You are running for your life.

The forest path ahead is dark, but defined. Your legs sprint over roots and rocks. One hand is up by your head to block wayward branches from putting out an eye. The other clutches a handgun.

Your head is on a swivel—vigilant of the wolves that stalk you not far behind. The path straightens out and you relax your guard for a moment.

But not for long.

A silent flash of glistening teeth launching out of the bushes to your right jolts you back to the moment as you reflexively fire the pistol at the attacker. He’s down in two shots, but your foot catches a rock and you trip head over heels. You hear another wolf barreling through the underbrush behind you, you level at him and pull the trigger. Nothing happens, your pistol stove-piped after the last shot.

You clear the jam quickly and put a bullet through the top of its head just in time as momentum carries the lifeless body skidding to your feet. Now, more wolves approach from all angles. You spin in place and fire at every one of them until only one remains. But the pistol is locked back on an empty chamber and you had no more ammo left. Your heart races as you see hunger flash through the creature's eyes. You toss the empty gun at it and it easily ducks away. Your heart races and you try to find your feet, but your ankle must’ve been twisted because you can’t find your balance. You turn to face the threat and back away as the drooling monster approaches; your hands search for a rock or stick or anything you could use to even the odds. Suddenly it lunges at you with a growl and you throw your arms up in defense. But instead of a crushing bite you feel a gentle nip. You lower your guard out of curiosity and it licks your hand. What?

In an instant you’re awake. You jerk your head up in a panic and catch Rainbow in the middle of…playing with your hands? She jolts in place—startled at your sudden movement. You both lock eyes in a frozen stare.

She’s now laying on her back across your stomach. Your resting hand had suspiciously migrated from where you left it on her shoulder to her exposed belly, and she was holding the other in her hooves above her face; her muzzle was buried in your wet palm. Your eyes move up to meet hers and you hold the stare for a few seconds while a powerful blush forms on her cheeks. She’s obviously been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar, but she still doesn’t release your appendage.

“Dash. What’re you doing?”

”Uhh…I…woke up a while ago and your hoov-uh…hands started twitching…so, I wanted to see how they worked.”

You suddenly remember what happened in your dream and you become concerned, “I didn’t flail around and hit you did I?”

She furrows her brow, ”No…why would you? And by the way they look a lot better than last night."

Whew, that’s a relief, “Really? Let me see." You pull your hand from her belly letting her keep hold of the other. You scrutinize the appendage. It's amazing, there's no swelling or soreness, and only a few thin red lines were you got cut. "Dang Dash, now I can do all sorts of crazy stuff as long as you're there to lick the wounds."

She chuckles, "Heh, told ya. So were you just pretending to be asleep to scare me or something?"

"No...uh, a dream, I had a crazy dream."

She holds your hand to her chest and grins, ”I’ll say dude! These little guys were trying to run a marathon or something!” Her infectious smile hid her glowing cheeks and spreads to you.

“And, you thought you could get free belly rubs from it?” You ask with mock condescension.

She looks down at her belly, ”Ahh…well if you were awake I would’ve asked, but I thought you wouldn’t mind—”

“—C’mere!” You launch up and wrap an arm around her rump and neck, pulling her warmth farther up your chest. Your smirk morphs into a twisted grin, “You’re gonna have to pay for those belly rubs Miss Dash!” She finally gets the gist of what you’re doing but it’s too late to escape. You bring your head into her belly and buzz your lips into the sensitive flesh.

”Bawhawhawhawha! Staaap! Sta-hahahahap!” Your head wiggles side to side, soaking her flexing abdominals with vibrations. She kicks wildly, but you’re too far past her defenses for her to leverage any strength.

”Hahahaha! Anon! Anoooon! Sta-hah-hop!” You pause for a second and look up at her. She’s trying to catch her breath and has the biggest playful grin you’ve ever seen.

”Ano-ha, Anon…stop! I’s not fair!” She moves her forelegs to the side of your head in a feeble attempt to push you off. Aftershocks from her belly tickling messed with her diaphragm and made her struggle for air. Your twisted grin just gets bigger.

“On the contrary my Dash—”

”—No-no-no-no-no wait wait—”

Her scratchy pleading falls on deaf ears, “—I charge five seconds of tickling to rub a mares belly—”

”—Anon, Anon listen, hold on—”

“—Ten more seconds if the mare has wings—”

”—Please just-haha! Dooon’t! I’m not ready!—”

“—Twenty more seconds if she’s got beautiful eyes—”

”—Anooooon-hahaha! I won’t do it again!—”

“—Thirty more seconds if she’s got an adorable snout—”

”—Hahaha! I’m no-ahah! I’m not adorable! Haha!—”

“—And an extra minute if she’s a sneaky, blue, Wonderbolt named Rainbow Dash—” You punctuate the statement with a poke to her sternum.

“…Noooo! Anon! You ca-hahaha! You can’t do that it’s not fair!”

