//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Dawning Reality // by WordSPark37 //------------------------------// Chapter 3 The door swung open with staggering force as Twilight made her way into an already overcrowded kitchen. The shock caused Spike to once again drop the series of pots and pans he’d been trying to pick up, and utter a fresh new string of robust exclamations. His unexpectedly rough vocabulary caused Twilight to recoil in fear and hesitate before approaching the belligerent dragon. “Spike… Are you alright?” She asked trying to catch a glimpse of his expression, which he miraculously managed to maintain well-hidden as he continued sorting through clanging kitchen supplies. “Yeah, I just… Tripped…” using his free claw, he forcefully rubbed his eye as he tried to continue stirring the sweet-smelling punch with a wooden spoon, and making the best use of his tail as he gathered up twin bags of flour and sugar from a nearby cupboard. After having heard all, or most, of what he’d heard, Spike felt utterly disillusioned. He needed time to thoroughly think things through, organize his thoughts and feelings. However, Twilight was doing the opposite of giving him his space, both literally and figuratively walking around his muscular tail and coming face-to-face with him. Spike’s only true heartfelt friend in all his life had always been Twilight, there’d never been any doubt about that. They’d practically raised each other throughout their youth, kept each other warm during the long winters, confided in each other their deepest, darkest secrets, and trusted each other to the point that Spike knew she would always be there to help him out, as he would always be there for her. Lately things had changed a bit more, becoming a much closer relationship, but at that moment, the thoughts swirling through his mind were clouding his judgment. “Spike… I know you, what’s wrong?” Twilight inquired, leaning towards him to catch a better glimpse of his expression. Spike knew Twilight’s every trick, and reading facial expressions wasn’t a new one. She’d often guess correctly what he was feeling simply by looking at him. Maybe she was good at reading faces, maybe she was good at reading him. Spike didn’t want to find out, and he quickly looked away, avoiding a discussion and hiding his puffy eyes. With a gentle clawed hand, he slid Twilight away on the kitchen floor. “Nothing’s wrong, just… Let me finish up here would you? There’s not enough room for both of us in the kitchen.” Spike said, burying his snout in the condiments as a distraught Twilight remained frozen in place by her friend’s sudden mood swing. “Spike…” “Please Twilight! … Not now…” Spike didn’t bother to look up from the splattering batter, his heart sinking as he heard the slow, depressing hoofsteps of his best friend leave the kitchen. The guilt was practically unbearable, but that could always be fixed by some kind gesture later on. Now, however, he had to loose himself in his chores. Cooking was supposedly cathartic, yet he needed peace and his own labor to cleanse his mind and try and make sense of things. All those years of daydreaming and hoping, they needed to be seriously analyzed and many things thought over. There was a choice to make now, and nothing could interrupt him now. He lost himself in the rhythmic chopping of celery and disappeared from the conscious world. *****************T****************** Twilight lowered her ears and stepped silently out of the kitchen. She’d known Spike ever since they’d both fit in the same bed with plenty of room to spare, and she’d never seen him as conflicted as he was now. Sure he’d had the occasional identity crisis, and the all-too-common adolescent depression, but the look of hurt in his eyes was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. He seemed so… Grown up, so aged, so experienced in love and heartbreak for such a young soul. With a heavy sigh, Twilight trotted over to the bookshelves and began browsing through her numerous collection. After several minutes of useless searching, realization hit her hard. There were no answers in any of the books when it came to situations like this. Maybe Spike was right, maybe all he needed was a bit of time. In a vain attempt to shrug off all her worries for a while, Twilight trotted up the winding staircase to her newly refurbished and recently closed-off bedroom, and threw herself down upon the tussled bed sheets. Sleep never came, and Twilight’s hopes that perhaps a bit of well-deserved rest would clear her head quickly vanished. She spent the hours tossing and turning on her bed, trying to think. Thinking was second-nature to her, but despite all her knowledge and logic, no matter how hard she tried, she simple could not resolve the issue in her head. There was no logical answer to the problem, but she hated giving up. Besides, what else could she do, other than count the leaves outside her window. Tears were beginning to well up, frustration starting to get the better of her. That morning everything had been just fine, now Rarity was upset with her, Pinkie doubted her ability to keep a promise, Spike was distraught and worst of all, there was nothing she could do to fix anything. Useless. It was the one word that kept popping into her thoughts. Twilight buried her face in her pillow and let her pathetic sorrows flow. She kept her face hidden from the world long after she’d run out of tears. Her frustration remained, stalwart as ever, and Twilight felt her innards twist with disgust at this foul sensation. No matter what she thought of, no matter what she focused on, she kept thinking about how useless she felt. It wasn’t like her to be so easily thwarted, but when emotions were involved, when the usual rules of logic didn’t apply, she became so easily lost. One of the few times she wasn’t able to solve a problem. With a frustrated sigh she flipped the pillow over with a quick flick of magic and nestled into the cool fabric, seeking at least some physical comfort. A few hours passed, Twilight’s eyes becoming lazy and glazed as she listened to the sounds of a busy kitchen and a frustrated, muttering dragon below. By the time the noise had come to a halt, her mind was long gone in a pointless wandering trek through nothing, and she didn’t pay any mind to the clacking noise of claws coming up the stairs. A sudden knocking on her bedroom door snapped her out of her self-induced trance, and she