Twilight liked her friends.
Kindness. Generosity. Laughter. Honesty. Loyalty. Yes, those were their defining traits - but each one had so much more. Inner tenacity. A way with words. Stubborn, rock-solid cheer. An uncommonly large helping of common sense. And...style.
While she would never say it out loud, especially where it might reach Rarity's ears, in some ways Twilight considered Rainbow Dash to be the most beautiful of her friends. Or perhaps handsome. Attractive, either way. It flavored her dreams sometimes - though she had had similar about all five, and certain other mares and stallions, enough that she was satisfied they did not indicate any actual preference. She was content to let them comfort her, a secret shared only with Celestia's sister Luna, and then only because Luna's domain over the night included dreams. It was nearly impossible to keep her out, but thankfully for all of Equestria's sake, Luna was not prone to gossip about what she saw. Even better, she sometimes gave advice, though she was still adjusting to modern society, her attitudes and opinions informed by the violent, barbaric age a thousand years ago. She had informed Twilight that Celestia had forbidden Luna from interfering in the current situation, much as she would relish the opportunity to take an assassin under her wing, so long as Sanguine was under Celestia's judgement.
Twilight's mind refocused from its slumbering drift, returning to worries and fantasies of the moment. Even now, she could feel Rainbow Dash's hot breath on her face after their exertions, Twilight on her back and her friend standing proud above her. Their eyes met; Twilight could see the worry, the longing, and the need in the pegasus's face. Without further delay, Twilight craned her neck up and kissed-
"MMMP!" Rainbow Dash struggled free and threw herself back. "GYAH! TWILIGHT!"
"Mmmm?" Twilight smiled as she leaned over, eyes half-open. Rainbow Dash was staring at her, a body length from her bed.
Rainbow Dash stared at her, eyes wide. "What was THAT?"
Was her friend scared? No, the dream had been...
...a dream...
Twilight bolted upright. She was in her bedroom - a library annex, really, with a platform atop one of the shelf stacks that was originally there just to let the adjoining window let in light, on which she had set up her bed, dresser, and other living arrangements. Dreams could make it hard to read - the same part of the brain used in understanding the written word was busy generating and processing the dreamscape - but she had no problem parsing the titles of two books lying next to her bed. No doubt, then: this was the waking world. Rainbow Dash was still there in front of her, at the edge of the platform - any further back and she would be hovering in mid-air - stubbornly refusing to have been merely a figment of Twilight's dream. "What..."
"You kissed me!" Rainbow Dash explained.
"I did?" Twilight blinked.
"Yeah!"
"I, err..." Twilight took a moment to confirm she was still where she had gone to sleep. "What were you doing in my bed?"
"Trying to wake you up!"
"Well you succeeded." Part of Twilight's mind compared this morning to the previous, and deemed the previous one slightly more exciting. Which made this wakeup better.
The two looked at each other.
Rainbow Dash had considered the possibility of romantic relationships with each of her friends. The answer generally boiled down to, "Yes if asked," with a major asterisk in Twilight's case. Twilight was power: magic power, more political power than she realized even before she became a princess, but most importantly raw intellectual power, the kind that could wrap Rainbow Dash around her fetlock with the pegasus deliriously loving every step of it. She had fantasized about Twilight dressing up as Nightmare Moon and...but that was just a fantasy, there was no way the egghead was actually attracted to somepony like her, right?
In the time it took Rainbow Dash to reflect on that, Twilight mostly finished waking up. "Sooo," she eventually ventured, "what's up?"
Rainbow Dash needed a couple more seconds to lock down her reeling mind. "Sanguine. What did you sign me up for?"
"Sanguine..." The day's schedule clicked into her quickly activating mind. "Oh, Sanguine, yes! She needs to learn about courage, and you're the pony to teach her."
Rainbow Dash cocked an eye. "You want me to teach courage to a pony who does nothing but kill? She doesn't even fight, just kill."
Twilight finally got out of bed. "She does more than just kill, Rainbow Dash."
"Nuh-uh! I asked her!"
Trotting over to a mirror, Twilight levitated a brush and began taming her unruly mane. "You heard she scared off Flim and Flam yesterday."
"Yeah, by trying to kill them for real!"
Twilight did not seem to react. "Where did you hear that?"
"I asked her!" Rainbow Dash looked at the brush, then Twilight's expression in the mirror. "...you're still waking up, aren't you?"
Twilight blinked, then sheepishly set her brush down and turned to face Rainbow Dash. "Yeah, sorry. Umm, where is she now?"
"She'll be here soon. I zipped right over."
Twilight looked to the open window. "And came in through the window again."
"Well yeah." Rainbow Dash did not understand what Twilight's problem with that method of entry was. It was not like Rainbow Dash broke the window, or opened it despite it being locked. Landing and using the door was just so inefficient when there was an easily accessible upper story window like this.
Twilight sighed. "Alright, alright. Go help Spike get breakfast set up while I make myself presentable, please?" Her bowels began reporting in. Apparently she really needed to use the bathroom.
"But Sanguine's going to be here soon."
"Yes she is. And we will finish this conversation in front of her." Twilight stamped the floor gently, proverbially as well as literally putting her hoof down.
Rainbow Dash weighed alarm, anger, and annoyance, before settling on acceptance - only because it would be temporary, and Sanguine herself might give more ammunition - and trudging downstairs.