//------------------------------// // Match Making (6) // Story: Super Pony Roomies // by TheManehattanite //------------------------------// 15 “What do you mean she’s not moving?” the Trapster’s companion asked in the background. “I mean she’s…not moving!” the villain whined, amplifying the speaker’s own slightly. “Obviously!” “Huh.” There was a note of admiration in the mare’s (well, she was some type of lady at least) voice that made Rarity smile a little. She adjusted herself on the chaise longue she’d sculpted out of the Trapster’s landing pad and made a show of admiring her pedicure. She had to admit the throbbing light of the Trapster Tunnels was good for the job. There was bumping and protesting coming from the shadows she figured the speaker and/or scrying camera set up was mounted to. “Hello,” the lady said after a definite thump and distinct lack of Trapster. “Hello?” Rarity tried, hoping the casualness in her voice kept up. It might not be the best thing for the immediate situation if whoever this was started taking an interest in her. “How are you doing down there?” “In a sewer?” Rarity raised a brow. “Full of deathtraps?” “Considering.” She could practically see the shrug. Almost one professional to another. “Bored to tears but given the alternative…” She gestured to the one tunnel entrance she was fairly sure was full of some kind of pylons. The kind Twilight had in her basement and kept assuring everypony were ‘purely recreational!’ “Yes, I’d apologize but y’know. Maniacal laughter, moustache twirling, all that.” “Oh, I’m sure your moustache is lovely, whoever you are!” “Careful!” She could hear fangs in the smile now. “Wouldn’t want to wind up friends, now would we?” “You’d be surprised.” Rarity kneaded her headrest. “Mmm. Are you going to stick it out all day? Because my would-be colleague here considered a lot of possibilities when we set these things up but not a hostage situation.” “Ah,” Rarity said carefully. “Well, I’m rather hoping Johnnycake, uh, Tropical Storm…” “I know who Johnny is. Obviously.” “Obviously!” Rarity smiled, loading her tone slightly to let them know she’d noticed the careful neutrality in theirs. “Anyway yes, my plan is to wait here until he comes and finds me. It’s hardly my fault Mr. Trapster went to all this effort and then rigged the wrong chair! And frankly why, exactly, should a kidnap victim go along with the intentions of somepony nefarious enough to steal the money to build all this but not to invest any of it? Somepony’s got to be sensible here, assuming Mr. Trapster is a pony that is, and it may as well be me.” A not so maniacal laugh drowning out the Trapster’s protests. “Ah sit down Traps, she’s got you there! You’re a canny one Ms. Rarity!” “You know who I am.” Unicorns had rules about names because magic, the stuff beyond the kind you used every day in your tame, centrally heated life, sometimes had rules of its own. Don’t give your real name unless you’re absolutely certain. Or it might remember. Like a scent. Not that this felt like one of those, and she’d been born within a couple of minutes’ walk of the Everfree forest so she knew a thing or two, but there was something about that voice knowing who she was. Potentially where she lived. About Sweetie Belle. “What, the pony everypony should know? Only what I need to. Didn’t know you were this good though, this’s far above what most super ponies would’ve done.” “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Rarity looked around absently, casting the light of her horn over pipes and bricks. “You should! It’s just that if the Torch hasn’t blundered down here by now it’s because he’s caught in the backup Traps threw together just in case. He might be a while.” “So your colleague had the foresight to prepare for what might happen if his plan failed…but not if the wrong pony sat in it?” “Margin of error!” the speaker sputtered, practically rattling from indignation. “Every plan in the history of Equestria has come with a margin of--” He was cut off by a slicing, reverberating sound a bit like a magic discharge but not quite, which almost unsettled Rarity more than the sudden violence of it. She wasn’t sure if that was the speaker hissing or a body. “In which case,” the voice resumed as if discussing a hilarious typo in a will, “what would you like us to do if this drags on? Food, water, maybe something to read?” “Uh…” The civility caught her off guard more than the blast. “No thank you? That is, I ate before I…arrived. Should last me.” “If you’re sure. It’s just that your horn keeps flickering.” “Just because I’m down