Twilight passed Rainbow and Fluttershy on her way back to the library. They both looked after her in confusion, both taken aback that Twilight was crying. Not knowing what to think, Rainbow flew off to ask Gilda what had happened. She found the griffin sitting, hunched over, and no longer crying on her cloud.
"G? What happened?" Rainbow asked. The griffin didn't reply; instead she simply sniffled and turned away. "G, Twi was really upset. I don't know why she was crying, but I bet you do. So, come on. Tell me." Rainbow landed on the cloud next to her and attempted to wrap an arm around her, but before she could even sit close enough to, Gilda shoved her away.
"I screwed up, okay?" Gilda finally answered. Rainbow simply stared at her, waiting for more information. Gilda glanced at her after a moment, realizing that she wasn't satisfied with that. "I-I did something stupid, told her about it, then did another stupid thing, okay? Would you just leave me alone?"
"No. What happened?" Gilda's eyes fell back to the cloud they were seated on. She decided to tell Rainbow about her Granny. Then she explained the conversation that followed.
And the... other events.
"Twilight kissed you?"
"O-on the cheek." Gilda rationalized. Rainbow gave her a sly grin.
"Did you like it?"
"E-excuse me?! That's a bit personal, don't you thi-" Rainbow hadn't put away her sly grin yet. In fact, it had grown as soon as Gilda began indignantly defending herself. Gilda's shoulders drooped in defeat. "Well... yes." She mumbled, thanking Celestia, again, that her blush couldn't be seen.
"Heh, G, you sly do- wait... then what happened?" Rainbow asked with a frown.
"I don't know. She pushed me away then said it was too sudden and ran off." Gilda replied.
"What did you mean 'you screwed up'?" Rainbow's frown deepened.
"I shouldn't have hugged her. I guess it threw her off and stuff... I don't know. I screwed up whatever we had."
" 'Whatever we had'? You say that like the two of you were-"
"Oh, shut up." Gilda muttered.
"Okay, sorry." Rainbow said, holding her hooves up defensively. "So, what are you gonna do?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"Oh, come on. You two were nuzzling, she kissed you, and now you're all broken up over her running off. You ARE going to do something, aren't you?"
"I guess..."
"Then what is it?"
Gilda took a moment to consider the question. What were her options? She could go talk to Twilight. You know, the direct approach. Or she could find some roundabout way of doing it, which she didn't have the patience to think about.
"Guess I should talk to her?" Gilda asked.
"Why are you asking me? I've only ever dated one mare!"
"For years, apparently."
"Meh. I didn't even really ask her out. Anyway, what's important is what YOU are gonna do."
"Right..." Rainbow quirked an eyebrow. "Erm- I uh- should go talk to her."
"Since when were you so indecisive?" Rainbow asked with a laugh.
"I don- *sigh* I'll go talk to her." Gilda answered, catching on to what Rainbow was implying.
"Good idea!" Rainbow said with a wink, flying off. Gilda barely had time to think that she was treating this a bit lightly before following suit and heading to the library.
*sniff* Twilight was in the library, studying like a madmare in an attempt to keep herself from thinking about the events of the day. How had it gone so fast? This morning she was still criticizing Gilda's ability to make friends, then she was sentimentalizing with her, then she was kissing her cheek. All in one day!
'Gah! I'm thinking about it!' She thought, frantically using her magic to pull a few more books down for her to read. She jotted down some quick notes on what she was reading, memorized a few of those notes, jotted down more notes, read another few pages, jotted down notes, memorized some, cross-compared, then read some more.
She continued in a manner similar to this until the thoughts finally caught up with her.
'Does the pace matter? If we're going this fast, then maybe that's what we need to do...'
She shook her head, fighting back a sniffle. Whether or not she liked Gilda, she'd screwed it up by going that fast, and she'd made it worse by running off like that. Or at least, she thought she had...
*bang bang*
She heard somepony knocking on the door downstairs. "Coming!" She heard Spike yell. She heard the door open. She heard Spike greet Gilda nervously. Wait, Gilda?!
She used her magic to slam her bedroom door shut and lock it. There was a bang and a rattling of the handle, followed by Gilda's voice.
