//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Hearts in the Spring Thaw // by CaffeinatedKit //------------------------------// "Comin' through!" All Twilight saw in her telescope, for the briefest of moments, was a multicoloured blur careening straight for her. She didn't even have time to react beyond pulling herself away from the eyepiece before Rainbow was on top of her, knocking the telescope spinning on its stand, Twilight out of her chair, and the still-full teapot sailing through the air, its contents splashing right across Rainbow's flank. A wide-eyed, scalded pegasus screamed, more in surprise than pain, and shot up into the canopy of the tree above, leaving a confused lump of blankets sprawled below. Poking her head out from underneath one corner of the blankets tangled around her, Twilight shook her head to try and clear her dizziness, but the sickness filling her ears only managed to make things worse. "Rainbow Dasch, juscht whadt do you think you're doing?!" she tried to yell, before sighing and turning her gaze to the fallen teapot, its leafy contents splayed far and wide across her balcony. "That... that was my dhea. I was going to drink that!" "Hothothot!" Rainbow yelped, zipping back and forth, in and out of the tree branches, scattering more leaves onto the pony below, before finally alighting on the balcony itself, dancing from hoof to hoof. "Sorry, Twi'!" The other mare slowly pushed herself up, peering at Rainbow, "Where'd it spi- achoo!" The force of her sneeze caused a few harmless sparks of raw magic to erupt from her horn, causing Rainbow to double back in her drunken stupor, trip, and fall flat on her singed flank. At this point, all she could do was wince and shift uncomfortably away from sitting on the worst spots. "Ungh. I can'dt dtake this any more." "Twilight, you're ssick - and I'm gonna take care of you, whether you like it or not," the cyan mare started, "Y-you need me to." "Rainbow, I have Schpike for dat. He even made me dhea! Dhea which I can't drink, because SCHOMEPONY SCHPILLED IT ON HER WORTHLESS FLANK!" All it took was one long look at the flustered mare in front of her, and her horribly plugged nose, for Rainbow Dash to break into laughter. A giggle fit at first, descending into the depths of almost maniacal laughter. "Oh, Twi'! You... you can't even talk!" "It'ssnot funny, Rainbow!" "Hee-hee - snot!" "I said that already!" came a voice from inside the tree. "Rainbow! You ruined my... drink. You messed up my notes that I was already rewriting, again, and you're making fun of me when I'm sick." Twilight started out angry, but her anger fizzled out as she realised just how much of a mess her friend made. To top it all off, her inkwell had spilled its contents over one corner of her blanket. She, too, sat down, with a *whump*, and lowered her head, trying to hide the tears welling up in her eyes. While the words barely registered in her tipsy state, the sight of those tears stung more than her scalded flank ever would. "I... I'm sorry, Twi'. I maybe kinda had a liiiittle too much of Applejack's cider at the party, before coming here. Maybe. Just a little." The pegasus stood up, looking a bit dejected, and walked over to help Twilight up. Is that a blush? No - she just said she was drinking; that must be it. "Thanks." Surveying her surroundings, Twilight let out a groan she didn't know she was holding. I'm going to have to start all over again. If only it were some other pony that kept crashing into my life... Rainbow coughed, tilting her head slightly, "Uh, Equestria to Twilight - are you there?" She waved a hoof in front of the other mare's eyes, snapping her out of her stupor. "Y-yeah. Sorry, Rainbow." Using her magic, she set about uprighting her things and putting them back in the proper place, "Look, I'm really nodt feeling good, and since this night's a wash, I'm jusdt going to gedt some sleep." Her face felt warm, but that was surely just the fever taking hold again. Rainbow nodded... sullenly? "Aw, okay. Uh," she glanced around, then in the general direction of her own home, up in the sky. Made of clouds. That she would surely crash into and possibly pop more holes in, in her current state. "About that... do you mind if I crash here until I'm a bit less, uh..." "Intoxicated?" "Yeah. Yeah, you could say that." There's that blush again. Twilight squinted warily at the flyer, and opened her mouth to protest - Why couldn't she have just stayed at Pinkie's instead of - ugh - crashing here? Pinkie always lets ponies stay over. - but faulted