Twilight's eyes slowly opened to the bright light of the sun pouring in through her bedroom window. Turning slowly onto her back she exhaled, her eyes tracing pictures on the wooden ceiling as she recollected what exactly had happened recently. Slowly she started to see things in the ceiling as she remembered them.
A storm that she had foolishly tried to fix, a wave of magic that had shot across town, all of their pets changing forms because of her, and her friends reactions; some of them were happy, others were confused. And then there was Rarity.
She groaned quietly at the reminder of Rarity. Memories of the destroyed boutique appeared in her mind. She closed her eyes but the images still flashed across them. Winona's and Opal's fight, the aftermath of that and what remained of the store, the fact that it was all basically her fault. Rarity's dresses...
Twilight magically lifted her pillow out from under her head and pushed her face into it, groaning loudly. Why did relationships have to be so difficult? Why couldn't they all just get along? She sighed and finally sat up on her bed. At least nothing was happening in her house. She leaned her head back to breath in the new day.
And got a nose full of smoke.
Twilight coughed and sputtered. "S-smoke...? But-" she coughed again. "-why would there be...."
And then it came to her, all in one moment like a punch to the face. Smoke equals fire, fire is bad, fire burns wood, so fire is...
"The library!" Twilight cried out, realization slapping her in the face. "The library is on fire!"
Now fully awake, Twilight flung herself out of bed and dashed for the doors, multiple spells and rules about fire safety running through her mind.
"Not the books....Not the books..." She muttered as she telekinetically opened her door and found a thin cloud of smoke outside. Twilight took in a breath and charged through it and down the stairs, nothing in the main part of the library seemed to be on fire yet but she could see that it was coming from the kitchen.
"Spike?" the concerned unicorn shouted at the kitchen, nothing visible but the smoke. "Owlowiscious? Are you in there?"
There was no reply, though she could hear them shouting from inside. Smoke was still pouring out of the door and Twilight was freaking out. She had to do something!
"Don't worry! I'm coming!" She shouted and ran into the smoke, letting lose an extinguish spell and flooding the kitchen in a torrent of materialized water. Twilight briefly felt the feeling of weightlessness as she was enveloped in the water before it emptied out through the kitchen doorway. Twilight flopped onto the floor, her fur absolutely soaked.
"Owlowiscious! Spike!" Twilight's words were quickly reduced to a coughing fit from a mouthful of water. She couldn't see anything past her wet mane but she could tell that the smoke had been washed away. "Are you okay?"
"...Twi-" a voice was heard but it was also stopped by a coughing fit. It sounded like Owlowiscious. "You're...why..."
"Are you kidding?" another voice that Twilight credited to be Spike said. "She-" more coughing, "She obviously saw the smoke."
"But you told me she was sleeping!"
"It's Twilight. Something happens in her library and she's there."
After a moment of listening Twilight finally wiped the wet hair from her face to see what exactly was going on. Her kitchen was completely drenched in water now it dripped from the ceiling, and everything else, into large puddles on the floor. Water was also streaming into the main room behind them. Spike and Owlowiscious stood in front of her, both of them soaked to the bones, Owlowiscious's wings hung down at his hooves, weighed down by the flash flood of water while Spike's spines seemed to droop to one side. Amazingly, they were still arguing.
"I can't believe you don't know how to cook! I thought Owls were supposed to be smart."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm still getting used to the fact that I have hooves!"
"Guys!" Twilight called for attention. Both of them looked over at her, water dripping from everything at this point.
"What's going on here?" Twilight asked.
"Birdbrain over here wanted to make breakfast for us," Spike said, pointing an accusing finger at the Pegasus. "But it turns out that he doesn't even know how to make pancakes!"
"I followed the recipe!" Owlowiscious responded quickly. "I just didn't know when to turn off the oven..."
Spike shook his head. "You should have just let me do it."
Owlowiscious raised an eyebrow at that. "And what? You end up putting gems in the batter?"
"Gems are delicious!" Spike retorted. "And I wouldn't put them in there for Twilight."
"You're right," he agreed. "They probably wouldn't even reach the bowl before going to your stomach."
"Guys!" Twilight shouted again, stomping the floor and unwittingly bringing down more water on their heads. She shook the water from her mane, spraying the other two with even more water in the process. They flinched from the spray but kept their focus on the librarian.
"Now, how about we start cleaning this up, and then we'll go out for breakfast," she pushed some hair out of her face again, "Okay?"
They silently considered their options for a moment before Spike spoke again. "Can I bring Peewee?"
She nodded. "Of course, now go find the mops please."
A quick nod and the little Dragon ran out of the room to gather things and wake up the little Alicorn, leaving the two alone for the moment. Owlowiscious, the color from his face fading under his owner's gaze, looked away and set his mind on treating his soaked wings. Twilight, on the other hoof, had other ideas.
"You were cooking?"
He didn't reply.
"You don't know how to cook?"
"I'm an Owl!" He stated in exasperation. Clearly he had explained this before. "It's not every day that I have to do things like this."
"But you've never had to do this." she noted, "So why are you doing it now?"
He shook his head in embarrassment. "Well... I'm a pony now, and I can do things that I couldn't before." He glanced back at the stove, steam still rose from the inside. "I kind of want to pull my own weight around here, which is hard when I apparently don't know how to make a simple breakfast." he sighed, "I guess I'm not as smart as I thought."
Twilight nodded slowly, magically opening a cupboard and pulling out a few towels. She tossed a few to Owlowiscious. "I wouldn't say that, like you said, you're not used to all of this. It has been only a few days."
