This Crazy Little Thing Called Love...
The lull of sleep gently escaped Silver Quill as he slowly wakened. He cracked an eye open and winced as a lance of sunlight burned his retinas, causing him to shift under the covers and face the other direction. He took a few moments to let his eyes adjust and enjoy the warmth of the covers before he sat up in his bed with a tremendous yawn.
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he looked at the window. He could see the silhouette of several leaves pressed against the glass by the wind, sending oddly shaped shadows on the floor and walls. He could slightly hear the voices of ponies and the sound of activity through the window. The rolling of cart wheels, the light steps of children and the heavy ones of adults, the raised voices of neighbours calling out greetings to each other all granted a pleasant backdrop of noise that threatened to send him back to sleep if he wasn’t careful.
Silver frowned. Wasn’t it a bit too early for such hustle and bustle? It was usually fairly quiet and peaceful in the morning. Maybe the fact that it was Nightmare Night morning had something to do with it? Even so, those ponies should be making more of an effort to be quieter. Their excitement didn’t give them much of an excuse to be loud and wake up the ones still sleeping.
Silver threw the covers off of him and crawled out of bed. In doing so, his eyes fell upon the clock on the wall, and he froze in surprise. Well that explained it. It was almost noon. Silver should have been out of bed several hours ago. The reason that the ponies outside weren’t being considerate for sleeping ponies is that there were no more sleeping ponies.
Silver shook his head and chuckled as he quickly made his bed. Normally, he would be annoyed with himself for waking at such a late hour, upset that he wasted so much time, but now, he couldn’t muster up the motivation to do so. It probably didn’t matter anyway. There was nothing that urgently required his attention today.
He made his way downstairs to find that ground floor was completely empty. Spike wasn’t in the kitchen cooking up a batch of culinary delights and Twilight wasn’t in the library organizing the shelves or poring over a tome, so Silver made the assumption that the two of them had left for whatever reason and left him to his sleep.
His assumption was made correct when he spied the piece of paper left on the coffee table in the sitting room. He picked it up with his magic and quickly read through it.
Dear Sleepyhead,
Spike and I have gone out to run a few errands, make some plans for Nightmare Night, stock up on candy, that sort of thing. We didn’t think it necessary to wake you, and I decided it would be best if we just let you get your beauty sleep. Feel free to do whatever it is you please, and we’ll see you when we return sometime in the afternoon.
“Love, Twilight Sparkle.” Silver finished reading aloud. He smiled slightly at that.
“Love, huh?” he muttered to himself before tossing the note into the garbage bin. He grabbed a few slices of bread from the counter and inserted them into the toaster.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” He whispered with a smile.
Breakfast was quick and simple, eggs on toast and a tall glass of orange juice. Silver Quill scarfed down the meal and quickly washed the dishes in the sink before setting them on the rack to dry. Once he was done cleaning after himself, he swiftly made his way upstairs and into his sparsely furnished room. He made a bee line for the desk and sat himself down as his magic rifled through his saddlebags and withdrew what he was looking for.
“This is it.” he thought decisively as the sheaf of papers, quill, inkwell, and small bottle of ink was placed neatly onto the desk. “I’ve been absent from my duties for too long. I’ve had a week to get my head in order, and now it’s time for me to get back into the game.”
His eyes flew over the paper as he perused through his unfinished manuscript. He quickly remembered where it was that he left off, and with a determined huff, he lightly dipped his quill into his inkwell hunched over the awaiting page.
His quill hovered over the surface, trembling slightly in his telekinetic grip as though it itself was eager to be put to good use. Silver’s eyes followed the floating motes of dust in the air, illuminated by the sunlight that was pouring in through the window above the desk. He breathed deeply and steadily, in and out, in and out, in and out.
Minutes passed and Silver Quill hadn’t even touched the page yet. He let his eyes point themselves in whatever direction he pleased as he waited for what it was he needed. An idea, a thought, an epiphany, something to jump start his mind and get his quill moving. He looked back at the piece of blank paper. It seemed to invite him towards it, to encourage him to put pen to paper and to do what he did best, to paint beautiful pictures and compose wondrous music with words.
