The Heart of Pleasure
By Haunter Rayne
Ch 49 - Of Laughs and Rainbows

The crowd had grown large in the Ponyville Comedy Club as many of the towns folk had gathered this evening for the amature stand up comedy hour. Friends, strangers, and couples alike chatted amongst the small tables that were gathered around the floor space. Then things quieted down as two earth ponies made their way up to the stage. The first to speak was a stallion with a moderate brown coat and an amber mane. Those in the crowd who were familiar with Meadow Song shouted their excited praise as he took hold of the microphone.

“Puh-leeeez put your hooves together for your next performer, Maud Pie!” Everyone in the room happily clapped their hooves as a gray mare took his place and adjusted the microphone to her height.

“What do you call an Alicorn with no wings and no horn?” The crowd looked up as she paused for them to consider. “Earth pony.” From back within the seating only a single pony laughed at the joke.

Seeming unphased by the silence from the others Maud continued on. “But seriously, being an earth pony isn't so bad. We've got magic powers, too. Like walking around and picking stuff up with our teeth.” Now the only responses from the rest of the crowd seemed to be some confused murmuring. “That's sarcasm, by the way.” Maud pointed out.

“It's funny, 'cause it's true!" Sitting in between Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon Pinkie cheered while seeming to not even notice how the other two were looking at her strangely.

Not seeming to be affected by the silence Maud then said, “My favorite thing to listen to is clastic rock – the accumulation of sediments over millennia forming to create sandstone, shale, and breccia. It sounds something like this.” Then she leaned forward making a soft breathing sound into the micophone that most in the crowd could barely hear at all. “And that's my time.” She announced before making her way off the stage.

At this Pinkie Pie was now having to hold her ribs from laughing so hard as she called out, “Isn't my sister Maud the most hilarious, entertaining, amazing comedian ever?” Now the crowd finally joined in laughter as Pinkie nervously wondered if they were doing so for not the reason she had meant.

- - -

Not much later the two Pie sisters were walking out of the club to each head home for the evening. Pinkie was bouncing excitedly saying, “Your jokes, your hilarious delivery, your... your everything!”

“How was my timing?” Maud asked.

“You got me!" Pinkie cheered. "C'mon, let's celebrate sister-style. We can get matching stickers that says ‘Eyes on the Pies’, then show them off at the Ponyville Sticker Convention that I could plan for tomorrow if you want.”

However as Maud turned to face her sister apologetically she told Pinkie, “Actually, I'm busy tonight.”

Clearly looking saddened now Pinkie replied, “Aww, that's what you said yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before the day before that.” After sighing softly Pinkie stepped ahead of her sister to say, “It's just, we haven't hung out in a really long time because you always have other plans. Even when you promised to build whipped cream pyramids with me.” Then from seemingly out of nowhere Pinkie pulled out a can of whipped cream and sprayed some into her mouth but while still looking sadly to her sister.

“I know. I am sorry, Pinkie. The reason is I have a-” Maud tried but was interrupted when Pinkie suddenly shoved her hoof into Maud’s mouth.

“Apology accepted, as long as we get some serious sister time before your birthday. And there's, uh, definitely no reason I wanna hang out before your birthday. Just, you know, not planning anything special.” She said while elbowing Maud in the side and using a heavy tone to emphasize that she really was trying to plan something.

“Okay.” Maud said in her usual deadpan tone.

“What about tomorrow morning?”

“Okay.” Maud repeated again.

Now exploding with glee as actual confetti exploding into the air Pinkie cheered. “Yay! Just you and me. Best sister friends forever!”

“Best sister friends forever.” Maud replied and watched as Pinkie now hopped around her in a circle.

“I can't wait for tomorrow to be today!” Pinkie screamed out with an extended squeal as they parted to head toward their separate homes.

- Elsewhere that night -

Rayne hummed happily to himself as he stood against the railing to the small river bridge that was right outside the Ponyville Day Spa. He had arrived early which was made easy for him by his coworkers helping to make sure none of their customers kept him late in the spa. Having known all about it, Lotus and Aloe had bombarded the stallion with dating tips for the Rainbow Dash but after each attempt by them he had just smiled confidentially and thanked them for their advice.

By the time eight o’clock had rolled around Rayne stood at the agreed upon spot. He was wearing a plain white dress shirt which he had rushed over to borrow from Rarity, much to her frustration at not telling her what it was needed for. Additionally, the stallion had opted for purchasing just a single red rose for his sporty date rather than holding a whole bouquet of flowers to surprise her with.

