"Umm... What does this mean?" Rainbow asked, looking up from the note you had passed to her. That puzzled expression still lingered on her face, unchanging, as if she assumed the worst.
You couldn't exactly blame her. If someone passed you a note with the words 'The Truth' scrawled on it, you would be pretty concerned too.

"I'll tell you after the party." you said bluntly, trying to hide your own nervousness. Quite clearly you failed, as Rainbow was quick to notice your change in behaviour.

"Y'know if there's something wrong you can tell me, right?" she said reassuringly, as she swooped down to the ground. You were thankful for her reassurance, but it wasn't really helping to prepare you for what was to come. The only other pony you had told was Twilight, who admittedly did accept you for who you were.
Of course, you had also told Spike, but he was a dragon, and Pinkie Pie somehow knew already.

"Thanks, but it's a little more complicated than that." you replied, making it clear that you were being serious. You were worried that you were coming across to harshly, but the pressure was building up on you.

Despite all that though, the one thing that remained a priority was to avoid ruining her big day. This was Rainbow's birthday, and if the truth about your past ended up being too much for her to handle, then you would stop.

"Hey, lay it on me! I can take whatever you've got!" Rainbow stated proudly, her enthusiasm never faltering.

You gave her a sad, worried expression, which seemed to get the point across. You appreciated her happiness, though, as it made you feel a little less worried about the whole thing.
Maybe it would turn out ok like it had done with Twilight and Spike. Maybe you were overthinking it, like you did most things.

"Ok, I get the idea! After the party, but then you tell me!" Rainbow demanded, taking on a more serious yet caring tone. You gave her an encouraging smile, along with a nod of agreement, before she flew off to mingle with the other ponies.

There was still some time to burn, and of course you couldn't spend it all with her. She had other friends to talk too. Thankfully, you had piles upon piles of uneaten cake begging to be tasted, and you knew exactly which pony was going to be sampling them.

Not long into your cake-eating spree, you heard a pair of hoofsteps approaching you. By now, you had eaten so much cake that you couldn't bare the thought of it, so a distraction was welcome.

As you turned around, you noticed that Twilight had walked up to you, a happy yet somewhat concerned look on her face. You thought she would be hanging out with Rainbow, but you assumed that she was spending some time with each pony individually.

"Hey, Storm, are you ok?" she asked, attempting to maintain her warm smile, but the worry and concern continued to shine through.

"Yep! Never better!" you lied with a faint laugh. Truthfully, you couldn't remember ever being this worried about something before, not even on Earth.
Your friendship with Rainbow meant way to much to you just to throw it away because of some past life that you were slowly beginning to recall less and less off.

Whatever it was about Rainbow, she meant more to you than the others. You didn't know what just yet, but something made her special.

"Storm, you've been living with me and Spike for a while and I'm pretty sure I can tell when there's something wrong with you." Twilight said, taking a seat next to you.
Her smile had fully faded now, replaced by a look of worry. You didn't like making her and Rainbow worry like this, but you couldn't help it.

You were debating whether to tell her what was wrong or not, but you couldn't see why you shouldn't. After all, she had kept your secret for as long as she had known.
Or, at least, as far as you were aware, anyway.

"I'm gonna tell Rainbow." you said bluntly, seeming to surprise her a little. Thankfully, her look of surprise quickly changed into one of encouragement.

"I'm glad. The sooner the better, right?" she said, with a faint laugh. That you had to agree with. If you didn't tell her now, it would only be an even more difficult conversation to have later.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." you admitted, turning away from her, yet quickly turning back as soon as the table of cakes came into view. You didn't even want to see another crumb of food for the time being.

"So when are you doing it?" she asked, lifting a slice of cake up with her magic. Now you had no choice but to look at the sickly slice, but you could work through it.

"After the party, probably." you replied. That was what you had told Rainbow, and that was the plan you were sticking too, not matter how much you disliked it.
You couldn't exactly complain, though. You had gotten yourself in this situation, and now you had to get out of it.

"Well, I'm gonna leave you to it. The party's ending soon, so good luck!" Twilight said, encouragingly, as she got up and began to walk over to Applejack and Fluttershy who were conversing in a corner.

At this point, you were pretty sure Twilight trusted you to be by yourself enough that she allowed you to be out at night on your own. You had a somewhat decent awareness of Ponyville, and so far you had never gotten lost. After all, you spent most of your time with Rainbow Dash, and nopony was going to mess with her.

