Forgotten Kin

Chapters

Prologue: Curiosity
Chapter 2: Work Issues
Chapter 3: Collateral Damage
Chapter 4: Peculiar Support
Chapter 5: Research
Chapter 6: Protective Deceit
Chapter 7: Sentiments
Chapter 8: Devotion
Chapter 1: Disturbance

Prologue: Curiosity

Prologue: Curiosity

The silence of the Everfree forest was broken as a deer crashed through the bushes. Here reigns the need of survival. The unforgiving laws of nature didn’t care that it was wonderful quiet night with a clear sky and the emerald green forest was bathed in the silver light of the full moon. The deer ran for its life but it was clear that it wouldn't make it. The pack of wolves that was chasing it, already wounded it and most certainly wouldn't lose the track. The hunt went on when suddenly the deer found itself cornered in an ancient ruin, stuck in a dead-end, with the wolves blocking the way out. Desperately, the deer ran into the only open doorway at the end of the alley, the pack close on its tail. Unfortunately it was just another dead end. Hunters and prey found themselves in a round ritual chamber with strange, connected symbols carved on the floor and on the wall, that formed a dome and only one entrance. The one the hunters and the hunted just passed to be precise. Needless to say that the wolves had the deer killed rather quickly and started their feast.

Unnoticed by the wolves, the blood flowing out of the deer filled the grooves on the floor even to the farthest corners as if it was drawn to form rills along them. The wolf pack, on the other hand, didn't care much for it as they did for their surroundings in general at the moment. So they also didn't notice when the blood reached the wall but instead of stopping, it slowly started to fill the lines on the wall as well, some kind of magic preventing it from running over the edges of the glyphs. Finally the hunger of the wolves was satisfied and they left the ruins. As the red fluid finally filled up the last inch of the complex pattern, there was a quiet creaking noise. In the middle of the ceiling an opening appeared with a grinding sound of moving stones and a single ray of moonlight shone through.

Hours passed and nothing seemed to happen except for an occasional breeze when the moonlight hit a certain spot in the middle of the pattern. The blood began to glow in a pale light and started to run back to the middle of the chamber. After a short time, there was a pale bubble floating mid-air. Strangely, the dead deer started glowing as well and dissolved to become part of it. After some time, the bubble darkened until it became pitch black.

Suddenly the air became ice cold and darkness filled the room as if all energy, warmth and light, had been sucked out. The bubble on the other side started to boil for a brief period of time, releasing a few strands of smoky mist, and then collapsed unceremoniously in itself, vanishing in the process. What was left was impenetrable darkness. After a while the darkness seemed to concentrate in a single billowing sphere of the size of somewhat bigger than a skull, while the rest of the chamber slowly started to lighten up. It looked like a ball of black smoke but it was surprisingly solid. But there was one thing on it that was rather unsettling. Regular smoke doesn't have white glowing eyes, darting around looking for a reason to be here.

For a long time nothing noteworthy happened. The dark ball hovered in place, waiting. Waiting for something to happen. It was summoned to this world, ripped from its own. Now it wanted to know for what reason. Hours passed. No one came; no order was given, but the dark entity still wavered to leave the circle. Eventually it broke through the weak magic wall of the summoning circle created and still there was no reaction, no one to quell it. Curiously the creature wafted slowly to the open entrance. As it passed the doorway it was clear that no one would bind it to his will, no one would enslave it just to send it back as soon as the work was done. This time, there were no such shackles to yield to. On the contrary, there was a whole new world to discover! The creature flew to the sky in delight, wondering what it might find in this world.

In Canterlot, Celestia raised her head from her pillow. Something woke from her slumber but she couldn't say why. It felt like something happened, something important and somehow she was strangely familiar with this very feeling, but couldn't pin down why. Stifling a yawn, she slowly got up and put on her royal attire. Still pondering about the strange feeling she went to Luna's observatory, hoping to find her sister there. Cautiously she stepped on the balcony.

"I take from your presence that you felt it too?"

"Indeed I did. It seems it is as familiar to you as it is to me?"

"Likely. It seems to resonate in my very core, striking a long forgotten chord. I know that it is somehow connected to us but I cannot say how or why."

"You stood guard here. Did you see anything happening? Maybe a clue where we could start to search?"

"I am afraid I did not..."

Celestia looked to the stars, roaming her memory for anything that could give her answer.

"If it has something to with us, maybe it will take action on its own. Who knows? Maybe it will be an enjoyable event!"

Both princesses spun around, startled by the new voice.

"Discord..." they sighed in unison.

The draconequus rested on the railing, munching on a bag of popcorn.

"So they call me. Mostly among other, less charming names, anyway... But since I had this exciting feeling too, I wanted see if there is anyone else who wants to find out what it is about."

The royal sisters exchanged a worried glance. Discord may have been reformed to a certain degree and would most likely not plunge Equestria into chaos again, but they still didn't trust him entirely. The revelation that he was affected too made them unsure how to deal with him. Surely he could be a great help to find out what happened and they could hardly leave such a powerful potential ally like him aside, or worse, ignore him, but would be far from easy to work with him.

After a deep sigh Celestia finally broke the silence.

"Hopefully we will. But right now we have no real hint where we could start. The only thing we know is that it has some kind of connection to us three. I will search the library for any hints. Luna, would you please do the same when you have the time..."

"And what about me? Is there anything you could suggest? I have better things to do with my nose than sticking it into some ancient tome!"

Emphasizing his words, he pulled said body part of his face from the same head while speaking and started to juggle around with it and the bag of popcorn.

"You...” Celestia thoughtfully tapped her chin, “you could search around since you don't have any royal duties to fulfill... However, try to keep contact so we can tell each other when we found something."

"Excellent! Finally, a task that suits my taste! I am sure there will be one or the other chance to make some improvements to the hard working ponies here. But there is still one last thing I have to do before I leave."

With this, Discord pulled a false beard out of his ear and stuck it on Celestia’s face and vanished with a laugh and a flash.

At first Celestia was too perplexed by this impertinence to react at all. A hardly suppressed giggle from her side broke her frozen stance.

"Discord… I swear, one day I will find a way to make you pay for all your pranks…" she muttered in her now existing beard.

Luna stood there, clearly having a hard time stifling her laughter as Celestia started to shave the beard with a quickly summoned razorblade, since the draconequus used his magic to actually fuse it with her face. Usually the princess would have just cast a counter spell but Discord’s… alterations were mostly resistant to her due to their chaotic nature and could only be dealt with in an indirect manner.

"Do you really think we will find anything in the library, sister?" Luna asked cautiously, after Celestia finished shaving and stopped muttering silent curses to Discord for now. The addressed princess slowly turned around, visibly trying to calm herself.

"No. But as long as we don't know more we can't do anything else... Let's just hope it isn't another threat to Equestria again..."

At the same time the strange creature had started exploring the thickets of the Everfree Forest. It seemed to look for something without knowing what it was. Sometimes it would draw closer to a sleeping bird in a tree or follow a bat on its nightly hunt. However these peaceful examinations wouldn't go on for long. The forest wasn't feared and avoided for nothing. A pack of Timberwolves spotted the flying orb of darkness and decided it fit their diet. The living shadow noticed the pack immediately but it was still inspecting a nest of ants in a hollow tree and didn't identify them as hostile. The wolves, on the other side, mistook the lack of activity as opportunity to strike. The biggest one burst through the bushes with a loud howl and attacked what he intended to make his midnight snack followed closely by the others. Alas, the dark creature was now aware of the predatory intents of the wooden animals and turned to them, squinting its eyes and started sizzling with energy. The moment the pack leader pounced at it, a sudden surge of magic was released.

The shadow took a moment to admire its work. Around him stood the pack, frozen on the spot, the leader even mid-air which resulted in him lying helplessly on the ground as immobile as a rock. After a short while of considering the situation, the creature decided to keep moving and find something else to watch.

Eventually it reached the borders of the forest. Before it lay a small town, shrouded in the veil of night. Curiously, it flew closer to the closest buildings only to find them filled with darkness. The animated shadow seemed to ponder a while before moving on to investigate the rest of the town. It slowly went from house to house but it was always the same picture. All lights were dimmed and the doors and windows were locked and closed. After some time it reached a tree which was hollowed out to build a house inside. Contrary to the other houses, there was still a window alight. This caught the interest of the dark creature. Surely there was something new inside, something it hadn't seen yet and hopefully something interesting. It slowly started to approach the unique building.

Chapter 2: Work Issues

Chapter 2: Work Issues

As the first sunrays shone over the horizon, a rooster decided it was time to wake the citizens of Ponyville with its crow. By this a certain sinister looking being was torn from its contemplation about its plans on what it should do next rather roughly, but not without being offered another option. It had no concept of day and night since neither had meaning nor existence where it came from but something buried deep down in its memory told him that there was more activity in this realm when the sky was bright. It had been here before, a long time ago, but not for very long and it couldn't remember why. Some basic things slowly came back now that there was a first crack in the dam. Maybe it would break if the creature learned more about this world. It had to go out there and learn what it could. It had planned to observe the residents of this place to try and approach them without inducing fear and terror anyway, so it could do both at the same time.

Finally it rose from its place on a bookshelf and shot a short glance to the sleeping forms of the unicorn and the dragon to ensure there wouldn't be something potentially important happening with those two in conceivable time, and hovered outside through a slightly open window.

A stretch away above Ponyville, a blue pegasus let out a tired groan and cursed whoever decided that work starts in the morning. Normally she would have plainly ignored the rooster’s crow and kept sleeping for quite a long time, but Rainbow Dash knew she had to clear the bunch of clouds that were drifting towards Ponyville. Today was supposed to be sunny with only some cloud patches for a tiny bit of shade. Of course she could have done that yesterday but fly three hours just to kick some clouds? Booooring! Putting it on someone else’s back wasn't really an option either. Last week she had skipped weatherwork almost half of the time and thus, the rest of the weather squad was rather pissed for having to do extra work. Even if the pegasus was the captain of the team, she had to keep the moral up, so she really had to do it this time. Being a role model was cool but sometimes it was just too hard to find the scrap of motivation she had somewhere.

Yeah. She had to do it. But it was early. But there was no one else to do it. But...

"Aaaaargh..."

Finally the rainbow maned pegasus accepted her fate and started her first attempt to drag herself out of bed. She failed horribly.

After about five minutes Rainbow realized that all she managed to do was to stick her upper half out in the open to instantly rest it on the floor to get another five minutes of sleep. Dammit...

After 15 more minutes of fighting her remorseless cloud bed she was finally standing in her kitchen and ate a bowl of cereal she managed to ready herself. The tired pegasus devoured her meager breakfast rather quickly since she only chewed about five times over the entire time. Sadly, the battle against her extremely potent aversion to do her job was not over yet, though it was only a matter of time until she would finally do it and go outside.

In the kitchen’s corner a tortoise was startled by the loud slurping from its owner and was somehow able to comprehend what was happening. Maybe Tank wasn't a very agile pet but he was surprisingly intelligent and was bold enough to ignore the rules of courtesy. So it was yet again clear to the pet what he had to do. Wake up the blue mare for good. He activated his magicopter and flew up to the pretty low ceiling over a certain somepony’s head before switching it off again and letting gravity do its job.

Klonk!

"AAAaaaoouuurrrrgggnnhh.... Why, Tank? Why?"

Rainbow held her head where her pet hit her but quickly stuck it under cold water from the sink to cool it down. The whole ordeal was very refreshing though and slowly it dawned the cyan mare that her pet was really not nearly as dumb as he seemed sometimes. However that didn't ease the pain and the tortoise was well advised with his current course of actions to hide in his shell and not showing a single bit of his wrinkly skin.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash finished her early morning torture and started busting the clouds above Ponyville. Her calculations about the cloud movement where right and they were all very close to her home so it was an easy task but it had to be done quickly since the clouds were drenched with water and if it would take her too long the rain would start anyway. Admittedly her speed suffered a bit from her drowsiness so early in the morning but she was still sure she would make it.

Soon the thick cloud cover was nearly entirely vaporized and the pegasus felt almost fully awake. Just that last nasty cloud there and I'll go practicing my routine, she thought and flew to the small pitch-black patch and gave it a casual kick on a fly-by.

Usually that wouldn't be a problem and the cloud would be vaporized in an instant but this cloud was surprisingly solid. Dash, dumbfounded by this, lost her control and almost fell to the ground but regained her composure in time to stabilize her flight. She turned around to inspect the cloud she hit her hoof on just to see a blank sky. Rainbow stretched her head in a loss. That cloud felt like she hit a brick mid-flight but clouds couldn’t get so dense even when magic was involved. On the other side the sky was clear and she could do whatever she wanted the rest of the day. Ultimately she shrugged it off and flew away to her training grounds just outside the village to start her training for today. She had time to relax at her weekly reading session at Twilight’s afterwards anyway.

The dark creature was as just as confused as the colorful pony that kicked it out of nowhere. It didn't understand what the purpose of her actions were but it was pretty sure the kick wasn't a hostile action towards him, instead it was mistaken for a cloud. Then again how could she see it in the first place?

Oh! Right... It forgot to refresh the invisibility veil. As reaction to being kicked like that it used every bit of cloaking and stealth magic it knew and amplified it even further since it was still the main priority for the otherworldly being to stay hidden.

It waited for the pain, the kick induced, to fade while considering to follow the pegasus. The creature was sure it wouldn't be spotted this time but now it had some respect for the strength the pony had. In the end it decided to follow her but not without keeping a safe distance.

Alas, the animated darkness was kind of disappointed. All the cyan mare did was flying around in circles and spins and made some flight maneuvers. Sure, some of them were pretty interesting and daring but after three hours it became kind of boring.

After the twentieth repeat of the latest stunt it decided to look for another pony to observe. By now the small town wasn't really filled with life but there was a decent amount of activity to be seen.

The shadow flew the short distance back and started looking for a worthy target for its observations. After a while and after it dodged a falling couch that was dropped by a grey cross-eyed pegasus, it realized that the ponies often entered a building and left it shortly after with bags or something like that. Some of the buildings even changed their appearance!

Apparently that was an interesting observation. One worthy of an investigation. With newly sparked curiosity the creature waited beside the door to follow the next pony to enter the house.

Chapter 3: Collateral Damage

Rarity was softly humming her favorite tune while she worked on a new dress she had designed for Rainbow Dash. She knew she would probably have to trick the bullheaded flier into wearing it but there was no way the alabaster unicorn would let all those opportunities, the beautiful prismatic mane coloring opened up, go to waste! It was already a shame the colorful mare despised wearing anything but a Wonderbolt uniform at all, but that was certainly not something that would or could stop Rarity.

In the end, even the most unthankful mare she had made a dress for had admitted she looked pretty in it eventually, although she had to be a bit more persuasive to get them to admit it sometimes. The feeling of success, the designer drew from this, was always worth the effort she had to put into tricking them into wearing the dresses, just like it would this time but doing so with Rainbow Dash always made her heart beat faster. When the pegasus finally wore the dress she knew she looked beautiful, even if the athlete tried her hardest not to show it. There was always a certain spark of joy in her magenta eyes and Rarity loved to see that.

Sadly, her progress with the dress wasn’t nearly as great as Rarity had hoped since she had to attend to the customers that visited her boutique during her working hours and she had only started today. The unicorn was just finishing another hem of the dress as the familiar sound of her doorbell caught her attention as well as her annoyance.

The designer rewarded it with a begrudging glare. Much to her disappointment the bell appeared unfazed. Sighing in defeat, the unicorn left her sewing machine and went to greet the pony who had entered her shop.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique,” Rarity announced with the routine of a well-versed salespony.

Her eyes fell on the young earth-pony stallion with a white coat and orange mane that had entered her shop. By the looks of it he probably was just in need of a new suit to impress his date or attend a more formal event. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long to satisfy his need of new clothes so she could return to her newest project.

“How may I help you?” she asked with a beaming, yet false, business smile.

“Well, I would like to buy a new suit…” he answered hesitantly.

Great. A shy one. The white unicorn would have to take the leading role here to get rid of him soon… Fortunately she had enough practice to do just that.

“Then I can certainly help you. What do you need? Formal attire for an official meeting? Or a more fancy one to woo a mare? Aaah… It seems to be the latter. Am I right?”

“Y-Yes,” the stallion stammered. He was obviously a bit intimidated by the rather energetic sales tactic.

“Well then. May I take your measurements? I might have something in store for you.”

Rarity grabbed her measuring tape from her neck and lead her customer to the small pedestal and gestured him to step onto it. She quickly took the necessary measurements and made her way to the storage room in the back of the shop. The unicorn swiftly browsed through the stored suits she never sold for various reasons, or made just in case she didn’t have enough time to make an entirely new one, to find something for her waiting customer.

Soon enough she found what she had been looking for and pulled it out its cover that protected it from dust. After a short check if the suit would fit she brought it the back to the salesroom and showed the clothing to her waiting customer. Praise Twilight’s obsession for organization!

Most of the time it was incredibly frustrating but right now, as the designer handed the garment over, she was thankful that the purple unicorn had insisted to reorganize the storage room. Else, it would have taken much longer to find something fitting.

“Here you go. A casual, yet elegant attire to accentuate your features. Does it meet your taste? Would you like to try it on?” Rarity bombarded the poor stallion again.

After he tried it on he decided to buy it and even stay dressed up like that. He probably had the date on the same evening. He quickly paid for the suit and left in a hurry. The alabaster unicorn on the other hand was relieved he finally left. She knew she had to be friendly to simple customers too but there was still less motivation in it than when a high-society pony came by and ordered a pompous outfit.

Well then… time to continue my work on Rainbow’s dress. Perhaps it would be a slow day from now on. If the white mare was that lucky, she would have the dress ready by the evening.

She opened the door to her inspiration room, fetching some of the materials she needed for some details she had planned for the dress as a cool breeze hit her. It was rather pleasant, considering it was pretty warm today but where did it come from? Looking around, she saw nothing that gave her a hint so she just picked up the fabric she came for and left again, closing the door behind her.

Back down at her sewing machine she shooed her cat, Opalescence, away who had unfortunately decided to take a nap on said tool and continued to hum her tune and finish her newest fabulousity. It would be such a magnificent sight to behold!

Back up in the inspiration room, the dark creature pondered how it should get out of there. It had quickly discovered how the ponies changed their appearance. It wasn't nearly as interesting as it suspected, though it was a new concept for it to cover so much of your body with something that was specifically designed for this purpose. A name for these things came to its mind. Clothes.

Now however, it was locked in the room where the white pony seemingly created the clothes. It had followed her as soon as the other one left the building. Unfortunately for the curious creature, the unicorn didn't stay as long as it suspected and so it was surprised by her quick departure and only heard the door slamming shut when it was inspecting the room and its contents.

