CHAPTER 1
Helping Hoof
There's a time period where absolutely nothing drastically bad happens. Usually, it lasts a month or so and if one of those days hits the first day of the week, anything bad just doesn't happen. It has had a significant effect all over Equestria, and many ponies and alike have noticed this phenomenon among centuries of generations.
For over a thousand years, no evil forces have ever touched this specific day, for reasons unknown. There have been some myths as to why this day was always so peaceful that some ponies claimed to be fact. They say that on the Eastern side of Equestria, there was an incident that resulted in some powerful spell that Star Swirl The Bearded himself manifested in order to keep Equestria and beyond, safe from all danger for one day every one hundred moons.
Though, there hasn't been an explanation for the few days before and after where nothing too bad also happens. Many tried to theorize more on the fact that for at least a month's worth of time around said "Easter Sunday," have also never had much happen.
But due to lack of information, the "Eastern Event from the East" theory, is allotted to everyone so that it can try and explain the yearly phenomenon. So they worked around that to create the holiday that everyone all knows as, Easter.
You may know how things changed from the original Easter event celebrations, from that to collecting chocolate eggs from a rabbit that shits out those eggs. Well, the story you're about to read might be the second weirdest change for the Easter holiday. Because this Easter was about to change the lives of one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
It's been a few months after defeating Queen Chrysalis, Cozy Glow and Tirek. Though the fight was tough, every creature came together and helped in saving Equestria, hopefully, for the last time. After Princess Twilight Sparkle's coronation, her request to stay with her friends in Ponyville were at first, a little preposterous, but since Celestia has no control over her former student's choices, she agreed that it may be best to do so.
At some point, during the same conversation, Twilight mentioned something about why Luna had to retire. It just made little to no sense to her and she explained why she felt that Luna didn't need to retire yet. It ended up being a funny little interaction and that somehow convinced Celestia to have her little sister rule alongside Twilight, much to Luna's dismay.
It is now an Easter Sunday afternoon, Twilight is in her castle doing spell tests using some book with the cover; "Special Magic Spells" that she believes are not as "special" as they claim it to be. She has doubts that these spells have nothing to do with anything "special," and so, to prove her hypothesis is correct, she invited one of her best friends to help with confirming it, Rainbow Dash, a mare who would rather not be doing whatever that is with Twilight on Easter.
But Dash was the only one available to test out the "special" spells with. Not because Twilight forced her into it using some very persuading vocabulary.
While waiting for Rainbow Dash, Twilight does some last minute adjustments to her workplace, a.k.a. the guest bedroom. She, who is mostly just getting prepared for the testing, is skimming through some of the spells just to see which ones she can do for the day. Spike, on the other hoof, was only staying until Dash gets here so that he can go do his own thing.
Starlight Glimmer, who could've been chosen as the role for Spike today, was on vacation with Sunburst and Trixie, somewhere far, far away from Ponyville. She was already gone by the time Twilight woke up, and when she did, she found a note on Starlight's bed talking about her yearly Easter week break. Twilight understood and made Spike be the stand-in for Rainbow Dash.
"So, when will she get here?" Spike asks Twilight.
"Soon, Spike." she answers.
"What's in that book anyway?" Spike asks another question.
"I don't know yet." she replies.
"How much longer do I have to be here?" Spike asks her a third question.
Twilight sighs as she leaves the spell book open on a podium that she has in the room with her.
"Not much longer, Spike. She'll be here in a minute."
It's as if Twilight predicted exactly when Rainbow Dash would arrive. The pegasus arrives outside bedroom door, she knocks on it.
"Perfect, just in time." Twilight says as she walks over to the bedroom door and opens it.
"Happy Easter, Rainbow Dash." Twilight greets with a smile.
"Wish I could say the same." she replies joylessly.
"Come in, come in... we have plenty of spells to test." Twilight says as she goes back to her testing area.
"So, Dash..."
"Yeah?"
"Are you ready to help me prove that I, Princess Twilight Spar-"
"Let's just get this over with..." Dash interrupts.
"Okay then." Twilight clears her throat. "Spike, you can go now."
"Finally..."
Spike gets up from his bean bag chair and starts to leave. On the way out, he says to Dash,
"Have fun."
Dash looks at Spike with a jealous face, Spike snickers to himself as he exits the room.
"Close the door on your way out, Spike!" Twilight shouts out, he does so.
"Alright, let's get started!"
"Great... This is going to be the most boring Easter of my life." Dash ends.
Dash really wishes she could be somewhere else right now. Maybe, enjoying the view from somewhere up high, or somewhere in the meadows where she can feel the grass skim through her coat, or at the beach, feeling the sun and sand around her. But no, she had to be here, at Twilight's castle, in a bedroom, being tested on.
"Hey, thanks for coming, Dash." Twilight opens.
"Yeah, well, they don't call me the Element of Loyalty for nothing."
"True." Twilight agrees.
"So, uh, how long did you say this was gonna take again?" Dash asks her.
"Uhm... about five hours."
"FIVE HOURS!?" Dash shouts. "I'm gonna miss half the day!"
"But isn't it one o'clock?"
"You know what I meant."
"Not really..." Twilight comments. "Now, Rainbow Dash, I need you to cooperate, okay? Then we'll get this done quicker."
Dash sighs.
"Fine."
"Good. So, just sit over there and I'll need you when I call you."
"Alright..."
Dash walks over to the bean bag chair that Spike was sitting on and plops down on it as she awaits Twilight's word. As Twilight continues on her experiments, Rainbow lays down and thinks about what life decisions brought her here. Even through all the battles and friendships that she and her best friends won, she still feels a little moody about things.
You know, being promoted to The Captain of The Wonderbolts, and a friendship teacher can get a little exhausting. Easter was supposed to be one of those holidays where she can go off and do whatever she may please. Instead, she's helping a friend of hers make themselves feel better by testing out how "Special" the spells are in some "Special Magic Spells" book. I guess she is the Element of Loyalty though, so maybe it's not too bad.
It's been about four hours since the two mares started testing the spells in the "Special Magic" book. Some spells seemed interesting at first, but they turned out to be so far up the "Next level special" scale that it looped back down to "Oh, it's special alright...".
They aren't even halfway done with the book, there are still so many more pages until they reach the end. Pages filled with whatever kind of "Special Magic Spells" were listed within the covers of this Celestia-forsaken spell book. Twilight didn't know what majority of the contents of this book even were. It almost seems like she was just winging it from the beginning.
