Author's Notes:

WARNING, this chapter contains: Still not a whole lot of clop (next chapter, I promise!)

*knock* *knock* *knock*

Rainbow’s hoof flew from between her legs in record-breaking time, head darting back and forth in a panic around her room. She threw the pillow she had been absentmindedly grinding against whilst fantasizing off the bed and into her closet where it would hopefully remain hidden from prying eyes. She launched herself off her bed and raced to a nearby window, peering outside to check if she could see anypony. When no trace of pony-life could be found from either there or her other bedroom window she shut both of them and closed her curtains, cutting her room off from the outside world.

‘Damn damn damn DAMN! Who’s here at this time of night? Celestia, I hope they didn’t see me…’

*knock* *knock* *knock*

After making one last sweep of the room to see if she had left any... ‘evidence’ from her adult activities, she sighed and took a deep breath. ‘Calm down, Rainbow. It’s probably just one of your friends stopping by to check up on you… You did leave the party kinda abruptly.’ Wearily she exited her bedroom and made her way down to the main floor, entering the living room just as another round of knocks came from the front door.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

“Hold on, I’m coming!”

As she reached out towards the door, she noticed a strange, slick substance coating the edge of her hoof. As she brought the offending hoof up to her face, she startlingly realized that she had forgotten to wipe it clean of her juices. After checking the immediate vicinity around her for anything she could clean it with, she settled for wiping her hoof behind the couch where, hopefully, no one would notice the wet stain.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

“Ugh…” She slowly cracked opened the door, just enough so whichever one of her friends was on the other side could see her drape a hoof over her forehead as she feigned tiredness. “Sorry guys, I’m not feeling too good. I’m sure I’ll be okay after a good night’s sleep. Don’t worry about it.”

Without ever checking to see who it actually was she turned away and nudged the door closed with her flank, fully intent on returning to her room and either wallowing in self-pity or finishing her interrupted session of ‘me time’. What she didn’t expect was a light-blue hoof suddenly sticking through her doorway to prevent it from closing and a masculine voice calling out to her.

“H-hey, Rainbow…”

She swore all the blood in her body was suddenly drained away. It was HIM.

Slowly she turned back around, the blood that had mysteriously vanished suddenly returning and rushing up to her head to light up her cheeks in a blush as Soarin came into view. The pegasus still had his flight suit on, indicating that he had just finished up performing for the celebration still going on in town before coming straight here. He had a somewhat quizzical look on his face, and when his mouth opened to say something she jumped to beat him to the punch.

‘Just be smooth, Rainbow. It’s only your dream stallion waiting in your doorway for you to say something. No pressure.’

“Uh… H-hey, S-Soarin… wh-what’s up?

‘Nailed it.’

Soarin brought a hoof up and rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepishly at the ground instead of at Rainbow. “Well… I saw what happened to you…” - Rainbow flinched, both from the memory and that SOARIN was the one bringing it up - “and, uh, well, I wanted to come and check on you. Make sure you’re okay, and, uh… stuff.”

Rainbow’s heart fluttered up into her throat. ‘He’s here to make sure I’m okay!? Oh, sweet Celestia, I think my legs are shaking!’

Eyes still trained on the ground and, for some reason, a blush growing on his cheeks, he continued. “Well, that and you wound up leaving the party so soon that you missed the big wedding announcement we had planned after the show…”

And just like that, the wings granting her heart flight were suddenly ripped apart, leaving the now slowly-beating organ to plummet back down into the pit of her stomach. The world around her shattered into a million pieces, never to be put back together again. The small ache in her heart that had been festering in her chest ever since she had fallen in front of Soarin now grew to encompass the whole of her chest. With just a few simple words, any hope she had of ever getting with the greatest stallion in all of Equestria was unceremoniously torn from her and thrown to the ground.

‘He’s getting married…’

She rapidly blinked her eyes a couple of times, hoping to rid them of the tears that threatened to fall. When one almost did, she feigned coughing into her hoof to wipe it away, though she had to act fast if she wanted the charade to last.

“I… I’m happy for you. I hope your sp-special s-somepony is-”

Soarin’s eyes widened for a moment before the blush resettled across his cheeks. He frantically waved a hoof in front of him to cut Rainbow off, an embarrassed smile crossing his lips.

"Oh! Oh, no, it’s not ME getting married. It’s Spitfire! I only bring this up because, well, she wanted me to come as one of the best stallions and, well, I would need to bring a date… soooo…”

The pain in Rainbow’s chest, though still lingering in the background as it waited for Soarin to continue, was replaced with a beautiful warmth in her heart as her eyes stayed glued to the stallion's lips, hoping, praying that the words she wanted to hear were about to come from them.

