My head was still spinning when we walked out of Doctor Hooves’ office. I felt like I had just been thrown back into flight school for a class, except this time everything I learned actually affected my life. I mean, c’mon, when was a weather pony like me actually going to need to know about ancient pony society?
Anyways… I stole a glance at Twilight. I couldn’t decide what had startled me most, the fact that Twilight was one of the most magical unicorns in Equestria while on magic suppressors, or that she used to be addicted to salt sticks.
“Rainbow? Are you alright?” Twilight asked, looking at me with a concerned look on her face.
“Um…” I said, shaking my head to get rid of the thoughts cluttering it up. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I know that it was a lot to take in at once. And you were kind of looking at me funny. Wait, I don’t have something stuck on my face, do I?” Twilight said, trying to catch a look at her reflection in one of the windows one a nearby store.
“No, no, your face is beautiful,” I said without thinking. It was only when Twilight gasped and blushed that I replayed the words in my head and realized what I had said. “That—that’s not to say that the rest of you isn’t beautiful! I just think that your face is extra awesome right now!”
By this point, Twilight’s face was deep red, and judging from the heat in my cheeks, I wasn’t much better. “T—thank you, Rainbow, your face is awesome too,” Twilight said, sounding very awkward.
“C-cool.” Great, now both of us were just standing there blushing like a couple of dorks. “So, Twi, what are your plans for the rest of the day?” I asked, trying to get my heart rate back under control.
“Well, I need to go by the drug store and pick up my prescription. After that, well, I don’t really have anything planned out,” Twilight said, gesturing towards the middle of town.
“Is the drug store anywhere near Bon Bon’s?”
Twilight tilted her head in puzzlement. “No, not really, but if you were heading towards her shop, then you would pass by the pharmacy. I guess you could say that it’s on the way to Bon Bon’s. Why?”
“Well…” I rubbed the back of my head. “I sort of ran into her in town the other day, and kind of agreed to help her out in the shop as a way of repaying all that candy that I ruined when I crashed into her store.”
“Didn’t that happen quite a while ago?” Twilight asked. “Why would you start helping her now? That’s a little unlike you.”
“Well, I ran into her the other day while I was clearing the sky, and—wait a minute, what do you mean that’s unlike me? Are you implying that I don’t help ponies out when I mess up?” I said, fuming a little.
Twilight’s eyes widened. “No, no! I just meant that you tend to fly off quickly whenever you feel like you messed up!” She winced. “No, that’s not right either. I just mean that you… um… I’m sorry!”
“Just… just forget it. C’mon, let’s go to the drug store,” I said, feeling insulted, but not wanting to press the issue more.
The walk to the pharmacy was completely silent, with Twilight shooting me nervous glances the whole time. I just let her stew in it for a little. I know that was mean of me, but I was feeling hurt by what she had said. I mean, I know I have a bad habit of not being as considerate as I should be, but Twilight should have been more understanding and tactful! She is my marefriend after all!
…my marefriend with a problem that keeps her from realizing when she is being socially insensitive…
That shouldn’t matter! She should just try harder! Yeah!
I nearly facehoofed. In light of everything I just learned, I was thinking about telling her to just get over it? Yeah, that would go well. Twilight, I know your brain is different on a basic level and that causes you many problems, but can’t you just try harder and act normal?
“I’m sorry,” I said, at the exact same time Twilight said “I apologize.”
We stared at each other for a moment before we both burst out laughing. “Strange minds think alike, I guess,” I said, before flinching at my poor choice of words.
Luckily, Twilight didn’t seem to notice. “I’m sorry about insulting you,” she said. “I know you are working on being more considerate, and I shouldn’t have made light of that. But, I’m curious. What were you apologizing for? I was the one in the wrong.”
“Oh, I was just thinking some mean things, but then I realized how much of a jerk I was being in my own head, and, you know, I just didn’t want to keep feeling like a jerk. So, I’m sorry.”
“Oh, apology accepted, Rainbow,” Twilight said with a smile. “Ah, were here!”
I looked up at the big Rx symbol painted on the building. I had been in the building before, of course. Admittedly, most of the time it was for candy, but I had been the one to pick up Scootaloo’s medicine when she was down with the feather flu.
“So, what do you want to do, Twilight? I’ve got to get to Bon Bon’s soon, so do you want to just meet up again tomorrow? We could get lunch at the café,” I said.
“Well,” Twilight said, peering into the store, “it looks like the line isn’t too long. I could drop off my prescription, and since it take them about a half hour to get it ready, I could follow you to Bon Bon’s and get myself a snack before coming back here. Does that sound good to you?”
“Sure thing, Twi.”
Twilight just nodded and entered the store. I watched her as she stood in line.
I gotta say, this relationship hasn’t been anything like I expected. Before I had worked up the courage to ask Twilight out on a date, I had this image in my head of us just frolicking in some sort of meadow with everything being sunshine and rainbows.
