Later that night, so late it was early, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were trotting off towards town. This was how Twilight usually found the others when she wanted to see them but didn't have any plans. If she just started walking around at night, Pinkie would always, always find her before long.
Tonight was no different. Pinkie jumped out of the bushes and yelled in Twilight's face. “Invisible pink dreadstalker!” Pinkie shouted.
Like a normal pony, Twilight let out a yelp and fell back, while Pinkie laughed and laughed.
“Oh, Twilight!” Pinkie whipped a tear from her eye. “How can something invisible be pink? I can't believe you fell for that one.”
That was how Pinkie typically 'found' Twilight. It was an annoying habit to be sure, but Twilight was starting to get used to it. She vowed not to fall for that the next time.
Pinkie's uncanny ability to just appear whenver you wanted her was typically useful, at least. Honestly, even the other two seemed perplexed by Pinkie's stealth.
Rarity wasn't far behind, as usual. She came up much more slowly, walking with great dignity, a smile of controlled exctiment on her face. Twilight couldn't help but smile back, it was hard not to smile whenever Rarity showed up. Rarity was fun, there was no way Twilight could deny that.
She nodded at Twilight, then came up close to Rainbow Dash, looked into her eyes and gave Dash a kiss on the nose. Twilight's smile weakened just a little. She's seen Dash and Rarity kiss before, but they did it sparingly and everytime they did it made Twilight uncomfortable, or maybe just a little sad. Twilight tried to ignore the feeling.
“It's nice having some alone time with Pinkie, but I always miss you.” Rarity put her forhead against Dash's. “You know how lonely I get without both of you around."
“Aw, you get mushy too fast.” Dash pulled away from Rarity and put her sunglasses on. “What'd the two of you do, anyway?”
“I don't think I can tell you in front of Twilight.” Rarity winked.
She plucked Pinkie up with her magic and pulled her over. Pinkie was breifly disoriented for a moment before Rarity managed to snatch her up with her hooves instead. Dash stepped back to give them some space.
It took Twilight a while to piece together what these three actually had going on, since Twilight always felt it too awkward to ask outright. They weren't really in a three-way relationship, like she originally thought. It was more like Rarity had two girlfriends, the other two were romantic with Rarity but not each other.
Though even then, Twilight wasn't sure that was entirely accurate, just as close as she could get. They were all very touchy feely with each other, but that didn't seem to be necessarily a romantic thing. Rarity had gone on a 'date' with each of them since Twilight met her, so there was obviously something there, unless dating was completely platonic to them as well. Couple that with the fact that Rainbow Dash and Pinkie seemed perfectly fine with Rarity having a girlfriend in addition to them and it all shorted out Twilight's brain just a little.
Twilight had a small frown now as she watched Rarity cuddled Pinkie pretty hard, rubbing her muzzle against Pinkie's chest, Pinkie laughing. That somewhat lonely feeling got worse. She creeped her way over to Dash's side.
“Dash?” Twilight looked at Dash through the corner of her eyes instead of facing her. “Don't you ever, um, you know, get jealous? When Rarity is like that with Pinkie, I mean.”
“Jealous? Of what?” Dash asked. “It's not like you can only kiss somepony twenty times and then you run out.”
“Well aren't you, uh.” Twilight hesitated. It was awkward, but she avoided asking this question for too long. “Aren't you Rarity's girlfriend or something? I mean, I just assumed since- I could be wrong but, you know- You three act weird and I don't get what you are.”
“Oh, Twilight.” Rarity finished hugging Pinkie at the worst possible time and came closer to Twilight again. “Relationships aren't these neat little things that you can give names to. There's no reason to shove yourself into roles imagined by society like 'lover' or 'sister' or 'friend'. Rainbow Dash and I can be all of those things at once.”
“But yes!” Pinkie blurted out. “We're both madly in love with Rarity!”
“Well I'm not going to give you a hard time about it,” said Twilight. She knew if she tried Rarity would just run circles around her in argument and Twilight would be forced to admit there was nothing wrong with it. “I guess I just don't understand. Neither of you have a problem with Rarity dating another pony besides you? I mean, I've never been in love but I'm sure if I was I'd be very jealous over this sort of thing.”
“What do you mean 'if'?” Dash snickered. “I bet you're the jealous one. You probably wish you could be Rarity's girlfriend.”
