Twilight paced back and forth in her library, the expression on her face both intense and incredibly tired. Books lay strewn about her in the various unorganized positions she’d left them, as she continued to pull books off the shelf, skimming through them before tossing them aside with the others. Her voice was rough from lack of sleep as she mumbled under her breath: “ancient libraries” and “evil” and something about a cute stallion. Spike watched her from his seat on the floor, a comic book open in front of him.
He sighed. “You know you can just ask him out, right?”
With a sharp yelp, Twilight dropped the book she had been reading to the ground. “W-what? I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Her laughter was extremely high-pitched and strained as she quickly hid her face behind another book. Spike sighed again.
“All I’m trying to do is find the exact location of that one abandoned library from when Celestia was younger, the one she told me about once, so that maybe Shadowlock and I—or just Shadowlock, haha! That’d be fine too—can find more information about his ancestor and—”
Spike didn’t even bother sighing this time. “Have you always been this hopeless, or am I just now realizing it?”
Twilight snorted, a bit too loudly. “Whaaaat?”
“Well, at least this isn’t as bad as the time you faked an injury just to get an excuse to spend time alone with Rainbow Dash in a hospital room while she read you Daring Do and the—”
“Oh! That!” Twilight laughed again, even higher in pitch this time. “Well, I am the princess of friendship, after all! I love spending time with my friends!”
“Yeah, don’t try this on me. You talk in your sleep, you know.”
The princess froze, a muscle in her arched neck twitching ever so slightly, but then she blew out a sigh and a genuine laugh. “Spike, it’ll be fine. This is how I do things.”
The dragon arched an eyebrow at her, then went back to his comic book.
A few minutes later, a triumphant “A-HA!” echoed throughout the room, as Twilight excitedly slammed a book shut. “Found it!” She turned towards the door.
“Have fun on your date,” Spike muttered absentmindedly.
“It’s not a d—”
“Yeah, it—”
She slammed the door behind her, and Spike rolled his eyes.
~~~~
The sky was already somewhat dark when the mare and stallion headed out, the light of a single lantern illuminating the path before them and the map hovering in front of Twilight’s face. Very close to her face, in fact. Almost as if she were using it to hide her flustered expression and slightly-too-wide eyes.
“Are you sure it’s safe, just the two of us going there?” Shadowlock’s voice was almost as tired as Twilight’s, though a lot lower and smoother. As usual, he was wearing his cloak, and he took a moment to pull his hood down. He thought he heard a slight whimpering sound from Twilight’s direction at this, then decided it was just his overactive imagination.
“Yes, of course!” she responded immediately, quickening her pace. “Besides, all the others were busy!”
“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure we passed Applejack earlier.”
“I’m sure! Totally sure!” The mare quickened her pace yet again, nervously flicking her silky tail back and forth. Despite how visibly tired she was, she’d managed to comb it a grand number of twenty-eight times before leaving the castle that night. She also smelled a bit more like lavender than usual. “Hundred percent!”
He blinked, then glanced away. Twilight immediately lowered the map, her eyes just casually happening to glance in the direction of the stallion’s flowing tail, his strong, rugged legs, and his—
Shadowlock looked back at her suddenly, seeming confused when she yelped at this. “So,” he said, his voice lowering a bit, “how’s life been?”
“Oh! It’s been great!” She arched her neck in a way that was intended to look casual, but it showed off her curves a bit too well. “I’ve been getting a lot of reading done, for one. I’ve also—”
Shadowlock came to an abrupt halt, staring off into the distance. “Wait, do you see someone?”
Twilight doesn’t noticed that he’s stopped, and keeps walking briskly, flicking her ears nervously. “Am I seeing someone?” Her voice was oddly squeaky. “Well, no, not at the moment. There was Rainbow Dash but that didn’t really work out so at the moment I’m completely single!”
Squinting in confusion and hurrying to catch up, Shadowlock ignored her misunderstanding of his question. “Wait, Rainbow Dash? Do you prefer mares?”
“No! No no no no no.” Twilight was practically stumbling over both her own words and her own hooves at this point. “You must have me confused with Applejack. She’s the one who prefers mares. I’m into both, actually. Haha I thought I mentioned that earlier! Sorry!”
Shadowlock’s eyes may or may not have drifted down to Twilight’s lean, muscled forelegs. “It’s, uh, it’s alright. I’m the same way.”
Twilight’s face turned bright red through her lavender coat as she notices Shadowlock’s eyes fixated on her. “So, haha, uh, how about you? You seeing anyone?”
