////
One Last Secret…
////
The morning had finally reached the two who were relaxing in the cloud house hanging above Ponyville, and they were more than ready to face a brand new day, once again together, and once again happy.
“Do you think everypony will be back yet?” Dash asked, looking out her window to the train station on the edge of town, “Maybe you should have brought them back with your spell, instead of leaving them to take the train.”
Alex laughed at the rather rude action he had taken against his friends by taking Dash and vanishing, but he knew that they wouldn’t hold it against him.
“Their train should arrive in the next half hour, if the train is running the same way it did… four years ago.” Alex said, lifting and scratching the back of his head at the slim possibility of his suggestion from his place on the bed.
“I think it is,” Dash nodded, remembering hearing the train conductor announcing arrival and departure times on her way to Manehattan last, “Would you mind if we headed down there to catch them? I’d really like to see Pinkie right now…”
“And I’m sure Alpha and Spike will be there waiting for them as well,” Alex added, excited to Spike again, “And as for Pinkie… I think you two have a lot to talk about.”
“I don’t know if she’ll forgive me,” Dash exhaled, remembering the pure heart-break Pinkie had shown to her, just before she left in tears, “I couldn’t blame her if she didn’t.”
“Why would she still be mad at you?” Alex asked, every problem being solved, as far as he was concerned, “You didn’t do anything!”
“I lied to her,” Dash answered instantly, her gaze falling downward as she walked away from the window and joined Alex on the bed once again, “I promised her that I hadn’t done anything worse than the one night with Speed. But at that point, I thought I was lying to her.”
“Dash, she’d never hold it against you,” Alex shook his head, scooting himself closer to her on the mattress, “When she came to earth to find me—“
“Pinkie went to your world?!” Dash asked in shock, as Alex realized that he forgot to mention that piece of information to her, “When did that happen?”
“Well—“ Alex began, trying to find a quick summary for her, “I went home for a few weeks… Which as we all know, is like, eight weeks here. So, the girls came to find me.”
“They were all with you at one point?!” Dash asked in awe, truly upset that she had missed the trip, “Did you guys have fun…?”
“We ate some junk food, watched some movies… and spent a lot of time practicing walking.” Alex laughed, remembering just how many times he had run up the stairs to carry the girls down, “It was only for a day though.”
“Well… do you think we could go back there?” Dash asked suddenly, “I mean, I don’t know if the girls would want to join us. But I’d love to go see your uncle again!”
“He… think’s you cheated on me and broke my heart.” Alex said, as Dash gave him a truly upset face, “It’ll take some damage control there, for sure.”
“Man! Now they’ll never like me!” Dash said, throwing her arms in the air and rolling over to face away from Alex, “This whole ‘dark-side’ business stinks.”
“I’d just have to come up with the BS,” Alex said, softly patting her wing comfortingly, “I mean, I’m sure Chet has lots of questions about me right now anyway.”
“What kind of questions?” Dash asked, perking up slightly as she looked over her shoulder, at him.
“Well, right before I came back to Equestria, I gave him a diamond,” Alex explained, as Dash cocked her head at the missing explanation, “Diamonds are rare in my world, to the point that they’re worth millions of bits. And I made one with magic, and gave it to him.”
“Why?” Dash asked honestly, still missing the point behind his doing that, “What good would a stone do him? Wouldn’t that just confuse him?”
“Well… I wanted to show off a bit!” Alex defended, as he thought over his plan, and over what Chet’s reaction would have probably been, “But, it probably just raised questions instead of answering them… oops.”
“When do you plan on going back to see him?” Dash asked, hoping she could be included in that trip, “I’d like a chance to explain things to your Uncle and his girlfriend.”
“Fiancé, actually,” Alex corrected, remembering Chet’s happy news when Alex arrived back home, “And I think I’ll be heading back more often. He worries a lot about me.”
Dash smiled and nodded, as she rolled back over to face him.
“What was it you were saying about Pinkie in your world?” She asked suddenly, remembering how the topic had been moved on from.
“Oh! She and I had a little talk while she was over there,” Alex said, his heart sinking at the pure sadness she had shown him when they were talking in his bedroom, “…Pinkie really cares about you, Dash.”
“Are you sure about that?” Dash asked, finding it hard to believe that Pinkie held any regard for her at this point, “Last time we talked… she seemed like she was done with me.”
“Dash,” Alex shook his head softly, “She considers you her best friend.”
“Me?!” Dash asked, recoiling slightly at the statement, “I-I’m just… really? Why does she think that?”
“Well, she told me everything about the two of you,” Alex said, as a worried look crossed her face, “I can see why she looks at you—“
“She told you everything?!” Dash asked, having took the statement a little too seriously, “She didn’t tell you about that one night though… right?”
In a shocking fashion, even to himself, Alex kept his expression the same. He had zero idea what Dash was referring to, but dang it! He was curious now.
