"Argh!! This is so frustrating! Why can't these two just admit how they feel already!"
Twilight looked down from the clump of cloud cover that she had been lying on for a few minutes, watching the most recent argument going on between two of her best friends, Rarity and Applejack. The purple-colored alicorn had been struggling with the realization that both the white unicorn and the earth pony farmer really liked each other as more than friends for some time.
Ponyville's resident Princess/librarian was certainly no expert when it came to matters of the heart. Friendship, she knew very well; after all, she was recently named the Princess of Friendship shortly after defeating Tirek. When it came to getting two ponies that she really cared for to admit how they felt about each other, she was stuck. Even reading a bunch of the romance novels that Rarity liked wasn't giving her any ideas.
Twilight sighed, remembering when she first started realizing that both the farmer pony and the fashionista were attracted to each other. It all started a few days ago, when she saw how Applejack was looking at Rarity. This was just after a common fight, where Rarity was trying to get AJ to try on some of her 'Fall Farmer Line'.
Twilight had flown over to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Applejack needed any help bucking apples. Ever since her ascension, Twilight had been feeling the urge to do something with the earth pony magic she now possessed, and wanted to see if she could use it to apple buck. When she landed at the farm house, she found Big Macintosh and their cousin Caramel pulling some carts in from the western orchard. "Big Mac, have you seen your sister?" she asked the red stallion.
"Eyup, I think she's at Carousel Boutique. Granny Smith gave her the day off on account of Caramel here being able to help. I could let her know you were looking for her when you get back Twilight."
"Oh, no need; I need to get more flying practice in anyway. See you later Big Mac!"
Around ten minutes later, Twilight walked into Carousel Boutique, after stopping by the Apple's market stall for a couple of apples, and to tease Apple Bloom a little bit about her new friendship with Silver Spoon, who had told Diamond Tiara to stuff it after the CMC had gotten their cutie marks. She was finishing up her apples when she heard Rarity call from the back. "Please wait a few darling; I'll be just a second."
"It's ok Rarity, it's just me."
"Oh Twilight darling, why don't you come on back? Maybe you can help pound some fashion sense into a stubborn farm pony."
Twilight walked to the back room, only to find a shocking, yet amusing sight of a hat-less Applejack standing before the full length mirrors cringing from the form of Rarity, who was lifting one of her new Fall Formal Line of dresses from the ponyquin where it had been hanging. "Now darling, you know you promised to help me on your next day off, and I must say, this dress would look simply smashing on you."
"Ah don't need to dress myself up in some way to look pretty Rarity. Something like that wouldn't last two minutes with all the apple bucking Ah have to do in a day anyway." Applejack looked at the dress that Rarity was trying to get her to model like it was a barrel of rotten apples.
"Applejack darling, something like this is meant to be worn to a dinner date, not when you're working. Besides, I think it's rather fetching on you."
"Well Ah don't. Unlike you, Ah don't feel the need to pamper myself all the time." Applejack looked at one of the other dresses that Rarity had been working on, then looked at Rarity. Suddenly, she turned away, with a fetching blush rising on her cheeks. Surprised, Twilight wondered why AJ was blushing like that.
While the argument was of no consequence, there couldn't be very many reasons why Applejack would feel the need to hide a blush like that. Further thoughts were set aside as AJ was bullied into the dress that the white unicorn had levitating next to her, surrounded in the signature glow of Rarity's magic.
The dress itself was probably one of Rarity's best creations, done up in white, red, and green. The saddle part of the dress was in a green that matched Applejack's eye color, with an outer frill that was red; this matched the apples that made up AJ's cutie mark. The skirt was in an off-white, like the rest of the dress, and left the rest of Applejack's rear legs free. Two pairs of socks finished the whole ensemble; these were red and green. All in all, it was one fetching dress.