"Twi, let me in, please!" Twilight didn't answer; she merely sat there on her bed, staring at the door as it shook with the powerful griffin's attempts at entrance. It eventually stopped shaking, the sounds of her pushing the door and pulling the handle being replaced by an odd clicking sound.
After a moment, Twilight heard the door's lock click, and the door swung open. It showed Gilda standing there, bending her head to be eye-level with the lock, her hand up with a claw pointed out like she was sticking into something. She looked a little surprised.
"I didn't think it'd be THAT easy..." She mumbled.
"H-how did you do that?" Twilight asked, momentarily forgetting why she had locked the door. Gilda flicked her claws about in a show-offy manner.
"I picked it. You ponies make easy locks..." Gilda answered as she walked into Twilight's room slowly. She looked around, not surprised to see that even her room contained shelves of books. She looked back at Twilight again, her face softening. "Listen, Twi, we need to talk."
"S-sure...." Twilight replied, conceding that this had to happen, no matter how much she feared it, and no matter how rational or irrational that fear was.
"Okay... so, uh- we barely know each other, right?" Gilda started.
"Right..." Twilight answered slowly.
"And we get along well."
"Y-yeah. Really well, all things considered."
"Right. So uhm... Yeah..." Gilda's train of thought brought her to the detail she didn't quite know how to handle.
"I uhm... I shouldn't have run off like that. Not while you were... like that. And not after I..." Twilight's cheeks turned pinkish purple from the blush. "Not after I kissed you."
"*ahem* I should've said something, though..." They sat in an awkward silence for a moment, not looking at each other.
For her part, Gilda didn't quite understand how this had happened. She'd shown up in search of friendship advice, and next thing she new, she was nuzzling the teacher. She didn't even understand the attraction, nor did she fully believe that the attraction was a genuine one and not just one of her... 'flings'. She'd never felt something like this though. Never had she been torn up because the object of her affections had run off. Never had she been worried that a relationship would die like this. Well... there was Rainbow, but this was different.
Twilight didn't understand it much either. Rainbow and Fluttershy being the way they were together had taught her that love has many forms, so that wasn't the problem here. No, two females wasn't what had her in a bind, it was the fact that the two of them were so darn different. She lived in a library she was such an egghead, and Gilda was an athlete. Played Stormball and went into stunts just like Rainbow, and all those things.
The two sat in silent thought, both feeling that there was something to say, but neither knowing what to say. Twilight was afraid that if she said something wrong all chances of... whatever this is continuing would be dashed away. Gilda, however, was worried that if she did something wrong she'd never know where this could've gone. After a while, Twilight gave a sharp intake of breath.
"L-look. I don't want this to just stop here..." She started, unsure of herself.
"Yeah..." Gilda agreed. Twilight glanced at her nervously.
"This is gonna come off cheesy to you, but I feel something here..." Twilight continued, using a hoof to gesture between the two of them. "... and I don't want it to die, or just stop there. I kinda wanna give it a try."
"Me, too..." Gilda replied quietly. They fell silent again for a few moments, both trying to decide exactly what they should do next. Gilda's eyes scanned the room around her in an attempt to avoid those lavender eyes. At the same time, Twilight's eyes were downcast in an attempt to avoid the griffin's amber ones.
Eventually, the griffin's eyes wandered over to the unicorn's, while the unicorn's glanced up quickly, but caught on the amber ones in front of her. For the third time that day, their eyes locked onto each other, and they sat there, eyes wide as dinner plates.
Both stayed that way for a split second before Gilda leaned forward and wrapped her neck around Twilight's. The two embraced and nuzzled for Celestia knows how long before Spike walked in.
"Uhh..." Twilight and Gilda jerked away from each other at the sound of his voice, their faces showing obvious embarrassment, with or without the blushing.
"Spike! Uhm-"
"Don't bother! After walking in on Rainbow and Shy, I've stopped caring..." Spike said, walking out.
Spike walked downstairs, trying to stop thinking about what he just saw. It didn't help that while he was cleaning up some of the mess from Twilight's studies he kept finding books on relationships. He continued working, then suddenly remembered why he had gone up there in the first place. It had been to ask if he could visit Rarity, but after walking in on that, there was no way he was gonna ask Twilight now.
"Dang it!" Spike muttered.