Lithe trotted happily through the market with a basket with two Apple family made apple pies, one loaf of bread, two fish, a dozen eggs and one Pinkie Pie brand box of muffins. As she made her way down the path she made sure she returned any and all smiles or waves sent her way. After all, all these new friends were precious to her, and she wanted to make sure she didn't upset any of them.
Turning the corner, Lithe waved hello to Lyra as she played on the corner, being sure to drop a few bits in the lyre case in front of the mint green unicorn. Turning from the lyre inclined mare, Lithe made to leave but quickly spotted somepony else she knew well.
"Granny, goodmorning!"
Granny Smith turned to face Lithe, giving her a light hug as the draken-pony returned a friendly hug.
"Morning young'un, aren't you s'pose'ta be out in the orchard helpin' my grandfoals?" chuckled Granny Smith with a mock severity she usually saved for her family."
Smiling Lithe nodded to her groceries.
"Just taking them home, I'll be out as soon as possible, I promise!"
Laughing, Granny Smith shook her head as she watched the mare disappear off towards Twilight's house. The old mare couldn't help but see a mature young foal, ready to work hard and make a name for themselves, a young mare, ambitious and eager to please, and a young filly, needing guidance in a strange and confusing world. Thinking about her grandfoals and Lithe in such a way almost brought a tear to Granny Smith's eye as a wave of nostalgia washed over her.
'All four of 'em are gonna go far, yes indeed they are.'
M\(>^<)/M
*Swish**CRACK*
Lithe grinned as each apple fell expertly into the baskets placed beneath them. Due to her attention span problems Applebloom was the one moving the baskets to the cart due to Lithe's occasional attention issues. That being said, when her task was as simple as go from tree a to tree b to tree c, she was a pro. As the draken-pony darted amongst the apple trees she failed to notice Applejack and Big Mac heading her way.
"Ah'm tellin' ya Mac, they have it. It's just Twi is Twi and Lithe is Lithe!"
"Uh uh, not havin' it unless there's proof. Not fair that way."
"Fine, watch!" Applejack snapped back.
*Swish**CRACK*
"Hey Lithe."
*Swish**CRACK*
"You're doin' real good."
*Swish**CRACK*
"Me'n'mah brother are probably gonna get to work soon."
*Swish**CRACK*
"Applebloom'll just stay with you."
*Swish*
"How's Twi, Lithe?"
*Whumpf*
Lithe looked up nervously from her spot on the ground. Her hindlegs had missed the tree by a longshot.
"Oh, er, still great friends!"
"Mhmm," smirked the farmpony, "Real good friends, you've known each other for two weeks now, you two looking at starting up on your peace negotiations yet?"
Shuffling nervously Lithe didn't really meet Applejack's eye.
"Um, books, and we may get distracted with games and stuff..."
Turning to her brother Applejack whispered her victory to her brother, who in return gave an approving glance.
"Alright, well we got our bit o' the orchard done, and you look like you just need to get these apples in the barn, so how 'bout we help out and you come in for lunch?"
Jumping at the chance for a topic change Lithe sprang to her claws and delivered one final buck to the tree. Once the apples had dropped the four ponies gathered them up and delivered them to the barn. Once that task was finished they went on inside for their lunch.
M\(>^<)/M
Twilight sighed as she continued to struggle with her internal debate. There was a large part of her that recognised the steadily growing crush she had developed for Lithe. Even still, she refused to act upon it. After all, such as was the cruel hoof fate had given her, in less than one hundred years, whom would she have left? And if her crush developed into a full blown relationship? She wasn't sure she knew how to handle that...
But she knew three ponies who might...
Dear Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence,
M\(>^<)/M
With Applebloom in out playing with her two friends, the other three Apples seized the chance to try to help their new, and hopeless, friend as well as their other older, and equally hopeless, friend.
"So young'un," started Granny Smith as she slid a glass of cider over to Lithe, "Any plans in the next coup'la days?"
Shaking her head Lithe explained how she had no plans other than working and staying at the library. It was pretty much true. Sure, there was the matter of making a peace treaty with Equestria, but while her father had laid out the directive, he'd also explicitly stated that the peace treaty mattered less than her safety and well being, and that he wished for her to garner friends before attempting peace.
Applejack couldn't help but scratch her head at that.
"Ah don' get it. Why isn't peace considered important?"
"That's simple. Daddy is High Drake King over all dragons. They wouldn't dare openly defy him unless they were challenging for his role as king, and that hasn't happened in years. A signed peace treaty would only have any real use should daddy be displaced from the throne." explained Lithe simply, as if it was everyday news.
And for the first time since Lithe had met him, Big Macintosh formed a whole sentence.
"Should he be displaced?! How in the hoof is that not a big deal?!"
In response to the stallions shock, Lithe shrugged.
"Daddy's been in charge for the past one thousand one hundred years, I'm not too worried about it."
All ponies present let out a low whistle before Applejack suddenly got a serious look on her face.
"A'right, Ah've put this off long enough! Lithe, you like Twilight, dont'cha?"
"Well duh," scoffed the partially oblivious draken-pony, "Everypony likes Twilight!"
"Well, what Ah meant was, you see Twilight like, all romantically-ish and such, right?" Applejack amended.
At this Lithe froze. Sure, she had entertained the idea before, but Twilight was a Princess! She couldn't just up and tll a Princess she was interested in her as a life-mate! In fact, Lithe figured it would be best to explain that...all whilst blushing furiously.
"Twilight is a princess, I can't just suddenly be romantic with her!"
Nearly facehoofing Applejack decided to point of the proverbial elephant in the room.
"Sugarcube, yer pa is High Dragon King, doesn't that make you High Dragon Princess or some such?"
