The hidden truth
Dash took a look at the sun, which was almost under the horizon, looked once again around the sky, which was only filled with a couple of clouds, but no matter where she looked, the pony she was waiting for was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh come on, don’t be like this."
After all, they had agreed, if one of them can't make it before the sun is down the other automatically wins. There was only a few minutes left till the last rays of the sun would disappear and Dash hung her head down. About a minute later Dash felt another pony land on the cloud beside her and place a wing over her back.
"Are you ready?"
She turned around to meet the bright smile of the orange pegasus by he side, who was still wearing her Wonderbolt uniform.
"Always."
Spitfire removed her wing from Dash's back and took a couple of steps away from her to make a little distance between the two of them.
"On three."
Just like always Spitfire said the one, Dash the two and at the same time both said three. The distance between Cloudsdale and Ponyville was about a half-hour flight for a normal pegasus at full speed, but they didn't belong to that category, they completed the distance in just under twenty minutes.
Spitfire lost. It wasn’t like Dash hadn’t beaten her before in a race, but this time it was different. She wasn't tired or Dash would have won by only a hoof or two, and Dash had left her behind by more than two body lengths. They both landed on the same cloud, lying next to each other, sweaty and exhausted. They lay like that for a couple of minutes before they could calm their breathing enough to speak to one another.
"Oh Yeah, I guess it's your turn to buy the drinks."
Spitfire stood up and turned to the smiling pegasus to her right ,wearing an expression on her face what Dash never seen before from the wonderbolt and the smile froze on her face.
"What is it?, I thought you said you have the day off tomorrow, just like me"
"I do."
Spitfire jumped off the cloud and headed towards their usual place. Dash stared after the receding pegasus for a while, then launched herself off the cloud after her. Rainbow soon caught up to Spitfire, who had slowed down to let Dash catch up. They entered the peaceful and quiet pub, Rainbow sitting down at their usual table while Spitfire ordered the drinks. The wonderbolt sat down heavily on the other side of the table as the bartender levitated the drinks over to them with his magic. The pair looked at each other in silence, Rainbow quickly becoming uncomfortable under Spitfire’s gaze. She hadn't planned the evening to be like this, and now probably wasn't the best time asking it, after all she’d never seen the Wonderbolt so upset or angry that she’d lost a race against Dash.
Dash had barely finished her second drink when Spitfire downed her twelfth. The bartender looked over at Dash, who understood what he’s trying to say and stood up, placing the bits on the table for both of their drinks before looking over to her drunken friend.
"Spitfire, it's getting late, we should go."
"I'm old enough, mother."
"Spitfire?"
Spitfire stomped on the table, knocking some of the empty mugs off the table, shattering on the floor. Rainbow looked around and saw everypony in the bar was looking right at them. Before she could turn her head back to the Wonderbolt, Spitfire grabbed Dash’s head and forcefully tuned it back to look at her.
For an eternity they held eye contact, before Dash whispered to Spitfire.
"Please?"
The Wonderbolt released Dash and tottered out the place, followed by the eyes of everyone in the bar. Rainbow gave the bartender an apologetic look, hoofing him some extra bits by way of a repayment before galloping after Spitfire. Dash found Spitfire lying in the grass outside the bar, heaving herself shakily to her feet and trying to fly, but spiralling back down after barely lifting off. She tried again to fly, despite Dash’s worried shouts, and crashed headlong into a bush. She fell out of the bush and rolled a short way, before lying still, too exhausted to try again and barely staying awake. Dash picked up her unconscious drinking partner and slung her over her back, before flying straight home, despite the extra weight.
Dash placed Spitfire into her bed, but before she could place the blanket over her, the incredibly drunk mare looked at her, unfocussed eyes drifting up to look at Rainbow’s face. After a minute’s contemplation, she gripped the zipper on Spitfire's uniform, intending to unzip it and free the wonderbolt from the garment. After barely starting to unzip it, she stopped, for some reason it made Dash feel weird and wrong doing it. It wasn’t like she didn’t see the orange mare without it, but it just felt wrong undressing her. Shaking her head, she placed the blanket over the Wonderbolt and left her room.
