Collision Code

Act II: Fateful Collisions

Chapter 5: Something Is In Bloom

Corey was absolutely stunned by John's offering. No sane man, whether or not he suddenly grew thick scales in all of ten seconds as he became a dragon, would throw themselves in front of a laser, much less one that hadn't yet reached full development yet because its user's control over the spell was still iffy. Then again, the former human turned unicorn had a nasty habit of doubting himself at critical times. However, most of those times were academic-related. Hardly anything like a friend offering themselves for target practice.

"John...you're kidding me...right?" the green colt asked weakly, not really in the mood for jokes of that nature. The black and blue dragon said nothing, the look in his eyes unchanged from when he'd made his statement. "...oh, no...no, I can't do that."

"Corey's right!" Twilight cut in, snapping Corey fully into focus. "That spell he's working on isn't meant to be used on friends!" She turned to him awkwardly, before turning back to John, "He still doesn't have the control over it to hold back the force he puts into it; he could really hurt you!"

Corey remembered how Twilight had used them on his shield. She did seem to be putting in a considerable amount of effort trying to cast the spell. Yet, when using them on the apples, she didn't appear to be trying any more than if she was levitating a few items at the same time. At this point, the former human nodded in agreement. He thought better of asking if this was true; afraid that if he did, John would not stop badgering him to attack him.

"I'm a dragon, I can take it," John was stubbornly refusing to give it up.

"That, I'm not sure of." Twilight snapped, "I've actually went up to a few before; and while you're more around the size of the ones that Spike tried to be friends with, I'm not so sure if your scales are fully developed yet. I mean, most dragons your size had their wings fully grown..."

The former human turned dragon snorted. Somehow or other, Corey had completely forgotten that John had budding wings.

"Besides which," Corey cut in. "I'm not mad at you. If there's anyone I'd be mad at, it's Leo, but I'm not to the point of attacking him. In fact, it'd take a lot to get me mad enough to attack a friend, given the situation and all." This wasn't entirely true. Back on Earth, he was a powder keg, but recently (probably because he had Twilight now; desperate as it sounded to admit it) he'd felt a little calmer, less emotionally unstable. He honestly felt like it might have been harder for him to get mad.

"That's true..." John said. The aggressive look on his face faded. "I don't think I can get you mad enough either..."

There was silence as the dragon paced about the general area. Corey didn't like the fact he didn't just give up outright from what he'd said to him, but he was hoping and praying that John got the message and wouldn't offer himself up as a target anymore. The last thing he wanted to do was seriously injure him or worse because he didn't control his attack well enough. By the time John finished his pacing, he was a good distance away from Corey, his back turned.

For a few moments, no one said anything. Finally, John turned to him.

"I'm sorry for this, Corey..."

And then, without much more in the way of warning, he charged straight at him, with every intent to harm him readable in his eyes. Twilight gasped when the dragon swung a fist, and only by pure reflex alone did the former human move his head in time.

"John, what the heck?"

John didn't answer, already trying to strike again. Adrenaline began pumping in the pony veins that Corey now possessed, but he couldn't bring himself to use magic of any sorts straight away. He avoided another punch by the hairs of his mane, and with every impulse he willed himself not to get overly emotional.

"I don't want to--" His voice came out at a high, hysterical pitch as he fought to get in control of his emotions and remain unharmed. Another fist came at him, and Corey gritted his teeth and tried to erect a barrier. He barely had time for a shield just big enough to catch the fist, but the shield easily shattered; thankfully, Corey was able to release it just before it was destroyed.

"John, stop! He doesn't want to do it anyway!" Twilight called out, sounding both angered and concerned.

John didn't heed Twilight's concerns, continuing his attack. The green unicorn continued to back away, repeatedly forming shields with just enough power to ward off the attacks. It was amazing how fast the human mind could adapt to casting spells it could not have done before the transition to a new body, but Corey, paying no attention to where he was going, eventually backed himself against a tree. His head was starting to pound from the sudden magic overuse. He just wasn't used to the strenuous exercise that John was putting him through, physically and mentally. Mostly mentally; in the back of his head somewhere the former human dully noted that his pony body possessed a lot more stamina than his human body; but even so, he was breathing hard.

The former human turned dragon charged full-force again. Corey closed his eyes, and snarled, hating himself for what he was about to do.

"Stop it, John!" he heard Twilight say, but whatever she attempted would be too late for Corey's action.

