“Twilight, don't you think we've hit a dead end with this?”
Twilight Sparkle glanced over at her lavender-coated assistant and rolled her eyes. Starlight Glimmer was a magical genius, a unicorn talented enough to come close to alicorn levels of power, but her mentor sometimes thought she gave up too easily these days “Starlight,” she explained patiently, “we still have a few avenues to explore yet. Spontaneous energy creation is a no go, but personally I'm thinking we could adapt an energy drain spell? Instead of transferring energy from one subject, increase the area to draw a minuscule, barely noticeable amount from the entire surrounding area?”
“That… seems a little selfish just to avoid going to sleep for a few hours,” Starlight commented, sounding worried. “I don't think Celestia would go for it.”
“You're right,” Twilight grumbled, placing her head in her hooves sulkily. “I guess sleep's just one of those things you can't avoid, and we've wasted more time on this than a whole week's worth of early nights as is.”
“I'd hardly call it a waste, Twilight,” the unicorn with the two toned mane smiled encouragingly. “You made a lot of fixes to time manipulation spells, we came a little closer towards spontaneous energy generation, plus you really boosted the formula for that energy drink, if we put that on the market ponies will love it!”
“Yay, all hail Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and procrastinating college students,” the purple alicorn said sarcastically, before starting to giggle. “Who knew my first worshippers were going to wind up being ponies like Rarity who like to pull all-nighters?”
“You're one to talk, miss 'I want to invent a spell that stops me needing to sleep',” Starlight Glimmer chuckled, finally relaxing now that her mentor seemed a little less stressed. “How are things going with Rarity, anyway? I can't say I've seen her much.”
“Oh, you know, she says she's taking a break but all she's done is pick up a whole bunch of new projects instead. That mare couldn't stop creating even if she wanted to, she's an even worse workaholic than I am!” Twilight rolled her purple eyes. “I'm glad she's found a few things to throw herself into that aren't dressmaking, though, I think she might have been getting a bit burned out with her work.”
“Uh huh. I know. She collared me with one of her paintings while I was in the market last week, went on about how sorry she was to not give me something at the same time as the rest of you. She's a really good painter, but it's like… you really didn't need to spend most of your day on this, you know?”
“You get used to it,” Twilight waved a hoof dismissively. “As much as she's enjoying playing the passionate artist, I think she needs to have somepony in mind to create for.”
“Makes sense,” Starlight nodded, a smile crossing her face all of a sudden. “I was more wondering about how she was doing with Fluttershy.”
“Ugh, don't ask!” Twilight harrumphed in irritation. “I just know they'd be so good for each other, but we can add 'romance' to the list of things Fluttershy's afraid of, and Rarity's so convinced that doing anything would spoil their friendship somehow she's just decided to give up. I mean, it's Rarity! Giving up on romance! That's like… like… Pinkie Pie passing up ice cream or something!” Twilight took a step forward as she gestured for emphasis, and felt a disgusting squelch beneath her hoof. Somehow she had just stepped in an extremely gooey treacle tart that had mysteriously appeared in just the wrong place on the floor. “Or Discord passing up a chance to make me want to throttle him,” the alicorn added through clenched teeth as an all too familiar laugh echoed throughout the room.
Starlight Glimmer was saved the awkwardness of wanting to burst out laughing herself by Spike bursting through the door to their cluttered laboratory. The young dragon seemed rather panicked. “Er, guys?” he swallowed. “Friendship problem in the main hallway.”
“The map???” Twilight gasped.
“No. Fluttershy. I think you might wanna see her, she's in such a state I couldn't make out a word she was saying!” The two magical mares burst out of the room in an instant, leaving a baffled young dragon alone in their workspace, surrounded by beakers and blackboards and… apparently a slightly crushed treacle tart. “Well,” Spike mused, picking up the confection, “if neither of you want this...”
Twilight Sparkle had no idea what was awaiting her in the grand crystalline hall where she and her friends would gather in order to locate where their help was most needed. This was Fluttershy; if she was in a state it could really be anything from fireballs raining from the sky to there being a particularly scary looking bush en route to the post office. The alicorn certainly wasn't expecting what greeted her, a near hysterically sobbing pegasus slumped against their map table, head buried in her forelegs as she bawled. Something was seriously wrong here - not even Fluttershy would react like this over something minor.
“Fluttershy..?” Twilight began, only for her friend to all but slam into her, still wailing.
“Ohtwilightitshorribleiwasthereandraritywasthere… andimaterriblemonsterandshessadidontknowwhattodooooo!!!” The pink-maned pegasus sobbed heavily into her purple friend's shoulder as she tried to give her a reassuring hug.