“I was wondering if… uh… you’d like to be my... uh… *ahem* my date?”

If it wasn’t attached to her body, Rainbow’s jaw would have relocated from her face down to the floor. Not only was Soarin NOT getting married, which meant she still had a chance to get with him, it just so happened that HE wanted to go out with HER!

‘Ohmygosh Ohmygo- no, wait. Keep your cool Rainbow, don’t fangirl all over him now. Not when you’re so clos-’

“YESSS!”

‘Damn it, me…’

Rainbow blushed and rubbed the back of her mane with a hoof. “Uh… I mean… yeah, sounds c-cool. Just t-tell me when and where and I’ll see if I can make it.”

‘Yeah, right, like I’m going to let anything get in the way of a date with Soarin. It would take some serious Equestria-ending crap to stop me from seeing him.’ Her eyes widened, images from the past several years of her life flashing before her. ‘Crap, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself…’

Soarin gave her a small smile as the heat in his cheeks began to die down. “Yeah, cool. Official invites will be going out soon, I’ll make sure that Spitfire sends you one.” He looked away from her for a moment, his blush, for some reason, coming back in full force as he thought about something. “And, uh… would you like to get together for… like, lunch or something? Maybe go out for drinks? We’re in town for a couple days, and I’d lo-” He paused, shaking his head for a moment before giving her a weak grin. “I’d like to get to know you better, Rainbow. If that’s ok with you…”

‘Ohmygosh Ohmygo- no no no NO. Celestia above, Rainbow, you’re not some little filly asking a colt out to prom. You’re a grown mare who just got asked out by the nicest, coolest, not to mention HOTTEST pegasus you’ve ever seen!’

‘...............’

‘You know what? Nevermind. This is pretty damn awesome. Fangirl away!’

Soarin stood in the doorway, a look of concern crossing his face as the answer he was waiting for never came. Rainbow hadn’t moved one iota of an inch for several moments, and he really started to get worried when a dopey grin settled on her face and a strange, high pitched squeal escaped from her throat. Cautiously, he reached out towards her and tapped her on the shoulder, recoiling as the mare suddenly jumped from the contact.

“Rainbow? You okay? If this is all too sudden, I’d be okay with resched-”

Rainbow shook her head a couple of times to clear it, eyes popping open as registered what Soarin was saying. She darted forward and quickly grabbed his hoof, holding onto it as if she thought he would run away and disappear forever if she didn’t.

“What? No! I’d love to go out with you!” The blush on her face grew as she glanced down at her hoof hanging on to his for dear life. She sheepishly backed away, releasing her hold on him with an awkward smile and an even awkwarder chuckle. “You know, for drinks and, uh, stuff. I’m sure it would be fun! Just the two of us. Hanging out. Together.”

Soarin nodded with a smile. “Great! How does lunch tomorrow sound?”

Rainbow returned the nod, lips curving upward as her confidence began to build. “Sounds awesome! My weather shift breaks at around one. Meet me here?”

Soarin nodded again, this time starting to turn away from her. “Yeah, cool. See you then, I guess. I gotta get back to the hotel. Wouldn’t want to worry the team!”

Rainbow was going to simply agree and shut the door. Maybe jump around the house a bit in jubilation before trying to fall asleep to make tomorrow come sooner. But as soon as Soarin had finished turning around, her plans immediately changed.

Soarin, as she had noticed earlier, had apparently been unable to change out of his flight-suit after doing his routine for the partying Ponyville ponies below. And as Rainbow was finding out first-hoof, the sleek garment certainly didn’t get any looser after a good round of high-flying acrobatics. In fact, it almost seemed to be tighter than she remembered it. And boy, did it leave NOTHING to the imagination.

“Soarin, wait!”

Her call had the desired effect, the stallion in question halting and turning his head over his shoulder to look at her. Problem was, she hadn’t thought on what to follow up the sudden outburst with. That, and the fact that the hottest piece of pegasus flank in Equestria kept trying to draw her gaze from his inquisitive face to between his legs.

“Uh…”

‘Come on Dash, think! Gotta be some way to keep him here… Think!’

“Uh… would you like to come inside me?”

…

…

The normally light-blue fur of Soarin’s cheeks erupted in heat and almost matched the color of a certain Apple-family stallion. “Uh… what?”

…

Suddenly, the blue fur of Rainbow’s cheeks ALSO matched that of Applejack’s brother as she realized just what she had said. “OH! Uh, I meant… uh… would you l-like to c-come inside my house?”

‘Smooth, Rainbow. Real smooth…’

“Oh…” Soarin turned his body back around to face her, the blood filling his cheeks slowly draining away as the smile on his mouth grew. “Yeah, sure!”

