//------------------------------// // The Crush Hypothesis // Story: Bird Behavior // by Electric Aura //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash sat on a cushion in the massive library of Twilight's castle, looking up to the roof of the multi-story room. Daylight shone through the massive windows, giving the room a warm glow, the crystal walls gleaming in the light. Dash wouldn't admit it, but the library was her favorite room in the whole castle, even over the throne room, where she had her personalized crystal throne. She loved it because it was so open and tall, giving her plenty of room to fly if she wanted to. Tight and enclosed spaces were not something she enjoyed dealing with, they made her feel trapped and restrained. It also helped that Twilight had the entire Limited Edition Daring Do series books in it, which she had the same set of back in her cloudominium, all signed by Daring Do herself of course. The sound of the large main doors opening broke Rainbow’s train of thought, and she returned her gaze to ground level. Twilight had returned with tea and snacks for the two of them, something Dash was happy to take advantage of, since she was helping Twilight. “Thanks for the snacks Twi!” Within a second of the tray touching down on the table Dash sat at, she was snacking on some crackers, which Twilight watched with a neutral expression. While the pegasus munched on said crackers, Twilight took the moment to write down something on her data sheets with a small grin. “Well, you did help me out by letting me study you, some tea and snacks is the least I could do to return the favor.” Twilight sat opposite her friend, watching her behavior as she sipped some fragrant tea. “Tho…” Dash started talking with her muzzle still stuffed full of crackers, before realizing she should probably swallow first. A few more mastications and she swallowed her tasty snack with a content coo. “So, what kinda questions do you have for me Twi, bring ‘em on!” Rainbow gave an unnecessary and cocky grin, feeling like the questions were a challenge she could beat. The studious purple Princess flipped through some of the papers she had, and read a few lines before answering. “Well, some of my research is questions, but I have a few more physical things that don't require us being in the lab. Do you want to do the questions first, or the physical studies, it doesn't really matter which one we start with.” Twilight continued observing Dash, acting as she usually would, while taking in little things that might be important to her theory. “Let's do the questions, cold tea is kind of gross, so I don't wanna let it sit.” Rainbow sipped her tea too, washing down the crackers to ready herself for talking a lot, if needed. “Whatever you got, bring it on.” Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile, giggling a little. “Oh Rainbow, not everything is a competition, it's scientific research, not a race.” “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, I'm still gonna breeze through this.” Dash grinned, leaning on the table, closer to Twilight. “Alright.” Twilight smiled still, and cleared her throat. “You're a pegasus, obviously, and pegasus ponies usually are born and raised in the sky, and most spend a majority of their lives in it. How often are you in the sky? Including flying along the ground instead of walking, and including any time spent on clouds.” She held her quill in her magic, eagerly awaiting Rainbow’s answer. Dash snorted, and resisted her urge to laugh. “C’mon, really Twilight, that's the kind of stuff you're asking? I'm in the air like, 95% of the time, flying is kinda what I do.” She grinned, her career with the Wonderbolts was going well, flying really was her job, extreme flying at that. “It is literally my job to fly.” “... Okay, good point, but a lot of this is stuff I need to be sure on, so I'm asking you anyway, just, bear with me, please?” Twilight gave the impatient pegasus a pouty stare, something she did subconsciously even as an adult. Rainbow bit her tongue, she rarely was on the receiving end of Twilight's pouting, but that look killed her. ‘Damnit Twilight, why... I can't resist that look.’ She groaned, giving in to the adorable pout that probably could have gotten her to do anything. “Ugh, fine.” Twilight clapped her hooves together with joy, research was one of her favorite activities, even if the questions might be a bit obvious. “Thanks Rainbow, I promise I'll be quick.” She gave a convincing smile and looked back at her list of questions, deciding to skip a few for Dash’s sake. “You like to nap in trees when you aren't napping on clouds, right?” “Yeah, but AJ doesn't really like me doing it during apple season. Clouds are more comfortable anyway.” Dash recalled the multiple times Applejack had caught her napping in a tree, and either yelled and woke her up, or simply bucked the tree with her in it. “Something about damaging apples, I dunno.” Twilight scribbled something down, concentrating on her writing. Rainbow watched, the cute and concentrated look making her smile. “So you prefer having a high vantage point, like trees, buildings, clouds, that sort of