Friends Forever [Twilight]

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow Dash was busy fixing up her bedroom. She hadn't been sure how to deal with living in a house when she first got here--any chance you have anything a little more...made of clouds?--but she was getting used to it. And of course, the best part was that she was living with one of her best friends. What could go wrong?

Well apparently a fair amount. Twilight liked to keep the house one way, Rainbow liked it...different. For one thing, her system of organization was more organic. Clean clothes sort of went in that corner, and the dirty ones went over here, and then the dirty dishes waited by the door until she could take them down to the kitchen. And then once they were in the kitchen, of course, they could stand to wait until she needed that particular pot again. It would all get cleaned up eventually. And she knew exactly where everything was, for the most part.

Right now she was slaving away in the bedroom in order to make it exactly the way she wanted it. Read: as much like her old home as absolutely possible. That meant buying huge numbers of pillows for her bed and various other places in the room, such as the middle of the floor on the rug that used to be white but now had a couple extra stains on it. These things just didn't clean as easily as condensed water droplets. She had also drawn lots of posters of the WonderBolts to hang up around the room and even a Daring Do poster. Sure her drawing skills might need some work, and you might have some trouble recognizing any of the ponies in the pictures (even as ponies), but the colors were totally awesome.

She'd made a bit of a mess all over the dining room table as she painted all of her posters, and she'd left some of her trash from all the new supplies lying next to the trash can, and she'd left a new stack of dishes in the counter, but she was going to get around to cleaning it. Besides, it wasn't even that messy. Not like the living room, anyway--oh. The living room. She really needed to deal with that broken light fixture. Apparently it was not meant to support the weight of a pony just trying to get to a cobweb in one of the corners. Rainbow Dash hated spiders. But now the spider was still there and the light was on the floor with some weird wires hanging out of the ceiling. But that would have to wait.

Because right now Rainbow really wanted a shower. So she grabbed a towel and some of the special shampoo/soap she'd found and went into the bathroom to get all cleaned up. Then she'd fix everything. Absolutely. When she came out of the shower, though, the towel wrapped around her and a toothbrush sticking out of her mouth (dripping some toothpaste on the floor, though she didn't realize it), she heard something downstairs.

"Twilight! You're back!" She bounded down the stairs, leaving toothpaste bubbles and wet footprints in her wake.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"HAVE WE BEEN ROBBED OR ATTACKED!?" Twilight demanded, waving her arms wildly. She looked a little harried, but, let's be honest, Twilight has looked a little harried since about the third day after she'd arrived here. Not that she'd been particularly put together before the whole Shifting event; things could get very hectic in Ponyville. but Twilight looked especially harried now. This was mostly due to the intensive training they'd been giving her for the whole New Shifting Mentor job thing. Oh, and CAUS, because that took up time. Then there  was the whole regularly practicing her newly returned abilities, sad though they were. And adjusting to Rainbow Dash as a roommate in addition to friend.

So, yes, Twilight had seen the mess before. She'd talked (read: lectured) to Rainbow about it. Twilight had even developed a chore chart, which she was certain she'd left out in the open. There had been a long discussion about where someone was and was not allowed to store snack foods. Then there had been a follow-up discussion clarifying what precisely entailed a snack food. There also might have been a discussion about which was the best snack food; they all honestly ran together after a while.

But back to the mess. Twilight had seen it before. Really she had. But she hadn't seen... this. To come home and find that the light fixture was hanging about and there were things everywhere and there really looked like something was alive in the kitchen when it really shouldn't be and there seemed to be all kinds of things not to mention rumors about all sorts of crazy/insane things and TWILIGHT HAD JUST FOUGHT OFF BANK ROBBERS.

"Are you okay?" she asked, looking up at her friend. "you look.... you look like you were taking a bath," Twilight's face crinkled in confusion, and she lowered her arms, looking around the room. "Why would you be taking a bath while our home was being invaded...?"

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow scratched her head. She didn't think they had been attacked. She scanned the house, looking for any sign of a break-in. "No, it all looks pretty much like it did before."

