A Rush of Blood to the Head
“How much farther, Twi’?” Rainbow grumbled around the folder of papers that Twilight had “requested” her assistance in carrying. “Requested” was a less accurate term than “shoved in her face,” though.
“I told you already, just across this creek and up the hill, and we’ll be there,” Twilight responded from somewhere amongst the magical glow of various stargazing gear that was, according to the unicorn, required equipment. For the moment, it was the only way that Rainbow was able to keep track of her friend, since the two had long left the sleepy lights of Ponyville behind.
Something Twilight had said was bothering Rainbow, though. “Wait, a creek? What cree-”
Her question needed no words for a response, because her leading hoof met air for a brief moment before it sent her tumbling into the shallow water. It caught the unsuspecting pegasus completely off-guard, and more importantly, it was -
“C-cold!” She flinched violently at the unwelcome sensation and bolted to the other side, only to be met with a stern unicorn.
“Weren’t you paying attention?” Twilight sighed. “And where are my papers?” She looked right past her now-dampened friend, to the object that deserved her attention more. “Don’t tell me you left them in the water.”
Rainbow turned to follow her gaze, and both mares’ eyes came to rest on the result of countless months, even years, of effort, of meticulous and painstakingly detailed records of the positions of the night sky’s inhabitants, now soaked and undeniably soiled as it began to sink under the added weight of the water.
Dash didn’t know what she expected when she turned to face Twilight again, because she almost immediately looked away again upon seeing her glare. “Uh… I didn’t see it?” She risked a glance, but obviously her feeble excuse wouldn’t be cutting it when it came to Twilight’s work.
“Rainbow…” Twilight glowered in silence for a moment, almost as if she was letting her anger sink into the currently clumsy pegasus. “I just asked you to do one thing!” She tilted her head towards the hill above them, which had the unintended side effect of jerking her equipment around. “How are we supposed to stargaze now?!”
Rainbow looked back and forth between a frustrated Twilight and all of the equipment floating in her magical grasp. She opened her mouth, closed it again, then decided to take the risk. “Well, you still have all that stuff you kept saying you had to bring along, right?”
Unfortunately, Twilight’s incredulous expression didn’t light up with the realization that Rainbow hoped it would. In fact, it didn’t change at all. “No, no, don’t you get it?” She started to pace back and forth, and Rainbow knew she didn’t have much time before Twilight entered Meltdown Mode. “I had a list of the most visible constellations and nebulae tonight for the best possible viewing experience! How will we have fun without it?”
Rainbow watched her eye start to twitch. This wasn’t good.
“Oh, I knew I should have waterproofed the folder! It was so obvious that you could have done something like this…”
Rainbow frowned. “Hey, now…”
“...maybe I can write one up from memory, right now! Don’t worry, Rainbow, I’ll-” Twilight’s increasingly incoherent mumblings were halted by the hoof placed gently over her mouth.
“Twi’, have you ever thought you can have fun without all that stuff?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow as she spoke.
Twilight shook her head, eliciting a grin in response from the pegasus.
“Looks like tonight will be new for you too, then.” She took a step back, but her eyes stayed locked on Twilight’s. “Come on, you said there’s an awesome spot waiting for us up there, and we don’t need any of your fancy lists or papers to use it!” Her wings flared out from each side of her body. “Last one there has to carry all your stuff!”
By the time the last of her words had left her mouth, her rainbow trail was already beginning to fade in her wake. Twilight was left to stand there, not yet accepting of the fact that nothing had gone according to her plan, and they hadn’t even reached the stargazing site yet.
She blinked several times and put a hoof to her head. The nearby bushes and trees were still trembling from Rainbow’s sudden takeoff. A sigh escaped her.
“She’s been doing that a lot lately.”
--------------------------------------------
Even though Rainbow had successfully assuaged her worries for that moment, Twilight still approached the top of the hill with a frown. She would probably have to make a new Constellation Schedule when she got home, which meant she had to put her other work off for later…
Twilight slapped herself mentally. Even if her plans had been left at the bottom of a creek, she couldn’t dampen Rainbow’s enthusiasm. “Who knows how much longer I’ll have her attention for…” she chuckled to herself, instinctively reaching for her telescope.
