Unexpected Confessions

by Dianwei32


Test Drive

Unexpected Confessions

Chapter Twenty Nine

        Test Drive

        “Ow!” Rarity cried out as her mane was sharply tugged downward. “Please, Applejack, be careful.”

        “Sorry, Rare.” Applejack grabbed a hair tie and wrapped it around the end of Rarity’s freshly braided mane. “Ya said ya wanted it tight. Ya gotta do a little pullin’ to get it tight.” She leaned back and looked at her handiwork. “Alright. Ah think we’re done. Why’d ya need me to braid yer mane, anywhow?”

        “It’s for my date with Rainbow.” Rarity responded. “We’re going to go flying, and I didn’t want it getting all… messy while we’re in the air.” Her wings rustled against her sides.  She reached up and brushed a small strand of hair that had escaped the braid behind her ear. “The windswept look may work for Rainbow, but it would look positively horrid on me.” She hesitated, unsure if she wanted to broach this subject while her new marefriend’s spurned love interest had hold of her mane. But the issue would have to be addressed sooner or later, and this was a better time than most. "Speaking of Rainbow, I also wanted to talk to you about her, if you don't mind."

Applejack harrumphed irritably. "No need for that. I mean, I'm kinda surprised she settled on both of ya, but I ain't gonna intrude on y'all's thing."

Rarity shook her head, looking down at the floor. "That's not what I meant, though for the record I would fight you tooth and nail for them. I’ve already lost them once, and I won’t let it happen again." She looked up into Applejack's eyes, leaving no question she meant that. "But you won’t, you’re a good and honorable pony.” Her gaze softened from the intensity she displayed a moment ago. “I mean, I want to know if you'll be okay. I'm well acquainted with unrequited love, Rainbow and Fluttershy made the second and third times for me, respectively. It hurts terribly. And... if you need a shoulder to cry on, I'll be here. That's all."

        “Ah ain’t…” Applejack paused, weighing her next words. She knew Rarity wasn’t insinuating that she was poor lovesick filly. She was just offering her support on the off chance that Applejack needed it. “Thanks, sugarcube. Ah’ll keep that in mind.” The earth pony made one last scan along the braid before her, looking for any loose strands of hair. “Well, like Ah said, we’re done. ‘Less ya want me to do yer tail, too.”

        “Thank you, but no.” Rarity stood up and walked over to a mirror. She turned her head to a few different angles to look at her mane. “My tail should be fine. It’s just my mane I was worried about.” After a few more moments of examination, she determined her braid was secure. The last thing she needed was for it to slip loose while she was flying. “Thank you again, Applejack. Now, I must be going. I wouldn’t want to keep my marefriend waiting.” She let out a giddy squeal. The idea of Rainbow being her marefriend still filled her with schoolfillyish excitement.

After she’d gotten back from the library, she’d realized that asking Twilight to perform the transformation spell before she had finished the rest of her preparations for the date might have been the first in a series of mistakes. Her nerves had started to fray part way through preparing their meal without magic, so she tried to do some work on a dress to help calm herself. However, she had dropped many of her sewing implements at least twice in her attempts to add some sequins to it, then struggled to make herself some tea, which upset her more rather than calm her down. She had even managed to get a comb and several braiding needles stuck in her mane in an attempt to get it styled in just the right way; all of which had been due to the fact that she missed her magic. Finally, she had swallowed her pride and gone to Applejack for help, which, as it turned out, was possibly the first thing that had gone right all day. The farmer had even offered to put her chores aside and come back to the Boutique to help finish up any last minute preparations. An offer Rarity had gratefully accepted.

        “Go?” Applejack looked at the other mare curiously. “Ain’t Dash comin’ back here?”

        “Well, she would… but I was rather hoping to surprise her.” Rarity smiled deviously. “I’m going to take everything up to Cloudsdale and be waiting for her when she gets out of her meeting.”

        “Sounds like a mighty fine plan, sugarcube.” Applejack leaned against the back of a couch, crossing her legs. “But Ah can think of one little thing that might just get in the way.”

        “Really?” Rarity arched an eyebrow. “And just what, pray tell, might that be, darling?”

        “Have ya even figured out how to use those things yet?” Applejack asked, nodding toward Rarity’s wings.

        “Somewhat.” Rarity replied. She turned and looked back at the often traitorous appendages. “Thankfully, I’ve been able to use some of what I learned with the butterfly wings I had when we went to Cloudsdale, but these ones are just… different.” She wracked her brain for a way to explain it, but nothing came to her. She blew out an irritated huff. “Ugh. I’m sure Twilight could go on for hours about how and why they’re different, but all I can say is that they are. Still, I’ve mastered hovering.” She spread her wings and leapt into the air. It took her a few wing beats to synchronize her flaps, but true to her word, she hovered a few inches above the floor. After floating for a moment, she landed and carefully folded her wings back at her sides. “I’m somewhat ashamed to admit how long it took me to remember that pegasus wings bend in the middle. I was jumping in place and falling back to the floor for almost an hour before I realized I needed to fold them on the way up.”

        “Well, if’n that’s the case, don’t ya think it’ll be mighty hard to fly all the way up to Cloudsdale?” Applejack glanced over into the kitchen, where a large picnic basket rested on the table. “Ah imagine it might put a damper on y’all’s date if’n ya run yerself ragged just tryin’ to get up there.”

        Rarity crossed her forelegs and pouted for a bit. She looked into the kitchen and saw the basket she had packed dinner for Rainbow and her in. It had taken her several tries to pack it, even with Applejack’s help, because the first two baskets she had tried had proven too small. “I… suppose you’re right.” A sigh escaped her, and her shoulders slumped a little. “I’ll just have to wait for her to get home, then.” She glanced at the clock. It was only two, still a few hours before the earliest Rainbow had said she might be home.

        “Alright. Glad we got that settled.” Applejack said, chuckling. She stood and stretched her legs. “Well, Ah gotta get goin’. Ah still got a couple chores left back at the farm, and Ah need to get a move on if’n Ah wanna finish ‘em before dinner.” The farmer headed over toward the door. “Ya need anythin’ else before Ah go?”

        Rarity took one last look at her mane in the mirror. After reassuring herself that it was still held firmly in place, she turned and gave her friend a grateful smile. “No, but thank you, darling. You’ve been truly invaluable in helping me get everything ready.”

