//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 - The Beginning Of Something New // Story: When A Door Closes, Another Opens // by Intet22 //------------------------------// “Everything is a mystery, ourselves, and all things both simple and humble.” ~ Giorgio Morandi Peaceful... That was the one feeling that went Rainbow’s mind as her eyes slowly fluttered open to the sight of Twilight’s violet toned fur and dark purple mane. With a couple of blinks and a brief survey of her surroundings, Rainbow noticed that she still lay in the same position that the two of them had fallen asleep in last night. Her hooves and wings were tightly wrapped around Twilight’s midsection, and the alicorn’s backside was pressed tightly against her own. Wondering what time of day it was, Rainbow’s gaze shifted towards the balcony window and her eyes soaked in the beautiful sight of Celestia’s sun just starting to poke over the horizon. Letting out a happy sigh at the sight before her, Rainbow took a brief moment to bask in the relaxing atmosphere the room provided. It was a nice change of pace from all of the chaotic events that she had found herself in the last two weeks. Nopony was shattering her dreams by uncovering an intricate web of lies that had been pulled over her eyes. Right now, everything was peaceful and all that Rainbow wanted to do was lay beneath the covers and bathe in the peaceful moment. However it seemed like her subconscious had a different opinion on what she should be doing. One by one, her mind began to bombard her with thoughts about climbing out of bed and getting a proper start to the day. With as much effort she could muster in her half asleep state, the cyan pegasus attempted to swat the persistent thoughts back to the recesses of her mind . For the first couple of minutes, it seemed like Rainbow would be victorious, but as the minutes passed, her lazily put together defense proved that it wasn’t enough. The persistent thoughts had broken through, and now there was no way that she would be able to simply ignore them. Accepting her defeat with an annoyed groan, Rainbow pushed the covers away with her one free wing and began the process of untangling herself from her embrace around Twilight. A quick pull of the her wing freed it from Twilight’s side, the alicorn only giving a small shudder as the feathery appendage slid effortlessly across her fur. With her wings now fully free, Rainbow moved to liberating her fore-hooves from the snoring alicorn’s grasp. The first one easily glided from underneath Twilight’s side, escaping from its captor with minimal effort. However the other foreleg seemed to be a different story… No matter how many times Rainbow attempted to pull the leg towards her, she found the limb to be rooted firmly in place, refusing to move even a single inch. Curious as to what had such a strong hold on her forehoof, Rainbow lifted the remainder of the sheets up with and peered over the Twilight's shoulder. Slowly she began to trace across the leg’s features until her eyes spied the culprit… A pair of violet coloured hooves that were tightly wrapped around the base of her hoof, cradling onto the leg like a cherished stuffed animal. The sheer cuteness of the sight alone was enough to make Rainbow’s heart skip a beat. “Damn egghead…” Rainbow thought to herself as Twilight attempted to pull the hoof closer towards her, the smile across her face getting larger as she did so. “That has got to be the more adorable thing that I’ve ever seen.” Seeing how much Twilight was enjoying her slumber, Rainbow sat patiently in place, refusing to move a single inch as the time slowly continued to pass. Although as she lay there, Rainbow began to feel some strange new feeling beginning to make its way throughout her body. It started deep at her chest and slowly made it’s way along each nerve in her system, curiously exploring as much as it possibly could. Each limb that it came across quickly filled with unusual warmth that embraced her like a hug from a long lost friend. It was extremely pleasant and Rainbow could feel a new happiness starting to spread along side the emotion as it continued to explore her body. The entire world around her seemed to brighten, and she could feel a smile starting to creep across her muzzle as the emotion continued along it’s way. Rainbow didn’t know what the new feeling was, and frankly she didn’t really care. The atmosphere of the room and the strange new feeling provided the perfect combination of relaxation needed to eliminate all of the stress that had accumulated within her over the last week and for the first time after her messy break up, she truly felt like she was starting to get back to normal. However as the time edged on, Rainbow found that her curiosity towards the mysterious emotion was beginning to grow and she quickly