to an inaudible squeak at the end as Fluttershy methodically tugged another feather into position, and bathed the base of it in slick warmth.

Fluttershy couldn't help but blush at the epithet, but allowed herself a little giggle all the same. It had been worth it just to hear that from Dash.

With the blue-feathered wings on either side of her astoundingly rigid and trembling with need, Fluttershy spread her hooves out over the wing she had begun with on her right. Her hooves started to glide over and through the spread, less sensitive primaries and dorsal feathers, plucking at each one in turn, bending it just a little this way, and letting her muzzle drift by afterwards to nudge them back that way. With her tongue. Naturally.

Soon Fluttershy began doing the same for the other wing, leaning this way and that, rocking to and fro over the small of Rainbow's back. It was a methodical, careful process, repeating each and every movement, mirroring every touch. Her memory was quite good, thanks to Angel's sometimes outwardly insane demands. She didn't miss a beat as her hooves and teeth worked and worried each feather into just the right position.

This had the delicious side effect of grinding Fluttershy's now sopping sex over Rainbow's spine, making her bite her lip and quiver in delight. She had felt the warmth, but ignored it until now; this wasn't about her, after all. She permitted herself some light rolling, squeezing and pinching her damp folds on Rainbow's spine, but kept her attention focused. There would be plenty of opportunities for that another time.

Lyra would have been proud of Fluttershy's technique. A few moments more, and she was playing Rainbow Dash like a fine instrument, spreading the warm tingling out to every feather's tip, carefully stroking with her hooves and muzzle, brushing her mane past the smaller feathers near the base, using every part of her that she had to build her momentum, rocking from one side to the other over Dash's back.

Rainbow Dash comes first, Fluttershy reminded herself, trying to ignore the potent heat beneath her tail, the moisture creeping down her creamy thighs. She couldn't break her attention away now, not for anything, not even to grind her hoof into her own clutching sex. She knew from the rich, intoxicating scent in the room that Rainbow Dash was beyond soaking after her attentions, now building in waves of sensation that crashed across her wing. It was like rocking a boat to capsize it, one way and then the other...

Rainbow Dash arched and mewled plaintively beneath her, her multicoloured mane soaked with sweat, coat growing damp and matted from being played with for so long. Fluttershy knew she was at her limit, or very close to it. The tension and the prickly shifting in her wings would be growing unbearable. Her polished hooves smoothly plied through the silken feathers near the edges of Dash's wing, following the subtle rocking of the wingarm supporting them.

Before long, Dash's trembling, arching tenses of her wings ceased altogether, taut as a cello string. Fluttershy carefully took hold of each wing with a forehoof, cradling it from below. Her muzzle began to swing up one side of the curve of Dash's wings, back down, and then up the other. Nibbling watermelon, Fluttershy's hindbrain contributed helpfully, and it made Fluttershy giggle drunkenly.

Fluttershy started to use her teeth again, grazing them along edges of Dash's wings to tug at the feathers, her wet, hot tongue gliding along between, soothing and smoothing, unifying and refreshing her earlier attention on the wing's edges with that of the splayed, carefully arranged primaries further out, finally leaning back and pressing her wet love onto the base of Dash's spine, her forelegs held out in front of her to support Dash's twitching wings. A moment or two more, and Fluttershy was sure that everything was just where she wanted it.

She waited until the last second, when Dash's heavy breathing seemed to be reaching a peak. At the sudden, relative lack of stimulation, Dash took the opportunity to open her muzzle to plead. Her eyes turned back over her shoulder, lidded and glazed with desire and need. It was a look that Fluttershy had been aching to see, the real Rainbow Dash, vulnerable and trusting and wanting.

"Fluttershy," Dash began, with a desperate croak.

Before she could beg, Fluttershy gave her what she so desperately sought.

Fluttershy closed her eyes, and pulled with both forehooves, a subtle, almost imperceptible movement pulling at the tip of each wing. The tiny, measured tug shifted the position of the spars that held Dash's myriad, arrayed feathers, pushing them ever-so-slightly further in their taut, bowed flex, all at once.

It was an infinitesimal twinge, a fleeting moment, but for that instant every single feather along Dash's wings flexed outward a single degree further than they had ever been. In a cresting wave of tension, all of Dash's feathers settled at once, and the taut bowstring that was Rainbow Dash's wings at long last let fly.

The results were like a wave of electric current run along the edges of Dash's wings, radiating outwards in a wave of intense release right out to the tip of each feather, a sudden piercing awareness of the tingling and tension and heat that had built up in every quill from Fluttershy's meticulous attentions. The hooves, the tongue, the teeth, all of it was let go in a single, mindblowing instant that made Rainbow Dash's mind seize up solid.

Dash's eyes contracted to tiny pinpricks for a breathtaking instant before screwing shut, and then she mustered a bellowing scream at the top of her lungs, mercifully dampened by the thickly insulated cloud walls of her home. With a desperate lunge against the bed, arching her spine out, Rainbow Dash practically ripped her cloud-pillow in two as she stuffed the corner of it clumsily into her muzzle with flailing hooves, whinnying into it and thrashing it with her blunt teeth, her hindlegs bucking and thumping and shoving her hindquarters upwards.

Fluttershy could feel Rainbow's hips arching beneath her violently, the spasms and rich scent of mare heat as Rainbow soaked the embroidered linens beneath her. Fluttershy was panting too, flushed and hot and vicariously living out a fraction of her friends' potent climax.

Anything more than the lightest touch would snap Dash out of her ride, and Fluttershy dared not even risk a hoof's touch to Dash's wildly bucking, winking cuntlips, keeping her hindlegs wrapped tightly around Rainbow's sides, as if to mount her. Any touch to her sopping folds would be excruciating after everything else, and Fluttershy wanted her friend to experience every moment perfectly.

Instead, Fluttershy gave in and dove her forehooves between her own hindlegs, and ground herself against Rainbow's tailbase, no longer willing or able to neglect her own need. Fluttershy's aching depths finally got the attention they had been craving when she rocked back, and stuffed the stiff base of Dash's upturned, multihued tail in against her cunt. Fluttershy bit her lip and cried out around it as the stiff dock slipped into her, spreading her thin-lipped maresex that had only rarely seen the tips of her own hooves.

With a clench of her muzzle, Fluttershy rocked back and forth onto the few inches of chromatic tailhair and stiff, muscular tailbase grinding deliciously inside of her. Her hot, wet depths instinctively clamped down around Rainbow's dock, inexperienced but desperate and eager all the same, her thighs tensing around Dash's cutie mark-adorned flanks, juices running in rivulets down Rainbow Dash's soaked cyan coat.

All the while, Dash's hooves thumped wildly at the bed, tears rolling down her cheeks, occasionally managing to squeal out an incoherent moan or a desperately foul epithet or a pleading whimper to alternately make it stop or make it go on longer, but all through it she could still feel her friend above and behind her, a reassuring contact that grounded her and kept her from losing her mind completely.

She kept bucking her hips urgently against the bed, riding the endless waves of pleasure that ceaselessly crashed over her. Every movement served to drive her twitching tailbase further into Fluttershy's depths, making the yellow pony writhe in delight atop her. The spasms in her wings kept right on going, the muscles in her back perpetuating the orgasm for her. Rainbow's whole body was overtaken by the throbbing in her wings and sympathetic spasms of her thighs.

For Fluttershy, she was privy to the sight of her friend's release lasting for ages, every spasm and twitch of her wings producing a fresh wave of pleasure, and the thought of Dash's state excited Fluttershy to no end. She rode her friend's continually, though gradually weakening bucks of her hips, grinding Dash's fine tailhair past her clit over and over, rocking enthusiastically back and forth across the small of Dash's back.

Redoubling her efforts with her hooves, Fluttershy soon drove herself into a comparatively modest, though no less intense climax of her own, gasping sharply and tipping her muzzle skyward, breathing hard through her nose, pink mane tossing back over her shoulders. Fluttershy's breath was halting and stuttered as her climax rippled through her, a pale shadow of her friend's orgasm, but deliciously intense for her all the same.

Dimly, Rainbow Dash was properly aware of Fluttershy again, resurfacing with a wave of dizziness in the midst of a mind-numbing afterglow, hardly able to tell where climax ended and it began. Still riding and pressing herself into the base of her twitching tail, Rainbow Dash listened to Fluttershy's adorable little gasps of pleasure and blushed.

Dash could feel the fevered spasms of Fluttershy's sex around the base of her tail, too, the rocking of her hips, and the trickle of wetness sliding down her rumpcheeks.

Little did Rainbow Dash know that seeing the pleasure Fluttershy had given her was a more satisfying reward than anything, and helped fuel the yellow pony's climax to a nerve-wracking height.

