Have you ever felt like, even though you have your cutie mark, you discovered a brand new talent?
Maybe it’s something silly and small, or maybe it’s something huge; something you’d never considered before, that just makes so much sense!
When I opened the School of Friendship, I had expected that I would experience it as a new challenge. That it would be rewarding, of course, but difficult. More of a labor of love than anything else.
Not to say that it wasn’t a labor of love. And not to say that the school didn’t present some… unique challenges.
But, once I’d smoothed the bumps in the road… I loved it.
More than I ever could have predicted. More than I could even properly explain! It wasn’t all that different than doing missions for the cutie map, really. I was teaching the same things, writing the same reports. But there was just something about doing it in a school--in my school--that made it so much more magical.
The students made a home and a family here within our walls. The smell of freshly-sharpened pencils wafted through the halls, and the sounds of the students lilted from every propped-open door. The voices of my friends spoke with great authority and confidence-- it seemed some of them had found a passion for teaching, as well.
I was more than just a passing influence in creatures’ lives now. They came to stay with me a while, and I got to watch them grow and change up close.
It was another, newer kind of magic. One that I didn’t really have a word for.
This is all to say, of course, that my time had been eaten away even further.
Vinyl, the lovely mare that she is, did not complain. She was working harder than ever now;
with my financial support (by which I mean the financial support of Princess Celestia), she was able to focus on finding her own, true creative soul, rather than merely trying to please the masses.
Her words, not mine.
And I was really proud of her.
But… I missed her.
Which, of course, I felt guilty about. After all, my friends were all here, right? I had the support of everypony I could ever need, and enough work to last a lifetime. But it was hard only crawling into bed with Vinyl at night, the two of us excitedly trying to catch one another up on our lives before we passed out cold.
I missed those long, lazy days in the castle, doing nothing but reading with her by my side. I missed going on little dates with her to the speakeasy, or brunch at the diner. I missed going on vacations with her, seeing the hidden gems of Equestria and beyond. There just wasn’t time for the little stuff anymore.
So… it was hard.
I mean, it was great. The school was great.
But kinda sad.
Vinyl aside, I couldn’t even remember the last time I had read for pleasure.
Rarity had noticed this. She had appointed herself an emotional guardian, of sorts-- a position I had not asked for and didn’t believe was required, but Rarity was absolutely certain that it was.
She basically would drop by my office once a day and bully me into sharing my feelings and stresses, then do what she could to help me out.
Like I said: not necessary.
But… maybe also kinda necessary.
On this particular spring morning, Rainbow Dash and Applejack had departed from the School of Friendship on a mysteriously ill-defined outing, the very concept of which was enough to give me a headache. But I was working on trust, so I let them. Only time would tell whether that was the right choice.
Rarity let herself into my office, grinning proudly. “Good morning, Twilight!”
I groaned something unintelligible, continuing to scribble away at the parchment laid across my desk.
“Goodness, that’s not a good sign,” Rarity said, trotting closer to my desk. “Just what are you working on so feverishly?”
“Paperwork,” I answered quickly.
Rarity blinked. “Well, yes, I’d gathered as much. Given the, erm… paper.”
I sighed. “Liability paperwork.”
“Whatever for?” Rarity asked.
“Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s field trip,” I said.
“Hm. That’s probably wise,” Rarity said. She trotted to a nearby chair and climbed up into it, sitting very precisely.
I continued working, unable to lift my eyes from the paper.
Rarity cleared her throat.
“Mm?”
“Darling, I’m here for our mid-morning check-in,” Rarity reminded me gently. “I’d have to say that watching you work so… frantically isn’t an extraordinarily good sign.”
“I understand, just--” I scribbled in my signature very quickly at the bottom, then magically teleported the paper into its proper file. “Yes?”
Rarity smiled. She really had the therapist smile down. “Well, how are you doing today?”
I sighed, and set my jaw. “I’m stressed. Really wishing that Rainbow and Applejack had cleared this whole field trip thing with me a while ago, I’ve got mountains of paperwork to do now.”
“But… you let them go,” Rarity pointed out.
I sank deeper into my chair. “Well, yeah. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“You trust them,” Rarity said.