“Maybe?” Alex asked, pursing his lips, “She did tell me a lot. You’ll have to be more specific.”
Dash rolled her eyes. Pinkie hadn’t said a word to this guy… but she had foolishly let it on.
“Okay, you caught me,” Alex laughed, seeing her chance in demeanor to slightly annoyed, “But you’ve gotta tell me now!”
Dash sighed. She was gonna marry this guy, and she didn’t want any part in hiding anything more from him.
Taking a single, deep breath, Dash told her story, “It was a couple of years before you came to Equestria. Like six years ago.” She said, slightly amused at his child-like curiosity, and wide eyes, “I was helping her clean up after a birthday party for… I can’t even remember. And we sort of got to talking about guys, and how far we’d gone… like girls do!”
Alex felt his pulse quicken, as his curiosity was replaced with a sheer rush of adrenaline filled excitement. Was this the kind of story he thought it was?
“And then…! We kinda… you know, just messed around a little bit!” Dash laughed awkwardly, trying to play off the story as cool as she possibly could, “I mean, I was just a kid six years ago!”
Alex bit his lip, and still said nothing, as she looked to his face, and mistook his plain look for one of distaste.
“I’m sorry, okay!” Dash said, happy that she had told his story now, instead of years down the road when he’d probably get much angrier, “Yeah! I went to third base with Pinkie a couple of times! But it was before I even knew you! So… please don’t be mad, okay?”
Alex scrunched his face up in a way that gave Dash pause, as he considered his response to her sudden outburst over her lesbian experimentation with another girl he knew very well.
“Wow…” Alex said simply, as she still gave him a desperate look, “That’s a lot to take in at once.”
Dash looked about as regretful as she possibly could, and Alex was loving every second of it.
“So… Just so I’m completely thorough…” Alex began, raising his eyebrows to her and waiting for a response.
“Yeah?” She asked carefully, and hopefully.
“Did you take any pictures?”
Smack.
Despite the burning pain in the side of his head from her backhand to his cheek, Alex couldn’t stop laughing at her explosion at his great question.
“I was really worried for a second!” She scolded, her heart pounding in relief that he actually hadn’t been upset, “Geez! You flippin’ perv! I’m your fiancé now, remember?”
As much as Alex found the situation hilarious, he couldn’t help but feel his heart jump at her use of the word, fiancé.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said quickly, shaking his head and smiling back to her, “I shouldn’t have led you on like that.”
Dash felt a red haze fill her cheeks as she looked away from him embarrassedly. How was he still able to put her off this much?
“I honestly think it’s awesome that you did that,” Alex shrugged, his reaction now one she was much happier with, “Don’t hate me if that pops in to my head next time we’re… you know.”
Dash only shook her head and stifled a laugh. How could she have ever thought he would be upset over that? Of course he’d put it in his spank bank.
“But seriously though,” Alex said, returning to the much more important subject that they had abandoned, “About Pinkie, and what she told me while she was on earth.”
“Oh, yeah.” Dash said instantly, returning her focus to him, as if their previous exchange had never happened.
“She talked about all the time you two had spent together… and she told me about your first day in Ponyville, when she threw you an impromptu birthday party.” Alex smiled at her recollection of it at the time, and just how happy it made Pinkie to think back to those days, “And after all that, and all of your time in Ponyville with the pranks, and parties… she told me that even though you didn’t look at her as your best friend… she would always look at you as hers.”
“S-She said that?” Dash asked, her eyes wide, and a look of despair covering the rest of her features, any trace of happiness from before gone in an instant, “I… had no idea.”
“She cried in my arms that night, Dash.” Alex said, shaking his head slowly, “You can’t let her go. No matter what.”
Looking at the clock, Dash saw that they still had a good amount of time to get themselves decent so they could head to the train station and catch their friends. And she could pull Pinkie aside… and beg for her forgiveness.
“You wanna go see them in?” Alex asked, seeing the look of determination come to her otherwise sad face, “Because I’d like to see her myself.”
Dash nodded as she looked to him with a soft smile.
"I'll make sure she know's how much I care about her too..." Dash said, keeping herself composed for now, knowing she'd likely break down when she saw her, "She's like a sister to me."
Alex smiled, remembering how Pinkie had described Dash as her own sister.
"Make sure you tell her that." Alex said, praying that they would work things out.
She only smiled and nodded.
"Oh! Are we gonna tell everypony about the engagement?” Alex asked, unsure of where Dash stood on being public about it.
“Um, not yet,” Dash shook her head, climbing out of the bed along with Alex, “We’ll announce it in a few days. Let everything settle down first.”
“Got it.” Alex nodded, heading in to the bathroom with her, as he decided to poke the bear one last time, “But, if things work out with Pinkie, what do you say about...maybe bringing her in on some of our alone tim—“
He never finished that sentence.