Journey to the Center of the Rainbow
Chapter 7: Violet
Rainbow Dash wasn’t the type to get nervous about something, that wasn’t her style. Confidence was a quality she proudly put on display for the world to see.
Today was one of those rare occasions in her life where the nervousness hit her like a freight train. It wasn’t due to anything in particular, rather, it was the sole result of somepony.
Twilight Sparkle was her name, and if Rainbow were to be asked, making hearts melt was her game.
Rainbow had never asked for this to happen, and didn’t see it coming. When Twilight initially presented her with the birthday gift, the week-long trip sounded more like an incredible adventure across Equestria with a best friend. In the end, this part was 100 percent true, she didn’t doubt her enjoyment in all of the places Twilight took her to see.
It was gradual, but Rainbow Dash could no longer deny what had happened during that week.
She had fallen in love with her best friend.
Love wasn’t a topic Rainbow knew much about. In fact, she had no clue where to begin when the question was presented to her. Her love for being independent always overshadowed any thought for a companion, and up to this point in her life, she never seriously approached the idea about having a marefriend. The little she knew about relationships was that one would have to dedicate time to the other, something she wasn’t interested in.
Yet, even those thoughts had changed with time. The idea of spending extended time, even the rest of her life, with Twilight came to her with the increased amount of time they spent together. Instead of the consequences of a relationship, she listed the advantages in her mind. Twilight could cook better than she could, nights alone in her home would be eliminated, and of course there would be the playful arguments and steamy makeout sessions to look forward to.
Even Rainbow’s own brain did a double take on the last one.
The vividness of the dream she had on that cloud a few days ago continued to resonate, although a bit subdued with the passage of time. Once she got the time to sit down and think about it however, every single thought came back to her clearer than that very day. She swore she could feel Twilight’s body on top of hers, even taste her.
After every recollection of those dreams, came the questioning of them. All during flight school, she prided herself on being able to hang with the colts, and never acted like most mares. It was a quality which she considered to be a critical part of who she was. Now, it happened be a quality of who she used to be.
She flopped down on her pillow, her legs telling her that pacing across her living room a thousand times was more than unnecessary. Staring at the ceiling, she wondered what Twilight was up to, and what the unicorn had planned for later on in the night.
Their train ride home from the beach had been uneventful. In fact, Rainbow would label it as déjà vu, a phrase she spent over an hour trying to remember, and exclaimed with happiness when she finally did remember. This didn’t sit well with the other passengers, who gave her glares of annoyance before going back to what they were doing previously.
The exception to this uneventfulness was the conversation she had with Twilight before parting ways. She was well aware that they had covered all the colors save for violet, and that was exactly what Twilight wanted to discuss.
It was a short conversation, consisting of a couple of jokes peppered here and there. But it was the final thing Twilight said which continued to reverberate in her mind like an overplayed record.
“Come to the library at 7pm tonight. We’ll have some dinner, and talk and relax. Think of it as a reflection on the trip. Then after… I’ll tell you about the color violet.”
To anypony else, it would seem like an innocent invitation. What Rainbow noticed more than anything was the way Twilight said the last sentence.
“Then after… I’ll tell you about the color violet.”
The way Twilight had spoken in her dream, that sultry, luscious tone which at times was a nothing more than a whisper, was evident in the way she said that last sentence. Rainbow heard this, and was instantly left standing with her mouth agape for a few seconds until she collected herself.
All along her walk home, she replayed the sentence in her head, attempting to connect the voices in her dream and the one Twilight had just given her. Hard as it was for her to believe, the truth was there.
It presented Rainbow with an entirely new set of questions. Initially curious as to whether Twilight would have similar feelings, she knew that this was now a real possibility. Rainbow even played around with the idea of telling Twilight how she felt, but presented with this scenario made her rethink this.