So how could it get out without drawing much attention? It could have just blasted the door open with magic but that certainly wouldn't be received very well. No one likes it if a stranger sneaks into their home and starts wrecking the furniture without a warning.

Something else came to its mind. All the creatures it had seen here had limbs. The animate shadow didn't have any since it could move without it but the ponies he observed had used them to interact with the objects around them. The unicorns had also used their magic, of course, but not entirely. Perhaps the creature could be useful to have something similar? Learning to control the telekinetic powers the unicorns possessed would take quite some time. It was probably wiser to get limbs. Though… it could be something more useful than hooves... It remembered the little dragon it saw in the first house it had been in. His claws seemed to be much more versatile than hooves.

Mind made up, the shadow creature focused its magic to expand its form a bit and dispatched two pieces of solid darkness from itself. Concentrating even more magic in them it started to form the fizzling pieces into claws that strongly resembled dragon claws, albeit thinner and proportionally much longer. Their owner adjusted them for a while until it was satisfied with them. The claws were pitch-black as the rest of it and covered in black fog. While the body parts were floating free, aside the main body of the creature but still moved as if they were attached to it with arms. If pressed close to its body, they would blend in and be virtually invisible since no part of the creature except its white glowing eyes had clear outlines due to the dark mist it being emitted.

Finally it looked around to try to open the door, now that there was an option to do so without using brute force. Also the side effects, its transformation had on the room, became present. It did have a certain beauty now but there was no doubt its resident wouldn’t be too happy about having icicles hanging from the ceiling and most of the objects within the room…

The excessive use of this kind of magic had sucked all warmth from this place and chilled everything close to the caster to its core. The dark being reconsidered the ingenuity of its plan. Lacking any other options however, it eventually opted to stick with the plan, despite the obvious hole it had and proceeded to inspect the door. Soon it had looked through to the mechanic of the door and was about open it when it heard the sound of hooves coming up the stairs. The plan became less and less rewarding by the minute…

Just a minute before, Rarity discovered the dark blue thread she was using for the prismatic dress was almost used up. Letting out a slightly frustrated groan she put the dress aside to make her way to her inspiration room which the alabaster mare also used to store most of her fabrics. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal but she had to go there for the seventh time today just for the sole purpose of fetching materials for exactly this one dress.

Also, why was it suddenly so cold in the boutique? It was a warm and sunny day and Sweetie Belle was crusading with her friends so what in Tartarus could be responsible for this? As it became colder the closer she came to the door to the room, the bad feeling she had about this became a lot worse. Practically freezing due to the frosty temperature, she hesitantly reached out with her magic, unsure if she really wanted to take a look inside. Maybe there was something dangerous inside.

After a short minute of weighing of her chances, the designer put on a winter mantle she pulled out of one of her many wardrobes, braced herself and pushed the door open to be greeted by an icy breeze that stole her breath.

As soon as she recovered she stared dumbfounded, with her mouth agape, into the icy pit that once was her beloved sanctuary of creativity. Normally the white unicorn would have dragged her fainting couch out of nowhere to play her role as drama queen she loved so much, but right now there was no audience and a serious problem at hand so she saved that up for later. When her thoughts returned, one dominated her mind. Twilight had to know something about it. She was probably the only one who was capable of doing anything about it anyway. Regaining her initiative, she rushed out of her shop to call her purple friend to aid.

The creature of darkness that caused her trouble didn’t wait to see what the unicorn did after opening the door and rushed out of the room in panic instead. It would have never thought the cloaking veil spell would be so important once. As it hastily made its way out of the building it decided it was very urgent to find a way to either redeem itself or at least lay the blame on someone else, once it made contact with them. Filled with worries and fears about hostile reactions that could be aimed at it, the animate shadow fled through the streets.

Chapter 4: Peculiar Support

Chapter 4: Peculiar Support

Earlier this day, in the Golden Oaks Library, Spike was woken up by some unrelenting sun rays, shining directly on his face and right through his closed eyelids. His first reaction consisted of merely turning around and plainly ignoring them. Then, however, he remembered the events of last night and fell victim to his bad conscience. The little dragon was still convinced he saw some kind of ghost but he also knew how frustrated Twilight had been and chose to try and make it up to her. With a sigh he crawled out of his basket and started getting ready for the day. Since the unicorn went to sleep earlier this time, she might even be awake in time to take over the library work in the afternoon.

Letting out an intense yawn, he made his way down the stairs to make breakfast. Maybe it would propitiate Twilight if she had freshly baked pancakes this morning. Deciding to take the risk he bound an apron around his waist and invaded the kitchen to complete the self-imposed mission. The library didn't open this early anyway so he didn't disregard any other duties in the process. Thus, the little dragon could focus solely on the creation of his culinary bribery.

Upstairs, Twilight was still sound asleep until the heavenly smell of fresh pancakes reached her nose. Then, however, her slumber was rather roughly interrupted by a loud growl from her stomach, reminding her that her last meal was far too long ago. Rolling out of the bed with a tired moan she checked her calendar. What is on my schedule today? Is there any reason I should get up at all?

Oh, right! Reading day with Rainbow. Much to the unicorn’s delight, the athletic pegasus had begun to take on more challenging literature then just Daring Do lately. Other books and series in the genre as well, obviously, but the scholar loved it when she could share knowledge with others. Today, Rainbow had even trusted her with the choice what they would read next and Twilight had promptly decided to deliver her friend one of her own all-time favorites. The Fillyship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Trotkien.

Letting her mind wander a bit, she realized yet again how fond of their time together the unicorn had become. It always gave her such a cozy feeling, snuggling up to Rainbow, when they were reading in front of the fireplace. At first the brash pegasus had given her weird looks when Twilight did that, but she got used to it after a while and seemed to find comfort in it as well, even if she still never took the initiative. Maybe today... the unicorn thought idly.

She knew she had a bit of a crush on the athlete for quite a while now, but had made her decision to wait if was serious or just a temporary state. If the latter was the case it would cause unnecessary troubles to confess to Rainbow, though with every day it became much less likely that it really was a simple crush. If not... Well, then I should better find a promising way to win her over...

Taking a deep breath to clear her mind, the librarian pulled one her checklists out of her drawer and quickly ran over it just like every other Friday too. The Book? Check! Pillows? Check!....

Checking off several things on the list and gathering everything on it, she put the sheet of paper back and set her mind on preparing everything for the evening. The lavender unicorn was just about to squee in anticipation of the evening when her stomach growled in protest for the neglection again and demanded to be looked after.

That convinced her to delay her preparations and go downstairs to find the source of the divine smell that caused her abdominal revolt. Entering the kitchen she saw Spike arranging the freshly baked pancakes on the breakfast table.

"Good morning, Spike."

"Morning, Twilight!" came the cautious reply.

"You know, I could get used to this kind of breakfast," the unicorn said with a sly smile as she sat down and loaded her plate with pancakes.

"I hoped you'd like it. I mean, you seemed so angry yesterday…" Spike muttered and took a sudden interest in the floor.

"So that's what this is about?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow. "Don't worry, Spike, you were right about me needing to go to sleep anyway…" she admitted slightly sheepish.

"Phew… Okay then. Are you going to help me with the chores today? Most of it is in the living room. It's your reading day with Rainbow anyway, I think. Usually you prepare something for that, so maybe you could both things at once?" suggested Spike.

"Great idea! I take it that you will take on counter service then?"

"I guess. It's not like I did much else the whole week… One more day won't kill me. But you will do that next week, okay?" the little dragon asked with a pleading look on his eyes.

"Okay, Spike I promise." Twilight replied with a soft smile and gave him a short hug.

The two of them quickly finished their meal and got ready to start the day. There weren't many visitors today so Spike could relax most of the time, while Twilight had the cleaning and reshelving of the books done rather quickly and began to set up the room for the evening. Carrying the book she had chosen for the evening she was just about to leave the main room. This very moment though the peaceful silence was suddenly interrupted, when the library door slammed open with a window-shaking bang and let a pretty hysterical Rarity burst inside.

"TWILIGHT!" she screamed with her high-pitched panic-voice.

After a quick glance around the room, she spotted the startled unicorn. Without slowing down a single bit the designer decided it was now the time to unleash the drama queen for bit and rushed over to Twilight and clung around her neck.

"Twilight!" she began, not as loud, but still as high-pitched as before, "I am ruined. RUINED I say. All my creations, all of my ideas… Gone! GONE I say. I will never be able to replace everything. WHATEVER SHALL I DO? I will lose my shop, my reputation and my customers will have to go to exile an mpflfrgl--"

She was rather rudely interrupted as Twilight, now recovered from her initial shock, crammed her hoof in Rarity's mouth.

"Calm down. What happened? Will you stop it and talk normally to me when I take my hoof off?" the mildly irritated librarian asked with a slightly exasperated expression.

She knew Rarity's antics pretty well, just like the rest of her friends did, and the designer had become rather infamous for tending to exaggerate her misfortunes. Yet this time, it seemed like something more serious than a misplaced needle. To get to know what it really was though, she had to stop her from being overly dramatic first. Carefully she removed her hoof from the mouth of the other unicorn, who was giving her a pleading look, and instantly shoved it right back in there again, when Rarity let out first signs she would start acting it out again.

"No. Drama. First you explain to me what happened and then you can freak out again, okay?" Twilight spoke with a more than serious glare.

Accepting her fate, the alabaster unicorn gave her suppressor a nod and was released again.

"Something happened at my boutique! I can't explain it, Twilight. You have to come with me, it was something magical. I have never seen something like this!" she quickly told the lavender mare and began dragging her outside.

"Spike! Can you please take care of the library as long as I'm gone?" the librarian barely managed to get out before she was pulled out of her home completely.

Her assistant had watched whole thing silently until now and was just about to follow them but was rather disappointed when Twilight told him to stay. He had a pretty big crush on Rarity after all and would have loved nothing more than to stand by her side in a time of need. But the dragon also understood that the library couldn't be just abandoned either, so he let out a sigh and made his way back behind the counter.

"Can you…explain what…happened there…a bit more…precisely?" Twilight panted between her breaths, as she was running alongside Rarity to get to Carousel Boutique.

"Not really…I just…don't know…what happened…but…something…froze up…my inspi…ration room!" came the response from the equally panting designer.

"What? ...Frozen up? ...How?"

"I already…said…I don't…know! You will…see it…when we…are there."

After the short and choppy discussion, they continued chasing down the street when suddenly a raspy voice joined them.

"Whatcha doing? I saw you two running as if a Hydra chased you and was wondering what could possibly drive you couch potatoes to finally work out," Rainbow Dash commented on the running unicorns with a snippy grin.

"Not. Funny…Rainbow…" both panted in unison.

"You sure? I’d still say it is," the pegasus responded with a short laugh.

The unicorns would have probably responded but they had just reached Rarity's shop and entered the building immediately, followed by Rainbow Dash.

"So what's up? Why are you two so serious?" the prismatic mare asked more earnest than before and with a hint of concern in her voice.

"You will see. You two wait here for a moment," the alabaster unicorn responded after they caught their breath.

With that she vanished in her storage room to come back with three winter coats and distributed them among them.

"What? Are you serious? It's super-hot! Why would we want to wear those?" Rainbow Dash protested incredulously.

“I’m usually one for preparations too but is that really necessary?” Twilight agreed with a worried look.

"Yes, I am. Trust me you want to. Now put them on and come with me," the designer commanded them and started trotting towards the stairs.

“Is this a new trick to make me model for you?” the athlete accused Rarity with a suspicious glance.

After keeping her quizzical stare on the designer for another ten seconds, she eventually followed the order, but not without excessive grumbling. As they went up the stairs, the air became noticeably colder and colder, until they could see their breath as white mist coming from their mouths.

"What the hay… What’s going on Rarity? What is up there?" Rainbow asked again, unease written all over her face.

Without giving an answer, Rarity pushed the door to her former inspiration room. The escaping gust of ice-cold air took their breath collectively. Okay. NOW she could be the drama queen again. With a soft sigh, she proceeded to faint, just to be caught in the warm embrace of two cyan forelegs.

"Careful, Rares, you forgot your fainting couch."

Well… maybe I forgot it on purpose… she thought as she relaxed in the athletes' strong but gentle grasp. Maybe I wanted you to catch me…

"Um... Rares?"

Meanwhile, Twilight had overcome her astonishment and took a careful step inside. It was freezing there but not so much more than it had been just outside the door. Most of the cold had probably spread through the entire building. What happened here had probably been some sort of snap freeze. But what in Equestria could have caused it?

"Rarity? When did you first notice the coldness and--" Twilight stopped mid-sentence when her eyes fell on the addressed unicorn, who snuggled herself in the arms of a helplessly looking Rainbow Dash, with a content smile.

The pegasus was at a loss what to do. She couldn't just drop Rarity and she somehow even liked how the designer huddled against her. On the other hoof, it was kind of embarrassing to be unable to do something here without losing face in one way or the other. Thankfully, Twilight quickly regained her composure and continued her sentence and caught Rarity's attention again.

"--did you see or hear anything entering this room?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Rarity, suddenly becoming aware of the embarrassment her current position gave her friends, hastily wiggled herself free from the pleasant embrace. With slight blush the unicorn brushed herself off before giving an answer.

"Well... No. I went up to get some materials and everything was fine but when came back 15 minutes later it was all frozen up like this. I didn't hear anything either... but now that you ask; there was a cold breeze when I entered the room the first time. Though it didn't come from inside."

"So you say something could have slipped inside when you entered the room the first time? Did you see anything coming out when you opened the door the second time?"

"No. But I didn't really look out for that. I mean, there is a room in my house that turned into an ice cube!"

"Right, sorry. Anyway, I think this was a sudden temperature drop that resublimated the humid air and formed those icicles. They should vaporize directly from their solid state when they warm up so I think they won't soak the fabrics. They are just fragile as long as they are frozen though, so try not to touch anything," explained Twilight.

"Gesundheit. So what was that about those icicles?" Rainbow asked with a blank expression causing the lavender unicorn to groan.

"Wait for everything to warm up and it will be fine. If you don't, the stuff in there will break like glass," came the simplified explanation.

Giving the situation a second thought, Rarity approached Twilight with a worried look.

"Is there any way to heat the room, darling? I'd hate to for wait, Celestia knows how long until my materials warm up and I have some unfinished projects running. That's why I came up here first place after all..." the designer gave her request.

"Maybe... I could at least try give you the most urgent things. I know a heat spell they use in the crysta--"

A bright flash interrupted the librarian.

"Hello, my little ponies! Having a wonderfully chaotic day I see?" a voice, they knew better than they would like to, sounded through the room.

Discord stood upside down on the ceiling, with a top hat, a walking stick and a glass of wine, defying gravity in order to be on eye level with the three friends.

"Discord!!!" they screamed all at once and Rainbow took a defensive position in front of the others.

“So you are responsible for this? Haven’t you promised to stop doing things like that, traitor?” the prismatic mare growled.

“My, my… There is no need for such rude words! I admit that this interesting occurrence does fancy my tastes but sadly, I didn’t cause it,” the draconequus said, pointing his cane to the nearest icicle and taking a sip of his glass. ”Aaah… This is a good vintage. Would you like to have some too?”

“Wait a minute… Did you get these from my stock?” Rarity asked with a perplexed expression.

“Perhaps I did.”

“How dare you, you impertinent brute! Put them back at once or I--“ Rarity scolded and took a step in his direction with a dangerous glint in her eyes, just to be held back by a magenta aura of a magical grip.

“Calm down, Rarity. And you Discord, put the wine and everything else back and explain us why you are here. Now!” Twilight interrupted before the white unicorn could really get going again.

“Fine. If you insist on being so focused on business I’ll make it short,” the spirit of chaos spoke, rolling his red and yellow eyes and letting his accessories disappear with a snip. “The princesses and I sensed some unknown powerful magical event and Celestia asked me to go on field research while they ransack through their dusty old library. I may add that I recently saw a pack of Timberwolves in the Everfree, which got the same treatment as this unfortunate establishment.”

“Wait. You say whatever this was came from the Everfree?” Rainbow asked with a worried look.

“I don’t know. I still have no clue what it is at all. I think it is something quite similar to me and the royal sisters. However, I suppose said princesses wished me to tell you to stay calm and just live on as long as there is no real harm done. Now I am here to protect you, after all…” sneered the draconequus.

After this he turned around and bathed the frozen room in a soft white light. When it vanished the three mares could see he had removed the ice and returned the furnishing and materials to their previous unfrozen state.

“Take this as an offer for peace. I don’t want to start this of on the wrong foot. I might enjoy a good chaos but, believe me or not, I’d rather have the Elements of Harmony as my allies here,” he said with a rare moment of seriousness before falling back into his typical mocking tone. “Now have a good day my fellow citizens, I must protect this town,” the draconequus spoke, wrapping himself into a roll of fabric, disappearing in the process and leaving the the three mares speechless.

“I don’t really trust him...” Rainbow finally broke the silence.

“He fixed my room. I doubt he would do that so willingly if it was his work,” Rarity interjected.

“He might not be responsible for for the mess here but we gotta do something about it. We can’t let, Celestia knows whatever it is, run around and freeze things up. Next time it could be a pony!” the pegasus argued enthusiastically. “Twilight! Is there some book in your library that could help us here?”

“Maybe...” came the hesitant reply.

“Good. Let’s go. I’m no scholar but I’ll try to help you. I don’t want to have some unknown magical monster running around in Ponyville!” the athlete said decisively.

With determination in her eyes she turned to Twilight and saw the look of utter disappointment on the librarian’s face.

“But... But what about our reading session? I already prepared everything and even picked a special book for tonight...” Twilight said with a voice that matched her expression.

A pang of guilt struck Rainbow Dash.

“I know how much they mean to you. I’ll make it up to you. I promise. Besides, I’ll spend the evening with you anyway. We’ll just read something else today,” she tried to bargain with her friend.

“Okay... You are right anyways...” replied the unicorn, still having a slightly disappointed ring to her voice.

“Great. Thanks! I think Rarity can continue her work her anyway since Discord melted the ice. Right, Rares?”

“I suppose...” the designer answered with a dreamy glance on Rainbow.

With a bit of confusion in her eyes, the athlete stared back a second, before she went on.

”Okay then. See you later, Twi. I still have to feed Tank but I’ll be at the library soon. Bye, Rares!”

With that, the athletic mare dashed out of the boutique and left the two unicorns alone. The lavender mare turned to Rarity, who blankly stared out of the window, Rainbow used as way out with a questioning look and asked, ”Are you going to be okay? I could try to find a spell that warns you if something comes into the house again, if you want. I’ll go and send a letter to Princess Celestia.”

