//------------------------------//
// FoME's Singing Munchkins Optional (Estee's "You can almost hear Rarity celebrating from here") 
// Story: Never the Final Word (Vol. 2) 
// by FanOfMostEverything 
//------------------------------//

The knock at the door wasn't that unusual. Golden Oaks was the town's public library. Of course, public libraries still had hours of operation, but even the most literate ponies had times when they couldn't decode those particular symbols.

Less usual was Twilight nearly tripping on her own wings as she went downstairs, if only because of the brief time when that was a possibility. She folded them back up, the mental effort of remembering how waking her up further. She added the resulting flash of resentment to the stockpile she had saved for the late would-be reader.

Marshaling her features to the kind of scowl that made ponies remember the Ursa Minor, she shoved the door open and said, "Alright, it's almost midnight and you're Sweetie Belle." Twilight blinked, rage lost amid confusion and concern. A distant part of her noted that her wings had hit the floor again. "What's wrong?"

The bloodshot-eyed filly trudged inside. Twilight moved aside to avoid getting very slowly gored. "Barneighs is closing," Sweetie muttered.

"I heard, yes." All of Ponyville had; Rarity had given Pinkie a run for her money in terms of sheer unbridled joy once she'd spotted the article that morning. Wait. "Is Rarity still celebrating?"

Sweetie Belle stopped her slow, automaton-like trudge just before she hit the central reading table. She looked back, the fury in her eyes eerily similar to how her sister looked five days into a mission with no access to plumbing beyond whatever clouds Rainbow could carry down. "Mom and Dad are on vacation, the record player keeps getting louder, somepony sold her fireworks, and Barneighs is closing."

An explosion echoed in the distance. Twilight made a mental note to check Trixie's whereabouts in the morning. "I'll get the guest bed ready."