Is she even still awake? "I want to bear your foals, Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow let out a guttural moan and tilted her head to the side. "You say something, Twilight?"
Twilight Sparkle smiled into her glossy eyes. "Nothing at all..."
The smile slipped away as Rainbow's eyes closed again, and her head leaned back into her hooves. It never ceased to amaze Twilight how a pony of such action could flip the switch to nap time so quickly. She, however, was not doing much to prevent Rainbow from doing so. Nothing at all was all too accurate a description of what the two of them had done.
Twilight let out a long, silent breath through her nose. She was the one who invited Rainbow out here. Lying together on one of Ponyville's rolling hills may have been picturesque, poetic even, but Twilight's sights were set a little higher this day. And yet here she was, hooves folded across her chest, fumbling in her mind for ways to strike up a conversation with a pegasus who might or might not even be conscious.
A few spare clouds floated across the sky, a stark reminder of her dismal failure. Rainbow took the night shift on weather duty to spend the day with her and they'd done... nothing. Her eyes bounced from cloud to cloud, finally landing on the sharp outline of Canterlot jutting from the side of a mountain. Her tail twitched and slapped the ground.
She let out another sigh through her nose. Frustration wouldn't do her any good. Cadance and Shining Armor were due back from their honeymoon anytime, and she wasn't going to begrudge them their happiness. They were the ones who saved Equestria with the power of their love, after all. Twilight hoped such an incredible display might serve as an inspiration for her and Rainbow Dash. They were standing just feet away, after all. Apparently, she was wrong.
"Hey."
A spark born between ponies through trust and respect. That was the definition of friendship Princess Celestia once taught her. In the same lesson, Celestia told her without the spark of friendship, any relationship between two ponies simply wouldn't last. It was her first lesson of love, and then Cadance and Shining Armor showed her the final destination. The map of the path was bigger than she imagined, and there were holes she couldn't fill.
"Hey!"
She knew the beginning, and she saw the end, but the trail leading her there was no clearer. She liked Rainbow, of course, and she knew Rainbow liked her. With those wings, Rainbow could nap literally anywhere she wanted, but she'd chosen to be here with Twilight. Knowing that did nothing to change her feeling of being atop a plateau. She and Rainbow climbed as high as they could, and... she was lying to herself. She knew exactly what blocked their path, but was now the right time—
"HEY!"
"YAAAAH!" Twilight's body shot up into the air from the shock. A hoof grabbed her shoulder and dragged her back down to earth. She landed upside down, tail covering her face and cheeks burning between her hind legs.
"Let me handle the flying around here," Rainbow said. A sky blue hoof brushed her tail away. "Your eyes were practically bugging out. What's up?"
Twilight avoided her gaze. "I was just thinking—"
"You're you. Of course you were." Rainbow's front hooves grabbed her flanks, and she eased Twilight back on her side. "Anything I should know?"
Twilight tossed her mane back and ran a hoof through it to knock out any blades of grass. Even that simple question fogged her mind. Rainbow wouldn't understand the constant chorus of Oh, when is it your turn? that Twilight had heard at the wedding. That subject never came up between them before, not even as a joke.
"You're doing it again."
"Huh?" Twilight looked over her shoulder. Rainbow Dash was back in position, hind legs crossed and forelegs behind her head. "Oh, I'm sorry."
"That's twice in two seconds." Rainbow stretched out a wing on the ground. "Everything okay?"
Twilight took the invitation, lowering her head to the soft plumage. The tips of Rainbow's feathers traced a ticklish line across Twilight's back, and the remainder of the wing curled around her shoulder when she settled. In spite of the kind gesture, she could still feel Rainbow's eyes boring into her.
Twilight turned her head to meet the stare. The fire she saw in Rainbow's eyes was all too familiar. She saw it when Rainbow charged into a dragon's cave, when she wrestled with Applejack to cross the finish line at the Running of the Leaves, and when she rallied the pegasi for a second attempt at their tornado. It was the look that meant Rainbow was not going to let something go.
Actually... that may not be such a bad thing. If Twilight felt inferior to Cadance and Shining Armor, a little competitive fire might do her some good. What else can you do when you're behind in a race but catch up? "Tell me about your first kiss."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Where in Equestria did that come from?"
"Humor me. It wasn't with me, was it?"
"Ha! No, no way. Actually, it was Fluttershy."
"Fluttershy?" Twilight didn't know what she wanted to hear, but that wasn't it. "When was this? She never said... I thought she was happy with us being together?"
Rainbow nodded. "She is. I think she likes stallions, anyway. This was years ago."