here doesn’t mean I have to sit in the dark!” “Suit yourself.” A slight hum like the equipment winding down. “Uh, excuse me!” Why the hay not? What were they going to do, kidnap her more? A pause, the sounds of the idling machines in the tunnels rushing in. Then the speaker starting up washing over them. “…yeah?” “Who am I talking to, please?” Rarity sat up on her padding throne, making a show of looking around for the speaker, throwing the light of her magic around the space. Just as planned. “Don’t Unicorns have rules about names?” “Oh please, what is this, the middle ages?” She smiled despite herself. The whole situation was basically a priceless vase balanced on a plinth in Pinkie Pie’s trajectory, but she was still keeping some kind of control. “Besides, you know mine.” “Well yeah, but I’m not number 10 on Sweet and Elite’s independents to watch list.” “Oh my goodness!” Rarity put an abashed hoof to her mouth. “The Fall thing?” “Yeah!” The speaker almost rattled from sudden enthusiasm. “Don’t get me wrong, they quoted your prices and that seriously helps--” “Well, you know, it’s the Fall! Ponies need to wrap up, even if they don’t get a complete set you’ll still make a fair bit back, so…” Rarity shrugged. “I mean, maybe it’s just small town naivete, but--” “No, no, trust me, that’s just charming. Where I come from, we’re all about taking suckers for everything they’ve got so we appreciate when someone actually plays fair like that!” “Um,” Rarity said, Fluttershyesque. “Thank you.” A pause, like the speaker had realised it was awkward too. “…so.” Rarity looked between different menacing shadows in the tunnels before grinning up at the patch the voice had come from. “Can I ask which was your favourite?!” “Oh, that one, you know, in the blue and the purple? The different shades? We’re big into purple back home, a lot of the ponies I have to work with are, dunno why, but it’s like purple, purple, purple, I get it, either tape over one eye and start eating people or--” “Ah! You know, everypony back home teases I must’ve based it on my own hair but I had it in my head for years, ever since I first saw Twilight, that’d be Princess Twilight but she wasn’t at the time, but it was her first Winter Wrap Up you see, and--” “Have you ever thought about it?” The sincerity was the mental equivalent of those cartoons she and Sweetie used to watch, where the adorable fuzzy thing opens a door and a freight train runs them over. “About what, sorry?” “Your hair!” “My hair?!” “What are you turning this operation into?!” the Trapseter’s voice demanded. There was another discharge noise. “Less of a disaster. Anyway, yeah! You’ve got great hair!” “One tries one’s best!” Rarity preened with practised ease. “I’m sorry about that moustache dig earlier by the way. Like I was telling Mr. Traspter I’m more business adjacent and I can’t say I follow the rules of this banter at all, so if I was rude--” “Most of it IS just being rude.” She imagined the speaker shrugging. “Like, they try and talk it up but it’s just making fun of who has the least powerful death ray or the weirdest facial hair. You get used to it, is the sad thing. But anyway! No offence taken, you’re in a weird situation and allowed to let off steam, and yes, have you ever considered making a line based on that expert coiffure of yours?” “Not mine, exactly!” Rarity admitted. “But I’ve often considered basing thing’s around my friends’! They’re all so distinct you know, even if it would be totally obvious who’s who! I mean, you don’t exactly need a degree from Politecnico de Muleano to figure out when something’s been made with Rainbow Dash in mind!” “Oh her,” the Trapster said sourly. “The one from college. I hate her!” “Feelings probably mutual.” “She bit me!” “And just like that I have even more begrudging respect for the forces of Harmony.” “Watch it Skrull! The Warlock--” “Isn’t here.” Oh, there was a warlock now. How very old school. With her luck right now they’d either be some terrible legend made real or wouldn’t even have the decency to be in any of the orders, just somepony calling themselves that and dressed in a racially insensitive costume. “It’s not my fault!” the Trapster howled with expert self-pity that grated up Rarity’s spine, into her skull and instantly made her want to find out what his face looked like. So she’d know what she’d be ramming both hind legs into. “Do you know how many fusion restaurants there are in this town?! There’s four on this block alone!” “Skrull?” Rarity called up, horn light flaring. “Is that your name?” “Species.” Casual but matter of