Twilight was cantering through the halls of the castle, her first priority on her list of things to have for the slumber party: obtain extra pillows and some blankets. The reason she went to the castle was because of how short notice the party was, along with how limited her budget was in order to acquire several things before the night.
Being the prized pupil that she was, Twilight was able to feel free to request almost anything from the maids in the castle and have it be delivered with no amount of questioning nor hesitation from them… it was something she was not eager to abuse.
It didn’t matter where she was heading to or whether she had a specific place in mind to go. She only needed to find a maid that could fulfill her request before the night could fall upon them.
It didn’t take her that long in her search, for Twilight had encountered a maid walking humbly in her direction with a quick well practiced trot.
“Excuse me, miss?” Twilight attempted to call for her attention and succeeded once she saw her stop to meet the lavender unicorn.
“Do you require something, Lady Twilight?” asked the maid, giving a courteous bow to her superior, eager to please her in whatever the princess’s student needed.
It was a little uncomfortable for Twilight to be in such position but she needed to try to keep herself calm in order to be clear in what she needed, “I... uhm... can you please deliver some extra pillows and a few blankets to my tower today, before sundown, if it’s not much of a bother?” she was polite in her request and did her best to not make any imposing move upon the mare, to avoid causing her to think that some sort of punishment would happen to her if she failed on pleasing her superior.
“Of course, Lady Twilight. I will make sure that your request is fulfilled immediately,” declared the maid with a respectful bow, and soon turned around to trot directly to, what Twilight could only guess was, the supply room and rushed to do her job.
“Thank you!” Twilight shouted before she lost sight of her. Now that that was done, it was now time to obtain the next thing from her list: some groceries in the market district.
Marking a check on the top of her list, Twilight took towards the direction that led to the main gate and to the main street out of the castle, where two guards had been stationed in order to check upon incoming and outgoing ponies.
“Good morning, sirs,” she greeted with her usual kindness as she walked past them.
“Good morning, Lady Twilight. Heading to the library early?” asked one of the guards, knowing too well the daily routine of the scholarly unicorn.
Twilight stopped and smiled at both ponies. “Actually, I am heading to the market district to buy some things for tonight,” she explained as she saw the two stallions mouth go agape.
“Re- really!? You never do th- I mean. Ahem... Have a good day then, Lady Twilight!” saluted the same guard as his partner did the same, both being surprised at such a sudden change of pace, since many ponies that worked in the castle knew that it was Spike that was usually the one in charge of handling the shopping for Twilight.
“Thank you, and you two have a good day, as well!” Twilight said back and trotted away to the inner part of the city.
“It’s good to have friends, right?” asked the guard to his partner once she saw the mare go off in the distance.
“Definitely. I have never seen Lady Twilight do anything for somepony else before,” replied his partner from aside, giving a soft smile to the mare as she got out of sight, before returning to their usual stoic demeanor.
Twilight gazed at the sun to gauge the time, and she decided that she should probably take a quicker pace to the market district, before things got to crowded.
Canterlot Kiosk is certainly the place that Spike had recommended her to go, and he helped to make a list of which stands she could get a discounted price during her shopping spree. Many stalls aligned the road, with each one holding on sale typical daily life supplies and other not so typical things that could only be obtained in other regions of the land.
Twilight could see the many ponies walking throughout the many stalls. Most of them were servants that had been dealt the task to restock the shelves of their patrons, as they inspected the contents and selected only the best things that the vendors could offer.
From the small list of local shops, she needed to find a certain stall that would be selling the first thing on her buying list.
Fortunately for Twilight, the walk didn’t last long, as the lavender unicorn found the first thing she needed on her list and rushed to the location of the broccoli stand.
Keeping a friendly smile towards the mare that was in charge of the stall and taking out her scroll to prepare for finishing this task.
“Good morning. I would like to buy two batches of broccoli, please,” she requested politely to the unicorn mare from the other side of the counter, who was returning the same smile at her.
“Right away, miss! And let me add that we have the best product this city can offer!” the mare said, using the boastful slogan towards Twilight, since she considered that she was a new buyer that could become a regular customer, while placing the vegetables that the client requested on the counter for the lavender mare to judge for herself.
