The soft sound of rain hitting the window and the slow turning of pages were the only noises in Golden Oaks Library. Like many afternoons before this one, the library’s bookish proprietor, Twilight Sparkle, sat absorbed in front of a massive tome, this one in particular being a book by Starswirl titled Parallel Paradoxes and other Multiversal Maladies.
Normally Twilight would be riveted by such material, in particular the section on how to play chess with your past self, but today none of it was sticking. After rereading the same line for the fiftieth time, she slammed the book shut with her magic and stood up with a derisive snort.
In all honesty she had found her mind entirely preoccupied as of late. It had led to less time spent with friends and more hours spent cooped up in her library aimlessly flipping through books. In the past month she’d only finished fifty essays, down from her usual hundred.
The source of all her worries was none other than the pink party pony known as Pinkie Pie. Everytime she was around her bright and bouncy friend she found it hard to speak in coherent sentences and her stomach would swirl with butterflies. It had gotten to the point where she had pretty much stopped going outside altogether. On the bright side, she had plenty of time to catch up on her reading. That is if she could focus at all.
Now, despite a history of social ineptitude, Twilight was not completely ignorant about the nature of these feelings. However her ability to recognize what she was feeling as romantic was where her knowledge ended. All of the books she consulted were unhelpful, giving useless advice like ‘talking about your feelings’ and ‘communicating’. Spike was equally unhelpful, believing that the solutions to most problems involved either getting more gems or sweeping mares off their hooves with feats of bravery.
She considered turning to one of her friends, particularly Rarity but quickly dismissed the idea fearing that Rarity’s love for gossip would win over the need for secrecy. She had become so desperate that she had written a lengthy and pleading letter to Celestia hoping for some advice from her mentor, but all she received in return had been a vague and flowery response that basically amounted to following one’s dreams and listening to her heart.
At this point, Twilight was at her wit’s end. She had exhausted every possible avenue short of turning to Shining and Cadance (Celestia forbid) for help. Now all she had left were the distractions she made for herself and even those were beginning to wear thin. The bookish mare was contemplating reorganizing the bookshelves for the third time that week when an irregular knocking startled her out of her thoughts.
Her stomach twisted in knots and the beginnings of a bout of hyperventilation were taking hold. Putting aside that no sane Ponyvilian would go to the library in this weather and considering the rather eccentric knocking it could only be her energetic party loving friend.
For a solid minute Twilight considered ignoring it and coming up with some elaborate excuse later, which in all fairness had worked the past couple of times she had done it. In the end though the thought of leaving her friend in the rain combined with the prospect of getting to spend more time with the object of her affections, as nerve wracking as that would surely turn out, had her lifting trembling hooves to open the door.
Immediately Twilight regretted her decision. It was exactly as she expected: standing on her doorstep wearing a bright grin despite standing in the middle of a downpour stood Pinkie Pie. What Twilight hadn’t expected was to have her breath so immediately stolen by the mare before her.
Despite being drenched by the relentless downpour Pinkie still managed to wear a beautiful smile, one that sent Twilight’s heart aflutter and warmed her cheeks. Her hair hung down in curtains, framing her face in a way that was rarely seen outside of certain…unfortunate incidents. Twilight liked the look on her, it gave a demure look to the otherwise exuberant mare. As soon as Pinkie locked eyes with Twilight her smile seemed to grow even wider, her eyes lighting up with what seemed to be boundless joy.
“Heya Twi Twi!” Pinkie's energetic voice was enough to shake the cobwebs from Twilight’s mind, making her realize that she had been standing there long enough for it to be awkward.
“Oh, um, sorry” Twilight sheepishly stepped aside to make way for her energetic friend to get in from the rain, which didn’t seem to be letting up in the slightest. If she recalled correctly, the weatherponies had cited a backup of rain storms due to a scheduling error, although Twilight had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with Rainbow Dash sleeping through her shifts again.
As soon as she was safely inside Pinkie took the opportunity to begin vigorously shaking herself dry, sending water flying everywhere, most of it landing on Twilight, and returning her hair to its naturally poofy state. Normally she might have been annoyed but to be honest she was just glad none of it had gotten on her precious books. That and she was finding it worryingly difficult to feel anything negative towards Pinkie.
For her part, Pinkie at least tried to look apologetic, but the image was ruined by the obvious laugh she was holding in at the sight of a soaked Twilight. “Hehe, sorry Twi it's just too fun to resist. Oooh, you should try it too, you're looking pretty wet!”
