Twilight’s library was usually a sanctuary of solitude for those with the hunger for knowledge (such as herself), or those with a lust for adventure (such as a certain rainbow-maned pegasus). Today, however, was a day for celebration! A day for loved ones, family and friends alike to join each other in good company and share tales of the passing year whilst sharing meaningful gifts with one another.
“-and then I said, ‘Oatmeal? are you crazy!?’” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, join the others in a fit of collective laughter.
Rarity was the first to recollect her composure, “That poor stallion! Please tell me you weren’t too tough on him?”
Pinkie waved of hoof dismissively at her, “Nah, we ended up using his idea after all! It turns out oatmeal sticks to walls REALLY well! We can’t even get the posters down now!” she howled in laughed as she collapsed onto the ground once more and her five other friends followed suit.
Rainbow Dash sat back onto her haunches and wiped a tear from her eye, “Pinkie you are so random! Ok, Pinkie you know the deal, you choose someone and they get to choose truth or dare before opening one of their presents!” stated Rainbow Dash. She had been the mastermind behind this whole activity, insisting it would make the surprise even more awesome.
“Okie-dokie-lokie! I choose~… Twilight!”
Twilight looked generally surprised at the outcome and chewed on her lip a little before deciding her fate, “Uh… truth I guess?”
Pinkie proceeded to stroke her newly found, fake beard with a forehoof while her friends questioned where she even acquired it from, “Are there any adult books in the library? I mean, you sure spend a lot of time in here so you must have some stashed around right?” asked Pinkie, completely oblivious to the sound of four pony’s plus one dragon’s jaws dropping from the sheer incompliance that the question had made in their brains. At least Rainbow Dash’s brain was working enough for her to collapse into laughter once more.
“Words cannot describe! I can’t breathe!”
Well working enough might be a bit much. Let’s just say she was having a cross between a seizure and a laughing fit. Yeah that works.
Twilight attempted to rescue the situation, “O-of course not Pinkie! I mean, that would just be silly, right?” she exclaimed, her eyes darting from object to object, never focusing on something for more than a second.
Spike tapped her gently on the shoulder and spoke up, “But Twilight, what about that one you wrote about-” his words quickly became a series of muffled grunts, as a purple forehoof was promptly jammed into his mouth.
Now the spotlight was on Twilight, who had now developed a deadly case of embarrass-itis, fortunately a deep-red blush and a racing heart were the only symptoms. She looked to her shoulder, this time a soft, orange coated hoof lay reassuringly on it.
“Twilight, we’re all your friends here and we aint gonna laugh at you none, ‘specially if y’all are embarrassed ‘bout it. Aint that right girls?” she asked, watching them all nod with a caring smile on their muzzles, hoping to put out the fires of doubt in their studious friend’s heart.
Sighing away most of her anxiety, Twilight let out what we would usually call ‘word vomit’, “ImayhavewrittenabookaboutasensuallyromanticeveningwithRainbowDashandIasthemaincharacters!” she blurted, leaving all of her friends to stare at her as if she had just grown a second head.
“Er… What was that sugercube?” questioned Applejack.
“Yeah, if you repeated than in Equestrian that would be nice,” stated Rainbow Dash.
“I said I wrote a sensual based, adult novel starring Rainbow and I!” she exclaimed before hiding her face with a nearby sofa cushion, hiding her blush from the world.
Moments ticked in complete silence, Spike could feel that the tension was so thick you could fire it out of a party cannon at a changeling and knock the love right out of it, so he promptly left to check on his gems.
A few moments after he had left, Rarity decided to break the tension, “So… Can we read it darling?” she asked. Ironically, this may have added more tension rather than breaking it.
“Er… Rarity why would you want to read something like that that stars me and Twi’?” asked Rainbow Dash, eyeing the fashionista suspiciously, “You don’t have some sort of threesome fantasy in that classy head of yours do ya’?” she smirked.