Everything they just tested were "absolute bullshit", in Twilight's words. Twilight thought it was weird that this single large book of spells was hidden within Celestia and Luna's old castle's chambers. Now she thinks it was rightfully justified that this book stayed in the chambers to be left to get taken by time.
Anyway, the two mares are tired after four hours of testing Twilight's "Special Magic Spells" book. They almost fell asleep just an hour into it because of how boring the spells were.
"Twi?"
"Mhm?" Twilight turns to Dash.
"Do you ever feel like life just isn't going the way you wanted it to be?"
"What do you mean?"
"Y'know like..." Dash pauses. "I mean don't get me wrong, I think being Captain of The Wonderbolts and awesome and all, but like... Everything just seems to get so... stressful..."
"I know what you mean..." Twilight says understandingly, "And this "Special Magic" stuff is total bullshi-"
"Did you even hear what I just said!!!" Dash says angrily.
Twilight sighs heavily and walks over to Dash as she tells her,
"Look, I have been listening carefully to everything you've just been saying, and I completely understand how you feel."
"You do?"
"Now, I'm no expert therapist like Fluttershy, but, all I can tell you is maybe you should try to have someone to talk to about your problems."
"..." Dash lays silent, "Really?"
"Yeah, you do have Tank though, right?" Twilight inquires.
"Yeah, I mean... I do talk with him a lot and stuff. But sometimes I feel like there's something else missing that could help more."
"Hmm..." Twilight expresses, "Let's say maybe you could need someone who can tell you things that Tank can't?"
"Like who?" she asks
"Oh I don't know..." Twilight sighs, "I actually want to have something therapeutic done for myself... I just never have the time for it all."
"I see..."
"Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, it seems we both need to open up about working so much. And I'm sure the rest of us also feel the same sometimes."
"Okay... But how am I supposed to find someone who can understand me as much as Tank does?
"Well, I don't know but like I said, I'm not an expert. And it seems to me that you could use a little free time for now, don't you think?"
"I guess..." Dash reluctantly says.
"I got an idea... Come here, Dash." Twilight calls over Dash to stand next to her.
"So, do you like art?" she asks.
"Only if it's something I like."
"Then I think you'll like this."
Twilight pops in a medium sized mirror for the artwork that she will make.
"I read on a page somewhere in that book that can turn some glass objects into art."
"Ok, cool."
"Hmm, maybe there will be something "Special" in that book after all." Twilight says.
"We'll see."
As Twilight searches for the page where the art spell is and quickly reads it off the book, she readies up her horn so that her expertise can turn the mirror into some art. Twilight's horn starts glowing as she conjures up the magic. After some time, the glow gets bigger until a beam of magic shoots towards the mirror at a high speed.
The thing is, the beam of magic is supposed to hit the mirror and turn it into an artwork. Instead, it bounces of the surface and because of the angle that it was at, the beam hits Rainbow Dash square in the face and flings her back a bit. Thus beginning her slow transformation.
"Ow, what was that?." Dash says, dazed.
"No no no, that wasn't supposed to happen."
"What do you mean?"
"Hold on for sec..." Twilight turns back to read the spell and upon further inspection, she realizes what she had cast on one of her best friends. "Oh no..."
"Oh no, what? What did you do?"
"Well..." Twilight flips through two pages of the book where the right spell and the one that she just cast on her as she prepares to tell her the unfortunate accident, "I miiiight have just done the wrong spell..."
"Twilight, what did you do?"
"I miiight have read the wrong page of the book..." Twilight continues sheepishly.
"Twilight..." Dash says, now frustrated.
"It was an accident! I didn't mean to!"
"What did you just put on me?" Rainbow asks, more frustrated.
"Uhhhhmmm," Twilight says worriedly, "Come see for yourself."
Rainbow Dash walks over next to Twilight and reads the first page on the left.
"Mosaic spell?"
Twilight turns to the other spell's page.
"Moai spell?" Rainbow Dash puts the pieces together in her head and says, "Wait... are you telling me..."
"I must have confused the two somehow, I'd never do that on purpose, I'm sorry Rainbow Dash." she says quickly.
"TWILIGHT!" Dash yells, annoyed at the fact that Twilight unknowingly put a possibly dangerous spell on her.
"Please... read the description of that one..." Twilight asks her to do.
"It says here; the target who was hit with this spell will become a big... stone... head." she reads.
Rainbow gets confused all of a sudden,
"Twi, What the fuck is this?"
"It's... not my book of "Special Magic"..."
"That's not the point, Twi..."
"Well... what do you mean, then?"
"I'M PROBABLY GONNA DIE, TWILIGHT! WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME!?"
"I DON'T KNOW, I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"
The two mares start screaming at each other due to the fact that Rainbow Dash is now slowly turning into a Moai statue. They scream about how the spell isn't one of the limited to one day spells, and over the course of three days, Rainbow Dash will eventually fully turn into a Moai statue. What they don't know is, Rainbow Dash won't die at the end of her transformation. She will be preserved for as long as she stays as a statue.
This is implying that when somepony gets turned into any statue, Moai or not, they don't die. They are preserved in between the stone cast and when it's time for them to be released, they will stay in perfect condition as long as they don't break apart at some point. As for Rainbow's Moai predicament, the outcome is no different to turning the villains into statues using the power of friendship and whatnot.
Now, for some reason, as they were going through these spells, only most of them had reversion spells in case anything devastating happened. Some spells were listed as "limited to one day" so the technical curses could just disappear after the individual targeted reached the twenty-four hour mark. Twilight skipped these ones due to them being to risky.
Some had nothing listed on the pages after, meaning if somebody had one of the spells that curse them, that had no spell to reverse it, they would be stuck with whatever was cast on them for the rest of their life, or until someone else finds another way to reverse it with something else.
That being said, there was probably no way to reverse Rainbow's Moai curse situation. Although, if there was a way to break it somehow, Twilight would find it eventually.
After a short back and forth tantrum of the two mares, they eventually start addressing the situation.
"Yes." Twilight says, "You only have three days to live..."
"Can you say that one more time?" Dash says frantically.
"Dash, I've been saying that one more time for the past seventeen times already."
"Ok.. but can you say that one more time?"
"Rainbow Dash, you only have three more days to live until you turn into a Moai Statue."