The alabaster unicorn shot her an irritated glance, being torn from her thoughts but answered quickly.

“Thank you, darling, I hope it won’t be necessary but it would surely help me to feel safer. But it seems you already have plans for today, so go on home. I can manage alone from here on.” She assured her as she escorted the scholar out.

“Okay then. I’ll go and send a letter to Princess Celestia. I hope she can tell me more. I’ll let you know as soon as I learn more. Bye!” Twilight announced before she finally left.

As soon she was alone however, the designer let mind wander to the rainbow-maned mare that made her feel like a love-sick filly. After swooning about her for another couple minutes, she remembered the dress she had designed for the pegasus, and rushed back to work. She had planned to have it ready by tomorrow, so she had to rev up a bit if she wanted to stay on schedule.

Chapter 5: Research

“Can you stop it, Twilight? Please?” Spike nervously asked the purple unicorn that circled around him in an agonizing slowly trot and stared at him with unnerving anticipation, “I have no problem with waiting here until Celestia sent her answer but could you please stop looking at me like you’re gonna eat me any second? Or at least stop running around? You are freaking me out!”

Twilight, not slowing down a single bit, replied, “Sorry, Spike, but this is really important. If Discord tells the truth this whole thing could get worse than I even want to imagine. From what we know there is an unknown magical creature of unknown power, with unknown intentions running around. We can’t let it run around and freeze up everything it wants!”

“Okay, okay. I get it. You have to save the world again, but can you please just sit down and wa-grarh!“

Spike was rudely interrupted by a burp that produced a scroll with a royal seal on it. Before it even touched the ground it was enveloped in a magenta aura and levitated before Twilight’s face. She quickly broke the seal and skimmed over the letter.

Spike, seeing the opportunity, took his chance to get away. Sadly, he didn’t get very far…

With a loud crash Rainbow Dash burst through an open window and hit Spike, who happened to pass that particular window at this very moment, with almost full speed and sent them rolling over the library floor. They came to a stop when they crashed into a bookshelf, burying themselves under a pile of books in the process.

Twilight shot them an annoyed glance as soon as she her adrenalin level boiled down enough. Even though she was kind of used to things like that by now, she had been edgy before and the crash had startled her pretty badly.

“Rainbow, I told you before. You are allowed to use the door like everyone else too. My windows are not meant to be used as entrance,” she reminded her friend with a frown.

She was always happy to see the pegasus come by but her habit of consistently using windows instead of the door to enter the library was still somewhat annoying.

“Maybe… But if Spike wouldn’t have come along I could have flown in without crashing into anything. I’ve practiced that all week long. Let me try that again!” the prismatic mare said, as she bobbed up, shook off the books and got ready to fly out of the window again but was stopped as Twilight yet again used her magic to grasp on Rainbows tail and yanked her back inside.

“No. Right now we have something more important to do than…”

Twilight trailed off in the middle of her sentence as Rainbow hit her with the saddest look she could muster. Dammit, Rainbow! Why do you have to be so cute? Twilight thought with a quickening heartbeat. Unable to withstand this bold manipulation any longer the librarian gave in and softened her tone.

“Maybe later, okay? I just received Celestia’s answer to my letter,” she informed the athlete.

“Really? You are the best! I’ll show you I can pull it off. I know it!” Rainbow announced with a beaming grin and gave her friend a short hug.

This was the first time Twilight gave her permission to pull off a trick in the library. Sort of, at least… Usually she was pretty annoyed when she tried something like that and even now she seemed slightly uncomfortable with the idea of letting Rainbow try it as well. At least that was her interpretation of how the unicorn tensed up in her grip. Admittedly, the pegasus could understand that it could get a bit frustrating to clean up the library after a failed trick of hers.

However, this hasn’t been the prime reason why she came here. As she calmed herself down a bit, her eyes fell on the scroll that still floated beside her purple friend and gave it a quizzical look. Twilight on the other hand had a hard time regaining her composure. The hug had almost driven her to do something that might have revealed her feelings for the prismatic mare. Thoughts about Rainbow relentlessly invaded her mind but she knew now was not the time for such things.

“So… What’s in that letter, Twi? Did Discord act up with us?” she asked cautiously and sat down on one of the cushions Twilight had set up earlier that day.

“I’m afraid he didn’t,” Twilight replied, finally clearing her head from the most distracting pictures and briefly scanning over the rest of the letter before she started running in circles again. “In fact it’s all true. Celestia confirmed that something major happened. It seems to be somehow linked to the princesses and Discord themselves. They are currently researching in their own library but we should try to find something too. At least we have some clues now. Also, if we need anything special we can request that from the princesses. She’ll send us any book or scroll we might need.” The unicorn finished.

“Wait a minute… What clues are you talking about?”

“Well, we know it has to do something with the princesses and Discord so it has to be something old. Something very old. Maybe there is something in the ancient legends and myths from this time.” She faced Rainbow’s doubting expression for a brief moment and continued, “I know I never wanted to believe in them but most of them contain a grain of truth.

“Then there is that incident at Rarity’s and the one in the Everfree, Discord mentioned. We don’t know for sure if they are somehow linked together but I’m pretty sure they are. Both times there was a sudden temperature drop that froze a small area.

“We should probably try to find any spells or any kinds of magic that can cause effects like that. I rarely heard or read of them so there won’t be a lot material about it. Finding it will be a lot harder though…”

Rainbow Dash violently shook her head. Twilight had gotten pretty absorbed by her train of thought and had talked faster and faster until the pegasus couldn’t follow her explanations anymore.

“Sooo… there are two parts where we could start right? I’d say let’s split the work then! What should I do?” She interrupted Twilights dwindling monologue.

Twilight looked up and met Rainbows gaze. Such beautiful eyes… Unfortunately, some of her earlier thoughts about pegasus were still lingering in her mind and whatever conscious thoughts she still had at this moment were sucked into the magenta orbs the pegasus called her own.

Said mare wasn’t too amused by this though. After a minute of vain waiting for a response she got up and waved a hoof in front of the unicorn’s face.

“Hello? Equestria to Twilight, are you still with us?”

This caught her attention. It also flushed her face red with embarrassment. She quickly turned around to spare her further awkwardness and scanned the bookshelves.

“Ährm… right. What you can do… Let’s see… I think it’s better if I take on the magic stuff. You probably wouldn’t understand most of it anyway,” she began.

Rainbow gave her friend an offended look. She knew it was true but it kinda stung anyway and wanted to make that clear to the unicorn.

“...but the old legends could be something for you!” Twilight added with an apologetic smile and pulled a bunch of books out and carried them to her living room to pile them aside her fireplace.

“You might like them. Some of them are like an ancient Daring Do. Not that well written but the stories are quite interesting. But remember to look out for anything could relate to the princesses or anything about the time they came here,” she reminded the cyan pegasus. “I’ll ask the princesses to send us copies of the oldest tales of ponykind as well.”

“I get to read adventures for research? Sweet!” cheered Rainbow Dash.

Musing over the fact, that the old legends were written in a style that left most regular ponies with no idea what they just read, Twilight gave her friend a slight giggle. She’d definitely take her time to observe Rainbow’s initial reactions when she started reading.

“It seems like you’ve got a job to do. I’ll look for something about the ice. Maybe we can narrow down our search when we know what kind of magic we can expect. Now let’s get to work!” Twilight finished.

Strolling happily over the marketplace, Pinkie waved hello to Roseluck. She always greeted everyone she knew if the she ran into them. Basically this meant she was greeting someone every couple of seconds. Being the party pony of the town, Pinkie had acquainted every single soul in Ponyville and even most of its semi-regular visitors. Not to mention she threw a "Welcome to Ponyville"-Party for everyone who remotely looked like he or she would stay there for some days or more. Thus, Pinkie had come to be friends with everyone in the area over the time.

Usually she saw most of her acquaintances almost every third day, at least, but some of them didn't like to go outside all the time and so Pinkie couldn't always check-up on them with random encounters. For this instance, she had her weekly check-up-day. Then, she would stroll around and find every single pony she hadn't seen in more than three days and say hello and maybe talk to them a little bit. Occasionally, if they were moody, Pinkie would offer them a cupcake and hand them an invitation to her next party. Today was such a day.

The pink party pony just left Lyra's house. Along with Bon-Bon, she had been one of the ponies on her mental visiting list for alarmingly long absence. Eventually, Pinkie had found both of them cuddled together in Lyra's living room. She had promptly sprayed a load of confetti over them before giving them an invitation to her next It's-been-two-weeks-since-the-last-party-party. They had been pretty eager to get Pinkie to leave though… Maybe they are busy? But they didn't leave the house for the last few days. They should open their windows sometimes. It smells funny in there…. the pink mare wondered.

Eventually, she shrugged it off and bounced towards her next target, Sweet Apple Acres, to see Granny Smith. That is, until her left knee suddenly started itching! Somepony was watching her! Her Pinkie Sense was told her that much, but who? And where? Pinkie's eyes darted around but didn't find anything. The street was as empty as her cookie box. Pinkie had bought it with the intention to actually use it, but she never managed to restrain herself and keep some of them for later… Right now though, there was nothing but a lonely tumbleweed rolling over the deserted street.

She searched for a while until Pinkie realized her knee started itching stronger when she looked to a certain back alley. Trusting her Pinkie Sense, like always, she turned around with a grin and resumed on her original path. As soon as Pinkie had reached the alley next to it, she dashed into it. The pink mare had decided to sneak up to whoever spied on her and give him, or her, a proper prank. This meant blaring right into her victim's ear. At the top of her lungs, of course.

Pinkie had quickly circled around the building and pressed against the wall to peep around the corner. Confusingly enough, she still didn't see anybody, even though she got other signals from her Pinkie Sense that there was somepony very close her.

"Where is this pony?" Pinkie mumbled, scratching her head. Deciding to take a closer look, she approached a barrel that stood in the alleyway. Maybe somepony is hiding in there?

The party mare was just about to tear off the cover when she felt her right fetlock twitching, her signal that somepony was right behind her! With a huge grin she looked back to greet whoever stood there and congratulate for a super spectacular sneaking performance. At least, she would have but there was yet again nothing but thin air and her face fell to a frown at that. Is my Pinkie Sense starting to fail? Pinkie worried, There must be somepony! It had always been right… Yet, she was staring holes into empty space… or was she?

Was she imagining something or had she just seen a flicker over there? Her interest suddenly peaked; she narrowed her eyes and took a step towards the spot that raised her suspicion. She hadn't imagined anything, had she? Still cautious, Pinkie took another step when she saw that flicker again. I knew it! Now that she was sure about where her feelings came from she became more aware of the presence as well. Somehow, her Pinkie Sense gave Pinkie the ability to feel where this thing was and enabled following its movements as it changed its location.

The pink mare was now sure this wasn't anyone she knew. Twilight Sparkle was the only one she knew who could have been able to cast an invisibility spell but then again, she wasn't exactly a prankster and would have revealed herself already. Besides, since the incident with the hydra, the unicorn knew it was utterly pointless to try and sneak up to Pinkie. So the party pony kept her eyes on whatever it was, even though it started to move around a bit. Without hesitation, Pinkie decided she could try and catch it.

Ducking like a cat, she prepared to jump at it. The pink mare patiently waited until the thing would be still again, wearing a mischievous grin. When she finally saw her chance, Pinkie pounced at her target but before she reached the swirl it suddenly bolted away from her with ridiculous speed. Pinkie, happy to have found a new playmate, smiled broadly and started to pursue the funny twirl. After a couple of minutes she found it just outside the town. As soon as she got closer though, the thing fled, again immediately followed by a merrily bouncing Pinkie Pie. She didn't mind the pursuit through the town, she had plenty of practice with Rainbow and never lost track due to her Pinkie Sense.

Eventually, the chase ended rather abruptly as the twirl suddenly came to a halt at the outskirts of the town. Pinkie, now curious about what was to happen now, approached the strange phenomenon. Her eyes widened in surprise as it became a ball of darkness, seeping black mist and staring at her with white glowing eyes.

"Oh, hi! I‘ve never seen something like you. What are you? You look spooky! Can I touch you? Do you want a cupcake?" Pinkie bombarded the pitch-black creature with questions, almost sticking her nose between its eyes in her glee. In return the creature flinched back a bit and mutely stared at the mare before it.

"No cupcakes? What a shame… How about cake then? Chocolate or fruit cake? Cotton Candy? Do you have a name?" Pinkie continued her jabbering, "where do come from? Oh, oh, oh! I have to bring you to Twilight. She will know what you are! Would you come with me?"

"Well, well… Who do we have here? If it isn't my favorite Element of Harmony… Fear not, for I shall protect, you dear citizen!" a playful voice sounded from above, interrupting Pinkie’s blathering.

Looking up, Pinkie spotted Discord hovering in the air, wearing a cape and a mask. Slowly he descended until his feet touched the ground. He struck a heroic pose and continued, "El Chaos, the master of disorder is here to save the day!"

Pinkie's eyes grew wide and she picked up where she had stopped before "Oh! Hi, Discord! Are you a superhero now? With superpowers and a super-secret identity? Do you have a superhero lair? Oh, I said your name and now your secret identity isn't secret anymore…" Pinkie trailed off with a worried frown.

"Don't worry, Pinkie. I have no need for a secret identity. I just like the show!" Discord chuckled before he turned his attention towards the dark creature that had watched the short exchange.

Curiously, he stepped closer and eyed it with cautious interest. He couldn't remember to ever have seen a being like this but the draconequus could feel the same familiarity that caused him to go to the princesses. It had to be the reason for the strange magical fluctuation they all had felt. What is that thing? he thought.

Then, as if the shadow had heard the thought, it drifted a bit closer to Discord. The draconequus sensed a small surge of magic from the patch of darkness and prepared himself for a possible magical attack. Instead, he became aware of a mental presence, prodding his mind for entrance. He somehow knew it was the creature before him but at first he was too baffled to actually react. Telepathic spells were rare and powerful and only a few entities besides the princesses and himself had ever been able to master them.

Slowly, the prodding became more forceful and Discord suddenly became afraid of what could happen, if he allowed the oddly familiar mind to enter his own. The spirit of chaos felt the mental probe skimming through his thoughts, piercing his half-hearted defenses with ease. Panicking, Discord forced the strange presence out of his mind and shut it against another intrusion, getting ready to defend himself once more, with much more vigor this time.

The shadow slightly wavered when its mental tendrils were cut off so roughly. Motionless, it stared at Discord, the pink pony beside him completely forgotten. For a moment, both stood as if they were statues, both ready to unleash hell, if the other attacked. This dangerous calm only lasted for a couple of seconds and finally ended when the shadow slowly retreated. Without any further action, it vanished. Hesitantly, the silence was broken by a cautious chirp. It had become completely silent during their confrontation, Discord realized, as if even the critters felt the power and menace, the situation mere seconds ago had held.

"I-is it evil?" Pinkie stuttered.

She had silently watched the whole event, visibly scared by Discords belligerent stance. Suddenly becoming aware of the effect his behavior had on the mare, he relaxed a bit. Losing himself in his thoughts, Discord gazed into the direction the dark creature had been moments ago. "I don't think so but I'd rather be on it’s good side… I have no idea what it is but it is at least as powerful as Celestia and I," he responded with a slightly tense voice.

"Aha! Here it is. Let's see…" Twilight murmured as she laid eyes on an article about experimental frost magic.

They had been searching for several hours now. It was a tiring process, scouring the library for anything that could help them. Every now and then Twilight would write down some notes about her findings, while Rainbow would just put a bookmark between the pages when she found something that could be somehow related to their current situation. Writing had never really been her thing. Not that she couldn't, it just didn't really appeal Rainbow.

Twilight quickly checked the article for anything important. What she found generally matched her previous findings. More details here and there but nothing major. With a sigh, the librarian flashed her horn and put the magazine beside her on the giant pile of books that had formed there during the research.

Slowly Twilight stood up and stretched her legs. No matter how often she had sat in that position before, her legs always got stiff after a while. After shaking them a little, the unicorn gathered her notes with her magic and trotted over to her desk. Once there, Twilight carefully laid out her notes, sorting them by topic. She quickly double-checked and reviewed them before opting to look after Rainbow as well. Let's see what she found.

Twilight found her on the couch. The cyan pegasus laid on her back on a bunch of cushions, reading a rather big tome. ‘The Ancient Tales Of Maredonia' the unicorn recognized the title on the binding. Giving up her thoughts, Twilight let her eyes wander over her friend’s athletic form, admiring her well-toned body. Rainbow has always been pretty lean due to her excessive training. The librarian wasn't much of an athlete herself but she had always marveled the pegasus for it.

Rainbow’s wings lay limply beside her on the couch. The cozy feeling she got in the library while reading with Twilight sometimes caused her to relax enough to let her ever tense flight muscles ease up that much. It always gave the lavender unicorn a tingling feeling to see this. She knew it was a sign of trust if a pegasus let her wings slacken like that. To think that Rainbow was comfortable enough in her presence to forgo her self-protective instincts spread an exciting warmth in Twilight.

The pegasus' prismatic mane caught the librarian’s eyes next. Admiring the unique coloring along with the wind-swept style, Twilight remembered the times she had marveled her friend's aerial maneuvers.

If you cared to look for it, there was always a gleeful glint in Rainbow's eyes when she showed off or practiced her flying skills. A glint of joy that told of the freedom it gave her and the passion that burned in her chest. It told of the bliss she felt and how she forgot the world around her, to bask in the results of her hard-earned skills.

After a flight like that, Rainbow never got rid of the bright little smile on her lips. A smile that betrayed her coolness and usually boastful attitude and revealed how much she loved to fly. A smile not unlike the one she wore now, lying on a couch in Twilight's home, reading a book the librarian gave her. Twilight gave a faint sigh and couldn't think of anything other than the mare before her, that owned her heart without even suspecting it.

"Bwahahaha! Twi, you gotta read that!" Rainbow suddenly exclaimed and almost rolled off the couch with laughter. "Here is a story of a half demon, half pony beast that guarded a sacred apple tree. Best Part: he had hundred eyes and hundred arms! That must've looked sooo silly!"

Twilight simply smiled and nodded, hoping Rainbow wouldn't see the blush that had formed on her face during her… contemplations. Much to her delight, her friend just wiped a tear from her eyes and tried to calm down.

Finally Rainbow sat up and continued, still wearing an amused grin, "I gotta say, these stories are pretty cool. Not as cool as Daring Do, of course, but still cool. Though… sometimes, the writing is pretty weird. Especially the dialogues."

"I'm glad you like them," Twilight replied nervously and fell silent for a couple of seconds before she asked, "Did you find anything yet?"

Rainbow shot her a confused look, her mind still trying to picture the strange beast of the legend.

