Once Rainbow Dash had finally divested herself of the giant "finger" Lyra had launched, she sought about straightening out her wings, checked her feathers, and gave them an experimental flap. Laughing the incident off, she kept flapping her wings to hover in the air. "Hey. Where did Twilight go?"

"Well, she was just arriving to try on her dr—" Rarity coughed a moment, lifting her hoof politely. "… try on her outfit." A quick glance around her friends showed her Applejack raising one eyebrow, Fluttershy mostly ignoring the conversation while hiding behind Applejack, Rainbow Dash was fluttering in place, checking out her own wings, and Pinkie Pie wore the biggest grin Rarity had seen on her yet. "We should probably give her—"

"I'm bored, let's get this fitting over with so we can just go already." Despite the rough treatment by the giant, synthetic finger, Rainbow Dash judged her wings were okay. Taking a moment to give a stronger flap of her wings, she zoomed ahead and right up to Carousal Boutique's door. Opening it, she trotted inside.

Within the boutique, Rainbow Dash spotted Twilight. "Hey Twilight, where's your outfit?" She looked around the room—seeing only dresses.

Knowing what was coming, and hoping that it wouldn't have, Twilight blew out a breath. "The truth is, Rainbow Dash, I—"

"We're back! Did you miss us?" Pronking in, Pinkie Pie bounced right up to Twilight's side and leaned in to chastely kiss her on the cheek. "I hope we didn't interrupt anything? You weren't talking about a secret that totally isn't a secret, and how it would affect everypony's life if it got out?"

Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed, and she hovered closer to Twilight. "What does she mean, 'Secret'?" Her words had gotten the attention of the others.

Walking forward, Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash—her closest friend since she was a filly—and looked at Twilight. "You can tell us, Twilight. We are your friends."

"Sugarcube, you know what keepin' secrets leads to? Ah'll give ya a hint, somethin' Ah ain't fond o'." Applejack cocked half a smile towards Twilight.

"I can't do this anymore!" Looking around the room, Twilight spotted a cup of tea that Rarity had likely been in the process of drinking at some point. Marching over to the drink, she tossed it down as if it were the strongest of Granny Smith's Special Dark Cider.

When Twilight turned around to face her friends, Pinkie Pie took her side. "It's all my fault!" Tears sprang forth.

"No it's not." Twilight reached a foreleg out and around Pinkie's withers, pulling her crying fillyfriend into a hug. "I'm not a stallion. I'm a mare. This…" She trailed off as the frowns she had been expecting didn't happen.

"Ah was angry at first." Stepping forward, Applejack only had a smile. "But when I asked Rarity, she pointed out something, you—"

"You never actually lied to us." Rainbow Dash cut in. "We made an assumption, and thinking back on it we were a bit pushy about it." Her explanation stalled a bit, at seeing Pinkie's expression turn from apologetic tears to hope.

The softest of voices cut through the moment. "We-We might have gone a little far…" Fluttershy was hiding almost completely behind her mane; only one of her eyes peeked around the curtain of pink mane.

"But,"—Applejack had waited for Fluttershy to finish, but only barely—"we made an agreement. If'n you told the honest truth, when asked, we wouldn't get mad at'cha." Stepping forward, Applejack held out her hoof. "M'name's Applejack, pleased t' meet'cha Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight looked from Applejack, to Rainbow Dash, to Fluttershy, and finally to Rarity. "You talked to them?"

Rarity got halfway through her nod before a heavy purple foreleg wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her forwards. Smooshed against her best friends, Rarity broke into a laugh and hugged back. "You realize this means I get to make dresses for you now? And not just for the Grand Galloping Gala."

Laughing at Twilight's resultant groan, Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof. "Now it's you she'll be chasing to try things on! You have no idea what it's like, but you soon will!"

"So nopony is mad at us?" Pinkie Pie looked around, getting a lot of shaking heads as her reply. "We need a special party, then!"

"We have one, Pinkie." Twilight gestured with one foreleg at the dresses that were awaiting fitting. "Remember? The Grand Galloping Gala?"

A shocked gasp pulled everypony's attention to Rarity. "Darlings! We have to hurry now or we'll be late!" She pointed her hooves at the dresses, but when her friends didn't immediately all teleport into them, she took it upon herself to begin herding them. "Come on! Come on! If any of these don't fit I won't have more than a few moments to adjust them!"