“You’re early.” He heard from the sky behind him as his date also arrived early, about fifteen minutes ahead of their scheduled time.

“I didn’t want to keep you waiting.” He said with a smile. He knew she was looking him over, probably not having expected him to have dressed up. And she raised an eyebrow as he twirled the flower in his hooves in front of her.

“Trying to impress me?” She asked, flying down while looking like her everyday self. But Rayne resisted the urge to smirk as he detected just the faintest hint of perfume from her.

“No, no. I promise now, I don’t have any plans to over do it for you tonight. Just a nice casual date for us to get to know each other. But at the same time, I don’t mind showing that I think you’re a mare worth looking nice for.” He was using a calm and gentlemanly tone knowing he’d have to play it slow with Dash if he didn’t want to burn his chances with her.

Finally dropping down to her hooves she stepped forward and accepted the flower from him. She smelled it and smiled, but used it to partially hide her expression now as she asked him, “Just the one red rose? You know, I am a Wonderbolt after all. Is just the one flower suppose to impress me?” Her eyes revealed to Rayne the playful smirk that she was hiding behind her flower. He knew that she was just messing with him, wanting to get a read on where his mindset was at for their evening together.

“Well it is only our first date after all and I didn't want to seem overbearing. Also, I figured that with you being a Wonderbolt you probably get flowers all the time so a bouquet probably wouldn’t impress you. Although, that doesn’t mean you aren’t still deserving to receive one.” It was true that this had all just been guess work on his part. But he didn’t waiver showing his date that he was confident in his decision.

As far as he could tell his choice had paid off. Dash fluttered a wing a bit and walked up beside him to lean against the railing. “Yeah well, don’t worry too much. It’s classy. I like it.” Rayne gave a smile of relief, feeling like a student on a sports team who just got a ‘good job’ speech from their coach. But now his date looked at him skeptically as she glanced both ways down the empty night road. “So? What’s the plan then? You do have a plan for our date, right?”

Making a show of his smiling for her he said, “Well, that depends. As I said, it’s only our first date and I don’t have the advantage of knowing you very well to take into account what you like.” He used a hoof pointing over to where the hillside stretched into the sky on the horizon. “I know you’re a Wonderbolt. And ponies have already tood me all about you being some sort of a local hero around town. I wouldn’t want to bore you with an evening that’s too quiet. We could go rock climbing over in the hills. Or if you’re more of a thrill seeker we could go play hopscotch across the backs of some Crogadiles.” He laughed to show he had only been joking but she matched his wit with some humor of her own.

“So that’s your first date choice? Put me in a situation to get me killed?” She gave a challenging stare feeling certain that she’d get his smug confidence to crack with a comment like that.

But she wasn’t disappointed when he seemed to peddle back from the corner she was working him into. “Hold on, give me a chance now.” With a playful smile he gestured back toward the main section of town. “I also know that you’re an Element of Harmony and have helped to save Equestria countless times. I figure that maybe a hero like that, even one who is the sporty type, can still appreciate the traditional feel for things. Maybe a quiet dinner, somewhere that we can eat and talk?”

“Well, food is good. I do like to eat. When you have a lifestyle like mine you definitely tend to burn through your calories pretty quick. But where are you going with this Rayne? I’m starting to feel like you’re stringing me along here.”

Rayne nodded but wasn’t worried because he was coming up to his point anyway. “Well, what I would like from this date Dash is to get to know you better. I’d like to get to know the real you. To see the side of you that your friends know and not just the Rainbow Dash that I could read about from the cover of Sports Pony Illustrated.”

Dash turned away for a moment to not show that she was blushing now. She already knew that she liked him. He was good looking, he got along with her friends, she already knew his M.O. about being a pleasure pony. All that was left now was for them to get to know each other better which is exactly what he was offering. And yet, she still didn’t feel satisfied with letting go of playing hard to get just yet. “Just talk?” She asked while facing away from him. “Sure, that’d be okay. Might sound a little boring though.”

“Oh, well I didn’t say there wouldn’t be just a touch of flare. This is a date after all.” He quickly told her as he plucked her rose from her hoof and then tossed it over the edge of the bridge.

“Hey!” She shouted and looked down to where the flower had fallen. Her ears perked up though when she saw a little two pony riverboat anchored just below. Her flower had fallen neatly right upon one of the built in seats. Chuckling out loud she looked to him and smiled, “Okay, I’ll admit. That was pretty smooth. You sure you’re not secretly trying too hard here after all?”