Rainbow Dash starts breathing heavily after she finally realizes the unfortunate truth.
"Ohhhhhh no..." she says with a long breath as she almost calms down, "Three days? Really?"
"That's what it says."
"What am I gonna do in three days?" Dash asks.
Twilight replies with a question, "Do you... have anything on your mind?"
"No...? I didn't see my weekend going like this." she confesses.
"Okay... well," Twilight sighs, "I, uh... I was... actually planning to do something with you after we were done."
Perhaps there was another reason why Twilight Sparkle decided to test these "Special Magic" spells with Rainbow Dash. Perhaps not just because Rainbow was the only one available on Easter holiday. Perhaps there was something that she was keeping from letting out. Perhaps she just felt like being alone with another mare for the day.
"What. What were you planning to do? Kill me?" Dash asks Twilight.
"I already said I didn't mean to use that spell!." she answers, "Besides, no. Absolutely not, why would you think that?"
Rainbow Dash sighs.
"I don't know, alright. I'm just... worried now."
"Well don't, okay? We'll get through this."
Dash smiles lightly.
"Thanks, Twi."
"No problem. I'll try to find a way to reverse the spell and you'll get back to normal, okay?"
"Okay..." Dash ends. "So... what were you planning to do?"
"Well... after we get about halfway through, I would have actually fell asleep probably, but I wanted to..." she goes silent, thinking carefully about her next words.
"What? What did you want?" Dash asks wanting to know the answer.
Twilight takes a deep breath and continues,
"It kinda... you know, gets lonely in here when we don't have the cutie map going anymore... So, uh... I wanted to ask you... if it would be okay with you... if you stayed the night."
"Here?" Dash questions.
Twilight nods.
"Really?" she questions again.
Twilight nods again.
"With you...?" Dash raises an eyebrow as she looks deep into her eyes.
Twilight starts blushing a little and says,
"Yeah, well... maybe..." Twilight gets flustered, "I thought maybe there would be something with these "Special Spells" that I could pick out before we finished but, everything in there is nonsense."
"Are you asking me to sleep with you?" Dash questions.
Twilight starts blushing even more.
"Well... "
"Geez Twi, I don't know what to say..." Dash thinks about her friendship with Twilight for a second. Was there something more to it than she thought? "How long were planning on telling me this?"
"Not that long, really... I was mainly thinking of a good reason to bring you here." she answers honestly, "It was until I searched through Celestia and Luna's old castle that I finally found a reason."
"Wait... why were you there in the first place?" Dash asks.
"Oh you weren't there?"
"What?"
"Oh yeah, that was just me, never mind..."
Twilight looks over to Rainbow, she looks confused and motions her to continue.
"Oh, right... Well, Luna wanted me, personally, to search through her and her sister's old castle to see if there were any old leftover stuff that I could salvage for her."
"That's a weird request." Dash comments.
"Well, I took it. And there was some old stuff in there that I brought to her afterwords, including the book."
She points to the "Special Magic Spells" book on the lectern.
"She said she doesn't remember ever seeing it before, so she asked if I could look through it and see if anything useful was in here."
"So you said yes?" Dash asks.
"Not at first... you see, I wasn't thinking about your help until I realized that I may need somebody else to accompany me through this big book of "special" spells."
"Oh okay, so you thought that by asking me to help you with this, it would be a good enough reason to get me here." Dash says in order to try and solve the mystery of Twilight's intentions.
"Not exactly, you see, before that, I was thinking about what could be in this book that make these spells so "special." So, I wanted to see if maybe you and I could really hit it up if we found something that could truly be something "special"."
Twilight's voice sounds like she's been longing for somebody to fill in the void in her life. Her face starts getting hotter as it gets noticeably more red.
"Twilight?" Dash interrupts.
"Yeah?" she says as she imagines some scenarios that she could be having with her friend.
"You're turning red again..."
Twilight's lips fold into a scrunch and her blush slowly fades away from her face as she recollects herself.
"Oh... Well, I think you get what I mean."
"Not... really?" Dash says, understandably so.
"What?" Twilight tries to remember what she was talking about, "Oh, right... Well, remember when I said I understand how you feel about being stressed out?" she asks.
"Yeah, you said I needed someone to talk to." Dash replies.
"Yes, exactly. What I'm trying to say is, there's actually another reason why I brought you here..."
"Wait, didn't you say you wanted to ask me to stay the night and whatever?" Dash brings up.
"Umm, yeah that too, but... the reason why I thought of that in the first place, was after thinking about what could be inside this book, i-it..."
Twilight lets out a breath as she struggles to find the words to tell Rainbow Dash the truth about how she feels.
"It gets a bit lonely in here... All this Princess work really gets to me. I've been so stressed out by all of it that I wanted you specifically to come by and maybe see what would happen if we stayed together for a while. You're one of my closest friends and I really don't know what would happen if you weren't there for me since the beginning. Over time, our friendship has grown so much and I felt inclined to try something new with you. But I couldn't just ask you out of nowhere on any normal day. Sure, I could've gotten another one of the girls to come but I wanted you. So that's why I invited you here." she finally tells her everything she feels.
"Wait, wait, wait... so, you're telling me that after all this time you've been hiding your true feelings about me 'cos you didn't know how I would react."
"Basically..." she answers as she nods her head.
"But you also wanted me to stay here and comfort you because you feel stressed out?" Dash asks, thinking she finally understands Twilight's problem.
"Yup." Twilight says as she nods once more.
"So... you're attracted to me?"
"Mhm." she folds her lips and starts blushing again.
"Wow..." Dash says, "I gotta say Twi, great choice. I mean, me out of all of us. Out of all stallions even."
Twilight goes silent as her face gets more red in color.
"Just, wow, Twi." Dash breathes out, "Damn. That is one awesome thought, huh? 'Cos I do feel like we have been pretty close lately."
"So... what do you say?"
"I-I mean... I have problems too, especially this "Moai" spell you just put on me now but..." Dash contemplates for her answer.
Twilight awaits the final answer that will give her the result to her plan to not be alone anymore.
"I mean... I guess it's okay with me if we talk more about our feelings towards each other." Dash says finally.
"That's great! I can do that." Twilight says with excitement. "Oh yeah, by the way... I had something else prepared in the dining hall just in case."
"You did what now?" Dash asks, confused.
"Oh, just a little surprise I wanted to show you when we were done."
