//------------------------------//
// Rewards? 
// Story: Why She Serves 
// by Natedogg2006 
//------------------------------//

Tempest Shadow... Fizzlepop Berrytwist, had never been on a date in her life. And from her understanding, neither had her friend and superior Twilight Sparkle. That being the case she had no idea what to expect, and that was not a state the usually well prepared mare liked to be in. It was therefore relieving to her when the start of the date had mainly consisted of situations that were at least somewhat familiar. 
They were starting out their date fairly early, so the first stop had been a light lunch. And so far it was not much different and no less enjoyable then any of the many times the two had done so before. There were just a few added pros and cons she was still trying to work out the balance of. 
"Fizzlepop, stop checking your blind spots in the napkin dispenser." Fizzlepop flinched just slightly at that, causing Twilight to roll her eyes with a tired smile. "And yes, I am going to keep calling you Fizzlepop in public."
"It's bad enough all your friends know my real name. I don't need the general public to start calling me by that embarrassing thing."
Twilight gave her a slightly exasperated look. "Well I think you're just going to have to deal with it for now. After all, it would be inappropriate for me to go out on a date with Tempest Shadow, the interim head of the royal guard. Going out on a date with my friend Fizzlepop Berrytwist is completely fine though don't you think."
Fizzlepop gave a sigh of resignation. "Yes, of course you're right Twilight." Twilight glared. Fizzlepop grumbled. "Twily." Twilight smiled. "I understand why you make me call you that, I really do. And I actually can deal with how cutesy it sounds coming out of my mouth. But honestly, I don't like using that name because it just sounds so silly for you."
Twilight had been taking one of the last spoonfuls of the soup she had ordered as Fizzlepop said this. She seemed to think for a moment while she held the bite there, spoon sticking from her mouth. She gave a casual shrug at the statement before swallowing. "Yeah, you might be right about that. I mean, the only ponies who use that nickname for me are my family. My brother gave it to me when I was just a little filly afterall."
"Ok, then I really don't want to keep calling you Twily. Calling you by a familial name would be weird even if I didn't..." She managed to catch herself, but not before...
"You're blushing again." Fizzlepop groaned, Twilight smiled. "I guess if you want to stop calling me Twily you're going to have to come up with an appropriate pet name for me." Fizzlepop looked away as she felt her face get even warmer. From the corner of her eye she saw Twilight's smile get even bigger. "You don't always have to be in complete control of everything, even yourself. You are allowed to feel however you want to," she blushed a little as she continued. "About anything."
Fizzlepop rolled her own eyes before very obviously checking the reflection in the napkin dispenser again. "I feel like I want to know why those stallions keep glancing over here. The amount of attention they are giving us makes me think they're planning something."
Twilight used her magic to tilt the improvised mirror onto it's side so that it was useless to her. "It's probably nothing. Lots of ponies stare at me when I walk around town anymore. Especially new comers, and I don't recognize them."
Tempest grumbled at that while discreetly checking over her shoulder. "Well then I'm even more suspicious. I know what ponies look like when they're in awe of you as a princess. This isn't that."
Twilight rolled her eyes again. "Off duty, remember. It's Ponyville, who would try to hurt me here."
"You've read my reports and you know I am tracking the movements of at least two different groups that don't think you should be a princess."
Twilight snorted a laugh. "Which one? The Luna is best princess fanclub, or the Cadance alliance fanclub."
Tempest gave her a mild glare. "What about the antiascensionists? You know, the ones who believe that only those born an alicorn are true alicorns."
Twilight puttered her lips as she laughed that off. "What, all six of them."
".... Nine."
"And they've broken up like five different times already."
"Well if you don't think those stallions are dangerous then answer me why they keep looking over here." Tempest grumbled as she checked over her shoulder again. 
Twilight stopped to consider for a moment, very undiscreetly looking between her date and the stallions across the cafe. She smiled mischievously. "I'm no expert, but if I had to guess I'd say it looks like they're checking us out." Fizzlepop turned to Twilight, shock managing to break onto her face. "Actually, now that I've had a good look, I'd say they're checking you out."