She could even wait and let Twilight come to her. Although this would be the easy way to take, Rainbow knew that there was a real risk of doing so. If what she heard was false, Twilight might not share mutual feelings in any sense, and the final result would be heartbreak. From what little she knew on the matter, which consisted of occasional romance scenes in novels, or talking to Fluttershy or Rarity, this was something she had zero interest in ever experiencing.
Rainbow stared at the clock on her windowsill. The hands read 6:30 pm, which meant she would soon have to leave for the library. However, her divided mind made watching the clock a chore. One half pleaded with the clock to speed up so that she wouldn’t have to arrive awkwardly early. Her other half wanted time to freeze, so that she could never have to face this situation.
She sighed. “Better now than never. What do you think Tank?”
Her tortoise friend looked at her with his wide, yet relaxed eyes.
“I had a sense you’d agree.” She nuzzled her pet before putting a few special turtle treats in his cage before walking out of her bedroom. “See you later buddy. Don’t stay up too late for me,” she said as she walked towards the front door.
A last minute idea came to her as she walked out the door. Perhaps a small token of appreciation for the entire trip was in order? Rainbow considered it, but quickly abandoned it, knowing Twilight wouldn’t accept something in exchange for something she considered a birthday present.
With a few flaps of her wings, Rainbow was airborne. The wind flowed through her mane, and a sudden peace overtook the pegasus glided over Ponyville. Flying was her go-to for stress relief, or really any relief. It helped to clear her mind, and did she ever wish she could do this now.
The library came into view, the lively tree lit up like a decoration. Rainbow could only wonder what Twilight had planned for the final color.
Instead of descending, she climbed the sky, gaining altitude until the library could be covered up completely by a single hoof. From there she calmly circled the home of her friend, her flight patterns mirroring those of a vulture. She sighed while looking down in earnest, her anxiousness now drowning out her confidence she tried to build up.
“I hope she feels how I do.”
She slowly descended, landing gracefully in front of Twilight’s door. Peeking through the window, Rainbow could see Twilight wearing an apron of some kind, happily whistling a tune as she prepared something. She was surprised that Twilight was making dinner, as she always mentioned how she lacked cooking skill.
She knocked lightly on the door three times, watching as Twilight looked over and at her clock before walking over.
Twilight opened up the door and greeted Rainbow with a smile. “Well somepony’s early! Come on in, I’m just putting the finishing touches on dinner. It should be done in a few minutes.”
Rainbow’s nose immediately picked up a wonderful scent, and her mouth began to water. “Whatever you’re making, it smells delicious!” Her stomach rumbled as she realized she didn’t eat much of anything the entire day.
“I figured I’d make dinner for the two of us,” Twilight replied. “Spike usually cooks for me, but he pointed out this recipe as being idiot proof, so hopefully it came out alright. It’s called Pasta Primavera.” She made a mental note to impress her assistant with the same recipe in the near future.
Rainbow stood at the edge of the counter as Twilight continued to cook, fascinated with watching her maneuver about. “Anything I can do to help?”
Twilight shook her head, "I want to do this on my own, just to prove to myself if I can," she replied. “Actually, you could get us drinks if you’d like. I just made a fresh pitcher of lemonade.”
Rainbow poured two glasses and set them on the dining room table, which was nicely set for the occasion. She was quite surprised to see the expertly folded napkins and high quality china, as well as the candles which had been lit. She realized that all of this showed just how important tonight was to Twilight, and wondered if she was anxious over nothing at all.
She was startled out of her thoughts as a huge bowl of pasta, filled with an assortment of vegetables, was placed in the center of the table. She had heard of Pasta Primavera once in her life, but Rainbow didn’t know that it was supposed to look this delicious.
Together, they sat down at the table as Twilight served some food to both of them. Rainbow strained in preventing herself from shoveling down the food in front of her, knowing that it wasn’t the way ponies acted on a date.
Wait… was this a date?
“Hey, speaking of the two of us, where’s Spike? I’m sure he’d love to try some of this,” Rainbow asked, taking a sip of her lemonade.