Raising his hooves Rayne laughed and told her, “Promise, promise. Look down, there isn’t even a paddle. I figure we could have ourselves a little ride because we’ve got nowhere to go and all night to get there.” With an encouraging smirk he climbed over the railing and leapt down to the side of the riverbed below.

“Wow, okay so more like way smooth.” She sighed to herself finding that she was the first to have their confidence break instead of Rayne. Little did she know though that Rayne took that moment to pant as his heart was racing, thanking the stars that Dash seemed to be enjoying herself so far.

The stallion untied the small boat that was hardly more than a raft and then held it steady as Dash fluttered down to take a seat. After picking up her rose she settled in and then waited as Rayne climbed aboard to join her. Then using his magic he pushed them off from the shore. “And off we go!” He cheered, pretending to be a ship’s Captain for their modest little vessel.

It was enough to get a small chuckle from Dash as she then asked, “So where are we going?”

“I dunno. But I promise that if we get lost I’ll let you blame me for it.” At this his date rolled her eyes at the cheesy joke but she wasn’t too worried being pretty familiar with all of the surrounding areas around town. “So, Rainbow Dash...” He began.

“Uh, uh.” She interrupted him. “Me first.” He nodded and tried to keep his eyes on her face as she stretched out along the seat to get comfortable. “So what’s the deal really with you being in town and being a pleasure pony? I heard the nerdy egghead version from Twilight but I want to know the real scoop from the horse’s mouth.”

“Ah.” Rayne said guiltily as his ears folded a bit. “So we’re straight to that already are we?” Dash just nodded. “I take it that everypony knows by now?”

“Well not like the whole town... but all my friends do. Everypony who was with us at the Crystal Empire.”

“Well, if you heard about it already from Twilight then you probably know as much as I do about it.” He stated to her honestly.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Now Dash leaned forward as if she were preparing to scrutinize his answers.

“Yeah, I will admit that I am one. But I was never aware that being a pleasure pony was a thing until coming here to Equestria. It's not like there is a secret training manual on the subject. We don’t have hidden meetings out in the woods or anything like that. But if you want to know my story then I’ll tell it to you. There’s not much to say really. I never knew my mom so it was just my dad and I while I grew up. He did the best he could to raise a boy with manners and respect for others. I found out pretty quick that it felt nice when I could make others feel good about themselves. Then when I got older, I learned that sometimes you just can’t help everyone even when you want to. I got hurt a few times, didn’t like where I was in my life so I moved around some to try and better myself. And now I’ve somehow ended up here in Equestria.”

Dash was looking at him suspiciously now, not as if she didn’t believe him but just that she had been expecting more to the story. “So what? You’re special super power is just that you’re a genuinely nice guy?”

Now Rayne just laughed not having thought of it that way before. “Well you tell me. This is your date Dash. Are you enjoying yourself so far?”

Now the pegasus leaned away feeling confused. She didn’t understand how her attempt to be on his case all evening had somehow turned back on her. But after she thought about it for a moment she decided to drop the attitude she had been showing him and just enjoy herself. “Yes Rayne, I am. Thank you.” He was almost shocked to see the soft expression as she let her guard down. She laid down in the little boat letting her back hooves hang off the edge as she just stared up at the stars. “I’m sorry Rayne.” She told him softly. “I’ve been being a butt head all night so far and you’ve been nothing but nice to me. Really, I’m enjoying this. So I’ll stop. You want to get to know me? Okay… So what do you want to know?”

“Well, what do you care about?” Rayne asked, leaning forward feeling intrigued by how she was opening up to him.

“Heh, that’s easy. I care about being the best! And I mean at anything! It doesn’t matter what I put my mind to. If I’m going to commit myself to an action then I want to be the absolute greatest at it.” She saw Rayne smile but then she turned toward him and said, “No, I mean it. It’s not just all about winning races and stuff. Even in a competition, coming in first is only the second most important thing to me. What I care about is if I performed well. Was I as fast as I could have been? Did I make the best decisions for what is appropriate to the situation? As long as I’m striving to improve myself then winning is just a reward, not a goal. If I won a race but did a lousy job of doing it then I wouldn’t feel satisfied.”

“Wow Dash, that is really deep. I’m not saying I didn’t think you could be like this but you definitely leave a stallion feeling inspired.” She waved him off with a hoof and he looked at her giving a bit of a flirty smirk now. "You trying to rewrite the book on good work ethic?"

