Her heart was pounding. She could feel it beating, as if it was trapped in a cage and banging against the bars. "Hey, Soarin!" She said trying to keep her voice steady.
"Oh, hey Rainbow! I was just wondering if you guys had this in a size 9?" Soarin asked pointing toward the box in his hand.
"O-oh uh, I'll go look in the back. C-can I see the box to make sure I get the right thing?" Rainbow said. She felt her cheeks getting red by the second.
"Of course!" Soarin said as he handed her the box.
"I'll be right back!" She said as she walked toward the back room. She was searching for the right shoe for a solid 5 minutes before finally finding it. Luckily they did have the right size. She walked back over to where Soarin was waiting and handed him the shoe.
"Turns out we did have it." Rainbow said.
"Sweet, thanks." He said as she handed him the box.
"'Course. I-is there a-anything else I can help with?" Rainbow asked nervously.
"I think I'm all good, thanks." Soarin said.
"Alright cool, I'll see you at school I guess." Rainbow said. She was relieved she managed to not stutter.
"Yeah, see you." Soarin said as he walked toward the register. But at the same time, they both noticed that there was no one there.
"That's odd. I'm pretty sure Fleetfoot's got register right now. I-i can just do it for you right now instead, so you won't have to wait for her to get back if you want." Rainbow said still blushing.
"Thanks that would be great!" Soarin said with a smile. Rainbow walked over to the register and scanned the shoes Soarin had picked out. "Hey, I really appreciate you doing this." Soarin said after she finished bagging the box.
"It's no trouble, really!"
"Anyway, I'll see you later I guess?" Soarin said.
"Y-yeah, see you later." Rainbow replied. Soarin walked out and it felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders. She walked back over to her friends who were watching her the whole time. They all had grins plastered onto their faces.
"Uh, what's with that look?" Rainbow asked confused.
"Oh, nothing." Sunset said looking like she was about to start laughing.
"Seriously, what is it?" Rainbow asked again.
"Uh, what did the uh *cough* customer want?" Rarity asked extremely suspiciously. She avoided eye contact and seemed to be tapping her foot against the tile floor to distract herself from whatever it was she was hiding.
"Oh, uh he wanted to know if we had a pair of shoes in his size." Rainbow said.
"Oh, that's uh...that's nice." Rarity said.
"Okay..." Rainbow said.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT! YOU TOTALLY LIKE HIM!" Pinkie practically screams suddenly.
"What?" Rainbow said. Her face was now a crimson color. The rest of her friends just burst out laughing at this point.
"Pinkie, you couldn't hold it in, for 30 seconds!" Twilight said while laughing.
"Uh, hold up. What on Earth made you come to believe I like Soarin?" Rainbow said.
"You were completely flustered the whole time! How could anyone not notice?" Sunset said.
"Yeah, you weren't exactly discreet about it." Applejack said in between laughs. Rainbow wasn't sure how she was supposed to respond. Should she admit it? Should she deny it? She could hardly think straight with all the panic that had set in.
"I-i don't know what your talking about!" Rainbow said. Well, she made her decision. Pretend she didn't think he was adorable, and hope they'd believe her. But, by the looks of it, she figured the chances of that happening were pretty slim.
"Come on, Dash! There's no denying it!" Sunset said.
"Yeah, it's a little obvious." Fluttershy agreed. If Fluttershy had enough confidence to disagree with her, than there was pretty much no way of changing their minds. Would that stop her? No.
"I don't like Soarin that way!" Rainbow said as her hands began to shake. She was extremely uncomfortable with this conversation.
"Darling, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. So what, you like him." Rarity said as the laughter was dying down.
"Yeah, Rarity's right there's no reason to feel awkward about it." Sunset Shimmer said.
"I'm telling you, me and Soarin are just friends!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Really?" Twilight said as if it was a complete blatant lie, which it was. But she didn't have to know that.
"Yes really." Rainbow Dash repeated. "There's nothing there. Just friends." After those words exited her mouth she felt a little...sad. Soarin will never like me. There's no chance, that he'd ever like me. So of course, we're always going to be 'just friends'.
"Well sure, maybe you're 'just friends' now. But we can fix that." Rarity said. The rest of the group started laughing a bit.
"Rarity, even if I did like him, there's no way he'd want to date me." Rainbow replied.
"Why'd you think that?" Sunset said slightly more serious.
"Because he sees us as friends. Nothing more. It's not exactly easy to change that perspective." Rainbow said.
"So you've thought about trying to change his mind before?" Sunset said.
"What?! No!" Rainbow said. Her face was still red at this point. They just laughed even harder at their embarrassed friend. "Would you just drop it. How do even know whether I like him or not?"
"Seriously? Just watch how you guys interact once and it's hard not to notice." Twilight said.
"Okay, but what exactly did you see?" Rainbow said again.
"For one thing, you stuttered just about every sentence. You never stutter. Second thing, you were shaking a little, another thing you don't do. Third of all-" Applejack was cut off.
"Okay, that's enough!" Rainbow said abruptly. She was very clearly uncomfortable which made it all so much better for her friends.
"Alright, alright. We'll stop." Twilight said in between laughs.
"You say that, yet I have a feeling this topic's going to come up again." Rainbow said.
"What, course not." Pinkie said sarcastically.
"Okay, we're done here." Rainbow said.
"Fine." Rarity said. "For now at least."
"I'm not even going to try and argue with you at this point." Rainbow said defeatedly. Her watch than went off. "I actually have to get back to work now. I'll see you guys tonight."
"DON'T BE LATE!" Pinkie yelled as the 6 of them left the store. Once they left Rainbow walked over to the register to take her place.
"You think she'll ever admit it?" Sunset asked.
"I don't think so. Well, yet anyway. She has a hard time dealing with feelings." Rarity said.
"What'd you mean by hard time?" Twilight asked.
"Well, she's always leaned toward hiding her feelings rather than really expressing them. Most of the time it would be when she's upset, but it's equally as difficult for her to express herself when she has a crush. I've seen it and tried to get her to admit, but she almost never does. It's a little sad really."
"Huh, wonder why she does that..?" Twilight asked.
"Not sure. Probably stems from something that happened during childhood. You know, psychology and all..." Rarity trailed off.
"I guess so." Twilight replied.
"Yeah, but Rarity's right. It won't be easy to get her to confess. That's why I think we should come up with a plan." Applejack said.
"That's a good idea!" Pinkie said excitedly. "We can go undercover! Like secret agents..."
"Um Pinkie, I don't think that's really what Applejack had in mind." Fluttershy said.
"Uh, yeah...I was thinking more like something we can do at the party tonight." Applejack said.
"What did you have in mind?" Twilight asked.
"'Not completely sure yet, but how about we make sure to play a game that requires you to tell the truth." Applejack said.
"A game like..?" Sunset said.
"Truth or Dare?" Twilight asked.
"Exactly. If it's her turn then why don't we all agree we ask her the same question. If she lies, it won't be hard to spot." Applejack said.
"What if she only picks dare though?" Sunset asked. "Knowing her she's probably gonna want to choose dare and that's it.
"We could just say, uh everyone's picked dare up until this point. Do a truth." Twilight suggested.
"That's good, but she still might not change her mind." Rarity said.
"What if we pull that really cheap move of daring her to pick truth?!" Pinkie suddenly says.
"That might work." Sunset said.
"So it's settled." Rarity said. The girls were now making their way to each of their vehicles and were about to drive off. Everything would hopefully turn out well.