//------------------------------// // 159. Haha // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// When Pinkie Pie first met Big Mac’s boyfriend Shining Armor, she was like ‘this guy seems real cool and cute’. After she’d spent an hour or so shopping with him for supplies, and for gifts to give to Big Mac and Applejack, she was like ‘THIS GUY IS REALLY COOL AND CUTE!!!’ but like in all caps. He was sweet, and charming, and funny, and handsome, and Pinkie was just really glad Bic Mac met such a nice dude like him. Also?? He was a heckin DRAGON??? How amazing was that?! Pinkie’s heart gushed like a, like a… like a really gushy thing when she realized that Shining was a dragon— which was pretty obvious looking at his eyes, like Pinkie had spent hours and hours at this point gazing lovingly into Fluttershy’s, so it wasn’t hard to recognize that familiar glow— but that Big Mac was totally aware of that. Pinkie wasn’t the only pony romantically interested in a dragon. Pinkie wasn’t alone, and neither was Fluttershy for that matter. And knowing that let Pinkie hold her head up all proud like. “So what’s next on the agenda, Shiny?” Pinkie beamed, her arms full to bursting with bags upon bags of stuff. She had never gone shopping like this, and she was thrilled to show everyone the awesome presents she picked out for them. “Hmm, I’m thinking…” Shining Armor smirked and tapped his cheek a couple times. “Ice cream?” “Hell yeah ice cream!” Pinkie squealed, jumping like a million feet in the air. “I’m surprised you like that,” Shining chuckled as the two resumed their jaunty stroll through the busy streets of snowy ol’ Bitsburgh. “Usually eating frozen treats in winter is just a dragon thing.” “There’s never a bad time for ice cream if you ask me!” Pinkie smiled and licked her lips, and Shining just laughed. He had a nice laugh. Apparently, Pinkie and Shiny weren’t the only ones who were down with a delightful wintery frozen treat, cuz when they got to the ice cream place, Spike was seated on the patio eating a big tub of the stuff all by himself. “Yo, Spike!” Pinkie cheered, jumping up and waving at him as she and Shiny approached his table, Spike’s eyes lighting up as he saw Pinkie— cuz after all, whose wouldn’t?— and waving back at her. “Hey, Pinkie Pie!” Spike said with a big smile, slapping his hands on the table. “And uhhh, friend! Who’s he?” “This is Shining Armor!” Pinkie said, dropping her bags at the foot of the table and using both hands to dramatically introduce Shiny. “Shiny, this is Spike!” Pinkie spun around and held her hands out to introduce Spike, and he struck a dazzling power pose to boot. “Nice to meet you, Spike,” Shiny said, shaking Spike’s hand. “You too, Shining Armor!” Spike replied, big grin on his face and nodding his head. Pinkie meanwhile was bouncing up and down and clapping her hands cuz she was always super-duper excited when two of her friends met and got along. “So hey,” Pinkie sat down in a chair next to Spike’s and folded her arms on the table, “where’s ol’ Twilight Sparkle? Twiggle Sporkle?” “She’s with Rainbow Dash, last I heard,” Spike sighed and took a big bite of his ice cream, not even bothering to swallow before talking again, like a trooper! “We were doing magic training, but I can’t wrap my brain around it, so we took a break for a bit. I think she was gonna try and teach Rainbow how to do magic too.” “Dang, that’s so cool,” Pinkie cooed. “I wonder if she’ll teach me how to do magic. Shiny, what do you—” When Pinkie turned her head to ask Shining Armor for his opinion, he was just gone. The bags were all gone too, and in their place there was a napkin with something written on it. “Pinkie sorry I forgot about something I wanted to grab Bic Mac and I want to get it before the store closes haha. We’ll meet at the inn and sort out the presents then, okay? Sorry to bounce like this haha” “He said ‘haha’ twice,” Spike grumbled after Pinkie read the letter out loud. “What a weirdo.” “Yeah,” Pinkie hummed, turning the napkin over to see if there was anything else written on it, “that is weird.” “Maybe he doesn’t like ice cream?” Spike shrugged, finishing the last of his tub. “He was the one who suggested it,” Pinkie pouted. She sure hoped she hadn't said or done anything that upset him. Maybe she was thinking too hard though, maybe he really did just suddenly remember something. Who knows. Pinkie was about to let it go, when suddenly something else was bothering her; a hand seizing a tuft of her hair and squeezing it tightly, pulling at her roots. “OW! Hey what—” “Did somepony at this table say-” a pale blue ‘unicorn’ with glittering amethyst eyes and long silvery hair bared a grin of glistening sharp fangs as her grip on Pinkie’s hair tightened “-Twilight Sparkle?”