        “Shoot, don’t think nothin’ of it. Ah was glad to help.” Applejack replied. She pulled the door open and gave a quick wave back to her friend. “Well, see ya round, Rare. Good luck with yer date.”

        Rarity trotted over to the doorway. She watched the earth pony start to head down the road. “Goodbye, dear. Thank you, again.” She waited until Applejack turned a corner, then closed the door. Her eyes were drawn inexorably back to the clock. A frustrated groan forced its way out of her throat when she saw that only three minutes had passed since the last time she had looked. She trudged over to her chaise lounge and flopped down in a decidedly unladylike manner.

        She let out another sigh and sank down into the cushions. Up until now, she had never really noticed just how comfortable her chaise lounge was. Her eyes drifted closed. In her constant hustle and bustle of getting things ready for her date with Rainbow, she hadn’t noticed just how tired she was. Twilight’s spell took more out of me than I thought. She forced an eye open and searched for the clock again. This time, only two minutes had passed. I have some time. I can just… rest for a bit while I… wait for Rainbow to get home. She brought a hoof up to her mouth to cover a yawn, and her breathing grew even as she drifted off to sleep.

*

        Rarity awoke to the sound of the bell above her door ringing. Even though she was still half-asleep, the sound stirred her inner shopkeeper. She rolled over to face the door. “Wel… Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and—” A yawn cut her off for a moment. “—magnifique.”

        “Jeez, I wish I could nap on the job.” Dash chuckled and trotted over to where her marefriend was laying down. “Though, with the way the Cloudsdale guys were talking about moisture coefficients and dewpoint derivatives, you’d think they wanted me to.”

        “Oh, darling, it’s you.” Rarity smiled, a few traces of sleep still clouding her mind. She rolled onto her side and stretched her legs out. One last yawn escaped her, and she shook her head to clear the last vestiges of drowsiness. She suddenly remembered her surprise and held up a hoof to keep Rainbow from coming any closer. “Wait! Stop right there!”

        “Uhh…” Dash froze in place, one hoof held a few inches above the ground. She looked down at the floor to make sure that she hadn’t been about to step on anything. However, the tile beneath her raised hoof was bare. “Oh… kay.” Rainbow gently lowered her hoof. She looked back to Rarity. Something was off about her marefriend, but she just couldn’t put her hoof on it. “Is everything okay, Rares?” Her eyes flicked up, and she finally realized what was missing. “And what did you do to your mane?”

        “Everything’s fine, of course.” Rarity replied. She tried to subtly adjust herself to hide her wings. She turned her head to show off her braided mane, trying to keep Rainbow’s attention away from the slight bulges at her sides. “I had my mane braided as part of… a surprise I have for you.”

        “Really? Sweet.” Dash looked around the showroom for anything that hadn’t been there that morning when she’d left for work. “Where is it?” Her eyes wandered over to Rarity’s equinnequins, several of which had partially completed dresses draped across them. “It’s not some dress you want me to wear on the date is it? N-not that that’d be a bad thing! It’s just…”

        “Hard to fly while wearing a dress.” Rarity finished for her. She slid toward the edge of the couch and carefully stepped down. “I understand completely, darling. More than you might think, actually.” She couldn’t help but smirk a bit at her marefriend’s confused expression. She took a deep breath and flared her wings wide. Her eyes were fixed on Rainbow’s face, watching for her reaction.

        However, it took a couple seconds for Dash’s brain to realize just what she was looking at. When the pieces finally did click into place, her jaw dropped. Immediately afterward, her own wings shot up involuntarily. “No.” She took a few steps forward. Her eyes were glued to her marefriend’s new wings. “No. Way.”

        “I take it you like them, then.” Rarity cooed. Her eyes flicked up to Rainbow’s own extended wings. The cyan mare blushed, taking a couples seconds to force her stiff wings back down to her sides. Rarity smiled and tried to fold her wings back to her sides, but received her own dose of embarrassment when her left wing ended up still half-extended and pointing back toward her rump. It took her three more tries to get it resting comfortably against her side. When she finally turned back, her marefriend was snickering into a hoof. “Oh hush, you.”

        “Sorry.” Dash fought off one last bout of giggles. Once they subsided, she trotted a couple circles around the other mare. “But seriously, how in Equestria did you get wings?” She reached out and poked one of them, as if she was half expecting them to be some kind of magical fake.

        “Careful, darling.” Rarity leaned away from the touch, stifling the giggle trying to work its way out of her throat. “That tickles.” She saw her marefried reach out to try and poke her wing again, so she extended her wing to knock Rainbow’s hoof away. At least, she tried to. Her wing missed Dash’s hoof and kept going, ultimately bopping her on the nose.

        “Hey!” Dash rubbed her nose in mock pain. She stuck her tongue out when the alabaster mare rolled her eyes. “But seriously, this is awesome! So, what’s the plan?” Her enthusiastic demeanor cooled a bit. “We’re not going to some fancy restaurant or anything are we? I mean, I’m sure it’d be fun and all but…” She trailed off, her eyes darting off to the side.

        “It isn’t quite your ideal date.” Rarity finished her marefriend’s thought again. She sidestepped closer to Rainbow and lifted a foreleg to pull her in for a hug. After a moment of thought, she put her leg back down. Instead, she unfurled a wing and tried to drape it across Dash’s back. She still wasn’t used the motor skills required for fine manipulation of her wings, however, and she ended up smacking Rainbow on the back before wrapping it around her marefriend’s barrel. “My apologies, dear.” She cleared her throat before continuing. “I know that you aren’t as fond as some of the more… extravagant aspects of dating as I am. So… I didn’t make any reservations anywhere.”

        “Really?” Dash asked. She raised an eyebrow and watched for any sign of deceit from her marefriend. Rarity had never been one for practical jokes, but she also wasn’t one to pass up an opportunity to dress up, even at the occasional expense of her friends. “So, if we’re not going anywhere for dinner… what are we doing?”

        “Well, I was hoping we could go flying, just the two of us.” Rarity replied. She leaned in and nuzzled against Rainbow’s neck, and she had to bite her lip to hold in a squeal of glee when her marefriend nuzzled her back. Pulling back, she gently lifted her wing and carefully folded it back at her side. “As you can see, I haven’t quite gotten the hang of them yet. I was hoping that you could help me break them in, as it were.” She gestured through the open doorway into the kitchen. “I even packed us some dinner for afterward.”

