//------------------------------// // My Magnetic Personality // Story: Her Void Pink // by Darkryt Orbinautz //------------------------------// Twilight 'woke up' in her void on her bed. Looking around, she saw a straw effigy hanging in the air front of her, a few feet away from the foot of her bed. Two braziers were burning to the side of the effigy. She put her hoof to her mouth, wondering what to do. A noose dropped down -seemingly- from the sky. ...Ah-ha! She had it! Using her magic, she lifted the noose and pulled it over the effigy's neck. She tugged at the rope. The effigy flailed and tried to pry the rope off. Twilight smiled, getting a good feeling. She was quite certain that it had done something awful to deserve this. But the more it flailed, the more guilty she felt. Yeah, it had done something bad, certainly, but was so bad that it warranted this? Feeling guilty, she levitated the noose off the effigy, Today, both Spike and Pinkie got up before her. She sighed when she rose from her covers and saw no trace of beautiful pink in her bed. She did her morning routine and proceed downstairs, where Pinkie and Spike had graciously waited on her for breakfast. She decided she was just going to have cereal today. Twilight kept her head away from, skewing her face at an angle, wondering what to do about her pink fever. Suddenly, she had an idea. She hadn't talked to the Princess in awhile...surely, she'd appreciate an update from her faithful student. "Spike, I want to write a letter to the Princess." Twilight informed him. "Oh. Okay." Spike produced the quill and paper for the letter. "What do you want it to say?" "I want to write it myself, Spike. It's...private." "Private?" Spike moaned. "Oh, come on, Twilight! You know you can't trust me with anything, don'tcha?" "Yes." Twilight answered slyly, smirking. "So I know I trust my number one assistant to not read anything I don't want him to, right?" Spike's adopted an expression of surprise, though his ego was stroked. "All right, yeah..." He walked over the table and gave Twilight the writing instruments. She levitated the quill and began to write. Dear Princess Celestia...all her official letters started out that way. Ah, but this wasn't an official letter, was it? No, no. This wasn't a letter from the faithful student to her teacher Celestia. This was a letter from a longing mare to Celestia the olden pony. Dear Celestia... You know that I appreciate you sending me to Ponyville to learn about Ponyville. But recently I've been having strange thoughts about one of my friends. Every time I get near them, something strange stirs up inside me, but I'm afraid of how my friends will react. Please help. Twilight. Twilight folded the letter and put it in the proper binding before giving it to Spike. Spike did his thing, breathing a fwoosh of fire on it and turning it into vapor. It barely took a minute for there to be a reply. "Give me that!" Twilight snapped, snatching from Spike's claws quickly before he could untie the binding. Spike scratched his head, wondering what was so important that Twilight couldn't let him see. She quickly opened the letter and began to read. Dear Twilight, it began. It sounds to me as though you are in love. I would recommend you make a move before it's too late, and your special somepony spends their life with someone else. May I suggest a dress? Twilight finished reading and slumped against her chair. The letter had put in a thought she never had; that Pinkie could go off and live a happily ever after with somepony else if she didn't do something. And then there was the fear. The fear of what her friends would do if they found out. The letter had done nothing to help with the fear. In fact, it had encouraged it. "I don't have anything for us to do today." Pinkie said. "So whatever you want to do is fine." "I was thinking about maybe seeing Rarity." Spike perked up at the name of his crush, resting his silverware against the table. Everypony knew about his crush on Rarity. Twilight giggled. "Yes, Spike. You can come too." Maybe Twilight could open up to him. He would understand. Ah, but Spike was young, so Twilight didn't trust him much with emotional issues. Besides, that would involve telling somepony about her feelings for Pinkie Pie, and she wasn't ready to do that just yet. With anypony. She had been thinking about seeing Rarity, though. She had been wanting a dress, and Celestia's recommendation helped with that. Why? To look nice. For Pinkie Pie. Nothing much happened on their way from the library to the Carousel Boutique, though Pinkie got distracted by a robin. Once they entered the door, they saw Rarity come out to greet them from another