Twilight's Spark
The reporter lifted a fresh notebook from his saddle bag before asking his next question. “Luna, what do you miss the most?”
Luna let out a heavy sigh. “I miss a lot of things. I miss our old home in Everfree. To some extent, I miss the unwavering trust of my subjects. But I think of all the things I have lost, the one I miss the most is friendship.”
The reporter blinked. “Friendship, your highness?”
“Yes. I had many friends before I was banished. They looked up to and trusted me, and I betrayed them.”
“They never blamed you, Luna,” Celestia said. “No more than they blamed themselves.”
“I know.” Luna bowed her head. “That is what bothers me the most. For the rest of their lives, they had to feel guilt for my foolish mistakes.”
“You mustn’t think like that,” Celestia insisted. “They loved you, just as I love you now.”
Flat desert whizzed past the train window, but Twilight wasn’t paying attention to that. Not because it wasn’t interesting—she would have loved to analyze all the rock formations after all the geology books she’d been reading—but because her traveling companion was acting so wrong. She just sat there, staring out the window without saying a single word. An apple pie, just baked that morning, rested on the seat beside her, completely untouched. Finally, Twilight could bear the silence no longer. “Pinkie,” she said, “is something wrong?”
Pinkie’s gaze finally turned away from the landscape. “What do you mean?”
Twilight had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. “You’re just sitting there, perfectly quiet.” Pinkie shrugged and started to turn away. “Will you at least tell me why we’re going to Dodge Junction?”
“There’s somepony I need to find.”
“Why?”
“I just do, okay?”
Pinkie snapping at her like that was almost as strange as Pinkie sitting completely motionless. “I’m just worried about you,” Twilight said, crossing the car to sit beside her friend. “You haven’t been yourself recently. It’s starting to worry us.”
Pinkie’s gaze remained fixed on the floor. “It’s Applejack’s cousin,” she muttered.
“Who, Babs?” Twilight frowned. “Doesn’t she live in Manehattan?”
Pinkie shook her head. “Red Delicious,” she said. “He… we… I just really need to see him.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know!” Pinkie covered her face with her hooves. “I just… I just need to!”
Twilight backed up a little as Pinkie threw herself across the bench. For a while, both ponies were silent. “So… why did you want me to come with you?” Twilight asked.
Pinkie sighed as she sat back up. “I don’t want to do this alone,” she said. “I wanted to invite all our friends, but Applejack’s busy with the harvest and Rarity’s busy with her designs and her new coltfriend and Rainbow Dash is busy taking Scootaloo to see the Best Young Fliers competition and Fluttershy is busy getting over a cold.”
None of this was news to Twilight, but looking at her friend now, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her and whatever was going through her head. “Well, I’m here for you,” she said.
Pinkie nodded, and the hint of a smile came to her lips. “I know. Thanks.”
The train arrived in Dodge mid-afternoon. Pinkie exited first, the pie balanced on her back. Twilight followed, not sure what to expect. “So, how are we going to find Red?”
Pinkie’s solution was to walk up to the nearest pony and ask for help. “Excuse me, I’m looking for Red Delicious,” she said. “I think he works for somepony named—”
“Jubilee’s farmhoof,” the stallion interrupted, looking up at the sky. “Should be over there now. Check the orchard.”
Pinkie thanked him for his help and began making her way through town with Twilight right behind. The unicorn took a moment to take in the scenery. Her last visit had been pretty rushed, and she wanted to learn a little about the frontier life this time around.
However, her sightseeing tour was short-lived. Pinkie suddenly let out a loud gasp and bolted forward, leaving Twilight coughing in a cloud of dust.
“Red! There you are! Oh, I’m so glad I found you!” Pinkie’s voice said. “I was so worried when I went to Sweet Apple Acres the day after our date and Applejack said you already came back to Dodge Junction and so I sent you a bunch of letters but you never wrote any back to me, or at least I never got them, and then I thought if I wasn’t getting any of your letters, maybe you weren’t getting any of mine, and so then I thought it would be so much better if I came here to visit because at least if I got lost I’d be able to find my way anyway like that time Rarity and I got lost out here and so here I am!”
The dust cleared, and Twilight found herself looking at a bouncy-as-ever Pinkie grinning at a completely shell-shocked stallion. “Um… hi, Pinkie.”
