(A/N: I know the chapter is short, but this is to mostly test the waters. I hopefully will have the second chapter up soon, and it will be longer.)
Twilight Sparkle had been helping Pinkie Pie decorate the library all morning; the girls were preparing to welcome an old friend of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy from their time at flight school. The two wouldn’t say much more than her name was Rain Twirl, they said they didn’t want to ruin the surprise. Spike was stuck in the kitchen, he had gotten to be quite the chief over the past year they were in Ponyville. Pinkie would occasionally dart into the kitchen to check on progress and Spike would shoo her out each time.
“It will be ready when it’s ready,” Spike said as he tried to push the pink pony out of the kitchen. “You can’t rush perfection.”
Twilight let out a low chuckle and kept mixing Pinkie’s special party punch. She gave it a sniff; you could barely smell the alcohol over all the fruity drinks Pinkie had her add. “This will certainly keep the party going” she said to herself.
There was a knock and Rarity and Applejack entered. AJ was pulling a cart laden with even more food. The fashion pony had brought along a saddlebag full of ribbons and streamers which Pinkie immediately set about placing almost haphazardly around the library.
“Ah hope this’ll be enough,” Applejack began unpacking her cart. Twilight ran over to help her as Rarity tried in vain to straighten the ribbons Pinkie was throwing around.
“With how much Spike is making we’ll have more than enough.” Twilight said as she placed an apple pie on the buffet table.
“Shoot Ah forgot he was cooking,” the farm pony scratched her head. “Maybe Ah brought too much.”
“It’s fine,” the dragon called from the kitchen. “Less work for me, this cake is going to be the death of me.”
“Maybe Ah should see if Ah can help.” AJ trotted off toward the kitchen.
Twilight took advantage of Rarity and Pinkie Pie decorating to sneak up to her room for a few minutes. She made sure to close her door quietly and carefully walk over to her bed; she crawled in and let out a sigh. The party planning had been getting to her the past few days, she hadn’t seen Rainbow Dash since she and Fluttershy set off for Canterlot to meet their friend earlier in the week. She missed all the time that she and Dash would spend together reading; it was a great excuse to snuggle close even if it wasn’t even cold outside. She was in love with Rainbow, she hated to admit it. None of her books had anything on romances between mares. She hadn’t told anyone yet, except maybe Spike but he could keep his mouth shut. She had thought of asking the princess what she should do, but she didn’t want to waste the princess’ time on something trivial. Twilight rolled over and watched the setting sun, she began to feel herself drift off when she felt small hands shaking her.
“Twilight,” Spike shook her. “Come on, they’re back.”
With those words Twilight nearly jumped out of bed. She hurriedly ran a hoof through her mane and checked herself in the mirror. Everything seemed satisfactory, so she made her way down the stairs. Her eyes immediately locked on to Rainbow who was deep in conversation with AJ and Rarity while Pinkie Pie was talking to Fluttershy and who Twilight guessed was Rain Twirl. She was a tall and slender; her light blue coat was still damp from rain they must have encountered on their way. She had hair like Dash except instead of many colors it was deep blue with streaks of grey blue, the same with her tail. She had flying goggles down on her neck, but the strangest feature was her cutie mark. It looked like a controller for a Ponybox 360, but she couldn’t be sure from this far away.
“You must be Twilight Sparkle,” The blue pony smiled at her. “It’s nice to meet you."
Twilight hurried down the stairs, when she approached the blue pony expecting to shake hooves the pony instead she was pulled into a tight hug.
"That's me," Twilight said.
"Dashie has told me so much about you." Rain said as she let go of Twilight, out of the corner of her eye Twilight saw Dash blush.
Twilight was taken aback by seeing this, Dash didn't bush easily and believe her she tried. She decided not to dwell on it too much for the moment and concentrate on the party.
"You must be Rain Twirl," Twilight smiled. "I'd like to say that I have heard as much about you, but it isn't true."
"We'll just have to fix that then," Rain laughed. "Since I am the guest of honor, I proclaim this party started."
"Alright!" Rainbow Dash proclaimed. "Lead me to the alcohol!"
Twilight worked our way around the party, socializing with all of her friends equally. Rarity was exited about some new kind of fabric she had Fluttershy bring back from Canterlot, Applejack was gearing up for applebucking season, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash we're having a drinking contest that the pink pony was winning hands down. Twilight finally had a moment to sit and talk to Rain Twirl.
"Rain Twirl, what does your cutie mark mean?" Twilight asked. "If you don't mind."
"Its no problem, you can call me Rain though." she smiled putting down her glass. "I am a video game designer, not a lot to say really. Too me a long time to figure it out though."
"Maybe you could teach a few ponies in this town the importance of patience." Twilight laughed.
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of some pony losing their lunch, Twilight looked around to see a triumphant Pinkie Pie standing over a very sick looking Rainbow Dash. She sighed and used her magic to fetch a bucket for the sick pony.
(A/N: Another short chapter, I am going to be away visiting a friend for my birthday the next week. I promise the next few will be longer and I will get into the romance stuff soon. I am just setting the scene right now.)
When the late morning sunlight woke Twilight the next morning it felt as though Pinkie had been setting her party cannon off inside her skull. Twilight quickly used magic to close the curtains in her room and pulled her pillow over her head for good measure. She was dreading having to move again, but she was amazed she wasn’t repeating Dash’s performance of bucket worship from last night. She peeked out from below her pillow and saw the cyan pony fast asleep on the spare bed in her room. Rainbow looked so peaceful when she slept; Twilight smiled and tried not to move too much. Last night after Dash had gotten sick Twilight had helped her up to her spare bed to sleep off the rest of the booze. The party wound down not too much later, Rain went to stay with Fluttershy, Applejack had to work in the morning and Rarity ‘needed her beauty sleep’ as she put it. Pinkie stayed and helped Twilight and Spike clean and finish off the party punch. It was rather late when the pink pony finally wobbled out the door and made her way back to Sugar Cube Corner.