room. "Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where everything is sleek, chic and- oh, hello girls! I wasn't expecting you. What I can do for you?" "I'd like a dress." Twilight told her. Rarity squealed. It wasn't normal for Twilight to care much about fashion, so the fact she was presented a golden opportunity to Rarity. "Oooh, excellent! I have a fabulous range of colors that I just know would look good on you! This way, please." Rarity guided them all to her fitting room, and guided Twilight onto a pedestal. Twilight, in her boredom, observed the mannequins all around. Rarity levitated a tape measure and set it to work to take Twilight's proportions. After taking care of that, Spike attempted to flirt with her, but she shooed him away, forcing Pinkie to assure him it wasn't personal. She was just getting in the zone. Pinkie brought Spike around to the other edge of the room and they began playing while Rarity started to ask Twilight questions. "Now, what kind of dress would you like, darling?" "I don't know..." Twilight answered. "One that makes me look...pretty." "Well, yes, of course, but what do you consider 'pretty'? "I don't know." "I don't know..." I don't know, I don't know, I don't know...Twilight repeated the mantra in her head. "Well, do you least know what color?" Darn it, Rarity! How many times are you going to make me say it? I don't know! Rarity abruptly stopped measuring and put the tape down on her dresser and gave Twilight an accusing look. "Twilight, every question I've asked you, you've answered with 'I don't know'..." OH, ponyfeathers! "What's going on?" Twilight laughed nervously. "What do you mean by that? Nothing's going on." "Twilight!" Rarity whined. "I'm your friend. You can tell me anything, darling. I won't judge." Twilight hung her head low and sighed. "Okay...I've been having some...self-esteem issues lately, and I thought a dress might help." Perhaps not an entirely direct truth, but it was also as least not a total lie. Rarity laughed. "Oh, darling! Only you can improve your self-esteem!" "Did you get that out of a magazine?" "What? No!" Rarity denied, thought Twilight could hear the hum of her horn followed the ruffling of paper. "Now, promise you'll give up on this ridiculous idea that a dress will just magically solve your issue." "Okay...I still want a dress, though." "As you wish, you little self-doubter, you! What would you like?" Twilight raised her head and glared, provoked by Rarity's prodding. She knew what she wanted, and she was going to let her know it in no uncertain terms. "I want a dress that's...grey." Rarity picked up a bundle of light gray cloth. "Dark grey." Twilight corrected. Rarity swapped it out for a more appropriate bolt of fabric. "I want...stars." Twilight declared. Rarity picked up her scissors and began cutting the cloth. "And a moon- full moon, not crescent." Snip, snip, snip. "And I want...ruffles on the back that will billow when the wind blows and make me look..." Twilight paused. "Irresistible." "Done, and done!" Rarity declared. Sometime later, Twilight was standing on the pedestal in her new dress. It was dark grey, like she wanted, but Rarity had gotten clever and filled in the stars and moon with the light grey that Twilight said to put away. And there were indeed many ruffles towards the backs, hanging off from her haunches that would like impressive once the wind start to blew on them. "It's perfect, Rarity. How much do I owe you?" "Oh, darling!" Rarity said dramatically, waving a hoof. "You don't owe me anything. Consider it a personal favor." "Okay..." Twilight muttered, hopping off the pedestal. "Spike! Pinkie! We're done here!" "Oh, yippie!" Pinkie cried, rushing over to hug Twilight. "The air was starting get stale in here." Twilight spasm-ed, unprepared to hold back her moan from Pinkie's touch. She bit her lip, trying to contain it. As result, she produced a weird sound through her nose. Rarity voiced her concern. "Err, are you all right, darling?" "Yeah. I'm fine." That's IT! I'm going to find a spell for this! "Come on, you two. We're going back to the library." "Ooh!" Spike groaned. "We're not gonna spend all day reading in that stuffy place, are we, Twi?" He gestured to the windows. "It's a beautiful day out there!" "I want to research something, Spike, and yes, we will spend all day in there if that's what it takes to find it!" Twilight snapped, re-establishing the pecking order. "Oh, come on! Can't we do something? Maybe visit Fluttershy? We haven't see her in awhile..." Twilight paused and thought about it. "We'll go the library, and when we find what I'm looking for, we'll go to Fluttershy's." "Yes!" Spike pumped his fist, seeing he had talked Twilight out of spending the entirety