“That’s alright Pinkie, I probably shouldn’t make too much of a mess while Spike is gone. I’ll just stick to magic for now” Twilight lit her horn enveloping herself in a soft purple glow drying off after a couple of seconds. It was a simple spell but really useful, especially for a young Twilight that hadn’t quite mastered the art of drinking and reading simultaneously.
“Where is Spike anyhow?”
“Oh he’s in Canterlot with Rarity at some fashion conference, probably trying to seem more interested than he really is so she’ll finally notice his ‘roguish charms’” Both mares shared a laugh at the thought of a lovesick Spike trying to get the attention of a frantic and stressed Rarity. She tended to get a little intense when it came time to display her work in a show.
Honestly, Twilight couldn’t even blame the young dragon for trying so hard to impress his crush. She had thought to do something similar herself, but she was still paying off the repairs from her last attempt at baking. Plus, Spike deserved a break as she had been admittedly kind of hard to deal with lately.
After the laughter died down, silence settled over the room, both mares seemingly waiting for the other to speak first. Miraculously it wasn’t uncomfortable, Pinkie just had this aura about her that put Twilight at ease. She never felt like she was being judged for how awkward she was for not handling social situations as well as the average pony.
Eventually however curiosity overcame nervousness and Twilight had to know the reason for Pinkie’s welcomed but sudden appearance. “So what brings you by?” Twilight realized how that sounded and rushed to amend her statement. “Not that I don’t enjoy your company, I do, it's just not exactly ideal weather for a visit”
“It’s ok Twi Twi, I know you’re just worried about your old auntie Pinkie Pie, but it’ll take more than some dumb old rain to stop me!” Pinkie punctuated her statement by striking a pose similar to a knight in one of those classical paintings, chest puffed out and chin up, staring with steely determination out at the distance. It was almost adorable enough to distract from the weirdness of her crush referring to herself as her aunt again despite being younger than her.
After checking to see that her antics had pulled a smile from the other mare Pinke dropped her pose and continued on with her explanation.”Anywho, today I woke up and thought to myself, self, it’s been a suuuuuper duper long time since we hung out with Twilight, I bet she’s cooped up in her library all by herself, she must be soooo lonely. She’s probably doing that adorable thing where she talks to her books like they’re her kids” Twilight blushed at her crush calling her adorable and the admittedly on point description of her habits. “That’s when I had the greatest idea in the whole entire world! I should give Twilight some company and that way we can finally hang out again. Soooo here I am!”
The thought of Pinkie worrying for Twilight made her heart squeeze in a strangely pleasant way. Just when Twilight thought she was getting a handle on these feelings Pinkie would do something to surprise her and make her fall that much more in love. Then again what was more fitting when it came to the most strange and unique pony she had ever met. It was that unpredictability that drew her to the pink mare bringing her further out of the shell she had spent so much of her life hiding in. With Pinkie came a certain chaos but also adventure, the kind that was sorely lacking from her life as Celestia’s reclusive protegee.
Twilight felt a smile make its way onto her face at the thoughtfulness of the pink mare in front of her, one that Pinkie noticed and matched. “Thanks Pinkie, I really appreciate that. I’m sorry I haven’t spent that much time with you and the girls lately. I've just been dealing with some..complicated feelings. I guess I just got caught up in my own head again.”
"That's okay Twi, overthinking things is what you do. That's why your pal Pinkie Pie is here, to help you relax and give that big ol' brain of yours a rest."
Pinkie did have a point and Twilight appreciated the sentiment, but the irony that Pinkie's presence was having the exact opposite effect of what she intended did not escape her. Although to be honest, Twilight was glad that Pinkie was here. The worst part of her self imposed isolation had been the inability to spend time with her friends, most of all Pinkie.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t make up for lost time, and now was the perfect opportunity seeing as how the rain wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. The way things were looking, the storm probably wasn’t going to let up until tomorrow, meaning…The thought of spending the night with the Pink mare brought a significant blush to the librarian’s cheeks.
She shook her head to dispel some of the more, problematic, thoughts that had started to invade her mind. She’s just here as your friend, I’ll just sleep on the spare bed. It can be just like a sleepover! Yeah, because the last one went so well, she thought sarcastically.
Twilight stirred from her thoughts to see that she was standing there alone. Her head whipped around in search of her pink friend, worried that she might have left because she had gotten bored or weirded out by Twilight’s self-admittedly somewhat off behavior. Relief flooded the purple mare when she saw her friend setting some food down on the kitchen table, though she tried her best to keep it from showing on her face.
