//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Fractures // Story: A Heart Warming Eve // by Vex //------------------------------// The magically enchanted hearth continued to flicker as each lick of flame danced their tango with one another, fighting for every scrap of fuel as they radiated a warm, comfortable heat. Not only did the hearth fight of the winter’s cold grasp, but it served as a reminder that in everypony’s heart as families gathered around to remember that just as a warm fire brings together family and friends, the fire in each other’s hearts brings prosperity and joy to their communities. Despite the differences of anypony residing in said community, if the founders of Equestria had already learnt this lesson, the entire windigo incident would’ve been avoided entirely. But of course, then we wouldn’t have Hearth’s Warming Eve would we? Some things just have to be found out the hard way. “Can we please just get back to reading the Celestia-damned story?” Rainbow Dash pleaded, her ears folded down against her skull in embarrassment. “But of course! My turn is over though I am afraid. Who wants to go next girls?” asked Rarity, examining each of her friends. Pinkie’s hoof shot straight into the air as she waved it around for everypony to see, “Oh! Me! Pick me! C’mon Rarity, pick me!” she exclaimed, grinning at her fashionista friend. Rarity cast a small, peaceful smile to her pink-coated friend as she gently levitated the tome towards her and set it in front of her. “All right Pinkie, but do be gentle with it please?” she asked. Pinkie waved a hoof dismissively at her, “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle Rarity! I won’t even hit them like Twilight does!” a faint thud came from Twilight’s direction as her forehoof connected to her face but Pinkie showed no signs of acknowledging it as she started reading aloud. Twilight didn’t have to wait long, she could already spot the chromatic speck in the sky getting closer by the second before eventually screeching to a halt just in front of her, her jaw dropping from sheer confusion. “You- Bwah? How?! How in Equestria did you get here before me?!” she acclaimed, raising her forearms above her head in exasperation. Twilight raised an eyebrow before teleporting to her side, giggling as her friend sighed and joined her in her laughter. “Of course, you and your teleporting,” she chuckled, lightly punching the librarian in the shoulder. Twilight rolled her eyes and rubbed the spot on her shoulder a little, “Oh come on Dash, you know teleporting is my specialty,” she answered watching as her friend scoffed at the remark. “Come on Twilight, EVERY type of magic is your specialty and you’re totally awesome at it! Hay, you’re like a unicorn version of me!” Rainbow stopped for a second. “Well, a more egghead unicorn version of me anyway,” she corrected. Twilight blushed at the compliment, knowing full well that Rainbow meant every word. Rainbow may not be the most humble pony, but that me be partly because she does have reason to brag about her ability; she is one of the fastest pegasi in Equestria and her loyalty knows no bounds. Twilight may not be a prideful pony, but to be compared to someone as talented as Rainbow did make her feel pretty damn good about herself. “Thanks Rainbow, maybe one day I’ll be as talented as you are,” unfortunately, it was still not good enough to forget about her self-consciousness, her head drooped a little and she began avoiding her friends gaze. Rainbow’s features softened and she reached out and held the bookworm’s chin up, “Heh, c’mon Twi, you know that after the amount of time we’ve been hanging out, my awesomeness is already rubbing off on you quite a lot, hay one day you may be as awesome as me at this rate. You’re a lot closer to me than you think Twilight ” she chuckled. Twilight stared into the sparkling, magenta orbs, noticing a small, subtle look in her magenta’ eyes. She mulled a little over what she had said before reaching a logical conclusion. “I am kinda awesome aren’t I?” she said happily, smiling happily as she reached over and hugged her pegasus friend, who hugged her back almost immediately. They both embraced each other silently for a moment before Rainbow broke the silence, “Only kinda?” she questioned, rolling her eyes as Twilight replied with a shy nod, “Well it’s a start, I’ll give you that,” she chuckled , ruffling her mane a bit before looking around curiously. “So… I’m no expert on ice skating or anything but don’t we need, you know… ice skates?” she asked. “Of course! Pinkie always keeps a couple of pairs stashed