Somehow even more annoying than the clock's ticking was the way that it didn't mark the hour. If the thing was going to insist on being as distracting as possible, the least it could do is be distracting in an interesting way. No joy sadly. Eight o'clock came and went with no fanfare. No beep, no chime, not even a mixup in the ticking. Spike licked a claw and turned the page of his comic. How many of those things did he even have? Twilight sighed and continued reading. After a few minutes she moved onto the next chapter and sighed.
Five more minutes went by. Twilight sighed again.
"What is it?" Spike joined in on the fun and sighed himself.
"Hmm?"
"I thought we established this morning that this wasn't going to work anymore? Twilight, if something's up just come out and say it."
"I'm just bored," she relented with a humourless chuckle. It was strangely difficult for her to admit that studying was going anything less than completely perfect. In fact, it had taken about forty five minutes of mental preparation. Most of this was spent staring at the clock and thinking about... earlier.
"I would've thought you'd have seen whether Rarity wanted to hang out tonight," he replied, idly toying with the pages, "I thought you said things went pretty well today?"
"Yeah. It went okay,"
"So why don't you go and see if she's free?" he asked. Twilight bristled slightly at his tone of voice. The one you may use to coax a schoolfilly to the correct answer to a trivial problem.
"I already asked Spike," she replied curtly, but if he picked up her tone he gave no clue. Rather he put his comic down and turned to face her. A smile decorated his features.
"Hey well done! You guys hitting the town then?" he asked enthusiastically.
"No she's... we're not going out tonight."
"Ah, well I suppose she's a pretty busy mare. What's she up to?" he asked.
"Well, she never said she doing anything 'per se' but tonight doesn't work for her." Twilight replied. Spike looked at her for a spell, before nodding and turning back to read.
Seconds marked by incessant ticking passed by. Twilight pretended to read her book and Spike pretended to read his comic while each planned their next move. Spike was inscrutable, while Twilight decided on a healthy but forceful 'It's fine Spike, she must just be tired from work'. Yes, very good. Gracious and showing emotional and social maturity. All she had to do was wait enough time to hit the sweet spot that avoided sounding desperate and preempting whatever Spike was going to-
"So what did she actually say then?" he said without looking up.
Damn it.
"Look, I asked her if she wanted to go out and she asked what I wanted to do. So I told her and then she asked me these weird questions about why I always ordered the same thing from Sunny Pastures. When I replied she just... I don't know. She just said she was taking it easy tonight."
She watched as the dragon took in the information. Something like the ghost of a smirk began to come onto his face but he did an admirable job of quashing it before it became too blatant. He took a deep breath and turned the page of his comic.
"Okay then."
"What?" Twilight demanded.
"I didn't say anything," he insisted, the smirk returning. Properly this time.
"Yeah but you're implying something. Come on, out with it," Twilight demanded, her frayed patience decidedly at the end of tether for today.
"I've not said anything at all Twilight, I'm just reading my comic!" he laughed.
"I know what you're saying!" she growled, pushing her book away, "You're saying that Rarity was testing me, seeing if I was ready for some Ponyville thing. Then what I said about my food made her think I wasn't 'Ponyville Material' or something!"
"Twilight, I am just reading my comic. You're the only one saying anything right now!" he said through chuckling which set the unicorn's teeth on edge. There was more ticking while he calmly read more of whatever stupid comic he'd bought this time and Twilight glared at him. She knew full well this wasn't how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to be the calm and collected one.
"So you're not saying that she was testing me?"
"Not at all! I don't think she would have been some testing you for some 'Ponyville thing'," he replied, "It's more likely she's doing some underground clubbing, or going to a fancy secret restaurant, or having all the coolest ponies in the town round for a secret soiree... so actually yeah I guess I am saying that."
Twilight groaned and slammed her head on the desk. She hated failing tests, she hated it.
"Spike, you're really not making me feel better."
"Never said I was trying to," he winked at her and stuck his tongue out. She resisted the temptation to launch her book at his head. Twilight supposed she was grateful in some way that Spike was enjoying his time here and wasn't experiencing the same problems she was. But then again, it would be really satisfying to hit someone with a book right now.
They fell into their rhythm again, the same one they'd always had. He read, she read. The seconds dragged marked by infernal ticking. Twilight ground her teeth while she thought of all the stopped conversations and strange looks she'd gotten today. All the mainlanders coming out to gawk at the freak fresh from the lifeboat. She thought of tangible change she'd felt the second she'd asked Rarity what she was up to tonight.
She was probably overthinking it. Of course she was! Ponies don't do weird social tests on one another at lunch. The whole idea was madness. They'd have to be someone whose worldview was shaped by the most unreasonably subtle social clues and minutia! Like a would-be Canterlot Socialite...
