//------------------------------// // Mmmm, Pie // Story: The Twilight Years // by Kendrick //------------------------------// Twilight paced a circle in the center of the library. Books sat stacked in piles on the floor where she had left them instead of putting them away properly. Her mane was a jumbled mess and dark circles surrounded her eyes. Spike sat on the stairs watching her walk. He swore he could see a path worn into the wood from her frantic circuit. At first he had been counting to see how many laps around the room she would make before she calmed down, but he had long since lost count. Now he simply waited to see how long it was going to take before she got dizzy. “I just don’t know if this is the right thing to do, Spike,” she said suddenly. “I guess since Luna and Celestia switched it will be easier. I mean at least now Luna is, well… Luna again. That helps, right?” “If you say so,” he shrugged. “What if they don’t accept me?” “They already have,” Spike reassured her, “You’ve been Twilight for over a year now and nothing has changed.” “No they haven’t. It’s not the same,” she countered, “What they’ve accepted is that Twilight acts a little strange these days. They don’t know I’m not the same pony!” As she talked her voice grew higher in pitch until Spike was wincing at her words. Her hoof falls came faster as she quickened her pace. “What if they hate me?” she cried. “They aren’t going to hate you!” “You don’t know that! I’ve been lying to them all this time and now they’ll know. They’re going to hate me!” “Are you sure you’re not the original Twilight?” Spike asked wryly. “What?” Twilight replied, confused by Spike’s unexpected question. Her sudden stop let all of her pacing catch up to her. Her legs buckled as dizziness set the room to spinning around her. “Ha!” Spike barked as she staggered to keep her hooves under her. “Um, I mean are you alright?” he corrected after she shot him a withering, if unfocused glare. “I’m fine,” she sighed, “I just got dizzy.” “Oh! I like to get dizzy,” Pinkie Pie giggled from the doorway, “Sometimes I spin, and spin, and spin, and then try to walk a straight line. It’s super fun.” The bubbly pink mare’s spinning motions came close to knocking over several piles of books as she entered the room. “Looks like you’re on,” Spike said as he hopped from the staircase. “Quit worrying. It’ll be fine.” He gave Twilight a reassuring pat as he passed by. Before Twilight could stop him, he stepped outside and closed the door behind him. Twilight hesitated for a moment. She had given a lot of thought to which pony she should approach first. Rainbow Dash had been her first pick due to her connection with the Element of loyalty, but the more she thought about it, the more that worried her. Would Rainbow be loyal to her, or to the original Twilight? She knew she would have deal with that question sometime, just not now. As she weighed her options she had to admit that each of her friends had so many qualities in her favor that it was a difficult choice to make. Finally she had settled on Pinkie Pie. All of the ponies in the group were trustworthy, there was no doubt about that, but only Pinkie Pie had shown herself zealously committed to keeping promises like nopony Twilight had ever seen. That made her the safest choice. Twilight was sure that she could approach Pinkie and her keep quiet about it even if she didn’t agree to the spell. “Pinkie, I asked you to come over because I need to talk to you about something important,” Twilight stated soberly. “Oh, Okay.” Picking up on Twilight’s serious tone she instantly calmed down. She still practically radiated exuberance, but at least she wasn’t spinning anymore. “I am going to ask you to do something, but you have to promise not to tell anypony about it, Okay?” “I promise, Twilight.” “Pinkie-promise?” Twilight asked seriously. “Cross my heart and hope to fly- stick a cupcake in my eye,” she answered solemnly. “Okay, here goes. I have something important to tell you but it’s so important that I have to use a spell to make sure you can’t tell anypony about it. Is that Okay?” “Sure, Twilight. I mean, I already Pinkie-promised, but if doing a spell will make you feel better that’s just fine with me.” Pinkie finished with a big smile that made Twilight’s stomach sink just a little more. “Alright. I am going to cast the spell, but to be fair to you I can’t put it on you. You’re going to have to touch my horn to activate it yourself. Understand?” “Uh-huh,” she nodded. Twilight was relieved to see