A Few Weeks Later
Two ponies lay in front of a cheerfully crackling brick lined fireplace, sharing a single soft woollen blanket that had been draped over their backs and each cradling a mug of hot cocoa in between their front hooves. The light flickered across their faces as they conversed quietly, not necessarily having any need to lower their voices, but feeling that it was appropriate anyway.
“You can't be serious.” Twilight said, her face expressionless and her voice flat.
Silver smiled and sipped at his mug of cocoa. “I am.” he replied without a hint of sarcasm.
“So you're telling me that not only did we go to the same school, but we we've actually met each other once before?”
Silver bobbed his head noncommittally. “Well...it wasn't so much of a meeting as it was a head on collision due to neither of us paying attention, but yes, that's the gist of it.”
Twilight stared at him. “Wow...that's really...wow.” she thought for a moment. “How do you remember all of that?”
Silver blinked. “Oh, y'know, it's just one of those things that stick with you for no real reason, heh...” He grinned at the mare laying by his side.
She scrutinized him blankly for a few seconds before smiling and shrugging.
“To be completely honest though...” Silver continued sheepishly, the words slowly spilling out of his mouth. “for months since we bumped into each other in the hall, I had wanted to talk to you, but couldn't.”
She tilted her head in that adorable way she did when posed with an interesting question or tidbit of information. “Why not?”
He sighed and grinned ruefully. “I don't really remember to be honest. I guess I just wasn't very good at making friends.”
She blinked. “Oh.” she said simply, turning to stare into the fire. The two ponies were silent for a long moment, their attentions held by the flames as they sipped at their cocoa.
After a long moment, Twilight sighed. “Well, I wish you had.” she said frankly. Silver couldn't help but chuckle.
“I wish I had too.” he replied with a small smile, looking sideways at the mare to see that she had one of her own. “We would have made good friends, I think.”
Her smile grew wider as she slowly sunk into Silver Quill, leaning against his shoulder and neck. He felt a rush of giddiness at the feeling of her body pressing into his.
“Mhm.” she murmured in assent. “We could have talked about books and our favourites authors.”
“Yeah,” Silver said wistfully. “and you could have helped me with my homework.”
“And you would have been an excellent test subject for my spells.” she responded with a giggle, causing Silver to grimace slightly.
“We could have spent hours and hours talking...” Twilight continued
“And we could do each others hair...” Silver countered.
“And helped each other out when things were tough...”
“And painted our hooves...”
Twilight scowled and swatted at him. “Oh, be serious!”
Silver chuckled and fended her away. “I am!” he protested with a laugh, causing her to shake her head in mock dismay. He thought for a moment and smiled.
“I could have asked you out to prom.”
Twilight grinned slyly, shooting him a sideways glance. “And I could have said no because I would be too embarrassed.”
Silver raised his eyebrows. “Well...I could have suggested we go to the beach at night and look at the stars instead.”
Twilight hummed. “Well then, that I could have lived with.” she said quietly, nuzzling into his neck ever so gently.
“And then I could have confessed my undying devotion to you.” he replied, reciprocating the action and causing her to giggle.
“Devotion huh?” she asked softly.
“Yep...” he whispered, grasping on of her hooves in his. “And then I could have stammered my way through an awkward confession that would embarrass me for years to come.”
She chuckled brightly. “Oh, you don't give yourself enough credit” she said, shooting him a small wink. “You can actually be quite the sweet talker at times.”
Silver smiled and, before he knew it, leaned over to lightly kiss her on the cheek. “Only because you bring out the best in me.”
To his delight, she blushed slightly, her ears falling back against her head. She leaned into him a little more, drawing the blanket tighter around her as she looked into the fire. Minutes went by like this, the two ponies sitting in silence, simply revelling in one another's company and closeness. Taking infrequent sips of their cocoa which was starting to cool, the only sound from the room came fro the cheery crackling of the flames. The occasional glance or nuzzle was all that they needed.
Finally, Twilight set aside her half empty mug and looked at him expectantly. “Alright then, let's get started.”
Silver grinned at her and nodded. He reached behind him under the blanket, withdrew a thick stack of papers that held lines and lines of text and a freshly sharpened pencil.
“Alright, where did we leave off?” he asked, holding the sheaf of papers in his hooves and the pencil with his magic.
She tapped her chin in thought. “Hmmm...when she gave the inspirational speech to the peasants and commoners to rise up and revolt against the evil king, if I remember correctly.”
Silver nodded and leafed through the papers, knowing from memory which page he was supposed to stop on. After finding it, he spared one more glance to Twilight to see if she was ready.
This was their ritual. To the two bibliophilic ponies, there was nothing more enjoyable than reading a good book, and there was no better way for them to spend time together than for them to read together, often to one another. Either Silver or Twilight would pick out one of their favourite books to read, or Silver would read to her something that he was in the process of writing or had written and Twilight would give her input.
Silver enjoyed reading his work to Twilight, not only because she seemed to genuinely enjoy it, but her nearly encyclopedic knowledge of so many subjects proved to be invaluable in helping him write as well as possible. It was one of the perks to having her as his marefriend.
Twilight nodded, signifying that he could start, and settled in next to him. She crossed her hooves in front of her and laid her head on them, and Silver's heart couldn't help but flutter at the sight.
Straightening his papers and clearing his throat, Silver started reading and continued well into the night, Twilight occasionally interrupting with a suggestion or a a correction that he would jot down with his pencil. They read until his jaw ached from talking too much and until their eyes struggled to stay open until finally they fell asleep in front of the dying embers, their hooves holding onto each others and smiles on their faces.