Spike woke up late again, but this time is was more of a blissful awakening than a panicked one. He had succeeded at completing his first-ever date, and it had ended in something other than total disaster. This was good enough for him. He mulled about the library, sliding around on the stepladders, catching up on all the reshelving and bookkeeping that he'd failed to get around to yesterday. He was a little disappointed that Twilight was already out and couldn't be asked about her own recent romantic overture, but it could wait, he supposed. That reminded him - he should see if he can find that other dragon again! Once he had the library looking neat and tidy, he hung up the "Back in 5 minutes" sign on the front door and stepped out into town.

exit to Widget Whatsis' Wondrous Works

--> Entering from Summer Song Cafe

Twilight had spent a lot of time going back and forth from her home as of late, but she never minded it too much.  The walk back through town was refreshing and it gave her a chance to say hello to the ponies who had managed to wake up at a reasonable hour like she'd been forced to.  Too many times she buried herself in her books and didn't properly socialize even after becoming far more open with the general community... old habits died really hard.  She wanted to give Applejack the chance to get some air too and hopefully settle her nerves.

"Spike, I'm back~!  I brought you some... oh..." Twilight called out to her assistant once she and AJ entered the tree house, though she halted as she caught sight of the momentarily overlooked sign on the opened door.  A quick listen proved there was nopony else in the Library as the only other sounds were that of a particular owl and phoenix chick snoozing in the upstairs loft.  "I guess he's gone out.  Well, no matter.  Go ahead and make yourself comfortable, AJ." she urged her friend as she trotted off to go stash the food she'd brought for Spike in the icebox.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:29, Sun 10 June 2012.

The fresh air had done a number of good things for Applejack's tension. Namely, much of it was thoroughly dissolved now, though her head still ached. She plopped down at Twilight's invitation, and covered her eyes with her hooves, shutting them and rubbing her forehead.  Nhhh...

"Thank ya' kindly, Twi. Ya' know.. ah'm pretty worried about RD's little contest thing... She ain't the type to back down on somethin' like this, once she's decided to do it. Ah don't want'er ta' get herself hurt."

"Me either.  I guess I came off too harsh before, but I didn't want to see her make a fool of herself or end up in a bad situation.  I mean, I don't know anything about dating and even I can see that holding a physical competition for it could go all kinds of wrong." Twilight added once she'd returned from the kitchen.  Her horn lit up as she moved to sit herself down at the island table at the center of the library and floated a particular book from off the shelf.

"This actually kind of reminds me of a story I read once.  Let's see... ah~!  'Prince Dashing and the Hearts Race'.  Dashing?  Huh... apropo." she'd forgotten the specific name of the tale and shrugged it off.  She flipped through the pages to skim the story.  "It's an old foal's parable about being careful what you wish for; an arrogant Prince sought to marry and held a competition to pick who his bride would be.  He didn't care about his wife-to-be's nature beyond making sure she was 'the best in the land'.  All the mares of the land joined the race, but ultimately the Prince was stuck having to marry a nasty nag who cheated her way to the lead and later caused a war once she became a Princess.  Not exactly a happy ending, but you know how grim those old stories always are."

Twilight sighed as she idled over the book and its illustration of the Prince overseeing the race for his affections.  "I don't think there's anyone in Ponyville like that, but I don't think Rainbow Dash even considered the implications of what she was doing.  Heck, part of me wants to enter just to try and win and spare her some misery... but that might look bad, especially considering Widget..." she muttered more to herself at that last part.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:25, Mon 11 June 2012.

Applejack lent an ear to the story. It was the first time she'd ever heard it - she didn't actually get so many silly foals tales, but this one made some sense as summarized by Twilight Sparkle.  As Twilight continued on though, mulling about entering in order to spare Rainbow, her eyes widened. "Twi~! That's brilliant. You can't enter, yer' right.. but Ain't nothin' stoppin' me." she said. "Ah mean.. ya' think it'd be fine if ah did? Ah know it ain't gonna be an easy task, but ah'll do my best. Fer' Rainbow." she said, and nodded firmly.

"Well, you certainly would be a top contender... there's hardly anypony besides Rainbow Dash herself that can compete with you when it comes to physical activity.  And knowing her, the competition is mostly going to be physical." Twilight rolled her eyes on that notion.  She did have an objection to the matter and raised a hoof in warning.  "But remember, this is a contest to become Rainbow Dash's special somepony.  So if you go and enter yourself, that's going to project a certain image about you and your feelings toward her.  I'm sure she'll understand if we explain things to her, but we should really keep that in mind in case she got the wrong idea."