“Okay… right this way.” Rainbow turned away from him, hoping above all else that her tail kept her more private of areas hidden from the stallion following behind her. More so from the fact that she didn’t want him to see that she was already damp from excitement than anything resembling modesty. Of course, probably didn't help any when she started to add a little sway to her hips as she walked inside.

She led Soarin over to the couch, unceremoniously plopping down on one side while he did the same on the other. The two sat separated by only a couple feet, though to Rainbow it felt like thousands of miles AND a few fractions of an inch at the same time.

“Uh… so... “

Rainbow paused as her mind came up blank.

“Yeah… Uhm…”

Soarin paused as his mind did the same.

“So… the Wonderbolts, huh?”

Soarin smiled, weakly chuckling as he rubbed one of his forelegs with a hoof. “Yeah. Feels like yesterday that I was trying out at the academy. I still can’t believe that I got in. It’s like a dream come true!”

Rainbow smiled, mirroring his chuckle and foreleg-rubbing perfectly. “You must have so many stories to tell, all these places you guys go to on tour. Must be a pretty hectic life, huh?”

Soarin shrugged. “Yeah, but you get used to it. Ever since I first started stunt flying I’ve always been a huge fan of the ‘Bolts. Love every second of it, even the non-stop drills that Spitfire puts us through.” They shared a short laugh together, the awkward fog that had settled in the room slowly burning away as they both began to lighten up. Soarin leaned over and lightly punched her on the shoulder, grinning at her just as she did to him. “Well, little Miss Element of Harmony, I’m sure YOU have plenty of stories to tell, too. I mean, I am the one who wanted to get to know YOU better, remember?”

Rainbow grinned, turning slightly more towards him and ever so subtly scootching in his direction. “Yeah yeah yeah. Fighting evil, saving Equestria… boring stuff really. I'd rather hear more about yourself. What’s it like being a Wonderbolt?”

Soarin chuckled, turning slightly towards her and not-so-subtly shuffling his body in her direction. “Oh, trust me Rainbow, it's amazing.” He brought a hoof up and placed in on her shoulder, their eyes meeting as that sat side by side on the couch. “Trust me; it’s only a matter of time before you’ll get to experience it for yourself, Rainbow. You are quite possibly the greatest flier not already in the Wonderbolts. Heck, you’re probably better than a lot of us already on the team! We hear about the crazy things you do all the time!”

Rainbow blushed, meekly turning away for a moment as she smiled to herself at the compliment. She turned back towards him, this time with a sly smirk on her lips. “Yeah, I AM pretty awesome, ain’t I?”

They both shared a chuckle, the discomfort from before all but forgotten as they chatted on the couch. Rainbow’s impish grin faded as a more serious expression took its place, one that Soarin was about to question about before the mare beat him to the punch. “Just, uh, if we do, uh… get together...“ - their eyes separated for a moment as matching blushes grew on their faces before Rainbow resolutely brought hers back to him - “I don’t want to get into the Wonderbolts just cause… you know. Relationships. I wanna EARN my way in.”

Soarin nodded, giving Rainbow a warm smile and a light squeeze on the shoulder before pulling it away. "Uh-huh, I totally know what you mean. Being in the Wonderbolts wouldn't be as... rewarding if I hadn't put in all the hard work before-hoof."

Rainbow gave him a short “Mhm” in reply as her eyes slowly drifted down from the stalllion's face. With a short groan, Soarin leaned back to get more comfortable on the couch, ever-so-slightly widening his legs as he did. “Mmm… it certainly is nice to sit for awhile… Love the work, but it can certainly kick your butt after a while.”

“Uh-huh…” Rainbow took the lull in the conversation and the change in posture to drink in the stallion’s trim figure. This close to him, Rainbow could trace the contours of his muscles through the fabric of his flight suit, a fact she took full advantage of as her eyes made a trail down his chest and stomach. It was almost exactly like the dream stallion she had conjured up when she was… ‘taking care of herself’ earlier; good musculature, but not so over the top that it would slow him down when flying, with trim curves that guided her eyes further down his body.

Which lead to only one logical area; his crotch. When she said that his flight suit left nothing to the imagination, she REALLY meant NOTHING. She could almost perfectly trace Soarin’s junk sitting between his thighs, one large bulge with two smaller ones beneath it making her mouth water as she imagined them WITHOUT the thin garment keeping them away from her prying eyes. She quickly looked back up at the stallion’s face as he shifted one of his legs to obscure his package from view, though from the look on his face he, thankfully, hadn’t realized she had been checking him out.

'Phew... THAT would have been awkward.'

'...'

'Now how am I gonna get another peek...'

