Cloudsdale Love

Prologue

It was a calm day, in Ponyville. Nothing world-changing had occurred, yet. So, with nothing to do on their free day, six friends were relaxing together, in a castle.

After teasing Twilight Sparkle, again, about her feelings for Flash Sentry (and subsequently congratulating her, when she revealed that the two of them had started dating), the topic changed to everypony's' relationships.

Twilight Sparkle, deciding to quickly discover the answers to one question, said "Raise your hoof, if you're in a relationship."

Three ponies put their hooves in the air. Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.

"Okay, we knew Twilight was," Rarity remarked, "but... Rainbow? Fluttershy?"

"Yep!" Rainbow Dash replied. "Well, I didn't know about Fluttershy, but I've been taken since before we'd all met."

"Really?" Applejack exclaimed. "Wow! Who's the lucky stallion? Or is it a mare?"

Rainbow blushed. "H-He's a stallion. His name's Firestar."

"Ah don't believe Ah know that name."

"I'd be surprised if anypony here, except Fluttershy, knew him. He lives up in Cloudsdale."

"What's he like?" Rarity said. "I'll bet he's dreamy..."

Rainbow blushed. "Y-Yeah, he's not exactly hard on the eyes, heh. He's really athletic, too."

"As much as you are?" Twilight asked.

"Almost. He's... He's like a cross between you and me."

"Like... if you and me were the extremes, he's the middle?"

"Pretty much. That's really not that far off."

"He sounds like a good stallion." Applejack remarked.

"Yeah, he's awesome." Rainbow replied.

"I thought only you were awesome." Applejack teased, smirking.

Rainbow grinned. "I am the awesomest pony in Equestria," she replied jokingly, "but, if there's anypony that's close, it's him."

"They grew up together, in Cloudsdale." Fluttershy added. "All three of us did."

"If you've been together so long," Twilight said, "then how have we never met him?"

"We've been going low-key, for a long time." Rainbow replied. She winced. "Extremely low-key. Actually, we haven't gone on a date since a few weeks before we all met."

"You broke up!?!" Rarity exclaimed.

Rainbow hurried to correct her. "No! We're definitely still together. We just haven't done anything, in a while. Things have just been too busy. But we're both getting too impatient to wait for things to clear up, any longer. We're going to try to fit at least one date a week into our schedules, now. He's going to move here so that that's possible."

"How did you all meet?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow grimaced. "I almost made a bad, permanent choice. He stopped me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, that's a long story."

"We've got the time. Not much else to do."

"Good point." Rainbow acquiesced. "I was trying to be 'cool.' But not the type of cool I like. I was trying to fit in with the popular crowd, at flight school. But, they weren't exactly model people..."