In the morning, before Spitfire even opened her eyes, a cruel headache hit her. She slowly dragged herself out of bed without opening her eyes so the sunlight wouldn't make it worse, after all, she knew her house well enough to find her way without opening her eyes. She reached out for the door which opened to the hall so she could get something to eat and drink, then perhaps some medicine if the pain got really unbearable, but after a couple of more steps she still couldn't locate the door so she opened her eyes. She was facing a cloud wall.
"What?"
Spitfire shook her head, her headache-beaten mind struggling to work out what was happening, and failing. She turned around and finally understood why she was unable to find the door; she wasn't even at home, although the room seemed familiar to her. It was filled with Wonderbolt posters and some pictures of the mare whom the room belonged to.
"Dash?"
When she didn't get a reply, she walked out to the hall, where she found a note on the desk with a key beside it
"I had to go and take care of a few things. If you are hungry there is some food in the fridge. When you leave, please lock the house for me. Thanks."
Dash
Spitfire left the house and locked the door, which seemed pointless; after all, there were plenty of windows on the cloud house, so anypony can fly in if they want. She unfolded her left wing, then moved to hide the key between its feathers, but her whole left wing twitched a little. It kept trembling at least ten more seconds till it stopped.
"What!?"
Spitfire examined her left wing for a while, but a minute later she shook her head and hid the key, before leaping into the air.
Twilight was kneeling on the library's wooden floor, reading a book, while Dash was walking around her in circles. The librarian turned the page with her face.
"Twilight, did you hear a word of what I just said?"
"Yeah."
She answered without looking at the pegasus and kept her eyes on the book.
"What did I say?"
The purple unicorn finally looked up from the book, noticing the shadow under the library's door.
"That Spitfire hates you."
When the shadow withdraw a little, Twilight's horn flashed for a few seconds as she casted a short spell to see what had caused it. After she finished the spell, she turned back turned to Dash.
"No! I did not say that! … but... maybe... I think you might be right."
Dash lowered her head and the expression on her face turned sorrowful.
"I wanted to ask her out and tell her everything. Tell her how I feel about her, but after the race she was..."
A huge yawn escaped Dash's mouth, interrupting her and she shook her head.
"Twilight, could I sleep here? I couldn't get any, knowing that she was in the next room."
The unicorn stepped over to Dash and raised her head with her hoof so she could look into Dash’s eyes, shooting a warm smile at her.
"Cheer up Dash, you know I hate to see you like this."
She placed a small kiss on her right cheek.
"Go ahead, my room is yours."
Dash jumped forward and hugged the unicorn.
"Thanks a lot Twi, you are the best."
They held the hug for almost half a minute before Dash stepped back and walked upstairs. Twilight waited till Dash closed the door behind her then teleported herself to the library's door and opened it with her hoof. After the door opened Spitfire looked at the ground, unable to look into Twilight's eyes while she asked her;
"Twilight, do you love her?"
"Yes, I do, and she knows, because I told her," she let out a small sigh. "But she chose you, and I respect her feelings enough that I won't step between the two of you and risk my friendship with her."
Spitfire looked gratefully at Twilight.
"Thanks a lot, Twilight. Can you tell Dash I'd like to talk to her when she wakes up, I'll be home."
"Of course, but before you go, please promise me that you won't hurt her, because if you do, I'll regret the decision I made."
Spitfire bowed in front of the unicorn and placed her wing over her heart.
"I promise."
Before she pulled back her left wing to her side she took the key with her right wing and offered it to Twilight, who smiled at her and grabbed the end of Spitfire's wing with her magic, curving it back around the key. Twilight had learnt a lot about pegasi's wings so she was able to do so without hurting the wonderbolt.
"She wouldn't give it to you unless she wanted you to keep it."
