The trek back to town was a lot harder than Rainbow Dash had envisioned it when she was being hitched up. Granted, the cart was relatively small, but the bookshelf was solid oak. It also seemed to her that most of the journey was uphill. “Whew,” she said, after finally making it to town, “I am not envying Earth ponies any time soon. How can anypony stand getting around without flying?” Inwardly though, she did respect A.J.’s athletic body for doing this on a regular basis with a much heavier cart-load of apples.

As she made it to the town square the mare noticed she was drawing more than a few stares. It wasn’t exactly rare to see a pegasus pulling a cart, but it was at the very least uncommon. It didn’t help matters that Rainbow Dash was one of the most recognizable ponies in town. ‘Ohhh .... this is SO not cool,’ she thought to herself. At least she managed to keep herself from shying away from ponies when they made eye contact.

Finally she made it to the library and knocked. Spike was the one to answer the door. “Uhh… Hey, Rainbow Dash.”

“Hiya, Spike. Is Twilight home?” she asked, turning her head to unhitch the cart from her midsection.

The baby dragon seemed a bit unsure of his answer. “Yeah, but she’s locked up in her study,” he stated, peering further out to see what was on the cart. “What happened last night? Twilight hasn’t said hardly two words to me since she got home from Applejack’s, and she’s been locked upstairs ever since.”

She reached up to tousle her mane. “Yeah,” she said, feeling more than a bit awkward, “I … kinda crashed into the study last night and broke … some stuff.”

Spike cringed at this. “I’m guessing that’s the reason for the bookshelf?”

“Yeah,” she replied, “Applejack made it. I just carted it over.”

“You must’ve been really fly’n if you busted the shelf to the point where we needed a new one.”

“A-actually … the shelf didn’t break until it tipped over,” she paused for a moment before adding, “onto Twilight’s writing desk”

“Whoa,” Spike’s arms dropped to his side and his eyes glazed over, apparently in attempt to picture the scene being described, “how was-”

“Flattened,” she said, heading off his question.

It took a second for Spike’s brain to process the appearance of a flattened writing desk. When he did his cringe had Rainbow Dash thinking the dragon might actually be in pain. “Yikes, Rainbow Dash. That desk was as old as I am.”

The mare quirked an eyebrow at the dragon’s statement, “That … doesn’t sound as impressive as when Granny Smith says it.”

“Okay, fine,” he conceded, “but Twilight loved that thing.”

“I know,” she said, “and I want to make it up to her. I really do. I just don’t know how.”

“Well,” Spike shrugged, “the only way to really start is by talking to her.” At that he swung the door open and turned, motioning for the pegasus to enter.

Rainbow stood in the library and watched as spike made his way up the stairs and around the tree. As he drew nearer to the study door she felt something solidify in her throat and stomach. She wanted nothing more than to just run away and avoid this confrontation all together.

As her to prank a royal government figure and she was there. Set her in front of a dragon so big it makes Applejack’s barn look like a child’s toy and her first instinct was to kick it in the face. Surround her with an army of zombie-bug ponies’ intent on devouring her soul and she grins at the challenge. But the seeing Twilight step out of that office, gazing disapprovingly down her snout had driven Rainbow Dash back on her haunches, cowering away from her, as if expecting a beating.

Spike watched the silent visual exchange between the two mares for almost a full minute before the tension became unbearable. “So ummm… Twilight, Rainbow Dash brought the new bookshelf from Applejack’s,” he said, praying to sweet Celestia that this would help break the tension.

Twilight’s gaze didn’t shift. “She did, did she?” she asked in a passionless tone. If Twilight had been watching a little less closely she probably wouldn’t have noticed the slight nod her friend’s head made to respond.

“Yup, all shiny and new, waiting to be unloaded,” he said. However, the forced cheer in his voice only helped to underscore the apathy in Twilight’s own.

“Well, then I suppose she should UN-load it and put it away, where it belongs. Don’t you agree?”

At this the blue pegasus rose up off her hindquarters and slowly backed her way out through the still open door, not taking her eyes off of the librarian for fear of bursting into flames if she did. She wasn’t even sure if she had blinked ever since she’d met Twilight’s eyes. After a few minutes of consideration and a fair amount of struggling, Rainbow Dash managed to get herself back inside with the bookshelf lashed to her back with the rope Applejack had used to tie it to the cart.

Though her magic could have lifted the heavy construct up to the bedroom landing and into her study in a matter of moments, Twilight simply watched -almost disinterested- as her friend struggled her way up the stairs. As she waited she turned to her number one assistant. “Spike, would you go to the market and get a few things?” she asked, levitating a roll of parchment from within the study.

“Uhh, sure,” he said. He held out his claws and let the list fall from her magical grasp. After this he turned and jumped off the ledge to the floor below. It was a bit high, but he’d done it before. Also he didn’t want to chance knocking into Rainbow. After a few quick paces he was out the door, pausing only briefly to glance at the pegasus and silently wishing her luck.

When the door closed behind the dragon Twilight turned and trotted into the study. Rainbow Dash heard a small amount of shuffling come from the room above, but kept making her way towards the open door, sweat dripping from her brow as she strained under the weight. Getting through the study doorway was a bit of a challenge, but she managed well enough on her own. It wasn’t until she leaned back to set the bookshelf on the ground that things went wrong.

