The Night After.
By TheSarcasticJudge
For Twilight, the day after the EPIC quest and the party was a peaceful one. After everypony left, they at least had the politeness to clean up their epic mess. Twilight Sparkle’s day after was probably the most peaceful it’s ever been in her entire life, she spent the entire day resting and reading the book Solaris had graciously provided along with her old supply. Now we all know the ten crack commandments, but Twilight Sparkle always gets high on her own supply – in books I mean.
The night was somber. Dark and dreary with the heavy, dark blue-black crying clouds hanging wearily in the solemn black sky like the condemned. The stars twinkled dimly, almost obsoletely, as the waning gibbous moon becomes covered with another leaking cloud. The air outside was stuffy. The air pressure was enough to cause even the most expert diver in Equestria trouble breathing.
Twilight was right about the day and the night after the full moon. It bucking SUCKED, no matter how peaceful her day was as she spent cooped up in her house, which she affectionately named the Golden Oaks Library.
Twilight Sparkle closed Archaic Spells and You Vol. Forty-Nine and picked up the fiftieth book in the volume, Archaic Spells and Your Loved Ones. Twilight Sparkle knew all of this, because this is the hundredth time of her reading the books, but decided that flipping through the whole one-hundred volume-pack for the fifth time in a row seemed a good way to pass the time. It is always good to keep your mind stimulated, whether it’s doing homework that wasn’t really assigned or by chewing gum.
“Twilight, do you know what time it is?” Barbra asked rhetorically, rubbing her eyes. Twilight Sparkle looked up from her study, it was in the main part of the library tucked away in a little corner with all of the more valuable books are kept. In alphabetical, numeral, by Author, and what date it was published as well. “Crikey, it’s nearly three in the morning!”
“I know what time it is, Barbra, I’m keeping my mind busy,” Twilight Sparkle removed her chewed up gum from her mouth and placed it onto the mound of previously chewed gum. “It’s important to keep up to date with old material that the mind may have previously forgotten.”
“Eww,” Barbra did a double take on the chewed gum mound. “What is that, a science experiment? Your Frakenpony?”
“Frakenpony was the name of the Doctor, Barbra,” Twilight Sparkle scoffed as she unwrapped another piece of gum. It was mint. “Anyways, there’s a study that was conducted two years ago that said if you chewed mint gum in an exactly fifteen-minute window, it improves brain cognition and allows higher function. I’m experimenting that study to conclude its claims.”
“It’s surely activating my disgust receptors,” Barbra remarked as she took a seat next to Twilight Sparkle. “I guess I’m up, you want some breakfast?”
“No thanks, I’ll be hungry before noon,” Twilight Sparkle shook her head. Barbra frowned for a moment before fixing her face, Twilight hadn’t eaten a lick of food yesterday because she was wrapped “If you would be so kind, could you brew up some coffee?”
“Coffee?” Barbra raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “I though you hated everything produced in Griffonstone.”
“No, I hate their clothes – they’re made by child laborers” Twilight Sparkle corrected as she flipped through a page of the book. “I ordered coffee yesterday, after the party. It should’ve been delivered by now.”
“Yeah, I noticed it arrived because that klutz of a mail-colt keeps knocking over our mailbox,” Barbra replied. “Are you sure you want coffee? You never had it before.”
“Well, I’ve been trying new things as of late,” Twilight Sparkle said, which triggered a snort from Barba. “I’m serious!”
“I didn’t say you weren’t, mate,” Barbra eyed the gum mound, as disgusting as it was – Barbra expected Twilight Sparkle to do crazy things like this because smart ponies who did studies backed by Solaris himself said it probably might work. Twilight Sparkle always experimented with these crazy things. “You made friends, that was probably the newest thing you ever did.”
“Haha, go get the coffee,” Twilight Sparkle deadpanned. She flipped through twelve chapters in one glace. She is a fast reader. “And make sure you go wash up later, we’re going somewhere tomorrow…well today.”
“Where?” Barbra inquired as she sat up from the study and moved away from the little tucked in corner of Twilight Sparkle. Barbra walked towards the front door and picked up the package, that wasn’t at all beat up and probably smashed when it came into contact with the mailbox. “And I don’t know how to brew coffee.”
“To Austailia,” Twilight Sparkle retorted dryly as she flipped through the next page of her very thick book. Barbra gave her a look and Twilight rubbed her eyes. “Sorry, I feel a bit cranky. We’re going to the market to pick up an order of quills and parchments.”
