An empty piece of parchment lay flat on Twilight’s desk. The bottom right corner of the paper sported a series of tightly grouped dots where she had tapped the quill over and over again out of frustration. Her scholarly instincts screamed for her to write this new experience down, to archive the feelings in her heart. She oftentimes read sad stories of love unreturned, but she knew now how cheap words were in the face of reality. Sometimes she felt overwhelmed by joy when her friends cheered her up, or threw a party, or helped her with an extremely important job.
Insignificant.
It was the only word she could label the strongest feelings of joy in the face of her current sorrow. Being a scholar and a writer, she experienced writer’s block firsthand on many occasions.
This pain went above and beyond description, trying to tell anyone else what this felt like would be like describing a symphony to a deaf pony, like telling a blind pony about a sunrise. She sighed heavily in defeat, lowering her quill.
Thump, thump, thump
Knocking echoed throughout the quiet library reaching the unicorn’s ears, however, she made no effort to move. She sat quietly at her desk, her eyes still trained on the empty scroll.
“Twi? Are ya in here?”The southern drawl gave away the intruder’s identity. The purple mare became agitated at the very idea of her friend letting herself in uninvited.
“Twilight, please come on out girl, we’re all really worried about ya.”
Sorrow rose in her heart at the concern in her friend's voice replacing the anger as she trudged over to the door to the main part of the library, her hoof hesitated on the knob. Bolstering her courage, she opened the door and Looked into the lobby. She saw soft smiles mixed with concern from Fluttershy and Applejack shining back at her.
“Hey.”
Fluttershy hid behind her mane, clearly feeling awkward by the cold greeting, “Umm, Twilight? I know this is probably not a good question, but are you OK?”
“I’m OK now.” She lied.
Applejack stepped forward holding her hat to her chest, “Twi, somepony needs to say something, but I have to know ahead of time its safe first.”
The unicorn sighed looking away from her blonde haired friend, “I don’t think I’m up to hurting anypony right now.”
“Good.”
Fluttershy flitted outside waving another pony in.
Rage filled Twilight’s heart again as Pinkie walked through the door. “What is she doing here?!”
“Now hold on a minute Twi….”
“NO! This is her fault! I can’t believe you would bring her here after last night!”
“Twilight please, just calm down a litt-“
“Applejack, Fluttershy, you should leave.” Pinkie spoke up.
“You don’t want them to go…” Twilight threatened
“I’m not sure that’s a goo-“ Applejack started
“I need to do this…please?” pleaded the curly haired pony.
Fluttershy and Applejack shared nervous glances with each other, uncertainty plain on their face, “We’ll see ya’ll later then.”
The library door slammed shut leaving the unicorn and earth pony staring at each other in silence.
Pinkie turned her cheek to Twilight and closed her eyes. “I’m ready.”
Confusion mixed with the anger in the purple mare’s head. “Ready? Ready for what?”
“Hit me, hurt me, use your magic.”
The pink pony’s straightforward response froze Twilight in place. Earlier she imagined using her magic to enact all sorts of punishment on the one responsible for her pain. Now her friend sat in front of her with that same pain in those deep blue eyes.
Twilight sighed in defeat, “I’m not gonna hit you.”
“You should, I… I deserve it.”
Twilight just stood there, unsure if she should even talk about the tirade last night, “Did you mean it?”
Pinkie looked into her eyes, “Of course I didn’t. I just wanted to get away, I thought if I made you mad you would just forget about it, we’d have a fight, make up, and move on being best friends. It didn’t work out though because… I really was excited when you asked me out.”
The unicorn's eyes began to water, “Then why…. Why turn me down?”
Pinkie turned her head in shame. “I couldn’t handle losing somepony again.”
“Again?”
The pink pony nodded her head slowly. “I dated somepony else for awhile, we played and hung out a lot and it was awesome having another pony that wanted to be with me because I’m me and not just because I threw great parties.”
Twilight sat patiently waiting for her friend to finish. She never thought that there may have been something more to their fight last night than a wild mood swing, looking back now she realized how obvious it was and how much her affection for the party pony seemed to have dulled her scholarly senses. “Do I know them?”
Pinkie nodded again.
“Who?”
Pinkie bit her lip, “I’m not sure I should say.” The pink pony twitched as Twilight wrapped her hoof around her shoulder.
“You can’t keep running away. I’m your friend, you can tell me anything.”
Silence reigned as the pink pony sat deep in thought for a time. Suddenly, Pinkie’s voice returned, barely a whisper. “It was Rainbow.”
Twilight pulled her friend in close hugging her loosely on her shoulder. All of the animosity and anger she bore toward her friend had now vanished. “Tell me about it…. please?”
Pinkie drew in a deep breath and pulled away from her friend slightly, “Rainbow and I have always been friends since we met, I would always go to her practice sessions and cheer her on. One day, after one of her flying sessions she asked if I wanted to grab a bite with her and before I knew it, we started eating out together every weekend. One of those nights she kept staring at me like I had something in my teeth because that happens to me a lot, do you know how often I end up with a piece of hay stuck in my teeth? It happens all the time. I wonder if I need braces or some-
“Pinkie…..”
The pink pony’s eyes met hers and an apologetic smile followed,”Opps. Anyway, she kept staring at me and I asked her what was wrong. Out of nowhere she asked me out on a date, a REAL date. Not the lunch dates we had on the weekends… a real date. I was so happy I nearly screamed, the coolest pony in Ponyville asked ME out of all ponies!”
