Apples to Apples
02
"What are you two ponies doing!?"
"Oh," Twilight laughed, acknowledging her presence. "We were just talking about something," Twilight said smiled sheepily. Rainbow nodded an affirmative with a smile. Pinkie just looked at them incredulously. Twilight hoped she hadn't caught on to what she thought Rainbow was doing. Even she was still quite alarmed from what Rainbow said to her. The thought made her blush even more, dying her cheeks a deep scarlet. Her heart once more felt like it was fluttering.
What is this feeling? She's never had it before... Her heart randomly fluttered and beat excitedly; and she felt her whole body shake, from her tail to her horn. Could this be what they call...
An irregular heartbeat?
She really should be more cautious with the sugar that Pinkie gave her. It isn't healthy, as evident in her heartbeat. Though, one can't imagine exactly how healthy Pinkie is, let alone the fact that she never seems to get sick in spite of this.
"So anyway, why wasn't Applejack here?" Rainbow asked to break the awkward haze of the moment.
"Well, she's sick." Twilight explained, managing to steal a look at the blue pegasus. "I had to help her clear the trees yesterday. It really took its toll on my magic," she sighed.
"I've got a great idea!" Pinkie yelled excitedly, seeing yet another chance to throw yet another party. "We can visit her and give her cake and balloons and PIE!"
Twilight cringed at the thought of another one of Pinkie's parties. She still had a stomachache from eating all of the candy she did, along with many sodas and cake. Her horn still gripped her pain, being exhausted from all of the magic use to help Applejack yesterday. To top it all off, she had a horrible headache which seemed to spring from both of the two. She knew for a fact she didn't want to go."Are you sure that's the best idea? Maybe she doesn't want to be bothered..." her voice trailed off.
"But Twiiii-light! It's only 6:30!" Pinkie crooned in the best little kid voice she could manage.
She sighed. "Fine," she moaned in a childish manner. "If you really want to, I guess I'll have to go," she looked at Rainbow. "Are you coming too?"
"Of course I would, I love Pinkie's parties!" Rainbow said. "But how are we going to get Fluttershy and Rarity to agree to come again with us to AJ's house?"
"Leave that to me!" Pinkie said with a wink and a grin.
~
"Fluttershy!" Pinkie yelled, pounding against her door with her hooves. "Open up!"
Fluttershy slowly opened the door, peeping her head out. "Yes?" she murmured quietly.
"We're going to Applejack's to throw her a get well party! Let's go!"
"Oh... Umm... Okay. Just let me- AH!" she yelled as Pinkie dragged her out, and started off towards Rarity's house.
"They really are something else, huh?" Twilight asked. Rainbow chuckled and nodded. Twilight looked over at her. She looked noticeably more modest and calm today. "Rainbow, are you alright? You don't seem like yourself today."
"Huh? Whatcha' mean, I'm not myself? I'm perfectly fine!" Twilight looked at her skeptically, unconvinced.. "What?"
"It's nothing," Twilight said with a laugh. "Shall we follow them?" Something was definitely different about Rainbow today..
"Alright!" Rainbow said in her usual manner and grabbed Twilight by her forehooves. "Shall we?" she said with a wink. Twilight barely had any time to respond before Rainbow took off, taking Twilight with her. She kept subsonic the whole time, as it was easier while carrying another pony.
Rainbow loved flying; it was her favorite thing in the world since she saw the Wonderbolts perform when she was just a little filly. She flew for the amazing sensations of flight. The powerful winds racing precisely in between her feathers, the speed greatly exceeding anything any earth pony can reach - especially her signature Sonic Rainboom. She loved flying against the winds, feeling the fresh air currents splash in her face.
"Rainbow! Rainbow!"
"Huh?" she replied, breaking her daydream.
"Rarity's house is down there! You passed it!"
"Oh. My bad," she said, looking down at Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie staring at them. "Guess we're too late anyway, hehe." Rainbow caught Rarity whispering something to Fluttershy as they descended.
"You two are becoming good friends, aren't cha? You're spending a lot of time together!" Pinkie concluded. "Fluttershy and Rarity also noticed!" They nodded in confirmation.
"What? Are you blind?" she countered, though not too harshly.
Rarity trotted over and nuzzled Twilight in the slightest bit. "You've made your first best friend Twilight! I'm so proud of you, dearie," she said with fake tears of joy.
"Oh, please," Twilight said with aggravation. Rainbow smiled. "Anyway, we should go if we want to be there before sundown." They all agreed in cheer.
On their way there, Twilight found herself walking alongside Rainbow as the other three were a couple meters ahead on the trail.
"You know, I think Pinkie's right," Rainbow said with the slightest hint of skepticism in her voice.
"You do?"
"I guess, hehe," she said with a tinge of red below her eyes. "We have been talking a lot more recently..."
"I guess so," she replied with a smile. Rainbow has been acting awfully modest and friendly lately...
The rest of the way there, they walked in silence as they followed and listened to the other three. Fluttershy kept teaching Rarity about French haute couture, and more stitching techniques that even Rarity haven't heard of. Inversely, Rarity was telling Fluttershy about the different types of fashions she saw during her visit to Canterlot. Pinkie kept trying to awkwardly contribute to the conversation, but that didn't go so well.