Her own words suddenly gave her pause. It was supposed to be an afterthought, not a serious question, but she found herself lacking an answer all the same.
The thought had never crossed her mind, but it never had to; The pegasus was, normally, a fickle and restless soul, doing things as she pleased, giving up on things as she pleased, and moving on to other things as she pleased.
That was fine and all, but who was to say the same wouldn’t happen in this situation? Twilight had held Rainbow’s attention up until now, but the fact that it was only up until now caused the first dredges of doubt to creep into her mind.
If Twilight couldn’t solve her friend’s “problem” soon, it would only be natural for Rainbow to move on to someone, or something, else. That would be Rainbow’s choice, but…
If that happens, wouldn’t that mean I’ve failed as a friend?
Twilight took a step back from her telescope, releasing a sigh that she didn’t know had built up in her chest. She mentally shook herself, but it would have been a mental slap if she hadn’t already given herself one earlier.
No point in thinking about it right now. I already told her I’d help her figure it out, so there’s no problem, right?
Actually, she had been left alone with her thoughts for a while now…
“Rainbow?” She looked around, frowning when she didn’t see a sign of her friend on the first scan. Luckily, the pegasus’ polychromatic tail still shimmered in the moonlight, which Twilight set her eyes on after a moment. She lay a few yards away, and seemed rather comfortable in the grass, seeing as Twilight hadn’t heard a peep out of her yet.
“There you are, Rainbow…” Twilight sighed, trotting up to her. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
She waited for a second without getting an answer, and it was only when she stood over the pegasus that she realized why.
Somehow, in the two minutes that it had taken Twilight to catch up, set up her telescope, and look around for her, Rainbow had fallen asleep. Her eyes were closed peacefully, her chest rising and falling at its own pace. Her breath, just as rhythmic, tickled Twilight’s face as it passed by.
In a moment, Twilight forgot that their night together had been planned. Rainbow’s breath brushed over her nose again, and her hooves instinctively took a step back. Her eyes, however, failed to do the same.
She knew she was supposed to wake Rainbow up, so they could continue on with their plans for the night. But she didn’t. Instead, she let herself stand there for another moment, not ignoring the smile that had appeared on her face without her knowing. Now that it was there, she felt that she couldn’t get rid of it. Not that she wanted to.
She lay down next to her blissfully unaware friend, and whether she had intended to or not, they were both asleep.
------------------------------
Rainbow shifted, the dreamless haze of her sleep disappearing when she felt an itch tickling her fur. “Bleh…” she mumbled, squirming slightly as she felt a dampness in her back…
...and then the previous night’s events finally registered, and she realized she was sleeping on grass, freshly sprinkled with morning dew. Which was, rather unpleasantly, seeping into her back the longer she lay on the grass.
“Aw, crap…” she muttered, sitting up, reaching unsuccessfully for her back to wipe the offending dew off of her back, and generally causing a great amount of disturbance in her immediate area.
“No… just five more minutes…” Apparently, a voice next to her wanted to catch up on its sleep.
Wait, what?
Rainbow turned and was met with the voice’s source, a just as damp but slightly more groggy Twilight.
She opened her mouth, but found any words she had wanted to say stuck in her throat as her mind caught up to her; worry, confusion, and an odd, lingering sense of content fought in her mind, trying to control what she was about to say.
Also…
Twilight usually took the utmost care in taking care of her physical appearance. Even though she spent most of her days holed up in the library, her mane, coat, and tail were brushed and combed so that not a single strand was out of place. In fact, even the slightest stray hair was always a sign of trouble. Yet right now, those features possessed an unruliness that rivaled Rainbow’s own. Hairs stuck out at all angles from her mane and tail, a messy, yet not unpleasant, array of purple and pink.
Usually, Twilight’s unkempt state would set off all sorts of red flags in Rainbow’s mind, but instead, they pushed the worry and confusion out of her. She grinned, rolling her eyes, and the words she wanted to speak finally pushed past the lump in her throat.
“Geeze, Twi’, you don’t need to be perfect all the time.”
