//------------------------------// // Chapter Three - If Only You Knew // Story: Just One Day // by Moonshine34 //------------------------------// “Being an alicorn certainly has its perks,”Twilight thought as she surveyed the now perfect foyer. After she had flipped out and sent everypony bolting the princess had realised that it was actually quite easy to sort the mess out when she could hear herself think. A simple cleaning spell here, some flying there and a mop could do wonders. Starlight Glimmer, her former nemesis then student and friend turned Guidance Counsellor had offered to lend a hoof after hearing Twilight’s enraged shouts. This made the process a hundred times easier since Starlight was one of the most powerful unicorns in all of Equestria. In fact it had only taken the pair a matter of minutes to get the foyer to its former glory. “Thanks again Starlight,”the princess smiled gratefully,”I don’t what I’d do without you.” “It’s the least I can do after all you done for me,”the unicorn said dismissively,”Besides coming from a mare who has anger issues, I know it’s better to let it all out inside of bottling it up. Literally.” The princess chuckled quietly at the memory, it had been when she and her friends had gone on a Friendship Retreat and learned that there was a place and time for singing that Starlight had got extremely annoyed with Trixie and that her anger eventually led to Granny Smith, Bulk Biceps and a jeweller chasing down the terrified blue magician after being possessed by Starlight’s bottled up rage. “Well, that was certainly a lesson learnt all round but I’m still really grateful that you helped me with this. Now I can finally get back on schedule,”Twilight beamed,”That reminds me. Where on earth is Spike, he should be back with my dress by now.” Right on cue the door burst open and the small purple dragon trotted in, the cover bag clutched tightly in his claw. At the bottom of the steps stood Applejack with her cart of apple treats. Both of them wore sheepish, slightly dopey expressions which got a raised eyebrow from the lavender alicorn. “What have you two been doing?”Twilight enquired, a hint of suspicion and amusement in her voice. “Oh, um, nothing!”the scaly reptile sputtered, turning a deep shade of crimson. “YaseeSpikewasallupsetlikecusRarwasagoinwithFancyPantstommorowsoahaskedhimifhewantedtogowithmeinsteadandheagreedbutobviouslywe’rejustgoimasfriendsnothingmorebutwe’vebeenhavingarealnicetimeandI’mreallygladahaskedhimnow!”the farmpony burst out, her orange coat reddened to match Spike’s,”Oh shoot. Ah I said too much, didn’t I? Gosh darn me and mah honesty. Ah’ll just take these here treats round to the kitchen, bye y’all!” And with that Applejack turned on her heels and charged round Twilight’s castle and out of sight, leaving two stunned mares and a dragon behind. Starlight let out a cough that sounded oddly like,”I ship it.” However, the trio had no time to ponder over their friend’s strange behaviour as they noticed Ocellus, on a Twilight’s star pupils, standing where the wagon had once been, nervously pawing at the ground. In her hooves she held a huge, leather bound book. “Hi Professor Twilight, Guidance Counsellor Starlight, Spike,”the blue changeling mumbled,”I’m sorry to bother you but while I was studying in the library I came across this ancient book written in some strange language. I opened and discovered...this.” Ocellus lifted the crusty cover to reveal not pages but a hole in the book, and there, nestled in a bed of red velvet, was shimmering black crystal. “Sweet Celestia, how in Equestria did that get into the school library!”the alicorn exclaimed in shock,”I don’t remember ordering a book like that. Thank you for bringing this me, Ocellus, I will investigate it later and check the library to make sure there aren’t any other strange books.” The princess levitated the book out of the changeling’s hooves. Ocellus nodded politely in response before flying away. “Wow, it must be a really powerful object for somepony to hide it in a book,”Starlight commented. “I don’t know about powerful but it sure did look delicious,”Spike grinned, salivating at just the thought of how the black gem would taste. Almost inadvertently the dragon reached out his claws towards the book. Instantly Twilight lifted it out of reach. “Oh no you don’t, mister,”she said firmly,”This is probably a rare, magical artefact which could possess all kinds of extraordinary power. Celestia knows what would happen to you if you ate it. I’m going to put this until after tomorrow and then investigate it thoroughly. This is actually quite exciting, I’ve never read anything about a crystal like this, it could be a scientific breakthrough!” Twilight’s eyes began to get that ‘I’m gonna conduct a crazy, OTT experiment’ gleam in them. Millions of different hypotheses and theories coursed through her brain, the possibilities were endless, perhaps this rock could be the dawn of a new era, she could write scientific papers about it, maybe even a book. Realising that she was daydreaming the princess snapped out her reverie, this was no time for experiments, she still had tons of preparations to do! “Good gracious, I’m really getting behind schedule,”Twilight fretted, turning to face the unicorn and dragon,”Starlight, would you please go and help Applejack in the kitchen. I’m pretty sure she’ll need help unloading that wagon of hers. Spike, could you put my dress back upstairs and also make me a dandelion sandwich. Thanks.” The Princess of Friendship took off without waiting for a response. “Well, we’d better do what the boss says,”Spike grinned. Starlight simply rolled her eyes and nodded. Twilight galloped along the corridor, mane and tail streaming out behind her. Once she dealt with the book the princess needed to confirm playing times with Vinyl and Octavia, taste test several courses of the banquet, inspect the cutlery, make a request for