Rainbow Dash runs the tip of her tongue over the bottom row of incisors, wincing as she comes to the first canine. A quick trip the other direction confirms it’s just as sharp there, too. She travels along the top, her breath catching as his first exhale goes directly into her mouth. She can taste the eggs on his breath, eaten a way nopony would. Her pulse quickens. She pulls back, smacking her lips a few times, trying to clear her nostrils before venturing out again.

Her second trip starts on the canine and works farther in. She frowns at the jagged premolars - how many pointy teeth does he need? - before finding the molars. She relaxes as she runs her tongue over the familiar flat heads, though even there some of the edges are a bit sharper than she expects. She tilts her head to the side, the tip of her tongue stretching past the farthest molar before slipping next to his tongue.

Without thinking Rainbow Dash wraps a foreleg around Doug’s neck, pressing him against her as her tongue dances against his. She playfully drags along his short length, twisting to the side to rub against both sets of incisors at the same time. She relishes the contact, an excited squeal rumbling in the back of her throat.

With the way their lips are locked against each other Doug can feel the squeal more than he can hear it, his own elated purr rumbling back. One hand finds her ears, rubbing the tender spots, holding his mare in place. No longer content to let his mare stay in control his other hand buries itself in her mane, dropping to the base and finding that sweet spot.

The noise in the back of Rainbow’s throat goes up an octave. Her hind legs kick at the air uselessly, and she frees her wings only by pulling at his neck. He obliges, his head dropping down, only for Rainbow Dash to abruptly pull away.

“I can’t do it any more,” she growls out. Her barrel twists, and a reluctant and confused Doug does nothing to stop her from leaving his lap. She stands on shaky hooves. “I can’t do this to you.”

“Do what?” Doug asks, rubbing at his mouth. Sure, the kissing was unrefined and more than a little awkward - he finds he doesn’t much care for French kissing or whatever they call it here - but it was enjoyable enough, especially with how happy it was making Rainbow.

“It’s a good thing I’m leaving in two weeks.” Rainbow Dash turns her head away, yet Doug can see her eyes clench shut. “Because I’ve been a terrible friend.”

“That’s news to me.” Doug reaches a hand, gently tugging as he rubs into her back between her tail and the tip of her wings. He wants to hug her, to show her that they’re still close, and the distance hurts something fierce. “I’ve enjoyed our time together.”

“Of course you still want your honeypot.” Her tail flags and swishes from side to side, even as her head drops. “Even if I am a horrible one. They never should have sent me.”

“What are you talking about?” demands Doug, his hand resting on her side.

Rainbow Dash takes a deep breath, holding her ground away from Doug. “Fluffy Clouds didn’t just send me to be your friend because of some Friendship Report. He wanted me to get close to you and find out what you were up to and what we could use against you. Be a ‘front line guardian’, like you’re some rampaging astral ursa we’re trying to distract away from the town, and we need to figure out what kind of lure to use. But I haven’t found anything except you like flat flanked mares in heat, and I’m not one of those any more.”

“Well,” Doug says as his hand resumes its circular motions; Rainbow’s back arches slightly, her mouth opening up with a light exhale, “wouldn’t that be your answer, then? That I don’t have some nefarious scheme, and instead find lithe pegasus mares quite beautiful, heat or not?”

“You still want to be friends.” Rainbow Dash says this not as a question, turning to face Doug. A wide smile quickly spreads across her muzzle. “And you don’t hate me for spying on you?”

“Hate might be pushing it, and while I don’t exactly appreciate it I can understand where you’re coming from.” Doug shrugs to himself. “Plus, I’d go down like a sack of rocks from a hoof to the head, so please don’t hurt me when you go to capture me.”

“A hoof to the head?” Rainbow Dash asks lasciviously as she saunters over, stepping inside the circle of Doug’s legs. A hoof caresses his inner thigh as she looks him in the eye. “Sure you wouldn’t prefer a muzzle?”

Doug chuckles, though there’s none of the lust that Rainbow Dash might have been going for. “Trying to play the honeypot again?”

“Pff.” Rainbow Dash blows Doug’s hair back, the human wincing from the blast. “You wish you could score somepony as awesome as me.”

“Last I checked,” Doug says with a slap halfway down Rainbow’s barrel, then winks at her put out expression. “We don’t need to do that stuff to be friends. Just tell me, I dunno, what it was like in Cloudsdale. How exactly does a cloud city work?”

“How does a normal city work? It’s got buildings and stuff. Ponies live there.” Rainbow Dash shrugs. “The weather factory is big. No, huge!” Her wings keep her upright as her forelegs reach to the sky, spreading as wide as she can before she plops down to almost ponyloaf, her legs tucking inside his. “It takes care of all the weather. Like, half of the pegasi in Equestria are employed by them, one way or another.”

“That sounds, not to be insulting or anything, incredibly inefficient.” Doug looks up at the partly cloudy skies. “What’s wrong with the weather here?”

“Wrong?” Rainbow Dash’s face scrunches up. “Nothing’s wrong with it, it just doesn’t change on its own. How would you get more water in the sky? We can’t exactly all irrigate like Applejack has in places. Most ponies blame Discord and his chaos magic for transforming everything into sugar and chocolate milk and now it won’t change back.”

“So, he changed one too many clouds to cotton candy and they forget how to cloud?” Doug shakes his head exasperatedly. “I guess it explains as much as anything else here.”

“Yeah, well, we make do. Hey, you want to talk about something more interesting?” Rainbow Dash sticks out her tongue, ignoring the fact that she’s inches from Doug’s crotch. “I do this for my job, I don’t exactly find it fascinating.”