found herself trying to decipher what the feeling truly was. At first the meaning came to her in little trickles, seeping through the small openings of her still Rainbow’s mind fully awoke from its slumber half-awake mind. After a couple of minutes, causing the true meaning of the feeling wash over her like a tidal wave… She knew exactly what this mysterious feeling was… And what it was quickly sent the pegasus’s mind into full blown panic mode. "Oh no… No, no, no…“ Rainbow thought to herself, her breaths quickly becoming frantic as a new sense of hysteria began to settle in. “This can’t be happening! Not again!" Immediately all concern for letting Twilight sleep left her mind and she frantically began to yank her captive limb from its embrace. After a couple of pulls, the hoof was free from Twilight's grasp. Rainbow immediately shot out of the bed, the hectic action almost causing her to fall flat on her face as she planted her hooves on the soft carpet below. “Okay Rainbow get ahold of yourself…” Rainbow pondered as she began to pace across the length of the room. “You’re not starting to develop any feelings for Twilight… You’re not developing any feelings for Twilight... This is just something that will go away with time.” Stopping mid-stride, Rainbow looked towards the surprisingly still sleeping alicorn. With her eyes settled on Twilight, the feeling pawed against her psyche once more, this time less persistent, but it was still enough to make it’s presence known. “Yeah that is what it is...” Rainbow thought as her gaze on the alicorn broke and her pacing resumed. “Something that will pass with time, it has to be...” In attempt to calm now her racing nerves, Rainbow resumed her pacing, until she was stopped by a brief stirring from the small wicker basket that lay at the foot Twilight’s bed. The basket let out an annoyed moan, and a purple claw reached out beneath the covers. With a quick flip of the wrist the sheet flipped over and revealed the drake that lay beneath them. “Uh… R-r-rainbow?” Spike mumbled while letting out a quick stretch. “Why in Celestia’s name are you pacing through the room this early in the morning?” With a quick crane of his neck, Spike looked towards the balcony, and then looked back towards Rainbow. “The sun isn’t even fully up yet.” “Oh hey little guy…” Rainbow said, mentally cursing to herself that she had forgotten about the sleeping drake. “Sorry about waking you up. Just have something on my mind and I really need to figure out what it means...” “Well…” Spike grumbled as he pulled the sheet back over his head and pulled it tight against his body. “If you need to do some thinking, could you please do it outside? Some ponies are still trying to get some sleep.” “Not a problem,” Rainbow replied as she turned and walked towards the balcony door. “Sorry for waking you.” Reaching out with a wing, Rainbow grabbed the door handle with her feathers and pulled it open. Taking a couple of short steps onto the hard metal flooring, Rainbow plopped down on one of the empty wooden chairs sitting the balcony and began the laborious process of trying to decipher some sort of meaning behind the thoughts that rolled through her mind. “Why am I having these feelings now, of all times?” The speedster questioned as she looked towards the sky above. As she looked up, she saw countless clouds slowly flying overhead, and the odd early rising pegasus getting a start to their day. Every so often a brisk wind would brush softly against her fur and would throw her mane across her muzzle, filling her vision with a bright rainbow hue of colour. “I mean, Twilight and I've been friends for years, and I’ve never thought about her like this before… Not once… Have I?” With that Rainbow’s mind began to wander back as far she could remember. One by one the memories of her friendship with Twilight came streaming by, and she carefully began to look over every moment. Initially none of the memories seemed to stick out, but as the memories became more recent, Rainbow began to notice that there was small spots where her mind had wandered to thoughts about potentially seeking something more than friendship with the librarian. One of these memories had happened right after her first night after the break-up with Applejack. That morning she had woken up and noticed the simple picture with the two of them lying happily in the field, without a single care in the world. Rainbow vividly remembered noticing the picture in the hallway and how her thoughts quickly drifted  towards how her friendship with Twilight had quickly grown ever since she had discovered her love for reading. She also remembered after that brief aside her mind had briefly played with the idea of having something more than friendship with Twilight. It was an extremely brief thought, one that only inhabited her