Twilight collected her broccoli, putting them in her saddlebags, and left the necessary bits in its place. “Thank you very much,” she said before trotting off to the next stall, though not before making a mark next to the word broccoli on her list.
Once Twilight was out of earshot the mare pondered on a simple question she had from the moment she saw the lavender unicorn arrive to her little stall.
“Have I met that mare before?” she asked herself while another mare, from another stall, leaned closer to her friend. “I think I have met her before.”
“That’s Twilight Sparkle!” her friend answered with an urgent tone as if she was under a rock during the week long of news about the six heroines of Equestria. “She is the prized student of princess Celestia, and little Spike, her ward, comes here often, to buy from our business!” her friend reminded as she saw the lavender unicorn vanish among the crowd.
“What? Really!?” the mare from the broccoli stand jumped from her stand, not believing that such a huge celebrity had come and bought her product just as any other pony did, and soon enough brought her shame for not treating Twilight with the respect she deserved.
After that, the word about, Twilight’s presence, was quickly spread through the entire market district, and everypony, even those who roamed among got the news about the lavender unicorn was doing shopping with them.
The murmurs around Twilight began to increase, and the feeling of gazes falling solemnly on her increased as well as she continued to walk towards her next destination to continue her shopping.
“Good morning. I would like to have…” Twilight was in the middle of her request, but she noticed something from the corner of her eye, something she found slightly worrisome and quite disturbing to a degree for her well being.
The owner of the stall was smiling quite broadly and watched Twilight without a blink from his eyes, eyes that were expecting to fulfill anything the lavender unicorn wished from him.
“Yes?” asked the stallion, awaiting for his customer to make the order he was so eager to obey. “What can I get’cha?”
The way that he asked was something that made Twilight uncomfortable, as she felt that not only the stallion was watching at her with desire, but also the other ponies’ eyes around her were also on her, watching her... as if she was somepony out of place.
“It’s Twilight Sparkle!” shouted a mare from behind the lavender unicorn, and with that affirmation, everypony rushed closer, surrounding her, and began to shout their attention to her in an ecstatic way.
“Lady Twilight, can I have your autograph?”
“Can you tell me how powerful your magic is?”
“How can I become Celestia’s prized pupil, like you?”
“Is it true that you are more powerful than Princess Celestia herself!?”
“Please let me have a picture with you!”
Those and many other questions and requests filled Twilight’s ears as they also pulled her limbs from one place to another in order to have her attention for themselves.
Twilight, for her part, wasn’t having any comfort at all with with all the ponies around her as they struggled to have a moment with her without her consent, pulling her from one place to another, shouting at her ear in order to be heard and bombarding her eyes with flashes of light with cameras, that they conveniently brought with themselves.
All the peer pressure that the crowd began to give, made the unicorn feel desperate to leave the place immediately, without being followed or being sought out from her escape.
She quickly channeled her magical energy, as she recalled the basic proceedings of the magical formula to complete a teleportation spell, in order to get away from the many ponies that still barraged her with questions and requests.
Without any warning nor having any idea of what was about to happen, the crowd closed their eyes for a moment, as they were suddenly blinded with a flash of mulberry light from the spell. After they recovered their sight, they noticed the absence of the lavender unicorn that was once in front of them.
“Hey! Where did she go?” asked a stallion as he glanced around, searching for Twilight.
Noticing that nopony could find the lavender unicorn, all the ponies groaned in disappointment and dispersed from the point where they gathered, returning to their usual chores of shopping from before Twilight’s arrival. Certainly, an opportunity was lost that day for those ponies, as they all felt that they reached the silent conclusion that nothing good had come from assaulting their heroine with such a lack of consideration to the wielder of the Element of Magic.
At the other side of the kiosk, inside of an alley, Twilight reappeared, with heavy breathings and a shaky posture, she took a look over herself before nodding satisfied that nothing was out of place, except for a few little burnt marks. “Not bad for a first test run,” she complimented to herself with a satisfactory smile, but she then frowned once she looked back to the street that connected back to the Kiosk. It was clear that going back there again would not be an option anymore.
Twilight then checked her saddlebags and was glad that her belongings were still intact, including the broccoli she recently bought.