Forgoing her usual discretion Fizzlepop turned to the table behind her, whereupon the two stallions seated there suddenly decided they were done with their barely half finished meals. The two blond maned stallions rudely left their plates right where they were and managed to be out of the door of the establishment within seconds. 
Fizzlepop sat stunned looking at where the two had been. Had she tipped them off that she noticed them? Had she scared normal ponies off again the way she usually did? Or... was Twilight actually right about this? Twilight was usually right about a lot of things. 
She managed to direct her gaze back over to her date, who was smiling at her smugly. "You know, I really didn't have time to properly tell you how good you look in that suit." 
Fizzlepop felt she should be able to come up with a proper response to that. She knew she had thought in advance of as many scenarios as she could and how to react to them. Being complimented had been one of them. But right now her thoughts seemed to be paralyzed by the smile Twilight was giving her. She maintained that smile as she lit her horn and began to collect they're empty plates and bowls. 
"We should probably get going, I had a lot of stuff I wanted to show you today." Fizzlepop automatically followed the direction as she stood to follow her princess. Her confusion redoubled when they walked past the table the two stallions had been at and she noticed Twilight's magic wrap around their plates and silverware as well. She turned and gave Fizzlepop a playful smile. "Might as well do something nice for your secret admirers right."
Fizzlepop managed to find her glare at that as she lit her own horn. It sparked violently, but Twilight noticed not as much as when she was actually mad. She proceeded to force the stallions plates back down and take their own away from Twilight. She trotted past the smirking alicorn to properly dispose of them and wait with an irritated expression for Twilight to catch up. 
Within minutes the pair were walking down the street, Fizzlepop still leading while Twilight smirked from behind. 
"So, how long are you going to give me the silent treatment?"
Fizzlepop stopped at what passed for an intersection in Ponyville and looked in both directions. She wilted slightly as she replied. "Considering I have no idea where you were planning on going, I think I'm done." Twilight's smile became sickly sweet as she passed by her friend and led her down the path leading towards the market place. Fizzlepop followed with a huff. "And I was not giving you the silent treatment."
"Of course not. That would be childish, and big bad Fizzlepop Berrytwist couldn't possibly act childish from time to time."
"... You're really laying it on thick today aren't you?"
Twilight just shrugged her shoulders. "If you can't be open to having fun with somepony on a date, when else can you?"
Fizzlepop grumbled. She hated it that Twilight had the ability to be so reasonable even while being completely unreasonable. And yet, she still felt like she hated it a lot less then she should.
"Where exactly are you taking us anyway? The only thing this way is all the local shops and merchants isn't it?"
"Mostly, yeah."
".... So what were you planning for this date then?"
"I'm using it as an opportunity to also continue my ongoing quest of getting you to admit you like and deserve nice things."
"We're going shopping?"
"That's right," Twilight chirped as they were now entering the lively open area that made up the shopping district. "With a little added bonus too."
"Twilight, as frustrating as your usual attempts to pamper me already are, I really can't allow you to spend money openly on me. I mean seriously, where are you going to get the bits from anyway?You're a princess, ponies will talk." 
"Here's a fun little story. We're supposed to share those when on a date right?" She didn't let her date respond before continuing. "For some reason ponies don't seem to be aware just how much interest Princess Celestia has taken in the education of equestrian youth over the years. Despite the fact that I was the most notable personal student of Princess Celestia, I was by no means the first. However I was by a wide margin the youngest as she usually takes on post graduate students."
This actually made Fizzlepop quirk her eyebrow in question. "And just how old were you when you became her student?"
"I was seven."
Fizzlepop felt her hooves stop of their own accord. Twilight seemed to anticipate this and looked back with an overly sweet smile when she did. 
"What?!?"
"That's right. So the stipend her students usually got for housing, living expenses, and various other stuff so they can focus on their studies and experiments went largely untouched. And it also had a lot of extra years to build up." Twilight lit her horn and a massive bag popped into existence before her. The sound it made as it hit the ground got the attention of every merchant in the area. "So don't worry your pretty head about it for one second."
The bag disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared and Twilight continued walking. Shaking off the shock, Fizzlepop managed to follow and noticed something odd about the other mares course. 
"But wait, if we're shopping then where are you going?"
