The Box
“Ok, Twilight. You got this… You know… So nothing bad can happen if you know right?” For the past 5 minuets, Twilight had been sitting huddled in the corner of the library, her eyes full of terror and glued to a large cardboard box in the middle of the room. “I mean… It’s not a surprise if you know right? And if it’s not a surprise, then it can’t hurt you right? Right?” a fresh stream of tears ran down Twilight’s face, but she made sure not to take her eyes off the box.
The box had been delivered 10 minuets ago. As soon as Twilight saw it she knew what it contained. She even used her magic to confirm it.
“No… Because it probably knows that I know, and it’ll still hurt me, maybe it’ll hurt me more than it would have hurt me because now it’s gonna be angry that I know…”
Twilight’s immediate action upon confirming the contents of the box had been to call out for Spike’s help. But the baby dragon was nowhere to be found. Twilight had called out his name over and over again, only accepting that he was not present when her voice became sore, leaving her with nothing left but to cry and watch that box.
“But it doesn’t matter what degree of hurt it’s going to hurt me. It’s still gonna hurt me more than anything.”
The box itself was a 4foot cube, it was also a local delivery so instead of being heavily packaged with packing tape and cord there was a thin line of tape keeping the box shut but being no barrier to the pony who waited inside.
“But not if I hurt it first.” Twilight magicked a heavy book to her, a heavy tome that read ‘Defending yourself from things that scare you 101’. “Perfect!” Twilight gathered up her courage and began to approach the box, the book levitating in front of her. She prepared herself then tapped the box with her for-hoof.
“SURPRI…!” Pinkie Pie had burst out of the box, complete with streamers and balloons. However as soon as she’d done so, she felt a searing pain in the back of her head. She begun to feel dizzy, then everything started to go dark as her senses shut themselves off.
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“Wake up Sugar-cube. You all right Sugar-cube? Sugar-cube!” If the constant calling of a familiar voice didn’t rouse the deranged earth pony, the repetition of sweet things definitely did the trick.
Pinkie Pie tried to lift herself onto her haunches, but a soft hoof from Fluttershy stopped her, so she lay back down in Twilight’s bed, “What happened? Did I fall-asleep standing up or something? Mrs Cakes told me it’d be impossible for me to run out of energy… Well I guess that myth was busted.”
All 5 of Pinkie Pie’s best friends were there, looks of concerns on all their faces. Fluttershy leant closer to Pinkie Pie, her expression the gravest of all, “Pinkie Pie, I need you to tell me the last thing you remember, and it’s absolutely imperative that you answer as accurately as possible.”
“The last thing I remember was…” There was a sudden and uncomfortably long pause, her friends getting closer in anticipation of Pinkie Pie’s answer, “You asking me about the last thing I remember.” Simultaneous face-hooves ensued.
“No-no, I need you to tell me what you remember the moment you lost consciousness and everything going dark. Did you feel a sharp pain of any description?” replied Fluttershy who, along with Pinkie Pie, seemed to be the only ponies in the room whose hoof wasn’t spontaneously magnetized towards her face.
Pinkie Pie thought about her answer, a little more carefully than she did the first time. “Yes… I do remember… I was throwing a Surprise One Pink Pony Party for Twilight. Then when I jumped out of the surprise package, she hit me in the back of the head with a book. She definitely surprised –me- when she did that. Surprising someone who is throwing you a surprise party is a very clever thing to do. Though next time Twilight, you should try something a little less violent.”
Fluttershy sighed in relief and turned to the others, “Well at least she doesn’t seem to have suffered any brain damage.” Not that anypony would ever notice the difference, but nopony said that out-loud.
“Well that still leaves a lot ‘a’ unanswered questions…” Applejack turned towards Twilight, “Like why Twi’ here hit ya’ in the back ‘a’ the head in the first place.”
“She scared me!” Twilight defended herself, “I was just minding my own business…”
“You were crying.” Pinkie stated blatantly.
Applejack looked from Twilight to Pinkie Pie then back again, “Crying?”
“You knew I was crying?” Twilight said a little angrily and approached Pinkie Pie, “Then why didn’t you get out of the box?”
“Well… I thought if you were crying then you really needed a surprise party so… Wait a minuet… You weren’t crying because I was in the box were you?”
Applejack thought about the situation a bit. Sure Pinkie Pie came to some random conclusions at times, but this time it seemed to make a disturbing amount sense. “Twi’… There’s something you’re not telling us, isn’t there.”
Twilight backed away from her friends, she didn’t say anything.
“Twilight, why did Pinkie Pie being in a box have that effect on ya’? It’s ok Sugarcube, you can tell Applejack.”
Twilight found herself cornered, the wall at her back and her best friends at her front, there was no getting out of it this time, “Because… I thought she was…”
“Thought she was who Sugarcube…”
“T… Trixie…”
“TRIXIE?!” Everyone said in shocked unison. Even Applejack was left dumbfound for a second or two. Not that it should have been a surprise, Twilight and Trixie’s history was well known around the town, particularly to the Mayor Mare who was usually the one left with the job of cleaning up the mess of their epic battles. But until now, Twilight had never shown any signs of being terrified of Trixie.
“She’s done the thing with the box before… I thought she was trying to do it again… I thought she was going to hurt me…”
Applejack stepped closer to Twilight, “Hurt you how Twilight,” even the innocent mind of this earth pony was beginning to understand, “She didn’t… You know…” A scarlet line ran across Applejack’s face, “She didn’t… Touch you… Or anything… Did she?” Twilight replied with silence, the unicorn too ashamed to even look at her friends, “Woah Nelly…” Applejack slowly turned to the others, “I think Twilight and I need some alone time…” the indicated towards the door, “And no eaves dropping.”
“I wasn’t gonna…” Rainbow Dash prematurely defending herself, only to receive glares from the other ponies.
With that, they left the two of them alone in Twilight’s room.
“Umm… I’m still here you know.” Called out the bedridden Pinkie Pie.
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Dearest Princess Celestia
Friends do not keep secrets from each other. Friends are there for you every step of the way. But sometimes there are secrets that you feel are too dark to tell even your best friends. You feel that if you tell them, they’ll think different of you, and you just bottle those secrets up forever. But there are some friends who will never judge you, no matter what you tell them. They will always be there for you, to be a shoulder to cry on when you fear that others would be judgmental.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
Author’s Note: This is a continuation of a clop-fic I wrote a long time ago, back before I got into proper fanfic writing. It wasn’t great, but I felt I needed to explore the long-term effect it had on Twilight. It was also an exercise in building suspense, in the first scene. Writing this also showed me something about Applejack I hadn’t perceived. For me, Applejack has just been… There… Existing without being able to add to the story. But now I see Applejack for what she really is; Twilight’s letter sums it up pretty well. Applejack represents the perfect friend. You are extremely lucky to have a friend like Applejack. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this fan-fic. I haven’t written much that doesn’t revolve around Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. In fact I need to just knuckle down and get all these half finished Fanfics finished.