Slowly, the quill inched closer to the page. It came to a rest at the top left corner, and then began to glide across the white sheet, marring it with a think line of black ink. The line then began form letters; and the letters than began to form words. Eventually, a sentence had been formed.
There stood her beloved, standing with his back towards her and without a single wound upon his body.
Silver Quill looked at this sentence critically. He ran his eyes over it back and forth in an attempt to find its flaws, but if there were any, they escaped his attention. Finally, he set his quill back on the page and continued, and eventually, sentences formed a paragraph.
Rosemary’s breath was stolen from her. She tried to call out, but her weak voice was reduced to a mere choking sound. It had been so long she had seen him, so long since she had held him in her arms as he slowly bled to death in front of her from multiple grievous injuries. But she could not see any on him. The hoof he had lost was there, the arrow sticking out of his torso was missing, and the jagged gash on his side had disappeared. He was exactly how she remembered him. He was perfect.
A smile tugged at the edges of Silver’s mouth. His quill slowly started to pick up speed so that it was now moving at the speed of a walk rather than a crawl.
He was a lie. She knew it in her heart of hearts, but she could not turn away from him. Slowly, he looked back at her, and smiled the very same smile that he had given her those few years ago just before he took his last breath. “Rosemary,” he said, his voice deepened with an incredible sadness. “Run.”
Silver Quill was grinning now. He dipped the tip of his quill into the inkwell before putting it back to the paper and continuing. He wrote, slowly, but surely, and as time slipped away from him as he imprinted his imagination on paper, paragraphs turned into pages.
Silver was brought back to reality by the harsh sound of somepony knocking on the front door on the floor below him. He jumped slightly and looked around, surprised to suddenly be torn away from his story. He looked the clock to see that a little over 2 hours had passed. To him, it felt like it had only been 30 minutes.
He glanced at the small pile of completed pages on his desk. It wasn’t a lot, not nearly as much as there would be if he were on his A game, but considering his luck with writing as of late, he was satisfied with it.
Silver quickly stood up, and without wasting any more time, left the room to investigate the knocking on the library door. He quickly descended the stairs.
“I’m coming.” He called out to whoever it was that begged his attention. Once he made his way to the front door, a small flare of his horn quickly opened it to find a pure white unicorn on the other side.
“Hello Rarity, what brings you here?” he asked politely.
Rarity looked surprised to see him standing there. “Oh, hello Silver Quill. I was just wondering if the library was open today, seeing as it was Nightmare Night and whatnot.”
Silver thought for a moment. He hadn’t been given any information as to whether the library was open or not in Twilight’s note so he couldn’t say for sure. Rarity was a close personal friend of hers however, so he nodded anyway, figuring that Twilight would have wanted to help her friend, closed library or not.
“It is. Do you need a book?” he asked her.
“Indeed. I would have waited until tomorrow, but I’m afraid it is of the utmost importance that I pick it up post haste.” She replied seriously.
Silver nodded and opened the door, gesturing for her to enter. Rarity nodded her thanks and stepped inside before he closed the door behind her and turning to see her with a slightly befuddled expression on her face.
“Is Twilight not here?” she inquired. Silver nodded and explained the whereabouts of the librarian.
“I see.” she replied as she looked around. “It feels different when Twilight isn't here. Very rarely do I not find her inside the library.” She put a dainty hoof to her chin and tapped it thoughtfully. “A shame really. She really could stand to go out a little more often. It’s a crime that such a lovely mare should stay cooped inside so much.”
Silver cracked a small smile at this. “Is that so?”
Rarity nodded solemnly. “Indeed. I love dear Twilight to death, I really do, but I can’t understand how she is content with staying indoors for so long at a time. Those assignments and studies seem to take up so much of time that she has none left to go out in the sunshine every once in a while.”