fact. Because of course, what exactly could she do with that information? It didn’t even particularly mean anything to her beyond the fact it probably ought to. “Can’t say I’m, ah, familiar.” “You wouldn’t be,” the Skrull said cheerfully. “Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed stalling for whatever you’re planning as much as I have but I’ve got a silent alarm to see to.” The solidity and temperature of the bricks melted, flowing into a freezing, yawning chasm under her hooves. Then again, she’d been falling for it the whole time. How much of that conversation had been to get her off guard? How much had been real? And how much had she given away without meaning to? “Oh, before I go?” “Yes?” Rarity sighed. “Not that I’ll see you again, or, heh, not that you’ll see me but do me a favour.” “No promises, Ms. Skrull.” “So polite! Love it! But it’s more doing yourself a favour, really.” “You know, people in your business should appreciate that it’s honestly pretty rude to drag gloating out this mu--” “Johnnycake is fun and all.” It was delivered with perfect calm and may as well have been an open palm strike to her nose. “But a pony like you? C’mon. You can do way better than the Horseshoe Torch.” The speaker lapsed into a silence that filled Rarity’s brain like flood water. It took her a few minutes to realise she’d let the light of her horn die out, but it wasn’t like she needed it anymore. Besides, being on the same wavelength as a Skrull, whoever that was…perhaps that was a Sit-In-the-Dark kind of thing. *** A burst of light and noise from one of the tunnels that made her gag on the startled shriek! “Ow! Sun and moon!” “Johnny?!” “Rarity?” His voice was almost drowned out by the echoes of crashing metal and a series of clicks. Like back in the restaurant. “Uh oh…” “Are, ah…” Her horn’s light illuminated the walls until she managed to get herself un-turned around and face the tunnels, trying to home in on his voice. “Are you in one of these?” “One of what? Hang on.” A series of fwoomfs like when her stove wouldn’t quite ignite, and the light of a fireball crept towards her. From the tunnel full of electrodes. “Can you see that?” “If that’s you, yes!” “Yeah!” He sounded cheerful. “Sorry that took so long, an Awesome Android was waiting for me.” “A what?” Rarity chuckled, creeping towards the tunnel. “It’s a whole thing. Big thing. Anyway, danced around with that for a while until I noticed this periscope. Figured it was related and melted my way under the street. Damage Control’s probably gonna take me off their Hearth’s Warming card list, but…” “Can you move? That sounded like a nasty fall.” “Yeah?” “Well don’t!” “What?” The light of his flames had been steadily creeping closer along the tunnel wall but was drowned out by a sudden thrum and flash. Rarity flinched as Johnny cried out in pain. “Don’t move!” she called. A beat, the sounds of hissing and burning, but that could mean anything. “Johnny?” “Yeah.” Gritted teeth, she was sure of it. “Not moving.” A beat she suspected was more to get his breath back. “Did I just walk into a death trap the wrong way round?” “You think that’s bad, I’m only here because I sat in the wrong chair.” Pinging metal and dripping water in the shocked silence, then they both burst out laughing. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourselves,” the Trapster’s voice snapped sullenly. “Oh for…” Johnny snarled then winced at another electrical burst. “Trapster, Rarity. Rarity, the appendix of my rouges gallery.” “HEY!” “We’ve met,” Rarity smiled, gingerly craning her neck into the tunnel. The Torch hovered a few inches off the floor, trapped between a series of Tesla coil like rings. If she had to guess he’d probably been supposed to fly through them from the entrance, not the opposite way. The ones in front and behind him sparked in time with his bobbing, meaning he couldn’t go forward or back. “I’m so sorry,” Johnny said gravely. “Meh. Remind me to tell you about the Great and Powerful Trixie sometime.” “The what?” Johnny chuckled. “Take me seriously!” the Trapster screeched. “I mean, take this seriously! Yes, this, the deadliest trap of all, these, the TRAPSTER TUNNE--” “Seriously, he’s like this all the time.” Johnny jerked his head at the ceiling, wincing as it inadvertently brushed his flaming tail against the rear coil ring. “Ngh! Dunno where he gets the money.” “Oh, why should I expect anything from you, Storm? You didn’t even have the decency to fall into my trap the right way ‘round!” “Kind of a moot point,” Rarity beamed. “We’ll be leaving now, if you’ll just melt that