Tempest trudged up the steps to Twilight’s castle, every muscle in her body sore from working all day. Sawdust and dried sweat mingled on her coat, and she had endured no small amount of scratches, though she wore them with a well-hidden pride as a sign of a hard day’s work. She and the shop owner had made great strides in repairing the roof of his shop, but a great deal of the work was yet to be accomplished. Each step made her muscles scream at her to stop and rest; if she could teleport, she would have done so back at the shop. The shop owner had even offered her a blanket and a pillow if she had wanted to spend the night there, but the promise of snuggles and a soft bed had made her decline.

She pushed open the castle’s front doors as quietly as she could, though their hinges still squeaked louder than she had hoped. Tempest winced as she paused, then slipped inside, the sides of the doors scraping against her fur. Some sawdust fell to the floor as she wiggled her way in. She glanced back over her shoulder and thought of the shop owner who had chosen to stay in his home with his filly, then shut the doors as carefully as she could.

Tempest crept through the spacious foyer, taking great care to not disturb any of the sleeping ponies. A wry smile grew on her lips as she heard some stallion let loose a tremendous snore; she wondered how anypony could sleep with him in the room. Hoping that Twilight was still up, she stopped at the base of the stairs leading to their bedrooms and looked up, her shoulders slumping. If only I could use my magic to get up these blasted stairs... she thought as she groaned. She steeled her will and thought of the relief that would await her at the top, so with that thought lodged in her mind, she slowly walked upstairs, each step harder than the last.

When she finally reached the top step, she wanted nothing more than to collapse and call it a night, but she saw a bit of light seep out from underneath Twilight’s door just a little ways away. After a deep breath, she walked forward, the muscles in her forelegs feeling tight, like they were being stretched to their limits. Twilight’s door came ever closer, then she finally stopped in front of it. She sat down, wanting to rest for a few moments, then lifted her hoof to open the door. Right as she was about to open it, though, she took pause as she remembered Starlight barging in a couple of days ago, so instead, she knocked.

“Come in,” came Twilight’s voice.

Tempest breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Twilight was still awake. She opened the door and shut it behind her, then sat down again. “How was your day?” she asked with a soft smile.

Twilight pushed aside her book and slipped off the bed. “Less tiring that yours, by the looks of it,” she quipped, returning Tempest’s smile. “It seems you worked your tail off, going by all the sawdust on you.”

“You have no idea,” Tempest said with a laugh. “I haven’t been this tired in years!”

“I’m sure,” Twilight said with a nod. She levitated a couple of large cushions over, then set them down between them. “Would you like something to drink?” she asked as they settled down.

Tempest laid her head between her forelegs and sighed. “Please.”

Twilight levitated over a couple of glasses over for them followed by a pitcher of water, then filled them up. “Here you go,” she said as she fluffed her wings. “Did you have dinner?”

Tempest nodded. “Yeah, I brought some of the leftover apples to that pony’s shop and ate them when I got hungry. I’m fine.”

“Okay. If you change your mind, I have some apples over there near the window. Too bad we don’t have much else at the moment,” Twilight said, pointing at a large bowl with a wing. She shifted closer to Tempest, then recoiled slightly as she covered her muzzle with a hoof. “Whew...” she muttered under her breath.

“Is something the matter?” Tempest asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Twilight glanced off to the side for a few moments. “Let’s just say that I think it would be in our best interests if you take a shower before we, um... snuggle,” she squeaked, hiding behind a sheepish smile. “You, uh... you don’t smell nice.”

“Is it really bad?” Tempest lifted her head and saw Twilight’s nose wrinkle.

“Um... yeah,” she said with a giggle. “I had to take a bath when I was done today, and it looks like you worked twice as hard as I did.”

“Then why did you let me lay down on this cushion?” Tempest asked, taking a few big gulps of water. “I don’t even want to think about how much one of these cost.”

“Because you were tired, of course!” Twilight said. “Besides, they’re easier to clean that you think. Speaking of cleaning, you wanna go take a shower?” she asked with a yawn.

“To be blunt, I do not think I have the energy to get up and go to my room. If I go in there, I’m going to collapse on the bed and not budge until noon tomorrow.” Tempest stretched her forelegs, then relaxed. She pushed aside her glass. “Any chance I can use yours?”

“Sure, go right ahead! Be fast, though; I was about to go to bed in a few minutes.”

“Alright, thanks,” Tempest said as she pushed herself up. Ignoring her muscles screaming at her to lay down and forget about taking a shower, she trudged into the bathroom, stepped into the shower stall then turned on the water, as hot as it could go. Tempest breathed a sigh of relief as she felt all the sawdust and dried sweat wash away, then she opened her eyes as she looked around for some shampoo. “So... who cleaned up the basement?” she called out.

“Starlight and I. When you said that they let loose down there, I... I wasn’t expecting it to be that bad,” Twilight said. “That awful scent mixed with ruined coffee? Ugh; I can’t get it out of my nose! And if you define cleaned up as teleporting it all to the town dump, then yes, we did get it all cleaned up!” Twilight said with a short laugh.

Tempest sat down, squirted some shampoo onto her front hooves, then lathered herself up. “I would have done that myself, but... you know.”

“Don’t worry about it; you would have had to use a broom and carry all of it to the dump. I don’t think I’d want to snuggle with you if you smelled like, uh... excrement.”