Dash pushed her rump up and back into Fluttershy as best as she could, helping her final spasms along, but she was immensely grateful when Fluttershy finished, signalled by an adorable squeal. This meant Dash could finally collapse into the bed altogether, and she did so with a feverish shudder and a desperate groan. Part of her wanted to reciprocate, to give Fluttershy a proper rutting lest she somehow owe Fluttershy for this, but Dash could barely lift her head off of the pillow after her climax.

Dash felt Fluttershy leaning forward until she could, very carefully, plant a kiss on the nape of her neck. It made Dash squirm and mumble something into the soggy pillow at her muzzle, embarrassed at the gesture despite herself, again feeling the warmth of Fluttershy's breath on her shoulders.

Carefully, Fluttershy pulled herself up and off of Dash's somewhat soaked, tangled tail and crawled around to her front. Fluttershy desperately wanted to lay with Rainbow, to cuddle up coat to coat, neck to neck. She'd carefully put away that thought, long ago, but it was back out to play now.

She couldn't, yet; Dash's wings quivered behind and above her, and Fluttershy knew that any touch to them would be unbearable, every nerve ending alive with pins and needles. Fluttershy settled for sliding around in front of Rainbow and nosing over her snout, planting kisses before laying her muzzle down beside hers. For a while, both ponies lay nose to nose, separated by a scant inch, breathing in each other's scent.

Of course, it was Rainbow Dash that broke the silence first. Her initial attempt came out as a wretched croak. Blushing, she cleared her throat and sucked in a deep breath, before trying again. "O-oh wow," was all that she could muster, before surrendering to breathless panting again, flopping her head back onto her abused pillow.

Fluttershy giggled delightedly and rolled onto her back, having no such qualms doing so with her now-folded wings, staring at Rainbow Dash upside down. "That looked like fun," she teased, in gentle tones.

Rainbow Dash stared back at her, incredulously, and nodded. "Uh-huh..." she mumbled, pushing an errant lock of multi-hued mane back from her damp face, rubbing her brow with a hoof. "Where did...how did..."

Fluttershy answered her with a light hoof-press to the end of her muzzle, shaking her head upside-down. "Nuh uh. Secret," she giggled playfully, and rolled back over, crawling minutely closer to nuzzle at Rainbow Dash's cheek, and then kiss her fully again. This time, Dash responded easily, puffing breath through her nose as she let her lips glide against Fluttershy's, their eyes closing as they each melted into the kiss.

They both let the kiss linger for a long moment before drawing away again, but they kept their muzzles close to one another, no longer willing to let them be far apart.

"I've never..." Rainbow Dash began, only to pause, thinking hard for a moment. Then she continued, more confidently. "I've never, ever felt anything even remotely...distantly, like that before. Nopony...oh, Celestia."

Fluttershy giggled again, blushing and puffing herself up minutely, permitting herself a brief moment of pride in the spotlight.

Dash nodded, matted mane hanging in her face. Sweat glistened on her brow, and on her coat in the moonlight streaming through the skylight. She bit her her lip and looked off to one side, nervously. "What I'm trying to say is," she said, voice cracking. "Nopony's ever made me feel like that before. They've never even tried." She rubbed her chin at her pillow, squeezing her eyes shut.

Fluttershy felt warmth blossom in her barrel, coursing through her sweat-dampened body.

"Nopony...nopony comes close, 'Shy," Rainbow continued, voice shaky and unsteady. Rainbow's eyes opened, brimming again, looking right at Fluttershy, to find her reassuring, smiling face a scant inch or two away. She let out a shuddering breath and moaned, darting forward to plant a kiss.

"Nopony's ever done that for me. Gilda, she tried something like that, but it was just to humour me," Rainbow rambled, in a brutal honestly borne of her intense intimacy. "It was cheap and clumsy and now I know she was just doing it 'cause I asked her to, and we only tried it once before going back to...other stuff."

Fluttershy let her speak; how could she share that with Rainbow and not let her share this? It was perhaps even more precious; Rainbow letting her inside.

Rainbow fidgeted, digging her hooves into her bed at the memory. "She never really 'got' pegasi, which is I think why her folks had sent her to Equestria. Dunno how much good it did," she blew out a long breath against Fluttershy's cheek, shaking her head. "Not much, I guess."

Fluttershy's hoof stroked at Dash's cheek slowly, bringing her attention back to the pink-maned pegasus. "I'm sorry, Rainbow." She said, genuinely, brow furrowed.

"It's okay, 'Shy...I'm just...I'm trying to say thanks, I guess." Dash chuckled unsteadily, putting her hoof overtop of Fluttershy's, leaning her head into it and breathing deeply of the scent from her foreleg. "For being there for me. For really being there. For making me feel better. For...this. For everything. For..." She shook her head, a tear rolling down her cheek, even as her muzzle curled up in a smile. "There aren't enough thanks."

Fluttershy just smiled and nodded, and ducked back, reaching up to plant a kiss on Rainbow Dash's forehead. "You're welcome, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow nuzzled underneath Fluttershy's snout firmly, her eyes slowly closing, and squeezing tight.

The two ponies pressed together on the bed, Rainbow Dash's wings gradually furling back behind her. One by one, the candles around them went out, leaving them in near-darkness, save for the light from the starfield casting through the translucent overhead, neither Fluttershy nor Dash even noticing. The two ponies nuzzled together on the same fluffy cloud-pillow, and soon were asleep again, each basking in the warmth of the other.

Conclusion

Conclusion

It was almost noon before Dash finally stirred again, squinting at the light streaming into the room from the dialed-open skylight and uncurtained window. Dawn should have woken them ages earlier.

Carefully, Dash untangled herself from Fluttershy's various limbs. She might be cute and adorable when she's awake, Rainbow mused, but when she's sleeping, she can sprawl like an Ursa.

Rainbow carefully slithered out of the cloud-bed and got to her feet, stretching herself out, wings, fetlocks, tail, forelegs. Her wings twinged pleasantly when they were stretched; even Rainbow Dash had to admit that she felt better than she had in ages. They were sore, but the good kind of sore. She craned her neck back and forth, listening to the muffled pops as the vertebrae lined up, and sighed happily.

A look over the rest of herself made her blanch; her tail was a tangled mess, her coat matted and sticky, and she didn't even want to speculate as to the state of her mane.

She turned back to look at the pony responsible for her good mood, and smiled lopsidedly, red eyes lidding fondly at the sight of the other, unnaturally skewed pegasus occupying her bed, forgetting both of their unkempt states as she watched Fluttershy's sides rise and fall.

With a little chuckle, she worked her way downstairs, hooves muffled on the soft cloud floor.

Carefully, she opened the door, leaned over the edge of her cloud, and frowned at the sight of a pair of crumpled letters jammed awkwardly into her mailbox.

Dash rolled her eyes as she descended briefly to ground level, shaking her head in resignation more amused than annoyed. "Thanks a lot, Derpy," She mumbled around the letters clutched between her teeth, zipping back up to her home above. Her wings felt fantastic, with every stroke. Sliding silently back through the door, she pushed it closed with a hindleg.

She had to pause after that, leaning against the back of the door, and then slowly sliding down to sit in on her hindlegs, propping her chin up on one hoof. She transferred her letters to her other hoof and regarded them absently, but her mind was elsewhere. Eventually she just tossed them aside. They could wait.

Fluttershy.

She still wasn't sure.

That sounded cruel, but it was true. Rainbow Dash's restless mind couldn't settle on anything. She'd been waiting for Gilda for so long, and after she left the last time, after Pinkie's party, it was like someone had stolen the center of her heart out. She wasn't sure because she wasn't sure, she wasn't sure because she was afraid. Not that she would admit that to anypony. She hated admitting it to herself, but Fluttershy deserved that honesty at least in her own mind.

She had buried that empty feeling under so much, ignored it most of the time, tried not to think about it. Whenever she saw an opportunity, she leapt on it, trying to fill that gap in however she could. Helping ponies, especially during the whole Mare-Do-Well fiasco. Tank. Shreds of adulation in place of affection.

Nothing quite fit.

But being around Fluttershy, it felt like that hollow center was full again.

Fluttershy really was always there for her. Flakey, weird, silly, scaredy Fluttershy. For whatever that was worth.

She was genuine and open and had been more bold than Rainbow Dash had seen her in forever.

Dash blinked. Did I do that? Did I bring that out?

Certainly brought out that wing thing. Rainbow Dash shivered in glee. What the fuck.

Only Celestia knew how Fluttershy pulled that off.

It was comforting. She didn't have to fight, to put up a facade and a ton of walls, didn't have to do any of those things. Fluttershy just...got her. And that was worth its weight in gold alone.

She wasn't sure if it was capital L "Love", like Rarity always liked to talk about, with her hoof firmly stuck to her forehead, but Rainbow Dash figured she could at least entertain the possibility. She wasn't sure what that felt like anymore.

