chapter 2: tips and tricks
Rainbow Dash and Rarity were sitting in the boutique after Rainbow's breakdown. Rarity had decided to commit whole heartedly to Dash's endeavor. Her first goal was to gather information on Rainbow's love life. "Now darling what do these stallions you speak of actually do?"
Rainbow would have blurted out her first thought but knew Rarity not take kindly to her vulgarity. She took a minute to think about her wording. "Many of my uuh... 'Encounters' are one night stands. A few come back for more but when I try to commit they avoid me and seem to disappear."
Rarity didn't believe all the stallions in town are that cold hearted. "Where and how do you meet these stallions?" Dash went with an honest answer. "I usually go to The Ursa's Eye." "Well that answers the where but how do you grab their attention?" The Pegasus started to eye the floor in a nervous manner. "Well it usually starts off by getting a few drinks in me. I give it a little while and if no pony notices me then I head to the dance floor to show them why they should."
Rainbow looked to Rarity and waited for a response. Rarity was surprisingly not disgusted but relieved to find out her friend was simply going about her introduction the wrong way. "Darling there is nothing wrong with you. You just need to change your approach. Your not going to find something as special as love in such a..." Rarity was going to speak ill of Rainbow's favorite club but thought it might offend the mare. "...unrefined establishment and your only making it worse by drinking."
Dash had traces of despair in her eyes. "But I don't know any other way." Rarity did not notice her friends despair. "You should show your interests in a subtle lady-like way." "BUT HOW?!" Rarity caught on to the situation and thought to herself. 'I should have seen this coming. I don't believe Rainbow has been subtle once in her life.' "I will show you , but tomorrow. It has gotten late and I need my beauty sleep."
Rainbow had her for hooves up as if to present something that didn't exist "Your going to leave me hanging like this?" "Dash it is just too late to do anything. Now go home and get some rest. Meet me here at noon and we'll begin our lessons." Rarity got up from her seat and went to the doo to open the door to be polite but show Dash that the conversation was over. Rainbow got up, stretched her wings and headed for the door. "Fine!" Rarity closed the door behind Dash and turned to opal which was laying comfortably on a plush cushion. "What have I gotten myself into my sweet opal?"
The next day at the Boutique.
'where is Rainbow Dash? She was supposed to be here an hour ago.' A light knock on the door was barely heard. "Is that her?" Rarity slowly walked to the door questioning if she actually heard anything or if it was her mind playing tricks on her.
Rarity opened the door to reveal Rainbow Dash sitting with her shoulders slumped while wearing heavily tinted shades. "Why are you late?" It wasn't that Rarity's voice was loud but it pierced through Dashes skull like an axe. "Hey could you lower your voice a little." Rainbow was nothing but a whisper to be lost in the wind. Rarity peered into the dark lenses with scorn and raise her voice. "your hung over aren't you." Dash flinched with every word. "ooowww, yes I am a little hung over but I still want to know what you wanted to show me." The unicorn rolled her eyes. "Very well, Come in" And gestured for the cyan mare to follow her. She led Dash to her bed room and motioned for her to take a seat on the bed.
"Why are we in your room?" Rarity took a seat close to Rainbow, a little too close if you asked her. Darling I'm going to teach you to flirt." "Isn't what I do flirting?" "No that is…" for the second time Rarity almost let her tongue slip. This time she almost called her friend a whorse. "… It's just not"
"Then how do YOU catch a stallions eye?" "I have many ways to show a pony I'm interested. And that is the first thing you need to do my dear Dash is pick the pony, Don't make yourself a target for the rotten ponies. When you get drunk your sending an invitation to get hurt by them." Dash simply sat and listened to the unicorn. "When you find a stallion that you are interested in, you need to show him you are, but in a subtle way. Now I'm going to show you how to do so but first I need to see your eyes."
Without giving Dash a moment to reject Rarity quickly took Dash's shades off. "aah!" Rainbow hastily put her hooves up to block the searing light. After giving her eyes a minute to adjust Dash was back looking at Rarity "Now why did you have to take my shades off?" "so that you could show me how well you can bat your eyes, now be a doll and show me." Rainbow had never tried to bat her eyes and didn't feel comfortable doing so in front of anyone. "How about you show me an example first." Rarity looked at Rainbow with a slightly funny look. "Very well."
She proceeded to give Dash a proper example. Rarity made it look easy which gave Dash some confidence. "I can do that no problem." As Dash tried to mimic the unicorns perfected technique ended up looking more like dust had gotten in her eye and she was having trouble getting it out. This made Rarity giggle at the silly Pegasus. "Don't make fun of me! You asked me to do it." "I'm sorry darling, this is your first time isn't it? It is ok just let me show you again." Rarity showed her friend once more. Afterwards Dash tried again but showed little improvement.
After a few minutes of this back and forth Rainbow could finally bat her eyes, not as well as Rarity but didn't look foolish either. Rarity continued her lesson and taught Dash other ways to catch a stallion's attention, such as cute giggles, hip swaying, and of course the classic mane flip. Rainbow had the most difficulties with hip swaying since she only knew one way to walk and that was to simply go.