Twilight let go of the hug, and was suddenly being dragged towards Rarity by a light blue magic aura. "W-What are you doing?! Rarity!" Of course Twilight could have broken the grip, but if she did that it would have given Rarity a horn-ache.

Rarity stopped pulling when Twilight stood before her. "Twilight Sparkle, when you told me you wanted a dress, it meant you'd be wearing it. Now, hold still!"

"See!" Rainbow Dash elbowed Pinkie Pie. "I told you Twilight would be the one to put up with all of Rarity's attention now." She watched in complete schadenfreudig bliss as Twilight was worked into a huge dress. When Rainbow Dash looked for her own, she saw an empty ponequin.

"Got you." Rarity struck, plunging the dress over Rainbow Dash's head. "You know you have to all get dressed, right? Honestly, girls, I can't do this alone!" She would have, of course, but some hand-summoning unicorn's little stunt caused them all to be late.

Turning this way and that, Twilight likened the weight of the dress to her armor. "Is it meant to be this heavy?" While the weight was comparable to Royal Guard field plate, the dress didn't cling to her like armor would. The weight was in motion before she was, even breathing caused it to move around her.

"Silly Billy, you have to move with it." Pinkie Pie, somehow, slipped into her own outfit without anypony noticing. She pronked up beside Twilight (of course Rarity had made Pinkie's dress pronk-safe) and poked her fillyfriend in the chest. "You just need some practice. Follow me."

Twilight blinked in surprise, and using her magic to keep from tipping over, she followed Pinkie Pie to the middle of the room. "I don't see how you can teach me to walk in all of this in half a day, Pinkie."

"You already know how to move in it. Watch." Remembering Twilight's morning routine perfectly, Pinkie Pie shifted her weight and took a sudden stomp forward. "See?"

"I don't…" Trailing off, Twilight noticed how Pinkie Pie's (much lighter) dress moved a moment behind Pinkie's own movement. But something else had Twilight more astonished, Pinkie Pie seemed to glide across the floor. "That can't work. That shouldn't work! Wait a second, where did you learn to do that?" She gestured at the perfectly timed combat advance Pinkie Pie was demonstrating.

"If you think I don't spend half my mornings off watching you practice, you'd be wrong!" Pinkie turned to give Twilight a wink. In the process, however, she got her legs tangled in the dress and started to fall sideways.

Her own predicament suddenly became secondary, and Twilight rushed forward. Her body moved instinctively, the daily practiced drill propelling her to Pinkie Pie's side before she hit the ground. Catching her fillyfriend in her forelegs, Twilight realized she was leaning over a half-fallen Pinkie Pie—both of them wearing the most exquisite clothes—and she couldn't help herself. "You didn't have to fall for me this hard, Pinkie."

Pinkie Pie was stricken between giggles at the terrible pun, and returning the nose-rub Twilight was delivering with expert precision.

"Oh darlings. Look at them." Her heart melting, Rarity gazed on two mares wearing her creations, both obviously in love with the other. Her eyes widened, and sparkling stars seemed to cloud the corner of her vision.

Twilight kissed Pinkie Pie's cheek, now acutely aware that all their friends were watching them. "You should be more careful on your hooves." She straightened Pinkie up, and made sure she could balance before letting go.

"Who's to say I didn't trip,"—Pinkie Pie feigned falling again, but was simply wobbling in place on one hoof—"on purpose? I did get a smooch out of it, and you learned to walk in that dress." She giggled and dropped back to all fours.

"You're the best, you know that?" Rolling her eyes, Twilight leaned in to steal another kiss before turning back to their friends. Everypony seemed to suddenly be looking everywhere else. Everypony, that is, except Rarity. Practicing her walk, which was actually a slower practice march, Twilight felt all the fabric move around her, but kept her eyes on Rarity. "So, how did you know?"

"Know, Twilight?" Rarity batted her lashes, understanding the question, but wanting to goad Twilight a little. "Know what, dear?"

"Rarity!" Twilight knew teasing when she heard it, particularly from Rarity.

"I suspected something the first time we met, you do have some mare-like curves on all that muscle, you know. But Pinkie Pie threw me right off. I knew for a fact Pinkie Pie had a preference for stallions." Rarity blushed a little at her explanation. "But it was—and you have to understand, I have nothing against Her Royal Highness—Princess Luna's reaction to you. She stumbled over pronouns on several occasions. And there was the other things."

