//------------------------------// // A Emotion called Love // Story: You're not Twilight // by Miner //------------------------------// Not too far away from Misty's position, Flutter and Dystopia are getting some ice cream from a love-struck vendor, "You are sure that it was okay to bring them into Ponyville, cousin?" Dystopia asks, noticing the dreaming eye stallion looking at her cousin, "They didn't seem like bad ponies. And the festival of Harmony was today, so I thought it would be a good experience for them," She replies, not noticing the stallion as they move through the festival, "Well, true, but what if they are bad ponies pretending to be good ponies to steal everything we know and love?" She says, making a little puppet show of Queen Chrysalis robbing a bank, laughing while doing so before turning into smoke, Flutter looks at her as if asking her are you serious? "Dystopia. You really think that your mom would let anything happen in here that would put ponies in danger?" Dystopia pouts before eating her ice cream in one bit angry, "No, you're right. I was testing you. Mother would never let anything happen if she could help it," She replies as part of her mane start turning into ice, causing her to panic and getting a laugh from Flutter, "Speaking of which, where is your mom?" Dystopia gets a small ice pick breaking the ice trying to save her precious mane, "I am not sure. She is normally in the center of the festival performing for everypony, but I haven't seen her today," She flicks her mane to free it from the last of the ice and starts combing it when a loud voice gets their attention, "HELP!" The duo quickly ran to the scream to find a pony princess trying to hold off a horde of foals from stealing her treasure pile. She was outnumbered ten to one as a baby dragon is in a tug of war with a colt for a rather large pony plushie. Flutter was having a problem deciding where to start to help anypony, causing her eyes to spin. As for Dystopia, she wasn't sure what to make of the situation. On one hoof, she is torn between finding the parents/guardians of these children and giving them a piece of her mind. While the other is wondering how in Equestria did, the new pony wins so many prizes from the festivals when she herself had such a hard time winning anything from the festival, and she only won ten times in her whole fifteen years trying. But there are more pressing matters on her mind, "Wait! Is that the one-of-a-kind Lifesize Plushie of Pre-Princess Twilight Sparkles with the lifelike mane and tail that nopony has been able to win for the last ten years?! How did she get that!" "Dystopia, not now!" "Right, I-" Dystopia got ready to intervene with a Terrifying Roar of pure rage bellows across the town, freezing everypony in the tracks. “SAVAGES!” Everypony turns to see a pony in golden armor staring down the group of foals; his eyes were hard to make out with his helmet on. He raises his forelegs in the air and slams them into the ground, causing ripples and cracks to form, reaching the group of ponies before vines emerge from the ground, wrapping around the foals and lifting them into the air away from the Princess, but one of the foals was still holding onto the giant plushie refusing to let go. The stallion marches over the Princess before about-face to the children looking at them, "How dare you fends try and steal from My Princess!" He growls at them notice, noticing the beat-red Princess behind him, "Aaron!" Flutter shouts in fear for the children's safety flying over to them, trying to free them but failing to do so, "Huh?" Aaron dumbly says as if he was waking up from a trans, "What happened?" "Aaron, let them go!" "WHAT! Hold on. I did this!?" He says, looking at the dangling ponies as Dystopia tries to pull one of them free like a carrot unsuccessfully, "Aaron!" "What do you want me to do about this? I don't know how I did this in the first place!" Dystopia flies over to Aaron and grabs his foreleg, "Just concentrate and feel out the vines," She puts his hoof on the ground as Aaron closes his eyes, doing as she says, "Now imagine that you are the one holding onto the foals and are going to set them down," Aaron squeezes his eyes trying to do as she says as the vine slowly lowers to the ground letting go of their captives. The foals, scared of the knight and his vines, ran to hide behind Flutter, crying. She comforts the children as Aaron looks around him, seeing the eyes of so many ponies looking at him. So, of them were in awe at what he did and looked at their own hooves as if wondering if they could do the same while others, "RUN AWAY! KILLER VINES!" A random pony shouted, Without missing a beat. Other ponies started screaming before running in random directions leaving the marketplace deserted. Aaron's eye twitches, seeing that only he, Misty, Sparky, Dystopia, and