> TMP - Twidash Style > by Liquidfirest0rm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prompt #1: Hush Write a story in which one or both of the characters does not utter a single word of dialogue for the entire story. Rainbow Dash awoke much as she did every morning, just before dawn. Slowly opening her eyes, she took in the sight of the wooden ceiling above her, the intricate rings of the wood reminding her of where she was. While it was still a strange sight to see every morning as opposed to the cloud ceilings she had grown up with, it was slowly starting to grow on her. A quick glance at the window allowed her to confirm the time that her body knew it was. Letting out a quiet yawn, she moved to get out of bed and go for her morning flight, but was stopped short as something tugged against her. Looking down, she saw a lavender foreleg draped across her middle, gently trying to draw her closer. Her eyes traced the leg back until it disappeared underneath the covers. Looking to the top of the blanket, the owner’s head could be seen peeking out. A smile came over her at the sight of the messy made partially covering the sleeping face. Lying back down, she took her time admiring the blue, purple, and pink locks spread haphazardly around the lavender colored horn. She reached up and tried to brush some of the hair away from the sleeping mare’s face. As she did, some of the hairs brushed against the lavender colored muzzle. Almost instantly the muzzle scrunched up and the nose wiggled a little bit. Another lavender foreleg appeared and rubbed across where the hairs had touched. Rainbow thought she had accidentally woken her up, but the leg soon disappeared and the sleeping mare continued to slumber. A smile came over her face as she watched her sleep. Her thoughts drifted back to when she had first met the mare, accidentally crashing into her and sending them both careening into a huge mud puddle. In a hurry to save face, she tried to use a rain cloud to clean her off. She ended up using a bit too much water and had soaked the mare to the bone. This had the effect of further agitating the mare further, but also showed Rainbow how positively stunning the mare was. After stuttering for a few moments, she weakly gave an ‘oops’ and then proceeded to try and use a small tornado to dry her off. It had worked, but with the side effect of causing her mane and tail to poof out. Despite trying to make a good impression, she had fallen over in a fit of laughter at the sight. She had then gotten the opportunity to impress her when she was challenged to prove her claim of being able to clear the sky of clouds in ten seconds. She pulled it off with seconds to spare, but the look of awe she got was more than enough reward. In an attempt to prevent further embarrassing herself, she left the mare standing there say that they should hang out some time. A light snoring sound broke her out of her reverie, and she looked again at the mare sleeping beside her. They had been through so much together; Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Changeling attack, and even the ancient King Sombra’s return in the Crystal Empire. The thought of Discord brought back memories of how they had first gotten together as an official couple. It was when she was regaining her memories, Twilight had sensed the feelings she harbored towards her. She had never tried to act on the feelings, for fear of it ruining their friendship. Needless to say she was shocked to find that Twilight had felt the same way about her, and asked her out a couple of weeks later. They had their fair share of arguments like any other couple, the worst one being at Shining Armor’s wedding when she hadn’t believed Twilight about Cadence’s true nature. That had taken a while for her to get over. While Twilight had forgiven her quickly she had beaten herself up pretty hard over it. She was the element of loyalty and had strayed from staying loyal to her marefriend of all ponies. It still stung a little when she thought about it. She was amazed thinking about how fast time had flown. Just a month ago she had moved into the tree library and sold her cloudominium. She had gotten much more out of it than she had told Twilight, but she was using that to buy a special present. Several times she had used the excuse of having long shifts at work to visit nearby cities so that she could search for exactly what she wanted. She had planned on proposing to Twilight, and on her last trip to Fillydelphia she had finally found what she wanted. It was a ring with seven gemstones, colored and arranged to look like a rainbow. She had stashed it at Fluttershy’s house to keep the gift a secret. Knowing Twilight’s OCD nature, there was a good possibility that she would find it by accident and ruin the surprise. Twilight’s recent change had thrown a hiccup into her plans, however, and she still needed to speak with Princess Celestia about it. Along with being a few inches taller and overall bigger, Twilight was now a princess, and Rainbow was sure that there would be some kind of process she would have to go through to marry her. It didn’t matter though; she would do anything to remain