In Search of Surprises
A loud knock echoed throughout the halls of the treehouse. With bleary eyes, Twilight slid from her chair, flinching when her book-pillow slid with her and landed with a thump on the floor. She was halfway across the main room floor before the ghost of a thought of who may be knocking passed through her mind. She was at the door when the thought registered, and the door was open before a second thought could be given.
“Good morning, Twilight.” From the other side of the door, Cheerilee beamed. “Ready to work on the book?”
At the sound of the teacher’s voice, Twilight immediately perked up and ducked behind the door quickly to fuddle with her mane. “Uh, I thought you weren’t coming over until noon,” she said as she pulled her head back, hair somewhat more tame.
“It is noon,” Cheerilee responded, wide smile morphing to a concerned frown. “Is everything okay?”
“I overslept!” Twilight bolted back inside the library, leaving the door wide open. After watching the librarian run to and fro a few times, various items slinging about in her magical grasp, Cheerilee slowly walked inside and headed towards the textbook table. She flipped open a couple of books along with her notebook and began to write, letting Twilight bustle about and wear herself out.
The library is a mess, Cheerilee is going to think I’m a slob, and I didn’t make any food or prepare research material or sharpen any pencils and I haven’t picked up the book I was reading or wiped the drool... drool!? I probably look filthy and need to take a shower but I can’t leave my guest alone and-- Twilight’s mind spun around in full panic mode, matching her physical form.
By the time Spike came downstairs, having just woke up himself, she still hadn’t wore herself down. He took one look at the still open door, his panicking caretaker, and Cheerilee calmly scribbling in her notebook before shutting the door and heading to the schoolteacher. At his approach she looked up and smiled.
“Twilight oversleep?” Spike asked.
“Yup.”
“She freak out?”
“Mmhm.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Maybe ten minutes.”
With a sigh, Spike turned to Twilight. “Wonder what has her so high-strung this time,” he grumbled to himself before trundling deeper into the library. He returned a short time later, arms laden with several items, and placed himself in Twilight’s path.
“Spike, get out of the way,” she demanded after stopping her frantic pacing, “Cheerilee is already here and I’m not ready and I need to--mmfm”
“Eat,” Spike said, offering the other half of the granola currently stuck in Twilight’s mouth. Begrudgingly, she took his offering and hovered it next to her head. “Drink”--she took the offered cup of what Cheerilee assumed was coffee--“and take a shower.” He draped the last thing he held, a large, fluffy towel, over her back.
Twilight quickly finished her forced bite of granola. “But...” she started to protest, but a stern look from Spike and a gentle smile from Cheerilee stopped her. “Alright. I’ll be right back.” Cheerilee watched as Twilight, ears slightly wilted, quickly made her way up the stairs and out of sight.
“So, does she do that a lot?” Cheerilee asked, looking away from the stairs to Spike.
The baby dragon disappeared for a moment, returning with a small jewel. Treat in claw, he took a seat next to Cheerilee. “Only when she is stressed out and she thinks something has gone wrong.”
“Stressed?” Cheerilee cast a sullen glance to stacks of books weighing down the table in front of her. “Is she overworking herself with this textbook?”
“I don’t think so,” Spike replied around a bite of his gem. “She’s been reading a couple of books a lot lately. I swear she’s read all three of them at least a million times by now.”
“Reference books for a report or something?” Spike shrugged, and the two sat in silence until a faint sound of running water filtered down the stairs. The baby dragon, finished with his late breakfast--early lunch--trundled off, leaving Cheerilee to work on the book. She dove into the task, hoping that keeping herself busy would bring Twilight back faster.
Unknown to the teacher, a pair of purple eyes peered down from the second floor landing. Showering was simple with magic--more powerful unicorns have argued that the shower itself was optional--but none could deny the freedom given by the sound of running water. Indulging in a mischievous streak emboldened by Nightmare Night, Twilight slowly crept down the stairs, wet mane still clinging to her head.
Silently the purple pony snuck across the room, eyes darting around searching for anything that would ruin her plans. She deftly manouvered around piles of books, furniture, the odd feather left by Owlowiscious, and other things until she was just behind her target. Then, with grace and control more fitting to Rarity, Twilight slowly moved her head over Cheerilee’s shoulder, stopping when her muzzle was right by the teacher’s ear.
“Hi, Cheerilee. Working hard?” Twilight whispered.
The teacher froze for a split second before shouting and leaping backwards, pushing her legs against the table for leverage. Quickly seeing the problem, Twilight reached out just as the chair tipped and started to fall, managing to catch Cheerilee right before she followed suit.
“My hero,” Cheerilee cooed, fluttering her eyelids up at Twilight. “Even if it was your fault.”
Twilight grinned sheepishly. “Good thing I have Rarity working on my costume then. Maybe not though, doubt I’d look good in latex.” Heaving a sigh, she poked at her belly with a hoof.