“You sure work fast, ordering all this stuff,” Barbra took the box into the kitchen, which wasn’t far from Twilight’s study. In fact, nothing was really far from Twilight’s study – the literal treehouse was smaller than her old home. Twilight appreciated the smaller house, it made it feel more like home than a laboratory. “Where do you get the time?”
“Magic,” Twilight Sparkle chuckled a bit, Barbra gave off a smile and opened the small package and pulled out the coffee bag of coffee beans. Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book and shoved her face into her hooves, remembering something crucial to the arts of coffee crafting. “Aw bugger, I think the Mean Bean Machine didn’t come yet.”
“Where did you get the bits for a coffee machine?” Barbra inquired. “You haven’t been selling crystal, have ya Mr. White?”
“Don’t be absurd,” Twilight Sparkle cracked a small smile, she had binged watched the show with Barbra a year or two ago. It’s been ages since Twilight watched another television show, with the addition of Netexit. “I make a living editing journals and learning, Barbra, I don’t have time to be breaking bad.”
“Haha,” Barbra chortled bubbly. “How’s about some tea, huh?”
“I’d appreciate it a lot,” Twilight Sparkle sighed as she went back to reading. “Just put the coffee machine in a cupboard.”
“Which one?” Barbra asked.
“The one we keep our teabags and sugars in,”
“You have at least twelve of them, all full of teabags!” Barbra cried out from the kitchen, making Twilight Sparkle groan. “Mate, you have a problem!”
“I don’t have a drinking problem, I have a staying awake solution,” Twilight Sparkle scoffed. “The one next to the bloody stove!”
“Okay, I found it!” Barbra said.
Twilight hummed lightly as she finished the book and picked up the other volume, she removed the mint gum from her mouth and stuck it onto the mound as she continued to read into the book. Truth be told, she wasn’t interested in the book at all. Twilight Sparkle already knew this stuff, she could cast all of the spells and alchemize all of the charms that comes along with archaic magic. A young mage, forcing herself to reread the material she already knows.
Lightning cracked its thunderous whip across the sky, the roar worthy of the gods caused Twilight Sparkle to jump. The fur on the back of her neck bristled along with her mane and tail; she’s been up for three whole days without so much as a lick of sleep. The night she spent obsessing over the Knight-Terror Knight story, the EPIC quest, and then tonight would mark the third day without sleep. It’s messing with her head – this whole insomnia thing is.
Twilight Sparkle groaned as she shoved her head into her hooves, a shower after a cuppa might do her some good with the caffeine boost. Twilight Sparkle didn’t feel so sparkly after all, being exhausted but something nagging in her brain. Preventing her from going to bed. What was it? Was it Nebula’s revenge or something? No. Let’s think rationally, now, Twilight. Nebula is dead and gone, Prince Artemis is saved – and very much dodging her letters to him.
Rain started to pour even faster now, it was perfect weather for reading something more interesting than this book she’s studying for the seventh time in an hour. Twilight Sparkle took a bookmark from the cup of quills and marks and shoved it into the book Archaic Charms for Not So Dummies.
Twilight stretched out her legs and stood up, she flexed her tensed muscles and walked into the main portion of the library. Twilight Sparkle stood on her hind legs to reach a more interesting book, Opal Bound: Goldsinger, when she heard a knock on the front door. Twilight Sparkle turned lowered herself back onto her hooves and moseyed on over to the door, the rain and the lack of the moon made it difficult to see out the window on who it was.
The Golden Oaks Library was closed, on the account for the heavy storm going on, but if this mystery pony needed a place to hide out the storm, Twilight Sparkle was all more than willing to allow the pony into the library to dry off if they needed. Twilight Sparkle levitated the Goldsinger book to her hooves and she tucked it casually underneath her wrapped up right wing. It was still healing from the other day. Magic heals wounds, not broken bones.
Twilight Sparkle opened the door to a drenched, familiar face. The Element of Loyalty, fastest flier in Equestria, slacker, and total wanker, Rainbow Blitz. Twilight Sparkle offered a patient smile, there would be no way he could’ve been caught in the storm unknowing of the weather – being the weather captain and all. Rainbow Blitz moved some of his soggy mane out of his eyes.