by Twilight’s side, especially now that she could share the sky with her. She was glad that with Twilight’s new ability to stay on clouds without a spell, that she was able to talk her into getting a cloud bed instead of a normal one when she replaced her old bed because it was now too small for her. “How did I end up with such a great mare?” Rainbow muttered quietly. She gently kissed Twilight on her forehead, causing her eyes to open a little. “Love ya, Twi.” She said as they snuggled up together. As they drifted off to sleep she felt like she could skip her morning flight for this. Gently drifting off to sleep in the embrace of the mare she loved, she felt all her worries slip away into nothingness. > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prompt #2: Appleshocked Applejack walks in on a romantic moment between Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Twilight and Rainbow Dash laid beside each other in the upstairs room of the Ponyville library. Their attention was on the book laying before them; the latest Daring Do novel that had arrived earlier that morning. Twilight’s wing was draped over Rainbow’s back, and would flex and relax along with the scenes playing out in the book. Thought Rainbow would never admit it to anyone, having the large wing blanketed over her made her feel safe and secure. As they read along, they came across one of the romantic parts of the book, and Rainbow felt Twilight’s wingtip start tracing small circles over her cutie mark. This sent a chill up her spine, and she extended her own wing, returning the gesture. It was a very intimate Pegasus gesture, one that she had been surprised that Twilight knew about. She looked up at Twilight, finding her gazing back, a look of love and compassion in her eyes. Leaning together at the same time, they came together in a passionate kiss. One of Twilight’s forelegs snaked its way behind Rainbow’s head and pulled her in closer as their tongues battled for dominance. Just then, the door opened and they were greeted by a familiar voice. “Hey Twi-” Applejack made her way through town, her destination being the library home of her friend Twilight Sparkle. Her visit today was not to the home owner, however, but to the blue Pegasus that she knew would be there. She’d had her eye on Rainbow for quite some time now, and had finally worked up the nerve to tell her. Having learned about Rainbow being a filly fooler after a truth or dare game during one of their slumber parties, she was able to check that off of her list of worries. Now she just had to worry about how Rainbow would respond to her confession. Being lost in her thoughts, she was soon standing in front of the door to the library without even having realized she had arrived. Taking a few moments to compose herself, she raised a hoof and knocked soundly three times. She knew Rainbow would be here today, it was her and Twilight’s ‘reading day’. The energetic flyer never missed out on their reading days. The door opened revealing a familiar purple dragon. “Howdy, Spike.” “Hey, Applejack. What brings you here today?” He asked in his usual cheerful manor. “Ah’m actually lookin’ fer Rainbow. She here?” “Yeah, she’s upstairs with Twilight doing their reading day thing.” He said as he moved out of the doorway so she could come inside. He pointed towards the stairs as he headed back over towards a half-shelved book pile. “You can go on up and get her.” “Thank ya kindly.” She said with a tip of her hat. Making her way across the room, she headed up the stairs and headed the short distance down the hall to the closed door. Pushing it open, she strode in, already speaking before she had crossed the threshold. “Hey Twi-” She froze mid stride, her face blanched, and she was pretty sure her heart skipped a few beats. She couldn’t have cared less if it had stopped working all together at this moment. On the bed before her, Rainbow and Twilight were locked in a passionate kiss. Twilight had a wing wrapped around Rainbow’s back and one of her legs was behind her head pulling her deeper into the kiss. They quickly separated upon registering her voice, both of their faces red as they looked in her direction. “H-h-hey, AJ.” Rainbow started before clearing her throat and rubbing the back of her head with a foreleg. Applejack simply bolted out the door, the look of pain on her face had been clearly evident to both of them. They shared a look of confusion for a moment before Rainbow took off after her. Twilight called up her magic and a moment later disappeared in a bright flash, the book they were reading falling to the floor with a thud. Applejack was barreling through town at a breakneck gallop. Her heart had been smashed to pieces and she just wanted to run until she couldn’t run anymore. She wanted to run away and never return. Tears streamed down her face as the scene she had walked in on played over and over in her head, as if it was taunting her. She was so lost in her emotions that she didn’t even notice the bright flash ahead of her, and the impact of running into somepony else barely even registered as they tumbled to the ground. She shook her head and looked to see what she had run