“Really?” Twilight Sparkle's voice came in cute, muffled huffs through the breathing mask strapped over her petite mouth and button-nose. She stood stock still with a trough of paint held in her tender arms. “Nothing could possibly weird you out?”
“Jee, I dunno...” Propped on a ladder above her, Flash Sentry reached over and dipped his paint roller into the trough. After soaking it liberally, he proceeded to paint another vertical stretch of the guest room in the eggshell white material. He spoke through an identical mask as he worked. “...you possess a grander mental scope than I ever could, Miss Sparkle. If 'cosmic existenial horror' counts as 'weirding me out,' then there's always a distinct possibility.”
She pouted, her face scrunching around the mask protecting her from paint fumes. “It's not scientific. It's personal.”
“Oh?” He painted and painted. “How personal?”
“Well, technically, everything is scientific... but psychology is not my specialty—”
“Just spit it out, Twilight. I can take it—”
“IthinkIhaveromanticfeelingsforSunset!” She blurted, hugging the trough so hard that the paint made tiny wave-tank-like ripples.
“... … ...” He glanced over. His next dip of of the paint roller was as slow and concentrated as his gaze. “You don't say...”
“Is that too weird?” Twilight's knees came close to knocking together. “For m-me to feel so amorously about my best friend?”
“It's not even remotely weird, Twilight...”
“You sure? It's not weird at all?”
“If you're afraid of a stoning, don't be. You're about twelve time zones away.”
“No what I mean is...” Twilight sighed. Her pose relaxed somewhat, but noticeable jitters remained in her voice. “All of this time she's been my friend. My very close best friend. Why—she taught me everything I know about friendship! She even stuck by my side when I was going out with Timber! She's done way more for me than I could ever ask for and... and yet...” She bit her lip. “...to suddenly expect something more from her?”
Flash glanced between the girl beneath him and the painting task above. “Is it quite so sudden?”
“Huh...?”
“Sunset Shimmer is a radiant, beautiful, sexy, inspiring young woman, Twilight,” he said, giving the roller another dip. “Trust me. I know.”
“Awwww Copernicus!” Twilight cursed. “I didn't even stop to think about the implications of that! And here you are helping me redecorate mom and dad's guest room too!” Twilight gave a melancholic sigh. “I really am the worst...”
“Hardly, Twilight.” Flash painted and painted. “If you were the worst, why do you think Sunset hangs out with you so much?”
Twilight's eyes darted up through her glasses. “You make a point! She does like being with me, doesn't she?”
“... … ...” Flash leaned in place with the roller squishing wetly against the wall, dripping eggshell goop. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh...”
“But—she's got so much on her plate as it is,” Twilight muttered, gazing aside once more. “What—with having to rein in all the wayward magic wafting in from Equestria. Plus, she's writing the Princess all the time and trying to preserve her pony proclivities...” A beat, and then Twilight giggled off to the side. “Pretty prancing pony proclivities...”
“You sound smitten, alright.”
“I-I just don't want to ruin all of that, y'know?” Twilight looked up. “It's just... she's what I think about every day! When I wake up... when I go to bed... I'm thinking about her... I'm texting her... and... and I know she came to this world to spread the joy of friendship, but she doesn't need me absorbing all of her time and attention to the point that she loses grasp of what she first came here for and—”
“What if it's you?”
Twilight blinked. “Huh?”
Flash looked down at her as he made for another dip of paint. “What if what she came to this world for all this time... was you?” He arched an eyebrow. “And you're just fretting over nothing because you're both destined for each other?”
“But... but how can you be so sure of that, Flash...?”
He lingered. He glanced at Twilight, at the wall, at the lengths of the room left to change its shade. At last, the young man shrugged. “Call it a hunch.”
She sighed, but the dimples along the edges of her mask belied a cute smile. “I like the sound of that hunch.”
“Good. Now let's get the rest of this wall done before my arms fall off.”
“Oh! I'm sorry! D-do you want to take turns on the ladder or—?”
“I was just making a joke, Twilight.”
“Oh. Of course. But... uh...” She cleared her throat and glanced eagerly up at him. “You will keep that a secret, won't you?”
“Hmmm?”
“What I just confessed to you about Sunset... you won't tell anyone?”
Flash winked down at her. “Not a soul.”