Chapter 1: The Night Before
"So, that's how it works. Sounds fun!"
It was nighttime and everyone in Ponyvile had already either had or were just about to go to bed but there still was a dim light coming from the window of the library at the edge of the town. A certain lavender pony was sitting at her table and reading a book in what seemed like a trance-like state of mind.
She seemed to have been reading the book for a while too, as when she finally closed the book, she realized that the sun had set a long time ago and left the world to glimmer under the silvery moonlight.
"Wow, it's this late already? Time really passes when you are having fun," Twilight thought to herself and placed the book on the shelf. As she once more glanced over the title of the book: "Camping 101: How To Survive In the Wilderness" she smiled, as she was sure that she was prepaired for the next day.
"If i was placed 5th on the The Running of the Leaves competition just by reading about running, i'm sure this time there will be no major problems either"
As Twilight walked through her house, blowing out candles and making sure that Spike had done everything she had asked him to do (Packing up for the next day, cleaning the library and whatnot.), she noticed, that the little purple dragon had fell asleep next to the stairs that lead to the bedroom they share.
"Oh Spike, you always work so hard for me, that you always fall asleep before you can get to your bed." Twilight smiled and used her magic powers to move Spike to his own, small bed that was right next to the unicorns own.
Once she had made sure that the dragon was sleeping as comfortable as possible, she recalled the moment when Applejack, few days earlier, made a suggestion, that they all would go to have a week long camping session.
"Soooo, let me get this straight AJ.You want me to come with you and the others to an whole week of camping in the wilds? Where did you get that idea?"
"Well, ah was just thinkin' one day, tae we haven't really had so much time to check on each other fer a quite some time, so ah thought tae we oughta have some free time between all of us an' just catch up on each other."
It had been a normal day in the library for Twilight, studying, making notes and helping anypony, who wanted to loan a book. Sun had been shining the entire day, weather had been warmer than usual and the heaven's were as clear as always. Normally one would not waste the opportunity to go outside and enjoy the nice spring weather, but the lavender pony had other plans.
Having delayed her studies way too long, she had a lot of catching up to do. Celestia may not have been making sure that she studies ever since Twilight came to Ponyvile but she didn't want to dissapoint her mentor, neither her friends, so she had been studying the entire day, even though it was hot inside the library as the late afternoon was coming up.
Once she thought that she finally had some peace and quiet to keep going with her studies, she heard the sound of opening door once again. Though she would have not wanted to interrupt her studies, she had no other choice, as Spike was too busy cleaning the backroom to make more space for the two to use.
As she made her way towards the main room of the library (rambling to herself about being interrupted all the time but at the same time acknowledging the fact that she was a librarian, so she had to help others no matter what), she was surprised to see a familiar pony standing at the door.
Applejack was standing in the middle of the room as Twilight entered the large hall. After all the greetings and latest gossip's (which is extremely rare as Applejack ain't the gossip type) the orange mare went straight to the business she had come to talk about.
Twilight kept listening, while the pony went on and on about how she had for sometime wanted to go for a trip around the forrests and mountains of Ponyvile for sometime already, but never really had found the time nor the company for it. After few weeks of thinking (and persuading Bic Mac to do some extra work), she finally decided to do it.
After explaining all about preparations, she also meantioned that she would be asking all of her friends to join her and decided to start from Twilight, as she happened to be in the area. When Applejack was done explaining, Twilight had problem of choosing the right words that would not make her sound either cold or uninterested , so she decided to go with the easiest choice: the good old "Too-Much-Studies" explanation.
" I admit, it's a lovely idea Applejack, but i'm in a middle of my studies, and i would not want to postpond them anymore, so i'm..."
" C'mon Twi, ya have been within four walls fer week's already, ain't too good for ye health."
" I do know that, but....
" Nope, ah ain't takin' that as a reason to be sittin' here, when the weather outside is so sunny and warm.
"But AJ..."
There was no use for the mare to try and protest, Applejack kept insisting her to join the camping trip and she would not be leaving before she would hear the words of acceptance.
Few moments later, Twilight had no choice but to accept her friends invitation, though she knew that her studies would suffer for it.
" You win, i'll come to the trip...", She said after a short sigh
" Great, i knew ya would like the idea!" Applejack said with a smile, clearly trying to hide the fact that she pretty much forced her friend to the ordeal.
" ...But tell me, where did you REALLY get the idea for all of this... i'm not buying your earlier explanation you gave me!" Twilight asked, heck, demanded the orange mare to tell her.
" Ahm.... well... ya see, ah just... eeeeh"
" Seems like our roles have been reversed"
" ehehehe.... ya think so, Twi..? Well, anyways, ah have some business at the farm, sooooo, mind if ah take my leave?"
Twilight kept her angry eyes at Applejack for a long time, sending the clear message that she would only leave her house once the lavender mare received the answer she wanted.
" *sigh* Ok Twi, ah will talk.... It's just that we all are worried of ya and yer constant need to study. We do know that ye must have time for them, but if one needs to study fer weeks in a row, one must be really desperate..." Applejack opened up with a little bit of sadness in her voice.
" So, that's why you used it as a small lie?"
" Actually, ah have wanted to do it fer sometime now, so it was not an lie, it was the truth, we just changed it a lil' bit..."
" Oh, sorry, i didn't think about that..."
"... but it was only way we all could bring some sense to yer head without resortin' to lyin' an' forcin' ya to this thing.... We all just are worried about ye, Twi..."