        “Sweet.” Dash practically galloped to the kitchen. She grabbed the basket’s handle in her mouth and brought it back to the main room. After dropping it on the floor, she rubbed her jaw. “Jeez, Rares, what did you pack in here? Your entire dining room?” She reached down and grabbed the lid to peek inside.

        Rarity instinctively reached for her magic to keep the lid shut, only to remember that she no longer had it when the familiar rush of magic flowing through her never arrived. Instead, she hastily lunged forward and brought a hoof down on top of the lid, holding it shut. “I’m sorry, darling, but that’s also a surprise. Though, I promise you’ll enjoy it.” Her mouth twitched up into a slight smirk. “Besides, I’d wager that if you saw some of the things in there, I would have a dreadful time keeping them away from you until it’s time to eat.”

        Dash perked up at that. “Really?” She leaned down and sniffed around the edge of the basket, trying to discern its contents. All she could smell was a trace of fragrance coming off of the basket itself. Letting out an irritated huff, she stood back up. “Fine.” Her earlier excitement returned when her eyes passed over Rarity’s wings again. She leapt into the air and hovered a foot off of the ground. “So, you ready to go? I want to see what you can do with those things.”

        “Of course, darling.” Rarity chuckled at her marefriend’s enthusiasm. She started walking toward the door while Rainbow flew around her in lazy circles. “I have to warn you, though, I’m not terribly… comfortable with these wings yet. They’re very different from the butterfly ones I got from Twilight that one time, and I haven’t quite worked out all of the kinks yet.”

“You had wings in your dreams, right?” Dash asked. She came back to a hover in front of Rarity and dropped down onto the floor. “Aren’t these ones kinda like those?”

“Well, yes… and no. They’re… close, I suppose.” Rarity flapped her wings once, feeling a small sense of pride in her chest when they folded back against her sides correctly on the first try. “I’ve never had the real thing, you see. So, I had no real idea what they should feel like, and you—” She paused, shaking her head. “Sorry, not you, I mean her... She could never explain what it felt like to really have them.” Rarity unfolded a wing and slowly moved it through a flapping motion. She tried to identify and pinpoint every muscle that moved and controlled it. “Come to think of it, that’s likely the reason why. She... was me. Or a part of me, as it were. If I didn’t know something, neither did she… a fact that she had to point out to me on several occasions now that I think about it.”

        “Huh?” Dash scratched her head. She’d lost track of what Rarity was talking about when she’d extended her wing again. Seeing her marefriend with wings had been exciting and beyond awesome initially, but now that the initial shock of seeing them had worn off a bit, she couldn’t help but notice how… hot Rarity looked with them. She’d always known that Rarity looked good, but somehow, as a pegasus, she was even better. She looked up at Rarity’s face, about to comment on how good she looked. She stopped with her mouth half open, shocked at what she saw. “Rares! Your horn’s gone!”

        “...Yes. It’s part of the spell.” Rarity raised a hoof and touched the spot her horn used to be before running it down her mane. “Apparently, a pony’s body can’t really support more than one type of magic, so it was pegasus or unicorn, not both.” She smiled, sadly. “I have been missing my magic. But it will be worth it to join you in the air, love.” She belatedly caught herself. “Oh, I’m sorry, Rainbow. I know that you’re not quite comfortable with me calling you that yet.”

        “No, it’s okay. I actually kinda like it.” Dash replied. She waved away her marefriend’s apology, then plowed ahead before Rarity could realize she was dangerously close to being sappy. “But... I mean, you traded your horn away just so you could go flying with me?”

        “Oh! Um... well, yes, but not permanently, mind you. It will wear off after a few days, or I can ask Twilight to reverse it early. But... yes. I did.” Rarity smiled playfully. She carefully extended a wing and bumped Rainbow on the shoulder. “Besides, it’s not just flying. It’s something you love and something that is a part of who you are. I’m honored to be able to share in that.” Her smile ticked up into a smirk when her marefriend blushed. She looked down at her wings, admiring them. “They are lovely, but I... I couldn’t work without my magic. So, I’m afraid I can’t just be this all the time.”

        “No no, I get it. I really like them, but I wouldn’t ask you to do that, I mean, I don’t think I could ever give up my wings…” Rainbow’s heart beat faster just thinking about not being able to fly. The walls and ceiling of the Boutique suddenly felt a little too close for comfort. Memories of the hedge maze in Canterlot came back with uncomfortable clarity. It was all she could do not to take flight that very moment, just to make sure that she could. She glanced to the side, reassuring herself that they were still there, and smiled.

        “Nor would I ask that of you, love.” Rarity tittered into a hoof. Her eyes drifted down to the other mare’s wings, and she saw them rustle a bit. “I find them a very attractive feature.”

        “Yours are nice too...” Rainbow trailed off, blushing. Her eyes fell on Rarity’s wings again, as if there was some magnetic force constantly drawing them there. She tore her eyes away from them, choosing instead to stare out the window. “Sorry, I keep staring. Uh... we should go do that thing.”

        “That thing?” Rarity repeated suggestively. “I do hope you’re talking about the picnic I’ve packed for us, darling. It would be such a pity to let it go to waste.” She watched Rainbow for a few seconds. She kept waiting for the other mare to turn back, but she never did.

        “Yeah, that thing. Let’s do that.” Dash kept her gaze fixed out the window. She knew it was weird for her to just stare out the window while talking to Rarity, but she didn’t want to risk staring at her marefriend’s wings again. She turned away from the window and forced herself to meet Rarity’s eyes. “So, you ready to go?”

        “Well, I suppose we could, but I assumed you would want to fly first and work up an appetite.” Rarity answered. She raised a quizzical eyebrow at her marefriend. “Is everything alright, love?”

        “Yeah, yeah. It’s just…” Dash let out a sigh. “I can’t stop staring at your wings.” Her eyes flicked down for an instant before she forced them back up.

        “Is that all?” Rarity smiled reassuringly. “I really don’t mind, darling. It’s okay.” She was about to spread her wings again when a thought occurred to her. “Unless… it’s not inappropriate, is it?”

“No, well…” Dash thought for a moment, weighing her words. “It’s just not cool, you know? It’s like one of those fox paws you talk about sometimes. You just don’t do it.”

