Rainbow Dash blinked the spots out of her eyes and frowned. “Anypony want to explain to me what just happened?”
“Um...” Pinkie Pie looked away from her. “I think Twilight just said that she thought your whole relationship was just an experiment and that she thought you knew and she didn’t want you to hate her,” Pinkie said, her voice not quite as chipper as it usually was.
“Oh, this is dreadful!” wailed Rarity, flinging herself back against Fluttershy who let out a squeak as she struggled to support her friend. “Tragedy instead of romance! A friendship torn asunder!”
“Oh please don’t hate her, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy’s voice was even harder to hear than normal through Rarity’s mane. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to lie to you.”
“Meant to or not, that’s a mighty big oops,” Applejack growled, adjusting her hat. “But I’m sure she didn’t mean to do it, sugar cube.” Her green eyes pleaded with Dash to understand. “For such a smart pony, she sure does seem to love the taste of her own hooves.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Girls, relax.” Dash waved a hoof, dismissing their concerns. “I don’t hate her.” Eyes narrowing, she shot a glare at Applejack. “And watch it, fruit-flank. That’s my girlfriend you’re insulting.”
Her friends all shared a concerned glance, mouths forming tiny frowns. Rarity stepped forward and smiled at her. Not a happy or encouraging smile; it was far too wide, far too strained, and showed far too many teeth. “Now Rainbow, perhaps you misunderstood? Twilight was just telling us that this whole affair has been another one of her experiments.” Her other three friends plastered on identical smiles and nodded. “She’s just a friend, dear.” Rarity’s forehead was damp and rivulets of sweat began to run down her face.
Dash cocked one eyebrow as she stared at the forced grins. “Relax, girls. I get what she said.”
“Y-you do?” Fluttershy asked.
“I may be too busy being the most awesome pony in Equestria to learn much about romance, but I know my friends.” She shook her head and smirked again. “You just don’t get it. Sure, maybe she decided to ask me out because of an experiment or something,” Dash said, shrugging her wings. “And yeah, that’s not quite the coolest reason to ask a pony out, but you know what? It’s Twilight.” She fixed Applejack with her gaze. “I bet she spent hours trying to figure out who she should ask out.” As AJ’s jaw fell, Rainbow let her gaze drift to Pinkie Pie and then Fluttershy. “And she chose me.”
Turning to pace, Dash continued. “I’ve seen ponies acting before, and last night wasn’t an act. She can say whatever she wants, but that doesn’t change things. Not really.” She stabbed a hoof out towards Rarity. “Besides, nopony who’s ‘just a friend’ spends that much time staring at my flank.” Dash’s smirk deepened into an outright leer.
“So what if she chickened out and ran just now instead of asking me out again? Sure, it’s not cool, but I’ve got cool to spare.” She puffed out her chest, flared her wings, and gave her friends a dose of her second most confident smile. “That doesn’t mean I can’t ask her out. I’m not going to let a chance like this slip through my hooves.” Dash turned and trotted to the door. Opening it, she called over her shoulder, “Sorry to bail Pinks, but I’ve got to talk to Twi before she does something silly.”
Pumping her wings, she shot off into the night. Rainbow Dash made straight for the library. Even if Twilight decided to run, she would have to go there first, if for no other reason than to pick up a few books. Rainbow debated doing things the normal, boring way and knocking, but Twilight might do something silly like not answer. Instead, she flew through the second story balcony window.
It was a tricky thing, flying through a window barely bigger than she was without getting cut up in the process. Then again, she was the best stunt pony in Equestria outside of the Wonderbolts. Twilight’s windows had thick frames, which made it easier to kick them open instead of shattering them. Spraying glass everywhere wasn’t nearly as cool as the stage performances made it seem, not to mention cleaning up took forever.
Luckily for her, Twilight had left the windows secured only by a small latch rather than a more sturdy lock. The latch snapped like a matchstick as she kicked it open. Dash sailed through the narrow opening while pulling her wings in tight, flaring them again just as she cleared the sill.
On any other night, the sight of Twilight’s frazzled mane, wide eyes, and open-mouthed stare would have been hilarious. Tonight those eyes were puffy and red, the coat around them was damp, and there were small dark patches trailing down her cheeks. As silly as it was, Dash felt like part of this was her fault.
“Rainbow!” Twilight croaked.
Dash landed on the footboard of Twilight’s bed, her wings opened wide to help her balance on her perch. “Hey, Twilight,” she said. “You left pretty quick. I didn’t get a chance to say goodnight. Again.”
Twilight rubbed her face against the pillow she’d been hugging tightly to her chest. It didn’t do much more than spread large dark spots on the cover. Twilight sniffled. “W-why are you here?”