“He’s having a sleepover with the Cutie Mark Crusaders tonight. They invited him a while ago, and he was too nice to say no.” Twilight giggled at the thought of poor Spike being dragged around by those three energetic fillies.
“Whoa, so it's Spike and three girls? Wonder where that’ll end up?”
“Oh shush,” Twilight kicked her lightly from under the table. “He’s just a kid Dash. I can’t see him developing some kind of relationship with any of those fillies. Besides, as long as Rarity is around I think his heart will be covered.”
Rainbow chuckled as she was taking a bite of pasta. “I can’t believe that he still thinks nopony notices it.”
“I pretend I don’t see it, even though it’s obvious,” Twilight remarked, “It’s a natural process to have a crush like that sometime in one’s life. I’ve had one before, I imagine you have too.”
As soon as Twilight said that sentence, Rainbow had to use all of her willpower to keep her normal expression. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” She attempted to change the conversation. “So I guess the library is ours for the entire night?”
Oh joy… that’s exactly what I wanted to say.
A faint blush stained Twilight’s face. “Yeah, I figured it would be nice have a home cooked meal together, just like this.” She could feel the temperature warming, and drank the other half of her lemonade in a couple large gulps.
“So… that was delicious!” Rainbow got up with her plate and placed it in the sink along with Twilight’s, who followed her with the two glasses. “I wouldn’t mind doing this more often, it was kind of nice actually. I don’t get ponies to cook meals for me, exception being Pinkie Pie, only that’s usually dessert.”
“I’m actually impressed it tasted that good,” Twilight replied, glancing back at the cookbook Spike had insisted she use. “Leave it to books to make cooking easier!”
Rainbow could only roll her eyes.
“So what do you want to do now?”
“Let’s not beat around the bush Twi. You asked me to come here to talk about violet, so that’s what I’m expecting,” Rainbow demanded, but in a way which made her look more cute than intimidating.
“Alright then. Follow me upstairs.” She made her way up to her bedroom, Rainbow in tow behind her.
The two entered Twilight’s bedroom as she flipped some lights on.
Each of them were nervous, it was plain as day to see from their body language.
Rainbow hopped up on Twilight’s bed, her nervousness of the whole situation coming to the forefront. She had planned this moment within her head for well over a week, her mind like a rewound cassette tape as she played out every possible scenario. These thoughts invaded her mind constantly, to the point where she couldn't take it anymore.
One way or another she was going to let them free, because she knew that this was something nopony wanted to hold inside them. Rainbow hoped Twilight understood enough to not let this affect their friendship if it wasn’t meant to be. The prospect of damaging one of her closest friendships frightened her, but her need for closure won out.
“There is something I want to tell you.”
Both of them looked quizzically at one another, not sure if they had perfectly repeated each other’s sentences.
Rainbow gestured for Twilight to go first.
“The color violet, is a color which symbolizes royalty and wisdom. It is a color associated with power, wealth, and nobility.” Twilight slowly sat on the bed beside Rainbow, who was seated near the headboard. “None of those qualities are the ones that stand out most for me and you however, for violet also can stand for ambition, independence, creativity… and magic. Sort of makes sense in who I am.”
Her hoof slipped between Rainbow’s, eyes gazing deeply into hers as she paused for a moment. “Violet is a color which evokes mystery. Sometimes, you never know just what to expect with it.”
Rainbow Dash was frozen to the spot she sat. She only glanced at the unicorn, shivers traveling up her spine as Twilight’s lips slowly moved so that they were right next to her ear. That dream she nearly obsessed over was being replayed again, only this time it wasn’t a mere figment of her imagination.
“Violet is also a color associated with romance,” Twilight cooed into her ear. “Now I want you to tell me… what do you think the violet is?”