Damn it all!! the green colt grunted to himself as he focused on the laser spell. He felt the magic attack leave his horn, and a few moments later, he heard John snarl in utter agony as the counter made contact, followed by a heavy body hitting the ground. Corey did not dare open his eyes, afraid he'd see dragon's blood, and the blood of a friend...

Ivan had followed Pinkie's lead to the origin of the sound. Abruptly, the sound had stopped, but Pinkie said she already knew where they were by now, and for his part, Ivan did believe her. It wasn't like they had a job to worry about-the pink party pony always seemed to have spare time from the episodes he'd seen, and he'd hoped the same applied even on this side of the fourth wall.

It wasn't until they had heard shouting, however, that their curiosity turned to concern. This was then followed by a close-by groan about a minute later. The two earth ponies had galloped full speed, both abandoning any sense of oblivion - Ivan's laziness and Pinkie's hyperactivity - for the moment. When they finally arrived at the clearing, they noticed a doubled-over John trying to catch his breath, an angry-looking Twilight, and next to her, a Corey that looked so ashamed of what he'd just done that he appeared on the verge of crying.

The downed dragon gave a few more coughs, before finally starting to get up. While his back was turned to the unicorns, who hadn't even noticed the arrival of the earth ponies, the latter group could see, quite plainly, a large, red mark straight in the center of John's stomach.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" the dragon said, getting back to his feet with only a little bit of stumbling involved. Ivan didn't want to say anything, and to his surprise, Pinkie didn't either, though she looked honestly disturbed.

"Are you crazy?!" Twilight asked, putting a hoof around the still-trembling pudgy unicorn while he tried desperately to calm himself down. She was still glaring at John the whole time, and Ivan couldn't tell if she was more concerned or more pissed-off about whatever John did to warrant the bruise on his chest. "You could have really hurt Corey doing that, not to mention he could have hurt you a lot worse!"

The colt in question immediately adopted a bewildered look, and in so doing, realized John was alright. What happened was utterly lost on Ivan, but for some reason, he didn't want to interrupt the moment. Pinkie looked like she was somewhere between "aww"ing and questioning aloud what exactly John did, but she was still trying to preserve the silence, or trying to figure out what to say.

"I did what I had to do," John said, now turning to them. Apparently, he hadn't noticed the two earth ponies eavesdropping. Ivan would have felt insulted, but seeing as how the scene was resolving itself, he didn't care to make himself known. He felt a nudge at his side and saw Pinkie.

"What's John doing?" Any visage of concern was gone from the cyan eyes. Ivan could almost pick up on confusion, but this was Pinkie he was talking to. "He's upset Twilight, not that it takes a whole lot to do that on some days, but--oh! Why'd I say that? Please don't tell her I said that, it might get her upset!"

Ivan flipped one of his forehooves dismissively as he sat down, a gesture that, thankfully, held the same meaning as a human flipping his hand in a similar manner. Pinkie smiled wider before returning her attention to the scene before them.

"You had to be a moving target?" Twilight asked, still not sounding satisified with John's behavior. "Really? No one asked you to!"

"Leo almost got himself killed by a wild beast, and if I can help out Corey's spell reflex by getting hurt, then that's what I'll do! I'm not going to let anything happen!" The dragon yelled, sounding eerily sure of himself on that last part. It wasn't until Pinkie brought his attention to the other detail that he got it.

"Ivan, Leo went up against something and almost got killed!" Pinkie squealed, somehow going unnoticed by the others.

"What?!" Ivan yelled back at a higher volume than he intended.

"Huh...?" Corey asked, in a surprisingly raspy tone, even given that he'd probably been trying not to cry about the fact he'd been provoked into some kind of attack, given what the others were talking about.

"Ivan...and Pinkie...?" This was the former human turned dragon seeing them for the first time. "What are you doing here?"

"Well..." Ivan started, not really wanting to know an awkward moment, but to Pinkie, "awkward" wasn't even a concept in her memory, evidently, considering she launched into an entirely unneeded explanation of what exactly they were doing.

"We were up on the hill enjoying some lunch when we heard some weird noises," Then the pink earth pony proceeded to imitate the sounds of lasers firing, "So we went to check them out, and then we heard screaming, then groaning, and then we came here to see John lying down holding his stomach while Twilight looked angry and Corey looked like he was about ready to cry!"

