//------------------------------// // Day 5 // Story: The Clock Is Ticking // by PresentPerfect //------------------------------// The Clock Is Ticking by Present Perfect Day 5 Rainbow Blitz was on his guard the next day. There were still clouds that needed bucking and food that needed buying, which meant once again risking the wrath of Ponyville's mad mares. Yet on this day, both the skies and streets were strangely a little more empty. Oh sure, there were ponies around, but -- and Rainbow couldn't quite put his hoof on it -- they all seemed just a bit more... Masculine. And they were glaring at him, for reasons he really didn't want to think about. At least he didn't have to worry about them chasing after him. He hoped. After yesterday's fiasco, carrots were the last thing he wanted for lunch. He also wasn't sure he wanted to risk seeing one of his friends, but Applejack was one of the few food vendors in the marketplace. She gave him nothing but a nod and a pleasant smile as he bought two apples, and he felt himself relax. The apples got his sweet tooth going in a hurry, and he lingered as he passed a stall decorated with brightly-wrapped candies. The mare behind the counter smiled at him as Applejack had. He indulged himself. "Hiya!" she said brightly. "Hey." He sidled up to the stand and threw a forehoof up on the counter. "What kinda sugar ya sellin'?" She tossed her pink and blue curls and swept a hoof across her wares. "I've got a fresh batch of butterscotches today, as well as peppermint patties and root beer barrels." He leaned forward. "I'm looking for somethin' a little more... exotic." The slightest flush appeared on the mare's cheeks. "Oh! Well, I have been doing some experimenting..." She reached below the counter and pulled out a box filled with small candy balls in every color of the rainbow. "I don't have a name for them yet, but you're welcome to try a few, if you're feeling adventurous." Rainbow leaned even further forward, taking a long, deep sniff of the candy. His hoof rested on hers. "I don't think I'd mind... sampling your wares." The mare's eyes widened and her face flushed from cream to crimson. "Uh, I, I, uh..." "Back off!" Rainbow found himself whisked into the air, flipped over, and dumped unceremoniously onto his face. Sputtering and coughing dirt, he looked up to see a mint-green unicorn mare glaring daggers at him. "What's the big idea, chunky?" she shouted. "Hands off my mare!" "What are hands?" Rainbow groaned, rubbing his head and hauling himself to his hooves. "Hey, I'm just bein' friendly..." "Friendly. Yeah." The unicorn mare scowled. "I've seen way too many stallions like you trying to get friendly with my marefriend. I turn my back for one minute..." "Geez, lady, calm down." Rainbow snorted. "Fine, I won't buy any of your stupid candy, then. Later." He took off, the mares' argument echoing behind him. "It's driving me nuts, Twilight!" Rainbow stalked back and forth across the row of bookshelves and tried not to think about having nuts to be driven. "Yesterday, all the mares in town were leering at me. Now I'm the one doing the leering!" He stomped and groaned. "It's like nopony in town can control themselves around me, not even me! I didn't have these problems when I was a mare!" He buried his face in his hooves and groaned again. "It's like I got sexier overnight, and so did everypony else." "Not to be sanctimonious, Rainbow," Twilight said, two snorts away from an eye roll, "but you might not be having these problems if you just told everypony you're still you. I mean, ponies know you and Pinkie are together. If they knew you weren't just some random stallion who showed up in town--" "Then they'd know that we're having tons of sex." Rainbow blew his mane out of his eyes and collapsed in a heap, hooves over his face. "Or that we would be if things didn't keep getting in the way!" "But we already kind of assumed--" "I just keep messing up!" Rolling onto his back, he sighed. "You gave me this thing and it's like it's taken over my mind. The last thing I want to do is cheat on Pinkie, but I see those mares flashing me looks, and I just..." He groaned once more. "Twilight, what do I do?" Twilight shook her head. "Honestly, Rainbow, I'm not sure what to say. You know I want the best for you and Pinkie Pie, really I do, but given that you're set on keeping everything private..." She shrugged and sighed, frowning. "I'm not sure I can help." There was quiet for a minute or so, broken only by continued groaning, and Rainbow Blitz's hoof listlessly smacking the floor. "I've got it!" Twilight shouted. Rainbow shouted and sprang to his hooves. "Who? What? Where?" Without so much as a by-your-leave, Twilight pressed herself up against him, muzzle dangerously close to his. Her eyelids hung low and her voice was soft and husky. "If you're having problems controlling yourself, then you're just going to have to learn to control yourself, now aren't you?" She drew a hoof down his side and he shivered. "Let me help you." "Aw Twilight, not you too!" "C'mon, Rainbow," Twilight said brightly, grinning at him. "I'll try and seduce you, and you try and resist. I've been aching to try out some tips I learned from Soda Surprise's Seven Seduction Secrets. It'll be fun!" She clomped her hooves together before clearing her throat and reasserting her bedroom eyes. She loosed a coy giggle and nosed into his neck. "And I'll bet you're just aching for a little action right now." Rainbow pulled away, flapping his wings and trying to skirt around the outside of the room. Twilight matched him move for move, with alacrity she had only ever displayed during the Running of the Leaves. He launched himself to the top of a bookcase and she teleported beside him. He dove for the window and she drew the shutters closed with her magic. He ducked under a rug and she stalked up to him, giggling. "You can't run, Rainbow Bliiiitz," she sang, her eyes flashing and her grin predatory. "Of course, you should really be chasing me." She turned, lowering her front half and pushing her rump into his face. Just then the door burst in and the room was filled with the sound of lightning crackling in Pinkie's eyes. Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. "Pinkie, thank goodness, you're just in ti--" Suddenly, he was quite aware of just whose what was where, and when. "Twitchy tooshie and itchy lips!" Pinkie zipped up and mashed her face against Twilight's. "My boo-boo is both the hustler and the hustlee!" Twilight blanched. Rainbow croaked, "P-Pinkie..." "Nnnnope!" Pinkie whipped the rug off of him and onto Twilight, then snapped up his tail in her mouth. "No nookie tonight neither!" Rainbow watched Twilight with pleading eyes as Pinkie bounced off, dragging him behind. "Ow. Ow. Ow." Twilight shook the rug off, brushed the mane out of her face, and frowned at her open front door. After a moment, she chuckled softly to herself. "Well, at least I got my money's worth out of Soda Surprise." Clopping her hooves together lightly, she giggled and went back inside.