On my way home that night the sunset and the evening breeze were breathed life into my step with every inhale. Those green hills are beyond gorgeous... There's an apple orchard around here somewhere, and it smells heavenly... But thoughts like that were only a few clucks of my hooves and I'd always end up going back to her. How can she be so cute and tough at the same time? I could hear that raspy voice trembling with embarrassment in my head again. "Please don't mention to anyone that we're... you know!" I turned a red color and began laughing sheepishly when I thought about her forelegs hugging me around the neck. I closed my eyes in ecstasy, and there in my mind was her shining face clothed in divine light.

Sonic, you've got to slow down... But then again, how can I? Why should I? I pulled my head up and looked at the beautiful purple sky, and in a slight shift of feeling, everything seemed to hit me and I was almost overwhelmed. I felt a tear falling down my cheek when I considered that only a week ago I was sleeping on a grassy bed under the stars, trying to forget my parents and wondering if I was ever going to see her again while I fought to make the most of my situation. I was overcome with gratitude; I wasn't sure I deserved any of it as I clutched my heart in disbelief staring into that sunset. My life has turned around so quick and all my dreams coming true that I was simply having trouble taking it all in. I don't mind that at all, of course.

After the kiss in the forest, she went off to take care of her duty with the mayor but in a short time later she was back by the side in the forest and the two of us scaled much of the world in the skies together, and I felt like Prince of Equestria beside her, the true Princess. The warmth from the moment before was so strong inside me that I trotted along with a kind of spring I'd never had before, not even when we were foals. I was swimming in lover's bliss, and the sun never shined so brightly in all my life. Even everything else around me seemed even lovelier than it'd been before, and I had this burning desire to give joy to every pony I met. Meanwhile, as we walked over the hills, she was talking with more excitement then a foal on the morning of Hearth's Warming Eve.

"Oh Sonic! You should've been there when I saved my friend Rarity at the Young Flyer's Competition - she had these fake wings and when they melted she went crashing to the ground but I was like swoosh! And then this one time when I was at the Wonderbolt Academy," she went on at a million words a minute, and I was just trying to catch as much of what she said as I could. "And there was this mare Lightning Dust who almost hurt everyone there, but like the commander of the- oh! And this other time when like we needed this kind of tornado thing from all us pegasus here in - and hey, I forgot to ask, do you read the Daring Do books?"

"Yes!" I said enthusiastically, and she gave me a look of euphoric disbelief, but then I realized I just said that for some reason when I hadn't even read them. I think my heart was just full of yes and so it was coming out of my mouth no matter what the question. "Oh, wait a minute, uh... no," I said embarrassingly, rubbing the back of my neck. She looked at me confused for a moment and then laughed, which was beyond a relief. "Uh, but I have been meaning to read them, will you read them to me? Er - with me? Well, whichever you pre-"

"You want me to read them to you?" she asked, turning her head in confused thought, before gasping with excitement. "What an amazing idea!" she continued, twirling around in the air the same way I had just the day before. I had never heard of Daring Do until then, but if she was a fan, then I wanted nothing more to read them. Suddenly the voice of filly called out to her.

"Rainbow Dash!" cried the voice. We both turned around to find an orange filly with a magenta mane and tail running up to the two of us. She was short on breath but she seemed very happy to have found her.

"What's up squirt?" said Rainbow with a friendly smirk. She took a few deep breaths, and just by looking at her expression I could tell she was a great admirer of Rainbow's. Before she could talk, Rainbow stuck her hoof in the filly's mouth. "Wait!" she cried, "we haven't done the hoofshake!"

"Oh, right!" screamed the filly with excitement. They both took turns hitting their hooves together.

"Through and through, me and you," they said together before they both began to backflip with the aid of their wings, "are the best of all the rest!" they finished out. Silly, yes, and maybe even a little stupid, but quite cute. She pulled the filly in and gave her a rub on the top of her head with her hoof with an affectionate giggle... the two of them clearly had a longstanding and meaningful relationship. It seemed like the filly hadn't noticed me yet, but finally after the series of giggles she turned her eyes my way and looked up at me with an innocent fascination.