around here, in case of skating emergencies!” she replied happily, pulling out four pairs of brightly coloured skates. Rainbow shook her head and chuckled as Twilight helped her put hers on, “That sounds exactly like her. I mean who else sounds so fun and caring? Not to mention how full her mane is and how pretty she is!” Pinkie looked up from the book to see all of her friends staring at her suspiciously. “…What? Is Gummy in my mane again?” she asked, shaking her mane vigorously just for good measure. Twilight spoke up first out of the group, “Pinkie, I’m pretty sure that I never wrote in that last line of Pinkies dialogue,” she said, being about as blunt as a boulder to the face. “Pinkie dear, you didn’t… add anything in did you?” asked Rarity. “What!? Of course not!” she exclaimed, showing the page she was on to the rest of the gaggle of mares. As they read, the audible sound of teeth grinding together could be heard coming from Twilight’s direction. The reason being that where a neatly written line of dialogue had been, a pink line was now crossed through it and some hastily scribbled, pink words had been written in the gap above. “See? It was already there! I just read what was in the book,” she said happily. “Pinkie, that took me the whole year to complete! Now it’s ruined!” Twilight shouted as her mane and tail slowly began to smoulder. “Umm, Twilight, isn’t there some sort of spell you can do to fix it? I mean, if you wanted to that is…” quietly added Fluttershy Twilight froze as a revelation hit her, a triumphant grin spreading across her muzzle shortly after. “Why yes Fluttershy, I think I have just the spell,” she said happily, her horn glowing in a deep, lavender aura, causing all of the pink lettering to disappear in a flash of magic. “Hey!” shouted Pinkie, “You can’t just control-z my work! That was the best dialogue of the century!” “First off Pinkie, that was an ‘undo’ spell. Secondly, you can’t just vandalise somepony’s hard work, it’s disrespectful,” Twilight said in her ‘lecturing’ tone. “Now if apologise and don’t do it again, you can continue reading it.” “But it was the authors fault!” she protested. “Pinkie.” Sighing in defeat, Pinkie ears drooped and she looked into Twilight’s eyes, “I’m sorry Twilight, I won’t do it again, I Pinkie Promise,” she said genuinely before do the next associated actions, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she chanted. Twilight allowed a small smile onto her lips, satisfied with her reply “Thank you Pinkie Pie, you may continue.” Rainbow shook her head and chuckled as Twilight helped her put hers on, “That sounds like Pinkie, though I can’t say I don’t appreciate it,” she chuckled, lifting up a forehoof to as for Twilight as she helpfully began to fit on the athlete’s skates one hoof at a time. “This one time, Dinky Doo (Ditzy Doo’s daughter), lost her ball. She was crying and wailing, the whole scene began to make everypony tear up a little (except me), and then I remembered how Pink’s keeps her balls around in case of emergencies! You should’ve seen the kid’s face, she looked at me as if I had just saved the world,” she said, smiling a little in a prideful way before looking back to her friend with a glimmer in her eyes, just as Twilight finished fitting the last skate. “Aww, Rainbow, it sounds like she really admired you,” she said with a cute, adoring smile, clearly relishing the sight of Rainbow’s soft side. It was a rare, exceptional thing to see the pegasus talking about such subjects (asides from the rather common boasting about her ‘Awesome-osity’), it was an experience only her closest friends got the chance to see. “Heh, yeah,” she chuckled, “Ditzy and I have been friends ever since we were just fillies and when she had her foal a few years ago I helped out a lot after Dinky’s father left for a so called ‘work trip’. Ditzy insists he’ll come back one day when fedoras are cool, but personally I think he’s gone for good” she sighed. “Anyway, a few days after that ball incident, Ditzy told me that Dinky thought of me as her own father, which to be honest, felt kind of awkward at first. But, after I got over the gender part I realised she simply meant she thought of me as her other parent. It was the first time that I ever felt like I didn’t deserve something,” Rainbow turned her back to Twilight quickly, who could’ve sworn she saw her wipe a tear from one of her beautiful, magenta eyes. “Anyway, enough of this mushy stuff, I think it’s time you taught me to use these bad boys!” exclaimed Rainbow, a look of determination in her eyes as she pumped a forehoof in the air... …and