The sun yielded down to make way for the silver orb to rise from its resting point. Hiding behind the mountains, the golden sphere lowered to rest in the horizon to shun its light, revealing the gleaming stars to have their moment to shine next to the moon under the black mantle of darkness.
Under the moonbeams, and the light of the oil lanterns of the castle gardens that illuminated the place, Twilight Sparkle and Spike walked down the cemented road back to her tower where she lived and spent her time studying under the tutelage of Princess Celestia, exhausted after their fifth, and hopefully last, press conference of the week after the incident, that every pony began to call, the Longest Night.
With a slam from the door of her tower, Twilight rushed to the stairs of the upper levels passing by the library section and towards her bedroom, from the very top of the building, and with an unceremonious movement, she dropped her body to the bed, finally having a rest from what the afternoon meeting.
“And I thought that meeting wasn’t going to last that long,” pointed out Spike as he watched how Twilight tried to rest her body to welcome the world of the sleep and embrace a good well rest for the night. “Twilight, don’t you want to have dinner first, before going to sleep?” asked the little drake, once noticing that his caretaker was about to give in to slumber.
Twilight opened one eye to peek at the dragon who asked her a question about eating that caused her to remember that she had to eat, as her stomach began to grumble in need to be filled by food. “Better do it now, rather than to have a midnight snack,” replied Twilight, taking off from the bed and deciding to follow Spike down to the first floor where the kitchen was.
Spike began to place out some ingredients to prepare a simple daisy sandwich for the two of them while Twilight joined him to give some assistance in the slicing of some vegetables, just to go along with the baby dragon to make the dinner more quick and easier.
Both took a seat at the small table with a sandwich for each of them, along with a glass of warm milk to drink it down.
“So… I assume that the last interviewer was just the same as the others, right?” asked Spike as he took a bite from his meal and awaited for Twilight to make her reply.
“It was just the same as the others: same questions about how the six of us ventured into the depths of the Everfree Forest, defeated Nightmare Moon, returned Princess Celestia from her prison and freed Princess Luna from the darkness,” replied Twilight, biting her sandwich and chewing it a few times. “Honestly, I would prefer for this to stop, but every time I wish to say no, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine insist that we all should go and let everypony know how we saved the world, and then Minuette agrees, thinking that it would be fun. Moondancer would reason if we just shooed them away, they’d come back in greater numbers. And last would be Lyra to complete the majority vote to tell the reporters the part where she saved us from an impending doom of the giant boulder that fell slowly upon us.” She ended her complaining by taking another bite and washing it down with some milk she had been served.
“Well for most part of what you said, I’m glad that I didn’t go to that last conference” said Spike, feeling himself relief about avoiding such activity.
Twilight nodded her head in agreement, but a sudden memory from the past event appeared inside her mind and gave a little thought on the matter.
***
A small conference room, from the castle, had been scheduled for the occasion as a small group of reporters from several, if not all, cities of Equestria had taken their seats with their pencils and quills taping on their notepads, ready to write down everything they found important and interesting for their newspaper to tell.
The six unicorn heroes sat around a desk, where Twilight remained with dignified posture. Although her mind was elsewhere, Moondancer was filled with boredom as she watched the clock go slower with each second, Lemon Hearts and Minuette remained looking forward to the guests and smiling brightly, Lyra was smiling more eagerly and waving her ethereal hand for all the reporters to gain a bit more attention from them. Twinkleshine was the one responding to the current question, from her perspective on the matter.
After their return to the white city of Canterlot, it was notified to all the ponies, mostly royal guards and any affiliated organization, about the world changing event, known as the ‘longest night incident’, that caused a huge commotion in the entire kingdom. Within the explanation came the announcement of their heroes that defeated the dark alicorn and brought back the long lost Princess of the Night, along with bringing the Elements of Harmony back to life.
This brought the interest of every newspaper of every part of the land, and all demanded to know more about the incident and those who saved them from the mythical threat.
“We certainly were afraid once we saw the dark alicorn in front of us, but the fire of courage from our hearts let us stand our ground to face the dreadful opponent and to find a way to free the elements to aid us in our mission,” she began reciting moving her forehooves in a dramatic fashion to make the odyssey a more epic scene for the public. “With the spark of Friendship, we gathered the power to act against Nightmare Moon and stop her from casting her evil rule against the land of Equestria, thus cleansing her in the Magic of Friendship to stop her once and for all.” She then finished with a bow of her head, and the reporters couldn’t avoid the need to clap and stomp the floor in cheers for the tale that Twinkleshine told.
Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes after hearing the last part of their adventure, but she still wasn’t quite fond on the insistent question of the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Twilight guessed that they didn’t know that she was Princess Celestia’s sister, even if the legend tells exactly that part.