She thought she had loved Gilda, but even then, it hadn't felt like this. Warm and fuzzy around the edges. Gilda didn't understand her like Fluttershy did, though she always hoped that someday she would.

For the first time in who knows how long, Rainbow Dash thought about her gryphoness girlfriend without a pang of sadness or regret or anger or guilt, and her ears, which were drooped on either side of her head in thought, suddenly perked up.

The novel sensation made her feel weird.

Dash wasn't good at this mushy stuff. She decided she was going to work on that a little. Fluttershy made her feel good. Calm, centered, content. Not just good, like a stallion or a mare after a good night. But good good.

That was worth it.

"Okay." Rainbow Dash said, to nopony in particular. She couldn't back out now. She wasn't sure exactly what Fluttershy was to her, but she was...whatever that was. And Dash liked that. It would take time, and it would take a special effort. She'd have to be careful, what she said, what she did. This whole thing was a new foal, figuring out how to stand up. But that's what it was all about. It was worth it.

Rainbow Dash knew now what she wanted, and just how badly she wanted it. More than all the titles and badges. She wanted this.

Wanted her.

"Rainbow Dash?" Came a quiet, timid voice from up the stairs. Dash looked up to see Fluttershy rubbing sleep out of her eyes, her pink mane hopelessly tangled on one side of her head, feathers askew every which way.

Dash chuckled and got up to all fours, smiling up the stairs at her...marefriend. "Hey, 'Shy," she said, trying to sound casual. "How're you?"

Fluttershy nodded, and yawned. It was potentially the most adorable thing that Fluttershy could do, especially in her current disheveled state. "I'm fine. How do you feel? Did you sleep okay?"

Rainbow Dash considered the question for a moment. "Yeah. I really did," she settled, with a grin. "I'm...gonna go grab some breakf--...er, lunch. For us. How does, uh, pancakes sound?"

Fluttershy seemed to light up at the idea, suddenly beaming. "Oh, that would be just lovely."

Rainbow Dash nodded, turning and lifting a foreleg as she headed for the door. "Get flightworthy, and I'll meet you back at your place. I'm betting you want to make sure your animals are okay. It'll proooobably take me a while to talk them into making breakfast at noon, anyway. But don't worry, Rainbow Dash's got it covered." Dash straightened, and put a hoof to her chest, confidently.

Fluttershy finished waking up as Rainbow Dash spoke, her smile broadening. "Oh, that'd be wonderful. Angel must be wondering where I am. I know Tank wanted to see you, too."

Dash felt her heart warming at the sound of Fluttershy's soft-spoken voice, and the mention of her favourite tortoise, the pet that Fluttershy had helped her find, made her feel even better. Dash grinned and nodded, opening the front door. "I'll see you in a bit, then," she said, though her voice caught in her throat as she was heading out.

"Are you sure you're okay, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy shouted, just above a whisper, catching the hitch in her voice.

Rainbow Dash paused on the stoop with her wings fanned, and looked back over her shoulder, smiling back at Fluttershy. She'd noticed that hitch, that little crack in her voice. She always noticed. Dash paused for a moment, taking in the sight of a dishevelled Fluttershy standing in her living room, genuine concern etched on her muzzle.

Slowly, she nodded, her eyes squinting a little as she worked on the emotions balling up inside her stomach. "Yeah," she said finally, with a small, but definitive stomp of her forehoof on the fluffy step, and a look over her shoulder. "I'm good."

Fluttershy's worried expression broke into a wordless smile, and she nodded, pink locks of silken mane falling over one side of her muzzle.

Dash gave her one last grin, and then took to the sky with an easy beat of her wings, soaking up the heat from the shining sun. It was a clear, pristine day, with not even a cloud in the sky for her to worry about.

Her wings ached deliciously as she put them through her paces, heading first for a pond near the edge of Ponyville for a quick bath, deciding against trotting through Ponyville with her mane in a tangle and smelling of sex and Fluttershy.

This time.

As Rainbow Dash flew towards Ponyville, she whooped and tipped her wings into an easy barrel roll, unable to help but laugh.

Demonstration

Demonstration

"Fluttershy?"

Rainbow Dash's voice sounded oddly hollow in the dim light of Fluttershy's cottage. Sunset was long past, as Rainbow Dash had observed on her rather lengthy trip down from Winsome Falls. The athletic pegasus flexed out some kinked muscles from spending too long aloft - thank you, Rarity, for bringing the entire Boutique with you! - as she set down her saddlebags near the front door.

Searching for a moment, her eyes adjusted to the gloom and paused on a polished gleam of metal near the door. Rainbow leaned over to tweak the lamp-knob with her teeth, bringing a flickering but welcome illumination to the room.

Fluttershy was home, Rainbow Dash knew that much; the upstairs light was on, and she could see it through the window. She'd learned to be more polite of late, about barging in through ponies' windows. Twilight had given her an earful about it enough times, with the library's overabundance of tempting access points.

"Fluttershy?” She called again, a little louder, "It's Rainbow!"

She couldn't possibly be asleep. By now, the overwhelming majority of her animal companions had scurried off to whatever dens they cuddled into at night, leaving the raceways lining her ceiling and walls mercifully unpopulated, and even Angel seemed to have absconded somewhere.

"Oh!" Fluttershy's tiny voice filtered through from upstairs. "Just a second!"

Rainbow chuckled and trotted to the kitchen, grabbing the kettle and filling it with cold water from the tap, then tucking the long, insulated handle onto the fireplace's swingarm. A tweak to the gas knob, and soon the fireplace was at a low simmer. Normally, not something somepony ought to do on a warm night, but Rainbow Dash already missed the warm campfire from the last couple of nights, and seeing as how she hadn't been able to bring Fluttershy along...

Rainbow Dash's wings flexed abruptly as Fluttershy appeared out of thin air at her side. "Whuah."

Fluttershy blinked and knitted her brow. "'Whuah'?" She echoed, teasingly.

"Yeah." Rainbow Dash put her forehoof down from where she'd drawn it up to her chest. "Whuah," she nodded, firmly, as if she were the authority on such matters. "That's like 'hi'."

"Of course it is," Fluttershy giggled, and leaned up to kiss Rainbow on the cheek, prompting the multi-hued pegasus to add pink to her repertoire for a moment. "How was Winsome Falls?"

"It was awesome!" Rainbow Dash trotted over to the well-worn green couch that occupied one wall of the living room, making sure to leave space for Fluttershy.

Fluttershy busied herself with getting down the tea, something Rainbow Dash had long since learned to leave to her. It was a little ritual every time she arrived at the cottage. Fluttershy always knew exactly which tea to brew, and how to brew it - an incredible pain for non-unicorns, really - and though Rainbow had never really been a fan before, she could feel a fondness for the stuff creeping in.

Tea was so...insidious, Rainbow decided, seizing upon a word that Daring Do would be proud of. But tasty.

"Just 'awesome'?" Fluttershy prompted, peering out from beneath her pink mane.

"W-well," Rainbow Dash stammered, with a chuckle. "Scoots had a rough time, but it turned out okay."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she'd had some bad dreams, she got spooked, took off in the middle of the night. I'm glad I heard her go, because she got herself into real trouble, real fast. Went straight off on her scooter, got tripped up, dunked in a river and was this close..." Rainbow Dash held up her hooves, close together, "...to ending up at the bottom of a waterfall."

Fluttershy stared at her, in shock.

"I know!" Rainbow Dash cried, throwing her hooves up.

"I'm guessing you came to the rescue, as you always do?" Fluttershy's muzzle curled in a knowing grin.

"Heh, yeah. It turned out Scoots had been having some real bad dreams, which was kinda my fault." Rainbow's hoof felt the back of her neck, looking sheepish.

"You...didn't tell her ghost stories, did you?" Rainbow could feel those teal eyes on her, narrowed ever so slightly in accusation.

"Eh-heh," Rainbow Dash blushed, and bit her lip.

Fluttershy's eyes rolled a little and she shook her head. She carefully set her hindhoof against the simmering kettle’s long handle, and swung it out from the fire, sending the whole thing wobbling. "Oh, Rainbow Dash," she scolded mildly. "You know better than to be telling all those stories around little fillies."

"Applebloom and Sweetie Belle loved it! And how do you even know when to pour that?" Rainbow pointed with exasperation at the kettle, which hadn't whistled. "I do it and you say I burn it. It's water."

"Don't change the subject," Fluttershy said without looking, fixated on the task at hoof. With the long, insulated handle between her teeth, she delicately tipped the kettle on its built in hinge over the tea trolley, pouring out a splash of hot water into the teapot, and then each oversized, porcelain tea-cup-sorta-mug-thing. Rainbow couldn't remember the name exactly. "I do hope that you apologized?"