Twilight and Dash make their way to the dining hall as Dash gets ready for whatever Twilight has done within it. Before Twilight opens the door to the dining hall, she make a remark,
"I just want you to know, I put this up a few hours before you arrived, so I don't think it looks too good in there."
Once Twilight opens the door, Dash looks around the hall that is now filled with a few stunningly placed decorations. Some depicting the colors of their mane and body. In the center, the dining table had a meal of Dash's favorite fast food items.
Dash has her jaw dropped from the amount of effort Twilight put in to make one night look great.
"It's not much but, I tried." Twilight says to her.
"A-, huh?" Dash seems flabbergasted because how well everything was put together.
"So, shall we?" Twilight asks.
"I guess we shall..." Dash finally talks and looks towards Twilight who is next to her, smiling.
Twilight lets out a giggle and walks to take a seat. When seated, she holds her hoof out to a seat next to her to invite Dash to dinner.
"I mean, this might be one of the last things I do..." Dash thinks to herself. "Might as well make it interesting, right?"
Dash walks over to the seat next to Twilight. As she sits down, she notices her own face starting to heat up as some sweat drips down her forehead. Twilight, who was watching her the whole time, lets out another giggle as she prepares the meal to be eaten.
Though you may say that Dash forgives Twilight too easily for basically putting an irreversible curse on her, nothing can stand in between the pair of mares' friendship. You could say this Easter wasn't the best day for the two because of the events that occurred. While that may be true, they both got something truly amazing out of it at the end of the day.
CHAPTER 2
The Morning After...
The sun rises on a new day, Monday. Princess Twilight yawns as she slowly wakes up next to the warmth of the rainbow-maned pegasus she had dinner with the night before. She opened her eyes and saw Rainbow Dash, asleep with a faint smile on her face. She also notices both of their arms loosely wrapped around each other.
Rainbow Dash slowly maneuvers her way closer into Twilight's embrace. Twilight blushes slightly as she watches the pegasus' face make it's way closer to her chest. When Dash's mane gets in the way of Twilight's face, the latter takes in a whiff of the other's mane. She giggles quietly as the smell of Dash's ambrosial scent tingles her senses. It reminded her of the events from last night.
Rapid thoughts make their way to the front of her mind. She starts thinking of the dinner that she and Dash had had the night before, the conversation they had, up until the point when they drank all the alcohol, but shortly after, the strands of Rainbow's mane causes her to sneeze.
Dash gets startled awake due to the sound, making an audible "Gah!" as she's suddenly woken up. When she opens her eyes, she sees Twilight on the opposite side of the bed, staring at her whilst holding her in an embrace.
"Oh, good morning, Rainbow..." Twilight awkwardly but positively greets.
"Morning, Twi..." the puzzled pegasus replies as she pulls away from the embrace after realizing who her arms are wrapped around on.
She asks, "Uh... what were we doing?"
"I think we were cuddling... Well, before you woke up and pulled out..." the princess answers.
"O-Oh... huh." she remarks, before awkwardly looking into Twilight's eyes.
"So..." Dash says, trying to spark up a conversation, "How did we get here?" she asks.
The two of them try as hard as they can to recall what happened the night before. Due to some intoxication from all the drinks they had had, they don't remember much from the dinner. But through the blurred vision and memories, Twilight manages to remember most of what happened after their little drinking party.
Twilight begins reminding her partner in bed something she said during the night prior. She had always wondered what it was like to sleep with another mare but she didn't want to say it directly due to the thought that she wouldn't feel the same way. Then, she got the idea to ask Dash to stay the night through finding the "Special Magic Spells" book.
Upon coming to the realization of the spell book, they both start thinking about the Moai spell.
"Oh yeah, that..." Dash says, downheartedly.
"Hey, cheer up. We'll find a way to fix it." Twilight says.
"You promise?" Dash asks.
"I promise." she answers.
"Well... if you say so, then... I trust you Twi." Dash remarks.
Dash tries to move her hind legs to step out of the bed, but she can't. She felt that something under the blanket was preventing her from moving her hind legs. She struggles to slide out of the bed under the weight of the mysterious object on her hind legs. When she was eventually able to successfully get her hind legs out through the foot of the bed, she immediately fell to the floor.
"Woah!" Dash yells.
Twilight hops out of bed and inspects Dash's predicament. She recognizes the material on Dash's legs, volcanic tuff. The both of them now knew that it was the Moai spell that caused the rock piece to grow out of nowhere. All of a sudden, their natural reaction to finding out about the rock was to start screaming.
"AHH!" Dash screams first.
"AAHH!" Twilight follows second.
"AAH!"
"AAAH!"
The two gradually scream louder and louder as the they follow a back and forth screaming session, until they eventually run out of breath. The two hyperventilate to get some air back.
"Oh no... It's happening already." Twilight says.
"What do I do, Twilight?" Dash asks, worried.
Twilight thinks of a solution to move Rainbow for a moment. Then she perks up and says,
"Ah-ha! Stay right there. I have an idea."
Twilight teleports away and Rainbow stands up with her stone-based legs. She tries lifting her hind legs up to walk, but to no avail. Then she tries flying, but the weight of the rock attached to her legs is too heavy, even for her.
"Great..." she comments, frustrated.
Then Twilight returns with a wheelchair type apparatus in her magic grasp.
"Where did you get that?" Dash inquires.
"Oh, I have it in storage in case of emergencies." Twilight replies.
"What kind of emergency supplies do you even have?" Dash asks.
"Pretty much everything, really. Everything you'll ever need is in my storage room just in case." Twilight answers.
"Oookay..." Dash says.
"Now, I need you to straighten your back so I can fit this in." Twilight orders.
"Y'know, I could probably do this by myself, Twi." Dash complains.
"Oh really? Try putting it on then." Twilight backlashes.
"Wait, no! I need you..." Dash whines.
"That's what I thought." Twilight says triumphantly.
After a few seconds, Twilight gets Rainbow into the wheelchair.
"So, how's that?" Twilight surveys.
"I feel disabled." Rainbow Dash answers.
"Well I guess... Technically, you are now." Twilight comments.
Dash looks at her in a disgruntled expression before saying,
"How am I supposed to run The Wonderbolts if I'm stuck in a wheelchair?"
"Can't you just take a few days off?" Twilight asks her.
The two go silent for a moment.
"You're right, fuck it. I'm dying in three days anyway right?" Dash says out of nowhere.