panel on the right, Mr. Storm.” “If you say so, Ms. Belle.” The Torch raised an eyebrow but got to work. “What?!” the Trapster spluttered. “No, you won’t! Even if you somehow survive all the traps in one tunnel, and the next and the next, the sheer number shall drive you--” “Or you could just keep talkin’, that’d do it.” Johnny called as a neatly carved hole spread its glowing edges across the tunnel wall, filling the air with the scent of burning crystal mechanisms. “Rarity, you’ve got a plan here, right?” “Oh yes. Um, would you mind…?” Rarity almost crawled onto her belly, accepting his unignited hoof as he helped her slip under the ring, wincing as her horn passed through the static. “Thank you! Anyway, had some time to kill while you were chasing periscopes, so I mapped out the space.” “You WHAT?!” the Trapster squawked. “When?!” “Pretty much since you started talking.” Rarity briskly stepped through the hole into the next tunnel, the walls lined with odd plant like machines. “It’s a little known but essential spell for any Unicorn working underground. Give it enough time and you can have an entire sonographic picture of, oh, say, a few miles of utility tunnel sitting nice and comfortably in your head. It’s very through!” “So you knew how to get out of here the entire time.” Johnny’s smirk was buoyed up by honest admiration. “Oh yes.” Rarity hooded her eyes at him as he carefully melted another panel open for her like a department store door. “Just waiting for my chauffeur to turn up.” “This is cheating!” the Trapster whined. “You two, you deserve each other! She’s worse than the rainbow one, I’ll bet that forked tongue comes with even bigger teeth! When I get you two in my sights I’m gonna–!” “I’m assuming you pinged his control room too?” the Torch asked, carefully drifting under some buzzsaws as the Trapster’s ranting reverberated off the pipes. “Not that I wanna, but it’d be irresponsible not to at least try to find the greasy jerk.” “Oh absolutely, take a right here.” Rarity nodded at another wall, then shuffled her hooves a little. “Um, there’s, ah, there’s somepony else with him. She spoke to me. Oh, uh, she mentioned something about a warlock?” “Tch,” Johnny muttered, sending out irritated sparks. “Probably means this is a Frightful Four audition. Guess we owe you one for throwing a wrench into it! Sure you won’t let me pick up the check when we hit topside?” “Don’t tempt me.” Rarity managed a smile, eyes un-focusing to better follow the pulsing lines of the map in her head. “And about that, once we’ve handed Mr. Not That Good at Traps Actually to the police…” “He actually is, that’s the sad part.” Johnny looked over his shoulder as he melted some crushing walls into place. “Wait, you said there was another one?” “Mmm, she strikes me as the type who’ll be long gone by now.” “Gotcha.” “Anyway,” Rarity sighed in time with the sounds of the sheeting smoke from the next panel. “When we get back to civilisation, we need to talk.” “Ah,” Johnny said. His back was to her as he worked a grating loose. “Sorry.” “Don’t be.” “There’s a reason and I really want you to hear it.” Rarity hesitated as she reached out a hoof, but the light around his shoulders still felt like a radiator so she chanced it. Touching the Torch was like touching a ceramic hot water bottle as he turned to blink at her. “Hey!” the Trapster’s voice blustered suddenly. “Who’s…Aww no, not you, no, get away from me, I know how to use this thing, ow, OW, OW!” The two stared up the trapdoor above them as the speaker’s rocked to the villain’s yelps and what sounded like a rabid timberwolf. Johnny burst through it in an eruption of instantly liquefied steel, levelling a fireball at— Rarity blinked, clambering up behind him. “Rainbow?” —standing over the Trapster, pinned to the floor by his own glue-gun, cocked over the smirking Pegasus’ shoulder as she half turned towards them. “Hey guys.” Johnny’s flames danced in those rose-coloured eyes. “Miss me?” 16 “We shall begin once more, when you’re ready. Deep breath and hold her steady.” “Steady,” Twilight said, eyes fixed dead ahead and fading to purple like ink in water. “Right.” “Deep breath,” Zecora repeated. “Hold her steady.” “Steady,” Twilight repeated, nodding slightly as the magic began to wind it’s way through her. “Deep breath,” Zecora said gently. Twilight smiled a little and took one in through her nose. There was a nice familiarity to the insistence that brought back Canterlot classrooms. Remember to breathe, remember to eat, remember to sleep, remember to wash your hooves. Just because magic is energy