Rainbow Dash had been in love for several weeks before anypony knew about it, and had she not let her tongue slip it would have no doubt continued as such.

It all began, innocently enough, when Pinkie Pie asked Rainbow if she was free for some evening prank-pulling and general tomfoolery, to which Rainbow said she sadly couldn't, and in fact was getting ready for a date.

"A date?" inquired Pinkie, noticing the word.

Appearing as if she were about to sweat up a storm, Rainbow said quickly, "A what now?"

"You just said you were going on a date!"

"I didn't say that," replied Rainbow, as honest as a politician.

"[i]Nooooooo[/i]," cooed Pinkie. "Oh my gosh, you have a special somepony? Tell me!" Her eyes alight with stars, Pinkie took the first opportunity to pester Rainbow about her supposed love life. "Tell me, tell me, [i]tell me[/i]—"

But before she could get in another "tell me," Rainbow took off at an impressive speed, even by her standards. Figuring she had let the cat out of the bag and that the cat would not be persuaded to return to its baggy home, she said nothing more on the matter. Of course, this didn't stop Pinkie from being sure of what she heard, and it didn't take long at all for her to spread the word.

First Pinkie and Rainbow's mutual friends—how surprisingly many of them there are. Then the Cakes, then Cheerilee, then Roseluck and her cronies, then Mayor Mare, then practically all of Ponyville in the span of—say—two hours.

By the following day everypony, both living [i]and[/i] dead somehow, knew that Rainbow Dash, the most emotionally stunted mare in the whole town, and perhaps for hundreds of kilometers as well, had a special somepony. It was agreed, albeit without words, among the former Elements of Harmony that the very last of them to get a special somepony—supposing [i]that[/i] ever happened—would be Rainbow Dash. The assumed fact that Rainbow would take eons to enter the bloodstained arena of romance was not necessarily due to her faults, although it kind of was.

Yet here she was, apparently going out with [i]somepony[/i], except... except nopony knew who this mystery pony was. And if Pinkie Pie didn't know, then it was indeed a complete mystery.

Naturally, just about everypony had his or her own hypothesis as to whom Rainbow's special somepony could be.

Twilight Sparkle thought that maybe Rainbow and Rarity were dating behind everypony's backs, while Rarity thought that it was actually Twilight who was Rainbow's special somepony. Applejack, being the type of mare to not make assumptions about the love lives of others, didn't particularly care about who Rainbow was with, so long as he or she treated her right. Meanwhile, Fluttershy suspected that that Rainbow and Applejack were now an item, since she was still new to the eternal game of pairing one's friends with whomever in a romantic fashion, and she wasn't too creative about possible romantic partners anyhow. Thus, it was easiest for her to think of Rainbow and Applejack as a couple.

Pinkie, being the kind of mare [i]she[/i] was, thought that maybe Rainbow had more than one special somepony, and that she was actually part of a harem that had not yet made itself known to Ponyville's gossip world.

When asked about how she came up with such a idea, Pinkie just said, "I saw it in a movie once!"

There were countless other theories being thrown around. Lyra thought that maybe Rainbow was Big Mac's mare on the side, although she was most likely simply projecting in this case. Bon Bon thought that Rainbow being in love was a front, and that she was [i]really[/i] a monster from the Everfree Forest in disguise.

Yet none of the gossip mattered to Rainbow herself very much. She never talked about her love life to anypony, and whenever confronted about it she would shoot down the topic in the fastest way possible. Sometimes her cheeks would redden, as if she suddenly thought about something she shouldn't have, but otherwise it was as if she was still single to the world.

On some nights, however, she would make like a thief and meet up with her beloved without anypony seeing her, her heart pounding in the best way imaginable, her mind racing with endless possibilities, her coat aching to be caressed.

Rainbow felt like she could do anything, now that she had a lover, and that her lover was—