The Talk
Rainbow Dash was having a particularly good day... ish. She'd woken up in her cloud bed for once. Not something she was used to doing at this point. Nor was she sore, which was another plus that she had mixed feelings on. Work had went well. It had been mainly some cloud adjustments for a storm coming later in the week.
Dash was antsy. She really wanted to go be with her foxfriend. However he had duties at his mine today. He had mentioned something about having a talk with the dogs and talking with Lyra Heartstrings.
Maybe they were spending too much time together? That sent a weird pang of cold nervousness into her gut. She didn't know why that happened. As far as she knew, everything was fine.
Everything was fine. Wasn't it?
A knock at her door yanked her from her thoughts, making her jump.
Briefly shaking herself, she trotted over to the door. Finally shaking her head clear of her worries, she opened the door. Who was on the other side of said door surprised her.
It was a griffon. A female griffon. A female griffon wearing a brown belt (with a few attached pockets) around her barrel, a blue coat with holes for her wings, and some worn looking goggles on her forehead.
The griffons golden eyes brightened and she grinned the moment she saw, “Dash!”
Rainbow blinked. “Gi- Gilda?!” She was shocked for a moment, then shook herself and grinned back! “It’s been forever! How are you?!”
“I’ve been...” the griffon seemed to think for a moment, “pretty good all things considered.”
“Well, wanna come in to talk?” Dash asked, stepping aside.
Gilda glanced from the pegasus to the interior. “Mmmmm nah. Would you like to talk while we fly?”
“Yeeeaah, that sound better.” The prismatic pegasus chuckled as she trotted out, shutting the door behind her. “Wanna race?”
“Can’t really talk while we race, dweeb.” Gilda raised a brow and poked Dash’s nose with a claw.
“Yeah, you got a point.” Furrowed her brow a bit and shook the offending claw away as she lifted off the cloud that made up her doorstep.
Gilda flapped up after her, sliding her goggles down over her eyes. “Always do.” She nodded. “This is your territory, so got any destinations in mind?”
Dash momentarily thought of the mine, then shrugged. “Let’s just fly over Ponyville.”
“Sounds good to me.” Gilda shrugged as she followed her friend.
“Cool cool.” Dash smiled. “So, how have you been? Still on your,” she made air quotes with her hooves as she rolled her eyes, “super secret mission?”
“Still Classified.” Gilda snorted.
“Of course it is.” Dash snorted a chuckle. “So what made you come by?”
“Well, we were in the area and I decided to fly down to see my old friend. Nothing too special.” Gilda bobbed her head a bit as she explained.
“We as in all three of you?” Dash asked.
“Six actually. We picked up a few not too long ago. Turns out Garble has a younger sister.” Gilda’s smile turned sad.
“And… his dad?” Rainbow asked, somewhat morbidly curious.
“I’d rather not get into that, or the other two we picked up, at least not yet.” Gilda sighed, visibly shivering a little. “All I’ll say is, we had a bad run in with a killer clown recently.”
Dash laughed out loud. “A clown?! He coudn’t’ve been that scary.”
Gilda stopped in mid-air, causing Dash to skid to a halt. The pegasus turned. “What?”
Gilda glared at her. “Don’t.”
“Don’t… what?” Dash’s face screwed up in confusion.
“Don’t make light of-” Gilda started, groaned, and rubbed her face with a claw. “Let’s just move on.” She shook her head and flew up to Dash. “Sorry, let’s continue.”
“Sssure.” Dash said, entirely not sure. She turned to continue fly, the griffon following at her side.
“So enough about me,” Gilda said, her smile returning, “how have you been? Still want to get into the Wonderbolts?”
“Oh! Yeah!” Rainbow grinned, not wanting to show that she had forgotten all about them due to more recent things.
“You sure? You seemed to almost space out a sec there, Dash. Got something else on your mind?” The griffon asked with a raised brow.
“Well…. I did get a foxfriend recently.” Rainbow’s grin doubled as her cheeks flushed.
“Hold up.” Gilda paused mid-air, raising a claw. “A foxfriend? Like coltfriend but a fox? Like an actually fox or something else?”
Dash slowed to a halt. “Well he’s a digimon-”
“Oh! Gotcha! Okay, that kinda clears it up.” Gilda said with a small sigh. Glancing around she lowered herself onto a cloud. “So, tell me about him.”
Dash followed and plopped herself down in front of the griffon.”His name is Dustin, he’s a Renamon, he owns a mine, and the sex is amazing!”