Rainbow glanced around, checking to see if there was anything laying around that could jump start another conversation between the two, anything to distract the stallion so she could devour some more delicious eye candy. Eventually her eyes settled on the kitchen, and, with a slight cough to get his attention, she casually nodded her head towards it.

“Anything you want to drink? I got some Sasparilla that should still be good in the fridge.”

Soarin nodded his head. “Yeah, sounds good.”

Rainbow got up and made her way around the couch, checking out the stallion some more as she passed by him. 'Woo-wee, that is one FINE pegasus... is it getting hot in here or is it just me?'

She trotted towards the entryway to the kitchen, a dopey grin on her face as heat started to build between her legs. Just as she was about to pass through the threshold between living-room and kitchen, a sudden sense of being watched slowed her to a stop. She turned, catching just a split second of Soarin’s head turning away from her out of the corner of her eye.

‘Was he just… Nah, there’s no way…’

Hurriedly grabbing two bottles from the fridge with her wings and kicking the door closed, she made her way back to the couch with drinks in tow. Passing Soarin, she swore she saw just the faintest line of a blush on his face, though a second glance revealed that whatever it was had mysteriously vanished.

‘Hmm… I must be seeing things…’

As she retook her seat and winged over a bottle to Soarin, she caught a glimpse of his eyes looking over at her. And he most certainly was NOT looking up at her face…

‘Ohmygosh, he is TOTALLY checking me out!’ Her mouth curled upwards in a devilish grin as Soarin saw she had caught him staring at her flanks, his cheeks heating up as he quickly averted his eyes to the bottle in his hoof.

‘Well, if he wants a look…’

After simultaneous *pops* of soda bottles being opened, Rainbow took another sneaking glance at the stallion beside her as she gulped down some of her drink. With an over exaggerated “Ahhh!” she arched her back and stretched out her limbs, peeking out from the corner of her eyes as she ‘accidentally’ showed off her athletic figure to the stallion sitting next to her. Just as she had hoped, as Soarin brought his own Sasparilla up to his lips, his eyes ever so slowly turned towards her and, as she ‘unintentionally’ spread her wings out behind her to give him full line-of-sight to her body, she giggled to herself internally as his irises widened to drink her in.

‘Gotcha.’

Rainbow smirked to herself as she ceased stretching, taking the chance to get another peek at the bulge sitting between the stallion’s thighs as Soarin averted his gaze. It might have been wishful thinking, but, at least to her, it seemed to be just a little bit bigger than the last time she saw it. She didn’t get much of a chance to check him out, however, as Soarin absentmindedly moved one of his legs and blocked her view.

‘Alright Rainbow, he’s clearly interested in you. And when I say ‘interested’, I mean that he certainly seems to have the hots for you. Just need to give him a little nudge in the right direction…’ She took another sip from her drink, smiling to herself as Soarin nervously did the same. ‘I wonder why he’s so nervous? A hunk like him must have mares all OVER him, Wonderbolts or no. Speaking of Wonderbolts…’ - her eyes went down to his chest, looking over the blue and yellow flight suit still obscuring the stallion’s body from view - ‘How am I gonna get him out of his flying gear? Hmm…’ - her eyes drifted over towards the front door before coming back to Soarin, who finished up his drink and sighed as he kicked up his hooves on the coffee table in front of her couch. ‘Certainly seems to be getting comfy here… A-ha! I have an idea…’

After taking one last sip and pulling away from the bottle with a refreshed “Ahh…”, Rainbow lightly tapped Soarin in the side with one of her wings. “Seeing as you might be staying a little while, why don’t you take off your flight suit? I’m sure that it gets uncomfortable after awhile.”

Soarin, placing the empty bottle he had been absentmindedly playing with in his hooves on the table, looked down at his body and brought a hoof up to tug at the flight suit hugging his body. “Yeah, it most certainly does. They make these things way too darn tight, you know?”

The heat between Rainbow's thighs blossomed as she got another glance between the stallion's legs. ‘Oh, I know…’

Soarin got up, and, just as Rainbow had hoped, turned away as he began fidgeting with the zippers on his suit. With him standing up the bulge between his legs was slightly more pronounced, and with her position behind him, plus with his tail erratically waving about as he had trouble undressing, she was given a front row seat to watch everything between his legs. Which, seeing how he was having so much trouble undressing, gave her another idea…

Slowly she made her way around Soarin, grinning as she watched him still trying to bite down on one of the zippers with his teeth. He paused as she came into view, the stallion blushing over how much trouble he was having simply getting out of his clothes. Rainbow leaned over, putting her face only a few inches away from his own, and ever so sensually whispered,

“You need some help with that?”