Paranoia

A Life of Love

Paranoia

It was a bright sunny day in the town of Ponyville, with the various citizen out and about doing whatever it is they wanted or needed to do. It was the kind of day that could go two ways; perfect, or disastrous. For Rainbow Dash, it was leaning towards the latter, much to her displeasure.

She'd woken up that morning like she had any other; grumbling angrily at her alarm clock before begrudgingly pulling herself out of bed and getting the weather schedule from Town Hall. Her day had started twisting down the less-favourable path when she'd met two ponies on the way to Town Hall. Two ponies she wasn't interested in talking to after the previous night. However, they seemed determined to talk to her, as they waved her down to the ground a block away from the weather work Rainbow was planning on using as an excuse to get away.

“Hey there, RD, how's it going?” Applejack asked, a sickeningly smug smirk spread across her face.

Rainbow grit her teeth. She knew the farmer was playing with her, but she wasn't about to give herself away. “Fine, just have some weather work that really kind of needs my attention.”

“Really dear?” Rarity spoke up, the same self-satisfied smile as Applejack splitting her lips. “I think there's something else that has your attention. Or should I say somepony...”

“Look,” Rainbow growled, “I let you two know where we were going for our date so you could confirm I followed through with the dare. You didn't have to sit through all of it. In fact, I specifically asked you to leave once you were sure it was a date. I certainly didn't ask you to follow me back to Twilight's house!”

“We had to be sure it was a date all the way through,” Applejack chuckled, “And I gotta say; I'm pretty convinced. If I didn't know better, I'd say you wanted to ask Twilight out.”

“I would be inclined to agree,” Rarity added. “Though I am surprised she was the one who kissed you. I think our dear Twilight is falling for you.”

Fighting down a blush at the memory and Applejack's observation, Rainbow said, “Well that's great and all, but I have work to do, so if you don't mind...”

“So when's the second date?” Rarity asked excitedly, completely ignoring Rainbow's obvious desire to leave. “You two looked so cute together last night. You'll have to tell me where you're going again!”

Rainbow audibly groaned, rubbing her forehead with a hoof. “The dare's complete; I don't need to tell you two anything else about anything.”

“Aw c'mon, RD; we won't do nothin', promise,” Applejack prompted eagerly. “It's fun seeing you act all girly.”

“Hey!” Rainbow barked, “I do not act girly!”

Applejack raised a suspicious eyebrow, but it was Rarity who said, “Did you see yourself last night? You looked like a love-drunk school filly. Mind you, Twilight wasn't much better...”

Rainbow fumed in silence, but ignored the comment as she jumped up into the air, flapping her wings steadily and hovering above her friends. “Whatever. I'm not letting you two sit in on anything else. I have work to do; I'll see you later.”

Before the pegasus could fly away, a light blue aura wrapped around her tail and held her still. “Not so fast,” Rarity commanded, giving a gentle pull on the prismatic tail in her grasp.

“What do you want?” Rainbow groaned, reaching back and yanking her tail with her teeth, pulling it from Rarity's hold, though she didn't fly away.

“Remember what I said; if you're just leading her on to compete the dare, I will make you regret it.”

“Yeah, yeah; I got it,” Rainbow muttered, brushing the threat aside. The idea of her doing such a thing wasn't even a possibility in her mind anymore. Before, when the dare had first been brought up, she'd entertained the idea, but after finding out Twilight had a crush on her, after last night... it just wasn't an option.

When Rarity's glare did not falter, Rainbow sigh, “Look, if it'll get you off my back... I'm gonna be going over there later today to set up a second date, if she's interested. Alright?”

The alabaster unicorn seemed to accept it, as her glare softened. “Very well, I'll let you get back to work. You two have a good time!” Rarity called, already walking away. Applejack stayed for a second, smiling mockingly.

“What?” Rainbow asked, deadpan.

“Nothin', just imagining you wearing a dress for a date... you really do act girly around her.” Applejack laughed loudly as Rainbow glared at her.

“I'm going to work,” Rainbow growled, shooting off to Town Hall before Applejack could make any more fun of her. They were wrong; they were both wrong; she wasn't girly, least of all around Twilight. No, she couldn't afford to be girly around Twilight; girly was weak, and Twilight didn't like weak... right?