Gilda leaned away a bit. “Whoa, slow down there. Dustin, kay, he’s another one from another world. I don’t know what a Renamon is but I assume he’s a fox. Also cool, he has a mine. And you’ve had sex, congrats.” She gave a sarcastic clap, then chuckled. “So how long have you two been going out?”
“A couple weeks.” Dash grinned.
Gilda blinked. “A- A couple weeks?”
“Yeah.” The pegasus nodded.
“Like… two weeks? That’s it?” Gilda raised a brow as she tugged her goggles to her forehead. A frown grew on her face.
“Yeeaah… Why?” Rainbow looked confused.
“And you’ve already had sex.” The griffon said somewhat bluntly.
“Yep.” The mare nodded.
“That.. sounds a bit soon, doesn’t it?” Gilda’s voice was filled with concern as she settled her belly on the cloud.
Dash flushed a little. “Well…”
“How’d you two meet? Have you known each other for awhile at least?” Gilda pressed.
“Well my fight buddy Geralt always trains him.” Dash started. “We kinda got to know each other properly after Geralt sicced a bunch of Dustin’s bitches on him.”
“Bitches?” Gilda raised a brow.
“Female Diamond Dogs.” Dash replied.
“Ah.” Gilda nodded. “Continue.”
“So, I had to fill him in on all the gossip going on around town.” She giggled. “Not really his fault but he happens to land himself in spots that would look… eh… awkward to somepony looking in.”
“Ooookay.” Gilda’s brow furrowed a little as she scratched her beak and waved a claw for Dash to continue.
“Oh Ivy was so ticked that Geralt sent bitches after him.” Dash giggled.
“And Ivy’s” Gilda’s brow raised again.
“Oh, she’s another Digimon. She’s a plant. Does things with her vine-claw-finger-things.” Dash’s face felt and she winced. “She had a thing for Dustin.”
“Dash, did you steal Dustin from Ivy?” Gilda asked bluntly.
“What?! No!” Dash yeped, her wings popping out in surprise.
“Okay, sorry. I jumped to conclusions. So far this doesn’t sound that bad.” Gilda sighed. “So… where were we… You filled in Dustin on the gossip.”
“Yeah, that.” Dash nodded, settling back down to her haunches. “Well, I hung out with him the next day as he gave presents to ponies. He seems generous, kinda like Rarity in a way.”
“I assume she’s somebody else you both know.” Gilda replied.
“Yep. Unicorn. Makes dresses.” Dash nodded. “Dustin has a place to stay at her place.” She said with a growing blush.
“Kay. So anything happen while giving presents?” Gilda asked.
“Well, the people getting gifts were sure affectionate.” Dash snickered. “Twilight, Guilmon, and Ivy all gave him a kiss.” He paused. “Guilmon’s a Digimon.”
“I gathered.” Gilda nodded. “And how’d that make you feel?”
“Me?” She blinked. “Ehhh…. Nothing? Maybe a little jealous?”
“Kay. I can kinda see that.” Gilda nodded once again. “What else happened that day?”
“Geralt was at Rarity’s. She didn’t want to let him in.” Dash explained with a small chuckle.
“After Geralt sent angry Diamond Dogs after him, I’m sure she wouldn’t.” Gilda agreed.
“Oh they weren’t angry. They were horny Dogs.” Dash giggled.
Gilda blinked. “Come again?”
Dash snorted. “So a bunch of them wanted to sleep with Dustin, since the old Boss Dog kinda had a harem thing going. Dustin got away by teleporting the last time they tried to sleep with him.”
“So… Geralt… The Digimon responsible for training Dustin, sent a pack of Diamond Dogs after him. Diamond Dogs that full -well could’ve raped him.” Gilda frowned, replying very bluntly.
Dash’s face fell. “Well- Yeah... But, Dustin got away.”
“That’s not the point Dash. That’s all kinds of fucked up.” Gilda’s frown deepened.
“Geralt apologised!” Dash said quickly.
“Did he say he wouldn’t do it again?” Gilda asked.
“Well… No. But Dustin said he would get him back for it.” Dash smiled weakly.
“That’s not stopping anything. That’s just continuing the cycle.” Gilda said with a sigh as she rubbed her eyes with a claw. “They need a healthier working relationship.”
“That’s… probably true.” Dash admitted.
“Right, so that’s one problem in need of fixing, but this is about Dustin and you.” Gilda sighed once again. “So, after the not-apology?”
“I went to see Dustin.” Dash said. “Flew right in after Rarity let me in.”
“Dash…” There was an edge in the griffon’s voice. “What did you do?”
“Nothing!” The pegasus flushed for the umpteenth time that day. “I just… snuck into his room… and kinda… came onto him.”
“Dash….” Gilda groaned.
