//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: A Twinkle and a Sparkle 
// by xzillerationer 
//------------------------------//

	Chapter 7:

“Twilight, I told you to hold still!” I said, trying to hold down my fidgeting marefriend.
“I just don’t know what a maid outfit has to do with me being your assistant for the show.” she said, tugging at the offending articles.
“Science, that’s what.” I said, but finally allowing Twilight to take off the frilly black and white outfit.
Twilight smirked. “You just wanted to see me in a maid’s outfit.”
Without skipping a beat, I blushed and continued “Now, I think we should practice that one more time from the top.”
“Twinkles, we’ve practiced the show twenty seven and a half times over the last night, mostly because you couldn’t stop worrying that you'll mess up something or other in front of the crowd.”
“It’s more the princess I’m worried about.” I said into my hooves.
“Correction, in front of the princess. However, we’ve been practicing this for hours, and we done almost none of the things we were planning to get done last night!” She levitated a checklist in front of my face with only two check boxes: Go to Twilight’s house, which was checked off, and compare lists, which was not. I had trouble reading the second one with a straight face, and burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Twilight asked inquisitively, re rolling up her scroll and placing it in her saddlebag.
“Nuh, nothing, just, well, the second one, and, well, look at the time. Crap! Look at the time!” I took a double take at the clock on the wall.  said 10:45 on the smiling owl clock face. Twilight really needs to get a new clock. “What time does the train leave?” I asked rather frantically.
“At 11 on the dot. We should really be going.” Twilight said, while levitating a scarf over herself and strapping her saddlebag on, walking briskly towards the door.
“How can you be calm at a time like this?” I asked, frantically pulling my cart back together and dragging it towards the door.
“I’m calm because you’re not. One of us has to be.” Twilight said, holding the door open for me, and giving me a hoof with my magic cart.
A brisk trot to the train station later, we found ourselves standing out on the cold platform. Apparently the train was not “on the dot” as Twilight said, and was running late. This wasn’t really a big deal because the show wasn’t until later tonight, we just wanted to be sure we got to Canterlot in enough time. I peered onto the tracks, and couldn’t see a train for, well, at all. “Excuse me, when is the train supposed to arrive?”
The conductor raised an eyebrow at me. “It is running approximately fifteen minutes behind, young miss.”
I smiled meekly. “Thank you.” I walked back over towards the bench Twilight was sitting, preparing to relay her the bad news. “It’s fifteen minutes behind, Twi.” She sighed.
“Not much we can do about it.”
“Maybe we could go inside and get some coffee or something?”
Twilight shrugged and stood up. Latching onto my cart, we walked over towards the nearby Ponybucks, and we both ordered a coffee. Sitting down at one of the tables, we stared out the windows in a rather awkward silence. Attempting to break the silence, I coughed. “So, what do you think of the show so far?”
“I thought the show was later on. Surely Amethyst didn’t go through all the trouble to help you impress just me.” Twilight giggled, heavily applying sarcasm with every word.
“Well you just saw the pre-show. The real show starts later.” I leaned in and nuzzled Twilight. 
“The pre-show? I’d love to see how the real show goes.” I giggled. “Although I bet the real show will be wonderful! The best show in the world!”
“I don’t know about that, but I’ve heard it’s quite excellent.”
“From who?”
“Well, Princess Luna, I guess.” I said, while stirring some sugar into my coffee, “Although she did seem oddly excited at the prospect of me performing a show.”
“Ah, so you think she’ll be at the show with Celestia, then?” Twilight said, opting to leave the milk and sugar alone.
“I sure hope so! I’d love to have Luna watch me perform for you and all my fan-” I was cut off by the subtle sound of about a dozen pairs of pairs of hooves thudding heavily against wooden beams and steel rails, alongside a massive locomotive. Why they didn’t just use the train engine to pull the train is beyond me. Maybe they’re having trouble finding coal? Though couldn’t the unicorns just create some coal with their magic? Or deage some of the fancy diamonds to create large quantities coal?
“Sounds like the train is here, Twinks.”
“Yeah.” I looked down a little before perking back up. “Let’s go!”