“I mean, I trust them enough not to let any students get hurt or die or anything,” I muttered. I paused, thought over my sentence, then sighed. “Yeah. I trust them.”
“Well, good,” Rarity said, obviously satisfied with her little trick. “I’m sure they feel that trust, or they wouldn’t have asked.”
“Yeah…” I tapped my hooves on the desk idly. “Look, Rarity, I appreciate you coming by, but I’m fine! Just general school stress today, nothing I can’t handle.”
“Oh!” Rarity sat up a little straighter, an action which I hadn’t previously thought possible. “Well, that’s wonderful! I actually wanted to speak to you about something… else.”
I cocked my head. “You did?”
“Yes!” Rarity beamed. “I was hoping you might come with me and help with a lesson today! I wanted to teach my students about designing for accessibility, and I thought, since you’re an alicorn…”
I arched my eyebrows, unclear as to where exactly that sentence was going.
“Well, I thought I could use you as a model! Show how to design for horns and wings all at once,” Rarity explained. “Do you think you could come down for my next block to help with a demonstration?”
I glanced at the clock. “Gee, Rarity, that’s only fifteen minutes… I really need to get a headstart on this paperwork, and I have a visitor coming any--”
“Oh, Starlight will gladly step in!” Rarity blurted. “I’ve already asked. She’s going to watch the office for you, just in case!”
My gaze lingered on the clock, even as I tried to turn back to look at Rarity. There was just so much to do… and I certainly didn’t want to have to stay late to finish up paperwork for this field trip. I was just dying to get home and talk to Vinyl all about it.
“Oh, please?” Rarity asked sweetly. “It would mean so much to me, Twilight, my students need a good model.”
“Uh…” I tore my eyes away from the ticking clock and looked back at Rarity. “Sure. Sure, I’d be happy to.”
Rarity clapped her hooves together. “Oh, wonderful! Can you come down now? I’d like to get you primped for your debut.”
“Is that really--”
“It’s necessary,” Rarity said, flatly and sternly. “At least to get your mane and tail well out of the way. Please?”
I looked back at the clock, then to my towering stack of field trip paperwork. “I…” The stack almost seemed to grow as I looked at it, wavering precariously, about to fall over and spill upon the floor…
I closed my eyes, and gathered myself.
It’s just paperwork.
Coming home late would be okay! I could talk to Vinyl in the morning. Maybe she’d even want to stay up with me to chat!
No, I couldn’t stay up late. I had to go to sleep as soon as possible, because it was a school night, because I was a teacher now.
Is this how it was going to be? Just staying late to do paperwork and crashing hard at night, only to wake up the next morning and do it all again?
“Twilight?” Rarity said, looking at me with some concern.
Somewhere in the halls, I could hear a small gaggle of students chatting with one another. Their high-pitched voices were punctuated by little bursts of laughter.
I smiled to myself.
Well, Twilight, you can either have a day full of paperwork… or you can have a fun, hooves-on experience with students followed by a full day of paperwork.
I sighed. “Okay. Yes, I’ll come down now.”
“Perfect!” Rarity said, leaping to her hooves. “Come with me, then. No time to waste!”
I let Rarity grab me by the foreleg and tug me down the hall. It made me feel all young and fresh again, being pushed around Rarity’s tiny boutique and forced to try on increasingly ridiculous outfits.
Amongst the decorated walls and usual classroom doors, something strange stood out to me.
“What’s happening in room 143?” I asked, resisting Rarity’s tugging. “We don’t normally use that room, why is it open?”
Rarity screeched to a halt. “Oh. Oh, that?” She wasn’t really looking, just looking over my shoulder. “That’s-- we’re just using it to store some extra dioramas!”
I furrowed my brows. “Y’know students can always keep that stuff in my office. Where did you even get a key for that room?”
Rarity stared at me, then shrugged. “I don’t know! Pinkie Pie just seemed to have it. Come on!”
“But--”
“The clock is ticking, Twilight!” Rarity reminded me, tugging at me even harder.
I let Rarity keep dragging me down the hallway, though strained to look over my shoulder. I could have sworn I caught a glimpse of somepony coming out of the room-- a very familiar silhouette, and yet--
Rarity gave me one last hearty shove into her classroom, quickly closing the door behind her and drawing the shades.