        “Ah, a faux pas.” Rarity chewed on her lip for a moment. “Hmm… Well, is it considered acceptable between lovers?” She stepped closer to Rainbow and nuzzled along her neck, bringing her lips close enough to the blue ear to make Rainbow shiver. "Because, if so, I fully intend to get my fill of those beauties. And I don't intend to stop at merely looking."

        Dash’s wings shot up, and she was frozen in place with her mouth hanging open. “I, uh…” She closed her mouth, swallowed, and tried again even though her mind was still processing the latter half of what Rarity had just said. “I… I think so.”

        “Oh, I’m sorry, love.” Rarity pulled back. “I was only teasing. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” She laid a hoof on her marefriend’s withers. “It’s just…” She let her hoof slide a little lower, until it traced idle circles on Dash’s torso. “I think it’s no secret that I find you rather attractive. And I have been fantasizing about a mare so very like you for some time.” Her hoof meandered down Rainbow’s side, skirting around her cutie mark. “You’ll forgive me if I’m a little… eager, won’t you?” She batted her eyelashes playfully.

        “I… uh…” Dash sputtered uselessly, her wings still standing up at full attention. She was thrown completely off guard by this new side of Rarity, and somehow, she didn’t mind. “N-no… I get it. It’s, uh…” A shiver raced up her spine as Rarity’s hoof brushed the edge of her cutie mark. She cleared her throat to try and cover it. “It’s cool.”

        Rarity finally seemed to notice where her hoof had wandered off to and pulled it back. “Oh dear, there I go, doing it again. I’m sorry, love, but do you think you could stop being so irresistibly attractive for a little bit?” She gazed at Rainbow with half-lidded eyes. “It’s very distracting.” She giggled coquettishly as Dash’s cheeks turned bright red. “Now, we’d better get going before I drag you up to my bedroom and do something unspeakable to you.”

She turned toward the front door and flicked her tail to the side in agitation. She regarded it with contempt after the ordeal that it had taken to open Twilight’s bedroom door. “You know, I never anticipated that the most difficult thing about not having magic would be opening a simple door.”

        “Oh!” Dash finally broke out of her stupor. She scrambled over to the door, nearly tripping over her own hooves as she started moving. Once she finally reached the door, she pressed down on the latch and pulled it open. “Um… after you?”

        Rarity stared in surprise, a languid grin once again spreading across her face after a moment. “Ah, such a gentlemare! Thank you, love.” She trotted out the door, then waited for her marefriend to follow suit and close the door behind them. She spotted a couple of ponies walking down the street away from them. Glancing around for any more of Ponyville’s citizens milling about, she stepped a little closer to Rainbow. “Darling, would you mind terribly if we went somewhere… out of town to fly?” Her wings rustled nervously at her sides, but she quickly clamped them back down. “As much as I adore my new wings, I’d rather not spend the next month explaining them to everypony.”

        “Uh, yeah, sure.” Dash replied. She looked around for a bit, trying to decide where they should go. She smirked when she figured out not only where they should go, but a way to turn the tables on Rarity. She took a few steps backward, careful to be as quiet as possible. Once she was far enough away, she gathered herself to break into a gallop quickly. Her smirk widened while she watched her marefriend continue to look up and down the street, oblivious to her plan. “I know just the place. Hold on tight.”

        Rainbow’s words caused Rarity to pause and examine them. “Hold on tight? Hold onto wha-aaaaaah!” The end of her question trailed off into a terrified scream as she was suddenly vaulted into the air. Rarity spent several panicked seconds watching the ground race by and recede away below her while her wings opened and closed in pitiful half-flaps. It wasn’t until a familiar chuckle reached her ears over the rush of the wind that she realized she was being carried through the air. Her head whipped around, and she leveled a glare at her marefriend. “That was not funny, Rainbow Dash.”

        “Sure it was.” Dash flashed one of her trademark cocky grins. “Besides, haven’t you always said that you wanted to be swept off your hooves by your Prince Charming? I’m way better than some lame prince, anyway.”

        “Well, yes.” Rarity adjusted herself a bit in Rainbow’s forelegs, trying to get a little more comfortable while they flew. “But I always assumed that it would be a little gentler, and perhaps not quite so literal.” She wrapped a foreleg around Rainbow’s withers. She took advantage of her prime positioning to lean up and kiss Rainbow on the cheek. “Still, I do appreciate your commitment to the gesture. Where are we headed?”

        “Just one of my practice fields.” Dash gave another grin, but kept her eyes darting around for potential obstacles. She banked to the side to avoid a low-hanging cloud. “Nowhere special, but it’s out of the way so no one should see us.” She spared a glance down to find Rarity staring intently at her wings. She locked them out and angled them so that they started to glide down to the ground. Knowing that Rarity was staring at her wings was flattering, but also a little weird.

        Rarity finally noticed her marefriend’s discomfort after a couple seconds. “Is everything alright, love?” She blinked and belatedly realized what she’d been doing a few moments ago. “I was doing it again, wasn’t I? I’m sorry, darling, I’m just trying to figure out how you do it.” She sighed and laid her head against Rainbow’s shoulder. “The butterfly wings were so much easier, but I really wanted to experience the real thing at least once. She...that is, the dream I had of you, was so very proud of hers. An extension of my envy of you, I suppose.” She sighed and nuzzled into Rainbow’s neck for a moment. “And now, here I have them and I might as well be an earth pony for all the good they do me.”

        Dash chuckled to herself and started backpedaling her wings to soften their landing. ”Don’t be so hard on yourself, Rares.” She landed on her hind legs and balanced on them long enough to let Rarity down. Once her marefriend was safely on the ground, she leapt back into the air. “It’ll probably just take you a little time to get used to them.” She started flying lazy circles around Rarity. She tried to slow down her flaps without making them so slow that she just fell to the ground. “Heck, if Twilight gave me a horn, I doubt that I’d be able to do anything with it.”

“You’d make a fabulous looking unicorn, darling!” Rarity exclaimed, imagining it. “Though I must admit, I am rather selfish in wanting you to remain a pegasus. I find wings to be so very attractive,” She ran her eyes over Dash’s wingspan. “Fluttershy’s are just as graceful as she is, but yours... Speed, maneuverability, strength. You have the complete package.”

        “Uh… thanks.” Dash tried to keep her flying slow and steady so that Rarity could watch her fly, but it was getting increasingly difficult. She wanted to feel the wind whipping through her mane and pulling at her wings, to feel that rush of adrenaline as the world raced by in a blur. But she knew that watching her zip around at full speed wouldn’t help Rarity learn anything.