She hitched up the towel again, since it was threatening to slip. She also wandered over to the kitchen sink and found a place kind of sort of between the pans so she could spit out a mouthful of bubbles. She walked back over to Twilight, shaking her head to dry her hair out a little. It didn't work nearly so well here, but at least it got rid of some of the water.

"I was taking a shower. And then you came home. I was going to clean up after, I promise. Oh, hey, while I'm thinking about it, can you get rid of that spider in the corner? I tried to reach it, but I couldn't, and then the light broke." She pointed at the spiderweb and the light with the end of her toothbrush. "Hey, do you want to come see my room? I just redecorated it!"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight turned and looked around at the mayhem. She knew that Rainbow Dash could be messy... there had been that whole Rainbow Crash bit, though that had been because of the Poison Joke... but this? Twilight just kept staring at the mess, her mouth trying to work out words that were just not coming. she could hear Rainbow walking around her, likely heading for the kitchen (Twilight had nearly given up on the whole dishes issue. Nearly). She heard the spit, nearly winced, and certainly felt her left eye twitch a little. When she finally turned, it was to discover that Rainbow had returned to stand near her.

"A... spider?" was all Twilight managed. She turned and saw that why yes, there was a spider web in the corner, and yes, their light was broke. Well, at least Twilight could see why that happened. "Why didn't you just use a broom?" she asked, though it was nearly asking the universe. Without even thinking about it, Twilight concentrated. The spider was surrounded with purple light, which carried it and a significant portion of its web toward a window. The purple light glowed around that, sliding the window open and dumping the arachnid outside. Twilight stared at the window for several beats before looking back at Rainbow.

"You... so you're okay then? We haven't... there hasn't been robbers here or... anything...?" she asked. Her eyes drifted toward the kitchen, and sure enough, the dishes seemed to have grown. Did Rainbow use five dishes everytime she cooked or what?

[Rainbow Dash]

"Oh." Rainbow watched Twilight carry the spider outside. "I didn't think about it. I'm used to just flying up and dealing with it myself. So I figured I'd try...I mean, you know I got better at jumping. But I couldn't quite reach it." That was when she clued in about the magic, which she'd gotten so used to in Ponyville that she hardly even noticed it now. "Hey! You got your magic back! That's great! Does that mean we're going home now?"

She shook her head, shaking off a few more water droplets. "Nope. Don't worry, I kept the house totally safe from robbers. They wouldn't dare try to get in here while Rainbow Dash is around. It's even better than having a dragon in the house, right?" She winked. It didn't really occur to her that the statement might be taken in poor taste or that Twilight might be missing Spike. Every once in a while, Rainbow was a little dense.

Seeing Twilight look over at the pile of dishes, she grinned again. "See, I brought those dishes out of my room, just like you asked me to. And I put all of the alcohol down in the kitchen, though I don't know why I had to do that. I mean, I'm just practicing for the most part. My teacher told me I had to practice really hard. I thought you'd be happier if I practiced in my bedroom." That was, in fact, the source of some of the stains. She'd dropped a couple bottles, and she hadn't quite figured out not to use real alcohol every time. That bedroom was starting to get a little...fumey.

"So did you want to see my room or not?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight heard the explanation, which sounded every bit exactly what she'd expect Rainbow to say. The bit about getting better at jumping was something that made a part of Twilight perk slightly. It had been true; Rainbow seemed to be getting faster and fleeter every day, which likely meant that she was getting some of her abilities back too. It was odd though; Twilight had needed about a month to get back even this little bit...

Speaking of the little bit: Twilight shook her head. "No, we're not heading back anytime soon. All I can do is move stuff around, and even that's not as strong as it was back home. Even if I did get all my magic back, I'd still need to find a spell to get us home. The book Princess Celestia gave me isn't exactly filled with spells on transporting ponies to and from--"

But it really didn't matter: Rainbow, being Rainbow, had already moved on to another conversation. She'd kept the house safe from robbers, and Twilight seriously considered asking semi-sarcastically if she'd had to use exploding sticks to do it. Because that might actually explain some of the mess. The dragon comment just made her wince. Strange though it was, she often forgot Spike until his absence came crashing down around her. He was, after all, a nearly constant fixture in her life. It was sort of like missing how the sun came up in the morning or how the birds sang: you really didn't think about it till someone pointed it out.