“Uhh.... Rainbow?” Twilight finally opened her eyes, and Rainbow’s grin only widened as Twilight went through the same motions that she had only moments before; she grimaced as she felt the damp sensation in her back and shot up.
“I fell asleep…” She gasped. “Oh, no!” She disappeared suddenly from her sleeping spot, and Rainbow had to whip her head around to track her. “I left my telescope out! I hope it isn’t damaged.”
Both mares approached the telescope, which appeared untouched aside from the glistening morning dew that now adorned it. Still, one waited patiently while the other peered, examined, and almost dissected the precious object with a scrutinous eye.
After a few more agonizing moments, Twilight sighed in relief, causing Rainbow to let out her own breath that she didn’t know she was holding. “So, uh… The telescope’s fine, but there’s another thing.” The pegasus spoke up, successfully diverting Twilight’s attention from her stargazing tool.
“Oh.” The unicorn’s relieved smile vanished. “We didn’t stargaze last night like we were supposed to, did we?” She shook her head in disbelief. “Talk about a failure of a night… How did you manage to fall asleep in such a short amount of time, anyway?”
Dash shrugged. “I was bored, and you were taking too long.” Her voice carried the slightest hint of defensiveness.
Twilight’s mouth opened to counter the obvious lie, but Rainbow wasn’t done. “And what was that about a ‘failure’ of a night?” The edge in her voice increased, almost unnoticeably.
Twilight grimaced inwardly. She felt like she’d used the wrong choice of words. “Well, since we didn’t get to do anything we wanted to do…”
Now Rainbow was the one to shake her head. “I swear, Twi’, you can be the biggest egghead sometimes.” The distance between them was closed in a moment as the pegasus leaned in, any annoyance or exasperation she possibly felt replaced by her usual smirk. “Just one little thing goes wrong and you’re already freaking out. You gotta remember who you’ve been spending all this time with!” She took the opportunity to step back and put a hoof to her puffed-out chest. “Admit it, don’t you feel at least a little bit cooler after hanging out with me?”
Twilight shuffled her hooves. “But we only-”
“Yeah, I know we just fell asleep without doing anything.” Rainbow finished her sentence, much to Twilight’s surprise. “I dunno about you, but I still had a good time.”
Twilight peered closer at Rainbow, making sure that this was the same Rainbow Dash she had unwittingly spent the night with, and not some alternate-timeline Rainbow Dash who did some other activity the night before and, therefore, had actually enjoyed herself. “How so?” she finally settled on asking.
Rainbow didn’t answer right away. Instead, she reached forward and gave Twilight’s head a few friendly taps. “You have a big brain, so you can figure that out. If not, you’re treating me to lunch, ‘kay?” She punctuated her one-sided bet with a playful wink.
“H-how is that fair?” Twilight protested. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Rainbow somehow managed to enjoy herself last night when she was unconscious by the time the main event was supposed to roll around.
“It’s fair if you figure it out!”
Twilight groaned.
-------------------------------------
“...Oh.”
“Hm?” Rainbow turned around, not wanting to be left hanging. They were on their way back to town after their night of failed stargazing.
Twilight smiled back. “Oh, nothing.”
Rainbow looked at her for another moment, then shrugged and looked away.
Twilight’s smile didn’t leave. She had figured it out. Even if she was wrong, it had still given her an idea.
------------------------------------
Spike stifled a yawn as he made his way down the stairs. “Wonder why Twilight didn’t wake me up early today…” he muttered, though there wasn’t a hint of regret in his voice.
He rounded the corner to one of the library’s side rooms, and found his answer. Twilight, as usual, had her nose buried in a pile of books… except this time, she was rifling through them, tossing them off to the side, picking up multiple copies at once, the thoughtful yet determined expression never leaving her face.
Spike would have dismissed the whole scenario, but the sight of her unkempt mane made him wince with worry. “You alright, Twilight?” he spoke up. “You didn’t need me to make breakfast?”
The unicorn looked up after a moment’s delay, recognition taking over her face after another moment. “Oh, Spike.” Her eyes didn’t linger over her longtime friend, as she went right back to combing through the pile in front of her. “I just had breakfast with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, so I’m fine.”