“I rewrite the definition of good in every book.” Dash laughed and Rayne chuckled along with her.

After that there was a silence between them as Rainbow looked back up to the sky again and enjoyed the feeling of just floating along. “What is it that you want out of life? What are you looking for?” Rayne’s asked and she was surprised when the boat suddenly rocked a little bit.
Looking over she saw that he was now laying down along next to her and she could see the moonlight shining on his face as he looked up to the sky above.

Laying back and staring up with him she said, “Well, I don’t really know. Right now I guess I’m just happy with my life as it is. I have good friends, an amazing career, I’m healthy, and I have a place in life that I've carved with my own two hooves. That’s a pretty good feeling." Topd him with a sigh of satisfaction. Although her tone suddenly dropped as she went on to say, "But life is unpredictable... You could have everything blowing just your way and in an instant there could be a freak gust that makes you lose it all.”

“So you want something stable? Something that you feel you can rely on? Something that feels safe, that you don’t have to worry about losing? Even if everything else in your life goes astray?” Rayne asked gently.

“I don’t know really. That sounds nice... but I don’t know what that would look like for me exactly. I’m sure it’s the kind of thing that’s different for everypony. Maybe I’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Just ride the waves until you get there?” He said, smiling up at the sky as they talked.

“Yeah, something like that.” She whispered back. And that was when Rayne felt Dash scoot closer to him. He kept his face turned upwards but he could see her blushing out of the corner of his eye. First she leaned her body over but after taking a minute to steady herself she also rested her head upon his shoulder. She didn’t complain when he wrapped a hoof around her and they just lay back staring up at the stars for quite awhile.

Rayne didn’t know how much time had passed as they just lay together drifting slowly down the river. He also didn’t know whether or not Dash was even still awake because they had been quiet with each other for awhile now. But in either case he was content. He had thought hard to make sure this would be a good date for her and somewhere along he found himself enjoying the evening just as much as she was. “Be honest with me.” Her voice spoke out suddenly interrupting Rayne from his thoughts.

“Yes Dash?” The two didn’t move and just spoke softly as she pressed her face intimately against his shoulder.

“Did you already know… before tonight… that I already liked you?”

“I had an idea. I felt bad when you looked so upset at me with the whole Applejack thing.”

“Did you honestly believe that I would have gotten mad if you had kissed me back in the day spa? Or were you just dicking with me to try to get me alone on a date like this?”

Things had be calm and enjoyable between them up to this point. But now Dash sounded as if she was suddenly angry. Rayne didn’t dare glance over with more than the corner of his eye but it was enough for him to tell that she was frowning and boring a hole in his side with a glare. “I honestly didn’t know. We had hardly spoken to each other. You could have gone either way on it. But I wanted you to know that I could tell you liked me and that I had noticed you. That I also was interested in you as well.”

“Do you still want to kiss me Rayne?” She asked bluntly.

“Yes.” Neither were moving now and Rayne opted to be direct until he could figure out why her mood had changed so suddenly.

“Do you want to fuck me Rayne?” She spat out, sounding like she was pissed at him and yet she was still cuddling as if she were happy with him.

“Yes.” He admitted, still being direct but not implying anything further.

“So, is that how our night ends? Is that what you are going to try to do with me?”

“No.”

Now she pulled away from his shoulder as she half leaned herself up to look down at him. She was still scowling and he wasn’t sure if she were disappointed or just didn’t believe him. “Why not?”

Sitting up to look her in the eye Rayne now took a serious tone deciding that it was time to make something perfectly clear to her. “Because you haven’t given me any indication that you'd want me to. And taking advantage isn’t exactly my style.” He was being a little harsh now but not to be mean. Rainbow Dash had clearly changed to a serious approach for their date so he was going to respect that. “What do you want me to say? That I’m on a date with one of the most physically stunning mares in Equestria and that it never came to my mind to have any lewd thoughts about that? Of course it did! You’re gorgeous Dash! And you know that you are! But I’ve never been on a date like this before, okay? I’ve never dated anyone famous. I’m not about to pansy out here but sure, that’s still a little bit intimidating for me. That’s why I worked so hard to make sure I treated you with respect as if you were just any normal mare. I wanted to get to know the real you and not the show pony that I believed you were more than!”

Rayne’s voice had cracked just a little bit around the middle there. If she wanted to know how he felt then he was going to let her have it. But she surprised him, taking him completely off guard as she laughed and smiled as if he had passed some unknown test with her. “So that’s what it looks like.” She said chuckling, bewildering the stallion even more.