The answer was instantly known as Rainbow’s eyes widened in realization. Every piece of the puzzle came together now. The hint of sultriness to what Twilight said as they got off the train, her comment about the thing being a moving object, ending on the color violet. She felt like a fool for not noticing it earlier.
The “object” Rainbow was expecting the color violet to be was not an object at all.
It was a pony.
…And she was right in front of her.
“You mean to tell me that all this time, right from the beginning when you conjured up this trip in that head of yours, you planned for this to happen all along?” Rainbow watched Twilight nod silently.
Twilight could only smile wholeheartedly as Rainbow finally figured it all out. She stifled a giggle at how flabbergasted Rainbow seemed by the whole thing, even though she understood completely.
“So since you’re the color violet, what exactly does this mean?”
“Hmm… that depends. What do you think it means?”
Rainbow had to stop and think for a moment, even if the answer seemed obvious.
“I… This is going to be a long drawn out response, so be prepared.” She watched as Twilight nodded.
“First off, this past week has been awesome. In fact, it’s been better than awesome, twice the awesome that awesome usually is,” she stated, much to the delight of the giggling unicorn. Rainbow realized what she had just done and rolled her eyes.
“During this entire week, two things happened that I never saw coming. First, I looked at the vacation as an actual vacation, but I also saw it as a bonding session with you. I can’t remember any occasions where we spent this much time together. In fact, I think we spent more time together on this vacation than we have since we met.”
Twilight also thought about the lack of time she had spent with Rainbow when first thinking of the vacation idea. Although she always hung out with her friends, she never did spend time exclusively with Rainbow.
“The first of the things I never saw coming is that I actually enjoyed, and even started looking forward to the small lessons on color you gave me. I learned much more than I expected, partially about color, but more about myself. You proved to me that there are parts of me I have that I would never be able to notice myself. Like right now, I never saw myself as an introspective and sensitive mare.”
“I do,” Twilight replied. “It’s only natural to continue learning about yourself and others over time. I still learn things about myself, even with all the reading I do.”
“I suppose,” Rainbow smiled, but the smile disappeared as she became more serious and anxious again. “The other thing that happened is that for the first time in my life serious thoughts of a relationship entered my mind. And just so you know, it was the thought of a romantic relationship with a somepony I knew very well. Over that week, I learned just as much about her as I did about myself, and recognized that maybe I wanted to not only be her friend, but something greater than that.”
The sudden knowledge of Rainbow’s feelings caused a great weight to be lifted off Twilight’s shoulders. Anxiousness was a thing of the past, and she desperately wanted to embrace and kiss the pegasus like she did for no other pony in her life.
However, Twilight respected the situation at hand. The way Rainbow was opening up to her was something she had never seen her do before, and being the friend she was, Twilight wanted Rainbow to say whatever she felt.
“These thoughts lingered in my head long before the vacation, but I never put much emphasis on them. This week brought those thoughts out into the open, to the point where I almost lost control of them. I wanted to let it out so badly, I wanted to tell her how I felt," Rainbow confessed
Although the anxiousness of the situation had left Twilight’s mind, it was replaced with concern for her friend. Rainbow’s personal life was something the unicorn knew little about, and here she was, spilling it out on the floor before her.
“The problem I faced was if I wanted to put our friendship at risk. Maybe she doesn’t feel the same way, then what happens? Am I just supposed to pretend like nothing happened and wave it off? I don’t want that friendship to just turn into a bunch of awkward meetings where neither pony knows what to say.”
Twilight’s heart was breaking, and she just wanted to hug her friend till everything was okay.
“For the first time in my life… I’m scared. A dragon didn’t do it, Nightmare Moon didn’t do it, Discord didn’t do it. What did it was the ever real possibility that I could lose one of my best friends to something my heart wanted. I hope this works out between her and me, but there are so many uncertainties. I’m scared, and I have no idea what to do about it.”
