//------------------------------// // Loyalty Confounds // Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle and her curious love life // by Idsertian //------------------------------// Loyalty Confounds “Okay, okay, what about that one?” “Ummm… apple cart.” “Apple- really? Now who's obsessed?” “Hey! It ain't my fault I gotta work with the things all day!” Twilight laughed. She couldn't remember ever feeling this genuinely happy. The past couple of weeks dating Applejack had been almost surreal, like a dream. Several times she had caught herself shaking her head, or surreptitiously nipping at her legs with her teeth, just to check. Their first date had been slightly awkward to begin with, as Twilight was unsure of how she should act or what she should say. Applejack had reassured her, however, telling her to be herself, and the pair had enjoyed a lovely evening over dinner. They had enjoyed it so much that they had immediately lined up another date, followed quickly by two more. Now, on what would be their fifth date, Twilight looked to her right, grinning from ear to ear, over at—and it still felt strange to call her this—her marefriend. The two of them were laid on their backs, front legs curled up on their chests as they cloud-watched in Ponyville park. Applejack's hat rested on her stomach, rising and falling gently with each breath. “This has been a ton of fun, AJ,” Twilight said, not breaking eye contact. “Not just today, but these last two weeks. This is going to sound really corny, but I'm glad I finally opened up to you.” “You’re right, it does,” chuckled the other pony. “And so am I, sugarcube. I've been enjoyin' our little get-together's a lot.” An orange hoof fell over Twilight's own. They nuzzled closer together, muzzles almost touching. Twilight felt her breath quicken as her eyes darted from Applejack's—which now seemed to stretch out like immense fields of green—down to her mouth and back up again. A blush formed on the alicorn’s cheeks and her wings flittered at her sides. She darted forward and kissed Applejack quickly, gone almost as quick as she arrived. The other pony blinked rapidly for a second. “Don’t tell my marefriend,” Applejack started slowly, “but I think somepony just kissed me. Did you see anyone?” Twilight giggled at her partner’s silliness. “No-one but us.” “Oh good. If Twilight finds out about that, she’ll- oh hey, Twi!” The grinning earth pony leaned forwards just as quickly as Twilight had done, though her kiss lasted much longer. Twilight closed her eyes as she found herself lost in the adrenaline rush. Two weeks ago, she’d never have even dreamed she could be Applejack’s marefriend, let alone be kissing her openly in public, but now here she was, locking lips with the mare she’d dreamed about so often. In truth, she was still incredibly nervous of displaying her affection in public, often catching herself looking around to see if anypony was watching them, expecting an angry mob to come charging at them both any second. She knew that was ridiculous, of course, but it did nothing to help assuage a lifetime of fear and self-doubt. Applejack had been a big help in battling that. She’d encouraged Twilight every time she made some sign of affection in public, reminded her that no-one was judging them when she was reluctant, and sometimes surprised her with a quick kiss or hug. By the end of the first week, Twilight had become slightly more open to displaying her affections in public, risking the occasional quick nuzzle or peck on the cheek. Over the next few days, her bravery grew and soon the two of them were hugging, holding hooves and kissing in full view of anyone passing by. It was an astronomically fast turnaround in Twilight’s behaviour, helped in no small part by how much she wanted it. Oddly, she liked the adrenaline rush she got by being able to show her feelings for Applejack. But she also liked showing her how much she cared, how much she meant to her and how much it would destroy her if she lost her. Eventually, Twilight had to come up for air. She broke the contact and opened her eyes, panting slightly. She could see the blush she felt on her own cheeks reflected on Applejack’s, the red providing a more than slightly alluring contrast to her orange coat. “Don’t tell my marefriend about that,” the princess teased, booping Applejack gently on the nose with a hoof. The pair giggled together. The farm mare stood up, sweeping her hat onto her head nonchalantly before saying, “Well, I’d best be gettin’ back to the farm. It might not be harvest time yet, but there’s still plenty to do.” “I’ll walk with you as far as the library,” Twilight replied with a smile, getting up to join her. “Spike