for a couple of seconds, but never the less it was still there. After the memory had finished it’s recollection, Rainbow moved on to the others that lay patiently waiting for their visit. One by one she came to them and let the memories recall themselves. Most of them weren’t even worth her attention, as the majority of the them were just like the memory of the picture, a couple of brief asides here and there but nothing serious enough to warrant major attention. Time slowly continued to pass, and Rainbow continued to sift through all of the memories until eventually she noticed one particular memory that shone brighter than any of the others. It flashed brightly among the sea of it’s brethren and seemed to almost be begging for Rainbow to look at it once more. Closing her eyes, Rainbow heeded the memory’s wish and let the recollection replay in her mind. With a bright flash, the busy Manehatten street popped into view, and she found herself walking alongside Twilight and Spike. Looking around Rainbow knew exactly what this memory was and it surprised her that the walk to the coliseum was the one memory that stood out more than others. Once again, she could feel her side tightly pressed against the alicorn’s and she could feel Twilight’s wing softly laid across her shoulders. The feeling of the soft down of the inner feathers tickled her coat and sent small shivers along her spine as the group continued their walk down the busy Canterlot streets. With each step Rainbow could feel the alicorn's fur brushing against her own, and she could feel her cheeks beginning to redden at the close contact. A couple of minutes passed and the memory continued along its recollection, replaying the scene exactly as Rainbow had remembered it. However as the memory continued unfold, Rainbow noticed that there was something strange about how she acted when Twilight placed her wing across her shoulder. Normally she would have spoken up immediately and told the alicorn what the action meant in the eyes of the public, but this time had been different… This time she had chosen to stay silent and that chosen silence immediately began to raise questions in Rainbow’s mind. “Okay… So I didn’t let Twilight know about the whole wing thing… But that doesn’t really mean anything... Does it? Sure it means a lot to other ponies that saw us, a whole lot actually. But to the both of us it meant absolutely nothing. Twilight was just resting her wing and that was the only place to put it at the time… Yeah that is totally what it was. Just a simple stretch and nothing more.” “But…” Rainbow continued to think as the warm feeling from before pawed at her once again, and the memory slowly began to fade in darkness. “If it didn’t mean anything then why the hay did Twilight’s wing feel like it did? As soon as she placed her wing across my shoulder, it felt as if it were something that I should have had in my life long before then... Something that always should’ve been there… And that isn’t something that I would’ve felt if it truly meant nothing...” The pegasus let out a sigh and opened her eyes once again. “But if it meant something, then what in Celestia’s name does it actually mean?! Was it just a one-time thing? Should I just ignore it and move on? Or maybe that and all of these other emotions are the just beginning of something else entirely… ” An annoyed groan left Rainbow’s mouth, and she placed a hoof on her now aching temples. All of the conflicting thoughts were battling against each other and their constant fighting made her feel like somepony was taking their best swing against her head with a fairly large hammer. Each new thought increased the pain of the now splitting headache and it didn’t seem like it would end anytime soon. “Augh....” Rainbow mentally cried, extremely miffed at the situation she now found herself in. “Why the heck did everything have to become so complicated? It seems like it was just yesterday that everything was perfect. I was happily working everyday with the weather team... I had the one pony in my life that I never thought I’d ever have and I finally perfected the last few stunts that I wanted to show off to the Wonderbolts… Everything was going absolutely perfectly and it felt like nothing in the world would change that...” “But these past couple of weeks have thrown a giant thunder cloud into everything. Now I don’t even know where to start… Should I be trying to get myself back together and move past everything that happened? Should I talk to Applejack once we get back home and see if we can work something out? I just don’t know anymore… And what in Celestia’s name do I with these feelings for Twilight?! Do I simply ignore them and hope they go away?” A couple of moments of silence passed in Rainbow’s head before she continued. “But what if they don’t go away… What happens