Rarity stopped talking abruptly as her face reddened. “Oh, listen to me prattling on like a gossipy noble.” She said, clearly embarrassed. “I really shouldn’t speak of her like that. Twilight is a dear friend of mine and it does not reflect well of me to speak of her behind her back.” She gave Silver Quill a sheepish smile. “My apologies for acting so inappropriately.”
Silver laughed and waved her apology away with his hoof. “Think nothing of it.” He said with a smile. “Now, what is this book that you so desperately need?” At her hesitant look, Silver continued. “Don’t worry, I may not be as good as Twilight, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to find whatever you need without too much trouble.”
“Well, alright.” Rarity said hesitantly. “I’ve recently been stuck by an incredible burst of inspiration and now I require a book about Zebra fashion from the Zavannah.”
Silver nodded and showed her to the Around the World section. It was one of the sections of the library that he had helped organize a few days back, so he was positive that he would be able to locate the required tome without too much difficulty.
He ran his eyes over the spines of the books, quickly jumping from one to another as he read each title faster than most ponies could react. “You know,” he said idly as he searched, “Twilight and I were actually outside for the entire day yesterday, so you needn’t worry too much about her not seeing the sun enough…” A few seconds later and Silver Quill found what it was he was looking for.
“Ah, here we go,” he exclaimed as he withdrew it fro the top shelf with his magic. “A Cultural Guide on Zebrican Style” It was a thin book with a dark brown cover that pictured a variety of robes, dresses, and jewellery being worn by a variety of zebras. He turned around to look at Rarity. “Does that meet your needs?”
Rarity didn’t answer. Silver looked at her curiously. She had an expression that was a mix of bewilderment and eagerness all in one. After a moment of awkward silence that entailed her staring at him, she shook her head to clear her mind and cleared her throat.
“Ahem, yes, that should do just fine, thank you.” She said graciously as she took the book in her telekinetic grasp. “But um…I don’t mean to pry but…what was that you said about spending all day together?”
Silver’s eyes widened as he realized what he had said. “Oh boy, here we go.” He thought to himself warily. He could see a gleam in Rarity’s eye that was almost predatory in nature, and a grin was slowly inching across her face despite her obvious attempts to conceal it.
“Oh, well, we just went out and…had a day together.” Silver replied a little to quickly and casually. Rarity took his blatant attempt at misdirection in stride, nodding thoughtfully.
“Is that so?” she asked innocently. “And what did the two of you do?”
Silver squirmed uncomfortably. “Oh you know,” he said, as nonchalantly as he possibly could. “we just got some food, went to the Nightmare Night fair, that sort of thing. No biggie.”
Her eyes widened slightly and he could almost feel the excitement radiating off of her. “I see.” She said, the picture of innocuous innocence. “And how exactly did this little…soiree of yours come to be?”
A bead of sweat started to fall down his cheek. He felt like he was under the gaze of a wolf, cold and calculating, sizing him up for its next meal. “Well, it just sort of…happened.”
“It just happened.” she deadpanned as she narrowed her unreadable eyes at him.
Silver nodded. “Yup. Just happened.”
There was silence as the two ponies looked at one another, one which who was desperately trying to not look away and start whistling inconspicuously. Finally, the silence was broken.
“Silver Quill?” Rarity said.
“Yes Rarity?”
“I’m not leaving until I hear what I want to hear.”
Silver managed to hold his peace for a few more moments before finally giving in. “Alright alright!” he snapped. “enough with the glaring, you’re gonna burn your eyes out…” Rarity gave a victorious huff before looking at him expectantly.
Silver sighed dejectedly. “We…went on a date.” He finally managed to say.
“I KNEW IT!” Rarity blurted out loudly before covering her mouth with a hoof and blushing.
“Ehe, that is to say…” she said as she took a moment to compose herself. “I had thought there was something between you two.” She amended much more quietly, this time with a smug smile.
Silver tried to give her a wry look, but he found her smile rather infectious. “I suppose you did.”
Rarity nodded primly. “Indeed. Now, on to more important things.” She said before shooting Silver Quill a meaningful look. He nodded understandingly.