Celestia damn it all.
She could live with the idea that she might misunderstand or be unappreciative of a tradition. She wouldn't have liked it but she could have lived with it. No, what annoyed Twilight was the implication that she wasn't adventurous enough. Because for the life of her that was the only thing she could see Rarity's questions trying to probe.
"And... what if I don't like what I ordered?"
Nine words. Nine words and she'd been damned.
So she liked Daisy Sandwiches. So she was a slightly fussy eater, she used to subsist on plain food so she could study while she ate and she'd never really broken the habit. There were worse things one could be after all. She might not be the most socially experienced of ponies, but she had faced an old God and wrangled an Ursa Minor within the last three months alone. Not adventurous enough, for whatever Ponyville had to offer?
The same Ponyville that had a local scarecrow hunt every Autumn? The same Ponyville in which 87 year old Brass Watch finding his hat after three weeks was significant enough to warrant an interview in the local paper? That Ponyville? Twilight was at least confident in her ability to withstand whatever activity this town could drum up.
'While newcomers must be cautious, there is something to be said for tenacity. Because while it can come off as invasive should efforts to insert into existing paradigms be too overt, taking an approach, which will inevitably be context-dependent, to more subtly gain entry will be greatly rewarded. Outsiders should never consider themselves intrinsically precluded, rather simply more socially challenged to access greater rewards than initially obvious. An allegory of having to win a race where opponents have a head start is pertinent.' - Intricacies in Equine Relationships by High Noon
Twilight got up and walked over to the window. The sky was dimmed but still held noticeable tinges of blue. They were past the start of Autumn but the weather ponies seemingly hadn't gotten the message yet. Summer remained in earnest, sickly sweet and sticky and hot, just like it was the first day she arrived. She'd wake up tomorrow and her duvet would be sodden with night-sweat. She'd sit in bed for a moment, rubbing the dampened fur on her tummy, then get up to start her day. Then she and Spike would read.
As she waited to read books on her island tomorrow, she passed the time reading books on her island tonight. Books that she knew full well Celestia did not have in mind when she sent Twilight to 'learn about friendship'. Yet every fortnight she was sending the Princess more and more contrived re-imaginings of whatever High Noon or Gold Koi had to say on the subject. Twilight wondered how much of their research involved readings books alone. Whatever lifeboat had brought her here had long left, and the mainland was harsh and alien.
Make it on the mainland or find another lifeboat, Twilight.
"Spike, I'm going to go for a walk."
"A walk?" he asked, as if the very idea was a joke.
"Yeah, are you going to be alright by yourself?" she replied, pointedly not rising to the provocation.
"Twilight, what are you-"
"I'm just going for a walk Spike." she laughed, "Look I'm fine. Obviously Rarity was just tired tonight. I'll do something with her another time. I just... I don't want to sit here reading all night, again."
He looked at her skeptically, eyebrow raised and claw poised to turn page.
"We're not gonna have much more nice weather this year Spike, it's just a walk, okay?" Twilight insisted, "I'm not going to do anything crazy."
"Twilight, try not to worry so much. We've only been here a little while. It'll come around, okay?"
"I know Spike, I'll see you later." Twilight replied before stepping out of the front door. She registered it closing behind her as she stared off into the metropolis. The sun was dipping further with every minute, steadily turning the sky from its greyish blue to a pleasing amber. She didn't wait this time and immediately set out into open waters, eyes fixed on the muted suburban hum of the shore ahead.
Ponyville at night was a lot like Ponyville during the day. Twilight knew this wasn't a terribly exciting assessment but this wasn't a terribly exciting town. So far this had served as a reminder to Twilight of why she didn't take walks very often. No-one to talk to and nothing to do save for trotting around aimlessly.
The streets confused her and it didn't take long for her to start to sweat. After enough time's putting on a show so that she could at least tell herself what she had done constituted a short walk by some vague definition of the term, Twilight found herself in front of The Royal Cross.
It was a charming and rustic little pub that she and the other elements had found themselves in a fair few times. Twilight had two choices, go home and read until she was tired or go in and hope she saw someone familiar in there. The streets were even more sparse than usual tonight, maybe this was where every one was? Maybe they were all at some 'Ponyvillians-only event'? The same one she could have gone to if she'd just thought before saying what she'd said to Rarity? Twilight slumped and made her way inside.
She really hadn't known what she was expecting, but bustling centre of merriment The Royal Cross was not. She counted five ponies among the various tables. And aside from one couple who weren't even looking at each other, let alone talking, everyone was sat far enough away from one another to unambiguously show this was not a time for socialising. The only benefit to this was that no-one even noticed she'd come in, meaning she could simply slip away without-
"Hey! Hey! It's me remember?"