All the business about romance and dating had Twilight reconsidering a lot of her recent experiences.  She'd been totally dumb to Widget's interest in her but, now that she knew his feelings, could review her past experiences with him taking that knowledge into consideration.  She felt silly having missed it when he'd been very apparent in many cases... but all the same, she couldn't help but apply that same sort of new viewpoint to other situations outside her own.  She recalled that look Rainbow Dash gave Applejack earlier at the cafe...

"...um... at the risk of putting my hoof in my mouth again; that would be the wrong idea, right?  I mean, I know you two are really close, but...?" she let that hang as an open-ended question.

Applejack nodded, and raised a hoof as Twilight began. "Ah' course. If it's mostly physical, ah don't see which of 'er friends would be as suited ta' snaping her out of this than me." she blinked, then paused. She hadn't said it with an arrogant tone, but a matter-of-fact one.

But Twilight's continued words brought a confused blink to her face, and she gawked uncertainly at Twilight.

"But remember, this is a contest to become Rainbow Dash's special somepony.  So if you go and enter yourself, that's going to project a certain image about you and your feelings toward her.  I'm sure she'll understand if we explain things to her, but we should really keep that in mind in case she got the wrong idea."

"Huh?" Applejack stared at her in momentary confusion. "Ah don't get it, ah'm just tryin' ta help... err..." she blinked. Certain... image... her feelings toward... Rainbow Dash? Applejack went about as red as one of her apples in the cheeks.

"Oh... uhhh... hehe... Well, buck me..." She reached a hoof up, and fussed with her hat, lowering her head.  Her first reaction was to deny it, vehemently. RD was a friend, and a good one, but... "Yeah, ain't nothin' like that goin' on, Twi. But ah ain't going to let just anypony win'er, either. She deserves better'n that!" she argued, put a hoof down, vehemently.

Twi had seen Applejack angry before, and she could recognize it again. Applejack didn't rage, she got outright stubborn, and refused to back down. Just why was she so angry about this, even Applejack didn't seem to know.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:36, Mon 11 June 2012.

"Alright, I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.  Goodness knows we've had enough misunderstandings in the past that could have been fixed with a few minutes of preventative conversation."  the unicorn shook her mane.  She'd been guilty of that more than a few times before, after all.  Still, it was good that they had a plan of action to follow.  Now if only taking care of things would be as easy as planning them was.  Twilight reached over and patted Applejack fondly on the shoulder.  "In any case, I think Rainbow Dash is lucky to have somepony like you looking out for her.  I guess it's only proper that anypony who wants to date Rainbow has to go through you first, huh?"

Applejack bit her lip at Twilight's words, and she nodded firmly. "Ah.. Ah ain't sayin' she shouldn't date, ah just don't want 'er to make a mistake and picksomepony fer the wrong reasons.. and..." she groaned a bit, and sat back, letting out a breath. "Ah dunno, Twi. It's like she ain't learned nothin', either from her pet contest, or from mah mess with Rogue, or anythin'." she shook her head. "She's just bein' a foal about this, and ah just can't stand it!"

She glanced up, a sheepish, awkward smile. "Ah think ah'm overreactin', Twi. Ah am, ain't I?"

"I think we both overreacted a little." Twilight admitted with a shrug.  "Still, even though making wise choices has never really been Rainbow's strong point, I can sort of see why she'd do something this drastic.  Well, obviously it's not drastic from her point of view... but, you know what I mean.  I never realized she was feeling lonely.  These sort of feelings can make a pony do some crazy things, I guess."

Applejack shrugged. "Maybe it's mah fault. We got in a fight last night after we left. But we already apologized an' everything. We made up." she put a hoof to her head and slid her hat off. "Ah guess ah should just enter, an' do whatever it takes ta' win, an' maybe she'll see she ain't alone...?" she said, glancing at Twilight, then blinked, seeming to realize. "Ah.. ah mean. that she's got friends she can count on..." she uttered hastily, cheeks reddening a hint once more.

"Mm-hmm..." Twilight hummed in reply with a somewhat suspicious look on her face.  She'd been willing to take Applejack's previous refusals at face value before, but with how much she was flustering and stuttering over herself, it was difficult for her not to suspect there was more than her farmer friend was willing to admit.  "AJ, are you sure there's nothing else bothering you?  You know you can tell me anything."