"Well, yeah. Scoots and I talked. She was scared, having nightmares, but...she was trying to be brave for me. I told her I was scared too when I first heard those stories, tried to make her feel better." Self-consciously, Rainbow's hoof nudged at the couch's cushions, frowning.

"She's learned from the best at that, you know," Fluttershy said after a moment's pause, dumping measured scoops of tea from the tin she'd retrieved earlier into the warmed teapot and pouring the near-boiling water over them.

Rainbow frowned over at her, even as the scent of Earl Neigh began to fill the room. "I," she began, winding herself up for a rant, only to find the wind gone from her wings before she even started. She sagged on the couch a little and sighed. "Yeah. I hadn't thought of it that way. I probably should have."

"She idolizes you. Have you seen that clubhouse of theirs?"

Rainbow blushed. She'd been there a few times during their meetings of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club, though she never dared show herself. It had done more for her ego than she cared to admit. Of course, there were those posters. Rainbow Dash flying through the stars, with a solid rainbow trail. Where'd that even come from? It was like as wide as a pony was long. And the balloon animal...

"Y-yeah," Rainbow Dash said, admitting nothing.

Carefully, Fluttershy trundled the low tea trolley over to the side of the couch, and then hopped up beside her, waiting for it to steep. "You know how much she looks up to you."

"I do!" Rainbow nodded, "I know. And that's why I said I'd take her under my wing, so to speak. Y'know, help her out a little, show her some tricks. Be a big sister, I guess?" She felt her face soften into a grin as she remembered, Scoots on her hoof, darting through the countless rainbow waterfalls. "Spending time with her was, well, pretty cool and--"

Rainbow trailed off, as she felt Fluttershy's hoof at her cheek. Her muzzle went a little slack as she looked up, into her fellow pegasus' beaming face, a smile to end all smiles greeting her beneath that perfect pink mane. Before she could get another word out, Rainbow found herself muted by Fluttershy's muzzle pressing to hers in a kiss, her deep teal eyes closing for a moment.

It was all too fleeting, and before Rainbow could respond properly, Fluttershy's muzzle had pulled away and was directed towards grabbing the teapot's handle.

"What was that?" Rainbow said, staring off into space for a moment longer, before refocusing on Fluttershy.

Rainbow could see her blush around her mane, though Fluttershy played it cool. Taking lessons in nonchalance from the best had helped her composure immeasurably, but she still couldn't completely hide her embarrassment.

"That was for being you, Rainbow Dash," she said, and picked up the teapot with a hoof under its oversized handle, making circling motions to swirl the infused tea about inside.

Rainbow blinked and had to try hard to keep from laughing. Oh, sweet Celestia, that was so beautifully sappy. "Just for being me, huh?" Rainbow replied, with a little grin.

"S-sure," Fluttershy insisted, focusing all too intently on the act of merely pouring the tea into the twin cups she'd laid out, each more like mugs with their hoof-loops since they were made for pegasi and earth ponies.

Rainbow Dash purposefully kept her grin wide, so that when Fluttershy looked back to deliver her tea by setting it on the couch in front of her, Fluttershy couldn't help but break down laughing as soon as she let the mug go, her composure shattering.

"What!" Fluttershy stammered through her giggles, her blush intensifying. "It...it sounded better in my head, isn't that what you always say?"

"I thought it was pretty good," Rainbow Dash assured, trying to keep the mirth out of her voice.

Fluttershy just shook her head, and giggled at her own expense. "Oh, I've been reading too many of Rarity's books," she said, taking a sip of her tea.

Rainbow decided better than to tease Fluttershy about it, a decision she knew she probably would have erred on in the past. "How was Hoofington?" she said, offering Fluttershy a change of pace.

Fluttershy's withers relaxed, gratefully. "Oh, it was just lovely. It's just as well you went camping, I had to spend most of my time inside. I did get to go to the park a couple of times, though; there's a lovely family of squirrels who lived there, back when I was going to school? They're still there, and they remembered me!" Fluttershy giggled, and her wings flexed, excitedly.

Rainbow Dash gave her an indulgent smile. "Even after all this time?"

"I used to feed them often in between classes, and now the squirrels I knew when I was a filly are great-grandparents."

"Speaking of classes?" Rainbow nudged, encouragingly. "What'd they say?"

Fluttershy blushed, "Well, I did a bunch of exams, and..." She paused, digging a forehoof into the couch.

"Aaand?" Rainbow Dash leaned over, tipping her head curiously. She leaned over and sipped at her tea, keeping her eyes fixed and wide on Fluttershy, expectantly.

"And they said that if I wanted to come back and finish my courses, that I could! They'll give me credit for the stuff I already took, though I'd still need another year or so of upgrades." Fluttershy allowed herself a moment's pride, puffing up some and fanning her wings. "You know, stuff that’s new since I took classes a few years ago. But they say with all my experience, they'd probably waive the residency so long as I sit the exams and pass like everypony else."

"Awesome! I told you they would," Rainbow Dash grinned, drumming her hooves together in applause on the couch, an act that made Fluttershy squeak and scoop her tea-mug off of the cushions, lest it tip on the suddenly unstable surface. "You totally got this."

Fluttershy blushed, and sipped her rescued tea in silence. Moment of pride over.

Rainbow waited for Fluttershy to get excited again, and then realized a moment later what a futile notion that was. "That's a big deal, 'Shy!"

"Oh, it's nothing really. I mean, it's not like I'm going to start my own practice or anything, that Goodall mare is wonderful."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, you two aren't competing for business. She does all the domestic stuff, but you do all the wildlife medicine, right? You're not stepping on anypony's hooves as it is, you've always gotten along fine before."

"I suppose," Fluttershy murmured, rubbing her hoof in circles around her mug. "It does feel nice to actually sit down and finish it after all this time."

"I know how hard you worked for all that stuff," Rainbow insisted, laying a wing over Fluttershy's back. "I mean, I went to Flight School, and did my weather team certs, but anypony and their grandmare can get those. You actually went and did something really hard."

Rainbow frowned at Fluttershy's continued silence, and leaned over to nuzzle firmly at the yellow pegasus' withers, lipping gently. She felt Fluttershy arch a little into the touch, stretching her neck out and craning her head to one side with a soft noise of contentment.

"You deserve this," Rainbow whispered, her muzzle tucked next to Fluttershy's ear. "I'm proud of you."

Fluttershy nuzzled up firmly, setting her tea down with a huff. "Oh, Rainbow," she said quietly, "I just wasn't sure if I could do it, I really wasn't. I wasn't sure if I'd remember all the stuff from my classes and oh, it was hard."

Rainbow's stomach knotted up a little. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"Oh, no, I don't mean it like that." Fluttershy straightened, and shook her head firmly. "No, you couldn't have been there. You would have been stuck flying circles around the park with nopony to talk to for hours."

"I still--"

"No," Fluttershy insisted, putting a hoof to the end of Rainbow's muzzle. "You did more than enough, Rainbow. After Sombra and the Crystal Empire, Chrysalis and the wedding, after all of that, do you remember what you said to me?"

Rainbow glanced down sheepishly, and recalled one of her...moments of weakness. It'd been after they'd finally taken care of Sombra, and the Crystal Empire was aglitter under the effects of Cadance's restoration spell. Fluttershy had never looked more stunning than on that balcony, towering over the city. The changes had been subtle, the flowers in her flowing mane, her tail, but even so, she'd been a feast for the eyes.

"I said..." Rainbow began, with a guilty little chuckle. "I said that even though the world had almost ended twice in a row, I didn't regret a thing because...I'd been there with you."

Fluttershy blushed at hearing the words again, and nodded firmly. "That's right. You got me thinking, and I didn't regret being with you, not for one second, but there were a few other things I did regret not doing. And not finishing what I started in Hoofington was one of those things."

"All my fault, huh?" Rainbow Dash smiled bashfully, taking her turn to glow crimson.

Fluttershy paused, and looked like she was about to say something profound, but then she just grinned, and leaned up to kiss Rainbow on the forehead, sending little electric tingles arcing along the nape of her neck. "Mmmhm. All your fault."

Rainbow pushed her head down, and then butted it up against Fluttershy's chin and the crook of her jaw, sliding over her shoulder to draw her into a hug. Her lover fell easily into the embrace, each one with a hoof full of marvelous tea, and the other clutching tightly at the pony before them.

They spent a long moment, squeezed together like that, before Rainbow Dash drew back with a grin. "To no regrets, then," she declared, holding up her mug of tea.

Fluttershy's eyes darted to the upraised mug. "Uh, I don't think you're supposed to toast with tea."

Rainbow Dash continued holding her mug up.

Fluttershy giggled and shook her head, and then raised her mug in kind, the thick porcelain cups barely clinking off of one another. Both pegasi took long sips of the hot, flavorful Earl Neigh tea after that, nestling close to each other for warmth in a companionable silence.