Spike weighed Twilight’s words against her appearance, then decided that like usual, he was better off not knowing some things. As he made his way back to the bedroom, he overhead Twilight muttering to herself.
“I know I left it around here somewhere…”
------------------------------------
Rainbow Dash didn’t have a good feeling in her stomach. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bet Applejack that she could eat her salad after drowning it in hot sauce, but the look of defeat on her face after she successfully finished made it all worth it. Well, it had either been defeat… disgust... amusement... or barely contained laughter. She didn’t want to think about it too much, or that bet might not have been worth it after all.
Ignoring her churning stomach, she asked Twilight, “So, did you figure out what I said this morning?”
“You could say that,” Twilight responded. Her smile was confident and bright, and Rainbow couldn’t help but share her friend’s enthusiasm as she grinned back.
“So, what is it? Don’t leave me hanging.” It wasn’t like Twilight to do that anyway; her long-winded explanations were something that Rainbow was all too familiar with.
Well, she was familiar with the idea of those rants, not so much the content. It had gotten to the point where she was already tuning the unicorn out after asking an innocent question, so tuning back in now and seeing Twilight looking at her with raised eyebrows surprised her.
“What? I just asked you a question…” Unless she had missed something important while she was gone, it was the last thing that had happened.
“Yes, and after I said that you’ll find out soon enough, you had a really uninterested look on your face. That’s supposed to pique your interest, not avert it!”
Rainbow cringed. She’d been caught spacing out. The only option now was to divert the attention away from her. “Peak…?” She scrunched up her face to make the best “I’m confused” look that she could muster.
It worked. “...Uh, it was supposed to make you more interested.” Twilight frowned, trying her hardest not to roll her eyes.
“Oh, why didn’t you just say so?” Rainbow smirked as she followed Twilight into the library, unknown to the latter.
They entered the bookworm’s dimly lit home, much to the pegasus’ surprise. Taking the sight in, she was about to ask about it when she almost collided with a now stationary Twilight. As if on cue, the unicorn whirled around, and suddenly their roles were switched; Twilight now wore the grin that Rainbow had moments earlier.
“You see, Rainbow, what you said earlier gave me an idea.” Twilight beat Rainbow to the opportunity to speak first, as said idea was held up for Rainbow to see.
Rainbow glanced over the book’s cover. It wasn’t too much to look at, just an array of flowers scattered in various places over a grey background. Then, her eyes were drawn to the title.
Her eyes narrowed; she was fairly certain that she was reading it right. She leaned in; it still didn’t change.
Her face tinged red. “...Dear __, This Has Always Been About Standing Up For What You Believe In: A Love Story (and Some Other Things, Too)?” She looked over the book to her friend, silently asking for some help, but Twilight seemed intent on maintaining her confident expression.
“Ookay, Twilight... two things.”
“Hmm?” The mare in question had genuine confusion in her voice, as if she was expecting Rainbow to shout “That’s it!” and shower her with appreciation.
“For one, what the heck is with that title?” She pointed at the guilty party accusingly.
“What about it?” Twilight frowned. “I think it’s a suitable title. It’s unique.”
Rainbow paused. “Well, yeah, but like…” she looked for the right words. “It’s weird!”
“Unique.” Twilight repeated, for emphasis.
The pegasus groaned. “Ugh, whatever. Second thing, I really hope this isn’t what I think it is.”
“And what would that be?”
Rainbow took a deep breath, readying herself to say the words she feared hearing the most. “A ro….” She shook her head, and tried again. “A romance novel.”
“Well, yes.” Twilight confirmed, raising an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”
Rainbow had taken her eyes off of the undesirable object. “Uh, how do I put this…” She started to pace the room. “I don’t read that stuff!” She chose a random spot to sit down and crossed her forelegs over her chest.
To Rainbow’s slight uneasiness, Twilight’s smile returned. “Maybe that’s the problem.”
The statement almost knocked her on her back, figuratively and literally. “Huh?”
“In your words, I think this will help you find ‘something different.’”
