Another kiss, I felt like the luckiest mare in Equestria.
I don’t think I’ve smiled that big in a long time, and that’s saying a lot. It isn’t as if my life is a bowl of sadness or anything, I have a lot to smile about. I watched him turn around, the kiss ending sooner than I thought it would, and walk off. He looked a little tired to me, maybe I should head back home too. I hadn’t even had much of a nap today, everything getting set up took longer than expected. It turned out alright for me, but that didn’t make me any less tired.
Yep, I needed to head back to get some sleep.
The best thing about having a cloud home is that it’s nice and comfortable for sleeping, it’s one of the best reasons I have for making sure I built one. It came back to bite me, metaphorically of course, every so often when I was really tired. Luckily for me, tonight wasn’t one of those nights. As soon as the dress was off, I was laying down with the obvious idea of sleeping. That wasn’t going to happen. It turned out to be a good night for thinking. I’m normally able to lay down, and go right to sleep. Tonight, though, I was laying there and thinking. The date had gone perfectly, the fact that he had kissed me later on was something awesome.
I couldn’t sleep, that was something that would have worried my friends.
Maybe I should head off and fly a little, maybe I would be able to get some sleep afterward.
I stretched both of my wings, and started to glide out from my home. My mind was focused on something other than flying, it was focused on the events of the night. Part of me felt like I had done something wrong, but I couldn’t think of anything. Did I say something silly? I couldn’t remember anything. There had to be something, I just wasn’t the type to worry about something. I couldn’t think of anything that night, so maybe it was before the night.
What had I done, anyway?
A couple of hours before the date
I seemed to find myself at Fluttershy’s cottage a lot today. There had been a hope that the last time I was here would have been enough, but here I was. She was looking at me, I was looking at her.
I still don’t understand why she can’t believe in herself.
“I can’t do it, Rainbow. I just can’t. She’ll turn me down, and then...” I could hear that she was starting to choke up, she was about to cry. If there was any moment of the day when I felt bad, it was going to be right then and there. Here I was, thinking I was going to be helping out all of my friends. One of them, my oldest friend, wasn’t being helped much at all. I might have even made it worse.
“Are you sure about this, Shy?” This wasn’t going to be another effort to get her to do it, I had to be a good friend. If she didn’t want to do this, to tell Rarity, then I was in no position to say anything. It might hurt my chances of getting what I wanted, but that wasn’t all that important right now. Right now, I had to think of one of my best friends.
“I want to tell her, I really do.” Fluttershy looked right at me, as if she could tell that this was more than just a nice thing between friends. “Oh, you don’t know what it’s like Rainbow. You just couldn’t.”
“Huh?”
“To look at the one you love, every day, knowing that all you should do is go out there and tell them.”
I hadn’t told her, had I? She had no clue about my crush on Spike, and she might not at all if it didn’t work out. Maybe it was for the best, I started to think abut how bad it would feel if he shot me down. “You know me, Shy. I’d go out there and tell ‘em.” I really should start to think before I open my mouth, I know. It isn’t like this would be the first time I said something insensitive because I hadn’t put any thought into it. My eyes went wide as I thought about what I had just said. Not only had I just lied, basically two lies really, I just said something that made it seem like I was pressuring her.
“How would you be able to do it?” That was a good question, really. I hadn’t thought that she would ask something like that.
“Do what?”
“Tell the pony you love that you... love them.”
A part of me felt bad about continuing this, but part me me still wanted to help her out. This was Fluttershy, I couldn’t help myself. I took a breath, wanting to make sure that I said this just right. “Well, I mean... the worst thing they can say is no.” even I knew that wasn’t a good way to start. It was what I had been told when I had been a little nervous about trying to get into the Wonderbolts Academy, by Fluttershy even. “But if I don’t try, then I’ll never know. I mean, I’d hate to live my life thinking about what could have been should have been. And besides, he could say yes. That’d make the entire thing completely worth it.”
Did I just say he?
“I guess so.” Maybe she was being a good friend, I didn’t know, but she didn’t push on what I had just said. There had been a look of confusion, as if she was going to ask me, but she didn’t ask anything. I started to smile, a weight had been lifted off my shoulders when I had let that little bit blurt out. It hadn’t been much, but my head was just cleared a little. “If I tell her, you’ll have to promise me that you’ll tell him.”
Those words cam unexpectedly, my smile faltering a little as she started to smirk at me.
“I... I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
It was obvious to me that Fluttershy wasn’t going to believe me. She shook her head, and I gulped. “Come on, you’re Rainbow Dash. Nothing as small as a tiny crush should keep you nervous.” Was she trying to give me a pep talk? Something about this whole thing still felt wrong, but it did feel nice that she was trying to help me out. She couldn’t know that the problem wasn’t my nerves. After all, I didn’t get nervous about these sorts of things.
Right?
“And then you’ll have to introduce me to him. I’m sure he’s a wonderful stallion.”
Maybe it was for the best that she knew I had a crush, there was nothing wrong with that. I just couldn’t tell her who it was, not yet. Maybe, if it worked out, the two of us could come over and I could show her exactly who it was that I would be going out with. That was, of course, if Spike said yes.
He would, part of me knew he would.
“Okay, you got me Shy. I’ll make sure to show you if thin-”
“When he says yes, we can even have double dates. Oh, it’ll be so nice.”
I almost couldn’t believe it, she seemed so much more confident. It was almost as if my friend had been replaced by somepony else, a more confident one. It hadn’t started until I had admitted to having a crush. I hadn’t even told her who it was, and that seemed to change everything. Fluttershy was there for me, always.
It felt good to know that we were both helping each other out.
present time
I was starting to get tired, again. I had been flying for a good hour, and I still didn’t know what was bugging me. The date had gone perfectly, and the day had been relatively uneventful. The only thing I had done is help Fluttershy out, and admit to her that I had a crush. Neither of those things were guilt-worthy things to me. A yawn escaped, I was too tired to get back to my house.
Luckily, I didn’t need my house to have a bed. A nearby cloud would be enough. I didn’t even bother to look where I was. It was probably Sweet Apple Acres, I seemed to sleep a lot around there. One more stretch, as I lay on the cloud, and then I curled up. Then sleep took me.