There was nothing to be said. Ivan sort of hoped they'd blow past the awkwardness the first sentence would cause (him). The brown earth pony took a deep breath.

"Anyway, what were you three doing up here?" Ivan asked.

"I was trying to practice magic," This was Corey, having completely recovered during Pinkie's rambling. "John comes along, looks distant for a while. Don't know what's going on in his head...especially when he asks me to shoot him with a laser..."

"I already told you why I did that..." John said, and for some reason, he wasn't looking at anyone there. His eyes once again had a distant look to them, as though he'd remembered something.

"And that's why he was doubled over like you saw," Twilight finished.

"And what happened to Leo?" Ivan continued.

"...He tried fighting a manticore...and lost." The green colt interrupted after some silence. "Got badly poisoned. Were it not for Zecora--"

"Zecora?" Ivan asked, honestly confused. Who was that character? He didn't remember...whoever it was, from the episodes he'd seen.

"Zecora?!" Pinkie exclaimed, as though she knew. "You mean that evil sorceress who really wasn't an evil sorceress who helped us with our poison joke when we needed it? Oh, that was a bad time! I couldn't talk, I couldn't sing..."

Poison joke...the hell are we, time-wise? the former human thought to himself. I haven't even heard of Zecora or this "poison joke"...The episodes I watched were out of order, though.

"Right, well..." Twilight said. "Anyway, Fluttershy mentioned Zecora, and I remembered she knew how to cure afflictions like that. So if anypony knew how to take care of manticore venom, it'd have been her. We managed to reach her in time. Leo flew off afterward."

"...That, doesn't surprise me. He's almost always flying off, doing his own thing." Ivan responded. "At least, from what Corey told me since coming here." The former human honestly did not see the point in withholding their secret from the other ponies, but since their unofficial leader didn't want to reveal the truth, Ivan wasn't one to argue. If he had his way, the ponies would have known everything, even the potentially damaging fact they'd already known (most of) who they were, but he could certainly understand the green unicorn's concerns.

An entire universe undergoing a massive existential crisis would have been bad. And the only reason he knew that term was because it was used in a manga he read.

The others fell silent. John rubbed at the mark Corey's spell had left.

"Well, I'm gonna be feeling that for a while..." he remarked. "I guess I'll just head on back to the farm now."

Ivan blinked. If the former human were a different sort of person, and had still caught Corey's look, he wouldn't have made the comment he made at the time. But this was like filling a room with gasoline vapor and expecting an arsonist not to throw a lit match into the room: the arsonist was going to do it anyway.

"You know, you seem really eager to work on the farm, John. Any reason why?"

John bristled slightly from the comment, halting his stride immediately. He gazed over his shoulder, but did not say a word about what was going through his head.

"You did seem really distant when you walked up..." Twilight noted aloud. Meanwhile, Corey was quietly considering what was going on.

"I was just thinking..." said John. "That's all. Now if you'll excuse me..."

The dragon immediately began walking briskly away, wincing every few steps, probably due to the mark on his chest. He wasn't fast enough to be running, but it was clear from the way he marched along that he was trying to beat it out of there. He eventually disappeared in the foilage, heading back for town.

"Hmm...I wonder now..." thought Corey aloud.

Ivan inhaled to speak, recalling the other reason he wanted to speak with the unicorns, but apparently Corey's statement was what it took for Pinkie to do her dramatic little gasp.

"Ooooooooh!" she squealed, cutting into Ivan's mental processes almost entirely. "Does John have a crush on Applejack?"

The pink earth pony's non-sequitur question would have caused the average person or pony to face fault and either cringe or start laughing gently. In Ivan's case, he almost started doing the latter. Almost.

"In the same vein that...!" Twilight started, before her eyes widened and she turned to Ivan. Pinkie shook her head and raised her hoof to her mouth, indicating for the purple unicorn to quiet down. Corey flinched a little, and that was when Ivan fully understood what Twilight was about to say.

Holy crap, that's another technical point of comparison between Twilight and Corey... the brown earth pony thought to himself, and in that moment, Ivan completely forgot what he was asking about. Of course, while Spike was an all-around assistant, John provided assistance to Corey in that he was his wingman for the first couple of days here, back when it was pretty obvious the two were in love with each other and in utter ignorance or denial of the fact.