“Next question?” asked Raven from aside the six unicorns, keeping an eye on the guests to prevent any scandalous question about any subject that was instructed by Celestia herself to make use against the two royal sisters.
Many reporters began to rise to their hooves and shouted to call the attention of the six heroes of Equestria, until one of them was selected to speak his inquiry.
“Yes, Quickscope from the Morning of Canterlot,” a female unicorn reporter with a notepad and quill floating next to her introduced herself before making her question. “Did Princess Celestia grant any position of authority for the six of you? Are you affiliated in one of the military services for your royal highness?” she asked with a stern face of concentration on the position of power Element Wielders would gain after the victory they held.
Moondancer looked at the reporter with a surprised look, as did the other four, while Twilight seemed certainly disinterested on the question. All six mares looked at each other nervously without any idea on how to reply to the question.
Acting quickly, Raven assigned to take control of the conference, replying in place of Twilight’s friends. “I am sorry, but information about such a matter is only revealed by your highness, Princess Celestia, in person when the time she deems necessary.” She explained with a serious tone, with the thick uptight accent from the ones that lived the most in Canterlot possessed. “Now please, next question,” she requested from the group of reporters.
Several ponies raised their hooves, once more, and shouted for attention when Celestia’s personal secretary pointed her hoof to a stallion from behind the group. “First Column, from The Breezing News of Horseshoe Bay. Where are the Elements of Harmony located? Are they within your possession? Or in a vault inside the castle?” the reporter asked with an eager curiosity, focused on all six to see which one would answer his question.
But his answer came in the words he didn’t expected and from the last mare he expected to hear. “I am sorry, but all questions regarding about the Elements of Harmony will be ignored and not be answered by any means, so please refrain from asking about them,” she explained, watching that several hooves lowered down from her words. “Or regarding about the subject in relation of Princess Luna,” she added watching several more hooves lowered down, and noticing that the reporters began to reformulate their questions for their newspapers.
From the few ponies that kept their hoofs raised, a pegasus mare was selected to make her question for the six unicorns. “Yes, News Flash from The Truth of Trottingham,” the pony introduced himself from where she stood and looked directly to Twilight Sparkle. “Since how long have you six been friends?” Her question was simple and direct, and most of the reporters seemed a bit confused by it.
But for Twilight, it was a question that made her ears perk up and point at the source of the voice. The question was simple in every way, but yet complicated for her to answer.
With a movement of her head, she was facing her five friends. She was nervous to be the one answering. Never thinking about them as friends ever since she had met them, they all were simple classmates and project companions during her school days. That was all they had been considered from her side.
The lavender unicorn bit her lip as the seconds began to drag on. She wouldn’t dare say that they only tagged along with her from the beginning of her quest, and through many circumstances, they ended up becoming bonded in the ties of friendship. That would insinuate that it took six strangers to meet and join forces to become the wielders of the elements. Such scandal would never be well received among the ponies, or that was what Twilight thought for herself.
But when she saw the other five mares, none of them showed any sign of worry or concern of such matter, such was the case when she saw how Minuette was easy going with her reply.
“We have been friends ever since we have met in our first day of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” she began, looking at the specific reporter. “We met at the first day of class, when they presented us among the classmates, and we joined to make a group activity during class,” she described, as the other four mares nodded in agreement of the story of their first encounter.
All the reporters seemed convinced by the answer and began to note down the words that they heard from the blue unicorn and awaited to have the permission, from the mare in charge, of having their own questions answered from their heroes.
Twilight, for her part, tried to pay attention to the reporters and their questions, but her mind drifted to that last question. She couldn’t believe that they considered her a friend from that time, after so long, because of the fact that she didn’t know anything of them other than their names, and that made the guilt even harder to bare. It was a thought that haunted her through the remainder of the interview and the rest of the day.
***
Even now, she had that dreadful feeling inside of her heart, and the discomfort of it about what they would think of her if they ever found out about this truth made her worries and fear grow.
All six of them are united by the Elements and by the union of Friendship. If they find out how cold and indifferent she had treated them, they could end their bond of harmony and cause the fall of the kingdom and all of the ponies living in it, to leave in its wake a desolated badland that mutated all living creatures into dreadful pony-eating monsters that would wander over the land in a ravenous hunt! That was what her mind concluded, with a mild panic, and with her worries in check, she needed to know how close she was to that future.
“He- hey Spike?” she stuttered with her eyes focused on the half sandwich on her plate. “How… How long have I been... hanging out with Moondancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine and Lyra?” she hesitatingly asked with a concerned curiosity about the subject.