You wait for her to settle down and accept her fate. Her laughter had weakened her. She writhes and bucks, but your strategic position kept her firmly locked in place on your chest. She makes one final push and grunt but doesn’t succeed in budging your head. Her hooves drop to her chest in defeat and her smiling eyes stare at you expectantly, her open muzzle blasts your face with morning breath as she prepares to exert herself.

Looks like she’s ready to pay up now, “Because I like you I won’t charge interest.”

For a split second she forgets where she’s at and stares at you blankly. Well, almost blankly. You can practically read the affection in her eyes. The fuzzy moment doesn’t last long though, you still have a debt to collect.

You bury your face back into her belly fur and by random chance find your lips conveniently placed over her naval nub; before she can react you paralyze her by blowing a raspberry.

”Haaahahahahahaha!”

You strategically roll her on her back and free your hands to attack other areas. They snake towards the pits of her forelegs and dig into the hot, sweaty fur underneath them.

”Noooo-ah! Not t-th-there! Ahaahaha!”

She wiggles her forelegs to try and dislodge the invasive digits to no avail. As a last resort she squeezes her forelegs to her sides—clenching her pits shut in the hopes of immobilizing your hands. But all it did was trap your wiggling fingers closer to her body.

”Hahahahaha-Anon! It’s too much!”

“You’re not even close to paying up yet.” You pull a hand from her sweaty pit and slide it underneath her equally sweaty wing pit; she kicks wildly at the air.

”Nnoooohohohoh!”

Your fingers start wiggling across the seldom-touched fur. In her hysteria she manages to trap the arm between her hind legs and pull it from the battle. You put your mouth back on her belly to compensate. She explodes with laughter again and tries to roll out from under the torrent of tickles. This time she succeeds. She struggles shakily to her hooves and backs away over the tangled sheets. You lunge after her form and snag a foreleg—halting her retreat.

”Lemme go!”

“No!”

”Then I’m gonna get you back!” She tackles your torso to the mattress and immediately establishes dominance by pinning your shoulders. Her muzzle disappears from sight as she starts nibbling on your exposed ribs.

“Agh! Quit it!!”

You push her away before she can drift any lower. Friction creates heat and sheets fly as you wrestle, neither allowing the other to gain the advantage. That is, until you suddenly find yourself pinned again, her forelegs hold your hands above your head as you both reach an impasse of strength. This is just embarrassing you’re at least two of her. Her nose meets yours and you exchange hot breath and an intense look at close range; despite your position you let the law be known, “Stop struggling Dash! You still owe me ten seconds!"

”Come and get ‘em hotshot!”

You lunge up but go nowhere, how is she that strong? A triumphant smile splits her face as she stares down at her contained prey. That’s just annoying. You make another move before she can taunt you. This time you do break free…right as she shifts into a sort of side-mounted position. Does she take Judo lessons or something? Is that even a thing here—“Oh cra-ap-ahahahaha!” Her forelegs clench around your waist and her muzzle plunges into your belly button. Everything about her narrow muzzle, from the fine fur to the powerful lips colludes to hijack your body with laughter. Your arms push against the furry menace but quickly weaken when you feel her tongue begin to excavate the gold mine of tickles, “Hahahahahaha-Daaash!” You catch sight of the mare’s prismatic tail swishing happily across the sheets. Streams of broken consciousness conclude that you’re going to suffocate, and you stop resisting to focus on catching short breaths when you can.

Then suddenly: respite, ”Not so tough now are ya! I’m not the only one with a belly button ya know!”

She just had to tease you didn’t she? You waste no time exploiting her ego. Arms shoot down and break her hold on you, she recovers to her hooves and you quickly find yourselves staring each other down on opposite sides of the bed. You can see her sizing you up—planning her final attack. She has the advantage in speed and leverage, though you still have raw strength and fingers. She’ll probably go for your belly button again, but if you go for something different…like her hooves, she won’t expect it. It was a risky gamble, you weren’t even sure if her hooves were ticklish or not. But worst-case scenario you’d be at the mercy of someone you trusted completely, so the consequences of failure did little to affect your strategy. Like a showdown at high noon, silence falls and a cool breeze wafts through the window and across the battlefield to ruffle the tangled sheets.

She bores into you with steely magenta eyes…Draw!

She lunges high and you dive low. You manage to snag a hind leg while she springs her trap—vying for position over your belly button and poising her feather-tipped wings over your sides. You didn’t expect the wings, but it didn’t matter. Your fingers find the sensitive pad of her under hoof and start tickling before she can subdue you.

“Hahahahahahha!”

A sense of relief washes over you, that three pronged attack would’ve been fatal. Dash collapses head-to-toe next to you as her body rocks with laughter. You start back nibbling and tickling on her frog. It was surprisingly clean for the pony equivalent of a foot and it didn’t smell like anything at all. Her paralysis allowed you to relax your defenses; you were safe as long as you kept constant contact with her hoof.

“Hahahaha-Anon you said ten-hahahaha! Ten seconds!” She’s right, but you’re going out with a finale. You snatch her bucking hind leg out of the air and shift to nibble on it all while maintaining control of her fore hoof with your fingers.

