Rainbow Dash liked Applejack... or maybe it was Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy? She wasn’t sure. Sometimes she’d tell more complicated stories to her friends just to throw them off the scent. Not that there was a scent mind you, because if there was one thing that Rainbow was sure of, it was that there was no way she liked Twilight Sparkle.

Rainbow was a tough pony, the kind of pony that worked hard every day to achieve her dreams. She had sweat so much in her life that she could probably have a lake named after her. She bucked clouds, shattered thunderheads and broke the sound barrier for a living. She was the epitome of awesomeness.

Twilight was a nerd, the kind of pony that laid around in her library every day stuffing her brain with useless junk like advanced physics and math problems. If she read any more, Rainbow figured her head would explode from sheer lack of room for storage. She read, checked out books and cleaned for fun. She was the definition of egghead.

They were so different from each other. There was no common ground; no mutual interest. Twilight didn’t enjoy sports or flying or awesomeness, and Rainbow certainly did not enjoy sitting around all day learning useless things! No love could stem from that! No place for affection to grow! Liking an egghead like Twilight would be undeniably, unquestionably, uncool.

So why then, was Rainbow having such a hard time concentrating on the one cool book in Equestria? Why were her eyes always so glued to the lavender posterior that bounced about softly as its owner hummed to herself while re-shelving books? It definitely wasn’t because Rainbow was attracted to it; the mere thought was ridiculous!

Applejack. Now that was a mare that was cool to like! The earth pony was brave, strong, loyal, honest; and she was a winner. Applejack worked harder than anypony else in Ponyville! The one mare that could give Rainbow a run for her money in any contest from running to horseshoes, Applejack always forced Rainbow into her A-game. Liking a pony like that was obvious, there was so much common ground there! Applejack was awesome, just like Rainbow! Not as awesome, of course, but awesome nonetheless. This was precisely what she told her friends, aside from the mare herself.

Yet, no matter how many times she said it, no matter how much she wanted it to be true, her thoughts always returned to that infernal librarian! Not because of loyalty, there was nothing to be loyal to; most certainly not feelings, and that was the bottom line!

Besides, the Rainbow Dash didn’t have time for lovey-dovey, sappy feelings like that- not that any were there to begin with. Especially not feelings geared towards beautiful violet eyes, or a shining lavender coat! Rainbow was going to be a Wonderbolt, and if she wanted to be a Wonderbolt, she had to live and breathe awesomeness.

Twilight? She was the opposite of awesome. She was boring. She liked slow paced music, eating by candle light and watching the sun set. The very idea of such activities sent a shiver down Rainbows spine- not because she wanted any part of them, mind you! They just... weren’t cool. Rainbow needed excitement, the thrill of adrenaline coursing through her veins. There was no way she was going to get that near Twilight, especially because her heart most certainly did not beat faster with a nerd like her around!

Pinkie Pie was funny and carefree. Her ridiculous antics were enough to keep most of the town in stitches. There seemed to be no limit to the things that pony could do, from baking to partying, joking to pranking, Pinkie Pie was an authority on fun. She was another pony that Dash could get behind liking. Pinkie was sweet and innocent, never expecting anything more than good times from her friends. She was generous, often giving out free baked goods to her close, personal friends (a demographic that included the whole town, much the the Cakes' dismay.) What wasn't there to love?

Still, that one spark that Rainbow wanted could not be found when the party pony pranced around her. Not that it ever appeared around Twilight! That would be absurd!

No, the spark belonged to Fluttershy, her longtime best friend from flight school, or so Rainbow wanted to believe. Fluttershy would never do anything to hurt her friends. She was always in a good mood, often greeting everypony she managed to talk to with a smile or piece of advice. Since Rainbow knew her the longest, it would make the most sense for the cyan pegasus to like her, right? But much as Rainbow searched and searched, she still didn't feel anything beyond friendship for the meek young pony.

