//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: TMP - Twidash Style // by Liquidfirest0rm //------------------------------// Prompt #2: Appleshocked Applejack walks in on a romantic moment between Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Twilight and Rainbow Dash laid beside each other in the upstairs room of the Ponyville library. Their attention was on the book laying before them; the latest Daring Do novel that had arrived earlier that morning. Twilight’s wing was draped over Rainbow’s back, and would flex and relax along with the scenes playing out in the book. Thought Rainbow would never admit it to anyone, having the large wing blanketed over her made her feel safe and secure. As they read along, they came across one of the romantic parts of the book, and Rainbow felt Twilight’s wingtip start tracing small circles over her cutie mark. This sent a chill up her spine, and she extended her own wing, returning the gesture. It was a very intimate Pegasus gesture, one that she had been surprised that Twilight knew about. She looked up at Twilight, finding her gazing back, a look of love and compassion in her eyes. Leaning together at the same time, they came together in a passionate kiss. One of Twilight’s forelegs snaked its way behind Rainbow’s head and pulled her in closer as their tongues battled for dominance. Just then, the door opened and they were greeted by a familiar voice. “Hey Twi-” Applejack made her way through town, her destination being the library home of her friend Twilight Sparkle. Her visit today was not to the home owner, however, but to the blue Pegasus that she knew would be there. She’d had her eye on Rainbow for quite some time now, and had finally worked up the nerve to tell her. Having learned about Rainbow being a filly fooler after a truth or dare game during one of their slumber parties, she was able to check that off of her list of worries. Now she just had to worry about how Rainbow would respond to her confession. Being lost in her thoughts, she was soon standing in front of the door to the library without even having realized she had arrived. Taking a few moments to compose herself, she raised a hoof and knocked soundly three times. She knew Rainbow would be here today, it was her and Twilight’s ‘reading day’. The energetic flyer never missed out on their reading days. The door opened revealing a familiar purple dragon. “Howdy, Spike.” “Hey, Applejack. What brings you here today?” He asked in his usual cheerful manor. “Ah’m actually lookin’ fer Rainbow. She here?” “Yeah, she’s upstairs with Twilight doing their reading day thing.” He said as he moved out of the doorway so she could come inside. He pointed towards the stairs as he headed back over towards a half-shelved book pile. “You can go on up and get her.” “Thank ya kindly.” She said with a tip of her hat. Making her way across the room, she headed up the stairs and headed the short distance down the hall to the closed door. Pushing it open, she strode in, already speaking before she had crossed the threshold. “Hey Twi-” She froze mid stride, her face blanched, and she was pretty sure her heart skipped a few beats. She couldn’t have cared less if it had stopped working all together at this moment. On the bed before her, Rainbow and Twilight were locked in a passionate kiss. Twilight had a wing wrapped around Rainbow’s back and one of her legs was behind her head pulling her deeper into the kiss. They quickly separated upon registering her voice, both of their faces red as they looked in her direction. “H-h-hey, AJ.” Rainbow started before clearing her throat and rubbing the back of her head with a foreleg. Applejack simply bolted out the door, the look of pain on her face had been clearly evident to both of them. They shared a look of confusion for a moment before Rainbow took off after her. Twilight called up her magic and a moment later disappeared in a bright flash, the book they were reading falling to the floor with a thud. Applejack was barreling through town at a breakneck gallop. Her heart had been smashed to pieces and she just wanted to run until she couldn’t run anymore. She wanted to run away and never return. Tears streamed down her face as the scene she had walked in on played over and over in her head, as if it was taunting her. She was so lost in her emotions that she didn’t even notice the bright flash ahead of her, and the impact of running into somepony else barely even registered as they tumbled to the ground. She shook her head and looked to see what she had run into. The lavender mass of hooves and feathers that lay before her let out a groan before slowly raising up to a sitting position. Picking up her hat and reseating it on her head, she glared at Twilight before she ran off again. “Applejack!” She heard Twilight call out. Ignoring her calls she continued running, or at least she tried to before she was surrounded in a purple glow. She slumped in defeat and just let her tears flow as she floated back to the lavender Alicorn. “Applejack, what’s wrong? Why do you keep running away?” Applejack said nothing for a few moments, then turned to face her with a glare of hatred. “What’s wrong? She said through gritted teeth. “What’s wrong?! Ya ruined everything that’s what’s wrong!” She turned away as fresh tears burned in her eyes. “What do you mean? What did I do?” Twilight asked, a look of fear in her eyes as she ran through her mind as to what she could have done to upset her friend so deeply. “Ya sto…” Applejack mumbled, most of her sentence being to low to be heard. “What was that?” “Ah said ya stole Rainbow from me!” Her outburst caused Twilight to gasp and she dropped her as Twilight’s concentration was broken. Applejack continued as if nothing had happened. “Ah