“He also wasn’t wearing pants.” Dash added.
“Dash!” Gilda snapped. “Not! Okay!”
“Why not?” Dash puffed up a bit.
“You invaded his privacy! He probably wanted to be alone!” Gilda snapped again, getting to her feet. She then paused, took a long breath, and let it out. “Okay… Okay. I’ll reserve judgement for later. Sorry for yelling. What happened next?”
“Dustin was lying on his bed, and I kinda… jumped on it and got into his personal space?” Dash replied with an embarrassed blush. “Don’t worry though! I only booped his nose! But… not after flirting with him.”
“And how did you flirt with him?” Gilda asked.
“I kinda asked if he wanted to end his day on a good note?” Dash finished with a small squeak.
“Dash. You basically just got to know the guy, and you decided to sleep with him?” Gilda deadpanned.
“No! I just was flirting with him.” Dash tried to explain.
“There’s a difference between flirting and harassment, Dash.” Gilda groaned. “Anything else happen?”
“I flicked my tail at him and left.” The pegasus half-mumbled.
“What kind of flick?” Gilda rested her head on a claw.
“A suggestive one?” Dash blushed again.
“Of course. That it?” Gilda raised a brow.
“For that day, yeah.” Rainbow nodded.
“I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse.” Gilda deadpanned. “The next day then?”
“Yep.” Dash nodded, now significantly rethinking most of her previous actions. “So, I found him working out at the gym.”
“Oh no.” Gilda glared at the mare.
“Nothing happened! I just… sat on the dumbbell he was using and… kinda distracted him.” Dash’s blush decided to stay on her face.
“Now that’s just dangerous. Also there’s your personal space issue again.” Gilda pointed out.
“What?” She half-whined. “He was clearly mad at Geralt’s training.”
“And there’s the fucked up mentor-pupil relationship again.” The griffon physically pointed this time. “Lemme guess, you distracted him while he was working out and something happened?”
“No! I just sat on the bar as he did his last ten reps… Then I kinda blue-balled him.” Dash frowned, embarrassed.
“And you’re not even in a relationship yet?” Gilda asked.
“No… I just- I liked getting a rise out of him. He’s cute when he’s flustered.” Dash tried to explain. “I kinda liked that I could get that sort of reaction out of him.”
“Why him though?” Gilda asked. “You could do the same thing to any male you wanted.”
“I- He’s special? There’s something about him…” She fought to put it into words.
“I can somewhat see that.” Gilda agreed. “Somewhat. But, please. Continue.”
“Well went to lunch. Hayburger. I had him race me there. Though, we did loop the town a few times.” Dash grinned.
“That’s not too bad.” Gilda admitted.
“When we got there, the place was packed. I paid for us, and it turns out Digimon eat a lot.” The pegasus chuckled. “I don’t mind. I like that a stallion can out eat me. Or-”
“Don’t say it.”
“Right…” Dash chuckled nervously. “So there was only one available table, with only one seat.”
Gilda groaned yet again. “What did you do?”
“Had him sit down and I sat in his lap.” Dash said, not meeting the griffon’s eyes.
“Really Dash?” Gilda deapanned. “You could’ve gone outside and had lunch like any normal set of friends, but no, you had to sit in his lap.”
“A mare yelled at me.” Dash continued. “For using my wings to eat or for sitting in his lap, I’m not sure.”
“I’m sure it was the latter.” Gilda rolled her eyes.
“Probably…” Dash frowned, then brightened a bit. “Turns out Dustin can eat fast. I don’t know how he does it.”
“Probably a Digimon thing.” Gilda gestured a claw. “What happened next?”
“Well….. I got foalnapped by the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Dash blushed in embarrassment again.
“The what?” Gilda blinked.
“Three fillies who are working together to find their Cutie Marks.” Dash explained.
“And why’d they foalnap you?” Gilda asked.
“Sweetie Belle accused me of stealing her fox. Told me I was an anomaly in her shipping charts.” Dash said with a sigh.
“Well, you did decide to just insert yourself into Dustin’s life.” Gilda pointed out. “Rather forcefully.”
“I know.” Dash said quietly. She took a breath. “She pretty much tossed me Dustin’s Digivice. I could take it on the condition that I talk to Ivy.”
“That must have gone great.” Gilda raised a brow.
“She kinda snapped. Just wrapped me up and dragged me to Dustin.” Dash looked at her hooves. “Dustin’s meeting with Ivy… wasn’t pretty.”
“Angry that you stole Dustin?” Gilda asked.
“Yeah.” The pegasus nodded. “Though, to my knowledge she never made any overt moves to show her interest in him. Never said anything either. Then again, she was shy.”
