Through Wind and Rain

by xSirius


Chapter 2: "It's not wrong, Twilight."

'You know it's true...'
'What-What's true?!'
'The feeling... you know what it means.'
'The-the feeling...I...I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Sure you do. You just don't want to accept it.'
'I'm sure I'd accept it if I knew what it was!'
'Are you really going to lie to yourself about that?'
'L-Lie?...'
'You know all too well, Twilight. That was more than just a hug, wasn't it?'
'H-How do you know my name? Who are you?!'
'That doesn't matter, does it? What matters, is that you're ignoring your heart, Twilight. That is all that matters.'
'Ignoring my heart? What are you talking about?'
'If you still choose to be obtuse about it, feel free, but know this: You will not find happiness if you continue to ignore what your heart is telling you.'
'...Who are you?...'
'I'm the mare you ought to let yourself be. It's not wrong, Twilight. It's-'
Twilight awoke with a start, sweat dripping off the sides of her face. She was breathing rather hard and she put a hoof to her chest. Quickly, she attempted to gather herself and breath in and out, extending her hoof when exhaling, and bringing back it when she inhaled. Slowly, her mind began to clear of the cacophony of voiceless thoughts that flitted through her mind. Once having a clarified mind, she turned to notice that the storm outside was still raging, but it was a bit brighter than it was yesterday. She sighed, disappointed but not surprised, and cantered to her bathroom located upstairs.
She reached the top of the stairs and turned towards her room. The bathroom was right next to it, so after she was done making herself look presentable, she'd check on Rainbow. She groaned as the feeling returned, but this time it wasn't as evident. It was still annoying since it showed up randomly again, but it wasn't as bad as it could be.
She walked to the bathroom and upon entering, she looked into the mirror. Her hair was in a complete mess. Knots and tangles uglified her mane and tail while bags under her eyes caused her to look much older. A spot of dried drool clung to the left side of her mouth and cheek and fuzz dotted her face with dirty little dust bunnies. Immediately, Twilight ran the bath and decided to check on Rainbow while the tub filled up.
Rainbow was sleeping loudly in Twilight's bed. The covers were ruffled and a pillow was thrown across the room. The window to her room was open, which Twilight promptly closed, and Rainbow was shivering. Twilight frowned and she gently picked up her friend, pillow, and blanket, and carried them downstairs in front of the fireplace. She lit it with a spark of magic and lay the pillow on the ground. She then gently placed Rainbow's head onto the pillow, followed by the body, and then finally set the blanket over her. She smiled as her friend snuggled into the pillow and she turned, heading back up to the bathroom.
Twilight entered the bathroom and shut the water off. She went to put a hoof in, but noticed that the water level wasn't at its normal height from the bottom of the tub and she frowned. She twisted the hot water knob and waited for the water to reach that certain point, which was marked by an incidental scratch, and turned it off. Smiling, she entered slowly, taking time to get used to the scalding hot water. Once completely in the water, she reclined until the water reached her neck and she sighed happily. The water soothed her and she finally felt relaxed; despite the storm that raged merely a few feet to her left.
Her shampoo bottled floated over to her and she briefly submerged herself in the water, and when surfacing, she let out a small burst of air. Her mane now wetted, she popped open the top of it and squeezed the contents onto the main part of her mane. She closed the bottle and set it back to its assigned location and began mixing the shampoo with her hair. Eventually, she had a mass of bubbles where her mane would've been. She held her breath and submerged herself again, making sure her entire mane was underwater and shaking her head so no soap was left trapped within. She surfaced on the other side of the tub so her mane didn't catch any soap on the way up and she stood up, now planning to attend to her tail.
She went through the same process as with her mane and again with her coat. She cleaned thoroughly and, once done, she pulled the drain plug and floated two towels over; one for the floor and one for herself. Once dried, she looked into the mirror again and huffed; the mirror was fogged up so she couldn't see herself. She floated the floor tower over, more or less to give it more purpose, and wiped the mirror again. She groaned as she realized that, yes, she got the fog off, but now it was warped and distorted; her image was barely recognizable. "Pfft..." She brushed her mane anyways. She guessed it; sure it wouldn't look any worse than it usually did.
She brushed her tail, not needing the mirror now, and once done she put the brush back in its proper place. She exited the bathroom and walked into her room. The room was really cold since the window had been open, but it was twice as worse since she was wet. She shivered once and noticed that part of her bed was wet. She assumed it was from the window and she made sure the latch on it was secured before exiting and heading downstairs to make come coffee.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she noticed Rainbow stirring in her sleep. Worried that she may have woken her up, Twilight softened her hoof steps into the kitchen. She floated a pan to the sink and began filling it with water. While it was filling, Twiilght softly cantered over to the cupboard and pulled out a large packet of ground-up coffee beans. She floated the packet alongside her and picked up the pan with more magic. She brought both to the fire and set the pan up on a metal stand especially designed for placing such things on to cook. Once the pan was secured on the stand, Twilight put the packet in the water and simply waited. She had nothing better to do, so she sat down in front of the fire and thought about things. The first thing that came to her mind was her dream.
From what she could remember, she couldn't see anything; her entire vision had been blackened. She couldn't feel anything aside from that bothersome feeling, but she could easily hear and smell. What she smelled was quite a familiar scent; one she could swear she smelled only moments before slipping into unconsciousness, and what she heard was a very ominous voice. It had seemed to know a lot about her, and asked very peculiar questions. It had almost spoke in riddles, except there weren't any catches, she just simply didn't understand them.
The voice, unrecognizable and dark, told her she was to listen to her heart, to stop being "obtuse", but to her knowledge, she was sure she wasn't being as such. However, if she WAS being obtuse, she wouldn't know, would she? She frowned at the thought. Regardless, she found the voice to be irritating. She believed it was insignificant, that it was merely a manifestation of her recently discorded mind, but something seemed to tug at the back of her head. Something about that dream, something the voice said, made her theory of the dream being insignificant collapse. She closed her eyes softly, reflecting back to her dream, back to the conversation between her and the ostensibly omniscient voice.