Flutter's group are the only ponies left. "Are you ponies kidding me right now!" Aaron shouts at nopony in particular as Dystopia rubs her eyes with her paw, "Foals stealing from us doesn't set you off, but vines coming out from the ground is considered a natural disaster!? You ponies have seen worse!" "Don't bother Aaron," Dystopia groans, "They will be hiding for an hour at least before they send a volunteer to check to see if the coast is clear. And hide for another hour if a leaf touches the pony, causing said pony to scream. At which point-" "At which point. The ponies call in their friendly neighbor Mistress of Chaos, for help," Another voice interrupted her. Everypony turns to face the newcomer as she floats in the air looking over the situation, "But I was already on my way here," Screwball says before flying in a circle around everypony. Aaron starts at her in disbelief; his jaw drops as Misty rubs her eyes to make sure she isn't seeing things; Sparky looks between him and her, trying to understand how she is flying without wings, and flaps his own to double-check. Dystopia looks at her with a nervous gaze as Flutter looks at her with a warming smile along with the children, to which the latter wave at her. Once Screwball is satisfied with going over what is in front of her, she hoovers in front of the group, "So everypony. What happened?" She asks while looking at the new faces in town, Dystopia told her everything that happened as she looked back at Aaron, not expecting an earth pony to be able to use magic like that. Once caught up, Screwball waves her hoof causing a colt to float in the air next to her as he still has the plushie while Aaron was being held back by Misty, physically preventing him from moving towards the Mistress of Chaos, "That doesn't belong to you, little one," "But it was on the floor! Discarded with so many other things. It's mine!" He protested, "IT'S NOT!" Aaron shouts, causing Screwball to flick her other hoof, causing Aaron's mouth to disappear. Aaron panics, trying to claw at where his mouth used to be as Misty stares at him in horror, "Yes. I am aware of the rules of finders' keepers. But these ponies are new in town, and they didn't know about that. It is not fair to take something from Somepony that didn't know better," "But I want it," The colts say, squeezing the plush with a sad look in his eyes, "Well, why don't we ask the owner what he wants to do?" They float on over to Aaron as he looks at her in fear, "SO, sir. Can this colt have this plush?" "Aaron, you, okay?" Misty asks him as they take a seat. Screwball return Aaron's mouth only after giving the colt the plushie. He was also forced to give up the horde he collected from the festival that they weren't currently wearing. Afterward, Screwball took them into the Ponyville guard house interrogation room to talk privately with them. As for Sparky, Flutter is looking after him until the adults are done talking, "I will be fine. It was just so much goooods," He says, sobbing into his hooves as Misty gives him petty pats, "Oh, get over it," Screwball says, closing the door behind them and taking her seat across from them, "Even if you kept all of that. There was no way you could have been able to carry all of that back to your house," "I don't have a house," "Even more reasons not to. Wait!" She did a double take, "What do you mean you don't have a house? Everypony has a house to go back home to!" "Not this stallion," He says as if nothing is wrong with his statement; much to Misty's surprise, "Whatever. We will get to that later. Moving on. Talk!" Screwball says before reaching over her head and pulling down a lamp to shine at his face, "Who are you? Who sent you? What are your plans?" "Aaron and Misty. Nopony. We can here by pure coincidence. In which circumstances allowed us to get here earlier than anticipated," He answers, trying to block as much of the light as possible with his hooves, "Ah ha! So you were planning to come here," "Yes, for a spell book. Can you cut off the light I can't see," "Not, yet. I still have some more questions," "So do I," "Me first," "Why do you get to go first?" Misty says, Screwball lowers the lamp to give her full action to Misty, "Because I am the lady. That is why," "You're not a lady," Misty says as both mares stare each other down, "You're -" "GIRLS!" Aaron gets between them and pushes them apart, "Can we please stop this before we say something that we might regret? Please!" "A little late for that, but you are right," She pulls on the lamp like a ceiling fan cord sending it away to who knows where, "We will let bygones be bygones," They all took their seats as Screwball grabs a smoking pipe and blew bubbles from it, "Now. Let's say that you get this spell book of yours. What then?" "We will use it to restore Twilight's memories," "Oh, a friend of yours