Twilight was thrown off a bit by Dash's abrupt emotional change, but she pulled herself together.
"Well, Dash, as you may already know, certain goals can drive you to become better." Twilight remarked, as she stepped out of the cold, brown puddle.
"Yeah, but what are your goals?" Dash questioned, hovering over Twilight.
Twilight's eyes dilated, and she hesitated to answer.
"...well... why do you want to know?"
"Because you know what my goals are, so I figure that I should know yours."
"Well, I only know what your goals are because you're always talking about them." Twilight replied with a hint of wit, as she started to walk towards Ponyville.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get this mud out of my mane before it dries up."
Rainbow watched as the lavender figure of Twilight slowly receded from view.
'...what the hay just happened?' she asked herself.
The next day, Twilight awoke to a rather painful sensation.
Her head throbbed and ached, and she could hardly even put a thought together. She could feel her heart thumping harder than usual, and her sinuses were blocked up. Her mouth was dry, and she knew very well what was plaguing her.
The Common Cold.
The dreaded disease that absolutely nopony could find an absolute cure for, and had stumped everypony for centuries. There was really no cure, except for rest, but as of today, Twilight didn't feel like resting, not a bit.
So, she tried to drag herself out of bed, pawing at the sides of the bed before heaving herself off and over, onto unsteady legs.
She almost didn't bother with her hair, but horrible as she felt, she felt that the effort required to fix that bird s nest of hair was a necessary one.
So, after repairing her frizzled and slightly poofy hair, she caught a glance of herself in the mirror. Tired eyes, which happened to be slightly red-rimmed, and...was that a streak of gray in her hair? She blinked rapidly, the streak seemed to disappear.
She exhaustedly shook her head, and trotted towards the stairs, almost bumping into the railing.
As she descended, her hooves fell heavily, the distinctive body language of a pony who was too tired to do much else. In her muddled, confused mind, she attempted to put two and two together as to what she was to do. Currently she really had nothing to do, but she preferred not to sit around, even if it was better for her health.
She heard a sliding noise from underneath the door. Glancing at it, Twilight saw that a small paper square had been slid underneath her wooden door. She groggily walked over to the paper, and put it in front of her, using her magic. The cover depicted many party balloons and streamers.. she chuckled to herself. It was obvious who it was from and what it was about without even reading it, but she opened the card anyways, reading it to herself.
"You're invited to Pinkie Pie s Daring Dance Party... It'll be held in Applejack's barn on Sweet Apple Acres, there will be drinks and food and tons of fun... Held at..."
Twilight glanced over at the clock on her wall. It would be starting in only half an hour! She didn't want to show up late, even if she was feeling slightly sick.
After a long, tiring journey, Twilight nudged open the large, red wooden door, to be greeted by the sight of large amount of ponies moving to incredibly hyper music, and pulsing colorful lights.
Pinkie was the most noticeable of all, hopping high above all of the rest, occasionally striking a random pose in midair. Once, she even came up lounging on a chair, sipping from a glass of apple cider.
'How the-...' Twilight thought, however, she ignored it, remembering that it was Pinkie Pie. She didn't have to make sense.
She suddenly sneezed, but in doing so, her head shifted position, and it was then that she noticed an orange mare was merely sitting off to the side, virtually alone, not doing anything.
Twilight sniffled, that was generally her area of a party, whether she felt good or not, though occasionally she would venture into the hustle and bustle of the dance floor.
As she fought her way to the center of the dance floor, she found that it was hard to keep up with everyone else. She tried to just enjoy herself, but at the same time, she was stepping on her own hooves, not to mention other ponies . The colorful flashing lights made the room appear to be spinning. She stopped in her tracks, and covered her eyes with a forehoof.
'Ugh, maybe I should sit out too.' She thought.
She uncovered her eyes, which renewed the rapid moving colors in her vision.
Twilight looked around, trying to find that lonely mare she saw at the entrance, but the fast paced ponies blocked most of her vision. She shoved her way through the crowd, eventually making it to the small gap between the partying ponies and the walls of the barn.
Twilight trotted over to the orange figure in the distance. In Twilight's clouded mind, the trip seemed to take hours, but it took no more than a few seconds. She was soon greeted by a familiar face; It was Applejack.
"Oh, hey there sugercube." The orange mare spoke up.
"Hi... Applejack. I just came over here to see what you were doing." Twilight drawled, squinting her eyes every now and then.
"Twi', you... OK? Ya' seem...different."
