Twilight is desperate for love—and that desperation dooms her chances for it.

Hence The Love Protocols. Rules set in place to stop her feelings from making a mistake. Desperate enough to nearly date anyone, she needs the rules in place from getting with the wrong pony—or messing things up with the right one. 

Spike assures Twilight she's not so shallow and that, given dating experience, her tastes would narrow. Yet she requests his aid in finding love at a bar. 

How will our wingman fare in helping Twilight find somepony to love?

[Cover by Maren]

A head full of romance is what many Canterlot ponies would call a frivolous waste of time. Everypony was meant to play by the rules of high society: keep your nose in the air, laugh at important ponies' jokes, and attend all of the right parties. Upper Crust and Jet Set had been diligent in raising their daughter Crystal Wishes to be a pony everypony would know, but she wanted more out of life than that. She hoped she would someday meet a handsome prince and fall in love, just like in the stories she wrote.

Crystal knew life wasn't as easy as a foal's tale, but that didn't stop her from dreaming. All of the wishes, hopes, and dreams inside her heart escaped into her precious notebook as she wrote about princesses in power and dashing knights. So long as nopony found out her secret, she could continue to play the part of a dutiful daughter while waiting for her own love story to begin.