-Switch to Twilight (I’m as shocked as you are!)-
None of this made any sense.
I had expected that my number one assistant would have been back earlier last night, but he wasn’t. The next thing that I expected was that I would be able to wake him up, or that he would be up before me. Either of those things were possible, they had both happened. Normally, he was actually awake and making breakfast before me.
That hadn’t happened.
Alright, I had to fix my own breakfast. I might as well pick up a little as well. As much as I call him my number one assistant, I know that I have to be able to do things on my own.
Besides, he might not be feeling up to the task. I know that he came back and went straight to bed. I saw him. Then again, my eyes had been a bit clouded. I thought I had seen a mare outside, before I had started to make my way up the stairs. I knew that Spike was popular, he was generally pleasant to be around, but that still seemed off.
I must have been imagining a mare, maybe I had just hoped that Spike would find somepony to love.
Maybe it had been Rarity, but something told me it wasn’t.
I would have to ask Spike about it later, but right now I had to get ready. Rarity liked to go to the Spa, mostly with Fluttershy, I had started to go recently. It gave me a chance to relax, something that Celestia tells me all the time to do. Maybe I could even write a letter to the Princess about how she was right.
I could even turn it into a friendship letter. Wouldn’t that be great?
While I’m thinking about letters, I should probably get one to Spike. He’ll probably want to know why I didn’t wake him, even though I tried. He might also be worried about me not being there, the spa trips didn’t start until recently. If I could almost forget, he might have as well.
I should leave it on the table.
Alright, so I’ll pick up a doughnut on the way. Sugarcube Corner always has the best breakfast food. I hope Spike doesn’t figure out that I don’t cook for myself on the days that I head out early. Doughnuts taste good, but they’re hardly the best food for you.
But they taste so good.
I finished the letter quicker than I thought I would, though there wasn’t much for me to say. I still need to talk to him, but he hardly needs to know that right now. After all, it could be a nice surprise. I don’t even realize how little time it takes for me to get to Sugarcube Corner.
Almost as little time as it takes me to finish the doughnut I get from there.
Carousel Boutique is the next stop, even though I’m probably a little early. That’s part of the point, though, I want to be there earlier than I need to be. I need to talk to Rarity about something important, and several things that are likely less important. It might be good to get her advice, she usually knows how to talk to ponies.
Three knocks on the door, I don’t know if she’s expecting me this early. The last time I just barged in, it didn’t exactly put her in a good mood.
“Yes, Twilight, you may come in.”
How did she know it was me? Maybe she was expecting me, though the way she put that was decidedly less than thrilled. Something about it sounded as though she was tired, hadn’t slept. I had been invited in, so it was definitely the right thing to do to come in/
“Good morning, Rarity, I-” That was when I stopped. I walked in to see that my thought had been right. Even Rarity couldn’t hide the signs that she hadn’t slept. I had seen them enough, mostly on myself, to know them. Since she wasn’t the type to worry about studying, and there wasn’t an order around, I started to worry. “Is something wr-”
“I’m fine, really. I just had the most... interesting night last night.”
Our two topics seemed to have collided. That was one of the things I had wanted to ask her about, perhaps one of the more important things. “Interesting night? I’d love to hear all about it, maybe I can help.” I saw her look at me, as if contemplating how I could help.
“I’ll tell you about it at the spa, but I doubt you can do anything about it.”
A problem I couldn’t do much about sounded pretty bad. I had almost always been able to solve problems, or at least find the right book. When that didn’t work, nowadays I sent a letter to Princess Celestia and she helped me figure out exactly what it was that I could do.
This problem had to be pretty bad.
“Speaking of which, darling, I hope you don’t mind if we head over a little earlier than expected.”
When she smiled, I smiled. This was going to be a good day. She might have said that this was a problem that I couldn’t solve, but I was going to find a way. As Celestia was my witness, I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that my friends were alright.
Rarity gave a nod, and we were both soon making our way to the spa.
I actually didn’t pay much attention to what she said to the two ladies at the spa. Does that make me a bad pony? I just kept trying to think of the thing that it could be, the problem that was so bad that I couldn’t do anything about it. About the time that I ran into a wall, though, I realized I needed to pay better attention.
“Darling, are you alright? I’m starting to think it was good for you that we came here early, you seem to be a little... out of it today.”
I nodded, though the reason behind it was that I was trying to figure out that problem. “Sorry about that, I hope you don’t think I was ignoring you. I just... sometimes I get caught up when I start thinking about things.”
“Don’t worry about it, I hadn’t said much. I know when you get that look in your eyes that … well, that you’re worrying about something.”
Did I get a look in my eyes?
“Regardless, darling, it’s time for us to enjoy ourselves. I get to know that you’re relaxing, and I get to finally tell somepony about... last night. Oh, I do feel so awful about it.”
I almost asked her to repeat it, but I knew that I would be getting the full story soon enough. “Talking about it is a good first step. I hope it helps you figure out what you should do.” I looked at her, she was even more nervous about it now than she was before.
“Oh... errr... right.”
I would probably have to come here more often. As soon as our session started, I started to feel immensely better. It was almost as good as reading, almost. My main focus was going to be to help Rarity, though I was starting to think that this day of the week might start to be one of my favorites.
“So, dear, are you ready? I’m giving you a last chance to back out, it’s really bad.”
I shook my head. “I’m here for you Rarity, I want to help in any way I can.”
“And you aren’t going to judge me?”
“Of course not.”
“Pinkie Promise?”
I let out a sigh. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my e-augh.” Once again, I jabbed myself in the eye. It turned out that this was something funny enough to make Rarity chuckle. “And before you ask, I won’t tell anypony about this.”
“Good.”
A little worry was gone, though that might have been from laughing. I could only hope that Rarity telling me about the problem would be enough to help with even more of it.