"Oh hey, what's up dude?" she asked me, looking me over. My eyes quickly moved up to Rainbow, and I found her smiling at me with wide excited eyes.

"My friend? Geez, he's more than-" She stopped midsentence rather fiercely, as though she was afraid of saying it. She chuckled and turned a deep red, which I didn't mind in the slightest. On the contrary my own beam got wider. She shook her head and replaced her expression with a more tough and prideful one, the kind I was used to. "Well... what I mean is, this is Sonic Rain, and he's not only the coolest colt - er, stallion - you'll ever meet, but he's the nicest, funnest, smartest, best-look- er I mean coolest-"

"Didn't you already say that?" piped Scootaloo. I barely heard her, I was too busy smiling at Rainbow and too flattered.

"Nicest," she continued, ignoring her, "and he's the only flyer I know who's almost as fast as me," she finished with a prideful hoof to her chest.

"Really? That's fast! I wish I was *almost* as fast as her," lamented Scootaloo. I had rarely seen such an innocent face smiling at me like that, and my appreciation for it was conscious, even being totally preoccupied with how Rainbow had described me to her.

"Watch this," I whispered to the filly, who was still standing between us. "I heard lots of ponies in a group talking yesterday how they could beat you in race," I said out loud with a wink down to Scootaloo.

"Say WHAT?!?" growled Rainbow in disbelief. "Who said that? Who the heck said that?1? Line me up with them right now!"

"Nobody said it, I just made it up," I said nonchalantly, to which she gasped and Scootaloo laughed.

"Why, you little - !" she remarked, impressed and beaming from ear to ear. Home run!!!, I thought to myself.

"Hey, I thought you were a lot faster than me, but I'll definitely take almost and run," I said shrugging my shoulders.

"Nopony gets the jump on the me!" said Rainbow, and without warning she rammed her shoulder into mine which sent me flailing into the ground with a spectacular thud. I honestly couldn't believe she did that, nor could I believe how easily she did like I weighed no more than a feather. As shocked and impressed as she'd been a moment ago, now it was my turn to one up her as I beheld smirking down at me triumphantly. She reached out her hoof to help me up with the sun right behind her head giving her a deserved halo. I grabbed her hoof and pulled her down to the ground there where cloud of dust erupted, with tails and hooves flying every which way.

"Hey, no fair, you're both bigger than me!!!" cried Scootaloo as joined in on the fun.

"Take that!" screamed Rainbow over our wild laughing. I was never much of a wrestler, or a fighter, so I attempted to crawl away from this heart attack even though I was having an absolute blast.

"Yes!" I cried hysterically to myself as I saw nothing but green in front of me. Suddenly though I felt teeth on my tail. "Uh oh..." Rainbow dragged me backward underneath her front hooves again.

"Ha!" she cried, with a triumphant beam and breathing heavily as she pressed her hooves into my chest and I stared up at her. "Too bad I've taught the boys a thing or two about football and wrestling 'round here. Now say uncle!"

"Nah," I said, chuckling as I tried to catch my breath. We stayed like that for a few silent seconds, save our breathing of course, and I had full close-up view of those magenta eyes of hers. Her cheeks were now a bright red, and I think it was crystal clear to both of us just how happy we were. This is where I belong. She sure can't hide her loving and compassionate side from me underneath all that toughness.

"Hey," asked Scootaloo seriously, who was now standing beside us. I thought I detected perhaps a sense of concern in her tone, which made me very curious. "Do you guys like ... like each other?"

Rainbow's eyes flew open scared and quickly pulled herself off of me, dismissing Scootaloo with a wave of the hoof and a laugh.

"Of course we like each other, we're friends, what, you think I don't like my own friends? Of course I like my own friends, silly," she said, talking very fast with a nervous grin covering herself. I was still on my back and I felt my heart fluttering with delight. This sort of thing was certainly the Rainbow Dash I know and love.

"Well anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go see the rock n' roll concert tomorrow night in Baltimare with me," Scootaloo said with wide hopeful eyes. Rock n' roll? I had to contain myself; that was something I always wanted to go to since I was young. I couldn't be rude though, so I stood there hoping with everything that they'd invite me.