“Twilight, you haven’t been out for a couple of days,” Rainbow Blitz said worriedly, “I was concerned.”
“I was only inside of the public access library, otherwise known as my home,” Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes and stepped to the side. “Come on, you’ll catch a cold being out in the rain.”
“I—thanks,” Rainbow Blitz entered through Twilight Sparkle’s door, closing the door behind him. He allowed the saddlebag he was carrying to fall off of his haunches and let it sit by the door. Twilight Sparkle levitated a towel or two and smothered Rainbow Blitz in it. “H-hey! Watch the mane, Sparkle!”
“You’re not walking on my floor with muddy hooves and sitting on my sofa with your wet body,” Twilight grumbled as she struggled against Rainbow Blitz’s resistance. “Stop struggling or this will take longer!”
“You sound just like Elusive,” Rainbow Blitz scoffed as he sat still and waited for Twilight Sparkle to finish drying him off with the towel. “Thanks, I guess…”
Twilight Sparkle rolled the towels up and torched them with a simple spell of teleportation, they were now in the laundry along with sheets and blankets that needed to be washed. Twilight Sparkle walked over to her sofa, which sat in front of a coffee table, television, and next to a radio, and took a seat. Rainbow Blitz followed suit and sat next to her, leaving an entire cushion between each other.
“Would you like a cuppa?” Twilight offered, which made Rainbow Blitz reply in a confused face.
“A what-pa?”
“Some tea.” Twilight Sparkle hated the cultural difference in this town from Canterlot, like all of the ponies just decided to create their own slang and such. It’s probably why Twilight Sparkle found more coffee ground instead of teabags, it’s absurd with the amount of trouble Twilight faced trying to give her address to the postal service! (“Building Double Eight, Double Four on Barkway Ave.” What’s so difficult with the way Twilight says it?!) “It’s being freshly brewed.”
“Err… no thanks, you guys have any coffee?” Blitz asked and Twilight Sparkle nearly choked on her own air. Perfect timing for her Mean Bean Machine to be late as soon as a guest denies her offering of tea. That was another thing that made Twilight Sparkle’s gears grind, their lack of appetite for tea and the adornment love of coffee. What made tea so bad that blokes like Blitz would go out of their way avoid tea as if it was like the plague?
“I’m afraid not,” Twilight didn’t lie. “Are you sure you don’t want tea? I can have Barbra make some biscuits—”
“For the love of—Twilight, I think we all get it, your Canterlis,” Blitz rolled his eyes as he leaned back into the sofa. “We don’t eat biscuits like crazy, we eat cookies with our coffee. Especially Noreos, geez. Just say ‘cookies’ and just say ‘tea’ if you’re going to offer some!”
“Right… sorry,” Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat, she looked towards the kitchen to see Barbra doodling on the wall with a crayon as she waited for the kettle to brew. Twilight made a mental note to take away Barbra’s drawing privileges for the rest of the day and make her clean off the scribbles on the wall. “It’s just hard to adjust, Blitz, it’s only my second night in this town.”
“No, wait, you don’t have to be—” Blitz mentally wracked his brain as he sighed out his frustration. He kicked himself as soon as Twilight turned away from him, thinking he said something offensive. Which he probably did. “No, I’m sorry… I’m being a total plothole. I would like a ‘cwuppa’.”
“Haha,” Twilight snorted and then chuckled at his attempt to imitate her accent. “You sound ridiculous.”
“It’s not my fault you Canterlish ponies sound like that!” Blitz defended, a small smile coming onto his weary face. “Like, it’s cute and all when you say some stuff but geez-louse you all sound like you have a mouthful of tea and scones all the time.”
“We what?” Twilight scoffed playfully as she raised an eyebrow mockingly at Blitz. “At least our vocals sound more refined than you Ponyville Ponies, they always sound like you burnt your tongue on an apple pie.”
“Oh my gosh,” Rainbow Blitz said. “Say apple again.”
“Apple?”
“Yes,” Blitz answered, “but less like a question,”
“Apple,”
By Solaris’ beard, the way she says it is so cute… Rainbow Blitz thought
“Hot damn,” Blitz pretended to look for pockets. “Do you need a towel or something? I think I see some tea pouring out of your mouth.”
“You… cheeky bugger,” Twilight Sparkle knew she walked right into that one. Twilight Sparkle chuckled before shaking her head. “So Blitz, what brings you over?”
