Spellbound Fireflies (13 page)

They looked into each other’s eyes for several moments, affection drilling into each other.  Rainbow started and glanced over at Scootaloo.  She coughed and cleared her throat.  “Well…that’s the backstory, Scoots.”  Her smile turned chagrined.  “So, uh, onto what happened.  Do you wanna tell it, Twi’?”

“Let’s tell it together.”

Twilight inhaled deeply, fiddling with the number forty-two position tag in her hooves.  There were lots of smells she enjoyed: the warm and yeasty headiness of freshly baked bread; the musty, dry crispness of new parchment; the murky, earthy unctuousness of an opened bottle of ink.  But nothing quite matched the smell of autumn.  The odor of dried sap, sweet and syrupy, mixed with the primal musk of fallow wood and the sharp, stark, coppery note of distant storms that always hung on the wind.

She sat back on the park bench and kicked her hindlegs idly.  A few leaves remained resolutely clinging to the trees even after the day’s Running of the Leaves, and Twilight watched them sway in the evening wind.  She smiled vacantly, twisting her running number back and forth, creasing and unfolding it randomly.  She took another long and deep breath, savoring the cool scents and relishing the subtle bite of dryness on her throat, still slightly raw from the competition.

The sky above her head blossomed into a bouquet of yellows, reds, purples, and oranges as the sun moved across the horizon, painting the clouds into fallen leaves caught in a breeze.  Her smile widened, her thoughts a jumbled mess of inarticulate contentment.  The physical and mental fatigue from the run left her in a haze, so she sat silently and basked in the splendor.

The sound of slow hoofbeats lifted Twilight from her reverie.  Rainbow Dash slowly cantered along the park’s path towards her, the meandering mare’s face lighting up as Twilight came into view.  She picked up her pace.  “Hey, Twi’.  What’re you doin’ out here?”

Twilight smiled fondly, patting the bench beside her in invitation.  “Hello, Rainbow.  I was just enjoying the scenery.”  She inhaled the lovely smell again, savoring the strong electric tang on the back of her tongue.  As Rainbow sat down next to her on the bench and let out a long breath, Twilight’s eyes drifted back to the brilliant colors lighting up the sky.  “Fall’s my favorite time of year.  The clear sky’s never quite so
blue
other seasons.  It never smells so
clean.
”  Her grin widened as she continued to kick her hindlegs and fold her number over and over in her hooves.  She turned to her friend.

Rainbow Dash, still dusty and frayed from the scuffle with Applejack hours before and now sporting an added layer of grime and sweat from rerunning the race, pulled off her own number eleven from her flank.  She let out a sigh and leaned back into the bench.  Twilight’s smile drooped.  “You alright, Rainbow?”

Rainbow blinked slowly and shook her head.  “Huh?  Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”  She rubbed at a kink in her neck.  “I just ran the Runnin’ of the Leaves twice and feel like somepony dropped a mountain on me is all.”  Her beleaguered smile made Twilight shake her head and smirk.

“I’m sorry you lost today.”

Rainbow shrugged noncommittally, leaning back and closing her eyes.  “Me an’ AJ kinda earned it, ya know.”  She grimaced and twisted her head to the side, discharging a loud pop.  “Oh, Luna, I needed that.”  Rainbow paused, her eyes refocusing on her friend.  “Hey.”  She sat up, catching Twilight’s gaze.  “I never said congratulations to ya for gettin’ fifth place.”  She frowned at herself and grumbled, “Too busy bein’ a jerk to AJ.  And you.”

Twilight waved her off.  “It’s fine.”

“No it isn’t.”  Her scowl deepened and she leaned in closer.  “I was a big ol’ jerk to you about this race, an’ when you placed, when
one of my best friends placed
in the race, all I could say was, ‘Twilight beat us!’”  She sunk back into the bench, her grimace directed inward.

Twilight shook her head again, still smiling.  “It is fine, Rainbow.  A pair of athletes like you and Applejack would normally be sure to win, were you on top of your game.  One of you should’ve won; I shouldn’t have placed at all.  I would’ve gotten seventh place in a fair race.”

Rainbow bolted back upright.  “Don’t say that!”  She gripped the medal around Twilight’s neck, lifting it away enough for Twilight to easily look at it.  “You earned this, Twi’.  You ran smart and nopony can say you don’t deserve it.”  Twilight felt her face grow warm as Rainbow gingerly dropped the medal back to her chest.  “So congratulations, Twi’.”

