Lore was in the kitchen cleaning the dishes from the lunch he made earlier for Derpy, Firefly, and himself. Blue October left earlier after she recovered and flew home. Lore gazed out his window as the sun was getting ready to set. "Come on Rainbow, let me know you made it." He sighed as he looked out at the empty forest skies. He started to put the dishes away to try and keep himself occupied while he waited. Bowing his head, he let out a sigh. He put the rest of the dishes he had back into the drying rack. "All right." He grunted, turning to exit the kitchen, into the living/study room where Firefly and Derpy were talking.

Derpy and Firefly fell silent as the watched Lore start to pack his saddlebags. Derpy was the first to speak up. “Um, Lore? What’s going on?” Lore finished strapping the bags on his back and reached for his hat. “Rainbow Dash has promised she would return before sunset. It’s running late and I can’t relax unless I know she and Cool Star are safe.” Derpy and Firefly immediately started to rant about how unsafe the idea was and about the unnatural occurrences that plague the forest, like growing trees and self moving clouds. Lore headed for the door, “I know you are worried about the forest, but I have been living out here for a very long time. I know what dangers lay from here to Ponyville and the surrounding areas.” Lore grabbed the door as he was getting ready to dash out to the forest. “I’ll be back as soon as I-”

He didn’t see where he was going and bumped into something, surprising him to the point the weight of his gear knocked him back onto his flank. “Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry!” a female voice called out. “No no, It’s my fault.” Lore looked up, “I wasn’t pay-“ he stopped as eyes went wide and his mouth dropped seeing Twilight in his doorway as the sun set behind her. She looked back at him slightly confused and with a hint of uncomfort. “Um, are you ok?” She asked, he only replied with the same awe struck stare. He didn’t notice that the rest of the pony gang was behind Twilight, Rarity started to get impatient. “Can we move along? It’s impolite to leave a lady waiting outside.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and invited them in. She then looked at Lore confused as the others passed by the petrified pony. “Hello? Lore? You there?” she waved a hoof in front of his face. Lore still didn't move which made Rainbow frown. She then started to clop her hooves together next to his ear causing him to flinch. "Huh? What? Oh Rainbow! You made it back, thank the Elements! I was getting worried you and your friend didn't make it."

Rainbow looked back at him slightly confused, “Um, yea, I got Cool to the hospital. The nurse told me that he will be fine, and he's lucky too. Another few hours and he would've gone into a coma because of the lump on his head." Lore sighed a breath of relief hearing the good news, completely oblivious to the group of ponies having small conversations around the fireplace behind him. "But out of curiosity, what took you so long to get back?" Lore continued the conversation. Rainbow gave a small smile, "Well, I when I left the hospital, my friends were outside waiting for me all worried. I told them how you saved me and Cool, and how awesome you were for living out here. Seriously, we only know of one other who lives out here, but she isn't a pony and we figured she lived in a place like the Everfree forest where she came from. Heck, we thought she was the most civil being that lived in this forest." This caused Lore to look at Rainbow with a hint of curiosity, "And who is this, erm, being that lives in the Everfree forest?"

"Her name is Zakora, the zebra, at least that’s what Twilight calls her." Lores eyes lit up at the mention of the name. "Ah yes, Zakora! She and I swap notes from time to time about our findings on the creatures around here." Lore continued, "Your friend, Twilight, sounds smart to know what a Zebra is, and you can tell her that's something to be proud of because I rarely say that about anypony I've helped in the past." Lore gave a smile as Rainbow smiled looking past him. "Well, you can tell her yourself, she and my other friends came to thank you for helping me." She winked and pointed a hoof towards the others who were too deep in conversation to notice Rainbow mentioning them.

Lore smiled and started to turn "Ah, ok the-" he stopped dead and gave the same awestruck look he had earlier. Rainbow looked at him slightly annoyed and gave him a nudge, "Hey! Lore! What's gotten into you? You're starting to worry me." Lore looked at Rainbow and replied weakly, "I-I don't know. I keep on getting this feeling every time I see your friend. It’s really weird." Rainbow looked at him very confused, then to the others.

