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// Chapter 7 
// Story: To Live is to Love 
// by Lenora Goff 
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This was a joke, right?

There was a long list of things that I was an expert of, some things that I was the expert of. This, however, fell onto a list of unknowns. I didn’t know anything about trying to get somepony to fall for you. That would have been a good thing to know when it came to my own problem. Then again, I would have to know who it is that I wanted to make fall for me first.

Wait, that was a good idea.

Spike was here, and Spike knew who it was that he wanted to fall for him. He would be able to help me figure it out, and I could even make it seem as though it’s part of some sort of process. I could get a conversation going, and then he could help me figure out my own problem. It didn’t have any real downsides. I would get to look smart, I would get to solve my problem, and Spike would have the solution he wanted.

Sometimes, I was too smart for my own good.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t make me seem too egghead-y, since this seemed like something that Twilight would do. I had to start this off right, think about each and every word. 

Then again, it was me. I hardly ever had to think through what I said.

“All Right, I’ll help you out. First thing we have to do is talk about Rarity.” That got me a confused look, so I cleared my throat. “Well, I mean, Rarity’s great and all … but we’re talking about something important. If you want her to fall for you, I wanna know why you want her to fall for you.”

That made so much sense to me, and apparently it made perfect sense to him as well.

“Well, she’s really beautiful.” 

That was it? There had to be something more to this romance thing than appearances. I had been trying to figure out somepony who was right for me in so many ways. Of course, they all had to do with how awesome and fast they were. That was hardly relevant, though, this was about Spike’s want for Rarity to fall for him.

“Not only that, but she’s generous.”

That made perfect sense, she was the element of generosity. If she wasn’t generous, another pony would have been selected. I couldn’t fault Spike for pointing that out, though, because it was definitely true. I couldn’t count the amount of times that Rarity had given away something, usually some dress or some gem, when somepony else needed it.

“I’m really bad at explaining it, but it’s just fun to be around her. We don’t even have to be doing much, but it’s just fun.”

That was another thing that made sense, in a weird way. I enjoyed doing a lot of things with my friends that I didn’t enjoy otherwise. I would have never gone to see the Butterfly Migration if it hadn’t been something that Fluttershy enjoyed a lot. She seemed to really enjoy that sort of thing, though, and it was always good to make a friend smile.

Did that mean I really did love Fluttershy?

That didn’t make much sense. I had never thought about Fluttershy like that. There had been one time, in Flight School, that we didn’t talk about much. I had been dared to kiss Fluttershy. Apparently, the way I acted made ponies think I was more likely to love mares. That wasn’t true, but a dare was a dare. I didn’t have any choice but to kiss her.

It was one of the strangest things I had ever done, and I doubted that anything could ever seem more strange. It just didn’t feel right.

“Okay, but what makes her different than a good friend?” I knew I was edging dangerously close to being discovered. These were questions I wouldn’t ask, I would just give out some half-flanked piece of advice based on whatever felt right at the time. This was for me, though, I had to figure out what it was that distinguished a friend from a special somepony.

“Wow, you’re pretty deep there. I didn’t expect that.”

“Yeah, well, don’t let it spread too much. I have a reputation to maintain.”

“Sure thing, Rainbow.” I always liked it when my friends laughed, happiness was generally a good thing. I wasn’t as crazy as Pinkie was about it, but there was something about laughter that always seemed to be so refreshing. “It’s hard to say, really. I mean … everything just feels right. I’ve been around so many ponies, and none of them have made me feel this way. It’s just, you know, something that you either know about somepony or not.”

I didn’t know Spike could be this deep.

“Well, then, the answer’s obvious. You have to be bold.” That elicited a confused expression, so I continued. “You know she’s the one, right? Well, you have to let her know. You have to go in there with everything.” The confused look continued, so I threw more into it. “You know what she likes better than me, but she seems like a mare who just wants to be swept off her feet.”

I nodded to myself, the thing with Blueblood definitely gave that idea more credibility.

“So, just go in there. Flowers, chocolates, a poem, and maybe one of those nice-looking tuxedos I’ve seen you wear. You look nice in them.” That last part quickly led to a blush, but not just from him. I hadn’t really said that he looked nice before, at least not that I could remember. “Just go into it with everything, throw it all on the line, and everything will probably work out right.”

That didn’t seem to be persuading to me, I doubted that he would believe it.

“Besides, it’s a lot better than just waiting. If you don’t do anything, you’ll never know.”

I hadn’t been able to think of anything more to ask. The questions that I had asked, even if that last answer hadn’t exactly been all that helpful. Every piece of advice, or in this case the pieces of the single line of advice, seemed to point to the idea that I would know it when I saw it. I would just have to think about it later, at least I had gotten advice from somepony who knew more about it than me.

And I knew that Spike wasn’t the type to blab secrets, so I was safe. 

“Well, it’s about dusk. I should probably get you back before Twilight gets too mad.”

There were plenty of reasons for that, one of which was that I saw Applejack heading for us. She didn’t look happy, either, which was probably because Twilight had said something to her about what I had done. It had been worth it, though.

“Hold on tight, we’re going to be in for a bumpy ride.” 

Just to make sure that nothing went wrong, I wrapped all four legs around him and quickly started to fly toward the library. With the speed I was going, it was almost a surprise that I didn’t break the barrier. Then again, going straight into it was something that I still hadn’t been able to do.

