//------------------------------//
// Honestly How Do You Fuck Up Chocolate? 
// Story: My Little Space Empire: Mechs are Magic 
// by Wheezyandbreezy 
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It had been a hell of a day for the knights of Strike Team Sparkle. Twilight had ordered them back to the Damocles and S.P.I.K.E. was ordered to clean up the training bay. Pinkie's mech stood like a sentinel on the beach, the tide rolling gently off of its giant boots. Pinkie and Twilight had gone straight from orbit to the cabin and Pinkie hadn't let go of her since she'd come back to herself after her episode.

Twilight was racked with guilt at Pinkie's condition. Even at the thickest of fighting the pirates, she had never seen her this scared, this broken. Pinkie laid in her arms staring, almost catatonic, barely even blinking. Twilight ran her a shower, but Pinkie refused to let her go, so they bathed together. In an odd way Twilight wished that Pinkie was still on the Discord Serum, that way they could share a consciousness again, and she could convince her everything was fine.

Twilight felt someone approaching the cabin and politely but firmly asked them to leave what they were holding and leave them be. It was the director of the resort. He had prepared a gift basket out of gratitude for two of the women that had freed him from his living hell in slavery. Twilight held back a tear and levitated the basket into the cabin. 

Twilight looked and saw what to anyone else would've been luxury food items. There was champagne, aged wine, fresh fruits, and several different types of expensive chocolates. A tear came to her eye, because of the work her soldiers, her diplomats, and her knights had done, this man was freed from bondage and was able to rise to the directorship of a luxury resort on the capital world. She smiled gently and levitated one of the squares of chocolate to Pinkie's face. "You see that Pinkie. The director is thanking you for all your hard work. You helped bring that man into freedom and safety. And the two of us are going to get through this crisis the same way, by working together." 

Pinkie's unnerving stillness erupted into a blur of movement. She slapped the chocolate away and snapped to her feet. "NO! YOU HAVE TO STAY AWAY! YOU CAN'T GO ANYWHERE NEAR THEM!" She rushed back to Twilight and crushed her to her chest, weeping bitterly. "I won't let them have you."

Twilight gently levitated her into her arms. "Pinkie. I'm here. I'm just fine." Pinkie struggled in Twilight's grasp but Twilight gently but firmly held her in place with her telekinesis. She gently ran her fingers through her hair and cooed softly to her, "Cupcake hush now. It was just a hallucination brought on by the drug. Your symptoms matched exactly with several of the original test subjects. I saw what you saw and that's never going to happen, I pro~"

"What did you see?!" Pinkie said in a voice like molten lead. She had somehow managed to wriggle hard enough to grab Twilight's face. She gave Twilight the most intense glare she had ever seen on a human face, and from Pinkie, the one who had never worn a serious expression in her life. It genuinely scared Twilight.

She shakily said. "I saw myself getting experimented on by the cloners. But I promise tha~"

"What Else!" Pinkie barked. Her big blue eyes were bloodshot, and their expression lacked any shred of the joy they had once contained.

Twilight levitated her away, and rose to her feet. "That's all!" Pinkie's hysteria was concerning her even more now. She seemed to genuinely believe what she saw in a drug induced nightmare was bonafide fact.

Pinkie scrambled off of the bed and roughly grabbed Twilight. There was no love, no gentleness in the gesture, there was only desperation and anger. She shook Twilight like an interrogator with an uncooperative suspect. Twilight could hear the damage to Pinkies vocal chords as she screamed, "PROMISE ME!!!"

Twilight reflexatorily increased her aura and shoved the hysterical woman roughly away. Twilight was about to reprimand Pinkie, but the expression she saw there stopped her heart. Pinkie wasn't afraid, or regretful, or even dazed from the violence of the rebuff. Pinkie was glaring at her, as if she was being reckless and stupid during a moment of extreme danger. It was the least love Twilight had seen on her face since their first kiss. A tear came to her eye and she relaxed her aura. She focused intensely and slowly her hair began to slow, then stop completely and hang down.

Pinkie's glaring eyes snapped open and she gawked at the sight. Twilight had just turned off her god mode. She stood there looking exactly like she had that day in the garden. This seemed to make Pinkie less mad and somehow more considerate, as if correcting something that had been stuck in her mind. Pinkie looked on Twilight's crying face and saw just how heart broken her little love muffin was. Pinkie got slowly to her feet, still staring aghast at the human woman standing where moments before a demigod stood. Pinkie crossed the room and ever so delicately took a lock of Twilight's long navy blue hair and let it fall limply back down. Twilight met her eyes and brokenly whispered, "I'm not your enemy Cupcake."

Pinkie immediately broke down sobbing. She squeezed Twilight and Twilight squeezed back. Pinkie repeated. "I'm sorry" over and over through her sobs. They kissed through their tears, and Twilight was overwhelmed with relief at the change. They slowly shuffled to the bed and lay down. Pinkie still wept, but now they were tears of reconciliation, not of nightmarish terror. Twilight stroked Pinkie's hair and whispered sweet nothings to her until she calmed down enough to speak.

"Twilight. . . They're coming. We have to get ready."