and I have to categorise and organise everything before the end of the week. You would not believe how often books from the cookery section end up in the biology section.” Applejack chuckled at the librarian’s frustration. Her literature-based troubles were well known in their circle of friends. The two of them walked quietly for a moment, Twilight taking the time to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the spring day. Ponies were scattered around the park, some walking the paths, others sat around on benches and on the grass. A breeze wafted gently through the open space, carrying with it the sounds of foals playing and the smells of new flowers growing and freshly cut grass. Celestia’s sun shone down on everything, casting dappled shadows through the leaves of the trees that lined the paths and making it just warm enough for a pony not to need any extra clothing. As they walked, Twilight took a moment to once again reflect on her new-found relationship. Once upon a time, she hadn’t dared dream she would ever have a fulfilling relationship; such a thing seemed within the grasp of “normal” ponies only. Yet now, here she was with Applejack, her dreams being realised more and more each day. She only wished she could be more like her marefriend when it came to the relationship. Twilight’s face must have borne a troubled expression, as Applejack gave her a gentle nudge as they walked. “Penny for your thoughts, darlin’?” she asked. Warm fuzzies crept through Twilight at the nickname. Nopony had ever called her that before. “It’s nothing, really,” she replied, shaking her head. “I was just thinking I wished that I could be a bit more like you.” “Like me?” “Yes. You’re always so confident and assured about us, and I’m still a nervous wreck every time we even so much as hug.” She glanced over at Applejack before looking away again, slightly embarrassed. “You probably think I’m just a silly filly, but I wish I had just an ounce of your confidence.” “Heh, is that all?” Applejack chuckled. “Don’t worry, sugarcube, you’re doin’ fine. You had a lot hangin’ over your head as a kid, not to mention this is your first rodeo.” Twilight snorted at the joke. “There you go. See? It ain’t all bad,” Applejack said as Twilight looked over at her. “Hey, hold up a sec.” The orange pony trotted in front of Twilight and turned to face her. “Tell me what you see.” “I… what? I see you,” Twilight answered, confused. “Not me, Twilight, the park.” Applejack gestured at their surroundings with a hoof. Twilight looked around for a moment. Nothing was out of the ordinary; just a regular spring day in the park. She studied her surroundings more closely. Grass, check. Trees, check. Park wildlife, check. Pony couples, check. Foals playi- Hold on, back up. Oh. Oh! Twilight facehoofed. “You spotted it, didn’t you?” Twilight nodded, and damn it if she couldn’t hear the grin in her marefriend’s voice. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it in all the time she’d been in Ponyville. “So you see why I don’t give a hoot?” Applejack continued gently. “There are couples like us everywhere in Ponyville. There just ain’t no need to hide ‘cos we’ll always have support.” Applejack was right, couples like them were everywhere in the park. Even couples of a more… masculine nature. True, there weren’t as many as the more “traditional” arrangement, but now that Twilight had seen it, she could see mare couples everywhere; walking the paths, sat on the benches, lounging on the grass… Her eyes were drawn to one pair of mares, one an off-white unicorn with a dark grey mane and tail, the other a pink pegasus with yellow hair, making out playfully on the grass. The unicorn was gently caressing her partner’s chest, her hoof moving lower to- Whoa, nelly! There was being open, and there was that! Twilight hurriedly looked away, her wings popping up suddenly and a hoof coming up to shield the side of her eyes, wondering for a moment how in Equestria they could get away with behaving like that. There were children around, for Goddess’ sake! She caught Applejack’s quizzical expression and simply nodded her head in the direction of the other mares. The farm mare looked around and let out a startled nicker. “Whoa, nelly!” Applejack’s exclamation unknowingly echoed Twilight’s own surprised thought. Had she been less preoccupied with her own embarrassment, Twilight might have given some consideration to Applejack’s colloquialisms sneaking into her mental lexicon, but as it was she was far more concerned with present issues. “Get a room, you two!” she heard Applejack yell out to the indiscreet couple before turning back. “Geez, ya’ll would think it was a free-for-all out