“How did it go?”
Pinkie maintained a small smile, “it was a disaster. We went to some fancy restaurant and didn’t like anything on the menu so we asked for waffles and sometime during the night something happened with a lampshade and a bottle of wine and we both got kicked out covered in syrup.”
Twilight stifled a giggle, “Somehow, I think that’s a fitting end to a date with you.”
“I know… So we got kicked out and I noticed a bit of syrup dangling off Rainbow’s chin and without thinking I licked it off. I thought she would be upset at me or something, but she sat there just staring at me with the cutest smile and before I knew it she kissed me!”
Twilight shook her head hardly believing the pony being described could be the Rainbow Dash she knew, “It sounds like you two had fun together. If you got along so well, why did you break up?”
Pinkie’s face fell again, “Rainbow was worried about being in the Wonderbolts. It was fine when we first started dating, but as we went out more and more, she stopped practicing as much as she usually did. One day she just stopped talking to me altogether. I looked all over town and couldn’t find her anywhere! So I asked another pegasus to look for her. As it turned out she was hiding in a cloud the whole time!”
“Rainbow is one of the bravest ponies we know, why would she hide from you?”
“That’s what I asked her… she said I took up too much of her time, that if she stayed with me she could never make her dream come true.” Twilight pulled her back on her shoulder as the tears returned to the earth pony’s eyes.
“She… she said I was a waste of time!” Pinkie lost control sobbing into the unicorn’s mane soaking her with fresh tears.
“I’m sorry, Pinkie…”
Pinkie squeezed Twilight’s neck even tighter, “No, I’M sorry! I was being stupid last night! I’m so sorry!”
Twilight sat patiently as Pinkie cried out her sorrow. Somehow this wasn’t quite what she imagined would happen the next time she saw the party pony, but she played her part waiting for the sobbing to slow down. “I don’t get it. You and Rainbow hang out all the time. You weren’t mad at her for breaking up with you?”
The pink pony pulled away from her friend again wiping tears from her eyes. “Of course I was mad, but I can’t stay mad forever. Eventually you showed up and before we knew it, we were the elements of harmony. We both knew we’d have to move on and leave it behind us, so we went back to being friends. To tell the truth I missed having her at my parties.” Pinkie stared deep into Twilight’s eyes, “Please, just tell me we can at least be friends after this.”
Twilight smiled back at her, “Of course we’re still friends… but just to be clear, did you mean anything you said last night?”
Pinkie drew in a deep breath, “I was just scared. That’s why I said those things. I know you don’t rely on the princess for everything, you hate asking her for anything.”
“What about my studies?”
Pinkie gave a soft smile to her purple friend, “Sometimes it’s really funny watching you read through all those dusty old books.”
Twilight frowned. “So you do think I spend too much time with my books…”
“Maybe a little, but remember the fire at Sugarcube corner? I panicked and almost threw water into a grease fire. You stopped me just in time and grabbed the fire extinguisher. If you hadn’t read that book about fire forensics and fire procedure, the whole place would’ve burned down and it would’ve been my fault.”
Twilight’s face softened a bit, the beginnings of a smile forming at the corner of her mouth.
“And, if it wasn’t for you, I’d still be fighting with one of my best friends. You coming here is one of the best things to ever happen to Ponyville. I know you’re still mad and that it still hurts, but I’m sorry for what I said, and if you still want to, I’d love to go out with you.”
Happiness, anger, and sorrow roiled in Twilight’s heart, Pinkie had finally accepted her feelings, but the hurt was still there, “I forgive you… but I’m not sure I can go out with you, not after last night.”
The pink pony nodded slowly, “I understand. I’m just glad I didn’t ruin our friendship. Thanks Twilight, for listening to me. I’m going back to Sugarcube Corner. I hope to see you later.” With that the party pony turned and headed for the door, her head still a little low to the ground.
Twilight stared as the pink pony walked away. she felt proud of herself for forgiving her and that she was able to help her with such a sad point in her life, and yet she couldn’t help but think she was making a mistake. All the anger left her when she saw the pain in Pinkie’s eyes, so why was she holding back now? The front door creaked open slowly as Pinkie walked through it. Twilight took to her hooves and galloped across the library floor.
“Pinkie! Wait!”
Twilight jumped into the air leaping straight for her pink friend.
“Huh? WOAAAAAH!” Pinkie screamed as they collided and tumbled end over end in the street before coming to a stop.
“Twilight? What are you doing?” The pink pony lay on her back staring up into her friend’s eyes beaming down on her burning fiercely with resolve.
“I am NOT letting you get away, not like that! I went through a lot of trouble to ask you out and by Celestia, we’re going out!”
Pinkie’s eyes glanced all around at the ponies gathering around them. “Uhhhhh, maybe you should wait till we’re alone.”
“I DON’T CARE!” Twilight locked lips with the pony beneath her putting the entire world away. She felt the surprise in Pinkie melt away only to be replaced by acceptance. Though she had never kissed anypony before, Twilight guessed she was doing a pretty decent job at it if her friend’s reaction was any indication. Reluctantly she pulled away slowly and peered down into Pinkie’s eyes which were half-lidded and twitching in bliss. Grabbing her friend’s hooves she slowly pulled Pinkie up and steadied her on her hooves as a huge smile spread across her Face.”
“Let’s do that again!”