The hill pulled away from Twilight, and her mind reeled with the differences between their stories. "You kissed Fluttershy, a filly and a friend, but you thought she liked colts? I have to hear this story."
A soft chuckle escaped Rainbow's mouth. "I didn't know about the colts, and you already know most of it. It was Summer Flight Camp, the bullies were picking on Fluttershy, and I raced them to defend her honor. I got my cutie mark, won the race, and met up with Fluttershy about an hour later."
"Didn't she fall to the ground?"
"One of the counselors found her and brought her back up." Rainbow grinned up at the sky. "She thanked me for what I did. I was still ecstatic from winning, and then I saw she got her cutie mark too. I just went for it."
Twilight tilted her head to the sky as well, picturing the scene. "That sounds very sweet, actually. You stood up for her when no one else would. Not only that, but you both took a great step forward in your lives." A smile spread across her face. "It almost sounds like a fairy tale. The conquering hero returns to the fair maiden and they share a soft, sweet..."
Her musings died in her throat. Rainbow's words, I just went for it, finally struck a chord with her. Rainbow Dash was not the kind of pony for a scene like that. Indeed, when Twilight looked back at her, the pegasus was biting a hoof. "Rainbow—"
"I tongued her."
"Rainbow!"
"I was excited! She was cute! She was doing the Fluttershy thing!" Rainbow screamed with laughter and tossed her head to side, covering one eye with her mane. She tilted her head so Twilight could barely see the second eye and began poking the ground with a hoof. "I... I thought it was the right time..."
Twilight slapped her hooves to her mouth. "R-Rainbow Dash! Y-You can't just-just do that to ponies! We haven't even done that!"
Rainbow twisted her neck and let her mane fall back down. "And now you know why. Fluttershy wouldn't even look at me for a month after that."
Memories of Rainbow's wild enthusiasm flooded her mind. Her face flushed at the though of that excitement translating into Rainbow's first kiss. "Poor Fluttershy."
"Poor Mom," Rainbow corrected with a laugh. "She nearly had a heart attack when I told her."
Twilight sat up on her elbows. "You told your parents?"
"Yeah. Should I not have?"
"No, I-I'm just surprised." Twilight shook her head. Even as a filly, Rainbow Dash showed more courage than her. "What happened? You didn't worry about how they would take it?"
"I didn't exactly give them much choice. I got home and started bouncing on the walls, shouting out everything I could remember about camp." Rainbow's hoof danced in the air as she spoke. Twilight had a sudden and unwelcome mental picture of a miniature Pinkie Pie with wings. She hoped, for Rainbow's parents' sake, that cloud walls were as easy to fix as her research suggested.
"Dad sat on the couch, laughing along," Rainbow continued, "and Mom gave up trying to keep up with me after the first minute. I stopped for a second, trying to think of something else that happened, and just blurted it out. 'Oh, yeah! I kissed a filly!'"
Twilight gave her a sly smile. "Pause for dramatic effect?"
"Mom thought so," Rainbow chuckled. "She fell through the floor."
"She what?"
"I never thought it was possible! She fell through the clouds!"
The air exploded with the sound of the two ponies' hysterics. Laughing behind Fluttershy's back was a guilty pleasure, but this was laughing in the face of nature. Twilight filed the instinct of cloud walking away for further study as she fell back into Rainbow's wing. She had never heard this story before, much less anything about Rainbow's parents, and she didn't want this to end.
Rainbow obliged without a request. "The three of us talked it over when Mom popped back up. She was stone faced, and asked if I was sure, if I knew what that meant. That was the first time I found out there was a difference between liking colts and fillies. Dad had my back, so I stood my ground. I told her if I wanted to kiss a colt, I would have kissed a colt. I didn't want to kiss a colt, so I kissed a filly."
Twilight nodded to herself. "You thought it was a choice."
"Yeah, I mean, if it's a choice what's wrong choosing one way or the other? I mean, now I know that's not how it goes, but I just wanted to be like my dad. If he liked mares, I liked mares. End of story. I thought he would proud that I kissed a filly."
"Really? Your father had that much influence on you?"
"My dad was the best," Rainbow said. "The best. He was the one that clued me in on the Wonderbolts. That first show he took me to was the most incredible thing I ever saw. Mom and Dad got me the posters, the action figures, all that jazz later on, but it wasn't the same. Twilight, the precision, the adrenaline, the speed, that was it. I saw what I wanted to be that day."
Twilight looked to the sun, far along its westward trail. "I know the feeling."