“Why of course not darling! I accept that others may be inclined to love those of the same gender but I myself prefer stallions. I simply think that we should support our friend here in her endeavours, clearly this means a lot to her and if that is the case then our support would mean all the more to her,” she looked over to Twilight, who was now peeking out from behind her cushion, “Am I right darling?”
“I-I guess if you guys like it, it’d be nice… But what about you Rainbow Dash? Are you ok with this?”
She waved a forehoof dismissively, “Me? I’m fine with it, I mean, it’s not like nopony else thinks of things like this, I’m just too awesome to not be thought about like that!” she boasted, laughing weakly at her own proclamations.
Twilight cocked her head out of confusion before shrugging it off, “Alrighty then! You girls wait here, I’ll go get it!” she exclaimed giddily, giggling fanatically as she galloped up the stairs.
Rainbow leaned in to Applejacks ear and whispered, “AJ, do you sometimes wonder if we should get Twi’ tested for that bipolar thing?” all she was answered with however, was a swift hit to the back of her head and a scolding.
“Rainbow! It’s not nice to say things like that ‘bout your friends!”
Rainbow rubbed the back of her head and winced at the combination of her newfound pain and her guilt, “You’re right AJ. Sorry about that, I’ll think twice before I say that again.”
“Well good.”
“Yeah, I really don’t like getting hit for speaking my mind, that’ll teach me huh?” she chuckled, yelping quietly as another blow was dealt. “I was kidding! Yeesh!”
Twilight then trotted back down the stairs, a small, giddy smile on her face as she did so. It was starting to look like she was proud of her best friends reading her work, as if their approval of her writing meant the world to her (which it most likely did). “So who wants to read it first?” she asked, gently placing the very thick tome on the table beside them.
“Well darling, how about we all take turns reading a part each aloud so nopony misses out?” suggested Rarity.
“Great idea! And since you thought of it, you can go first!” exclaimed Twilight, clapping her hooves together in excitement as she magically passed the book to her unicorn friend.
Rarity smiled gently, “Thank you Twilight, and since you answered your question feel free to open one of your presents while I read,” she said sweetly before clearing her throat and adjusting herself to sit comfortably and with great poise as per usual.
The crisp winter air nipped at Twilight’s body as she cantered through the park, admiring the wonder of the snow-transformed scenery as she ran over her mental checklist. “Okay so I’ve bought Spike a thicker blanket as per his request, stocked up on quills and paper, picked out a new scarf, bought some cupcakes from Pinkie and had Spike deliver them back home before his nap. Wow, that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would,” she said aloud to herself. “Maybe I should see how the others are-” she was abruptly cut short as a cyan blur collided with her at an incredible speed, forcing the air out of her lungs and sending her crashing to the ground.
She quickly regained her bearings and shook away the disorientation, coming face to face with none other than Rainbow Dash, standing over top of her with a flush of embarrassment on her muzzle as Twilight lay on her back in the cold, wet snow; resulting in most of her lavender coat to hug her figure and show off her curves.
“Rainbow Dash are you blushing?” crooned Rarity, raising an eyebrow to the self-proclaimed awesome pegasus.
“Wh-what! No! It’s just… REALLY hot in here, yeah! Maybe we should open some windows or something?”
“Hey Dashie are your wings okay?” asked Pinkie, reaching out to prod one of the feathered appendages with a hoof. Fortunately, Fluttershy noticed and quickly pulled Pinkie closer to herself, ensuring that Dash was out of reach.
Unfortunately Twilight's natural reaction to answer questions and her understanding of pony anatomy may have hindered her reasoning behind this action, “Don’t worry Pinkie, Rainbow Dash is just experiencing a natural muscle reaction due to the increase of hormones in response to her arousal. Or in laymen’s terms, a wing-mmph!?” her voice quickly became muffled as Rainbow quickly closed the distance between the two and jammed a hoof in her mouth.
“Twi’, please stop talking?” she asked, her voice reduced to a mere squeak of embarrassment. Twilight nodded her head in compliance and Dash removed her hoof before returning to her spot.