"He's twice her size!" Pinkie blurted out, and with that, Ivan's mind took a nosedive into the gutter, and he almost started chuckling again. From the look on Corey's face, he was apparently trying to resist spouting off a dirty joke as well. "He'd be able to give her all sorts of rides!" The two former humans both started to hold their breath now, since both of them were already swimming in the gutter now, Ivan just about to hit the drain. "And Apple...oh, I don't know if she feels the same way." Mercifully, the pink pony stopped with the double meaning statements. The green unicorn appeared to be composing himself, desperately trying to prevent himself from saying the jokes that were on his mind. When he finally regained some composure, he spoke.

"Well, I guess I'd better take a break from magic training," His voice was a bit higher in pitch than normal, indicating he was still trying to keep from laughing his ass off at the unintentional guttermindedness on the part of Pinkie-at least, Ivan assumed it was unintentional. "Think we can, Twilight?"

"Y-yeah," she stuttered, sounding uncomfortable, and seeming to be reminding herself of the whole thing with John. "I never thought I'd say this, but after what just happened with John, I think a break would do us some good..."

With that, the two unicorns said their goodbyes, and started leaving for the library. Pinkie gave a gasp.

"Ivan, we've gotta get back to Sugarcube Corner!" The mare observed, immediately starting to drag Ivan by his forehoof using her tail. "Let's go!"

The former human once again stumbled aimlessly after Pinkie. Only now, Ivan realized what just happened.

Damn it, I didn't get the chance to... Ivan then realized, what with the chaos of the moment he'd just sat through, he couldn't have really gotten a word in if he'd tried. If he'd tried to while Pinkie was spouting those innuendos, he might have spouted off a dirty joke, and that would have made things awkward given where he was now. The former human secretly hoped that whatever happened to him while he was working wasn't going to happen again.

First, he'd had that cold sensation on the second day after the break-in.

Then, he'd supposedly been unresponsive while having that dream; and also found out that it had actually happened while he was with Pinkie. It was without a doubt the strangest thing Ivan had ever experienced, pony or not.

He made a mental note to try and ask Twilight or Corey about it later. It was too strange to be normal for an earth pony.

For now, he resigned himself to work alongside Pinkie-a fate which he admitted wasn't that bad.

It had been roughly an hour since their return from the area in which Corey practiced his magic. The two were now back in the library, taking a break from the former human's magical training. Twilight could not have felt prouder; she didn't see herself as that good of a tutor, yet he was picking up quickly, especially considering her student was formerly a creature that literally was unable to do magic. His opening struggles left something to be desired, but he was picking up quickly.

Of course, that didn't change the facts about what John had done. The purple mare was still a little incensed about how far he'd tried to push Corey, and she intended to give him a thorough talking-to next time she saw him. Not only did he more or less put him at his breaking point, he'd basically asked him to shoot at a friend.

While she could see his concerns, that was definitely the wrong way to go about them. The longer the mare dwelled on what had happened during the study session, the more stress entered her.

"Twilight?" Corey asked, sounding almost scared to say it as he looked up from the Scarlet Sleuth book he'd been reading. "What's wrong? I didn't see you like this since the Princess came to visit..."

"John only offered himself up as a living target!" The lavender unicorn responded snappily, turning to the green colt. To this day, the unicorn remained unaware that her mane became physically dishelveled the more stress entered her. "One of you could have been seriously hurt! John's lucky to have escaped that with a bruise! Reflex magic isn't exactly controllable! Even I sometimes have trouble with it!" She'd become provoked and unhinged again, and hadn't even noticed Corey's features relaxing as he set aside the book and began trotting up to her. "If any of you don't make it home alive, I'm going to feel guilty! And I...I..." All the stress melted right out of her as she felt the familiar feeling of being hugged. "uuhhhh..." She blinked, trying to restore her train of thought.

It failed miserably though.

"Twilight, I can tell you right now you wouldn't be the only one feeling guilty if the worst came to it," Corey said, his voice a whisper. "Even though I've made friends with all of you, and developed a relationship with you specifically, I still dwell on what happened right before we got here."

"You mean...Leo and Ivan...arguing...?" The mare could honestly say she was blushing right now, but it took her mind off John's stunt. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was the third wheel to their arguments, Twilight." Corey continued, releasing her. "But how was I to know that Leo would fling us to another world instead of hacking?"

"T-there was no way you could have..."

"Yet it doesn't change how guilty I feel. I could have stepped between them, could have tried harder to stop their argument. Instead I was off drinking some juice and didn't even fully know what was going on. Next thing I know, Leo puts up that file and I wake up a pony." Corey summarized with a sigh. "I did try, but I didn't do so hard enough."