promptly fell flat on her muzzle… “Ow,” she grunted. Twilight giggled a little at her friend, much to her embarrassment, before helping her up with her magic, “That brings up the first step for today’s lesson: Balancing on the Skates and Ice,” she said in her lecturing voice. “You should pick up on this one quite quick considering how much balance is also required during pegasus flight, so what I want you to do is try standing in your normal posture while on the ice with your skates.” Rainbow gave a quick nod, “You got it Twi’! I promise I won’t let you down!” she exclaimed, slowly and a little shakily pulling herself back up to all fours. “Oh Rainbow, I don’t expect you to learn it all in ten seconds flat, you couldn’t let me down even if you-” she watched in awe as the pegasus struck a small pose while staying perfectly balanced on the ice, “-… tried…” Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest in pride as she watched Twilight’s jaw drop, “I told ya’ I had it!” she said, bursting with pride as she waited for her teachers review. Twilight took a moment to recover from her shock, “Well done Dash! I told you you’d be a natural at this!” praised Twilight, “Now, try pushing off the ice two hooves at a time, make sure that one is a back hoof and one is a front hoof while making sure they are both not from the same side. Since we have wings we can easily use them to stabilize ourselves while we skate, like so,” she explained, showing a quick demonstration by skating a lap around the frozen pond, her wings outstretched and angled slightly for more slightly more downwards force. Rainbow Dash nodded eagerly and took up a starting pose, “All right, here I go!” she exclaimed, taking off a little slowly and wobbling a little as she skated about a metre or so before repeating the process. After three laps or so under the alicorn’s careful guidance, Rainbow Dash was skating circles around Twilight. Literally. “Heh, check out Twilight! I’ve got this whole skating thing wrapped up more than Winter!... Well except for that year Discord tried to help anyway…” she chuckled, still performing perfect circles around her bookish friend. “Twilight, dear, I thought we all agreed to never talk about last year’s Winter Wrap Up ever again?” stated Rarity, watching as Twilight winced at the mention of said year. “Well… I figured since it’s just fiction it wouldn’t matter, besides, reading it in a fiction book helped me forget the whole ordeal was real,” sighed Twilight. The girls all seemed to think about it for a second before coming to a joint decision. “Seem’s good ‘nuf for me.” “Umm…” “That year was FUN!” “I never wanna see another candy cloud as long as I live.” “Green is just not my colour.” Well… Maybe joint wasn’t the right word. Twilight began to speak as Dash skated circles around her, “All right Rainbow, now that you’ve got the basics down let’s get to the advanced sect-” CRACK! The ice beneath Twilight split apart from the rest of it in a perfect circle. Rainbow was startled and on reflex quickly took to a slight hover above the ice. Twilight on the over hand, took a startled step back, causing the weight to shift to one side of the separated ice, tipping her into the freezing cold water. Her lungs took in a mouthful of water as her head went below the water and the cold water shocked her nervous system, causing her to let in a involuntary gasp. Rainbow watched it all happen in what felt like forever, but was really only a second, maybe two. “TWILIGHT!” Silence filled the room as Pinkie looked back from the book. She and Twilight were the only two that didn’t have a look of panic on their face, Twilight herself was beaming with pride after seeing how much the girls were getting into her story. “Pinkie why did you stop? What happens next?!” asked Rainbow Dash. Pinkie shrugged, “Dunno, that’s the end of the chapter,” she stated calmly. “What!?” exclaimed four of the mares in the room, even Fluttershy had risen her voice a little. “Twi’ that’s just unfair! You can’t end the chapter on a cliff-hanger, it’s just plain mean to the readers!” sulked Applejack. “Sorry Applejack,” said Twilight with a smirk, “sometimes, authors are just mean like that.” “Yes. Yes they are,” said Pinkie as she glared at the man through screen as was typing out a series of words while imagining how soft Luna’s fur would be. “Pinkie, who are you staring at?” asked Rarity. Yes Pinkie, who ARE you staring at? Pinkies glare intensified as she muttered, “I know where you live.” She then turned back to her glamorous friend with a friendly grin, “Nopony, Rarity.” Nopony indeed.