into. The lavender mass of hooves and feathers that lay before her let out a groan before slowly raising up to a sitting position. Picking up her hat and reseating it on her head, she glared at Twilight before she ran off again. “Applejack!” She heard Twilight call out. Ignoring her calls she continued running, or at least she tried to before she was surrounded in a purple glow. She slumped in defeat and just let her tears flow as she floated back to the lavender Alicorn. “Applejack, what’s wrong? Why do you keep running away?” Applejack said nothing for a few moments, then turned to face her with a glare of hatred. “What’s wrong? She said through gritted teeth. “What’s wrong?! Ya ruined everything that’s what’s wrong!” She turned away as fresh tears burned in her eyes. “What do you mean? What did I do?” Twilight asked, a look of fear in her eyes as she ran through her mind as to what she could have done to upset her friend so deeply. “Ya sto…” Applejack mumbled, most of her sentence being to low to be heard. “What was that?” “Ah said ya stole Rainbow from me!” Her outburst caused Twilight to gasp and she dropped her as Twilight’s concentration was broken. Applejack continued as if nothing had happened. “Ah finally got tha nerve ta tell her how I feel…” She trailed off as she heard the sound of flapping followed by a soft thud. Looking up, she saw Rainbow now stood beside Twilight with a worried look on her face, Twilight’s face still held a look of shock with a foreleg covering her mouth and tears brimming in the corners of her eyes. “Tell who what?” Rainbow asked, only having heard pieces of the last statement, she looked at Twilight’s expression for a moment, before turning back with a look that asked for answers, “Why’d you run off like that?” Applejack sighed and slumped to the ground. Twilight she could be angry with, Twilight she could lie to. Rainbow on the other hoof, she just couldn’t bring herself to be angry with, and there was no use hiding her feeling for her any longer. “You, Rainbow.” The other mare stared at her quizzically. She sat up straight before continuing on. “Ah… Ah like ya, Rainbow, and Ah mean in the ‘more than just friends’ way.” She admitted, letting her head droop. “When Ah stopped by, Ah was gonna tell ya how a felt about ya. Then Ah walked in on ya’ll and Ah panicked, that’s why Ah ran.” She finished dejectedly. Rainbow stood there, a look of shock on her face that mirrored Twilight’s. Twilight broke out of her stupor, her gaze switching between the two. On one hoof, there was no way she would give up Rainbow On the other she had a heartbroken friend and there was no way to help her without causing herself pain. An idea suddenly popped into her head about something she had come across in one of her books. She looked back to the other two mares with a gleam of nervous excitement in her eyes. “I… Um… I may have a way for this to work out for all three of us.” Both heads snapped to face her and the nervousness quickly threatened to overwhelm her. “It will require a lot of open mindedness on all of our parts, but it might work.” She was met with looks of confusion. “Let’s go back to the library, I’ll explain there.” With affirmative nods, the group headed back to the tree home. Once they arrived Twilight immediately began searching through her books. After cleaning off two and a half shelves, she finally stopped with a loud ‘Ah-ha!’. She flipped through the pages as she brought the book to the center table. She stopped on a page and set the book down in front of Rainbow and Applejack. They both looked at the title of the chapter written in big letters at the top of the page; it read ‘Herds’. They both looked up at Twilight waiting for further explanation. “While it isn’t commonly practiced anymore, forming a herd allows for multiple ponies to be in the same relationship. Usually its between a stallion and several mares but there isn’t anything saying that one is required to start a herd. Like I said before, its going to take a lot of work and open mindedness to make this work. I know Rainbow has told me she has some feelings towards you, and I’d be willing to try and make things work between us.” “Ah don’t know, Twi.” Applejack started as her eyes returned to the page before her. “Can you excuse us for a minute AJ?” Rainbow interrupted and started shoving Twilight towards the kitchen. Once they were inside and the door was shut, Twilight turned around coming face to face with an angry Rainbow Dash. “What the hay was that!?” Rainbow shouted causing Twilight to back away and cower slightly before the fuming Pegasus. “I’m sorry! I was just trying to find a solution that would make everyone happy.” “It’s not that simple sometimes!” Rainbow turned her glare towards a random spot on the floor, trying not to frighten the purple Alicorn any more. “Maybe not in every case, but this time it could be! You told me yourself that if we hadn’t gotten together you would have gone after her instead. She obviously likes you back so what’s so wrong about this?” “So what happens if this doesn’t work out and it ruins things between all three of us?” Twilight’s mouth opened to respond but nothing came out. “As