Chapter 2
One of Dash's ears twitched as a gust of cold air blew over it. She shivered slightly and wiggled her muzzle further into the pillow under her head, trying to hide from the icy air. Though instead of finding a more comfortable spot for her head to rest, it served to tickle her nose and caused her to shift around some more. It was then that she noticed the restrictions around her body and motioned to pull away, only to find the restraints tighten around her, keeping her from moving.
She grumbled and slowly blinked her eyes open, still partially asleep. The early morning sky gave her just enough light through the windows to see the long strands of purple hair that were scattered over the white pillow her head was resting on and, as she followed them to their source, her face slowly softened into a smile.
The lavender unicorn sleeping beside her had both hooves wrapped firmly around her barrel, just under her light blue wings and around her back. Her head rested on the other side of the pillow, facing her and tilted into her neck. Her purple and pink mane was splayed out messily around her, covering the pillow in a few strands.
A small tinge of red began to show on her cheeks at the sight of the still sleeping unicorn curled against her. Something about the way she looked, sleeping peacefully while tucked under her wing so closely, made her heart start beating fast in her chest. Did having somepony to hold in your hooves really make such a difference? Or was it because the pony she was holding was Twilight? She didn't often doubt herself, and she was confident in almost everything that she did. But right now, she felt like she could do anything.
It would seem that she had been right about Twilight. She knew that things between them would change after this, but hopefully not in a bad way. After last night there really wasn't any doubt in her mind of how she really felt about Twilight or vise versa, though she would have to wait until the unicorn woke up before she could make anything of it.
After a bit of subtle shifting, she found that her mane had also gotten tangled with Twilight's, which must have happened sometime during the night. It wasn't something that she was going to be able to take care of by herself, so she was going to have to wait for Twilight to wake up before she could deal with it.
For a while she laid there awake, wrapped around Twilight and basking in her warm embrace. She could feel the biting cold air just outside of the blanket breaking through to chill them, but it couldn't get past the warm aura their joined bodies created together under her wing.
It was kind of strange how interesting she found it was to watch Twilight sleep. She could feel each breath that the unicorn took as her chest moved against hers. Occasionally she would twitch or rub her head under hers, digging further into the nape of her neck. She would mumble sometimes too, answers to unasked questions and things about her and their friends.
She didn't really want to wake her up, she wouldn't have minded staying like this for a bit longer, but she could feel herself starting to cramp up from keeping still for so long. She drew back and nuzzled the side of Twilight's muzzle gently, making the unicorn stir a little and hug her more tightly. She heard a mumble of, 'Five more minutes' from her.
She sounded just like her when she took naps.
Dash had to hold in a bit of laughter and nuzzled her again, this time getting a more conscious reaction from the unicorn. She squirmed some more and made a small noise, her mouth scrunching up, and then slowly blinked her eyes open, revealing two purple orbs to look at her with, both still dazed from just waking up.
“Hey.” Dash said, wearing a grin.
“Hey.” Twilight said back stupidly, her mind still fuzzy from having only just woken up.
Dash figured it would take her a few seconds to sink in and she could almost visibly see as the recognition dawned on her and she realized exactly where they were and how close they were. She looked down at the tangled mess of limbs and hair and her cheeks lit up bright red.
Dash was blushing a little herself. “I didn't want to wake you up but we're kinda, heh... stuck.”
Twilight sputtered and blushed some more, and then fumbled for a second, working hurriedly with a combination of shifting and her magic to untangle them. Dash helped by retracting her wing and legs from around her.
As soon as Twilight finished separating them, she sat up in her bed, putting space between them. Dash frowned as she moved away, cold open air replacing the warm body that had been there, making her shiver. She watched as Twilight sat there, flicking her tail back and forth nervously over the sheets and shuffling her hooves together. She looked up at her but not quite meeting her eyes, and then looked away, biting her lip.
“I... we...” She started to say, but couldn't seem to find the words. Dash got up and moved over to her, brushing up against her side. She nuzzled Twilight's cheek gently, getting her attention.
“Hey...”
Twilight's purple eyes gaze up to hers. She looked lost and unsure, as if she had to take a test that she wasn't prepared for.
“You've been acting strange around me lately.” Dash said, and then smiled. “More than usual I mean.”