Finding out Twilight hadn’t meant last night to be a real date had hurt a bit. Seeing her girlfriend hunched around a pillow and bawling her heart out was a much bigger blow. “I’d have thought an egghead like you could’ve figured it out.” Dash smiled down at the unicorn. “I’m here for you, Twilight.”
Rather than smile in relief, Twilight cringed away from her, ears pressing back against her head. “Oh stars and moon, I’m sorry, Rainbow!” she said, the occasional hiccup wracking her body as she spoke. “I– I didn’t mean to hurt you—to make you hate me!” Twilight pulled her blanket up to hide her face from Dash.
“Oh please, Twilight.” Rainbow pulled the blanket down until she could meet Twilight’s eyes. “I don’t hate you. I–“
“How can you not?” Twilight blurted out. “I lead you on! I pretended to go out with you. I embarrassed you in front of our friends!”
Dash couldn’t stop herself from smacking a hoof into her forehead as she groaned. She took a deep breath, sighed, and then fixed Twilight with her best glare. “Twilight Sparkle–“ her voice grew hard– “you’re one of the smartest ponies I know, but you can be really dense sometimes.” Her wings flapped, lifting her off of her perch. She fluttered over next to Twilight, who tried to hunch down under her pillow.
Dash settled down gently, taking her time but never breaking eye contact. Her voice was softer when she next spoke. “We know you Twilight. I know you.” She gently laid a hoof on one of Twilight’s. “There’s absolutely no way you would set out to hurt somepony, right?”
Twilight stopped trying to fit her entire body beneath her pillow. Her ears were no longer pinned to the back of her head as she nodded slightly.
Dash continued. “Now, you’re feeling pretty down ‘cause you think I hate you.” Dash waited for Twilight’s nod before she continued. “Well, I don’t. As for this ‘fake date’ thing.” Dash moved forward quickly, eliciting an “eep” from the unicorn. She touched the tip of her nose to Twilight’s. Dash could feel her friend’s ragged breathing against her muzzle. “I had a great time last night. And you’re not a good enough liar to tell me that you didn’t, too.” She smirked at the way Twilight’s eyebrows rose in shock. She thought there might be a hint of blush below those eyes, but she didn’t want to look away to find out. “I had fun, you had fun, we had fun. Together.”
Dash lifted her face away from Twilight’s. The other mare’s checks were definitely flushed. Rainbow allowed her smirk to grow a tiny bit. “And it wasn’t all just ‘being friends’ was it? I caught you looking back by the alley, remember?” She let out a single laugh. “By the way, that offer is still open.”
Twilight looked away. Her mouth was clamped shut. As Dash watched, the flushed patches of her cheeks grew until they wrapped over the top of her muzzle and joined. Twilight nodded. When she spoke, her voice was very small, but it wasn’t shaking like it had been before. “But... I still lied. When I asked you out, I wasn’t... I didn’t...”
“Oh, is that the problem?” Dash leered at Twilight. “You went on a date with somepony you didn’t think you liked that way?” Dash thrust out her chest, drew up to her full height, and flared her wings. “Newsflash, Twilight! Going on dates is how you figure that stuff out. Even I know that.”
“But I didn’t and–“
“Doesn’t matter,” Dash interrupted, “It’s done. Don’t care why. You asked me out, I said ‘yes,’ we both had fun, and we like each other. It was real enough.”
“Wait– you? Me?” Twilight’s eyes threatened to pop out of her head. “You like me?”
“Duh!” Dash snorted. “You think I would go out with somepony I didn’t like! At least a little?”
“But it was just an experiment! You didn’t have to–“ Twilight blinked and stopped as Dash gave her horn a sharp bump with a hoof.
“Stop being such a silly filly and use that pretty head of yours. I didn’t know it was an experiment.” Dash sat back onto her haunches and examined the ceiling. “I kinda zone out some times and miss important stuff. Usually though, I can just wing it.” She chuckled weakly at her pun. “But I totally said ‘yes’ when you asked me out, didn’t I?”
Watching Twilight’s face as she finally got the message, Dash couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh jeez, Twilight–!” She burst out laughing as Twilight’s frown wibbled and wobbled its way to an excited, and very dopey, grin.
“You mean, you like me?!” Twilight’s voice rang out.
“Yes, Twilight,” Dash said, letting some of her annoyance creep into her voice. “Now are you gonna ask me out or do I have to do it?”
“I...”
“Fine.” Dash rolled her eyes. “What’re you doing this Friday?”
“I don’t know, Rainbow.” Twilight closed her puffy eyes and smiled. “What are we doing this Friday?”
Twilight grimaced, using all the strength in her body to pull her left leg back under her. Slowly, the limb slid inwards and her mouth curled into a smile as she triumphed over the treacherous ice. Shaky, but victorious, she stood once more. Sure, she was standing in the middle of a frozen lake and had no idea how to control which way her skates slid, but she was standing.