"Are you going to stay here, tonight?" Fluttershy asked after a time, peering up through her mane.

Rainbow Dash smiled and nodded back, and soaked up the resulting excited little wriggle of Fluttershy's hips, the only betrayal of Fluttershy's excitement that the reserved, quiet pegasus couldn't stifle no matter how hard she tried.

"Only fair, right?" Rainbow Dash stretched out her wings, taking another gulp of tea. "You stayed at my place on Thursday, after all."

Fluttershy nodded, though her head ducked in a show of embarrassment, "It's...it's not a competition, though."

"Oh, naw, of course not!" Rainbow shook her head, beaming. "Doesn't matter much where we end up, 'Shy, as long as you're cool with it."

Fluttershy giggled, and flicked her tail to and fro. "Either's fine. I just miss my animals sometimes. Some of them can get...impatient."

"You mean, Angel gets impatient," Rainbow Dash frowned and craned her neck, glancing around the room. "Where is that little fuzzball, anyway?"

"Oh, he's probably sleeping at the other tree tonight, the shelter I hollowed out over there?"

"Mmmhm?"

"I think he's, um, learned to give us some, um, privacy."

Dash stifled a giggle into a series of tiny snorts, hidden behind a hoof. "Oh, wow, I didn't think we were getting that bad."

"Well," Fluttershy squirmed nervously, "we have been...sleeping together a lot more the last couple of months."

"But we don't, y'know, do it every night," Rainbow Dash grinned.

"No, but, um, I try not to talk too much to Angel about we do in the bedroom." Fluttershy's muzzle pursed, thoughtfully. "I don't think a little bunny like him needs to know about...that."

Rainbow Dash couldn't help her laugh this time around, tipping on the couch and coming dangerously close to spilling her tea. "Oh, hah! Yeah, that's probably not stuff he needs to know."

"Mm, no," Fluttershy said, and then was interrupted by a most unladylike yawn.

"Heh, and speaking of which," Rainbow Dash nodded, unable to help but succumb to a contagious yawn herself, "did you want hit the hay? It looked like you'd practically already gone to sleep when I came in."

Fluttershy stifled a giggle and shook her head, locks of her pink mane waving. "Oh, no, I was just up reading. The train in from Hoofington arrived late, I didn't get in until just after suppertime, but I wanted to finish my book."

"Yeah, we started down from the mountain around noon, but the Carousel Boutique took even longer to get down than it took to get up."

Fluttershy squinted a little, puzzled.

"Rarity's wagon was so heavy and full of junk," Rainbow Dash explained, with no small hint of exasperation, "Applejack had to walk behind it with a rope, pulling the whole way down, 'like a gosh-darn tug o' war', just to keep it from crushing somepony. If we'd let it get up any speed at all, whoosh." Rainbow made a sailing motion with her hoof. "It would have been tourist carriages and cliffs all over again."

Fluttershy winced. "Oh, my."

"Yeah. Anyway, we got Rarity and Sweetie Belle home, and then I winged it over here. And tomorrow I've got to play catch-up with the weather team."

Fluttershy patted Rainbow's barrel with a hoof, gently. "Come to bed, then. I promise I won't keep you up."

Rainbow downed the last of her tea and smiled, leaning over to kiss Fluttershy on the lips, fleetingly. "If you insist."

Most of an hour later, against all odds, both pegasi were still awake and reading by lamplight, nestled side by side. Their eyes were lidded and drowsy, flipping through the pages in an immersed twilight of imagination.

Rainbow Dash often thought of finishing a good book as akin to coming up for air after a dive, and while you were under - as she'd experienced both in Fluttershy's company and not - time seemed to fly past no matter how tired somepony thought they were.

Fluttershy had curled up into a ball on the end of the bed, a pillow under her chin as she flipped through the last chapter of City of Flights: The Chariot Caper about some absurd heist in Las Pegasus. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, had been enveloped by Daring Do and the Quest for Deldrimor Keep, and had propped herself up on the remaining pillows, her lap occupied by the hardcover tome.

Though each would giggle or hum from time to time, as they read through paragraph after paragraph, they politely kept any comments to themselves. Each of them knew better than to let their little bubble of imagination burst prematurely.

Eventually though, Rainbow Dash finished her book first, and closed the heavy hardcover, catching it with a hoof before it could thump and disturb Fluttershy. She set the heavy book aside, peering past her knees at Fluttershy, and she felt a smile broaden on her snout.

She looks so peaceful. And damn sexy.

With that, Fluttershy looked up from her book and blushed, as she realized Rainbow was staring at her.

Rainbow kept smiling, unflappable. "Hey."

"Hi," Fluttershy said, in almost a whisper. She giggled and nosed back down into her book, stealing a glance or two up and over at her bedmate. It was clear she only had a couple of pages left, so Rainbow tugged back the comforter on her side and began redistributing the pillows she'd hoarded, fluffing them up a bit.

It was then she caught a whiff of something, on one of the pillows. She'd almost put it towards the far side of the bed, where she'd found it, but something made her pause. Rainbow squinted, and sniffed experimentally at the linen.

It smelled of Fluttershy, yes, but there was something else. Something spicier. Rainbow's eyes widened a bit, and her wings fanned out a little as she realized what it was. She carefully set the pillow down, and sat smugly at the head of the bed, tipping her head to one side while she perched like Opalescence.

"You fibbed," Rainbow accused, politely.

Fluttershy blinked and looked up in confusion, when she realized she, and not Daring Do, was being spoken to. "Uhh?"

A cyan hoof rose, and pointed accusingly. "You weren't reading. Or rather, that's not all you were doing."

"What?" Fluttershy stammered, though the blush that crept up her cheeks told the whole story without her needing to say anything.

Rainbow Dash stifled a giggle, failed, and then broke into a trademark Rainbow Dash cackle, tipping over onto her back helplessly. "Oh, gosh," she blubbered, in between giggles, "your face is just, like, the reddest thing."

Fluttershy dug a forehoof into the bed, and ducked her head. "Well, I didn't want to mention it. It didn't seem fair."

Rainbow Dash rolled over onto her front, and stifled her giggles, though she couldn't help the big grin she wore. "Why not!"

"Well, um, it seemed, um, impolite."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and propped her chin up on a hoof. "Fluttershy, we sleep together. Impolite isn't really a thing when we're talking about that stuff. We're adult mares, right?"

Fluttershy squirmed, and nodded.

"You didn't think I was gonna be mad that you got off without me, did you?"

"N-no, not really. Well, I just..." Fluttershy's face contorted, and Rainbow Dash's mood fell as she recognized the little battle unfolding on Fluttershy's muzzle. Oh. She didn't want to talk about it. Oops.

Rainbow Dash backpedaled. "You know what, nevermind."

"No, it's just..."

"No, really, it's okay." Rainbow's hooves fumbled with the blankets.

"Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy's voice was suddenly stern, and insistent. Rainbow looked up into a vivid stare from those deep, teal eyes, and froze. "We need to talk about this, now."

Rainbow Dash winced and sagged a little, despite her best effort to hide it. Capital-T Talk. Now, we've stepped in it.

Fluttershy, for better or worse, never let things like this slide anymore, when it came to the two of them. The timid, unassuming yellow pegasus was as meek as a lamb, until the two of them ran aground on some issue that looked like it maybe might threaten to potentially someday become a point of friction.

It was as though she was hypervigilant about anything upsetting the delicate balance they'd established. Part of Rainbow Dash was grateful for it; it'd solved more misunderstandings than she could count before they even became misunderstandings, but it was weirdly awkward and formal sometimes. She hoped this wouldn't be one of those times.

"I, uh," Rainbow Dash scrambled, rubbing her forehooves together. "I didn't mean anything by teasing you about it."

"Okay."

"I was just, y'know, curious."

"I know," Fluttershy sighed, "It was just...I'm a little self-conscious, and, um, that was...that was for me," she finished, putting her forehooves on her chest.

Rainbow Dash knew the train of thought that accompanied that. It's not polite to tease about things that are important to me.

Rainbow Dash nodded, biting her lip. "Okay, I...I get that."

"I'm glad," Fluttershy said with a smile. "I didn't think you'd be mad or jealous. I know you better than that. Maybe a while ago I might have thought that, but not anymore. I...I think you should know that."

"Thanks, I think," Rainbow Dash chuckled, and let herself smile too. Already, she felt the tension melting away.

It was a little jarring sometimes, to have her natural thought process stopped dead in its tracks, and uncomfortable to have it picked apart so, but Fluttershy seemed to realize how effectively her gambit countered Rainbow Dash's usual blustering, fumbling attempts to repair conversational faux pas, and kept employing it.

Come to think of it, Rainbow Dash thought, we haven't needed to do that in a while. Maybe we're getting better at this.