        Rainbow spared a glance down at her marefriend, only to find Rarity watching her own wings as they slowly moved through a few flapping motions. Dash pulled into a hover to watch. After a couple more practice flaps, Rarity gathered herself and jumped into the air. She beat her wings as hard as she could and managed to climb a few inches, but then one of her wings twisted and she fell to the ground, landing hard on her rump. Dash bit her tongue to stifle a giggle while Rarity got up and dusted herself off. She leapt into the air again, only to meet with the same result. This time, Dash couldn’t keep quiet and let out a snicker.

        Rarity looked up at her marefriend, then let her head fall. “I’m sorry, love.”

        “I’m sor— wait... you’re sorry? What for?” Dash landed and sat next to Rarity, wrapping a wing around her.

        “I just wanted all of this to be perfect. I wanted it to be something special.” Rarity kept her eyes downcast as she spoke, but leaned against her marefriend. “Ever since I had the idea, I’ve wanted it to be something wonderful that we could share… but now it’s here and I can’t even manage to get off of the ground.” She took a deep breath to stave off a sob, but it came out as a whimper none the less. “I’m sorry again, love. I just… I don’t understand why I can’t do it. I could at least hover back at home.”

        “Hey, don’t feel bad. It is your first time, after all.”

        Had Pinkie been present, she would have said that Dash’s comment had literally turned Rarity’s frown upside down. Rarity batted her eyelashes seductively. “Ohh my, Rainbow Dash, did you find your bravado again?” She purred softly, indulging in a brief nuzzle that made it very hard for Dash to keep her wing wrapped around Rarity’s back.

        “I, uh... ahem... yeah. I guess.” Dash coughed into a hoof to try and cover the blush rising in her cheeks. She grasped for a change in topic, hoping to avoid losing any more ground in their war of words. “A-Anyway, you’re probably having trouble hovering because of the air currents. I bet there wasn’t any wind when you did it inside.”

        Rarity’s sly grin slowly disappeared, and she cast a disparaging look back at her wings. “I don’t see why it would make a difference. There’s barely any wind out here, either.”

        “Yeah, but there is wind.” Dash gestured to the grass in front of them, which was swaying a bit in the light breeze. “It doesn’t feel like much, but feathers are really sensitive to even tiny air currents. Here, do this.” She pulled her wing off of Rarity’s back and held it out straight in front of herself. Her marefriend raised a skeptical eyebrow, but followed suit. “Now, close your eyes.”

        “I’m sorry, love, but I simply don’t see wha—” Rarity’s word froze in her throat. With her eyes closed, she could feel the wind running over each individual feather, pulling some of them up and others down. What had felt like an insignificant breeze a moment ago was now a sustained wind, and she had to work to keep her wing level. She opened her eyes and looked at Rainbow. “But, I don’t understand…” She stared at her wing intently, watching the minute movements of her feathers as the wind ran over her wing. “Why does it feel so much lighter now?”

        “I don’t know.” Dash shrugged. “Our teachers always said it was something that your brain does. Something about feeling it across your whole body versus focusing on your wing.” She folded her wing back at her side and shrugged again. “I never really understood it either. You just need to focus on keeping your wings steady, even if it doesn’t feel like there’s a lotta wind.”

        “Hmm…” Rarity closed her eyes again and focused on the way the wind played across her wing, trying to find some pattern to it. Keeping her eyes closed, she stood up and extended her other wing. She moved them through a few flaps. The wind tried to twist her wings as she moved them, but she forced them to stay level. She slowly increased the speed and power of her flaps, and she miraculously felt herself slowly rising into the air. However, now that her hooves were no longer on the ground, the wind slowly seemed to pick up, making it harder and harder for her to keep level.

        “Uh… Rarity?” Dash’s voice tried to break through her concentration, but she kept her focus. She poured more power into her flaps, whipping her wings up and down as quickly as she could. “Rares, you might not wanna go that high.”

        Rainbow’s words finally registered with Rarity. “High?” She cracked an eye open to see her marefriend looking up at her from the ground, which was a shocking distance away. Her eyes shot open, and she looked around frantically for something to grab onto or land on to soften her inevitable fall. “I-I don’t… H-how did… Ah!” With her focus elsewhere, the wind finally twisted one of her wings, throwing her off balance. She tumbled through the air, watching the earth and sky swap places over and over. She closed her eyes and braced for her upcoming reunion with the ground.

        That unfortunate meeting never happened, however. She instead landed in a pair of familiar hooves that slowed her fall and brought her gently back to the ground. She opened one eye and looked up to see Rainbow grinning down at her. “That’s two. If I have to keep saving you, I might have to start charging for it.”

“Three, actually. Or... two and a half, I suppose, since Fluttershy was on the other end.” Rarity quipped, albeit a bit breathlessly for her near miss. She laid her head against Rainbow’s shoulder and tried to will her racing heart to slow down. “I’ll give you full credit on general principles at the moment, however.” She leaned up and kissed her marefriend on the cheek. “Thank you immensely, love.”

        “Uhh…” Dash’s mind was elsewhere at the moment. Rarity’s mention of Fluttershy ‘on the other end’ had sent some racy images through her mind after all of the flirting that had been going on between them, and she was having some trouble dislodging them. She gave her head a quick shake, then glanced down to check how far away the ground was. “Don’t mention it. It was a piece of cake.”

        “Regardless, I greatly appreciate it.” Rarity dared to peek down at the ground, and she was relieved to see that it was only a few feet away this time. She climbed down from her marefriend’s forelegs and took a moment to simply appreciate the grass under her hooves. Once her heart rate had dropped back to a normal level, she smiled at Rainbow. “So, other than nearly falling to my death, how did I do?”

        Dash chuckled and waved a hoof dismissively. “Ah, you’d have been fine. But still, you did awesome… until the falling part, anyway.” She scooted over next to Rarity and wrapped  a wing around her back. “But hey, everypony falls at some point. Even I did.” She gave her marefriend a squeeze and pulled her wing back. “Now, if you’re gonna wanna fly instead of just hover, you’ve gotta learn some things. Here, look at my wing.” She stuck her wing out between them.