“What?!” Twilight staggered back several steps. “No! I'm straight!”
“Oh man!” Dash laughed. “You're so obvious, Twi!”
“Are you feeling left out, dear?” Rarity smiled at Twilight. “You know, I bet you'd feel a lot better if I took you out to dinner and brought you back home with me. Maybe if you begged nicely enough-”
“No! Absolutely not!” Twilight threw up her hooves in an X. “I just said I was straight! And I get enough physical contact as it is! Too much, even!”
“Well you know,” Pinkie leaned in to Twilight. “You can hug more than one pony at a time.”
“What? No you can't!”
“I found a way,” Pinkie insisted. “I call it a 'group hug'! You want to give it a try?"
Group hug? It was like they were constantly finding new ways to unnerve Twilight.
“That's too far even for me, Pinkie.” Twilight pulled away. “This is getting out of hoof. Anyway, I gotta get to work. Guess I'll see you later.
“Don't forget we're going with you. The sun isn't up yet,” said Rarity, “and I'm not going to let you put yourself in danger by walking around alone. Dreadstalker and all.”
Twilight nodded. In some ways it was a little embarrassing, needing to be escorted to work every day, but it was for the best. Besides, Twilight enjoyed chatting with them on the way.
“And don't think I'm gonna let you be lonely!” Pinkie jumped to Twilight's side and pressed up against her. “Don't worry, I'm not giving you any personal space until we get there.”
And Pinkie stayed at Twilight's side, close enough they were touching, the whole way. It wasn't like Twilight could stop her, Pinkie's attempts to slowly erode Twilight's sense of personal space was going well, it was just that Twilight couldn't help but wish it was Rarity next to her as they went.
Before going, Rarity came two inches in front of Twilight and wrapped a forleg around the back of Twilight's neck. She moved in ever so slowly, lips slightly apart, her mouth coming closer and closer to Twilight's. She was leaning in for a kiss! Twilight froze, unsure if she should stop it or not.
Then Rarity kissed her own hoof, and blew Twilight a point blank kiss. Without another word, Rarity trotted away, giggling.
Talk about mixed messages. Twilight sighed and went into the Pony/11. Now Rarity was going to be stuck in her head all day again, probably exactly what that mare wanted. Sometimes Twilight felt like Rarity was trying to turn her into a lesbian or something.
Twilight tried to change her mind, so she could focus on work if nothing else. Another thing stuck in her head was the music Dash had shown her, so she hummed a little tune as she came into work. Another one of her coworkers was punching in just then too, rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning, while Twilight wasn't the least bit tired. Her coworkers were always so sluggish and slow when they first got in. Daywalkers, you know?
She was supposed to get there an hour before the store actually opened every day to get things in order. Today a bunch of decorations for Nightmare Night had arrived and Twilight was tasked with putting them up. The manager had taken notice of Twilight's knack for organization and relatively high amounts of energy, so she was always given these kinds of tasks.
So things were going as well as they could for a low-end job. Still, the work here was mind-numbingly bland, Twilight had actually grown to like it when somepony crazy showed up just to break the monotony, and crazy ponies did show up from time to time. But for the most part, nothing actually happened. It was boring, really horrible boring, especially when you compared it to the crazy nights before.
And then Applejack showed up.
Applejack was the bane of Twilight's existence! Well, no that was too strong, but she was annoying. She was always showing up, criticizing every new thing Twilight tried, always talking about vampires, warning Twilight about all the horrible things Rarity would do to her one day.
Oh, and she was always telling Twilight she wasn't good enough to hang out with those three. Twilight wasn't sure if that was true or not, to be honest, but she still felt like Applejack shouldn't rub it in so much. Twilight was trying to be more confident, you know? She didn't want constant reminders of how terrible she was.
“What do you want, Applejack?” Twilight moaned and shoved a plastic bat onto its shelf a bit more harshly than the poor bat deserved.
“Dropping off some apples.” Applejack raised an eyebrow and motioned to a cart sitting outside, then took a sales form “You know? Same thing I always do.”
Same thing she always did. Twilight decided to start a little game with herself, one called 'how long till Applejack starts complaining about vampires and every little thing Twilight did?' The title could use some work, granted.
“You're sure you don't have any complaints about me today? Hm?” Twilight shoved the remaing bats onto the shelf and moved on to the cheap, plastic spiders.
