Twilight was not having a good day. Recently, it felt like none of her days were really going all that well.

She didn't know what was wrong with her. There was definitely something wrong with her.

Leaving the cafeteria, on her way to her weekly session in Cadence's office, she analyzed the tremor in the hand currently holding her fifth cup of coffee that day.

Caffeine was good for you. To an extent.

It was a well-documented fact that it had acute cognitive benefits by activating neural pathways. Occasionally, it was also used for pain-relief, which would be much appreciated, considering the mother of all migraines currently radiating a traumatizing little dance across the inside of Twilight’s skull.

Coffee itself was also rich in antioxidants.

Perhaps she’d developed a slight over-reliance since starting senior year as the frequency of all-night study sessions had gone up. That would explain the tremor.

Or maybe that was caused by the lack of sleep?

The Journal of Sleep Research had countless articles on all the devastating health effects a lack of sleep could pose, which was why Twilight had adopted a polyphasic sleep cycle, tailored to include three 1.5 hour naps (the length of one sleep cycle) to keep her cognition consistent. She wasn’t about to develop sudden heart failure because of something as trivial as failing to maintain a habit that every human ever had a literal biological clock instilled inside them to keep running.

That would be preposterous.

And yet, the polyphasic sleeping had somehow managed to slink back into biphasic, and then… monophasic. Except that singular phase shrunk down to about an hour in the past week.

There was just so much to do! So much to read over and revise. She’d been cramming chess theory so hard her board started to look more like a spiral than a checkerboard and she was starting to forget why it was even so important in the first place.

She couldn’t be this bad at something that was supposed to be the game for smart people. People out there played chess to relax! There were grandmasters barely out of diapers these days, for crying out loud!

Not to mention the ordinary workload she was committed to. Then there was the work she’d put into making a study plan for Rainbow.

Right as she reached Cadence’s office, her phone buzzed.

Featherbrain: egghead im gonna tell you something but you gotta promise you wont get like

Featherbrain: aggressive

Twilight’s eye twitched.

Me: If you’re about to tell me that you’re skipping our study session for the third day in a row I make no promises that I won’t pummel you the next time I see you.

Featherbrain: hehe :P

Featherbrain: good luck finding me. I turned my eqmess map off

Twilight started typing out a barrage of vexed retorts, but somewhere near the third paragraph detailing the importance of consistent study schedules to maintaining adequate grades, the act felt entirely futile. She deleted it dejectedly, then sighed, putting her phone back into her skirt pocket.

Cadence was already sitting at her desk when Twilight entered, two cups of tea positioned next to the potted miniature roses on the surface.

The delicate aroma hit Twilight straight away; lavender Earl Grey. Normally her favorite, but in that moment, the smell of lavender reminded her of a certain someone she didn’t have the bandwidth to be properly mad at.

“Twilight!” Cadence smiled, gesturing to the chair opposite. She waited until the door closed to act out a professionally restrained version of ‘Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake’ from her seat, which Twilight half-heartedly returned as she sat down.

“I certainly don’t remember that being part of the typical school counselor session,” Twilight said, somewhat teasingly.

“Oh hush, it’s tradition!”

“What happened to professionalism, Cadence?”

“In my opinion, a bit of whimsy is just what every counselor needs.”

There was a small moment of quiet, during which Cadence waited for Twilight to take a sip of her tea before she got down to the actual purpose of their session.

Perhaps it would have been a bit awkward having your sister-in-law also mentor you within the school setting, but Twilight was so used to looking up to Cadence in the years she’d known her, that the change in scenery really didn’t change much about their interactions.

Only now, there was the added expectation of taking her advice with a little more severity. And the fact she could technically dish out detentions.

“So… the last time we spoke, you were about to take part in that chess tournament. How did that go?”

Twilight gritted her teeth.

She was about to recount the events of the past week, considering her words, when Cadence’s eyes narrowed to a squint and she leaned forward with a small frown gracing her lips.

