Starlight Glimmer and I ran as fast as we could through Ponyville. She still couldn’t believe she forgot about the party Pinkie had planned and thought we were in some kind of trouble, even though I kept assuring her that it was alright. We finally got to the front steps of the castle. Starlight was about to open the door when I stopped her.
“Why? We’re already late as it is,” Starlight said.
“Because we don’t want to look like we just ran a marathon. Plus, your eyes are still a little red from earlier. Trust me on this one,” I responded.
Starlight shrugged and walked back down the steps and stood at my side.
“Let’s just catch our breath,” I said. I looked down at her to see her panting. I thought about what happened during our picnic, and it put a smile on my face as I looked back to the doors to the castle.
Starlight looked up at me. “Whatcha smiling about?”
I looked back down to her to see her smiling as well. I chuckled a little. “Nothing.”
We walked back up the steps to the door, and I put my hand on the doorknob. I silently counted down from three, and opened the door. Sure enough, my seven best friends jumped out of various hiding places and yelled, “Surprise!”
Pinkie came bouncing up to me. “Were you surprised? Were ya’? Were ya’?”
I tried to hold back a laugh, but Pinkie’s big blue eyes and energetic smile got the best of me. I broke out in a laugh, and everyone else joined in.
After a few minutes, we all started to finally calm down. “Well, were ya’?” Pinkie still asked.
I sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Pinkie, you know how much I love you and your parties, but considering that I was the one who asked that we do this today, no, I’m not surprised.”
“Oh yeeeeeah. I forgot about that,” Pinkie said.
I stood back up, and this time, I managed to stifle a laugh. I looked around the room. There were streamers along the ceiling and windows. Balloons were tied to anything sticking out far enough to hold them. There was an entire table dedicated to food, which included mostly cupcakes, and drinks, which consisted of punch and cider.
I looked back at my friends, who were all facing me with some of the biggest smiles I had ever seen. I couldn’t and didn’t even try to hold back a smile of my own.
“This...this is great. You are the best friends I could ever ask for,” I told them. When I said that, Twilight turned her head away from me and covered her face with a hoof, still smiling. I could’ve sworn I saw her blush. “But what are we waiting for? Let’s-“ I started to say until I heard what sounded like steam coming from a teapot. I looked to the source of the noise and saw Pinkie shaking and holding something in. It didn’t take me long to figure out what. “Go ahead, Pinkie, you look like you want to say it.”
“LET’S PARTY!!” Pinkie screamed. I actually flinched from how loud she was.
About an hour into the party, I was having the time of my life. We were all standing in a circle with Rainbow Dash in the middle, who was doing her quote awesomest moves she knew. Combine that with the boom box Pinkie somehow pulled from her mane, and I just knew Dash would say this party was twenty percent cooler.
Rainbow just pulled off a flip without the use of her wings, which I found particularly impressive, and was now spinning on her back with her hooves tucked in as tight as she could hold them. We were all cheering “Go Dashie,” in a repeated fashion as one would at this kind of event.
Dash finished spinning and rested her head on one of her front hooves, and we all cheered for her. After that, we all broke off into separate activities. I made my way to the “refreshments” table, and poured myself a cup of punch. I would’ve gone with the cider, but I once found out the hard way that cider was the Equestrian equivalent to liquor in my world.
“Hey, Jake,” said Twilight, walking up to me.
“Hey, Twi. Pinkie really outdid herself with this one,” I responded.
“Yeah,” she agreed. She looked like she had something to say, but didn’t.
We stood there for a few minutes, before I decided to break the silence. “Hey, Starlight told me about how you all met, and I think what you’re doing for her is great.”
Twilight looked a little surprised. “Oh, she already told you about that. You didn’t get mad at her, did you?”
“Of course not. The way she described it, it sounded like all she ever needed was a good friend. Besides, I couldn’t possibly get mad at someone as cute as her,” I said.
Twilight’s expression saddened a bit. “You think...Starlight’s...cute.”
At first I thought it was a question, so I blushed with embarrassment. “Y-Yeah, I think a lot of ponies are cute. Compared to humans I mean!”
Twilight blushed a little when I said that and laughed a little to herself. “O-Oh really. I-Is there...anypony else you think is...cute?”
I matched her laugh and blushed with even more embarrassment. I looked down at Twilight, who wore a sheepish look on her face. I controlled my face heat and reached down to scratch behind her ear, which she always used to love whenever we hung out. “Well, I think you’re cute.”