"Who is it Squirt?" started Rainbow, putting her hoof on Scootaloo's back. Before she could answer, Rainbow gasped. "Wait- you don't mean... Thunderhooves??? Oh my gosh, I completely forgot that's tomorrow!"

"You can come too if you want," Scootaloo said to me.

"I love Thunderhooves, but I guess it's up to her if I go or not," I chuckled nodding to Rainbow.

"You still like Thunderhooves too?!?" she cried with hysterical excitement.

"Did you forget the time we snuck into one of his first concerts in Cloudsdale? That was before he even got big across Equestria."

"Of course I didn't forget! I just didn't know if you still liked him... I talk to some ponies that are like 'we grew out of him' or some nonsense," she said with a hilariously over the top and unflattering impersonation.

"Scootaloo!" called the voice of an unseen filly rather urgently.

"Oh! Alright, see ya guys tomorrow," said the filly as she galloped away, leaving the two of us standing shoulder to shoulder watching her.

"You were really good with her," remarked Rainbow.

"It's one thing to be good with kids, it's another thing entirely to be their hero, which you obviously are," I replied, and I realized I could relate to Scootaloo in a special way.

"Alright, cut that out," she said, stomping her hoof and looking away with a blushing smile.

"Whatever you say hero," I replied.

"Sonic, stop! We're in public," she begged under her breath, trying to conceal her bliss. "Come on, you gotta try this Hog Slop back in town," she went on excitedly, changing the subject. "Ok, picture this; a huge plate of carrots smothered in fresh cut grass, hay fries, melted cheese, barbecue sauce, and tangy mustard. It'll change your life!!" she exclaimed with her front hooves in air. My mind processed all of this thing's ingredients and my eyes widened.

"Where is this thing of which you speak?" I said crazily with my tongue out.

"Just follow me," she said, and took off running towards town. "If you can keep up with me that is," she added with a smirk and wink.

"Geez, slow down!" I cried excitedly and galloped after her. The two of us took off running down the valley path like true race horses. At first I was mostly concerned with sprinting as fast I could because she really is that fast, and if I didn't put most of my energy into that she was going to pull away from me in those first few moments out of our burst towards town. But I was so happy as I threw my legs forward down that path that it barely felt I was using any energy at all.

I closed my eyes and let the wind flow over my face through my mane knowing that when I opened them back up that she was still going to be in front of me, and the same sun in the beautiful blue sky would still be shining down on the two of us. When I did open them the toughest pony I've ever known turned around as she ran and looked back at me with the sweetest smile I've ever seen. I didn't know that happiness of this level was possible. I was galloping breathlessly on air. Anyone who says Rainbow is all tough and no love has never seen her like this.

Finally we came to a side-by-side walk as we came within a few stone skips from town.

"Wow..." I remarked chuckling. "I thought I was in decent shape, but that just wasn't fair."

"Only a few steps behind me, they must call you Sonic for a reason," she said between breaths, clearly pleased with my remark. "I'm so glad you came back," she added, giving me a lovely pair of magenta eyes very close to mine. If it were up to me I never would've left you. We put our shoulders together and strutted into town together without missing a beat.

"Hey Rainbow! Who's your friend?" called the voice of young mare. We just got out of the hills and were now officially in town and surrounded by buildings, and everyone was out given it the bright and gorgeous day. Whoever it was had caught Rainbow and I in a stare. We were making up for all our time lost, and plus, I could stare into her eyes for the rest of my life.

"Oh hi Cheerilee! This is Sonic Rain, my super awesome friend who *finally* moved here," she said proudly. I bit my lower lip in heavenly embarrassment and waved at Cheerilee, a purplish mare older than both of us by maybe ten years or so.

"You know, I'm not really sure it's necessary to introduce me as 'super awesome'," I said shyly, flashing her a smile with my head down. She saw it and started yelling playfully at me.

"Will you stop being so CUTE?"

She seemed to regret saying it that loud because as soon as she said the word cute she glanced back to Cheerilee with a nervous expression which was followed by a blush.