We trotted on over to the platform, and, hovering our ridiculously over priced coffees, over everypony’s heads as to not spill them, and carefully made our way towards the train. I looked down towards my ticket. There was a little coupon on the back, reading redeemable for a free coffee. Well that’s not very useful. “Hey, Twi, do you have my ticket?” 
Twilight looked up to me with the most beautiful, innocent eyes and said. “That is your ticket, the train station encourages you to buy tickets by giving prizes on the back. I heard some grey mare got to be the train operator for a day.”
“I won a free coffee, what’d you win?”
Twilight looked at her ticket, and used the edge of her hoof to scratch on the back of the ticket. “Damn, ripped it.” A quick burst of magic and the ticket was back to normal. “Ah, let’s see. A free upgrade to cabin status plus one.” Well, that’s oddly convenient, isn’t it? “Hmm... well, who should I bring?” She asked me, smiling playfully.
“Let’s go?” I scratched my head, this train was a bit...odd. Last month, there was huge uproar when a full train got misplaced. The event somehow involved the train, a rubber band, and several tons of muffins. The train was found a week later stuck up in a tree in the Canterlot Gardens.
Anyway, back to the present, I was being pulled along to excellent seats in a train, and who doesn’t love trains, by one of the most lovely mares I’d ever seen. What else could I want? Well, maybe a pancake. A blueberry pancake. Lathered with syrup. That would be wonderful, syrup from Pony Canada. What a weird name, Pony Canada. Is there like a Dragon Canada or a Zebra Canada? What about Sea Pony Canada? I bet their syrup is all watered down. At this point my train of thought was interrupted by Twilight guiding me around another pony couple I was about to walk into. I grinned, Twilight just smiled and we soon got to our seats. It was a decent ride, so the food cart came by. An orange earth pony waltzed in with a cart full of food. “Well howdy there, anythin’ off the trolley dearies?”
“Applejack?” Twilight gasped, what was her dear friend doing on the train like this.
“Well hay there Twi, what can Ah get for you?”
“Blueberry pancakes. Got any of those?” I asked, expectingly.
“We’ll, shoot, we’re plum out of blueberry pancakes. That lovely older couple behind you got the last stack. We’ve got plenty ah apple pancakes, though. Would you care for any?”
I stared at Twilight’s friend, then at the pancake, waffle, and french toast laden cart. I glanced at Twilight, who simply shrugged. I sighed, and nodded slowly. “I really wanted blueberry, but I guess apple couldn’t be that bad.” Applejack smiled, tossed me a plate of pancakes, and Twilight a plate of French toast.
“So Applejack, what are you doing working on the train?” Twilight attempted to ask through a mouth half full of French toast.
“Well, it being Winter and all, there really ain’t a lot to do around the farm. We have enough bits to get by, but Big Mac and I wanted a bit of our own spendin’ money. He got a job pullin’ this here train, and was able to secure me this job. Pretty neat, huh?”
“Yeah, it is, but it looks like those colts in front of us are rather hungry,” Twilight said. “Shouldn’t you be finishing your job, AJ?”
“Ah, a little half minute break isn’t gonna hurt anypony.” Applejack laughed a little. “Ah, but yer right. Probably should be headin’ back soon. See ya Twi, don’t be afraid to call me if y’all wanna buy anything else, ya hear?” She joked as she left the room. 
We were left with our food, and Twilight seemed to have completely forgotten her magic for once and was sticking her muzzle into the plate, leaving me with my pancakes. Oh, yeah. Apple pancakes. I lifted the edge of the top pancakes, noticing that the apples were cooked all the way through the otherwise delicious delicacies. I let the pancake down before all of the syrup ran off onto the plate. Agh, why did it have to be apples? Not that there was anything wrong with apples themselves, per se, but I would have much preferred to try, say, strawberry pancakes, or peach pancakes. The idea of apples cooked into pancakes really didn’t seem a very appetizing idea. Did they peel the apples like apple pie, or they slice the, peel and all? How would that taste?
I sighed , and slowly levitated my flimsy plastic fork and knife into the air in front of me. I wouldn’t know if I like them until I try them. I stabbed my pancakes with the fork, noticing how a chunk of apple gave slightly more resistance. I hovered down the knife, slicing through the pancake. The golden crisp of the surface crunched underneath the knife, and then gave way to the fluffy white interior of the pancake, marbled with chunks of apple. By this time, Twilight had finished her meal, and was staring and me with maple syrup running down her face.