“Aaand there we go” with a flourish Pinkie laid down the last cupcake amidst a robust assortment of pastries, seemingly all brought over from Sugarcube Corner. Twilight didn’t bother to question how she had carried that much food over here without any bags or how she had managed to keep it dry, she was too hungry and too used to Pinkie’s weirdness at this point.
“I know that you probably haven’t been eating too much lately, especially with Spike away, so I brought some of your favorites over.”
“Thanks Pinkie, really” Again Twilight was struck by the thoughtfulness of the pink mare in front of her. For a moment, she considered finally telling her friend about her feelings and hopefully getting closer with the mare. Fear stopped the words in her throat however and she resigned herself to just enjoying a meal with a friend.
The food was delicious, which was to be expected when Pinkie was involved. They talked for a couple of hours, though it was mostly the pink pony that led the conversation. She caught the librarian up on the various goings on in her life, mostly the pranks she had pulled with Rainbow Dash, though she did include a rather interesting story about an army of squirrels that invaded Sweet Apple Acres and took Fluttershy hostage. Twilight remained mostly quietly, content to listen as Pinkie excitedly related all the stories she had saved up since she had seen Twilight last. Though it did make her a little sad as it reminded her how little time she had spent with her friends recently.
These recently developed feelings were making things more and more complicated and she didn’t know what to do. Why was it that the more she felt for her friend, the more distance there seemed to be between them? More and more it seemed like the only option was to come clean and confess, but Twilight was scared and she wasn’t really sure of what.
Pinkie seemed to notice the turmoil brewing in Twilight because she chose that moment to reach her hoof across the table and lay it over the other mare’s reassuringly. Her expression became serious as she waited for Twilight to look at her before she spoke.
“Look Twilight, I don’t know what has you all frowny lately, but whatever it is we’re your friends, you should talk to us. I- we miss you.”
“That’s just it Pinkie, I can’t talk about it no matter how much I want to, especially not to you!” All of the frustations, the conflicting emotions that had been swirling within her, bottled up by her inhibitions, came pouring out in that single sentence.
Pinkie’s expression became hurt at the words, her hair becoming limp and her eyes watering with the beginning of tears. The sight of it broke Twilight’s heart. You stupid mare, you hurt the mare you care about because you’re too much of a coward to tell her how you feel. Well no more!
A resolve began to build in the purple mare, but it was stymied slightly by fear when she saw that Pinkie had gotten up and started walking forlornly toward the door.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. I’ll go.”
“Wait, Pinkie! You don’t have to go. I didn't mean it like that. It’s actually the opposite. You’ve been making me too happy.” At that, Pinkie looked up confused, no doubt somewhat surprised at the notion of a pony being “too” happy. She had stopped though, and that was enough for Twilight.
Here goes everything. “Pinkie I-” Twilight paused and took a deep breath, too determined to let panic stop her now. “I’ve been having these…feelings lately. I feel so warm and happy but at the same time I’m confused and scared. I want to spend more time with the pony who makes me feel this way, but I’m terrified that something I do or say will ruin our friendship. I want to be closer to her but I’ve never been that close to anypony and I don’t know what to do. I like you Pinkie, sometimes so much that it hurts.”
Twilight was breathing heavily now, her eyes fixed to the ground to scared look up and see rejection in Pinkie’s face. Suddenly she was startled by a pair of forelegs wrapping themselves around her accompanied by an amused giggle.
Pinkie pulled away and Twilight could see that she had a smile on her face even as tears gathered in the corner of her eyes.
“Do you really mean that, that you like me” Twilight was hoping she wasn’t mistaken but there seemed to be a hopefulness in the question.
“Pinkie, you’re the most beautiful mare I’ve ever met. You make me laugh and you’re selfless towards me and everyone around you. Ever since I met you I’ve been the happiest I have ever been in my entire life. How could I not like you?”
At Twilight’s words a noticeable blush appeared on Pinkie’s face, but an even bigger grin grew to match it.
“Well then, would you like to join me on a first date Twilight Sparkle?”
“Now? With me?”
Pinkie giggled at that. “Of course you, silly! And why not? I like you too and I’ve been sorta wondering if you feel the same. Besides, we have plenty of time.”
That was certainly true. And Twilight couldn’t think of a single good reason to object. Here, in the glow of acceptance and reciprocation for her feelings, all the fears and doubts that had plagued her seemed so small and insignificant, replaced with a deep feeling of happiness and contentment. She didn’t know why she hadn’t done this sooner, except that she had done the usual Twilight Sparkle thing and let her mind over complicate her feelings. But now she could make amends for that.
“I would enjoy that very much.”