doesn’t mean you are. Even magic is alive. Magic doesn’t have to go to the bathroom though. Although…no, focus! Ack, no! Don’t! Or rather…oh forget it. The purple corona building around her horn flicked with her irritation and perhaps fittingly it was that which kept everything together. She’d messed this up so much by overthinking it, the failures and near successes piling up so much that she just couldn’t care anymore. And that absence was important, something she needed to pave over the constant froth of her own curiosity to dive into…well, herself. She really was better off just not thinking about this. About trying to send her consciousness back through millennia of evolution and into her body’s own magical field. Or it’s new one. Or, it was still hers? But if she’d always been able to access all three types of magic at once and…eh, too hard. She was starting to understand why Celestia had kept this a secret for so long. Students driven to cross-dimensional power madness was one thing, explaining all this was another. And even that frustration had its place! It was the grey, almost thermal winds of UUUGH, whatever that was floating her where she needed to be. Into and out through her body’s magic field, finding paths that had been inherited but never there, not until now. Almost like when they were all together, bearing the Elements, like when they’d faced Nightmare Moon… The sense memory finished the job and Twilight’s…impression found itself sliding into the place it had wasted so much time trying to force itself into. Thanks girls, she smiled. “Are you where you need to be?” Zecora asked gently. “The place between pony, root and tree?” “Yes.” Twilight took another breath, in, out, still smiling. “I’m where I need to be. When I pull back I’ll probably remember it as light, if I remember it at all, but I know it’s just where Applejack lives all the time. And that it’s just like where every Unicorn and I live all the time. Every Pegasus. Everything in Equestria. Sorry, don’t mean to ramble but saying what’s passing through my head keeps it out of my head, if that makes sense.” “Do whatever works for you,” Zecora smiled, watching the rocks around her drifting into the air like soap bubbles. “And then do what you came here to do.” “And what I came here to do…is tap into Earth Pony magic…like…this!” Twilight grinned, eyes and horn flaring. Zecora took an instinctive step back from the sudden light, then craned her neck to take in the sudden beauty in the air, pink and purple wafting down to reform the circle her friend had been standing in. Twilight’s pupils faded back into sight through the violet haze of her magic, locking with the shaman’s raised eyebrow. “Magnolias, huh?” “I’m hungry.” Twilight shrugged, leaving her wings flared out because this was go with the flow time and fighting them back into place would bring everything splashing down on her. Besides, she felt way too good to care. It was working! “We can grab something after the job’s done,” Zecora grinned, that challenge Celestia had never shown her and she sort of liked. “And that’s not gonna happen until you’ve finished what you’ve begun.” “Oh, you mean like this?” The spell had been held in her mind like a ball. Going against her nature, it didn’t really matter where it landed. That was something she was starting to suspect about this Alicorn stuff. What mattered was that she threw. Not that she would ever actually throw magic around without caring what it did or throw balls around willy nilly, it might hit a window, what would the neighbours say, anyway! She’d known what she wanted the spell to do and she just let it happen. The circle sprang from beautiful flowers to just plain rocks. Like, actually sprang. Twilight’s telekinesis pulled it back into order, less to look cool and more because it was just her personality to instinctively tidy things up like that. And even then, less your fussy aunt and more guilt at being the one to make the mess in the first place. Accepting these self-realities had been vital to her new life since even before her ascension. Besides she still felt just too good. It had worked! “It worked!” Twilight skipped out of the circle, letting her wings dance for joy as she bounced around Zecora. “It worked, it worked, it worked!” “Eyup,” Zecora smiled because they knew each other well enough by now to mess with each other a little. Twilight let out another spontaneous laugh and flung her forelegs around the shaman. Zecora was so surprised she hugged back slightly. “I dispersed it!” Twilight grinned, pumping a hoof while still hanging off