Spellbound Fireflies (12 page)

Sighing, Rainbow took a sip of her coffee.  As it touched her tongue, she smiled involuntarily, licking her lips in appreciation.  Twilight stifled a giggle as the daredevil mumbled, “Good coffee.”  She took a longer sip.  “…I didn’t want to disappoint everypony.  Pinkie went through all that trouble, and half the town was there, and I was hoping it’d distract me.”

A pained smile stretched across Twilight’s muzzle.  She nodded slowly, looking down into her coffee.  “…You’re quite the pony, Rainbow Dash.  Listen…next time you’re somewhere like that and you need to get away…tell me, okay?”  She looked up from her coffee, pleading with her eyes.  “I’ll make an excuse for you.  Don’t hurt yourself for our benefit.  Please?”

Rainbow’s gaze dropped, heat rising to her face.  She already felt better, just from seeing the concern on Twilight’s face and hearing it in her words.  “Thanks, Twilight.  I’ll get over it...I still feel awful, but I really just needed to get it off my chest.  I knew you were the right pony to talk to.”

“I’m glad you came to me and that I could help, but…why me?  You’re a good friend, Rainbow, but we still don’t know each other very well.  I’ve only been here in Ponyville for a couple months.”

A small, genuine smile lit up Rainbow’s face.  “Twilight, I’d be a fool not to come to you about somethin’ like this.  You’re, like,
the
pony for friend stuff.”

Bewildered, Twilight took a long drink of her coffee.  “But…surely Fluttershy would be your first choice.  You said you’ve known each other since you were fillies and she’s just as understanding as me, more even, and—”

“Twilight, I’ve
known
Fluttershy for a long time, but before you came here I’d said maybe a dozen words to her in the last year.”  Twilight’s jaw hung slack, her throat working but no sound coming out.  “The only ponies I was really friends with before the Summer Sun Celebration were AJ and Pinkie…and AJ was ‘cause I like sleepin’ on her trees and Pinkie ‘cause she’s friends with
everypony
.  And I didn’t really hang out with either of ‘em ever.  I mean, I never really spent any time with Pinkie just the two of us until yesterday when we went pranking.”

Twilight swallowed thickly, opting to drink her coffee and process Rainbow’s words rather than say anything.

“
You
were the one to bring us all together.  Before we met you, we were just five ponies who lived in the same town.  We’re…way more than that now, though.  Gilda was my best friend, and I hadn’t seen her for two years, Twilight.  And I didn’t really care.  It was cool to see her and she means…meant a lot to me, but it wasn’t a big deal to not ever see her…”  As she spoke, her face fell and her expression grew confused.  Talking it out helped bring the reality of her statement into full comprehension.  She dropped silent, mulling it over and taking several drinks.  Twilight remained quiet, watching her friend.

“…I’ve never been the friendliest pony in Equestria, Twilight.  I’ve had a lot of kinda-friends, but I’ve always been on my own.  Now…I can’t go a couple days without seeing at least one of you girls.  I don’t
want
to try an’ go more’n a couple days without seeing somepony now.  And it was
you
who did that, Twilight.  To all of us.  You brought us together.”  Rainbow drained the rest of her coffee.  “Thank you for that, Twilight.  And for bein’ here to listen to me now.”  She smacked her lips, her tone brightening.  “And for the awesome coffee.”

Twilight smiled weakly, still trying to process everything Rainbow had said.  “You’re very welcome…”  She drained her mug and set it down on the table.  “And thank you for being my friend.  I couldn’t have asked for a friend like you.”

Rainbow’s face grew hot and she grinned at the unicorn.  “I am pretty awesome.”  Twilight giggled, shaking her head.  “It’s getting really late now, so I’m gonna head home.  Thanks again, Twilight.  I feel a lot better.”

As she cantered towards the door, Twilight called after her, “Any time you need to talk, I’m always here for you.”  Rainbow halted and gave Twilight a little grin, waving goodbye with a hoof.  She opened the door and flared her wings, shooting off towards her house.  From the time of her departure until her head hit her pillow, the smile never left her lips.

Leaning shoulder to shoulder with Rainbow, Twilight grinned indulgently and shook her head.  “Rainbow, y’know I could listen to you talk for hours, but that was weeks before we got together.”  She nuzzled Rainbow’s cheek roughly, drawing a chuckle from her marefriend.

“But that’s where it started, Twi’.”  She smiled with affection at Twilight, her eyes tracing over the unicorn’s face.  “At least for me.  After that night, I kept thinkin’ about what I said to you an’ how you said I could always talk to you.”