        “Are you sure?” Rarity asked. She avoided looking at the proffered wing for a moment, locking eyes with her marefriend instead. “I know that you said it was a faux pax, and I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

        “Yeah, but this is different. This is me teaching you something. And besides…” Dash looked away for a moment, her wing folding up a little bit. “The other kind is… okay, too. It’s just… a way of showing interest. Like that you like me like me.” She looked back, smiling. “But, since we’re together now, it’s cool.” She cleared her throat and plowed ahead before her marefriend could take advantage of her momentary sappiness. “Now, you see how the top of my wing has a little curve to it?”

        Rarity leaned in closer and studied Rainbow’s wing with a critical eye. It took her a moment to see what Rainbow was talking about. “Ah, yes. There is it, but why is that important?”

        “I’m getting to that.” Dash replied. She flicked her wing forward a bit and bopped Rarity on the nose, earning her a bemused glare. She stuck her tongue out for a second before continuing. “Okay, now look at the bottom.”

        “Very well…” Rarity lowered herself onto her stomach to afford herself an easier look. However, after several long moments of searching, she couldn’t see anything that she could deem important. “I’m sorry, darling, but I simply don’t see whatever it is you want me to see.”

        “What about the curve from the top?” Dash asked.

        “No.” Rarity scanned along the bottom of her marefriend’s wing. “It looks level.”

        “Exactly.” Dash pulled her wing back to her side. “That little bit of curve causes the air that goes above the wing to go a little bit faster than the air underneath, and that generates lift to help keep you in the air while you’re flying. Now, flying flaps are a little different than hovering flaps. You’ll need to…”

*

        “...and you’ll be flying in no time.”

        Rarity could only stare at her marefriend, her mouth agape. Despite her consistent dismissive attitude of all things academic, Rainbow had just spent the last twenty minutes giving a full Twilight-style lecture on the methods and mechanics of pegasus flight. While some of the more technical points had escaped her, Rarity felt that she had a much firmer grasp on how to use her wings.

        “Darling, I…” She desperately wanted to ask her marefriend a series of questions, but she was having trouble constructing a coherent thought. While she’d known that Rainbow was far from unintelligent, Rarity had never expected her to have encyclopedic knowledge of a subject. After a few more sputtering attempts at speech, she finally managed to produce a word. “How?”

        “Uh… I thought I just went over that.” Dash cocked her head to the side in confusion. “Do you need me to go over part of it again?”

        “No, no. You were incredibly… thorough.” Rarity closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with a hoof. She was having a difficult time reconciling the mare that had been instructing her a few minutes earlier with everything she knew about Rainbow. And truthfully, it only made her love Rainbow more. “I just… had no idea that you knew so much about flying. It all seems to come so naturally to you. I never imagined you would be such a good teacher.”

        “Yeah, well, I’m not… not really, anyway. I tried teaching this stuff to ‘Shy every day after school in all kinds of different ways.” Dash’s mouth twitched up into a hint of a smile. “We used to joke that she was really an earth pony trapped in the wrong body.” Her face fell, and her shoulders slumped. “But no matter how hard I tried or how much we practiced, she never got any better.”

        “You think that…” Rarity tittered into a hoof, drawing an annoyed glance from her marefriend. “My goodness, you’ve never noticed, have you?”

        “Noticed what?” Dash asked. She took a breath to try and clear the frustrated edge from her voice.

        “Fluttershy…” Rarity paused, searching for the right words. “She tries harder for you, love. She has no care for flying quickly. Our darling Fluttershy is never in a hurry to get anywhere, but for you…” She wrapped a wing around Rainbow and pulled her close. “She’s the only reason we were able to catch you when you were under Discord’s influence. She ran herself ragged pulling that cart when we had to catch up to Applejack. And she flew the fastest I’ve ever seen her fly when she was helping you save little Spikey and myself after his little… episode. Why, I daresay that if you ever needed saving, the sky would be filled with an explosion of pink!” She brought up Rainbow’s chin with a hoof to look into her eyes. “She loves you, darling. I suspect that if she never seemed to improve, it’s only because she wanted to continue to spend that time with you, but she didn’t know how to say it.”

        “You think so?”

        “I know so, love.” Rarity used her hoof to pull Rainbow into a gentle kiss. When they broke apart, she pulled her wing back to her side and stood up. “Now, let’s do some flying, shall we?” She flapped her wings a few times to work out a bit of stiffness. “I would like to use these things properly before they disappear.”

        “Alright, then.” Dash stood up as well. Her mouth turned up into a playful grin. “Try and catch me!” She bolted up into the sky with a few powerful flaps of her wings, slowing to a hover quite a ways up. “Come on!”

        Rarity rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to avoid nearly falling to my death again, love.” She watched her marefriend stick out her tongue and begin to fly on her own, then brought her attention back to the ground. She ran through everything that Rainbow had just taught her again. Once she was reasonably sure that she hadn’t forgotten anything, she started running. Physical exertion was never her cup of tea, but she was more than willing to make an exception in this case. She reached a full gallop and started flapping her wings. When she felt each hoof hit the ground a little lighter than the last, she pushed off as hard as she could and leapt into the air. She kept her hooves moving, fully expecting to land again a few moments later.

        “Whoa!” She glanced to the side and saw Dash flying next to her, albeit on her back and with her forelegs behind her head. Rainbow smiled broadly and cheered her on. “You’re doin’ awesome, Rares! Come on, flap just a little harder and let’s see if you can climb.”

        Rarity risked a peek down while she carefully lifted her forelegs out in front of her. Sure enough, the ground stayed a respectful distance away. She sped up her wing beats and pulled ahead of her marefriend, feeling the rush of the wind in her face and the elation of no longer being tethered to the earth. Climbing higher, she pushed herself as hard as she could go. Rainbow caught up with her again grinning from ear to ear.

        “Be careful!” Dash had to yell to be heard over the roar of the wind. “You don’t wanna overdo it on your first flight!” Rarity wanted to laugh at her marefriend’s words. She’d never felt so alive. She felt like she could take on anything, like she could fly to the moon and back, like… like her lungs were on fire.

        All at once the physical tolls of her maiden flight hit her like a kick to the chest. Her lungs burned, her flight muscles screamed in protest, and the wind tore at her eyes, making it difficult to keep them open. She squeezed them shut and wracked her brain for any of the lessons that Dash had just conveyed to her, and clung desperately to one thing: keep the wings level. She locked her wings out and settled into a nice glide, giving her muscles a chance to rest. For a time, she simply glanced down in amazement. She was flying, really flying! No fragile wings that would burn away in the sun, not a dream.