"About the thing out there, you know?" Twilight reminded her cautiously.

"Oh! Right… Yeah, I found a couple of stories that have some creatures that could be responsible for Rarity's new fridge. Most of them are just plain stupid. I mean, it obviously wasn't a ten foot high lizard with ‘a breath so cold, it freezes oceans'. No way Rarity could've missed that," Rainbow answered with a smirk.

"I guess…" Twilight agreed with a faint smile. "And the other fables?"

"I found two, maybe three of those myths with somewhat plausible monsters, or whatever they are," Rainbow explained. "The first one is… wait a minute!"

Struck by a sudden inspiration, the pegasus put the book aside and snatched Twilight's psychologist glasses from the small nightstand beside the couch. Under Twilight's quizzical stare, she put them on, threw herself in a posture she assumed an old teacher would have and gave her best lecturing expression.

"The first creatures I found are a well-known myth to most but it is told that they are still out there, hiding and waiting for a moment we forget the warmth of friendship. The windigos. They are spirits of hatred and strife and feast on these sinister emotions. If a windigo has drawn enough energy from this, it can turn the landscape into an icy desert," Rainbow declaimed.

"The others are ancient creatures from the time before the princesses came to Equestria. Darklings, they have been called. It is said that they are creations of forbidden spells. Beings of pure magic, they are able to use the elements, like ice and cold, almost anyway they desire. Their creators were a circle of unicorns that craved for power, who summoned and enslaved the darklings to rule world.

"Sadly, or luckily, the unicorns overestimated themselves and lost control over their servants. No one knows where the darklings went, but their would-be masters were found dead in their fortress. All of them." Rainbow ended and threw the glasses back on the nightstand.

"Wow! Rainbow, I didn't know you were so good at storytelling. That was amazing!" Twilight, who had listened through the whole presentation with an open mouth, marveled.

"Yeah… I wanted to see how it is to lecture other ponies like you always do. Gotta say, it's not that bad and I guess I can see why you like it so much. It's not really my thing though…" explained Rainbow.

"Anyway, the darkling thing could be our guy. I found it in more than one legend and all have similar descriptions of it. It's always one or more powerful magical creatures of darkness that mysteriously disappeared. The summoning part is also pretty often in the stories. The part about their age too. They sure are pretty old farts!" she snickered.

"Hmmm…" Twilight hummed and started running up and down in front of Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus leaned back and stretched her back and wings. She was well aware that Twilight had gone into her 'egghead-mode', how Rainbow called it lovingly. The unicorn would be busy for a couple minutes now, analyzing every bit of data she had.

Finally, Twilight came to halt and furrowed her eyebrows at Rainbow. "You said there were three possible explanations. What was the third one? A windigo, a darkling, let's just call it that, and what else?"

"Ah, yeah... That was something I don't really believe myself. It's a legend about the time when the princesses came to Equestria. Something about a god or spirit like Discord. They tricked the god to help them bring peace to the land or he made a deal with them but Celestia and Luna didn't fulfill their part and banished him. The story isn't very clear about that part but he is definitely very powerful. I think the darkling theory is much more likely. There weren't really descriptions of what kind of magic they used but the 'ice cold aura' seems to be pretty common among them," Rainbow replied nonchalantly.

“Interesting... I researched about frost magic and found some relevant facts. For one, it is incredibly hard to cast and control. Almost no unicorn can bring up the energy that is needed to drain the energy from the air. Most of them only manage a cold wind and maybe freeze a glass of water,” the librarian explained.

“Whoa! But the room at Rarity’s was an ice pit! Far colder than it gets in winter,” Rainbow interrupted with wide eyes.

Twilight gave her a sideway glance and continued, “Yes. And that’s why it worries me so much. But the reason why I think a darkling is the most likely cause is another thing. You see, shadow or dark magic, ponies tend to call it differently but it is de facto the same, is tightly bound with frost magic. That is because both work with the absence of energy rather than the presence of it. Every other school of magic adds energy to cast their spells. Those two withdraw it. And darkness and coldness are the trademarks of the darklings, right?” She finished shot an inquiring look to her friend.

Rainbow gave a nod, along with an acknowledging hum and waited for the unicorn go on. Twilight took a deep breath and mentally ran through the information they gathered. Putting all the pieces they had found together, she came to a decision.

The lavender unicorn trotted to her desk, taking quill and paper and started writing under Rainbows prying eyes.

“I’ll ask the princess to help us here. She might know more about the darklings than the books. She might as well have met them if they really exist!” speculated Twilight.

After a short time of vigorous scribbling, the librarian rolled up the paper and sealed it before returning to the couch.

“SPIKE! Where are you? I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia!” she called through the library.

The two of them fell silent, waiting for the baby dragon to come down. After a couple of seconds they heard a muffled response from the bedroom. It sounded like a confirmation. Resting her head on a pillow, Rainbow idly fidgeted with her wings and closed her eyes. Her part was pretty much done, so why not take the chance take a nap?

Eventually, Spike dragged himself down the stairs. He could barely keep his eyes open and looked like he was kicked out of his bed during deep sleep. Irritated by this, the two mares looked out of the window. Unrecognized by them, it had become late night.

“Where is that letter?” Spike asked, unable, or unwilling, to suppress a yawn mid-sentence.

“Here. Sorry, Spike. I didn’t know you were sleeping,” Twilight responded sheepishly.

Her assistant bestowed an unsettling glare on her, grabbed the scroll and coughed up an emerald green flame, sending it to Celestia. Without another word he turned around and started to climb up the stairs again. About halfway up the stairs he remembered something.

“If she sends something back, get it yourself up there. I need sleep.” The little dragon grumbled.

“Sure thing. Sleep tight!” Rainbow called after him with an apologetic voice.

They looked after him until he disappeared behind the bedroom door. Afterwards, their eyes met in an anxious moment, which lasted quite a long time. In the end, Rainbow couldn’t stand the awkward silence any longer and opened her mouth.

“What are we gonna do now?” the cyan mare asked with and edgy undertone.

Twilight sighed and tried to relax, laying down on one of the cushions in front of the fireplace.

“Now, Rainbow, we have to wait…”

Chapter 6: Protective Deceit

Chapter 6: Protective Deceit

The sound of hooves on marble echoed through the dark corridors in Canterlot as Princess Celestia tiredly made her way to her personal chambers. The hours in court had been exhausting and the lack of progress on the matter of the magical disturbance hadn't helped to calm her nerves either. When the court finally closed for the day, Celestia had ordered her guards to leave her alone, despite their protests, and walked away from the throne room. All she wanted was to rest her head and forget her worries for a couple of hours.

Shortly before she arrived in the wing she and her sister shared and used for their private life, the solar princess felt it was time to lower the sun. She approached a window and with a flare of her horn Celestia quickly fulfilled her duty as alicorn of the sun and made room for her sister’s moon on the firmament.

Once Celestia saw the pale crescent rising over the horizon, she continued her path and showed a faint smile. Oh, how she had missed the feeling to simply marvel her sister’s work instead of doing it herself. Surely it had been a while now since Luna had returned, but the two years she was back didn't even come close to make up for the thousand years of banishment the dark princess had suffered.

Eventually, Celestia reached her destination: the royal atrium. After all of today's troubles, she deserved a relaxing bubble bath. When she entered the chamber containing the ridiculously large bathtub embedded into the marble floor, another smile crept on Celestia's lips. The princess didn't know how, but for some reason her horde of servants had already prepared everything and already left. Maybe they just had a better communication and coordination than she gave them credit for.

However, Celestia decided to ponder about this some other time and tossed her regalia aside, sliding into the tub. Letting the warm water engulf her regal form and the sweet smell of the aromatic bathing salts and oils fill her nostrils, she finally felt the tension leave her muscles. Celestia leaned back, letting out a content sigh. This was her time of the day she used to unwind and leave her crown behind for some time and she didn't plan to let anything take that away from her.

Sadly, plans like this rarely meet reality. Not before long, a scroll materialized before her in an emerald flame. It almost fell into the water before it was caught in Celestia's magical grip and laid down beside her. The white alicorn groaned and let her head fall back on the edge of the bathtub with a dull thud. She knew it was important, neither Twilight nor Spike sent letters this late if it wasn't urgent but it interrupted her time to relax nonetheless.

Listlessly, Celestia let her head slump to the side and gifted the offending scroll with a tired glare. She knew she was procrastinating but she just didn't feel like giving up one of her rare moments for herself so easily. In front of others, the princess always acted like her status as ruler of Equestria demanded. In the privacy of her chambers though, she could leave her responsibility behind and feel free of all the pressure her title laid upon her. These were the times when she could feel more or less like a normal mare and maybe sing in the shower, that kept her sane.

The staring contest with the letter went on for a while. Despite her better judgment, Celestia hoped it would simply disappear never to be seen again. In the end, she accepted her fate and broke the seal on the scroll to unroll it before her. Her eyes rushed over the parchment, still having the annoyed spark from before in them. When Celestia reached Twilight’s signature, she stared blankly at the letters and mulled what she had just read. Celestia read it again and her frown deepened as she did.

The princess’ mind raced, processing the information and digging up what knowledge she had on this problem. The letter had unsettled her greatly. Hesitantly, an idea started forming in her mind. Celestia stepped out of the water and dried herself with a spell, donning her royal insignia again and tucked the scroll under her wing. The gears in her head still spinning, she left the room, the relaxing bubble bath completely forgotten.

The alicorn strode through the silent hallways of the castle. Not many of the guards were around this time of the day. They mostly served to keep valuable items safe from the occasional thief and making an impression on ambassadors, rather than protecting the princesses anyway and in large parts of the castle, neither could be found.

Instead, the peaceful silence helped Celestia to think and plan. Most of the time, she almost immediately knew what to do. This problem, however, demanded to be thought through thoroughly. Moments became hours as the restless princess roamed the abandoned corridors until she finally came to a decision and quickened her pace, determination written in her face.

A couple of minutes later, Celestia reached her destination. The dark entrance of a vault lay before her. This was the place where all of the magical artifacts she had gathered over the centuries were stored. The princess briefly nodded towards the two guards and entered the vault. Technically, the guards wouldn’t be necessary. The entrance was sealed with an enchantment that wouldn’t let anyone but the royal sisters through but even though it was a challenging spell, even for them, it could be dispelled with enough time and talent. Better safe than sorry.

The sun princess paced through the vault. She passed ancient statues, battered armors, pristine jewels and shining weapons, yet Celestia kept looking for something else. At last, her path ended at a dusty wooden chest with metal ornaments, standing in a dark corner. Celestia took a deep breath and pushed the chest open.

“I don’t suppose you came here just to pass time, ‘Tia. What is the matter?” a voice called from behind.

Celestia jumped a bit at the sudden break of silence and spun around to face Luna. In fact, it couldn’t have realistically been anyone else but her. Still, after the centuries Celestia had always been alone down here, it felt strange to see someone else here.

“You are right. But why are you here? Did you follow me?” the white alicorn asked.

“Indeed I have. Usually, you are in your chambers after day court ends. Yet you were wandering through the corridors so lost in thought you didn’t even notice me following you. Can you really blame me for being curious?” Luna replied with a cheeky smile and tilted her head a bit.

Celestia gave a soft chuckle. “Not really. But you know as well as I that you are sneaky enough to follow me and stay hidden even if paid attention,” she admitted.

“I guess I can’t deny this.” Luna grinned before getting serious again. “Why are you really here though? Is it about the fluctuation?”

“It is. You might want to read this,” Celestia stated and floated the from under her wind towards her sister.

The dark princess quickly skimmed over the letter. Celestia took the opportunity and turned to the chest she had come for. She retrieved six inconspicuous amulets before closing it again. The amulets were rather small but a closer inspection showed how masterfully they have been crafted. They resembled a burning snowflake and had a pristine gemstone embedded in the center. Celestia couldn’t sense anything special them by merely looking at them but she knew they were imbued with powerful protection spells from the time when the princesses’ reign was still young.

“Darkling... I have not heard this name before but the description seems familiar..." Luna muttered.

"It should. We have fought them before. Sombra called three of them his allies," Celestia confirmed.

"The creatures that guarded his throne, I suppose?" Luna asked.

Celestia nodded, summoned a new parchment and a quill and started writing a letter.

"Then what is your plan? Why did you dig out those pendants?" her sister inquired.

The sun princess briefly looked up to Luna. "Those are for Twilight and the other Elements. I won't take any risks here," she answered and continued writing. Luna fell silent and stepped beside her to read the letter as well. Soon, Celestia had finished and skimmed over it, checking for errors.

My dear Twilight,

Your diligence in matters of research is admirable. I am very proud to call you my student but I have to warn you. Darklings are not to be underestimated. Take these amulets and distribute them among your friends and yourself. They will protect you from most harmful spells and extreme temperatures. Always wear them and don’t lose them. They are valuable relics from the last millennia.

Refrain from searching on your own and wait until anything else happens. If you encounter one or see any signs that one is near, don’t hesitate and send me a message. Keep a safe distance and wait for my or Luna’s arrival.

I will ask Discord to stay around Ponyville and keep an eye on you. Try to keep him from causing too much chaos.

Yours,

Celestia

Satisfied, Celestia furled the parchment around the amulets and sealed it. She closed her eyes and flashed her horn to set the scroll ablaze with an emerald flame. It was pretty early and it would probably wake up Twilight and Spike but this was too important and Celestia knew they wouldn’t take it badly anyway. Despite her age, Twilight still looked up to her like she did as a filly.

“I have a question, sister,” Luna spoke up, “We have fought darklings before and even though they are worthy foes, they are still no real match for us. They are wretched creatures, born from greed and hatred and should be purged from this world. Their masters already paid the price for their foolishness and the knowledge how to create new ones died with them. Why don’t we just fly and hunt them down?” The dark princess finished.

Luna loved her night and the security the veil of darkness brought. For this, she resented anything that took that away. The darklings, such as all sinister beings of darkness, incurred Luna’s loathing all the more for defiling her realm.

Celestia sighed. She lowered her head and trotted towards a weapon rack nearby. Wearily, she glimpsed over the tool of war, waiting to bring death upon Equestria’s enemies once again.

“I already did that, Luna. The last of the darklings fell to my spear 600 years ago. Whatever it is, it isn’t a darkling.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “Then why didn’t you write this in the letter? Shouldn’t the Elements be informed?” the princess of the night asked, clearly taken aback.

A sad smile adorned Celestia’s lips as she walked back to her sister. “It is my responsibility and my burden to keep them safe and calm. I assured the former with the amulets. Even I could barely pass their barriers. For the latter…”

Celestia took a deep breath before she continued. “One of the lessons I learned during my rule is that the unknown is feared more than anything else. A powerful foe, even if he seems to be overwhelming, causes less terror among my subjects, if they know what he is. This is the reason I will call this entity a darkling until we know what it really is.”

“As much as I hate it, sometimes I have to leave them in the dark to prevent chaos. After all, ignorance is bliss, isn’t it?” the sun princess asked with a bitter laugh.

On the edge of the Everfree, the creature they had dubbed a darkling looked over Ponyville from afar. The encounter with the draconequus had been more than unsettling. As if the irritating pink pony that somehow was able to see him through his invisibility spell hadn’t been enough, the mind of the chimera had been able to resist the darkling. Granted, it had never before seen one, let alone delve into the mind of one. It wasn’t exactly relieving that the supposedly subtle spells the dark creature used, seemed to be not that subtle at all in this strange world.

However, the brief contact with the draconequus had stirred more memories. Pictures and feelings had flickered through the shadow’s mind and some of them still lingered there. The ruin in which it had entered this world in earlier days, painted and decorated. A frozen cavern, deep under the earth, containing artful masterpieces shaped from clear ice. Two ponies, one with white coat, the other with a dark blue one, donning regal garments. Feelings of pain, rage and betrayal.

The darkling mulled over all of these new, yet familiar sensations and images. Why did these even exist? Were they real? Eventually, it decided to find the truth. The dark creature viewed the small pony town, the creature memorized its location. It might be of interest later and there had been some intriguing specimens in it. With a last glance at the quiet buildings it turned around and flew away into the night.

Chapter 7: Sentiments

Chapter 7: Sentiments

A loud sizzling burp echoed through the library’s bedroom. When it reached Twilight’s ear, the unicorn responded with a not exactly enthusiastic grunt. Would she have been at least a bit awake, Twilight would have recognized the familiar sound and rushed over to Spike and started reading the letter on the spot.

This time, she just rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head. Not even the faint rustling and rumbling from Spike’s basket had any noticeable effect on Twilight. What finally got her barely existent attention was a scroll poking into her ribs. With a growl, Twilight moved her pillow a bit to reveal just enough of her face to open an eye and take a look at the agonizing piece of parchment as well as its wielder.

Spike didn’t look too happy either. A short glance to the window told her it must have been just before the crack of dawn. Why would he wake me so early, Twilight asked herself. She was still too drowsy to realize the scroll must have been sent by Celestia.

“Aren’t you going to read it?” Spike grumbled and repeated his previous action.

“Okay, okay, okay… Give it to me.” Twilight moaned and snatched the letter out of the dragon’s claw with a surprising speed. Angrily, the unicorn broke the seal, unfurled the parchment and started reading. Halfway through it though, Twilight realized she didn’t have the faintest idea what she just read. A facehoof and a shake of her head later, Twilight tried it again, with more success.

When she finished, Twilight kept staring blankly at the letters and let the words sink in. Only then she noticed the six amulets that fell onto her bed from the scroll and inspected them with newly awakened interest. These are ancient relics to protect us? They look like cheap trinkets from the market… Beautiful they are, but are they really that powerful? Twilight thought. She decided to simply believe her mentor like always and crawled out of the bed. Now that Twilight was awake, it was very unlikely she would be able to go back to sleep. Besides, no point in wasting time, right?

The unicorn threw a glance at Spike, who had gone back to his basket and already dwelled in Luna’s realm again. Maybe she could just compel him to make breakfast again? Not that Twilight was unable to prepare a meal by herself but most of the time, like now, she lacked any real motivation to do so.

In the end, Twilight let her assistant sleep and snuck out of the bedroom. He had been already moody yesterday and she wasn’t that eager to deal with an angry baby dragon, number one assistant or not.

Yawning wholeheartedly, Twilight descended the stairs to the living room, the scroll and the amulets in her magical grasp. She just wasn’t one to stand up early, unless it was some kind of emergency. No matter what, she was always drowsy in the morning. Or if sometimes if something exciting happened. The letter should have been enough to set her into a more energetic mood but sadly, the whole information hadn’t reached her brain yet. Otherwise she would be already worrying how they could keep Discord from using the town as his personal playground if Fluttershy was busy.

