Chapter 2: A Helping Hoof

Knock, knock

"Just a second!" Twilight yelled from inside the library, "Oh, hi Rainbow!"

"Hey Twi, I was, uh, wondering if maybe you wanted some help with, whatever it is you're doing?" Rainbow asked shyly

"Uh, sure, I guess" Twilight said, "Your not still mad about earlier, right?"

"What? Me, mad that you couldn't go somewhere with me?" Rainbow said with a laugh.

"So, your not mad?"

"No, I'm not, but you do have to make it up to me"

"Oh, uh, okay" Twilight said with a blush, "So, can you run this over to Sweet Apple Acres for me?"

"Huh?" Rainbow said, somewhat out of it.

"Can you bring this book to the farm?" Twilight said while floating a book in front of her, "Applebloom said she needed it"

"Oh, yeah, be back in a flash!" Rainbow said as she grabbed the book and flew out the window. Yes!, Rainbow thought to herself, She blushed when I said she had to make it up to me, maybe she really does like me! Rainbow constantly went over the moment in her head, the effects of her first love making everything seem even more amazing. Of course since Rainbow was busy focusing on Twilight she didn't notice the farm house rapidly appearing over the horizon.

THUD

"OW!"

"Nice flyin' there Rainbow!" Applejack shouted from between laughs.

"Oh shut up!" Rainbow shouted back.

"So, what brings you here at this hour?" Applejack asked as Rainbow landed, still rubbing her head.

"Twilight said Applebloom wanted this book"

"Oh, well, she's over in the tree house with her friends" Applejack said as she motion towards the orchards, "But why are you delivering books for Twilight?"

"Uh, no reason, I just thought I'd be an awesome friend!" Rainbow said suspiciously.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, just me being a good friend" Rainbow said with a nervous laugh. She started to sneak away as Applejack stared at her, attempting to figure out what was going on. Thankfully Rainbow was saved when Big Mac came out of the house to get his sisters.

"Dinner time!" Big Mac shouted as he rang a bell.

"Looks like you gotta go, well, I'll see you around!" Rainbow said as she quickly dashed off, trying to escape Applejack's stare.

"Yeah, see ya around..." Applejack said to herself as she watched Rainbow fly away.

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"I wonder when Twilight's gonna give me that book" Applebloom said as she rested her head in her hooves.

"Yeah, we need it so we can find out cutie marks!" Scootaloo said.

"You mentioned a book?"

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo shouted as she ran towards her hero.

"Hey kid," she quickly rubbed Scootaloo's head, "Twilight said you wanted this book, so, uh, here it is"

"Wow, thanks Rainbow!" Scootaloo said happily.

"Yeah, thanks Rainbow" Applebloom said as she grabbed the book, "Wait, why are you giving me the book?"

"Why does everypony care about why I have the book?" Rainbow said as she stormed out of the club house, "Can't I just be doing it as a friend?!" Rainbows outburst caused Scootaloo to jump back, surprised at how her idol was acting. Applebloom just stared at Rainbow in confusion as she flew away, but unknown to them, Sweetie Belle was sitting in the back corner, laughing. She knew what was causing Rainbow to act this way, but she swore to her sister that she wouldn't tell anypony.

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Rainbow was flying away, nearly fast enough to create a sonic rainboom. She was angry at everypony for trying to figure out why she was helping Twilight. It's only a book, it's not like I was doing something really important?, Rainbow thought to herself as she got closer to the library, Act cool, you can't let Twilight know about it.

"I'm back!" Rainbow announced as she landed in the library's main room. When Twilight didn't answer Rainbow started to worry. Was this book delivery just so she could shake me off? What if she's already seeing somepony? What if she ran away so she didn't have to...

"Welcome back, sorry, I was just making some tea" Twilight said, causing Rainbow to jump.

"Oh, okay, I thought..." Rainbow said, starting to feel embarrassed.

"You thought what?" Twilight asked as she brought out the tea pot along with two cups, "Tea?"