For a while, Twilight was in a loss for words. Sure, she could just say sorry but that would not feel right, as she did feel a little guilty after hearing the reason for all of this.
As she finally got back to Equestria from her small guilt driven mind, she realized, that she really did need to fix all this that had happened.
Walking close to the orange mare, she gave her a hug and whispered to her ear.
" Sorry, i should have told you girls. I caused all this worrying so it's only right that i'll fix it all by coming with you guys."
Now it was Applejacks turn to be in a loss for words, as the hug did come as a little bit of a surprise to her. She couldn't help but blush a little bit, but once she snapped out of her confusion, she returned the hug and whispered back.
" 'ts ok sugarcube, 'least now we don't have to worry 'bout ye"
Releasing each other from their sisterly hug, they shared a small laughter, showing that they both had set the conversation behind them.
After talking about all kinds of other things for a while, they realised that day had turned to evening very fast. Before departing, Twilight asked some more information from Applejack.
" So, when are we going to the trip, AJ?"
" We should be goin' in a few days, ah'll contact ya once i'm sure 'bout it all."
" Ok, i'll make sure that i don't study too much and forget about it!"
Applejack gave a small smirk to Twilight before stepping outside to the warm spring evening.
It was then when Twilight started to get a little nervous about the camping week. She did love the company of her friends, but there was a single reason, why she always was a little socially awkward when she was with them all.
"What if i can't relax myself, especially as she will be there too... what if i tell about it to her and she rejects me because... well.. we both are mares... or maybe others will learn about it and tease me because of it... atleast Rainbow Dash would do that, but what about the others..."
As the young mare was worrying, her attention suddenly changed from worried thoughts to the moon that was shining it's elegant, silvery light straight into her bedroom. Somehow, seeing the moonlight eased her mind atleast a little, but she still couldn't help but be worried about the upcoming week.
As she stood there, watching the bright moon, she suddenly felt the urge to close her eyes. She didn't know why, but she just felt like it was something she needed to do.
As her eyes slowly closed, Twilight felt like the moon was trying to help her ease her worries. Like it knew about her situation and wanted to give all the assistance it could.
For a while, a feeling of somekind of soothing magic filled the room. She felt like someone else was there with her but at the same time a feeling of loneliness filled the room. The young mare wasn't too sure of which one was the more dominant feeling, rather, it felt like both feeling of loneliness and feeling of someone alongside her had an equal control over the room.
While she wanted to open her eyes and look around, somehow she just knew that it would be wrong, so she kept her eyes shut, following the chain of events that happened in her room with her own instincts.
As Twilight kept her eyes shut, even more different feelings and sounds came to her mind. She heard a voice, like a small choir of birds was singing in her room, along with the sound of leaves playing mind easing music. At the same time, new feeling, feeling of compassion ushered itself to the room.
The more she kept her eyes shut, the more the unicorn felt the uneasiness leave. She could not help but smile as the room was starting to feel like a small gathering of different emotions and sounds, sad and happy, old and new, seen and unseen, heard and never heard.
Suddenly, she heard an voice, quiet one, but soothing and loving at the same time. "Open your eyes, Twilight Sparkle...". Though she didn't want to, fearing that the soothing feeling would slip away the seconds she opened her purple eyes, it was impossible to not to comply to what the lovable voice wanted her to do.
Once her eyes were open, she looked around the room, looking for the source of the soothing feeling she had just felt. Odd as it was, though there was nothing nor were there anyone in the room with her, the feeling didn't immediatly vanish to the night. No, it felt more like it was slowly leaving in a spiral like movement, invisible to the naked eye but felt by the young pony inside her body. Once there was only a linger of the presence left within the room, Twilight immediatly felt like a great burden has taken away from her shoulders.
It took a while before the mare took a more in depth look of the giant room she was in. It was only now that she realized that the tree she lived in somehow felt a little too big for a single pony and a small dragon to share, even though most of it did consist of library used by the whole town.
"Well, it's not like too many ponies visit here often... maybe it wouldn't be too bad... but what would everypony think about it... they would probably be a little shocked for starters... but still..."
*Knock...Knock...Knock...* Twilight was cut short from her own thoughts by three, almost silent knocks on the door that even she barely even heard.
"Who would be out there at this hour?" she thought and was a little hesitant to open the door at the heart of the night.
*Knock.... Knock...* Two more knocks came from the door, this time they were a little louder, but it still required some earwork to hear them.
"Twilight, are you there? I saw light coming from your window so i thought that you were having some kind of, uh, problem."
The familiar voice coming from the door was something, that Twilight didn't expect to hear so far into the night. It took her a while to return to earth, as she had lost her contact to it as soon as she had heard those words. As she realized that she had stood in that one spot for a minute or two, she started to hurry to the door, as the knocks became more freaquent and the voice she heard was clearly worried for not getting an answer.
"Twilight, are you there!? Are you alright!? you aren't hurt... are you?
" No need to worry, i'm ok. Hold on a sec, i'll open the door"
As Twilight slowly opened the door, her heart kept beating so fast, that she felt like it would burst out of her chest. She wasn't sure of how to talk in front of the pony on the otherside without sounding like a little filly or some scary creep. (Don't we all?)
"Well, here goes nothin', i guess...
Once the door was wide open, Twilight couldn't even utter a single word, as the nightly colours made the sight that she saw something, that she wasn't prepaired for. Something, that she would never, ever forget from her memories and could never be replaiced by anything beautiful or horrible she would encounter in the future...
...Or so she thought at that moment.
