> Now Is The Winter Of Our Discount Tent
>  by mechafone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Trickery And Reunions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head to the sky and smiled happily as heavy snowflakes came down and dropped cold, wet kisses all over her face. It was times like these she was reminded why she loved winter so much: It was a time to dress up, go out and play, socialize among the ponies, get together and sing songs. Oh wait, she thought with a sour look on her face. I haven't done that yet. Maybe there's a how-to book inside that I haven't read yet? Twilight sighed as she leaned against the library door. A book that she hadn't yet read? In her library? Not likely. 

She slipped back inside and shut the door behind her, shivering as she noticed the contrast between inside and outside. She'd need a scarf before she went out there again.

Hearing the door close from downstairs, Spike called, "Hey Twilight? Are you sure about this trip to White Tail Woods?"

Twilight tilted her head as she came to the foot of the stairs, a look of confusion on her face. "Of course, Spike. A two day long camping trip in the dead of winter will be a new experience for all of us! Just think: braving the wild, pitting pony against nature! Doesn't that sound exciting?"

Up in Twilight's room, Spike made a face and stopped fiddling with the cheap tent that Twilight had purchased for the trip, giving the confusing set up a frustrated glare before answering the much-too-eager unicorn. "Maybe it would help if this "tent" you bought actually made me feel safe about being in the "dead cold" of winter, Twilight. Have you actually looked at this ragged old thing?"

"Oh, Spike, you worry too much," she replied, giving a dismissive waggle of her hoof. "Even if it's not in the best shape, we'll have Big Mac and Applejack with us, and Fluttershy, too! We'll be safe with them, they know how to survive out in the wild. I've heard that Applejack and Big Mac go out in the wilderness sometimes just to practice on how to survive out there, and Fluttershy lives on the edge of the Everfree. I'm sure she deals with the wild all the time. What's to worry about? I'm sure it'll be fine."

Spike rolled his eyes at Twilight's blind optimism. She never was one to listen to reason once she got an idea in her head. The dragon went back to assembling the old, somewhat bent oversized rag that was supposed to assemble into a tent, grumbling quietly.

Twilight went back to gathering some books to pack. After slipping the fifth book into her saddlebags, a bookmark fell out of the sixth book, effectively losing her place. She frowned sadly; she had just been getting into White-Out: How To Wrap-Up Winter. She magic'd the bookmark to her and gasped. She'd forgotten which bookmark she'd chosen for this book, which was Spark Storm's cutie mark that Rarity had made for her on Nightmare Night nearly five months ago. She stood there, staring at the feather insignia until she noticed Spike watching her from the bottom of the stairs, claws on his hips and an amused expression on his face.

"Wh-what is it?" she said, trying to sound innocent and hide the bookmark behind her back. Spike rolled his eyes to the heavens.

"Why don't you just go talk to him?"

For a moment, Twilight looked like she wanted to say something, until a look of determined silence came over her eyes and mouth, both shutting as she concentrated on filling her saddlebags with the appropriate things for the trip, including several things she didn't need or mean to pack. Spike brought his claws to his face in a gesture of exasperation. "Twilight! You guys haven't spoken in nine years! Don't you think it's about time to put the past behind you and try to get along with him?"

Twilight grunted as she tried to pack one more book into her overflowing saddlebags, having been too distracted with Spike's lecture to watch what she was doing. She glared at him as if this was his fault, then pulled every last book out of the bag and flung them every which way. "Rrrgh! Spike, this isn't helping me get packed!" The dragon yelped and dove underneath the lavender mare as books rained down around the two of them. By now, Twilight's mane had frizzled as it usually did when she was frustrated.

Taking this as a cue to stop pressing and start helping Twilight pack, Spike crawled out from under Twilight and began to quietly pick up the books that were strewn around the room. Spike had thought that after last Nightmare Night, Twilight had gotten over Spark's presence in Ponyville, but it was evident now that she needed more time, and definitely more exposure. And that's when inspiration struck, and Spike knew what had to happen: He had to get Spark Storm and Twilight together and make them hash out their differences.

That night, as the snow fell at an increasingly alarming rate, Spike wrote a letter to Princess Celestia explaining his worries, and his idea. Twilight wouldn't like it, especially if she found out that this idea was his. He'd just have to make sure she never found out.



"Are you sure we've got everything, Spike?" Twilight asked as the two were going over their travelling bags. For the fifth time. Spike didn't seem to mind, though. He'd been in a right jolly mood for the last three days, and he wouldn't tell her why.