“...” It took a lot of self-control, which Rainbow usually lacked, to keep herself from calling Twilight crazy, or a Lunatic, or off her rocker. “Where did you even get this idea?” She must be desperate, or running out of ideas… or she talked to Rarity and Fluttershy about it!
Rainbow reminded herself to give those two a stern and thorough talking-to after this was all over.
“Don’t you remember?” Twilight tilted her head at Rainbow’s completely sensible bewilderment. “What you said this morning, about why you enjoyed last night even though it didn’t go as planned?”
Rainbow’s mind flashed back to that time, remembering her bet with the unicorn. “Oh, that? What does that have to do with this?” She spoke before mulling it over completely, which was normal for her, but this time, it was a mistake.
“Wait, when you said that, I thought…” Twilight trailed off, only exacerbating the confusion between them.
The two mares stared at each other for several moments, as it took that long for realization to set in for both of them. They spoke at once, cutting the other off accidentally.
“So you didn’t mean-”
“You thought I meant-”
They reacted to their shared revelation in drastically different ways. Rainbow leapt back a sizable distance, a hoof over her mouth in disbelief. Twilight didn’t move an inch, but her embarrassment was made clear by the deep red that overtook her face.
“Oh, jeez,” Rainbow waved her hooves in front of her face, all too aware that the shade of her face probably matched Twilight’s. “I just meant that no matter what I do with you, I think it’s cool. Not like… like that way,” she stammered, “just that I like hanging out with you!” Her eyes darted everywhere around the library except to the flustered mare in front of her. How could Twilight mess that up so bad? Rainbow had her share of misunderstandings like any other pony, but from how quickly her face had heated up and refused to return to a normal temperature, this had to be up there on the list of “Worst Ever.”
Also, it didn’t help that Twilight just kept staring at her and hadn’t even tried to get a word in edgewise as Rainbow scrambled for words.
Finally, the unicorn recovered from the shock, at least enough to lower her eyes and the book, which had both been fixated on Rainbow Dash. “...Sorry. I got way ahead of myself and assumed a few things, and… yeah.” She fidgeted, her face stubborn in keeping its redness.
Rainbow sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, hoping it would help her face return to its normal color. “It’s fine, I guess.”
Twilight seemed to brighten a little, as her gaze moved away from the floorboards and back to the pegasus. “Well, if that’s the case…”
“Hm?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. Twilight’s recovery was awfully speedy.
The book was brandished with renewed confidence. “You should still consider reading this.”
“...Why?” Dash visibly deflated. If she had gotten that misguided idea out of Twilight’s head, what other reason could the egghead still have?
Twilight simply shrugged. “I don’t know. Now that I know what you actually meant this morning, it might not work.” She frowned, her confidence wilting slightly.
“But still,” she continued, “don’t you think it might make sense?”
“Like how?” Rainbow crossed her arms again, though this time it was out of skepticism and not stubbornness.
Twilight turned the book over in her hooves. “I could be wrong, but I assume that you’ve haven’t given too much thought to these matters.”
“Yeah, and…?”
“So it would make sense if you want ‘something different,’ but you’re being vague about it because you don’t know what it is. And knowing your lack of experience in romantic matters, that may very well be it!” Twilight held out the book for Rainbow to take upon reaching her conclusion.
Rainbow considered her friend’s argument for a moment... but only for a moment. “You’re the only one who can convince me to read a romance novel like that,” she muttered, and swiped the book out of Twilight’s grasp.
“Even if I’m wrong, I don’t think you’ll hate the book.” Twilight mused. “I picked it out especially for you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed.
Twilight had gotten up and turned away, but now she looked back to shoot the pegasus a wink. “You have a big brain, so I think you can figure it out!”
The retort was familiar, but their roles this time were reversed. “Good one.”
“Now, if you may, I think you have a job to do.” Twilight was at the door, which she swept open with a magical flourish.
“You want me to start now?” Rainbow tried to hide her disappointment.
Twilight looked slightly hurt. “Of course. I picked it out especially for you, remember?” Whether she intended to or not, she punctuated her statement with a head tilt and a few slightly pitiful eyelash flutters.