She saw a flash of playful annoyance pass through the unicorn's eyes at the joke, but it faded just as quickly as it had appeared, and Twilight lowered her head.
“I didn't realize exactly why that was until yesterday...” Dash continued and then as she thought of them cuddling together in front of the fire. After last night, it was pretty obvious how Twilight felt about her, and about how she felt about Twilight as well. Twilight seemed to shrink under her stare but she didn't move away.
“I... I'm sorry...” Came a quiet voice from the unicorn.
Dash blinked at her. Sorry? For what?
Twilight shifted against her, guilt playing across her face. “I... wanted to tell you. I just... didn't know how...”
It was true that it would have made things a lot easier to deal with if she just told her, but she didn't need to. Twilight did tell her. It just... hadn't been in the way she was expecting. And to be honest, she couldn't have told her more clearly with any amount of words.
Dash shook her head. “You did tell me.”
This caused the unicorn to look up at her with a confused expression. “What? But... I never...”
Dash smiled at her. “Sometimes, actions speak louder than words.” She said, speaking with wisdom that rarely came from the rainbow pegasus. Twilight blushed and seemed to take that in. Dash meanwhile, continued sadly, “Anyway, if anyone should be sorry, it would be me for not realizing sooner.” This time it was her that looked down, feeling somewhat ashamed of herself. “I guess I'm just not a good listener...”
She felt Twilight nuzzle into her neck, grabbing her attention and meeting their eyes. It was a silent exchange, but the smile that had found its way to the unicorn's mouth had said it all. They stayed like that for a few seconds before Dash felt a shiver go through the unicorn, being exposed to the cold air in the bedroom. She wrapped her wing back around the purple mare, smiling as Twilight pressed against her. Even while exposed to the open air, she still couldn't believe how warm Twilight felt, tucked under her wing.
“Does... this mean that we're marefriends now?” Twilight said into her quietly, not meeting her eyes. Dash pulled back and looked at her, then she smiled.
“I guess so.” She said, grinning wider. “That is, if you're okay with having somepony as awesome as me as a marefriend.”
Hey, her ego had to have a say in this somewhere.
Twilight nodded, smiling as she snuggled against Dash’s coat and the soft feathers around her. “I would like that.”
They stayed like that for a few seconds, just being close to one another. It was nice, being close to Twilight, and she found herself relaxed in her presence. After a little though, Twilight looked down, and a small frown formed on the unicorn's face. Rainbow Dash picked up on this and looked at her questioningly.
Twilight blushed again and started shuffling her front hooves together again under her gaze. Then said in a small voice, “So what do we do now...?”
Dash tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“Well... We're marefriends now...” She said shyly.
“Yeah.” Dash said, smiling at her. “And?”
“I... never had a special somepony before...” She said, keeping her eyes locked on her hooves as her blush deepened by another degree.
That actually didn't surprise Dash too much. She knew that Twilight hadn't been a very social pony before they met, and she would have heard if Twilight was dating somepony while in Ponyville. Word tends to spread quickly in their small town.
But as it turned out, Twilight wasn't the only one.
Dash thought about just keeping it to herself. It wouldn't really change anything in the long run if she did and it wasn't really one of the things she liked others knowing about her. She used to get teased about it in flight school and it had hit her pretty hard back then. But Twilight had told her something personal about herself, so it was only fair that she knew as well. Besides, she knew that Twilight would never think any less of her for it. If anything, it was just something more they had in common, and they could share with one another.
“Neither have I.”
This brought the unicorn's eyes up to her, both widening. “What?”
“I- ah... never had special somepony either.” Dash said, her blush showing again.
Twilight gave her a strange look. “You... haven't?”
Dash rubbed a hoof behind her head, feeling awkward. “Yeah. Sure, I knew I liked mares for a while now. But I never actually had a marefriend...”
In truth, she just never really tried to put any effort into finding a special somepony of her own. She was always too busy practicing for the Wonderbolts and training to be recognized by them. But after getting accepted to their academy, she had a place for practicing now. Sure, she had a routine that she followed every day, but she now found she had more free time then she used to, especially since the Academy was closed during the winter. Most of that free time she had, she ended up spending at the library with Twilight.
