//------------------------------//
// Thunder - Adda le Blue 
// Story: TwiDash Prompt Collab 
// by TwiDashCollabs 
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It wasn't even two o'clock in the morning when the library was hit by a train.

Twilight shrieked as she heaved herself upright. Her horn glowed bright as she brought into being a sphere of magenta energy around the entire bed. She turned to face her wife with wild eyes. "What's ha--"

Rainbow Dash wasn't there.

Twilight's heart leaped into her stomach. "Rainbow?!" She could barely hear herself over the roar of the engine below, the vibrations that shook the library so violently her teeth buzzed against each other. She lurched to her hooves, wincing at the electric touch of the shuddering wood below them, and galloped toward the stairs.

It stopped as suddenly as it came; the echoes rang out into the distance. Fearing the worst, Twilight took the stairs one at a time, as quickly and as carefully as she could on trembling hooves. "R-Rainbow?" she called.

Down below, somepony cleared their throat. "Y-" Muttering echoed up the stairs. Two voices? Three? "Hey, Twi."

"Oh, thank the stars!" Twilight threw herself down the rest of the stairs and rounded the doorway to see Rainbow Dash... standing in the center of the room, a bright orange, pointy-looking electric guitar slung over her shoulder. Her mane was a mess, her eyes were wide, and her grin was sheepish enough for three ponies. Behind her stood a familiar set of speakers and a turntable; Twilight could see the top of a striped blue mane and a spangled purple hat peeking out from behind it.

Rainbow shifted uneasily as Twilight tried to pick her chin up off of the floor. "So..."

"Are you kidding me, Rainbow Dash?!"

The hat disappeared behind the turntable.

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Whoa, calm down!" she said softly. "Let's just calm..."

"I don't think she's gonna calm down, Dash," Vinyl advised her.

Rainbow glanced over her shoulder at her, then back to the mare who held her heart in her hooves and was capable of crushing it if she made the wrong move. "...Down?"

"I told you I was exhausted!" she snarled, her hoofsteps loud as bombs. "I told you I was going to get some sleep, finally!"

"A-a-and you did," Rainbow said quickly. "That's good, right?" Twilight growled like a feral dog. "'Cause you've been working so hard lately and, and, and you really need to get some sleep!"

"Yes, Rainbow Dash, that's right," she said softly. "So could you please explain to me why you're making a racket louder than the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra right beneath my bed?" Her anger shook the guitar's strings enough to cause feedback.

"We were just gonna jam a little! I didn't know it was gonna be so loud."

"That was reeeally loud," Vinyl half-shouted helpfully.

"Vinyl forgot to turn it down after her show."

"I forgot!" she agreed with a grin. "I'm a big jerk!"

"Vinyl is a jerk," a fourth voice added primly. "I did nothing wrong."

Vinyl threw her shoulder into Trixie's, nearly sending them both to the floor. "Don't make me plug that big mouth of yours..."

Trixie beamed up at her. "It wouldn't be the first time," she said slyly.

"Girls!" The three froze in horror. Twilight's chest heaved with fury barely held in check. "I don't care whose fault it is," she said sharply. "No more music tonight!"

Rainbow clutched the guitar to her chest. "Aww, Twi..."

"No more! It's time to go home, girls."

Rainbow took a step back, putting herself between Twilight and the turntable. "Look, Twi. Vinyl and Trixie need a place to crash. They're only gonna be in town for one night and I said they could sleep here."

Twilight's eye twitched. "Fine," she said finally. "I won't turn them away, but that's all they'll be doing, okay?" She rounded on the other two and threw a hoof toward the guest bedroom. "Sleeping!"

Vinyl smirked. "Or, we could--"

Trixie plugged that big mouth of hers with a hoof. "Certainly. Good night, Sparkle!" she sang; she jerked Vinyl to her hooves and dragged her along in her wake.

Twilight watched them go until the door slammed behind them, leaving their muffled words to her imagination. "Now, as for you, Rainbow Dash..."

Rainbow wilted. "Okay, I know you're mad, but hear me out. We've got a good thing going here!"

"Good enough that it's worth waking me up at two in the morning?"

"Y-- N--" She glanced down at the guitar with a nervous frown. "Look, Vinyl and I were jamming and she says I'm really good! Just listen to this!" She slapped her pastern against the strings and strummed the guitar.

Twilight caught the strings in her magic before they could wake the neighborhood once more. "Really, Rainbow Dash?" she said blandly.

Rainbow stared at her for a brief moment before realization dawned. "Oh, right." She reached behind her and turned the speakers down to a reasonable level. "Get ready to feel the thunder!"

Twilight facehoofed.

Rainbow's pastern fell against the strings once more, holding them steady as she struck them with her hoof. Out came a sound like a crocodile being stepped on by a marching band; a roar of crunchy, heavy noise. Her hoof chugged along like the train Twilight had heard crashing through the library earlier, plucking out a slow and scattered riff on the first few strings. All the while Rainbow stared at her with eyes wide and smile wider, basking in the roar of the guitar.

"Aren't you supposed to use your other hoof too?" Twilight shouted over it.

Rainbow frowned with a hint of a blush. "I'm getting there!" she scowled. She continued the same riff, but used her left hoof to bend the strings here and there, adding the bare minimum of variety to the music. "Heavy, huh?" she said, her smile returning.

"Um..." Twilight cocked her head. "Yes?"

"Yeah!" she whooped, lost in her own music. "Yeah, feel that? That's the thunder!"

"That's the thunder?" she smirked.

"Not impressed?" She gave the strings one last bend and slid her hooves together to meet in the middle. "Well, here comes the lightning!"

The guitar squealed, making Twilight cringe away, as she slammed the tip of her hoof against the fretboard. Her hooftips tapped fiercely against it, abusing the thinnest and highest string, two frets apart. They danced down the neck of the instrument, across the strings, tapping out a staccato rhythm of highs and lows that hit the mares like a barrage of sonic missiles.

Finally she slammed her left hoof down across the fretboard, sent her right across the strings as hard as she could, and gave Twilight a wink before another warmer chord rang out to finish it off.

Rainbow smiled and panted, her muzzle set in a look of satisfaction Twilight knew well. "What do you think?"

Twilight stared.

"Sweet guitar, right? It's got seven strings!" she crowed. "That makes it awesome."

Rainbow Dash had grown so much in the last decade... but she still had a lot of growing to do. "Rainbow Dash," Twilight said softly.
The firm set of Twi's jaw knocked Rainbow's ears flat. "Oh," she mumbled. Her shoulders began to tighten. "...Sorry?"

"I love you." Her eyes softened as she tried to force a smile.

Rainbow sighed with relief. "I love you more, egghea--"

"But some days you make me want to throttle you." She turned and stomped away, shaking her head as she walked. "I'm going back to bed. Leave that thing downstairs if you're coming."

Rainbow watched her turn up the staircase, torn between her two loves -- awesome things and awesome wife. "Was it good?" she asked uncertainly.

Twilight didn't turn her head as she called back to her. "Ask me again when can you actually play music!"