“Right.” He looked at the book in Rarity’s magical grasp. “I think that this should meet your needs. It’s about traditional garb worn in almost all Zebrican cultures ranging from ceremonial to casual to-“
He was interrupted by Rarity shaking her head anxiously. “Not about that darling, this is much more important than fashion! Her eyes narrowed “Although if you tell anypony I said that I will deny it vehemently.” She took a step closer and gazed at him imploringly. “This is much more important. I want you to tell me everything.”
Silver looked at her strangely. “Everything? About the date you mean?” he asked dubiously.
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Well of course everything about the date darling! It isn’t everyday that the bookish Twilight goes and “hits the town” as it were with a handsome stallion!” Silver raised an eyebrow at that, but Rarity ignored him. “I want to know everything. Where you went, what you talked about, how you felt,” her eyes shined mischievously. “what you did. Everything.”
“Oh.” Silver replied simply. “Alright then.” He took a moment to organize his thoughts, and when it took longer than he would have liked, he motioned to the sitting area with his hoof. “Maybe we should sit down and talk?”
Rarity nodded briskly and quickly trotted over to the sitting area with Silver before she settled herself into a plush armchair. She rested her forelegs on the rests and steepled her hooves so that she was peering at him like a cliché villain in a storybook.
“Now, start talking.” She demanded, leaving no room for argument.
“It…really wasn’t anything special Rarity.” Silver started hesitantly, hoping to cool down the burning curiosity in her eyes. “We went out, got breakfast, went to the fair, went on some rides, and came back. The rest is all just little, insignificant details.”
Rarity’s eyes shined. “But the little details are the most important one! I want to know what it felt like for you two to be together, what you thought of her and she of you! I want to know if you and Twilight had any real chemistry.”
“Why don’t you just ask Twilight this?” Silver half whined.
Rarity waved a hoof dismissively. “Oh dear, that would be like trying to match dark brown with bright pink.” she said with an elegant laugh. “Poor Twilight would get all flustered and start talking about the chemical reactions that a pony has when they are with somepony they like and whether or not she had any. She won’t be able to give me any real answers.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’ll be your job.”
Silver Quill sighed and shook his head. “If you insist.” He said halfheartedly.
Rarity smiled at him victoriously, like a cat who had a helpless mouse under its paws. Silver began to regale her with the details that she wished for. He gave her a step by step recount of the past day’s events, and the next 20 minutes or so was filled with him talking and her listening with rapt attention. Silver wondered how it was that she found all of it so interesting with the way that her eyes occasionally widened or when she snickered at seemingly random parts of his story.
Silver was in the middle of painting the scene of him and Twilight sitting at the peak of the ferris wheel when Rarity interrupted him.
“Ohhh, that is so romantic!” she squealed delightedly. “Sitting high above the treetops, the breeze flowing through your manes as the sun slowly dips its head under the horizon. Completely lost in each others eyes, the world dead to you as the two of you slowly lean in closer, eyes closed, until finally…”
Rarity petered off as she noticed the strange look that Silver was giving her. She cleared her throat delicately. “Yes, well, you know what I mean.” She said with a wave of her hoof. “Although I must say, you certainly seem to know how to show a girl a good time. A ride on the ferris wheel on the cusp of dawn? Simply inspired.” she said with a voice tinged with respect.
Silver shook his head with a wry grin. “I wish I could agree with you, but it was her idea to go on the ferris wheel, not mine.”
“Ah, is that so?” she asked. “How…interesting.”
Silver nodded. “Yeah. Also, what you were talking about just then never actually…happened.” He said awkwardly.
Rarity’s eyes widened. “You two were sitting at the top of a ferris wheel, gazing at a beautiful sunset, and you didn’t even share and intimate kiss?” she asked incredulously with a scandalized look. “Why, that has to be breaking at least one rule of dating, whatever that rule may be.”
“Sorry.” Silver replied wit a rueful grin. Rarity just chuckled and shook her head.
