After I leave Twilight’s house, I’m still not tired, though that is rather common-place for me. After years of late nights of experimenting, I’ve come to require less sleep to be able to function properly. In fact, if I get the ‘healthy’ eight hours of sleep, I’m actually drowsy upon waking up, as I would have then overslept...by at least four hours or so. Rainbow and I have always joked that she more than makes up for whatever sleep I don’t get, though it would more like be me giving my excess sleep to her...like what I’m currently trying to do with my surplus of patience.

I try to find a quiet place to think, which I tend to do a lot of. It’s still early morning, and I can now hear Twilight snoring soundly, even from outside her house. Obviously, she requires more sleep than I do. Abruptly, I remember that I should probably check in with Dash before I get too deep into anything else -- especially my thoughts -- which in turn leads me to the idea that her roof could make for an efficient thinking spot. With those in mind, I make my way over to her ‘cloud castle’.

As soon as I touch down on her ‘cloud’, Rainbow Dash calls down to me from an upstairs window, which, upon looking skyward and seeing her, I recognize that it is in fact her bedroom window.

“There you are Goldie! Where have you been?” the cyan pegasis says with a wink.

“Could I possibly consider that to be an invitation to come inside?” I reply with my half-smile.

The rainbow-maned pegasis laughs. “Works for me! Don’t bother about the front door, though, just fly your flank up here!”

I nod and take wing. I chuckle a little as well as I vaguely imagine the course of events that could unfold were the roles just now were reversed, especially considering how I’m not nearly as...dominant...as Rainbow is.

When I got into Rainbow’s room, I found her laying on her bed, lounging with her hooves behind her head. When she sees me, she scoots over toward the wall, and motions to me to come over and lie down next to her. Knowing Rainbow, this is clearly a casual gesture; if it were anything more, there’s a fairly good chance that I would already be on my back...if you know what I mean -- remember, out of the both of us, Rainbow Dash is the one who wears the “daddy pants”. I make my way over and lay down next to the cyan pegasis, closing my eyes -- not because I’m tired, which I’m not, but because it helps me to focus more, expanding my mental capabilities, and ‘opening up my mind’, all of which are useful when having a serious conversation, though it could come in handy under any circumstances. Rainbow Dash does exactly the same, which is of no surprise to me -- it’s a habit that she got directly from me all those years ago, back in Cloudsdale, and she uses it in the very same manner that I do. However, much more often than not, she utilizes it to browse her imagination for ideas for possible new flying tricks. In fact, as a result of this, Rainbow has actually given me some of the credit for some of her more famous tricks, which would be extremely uncharacteristic of her, except for the fact that she only does so privately, which I actually prefer, anyway. She could have all the attention and credit for all I care.

“It’s a good thing that you showed up when you did. I was actually about to leave to go to start looking for you.”

I open my right eye -- since Rainbow Dash is on my right side -- to look at her. “Hm? Why is that?”

Rainbow in turn opens her left eye to look back at me. “‘Cause I still haven’t told you about what I had talked about in my conversation with ‘Shy the other day.”

I open my other eye momentarily in slight shock, before closing both of them again. I had completely forgotten about that. However, I was more surprised that she had decided to bring it up, let alone that she had been planning to go looking for me because of it. At this point, I don’t know what to expect.

Rainbow blushes when she sees how I react. “Yeah...it’s not much like me to bring something like that up, is it?”

I smile. “Not a damn bit.”

Rainbow laughs, and gives me a friendly nudge. “You know, that’s one of the most awesome things about you! Your sense of humor is so...unique, that it makes even makes Pinkie Pie seem completely normal!”

I open my eyes, as I’m finding it hard to keep them closed at this point. I turn to look at her, and give in to the urge to point out something that had struck me in what she had said.

“You know...that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you use the word ‘awesome’ to describe anything that wasn’t named ‘Rainbow Dash’...”

The cyan pegasis opens her eyes and turns to look at me as well, and pauses to think about my comment. “I know how...powerful your memory is, but...are you sure?” she asks, still deep in thought, to which I reply with a simple nod.

“Wow...”

I try to work us back out of the tangent I had gotten us on. “Sorry about the tangent. As you were saying?”

“Oh!” she exclaims as she snaps suddenly out of her thoughts. “Right.”