Cheerilee coughed nervously. “Well I... I don’t know about that. I-I mean... R-Rarity could make anything look good on y-anypony.”
With a grunt, Twilight pushed Cheerilee back to her hooves. “Probably, she’s a really good designer. I hope this book turns out half as well as some of her creations.”
“It won’t if we never finish it,” Cheerilee mock-scolded. She hooked a hoof around the unicorns’ withers and dragged her to the table, setting an open book down and tapping on it. “Now get to work.”
Twilight saluted with a giggle. “Yes, ma’am!”
*****
The two worked for hours, referencing countless books and each other in their writing. What took shape was not a full book by any stretch of the imagination, but a decent start to one at least.
“Geez, are you two still working?” Spike asked as his chores took him through the room for the third time in a half hour.
Twilight waited a moment to respond, taking the time to stretch back, sighing as her cramped bones creaked and popped. Across the table from her, Cheerilee did the same. “We have been, but I could actually use a break.” The librarian slowly rose from her chair, trotting around the table to where the other mare sat. She stuck her head over the teacher’s shoulder, nose twitching as pink hair tickled it, and gazed down at the other notebook. “Hmmmm...”
Cheerilee sensed her friend’s head slide next to hers, felt the gentle hum on her shoulder. Unbidden, heat started to rise in the teacher’s cheeks. “Um, Twilight, what are you doing...?”
“Looking at what you’ve got so far,” Twilight replied, mindful to keep her voice down as to not deafen the other mare. “I mean, I don’t expect massive progress, not after just a couple hours, but I actually have a decent start on a skeleton for the chapter on unicorns.”
“I wasn’t... quite as productive--” because I was busy watching your mane dry and frizz out. By the way, did you know you chew on your lip when you’re focusing hard? It’s very cute. “--but I think it’s not too bad...”
Twilight magicked over her notebook and set it down to compare the two. “At least we’re making some progress. We’re lucky Celestia sent us the first draft of this, otherwise I don’t think the two of us could finish this before the next meeting of the Equestria Education Board. There’s still a lot of work to--” A low rumbling sound cut the librarian off.
The two mares exchanged a look. “A-heh-heh. Maybe a late lunch, first,” said a sheepish Twilight. She scampered off towards the kitchen, ignoring both her stomach and Cheerilee’s protests that she had already eaten. Spike eyed the doorway warily, as though fearing for his cookware.
“I’ll just whip something up real fast,” a voice said from beyond kitchen door. “Spike, could you help move our stuff to the comfy couch?”
The baby dragon gave a nervous glance to Cheerilee. “Um, could you..?” He gestured to a small table in front of an equally small couch. “I want to go make sure what Twi brings out is actually edible.”
Cheerilee nodded and started ferrying the more important textbook materials to the new, smaller, table. Notebooks, pencils, original book and gifted draft were all moved promptly, all with no word from the kitchen. The teacher tossed a look around the library, eyes hovering over the stairs, up Twilight’s desk, and the dark doorway to the depths of the treehouse.
Before she could work up the courage to look around more, however, the door to the kitchen burst open and out walked Twilight, backwards, levitating a tray behind her. Huh, her tail frizzed out too, almost worse than her mane, especially up by... Cheerilee coughed. “Uh, you need some help there, Twilight?”
“Hmm?” The lavender unicorn glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Cheerilee. “Nope, I’ve got it handled.” She spun around and made her way to the couch, a light spring in her step. She sat the tray laden with small sandwiches, cheese and crackers down on the table. Snagging herself a sandwich, Twilight sat down on one side of the couch and pulled over a notebook.
“You going to eat?” Twilight asked around a bite of sandwich. She swallowed quickly before continuing. “I mean, you didn’t say anything to me when we started working about being hungry, so I assumed you ate before you arrived, but it’s been almost four hours since then.”
“No, I’m not really hungry...” Cheerilee replied, traitorous eyes sizing up a cracker or five.
“Then, could you at least sit down?” Twilight patted the seat on the couch next to her. “You’re starting to creep me out a little, just standing there.”
“Sorry!” The teacher quickly moved to the couch and sat down. When she thought Twilight wasn’t looking, she grabbed a couple of crackers and some cheese, making the lavender mare giggle.
“I brought all this food out with me to share, you know. I don’t eat this much.”
Spike walked past, scoffing. “Yeah, not when anypony is watching...” In retaliation, the dragon’s caretaker grabbed a cracker in her magic and launched it at her charge. “Hey!”
Twilight sniffled. “It’s not nice to spread rumors, Spike.”
“It isn’t nice to throw food, either, Twilight,” Spike retorted. The two glared each other down until Cheerilee burst into a fit of giggles.
“What’s so funny?” both of them demanded at once, turning their fury to the giggling teacher. “Ha, I bet she’s laughing at you. No, at you! Cheerilee, who are you laughing at?”