here, or somethin’. Come on, Twi, let’s get along now.” Twilight felt herself being tugged gently down the path, away from the scandalous scene. “Seriously, some ponies ain’t got no self-control,” she heard Applejack mutter under her breath. After a minute, Twilight felt her cheeks stop burning as they arrived at the gates to the park. Just inside the gates, an ice cream stall had been set up, and a sizeable queue had formed, comprised mostly of foals and their put-upon parents. Applejack nodded towards the stall and asked: “Fancy some? I’m thinkin’ we both probably need to cool down after that. I’m buyin’.” Twilight was about to kick into full-on bookworm mode and comment on how she was pretty sure it didn’t work like that, when her brain realised she was being offered free ice-cream. Free. Ice cream. Her wings fluttering up and down against her sides, she replied with a smile, “That sounds wonderful, thank you.” “Alright,” Applejack said, returning the smile with a grin of her own. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.” Twilight sat down at the edge of the path to wait, enjoying the warm sunshine on her coat and the breeze over her wings. Glancing back at herself, she felt a certain sense of satisfaction at the way her coat shone slightly in the sunlight. She’d been paying more attention to herself since she started dating Applejack, wanting to look nice for her, and it showed in her general appearance. An extra minute a day spent brushing her coat gave her a wonderful sheen. She wondered why she’d never bothered with it that much before. Not only did she look great, she felt great! Twilight was beginning to understand why Rarity took such great pains over her own appearance. Spotting a couple of displaced feathers on her right wing, Twilight leaned around to try and re-align them. She still had trouble with preening her wings, despite reading every little thing she could on the matter, and she still wasn’t sure about the taste of the oils the feathers secreted. It reminded her of the time as a filly, when she’d picked up the business end of a quill in her mouth. She’d been getting better at it, though. Her feathers stayed straight and in place… most of the time. As Twilight fussed with her errant feathers, she became aware of the presence of another pony next to her only a fraction of a second too late. “Boo, egghead!” “Ah!” Twilight recoiled sharply from the loud voice, folding her ear down with a hoof. “Hehe, you’re too easy, Twilight.” The princess turned to her would-be aggressor, more than slightly annoyed. “Rainbow!” she shot at the sky-blue pegasus, who was sat on the grass in front of her, a smug grin plastered on her face. “That’s not funny, it hurt!” Twilight rubbed her ear momentarily before letting it spring back up. “Sorry, but I couldn’t resist.” The rainbow-maned trouble-maker at least had the sense to sound contrite, even if that grin was still plastered all over her face. “You were just too easy a target.” “Ugh, don’t you have weather to move around?” Twilight asked irritably. Today had been going just fine until now. “Nah, I don’t have a shift today,” Rainbow answered, suddenly looping into the air. She adopted a laid back position, wings flapping lazily to keep her aloft. “So how’s it goin’?” Twilight considered upbraiding her friend further, but decided against it. Rainbow Dash was just being Rainbow Dash, there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. Besides, she wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t have laughed if she hadn’t been the intended target. “Fine,” she answered after a moment, turning to examine her wing once again. “I was just trying to straighten a couple of feathers when you showed up.” “Still getting used to preening, huh?” “Yeah. I’m getting better, though the taste isn’t.” “The taste?” she heard Rainbow ask. Twilight didn’t look around, instead opting to try and talk around her plumage as she continued trying to straighten the out-of-line feathers. “Yef, you know, the tafte.” She finally managed to get the feathers lined up again. With a satisfied smile, she spat the collection of oils on her tongue into the grass before continuing, “It reminds me of ink. Not disgusting, but not exactly what I would call tasty, either.” She looked around at Rainbow who was eyeing her strangely. “That doesn’t sound right,” the pegasus said. “Mine just taste like the cloud vapour I use to wash with in the mornings. Have they always tasted like that?” Twilight thought for a moment. “No, not at first. The taste started coming in gradually after about a week since I got my wings.” “And how often are you cleaning them?” “Well… every day,” the princess