Last time, Spike had to save me.

I shook my head, I couldn’t think about that. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Spike, he was awesome for making sure that I got to Fluttershy’s, but the idea of that happening was just so embarrassing. I told myself that I had to focus on flying, because I had to quickly get into the library and get Spike back in that whole leg thingy.

Also, I had to make sure that Twilight didn’t catch me.

I felt so cool doing this, nopony was as awesome as me.

I did my best to open the door slowly, to make sure there wasn’t any noise, and then I tried to quietly move into the room. It seemed to be working, too, there wasn’t a single indication that anypony had found out that I was there. There wasn’t a single sound that came from me, or Spike, as I quickly sat him back down on the bed.

The leg was raised, just as it had been before, and I was just about to leave when I felt something hit me. 

It was weird, though, because it didn’t hurt. It was more of a tingle, and then I couldn’t move.

“Don’t you dare do anything like that again, Rainbow.” 

I couldn’t turn to see her, but I could feel the glare. There was another thing that I couldn’t do, and that was respond. Maybe it was for the best, there wasn’t much for me to say. It would have sucked for me to say something stupid, and then ruin a good friendship. I was also more than a little scared, this seemed to be far more than what Twilight would normally do.

“Spike means everything to me, I couldn’t stand it if my little brother got hurt.”

I still couldn’t talk, but it didn’t matter soon. I could feel myself being enveloped in magic, and then the next thing I knew I was sitting on my bed at my house. That wasn’t completely accurate, I was laying down. This wasn’t really my choice, I had basically fallen. It seemed like the spell hadn’t worn off yet, which I hoped meant that it was more of spell that lasted so long.

It would really have sucked to be stuck there like that forever.

-Switch to Spike-

“Woah, Twilight, you’re kind of scaring me. Is Rainbow going to be all right?” 

I had never seen her this mad. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to get Rainbow to take me away from the bed. It certainly didn’t help her, I knew that.

“Of course she is, Spike. She just won’t be able to move ten minutes.” I saw her look up for a moment, then her hoof met her face. “Or maybe I accidentally made it ten hours. Let’s hope I didn’t teleport her anywhere too bad.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” This wasn’t making me feel any better. “I thought you knew where you teleported her.”

“Hehe.” That was never a good sign. “Well, I thought to teleport her to her favorite place. What harm could come of that?”

I really hoped it wouldn’t end up biting us in the flank, none of us knew what Rainbow’s favorite place was. For all we knew, it might have been dangerous. Obviously there was nothing I could do, Twilight wouldn’t let me go look for her. “You’ve gotta make sure you apologize to her tomorrow, Twilight. She was just doing what I asked her to do.”

This was Rainbow, her favorite place was probably one of three places. She could be at Fluttershy’s house, Sugarcube Corner, or on Sweet Apple Acres. Any of those places would be safe, I was sure of it.

-Back to Rainbow-

I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to be stuck here forever.

I was laying there, and my mind started to wander. There weren’t a lot of things that I could do, aside from sleep. It might have been good to get some food, but that would have involved being able to move. The only other thing I could really do was try to think. If I could start thinking about something, I could ignore the fact that I was really starting to get really hungry.

Aside from that, I still hadn’t solved my problem.

How could I find a special somepony?

Spike had started off with saying something about how beautiful Rarity was, so I figured that’d be a good place to start. Of course, I quickly remembered that the last time I had gone for something as mundane as appearances I had tried to get Soarin to fall for me. That hadn’t turned out so well, he had been more than a little self-absorbed.

Generosity was the next trait that he had mentioned, so that was the next one that I focused on. I knew a few generous ponies. A lot of them were mares, but that was probably because gender incombabulance or whatever Twilight had called it. That cut them out. I just couldn’t see myself with another mare, they just didn’t enter my mind as romantic partners.

I didn’t judge anypony like that, it just wasn’t for me.

There was always Big Mac, though. He seemed generous, and he was physically attractive.

What else had Spike said?

The pony in question had to be fun to be around, even when I would be doing something I didn’t like doing. I tried to see myself going to some sort of even with everypony else, something like I had with Fluttershy. Maybe Big Mac would try some sort of poetry thing, Twi told me that some of the most silent people have giant hearts or something.

Nope, couldn’t happen.

I don’t even know how long passed while I started to cross ponies off the list. One thing or another, something Spike said always crossed them off. At this point, I felt more like Twilight than me. This just wasn’t my style, too much thinking. If it hadn’t been for Twilight, though, I might have just gone over to Fluttershy’s to see how she was doing.

All I could move was my right foreleg.

I couldn’t think of anypony else, this didn’t make any sense. Then again, this problem had been haunting me for so long that it wasn’t even funny. Since mares didn’t feel right to me, and I had already gone through all of the stallions in Ponyville, I was stuck laying there thinking. Maybe there just wasn’t anypony out there for me.

I tried to move my head, and it moved.

This was progress.

I looked out the window, I had to try to figure out what time it was. Part of me had said it was night already, and it turned out that it was true. I hadn’t been able to get any closer to being able to solve this, which was frustrating. A yawn told me that skipping that nap, along with the fact that it was Luna-knows how late, told me that it wasn’t going to be solved tonight.

“Tomorrow, maybe.”

With that, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.