Twilight blinked. Was he really shifting all the weight of what happened on himself in secret? That was what it sounded like to her. Even with this new information in light, it still couldn't have been all his fault.

"But...on the other hand, maybe, even with all the crazy stuff you get up to..." The green unicorn continued. "Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I didn't. After all, I wouldn't have been able to meet you."

Again heat rose to Twilight's cheeks. She really was at a loss for words now. She looked up into the blushing face of Corey, who happened to have a rather goofy smile on his face, one that, even if she weren't already smiling awkwardly, she would have upon seeing it.

"I-I'm glad I got to meet you, too...but..." she started. Already her mind returned to his predicament. "I just wish the circumstances weren't so...dire for you."

The smile only faded from his features a little.

"Yeah, I know." He shifted uncomfortably.

Twilight found herself unable to avert her gaze.

"Corey," she finally said, as soon as she found her breath, "do you want to go...for a walk?" When his brow creased and his expression changed to one on skepticism, the studious pony quickly found herself backtracking. "Oh, oh, no, I didn't mean it like that, I just..." Twilight just about found herself unable to believe what she was saying, but somehow, the words just felt so right to say. "I just want to take some time away from the books for a while, spend some time with you away from the library...that doesn't involve trying to figure out how you can cast spells."

"You mean...like a date?" asked Corey.

The purple mare couldn't help but smile wider.

"I guess so..."

It had been a good two hours since Leo had woken up from his nap alongside Rainbow Dash. After they'd done some stretching, the cyan mare had taken the consideration to ask her new coltfriend if he'd wanted to spar. Since the silver colt no longer felt like he was going to pass out at any given moment, he did agree.

No matter how he tried to slice it, the former human was surprised to see that Rainbow Dash actually had a room in her house for the purpose of sparring with another. Well, actually, it was her own little dojo that did seem at least somewhat used. It did not take that long for the mare to find her own martial arts gi-complete with black belt, Leo silently noted, and find a spare she'd had on hoof for the occasion.

Since Leo still had one eye obscured by a bandage, he was having a hard time keeping up with the eager-to-spar pegasus, but even so, you didn't need to tell him that she was pulling her punches. Or whatever pony punches are called. She was showing an unnatural amount of sensitivity to his condition, a fact which both intrigued and quite honestly startled the former human. Both stood opposite each other after the warm-ups, both standing on their hind legs with their wings flapping slowly to keep themselves standing.

"Uh, Dash...?" he asked tenatively, seeing as how her sparring partner was starting to find her flow.

"What is it, Leo?" she questioned in response.

"Don't hold back just because of my eye..."

To this statement, Rainbow became physically flustered, and if one cared enough to look, her cheeks would have been pinkened slightly by the sentence Leo just uttered.

"I-I wasn't...!" Quickly, her demeanor changed, back into her rougher self in a moment. "F-fine, but you asked me first!"

See, this is the Rainbow Dash I know... Noel thought. With this, the second round began, and true to her word, the blue mare quickly took the offensive. Dash extended a couple of hoofs, but Noel barely weaved out of the way of those. Unsurprisingly, the athletic mare extended her back leg into a very human-like kick, though Leo knew this mechanic worked since she had wings to support her bipedal posture, having done it himself in practice. Still, it did strike him in the chest unexpectedly and, because pegasi are still not naturally bipedal, it did throw off Leo's balance.

Normally, the silver colt was averse to hitting girls, but given the circumstances, it was an excusable exception to make. After all, he did want to make her happy, and if it meant actually hitting her back, then that was what he would do. With this in mind, he stopped himself from falling, both by flapping his wings a little harder to create some level of air resistance, and extending a foreleg in a manner that he would be able to recover on his side, he extended his back leg, throwing a blind kick in Rainbow's direction. His leg shuddered, so he obviously hit.

Noel turned, seeing Rainbow stumbling backwards off-balance, holding a place close to her stomach, hunching over, her wings closed. She looked stunned for a few moments, then grinned.

"Guess you really didn't need me to hold back after all!" Her wings reopened, and she went back on her back legs, completely willing to continue.