"That's the bonus I mentioned," she replied as she now seemed to be walking right back out of the shopping district on the opposite side. However despite this the only real difference between this area and the shopping district they'd just left seemed to be that this one was not paved. The ground they now walked that should just be a grassy area just outside of Ponyville was now long trodden to bare dirt with various stands, tents, and some very new buildings surrounding it. 
"Ponyville really wasn't built to handle the burden associated with having a large population of royal guards ponies and the staff to comfortably house them moved into town. But that ended up not being an issue I had to consider for very long. It turns out that that sort of presence seems to attract a lot of new business into a small town."
Fizzlepop looked around at the lively street herself in curiosity, noticing as she did several ponies she had seen before around the castle. "Really, I would think the larger draw would come from you. I assume most ponies would want  to live near a castle and a princess."
"That was true for a little while after my ascention, but then everypony realized that living near lightning rods of trouble like the element bearers was not for the faint of heart." She stopped as she came to the center of the new extension of the shopping district where beginnings of a paved square were just being started. "Most of those ponies only started coming back ever since the guards showed up. So, just so we're clear. All of this," she now grandly gestured to the lively and well packed area. "Is thanks to you."
In the back of her mind Tempest felt she needed to be analyzing this new area and incorporating it into her planning for defensive strategies for the castle and town at large. To say nothing of her need to get out of the castle more often if changes like this were going on under her nose. But those thoughts melted away from Fizzlepop's mind at the sight of the proud smile of the mare with her. All her usual proclivities to argue or prioritize her duties fell to the side and only one thought came to her lips. 
"Where did you want to go first?"


***


Fizzlepop squinted hard with her nose nearly pressed against the glass of a display case. She knew she wasn't a pony who knew a lot of the ins and outs of how the day to day lives of normal ponies worked, but she was still sure there was something wrong. She looked past the item in the display case to where Twilight was closely examining what looked like some tapestries hanging from the far wall. She was about to call out to her, but then found herself smiling at the look of deep concentration on the mares face.
Apparently she was staring a little too hard as the mare turned to her. Thinking quickly Fizzlepop managed to remember what she had initially wanted to do. 
"Twilight, if you're not busy could you come over here?" She was then somewhat confused when Twilight proceeded to smile at her and turn back to what she was doing. Fizzlepop then rolled her eyes in understanding. Much more loudly she spoke again. "Twily, could you come take a look at this for me?" 
Twilight then turned as if only just hearing the other mare and began to trot over happily. "Sure thing Fizzlepop, what is it"
Twilight came up to the case right next to Fizzlepop and proceeded to put her face very close to the other mares to see what she was looking at. Fizzlepop bit her lip to force back a blush. "I was just thinking this didn't look quite right." 
Twilight stared deeply at what Fizzlepop was indicating. After deep consideration she could only shrug. "I'm not sure. This is more your area of expertise then mine in several ways." 
Fizzlepop felt her cheeks heat up just a little as she looked around the moderately sized tent they had come to. It was set up to look like a Saddle Arabian bazaar. Fizzlepop remembered with mixed feelings the first time Twilight had managed to get her to open up after asking her about her past. Apparently she had gotten more then a little excited after telling Twilight about a time before the storm king when her travels had led her to the far east. It was probably the only place other then the Castle of Friendship that she had ever felt comfortable. Which was why she could tell something was off. 
"This knife. It's just that doesn't look to be made of any type of Saddle Arabian steel that I've ever seen."
Twilight redirected her attention to it as Fizzlepop did the same. It was why only Fizzlepop noticed it when a large stallion approach them from the other side of the glass. 
"Ah my good sir. It seems you have an eye for quality. Which of these lovely authentic blades has caught your attention."
Fizzlepop didn't seem to react to getting mistaken for a stallion in the least. If anything, Twilight noticed only the slightest ghost of an evil smile make it to her lips. "Actually I was just wondering if you were certain that these blades were actually made by true Saddle Arabian artisans."
"My dear sir. All of the pieces you see here I saw created with my own eyes in my many travels to the far nation."
"Hummm." Tempest seemed to consider the statement deeply. Twilight was now becoming slightly concerned. Those concerns were mostly assuaged as she spoke. "Well considering I don't think I can trust your discerning eye, I'm afraid I'm not convinced these are authentic."