“So I guess I'm as new to this as you are.” She finished lamely.
Twilight seemed to find some comfort in knowing that she wasn't the only one, and she began to relax a little, but Dash noticed that the look of uncertainty in her eyes stayed. Twilight was as new to this as she was, and Dash knew that Twilight hated not knowing something or not knowing how something might turn out.
But it was okay. Because that's what makes them such a great pair.
Twilight was smart and the voice of reason in any situation, no matter how crazy, but she would often doubt herself and her own abilities. Whereas she was confident and brazen in everything that she did, but she admitted that she could be reckless at times.
They sort of... complemented each other.
Dash looked thoughtful for a second and then flashed a grin at the purple unicorn next to her.
“How about we start with breakfast?”
After going downstairs, they found out that the snowstorm last night had been a bit more than the weather team had planned for. There was already twenty inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down in white sheets. Not only that, but the temperature was still below freezing and the wind blowing, though not as hard as last night.
“I didn't think it would be this bad...” Twilight said after taking her gaze from the nearby window and looking up at the pegasus above her.
“No kidding...” Dash said back. She was using her wings to hover and look out from the top of the window. White powdered snow covered just about everything outside. With the wind blowing like it was, it even got into covered areas that snowfall normally wouldn't reach.
“I thought it was supposed to stop by today...” Twilight said, looking at her worriedly.
Dash put her hooves up defensively. “Hey, don't look at me. I just put the clouds where they tell me to. Somepony must have messed up and gathered too many clouds for their station.”
She touched down next to the purple unicorn and folded her wings back into their rested positions at her sides, then shivered again from the cold air.
Twilight frowned, noticing her shaking, and walked over to the fireplace. “Hold on. I’ll get the fire going again.”
Using a small burst of magic, she rekindled the fire, bringing it back to a large flame it was before . As soon as she lit the blaze, warm air started to fill the room and slowly push out the cold morning air that had settled in during the night. After making sure the fire was self-sufficient, she turned around to find that the pegasus had disappeared from the room.
“Rainbow?”
After a little searching she walked into the kitchen and found the rainbow maned pegasus rooting through various cabinets, taking out a bin of flour and setting it on the counter. “What are you doing?”
Dash looked back at her, giving her a half sheepish, half confident look. Her muzzle had some flour smudged on the tip. “You let me stay, so I'll make breakfast.”
“You can cook?” Twilight asked, clearly shocked, as she walked over to the table and sat down.
Dash waved a hoof. “Mostly just breakfast stuff, I usually wake up early to stretch before practice so I'm not all worn out when I get done. I found that a good breakfast is a great way to start the day.”
Twilight looked at her skeptically.
“What? Don't believe me? You haven't lived until you tried my Cloud Pancakes. Best pancakes in Equestria.” She said proudly.
The look of disbelief faded from the unicorn's face as she worked around the kitchen, occasionally asking her where some ingredients or cooking utensils were located. Despite the lack of magic, she did everything with a practiced ease, making little mess while she cooked and working efficiently. By the time she was done, which didn't take very long, she had made two stacks of golden pancakes with syrup glazed over them.
Dash walked to the table, setting one in front of the unicorn and at her seat. She sat down and looked at the unicorn expectantly, flicking her tail back and forth, waiting for her to try them. Twilight rolled her eyes, cut out a section, and took a mouthful of syrupy pancakes.
She sat there, shifting in place and feeling a little funny. It was silly, but she felt like Twilight's opinion really mattered on her cooking. The only pony besides herself that had ever tried her cooking was Fluttershy, and she hadn't ever really given her any sort of opinion on it. She waiting silently as the unicorn chewed and swallowed the bite.
Twilight looked down at the plate of food and then up at her. “These are delicious...”
She grinned at Twilight and her wings fluttered a little at her sides as a sense of relief washed over her.
“Told you.” She declared triumphantly. “Best pancakes in Equestria.”
Twilight nodded, still dazed by how good they actually were. She dug into the rest of her breakfast while Dash started gobbling down her own. She caught Twilight looking at her a couple of times while they ate, but would look away as soon as their eyes met. As she shoved the last bite in her mouth, Twilight decided to speak up.
“So... what do you plan to do now?”
