“Did ya get all that?”
Spike turned away from sweeping up a pile of dust and raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. “Yeah?”
“Great! You write the letter, I gotta finish this book!” In a multicolor blur, the pegasus was gone, leaving Twilight and Spike to share an amused smile.
Spike resumed dusting, chuckling to himself. “That pony is crazy.”
The unicorn giggled, hiding her mouth behind a hoof. “She’s excited to read, Spike! And I’m excited for her. Oh, I can’t wait for her to finish! I’ve wanted to talk to somepony about Daring Do for ages.”
“Yeah, well you’re crazy, too.” She directed a glare at the back of the dragon’s scaly head, before turning her attention to the library shelves.
Even though it was the middle of the night, Twilight’s mind was filled with fond memories of the adventurous heroine. “I think I’ll re-read one of the…later…ones…” Her eyes came to rest on the empty shelf that used to contain the entirety of her favorite series. “Did, uh, did you see Rainbow Dash take all of them?”
Full dustbin in claw, the little dragon waddled up to Twilight. “What?” He scanned the shelf. “Huh. That’s amazing. Rainbow Dash sure is fast.” The unicorn’s grimace of annoyance lasted only a moment before she was struck by a laughing fit. Spike regarded the mare flatly. “You okay, Twilight? Maybe you should lie down; it is the middle of the night.”
Sticking her tongue out at her number one assistant, Twilight headed towards the loft. “So Rainbow’s really excited to read. It’s nice. Maybe the two of us could bond over it. I’m sure I can get a friendship report to the princess out of that.” She got to her bed and pulled back the sheets in a glow of magenta magic. “You should go back to sleep, too, Spike.”
He waved a claw dismissively as he headed downstairs with the loaded dust bin. “Sure, sure. Don’t wait up for me.”
Twilight climbed into bed and smiled. Out of all of her friends, Rainbow Dash was the one she had seen the least of; the daredevil always had her head literally in the clouds, doing her job or practicing stunts. Despite the lack of contact, she greatly admired and respected the brave and brash mare. It would certainly be nice to see the quieter side of her friend and talk about books with somepony who was excited about reading.
Grinning to herself, Twilight settled down on her pillow and drifted back to sleep.
A contented sigh escaped Rainbow Dash’s lips as she flopped back on her bed. She immediately grabbed the next book in the series with her teeth and cracked it open. “Daring Do and the Griffin’s Goblet,” she read aloud. The pegasus grinned and hugged the book to her chest, kicking her hindlegs with excitement. “Awesome!” she squeaked. Turning to the first page, she felt her eyelids droop and try as she might to focus, the words in front of her began to blur.
“Dang it,” she grumbled, tossing the hardback down on top of the mighty stack of ‘borrowed’ Daring Do books, “I wanna read—” a long, strained yawn interrupted her monologue, “—All of ‘em right now…” As she collapsed onto her bed with a huff, the blue mare fell into contemplation, her voice lowering to a mutter. “I have been awake for two days readin’ the Sapphire Statue…” she yawned again. “Man, who’da thought reading could be so awesome?”
Clicking off the light and settling down under the covers of her rainbow-emblazoned cloud bed, Rainbow Dash let her heavy eyes slide shut. As her mind started to drift, she realized she had an answer to her rhetorical question. Twilight thought reading was awesome. A gentle smile pulled at the corner of the pegasus’ mouth. Twilight had given her the book and had been absolutely right to do it. ’Twilight’s been pretty great the last couple days, hasn’t she?’ Rainbow mused, ’What’d she say? ‘Just because you’re athletic doesn’t mean you aren’t smart’? And yesterday she said I was like Daring…’adventurous, fierce, and undeniably, unquestionably, unstoppable.’’ The smile deepened as she felt herself flush with pride. She had waved Twilight away with a hoof, but the unicorn had meant it. And after reading the book, it felt like an even bigger compliment.
“Twilight sure is a good friend,” she mumbled into her darkened bedroom. “I’ll go thank her for real in the morning.” Yawning again, Rainbow Dash rolled onto her side and was soon filling her cloud home with the steady rumble of her snores.
Twilight woke up to the sounds of chirping birds outside her windows. Stretching out her back, she hopped off her bed and cantered to the bathroom, intent on getting her morning routine underway. As she brushed her teeth and combed her mane, she replayed the events of the previous night through her head. She grinned around the brush in her mouth; if Rainbow Dash had taken the entire stack of Daring Do novels, nopony would see hide nor mane of the daredevil for quite a while.
