Somewhere up in the sky, inside a house made from clouds, a cyan pegasus mare was having her usual dream.
She shifted around in her cloud blankets a bit, a huge cocky smile on her face along with saliva on her lips, meaning she had been drooling only seconds before. She fumbled blindly through her cloudy blankets, looking for the embrace of somepony that was only there in spirit.
Rainbow Dash hit the floor, having been too eager for her imaginary lover to realize where she was in her state of delerium-inducing sleep. She rubbed a hoof against the bump on her head. She was dissapointed, as usual, that it had only been a dream."You stupid mare," she muttered to herself.
She got up and headed over to the sink, dousing herself in cold water. She dried herself with her favorite rainbow-coloured towel. She glanced back at her bed regretfully.
Partly because she wanted to lay down and rest for the rest of the day, partially because she wanted her dream back. She laid herself back into the bed,sighing into the cloud covers.
"Oh Twilight, I wish you were here." Her voice was full of desperate longing and sadness as she rubbed the covers with her hoof.
She had worked up all her courage to tell Twilight about her newfound feelings, but she had chickened out at the last moment.
She remembered how she had left Twilight on her porch after trying to ask her out for over a minute, her stammers and blush just making her even more nervous until finally, she had muttered "Gottogonowseeyoubye!" and flown off at top speed.
That had been yesterday, and yesterday had been the six-month anniversary of her feelings for Twilight . She knew this because of her secret diary. She kept it in the most secret place she could think of. It was under her bed.
Yeah, Rainbow Dash wasn't the most ingenious pony in Equestria. But thankfully, nopony had found the diary, so nopony had evidece to prove her an egghead.
What was she thinking? was the Rainbow Dash really giving up? of course not! "Today I try again! I'm Rainbow Dash and I never give up!" She squared her shoulders and took off towards Ponyville.
"Hmmm what is the generic thing to do in this situation?" she thought. "I know! I'll Ask a friend.... I'll try Fluttershy, she's always happy to help and I'm sure she wouldn't tell anypony. So Fluttershy it is!"She slowed down and sped off towards Fluttershy's cottage.
Her nerves were soothed by her flight. There was no better feeling than flying for Rainbow. Napping/sleeping came second though, but that was just because of her dreams. Feeling the wind under her wings was one of the moments Rainbow Dash lived for.How relaxing, how free she felt! In the air she felt as if nothing could stop her.
"AWWWWW YEAHHHHHH!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as she did a triple loop through the sky faster than the eye could follow.
She spotted Fluttershy tending to her bunnies, as usual. Rainbow Dash decided to make a graceful landing, but it startled the animal-loving pegasus all the same. "Oh it's just you Rainbow." she let out a tiny sigh. "I've been expect- " she started but,realizing what she had almost let slip silenced her.
Rainbow was, lucky for her, not paying attention anymore. She was instead making her way over to the door of her cottage, beconing for Fluttershy to come in. Fluttershy followed her friend inside. Rainbow shut the door firmly behind her.
"we mustn't be overheard," she said.
"What is it that's troubling you so much Rainbow? You know you can always confide in me." Fluttershy said, an encouraging smile on her face.
"O-okay but you have to promise not to tell anypony about it." Rainbow said, casting a nervous glance over her shoulder.
"You have to Pinkie Pie promise." she said, in a very serious and solemn voice.
"O-okay Rainbow , if you say so. Cross my heart and hope to fly,stick a cupcake in my eye" Fluttershy responded,looking uncertain but doing the dance moves and reciting the rhyme all the same.
Rainbow Dash leaned in very close to Fluttershy, and spoke so faintly that Fluttershy had difficulty hearing it.
"I- I think I have a crush on Twilight." Rainbow said, looking ashamed and embarrased, as if it was horrible to have a crush on somepony, and everyone who had one should be kept locked away.
Rainbow Dash's heart rate skyrocketed and she gazed at her hooves in pure embarrasment.All the same she felt proud and exited for confessing my feelings. "I am so brave for being able to confess" she thought to herself as she lifted her head.
"Oh." was all Fluttershy could think of for the moment. Her eyes were wide with shock. Who would have guessed? That does explain why she has been acting so wierd around Twilight though. "Just play it cool and don't upset her."she thought to herself.
"Well I-I'm h-happy for you" She tried, hoping it was a good thing to say.
"Is that all you can say!?" Rainbow said,exasperated."It's kinda a big deal here!"
"S-sorry" Fluttershy muttered meekly. " I just don't know what to say. I don't really know how to deal with..... with......love."
she whispered the last word as if it was a curse.
"Oh buck this!" Rainbow Dash walked out of the house angrily, leaving a shocked Fluttershy behind her.
"I should have known that pony would be a sheer waste of time!" then, when she was a bit calmer, she thought "Still, it was a lousy thing to do to a friend, to just walk out of her house like that. Maybe I should apologize."