Spitfire placed it back under her feathers and hugged the unicorn who was surprised, but a couple of seconds later she returned the hug.
"I'm sorry. Thank you so much, Twilight."
When she released the unicorn, Spitfire immediately flew away towards Cloudsdale. Twilight let out a sigh then looked up at the sun, which was high on the sky. Luna was probably already waiting for her. She went inside and wrote a short note to Dash, gathered her books and notes and teleported herself away.
Dash was woken up about seven hours later by the crack of thunder. She slowly got out from the bed looking for some sort of life in the tree house, but she couldn't find Twilight, Owlicious or Spike, only a note hanging on the door. She opened the door and closed it as fast as she could behind her so the rain wouldn't get in. The storm was one of the scheduled ones, so the plants could get enough water in the summer. Dash walked out to the middle of the street, where the heavy rain hit her with its full force. She looked up on the sky, which was filled with dark clouds and closed her eyes, enjoying the warm rain falling on her body. Dash stood like that for a couple of minutes before opened her eyes and began her journey to Cloudsdale.
It took her a lot longer to get there than usual, but the storm wasn’t the only thing preventing her arrival to Spitfire. All the way she was thinking about what she should said to her or why Spitfire would want to talk to her, playing out scenarios in her head while fighting with the wind. She flew higher above the clouds and landed in the massive cloud city. Her hooves became harder to move every step she took towards to Spitfire's house. When she finally arrived it took Dash almost a minute to find the courage inside her to move towards the door. She took a deep breath and raised her hooves, but before she could knock on the door, the sound of voices spilled out from inside. Curious, Rainbow pressed her ear against the door to listen to the conversation.
"I can't believe that I did this stupid thing, for the love of Celestia I'm such an idiot, if she was coming she would already be here, Soarin is going to kill me for this."
The unsure pegasus took a few steps back and became even more nervous than before, but Dash wanted to know why she wanted to speak with her even if it's bad news for her, Dash raised her hoof and gently knocked on the door. The voices from inside stopped immediately. When Spitfire opened the door Dash opened her mouth, but all the words she’d thought to say perished at the sight of Spitfire, she couldn't find any word to describe how beautiful the mare was. Her mane was completely different, she was wearing delicate make up and a beautiful dress Dash had never seen her wear before, not even at the Gala. After a couple of seconds she looked at the cloud below her, a blush appeared all over her face and she started to nervously stroke her mane with one hoof.
Spitfire widened the door in front the other pegasus offering for her to come inside, an offer Rainbow took, walking into the house. While Dash sat down on a cloud, Spitfire closed the door behind her then took the seat next to her, carefully to avoid risking damage to the dress. Dash wanted to look at her while she asked the question foremost on her mind, but she couldn't do it, fearing what Spitfire’s answer might be far too much to look her in the eyes.
"Are you going on a date with somepony?"
"Yes."
Dash turned away so Spitfire couldn't see her tears, Dash had loved her for a while now, but she couldn't tell it to Spitfire, the thought of losing even the friendship that they share with each other was scaring her too much. Spitfire was the captain of the Wonderbolts after all, talented and beautiful, and now Dash had waited too long. She tried to clear her broken voice and wash away the tears hanging under her eyes. Dash had to know who, even though the name of the pony was quite obviously not her.
"Who is the lucky one?"
Dash could feel the movement behind her then Spitfire's breath on her ear which twitched a little.
"You."
When the word left Spitfire's mouth the pain that had started to spread from her heart to cover her entire body flew away in a second and her heart skipped a beat while a warm feeling took the pain's place. Dash turned around and met with Spitfire's smile, she tried to jump on the orange mare and hug her as much as she could, but the wonderbolt was quicker than her and stopped it.
Spitfire stood up and left the house, but Dash stopped halfway to the door, a sad look appearing on her face.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just give me fifteen minutes I'll be back and we can go."
"Dash?"
"I can't just go like this, you look fabulous and I'm... not.