Rarity cleared her throat abruptly, “Right… thank you Twilight for that… biology lesson. Shall I continue?” there were no words spoken but the few nodding heads were the only reply she needed.
“Heh, sorry Twilight, we always seem to be bumping into each other like this don’t we? Or I guess it’s more of me doing the bumping isn’t it? Sorry about that,” chuckled Rainbow as she repositioned herself and held out a forehoof to help her bookish friend up. She seemed to stare at it for a short moment before accepting it with a small smile.
“Thanks Rainbow Dash and don’t worry, I don’t mind it so there’s no reason to be sorry. Besides it’s always nice bumping into you, even if it is more literal than usual,” she giggled, drying of herself with a quick moisture-evaporation spell. “I’m actually free right now if you wanted to spend some time together? It’s as they say, ‘The warmth of a friends company can thaw even the loneliest soul!’”
Rainbow Dash grinned at the prospect, “Well why wouldn’t I have time for my number one bookworm?-” she exclaimed as she gave her a firm pat on the back, “-Where did you have in mind?”
“Well I was thinking we could head down to Ponyville Lake? Pinkie taught me to ice skate this year and I was thinking, maybe I could teach you?”
Rainbow tapped her chin in thought, “Do you really think I’d be good at it?”
“Of course! To you it’d just be like gliding but on ice so you’d probably be a natural at it!” shouted Twilight, her voice full of glee at the thought of becoming teacher for a day to the brash pegasus.
“Well then count me in!” she exclaimed, “In fact, I bet it won’t even take ten minutes for me to master! After all, I am the Rainbow Dash!” she puffed her chest out in pride before striking a very Rainbow-esque pose, giving Twilight a fearless from a side and pulling a forehoof into her chest.
Twilight giggled merrily at her friend’s antics and waved a hoof dismissively, “Well you’ll probably catch on faster than I did, it took me a week before I could even steer! I’m just glad Pinkie’s so patient with me.”
“Speaking of patient -” said Rainbow slyly as she flexed her wings, “- last one there’s a rotten hay-fry!” she shouted before taking off at almost supersonic speed towards the lake.
Twilight tried to shout out to her, “Rainbow that’s the opposite of patient!” but it apparently went unheard. So with a smirk on her muzzle and a flash of her horn, Twilight teleported to the lake and patiently waited for her company to arrive.
“Calling it now, Twilight’s gonna propose to her at the lake!”
“Pinkie that’s absurd! They aren’t even dating yet!”
“Ah think they might just have a roll around in the snow after Rainbow figures out she can’t skate!”
“Rainbow would never do that, she doesn’t do… that without knowing for sure she cares for them first, she’s been like that ever since flight camp.”
“Right Flutters,” nodded Rainbow, “there’s no way I’d sleep with Twilight before a couple of dates first! She’d have to wait ‘till at least the third one!” she exclaimed, completely oblivious to how exactly that sounded to everypony else.
Twilight was the first to react, blinking dumbly in surprise and still staring at her new telescope for few seconds before facing her, “I would?”
Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Well duh! I’m not just gonna jump into bed with you before our third date!”
That was when the bit dropped inside Rainbow’s head.
“Wait that’s not what I meant!” she exclaimed defensively, watching as Twilight looked away quickly as a blush spread across the unicorns muzzle.
“I think it’s very sweet of you Rainbow,” commented Fluttershy.
Rainbow’s ears drooped down in defeat before letting out a long, tired sigh, “Can we please just get back to reading the Celestia-damned story?”
“But of course! My turn is over though I am afraid. Who wants to go next girls?”
The magically enchanted hearth continued to flicker as each lick of flame danced their tango with one another, fighting for every scrap of fuel as they radiated a warm, comfortable heat. Not only did the hearth fight of the winter’s cold grasp, but it served as a reminder that in everypony’s heart as families gathered around to remember that just as a warm fire brings together family and friends, the fire in each other’s hearts brings prosperity and joy to their communities. Despite the differences of anypony residing in said community, if the founders of Equestria had already learnt this lesson, the entire windigo incident would’ve been avoided entirely. But of course, then we wouldn’t have Hearth’s Warming Eve would we?