'...matters is that you're ignoring yo-'

She shook her head, it was beforehand. She discarded the thought so as not to get stuck on it and pressed further back into her subconsciousness.

'...going to lie to yourself about-'

She hit the floor with her hoof. Now she was going too far back. She gritted her teeth and attempted once more.

'You will not find happiness if you continue to ignore what your heart is telling you.'

She growled and hit the floor. 'What WAS it?!' She thought. 'It's somewhere in my head, I know it is! I can't stop now! I have to figure this out!' She took a deep breath and composed herself. She repeated her calming process. She put her hoof on her chest when inhaling, and extended it when exhaling. She did this a couple times before she smiled and relaxed her body. She thought once more, but decided that forcing it wasn't the answer. Instead, she'd simply rethink the entire thing until she found what she wanted.


'You know it's true...'
'What-What's true?!'
'The feeling... you know what it means.'
'The-the feeling...I...I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Sure you do. You just don't want to accept it.'
'I'm sure I'd accept it if I knew what it was!'
'Are you really going to lie to yourself about that?'
'L-Lie?...'
'You know all too well, Twilight. That was more than just a hug, wasn't it?'

Twilight gasped. 'That's it... After saying that I'm lying to myself...'

'You know all too well, Twilight. That was more than just a hug, wasn't it?

Her heart sank. That last sentence demolished her theory. This dream meant something, it had to.

It mentioned the hug too.