that she was looking serious now. The last thing she wanted was for Pinkie to go into this lighthearted without realizing the weight of the situation. Now it looked like Pinkie was starting to take the whole matter more seriously than she had been. She had worked long and hard with the princesses to figure out exactly how the spell was going to function. They had learned that the wording was critical, and the spell worked in a very literal fashion. That meant the oath had to be phrased perfectly to work like they wanted with no unintended side effects. As it was, Twilight knew because she had used the word ‘never’ in one test, she would be forced to go the rest of her life without ever telling anypony something as small as the fact that Luna had taken off one of her shoes that night. Twilight’s horn began to glow as she focused her magic on the spell. It didn’t require much power, but the threads of energy she had to weave together were complex and delicate. In all of her long life she had never put together a spell more intricate than the one she was casting now. In the back of her mind a small bit of jealousy flared briefly as she remembered how easily her former student had mastered the spell. Brushing the thought aside she put the final bits in place. The result was a small lacework sphere floating at the tip of her horn. The energy was concentrated enough that even Pinkie Pie could see it drifting there. “By accepting this spell you will be bound to not speak of the things I am about to share with you other than to ponies you know share the secret or if permitted by Princess Celestia.” Once she was finished speaking, she nodded to Pinkie Pie. Without reservation the pink mare stepped forward and touched her forehead to Twilight’s horn. The energy of the spell wound itself around her and disappeared into her with a small tinkling sound. Pinkie chuckled as it took effect. “Okie-dokie,” she exclaimed, looking at Twilight expectantly. Twilight went to resume pacing, thinking better of it after a single lap left her slightly nauseous. Her nerves were getting the better of her and she kept starting and stopping, not quite able to bring herself to say anything. Pinkie just stood there showing more patience that Twilight would have thought possible. Finally she decided that she was just going to have to go at this head on. “I’m not the Twilight Sparkle that first came to Ponyville,” she finally blurted out in a rush. “Oh, I know that!” Pinkie chirped happily, “You’re Princess Celestia. Or you used to be, but now you’re Twilight. I mean I still miss the old Twilight, but you make a really good Twilight so it’s okay most of the time.” Twilight’s jaw nearly hit the floor as she stared in disbelief at her friend. She had run through hundreds of different ways that she thought Pinkie, and for that matter all of the others, might react. This wasn’t something she had even considered a possibility. “But… but, how?” Twilight squeaked. “That’s impossible.” “I know everything about everypony,” she answered as if that explained everything. Twilight just gave her a dumbfounded look she seemed to take as an urge to continue. “My Pinkie sense told me we were going to have another doozie so I knew when it happened. I knew right off you were still somepony I liked, though. Besides, old Twilight always took two sugars in her tea and you only take one and you like the cupcakes with pink frosting instead of the purple. So I got to thinking, ‘Pinkie, what pony do you know that liked pink frosting on her cupcakes?’ It was sooo obvious!” Brushing aside the fact that Pinkie’s explanation didn’t make any sense to her, Twilight stuck on the fact that she had known this whole time. Horrified, a whole new potential disaster began to build in her imagination. “Pinkie!” she yelled, cutting off the pony’s continued ramblings, “Have you told anypony about this? Anypony at all?” “Nope. You didn’t act like you wanted anypony to know so I didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I went around being a big ole blabbery-blabbermouth now would I?” “Pinkie, you are amazing.” Relief flooded through Twilight. All of her fears melted away knowing that not only did Pinkie know, but that she had kept the secret on her own all of this time. There was no way she could wish for more of a friend than that. Stepping close she gave her a tight hug and smiled. “So what were you going to tell me, Twilight?” Pinkie asked eagerly. “Never mind, Pinkie, it’s not important,” she laughed. “Let’s go get something to eat.”