She planned for everything. The massive cruise ship had something for all of her friends, whether it be a complete shopping center or an all you can buffet. There was even a petting zoo for crying out loud! She even managed to convince the people in charge to let their band perform. Yes, she planned for everything.

“Twilight, where are you?”

Everything except Rainbow Dash being obsessed with fighting the forces of evil.

Twilight Sparkle made sure she was out of sight as the rainbow haired girl walked passed while still calling out her name. As soon as the other girl was out of earshot, the bespectacled girl let out an irritated huff. In Rainbow’s quest to find Equestrian magic she had already managed to get Pinkie banned from the buffet, caused all the cute little animals to avoid Fluttershy (turning the petting zoo into a *gasp* regular zoo) and was doing no favors for Applejack and her seasickness.

“This was supposed to be a vacation away from all of the magic and saving the world junk.” she mumbled to herself.

Her face falling further, Twilight began to walk away from her impromptu hiding place. As she walked she thought about what she was going to do. Going back to her room was absolutely out of the question, that would no doubt be the first place the cyan athlete would look. The pool wasn’t a good option either as that was far too public. There was always the small theater, but that brought up the question of which one she would rather deal with: Rainbow Dash or Trixie? The answer was obvious.

“Definitely Rainbow Dash.” she muttered quietly with a shudder.

As she continued to walk, Twilight got lost in her own thoughts and stopped paying attention to the things around her. It should have come to nobody’s surprise then when she bumped into someone and fell on her butt.

“Whoa, you ok?” a somewhat deep voice called out.

Twilight shook the slight daze from her eyes and looked up to see a young man with gray skin and slicked back black hair reaching a hand out to her. She accepted it with a sheepish smile.

“Yeah, I’m ok, and sorry about bumping into you. I had a lot on my mind and wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

The young man waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t worry about it, no harm done.”

The lavender skinned girl smiled in thanks before taking a closer look at the man, a feeling of familiarity in the back of her mind. He was about a head taller than her and she could tell that under his obnoxiously colorful Hawaiian shirt (which would have probably given Rarity a heart attack) that he was well muscled. Not to the same extent as Bulk Biceps or Big Mac but more defined than Thunderlane.

It was at the thought of the other man who basically had the inverse coloring as the one in front of her that it clicked in Twilight’s mind.

“Hey, you’re Rumble right? Track star and Thunderlane’s younger brother?”

With a bemused look in his eye the man nodded, “That’s me, though I’m actually Thunderlane’s twin. He just likes to call me the younger brother since I was technically born five minutes after him.” He then looked at her with a questioning gaze, “Aren’t you the girl that just transferred from Crystal Prep? Twilight Sparkle?”

“Yeah, that’s me.” she responded, a small smile on her face.

With a smile of his own, Rumble reached out his hand, “Well it’s a pleasure to officially meet you.”

Twilight went to take his hand when she heard a familiar voice call out her name.

“Twiiiiiiliiiiiight!”

Her face going pale, Twilight looked around frantically until she caught a glimpse of some prismatic hair among a nearby crowd.

Good, she hasn’t seen me yet.

She tensed up when she felt a hand on her shoulder, only to relax when she turned to see Rumble looking at her with a worried expression.

“Hey, everything alright?” the young man asked in a concerned tone.

“Sorry, I’ve just been trying to get away from Rainbow Dash. She’s been trying to rope me and the others into an adventure that doesn’t even exist.” Twilight said with a huff.

Rumble contemplated for a second before an idea sprung to mind and he swiftly but gently grabbed the lavender girl’s hand, causing a slight blush to come to her face.

“I have an idea of where you can go where she won’t find you.” he said before the pair made their swift getaway. Soon after, Rainbow Dash made her way to where the pair was just at and scratched her chin in confusion.

“Huh, I could’ve sworn I saw Twilight here.” she said to herself before shrugging and walking away.

It didn’t take long for Rumble to bring Twilight to their destination, only for Twilight’s blush to deepen upon realizing just what that destination was.

“Your room?” she asked with a raised brow, trying her best to keep her rapidly brightening cheeks under control.

He looked back at her while rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, “Yeah, I figured it would be the last place Rainbow would look. Is that fine?”

Twilight contemplated for a second. He had a point, Rainbow would never in a million years expect her to be hiding in the room of a cute boy. Heck, Twilight would have never expected it. It’s also not like she had anything to worry about with Rumble, from what she heard from everybody else he seemed to be an upstanding and polite young man.

Coming to a decision, she raised her head and gave him a warm smile, “Yes. I think this is an excellent idea.”

Smiling at her response, the gray athlete opened the door and led her inside. Unsurprisingly, his room was similar to all the other rooms on the ship, including her own. It opened to a joint kitchen/living area with a few chairs and a couch, as well as a television. She could also see the two doors with one leading to the bedroom and the other leading to a small bathroom. By the tv she could see a couple board games, a box of movie and a gaming system that she figured Rumble must have brought with him.