Twilight entered the living room and stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted a softly snoring Rainbow Dash sprawled across her couch, half covered by a blanket. Why is she here? Twilight frantically searched her memory for anything about what happened yesterday. Not that the librarian didn’t want Rainbow to be in the library, quite the contrary was true. She just liked to know about it and right now her memory failed her until she finally remembered last night’s events.

After Spike had sent the letter, Rainbow had continued her nap and soon she had been fast asleep. Twilight had taken a book and a place beside Rainbow, watching until she would hear the characteristic burp from the bedroom signaling the arrival of Celestia’s response. The unicorn had waited about an hour but eventually, she had grown too tired to stay awake any longer and, since Twilight hadn’t been able to bring herself to wake her friend up, had tucked Rainbow in the blanket before heading to bed herself.

Well... If she's already here I can prepare a breakfast for her too, Twilight thought smiling and headed to the kitchen. Once she stood there, Twilight set the letter and the amulets down on the table and thoughtfully tapped her chin. What should I make? For some time she pondered if she should bake something but they had pancakes just yesterday and eating the same thing twice in a row didn’t fit her taste. In the end, Twilight just prepared some sandwiches and poured cereal into two bowls. After a short moment of hesitation she put a bowl of gems for Spike on the table as well. He would probably sleep a lot longer but it wasn’t like the gems could get cold or anything.

Soon, Twilight had finished her preparations and walked back into the living room to check up on Rainbow. The prismatic mare was still snoring contently on the well-cushioned furniture. Seizing the moment, Twilight's eyes wandered yet again over her athletic friend’s body, admiring its well-toned shapes. When her gaze reached Rainbow's face she felt an incredibly joyful warmth rising in her heart. She looks so peaceful when she sleeps... and so unbelievingly cute.

Twilight surely would have just stared at Rainbow a lot longer, if it weren't for a fly that landed on the pegasus' nose. The sleeping mare gave an annoyed snort and wrinkled her nostrils in such a way that Twilight thought she would melt away from adorableness this instant.

As the fly understood it wasn't welcome on Rainbow's face and went look for another place to sit on, a mischievous grin crept on Twilight’s lips. She grabbed a quill from her desk and stepped closer to the couch. She gently brushed over Rainbow’s ear with the soft tip and giggled when it flicked to shoo away whatever dared to touch it. A broad grin on her face, Twilight repeated the process and was again rewarded with another adorable flick of her friend’s ear.

Wanting to try something different, Twilight slipped to the far end of the couch, where Rainbows hind leg peeped out of the blanket. During this, she slowly traced the outlines of Rainbow leg muscles and chuckled gleefully when the leg jerked a bit and the pegasus grumbled faintly. Becoming daring, Twilight drew a bit closer and started drawing small circles on Rainbow’s fetlock. This time she was sent flying through the library, as Rainbow kicked out vigorously and hit Twilight’s head.

Murmuring some unintelligible syllables, Rainbow Dash struggled with the blanket, seemingly waking up. Twilight on the other hand sat up with a groan, shook her head and immediately regretted it. While the kick hadn’t really hurt her, it still gave her a serious headache. Squinting at the couch, Twilight cursed herself for not keeping a safe distance and held her head. At least Rainbow turned her head to face the purple unicorn with bleary eyes.

“Mornin’, Twi. Did ya hit your head somewhere?” the prismatic pegasus asked and yawned widely. Twilight stared at her, slack-jawed by the fact that Rainbow obviously hadn’t been woken up by the kick she had delivered, but rather her admittedly loud crash with the library floor. “You know… if you keep that up you might eat a fly,” Rainbow Dash stated with a smirk.

Twilight gave her another incredulous look and answered with reproachful voice. “You kicked me, Rainbow! Right in the face!”

The librarian received an unsure glance from Rainbow. “Why would I do that?”

“Because…” Twilight started but fell silent when she remembered what had earned her the rather rough treatment. “Nevermind… I probably deserved it,” she muttered.

“How so? What did you do?” Rainbow asked and her ears perked up in sudden interest.

Twilight sighed and explained. “I thought it would be a good idea to tickle you out of your sleep, while having my head in front of your hooves…”

Trying to suppress her laughter, Rainbow blew air through her nose, sat up and looked away with wide eyes. She did a great job but all too soon Rainbow was no longer able to contain her laughter and Twilight threw her a dirty look.

Rainbow eventually calmed down to a degree where she only snickered now and then and rolled off the couch to approach Twilight. Still grinning, she firmly pulled the unicorn hoof away from the spot on her head she was holding.

“Lemme see that. I don’t think I hit you too hard but I better take a look,” Rainbow insisted.

“If… If you think so…” Twilight shot Rainbow an uncertain glance. A faint blush adorned her face and she prayed that Dash wouldn’t see it. It was a rare occasion for the athlete to actively care about somepony’s health and being tended to by her made Twilight’s heart flutter. Regardless of this, the librarian still took a sharp breath when the pegasus lightly touched the hurt spot on her head.

“I’d say it’s nothing serious. You’ll probably just get a small bruise…” Rainbow informed her friend, “though… You shouldn’t do something like that with Applejack. That would be pretty unhealthy!”

Twilight finally got up on her hooves and briefly rubbed her head again. “Anyway, I woke you up because I wanted to ask you if you are staying for breakfast. Oh, and Celestia has sent an answer as well!” she told Rainbow.

The addressed pegasus didn’t have to think long about it. Free food? Why in the world would she refuse such an offer? “Sure thing, Twi. Can you tell me about the letter after breakfast? I’m starving!” asked Rainbow, who hadn’t noticed she was hungry until Twilight had mentioned food.

“Of course! It’s not much, but I hope you don’t mind. It’s in the kitchen. Follow-“ Twilight interrupted herself when she realized that she was talking to thin air, as Rainbow had already zipped past her to the given direction. “-me.”

The corners of Twilight’s lips rose a bit and she turned around to enter the kitchen as well. Rainbow had already sat down and was just about to bite in the sandwich she held in her hooves, when she saw Twilight she guiltily closed her mouth and waited until the unicorn took her place at the table as well. Both of them dug in like they hadn’t eaten for ages. The hours of reading last day had been exhausting and afterwards, they haven’t eaten either, so they had something to make up for.

Not before long, all of the sandwiches had been devoured and the bowls emptied. Munching on the last bite, Rainbow detected the scroll with the amulets on the kitchen counter. The cyan pegasus swallowed and turned to Twilight, pointing a hoof in the direction of the parchment.

“So what’s with the letter? Was it something important?” Rainbow inquired curiously.

The sudden question startled Twilight, who had finished her meal some time ago and had stared blankly at Rainbow, lost in her thoughts. Her eyes darted from Rainbow to the parchment and back for a few seconds, her mind trying to figure out the question.

“You could say that. There are good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow tilted her head and briefly pondered about it before opening her mouth again. “The bad news first. Let’s get it over with!” she decided.

“Okay, then. For starters, we are going to have Discord around for a while,” Twilight announced with a frown. ”I know what you think about him but the Princess ordered this.”

“Yikes! I’d gladly see him go…” Rainbow grumbled, “and what are the good news?”

“Sorry, Rainbow, I’m not done with the bad ones yet. The princesses also seem to think that the darkling will come back.” Twilight continued, “But here is the good news: If it returns, we get help from Celestia, Luna and Discord to deal with it.”

Rainbow chewed over this new information a bit and asked, “And what if this thing comes back and flash freezes one of us? Rarity was lucky she wasn’t in the room when it got turned into a fridge. We might be not that lucky next time. Did Celestia say anything about that?”

“Yes, actually. I’ll have to ask you for something because of that.” Twilight responded and jumped of the chair and went to pick up the pendants. “You see, the Princess sent us and our friends these amulets to protect us from another attack of the darkling. Could you fly around and give one to each of them?”

Rainbow stepped a bit closer to Twilight and eyed the trinkets in Twilight’s hooves suspiciously. To her, they looked like some of Rarity’s more subtle jewelry.

“What do they do?” the pegasus wanted to know.

“It will protect you from direct magic and extreme temperatures. If I understand it right, any kind of magic will not work on you and you could run straight into a fire when you are wearing it,” explained Twilight.

“Sounds awesome! Gimme one. I wanna try it!” Rainbow demanded, an unsettling grin on her face.

“Okay. We should wear them anyway. Come here!” Twilight nodded and picked two of the amulets, putting the others together with the letter on the table.

The librarian hung one of the trinkets around her own neck and approached Rainbow with the other. As soon as she was close enough, Twilight slowly slipped the other one over Dash’s head. She could have used her magic to do it, but Twilight used her hooves instead, letting them brush over her friend’s ears almost sensually, gently stroking the prismatic mane.

By the end of it, she let her hooves rest on the pegasus shoulder and an ever so slight blush adorned her muzzle, just visible enough that Rainbow saw it. However, the athlete’s mind was still busy with an impish plan, so it was recognized but immediately stored in her memory for later. For now, it only caused Rainbow to lift an eyebrow. There were more important things to do than to wonder about Twilight’s behavior, after all.

“So… Now you can’t cast any magic on me either, Twilight?” Rainbow asked insidiously.

Twilight hastily pulled her front legs away from Rainbow, looking from one side to the other before responding. “No. Not directly, at least. I could still- Ah!”

Twilight yelped as Rainbow lunged at her, grabbing her around the waist and flapped her wings to lift both of them a couple of inches over the floor. With a bright laugh, Rainbow flew through the door into the living room, never letting go of the panicking unicorn in her hooves.

“Let me down, Rainbow! Please! Waaaaah! I swear, if you don’t let me down now, I swear I’ll…” Twilight screamed as Rainbow started to maneuver close to the bookshelves, spiraling around.

“Then what? Scold me? Telling me off? Boring me to death with a lecture? Telling Celestia? You can’t use your magic on me, remember?” Rainbow cheered merrily.

This actually silenced the bookish unicorn. Unfortunately for Rainbow tough, an idea started to form in Twilight’s mind. The pegasus was too absorbed with flying as close to the furniture in the library to scare Twilight, that she would have noticed that a number of cushions that started to hover, enveloped in a magenta aura, and gathered in one place.

The next time Rainbow flew over a relatively empty area of the library, the cushions suddenly flung onto her and her unwilling passenger, enveloping both of them in a soft cocoon and constricting Rainbow’s wings. Without them, their means to fly were gone and the two mares dropped on the floor. Though both landed softly, due to the cushions, they still ended up one over the other.

“Hah! Nice ride, wasn’t it, Twi?” Rainbow laughed from above.

“Maybe if it was outside. You could have crashed into the books! I don’t want to shelve them back all the time!” Twilight growled.

“So what? Spike is always putting them back from somewhere anyway. Let him do it!” Rainbow shrugged.

Twilight groaned and smacked her hoof on her forehead. “That’s because you usually only see him after you crashed into the library again!”

“Oh… Okay. But I had it under control. No harm done, right?” Rainbow replied with a sheepish grin, wondering why this had never occurred to her before.

“Urgh…” Twilight rubbed her temple before she continued, “Anyway, these amulets only protect you from direct magic and temperatures. Indirect magic can still hurt you, as I wanted to say before you decided to give me a heart attack.” She ended with a glare towards Rainbow.

“I regret nothing!” Rainbow exclaimed with broad grin.

Twilight took a deep, exhausted breath. Rainbow definitely wasn’t easy to deal with. Though, holding a grudge or something wasn’t easy either… That stupid crush… Why you, Rainbow? Why not somepony else? the unicorn thought. Twilight’s gaze became soft again and she remembered her other friends.

“Rainbow, could you fly around and give the others their amulets?” Twilight asked her prismatic friend.

“Sure thing. Gotta stretch my wings anyway. Can’t get risk to get out of training,” Rainbow agreed.

Aiming for the other four trinkets, Twilight trotted towards the kitchen. She threw a quick glance at the letter again, pondering if she had missed anything. Right… keep distance, don’t lose the amulets. Hopefully I can convince Dash not to fight it heads on. Quickly fetching the amulets, Twilight returned to Rainbow, who was already stretching her flight muscles.

“Before I forget it, Rainbow, if you see this thing or something that could be the darkling, don’t just go for it,” Twilight began, “Princess Celestia told me to send her a letter when we see it. I think she wants to deal with it herself.”

“Awww… So I can’t use this fancy anti-magic thingy to kick its flank?” Rainbow complained.

“No, you can’t. No one knows how dangerous it is even without its magic. Now here are the amulets. And remember: these are ancient and incredibly rare. Tell the others what they do and how important they are. And tell them everything else Celestia said too,” Twilight reminded her friend and handed her over the trinkets.

“Got it. You can count on me!” Rainbow assured the librarian and stepped towards the door.

“And, Rainbow…” Twilight’s meekly spoken words barely reached Rainbow’s ears.

They perked up as they picked up the unusually quiet voice. If they had been in Twilight’s usual analytical or ordering tone, the athlete would have probably just kept going and bolted out of the window but something about how Twilight said that made Rainbow stop. There was something else, something that needed her attention. It wasn’t exactly her strong side to deal with emotional stuff but she never ignored a friend in need.

Rainbow turned around to see Twilight opening and closing her mouth, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t find the right words. Rainbow furrowed her eyebrows. Something about that behavior seemed familiar. Suddenly, she remembered other situations where Twilight had acted a bit off. Like when she had put the amulet over Rainbow’s neck and countless other times Rainbow had simply dismissed as irrelevant back then. What is going on with her?

“What’s up? Anything else you forgot?” Rainbow inquired suspiciously.

Twilight inhaled deeply before giving her friend an unconvincing grin. “No, it’s just… Just don’t hurt yourself with your stunts again?”

Okay… Now I know that there’s something cooking! Rainbow thought. “You know you lie as bad Applejack sometimes, Twilight… I can see that you're hiding something.”

“No, it’s okay. Don’t concern yourself with it. I’m okay!” Twilight replied with a caught look on her face.

Rainbow looked at her, slightly annoyed. “I don’t believe you. We both know that there’s something. Just tell me.”

“I told you, there is nothing wrong. You can fly to the others now. I’ll manage alone now.” Twilight claimed with a slightly nervous undertone.

“Oh, come on! It’s like you’re not even trying to hide it! Why can’t you just tell me?” protested Rainbow.

“I told you, it’s nothing. Don’t bother yourself. Rarity wanted to go gem hunting with Spike I think. You should go there first before she leaves.” Twilight desperately tried to change the topic.

“Okay, Twilight. What is the matter? Why won’t you tell me?” Rainbow almost yelled at her friend with an exasperated glare.

“Because I can’t!” Twilight screamed back, equally loud.

Silence fell over the two. Rainbow had instantly calmed down when Twilight raised her volume and now she was staring at the purple unicorn who held a hoof to her mouth, terrified by her near-confession. Time to step into the breach… thought Rainbow, internally congratulating herself. The pegasus approached Twilight until she stood right before her and sat on her haunches, putting on the most sincere smile she could muster.

“Twilight, you know you can trust me. I won’t tell anyone, if you want me to, but there is no point in dwelling over something. What is it? Why can’t you tell me?” Rainbow asked in her most soothing voice.

Hanging her head low, Twilight sighed in defeat. “It’s just… I don’t know… It’s something I hoped I would never have to tell anypony,” the unicorn admitted after a short pause.

“Then tell me, Twilight. I promise I won’t judge you. I’d never leave you!” Rainbow promised.

Twilight looked to the side and opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something and closed it again. This went on a couple of times but always, the unicorns throat seemed to shrink, denying her the words she wanted to say. Not blind to the internal battle, Rainbow watched her friend and waited. She knew that there was no point in pushing further right now. What Twilight needed, was space and patience. However, there was no point in staying here while Twilight was struggling to come to terms with herself. Also, Rainbow was getting bored and decided it was time for her to take the next step.

“Hey, Twilight. You know what? I’ll fly and give the amulets to our friends and when I am done, I’ll come back here and you can tell me. Okay?” Rainbow asked with an engaging smile.

You are so unfair, Rainbow… Twilight thought, as she stared into her friend’s magenta eyes. There was no way she could wriggle herself out of it now, not without seriously offending the prismatic mare. In a way, she was even happy that the constant ignoring of her feelings would be over soon, no matter how. Another part of her was still scared of how Rainbow might react.

It wasn’t unusual for two mares to be a couple, but Twilight didn’t have the faintest idea what Rainbow’s opinion on the topic was. She hadn’t even known she liked mares herself, until she fell for Rainbow! Even if she might not love her back, Twilight was sure that Rainbow wouldn’t just shun her, she was far too loyal to do that, but wouldn’t it get awkward for them? Well… There is only one way to find out…

“Okay Rainbow… You win. I’ll tell you once you’re back.” Twilight conceded meekly.

“Pinkie Promise?” Rainbow eyed her friend with some suspicion.

“Pinkie Promise,” assured Twilight with a solemn nod.

“That’s what I wanted to hear. I’ll be back in no time!” Rainbow grinned, satisfied with her success and turned towards the window.

There may have been a door, but Rainbow had made it a habit to use windows to enter and exit buildings. It was a bit extra training for her and always fun to see her friends’ annoyed faces but also good for dramatic entrances. Just in time she recognized her way out was closed and opened it with a huff. Twilight chuckled lightly at the athlete’s antics, as Rainbow bolted out of the window into the misty morning, heading to Sugarcube Corner.

The midday sun shone down brightly on Rainbow’s extended wings as she took off into the sky. Flying a quick loop, Rainbow waved goodbye to Fluttershy who looked up to her from the ground, flapped her wings to accelerate her to an acceptable speed. It had taken her a while to find all of her friends, longer than Rainbow had expected.

Admittedly, it had been partly her own fault. Rainbow just couldn’t say no to Pinkie when she invited her on a pranking spree that was already planned and prepared… That has also been the reason why Rainbow had troubles to find Pinkie in the first place. Her ability not to be seen almost matched her skill in spotting ponies who spied on her. After two hours of making fun of several randomly picked townsponies, Rainbow had remembered the amulets and handed one to Pinkie. Oddly enough, the pink mare already knew everything about them but Rainbow simply shrugged it off. There was a reason nobody ever questioned Pinkie anymore.

The next one on her list had been Rarity. Unfortunately for Rainbow, Twilight had told the truth and the alabaster unicorn was long gone when she arrived at Carousel Boutique. Slightly cursing her inability to resist the temptation of a good prank, Rainbow raced to Rarity’s usual gem hunting area. It had taken her another hour, but she finally found Rarity and Spike in a small cave.

Rarity irritated Rainbow and Spike both with her inadequately joyful reaction as she got the pendant from Rainbow. Though… the athletic mare was still wondering why Rarity’s mood had dropped, when Rainbow explained the situation and the amulet’s properties. Rainbow had considered talking to her friend about Twilight’s behavior, the designer had a knack for those kind of things, but quickly dismissed it. Having Spike in a personal talk was a no-go for her, so Rainbow had departed to look for her other two friends.