“I got a job, too,” said Applejack. “Though now that you mention it, yeah. That little 'tune' you were humming was rock and roll, right? That stuff leads ponies to kill, Twilight.”
“It does not! Argh!” Twilight snatched the sales form from Applejack and started filling it out as fast as she could. “Just leave it next to the other boxes and go.”
Applejack brought the apples inside and left them next to the boxes of Nightmare Night stuff like Twilght asked. She carefully eyed the boxes with a curious surprise.
“Nightmare Night stuff?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “But it's the first of August! That's a bit too early in my opinion. Guess I'll have to start extra early this year, too.”
“You celebrate Nightmare Night?” Twilight looked up from her paper in surprise. “You don't think it's like Nightmare Moon's birthday or something?”
“Only ignorant ponies think that. I know it really commemorates Princess Celestia's triumph over her wicked sister! Shoot, we love Nightmare Night so much that me and my family always run a haunted corn maze every year,” said Applejack. “It's the best time you can have on Nightmare Night here in Ponyville.”
“I always wanted to try one of those,” said Twilight, “but my parents always said they were too spooky for me.”
“Well you're on your own now. Nothing stopping you from going to as many haunted corn mazes as you want,” said Applejack. “Cept maybe that there's only the one in Ponyville.”
Nightmare Night. With friends! Twilight couldn't help but smile.
“I can't wait for this years Nightmare Night! This will be the first time I get to have real non-parental friends for once!” Twilight threw one of the spiders up in the air and grabbed it on its way down, locking it in a tight hug. “I bet those three love Nightmare Night, what with their love of dark stuff. Oh! We're going to go to haunted houses and Nightmare Nighting and we can tell ghost stories and watch scary movies like Ghost Slide! I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a holiday that's three months away!”
“Nightmare Nighting? Ghost Slide?” Applejack cringed. “How old are you again? Cause I'm pretty sure Ghost Slide is for little fillies.”
“I guess it sort of is, but even though it's rated G my parents would never let me see it cause it has a ghost in it.” Twilight blushed a little. “You know, now that I'm on my own, sometimes I feel like maybe I was just a little bit over-sheltered.”
“Fine, I get that you were a little bit smothered. But you gotta grow up now and leave kids stuff like cartoons behind,” said Applejack.
“Pinkie says there's nothing wrong with liking 'kid's stuff' and that it's not the same as acting like a foal. It's perfectly okay for me to watch cartoons or go Nightmare Nighting if I want to because society just arbitrarily decided those things were only for foals.”
Applejack groaned and rubbed her face into her hoof. “Pinkie is a delinquent and a hedonist,” she said. “And – I know you don't like talking about this, but how can you not see that your 'friends' are just-?”
“There's no such thing as vampires!” Twilight slammed one of the boxes down. “Will you just stop it with that already?”
“Look, let's just pretend those three aren't even vampires for a second,” said Applejack.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” said Twilight, “except instead of a second lets make it fifty years, okay?”
“Even then,” Applejack continued, ignoring Twilight, “they're still manipulating you. Do you really not get that Rarity is just using you?”
“Using me? What makes you think that?”
“Like what makes you think they'd even want to hang out with you, huh?” Applejack asked. “Some shy, nerdy type with no social skills rolls up into town and they want to shower you with attention, hang around you every night, spend all this time slowly bringing you out of your shell? I get why you act like a filly, but you really think those three are the understanding type? That they'd waste their time on somepony like you?”
“That's kind of rude.” Twilight blew some air out of her nose. “But yeah, I asked them that same thing. They said that I'm open minded and intelligent enough to give them and their, uh, activities a chance. And I am! That's what makes me 'cool', for your information.”
“Asking questions isn't gonna get anypony anywhere. All it does is undermine the harmony of society.”
“See?” Twilight raised her chin. “And that's why you don't get to hang out with Rarity! Because you're not cool like I am.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Okay, well if I'm such a loser then why would they bother with me at all, huh? I'm sure they could get a pony a hundred times better than me.”
“That's not what I meant. Maybe that came out a bit harsh, but-”
“Answer the question!”