Some things just have to be found out the hard way.
“Can we please just get back to reading the Celestia-damned story?” Rainbow Dash pleaded, her ears folded down against her skull in embarrassment.
“But of course! My turn is over though I am afraid. Who wants to go next girls?” asked Rarity, examining each of her friends.
Pinkie’s hoof shot straight into the air as she waved it around for everypony to see, “Oh! Me! Pick me! C’mon Rarity, pick me!” she exclaimed, grinning at her fashionista friend.
Rarity cast a small, peaceful smile to her pink-coated friend as she gently levitated the tome towards her and set it in front of her. “All right Pinkie, but do be gentle with it please?” she asked.
Pinkie waved a hoof dismissively at her, “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle Rarity! I won’t even hit them like Twilight does!” a faint thud came from Twilight’s direction as her forehoof connected to her face but Pinkie showed no signs of acknowledging it as she started reading aloud.
Twilight didn’t have to wait long, she could already spot the chromatic speck in the sky getting closer by the second before eventually screeching to a halt just in front of her, her jaw dropping from sheer confusion.
“You- Bwah? How?! How in Equestria did you get here before me?!” she acclaimed, raising her forearms above her head in exasperation. Twilight raised an eyebrow before teleporting to her side, giggling as her friend sighed and joined her in her laughter. “Of course, you and your teleporting,” she chuckled, lightly punching the librarian in the shoulder.
Twilight rolled her eyes and rubbed the spot on her shoulder a little, “Oh come on Dash, you know teleporting is my specialty,” she answered watching as her friend scoffed at the remark.
“Come on Twilight, EVERY type of magic is your specialty and you’re totally awesome at it! Hay, you’re like a unicorn version of me!” Rainbow stopped for a second. “Well, a more egghead unicorn version of me anyway,” she corrected.
Twilight blushed at the compliment, knowing full well that Rainbow meant every word. Rainbow may not be the most humble pony, but that me be partly because she does have reason to brag about her ability; she is one of the fastest pegasi in Equestria and her loyalty knows no bounds. Twilight may not be a prideful pony, but to be compared to someone as talented as Rainbow did make her feel pretty damn good about herself.
“Thanks Rainbow, maybe one day I’ll be as talented as you are,” unfortunately, it was still not good enough to forget about her self-consciousness, her head drooped a little and she began avoiding her friends gaze.
Rainbow’s features softened and she reached out and held the bookworm’s chin up, “Heh, c’mon Twi, you know that after the amount of time we’ve been hanging out, my awesomeness is already rubbing off on you quite a lot, hay one day you may be as awesome as me at this rate. You’re a lot closer to me than you think Twilight ” she chuckled.
Twilight stared into the sparkling, magenta orbs, noticing a small, subtle look in her magenta’ eyes. She mulled a little over what she had said before reaching a logical conclusion. “I am kinda awesome aren’t I?” she said happily, smiling happily as she reached over and hugged her pegasus friend, who hugged her back almost immediately.
They both embraced each other silently for a moment before Rainbow broke the silence, “Only kinda?” she questioned, rolling her eyes as Twilight replied with a shy nod, “Well it’s a start, I’ll give you that,” she chuckled , ruffling her mane a bit before looking around curiously. “So… I’m no expert on ice skating or anything but don’t we need, you know… ice skates?” she asked.
“Of course! Pinkie always keeps a couple of pairs stashed around here, in case of skating emergencies!” she replied happily, pulling out four pairs of brightly coloured skates.
Rainbow shook her head and chuckled as Twilight helped her put hers on, “That sounds exactly like her. I mean who else sounds so fun and caring? Not to mention how full her mane is and how pretty she is!”
Pinkie looked up from the book to see all of her friends staring at her suspiciously. “…What? Is Gummy in my mane again?” she asked, shaking her mane vigorously just for good measure.
