"Remind me, why are we hiding here?" Mirage asked in a hiss. The trio were currently hiding behind a pony's house, as a crowd of ponies walked by.

"These ponies want me to grow crops. I can't do that without water, but they don't realize that. If they see me, they yell at me, and I get surrounded, and then they get physical." He stared in to the crowd, not taking his eyes off of it for one moment.

"Oh." Came the stunned reply.

Rarity was being, surprisingly, calm. She wasn't moaning about how dirty it was. Instead she was thinking over some instances she had when she had hung out with Mirage. Now, she was no love goddess, but she could tell when two ponies fit perfectly for each other.

Most times ended in disaster, but there were some gems. Like when she made a fake ad for a pony named Caramel, telling him to work at Sweet Apple Acres, and that ended in a happy romance with Big Mac and Caramel.

She had a feeling this was one of those times. So she replayed scenes in her head when she had talked about stallions. The time when they had past an ad for cologne for stallions with an admittedly hot stallion holding the product. Mirage had looked at it when Rarity had pointed out. And when she stopped to remember the memory, she didn't focus on her freak out over this hot stallion, and on Mirage's face, which was noticeably red.

And though he could have just been embarrassed over her hysterics, he did happen to be staring at the ad at the time. During her thoughts, the crowd had cleared, and she nearly missed Mirage and Cactus walk in to a house across the street. She ran after them, luckily making it there before Cactus shut the door. "Why didn't you wait for me!?"

Cactus Fruit shrugged. "We tried telling ya, but Ah knew we had to get here before they came back."

Mirage frowned. "I even shook you and you still didn't react."

Rarity blushed. "Oh my. Well, Mirage, can I quickly talk to you?"

Mirage had a puzzled expression on his face, but he nodded. "Sure."

Cactus walked in to his kitchen. "I'll be makin' dinner."

Rarity led Mirage to an adjacent room and sat on a chair. She decided to get straight to the point. "Mirage, are you gay?"

Mirage froze up, and his eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed like a fish. "H-How...?"

"Ah, so you are. As for how I found out," She winked. "That's my little secret."

Mirage seemed to collapse. Hooves raised to his head, covering his face, as his body drooped to the floor. "What do you want from me?"

Rarity smiled. "To see my friend happy." And with that, she left the room, a stallion left in her wake.

"Okay, can you ask me why you want me out here?" Cactus glared at the mare sitting in front of him on the back porch.

"I have a simple question for you." She responded elegantly.

"And what is that?" He asked grumpily.

A smile tugged at her lips. She was using all the works on this pony. Half-lidded eyes. Suggestive posture. Yet, nothing phased him. "All righty then. Are you gay?"

The green pony stared at her. "Are you dumb? Ponies don't asked ponies that out of the blue!"

Rarity sighed. "I will ask you something different. Have you took notice of my posture?"

Cactus did a quick scan. "Uh, yeah. What about it?"

Rarity smirked again. "Now think of me as a stallion."

Cactus blinked. "You really are going for this? Alrighty then." He closed his eyes, and Rarity took notice as heat raised to his cheeks, and he grew a mischievous grin. Cactus seemed unaware for a bit, before his eyes snapped open, seeing Rarity's victorious expression. "That does not mean anything!"

Rarity sighed. "Suit yourself then...." As she walked by, she 'accidentally' dropped a magazine from her saddle bags. She made a quick turn to see Cactus' expression, and was awarded with a massively blushing face, jaw dropped, and eyes wide. Smirking, she went inside the cottage.

Author's Note

Before you all bother me, if he picks up the magazine is i the next chapter.