I must have given her a strange look, because Rarity blurted, “Dressing room etiquette!”
I cocked my head. “Rarity, what’s going on? There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”
Rarity grinned at me. “That… I’m planning on letting my students experiment by drawing on you?” she tried, though not very convincingly.
“Rarity, what is--”
“No time!” Rarity cut me off. “Sit down, I have to do your mane!”
“But, I--”
Rarity forced me down into the chair behind her desk, immediately going to work on my mane. She was tugging and pulling at it awfully hard… mush more aggressively than usual.
“Rarity, I-- yowch!”
“Oops! Sorry, darling, not much time… just sit still, please!” Rarity said, her voice doing its little guilty sing-song thing. She even started to hum to herself, a tuneless and meandering thing without much direction.
From the hallway came a magnificent crash, and I sat bolt upright. “What was that?!”
“Erm-- it must have been--”
I fought off Rarity’s hooves and stood up. “I have to go check that. What if a student got hurt?”
Rarity seemed to be frozen in panic as I moved towards the door. Then, suddenly back in the present, she skittered to my side.
“Twilight, wait!”
But I had opened the door already, revealing an interesting scene.
An entire drumkit’s worth of drums and cymbals were scattered across the floor. In fact, a cymbal was still rolling to a slow halt on the tile floor, and a snare drum was still careening down the hallway.
One either side of the mess was a pony: to my left, Pinkie Pie. To my right--
“Vinyl?!”
“Uh…” Vinyl stood up straight. “Hey, Twi.”
I opened my mouth to respond, shut it, then opened it again. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Canterlot.”
“I… am in Canterlot,” Vinyl said, gesturing vaguely to her surroundings.
I scoffed. “I thought you were having a meeting in Canterlot,” I corrected carefully.
“Y-yeah, I am,” Vinyl said hesitatingly.
I set my jaw, then looked over at Pinkie.
“She is!” Pinkie agreed.
“Rarity?” I called through grit teeth.
Rarity chuckled softly to herself. “We… wanted it to be a surprise. Sorry, darling, I suppose our timing wasn’t as good as we thought it was.”
I blinked. “Wanted what to be a surprise?” I repeated. Then I looked over at Vinyl. “What surprise?”
“Well…” VInyl smiled to herself. “Remember when we went out on that friendship mission together, and I got to talk to that filly?”
I shook my head, not understanding the connection. “Uh-- sure, I guess. But what does--”
“I haven’t really stopped thinking about it,” Vinyl continued. “And especially after you opened the school, I’ve just been thinking that… y’know, maybe I could… and then, Pinkie mentioned that she’d like it if you had a music teacher, and so…”
My mouth was hanging open like a fish.
“Twi?” Vinyl prompted softly. “You okay?”
“You…” I swallowed. “You want to teach here?”
Vinyl smiled sheepishly. “Surprise!”
Oh, my gosh.
I couldn’t even form a whole thought, just kept staring at Vinyl, my face utterly frozen.
“Is that… okay?” Vinyl asked.
“Okay?” I whispered.
Vinyl was looking at me in some sort of abject terror, as if I may just up and kick her out of the school in my next words. “Y-yeah?”
“Okay?!” I repeated, my face finally cracking open into a smile. “You want to teach here!”
Vinyl’s face turned to one of happiness, too. “Hell yeah, I do!”
“Language!” Pinkie reminded us cheerfully.
I rushed in to embrace Vinyl, quickly burying my snout in the hair right on top of her head. Vinyl chuckled giddily and hugged me back very gently, sort of just draping her forelegs around my shoulders.
“You know this means I’m your boss now, right?” I whispered into her mane.
Vinyl laughed lightly. “Ooh, kinky.”
As much as I wanted to scold her for such a stupid comment, I suddenly had this overwhelming feeling of… calm.
Like I could stay right here forever, at last, because they were all here! Everypony I loved. Everypony I cared for. Under one roof. Working together, learning together, teaching together.
And, as that calm washed over and through me, another thought made itself known:
She’s the one.