//------------------------------// // War Of The Words, Chapters 1-2 // Story: Spoiled Fruit // by RazgrizS57 //------------------------------// “Experiences...” Twilight mumbled, staring down at a piece of paper placed on her desk. She frowned. “Being the captain of the Ponyville weather team for six years ‘strate’, the best of class during flight camp as a filly, winning the best young fliers competition... being ‘awesomerific’?”  She pinched the bridge of her snout and slowly shook her head. Withholding a sigh, she glanced deadpan to the edge of the desk where Rainbow Dash stood, a happy and expectant smile on her face. They stared at each other for a second in silence before Twilight returned to the paper, rolling her eyes like they were the heaviest weights she’d ever born.  “Well?” Rainbow Dash asked. “It’s... thin, to say the least,” Twilight said, skimming over the rest of the paper, which accounted for about a short paragraph’s worth of material. She placed a hoof on it and pushed it away. “I agreed to help you with your application for the Wonderbolts Academy, but I can’t really do anything when you’re lacking so much content.” Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “What do you mean?” “Well, you need to tell me more,” Twilight said, rolling her hoof. “You point out a lot of what you’ve done, like any good application should. I’ll give you that. But you don’t give any explanation as to why these things you’ve done have any merit, let alone why the Wonderbolts should accept you.” “I saved their lives!” “And you say that,” Twilight said with a nod, before frowning back at the paper. She read, “‘Reference: I saved your lives’. But that’s not even a reference!” Rainbow Dash offered a hoof and gave her a skeptical look. “Don’t you think they should get what I’m referencing?” Twilight’s hoof met the space between her eyes for the second time in as many minutes. Her mind wandered for a kind response but none of the words she found were gentle. Instead, and only after the slight throbbing on the side of her head ceased, she had an idea. “Look,” she said, doing her best to sound polite, “I must admit I’ve never actually had to write an application before, so maybe I’m not the best pony to help you.” She paused, searching for the right words. “My expertise has more to do with linguistics: grammar, syntax, and all that kind of stuff. But when it comes to actually writing an application, I think you’d be better off asking someone else.” Rainbow Dash took a small step back, unsure how to react to the smartest pony she knew telling her she wasn’t smart enough to help her. Or at least, that’s what she thought she heard. Confused, she asked, “Can’t you do that edit stuff now and fix my application for me?” Twilight didn’t need to think for a second. “No,” she said, “not really. Like I said, you need more content here for me to really be of use. Just looking at it as is, I can tell you they won’t accept it, and all I can do right now is correct a few misspellings and that really isn’t much. That, and that ‘awesomerific’ isn’t a real word, either.” Rainbow Dash’s ears fell back. “Aw, I liked that one.” “You can’t just make up words,” Twilight explained. “But that’s beside the point. You simply need to say more about yourself in your application. Do that, and I’d be more than happy to give it a look before you mail it out.” Rainbow Dash didn’t look too convinced. She gave her friend a curious look and said, “Well, if you can’t help me write this, then do you know who will?” Twilight stole a quick glance out a nearby window, at a small rooftop in the distance poking above all the others. She hummed. “Rarity’s probably written applications before,” she said with a soft smile. “Why don’t you go see what she can do? She might actually have an example or two for you to reference.” “Alright...” Rainbow Dash said, giving a perplexed look to the piece of paper as it floated through the air, rolled up, and was placed snugly under her wing. “Thanks, I guess.” “And do come back after you’re done!” Twilight was quick to say. “I’d still love to help you out with the proofreading and editing. I’m not sure Rarity’s the most capable pony in that respect,” she added, blowing a small raspberry. Rainbow Dash snickered. “Alright,” she said, smiling and turning away. “I’ll go do that now. See you tomorrow then?” “Tomorrow!” Twilight said, waving after her as she left the room. She continued to do this until she heard the sound of hoofsteps grow fainter and fainter, until they disappeared with the muffled sound of the library’s front door slamming shut. Her breath trickled out of her and she returned to her desk, deflated and perplexed. Rainbow Dash had picked up a serious knack for reading over the past year, so it made sense for her to have had some understanding of what it meant to write; it wasn’t like she was needing to write a story or anything. Just a simple application. But that wasn’t the case, apparently, and Twilight mulled over this by resting her chin on the tabletop. She certainly wasn’t going to write the application for Rainbow Dash herself. Twilight frowned again, disappointed in herself that she couldn’t tell her friend to just completely rewrite it, like what really needed to be done. Oh well, Rarity did have a tactful sense of bluntness she lacked, anyways. She always knew what to say. Twilight was confident Rarity would be able to at least set Rainbow Dash’s application on a straight enough path, then she’d be the one to even it out.  “Awesome experiences...” Twilight mumbled, glaring down at the piece of paper on her desk. Her confused frown quickly deepened. “Being the awesocaptain of Ponyville’s awesoweather team for six awesome years, the awesombest of the awesomest class at the awesoflight camp as an awesofilly, awesomely winning the awesombest young awesoflyers awesome competition... and being ‘awesomerific.’” Twilight turned her head. Rainbow Dash looked back at her with a smile. “Well?” “I...” Twilight tried to find her words and glanced back at the paper, which provided her with nothing. “I don’t even know,” she said. She gave her friend a concerned look and said, “I thought you were going to Rarity’s for help with this?” “I did!” Rainbow Dash’s ears fell back. “Why, is it still not good enough?” “Not good enough?” Twilight shook her head. “No, it’s not. I’m sorry, but it’s worse than your earlier draft! How’d you even come up with this?” “It was Rarity’s idea,” Rainbow Dash quipped. “She agreed with me that I am awesome, and she said that I should get that awesomeness across into my application.” Twilight sighed. “I don’t think she meant that literally.” “No, she did,” Rainbow Dash said, dismissing her. “I told her I invented the word ‘awesomerific’ and she thought that was a nice touch.” Smiling, she added, “She thought that was really cool, as a matter of fact. So she helped me come up with a few more. Awesomister, awesom-eer, awesome-awesome, which is like double the awesome...” “Wait, what?” Twilight stared. “Rarity actually... buh, what?!” “Yeah!” Rainbow Dash said with a smile. “Oh, and you were right. She did have an old résumé I could use for a reference, which was awesome.” She paused. “Awésumé.” She laughed. “This is fun! Who knew words could be so cool? Well, you, I guess. I see now why you live in a library of all places.”