much as I would like to have both of you, I’m not willing to risk what we have to make that a reality.” She gave Twilight a gentle nuzzle as she finished. Twilight was quiet for a few moments, pondering on the situation. She said nothing but her brow furrowed in concentration. Finally she looked up at Rainbow with a glint of determination in her eyes. “What if we give this whole thing a test run?” Rainbow let out an exasperated sigh, but Twilight held up a hoof to stop her reply. “Hear me out before you go off again. Why don’t we give this a chance and see how things work out? If it turns out that things won’t work out between the three of us, we call it off and go back to just being us.” “I still say this is a bad idea, but you aren’t going to let this go are you?” Twilight pulled out her secret weapon and put on her adorable pout that she knew Rainbow couldn’t say know to. Rainbow let out a long sigh before leaning forward and giving her a hug. “Fine, but if this doesn’t work out, this whole thing was your idea.” She finished giving Twilight a playful bop on the nose. “Oh thank you, Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed giving her a quick kiss. “I promise I’m going to do everything I can to help make this work.” She finished and promptly ran back into the main room. “I know you will Twi, I know you will.” Rainbow said out loud, before turning and following after her marefriend. An hour and a half later, Twilight had thoroughly explained the concept to Applejack and fully answered any questions the farm mare threw her way. Rainbow couldn’t believe it but somehow Twilight had convinced Applejack to go along with it. She couldn’t deny a sense of giddiness inside of her when she thought about the fact that she had a date with the mares of her dreams this coming weekend. > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prompt #3: "Pangs" Twilight is grievously injured and only Rainbow Dash can save her. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Rainbow chided herself over and over again in her head. She pumped her wings harder before pulling them in and tearing through the canopy of the Everfree Forest. Tightening her grip on her precious cargo, she felt a fresh trickle of warm blood snake it's way down her foreleg, further matting her already stained coat. "Don't you even think about dying on me! I don't care if you are a princess now, I'll still kick your flank!" She willed herself to go faster, ignoring the aching protests from her wings, and barely keeping her speed subsonic. Her target quickly came into view on the edge of the edge of the horizon, but it felt like it was miles away. As she approached the front of the hospital she finally had what she felt was her first lucky break, a couple of ponies were just making their way out and she used the opening to dart inside, quickly braking as soon as she passed the door frame. She managed to slow down just enough to avoid crashing into the front desk. She gently laid Twilight down before screaming at the top of her lungs: "I NEED A DOCTOR IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" To her horror there wasn't anyone behind the desk when she looked up. Instead there was a little sign with a bell next to it. Ignoring the sign, she started furiously slamming her hoof down on the bell, quickly misshaping it to the point it no longer worked. With a few choice expletives she sent the useless hunk of metal flying with a vicious kick, opting instead for simply slamming her hoof onto the counter. After about four hits the side door opened and one of the nurses casually walked into the room. Rainbow was over the counter and in the mare's face before the door had even closed. "Where the hay were you! Twilight's been stung by a manticore and she's hurt bad!" The nurse took one look at the blood covered mare in front of her before bolting back through the door shouting the doctor's name. Rainbow flew back over the counter and sat down beside Twilight's motionless body. She brushed a few stray pieces of her mane off her face before the door next to her burst open and the same nurse came out followed by a doctor pulling a hospital bed in his magic grip. He carefully picked Twilight up and set her on the bed before they both rushed back through the door. She sat in silence for a few moments, her gaze never leaving the door. When she eventually did lower her gaze, she finally got a good look at herself. Her chest and forelegs were matted down with a sizeable amount of Twilight's blood. Seeing that, she did the only thing she could do: she promptly threw up before falling onto her side and letting out a heart wrenching wail as the tears flowed freely. She knew deep down inside that Twilight wasn't going to make it. She hadn't gotten here fast enough. After what Rainbow felt like had been hours, but in reality had only been a few moments, another of the hospital's nurses came out to find her still sobbing in the same spot. She called for the janitor before moving over to Rainbow and helping her up on her hooves. She guided her to a nearby washroom for the hospital staff and helped her get cleaned up, which consisted of the Pegasus