Then came the grinning and the mention of bringing out the dishes, which was soon followed by a mention of the bartending thing. Twilight again found herself mostly standing there, trying to decide if she should be launching into a lecture or still mouthing words. Of course, Rainbow, again being Rainbow, hadn't finished there

"Rainbow Dash," said Twilight, keeping her voice forcibly level, "this is---we talked about the messes! And did you really think that hanging on the ceiling was a good idea? That's not even a good idea back in Ponyville! It's just---" she waved her hands, before giving up, sighing in frustration, and looking to the ceiling. She closed her eyes, breathed deep, and extended her hand out. Slowly she brought it back in, trying to let out her frustration. This was Rainbow Dash; she'd known what Rainbow Dash was like before she'd wound up living with her. And it wasn't like Rainbow Dash was purposefully breaking things. Or making the house look like they'd been invaded. Or apparently spitting in the sink---okay, wait, that on was totally her fault. More breaths. More breaths were definitely needed.

[Rainbow Dash]

Since Twilight didn't have enough magic to transport them home, Rainbow decided to just be excited about what she did have and believe that eventually it would be enough to get them all home. Until then, there was other business to attend to. But by the time Rainbow had attended to most of her business, Twilight was beginning to look a little frazzled. When she did the breathing thing, Rainbow decided it might be time to make a little more of an effort.

"Uh, Twilight? Are you okay?" She reached out an arm to try to pat her friend on the shoulder, but then the towel slipped again. She took a moment to straighten that out. These these seemed completely worthless sometimes. "Hey, look, I'm sorry about the mess, all right? I promise I'll clean it up. I'm just not really used to living with anyone or having to do a lot of clean up. So, uh...yeah." She wasn't really sure what else to say.

"I think maybe I should go get dressed. This towel won't stay up. And then if you want, you can come see the way I redecorated. And I'll take out all the trash, and I'll get the paint off the table. And, um. Maybe we can find someone to fix the light? And I promise I won't try to hang on it anymore. I'll do all my jumping outside." She vaguely wondered what sort of lift she could get if she jumped off the roof.

"You're uh, you're not gonna go all crazy on me, are you?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

"I'm fine!' the words came out too fast, too high pitched, and quite nearly too loud. The smile that Twilight offered probably didn't help matters either. She took another deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. Eyes closed meant that she couldn't see the complete and utter mess that her house had become. Really, was a mess that bad? Spike could be messy from time to time. Sometimes even Twilight could get messy, when, you know, she was busy with... things.

Plus, Twilight could hear Rainbow apologizing for everything. She sounded very, well, apologetic too. Twilight opened her eyes, looking around at everything again. This time, she felt a giggle bubbling up. She covered her mouth with a hand to try and stifle the laugh before it came out, mostly succeeded. Rainbow was being very contrite. and Twilight really did sort of want to see how Rainbow had redecorated. Plus, if there was one place in the house were Twilight really could care less about messes, it was Rainbow's room.

"Right," said Twilight, nodding. "We'll get this all cleaned up. I'll help. It's no... big... deal," she spaced that last bit out more for her than anything else. She took another deep breath, blew it out slowly, the nodded and looked to Rainbow. "Right, so let's see this redecorating you've done. Oh, did I show you the Daring Do books I found in the library? They're here!"

Much easier to focus on something they both liked than to think about the mess and all the time and effort it was going to take to clean it up... at least Twilight had some magic now. That would... help.

[Rainbow Dash]

Twilight wasn't looking particularly fine, but then she seemed to calm down, which was enough to reassure Rainbow. Even if she was giving out some of those nervous giggles, it didn't seem to be any worse than that. And if anyone could handle herself, it was Twilight. Sure, she freaked out sometimes, but she always figured out what to do in the end. As soon as Twilight looked more control of herself, Rainbow perked right up. She bounced up on her toes.

