A Life of Love

A Life of Love

Dares

“Mmm... dare,” Rainbow said after a moment's hesitation, her challenging smile illuminated by the dim light of the flickering lamp in front of her. Around the light source sat two other ponies, both of whom looked rather unimpressed.

“What a surprise,” Rarity muttered.

“What?”

“We've been playin' this for a while now, and you've done nothing but dares,” Applejack explained with the same bored expression Rarity wore.

Over the past couple hours, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity been huddled together in the upper floor of Carousel Boutique. It wasn't Rainbow or Applejack's first choice for a sleepover, but compromises had to be made. In the end it was worth it; they had had a good evening together, the three of them rarely hanging out together outside of a group. It had originally been Rarity's idea, some kind of 'bonding exercise' since of all their friends she knew the least about Rainbow and Applejack. After some convincing, they had agreed to spend a night over at Rarity's house above her shop, albeit with some reservations.

The hesitation, however, turned out to be pointless; early on into the night they found they had more in common then they thought, and what wasn't shared between them were interesting topics of conversation. Hours of the night had been burned away as they chattered happily among other traditional slumber party things like s'mores and the obligatory pillow fight (though they had all agreed to skip makeovers; Rarity had to compromise too). Eventually they had settled down to a simple game of Truth or Dare.

Rainbow shrugged. “So what?”

“Dear, the game is about more than dares,” Rarity explained with a sigh, Applejack nodded her head in agreement.

“What? Would you rather have me spill some mushy truth like the two of you have been doing this entire time? No thanks; so not my style,” Rainbow said defensively, crossing her arms as Applejack rolled her eyes. Rarity, however, lit up as she got an idea.

“Rainbow, you're homosexual, correct?” Rarity asked slyly.

Rainbow gave her an odd look. “Yeah...” she answered slowly, scrutinizing the slight smirk Rarity wore, “Why?”

“Well then here's my dare; tomorrow morning I want you to ask one of the other girls out on a date,” Rarity stated proudly, eliciting a smirk from the orange pony next to her.

“W-what?” Rainbow stuttered, “W-why?”

“It's very simple; I've known you nearly four years now, and not once have I seen you with anypony, and beside; you seem convinced you're not gonna pick truth. So you either take the dare or answer a question.” Rarity explained simply, her self-satisfied smile ever present.

After a moment of debate, Rainbow shrugged. “Alright, fine. Who?”

Rarity's mouth dropped, “Y-you're sure you wouldn't rather take a question?”

“Yep, I'm sure. Now who should it be?” Rainbow responded with a smile of her own, having caught on to Rarity's ploy to get her to answer a question she wouldn't have wanted to answer. A single date with a close friend wasn't so bad, anyway.

“Pinkie,” Applejack grinned, ignoring Rarity’s shocked expression and leaning in close over the lantern “I want to see you survive a date with Pinkie Pie.”

“Applejack! You can't seriously be implying she ask one of our friends out in the name of a dare!” Rarity exclaimed, horrified.

“Why not? You're the one that dared her to do it,” Applejack retorted, confused at Rarity's sudden shift in opinion.

“I didn't think she'd actually do it!” Rarity hissed, eliciting a small chuckle from the pegasus.

“Rainbow Dash never backs down from a challenge; you should know that,” she laughed.

Rarity gaped at her, “you can't seriously be intending to do this to one of our friends, can you?”

“Why not? Who wouldn't want to get a piece of The Dash?” Rainbow asked proudly, puffing her chest out and motioning to herself with a hoof.

“But you'd be leading them on!” Rarity protested in a hoarse whisper, struggling to stop herself from outright shouting.

“Who said I'd do that? Who's to say it won't work out?” Rainbow asked, a little offended Rarity would even suggest she'd do such a thing, especially to one of her friends.

The alabaster unicorn was stunned. Shocked into silence. What had started as a simple way to make the game more interesting ended with... Rainbow getting a date? With one of their friends, no less. “Fine,” she sighed, “who's it gonna be?”

“Pinkie,” Applejack repeated, making Rainbow cringe.

“Yeah... not gonna happen. No offence to the mare, but... no.”

“Y’all have to do it or answer a question,” Applejack shot back with a victorious smile, assuming she'd won.

