Snow
The snow trickled slowly down to the ground outside the library, catching and riding the wind like tiny white feathers. Rainbow Dash looked past the feathery snow to the darkened empty street beyond the confines of the tree she currently resided in. It wasn’t a bad snowstorm, it was actually a rather light one compared to some of the ones she herself had prepared, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that the street outside was dark, and had been since the sun had gone down a few hours previous. What worried her was not the simple fact that the sun had gone down, what worried her is that it had gone down before the other pony living in the tree had come back after being called to Canterlot a week prior. She was due to arrive back in Ponyville at noon, but noon had come and gone with no sign of the purple unicorn that was supposed to be back by now. The fact that Twilight, her long time marefriend, was still not home worried her to the point of sitting at the window and doing nothing but watching and waiting. She watched as the snow fluttered to the ground, occasionally being blown by the relatively weak winds and as the sun set below the horizon and the moon rose to its place high in the sky, all the while waiting for her lavender lover to return.
“She was probably just delayed by a storm up in Canterlot, she’ll be home tomorrow.” Spike called from the stairs, stopping his accent to the second floor to call back down to the rainbow maned pegasus that had been part of his daily routine for months now. It had been three months since Rainbow had officially started living at the tree library with him and Twilight, but unofficially she had been spending almost every night over for five months before that.
“She promised she’d be home today.” Rainbow said flatly, keeping her eyes trained on the street she could just barely see from the low amount of light the moon provided through the cloud cover.
“You can’t expect her to control the weather just to keep a promise. Why don’t you just go to bed? She’ll be here tomorrow.” Spike repeated, putting a little more force behind his words, though they did little to help him in his case.
“She promised she’d be home. I promised I’d be here when she got home.” Rainbow kept her eyes and ears focused on the area around the tree for any signs that Twilight might be there.
“Fine, but you’ll be waiting all night; Ponyville doesn’t run its train at night.” Spike gave one last attempt at getting the pegasus to give up, but she didn’t budge from her position. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he made his way up the rest of the stairs and down the hall to his own room, which had been emptied of dusty books for him shortly after Rainbow had moved in.
Rainbow Dash didn’t even register the annoyed grunt from the dragon in her mind, all her thoughts focused on the lavender unicorn she had not seen in a week, and the thoughts that weren’t were wondering why she would be delayed this much. Sure, sometimes schedules had to suffer in order for Cloudsdale to stay on track with the weather, and sometimes trains had to be delayed, but why today of all days? Why the one day when she actually cared did they have to throw Twilight’s schedule off?
She snorted in frustration; the one day it mattered they had to go and screw with the weather. She looked down, away from the falling snow outside to the cozy library inside, lit by candles and a roaring fireplace. The yellow-orange light flickered and dance across the shelves of almost endless books. Each and every cover she looked at reminded her of the purple bookworm that had probably read every single one of them.
With a sigh she once again trained her eyes on the window, only this time there was something different. It was barely visible through the darkness and the snow, but it was there. A pony, walking up the street towards the library, what had her so focused on this pony was the fact that it was a unicorn. She bolted out the door, her wings rapidly carrying her to her target. There was only one unicorn that would be walking down this street at this time of night.
As Rainbow Dash got closer to the unicorn, she began to see the color in the dim light. The pony had a lavender coat with a purple mane and bright pink stripe. There was no doubt now.
“TWI!” She called happily once she was sure she was within earshot.
“Rainbow?” Twilight looked up, surprised at the sudden call of her name. Sure enough, a cyan and rainbow blur was streaking its way across the sky towards her. Before Twilight could say anything more the pegasus collided with her, she felt hooves wrap around her neck and back before Rainbow pulled up, bringing Twilight with her. She was pulled up into the night sky, she tried to say something, but found her muzzle was currently blocked by a cyan one. Once her mind registered that fact that she was being kissed by Rainbow, her body took over, pressing her lips back against the pegasus’s own and wrapping her own hooves around the cyan body pressed against hers.
After a moment Rainbow drew back, smiling brightly at the lavender unicorn in her arms. “I see you missed me.” Twilight said mockingly, giggling a little at the blush spreading through the mare’s light blue face.
“You’re late.” Rainbow replied, taking the subject off her own greeting while maintaining her altitude with steady beats of her wings.
“Yeah, the train was delayed until tomorrow. Fortunately I found a chariot service willing to take me. Unfortunately they only dropped me off at the train station, so I had to walk through the snow.” Twilight replied, matching Rainbow’s grin with an equally happy one of her own.
“Doesn’t matter, you’re home now.” She began to slow her flapping, slowly lowering the two to the ground.
“Yes, Rainbow, Yes I am.” Twilight sighed happily, slipping out of Rainbow’s hooves onto the ground directly below her and beginning the short walk the rest of the way to the library, Rainbow immediately at her side. They walked down the snowy path together, sides pressing against each other and a cyan wing wrapped firmly around lavender shoulders.