Luckily for her, neither of them were hard to find. Both of them were at their respective homes. Applejack had been reluctant to wear the amulet though. The whole Apple family had a superstitious streak and having something around her neck that broke some laws of nature was definitely not something Applejack was comfortable with, no matter how useful it was. Fluttershy, on the other hand, had found quite a liking in it. The timid pegasus had marveled the filigree seeming beauty of the pendant for some time until she really listened to Rainbow’s explanations of its functions.

Rainbow had talked with both Applejack and Fluttershy about Twilight after giving them the amulets but neither of them had noticed anything unusual about her. This struck Rainbow rather oddly but didn’t press any further. If it wasn’t obvious to them at first, there probably wouldn’t come any useful information later. Now, Rainbow was on her way back to the library, to Twilight and hopefully an answer.

I wonder what she didn’t want to tell anypony… Rainbow thought. Twilight had obviously been trying to hide it, and had probably done a great job until the slip-up this morning. Granted, Rainbow didn’t know how long Twilight kept the secret and merely assumed the unicorn was struggling with it for some time. The reason for this laid in a special streak in Twilight’s voice when she called her back then. A streak of sadness, mixed with hope, reserved for those who still don’t want to accept their fate and see a chance to get what they want, even against all odds.

That nobody, not even Fluttershy, had noticed the little weird things in Twilight’s behavior was a bit strange though. As far as Rainbow remembered, Twilight had acted like this for quite some time now, but the colorful pegasus couldn’t say when it started. Maybe it’s something about me? Maybe it’s something she wanted to tell only me and didn’t know how? Something personal?

Before Rainbow could develop the thought further, she spotted the Golden Oaks Library beneath her. Well, I guess I’ll just let her tell me… With this Rainbow discarded her considerations and dove down, looking for an open window.

Much to her satisfaction, Rainbow saw that the window she left through was still open. Deciding this was a good time to prove her skills and show off how good of a flier she was, Rainbow dove down to attempt the same trick that had failed yesterday, courtesy of Spike. Focusing on the window, the cyan pegasus accelerated.

Just before she reached the window, Rainbow folded her wings to shoot through it like a cannonball and opened her wings directly after to slow her neck breaking speed. Instead of trying to stop her flight completely, what would have inevitably caused her to crash into a bookshelf, Rainbow redirected her velocity upwards.

Rainbow had learned from past experiences that it was impossible to come to a halt when she slowed down in a straight line. Thus, Rainbow had decided to make use of the relatively high rooms of the library and do a looping. For this Rainbow used a technique she had developed to fly tight curves in caves, and ran along the wall, letting her legs brake the most force of her dive.

Once Rainbow was slow enough to fully control her flight again, she landed and looked around. Her gaze fell on Twilight, who was standing beside a small table with a can of steaming tea on it. The librarian’s eyes were full of terror, her hoof stretched towards the bookshelves Rainbow grazed during her daring maneuver and her mouth wide open in a silent scream. After looking at her speechless friend for a couple of seconds, Rainbow decided to snap her out of it and approached Twilight to wave a hoof in front of her face.

“Hey, Twilight, I know I’m awesome but I think it’s enough. You can talk to me now,” stated Rainbow matter-of-factly.

Twilight blinked bit and tried calm herself down. “Don’t do this ever again Rainbow, please! You scared the living daylights out of me…” she stammered.

Frowning disapprovingly at the request, Rainbow stepped towards the couch and threw herself on it, trying to find the most comfortable position.

“I’ll try to be slower next time, okay?” the pegasus offered a bargain.

Twilight sighed, having calmed down for the most part. “That’s the best I can get, I think…”

“Damn sure it is. So, Twilight, there is something you wanted to tell me, isn’t it?” Rainbow grinned victoriously.

Sighing yet again, Twilight looked directly in Rainbow’s eyes and asked nervously, “Is there any way to get out of this?”

“No. You’re going to tell me, like it or not.” Rainbow crushed any attempt to elude the topic Twilight might have planned from the start.

Rainbow watched Twilight flicking her ears and pacing around. She could tell how nervous the unicorn was. “Dammit… why is this so hard?” Twilight muttered under her breath.

Biting her lip, Twilight let her eyes wander around the room, trying to avoid Rainbow. She knew there was no chance to get away from this anymore and part of her knew this was probably the only way for her to actually get herself to admit her feelings to Rainbow but that didn’t silence her worries at all.

Okay, Twilight. You can do this. Just look at her and say it! Twilight glanced at Rainbow. Bad idea… Rainbow patiently waited for Twilight, laying on the couch with a warm, encouraging smile.

Rainbow’s position, though unintentionally, drove heat into Twilight’s cheeks. The librarian quickly moved her gaze away from her friend but the damage was already done.

“Y-you know, R-Rainb-bow…” Twilight began, shuffling her hooves. “I-I might have… um…” Twilight trailed off, cursing herself for being so nervous and thinking of a way to tell Rainbow, despite her state of mind.

Rainbow on the other hand decided she had been silent long enough. All the stuttering wasn’t going lead anywhere anytime soon, so why not have some fun? Besides, the chance was too good to pass up…

“You know, Twilight, if I didn’t know it better, I’d say you’re just about to tell me you have the hots for me…” Rainbow smirked provokingly and laid her head back, closing her eyes.

The first thing Rainbow noticed was the complete and utter silence. It was so quiet, she swore she could have heard a quill drop. This was especially strange since Rainbow had expected heavy protest from Twilight. These kind of comments always ticked off other ponies and the ones who weren’t very social, like Twilight, were even touchier about that topic.

Rainbow sat up and looked to Twilight. The unicorn had stopped running in circles and had instead dropped to her haunches, her gaze glued to the ground she was pawing with her hoof and a deep red blush spread across her muzzle. Oh my gosh… Did I say something wrong? Rainbow worried. The comment was supposed to be a harmless joke to lighten the atmosphere. It should have been foolproof. Unless…

The longer Rainbow stared at Twilight though, the more sure it was that her friend wasn’t offended but extremely embarrassed. The other weird things Twilight had done came to Rainbow’s mind. They clicked together with the current situation and her joke and slowly but surely it dawned on her. Rainbow’s eyes became ridiculously large and her jaw nearly fell to the floor.

“No way… Are you serious?” Rainbow nearly screamed.

Twilight took a deep breath and met Rainbow’s incredulous stare. “Yes, Rainbow, it’s true… I think I even love you…” she began, her insecurities suddenly washed away and replaced with the urge to win Rainbow’s heart. “I know it comes out of the blue for you. I was surprised when I first realized I had a crush on you too…

“I don’t know when it started, I’ve been thinking about you for months now. I don’t know why I love you, may it be for your carefree attitude, your undying loyalty or just your natural beauty but you are always in my dreams. Sometimes we read together, sometimes we walk together, sometimes we fly together but it’s always with you.

“The reason I didn’t want to tell you was because I was, and still am afraid that you will reject me. I hoped it would just go away, that I could just forget about my crush on you to prevent this, but it couldn’t. I just couldn’t forget you…

“And now I am here, confessing my love for you because of a promise I gave you and still don’t know if you even like mares…” Twilight laughed bitterly, and continued shortly after, “Yet my heart is still craving for you. I know you probably don’t want me to be your marefriend. I’m just a bookworm with a knack for magic and Daring Do, no match for an world-class athlete like you.

“But even if you say no, even if you don’t think of me like that, though you don’t love me, I still have to ask you. Are you willing to give me a chance?” Twilight ended her speech and glanced pleadingly at Rainbow.

The pegasus had fallen silent when Twilight had begun to talk. Now, Rainbow simply sat there, a dull look on her face, not responding in the slightest, while the gears in her head were spinning out of control. Both stared, one in the other’s eyes, one on an indefinite point beyond the visible world. Seconds passed and became minutes and still no one moved a muscle.

Finally, Twilight stood up and turned around, head hung low and tears welling up in her eyes. If Rainbow would have had similar feelings for her, the cyan mare would have already responded. It would be better for both of them if they just moved on, even if the mere thought wrung the air out of Twilight lungs and clenched around her heart.

“I’ll go to bed now. I’ll see you around, Rainbow…” Twilight choked out with broken voice and slowly walked towards the stairs.

When she was about take the first step up, a cyan hoof came to rest on her shoulder and applied a light pressure to spin Twilight around. A tear splashed on the floor as the hoof wandered from the shoulder to her chin and pushed her head up. Rainbow looked Twilight with the earnest expression the unicorn had ever seen on her.

“Twilight, I know my reaction just now wasn’t exactly the best, but please hear me out before you go and shut yourself away.” Rainbow took a deep breath. “I gotta say I never thought much about relationships before. Yes, my parents obviously had one, I even have couple on my weather team, but it just never was important to me.

“It’s not that I dislike relationships or never want to have one, it’s just that my love for flying always was, and still is, my lifeblood, my training to become a Wonderbolt is my greatest purpose in life, and it occupied so much of my time that there never came somepony close enough to seriously care about it.

“You are right, Twilight, I don’t love you, but I can’t say I’ve ever loved someone else either, mare or stallion. I don’t know the first thing about romance and such beyond the little bits I picked up from Rarity.”

Rainbow stopped and let her eyes wander over Twilight. “You are a beautiful mare, Twilight. I don’t have the words for it like you or Rarity but I know you are, on the outside and the inside. Don’t you ever deny that” Rainbow said decisively and poked her hoof at Twilight’s chest.

“You’re one of the best friends I’ve ever had, I can’t say I have no feelings for you, though I can’t say that they’re of the romantic kind. But… You’re my friend after all and I want you to be happy…” Rainbow trailed off.

Straightening herself, Rainbow grabbed Twilight’s hoof with her own and smiled at her. “Yes, Twilight. I will give you a chance. If anyone deserves it, it’s you.”

Twilight stared at Rainbow, her brain trying to process what she just heard. Slowly, the corners of her mouth raised upwards.

“So… You will be my marefriend?” Twilight asked, still not entirely believing that this wasn’t just some kind of cruel joke.

“For now, yes, I will.” Rainbow nodded with a bright smile.

As the realization finally settled in, Twilight grinned wide enough to worry Rainbow that her head might split. Without losing another word, the unicorn wrapped her legs around Rainbow’s neck and pressed their mouths together.

At first, Rainbow tensed up at the unfamiliar feeling of Twilight’s lips against her own. Then she reminded herself who was kissing her, a pony with whom she had saved the world more than once, a pony who Rainbow would trust with her life. She relaxed and wrapped her own legs around Twilight, pulling her deeper into the kiss and felt the unicorn melt into the embrace.

Eventually, they broke apart, breathing heavily, and stared into each other’s eyes. The sheer amount of love, passion and pure joy in Twilight’s violet eyes was more than Rainbow had ever imagined possible. Neither of them moved a muscle, too content relishing the intimacy of the moment forgetting about the world around them.

Not bad… If it’s always like this, I think I can get used to it… Rainbow thought.

Chapter 8: Devotion

Chapter 8: Devotion

A furious scream rolled over Ponyville.

“DISCORD!” a drenched Rainbow yelled at the top of her lungs from above the small home town.

Ever since Discord had been reformed, he had been around now and then, mainly to visit Fluttershy. Most of the time, the timid pegasus kept him in check, but he would always pull some pranks anyway. Harmless ones, admittedly, and after Discord had a good laugh, he would always change everything back to normal. Sometimes, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had even teamed up with him to step up their game and prank even harder.

Discord was still kind of a sore spot for Rainbow, though. She couldn’t get over the fact, that he took her wings and made her betray her friends once, just yet. So, getting pranked by the master of chaos was a bit of a touchy subject for her, especially when he interfered with her work. Thus, it was not really surprising that a horde of melon-sized floating orbs of water in the sky, each containing a living goldfish, ticked her off more than it should’ve.

“I KNOW YOU ARE HERE SOMEWHERE! SHOW YOURSELF!” Rainbow continued throwing her tantrum.

“Yes, my dear? Is something on your mind? You sound a bit… unsatisfied.”

Rainbow spun around in anger, looking for the troublesome draconequus. Much to her dismay, there was just another orb of water behind her. Or was it? Closing in on the physics defying liquid, the pegasus noticed the lack of a fish in this one. Instead, a tiny Discord lay on an air mattress atop, wearing sunglasses and holding a red and yellow cocktail in his claw.

“Care to explain? Or better, make them go away?” Rainbow snarled, pointing hoof at another orb of water next to her. The goldfish in it mutely opened and closed its mouth and swam wild circles.

“Why in the world would you want them gone? Is there a problem I am not aware of?” Discord asked innocently and lifted his glasses to give Dash a bewildered look.

“Yes. This noon is scheduled to have a clear sky and I am supposed to bust the clouds. And I have no idea how to get rid of these things of yours and it’s not like I haven’t tried,” complained Rainbow and glared at Discord, water dripping from her soaked mane on her nose.

“I know. That’s why I decided to lend you a helping hoof. Or paw, if you will.”

“Lend me a hoof? Then how is this charade supposed to help me, then?” Rainbow hissed under her breath, barely able to contain her anger.

The tiny Discord laughed heartily and teleported beside Rainbow, changing back to his normal size. Grinning, he put his paw on the pegasus shoulder. “Do you see any clouds, Rainbow? I don’t!”

“No… I mean yes… I mean… I…”

The regular contact with the draconequus had caused Rainbow to get mostly used to his twisted sense of logic. Sometimes she could even stand up to his jabbering and butting in. Usually the brash pegasus would let Pinkie do the talking, though. It was too easy to lose the thread, just like now. A dumbfounded look and a bit of incoherent stuttering was all the cyan mare could muster, much to Discord’s amusement. Rainbow groaned and smacked her hoof on her forehead. I should know better than arguing with Discord… the weather mare thought, mentally kicking herself.

“Where did you even get the fish?”

“Oh! These lovely creatures are from a pond near Ponyville. I was just walking by but they gave me such sad looks that I thought they might want to get out a bit. They are always gasping for air,” Discord answered, taking a sip from his drink and marveling the floating bubbles.

“I’d say they’ve got enough ‘fresh air’ for today, so why don’t you do us all a favor and bring ‘em back where they belong? With the water!” Rainbow added hastily.

“Yes, I could probably do that but where's the fun in it?”

“So… are you gonna do it? Now?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow in frustration.

“I might. If ask me nicely!” Discord smirked provocatively at the pegasus.

Oh, to Tartarus with you! We should have never let him out of that stone prison… Rainbow clenched her teeth and took a deep breath. “Would you kindly bring the water and the fish back to the place you got them from, please?” Her voice quivered in barely suppressed anger.

“Well, I just can’t refuse such a lovely propounded request, can I?” sneered the draconequus.

Discord had learned to be careful with his shenanigans. A bit of mocking now and then would be tolerated, if it didn’t involve something too offensive anyway… And there was a fine line he didn’t want to cross with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. There’d be no point in risking to be locked away into a stone prison again, is there?

Dodging the charging and inarticulately screaming weather pony, Discord snapped his claw and let the fish and the water vanish in a white flash. “There’s no need to be upset, my dear. Here is the clear sky you wanted.” Discord grinned.

Panting like an angry bull, the cyan pegasus mustered her last bits of self-control not to try and hit the draconequus as hard as she could. If she would say or do anything else, Rainbow would regret it and she knew it. Discord was impossible to come by if he managed to get you to lose your cool.

Rainbow gave a final huff and bolted away, Discord’s mocking laughter following her. If there had been any clouds left in the sky, they would have been ripped apart by her in an instant. Unfortunately for her though, Discord had done a pretty good job. Instead, Rainbow beat her wings as hard as she could. She had to cool down a bit, and flying was her favorite type of anger management. Right after beating the living daylights out of some unsuspecting clouds, that is. Maybe there was something else that could fulfill this role?

Half an hour later, Rainbow stepped back from the heap of rubble that had once been a windmill at the foot of the mountain they had once climbed to convince the dragon at the top to slumber somewhere else. It had been abandoned for a long time and probably forgotten by the previous owners given its poor state. When the athlete had found it a couple of months ago, she had found that the frail remnants of the mill were a great opportunity to blow off some steam.

Great… Now, I’ll have to find another mill! Dash thought, a little bit annoyed. In her rage, she had almost leveled the building, destroying everything that was satisfying and worth to destroy in the process. Her Sonic Rain-Nukes weren’t exactly subtle. Well, I’ll find myself something else. Can’t be that hard… At least, the rampage had helped a lot to calm her down. The cyan pegasus took a deep breath and took off in the air.

A gentle breeze wafted over her, as Rainbow reached a decent height and spread her wings wide, gliding aimlessly through the air. Speed might be cool, but the sensation of seemingly standing still in the air had some appeal too.

Rainbow sighed contently and closed her eyes. Despite how much the prismatic mare loved to fly as fast as she could, idly gliding through the air while the sun shone warm and bright on her feathers was one of the most relaxing things she could imagine. Almost too relaxing… Once, the athlete had dozed off midair. Luckily, she had a rather soft landing on a field, since her wings remained tense and merely carried her farther and farther until the pegasus had lost too much altitude and made contact with the ground.

With a quick shake of her head, Rainbow Dash shook off the unpleasant memory and looked around to orientate herself. Chuckling lightly, the cyan mare noticed that she had subconsciously headed for the Golden Oaks Library. Seems like I get used to the whole ‘being-together’ stuff...

Her thoughts drifted towards the lavender unicorn, Rainbow called her marefriend lately. It had been a bit odd, calling her that at first. Twilight was still primarily her friend and she had always seen her as such. Thinking of the bookish unicorn as her special somepony, or having a special somepony at all, was unfamiliar terrain to Dash. Though, slowly but surely she got used to it.

The first days had been a bit awkward for both of them. Twilight had overstressed herself as usual. Well aware that Rainbow had agreed to the relationship without having any romantic feelings for her, the slightly neurotic bookworm had constantly worried if she was too affectionate or intimate for her new marefriend, thus crossing the borders of the athlete’s comfort zone. Dash, on the other hand, had been rather unsure about what she was expected to do as a marefriend. Since neither of them had any experience, it took a while to get past these problems. They still had their insecurities but by now, they felt almost completely at ease with each other.

However, Rainbow and Twilight had agreed to keep quiet about them being a couple at the first day. No point in telling their friends about it when it showed after a week that it just wouldn’t work out between them, right? In truth, Rainbow was also a bit worried about her reputation and Twilight didn’t want to push her. For the past week, they hadn’t told a single soul, except for Spike, who had to Pinkie Promise not to tell anyone. Granted, they hadn’t talked very much to their friends either. This was mostly due to the fact that they simply spent pretty much all of their free time with each other, occasional errands and weather work aside.