“Are you… alright, Twilight? You’re looking a bit… gray.”

“Gray?” Twilight echoed, lifting a hand to her cheek.

“Are you ill?”

“No, no, nothing of the sort. I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Ah…” Cadence said. “I thought you were going to work on that? What happened to that schedule you had planned out to get your ‘recommended hours?’”

“It’s in action,” Twilight said, looking off to the side. “I’ve just been… preoccupied lately. I’ve started, uhm… helping someone with their lessons. Or at least planned to.”

“Oh!” Cadence instantly brightened. “You’ve made a friend?”

Twilight stiffened slightly, her fingers tightening around the mug of tea. “No,” she quickly said, somewhat defensively. “She’s not my friend. It’s a simple quid pro quo.”

“Oh, I see. Then what are you getting out of it?”

“She’s teaching me chess in exchange for help with her classes. She’s on a bunch of sports teams, so it’s important she gets her grades up. However… she’s been…” she paused, gnawing at the inside of her cheek as she mulled the next phrase over. “I think she’s been avoiding me.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

“I don’t— hey! Don’t therapize me!”

Cadence held her hands up defensively. “It’s my job to check in on how you’re faring! Taking on a tutee can add extra stress to any student, much less someone taking on as much as you.”

“I manage my workload.”

“I know you do, I’m not trying to suggest you’re not capable of anything you set your mind to, Twilight. I’ve known you long enough to know what a strong and determined girl you truly are. But sometimes… you do tend to push yourself at the expense of your health.”

Twilight didn’t say anything to this, but her mouth thinned into a line. The bags under her eyes suddenly felt like they were actively being filled with lead, their weight dragging down into her cheeks. It almost felt like an accusation from her own body, mocking her for being tired.

It was okay. She was okay. Caffeine took about an hour to work. She didn’t have long to wait now.

Cadence looked at her pointedly, then shuffled some papers around. “I have some leaflets around here somewhere about managing school burnout, if that’s something you might be—”

“I’m not burnt out. I’m managing just fine. My grades are the best they could be, I’m regularly getting extra credit in, I’m on my way to getting on the chess team for that daft hobby paragraph on my personal statement, and now I’m even tutoring! I don’t know why you insist on being so worried, because I’m literally the perfect student!

“Teachers pray for students like me!”

It wasn’t until she saw Cadence pull back that Twilight realized she’d started to raise her voice.

There was a heavy, silent beat, before Cadence’s brow furrowed, eyes softening. “Feeling more irritated than you normally would can be a real sign that there are stresses in your life affecting your mental health, Twily.”

Twily. This was her sister-in-law talking now, not her school counselor, which was quickly becoming all too much.

Twilight stood up. “I’m fine, I promise. I wish everyone would quit insisting I’m not handling everything. I don’t bite off more than I can chew.”

“What does Dr Gentle think about all of this?”

“I haven’t seen her in a few weeks. I haven’t needed to.”

“Twilight—”

“I really should be getting to class now. You know I like to get there early,” she said, slinging her backpack back over her shoulders and swaying slightly in the process. She caught Cadence’s concerned look, which made her feel all the more prickly.

As quickly as her legs could carry her, Twilight dashed from the office and headed off down the hall. All of the students milling around her were so much louder than normal, which wasn’t helping the pounding in her head.

For a moment, right before she reached her classroom, the whole world was pounding.

Then she was in her seat and the lesson was about to start, and then everyone else started arriving, and the teacher started talking. Twilight’s head buzzed as she followed every word.

Didn’t it feel like everything was suddenly going all the more slowly than usual? Or all too quick?

She almost forgot how she got there.

It was Biology. She knew biology.

Biology was probably the easiest of the sciences for her to study for. It was all just words, and Twilight could memorize entire blocks of text like no one’s business. That was the east part.

Yet that day, none of the words seemed to come as easily to her as they should have.