The stallions demeanor turned on a dime as his voice became much more gruff as he continued.  "Young man, I can assure you that absolutely everything in this tent is one hundred percent authentic."
"Umm," Twilight chimed in as the stallion now seemed to be attempting to glare down a completely unfazed Tempest. "If that's really true then you might have a problem." The stallion now turned his glare to Twilight, which now finally drew a glare from Tempest. Twilight simply pointed over to the wall where she'd been examining things. "If everything is authentic, then you being in possession of those prayer rugs over there would be extremely illegal."
Tempest's glare became a smug smirk again as the stallion was now clearly becoming irate. "The two of you obviously have no idea what you are talking about." He began reaching into the display case, pulling out the blade Tempest had been looking at. "I am a legitimate business stallion and I sell only the best. If you really understood Saddle Arabian craftsmanship you'd know...."
In the span of less then a second several things happened. The shop owner began to pull the knife from it's sheath. Before he fully managed to do so they're was a sound like something slicing the air, followed closely by a metallic clang, and a sound like something impacting wood. Reacting to this the stallion pulled away, front hooves separating as he fell back on his haunches. At this point he realized one hoof was holding only half a blade, presumably the other half now lost in it's sheath. Looking up he saw a much larger dagger now expertly driven into the thin strip of wood at the base of the display case he'd been standing in front of. 
"I actually do have a fairly good understanding of Saddle Arabian craftsmanship. As you can see a true blade can literally cleave an inferior blade cleanly in half."
As shocked as the stallion, and to a lesser extent Twilight, was about what had just happened he soon stood back up. Impantent rage flared. "How dare you. You dare damage my quality merchandise. I'll call the guards on you this instant."
Finally realizing just why Tempest had even bothered with this in the first place, Twilight couldn't help but let the smallest snort of a laugh escape. Tempest spoke before the stallion could snap at her. "Are you really certain the guards would even come, much less side with you if they did?" Her words practically dripped with condescension as she leaned forward and smiled oh so smugly at him.
"I'll have you know that I am close friends with the current head of the royal guards herself." Both Tempest and Twilight couldn't help but smile wider at that. "You doubt me. I happen to know commander Shadow very well. She's a fine mare and she'll make short work of the likes of you young man. And perhaps I'll inform my other close friend, the princess of friendship. That's right, I know some very important ponies. You can't mess with me, either of you."
He seemed slightly off put when both ponies began laughing heartily at that. He seemed even more confused at the strangely feminine laugh coming from the "stallion" he had mostly been directing his rage at. 
Twilight recovered first, standing up in the regal posture Tempest had definitely not accidently walked in on her practicing a few times now. "Commander Shadow, would you please lend me a hoof?"
Catching on from the bump rising on the other mares back Tempest turned, just enough to show the skirted bottom of her outfit, and with bowed head reached up to take hold of the fabric of the back of the dress. "My pleasure, your highness."
With a flash and a pop Tempest was now holding an empty dress aloft. She heard the unfurling of wings from the opposite side of her. The sight of the stallions eyes growing to the size of dinner plates while his pupils shrank to pin pricks made it hard to maintain her Demeanor. 
"P p p p pri prin princess...."
Twilight cleared her throat to cut his stuttering short. "So which is it? Is all your merchandise authentic or not? Because either way I'm afraid I'll have to be making a report to the mayor to have your shop investigated. Will the investigation be for misrepresentation of goods, or for international trade violations?"
Though Tempest could tell Twilight was struggling with her smug and superior tone, the shop owner was off guard and was thoroughly buying every moment of it. 
"Umm... I, I might have been mistaken when I bought the rugs...," he finally conceded as his ears flattened and he tried not to look away. "But every thing else I can assure you is of the highest... quality." He trailed off as he seemed to remember what was predominantly just the handle of a knife in his hoof. 
Twilight seemed to stare at it critically for a moment before an idea seemed to come to her. Electrical sparks started jumping from her horn, almost looking like when Tempest attempted more complicated spells. "If you are so sure of that I could always perform an electro-chemical composition test  to determine their physical makeup. Compared, of course, to a piece that is known to be of the make and quality you've advertised."