lost her memories. That is terrible. And then?" "Then I can tell her how I feel about her," Aaron sheepishly says as Misty stares in shock at this revelation, Screwball blinks before tossing the pipe over her shoulder, hitting a random cat, "Oh, this Twilight is somepony special to you?" Aaron blushes, looking away, "I would like for her to be my special somepony," Misty jaw drops, "Oh my. How bold. Just like my hubby. You must tell me more about this Twilight," She teases, giggling to herself, "Yes, AARON! Please tell us more about this Twilight of yours! I would love to hear it," Misty growls at him, much to his surprise, causing his ears to go back suddenly, more afraid of the mare next to him than the logic-defying pony across the table, "Ah, Misty, you, okay?" "Never been better," Misty forces a smile trying to be nice, but she looks like anything but nice as Screwball eats popcorn with a side of snacks and drinks to the sudden melodrama, "So, this whole time, we have been looking for a way to restore Princess Twilight's Memories just so that you can tell her that you LOVE HER?" "In a nutshell, yes," He says dumbly, looking anywhere but at her, 'Was she always this scary?' Misty stares down the stallion as she looms over him as he falls out of his chair, "But why didn't you just do that when we saw her at the daycare?" "It wouldn't be the same," He raises his hoofs defensively, "I fell in love with Princess Twilight. Right now, she is just Twilight. A mare from Maretime Bay, not the one from Ponyville," "BUT WHAT ABOUT ME!" "What?" "DO I mean nothing to you!" Aaron gets back on his hooves, baffled by Missy's behavior, "Misty, you are my friend. I dare even say one of my best friends. Of course, you mean something to me. Where is this coming from?" "But then, why did you string me along like you did!" "String you along? What are you talking about?" "Giving me gifts and beautiful dresses! Calling me your Princess!" She stomps her hooves, "Did that mean nothing to you?" "Misty. We were roleplaying a loyal knight to his Princess. You don't get many opportunities to do that. I will admit. I should have asked you if you were okay with me talking to you in such a manner, but you didn't seem to mind," "Because I like being called 'Your princess'," "So, if you are okay with me calling you that. Why are you so upset and making such a big deal about this?" "BECAUSE I WANT TO BE YOUR ONLY PRINCESS!" Misty covers her mouth in shock, filling the room with silence. Aaron stares in shock as Misty looks between the ponies before her. Before anypony could say anything, Misty tries to leave the room only to find that the door is suddenly missing. Misty panics as she tries to find a way out, "Don't bother," Screwball says, putting down her popcorn and taking a sip of soda, "So long as I am here, you are going to see this through to the end, Misty. I am not going to sit through a whole other book just so that you two can talk about this," "Misty?" Aaron calls out to her as she tries to hide in a corner lying on her stomach with her hooves covering her eyes, "When did this happen?" She lifts a hoof to look back at him before lowering them from her face and looks away from him, "Recently, at the campfire," "But Misty, all I did was look after you," "And only one other pony ever did something like that for me," She raises her head, locking eyes with him, "But she never made me feel as safe as you did," "I see," He takes a moment to reflect before lying down in front of her, "Misty, I am sorry I lead you on like that. I never had a friend that was a mare before. I didn't think too much about how my actions would affect you. For that, you have my most sincere apology," He lowers his head as Misty looks away, "I don't want your apology. I want it to have been real," She sighs in defeat, grabs her tiara, looking at it, "But you only have eyes for Princess Twilight," She drops it in front of her, causing it to clink on the ground before she lays her head on her forelegs, trying not to cry, Aaron looks torn about how to help his friend without hurting her more than he has. Looking back at the tiara, he grabs it before putting it back on Misty's head, much to her surprise. She stares at him, confused with a little hope in her eyes, "Misty, I can say without a shadow of a doubt. If I haven't fallen in love with the Princess. I would have given you a chance," He extends a hoof at her, "Friends?" She looks at the hoof before grabbing it with her own, shaking it, "Friends," But for some reason, Aaron couldn't get his hoof back as Misty seems to be thinking about something. Before He could say anything, Misty pulls him close and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "For now," She gets up as Misty smiles, leaving a stunned stallion on the floor, "Even to a Princess. I won't give up. You hear me?" "Got it,"