"Dad taught me everything he knew after that. I don't know if he thought I actually had a chance to make the team, but he never stopped pushing me. We'd race every day, and he won every time. That was my first real competition. When we first started he raced me flying backwards, calling out advice as I went. As I got older, I made him turn around. I was proud of that. I still hear him in my head sometimes, when the wind is rushing by. 'Beat me! Beat me, Rainbow!'"
"Did you?"
Rainbow elbowed her ribs. "Of course I did! It was the day after I got home from camp. I was still flying high from pulling the Sonic Rainboom, and I smoked him. He-He tackled me into the clouds when he caught up to me."
Twilight's head perked up at the sound of the cracked voice, and she rolled to her side. "Are you alright?"
Rainbow beamed up at her. She blinked to clear the mist in her eyes, and her voice came out in a whisper. "He laughed. He just laughed and laughed and laughed. Mom had to threaten him with a crowbar to make him let go of me."
Twilight nestled her head on Rainbow's chest. Her heart beat faster with just the memory of the story, and Twilight wrapped her foreleg around her. "That's a beautiful memory. He sounds like a good father."
"He was. Is. They both can't wait to meet you, you know."
Her face flushed. "Are they coming to Ponyville anytime soon? Cloudsdale isn't that—"
"They don't live in Cloudsdale anymore. Dad got a new job in San Franciscolt after they helped me get set up here. Your parents are closer." A hoof stroked her mane, and Rainbow's eyes focused on hers. "Speaking of which, it's your turn."
Twilight nodded. "That's fair. Fire away."
"We didn't talk to your parents at the wedding. Like, at all."
"Well, there was this changeling invasion—"
"Do they know?"
Twilight froze. "W-What do you mean?"
A second hoof joined the one in her mane. They held together to keep Twilight in place. The fire was building in Rainbow's eyes again. "It would have taken ten seconds to introduce me to them. You were shocked when I said I told my parents about Fluttershy. Do they know about us?"
Twilight took a long breath to steel herself. "No. Neither does Shining."
Rainbow sat up, keeping her hooves in place. "What are you doing on Tuesday?"
Twilight blinked. "And what does that mean?"
"We're going to Canterlot. You have to tell them."
"Are you serious?"
Rainbow's eyes didn't lie. "Yep. I'll carry you on my back if I have to."
Rainbow Dash was gone, instantly replaced by her mother sitting in her favorite blue chair. Her father stood behind, their faces frozen in unreadable masks. Swiftly as it came, the vision was gone, but it was still to close her throat with shock. Her entire body trembled, her tail wrapped around her hind legs, and she tried to collapse in on herself.
She heard Rainbow's distant cry of alarm. The hooves around her neck hooked under her forelegs and kept her upright. Twilight hung limp in Rainbow's grasp, eyes on the ground. "I... I'm not ready."
Rainbow's voice softened. "You don't have to be. I'll be ready for you. Say your piece and I'll keep them off of you. I'll get us out of there like—"
"Lie down, Rainbow. I should tell you about my first kiss."
She did, pulling Twilight down with her. "Who was she?"
Twilight pulled away from Rainbow's hooves and lay on her back before answering. "He was named Sunspot, and he was an older student at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."
"'He?' You kissed a colt?"
"I was a little surprised you didn't, but neither did I. This was the year before I came to Ponyville."
"Twi, that... that wasn't so long ago."
She didn't laugh or make fun of it. Twilight let out a loud sigh of relief and reached for Rainbow's hoof. "I was glad to hear your story, Rainbow. Mine isn't so happy. I always knew I didn't think about colts the same way other girls did, but I... I never saw another pony like me when I was a filly. I never saw two fillies holding hooves, or two stallions dance together at the school balls. Every pony else was just... normal."
Rainbow's hoof entwined hers. "You are normal, Twilight," she whispered.
"Because of you, Rainbow," Twilight answered. Her relief didn't reach her face. The story wasn't finished yet. "Back then, I didn't know what I was. I wasn't naive enough to think I was the only pony ever to feel like I did, but no one else was acting like it. The only logical conclusion I saw was that they were hiding it. So that's what I did. I buried it inside me, and I buried myself in my books."
Rainbow's grip on her hoof tightened. "How long?"
"Years. Like I said, I always knew. Every history book I read told me about kings and queens; every story book had their heroes and damsels. There was nothing for me, Rainbow." Twilight paused, collecting her thoughts. What she was about to say sounded foolish in her head, but it was true. She wanted Rainbow to hear it. Rainbow deserved to hear it.
"What about Sunspot?"
"Sunspot was a coincidence. Every pony I knew dated, or talked about dating. They just had that some pony else. Over the years I just felt... incomplete. I felt sheer biological desperation to just find some pony and hook up and get it out of my system. Then I was invited to a party for the Summer Sun Celebration. I met Sunspot, we talked, and I brought him back to my room at the library."