"Uh, sure, and it was nothing" Rainbow said as she accepted the tea cup.

"You sure, because you're acting kinda strange"

"Ya, I guess I am..." Rainbow trailed off, worried that she might have just screwed everything up.

"Maybe you're just tired, if you want to you can go home and get some sleep"

"No!" Rainbow suddenly shouted, "No, it's fine, I can keep working!"

"Oh, well, in that case..." Twilight said as she pulled a scroll out of nowhere, "Can you help me with this?"

"Sure, it doesn't seem so tough" Rainbow said happily as she noticed how tiny the scroll looked to be.

"Good, who knows how long this might have taken me if I was all by myself" Twilight said as the scroll unrolled, causing Rainbow's jaw to drop. the scroll had seemed like it was only a small amount of things, but once unrolled it was a massive list of chores, odd jobs, and pointless nitpicking.

"How the..." Rainbow muttered as she looked at the list as it continued to unravel.

"Sorry, I used a 'shrink it' spell on it so I could save space" Twilight said bashfully.

"Well, we might as well get started, now where to begin..."

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"Holy horse apples!" Rainbow said as she fell to the ground, "That took forever!"

"Yeah, but at least it's done!" Twilight said, using her magic to reheat her tea.

"Yeah, well, I think I'm going to head home" Rainbow said as she made her way to the door, "See you tomorrow"

"Okay, see you" Twilight said as Rainbow flew away, "Oh, what's this?" Twilight looked down to see one of Rainbow's feathers on the ground in front of her. I've never seen a Pegasus feather on it's own before, Twilight thought to herself as she picked it up, I wonder if there's anything I can learn from it?

Twilight quickly pulled out a book on Pegasus history, and read up on their feathers. "In Pegasus tradition, a single feather is given to a Pegasi's chosen mate..." Twilight said to herself, "If the feather is accepted the mate places the feather in their mane" Twilight stared absentmindedly at the feather, unsure of what she was going to do now. Would Rainbow find it weird if I put it in my mane? I wonder if she'd get mad about it...

"Oh, well, I'll think about it tomorrow" Twilight said as she made her way towards her bedroom.

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Knock, knock

"Hey Twilight, you in there?!" Rainbow shouted up towards the library window. When Twilight didn't respond she flew up to the balcony to see if Twilight was inside. As she landed she heard a loud thud come from inside. Rainbow quickly flew into the door, bashing it open. When Rainbow came inside she saw a purple hoof sticking out of a pile of books in the middle of the floor.

"Twilight!" Rainbow shouted as she quickly pulled on the hoof, hoping that Twilight wasn't seriously injured.

"Hi Rainbow, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked as she got to her hooves.

"Are you okay?" Rainbow asked frantically.

"Yeah, I just got distracted, and I ended up dropping the books on myself" Twilight said while rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh," Rainbow then realized what distracted her, "Sorry..."

"It's fine..." Twilight said shyly.

Awkward silence...

"So, uh, what's up?" Rainbow said after a few minutes.

"Nothing much, just doing some more chores" Twilight said as she began to pick up the books that she had dropped.

"More chores! I thought we got them all done yesterday?!" Rainbow said as she flew in front of Twilight's face.

"We did finish that list, but, I, uh..."

"Let me guess, you have more of them"

"Yeah..."

"Urgh" Rainbow groaned as she smacked her hoof against her face. She quickly looked around for any signs of a list, and noticed a small scroll sitting on top of a bunch of books. Rainbow quickly pulled open the scroll, only to find it expanding like the scroll from yesterday, and it was just as long.

"Sorry..." Twilight said sheepishly.

"It's fine," Rainbow said as she looked over the list, "Well then, let's get to work!"

"You're still going to help?" Twilight asked, looking at the feather out of the corner of her eye.

"Of course, I said I would help you didn't I?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess you did," Twilight said as she shook her head, "Okay, let's get started!"

"Yeah!" Rainbow cheered as she started to pick up the books on the floor.