Revision was like a melody, flowing between her ears and through her brain, a smooth river down a canal with no kinks. But right then, it was like each word got jammed between her eyes, tripping over the aching grooves of her headache and getting all tangled up into a rapidly unwinding tape. Tangled. Tangled.

She heard a whisper and a laugh from somewhere on her right, and her gaze focused on two students at a desk in front of her.

She saw Rainbow Dash smiling at a girl beside her with long pale pink hair swooping down her back, looking back at the teacher conspiratorially to make sure she hadn’t noticed them talking during his lesson.

Oh yeah. She’s in this class too, Twilight thought vacantly. Then she was angry again, because Dash couldn’t even wait until lessons had concluded to inform Twilight she’d be skipping out on their studying.

Then, she just felt stupid.

Because somewhere, deep, deep down, she had sort of cared.

She certainly didn’t want Dash to be her friend or anything dumb like that. Of course not.

But, well, studies showed that repeated exposure to a previously abhorrent individual could dull you to their annoyance, fostering a sense of tolerance almost like being fond of them.

She had spent hours reworking the curriculum of the classes Dash said she was faring the worst in, focusing extra on the lessons she remembered her particularly lacking in during class. Twilight felt dumb as she noticed how much attention she had been paying. How much time she’d already wasted.

Because unfortunately, she clearly had higher expectations than Dash for their mutually-beneficial partnership.

And that kind of was the stupidest feeling of them all, wasn’t it?

The room started spinning again, and before she realized what she was doing, Twilight had stood up abruptly, drawing all the attention in the room. Two dozen sets of eyes bore into her, including Mr Cranky’s from the front.

“I’m sorry, Miss Sparkle, but was there something you wanted to say?” he asked, crossing his arms.

Twilight opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

The spinning room quickly turned to a spinning hallway, then a spinning girl’s bathroom, then a spinning stall with the door tightly bolted shut.

She brought the seat down and flopped against the cold plastic, clinging her knees to her chest as she inexplicably started to sob.

She covered her face with her sweater sleeves to muffle the sound, but she still sounded pathetic to her own ears.

What was the matter with her?

That was a dumb question. Of course she knew.

The articles detailing the adverse effects of sleep deprivation on your emotional state were clear. A person was more prone to volatile changes in mood when not adequately rested, a fact that for some reason was only making her cry harder.

This was all just the result of brain chemicals. It should be an easy problem with an easy fix. Point A to Point B. There wasn’t anything wrong with her, she just needed a rest.

Yet the magnitude of her problems didn’t seem to shrink at that fact.

She was crying so loud she almost didn’t hear the gentle knock against the stall door.

Twilight hiccuped, raising her head but seeing nothing but fogged up tears blurring her lenses.

“I don’t mean to eavesdrop, darling, but are you alright in there? I can hear you crying.”

“I’m—” Twilight coughed. “I’m okay.”

“Are you…” the voice came again. “Are you quite sure of that?”

Upon not receiving an answer, the person on the other side of the stall clacked away, footsteps hurriedly returning as a pair of purple heels became visible in the gap under the door. A white handkerchief waved over the door.

Twilight stared at it for a moment, before standing up to grab it.

“Thank you…” she sniffled, lifting her glasses to rub at her eyes. At this point, the bags felt so dense that they could have absorbed the fabric.

“If you come out, I would be more than happy to lend an ear to listen to your plight. I don’t bite, dear, I promise.”

Twilight stewed on the offer as she examined the damp handkerchief in her hands. The edge was embroidered and lacy, and it smelled heavily of expensive perfume.

Gingerly, she pushed the door open and looked upon the owner of the kind voice.

It was a girl that looked too old to be a freshman; perhaps belonging to her year, but she wasn’t in any of Twilight’s classes to her knowledge. She was tall and pretty, the very definition of manicured from her blackcurrant curls to her white floral tights and glinting diamond earrings.

This was the very type of girl that she would have expected to look her up and down and chortle.