"It's just a real mess of a day so far, Twi. Rogue leaves me holdin' tha bag, Dash is doin' this... thing..." Putting it that way... it wasn't so much, but Applejack felt like it was.  "Maybe ah just missed out on too much sleep last night. Ya' think?" She shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Ah jus' hope this ain't because we had a spat last night. Ah feel like  that an' all the other ponies on their dates  might'a just set her off." She scuffed a hoof on the floor. "Horse apples... ya' hear me? Ah bet it's the lack a' sleep. Ya' know how bad that went fer me last time."

With the mention of 'all the other ponies on dates', despite her concern for Applejack, Twilight couldn't help but glance over her shoulder up the stairwell that led to her exterior observatory platform.  Memories of the night before came back to her and she didn't even realize the way she'd started grinning.  Would it be too much to dress up for a second date?  Or would just casual-as-usual be best?  The cafe was a nice place but it was hardly fancy after all.  Would Widget wear something different?  He looked really nice in those frames last night...

Ah!  No, focus!  Applejack!  "Well, that's a lot for anypony to handle, let alone be sideswiped with out of the blue." She sympathized.  "As for Rainbow Dash, we can't dismiss her feelings.  But we can be there for her to make sure everything goes as best it can.  But what did you two argue about anyway?  It might offer some insight about what she's thinking right now."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:11, Mon 11 June 2012.

She frowned, at that. The argument had been so petty and frustrating... She'd regretted it the instant it was done, but hadn't been able to apologize right away.  she motioned to Twilight. "Would ya' mind awful much if ah kin have me a glass a' water, Twi?" she ventured, then went on to detail the situation.

"Well.. uhh... we had a bit of a contest  after ah left the apple stall - all right near the Library, ya understand.. anyway, RD won, but she was real nice, and even flew me up onto a roof to watch the moon raisin. She flew me off to the farm after that." she  rubbed a hoof  up along the side of her head, a warm glow still on her cheeks, residual, but not fading like before.  "It was actually... a lotta fun, flyin, with just her holdin' me up."

She let out a sigh. "We landed off on one of the sheds, an' RD asked me about Rogue. She'd seen'em and me in the square... He was helpin' Widget get ready fer' yer date." she chimed. "An' hangin out for him like ah was hangin' out fer you, ah guess." she shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, ah didn't wanna talk about 'em... and she wouldn't let up on askin. So ah just stormed off, ah guess, an' let her go visit the Princess on 'er own." She frowned, heavily. It helped to talk about it, but.. it still hurt. Why'd she been so insensitive?

"Ah regretted it as soon as she flew away, a'course...  but ah couldn't catch her, if I'da tried." she sighed. "Ah just went and crashed in the loft a' the barn. Woke up somtime in tha middle of the night and got back ta' bed, but ah didn't sleep easy, ah guess."

Applejack seemed more at ease as she spilled her night to Twilight, and with a glass of water in hand, she took a drink to calm her nerves. "Ah jus' wish ah hadn't been so cold to 'er..."

Twilight took her time in getting the glass of water for Applejack -- she figured the mare needed the moment to gather her thoughts and let her have the time.  Soon enough a cool drink was hovered her way in a glow of magic and, with that done, Twilight settled to listen patiently to what had transpired.  Part of her actually felt a little bad that she hadn't noticed anything going on down below in the Town Square even with a telescope... she'd been too caught up with Widget even though her friends were watching out for her all the while.

"Well, Rainbow never has been one to know when to back off a subject." she muttered.  "But she probably didn't realize she'd upset you that much, or was just trying to give you a chance to talk things out.  I can understand how you feel though... I wouldn't want to talk about that sort of thing either were it me."

With Applejack's voiced regrets, Twilight moved to sit closer and offered another considerate limb to curl about her shoulders.  Just as she'd been there to give Twilight advice and comfort the night before, so too would Twilight offer her the same boon.  "So you think this whole contest thing was because you and Rainbow got into that spat?"

The arm about her  did wonders to soothe, if not solve the problems. Applejack leaned on her friend, and shoo her head. "Ah can't say.  Ah mean, it don't seem all that related. But.. eh... could be... Maybe ah'm just blamin' mahself."

The farmpony shook her head. "But it ain't mah fault. So ah should quit." she smiled at Twilight. "Right, Twi? Focus on fixin' it instead of why it's happenin'." she said. "An' thank ya, Twi. Talkin' about last night made me feel better." she said. "A bit, anyway."

"Precisely~!  Dwelling on things is just going to get you down and that's not going to resolve anything.  But we'll get all this worked out, I promise.  I'll be sure to back you and Rainbow both all the way~!" Twilight reassured her friend with a fond nuzzle cheek-to-cheek.