Again at a loss for words, Lithe realised her one bit of 'cover' had just been blown away and attempted to hide behind her own wing, as was habit when she got really nervous. Her cheeks were turning bright blue as she blushed and she couldn't seem to find anything to look at other than the floor. In fact she was so out of it she didn't even realise that Applejack had walked over until the farm pony pat her on the back.
"S'alright to like a pony Lithe, in fact Ah support it 'tween you an' Twi. Mah cousins the oranges sent mah brother and me these tickets to a new fancy nightclub, but we don't do that sorta thing. Why doncha go take Twi? Go on now, cause if you don't, Ah'll go ask for ya!"
Knowing Applejack well enough to know that she wasn't joking, Lithe quickly made her way out the door with the tickets and started idly winging her way towards town.
At a pace she knew Applejack couldn't beat.
M\(>^<)/M
Twilight was studying when a flash of green lit up the side of her desk. Lifting her head from her book the alicorn began to envelope the scroll in her magic, intent of reading the return message from her best friend and faux-sister Celestia. The scroll lifted all of four inches from the desk when Twilight heard the door slam open and then right back closed with a deafening bang.
The crash caused Twilight to drop the scroll on the desk mere seconds before Lithe collided with her, sending them both sprawling across the floor in a jumbled heap. As Twilight began to open her eyes she found Lithe looking down at her intently.
"Has Applejack come by?!"
Rolling her eyes at Lithe's quirkiness Twilight shrugged.
"Nope, just me, studying...well, laying on the floor now, but hey, same difference. All in all nopony's come in except for you, and had they come in I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have tackled me, so what's up?"
Backing up away from Twilight Lithe wrapped a leathery wing around Twilight and helped her up before realising that the wing she'd extended was the one she'd used to hold the two tickets to the nightclub. Before she could grab them they lit up in a purple glow to be held before Twilight.
It took Twilight all of two seconds to read what was on the tickets, but she wasn't sure what to make of them.
"Where did you get these by the way? This is for the premiere of my cousin's club opening, and it's in Manehatten...seriously, where did you get these?"
*Thump thump thump*
"Twilight, are ya in there?!" hollered Applejack, "Ah need ta talk to ya bout somethin' important!"
Giving Lithe and odd look and turning to move towards the door Twilight stopped abruptly when the mare leapt in front of her with burning blue cheeks and out spread wings shaking her head.
"Don't answer that!"
"Why not?" Twilight asked suspiciously as she tried to work out a way to get past the now oddly acting Lithe to her front door.
Suddenly Lithe's expression got very fearful and nervous as her jaw worked open and closed giving her the expression of a fish somewhat. Twilight remembered her own expression mirrored Lithe's once before, when she was admitting to turning Fluffle Puff's, her old pet hamster, coat into a giant pink afro. Worried now that Lithe may have mistakenly gotten herself into trouble Twilight softened her expression.
"Hey, okay then, the door can stay shut, but you need to tell me what's wrong."
Lithe again worked her jaw, and her blush became a brighter blue.
"I...I....I don't...exactly know how to...say it?"
The reply from the draken-pony was halting and sounded a thousand time more like a question, even to Lithe's own ears, so she tried again.
"I don't know how to say it, but I think I...well...I think I know how to show it..."
Nodding, Twilight acquiesced.
"Okay then, show me."
All the muscles tensed up in Lithe's neck and shoulders at that moments while her head drew back some. Twilight couldn't help but relate it to how a viper would look right before striking at it's prey. In fact, that was nearly exactly what it looked like, but Lithe wouldn't attack her, so Twilight wasn't exactly sure what to think.
Suddenly all of Lithe's tensed muscles sprang into action as the draken-pony's lips met with Twilight's for the briefest of seconds before it snapped back into place near instantaneously. It all happened so quickly it took Twilight a moment to come to the realisation that Lithe had just kissed her.
Logically, Lithe only understood what a kiss meant after Granny Smith explained it to her. Logically, that meant a number of things, primarily that Lithe knew exactly what she was doing. Again, going by logic, that meant to Twilight that Lithe was essentially trying, in her own Lithe-ish way, to express that she had feelings for her.And yet again, because logic had a tendency to be the ruling factor in of of Twilight's decisions, this meant that Twilight, who has feelings for Lithe, should totally go along with this.
Snapping herself out of her mental mire Twilight looked up from the floor to see Lithe looking at her scared, like she was about to be reprimanded for her actions. Instead Twilight lifted the two tickets.
"So, a night club premiere? I don't usually do nightclubs, but this is being done by my cousin and her marefriend. I take it you were wanting me to go?"
Nodding enthusiastically Lithe began to smile and come out from hiding behind her wings, acting altogether more Lithe-y.
"Yup, that was kind of the plan. Applejack said if I didn't tell you, then she would come tell you herself. I knew I should be the one to tell you, so I rushed over here. "
Nodding pensively Twilight's horn began to glow as she regarded Lithe.
"Why don't you go wash and re-braid your mane, and if you want your tail too. I'll get myself ready in a minute or two."
Smiling Lithe bolted upstairs while in a flash of magic Applejack appeared before Twilight on her back. In two seconds Twilight had hogtied the country mare and levitated a quick note over onto her.
"That wasn't very nice of you. I understand why you did it and such, but Lithe isn't as tough as you seem to credit her to be. You need to remember that while she may work hard and tire slowly, her mind isn't nearly as ready for the world as it should or could be. I'm sure you'll enjoy a trip to the spa though, as 'thanks' for the tickets I'm sure Lithe got from you, which you got from the Oranges."
With a second flash Applejack, still hogtied, disappeared, but not before she caught a glimpse of the note Twilight stuck to her.
Full makeover/The works
Satisfied with her work Twilight blinked upstairs so she could get herself ready. It was going to be fun evening, and she had her first date!