Life's Little Fortune Cookies
Chapter 1
Coffee
Twilight Sparkle wasn’t a unicorn who wasn't impartial to many things of life. She had a knack for finding an aspect of something likeable, and with this wasn't the type to be angry or overly dramatic about things on most occasions.
However there was one aspect of life which failed to provide her with any sort of optimistic or positive feelings, no matter how much effort she made into doing so. This happened to be a time of day.
It was morning time.
Twilight always was a naturally born night owl, as she happened to take great satisfaction in the late hours of the day. During this time, the majority of Ponyville had gone to sleep, or was already deep into slumber, providing a serene calmness which was perfect for her studies. Especially nice was that Spike usually went to bed much earlier than herself, and while the little dragon was quite helpful during the day, Twilight did appreciate some alone time to think and study.
As a result of her more unusual sleeping habits, the unicorn was more susceptible to crankiness in the morning. After all, going to sleep near 2 am in the morning and attempting to always wake up at 9 am provided her with exactly 7 hours of sleep, if she happened to fall asleep the second her violet and sapphire mane hit the pillow. Normally, this didn’t happen, although Twilight would consider it a blessing if it did.
So as a result of less than 7 hours of sleep, Twilight turned to a fairly useful simulant in the form of a liquid. This rather bitter liquid quickly turned out to be her saving grace, as the morning beverage helped her rapidly awaken from her half sleep riddled state. You may know this substance as caffeine, found most often in coffee.
Twilight could definitely use a gallon of it right now.
She groaned as sunlight peeked its way through the curtains of her bedroom windows, creating a piercing ray of light which just so happened to find Twilight’s face. The unicorn buried her face under one of her pearl white pillows, muttering to herself about how she needed to make sure she got thicker curtains in the near future.
Twilight then suddenly made a realization of a lack of somepony in the room, more surprisingly, the mare who usually slept beside her. Rainbow Dash wasn’t a pony who normally woke up early, but Twilight had no issues whatsoever with the pegasus sleeping late. Besides, she always melted into a puddle every time she would lay her violet eyes on Dash’s sleeping form, admiring how cute she looked when she slept.
The unicorn walked over to her mirror and pulled out her hairbrush out of the top drawer. Slowly, she began to brush her mane, enough so that it was at least properly down and not sticking out from all different angels. Twilight cursed her tendency to get major bedhead on most mornings, and wondered if all her friends had the same issue.
Swinging open her door with authority, Twilight made her way downstairs to grab some breakfast before going in for her daily shower. It seemed a little backwards to most, but she had always done those in opposite order since she was a filly, and it stuck with her. Besides, it helped eliminate potential fights between Rainbow and herself for showering times.
She wondered now if she was home alone, as Twilight knew Spike had gotten up extra early to aid Rarity on a morning gem hunt, his enthusiasm fueled by potential alone time with the mare, as well as a gift in the form of a snack. Twilight smiled to herself and shook her head at the thought of a love-struck Spike following Rarity around aimlessly.
However, the lavender unicorn was unsure about the whereabouts of her marefriend, as she never woke up earlier than 10 am on any day of the week, especially weekends.
The scene in the kitchen before her just about answered that question, while creating a bunch of other ones.
To begin, Rainbow was standing near the sink, bits of coffee beans strewn around her mane and fur which also seemed to be wet as well. The pegsasus seemed to be glaring angrily at what used to be her coffee machine, which was now a seemingly discombobulated pile of parts, of which Twilight had no explanation for how that could possibly happen.
The kitchen was just as worse. A mixture of whole and grounded coffee beans, water, and some actual brewed coffee was splattered all over her cabinets, appliances, and dining room table, not to mention the floor, which at this point looked like a hazard zone.
Rainbow sensed Twilight’s approach and spun around within a split second, her face flaming red as she tried to hide the destroyed coffee machine.
“Rainbow… what happened to my coffee machine?” Twilight asked softly.
Dash just stood there, attempting to formulate a response.
“Umm… Discord returned and set chaos onto it?” She weakly smiled.
Twilight just stood there and deadpanned at Rainbow, not sure whether to laugh hysterically at the scene before her, or yell at Rainbow for breaking one of her most important possessions. Yes, a coffee machine was that significant for Twilight.
The unicorn merely sighed.
“Dash… do you know how to make coffee?” Twilight questioned.
“Well I was trying to surprise you with breakfast and I put the coffee where it said to put it then the thing just started to….”
“DASH!” Twilight narrowed her eyes.
“… I have no idea.”
Twilight facehoofed. She knew the mare had never drank coffee as her natural adrenaline was plenty enough on its own. But she thought that at least she would have an idea of how to use such a simple appliance.
“Do we at least have any coffee left to use?” she asked, hoping for a yes.
“If you mean other than what is all over the kitchen… then no.”
Twilight merely groaned, grabbing a bowl and a box of cereal out of one of the coffee splattered cabinets. Dash came over and hugged her from behind as she did this.
“Good morning,” the Rainbow maned Pegasus whispered.
Twilight couldn't help but smile.
“Good morning Rainbow Dash.”