The very first time Rainbow Dash met Flash Sentry, it took two more meetings to learn his name. Then four more times for her to realize he was a boy. And quite a few years after that to comprehend it. She accepted this strange fact with the same kind of self-righteousness skepticism a pony could think about just about anything. Anything being that her and her feelings about him was based on a mistake.
Which didn't happen by the way. No matter what Flash Sentry said.
Because sure Flash Sentry may be a stallion and continued to pretend to be stallion-like but that didn't mean he would always remain a stallion. The reason for her extremely sound logic is when they first met, Flash wasn't a colt. And his denial of this very crucial fact was one of the many things that had her... Out of sorts when it came to him. Flash couldn't ever in a million years understand how much of an impact he had on her. And how he should be taking responsibility!
It was in the late afternoon of a dry summer in Cloudsdale when she first saw him. Or rather her, first hearing Flash's bell-like voice ringing out across the playground. Rainbow just graduated from the school nearby, finally moving onto a upper prep flight school and she was lingering around, kicking at the swings. Not because she would miss all that baby stuff but there was nothing wrong in just looking at it.
“Rainbow Dash,” A little filly ran up to her, wearing a silvery gown that glittered under the sweet sunlight with a daisy chain braided into her hair. “I love you.” The filly slowed into a gentle trot forward, a smile blooming on her soft face as Rainbow stood spellbound. Some of the petals blew away from their buds, fluttering in the light breeze as they flew passed Rainbow's glob-slacked face and the blush boiling her alive.
As if on cue, the sky itself became overcast with a single beam of light shining down on this strange foal. The filly bowed her head, her navy blue lock cradling her face as she spoke her next words.
“Will you marry me?”
Rainbow's heart ruptured as the blood drained from her skull, taking residence in her wobbling legs. This was a confession. A love confession with a capital L and O and all those stupid letters. From a girl no less. A pipsqueak that was even smaller than her, confessing her innermost feelings to her fillyfriend! Wait... Was she the fillyfriend in this situation! Still gaping in shell-shocked silence, Rainbow shook as she tried to take in a calming breath and found the filly smelling of her most favorite things: sugar, icing and clean linen right from the wash! Why did the filly have to smell so good?
Didn't the grown-ups say that the nose knows? Could she be experiencing that love that Sonic Sensation was talking about, bragging of her first smooch with Radical in class? Is it that, in her greatest of nightmare, true love at first sight! Was that her? Was that really happening here, right now!
Rainbow switched to breathing out her mouth, ignoring how her lungs seemed to clench under the strain. She was not some silly girl who was going to turn into a gooey mess from some dumb little kid with a crush. She was a big kid and obviously this brat needed to be put in their place.
“We can't get married!” Rainbow tried to sound confident but even she heard the question in her voice. “There are rules. You can't just go up to somebody you don't even know and ask them to get married.” Her voice went higher and higher as she rocked back and forth on her hooves, feeling woozy.
“I don't care about the rules!” The filly's words sent a jolt of pride down Rainbow's spine. Which was the wrong thing to be feeling because this kid was nuts! Totally loco! “Let's get married. I really, really want to go!”
“We can't get married because I don't love you!” She shouted, shoving the filly over and standing over her. The filly shoved her right back, sticking a hoof in Rainbow's chest as if she expected to be shoved again. Where was this kid getting all their confidence from? Was she, Rainbow Dash, really worth it fighting for...? What if it was true love at first sight and there was nothing she could do about it. And the filly was cute...
'No! I refuse to be chained to a little kid! They ruin everything. If you hang with babies, then you are a baby!' She screamed in her head before mumbling out a excuse. “You're a girl. You're not supposed to be proposing first.” Why did she say it like that? It made it sound like she wanted to propose!
“What does that have to do with anything? I'll-” Rainbow sucked in a hysteric breath, her body bracing itself as her mind began flashing images of their life together in the strange land called the future. Living together. Having their weird in-jokes and demanding alone time for weird adult stuff. Putting in a order for a baby from the stork! Her heart just couldn't handle any more.
“I'll make you love me!”
A declaration that struck her firmly in the heart. She was done. Here she fell, defeated by the cuteness.
“Make me, Rainbow Dash, love you? You're crazy...” Rainbow swooned, falling to the ground with a hoof helplessly thrown over her head. She writhed there, imagining their wedding procession and the two of them wearing white gowns as her parents cried. So embarrassing!
The filly leaned over her, blocking the light with her adorable face looking down as if she was the sun and moon of her life. “So that's a no?”
“Yeah...”
“My cousins lied. They said girls in Cloudsdale liked to get married all the time.” And with that, the filly who shouldn't have become Flash Sentry walked out of her life. At least, until next summer when Flash came back and tried her or rather his luck again.
The very first time Flash Sentry met Rainbow Dash, he did not say any of the things she claimed he did when they were children. Up until his tenth birthday and once he was sent to live temporary with his uncle and aunt in Cloudsdale full-time instead of visiting in the summer, he told her the exact thing he always did. Of course, the specifics being whatever his cousins told him Rainbow Dash, known as the infamous Rainbow Crash, had.
His very first confession was: “Are you the Rainbow Crash who has two tickets to the Wonderbolts show? I heard from my big cousins that ponies who get married have to share whether they want to or not. So let's get married!”
And he was dressed in a bed sheet with patches of dirt and weeds stuck his hair and the rest of him. He'd just come from rough-housing with his cousins and currently fleeing from his angry eldest cousin for being indirectly responsible for stealing her daisies for fun and profit.
His second confession was: “Rainbow Crash, Rainbow Crash, I wanna have your babies! I'll give you one and half foals for a ride in your super cool wagon my cousins told me about. I've been told we don't need to be married to have babies and girls love babies so...”
He ran up to her wearing his aunt's lacy saddle, the same one his uncle called her persuasion device while wearing mismatched socks his cousins picked for him. The socks made it hard to run so before he even reached her, he slid on the sidewalk, falling into a puddle and getting soaked to the bone. Shivering, he watched Rainbow back away and run into a street pole before running into it again and again.
And his third one right before his birthday: “I've been thinking and I'm sick and tired of doing all the work around here. You don't care! You don't give me anything! You make me watch the kids while you're up all day getting free balloon rides because you won that contest my cousins told me about. I want a divorce and half of every ticket you have!”
He came prepared with two dollies, one painted blue and brown with their grass hair glued on.
“Why won't you love me!?”
Thinking back on the things he said in order to get things from Rainbow Dash, he felt the strange urge to walk off a very short bridge. So he was a very gullible kid once upon a time ago. That didn't mean he deserved punishment for it.
Who responds to declarations of love by stalking them?