They left the cover of the trees just in time to catch the last rays of the sun. Beyond them lay an expanse of open tundra plains. The only breaks in their line of sight were small foothills and the occasional massive tree that had stood the test of time and had clearly not changed with it.
Twilight Sparkle cast her eyes to the skies looking for any sign of an incoming storm. They were blessedly clear.
Twilight let out a sigh of relief and began trotting out into the fields that would dominate their journey for the next few days. She had originally wanted to avoid the plains due to their previous experiences with the weather and the complete lack of cover among the small hills. But with their delay in the forest they'd had no choice and had to make up for lost time by taking a smoother route.
Rainbow Dash didn't know what to do. She knew she had to say something but just didn't know what.
Rainbow Dash trotted up next to her friend. Twilight caught the faintest of giggles carried to her on the winds but she paid them no attention.
"Sooo..."
Rainbow Dash's wings had finally gone down and Twilight detected a hint of uncertainty in Rainbow Dash's step.
It's probably nothing.
"Yes, Rainbow Dash?"
"About earlier... I..."
"I forgive you."
Rainbow Dash let out a sigh of relief then sucked it in and turned, exasperated."
"Wait, what?!"
"I said I forgive you. You were clearly experiencing the powerful effects of the Viola's Vim and I was just so glad to have you back I didn't mind."
In Rainbow Dash's mind a fierce battle of wills was taking place.
See! I knew she wouldn't understand! Aagh Twilight you are so dense!
No. No this is my fault. I've got to fix this. BODY! Tell her you'd do anything for her! Tell her seeing her in pain makes you hurt more than anything else! Tell her she is your sky and wind! Anything!
"Yeah... chemically induced right?"
Twilight laughed and nodded.
"Yep, the regular dosage is a teaspoon! I noticed you didn't umm, calm down, for a while."
"Yeah..."
Rainbow Dash sighed and flew up into the sky to get some air.
Sometime later they found a hill with a old but sturdy tree whose branches were bare and dry. Twilight picked this particular tree just for that reason as she could see the night sky perfectly.
They set up their camp and relaxed another iota. The skies had remained clear throughout the entire day and from their vantage point the black clouds over the mountains far to the north seemed smaller. Whether this was actually because of their position below them or another influence was not for them to know.
Pinkie Pie unrolled her bed roll next to the others and thought about stuff. Not that she didn't think about things all the time but now she cast her mind's reel into what this journey was doing to her friends.
Before, when they'd fought Nightmare Moon, things had been different. Nightmare Moon understood that she needed to break up the friendship that was forming between her and her friends and had gone after them in new and unique ways.
Even Discord had realized that together they were unstoppable and had almost succeeded in driving them apart. She snorted at the thought of her coat and mane becoming grey but suppressed the memories that went along with it.
This Darkness thing didn't seem to get it. Like it didn't understand friendship. It went after them all and only seemed to be driving them closer together. Pinkie Pie looked over at Rainbow Dash and Twilight sitting next to each other and talking. She smiled.
I knew it.
She pulled out an antique black record player and put on some quiet vinyl.
Twilight laughed at Rainbow Dash who had just finished her story about how she'd flown right through a bakery during a race in Cloudsdale.
"Stop! No more!"
"-and I finished the race with two dozen donuts, a cake complete with green frosting and a few cupcakes all plastered to my body. I placed first too thank you very much."
Rainbow Dash never gave up. Once she had a thought in her mind, it was nigh impossible to change.
Just keep being awesome and you'll be fine.
Twilight was enjoying her conversation with Rainbow Dash. She cared a lot for the cyan mare and was glad things didn't have to be awkward between them. The way she was looking at her, however, was starting to attract her suspicions.
Does she like me like that? No, not Rainbow Dash. She couldn't be interested in somepony like me. I'm a bookworm, totally not awesome at all.
Twilight then thought back to the look in Rainbow Dash's eyes back on the cliff. She remembered seeing a spark of something but was too busy fighting for her life to have dwelt on it before. She then remembered how she had felt just that morning when she had seen the hurt in her eyes and had wanted nothing more than to make it go away. What happened after had been like a dream but she'd brushed it off as just something the Vim had done. She had to know.
"So about earlier."
Some of the colour drained from Rainbow Dash's face.
"Yeah?"
"What happened. Um, you didn't mean it... did you?"
Rainbow Dash's mind fused and she stared into the purple eyes gleaming in the starlight from the night's sky.
"I... I um... oh, buck it all."
Rainbow Dash went in for the kiss and Twilight's eyes went as wide as saucers. Pinkie Pie, who had been watching the whole time discreetly flipped the record to the song 'Wonderful Tonight' and winked at the others who were all nodding and smiling at each other.
Twilight resisted for only a moment before her eyes rolled back and she let herself go.
Luna was tempted to wake her big sister up for the display she'd put on for the world. She'd never felt better, like it was twelve hundred years ago and she didn't have a care in the world. It reflected in her work as Equestria was graced with the night sky she brought on.
She had a momentary doubt whether anypony was seeing and enjoying her work when she calmed herself down and remembered what she'd read.
Celestia had been busy in Luna's thousand year absence and had made many night time celebrations like these 'dub-step' concerts she kept hearing about and a host of other such celebrations that only worked at night.
Her big sister cared for her dearly. She cared for all her subjects in much of the same way and Luna laughed. She was the only one to see the Princess of the Day sprawled out on bed, snoring up a storm.
Celestia shifted in her sleep and then went back to her dreams.