She’d only meant to set two legs on the floor before untying the rope that lashed it to her back. Unfortunately the center of gravity was thrown further back than she thought and ended up getting hoisted into the air as all four legs of the bookshelf came to rest on the ground. What was worse was that the slight amount of slack in the rope allowed her to slip down (or rather from her perspective it allowed the rope to slide up to about her neck). For a moment she thought she was going to hang herself but a bit of squirming allowed it to slip above her head. Although this meant that she was not about to commit suicide, it did mean her front hooves were pinned above the bookcase that she was now tied bodily to, and what little slack there had been in the rope was now gone. Her rear legs were free, and if she stretched them out they could just barely touch the floor, but that wasn’t going to help her get free.

Twilight couldn’t help but snicker at the fact that the fastest mare in Equestria had just rendered herself completely immobile. Having broken the dead silence she’d been keeping with her friend she decided to drop the treatment altogether. “Oh, this is just too good,” she said with a smile.

Rainbow Dash bit the inside of her lip as she looked over to the lavender unicorn. “Can I get a helping hoof?” she asked, in a near whisper.

“I don’t know, are you done punishing yourself?” Twilight quipped back.

Rainbow balked at the casual, and almost friendly tone she’d just heard coming through that question. “A-wha-I-umm …… huh?”

She smiled at the confusion on her friends face. “Look,” she said, levitating several books from behind herself, “the books are fine. Perhaps a few extra dents on some of the covers but no one is going to notice or care so long as the pages remain intact. Last night I was worried about ink. Fortunately, I was nearly out and it didn’t really get on anything.”

“Oh,” replied the Pegasus, feeling foolish. “So …”

“But you still destroyed my desk,” said Twilight, her eyes narrowing again.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “I did.”

“Grrrr, and you still won’t apologize?”

“I’m-”

“And don’t insult me by saying it now!” she demanded.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth closed with a near audible -click-.

Several moments passed between them as Rainbow Dash struggled with what she might be able to say. Of all the things she could have done after arriving at the library, a simple ‘I’m sorry’ hadn’t even occurred to her. True she wanted to make amends. But Twilight had just been so angry the night before even if the thought had entered her mind it would have been instantly banished out of its sheer simplicity.

Twilight was the first to break the silence. “Look,” she said, “you know how I can be …. kind of picky about certain things?” She waited for a nod so she knew her friend was following. “Well, it’s not just about certain things.”

The cyan pegasus felt her head tilt and her face scrunch from curiosity. “What do you mean?”

She looked at the ground and shuffled her hooves, feeling a bit embarrassed about this. “I mean … I feel a need for everything to be perfect.”

“But-”

“I mean everything,” she insisted. “Like, when two ponies are walking out of step. Or when their mane isn’t taken care of. Or when they wear shoes but don’t tie them in symmetric bows, or if one bow is a different size than the other three. And don’t get me started on when ponies use cutlery that doesn’t have all the fork tines lined up. And right now, even though I know you had weather duty, the knots I see in your tail are torture-”

“Twilight”

“-knot you used to tie the rope was probably supposed to”

“Twilight”

“-square-knot but you made a granny-knot instead and-”

“Twilight! I get it.”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to shut her mouth, if only for a moment. “The point is … I feel a need for everything to be perfect, but the world is an imperfect place. This room is the one place I can go where everything is just the way it should be. And most of the time I spend in here, I’m at my desk.”

“So that means I took away the one place in this world where everything is perfect for you.”

Twilight nodded in response. She knew it wasn’t a hard thing to understand, but she was glad. She just hoped this didn’t affect their friendship.

“Alright, so what should my punishment be?” she asked.

The purple unicorn was taken aback somewhat by this … offer. “I beg your pardon?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged as best she could with her front legs tied above her head. “You said an apology would be an insult now that you told me that’s what I should have done. And I agree,” she said rather matter-of-factly. “So, all that’s really left for us is you doing something to me so that we’re even.”

“I … well,” Twilight stammered. She wasn’t sure why but somehow Rainbow asking for a punishment sounded a bit …. forward; and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She shook her head to banish the thought, ‘You’ve just been reading too many of those books,’ she told herself, ‘that’s all.’ “You’re sure?”

“Well, I mean … don’t like, cut up my wings and bake them into your dessert or something.” Both of the mares laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of that request.

As their laughing subsided Twilight’s magic loosened her friend’s bindings, allowing Rainbow Dash to slide down and sit on the floor. However, to Rainbow’s shock the ropes tightened again, pinning her once again to the bookshelf. “Uhh … Twilight?”

The unicorn’s lips formed a sly smile. “I can’t have you running off before I get the instruments of your torture,” and with that cryptic statement, she turned and left the room.

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard as the study door closed. Now a big part of her was beginning to regret that offer. “Oh boy,” she squeaked, trying not to stress herself over whatever was about to happen.

Author's Note

Alright, sorry for the long wait to the next chapter ... i was having some issues with some of Twilight's lines ... hope you all enjoy it ... do comment on what you think Twilight has in store for our dear daredevil ... i've already got what i'm gonna have her do, though i'm curious to see what my readers think

Likes Comments Critiques Questions are all appreciated