“What?” He asked bitterly, feeling as if a joke had been made at his expense.

“What I mean is… so that is what you look like without all the bullshit. That is what your face looks like when you aren’t flirting with me. Or when you're trying to show off for every other pony because you’re afraid they won’t like you if you don’t try so hard.”

Suddenly Rayne froze and his ears fell as he felt incredibly embarrassed. “Oh.”

“Yeah, 'oh.' Why do you think I’ve been busting your chops so hard all night? I just wanted to get to know the real you too. Think about it like this. You knew that I am a town hero, sports athlete, celebrity… but you wanted to see passed that. Of course someone who is called a 'pleasure pony' is going to flirt with me and probably give me a totally AWESOME date, which is exactly what you’ve been doing so far. But I wanted to see you get angry, or sad, or something that isn’t… perfect. So that way I could get to know you as well.”

“Heh.” Rayne was stuck. He didn’t know what else to say. “You’ve got me in a box here.” He admitted as a line from the Deadpool movie suddenly came to mind. “So, what do you think?”

She rubbed her chin and thought about it for a moment. “It’s not bad. You look cute when you’re embarrassed.” Now Rayne just waved at her and turned away while blushing because she was rubbing it in. That was when she laughed and reached out to pull him back. But they both froze when they realized how close they were staring face to face with each other now. “Look, I would normally NEVER admit this to a stallion but this date really has been perfect so far. Like literally not even too perfect, kind of perfect. But… it’s time to stop that. I don’t want perfect. I want real. So it’s time to do something that can’t be done right or wrong. It can only be done with how you feel.”

Rayne just stared at her not knowing for certain how he felt. He was happy, scared, nervous, excited. But wanting to really hear her out he just looked her in the eyes and said, “I’m listening.”

“I’m done with my boat ride now.” She told him directly. “But I’m not ready for this night to end. You still haven’t kissed me yet Rayne but I’m not going to tell you if I actually want you to or not.” This really made him look at her curiously now. “I want you to think about something for me. If you kiss me here tonight, and I don’t like it... Or you find out that I didn’t actually want you to… what is the worst that you think could happen?”

“Well for one-” He started but suddenly her hoof was on his lips stopping him.

“No! Shut the fuck up Rayne. Stop talking. Stop controlling the situation! You can’t control this, you’re stuck and I’m not going to let you out of it. Just think, how bad could I possibly make things for you if you kiss me and it pisses me off?” Rayne was quiet for a moment but then he just nodded to show that he’d thought it over. “Yeah, that might happen. But if you kiss me and it doesn’t, would getting to end this night with touching your mouth to mine for only a few seconds be worth the risk for everything that you just thought of?”

Now Rayne breathed softly but he didn’t leave her waiting. “Yes, it would be.”

He saw her breath tighten as he gave his answer so assuredly. Staring at him now as if she still weren’t going to give anything away she glared and told him. “Then what the fuck are you waiting for? Pony up and sign your life away or just pansy out already!”

Then Rayne leaned forward and thrust his lips against hers. He was nervous at first because he could immediately tell that she wasn’t kissing him back. While his mouth was pressed to hers he opened his eyes and realized that she was just staring at him. She was not moving. She was only allowing this to happen ‘to her’ as opposed to ‘with her.’ “You know what? Fuck it! Her lips taste amazing. If she’s going to burn me then let’s go down with this ship!” He thought to himself and ignored her awkward response as he grabbed her cheeks with his hooves and really poured his soul into enjoying that kiss for as much as she would let him.

“Finally! You stupid bastard!” She growled out and suddenly she grabbed him back, kissing him so fiercely that she almost turned the boat over on them. She moaned now as he wrapped his hooves around her shoulders and held her. She responded by thrusting her tongue into his mouth and the running her hooves up through his mane.

Rayne grabbed her and leaned her back into the boat now, wanting to feel as close to her as he could. She moaned and he moaned back as they each sucked the breath out of each other passionately. Their lips grew wet together as their tongues glided along between their mouths. However it was Dash who was the first to speak as she mumbled through their make out session, “Mmmmm, Rayne… if you ruin this… by asking me a question… I am going to-”

“Shut the fuck up Rainbow Dash.” Rayne growled aggressively.

“Ohh that’a boy.” Dash cooed in satisfaction as she literally wrapped her back hooves around him now while they continued to kiss. “Rayne, get me the fuck out of this little boat.” She told him and almost gasped as the stallion’s horn glowed and the boat was immediately driven up against the side of the river. Gripping her hard he used his arms to pull her straight up off her back and he then carried her to where a soft field of grass now lay out in the middle of nowhere.