and closed it after a moment. Then again, I'm not sure I'd want to listen to Pinkie any longer than necessary with a hangover. "A-...alright, Rainbow. Let's schee if Schpike can schet up the guescht bed." I hate talking like this. Please, Celestia, don't make me try to scour my own sinues with magic! Perking up instantly, her wings fidgeting slightly, she grinned and nodded, "Thanks, Twi' - you're the best!" She resisted the overwhelming urge to leap forward and hug her - though that may have been the alcohol. It must have been - she was just drunk, and everything would go back to normal in the morning. Celestia's sun streamed through the windows of the library, the early morning light passing in a neat beam over Twilight's bed, and straight into the face of the mare sleeping on the futon on the floor beside her. "Unngh..." Pain... turn off the sun... Rainbow rolled over to put her back to the incessant fire trying to burn its way through her eyelids and directly into her brain, but the sheer act of moving just made things worse. Oh, buck me - I'm never drinking again. I hate you, Applesmack, and your tasty cider. She rustled under the blankets, pulling them over her head to try and block out the world, groaning quietly under her breath. Twilight was completely out of it, sprawled spread eagle on her back under her own blankets, a now-melted icepack half perched on her forehead and eyes, her horn the only thing stopping it from sliding back onto her pillow. Her jaw hung open to breathe, a line of drool running out the corner of her mouth and down her cheek, as pieces of tissue were rolled up and pushed rather unceremoniously into her nostrils. Any other day, she would at least worry a little about her appearance in front of other ponies, but she was sick - sicker than she'd been in months, if not longer - and she knew Rainbow, of all ponies, wouldn't really care. The sound of shuffling and moaning knocked her out of her pleasant dream, and she opened her eyes slowly to stare at the empty space above her. Oh, Rainbow... why'd you stop? Reassembling the last moments of her dream, she blushed hard, and sat up quickly, head slowly turning to peer at the lump on the floor beside her. The prismatic tail poking out from underneath gave that much away. That was just a dream, right? Groaning a bit louder, upon hearing Twilight move - was that a gasp? - the pegasus finally gave up and pushed the blankets off of her, struggling to get to her feet. "Twi'... don't you have blinds?" She squinted through the blinding sunlight at the mare in bed. "My head is killing me... I swear, Celestia makes the sun brighter just to buck with us." Twilight stifled a snort - or rather, the tissues did, and she hacked and coughed once she came to the painful realization that they were still there. Horn flaring, she set aside the icepack and yanked the tissues out of her nostrils, tossing them into a nearby garbage can. I hope she didn't see that - yuck! The tissues had mercifully done their job, and, wiping the drool from her mouth, she managed to speak a lot more clearly, "Yes, Rainbow. In fact, before we went to bed last night-" Bad choice of words... stop that train right now! "-I wrote a letter to Celestia to ask her to make sure she helped me get you back." She smiled sweetly, but nopony could mistake the way it turned into a mischievous smirk. "You're evil, 'Twi." "Says the pegasus that decided to drunkenly ruin my already ruined night last night. What made you come bother me, anyway? We're not getting the next Daring Do book for at least another week." Scratching the back of her head with a hoof nervously, Rainbow stammered, "Uh - well - you see..." Twilight just sighed - an exasperated, annoyed sigh, "Forget it. It's your mission to ruin my waking world, and my dreams, too..." Wide-eyed, she covered her mouth with a hoof, then quickly made her way out towards the stairs and kitchen. I didn't just say that - please don't notice, please don't notice! "Coffee. I'm making coffee. Want some? Yes, of course you do - you're hung over, and coffee fixes everything, right?" She grinned nervously, and zipped off. It was Rainbow's turn to facefault this time. She dreams about me? Oh, this is going to be fun... The prospect of coffee to soothe her throbbing brain was too much to resist, and she - much more slowly - followed along. By the time Rainbow got to the kitchen, Twilight was already in full swing, levitating and magically heating the kettle, with a strange looking jug in front of her. "Huh. I'd have figured you'd have