Rainbow Blitz crossed his forelegs across his chest. “You mean besides the rain?” Twilight Sparkle leaned back into the sofa as she gave Blitz a face, which mentally gave Blitz the impression that dodging around the question would not work with her. She’s one tough cookie to crack. “I wanted to see that you were okay, with you disappearing and all.”
“Right, but that’s all there is to it,” Twilight countered. “You wouldn’t be here unless you really have to, you give off the impression of a reading atheist.”
Rainbow Blitz mumbled.
“Sorry?” Twilight asked, “Didn’t quite catch that.”
“I … out…” Rainbow Blitz mumbled louder.
“Blitz, I can barely hear Butterscotch what makes you think I can understand that mush?” Twilight said.
“I left my keys in my locker in the weather station,” Blitz reluctantly admitted. Swallowing his pride. “I’m locked out of my house until the station opens back up.”
“It’s closed? Why?”
“We don’t have enough pony-power to keep it running twenty-four-seven, Sparkle,” Blitz explained as he slouched. “It’s barely above minimum wage, two bits an hour. I don’t know if you noticed, but this town’s full of landhugger pegasi and other self-employed ponies.”
“Right?”
“And… there’s not exactly a lot of pegasi in Ponyville either,” Blitz rolled his hoof in a dismissive manner. “The demand for weather ponies in Cloudsdale, with it being an industrial powerhouse, nor do they want to move to Ponyville.”
“Cloudsdale?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, the huge cloud city in the sky. The city that never sleeps? The Big Apple-Cloud? Capital of the Sky? Empire Bay?”
“Blimey! I’m sorry,” A lightbulb lit up in Twilight’s groggy mind. “I thought that was called New Canterlot?”
“You and One Snow both know nothing,” Blitz scoffed, Twilight Sparkle didn’t know who One Snow was but she knew she was being insulted. There’s no use in getting antsy about it, Twilight guessed. It’s pretty early in the morning for the both of them, very late at night for the rest of the town. “Nopony calls Cloudsdale ‘New Canterlot’, anymore. They got a whole section of it named New Cloudsdale. You know what…if you’re such an egghead, why don’t you know simple history? The vote and flopped battle for independence from Solaris’ kingdom?”
“The Revolutionary War, or flop it was more like, a couple thousand years ago,” Twilight murmured to herself. “Oh yeah! I can’t believe I let that slip my mind!”
“Yeah, it’s where me and B-Rabbit grew up,” Rainbow Blitz meant Butterscotch, Twilight understood exactly what he meant. “Except he grew up in Kings while I grew up in New Canterlot City.”
“Right, so what do they do in Cloudsdale?”
“It’s an industrial and corporate powerhouse. They make rainbows and other glossy crap in some factories to sell to some private corporations so they can tax the heck out of it when weather stations like ours need to order some.” Rainbow Blitz continued to explain. “They also make some clouds too, but the world does that naturally so it’s not really as important as some wetbag idiots think it is. I actually worked in one of those factories, the one where they made rainbows, before moving here, it’s pretty wicked.”
“You really know a lot about the industry,” Twilight mused.
Blitz gave a ‘hmpf’ sound. “That’s because I went to college.”
“Really?” Twilight was actually surprised, much to the dismay of Rainbow Blitz. “Not that I think you’re dumb, or whatever, but you don’t seem like the type – no offense.”
“It was on a scholarship; Cloudsdale University gave one… I think it was called Cloudsdale University... yeah, so I was really big on Hoofball,” Twilight heard of the sport in a magazine. She overheard Bubble Berry talking about it (to her through her closed library door earlier yesterday) and he compared it to Quidditch, whatever that was. “I think I got a… bach’ degree in flying… an associate in aerodynamics… what was that other one… oh yeah, I think I did a course on physics, but I didn’t really pass the class – I just dropped out.”
“What?! Why!? Physics is really important to know!” Twilight Sparkle demanded after she literally gasped in concern for her pal’s academics. “You could’ve gotten a lot of good paying careers with that! So many opportunities wasted!”
“I didn’t want to be some egghead know-it-all,” Rainbow Blitz retorted slyly. Twilight rolled her eyes at the totally not directed at her quip. “So I dropped out and enlisted in the RAF (royal air force) and did boot’, I totally impressed them with my awesome, bad-flank skills and they allowed me into Ad’ Camp. I was so excited, because we learned under the one and only Burnout himself!”
