Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat on couch cushions around a little blanket that had an assortment of plates stacked with snacks on top of them, and both women had a mug of hot cocoa sitting next to them, with Rainbow’s nearly depleted even after going through four other cups.
“She does all the stuff I wish I could do, ya know?” Twilight said, answering Rainbow’s question about why she liked Daring Do.
“Like jump over chasms and fight monsters and stuff?” Rainbow replied with a smirk, wiping a rather unflattering cocoa mustache off her lip.
“N-no,” Twilight said hesitantly, holding her hands close to her chest and fidgeting with her fingers. “She’s just— she isn’t afraid to just be who she is. She gets into all these dangerous encounters, talks to all these dangerous characters, and she doesn’t compromise. She doesn’t bend on what she believes is right, is important,” Twilight groaned and hung her head. “I wish I could be more like that. I’m such a wallflower.”
“Confidence is hard,” Rainbow’s voice didn’t carry her normally lighthearted cheer as she spoke. Her voice wasn’t cold, per se, more like… solemn. “It’s tough to hear someone be like ‘you gotta be like this’ and just say ‘nuts to that, man!’”
Rainbow’s peculiar turn of phrase got a giggle out of Twilight, which sent the cocoa she was drinking spurting right out her nose which only served to make her, and Rainbow Dash, laugh even harder.
“It is hard!” Twilight said cheerfully. “How do you do it, Rainbow Dash?”
Twilight barely noticed Rainbow’s ears flatten against her head at Twilight’s question, but she was distracted by the sounds of tiny footsteps tromping down the stairs and the little purple face that peeked down at her and Rainbow from the stairwell.
“Spike!” Twilight said with a grand smile, patting an empty couch cushion sitting beside her. “Do you want to join us?”
“C’mon down, dude!” Rainbow added with a bright grin.
Spike’s face scrunched up into a disgusted frown, and Twilight’s heart sank as she worried which of the two women it was aimed toward. Rainbow noticed the glower too and looked to Twilight with a perplexed expression, pointing her thumb at Spike.
“What’s his deal?”
Twilight froze.
She hadn’t told Rainbow about her distrust of the Celestial Slayers. She hadn’t told Spike that she hadn’t told Rainbow, either. How could she explain to a Slayer that her son was afraid of her? How could she possibly make Rainbow understand?
Twilight opened her mouth to speak but before any words came out, they were silenced by the fluttering of small wings as Spike flew over beside her and took the seat she had laid out for him, though he quickly pushed the cushion as close to Twilight’s as it would go.
“Good choice, kid!” Rainbow said with a gleeful smile, oblivious to the shared distress between the mother and her son.
She couldn’t overlook it for long though, as Twilight and Spike simply stared silently at Rainbow. And while it took Rainbow a moment, even looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was behind her, she realized that they were both staring at her.
Twilight felt a bead of cold sweat drop down her brow.
She knows.
“Do you guys need to use the bathroom or something?” Rainbow asked awkwardly, scratching the back of her neck as she gave the two a curious glance.
Twilight released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as she realized that Rainbow did not, in fact, know anything.
“Spike and I are afraid of Slayers.”
Spike gave his mother a look that was nothing short of aghast, bolting his head around to look at her and making a loud gasp, but his shock was nothing compared to Rainbow’s, whose eye twitched with the bitter realization of what Twilight had said.
Twilight grit her teeth behind a very nervous smile.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” Twilight said, measuring her tone with as much care as she would an explosive chemical. “I didn’t know how to say it. But I think, if we’re going to be friends, I need to be—” the word caught in Twilight’s throat, but she forced herself to say it regardless “—honest with you.”
“Twilight,” Spike cautiously grabbed his mother’s hand, and she felt a little safer knowing that he was beside her.
“Why?”
That was all Rainbow said, and her slightly cocked head and narrowed eyes— not aimed at Twilight but more like she was scanning her brain for information— spoke to Twilight of utter bafflement; nothing more and nothing less.
Twilight had no recourse but to give her the truth. She readied herself to spin a small yarn about her childhood, about the day her parents were murdered by Slayers, but she couldn’t.
The attempt to speak the memories tore her throat like shattered glass, and even if they could reach her mouth, they would not get past the wall of her teeth gritted so hard as to grind against each other like a trash compactor.
She knew if she gave herself an inch, if she let her guard down for even a fraction of a fleeting moment, tears would pour down her face like the falls of Neighagra.
“Listen.”
Rainbow stood tall and crossed her arms over her chest, a serious frown on her face as Twilight looked up at her, silently pleading for her to understand.
“I dunno what happened with you and the Slayers,” Rainbow said, “and I can’t pretend like I see eye-to-eye with every Slayer I’ve ever worked with, but I can tell you this.”
Rainbow knelt and grabbed Twilight’s hand, not noticing that Spike’s hands were already there and placing hers over his. The young man flinched, almost recoiled his hands away from her, but keeping them on his mother’s trembling hand was too important so he left them where they were.
“I am not gonna hurt you,” Rainbow said. “I would never hurt an innocent pony. You are super cool, Twilight Sparkle, and there’s not a doubt in my mind that your son is just as cool as you are. If me being here is gonna be weird for you guys, we can work something out where maybe I don’t come around that often, but I would like—”
“No,” Twilight said quickly, “I don’t want you to leave.”
Twilight looked down at Spike, who looked her in the eye with apprehension and even fear in his eyes, but he smiled at her, and that gave her all the strength to say what she needed to.
“I want you to keep coming to the library,” Twilight said boldly, “if you want to, that is. I know I have some issues with the Slayers, Spike does too, but—” Twilight took a deep breath, her face twisting into an embarrassing scrunch as she forced herself not to start crying. “I trust you, Rainbow Dash. I want to trust you.”
“I won’t betray that trust. I promise.”
Rainbow stood straight up to her feet and grabbed the back of her neck, stumbling backward and nearly tripping over her empty cocoa mug as she added awkwardly, “Weird thing to be saying to a pony I’ve only known for like a day, huh?” she laughed nervously, and Twilight didn’t know what to do but laugh with her.
“I mean it though, for what it’s worth.”
“It’s worth a lot to me,” Twilight said with a serene smile.
“I don’t—” Spike muttered. “I don’t like it.”
Twilight sighed and put her arm around Spike, pulling the little pegasus close to her and letting him lean against her side. “I’m sorry, Spike.”
“I don’t like that she said I’m ‘as cool’ as you,” Spike said, causing Twilight to frown drastically as her cheeks went red-hot, Rainbow’s snorting cackle not helping matters at all.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Rainbow laughed. “You’re at least twenty percent cooler than Twilight!”
“Hey!” Twilight balked, but Spike’s honest laughter washed away any reservations she had about the besmirching of her character.
She clutched her son close to her and laughed alongside him, feeling a sense of peace and relief she hadn’t felt since she left her home behind.
Because now she was certain that she found it again.