"Oh hey, it only took you nine years!" Twilight said mockingly as she paced back and forth in the cold. She stopped pacing long enough to glare at the too-happy scene before her. Spark Storm and their - no, her friends gathered around a fire. This situation just seemed so unreal to her. She had no idea her new friends already knew Spark Storm. Maybe if they hadn't, they would be around her instead of him. But she knew she was being selfish with this line of thought. She sat and watched the scene, a small smile creeping across her face.
Pinkie Pie was trying to attach large marshmellows to the tips of Spark's feathers, the ones that stuck straight up if he wasn't focused on keeping them flat on his back. "C'mon, Sparky! I just wanna see if you can use your zap-zappy powers to toast marshmellows! You've never tried, right?" Spark didn't look so sure, and neither did Rarity. She sat upon a large pillow, which in turn sat on a blanket to keep the pillow from getting wet in the snow. She had herself tucked in a black fleece blanket, the best for absorbing whatever heat the sun could provide in the early afternoon air.
"Pinkie, dear, I don't think mixing marshmellows with electricity is a good idea. If those marshmellows explode, it'll get all in Spark's gorgeous feathers, and that would be awful! Think of..." she shuddered, imagining the horrible sticky mess. "...the clean-up..."
"C'mon, do it!" Pinkie shouted. Spark sighed, then reached down and grabbed up several sticks inbetween his feathers and held the tips towards Pinkie.
"On the sticks, Pinkie, not my wings. Pink-on the sticks!" The scene continued, drawing an even bigger smile on Twilight's face as Spark sent electric currents into the sticks. The marshmellows on the ends immediately exploded, just as Rarity had warned. Fortunately, Pinkie had been so close that she took the brunt of the projectile confectionery. Pinkie Pie immediately fell onto her back and started giggle/snorting, kicking her legs in the air mirthfully.
"Pinkie!" Rarity cried in dismay as some of the sticky substance landed in her mane. "Oh, I knew this would happen..." she muttered, and began to lengthy process of using her magic to clean her mane. As she did, she sent Spark Storm a glare for letting Pinkie experiment in the first place. A sheepish, apologetic grin was given in return.
Twilight Sparkle smiled despite herself. Seeing Spark interact so naturally with her friends for the first time was an experience in itself. It almost made her sad to see Spark grown up. During her years as Princess Celestia's student, she never made time for play with her peers. Seeing Spark laugh and joke with the others...it did things to her heart. Maybe she should've made time for others. She could think of at least one she wouldn't have minded spending more time with, but after the fallout between Spark and the Princess, he never came back to Canterlot.
Twilight smiled somewhat sadly as these thoughts ran through her head. So lost in thought was she that she didn't notice Fluttershy come to stand next to her and watch. The unicorn jumped slightly when she did notice her shy friend, making Fluttershy jump too, even though she'd been looking directly at Twilight. "Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked. "Oh, I'm sorry, Twilight. I didn't meant to startle you." Twilight smiled warmly at her friend before taking another glance at the others. Pinkie was laughing her head off as Spark and Rainbow Dash had gotten into a snow-ball fight, and had accidentally gotten Applejack involved.
Fluttershy chanced a glance at her unicorn friend. She had never heard the full story between Spark and Twilight, but from the way the unicorn acted around him, she knew it had to be something intense. Oh-so intense and full of big scary feelings that made Fluttershy want to crawl into a hole and hide from. She had never been in such situations, mostly because she was too shy to get herself into them. There had been a few opportunities, of course, but the poor pegasus was just too scared to reach out.
After a moment of companionable silence, Twilight turned to Fluttershy, a pensive look on her face. "Oh, Fluttershy...how am I supposed to move on when I've been stuck in the same position for the last nine years? I mean..." she trailed off as she got to her hooves and started to pace back and forth behind her friend. "What if I can't move on? What if I screw up, make him angry with me? That's not progress, that's just moving backwards! When Princess Celestia sent me here to make friends, she didn't tell me Spark Storm would be here!"
Fluttershy frowned as her friend paced back and forth. She felt completely helpless to help her friend get over her insecurities. After all, she wasn't the best pony to talk to about being brave and facing her fears. Twilight suddenly stopped pacing and looked down at the ground before looking back up into Fluttershy's eyes. Twilight frowned as she remembered who she was talking to. She let out a gentle sigh and stepped closer to nuzzle her friend comfortingly. "I'm sorry for unloading on you like that, Fluttershy. Thanks for listening, at least. I'm gonna go find Spike, see what he's up to, ok?"
Fluttershy frowned as Twilight made her way back towards the tents. She honestly wished she could be of help Twilight be brave, but this was a different kind of brave than defending her friends from a cranky dragon. Fluttershy had never been in that kind of relationship, and thinking of being with a stallion had never entered her mind. Not yet, at least.
Twilight let out a small sigh of relief once she was out of earshot. That had been painfully uncomfortable for Fluttershy, and more than a little awkward for Twilight as well. She just didn't know how to deal with this! Books were so easy to understand. Studies were enjoyable. Writing reports came naturally. Why was dealing with the long-overdue aftermath of her feelings for Spark Storm have to be so damned difficult?!