“I'll… go fetch some tea, shall I?” Starlight Glimmer offered awkwardly, clearly out of her depth here. The look of relief on her face as Twilight gave her a nod was obvious.
The Princess of Friendship returned her focus to her distraught friend. Fluttershy's voice could get so high pitched it was near inaudible when she was this emotional, but she thought she could pick up one or two words. Something about Rarity… and a monster? “Okay, Fluttershy, try to calm down,” Twilight Sparkle told the pegasus, trying very hard to sound authoritative. It was actually starting to come a bit easier these days, more so than it had in the beginning. “Let's take this from the top, okay? What in the name of Celestia happened to you?”
“I… I...” Fluttershy looked up with tear filled eyes and Twilight's heart broke for her. “I… took Opal…” The pegasus was having a hard time fitting words in between sobs, practically hiccuping them out at this point. “Went to Rarity… she… she...” Now a fresh bout of sobbing.
“Is something wrong with Rarity?” Twilight gasped, then her brain bounced to the second worst case scenario, because apparently it was forever stuck in 'disaster planning' mode. “Wait, did she do something to upset you?”
“No!!!” Fluttershy shrieked. “It was me! I'm a horrible, horrible pony and she's going to hate me forever!”
Twilight took a deep breath, mentally counted to ten then floated over an almost stereotypical psychiatrist's couch that Discord had left in the corner of the room one day. His 'gifts' came in two flavours; things that were annoying and things that were just totally random until precisely three weeks later when they somehow came in handy. The couch was the latter. The bowl full of mud she had just stepped in was the former. Trying not to focus too hard on how apparently she was never allowed to have clean hooves again, the alicorn passed Fluttershy over a paper bag to breathe into. There were two staples every room of her castle was equipped with – chalkboards for random theorising sessions, and paper bags for not-so-random fits of hyperventilation. So far it almost pleased the princess that she was only in third place for the use of the latter.
“Come on, Fluttershy,” she said reassuringly, helping her friend to lay down once her breathing had calmed a little, “Let's try one more time. How bad could this possibly be?”
The answer, it seemed, was 'very bad on a personal level, but wasn't on a 'going to destroy Equestria' level for once. At least that's what Twilight Sparkle assumed. She had locked that spellbook that fed off the reader's obsessions in return for creating things with just a thought away securely enough, right? Images of a gold and diamond encrusted planet that had just become a demented shrine to Fluttershy crossed the alicorn's mind - Rarity had caused enough damage with that one already, even if Twilight had only learned the truth behind Ponyville's 'makeover' too long after the fact to say anything on the matter.
“Ooh, letting her play with that again is good one for if law ever gets overly powerful again, thanks bestest buddy!” Discord's appreciative voice rang in her head and then, yup, there it was, the sensation of a third hoof sinking into a jar of… apparently mayonnaise. Twilight barely cared right now, she was still busy trying to wrap her mind around her more pressing problems. From what she could see, apparently Rarity had turned to wine to build up the courage to admit her feelings, lost track of time, then the two friends had… well, been themselves. Rarity had worn her heart on her sleeve maybe a little too much, and Fluttershy had ran away when she felt overwhelmed. She couldn't really fault either of them for their actions, although the part of her that wanted the two together was really siding with Rarity right now, and that happened to be a very large portion of her mind.
“Okay,” the princess breathed, grateful that she used telekinesis to take notes, otherwise her paper would be covered in mayo right about now. “I guess the first question is how do you feel about all of this now? I get it, you panicked in the moment, but say you had a bit of time to get used to the idea?”
“I… I'd think she's silly,” Fluttershy admitted. “I'd think she could do so much better than me. I mean, she's so beautiful, and intelligent, and… and so ambitious! She's got plans, Twilight, and all I really want out of life is to see the next beautiful sunrise or sunset.”
“And there you go,” Twilight countered smugly. “We've already got one point in common for you both. The difference is apparently you don't grab me for breakfast to gush about it. And my next question was going to be 'so is it something to do with mares or stallions' but the way you talk about her kinda answered that.”
“O… okay,” Fluttershy admitted finally. “I was thinking about that. I don't think I care all that much, I just… maybe I have to like somepony before I can like like them? I've never really been able to think about random ponies that way. I know Rarity and most others can, but with me attraction seems a little back to front. It's actually kind of annoying, if I'm being honest.”
“Not a problem, you're certainly not the only pony like that from what I've read, but we're getting sidetracked,” Twilight smiled. “So come on, Fluttershy, please be honest! You adore her from what you've said, she's just admitted to being head over heels for you, I don't need to be Cadence to tell you that it'll work out if you go back and just apologise. She knows you, she knows you well, what's the worst that could happen?”