“Alright, so last night we had some rain. But before that, Fluttershy had come over to see me. Oh, I do love it when any of my friends come over. It always makes things better, even if you just come over to talk.” Rarity’s smile came back, and I smiled as well. It was always good to spend time with friends. “She needed to talk to me about something. She seemed like such a wreck, so nervous. I had to help her.”
That didn’t sound like a problem.
“Well, getting her to talk in the first place was incredibly difficult. I even made some tea, hoping that it would help. It helped with something, alright.” A sigh, she was likely getting to the part where the problem started. “Well, I sat the tea cups down, ready to ask her to come in, when she walked up to me and kissed me. I... I froze for a moment, Twilight, I didn’t know what to do.”
Was that the problem? I should probably let her finish before I say anything.
“I don’t judge any mare who falls in love with another mare, or stallions with stallions. Who am I to judge love? It’s just... remember at your brother’s wedding?” I nodded, and she nodded as well. “I think Fancy Pants really likes me... and that would be great news.” This still didn’t lead to a problem, unless Fluttershy hadn’t reacted well to being told. “But... after a second, I realized something.
She’s my friend, I can’t hurt her.”
I was confused, and it was fairly evident when Rarity looked over that she knew it.
“I kissed her back. Maybe I haven’t given mares a chance.” Her eyes looked as though she really wanted to believe that she could just change. “Or maybe it won’t be all mares, maybe I’ll just love Fluttershy. She’s my friend, and I love spending time with her. That could blossom into something, right?” I didn’t know what to say about that. I could tell the truth, or at least what I actually thought.
Honesty was always the best policy.
“Well, Rarity, I don’t know about that. I don’t think you could force yourself to love somepony any more than I could force myself to be an Alicorn.”
Rarity looked down, obviously she had hoped that I would have comforted her.
“But... I don’t know everything about love. It could be possible.” I felt horrible that I had just said that. Cadance hadn’t taught me much about love, but it just didn’t seem right. Two ponies were either in love or they weren’t. It wasn’t likely that you could force yourself to be in love. Rarity had only wanted to hear that it might be possible, not that it was definitely going to happen, though.
Her smile returned.
“I do hope so, Twilight, I really do. I want to make Fluttershy happy. What type of a fri- marefriend? Oh, it’s going to take a while to get used to that. Anyway, I have to do everything I can to make this right. I will love her, obviously, it’ll just take time.”
Something told me that this wasn’t going to end well.
“I know you’ll figure it out, Rarity.”
“But enough about me, what did you want to ask me about?”
One of my questions had been answered, there was no chance that she could have gone out on a date with Spike the might before. That still didn’t answer why he was so late, or who I thought I saw. “Actually, it really isn’t that big of a deal. I just... I thought that maybe you could help me figure out where Spike had been all night.”
It was time for her to look at me with a confused look on her face.
“He told me he was going to go see if you needed any help. And you just told me that your night, or at least some of it, was spent with Fluttershy. Obviously Spike wasn’t there.” I couldn’t tell her the real reason, especially not now. It wouldn’t help anypony out if she knew that Spike loved her, when she was trying to be with Fluttershy.
I couldn’t do that to my friends.
“Actually, I did see him out of the corner of my eye. Oh, he looked so handsome. He was pretty dressed up for a simple offer to help me with something.” A smug grin was on her face, it was obvious that she knew the real reason. “Sadly, I saw him right as Fluttershy kissed me. I would have mentioned it, but... it didn’t seem like something I should bring up.”
That had to be pretty bad, but that didn’t help answer the question of where he had gone.
“And after that?” I hoped that she would tell me something, anything.
“Well, I saw him run away. I really don’t know where he went after that. I had hoped the poor dear would head back to the library.” She looked at me, and then she looked down. “I really should have gone after him, make sure that he was alright, but I just... I had a guest and she really wanted my attention.”
“It’s okay. Rarity, I’ll just have to ask him about it later.”
“Wait. You haven’t asked him about it yet?” I shook my head, and she started to laugh. “That should always be the first thing you do, it makes everything easier. For all you know, he’ll tell you everything.”
“I guess, I just... I thought I saw somepony out there with him when he came back. I figured that you might know something about it, and I know that Spike likes to hide some things from me when he thinks I won’t approve of them.” My mind went back to the incident with the book, the one that he had accidentally burned up. “Besides, I don’t want to cause a commotion if I was just imagining things. I mean, I was really tired.”
“You should probably still go ask him about it, though. I don’t know anything about this mystery pony, or even if they exist.” Rarity looked right into my eyes. “I’m sure he won’t lie to you. He’s grown a lot, and I don’t mean physically. He’s very mature for his age.”
“I know. I guess I still see him like a baby dragon. Maybe I really should trust him a little more.”
“Oh, you’ll never change.” She chuckled, and I started to as well. “I mean, you’re basically his bigger sister, you’ll always be worrying about him.” I always thought that I was more like a mom, but that wasn’t the most important thing that she had said.
“You’re probably right, Rarity. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, though. After all, change is sometimes a good thing. I mean, I changed when I came here. And I wouldn’t take that change back for all the books in Canterlot.”
That was obviously something that touched Rarity more than I thought, a few tears escaping. “And I wouldn’t trade any of the times we’ve all been together for anything, either.”
I still didn’t know the answer to my problem, but I wouldn’t keep asking her about it. “We should probably enjoy the spa time, though, for something more than talking about my problems. I mean, it’d be nice to just talk about what’s been going on recently.”
Rarity looked at me for a moment, as if she was going to object. She quickly gave up, though, and started to talk to me about her most recent client.
Crisis wasn’t completely averted, but at least I could get my mind off of the problem for the next few hours while we stayed at the spa.