Lithe's eyes fluttered slightly at the morning light, wincing as the rising sun played havoc with the nerves in her head as they sent waves of displeasure towards the backs of her eyes. She made to pull a claw up to her face, but it was for nought as she realised that something-no, not something, but somepony-held her close. Casting a look down Lithe immediately caught flash of purple fur and feathers wrapped around her midriff. Bright blue coloured Lithe's cheeks as she took a smell of the air and recognised not just crisp, cool morning air, a unique lavender that accompanied Twilight, and something else that she knew she knew the name of but couldn't place her claw on it.
Summing up that she was unable to settle what exactly had happened the night prior Lithe figured that pulling herself out from Twilight was the most important current objective. Carefully manoeuvring her legs up, Lithe pulled them loose of Twilight's unconscious embrace. Next she softly slid her claws into the gap between Twilight's forelegs and pulled them loose. Once that was done Lithe made to stand up but froze and had to stifle a embarrassed yelp when Twilight's wings brushed her sides, tickling her.
Once loose, Lithe took two steps back before quickly finding out that she was perched on a cloud. That and her new standing position didn't agree with her throbbing temples. Choosing to listen to her head rather than her mind Lithe decided to lay back down and rest her head just over the edge of the cloud, watching idly as small colourful ponies shapes ran this way and that far beneath her. Laying there allowed Lithe to think over the current issues plaguing her mind.
First and foremost was why she had woken up in the hooves of Twilight Sparkle, a thought that quickly brought a blush to her face. She wasn't exactly sure what to make of that incident, but she also didn't necessarily feel it was a bad thing. In fact just thinking about it seemed somewhat welcoming, but she couldn't place a claw on why.
That led her to her second question.
Just what happened the night prior? She couldn't remember a thing after she and Twilight had had their water fight. Anything post waterfight was seemingly non existent. Finding this rather odd Lithe decided it was time to wake up Twilight. Moving over to the snoozing mare Lithe found her recent memory of waking up in Twilight's hooves drawn back to mind, causing her to blush again. Pushing the thought to the back of her head, Lithe leaned down and nudged Twilight a few times with her nose.
"Hey, Twilight, wake up, we're in the clouds."
The alicorn 'princess' let out an adorably un-princesslike snort as she shifted away from Lithe's prodding nose. Needing Twilight awake, Lithe nudged her a bit harder, rousing the alicorn from her sleep.
"Huh, wazat?"
In answer to Twilight's question Lithe repeated herself.
"We're in the clouds. I don't know why, can't remember why exactly, or anything after our waterfight."
In response Twilight groaned and clutched at her head, obviously suffering the same symptoms as Lithe.
"I hate hangovers..."
And obviously knew more about them than Lithe.
"Does, you're head hurt too?"
Nodding slightly Twilight grumbled under her breath before rising to her hooves.
"C'mere Lithe."
Not really nodding or anything Lithe walked over next to Twilight while the alicorn powered up her horn.
"This is why I don't drink, I can't handle it and then I wake up with massive hangovers....that and I'm running late today, and aren't you supposed to be working?"
Obviously grumpy Twilight let her spell enact with a flash.
In the span of seconds the headache dispersed from Lithe and Twilight and their memories of the night came back to them. Lithe promptly cocked her head to the side, blatantly confused by a memory in her head. Twilight on the other hoof had a red blush that could rival that of a sunburnt naked mole rat and a highly embarrassed look on her face.
The lavender alicorn's hoof rose to her lips as she looked up at Lithe.
"We kis-"
"Why did we try to eat each others faces?" questioned the draken-pony, "Seems like a silly thing to do, was it because of the drinks we had?"
Lithe's words completely derailed Twilight as her mind went from embarrassed and flattered to suddenly annoyed and somewhat angry. The alicorn sputtered helplessly for a moment before snapping at Lithe.
"Don't you have work?! You're going to be late!"
Realising that Twilight was right, and that she was probably already late, Lithe nodded and leapt from the cloud winging towards Sweet Apple Acres, confused as to why the alicorn was so angry.
Twilight watched Lithe go. As the draken-pony flew further and further Twilight's anger receded more and more until a watery eyed alicorn was all that was left. Lifting a hoof to her lips again, Twilight watched as the first of a more than a few tears fell from her cheek.
"I wanted it to be for somepony special..."
M\(>^<)/M
Lithe came to such a fast stop at the porch of Sweet Apple Acres she tripped over her hooves and went sprawling across the deck, coming to a stop at the porch of Granny Smith's rocking chair. It didn't help that she was feeling bad about Twilight. She was positive she'd done something wrong, especially after hearing her crying as she flew away, but didn't know what she had done.
"Easy there young'un, no reason ta be rushin' 'round everywhere, is there?" Granny Smith chuckled. She knew Lithe was a little late, but she also knew there had been a party for her last night. Kids'll be kids after all.
Lithe nodded and attempted to smile, but the nagging feeling that she'd done something wrong left her heart out of the act. It was something the wise old mare that was Granny Smith picked up on nearly immediately.
"Something wrong young'un?" asked Granny Smith with a calm smile. She knew the answer, the real question was getting Lithe to figure out how to fix it.
Lowering her head, Lithe scratched idly at the porch and shrugged.