answered, confused. “Ah, there’s your problem, right there. Over-cleaning.” “Over-cleaning?” Twilight asked, even more confused. She’d never heard of, or read about, such a thing. “Yeah,” Rainbow said, swooping closer to Twilight and pulling one of her wings out gently. “You’re just cleaning your wings too much.” She ran a hoof over the outside of Twilight’s wing, then brought it to her face for inspection. “Yep, just as I thought, way too greasy.” The pegasus turned her attention to the downy underside of the wing. Twilight was vaguely uncomfortable with Rainbow Dash inspecting her like this, but was more hung up on what her friend had said. Her other, folded, wing gave a fitful jump. “Wait,” Twilight said. “I don’t understand. How can I be too clean, but too greasy at the same time?” Rainbow Dash let go of her wing, giving a curt nod and continued hovering next to Twilight. “Well,” started the pegasus. “Your wings make their own natural oils, right? The oil’s supposed to keep the feathers clean and smooth, making sure you don’t get any dirt on them, or get them waterlogged. If you wash it off in the shower, your body has to make more of it to replace it. Do it too much, and you’ll make way more than you need and get greasy wings.” Twilight looked down at her wing, slightly concerned. “Is that bad?” she asked. “Not really,” came the reply. “It won’t affect how you fly, but your wings will look slightly damp and you’ll leave greasy marks on whatever they touch. Plus the taste, which I think you already found out.” The pegasus chuckled. “It might sound gross, but I’d skip a few showers so your wings can re-adjust.” Twilight closed her wing and looked back up at her friend. “You’re right, that does sound gross.” Rainbow just shrugged. “I didn’t say don’t wash, I just said don’t shower. Oh, and don’t use shampoo on ‘em. I could smell it on your down feathers, you’ll just make the problem worse. Something to do with the chemicals in it.” “So how do I keep them clean if I can’t shower?” asked Twilight, starting to worry that she wouldn’t be able to experience the joy of her shower again. “Oh, you can totally shower once they’ve gone back to normal, just don’t spray the outside of your wings directly or scrub at them when they’re wet. Try holding them straight up and twisted away from the water, so the flight feathers are towards your flank, it’s what I do.” “What about the underside?” “Oh, those? Yeah, you can just towel those off, they don’t get anywhere near as oily as your flight feathers.” The pegasus waved a hoof dismissively. Twilight considered all of this new info. Wings sounded like a whole heap of trouble to look after. She wondered if Celestia, Luna or Cadance had this much trouble with theirs. Probably. Then again, they’d had much longer to get used to them than she had. “Well, uh, thanks I guess,” Twilight said, just before the silence became uncomfortable. “No problem,” Rainbow said, resuming her laid-back posture from before, forehooves crossed behind her head. “Knowing how to look after your wings is just as important as knowing how to use them.” Rainbow gestured with a hoof at the park around them. “So what are you doing out here? Normally you’re reading on a bench somewhere, not sat by the path.” Twilight started. She hadn’t yet told any of her other friends about her burgeoning relationship with Applejack. But she couldn’t just lie to Rainbow Dash, that would be wrong, not to mention she’d find out sooner or later… “Oh, I’m er… I’m just out for a walk with Applejack. She went to get some ice cream.” That wasn’t technically a lie; they were walking through the park, after all. She waited for the inevitable bored dismissal of her answer that Rainbow would give, but it never came. Instead, something rather peculiar happened. Something Twilight would never have thought possible. Rainbow Dash fell. It wasn’t far, but Twilight still winced when her friend’s rump connected with the ground. The sky-blue pegasus’ wings were sticking straight out from her sides, and her face was a mixture of emotions that the princess couldn’t quite place, somewhere between confusion and… fear? That was silly. Why would Rainbow Dash be scared of Applejack? She must’ve been mistaken. But then why had she fallen? Just then, Rainbow’s normally disciplined wings started moving, settling back against her ribs before performing a strange little fluttering dance at her sides. Twilight had never seen any pegasus’ wings so animated before, opening and shutting, shimmering and shaking, as if they were trying to jut up and clamp to her flanks all at once. “Rainbow?” she asked quietly. “Is something wrong?” The pegasus was quiet for a long few moments, to the extent that