“Hi!” Pinkie giggled. “Hey, this is kind of like the time in Sugarcube Corner when you gave me a pie and—” Pinkie stopped bouncing and gasped. “I almost forgot! I brought you a pie!” Somehow, the pie had stayed on her back the whole time, and she held it out to him with the biggest grin Twilight had seen from her in weeks.
“Thanks, but Ah’m not hungry right now.” Red stepped around her and walked toward the building Twilight recognized as the sorting room.
“Oh. Well, that’s okay, we can save it for later!” Pinkie said as she bounced after him. “So where are you going?”
“Work.”
“Oooh. Can I come?”
“Miss Jubilee ain’t hirin’ right now.”
“Well, maybe we can hang out later then.”
“Ah’ll be busy.” Red stopped and turned to face her. “Look, Ah appreciate the visit, but we’re in the middle of the harvest, and Ah don’t have time to talk right now.”
Pinkie stopped bouncing. “But I—”
“Have a nice day.” Red walked into the sorting room, leaving Pinkie outside with her mouth slightly open.
“Um… is that who you were looking for?” Twilight asked. Pinkie’s nod was almost imperceptible. “I take it that’s not how you pictured it going,” Twilight guessed.
Pinkie’s mouth snapped shut, and her eyes narrowed. “Something smells fishy about this, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it!”
“Uh, I’m not sure—” Twilight started. Pinkie ignored her and walked up to the sorting room. “Pinkie, wait!” Twilight followed her friend into the building only to find it empty. “Pinkie? Red?” There was no answer and no indication as to where they might have gone. Twilight sighed. “I have got to figure out how she does that.”
Twilight tried to find Pinkie, but the task soon proved to be as impossible as the unicorn feared it would. She eventually decided to let Pinkie find her—a strategy that had a curiously high success rate—and enjoy the town in the meantime. It reminded her a lot of Appleloosa, only on a smaller scale and specializing in cherries rather than apples.
“Cherries just aren’t in as high demand as apples,” explained the owner of the town’s saloon as he poured her a fourth glass of water. “So even though Dodge is about as old as Appleloosa, we just haven’t seen the growth they have, even though they have the buffalo tribes to worry about.”
“Actually, the Appleloosan ponies made peace with the buffalo tribes not long ago,” Twilight replied, but the owner had gone to serve another customer. Twilight sighed and drained her glass in one gulp. She’d forgotten how thirsty the dry Dodge Junction air made her.
“Well, well, look at who we have here!” Twilight turned to see a familiar pony walking toward her. “You’re one of Applejack’s friends, aren’t you?”
“Hi, Miss Jubilee.” Twilight moved over a little to give the ranch boss room to sit. “How’s the cherry business?”
“Oh, it’s going pretty well, if I do say so myself,” Miss Jubilee answered with a nod toward the owner, who turned to get her a glass. “Say, I saw one of your friends followin’ one of my workers around earlier. Pinkie, was it?”
Twilight sighed. “I’m sorry if she’s distracting Red from his work.”
“Oh, it’s all right,” replied Miss Jubilee as the owner set a drink in front of her. “Although, I do worry about the effect it might have on Red.”
“Effect?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s no secret that colt’s had a crush on her for as long as he’s been workin’ my orchard,” Miss Jubilee explained in a hushed voice. “He even went all the way to Ponyville a while ago to see her. Not sure what happened, but I tell you, I never saw a more heartbroken soul in my life when he came back.”
“What?” Twilight couldn’t believe Pinkie hadn’t mentioned any of this during the train ride. “Did he say what happened?”
Miss Jubilee took a drink and shook her head. “Never thought it proper to ask him, myself. He’s a good soul, though, and he’s got a strong heart. I hear he’s been seeing a mare here in town. It’ll be better for him anyway, in my opinion. Long-distance relationships can be such a burden.”
Twilight’s mind raced to connect the dots. Red had a crush on Pinkie and went to visit her. Something happened that broke his heart. Was Pinkie trying to make it up to him? But then, why would she be so excited to see him? Maybe it was just Pinkie being Pinkie—but no, that wouldn’t explain why she’d seemed so distracted and sad earlier. The only answer that made sense was—
“She has a crush on him.”