-_-_-_-

Twilight groaned as the bright light of the morning sun woke her from sleep. The slumber she so desperately wanted to return to was sapped away by the yellow glow drifting in through her open window and directly onto her eyelids, still fighting to stay closed against the waking of her mind. Unfortunately, the light won out, aided by the delectable smell of something cooking filling Twilight's nostrils as she breathed slowly and peacefully.

As the combination of smells and light pulled her mind out of the depths of sleep, her nose twitched, sniffing the air to try and identify the scent.

Pancakes? She thought idly, opening her mouth to yawn. Her eyes remained shut.

Hay bacon maybe? She smacked her lips; the smell was strong enough for her to taste.

Waffles? Lavender eyelids fluttered open to reveal violet eyes as Twilight yawned again, pushing herself up from her bed, tossing the blanket off.

“Spike's up early,” she noted, before seeing the clock. It was well past ten in the morning. Her eyes opened wide as she shoved sleep from her mind, forcing herself to get up and out of bed. She'd slept in! What was she supposed to do? She'd put off enough of her duties to worry about her crush and her date; she couldn't put off even more for her to sleep in!

“Spike!” She yelled, rushing out of her bed and into her bathroom to preform her morning rituals.

“What?” She heard him call back as she hurriedly ran a brush through her mane while brushing her teeth.

“Get today's list! I'll be down in a second!” Twilight hollered, projecting her voice out the bathroom door and to the first floor of the library.

“But Twilight, we don't-”

“I know we don't have time, Spike,” she replied, pausing to rinse her mouth, “But we'll do as much as we can.”

Doing as much as she could as fast as she could, Twilight deemed she looked presentable enough to face the world after a couple minutes and rushed down the stairs. “Eat fast, Spike; we need to make up lost time,” she shouted, rushing over and sitting at the table. When she noticed the distinct lack of the food she'd smelled earlier, she looked up quizzically at the dragon standing by the kitchen. “Spike?”

“If you'd calm down for a second,” Spike grumbled, crossing his arms. “The only thing on today's list was studying your so-called 'illness',” he informed her, making air-quotes with his claws.

“What? That's not right; I didn't make new schedules to deal with my research...” Twilight trailed off as Spike handed her a small piece of paper. The impeccable horn writing was undeniably hers, and the way she named, labelled, and dated her lists told her what it was. And sure enough, there was only a single item on it; research unknown illness.

“You dedicated today to researching. You kept up with your chores just fine, and what you didn’t do did easily enough since you didn't need my help with the search. You're off today,” Spike explained, wandering back into the kitchen for a second before coming back out with a plate, stacked high with french toast. “So eat and relax.”

“My plan was wrong?” Twilight muttered in disbelief, examining the checklist closely, hoping for some kind of fine-print writing to appear and tell her where the full list was located. Unfortunately, no such text could be found on the small piece of paper.

“Guess so,” Spike shrugged, sitting down across from Twilight with his own version of breakfast; a large sapphire.

“B-but that means I have nothing planned for today...” Twilight audibly whimpered at the prospect of having absolutely nothing to do.

“Nope,” her assistant confirmed around a mouthful of crushed gemstone.

Twilight felt herself begin to hyperventilate for the second time in two days. She had nothing to do; her plans were wrong. She hadn't planned around finding out what it was so soon. She hadn't planned on Rainbow Dash asking her out. She hadn't planned on finding out her illness was a crush. How could she have been so blind? She always prided herself on her plans, and her ability to plan around every possible emergency. All of her plans held an escape should Discord revert to his evil ways or if the Changelings showed up again. Each and every checklist held the 'emergency' box if Celestia sent her an urgent letter requesting her presence. She'd planned around every possibility, except this one.

“Twilight, calm down,” Spike advised firmly, seeing her breathing quicken to an alarming rate. “It's going to be fine; just take the day to relax or something.”

“But how? I don't have relax on today's schedule! I have to follow the schedule!” Twilight countered frantically, running her eyes over her list repeatedly, scanning for anything she could spend the day doing.

“There's nothing to do on the schedule! What would you have done if you found out what it was before the end of the day?” Spike asked, noticing Twilight's breathing start to slow down as she forced herself to argue with him.

