It was the night before Hearth's warming at exactly eight o'clock when there came a knock on Rainbow Dash's door from Twilight Sparkle. A slightly crumpled, mostly incoherent note was grasped in her magic. "Come on, Rainbow, open up." Even with several layers, the freezing air still cut right through her.
The door was pushed open and the cyan mare quickly pulled her friend inside followed by quickly looking around to make sure that no one had noticed anything. When she was certain, she closed the door behind her then turned to face her friend, bubbling anxiety rising in her chest.
Twilight on the other hoof was busy taking in everything around her. Every hoofspace of the living room had been taken over with brightly colored wrapping paper and ribbons. The smell of glue hung heavily in the air. If she squinted, she could make out a pile of gifts stacked slightly higher than the mess.
"What's going on?" She pushed the note at Rainbow. "I couldn't make out more than to meet you here from your note."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Writing on wing is harder than some ponies give it credit for." She gave a sheepish smile. "Still I need you to get here quickly. I don't know how long Spitfire and Thunderlane can keep Soarin distracted for."
"So this has to do with Soarin?" Twilight wasn't that surprised. Ever since the two had started dating they had been inseparable.
Rainbow's cheek colored as she nodded. "Yeah." She still couldn't believe her luck in finding some just as awesome as her and now, she just needed to make sure it was permanent. "Soarin and I have this tradition where we have to find our ornaments and the winner gets to open their gifts early. Loser has to do the other's chores for a whole week." Her wings were buzzing slightly as she unearthed an ornament from under the pile of wrapping paper she had hidden it under. It was about the size of her hoof and in the shape of a perfect apple pie. "This is his. I was hoping you'd help me-"
"I am not going to help you cheat." Twilight snorted indignantly.
"Actually I was hoping you'd help me lose. It's really hard when you're as awesome as I am, so I need you to help me."
She stopped and looked at her friend. "You want me to help you lose?" While it wasn't the strangest thing that she had ever heard, it was nearing the top of the list. Maybe she should check to see if there was a Changeling a hoof.
The other nodded and looked at the ornament with a fond smile. "This year I got him something special and I can't wait an extra day for him to open it. I'll just deal with the chores. Oh, I have just the outfit for it." Her thoughts turned to less innocent thoughts before she was shook out of her thoughts.
"And how do you want me to do that?" Her mind went over several spells that would be helpful. "I could put an attraction spell on it."
Rainbow frantically shook her head. "No. Not after Smarty Pants." She could still feel the trampling hooves.
"That was an accident!" She stomped her hoof down. It sank about an inch into the springy clouds without making a sound. Stupid clouds and their absorbency.
"I still don't want to go through it again!"
"Fine." Twilight huffed and removed her hoof from the floor. It sprang back into place. "If not that then what?" Rainbow scraped some of the wrapping paper away and placed the ornament down next to her.
"I was thinking you could make more of it so I could hide one in every room. For a while I was thinking about doing more, but he would catch on pretty fast if I did that. So just one per room."
"Okay. That shouldn't be too hard." Her horn ignited and she picked up the ornament in her magic. She started the spell putting enough magic into it to keep it steady. Then the door squeaked open and slapped her on the rump. Sparks shot out of her horn and suddenly the ornament started to multiply. First two, then four, then eight. It was out of control!
Rainbow could only watch in horror as her plan was foiled as the one pony she really hadn't wanted to see right now walked in. "Hey, Rainbow-" He stopped short taking in the scene: Twilight's eyes glowing purple, a slowly expanding stack of ornaments, and his very guilty looking marefriend. "What's going on?"
Soarin walked a few more feet followed by Spitfire. She had tried her best to keep him from coming back so quickly, but Thunderlane had gotten them kicked out of Berry's bar again. Then Sugarcube corner had been closed for the night, so she couldn't distract him with pie. Eventually he had gotten suspicious and she had to let him fly back.
While he was looking at the pile of ornaments, Spitfire tried to catch Rainbow's eye to make sure she knew she was sorry. Unfortunately, the mare of the hour was distracted trying to hide the pile of ever expanding ornaments under wrapping paper and was failing horribly.
Then a low wet sound came from behind them. "Oh, Thunder." Spitfire turned and shot out of the room. "I told you not to do all those loop de loops." The door closed behind her.
"Seriously, what's happening?"