"Absolutely, Twilight! C'mon, we've already gone over this list four...no, five times!" Twilight narrowed her eyes at her assistant, a suspicious burning look on her face.

"Spike, you've been acting very odd lately. It's not like you to suddenly want to go out in the cold, especially when we won't be coming back here to this nice, warm library."

Spike looked from Twilight to the bags, back to Twilight, then grabbed his pack, suitcase, and finally one of Twilight's heavy packed sacks. "Well, we don't wanna be late! C'mon, Twilight, it's a long ride to White Tail Woods, we're gonna have to head out as soon as possible to meet the others on time." The suspicious unicorn watched him go, then sighed. There was no point arguing. Not yet, anyway. She was sure he'd crack under the cold weather. She paused just long enough to get her scarf and boots on before following her assistant outside, hauling the rest of the wheeled luggage behind her.

Twilight was pleased to see that the carriage she'd ordered was waiting for her as soon as she got outside. She was also pleased to see that the ponies pulling the carriage had been chosen to fit the wintery mood. There was a mare and a stallion, and they could've been siblings. The mare was a pegasus, snow-white and pretty, with ice blue and sapphire mane. The stallion was a unicorn whose colors matched the mares, making them nearly identical except for sex and race. It was very cute.

She said hello to them, earning a big grin from both of them, actually a quite telling sign that they were expecting her, specifically Twilight. The mare had an especially forced smile on her face. Well! thought Twilight as she finished packing her luggage onto the carriage. Someone's not in a very jolly mood.

As Twilight disappeared into the carriage, the unicorn turned to face his pegasus comrade. "That was too easy. Good thing she's not too friendly with the 'hired help' or she might've recognized us, eh?"

Before the pegasus could retort, Twilight stuck her head out of the carriage and tapped it politely. "Excuse me, could we get going please? My friends are waiting for us, it's going to be an exciting weekend!" She smiled pleasantly before slipping back inside and closing the door to keep out the cold.

Sapphire Snow turned to Frostbite with a light glare, a glare that just screamed 'Don't you say a word to me'. Frostbite instead grinned at her, and the two started off from the library, around the town, and towards White Tail Woods.

Twenty minutes later, the carriage arrived at the entrance to the woods. Twilight and Spike watched with wide-eyed fascination as the snow continued to fall. It was quite a sight: The trees were heavily coated with white, the branches hanging low, burdened with the heavy accumulation. Finally, after a little bit further down the trail, the carriage stopped before a small caravan consisting of Twilight's friends and their tents and overnight preparations.

As Spike got out of the carriage to hurriedly grab their things, Twilight took a step out of the cab and cast a glance to the two ponies pulling the carriage. As she had thought, the pegasus looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place the face. The pegasus mare made it a point not to make eye contact with Twilight, and after a moment, the unicorn simply imagined that the driver didn't want to be stared at. She shrugged and went to help Spike with their things and rolled them towards her friends, who all seemed to be waiting awkwardly for her.

Rarity was the first to address Twilight as she and her dragon assistant approached. She was decked out in a pretty powder blue scarf and white boots. She had already gotten herself a nice mug of cocoa, but the mug itself shook in her magical grasp. Though she was dressed and prepared for a trip into the icy wilderness, she seemed completely unprepared to approach Twilight. "Oh hello, dear! Glad to see you've made it..." she said, trailing off distractedly as she looked over in the direction of the carriage, anxiously taking a sip of her cocoa.

There was a quiet among Twilight's friends that seemed to permeate the air. It was quiet enough to hear approaching hoofsteps from behind the girls. Twilight arched her neck to see who was approaching. She could just barely make out a dark mane. Now who did she know was coming that had a dark mane? Twilight's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she glanced at Applejack, who was looking this way and that nervously. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was keeping her mouth shut tight. Twilight could feel a tightness in her chest as the owner of the dark mane slowly stepped out from behind Applejack.

Spark Storm turned his head to stare at Twilight Sparkle. The last time Twilight had felt his eyes on her had been five months ago, staring from several dozen yards away in the dead of night. And before that, it had been nine years. And suddenly, it came back to her. She whipped around to stare at the two that had brought them here. It wasn't the pegasus she recognized; it was the unicorn. By this point he was watching her. He grinned and waved, and it came back to her: The trip to Neippon. The unicorn that ended up saving her life at the end of her fight, the fight she didn't remember...Frostbite.

