//------------------------------// // Suspect Number One: Twilight Sparkle // Story: Today... // by Curly_Q //------------------------------// "Helloooo?? Dashie??? Are you okay?" Pinkie's worried voice broke into my thoughts. I looked up at the pink party pony to see a rather worried look in her eyes. That made me wonder how long I'd been spaced out due to being absolutely mortified at the fact that Pinkie Pie has a crush. "Huh? What? Oh... Yeah. I'm fine..." That was a big fat lie. I was not fine. I just found out that my crush has a crush! Of course I'm not fine! Then I felt it. That horrible, awful lump in my throat. Oh, no... I was not about to cry any time soon! And especially not at SugarCube Corner right now, in front of Pinkie Pie. Crying isn't even something I do! Ever! ... What's crying again? I seem to have forgotten... I knew I was upset, but the entire fact that I even felt at all like crying at that moment was beyond shocking to me. My first instinct was to get out of there, fast, before I did something stupid. I glanced up at SugarCube Corner's clock. "Oh, wow, would you look at the time.... I'd... Better be going..." That's all I could say. That's all I wanted to say, because I feared... No, I doubted... That I would be able to talk for long before my voice began to shake and everything else went downhill from there. I quickly stood and glided towards the door, leaving my untouched cupcake sitting on the table. "Hey, wait!" Dangit! I thought as I heard Pinkie call out to me just as I reached for the door handle. I could already feel the lump in my throat begin to grow as I slowly turned my head towards Pinkie. "Why are you leaving so soon...?" She asked me, with a tint of sadness in her voice. I could feel my heart drop the second I saw her disappointed expression. I also noticed she had that glimmer in her eyes. The glimmer that she only gets when she's sad. You don't see that very often. That most definitely did not help the lump in my throat.... Whatever that was doing there... "I just.... Have... Somewhere to be." I was just barely able to get those last few words out sounding perfectly normal. That was close. Pinkie Pie picked my cupcake up off the table and studied it for a few seconds. "But... You didn't even finish your-" She looked up, probably to see me flying away, because I left before she could finish her sentence. I couldn't risk falling apart in front of her, but never before had I felt so horrible in my life for leaving somepony behind. As I flew away from SugarCube Corner, I began to think. Who could Pinkie's crush be? It's got to be somepony she's around a lot, so it has to be one of her best friends... Right? As I completed this thought, I noticed the library was up ahead. Twilight... Could it be Twilight? I glided down to the ground and knocked on the library door. No reply. I sighed, and was about to walk away when I remembered that she always keeps the door unlocked, unless it's nighttime. I suppose I could just look inside... Maybe she's just studying or something and was too focused to hear me knock... But NO snooping around... I told myself. I slowly opened the door to the library. I didn't see anypony. "Hello?" I called out to see if Twilight responded. Nothing. I stepped into the library and shut the door behind me, then looked around the library for a moment. No snooping... I tried to keep that promise to myself, but then I noticed something on the table the caught my attention, making that promise extremely hard to keep. It was a bright pink envelope. Pinkie Pie is the only pony I know who sends envelopes that are THAT pink. I took a step toward the table. No, Rainbow, this is wrong... You shouldn't be doing this... But... Ugh! I have to know! I then quickly zoomed to the table and grabbed the envelope. It then occured to me that I could be making a huge mistake. But me being me, I shook it off and pulled the paper out of the envelope. It was from Pinkie, alright... But this wasn't a love letter... Just a party invitation. I can't believe I actually expected some sort of love note! In frustration, I put the invitation and envelope back on the table rather forcefully. Then I realized something. The date on the invitation... Was that today?! quickly picked the invitation back up and read over it. Sure enough, the date on the invitation matched today's date. Another thing: I never got one. Did she really just- I stopped myself before I could complete that thought. No... Pinkie would never in a million years throw a party and not invite one of her closest friends. Especially me! Maybe there was just a mix-up in the delivery, or it got lost in the mail. Or maybe it's just late. I doubtfully looked at the envelope again before slowly slipping it back into the envelope. "Rainbow Dash!" My eyes widened in surprise as I heard my name called. Twilight! In panic, I threw the envelope onto the table as I turned to face her. "Oh! Uhm, hey, Twilight! What's up?" I tried my best to look normal while saying that, but I most likely