“Not at the moment, no.” His voice was quiet enough now that Twilight had to strain to hear it.
“Great! I mean! I have no opinion on that whatsoever! I am entirely ambivalent to that fact! Haha!”
Twilight, you fool. She shook her head vigorously. “Anyway, we’re almost to the library!”
Shadowlock perked up. “Wonderful!”
Twilight smiled and walked on ahead, arching her neck again and moving her legs a bit too seductively.
~~~~
Celestia had already lowered the sun by the time they arrived at the ancient library. It wasn’t much but ruins at this point, with crumbling stone walls and exposed shelves full of water-damaged books.
“Well this is certainly… precarious-looking.” Shadowlock came to a halt, staring quizzically up at the tower directly in front of them, taking note of how worn-down and weakened it looked. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Of course it’s safe! And besides!” Twilight tripped over a branch and awkwardly righted herself with a sheepish grin. “What’s the worst that could happen? There’s some kind of cave-in and we’re trapped in here all night?”
“That… could happen, I suppose. And that doesn’t sound very—”
“Oh come on, Shadowlock. There’s so much old information here! I’m sure we’ll be able to find something about your ancestor!”
“Maybe, but… the books look really water-damaged. I’m not sure if we’ll even be able to read them.”
“There’s a basement, of course.” Twilight led the way in the door with powerful (yet slightly trembling) strides, humming to herself almost absentmindedly. Shadowlock followed, his eyes drifting down to her legs again.
After poking around in the crevices of the walls for a bit, the two headed down a long, winding stairway, which, although better-looking than the outside of the building, still looked rather untrustworthy.
“Twilight, are you sure—”
“Hundred percent!”
Shadowlock sighed, then smiled, though it was too dark for Twilight to notice it.
They soon reached the bottom of the stairs, the room before them illuminated by the dim, glowing light of their horns. The faintly colored beams danced across the stone walls, the stone floor, the towering bookshelves, and… the noticeable lack of books.
“Um, Twilight?”
Twilight spun around, grinning. “Oh, silly me. I somehow forgot that the majority of the books previously housed here were moved to the Canterlot archives to prevent them from being damaged further! That’s too bad.”
“Twilight, I—”
“I agree, we should head back to the castle now.” Twilight’s horn glowed a bit brighter than before, and a crash was heard upstairs. “Oh dear, did you hear that?” Her words became faster and faster. “Sounded like the entrance to the stairway we used just collapsed. That’s too bad. Really, I’m very sorry about this. It’s a shame that we’re stuck here, the two of us, in this abandoned library, all alone, with—haha, whoops! Looks like I only brought one blanket! I guess we’ll have to share—”
“TWILIGHT!”
The princess stopped abruptly, blushing intensely. “W-what,” she stammered.
“You know we can teleport, right.”
“Ha. Hahahaha. Haha!” Twilight backed up quickly, tripping over her hooves again. “Well. Isn’t that interesting.”
“Twilight.”
Suddenly he was right in front of her, his breath hot against her face, his soft green eyes staring intensely into her wide, purple ones. Twilight could hear her heart pounding, feel her muscles shaking as she tried to stammer out some sort of coherent response. But the handsome lines of his scarred face, so close to hers, rendered her speechless.
“If you wanted to spend the night with me, you could have just asked, you know.”
Twilight’s heart seemed to stop. Time seemed to stop. She breathed in sharply, a sound which the stallion found indescribably attractive. “I—uh—”
He moved even closer, until their muzzles were nearly touching. So close. She could cover the gap in an instant, and as her alluring, bright eyes flickered shut, he was sure she would. His heart skipped a beat in anticipation.
And then, all of a sudden, a high-pitched, familiar voice rang out from above.
“HI GUYS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? HEHEHE! SILLY TWILIGHT, I THOUGHT YOU KNEW THE BOOKS HAD BEEN MOVED!”
A flash of pink bounded down the now-cleared stairway towards them, as they gasped and stumbled apart. Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to notice what she was interrupting, though.
“You’re lucky I was walking by and juuuuuust happened to hear a crash! Otherwise you’d be trapped in here all night, in an abandoned library, with just the two of you! That would be pretty unfun, huh?”
Twilight and Shadowlock stared at each other, slightly wide-eyed, then back at Pinkie.
“Well, hurry up, sillies! I’ll lead you back outside1”
As the two followed their friend up the staircase once again, Shadowlock turned to Twilight and, giving her a slight nudge, whispered, “Just ask me out next time.”
Twilight blushed furiously. “F-fine.”
