//------------------------------//
// Thoughts That Run Through Rainbow Manes 
// Story: The Secrets Zap-Apples Tell 
// by Commodore64 
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	Rainbow Dash was flying hastily back to her house. She noticed that it hadn't even been morning. In fact, it was practically noon! Had she really been at Pinkie's for that long?
Wow she thought, I guess time does fly when you're having fun.
Rainbow and Pinkie have been "dating" for the past two to three months now. Although, they weren't really comfortable with calling it dating since they were the only ones who really knew about it. This had now become routine for her. She would go to Sugar Cube Corner on the night of one of Pinkie's parties, or now just on any night, they would talk far into the night and then they would go back up to Pinkie's room. Mr. and Mrs. Cake had been oblivious since they went to bed pretty early. They would spend the night in Pinkie's bed and Rainbow would be gone usually before sunrise. 
Toady, they slept in. Rainbow was wondering what that meant about their relationship. Did she want Pinkie all to herself? Would that mean moving in with her? Would that mean telling their friends about their secret?
She didn't want to do that. She didn't want to do that at all. She could never possibly tell any of their friends that she was a... that she was a...
For Rainbow Dash, it started way back when she was a teenager. She knew that she was independent. And she also knew that she didn't see the joy in being physical with a colt. But, it was what was expected of her, so she did it anyway. She even had a pretty expansive romantic life throughout Flight School. Though, she couldn't fight the idea that she felt much better with fillies. Fluttershy had even been one of her options at more than one point. 
Fluttershy...
Why did it have to be Fluttershy? The latest was actually just a month or two before Fluttershy and Big Mac got together. She had been crushing on her, but then Big Mac and her got together and Rainbow was kind of drowning in a sea of her own crippling emotions. For the first year and a half of their relationship, Rainbow remained calm. Fluttershy seemed so happy, so collected, so confident. She had stopped stuttering as much, and she had even starting swearing at a few points. Sure, it was kinda uncomfortable for Rainbow, seeing her usually timid and closeted friends suddenly swing into giving her opinions outright and not acting like she had a care in the world, but she still felt happy for the two of them. After all, Fluttershy wasn't entirely different, she still stuttered a bit and kept quiet about a lot. Throughout that year and a half, Rainbow was genuinely happy for "Macn'Shy"
But then, she started to devolve into a downward spiral of her own repressed sadness. Everypony had noticed that she had been acting weird, and they all tried to help out.
Twilight was the first one. She came over and tried to Sherlock Hooves her way into finding out what was bothering Rainbow. She failed and decided to come back later. The same happened with Applejack, and then Rarity. Fluttershy and Big Mac came over. Which only made Rainbow lock up her emotions even more. 
By process of elimination, Pinkie Pie came over last. 
There was something different about her approach. Instead of trying to figure out what was wrong, she just tried to make Rainbow happy. She had baked her a special batch of cupcakes. She had arranged a picnic right next to the lake with all of Rainbow's favorite food. She had even thrown the blue pegasus a party which was only attended by the two of them. It did help,  but not by much. Rainbow had told Pinkie that she loved spending that time with her and they should do it again some time.
This went on for about a month and Rainbow had lost any hint of sadness from losing Fluttershy as a possibility, because she had developed a crush on Pinkie Pie. Thing was, she wasn't sure that Pinkie felt that same way about her. 
One night, her and Pinkie had been trotting home from one of their nights out. They were both laughing and talking. The faint, silver light of Luna's moon reflected on the faced of the two mares.
"So then I says to Juniper, I says, 'Oatmeal, are you crazy?'" Pinkie told her famous oatmeal anecdote. 
Rainbow was uncontrollably laughing at this point. No matter how many times Pinkie told that story, she still found it incredibly amusing. Maybe it was just the fact that Pinkie had said it that she loved it so much. "Oh, Pinkie. That story is always awesome."
"Not as awesome as you." Pinkie gave an exaggerated wink toward the cyan pegasus.
Rainbow's laugh died down and silence fell over the pair.
She couldn't take it any more. She had to tell Pinkie how she really felt about her. Otherwise, it would eat her alive. 
"Pinks?"
Pinkie turned to Rainbow, "Yes, Dashie?" 
Oh no. What if she's weirded out? What if she didn't want to hang out with me anymore? What if she's into somepony else? Why does she have to have that adorable pet name for me?
"I have to tell you something" Rainbow looked down at her hooves. "It's kinda personal. I don't know if I can tell anypony else."
Pinkie put a comforting arm around the sky-blue mare. "You can tell me anything, Dashie."
And then it all came pouring out. How Dash had been a fillyfooler since she was 15. How she had a crush on Fluttershy and was crushed when her and Big Mac got together. How she hasn't told anypony else about it. How she really felt about Pinkie.
Silence fell over the two again. A more awkward silence, but still a silence.
"So, yeah" Rainbow said, trying to move along the conversation, "I'm into mares."
More silence
Oh Celestia. What have I done? I've going to lose all my friends now. This is terrible. What in the FUCK am I doing?
A faint smile came onto Pinkie's face and she slowly turned to face the cyan pony.
"Hey" Pinkie said, getting Dash's attention.
Dash looked up from the ground in front of Sugar Cube Corner.
Pinkie pulled Dash into the lobby of Sugar Cube Corner, which was now empty, since Mr. and Mrs. Cake had gone to bed at this point. Pink lips met blue and kept together for well over two hours. They then went into Pinkies bedroom and fooled around a bit, but nothing serious.
Thus, a tradition was born. This happened every time Pinkie had thrown a major party or whenever they had a day out. After two weeks, the topic of telling their friends was brought up. Dash had panicked, she had been preparing for this moment for almost an entire decade, yet she clenched up whenever the topic of her friends finding out about their sexuality. It was terrifying. 
Pinkie tried to comfort her, actually trying to be the sane voice of reason, which wasn't a good face for her to put on.
"Dashie, if our friends would even think of rejecting us just because we're happy, then we wouldn't be friends with them. If they don't reject us, and they won't, we can keep on being the happiest couple in all of Ponyville." Pinkie let out an excited gasp as she thought of the next possibility. "Maybe we could double-date with Shy and Big Mac."
Dash chuckled. But her cheerful exterior was quickly washed away as she thought of Pinkie's unfinished statement, "But what if they DO reject us?"
Pinkie giggled, then again, that's what she did in every situation, "Then we can move to Manehattan and open a bed and breakfast." This suggestion actually got a laugh out of Dash that wasn't reluctant. "We could call it 'Pinkie and Dashie's Cupcake Factory'"
Rainbow was now laughing uncontrollably. He sides were hurting much more often since she started dating Pinkie. "Well, when do we tell them?"
"I don't know"
"When would be a good time?"
"Well, I think that we need to be sure that we'll stay together before we tell everypony"
"How do we do that?"
Pinkie threw herself on top of Rainbow Dash and stared passionately into her eyes, "I can think of one way"
They started kissing sensually and went to their normal routine of just fooling around a bit. But then, things progressed. 
The two mares laid together for the first time that night. After that, they both knew that this relationship would last, because they didn't go on dates to just lead up to that. They weren't obsessed with trying to "hook-up" every night. Sometimes, they would just fall asleep in each other's  arms, like they did the previous night.
Rainbow Dash smiled at the memory. Whenever she felt lonesome or depressed and she couldn't get to Pinkie, she would just remember their story. She thought that maybe she could write it down and publish a memoir. But for now, she just wanted to take a nap in her cloud home. And that's exactly what she did