Thunderbolt angrily flew off, unsure of where he was going. Rainbow Dash collapsed on the ground and cried. We'll follow the latter, for the simple reason that it would take a long time for Thunderbolt to get anywhere of any use (or to even know where he was going). Soon, somepony else was with Rainbow as well. "Rainbow? Are you all right?" asked Twilight. "Oh! I… um…" Rainbow sputtered, wiping the tears from her eyes in an effort to conceal the incredibly obvious, "Yeah, I'm… fine!" "Come on, Rainbow," said Twilight, lifting her friend's chin up to meet her gaze, "We both know that's not true." "Am I really that bad a liar?" asked Rainbow, wiping more tears from her eyes. "Um, no offense, but…" said Twilight before Rainbow cut her off. "Yeah, I am, aren't I?" Rainbow said. Twilight nodded and said, "Come on, Rainbow. Let's go back to the library, you can tell me what happened."
They arrived at Twilight's library, where Twilight had Spike make two cups of herbal tea (the recipe she got from Fluttershy). "Okay, Rainbow," said Twilight as she sat down on a soft, purple pillow and levitated over the cups of tea to each of them, "Tell me what happened." "I… well, I'll start at the beginning," Rainbow began, "See, a few days ago, I was woken up by this handsome stranger. Normally, I don't let such a thing as waking me up from my afternoon nap slide, but he was kinda cute, so I did. Then I got the chance, and we lived together in my house. We did some workouts and stuff, he asked me to teach him. We got closer, and he helped me out with a bunch of stuff. Then… something changed… and now…" she almost started sobbing again, "Now he's gone."
"It's okay," said Twilight, "You're all right. You'll be fine. I predict that, at some point, he's going to realize how dumb he's been, and he's gonna come back and apologize." "But that's the thing," said Rainbow sadly, "He thinks I pranked him. He thinks I don't really have any feeling for him. He won't apologize if he thinks there's nothing to apologize for." "Well, this presents quite the dilemma," said Twilight, taking another sip of her tea with a quizzical look on her face. "Wait a minute," said Rainbow, a smile beginning to form on her tear-stricken face, "I'm… a terrible liar… right?" "I thought you didn't like that being brought up," said Twilight. "I didn't," said Rainbow, "But it might just be the way to get me… get us… out of this mess." "We just need to find him," said Twilight. "Um, that won't be hard," announced Rainbow, wiggling her wings. "Oh, right," said Twilight, "I keep forgetting you can fly as fast as you can." "Well, thanks, Twi," said Rainbow, running out the door and taking off.
Rainbow, remembering the direction in which Thunderbolt had set off, went in the same direction and flew as fast as she could. She had little strength left in her wings, but she used what remained to go at least fast enough to catch up to Thunderbolt. As she perpetually blinked the plasma out of her eyes, some of the things he'd said echoed through her head. "I haven't raced you yet," Rainbow heard her own voice, what she'd said before. "That's because you know full well I couldn't keep up!" she heard Thunderbolt's voice. "First!" she'd exclaimed when she arrived. "Not-even-close second!" Thunderbolt had said to her when he arrived. Although he was too preoccupied to notice (and Rainbow was grateful for that at the moment), Rainbow's wings hadn't been able to fold the entire time they were on that cloud together.
Then Rainbow's heart wrenched when she remembered what happened after that. Thunderbolt had said something outright romantic, something he didn't want her to know at the time, then he flew off. She remembered the burning she felt after that. Nothing like a pulled muscle's sting, a broken bone's stab, a tired wing's ache. Nothing like a hard day's work, a war with changelings, a flying competition. Nothing Rainbow had ever felt before, because she'd never been in love before, and she'd never had a broken heart. Thunderbolt had broken her heart, flown off and taken half with him. And now she was going to give him the other half, so she'd be fully his.
But first she had to get there.
The entire time Rainbow was flying, she was also looking around, trying to spot his dark blue coat, golden mane, bright and dazzling yellow eyes. "Love," Rainbow pondered in her thoughts, "Is like a workout. You can get hurt occasionally, and it'll hurt pretty good, but in the end, it's a good thing." "I'll tell him that when I get there," thought Rainbow. She didn't exactly know where 'there' was, but she had a feeling he'd still be up in the air. She had a feeling that he was going back to that little island he was from. Then, ahead of her, she spotted something.
At first it looked like a tiny dot of blackish something. Then it got bigger and more colorful, turning from black to dark blue with some gold. It wasn't moving away from her very fast, and it… at this point she was relatively sure who it was, though… he didn't seem to hear her coming. Therefore, she slowed down. She flew so slowly it felt almost wrong. She crept up on him, then she put her hooves over his eyes and said, "Guess who?"
"Rainbow Dash?" asked Thunderbolt, trying to turn around and just moving her around in circles with him, then he gave up altogether and said, "I thought I told you I didn't want to see you again?" "As of right now," commented Rainbow, "You haven't seen me. Just heard me." Thunderbolt sighed, "What've you come here for, anyways? I made it quite clear I didn't want you around, you little prankster." "I've come to tell you that I didn't prank you," said Rainbow, taking her hooves off his eyes as he turned around to look at her. "Like I'm gonna believe that," said Thunderbolt, "You're gonna have to do better than that." "How about this, then," said Rainbow, "I made this up myself as I was flying here, after I went to Twi's place and she told me this: That I'm a terrible liar. Anyways, here goes.
Love is like a good, long workout.
It will hurt occasionally, and it'll hurt pretty good,
But in the end, knock on wood,
It's a good thing."
"You wrote that?" asked Thunderbolt. "No, silly," said Rainbow, "I didn't write it down. I made it up, but I didn't write it. That would imply I had a pad and a pen on me." Thunderbolt worked real hard to suppress an urge to laugh. "I have a question, though," said Rainbow. "What have I got to lose?" said Thunderbolt, irritated. "I was wondering if you… you know… have a crush on anypony." "One, but she's an annoying prankster and I wish I didn't love her," said Thunderbolt. "What can I do to prove I'm not pranking you?" Rainbow asked before she said, "Oh, I know. Wait a sec, this'll be cool."
Rainbow flew up, high up, far away. Thunderbolt just hovered there. Rainbow performed a pristine sonic rainboom, and as if that wasn't enough, she did a large, elongated loop right afterwards. Then she slowed down and sped up enough to stop her trail, then immediately get it back, then she did some more fancy tricks, most of which Thunderbolt couldn't name. Then she was done, and she hovered next to the ending of her last trail. It was then that Thunderbolt looked at the big picture and saw what she'd drawn in the sky.
Rainbow Dash had wrote, in beautiful cursive, with her sonic rainboom, "I love you, Thunder." And Rainbow herself made the period at the end, smiling sheepishly. Then she flew over. "So…" said Rainbow. "She wouldn't do all that if she didn't really love you," thought Thunderbolt, "That must have been really, really hard to do. It looks like it were written by one of Celestia's personal scribes. Now stop being such a coward and kiss her already, bonehead." "That was…" said Thunderbolt, at a loss for words. "You boys never know when to stop talking," said Rainbow, pulling him in and kissing him.
They hovered there in each others' embrace for at least five minutes, when Rainbow finally pulled away, slowly, she said, "Now, about that cutie mark of yours, I think I know what to do."