The sparking around her horn reached out and plucked the dagger with a green gem from where it had been driven into the case. The stallion finally looked away at this. "That... won't be necessary..."
Twilight twirled the dagger around in her magic nonchalantly as she spoke. "I'm working very hard to set up the kind of quality shopping district that will attract ponies from all over the world. I'm afraid there's no place in it for a shop that lies about the quality of their goods." The blade stopped spinning and with speed and precision found itself sliding back into it's sheath on the other mares leg. 
Tempest had maintained a soldiers level of stoicism this whole time even while feeling the other mares magic that close to her. She finally broke it as there was a flash and a pop and she found the dress she was holding filled in again. She couldn't help but smile to herself as she saw the slightly smug smile on Twilight's face. 
"I would suggest either updating your signs or your merchandise. And I'd do it within the next few days as I'm not sure exactly when there will be time to get somepony down to inspect your shop thoroughly. But I promise it will be as soon as is possible." She turned to Tempest. "Anything else?"
"Yes in fact," she said as she leaned forward with a glare. "Don't ever make me think you're about to pull a blade on my Princess ever again."
The stallion gulped as both mares smiled and, in unison, walked from the tent. 
Not far from the tent Twilight was the first to break and start laughing. Fizzlepop could only smile proudly at it.
"Ok, so being the big bad mare in charge can be a little fun sometimes." She said this while smiling and giving the larger mare a small shoulder bump. "I can see why you like it so much."
"It would seem you're a natural at it too. I mean seriously," She turned to the other mare with an exasperated look. "Electro-chemical composition test." She reached up with a hoof and flicked the other mare's horn as they walked, causing a few remaining sparks of magically conjoured electricity to discharge from it.
Twilight smiled with embarrassment at that. "I thought it sounded official. And apparently it worked." She reached up to her own horn to shoo away the other hoof as more sparks kept discharging. "You're the one that who says that saying things with confidence is more important then being right most of the time."
"Yes, and now you see that it's true. Perhaps I'm as bad an influence on you as you are a good one on me. Maybe this time next year I'll be saving Equestria from you."
Twilight snorted a laugh and bumped her shoulder harder. "Well you'd have to assemble your own group of best friends forever before you can do that."
"Is that right. In that case I'll just borrow yours. Maybe even become the new element of magic in the process."
"As the element of magic I can say with complete confidence that that is definitely not how the elements work."
Fizzlepop laughed at the fake confident tone Twilight tried to maintain as she spoke. She reached up to flick her horn again. "Whatever you say sparky."
As the latest and seemingly last of the sparks discharged, Fizzlepop was suddenly caught off guard when a very cocky smile came to Twilight's face. 
"Hey Fizzlepop, guess what." Fizzlepop could only cock her head in question. "You don't have to call me Twily anymore."
Fizzlepop's eyes widened in shock and realization. "Oh no. No no no no no. That is not happening Twilight."
Twilight very obviously ignored the other mares plight. Going as far as humming a little tune as she picked up her walking pace. 
"If anything that is even worse. Twilight stop so I can reason with you." The other mare just kept walking. "Twilight.... Twily?" No response. "Ugh! Sparky."
"So the only down side to this is now I have to come up with an appropriate nickname that would match it to call you." Fizzlepop could only grumble at somehow still being ignored despite being acknowledged at last. "If we want it to match properly the obvious answer would be Twisty. Or would it be Berry...ie? Hummm, I'm not sure which would match better."
"It doesn't matter because I would not respond to either." Fizzlepop said this with a very solid conviction. 
"Oh come on now. Having a nickname isn't the end of the world. Is it Fizz?"
"It's not the idea of having a nickname, I just wouldn't respond to such a childish name in gener... You just tricked me into responding to the one you really wanted to use didn't you?"
Twilight just smiled sweetly as she again trotted on ahead. "Now that that's settled, we'll have to make up for that shop not being as good as I was hoping it would be. And also we are going to have to address how casually you handled being mistaken for a stallion. I've got a few places in mind."
She now came to a stop in front of a fairly large stand. A fairly large stand with a fairly large assortment of entirely too pink accessories. And although she wished to protest, Fizzlepop found Twilight to be smiling an impenetrable smile to her. 
