Rainbow Dash woke to the sunlight cracking in through her curtains. Well, maybe woke wasn't the right way to put it, rather, Rainbow Dash arose from her bed to greet the beam of light glaring at her. Yep, today is going to be great.

Her bedroom was actually in a pretty good shape, considering her resurfacing memories about what she did last night. Particularly what she did to a certain stallion resting just to her right. Big Mac hadn't made any indication that he was awake, or anything to the contrary. His body was kind of just there, languidly stretched out across the right half of her bed. His mane was tossed into a variety of directions, never settling in just one place. He looked absolutely adorable, sans the pooling drool next to his slightly open mouth. That was disgusting.

Dash figured it would be some time before he would wake up and realize where he was and that he was on a cloud. Damn Twilight, getting really good at spells now that you’re an alicorn. It was truly a feat of sheer magical skill that Twilight’s Cloudwalking Spell had not worn off yet, though Dash supposed this would happen eventually. Better to just let him find that out on his own, if need be I can always wake him up before 10.

Dash slipped into the shower to wash off what makeup was left on her. It was quite easy to get rid of the lipstick and eyeliner, even more so when she lathered in her shampoo. It was a practical soap, designed more for cleaning than for being aromatic. Her wings were cleaned and preened thoroughly, loose feathers and bits of dirt fell off into the basin of her shower, washed away.

And so it was that Rainbow Dash proceeded to begin making breakfast, after retracing her path from last night back downstairs. She could quite vividly remember the sex, but getting into her house was slightly skewed. There wasn't that much alcohol in her body last night, or so she thought. Time to lay off the booze for a while. Oh, who am I kidding, I’ll be back on the bottle in less than a day. This was not, thankfully, due to her loneliness.

Actually, Rainbow felt pretty great this morning, considering most of her previous mornings had been groggy and slow. This one was, so far, going pretty well. She had risen before her date and maybe even had some time to cook breakfast for both of them. Dash flipped a pancake. Yeah, I could get used to this, waking up to an actual warm body in my bed. She flopped two of the cakes onto her waiting plate. They were medium-sized things, enough for a filling serving, but not so much that it would leave the recipient too full. If there was one thing Rainbow had some skill outside of flying, it was cooking, or at least cooking breakfast. Maybe it was from all the lonely mornings she had gone through in her life that forced her to get really good at making something that wasn't just cereal or whatnot.

Rainbow watched the flapjacks crossing through the air, disrupting the quiet ambiance of her kitchen with the soft sounds of landing. She gazed out her window, taking in the massive amount of clouds drifting through the sky, noting how each one was unique in its own cloudy way. Really, each piece of fluff held some noticeable deformity that separated it from the rest of the clouds, such that all the clouds were both a part of something greater, and yet still just one cloud of a billion.

“Er, morning Rainbow.” Big Mac gave a slight yawn and trotted over to Dash’s counter. He seemed all too nonchalant in this wholly unfamiliar environment. His hooves gave barely visible dents into the cloud floor, an indication that the walking spell was beginning to fade.

“Morning Mac, you want some breakfast?” Rainbow glanced over her shoulder, and Big Mac was swept away. She was astounding, really, her mane was tossed up in any which way, part of it fell over her eyes. She was just so natural right now, her body utterly relaxed in every way.

“Of course.”

Rainbow shrugged and returned to flipping over pancakes and watching them return down onto her flat pan. Though she was more than content to let a simple silence fall over the morning, a nagging question bore itself into her mind once again, brought about by a curious inclination to know more about the stallion she had spent the night with.

“So, obviously you’re not the farmpony I thought, let’s work this back. You said yourself that you changed your accent on a dare.”

It had been when Big Mac was just an adolescent colt. He never talked much in school, or at all, but that hadn't hindered him so far. No, in fact, his short speech meant that mostly everypony kept it simple around him. Just the way Big Mac liked. There was, however, one pony that refused to be concise with the red stallion.

“Hey Mac, why don’t you ever talk?”

The speaker had been a friend of Big Mac for years, ever since they had met when they were just little colts. Their parents, back when Macintosh had them, had been close friends. So as per the cliche, they had hoped for their children to be just as good of friends. And though Big Mac was reserved even at such a young age, the other colt was odd enough to pique his interest.