“And what could be more fascinating than-” Doug throws his hands into the air, excitedly shouting, “The Wonderbolts!”

“Now you’re talking!” Rainbow Dash exclaims as she leaps up, mimicking Doug’s exuberant stance. “You want to see the routine I’ve been working on? Gotta warn you though, it’s pretty intense!”

“I suppose I’m not doing anything else.” Doug takes an exaggerated yawn, turning his outstretched arms to a cushion behind his head. He leans back against the tree, smacking his lips, though his twinkling eyes stay locked on her.

Rainbow Dash smirks, taking to the air. She stretches both forelegs above her, cracking her neck first to one side and then the other. Her climb turns into a lazy spiral that gets wider and wider as she builds speed. She frowns to herself as she goes through her normal warmup; she’s getting just the tiniest bit of sluggishness in her responses, and that shouldn’t have happened just from having a large meal.

Gotta not slack off like I did yesterday. Ten percent more safety margin? No, better bump it up to sixteen just to be sure.

Rainbow Dash nods to herself as she finishes her warmup, her wings buzzing in delight. She glances down to make sure Doug is watching before her lazy circle abruptly shoots upwards, a rainbow contrail billowing behind her.

Up and up she climbs, gradually coasting to a stop. She studies her height, the back of her mind telling her that she’s not exactly as high as she normally would be. She grunts in frustration but lets herself fall, forelegs piercing through the contrail she left behind. She grins at the colors splashing into her face, counting away the milliseconds.

Doug looks on with a mix of excitement and trepidation as the mare stalls in midair and then plummets down, her wings not moving. His breath catches in his throat as she swiftly approaches the ground, still not doing anything. Then, at what seems like the last possible second she snaps her wings, instantly transitioning to a speedy prance along the ground. She even mimes her two step trot, winking at Doug as she zips by. A half loop later and her Immelmare sends her back at Doug, throwing in a few spins just before she lands.

“Pretty cool, right?” Rainbow Dash says cockily, shaking her prismatic mane.

“I almost thought you were going to die,” Doug ekes out, a hand on his chest trying to slow his rapidly beating heart. “And just leave a crater.” He takes a couple more hard breaths. “Other than that, it was pretty cool.”

“Please,” Rainbow Dash scoffs, rolling her eyes. “I’m made of sturdier stuff than that. And I know it wasn’t the best - normally I’d start from a precise height, and time it a little better - so I could get even closer to the ground.” She self consciously rubs a hoof against her mane. “I probably should have thrown in a little bit more safety margin. I really wouldn’t want to be injured this close to tryouts. They’ve benched full-fledged members for less!”

“Good thing they value you so much,” Doug says, raising a hand as Rainbow Dash sidles next to him. It rubs into her mane, only for her wing to pop open and gently bash against his head. He rolls his eyes. “You can’t possibly need a massage after that.”

“Ah-huh.” Rainbow Dash nods resolutely. “Now hop to it.” She takes a step forward, her tail swishing in Doug’s face as she drops down to ponyloaf. Her wings spread out expectantly as she haughtily raises her head to the sky.

“You’re lucky you’re so cute,” Doug says as he dutifully mounts the mare, his legs just in front of her hind legs. One hand goes to each wing, running along the tense muscles. She lets out a low moan as he works his way across her length. Then the wing pops open, Rainbow Dash motioning to a few out of place feathers and demonstrating how to preen them back into position.

An unknown voice comes from above. “Pretty cool stuff up there, Dash.” The two look up, spotting a light gray pegasus stallion with a wavy two tone purple mane and cutie mark of a security camera. He has lightning bolt emblazoned saddlebags with a camera positioned for easy access and a slightly darker gray jacket on his front half trimmed in a fluffy material with a silver pin on one side and a picture of a mare inside a spyglass on the other. “Names-”

“Sight Seer!” Rainbow Dash exclaims, nearly bucking Doug off in her haste to stand up. “What’re- omygosh omygosh omygosh! You’re scouting me!”

“Well, you and a couple other promising candidates.” Sight Seer shrugs nonchalantly, playing it cool like every Wonderbolt does. “Who knew Ponyville had such talent?”

“You gotta be able to hack it to work Everfree weather, and nopony hacks it better than me!” Rainbow Dash puffs up her chest as Doug scrambles to get off her back fast enough. She realizes what a compromising position this looks like, awkwardly rubbing a hoof against her mane as she glances worriedly at the human. “And this is Doug, my sta-, um, my strong masseur! He was just helping me, you know, warm down after that practice.” She forces a broad smile to her muzzle as she stares at him intently.

Doug at least appears to catch her meaning, nodding along. A smirk threatens to spread across his face, but he manages to wave at Sight Seer.

“I can see that,” Sight Seer says with a small smile, returning the wave. “Normally us ‘Bolts just whack away at each other’s backs after practice.”

“Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll have Doug give me a few tips for once I’m there.” Rainbow Dash’s face lights up as she looks up at Sight Seer. “Hey, you don’t mind if I, um, get some tips on what to expect, what the ‘Bolts are looking for?”

Sight Seer sniffs at the air. “Yeah, if you’re good with that. They kick all the stallions out of the Academy this time of year, make us go scouting the newbies. I hope you don’t mind a bit of an interview yourself.” He winks at Rainbow, then nods at Doug as he flies higher.

“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash leaps up, an almost apologetic glance back and wave at Doug as she follows after the Wonderbolt, her tail swishing back and forth.

Next Chapter: Ch. 56 - Aegis Aurora Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 25 Minutes