"Well... I don't know if cute is the right word," she said, chuckling in a manner that I could only comment that cute might not be a strong enough word. Unfortunately for her I think Cheerilee clearly perceived what was going on and it was obvious that she loved it, though she tried to mask her full knowledge.

"Very nice meeting you Sonic," she remarked with an adoring grin. "You know, I don't know if I've ever heard her speak so highly about somepony before," she continued, glancing at Rainbow with a hidden smirk. My ears were already down so they couldn't fall lower than they already were.

"Is everyone here as nice as you?" I asked genuinely, as she had piled on the warm feelings. She chuckled and threw her hoof out humbly.

"I sure hope so for someone like you! You know, you and Rainbow look quite happy together, just thought I'd say that. Welcome to Ponyville!" she added before she walked away happily.

"Quit being so... adorable! We're in public!" she whispered despite enjoying herself tremendously. "These ponies think I'm tough!"

"You are!" I retaliated, shaking my head... I don't think the ponies around us realized this was the greatest 24 hours of my life as they passed be.

"Come on!" she said, nudging me forward through the crowd down the street.

Not even my dreams did her justice... She suddenly whipped me in the face with her tail and laughed, breaking into a trot. I shook my head and galloped after her till I was back beside her. All the way through, eyes of ponies young and old from all different directions turned and watched us. We were letting our bliss radiate from us onto other ponies, and as such we got almost nothing but smiles, some of them definitely wondering about us. I could occasionally hear whispers and such from somewhere.

"Say, who's that stallion with Rainbow?" said one distant voice.

"Geez, I swear it almost looks like they're a couple," said another.

"No way, not Rainbow," murmured someone from the same vicinity. All the while, Rainbow was like the life of the town, calling to as many ponies as she could.

"Right there," she finally said pointing to a old-looking house on the corner with eating tables outside. She cut in front of me and bolted up to the door while I chased her from behind. She opened the door and shoved her head inside. "Hey Smokey Joe. Can we get two Hog Slops out here?" she called to an unseen pony. "The usual to drink for me, Sonic you want anything to drink?" she said sticking her head back out at me.

"Root beer," I said, nodding. Her face lit up into an excited smile before sticking her head back in the door.

"Make that two root beers Smokey."

She pulled her out of the doorway and galloped over to a table and jumped into a chair on one of the open tables, throwing her hooves back behind her head while I sat down on the opposite side. She was leaning back into her front legs and staring straight at me with a bright beam. Then she suddenly sat forward and threw her lips around her root beer straw, though not taking her shining eyes off me.

"So, Sonic... What do you think of my new town?" she asked. There was a kind of a hope in her question that was visible in her expression. I think we both knew the answer to that question, but it was as if she wanted to hear it straight from my mouth.

"You know... when I was a colt, and up until now for that matter, of all the places we moved to, I always liked Cloudsdale the best," I stuttered, looking around at the colors and mountaintops. That was because she was there... Of course most of that had to do with the fact that I associated her with Cloudsdale. "But these hills... this place has a feeling that I can't even explain. Ponyville is-," I said, trying to find the right words.

"Ponyville is just that awesome," she finished for me.

"Exactly," I said, beaming in agreement. "I mean, I don't even know what to- where has this place been all my life?"

"Sonic, you don't even know how awesome it is. I mean there's iron pony competitions, the running of the leaves, rodeo's," she went on happily, and I found her listing off all sporting events extremely cute, especially with that gleam in her eyes.

"Still the athlete," I said shaking my head with a smile.

"You know, there's other stuff too," she said with her ears dropping in embarrassment. "I mean we got the best home-cooked food in Equestria here, we got water holes, salt flocks, and fr- "

"You're the reason I'm in shape right now, and any skill I have in flying is also because of you."

"I am?" she asked, excitedly curious.

