//------------------------------// // Probably Proposititioning Props Properly // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// A high pitched whine. Rainbow Dash's eyelids fluttered. A high pitched whine. Rainbow Dash stirred with a trilling sound, her muzzle scrunching up as she rubbed her fuzzy face with twitching forelimbs. A high pitched whine... Rainbow's eyes opened, thin and bloodshot. She groaned inwardly, rolling left and right in her hammock. At last, she slithered out of bed, collapsing like a blue puddle on the floor of the observation room. Sunlight stabbed every orifice she had to give. Hissing, she stood up with a rattle of her pendant and spun towards the stern of the ship. The pitch was coming from the heart of the Jury. Stumbling like a zombified pony, Rainbow lumbered forward, past the crawlspace, through the navigation room, before finally reaching the thick door that lay cracked to engineering. She opened it all the way, instantly whimpering from the intensity of the whine pelting her skull. She clutched her head, heaved, and finally limped forward. "Props...?!" All was static, whining, and noise. "Nnnngh..." Rainbow rubbed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and grunted. "Propsy!?" She looked to her left. Her muzzle bumped into a blond mare's muzzle. "Mmmf—Hiya, Dashie!" Props chirped, breath-to-breath. "Gaaah!" Rainbow jumped back—immediately slamming her head into a hanging steampipe. "Gnnngh—Double Gaah!" "Top of the morning to you!" Props swung, climbed, and leapt her way to the port side where a broad desk of tools lay in the lavender glow of the caged tome that acted as the heart of the Jury's skystone interface. "Hey, you ever wondered if mornings have 'bottoms?' I mean, every pony is only ever talking about their 'tops' so it got me to thinking—" "Guhhh... P-Props..." Rainbow hissed, rubbing both sides of her head in pain now. "Before you go on and on and on about whatever, you mind telling me just what in the hay is up with that whining noise?" "Huh?" Props glanced back, adjusting the goggles over her bangs. "Whining noise? I don't hear no whining noise!" She turned back and resumed tinkering with the frayed bowls of an intricate cluster of radio transistors and wires. "Unless, of course, you're talking about my Super Experimental Long Distance Manacommunication Receiver 3000!" "Your... uhm... Super... Expeedo Lemur...?" Props giggled. "Super Experimental Long Distance Manacommunication Receiver 3000!" The blonde paused long enough to smile over her shoulder at the pegasus. "It's got far less crystal-dependent manaconduits than the Super Experimental Long Distance Manacommunication Receiver 2000! That makes it far more likely to pick up tiny signals from far-far-far-far away! Plus, 2000 is sooooooo yesterday. Heeheehee!" "Look, Pinkie—I mean..." Rainbow went cross-eyed, cleared her throat, and grunted: "Props." She stomped her hoof. "Couldja, like, get rid of the whining noise?" "But that means it's working!" "Well, could you make it not work for a little while?" Rainbow exhaled with a painful shudder. "I feel like a dragon is passing a kidney stone in my brain and is punishing the walls of my skull for it." "But this may be my only chance to catch up with Uncle Prowse!" "What's your only chance?" Props blinked. "Why, the Super Experimental Lon—" "I get it. I get it!" Rainbow grunted. "You don't need to say the whole thing out loud." "I'll work on getting the whining to be a teensy bit quieter!" Props said, eyes sparkling. "I'm so super sorry for hurting your head, Dash-Dash!" "Props, it's..." Rainbow sighed, rubbing her head as she calmed herself with a deep breath. "Look, it's fine. I'm just a bit cranky this morning. I'm the one who'll have to wear off, not the whining noise." She lowered her hoof with a weary smile. "You just keep doing what you're doing. If it's the one way you have of finding your Uncle, then who am I to screw with it?" "Ohhhh! Thank you!" Props giggled breathily. "You think I'd be full of things to do down here in Nancy's womb, but you have nooooooo idea how boring it can get!" She rolled her bright blue eyes and smiled. "At least now I can do two productive things at once!" "How... uhm... do you expect this thing to work?" "You mean with Prowse?" Props winked. "It's an old Sooter tradition. So many of my blood-kin live apart from one another. We