The next day and a half for Twilight was spent mostly avoiding Spark Storm. On the second evening, after a day of wandering through the woods and identifying different types of trees (only Fluttershy was really interested) Twilight was ready to pack up and go home. The last two days had been interesting, to say the least. Spark Storm had demonstrated patience with Twilight, never speaking to her unless she spoke to him first.
It was on the second night that the silence was broken. Twilight had just put Spike to bed (despite his insistence that he stay up and be the marshmellow roaster). She finally got him to comply by reminding him that he needed to be responsible, especially since Spike lied to her about this whole trip, even if it was for her own good. This finally guilted Spike into lying down for the night.
After Twilight slipped out of the cheap tent that she'd impulsively bought for this trip, she noticed that Spark was absent from the group. Noticing Twilight's inquisitive glancing around the group, Applejack discreetly motioned towards the woods behind the campfire. Twilight smiled gratefully for Applejack's inconspicuous signal and headed into the woods, her heart beating faster and faster. This was it; she was going to be alone with Spark Storm for the first time in over nine years, and it was tearing at her nerves.
Finally, Twilight emerged into a clearing. She squinted as Luna's moon, now nearly full, bore down on her and provided the clearing with a light that seemed filtered through a crystal. It was perhaps the most beautiful moonlight she'd ever seen. It didn't take long for her to spot the lone dark form of Spark Storm sitting in the middle of the clearing, which was actually rather small. The grass was short in this area, though still green and lush. A small pond near where Spark sat shimmered with the moon's light, casting silver cascading waves of light on the dark pegasi's form.
With a little sigh, she took a step forward into the grass, and gasped as the greenery actually shocked her. As she brought her eyes up towards Spark, she could see the entire small clearing had been marked with tiny electric lights, all connecting back to the big pegasus. Spark immediately turned around to stare at her, his reflective eyes casting an eerie glow. The unicorn nearly screamed; she had forgotten his predatory eyes that allowed him to see in the dark. The two stared at each other for a moment before Spark turned to face her and smiled invitingly.
Twilight took one more deep breath and closed her eyes. Come on, Twilight...you can do this. Just go and get it over with. Step two. She nodded to herself, then headed over to him with anxious eyes. Spark smiled a little wider at her, then mercifully looked away from her and up at the moon. Twilight took a seat beside him, tense and scared.
Several times, she tried to make conversation. Each time, she would get about halfway through the first syllable, then falter. Before she could start the fourth try, he turned to look at her. She clammed up, her ears tilting back in a worried gesture. His smile was disarming, however, his face patient and far older than he should look. "Twilight, relax. Don't force it, that's the fastest way to make things worse. It's not about being able to communicate. It's about being comfortable enough not to."
Twilight frowned thoughtfully. Comfortable enough not to communicate? It was times like these that she wish she'd really listened to the Princess encouraging her to make friends. She was still so socially awkward that she didn't get these kind of things. How would a pair of friends just be able to sit together and be comfortable in not communicating? Silence was so awkward, and the silence between herself and Spark Storm had lasted so long that she didn't see how more silence between them would help fix their friendship.
Twilight decided to give it a try, though. She closed her eyes and raised her head, taking in a deep breath. The air was so chill, she just noticed. Who's bright idea was it to camp out in Febuary again? Twilight felt herself blush with embarrassment as she realized it had, in fact, been her idea. To brave the wild cold, to explore and experience. Wasn't that what she was doing, though? She was learning something new, and she was learning with her friends. My friends, she thought. What do I call Spark Storm? Do I call him friend now? Did I ever stop calling him friend?
She sighed quietly. Still more questions for her to answer, but...this was actually kind of nice. No talking between them, just sitting, and enjoying the night air, even if it was nearly freezing. Twilight opened her eyes once more, and gasped when she felt something brushing against her face. She flinched and looked around, seeing Spark still sitting beside her, but...snowing?
Twilight and Spark both looked up into the recently clear sky to see four pegasi pushing clouds together as quickly as possible to cover the area, one of them giggling like a mad pony. Twilight could just barely make out the shapes, the clouds obscuring the light and making it impossible to see who they were. Spark, however, didn't seem to have any trouble identifying them. "Hah...they're really outdoing themselves."
Twilight looked at Spark in confusion. "What? Who are they?"
Spark gave Twilight a sideways grin, then turned his glance back up at the multiple pegasi pushing more clouds together. The snow fell a bit faster, a little harder, and it was getting colder, causing Twilight to shiver. "They're Defenders, and they're some of my closest friends." He was quiet for a moment as his eyes fell on one particular pegasus in the air. The two of them stared at each other for the longest time, neither of them breaking contact.
"...That's Sapphire, isn't it?" Twilight said, her voice barely above a whisper. Sensing the sadness in Twilight's voice, Spark nodded, and looked down at the ground, breaking the contact between himself and the white pegasus in the sky. When he glanced back up, the mare was gone.
"Yeah. That's her." If the silence between the two had been comfortable before, it was no longer an amiable atmosphere. Spark turned to Twilight, an unusually tired look in his eyes. "I think we've done a good job this weekend, Twilight. It's going to be a busy week for both of us. Winter Wrap-up is in three days, we should get some sleep."
Twilight nodded in agreement, though really she wanted to ask him more questions, talk a little longer. But it was late, and it was cold. She instead walked along with him in silence back towards camp, though she couldn't tell if this was the good silence or the awkward silence. She wasn't even sure if she'd made it to step two, but either way, there was a long ways to go still.