Rainbow grasped Twilight’s forehooves in her own, drawing the mare to face her directly.  “You always make me think more’n I normally do.”  Her smile widened.  “So I thought a lot about you and eventually about you an’ me together.  I dunno when it changed, but I know when it started.  It started when somepony I barely knew saw me hurting and almost knocked her chair over to hug me.”

Twilight lifted a hoof out of Rainbow’s grip and pressed it to her own muzzle, willing her lips to not quiver.  She gave a tiny sniff and leaned forward to kiss Rainbow’s cheek.  She whispered, “How could I not hug you?”

Nuzzling Twilight’s face, she whispered back, “That you’d say that is one of the reasons I fell in love with you.”  Twilight smiled gently into the nuzzle, pulling away with reluctance.  Rainbow grinned at Scootaloo, who was pointedly
not
watching them, before turning back to Twilight.  “So that’s how it started for me.  How about you?”

“Well…to tell you the truth, Rainbow…it sorta started when we met.”

Rainbow’s sat up straight in surprise.  “Really?”

“…Yeah.  Watching you clear the sky for the Celebration so quickly…it was amazing, really.  I never saw anything like it.”  Her face colored and she turned away, a coy smile on her lips.  “You could say I had a crush on you in ten seconds flat.”

Rainbow snorted and ruffled Twilight’s mane, drawing giggles from the unicorn.  Twilight patted her bangs back down with a hoof and said, “I tried to not think about it, because I assumed you wouldn’t be interested.”

Sighing with a rueful smirk on her lips, Rainbow shook her head.  “It woulda been a whole lot easier if either of us just asked each other out, huh?”  Twilight giggled again and nodded as Rainbow winked at Scootaloo.  “So why don’t you tell the next part?”

Twilight nodded and smiled at the filly.  She took a sip of her coffee, cleared her throat, and began.

Twilight’s smirk slowly faded as Snips and Snails cantered off to clean up the mess wrought by the Ursa Minor.  She sighed to herself and headed back towards the library, weariness dragging her head down low and slowing her pace.  She reached out with her will to grasp the doorknob and twinges of pain lanced through her horn, making her wince and shake her head.  “Too much magic today,” she mumbled, pulling open the door with her hoof, trudging over to a floor pillow and collapsing with a groan.

A small knock sounded from the door.  Casting a bleary eye, Twilight was greeted by Rainbow Dash, smirking with a hoof raised to the still wide open door.  “Hey, Twilight.”

Rubbing her face with a hoof, Twilight sat up and tried to smile.  She was interrupted by a sudden yawn.  Color rose to her cheeks as her visitor partially stifled a snort.  “Hi, Rainbow,” she greeted, rubbing an eye with her hoof.  “What can I do for you?”

Rainbow tentatively stepped across the threshold, shutting the door with a gentle kick.  “I just…wanted to check on ya.”  She smiled sheepishly, pawing at the floor with a hoof.

Twilight frowned.  “Check on me?”

“…Yeah.”  The mare awkwardly cantered around the room, her eyes passing over the book-cases without really taking anything in.  She quietly cleared her throat a few times, but didn’t say anything else.

Dragging herself back to standing, Twilight asked, “Why’d you want to check on me?”

Rainbow opened her mouth, her throat working but no sound coming out.  She scowled and sighed, slumping her shoulders.  “I’m…not good at this, Twilight.  Talking about stuff.  Finding…words.”  She rubbed at her shoulder with a foreleg, looking down at the floor.

Slowly, Twilight nodded and she cantered closer to her friend.  “Just say what you wanna say; I’m listening.”

Rainbow frowned deeper and looked Twilight in the eye.  “This stuff tonight with Trixie…did you really think we wouldn’t wanna be friends with you?”  Twilight’s ears fell back against her head and she looked away.  “…S’what I thought.  Twilight…”  She stepped closer and put a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder.

Twilight winced.  “I’m sorry…please don’t be mad I doubted you.”

Straightening in her stance and blinking in confusion, Rainbow said, “I’m not mad.  Why would I be mad?”  She shook her head.  “I was worried about you and thought maybe you needed a friend to talk to.  Like, uh…Like I did.  After Gilda.  So, uh…yeah.”

Twilight turned back to Rainbow Dash, worry melting to relief, a small smile growing on her lips.  “…Thank you, Rainbow.”  She pulled the mare into a hug, both of them tensed and fidgety in the embrace.  “I’m…thank you.”  She stepped back, smiling weakly at her friend.  “I should’ve known better.  You girls are better than that.  You’re…”  She looked away and sniffed.  Frowning, Rainbow stepped forward again, but Twilight shrugged her off.  “I’m fine.  I’m still getting used to what it’s like to have friends.”