perfect weather... “Speaking of weather, where in Equestria is Rainbow?”Twilight thought with a twinge of annoyance. She had barely seen the pegasus all week and when she had it had either been because of Dash’s failed stunts or her naps in various trees. The alicorn was a bit hurt that Rainbow hadn’t offered to help in the slightest, all her other friends were pitching in but the cyan pegasus didn’t even seem to care. The lavender mare reached her library door and used her magic to open the door. SPLASH! Twilight felt a mass of something cold and sticky land on her head. “ARRGGHHH!”the princess yelped, both shocked and repulsed. The substance ran down her legs and back and trickled between her eyes and onto her muzzle, it felt absolutely disgusting. Then she noticed something strange, it was yellow. Twilight experimentally stuck her tongue out and licked some of it up. It was custard. CUSTARD?! The alicorn’s eyes travelled from the puddle of gloop up the door, to a bucket tipped on its side, to the contraption designed to push the bucket over when somepony opened the door. It was a...prank? Twilight knew of only two pranksters in Ponyville. And one was happily baking in her kitchen, which only left... “RAINBOW DASH!!!”the furious princess screamed,”I’M GONNA MURDER YOU!!!” The rainbow maned pegasus sauntered into the library, wearing a totally innocent expression. “You called, Your Highness,”she simpered, then saw her red-faced, custard covered friend and burst into a cacophony of raucous cackles. “Oh, hehe, sorry, Twilight, hahaha, but you, hehehe, just look, hahaha, so, hehehehe, HILARIOUS!”Dash guffawed, tears of laughter streaking down her face as she collapsed in a fit of hysterics. Rainbow might as well of thrown a lit match into a mountain of dynamite. Something inside of Twilight snapped and she completely lost all reason and control. In short, the alicorn erupted a spiel of unadulterated rage. “HOW DARE YOU! This is NOT a joke! I have had it up to here with you, Rainbow! All this week I have been working my butt off while you have been lounging around doing absolutely NOTHING! I mean you haven’t even offered to help me, even through everypony else seems to have taken the initiative. Then, a few days ago you crashed into the tents we put up outside when one of your ‘flying stunts’ went wrong so we had put all of them up again and you didn’t even apologise! And now THIS?!”the princess cried, gesturing at herself and the custard covered floor,”I thought you were one of my best friends, Rainbow! I thought I meant more to you than...this. But I guess you’re just too busy being a self-absorbed BRAT to even care about what’s happening with me any more!” For a moment the cyan pegasus just stared at her friend in shock. Then she started to feel her own anger come bubbling to the surface. Rainbow’s quick temper flared at the unjust accusations and she returned Twilight’s hateful glare with one of her own. “WHAT THE HECK IS YOUR PROBLEM, TWI?! I can’t believe you’d say such uncool things to me! It was just a harmless prank for Celestia’s sake! I was trying to get you to lighten up and have some fun cos I know these past few weeks that been super stressful for you. And you wanna know why I didn’t offer to help? Because you never asked me. That’s right! You asked all all of our other friends to do specific things. Rarity made our dresses, Fluttershy’s gonna help with the music, AJ’s baking, Pinkie and Cheese have got an awesome reception and afterparty planned, Starlight and Trixie are doing a magic act together and Spike does all the other odd jobs. You didn’t ask me to do anything! Also, when I crashed into the tents the other day I did try to apologise. Many times actually, you were just too busy lecturing me to let me get a word in edgeways! Oh, and the reason I’ve taken so many naps recently is because I’m usually shattered after early morning and and late night Wonderbolt practices. Plus, I have to stay up planning and marking papers for lessons that I teach in YOUR school, for free I might add! So between juggling being a Wonderbolt and a teacher I don’t really get many breaks, but when I do I use them to catch up on sleep,”Rainbow growled,”So for Celestia’s sake quit acting like you’re the victim the whole time! Equestria may think that you’re the picture perfect Princess and wonderful every way but you’re NOT! Just please, stop being a hypocrite and get your facts straight before you go rage on me for literally no reason!” Unfortunately the pair were too busy hating each other to notice the book containing the magic crystal begin to glow brighter and brighter. “ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!”the alicorn shouted incredulously,”You think that you’ve got a hard life?! Try being a Princess, Headmare and teacher. I would kill just to be able to fly around and teach a few classes each day! But no, I have to run my school, fulfill my royal duties, teach tons of classes, deal with map Friendship problems, occasionally save the world, organise field trips and political meetings alike and you know, just generally try to spread the magic of friendship across the whole of Equestria! Oh, and I almost forgot. You’re not the one getting MARRIED tomorrow, as if all my other sttesses weren’t enough! Besides, you know perfectly well I never have or will act like I’m better than anycreature. If only you knew how hard it is to be me, even for just a day!” “Purlease, I could say exactly the same about you!”Dash shot back. Suddenly the front cover of book flipped open of its own accord, black tendrils of magic poured from the crystal and engulfed the angry mares. There was a flash of blinding white light, then everything returned to normal. Twilight and Rainbow lay semi-unconscious on the floor. After a few seconds the pair to blearily their eyes, staggered to thier hooves, took one look at each other and screamed at the top of their lungs.