“I still can’t believe you dropped physics on a scholarship,” Twilight Sparkle deadpanned, expressing an unamused face. “Ponies would maim me for my academic scholarships!”
“Yeah, but I’m not a smart cookie, I’m a tough one,” Blitz rolled his eyes. Twilight Sparkle pursed her lips, knowing that he wasn’t exactly being modest with her nor was he being honest with himself. “Why do you think I live in a place like Booklynx, Cloudsdale? They call it Crooklynx for a reason.”
“Yikes,” Twilight was wondering what was taking Barbra so long with the bloody tea. “I heard it was bad, but geez.”
“I guess,” Rainbow Blitz chuckled. “It wasn’t really that bad as the movies and plays suggest it to be. If you knew where to keep your nose out of trouble, that is.” Rainbow Blitz leaned slightly towards Twilight. “How about you? It’s only fair you tell me a bit about yourself after spilling my story.”
Twilight couldn’t argue with that point.
“Well, there’s not really much to say,” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “I was born in the Yolktown section of Great Canterlot. I think I caused a bit of controversy because of the whole alicorn situation, people thought Solaris finally had a wife and he would be back as a ‘King’ but it turned out I wasn’t his daughter. Ponies thought I was and still do to this day – I read a newspaper written by some hacks the other day about me being the quote on quote ‘bastard daughter of Solaris’.”
“AAHAHAHAHA!” Rainbow Blitz howled with laughter, “Oh that’s rich, I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m done.” Blitz chuckled a little more.
“Right,” Twilight Sparkle bit her tongue to keep her retort quiet. “After a couple of months, I said my first words and other bollocks. It was a year or two, I don’t remember, when I started reading and figuring out how to spell. My parents were amazed and they sent me to school almost at three years old. When I turned five, I was already in Secondary School—”
“A What School?” Inquired a very confused Rainbow Blitz. “The hell’s a Secondary School?”
“The school you go to after Primary School,”
“Well, duh Twilight! Primary, Secondary and then Tertiary,” Blitz shoved his head into his hoof. “But what the absolute buck do they mean in regards of school?”
“Uh…” Twilight Sparkle wracked her exhausted brain for the Americolt (equine for ‘anywhere in the kingdom that isn’t Great Canterlot’) equivalent to what a Primary and Secondary School is. “For Secondary School… uh…”
“Oh spit it out already,” Blitz was growing impatient.
“I think you lot call it ‘High School’,”
“Oh! Oh, I get it now,” Rainbow Blitz shook his head. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“Yeah, so I was in ‘High School’ but the time I was five,” Twilight Sparkle continued. “When I turned six, they told me that there wasn’t anything they could teach me because I was moving too quickly ahead of the curriculum. So they hired a tutor from the Royal Archives.”
“Isn’t that where they keep the really old scrolls and whatever the hay in?”
“Yup,” Twilight Sparkle nodded. “Really old one. I thought he was a bloody wanker at the time, I ended up tutoring HIM about the subjects he was supposed to be teaching. What I didn’t exactly know was the study of theoretical archaic magic and quantum mechanical science, which he offered to teach me. He wasn’t supposed to. I kind of… maybe… knew them already.”
“Solaris damn!” Blitz exclaimed. “You really ARE an egghead!”
“Hmpf,” Twilight tried so hard to take it as a compliment but couldn’t. “So he told some ponies he knew who told some ponies they knew, the next thing I knew – I was offered a full twelve-year scholarship at the University for Gifted Unicorns. I’m probably the first and only alicorn to ever attend and pass. There was this huge test at the end where I had to do something no pony has ever done before, so I tried hatching a dragon egg in the audience of Prince Solaris himself.”
“Hey, this sounds familiar,” Rainbow Blitz tried to reach in the back of his mind on where he heard this story from. “I think you hatched… something... it was…”
“A dragon egg,”
“DRAGON EGG, SAID IT BEFORE YOU!” Blitz insisted, Twilight rolled her eyes and let him have it. “So is that where Barbra came from?”
“That’s where she was hatched, yes,” Twilight said, “After that, Solaris just took me under his wing and named me his personal protégé.”
“Didn’t you miss your parents?”