"Woah... where did that come from?" her mare-friend asks, surprised.
Dash sighs and says, "Well, look... This is a lot for me to deal with right now... It's just getting to me, don't worry about it."
"Well, it seems like I should worry, you'd usually try to do something about it first." Twilight says, concerned for her friend.
Dash sighs again and continues, "You wanna know something, Twi? I'm scared, okay? But if I act like I just don't care about it, I can't be afraid of this whole thing."
"Oh..." Twilight says before Dash continues,
"Plus, I'm tired, Twilight... the least I could do for myself is just relax like I was supposed to do yesterday. But instead, you asked me to come here and help you with something, then you cursed me with this Moai shit, and now I don't know what to do other than wait for my inevitable death from being consumed by rocks."
"Okay... wow... um..." Twilight says, too stunned to speak.
"Look Twi, I know you mean well, you're trying to help me... And sure, last night was great and all... But... this mess happened all because of you..." Dash unveils the truth of their situation.
Twilight thinks to herself for a bit before sighing.
"Rainbow... I know this is a lot to handle, and even though this is all my fault, I promised you earlier that I'll try my best to fix it. And even if you just need somepony to talk to, I'm here for you, Dash." Twilight reveals.
They both sit in silence for a few seconds before Dash starts tearing up. Twilight offers her friend a hug to cheer her up. Gladly, Rainbow Dash allows herself to be taken into the princess's embrace. She tries onto Twilight's shoulder while she comforts her. They stay in that position until Dash's emotions finally calm down.
Eventually, Dash pulls away from the embrace after a few minutes. She then says, with some sniffling,
"You know, you're right. I'm sorry..."
"It's okay, Dash. Just as long as we can still be together after I caused all this." Twilight says.
"Well, I think I'll be staying with you for the next three days anyway." she says jokingly.
"Uhm, it's two days actually." Twilight corrects.
"Already!?" Dash shouts.
"And A Half!... I meant to say two and a half days." Twilight corrects herself.
"As if that makes it any better, Twi."
Twilight sighs, "Look Dash, we don't have all day to complain, okay? We need to find a remedy for this, quick."
"But who's gonna look after Tank while I'm down here? He's not gonna be all good up there, alone." Dash asks.
"Oh, yeah... Hmm..." Twilight says as she tries to come up with a solution for Dash not being able to see Tank for the whole two and a half days.
"Well, we can get Fluttershy to bring him down to you, right?" she suggests.
"Good idea." Dash agrees.
"Great, we'll go to Fluttershy's and we can tell her about our problem."
"Okay." Dash says.
They sit in silence for a bit, thinking of something else to say.
"Can I use your shower?" Dash asks.
"Oh, well, I usually go first..." Twilight responds, "but, I guess you can go first."
"No no, it's ok if you go before me." Dash says.
"O-oh, no, you can go first..." Twilight awkwardly responds.
"Twi, it's fine." Dash snickers, "It's your castle."
"O-okay, sure thing." Twilight says before making her way to the bathroom with Dash following behind her.
Twilight uses the shower first and Rainbow waits patiently out in the hallway. From the outside, she could hear Twilight humming while showering. She chuckles slightly as she hears the great humming voice of Twilight. About twenty minutes later, it's Rainbow's turn to use the shower.
As soon as Twilight opens the bathroom door, Rainbow sees her newly established partner wearing a towel around her waist and holding an unopened box of soap in her magical aura.
"Here's a new box of soap, so you don't have to use mine." Twilight says while blushing slightly.
"Okay... thanks, I guess?" Rainbow says.
A slight blush creeps across Dash's cheeks. She notices this and walks into the bathroom while Twilight is still standing inside. Dash then realizes, she still has the wheelchair on.
"Oh, um... could you take this off." she asks Twilight.
"Yeah, yeah..." Twilight answers.
She awkwardly undoes the strap around Dash's waist while she's in the small shower space and removes the apparatus, letting the pegasus' hind legs drop onto the shower tiles. She leaves the wheelchair in front of the sink before exiting the bathroom herself and closing the door so the Dash can shower in private.
About thirty minutes pass, the mare in the shower has finally finished freshening up. She looks for a towel to use and notices a dry one on the rack next the the shower. She extends her wing to reach for the towel, but it's too far away and she tries to move her body closer to the rack.
Unfortunately, she falls over due to forcing her body to move with the seemingly unmovable stone on her hind legs, causing her to lose balance.
"Twilight!!!" she yells for help.
The pony she called for rushes into the bathroom immediately after. She uses her magic to lift her partner up from the bathroom floor and quickly puts the wheelchair on her again. She then, grabs the towel Dash was reaching for and uses it to wipe off the dirt in the fallen mare's wet mane.
"Are you alright?" Twilight asks.
"Yeah..." Dash says before clearing her throat. "I'm good, thanks..."
"Are you sure?" the concerned princess asks for mare-friend, "You just fell..."
"Yeah, I'm okay, Twi. The fall wasn't that bad." Rainbow says nonchalantly.
"Okay, if you say so..." Twilight says while still drying her partner's wet mane.
The Princess keeps drying the rest of Rainbow's face before she realizes what she's doing when the both of them looked at each other lovingly, and she felt the warm blood spread across her cheeks. What's strange is, she didn't feel that weird about it anymore, she actually liked it.
She knew that even Dash liked it too, she wasn't pulling herself away from the interaction. She was just standing there waiting to be dried by her new mare-friend. Of course, after a while, they had to move on with their day. After having fully dried Rainbow's body, Twilight put the towel on the rack it was originally on for it to dry.
"So, do you need anything else before we go?" Twilight asks nervously.
"Well, I gotta brush my teeth..." Dash says as she walks towards the sink and mirror-cabinet.
"There's spare toothbrushes in the cabinet." Twilight informs her.
"Wha-..." Dash starts saying, "Why do you have spare toothbrushes?" she tries to ask.
"Just get one..." Twilight simply says.
Twilight watches Dash open the bathroom cabinet before grabbing her own with her magic because she will brush her teeth too. The two of them start to brush their teeth together. At some point, Twilight jokes about an ad that she saw about dentistry.
"Hey Dash, you know that advertisement that says Brushing alone isn't enough to prevent cavities and tooth decay?"
"Yeah, why?" Dash asks as they brush their own teeth.
"Well, we aren't alone..." Twilight says.