“You couldn’t have known. However, you also should’ve talked to her first before you starting making moves on Dustin.” Gilda pointed at her.
“Dustin I talked. Well, he kinda talked at me a bit. He let me know how he felt.” Dash sighed.
“And?”
“He said that me pursuing his was weird. Not bad, just different.” She shook her head. “He told me if I wanted a relationship I should just ask for one.”
“And did you?” Gilda asked, cokcing her head to the side.
“Yes, I did actually.” Dash nodded.
“Good.” Gilda nodded back.
“Then I hit on him. A lot. I was kinda pushy actually.” Dash chewed her lip.
“Like you’ve been from the start.” Gilda nodded again. Rainbow just nodded. “Kay. What happened next. Did you sleep together?”
“No. I flirted pretty heavily, he let me go, then he gave me a goodnight kiss.” Dash explained.
“Flirting more is a bit much after what happened with Ivy and it feels like it down plays the seriousness of the conversation you just had.” Gilda mused aloud. “The kiss was fine I guess, he was the one who initiated that, at least. What happened next?”
“Well the following day-” Dash was cut off.
“The following day? Aren’t you giving him any space to breathe?” Gilda asked, sounding a little exasperated.
“Not… really?” Dash winced, causing the griffon to groan.
“Continue.” Gilda waved a claw.
“Well I snuck into the showers at the gym after Dustin was finished working out.” Rainbow began.
“Whoa, what?” Gilda blinked. “Dash, you’re pushing things a little fast.”
Dash puffed up. “We were in a relationship at that point!”
“Doesn’t matter! Personal! Space!” Gilda poked her with a claw. “Let the poor guy live for a bit at least.”
“I was excited!” Dash retorted.
“Oh, I bet you were.” Gilda frowned. “I’ve got a funny feeling that things are going to go downhill from here.”
“Well- I mean- Maybe?” Dash stammered a bit.
“Don’t like it when you get your face shoved into your own flaws, do you Dash.” Gilda quirked a brow.
“No.” Dash grumbled.
“Tough. It’s how we learn to not make the same mistakes.” Gilda snorted a little. “So, you walked in on him in the shower.”
“Literally.”
“Dash, you joined him in the shower without announcing yourself?” Gilda’s frown deepened.
“I did! I said, Knock knock.” Dash tried to explain.
“Did you ask?”
“...No…” Rainbow looked away.
“Okay, before I hear anything else. Here’s something you two, especially you, need to do.” Gilda started. “Set some boundaries. It’s simple. A) This is fine. B) This is too far.”
“I figured he would have said something.” Dash said. “He said that everything was fine… I think… He would have said no, right?”
“Have you given him a moment to?” Gilda asked.
“Well….. Not really….” Dash looked at her hooves again.
“Something else to work on.” Gilda nodded.
“He thinks that mares push themselves on stallions.” Dash admitted.
Gilda blinked. “Some do. Like a few pegasi, but not to this extent Dash. Did you tell him that?”
“No.” Dash said weakly.
“You two need a talk. A real talk.” Gilda sighed.
“We did! Kinda… Eventually...” Dash chewed her lip again.
“Oh?”
“I’ll get to that…” Dash grumbled. “We did groom each other though. It’s how I found out about his sensitive tail.”
“Don’t need to know that part. Though congrats you found a thing.” Gilda deadpanned.
“He complained a little during that though.” Dash pointed out.
“Oh, progress.” Gilda raised a brow.
“He said I kept blue-balling him.” The prismatic pegasus blushed.
“Maybe a sign for you to stop?” Gilda asked.
“Probably…” Dash admitted slowly.
“Did you?”
“No…” She said just as slowly.
“You’re a mess Rainbow Dash.” Gilda said bluntly.
“Thanks a lot Gilda.” Dash sniffed.
“Anything eventful happen after that?” The griffon asked.
“Yeah. We went to lunch again.” Dash nodded.
“Yay. Another date.” Gilda sighed. “What happened.”
“We talked. And ate. Food was good.” Dash replied, a little stiffly.
“What else?”
“I played hoofsies with him.” Dash said.
“That doesn’t sound-”
“Not with his feet.”
“DASH!” Gilda snapped. “You two were in public! That is massively inappropriate.”
“But it was exciti-”
“No!” Gilda pointed at her. “It seems to me that you’re just shoving yourself on a guy who’s too confused to respond, and you’re around him so much that he doesn’t have a moment to think!”
“I made him dinner!” Dash snapped back. “Well, I tried to. I wanted to do something meaningful… Which failed. Food was terrible.”