"They have the books here? Awesome!" Rainbow never would have thought to check the library. If Twilight hadn't lived in a library, she never would've visited the one in Ponyville. "You should get them so I can read everything!"

Turning, she dashed up the stairs toward her room, the towel flying behind her. All the toothpaste bubbles had long since disintegrated into crusty streaks on her face and everywhere else in the house. "Just give me a minute while I get dressed." She threw the towel in the corner with the "dirty" clothes and sorted through the pile of clean ones to find something that wasn't too hard to put on. After fiddling with a ridiculous number of layers--but vests were so cool--she threw open the door and gestured toward her room. "See? Doesn't it just look like a cloud? I even got the bed just the way I like it." She ran over and jumped on the bed, getting dangerously close to hitting her head on the ceiling. "What do you think of my posters? I made one of the WonderBolts!" She jumped off the bed and ran to the right poster, gesturing to it excitedly. "Do you want me to redo your room, too?"

Feeling the crusted toothpaste on her face, she wiped at it with one hand, frowning at the white specks. "Is this...?" Then her eyes widened. "Oh. I guess maybe I should clean the bathroom." Her shower had been lots of fun, and it had successfully gotten her clean, but the same could not exactly be said for the rest of the room. She sighed slightly. "I guess I should do that first?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight was tempted to mention that she already had checked out a few of the books, but she figured that would probably be better served as a reward. You know, for after they attempted to tackle this... this... mess about them. Twilight was still struggling against the shock, constantly reminding herself that Rainbow was her friend. It wasn't like Twilight hadn't half expected something like this anyway. From what she could remember, Rainbow mostly lived in clouds back home. You couldn't reasonably expect someone who lived in clouds to---was that toothpaste? On the walls? How did you get toothpaste on the wall? Wait, had it just streamed...

"Breathe, Twilight," Twilight murmured to herself, following her own advice. She'd remained still for a while, wanting to give Rainbow time to get dressed and give herself some time to cool off a little. not that bad. Nothing a little magic couldn't clean up. Magic and hard work. Not like Twilight hadn't fixed her library back in Ponyville several times before. Right, just head on up and see what Rainbow had done with the place.

Twilight showed up at the room after Rainbow had changed, thankfully. She soon found herself looking around, trying to figure out what look Rainbow was actually going for here. Soft, and sort of white? To her credit, Twilight actually recognized several of the posters as likely being for the Wonderbolts. Either that or for some other creatures that apparently flew through clouds and wore the exact same colors as the Wonderbolts. And she really hoped that one poster was Daring Do. Because it was either that or Ditzy Do; the eyes were certainly right.

"Oh, it's--" began Twilight, only to pause as Rainbow wiped some leftover toothpaste off her mouth (how could you not notice that?). She waited impatiently as Rainbow mentioned the bathroom, which caused the violet eyes to widen. "The what?" she turned to look, then look back. "Uh, right. You can do the bathroom, and I can start in on the kitchen, and we can meet in the living room," Twilight looked around the room, realizing that she still hadn't managed to offer her opinion. Smiling, she nodded to Rainbow. "it looks really great, Rainbow. You know, there's actually some Daring Do posters and stuff around. Maybe you could get some to match," she waved at the poster she'd identified as Daring Do, before giving Rainbow another smile that wasn't nearly as pained as it probably justifiably could have been.

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow Dash beamed when Twilight complimented her room, and she was all for trying to get matching posters. "That would be great!" she said. "I'll hang them over there, just like in my old bedroom. And then I'll put the light over there..." She was already caught up in trying to fix up her room even more, but as she spun around in a big circle, enjoying her bedroom, she spotted Twilight again, who seemed to have some sort of twitch in her eye. Thinking that couldn't be a good thing, Rainbow stopped spinning and grabbed a rag off the floor.

