//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Foalsitting Follies // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// There was a faint clatter as Pinkie Pie placed the saucer and the teacup down upon the table in front of Twilight Sparkle. She had carried it in her mouth, as earth ponies tended to do, and even with much care, some of the tea had sloshed over the side of the teacup. Under most circumstances, this would bother Twilight to no end, which was why she made the tea most of the time, but not tonight, not now. For now, it was nice to have somepony taking care of her, and she decided to let her annoyances go.   A little spill was nothing to fret over.   “The porcelain always makes my teeth feel tingly,” Pinkie remarked while she pulled her head away with her eyes focused on the saucer in question. She sniffed at the rising steam, smiled a tired smile, and with a turn of her head, she looked at Twilight, who sat on the floor beside the low table. “I’m sorry you had a bad day, Twilight.”   Looking into Pinkie’s eyes, Twilight realised that she had left a task undone. Lifting a foreleg, her horn flared with sudden light and using her magic, she pulled Pinkie closer. She wrapped her foreleg around Pinkie, squeezing her, taking comfort in her soft, squeezable plushness, and the pink mare smelled delightful, like a bakery.   She was still covered in a bit of flour.   Before Pinkie could protest, before Twilight could over think what she was about to do, she kissed her friend with a short, quick peck. The kiss had been aimed for the lips, but landed on Pinkie’s snoot instead. Still holding Pinkie, Twilight realised that both of them were now shaking, trembling, and she could feel Seville’s eyes boring a hole into her.   “What was that for?” Pinkie asked, and her voice was almost fearful.   “I just wanted to say thank you for the tea,” Twilight replied.   “Oh.” Pinkie’s eyes glimmered in the faint light. “I need to give myself a reminder to bring you tea more often.”   When Twilight let go, she did so with regret, and true to her nature, Pinkie was a fleeting creature. She bounded away, humming, off to fetch a plate of treats, leaving Seville and Twilight alone in the room together. Pinkie wasn’t gone for long, and returned with a platter piled high with midnight munchies. When she was done putting the food on the table, Pinkie plopped her plush pink posteriour down upon the floor with an exhausted huff.   “I still can’t believe that Spike did what he did,” Twilight said as she stared down into the gentle brown depths of her tea.   “Are you upset?” Seville asked, his voice cautious, and it was clear that he was hesitant to poke his nose into Twilight’s private affairs. It had been a trying day and tempers were still frayed.   “No, actually.” Twilight’s ears drooped and the corners of her mouth sagged with weariness. “I’m actually proud of what he did, but I am never, ever, under any circumstances ever going to tell him that.”   “Why not?” Pinkie leaned forwards over her tea and rested her forelegs upon the table’s edge.   “I want him to live with what he’s done without knowing if he has my approval.” Twilight’s brow furrowed and she looked thoughtful. “It’s complicated. I’m hoping that he’ll feel good about this, I guess… I dunno”—she shrugged—“but I want him to reach that destination on his own. Without my assistance.”   “You want Spike to show a bit of responsibility and independence.”   “Yeah, Seville, I suppose I do.” The weary sag on Twilight’s face increased as she lifted up her teacup and held it near her lips. “I don’t want him to do things that he thinks are right to gain my approval, I want him to do things he thinks are right because of his own convictions. Does that make sense?”   “Yeah, actually.” After a moment, Seville added, “Even if you don’t agree with it?”   “Especially if I don’t agree with it.” Twilight took a slurp of tea, licked her lips, and then continued, “I want Spike to know that it is fine if we disagree on things and he won’t be in trouble. Just so long as some good comes out of what he does. I can be objective, when I need to be.”   “So, do you think some good will come out of what’s happened today?” Seville asked.   “That I don’t know.” Twilight looked at her companions, first Seville, then Pinkie.   “Well…” Seville sighed out the word, and then he kept going. “Nuance never lets his sister cuddle him like that, and while he wasn’t exactly affectionate, and he kept himself turned away from her, he wasn’t nasty and he didn’t push her away. I’d call that progress, and I’m pretty sure that Cadance will see it as such.”   “Plus, I have my lists compiled of all of the stuff that should be done long term.” Twilight blinked and her sagging mouth was pulled into a smirk. “I hate to admit it, but Sumac gave us the short term boost we need to enact a long term plan. I don’t know if I trust his alicorn instincts just yet… they haven’t been refined and I remember how squirrelly I was, but this wasn’t a total disaster. I think much can be recovered from this.”   With a soft squeal of happiness, Pinkie Pie began gobbling down tiny, dainty teacakes from the platter, eating them one right after another. Twilight watched Seville, who watched Pinkie Pie, then, much to her surprise, Seville reached over, grabbed Pinkie, and pulled her close. Seeing them together, Twilight felt a peculiar sensation, a good feeling, but she didn’t know what it was.   “Would you like to try again?” Seville asked. “I mean, we had a fling, and somehow, our friendship survived. Do you think the fire will burn if we light it?”   “Do you have some matches?” Pinkie licked a glob of what might have been cream cheese from her snoot while giving Seville a wink. “We had ourselves an awkward little fling, didn’t we? In some ways, it made things worse for me—”   “Worse?” Seville now looked worried, rather than amorous.   “While a good roll in the sheets is nice and all, that wasn’t what I was after. I wanted something a bit more permanent.”   