“I can’t risk it going back there again. Those ponies might actually begin to mug me,” she guessed, and with a defeated sigh, she started to turn around and head back to the castle.
“Twilight!” exclaimed a pony from behind, which caused the lavender unicorn to scream, startled. In her fear, Twilight didn’t hesitate to go full on gallop, but she was stopped by a magical tug on her shoulder, which forced to turn around and meet with a mint green unicorn. “Hey, what’s the rush for, Twilight?” asked Lyra with a smile as her magical hand vanished.
Twilight let go a breath of relief once she saw that it was only her friend that was behind her and smiled. “Sorry, Lyra. I was just startled because I was assaulted by all the ponies back in the Kiosk, so I kinda panicked when you called me,” she said as she rubbed the back of her head as she neared Lyra. “So, what are you doing here? If you don’t mind my question.”
“I was just on my usual daily shopping routine,” she replied with a casual tone as she pointed back to the market. “Usually, I go to that one over there.”
Twilight flinched once she noticed where she was pointing, while Lyra noticed her pained expression all the same. “What’s with that face? Did something happen there?” she asked, concerned for the reason her friend was worried.
“I was assaulted recently, by a group of ponies, asking me questions and demanding autographs from me, and the worst was that they were pulling me from one side to another, like two foals fighting for a doll,” Twilight explained, feeling wary of another pony popping out to see her and calling others to follow them.
Lyra noticed how paranoid she was being and decided to keep things calm and collected. “Hey, Twilight? You don’t have to be all like that… Those ponies just wanted to meet their new famous celebrity, that’s all,” she said reassuringly with a smile, “Tell you what, I’ll go with you back there, so you don’t have to deal with them alone. Okay?” she offered, in order to calm the lavender unicorn.
“I don’t know, Lyra. Those ponies surrounded me quickly, throwing question after question at me, not even giving me a chance to reply. They consistently requested me photos with them and autographs, not caring for any proper use of forming a decent order of line, and all that was happening while they were pulling my limbs away, just to have my full attention even when there were many others that did the same,” she complained, not liking the idea one bit of it until she decided to leave the market while she still could. “I better go back home and try to do something else for tonight.” She then turned her back at the Canterlot Kiosk and began to walk away.
Lyra placed a hoof on her right shoulder. She smiled calmly to her friend as she chuckled softly. “There is no need for that, Twilight. I’ll be there with you that nothing that bad is going to happen… Again, I promise,” she assured her with a smile before trotting happily to the market.
Twilight just stood in place, watching how Lyra trotted without her to the Canterlot Kiosk with only a simple glance from behind of her to make sure that Twilight was, at least, still there.
Her mind began to tell her to go back home, just to avoid any other pony that would rush against her, like the market ponies did, until the news of the six heroines would finally end… But her heart made her remain in her place, to make her reconsider trusting in her friend’s words of reassurance and the promise of her being there, no matter the outcome.
Certainly, the decision didn’t need to be weighed upon, as Twilight made a clear decision in trusting her friend. After all, she knew that the mint green unicorn would never let her suffer alone, not even against a mob of overemotional fans that would most likely redo what began the last five minutes ago.
“Lyra, wait!” Twilight rushed to be at her side and smiled at her, “Only because you offered to be there with me,” she clarified to Lyra, which caused her to smile in return, and they both began to walk back to the market with a simple trot to the stalls.
Returning to the market district, they both walked among the ponies, who now were just averting their eyes to see both unicorns walk past them and whispering to each other. While Twilight began to gaze at every simple movement the ponies did, she was also keeping an eye for those who would dare to make a jump forward that would create a reaction from others to follow said pony.
So far, nopony dared to even point at them as both unicorns walked aimlessly across the paved sidewalk of the market while making their way through the crowd. Twilight was still looking from left to right at all the ponies she could gaze upon, but so far, nothing happened that would cause the lavender unicorn to flee.
“Uhm, Twilight?” Lyra’s voice made Twilight flinch, but she suddenly knew that it was only her friend that called. “You know what you are buying? Because we’ve been walking with no direction whatsoever for a few minutes,” she complained while trying to look calm for the other ponies to see.