Twilight started feeling anxious. The hug was related to that feeling, and Twiilght knew deep down that it was true. She didn't know what it meant, exactly, but she knew that hug had more definition behind it, at least for her. All of a sudden, the word "sensual" appeared in Twilight's head and she quickly shook it away. A dark realization had begun to loom over Twilight.
"Twilight? Are you ok?"
Twilight jumped and let out a small shriek. She rolled to the side and, in the same motion, covered her face with her hooves.
"Wow, Twilight. You such a scaredy-cat!"
She peeked out of the cover of her hooves to see the amused, but tired face of Rainbow Dash.
"You need to buck up, Twilight. Seriously, you'll never get through life with that kind of behavior," She yawned. "You got to be brave and afraid of nothing, like me." She gave a smile.
"Right, Rainbow. Thanks for the advice," Twilight said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Rainbow chuckled tiredly. Her eyes were half way closed and she gave a half-hearted nod. "You're welcome..."
Twilight got to her hooves. "Did I wake you up?" She frowned.
"Nah, I'm a heavy sleeper. Nothing can wake me up."
Twilight rose a brow. "That's not exactly a good thing..."
"But is it a bad thing?" She rose a brow.
Twilight thought about this for a minute and shook her head, giggling. "I guess not entirely, no."
Rainbow smiled again, only a bit wider and with more energy behind it.
Twilight sniffed the air, smelling coffee. She looked over to the pan and noticed it was boiling. Quickly, she lifted the pan up with her magic and cantered into the kitchen with it levitating at her side. She placed a cloth on the table and then promptly set the pan on top of it so as not to burn the wood.
"Twilight, you should grab me a cup of coffee too."
"I have to let it cool down first, otherwise we'd sear our tongues,"
"Sear?"
"Burn. We'd pretty much burn our tongues."
"Oh, well why didn't you just say so? I'm not an egghead so I wouldn't know those words."
Twilight glared at Rainbow.
She let out a nervous chuckle. "Not that you're an egghead, Twilight." She gave a sheepish smile.
"Right... anyways, did you sleep well?"
Rainbow stood up and stretched, straining her front hooves and lifting her rump in the air. Twilight watched and unconsciously began scanning Rainbow's body. She looked at her beautiful face so full of charm. Rainbow's red-violet eyes seemed to pierce right into her heart and her smile sent a wave of heat from her cheeks and through her body. Her eyes continued down Rainbow's form and took in the slender, athletic body. Her physique caused Twilight's mouth to open slightly, allowing a trickle of drool to seep through. Then, slowly, her eyes went to her flank. Almost immediately, her heart sank. She couldn't stop staring, at the more she looked, the more her cheeks burned, until eventually, Rainbow spoke up.
"Er, Twilight? What are you doing?"
She shook her head vigorously, her mane flailing around. When Twilight stopped, her mane was fuzzy and fell in her face. She gave a sheepish grin. "Um, nothing. Nothing at all!"
Rainbow Dash smirked. "Didn't I tell you not to think too hard and that you'd end up hurting yourself one of these days?"
Twilight chuckled nervously. "R-Right. Hehe, silly me." She looked around the room, holding a rather cheesy grin.
Rainbow raised her brow. "What are you doing?"
"What are you talking about?" She said, still holding the exaggerated, cheesy grin.
She stared at Twilight for a moment before shaking her head. "Nevermind, I don't think I want to know, anyways." She chuckled.
'No, no you do not...'
"So," Rainbow began. "What now? Are we seriously trapped in here?"
Twilight frowned. "I wouldn't say "trapped", but we certainly don't want to go outside now...the storm still seems active."
Rainbow pouted and sat down. "This is boring, Twilight. There's nothing to do here."
Then it was Twilight's turn to pout. "I know, but there has to be something...hmm...."
Rainbow thought too, but looked like she was straining herself too hard what with clenched teeth and a scrunched face.
Twilight gasped as a thought popped in her head. She looked at Rainbow and an evil grin appeared on her face.
Rainbow Dash didn't notice it, still in full concentration, but she did notice a pillow hitting the side of her face which snapped her out of her fix. She looked at Twilight, who was still wearing that same evil grin, and picked up the pillow. "You want to play this game, egghead? I'm the master of-" another pillow hit her face, messing up her mane. "Oh, you're gonna get it now!"
She took the two pillows that were thrown at her and flew up into the air. She then darted over Twilight and threw one at her, which Twilight easily caught with her magic and sent right back. Rainbow easily avoided it and swooped down and around, now flying straight at her. Twilight teleported away and Rainbow hit a bookcase, causing it to fall. She was quick and avoided it, but didn't notice as Twilight sent another pillow her way, hitting her face again. Her rainbow mane fell into her eyes and she blew it away, seemingly unamused. She turned to face Twilight, a serious look on her face. "That's it, I'm going all out no-" Another pillow hit her face and slowly slid off of it. "Ok, Twiilght, this is-" Three more pillows hit her face and Twilight let out a small giggle.
Rainbow sighed, a small smile on her face. "Ok, it's kind of funny, but you're not hitting me again! I was being easy." She darted down, narrowly dodging another, and started to fly quickly around the room. Twilight couldn't keep track and quickly started to become dizzy. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had picked up all the pillows around the room and held them in her hooves. One by one she threw them at the dazed Twilight. They hit her, each messing up her mane and making her head turn with the hit.
Once she ran out of ammo, Rainbow landed beside Twilight who lay on the floor, defeated. "I told you I was the-" A pillow hit her from the side and she heard Twilight giggle.
"Loser." Twilight finished for her. She got up and smiled. "I'm no where done yet." All the pillows appeared behind her, aimed at the cyan pegasus.
Rainbow gulped. "Uh oh."
The pillows flew at her with malicious intent. They hit her hard and Rainbow tried to fly, but they nicked her side and unbalanced her. She tried to avoid them, but every time she'd sidestep to avoid a pillow, she was moving right in the path of another. It was hopeless; she couldn't fight back.