Twilight was about to repeat her question, before she answered flatly: “I’m fine.” Rainbow glanced about herself a couple of times before hopping into the air again. “Listen, do me a favour? Don’t tell Applejack we talked. In fact, better not mention I was here at all.” “Rainbow? What-” “I gotta go, see ya.” Twilight watched her friend disappear into the sky as if Cerberus itself was after her. What had gotten into her all of a sudden? As soon as Twilight had mentioned Applejack, her entire entire demeanour had changed. What had caused that reaction? Were the two of them fighting? She hadn’t heard of anything bad happening between them… Twilight was pulled out of her reverie by a nudge at her side. She looked over to see Applejack sat beside her, two ice cream cones wrapped tightly in her tail. “You alright, sugarcube?” she asked, offering the cones in her tail. “You looked a little spaced, there.” The alicorn’s horn ignited, lifting her ice-cream from her marefriend’s tail. “Oh, I’m fine,” she replied, taking a lick of the frozen treat. “I was just day-dreaming.” She smiled at Applejack. “Well, it must’ve been a doozy, ‘cos ya’ll were starin’ at the sky pretty hard, like you were tryin’ to figure somethin’ out. I almost didn’t nudge you, you look real cute when you’re puzzlin’ over a problem.” Applejack took a lick of her own cone. Twilight blushed almost hard enough to melt her ice-cream. She still wasn’t totally used to being complimented like that. “I-I… well… that’s uh… I mean…” she stammered. Applejack just chuckled and kissed her on the cheek. Her lips felt cold on Twilight’s cheek, chilled by her ice-cream. “I take it back, that looks cute.” She stood up, her cone still clutched in her tail. “C’mon, let’s mosey on outta here. I need to get back to the farm.” Twilight watched, still blushing, as Applejack started walking away. It had only been a couple of weeks since they started dating, but Twilight was more sure now than she had ever been about her feelings for the other mare. She wondered if she’d finally be able to settle down and be who she was, rather than hide away, terrified every day of somepony finding her out. And talking of finding out, what had been wrong with Rainbow Dash? Twilight had never seen anypony react like that, let alone her friend that was often the first to dive into any trouble, was possibly more loyal than even the royal guard, and who would probably die before she admitted to feeling any sort of fear. And yet, the pegasus had reacted as if the mere mention of Applejack would bring down the wrath of every threat to Equestria that she and her friends had faced. Not to mention those strange wing movements, like she couldn’t decide what to do with them. Almost as if she- “Twilight, you comin’?” The princess was startled out of her reverie by Applejack once again. “Oh! Yes, sorry!” With a glance up into the sky where Rainbow had disappeared, she stood and trotted to catch up with her marefriend. One thing was for sure, she was going to get to the bottom of Rainbow’s strange behaviour. [/)(\] Twilight stepped through the front door of the library, deep in thought. Rainbow’s actions in the park earlier had confounded her enough that her mind had refused to let it go, constantly evaluating and re-evaluating every little movement the pegasus had made. So far, she’d come up empty, so she’d decided to fall back onto the one thing that had never failed to provide her with an answer: studying. Glancing across the shelves lining the walls, she wondered what kind of book might cover the kind of subject she was thinking about. Did the library even possess such a book? She doubted there was a book dedicated to pegasi behaviour, but something with at least a chapter would be a start. “Spike?” she called out, listening for the tell-tale patter of her assistant’s claws on the wooden floors of the library. “Are you here?” After a moment, she heard him climbing the stairs from the basement. “Hey, Twilight,” the little dragon greeted her, carrying a box of lab equipment. “How’s it going?” “Fine,” she answered. “I need to find a book that covers pegasi behaviour, specifically anything to do with their wings, but I’m not sure if we even have anything like that here. I don’t suppose you’ve seen any books like that?” Spike scratched his chin as he thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think so, at least, nothing I’ve seen, but we did recently get that shipment from Canterlot. Maybe there’s something in that?” Twilight nodded. “Thanks, Spike. Where are the boxes?” “It’s just the one, actually,” he replied picking up the lab equipment again. The box was nearly as big as he was, but the dragon handled it