The fresh couple had used that time to explore the benefits of a relationship. It surprised Rainbow how fond she had become of simply cuddling with Twilight. Sitting in front of the fireplace, a cup of hot chocolate in one hoof, the bookish unicorn in the other, had made it to the top ten of her favorite things to do. She’d deny it, if anyone asked but she enjoyed doing all the mushy stuff couples were supposed to do, together.

Rainbow knew that her way to deal with the romantic parts of their relationship wasn't exactly romantic, but to her, most of them were simply hilarious and she just couldn't do them while keeping a straight face. That had earned her more than one glare from Twilight, like when the unicorn had asked the brash daredevil to read a romantic play with them voice acting a dialogue between two lovers. But Rainbow had rolled over the floor after her third line, unable to contain her laughter. Not that the she didn't enjoy them, she just lacked Twilight’s passion for it and couldn’t take it seriously.

Nevertheless, they had become much more intimate over the past two days, had even shared the library's bed for the night, snuggling together until they entered Luna’s realm of dreams. Still, Rainbow wasn’t willing to carve their relationship in stone just yet. Something held her back. Something she could neither place nor deny. Something that kept her from saying 'I love you!', whenever Twilight told her the same. Ever since she had realized this, Dash had tortured her brain, hoping to find the reason for her reluctance.

Eventually, Rainbow decided that she had reminisced enough. Folding her wings and ending her glide, she dived towards the tree house’s balcony. Twilight had agreed to let the window or the door there open, as long as the weather would allow it, so that the pegasus wouldn’t have to knock if the library was closed. In return, the passionate stunt flyer had to promise not to try any stunts, fly too fast in the library or enter the building at high speeds, much to her dismay. It also gave the cyan mare the pleasant impression that the Golden Oaks Library had become a second home to her, to some extent, at least.

Just before she crashed on the balcony, Rainbow opened her wings to break her free-fall and landed with soft thud. No matter how much she disliked her speed restriction indoors, the prismatic mare wanted to keep her promise. Not wasting any time, the pegasus pushed the door open and stepped inside Twilight’s bedroom.

The library’s caretaker was, as expected, not here. She’s probably down in the hall, reading some egghead stuff that’d give me a headache… Since Rainbow had come to talk to Twilight, for the purpose of lightening up her mood after Discords antics, the pegasus left the empty bedroom and flew down the stairs. A grin flashed over the prismatic mare’s face when she spotted her marefriend at one of the study desks, her nose buried in a pile of maps and two bags of light blue crystals beside her.

Fun time! Rainbow softened the beats of her wing until she was just able to hover over the ground, reducing the flapping noise to a minimum. Her grin gained a mischievous touch and she positioned herself just over Twilight without actually touching her. The pegasus’ ears perked up when the librarian started mumbling something unintelligible. Had she been heard?

“…if I… mmmh… no… but when… no… maybe like this? That could work… mhm…” Twilight murmured and moved a little stone over the map of Ponyville that lay before her. Then she fell silent again, contemplating over the new layout.

Relaxing a bit, Rainbow wiped her hoof over her forehead, relieved that the unicorn hadn’t noticed her yet. It was crucial for her improvised prank that Twilight didn’t see her until it was too late.

“Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student, don’t you want to bow before me?” Rainbow asked in her best imitation of Princess Celestia.

The reaction was as immediate. To Rainbow, it looked like Twilight tried to apologize, turn around and bow, all at once. What actually happened, was that the purple unicorn tripped over her own legs and fell on her face with an inarticulate ‘I’m sor-mpf‘. She sort of bit her leg as well.

The cyan prankster clenched her teeth but remained silent. It wasn’t over just yet. Hardly able to contain her laughter, she watched as Twilight got up again and look around in panic, trying to find her mentor. Phase two begins… Rainbow’s wings retracted back to sides, no longer keeping her in the air and the pegasus slumped down on the back of the unsuspecting unicorn. The purple librarian yelped and collapsed, her legs unable to support the suddenly much higher weight.

“Geez, Twilight… I thought you’d be stronger than that. I’m not that heavy,” Rainbow complained when she rolled off the lavender unicorn, who was sprawled out on the floor, and got back on her hooves.

Dazed by the impact and still in panic, Twilight stood up a second time, again trying to find out where Celestia was. Then her eyes fell on the prismatic pegasus, who was causally dusting herself off and it dawned on her that Rainbow had pulled a fast one on her, or rather two. Anger surged in the pranked librarian. She was usually rather easygoing when it came to pranks but imposing her teacher somehow rubbed her the wrong way. It wasn’t too bad, but enough to annoy her.

“Rainbow!” she yelled. “What in Equestria do you think you are do-“ Twilight didn’t get any further.

As soon as the unicorn had started to rant, Rainbow had closed in and sealed the librarian’s lips with her own. A cyan hoof wandered around the lavender mare’s neck and pulled her deeper into the kiss. Twilight, too perplexed by the surprising action didn’t put up any kind of resistance as Rainbow’s tongue slid into her mouth and started roaming it freely. Desire welled up in the purple unicorn as she felt the athlete playing with her tongue, like a lover would ask for a dance. Just as she began to forget that she was angry at her marefriend and tried to push back with her own tongue, the pegasus broke away as sudden as she had come and backed off a couple of steps, grinning at Twilight in a provoking manner.

Rainbow watched in amusement as various expressions flashed over Twilight's face. Panic. Anger. Desire. Confusion. Anger again. The cocktail of emotions and the adrenalin rush did their work and overloaded the bookish unicorn’s brain, rendering her unable to move or even realize what was going on around her until she either managed to sort it out, which could take hours, or someone snapped her out of her catatonic state. For now, though, Rainbow was content watching her marefriend trying to unjam the gears in her head.

The cyan mare had discovered this phenomenon a while ago, when she had accidently spilled ink over some of Twilight’s work, ruining it completely. Afterwards, she had come to Twilight and honestly tried to apologize with such a guilty expression, that the lavender unicorn had been caught between being horrified, angry and giving Rainbow a hug to make her feel better. Since then, the pegasus had tried to figure out how to use it for her entertainment and had been rather successful.

About ten minutes later, Rainbow got bored and decided to finally help her special somepony out a bit. Fetching a book and a burning candle, the pegasus walked up to her lover and held the book up to Twilight’s eyes. Now she brought the candle closer and closer to the book, waiting for the librarian’s book preservation instincts to kick in. She didn’t have to wait long.

“Are you crazy!?” Twilight screamed in terror, when she became aware of the situation and snatched the book away from Rainbow and the flame of the candle.

“Sorry, Twi. It’s still the best way to unfreeze your brain,” Rainbow stated matter-of-factly.

The bookworm threw her a confused glance. Then she remembered the events that had led to the situation and connected the dots. Exhaling and giving Rainbow an exasperated glare, Twilight lowered her head.

“Rainbow, sometimes you are just insufferable…”

“…ly awesome?” the addressed pegasus added smirking, causing Twilight to facehoof and groan. Laughing light-heartedly, Rainbow pulled the purple mare into a hug and nuzzled her cheek. “You know I just love to tease you a bit.” She leaned back a bit to look into her lover’s purple eyes. “Ya know, I don’t wanna be mean or anything, right?” the cyan mare asked with a slightly unsure undertone.

Twilight’s anger flew away, when she met Rainbow’s gaze and a soft sigh escaped her lips. The athlete’s magenta eyes showed earnest concern about her and filled her with the warm feeling of security, knowing that somepony deeply cared for her. How could she possibly stay angry with with the colorful pegasus?

“It’s fine, Dash. Just don’t do it too often, okay?” Twilight smiled weakly.

“Deal!” Rainbow agreed with a broad smile.

Happy about her success, prank-wise and making-up-wise, the cyan pegasus kissed Twilight on the nose and tightened the hug again. For a while, neither of them moved, simply enjoying the warmth of the other, feeling the slow rhythm of their heartbeats together.

Eventually, they ended the hug and Rainbow curiously glanced at the desk, Twilight had been working on until she had interrupted her. “What were you doing anyway, Twi? And what’s with these crystals?”

“Oh, yeah. I was working on an early warning system. I think I’m almost done. Last thing to do is coming up with a practicable positioning,” cheered Twilight and clapped her hooves together in excitement.

“I’ll probably regret asking, but what and why are you doing this again?” asked Rainbow with a crooked grin, knowing very well that the librarian loved to talk about her breakthroughs and magical accomplishments and since nopony else was around, she’d have to be the listener, no matter how little she understood.

“I’m glad you ask. You see, every living entity has a certain amount of magic in it. How strong it is, depends on what kind of creature it is. A bunny has less magic than a pegasus like you, but it also differs between individuals. For example, I have more magic than the average unicorn. This shows in what is called the magical aura. The more magic you possess, the stronger your aura gets.

“Now, the darkling that froze Rarity’s boutique is a creature of pure magic and if you think about how much magic it takes to siphon enough energy to get a large room, like the inspiration room, down to these temperatures we saw, it must be pretty powerful. Its aura is probably almost as strong as Celestia’s!” Twilight explained in awe.

“Okay, I get it. Most of it, anyway, but was that about an alarm system?” Rainbow interrupted and walked up to the bags of crystals.

“Well… Actually, it’s more a detection system.” Twilight continued, “I grow these crystals in my lab. Alone, they are little more than rocks but what makes them special is that you can give them special properties with the right spells. Depending on how you enchant them, they can store energy, give it off as a beam of light, get extremely heavy on command, lock something in its current position even mid-air via telekinesis and almost anything else. The only problems are that whatever they do, they still need the same amount of magic it would take you to cast the spell and have to be charged with magic regularly, if you use them for something that needs energy since they don’t generate their own and they have special requirements if you want pure ones. You can use flawed ones too, but they have a very limited capacity. Because of this, the ones I use are pretty rare.

“I adjusted half of these ones to absorb energy. Since the magical aura is kind of an energy field around you, if something with a strong aura gets close to them, it will charge them to a certain degree,” continued Twilight and pointed at one of the bags. “Next, I’ll link each one with another one that glows. The more energy is absorbed by the first crystal, the sensor, the brighter the other one, the receiver, shines. So, basically, if the darkling gets close to one of the crystals I’ll put up in and around Ponyville, its counterpart will give off light. And if I arrange the receiver crystals on a map in the same pattern as the sensors in town, they’ll also tell me the location of the darkling!” Twilight finished with a gleeful grin and looked towards Rainbow.

The pegasus met the unicorn’s eyes with a rather bland expression. “So… you want to place these crystals around Ponyville and next time the darkling shows up, you know where it is?” Rainbow tried to summarize what she had understood.

“No, it’s…” Twilight begun, but stopped immediately, reminding herself that she wasn’t talking to a magical expert. “Actually, yes. That’s pretty much it. I just have to take a look at how tight I’ll make the sensor grid and where exactly I can put them without interfering with anypony’s dealings.”

“Uhu… I’ll let you figure that one out yourself,” Rainbow stated flatly, “I’ll be upstairs, reading a book or something, maybe taking a nap.” She trotted towards the stairs again and shot a glance over her shoulder back at Twilight and grinned invitingly. “I wouldn’t mind having a bit of company, though…”

The lavender unicorn looked confused for a moment until she recognized the hint. “Oh… ähm… Sorry, Rainbow, I really want to get this done as soon as possible and I’m almost done. I’ll come up later, okay?” she apologized in an almost regretful tone, a faint blush gracing her muzzle.

“Awww…” pouted Dash. “Don’t take too long, I might get bored.”

“I won’t, Rainbow, I’ll be there soon!” Twilight called after the pegasus with a smile.

The cyan mare flew up the stairs without a response. Up in the bedroom, the Rainbow dropped on Twilight’s mattress and grabbed a book from the nightstand, a novel her marefriend had recommended to her. It had started rather interesting and the pegasus had decided to read it whenever she spent some time alone in the library. Leaning back on the pillow, Rainbow opened the book and flipped through it, looking for the part she had left off.

There it is! Dash put her hoof between the pages, shuffled herself into a more comfortable position and started reading. Soon, she was rapt by the adventures of the Fellowship of the Ring in the Mines of Mareia, forgetting the world around her.

Two hours later, a clip-clop from the stairs told about Twilight Sparkle’s arrival. The door to the bedroom creaked quietly as it was pushed open by the librarian’s magic. Twilight’s head appeared in the opening and granted her an open view into her room. She giggled lightly when she saw Rainbow Dash snoring on the bed, the open book lying on her face, covering it up completely.

She must be really tired. Maybe her work was exhausting today… Smiling softly, Twilight stepped beside the bed and enveloped the book in a magenta aura to remove and put it somewhere safe. The nightstand was the usual pace for Rainbow’s books, so the unicorn turned towards it and placed the novel in it. Unfortunately for her, she lost sight of the prismatic mare in the process.

The lavender unicorn yelped when she was suddenly grabbed by two cyan legs and yanked into bed. Before she could even think about reacting, the same hooves that had captured her, started to poke and prod her sensitive ribs, causing her to shriek out loudly. Encouraged by their success, the hooves continued to work on Twilight’s sides and turned the squealing into uncontrollable laughter in which Rainbow joined in with her raspy voice.

Finally overcoming her initial shock, Twilight attempted to wriggle herself out of Rainbow’s grip. In return, Rainbow tightened her strong, yet gentle embrace and unfolded her wings to aid her tickle-ambush. The librarian’s legs flailed around wildly in a desperate attempt to free her but no avail. The shameless attacks on her ribs continued relentlessly, letting her helplessly gasping for air.

In her last resort, Twilight used what little concentration she could muster to flare up her horn and tried to push Rainbow away from her. Though, no matter how much effort she put in it, the pegasus didn’t even seem to notice. Damnit… The anti-magic amulet! With another assault on her most ticklish spots and another fit of laughter, the lavender unicorn lost her focus again.

“Rai-huh-nbo-ha-w, waaaah. Let me-ah uhahi-go-ho-hu! Ple-hihi-ase-haha!” Twilight barely managed to get out.

The cyan mare ceased her onslaught for a moment and let Twilight catch her breath. Her hooves and wings remained in place, though, wrapped around the librarian’s midriff, inches away from her ribs. After all, why should she give up her advantage so easily?

“Anything wrong, Twi?” the pegasus asked with a playful grin.

“That’s not fair, Rainbow! I can’t use my magic and you have your wings!” complained Twilight, scared that any movement would be considered an escape attempt and punished with more tickling.

“So? I’d call it revenge. Till now, you’ve always had the advantage. It’s time to turn the tables!” Rainbow replied with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Yet again, Twilight found herself at the questionable mercy of Rainbow Dash’s hooves and wings. The librarian couldn’t say how long she squirmed in her lover’s grip. In reality, it was about ten minutes, but to her, it felt like an eternity.

Eventually, Dash decided it became boring to restrain and tickle Twilight from behind and rolled over, throwing the laughing mare on the bed so that the unicorn landed on her back and buried her marefriend under her own body pinning her down with ease. Her mistake was to let the librarian regain her self-control.

Seeing her chance, Twilight grabbed the blanket with her magic and wrapped it around them, constricting Rainbow’s wings and both their legs with it. In the end, both of them couldn’t move anything but their heads that stuck out of the cocoon of fabric that bound them together face to face.

“Awww… Come on, Twi. Was that really necessary?” pouted the cyan mare.

“Sorry, Rainbow. I need a break,” panted Twilight heavily.

“Already? I barely started!”

“And that’s exactly why I won’t let you out just yet.” Twilight laughed out of her breath.

Rainbow shot Twilight a slightly annoyed glare. Then her expression became impish. “Well… If you won’t let me out, I’ll have to find myself something else to do,” she cooed into the lavender unicorn’s ear and started biting lightly on it.

A slight moan escaped Twilight’s lips as Rainbow nibbled her way along the ear and started kissing it every now and then, much to her lover’s delight. When she reached its base, Rainbow let go of the ear and continued her ministrations on the neck of her marefriend, earning another moan, accompanied by a deep sigh of content.

Twilight relaxed and released the blanket from her magic to wrap her legs around the cyan mare whose loving endearments she enjoyed. Free of her bonds, Rainbow returned the embrace with both wings and legs, keeping the lavender unicorn close to her chest.

Aiming for Twilight’s lips, Rainbow placed a trail of kisses along the line of the librarian’s neck. As the cyan mare reached her goal, she touched Twilight’s nose with her own and stared into the purple pools the purple unicorn called her own.

Her thoughts consumed by the sheer amount of love in Twilight’s gaze, the daring pegasus felt her heart beat quicken its pace. Not wasting any more time, the cyan pegasus tilted her head and placed her lips upon her lover’s and let her tongue ask for entrance. The librarian didn’t hesitate to comply and gave in to Rainbow. Not before long, they were lost for the world and the world for them.

“Rainbow, have you thought about what we will tell the others tomorrow?”

Bewilderment spread on the addressed pegasus’ face. One moment, Rainbow was enjoying Twilight’s affectionate snuggling after a very satisfying, over an hour-long make-out session, the next she was faced with a question regarding something of which she didn’t even know what it was about. On top of that, the librarian had asked with an unsettling undertone that indicated that this question was really important to her, in more than one way. The cyan mare couldn’t exactly place it, but she knew it meant that she treaded on thin ice.

“Uhm… could you remind me what you have planned? I think I may have forgotten it,” she answered with a sheepish grin and inched away and down until she was able to look the librarian into the eyes.

“You really don’t remember?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Tomorrow is our monthly picnic for all six of us!” Seeing Rainbow’s mouth form a silent ‘O’, Twilight put her hoof on her forehead and let out a slight groan. “Anyway, what I wanted to know is, if I can tell them about us or not.”

“Oh… aehm… You know… I… err…” the pegasus stuttered and trailed off, trying to buy herself more time.

Her first impulse would have been a decisive ‘No!’. Unfortunately, Rainbow had the feeling that Twilight wouldn’t take that answer too well for some reason, so she had to come up with something else. Then again, what did the unicorn want in the first place? Why was it so important for her to tell the others?

Before Dash could find her answer, Twilight sighed disappointedly. “So you still don’t know if you really want to be me, huh?” After a short pause she rolled over until she looked at the wall, turning her back towards Rainbow but the sad frown that had showed on Twilight’s face hadn’t gone unnoticed.

So that’s what this is about! It hit Rainbow like a train. Twilight was afraid that the carefree and independent pegasus would just leave her eventually and let the lavender unicorn yearn for the love she had been allowed to taste. Or even worse, that Dash would stay with her, due to her loyalty, a constant reminder that her love would never be really reciprocated. She really loves me that much…

In the back of her head, Rainbow had already known it for a while but had always shoved it aside, the little fact that the studious mare didn’t just have a simple crush on her. And now it came crashing down on her with all of its might. All the little things she now realized what Twilight had been doing to show Rainbow Dash her love.