Twilight wiped at her eyes and smiled at Rainbow a little brighter.  “I can’t believe I went for so long without any.”

Rainbow grinned warmly and after a moment of deliberation drew Twilight into another, more fierce hug.  “You’re totally awesome, Twilight.  You don’t haveta prove anything to anypony here; we know it and you should know it.  Your magic was…”  She pursed her lips, mulling it over in her mind.  “Radical.  Totally radical.”

Twilight inhaled sharply to clear her snout, hugging Rainbow back.  “Thanks.”

“I mean it.”  Rainbow pulled back, a small hint of pink in her cheeks.  “You’re awesome and powerful and totally amazing to see in action.”  She puffed out her chest and narrowed her eyes in confidence.  “Like me!”  Twilight grinned and shook her head.  Rainbow’s stance fell back to sheepish.  “…So you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”  She rubbed at her forehead, willing the blossoming headache away.  “Just tired.  That took a lot out of me.”

“Say no more; I’ll let ya get some sleep.”  Rainbow turned towards the door.  “See ya later, Twi’.”

Twilight waved gently as the daredevil took to her wings and sailed into the night, the force of her departure pulling the door shut behind her.  The unicorn inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath, pulling herself up the stairs towards her bedroom on aching hooves.  
‘Rainbow called me ‘Twi’,’
she thought to herself, a happy grin blooming on her muzzle.  It sounded so…intimate.  She flopped onto her bed and dug herself under the covers, grinning like an idiot.

Needling Twilight in the ribs with a hoof, Rainbow teased, “Now who’s talkin’ about stuff that happened weeks before we got together?”

Twilight giggled, ribbing Rainbow back.  “Well, you said you didn’t know when it changed from thinking about me to thinking about
us.
  I
did
know when that happened for me, so I thought I’d share.”

“Wait…that night after Trixie first came to Ponyville was when you…?”

“Yeah…”  Twilight’s face flushed and she smiled radiantly at Rainbow.  Rainbow arched an eyebrow and set her hooves on her hips.  Scootaloo watched the mares quietly regard each other, wondering if they had forgotten she was even in the room.  Twilight pawed at the pillow, clearing her throat.  “Before then, I’d had a crush on you.  I thought you were amazing, and pretty, and somepony to admire.  Then…after that night…”  Her blush darkened and she leaned in closer.  “Well…the first thing was how you reacted to my magic; it reminded me so much of how
I
felt watching you fly.  I used to think we were so different before then, so it must’ve been just a silly crush, but I realized we were the same; you with flying and me with magic.  Does that make sense?”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, her breath caught in her throat, and she started laughing.  Covering her mouth with a hoof, she fell over backwards, kicking wildly in the air while attempting to stifle the brunt of her merriment.  When she caught Twilight’s mystified expression, she forced away the worst of it and scrambled back to her haunches.  “Sorry, sorry,” she choked out, “It’s just…I realized the same thing!  Remember how I said, ‘Like me?’”  Twilight nodded numbly.  Rainbow almost lost control of her laughter again, a few choked snickers escaping her throat.  “I remember thinkin’, ‘I bet this is what it feels like to watch
me
fly!’”  She lost control of herself for good and flopped back over, howling into the floor pillow.

Twilight shook her head slowly and held her face in her hooves, giggling along with her marefriend.  Scootaloo set her empty mug on the floor, attempting to keep her own laughter in check.  Rainbow’s rather exaggerated physical display made it difficult.

Still snickering, Rainbow pulled herself back up, her voice dripping with mirth.  “So anyway, besides us having the same idea at the same time about how we’re practically the same pony, what else?”

Twilight snorted and shoved Rainbow playfully.  “Gimme a second; I’m busy rethinking every thought I’ve ever had around you.”  Eventually, they both regained a modicum of composure and Twilight took a deep breath.  “…Anyway…The other thing was how you acted like I was crazy for thinking you’d be mad I’d doubted you.  It would’ve been perfectly reasonable to be hurt by that; I didn’t trust you, any of you girls.”  She sighed, casting her gaze at the floor.  “I still regret that…”

Frowning, Rainbow lifted Twilight’s chin, drawing her line of sight back up.  She opened her mouth, but Twilight waved her off with a hoof.

“The point being it didn’t even enter your head to feel that way.  You just wanted to make sure I was alright.”  She grasped Rainbow’s still outstretched hoof in her own, squeezing the limb and grinning.  “Suddenly instead of you just being pretty and fun, you were somepony I felt a connection to, who was kind and thoughtful.  It stopped being just that I liked you and that I wanted to be
with
you.”