then? I could spend weeks trying to figure out the best way to ask her out, finally muster up the courage to do it, just to have my heart broken yet again by somepony that believes that lying to me would be better than saying no." Upon finishing the thought, Rainbow lifted a hoof towards a new sharp twinge of pain that had begun to radiate from her chest. Oddly enough the pain of Applejack’s betrayal didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would, but it definitely was still there. "The only thing that would be different this time is which friend’s shoulder I’d cry on after everything went south...” Rainbow gave a quick shake of her head and got up from the chair. “Twilight isn't like that though. Sure she’s got some problems of her own but there is no way in Celestia’s name that she’d ever betray me like that.” With a smile Rainbow hovered from her place on the balcony and peered into the window of the hotel room. Her eyes immediately drifted towards Twilight and she could feel a small smile starting to stretch across her muzzle. “She's been there for me through this break-up with Applejack, helping me with everything as I put myself back together…. When I came by that night and asked for her help, she dropped everything she was doing… I didn’t even have to ask or anything…. She just knew that something was wrong and sat by patiently waiting until I eventually worked up the courage to tell her. And just when I thought she was done helping me through this, she offered to let me stay with her, just so I wouldn’t have to be alone… A friend that is willing to do all of that, just to make me feel better would never lie to me in order to save my feelings.” “But…” Rainbow thought as her mind began to drift back towards Applejack and what she had done. “Then again… I never would’ve thought that AJ would’ve been even capable of doing what she did. So what is to say that Twilight wouldn’t do the same? Maybe she would lie to me just like AJ did...” After a brief moments of silence, Rainbow’s headache attacked her once more, sending yet another sharp blast of pain through her skull. “In any case… something better get my mind off of this,” Rainbow innerly pleaded, as she gave a couple of quick flaps and plopped her hooves onto the cold balcony floor below. “If I continue to think about this, I think my head is going to explode.” With a heavy sigh Rainbow made her way to the balcony door and slowly opened it with a quick pull of her wing. Taking a couple of steps, the cyan pegasus made her way into the hotel room and slowly turned around to close the door behind her. Reaching out with a hoof, she grabbed the door handle and gave the large object a quick push. However it seemed that Rainbow had put more force into the simple action, as the door began to rocket it’s way towards the wall. Upon contact with the structure, it sent out thunderous roar that quickly began to radiate throughout the small room. Immediately Rainbow’s eyes snapped towards the slumbering alicorn, and she began to pray that the noise wasn’t enough to wake her. Unfortunately after a couple seconds of silence had passed, an indistinguishable murmur came from beneath the covers, and the violet alicorn beneath began to slowly stir from her slumber. “Uh…” Twilight groggily said as she slowly rose from beneath the sheets and wiped her eyes with a quick brush of her hoof. “What in Celestia’s name was that?” Briefly looking around the room, Twilight’s gaze stopped on the cyan mare that now stood awkwardly brushing a hoof through her mane. “Hey Egghead…” Rainbow said, an innocent smile working it’s way across her muzzle as the words left her lips. "Get a good night’s sleep?” “I guess so...” Twilight replied with a quick stretch, the sound of her cracking bones filling the room as her limbs stretched out to their fullest extent. “With everything that happened yesterday, I would’ve thought that a good night sleep would be the last thing that I would’ve gotten, but thankfully I was wrong about that.” “Speaking of yesterday…” Rainbows quietly muttered as her mind began to replay the events of Twilight’s panic attack from late last night.  “Are you feeling okay…? You know… About everything that happened last night.” Twilight let out a heavy sigh. "No… No I'm not Rainbow. I'm doing better then last night but I still can't seem to get rid of this fear that I have. Every time I close my eyes, I see that fireball roaring towards me and keep thinking about what could've happened if you weren't there to push me out of the way... It's terrifying, and I don't know what I'm going to do to stop it. Usually I have the answers, or at least something to go on that will help me get to some form of solution, but this is different…” A brief moment of silence passed as Twilight reached up with a bandaged hoof and wiped a lone tear that started to make it’s way down her face. After the quick brush, Twilight lowered her hoof back to her side, and her head followed suit.  “No matter what I try Rainbow, I’m still scared and I don’t know what I’m going to do…” “Twi…” Rainbow whispered as she continued to run her hoof along the troubled alicorn’s back. “I don’t know what I can say to that... However the one thing that I do know is that you’ve got to remember that yesterday has come and gone, and there is no way that what you're feeling can ever happen… You’re safe now and I promise that nothing will change that.” With a hopeful look, Rainbow arched her head around to see if Twilight’s expression had changed at all, but sadly it still remained in the same stricken expression. It pained Rainbow to see her friend in such a troubled state, but the helplessness she felt the around the situation hurt even more. Sitting beside her was the mare that had given everything she could to help her in her time of need, and now that she needed to do the same for Twilight, it seemed like she couldn’t even come remotely close to finding something that she could say to bring Twilight back to normal. “Come on Rainbow…” Rainbow thought to herself as her mind frantically began to run through possible things to say. “There has to be something that you can do… Something to get Twilight back.” One by one the ideas continued to roll through her mind, but even though there were a countless number of ideas that she had, none of them seemed to properly fit the situation before her. Most of them were just simple variations of trying to convince Twilight that she truly didn’t have anything to be worried about, but Rainbow remembered how successful her last attempt at that was and it was clear to her that simply repeating her statement in different wording would not be what would bring Twilight out of her slump. Deciding to approach the situation differently, Rainbow discarded all of the thoughts that she currently had, and she tried to approach the situation from a different angle. Thankfully that seemed to be what she had needed because it only took a couple of seconds for before a perfect idea flashed through Rainbow’s mind… She knew exactly what she was going to do. “How about I tell you a story Twi,” Rainbow said as she looked upwards towards the ceiling with a smile starting to form across her muzzle. “It’s a rather simple story but it’s one that I think that you should hear, especially right now... It’s about a certain pegasus mare and a close friend that was there when she really needed somepony to listen.” Hearing Rainbow’s words, Twilight began to slowly raise her head and looked towards Rainbow with a curious look, wondering all the while where Rainbow was going with her comment. “The story starts on a relatively normal day, not too long ago actually. The pegasus was at work and was happily doing her part alongside the other members of the weather team. She had just finished getting all of the clouds that they would need for the rainstorm that night, when one of her co-workers came along and said that her marefriend had some sort of super important message and that she needed to meet with pegasus at the orchard as soon as possible. Not wanting to disappoint her marefriend, the pegasus quickly made her way towards the orchard and softly settled down beside her target, who oddly enough was pacing through the trees when she arrived. With a quick trot the pegasus made her way over to the mare and asked her what the big emergency was.” “After a couple of moments of not being able to say what was on her mind, the pegasus’s marefriend finally came out with what she wanted to tell her, and sadly it was something that pegasus never in a million years wanted to hear.” Realization quickly dawned on Twilight and her mouth quickly opened in shock. “The mare that pegasus had spent months upon months crushing over told her that entire time that throughout all of the time that they had spent together, she truly never loved the pegasus in any way and she had only agreed to be her marefriend because of some bizarre thinking that lying to her face would’ve been better than simply letting her down like any other pony would. Needless to say, the pegasus was heartbroken and she flew away from the backstabbing mare in an attempt to get her mind away from the pain that quickly formed in her heart. But sadly even the act of doing what she loved most didn’t seem to help, in fact it just seemed to make everything worse…” “For what seemed like hours she continued to fly through the skies, just looking for somewhere that she could possibly escape from the searing heartache… Somewhere where could find somepony that would listen to her and maybe, just maybe help her with everything that had happened. Thankfully, she noticed the house of that close