"You're, um, welcome to know, if you ask. I..." Fluttershy continued, scrunching her lips together. "I really mean it when I say, I don't mind talking about it. If you ask."

"My bad," Rainbow Dash said sheepishly. "Sorry."

"And if you must know, I..." Fluttershy trailed off into a mumble.

Rainbow's ears pricked up. "'Shy?"

"I never finished," Fluttershy squirmed, ducking her head. "You, uh, interrupted me. Not that I wasn't glad to see you, but..."

Rainbow Dash waved a hoof, dismissively. "Wait, back up. You didn't finish?" She tried very hard to keep anything resembling judgement out of her voice. "I mean, I'm flattered, but you know that I know better than anypony, that a mare's gotta do what a mare's gotta do."

Fluttershy lowered her head with a little squeak, and laid her head sideways on the pillow. "I had to make tea," she explained meekly.

Rainbow Dash folded her forehooves over her chest, and opened her muzzle to say something, then thought better of it. 'Go on, then', her first instinct, sounded kind of confrontational. So did 'well, who's stopping you now?' She needed more...more...

More Fluttershy.

"Maybe," Rainbow began again, with a sly little grin, "you should finish what you started."

Smoooooth.

Fluttershy perked up and blushed, glancing around as if there was somepony else watching. "Well, I suppose I could."

Rainbow Dash patted the bed beside her, and unfolded a little. "Please? I wanna see how you do it."

"Really?" Fluttershy laughed, nudging her forgotten book aside, crawling up beside Rainbow to stretch out on her back and pulling a pillow under her neck.

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash nodded enthusiastically. "Everypony's got their own thing. I want to see how you do it." So I can do it to you later. "Seriously, we should have done this, like, ages ago."

"It seems silly," Fluttershy whispered, as she nervously drew her thighs up.

Rainbow Dash flipped herself around, so that she could lay her chin on Fluttershy's pulled-up hindleg, stroking a hoof along her hip, trailing the edge of her cutie mark. "It's not silly," she said, as seriously as she could muster. "It's good. It's not like I don't know how to make you feel awesome, but I wanna see how you make you feel awesome."

Fluttershy looked askance, and squirmed a little, but didn't shy away from the touch. "That's...very thoughtful of you, Rainbow Dash."

"Yeah, well, if I had a bit every time somepony complained to me that their partner wasn't paying attention to what they wanted, I could buy the Wonderbolts," Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Sometimes, there's no substitute for show and tell. And lately, I've been learning that it's good to talk about stuff."

"I...I guess you're right," Fluttershy giggled, though Rainbow Dash could see a flicker of pride dart across her normally so carefully controlled features. Gradually, Fluttershy relaxed and allowed her hindlegs to part, unfolding towards the bed.

The tightly sealed slit of her marehood looked a little puffier and more prominent than usual, thanks to her earlier attentions. Below, the equally snug pucker of her tailhole winked, just above the spray of her pink tail-hair. As Fluttershy's legs fell to either side, the seam of tender flesh parted to allow the folds of her sex to peek into the air, making Rainbow's mouth water.

The multihued pegasus rode Fluttershy's hindleg all the way down to the bed as she lowered and spread it apart, stretching herself out on the bed perpendicular to the demure mare at her side. Rainbow lowered her muzzle to settle it comfortably atop Fluttershy's soft, warm thigh, letting her hoof roam around the trio of pink butterflies on her flank, encouraging with gentle kneads over the sensitive coat there.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her chin tucking to her neck, visibly forcing herself to relax and reacquaint herself with the sensations of her body. Then, her hoof began to slide down her front, stroking broadly along her barrel and then diving between her legs.

Rainbow Dash watched raptly as the expression on her lover's face contorted a little, almost wincing and tensing in anticipation before her hoof found its mark at the peak of her blossoming sex, the edge of her hoof finding her hood and sliding it back carefully.

"Straightaway, huh?" Rainbow Dash murmured, her eyes darting up to meet Fluttershy's as they opened in surprise at Rainbow's voice. "No, really. You go right there, first?"

Fluttershy's withers relaxed a little, as she realized Dash wasn't judging her technique, but was honestly curious. "M-mmmhmm," she breathed, arching her neck back into the pillows behind her head.

"I'll stay quiet, if you'd rather," Rainbow Dash grinned nervously, her hoof pausing on Fluttershy's flank.

"Oh! N-no, it's fine. I meant it when I said I didn't mind if you asked. Just..." Fluttershy giggled, with a giddy squirm and a shimmy of her hips, pressing her manicured hoof around the rim of her clit slowly. "I've never talked about it with somepony before, like this."

Rainbow Dash frowned a little, sideways on Fluttershy's thigh. "That's a shame," she said earnestly. "We should fix that."

"We are fixing that," Fluttershy insisted, and then let out a little cry as she pressed her frog down onto her sex, stifling it with a bite of her lip that Rainbow Dash actually felt herself become slightly annoyed with. There were times to be quiet, and jilling oneself off was not one of those times. Rainbow knew better than to suggest otherwise, though; there was no coaxing Fluttershy to be anything but Fluttershy.

Carefully, Fluttershy dragged her smooth hoofedge past the steadily more prominent bead of her clit, making the little bump dimple and then spring up again, each time producing a fresh quiver from the pale yellow pegasus.

Rainbow Dash watched the sight before her raptly, those folds popping into view again and again as Fluttershy's hoof slid over and past and then returned again. Occasionally, Fluttershy would slide her hoof away entirely, absently cupping and squeezing at the subtle mounds of her teats on her pubic bone just above, catching her breath. She wasn't focusing on her teats, though. It seemed almost like she was...

"Are you edging?" Rainbow Dash blurted out, with a bewildered furrow of her brow.

Fluttershy giggled and nodded, rolling her head back into the pillows. "Mmhmm."

"I thought only stallions did that," Rainbow Dash said, with a note of awe creeping into her voice. "I can't do that."

"Takes practice," Fluttershy moaned with a fleeting, coy little grin, sliding her hoof back down and gasping at the renewed contact. Her folds were growing wetter by the moment, pouting out more and more prominently, and Rainbow Dash could see as much as feel the flexing of her muscles as she winked into her hoof.

Rainbow Dash's nostrils flared, too, with the rich scent of the mare before her building in the air. It was so sweet it was almost like chocolate, in that somepony could be forgiven for wanting to have it melt on their tongue. Tinged around the edges with tantalizing notes of sharper, spicier scents like those Rainbow Dash had smelled on the pillow, and it was all the eager spectator of a mare could do to keep from diving her snout between Fluttershy's spread thighs.

Again and again, Fluttershy would grind her clit into the crook of her sensitive frog and the harder edge of her hoof, digging her manicured hoofrim into her tunnel in a tease of penetration, only to retreat at the last second with a gasp and a low moan, pinwheeling her free leg in slow motion above Rainbow's head.

Rainbow Dash's hoof suddenly dove between her own thighs, which promptly closed around her wrist to squeeze it in tight, masturbating herself in kind with a little shudder. She was actually getting envious of Fluttershy's endurance, appreciating it more now that she was observing rather than mid-debauch.

Rainbow had never been able to edge like that. The few times she'd tried, she'd just driven herself batty with one unsatisfying mockery of a climax after another. Once she was there, she couldn't stand on the peak for long before jumping.

And I've been treating Fluttershy the same way, Rainbow Dash mused, mentally bucking herself. That was silly.

Then Rainbow Dash blinked, and her hoof paused, and then she gave herself a little congratulatory wiggle, renewing her eager grinding. The fact that she realized that was a silly assumption, and the fact that thought even occurred to her, both were important little steps in her thought-process that she knew, honestly, she never would have taken even a year ago.

The little celebration of self-awareness aside, Rainbow Dash tried very hard to focus on the show in front of her again rather than wallowing in envy, watching Fluttershy keep pushing herself up higher and higher, relentlessly urging her body on further with just her hoof. She didn't want to say anything to break her stride, fairly in awe of the sight unfolding in front of her.

At last, though, Fluttershy's breathy moans reached a crescendo, and she opened the teal eyes that had been shut most of the time. Her gaze locked with Rainbow's, and both mares felt that little spark of connection between them; Rainbow gazing up lovingly, nestled in the crook of Fluttershy's leg, nuzzling her thigh and reveling in vicarious - and not so vicarious - pleasure, while Fluttershy looked down from above, cresting a peak so high she thought she'd never hit bottom.

Fluttershy's muzzle snapped back and her whole body went rigid, her hoof digging furiously in an almost painful looking kneading of her sex. "Ohhh!" Fluttershy slurred, and then devolved into a series of high-pitched, but no less adorable grunts, breathing hard through her mouth and nose.