the older equine’s neck with the other. “I tapped into one of the most fundamental magics there is, I transmogrified an entire circle of solid rocks, and then I changed them back!” “This is why I agreed to help you train, Twilight, because of how you wished it to be applied,” Zecora chuckled, nudging one of the stones with her hoof. “And now I take it you’re satisfied?” “Very!” Twilight flapped her wings a few times to tuck them back in. Maybe it was the buzz, but it didn’t feel like as much of an effort this time. “Thank you so much, Zecora! I felt bad asking because I owe you a lot already, but…” “No, it’s a compliment,” the Zebra smirked as they started to walk down the path from Twilight’s training fields (or the fields she’d just sort of wound up training in, rather) to Ponyville. “I am the best there is at what I do, it’s true. Besides, who could say no to the chance to teach a princess a thing or two?” “Way more than two,” Twilight smiled. “You’re the one who saved us from Poison Joke and Trixie…well, that amulet but you know what I mean. You know so much!” “And the world and I owe you and your friends much more when all’s said and done,” Zecora smiled maternally as the princess blushed. “Honestly, sharing these teachings is much like today: too much fun!” “Wares on a mare, though,” Twilight sighed. “Will you at least let me pay for lunch? You helped me take my dispersal magic to a whole new level!” “A kind offer I must sadly decline.” Zecora indicated something with her head. “Look like we’ve both found an interesting way to spend our lunch time.” Twilight followed her gaze and blinked. Her startled wings flapped so hard she almost knocked an ornamental fountain over. *** Her balloon was hovering a little behind the library, ready for take-off. She saw Spike jogging around from the side, presumably from getting it ready. He slowed to a trot as he met her gaze, weighing the odds of explaining or fleeing. Twilight had a very Velvet look in her eye. Because of what was standing in the doorway. Or who and swaying. “I can explain?” Spike tried. “Is that—?” Twilight began. “Cadence?!” They blinked at Zecora, registering her just before she bolted for the Princess of Love. “Cora?!” Cadence’s own wings flared in shock, almost toppling the stack of pizza boxes swaying next to her before she flung herself halfway across the square to collide with the Zebra in a hug. “Oh gosh, what are you doing here?!” “Studying the Everfree, like you do! But enough about me, how about you?!” “The Everfree? The Everfree Forest?! Oh gosh, you took my advice?” “In a trice!” “I was joking!” “Yeah? Jokes on you, it’s the perfect zone! So full of killer plants and monsters and bugs…” “You must be right at home!” The two pointed at each other, laughing so hard a passing Pinkie Pie slooowly backed up and turned around. Twilight waved a hoof to get their attention. “You two know each other?” “The Princess of Love and I? We go back a-ways!” Zecora roped a foreleg around the laughing Cadence. “Though I take it you’re not here to tell Twilight about our younger days?” “Oh, I don’t think talking about my gap year would interest anypony.” Cadence wrapped a sisterly wing around her shoulders. “Now, meeting the apprentice shaman who helped me bring peace to two warring manticore tribes, on the other hoof!” “I’d settle,” Twilight said with the slow weight of her dispersal rocks preparing to land on someone, “for knowing what you’ve done to Peter.” Cadence glanced guiltily at the swaying, smiling figure in the doorway. “Ah.” “I wanna go for a balloon ride…” Peter said happily, eyes full of pink spirals. The tower of pizza boxes on his back made him look like some strange species of concussed turtle. Zecora took one look and burst out laughing, Cadence swatting at her chest to get her to shut up. Twilight stomped a hoof. “It’s not funny!” “I wanna go for a balloon ride…” “Oh geez, my sides!” Zecora wheezed. “Totem, I beg of you, no more, please!” “Aaghshhhh!” Twilight screech-hissed, waving her hooves frantically at Cadence before getting a good look at her face. “Wait…you know?” “Why he keeps saying that? I wish.” “I wanna go for a balloon ride…” “We get it!” Cadence snapped brightly with a smile that showed too much teeth. “See, that’s why I filled ‘er up,” Spike said quickly, thumbing at the purple dome bobbing over the foliage. “’Cause he just keeps saying that and Cadence did this to him, so I was just following orders if you think about it.” “I wanna go for a balloon ride...” Twilight waved a hoof in front of Peter’s swirling eyes. No dice. “You used your