She came at him with a renewed vigor, completely convinced that Leo didn't need her to hold back now. Encouraged by this, Noel once again began giving his all, which was still quite an effort to do in part because he still wasn't quite used to his body completely. Plus, his vision was still partly obscured by his bandage. The former human couldn't tell if it was because it was his body's special talent or if it was because he was learning Rainbow's fight patterns as they sparred, but he was doing surprisingly well given those two handicaps.

Hoof-punches were exchanged, either blocked with the pony equivalent of a forearm or dodged; mostly the latter since, as Leo found out when he tried the manuever, it wasn't very comfortable blocking in that matter in a pony body, but it certainly helped nonetheless. Yet Noel couldn't help but wonder how martial arts even existed in Equestria. Even disregarding the fact it may have been a joke in that episode he saw in which Apple Bloom failed epically at martial arts, it just seemed sort of out there.

The two unleashed kicks, which, as they collided, caused them to both go off balance. In the mad effort to regain balance, they both fell forward, colliding heads as they did so. Leo was dazed by the contact, as was Rainbow. Both quickly shook it off, and smiled at one another. They proceeded to go right back to sparring afterward, with the mare attempting a double back-kick, a move easily doable due to the fact she was a pony, but Leo dodged out of the way.

There was an awkward moment that resulted when the silver colt realized that Dash took an unnecessarily long time to get back into position, but it apparently wasn't mutual-just as it dawned on him that the cyan mare believed mooning him was flirting with him, Rainbow was back in his face. More hoof-punches were traded, but during this exchange, the cyan mare aimed a high punch in Leo's blind spot, and smacked him across the face since he didn't notice it in time.

The silver colt felt his back feet leave the ground as he was sent to the cloudy floor he could walk on naturally, being a pegasus pony and all. Rainbow gasped somewhat, seeing that her attack had done just a little too much.

"L-Leo!" she stuttered out, suddenly returning to the uncomfortably soft tone. "Oh gosh, are you alright?"

"Fine..." Leo said, rising to his four feet. He raised a hoof to the side of his face where the manticore had stung him earlier. Strangely, all he could think of was Corey with his horn helplessly stuck in the ground directly in front of Applejack, way back on their first day here. "Just gonna remove the bandage."

Before Rainbow could say anything, using whatever force allowed him to do so, the former human gripped the patch over his eye, and tore it off his face, inadvertently ripping out a part of his pelt just above his eye. The cyan mare stopped, gawking a little.

"Leo..." she gasped. "Don't ever take on a manticore without me again..."

"Wha...?"

Within moments, the rainbow-maned pony was, on four legs, facing him, running one of her hooves along the wound. Leo had to close his still-functional eye as she ran her hoof down from top to bottom.

"It scarred you..." she whispered.

There was a small silence as both of the pegasi reflected on precisely how the male was lucky to be alive. With a small smile, the female was the one to break the silence.

"I feel bad about all the evil sorceress stuff now," she observed. "You have no idea..."

A small smile betrayed Noel's features. It was true, he did watch quite a few episodes more than his fellow former humans, but as he'd observed in the times they'd spoken about Rainbow Dash's past from the episodes, it was strangely enthralling to hear it from her mouth specifically.

"Why don't we take a small break and talk it out?"

It had been quite a day of collecting gems. Very productive, if Rarity could say so herself. It was quite a good haul, and as always, Spike had been happy to help her out, digging and breaking open rocks whenever possible. She was aware that part of the reason he'd always agreed to this was his crush on her, but she just wasn't sure if she could ever return his feelings. For one thing, he'd age a lot slower than she did, and another, his lifespan was a lot longer than hers was as well.

Yet, in light of the recent influx of males; the unicorn, the pegasus, the earth pony, and the dragon that had arrived six days ago, Rarity couldn't help but re-examine the relationship dynamic between herself and Spike. This went double, since all of the above; even the dragon, had either expressed interest in or was more or less dating one of her friends.

The most obvious ones that came to her mind were the unicorn, Corey, and the pegasus, Leo. Though the former's was definitely obvious, the latter case came out a day or two later. Twilight was able to coax the green unicorn out of his shell; even now she'd been able to take him out of his comfort zone in some of the friendly get-togethers they'd had after the break-in. In turn, on a particularly rare occasion, Corey had shown an uncanny ability to talk down Twilight during one particular occasion where she was clearly stressing out over the break-in. They were, in a sense, perfect for each other in Rarity's eyes.