“I'd have studied it, found out more about it, found a treatment or a cure...” Twilight trailed off as an idea formed in her head. Her checklist said to study her illness, not discover it. “That's it!” She cheered.

“Uh, no offence, Twilight, but I don't think this is something you could, or even should, 'cure',” Spike noted cautiously.

“No! I mean I could research it! I can find out what I'm supposed to be doing! Now... what books should I read?”

-_-_-_-

Work had been long, hard, and tiresome. Of course a bright and sunny sky had to be scheduled for the same day a storm was rolling in from the Ever Free. Five solid hours of kicking clouds in strong winds and pounding rain right over the depths of the forest. Rainbow Dash was exhausted, but she still had one more thing to do that day. She had promised Rarity she'd do it, and if Rarity found out she didn't do it she'd likely wind up as her next mannequin. Rainbow shuddered at the thought of wearing dresses every day for the rest of Rarity's career as her new doll.

So she found herself flapping her tired, sore wings on her way to Twilight's library as the sun began its journey down behind the mountains of Canterlot. Her coat had dried in the warm sunny air as she flew, allowing her to bask in the true warmth of the day she'd missed. Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief for her strained muscles as she saw the library coming into focus in the distance, lowering herself down to the ground and trotting the rest of the way to the door.

Without a moment of hesitation she brought her hoof up and knocked against the wood. A moment of silence followed, and shortly after that came the ruffling of paper and the thudding of something being dropped on the floor – Rainbow guessed they were books – as somepony struggled to get to the front door. Suddenly it was flung open, revealing a distraught dragon and a disastrous library.

“Rainbow Dash!” Spike cried, grabbing her hoof and tugging her inside, “Thank Celestia you're here. Twilight's gone nuts again!”

Rainbow followed Spike into the library numbly, looking at the carnage that surrounded her. Books were strewn out across the floor, some in piles and others just lying around, open to some random page. Paper was covering absolute every surface possible; pinned to the walls, spread across desks and tables, some even resting on chairs. Ink stains covered most of the sheets, even some of the books had been covered in the black substance. Broken quills were scattered across the room as frequently as the empty ink wells; at least four on every desk or table, and a couple littered across the ground or the bookcases.

And in the heart of it all, reading from a book and taking notes with tears streaming down her cheeks, was Twilight Sparkle.

“Uh... Twi?” Rainbow called weakly, approaching hesitantly and struggling to climb over a pile of books between her and the unicorn. Her sore wings refused to open now that they'd been closed after her laborious work day.

Twilight's eyes grew wide while her pupils shrunk to the size in pin pricks. She snapped her head up to look fearfully at the newcomer into her home. “Get out!” She shrieked loudly. Her horn sparked to life, surrounding Rainbow in her magical grasp, as though she was going to throw the pegasus out manually. Instead the light sputtered out, her quill dropping to the table.

“Twilight?” Rainbow repeated, successfully conquering Mt. Book and coming even closer to the panicked lavender unicorn. “What's wrong?”

“Get away from me!” Twilight screamed, pushing herself back and sliding across the paper-covered floor until her back hit the wall. When she couldn't move back any further she brought her fore hooves up and shielded her face.

Deciding against trying to get closer, Rainbow sat back on her haunches at the desk Twilight had previously occupied, frowning in concern. “What's wrong, Twilight? What happened? What did I do?”

Twilight could only whimper in response. For a reason Rainbow couldn't quite put her hooves on, Twilight was scared to death – of her. Looking around for some kind of clue as to what happened, Rainbow's eyes fell on the papers Twilight had been writing on most recently. The writing was messy – barely legible – and the ink was smudged almost beyond recognition. But the words were printed large enough that Rainbow could still make out what they said.

Romance means death.

Clear, concise, and to the point. Somehow, in Twilight Sparkle’s mind, having a romantic relationship with somepony meant somepony was going to die. Rainbow regarded the message curiously, looking between it and the cowering mare oddly, before she noticed the most recent book Twilight had set her ravenous hunger for knowledge upon.

Flipping over to the front of the book, she read a title she vaguely recognized from a time when she was into such sappy romance novels. Before she'd come to Ponyville. Before she'd even met Fluttershy. Curiosity took over as she scanned around the other books littering the floor and desks. Sure enough, the ones she could see a title on were all romance novels, each with a common theme; one of the main characters dies at the end.