"I..don't know, I think so...I think I made Twilight angry, or sad. Like I said, I don't know..."
Nodding understandingly Granny Smith led Lithe inside and sat her down in the den before heading into the kitchen. Upon her return she had a plate of apple and cheese slice and a pitcher of tea. Setting them down on a relatively new coffee table Granny Smith took her seat in her favourite rocking chair before smiling encouragingly.
"Why don't you jus' start from the beggining, and then we can work our way from there?"
M\(>^<)/M
Twilight sat rather miserably at her desk as she tried and failed to focus on anything important to her studies, but found the thoughts remained from her grasp. It had been two days since the morning after Lithe's party, and she'd felt terrible since. For the most part her past 48 hours had consisted of self pity parties and half angry outbursts at nothing. She didn't even have Spike to comfort her, as the little guy was off in Canterlot learning to control his flames better.
Lithe hadn't even come home the day prior, in her stead was Applebloom who'd been told by Granny Smith to tell Twilight that Lithe was staying the night there. If anything it had just made matters worse because it left Twilight with the haunting feeling that she might have ruined a friendship.
Groaning in annoyance the alicorn slammed her head against the book on her desk with a muffled 'whumpf' and laid there for countless minutes before suddenly hearing three knocks at the door. Twilight was halfway to the door to answer it when she saw a glance of herself in the mirror. Pausing for a moment, Twilight quickly rearranged her mane to look passable before answering the door.
As the door came open it first revealed a pair of flowers and a delicious smelling apple pie. After peeling her eyes from the first two item, that were honestly oddities for Twilight's standard she noticed the pony, or draken-pony as it were, holding the two item.
"Oh...hey Lithe."
Lithe squeaked as she was brought the the centre of attention. The draken-pony shifted uncomfortably as Twilight stared at her. The pair stood there, unmoving, staring back at the other, expecting the other to initiate the conversation.
Twilight finally caved.
"Are you going to say anything? Usually when a pony shows up at another pony's house they say why."
Blushing slightly Lithe scuffed her right wing tip on the ground nervously in lieu of her currently occupied right claw. With a awkward flick of her ears she shrugged.
"I'm sorry. With dragons if somedrake wishes to speak with another about something important they wait for the offended dragon to speak first...because it's polite...sorry."
Realising that Lithe was actually trying to be polite as possible Twilight backtracked quickly and invited Lithe in.
"Oh, no, nothing to be sorry for, I swear! Um, come on in I guess. What can I do for you?"
Stepping past the doorway and into the library Lithe quickly deposited the pie and the two flowers on the nearest end table and took a seat on the couch. She looked a lot braver than she was feeling. Lithe watched as Twilight took a seat on the opposite side of the room. Using Twilight's momentary pause to get comfortable as a chance to gather her nerves, Lithe began to speak.
"I...wanted to apologise...for..." she stopped for a moment to let her massive blush fade a bit, "The whole...kiss and...I...yeah..."
Twilight watched sympathetically as Lithe floundered with her apology. The current situation, as well as the earlier reminder that Lithe had no understanding of modern pony culture made Twilight realise that she may have blown the whole situation so far out of the water. That coupled with the fact that Lithe was now practically sobbing out an apology and feared losing her friendship. Moving forward Twilight shifted from her seat to the couch and put a hoof gently on Lithe's shoulder.
"Hey, you're fine. It...it wasn't that big a deal," soothed Twilight, "I wouldn't stop being friends with you just because we both did something silly. Come on, you don't need to cry."
Nodding and sniffling Lithe did her best to recompose herself as Twilight rubbed her back above her wings.
"Ye...yea, okay...I also bought a pie, I thought you might like a pie..."
Giving Lithe a warm smile Twilight lifted the still warm pie in her magic.
"So, why don't we enjoy the pie. Actually, why did you even bring a pie?"
A light chuckle escaped Twilight as she took a sniff of the apple treat.
Lithe slowly started to smile more and more as she followed Twilight into the kitchen and took a slice of pie to the table. As they ate the pie one scrumptious slice at a time something began to gnaw at Twilight. As they both finished devouring the pie Twilight realised what it was.
"That was amazing pie, but why the flowers?"
Scratching her chin Lithe shrugged with her wings.
"I'm not sure either. I told Granny Smith what the issue was and she told me to make you a pie, then to go get two nice looking flowers and bring all three to you. Do ponies like to eat flowers too?"
Doing her best not to facehoof too hard Twilight fought a steadily rising blush and not laugh at Lithe's naivety. Sighing, she began to wonder why she'd gotten so worked up over the situation from the party to begin with. Besides, what was there to get worked up over? A mare with no social understanding of ponies? Probably best to leave expectations at the door from now on when dealing with Lithe.
"Um, Twilight? Thank you...for still being my friend."
With that Lithe gave Twilight a quick but friendly nuzzle and walked out towards the main library room. Fighting her rising heartbeat and the heat steadily rising in her cheeks Twilight couldn't help but question herself.
'Nothing to get worked up over? Then why do I feel so happy to see her...and why does the kiss we shared bother me so little?'
As a quick image of her a Lithe kissing over apple pie flashed through her mind Twilight made the connection that she may have finally found somepony special.
And that they weren't full pony at all.