Miss Jubilee coughed a little as she finished off her drink. “Pardon?”
“Pinkie has a crush on Red,” Twilight repeated. “It all makes sense—the nervousness, the pie, and now—” Twilight gasped. If Pinkie saw Red with his new marefriend…
“Something wrong?”
Twilight tossed a few bits on the counter and stood. “I have to find Pinkie.”
Twilight’s new sense of urgency didn’t make tracking down Pinkie any easier, but she eventually succeeded. The sun was beginning to set when she spotted her friend sitting alone in the cherry orchard, the pie still at her side. “Pinkie, thank goodness I found you,” Twilight gasped as she trotted up to the pink mare. “Where have you been?”
“Following Red,” Pinkie answered, and Twilight’s heart sank. Judging by Pinkie’s tone, the day hadn’t gotten any better for her.
“And?”
Pinkie squeezed her eyes shut. “He’s seeing somepony else.”
Twilight bowed her head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, well, it’s my fault, I guess,” Pinkie said with a slight sniffle.
“No,” said Twilight, taking a seat beside her friend. “Why would it be your fault?”
“Because I broke his heart,” Pinkie replied. Her eyes began to water, and her voice cracked. “He asked me on a date when he was in Ponyville, only I didn’t realize it was a date, and then he asked me if we could be more than friends and I didn’t know what he meant until he kissed me and then I didn’t know what to think and by the time I figured it out he’d already come back here and—”
“Wait.” Twilight held up a hoof. “He kissed you on the first date?”
Pinkie blinked. “Is that bad?”
“Well…” To be honest, Twilight had never been on a date, so she couldn’t really say. “I mean, I’ve heard you’re not supposed to.”
Pinkie buried her face in her forelegs. “No wonder he doesn’t like me anymore. He must think I’m the worst pony ever.”
“Pinkie, nopony could think that,” Twilight said, placing a hoof on Pinkie’s shaking shoulder. “Sure, you might be a little crazy and overbearing sometimes, but we all know your heart’s in the right place.”
“I’m still the one who broke his heart,” Pinkie sobbed. “I bet nopony will ever want to be my friend again.”
“He barely knew you,” Twilight said. “You barely knew him. You don’t even live in the same town.”
“What difference does that make?” Pinkie asked.
“I’m just saying it’s possible you two just weren’t right for each other,” Twilight said. “That doesn’t make you a bad pony, and it certainly doesn’t mean nopony will ever want to be your friend.”
Pinkie peeked out from under her forelegs with a sniffle, and Twilight saw her face was damp with tears. “You think so?”
“I know so,” Twilight said with a smile as she helped her friend sit up. “Pinkie, you’re a wonderful pony and a great friend. You’re the happiest pony I’ve ever seen, and even if I don’t understand you sometimes, I’m proud that I have the chance to know you.”
Pinkie smiled back and wiped the tears from her face. “Thanks, Twi. You’re a pretty good friend, too.”
Twilight looked out across the desert. The sun was half-hidden behind a rock formation, and the air was starting to cool. “We still have some time before the next train leaves for Canterlot,” she said. “What do you say we share this pie?”
Pinkie nodded. “I’d like that.”
The reporter’s pen hovered motionless over the pad. “What is love, your majesty?” he asked, his head cocked slightly to one side.
Celestia pondered the question for a long moment. “Love is the greatest risk a pony can take. It exposes the soul to the gravest of wounds and the most painful of scars, yet ponies all across Equestria still strive to find it and give it a place in their lives.”
“And why do you think that is?”
“We are afraid to be alone,” she answered. “Some ponies may make do with solitude, but most of us would rather take the chance, no matter how painful it may sometimes be.”
Luna smiled. “You have begun to wax poetic, sister.”
Celestia shot her a sideways glare, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Let us continue.”
“I think I have everything I need,” the reporter replied, tucking his notepad and pen into his saddle bag. His smile now was smaller than his first, but more confident as well. “Thank you both again for your time. This has been… most enlightening.”
“As I said before, the pleasure is ours,” Celestia said. The reporter hadn’t written a single word of that last exchange, but she didn’t think it necessary to remind him. She had a feeling he wouldn’t forget.