Feeling daring, she tilted the left wing very slightly, banking around. In a rush she found herself climbing higher, and recognized that this was a thermal. As she calmed down, more and more of Dash's lecture came back. She circled the thermal, using it to gain altitude without hurting her poor fledgling muscles.

        “Look at you!” Dash pulled into the other side of the thermal and circled opposite of Rarity. She beamed at her marefriend, who flashed her a hesitant smile back. “Alright, let’s see what you can do with those things.” She banked out of the thermal and came to a hover. “Catch me if you can!” She took off without another word, sparing a quick glance back.

        Rarity carefully banked out of the thermal and started flapping her wings again. She turned and followed after her marefriend. She pumped her wings harder to try and catch up to Rainbow, but slowed down a few moments later. Pace yourself, Rarity. Two rescues in one day would hardly do. Ahead of her, Rainbow looked back to make sure she was keeping up. After a few checks, Rarity noticed a pattern. One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Look. Rarity grinned to herself. She waited for the next time that Rainbow looked back at her, then sped up as soon as she turned forward again. The distance between her and Rainbow closed, but it felt too slow. She slowed back to her previous speed before her marefriend turned around again, hoping that Rainbow wouldn’t notice she had gotten closer. The next check on her position came and went, and she pushed as hard as she could when Dash looked forward again. She pulled up a little bit and flew above Rainbow, waiting for her chance.

        The next time Dash looked back, Rarity was gone. She backpedaled her wings, whipping her head around in confusion. “Rares?” Looking down, she couldn’t see Rarity falling. Having checked every other direction, she looked up just in time to see Rarity diving at her. “What the—” The rest of her sentence was lost in a rush of air forced from her lungs as Rarity tackled her. She instinctively wrapped her forelegs around her marefriend, pulling her wings in and letting Rarity control the fall. A few tense moments passed before they crashed into a cloud.

        Rarity let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Looking back on it, tackling Rainbow out of the air may well have been the most foolish idea she’s had all day. Still, it had worked. She indulged herself in a proud grin, looking down at her disheveled marefriend.

        Rainbow shook her head, dislodging bits of cloud from her mane and spitting a few lingering wisps out of her mouth. When she opened her eyes and looked up, she saw Rarity smiling down at her and looking rather pleased with herself. “Yeah, alright. You caught me.” Rainbow crossed her forelegs behind her head. “Best two out of three?”

        “Oh, no no no, darling. I went to all that trouble to catch you, and now…” Rarity leaned down and nuzzled along Dash’s neck. She trailed kisses up along Rainbow’s neck, mixing in a nip that drew a satisfying gasp from her marefriend, until she reached Dash’s ear. “Now, I’ve got you right where I want you.”

        “Y-you do, huh?” Dash asked. It was getting harder to focus the longer Rarity worked on her neck, but she had one last trick under her wing. She slowly hooked her hind leg around Rarity’s. One quick tug to throw her off-ahh! Her train of thought was interrupted by a wing tip dancing along her ribs, and she had to bite her lip to keep from gasping out in a very uncool fashion. Tug and roll, Dash. One… Two… Just before she could pull her marefriend off balance and roll to the side to flip their positions, Rarity shifted her weight back, pinning the leg that Rainbow had hooked around her own.

        “Ah ah ah.” Rarity cooed. “Don’t be a spoilsport now. I caught you fair and square.” She trailed a languid lick along Rainbow’s collarbone, delighting in the sharp intake of breath it caused. “And now, I’m going to claim my prize.” She dragged a feather down her marefriend’s side and circled it around her cutie mark. Dash tried to arch her back beneath her, but pressed down with her own weight and kept the other mare pinned to the cloud. “Now, where do you think—”

        Rarity’s question was cut off by a loud growl that vibrated against her chest. Rainbow’s stomach was growing in protest. Rarity pouted, looking into the eyes of her intended prey. “Oh, fine! We’ll have dinner first. But you—” she bopped Rainbow on the nose. “—owe me dessert, Rainbow.” She regretfully rolled off of her marefriend, laying down on the cloud beside her.

        Dash just looked up at the sky, more than a little rattled. Her stomach growled again, but she ignored it. She’d never been in this position before. She was always the dominant one, the one in control. Being on the receiving end was weird.

        Weird, but insanely hot.

        Her stomach growled yet again, louder than before. She sat up quickly, trying to cover her lapse in attention. “Uh, yeah. Food. Where’d you put the basket?”

        “Me?” Rarity raised herself up on her elbows and looked at her marefriend. “I thought you had it.”

        “How could I have had it?” Rainbow asked. She poked Rarity in the stomach playfully. “I was too busy carrying you.” She stood up and stretched her legs out. “Eh, no worries, though. I’ll just run back and grab it.” She leaned down and gave her marefriend a quick kiss. “Be back in, like, a minute, tops.”

        “Very well, love.” Rarity rolled over onto her stomach. She laid her head on the cloud and let her wings unfurl lazily at her sides. “I suppose I shall simply have to wait here, then.” She glanced over her shoulder and flashed a predatory grin. “Do hurry back, though. I’m ever so hungry.” She flicked her tail so that the tip brushed across Rainbow’s nose.

        Dash couldn’t help but stare at Rarity’s splayed wings, and it took her a few moments to remember why she had been about to leave. Food. Right. She trotted to the edge of the cloud. “Be right back.” She leapt from the cloud and pumped her wings as hard as she could, tearing through the sky at breakneck speed.

        Rarity settled down, trying not to think about the delectable position that she’d had her marefriend in before being so rudely interrupted. She buried her face in the cloud. For the first time, she noticed just how soft it was. Oh my. This would be positively divine to sleep on. She flexed her wings, and a shiver raced down her spine as she felt cold wisps run over each of her feathers. I wonder if it would be possible to make a bed out of clouds for a non-pegasus. I’ll have to ask Twilight when I get the chance. She rolled over onto her back again and nestled further down into the cloud. She closed her eyes and pictured Fluttershy, Rainbow, and herself cuddled together on her bed. Though, I may need to see about getting it slightly larger. Do they make anything bigger than Alicorn?