I laugh, causing her to blush slightly, but she continues. “Well...”

She hesitates, and you don’t have to be able to read body language well to be able to tell that she’s nervous. Very. Nervous.

I decide to provide her with some of my knowledge, though this in particular is one that she’s quite familiar with. A reminder would probably help her out, however. “You do recall one of my ‘philosophies’ related to being nervous, yes?”

Before I could say anymore, she recites it, verbatim. “The longer you hesitate to say or do something, the more difficult it becomes to go through with it.”

I grin, and Rainbow laughs, both at the awkward silence that temporarily followed the rainbow-maned pony’s recital.

“Alright then.” Rainbow says. “I should probably take that advice of yours, considering that I already know it so well.”

We both laugh.

Rainbow sighs, and I decide to not put my two bits in during what I expect to be a monologue from the cyan pegasis next to me. After all, it was her who had originally wanted to tell me about this, so I have no right to not let her do so in its entirety. Without speaking, we both sit up and reposition ourselves, she sitting on the headboard half of the bed, and I on the other. She sighs again, and begins to speak.

“To start off...I’m...glad that you ‘suggested’ that I talk to ‘Shy about...that impulse I had...she was able to help me...a lot.” Rainbow pauses to sigh again, then continues. “I had decided that the best thing to do was to explain everything, especially because we both trust Fluttershy, and that she’s not the kind of pony who wouldn’t keep other ponies’ ‘secrets’. However, before I started, I requested that we go somewhere else to discuss it, to which she complied. Once we got there -- the ‘there’ not being important -- I started to tell her everything that happened, in as much detail as I could remember, including how you reacted -- especially how you reacted -- and that it was actually your suggestion that I should try talking to her about this. The first thing she said back...was that she was actually surprised at first that you hadn’t ‘lectured’ me about ‘hormones’ and all that jargon, though she then added that she thinks that the reason you didn’t was because you were involved in the situation.” She pauses again to ask me if Fluttershy had been right.

“Spot-on. I had to really fight the urge to lecture you about all of those ‘sciency’ things I know you don’t care all too much for.”

Rainbow grins, then continues. “Anyway...what she told me next...well...was the ‘obvious’, though it never seemed obvious -- even now...well, to me at least.”

She takes a deep breath. “She said...that it simply could be that I’m...” She visibly strains to force the rest of the sentence out of her mouth. “...that I’m...in...in love with you...” Rainbow immediately blushes severely, seemingly changing the cyan of her coat to a deep crimson...well, in her face, at least. “And...” She moves her head up to look at me, which makes me realize that she had been looking down this entire time. “I have a feeling that I already know what you’re going to say.” The look she gives me tells me that it’s my turn to speak.

“Would you like me to say it anyway?”

Rainbow nods.

“Well...do you?”

Rainbow giggles, with another blush as well. “I was right.”

I half-smile. “Because you know me too damn well.”

“You’ve said that before.”

I smirk. “And I had reason to say it again.”

Rainbow smiles, but after several moments it disappears. “I should probably answer your question now, I guess...”

“Only if you want to. I completely understand if you’d rather no--”

“I do.” Rainbow interrupts me.

I look at her, and nod understandingly that she continue, which she does.

“To answer the question...I...I don’t really know. As I said earlier, it isn’t as obvious to me as it should be. Everything points exactly to that, yet...”

“You can’t seem to clearly see where exactly they’re ‘pointing’ to?”

She responds with a soft smile, which is rather uncharacteristic of the cyan pegasis...which in turn reminds me how uncharacteristic she’s been this entire time...but then again, it’s difficult to imagine Rainbow being as brash and confident as she’s famous for being when we’re discussing a subject as...sensitive as this.

“Yeah...exactly.” She blushes yet again. “I’m sorry for how awkward this is...”

“Don’t be. There’s absolutely no possible way to avoid a subject such as this being awkward.”

Rainbow smiles again. “Thanks.”

I smile back warmly as I start to get up. I turn and see that a frown has replaced the smile on Rainbow’s face. I was going to make certain that it didn’t last long.

“I think you’ve been ‘grounded’ for too long.” I half-smile. “Would you like to go for a flight?”

Rainbow got up and moved over to stand next to me, then -- just before going ahead and taking wing -- she leaned in and whispered in my ear “You know me too damn well.”