sitting there occasionally sobbing while the nurse cleaned the various fluids off of her. Once she was clean the nurse led her back out to the waiting room and made her comfortable on one of the benches before retrieving a clipboard from the desk. "Miss Dash?" The nurse asked. When she didn't get a response, she prodded her shoulder and asked again, this time the Pegasus turned to face her, her eyes red and puffy. "Could you tell me what happened so I can put it in the medical report?" Rainbow let out a sigh and rested her head on her forelegs before replying "Sure." Without waiting for a reply she started telling her story. "Twilight wanted to make a visit to the old castle in the Everfree, something about wanting to get some of the books from the old library there. I tagged along to keep her company. It was starting to get dark so we decided to head back to town, not wanting to deal with the forest at night. Right as we got back on the path there was a roar from deeper into the forest right before a manticore jumped out of the brush. I was caught off guard and it knocked me down, staring down at me with its teeth bared. "Twilight hit it in the face with that beam spell of hers, but that just ticked it off more. She cast it a second time, but right before it connected, the manticore got a hit in with its tail. The manticore went flying back into the forest and Twilight wobbled for a couple seconds before falling over. I didn't wait to see what happened to the manticore, I just grabbed her and took off as fast as I could to get her here." She buried her face in her hooves. "And the blood, there was so much blood. I should have tried harder, pushed myself harder to get her here in time." The nurse put a comforting hoof on her back, rubbing gently in small circles. "Miss Dash, you did the best that you could, no one could ask more from you." "But what if my best wasn't good enough!" She interrupted, sitting up abruptly and glaring at the nurse as tears streamed down her face. "I don't know what I'd do without her." She finished, letting her head drop back down. "We have some of the best medical professionals working here, you can trust that she's in good hooves now. Why don't you get some rest, I'll make sure that you are told as soon as there's an update on her condition." Rainbow weakly nodded but didn't move. The nurse went back through the door with her clipboard to do whatever she was going to do with it. She couldn't get her mind off of Twilight, seeing her marefriend like that had torn her up more than she let on. She would give anything to be in Twilight's place right now. She didn't even notice as fatigue finally overcame her and she drifted off. She was awoken sometime later by an insistent prodding on her shoulder. She sat up, letting loose a yawn as she stretched. Looking around, she wondered where she was briefly, before she saw the same nurse from before and everything clicked into place. Before she could say anything the nurse spoke up. "Miss Dash, they've gotten her stabilized and she's resting now. She's not responsive yet but you can go in and be with her." She simply nodded in reply, before getting up and following the nurse. She was led down a maze of hallways that all looked the same before the nurse stopped in front of one of the doors. She turned the handle and gently pushed the door open. "She's in here." The nurse stated. She turned and started to walk back down the hall before she felt a hoof touch her side, halting her. She looked back to see that Rainbow was now facing her. Before she could wonder what she wanted, she spoke up. "Thank you," Rainbow said calmly, then finished with "Thank you for everything." The nurse gave a smile and polite nod then continued on her way. Rainbow turned back to the door, pushing it open and slipping inside before gently closing the door behind her. The lamp next to Twilight's bed was the only thing giving light to the dark room, but it was enough for rainbow to see Twilight's form. She couldn't see much of her body due to it being covered by the sheets, but there were a couple of hoses coming out of her muzzle. Rainbow pushed the chair over beside the bed and climbed into it. For a while she simply sat there, staring at the sleeping figure in front of her. She reached forward and gently moved the sheet down. Twilight's barrel was firmly bandaged and she could just barely make out the tiniest hint of red on her side. Gently covering her back up, she laid her head down beside Twilight's. "I'm so sorry I got you into all of this." She started quietly. "If I'd have been faster or paying better attention... Well things would have been better. I swear once you're all better I'm gonna make this whole thing up to you, even if I have to read the most boring, eggheaded books you have to you." She kissed the side of her head before readjusting to a more comfortable position, then returning her head to its previous position. "Hurry up and get better, it kills me seeing you like this. Plus I need my adorkable egghead back. I love you, Twi." She kissed her again, before laying her head down and closing her eyes, not seeing the tear streak down the side of Twilight's face.