Where the heck did she learn that? An image of Rainbow’s oldest friend making that same face flashed in her mind, and she reminded herself to add that to her list of things to discuss with Fluttershy. “...well, why can’t I just start it here, then?”
“Sorry,” a few dusters and spray cans materialized out of thin air, “today’s cleaning day.”
Again? The question popped up immediately in Rainbow’s mind, but she knew better than to call out Twilight’s habits. “Fine, fine. I won’t tell you what I think about the book until I’m done, though,” she called back as she hovered at the doorway.
“Why?”
Rainbow looked up. White, puffy clouds dotted the expanse of blue above her. “If you’re actually right, I want to see it for myself.”
-----------------------------
Twilight watched her leave. “So she’s not completely against the idea, after all.”
She hung the CLOSED sign on her door, and got to work.
-----------------------------
“That darn Twilight!”
Rainbow crash-landed belly-first onto her bed, sinking in a couple inches from the force of the impact. She lay silent for a moment, and then a heavy sigh escaped her.
“Making me read a romance novel, of all things…” She glanced to the side and, as always, her tortoise’s blank eyes gazed back at her.
“Yeah, I know I said that stupid stuff about how she might be right,” she addressed her pet. “It’s like, I’ve never cared about that crap before, so wouldn’t she know better than me?” She rolled over. “Even if she’s only read books about it, that still counts.” Her head hung over the edge of the bed. She stared at the poster on the opposite wall, which, from her point of view, now blared “STLOBJEDNOM” back at her.
“But if it sucks, that’s the end of it…” Rainbow continued. “And if that happens, I’ll never read one of these things again.” She reached for the book on her bed, having discarded it carelessly, but from her current position she could only grope blindly for it. “And if that happens, then what?” She gave up looking for the book, allowing her hooves to hang over the edge of the bed as well.
“...Then I’ll just be back where I started.
“Argh!” She shot up, shaking her head to combat the dizziness that resulted from the blood rushing to her head. “Why does it even matter?”
She looked around the room - for an answer, maybe - and her eyes inevitably wandered to the book. She picked it up, turning it this way and that. Unsurprisingly, the cover didn’t change - it was simple enough, and she didn’t hate it. At the very least, it wasn’t as sappy as she thought romance novel covers should be, though she wasn’t the biggest fan of flowers out there.
The pegasus stared at the book’s spine. Its title was there again, in bright silver print. “Does it matter because I made it matter to her?”
Her bad habit of trying to answer her own rhetorical questions was starting to bite. Once the idea was in her head, it refused to leave. But it had a point: would she still be dwelling on it if she hadn’t told Twilight about it? It was almost silly to imagine herself giving this much thought to her situation on her own.
Nothing that some flying can’t solve, she’d say. And napping.
And just like that, any doubts that she would have had would, at worst, retreat to the corner of her mind, only to come out when she was feeling her lowest - but when did Rainbow Dash ever feel low?
She didn’t. Therefore, problem solved.
That’s what would have happened, now that she thought about it. Instead, she was wandering into dangerous territory, which was how she saw the mystery of a novel that she held now. On one hoof, she had no personal reason to read it; she was sure she could find other methods to cure her inexplicable desires. Specifically, more appealing methods which didn’t involve her sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.
On the other hand, she knew the answer to her own question. Twilight was as eager to help her as she was to help herself. No, scratch that - she was more so. Moreover, only one of them was actually coming up with ideas. Yeah, they might not have been good ideas, but they were ideas. At this point, she was doing this for Twilight as much as she was doing it for herself.
Rainbow propped herself up against the edge of her bed. She shook her head, letting out a chuckle.
“It’s all your fault, Twilight.”
She opened the book and began to read.
----------------------------------------------------
“So, what did you think of the book?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow and Fluttershy looked up from her plates, but it was the shy pegasus who replied. “Oh, it was very informative. I found everything I needed to know in it, thank you.”
“I’m glad I could help!” Twilight smiled until she felt another pair of eyes still on her. “Rainbow Dash, I asked Fluttershy about her book, not yours.” She frowned.
“Yeah, about that…” Rainbow leaned across the table, drawing the attention of Twilight along with everypony else at the table. “Are you free after lunch?”