Twilight had practically done everything she could to give Rainbow a second home in the library. She had trusted the pegasus with her innermost secrets, like the dream the lavender unicorn sometimes had, that Celestia would be her mother and cared for her like one instead of a mentor. She had literally offered her heart to Dash and what had the athlete done? Treated the whole affair like her dirty little secret.

“Twilight, I… I…”

“It’s okay, Rainbow,” Twilight responded unconvincingly.

“No, I mean…”

“No, Rainbow. It was stupid of me to think you would love me back anyway. Can you please leave me alone now?” Even the brash and thick-headed Dash could hear clearly that Twilight was more than upset.

Taken more than a little aback by the unexpected request, the cyan pegasus sat up and stared at Twilight’s curled up form and laid a hoof on the spot on the blanket where she assumed the unicorn’s shoulder was.

“You sure? You don’t sound like I should really-“

“Just GO!” Twilight suddenly burst out causing Rainbow to jump off the bed, retracting her hoof. A sob sounded through the room. “Please… Leave me alone…”

Rainbow was torn. For one, her best friend and marefriend was clearly miserable and she felt the almost irresistible urge to console her, seeing it not only as her desire but also her duty. On the other side, she felt that she herself was the reason for Twilight’s state of mind and the unicorn wanted Dash to give her some space. Also the athlete’s mind was buzzing with thoughts and worries on what they saw differently in their relationship, desperately trying to find a way make this all okay.

For many long seconds, Rainbow stared silently at the pile of fabric Twilight had buried herself under. Neither did she hear if the librarian cried and sobbed under the blanket, nor did she have any idea what she could possibly say to ease the situation. In the end, the pegasus turned around and fled through the window.

Beating her wings mercilessly, Rainbow shot into the gloaming sky. She was angry. Mostly at herself. How could I mess this up so badly? She snarled at a passing bird, giving it almost a heart attack. What did even happen there?

The colorful weather mare spotted her cloud mansion at Ponyville’s outskirts and flew towards it and stopped over it. Why did she get so upset? Twilight was disappointed because Rainbow didn’t want to make their relationship official. Okay, that wasn’t very nice, but that alone wouldn’t make such a mess out of her marefriend alone.

Rejecting or toying with her feelings would, though… Rainbow Dash suddenly realized what was the problem. She thinks it’s just a game for me… That I’m leading her on, taking advantage of her… Why else would I be so reluctant to tell the others? More than ever before, the impulsive daredevil wished she was flexible enough to bite her own flank. How could you miss that, you stupid featherbrain?

Cursing herself for quite a long time, Rainbow landed on her roof and smacked her hoof against her forehead repeatedly. When she finally stopped, her head hurt and she had run dry on swearwords. Even if it didn’t help, she definitely felt like she deserved it.

Her mind returned to the problem at hand. If I don’t play with her, then what am I doing? The cyan mare knew she felt something for Twilight, so she wasn’t exactly leading the librarian on and she certainly didn’t want to give up their relationship either. Going through what happened wouldn’t help anymore, since Rainbow knew what the unicorn craved so deeply and everything else boiled down to the one question to herself, she didn’t have the answer to.

Why can’t I just tell her that I love her too? It was clear that there was a deeper problem. But what? The feeling was a strangely familiar one. It reminded her of her many failed attempts of a Sonic Rainboom before the Young Flyers Competition almost two years ago for some reason. Not the failures themselves however, but rather the time just before. The feeling had been almost the same now. Rainbow Dash had been…

I am… afraid? Her friends knew about her stage fright and how stressed she had been during the competition, she could hardly deny it, but her training hours with Fluttershy had been a different story. Yes, she had always done well in her routines. Until the Rainboom, that is. She knew how difficult it was to pull one off and knew she had done one before but every time the Mach cone had formed around her, fear had crawled up her chest, the fear of failure. The fear of being not good enough to achieve her dream. This fear had held her back, weakened her resolve, paralyzed her wings.

When wasn’t just for anymore, when Rarity plummeted to the ground, Rainbow had no time for fear. Every thought about what would happen if she failed had been overridden by the need to save her friend. There had been no space for doubt left. And she had succeeded.

But here? What was she afraid of? Rainbow reflected about the last time these feelings had surfaced. Yesterday, she had been dozing on the couch when Twilight had come over and rested her head on her marefriend’s chest, simply staring into her magenta eyes. Her gaze had been so full of love and commitment. It had held the unspoken promise of eternal, unbreakable love, the promise to be hers forever. This had been the moment a shadow of doubt had snuck its way into Rainbow’s heart.

Was it this what Dash feared? The magnitude of Twilight’s love for her? No… Not directly anyway. The lavender unicorn didn’t cause the fear directly. It was more Rainbow’s own mind that caused the reluctance. The prismatic mare hadn’t managed to do the Sonic Rainboom before because she was scared about the consequences of her possible failure. Here, she feared for the future as well but in a different way. Her worries weren’t about her…

Am I ready to devote myself to Twilight? Am I willing to spend my life with her? Can I give her what she needs? Rainbow felt lost. She had finally discovered her problem and it weighed her down like nothing else before. Never had she felt this insecure before. Not only was her own future at stake but also Twilight’s. This was the first time for Rainbow to make a decision of this gravity for somepony else and she was not sure if she was up to the task.

Love was new ground for Rainbow. There was no experience whatsoever she could rely on. The entire relationship had been an experiment from the start and now, it had become more serious than they had expected. The pegasus sat back on her haunches and looked up to the stars that had risen while she had tortured her mind.

The right question… Twilight always says, you have to ask the right questions to get the answer you need. Sure, it’s mostly about her egghead stuff, but it’s worth a shot. the cyan mare thought and a jolt of vigor shot through her. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and now, she had finally seen it.

Sooo… how would it affect my dreams and plans if I stay with Twilight? Can I see myself becoming old with her? Rainbow wanted to be a Wonderbolt. There was nothing that could faze her in this regard. It was her dream since she was merely a foal, she had trained her whole life for it and her stay at the Wonderbolt Academy had shown that she was doubtlessly capable enough to join them. What the weather mare had learned there about the life of a Wonderbolt wasn’t very much, but enough to give her a clear perspective of her future life.

The Wonderbolts had four training grounds of which one was the Wonderbolt Academy, obviously. The other three were in Cloudsdale, the traveling city of the pegasi, Fillydelphia, the city of progress, and Canterlot, the capital of Equestria and cradle of unity between the three tribes, the city of the rich and the famous. As far as Rainbow had understood, she could ask to be assigned to one of them as soon as she was officially part of the team.

Each training ground had its own captain but they all reported to Spitfire. She was the one in charge of every little aspect of the whole organization. What most ponies didn’t know was how large the Wonderbolts really were. Celestia had originally formed them out of the pegasi’s old fighter squadrons when there had been no more wars in Equestria. Now there were mostly athletes but still reported to Celestia like any other part of the military. As long as Equestria had peace, though, they were allowed to act as they see fit.

Their active members had only the obligation to show up to the regular training sessions to stay in shape, and participate in races and aerial shows around their area of responsibility. Besides that, they were mostly representatives and special task units for official events or secret operations.

Effectively, Rainbow would have pretty much the same amount of free time as she had now, with the only difference that her work would become her training and vice versa. She would have to move out, though. Commuting would be hardly practicable.

Maybe if we move to Canterlot? Twilight won’t stay here forever anyway. It’s just a matter of time before she becomes Celestia’s archmage or something. After all, she’s pretty much the most powerful and intelligent unicorn in the world! A bit crazy sometimes, but I guess it’s okay if you are in that position.

The more Rainbow thought about it, the more appealing it became. Even if the ponies in Ponyville tended to forget it, Twilight was one of Canterlot’s top elite, practically royalty because of her brother’s marriage with Princess Cadence and being Celestia’s personal protegeé. She wouldn’t have any problems to move back to her home city and Rainbow would be part of the elite as well, being a Wonderbolt and all.

In addition, the Canterlot society had rather loose morals as a whole, so there wouldn’t be any problems with them being two mares either, unlike in some rural areas or Cloudsdale. Not that homosexual couple was officially shunned anywhere in Equestria but not all ponies were equally accepting of fillyfoolers and coltcuddlers and Rainbow had little interest in dealing with homophobic comments.

Alas, her life as a Wonderbolt wouldn’t last forever, she knew that all too well. As much as she hated the fact, Wonderbolts had an expiration date. Twenty years where the maximum of time a Wonderbolt was allowed to be a full-time member. The strain of the regular extreme training to uphold their endurance and agility would wear out her body. She would be still able to race now and then and teach new recruits but her peak performance would be in the past and someday, she would have to retire completely. Then, she would be glad to have somepony to be there for her. She would be glad if Twilight was there.

A smile graced Rainbow’s lips as she let herself fall on her back. Seems like I asked the right question… Thank you, Twilight. The cyan mare closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her mind wandered towards the lavender unicorn. And what recent event had led to her current position.

Horseapples! Rainbow’s eyes flew open, when remembered how bad Twilight’s mood had been when she left. How could I leave her like that? I have to get back to her! Panic filled the pegasus as she jumped up and flew through the starry night as fast as her wings would carry her.

Soon, she spotted the Golden Oaks Library and descended towards it. Much to her relief, Dash noticed that the balcony door to Twilight’s bedroom was still open. Careful to not make any loud noises, Rainbow landed on the wooden floor and snuck into the dark room.

The athlete’s ears perked up, trying to filter out any information they could as long as her eyes were getting used to the dark interior. The soft breaths of a sleeping pony filled the room and not before long, the cyan mare recognized Twilight's sleeping form on the bed. With quiet steps, Rainbow approached her to get a look at her lover’s face.

Dash flinched when she got a clear view on the unicorn. Dried tears and mucus stained her fur and she was still curled up in a fetal position. Twilight must have cried her eyes out because of me. Guilt washed over Rainbow. At least I can give her the answer she wants now… If it’s not too late... the cyan mare anxiously thought and straightened herself.

“Rainbow?” a weak voice sounded through the darkness. “What do you want?”

Twilight had woken up and stared at Rainbow with an incredibly sad expression. A feeling of remorse, newfound dedication and love replaced the guilt she had felt earlier and clenched around her heart almost painfully. Why did I ever hesitate to give her my heart too?

Without a responding to the question, the cyan mare climbed on the bed and laid herself beside Twilight. Carefully but firmly, she extended her legs and pulled the librarian closer to her, ignoring her feeble struggling.

Once she was close enough, Rainbow leaned in and pressed her lips against Twilights. There was none of the lust and hunger in the kiss, she had shown earlier this day. Instead, it was full of passion and devotion to the unicorn, not leaving a doubt how much the pegasus loved her. Not breaking their connection, Dash nestled her whole body against Twilight’s, feeling her resistance dwindling away and giving in to her.

Eventually, they broke apart and Rainbow gazed into the librarian’s purple eyes. The last bits of doubt vanished from her mind. This was the pony she would love to share her life with, standing together for all times, no matter if they were good or bad. There was no place for hesitation or denial anymore.

“We’ll tell them. Together.” Rainbow gave the purple mare a heartfelt smile.

Twilight’s eyes widened a bit. “What? I mean… Why now? Wha-“

Rainbow interrupted the question with another kiss. No more doubt. No more waiting.

“Don’t ask, Twilight. I just had to clear my mind about something.” Letting her words getting swallowed by the darkness of the night, Dash cradled the lavender unicorn’s head into her chest.

“I love you.” Hearing these words for the first time from her lover’s mouth, a smile of content snuck its way on Twilight’s lips as she closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

Rainbow sighed and rested her head on her marefriend’s. Her life had just taken a new turn, one she had never expected but she would enjoy it to the fullest. After a long time, Rainbow was finally completely in peace with herself again. Exhausted, she followed her lover’s lead and drifted away into the realm of dreams.

Chapter 1: Disturbance

"Are you done with reading now? You know the library has to be open tomorrow and you have to do your job as librarian. I can't do all of your work alone!" called a more than a bit frustrated Spike down the stairs.

"Just one more chapter, then I'll go to sleep," a clearly distracted Twilight called back.

"That's what you said the last fourteen times I checked on you..." The little dragon groaned as he smacked his claw to his face.

"I really mean it this time! I promise!" came the parenthetic reply.

Earlier that day, Twilight got a new book about the newest insights and innovations in all kinds of magic. Needless to say, it was a pretty big one. It probably weighed at least half as much as Twilight herself. She immediately started reading it and probably wouldn't have noticed if Rainbow Dash and Pinkie "borrowed" a big part of the library’s books to hide them somewhere else.

Right now she sat, enthralled by the book, in front of the fireplace and was about half finished with it. Spike on the other hand tried to get her to bed since she did this far too often as it could be healthy for her lately. That was mostly the reason Spike was upset. Mostly... He surely was concerned about her health but when she slept in till afternoon, it had the unpleasant side effect that he had to take care of the library alone. Not that he wasn't capable of doing so, he just barely got to do something else and was most of the time too tired afterwards to do anything productive.

He stood there and pondered for a while if he should keep trying or just give up. For one part he would have a chance that Twilight would be awake in time to give him a free afternoon to help Rarity or go to Pinkie to work on a new gemcake recipe that they came up with lately. On the other hand he could very likely end up with a lot more frustration and a stressful day of trying not to fall asleep while he stood on a ladder.

Eventually he sighed in defeat and turned around to go to sleep, hoping he wouldn't have to drag the unicorn upstairs in the morning because she fell asleep over the book on the floor. It wouldn't be a sight the library’s visitors would appreciate very much. Instead he was greeted by a pair of large, white-glowing eyes, staring at him out of a cloud of impenetrable darkness. At first he didn't even recognized them as such, he just realized that the door to the bedroom wasn't where it was supposed to be. Blame it on the lack of sleep he had recently. Then however, it finally settled in what he was staring at.

"WAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Unfortunately for Spike the staircase was still behind him and being scared like that caused him to jump back pretty far. Too far... He fell down the stairs, causing quite a lot of loud crashing noises. He was just trying to stand up shakily as a worried Twilight appeared, obviously startled by Spike’s unquiet descend.

"Spike! Are you alright? What happened?" She unleashed a flurry of concerned questions.

The little dragon in question however immediately started to panic as soon as he managed to shoo away the stars he was seeing and tried to hide behind Twilight.

"There is ghost up there! A big black one!" he stuttered with clicking teeth.

The purple unicorn stared at him in disbelief. She had thought he was old enough to stop believing in ghosts and such things. She was obviously wrong.

"There are no ghosts, Spike. You know they are just made up to scare foals?"

"B... But there was one! I swear!" he stammered in protest.

Twilight considered if she could get Spike to sleep anyways. Of course she didn't believe that there was a ghost or anything. Even if they existed, she would have noticed if something big and scary came in. Such things aren't known for being stealthy.

"Okay, if it helps you, I'll go up there with you and show you that there is nothing to be afraid of, deal?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"You go first!"

Twilight rolled her eyes but didn't comment on it. She had enough experience to know it was pointless to argue with the little dragon when he was unreasonably scared by some imaginary beast. Instead, the librarian just went up the stairs, turned around and waited for her assistant to follow her. Somehow he managed to get a bucket, a broom and a pan lid as improvised battle gear.

"Really, Spike? Is that really necessary? I mean come on!" She deadpanned.

He didn't reply but at least he hesitantly started to climb up the stairs. Twilight waited patiently until he arrived and pointed her hoof to the bedroom.

"See? There is nothing there. You may have a peaceful slumber now, Mister," she said with a hint of venom in her voice.

"But there was something there! I swear," the dragon grumbled in protest.

Twilight on the other hand didn't bother to continue the ‘discussion’ if you can call it that and moved to the door. Again she waited for the anxious dragon to follow. He came in and looked around as if there was a Timberwolf lurking in some corner, but when he saw nothing he eased up a bit and crawled into his basket, tossing his weapon and armor aside.

"Are you really sure that there is nothing here?"

"I am. Good night, Spike," Twilight murmured quietly and turned around to get back to her abandoned book.

As she moved out and closed the door, a strange feeling sent a cold shiver down her spine. Did someone leave a window open? No... There was no breeze and it was warm enough in the library. Something about this sensation felt oddly familiar to the unicorn but she had no idea why. Eventually she shrugged it off and went back to her tome to finish it, or the chapter at least. Much to her dismay she didn't get very far in the process.

"WAAAAAAAAH!!!"

The scream came from upstairs. Twilight stood there, frozen for a moment, one eyelid twitching. She was pretty torn. For one, she was responsible for Spike and cared for him, so she should go up there and try to soothe and lull him to sleep. Another part of her wanted to storm up, yell him down and subsequently knock him out so he would let her finish that damned book. However both sides agreed to find the troublemaker first, so she opted to save the decision for later and went up to deal with him. She found him rather quickly though not where she expected him to be…

"Seriously! How did you get up there?" Twilight asked flabbergasted, as she spotted Spike hanging three and half meters up on the chandelier.

"I d-don't know. I-is it gone?"

"What? What is gone?"

"The ghost! I saw it again! It's black and smokey and…" he started, shivering enthusiastically.

"Okay, okay, okay… You know what? I'll just stay here and if there really is a monster or ghost or anything you just show me and I'll banish it. In return you stop screaming. Okay?"

"…okay."

They stood silent for a moment.

"Could… Could you help me down, please?"

Yet again, a hoof met a face with a groan.

The living shadow observed the emotional display with growing amusement. It didn't mean to scare the dragon in the first place; it just wanted to get a closer look at him and expected him to freeze like the critters in the forest did when it came close, much to its mystification. Now he understood that they feared it and tried to hide. Dragons obviously had other defense reflexes. But when it felt a strong magical entity coming close, it decided to hide for a change and veiled itself in a phantasmal shroud to stay hidden to the naked eye. Right now the situation was similar but the unicorn wouldn't leave this time, though it was rather entertaining to see the little dragon’s scared reaction again, when the dark creature showed itself again. But it could prove useful to watch the unicorn. The ponies seemed to be only civilized species here, and this one was especially powerful too, and it didn't exactly want to hide from what it sought forever but also didn't want to antagonize them by any inappropriate actions. It would probably the best to find out more about them before it revealed itself to them.

Its train of thoughts was shortly interrupted as the unicorn dimmed the lights and went to sleep and soon started snoring softly. The enigmatic being considered this a signal for an opportunity to contemplate about what it saw during the past hours and what to make of it. Also it should think of how it could appear less frightening. Hopefully the next day would bring more information.