Dash stands still with a toothbrush in her mouth for a few seconds before looking at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. After they're done, Twilight and Rainbow head out of the bathroom, into the hallway, and out the front door.
"So, what else do we do after we meet with Fluttershy?" Twilight asks her.
"I don't have anything new on my mind, other than this wheelchair." Dash replies.
"Okay, well... I'm bringing the book with us, I have a feeling that we might need it."
"Okay..." Dash breathes out.
Dash struggles to walk with the weight of rock behind her on the wheelchair. And without even having the ability to fly properly, she will have to stay grounded for the next two and a half days. This day could've gone much differently if she had declined Twilight's invite the day before. She knew it was a strange request, even for Twilight, she could've moved it to a different day where anypony of her choosing would be the one to get tested on.
Unless we haven't been paying attention to the story, we know by now that Twilight chose Dash on Easter day for a little "sleepover". However, the outcome wasn't as perfect as Twilight pictured it would be. In her attempt of cheering up her Friend, she had cast a possibly permanent and life-threatening spell on her because she got memory dyslexia for some reason.
Oh well, anyway, the couple of mares make their way to Fluttershy's cottage to tell her about their dilemma. When they get there, they knock on her front door and she answers.
"Oh, hello girls." the somewhat timid pegasus greets.
"Hey, Fluttershy." Dash greets first.
"Hi, Fluttershy." Twilight greets second.
"What brings you two here?" Fluttershy says as she welcomes them in.
Twilight speaks up first, "Well, me and Dash are kind of having a little issue... We thought that you might wanna help us with something."
"Oh, what is it?" Fluttershy asks them.
"Well... it's kinda complicated..." Dash says in response.
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asks.
Twilight and Rainbow look at each other, wondering if they should really tell her or not. After a few seconds though, they bring their friend to her living room so they can sit and talk about all of the events that happened in the past twenty-four hours. Twilight and Dash silently agree to tell their friend everything.
"Okay, so yesterday..." Twilight begins explaining.
"...and so, we wanted to you if it would be okay with you if you brought Tank back down for us?" she asks after telling her everything that happened in the past twenty-four hours.
Fluttershy sits there stunned by everything they just said. After a few seconds of thought, she eventually speaks up,
"Oh wow... um... That's, a lot to take in..."
"I know... and it's all my fault." Twilight says.
"You're damn right it is..." Dash says, leaning on the couch's armrest beside her.
"Hey, I thought we were done arguing about this." Twilight says to the resting mare.
Dash grumbles to herself before saying, "Whatever..." she then turns to look at her longest surviving friend, Fluttershy.
"Yeah anyways, Fluttershy, is that alright with you?" she asks as if she wasn't just upset with Twilight.
"Oh, I'm not so sure if I could find the time to fly all the way up there." Fluttershy explains.
"But Tank won't know what happened to me if you don't get up there and bring him down for me." Dash says.
They all go silent for a few seconds. Until, Fluttershy reluctantly says,
"Oh, alright... I think I can do you girls a favor."
"Oh, Thank you, Fluttershy." Twilight thanks her friend.
"Yeah, thanks Shy..." Dash thanks also.
"Oh, and one more thing..." Twilight speaks up before leaving,
"I would appreciate it if you didn't tell the rest of the girls about, well, us." she says while gesturing between her and Rainbow Dash.
"That'll just be our little secret." she continues.
"Oh, of course. I wouldn't reveal such a thing if you aren't ready yet." Fluttershy says wholeheartedly.
Dash pushes herself off the armrest of the couch as Twilight stands up from where she sat. They prepare to leave Fluttershy's house because they plan on telling the rest of their friends about their little situation. Before they leave they say goodbye to Fluttershy and thank her for keeping their relationship a secret to the others.
As the couple head out of Fluttershy's house they whisper something to each other,
"You're sure keeping us a secret is a good idea?" Dash asks her mare-friend.
Twilight sighs thinking of a good response, "Well... I-I don't... know if I'm ready to tell everypony yet..."
"What, that we're not just filly-foolers? That we're full on mare-maven-mushers?" Dash questions as they close Fluttershy's front door behind them.
"Wh-..." Twilight says with a chuckle, "What did you call us?"
"I-, um... nevermind..." Dash ends off as they now head back to Ponyville.
When Twilight reached the meeting room where she and Dash had had dinner the night before, she contacted the rest of her friends and called them in for a surprise council meeting. She knew it would be intervening with their week off from all work, but she needed every one to know what was going on. Well, you know, except for Spike... he's off dicking around somewhere.
As the rest of the Mane 6 approach the castle's meeting room, they are conversing with each other as to why Twilight suddenly called them in for a council meeting out of nowhere. For them, it's been a while since the last time they needed to have one for serious reasons. Twilight seemed pretty serious.
"She seemed pretty serious." Rarity says.
"I know, right?" Pinkie said, "She sounded like she really wanted us to come here."
"It's almost as if, something terrible must have happened." Rarity remarks.
"What if... somepony died?" Pinkie asks, shocked.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, darling. I'm sure it's not something as serious as that." Rarity says to her.
"Yeah, seriously Pinkie, don't think of that stuff." Applejack tells her.
"Anyway, y'all know where Rainbow Dash's been?" the farm-pony asks afterward.
"Nope." Pinkie answered.
"But the last time I saw her, she was in a wheelchair, walking with Twilight heading to Fluttershy's." she continued with a smile.
"Huh." Both Applejack and Rarity react discernedly.
"Speaking of which, where is Fluttershy?" AJ asked before the three of them approached the meeting room.
As soon as the three entered the room with the circular arrangement, they notice Twilight and Rainbow Dash next to each other, watching them as they came closer to the table. And since Spike still wasn't there, his chair was put off to the other side of Twilight's chair and Rainbow Dash's chair was in place of his.
"So, you finally made it..." The Princess welcomes them sinisterly.
"Thanks for coming, guys..." RD follows second.
"Uh... yeah, what's up with you two?" AJ questions the two.
Twilight and Dash glance at each other with an indifferent expression before staring back at the trio aloofly. The three ponies being stared at look at each other, worried about the two who continue to look at them while they try to walk to their assigned chairs to take a seat.
"Alright, now that you're here. We need to talk..." Twilight starts off.
She looks towards Rainbow Dash's direction, hinting for her to continue. She does look back and for a moment, she doesn't know what she wants her to do. It's until Twilight nods her head slightly downward with a quick movement in order to signal that she wants Dash to say something.