Unless.

Rainbow locked her eyes shut and dashed forward. She met the bombardment of fluffy missiles head-on, hitting them aside and working her way to her target. Eventually, she hit it, and she knew it was her target when she heard a small squeak as she tackled it.
She had tackled Twilight, knocking her sense of concentration off balance. The pillows fell and she pinned Twilight to the ground, grinning. "I told you, I am the-" She tensed, anticipating a pillow, but it never came. She smiled and continued. "I told you, I am the champion at this game, Twilight...wait...Twilight?"
Twilight's face was beet red. Her eyes were widened and her jaw was locked. Her body was tense while under Rainbow and she could do nothing but look into her eyes. She was speechless.
Her friend poked her nose. "Twilight, are you alright?"
She slowly nodded yes.
"Then what's up with the red on your cheeks?" She thought a moment. "Are...are you blushing? Is that a blush?!" Rainbow raised a brow. "Why would you be blushing?"
Twilight gulped. "I-I don't know!" She said quickly. She floated Rainbow off and got up, brushing the dust from her coat and immediately straightening up.
Rainbow Dash watched her, still a bit perplexed. "Twi?"
She froze at the sound of her name. "Y-yes?"
"Do you...nevermind," She casted it aside with a wave of a hoof. "It's nothing."
Twilight nodded her head slowly. "Um...alright... Help me straighten up, will you?"
Rainbow Dash pouted. "You started it all!"
"Rainbow...please?..."
The cyan pegasus kicked at the floor and sighed. "Fine. I'll help..."
"Thank you, Dash."
Her ears perked. "Dash? When did you start calling me that?"
Twilight gulped again. 'I have no idea...' She thought. "I don't know," She said. "I guess it just slipped."
Rainbow shrugged and went to cleaning. She began by putting up the bookcase while Twilight was putting the pillows in their proper locations. Once she got the bookcase back up, which took longer than she expected, Twilight cantered over and began sorting them all out. "Why don't you go fix yourself something to eat? Make yourself at home, Rainbow."
"Um, ok, Twi. Whatever you say." She walked into the kitchen and almost immediately Twilight heard something break. Her ears lowered and she let out a deep sigh.
"SORRY!"
"It's fine, Rainbow Dash." Twilight flinched as she heard another dish break, followed by another apology from Rainbow Dash. 'This is going to be a long day...' She thought, and was she ever so right. At that moment, the window in the library shattered.