With the reassuring contact, Applejack seemed to perk up significantly. "Mhm...  Ah'll enter, if ah can't talk RD outta this. Simple as that. Ah ain't gonna let her get herse'f hurt by somepony. An' like ya' said - you can help with spreadin' the word about RH."

SHe went quiet a moment, and put a hoof to her lip. Yeah. she felt much better. A yawn came out, covered up. "Ah probly' need a nap, ah think."

"It's a long walk back to Sweet Apple Acres for that.  Go ahead and use my bed." Twilight offered.  Thankfully she'd had the presence of mind to make her bed when she'd been forced to go along that morning with Cheerilee, so her room wasn't a disaster area aside from a few piles of books here and there.

Applejack threw a hoof around Twilight. "Thank ya, Twi." she chimed, and got to her feet. "And congratulations on yer second date. Ah'll crash now so ah can get mah nap done." She got to her hooves and gave a long and languid stretch. Yeah, she needed that nap real bad.

Yawning, she started up the stairs, and about for the spare bed she'd had to share with Rarity that night they had to crash here because of that big scheduled storm they'd gotten caught in.

"Heh... sleep well." Twilight couldn't help but blush and grin over the mention of her second date.  She honestly had no idea how distracting romance could be... well, she had a notion, sure, but to actually get into it was a whole other matter.  It seemed like no matter what she was doing, thoughts of Widget and her plans kept finding ways to interject themselves on her.

As Applejack headed upstairs, she'd find a distinct lack of a second bed.  That bed set had been conjured by Twilight on the spot that one evening, just like she'd done for Widget last night as well.  But she had said that Applejack could use her bed... and at that point, any soft surface was tempting enough.  Even Spike's basket looked pretty enticing despite its small size.

By the time she got up the stairs the prospect of hitting the hay again was so inviting she just dropped onto the bed and rolled over once, and then she was gone. Twi would find her hat, left downstairs and on the table. The farmpony dropped off to sleep pretty quickly.

-Time shift to Day 2; Afternoon-

Twilight had to hold off a giggle at how quickly the sound of snoring came out from the bedroom loft.  AJ really did need a bit of rest, it seemed.  The unicorn sighed in worry over her friend -- she really had a lot to deal with at the moment.  Some sleep would do her well and it'd be easier to face problems with a rested body and refreshed mind.  In the meantime Twilight settled down to read in the library proper, all too happy to pass away the day with her nose in a good book.  She was keenly aware of the passage of time though.

Soon enough the afternoon rolled in.  The unicorn tried not to fret too much and silently magicked down items from her bedroom, not wanting to disturb Applejack's slumber while she got ready.  She didn't know much about styling but didn't want to go on a date looking like she always did, so she borrowed a page from AJ's book and bound her mane up in a ponytail.  She kept the band higher though closer to the nape of her neck.  Nothing fancy, but she thought it was cute, so it would have to do.  With that done the mare quickly snagged some paper and a quill to jot down a note that she left beside Applejack's stetson on the central library table.

~Applejack,

I didn't want to wake you, but I needed to head out to meet Widget before I was late for our date.  I'll be at the Summer Song Cafe if you need me.  Feel free to take all the time you like in the Library -- rest, read, and relax.  Help yourself to my fridge too if you get hungry.

Your friend,

Twilight Sparkle.~

With that message drafted, Twilight smiled and hurried out the door, glad to feel that a sense of eager excitement at the prospect of a date had replaced that previous sense of mounting panic instead.

--> Twilight exits to Summer Song Cafe

About half an hour or so after Twilight left, APplejack rolled over, and yawned. Stretching, yawning, and drifting back to consciousness had her groggy and dazed, but she realized quickly where she was. Stumbling to her hooves, the drained mare looked at her reflection... She trotted on to the kitchen, and ran a small sink full of water, before plunging her face into it. The whole of her flinched at the cold impact, as it shot her awake and her head came up, mane dripping. She let out a relieved sigh, and rubed her eyes, trotting on for Twilight's room again, to collect her hat, and now she spotted the note. That was right, Twilight had her second date.

Applejack grinned proudly, and took a seat on the edge of the bed to straightened things out, then trotted downstairs. Se went back to the kitchen , as Twilight had said, to help herself to a snack, which she carried into the library and fished out a spare copy of the Daring Do book Twi had let her take home - but she hadn't had a chance to crack it open yet, she Applejack started on the first few pages, while she ate.