Before Rainbow stood two options: come clean or try to get out of it as quickly as possible. So she took the only options that she possibly could. "Nothing much. I was trying to get the ornaments clean before the hunt tonight. No one wants a repeat of last year." She grimaced remembering the taste of grime and the sting of defeat. "Except for Pinkie." She still wasn't sure how the pink mare had won, but she had.
He was still suspicious though. "And what does a cleaning spell have to do with all this?" He gestured towards the growing pile that seemed to take up most of the living room floor at this point. If it got any bigger then they would have to continue this fight on the wing.
"Don't ask me. Unicorn magic is complicated." She repressed a shudder at the blatant dig at her friends. "All that matters is stopping before it gets worse." There was only one way to stop a rogue spell. She took to wing and shoot over to Twilight. Her hoof hit the middle of the horn with more force than necessary.
The spell stopped and Twilight blinked several times as the magic glow faded from around her. She had a splitting horn ache, so she rubbed at her head. "What happened?"
Soarin trotted out of the room and came back a moment later with a glass of water and two aspirins. "That's what I want to know." He handed the aspirins to her.
"Thank you." She put them in her mouth then swallowed before reaching for the glass which he gave to her. She took a large gulp from it. Then she eyed everything around her. "Wow, that is a little more than you wanted. Sorry for getting carried away."
Now, Rainbow was torn between apologizing to her friend and keeping the lie intact. With no good option, she decided to do both as best she could. "That's okay. It just got away from you. I stopped you before it got too bad." She looked at the pile of ornaments and mentally sighed. Someone would have to clean all them up and most likely it would be her especially since she was part of why it happened.
"Good that you did." Twilight picked up the pile in her magic and grabbed the original ornament from the very bottom of the pile. She handed it to Soarin who grasped it with his hoof. Then she saw the clock. "Is that the time? Shining Armor, Cadence, and Flurry are going to be here any minute now. I got to go. Sorry!" She took off out of the house at an impressive speed.
Silence lingered between them as Soarin stared at the ornament and Rainbow looked anywhere that wasn't him to appease her guilty conscience. "It wasn't a cleaning spell was it?"
There was something in his tone that made her stomach twist. Something small and broken. "No." She never wanted to hear him talk like that again. "It was supposed to be a duplicate spell. Just not this many. I wanted you to win this year."
His ears twitched. "You wanted me to win?"
She nodded. "Because I wanted to see your face when you opened my gift." She took to wing and shot over to the table. She dug through the pile until she found the present she wanted then she flew back to him. "Here." She handed it to him.
He tore into the wrapping paper revealing a black box large enough to hold several copies of Daring Doo. He lifted the lid and gasped as he looked down. Inside the box was a single blue primary bound with a lock of rainbow hair into a bracelet.
Rainbow stepped forward and took it from the box. Gently she placed it on his forehoof then breathed in. "I'm no good with the mushy things that you deserve, but I want your dumb face to be the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. I want to grow old with you by my side. Just spending a lifetime doing the same thing we always do."
He was speechless. His muzzle hanging open as he looked at it.
Then he laughed.
Rainbow stepped back. Her ears pinned back. Her heart in her hooves and tears prickling in her eyes. She made to walk away and he stopped her. Then he took to wing and grabbed a similar package from the table.
She dug into the paper and pulled out an identical box. She lifted the lid with trembling hooves to see a lighter blue feather bound with black hair. He reached forward and slipped the bracelet on her hoof. She looked down at it feeling lighter than she could remember.
"Rainbow Dash from the moment that you entered my life, I've known that you were the only mare that I wanted to be with."
She wiped tears off and smiled at him. "Only mare, huh? Should I be worried about Thunderlane sweeping you off your hooves?"
He laughed. "Nah, he snores worse than a ursa major."
She nuzzles him. "Good. I wouldn't want to fight my teammate over my husband."
"Husband? I could get used to that."
They stayed like that neither one wanting to break the peace. Finally the door slammed open and Spitfire pushed her head in. "Hey, Thunderlane just threw up all over your lawn. We're going to need a lot of towels." Then she saw what they were wearing. "About time. I'll handle this." She pulled the door closed.
"You know we are going to have to tell your parents?"
Rainbow grimaced. "I'll get the earbuds."
"Yeah, that is going to be helpful." They smiled at each other. "Come on before Thunder ruins the lawn anymore."
They walked out to face their first challenge as fiances knowing that they could face the world if the other was beside them.
The end.