"The last thing I have to show you is how to convey your feeling through touch." "you mean like sex?" "No darling that is not what I mean. I'm talking about things like brushing against him as you walk past to let him feel how smooth and soft your fur is." The unicorn got up and placed herself far enough away from the bed to have some walking room. "Get up and walk past me. Make contact as you do so but don't bump me and make sure to apply enough pressure for me to actually feel you."
Rainbow got up and positioned herself in front of Rarity so that they were facing each other. Dash walked forward making sure to tilt her body to the right so she would make contact with Rarity's. During this event nothing was said giving Dash time to think. 'Why do I feel so funny. It isn't the hang over is it?' The Pegasus and unicorn's bodies touched. 'her fur is so smooth, like silk.' Their fur continued to slide past. 'It feels so good on my feathers.' Their cutie marks met and made Dash's heart pump a little faster.
Rainbow finished and turned to face Rarity who did the same. "you did that just perfectly darling!" Dash scratched the back of her neck with her hoof. "I must have gotten lucky then." "Don't doubt yourself and If you don't believe me then try again and prove me wrong." Rarity taunted through her smile.
After Rainbow Dash and Rarity finished up the lesson Rarity told Dash to meet her in the market in the morning the next day.
"Why are we here Rarity?" The two mares walked the market. "we are here to try those techniques I showed you." "Really? why the market?" "Well I need to do a little shopping and all the ponies here are working members of society. So you won't as likely run into the lowlifes that you have had previous encounters with." "I see your point." "Good then do you see a stallion that interests you?"
Dash scanned the market doing her best to view the ponies going from stall to stall until she spotted a brown earth pony with a black mane and tail sporting a rocking chair cutie mark. Rainbow nudged Rarity in the rib to get her attention form the elegant cloth she was drooling over. Dash pointed to the stallion "There." Rarity rubbed her side with her hoof. "Don't be so ruff and don't point, it's rude. I am glad that you know a good looking stallion when you see one though."
Dash stood and stared at the unicorn for answers. "It isn't that hard. Just go make conversation with him and use what I taught you." Rainbow was shaking she was so nervous. 'need to calm myself.' She reached under her wing and grabbed a flask taking a generous swig before placing it back. The mare took a deep breath and walked over to the stallion.
"Hi, I'm Rainbow Dash." The stallion was startled by the mare that had snuck up to his left. "aah,…hi?" He looked at Dash with confusion. Dash tried to look cute by bating her eyes. This only confused the stallion even more. "can I help you…?" Dash avoided his question. "What you looking at?" She pointed at the merchandise that was being displayed on a blue cloth. "These are carving tools." Rainbow look back at the stallion "why are you looking at them?" "Because I use them to make furniture."
The stallion was getting irritated from having to answer her questions. "That explains your cutie mark." Dash pretended to look at his cutie mark when she was really examining his flank. "Is there something you need ma'am?" Rainbow could tell she was losing him and was dying on the inside. 'I feel like I'm going to suffocate. I need to try something else.'
She walked along the stall tracing the edges. She eyed the wares while swaying her hips, showing her firm flank to the stallion. Dash tried to keep the conversation so he would notice. "What do you like to do besides make furniture?" The trick worked. When she looked up from the wares the stallion was staring at her flank. He notices she was look at him and quickly made eye contact and hoped she hadn't noticed. "Well I like to race." Rainbow had thought she struck gold. "You know I'm an athlete myself."
The earth ponies mood had changed drastically and was now trying to be as smooth as possible. "That explains your beautiful figure" Rainbow giggled trying to be cute "Thank you, You have quite a nice shape yourself." The stallion decided to see how far his luck would take him. "What would you think of a race followed by lunch?" Dash trotted back to the earth pony and looked up into his eyes. I would wonder when and where this would take place." "How about in the park tomorrow." "I'll see you there. But I would like to know the name of my fellow racer." The stallion almost face hoofed for forgetting to introduce himself. "I'm Birch Curve." "I'll see you tomorrow then Birch Curve."
Rainbow got out of view of the market before letting her excitement explode. Dash darted into the sky. "This is AWSOME! I have an actual date!" She flew for a good five minutes before finally retuning to the market.
Rarity was leaving while looking every direction for her friend. Rainbow flew down in complete stealth and yelled in rarity's ear "BOO!" The white unicorn did a 3 foot dead hop straight up. "aaahhh!" The cyan mare was on the ground rolling back and forth holding her tummy trying not to die from laughter. "Rainbow Dash! Why do you do such things." The fashionista's face was flushed with rage. "aww calm down Rarity it was just a joke."
Rarity raised her muzzle into the air. "Well, I didn't find it very funny." Rainbow was now standing in front of Rarity after gaining her composure. "okay, okay I'm sorry. Now will look me in the face. I have news." Rarity looked at Dash "I'm still mad but I want to know what happened." "He is taking me on a date tomorrow!" Rainbow hoped up and down from just thinking about it. "That is wonderful darling but I'm going to have to ask you to calm down, you look like Pinkie Pie right now." Rainbow blew a breath out. "Okay I'm calm." Rarity started to walk back to her boutique. "I'm going to go work on some orders. I will see you tomorrow after the date." "okay."
Dash flew off so that she could release some of her excitement. Rarity continued walking to her boutique. "I do hope everything goes alright."