As if on cue, Frostbite and his pegasus companion took off, leaving the ragtag group of ponies to fend for themselves for the next two days. Twilight let out a long, heavy sigh. She should've known better; Spike had been acting very weird, much too eager to go on this trip. She turned her gaze on him, making sure she gave him nothing less than a smoldering, disappointed glare. That was the worst kind. Spike, however, turned his nose up at her and picked up several of his things, and stepped wordlessly into the small crowd of ponies and their tents and other preparations for what was shaping up to be a very long two days.

Spark grinned at Spike's bravado. He imagined by the shocked look on Twilight's face that Spike didn't snub her that often. After a moment, Spark stepped closer to Twilight. She seemed to shrink in on herself, her tail curling around her legs. She looked lost and scared, and she was, a bit.

Nine years ago, Twilight Sparkle had fallen for Spark Storm. It had been an odd time in her life when he was introduced to her as a guest of Princess Celestia. The two hadn't seen a reason to be friends, and had mostly avoided each other. But on that fateful trip to Neippon, Twilight learned that he could read the stars. When he told her later that night the story of his life in Ponyville, a truce had been cemented, perhaps even friendship. The two grew closer over the three week trip, and even closer when Spark ended up saving her and her brother's life.

In just three short weeks' time, Twilight had developed feelings for Spark. He had been her first crush, and she had fallen hard for him. So when she learned that he had no feelings in return for her, she had been broken. The next thing she knew, she had been captured by the enemy, and nearly killed. The thought of never telling Spark how she truly felt before she died managed to break her out of her bonds, thus saving her own life this time around, but she still needed to deal with Spark.

On the return trip home, she told him to stay away from her. Her feelings were too strong, and she had her own life, her studies, to worry about an unrequited crush, so she sent him away from herself and concentrated on her life as Celestia's student. So for nine years, the two of them hadn't spoken and rarely, if ever, saw each other before now. It was only natural that she fear this moment, Spark standing before her, all grown up.

She finally looked up into Spark's eyes. He stared back at her, and she could tell that the same memories were going through his mind. It was there in his eyes. "Spark," she said quietly. "I don't want to do this. I really don't."

Spark nodded quietly. He understood, really he did. But - "...But..." Spark's eyes widened as Twilight began to speak. "...I really want to be able to move on, and I guess I won't be able to do that if I keep running from the past. I hid it away, locked it up and threw away the key." Twilight looked up at Spark with tears in her eyes, but there was a fierce determination there. "I guess...if you're willing to...to help me get through this, then I guess I should accept it. I can't promise this'll be a pleasant weekend, but I owe it to myself to push through it. Right?"

"Yeah..." he said gently, taking a few steps back so Twilight could see her friends. They all had hopeful smiles on their faces, although Rarity looked like she could've fainted any second. "The first step is the hardest, and hey! It only took nine years. Now let's take that second step, and do try to be a little quicker again it."



aaaand I should've gone to bed hours ago, but I wanted to get this out. The first chapter is complete, stay tuned for shenanigans!
> 2 - Silence Is Fuu
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"Oh hey, it only took you nine years!" Twilight said mockingly as she paced back and forth in the cold. She stopped pacing long enough to glare at the too-happy scene before her. Spark Storm and their - no, her friends gathered around a fire. This situation just seemed so unreal to her. She had no idea her new friends already knew Spark Storm. Maybe if they hadn't, they would be around her instead of him. But she knew she was being selfish with this line of thought. She sat and watched the scene, a small smile creeping across her face.

Pinkie Pie was trying to attach large marshmellows to the tips of Spark's feathers, the ones that stuck straight up if he wasn't focused on keeping them flat on his back. "C'mon, Sparky! I just wanna see if you can use your zap-zappy powers to toast marshmellows! You've never tried, right?" Spark didn't look so sure, and neither did Rarity. She sat upon a large pillow, which in turn sat on a blanket to keep the pillow from getting wet in the snow. She had herself tucked in a black fleece blanket, the best for absorbing whatever heat the sun could provide in the early afternoon air.

"Pinkie, dear, I don't think mixing marshmellows with electricity is a good idea. If those marshmellows explode, it'll get all in Spark's gorgeous feathers, and that would be awful! Think of..." she shuddered, imagining the horrible sticky mess. "...the clean-up..."

"C'mon, do it!" Pinkie shouted. Spark sighed, then reached down and grabbed up several sticks inbetween his feathers and held the tips towards Pinkie.

"On the sticks, Pinkie, not my wings. Pink-on the sticks!" The scene continued, drawing an even bigger smile on Twilight's face as Spark sent electric currents into the sticks. The marshmellows on the ends immediately exploded, just as Rarity had warned. Fortunately, Pinkie had been so close that she took the brunt of the projectile confectionery. Pinkie Pie immediately fell onto her back and started giggle/snorting, kicking her legs in the air mirthfully.