Yet instead, she smiled encouragingly, and beckoned Twilight over to the sink.

Like a dejected puppy, she followed, barely resisting as the stranger removed her glasses and ran the edge of another handkerchief under the tap, using it to dab cold water over Twilight’s face.

“Oh, you’re all blotchy, you poor thing,” she cooed. “Your visage is positively painted with misery.”

Twilight’s brain was working far too slowly to dwell on the implications of that, or wonder if that was meant to be an insult.

“Oh! I have just the thing, hold on a second.”

Twilight pulled away from the girl’s hands as she started to rifle through a handbag, humming as she extracted a handful of tubes from a second, smaller purse.

She held each one up to the tear-streaked face in front of her, pursing her lips thoughtfully, before deciding on one and putting away the rest.

“Ack! What are you doing?” Twilight protested as the girl tucked her hair behind her ears and opened the tube, about to swipe at her with the brush before being interrupted.

“It’s just a bit of concealer, sweetheart. Trust me, you’ll feel a lot better when you know you’re not parading around looking like you haven’t gotten a wink of sleep in days.”

“But I—”

Her arguments fell on deaf ears as her chin was grabbed in an unexpectedly strong hold and the concealer began its descent towards her eyes. The makeup was icy against her skin, but strangely cooling. She pouted, feebly accepting her fate.

“You know,” the girl mused as she worked. “Haters always ask me, ‘Rarity, why in tarnation are you carrying all that around? It’s as useful as a trapdoor on a canoe!’ But I know that a true lady isn’t prepared for anything if she’s not fit to help any sister out in a makeup catastrophe. It’s lucky you match my contour shade.”

The girl (Rarity, presumably) twittered on about the importance of an adequate supply of various products and a sizable handbag as she worked, capitalizing on Twilight’s sluggish state to sneak in a few swipes of mascara and a dash of highlighter while she was distracted.

When she was done, she replaced Twilight’s glasses and held her hands on either side of the other girl’s arms, turning her towards the mirror and beaming proudly.

“There! You look about twenty times more radiant than when you started! I do impress even myself sometimes.”

Squinting at her reflection, Twilight wrinkled her nose.

She sheepishly turned back to the girl and gave her a strained smile.

“Thanks…” she said weakly.

Her own face staring back at her looked odd. She looked so much cleaner and…put together than she felt, which created a strange sense of misalignment that wasn't entirely unpleasant. It was almost like a mask.

“I guess I do look better.”

“Miles better!” Rarity smiled. “Now, do you want to talk about whatever it was that had you in such a state to begin with? I am a wonderful active listener.”

Twilight contemplated her options.

Rarity was peering at herself thoughtfully in the bathroom mirror as she did so, reapplying eyeliner with an impressively fluid motion. Twilight didn't think she could even write that smoothly with pen on paper.

She didn't seem like she'd empathize all that much with the type of issue Twilight was having, but then again, she did offer kindness to a complete stranger. She was already nicer than anything she could be expected of.

With a deep sigh, Twilight opened her mouth to give a rundown of her problem, but the bathroom door swinging open stopped her in her tracks.

The two girls turned to see a blonde in braids and a stetson marching inside, an unimpressed look on her face.

“I knew I'd find you gussyin’ up in here instead of botherin’ to be on time. As always.”

Twilight was momentarily taken aback, then realized the girl's accusation was clearly being leveled at Rarity, judging by the titter of annoyance that sounded from her direction.

“I had an emergency, if you must know.”

“Oh, yeah? And what was it this time? You get emotional over a pretty purse and need a mascara retouch?”

“Really, Applejack? Do you truly think of me as that frivolous?”

‘Applejack’ merely curled her lip in response.

Upon sensing she wasn't going to get an apology, Rarity rolled her eyes and gestured to Twilight.

“I was helping out a friend, if you must know.”

Seemingly noticing her for the first time since barging in, Applejack looked at Twilight and squinted, leaning too close for comfort.