She was led to the small couch where she took a seat. As she sat down she noticed Rumble walking into the kitchen area, quickly glancing back at her, “Would you like a glass of water?”

“That would be great, thank you.” she said with a small smile.

In no time at all Rumble was backing in the living room with two glasses filled with ice water. He handed one to Twilight before taking a seat in one of the chairs. They sat in silence for a little bit, fidgeting slightly, neither one really knowing how to start a conversation now that things had calmed down a bit.

After a bit more time of sitting around awkwardly just sipping water, Twilight cleared her throat, “I just wanted to thank you again for helping me out of that situation. I know it was kind of sudden.”

Rumble perked up, happy for any conversation, “It was no problem, really. Though if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly is going on?”

Twilight let out a little huff of air, “Rainbow Dash has it in her mind that some magical disaster is going to happen that we’ll have to fight, again. Honestly, it wouldn’t be all that bad if she was just telling us to be wary. Considering our track record it would definitely be a valid worry, but she’s acting like anything and everything is a danger to us right now. Her antics have already gotten a couple of my other friends in trouble with the staff.” she finished, throwing her hands into the air.

“Yeah, that sounds about right. I know when that girl gets an idea in her head it's hard to get it out.” Rumble said, unable to prevent a chuckle from escaping at Twilight’s exasperation. Upon receiving a small glare from the girl he cleared his throat, “If you want we could spend the day here. I got games, movies and plenty of food so we wouldn’t have to leave and risk you being seen by your friend.”

“That sounds nice and all but what about you? Don’t you want to explore the ship? I would feel terrible for inconveniencing you on what is supposed to be a vacation.” Twilight said with a concerned expression.

Rumble waved off her worries, “Don’t worry, truth be told I was probably going to spend a lot of time in here anyway but now I get to do it in the company of a pretty girl. If anything this is an upgrade.”

Twilight felt the heat in her cheeks rise immensely at his compliment. She awkwardly played with her hair and smiled softly, “W-well if you’re ok with it then I guess I’ll stick around. What should we do first?”

Putting a hand to his chin in contemplation, the gray skinned athlete looked around the room before his eyes fell on a box full of movies.

Smirking, he looked back at Twilight, “How do you feel about bad movies?”

“You mean the ones that are so bad that literally the only reason people watch them is to rip them apart and make fun of them?”

“Yep.”

Twilight’s smile widened and there was a sparkle in her eyes, “I love them!”

With that Rumble got the box full of his collection of bad movies and brought it over to the lavender girl on his couch. They took a few minutes to look through them until one caught Twilight’s eye. She picked up the case and looked at the image of a dinosaur and a pastor with a raised brow.

“VelociPastor?”

Rumble looked up from the pile, “Oh that one’s a treat. It’s about a pastor whose parents are killed by Catholic ninjas. He also has the ability to turn into a velociraptor for some reason.”

“Wow, that sounds awful, let’s watch it!” Twilight exclaimed with obvious glee.

Smiling like dorks, they put the movie in and it was every bit as horrible as Twilight expected. The action was ridiculously over the top, the practical effects looked like they were made by grade schoolers and she believed that watching Applejack blow chunks over the side of the boat would have been a better experience than what this movie called “acting”. In a word, it was perfect.

The entire time Twilight and Rumble were laughing like idiots and enjoying their time together. Even when the movie ended they just put another in and kept going, only taking breaks to eat or use the restroom. They laughed, talked and just enjoyed each other’s company until, before they knew it, it was getting dark outside.

Twilight stifled the last of her laughs and looked at Rumble with a genuine look of appreciation, “Thank you so much for this. It was very sweet of you to not only help me out but also spend the day with me.”

Rumble rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as a small blush appeared on his face, “Of course, it’s what friends do.”

Twilight giggled a bit to herself before she started shifting in her seat, “Actually, Rumble, do you mind if I ask you one more favor?”

“Shoot.”

A tinge of pink appeared on her cheeks, “Rainbow knows where my room is and I’m a bit worried that she might wake me up in the middle of the night so do you think I could… stay here for the night?”

Rumble’s eyes widened at the question. The prospect of having a cute, petite girl like Twilight staying the night in his room was almost enough to make him pass out but, with some effort, he was able to push it down and answer her.

“Of course, you can have the bed while I take the couch.”

Twilight twiddled her fingers while biting her lip and avoiding eye contact, “Actually, I wouldn’t mind if we shared the bed.”

It was at that moment that it became too much for the young athlete and he passed out.

After letting some time pass and making sure he was ok, Twilight and Rumble got ready for bed with Rumble letting Twilight use one of his larger shirts as a pajama shirt. With everything in order, they climbed into either side of the bed with their backs to each other before falling to sleep. Rumble let out some low snores and Twilight couldn’t stop a small smile from appearing on her face.

With everyone on the ship asleep or working, nobody noticed the glowing symbol appear in the dark waters.

Author's Note

VelociPastor is a real movie by the way and it is truly horrible

Also hope you enjoyed this calm bit because things are about to go off the rails.