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“I can’t believe they haven’t cancelled your practice,” Twilight commented, leaning up against the cool brick wall and watching Rainbow Dash pull her baseball uniform out of her locker, “my science teacher wouldn’t even let us use bunsen burners today because it’s too hot, and that’s indoors.”
There had been a crazy heat wave for a couple weeks now, and the air conditioning at Canterlot High could not keep up. Everyone was doing the absolute bare minimum effort, in order to keep themselves and the building cool. Some students had started to speculate and spread rumours that school would close if the heat didn’t break soon, and it was so miserably hot that very few were opposed to that idea.
Rainbow shrugged. “It’s not that bad out. I’ve done more on worse days.”
Twilight sighed. “It’s hot and humid. You’re the captain, it wouldn’t kill you to cancel one practice in a record-breaking heat wave.”
“We’ll take breaks,” Rainbow said, shutting her locker decisively, “It’ll be fine, you worry too much.”
“Just be careful,” Twilight said, reaching into her bag to pull out a water bottle and handing it to Rainbow, “And stay hydrated.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes but took the water. “You’re still coming over after practice, right?”
Twilight smiled and nodded. “I’ll wait in the library until you’re done. Come find me when your practice ends?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Rainbow replied, hugging Twilight and pressing a quick kiss to her forehead.
Smiling to herself and shaking her head a little, Twilight watched Rainbow walk off towards the locker rooms. They waved to each other down the hallway before Rainbow disappeared around the corner and Twilight pushed herself off the wall to head to the library.
After about an hour and a half of sitting in the library, trying to stay cool enough to focus on her book, Twilight figured Rainbow’s practice had to be nearly over and decided to just go meet her outside on the field. She packed her things up and headed for the door, stepping out into what felt like a wall of heat. She made her way across the schoolyard, frowning at what looked like an empty baseball field. Maybe they’d already gone inside to the locker room, and she’d just missed them?
However, as Twilight got closer to the baseball diamond, she noticed a very familiar head of rainbow hair. Holding her hand above her eyes to block the sunlight, she spotted Rainbow Dash sitting on the dirt in front of the bench. Once she got close, Rainbow looked up at her and smiled.
“Hey, Twilight,” she said, her voice tired.
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, dropping down to sit next to Rainbow.
Rainbow nodded. “Just a little tired.”
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Nobody else showed.”
“Probably because it’s hot enough to cook an egg out here. Seriously, my science class tried it the other day. So what on earth were you doing then if you were the only one here?”
“Uh, practicing?” Rainbow said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
“By yourself? Why?”
Rainbow opened and closed her mouth a few times, then shrugged. Twilight sighed and stood up, dusting off her skirt and offering Rainbow a hand.
“Let’s get you inside before this turns into heat exhaustion or worse.”
Rainbow took Twilight’s hand and pulled herself up, a little wobbly. She wrapped an arm around Twilight’s shoulders, and for the sake of her pride they both pretended it was just a sweet gesture.
They made their way to the locker room together. Normally Twilight would just wait outside, since she technically wasn’t meant to be in the locker room without being on a team or in a gym class, but the school was pretty much empty and she wanted to make sure Rainbow was okay, so she followed her inside and sat down on one of the benches.
As Rainbow headed for the showers, Twilight called out, “Don’t use really cold water, it’ll shock your system. Just cool or lukewarm is probably your best bet.”
Rainbow turned to face her, paused for a moment, and smirked. “If you’re going to be so picky about my shower you might as well just join me.”
Twilight felt her whole face heat up and was sure she was bright red. Her suspicions were confirmed when Rainbow burst out laughing and said, “You should’ve seen the look on your face. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
It didn’t take much longer before they were walking towards Rainbow’s place together, Twilight fussing over her about the heat the whole way there. When they arrived, Rainbow unlocked the door and they headed inside.
“Thank god, functional air conditioning,” Rainbow muttered as she headed into the kitchen. “Hey Twi, want a snack?”
“Sure,” Twilight replied, following Rainbow into the kitchen.
“We still have mozzarella sticks left, I’m making those,” Rainbow said, basically talking to the freezer with how far she was leaning into it. She emerged with said mozzarella sticks and set the oven to preheat, boosting herself up to sit on the counter and nodding for Twilight to sit beside her.
Twilight climbed up much less gracefully than Rainbow had, not used to sitting on tables and counters the way Rainbow was. As they waited for the oven to preheat, she finally began the lecture that had been building up inside her since she found Rainbow out on the baseball field.
“You’ve done a lot of dumb things in the time I’ve known you but today might make the top of the list,” she started, “What if you’d passed out or gotten heatstroke? All because you wanted to practice baseball in the middle of a heat wave with no one else there?”
Rainbow had the good grace to look at least slightly ashamed, but the look left her face when the oven beeped. She hopped off the counter and stuck the tray of mozzarella sticks into the oven, setting the timer.
Twilight was about to start lecturing again when Rainbow turned back to her. Rather than climbing back onto the counter, Rainbow stood in front of Twilight and looked up at her, resting her hands on the counter on either side of Twilight’s legs.
Twilight blushed as she looked down at Rainbow, not uncomfortable but slightly awkward. She was trying to find her words, for once in her life feeling totally speechless, but didn’t have a chance to as Rainbow’s lips connected with hers. Twilight’s arms wrapped naturally around Rainbow’s neck as Rainbow’s hands slid to Twilight’s waist.
In a pause for breath, Twilight muttered, “This is not a very heat-wave-appropriate activity.”
“I thought we’d learned already that I don’t care about the heat wave,” Rainbow replied with a smirk.
They ended up almost burning their mozzarella sticks… because Twilight started ranting to Rainbow about the impact and dangers of high temperatures.