Twilight looked at her friend in confusion as if she was talking in a different language.
"Wha- who me? No, I'm fine. What's wrong with you? Why aren't you out there dancing with the others?" Twilight questioned, collapsing onto the ground in her efforts to sit.
"Well to tell ya' tha' truth, I ain't the dancing type." Applejack said, glancing over to her distant friend, who was studying the colorful moving lights.
"Ya' sure ya' okay, sugercube? Yer actin a bit strange."
"Oh,that..." Twilight hesitated. "I think I'm sick. I woke up feeling absolutely horrid."
Applejack studied her lavender friend. She noted that Twilight had bags under her eyes, and a strand of gray hair coming from her scalp.
"Sugercube, have ya' been haven problems lately? Maybe stress-caused problems?"
Twilight stared blankly at Applejack for awhile.
"Umm... I don t recall anything."
"Are ya' sure bout that? I saw you and Dash doing something yesterday. Did she tell you something that upset you? Applejack sternly questioned."
Twilight hesitated again. "Well... actually, it's really something I wanted to tell her..."
"Ya' mean, like a personal problem? You can always tell me. I won't tell nopony."
Twilight placed a hoof on the side of her forehead.
"I honestly think I probably should have said this sooner...it's been going on for a while, and now it's finally caught up with me."
On the other side of the dim barn, Pinkie Pie could be heard shouting PARTY! at the top of her lungs, before taking a sing of sarsaparilla.
"Hang on Twi', ah can't hear ya'. How's 'bout we go outside?"
"Sure, I guess..." Twilight replied, trudging after the slightly worried mare.
After they got outside, and shut the door, the heavy bass still almost shook the barn, but the clamoring had died down, and now the two could talk without interruption, and without eavesdroppers.
"OK, so what's up, now?"
Twilight took a deep breath.
"I...I'm feeling kind of conflicted at the moment. Like, I...I just can't decide."
"Decide on what?"
Twilight felt as if a bunch of tiny spiders were skittering around in her stomach, but she took the plunge. If only to relieve this...horrible, crushing, heartbreaking stress.
"About whether or not to admit that...that...oh hay, even I can hardly describe it."
A slight hesitation as she pondered how to put it into words.
"I'm not even sure if this is going to come out right...but I'm just...oh, toss the lengthy, over-complicated smarty-pants explanation! I love Rainbow Dash, but I don't know how to tell her!" she finished, voice nearly escalating into a frustrated shout.
Applejack was surprised, naturally, but she showed no sign of it.
Instead, she gently asked,
"When did this all start, Twi'?"
Twilight's manner was downcast, one of a pony who knew not what to do. However, she knew that explaining to somepony may help;admitting it by itself hadn't helped one bit.
"Well...when me and Spike arrived in Ponyville, I honestly didn't know what to expect. And when she crashed into me, frankly, she came off as extremely rude. I intended not to have anything to do with such a pony, as was true with the rest of you. As we got drawn together by the sequence of events, however, I couldn't help but feel myself growing attached to her. I have absolutely no deduction of when it happened, but somewhere along the way, we crossed the friend barrier. Her pursuits of dreams, her definite tenacity, her feisty composition...her lofty ego, all of those things do nothing more but make me appreciate her even more. Her cries of 'egghead!' leave behind the strangest feeling I've ever felt...I can only describe it as love."
Applejack found it quite hard to remain composed now, she was tempted to keep asking questions, but she refrained from doing so.
Instead, she laid a comforting hoof around her friend's shoulders.
"Now, Twi'...I can understand such a feeling. My great-great-great granny used to feel the same way. Ah'm afraid that ah really can't tell you anythin' else, I honestly can't...but you go ahead and do what you think is right."
Twilight nearly ripped her own hair out while tugging on it.
"That's the entire problem!" she nearly shouted.
"I desperately want to say something, but I'm entirely unsure of her reaction! Being the lummox that I am, I'll probably blow it all to smither-"
Applejack stopped her friend with a stern, but caring glance.
"Twi', just do what ya' feel is right. Don't think, feel."
Twilight's brain felt like it was going to collapse into itself, but her heart yearned to release its feelings, ached for companionship, desired a better being.
Twilight lowered her head, and turned to go, but glanced back at Applejack. Applejack looked into her friend's emotion filled eyes, and saw the words "Thank you." form silently on her lips, before she turned, and ran off, with a speed that anypony she knew wouldn't associate with her.