        Never one to leave well enough alone, her imagination began to stray. Behind her eyelids, she saw her marefriends begin to do more than cuddle. She watched Fluttershy and Rainbow kiss passionately, their tongues dancing and battling for dominance. It was a battle the former seemed destined to lose, however, until Rarity herself joined in. The alabaster mare got to enjoy the strange experience of watching an imaginary version of herself slowly teasing open one of Rainbow’s wings and running her tongue along the leading edge. Together, she and Fluttershy worked feverishly to subdue Rainbow until she—

        “I’m back!”

        Dash’s voice shattered Rarity’s fantasy. The scene unfolding before her immediately faded into black. She bolted upright, praying to Celestia that her marefriend hadn’t seen or heard anything untoward. Her wings were still flared wide, and it took her a moment of struggling to fold them back at her sides. “D-darling. I didn’t see you th—” She faltered when she saw Rainbow rise over the edge of the cloud carrying something other than the picnic basket. “What do you have there, love?”

        “Oh, this? It’s nothing much.” Dash let the bundle in her foreleg unfurl, revealing a dark blue blanket with a large Wonderbolts logo emblazoned on it. She tossed the blanket onto the cloud. “I had to swing by my place to get it, but I figured it would help since… you know.” She lowered the basket onto the edge of the cloud, where it simply passed through the fluffy surface.

        “Ah. Excellent idea, love.” Rarity grabbed an edge of the blanket and began spreading it out. “I would have hated for such a meal to have gone to waste.”

        “Say, what’d you pack in here, anyway?” Dash used a hind leg to help spread the blanket out, then set down the basket once a large enough space had been cleared. It sank a couple of inches into the cloud, but held firm afterward. “This thing weighs a ton.”

        “I know, darling, but I assure you that every single item was absolutely necessary.” Rarity grabbed the basket and dragged it closer to herself. She lifted the lid and peeked inside. “Especially this.” She threw the lid open and reached in with both hooves. After a few moments of struggling, she pulled out a small barrel.

        “Is… is that…” Dash’s eyes grew wide and her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth.

        “Indeed it is, love.” Rarity giggled into a hoof. She held the barrel up, presenting it to her marefriend. “A barrel of Apple Family Special Reserve. It took no small amount of convincing to get Applejack to let me have it.” She handed the barrel over to Rainbow and dug through the basket for a few seconds before pulling out a pair of mugs. “Shall we?”

        Dash practically tore a mug from Rarity’s hoof. She eagerly opened the tap and poured herself a glass. Once it was full, she took a deep drink. “Mmm… Okay, seriously Rares, you are the best marefriend ever.” She took another drink, then refilled her mug.

        “I’m glad you feel that way, darling.” Rarity rummaged around in the basket and pulled out a pair of plates. One last trip into the basket resulted in a covered tray. She pulled the lid off to reveal two oatburgers and a stack of hay fries. “I hope you’re as enthusiastic about the main course.”

        “Sweet!” Dash lunged forward and grabbed a few hay fries. She popped them in her mouth and happily munched away. After a few seconds, her chewing slowed. “Kinda cold.” She mumbled around a mouthful of half chewed food.

        “Yes, well, I did what I could.” Rarity picked up a fry and bit off a small piece, quickly chewing and swallowing the cold hay.

        Rainbow flashed her a guilty smile. “Um, sorry, didn’t mean to complain. Just hold on a second.” She grabbed a tuft of cloud from the outer edge of their little platform, scowling at it as she shaped it. The cloud turned a dark and ominous shade of black, and little lightning bolts arced around the outside. She put the tiny storm cloud on the blanket, then set the tray of burgers and hay fries on top of it. “Give that about a minute or two while the lightning does it’s thing.”

        Rarity looked down at the plate of food, then back up at her marefriend. “Why, Rainbow, that’s simply ingenious. Wherever did you learn to do that?” Another rumble broke into their conversation, but it came from Rarity’s stomach this time. She chuckled sheepishly. “Pardon me. It seems I worked up a bit of an appetite during our little flying session.” She grabbed a couple fries—which were already a good deal warmer—and ate them.

        “Yeah. Flying’ll do that.” Dash laid on her back, crossing her forelegs behind her head. “When I started doing a lot of serious flying, I ate pretty much all the time. One time I even made a joke that I felt like I was eating for two. My mom flipped out, thinking that I’d gone and gotten pregnant.” She heard a muffled mixture of laughing and coughing, and she sat up to see Rarity trying not to choke on a mouthful of hay fries, a few stragglers still sticking out from between her lips. “Hey! Save me some!”

        Rarity hastily chewed and swallowed. “I’m sorry, love. It’s just that I missed lunch thanks to my little nap this afternoon, and between that and flying…” She paused to take a quick drink from her own mug of cider. “I’m simply ravenous.” The last word had barely left her mouth before she grabbed another bunch of hay fries and popped them in.

        Dash lifted the edge of the tray and peeked under. “Looks like they’re done anyway.” She dropped the tray again and dove into the food. There was barely enough room between bites for breathing, much less talking, so they ate in silence. The pile of hay fries quickly dwindled before disappearing entirely, followed in short order by the oatburgers. After a few frantic minutes of eating, there wasn’t a speck of food left on the tray. They put it away and settled down to enjoy the last few mugs of cider from the barrel.

        Rarity leaned against Dash’s side, and the latter draped a wing over the former’s back. “That was great, Rares. Thanks.” Dash gave her marefriend a quick squeeze with her wing.

        “You’re quite welcome, darling.” Rarity replied. She darted in for a quick kiss on Rainbow’s cheek, then settled back down and laid her head along her marefriend’s neck.

         “So, uhh... what do we do now?” Dash asked. She lifted her mug and drained the last bit of cider she had left, then tossed it into the open top of the picnic basket.

        “I was thinking of cuddling a little with my marefriend.” Rarity replied, sighing in contentment.

        Rainbow looked down at her, uncomprehendingly. “Your maref—” Realization dawned. “Oh... right.”

        Rarity looked up at Dash fondly. “You’re adorable.”

        They lay together for some time, watching the clouds go by. The sun inched ever closer to the horizon, setting the sky ablaze with streaks of red and orange. When it started to cross the tree line along the horizon, Rarity stirred, making Rainbow look askance at her. “What’s up?”

        “Oh, nothing.” Rarity wiggled enough that Rainbow pulled her wing back. She gathered her legs under her and grinned at her marefriend. “It’s just time for dessert.” She purred just before pouncing.