"But the bathroom first. Don't worry, Twilight. I'll get it totally clean for you." She looked at the rag in her hand, which had previously been used as a sweat towel while Rainbow Dash was exercising. "Just a moment..." She dropped the one rag and searched for another, finally coming up with one that was (probably) clean. "Okay. I'm ready."

She marched into the bathroom and turned on the water so she could start scrubbing the counters. "Don't worry, Twilight. I'll get it done in no time. And then you said the living room, right? I'll see you there, and we'll get the light fixed, and it'll be great. Don't worry. You've got Rainbow Dash on your team. And when did I ever leave a job undone?" Till the last second, sure, but it still always got completed.

She scrubbed down the counters and swiped at the mirror, then attacked some of the strangely-colored streaks in the shower. She decided to leave the toilet; it was mostly clean, anyway. She cleaned some of the soap residue off the ceiling and the walls, then she wiped down the door. Finally, she washed the floors and threw the dirty rag into her bedroom. The bathroom was perhaps not up to whatever standards Twilight had for rooms after they had just been cleaned, but it was better than Rainbow had ever done. She could almost even see herself through the streaks on the mirror, and all the toothpaste residue was off the counters and the floors and even the light switch. She grinned at her smudged reflection and went downstairs to look at the living room.

"Woah, Twilight. Have you been working on the kitchen this whole time? Do you want me to help you?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight pasted that smile on her face as she watched her friend. It actually was good to see Rainbow so enthusiastic about everything. Almost was enough to make Twilight forget that they were still struggling to find a way home to Equestria. Twilight felt like she was getting closer, mostly, but sometimes, sometimes she just wanted to spin around in a room for a totally different reason. This was not helping her eye twitch. Though Rainbow's offer certainly did.

"Right, I'll hit the kitchen," she said, turning and already heading. She heard Rainbow's comment about never leaving a job unfinished. That much was definitely true, though Twilight couldn't recall any major clean up jobs that Rainbow had been in charge of. Well, clean up jobs that didn't involve zooming around in the sky decimating clouds. They had a plan, they had determination, and they had the necessary skills and abilities. They could totally do this.

Twilight had to remind herself of that when she stared at the kitchen. How could Rainbow make such a big mess in such a little amount of time? Really? It just... baffled, really. Well, staring at it wasn't going to help matters. Best to just roll up the sleeves and go at it. Thankfully, Twilight had enough of her magic restored to help with some of the heavy lifting. Dirty dishes were moved from the sink to a neat, orderly stack. in fact, everything soon found itself naturally falling into order, moving with a little purple light encouragement. Soon enough, Twilight was scrubbing dishes and counter at the same time, while moving about to make sure that all the food and such was arranged more or less neatly. At least both of them were vegetarians, though Rainbow seemed to prefer sweeter foods than Twilight. Yep, everything in order there.

Twilight was still in the kitchen when Rainbow bounded down, mostly because she kept pausing to eyeball dishes and see if her reflection showed in any of them. That, and she kept telling herself that her ears were most certainly not ringing. The medics had checked her out. She was fine. Twilight even heard Rainbow calling, and she called over her shoulder: "I'm in here, Rainbow! Just about finished. Bathroom looking ship shape?" Because you could nearly see yourself in most of the surfaces in the kitchen...

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow bounded into the kitchen, which was starting to look a little too clean. Were they living in a house or in a magazine? "Wow, I guess you're really trying to make everything live up to your name, huh Twilight Sparkle?" Feeling immensely witty, Rainbow grinned and hopped over to her friend's side, looking at the plate. "Uh, I think that one is clean. You don't want to wear a hole through the bottom of it."

She jumped up and perched on the counter. "The bathroom's all done. I wiped down the whole thing, even the ceiling. It looks great in there. Not as good as here, but still. Totally, perfectly clean."

Jumping off the counter, she stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. "So, what's next? Do you want me to start working on getting that light fixed? I bet I could figure it out. You just have to match up all the wires, right?" She darted over to the living room. "And then you can get all the ceiling stuff that fell out and put it back. Here, help me drag the coffee table over so I can get high enough to reach. We might have to put a chair on top of it, though."