Twilight spoke up first out of the group, “Pinkie, I’m pretty sure that I never wrote in that last line of Pinkies dialogue,” she said, being about as blunt as a boulder to the face.
“Pinkie dear, you didn’t… add anything in did you?” asked Rarity.
“What!? Of course not!” she exclaimed, showing the page she was on to the rest of the gaggle of mares. As they read, the audible sound of teeth grinding together could be heard coming from Twilight’s direction. The reason being that where a neatly written line of dialogue had been, a pink line was now crossed through it and some hastily scribbled, pink words had been written in the gap above. “See? It was already there! I just read what was in the book,” she said happily.
“Pinkie, that took me the whole year to complete! Now it’s ruined!” Twilight shouted as her mane and tail slowly began to smoulder.
“Umm, Twilight, isn’t there some sort of spell you can do to fix it? I mean, if you wanted to that is…” quietly added Fluttershy
Twilight froze as a revelation hit her, a triumphant grin spreading across her muzzle shortly after. “Why yes Fluttershy, I think I have just the spell,” she said happily, her horn glowing in a deep, lavender aura, causing all of the pink lettering to disappear in a flash of magic.
“Hey!” shouted Pinkie, “You can’t just control-z my work! That was the best dialogue of the century!”
“First off Pinkie, that was an ‘undo’ spell. Secondly, you can’t just vandalise somepony’s hard work, it’s disrespectful,” Twilight said in her ‘lecturing’ tone. “Now if apologise and don’t do it again, you can continue reading it.”
“But it was the authors fault!” she protested.
“Pinkie.”
Sighing in defeat, Pinkie ears drooped and she looked into Twilight’s eyes, “I’m sorry Twilight, I won’t do it again, I Pinkie Promise,” she said genuinely before do the next associated actions, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she chanted.
Twilight allowed a small smile onto her lips, satisfied with her reply “Thank you Pinkie Pie, you may continue.”
Rainbow shook her head and chuckled as Twilight helped her put hers on, “That sounds like Pinkie, though I can’t say I don’t appreciate it,” she chuckled, lifting up a forehoof to as for Twilight as she helpfully began to fit on the athlete’s skates one hoof at a time. “This one time, Dinky Doo (Ditzy Doo’s daughter), lost her ball. She was crying and wailing, the whole scene began to make everypony tear up a little (except me), and then I remembered how Pink’s keeps her balls around in case of emergencies! You should’ve seen the kid’s face, she looked at me as if I had just saved the world,” she said, smiling a little in a prideful way before looking back to her friend with a glimmer in her eyes, just as Twilight finished fitting the last skate.
“Aww, Rainbow, it sounds like she really admired you,” she said with a cute, adoring smile, clearly relishing the sight of Rainbow’s soft side. It was a rare, exceptional thing to see the pegasus talking about such subjects (asides from the rather common boasting about her ‘Awesome-osity’), it was an experience only her closest friends got the chance to see.
“Heh, yeah,” she chuckled, “Ditzy and I have been friends ever since we were just fillies and when she had her foal a few years ago I helped out a lot after Dinky’s father left for a so called ‘work trip’. Ditzy insists he’ll come back one day when fedoras are cool, but personally I think he’s gone for good” she sighed. “Anyway, a few days after that ball incident, Ditzy told me that Dinky thought of me as her own father, which to be honest, felt kind of awkward at first. But, after I got over the gender part I realised she simply meant she thought of me as her other parent. It was the first time that I ever felt like I didn’t deserve something,” Rainbow turned her back to Twilight quickly, who could’ve sworn she saw her wipe a tear from one of her beautiful, magenta eyes.
“Anyway, enough of this mushy stuff, I think it’s time you taught me to use these bad boys!” exclaimed Rainbow, a look of determination in her eyes as she pumped a forehoof in the air...
…and promptly fell flat on her muzzle…
“Ow,” she grunted.