“Of course I missed them,” Twilight answered. “Mum was a wee-bit disappointed that I didn’t go into the military with my gifted knowledge, but she and Dad were super excited about the protégé thing. After that, I just studied and wrote reports. Nothing really worth mentioning to talk about.”
“You know,” Rainbow Blitz said as she finished. “That’s pretty…”
“Pretty what?”
“Cool,” Rainbow Blitz finished. “It also taught me something.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re a hopeless egghead, far from the redemption into all that is totally awesome like me,” Rainbow Blitz bragged as he puffed out his chest. Twilight scoffed, but chuckled at the absurdness of his words. Finally, Barbra came into the library holding a platter of biscuits—cookies rather and placed it on the coffee table. “Aw sweet, chocolate chip!”
“So that’s what took you so long,” Twilight mused, “There’s a seat for you right here.”
Blitz and Barbra shared a knowing, understood look. They had a previous understanding at the party, Barbra wanted to play matchmaker and get Twilight a date and Blitz wanted a date with Twilight (as if he didn’t make it brutally obvious). Barbra gave a wink, Blitz returned the understanding wink. Twilight Sparkle didn’t notice as she was busy taking a sip from the piping hot tea.
“No thanks, I’ll take my tea into the room,” Barbra took three bis…cookies from the platter and her teacup and went upstairs. “You two lovebirds have fun.”
Lovebirds?!
Rainbow Blitz rolled a D-16 for charisma on how exactly he will try to say what he wanted to say next, his base stat on the attribute is a shockingly high twelve. The D-16 rolled an eight, not a bad roll. It succeeded, but the confidence that Blitz had stagnated and suffered slightly.
Twilight Sparkle rolled a D-18 for dexterity on how she would handle what Blitz would say next. Her base stat for the attribute is a really absurdly high sixteen. The D-16 rolled a one; there was absolutely no bleeding chance that in any of the infinitive multiverses that she could fail it, yet, she snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Critical Failure.
“So…Twilight…” Blitz’s chest deflated slightly as he tried to figure out exactly how to roll with the awkward silence that followed Barbs’ words and casted over them. “Are you going to be busy on Friday—I mean it’s totally cool if you are or just you don’t have time, and this is just a hypometi-whatever question, but will you be?”
“I don’t think I’ll be,” Twilight Sparkle rubbed her chin, unsure of where Blitz was going with this. Oh sweet, oblivious, innocent Twilight Sparkle had no idea of what Blitz was going to say next – she has not seen many cheesy romantic comedies such as the one her life is becoming right about now. “I pushed back everything I was going to do on Friday to Saturday, so I think that’s probably a no.”
“You owe me a date,” Blitz said with a completely straight face, cutting straight to the chase. “I want to go on a date with you.”
“…?” Twilight Sparkle blinked at the suddenness and straight-forward approach Blitz was taking all of a sudden, after beating around the bush like he did. “I—what?”
“That is… if you want to…” Rainbow Blitz sat up and walked over to his saddlebag and pulled out a couple of objects. “I don’t normally do this, because it’s sappy, mushy, and stupid as all hell, but I made an exception.”
Twilight Sparkle, as speechless as she was, waited patiently for Blitz to come back to the couch, which he eventually did. In his forelegs were a bouquet of drenched flowers, a saturated crimson box with a turquoise bow on top—The box was in the shape of a heart that contained (now spoiled with rain) chocolates, and two tickets to what read was Cloudeseum in a plastic sandwich bag, where they were kept nice and dry.
“The Wonderbolts are coming to Cloudsdale at twelve-thirty, Friday night,” Blitz said, trying to keep his cool as he spoke. “So I thought, ‘wow! That’s bucking awesome, I’m so going’!”
Twilight wasn’t surprised.
“But then I thought, ‘what the hay, why not get Twilight a seat as well?’, so I did,” Rainbow Blitz continued. “So, you’re welcome.”
Twilight’s eye twitched.
“No-no-no, what the bloody bells are you doing?” Barbra, playing matchmaker from upstairs, slapped her head into her hand as soon as she heard what Blitz said. This was going off the script, way far off the script, and now he probably just blew it. Big time. “Oh my god this was a huge mistake…”
“Are you taking the piss with this?” Twilight flared up in indignation, which probably surprised Blitz so much, he flinched away from Twilight. “‘You’re welcome’?! Have you gone barmy?!” Twilight Sparkle furrowed her eyebrows, narrowed her eyes, and scowled at him. Even if Twilight was being offered to come to the event as the platonic friend she is to Blitz, the tone and the words he said wasn’t exactly the smart way to convince her—it was exactly the smart way to cheese her off. “You total wanker!”
