The sun was setting when Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow made it back to the library, the three of them talking quietly to one another in hushed voices. The world was steadily falling silent around them, ready to make the transition from day to night. A few birds in the distance chirped their final notes for the day before going quiet.
Twilight opened the door with her magic, her entire body relaxing as the warmth and familiarity of home washed over her. She sighed in contentment, a dopey smile on her face. She felt almost like she was in some sort of trance before Rainbow nudged her in the side.
“Careful, Twi. You don’t wanna go passing out before Spike makes dinner, do ya?” she asked with a cheeky little grin.
Twilight huffed. “Of course not! I’m just happy to be home.”
“Same here. I’m ready to kick back and relax,” Spike nodded along, already making a beeline for the kitchen. “I’ll get started on the food. Any requests, you two?”
“I’m good for just about anything!” Rainbow called back while trotting for the couch. “Just make a lot of it! I’ll probably be nabbing seconds!”
“Aye aye, princess.”
“Stop that.”
Twilight giggled behind her hoof at the small twitch of annoyance on Rainbow’s face. The look disappeared as swiftly as it came, though, and Rainbow deposited herself on the couch with a long exhale. After a few breaths, she reached into her mane and pulled off the strap that kept the ends of her hairs bound. Her ponytail came undone, sending the long, multicolored hairs cascading over her shoulders and down her back.
The pegasus then turned her eyes to Twilight, and their gazes met. A silence settled in between the two before Rainbow’s cheeks lit up with a tiny blush. She coughed into her hoof and gestured uselessly in Twilight’s direction. “Uh, Twi, you’re kinda staring.”
Twilight blinked, her senses coming back to her. “Oh, sorry,” she apologized quickly with a shake of her head. She adjusted her wings at her sides and made her way over to sit down next to her friend. Rainbow just watched her for a second, then looked up and closed her eyes.
A strange, serene sort of silence fell over the two for a little while, neither of them moving or saying a word. Every so often, Twilight looked over at her companion to try and assess how she was feeling. However, Rainbow was being surprisingly hard to read right now. Maybe it was because her eyes were closed. Those were, more often than not, the parts of Rainbow that expressed the most.
“You’re staring again,” Rainbow suddenly pointed out, one of her eyes cracking open just slightly. A taunting smirk splayed out across her lips, making Twilight look away.
“Sorry, sorry,” she babbled, looking ahead. She cleared her throat and put on a friendly smile. “So! Did you enjoy yourself earlier?”
Rainbow’s face lit up with a pleased grin. “Did I enjoy myself? Ha, did I ever! It was a blast! And you,” she poked Twilight in the shoulder. “Were more than a little awesome out there.”
“Heh, thanks. I had a lot of fun, too.”
“You were pretty fast. Managed to eke out third place,” Rainbow continued, shifting on her haunches to playfully punch Twilight’s shoulder. “But you’re gonna have to run a lot faster than that if you wanna keep up with me!”
The alicorn got a small grin on her muzzle, a spark of competitiveness igniting in her eyes and her heart. “I might take you up on that offer, one of these days.”
“I’m looking forward to it!” Rainbow leaned back in her seat, her expression softening considerably into something more serene. She turned her head, her eyes roaming aimlessly over the shelves along the walls of their home. Twilight followed her gaze, and the two fell into a comfortable silence.
She took the time to just go over the day’s events in her mind, allowing herself to relax. As the seconds began to turn into minutes, her thoughts slowly began to wander back to the race. Her lips twitched just slightly into a smile as she recalled the rush of the wind on her face, the feeling of the dirt beneath her hooves, and the roar of so many other hooves behind her.
Her smile only grew in size when she recalled the happy look Rainbow had on her face the entire time. For the first time since Twilight had seen her, she had looked genuinely free of all of the things holding her down. It had been a wonderful thing to behold, one Twilight had not wanted to let out of her sight.
Just thinking about it made her eager to see it again. Twilight opened her eyes and looked over at the pegasus sitting beside her, taking in every detail of her face. Rainbow was relaxed, clearly, her eyes closed and her head leaning back. She was wearing a smile as well, although it was not quite the same as it had been on the trail. Less intense and euphoric and more peaceful and serene.
After a few minutes, Rainbow suddenly smirked and opened one of her eyes to leer sideways at the alicorn. “You’re staring at me again,” she pointed out, her lips peeling back into a toothy grin.