"Oh," Dash says as soon as she realizes and then clears her throat, "Yeah, we need to tell you guys something... about what happened yesterday." she continues.
Twilight nods her head in agreement as she starts talking again,
"Now, before we reveal anything, I'm sure you're all wondering where Fluttershy is."
"Yeah, is she sick?" Pinkie asks her.
"Um, no, not at all... She's-" Twilight says before being inadvertently cut off by the usually happy-go-lucky party-pony.
"Why, did she die?" Pinkie asks, scared and worried, "Did you kill her?"
She glances at Pinkie, confused before the alicorn responds,
"Um... no... No, absolutely not, Pinkie. Why would you think that?" Twilight says, bothered by her friend's thought process.
"Oh, nevermind then." Pinkie says before smiling like nothing happened.
"Ookay..." Twilight says before continuing, "Well, anyway, Fluttershy's going up to Rainbow's house to retrieve Tank for her."
"Why can't Rainbow get him herself?" Aj asks, confused.
"Ah yes, well... you probably haven't noticed, but..." Twilight says before continuing, "I would like you all to take a look at Rainbow here... Show them Dash."
Rarity, Pinkie, and AJ all watch as the newly grounded pegasus walks around them with a wheelchair on her hind legs that have also been surrounded with volcanic tuff. She circles around the entire table before returning to her spot and stands in front of her chair.
"So, why exactly is Rainbow Dash in a wheelchair?" AJ asks.
"Ooh, is it because-" Pinkie begins, before being cut off by Twilight, clearing her throat.
"In case you didn't see it, her legs have been wrapped in stone." she says.
Dash walks away from her spot again and stands in view of everyone to show them her legs once more.
"Hmm, and what might be the cause of that?" Rarity asks.
"Okay, so yesterday..." Twilight begins explaining again.
"...and that's when I called you girls over here so we can discuss this whole thing." she concludes.
Applejack and Rarity sit there with an understandably confused expression on their face. Pinkie on the other hoof, was understanding the confusing events and analyzing everything that they said.
"Huh, I was thinking something completely different was going on." Pinkie says out of nowhere.
"And what was that, Pinkie?" Twilight asks, unwillingly.
"Oh, I just thought you were having a threesome with Fluttershy." she answers cheerfully.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight's eyes widen as soon as they hear her say that.
"WHAT!? NO! Pinkie!... What is up with you today!?" Twilight lashes out, "A threesome!? Really!?"
Dash tries holding back her laughter, but ultimately fails. She bursts out laughing as loud as she could. Meanwhile, everypony else ignores her laughter outbreak, and AJ and Rarity watch as Twilight stands on top of the table to get closer to Pinkie. Pinkie asks in her usual giddy way of talking,
"So... you aren't into BDSM?"
"Pinkie, please! Stop assuming we're doing weird stuff!" Twilight yells, begging her to stop saying increasingly more insane synopses.
"But-" Pinkie starts before Twilight finally puts her hoof over her mouth in order to shut her up.
"Pinkie, stop." Twilight says.
Dash stops laughing as soon as the silence begins creeping in. A few moments later, Fluttershy opens the door of the meeting room and walks in on Twilight holding her hoof over Pinkie's mouth. They all look in her direction as she enters the room.
"Oh, um, is this a bad time?" Fluttershy asks.
"Oh, not at all darling..." Rarity says to her.
"Yeah, sugarcube." Applejack says, "We were, uh..."
"We were just talking about you." Pinkie says as she lifted Twilight's hoof off of her mouth.
Twilight forcefully puts her hoof back over Pinkie's mouth as Dash chuckles a bit in the background.
"Anyway, were you able to get Tank for us?" Twilight asks.
"Oh, of course. He's out there waiting for you." Fluttershy answers, pointing to the door.
"Aw, thanks so much, Fluttershy." Dash says to her before walking out the door to meet her pet tortoise.
All the mares in the room look at each other, wondering what to talk about next. A few seconds later, they all hear the front doors of the castle open and close shut before the room goes silent once more, but Twilight speaks up,
"Um, Fluttershy could you check outside."
The only pegasus left in the room opens the door behind her slightly and peeks out into the halls. She observes the area and neither Rainbow Dash or Tank are able to be seen anywhere around. She pulls her head back in and closes the door and looks at Twilight. She remarks to her, "Um, I think they left."
"Alright then... I guess we should just continue without her." Twilight says before continuing,
"So, let's get back to the spell that started all this. So far, we don't know of a counter-spell or cure..."
"So, does that mean there's no way we can reverse that Moai thing?" Applejack asks.
After Applejack's question, Twilight tries to come up with a response that will not worry the rest of her friends even more than they are now. She wants them to think that their situation isn't as bad as it actually is, even though not a single one of them know of a way to reverse the Moai spell.
"Well, I'm hoping there is one. But I just... can't find it anywhere." Twilight explains.
"Wait, so there's nothing we can do?" Pinkie asks from under Twilight.
"What I mean by that is, I was hoping you girls could find your own way to cure to curse." she tells the gang.
"..." Everypony went silent again, before Twilight says,
"Fluttershy, do you have any ideas on how we can stop the Moai from taking form?"
"I, um... don't know what that is..." the animal caretaker answers.
"Moai's are apparently giant stone head statues." Twilight explains.
"Fuckin' weird spell to make in the first place, don't you think?" AJ whispers to Rarity before Twilight continues,
"If you're referring to the spell itself, it didn't say there isn't a way to reverse it, but it also didn't say there is..."
"Can't you and Dash figure it out first?" Fluttershy asks,
"There might be a way for you two alone to find out how stop it." the gentle mare continues.
"I guess I haven't actually tried everything with her yet..." the princess responds.
"Ooh, you mean sexually?" the hyperactive pink pony asks, still under Twilight.
"No!" Twilight yells as she puts her hoof over the over-share-asking pony under her's mouth.
"... mmph!" Pinkie yells, muffled by the hoof in her mouth.
"Not that way..." Twilight says as she calms down and removes her hoof from Pinkie's mouth.
"Even if that were the case, she'd probably still be affected by the Moai spell I put on her." Twilight continues.
"There was to be a way to remove it with just the two of us right?" she asks to no one in particular.