Twilight giggled a little at her friend, much to her embarrassment, before helping her up with her magic, “That brings up the first step for today’s lesson: Balancing on the Skates and Ice,” she said in her lecturing voice. “You should pick up on this one quite quick considering how much balance is also required during pegasus flight, so what I want you to do is try standing in your normal posture while on the ice with your skates.”
Rainbow gave a quick nod, “You got it Twi’! I promise I won’t let you down!” she exclaimed, slowly and a little shakily pulling herself back up to all fours.
“Oh Rainbow, I don’t expect you to learn it all in ten seconds flat, you couldn’t let me down even if you-” she watched in awe as the pegasus struck a small pose while staying perfectly balanced on the ice, “-… tried…”
Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest in pride as she watched Twilight’s jaw drop, “I told ya’ I had it!” she said, bursting with pride as she waited for her teachers review.
Twilight took a moment to recover from her shock, “Well done Dash! I told you you’d be a natural at this!” praised Twilight, “Now, try pushing off the ice two hooves at a time, make sure that one is a back hoof and one is a front hoof while making sure they are both not from the same side. Since we have wings we can easily use them to stabilize ourselves while we skate, like so,” she explained, showing a quick demonstration by skating a lap around the frozen pond, her wings outstretched and angled slightly for more slightly more downwards force.
Rainbow Dash nodded eagerly and took up a starting pose, “All right, here I go!” she exclaimed, taking off a little slowly and wobbling a little as she skated about a metre or so before repeating the process. After three laps or so under the alicorn’s careful guidance, Rainbow Dash was skating circles around Twilight. Literally.
“Heh, check out Twilight! I’ve got this whole skating thing wrapped up more than Winter!... Well except for that year Discord tried to help anyway…” she chuckled, still performing perfect circles around her bookish friend.
“Twilight, dear, I thought we all agreed to never talk about last year’s Winter Wrap Up ever again?” stated Rarity, watching as Twilight winced at the mention of said year.
“Well… I figured since it’s just fiction it wouldn’t matter, besides, reading it in a fiction book helped me forget the whole ordeal was real,” sighed Twilight.
The girls all seemed to think about it for a second before coming to a joint decision.
“Seem’s good ‘nuf for me.”
“Umm…”
“That year was FUN!”
“I never wanna see another candy cloud as long as I live.”
“Green is just not my colour.”
Well… Maybe joint wasn’t the right word.
Twilight began to speak as Dash skated circles around her, “All right Rainbow, now that you’ve got the basics down let’s get to the advanced sect-”
CRACK!
The ice beneath Twilight split apart from the rest of it in a perfect circle. Rainbow was startled and on reflex quickly took to a slight hover above the ice. Twilight on the over hand, took a startled step back, causing the weight to shift to one side of the separated ice, tipping her into the freezing cold water. Her lungs took in a mouthful of water as her head went below the water and the cold water shocked her nervous system, causing her to let in a involuntary gasp.
Rainbow watched it all happen in what felt like forever, but was really only a second, maybe two.
“TWILIGHT!”
Silence filled the room as Pinkie looked back from the book. She and Twilight were the only two that didn’t have a look of panic on their face, Twilight herself was beaming with pride after seeing how much the girls were getting into her story.
“Pinkie why did you stop? What happens next?!” asked Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie shrugged, “Dunno, that’s the end of the chapter,” she stated calmly.
“What!?” exclaimed four of the mares in the room, even Fluttershy had risen her voice a little.
“Twi’ that’s just unfair! You can’t end the chapter on a cliff-hanger, it’s just plain mean to the readers!” sulked Applejack.
“Sorry Applejack,” said Twilight with a smirk, “sometimes, authors are just mean like that.”
“Yes. Yes they are,” said Pinkie as she glared at the man through screen as was typing out a series of words while imagining how soft Luna’s fur would be.
“Pinkie, who are you staring at?” asked Rarity.
Yes Pinkie, who ARE you staring at?
Pinkies glare intensified as she muttered, “I know where you live.” She then turned back to her glamorous friend with a friendly grin, “Nopony, Rarity.”
Nopony indeed.