“Uh huh. And does that ‘emergency’ you were ‘helping’ her with have anything to do with your sparkly stuff she's wearing?”

“Awh, you recognize my highlighter shade?” Rarity cooed, placing both hands on her heart.

“How could I forget it?” Applejack said dryly. “I've had that color brandished at me so many times I see it in my nightmares.”

“I still think you can pull it off even better than me.”

“It’s pink.”

“I've yet to meet a single girl that doesn't utterly blossom in pink. Even you, AJ. Exhibit A, and—” She pointed at Twilight. “Exhibit B. I myself am a given, obviously.”

“Uh…huh… Well, are ya ready to go yet?”

“One moment, dear. My friend here was just about to— Oh! My apologies, I didn't even get your name…?”

“Oh, uhm. It's Twilight.”

“What a wonderful name!” Rarity exclaimed. “You know what, Applejack here and I were about to head out to that new cafe that opened not too far from school. You're welcome to join us if you wish. We can talk more there.”

“Oh…I don't know. I have a lot of work that still needs to be done. And I have…” she trailed off as she realized she had nowhere she really needed to be. Not since Dash canceled.

Rarity pouted. “Oh, are you sure you can't be persuaded? Nothing's more healing than a spot of tea and cake, you know. You certainly seem like you could use some healing.”

Twilight didn’t say anything, merely looked off awkwardly to the side, prompting Applejack to put a hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“If she doesn’t wanna come, you shouldn’t-”

“Actually, no, I’ll come.”

“Really?” Rarity brightened, then hooked an arm through Twilight’s, starting to drag her off towards the exit. “Oh! How wonderful.

“Now, tell me, was this about a boy?”

-

Libraries were illustrious pillars of education in the community, and Twilight loved them to no end, but nothing could truly beat the ambience of studying in the comfort of your own room at night.

The open window by her desk let in a cool, gentle breeze that thankfully wasn’t intrusive enough to scatter her papers, only providing a welcome chill to her overheating mind.

She leaned back in her chair and sighed, finding that, despite the enjoyment of reading something in the joint glow of the moonlight and her desk lamp, her eyes were starting to hurt and that was slowing down her efficiency.

Nonetheless, she couldn’t stop now. She had a fair bit to work through to pay for the delay incurred by visiting the cafe with Rarity and Applejack.

She didn’t know what even possessed her to say yes in the first place. Maybe it was just the fact that she was fragile and lonely and Rarity had been so nice to her. She couldn’t really understand why she had been; she didn’t even know Twilight and yet had extended such generosity.

Applejack seemed nice enough too. They both seemed like such good friends that Twilight felt like a bit of a third wheel at times, but surprisingly, she still had… a good time. It kind of reminded her of what chess with Rainbow Dash felt like.

Twilight gripped her pencil tighter and groaned.

Why couldn’t she stop thinking about her?

No. She was focused. She was focused!

Twilight leaned back over her notes and started to scribble down a summary of the block of text she’d just gone over from the study guide, when she was brought back from her thoughts by a thud against her window.

She looked up, first seeing only the curtains billowing a bit more intensely than before. Then, the next thing she knew, she was standing up and letting out a yelp as a face appeared on her window sill.

“What the-” she shrieked, a flurry of scenarios of getting kidnapped or murdered in her own home playing out in her head when the face morphed into an entire girl hopping into her room and clamping a hand over her mouth.

“Shut up! God, do you want to wake your whole house?”

Twilight slapped the hand away. “Rainbow Dash? What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“Breaking and entering, duh.”

“How did you— Why are you— Just what do you think you’re doing!?”

Dash retreated from Twilight, momentarily casting her gaze down, before sheepishly looking back up at Twilight.

“You left sixth period kinda… frazzled. And you weren’t answering my texts so…”

“So you thought you’d break into my room at—” Twilight glanced at her bedside alarm clock. “One in the morning?”

“...Yes?”