failed miserably. Twilight raised an eyebrow at me. "Nothing really... I wasn't really expecting to see you here... What brings you to the library?" "Oh! I was... just visiting to see if you were home," I replied. That wasn't a total lie. I did want to see if she was home... so that I could maybe gather some information from her on who Pinkie's crush might be. I mean, she's the smart one, right? "Oh?" Twilight looked at me quizzically. I didn't blame her. It's not often that I just go to somepony's house just for the heck of visiting, let alone the library. "Well... it's nice of you to stop by then." I held back a sigh of relief as she said that. Thank Celestia she hadn't seen me with the envelope or asked me any more questions. I think might have died. "So uh... talked to Pinkie Pie lately?" I asked. That question seemed to just slip out. Where the hay did that come from?! "Hmm... well, now that you mention it, no..." I noticed Twilight's eyes slowly drift to the envelope on the table behind me. I got a bit panicy for a moment, but then noticed that I wasn't the only one who looked nervous. Twilight looked nervous. Did Twilight not want me to see the envelope? Maybe this has to do with the whole fact of me not getting an invitation. Maybe Pinkie didn't want to invite me. Maybe it was a secret party for only her and my other friends, so she told them not to tell me, and Twilight is freaking out because I'm so close to the envelope and she thinks I might open it and then- NO. That is NOT what's going on, Rainbow Dash. What's wrong with you? You out of all ponies should know your friends would NEVER do that. EVER. ..... Maybe just to make sure... "Something bothering you?" I asked the purple unicorn. Twi's line of sight quickly darted back to me. "Oh! Of course not! Why would something be bothering me?" "You looked a bit worried there..." "Worried? Hah! Since when am I worried?" I stared at her suspiciously, a bit annoyed. If anypony was ever worried about anything at any given time, it was Twilight. Or Fluttershy. But definitely not me. ...Yeah. Never me. Ever. Twilight and I stood there awkwardly looking at each other for some time before she finally spoke. "Well! I should get to studying, sooo..." Ah ha! An excuse! Twilight clearly wanted me to leave so that I wouldn't end up looking at the letter. Too late, Twi... I already saw it. "Oh, okay then. Guess I'll be on my way then," I said as I glided over to the door and opened it to leave. I turned to look at Twilight. "I'll see you late-" I cut off as I saw her levitating the envelope and quickly running upstairs with it. I couldn't help but sigh. Well... that happened. I thought as I exited the library, and slowly shut the door behind me. When I turned around, I was greeted by bright blue eyes right in my face. Surprised, I jumped a bit. "Pinkie Pie?! Where did you come from?!" She giggled and bounced a few times. "SugarCube Corner, silly! What, did you think I fell out of the sky, or teleported, or broke the laws of physics and gravity or something?" She giggled again. I paused for a moment. "Uh... yes. I did." I'm not sure whether Pinkie heard me or not, because the next thing she did was ask, "Hey! Is this where you needed to go?" I froze, seeing her looking up at the library curiously. Great. Now what?! "Um... no." Pinkie looked at me confusedly. "No?" "Uh... yeah. I just had to stop by and grab something real quick." "But I thought you said you were in a hurry!" Pinkie debated. "I am! But... uh... what I was looking for isn't here. Twilight seems to have misplaced it, so I have to go look for it now..." I started to walk away, but I was stopped by Pinkie for the second time today. "Oh! Oh! I'll help you find it!" She squeed, bouncing around excitedly. "That would be very nice of you! But uh... I think I got it..." I said as I started to leave once again, trying to avoid disaster. But I was cut off as she jumped in front of me again. "Aw, come on, Dashie! Pleeeaaaase?" She looked me right in the face an batted her eyelashes pleadingly. Think, Rainbow, think! "Uh... sure! Would you mind checking... Canterlot?" I had tried to think of someplace far away that wasn't so far off that it would be completely obvious that I wanted to get away from her at the moment, which is exactly what I wanted to do. Pinkie stopped and looked at me for a second. "...Canterlot?" Is she suspicious? "Yep! Canterlot! It could have been accidentally left there while Twilight was visiting the Princess or something." There was a long pause. "...Okay!!!" Pinkie Pie started bouncing again. "I'll find what you're looking for and -" She stopped. "What ARE you looking for, Dashie?" Buck. "Er... my... goggles! Yep! My goggles! You know, for flying practice." "Ooohhh! OKAY! Don't worry, Dashie! Pinkie Pie will find what you are looking for and be back in no time!" And then she was gone, just like that, in a pink, blurry streak. Well... time to talk to somepony else, then... I thought, looking around. ... Today was going to be a long day.