//------------------------------// // Ep. 1 - I Hate Reading // Story: Fight The Darkness, With The Light // by Squiggly Cup //------------------------------// Click, click, click, click. The clicking noise got louder and louder as Rainbow Dash ascended the stairs. Normally it would take Rainbow a minute or two to find where she was going in this huge castle, but the rapid clicking told her just where she needed to go. As the clicking grew louder, Rainbow's temper grew shorter. As Rainbow neared the door she was searching for, she realized just how well those clicking noises bounced off the castle's crystal walls. Anypony would go mad from something like that, and a madpony was just what Rainbow was expecting to see when she opened that door. The door creaked open slightly for Rainbow to peak inside, only to confirm her suspicions. A purple unicorn was settled down before a typewriter and was furiously typing away with her magic. As Rainbow slowly started to let herself in and approach her she could make out even more of the crazed details, like the messy mane and slightly twitching body. Though it made sense once she saw two empty thermoses once filled with coffee, beside the mare. Rainbow Dash, being a loyal and dedicated marefriend to this crazy unicorn called Twilight for so long, fully understood this situation and already had a calm and responsible method of solving it. As fast as the pegasus could she grabbed a pillow off the bed and whipped it at her marefriends head causing Twilight to lurch back in fear almost making her fall out of her chair. Thankfully though it worked, and Twilight shook her head to shake herself out of her typing stupor. Twilight, only just realizing the severity of the situation, glared harshly at the Pegasus who simply grinned back at her. "Morning Twiligh-" she was cut off by a pillow to the face though, causing her to stumble back a bit. As Rainbow pushed the offending pillow off she noticed Twilight's grin causing her to smile back. "Good to see you're not too cranky. Sorry to interrupt your writing and everything, but you do know what today is right Twi?" she asked in her raspy voice, which noticeably carried a hint of vexation. "Um no, what do you mean?" Twilight asked as she levitated her calendar over, covering her face from Rainbow's view. Twilight scanned the page only to realize what day it was, causing her to raise her eyes from behind the calendar to Rainbow. They looked a little bit sad. "Oh i'm so sorry Rainbow, I can't believe I forgot that it was Hearts and Hooves day" she said, causing Rainbow to push the calendar away and wrap her hoof around Twilight. "It's fine Twilight, I know how you get when you're reading. Plus now your kinda worse since you've been trying to write you're own novel" Rainbow Dash grinned only making Twilight frown. The unicorn looked over at the empty thermoses, and her gaze was followed by Rainbow's. "How long have you been up Twi?" Rainbow asked, forcing Twilight to sheepishly answer "um.. all night.." she mumbled which made Rainbow frown as well. "Twilight..." "I know, I know i'm sorry. It's just that with all this free time lately i've been able to start writing my own novel finally. It's just sort of hard to stop writing it" Rainbow Dash walked over and took a peek at the pages. "What's it about Twilight?" "Since when did you care about any sort of book that wasn't Daring Doo" Twilight grinned causing Rainbow to spin around and face her. "Well when it's causing my marefriend to lose sleep it kinda matters," Twilight frowned again "plus if it's written by you then its definitely gotta be something awesome" Rainbow finished, which perked the unicorn up again. "Well it's sort of like a psychological thriller, where this pony named Alan Wake is a writer himself, who finds himself in a town where creepy things are happening. Eventually things start to get a bit crazy when shadow monsters begin to attack him and not everypony will believe him, and the only way he is able to defeat the shadow ponies is through light which he can use with his horn's magic. Other ponies have to use things like flashlights or lanterns to protect themselves. The shadow ponies only come out during the night though since they can't survive in the sunlight" she stated, having put on one of lecturing tones during it all. "Well Twilight, I gotta say. Fighting monsters with a flashlight sounds kinda lame" she said sarcastically followed by a grin, followed by another pillow to the face. "Oh it's already starting to get dark out, was I really writing all day?" Twilight asked as she looked out of her window. "Yeah I guess so, I would have come sooner if I knew that" Rainbow said while trotting up beside Twilight. "Again, i'm really sorry that I forgot Rainbow" "It's alright Twilight, as long as my plan is still possible I don't care too much" Rainbow said causing Twilight to raise and eyebrow. "You're plan? so you put a lot of work into this? Since when would Rainbow Danger Dash do something so romantic" Twilight giggled causing Rainbow to blush. "Yeah well, only for you. Let's get going Twilight, before it gets too late" she said as she slung her hoof over Twilight's shoulder and started to drag her along only to stop in her tracks. Twilight glanced at Rainbow. "What's the matter Rainbow?" she asked "Well... you're not gonna like this but... you kinda smell" thankfully Rainbow was quick on her hooves and dodged the pillow this time around. The pegasus watched the pillow hit the wall and slide down with a poof. Then turned back to Twilight "ha! I saw that-" and was met