It had been, in many ways, a friendship born of complementary parts. Mac, who was diligent, resourceful, and grounded, was the responsible part of the dyad. His friend was wild, extroverted, and never seemed to slow down, except for, of course, when Big Mac forced him to. Thankfully, or rather, unfortunately that hadn't needed to happen much, because Big Mac found that he actually enjoyed the crazy antics the two would get into.

From chasing cattle around the Apple’s farm to dunking unsuspecting fillies in the lake, the two tended to get into trouble. Macintosh got off the hook usually because he seemed harmless, or at least compared to his partner, who was more than a little rebellious. Even if Mac did have the opportunity to go, though, he would always choose to stay and keep his friend company while they sat in detention, or cleaned up the garden, or did random tasks (“punishments”) around town.

And so it was that when his companion asked him, Big Mac took it seriously, very seriously indeed. This had not been the first time that his buddy had asked about Mac’s speech, some hundred times it must have happened already. So, he resolved to change his ways and talk more. The first step was to actually start doing that. Which Big Mac did, albeit in one very peculiar way.

“Is this alright, my dear friend?”

There was a seconds pause, filled in with some blinks, before the other pony responded. “Yeah, I guess?”

“You guess? Surely, I begin to talk and this is how you regard me?”

“Well, I never expected you to just jump into some weird foreign language right way!”

“Foreign language? But is this not Equish? I do hope I sound alright, you see, my friend, I rarely speak.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty obvious.” There was another slight pause. “How did you learn to speak like that?”

“Like this? Oh, it may be a by-product of reading all the time.”

“You read?!”

Yes, yes Big Macintosh did read. He read a lot. Everything from the Golden Age of Classic Equestrian Literature to relatively modern works from the beginning of Realism and Romanticism. And, of course, everything in between. It was rather odd that Mac chose to speak in such a manner, after all he’d listened to others speak his entire life, but it may have been just Mac’s way of favoring the idols he admired.

Macintosh explained all of this to his friend, who mulled over for all of about three seconds, before turning back to Mac. “I guess I can get it. Just takes some getting used to.”

“Well, we do have all of our lives to adjust, yes?”

“Actually, I don’t”

The friend, who Big Macintosh had known for his entire life to that point, moved away a week later. Though they wrote constantly to each other, and still did to that very day, Big Mac never used his manner of speaking in public again, though he did continue to read as much as ever.

“Wow…” muttered Rainbow Dash. “I never knew you were such a, well, egghead.”

Big Mac laughed a genuine, deep laugh that echoed throughout the kitchen and resounded of the walls for some time after he was done. “Yes, Rainbow, I guess I’m an egghead. Though frankly, I thought you would be more interested in why I revealed something which has been kept secret for years from anypony else, just to you.”

“Hey, it’s your life, you can do whatever.”

Another silence settled on the two as Rainbow finished making breakfast. They ate their meal in subdued conversation, mostly revolving around their work for the week. It was enough, though, for Rainbow Dash. Having somepony else beside herself to talk to was rather relieving, especially considering she had given that same pony a big part of her last night. A very big part.

Actually, it was unusual, to Rainbow, how she could put so much trust in Mac. Maybe he’s just so easy to trust? He did whisk me away on a golden chariot, I mean really, who does that? Obviously Big Mac. But seriously, he put so much into it last night, the fancy restaurant, the dinner, the wine, the sex. He wouldn't have gone through all of that if he just wanted a one-night stand

Big Mac had taken to staring at Rainbow Dash for the last two minutes. She seemed deep in thought, probably mulling over what happened last night. And just what did happen last night? I have never really dated someone before, and then I not only court them with every last idea I had in my head, but had sex with her. I wanted something more from the date, but what do I do from here?

The two ponies didn't have much time to think, however, as a sudden, booming shout came through the cloud-walls.

“BIG MACINTOSH, YOU GET YER’ BIG TROUBLED ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!!!”

It seemed reckoning, in the form of a certain orange mare, had arrived.

Author's Note

Edited by the genius of Corwin Freiss.

Alright, so it has been somewhere near three or four months since the last update...

Yeah, sorry about that.

Between a trip to Cancun, being sick, school, and getting into college, it has been kind of hectic. On the plus side, I did get into college. Go Notre Dame!

Anyways, next chapter should be up soon, I PROMISE! (And I mean that this time) So now that AJ is going to come stomping into our two new lovebirds lives, how will that pan out? Wait and see, maybe there will be a threesome? (Probably not)