“I thought you liked pancakes.” she asked, attempting to wipe some of the sugary confection from her face. I would have helped her, with my tongue, but I was too busy staring at my pancake.
“One second.” I said. Well, it was now, or never. I now had an audience. I lifted the fork to my mouth, shut my eyes, and bit down. Shutting my eyes might have helped me not be able to see Twilight’s reaction to my expression, which I fully expected to be a grimace, but it did absolutely nothing to protect me from the veritable flavor explosion that assaulted the majority of my body, emanating from the single bite. There was the familiar taste I knew and love of classic pancakes I knew and loved, just like my mother makes, except somehow even better. The crispy edge of the baked masterpiece had just the right amount of crisp and crunch, with the distinct taste of the real butter that was used to coat the pan it was cooked in, not that fake stuff some use. It’s just not the same. The edge was just the right thickness as to not take away at all from the body of the pancake; it instead augmented it. The center itself was heaven brought to Equestria, given a nice suit, and given a job serving me pancakes. There was just the right amount of air in the fluff of the pancake to keep it from seeming dense, but not quite so much that they seemed insubstantial. The thickness of the pancake contributed to this effect, allowing me to take the largest amount in a single bite without cutting the stack down by too much. 
Then there was the apples. They did have the peel on them, but were cooked in such a way that they weren’t mushed together, like apple pie; they still had the sharp crisp one would expect to get from a fresh picked apple in one of the best orchards in Equestria. The juice from the apples somehow wasn’t leaking from the apples into the rest of the pancake, allowing the maximum decadent apple flavor in the apple itself, giving it a sharp contrast from the fluffiness of the pancake around it. The sharp corners if the apples were actually a welcome surprise from the soft blueberries that I’d been used to eating, as they gave a sudden clarity to the situation that I was here, on the way to my mare friend's show, eating pancakes, and not in my parent’s kitchen. It was almost like eating the two foods separately, except the two sets of flavors and textures seem to resonate against each other, increasing the flavor exponentially.
Finally, there was the syrup that they were using. The syrup seemed to have been warmed evenly before being carefully draped over every delectable square inch of the crispy gossamer delicacies, leaving not a single section devote of its presence. It had slid down the side of the pancake as I had lifted it to my mouth, coating the side and some of the interior of the pancake with its sugary goodness, adding its flair to the smorgasbord of flavor already present. The syrup itself was some of the finest I’d ever tasted. The smooth flavor had the perfect balance between the luscious sugar and the trademark maple flavor. The slightly thick texture allowed to to stay on the pancake itself, but was somehow still thin enough to run across my tongue like the smoothest of satins.
I swallowed the bit, relishing the feel of it sliding into my stomach, sending a slight shiver through my body. I sighed slightly, content from the single bite, and then looked back down at my plate. I still had almost all of my pancakes left. 
Twilight noticed the quantity of pancakes left, and asked “So, what do you think?”, her eyes looking at me questioningly.
“Eh, they’re all right.” I said, taking another bite. I startled a bit as a knock rang out from the cabin door, followed by a familiar face poking through with her food cart.
“I’m so sorry about the pancakes.” She said, looking straight at the feat of culinary perfection sitting in front of me. “I was so busy cooking everythin’ else, I forgot to cook the apples beforehand. Don’t you worry, though, because we have another batch coming out shortly, and there’s a stack with your name on it. So, if you’re wantin’ any more-” she was cut off mid sentence by me leaping across cabin and pinning her against the food stall.
“Never. Cook. The apples. Again” I said, staring straight into her eyes, punctuating each word with a light slam against the cart for good measure.
“Alright, I’m glad you’re likin’ the food, and I’ll keep your advice in mind, but would you care gettin’ offa me? I still have some work to do.”
“Oh, uh, yeah, sorry about that.” I said, stepping back.
“Seriously, Twilight should keep you on a leash or somethin’.” she muttered as I edged back into my seat, causing both Twilight and I to blush brightly at the mental image. 

“I just love taking the train ride to Canterlot, the scenery going up the mountain is just stunningly beautiful!” Twilight said, with very poor timing, due to our entering a long cave of a tunnel, shadows wrapping the entire length of the train. “Well, what you can see at least.” 