“Oh, don’t be darling. It doesn’t really surprise me, to be honest. Twilight does have a tendency to be a bit…oblivious to certain social situations. A romantic kiss was probably the last thing in her mind.” Rarity commented, looking slightly disappointed.
Silver squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. “Well…that’s not really the case…” he said hesitantly.
Rarity cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? Whatever do you mean?”
Silver Quill sighed. “Screw it, I dug my grave, I might as well lie in it.” He thought to himself sullenly.
“She did lean in for a kiss.” He stated bluntly, looking down at his hooves as he did so. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Rarity’s raised eyebrow climb even higher.
“And I wanted to kiss her back, I really did.” He continued earnestly. “I just…couldn’t.”
Rarity was quiet for a moment. When Silver Quill looked back up at her, her expression was unreadable. She smiled easily at him. “And why is that?” she asked him politely, obviously worried that she may be overstepping her grounds at asking such a personal question.
Silver Quill didn’t mind though. Heck, he was almost glad that she asked him, because now it forced him to really think about the answer himself. Yesterday, he had said that it was because he wanted to move things slowly, but was that really it? Silver Quill didn’t know.
He took a moment to think about it. He was starting to be thankful that Rarity had been so insistent with sharing all of this with her. She was inadvertently acting the role as his therapist it seemed, and since Silver Quill didn’t seem to be able to sort out his thoughts on his own, he welcomed her help.
“I think I was…scared.” He stated somewhat pathetically. Rarity cocked her head at him.
“Whatever do you mean?” she asked genteelly. Silver Quill sighed and shook his head.
“I don’t really know Rarity, it’s just that…when she was leaning in, there was something screaming at me, saying that I was doing something wrong.” He kneaded his brow with a hoof. “I know I’m just being ridiculous, but I don’t know why.”
Rarity was quiet for a moment. When Silver Quill looked back at her, he saw her looking at him with a concerned frown and a furrowed brow. She made a small cooing noise and shook her head emphatically at him.
“You’re not being ridiculous Silver Quill. You’re just confused. Conflicted.” She paused before straightening up and looking him dead in the eye. “Tell me Silver, what is it that you want most in life? At this very moment, I mean?”
Silver thought for a moment. Had he been asked this question a few weeks prior, he would have probably said something akin to “Have my stories be famous world wide.” or “meet my favourite author.” Now though…
“I want to be with Twilight.” He replied with conviction. Rarity nodded, as though that was the only answer that he could have given.
“Well, something is keeping you from doing that, and you need to find out what it is. Now…” she eyed him meaningfully, as though imploring him to think strongly about it. “what are you going to do about that?”
Silver was at a lost. He opened and closed his mouth uselessly as his gaze drifted from the floor, to the walls, to the ceiling. He wracked his brain for the answer that Rarity wanted, because it was obvious to him that she knew the answer, but wanted him to come to the answer himself.
“I…I don’t know.” he half whispered, half mumbled. Rarity smiled at him as though he she would a cute puppy who was trying to make itself look fierce, pityingly and amusedly.
“Well, would you like me to tell you what I think you should do?” she asked him with a sweet smile as she flipped her long mane out of her face. Silver Quill nodded earnestly at her.
“Well, I don’t claim to be any sort of expert on romantic relationships, although to be quite frank, considering where you are, I’m probably the closest you’ll come to one.” This elicited a small chuckle from Silver which then in turn elicited a smile from Rarity.
“However, my advice to you is very simple. You need to talk to Twilight about this. About your feelings.”
Silver looked at her incredulously. “Didn’t you hear what I said?” he asked. “How am I supposed to talk to her about my feelings if I don’t even know what they are?”
Rarity eyed him for a moment, running her eyes up and down him like she was a scientist and he was a particularly interesting specimen. “Oh, how do I put this in a way that you’ll understand…” she muttered to herself. A few more moments later, she brightened and looked him in the eye again.
“Remember how I said that you and I were a lot alike back in my boutique?” she asked.
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes?” he said, making it more of a question rather than an answer.
