It was cold and raining outside, and Rainbow Dash hurriedly ran inside. Her hair and face were soaking, but her clothes had remained relatively dry. She shivered from the cold though. The heat of the library quickly alleviated that though, and she made her way to the science fiction and fantasy section.

Reading was not something cool people did. Or so Rainbow had thought for a long time until she discovered her love for reading. Daring Do, that was the first book series she had ever read for pleasure. Reading was a chore, something she’d done because her teachers required her to do so. It felt like a blur, like she simply blacked out for the period of time it took her to read the book. It was agonizing and she would drone on along with her classmates about how much she hated reading, and how she rarely read books. Then she found Daring Do. Rainbow liked the cover art for the first novel and decided to pick it up on a whim. It was engrossing, a tale of adventure and treasure hunting that she loved every minute of. She stayed up the entire night to finish the book, and the next day she checked out the second book from the library. Within a month Rainbow had read the entire Daring Do series and eagerly awaited the next book A.K Yearling would write.

She was fifteen then and ever since Rainbow has had a love of reading. The way words can be crafted in such a way as to stimulate a person's imagination to create cohesive images of what the author intended. That was amazing, and Rainbow had tried ever since to replicate that affect in her own writing. Which was one of the reasons why in her senior year of high school(which really wasn’t that long ago since she was only twenty) she had become distant from her friends. Simply they seemed kind of dumb, or at least arrogant. In a way Rainbow found their attitude towards not reading more arrogant than the snobbish people she hated that only considered literature to be worthy reading material. One incident still echoed vividly in her mind. It was senior year first semester, and in a class called College Preparatory Writing. Obviously it was about crafting the skills necessary to write college level papers. It was academic not creative writing, but Rainbow had been interested regardless.

Sadly she found it to be an easy class. Her teacher was of the type that said they would only give an “A” to those students that went above and beyond. Rainbow had finished the class with a 85% B. Not an A, but Rainbow had achieved that grade by only partially trying. And in a way this didn’t surprise considering the incident that ultimately made her realize the difference between herself and her classmates. It was early in the semester and one of the projects the teacher assigned was to read an autobiography and then write an essay on it, and present our findings to the class. The project itself as a sham, Rainbow had gotten confused by the paper instructions and ended up dedicating a solid thirty to forty percent of the paper just to summarize the book she read. This was already in a paper that was only two or three thousand words long. Rainbow fully expected to get nothing higher than a D, but to her surprise she actually got an 83% on the paper. Rainbow also didn’t particularly understand why her teacher wanted the class to present in the first place. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that ninety five percent of the students in the class just presented a basic synopsis of the biography they read. One irritating thing that at least twenty out of the thirty students in the class said when they went to present was “I really don’t like reading that much. So I can’t really talk about if it was a good book or not.” That was grating, and in a way rather sad for Rainbow. She absolutely loved reading, though to her dismay many people she met who shared her passion were also rather snobbish.

Rainbow couldn’t say she hated literature, though she certainly thought there was a reason why she was currently browsing the science fiction and fantasy section, and not the literature section of the library. She loved words and the way they could be crafted to induce the imagination. But she also loved adventure. And that’s why she’d fallen in love with Daring Do. They were fun books about a woman that didn’t let any monsters or foes get in her way. She was awesome, and Rainbow found her stories engrossing. It didn’t matter that these books weren’t literature, they were fun, and they ignited Rainbow’s love of reading.

“Excuse me,” a timid voice said. “Can I please get in?”

Rainbow stopped looking at the books, and looked up to see a girl with pink hair staring at her. She looked about the same age as Rainbow. “Oh, sorry,” Rainbow said, stepping to the side to let the other girl look at the books.

The pink haired girls eyes scanned over the shelves. Rainbow quickly turned her head away, and pretended to look at the books in front of her. She’s cute. Rainbow blushed, she wanted to speak to the girl but she didn’t know what to say. She saw the girl pick up a copy of The Hobbit.

“Oh that’s a good book,” Rainbow said.

“Yeah I’ve heard a lot about it,” the girl said. “Kind of one of the staples of fantasy literature I guess.”

“Yeah. I wish I’d read the book before I saw the movie series though,” Rainbow said. “Kind of ruins it.”

The girl smiled. “Yeah. I much prefer to read the book first before watching the movie. It feels like a regression to do it the other way.”

“Exactly!” Rainbow said, before she lowered her voice. “Yeah it’s not even about books being better than movies or whatever. It almost just feels kind of pointless because you’re reading a synopsis on Wikipedia.”

The girl laughed. “I’m Fluttershy by the way.”

“Rainbow Dash,” she said, holding out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same,” Fluttershy said as she accepted Rainbow’s handshake. “You like fantasy?”

“Yeah, and science fiction I guess. I love stories that can take me on an adventure,” Rainbow said. “What about you?”

“I love reading about different worlds and cultures. And all of animals and plants and other things that exist within. It’s really a lot of fun when they’re well written,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow quickly scanned the bookshelves until she found the right title. “Hey there’s a new fantasy book that came out earlier this year. The Priory Of The Orange Tree. It’s a fantasy story following different characters in this world that’s at war. I know that sounds generic, but I’m really enjoying reading it so far.”

Fluttershy took the book from Rainbow. “I think I’ll go ahead and take a look at it then.”

Rainbow smiled. “Cool. I hope you enjoy it.”

Fluttershy picked up a book from one of the shelves. “Have you read Brandon Sanderson’s The Way Of Kong’s?”

“No,” Rainbow said. “But I’ve heard of it.”

“It’s a really good book,” Fluttershy said, handing the novel to Rainbow. “I think it’s really well written. And it’s a vast adventure with different characters in a sprawling fantasy world. It’s one of my favorite books.”

“Hey I’ve been looking for something new to read,” Rainbow said. “I’ll go ahead and give it a try.”

“Thanks for the book recommendation. And I sincerely hope you enjoy The Way Of Kings,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow smiled, and waved as Fluttershy started to walk away. Ahhh she’s so cute I can’t let her leave yet. “Wait, how old are you?”

Fluttershy stopped, and raised an eyebrow as she looked at Rainbow. “I’m twenty one. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, sorry. I was just curious. I’m twenty by the way,” Rainbow said. “Hey would you like to talk some more? Maybe get lunch or something? Maybe give me your number?”

“Yes that would be nice.” Fluttershy took out a piece of paper and wrote her number on it before handing it to Rainbow. “I know this is a bit forward but I do think you’re rather cute.”

Rainbow blushed. “I think you’re really cute as well. But like in a way that I’m attracted to you.”

Fluttershy giggled. “Well I guess I’m just glad we both feel the same way. Anyways let’s go check out these books, then we can discuss where we’re going to have lunch.”

“Sounds good to me,” Rainbow said. Rainbow smiled as she followed Fluttershy to check out her books. Imagine that. I can’t believe I met this girl! Rainbow was happy as she walked with Fluttershy our into the rain. Maybe they’d write their own story about this.

THE END.