of this great day indoors. Piles of books were stacked on piles of books as Twilight scavenged through her collection, trying to find it. "Twilight," Spike asked as he ducked to avoid another book sent flying by Twilight's searching, "What are we even looking for?" "A magnet spell." Twilight answered. "But I can't seem to find it anywhere in here!" Like a gopher coming out of its hole, Pinkie Pie Popped out of a book pile and offered Twilight a book. "Here ya go!" It was a book about magnets. Twilight took the book from Pinkie and began reading. Of course. The spell involving magnets would only be in the book about magnets, not magic. Pushing her aside frustration at this, she read the spell and memorized it. "Pinkie, would you mind helping me test this spell?" "Oh, oh!" Pinkie squealed. "I love testing stuff! Especially stuff that's dangerous and untested and likely to go horribly wrong!" Twilight smiled nervously. "Well, the book doesn't say anything about something going horribly wrong." Pinkie frowned at the removal of potential danger, which pierced Twilight's heart painfully. Twilight decided to throw her a bone. "But, I've never done it before, so maybe something will go wrong!" Pinkie smiled and clapped her hooves. A beam of magic began to spool from the tip of Twilight's horn and float towards Pinkie. It began enveloping her, wrapping around like a towel, before just...disappearing. It almost seemed like nothing had happened. "Now, could you come over here and hug me, Pinkie?" "Sure!" Pinkie answered with a smile. She stretched her hooves and walked towards Twilight, but when she got close, some invisible force began pushing her away from Twilight's body, almost like a magnet. Pinkie tried to get close to Twilight again, but the same thing happened. Twilight smiled. No more nearly losing control from Pinkie's touch anymore... "Come on. We can got to Fluttershy's now. So, they went to Fluttershy's house. A wooden cottage out on the farthest outskirt of town where nopony could bother her, fitting with her shy nature. A small ramp led up to the door. They climbed up it, and Spike knocked on the door. The door pulled open to reveal a very grumpy looking bunny rabbit, who glared at them all like he wanted to pick a fight with them. "Uh...hello." Spike greeted, unnerved by its beady little eyes. "We're friends of Fluttershy's. We came over to see her?" The rabbit glared at them, then shut the door in their face. Twilight's ears perked up at a small sound. Spike huffed. "Well, that was rude!" "Quiet!" Twilight snapped at him. "I can hear something..." Twilight strained her ears, able to hear something going on the other side of the door. Eventually, the door opened just barely, allowing them to see the faintest edge of Fluttershy's face. "Oh...hello girls." Fluttershy greeted them. "I wasn't expecting you..." "Yeah! It's been awhile since we saw each other!" "Okay...um, nice seeing you." Fluttershy, in her shyness, started to edge the door shut, but Spike stuck his foot in it. "Aren't ya gonna invite us? Not letting us in when we came all this way just to see you is awfully rude, you know." Fluttershy gasped, the idea of being rude to her friends being an absolutely dreadful thought. "Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Fluttershy opened the door wide. "Please, come in." Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie all entered the house. It was quaint, very sparse in its decorations. Fluttershy guided them to her living room, where they saw that rabbit again. "Was Angel rude to you at the door?" "Now that you mention, yeah." Spike answered, glaring at the rabbit. "I'm sorry. He's just trying to protect me. He knows how...fragile I am." Fluttershy whisped. "Can I get you some tea?" "That would be lovely, Fluttershy." Twilight answered. Fluttershy left the room. The knowledge they were Fluttershy's friend seemed to make Angel not want to pick a fight with them...but he still looked like a crabby little grouch. Fluttershy returned, carrying full teacups for all three of them. She gave Spike his, and Pinkie hers, and handed the last one to Twilight. "Thank you, Flutterhsy." Twilight said as Fluttershy gave her the cup. Fluttershy's hoof wrapped around Twilight's. "...Fluttershy, you can let go now." "Oh..." Fluttershy moaned sadly. "That trip to the spa didn't do anything for you, did it?" "W-what do you mean?" "You're so tense! If I didn't know better, I'd say you were about to snap like a spring! Is something stressing you out?" "I am not stressed!" Twilight yelled, throwing her tea cup to the floor, where it shattered and spilled. Pinkie and Spike glared. "Okay...maybe a little." Fluttershy looked to Angel as if asking for