She certainly did. Twilight's stomach dropped and she wondered whether she'd recently angered some vengeful cosmic force as she was confronted with the sight of Snowdrop, and only Snowdrop, tending the bar. How could it possibly be legal for someone of her age to be serving drinks unsupervised?
Small towns.
"Hi Snowdrop," Twilight said flatly, "Do you work here as well?"
"Well not really, it's a favour for my dad, because he knows the owner Mr Cask, and Mr Cask and my dad aren't available tonight so they asked me to run the whole pub!" Snowdrop beamed.
"Wow, that's um... quite something!" Twilight offered with a forced grin. She was hardly old herself but Snowdrop's mannerisms made Twilight feel like she'd suddenly had a babysitting role foisted upon her. She was trying to ingratiate herself to this town. Simply turning tail and leaving now the 'barmaid' had directly engaged her in conversation was likely to do the exact opposite.
At the very least, the fact that Ponyville's empty streets hadn't translated to more ponies in the Cross meant there was plenty of room for her to sit somewhere other than up at the bar with Snowdrop. Still, the thought niggled at her. Through the sheer force of routine in this town Twilight knew for a fact that the streets were conspicuously vacant for this time, and there were precious few places ponies could go at night.
A flash of Rarity's confident grin and her own stupid responses rose, coupled with the idea of some incredible event she was missing out on. She pushed in down near-instantly but it still fouled her mood. Twilight knew she was being ridiculous, oversensitive, delusional... and yet.
Where is everyone else?
She levitated a menu and scanned the cocktails, realising far too late that she shouldn't have gone to an old-fashioned pub if she was fancying a cocktail. As some consolation the guest ales looked very nice. She spooled through them until she found her choice and looked up. Snowdrop had been staring at her the whole time with a toothy grin.
"Umm... one chocolate wonderland please?"
"That's a porter," Snowdrop replied, noticeably proud to know this, "My dad is a big fan of those but I always thought they looked like black coffee. I mean, when you think of beer you think of golden and fizzy not black and flat haha but there you go."
Twilight stared despondently at the young girl who showed absolutely no sign of stopping her bizarre treatise on porter ales, a term she seemed to be using for porters and stouts interchangeably. But, the white noise-effect of her prattling at least gave Twilight a moment to connect the dots. As well as the town and pub being conspicuously free of life tonight, Snowdrop's father and the pub's owner were unavailable tonight too.
Of course, it was highly unlikely the two were related. Why even think they were?
"Snowdrop," Twilight said, caring little for how she'd cut the girl off, "You said your dad and Mr Cask were out tonight. Can I ask where they are?"
"Why?"
Interesting. Smile stretched a little further, pupils displaying slight constriction, hoof wiping glass slightly more intensely. It wasn't blatant, in fact it had been surprisingly reigned in for someone like Snowdrop, but to anyone who knew anything about body language, which Twilight regrettably did after all her ponderous reading about relationships, the girl hadn't liked that question. Normally Twilight would have been a lot more considerate, but tonight the defensiveness got on her nerves.
"Well, the town seems a little dead tonight. Is there anything happening?" Twilight asked. The teenager rolled her eyes back and forth in an overdone gesture of thoughtfulness which just made Twilight more angry. Finally, her eyes snapped back to Twilight's and her expression turned to one of poorly-veiled smugness.
"Where you think they are?"
"No Snowdrop, this isn't some game I'm trying to play with you," Twilight began. She was done with subtle back-and-forth, it was time to go all in. "I was just wondering whether something was on tonight that I didn't know about. Clearly though I shouldn't have asked so I'm sorry."
"I wouldn't say that you shouldn't have asked," she giggled snobbishly, "More that-"
Several glasses hit their respective tables in unison and the temperature of the pub seemed to drop. Twilight cocked her head to get a better view behind her, and found no-one was watching them. Instead they all stared straight ahead. They didn't drink, they no longer read their dogeared book or local paper. It looked like someone had hit pause.
But they weren't blank, there was thought behind those eyes. It would have been ridiculous to suggest that all of the ponies in the bar were focused on them without trying to make it obvious, but it really seemed like it. It had really seemed like it at lunch as well. The thing with thinking that an entire room full of ponies is covertly watching you is that you will really do much of anything to get them to stop. It's a nauseating feeling, and it was no different now.
Earlier, she'd just wanted to get back to normal, but now Twilight forced herself to steer into the skid. She clenched her teeth, refusing to back down. When she turned back to Snowdrop, the mild confrontational front had given way to something entirely different.
"No! No no of course you can ask... um... Well they don't tell me much with how young I am! They just said they were off out!" she leered at Twilight with a veneer of overly friendly desperation.