"Well yeah," I continued, and her eyes widened. "I don't know if this is really that big secret anymore but you were kind of my idol when we were kids," I continued, at which her ears fell down yet again as she turned her head with a smile. "Some ponies are naturally talented, but nobody had your drive. Do you remember that one time we were playing after school, and it was like four days before that big camp race and you had me running practice runs with you until I threw up?" I said, unable to avoid smirking at the last part. She tried futilely to hold back laughter has her mouth curled into a smile and her hoof covered up before she broke into that raspy cackle of hers.

"Ummm," she said, as I sat there shaking my head. "I don't know if I remember that... I mean, maybe-?"

"Oh good - because, you know that's an image of me I definitely want you to have forever," I remarked sarcastically, though on the inside I was thrilled beyond measure to just have made her laugh.

"Yeah that sounds like me," she said, kicking her legs and finally settling down.

"Well anyway, you went on to get first place and I think I took fourth because I still didn't have my steering down. Oh and for the record, before I met you I never pushed myself or did anything hard like that, granted I was ten years old. But when I saw you out there when no one else was, daring your body to give up against your spirit, I was just in awe," I said.

By now she was deeply flattered and absurdly pleased.

"Anyway," I continued, "when we were having a hard time with the stuff we did in camp you used to whisper over to me 'don't give up now, Sonic! This is how we get stronger right here and right here!' " I said, pointing to my wings and my heart in imitation of her, "and 'how we can we ever be fearless if we're too afraid to keep going now?' Amazing that a ten year old filly could have such a deep understanding of that kind of thing. You taught me a valuable lesson... that you can use your body to strengthen your mind, and I've been exercising hard ever since," I remarked with a bright smile of thanks.

Her eyes were twinkling; it was like I told her the only thing she ever wanted to hear in life for the first time.

"And that doesn't apply just to your body, but with struggling in general and the importance of never giving up, cliched as that may sound. It all really prepared me for... well," I stopped myself, looking off the side. It was the first time in many hours my emotions dipped, and a flicker of sadness burned lightly in me for a very short moment.

"Gosh darn it!" she suddenly cried with a suppressed giggle as she slammed her hoof to her face.

"What?" I asked amusedly, the sadness all but extinguished.

"Now I'm feeling all tingly again," she remarked.

"Oh, well... *my bad*," I replied playfully.

"You know, as long as you're making confessions," she said with an eyebrow raise, "I'll go ahead and give you one."

"Alright, hit me," I replied, quite curious. She looked away as though she was having a hard time finding the right way to say something, despite having a beautiful beam on her face. Just looking at her and I felt an unexplainable feeling in my heart, like I knew she was about to tug at it.

"Well, I usually don't admit things like this, but there was this one time that you and I were - do you remember when we were playing at the Rainbow River and flying through the falls, and those two fillies came by and played with us?"

My mind immediately searched through my memories for that moment. Rainbow River... Then I had it.

"Yeah," I said, shaking my head up and down, before locking in to her eyes. The image of us playing together in those falls was fresh in my mind frequently, but since we did that several times it took a moment to find the day that the two fillies joined us. Now I was staring intently at her, as I couldn't recall anything from her worth confessing and was super curious about where she was going with this.

"Don't tell anyone this, but you remember how they were like super nice to you for a couple days and then just disappeared?"

"Yes," I said with a widening smile. I had no idea what was coming, but she was turning the color the red with an embarrassed smile.

"Well, I could tell that they really liked you, and... Don't tell anyone this, but I was really jealous and I sort of... told them to get lost," she said with her head turned away and pleading eyes of forgiveness.

"Rainbow!" I said out loud, holding back my laughter.

"No wait!" she cried, flying into defense mode. My heart was already in danger of growing wings and flying away the way it felt about this story so far. Waiting was the hard part. "A few days later, you were asking me about them, and I told you they said they didn't wanna play with us anymore or something. Well, you were all sad and said that you thought you and I had a made a couple new friends, and then I got sad since you were sad. But then you smiled and said that it didn't really matter anyway because I'd always be your best friend."

Forget my dumb story... Just when I thought I couldn't get any happier, Rainbow Dash somehow plucked my heart and lifted it even higher. And she wasn't even done.