Spitfire walked back to the pegasus and raised Dash's head so their eyes could meet
"Dash, don't worry about it, what's with you anyway? I thought you hated make up and stuff like that, especially wearing a dress."
"You would be worth the effort."
She smiled at the cyan pegasus then placed a kiss on her cheek.
"You can make it up to me tomorrow night after the show.”
Spitfire walked to the door once again and reached back for the other mare with a hoof.
"I promise."
Spitfire winked at her and Dash grabbed her hoof. A few minutes later they stopped in front of the Arena, the doors of which were closed what didn't make any sense because any pegasi could fly through either the top or the bottom holes of the open fielded arena. Spitfire walked to the door, placed her hoof on it, but before she pushed the door in she leaned her head close to the door and whispered.
"Soarin I hope you made it."
At the end of the corridor under the seats that leads ponies to the stadium, there was a path made by clouds towards the middle of the arena. In the arena’s centre there was a table with two seats. The cloud path was lit up by candles at both sides all the way. Spitfire let out a sigh and turned back to Dash and together they made their way to the table together. As they entered the inner arena the whole area was lit up by the soft amber glow of candles. They took their seats in the middle of the arena on the two sides of the cloud table, covered with different foods along with a few bottles of apple cider.
When they finished all their favourite foods, Spitfire and Dash looked at each other happily and both of them raised a mug of cider, but Dash put hers down on the table instead of drinking from it, her look turning to gloomy and sad. This evening she got to know the mare under that suit more than ever before. Dash thought she knew everything about her, but this was the night they shared things with each other they told nopony else. Spitfire told Dash a couple of things about herself which she had never even thought of telling anypony else. When she finished, Spitfire drained the last of the cider from her mug before noticing the distracted look on Dash’s face.
"What's the matter Dash?"
She was still holding the mug full of cider and kept staring at it, only snapped out of it when an orange hoof touched hers.
"I"
"I don't want this night to end." She raised her head to look at Spitfire who smiled at her.
The orange mare stood up and walked next to Dash, a bottle tucked under one wing. She grabbed her hoof and gently pulled Dash after her. After leaving the arena they flew to the edge of Cloudsdale and sat there near the rainbowfalls. Spitfire pulled in a small cloud to put the bottle on and they sat down. They lay next to each other, speechlessly drinking the bottle of cider together.
Dash moved her body closer to the other mare, placed her wing around Spitfire's body and laid her head on the orange mare's shoulder. After all the things what they shared with each other, there was still something what was bothering Dash and she had to ask it no matter what effect that might have to the night.
"What happened yesterday?"
"I'm sorry about that; you don't know how much I hate myself for doing that to you. It was a long day and after I lost against you it was the icing on the cake."
"Spitfire,"
Dash removed her head from the embrace so she could look into those brilliant orange eyes.
"Please, don’t ever say that, Spitfire, it breaks my heart"
She leaned forward and kissed the orange mare, whose eyes dropped a sorrowful tear.
"You have no idea how much I hate myself, and you will hate me too."
After they broke the kiss, Spitfire looked up at Luna's moon, high in the sky.
"It's getting late and tomorrow I'll have to wake up early for morning practise with the team and make perfect everything for the night."
Dash raised her hoof before the wonderbolt could finish to stop her.
"I get it. So… tomorrow night, I guess. Goodnight Spitfire."
"Yeah. Goodnight Dash."
Rainbow opened her wings ready to fly away, but Spitfire caught her and placed another kiss on Dash's lips with even more passion than before, this kiss lasted longer too and when they departed from it the cyan pegasus had a surprised yet happy look on her face.
"I love you."
"I love you too Dash."
Spitfire walked away, and Dash stared after the receding pegasus for a while before shooting into the air. She closed the door behind her, hung her head and let out a sigh then started to undress. Before the mare freed her wings from the dress, she knew what would happen, but she had to face the truth she already knew. When she finally gathered the courage, she pulled it off and both the extensions on her side unfolded and dropped to the cloud below her.