thing? Places you can perch on?” The Princess continued with the same train of thought. Her subject nodded, confirming her thoughts. “Yeah, it lets me see everything that is going on around and especially below me, way better than trying to see things from the ground. I mean, you even helped me pass the Wonderbolts entrance exam because I learned by flying and looking at stuff below me!” “Oh yeah, high vantage points really do work for you.” Twilight laughed and smiled, the mention of Dash's entrance exam bringing back some good memories. She jotted down the preference for high vantage points and looked for her next question. “Okay, your diet, what kind of foods do you eat in addition to the regular stuff like hay, fruits, and vegetables. Do you have a favorite food?” The studious princess again stood by eagerly, quill at the ready. Dash tapped her chin with a hoof, thinking before answering. “Pegasus ponies eat a lot of seeds, they're super tasty. Oh, and crackers, I personally love crackers.” Her eyes drifted down to the crumbs where many crackers once sat before she had eaten then with gusto. “Seriously though, ask any pegasus, seeds are the best, they're good as a snack, on other food, or even as a meal alone.” “Seeds, got it.” Quiet scritching sounds came from Twilight's quill as she wrote down the diet habits of her friend. “What about hygiene, especially preening, how often do you do it?” Twilight glanced back at her own wings, noting that they were a bit out of order, feathers not in the correct position, old ones still stuck with other feathers. “Probably more than I do.” She gave a soft laugh, and a small smile, her cheeks burning a bit out of embarrassment. “I preen everyday, sometimes multiple times, otherwise it would mess up my flight, and I kinda need to be at my best for the Wonderbolts. Spitfire even checks that your feathers are in order if your flying gets worse, sometimes not preening really messes things up. I shower everyday too, usually I just grab a cloud and shower using that, rainwater is the best. I do use my real shower too, but cloud showers are wayyy better.” Dash grinned, weather was in her blood as a pegasus, and many others did the same as she did. Twilight did her best to hide a slight blush, she had noticed the scent of fresh rain multiple times on Rainbow, and she secretly loved it. “Heh, yeah, I should preen more…” She looked down at the paper, writing down yet more information, at the same time trying to hide her face. Multitasking, Twilight lifted her cup of tea to her mouth, and sipped some as she wrote. “I could help you preen!” Dash over enthusiastically spoke, barely keeping her voice at a reasonable level. “Pffft!” Twilight sprayed a bit of the tea back into the cup, caught completely off guard, not just by the volume, but by what Dash had said. Dash froze for a moment, realizing she had sounded just a bit to eager. “I mean, if you want me to help.” She blushed, looking down into her cup of tea for a moment, her front hooves nervously tapping against one another. She hoped Twilight didn't know enough about pegasus culture to know what that meant. Demure Rainbow Dash, that was new. Tea wet her muzzle a bit, and she used her magic again, this time to wipe her muzzle dry with a napkin. The Princess of Friendship was feeling like the Princess of the Friendzone, she did know that preening with a partner was generally only done by lovers or some other significant pony. Twilight had witnessed Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy preening another before, they were lifelong friends, and bonded over the intimate activity. They weren't a couple, just two close friends, Rainbow wasn't in a romantic relationship. “Uhhh, s-sure, I'd love the help, if you don't mind.” “Great! I mean, good, yeah. I'm happy to help.” Rainbow gave a nervous smile, silently scolding herself for verbally faceplanting in front of Twilight. “Just, uhm, let me know when, I'm sure you have a bunch of questions left. Hehe…” She rubbed the back of her neck, looking at anything but Twilight's eyes. “Oh, yes, of course! I have some left, you probably wanna get out of here, huh? I'll try and breeze through the rest of the questions. Let's see…” Twilight looked through the questions she had a lot of them, and decided that if she was playing scientist, she should perform another experiment. She skipped straight to some of the more intimate questions, hoping to maybe get a response out of Rainbow that would confirm her new hypothesis. With Twilight busy picking out particular questions, Dash had a little bit of time to think, and she gave herself a mental pep talk. ‘Come on! I can do this, its just Twilight, just the same ol’ Twilight I've known for years. The worst she could do is say no... And then you'd never be able to look her in the eye again. Argh! No, she won't say no, she'll say yes, right? I'm cool, and we're good friends. Then again, what if I'm to dumb for her? Does she even like mares?! Everypony is bisexual though, she must. Wait, I’m probably not even good enough for her, she's a Princess. Yeah she says she hasn't changed, but w-’ “RAIN. BOW.” Twilight waved a hoof in the