"As you can imagine," she continued with a shameful grin. No, stop, you're gonna kill me... "I felt pretty bad after that. Especially because you loved everyone. So to hear you say that about me was like - . Well, I felt like the lousiest best friend in the world, and I vowed to never be jealous ever again. I even said sorry to those girls after you left and we became friends. Please don't tell anyone that story."

"Rainbow," I muttered out loud, swimming in my emotions.

"Yeah?" she asked, with widening eyes. I wasn't even sure what I said or why I said it, or what I was going to say now. But nothing mattered to me, because I was staring into the loving eyes of Rainbow Dash.

"Uh," I muttered. Finally I realized that what I'd said was a compulsive reaction to my sudden injection of absurd delight. Gotta say something! But she didn't seem to find this silence awkward all. In fact we were starting to have another moment like in the forest, where we exited reality altogether and traveled to another realm with one another.

"Yeah, but you've been jealous lots of times since then. Remember Mare-Do-Well?" said a familiar girl's voice from the left that caused both of us to jump, especially Rainbow (she shot up ten feet into the air, flipping our table over in the process; thankfully the waitor was like ten feet from us with our two hog slops, wondering what the heck was going on).

"GEEZ PINKIE!" cried Rainbow, breathing hard in air as she settled back to the ground. Pinkie Pie was standing two feet from the table, her wide eyes right up close to mine and spouting a ridiculously oblivious smile. Rainbow came back down as I flipped over the table.

"Sorry about that," I shot over to our waiter as I got back in my seat, who was still confused. "Right here," I said, holding a hoof up with an intentionally over-the-top grin. He ignored my attempts at humor and set down the two hog slops down rather awkwardly and then walked away quickly.

"Hello Rainbow, hello Sonic! What are you two up to? Mind if I join you?" she asked friendlily.

"Pinkie - you can't sneak up on me like that, we've talked about this!" barked Rainbow.

"I always sneak up on you though, I thought by now you were used it!" she said, giving Rainbow a look as though she was the dumb one. "Honestly, ever since Sonic got here, you've been acting weird!" she added.

"Ughh," she said with a gasp, burying her face in her hooves.

"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash," said Pinkie, suddenly sincerely. Rainbow took a deep breath from behind her hooves before she started laughing.

"I know, I know," she replied, rubbing her eye with a hoof. "I know you are, I don't mean to be - it's just that -" she started before looking up at me and seeing my relaxed smile. "She's a really good friend, but she does this all the time. You get used to it. Kinda... sorta... not really," she whispered to me with a chuckle, and then noticing the huge portion of food in front of her. There was a rumbling sound from her stomach. "Oh that's right, I'm starving," she remarked, before she buried her mouth on top of her plate.

"Wow, this thing is huge," I remarked. She wasn't kidding; piles of carrots, grass, hay fries, barbeque sauce and tangy mustard. I looked up and saw her digging in shamelessly, and personally I thought it was really cute.

"What do you think Sonic?" she said cheerfully with a mouthful, peeking her head up. I hadn't even managed a bite yet.

"Oh, you got the hog slop?" said Pinkie sadly, as though she was in desperate need of it as well. "Can I have some of yours?" she said to me with a puppy face.

"Sure," I offered.

"No!" screamed Rainbow, as Pinkie zeroed in on my plate. She pulled it away as Pinkie's suddenly huge mouth clamped down onto nothing. "Rule number one about living in Ponyville; never offer food to Pinkie," she said, chuckling embarrassingly to me before shooting her friend a dirty look.

"What?!?" she cried hysterically.

"Oh don't even get me started," said Rainbow, as they broke into an argument.

"Hello girls!" said an unknown girly voice from the other direction, shutting the two of them up. We all looked over together and saw a shining white mare with royal purple mane and tail walking towards us.

"Hi Rarity!" said Pinkie. The white mare walked up to us with a friendly expression but didn't notice me until she was right up close to us.

"Oh!" she said, startled to see me.

"Hello," I said, matching her previous friendliness and standing up. She stared silently for a moment, examining me from head to toe and then turned her head away with a bashful smile.

"Oh," she said as though she was impressed, blinking her eyelashes eloquently. "And who is this fine-mannered stallion?" she asked.