The remaining duration of the party went by pretty quickly. The rest of Twilight's friends had came over and talked with you for a bit, including Mr and Mrs Cake, who's names practically made you gag at this point.
Thankfully, the time had come for all the guests to go home. Or maybe that wasn't such a good thing. You still had no idea how this was going to play out.

"I am ever so sorry, dearies, but I simply must be on my way now!" Rarity called, nearing the exit, "Fashion waits for nopony!"

That was something you had never heard her say before, and hoped she would never say again.

"Yeah, more like you need your beauty sleep!" Rainbow joked, hovering in the centre of the room with her hooves crossed.

"Hmph! Happy birthday, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity said, her mood suddenly shifting mid-sentence as if she was experiencing a mood swing.

By now, every guest had left, including Twilight and Spike. She had entrusted you to return home safely, but it wasn't like there was anything particularly dangerous lurking in Ponyville.
Except for Derpy.

All that was left was you, Rainbow and Pinkie. Pinkie, being her usual hyper self, rushed straight to the clean up of the party, and was more than likely already planning an after party. As for Rainbow, she was flying quite quickly towards you.

"So are you gonna tell me now?" she asked, flying straight up to you leaving no more than a few inches between you. You could tell that she was either incredibly excited or extremely paranoid. Either way, she was desperate to find out the meaning of your note.

"I guess." you said with a sigh, "Follow me."

Even though Pinkie somehow already knew about your secret, you would rather tell her somewhere else. You didn't know who else was listening.

Saying goodbye to Pinkie, you set off towards somewhere more private, with Rainbow following, still seeming a little giddy. You had seen a pretty quite spot nearby her house that seemed to be pretty solitairy.
Located on the field below Rainbow's cloud house was a large hill, perfect for sitting and relaxing on. You could've easily just found a cloud, but the scenery of the sky was beginning to become a little too common for you.

"Come onnnnnn... Tell meeeeeee..." Rainbow whined as you settled down on the hilltop. Instead of sitting with you, she continued to hover impatiently at your side.

It was now or never.

"You know how I told you I was from Cloudsdale?" you began, staring off across the open plains. It was strangely beautiful; nothing but an open expanse of grassland stretching for miles with nothing but the occasional tree to decorate it.

"Well, yeah..." Rainbow replied.

"I lied." you said bluntly. Well, that was putting it simply. It was far more complicated than just you lying.

"What, so you're from Canterlot or something?" she asked, seeming a little disappointed. You could tell that she thought this whole situation was pretty anticlimactic.

"Not exactly," you replied, still staring off into the distance, "I'm... I'm not even from this world."

Rainbow stared at you with a puzzled expression, with nothing but the sounds of her flapping wing she breaking the silence.

"So you're like an alien?" she asked, maintaining her confused stare.

Finally, you turned to her to make eye contact, and gave her a plain and simple nod. You weren't exactly from another planet, but you were still technically an alien to this world.

Another few moments of silence passed, and you were almost expecting Rainbow to up and leave you, but she didn't. Instead, she did something that surprised you.

"Bahahaha!" Rainbow giggled, suddenly erupting with laughter. Her wings folded inward and she fell to the ground in a hysterical fit, rolling around on the floor. You looked down at her, not knowing what emotion to be feeling right now. Should it be shame? Anger? You weren't sure.
At last, Rainbow got up, wiping a tear from her eye with a hoof, "Do you really expect me to believe that?"

You could tell pretty clearly she wasn't taking you seriously, but then again, would you have? Either way, you were gonna have to prove it to her, one way or another.

"Twilight did. Spike did." you retorted, suddenly taking on a deadly serious tone. The grin that she had on her face was wiped clean, taken aback slightly by your sudden seriousness, "Pinkie's pinkie sense could even detect it, somehow."

"Ha! Yeah, right! You look just like a pony. You sound just like a pony. If anything, Twilight and Pinkie are just in on this prank." she replied, the grin returning to her face.
You couldn't believe she was being this arrogant.

"Prank? Since when did pranks involve dying and being taken to a world that you only knew through cartoons?" you said, feeling yourself beginning to let go of your anger. As far as you knew, cartoons didn't even exist here, "Fuck, I didn't even know how to fly remember? A fully grown Pegasus that can't fly? Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

Rainbow didn't reply. All traces of amusement had vanished from her face, replaced by a look of guilt.