came to with a start, nearly impaling an innocent pillow in the process. “Twilight?” Came Spike’s muffled voice from across the thick oak. Twilight nearly jumped out of bed, combing her tangled mane quickly and rather inefficiently as she jumped out of her bed, pulling the sheets over the dent in the mattress. “Coming!” She called out, trying to put everything in its place and making herself as presentable as possible before opening the door. The door had its purpose. Privacy for one, but also to separate her own personal messy side from her otherwise perfectly-organized house. Ever since Spike had gotten too big and too old and too awkward to sleep in the same room as her, she’d finally had a bit of privacy, but the privilege had been slightly abused. Not having to be the perfect role model and being able to be herself had come with a price. Organized chaos. Once she was pleased with her presence enough to be comfortable around Spike, she opened the door and smiled at her friend, who simply held his head low, looking up at her with puppy-like eyes. He tapped his claws nervously against the hardwood floor before finally speaking up. “You maybe wanna, I don’t know, take a walk or something? Maybe… talk for a while?” He said hesitantly, clearly unsure of her opinion on the situation. She was taken aback, she couldn’t deny that. Despite the fact that they shared virtually everything with each other, it was unusual for Spike to openly seek dialogue on topics like romance or anything that could become awkward between the two of them. Finally, once she realized the silence was probably killing him, she shook away her dazed expression and put on a warm, friendly smile. “Sure. Where’d you want to go?” Spike smiled gratefully, and Twilight could have sworn that she saw a mischievous spark in his eye. “Oh, I have a pretty good idea of where we could go.” ******************R****************** Confused? Certainly. Unsure? Of course. Excited? Not so much. Not anymore at least. Reality was harsh, and Rarity wasn’t too keen on accepting it. She’d never been too eager to accept things as they were, full of filthy imperfections, so much wrong. A pretty ribbon or some fine delicate lace always made things look a whole lot better, at least on the surface, but that was usually enough. However, after the way Twilight had put things, Rarity’s priorities had suddenly been heavily impacted, and the usual optimist outlook had turned upside down. A pink blur before her vision brought her back into the reality she detested rather abruptly though. “Rarity? What’s wrong?” Pinkie asked, looking genuinely concerned. “Oh, it’s nothing dear… where was I?” “You were saying that you weren’t coming with us tonight to the theater picnic dinner that we have every year.” She said, despite her cheery attitude unable to disguise the sickening tone of disappointment. Rarity’s heart gave another painful thump against her chest, as if trying to put itself out of its misery, away from guilt’s cruel grasp. “I know, I’m sorry, but I just… I have to do this!” Rarity pleaded. Pinkie was not amused nor convinced, only confused as to why her friend would rather hang out with some stuck-up stallion rather than them. Rarity couldn’t hope to explain everything to someone as cheerful and innocent as Pinkie, but deep down she knew the real reason she had to try. She’d been dreaming of her dream partner ever since she’d been a young filly, her head up in the clouds as she’d loose herself amongst her mother’s stories of princesses and castles and happily ever afters. And yet as she grew up, she’d looked around, and she hadn’t seen any castles or gold or beautiful royal weddings, and certainly no happily ever afters. It was all so dreary and dull, no shiny happy storyland anywhere. That was when she’d decided to change that, to do her best to make the world a prettier place, a nicer place, and now she realized she’d only dressed-up the monster. All that glitter, all the etiquette, all of her work, it didn’t really change anything, it didn’t make a difference. It just made things pretty on the surface, creating a shallow beauty superseded by anything pure deep down. But despite the vanity in everything, she had to know, she had to find the one pony that looked past all that, the one pony that was so deep that he didn’t see the surface, but appreciated things for what they were. What Twilight had said thought, had made her realize that her search was indeed just as vain as her dresses were. She'd been looking for ponies with standards just as high as hers, but who judged things on just a shallow a level as she did. She was right, maybe she was looking for the wrong kind of pony in the wrong kind of places. But what had she meant with looking closer to home? She’d certainly been hinting at something, but what? Her train of thought careened off the tracks and crashed as she was shaken out of her stupor by Pinkie. “Rarity! Hello! Anypony in there?” Pinkie said, shaking her friend by the shoulders. Rarity finally came back to life and set her friends hooves back on the ground. “Yes! I’m sorry Pinkie, I’ve just been a bit distracted lately…” Pinkie looked at her friend with a suspicious glare, seemingly deep in thought, which caused Rarity to fidget nervously, unsettled by her friend’s unusual solemnity. “Pinkie?” “Did Twilight say something? Did she tell you something about somepony?” Rarity simply sat in front of Pinkie, staring at her wide-eyed and parted lips, unable to comprehend what she’d just said. Say something? About somepony? Did they know something, and they were keeping it a secret from her? “What?” Rarity said, the only word she was able to muster. Pinkie however, smiled. “Oh! Never mind then!” Pinkie said as she looked around the room, suddenly stopping once her gaze settled upon a spot high above Rarity’s head. “Oops! I gotta go! I’ve got a humongous order to fill! See you tonight Rarity!” Pinkie said as she disappeared in a flash of pink and puffiness, leaving a stammering white unicorn behind. All that was left was the sound of her own labored breathing and the ticking of a clock somewhere above her. Her head was spinning, all the information she’d gathered up from so many sources in the few hours previous to the evening’s events swarming and invading her every thought. And now, Pinkie’s latest addition to the collection. Whatever the secret was, it was just one more thing that she’d have to take up with Twilight.