"Sonic, nice to meet you!" I replied, offering a cheerful hoofshake which she accepted with a giggle. I knew immediately what was going on, and I was honestly very flattered, but my heart belongs to someone else of course.

"He just moved here! He's really nice, and he's from Canterlot," said Pinkie, to which Rarity gasped.

"You are?" she asked even more excitedly and admiringly. Pinkie wasn't doing me any favors at this point, and I just kind of chuckled embarrassingly not really knowing what to say, looking at Rainbow for support.

"Uh, actually, Pinkie, I'm not really fro-"

"This is my really good friend Sonic, he just moved here," said Rainbow, putting emphasis on "my" defensively. Rarity was surprised to hear this.

"Rainbow? This is your friend?" she asked as though she couldn't believe it.

"Uh... yeah," said Rainbow.

The white mare then observed the two of us very thoughtfully, saw the food in front of us, and went first from me and then to her friend sitting across from me, and then back and fourth in a very inquisitive manner. Pinkie Pie started rambling about something in the background, but Rainbow was now looking at Rarity nervously while I was just stuck sitting there smiling awkwardly. Rarity was noting everything about Rainbow's expression and body language, like she was trying to discover something.

I pretended to start eating and act like I wasn't watching, though I saw Rarity draw leaning backwards with a shocked expression as though she just had a revelation she couldn't believe, while Rainbow started blushing with deep embarrassment. She then put on an expression that seemed to be a desperate plead to Rarity for something. They were having a silent conversation, and I knew exactly what they were saying. It was a special feeling, what I felt right then as I looked into my food trying desperately to hide my smile.

"This is really good," I said with an enthusiastic head shake to Pinkie.

"Pinkie," said Rarity with a huge smirk.

"Yeah, Rarity?"

"Why don't you and I go do something together?" she said, trying to wipe the smirk off her face and with a failed attempt to put on a more natural one.

"Oh! Ok," she replied, rather surprised. "You two wanna come with us? I wanna get to know my friend's friend better!" she said, gesturing to me.

"Oh no, my dear Pinkie. I think these two should stay here. They need to catch up," she said with a wink to Rainbow, who in turn gave her an expression of relief and gratitude. I turned my head away and tried my hardest not to laugh with too much happiness. I simply couldn't believe what was happening to me, and I had to clutch my chest where my heart was. "You are a gentlecolt," she said to me with a lady-like bow, before walking away. "Come, Pinkie!"

I pretended to start eating again and out of the corner of my eye I watched Rainbow, who was watching her two friends walk away and smiling at them. I turned my head over and saw Rarity mouthing something to her with an impressed and happy smirk, before she saw me and quickly turned her head to where she was headed. I couldn't keep from smiling, and I turned my head back to Rainbow and saw that she was staring at me, which was fine because I was longing to go swimming in her eyes.

"What is happening to me?" I asked in disbelief.

"Do you wanna maybe... Find a cloud to sit on?" she asked, growing desperate to embrace her again.

"Here we go again," I said out loud, clutching my chest. I felt my wings flapping gently, on their own accord and not mine and in union with hers as my heart climbed into a state of mystical ecstasy. We locked our hooves together and hovered over the world that we owned.

"I've had a crush all these years and never told anyone," she declared.

"I rested my head on your feather when I went to sleep at night," I uttered.

"I secretly asked Princess Celestia if she knew who and where you were last year," she confessed. We flew faster and began twirling around each other as we climbed higher into the sky our hooves and eyes gridlocked. "And I lied when I said I didn't recognize you at first at the party."

"My favorite place in the world is where ever you are," I said, overwhelmed.

"I once went like twenty straight nights where I dreamed about you," she said with her ears falling.

The next thing I remember is smashing through a cloud and winding up on the softest one in the sky.

"This is the best day of my life," I declared.

"Your eyes are literally the most beautiful things I've ever seen and I don't care how sappy that sounds," she proclaimed.

She buried her head in under my neck and I wrapped my front legs around her. Then we put everything else aside and we kissed each other again. We stayed there for almost the rest of the entire day and never left each other's grasp.