The two ponies had been living together for a little while, and they had been in town together for several weeks, but it was only now that Rainbow Dash remembered an altercation she had had within her first week at Tenebrae. "Oh, did I tell you that I met someone that I think might be a dragon? He was really little but kept talking about how powerful he used to be, and he said having lots of stuff made him more powerful. He was really weird."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight had to wince at the awful pun on her name. She really couldn't say much against it; she had used the tactless Rainbow Crash at the barbecue, and that had only been, what a week ago now? Time certainly flew. She couldn't help feeling a little perturbed at the mocking of her cleaning abilities, and she used her ability to gently but firmly put the plate in question on a neat little stack next to the sink. she was about ready to give the counter one last wipe when Rainbow hopped up. That made Twilight wince, particularly since Rainbow's butt was now on her clean counter, but Twilight forced a smile instead. She was doing that so much that her cheeks were starting to hurt.

"I'm sure the bathroom's fine," she managed, nodding. The moment Rainbow hopped off, Twilight wiped the counter, hoping to do so slightly surreptitiously. Given that by the time Twilight turned around, Rainbow had all but vanished, she was guessing that the action had gone unnoticed. She could still hear the other pony-girl easily enough. Twilight just sighed, tucked things slightly in order, and headed into the living room.

"I can probably get the ceiling stuff with my magic," offered Twilight, looking around. what she didn't want to add was that it would be great practice for her. She'd been nonchalantly using it to wash dishes and such, but it was all the equivalent of exercise. Little stretches in order to work out muscles that had gone unused for some time. Picking up and putting in small pieces would work great for that, and Twilight had already started gathering them by the time Rainbow made her suggestion. The unicorn-girl stopped doing so, moving to drag the coffee table over. She was really hoping that Rainbow had regained some of her natural pegasus lightness, else they might need a new table as well.

All such thoughts were blown right out of Twilight's mind at Rainbow's casual mention. A little guy who acted like a dragon? Gathering up things to make him stronger? Twilight's eyes widened for a moment. "You don't think he could be Spike, do you? I mean, people do lose their memories and such. One of Zoro, you remember him, he was the green haired pony at the CAUS meeting the other day, anyway, he said one of his friends lost his memories. Maybe this is Spike and he only remembers being a dragon or something!" Twilight could not help but sound utterly thrilled at the prospect. So thrilled that she might have started tugging a little too hard on the coffee table...

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow nodded when Twilight agreed to work on picking up chunks of the ceiling. "Awesome. Then you don't have to worry about reaching anything." She saw Twilight already beginning to pick up some pieces of the ceiling out of the corner of her eye. "Do you need something to help hold it up there or...?" Twilight was able to move things. Had she gotten enough magic to be able to fix things, too?

She grabbed the other end of the coffee table and began moving it toward the center of the room while she talked, trying to get it centered under the light fixture. She was already frowning, trying to think if anything about the boy at the mall had seemed like Spike, but when Twilight pulled on the table it knocked her off-balance and she fell forward, almost tripping over the fallen light. Instead she fell onto the coffee table, which was thankfully sturdy enough to handle the blow. She did manage to bang her knees against the edge, though, and to nearly bash her nose against the table.

"Careful!" she said. "We've almost got it there. Here, that should be good enough. Just a moment, let me get a chair." She ran into the kitchen and came back carrying one of the kitchen chairs, which she perched on the coffee table. "Well, he said something about having cool hair, but he said he had this sort of a, well, he said it was like a talking scarf or something? I don't really know. And he kept saying he was an Overlord, and that he was a demon kid. Maybe that's what dragons call themselves? He did seem a lot like Spike when he was starting to get really greedy, but not like normal Spike. Just like, you know, another dragon. I don't think he'd forgotten everything."

She grabbed the fallen light fixture and clambered onto first the table and then the chair, perching carefully on the slightly-wobbly seat. "All right, I think I'm close enough now," she said, looking at all the wires hanging from the ceiling. "All right, uh, I think I've got this. You can probably do everything else again now. It might take a little bit of time."