keep in contact by sending the Sooter Signal whenever we feel like we need the other's help." "Why would Prowse need help?" Rainbow asked. "I thought he was off looking for that... uh... Z-place." "You can never be too sure. My Uncle is as fantastic as stallions get, but he's only got three legs to stand on and he's getting on with his whiskers." Props sighed, her ears drooping. "I guess the truth is that I need him more than he needs me. Still, if he ever fires the signal off, I'll be ready for it with my Super Experimental—" She winced, fidgeting as she avoided Rainbow's gaze. "Erm... with my gizmo-gadget-thing." Rainbow smirked. "Well, there's no harm in that. Tinker away, girl." "Ohhhhhhhh!" Props plowed into Rainbow, giving her a dear-dear hug as she lovingly nuzzled her soft cheek into Rainbow's quivering neck. "You're such a great captain, my Cap'n! Thanks for understanding!" "Er... yeah..." Rainbow gulped. "Uh... Props? You can let go of me now..." "Heeeeee!" the delirious mare deliriously cuddled her. "Props? For real. Could you..." Rainbow sensed two jagged shadows in the room. She glanced back at her razor-stiff wings and rolled her eyes. "Friggin' Celestia, it's too early for this crap." "Huh...?" Props glanced up, blinking innocently. "Look, Props, lemme level with you... okay?" Rainbow Dash unpeeled the mare's forelimbs as gently as she could. "Cuz this has been a long time coming—er, I mean... climaxing, it—DARN IT!" Props giggle-snorted. "Out with it, Dashie!" "I've been really distant from you and... like... I've barely built up the courage to chat one-on-one, instead letting other members of the crew like Belle and Ebon do it." Rainbow gulped, avoiding the mare's blue-eyed gaze as she brushed one hoof against the other. "And it's totally not fair, because you're so insanely important to the Jury, and if we all wanna work well together then we gotta click, y'know? Like really gell n'stuff. But, you gotta understand, for me? It's... uhm... it's hard to talk to you... to look at you... to even be in the same friggin' room as you." "Why's that?" Props asked, giving her luscious blonde locks a toss as she pivoted to sniff her own immaculate armpits. "Snffff-snfff!" She glanced aside with a moping expression. "Do I smell?" Rainbow exhaled. "Oh yessssssss-No!" Rainbow shook her head, grimacing. "No! You don't! You totally don't! I mean... gnrnnnnnghhhh..." She clutched her skull, shaking. "This is stupid. I'm stupid." "What's so stupid about sharing how you feel, Dashie?" "It's not feels. At least... not the feel that you think." Rainbow glanced up over the edge of her hooves, blushing furiously. "You are really, really, really hot, Props." "Well of course I am!" Props giggled. "I work in this engine room all the time!" "No. I mean... like... you are smoking hot." "Ewwwwww..." Props grimaced. "No way! Ever since Uncle Prowse nearly lost his lungs to the cancer sticks, I swore that habit off completely!" "Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash stamped her hooves and snarled. "Are you totally yanking my chain?" "I see a collar on ya, Dashie!" Props stuck her velvety tongue out. "But no chain! Heehee!" Rainbow Dash was utterly still. "Dash-Dash? You okay?" "Erm..." Rainbow cleared her throat, blushing furiously. "Sorry. My brain needed ten seconds to recover from that last one." "Maybe you're not feeling well. Perhaps you should go back to the hammock." "You know what?" Rainbow approached the far door and opened it to the stairwell. "This whole area is almost sub-arctic. I think I'll go upstairs and... uhh... enjoy the cold, cold air." "Uhhh... because it's too hot in here, r-right?" "Yeah. That's good enough for me." Rainbow banged and banged and banged against the doorframe. At last she stood still, took a deeeeeeeep breath, sucked her wings in, and trotted into the stairwell with no further resistance. "Huh..." Props scratched her head through her mane. "It's almost like I sexually arouse her or something." Silence. "Oh well!" She spun, humming a tune to herself, and once more approached the work desk. "Dum-de-dum—Ooooh! A manasprocket! I've been looking all over for you!" Sliding her goggles over her bright eyes, she licked her lips and shoved her limbs elbow-deep into the mess of wires and wires and more wires. "Heehee! Super Experimental Long Distance Manacommunication Receiver 4000, here I come!"