Of a Feather

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.