“Oh. Right,” Twilight took out her grocery list and began to check it for the next item to buy. “We need to buy some potatoes and carrots. Spike told me that there is a mare from this section who would sell them to him for a good price for each vegetable,” commented Twilight as she decided to change focus, from the pedestrians towards the vendors in the stalls.
“Well, luckily for you, I know where that mare is,” expressed Lyra happily as she increased the pace. “Follow me!” she exclaimed as she trotted forward, leaving behind the lavender unicorn, which needed to rush a bit faster before she could feel herself defenseless.
Twilight had to do her best to keep up with Lyra until they arrived at a stall where carrots and potatoes were on display.
“Lyra! It’s good to see you here!” exclaimed a blue unicorn mare with brown mane once she spotted the mint green mare that was trotting towards her. “What are you in the mood for today? I got a good batch of potatoes, not unlike the last time,” she offered as she showed her a potato that was certainly in good condition for consuming.
“Hey, Vinaigrette!” Lyra said as she stepped aside to introduce her friend to the vendor. “Twilight Sparkle, this is Vinaigrette Sauce, the most trustworthy pony in selling veggies on this side of Canterlot. Vinaigrette Sauce, this is Twilight Sparkle, the smartest unicorn in all Equestria.” The two introduced mares inspected each other closely.
“So, you are the famous Twilight Sparkle. Lyra has talked so much about you,” greeted the unicorn mare, giving her a hoofshake, which Twilight returned kindly.
“I hope not that much of a famous pony,” muttered Twilight as she smiled once more to the mare. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I was in a search for a batch of potatoes and carrots to buy,” she then requested while taking a look of Vinaigrette’s vegetables.
“Search no more! Because this is the right place for what you are looking for, and for a good price as well,” declared Vinaigrette as she prepared two bags of each product Twilight requested. “Lyra here can guarantee all about the quality of our products,” she added while handing them over to the lavender unicorn with her magic.
Twilight placed both veggies in her saddlebag, but not before giving a look to Lyra, who was smiling nervously at Twilight while avoiding eye contact with her. A certain strange choice of words for Twilight to hear, since she knew that Lyra was the daughter of a noble family, and that would imply that she had somepony else to do the shopping. Also, there was the fact that they both knew each other very well.
But before she could make her friendly question about the subject, a small foal arrived slowly and stopped near the two unicorns.
“Miss Twilight?” asked Tootsie Flute, who was close to the lavender unicorn, “Can I have your autograph?” he suddenly asked before pulling out a small notebook and pencil.
It took one second for Twilight understand what the little pony wanted and another second for her to notice that the other ponies began to walk closer to her with the same eagerness to be with her.
Panic began to grow inside of her, causing Twilight to react immediately and prepare her teleportation spell to flee away once more from the mob, but a hoof on her shoulder distracted her concentration as she saw Lyra smiling and remembering her words of not abandoning her. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she smiled at the sky blue pony and took hold of the pencil and paper with her magic.
“To whom should I dedicate this to, little one?” Twilight asked as she was ready to sign the paper once she heard the filly’s reply.
The little foal shook its head, not wanting the dedication. “Only the signature, please, next to the other four,” The little pony requested wagging her tail in happy excitement, which gave Twilight an inquiry look of what he was referring to.
Twilight’s answer came once she saw that the page that she was about to sign was already filled with the signatures of Lyra, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts and Minuette, which left only Moondancer and hers.
“Okay… let me take this spot for my signature,” she said softly and wrote her name with her magic writing, and giving back the pencil and paper to the foal.
“Thank you, Lady Twilight!” exclaimed happily the foal, as he rushed through the gathering crowd that was now more conglomerated around both mares.
Feeling cornered by the surrounding ponies, Twilight took a tentative step back, but Lyra was soon taking the step forward in front of Twilight, creating a wall between the crowd and the lavender unicorn. “Alright, everypony, listen up!” began the mint green unicorn with a voice loud enough for the crowd to hear. “You can all get an autograph from Twilight Sparkle if you form a decent line…” she announced as the ponies smiled with interest and slowly began to make a line, but they stopped once Lyra continued to add more. “ And pay ten bits for each one!”
This caused several groans and complaints from the crowd of ponies while Twilight almost lost her balance from the choice of words her friend had mentioned, and she now placed a hoof on Lyra’s shoulder. “I don’t think that part of selling my autograph is a good idea,” she said softly but firmly, which caused Lyra to smile nervously and feel ashamed for her action.
