Rainbow Dash trots along with Doug, quickly lapsing into a two beat gait that matches the cadance of his booted feet. He’s steady, too, unlike a lot of the ponies she’s tried to practice timing with. She finds it an easy pace to keep without thinking, which unfortunately lets her focus more on everypony around them. The long stares, not just at him but also at her, get more and more difficult to ignore. She nearly takes to the air several times, yet sticks with her stallion, not wanting to leave him to face the accusing looks alone.

No, not my stallion! Stop that!

“That Spoiled Rich, huh?” Rainbow Dash says, her normal brashness twinged with trepidation.

“She didn’t seem so bad to me,” Doug says, his light shrug exaggerated from the jog.

Rainbow Dash scoffs. “Dude, she was totally just telling you that random junk to prove how ‘smart’ she is.”

“If you say so,” Doug returns, not entirely convinced. “My brother has a great memory, and reads a lot, so he knows all sorts of esoteric facts and trivia. She reminds me of him.” He chuckles, “I bet you know all sorts of random stuff about the Wonderbolts, right?”

“Duh!” Rainbow Dash nearly takes to the air as her spirit soars. Her hooves quicken their pace as she speeds up excitedly, to a near gallop Doug struggles to match. “Every Wonderbolt has their own signature style! Like Captain Spitfire; she’s got a great eye for coordination, and she’s one of the youngest captains ever! She made it there because she’s not afraid to give and take advice! She might not be the fastest in a sprint - that’d be Fleetfoot - but she can hold her own and never lets anypony slack off!”

“Oh, yeah?” Doug says, huffing as his legs start complaining. He loves seeing Rainbow Dash so passionate, even if it means not getting to slack off himself.

“Yeah! Commander Soarin is her second in command. He’s nowhere near as organized or anything as Captain Spitfire, but he keeps everypony in check. His endurance is really good, but I don’t think he’s ever going to break Wind Rider’s long distance records. He just doesn’t have the speed, and that’s mostly because he can’t keep to a strict diet.”

“Too many cakes?” Doug asks, wheezing. They’ve passed the outer limits of Ponyville, nearly to Sweet Apple Acres and curving towards the north end. To the south, along the main road, walk Granny Smith and Big Mac, trading quick waves before trees block their sight.

“Pies.” Rainbow Dash sticks her tongue out; her pace slows slightly, much to Doug’s relief, but she maintains a fast jog along the grass. “Only thing worse would be eating straight lard.”

“Says miss… loaded… hay fries…” Doug says between hard breaths, still keeping up with the pegasus. He slaps her flank, gripping her coat. To his lack of surprise he can barely pull anything but skin and taut muscles, which isn’t terribly far from his own flanks.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash calls out, playing up her offendedness. “Hay fries are a staple for any serious competitor! My parents would make me a giant hay fry sandwich the night before a big race, and it’d give me a full Cel of energy!”

“I’d always do pasta,” Doug says, salivating a little at the idea. “Meatballs. Tomato sauce, garlic bread. Nothing fancy, but lots of it.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Rainbow Dash says with a slight hesitation. Her pace slows to a walk, Doug grateful for the break. They come to a stop under the shade of one of the larger trees. She glances around the deserted orchards, gulping. “So, um, what kind of meat would you eat?”

“If I didn’t know any better,” Doug says with a smirk, “I’d say you were still working on that ‘Friendship Report’, trying to find out anything you could about me!”

“Heh…” Rainbow Dash chuckles nervously. She rubs the back of her mane as her rump plops down on the grass. “Yeah… something like that.”

Doug raises an eyebrow, but sits cross legged next to Rainbow Dash. One hand wipes the beads from his brow, the cool morning air not quite enough to keep him from sweating. The other hand comes up almost automatically, rubbing the small of her back between her wings. Her wings pop up just slightly, inviting him to travel along her sides to the damp coat underneath. He complies with a bit of a playful grimace, eliciting a happy coo.

“So,” Doug starts, having to stretch to work both sides of the pegasus, “before I answer that, you have to understand what it was like back home.” He takes a deep breath as Rainbow Dash nods reluctantly. “What is the, how shall I say, dumbest animal you can think of? How does it act, that kind of thing.”

“You’d be better off asking Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash pauses, a little unsure. “She knows this stuff way better than me. But fish are pretty dumb. They just swim around. I mean, sometimes they’ll poke their head out of the water and look at you funny, but then they go back to swimming. All the animals and birds I can think of at least, like, follow commands.”

Doug’s hands slow, coming to rest on Rainbow’s flanks. “So, back home, there wouldn’t be any of that. Some animals could learn to follow very basic commands, but it would take months, if not years, of training to get to that point. And, generally, the more intelligent the animal, the more of a proscription there is about eating it.”

“A what?” Rainbow Dash glances backwards, raising an eyebrow. She can feel her stomach tighten at just the mention of eating animals.

“Uh, forbidding it? Banning, saying it isn’t okay to do.” Doug waits for Rainbow Dash to nod. “For instance, dogs are one of the more intelligent animals. But in cultures where dogs are seen as scavengers and pests, it’s generally considered okay to eat them. In ones where they are considered companions, it isn’t.”

Rainbow Dash hunkers down a little, her ears folding against her head. “D-did you eat dogs? You said you used to have a dog right? Did, um...”

Doug chokes up momentarily, hands clenching tufts of cerulean hair. “N-no. He got hit by a car, and we buried him.”