Suddenly a light bulb goes off in her head, "Lore, this feeling. Where is it?" He looked back at her and placed a hoof on his chest. "Around here, it feels so strange. It causes me to freeze up." Rainbows eyes really lit up now and smug little smile found its way onto her. "I've never felt anything like it." He continued, "What if I'm getting sick?" She gave a small giggle as he looked at her confused. "Don’t worry, I think I know what your feeling. But tell me, which one of my friends did you say made you feel like this?" She looked on at him with an anxious and excited stare. Lore pointed a hoof in Twilights direction. "The purple unicorn made the feeling the strongest."

This made Rainbow grin from ear to ear as she leaned into his ear. "That unicorn, her name is Twilight Sparkle, and this feeling, is called love." Lore shot his eyes wide open and his face turned a dark red. "Uheh, um, I must. Um... Excuse me everypony!" He bolted out of the room leaving Rainbow giggling to herself and everypony having looks of confusion

-( In the Library )-

Lore was franticly pacing around muttering to himself. "Love? That's what it feels like? I've never felt this way before, not even towards mom and dad. I love them, but they are the only ones I've ever loved as parents. I've never felt that way towards anyone else... Twilight. Twilight Sparkle." His heart started to flutter thinking about her, and what he was told about her, and- "Lore? Are you ok?" He turned around quickly snapping out of his thoughts to see Twilight standing in front of his door. His heart raced as he tried to scrounge up something to say.

"Uh, hehe, Yea, I'm, uh, g-good, uh, T-Twilight. Eheh" he started to sweat as she approached him. She looked into his eyes as if she was reading him like a book, looking over his expressions and reacitons. "That’s good. anyway, I wanted to come by and thank you properly for saving my friend Rainbow. She may be thick skulled, but she is very resourceful at times that still amazes me." She smiled as Lore gulped, "P-Properly?" He asked weakly.

She smiled and nodded "Yup!" With that she walked up to him and hugged him around his neck causing him to freeze up. She smiled while nuzzling him, "Thank you very much. I don't known what I would do if I lost a friend." She whispered in his ear causing him to smile weakly not knowing what she was going to do next. "And don't worry Lore, I like you too." She gave him a small kiss on the cheek and trotted back out the door to the commons area to meet with the others winking as she closed the door behind her. He stood there for a short while holding a hoof up to his cheek, "She...Likes me...too!" He an ear to ear smile appeared on his face as he started to jump around happy she felt the same way he felt for her.

Little did he know, Rainbow was looking on through the key hole with Twilight right outside his door. "See? Told ya didn't I?" Rainbow whispered as Twilight turned to her. "You did good Rainbow." Twilight proceeded to hum a happy tune down the hall towards the commons area with Rainbow in toe.

- End of Episode 1 Part 2: The Blossom -

Chapter Notes:

I was originally going to end this chapter as a cliff hanger and reveal the feelings Lore has for Twilight next chapter making this a three chapter pilot. Three things stopped me from doing this:
1. During my initial writing I lost all my progress from not saving. This pissed me off so much I was about to not write it again until a few days later. But I decided to continue right then and there.
2. The part about the sun setting behind her and Lore awestruck was a big give away.
3. I wanted to, at this point, try to follow the show and stick with the first two chapters as pilots.

Also, I want to point out that Twilight isn't my top pony. My tops are currently, as of this post; Fluttershy, Rainbow, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, and AJ. The reason why I didn't stick with this is because I don't want to do the whole alicorn thing going around. I'm sticking with the only alicorn characters being the princesses. So Lore, being a unicorn, wouldn't match up with my top two, so I picked Twilight. Plus they are a better match than any of the other 5. There was even a subtle, and unintended, hint of this in chapter 1. Unintended because I didn't think of this until after chapter 1 was posted. The rest of the chapters are going to be 1-2 chapter plots, so when chapter 3 rolls around don't expect to pick up where left off. The plan is to run plots like the show.

I’ve rewritten this chapter as I recently got a computer with Word. I’ve fully revised this chapter and the previous one. I hope you guys enjoy!