Twilight cocked her head a little to the side. "Other things?"

"When it went around you had made that ghastly spell all the stallions are using, I figured I had my best chance to test my theory. I waited until somepony commented on catching a glimpse of your derriere,"—Rarity coughed—"and had Lyra cast a magic detection at you."

"That's really clever." And it was, Twilight was more than a little astounded that somepony would go to such lengths. "How long ago was that?"

"One week." Rarity, seeing a loose piece of thread on Twilight's dress, rushed over with a needle to investigate. "I kept trying to tell myself that it was nothing, that maybe Lyra had made a mistake—you are Princess Celestia's private student."

"I'm sorry RariTY!" Twilight shouted the last few letters, when a sharp prick came from the pin Rarity poked in her plot.

Her demeanor warm, and showing no hint of malice, Rarity smiled. "That's quite alright, dear."

"I knew right from the start." Rainbow Dash, brash as ever, tried to strike a pose. Of course, she almost wound up worse off than Pinkie Pie, but recovered by flying out of her fall. "I meant to do that!"

"You didn't know, Rainbow Dash." Rolling her eyes at her friend's boast, Applejack had to stick to the truth. "Ah had no clue. When McIntosh said you had that spell, Ah figured you were just usin' that all the time."

"I knew…" Fluttershy's voice was so soft, it went unheard when Rainbow Dash confronted Applejack.

"What? Of course I knew! It was obvious by the way she moves!" Waving her forelegs at Twilight, Rainbow Dash got right up close to Applejack. "How could you not see she was a mare?"

Fluttershy looked at the two bickering ponies, and stepped back a little. "Um, I said I knew."

"Yer a liar, Rainbow Dash. If'n you knew, why didn't ya say somethin'?" Not one to back down when she knew she was right, Applejack pressed her case.

"Eeep…" Fluttershy backed up another step, and bumped into something. Taking that as an excuse to spin around and run, she started to turn.

"I heard you. You knew from the start?" Twilight stepped back from Fluttershy, to give her friend the room she needed.

"Oh. Um. Yeah…" Blushing, Fluttershy rubbed a hoof on the floor nervously. "When I first followed you to the library. Spike was riding on your back, and I was fol—following you."

Twilight realized she had finally found a pony that was observant in the town. "You saw?" But Fluttershy shook her head. Another thought sprang to Twilight's mind. "You smelled me?"

"N-No!" Fluttershy blushed crimson. "Sp-Spike said you were his big sister. But then I got confused at the party, because everypony else spoke about you as if you were a stallion, and I didn't want to embarrass myself…" The pink curtain pulled around, but was halted by a purple hoof.

"You shouldn't doubt yourself, Fluttershy. You are a clever pony. Spike didn't know about the misunderstanding until later, and by then he couldn't stop it if he tried." Twilight brushed Fluttershy's mane to the side so she could see her friend's blushing face. "We should probably go. Applejack and Rainbow Dash can catch up."

Fluttershy found herself giggling and nodding.

Rarity had to shoo her friends out. "We'll be late!" She feared for a moment she would need to break up hoofticuffs between Rainbow Dash and Applejack. "Please, girls!"

As the six friends walked from Carousel Boutique to the train station, one particular pony took notice of them. Big Mac stared at Twilight Sparkle. His heart sped up, and his breathing became ragged. Gulping, he opened his mouth and licked suddenly dry lips. "T-Twilight Sparkle,"—his voice was low—"you're the bravest stallion Ah've ever seen." Tears welled in his eyes, and for the first time in his life McIntosh saw a pretty dress that would have actually fit him. It was beautiful.

Author's Note

Rarity: Does this newest revelation of Twilight's actual sex bring with it a questioning, if not broadening of your sexual orientations?

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes for a moment, bewilderment plain as day on her face. "Well I—I hadn't really thought of that. I suppose I would have to say that it has given me a lot of ideas for new outfits. Why should mares be the only ponies who can wear dresses? And why shouldn't a chic, modern mare wear a fancy coat and vest?"

Twirling around, Rarity seemed completely oblivious to the question now. "I can see it now: next gala, we will all go in suits, and I will make the most exquisite dress for Spike!"

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