"Just like THAT?"
Twilight flinched as the force of Rainbow's shout drove the breath from her lungs. She pulled back her hoof and turned away, wrapping herself in her forelegs.
"No!" Just as quickly as she turned away, Rainbow followed. Her chest pressed against Twilight's back, and her hoof reached around to cover the folded legs. "I-I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. Keep talking, Twilight. Please."
Twilight took a breath to steel herself. Rainbow Dash heard this much, and she deserved to hear the rest. Twilight craned her neck to finish her story. "I couldn't do it, Rainbow. We tried for an hour, but it... it wasn't right. It wasn't what I wanted, and I tried to make him leave. He started shouting, called me a waste of time, and... he slapped me."
Rainbow bolted upright, her voice dropping dangerously low. "The scumbag smacked you?"
Twilight lifted her right foreleg. It trembled as it rose. She slowly swung her hoof backwards, dragging it through the air in front of Rainbow's face. It was surreal to act like he did, but she was always curious about what he saw in that moment. "He hit me right under the eye."
Rainbow grabbed her hoof and pulled her up. Twilight didn't resist as she was pulled into a pegasus embrace. Rainbow's wings wrapped around her, dragging in her tail and overlapping her entire body. Her forelegs pulled Twilight's head against her chest, and Rainbow nuzzled the back of her neck. Every inch of her was covered by her lover. She could only imagine that the pegasi did this as a display of protection, to make whoever they held feel safe.
It worked.
Twilight felt this feeling before, but this time meant so much more. There was nothing left to tell. She opened herself, and Rainbow took her in. Rainbow took all of her in. Twilight felt tremors in herself, whether from sobs or laughter she didn't know. Her body, sending her breath out in ragged gasps, didn't even know. It made no difference to the hot tears trailing from her eyes.
A spark born between two ponies through trust and respect. The lesson returned to her, and Twilight knew her trust was rewarded. They found the next step together. "No pony else knows that whole story, Rainbow Dash."
"I'll keep it that way. I... I wish I was there. You held onto this on your own for—"
"Princess Celestia saw my eye the next morning, and she picked me back up. She told me he wasn't worth my time and taught me who was." Twilight lifted her head and nuzzled Rainbow's cheek. "You are. I learned my first lesson of love and friendship because of that night, and everything I've learned in Ponyville has lead to this. I made a stupid choice, but I think it's paid off."
Rainbow's chest shook with soft laughter. "A stupid choice, huh? I used to think liking mares was a choice, and you know what? I chose you. I've never regretted it. I always knew you had guts, but, Twilight, you're stronger than you know."
Twilight slipped out of the embrace and cupped Rainbow's muzzle in her hooves. "And I chose you, Rainbow. I hoped you would let me be me, and you have. I can't tell you how much that means."
Another hoof covered her own. "I was serious about Tuesday. You don't have to hide anymore. I'll be with you the entire time if you want me there."
"I know. I'll... get back to you on that."
"You can't get away from yourself, Twilight."
"I know that, too."
Rainbow pulled her hooves down. "It's getting close to sunset. I'm sorry, but I should go." She looked up to the sun and snorted. "We were having a moment, huh? You think you could pull it back a bit?"
"A very nice moment." Twilight laughed. "And there is no way. No matter how much I want to."
"Well, we should do this again soon," Rainbow said with a smirk, flapping her wings to lift off the ground. "Lunch at Sugarcube Corner tomorrow?"
"I'll see you there."
With one more powerful push, Rainbow launched herself to the sky, kicking up a cloud of dust in her wake.
Twilight turned away, shielding her eyes with a hoof. Canterlot, gleaming in the imminent sunset, caught her eye once more. There was no envy in her heart this time. Twilight started walking for the library, wondering what Spike would have ready for dinner.
A strong, sudden pull forced her muzzle up into something hot and wet, nearly lifting her forelegs off the ground. A rain of colors fell around her eyes, blinding her until gusts of breeze from flapping wings blew them clear. Twilight opened her mouth and melted into the patch of sky that fell on her.
The taste of Rainbow on her lips ignited her desire to push, to take this as far as it could go, but Rainbow had other plans. Her hoof, usually on the back of Twilight's neck, now stroked her throat. Soft as it was, the touch sent paralyzing sparks of excitement and pleasure through her body. She was at the mercy of this kiss.
Rainbow Dash broke away, leaving both of them panting for breath. "You won't be getting away from me, either. Just wanted you to hear that."
Twilight laughed and grinned up at her. "I love you too, Rainbow."