He caught the towel and began the slow, almost painful, process of drying off one's wings. "I suppose."
"I mean it. At first I thought that something bad would happen, but it turns out that what happened turned out to be pretty fun."
"Yeah, aside from a few problems."
Twilight instantly knew what he was talking about and hung her head. "Yeah... problems..."
"It's not your fault Twilight." Owlowiscious stated, attempting to cheer her up. "Opal and Rarity's relationship is just different from the others, including ours."
"I know. I just wish..." Twilight searched for the right words, "I just wish that they'd sort out their differences. Didn't it seem like they really hated each other yesterday?"
"It's a problem that they'll have to work on themselves." the pegasus continued to dry with the towel. "I'm sure that they're talking about it right now."
"Yeah..." Twilight looked around the soaked kitchen, a new smile appearing on her face. "Good thing the only problem you seem to have is that you can't cook, or the town would be destroyed by now."
"Hey!" Owlowiscious clutched himself in mock pain. He pointed a hoof at the lavender unicorn's face. "I know for a fact that you don't know how to cook either!"
The two continued to banter back and forth aimlessly until Spike came back with the mops and buckets and they got to work.
***
It was difficult for Opal to really describe how she was feeling, even to herself. The amount of emotions she had felt after she had heard what Rarity said... it had been a storm inside her. First the anger, blinding rage at her owner for what she had said seemingly behind her back. Then the despair, a cold, dreadful feeling that clawed at Opal from this inside. And finally came the thinking time that followed all that. It had kept her up for a better part of the night; she only fell asleep long enough to not notice that she had been moved from the boutique.
Which was why Opal found herself in somepony's bed. The designs on the sheets, hoof sewn at that, told her quickly that she was in the house of Rarity's parents, or more specifically she was in the guest bedroom. She laid there under the sheets, tiredly looking down at her hooves, which were covered in small bandages. The rest of her body also had quite a few band aids on it.
"...So this is it, huh?" The words came out quietly. "This is the product of my troubles?"
Her answer didn't come. Instead the wooden door to the room creaked open and a horned head poked through, the face briefly obscured by long, purple curls. The mane was pushed away and Rarity stepped lightly into the room, a small tray of tea levitated into the room after her.
"Oh, you're awake." Rarity stated matter-of-factly as she crossed the room towards the bed. She didn't seem to have much emotion in her voice for the moment. "I thought that you'd still be sleeping."
Opal shifted uncomfortably under her owner's soft gaze. "I'm not that tired."
The tray was set down on a dresser, a cup filled and levitated up by Rarity. Held up in a magical grip it floated towards Opal, moving slowly as to not spill a drop. Opal eyes fell to the cup and she began to focus. Slowly, her horn shone the dark purple color that symbolized her magic and her magic slowly enveloped the cup, expelling Rarity's own magic. The cup shook in Opal's untrained grasp but she could keep it fairly steady.
Rarity looked on in surprise and mild shock. "Oh my, you couldn't do that before."
"I've had a lot of time to think." Pushing herself into a sitting position Opal pulled the cup over, sipping the hot tea slowly. She hadn't had anything to drink since noon yesterday. "Well, as much time as a nighttime can permit."
"You've been up all night?"
Opal shook her head, taking another sip. She could feel her owner's anxiousness, it was one of those things cats could do. "I woke up here in bed." she lied, "I'm... not really used to sleeping like this, under the covers and all that, so I spent some time focusing my magic."
"Hmm..." Rarity watched, not sure if she should be proud or angry. "How are you feeling?"
Opal glanced down at her bandaged wounds. She could still feel a spot on her face where a piece of glass had left a small scar on her left cheek and her bruises were still sore from the beating that Winona had inflicted on her. "Alright I suppose. That dog could have done worse I suppose."
"Winona came out of that scrape just as bad as you did. And on top of everything, you decimated the shop!"
Rarity's voice grew quiet and she turned away. For a second, Opal swore that she could see the mixture of bitterness and disappointment in her owner's eyes.
"I'm ashamed of you Opal." she stated, "How you've acted since this started. I thought you'd be..." She sighed and looked back at Opal. "It doesn't matter. Princess Celestia will be here tonight so everything will go back to normal, and...." She didn't continue. Things would not be normal after this.
Rarity's horn glowed again and the bed sheets came up and covered Opal again. "You are to stay in bed so you can heal. I'll be at the boutique cleaning up what I can and I'll check up on you later, okay?"
The bandaged unicorn didn't say anything. She simple nodded in reply, which seemed to be good enough for Rarity as she quickly retreated out of the room. Opal silently watched the door before her eyes drifted down at the cup floating in her grasp. It shook with each breath she took.
"Lay here all day?" she whispered to the tiny reflection in the cup, "For once, not likely."
The cup was set back down onto the tray and the sheets cast aside. Ever so slowly, Opal rose from the bed, her sore limbs screaming in protest to the endeavor. Still, she eventually got up fully and stepped across the room to one of the house's many closets. Flinging it open, she rumaged around inside, tossing aside socks and sweaters until she found what she had been looking for; a large overcoat, perfect for traveling around incognito and hiding most of your bandages. After a moment of quick learning, Opal managed to slide the overcoat on, sucking in a breath as the coat slid over some of the more tender bruises.
She couldn't just lay here in bed all day, though she might have wanted to before. There were simply too many thoughts going through her head to let her rest. Besides, cats always needed to get some air every once in a while. She stealthily moved towards the door, glancing out to see if anypony was there. When she was sure that there wasn't, Opal quietly made her escape from the house, slowly coming to realize the feeling she had felt earlier.
Shame.