//------------------------------// // Preview - 7 Years Later // Story: Expanding Horizons // by mechafone //------------------------------// "Would ya just get in there, Twi? Work those legs, girl, and move!" Twilight Sparkle's legs would not move. She willed them not to, or they were stuck. She could not think straight enough to figure which of these were true. Applejack's constant shoving against the unicorn's back wasn't helping Twilight to decide which, either. "A-Applejack, stop pushing!" This prompted the farm pony to ease up just long enough for her to give Twilight a stern glare. "Y'all better get it together, Twilight Sparkle. It ain't like he's gonna bite. So y'all knew each other in Canterlot n' there were some words between ya that hurt. How long ago was that?" "It wasn't long enough to make me feel comfortable talking to him again so soon!" Twilight shot back, turning to look at her friend with a mix of anger and pleading to understand. However, Applejack had gone beyond understanding. Two weeks of waiting for the two of them to talk had been long enough. "Six years, wasn't it? Or was it seven years?" "It...it's been seven years..." Twilight trailed off. Hearing her own voice confirm the length of time since she last spoke to Spark Storm sounded very different than it did in her head. The unicorn took in a deep breath, and finally let it out as she slumped over in defeat. Applejack was very patient as her friend took her time to let this set in. After a moment's deliberation, Twilight set her eyes in front of her. It was time to send these long-buried feelings of rejection and sadness to pasture. She'd spent too many years ignoring the need for closure, and she'd ignored every chance she'd had to talk to him. It was the best thing for her, especially if she was going to be staying in his hometown. "I guess it's time to just go in and get this over with," she told Applejack, as well as herself. "That's right, Twi. G'wan in there and rip that bandage right off the wound. Ain't no sense if takin' it slow. Just grab that thing with your teeth an'..." Applejack winced as Twilight turned to glare at her. "Uh...you know what Ah mean, heh heh..." Chrome Spectrum paced about the floor of the Sugarcube Corner impatiently. His pacing was getting on his older brother's nerves, who was already nervous about his long-awaited reunion with Twilight Sparkle, who was due any minute. He and his cousin Rainbow Dash sat at the table, watching their little brother and cousin display his distaste for standing around and waiting for things to happen. Pinkie Pie stood behind the counter, content to simply watch Chrome; it was making her a little dizzy, which made her giggle periodically. A hoof slamming down on the table where the two cousins sat made all but Rainbow Dash jump, for it was her hoof that had met the table with such a loud noise. "That's it!" the mare yelled and began to hover in the air with an accusing hoof pointed at Chrome. "Dude! Sit down, would you?! You're driving me nuts, and that's saying something. I thought I was the impatient one!" Chrome sighed and stepped over to the table next to his older brother and settled with his forelegs on the table and nestled his chin on his hooves. "Sorry. It's just this is taking forever! All this for that bookworm that dumped you when you were what...fourteen?" Spark Storm narrowed his eyes at Chrome and shook his head. "She didn't dump me, and I didn't...there was no dumping involved! She had a crush on me and I didn't feel the same way, so she told me not to bug her anymore. It wouldn't matter much now if the Princess hadn't sent Twilight here to hang out with my best friends. I can't not run into her now, so we might as well make up and get that out of the way." "I still can't get over the fact that all our bestest best friends are the Elements of Harmony!" Pinkie Pie chimed in, helping herself to sit beside Rainbow Dash at the table. "The elements of what-now?" Chrome asked, throwing his question to the other three sitting beside him. "I don't know," Spark said after Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Chrome stared at him to answer. Neither of the girls were eloquent enough to thoroughly explain the whole ordeal two weeks earlier in which Nightmare Moon had captured and imprisoned Princess Celestia and attempted to keep the sun hidden forever. At that point, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle had risen to the challenge and faced the goddess and returned sunlight to the world. "I just know that things are way too complicated to try and understand it. I mean, it's weird how all my closest childhood friends and...her are all the Elements," Spark said almost dismissively. He had been thoroughly confused by the whole thing, and while he'd attempted to be there for his friends that night, there were moments that he'd lost and couldn't remember, a fact that plagued him. He'd tried many times to remember what had happened, but every time he came up blank. "Dude. You don't know about the Elements?" Rainbow Dash demanded to know, another hoof pointed accusingly at her younger cousin. "The Elements-" Spark Storm rolled his eyes as Dash began to explain, but her rant was cut off as a sound cut through the air like a - well, a bell. All four turned their attention to the door as it chimed, signaling the entrance of a potential customer. Of course, Spark had been expecting the entrant, and dreading her arrival, at that. Twilight Sparkle stepped