Twilight watched as, with a long-suffering sigh, Applejack let herself be put into the dress. She does look rather cute in it, but now why is Rarity blushing?! This is starting to get really strange! In order to figure out exactly what was going on, Twilight looked at the only other dress there, which didn't seem to be a part of the 'Fall Farmer Line'. She realized that this particular dress would look better on Rarity, as it was done up in colors that better matched the white unicorn. Suddenly, the blush that AJ was hiding started to make a little too much sense for the bookish princess.
"Um, Rarity, I know that you wanted my help, but I realized that I really need to make sure that the supplies are cleaning the castle right." While this was true, in a sense, it was really just an excuse to get away before Rarity slapped any kind of a dress on her.
"Well, thank-you darling; I've got a few more things I want this stubborn farm pony to try on anyway," Rarity said. She was busy making sure that the fringe she was working on was attached right. Shaking her head, Twilight decided that she really needed more information before she could say for sure that two of her best friends had more than a passing interest in each other.
A few minutes later, Twilight was in the study of her new tree castle, going over what she had witnessed. Come to think of it, that's not the first time I've seen either of them hide something like that. Wonder why I've never noticed this before now? I know I spend too much time reading, but I didn't think I was that oblivious.
Taking stock of her schedule, Twilight began to list all the times in recent memory where one or both of her friends had to hide either a blush, or a stammer. She began to realize that their constant bickering was a mask of sorts. It almost always increased whenever a blush or a stammer appeared. Of course, Rarity and Applejack had always bickered on some level; it just seemed to be part of their friendship. Looking back, Twilight realized that a lot of the more recent incidents happened shortly before her ascension to alicornhood. She cringed a little, remembering how close she had come to losing her friends when that spell was cast.
Something else came to mind as she continued to list all the times that either Applejack or Rarity had to hide an embarrassing blush or stutter. Her charge, Spike, had always nursed a crush on Rarity, ever since the first time that the pair came to Ponyville. Lately though, he seemed to have gotten over that, at least as far as getting starry-eyed any time Rarity was around. Also, he seemed to have been spending more time hanging around the CMC these days. It didn't take a genius to see that his affections might have gone to one to those fillies. Which one was anypony's guess, though Twilight privately thought that it was likely all three of the Crusaders.
With that in mind, Twilight realized that everypony was likely aware about how AJ and Rarity felt about each other; what this meant was that she was the last one to twig onto this fact. It also means that me and Rainbow are the only ones who don't have a potential somepony. It's been at least two months now since Fluttershy and Big Mac started going steady, and Pinky has Cheerilee.
"So, what am I supposed to do? Obviously, they're both unaware about how they feel towards each other; otherwise, they'd be a couple already. A clear case of opposites attract. Should I help, or should I butt out? Maybe I should just watch for a few days and see if either of them admits to the other. I could always reevaluate whether I should meddle later."
And it was for this very reason that Twilight Sparkle was skulking on a cloud days later, trying to figure out how she was going to get two of her best friends to admit their feelings to each other. Needless to say, she had yet to come up with anything. Not that she hadn't been trying. Twilight was coming to grips with the fact that she was completely out of her depth. If only Cadance were here; this sort of thing is more her bailiwick, being that she's the Princess of Love. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers I guess. Friendship is a form of love after all, so I should be able to figure something out. I sure hope Rainbow Dash got my letter. I sure could use some help with this. She wasn't home when I left the note for her, probably napping on some cloud somewhere.
Earlier that day, Twilight had left a note on Rainbow's throne in the throne room of her castle since she hadn't been able to find the pegasus in her cloud home.
Rainbow Dash,
If you're reading this note, then you must have come here after reading the first one I left for you. I need some help with something I have planned involving the girls, and I need more intel on how to do it. Just don't say anything to the other girls; I want this to be a surprise.
~Twi~
Further musing was cut short, however, when a bright voice asked, "Whatcha doing, Twi?" Twilight let out a startled 'eep!' as she fell through the cloud. Quickly recovering, she flew back, only to see what, or rather who had startled her so badly; a certain cyan-colored pegasus by the name of Rainbow Dash.