"Are you ready Fizz?"
Fizzlepop could only sigh. "Lead on, Sparky."


***


A few hours and a few too many stands for Fizzlepop's taste later and all the mare could do was groan. "Did you really have to buy me all that stuff."
Twilight's smile was entirely too sweet for Fizzlepop's taste right now as well. "Of course I did. After all, if you have so many new cute outfits to wear then you need a wardrobe to put them in as well right?"
"I suppose from a logical standpoint you are right, but you bought me an entire bedroom set to go with it. And besides that, I didn't need the outfits to begin with."
"Oh they were casual outfits. Just some things that might let ponies see how pretty you can be. The suit is really nice, but you need some middle ground between this and your usual armor right. And you can't go around looking this nice all the time just because Rarity made you a few extra outfits either. And besides that," she looked over to the mare with a knowing smile. "I've gotten pretty good at figuring out when you actually do want something. You liked all the stuff I bought for you. Even and especially that cute green mane bow." Fizzlepop could only glare at the impenetrable smile before her. "And no I'm not going to tell you what your tells are."
The mares continued walking through town, glancing at shops they passed along the way. It was probably good that Twilight was as skilled at teleportation as she was. Fizzlepop didn't care much for shopping at the best of times, but had they needed to be carrying around what had been purchased so far the day would have ended a long time ago already. And she was starting to not have to wonder why that was a plus for her.
"Even if you've convinced yourself that I might actually like looking more feminine, you can't possibly force me to wear any of it."
Twilight's smile seemed to turn slightly melancholic at that. "That's true. I can't force you to do anything really. Even as a princess I couldn't force you to act in any certain way." Her smile brightened as she continued. "But I can try my best to make you realize you might want something much more then you think."
Fizzlepop found herself rolling her eyes again. "Still trying to turn me into a sentimental pony like the rest of your friends." She saw Twilight's smile turn sheepish at that. "I still don't think buying me stuff like I'm a spoiled filly is going to..."
Twilight stopped a few steps ahead realizing her date had seemed to stop dead in her tracks yet again. She was curious to see the other mares nose twitching unconsciously. "Fizz, are you ok?" The other mare didn't move, but a quick glance around made Twilight's face turn up into a smile. "Hey Fizz. In your extensive travels you wouldn't have happened to have learned any Haytalian by chance?"
Finally broken from whatever trance she'd been put under, Fizzlepop turned to her princess in question. "No... Why do you ask?"
Twilight smiled deviously. "Then I definitely think we should go to that shop next."
Fizzlepop looked over to where a merchant had set up what looked like a rather large tent for his shop. In elegant script on a sign out front was written "Maestro del Cioccolato". 
"What's in that shop?" Fizzlepop inquired as she walked over, Twilight having walked ahead and already poking her head in. She pulled her head back out, carefully holding the flap closed so Fizzlepop couldn't see in, and flashed a grin that was down right wicked. 
"So Fiiiizzz, have you per chance ever seen a chocolate... Fountain?"
Fizzlepop felt her eyes widen as Twilight threw the flap open and she was hit in the face with a sweet scent. Inside were three odd structures, with three different colors of chocolate running off of them. Her mouth began to water, but she turned her face away. 
"No, this is ill advised. If you take me in there you'd force me to indulge far too much."
She was caught off guard when Twilight's voice came to her softly from just next to her ear. "Fizz, you're already inside." 
Fizzlepop looked up to notice the other mare was in fact right. Whether her own hooves had betrayed her or Twilight had silently worked some sort of magic she wasn't sure. But either way she knew who she was going to blame.
She grumbled. "Sparky, you really are far more evil then I ever was."
Twilight's smile only became brighter. She glanced around the interior before locking eyes with a stallion dressed in white, presumably the owner of the fountains. "Signore, could you please start us a tab. Under Princess Twilight Sparkle if you would."


***


The hour was a little later then either ponies realized as they walked down the halls of the Castle of Friendship. Both were under no delusion that their hoof falls were much slower then they normally would have been. 