“Really?” Rainbow deadpanned, raising an eyebrow. Twilight scrunched herself into as tight of a ball as possible. “Twilight,” she sighed, taking a few steps closer and sitting down next to the unicorn, who was pressing herself as hard as she could into the back wall.

“I don't want to die... I don't want you to die...” Twilight sobbed, burring her face into her hooves.

“Alright, two things,” Rainbow started, wrapping a hooves around Twilight and pulling her closer, no matter how hard Twilight fought against it. Had Twilight been more focused, she'd have used magic to get away, but with her focus shattered and her emotions running high she couldn't even manage simple levitation anymore.

“Number one; these books are fiction; they're not real,” Rainbow said firmly, rubbing Twilight's opposite shoulder gently. “Number two; all these books were probably from the 'sad' section of the romance shelf. Not all the stories end like this.”

“W-what?” Twilight asked, pulling her head out of her hooves temporarily to look at the mare holding her.

“Not all romance stories end in death, Twi. In fact, most in real life don't, and I'm certain ours won't,” Rainbow assured gently.

“B-but... all... all the books...” Twilight trailed off, scanning around the room and looking at all the books she'd read. All of them, each and every one, had ended in death.

Rainbow sighed, motioning to the shelf she'd clearly gotten them from; half of it was devoid of any book. The half under the plaque that read 'sad'. “Twi, you only took the books from the sad side of the shelf. All the other ones end happily, I'm sure.”

Twilight, having calmed down enough to use her magic, brought one of the books from the other end of the shelf over, flipping it open and skimming the last chapter. A frown bloomed on her face as she closed the book. Hesitantly, she looked up at the pegasus holding, and asked, “I was being silly again, wasn't I?”

Rainbow held a hoof over her muzzle, chuckling quietly. “Kinda, yeah, but you wouldn't be Twilight if you weren't.”

Twilight started giggling along side Rainbow as she surveyed the damage to her library. The sun was setting behind the mountains, lighting the room in a brilliant orange. The light, coupled with the damage and splotches of black from spilled ink, made it look like there had been a fire inside the library. Giggling grew to full scale laughter as Twilight realized it. Rainbow followed suit a few short moments later, and the decimated library was filled with the laughter of two mares.

Eventually, their laughter died, and they sat in silence, appreciating the scene before them.

“So why did you come here in the first place?” Twilight asked, standing from the floor and beginning to clean the mess she'd left. Spike, having watched the entire thing from a safe distance, took the cue began cleaning as well.

“Actually it was to set up a second date sometime, but I think this will do well enough,” Rainbow said, pushing herself up as well and grabbing a broom from the closet.

“You don't have to help,” Twilight offered with a frown, “You shouldn't have to clean up my mess.”

Rainbow shook her head, setting her sights on the paper spread around the floor. “Nah, I want to help. Besides,” she added, tensing her still-sore wings against her sides, “I can't fly home anytime soon, so I may as well spend my time helping clean.”

“Why can't you fly?” Twilight asked concernedly, gathering the books that hadn't been stained in ink and setting them back in their proper places.

“Wings are pretty sore; I kinda over worked them today. Need to let 'em rest before I fly back home,” she explained disinterestedly, scraping a paper off the floor that was stuck on with dried ink.

Twilight's cheeks lit up red like the sunset when an idea crept into her mind, but she ignored her nerves when she saw the sun half way behind the horizon. “You could always spend the night here; it's almost dark and if you still can't fly...”

Rainbow felt her own cheeks grow a few shades brighter and the suggestion, but looked out the window to see why Twilight was offering. “Yeah, I think I'd like that... as long as you don't mind,” she added quickly.

“It's no problem at all; the guest bed is folded up in my closet. it won't take more than a minute to set you up,” Twilight assured with a smile

“Then I guess I'm spending the night.”

“Great, more breakfast for me to make,” Spike grumbled.

Twilight laughed as took another piece of paper into her magical grasp, noticing the recognizable writing on it. With a smile, she brought an inked quill forward and checked the box next to 'study unknown illness' before crumbling the paper and throwing it into her garbage.