“Actually, my terms were one of our friends. Pinkie is one of our friends, yes, but not the only one. It's up to Rainbow which one,” Rarity corrected. She may not agree with the whole idea, but if Rainbow was going to do it the least she could do is make sure it was somepony she had a shot with.

Applejack muttered something about technicalities, but didn't argue the point. “Fine then, that really only leaves Fluttershy an' Twilight. And I doubt you'd wanna go out with Miss Books-a-lot. Unless we all have another friend in common?”

“Fluttershy's out of the question,” Rainbow snapped suddenly, drawing a questioning gaze from both Rarity and Applejack. “What?”

“Well you were pretty quick to rule her out,” Applejack trailed off suspiciously.

“Look, I caused Flutter's enough trouble back in school because of how I am. She's out of the question,” Rainbow stated with an air of finality. Nopony in the room questioned her.

“Well then, if nopony has any other suggestions, then I think our dear Twilight is going to get a visitor tomorrow morning,” Rarity said with a smile, before levelling a glare at Rainbow, “And if I hear that there's even the slightest possibility you're just leading her on for this stupid dare, mark my words Rainbow Dash; you will pay.”

With an audible gulp and a nervous chuckle, Rainbow said “I said I wouldn't so I won't. Besides, it's about time I get back into the whole dating thing; haven't had a marefriend since I moved to Ponyville.”

“Still woulda' liked to see you with Pinkie,” Applejack grumbled quietly.

“Well I guess that's the end of that game. It's about time we got some sleep anyway.”

-_-_-_-

Twilight groaned in frustration as yet another book was added to the ever-increasing pile of those that she'd read. By this point she'd gone through almost all the medical books she could find, but still she couldn't find a single illness that could explain her symptoms. Individually she could find causes for what ailed her, but together? Nothing seemed to match up, and it wasn't a constant thing either; only occasionally would her symptoms arise.

Things like her constantly flushing cheeks or her dry mouth could be easily explained by the most simple of viruses; like the common cold or even the flu, even though she had none of the other symptoms. But something like sudden increases in heart rate or finding it nearly impossible to speak? Nothing but the most serious of diseases could explain these things in a way that worked, and even then she showed none of the other signs.

She sighed as she looked out her window; it was well passed midnight by now. The moon was nearing the horizon, about to set and make way for the morning sun. She'd been at it all night. She leaned back from her desk, looking at the pitiful pile of books she had yet to search through. If the stack of books she had already read was the Eiffel Tower, then the books she needed to read was a cockroach. Foal's play compared to her usual reading sessions. Yet as she looked out the window to the starry sky beyond, she let lose a yawn. The likelihood that her answer would be in one of the books that remained was incredibly small, and she was getting tired; this was about to be the second all nighter this week, and it was only Wednesday! Or, it was about to be, as soon as the sun rose over the mountains.

Still, she was a mare on a mission, and neither the drooping of her eyelids nor the comfy bed calling to her could dissuade her from her task. In a magical glow she hoisted another book over to herself and flipped to the first page of actual writing. She got less than a paragraph in before her head flopped down on top of the paper, loud snores emanating from her slightly-open mouth as her body forced her to get the sleep it needed. No matter how hard her mind fought against it.

-_-_-_-

Rainbow frowned deeply as she knocked again. It wasn't like Twilight to be slow answering her door, and even if she was busy Spike was usually around to get it. It only made her more and more curious, and slightly concerned, as her third round of knocks drew nothing but more silence from the tree before her. Maybe Twilight wasn't home? No; that didn't make any sense. Twilight might be one to stick to strict schedules, but she always left her mornings open, especially this early, in case something came up and she needed to reschedule her day. So Rainbow knocked again, a bit harder this time.

To her surprise there was a response, only instead of an “I'm coming” or the door opening, there was a startled shriek and a thud from somewhere inside.

“Twilight?” Rainbow called, pressing her ear against the door as she waited for some sign the unicorn was still alive.

“Coming!” Came the muffled response from inside.

True to her word, Twilight was opening the door within seconds, peeking through a small crack at her early-morning visitor.

“Rainbow?” She asked blearily, blinking as her mind fought off the haze of sleep.

“Yeah, it's me. Were you asleep?” Rainbow asked, watching as Twilight opened the door fully. From the looks of it, she'd been sleeping on the floor; her coat was matted, her mane and tail in a state that would make Rarity run for the hills, and there was a clear patch of drool running from the corner of her lips down to her cheek.

