How does one explain love to the one they feel it for?
The sound of a stifled, painful, and guitarish snap echoed through the halls of the castle-like house. A rainbow-maned, cyan Pegasus stuck her head into the doorway that entered the room holding the source of the sound. The noise was immediately followed by a curse.
"Blitz!" Rainbow Dash barked. "Keep it down! I'm trying to sleep!"
"Sorry," apologized Blitz. His likeness to Rainbow Dash was so close it was amazing they were merely cousins and not siblings. However, unlike Dash, Blitz's mane and tail were spiky and sporadic while Dash's were far sleeker and more aerodynamic.
As a matter of fact, this cloud mansion was Rainbow Dash's home, and Blitz was paying one of his weekly visits.
Rainbow Blitz set down his guitar - a Gibson Changeling, now with five strings - and hopped off the couch he was sitting on. "I'm gonna go make myself a daisy sandwich," he told Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah, cool, whatever," sighed Dash. "By the way, Lightning's looking for you. Says she wants to 'find out what's bugging you.'"
Blitz stiffened. "L-Lightning Dust?!" He stammered. "What's she doing here?"
"I just told you!" Rainbow smirked. "I always knew I was the smarter one." She turned and left to her disorganized bedroom, waving hi to an opal Pegasus that waved absently back. Lightning Dust.
"Oh, hi Blitz!" Lightning smiled cheerily, waving at him more enthusiastically than she had to Rainbow Dash. His only response was "I-Wha-how-what-?"
"Blitz?" Lightning queried. "You good? Need some water or something?"
Blitz attempted vainly to recompose himself. "Uh...oh, no, I just...didn't expect you to visit at this time."
"It's 5:00 P.M."
"Right. Uh, sorry." I'm so fucked! Was Blitz's next thought.
He did not want to talk to Lightning Dust. Not because he didn't like her, but quite the contrary. Over a long period of time, Rainbow had developed real feelings for the reckless Pegasus that he could not ignore. It's not like me, he would tell himself. Yet nothing he said or did tore him away from his desire to hold the Pegasus close to him and sleep with more than a blanket keeping him warm.
Blitz did not know where these feelings came from. All he knew for sure was that one day, he saw Lightning flash a smile when he was in a bad mood from equally rotten luck, and his spirits lifted a little. It just went from there.
And now, he was stammering like a nerd caught clopping in front of her.
"Look, Rainbow Blitz, I just noticed you weren't acting like yourself, and since I, well..." Lightning Dust looked away sheepishly. "Learned my lesson about leaving others in the dust...I figured I should try and help. You know, see what's goin' on, try to work it out, yadda yadda yadda. So, what's up?"
I can't fucking do it. Rainbow Blitz thought. All that would happen was that he would break down in front of the mare of his dreams and confess, and then she would either laugh at him or be scared of him, most likely the prior. The only way out was to shrug it off, but in his current state Dust would just press him further and further until he confessed. Poor Blitz had no choice but to tell her he loved her. But I don't want to!
"Rainbow Blitz?" Lightning asked. "HellOOOOooo?" Rainbow snapped out of his stupor, tumbling backwards onto the floor and hitting his flank, sending pain up his cutie mark. "Oooowww..."
"Shit! Sorry!"
"No no, it's cool," Rainbow Blitz groaned. He slowly removed his sore plot from the ground, dusting himself off. "L-look, I don't want to talk about it, okay? It's really personal."
"You can tell me," Lightning pressed. "I won't tell anyone, and I won't think any differently of you."
"Like hell you won't. If I told you, you'd avoid me for two eternities."
At this point, Lightning's curiosity and concern was building into mild frustration. She bit it back with some strain, walked forward, and placed a hoof on Blitz's shoulder.
"Blitz," Dust began. "I only want to help you. If you don't want to tell me and it's that personal, then I won't mind. But you know that until you enforce it, I'm not gonna leave you be till you come out with it. So either you slap me across the face and force me away, or you fess up. I'm way more stubborn than you are, trust me."