And she kept breathing, Rainbow Dash noted, as the hot warmth washed over her from above, Rainbow's own hoof grinding urgently between her legs in kind. I always just kinda lock up.

Fluttershy's orgasm was a marvel to behold, her body contorting and bucking weakly into her hoof, squirming desperately on the bed in front of her lover. It seemed like she was keeping her orgasm riding as high and as long as possible, her knees trying to push together, while her hind-hooves stayed splayed apart.

Her forehoof stayed firmly planted between her legs until she obviously couldn't stand it any longer, and then she finally yanked it back to her side and splayed her legs out as wide as they could go, giving Rainbow a shiver-inducing look at Fluttershy's pink, drooling folds as they winked and kneaded air desperately. A trail of glistening wet fluids flowed lazily down one side of her tailhole and dock, to be reluctantly soaked up by the comforter beneath, surging in quantity - and intoxicating, sweet, succulent scent - with every wave of her climax.

Fluttershy's muzzle tipped back in a soundless scream and then flopped back heavily into the pillows, panting hard. The shivers and aftershocks continued for a little longer, but the best had passed, and now the pink mane of the pegasus in question fell damp and tangled around her ears and withers, sweat beading and standing out on her soft coat.

Rainbow Dash's own moistened hoof retreated from her sex, spinning around to press up at Fluttershy's side. "That was awesome," she hissed, with a giddy grin.

Fluttershy blushed and squirmed on the pillows, shivery with afterglow. "Didn't want you to think I didn't have as much fun with you," she mumbled, with an embarrassed blush.

Rainbow Dash shook her head violently, still grinning. "No no no no, I understand. Sometimes, no matter what, the only mare that knows how to push all the buttons just right is you. And that's totally cool, I get that."

Fluttershy nodded gratefully, and sprawled herself out on the bed rather awkwardly, her barrel heaving with her breath. "I love what you do, Rainbow, oh do I ever," she moaned, with a giggly, dizzy smile. "I love what you do, and I love you."

Rainbow Dash's heart broke from the overflow of adoration she felt at that particular moment. To mend it, she leaned over, and stroked Fluttershy's chin with her dry hoof, and brought their muzzles into a kiss. Fluttershy responded eagerly, lifting one of her own hooves up - moistened with her slickness, Rainbow Dash could feel on her withers - and pulled them close, dropping Rainbow Dash into her lap.

Together, their tongues dueled and twined, and then parted with a sticky sound, a sound that Rainbow Dash never tired of hearing. They shared a lidded gaze for a moment, and then their muzzles met again, each cradling the other's head delicately in a hoof, while their tongues wormed and slithered between their lips. Even when the mingled drool started to run off of their nuzzling, shifting muzzles, they didn't even notice, so busy reveling in the meeting of slippery tongues and warm, hot breath.

When their muzzles parted again, the mingled, gossamer webs of saliva spread with them between their respective chins, and they blinked and blushed and glanced down and then laughed almost simultaneously.

"Don't care," Rainbow Dash concluded, finally.

"Nuh uh," Fluttershy agreed.

Rainbow nuzzled firmly into Fluttershy's pale yellow chest, kissing at her sweat-slickened coat, and let out a satisfied little noise of contentment. Almost automatically, her lover's snout nuzzled down atop her head and pillowed into her multi-hued mane, kissing through the coloured stripes one by one before nibbling at an ear.

"Your turn," Fluttershy whispered, at last.

Rainbow's eyes opened wide, and her pupils got very small. "I, uh..."

"Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said, evenly.

"Oh, fine. Only because you asked nicely."

Rainbow Dash squirmed free of Fluttershy and rolled onto her back, with an indignant huff. "I'm gonna be like, so quick compared to you," she complained, even as she sprawled out her hindlegs obscenely, hooking one over Fluttershy's thigh. Her knee fell neatly between the crook of her fellow pegasus' legs, and Rainbow felt Fluttershy's forehooves fall upon it, stroking encouragingly at the limb in her lap.

"Oh, don't say that. It's not about that."

"I know, just...damn!" Rainbow Dash's muzzle tipped back, and she laughed openly, while her hoof roamed broadly between her splayed, wiry legs. "That looked really fun."

Fluttershy leaned over, kissing at Rainbow's cheek. "Maybe we can work on it."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," Rainbow Dash grinned sidelong, and then her jaw dropped with a lower, far less polite grunt as her hoof found her slit, kneading around the tight opening to encourage it to open and swell. The bloodflow in her hindquarters soon obliged, and Rainbow felt a familiar, delightful tingle spreading out through her thighs and sex.

"I don't have my toys, so I'm gonna have to improvise a little," she explained, even as her tongue stuck out between her lips, narrowing her eyes in concentration while she worked on bringing herself out a little.

"You use toys every time?" Fluttershy asked, as earnestly curious as Rainbow had been.

"Well, not every time," Rainbow shrugged, "But yeah, most of the time. Getting a hoof inside is annoying, and a toy's easier. I don't get off as easily just from doing my clit. I mean, I can, but--"

Her ramble ended suddenly, as Fluttershy put a hoof to her lips. She only had a moment to realize it was still damp and smelled powerfully of Fluttershy's come, but her reflexes let her dart her tongue out for a fleeting, tantalizing taste of that intoxicating sweetness before it pulled away.

Fluttershy pushed Rainbow's leg off of her lap and rolled to one side, dropping onto all fours beside the bed. Rainbow watched absently as she pulled open a bottom drawer on her nightstand, and rifled around inside, finally pulling up something in her muzzle that she quickly transferred to her forehooves.

"Aw, yeah, perfect!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, as she recognized it. It was a toy she'd actually used on Fluttershy a while ago, a gift from her own small collection. It was a newfangled electrical contraption, thrumming on batteries and covered with that newish wicked flexible rubber-like stuff Rainbow Dash could never...silicone, that's it. Way better than that el-cheapo hard Bakelite crap.

Firm, but yielding, it was shaped like a smaller version of a stallion's shaft, but with an exotic, rounded tip, and a second little nub near the bottom for her clit. It had a wide, flat base, and it was obviously made for non-unicorns, with a flexible, foldable rubbery sock-analogue attached at roughly a right-angle for somepony to put their hoof in and keep control of it. The whole thing was gently studded, too, a subtle bumpy texturing that made Rainbow drool.

As soon as these new silicone things had started showing up a few years ago, right when she was actually able to start buying them, Rainbow Dash had snapped up a few, always the one to try new things. And she'd never regretted it.

"I've used this a few times," Fluttershy admitted with uncharacteristic ease, hopping back up onto the bed and then depositing the toy at Rainbow's flank. "It's pretty good."

Rainbow grinned, busying herself sliding her foreleg into the toy, and then nudging the switch on the bottom with the edge of her other hoof, sending the thing buzzing away gently. "Oh, yeah. Definitely one of my faves. I'm addicted to these things."

Rainbow paused, hovering her hoof over her hips. "Don't tell Pinkie Pie, the last time I mentioned liking toys, you have no idea what she tried to pawn off on me."

Fluttershy's brow arched, skeptically.

"Trust me," Rainbow Dash said, firmly. "Like, we never got into it? But she thought she was doing me a favour, marefriend to marefriend." Rainbow Dash shuddered. "'In case of sex toy emergencies.'"

"Leave it to Pinkie to be prepared," Fluttershy shook her head and cuddled up to Rainbow's side firmly, nodding in encouragement towards the toy Rainbow clutched in her hoof.

"Oh, right," Rainbow laughed, as if she'd forgotten she was splayed out on the bed with a dildo strapped to her hoof. Carefully, she bent her wrist until the toy nudged up against her now pouting, prominent cuntlips, and then smoothly sank the toy inside of her. She could feel her walls kneading on them, her powerful muscles squeezing hard on the rubbery, bendy toy's surface.

When the small, buzzing nub of the toy nuzzled up against the hood of her clit, she let out a gasp and arched her back at the electric thrill that darted up her spine. It was jaw-clenchingly delicious, and the feeling of something inside her, buzzing and thrumming away at her intimate depths, was incredible. She couldn't stop the loud, gravelly, animal moan that crawled out of her throat at the sensation, gasping in delight.

It was almost as good as Fluttershy's tongue, now that she thought about it.

Her hoof slid up beside her sex, pressing the lips of her labia around the side of the toy, and then pushed firmly at the hood of her clit, forcing it against that little ribbed nub nuzzling against it. The sensations were almost overwhelming, it'd been a while since she'd used a toy like this, but she soaked them up and relished every little quiver the thing spread through her flexing, wiry body.

Her one hoof stole away, sliding up her belly a little, while the other hoof slowly moved the toy back and forth, angling and nudging it around to twist and turn the toy inside of her kneading sex. Her hard, jutting teats pressed out into her hard hoof as she passed by them, dimpling them down and then letting them pop up on the other side of her hoof's edge, producing another delightful little shiver that built upon the rapidly swelling waves of sensation bubbling up her body.