After Twilight sits back down in her chair, she starts thinking of multiple scenarios with Rainbow Dash in her head. She starts off thinking of ways she can help Dash get rid of the spell by herself, then it slowly that's getting into the smutty territory. She gets pulled away from her thoughts when Pinkie puts her hoof in Twilight's drooling mouth.
Twilight makes a muffled surprised noise before looking at Pinkie with an enraged expression. Twilight uses her magic to pull Pinkie's tail away from her so that she'll get Pinkie's hoof away from her mouth.
"Pinkie..." Twilight says hoarsely.
"What? You did that to me." Pinkie replies.
"Alright, that's enough out of you." Twilight says, "Everypony out! Meeting's over!"
"Oh, is it my fault that you're single?" Pinkie says while being pushed out the room by Twilight.
"Enough, Pinkie!" Twilight says irritated.
"Well, I guess that's that." AJ concludes, ready to walk out of the room.
"I guess we'll have to wait for Twilight to announce something in the future." Rarity says, following suit.
"Oh, I guess I'll go too." Fluttershy says, already near the door.
"Goodbye, Twilight." they all say before exiting the room.
Now, Twilight stands alone in the meeting room. She walks back to her chair and sits down, frustrated. She leans over and puts her hooves on her head, trying to calm down again. A few seconds later, she hears the front doors of the castle open and close again. She thinks that's because the four of them left and that's it. A few seconds later, she hears the familiar sound of hoofsteps and rolling wheels, then the doors to the meeting room open.
Twilight doesn't lift up her head to see who entered the room and instead, just takes a deep breath and sighs. She knows who entered, she's just too agitated to look at her.
"You alright, Twi?" Dash speaks up.
"I'm fine..." she responds.
Dash makes her way beside Twilight and hugs her carefully. The Princess sniffles a bit, before she tears up and shivers while breathing out. Dash keeps her position when she finds the right way to hold the embrace without breaking her back because of the weight on her hind legs. She breathes out before asking,
"Whats wrong, Twi?"
"Nothing..." she responds, trying to not acknowledge that anything's wrong.
"Twilight, you're crying." Dash worriedly says as she puts her wing around the other mare's body.
The Princess breathes faster as more tears run from her eyes. She sucks in the snot coming out of her nose, before catching her breath.
"It's nothing, really..." she says, "Anyway... where did you go off to?" she asks, trying to change the subject.
"Okay, fine... I got you a little something..." Dash reluctantly explains. "But, you're gonna have to come with me to the dining hall to see it."
"The dining hall?" Twilight asks, confused.
"Yeah... the dining hall." she replies, nervously.
"Alright, but if you just put my decorations up again, I'm probably not gonna be very amazed by what you got."
"Oh, just get up and see it at least." Dash insists.
Twilight has calmed down a bit and she stands up from her seat, getting ready to go to the dining room with Rainbow Dash. When Twilight and Rainbow reach the doors of the dining hall, Dash says,
"Now, before you take a look at this, I just want you to know that I didn't prepare for this at all, and the decor is definitely not looking good in there if you expected any change." parodying the words that Twilight had said the night before.
"Oh, you!" Twilight says as soon as she realizes the mimicked sentence.
Dash opens the door to the dining hall and reveals to Twilight the surprise that she brought back. When Dash invites Twilight to a second dinner date, Twilight was definitely shocked by the gesture. She noticed the food on the table was her favorite menu items from The Hayburger Place, and she certainly knew now, that their love for each other was real.
"Oh, Rainbow... you shouldn't have." Twilight says with glee.
"Eh, what can I say, I'm awesome." Rainbow Dash gloats her successful surprise.
Twilight was now cheered up and had already began eating her hayburger, and Dash joins in beside her.
"Like I said, this was just a last minute idea." she says.
"I understand, but why did you do this for me?" Twilight asks while enjoying her second hayburger.
"Because, Twi... I-..." Dash begins saying, "I think I love you."
The lavender mare goes wide-eyed again, this time, chewing on a piece of hayburger and holding the rest of it in her magic aura. She looks towards where Rainbow is and stares at her as she finishes swallowing the food in her mouth. Dash was already looking at Twilight, and they continue to stare into each other's eyes.
"A-are you serious?" Twilight asks, flabbergasted.
"Y-yeah... I mean, sure, you did put this spell on me..." Dash says, knowing there's no turning back from this,
"But that doesn't mean we can't work on our relationship in the meantime, right?"
"I... I guess so..." Twilight replies as she puts down the hayburger that she was eating.
"So... what d'you say?" the other mare asks.
"Oh, wow..." Twilight says as she tries to come up with the best response.
"If you really mean it, I mean... All I can say is, I love you too." she finally says.
The two share a romantic hug for a few seconds, until Twilight switches it up with a kiss on Rainbow's cheek and the latter does the same to her. After that, they release themselves from the embrace so that they can eat their meal together. During which, they talk about the evening of the previous day, how they probably shouldn't have drank all the alcohol and made love while drunk.
Sure, they may have started their relationship by doing that, but they still have their morals. Like, they may seem like the most problematic couple dynamic, but together they just... work. Meaning, if they got through even the hardest of obstacles in a relationship, they have a chance to get through the curse of the Moai spell.
Over the next two hours, they finish conversing after their delicious fast food dinner. They know they're wasting time not trying to fix the spell, but they didn't care at the time. Their amount of love for each other was strong enough to make them feel as if there was no volcanic rock gradually forming on Rainbow Dash's hind legs.
And so, after their meal, they both felt pretty sleepy from the eating and talking. The pair of mares agreed to sleep in the room where they had slept with each other before. Although this time, they would only allow themselves to take it easy, due to the stone growing from Rainbow's hind legs. When they get to the bedroom, Twilight puts on the radio and turns the dial to a station that she likes listening to.
As they crawled into bed, they knew that they didn't have enough energy to stay awake for much longer, and they gradually fell asleep in each other's arms. Over the course of the night, they try to get comfortable with multiple positions in their sleep, causing them to move a lot in the bed. For Dash, it was hard for her to turn over or bend her legs to get in comfortable position, and for Twilight, she had to deal with the rock scraping against her body as the pegasus shimmied around next to her.
Eventually though, the tired pair found a position where they could both feel comfortable in the bed. The classic spooning position, where Twilight had her arms wrapped around Rainbow's waist, and her legs were shaped behind the stone on Dash's legs. They wouldn't realize that they were doing this, though, as they fell asleep to the music on the radio.