Barbra groaned, rolling over onto her back; this whole matchmaking thing has gone pear-shaped.
“Twilight—Wait!”
“If this is how you’re asking me to go, then bloody forget it, you sad, blinkered, daft dastard! Naff off!” Twilight spat venomously as she continued to walk away from Blitz, who was desperately trying to correct what he said and back-pedal hard.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa—wait that’s not what I meant!” Blitz had dropped his façade as he followed her all throughout her march of anger. “Twilight, just listen for a second, please!”
“And what exactly could you mean?” Twilight retorted sourly and as dry as a cracker. She turned around and reared up onto her hind legs to reach a book from the higher part of the bookshelf – she was too pissed off to concentrate completely and use any magic. “Please tell me exactly how ‘thankful’ I am that you bought me tickets I didn’t ask for!”
“What I meant to say was that you’re the best bucking mare I’ve ever known and I like you a lot!” Blitz yelled at the top of his lungs, and this quieted and stunned Twilight Sparkle. It took the furious glare out of her gaze – it was replaced with a gaze of uncertainty.
With this, Blitz dropped his tone to a softer level and stood on his hind legs using his wings for support. He turned Twilight Sparkle around to face him while taking Twilight’s hooves into his own.
Twilight Sparkle could almost feel the pounding in his chest as he spoke each word, each syllable Blitz said was like a fire being lit in her chest. “You’re smart, you’re beautiful, you’re funny, you’re one hay of a fighter, and you’re everything I’m not and if bucking more! If anything, it’s you doing a favor to me by coming with me tomorrow afternoon – even if it’s just as friends. I don’t care, but I really want you there with me – it would mean the world.” Twilight knew that last bit was a little on the nose, overly dramatic, but it was sweet and endearing.
Twilight Sparkle didn’t know what to respond or HOW to respond to this. “Like, as in…” Twilight Sparkle fumbled with her words. “…like-like?”
“If that isn’t weird or anything, but yeah… I like-like you, like a lot,” Rainbow Blitz also fumbled, unsure what to say next. “But if I totally blew it, it’s okay, I totally understand.”
Twilight blinked. She subconsciously moved some strands of Blitz’s jagged mane out of his eyes. The closeness between the two was fully realized and they both blushed slightly before Twilight allowed Blitz to take a step back.
“If this completely bucked our friendship, then I understand that too…” Rainbow Blitz slouched as he said that, which made Twilight shake her head and wave her hooves.
“No, it’s okay,” Twilight Sparkle said, trying to disarray the tension. “I think I have an answer.”
“Really? I didn’t blow it romantica—”
“Sock it before I change my mind,” Twilight Sparkle warned. It was a successful warning because it hushed him, Blitz shut his trap quickly to allow her to talk. “You blew it, you had no chance to start with…”
“I totally get it—”
“Didn’t I say to shut up, you smarmy, sad dastard?” Twilight snapped again, shutting Blitz up again, before letting her tone soften up. “But…I am still free on Friday… so why don’t you try asking me again?”
“Uh…” Rainbow Blitz shuffled his hooves. “Twilight, the Wonderbolts are happening tomorrow afternoon and I was wondering if you would like to come… platoon-ically or whatever the hay it’s called.”
“I fancy this idea,” Twilight agreed.
“So… is that a yes?”
“Yes, as friends, but nonetheless—yes.”
Rainbow Blitz smiled – no he grinned – no that wouldn’t be the correct way to word it either – his entire face stretched into a joyful expression worthy of the gods! She said yes! She said yes! Even if it was platonically, she said bucking yes!
This is grounds for breaking the window!
So Rainbow Blitz did and flew out in the rain, whooping and celebrating as he flies into Solaris-knows-where in the thunder and lightning and further into the darkness until he disappeared. Twilight peered after him with an eyebrow raised, it was nearly identical to the situation when she met Bubble Berry. Except Bubble Berry didn’t break her bucking window and it was during a huge storm.
If Rainbow Blitz was this excited to go as friends, what would he have done if they went together romantically?
Twilight shuddered at the thought, she thanked Solaris’s glorious beard that she wasn’t romantically interested in any of them.