"The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable." - Victor Hugo
Dash opened her eyes. She stared at the soft cloud ceiling for what seemed like decades. She couldn’t get that dream out of her head; it seemed too vivid to be fabrication of her mind. She could remember everything; the beautiful sunset, the crisp grass.. she even remembered the smell. How could everything have been false when she felt she could reach out and embrace Rari--
Dash blushed at the thought; she had had a dream about the white unicorn that she.. loved? Her mind scrambled at the thought.. she had feelings for Rarity. She continued to gaze at the ceiling, disbelief filling her head. With a dejected sigh, she got out of bed.
“Maybe a short fly around town would help? Yeah, that’s it.”
She knew, though, that she wasn’t doing this to clear her thoughts. She was doing this to visit Rarity.
Rarity stumbled throughout the shop. The Carousel Boutique was unusually busy today. The white pony moved awkwardly around, trying to get organized; unfortunately, organization wasn’t something that she could achieve easily. She’d give anything to be able to walk without bumping into another pony.
“At least it can’t get any worse.” She thought to herself.
As if on cue, Rainbow Dash walked into the boutique.
“Oh no..”
“Hey, Rarity.” Dash looked around the shop casually, as if the crowd that seemed to only grow wasn’t there.
Rarity responded with a grated sigh. “What is it, Dash? Can’t you see I’m busy?”
This killed any hopes Dash had about starting a conversation.
“Oh.. um.. well, I was just wondering if I could ask you something..?”
“What?” Rarity replied, slightly more aggravated this time.
Rainbow knew this wasn’t the best time to evince her feelings. She stuttered, trying to get her way out of this situation.
“Do you need any help around the Boutique?”
She stopped, seemingly stunned about what had just left her lips. Rarity seemed to be as puzzled as the pegasus.
“Sure.. I guess.. um, why don’t you try to get the crowd in order? It’d really help.”
Without hesitation, Dash walked into the middle of the crowd.
“LISTEN UP EVERYPONY!”
Rainbow Dash charm at work. Rarity tended to the customers, while Rainbow Dash barked orders to keep them regulated. Rarity thought for a moment; this seemed like a very Applejack thing for Rainbow to do. She shrugged it off, as she had customers to tend to.
This went on for several hours; it seemed more dresses were tailored in the rush than her entire career. After the last of the customers had dwindled out, Rarity and Dash were both exhausted. They both looked at each other. Rarity was at a loss for words.
“Um.. thanks for the help..” She added a much too exuberant smile after she said this.
“Yeah.. anytime..” Dash panted in between each word. She was out of breath. Hollering orders for that long made her seem like she had just flown a marathon.
“Well, I uh.. guess I should head back home.” Dash made a gesture with her head towards the door. Rarity raised an eyebrow.
“After all that work.. you’re just heading home?” Rarity scowled at the bright faced pegasus before her.
“You obviously came here for something. And I have a feeling that you weren’t helping me out of the kindness of your heart.”
Rainbow Dash’s already pink face turned to a deep crimson.
“What did you really want to talk about?”
Dash stumbled over her words. All of the possible excuses were tossed around in her mind and dismissed. She couldn’t talk her way out of this, and she wasn’t prepared to simply blurt out her feelings; she wanted the moment to be right.
“Really.. I was flying overhead and saw the Boutique was busy.. so I decided to drop in and help a little..” Dash could tell Rarity wasn’t buying it. Rarity went with it anyway.
“Alright.." She raised an eyebrow, "Well I do ever so appreciate the help. Wish I always had a pony with such.. charm.. in the Boutique. But I know you have better things to do than to just stand around and idly stand around and chat with me. What with having to clear the skies and all that.”
Dash didn’t really have anything better to do, but knew she should take the opening to leave, rather than sit there awkwardly. With a final goodbye, she was up in the sky, heading nowhere.