“Alright, alright. There won’t be any charges for the autograph, but we still require a nice line in order for everypony to be calm!” Lyra soon corrected herself as the ponies sighed in relief and began to form the line, allowing some foals to cut to the front.
Twilight was at least glad that the crowd, this time, decided to act in proper order as she began to give autographs and take some pictures, from those who coincidentally held a camera with them.
For Twilight to be considered as a famous celebrity and to be doing this... it was still uncomfortable for her to subject herself to this, but it was something she wanted to do in order to please those who were grateful for the aversion of a catastrophe.
“Who’s next?” she asked with a pleasant smile as the next pony took a step forward.
***
In the tower, Spike was taking a moment of relaxation, once he managed to clean the house for the event, sitting on the couch and resting his body until Twilight returned.
It wasn’t long before there was knocking at the front door, and Spike groaned as he dragged his body from his position of comfort and answered the call.
“Hello?” the little dragon said as he saw the maid smiling at him.
“Sir Spike, we brought the pillows Lady Twilight has requested,” the maid announced with a proud smile of her task being near to be completed successfully.
Spike beamed happily at the announcement, since he was expecting them to come, but he soon was inquisitive, giving a good look around the mare. He couldn’t find any pair of extra pillows, or even a blanket with the mare, or nearby. “I don’t see any of the pillows,” he pointed out simply as he raised an eyebrow at the maid, curious as to know if she had dropped them somewhere on the way.
The maid was a little confused, as she had to let the little drake know where to search. “Oh, we still need to bring them up the stairs. I just went ahead to call the door and announce our arrival,” explained the maid, which caused the little dragon to be more curious as to know the reason for the maid to speak in plural, since she was the only one before him.
It took a moment for Spike to realize what the maid meant, though it became apparent as he followed the eyes of the maid and saw that another five maids were formed in line one after another with a cart attached to them that was filled with pillows.
“We were not informed on how many pillows Lady Twilight requested, so we did our best to bring these many pillows to her room, in order to fulfill her needs of having more pillows for tonight!” informed the maid as the others unhooked themselves from the carts and began to unload the pillows, loading them on their backs to bring them up through the stairs and into the tower.
Spike only remained in the doorway as he watched the group of ponies do their job, not being able to know if this is what Twilight had requested for the slumber party, since it would be bad to let the effort be set to waste by his intervention.
“Uhm, you can put them in the middle of the living room,” Spike instructed as he saw the maids began to unload the pillows in the place he indicated, leaving the pillows in the middle of the room and returning to bring the next batch, while he offered to help them with bringing more pillows inside the tower.
One by one, the maids placed a small stack of pillows one after another, going back and forth between the stack and the ones they were retreating from the base of the stairs, until the pile was big enough to reach the ceiling. Spike was impressed to see the amount of pillows the maids had gathered, and he was wondering what could Twilight be doing with such an amount.
“If I may be so bold to ask, what is Twilight planning with so many pillows?” one maid asked, as it was clear that her curiosity won against her own judgement of not wondering about the affairs of others. “We might have exaggerated the number of pillows she requested, but we didn’t wish to fail in her need for pillows,” the maid said softly.
“Twilight will be hosting a slumber party for tonight, and she requested the extra pillows for her friends, who will arrive here this night,” he replied happily as he answered the maid’s question.
The group of maids gasped in surprise and joy at the sudden news of the reluctant Twilight hosting a night party for other ponies of her age.
“Oh, how lovely... to see the young filly having a night time with friends. We have never seen her get along with those other fillies of her school,” one maid said as the others nodded in agreement, since they all had spent time servicing the lavender unicorn from time to time, but they never saw her within the company of another pony of her age. “But, if that is the case, we shouldn’t bring that many pillows here. Would you like for us to take them back and only leave those she needs?” she offered while the other maids looked at the little drake, concerned of what his reply would be.
Spike paused in thought as he looked at the pillows, placing his claw on his chin to simulate a thinking pose as he thought of what to do with such a huge amount of pillows for the night with the girls. It needed to be enclosed enough for them stably hold each other together, and also be something that could be described as fun and entertaining, something that could surprise them once they arrived.