Flushing, Twilight pulled her eyes away while her wings ruffled uncomfortably on her back. “Sorry!” she said in an embarrassed squeak.
“What, do you like what you see or somethin’?” Rainbow teased, leaning down so she was in Twilight’s peripheral. She waggled her eyebrows provocatively, making Twilight look away to stifle a groan. After a few seconds, Rainbow eased off and lightly thumped Twilight on the shoulder. “Heh, sorry. It was just too easy.”
The alicorn pouted at Rainbow, her cheeks puffing up in indignation. She wasn’t able to maintain the truly pathetic look for long, though, and a small giggle slipped past her lips. “Haha, right, okay. I’m sorry I was staring. I was just thinking about how happy you look when you were racing earlier, and I kind of wanted to see that look on your face again.”
Rainbow’s mirth faded somewhat, one of her eyebrows taking a trip to the north. “I looked happy?” she asked while rubbing the back of her head. “I mean, yeah, I guess. I felt happy. Happier than in a long time…”
Twilight’s features softened again. “It was nice to see… do you think you can smile like that more often?” she asked in a timid whisper.
Rainbow’s other brow went up to join its twin, and her lips formed a cute ‘o’ shape. She was quiet for a second before she found her voice. “Oh, uh… s-sure! Yeah, I can try!” she nodded firmly before a small, cocky look appeared on her face. “Just so long as you agree to race me in the mornings.”
“Deal,” Twilight agreed without even a moment of hesitation.
Rainbow’s grin widened. “Ha, awesome,” she declared before holding out a hoof.
Twilight looked at it for a moment. Then, with a nod, she lifted her own and bumped it against her friend’s. “When do we begin?”
“Tomorrow.”
“That sounds fine by me.”
As the two mares began to hash out the finer details of this idea of theirs, they were both utterly oblivious to the small purple dragon watching them from the entrance to the kitchen. Spike smiled warmly at the two of them, a nostalgic look in his eyes before he spun on his claws and disappeared back into the kitchen.
It was a few hours later, now. The sun had set outside, plunging the world into the darkness of the night. A few candles were scattered around the central room, bathing Twilight in their gentle glow. She was resting on her belly on the couch with a Daring Do novel resting before her on the cushions. Her eyes swept over each line, drinking in the vivid details that author A. K. Yearling had clearly spent a long time putting together.
Somewhere outside the library, an owl hooted, briefly pulling Twilight’s attention away from her book. She glanced over at the window the noise had come from, only instead of catching sight of a bird through the glass, she caught sight of Spike standing quietly at the edge of the light from the candles. His eyes stood out somewhat in the darkness, making for a slightly unsettling sight.
“Oh, Spike. What are you doing up?” Twilight asked, sitting a little more upright and tilting her head to one side. “I thought you went to bed when Rainbow did.”
Spike hesitated for a second before stepping forward into the light. Clutched in one of the claws dangling by his side was his photo album. He looked down at it, then up at Twilight. “Er, yeah, about that… I kinda wanted to come down and stay up with you for a little while, if that’s okay,” he replied, his voice quiet and hesitant.
Twilight tilted her head the other way in confusion. “Oh… uh, alright,” she relented before scooting over on the couch and making some room. “Would you like to sit down?”
Spike’s expression lit up with relief, and he gave a quick nod of his head. He came over and made himself comfortable on the couch, resting his head against her side. By reflex, one of her wings unfurled and draped itself over him like a blanket. He gave a quiet hum from the gesture and snuggled closer to her side before smiling up at her. “Thanks, Twilight. I’ve missed this.”
“Missed this? What do you mean?”
Spike looked down, his face disappearing from Twilight’s view. “Well… before you lost your memory, you’d sometimes let me stay up with you like this if you decided to read into the night. I mean, granted, you let me do it because you needed your number one assistant, but it was still nice. And before we left Canterlot to move here, those were some of the only times I really got to spend a lot of time with you… especially as you got older.”
Twilight blinked, her expression souring at the longing tone in the drake’s voice. She pulled him just a little closer with her wing and gave off a small sigh of her own. “...You could have told me sooner that we did this from time to time. I would’ve been fine with that,” she pointed out in a softer voice, craning her head down to look into his eyes.