”Qui-ihit! Hah-it hurts ahahahaha!” She stops bucking her hind leg out of fear of kicking your face. The courtesy isn’t lost on you and you finally cease your ministrations. A final massive wave of laughter slowly escapes her body leaving her breathless. You relax against the bed while still keeping control of her two hooves. She looks over at you with a heavy-breathing grin and wild eyes. Her mane was a frazzled, cosmopolitan mess.

You smile smugly at her, “Your bill has been paid in full Ma’am.”

"*huff…You promise?” Her eyes are wide, her body tense with anticipation.

“I promise.” She lets her guard down and rests her head on the mattress. She didn’t care that you still had two of her weak points under your control, you promised you wouldn’t tickle her any more and she had no reason to doubt you. So you do what anyone would and take the unique opportunity to compare her hooves.

“Whatcha doing dude?”

“Just…seeing how they work.” You copy her from when you first awoke.

Her head thumps against the mattress again, and she resumes catching her breath, apparently indifferent toward your curiosity. Her rear hoof is slightly bigger with a deeper set frog, and her fore hoof is narrow with a puffy frog—probably for holding things. You let go of her fore hoof and bring her easier to reach hind hoof back to your lips. She jolts up but relaxes when she feels a gentle kiss grace the sensitive pad. You briefly make eye contact and notice her muzzle is red. She lays back down—thinking she was fast enough that you didn’t catch her embarrassment.

After a moment she pipes up, ”I’m hungry.”

“Me too.”

”You have some cereal or something?”

“Nope, all out.”

”Nothing? No food at all?”

“I got some more granola bars and a few packets of tuna and—”

”—What the hay! You invite me over and don’t even have anything to eat!”

“I said we have granola bars and tuna.”

”Bleh! Tuna! And those granola bars are getting old, especially since you always get the same honey flavored ones.”

“Those are the only ones that you eat.”

“Well…whatever.”

You look up and see her peeking at you with a grin, “Besides, my paycheck would have a hard time feeding you alone, not to mention both of us.” You give her a condescending mom look to complement your playful rebuttal.

She thinks for a moment before swiveling around to lie across your chest. She plops down with her chin on your sternum, her forelegs tucked comfortably against your side, ”Well, then just…make more money or something.”

“Hahaha, I wish it was that easy Dash.”

She matches your smile, “It is, you just gotta make that bread oven.”

“The toaster?”

“Yeah that.”

“I will, I just need to uhh…start.”

Her grin grows wider, “You mean you’ve got a job interview in a few days and you haven’t even made it yet?”

Of all ponies you were getting lectured by Rainbow Dash on procrastinating, “Well I don’t exactly have to build it I just need to draw the plans for it.”

“Pfft that’s all? I could do that after a day of training in a snowstorm!”

“Sure you could Dash.” Your tone wasn’t condescending, but that didn’t keep her from seeing it that way.

“Hey! I paid attention in school!”

“I never said you didn’t!”

She shoots you a fake glare until you poke her nose with your finger.

*boop

She scrunches it and squints her eyes. Her mouth opens up reflexively.

*Achooo!

The sneeze hits you right in the face. You wince and close your eyes as until you feel the last bit of aerosol settle. You blindly bring your hand up to serve as windshield wipers, ”Heh sorry dude.” You open to see a sheepish looking Dash with an apologetic smile.

“Now I know what that button does.” You return her smile.

She wipes your cheeks with the side of her foreleg and shoots you a wry smirk, ”Now you owe me a few minutes of tickling and a sneeze!” Whoa! Back up, that doesn’t add up at all. But she doesn’t give you time to work out the math, ”Let’s go out, I’m buying.”

“I hate to say it, but there’s not much choice there.”

”Be grateful I’m not leaving your butt here to starve on honey granola bars.”

“Oh believe me I am.” You honestly feel pretty bad about not being able to pay for your mare friend, but she couldn’t care less. The last thing she is is high maintenance.

She squints at you, surprised at your sincere tone, “So is this a date Dash?”

She snaps out of her stare and blushes a bit, flicking her tail at your knees, ”A date?”

“Yeah. I mean aren't we kinda...together now.” You hold your breath. You know how she feels, but getting her to verbally confirm it would be a major milestone for the mare.

Her ears flop back and her eyes dilate ever so slightly, ”Y-yeah…we are.”

You seize the moment and lean in to peck her tacky lips. Despite the brief contact and distinct morning breath you can’t help but feel elated at her taste and sensation. You can already tell you’re going to get addicted to kissing those lips…assuming you’re not already. Her ears perk in surprise and she blushes. You bring a hand up to scratch behind her ear in hopes of breaking the ice. She better get used it that because it’s going to happen a lot. She’s still a bit zoned out—either the ear rub or the kiss you’re not sure which.

“So…you want to get off me now so I can get cleaned up?”

Her blush deepens and she licks her lips, ”You’re not going anywhere til’ ya kiss me.”

You definitely just did that, and you were definitely eager to do it again. But she’s got to earn it. Your playful smile returns, “Make me.”