Author's Note

WARNING: This chapter is no longer considered part of the story. Read at your own peril.

Wolves and Woodpeckers

Today was the day.

Rainbow Dash stood vigilant at the doors of Le Canter, moonlight washing over her in a vain attempt to slow the growth of the black pit in her stomach that painfully expanded with every second past.

The cold air bit at her coat, causing her to shiver slightly at it's cool but harsh embrace. The warmth from the high class restaurant next to her beckoned, reaching out to her with the smells of hot soup and warm bread.

Her wings felt like they were going to fall off with how much they ached. Every few seconds she could feel a dull throb as they complained of being overworked from the last week of weather management. Her eyelids felt heavy and her hooves moaned from bucking cirrus, stratus and cumulus clouds alike.

But still she stood, unwavering. Her firm gaze locked on the moon and the moon alone, wishing, pleading that any second now, she would hear Twilight's soft voice call to her, to drag her back to reality.

"Umm... Rainbow?"

The soft voice barely registered to Rainbow as she closed her eyes, let out a heavy sigh and turned her head to see her friend standing next to her, letter in hoof.

"Hey, Flutters. What brings you out here this time of night?" She asked, her ear flicking slightly.

Fluttershy rubbed her leg with a hoof and dropped the letter to the floor, her wings fluttering by her sides. "I... Umm..."

As the letter hit the cobblestone pavement, the words 'Dear Twilight Sparkle' in Rainbow's scrawled handwriting upon the cyan envelope were barely visible in the low light of the moon. "And why do you have my letter to Twilight?" She asked, a hint of a growl sneaking into her voice, her wings shifting in agitation.

"I-I..." The canary pegasus whispered, hiding behind her mane.

"Well?" She asked, taking a step towards her.

"I-I'm sorry, Rainbow. I accidentally borrowed the book with your letter in. I didn't mean to, honest! Mr. Beaverton Beaverteath was sick and I-"

Rainbow cut in, waving her hoof for her to stop the oncoming tirade of frantic apologies. "Wait. So, Twilight didn't get the letter?"

"I... No. No, she didn't." Fluttershy whispered, staring at the ground.

Dash let herself drop to her haunches, relief rushing through her like wildfire, the pit in her stomach disappearing. "Then there's still a chance. I can still pull this off..."

Fluttershy's eyes immediately grew concerned as her mind flooded back to Rainbow saying those same, sad words once before. "Rainbow..."

Fluttershy carefully craned her head around the gap in the door to see her dorm roommate, Rainbow Dash, sitting in the centre of their room, sobbing quietly. She didn't step one hoof into the room before Rainbow's pillow came soaring towards her. She only had time to squeak before it caught her, knocking her back out of the room and spraying white and yellow feathers everywhere.

After a couple seconds of recovery, Fluttershy picked herself back up and entered the room again, only to find that Rainbow no longer there. Instead, she heard a muffled crying from a Pegasus sized lump of sheets on the bed across the room.

Fluttershy immediately rushed over, awkwardly laying a wing around the pile of sheets and shushing it. Slowly, a small gap opened in the sheets to reveal two magenta eyes, glistening with tears.

With a few minutes of shushing and hugs, Fluttershy tightening her grip on Rainbow whenever she started crying louder or attempted to form a coherent sentence without bursting into tears again and failing to do so, Rainbows cries eventually quieted into small sobs and whimpers.

"S-s-she l-left m-me..." She eventually squeaked out.

"Sshhh..." She whispered, stroking her through the sheets.

"W-why did she l-leave m-me?" She asked, hiccuping.

"Sshhh, it's ok."

"I-I don't understand..."

"Just give it some time. I'm sure you two can sort this out when you've both calmed down."

"T-there's still a chance, right? She'll c-come back, right?" Rainbow asked quietly, looking for some form of reassurance in her best friends eyes.

Fluttershy smiled back at her. "Of course. There's always a chance."

Fluttershy shook her head, dispelling the bitter memory. "Rainbow, you know what happened last time. I don't want you getting hurt like that again."

Rainbow visibly tensed at Fluttershy's words and narrowed her eyes at the canary Pegasus. "Shy, this is Twi we're talking about. She wouldn't... she would never do that," She said as she nodded, if only to reassure herself.

Rainbow's almost forceful confidence caused Fluttershy to retreat behind her flowing, pink mane. "I-I know. Just... Be careful, ok?"

Rainbow kept her eyes narrowed at her friend. "She's not like her, Shy. You know that."

