Lightbolt woke up to sweet rays of sunshine beaming through the window of the guest room, seemingly inviting him to enjoy the beautiful day to the fullest. Stretching, he slowly made his way through the hallway. Downstairs, there were all kinds of animals eating breakfast happily. As he watched, he saw Fluttershy pouring food in one of the bowls, noticing a fatigued expression on her face.

"Hey, Fluttershy," he said as he walked down the staircase.

Fluttershy jumped a little has his voice. "Oh, hi," she said quietly, the bowl topping off with food.

Lightbolt slowly made his way over to her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little tired." Her eyes failed to look up at first.

"Alright... Well, do you need any help with anything?"

"Oh, I'm fine." Her eyes finally met his, a slightly contemplative look crossing her face for just a moment.

"Well then, I suppose I should get out of your mane," Lightbolt said with a weak laugh. "See you soon, thank you for all of the help. "

She nodded, and as Lightbolt slowly walked towards the door, Fluttershy watched him closely. Once he was gone, she let out a small gasp she had been holding in.

"There's no way..."

---

After checking on Scout, Lightbolt felt like taking a nice flight around Ponyville to get his bearings. Of course, for a pegasus as fast as himself, that flight went by very quickly as he whizzed above the town square, Sweet Apple Acres, and the dark Evertree Forest. As he came in for landing on a low-lying cloud, he saw a familiar cyan pegasus appear before him.

"Not bad," said the pegasus, brushing her colorful mane back from her eyes.

Lightbolt grinned. "If you say so, Rainbow Dash."

"But not as good as the..." The cyan mare paused, doing a quick flip around Lightbolt before finishing. "Best flyer in Equestria!"

"And who would that be?" Lightbolt said jokingly.

Rainbow Dash snickered. "Well, let me show you! We'll race from here to the Town Hall."

"Oh, why not."

Dash grinned. "Get ready to eat my dust."

The two lined up on the cloud, focusing on the tall building in the distance as Rainbow Dash counted down.

"Three...
Two...
One...
One half...
One quarter..."

Lightbolt sighed, growing slightly impatient of her shenanigans.

"GO!"

The two charged off through the sky, wind quickly rushing through their coats. Rainbow Dash took an early lead, but eventually Lightbolt edged around her as she started to slow down from fatigue, much to her suprise. For the final dive, Rainbow Dash put all the effort she could to catching the speedy stallion, but ended up hitting her hooves on the roof just after Lightbolt did.

Rainbow Dash caught her breath, astonished at her defeat. "How... How could you have beat me?"

Lightbolt brushed a bead of sweat from his forehead. "That was fun," he said, panting.

Rainbow Dash continued. "But... But... This can't be right. You beat me in a race. How come I've never heard of you? Are you from a different kingdom?" She gasped at the thought.

"No," said Lightbolt, confused by the assumption.

"Where are you from, then? Because I'm the best flier in Equestria, and you..." She winced. "Beat me, so..."

Lightbolt didn't know what to say or how he was supposed to wiggle his way out of the situation. Surely even a pony like Rainbow Dash would be terrified if she found out that he used to be in the...

"So, where?" Rainbow Dash asked again after Lightbolt didn't respond.

"Yeah, you know, I'm just from around here. And I guess I've just never tried racing before, so I didn't know how good I was going to be," Lightbolt lied.

"Didn't you say you used to race when we were in the square?" Rainbow Dash questioned him.

"Just forget it," Lightbolt shot back, his voice more hostile than he intended.

"Okay, jeez." Rainbow Dash backed up, and a small silence ensued.

"Well, hey, at least Fluttershy will be impressed at your flying abilities."

Lightbolt smiled lightly. "Yeah, I guess. She doesn't seem like she likes flying a whole bunch, though."

"Yeah, well, that's a long story," Rainbow Dash said in defense of her friend.

"Oh." Lightbolt started to feel bad for even mentioning it.

Rainbow Dash changed the subject. "You know... We could use another pegasus to help with the weather. Would you be interested? It has good pay."

Lightbolt pondered the idea. He could really use a job, and he knew weather jobs could be hard to come by. "Sure, I'll take it." He had a faint thought that it may be a bad idea, but ignored it.

"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash said excitedly. "I'll teach you the ropes tomorrow."

Looking out into the sky, she noticed a large, dark cloud in the distance. "I've gotta go do weather duty. See ya later!"  She sped off as fast as she first appeared, leaving nothing but a long rainbow streak that slowly dissipated.

---

As Rainbow Dash sped around banishing the storm clouds, a cream yellow pegasus struggled to catch up with her and gain her attention. Her soft voice wasn't helping matters, and she was about to give up when the cyan pegasus finally caught sight of her and turned around.

"What's up, Flutters? You don't look so good," she said, noticing her tired looking eyes.

Fluttershy landed softly on a cloud next to her friend and sighed. "Um, sorry about disturbing you, I just really need to talk to you about something. I've been looking all over for you."

"Are you okay?" Asked concerned Rainbow Dash.

"Just tired. See, there's something I-I need to talk to you about, involving Lightbolt."

Rainbow Dash just laughed, jumping to conclusions. "Yes I know, you have a crush on him. It's pretty obvious."

An embarrassed look grew on Fluttershy's face. "Oh, no, that's not it. Well, I do... But that's not the point." She paused.

"Well, what is it then?" Asked Rainbow Dash.

"Well... Um..."

"For Celestia's sake, just say it."

"Okay..." Fluttershy took a deep breath and then let it all come out. "Y-you see, last night, I had another one of my flashbacks, and I couldn't sleep after it, which is why I'm so tired. But anyway..." Fluttershy's voice grew shaky. "It was about when my mom was... Taken away. And there was that colt there who I think saved my life before he was surrounded by black mist. You remember that story, r-right?"

Rainbow Dash respectfully nodded.

Fluttershy's voice had a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. "So, as it all started to come back to me...I now remember that the colt had a blue coat and mane. I swear, Rainbow Dash... I think it might've been Lightbolt."

Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded at first as she let the words sink in, but she tried to think as logical as possible. "But Fluttershy, there's no way that colt could have survived it. That wasn't just some normal terror group, those were the Fire Devils." They both knew that they were the most dangerous, ruthless group of crime-doers in all of Equestria. "And besides, don't you think he would've remembered you?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I-I'm just over over-thinking it."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Well, you never know. There's still a chance it may be him."

"Alright. Just please don't tell anyone else what I told you."

"Of course."

"Thank you, Dash." To her surprise, Fluttershy pulled her in for a hug. It was like they were fillies again, Rainbow Dash comforting Fluttershy after something bad happened to her. "I'm so happy to have a friend like you."

"Me too, Fluttershy," said smiling Rainbow Dash.

"Well, anyway, I think I messed up this morning. My tiredness was probably seen as rude by Lightbolt. I need to make things right..."

"Don't worry about it too much."

"Okay," responded Fluttershy. "See you later." Certainly not the best flyer and weighed down with fatigue, the pegasus struggled to fly all of the back to her cottage across town before deciding to walk instead.

Rainbow Dash was then all alone in the air, her mind full of thoughts. She didn't know if she should be excited for Fluttershy or worried about her heart eventually being broken. But what she was thinking more about was whether Fluttershy was right about him being that mysterious colt that saved him. It would explain why he is so reluctant to talk about his past. Either way, they seemed to like each other, and Dash couldn't help but feel proud of her shy friend for charming such a pony.

But deep down, she could also feel something else...

Was it jealousy?