“Uhubt mhut?” She said through a mouthful of pancakes. Twilight giggled, making her blush as she swallowed before trying again. “About what?”
The unicorn stopped her laughter and started to fidget her hooves together in little circles. “Well it’s still pretty cold outside, and the snow hasn't stopped yet...”
“Oh...” Dash stumbled for a second realizing what she meant. "I guess I haven't really thought about it..."
She knew that she couldn't ask Twilight to let her stay longer than she already had. They may have been more than friends now, but she didn't want to start off their new relationship with her abusing it for a warm place to stay. She would just have to find someplace else to stay for a while, or head back to her freezing home and wait for it to pass.
She was about to tell her not to worry about it when the unicorn added in quietly, “You could stay here...with me... if you want to...”
Dash looked down at her plate. “Are you sure Twilight? I mean... I can figure something else out if I have to...”
Twilight shook her head quickly. Dash looked at her, surprised, as the purple unicorn turned away from her gaze. She could see that the unicorn was blushing profusely, even while facing away from her.
“No. I... I want you to stay.” She said, her voice still low. She looked back over at her but held her muzzle towards the ground, only looking at her with her eyes, and said in an even smaller voice, “I don't want you to go.”
Rainbow Dash began to blush herself at the blunt statement. If Twilight was okay with her staying, then there really wasn't any reason for her to refuse. After all, she didn't really want to leave either.
She realized that she had yet to actually answer the unicorn's question. Twilight was looking down silently and biting her lip, waiting for her to either accept or refuse the offer. Dash smiled at the purple mare and walked over, poking a hoof at one of her forelegs, bringing the unicorn to look up at her.
“Hey. As long as you're okay with it, I would be happy to stay here until the weather clears up.”
If Twilight wanted her to stay, then she would stay. Besides, it wasn't as if she had many better options at the time. And if given the choice between staying here with Twilight or going out into the snow and looking for a new place to stay, it really wasn't a contest.
Twilight's face immediately picked up after her answer. Dash nuzzled the side of her face playfully, making the unicorn smile as she nuzzled her back.
“You made the food so I'll clean up.” She said, grabbing up both plates in her magic and getting up. “I thought we could pick up where we left off last night reading.” She finished, blushing again. “If you would like to...”
She found herself smiling at the idea of being wrapped up with Twilight again. “That would be great. Should I, uh... wait for you..?”
“You can go ahead and get started, the fire should have heated the room up by now.” Twilight said, floating the plates over to the washing bin. “I'll join you as soon as I finish up here.”
Dash nodded, turning away to hide the growing red tint of her cheeks and left the kitchen. She went back into the main section of the library, now evenly heated by the fire, and walked over to the small nook by the fireplace. Picking up her book she had left on the table the night before, she moved to the large plush pillow by the fire and lowered herself to lay down by the crackling flames, sinking into the warm feeling it brought along with the familiar smell of lavender.
She began to immerse herself in her book, picking up where she left off, and failed to notice when Twilight walked into the room. She turned as she felt the unicorn join her, laying down beside her on the pillow. Twilight picked up the nearby blanket with her magic and wrapped it around them like before, bringing their coats to touch together again, making that wonderful feeling of warmth spread between them. Under the blanket, Dash extended a wing around the purple unicorn.
She turned to the bookish lavender unicorn, the pony that was now her marefriend. The said mare was blushing heavily, her head was tilted down towards her book but it was easy to see that she wasn't reading from it. It was strange but... she liked this. It wasn't flying, but it brought the same feeling inside her as if she was soaring through the sky.
They began to read their books in silence. Both happy and content with just being by one another and sharing their warmth in the peaceful quiet of the library. She felt Twilight's tail brush against hers underneath the blanket after a while and flicked her own around the unicorn's, intertwining them together in a mesh of rainbow and purple. Twilight blushed at the act and hid herself, pressing her muzzle under her chin. Dash couldn't see the unicorn's expression, but she could clearly make out the red tint in her cheeks.
“I'm really glad you're my first special somepony Rainbow.”
Dash smiled and rubbed her nose against one of the unicorn's ears gently, making it twitch from the contact. A part of her was glad that she got to be Twilight first special somepony, but some part was also secretly glad that Twilight was hers.
“Me too Twilight.”