There was one unicorn who managed to get Rainbow a little hot under the collar. Not Twilight, she'd never think of her that way! Especially not in her dreams! No, this specific plot was white and studded with diamonds. Well, not really. Rarity's cutie mark hardly consisted of real diamonds, but they still complimented her fine figure. On more than one occasion, Rainbow had been forced to hold herself back, lest she give it a resounding slap. However, despite being a close friend to the pegasus, Rainbow didn't really want anything more from Rarity. Art appreciation was as far down that road as she wanted to go.

Not that Twilight didn't have a rocking bo- ahem, nice figure, but she was still Twilight. A librarian. An egghead. Uncool...

Then again, in her own way, Twilight was kinda like all of her friends. She was brave, hard working and honest like Applejack. Fun and endearing like Pinkie Pie. She was smart and caring like Fluttershy. And Rarity certainly had nothing on her in the generosity or beauty departments! It really was too bad that her eggheadedness and dorkiness rendered all of those other awesome traits worthless. Seriously, Twilight was the only pony who could manage to make cool things uncool.

“Rainbow, could you give me a hoof with this?” came that angelic- Rainbow shook her head violently- Twilight asked. “I can't quite reach the top shelf.”

“Uh, sure, Twi',” Rainbow set her book down, she wasn't getting that much reading done anyway, Twilight's flank had made sure of that. Not that she'd been staring at it.

A thick, leather bound tome floated over to the pegasus, who took it in her mouth. Grunting slightly from the excess weight added to her face, Rainbow took to the air. She drifted over to the top shelf and set the book in the empty spot. “There,” she said with a smirk. “That wasn't so bad.”

“Thank you Rainbow,” Twilight breathed. “Sometimes I wonder just what I'd do without you.”

Suddenly, Rainbow's wings felt stiff, (probably because she'd been flapping them all day long helping Twilight clean up the library.) At any rate, they were rendered unflappable. With a gasp, she dropped to the floor, or rather, the pony that was standing on the floor directly under her.

“Oof!”

“Ah!”

Dash opened her eyes. Her vision was filled with a wonderful shade of lavender, and a subtle, yet intoxicating smell of lilacs filled her nostrils. She pulled her head back and noted with mild surprise that her face was just an inch or so from Twilight's face.

Was it this hot earlier? Dash wondered. She didn't remember her skin feeling like it was on fire just a few minutes ago. Celestia must have cranked up the sun, there was no other explanation. Rainbow would personally buck anypony who said otherwise.

“Um, sorry, Twi',” she said quickly, scrambling off the unicorn as fast as she could. “I don't know what happened.”

“It's okay,” Twilight answered. She brushed herself off. “It was an accident.”

Oh, Celestia, that was another thing! That unicorn was so darned forgiving! How many times had Rainbow crashed into her now? She was losing count, and that by itself spoke volumes. Yet every time, it was always the same thing in Twilight's eyes: an accident to just brush off.

Whatever, she still wasn't cool.

“Thanks for your help today, Rainbow,” said Twilight. “I really do appreciate it. You're always here for me when Spike's away.”

Rainbow's stupid wings didn't want to stay the buck down. She'd probably overused them today, and they were sore. Yeah, that's it! It would explain their stiffness too!

“No problem,” she answered. “Anytime, really.” Dang, Twilight must have learned some kind of mental manipulation spell, cause she was finding it increasingly difficult to look her in the eyes. She had to leave, this was too much craziness for one day, and if she kept hanging around Twilight like this, she was bound to catch her lameness.

“So, uh, I gotta go home now. To do... something...Tank! Yeah, gotta feed Tank, y'know... my pet.” she started for the door. “He gets hungry sometimes.” The door opened. “When he does, I just... give him food!”

“Um... okay?”

“So, I'm just gonna go home now,” Rainbow said, closing the door. “To feed him... Tank, that is.”

“Uh, bye?”

“Bye, Twi!”

With a sigh of relief, Rainbow clicked the door shut. She double-checked to make sure no one was watching, then shook herself off and walked down the steps. She was just going home, not running away. There was nothing to run away from! She wasn't running away from her feelings or anything!

That would be uncool.