The worried expression upon Seville’s face relaxed and Twilight took another slurp of tea. Pinkie’s eyes traveled downward, and she tilted her head a bit to peer down into the shadowy depths that existed between her body and Seville’s. In her barrel, Twilight’s heart was busy doing Rainbow Dash loop-the-loops, much to the dismay of the rest of her organs.   “I could give you permanency.” Seville’s words had a quaver to them, and Twilight found it difficult to keep slurping her tea. “Look, I want things to work. Even with all of the trouble that Gosling, Celestia, and Luna have, they’re making it work, and I think we can do the same. But it’s going to be hard.”   “Yeah.” The pink mare nodded and slipped her foreleg around Seville’s neck. “Yeah, things won’t be easy for us, that’s for sure. That scares me a bit. At least we’re all good friends though, and that makes it easier.”   “Pinks, you’ve changed.” Seville tightened his grip a bit, which make Pinkie squirm.   “I had to grow up,” she whispered, “and it’s been really, really hard. Speaking of hard… you better keep your rolling pin in the drawer, Mister.” Pinkie lifted her gaze from the shadowy depths between her and Seville, and she looked him in the eye.   For Twilight, it was a struggle not to drop her teacup, and she spluttered a bit.   Giggling, Pinkie extracted herself from Seville’s embrace, and with a look of regret evident upon his face, he let go. She slipped away, scooted over a bit, and returned to where she had been sitting. Then, she resumed eating, but slower this time, and she had a peaceful, serene expression upon her face that made Twilight’s blood go pounding through her veins. Well, that and the word ‘rolling pin.’   “R-r-rolling pin?” Twilight managed to stammer while she set her teacup down for safety.   “Oh, Twilight…” Pinkie’s words were light and airy and she somehow said them around a mouthful of cookie. “Earth ponies, Twilight… earth ponies.”   “Um…” Twilight began chewing on her lower lip, and she squirmed in place.   “Don’t worry, Twilight, it’s not dangerous.” Pinkie swallowed her mouthful of cookie. “If it was dangerous, or if it hurt, there wouldn’t be so many earth ponies running around.”   For Twilight, Pinkie’s self-evident logic was not reassuring. The idea of intimacy itself was terrifying, daunting, and everything involved in it seemed like too much to deal with as it was. Somehow, she picked up her teacup and she began taking great, desparate slurps, feeling a need to drink as much of the comforting liquid as possible.   “I think… I think I understand my best friend just a little better,” Seville blurted out, and he averted his own eyes, staring down into his teacup. Lowering his head, he too began to drink his tea, lapping it up from his teacup.   Taking a deep breath, Twilight did her level best to let out all of her worries with a forceful huff. Those were all things she would have to worry about… later. When the time was right. She didn’t understand what Seville had just said, and she wasn’t about to ask either, but she had an idea. She was a regal princess, but she was also a warm, feminine body. She exhaled again, trying to expel her thoughts before she became flustered.   “The castle is quiet.” A million thoughts filled her mind, and Twilight wondered how many times her own parents might have said that their tower was quiet after she and her brother had been put to bed. The quiet of the night was the only time that her parents had to themselves, and she had a much greater understanding of that now, after having looked after the Royal Brood.   It was then her mood shifted, and Twilight felt fine. She had dealt with this crisis, and the world hadn’t ended. As bad as it was, it could have been worse, and in the end, everything was more or less okay. Now, the castle was quiet, she was with two ponies with whom her friendship was growing into new territory, and a quiet voice in the back of her mind suggested that this night was the first of many, and that perhaps, a family wouldn’t be so bad, even if there were days like this one ahead.   She swallowed the last of her tea, put her cup down upon the low table, cleared her throat, and then she said to her companions, “I’m tired, and I am going to bed. I wouldn’t mind your company, if I could have it.” She paused, trying to gage their reactions, and added, “Seville, Pinkie, I’ve shared a bed with each of you before, and I’d like to do so now. I don’t want to be alone. I’m not asking for anything to happen… I just don’t want to be alone.”   Seville looked at Pinkie, and Pinkie looked back at Seville, and then both of them turned to look at Twilight. Some unspoken agreement was made, Twilight felt it, she could sense it, it was like the static charge that built up in the air just before lightning struck. She could feel her very soul sparking when she looked at her companions, and she knew, even without the ink, that this was just the first night of many. There was no big hurry to do anything, or to rush anything.   There was certainly nothing to worry about.     In the wee hours of morning, Twilight Sparkle once again had a visitor. Pinkie Pie was a warm, fuzzy lump beside her, and it was extra toasty beneath the blankets tonight, making it difficult to rouse herself from sleep after being booped on the nose. She already knew the booper, but she didn’t yet know the reason. After much struggle, she opened just one eye and her horn glowed with a faint light.   “Can I sleep with you?”   No reason given, just the question. Twilight let out a half-awake, half-asleep groan, she felt Pinkie stirring beside her, and the bed shifted. The bed was a bit crowded, three ponies tended to do that, but there had to be room for just one more. She was rather small, after all, and cuddly. Twilight lifted up the blankets with a grunt, and a rush of cold air made her shiver as she broke out in goose bumps.   “Get in,” Twilight murmured, “it’s a quaint Trottingham tradition.”