That was probably the most unrealistic expectation I had ever had. Even if Twilight had been a normal pony, we were still adults, with responsibilities. We didn’t have time to just stand around staring into each other’s eyes, like we had drank some love potion.
But Twilight wasn’t a normal pony. I don’t mean that she had A.C.M.S. I mean that she was a brilliant and beautiful mare that sometimes didn’t give herself enough credit. She was sweet and immensely caring. If she managed to pick up that something was bugging somepony, she wouldn’t rest until she had fixed the problem. Whenever we had a problem that was bigger in scale than the rest of us could handle, she would gladly step up to the plate and lead us all through the fire and flames and get us all out alive. Heck, more than alive: we would be victorious!
In short, Twilight was far from a normal mare, and her A.C.M.S. didn’t have a damn thing to do with it.
I wouldn’t trade this relationship for all the meadow frolicking in the world.
“Dang it, Twi, you’re making me all sappy,” I said out loud, wiping a tear from my eye.
“I’m… sorry about that?”
“Gah!” I jumped about ten feet in the air. “Twilight, don’t, don’t scare me like that!”
“How could I have scared you? You were watching me walk up to you the whole time… I didn’t actually cast an invisibility spell on myself again, did I?” Twilight asked, spinning in circles to try and catch a glimpse of herself.
“No, no, I was just thinking,” I said. “Wait, again? You mean you have actually cast an invisibility spell on yourself… by accident? That sounds like a story.”
Twilight just laughed. “It’s actually quite simple, you see—“
“Oh, hello again. It’s a pleasure to see you here, little miss perfect. Oh, and look! You brought along your pity date!”
Twilight and I whirled around at the sound of the familiar and smug voice.
Blood Work was standing there, the same haughty look on her face as the last time we saw her.
“Oh, hello, Blood Work. How are you today?” Twilight asked, her tone pleasant.
The other unicorn looked surprised at the seemingly genuine greeting. “I’m…um, well I’m doing better than you are!” she said.
I had to bite my hoof to keep from laughing at the lameness of her response.
“That’s good to hear, Blood Work. Do you prefer to go by Blood, or Work, or maybe your full name?” Twilight asked, sounding honestly curious.
“Um, most ponies call me Blood…”
“Great!” Twilight exclaimed, clapping her hooves together. “Rainbow and I were just headed to Bon Bon’s candy shop. Would you like to come with us, Blood?”
I stared at Twilight in horror. Did she really think that inviting this smug jerk along would be anything other than pure torture?
Blood Work’s face scrunched up, as if she had just caught a particularly disgusting smell. “No! And you don’t get to call me that. Only my friends call me that!”
“We’re… we’re not friends?” Suddenly Twilight looked like she was about to cry.
The red unicorn apparently had no idea what to say to that. She just stood there, looking puzzled.
“C’mon, Blood! I really want a friend that I can discuss my theories with. Somepony as smart as you would be able to keep up with what I’m saying!” Twilight said, pleadingly.
You know, I would have been more insulted at the way she implied that I couldn’t keep up with her when she started talking about her research, but… it was true.
Blood Work’s face suddenly transformed into a snarl. “What did you just say?” she practically spat at Twilight. “Why don’t you come down out of your ivory tower? ‘As smart as you?’ I’m smarter than you, and you know it!”
Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but apparently Blood Work wasn’t finished talking yet. “And I don’t know what is with the whole ‘I want to be friends’ act, but stop it! I am not, and never will be, your friend!” she yelled, advancing on Twilight.
“Okay, enough is enough!” I said, quickly putting myself between the two of them. “I don’t know what your deal is, Blood Work, but you better back off.”
“And some thick-skulled pegasus is going to stop me? Don’t make me laugh,” she said, looking furious.
I cracked my neck as threateningly as I could. “You better believe I will, if you take one more step towards Twilight.”
That seemed to actually get through to her. “Fine, but Just remember, I will be the one to get the Canterlot Charity Society grant! Not you, Twilight!” she said.
“Right, because your track record sure backs that up, Miss Second Place,” I said, not wanting her to get the last word.
Wow, if looks could kill, I think I would have been buried on the spot.
“C’mon, Twi, we need to get going if I’m gonna make it to Bon Bon’s on time,” I said, not taking my eyes off of Blood Work as she turned and walked into the drug store, patting one of the pockets on her vest.
“Okay, let’s go, Rainbow.”
I waited until I was sure that we were out of earshot of the store before I turned to Twilight. “All right, Twi, you have got to tell me… were you actually being serious about being her friend? Because I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
Twilight shrugged. “Well, that was part of it. I felt that it was best to put the offer on the table, just in case she was acting mean because she was lonely. Hopefully, she will think about what I said, and I might get a new friend out of it.”
“That does sound like something you would do. But you said that was part of it… what’s the other part?”