"You're being honest, aren't you?" she replied, with a much softer voice than what you usually heard from her.

"Why would I lie to you? Especially on your birthday?" you said, and that was finally enough to convince her.

"Well... What was it like?" she asked, still seeming a little hesitant to believe you. You couldn't really blame her though. The idea of being from a different world did seem pretty far fetched.

"It was a lot different from here. We couldn't fly, we couldn't use magic, none of that stuff." you explained, thankful that she was at least starting to believe you.

"Wait, so what could you do?" Rainbow asked, seeming to become pretty interested in the world that was once your home.

"I'll tell you tomorrow, but I think I better get going." you explained, suddenly aware of the time. The moon was positioned at its highest, showing you that it was midnight.

"Aww, c'mon! You can't just leave me hanging like that!" Rainbow whined, wanting to find out as much as she could about your previous world. You were glad that she was taking this much of an interest, but for some reason, you were finding it hard to remember.

All the little things from your life on Earth, they all seemed... distant.

But that was future you's problem. Right now, your main problem was your need for sleep.

"Sorry, I just really need some sleep." you said, slightly upset that her birthday was already at its end. With that being said, though, this had gone surprisingly well.

"Ok, but tomorrow we're gonna talk about this world of yours!" she demanded. Whether she was simply curious, or still a little sceptical of you, you couldn't really blame her for wanting to know more.
The only other pony who knew quite a bit about your past world was Twilight, who you had told almost everything to.

"Sure, that can work." you replied, actually feeling quite eager to talk to her about you previous life, even if you were having trouble remembering it all.

"Awesome! See ya tomorrow!" Rainbow exclaimed, turning around to take flight. Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks, "Oh... And thanks...."

That surprised you slightly.

"For what?" you asked, a little confused as to what you had done.

"For tonight. If it wasn't for you... I don't think it would've been as awesome as it was." she explained, still with her back turned to you. Quite honestly, you didn't think you had even done that much. All you did was sit alone at a table stacked with cake.

Despite her having her back turned to you, you could see a slight smile on her face. Instinctively, a similar smile began to creep onto your own face.

"Happy birthday, Rainbow Dash." you said, happily. She turned her head a little, allowing you to clearly see that smile that she wore. For once it wasn't a smile of pride, it was a genuine smile of happiness.

Without a word, she took flight towards her Cloudomonium, leaving you alone of the grassy plateaue. Nothing else was left to do now, aside from head home.

At last, the heavy weight of your past had been lifted, yet something bad still lurked in the corner of your mind. But what was it?

Deep down, you knew why that feeling of stress and worry was there, but you couldn't remember.

Why couldn't you remember?

Author's Notes:

At last, Rainbow knows the truth. The story has been building towards this point for quite a while, and quite honestly I can say that I'm proud of it. I'm never really 'proud' of the chapters I produce, so to say, but this chapter was different. I obviously like the chapters I make, but this chapter seemed different as it has been the point the story has been building towards for some time.

If this story was still following the old format, this would conclude Act 3: the Birthday Arc.

And now for what is coming next. The next few chapters will probably just be filler to fill in the space between now and the Wonderbolt's Derby. Either that or I'll throw in a one week time skip. If you came here for the 'sex' tag, then a chapter that puts that tag to good use will come up at around the same time as the derby. I don't know how many mature sex chapters I will, but so far I've settled on one, and only one. At it's heart, this story is exactly that. A story. Not a porn.

Regarding the villain, the entity from the dream, and Storm's dreams in general, it'll be after the Derby and the sex chapter that they come back into focus. Princess Luna will also become a somewhat major character down the road, as she can obviously manipulate the dreamscape, and may have ties to the dream entity from earlier.
As to whether the entity is the villain, and what the entity wants, I can't say just yet. I have it planned, but revealing it here would be spoiling it

This author's notes is a roadmap, of sorts. To put it simply, the first half of the story is focused on 'Slice of Life', building characters and Rainbow + Storm's relationship. The second half will focus more on the story. How long that story portion will last, I can't really say. Chances are, it'll probably be shorter than this slice of life portion though.

Thank you for sticking with me so far, I really appreciate it