Twilight squeezed Pinkie gently and whispered into her hair. "Let's not think about that right~"

"Twilight Please!" Pinkie hissed loudly. She shuffled to where she could look Twilight in the eye. Her tears started up again. "Please. I need you to take this seriously." 

Twilight looked at how scared her little pink cupcake was and sighed hard. She allowed herself to be just a little frustrated as she said, "Okay Pinkie. Where are they? In the brief flash I saw I didn't see a planet, or a star system I know. So where are they?"

Pinkie pulled her legs against her chest and hugged them tightly. "Oh God. . . You don't believe me. . . do you?"

Twilight slowly wrapped a thin arm around Pinkie. She didn't resist. Twilight sighed hard. "No Pinkie. No I don't. And I should! You're the woman who just took out five of the most elite pilots in the galaxy with barely an effort. But your symptom matches the original test subjects perfectly: hallucinations, fear of a non-existent foe, hysteria, and that makes me think you're wrong." Twilight sighed hard. "What do you want me to do Pinkie? I'll listen to whatever you say."

Twilight stood with her bare feet in the sand, her neck craned up towards the sky. In her reduced state she had to focus much harder to speak at such a long distance. She ordered the fleet to be in immediate readiness for an attack. It was a damnable nuisance to get Rarity to understand they didn't know when the attack was coming. She ordered an invasion force to be prepared for immediate deployment to the changeling homeworld. Rainbow would accompany the fleet, but Applejack and Fluttershy would stay to help guard Terra.

With her message sent Twilight stretched and popped her neck painfully. She came into the cabin and saw Pinkie making a disapproving face at the expensive chocolate Twilight had offered her. "Pleh! How do you fuck up chocolate?!" She said, wiping the offending treat off of her tongue. "Here you try it." Pinkie said, holding out the small square of chocolate with a single bite taken out of it. Twilight's heart glowed at seeing the woman she loved almost back to her old self.

Twilight allowed Pinkie to feed her the piece of chocolate out of her hand. Twilight agreed the flavour was terrible, but that wasn't important right then. There was a small smudge of chocolate melted onto Pinkie's finger and Twilight slowly ran her tongue over it. Pinkie couldn't look away as Twilight teasingly ran her tongue over the spot, licking it squeaky clean. She took the very tip of the finger into her mouth and began to suck gently on it. Twilight ran her tongue along Pinkie's finger and kissed it softly several times.

With the other hand Pinkie put another piece of chocolate into her teeth and stuck out her face. Twilight bit the other end of the small square and the two fell into a passionate kiss. They made slow gentle love, each making sure the other felt the depth of their contrition. They spent the rest of the day frolicking on the beach together not worrying about their troubles. They made love on the beach and in the ocean. It was the best time Twilight had had since she laid down her sword.

With her aura dropped Pinkie had once again resumed the role of the energetic one, so Twilight could relax and enjoy the experience. Throughout the day they polished off both the bottle of champagne and the aged wine, and they ate all the fruit in the basket. By the time they fell asleep in each other's arms the only thing left in the basket were the chocolates. 

They were terrible.

The next morning a very satisfied Twilight woke gently to the sound of the tide breaking against Pinkie's mech. She lay simply enjoying the afterglow for several moments and considered drifting off back to sleep. She rolled over and saw that Pinkie was not in the bed. Twilight was mildly disappointed at not seeing her little pink cupcake, but was too satisfied to be concerned by it. 

She lazily sat up and felt amused at the fact that for the first time since her ascension she had genuine bed head. It occurred to her she was still in her reserved state. She decided against resuming her aura for now and she took her time getting out of bed. Even in her reduced state she could still feel anyone within range, and there wasn't a soul around for miles, so Twilight decided to just go naked to search for her little pink cupcake. Maybe she could get another serving of what Pinkie had given her the previous evening.

She strolled lazily out of the cabin and looked around for the woman she loved. She wasn't on the beach as far as she could see. She couldn't see her anywhere in the ocean. Twilight felt the very edge of concern creep into her heart. It occurred to her that Pinkie was the one person in the galaxy that she couldn't see, so if anything happened she'd be all but useless in a search. A flash of pink caught her peripheral vision and she finally spotted her. Pinkie was standing on top of her mech staring out to sea.

Twilight took just a moment to stare and bask in the beauty of the sight. The woman she loved, standing in the tropical sun, her long pink curls blowing in the sea breeze. A thought Pinkie Pie would've have came into her mind. Pinkie had snuck up and scared the shit out of Twilight countless times. Was it physically possible to sneak up on a woman who for all intents and purposes could see the future? She unfurled her large lavender wings and silently levitated herself towards her beloved. She floated to within a few feet of Pinkie, her plan being to tackle her straight off of the mech and into the ocean.

Pinkie turned and Twilight's plan died on the spot. Twilight could see she'd been crying. Pinkie was in full boarding load out, her sword at her side. In one smooth movement Pinkie slashed Twilight across the face with her energy sword right in her right eye, the glowing blade slicing straight through flesh and bone and only stopping at the bridge of the nose. Twilight lost focus on levitating herself and dropped limply out of the air. She saw the blood from her face trailing behind her with her left eye as she fell. She hit the deck hard and blacked out. The very last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was Pinkie whispering through her tears.


"I'm sorry."