Rainbow Blitz looked away. He knew he was trapped. He could never, ever bring himself to hit Lightning Dust. There was only the option of confessing.
"You really wanna know?" He sighed dejectedly. Lightning nodded. Rainbow paused, then asked her "Can we sit on a cloud outside? I really don't want Dash to hear this..."
"Of course!" With that, they headed at a slow pace outside. With each step, the knot in Rainbow's stomach grew tighter and tighter. The surroundings went by faster than Rainbow Dash flying. The stairs were gone, then the front door, and soon they were sitting on a white, puffy cloud.
"Alright, what's going on with you?" Lightning Dust asked. Rainbow felt ready to vomit. He held his head delicately in his hooves. "This is going to be hard for me to explain, Dust," he warned, and sank lower into the cloud when her response was "I'm listening." Fuck! he thought. Why did I decide to do this again?
Because carpe fucking diem, dipshit. Replied a voice in his head. It was the last shred of ego in Blitz, the remainder of his confidence, and it set him straighter than a wheat stalk. He slammed his hooves into the cloud, making a bit of it dissipate.
"I've only got one chance to tell you, so here it is," Rainbow began. He steadied his breath, hoping to form what he had to say. "It started a while back. I was having a bad day, and you were over at Dash's place with me celebrating something. I was still in the dumps, but I caught a glimpse of you smiling, and for some reason I just felt a little happier. It's escalated from there. You know where I'm going, right? What I'm trying to say?" Lightning shook her head. Rainbow sighed frustratedly and continued.
"I'm saying-" he paused and made a convulsion not unlike retching. He recovered his body and continued. "I'm saying I love you."
A gasp was what answered him. He looked away, praying to Celestia Lightning didn't humiliate him. He'd already done that to himself. Unknown to him, humiliation was not on her mind. What was, however, was about twenty questions directed at herself.
Did he seriously just say that? What do I say? Do I love him too? Is it-
She stopped. Did she love him too? It should not have been a hard question, but Lightning was more confused than a spinning top. She had been having a naggy romantic feeling tugging at the back of her mind, but she shrugged it of as her teenage hormones telling her to go bang somepony. Over time, though, it had developed into a conscious desire to lie next to a warm body and bury her face into a stallion's comforting chest, a need to have lips pressed against her own. After that stage, her want turned to a specific pony she kept seeing in her dreams. She never saw his face, but she knew he was out there, and that she loved him. The question now was, who did she love?
She knew the answer right away.
Rainbow Blitz. Lightning Dust had wanted Rainbow Blitz's cyan forehooves wrapped around her in bed, his multicolored forelocks to brush out of his gleaming eyes, and his voice comforting her in her times of need. She loved Rainbow Blitz and knew that she did. All that was left now was to tell him.
At this point Rainbow was staring downwards, small tears trickling from his eyes and feeding the cloud beneath him. Lightning Dust put her hoof under his chin and stared into his magenta eyes. "Rainbow," she began. "I love somepony too. Take a wild guess as to who it is."
"Not me?" He sniffed.
"Nope." With that, Lightning leaned forward and closed the gap between them, sealing the space between their lips, and throwing her hooves around his neck.
Rainbow's brain went into overdrive, forcing many emotions onto him at once. The first was confusion, followed by disbelief. Then came shock, then relief, then joy, then finally elation. He wrapped his forelegs around Lightning's ribcage and kissed back, pulling her closer. It was the best kiss either of them had, and by the time they broke away, both needed air and Blitz was crying tears of joy. "Did-?" He stammered, "D-did you just-"
"Yes, Rainbow, I did," Lightning giggled quite uncharacteristically. "I love you too, and even though I don't know where this is going to go, I want it to happen, and then I want it to last. Oh, and by the way..."
"Y-yeah?"
Lightning Dust grinned. "I can't believe how stupid you are sometimes. As if I don't love you!"
Rainbow sniffed. "Well, for once," he chuckled. "I'm glad to be wrong."
"Me too, Blitz," Lightning murmured, leaning against him. "Me too."
-The End