by another pillow to the face. "Really Rainbow?" Twilight huffed. "Well it's true, you were kinda distracted for awhile" Rainbow said, pointing her hoof at the typewriter and thermoses. "Plus you forgot our date, so forgetting a little personal hygiene isn't that far fetched" Rainbow deadpanned making Twilight blush. "Alright alright, maybe I do smell. Let me just take a quick shower" Twilight scrambled into her bathroom, honestly a little embarrassed. Even though they had been marefriends for awhile and were comfortable around each other, she still was embarrassed about smelling like anything but lavender around her marefriend. As the shower turned on and filled the bathroom with the noise of water splashing into the tub, Rainbow walked over to the typewriter again and peeked at it. "How far are you with your novel anyways Twi?" she shouted through the door. After a few seconds of silence she got her answer. "Roughly 93% finished, I just need to wrap up the ending" 'really.. 93% finished. She is such an egghead sometimes' "Hey I heard that!" Twilight shouted, shocking Rainbow, who didn't realize she was saying that out loud. Then suddenly Rainbow noticed a pillow being lifted from the ground with a purple aura a few feet away. The pillow quickly flew across the room but missed rainbow by a few feet who had just stood still the entire timel. It hit the wall and slumped down like the last one, narrowly missing her. "Did it hit you!? I can't see in there!" Twilight shouted from the bathroom causing Rainbow Dash to laugh as well as Twilight. ______________________________________________________________ Later on as the sun was setting, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had found themselves in the park. "Rainbow, you didn't..." Twilight mumbled as she saw it. It was a nicely setup table with two chairs, plates, a pot, and a lantern on it and it sat directly next to the lake. It was a little dinner by the lake and was 'very romantic' Twilight thought. "Yep you bet I did!" Rainbow grinned at Twilight as they made their way to the table. "To be fair though I had some help, Applejack actually made the food since I can hardly make a sandwich" Twilight giggled "and Rarity helped with the plates and utensils. She said these were her 'nice' plates" Rainbow stated, as Twilight looked at them. They were white plates with golden trims and blue line design going along the outer rim and Twilight could tell it was very expensive porcelain. "Well that was nice of her" Twilight stated, and Rainbow nodded as she walked over to the pot. "Yeah, and i'm sure she would be 'delighted' to see what 'elegant' food was being served on it" she grinned in a sort of sinister way. Rainbow slowly reached and dramatically pulled the lid off the pot to reveal the sloppy joe meat filling the inside. Twilight snorted and couldn't keep it in. She then began laughing uncontrollably and Rainbow Dash joined in on it. _________________________________________________________________ As dinner was wrapping up and two ponies were satisfied that they'd had enough they began to start cleaning things up. After everything was put away, Twilight turned and looked towards the lake. It was late out, and the moon's light was shining perfectly across the water's surface. 'No wonder Luna was upset when no pony would appreciate night times' beauty' As Twilight watched the lake, she barely recognized the hoof that rested on her shoulder. "Isn't is beautiful Rainbow?" Twilight asked, as she stared at the lake in awe. "Yeah, but not as beautiful as you" Rainbow stated causing Twilight to snort, holding a laugh. Rainbow took her hoof away from Twilight's shoulder. "Really Rainbow, you couldn't be any more cheesy" Twilight smiled as she turned to her marefriend only to find her purple eyes not meeting pink. She then glanced left, right up and finally down to find Rainbow kneeling down and bowing her head forward. Balancing on her head was a black case right between her ears, and it was propped open revealing an incredible diamond band. Twilight stood in awe as she looked at the band, every single centimeter of it was pure perfection. "Twilight Sparkle" Rainbow said as she rose back up to her hooves and took the case in her own hooves. "I would like to spend the rest of my life with you if you'll have me, will you marry me?" she asked as she slid the band onto Twilight's outstretched hoof. Twilight brought her banded hoof up to her eyes to examine it. Her mouth wiggled a bit and her eyes glistened as tears began to form. "Yes Rainbow! Yes, I want to spend every last one of my living, breathing seconds with you!" she shouted while lunging forward to bring Rainbow Dash into a hug. Rainbow happily accepted as well as the deep kiss on her lips that followed. Reluctantly Rainbow Dash pulled away after a few seconds, still holding onto Twilight. The two simply looked at each other, eyes fully focused on the other. This lasted for a few seconds before a distraction caught them both by surprise, the lantern's light on the table went out all of a sudden. "Whoa what was that?" Rainbow asked, as Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, that was sort of strange" she stated. The two of them then turned towards the path leading back to Ponyville, where they were at in the park was at a high incline so they could see all of Ponyville from where they stood. As they looked towards town, slowly each of the lights in the distance went out one by one. It spread from the area closest to them, all the way to the other edge of town plunging it all into darkness.