Luna walked inside from the balcony and quietly shut the door. It squeaked and she tensed.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
*SNORE!*
She fought a losing battle to contain her laughter and rushed as quietly as she could to the door leading out to the hall. She pulled it open and closed it behind her, and then proceeded to laugh out loud for a tear inducing minute before finally regaining her composure.
"Ma'am?"
Luna straightened up and rounded on a small grey coated unicorn who had been waiting for her Princess to return.
"Scribbles. Sorry, I did not see you there. What are you still doing up? I dismissed you when I went to raise the moon."
Scribbles tone was frightened but firm.
"I always stay up late to see your work ma'am."
Luna frowned.
"Then when do you get any sleep?"
Scribbles' eyes stared blankly ahead for a few seconds before she woke up again.
"Sorry ma'am, what did you say?"
Scribbles was the stenographer of the palace and personal attendant of both of the Princesses. Her job included taking notes at all hours of the day and night for her Princesses. What Luna only now remembered was that she was also a narcoleptic.
"Nothing Scribbles. Walk with me if you're going to stay up this late."
Scribbles smiled and walked along side her Princess, then trotted to keep up with Luna's longer legs.
They went to Luna's room. Luna entered and casually sat down on a cushion. She turned to see Scribbles standing uncertain at the door.
"Is something wrong?"
"Well, ma'am... I can't see. It's kind of dark."
"Sorry Scribbles. I have perfect night vision and didn't notice."
She lit some the candles and lamps in the room. Scribbles stood unmoving on the spot before shaking her head and entering the room.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Scribbles, I've known you for two years now and you've known my sister for much longer. You can call me Luna just like you call my sister Celestia."
Scribbles smiled shyly.
"Thank you, Luna."
Luna opened the balcony doors and let the night in. Her room was situated perfectly and had the best view. Scribbles ran over to the railing and her eyes lit up with a million tiny lights.
"Wow..."
She was awestruck. She'd seen beautiful nights before but to her, something had changed. She felt afraid at the magnitude of the clear night's sky as her eyes tried to see all the tiny pinpricks of light Luna had painted the sky with.
"It's so beautiful."
Luna concealed her feelings of accomplishment and her sense of ultimate victory. She had made someone's night and they weren't afraid to tell her so. She silently cheered in her head.
"You don't know how much that means to me to hear you say that, Scribbles... Scribbles?"
*snore*
Luna's smiled narrowed but didn't go away entirely. She got up and carried the now totally asleep unicorn to her chambers. She then took a stroll out into the gardens which looked very different in the night's billion stars. The bushes were painted in the silver light of the moon and looked fake they were so well taken care of. Luna had half a thought to go somewhere a little less controlled but thought better of it.
It was empty save for the statues that populated one section and otherwise very still. Luna walked among the flowers her sister had planted for her that only bloomed in the moon's light. She took them in with her senses and closed her eyes in bliss.
She sat down on a bench and thought of what her plans were for the rest of the night. Her sister had said she should try the night life around Canterlot but Luna had politely declined. She was still the withdrawn type and liked her books more than she would ever admit.
"What to do, what to do."
She thought about going back to the library and spending the night reading and studying but somehow it didn't appeal to her this night. She didn't know what it was but she didn't want to be coped up in her room again. She got up and walked around the garden aimlessly.
She was getting frustrated. Sure things had improved over the time she'd been away and ponies didn't completely fear her anymore but they still slept through her masterpieces every night. She came back to the bench she had sat on and a note lay on the spot where she had sat down. It edges black and charred.
Listen to the wind Luna.
L
She stopped and tilted her head up, holding up a hoof to her ear.
"But there's no wind tonight. Lucien, what are you talking about?"
A dull throbbing filled her ears and she rolled her eyes and stared back at the note. She looked at it for hidden messages or other writing but found nothing
She gave up and folded the note up. She made to go inside when a breeze rolled towards her from the city below. She heard the same dull throbbing but this time it sounded much less like her own heart beat and more like a musical beat.
She walked to the edge of the garden and looked down to see spotlights casting their beams across her night's sky Even from this distance she could see a crown gathered around a large stage.
She smiled and rolled her eyes.
Fine. You win. I'm going out.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat next to each other on the soft grasses next to the dying embers of the fire Applejack had made them.
Twilight reflected on the night. She and Rainbow Dash had kissed each other. Not just a chemically induced accident but actually kissed. And she'd liked it. She wasn't sure what to think of herself. Twilight wondered what her friends would think of them in the morning and she shivered in the cooling night air.
Rainbow Dash wrapped a hoof around Twilight's shoulder and pulled her close. She herself was at a loss for words. She had done the unthinkable. What would Twilight think of her? Was she too impulsive? These questions kept her tongue frozen and mouth shut.
"Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash looked into her friends eyes.
"I just want to know... I feel strongly for you..."
Rainbow Dash could see the 'but' coming a mile away but couldn't do anything about it. She drew a laboured breath and prepared for the worst.
"But I think we should wait."
Wait... that doesn't mean no...
Rainbow Dash's heart nearly leapt into her throat.
"So... you... like me?"
Twilight leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
"Yes dummy! What gave it away? Listen though, calm down. I think we should wait, until after we save the world before we do anything else. Is that fair? I just don't want to rush into something like this. I want to do it right."
Rainbow Dash's ears drooped and she nodded, understanding.
I messed up. I knew I was going to fast! Why do I always do that? I just screw things u-
Twilight cleared her mind for her and whispered, "Goodnight, Rainbow Dash," and Rainbow Dash went to sleep easily that night beside her now more then friend.