Twilight heard enough, and hopped up onto her bed before allowing Rainbow to fall into her warm embrace. She stroked down her mane, comforting her friend as she heard her sniffle once or twice. Twilight knew Rainbow wasn’t the type to cry, but she seemed as close to it as she had ever witnessed.
She broke away from her friend, holding her chin up so that their faces were perfectly level from one another.
“What color are your eyes?”
“Uh, violet?” Rainbow responded a bit confused.
“And what color are mine?”
“Violet.”
“This is one of the things you and I have in common with one another. What we also have in common is this underlying fear of what might happen to a friendship when romance becomes involved,” Twilight explained.
“That feeling of fear right now, of being frightened over all of the unknowns, don’t you think that she would be feeling the same way? That during this whole vacation, she was just as nervous at times as you were?”
Rainbow thought about it and realized she never did think about how Twilight felt about all of this.
“To answer all of those questions for you, she was. Just like you, she wanted to embark on a more intimate and personal relationship with a friend of hers, but at the same instance, she had no desire to lose the relationship they already shared. There was as much to gain as there was to lose.” Twilight slowly moved her face closer to Rainbow’s, to the point where their noses nearly touched.
“She thought about what she truly desired, and made a decision.”
Twilight closed the distance between them instantly as two pairs of lips met. Rainbow’s eyes widened at just what was happening, a sense of euphoria coursing through her veins as she returned the favor, pushing her own lips back onto Twilight’s.
Their tongues danced as one, creating sparks of electricity that jolted down their spines as they explored one another in ways they only dreamed of. Rainbow could feel her wings extend out to the sides of her, normally something which she would find embarrassing. Now, it was welcomed, a sign of the immense amount of pleasure she was taking from this.
Twilight saw Rainbow’s wings extend, which only worked to excite her more than ever. She felt herself being held and then flipped over as she was now the one lying on the bed, Rainbow asserting herself on top. Twilight watched as she smiled at her, although it was a smile filled with raw passion. She dove back down onto Twilight, the electricity returning as they went for another round. Twilight closed her eyes, a soft pleasurable moan escaping her.
Eventually the two broke apart again, the need for oxygen becoming too overbearing. Together they sat on the bed, staring into one another’s eyes as they recollected on what had just occurred.
“I guess you can determine what decision she made,” Twilight said, her breath still labored. “She might appreciate it also if you were to ask what you were going to ask all along.”
Rainbow could only smile gleefully in anticipation. “Twilight Sparkle, would you like to be my marefriend?”
Twilight giggled, before going onto her back legs while holding one of her hooves, as if she was going to marry her. “I would be delighted to Rainbow Dash.”
“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that answer.”
They hugged one another, before meeting for a small token of their affection in the form of a quick kiss.
Together they relaxed on Twilight’s bed, content with staring up at the ceiling. Their hooves were intertwined, and they felt like they were on cloud nine.
“I always expected relationships to be mushy and full of embarrassing gestures like this. Turns out, I actually enjoy them. Who would have thought it?”
Twilight turned herself over so that she was learning on her side, propped up on one of her hooves. “Like I said before, you learn new stuff about yourself every day.”
“Yeah I guess. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to randomly make out with you in public or anything,” Rainbow teased.
“I wouldn’t expect you to, not that I would mind if you decided to,” Twilight purred. She watched as Rainbow fell over laughing at her attempt to sound sexy. “Give me a break, I’m not going to get it perfect every time.”
Rainbow wiped a tear of joy from her eye. “I think I’m going to be laughing a lot more now being with you,” she replied.
“Seriously though, so this thing between you and us, is official now?”
Twilight nodded.
“Okay, just making sure. This is going to sound surprising coming from me, but I’d like to take things slow. I don’t want to rush you, or myself into levels we aren’t ready for, and I want to make sure both of us are comfortable.”
A genuine look of compassion filled Twilight’s face at the request. “That’s fine by me. Actually, I prefer taking things slow, considering I’ve never been in this type of relationship with anypony before.”
