I soared through the sky as fast as my wings could carry me, setting new records for the rainbow trail shimmering in my wake. My muzzle stung from the air resistance, but I ignored it: a little muzzle pain wouldn't slow me down, and eventually my whole face is gonna go numb and then I won't have to feel it anymore. I'm just not sure how long that'll take. I've never flown that hard for that long, but right now nothing could possibly stop me.

Maybe that will be the sign to slow down and see where I am. Once it stops hurting, I'll have come out the other end. Then I can stop, and rest.

I'm not even sure which way I've flown, actually. It would kinda suck if I ended up in the Crystal Empire after this.

“Nervous?”

I jumped at the sound. As in, I literally jumped several feet into the air and hovered, ready to bolt. I may have screamed a bit too, but like, in a cool way. Rainbow Dash doesn't scream like a little girl when she's frightened.

Not that I was frightened. Twilight was, though, and stepped back in shock.

“I guess that answers my question,” she said. Haha, Twilight, very funny.

“I was thinking about something else,” I said.

We were alone at Rarity's. I had been staring at myself in the mirror, and Twilight had walked up to me from a blind angle. Now we stood there looking at the glass, her with a huge smile on her face and me looking just... alert.

“You look beautiful,” she said, and sounded like she was gonna cry already. “I still can't believe this is happening!”

“Me either.”

She looked at my reflection in the mirror, and her smile curled up and vanished. “Alright, Rainbow, what's going on?” She put a hoof on my shoulder, gently to avoid disturbing the dress. “Clearly you're not entirely with it today. Can we talk about it?”

This is Twilight. I can tell her anything.

But I'm Rainbow Dash. I don't talk about this soppy mushy stuff.

She looked at me. I couldn't decide. I had to decide.

“I can't do it,” I whispered. She looked shocked. “Why the flying feather am I getting married? I'm Rainbow Dash, I can't do commitment. I can't even follow a schedule, and I'm gonna be an Apple? Those ponies are hard as wood, and have roots that go back centuries. I can't even stay in one place for an hour!”

“You're staying in one place now,” Twilight said. “Rarity said she's never seen you so helpful before.”

“You have no idea how hard I'm fighting it,” I said. “I want to bust out of that door and go up to four hundred feet and fly away as hard and fast as I can without looking to see what way, and not stop until I don't know how to come back.”

I looked at myself in the mirror, wearing a wedding dress based on Rarity's old gala design. I had never looked so amazing, and I hated it. It was perfect for me, and yet it wasn't me at all, it was something I couldn't be. Something Applejack deserved. “I want to fly so hard this dress gets torn to shreds by the wind and rain and falls off. I want to fly away so badly... But if I do that... then Applejack will never get to see me in this dress. And somehow that's so important that I can't stop fighting myself...”

“Oh, Rainbow,” Twilight whispered, pulling me into a hug. “I understand this is hard for you. But you're not so flighty as you think. You're the one who always stays true to your friends, even when it's hardest. Your heart is always telling you to do different things, but you never stop pushing for what you know is right. That's why you haven't flown away. And that's why Applejack loves you. Because Rainbow Dash is always all in.”

I think I'm allowed to break down and cry on my wedding day. But nobody is ever allowed to talk about it.

Twilight held me until I calmed myself down, and she wiped the tears from my face with a silk hoofkerchief. “There,” she said. “Can't have you looking all bedraggled when you see your bride.”

I sniffed, and nodded.

“Ready to go to City Hall?”

I nod, and it's the most certain I've ever been in my life.