Rainbow Dash was sure of three things at this moment:
1. She was committing a felony for flying past the recommended flight limit
2. Spike was wrong.
3. She was not in love with Twilight Sparkle
The first one was not that bad. Kind of. She had been flying past the speed limit for years, and no one has reprimanded or caught her. If she was to get caught, she already has a defense to say, no problem. She'd probably get out of court fast, just as how she always do things.
"Your honor," she'd start, standing in the podium, "in my defense, I was proving a point."
"By flying away?" The judge would ask, because they were noisy like that. They'd probably have purple scales and green eyes too.
"Hell yeah, what better way to prove yourself by avoiding them?"
And the judge would whack the hammer— 'cause what else do they do anyways— declare her a criminal with a charge of being an absolute clown, her friends laughing at the sidelines and Twilight would be there to call her cringe, all while Spike stood besides her, saying 'I-told-you' so like the absolute menace the brat was.
...maybe she should think her defense through on second thought.
Okay, maybe she overreacted. Maybe she was being too defensive and a little too in denial, but whatever! She didn't ask to be psychoanalyzed by the dragon. You love the sky— blah blah blah. That doesn't even make sense, in the first place. What he said was meaningless and lies and absolutely cannot be proved. Besides, what he did was just plain rude and wrong, she doesn't want to be analyzed— that was rude— she doesn't love the sky— just because she spends most of her time in it and dreaming of it doesn't mean she loves it— and she doesn't like Twilight.
Her? In love? Riiight. She'd sooner admit to like reading than to admit she liked that nerd. Which means, by the way, that she doesn't like either! Reading Daring Do was just for fun, and, just because you'd find it fun doesn't mean you like it. Just like Twilight. Just because she finds the mare an absolute riot and endearing, doesn't mean she likes her.
Because that was cringe. Love is cringe. And she wasn't cringe— she was cool, rad, and absolutely awesome. Love was for mares like Rarity and Fluttershy, something girl-ish and feminine. For ponies who were soft. For ponies who was everything that wasn't her. Romance was for someone soft and smooth, like those expensive silken sheets she'd see in this luxurious store.
Love was a luxury she cannot afford.
She knew she needed to apologize to Spike, the dragon didn't deserve to be snapped at and snubbed despite being completely in the wrong, but there was too much pride inside the pegasus' heart. Arrogance, as Applejack would've called it, but what does she know? What does anypony— and dragon!— know? Why do they have to go around, tell her what she was feeling and tell her what not to do when they don't even know her.
She flapped her wings downwards, giving herself enough force to fly up. Higher, she thought. She needs to fly higher and see the skies much more clearer. Flying and looking at the sky makes her feel better because she loves— er, like— uh, tolerated them just enough.
Once she thought she was at adequate height, she let herself relax. Spike really got in to her, she wasn't gonna lie. His words echoed in her head mercilessly, serving as an endless alarm that just won't stop. But, she reminded herself, maybe that was all part of his plan to push him away from Twilight.
"Exactly." She muttered to herself. "He's just being possessive with Twilight 'cause he considers her his mom. 'S probably like instinct or something." She paused, as if digesting what she said and suddenly, everything clicked. "Aha! All of it is probably a ploy. A devious plan! He's just telling me that I'm in love with Twilight— which is not true— just to get in my nerves so that I avoid her and I won't spend any time with her anymore!" She cackled to herself gleefully.
"I'm a genius!" She shot up in the air, doing a few tricks casually—and smugly— leaning back to relax. "How's that huh? Spike: zero, me: one!" She closed her eyes, shaking her head in pity. "He's probably still knee deep in denial right now. Poor guy." She said, like a hypocrite.
She let the familiar smirk take over her face. God, it was hard to be this amazing— Spike wasn't the only one who can psychoanalyze, she can too! How he'd like that, huh?
"What do I do then?" She mumbled to herself. She can't do what Spike wants, absolutely not! That's like, walking into a trap that's so visible it's obvious— hah! She can also be deep and philosophical, see?— and that can't happen. The obvious choice was to spend so much time as possible with Twilight. She even said so herself that she wants to spend time with her, so it's not like she's taking advantage of her or anything. In fact, she's doing Twilight a favor.
Now that she thinks about it, maybe it's Twilight who actually liked her. Who wouldn't really? She was awesome, charming and undeniably hot. She's used to being liked anyways, many mares have professed their undying love to her— she turned them all down of course, Rainbow Dash has a career to think about, and love would just get in the way— and Twilight wouldn't be any different.
If she did confess though... As the thought popped into her head, for some reason she absolutely cannot explain and doesn't know why, the tip of her ears heat up, before it slowly crawled to her cheeks. If Twilight confesses to her, then she'd—
In her peripheral vision, she could faintly see glinting gold of carriage walls appear. Immediately, she snapped out of her daydreaming and swerved to the side, giving way to the vehicle to pass through. The carriage owner faintly acknowledged her, giving him a succinct nod. She nodded back, an uneasy smile in her face before she flew away.
"Crap." She cursed. She avoided it in time— before 'in time' even, but normally, she'd be alert enough to notice it about ten seconds before it's in the collision zone, but earlier, she realized the vehicle was within the collision zone five seconds before.
This hasn't happened before, this wasn't her. Rainbow Dash just wasn't awesome— she also had the skill to back it up. She brags a lot, sure, but all of her bragging came from something. If she were to lose all her skills and sharpness because of...of whatever bullshit Spike was saying, then— while not true— she should avoid it at all cost. The thing of course. The L word. Not Twilight. Because she wasn't in love with her.
She was sure of it.