Each sentence from the synchronized duo only served to increase the fuschia mare’s laughter, turning her into nothing more than a lump of fur, quivering with unrestrained giggles. It took some time for the teacher to regain some semblance of control of herself, much to the annoyance of the others in the room. She finally rose to a, somewhat slumped, sitting position and wiped tears from her eyes.
“Oh. you two,” Cheerilee said after taking a shaky breath. “I was laughing at you.”
“Well, yeah we got that,” Twilight said.
“But who?” Spike finished.
It took a fair bit of effort from Cheerilee to keep from bursting out in giggles again. She didn’t, but the effort required meant she didn’t respond; something that Twilight was not prepared to accept.
“She was laughing at you,” the lavender mare declared.
Spike’s jaw dropped open. “How do ya figure that?” he demanded, eyes narrowing.
“Well, it’s pretty simple...”
Cheerilee sat back, after grabbing a small sandwich and another cracker, and let the two go at it, spark of mirth never leaving her eyes. Twilight rose to her hooves, slowly advancing on the baby dragon as their argument--if one could call the friendly, harmless display such--continued until the two were nose to nose, sparkling eye to sparkling eye, and wide smile to wide smile.
“Well fine!” Spike said, pulling Cheerilee from her amused reflections. “If you two are so close, I’ll leave you to it.” the dragon forcibly deadened his grin and marched haughtily deeper into the treehouse.
“Good.” Twilight raised her nose and slowly walked back to the couch, shooting a wink at Cheerilee before plopping down right next to her, squeezing the teacher between herself and the side of the couch.
Trying to ignore the heat spreading over her from the side pressed against Twilight, Cheerilee took another bite. “So,” she said after finishing, trying to keep her voice even, “do you and Spike do that a lot, or...?”
“Yeah.” Twilight grinned and slid over her notebook. “In a way he is almost like my younger brother, and sometimes it’s hard not to push each other’s buttons when a good opportunity presents itself.”
“So I’m just a good opportunity, huh?” Her voice betrayed nothing, but internally the teacher cringed. That sounded clingier than I really wanted...
Twilight smiled sweetly and nodded. “I’m just using you for your books.”
Cheerilee knew the librarian was joking, somewhere, but neither her ears nor the little sting of rejection got the message; the former of which even Twilight picked up on.
She clapped a hoof over her mouth. “Cheerilee, I was just joking, I promise. You’re a really good friend, and I’m really happy you’re helping me with this. I don’t think I’d be able to do it without you, not at a level foals could understand, and definitely not in time.”
“Thanks, Twilight. You’re a-uh... good friend too,” the teacher replied, poking at her ears with a hoof until they cooperated.
“So, I was thinking,” Twilight said after a moment, levitating her notebook so it could be easily read by both of them. “We could maybe move from--” Before she could finish, the main door of the library burst open, moving fast enough to bounce off of the wall behind it. Startled by the noise, both mares turned to look towards the sound.
Instead of the wooden slab, however, all they saw was a brief flash of white as their heads collided followed by a blur of colors as they tumbled to the floor, limbs entwining with each other’s and the table.
“Hey, Twilight!” a raspy voice--Rainbow Dash, Twilight’s dazed mind identified--said. ”Rarity sent me over. I guess she got some tickets or vouchers or something to that spa she goes to all the time, and wanted me to bring you... a... couple...” The cyan pegasus rounded the couch and gazed down at the purple pile of ponies. “Look, I’ll, uh, I’ll tell Rares you were out, and I’ll leave the stuff right on this table here and leave you to it.” True to her word, Rainbow deposited the slips of paper on the table and quickly departed.
Twilight, from her place atop Cheerilee, turned her gaze from the paper vouchers to the mare under her. Their eyes met for a long moment before the librarian scrambled off of her friend. She planted herself on the floor nearby, eyes wide above a burning blush. “Cheerilee, a-are you okay?”
The equally flustered teacher rose as well and rubbed her head with a hoof. “I think that’s the first time that Rainbow Dash appearing caused me to get hurt.”
Twilight giggled nervously. “Y-Yeah, normally it’s the other way around.” The two sat awkwardly, trying their best to avoid any sort of eye contact. “So, um, those spa passes were supposed to be a surprise for when we were done working, but, um, would you like to go with me?”
The two of us having a free deluxe treatment in a spa for a couple hours? How could I refuse? “S-Sure. Should we go now?”
Twilight slowly rose to all four hooves and grabbed the spa passes and the remains of lunch in her magic. “Might as well. Let me take care of this and let Spike know, and then we’ll leave.” Without waiting for a response the lavender mare trotted off towards the kitchen.
So close, and yet... Cheerilee cast a glance to the now-skewed table, coat still warm from her contact with Twilight. Still so far...