“I know, I know… I just don’t like reminding myself that… well… you know…”
Twilight pulled her head back, her expression turning solemn. “I know. But if there’s something about my past you think I should know, then please, tell me. Even if it’s something as simple as staying up past your bedtime to be around me.”
That, to her surprise, made Spike perk up. He glanced up at her with a small smile before holding up his photo album to her. “Well, if that’s the case,” he began before pulling the album open and flipping a few pages deeper than Twilight was used to.
To her surprise, the page where Spike stopped was near the back of the book and was loaded with photos. They were all older than the ones Spike had taken, each one displaying some visible sign of age and wear and tear. But they were all of the exact same things.
In every photo, Twilight saw her and Rainbow Dash when they were little more than foals.
There was a photo of the two running down one of the halls of the castle, a baby spike on Twilight’s back and an amused Princess Celestia in the background, peering at them from around a corner with a hoof held up to her lips.
Another one showed Rainbow Dash laying sprawled on her back on a cushion in Twilight’s Canterlot castle bedroom, while the then-unicorn happily read a book right next to her.
Yet another showed the two of them struggling against each other in an intense hoof-wrestling match with a few other fillies that she didn’t recognize looking on from the background.
There were many more, each and every one showing Rainbow and Twilight being together. And, more often than not, being competitive. She recognized one or two from her mother’s foal photo album, but many of these pictures were totally new to her.
She blinked and looked over at Spike, her eyes wide. “Wha- Spike. Where did you get these?” she breathed before looking back at the photos again.
“I sent princess Celestia a letter a few days ago while you and Rainbow were working on your flying,” Spike replied, tapping the page with a claw. “She made copies of a lot of the photos she had lying around and sent them back to me earlier today. With you and Rainbow running that big race earlier, it kinda reminded me of when you were little.”
Twilight studied the photos for a few minutes, absolutely entranced. “I see… what were we like? What was I like?” she asked after a moment, very gently tracing her hoof around one of the photos.
“Well, one of my earliest memories of you two is about a game of dodgeball you two were playing. You had me keep score of your games a lot of the time. You were active, playful, and to be honest, I shoulda seen it coming when you two fell for each other,” Spike recounted, his eyes going distant at the far away memory. “You on your own were just as geeky and book-happy as you are now. That’s one thing about you that I don’t think will ever change.
“But seeing you two out there earlier, running that race like that?” Spike suddenly sat upright and turned to face Twilight directly, drawing her attention away from the photos. He reached out and placed a claw on her chest, right over her heart, and then gave her a big smile. “...It really reminded me of happier times. And I think that’s a good thing.”
“You do?”
“Well, yeah! It means you’re making progress. Sure, you’ve still got amnesia, but you’re really settling back in. You’re comfortable, now, and I could tell just how much you were enjoying yourself while on that track,” he assured before leaning forward and wrapping Twilight up in a tight hug. “I’m really glad you’re getting comfortable, now. If this keeps up, things might finally be totally back to normal soon.”
Twilight frowned at that, unable to stop the brief spark of disagreement she felt with that assessment. Maybe things were getting back to normal for them, but what about for her? She’d spent months living with them by now, and with every day that passed, she learned something new about herself.
But at the same time, if things were getting back to normal for them… then that meant she was doing something right.
Filing that thought away, Twilight let herself give a warm smile of her own. She closed her eyes and returned Spike’s hug, pulling him tightly against her chest and enveloping them both in her wings. “Thank you, Spike,” she whispered to him, nuzzling into his forehead. “That really means a lot to me.”
“Don’t mention it,” Spike whispered back, giving her a firm squeeze. He then chuckled and turned his head to look at her wings. “Heh. I almost kinda wish you always had these wings. They’re really soft.”
Twilight rolled her eyes with a snort of amusement. “Well, maybe you’ll grow your own wings someday.”
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
Twilight giggled quietly at that before returning her attention to the photo album. Spike did the same, and for a long time, the two were perfectly happy to just look at the old pictures of Twilight’s foalhood. Every so often, Twilight would ask a question about one of them, and Spike would answer.
Eventually, though, Spike’s voice tapered off, and Twilight realized he had fallen asleep against her. Unwilling to bring herself to disturb him, she settled down on the couch and held him close against her barrel with her wings. She closed her eyes, and soon, she too drifted off into Luna’s realm.