A pleased smile on her muzzle, Twilight’s eyes drifted over her friend’s earnest face, settling on her dusty and disheveled mane.  She smirked and clicked her tongue, attempting to straighten the unruly hairs with a hoof.  “You are a mess, Rainbow.”

Rolling her eyes but not pulling away, Rainbow let Twilight futilely pat down her bangs.  Giving it up as a bad job, Twilight’s hoof lowered and her gaze followed slowly, until her eyes locked with the mare.  A hypnotic lull fell over both ponies as they sat side by side, looking into each other.  Twilight’s already warm face grew hotter and twin blotches of pink sprung to Rainbow’s cheeks.  Hardly daring to breathe, they sat in heavy silence.

A fat drop of rain landed on Rainbow’s snout, drawing a surprised blink.  Both mares looked upwards.  Inky black clouds blanketed half the sky, rolling swiftly towards the dying rays on the horizon.  “Uh oh,” Rainbow muttered.

“I didn’t know it was supposed to rain today.”

Rainbow’s voice took on a hard edge.  “It isn’t.  This must be out of the Everfree.”  Wet slaps sounded out around the pair, growing closer together and more insistent.  As the random spats gradually transformed to a sheet of incoming water, they raised their hooves over their heads and looked around wildly for cover.

“The gazebo!” Twilight shouted over the growing din, taking off at a gallop with Rainbow following close behind her.  They skidded to a stop in the small gazebo, wiping the running channels of water away from their eyes.  They turned and watched the sky.

The raging storm blacked out the remaining light from the sun and cast the park into darkness.  Sight hindered, the violence of the weather made itself known through other senses; the thundering downpour on the roof of the gazebo a staccato sheet of sound, the raw humidity plastering their coats to their skin, the metallic taste of charged air coating the back of their throats, but most of all the overwhelming scent of rainstorms invading their shelter.  The park stood muted by the raging storm as Twilight and Rainbow Dash watched, feeling rivulets of rain roll off their backs.

Twilight turned to her friend, barely able to see the shine off her eyes in the dark.  “…Do you need to go?  Is this weather team stuff?”

Rainbow looked back to the clouds, squinting hard.  “Nah.  Sometimes the Everfree kicks up magical storms, but this is just rain.  There isn’t any lightning, either, so there’s no worry about anything getting damaged.  I’ll have some paperwork tomorrow to reschedule rains for a week or two to keep from overwatering any crops, but for now I don’t haveta do anything.”

Twilight turned back towards the storm, joining Rainbow in letting the rush of sounds and smells wash over them in wordless silence.  The clouds moved briskly overhead in waves, but no end could be seen in the distance.  A smile slowly grew across Twilight’s face.  She tapped Rainbow on the shoulder.  “Want to run for it?  Back to the library?”

Rainbow turned and regarded her friend in the darkness.  The impish grin on the unicorn’s face was infectious.  Rainbow folded her wings carefully to her sides and turned towards the path leading out of the park, bearing down in challenge.  Twilight stepped to her side and matched her stance.  Rainbow’s grin grew wider.  “Ready?”

“One…two…three!”

They flashed out into the downpour, instantly soaked to the bone.  Hooves clattered over the cobbled path as muscles flexed and bunched, propelling them side by side through the dark.  Water leapt high in splashes with every step, rain streaming across their eyes and snouts.  They laughed breathlessly as they galloped, pulling ahead and falling behind each other in their mad sprint.  Having trouble seeing ahead through the rain and dark, coupled with the exertion from earlier in the day, kept either from going all-out, transforming a potential race into a giggling rush through unending water.

They burst from the park and charged down the deserted streets of Ponyville, the amber light that spilled out of shops and homes shining off the soaked roads.  They stole glances at each other in the flashes of light, glints of reflected gold bouncing off water droplets, eyes, and Twilight’s medal.  With the market behind them, they rounded Town Hall neck and neck, the distant silhouette of the oak tree rustling against the darkened sky ahead of them.  Sugarcube Corner whipping past in a blur, Twilight’s horn lit up their path and swung the door open ahead of them.  They flung themselves into the library at a leap simultaneously, Twilight slamming the door shut in their wake.

They lay in a heap on the hardwood floor of the library’s main room, giggling breathlessly around heaving gulps of air.  With a small exertion of will, Twilight sparked the fireplace to life, sending tendrils of warmth and light into the room.  She pulled herself up to sitting on her haunches and turned to Rainbow Dash.