Then, there was the issue of Rainbow and Leo, both of whom seemed to enjoy pranking some other ponies...and a dragon that clearly couldn't handle being pranked. It was obvious, but not in the same sweet sense that the first relationship was. However, in its own sense, it was just as fitting. Rainbow Dash was a tomboy and the silver colt she'd become awfully close to...she mistook him for a mare when she'd first met him.

The third she'd noticed, but not nearly as obvious, was Ivan and Pinkie. There was a simple balance there; the brown colt almost always looked as though he were going to fall over asleep while the pink mare acted as though she didn't ever need to sleep. The only real problem with Rarity's relationship detector there was the simple fact that she wasn't sure if Pinkie was acting that differently. However, she was confident that fact would show up soon enough.

And of course, there was the dragon, John. The fact he'd worked at the farm for that long would have been simple enough, but the fact that Applejack volunteered to talk him down, the fact they seemed to get along as they'd talked, seemed to point in the romance direction for Rarity. Even if neither one would admit it.

All in all, the white unicorn could honestly say she was just a little jealous, and she did honestly feel left out of it all. Yet, this did not cause her spirit to plummet as far down as one might think. After all, there was a silver lining for her to consider: while she wasn't a part of the budding romance, she could possibly play a role.

Somehow, the unicorn's travels brought her down a path. This in itself was nothing special; Rarity knew enough about Ponyville and the surrounding areas by this point in her time living here that she knew quite a few areas she could check for gems. Some of them were less savory than others - certain canines came to mind, but in the end, she had enough to keep her business afloat...and feed Spike a few on the side as well.

"...wow, what a view..."

At the sound of the masculine voice, the unicorn's ear twitched. That sounded like one of the new colts in town. Normally, the white unicorn would have tried to keep her nose out of her friends' business, but, for the sake of her curiosity, she had to know what was going on.

"Spike, could you be a dear and keep an eye on the gems while I go investigate something? It's not that far off." She indicated where she was about to go with a motion of her head and hoof.

"Of course, milady," responded Spike, "We're not that far off from one of Twilight's spots, anyway."

The baby dragon may have been Twilight's number one assistant, but it was clear he aimed to please whoever he happened to be working for. There was something to be admired in that work ethic, Rarity knew, but right now she had to make sure of something. If she knew where she was going, they'd be going to a place Twilight occasionally brought up when she said she was going stargazing; the spot that Spike was referring to. Most of the time, the studious mare went up there alone at night to observe the stars.

And an all-too familiar female voice confirming the male's views gave Rarity a strong indication that whoever was with the first voice was Twilight herself.

"Yes, it is," she said. "I come up here on some clear nights to get a nice look at the constellations."

"I know a little about constellations," Now that she was closer, she could make out the distinctive voice of one of the new colts; Corey. The white unicorn found herself unable to withhold a smile. So that was why they were up here? "Stars that form shapes, more or less."

"That's oversimplifying it quite a bit," said Twilight snappily in response. "Some constellations form shapes, but others form complex pictures in the sky, and sometimes, they even tell a story."

"So then...why did we walk up here if it isn't the night?"

There was a small silence between them, during which Rarity found her way to a good place where she could witness it uninterrupted. It was almost like watching a romantic play to her; only it was actually happening, and she'd have to withhold her tears, because from the sounds of things, this one could be sugary-sweet.

Plus, she'd wondered precisely how they'd acted when they were more or less alone; though ever since that break-in they did seem...romantically distant, to say the least.

"I wanted a place where I could tell you something where we wouldn't be disturbed..." The purple mare finally responded. "When I first met you, I have to admit, you didn't exactly leave a good impression...the first thing out of your mouth after I saw you crawling out of hay was a bad, bad joke..."

Rarity felt her brow crease. She'd often tried to avoid doing that unless she was explicitly trying to charm males, but even then, it wasn't a hard crease. Was that how Corey had managed to escape her?

"Y-yeah..." The amount of embarrassment she could hear in his voice sounded slightly off, but it fit.

"But even then, I'd felt drawn to you, if only because you reminded me of me," Twilight continued. "I didn't imagine I'd be...as drawn to you as I am now, but you know why that is..."

Corey gave a small nod in response.

"Yet we couldn't really stop ourselves, could we? It's just that, with that break-in, I just don't feel like I get any time for things like this."

"I feel the exact same way," the green unicorn responded at last. "I really do...I mean..."