"Pinkie!" Rarity cried in dismay as some of the sticky substance landed in her mane. "Oh, I knew this would happen..." she muttered, and began to lengthy process of using her magic to clean her mane. As she did, she sent Spark Storm a glare for letting Pinkie experiment in the first place. A sheepish, apologetic grin was given in return.

Twilight Sparkle smiled despite herself. Seeing Spark interact so naturally with her friends for the first time was an experience in itself. It almost made her sad to see Spark grown up. During her years as Princess Celestia's student, she never made time for play with her peers. Seeing Spark laugh and joke with the others...it did things to her heart. Maybe she should've made time for others. She could think of at least one she wouldn't have minded spending more time with, but after the fallout between Spark and the Princess, he never came back to Canterlot.

Twilight smiled somewhat sadly as these thoughts ran through her head. So lost in thought was she that she didn't notice Fluttershy come to stand next to her and watch. The unicorn jumped slightly when she did notice her shy friend, making Fluttershy jump too, even though she'd been looking directly at Twilight. "Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked. "Oh, I'm sorry, Twilight. I didn't meant to startle you." Twilight smiled warmly at her friend before taking another glance at the others. Pinkie was laughing her head off as Spark and Rainbow Dash had gotten into a snow-ball fight, and had accidentally gotten Applejack involved.

Fluttershy chanced a glance at her unicorn friend. She had never heard the full story between Spark and Twilight, but from the way the unicorn acted around him, she knew it had to be something intense. Oh-so intense and full of big scary feelings that made Fluttershy want to crawl into a hole and hide from. She had never been in such situations, mostly because she was too shy to get herself into them. There had been a few opportunities, of course, but the poor pegasus was just too scared to reach out.

After a moment of companionable silence, Twilight turned to Fluttershy, a pensive look on her face. "Oh, Fluttershy...how am I supposed to move on when I've been stuck in the same position for the last nine years? I mean..." she trailed off as she got to her hooves and started to pace back and forth behind her friend. "What if I can't move on? What if I screw up, make him angry with me? That's not progress, that's just moving backwards! When Princess Celestia sent me here to make friends, she didn't tell me Spark Storm would be here!"

Fluttershy frowned as her friend paced back and forth. She felt completely helpless to help her friend get over her insecurities. After all, she wasn't the best pony to talk to about being brave and facing her fears. Twilight suddenly stopped pacing and looked down at the ground before looking back up into Fluttershy's eyes. Twilight frowned as she remembered who she was talking to. She let out a gentle sigh and stepped closer to nuzzle her friend comfortingly. "I'm sorry for unloading on you like that, Fluttershy. Thanks for listening, at least. I'm gonna go find Spike, see what he's up to, ok?"

Fluttershy frowned as Twilight made her way back towards the tents. She honestly wished she could be of help Twilight be brave, but this was a different kind of brave than defending her friends from a cranky dragon. Fluttershy had never been in that kind of relationship, and thinking of being with a stallion had never entered her mind. Not yet, at least.

Twilight let out a small sigh of relief once she was out of earshot. That had been painfully uncomfortable for Fluttershy, and more than a little awkward for Twilight as well. She just didn't know how to deal with this! Books were so easy to understand. Studies were enjoyable. Writing reports came naturally. Why was dealing with the long-overdue aftermath of her feelings for Spark Storm have to be so damned difficult?!



The next day and a half for Twilight was spent mostly avoiding Spark Storm. On the second evening, after a day of wandering through the woods and identifying different types of trees (only Fluttershy was really interested) Twilight was ready to pack up and go home. The last two days had been interesting, to say the least. Spark Storm had demonstrated patience with Twilight, never speaking to her unless she spoke to him first.

It was on the second night that the silence was broken. Twilight had just put Spike to bed (despite his insistence that he stay up and be the marshmellow roaster). She finally got him to comply by reminding him that he needed to be responsible, especially since Spike lied to her about this whole trip, even if it was for her own good. This finally guilted Spike into lying down for the night.

After Twilight slipped out of the cheap tent that she'd impulsively bought for this trip, she noticed that Spark was absent from the group. Noticing Twilight's inquisitive glancing around the group, Applejack discreetly motioned towards the woods behind the campfire. Twilight smiled gratefully for Applejack's inconspicuous signal and headed into the woods, her heart beating faster and faster. This was it; she was going to be alone with Spark Storm for the first time in over nine years, and it was tearing at her nerves.