“The fact that you're vulnerable,” said Applejack. “You ain't got nopony or nothing! Same as Pinkie was. All Rarity needs to do is waltz on over, give you the least bit of attention and next thing you know you're eating out of her hooves, completely dependent on her for all your love! And that's exactly how it is, ain't it? You stay out all night with them, far away from other ponies, laughing the night away about how stuck in our ways the rest of us are.”
“Maybe I am spending a lot of time with them, but it's not like they're keeping me away from my other friends,” Twilight grumbled. “I didn't even have any before them.”
Applejack looked down at the ground, momentarily distraught. “Well, hey! You can go out and make other friends, right? Ones who won't be a bad influence on you! Not to mention won't turn you into a mindless puppet. In fact, If you want you can come over to my place for supper tonight! If it'd stop you from turning into a vampire then I'd be glad to-”
“Oh? But I thought I was so boring and socially inept that nopony would ever want to be my friend!” Twilight turned back to her spiders, shelving them rapidly as she spoke. “That's the entire premise of your argument. By your own logic you must be a vampire trying to suck my blood too. What are you trying to get out of me?”
“All I want is for there to not be a fourth blood-sucking, homicidal maniac in town.”
“Well then maybe you should be over at the law offices instead.” Twilight smirked.
Applejack stared at Twilight like she had just started speaking in an entirely different language.
“Cause like- lawyers! They're blood-” Twilight blushed and quickly turned away from Applejack, back to her boxes. “Look! I'm still a cool pony in training, okay? I already have plans for tonight, plans with my friends. You got your form signed so just go back to your job, okay? Please?”
“Fine, but let me just ask you one more thing,” said Applejack. “Don't you think its suspicious nopony's seen this dreadstalker that's been terrorizing the town? Why do you think that is?”
“Um, maybe because dreadstalkers are invisible? That's literally what the word means, you know. Nopony has ever seen a live dreadstalker so chances are they won't see this one either. What are you, retar-”
Twilight's heart stopped beating. She almost cursed, in public, in front of Applejack. It was bad enough when she almost swore in front of her friends, but in front of other ponies it was like being caught in public with your socks on!
“What did you just say?” Applejack narrowed her eyes. Whatever she was about to say about the dreadstalker was already forgotten.
“I didn't say it!” Twilight turned in some other direction.
“You almost did.” Applejack forced her way into Twilight's view. “You really don't see what a bad influence those ponies are? They have you nearly cursing yourself without even meaning to!”
“Well-!”
“Well what?”
Twilight choked on nothing. She didn't have an answer to that. There were some things about hanging out with those three that Twilight honestly wasn't comfortable with and this was one of them. Applejack had a point. Twilight hated it when other ponies had a point, which was far too often these days. She was used to it with Rarity, but not with Applejack. That pobably meant something.
“Look, I got a lot of Nightmare Night stuff to organize!” Twilight focused all of her effort on taking plastic skulls out from a box and stacking them neatly on the rack.
“Even if you don't want to spend time with me, spend time with somepony else. Anypony other than those three. There's plenty of ponies in this town your age! Ones who won't make you curse like it ain't nothing, and believe me that's still just the start, Twilight.”
Twilight didn't turn around to look at Applejack, instead focusing on her plastic skulls. Applejack must have felt the point was made, because a moment later Twilight heard the door open and close. Twilight let out a sigh of relief, but truth be told her mind was anything but at ease.
Maybe Twilight was growing sour on Applejack in general, but she did have a point. Twilight liked her friends, but they were... maybe a bad influence in some ways. There was no reason Twilight couldn't have other friends besides them, friends that might be a bit more moral, who wouldn't curse or question the princess.
And she did have options, too! Rarity had introduced her to several ponies during that party on Twilight's first night. Actually a lot of those ponies would be going to school with her in a few months. It might be a good idea to go talk to some of them either way.
She thought back and tried to remember their names, but forgot most of them. Had it seriously only been a few weeks? It felt like that happened to Twilight in a past life or something. Twilight did remember Thunderlane, at least. She had his address written down somewhere in her house, too.
But was she seriously going to go over to a colt's house and just knock on the door? A thrill of excitement ran down Twilight's spine. Yes! These past weeks had been good in some ways, at least. Twilight wasn't nearly as scared about talking to ponies now. She was much more bold than the old Twilight who would have just shouted 'nope' and locked herself inside at the thought of it.
With that resolve, Twilight went looking for his address.