Spike make you coffee in the morning." "Sometimes - but, uh... I just wanted to do it myself today!" Anything to get out of that room... "You know, give him a break, and let him sleep in." "Uh-huh." "..." "Okay, now we wait." The kettle's contents in the jug, and the lid on it, Rainbow realized Twilight had just poured the hot water straight on the coffee grinds, "Uh... please tell me we're not going to drink it like that?!" "Huh? Oh! You've never seen one of these before, have you? It's a neat little contraption I had shipped from Seaddle. It's a Fancy Press. See the handle on top? You push it down, and it pushes the coffee grinds to the bottom with a filter, and you pour from the top. That way, you don't get the grinds in your drink, it's nice and strong, and you don't get that papery taste from a regular old coffee machine's filters. Plus, it keeps all the coffee oils in the drink, so it tastes even better, and you can reuse it, too, since the screen is made out of metal." Rainbow blinked slowly, then rubbed her temples, "I'm sorry I asked. Twilight, you're worse than Pinkie sometimes, you know?" "...I get my coffee from this really neat roaster in Canterlot - they get the best green beans from all over Equestria. Except they're not really 'beans', they're just seeds - coffee's a fruit, and there's actually a berry around it, just like a cherry! Just think, we're basically drinking roasted cherry pit tea- huh?" Twilight tilted her head, then snickered, "I could never beat Pinkie." "You're not the one hung over." "True. Anyway, how do you like your coffee?" "Lots of sugar, please." I'd get coffee syrup if I told Pinkie that. Hopefully Twi's more normal. "Figures." Twilight pulled down the sugar jar with her magic, and two cups, then pressed down the device's filter screen to finish the brewing. Two spoonfuls into Rainbow's cup, but leaving hers black, she poured them both their liquid brain starters, and brought them to the table where the pegasus had sat down to wait. "Mmn, this smells really good - you said this was from Canterlot?" Twilight didn't answer - she had lost herself in thought for a moment as she brought her own cup to her lips, letting her eyes roll back into her head as she closed them to drink that first, delicious sip in bliss. She knew full well that this was just a chemical addiction to caffeine, and the wonderful massaging of her brain was just endorphins being released from feeding that addiction, but oh how it made everything better. Her head tilting back for another sip, eyes still closed, she sighed breathily. Rainbow smirked, watching her friend's almost lewd reaction to a simple drink, "Well, if it's that good..." She picked up her own mug with her hooves and sniffed the still steaming drink. Wow. That's really coffee-ey. A cautious few sips later, she, too, felt more refreshed. "Wow, Twi'. Just... wow." "I know, right? This is so worth it. Just you and me - uh, I mean - and coffee. The coffee is worth it." This time, she knew the burning in her cheeks wasn't the flu. It was the hot liquid, of course. She's so cute when she's embarrassed. "Uh-huh." "So, you were saying - why you came over last night?" "Yeah... about that..." Damnit. Think think think. "I've been meaning to ask you something for a while, now." Oh no. I knew this was coming - please don't say it... don't say it! "I, uh... 'Twi..." Now's the time to pony up and tell her! "Did you, uh... want to go out for coffee with me some time?" Twilight just blinked. "Like... outside? Aren't we kind of having coffee now?" "Oh!" Horseapples. "Uh, yeah, I guess so." She blushed furiously, then shook her head, "That's not what I meant. Like... another day. Just you and me, out. Side. I'm asking you out - uh, for coffee." The unicorn narrowed her eyes, "Rainbow... are you asking me out?" "That's what I said, right? Out?" "...like on a date?" Shitshitshit... "No! I mean... yes! Maybe?" "Rainbow, I'm flattered, but..." Oh no, not the 'but'. "...I... I can't." "What - why?" Turning her head to hide a choked tear, she shook her head, "Rainbow, you're a good friend... but I can't. I just can't." The vice around her heart tightened, and Rainbow visibly deflated, "...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." Stupid, stupid, stupid! "Uh, thanks for the drink - I needed it." She hurriedly set her not-quite-empty mug down and bolted for the door, taking off for home before Twilight could react. W-was she... crying? Oh, Celestia, what have I done? "I'd just hurt you..." she sighed under her breath, alone again.