visual aids again, didn’t you?” “Maybe.” Cadence was trying not to look as if she was trying to hide behind her tiara. “You gave him the spiralling talk,” Twilight sighed as she gently levitated Peter and the pizzas in doors. “And then you drew one with your horn.” “The heart wants what it wants!” Cadence insisted as they followed her. “It’s not my fault ponies can be…susceptible!” “With your horn, Cadence!” Cadence stamped one of her shoes defensively. “I can be all mysterious and obtuse too if I want!” “She’s done this before?!” Zecora laughed, now leaning on Spike. “Oh wow, I gotta hear more!” “Coraaaaaaa!” Cadence pouted. “I wanna go for a balloon ride…” “Yes, dear.” Twilight sniffed the pile on Peter’s back. “Hmmm. What’s in these?” “Good stuff!” Cadence beamed. “Health stuff,” Twilight frowned, levitating one box open. “Yes, hence good. I’m looking out for you, Twilight!” “By accidentally hypnotising my boyfriend into wanting to go for a balloon ride?!” “I wanna go for a balloon ride…” Peter said with slightly more emphasis as Twilight gestured at him. “We were just sitting in the pizzeria and he was being all blegh, no, this mask is to hide my inner pain, that’s why I’m being all huffy about every creature staring at us even though I insisted you let me keep it on--” Twilight blinked, steadying Peter. “So you do know?” “Princess Celestia told me.” Cadence shrugged. “I was trying to figure out why he kept vanishing all the time. I wondered if maybe taking photos had something to do with it and she just looked at my paper and went ‘Oh, they’re seeing each other?! Good for them!’ and I was like uh, yeah, the guy who took the photo, and she just did that nod, you know the one, and I was like ooooh!” “So you gave him one of your talks, he wasn’t responding and you tried getting visual,” Twilight said, sorting the boxes into a neat floating stack. “And then you forgot you were the Princess of Love and drew a spiral with your magical horn.” “Spiralling is a serious problem, Twilight.” Cadence put a hoof on her shoulder to get her attention. “I use whatever I can to stress that. And I’m sorry, but I didn’t always have a horn! I was just trying to get through to Peter.” Twilight blinked. “About what?” Cadence shook her head solemnly. “Spiralling. It’s not my place to say about what, and if he can’t talk to you about it then neither of you can do anything. Hay, I only know because Princess Luna sensed something. I had another appointment today, but it looks like that’s going to take care of itself.” “Spiralling…” Twilight repeated, considering the floor. “I wanna go for a balloon ride…” “That’s all him,” Cadence muttered, waving a frustrated hoof as she collapsed into an armchair. “His eyes went all wooo-oooo-oooh and he started repeating. It’s something close to his heart the magic’s bringing out. I have no idea where all that pizza fits in, it was enough getting him out of the outfit and transmogrify all that gluten away! Should count ourselves lucky he didn’t look at the star…” “I wanna go for a balloon ride…” “Me too,” Twilight smiled slightly, levitating the boxes. “Uh, not gonna be much of a ride if he’s still talking about it every ten seconds,” Spike pointed out. “We need some kind of stimulus to bring him out of--” Cadence began. Twilight did something with her hoof that made Peter yelp, spirals shooting out of his eyes like dissolving fireworks trails as Spike and Cadence blushed. Zecora toppled into the seat next to her, clutching herself from the laughter that threatened to punch her ribs to splinters. “Hello, dear,” Twilight beamed, waving the pizza boxes. “We’re going for a balloon ride.” “Can I kill you sister in law first?” Peter asked sourly. “She was only trying to help,” Twilight said gently. “Yeah, and you owe me 20-gems for all those pizzas!” Cadence called after them. “Besides, she’s family, I have first dibs.” “Can I watch?” Peter muttered, shooting Cadence a look as they clambered into the gondola. “You’ll thank me for this someday!” Cadence called then realised she was shaking her hoof at them like an old mare and hid it behind her back. “And I’m serious about that pizza, you shouldn’t eat so much anyway!” “♪Can’t hear you! ♪” Twilight sang, suffusing the balloon with some magic to send it higher faster. “♪We’re going on a balloon ride!♪” “Remember back in our day?” Cadence muttered ruefully as she and Zecora followed Spike to the kitchen. “When heroes had manners?” “No,” Zecora smiled. “But you know what they used to say back in the day, specifically about us two: eh, kids. Whatcha gonna do?” To be Continued