“Umm...” Twilight trailed off, blushing in embarrassment as she remembered how she'd awoken. “Kinda...”

Rainbow raised a sceptical eyebrow. “You fell asleep studying again, didn't you?”

“Yeah...”

“Seriously? Do you, like, ever not study all night?” Rainbow asked with her signature cocky grin and a quiet chuckle.

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but as she stood in her doorway, looking at Rainbow, it was as if she forgot how to breathe. Her mouth dried, her heart accelerated, and she felt her cheeks flush an even deeper shade of red - from far more then just embarrassment. “There it is again,” she mumbled under her breath, dragging her eyes away from the pegasus and to the ground in thought.

“What's that?” Rainbow asked, quirking her head to the side.

Twilight shook her head forcefully, bringing her attention back to the mare in her doorway. “Sorry, just trying to figure something out. Now, did you need something?”

“Yeah, actually, the entire reason I came by. Wanna get dinner with me some time?” Rainbow asked calmly, her confident smile withering slightly as Twilight looked at her curiously.

“Dinner? Sure, I guess, but... I'm sorry but... why?” For some reason Twilight was finding it difficult to look Rainbow in the eyes.

“What do you mean why... oh, right; you're Twilight,” Rainbow chuckled, covering her mouth with a hoof as Twilight continued giving her an odd stare. Though it looked like her attention was divided. “Look, what I meant to say was this: Would you like to go out on a date with me?”

“I would- wait, what?” Twilight asked, eyes wide as plates as she stared at the pegasus in her door. Her symptoms were stronger than ever; she needed to be documenting this.

“You know, a date,” Rainbow offered again, frowning. Did Twilight really not know what a date was? Sure she was a bit of a shut in and kind of anti-social, but surely she'd at least heard of dates, right?

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I know what it is, but why? I mean, isn't that something you're supposed to do with your special somepony?”

It was Rainbow's turn to roll her eyes. “You're not too good at this kind of thing are you?” She asked rhetorically, laughing as Twilight gave her an even odder look. “That's why I'm asking you; I want you to be my special somepony.”

Twilight was, for a few moments, honestly speechless. The symptoms she'd been suffering for the past two weeks were reaching levels she'd never before experienced, and it was becoming increasingly distracting as she tried to find both a cause and an answer. What was even stranger was a new symptom, one she hadn't experienced from her illness yet; joy. She couldn't deny it; what she felt, at that exact moment, was pure, unconstrained joy. She was... happy. She was truly happy, and because Rainbow Dash had asked her out on a date? She felt... she felt like she wanted to say yes, but yet how could she? She had no romantic interest in the cyan pegasus standing on her front step. No physical or emotional attraction beyond that of simple friendship. And yet... and yet she wanted so desperately to say yes. She felt as though she wanted to scream 'yes' to the heavens, do a dance or two, maybe even hug the pegasus before her.

Twilight opened her mouth, though she was far from ready to answer. She had no idea what she was going to say, and yet her body went all on its own. She felt her mouth form the words, heard them filter through the air and her own bones back to her ears. Listened as her brain subconsciously processed the waves into recognizable sound, turning the sounds into a language her simple conscious mind could understand. She knew exactly what she'd said, but she had no way to know why or how or even if it was what she truly thought. But she'd said it, and her answer was still ringing through her ears. She vaguely heard Rainbow Dash reply with “Awesome, I'll be back around 6, be ready for dinner” before jumping up into the air and taking off.

For an unknown amount of time later, Twilight simply stood numbly in her doorway, at a complete and total loss. Her answer still reverberated in her mind as she struggled to understand the thoughts and feelings racing through her mind. Eventually, she was snapped out of her daze by a slight pressure on her ribs.

“Wha?” Twilight asked, snapping her head around to see a very confused, and somewhat concerned, baby dragon poking at her side and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Twilight?” He asked, pausing briefly to yawn loudly, “What are you doing? When I came downstairs you were just standing here, and you didn't hear me when I called you.”

“I... I don't really know...” Twilight answered distractedly, walking back into her house as though in a trance, not really seeing anything she looked at. “But... I think I'm happy about it...”

“Happy about standing in front of an empty doorway?” Spike questioned, now clearly concerned for her mental well-being as he followed her back to the desk she'd awoken at.

“I... need to read a few more books.”