friend in the distance and she made a simple glide down towards the home. With minimal effort, the pegasus landed on the balcony window, took a couple of steps inside, and proceeded to try to tell her friend what the traitorous mare had done to her. But sadly no matter how hard she tried, the words never seemed to find there way out. Despite the pegasus not saying a single word, her friend immediately noticed that something was wrong and in attempt to ease the troubled pegasus’s nerves, the friend told her a story about a time that she had ran away from because of a low mark that she had received in class.” “Thankfully that simple story was exactly what the pegasus needed to move past her fear and was now able to tell her friend everything that had happened. But of course, she couldn’t just start with what the traitorous mare had done… She had to tell her friend about everything that lead up to that point… All of the times that she was bullied in flight school… All of the beatings that the other students had given her because she was different… And what she had done in order to get away from it all. But after that  the pegasus was finally able to tell the friend what the two-faced mare had done...” Taking a quick pause, Rainbow shifted her gaze until magenta eyes were locked with Twilight’s own. “I bet you already know who I’m talking about Twi… You were there when I needed it and you helped me through all of the terrible feelings that Applejack dumped on me when she told me the truth and it really meant a lot…” A moment of silence filled the air as Rainbow broke her gaze and scooted closer towards Twilight, her fur now pressing tightly against the alicorn’s own. With a smooth motion, Rainbow unfolded a wing and draped it across Twilight’s side. “I know what you’re going through isn’t even remotely close to what you helped me with, but I figured that I should let you know what all of it meant to me… And that just like you were there to help me through all of that pain and heartache, I’ll be here to help you through this…“ With a slow turn of her head, Rainbow looked back towards Twilight. “That sound good to you Twi?”  As soon as the words left Rainbow’s mouth, Twilight felt all of the fear that had coursed through her body disappear in an instant. All of the fear and all of the worry Twilight had felt were gone and it was all thanks the cyan mare that sat next to her. “Of course that sounds good,” Twilight sputtered as turned towards Rainbow and wrapped her in a bone crushing hug. “Thank you Rainbow… Thank you so much…” “No problem Egghead... “ Rainbow replied as Twilight released her from the embrace. “No problem at all.” “So…” Rainbow said in an attempt to clear the now awkward silence that filled the room the room. “What do we do now?” “Well, I guess we could get ready for the next challenge in the Archmage's Exhibition,” Twilight replied as her horn flashed with magic and a small book and pencil began to levitate towards her. Along its travel the books pages flapped about until eventually reaching the alicorn’s desired section. “It says here that the warding challenge is next.” “Warding challenge?” Rainbow questioned.”What’s that one about?” “Well you see… The warding challenge is one that delves deep into the application of warding and enchantment based magic, and contestants are asked to apply all of their knowledge to safeguard a small object given to them at the beginning of the exhibition. The goal of the challenge is to make it as hard as possible for the judges to get into objects by using any kind of magic from the six major schools. The unicorn whose spell lasts the longest is awarded the most points and the everypony else is scored based on that best score. Obviously it is a challenge designed to test the warding school of magic, but knowledge in the enchantment school is also needed, as the contestants will need to be able make a powerful warding spell, and bind it properly to their object’s personal magical field.” “Sounds really boring…” Twilight let out a heavy sigh. “Sadly it is… Since both the warding and enchantment schools of magic are extremely under-populated compared to the others, you end up seeing the exact same spell combinations from every single contest in the exhibition. Probably because most of them simply learn one spell that is just enough for exhibition and simply just brush off the event like it is nothing… It’s the main reason that ponies have been trying to get the challenge banned from the exhibition for years now. For years they have tried but it seems like the Archmage wants to keep it around for some strange reason…” Twilight paused and tapped a hoof against her muzzle as her mind went to work on search for a valid reason for keeping such a negatively received event in the exhibition. “Maybe it’s his way of keeping the