“Yeah… So when do we let everypony else know?”
Twilight never thought about this until now. She wasn’t sure how to break the news to the rest of the group, if she wanted to at all. Twilight assumed all their friends would be accepting, and even encouraging, of their relationship. But that same element of doubt entered her mind on the possibility of one of their friends not supporting them.
“Do you think that they’d all support us?”
Rainbow didn’t even need a second to think about the question. “Twilight, the seven of us will support one another even if we don’t agree on things. As long as they can see that being together makes us happy, I think they’ll all be perfectly happy with that.”
The reassurance made Twilight feel better. “I guess you’re right. Wonder who’ll react to it the…” Both of them turned as they heard echoes of loud knocking on Twilight’s front door. “…most.”
“Twiiiiiilight!?! Raaaaainbow Dash!?!”
“Pinkie Pie?” They questioned in unison.
Both of them stared at one another, before heading downstairs to answer the door. As expected, they were greeted to the sight of an exuberant and joyful pink pony who was holding a box which easily distinguishable as a cake box.
Immediately after opening the door, she began to toss around confetti and glitter, showering Twilight, Rainbow, the door, and herself in sparkling colorful pieces of paper. Twilight looked down at all of it, and her eyes widened in disbelief at the writing on every single piece of confetti.
On every one, were the letters T.S and R.D, centered together on a drawing on a heart.
“Okay okay, so around an hour or so ago I was just making some cupcakes for Derpy when all of a sudden my Pinkie sense went off. Only this time, it was shivers in my front left leg, uncontrollable blinking, twitching in my tail, an inability to say the word chocolate, and itchy hair. Now I never had this combination before, so I spent the last hour trying to figure it out, and only in the last hour did I finally figure it out! And all I can say, is that I’m so happy for you two!!”
Pinkie grabbed both of them in a monstrous bear hug, before letting go and hopping around in pure delight.
“Oh! And so I took some time to bake you guys a cake in celebration. It isn’t much now, but I’m going back to Sugarcube Corner to start planning for the party! This is going to be the most incredible excellent awesome super-duper special celebration for Twilight and Rainbow becoming marefriend and marefriend extravaganza ever! I should start making invitations,” She said, nearly out of breath as she handed the box to Rainbow Dash. “See you two later!”
“Thanks Pinkie,” Twilight replied, watching as her friend zoomed out of view, leaving a trail of dust in her wake.
Both Rainbow and Twilight looked at each other with blank expressions, not exactly sure how to react with what just happened.
“So… I guess we don’t have to tell anypony now do we?” Rainbow assumed.
Twilight shook her head, and started giggling. Eventually her giggling continued, before growing into full blown hysterics as she fell to the floor.
Rainbow watched, soon snickering herself before falling directly next to Twilight in hysterics of her own. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she tried to catch her breath, her sides hurting from how hard she laughed.
“Oh Celestia… I don’t think I’ll ever understand Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said, wiping the tears that had formed out of her own eyes.
“To be honest, Pinkie Pie probably doesn’t understand Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow replied.
Twilight walked over to her fridge and pulled out the pitcher of lemonade from earlier, and a glass to pour it in.
“You know, I just realized. You called the vacation Journey to the Center of the Rainbow right?” Twilight nodded, curious about where Rainbow was going. “It sounds… kind of perverted when you think about it.”
Twilight pondered it for a moment. “Does it… OH! Gross Rainbow, get your mind out of the gutter will you?”
“What? Don’t tell me you didn’t notice it before,” Rainbow teased.
“I didn’t until now,” she whined. “However, if you wanted it to be perverted, I should have called Journey to the Inside of the Rainbow.”
Twilight watched from the corner of her eye as Rainbow started to laugh before going wide eyed at the realization of what she had just said, her face going flushed
“Did you just…” Rainbow asked, struggling to complete her sentence.
Twilight could only giggle at her marefriend’s shocked response.
“This is going to be fun.”