face of the pondering pegasus, who was completely lost in her own head. Dash jumped, shaking her head. “Gah! S-sorry Twi, just thinking, uhm, what did you ask?” “Are you okay? You really spaced out.” The Princess raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Yeah, I'm cool, no problem. What did you ask though?” Adjusting her seating position, Rainbow gave an attentive look to convince Twilight she was indeed cool, and not a filly with a crush. “Okay... I said here is where it gets a little more personal, is that okay?” Twilight spoke each word very sharply, taking slight longer pauses between them. Dash nodded, wings fluttering at her side, itching to take flight from what she felt was an awkward situation. “Yeah, got it, sorry.” “Good, now, I've read up a little on pegasus anatomy, as well as the uh... Ahem... Mating habits of them too. There is some controversy around the existence of ‘chest floof,’ on pegasus ponies, and the part it plays in courtship. So, uhm, could you let me see your chest?” Twilight blushed, trying to keep a cool, neutral expression as she carried out her experiment. Rainbow bit her lip, the questions really were a bit personal. She had shown her chest floof to Fluttershy before, since they wanted to compare, but they had been best friends since flight school. Twilight was a pony she liked, really liked. Dash had become a bit self conscious after the comparison with Fluttershy, as it turned out, Fluttershy had quite impressive chest floof. She wasn't very confident in herself at the moment, but she had to show Twilight for her theory. Both mares stood and moved to the side of the table so Twilight could observe. Now standing in front of the Princess, Dash again noticed the height Twi had gained since ascension, she actually had to look up a bit. With a sharp, nervous inhale, the pegasus puffed up her chest, sticking it out to show her chest floof. Twilight immediately brush a hoof through the soft floofed up fur, doing her best to keep a neutral expression. “Huh, seems pretty real to me, I think the controversy is whether or not pegasi use it to attract mates. All ponies have chest floof to a degree, but I think pegasi have more pronounced chest floof. Do you use it for attracting mates?” “Ack!” Rainbow choked on nothing and coughed as the question finished, it really caught her off guard, and now her chest was no longer puffed out as much. “I-I mean, not me personally, I haven't tried! I know other pegasus ponies do it though! Fluttershy! Fluttershy does.” Twilight's magical aura scribbled the quill on the paper as she made a note. Her new experiment was working, although it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep her calm demeanor up. “Interesting, interesting. In bed, do you make a sort of nest out of your bedding?” This time Rainbow had to think, she was so used to sleeping the way she did, she never thought about how she did it. “Actually, yeah, I kinda do, it's more comfortable.” Dash thanked the Royal Sisters that the question wasn't another very personal one. “Your wings, are they... Sensitive? Many books say they're an erogenous zone.” Twilight's voice gained a sultry tone to it that Dash herself couldn't quite place at first. She had gone right back into the intimate questions in hopes of making Rainbow slip-up. “Could you spread your wings for me?” The realization hit the prismatic mare, and she opened her wings almost without a thought, Twilight had to be flirting. ‘Is Twilight…’ Gently, and very carefully, Twilight touched the surface of Rainbow's wings, noting the muscle response at the base of her wings. “Are you okay Rainbow?” Heavy breaths made Dash's chest heave, this was something out of a dream, or a terrible romance novel, not that she had read one. She turned to face Twilight, coming nose to nose just a foot apart from the purple mare. “I…” Her eyes widened, Twilight was very close, looking completely innocent despite what was happening. “I uhhh…-” The alicorn’s violet eyes were locked with Rainbow's own cerise ones. Twilight inched forward ever so slightly, and Dash took it as an invitation to do the same. She took a bigger step, her normally bold nature kicking back in and giving her just enough of a push to do it. Twilight had barely moved when their lips met, she was surprised by the kiss, and yet not surprised at all. Rainbow pressed gently into the kiss, their lips together, a sweet, simple kiss, nothing super erotic or overwhelming. It took a moment, but Twilight began pressing back, the two mares standing in the middle of the tall crystal room with lips locked and eyes shut. Dash enjoyed every second, feeling Twilight's soft lips meeting with her own, the scent of lavender, and the taste of tea on her lips. “Mmm…” Blue wings opened in excitement, and after a few more breathtaking moments, they mutually broke the kiss. Immediately Dash blushed, eyes wide in panic. “I-I didn't... I should have... Uhm... SORRYGOTTAGOBYE!” She shot out of the library, Twilight's mane getting caught in the draft and blowing the same direction. “Rainbow! Wait!” Twilight called after her, but she was already gone. “Well... New hypothesis confirmed.”