“I think I got an idea on what to do, just give me a second,” the little dragon said as he rushed quickly to the second floor and to Twilight’s study.
Searching through several cabinets with Twilight’s personal documents, Spike began to search for a specific set of blueprints that were located in the architectural section, subsection Forts, and picked the specified file for the little idea he had in mind for the use of the pillows.
Spike then returned back down with the specific blueprints in his claws and showed the design to the six maids that awaited him, “We can use the pillows to build a fort. Twilight used to love these when she was a filly. She made less of them once she dedicated her time to more of her studies,” he confessed, showing the schemes to the maids to see how it was done.
The blueprints were drawn in a childlike fashion, and some of them had doodles of a little lavender unicorn and a pink alicorn waving hello to those who saw them, but the details and measures were very accurate and neatly done, making it easy to follow.
“We can assist you in constructing it, if that is what you wish,” the maid offered her aid, along the others.
Spike smiled and pointed at the pillows. “Very well then. I’ll be supervising, so that everything will be in order and that the fort will be well built for tonight!” he exclaimed, happy to be in charge of the team of maids. They saluted like a group of guards, ready to follow orders from the little drake, and began to gallop to build the base of the fortress of pillows.
***
“Thanks, Miss Twilight!” one stallion said as he happily left with his camera hanging on his neck, trotting with glee that he had taken a photo with the hero of Equestria.
Twilight wiped the sweat off her brows and exhaled with satisfaction. “That was the last of them,” she said to herself, smiling at Lyra, who was currently talking with Vinaigrette due to the time Twilight had spent dealing with the ponies vying for her attention. “Never thought that so many ponies would be requesting something from me,” she said once she returned to Lyra and Vinaigrette, while she regained her saddlebags and placed them on her back to continue.
“It sure did get hectic since the word got out about you being here and more ponies arrived,” Lyra said as she and Twilight waved goodbye to her friend, Vinaigrette, and marched down the street to continue with the shopping Twilight had to do. “You gotta admit that giving autographs and receiving photos was pretty fun though,“ she said as she tried to make small talk of it.
“Not really the type of fun that I would like,” replied Twilight, which caused Lyra to look at her in surprise and disbelief.
“What do you mean?” asked Lyra, slightly curious as to know why she chose such words, since it was really thrilling to be acclaimed and cheered for being a hero. That was… until something called her attention.
“To be honest, I’m not very fond of being the center of attention, not even when I was chosen to be Celestia’s personal pupíl,” Twilight said as she focused on the ground rather than her surroundings. “The compliments and the praises aren’t something that suit me well… I just did what anypony could’ve done at that time, and that’s it. You know what I’m saying?” she asked, but soon noticed that Lyra was busy waving at some foals that were talking to her.
The mint green unicorn returned her attention back to Twilight, as if nothing was amiss. “Oh, sorry, did you said something?” she asked once she returned next to Twilight.
The lavender unicorn snorted and decided to continue. She might as well indulge her friends by allowing them to bask in the glory, since they had a participating role in all of it.
“Nothing,” she mumbled as she continued her way forward to continue with the shopping.
Lyra had noticed how silent it had become during their walk through the plaza, and Twilight was now stacked with all the groceries she needed.
Twilight set to a stop, once she arrived to a bifurcation of the road and smiled thinly at Lyra. “Well, I should go back home and help Spike with the finishing touches for the night,” she said.
“Okay… See you there then!” replied the mint green unicorn with excitement, eager to see what things Twilight had planned for the slumber party.
The lavender unicorn nodded and turned to return to the castle and continue with the next step of the preparations, which consisted more of cooking and preparing a good dinner for the evening.
Even if the unexpected mob of ponies delayed her time in the market, it wasn’t much of a problem. There was still enough time to prepare things before the night arrived. A good dinner and the plans of what kind of activities would be held at the time were something that can still be made, with even a little time to spare for a book.
With all things good, Twilight was certain that no problem would fall on her behalf in regards to the planning of the party, and it would be a huge success for her first party with her friends… But for some reason, she felt that something was of amiss in some part of her plan. Something that was almost crucial in the fact that one could say was the key towards making it what one could call a party.