Maybe she was imagining it, but Twilight felt the conversation at the table quiet down to no more than a murmur. She definitely wasn’t imagining the five pairs of eyes on her, though. Her eyes averted themselves. “Yes… why?”
Four pairs of eyes moved to Rainbow Dash. “Want to go to the lake?”
Not a word out of the four onlookers, but Twilight felt her face heating up. “B-but I thought we-”
A wave of a hoof silenced her. “No, not that lake.”
Twilight’s embarrassment was replaced with confusion. “What are you talking about?”
Rainbow smirked. “You’ll find out if you go today.”
Embarrassment got back up and knocked confusion to the back of her mind, because Twilight once again felt five pairs of eyes boring into her, analyzing her, judging her. She tried her best to ignore their piercing stares, because curiosity was fighting for control too.
In the end, curiosity won. “Sure, I’ll go.” It was somewhat difficult to avoid her friends’ gazes, or the lack thereof, since they all proceeded to look at each other.
Rainbow grinned, crossing her hooves in victory. “Awesome. So, do you want to-”
“My goodness, Applejack.” The pegasus was cut off by Rarity, who had her attention focused on her plate. “This is simply the loveliest date here, don’t you agree?”
Twilight stared. To think that Rarity, of all ponies, would voice what all of them were thinking out loud! She had to try and salvage what was left of this hopeless situation, somehow. “Rarity, it’s not a-”
“Why, it certainly is, mah friend.” Applejack butted in, leaning over to get a better look at Rarity’s plate. “There are plenty of dates out there, but none are like the one we got.” The two shared a meaningful glance, then returned to staring at the plate.
The heat in Twilight’s face was beginning to feel familiar to her, but no less uncomfortable. She slammed her hooves on the table, forcing her distracted friends’ attention back to her.
“Stop jumping to conclusions! Why would you assume we’re going on a date?!”
The moment of silence that followed allowed immediate regret to follow her outburst.
Rarity cocked her head innocently. “Twilight, I know I can be a little enthusiastic about my diet at times, but I really do appreciate the quality of the dates in this salad.”
She motioned to her lunch, which, in fact, contained assorted fruits and berries - dates among them.
Twilight slumped back onto the table, defeated. However, doing her so allowed Applejack and Rarity to share another devious grin, unnoticed by the unicorn.
“Um, I don’t think you eat by sticking your face into your food,” Pinkie Pie advised her.
Twilight groaned again. It’s not a date, is it?
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I really like the newest chapter but I noticed that you often forget to add a space between words.
So many troll moments, in this chapter.
Waiting for more to come.
Well, well, well. It looks like Twilight's interests are now completely laid out. In the most awkward way imaginable...
Because she's had years of crippled social life, judges herself almost entirely based on other ponies' opinions of her, and hasn't been doing this "friend" thing for long? All of which adds up to her expectations of the emotions of others being drastically over or understated?
A not-insane messy-haired Twilight for your viewing pleasure.
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AHA! Rainbow Dash loves to sleep! You slept together. Ta da! It was a good night.
¡sʇloqɹǝpuoM
Absolutely adorable, i love the pacing in this fic, nothing is forced, it jest grows naturaly.
6387083 Ah. Makes sense.
It's just that, as someone who loves a card game called Yu-Gi-Oh! the Graveyard zone was the first thing that popped up into my head. 
Yay! Two updates that I didn't notice because I forgot to follow this story! Now I must wait for the next update... If I don't forget to follow the story.
Ok, Just finished what is written of this story. TwiDash is my OTP so I devour stories about them. There is a lot of good TwiDash out there and a lot of bad. This is decidedly on the good/great end of the spectrum. The feel of the characters is perfect. The flow of thought and emotions is wonderful and I have to say Twilight jumping to that conclusion and it not leading to anything right away is nearly unique to your story alone. You have an amazing sense of the characters and how to pace events between them. I truly hope you finish or at least continue this someday. Thank you for writing what you have.
Ok, this was really good and now I'm sad it's probably dead
I know this fic is ancient and I know it’s unfinished, but despite that I think it’s my favorite TwiDash now. You did great, Rest in Peace to this one. 💔