“Are you insane? Like, clinically? Are you clinically insane? Have those soccer balls bouncing off your head completely fried every useful neuronal connection you may have had?”

“Well that’s not very nice, is it?”

“I’m not joking!”

“Sorry.”

“And I didn’t answer your texts because…” Twilight crossed her arms. “Well, why should I?”

“Well, because we’re, you know. Somewhat, uh…”

“Somewhat what?”

“I had to check you were okay and everything.”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“I think that was the first time I’d ever seen you leave a lesson early. You looked in really… rough shape. Like a tornado victim.”

“Gee, thanks. Just what every girl wants to hear. I’m fine, thank you very much. Now, get out!”

“Then Applejack mentioned she—”

“You’re friends with Applejack?”

“Yeah. Well, she’s friends with Fluttershy, so I kinda have to be chill with her. I get the feeling she doesn’t like me much. Thinks I’m annoying.”

“Wow. I can hardly imagine why!”

“Is your default setting sarcasm or is that just something that happens to repressed nerds after a while?”

Twilight didn’t dignify that with a response.

“Look, I, uh… brought you something.”

Dash started rooting through her backpack, before extracting an apple and handing it to Twilight.

“An… apple?”

“Yeah, that’s what you give to teachers, right?”

“Need I remind you that you haven’t bothered to show up to a single one of our study sessions?”

“Yeah. I know. I’m… sorry. Turn the apple over.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the other girl, but did so, revealing a crudely carved frowning face in the apple’s red skin, white flesh spelling out the word sorry.

“Right. And what is this supposed to represent, exactly?”

She looked up to see Dash was pulling a matching expression to the apple.

Twilight gritted her teeth, then strode over to her school backpack and aggressively ripped it open, shoving her hand in and yanking out a thick wad of stapled notes.

She slammed it down on her desk.

“What's that?” Dash asked.

“This is the study plan I made for you,” Twilight snapped. “That I spent hours on.”

With the backpack still held in her hands, she pulled out another notebook and a chess strategy manual, depositing them on the desk with similar momentum. Then, she moved three more books from the side of her desk onto the pile, and another two from her bedside.

“And these are the notes I've been taking and books I've been reading on stupid chess study that I've had to do alone these last few days because your sorry—” she squeaked angrily. “Your sorry ass couldn't be bothered to show up!”

Dash looked away, and crossed her arms, not saying anything.

“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“I know that I'm not….urgh,” Dash frowned. “I know I kind of screwed you over and…Jeez. I didn't think you'd… I didn't think you'd put so much time into…helping me. I guess…why?”

“Why what?”

“Why’d you spend all that time making a guide to help me? Especially after I bailed on you?”

“Because!” Twilight exclaimed, lifting her hands from her sides. “Because…I don't know why. Maybe because I… I don't know. I thought…” she trailed off, and million thoughts rushed through her head but none of them managed to make it to her lips.

Dash looked at her awkwardly. “I didn't just come to give you a stupid apple. I also came to say…I spoke to my dad, because I couldn't really figure out how to…

“Okay, so I'm obviously the best at everything. Well, almost everything. I couldn't figure out how to help you with chess because your brain works so much differently to mine. Studying comes easy to you so I couldn't teach you the same way I learn and—”

“Well you're clearly not good at learning considering you're borderline failing most of your classes,” Twilight interjected bitterly.

Dash flinched. “Okay, okay, I deserve that. I'll let that one slide.”

There was a pause, and Twilight motioned for Dash to continue.

“Right, right. So, I talked to my dad and he gave me some pointers, since he's mentored a bunch of other players and I…think I know how to train your strategy.”

“How? The tournament is literally two days away.”

“We don't need you to be the best right away, just good enough to beat the majority.”

“Okay…and?”

“Come to my house tomorrow. For a sleepover. My dad will be there after he's done with work and he can help too.”