The thud from her back against the ground made them both chuckle as they rolled around with each other, nearly competing for who could kiss the other the hardest. The giggled as they were mutually aware they were hurting each other's lips from how wildly their tongues were locked together. It was then that Rayne gripped one of her hooves and thrust it back into the grass. She pulled her lips back and grinned up at him as if she enjoyed that but then her expression faulted as he pinned her other hoof in place now too. As soon as he began to kiss her neck she stopped wrestling with him and Rayne noticed how her breath seemed to catch in her throat. “I’m not ready.” She whispered while feeling his excitement growing against her thigh.

“What?” Rayne asked as he pulled back to look at her.

“I’m not ready… to do that with you yet.” She said as she looked up at him. “So what are you going to do?” She asked, making a show with her glare that she was challenging him again.

Rayne paused trying to get a read on her but he had to admit that she had her poker face worked down to an art. “Then I’m going to stop. That’s what’s I’m going to do.” He said immediately letting her go and backing away from atop of her.

She sat up now and looked around seeing that there seemed to be no pony around for miles. “Are you sure that’s what you-”

“If you’re not into it Dash, then I wouldn’t be getting what I want from being with you.” He said earnestly, sitting now and staring at her with a confident look.

“Well alright then. ...Sucker, hehe.” She laughed and turned away from him.
“Wait, what?!” Rayne gasped.

“Oh, nothing!” She said while looking the other direction as he tried to walk around in front of her. “Kiss me good night Rayne. I had a lovely evening with you.” She raised her chin proudly and was clearly messing with him.

“Hey now wait a minute.” He said in protest, trying again to get in front of her.

“No.” She snapped with an adamant expression on her face. Then very seriously she repeated, “I said, kiss me good night Rayne! I had a lovely evening with you!"

At this Rayne stopped chasing her and nodded. He smirked knowing that there was something to her game that he still wasn’t getting but at this point he conceded to let her win. Gently he reached out to take her by the hoof and she allowed it. He bent down and kissed it before saying, “Thank you for allowing me the pleasure of escorting you this evening.”

“The pleasure was mine Rayne. And if you’d like… you can ask me out again. But if you want to get farther with me in the future than you did tonight then you had better come up with something a lot more exciting than some romantic little boat ride.”

“Haha, okay. I’ll do my best.” He replied and watched as she smiled before flying up into the air.

Once she was high enough into the air she looked back to see him teleport away. “You big doofus, I was lying when I said I hadn’t been ready. You couldn’t tell that I was all over you?!” She whined, knowing that she’d be giving herself some hoof burn before falling asleep this evening. “But thank you Rayne. That was sweet. Nopony has made me feel this special in a long time.” Then she shot off through the night to head for her bed as fast as she could.

Author's Notes:

Yup so this chapter references episode 3 of season 8 in the show. 49 chapters in and we finally get to Maud's stand up comedy night Haha. Credit for Maud's jokes go to Hasbro and the show makers of course. Oh and now we know what Maud has been busy doing instead of hanging out with her sister haha.

But as for Rayne's date with Rayne...I HAVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS! Haha. I came up with the "Rayne perseus Dash" mini arc back when I was only around writing chapter 12. And it's taken this long but I FINALLY get to begin sharing it with you all. Sadly Rayne's next date with her is going to get pushed back a bit but don't worry because I think it will be worth the wait.

Now as for their date, what do you think of Rayne's idea? And yes they were challenging each other a bit. As Dash pointed out, she was trying to get him to crack right from the start. But that was just her way of trying to see his real side. Of and the reference to Sports Pony Illustrated is related to Sports Illustrated Magazine which historically has posted many articles featuring famous sports stars.

Eventually though Dash let's up and decides to enjoy herself on her date. She reveals to Rayne that she isn't as much of a glory hog as she seems. She is just very determined and cares a lot about being the best pony she can be.

But boy does she really call him out on his bullshit though. If you remember from a previous chapter, she was the one who openly stated that she knew all his flirty romancing was an act. No she doesn't know his intent. But yes she can see right through his charms every time.

And yes the Deadpool reference was from Nega Sonic Teenage Warhead.

And what did you think of the end? Yes Dash wanted him to just take her... but she wasn't disappointed with him backing off from her either. I thought this was cute. But what did you think?

Artist credit #DarknessMLP