Twilight shushed him in a rather rude, yet unique way. Her horn became alight in a magenta glow and a few seconds later, Corey's mouth zipped shut. Rarity felt a wave of shock pass through her, considering some of the rather dirty usages of the spell she'd read about in fiction, but mercifully, Twilight was only doing it to quiet him down.

"Please don't go on about your guilt on the matter," the lavender mare said, turning to him directly so she could look him directly in the eye. From what she could see of the colt's expression, he was both terrified and yet interested by what was going on. "No matter what you might believe, the whole situation is not your fault."

Despite the fact what she was witnessing was so sweet Rarity almost felt like she'd eaten a Pinkie Pie cupcake, there was an underlying concern the fancy pony could feel herself considering.

What is the poor dear blaming himself for? He had nothing to do with the break-in...

Corey tried to respond, but he'd apparently forgotten his mouth was still zipped shut, garbling out an incoherent mumble in response.

"I'm far from the proud type," Twilight continued. "Yet whenever I see you succeed at a spell I'm teachng you, I feel that pride, and it mixes with what I feel for you..." Her horn suddenly took on a magenta hue. The sound of a mouth being unzipped resonated clearly. Before the green colt could offer a reply, however. If Rarity hadn't been paying full attention, she wouldn't have caught what Twilight said next. After inhaling and holding her breath for a good three seconds out of nervousness, she squealed "Iloveyou" so fast it apparently made Corey's head spin. His first reaction was to completely freeze, clearly hearing her and not believing it.

Before Corey could even respond, she caught his mouth with her own, causing him to back away with a clear reddening on his cheeks, and a wide, bewildered look in his brown eyes. Rarity bit back the urge to be envious of her friend's accomplishment, but it wasn't as hard as it might have been.

Besides...she was the Element of Generosity, and if their respective work ethic, as Rarity understood, was to get in the way of what was clearly right in front of them, then she would have to, out of the goodness of her heart, make sure they knew exactly what it was they were dealing with between them.

A plan was already in motion as she turned and quickly trotted away, leaving the two lovestruck unicorns to their rather deep kiss...

John had returned to the library after a brief bit at Sweet Apple Acres. Somehow, things had gotten quite a bit awkward between him and Applejack. For one thing, she seemed to be always running into him in that rather large orchard when he assisted in knocking down the apples. And each time she did, memories of their earlier conversation about Leo's reaction would come rushing back to him, and he'd have to turn his head away so she didn't see him blush.

It just had to be him that charmed the farmer's (grand)daughter, just had to be him. While the former human knew that the ponies generally didn't hold grudges, they also had moments where they had terrifyingly human personalities. John didn't quite know if the same set of rules applied here, but he didn't quite know if he was willing to find out. It wasn't because he was quite sure earth ponies were directly capable of bringing down a dragon his size, but more because he was afraid of what he'd do to them if they managed to piss him off through the skirmish.

The minutes passed idly by, until the door burst open, John looked up from a book he'd been reading, trying to keep his mind off the distractions of a certain Stetson-wearing mare, to see Corey and Twilight, both with such sickeningly sweet smiles on their faces that the former human's first instinct was to wonder to himself if he suddenly developed diabetes just by looking at them. They both stopped on John, but their eyes told John something big happened between them. He set the book aside.

"Why...are you two so...?!" He broke off, his mind taking an irrepairable nosedive into the gutter.

Did he...did he get laid?! Is that even possible here?!

Noting the look of John's shock on his face, as well as what he'd experienced back up on Twilight's stargazing hill, caused Corey's own mind to take a dive into the gutter for the second noteworthy time that day.

Does he think I just...got laid? he thought, turning to Twilight, while trying desperately to keep his inner thoughts from his face, despite the blush that coated their faces now. I know I didn't even come close...

After Twilight had taken him totally by surprise following her confession, he felt one of his final aversions dissolve. She obviously, without a doubt, returned his feelings despite the wall that seperated them normally. He knew that if he was going to Hell later on for what he was doing with the purple pony, then that would be his fate. He was too far in love now to back out of it.

He returned her kiss, which surprisingly lasted quite a while. He lost track of what was happening, only that respiration had effectively stopped and both had to part for air before they completely suffocated each other. That was what it felt like to him, anyway.

John rose from his seat, and walked between the two. He nudged Corey using the back of his head, gaining his attention. After the former human turned dragon confirmed that he got the green unicorn's attention, he mouthed a few words.

"Way to go..."

And with that, the dragon ambled off, no doubt attempting to give the two even more time alone...