//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Sustained Waiting // by Saph //------------------------------// “Twilight, you did say you wanted to speak with us about Rainbow, yes?” Twilight was unresponsive for a solid thirty seconds before she began to pace somewhat nervously in front of her two friends. ”How did you girls manage to do it?” Rarity and Applejack blinked slowly back at Twilight. “Do what, Darling?” Rarity asked Twilight, the goal of her question unclear. Twilight shook her head in mild frustration. “You know what I mean!" Twilight paused for a moment “You and AJ being so... well off?” Rarity continued looking at her in puzzlement. “Ah’ think she means how we’ve stayed steady in our relationship,” Applejack offered, causing Twilight to nod emphatically at her suggestion. “I thought that since Rarity has recently been going on trips to Manehatten for extended periods of time, that you might know something on how to cope with long-distance relationships?” Rarity and Applejack looked at one another for a second, then back at Twilight. “Twilight, Dear, you do know that Applejack comes with me on those trips, don’t you?” “Oh,” Was all that Twilight could say, embarrassed she hadn’t noticed the additional absence of one of her friends. She avoided their gazes backing out the door of Rarity’s boutique. “I’ll just be going now,” Twilight blurted out before shutting the door forcefully. Rarity and AJ now understood just how off Twilight had been feeling recently. -.-~-~-.- About 5 Years Later Twilight paced back and forth impatiently. The only sound in Golden Oak’s library were the thudding of her hooves, not quite helping her wait. Things were quiet around the library this late partly because Spike had already went to bed. It had been for a while with the lack of a certain energetic pegasus had left Ponyville. It had been five years since Rainbow Dash had joined the Wonderbolts. Twilight was certain that everypony in the town still remembered the particularly explosive party that Pinkie had thrown for Rainbow upon receiving the news. When the party had ended and Rainbow left shortly after, no one could really believe that she was really gone. The resulting chaos in the Ponyville weather team was hard proof of her departure however. Twilight smiled thinking about Rainbow, her mind traveling to the first time she gathered the courage to ask her out. After that one thing lead to another, leading them to realize things were going to work out in the long run. It really had five years since Rainbow had lived in Ponyville, and almost six years since their first date. Now after all of that time, she was going to be back in Ponyville any minute now. Twilight had made Rainbow promise that she’d visit her first thing when she got back. Twilight had trouble early on accepting how long she would have to go without Rainbow. She promised herself that she would hold on to their relationship as best as she could. Less than a year after Rainbow had joined the Wonderbolts, Twilight already had grown lonely, causing her to go to her friends with suggestions. It was Fluttershy who submitted the idea of letters between the two of them. This idea was something of a lifesaver to Twilight’s comfort. While Rainbow and Twilight hadn’t been able to converse often, they still communicated on a fairly consistent basis through the suggested letters. There were certain things that a letter between them just couldn’t accomplish. Twilight couldn’t pull Rainbow close through a letter. She couldn’t kiss her through the letters either. The best she could do was to imagine Rainbow saying the words that were written on the letters to her in person. Somehow the words on the paper seemed more meaningful if she read it like that. She had consistently sent letters since Hearth’s Warming Eve a couple months ago, which was the last time she had seen Rainbow. That’s was when Rainbow had told her that she’d be able to take a six month break at the end of her first five-year period. The next day, Twilight had already marked an entire calendar counting down the days until Rainbow would be back. It was almost March now. Twilight deflated a little knowing that after those six months Rainbow would be back on tours, living her dream. Rainbow had been idolizing The Wonderbolts her entire life, there were some days where she talked about nothing else besides them. A smile came to Twilight’s face thinking about the first time she had been into Rainbow’s room in her cloudhouse. There had been a Spitfire plushie resting on Rainbow’s pillow the color of it faded slightly, presumably from years of use. When Twilight had pointed it out, Rainbow had blushed deeply trying her best to hide it under the covers as fast as she could spouting something about the weather. The closer the auditions for The Wonderbolts had came, the more time Rainbow had spent training as hard as she could. Twilight wasn’t sure Rainbow had even needed the training in the first place. After all, how many pegasi could do half the tricks Rainbow could? It didn’t stop Twilight from avidly watching her during her practices however. So when the tryouts had finally come around, and Rainbow had finally gotten accepted, there was no way Twilight was going to push Rainbow into staying in Ponyville. The subject had come up multiple times before Rainbow had left however, each time ending with Twilight’s firm denial of Rainbow staying for her. She wasn’t about to let Rainbow give up her dream just like that. Since then, Twilight had second guessed herself a couple times about her decision on days she felt particularly lonely. Twilight shook her head as if to push that train out thought out of her head. She would have a whole six months with Rainbow now, certainly that would be enough to balance it out? Twilight finally sighed, before sitting down not far for the door and stared into it. Twilight had been quite oblivious during the beginning stages Rainbow’s absence. Her thoughts had been quite scattered during this period of time, to the point that she had lost track of what her friends had even been doing. She could remember talking a while ago, and several times after, to Rarity and Applejack for advice in her general situation in her relationship with Rainbow. It hadn’t quite been the insight Twilight was looking for once she realized that her friends hadn’t exactly spent long periods of time apart yet. The visits to her friends after that one however, had certainly helped cope with the feeling of loneliness that accompanied the whole situation. She tried to push those thoughts away, refocusing her attention on the door the library. Twilight could imagine very clearly the knock that would come at the door, or perhaps one of the windows, in the pattern that Rainbow had always knocked with. She was tempted to keep one eye on the window as well, which for some reason Rainbow had taken a habit of crashing through as a secondary form of entering the library. Twilight got off the floor once again, her impatience not yet having ebbed away. ‘Maybe a book can take my mind off this wait,’ Twilight thought, making her way over to the bookshelves. Her eyes scanned the spines of the books, hoping something would catch her interest. As her mood would have it, the only ones that caught her eyes were various romance novels. Twilight levitated one off of the shelf reading a couple pages, before putting it back on the shelf. She had always found it the slightest bit annoying there weren’t many books concerning pairings of the same gender. Twilight smiled slightly. ‘Maybe I’ll write the story of how Rainbow and I’s first date, that was certainly unique to say the least.’ Twilight began to pace back and forth across the library floor. Nighttime had began to slip away, draining away to make way for dawn. She could tell that it was now approaching the early hours of the morning by the slight tinge of light filtering from the horizon. It was worse when Twilight realized that she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all the entire night. ‘Rainbow said she’d be back this morning,’ thought Twilight, trying her best to suppress her urge to sleep right there on the library floor. Twilight perked up again at the sound of something outside of her house. She listened carefully for a moment before deciding it had just been the wind and sighed impatiently. “Can you hurry back Rainbow?” -.-~-~-.-