“Well…” Twilight said, looking away from me. “If she didn’t want to be my friend, Lyra warned me that acting that way would infuriate her, and after she called you a ‘pity date’ I, well, I wanted revenge, so to speak.”
I laughed. “Well, that’s not the way I would have done it, but I guess you showed her!”
“Oh? And what way would you have done it?”
“A hoof to the face!” I said, gesturing a bit more forcefully than I had meant to, nearly knocking myself over.
“Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed, looking horrified. “Violence is never the answer! You can’t just go around hitting ponies!”
“Don’t worry, I only hit ponies that really deserve it,” I said dismissively.
Twilight stared at me in horror.
“That was a joke,” I clarified.
That seemed to calm her down, and we continued on our way to the candy store. We were almost there when a thought occurred to me.
“Hey, Twilight? Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course!” she said, smiling.
“When we were back at the doctor’s office, you said that you didn’t have any symptoms this week. What about that night when you woke up crying?” I asked.
Twilight’s ears went flat against her head, and she forced a laugh. “Oh, that wasn’t a symptom! It was just a bad dream, nothing to bother him about!”
“Isn’t it his job to be bothered about things like that?”
“Well, yes…”
“Look, I don’t mean to pry, but if you have nightmares like that sometimes, wouldn’t he be the best pony to help you with them?”
“I guess…”
“Twilight,” I said, grabbing her chin gently and turning her to face me. “Like I said, I don’t mean to pry, but I would feel better knowing that you talked about that with him. Okay?”
Twilight nodded. “I know. It’s silly of me to hide things from my doctor. Actually, scratch that, it’s actually dangerous to hide things from your doctor. I’ll talk to him next time.”
I nodded, then stopped dead in my tracks. I had nearly walked right by the large sign saying Candy and Cookies.
“We’re here, I guess. You want to come in with me?” I asked.
“No, I better get back to the pharmacy. They should have my prescription ready by the time I get back. I do have enough for another few weeks, but it would be rude to keep them waiting.” Twilight said.
“Oh. Why do you have so much extra?”
“Well, it’s just in case of emergencies. That way if Doctor Hooves goes out of town for a while, I’ll still be set.”
“Oh. I guess you better get going then.”
“Sorry,” Twilight said. “When do you expect to finish helping Bon Bon?”
“The deal is that I work from 2 to 11 for a week, then we call it even. So… not until late,” I said with a groan.
“Really? What about your weather duties?”
“That’s what the morning is for. Do my weather work in the morning, take a nap, then work for her.”
“But… but…” Twilight stuttered, looking rather put out. “When will we have time to be together?”
I grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, about that…”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “You… you aren’t…” she paused for a moment, before taking a big gulp of air and closing her eyes. “No. You are not breaking up with me. In fact, you don’t even want to spend the time away from me, but circumstances have forced your hoof.” She cracked open an eye. “Right?”
I nodded, relived that I wouldn’t have to reassure her again. “Listen, it’s only for a week. We can hang out plenty next week,” I said.
“That sounds good. I’ll miss you though. It’s been kind of nice to have somepony that I can talk to about my A.C.M.S. openly.”
“You know…” I said, before pausing to think about how to best phrase this. “If you told more ponies, then you would have more ponies to be open with. It’s just a suggestion!” I added hastily.
“You know, if you had said that a few weeks ago, I would have shot you down immediately. But…”
“But…” I prompted, motioning with my hoof for her to continue.
“Like I said, it’s been nice not having to hide this secret from you. I still don’t want to shout it from the rooftops, but telling our
friends… I’ll think about it.” Twilight said.
“Of course I don’t want you to tell random ponies off the street, you silly filly. It’s fully your business who you want to tell.” I said, happy that she was at least considering it.
“I’ll need to talk this over with Doctor Hooves, you know. Not that I need his permission or anything, but he could help me figure out what to say. I’ll bring it up at our next session.”
“Sounds good, Twilight,” I said, looking into her eyes. She gazed back into mine, a goofy smile on her face. I shouldn’t really talk, though, cause I’m pretty sure I had the same expression on my face.
“Hey! Lovebirds!”
Twilight and I spun around to find Bon Bon staring at us. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but its a few minutes past two! That means you’re late, Rainbow Dash! Now get in here, before I make you work an extra day!” she said, before turning and heading back into her shop.
“Sorry, Twi, I’ve got to go!” I said, rushing into the shop. The last thing I wanted was to spend an extra day at the candy shop.
“That’s all right, I need to go pick up my prescription,” Twilight called after me.
“Okay, I’m here! What do you need me to do?” I asked Bon Bon as I stepped around the counter of the shop.
Bon Bon just grinned. “Let’s get started, oh assistant of mine,” she said, with a gleam in her eye that could only be called predatory. “My normal worker is out of town for the week, so I need you to pick up the slack.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. What had I gotten myself into?