"Just one more day."
The Wonderbolt went into her bedroom dragging the dead weight on her sides and crawled into the bed with tears streaming from her eyes.
It was almost noon when Spitfire got to the arena. By the time she got inside the arena, most of the Wonderbolts were in the air except Soarin, who was watching their every move. She walked beside him in silence; it took Soarin a while to realize that Spitfire was standing right next to him.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"An hour."
"WHAT? Why didn't you s-"
When he turned to his teammate and realized the serious look on her face, stopped.
"Spitfire?"
"We need to talk, in private."
She turned around then went down the stairs towards the locker rooms; Soarin looked after her for a while before turning back to the others. He shouted to them that he’d be gone a minute and left them alone, following Spitfire.
She was waiting for him inside the locker room, her expression unreadable.
"Close the door please."
Soarin did as she asked him to and even locked it behind him.
"Tonight's performance will be the last for me, and I'm leaving Cloudsdale as well."
Soarin rolled his eyes.
"I assume it was Dash's idea. I get that you love her, but don't."
"Stop it!"
Spitfire stomped on the cloud floor. She sat down as she began to tell Soarin the truth about her, and why she’d decided to leave. Soarin sat down as well, staying patiently quiet until Spitfire finished. He was looking at his best friend, who he’d known since foalhood, with no idea what to say or do to help her.
"Spitfire, I…"
"Promise me you won't let Dash see me like that, like I said, Princess Celestia will help me take care of the rest of it."
"How can you leave just like this without telling her anything? If she really loves you, she’d accept what you are."
Spitfire stood up and sat down next to her oldest friend while looking into his eyes.
"Soarin, she loves the wonderbolt me, if I stay with her I'd ruin her life."
"Don't you think you’ll do the same thing leaving like this?"
She placed her hoof on Soarin's shoulder.
"Soarin please don't make this harder for me than it already is, just promise me."
He turned his head away from the orange mare.
"Fine."
Some tears escaped from her eyes and she hugged the other pegasus, who couldn't hold back his own feelings and returned the hug, a stream of tears leaving his eyes too.
Before the show started, Spitfire was stretching her wings in the corridor. The arena was full of cheering pegasi, including Rainbow Dash, all waiting for the Wonderbolts to enter. Soarin walked next to Spitfire then placed a wing on the mare's back. They started it in time as always.
About forty minutes later, when the team was coming out from a loop to a free fall, Spitfire looked left at Soarin and shook her head. Fleetfoot pulled her body up at the point where they all should, but the two of them kept falling. Soarin grabbed Spitfire a couple of seconds later and flew away with her. Fleetfoot was floating in the same spot for a while without having any sort of idea what to do. She returned to the centre of the arena, where two other Wonderbolts joined her and they continued the show, but Rainbow Dash was waiting for Spitfire to return, when she didn't reappear, she left the stadium.
She landed in front of Spitfire's house and knocked on the door, hoping she went home for whatever reason. To her surprise the door was opened by Soarin. Her look turned to worried that something might have happened with her during the show.
"Hey Dash."
"Is the something wrong with Spitfire?"
"I'm sorry Dash, but she doesn't want you to see her."
Dash looked into Soarin's eyes, and then turned away.
"No offence Soarin, but I'd rather hear this from her than you."
She took a couple of steps towards the door, but Soarin stopped her, to his surprise she turned away without a word. A couple of seconds passed with Dash moving away from the door then she stopped and opened her wings. She curved both of her wings in front of herself and whispered.
"Don't fail me now."
She took a long and deep breath then with the strongest flap of them shot her body towards the door. Soarin could stop the mare if he wanted to, but both of them would probably get seriously hurt in the collision something Dash knew, yet she’d tried to trick the Wonderbolt. He stepped away from the doorway so Dash didn't need to try anything and risk a limb avoiding him. She could slow down her body enough that after she broke down Spitfire's door she could stop almost immediately, but she wasn't prepared for what she saw after that.