“Well that’s a start.” Gilda sighed, rubbing her throat.
“But…” Dash started.
“Oh fuck no. What did you do now?” Gilda groaned loudly.
“I took him to an… adult… store… So I could try on stuff… in front of him….” Dash mumbled out slowly.
“Dash, I’m this close to hitting you.” Gilda’s eye twitched. “The moment you tell me something good, you tarnish it by making it about sex.”
“Not everything is about sex!” Dash cried out.
“Really? Really Dash?” Gilda grit her teeth. “Give me one thing that isn’t.”
“I made him Digivolve!” She said, now grasping at straws.
“Did you?”
“I- I think I did! I got hit by this land shark thing and he jumped in front of me! I had the Digivice in my bag!” Dash rambled.
“Sounds to me like he just Digivolved just to save you from getting eaten.” Gilda continued to frown.
“Well- maybe- Oh! I chewed out Suri!” Rainbow shot to her hooves, pointing a hoof at the griffon.
“Who’s Suri?” Gilda blinked.
“She’s the mare who had Dustin trapped. Made him into her personal fashion slave.” Dash spat. “But I saw her and chewed her the fuck out! She ran with her tail between her legs!”
“Was she running from you? Or was she running from the crazy mare screaming at her? A mare no doubt with whatever Dustin turned into. How did Dustin react to seeing her by the way?”
Dash thought for a moment, the npaled. “Not.. well… He froze. He seemed. Scared.”
“And did you do anything to comfort him?” Gilda asked.
“N-No… I just yelled at her. And Dustin didn’t mention anything after that. Growlmon chased her to the train station.” Dash sniffled. “Then he took me to the hospital ‘cause I got my bell rung by the land shark. After that we went drinking. We ended up at Rarity’s… And we kinda… slept together.”
“You two got hammered and fucked.” Gilda said bluntly.
“Yeah. It’s not the way I wanted it to happen though.” Dash tried to explain. “I wanted to remember it.”
“Of course you would.” Gilda nodded. “Unless it was just a one time thing.”
“No! No! Never!” Dash shook her head violently. “I wanted it to be special.”
“Really? Like, I don’t know, taking time to get to know him. Find out his likes, dislikes, wants, needs, fears. Make it an expression of something meaningful. That kind of special?” Gilda listed off. “Or did you two just fuck like rabbits.”
“The latter…” Dash said, downtrodden. “Rarity dragged me to Twilight’s to get some kind of spell so I could remember the previous night. It worked.” She sniffled again. “And Dustin made this wonderful candle-lit dinner, and he had this record of him singing when we went to a karaoke bar. And it was wonderful, and I just used it to jump him. He was trying to be romantic and I ruined it.”
“Dash. I’m sorry but this all sounds like a pretty shallow relationship.” Gilda sighed and she got up and hugged to pegasus.
“What do I do?” Rainbow asked, still sniffling.
“That’s on you. My recommendation, take some time. Think about how you feel about him. Fuck, all else fails, start the-fuck over.” Gilda sighed. “Don’t just forget everything, use what worked in a healthy way and start over. If he’s okay with that of course.” She paused for a moment. “You also might want to take some to yourself and figure out what you want. Maybe learn to reign in all that lust you’ve got.”
“Okay…” Dash said quietly.
“Dash. This isn’t going to be easy.” Gilda said.
Dash shook her head.
“The way you’re going isn’t healthy. I don’t want either of you hurting each other, or yourselves over this.” Gilda sighed giving the pegasus another squeeze. “Dash, can you promise me to work on this?”
“I promise.” Dash nodded, not wanting to meet her old friend’s eyes. She took a breath and met her eyes. “I Pinkie Promise.”
“Good.” Gilda smiled. “Feel any better.”
“No.” Dash said bluntly.
“Well, I’ve got some time. Wanna go distract yourself with something for a bit?” The Griffon asked.
“Sure.” Rainbow gave a weak smile. “That sounds great actually.”
"Hey Dash, wanna race?" Gilda asked with a small smirk.
"You're on!" Dash crowed.
With that, the pair jumped off the cloud and shot towards Ponyville.
Dash glared at Gilda from across their table. Gilda nonchalantly drank her shake.
"What?" The griffon asked.
"How?" Dash asked somewhat stiffly.
"How what?" Gilda repeated deadpan, then loudly sucked out the last of her shake.
"How. Did. You. Beat. Me?" Dash enunciated every word.
Gilda shrugged. "I dunno, magic?" She set her cup down.
"Maybe you're just getting rusty."
"Gah!" Dash cried, throwing her hooves in the air.
"How's that Wonderbolt training Dash?"