“Yes!” she cheered, reveling in the moment. Then her left rear leg slid back and her front ones shot out sideways. Again. She strained to hold them together, but with no leverage and no grip on the frictionless ice, it was a losing battle. Pinkie and Rarity slid past her, making it look so easy.
“Easy there, Twilight,” came Dash’s voice from next to her. She felt a wing wrap over her back and pull her up tight against Rainbow’s flank. The extra support was just enough to let her pull her hooves under her again.
“Thanks, Rainbow,” she said, dropping her head, which made her slip again. She fell against Dash, throwing her weight against the pegasus and slamming her skates together to keep them from moving. Dash grunted as Twilight used her to steady herself, somehow keeping her skates perfectly immobile on the ice.
Content for the moment to lean against her marefriend’s neck, Twilight gave an apologetic smile. “Sorry about all this. You went to a lot of trouble to get the weather commissioner to approve refreezing this lake for our second date.” Twilight sighed. “And I’m just falling all over you tonight.”
Rainbow twisted her neck to press her nose to Twilight’s. A smirk split her muzzle and her eyebrows waggled as she asked, “What makes you think that wasn’t the reason I set all this up? Freezing a lake in spring isn’t the easiest thing in the world, y’know.”
Twilight tried to fight down the rising heat in her cheeks. It would have been hard enough to keep from blushing had they been alone, but with Pinkie and Rarity on the ice and Applejack and Fluttershy watching from shore, it was impossible. Casting her mind about for something, anything to derail that train of thought, she latched onto the one thing within her mind’s grasp. “So how did you get them to let you refreeze the lake?” she asked. “Where did they put all the fish and other aquatic animals?”
Rainbow Dash twisted and ducked her head, bent a leg, then scooted back a few inches, flipping Twilight around and placing her front hooves squarely on the ice. Too stunned to move, Twilight stood there with her legs locked.
“Easy,” Dash said, “but you’re looking a bit worn out. Let’s get some cocoa. I’ll tell you on the way.” Dash flapped her wings, spinning in place until she was facing away from Twilight.
“Um, I–“ Twilight began. She was about to point out that, short of teleporting, she had no reliable way to get herself off the ice, but was cut off as Dash shoved her tail in her face.
“Grab on,” Dash said, leering over her shoulder.
There were at least a dozen less embarrassing ways to get off the ice than to be dragged off by her marefriend’s tail. She could try to skate and just sort of slide in that direction, she could teleport, Rainbow could push her: all very good and valid choices, but none quite as intimate. She took up the proffered tail in her mouth.
Behind the lingering scent of flowery shampoo, Rainbow’s hair had a sharp scent, like the metallic tinge left after a lightning strike. It was a bit odd. She had expected each band of color to have a unique flavor or texture, but it all just tasted like hair. She wasn’t sure why she suspected it would be otherwise.
She braced herself, trying to keep her weight evenly distributed as Rainbow began to move. She had a fluid grace on the ice. Where Pinkie’s and Rarity’s two beat gait propelled them across the ice in small spurts, Rainbow Dash’s legs and wings were in continuous motion, sending her gliding smoothly across the ice. Eyeing the way Rainbow’s legs moved, Twilight was able to think of several more very good and completely unvoiceable reasons to let her marefriend drag her instead of push her.
“Well, you have to keep this a bit quiet, Twilight, but I’ve been trying for years to get Cloudsdale to pick Ponyville as their source of water for clouds.” Rainbow threw a hoof wide and pointed a skate off in the direction of the pegasus city, all without disrupting her rhythm. “Trying to get Ponyville on the map, you know?” Rainbow paused for a moment until Twilight gave a muffled grunt of acknowledgement.
“Anyway, they finally agreed to it.” Rainbow chuckled. “I guess saving Equestria twice makes someponies actually listen.” Rainbow looked over her shoulder and winked at Twilight. “Since Highland Reservoir is the only source of water around here big and clean enough, I knew they’d have to use it. It was already emptied of wildlife.” Nearing the edge of the lake, Rainbow let her hooves glide over the ice and relied solely on her wings for propulsion. “I called in a few favors, made a few deals, and got them to help me freeze the lake. No big deal. Hey, Fluttershy. Got any more of that cocoa?”
Rainbow smoothly stepped off of the ice and onto the green shore. Twilight tried to copy the maneuver, but messed up her timing somewhere and ended up stumbling into her marefriend. Dash’s legs bent under the impact. The pegasus tried to step out wide to regain her balance, but one of her skate blades caught on the soft soil. Twilight closed her eyes as she took a face full of feathers from Rainbow’s futile attempts to stay upright. The pair fell over in a heap.