“Yeah, darkness, so beautiful!” We both giggled, just as the lights in the cabin flickered to life. “You’d think they’d leave the lights up to the riders, instead of having an obviously flawed system.” I continued, looking up at the barely functioning lights. With a flash of my horn, a small ball of light floated up to the top of the train car and shined out the poor excuse of a lamp, poorly mimicking the glow and warmth of Celestia’s sun. 
“Huh, it looks like they finished the automated lamp spell.” Twilight chuckled. “I have an idea!”
Her horn briefly lit up, and sent a pulse of magical energy to my ‘lamp’. It quickly lit up even brighter, and caused us both to have to cover up the light for a moment with our hooves, before the light lowered down. The ball of light was gone, Twilight managing somehow to integrate it into the light fixture. “Wow, that’s really impressive!” Twilight blushed. “Although won’t they notice that something is up with the lightbulb?” I said, as we left the tunnel, rendering the sudden magic bulb rather useless.
Twilight’s sat upright in the realization that they would, in fact, notice. And probably blame it on them. “Oh, yeah, I’ll fix that.” She chuckled, a violet field of magic enveloping her horn as she cast a spell. After a moment of awkward silence, a brilliant white sphere about the size of an apple, which shone as though it were one of Luna’s stars, fell to the floor. 
I looked at it confused. “What is that?”
“It’s a spell artifact. Magic spells and enchantments often artifact when they’re cancelled, creating unwanted ‘artifacts’. Though sometimes they do turn out to be rather beautiful.” Twilight said as she picked it up, examining it. “Sometimes they’re hot, although, this one seems to be rather dull.” The glow withered away, leaving a marble of condensed magic. “We have to be careful with this, though. They’re sometimes reactive.” 
Again, more confusion. “Reactive?” 
Twilight nodded. “Yes. If it is energized, via a spell, or sometimes even kinetic energy, then BOOM! it explodes.” she stretched her hooves apart and fell backwards in her seat to emphasize her final statement.
“Hmm, alright.” I gestured for her to hand it to me, and I looked at it. The sphere was ever so slightly translucent, I could barely see inside. Though when I did get a good look at it, it was the most-second most-beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It looked as though an entire night sky had been shut inside it- thousands of little twinkles, sparkling into infinity. The white washed over it all as though it were covered in a massive sheet of soap, but the ball having the texture of smooth glass, smoother than that made by even a master glass blower. “So why aren’t these used for spell storage?”
“Because, as I said, they’re incredibly unstable. Although sometimes they are created with other, non destructive effects, such as storing memories.”
“Memories?”
“Yeah, they used to extract memories from ponies and store them in spheres like this one. Only artifacts are capable of storing them, oddly. Princess Celestia put her hoof down years ago when she found out they were being abused, as it can actually removes the memory from your mind.” Shouldn’t I have already known that? I went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, too! Then again, I never really learned in depth magic. I learned how make a light. And how to make that light blue. And how to make that blue light move. And how to turn it red half way through. Honestly I didn’t learn much, most of what I know came from experimentation while I was still in Ponyville for college.
“Woah, that’s scary.” I said, as we pulled into the train station. I saw a familiar looking mare on the platform, standing next to a slightly less familiar stallion. “Oh Luna she’s actually here.”
“What? Who is?”
As the train squealed to a slow stop, the mare waved at me, grinning from ear to ear. We exited the train, and walked up to the fuchsia mare. A tackle hug later, we were busily engaged in conversation. 
“Nice to see you again, Twi. This is my coltfriend, Time Turner, though he’s often known as Doctor Whooves.”
“Or just ‘The Doctor’, if you wouldn’t mind.” He said, gazing happily at something in the distance not one of us could see.
“He does that sometimes, I just try to ignore him.” Amethyst said. Whooves glared at her, and she responded with a grin. “Anyways, I heard about the show from mom and dad, and I figured I’d go to see it.”
Horseapples. How could I forget to invite my parents?! “Are they coming?”
“You really think they’d miss it, especially since they’re their own bosses?”
“Yeah, most likely.”
“Well, they’re here anyway, front row and everything.” Oh no. “So don’t screw up, sis.”
“Twinkle, we should probably head to the theatre for the show, now.” Twilight said, gesturing to start moving. 