enchantment school alive in the public’s eyes or maybe it’s-” “Anyway... “ Rainbow interrupted, knowing full well that if she hadn’t interrupted Twilight’s train of thought there, that it would have kept on going for much longer than what she wanted. “What’s going after that? I’m guessing that it probably something to do with one of the other schools of magic.” “That would be correct,” Twilight replied with a quick nod. “After the warding exhibition there will be a challenge that’s centered around the conjuration school of magic where contestants will have an unrestricted chance to conjure any sort of object that they can think of. Points will be awarded based on the caster’s originally towards the object, their effort into crafting the object’s spell structure, and how long they can maintain the object once it has been cast. The challenge is a crowd favourite and is generally considered to be the most enjoyable for the contestants as well. It gives them a chance to show to the judges what they can do really do when given absolute freedom, and it gives the crowd the opportunity to see some truly amazing things. In fact I can remember that during one particular exhibition, the unicorn that ended up winning was able to conjure an entirely furnished building in a matter of minutes and to top it off he was able to maintain the spell for an entire hour before he had to release it..” “That actually sounds pretty awesome.” “Oh it was,” Twilight replied with a wide smile across her muzzle. “Before that exhibition, every unicorn thought they knew what the limits of conjuration magic where, and it was believed that no matter how much we tried, we would never be able to overcome that limit. But everything changed one unicorn took the stage. When he showed the world what he could do, he shattered that simple idea, and showed everypony that magic is not limited by nature, but by-” “Woah there Twilight that’s enough,” Rainbow said as she raised her hooves in the air. “I don’t need a whole entire history lesson on the dude.” “Oh right, sorry about that… I guess I got a bit carried away there, didn’t I?” “Just a little bit,” Rainbow playfully said while brushing a hoof against Twilight’s side. “But hey that’s fine. Magic’s your thing, so getting a little carried away here and there is to be expected.” A brief moment of silence passed in the room before Rainbow spoke once again. “So what’s after the conjuration challenge?” “That would be the force magic challenge,” Twilight replied in a matter of fact tone while magically flipping to the next page in the schedule. “It’s relatively simple compared to the other three. All the contestants are asked to do is lift a series of magically enchanted stones as high as they can before throwing them into as far as possible into a target field. And as you probably have guessed the unicorn that gets the furthest distance with the heaviest object is awarded the most points. And once that challenge has finished, the contestants are given a day long break in exhibition activities where they are given time to relax and prepare themselves for the final challenge, after which the pony with the highest amount of points is chosen as the champion of the exhibition.” “Wait a minute… If all of the contestants are on break, then what the heck are we going to be doing?” “I’m not sure really,” Twilight said while tapping a hoof against her muzzle. “I was thinking that maybe the three of us could find something to do around town.” “That sounds good. Was there anything that you had in mind?” “Not as of right now…” Twilight said as she looked towards the balcony window. “I was thinking about going around to some of the stores around and see if there was anything that I wanted to pick up for the girls, but other then that I didn’t really have much planned.” Twilight turned her gaze back toward Rainbow. “What about you? Did you want to do anything tomorrow?” “Not that I can think of… I might take a quick fly around town, but other than that I got nothing.” “Hmmm…” Twilight said as she began to scan through the exhibition schedule. “How about we grab a bite to eat here?” Rainbow turned her gaze towards the schedule and began to look at the restaurant that Twilight was pointing to. The building in the picture was a bit off colour and a couple feet shorter than the other buildings that surrounded it. Upon a close inspection of the picture, Rainbow noticed a large yellow sign that said ‘Welcome to C&P’s Fine IstallionDinning’ lay sitting outside of the restaurant door and a billboard of two identical looking istallion mares sitting side by side that hung from the building’s roof. “Istallion eh?” Rainbow said. “I could go for some Istallion.” “Perfect,” Twilight cheerfully replied as she marked it in the schedule and levitated the small book back into her satchel. “It’s a date.”