She leaned into my hand and gave a cute little laugh as I scratched the bottom of her ear. She closed her eyes and smiled as well, increasing her cuteness.
“Why do you ask?” I asked.
Her eyes shot open, and she moved away from my hand. “N-No reason! None at all!”
I could tell there was something she wasn’t telling me, but before I could ask what it was, she turned away. “It was nice talking to you. We really need to catch up sometime,” she said, walking away from me.
“A-Alright. See you later then,” I said in a confused tone.
I didn’t take my eyes off of her when she stopped, took a deep breath, and turned back to me with closed eyes and a somewhat serious expression on her face.
“Jake, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Shoot.”
“I...” she sighed before she continued, “For a really long time now-“
Twilight was cut off by Spike, who came running up to us and jumped with his claw in the air. I stuck out my hand at waist-level for him to slap, but he jumped too high and actually hit my arm in an awkward spot.
We both laughed. “Let’s try that again,” I said, raising my hand a bit higher. Spike jumped again, and we high-fived. “Told you that you were getting bigger.”
“Thanks, Jake,” said Spike.
“Sorry about that. What did you want to tell me, Twi...light,” I said, only to realize that Twilight was gone. I looked back at Spike, who simply shrugged.
I walked away from the table to try to watch a hoof-wrestling match between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but I tripped on something. Luckily, I stuck a hand out fast enough to catch myself. I shuffled my feet up to quickly stand up, so it really just looked like I had tried and failed to do the worm, not that I could anyhow.
I looked back to see what I had tripped on, and I found Starlight leaning on her back hooves with a shocked expression on her face.
“Uh...ta-da?”
Starlight chuckled. “S-Sorry about that. Nice move.”
I started to laugh as well, and we both broke out into an all-out giggle fest. When I finished, I saw a smile on her face that warmed my heart. I noted how cute she was right then, but I realized that she didn’t just look cute. No, she looked far beyond cute. Something I haven’t thought of a mare ever since I arrived in Equestria. Right at that moment, I thought that Starlight had looked...beautiful.
“You okay?” she asked, snapping me out of my dazed state.
“Uh, yeah,” I said, shaking my head. My face was extremely heating up, but I wasn’t sure whether or not I was visibly blushing. If I was, Starlight didn’t seem fazed by it.
I spent the rest of the party trying to figure out what I was feeling and what it meant.
That night, I lay awake in my bed, thinking about the time I had spent with Starlight. It always made me feel happy when I made other ponies happy, but there was something different with Starlight. Once she opened up during our picnic...no before that even, when I first met her, I’ve been feeling something, something...unusual. Something entirely new to me. I’ve never felt this way, before or after I entered Equestria. It was warm, fuzzy, and just plain overwhelming.
Could it be? No...maybe. Then again...why not? I’ve been around mostly just ponies for the last four years of my life. It made sense, but...part of me still tried to deny it.
But I knew...I had a-wait, did I really?
I sighed.
Yes, I did.
I had a crush on Starlight Glimmer.
Twilight was pacing in her room, reprimanding herself. She marched right up to her mirror and looked at her reflection.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked her reflection.
Her reflection simply stared back with that same frustration.
“Ugh, I know. I’m just as much to blame as you.”
Her reflection’s expression softened a bit.
“It’s just so hard. Why? It’s not like he’ll judge me.”
Her reflection had a puzzled expression, as if trying to find an answer.
Twilight blinked and realized what she was doing.
“Why am I talking to my reflection?” she asked herself. ”Because you’re the only one who gets it.”
Jake’s words from earlier replayed in her head.
’I couldn’t possibly get mad at someone as cute as her.’
“He thinks she’s cute,” Twilight said to herself, feeling somewhat defeated.
But then, more of Jake’s words replayed in Twilight’s head.
’I think a lot of ponies are cute.’
’I think you’re cute.’
Twilight shot up on her hooves.
“But that might not mean anything! He thinks everypony’s cute. He even thinks I’m cute,” she assured herself.
Twilight repositioned herself in front of her mirror.
“Jake does not have feelings for Starlight,” she told her reflection. “But I do have feelings for him. I’ll just tell him, and he’ll keep an open mind. And I’m gonna do it right now!”
Twilight was about to march out of her room to go find Jake, when she looked out her window to see the moon was in the sky. On top of that, Twilight let out a long, unexpected yawn, signaling how tired she was from the party.
“Or, first thing in the morning. Yeah! I’ll tell Jake how I feel the second I see him tomorrow!”
With that, Twilight leapt onto her bed, and drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.