"I'll do that later, but now I really need a snack and some good advice. I'll go to sugarcube corner and have some cupckes, maybe I'll get an idea there." With her internal argument settled and her decision made, she headed over to sugarcube corner.
"Aw hay, I've eaten fifteen cupcakes already and I still haven't gotten any ideas." a stuffed Rainbow Dash said, her arms resting on her swollen belly. Her face was scrunched up in dilemma.
" I can't ask Pinkie Pie, because you just can't have a regular,let alone serious convesation with her.
I can't ask Twilight because- well obviously!
I could ask Applejack, but she's so honest she would just tell anyone anything rather than keeping it a secret.
I already asked Fluttershy, and she turned out to be a horrible help. I still have to apologize by the way. At least she won't tell anyone.
I could ask Rarity, but she would probably tell someone in exchange for gossip. Still, if I asked her really nicely, then maybe she would help me. Yes, Rarity was the obious choice, the more Rainbow thought about it the more she was convinced it was the right course of action.
She flew off towards Rarity's boutique, slightly slowed down by her full belly. About halfway there, and feeling very nauseated she stopped at the side of the street to vomit into a gutter. "Why did I eat so many bucking cupcakes?" she swore, vomited again and resolved to walk the rest of the trip.
After her long and tedious walk and upon arriving in front of Carousel Boutique,she noticed a "closed" sign. she chose to ignore it and knocked on the door. "Hey Rarity it's me, Rainbow Dash. I need your advice on something."
The door opened, and Rarity smiled warmly at Rainbow. "Always nice to see you drop by darling." Rarity said with a warm smile. Do come in and tell me what's on your mind. Or rather, your heart" Rarity smiled and Rainbow Dash blushed fiercely.
How do you kkn- I mean I don't know what your talking about ." Rainbow tried to sound convincing. But her blush gave it away, and Rarity wasn't that stupid. Rarity had immediately known it had something to do with love when she had seen how unusually unboastful Rainbow had acted.
The not-in-love Rainbow Dash would have probably said something like "Consider yourself lucky to be in my company" or "your door sign needs to be 20% cooler" or something equally stupid.
"Oh please Rainbow, you're a horrible liar . Now, tell me who the lucky stallion is." Rarity appeared to be amused by Rainbow's attempts to lie, her blush deepening with every word.
Rainbow's nerves were killing her. What a crappy day this had been! Was it bedtime yet? Or soon?
Now she had to tell Rarity she was a fillyfooler, and admitting that to Rarity was like telling Pinkie she hated parties. Or at least, she thought that was what would happen.
"Um Rarity.. It's not a stallion. It's a mare.It's Twilight." She tried not to sound too cheesy or nervous but failed miserably.
Rarity's response was the same as Fluttershy's. "Oh." then "Oh dear." Rarity was clearly trying not to look disgusted or shocked. She ended up looking both.
"Uh well she sure is quite......nice? I mean she's wonderful! I'm so happy for you two!" She put on an unconvincing smile.
"Actually Rarity, we aren't going out together. I can't work out how to ask her on a date. And that's why I came here. To ask for help." Rainbow Dash explained.
Rarity was grateful for a chance to break the akward silece."Well if you want to ask her out you have to make it as romantic as possible. A mare loves romance! I'm sure a mare who reads books all day will enjoy a boquet of roses.... How romantic....." Rarity seemed to get lost in her idea of romance and Rainbow had to shake her back to reality.
"H-huh?" Rarity muttered, her silly grin vanishing.
"You were giving me advice remember?" Rainbow looked expectant.
"Y-yes! When you ask her out, you have to be nice to her, and show her you really like her, that you're serious about her. You are serious about her, aren't you?" Rarity narrowed her eyes, as if casually dating was a crime.
"Yes! I'm very serious about Twilight" Rainbow said."She's amazing...." Rainbow Dash grinned at empty space, her mind wandering to Twilight.
"Okay okay, so the only problem left is your confidence. If you really have problems you could tell her with a note, although it could be interperted as a sign that you were not brave enough and we both know that can't happen. You're just going to be forced to tell her the truth. There is no other way."Rarity looked her right in the eyes, her original shock of discovering Dash's feelings already subsiding.
Raibow Dash grimaced, and grinned at the same time. "Enough fooling around. I'm going to tell Twilight how I feel!"Rainbow Dash was gone before Rarity had a chance to say goodbye.
Rainbow Dash was flying through the sky towards fluttershy's cottage. When she got there she knocked on the door, but there was no one home.
"Huh. Maybe she's at Zecora's. I guess now I have no more excuses not to visit Twilight. "
She closed her eyes and headed to the ponyville library. She stood in front of the library's front door for more than five minutes.
"In a few minutes I will either be very very happy or very, very sad." That thought alone almost sent her back to her cloud house. But she couldn't keep hiding from her feelings.
This would have to be it. "Good luck" she wished herself.
She could feel adrenalin pumping through her veins, and her heartrate increased as she raised her hoof to knock on the door.
knock.knock.knock
***