She was pulled from her reverie by a knock on the door downstairs. “Spike!” she called, “Can you get that?” After a few moments of silence broken only by continued knocking, Twilight huffed and spat the toothpaste out of her mouth and into the sink. She trotted quickly down the stairs and opened the front door in a haze of magic. “Oh. Hello Rainbow Dash.”
“Mornin’ Twilight.” The blue mare’s voice was upbeat to match her bouncing canter as she entered the library. “I wanted to come by and thank you again.”
The unicorn smiled and raised an eyebrow. “You’re welcome, but this is a library; anypony can check out a book.” She swiveled her head as she spoke, trying to locate a certain too-lazy-to-answer-the-door dragon. “Or several books, as the case may be.” A sigh of exasperation escaped her lips when she looked into the kitchen. Spike was splayed out under the table, surrounded by several empty bags of gem-chip cookies, his round belly looking distended and the labored effort of breathing straining his gentle snores. She trotted in and peered under the table, prodding him with a hoof.
“Huh-what?” Bleary green eyes regarded violet. His purple and green face was covered in crumbs.
“Don’t wait up, huh?” Twilight deadpanned. She was answered by sheepish chuckles. Spike clutched his stomach and groaned. “Go on. Better try to sleep that off. In your basket this time.” Getting unsteadily to his feet, the dragon hobbled towards the stairs.
Cantering towards the kitchen, Rainbow Dash waved at him. “Hey Spike. You send my letter?” He groaned again. Chuckling, the pegasus entered the kitchen as Twilight levitated the torn open cookie bags and a generous helping of crumbs into a garbage can. “So, uh, I didn’t want to thank you for lending me the books, Twilight. I mean, thanks for that, but that’s not why I came over.”
“Oh?” The unicorn’s question was punctuated by a gurgle from her stomach. “Erm. Care for some breakfast?”
“Yeah, sure.” Sitting at the table, she watched Twilight levitate a few bowls and spoons from the cupboard along with a box of oat cereal over to the wood surface. The purple mare grabbed a bottle of milk from the fridge and sat opposite her friend. Cereal and milk poured into their bowls, Twilight levitated a mouthful to her face. “So what I wanted to thank you for was everything else. For giving me that book in the first place. And for what you said to me.”
Twilight halted the spoon halfway to her mouth. “You’re welcome, but, uh, what did I say to you?”
Foregoing the offered spoon, Rainbow tipped the bowl back and guzzled down half her breakfast, sighing in satisfaction and wiping her face on a hoof. “You said I was smart.” She tipped the bowl back again.
Trying her best to focus on her own food instead of her friend’s barbaric eating habits, Twilight said, “Well, you’re welcome, but of course you’re smart, Rainbow. Being smart isn’t all about reading, or memorizing things. You’re quick-witted, you can think well under pressure, and you’re good at managing several things at once. Leading the weather team takes a lot of coordination and planning, and from some of the stunts I’ve seen you do I know you have a strong understanding of flight mechanics and physics. You might not know all the math, but you understand the concepts underneath the math, which is more than can be said for a lot of ponies in academia.”
Rainbow Dash beamed with gratification at Twilight’s compliments, a strong urge to boastfully accept the words as obvious fact working its way into her system. A lingering sense of melancholy stopped her. “…Nopony’s ever said I was smart before, without tryin’ to make fun of me.”
The unicorn frowned, setting her spoon back in the bowl of cereal. “What do you mean? Why would somepony make fun of you?”
The pegasus sighed, pushing away her empty bowl. “You remember those two stallions at the Best Young Flyer competition, right?” At Twilight’s nod, she continued. “When I was a filly I got made fun of a lot, by them an’ other foals at school. They called me ‘Rainbow Crash’ ‘cause of how often I’d crash into things when practicing, but that was only part of it. I got called ‘Egghead’ a lot, since I got good marks on all the written tests.” She winced as she said it, her mind making a quick association. She looked up at Twilight, her eyes bright with sudden concern. “You know when I call you an Egghead, I don’t mean it as a bad thing, right? You’re really smart and you like studying. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just not really me, y’know?”
“I guess so, Rainbow.” She took the last few bites of her cereal. “It’d be like somepony calling me a jock I guess. But I think I’d just look at them like they’d lost their mind instead of being insulted.”
“Yeah…” Rainbow frowned, her head and ears drooping. “I guess it just got wrapped up in all the other names. When they’re all meant to be insults, it’s hard to notice if one of ‘em is silly.”