Twilight grunted as she landed, surprised by the softness of the impact. Opening her eyes, she was greeted with the blue of Dash’s chest. Twilight’s gaze traveled upwards along Dash’s neck to where her marefriend was rubbing her head.
Dash cracked open one eye to look at her. “Not that I’m saying ‘no’ or anything, but you might want to wait until the others go home,” Rainbow said, smirking.
Twilight jerked her head up. Somehow, during the fall, the pegasus had landed on her back, legs sprawling wide around Twilight. As fast as she could safely manage, Twilight pushed herself up and off of Rainbow. “Sorry, Rainbow.”
“Don’t worry about it.” The pegasus rolled over in place with barely a hint of effort, but didn’t stand. It took Twilight a moment to realize Rainbow was chewing at the bindings on her own skates, trying to loosen them enough to slip them off.
Her horn lit up as she said, “Here, let me get those for you.” The glow of her magic surrounded the skates and unfastened them in short order. She turned her attention to her own laces as Dash slipped her skates off.
“Thanks, Twilight. Getting in and out of those is always the worst part.” Dash spat into the grass. “The skates taste horrible.” She stood and stretched: rear legs, then front. Twilight couldn’t help but notice how the simple motions she’d seen dozens of times before could suddenly be so much more interesting now that is was her marefriend performing them.
“A-hem.” Applejack’s polite cough was hardly convincing. “I do say, this here is some mighty fine cocoa, Fluttershy,” she said, her voice overly loud and stilted.
“Oh, um,” the other mare stammered. “Thanks, Applejack, but it’s not really anything special.”
“Nonsense,” Applejack said as she picked up the insulated carafe in her mouth. Voice muffled by the handle, she said, “This here is summa the best cocoa I’ve had all year.” Applejack poured some into the two waiting cups.
Twilight watched as Fluttershy smiled at the compliment. A year ago the unicorn would have been shocked to see the pegasus accept a compliment so readily. She’d grown since Twilight had first come to Ponyville; they all had. A year ago, the thought of spending her valuable time just talking and enjoying an afternoon with her friends had been unthinkable.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding Applejack,” Rainbow Dash’s voice drew her out of her reverie. “This is good!” Twilight’s friend—her marefriend—sipped at the steaming cup. “Thanks Fluttershy.” Rainbow turned towards her. “Come on, Twilight. You’ve got to try this!”
With a thought, she levitated her own cup, bringing it to her muzzle and taking a small sip.
“So, um, Twilight?” Fluttershy shuffled her hooves and half hid behind her mane. “Did you– have you told the Princess yet?”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “She sure did! That scroll was the longest I’d ever seen! I thought Spike was gonna choke when she told him to send it!”
Twilight smiled. The scroll had indeed been one of the longest she’d ever penned. She hadn’t told Dash much about what was on it, only that it was her friendship report to the Princess about their relationship.
“Relax, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes at the other mare’s concerned frown. “He was fine. It’s not like he had to eat it or anything.” Her friends all laughed at that image. “Besides, it only took her ten minutes to write. Not even I can write fast enough to give Spike’s stomach a challenge.”
That scroll had taken most of her life to write, but Twilight didn’t correct her marefriend. Even if she was assuming too much about how today’s date would end, she was confident the final check mark wouldn’t be a fib for too much longer.
Princess Celestia looked up as the puff of green smoke wound its way towards her. Her eyes lit up as they fastened onto the message. It had been a long time since her most faithful student had sent a report of her own, but Celestia recognized her emotional energy instantly. As much value as she placed on all of the friendship reports from the Elements, Twilight’s still brought her the greatest joy.
The scroll materialized and she caught it up in her magic before it could even begin to fall. This message was unlike every other report she had received from Twilight. Instead of the immaculate, freshly inked and trimmed scrolls her student was wont to use, this one was worn and tattered. It was loosely wound and of far greater length than many of the scrolls she had in her own library. Ink, dulled and faded from years of neglect and wear, marred the entire surface. Lines had been drawn through what might have once been legible text, standing in stark contrast to what was now no more than a dull hint of meaning. The only lettering she could make out still was to be found at the top of the abused manuscript: “One Hundred Things Every Filly Should Do.” Curiosity leading her onwards, she flipped the tattered scroll over. On the reverse side, where no long-faded ink lay, she found crisp, legible writing, still slightly damp.
Dear Princess Celestia,
As we learn and grow, we sometimes realize that things we always thought were important, really don’t matter all that much, and things we never considered necessary can turn out to be what we wanted all along. We might find events spiraling out of control and headed to disaster, unless we keep our minds open. It’s important never to blind yourself to possibilities just because you think you have the answer.
Your Faithful Student
Twilight Sparkle