“I’d love to finally see my big sister finally find her calling in life!” She said, the sarcasm literally dripping from her voice. No, not literally, that would be weird. I sighed.
“Just because you got your cutie mark first does not mean that you’re better than me!” Twilight looked at me with a slightly concerned look, and I brushed it off. “Let’s just get going already.”
“Well, okay.” Twilight said, turning with me to leave. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Time Turner. Nice seeing you again, Amethyst.”
“Likewise.”
As they wandered away, Amethyst following Whooves on a lopsided trail, Twilight asked me “How did she get here before us?”. I shrugged, and turned towards the theatre.
We began trotting towards the theatre, and since the show wasn’t for another little while, Amethyst and Time Turner went their own ways. Well, it was close, but I had to be there sooner than they did, since I was performing and all. Although, if I really wanted, I could show up a minute before I went. However, in that case I likely wouldn’t be invited to perform again, and even more so if I’m late. Especially with the Princesses supposedly coming, I couldn’t afford to be late. Therefore, I was showing up about an hour before I was due to go on. Plenty of time for make up and rehearsal. Though I didn’t really need much rehearsal because I was rehearsing all morning with Twilight. Still, a little practice won’t hurt in the slightest bit. Unless I practice it wrong, then I’ll end up performing wrong. Good thing I wasn’t practicing wrong. 
As we walked into the reception hall, I was greeted by a sharply dressed white stallion. “I assume you’re Twinkleshine?” He said, the words rolling off his tongue like smooth velvet. “Welcome to Regality Theatre! My name is Alpha, and I’ll have the pleasure to be your guide today.” He placed a clipboard and an ornate fountain pen down if front of me. “If you wouldn’t mind, it’s our requirement that all performers sign these release forms to release the theatre from any and all liability for both you and your audience.”
I quickly signed the papers barely skimming the contents of them as my horn caused the pen to scratch out “Twinkleshine” in my substandard hornmanship. Before I knew it, we were whisked off to a quick tour of the theatre. “The main stage is over there, in the front; that’s where you’ll be performing. The dressing rooms are behind it, and behind the first door to the left; that’s where you’ll be preparing. The restaurant is out front, behind the ticket counter, which is where you’ll be eating lunch, most likely intermission. Finally there are the restrooms, where you’ll be...” Alpha paused mid sentence. “using them. In any event, this room is yours for today.” He said, pointing to a door that had a ‘Twinkleshine’, written in marker on cardboard sign hanging up. I nodded a polite thank you, too dazed by anything to vocalize a coherent sentence, and went inside.
Inside there was the usual: a full length mirror, a bed for brief napping, and a closet, empty of course. I didn’t find anything unusual in the room that I normally wouldn’t find. I looked around, and flopped unceremoniously onto the bed. I sat up, propping my head on my forehooves, and stared at Twilight. “So, it’s just about time to see how the rest of my life will turn out.” I covered my face with my hooves and flopped back down.
Twilight walked up next to the bed, and sat down on the ground. “Oh come on, don’t take it like that, you’ll do fine!”
“Yeah, but what if I don’t?” I asked Twilight, somewhat rhetorically, sitting up again. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous about something! Wait there was that one time... no, nevermind, not even close.” 
Twilight nuzzled gently against my neck, trying to comfort me. “Oh come on, you’ve been this nervous before! Even more so! I don’t see anything in this room invisible.”
Then it hit me. Nothing was invisible. Well, at least if they were invisible I couldn’t see them. I wasn’t really that nervous, I guess. I’m really good at casting spells, well, illusion spells, and I wasn’t exactly going to blunder casting simple spells like that, especially after all of the practice I put in the get them down pat. Now, were I to try turning the whole audience into manticores, then I just might mess up, but if I created one that was under my control, I should be fine. 
A loud ‘ATTENHUT!’ snapped me out of my soon-to-be daydream. “Oh, sounded like the Princesses’ royal guards. The Princesses are probably here. You stay here and get ready, I’ll go talk to them.” Twilight gave me a kiss-longer than a peck but still brief enough as to not waste time- just before going. “You’ll do fine, I promise.” 
I felt good, this was going to be easy. Just a quick hour and a half show, then it’s a quick move to stardom. Oh dear Luna I’m not ready.