with comparative ease. “It’s in the back room. I haven’t had time to sort it yet, what with packing this lab equipment you wanted to donate to the school and all.” “Alright. Be careful with that, won’t you?” “You know me, Twi,” Spike said, as he backed out of the library’s front door. “Careful is practically my middle name!” Shaking her head, but smiling, Twilight turned and headed for the library’s back room. Ostensibly a study room, a central pillar with a desk ringing its circumference was the central feature. Like the main room, shelves lined the walls, filled with books on every subject. The librarian in her noted that the shelves needed reorganising, again, but put it aside in favour of searching the newly arrived books. Scanning the room, she quickly spied the box of new books lying under the central desk. Sitting next to it, she pulled the flaps of the box back with her magic and started levitating books out, placing them on the desk as she read the titles. Annoyingly, they weren’t organised in any particular manner, meaning she was pulling out books on every kind of subject. She would have to have a word with the librarian at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Equestrian History, 4th Revision: The Crystal Empire & King Sombra. Contributors: Fact Checker, HRH Princess Twilight Sparkle, Geo Fizz. Not helpful, though mark that for later reading. Going up! Basic flight lessons for pegasus foals. By Friendly Skies. Close, but not what she was looking for. Daring Do: A collection of side-tales. A. K. Yearling. Oh, definitely mark that one for later reading! The Great Canterlot Ring of Stars: Unravelling the mysteries of the glyphs on Luna’s monument. Fact Checker, Rose St. One, Script Theory & Zenia Fulcrum. No. That wasn’t anywhere close, either. After five minutes of pulling these, and many more titles, out of the box, Twilight sat back and let out a frustrated sigh. Briefly, she wondered how Spike had managed to drag a box of this size, filled entirely with books, into this room all by himself with no help, but the thought quickly passed. Owlowiscious had probably helped him. Either way, it didn’t change the fact she hadn’t found what she was looking for. This box was filled with books on every subject but pegasi and their wings, it seemed. Lighting her horn, Twilight levitated the books she’d pulled out. Just as she was about to start putting the books back in the box, she bumped it with one of her back legs, disturbing the few books inside that she’d already looked at and knocking a few over. Looking inside so she could stand them back up, she noticed one of them had fallen open. On its pages were not one, but two separate diagrams of pegasi with their wings extended. Dropping the books she was carrying with a POP of magic, she lifted the book up and stared at it. Closing it, she realised she’d already looked at this one, the cover claiming it was Fancy Style’s ”Do’s and Don’ts of High Society Etiquette”. This, however, was clearly not right. Opening to the inside leaf, Twilight discovered the cover was, in fact, a dust cover taped to the inside of the book. No wonder she’d passed over it. Words were most certainly going to be had with the head librarian back at her old school. Carefully peeling the tape away from the book’s real cover with her magic, she then closed the book again and looked over the brown cover that showed a pair of pegasus wings; one folded, the other outstretched. Above the illustration was the book’s title: Mood Wings: Observations on Pegasus Body Language, by Keen Eye. With an excited squeal, and a happy little dance on the tips of her hooves, Twilight opened the book to its contents and saw that it was exactly what she needed. And way better than she’d dared hoped. After carefully peeling the tape from the back cover, Twilight teleported herself and the book to her bedroom, where she curled up on her bed and began to read… [/)(\] Several hours later, Twilight closed the little brown book with a thump. The sun lit her room in the early evening hues of gold, warming both her and the wooden walls it touched, lending a cozy atmosphere to the room. However, she just stared off into space, thinking. The new information she’d soaked up was churning around in her mind, mixing with the day’s earlier events. Quickly flipping the book open again, Twilight double-checked a piece of information, then closed it again. She thought some more. Her body had had enough of thinking, however, and decided she’d ignored its requirements long enough. Still buried in thought and running mostly on autopilot, she got up, stretched her legs, and headed to her bathroom. As she walked, things finally began clicking