Finally, Twilight emerged into a clearing. She squinted as Luna's moon, now nearly full, bore down on her and provided the clearing with a light that seemed filtered through a crystal. It was perhaps the most beautiful moonlight she'd ever seen. It didn't take long for her to spot the lone dark form of Spark Storm sitting in the middle of the clearing, which was actually rather small. The grass was short in this area, though still green and lush. A small pond near where Spark sat shimmered with the moon's light, casting silver cascading waves of light on the dark pegasi's form.

With a little sigh, she took a step forward into the grass, and gasped as the greenery actually shocked her. As she brought her eyes up towards Spark, she could see the entire small clearing had been marked with tiny electric lights, all connecting back to the big pegasus. Spark immediately turned around to stare at her, his reflective eyes casting an eerie glow. The unicorn nearly screamed; she had forgotten his predatory eyes that allowed him to see in the dark. The two stared at each other for a moment before Spark turned to face her and smiled invitingly.

Twilight took one more deep breath and closed her eyes. Come on, Twilight...you can do this. Just go and get it over with. Step two. She nodded to herself, then headed over to him with anxious eyes. Spark smiled a little wider at her, then mercifully looked away from her and up at the moon. Twilight took a seat beside him, tense and scared.

Several times, she tried to make conversation. Each time, she would get about halfway through the first syllable, then falter. Before she could start the fourth try, he turned to look at her. She clammed up, her ears tilting back in a worried gesture. His smile was disarming, however, his face patient and far older than he should look. "Twilight, relax. Don't force it, that's the fastest way to make things worse. It's not about being able to communicate. It's about being comfortable enough not to."

Twilight frowned thoughtfully. Comfortable enough not to communicate? It was times like these that she wish she'd really listened to the Princess encouraging her to make friends. She was still so socially awkward that she didn't get these kind of things. How would a pair of friends just be able to sit together and be comfortable in not communicating? Silence was so awkward, and the silence between herself and Spark Storm had lasted so long that she didn't see how more silence between them would help fix their friendship.

Twilight decided to give it a try, though. She closed her eyes and raised her head, taking in a deep breath. The air was so chill, she just noticed. Who's bright idea was it to camp out in Febuary again? Twilight felt herself blush with embarrassment as she realized it had, in fact, been her idea. To brave the wild cold, to explore and experience. Wasn't that what she was doing, though? She was learning something new, and she was learning with her friends. My friends, she thought. What do I call Spark Storm? Do I call him friend now? Did I ever stop calling him friend?

She sighed quietly. Still more questions for her to answer, but...this was actually kind of nice. No talking between them, just sitting, and enjoying the night air, even if it was nearly freezing. Twilight opened her eyes once more, and gasped when she felt something brushing against her face. She flinched and looked around, seeing Spark still sitting beside her, but...snowing?

Twilight and Spark both looked up into the recently clear sky to see four pegasi pushing clouds together as quickly as possible to cover the area, one of them giggling like a mad pony. Twilight could just barely make out the shapes, the clouds obscuring the light and making it impossible to see who they were. Spark, however, didn't seem to have any trouble identifying them. "Hah...they're really outdoing themselves."

Twilight looked at Spark in confusion. "What? Who are they?"

Spark gave Twilight a sideways grin, then turned his glance back up at the multiple pegasi pushing more clouds together. The snow fell a bit faster, a little harder, and it was getting colder, causing Twilight to shiver. "They're Defenders, and they're some of my closest friends." He was quiet for a moment as his eyes fell on one particular pegasus in the air. The two of them stared at each other for the longest time, neither of them breaking contact.

"...That's Sapphire, isn't it?" Twilight said, her voice barely above a whisper. Sensing the sadness in Twilight's voice, Spark nodded, and looked down at the ground, breaking the contact between himself and the white pegasus in the sky. When he glanced back up, the mare was gone.

"Yeah. That's her." If the silence between the two had been comfortable before, it was no longer an amiable atmosphere. Spark turned to Twilight, an unusually tired look in his eyes. "I think we've done a good job this weekend, Twilight. It's going to be a busy week for both of us. Winter Wrap-up is in three days, we should get some sleep."

Twilight nodded in agreement, though really she wanted to ask him more questions, talk a little longer. But it was late, and it was cold. She instead walked along with him in silence back towards camp, though she couldn't tell if this was the good silence or the awkward silence. She wasn't even sure if she'd made it to step two, but either way, there was a long ways to go still.