The unicorn nodded, but her frown deepened. “Was there more than just ‘Rainbow Crash’ and ‘Egghead’?”
The blue mare began fidgeting, tracing her forehooves over the knotted swirls and lines of grain running through the surface of the wooden table. “…Well, there were other names they used in order to call me clumsy and small. ‘Sprainbow’. ‘Halfpint’. That sorta stuff. And some others for doing well on tests like ‘teacher’s pet.’ They also…erm…” She fell quiet, watching her hooves. Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash’s wings twitch slightly against her sides.
Growing concerned for the mare’s comfort level, the unicorn injected a soft kindness into her voice. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.”
“No…No, it’s okay.” She looked up from the table at her friend. She reminded herself of how supportive Twilight had been and put some strength back into her voice. “They, uh, they called me a fillyfooler a lot, too.”
Twilight blinked. “Really?” Her brows knit. “Why? And how is that an insult?”
It was Rainbow’s turn to be confused. She scratched the top of her head with a hoof. “Foals call tom-colts fillyfoolers all the time, Twilight. They call colts that like girly things coltcuddlers, too. At least, they did when I was a filly. Come to think of it, I haven’t really heard it around here in Ponyville. Huh. Maybe it’s a pegasus thing?”
Twilight shrugged. “I didn’t ever hear that in Canterlot. Why would it be an insult to be gay?”
Rainbow shifted in her seat, somewhat bewildered by the direction the conversation had veered off in. “Well, I guess the idea was gay colts are supposed to act more like mares and gay mares more like colts. It doesn’t make a lotta sense to me, either.”
“So why’d it bother you?”
The pegasus’ mouth opened, but nothing came out. Her brow knit and she sat back in her chair, eyes growing distant and introspective. Twilight watched the mare and got the impression she was battling with something. Eventually, Rainbow Dash looked back up at her, a sense of resolution hardening her eyes. “I guess ‘cause it was kinda true. I figured out pretty young that I liked mares and stallions and everypony acted like that sort of thing was really weird and wrong. I guess the fact that they were right about one thing made everything else sting that much more.”
Twilight nodded slowly, her face still drawn with concern. “That’s all sounds so awful....it’s terrible you had such a rough time as a filly, Rainbow. I know what it’s like to be picked on, though. I can relate to the whole ‘teacher’s pet’ thing,” the blue mare grinned despite herself; the personal student of Princess Celestia was probably the schoolyard bully’s holy grail, “And I got called ‘brainy,’ and ‘know-it-all,’ but I just thought it was jealousy. I tried to ignore it and keep to myself.” She frowned sadly, looking down at the table. “Of course, it’s probably why I didn’t really have any friends before I met you girls.”
The pegasus nodded. “Sounds like you know exactly what it’s like.” A small smile graced her features. “Thanks again, Twilight. For being such a good friend and listening to me. And, uh, for not making a big deal about my sexuality. I haven’t told a lot of ponies…”
Twilight smirked. “Well, even if I was raised somewhere like Cloudsdale, it would be hypocritical of me to make a big deal out of it; I’m not interested in stallions at all.”
After a moment of silence, Rainbow began snickering. “And here I was worried you’d think I was a pervert or somethin’.” Twilight joined her friend’s laughter. Standing from the table, the blue pony grabbed both bowls and set them on her back, cantering over to the sink. “Well thanks a lot, Twilight. You’ve really been there for me the last couple days. I’ll try to remember that I can trust you with this sorta stuff and not get it thrown back in my face.” As Twilight stood from the table, she was caught in a hug. “You’re pretty awesome, Egghead.”
The unicorn smiled and returned the hug. “You’re awesome, too.”
Rainbow puffed out her chest and headed back into the library with a bounce in her step. “Of course I am! Now if you’ll excuse me, the Griffin’s Goblet has been callin’ me all morning. Later, Twi’!” The mare opened the door, glancing over her shoulder at her lavender friend. For a brief moment they stood frozen in place. Neither noticed that the other was giving them an appraising look. Then, in a streak of color, Rainbow Dash was gone.
Twilight headed back to the sink and began to rinse the two bowls, smiling broadly to herself. Her hopes of bonding with Rainbow had come true much faster than she had expected, whether it was over books or not, and she was thrilled at the prospect of deepening her friendship even further.
A small sigh escaped her lips as she set the bowls in the strainer to dry. It was pleasing that Rainbow had confided in her about her sexuality, but it was a shame she’d probably never be interested in a pony like Twilight. That mare was awfully pretty.