No, wait. Not at Twilight. Snowdrop wasn't actually looking at her. Instead her eyes drifted just off to the side, and her rebuttal seemed to be addressed to the pub. Twilight turned around in time to catch five pairs of eyes abruptly snap from her and back onto their drinks. The tension was becoming unbearable. High Noon was right, no use in pushing too hard. Canterlot wasn't built in a day after all.
All of this was exacerbated as Twilight felt an unease that angered her by its very superfluous presence. Because she was obviously being ridiculous. Because the only alternative was that Snowdrop had just come close to telling her something she really shouldn't have, something the ponies in this bar actively didn't want Twilight to know. Just how seriously could this town take their little secrets?
"Sure Snowdrop no worries, have a good night," Twilight gave her no time to carry on this insipid display and hurried to her table. It was easier to feel mad than worried, it made her feel less vulnerable. If they wanted their little secrets their could bloody well keep them for all she cared at this point. But, she wasn't going to leave. She had paid for her drink and she was going to enjoy it. How scandalous it must have been to see the element of magic, and Princess Celestia's very own personal student, drinking by herself. She chuckled at the idea of horrified tabloid headlines proclaiming she'd gone off the rails.
If only any tabloid in the entirety of Equestria was actually remotely interested in me, that is.
Twilight enjoyed her drink, but without a good book or conversation she rapidly became bored. The pub being essentially empty aside from Ponyville's weird sentinels didn't exactly help matters. However, when she was done she decided she wouldn't capitulate to the atmosphere and to treat herself to another drink. Her mild tipsiness cultivated spite.
It whispered in her ear that she was as entitled to be here as any of them and that they needed reminding of that fact. She walked to the bar with her head held high. She acted with confidence she didn't actually possess. At the bar, her exchange with Snowdrop was a lot less drawn out the second time. She ordered another of those nice chocolate porters, Snowdrop pulled the pint and bid Twilight enjoy it. That was it. But she was sweating. Now of course it was very hot still, but Twilight hadn't seen her sweat before. Not once. Why now?
When Twilight sat back down and the boredom reached a fever pitch, she resolved to busy herself with a little pony-watching. Now this was made hard by how dull the other patrons were and how no one else had entered the pub since she arrived. But Snowdrop was at the bar, cleaning glasses. Her wide-mouthed grin was far too large to be even adjacent to natural. It creeped Twilight out. More than that, it fascinated her.
For a second, she almost felt like she'd got a peek behind the curtain. She was sat, calmly drinking with the rest of them. The one who felt out of place and nervous was behind the bar, trying for all the world to seem like she felt fine. Was this was it was like, to hold the power of someone else's social standing in the motion of your calm sip of a pint? To lay judgement as a single organism, homeostasis of observation rendered in the simple gesture of putting your book down? Right here she felt like she fully glimpse the mainland. Like she could peer from the shore and lay scorn on the lifeboats at sea, wracked by waves she'd never know.
It sickened Twilight.
She finished her second pint and decided it was time to leave. She really, really wanted to leave now. She stood and immediately wobbled. How strong was that stuff? Why didn't they put ABV's on the menu, was that really so much to ask? Just because everyone presumably was childhood friends with the pony who made the stuff? Well she wasn't. Snowdrop looked her in the eyes, and there seemed to be some pleading behind the mania. Some secret message written in the spiderweb of veins. Not a single pony in the pub even looked at Twilight or Snowdrop, and for a brief moment Twilight could see herself in that young girl.
But it wasn't quite enough to convince the unicorn to remain. She'd enjoyed her drink, she'd enjoyed her second. Staying now out of further spite felt like it was letting them win. Or was it the way the fur on the back of her neck stood on end? Did it even matter? The result was the same. She was leaving.
Twilight made her way to the door, and stood to monitor the scene for a couple more seconds. Snowdrop was looking out to the seated ponies now. There was a clock ticking in the background. An old but strong looking green stallion took a languid sip of his pint. Snowdrop's eyes watched him intensely. He kept going, his eyes remained on his paper as motions in his throat marked each patient swallow. He finished it and regarded the empty glass neutrally, adding a gasp of refreshment for good measure.
Snowdrop's eye twitched.
Whatever trance had fixed Twilight to that spot, the sound of his glass hitting the table shook her out of it. She left the pub. The night air was hot and there was no-one around, just like when she'd come in. And as much as a weaker part of her felt she should leave that place as fast as she could, her legs would only carry her at a languid, defiant pace. Let them stare.
Twilight was too far away to notice when a green hoof slipped out of the threshold and pulled the pub door shut. For a brief moment the Royal Cross was totally soundless. Then, despite not a single patron or barmaid having left, the door's lock softly clicked shut.