Sadly, when they got there, Big Macintosh was there to greet them instead of Applejack. When Pinkie asked if it was okay to enter with a surprise party, he said, "Nope," and Granny Smith informed them that Applejack was worse than before... Poor Applejack.
"Well, that's a darn shame," Rarity said, her voice a mix of slight frustration and pity for AJ. "I really wanted to see her today."
"Aww, I really wanted to use my party cannon again!" Pinkie whined.
"Pinkie, dear, you need to realize that Applejack isn't able to see us right now," Rarity retorted. "And plus, you need to stop worrying about parties and worry about her." Pinkie just pouted as a response, having nothing better to say.
"Well, I guess we better go home... Again." Twilight concluded. She remembered she was staying over at Dash's, and realized she was going to at least need some of her stuff like leisure novels, parchments and quills for her letter to Celestia, and her telescope for stargazing on Rainbow's roof.
"Hey Twi, why don't we fly over to your place and pick up some stuff you might need?" Rainbow inquired. Twilight nodded yes and said goodbye to the others as Rainbow swept her - literally - off her hooves as they started the flight towards her little tree.
About halfway there, Twilight saw in the distance that the hole caused by Rainbow caused the support of the second floor to crumble, leaving nothing but the first floor - and that was the public part of the library, where Twilight kept nothing of personal use. Rainbow descended the the ground, a solemn expression on her face.
"Oh Celestia, I'm so sorry Twi," she said, a tear running down her eye. "I'm so, so, sorry," she repeated, giving Twilight a squeeze.
There it was again. Irregular heartbeat. Pinkie Pie's stupid cakes and lollipops, not to mention anything else she was ate at the party. Twilight worried if this irregular heartbeat could mean something deeper... Maybe she was developing pony-betes. She cursed herself for eating so much at the party, and jotted down a mental note to control herself next time. To be honest, she wasn't even worried about her broken house. She knew Celestia would arrange to have it fixed.
"It's okay, Rainbow," she whispered. She nuzzled her. "It's okay, really."
Rainbow was acting awfully strange - this is actually the first time she saw her cry, even if it was just a couple tears. She wondered what's been causing her to act all strange. Maybe it was lo- no. It couldn't have been.
"Okay, if you say so," she immediately perked up. "We should head over to my place. We should walk this time, you look a bit tired."
"Alright, but do you have a medical book I might have the chance to read?"
"Uh, yeah, you lent me one when I broke my wing before."
"Okay."
Like their walk to Applejack's, Twilight and Rainbow walked in complete silence as they took in the brisk air of the night sky. Twilight's heart kept doing that thing again, but she ignored it this time. The chilly air and calm wind felt nice on their exhausted hooves and legs. Twilight realized she should get out in the night more often, rather than staying inside with her telescope. Even though stargazing was very interesting, she concluded that life isn't long enough to not savor and appreciate these calm, relaxing moments.
The sibilant night moon was shining brightly above Rainbow's house as she grabbed her to fly up to the house. Twilight almost forgot to cast the spell - which hurt her pained horn a lot - but reminded Rainbow right before she dropped her through the cloud base.
Rainbow brought her into the house, and Twilight immediately noticed the minimalistic setting of the house. Everything seemed very practical; the walls painted a blue a touch lighter than Rainbow's coat. The floor was made of intricately shaped clouds, which was a soft pleasure to walk upon. This was definitely not the home she was expecting from Rainbow.
"Wow Rainbow, this is a really nice place!"
"Hehe, thanks," she laughed. "I can either set up another cloud bed in my room, or you can stay here in the living room."
"The living room is really nice; I'm fine here," she smiled.
Rainbow gave Twilight a quick tour of her cloud residence, showing her where everything was. The bathrooms were very interesting, as the shower was what Rainbow called a "mini raincloud" as it was a modified, downscaled version of rainclouds outside. Then there were the rainbow pools outside; she had cleverly arranged rows lights under the water, which had dyed the pool every hue of color that she sported on her mane. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet - without missing a single one.
After the small tour was over, Rainbow explained she had to help Fluttershy with something about pets in Cloudsdale, apologized, and dashed upwards to the city in the sky.
Twilight went back outside to Rainbow's porch, and lay sprawled across the soft, fluffy and slightly moist clouds, giving her amazingly chilly sensations running through her body. She gave her horn a quick dip in the cloud, sending tingling jolts of ice through the currents of magic she could feel, pulsing left and right. It still felt sore, but it definitely helped.
A couple minutes later, she went back inside, finding Rainbow's medical book. She flipped through the pages rapidly with her magic, finally being mended slightly by the icy clouds. Page 42, here it was. Irregular heartbeat, a layman's term for cardial arrhythmia. Caused by agitation of the...
An hour passed. Two hours passed. No sign of Rainbow. She was probably tied up with Fluttershy in Cloudsdale. Oh well. She was just about to drift off into unconsciousness, when a battered and worn down blue pegasus collapsed through the door.