“Woah, woah, woah…” The gears in Twilight's mind churned, anger evaporating momentarily. “Are you seriously telling me that the Grandmaster Bow Hothoof is going to be helping me study chess!?”

“I mean, duh. He's my dad. It's not like I gotta get on a waitlist first.”

“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh—”

“I should have asked him for help sooner. I was just avoiding him because of my report—”

“Shut up! Oh my gosh!” Twilight darted forward to shake Dash. “I'm going to meet a real actual grandmaster!”

Dash started to smile. “Wow, this position feels familiar. I'm getting a flashback.”

Getting a hold of herself, Twilight sheepishly let go of Dash, but didn't stop vibrating excitedly.

“So… am I forgiven?”

“Ahh! I'm so nervous! I need to start studying up right away!”

Dash laughed, bringing Twilight back to earth. She fixed the other girl with a firm expression.

She had gone through a roller coaster of emotions that day, all of them somehow circling back to Rainbow Dash.

Rage. Abandonment. Anger. Vulnerability. Anger.

She looked down.

“...Why do you care if I forgive you or not?”

Suddenly, Dash was very fixated on staring at Twilight's wall.

“Because…you know, we're sorta friends. Aren't we?”

“Are we?”

“Well it's not like there's a real criteria. I like hanging out with you. Even if it just pummeling you at chess.”

“Okay, we don't need to—”

“And I mean absolutely demolishing—”

“Do you want me to start throwing books at your head?”

Dash defensively held her hands up and laughed. “Okay, okay. I get it. Last one, I promise.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “You really…like spending time with me?”

If it hadn't been so dark and her mind so slow from sleep deprivation, Twilight might have thought that Dash was blushing.

“You don't need to repeat it like that, damn. All…sappy ‘n shit.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “That's what you consider sappy? I've seen how Pinkie Pie acts, that surely isn't the worst display of emotions you've encountered.”

“You think Pinkie’s a wild ride? Wait ‘till you meet Flutters. She cries at literally every emotional moment in movies, it's not even funny. She shed tears during Space Jam.”

“I've never seen it.”

Dash’s eyes shot open like saucers. “You've never seen Space Jam? What rock do you live under?”

“I don't really watch many movies…”

“Okay, well, that's gonna change.”

They lapsed back into silence, and Twilight started to smile slightly.

“Okay…I forgive you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“So…tomorrow at my house, okay? I'll come pick you up.”

“On your motorbike? Absolutely not—”

“You were fine the first time!”

“You drive like a maniac! I had to hold onto you for dear life because you swerve like you're driving down a slip ‘n slide!”

“Don't blame my driving. The ladies all cling to the Dashinator.”

“It was out of necessity!”

“Sure held on tight for a measly 20 miles per hour.”

“You're so irritating.”

“Still clung to me like a damsel though—”

“I'll walk, thanks,” Twilight said dryly, though her face felt slightly warm at the accusation.

The smirk on Dash's face was making her annoyance bubble up again hotly.

“Okay, I promise to drive slow,” she said as she started making her way back to the windowsill. She swung her legs over, then turned back to Twilight

“...Fine. If you're careful.”

Rainbow grinned, then started to scale back out of the window, when Twilight stopped her.

Dash looked up questioningly.

“Though you know, with your insistence on driving me, maybe it's you that wants me clinging.”

With that, she shut the window, not giving Rainbow a chance to retort.

The image of her shocked face would keep Twilight giggling until she went to bed that night.

Author's Note

I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get out! I've been working and reworking my outline to get some form of cohesive narrative, because pacing in stories is something I'm always so unsure of. I think I need to settle with the knowledge that it's never going to perfect and that the stakes for my MLP fanfiction aren't truly that high. My computer broke down as I was writing this, too, which put quite the delay.

I'm really excited to get into more of the Mane 6 dynamics! I like to think they all have some form of connection to each other already, even just as acquaintances, and I can't wait to start writing more interactions between their friend group. Next chapter we have a sleepover!