through the crack in the door. Signs of apprehension were clearly written on her body, from her upturned eyebrows to the pensive hoof held upwards under her chest. She scanned the room, finding two of her new friends, a new face that resembled an old one, and the pony she dreaded seeing the most. A forced swallow made it's way down her throat and into the pit of her stomach as she and Spark Storm made eye contact. Both Twilight Sparkle and Spark Storm felt years of memories return to them after hiding them in their own secret places for so long. Their initial dislike of each other, avoiding each other, exchanging their friends/assistants on Celestia's orders, the long trip to Neighppon. Their sharing the stars, tolerating each other, and finally the crush that Twilight developed and sent her into a panic, this being her first, something alien and new. It hadn't been but a day when Twilight found out that Spark didn't feel the same. While she was panicking and trying to figure out her feelings, if she even had the time to act on them, or the inclination even, Spark Storm had his feelings elsewhere: on Sapphire Snow. Upon learning the truth, it shattered Twilight's hopes. Celestia had hoped that by getting the two to know each other better, Twilight might finally make a friend, but instead the friendship had pushed the unicorn farther away from friends than ever before, and had convinced Twilight that friends were just a hinderance. Spark's family and Applejack, who had snuck in behind Twilight, looked between the two, each one feeling the intensity of the situation. One could cut the tension in the room with a cake slicer. Chrome finally broke the silence on Spark's side as he leaned in to whisper to his brother. "Dude, she's cute!...for a bookworm, y'know. Hey, do you think-" Chrome Spectrum's whispering was cut by a two-sided glare, aimed from his older cousin and brother. The metallic-maned pegasus winced at the stares earned with his poorly timed inquiry. Pinkie Pie sighed and began to nod her head sagely at the pleading glance she stole from Spark Storm. "C'mon, 'Chrome Dome'," she said as she stepped around the table and put a hoof around Chrome's shoulders, who let himself be lead toward the kitchen. "This isn't our business. Our business is to go into the kitchen and get busy...with cakes!" Pinkie's voice tapered off as the two stepped into the kitchen, an exasperated sigh leaving Spark's lips. "Applejack, I-I don't think I can do this," Twilight whispered behind to the farm mare standing guard at the door. "First there's the crush, then I have to make up, and now I think he has a brother he never bothered to tell me about!" Applejack cleared her throat nervously, idly tugging at the brim of her hat. Twilight craned her neck back to look at her new friend suspiciously. So Applejack knew this...great. "Uh...look, Twi, it just hadn't come up, y'know? It's been a busy two weeks..." the cowmare told her apologetically, her Stetson pulled down and held over her chest. While Applejack apologized, Rainbow Dash and Spark Storm sat at their table, somehow patient as Twilight took her time to further her agenda: to move on and earn her mentor's approval. After a moment of silence, Rainbow poked her cousin. "So, uh...really, you know Twilight better than me, Spark. How much of a hoof-full are we talkin'?" Spark shook his head ambiguously. "Honestly, Rainbow, I couldn't tell you. She's changed since I last talked to her. See how well she's getting along with Applejack? You'd almost mistake those two for friends...maybe she's finally given in and just did what Celestia told her to." Spark paused and ran a hoof through his mane, a small hint of jealousy playing in his eyes. "She brushed me off for so long and all it takes is-" A hoof on the stallion's shoulder and a smoldering glare from his cousin made him pause. "Look, I don't know the whole story of what you went through, with you and your Fighters, but the girls and I faced a lot the other night with Nightmare Moon. Don't downplay it like it was nothing, 'cause it wasn't." Realizing what he'd nearly said, Spark inclined his head to his cousin apologetically. If he remembered correctly, Rainbow Dash had received the Element of Loyalty. She certainly seemed worthy of it. "You're right. I'm sorry, Rainbow." A small grin and a clap on his back told Spark he was forgiven. Just then, a small "Ah-hm...ahem," gathered the attention of the cousins from the other side of the table. Twilight and Applejack had both approached quietly, and it wasn't clear how long they'd been standing there. In Twilight's case, she bore a look in her eyes that had been similar to Spark's in his moment of jealousy. Not only did he already know each and every one of the Elements, but he was cousin to Rainbow Dash. It made her wonder - there had to be some connection. She needed to talk to the princess about this. She neatly tucked that matter to the back of her mind for later. Finally, Twilight made the first move, and sat down at the table opposite Spark Storm, albeit nervously. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, both sharing a knowing glance, made to leave, despite the pleading faces of their respective escorts. Don't leave me alone with him/her! And yet, both Spark and Twilight knew they wouldn't be able to sort through their differences and years of catching up without doing this face to face, and on their own. They soon found themselves alone in the shop lounge. It was time.