Spike scratched his chin in thought as he gave a speculated answer. “Well, considering that you focused all your attention on your studies and your lessons with Princess Celestia, along with your times spent in the library, I might guess that you never hung out with them ever since I was assigned as your assistant,” he replied with a matter of fact tone in his voice. “Kinda surprised that they still consider you their friend,” he blurted out without a second thought.
“Oh... I see...” she said deflated, lowering her ears to her head and her eyes vacant from any emotion but depression.
Spike noticed his error of words as he began to flail his arms, trying to dispel what he just said with brutal honesty. “No! What I mean is that you should definitely go and hang out with them more often, now that you have the chance of doing it!” he tried his best to say in order to lift up her mood a bit.
Twilight moved off the chair, deflated. She then made a defeated walk towards the stairs, and made the slow ascendant through them to the upper levels of her tower.
Spike facepalmed and rushed behind Twilight, though not before eating the rest of his dinner and drink. As he made his way up the stairs, his mind raced to find a way to lift up the dark cloud that he unintentionally made for Twilight.
He rushed up to the bedroom, but he stopped once he saw Twilight in the study room, where she was focusing fervently on writing down in a scroll with her quill that was empowered by her magic.
“Hey… I didn’t mean that, you know?” The baby dragon twiddled his fingers in nervousness, as if to find the right words for a proper apology. “I think that they all just want to hang out with you more often,” he suggested, hoping that Twilight would accept it.
Twilight just remained in place, focused in her writing, not batting an eye towards Spike. Her magic focused on her pen, finishing the last part of the letter with her signature and began to check for any errors.
Spike leaned closer to see what Twilight had written, and then to Twilight to see her determined expression.
“You’re right, Spike,” she said and scrolled up the parchment, placing a ribbon on it, and laying it down on the desk before continuing on to the next one to write on. “Moondancer once told me about how sad she was that I had gone to investigate about the Elements of Harmony and Nightmare Moon instead of going to her party that day,” she continued to explain, while focusing her magic on the quill to fill it with ink, so as to proceed with the next letter. “If they never followed me to the station, taking the train to Ponyville, our friendship might had ended then and there,” she deduced, finishing the second scroll and continuing with another one, doing her best to not think of what a disastrous ending would have happened if they weren’t the element bearers with her that time.
“So, what are you going to do about it?” asked Spike, curiously looking at the well known face of concentration that the studious unicorn had when she focused on a assignment.
“A party!” she replied, as if that was the solution of all her problems and more.
“A party?” repeated Spike with a deadpan expression, deflated on how simple the solution was. “Are you sure something like that will work?” He was a bit dubious about Twilight’s plan of action on the matter, but from what experience he had with the unicorn, he had seen worse.
Twilight gave Spike a big smile and her always confident look. “Not just any party, Spike, but a slumber party. It’s one of the perfect reunions to gather a selected group of ponies to hang along with in specific night time activities, where the focus among ponies is at the maximum, and the attention is divided among them all,” she gave her concrete explanation of the plan as she finished the last of the invitations and stacked them neatly on the desk.
“A simple party can do that just fine, Twilight,” pointed out Spike, thinking that the customary party would bring out the same result. “You don’t need a slumber party for those kind of things.”
“No, Spike. A simple party would only be made of loud music and many games, causing the guests to do several things from one side to another, and it will ruin my purpose to talk and get to know them on a personal level. A slumber party will make it more private, and to a personal level where we can talk calmly and have some good fun in a group instead of being apart from one another,” she explained while taking a book in her magical aura from the bookshelf. “Slumber Party 101 is an excellent guide on what to do in these occasions,” she added, giving the book to the drake for him to check out the book’s content.
The baby dragon gave a look at the pages and read some parts of it. “Huh... It does have some specific traits on how to make a good slumber party,” he deduced, closing the book and returning it to Twilight.
“Of course. With this, I can get to know all my friends and avoid a potential disaster from happening,” said Twilight, placing the book back to its place in the bookshelf.
“What was that? I didn’t hear that last part,” asked Spike as he leaned closer to hear correctly what Twilight had told him.
“Nothing, Spike,” she replied, taking the five letters and piling them in order before sending to bed her little assistant. “Now, you better go to sleep. You will deliver these tomorrow and help me organize the party for that day,” she then dissuaded Spike’s intrigue with instructions for the next day’s event.
Spike shrugged his arms and decided to go get some rest for the night.
Twilight, for her part, took one last parchment and dipped her quill in the ink, waiting to drip off any excess, to make a checklist of activities for the next night event and preparations for dinner, and some snacks.
There was much to prepare before the next morning arrived.