Twilight’s breath caught in her throat.  The grime from racing and fighting had been washed off her daredevil friend.  Streams of water ran over her shining coat, darkened to a deeper blue by the moisture and smeared haphazardly in playful cowlicks.  Her mane, dark and dripping, clung to her forehead and neck in a swirl of color.

Rainbow Dash stared back at Twilight.  The unicorn’s mane, plastered around her face in a shining sheet of blue dyed almost black, framed her eyes and caught glints of orange from the fire along its smooth and dripping surface.  Rain ran around her cheeks to patter from her chin to the floor.

‘Dear Celestia,’
they both thought,
‘She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.’

They turned away simultaneously, pawing at the floor.  Rainbow cleared her throat, willing steadiness into her voice.  “So, uh…is Spike here?”

“He was with Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner for the after party…he’s probably stuck there for the night in this weather.”  A stifling silence fell over the room, the crackling logs in the fireplace providing the only noise.  Twilight shakily wiped at her brow before straightening suddenly, the motion flinging droplets behind her.  “Towels.  I’ll go get us some towels.”

On unsteady and trembling legs, Twilight stood and numbly cantered to the bathroom, pulling several fuzzy towels off a shelf in a glow of magic.  She re-entered, pointedly not looking directly at the pegasus, who was busy staring at the floor.  She plopped several down in front of Rainbow and floated the remainder around herself, wringing the wet from her coat and mane.  She took off her medal and levitated it over to her desk as she finished drying her tail.  Satisfied that she was damp but not dripping, she chanced a glance at her friend.

A towel in her teeth, Rainbow awkwardly ran her forelegs over its surface to dry her chest, scowling in frustration.  Twilight stifled a giggle.  “Here, let me help.”

Not really sure why she wasn’t using magic to do it, Twilight lifted a towel in her hooves and wrapped it around Rainbow’s back, massaging the cloth against her coat and carefully around her wings.  Rainbow went completely still, the towel dropping from her slack mouth and eyes locked straight in front of her as Twilight slowly dried her back and sides.  She bit her lip and closed her eyes, willing the blush from her face as Twilight reached her tail and worked from her dock to the tips of her long hairs.  Twilight dropped the saturated towel and grabbed another to circle Rainbow’s head.  She ran her hooves along the towel, through Rainbow’s mane and down her neck with gentle strokes, her stance slowly drifting to directly in front of the stock-still mare as she worked.  She sat on her haunches as she finished and pulled the towel back from Rainbow’s face.

She froze in place to match Rainbow as their eyes met, the pegasus’ mane sticking up in wild chunks around her head.  Mere inches from each other, matching dark smears of crimson from snout to cheek on both faces, the hypnotic state at the park gripped them both again.  Silence reigned in the library as the towel fell away, rolling down Rainbow’s back and crumpling on the floor.  Neither could read the other’s expression as they sat, consumed by each other’s gaze.  As if magnetized, their muzzles drifted closer, the small gap separating them slowly bleeding away.

With less than an inch of space left, Twilight’s eyes flew wide and she leapt to her hooves.  “S-sorry!  I’m—” her voice wavered and she swallowed thickly, darting her head wildly around the room like a cornered animal.  “I’m…I…”  She bolted up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door behind her.

Rainbow’s eyes lingered on the staircase, her jaw slack.  It took a few minutes for her brain to catch back up with the present.  Feeling dizzy and confused, she climbed to her hooves and headed up the stairs.

Rainbow could hear sniffling through the door as she approached from the darkened staircase, tentatively raising a hoof to knock.  She paused, hoof held high, and stared at the swirling wood grain of the door, willing her heart to stop beating so madly and her mystified head to stop spinning.  She took a deep breath and knocked.

“G-go away.”  The raw throatiness of her voice told Rainbow that Twilight was crying.

“Let me in, Twi’.  Tell me what’s wrong.”

“N-no.  I-if you don’t go away…I’m…”  Twilight trailed off into miserable whimpers.

Rainbow sighed, leaning her forehead against the portal.  “Please let me in; whatever’s going on we’ll figure it out,” she pleaded.

“If I see you, I…I’m gonna do something stupid and you’ll hate me.”

Rainbow’s voice, still low and gentle, grew insistent and invited no arguments.  “Twilight Sparkle, for as long as I live and breathe there is nothing you could ever do to make me hate you.”