“Well, I meant it. Tell me Silver Quill, at what times do you get the inspirations and ideas for your stories?”
Silver looked at her blankly, trying to figure out what the point she was trying to make was. “When I’m looking at a blank sheet of paper, ready to write.” He replied. And it was true. He had a very finicky muse that would deign to whisper inspiration into his inner ear only when he had a quill hovering over the blank sheet, ready to mar it with ink. He had tried finding his muse in nature and in cities, in solitude and in crowds, but it was only when he was looking at the sheet did creative inspiration come to him.
Rarity smiled brightly at him. “Of course you do! Because I am the exact same!” she held her forehooves in front of her and looked at them, a vicious gleam in her eyes. “Unless I am looking straight at a bare poniquin, letting the artistic processes go where they please, I will come up with absolutely nothing. I need to be looking at the canvas before I can start painting on it.” She looked up at him and frowned slightly. “Does that make sense?”
“I…think so.” he answered quietly, lost in thought at what she was saying. “But what does that have to do with me talking to Twilight?”
“It’s simple.” she replied with a smile. “You don’t know what your feelings are now, and if you keep trying to figure it out like some aimless philosopher, you never will. However, if you talk to Twilight about it, then they will come to you.” Her smile faltered a bit. “Probably.”
Silver stared at her for a second moment before replying. “So let me get this straight. Basing this off of a completely irrelevant aspect of my life, you want me to talk to Twilight about my feelings in the hopes that I will figure them out as I talk to her?”
Her smile became a little weaker. “Erm…yes?” she said uncertainly.
The library was completely quiet; the only sound coming from Rarity’s awkward shifting in her seat under Silver’s deadpan gaze. Finally, after a long silence that was uncomfortable for the both of them, he shrugged.
“Alright.” he said simply.
Rarity didn’t stay long after that. Her curiosity now satiated, she took her book, thanked silver Quill for his time and help, and left the library, muttering to herself about the pros and cons of using stripes in an outfit.
After he closed the door behind her, bidding her a warm farewell, Silver stood in silence by the front door with an impassive expression. He glanced at the grandfather clock on the other side of the room. It was almost 2 o clock. Twilight was probably going to be home within the hour or so.
The mere thought of her sent his heart pounding in his chest. His eyes widened and his breathing became faster and more anxious.
“What in the world am I going to say to her?” he asked himself as he stood amidst the silence. “I really like her, but how do I tell her that? Or explain my behaviour yesterday? Will it really all just come to me when I need it to?”
Admittedly, Rarity’s plan had a good number of flaws to it, but as far as Silver could tell, it was the best one he had so far. He began to pace nervously.
“What if it doesn’t come to me, what then? Do I just live on, hoping that this problem will fix itself” He frowned and shook his head angrily. “No no, that wouldn’t be fair to Twilight. I can’t just shy away from her every time she gets to close too me, she’ll start to think that there’s something wrong with her, even though she’s so…”
His thoughts trailed off as Silver stopped his pacing and stared off into nothing, his thoughts filled with images of the lavender unicorn. Her on the carniva rides with her hooves in the air, her face framed by the rays of the evening sun.
“She’s so…”
Her sweet smile as she put her hoof over his, her look of concern for him when she thought she had overstepped her grounds when she teleported them to Canterlot.
“She’s so…perfect” Silver thought, finally finding the right word to describe the librarian. He tore his eyes away from the spot on the wall that he had been staring.
“I need to calm down.” He thought to himself. “I need to stop worrying about it, and just let the pieces fall where they may.”
And there was only one way that Silver knew how to calm himself. He went back over to the sitting area that he had just left and quickly spied the romance novel that he had left on the end table, the red bookmark marking the spot he had left off on.
He threw himself onto armchair, the springs squeaking in protest as he did so, and deftly levitated the book over and set it in his hooves. Finally, he took a deep breath and settled in to read.
“Yes…” he thought idly as he scanned the page to find the part he left off on. “What will be, will be, and when the time comes, I’ll just hope that everything works out for the better...”