"Rainbow, would you warn a pony next time?! Yeesh, you about scared the mana out of me!!" Settling back down on the cloud, Twilight went back to her spy game, before realizing that both of her targets had moved. "Crap, where'd they go? Now what?"
"Um, Twi, are you ok?" Rainbow waved her left forehoof in front of the librarian-turned-princess in a concerned manner. "You still haven't answered my question egghead. What are you doing skulking around on clouds, pulling pranks? Cause if you are, that's my job."
Twi looked at her rainbow-maned friend, then said in a stage whisper, "I'm spying."
"Huh?"
Twilight pointed in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, then pointed at the boutique. Still in a loud whisper, she said, "I'm gathering intel."
"Um, Twilight, you don't need to whisper; there aren't any other ponies around to hear ya 'cept me." Rainbow looked down at the boutique a moment before looking back up at her friend. The way that Twilight was holding her head brought a slight blush to the pegasus' cheeks.
"Well, it looks like I'm not going to get any more useful intel today; better see if my schedule is free for this time tomorrow." With that, Twilight slipped through the cloud again, before teleporting away with a slight pop.
Shrugging confusedly, Rainbow broke up the cloud Twilight had been using, before flying off towards Sweet Apple Acres, intent on finding a tree to take a nap in before dinner.
A couple hours later, Rainbow Dash was woken up rather rudely when the tree she was napping in was bucked, hard. All Rainbow could do was utter an indignant "Wah!!"; the next thing she knew, she was looking into the concerned gaze of Big Macintosh. "Geez, I even avoided the orchard AJ was bucking, and I still get bucked out of the tree," she mumbled to herself. A little self-consciously, she took the offered hoof, and dusted herself off before thanking the farmer pony.
Rubbing her slightly sore plot, Rainbow took off for her cloud house. As she did so, she wondered just what that cute egghead had been up to. Just what did she mean about gathering intel? She really wasn't making much sense there; not that that isn't all that unusual. At least it wasn't some of her jargon; I'm in no mood to try and unravel her sentences. Huh, maybe I should just ask her point-blank why she was spying on Rarity... Still muttering to herself, Rainbow landed on her front step, only to find a note on the door.
Rainbow Dash,
I need your help with something, so could you come by the castle sometime within the next couple of days? If you can't find me in either my study or the castle library, you'll find me on a cloud above either Sweet Apple Acres or the Carousel Boutique. What I have in mind is really sneaky, and next to Pinkie, you're the expert on being sneaky. I just don't want that party pony involved yet. I hope you get this before you find a tree to nap in, cause Applejack has been helping Rarity and 'Shy out today, so Big Mac is doing most of the bucking with Caramel.
~Twi~
"Oh great, now she tells me. Well, it'll have to wait until tomorrow; I'm hungry and I need a bath before my nightly reading." Blushing slightly, Rainbow Dash unlocked her door before heading into her kitchen to make herself a quick daisy sandwich.
While she was making her dinner, Rainbow Dash started to wonder just what was rattling around in that egghead's noggin. Spying? Gathering intel? "That's something I would expect from Pinkie, but Twilight? What is she up to? Oh well, I should be able to figure out what that mare is up to tomorrow. For now, I just wanna eat, then do some reading before bed!!"
Taking her sandwich with her, Rainbow made her way into her bedroom. Settling down, she proceeded to pick up where she left off in reading Teleportation: A Guide for Non-Unicorns; she really wanted to get this down. After all, she couldn't challenge Pinkie Pie as Ponyville's chief prankster without an edge. Besides, she had a sneaking suspicion that teleporting was how Pinkie did a lot of what she did...
Author's Note
Just a bit of fluff I wrote quite awhile ago. Never really did much with it because of writer's block. I think that's because it's not a one-shot.
More may or may not come soon; it all depends on my other major fics.