"Ugh. If I thought for a second the magical displacement wouldn't make me puke I'd just teleport both of us at this rate." Twilight said this while carrying the dress she'd been wearing most of the day over her shoulder. Some time after leaving their final stop of the night she'd decided that it no longer fit as well as it previously had and was making her wings uncomfortable. 
Fizzlepop could only groan her affirmation. "I don't want to hear it. You're the one who got us the literal royal treatment. 'It would be rude to refuse when a master chocolatier is preparing fresh new creations just for us'. I do believe those were your exact words if I'm not mistaken."
"You were still the one who finished off his regular stock that prompted him to start making new stuff in the first place."
They rounded a corner which made both their stomachs slosh in ways they didn't like. "Don't remind me. I'm going to have to spend hours in the gym working this off."
Twilight gave as much of a chuckle at that as she could at the moment. "Says the pony in great enough shape to train soldiers. I sit on my flabby haunches all day long signing papers and have literally never even seen the castles gym. I need to hit the gym and work this off if anypony does. 
Fizzlepop snorted a laugh. "I'll drag you along. We'll get you on a workout that will have you looking like the goddess you essentially are." Realizing what she was saying she felt her cheeks heating up again for the first time in hours. "Not that I'm saying you don't look good as you are now. I..I mean it's just."
Twilight bumped her hips into the other mares. "It really is fun to see you when you get flustered you know. It's kinda cute."
How natural it had become to talk to Twilight normally had made the real purpose of their days activities get lost for most of the day so far. But now that they were alone once again it was all coming back, and making her cheeks feel even warmer still. 
"I am not cute. No pony has ever called me such a thing."
"Well, now one has." She came to a stop naturally as the doors of her room came into the side of her vision. "And the same cute gentlemare has also gone through the trouble of walking me all the way to my door." The potential implications of walking her date to their door were not lost on Fizzlepop, and this fact was not lost on Twilight as she was now squinting at the darker coated mares cheeks intently and smirking.
"I wasn't thinking of anything untoward. Even if this was a date I couldn't possibly be so unprofessional as to imagine doing such a thing with a pony who is still my sup...er....ior."
Fizzlepop's words trailed off as she felt another ponies cheek rub against her own gently. "This was a first date ever for the both of us. I think it's ok if we put that sort of thought off for the time being since neither of us knows where this is going at this point." She stepped away from the very warm cheek she'd been pressed into and lifted a hoof to her door. "That being said, I still want to spend more time with you this week. In fact, count me in on joining you at the gym. Would two o'clock on Monday work for you."
Fizzlepop went through her plans for her next work day quickly in her head. Before working it out completely she responded. "That would work perfectly. I'll look forward to it."
"That's good. Not that I won't see you, but enjoy your weekend. Fizz."
"And you as well." She couldn't help a smile coming to her lips. "Sparky."
Twilight pushed her door open and with one last smile disappeared into her room. Fizzlepop felt an odd mixture of sadness, glee, and even relief as she stared at the large doors. She was still smiling as she turned to walk the short distance down the hall to her own room. About half way she heard the same doors open behind her again. 
"Oh, by the way," Twilight said as Fizzlepop turned to her once again. "I sent a message ahead to Spike with your new things. I hope you like what he's done with your room."
Not knowing how to respond to that Fizzlepop just smiled. "I'm sure it will be fine."
"Great. Goodnight."
"Goodnight." And the doors shut again.
Upon opening her door she found just a small amount of dragon fire still burning in the hearth on the far side of the room. This gave her enough light to see just how much Twilight had gotten for her today. Tempest had previously limited the accomodations allowed to her to the bed that had come with the room and a large duffel bags worth of the few things she owned neatly arranged next to it for easy access. But looking around at the dresser, wardrobe, mirror, and several other new furnishings that she knew also had things inside given to her out of the kindness of another ponies heart she had a weird filling. And it was even more weirdly a feeling she felt in both her chest and her stomach at that moment.
It felt full. But not in a suffocating way having this many personal items might have felt at other times in her life. For once in all the time she could remember she felt like her world was filled with wonderful things. Wonderful things given to her by wonderful ponies. 
She shuffled over to her bed, carefully lighting her horn to assist in removing her clothes as she went. A type of comfort she'd never felt before came over her the moment the soft covers wrapped around her. She had never fallen asleep so quickly in her life.