“I get screamed at and my being there pushes her over the edge into a total nervous breakdown?” Fluttershy offered, cowering.
“Wow. So this is what seeing me from the outside is like. I really have to apologise to everypony I've ever met,” Twilight grumbled quietly after hearing the sort of overreaction she was infamous for coming from another pony's lips. With a cough she tried to get back on track, desperately trying to stop her brain from presenting her with an alphabetised list of every time a similar thought had ruined her day. “Bad phrasing, I guess. Fluttershy, I have no idea why you're so resistant to the idea that you're worthy of love, but you are! You're the first pony out of all of us to try and see the good in others, to give even the worst a second chance, and you've been right nearly every time. Who else can say they managed to snap an immortal god of chaos out of a power trip just by being friendly?”
“And for what it's worth, if it weren't for your empathy setting things in motion I'd still be a small-scale dictator, you know?” At this point Starlight Glimmer edged in levitating a pair of cups. “Sorry, I was trying not to intrude, but I'd kind of ran out of excuses to delay things! But yeah, Fluttershy, I know we haven't known each other that long, but I'd say you're a pretty amazing mare.”
“Who has an equally amazing mare in need of a hug and an apology,” Twilight nodded, accepting her tea and feeling relieved that her pegasus friend was now feeling up to sitting up and taking a sip of her own. Starlight was really coming into her own, her timing had been impeccable! But the next step was likely best to at least start out a two pony job only. “And that kind of reminds me, Starlight, how long had I been keeping you with my silly quest to never sleep again?”
Starlight Glimmer blinked, trying to recall. “Uh, about ten hours today I think?”
“And it's only mid afternoon. Ugh, sorry about that,” Twilight grumbled. “You really ought to tell me to get over myself a bit more firmly in future. Pretty sure you have a marefriend of your own to get back to.”
Either Starlight took the hint or was genuinely worried about the time, because she nodded her pale pink head entirely too eagerly, a look of concern in her eyes. “Actually, good point, if I'm lucky only half the town will have their pitchforks out thanks to Trixie running her mouth off. Hope everything turns out okay, bye!” The unicorn vanished in an instant, no doubt to make sure her impulsive partner hadn't gotten herself into trouble again.
Twilight Sparkle smiled calmly and took a good gulp of tea, once more beating off the million inner suggestions as to how Trixie, a stage magician of a unicorn with an appalling track record of getting in out of her depth, might have been faring without the… saner half of their couple. She trusted Starlight to handle things, and so far no otherworldly entities, demonic artifacts or general terror had been unleashed, so presumably Trixie had slept in then cleaned her caravan or something.
“Sorry about that, Fluttershy” the alicorn said warmly, a plan forming in her head. “You know what Trixie's like, best let Starlight check up on her every now and then!”
“I know,” Fluttershy nodded, distracted for a second. “She's not a bad pony at heart, she just… doesn't really think things through. It's nice that she has Starlight now to look out for her. But Twilight, what do we do about Rarity?”
“I'm glad you asked!” Twilight Sparkle grinned. This was her specialty, wasn't it? Fixing problems between friends? She just had to fix a friendship that might be a little more intense this time, maybe crossing into her sister-in-law's territory... but the boundaries there would have to wait until later. “What we're going to do is go down to Carousel Boutique, I'll help you wind Rarity down from whatever dramatics she's worked herself up into, then leave you two alone so you can apologise for running then talk things out properly.”
“Um, Twilight, I'm not sure...”
“Fluttershy.” By this point the purple mare had just about lost her patience. “You need to stop listening to the part of your brain that keeps telling you to escape whenever things get difficult! Look where it got you today! Now you can either come with me willingly or I'll drag you there if I have to, and I mean it!” The look on Fluttershy's face nearly broke her heart, but eventually the pegasus sighed in resignation.
“Okay, Twilight. You're right, Hiding will only make it worse. I'll come with you..”
“Good!” Twilight nodded in satisfaction, turning and making for the door.
“But you might want to watch out for that...”
Squelch!
“...deep dish pizza,” Fluttershy finished.
Apparently Discord had now managed to get Twilight to stick each hoof in something messy in the space of half an hour, tops. She really hoped this wasn't going to be an ongoing thing, not necessarily because it felt gross every time, which it did, but because cleaning up was going to shave minutes out of her day. And she had just given up on using magic to increase her efficiency, too!
“You know what, Fluttershy?” she commented, “Can you wait? I just need to go wash my hooves first."