into place. Mood Wings had been a rather informative read. She’d learned about general wing-speak knowledge, and how to tell the difference between specific displays, such as aggression, friendliness and curiosity. Also things of a more… intimate nature that had necessitated a short break. A break that was going to be kept between Twilight, her bedroom and the book. It had also been very informative about how pegasi displayed such feelings as envy, rejection and anger. It was especially informative about the strange motions pegasi often displayed in their wings, when trying to display several emotions at once. In a word; they danced. As Twilight entered her bathroom and sat on the toilet, her bladder’s relief barely registered as she considered this information in the context of Rainbow Dash. Pegasi wings “danced” when they tried to show several major emotions at once. The motions in the dance were determined by the emotions they were trying to convey, usually in the order they felt them, though that varied. Twilight had recognised several of the diagrams and descriptions from Rainbow’s display earlier in the day. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but from the way her wings had tilted and flittered at both ends of the display, it looked like Rainbow had been giving signals of envy and rejection, though why was a mystery at this point. The middle part, however, was plain as day. There was no mistaking the flared wings of an angry pegasus, no matter how briefly they were on display. So Rainbow was angry at Applejack, at least in part. But why? And what did she have to feel envious and rejected about? One thing was clear, the two of them had obviously had some sort of argument, and it had not ended well. Finishing up, Twilight stepped out of the bathroom, still deep in thought. Rainbow’s reaction had come after Twilight had explained that she was out for a walk with Applejack. That Twilight was with Applejack. Was Rainbow angry that Applejack was spending time with her? No, that was ridiculous, it’s not like the two of them were in a relationsh- Twilight stopped walking, a sudden “o” of realisation on her face. Oh no. No. It couldn’t be… could it? Words spoken to her suddenly played back in her mind. Words spoken only a couple of weeks ago. Words spoken by her now marefriend, Applejack. “I like you too and I think things could work out between us, but…” “But what?” “I ain’t long out of another relationship, is all. It… didn’t end so great.” Was it possible? Was this “other relationship” Applejack had spoken of, in fact, Rainbow Dash? If that was true, how long had they been together and why hadn’t Twilight noticed before? And why keep this from her? It didn’t make sense. Making a decision, Twilight resolved to find out the story behind the pair’s actions, if for no other reason than to get them talking to each other again, since from Rainbow’s actions it looked like at least one of them was avoiding the other. She turned and started to head for her front door, only to be stopped by a small, but frightening, thought. What if she did that, if she got them talking to each other again, and Applejack left Twilight and went back to Rainbow Dash? What if she left her alone again? Twilight didn’t know if she could handle that, knowing now how good it was to have somepony to be with. To have a companion you could truly open up to. To snuggle up close to on a cold night and be warmed by. And that somepony being the one you’d had eyes for for over a year. That caused your heart to flutter every time they were near, that caused a rush like no other pony did… No. No, she wouldn’t think like that. Applejack wouldn’t do that. And besides, the two of them were her friends, she couldn’t just let this situation carry on unabated. Even if there was some small risk that Applejack would leave her, which was minute at best, it was a risk she would have to take. She would just have to deal with the consequences later, as devastating as they may or may not be. For a second time, Twilight headed for the stairs, only to be stopped by her stomach growling. On second thought, she should probably get something to eat first. A yawn took her by surprise. And a good night’s sleep. Making another decision, Twilight further resolved that she would start her investigation tomorrow, once she was fed and rested. That was probably the logical thing to do. As if in agreement, her stomach growled again. Twilight once again made for the stairs, only this time, her goal was the kitchen. As she clip-clopped her way down the steps, however, she was determined that tomorrow, she was going to get to the bottom of whatever had come between her two friends. [/)(\]