Strawberry Time: A RariTwi Exquisite Corpse

by SigmasonicX

3. Seeking Strawberries (Gearcrow)

Twilight Sparkle was sniffing the air like a bloodhound, horn alight with magic, and while Trixie looked thoroughly unimpressed, Rarity and A. K. Yearling both stood patiently with expressions of tense expectation on their faces. They seemed not exactly comfortable, but definitely used to this sort of thing. Night Glider just felt confused, which made her feel embarrassed and a little bit small.

She tried to take a deep breath, but if something smelled like strawberries, it must have been incredibly faint, because she couldn’t smell anything at all.

“Uhm,” she ventured, feeling nervous about interrupting Twilight Sparkle’s concentration while also not wishing to be entirely left out of the loop. “Are you looking for something that’s supposed to smell like strawberries? Because otherwise it might just be the restaurant right there. We just left it.”

Trixie scoffed and rolled her eyes, but Twilight Sparkle just turned and looked at her as if noticing her for the first time. Night Glider didn’t really think of Twilight as a real princess, because, well, she was just normal pony size. Even if she was an alicorn, she just wasn’t very imposing. Being stared down as she was at that moment though she felt a powerful need to revisit her clearly erroneous opinion.

“You’re Night Glider, right? From Our Town?”

Night Glider grimaced but nodded. “Yeah, but we don’t call it that anymore. Plus, I kinda moved to Cloudsdale because of…”

Trixie cleared her throat loudly to interrupt. “Yes, fascinating, I’m sure, but maybe we should focus on…” she gestured around vaguely at everything. “Trixie isn’t planning on spending the rest of her magnificent life stuck in a time lock with nopony to perform for. And I guess it’d be a shame if I never got to speak to Starlight again. I’d have to keep her like a statue outside my wagon. Actually…” she rubbed her chin with a hoof as if considering doing just that.

Yearling took a step towards Twilight Sparkle with all the confidence of a well-seasoned adventurer. “Night Glider is right though. What’s all this about smelling Strawberries? I can’t smell anything. Plus, you mentioned something about a locus for your time freezing spell, right? I’m assuming if we find it and destroy it, time will return to normal.”

“More or less…” Twilight said, eyeing Yearling suspiciously. “Why are the two of you able to move though? You should have been frozen just like everypony else.”

Night Glider felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of the author face to face with the princess and decided, foolishly, that standing back meekly was probably not going to impress her blind-date.

“We were on a date!” she blurted out, before reddening like a beat plucked freshly from the ground.

“Okay…” Twilight said.

“I just meant,” Night Glider continued, ignoring the slightly embarrassed and questioning looks the others were giving her, “maybe there was something about A. K. Yearling, uhm, about you I mean,” she shifted her focus from Twilight Sparkle to the author. “And since I was sitting near you, maybe it affected me as well?”

A. K. Yearling nodded. “I do have an artifact in my bag that protects me from being cursed. That must have been it.”

“See,” Night Glider said, “no need for unnecessary suspicions.”

Twilight Sparkle seemed to take that in stride. “That’s fair, I guess. As for the Strawberries...”

“I think I’ll answer that,” Rarity said, making Twilight Sparkle wince and look away guiltily. “The ‘Time Freezing’ spell my darlingest Twilight here attempted was meant to preserve a basket of strawberries we picked earlier today. However,” she said, eyeing the sheepish looking princess with some venom, “the strawberries instead grew to the size of a small boulder, came alive, and rampaged through my boutique! Oh, and everything but the strawberries, Twilight, myself, and Trixie–who unfortunately happened to be in the boutique at the time–froze instead.”

“Trixie’s presence is always a blessing,” Trixie said, tossing her mane back while pointedly looking away from Rarity, and Night Glider found herself giggling. A. K. Yearling was smiling as well.

“Well, we should probably try to track down these rampaging strawberries then, before they cause any actual harm.” When she noticed Rarity’s darkening expression, she quickly added “aside from your boutique, of course.”

“Since I seem to be the only one who can smell the strawberries, I’ll lead the way,” Twilight Sparkle said, starting off down the street away from the restaurant.

“Maybe you’re just having a stroke,” Trixie offered.

Rarity looked deeply disappointed and shook her head. “That’s burnt toast, Trixie.”

Night Glider giggled again and fell in beside A. K. Yearling, the two of them trailing behind the others by a few steps.

She felt a little bit less awkward about walking next to her now than she had felt at dinner, which was probably just because the focus had been shifted from “going on a date” to “going on an adventure”. Yearling for sure seemed more comfortable as well.

“Sorry for being such a fan at dinner,” she said, feeling perhaps a bit more self-conscious than was warranted. Yearling laughed and shook her head.

“Sorry for showing up in disguise and trying to trick you. I’m not sure how I thought that would work.”

“No, I get it. It makes sense. You’d probably get a lot of weirdos showing up otherwise.”

“Yeah… Not that I think you’re a weirdo though!”

It looked to Night Glider as if Yearling was blushing just a little, which made her face heat up as well. She looked away and was about to tell the author that she was glad for the date despite everything when they were interrupted by Twilight Sparkle yelling and the wall of a nearby store crumbling as a giant strawberry came barreling out onto the street.

The strawberry grabbed hold of Trixie and hoisted her screaming into the air, swinging her this way and that while Rarity was trying to push a large board off of Twilight Sparkle’s back.

“Do something!” Trixie yelled, seemingly more scared than in actual pain.

“I’m trying!” Rarity yelled back, helping the clearly dazed princess back to her feet. “Just distract it or something in the meantime!”

Even at a distance, Night Glider could see the absolute daggers that Trixie was staring at Rarity. The stage magician was about to say something else but instead yelped with surprise as the strawberry holding her staggered backwards and almost fell over.

Yearling had rushed forward and flown up to kick the strawberry square in the face with her hindlegs. Meanwhile, Night Glider had just stood there, too surprised to act. That wasn’t anything to be ashamed of though, right? She wasn’t an adventurer like the others. They couldn’t very well expect her to…

Another strawberry came rushing down the street towards Yearling, and before she could even think, Night Glider grabbed a broken board from the crumbled wall and leapt into the air towards the new arrival. She closed her eyes and swung the board as hard as she could towards the Strawberry. Oh, sweet Celestia, please don’t let me miss!