Tempest laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think that’d be a good idea.” Tempest rinsed the shampoo from her fur, then turned off the shower. She lifted her left hoof up to her nose and sniffed. “Cherry-scented shampoo?” she asked as she took a good look at the bottle. “Really?”

“That’s actually Starlight’s; she’s letting me borrow her extra bottle until we can get some fresh supplies. Beggars can’t be choosers, after all, and at least we have shampoo. I’m sure most of Ponyville isn’t as lucky as we are,” Twilight said. “Anyways, hurry up and finish up in there; I’m going to get the bed ready.”

Tempest looked back into the bedroom and saw most of the light fade. “Sounds good. I’ll be out in a minute,” she said as she grabbed a nearby towel. Tempest hefted it in her hoof and noticed that it was damp. With a roll of her eyes, she tossed it aside and grabbed the one next to it and dried herself off. Feeling reasonably dry, she threw the used towel on top of the other one and trudged back into Twilight’s room, ready for the thing she’d been looking forward to the most all day. “So, uh... how do you want to go about this?” she asked.

“Well... when we snuggled last time, you were the big spoon, and, uh...” Twilight climbed into her bed and patted the spot next to her with a hoof. “I think that worked p-pretty well, and, um... hehe.” She threw on an awkward smile and blushed a little bit. “You can be the little spoon tonight if you want. If we make this a regular thing, we can keep switching places every other night, or we can—”

“We can figure things out as we go,” Tempest said as she climbed into bed beside her. She lay down on her side and let her head come to rest on a pillow, then finally relaxed, feeling her muscles thank her for the relief they felt. She fought hard to keep her eyes open, for the urge to let her eyelids slide shut and sleep for the next twelve hours was a fight she was sure to lose.

“Sure, we can do that, or we can switch positions in the middle of the night, or—”

Tempest pressed a hoof against Twilight’s lips. “Just snuggle me, Twilight,” she said with a light giggle.

“Heh, not gonna say no to that.” Twilight twirled a hoof in midair. “Can you roll over? It’d be a lot easier if your back was facing me,” she said with a comforting smile.

“If you say so,” Tempest said, pushing herself over onto her other side. She collapsed into place with a soft oomph as Twilight leaned over her. Is she gonna lay on my head? she wondered, her muzzle scrunching up in confusion. Oh... she thought as she saw Twilight blow out the last remaining lit candle on her nightstand, plunging the room into utter darkness. The smell of smoke grazed against her nostrils, making her muzzle wrinkle again. She took a deep breath, then blew the smoke away. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Twilight’s horn lit up the room with a faint purple glow as she pulled the sheets up to their shoulders, then the light faded. Tempest couldn’t help but smile as she felt Twilight slide closer to her. Her cheeks burned crimson as her ears flicked back.

“Tell you what... On the off chance that I have a nightmare, it’d be okay for you to wake me up,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, same goes for me,” Tempest said, feeling Twilight drape a foreleg over her. She folded her forelegs up to her chest, allowing Twilight’s leg to gently hold them. Her warmth seeped into her back as she settled in, then she felt Twilight’s hind leg settle over her cutie mark. She curled up a little bit in an effort to get into a more comfortable position, only to have Twilight follow suit; her lower belly pressed firmly against her back. Then, as if that wasn’t good enough, Twilight draped a wing over her and tugged her close. “Geez, you really know how to snuggle,” she said, her eyes going wide a moment later. She bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything else embarrassing as she thought, Come on... think before you speak.

“I’ve had some practice over the years,” Twilight said, laying her head above Tempest’s on the pillow. She nuzzled her between the ears, then settled down.

“Oh? The famous Princess Twilight has a secret special someone that everypony else doesn’t know about?” Tempest asked with a snicker.

“What? No, it’s not like that at all. I don’t have a special somepony; I never did. I just practiced snuggling with a big pillow a ton.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. It’s the big pillow behind the one we’re using.”

“No, not that. You’ve never dated anyone?” Tempest asked softly. “Why not?”

Several seconds of silence drifted between them. “I never had time,” came Twilight’s soft voice. “And now that I’m a princess, there’s a lot of ponies out there who want to be with me, but... they just want me because I’m a princess, not because they actually like me as a pony.”

“Yeah... I can see how that’d be tough.” She felt Twilight swallow, then nod against the back of her head.

“What about you?”

Tempest’s breath caught in her throat. “...No,” she finally managed to say. “I haven’t, er... had the most normal of lives, as you might already know. In my old line of work, you really don’t have time for love or affection, especially in the ranks of the Storm King.”

“Could one say that you were in a similar situation?”

“What do you mean?”

Twilight shifted a little bit, then flicked her tail around Tempest’s hind legs. “Well... you couldn’t date someone because you outranked them all, right? It wouldn’t have been proper.”

“Oh, that. It wasn’t about me being unable to date someone because of my rank. There wasn’t anypony to date; I was the only pony in his army. And like you said, I just didn’t have time. The thought to search for somepony to love never crossed my mind.”

“So we’re like two peas in a pod,” Twilight said with a short giggle.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Tempest said, followed by a long, drawn-out yawn which was followed by one from Twilight. “So...” Another yawn forced itself past her lips. “Am I the only one thinking that we’re not going to have nightmares tonight?”

“Heh, nope!” Twilight nuzzled her between the ears again. “Thanks for snuggling with me the other night; if I sleep half as good as that night, I’ll be a happy mare tomorrow morning.”

“Uh...” Tempest laughed nervously. “You forget that we don’t have any more coffee?”

“...Ponyfeathers.”