"Rainbow, please. I just don't want you hurting yourself again."

Eventually, the cyan mare finally relented, smiling gratefully. "I will. Thanks, Shy," and with that, Rainbow scooped up her letter to Twilight and with a strong flap of her wings, took off towards her cloud house.

Fluttershy remained where she stood, watching over Rainbow as she became nothing but a dot on the horizon. With a heavy, longing sigh, she turned and began her journey back to her cottage, singing softly as she walked.

"If only, if only,
the woodpecker sighs,
the bark of this tree
were as soft as the skies.
The wolf sits below,
tired and lonely.
She sings to the moon,
if only, if only."

"Twilight?" Spike softly called as he descended the stairs of the library. "You still awake?"

His only response was the light snoring of the lavender unicorn across the room, drooling onto the open page of an almanac. The young Dragon slowly walked over to her, being careful to step over any books splayed haphazardly upon the floor.

"Twilight? Hey, c'mon, sleepyhead. Time to go to bed." He whispered as he poked her gently in the foreleg.

"Mmm...." she moaned, swiping at Spike with the offended foreleg exhaustedly.

"C'mon, Twi. This is the third time this week," he groaned, poking her again. "I need some sleep too."

"Hmm? Oh... Hey, Spike. What-" She stopped to yawn, holding a hoof up to her mouth. "What time is it?"

Spike rubbed his eye and glanced out the window. It took him a couple seconds to register how high in the sky the moon actually was. "It's late," he sighed. "Very late."

Twilight took a moment to rub the sleep out of her eyes and blink a few times before giving Spike a grateful smile. "Thank you, Spike. I'll be right up."

Spike nodded. Spinning on a heel, he walked back through the main room and started scaling the stairs again. Twilight, however, didn't move from her desk until she heard that the distinct thud of her bedroom door closing. When she did, she proceeded to stretch her neck and hooves until she felt a satisfying click in each.

She let out another, louder yawn as she eyed the doorway to the kitchen across the room. "Might as well get myself a glass of water whilst I'm down here," she mumbled to herself as she climbed off of her chair, her hooves clopping quietly on the oak wooden floor.

Whilst in the process of getting herself said glass of water, Twilight let her mind wander. She began to think about general things, such as her recent studies of animals, how incredibly helpful Spike was and eventually, her friends. But her mind stubbornly locked onto one of her friends in particular.

Rainbow Dash had been out of town for the past week, on weather business from what the note on her door had said. Which was odd, because she had normally told Twilight herself beforehand, or right before she left, when she would be gone for a while. Which left her feeling... Betrayed? Angry? Left out?

Worried?

She shook her head. Rainbow was a good friend, sure, but not to the extent that she herself would worry if Rainbow were to leave for a few days. Rainbow was a grown mare, for Celestia's sake. She could take care of herself and there was little point in worrying about her.

After successfully breaking herself from her own mind, Twilight noticed that her glass was overflowing from being held under the tap for too long. After tipping a little water into the sink so it wouldn't spill when she held the glass any way but perfectly vertical, she quickly gulped down the water in some vain attempt to quell the heat quickly spreading in her cheeks.

"I mean, it's not like I..." She paused. "...Like her..." She paused again. "...Do I?" She shook her head, more vigorously this time, as if to make the idea lose it's firm grip upon her mind. Unfortunately, her magic was still flaring, causing the glass she was levitating to smash into a nearby wall, shattering it into a million, tiny shards.

As soon as the dust cleared and silence returned, she could hear her bedroom door slam open and footsteps rocket down the stairs before a very disgruntled, purple Dragon stood hunched-over at the doorway, panting for breath.

"A-are you alright, Twilight? I heard a crash."

"Yes, Spike. I'm fine. I just got distracted and dropped a glass."

"Are you sure?"

Twilight quickly averted her gaze to the floor. "I'm fine, Spike. Really."

Spike huffed and pulled a broom from seemingly out of nowhere. "Fine, whatever. Just go to bed, already. I'll clean this up." He said as he shooed her out the door.

Twilight did just that. She slowly crawled up the stairs and entered her bedroom, flinging herself onto the bed and wrapping herself in her sheets when she got close enough. The faint memory of being sent to her room when she was a filly briefly surfaced before being unceremoniously crushed by the knowledge that she might have a crush on one of her best friends.

"It's ok, Twilight. It's just your tired brain thinking up crazy ideas. Just get some sleep and you'll be fine in the morning," she told herself.

Sleep didn't come easy that night.