Twilight had almost fallen back asleep when her nostrils caught the smell of food being cooked. She slowly managed to lift her head up and saw that Spike was not in his basket, she guessed that he was behind the smell. Twilight got out of bed very carefully, trying not to wake Rainbow and so not to agitate her hangover too much, and made her way down to the kitchen.
“Good morning Twilight,” Spike said in a rather loud voice. He was messing with her; his dragon metabolism meant the alcohol in his system was processed faster than in hers.
“Just give me some damn pancakes,” Twilight growled, her hangover flaring up. “Or I swear to Celestia you will regret it.”
Spike laughed and set a plate in front of her, this was their normal routine after one of Pinkie’s parties. Twilight heartily dug into the warm food and felt slightly better. Spike and Twilight were going over the days schedule when a very off balance Rainbow Dash wandered into the kitchen.
“Note to everypony, never challenge Pinkie Pie in a drinking game.” A slightly hoarse Dash smiled.
“How are you feeling this morning?” Twilight asked as she used her magic to slide over a chair for her friend.
“Not so hot,” Dash said as she massaged her magenta eyes. “Mind if I stay here until I feel slightly better, I should be out of your mane by tonight.”
“Of course,” Twilight smiled at her friend. “Rain said she’s drop by sometime today to check on you, she’s staying with Fluttershy right now.”
“Here you go Rainbow,” Spike set a plate stacked with pancakes in front of the cyan pony who readily dug in.
Spike finally sat down with a stack of pancakes of his own and opened their copy of the Ponyville Times.
“That was fast,” Spike chuckled. “They already have an article on Rain Twirl. The cutie mark crusaders must’ve been hard at work last night.”
“Really, I thought they gave up newspaper reporting?” Twilight leaned over to look at the article over Spike’s shoulder.
“Nah,” Spike showed the article to Twilight. “They just don’t use pen names anymore. It says here she’s worked on some of the biggest video games of the past few years; apparently she’s a pretty big name in the industry. She just finished working on Equestrian Effect 3.”
“Never heard of it,” Twilight shrugged.
Rainbow Dash and Spike just gaped at Twilight.
“You’ve never played Equestrian Effect?” Rainbow Dash just gaped at Twilight.
“Should I?” Twilight looked confused. “What is it about anyways?”
Rainbow Dash jumped up from the table, all trace of her hangover gone.
“It’s so much easier to show you, I’ll be right back.” The cyan pony zoomed out the window.
Twilight had never seen Rainbow act that way, but she had never brought up the topic of video games. It wasn’t more than ten minutes later when Rainbow Dash zoomed back in, Twilight had just finished up helping Spike with the dishes. Rainbow carried a rather heavy saddlebag, she quickly unpacked what Twilight guessed was a Ponybox 360 and plugged it into a TV that Twilight almost never used. Rainbow beckoned Twilight over. Twilight sighed and walked over, the things she’d do for that pony.
“This’ll be great,” Dash laughed. “I get to teach the egghead something new, prepare to be wowed.”
Twilight watched as Dash navigated the menus creating her character; it looked quite like her minus the rainbow mane since the game didn’t support it. It was a good ten minutes before she actually started the game.
“Well,” an unknown voice said from the TV. “What about Shepard? She was born on Euqestria; her family was part of the royal Canterlot army. Her parents were killed during the griffin war when she was just a child.”
“She’s grown into a great soldier,” a second unknown voice replied. “She’s learned to look after herself.”
“She saw her whole unit die on Akuze,” a third unknown voice added. “She has to have some serious emotional scars.”
“She’s a survivor,” the second unknown voice said.
“Is that the kind of pony we want to protect the galaxy?” The first voice retorted.
“That’s the only kind of pony that can,” the first voice trailed off.
The camera pulled back to show Dash’s character looking out a window onto a planet below. At that point there was a knock on the door.
“I better get that,” Twilight sighed.
She opened the door to Rain Twirl and Fluttershy, both looking better than Twilight felt. The hangover still plagued her; the food had only dulled it slightly.
“Good morning,” Rain said rather cheerily.
“Morning,” Twilight said as cordially as she could. “Come in, I am pretty sure there is still breakfast if you would like any.”
Twilight moved aside for the two ponies.
“Thanks,” Rain smiled. “How’s Dash doing?”
“See for yourself,” Twilight said accompanied by the loud sound of gunshots from the TV.
Rain walked over to Rainbow Dash as Twilight greeted Fluttershy.
“Ah Equestrian Effect,” Rain smiled. “I never worked on this game; I was finishing up work on Mares of War at the time.”
“I was showing Twilight,” Rainbow paused the game and turned to Rain Twirl. “She had never heard of the game before. She keeps to books mostly.”
“There is nothing wrong with that,” Rain chuckled. “Books can take you some places that we can’t take you with games just yet.”
“It never hurt a pony to branch out,” Rainbow Dash smiled at Twilight who was deep in conversation with Fluttershy.
Twilight and Fluttershy walked over to join the other two ponies.
“Oh yea,” Rain said as the other two ponies joined them. “We ran into your friend Rarity on our way over here, she wanted us to collect you and come by her shop. She said she has some new dresses that she wants us all to try on.”
“Not again,” Rainbow Dash moaned. “We’ll be there all day.”
“How bad can it be, really?” Rain Twirl laughed.