Rainbow Dash turns, wrapping her forelegs around Doug and hugging tightly.

He chuckles to keep from crying, tapping his hands against her back and wings. “It’s okay. It was years ago.”

Rainbow Dash nods, yet maintains her grip around him. “So, you’d say you see ponies as companions, then?”

“Oh, definitely. Well, more like equals. Partners.” Doug grins as he runs a hand through Rainbow Dash’s coat, slipping past her dock and running a finger across her marehood. “I’d say this is evidence of that, right?”

“Hey, watch it!” Rainbow Dash exclaims, pushing his hand away. She glances away as Doug frowns, yet he offers no resistance. “Sorry. I wanted things to go back to what they were. Um, before yesterday.” She nods to herself, trying to boost her confidence. “You said you’d do that.”

Doug sighs as he settles against the tree. He knew this would happen, yet somehow kept that spark alive, like things might have changed. And that makes it hurt even more. “No, I get it. It’s okay. Just tell me if I’m pushing too far, then.”

“‘Kay.” Rainbow Dash perks up, grinning. “You can go everywhere but there.” She waggles her wings expectantly.

Doug gamely grabs her hind leg, toppling a surprised Rainbow Dash as he tugs it out from under her. He stretches her leg across his lap, kneading the thick muscles. “So, the most common meat to make meatballs would be beef, but I’ve had turkey, pork, or chicken with pasta. You change your spices a little, but protein plus carbs is a winning combination.”

Rainbow Dash backpedals, ending up stretched across Doug’s lap. Her hot exhale tickles the relatively thick hairs of his leg as she pointedly waves a wing in his face. He rolls his eyes before abandoning her flank to work his hands across the feathery appendage. She can feel her body tensing, “So, would, um... did you ever eat ponies?”

Doug’s hands pause, even though he knew the question was coming. “Back home, it’s illegal to eat ponies, or horses. And I never did.” He can feel the relief passing over the mare, her whole body seeming to sink around his legs as she relaxes. “This doesn’t seem like the kind of question on a Friendship Report, though.”

The chromatic mane shakes for a split second before the pegasus freezes. She hesitantly glances backwards. “W-we’re friends, right?”

Doug nods, his brow furrowing slightly. “Yes, Rainbow. We’re friends.”

Rainbow Dash sinks a little lower. “And you’re not angry at me.”

“Should I be?” Doug asks jovially, pushing her wing as far as it will go across Rainbow Dash’s back. He frowns as the pegasus nods slightly. “Why would I be angry at you?”

Magenta eyes hide behind cerulean eyelids. “Because I’m asking so many questions about you.”

“Dash,” Doug states assertively, “you can ask any questions you want. I don’t mind at all.” He musses orange and red together, then trails back to the yellow part of her mane, smiling as she opens her eyes again.

Rainbow Dash rolls to her side, still in his lap. She points a hoof up at his mouth. “Y-your teeth. Why don’t you show them when you smile?”

“Well.” Doug pokes a finger into his mouth, running over his sharp incisors to the pointy canines. “I guess I’m afraid of appearing too, um, menacing?” He glances at Rainbow Dash’s closed mouth. “What are your teeth like? Mostly molars?”

“They’re a mix.” Rainbow Dash opens her mouth, motioning with a hoof, though that mostly just blocks Doug’s line of sight. “We have some sharp ones, and molars in the back.”

Doug gently tugs Rainbow’s hoof out of the way, then holds up a hand. “May I?” She nods, and opens her mouth as wide as she can. He’s a little amazed at how far she can open her mouth, and he can’t help but notice that she could quite easily accommodate his entire length. He also gets a better idea of how Applejack manages to scarf down so much food at once: she has six incisors along the bottom front, very similar to his four, and then two sharp canines, then almost no gap before two long rows of half a dozen molars each, giving her far more chewing real estate. A long pink tongue runs the entire bottom, pulled back at the moment.

He runs his thumb along the incisors. Not quite as sharp as his own, and also not nearly as weathered, like they don’t get as much use. The canine almost feels out of place, but before he can get to the last of her molars a bit of wetness presses against his thumb. Rainbow Dash can’t hide her grin, gently trapping his thumb between her molars as she lavishes his knuckle with licks.

“Okay, my turn!” she exclaims as she lets his hand free. Doug rolls his eyes as he obliges, his lips pulling back as he opens his mouth wide and leans his head back. He can barely see Rainbow Dash peeking around, her large eyes squinting as she counts each kind. She huffs, partially at the shadows, but mostly because she wants to test his teeth like he did to her.

When she raises a hoof to attempt this, though, Doug shakes his head, mouth clamping shut. “Nope.”

“You did it to me,” Rainbow Dash whines, raising her hoof to poke at his face. “Come on, open up. I wanna feel em.”

“You’re not sticking your hoof in there. It won’t fit, or you’ll chip a tooth, and I’m not getting my jaw hurt from you stretching it.” Doug smirks as he tilts his head down. “Just use your tongue.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrow. “You’re not going to bite me, are you?”

“Technically, you bit me first,” Doug snarks. He jerks as a hoof digs into his ribs. “Okay, okay. I won’t bite you.”

“You better not.” Rainbow Dash gives Doug the meanest look she can, which comes out looking adorable. She pushes her muzzle next to his wide open mouth, her tongue cautiously peeking out.

Next Chapter: Ch. 55 - Prism Guardian Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 34 Minutes