finally got tha nerve ta tell her how I feel…” She trailed off as she heard the sound of flapping followed by a soft thud. Looking up, she saw Rainbow now stood beside Twilight with a worried look on her face, Twilight’s face still held a look of shock with a foreleg covering her mouth and tears brimming in the corners of her eyes. “Tell who what?” Rainbow asked, only having heard pieces of the last statement, she looked at Twilight’s expression for a moment, before turning back with a look that asked for answers, “Why’d you run off like that?” Applejack sighed and slumped to the ground. Twilight she could be angry with, Twilight she could lie to. Rainbow on the other hoof, she just couldn’t bring herself to be angry with, and there was no use hiding her feeling for her any longer. “You, Rainbow.” The other mare stared at her quizzically. She sat up straight before continuing on. “Ah… Ah like ya, Rainbow, and Ah mean in the ‘more than just friends’ way.” She admitted, letting her head droop. “When Ah stopped by, Ah was gonna tell ya how a felt about ya. Then Ah walked in on ya’ll and Ah panicked, that’s why Ah ran.” She finished dejectedly. Rainbow stood there, a look of shock on her face that mirrored Twilight’s. Twilight broke out of her stupor, her gaze switching between the two. On one hoof, there was no way she would give up Rainbow On the other she had a heartbroken friend and there was no way to help her without causing herself pain. An idea suddenly popped into her head about something she had come across in one of her books. She looked back to the other two mares with a gleam of nervous excitement in her eyes. “I… Um… I may have a way for this to work out for all three of us.” Both heads snapped to face her and the nervousness quickly threatened to overwhelm her. “It will require a lot of open mindedness on all of our parts, but it might work.” She was met with looks of confusion. “Let’s go back to the library, I’ll explain there.” With affirmative nods, the group headed back to the tree home. Once they arrived Twilight immediately began searching through her books. After cleaning off two and a half shelves, she finally stopped with a loud ‘Ah-ha!’. She flipped through the pages as she brought the book to the center table. She stopped on a page and set the book down in front of Rainbow and Applejack. They both looked at the title of the chapter written in big letters at the top of the page; it read ‘Herds’. They both looked up at Twilight waiting for further explanation. “While it isn’t commonly practiced anymore, forming a herd allows for multiple ponies to be in the same relationship. Usually its between a stallion and several mares but there isn’t anything saying that one is required to start a herd. Like I said before, its going to take a lot of work and open mindedness to make this work. I know Rainbow has told me she has some feelings towards you, and I’d be willing to try and make things work between us.” “Ah don’t know, Twi.” Applejack started as her eyes returned to the page before her. “Can you excuse us for a minute AJ?” Rainbow interrupted and started shoving Twilight towards the kitchen. Once they were inside and the door was shut, Twilight turned around coming face to face with an angry Rainbow Dash. “What the hay was that!?” Rainbow shouted causing Twilight to back away and cower slightly before the fuming Pegasus. “I’m sorry! I was just trying to find a solution that would make everyone happy.” “It’s not that simple sometimes!” Rainbow turned her glare towards a random spot on the floor, trying not to frighten the purple Alicorn any more. “Maybe not in every case, but this time it could be! You told me yourself that if we hadn’t gotten together you would have gone after her instead. She obviously likes you back so what’s so wrong about this?” “So what happens if this doesn’t work out and it ruins things between all three of us?” Twilight’s mouth opened to respond but nothing came out. “As much as I would like to have both of you, I’m not willing to risk what we have to make that a reality.” She gave Twilight a gentle nuzzle as she finished. Twilight was quiet for a few moments, pondering on the situation. She said nothing but her brow furrowed in concentration. Finally she looked up at Rainbow with a glint of determination in her eyes. “What if we give this whole thing a test run?” Rainbow let out an exasperated sigh, but Twilight held up a hoof to stop her reply. “Hear me out before you go off again. Why don’t we give this a chance and see how things work out? If it turns out that things won’t work out between the three of us, we call it off and go back to just being us.” “I still say this is a bad idea, but you aren’t going to let this go are you?” Twilight pulled out her secret weapon and put on her adorable pout that she knew Rainbow couldn’t say know to. Rainbow let out a long sigh before leaning forward and giving her a hug. “Fine, but if this doesn’t work out, this whole thing was your idea.” She finished giving Twilight a playful bop on the nose. “Oh thank you, Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed giving her a quick kiss. “I promise I’m going to do everything I can to help make this work.” She finished and promptly ran back into the main room. “I know you will Twi, I know you will.” Rainbow said out loud, before turning and following after her marefriend. An hour and a half later, Twilight had thoroughly explained the concept to Applejack and fully answered any questions the farm mare threw her way. Rainbow couldn’t believe it but somehow Twilight had convinced Applejack to go along with it. She couldn’t deny a sense of giddiness inside of her when she thought about the fact that she had a date with the mares of her dreams this coming weekend.