Rainbow paused there, cupping each one in her frog and kneading it a little, which prompted a soft noise from Fluttershy.

"Mnh?" Rainbow queried, less than coherently.

"Your nipples," Fluttershy said quietly, her chin resting on Rainbow's shoulder. "I've always noticed they were a lot bigger, more prominent than mine, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure if you liked me playing with them."

Rainbow nodded, panting softly, easing up on her ministrations a little so she could speak and show off the hard nubs of duskier blue flesh above her cleft, notably plumper than those she'd seen on other ponies, Fluttershy included. "I-I do," she replied, breathlessly. She couldn't keep this up for long. "I know they don't do much for most ponies, but I really like messing with them. I know yours aren't sensitive, but mine are for some reason."

Fluttershy giggled, and kissed at her cheek, stroking a pale yellow hoof over Rainbow's barrel. "I'll remember that."

Rainbow Dash blushed, and then redoubled her efforts with a groan. She could feel sweat trickling down her brow. "I gotta cum," she hissed out, urgently. "This is driving me nuts, I don't know how you stand it."

Fluttershy couldn't help but laugh, holding a hoof to her muzzle to hide it even as Rainbow Dash writhed on the covers beside her. Rainbow paid little heed, focusing her entire world down to the waves of pleasure flowing from her hot, tingling loins, clenching her walls with purpose around the fat toy lodged inside of her.

Every bump and contour of the toy felt like heaven as they slid past the entrance of her sex, her labia cupping around them, her canal welcoming each one with a loving squeeze. Again and again, she held that toy hard up against her clit until she couldn't stand it anymore, jerking it away with a grit of her teeth and a whine of frustration, needing that peak and desperate to reach it, scarcely able to chase it fast enough.

Her climax seemed poised to escape, but in desperation, she ground the edge of one hoof into her nipples and crammed the toy in as deep as it would go with the other, pressing that wonderfully odd round tip hard against the walls of her sex. There was a sudden, almost electric arc of pleasure that bolted through her hips as the toy nestled into a sensitive nook and thrummed against it, and Rainbow Dash careened over the edge.

Rainbow let out a shriek of pleasure, never one to be subtle, as her whole body seized in a rictus of climax. Her breath turned into halting, staccato gasps, bearing down and tensing hard with each surging wave of her orgasm, gripping the toy between her legs tightly. She curled up and squirmed onto her side as she felt the orgasm ripple over her, bathing in ecstasy for a fleeting moment.

And then, just as suddenly as it had arrived, her elusive peak left her again, and Rainbow Dash let out a defeated groan into the pillow at her cheek, her breath returning to her in frantic gasps. Always feels too damn fast, Rainbow thought, wanting to gnash the pillow between her teeth.

"That looked like fun," Fluttershy teased, with a grin.

Rainbow Dash rolled over, and sprawled on her back, her afterglow not quite as dizzyingly deep as Fluttershy's seemed to have been. "Mmh, yeah, it was pretty good. Never seems long enough, though." She withdrew the toy from herself with a wince and a slurp, leaving a disappointing emptiness in its place.

"I think that might be because you tense up so much," Fluttershy speculated, gingerly grasping the toy as Rainbow held it up. She slid off of the side of the bed and transferred the toy to her teeth, holding it in her muzzle by the glove portion, and headed for the bathroom. "Mayheh youh neah hah breeh moh."

"What?" Rainbow stared past her splayed-out hindlegs, as Fluttershy's pink tail disappeared around the door frame.

"I said, you need to breathe more," Fluttershy replied from the bathroom, speaking over the sound of running water as she cleaned the toy. "You get so tense, it's like when you fly. You squash yourself up."

"Oh. Maybe. I dunno, I never really got all that...whatchamacallit, tantric? That Saddle Arabian stuff." Absently, Rainbow Dash scratched her hip with a hoof, and then glanced down between her hindlegs. "Oh. Oops. Fluttershy, can you bring a..."

A towel landed on her barrel with a plop.

"Er, thanks," Rainbow finished sheepishly, and patted down her soaked thighs, chuckling at the stickiness all down her thighs and tailbase. "I make such a mess compared to you."

Fluttershy trotted out from the bathroom, and hopped back up onto the bed, smiling demurely. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm used to it. And besides, you taste...nice."

Rainbow Dash squinted skeptically at Fluttershy as she damp-mopped between her soaked thighs and tail, though she couldn't stop the smile spreading on her muzzle. "That so?"

"Mmhmm," Fluttershy nodded, authoritatively. "Also, you squeeze really tight when you come, you practically splash."

"I do?" Rainbow Dash stared down at her belly, and prodded above her sex lightly, as if it had done something odd. "Huh. I do some, uh, exercises as part of my workout, have for years. Always felt kinda good. Um, I guess they help that too?"

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "'Don't go in for that Saddle Arabian stuff'," she said, in a little sing-song, "And the whole time, you've been doing Kegels."

"Is that what they're called? That's a funny name."

"It's actually a gryphon name."

"Oh."

"But now, it's nearly two in the morning; you need to be up early and so do I." Fluttershy kissed at Rainbow's nose and then ducked to pull back the comforter the rest of the way, sliding the sheets out from under her lover's rump with a tug of her teeth. "At least I don't have to make the bed again."

"Yeah," Rainbow observed wryly, "My tail apparently makes for a great sponge. Maybe..." She eyed the bathroom speculatively, but she could feel her exhaustion creeping up on her fast. "Oh, buck it, I'll shower in the morning."

The sheets were marvelously, familiarly soft - befriending Rarity meant endless gifts of special-order linens for life, to say nothing of the dresses she made herself - and warmed from the two of them laying on them for hours. As the night deepened, the warm summer day had been replaced by a cooler breeze, drifting through the windows and tempering things considerably, and thus the warmth of the covers was welcoming rather than oppressive.

The twin pegasi nuzzled up close to each other, and spent a few moments stealing kisses before their heads finally lowered to rest on opposite pillows, warm teal eyes meeting magenta.

Rainbow Dash's eyes nearly closed before she remembered something she'd forgotten to do.

"Fluttershy?"

"Mm?" Fluttershy stirred drowsily, her eyes nearly shut.

"Love you."

The words felt unfamiliar in her muzzle, full of odd edges and bulk, and it made her blush to even think of saying them. Nevertheless, they also felt right. Right up there with being awkward and weird, they felt good to say. Satisfying. Having somepony there to say that to, meant more to Rainbow than anything in the world.

Fluttershy's eyes widened and her smile reached from ear to ear, reaching up with a hoof from under the covers to stroke at Rainbow's cheek. "Love you too, Rainbow Dash," she said thickly, as her sleepiness caught up with her. "Sweet dreams."

"You too."

She watched her lover’s eyes drift shut, and in moments, the timid pegasus was asleep. Rainbow watched her for a while longer, her gaze drifting to her locks of now-ruffled, somewhat tangled pink mane, her gently flicking ears, that adorable nose flaring with each shallow, regular breath.

Half a year ago, she never would have imagined herself saying that. Not to anypony. Now, she couldn't imagine saying it to anypony else. The Cloudsdale water operation, Chrysalis, Sombra, all of it had just made her appreciate Fluttershy's presence at her side more and more.

She was so lucky to be here. To see this. She could see that Fluttershy was getting stronger and bolder, even if Fluttershy herself did forget it, sometimes.

Rainbow Dash imagined herself growing a little wiser as well, against all odds. If Fluttershy could find it in herself to finish what she started, maybe she could too.

There was an application she'd been tentatively filling out, stuck to her icebox at home. It needed to be sent soon to make the cut-off date. She'd thought about holding it back, about putting it aside for now. The idea seemed utterly alien; put off the Wonderbolts? But, one calamitous crisis after another made it clear that she had responsibilities bigger than her own ideas to look after. Not to mention, now she needed to think about one other pony in particular.

But if Fluttershy was going to accomplish a milestone like finishing her schooling, then by Celestia, Rainbow knew she wouldn't let her lover do anything less than follow her passion too, even if did mean spending some time apart. If she didn't apply to the Wonderbolt Academy, Fluttershy would probably never let her hear the end of her furious whispering.

Tomorrow, after she sorted out the weather detail, she'd finish filling out that application. And then she'd call in a few markers from Cloudsdale. This time, Rainbow Dash was going to the top of the list, full stop.

Thanks again, Fluttershy, Rainbow thought. The shyest of all of us, and still setting an example.

With that, Rainbow nestled her head down next to her lover's, and drifted into a warm, comfortable sleep.

Author's Note

Google Docs, while I was editing this: http://i.imgur.com/XWGx8tP.png

I was working on something else, got stuck, took a break, and this fell out. An unexpected, but not unwelcome diversion.