permission. Angel crossed his paws and nodded. "Follow me, please." So, they had to follow Fluttershy following a deer through the woods outside her house until they came to a rocky clearing. There was a large pond with a waterfall flowing into it, and rocks were scattered around. "Whenever I get stressed, I just come here." Fluttershy explained. "There's just something about this place that makes all your worries go away." Ha. Twilight laughed in her head. Unless this place was magic, she doubted it would make her worries go away. "Wait right here, please." Fluttershy asked them before picking a up bucket that was already and started to lift up the various rocks. Twilight and Spike sat down on large seat-sized rocks, but when Pinkie come over to join them, she was pushed away from Twilight by the spell Twilight cast earlier. Twilight smirked to herself. There was no way Pinkie could touch her now. ...There was no way Pinkie could touch her now. T-there's...no way for Pinkie to touch me now... Twilight looked to Pinkie, who seemed to look sad about not being able to get close to her friend. Twilight realized she wouldn't be able enjoy Pinkie's touch...her soft, soft fur. She had read the counterspell in the book. She always did, just in case something went terribly wrong. She got ready to cast it before realizing there was no way for her to do without looking suspicious. She quickly realized she needed a distraction. Something to keep everypony's attention so she could cast the counterspell without anypony noticing and asking questions. She looked at one of the rocks and thought about skipping across the water...no, no. Fluttershy would get onto her for abusing a poor, defenseless rock like thought. Looking around at the trees, she thought of an idea she thought was better, even though a sane pony would realize it was actually worse. Getting up and away from Pinkie and Spike, she activated her magic and began to pull on one of the trees, making it bend and sway to her will. She made the top of it smack against the pond, causing a huge splash that washed that over Pinkie and Spike. While they were busy reacting to the splash, she cast the counterspell under the cover of the water. Fluttershy didn't notice anything. The splash hit up against a rock and flew over her harmlessly. She stopped, thinking she heard something, but shrugged it off and continued what she was doing. Come over and touch me, Pinkie Pie...it doesn't even have to be intimate, just let me know I can still FEEL you... "Okay!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "Twilight, could you go and stand under the waterfall, please?" Twilight was confused, not seeing what good that would do, but complied. Stepping into the cool pond, she sat under the waterfall. The water falling off the ledge above and onto her back felt strangely good. "Now, close your eyes..." Fluttershy instructed. Twilight obliged. She felt something fall on her back, but kept her eyes closed. At least, until she felt something wiggling on the bridge of her nose. She opened her eyes to see it was a caterpillar. "...Fluttershy, there is a caterpillar on my nose." Fluttershy giggled. "There are caterpillars all over you, Twilight!" "What!?" Twilight shrieked, though she managed to keep still to avoid flinging off the caterpillars and hurting them. "I've spent a lot of time training them to use their wiggling movements to relax ponies." Fluttershy explained. "They're really quite good at it." Twilight was dubious of it, but the longer she was there, the more she felt the caterpillars crawled around her body. It really was quite relaxing. Like a thousand tiny masseuses each dedicated to messaging specific portions of her skin. "Now...go to sleep." "What!?" "It really helps to take a nap." Fluttershy explained. "Go to sleep, Twilight." "No!" Fluttershy sighed. She cleared her throat and began to sing. "Hush now, quiet now, it's time go to sleep." "Fluttershy, stop! You don't...understand." "Hush now, quiet now, leave the exciting day behind you. Hush now, quiet now, let the joy of dreamland find you." Joy!? Hahahaha, poor Fluttershy. There was no way for her to know that dreamland had been full of anything but joy for Twilight the last few weeks. Twilight tried to stay awake. Tried to keep her getting heavier eyelids open, but between the cool water, the caterpillar masseuses, and Fluttershy's lullaby... Resistance was futile. Twilight opened her eyes to see...the pond, Fluttershy, and the trees around the pond. "FINALLY!" Pinkie exclaimed. "We've been sitting here for half an hour now!" "Half an hour?" Twilight muttered. Was she really asleep that long? How did she not go to her void? "I'll bet you're wondering why you didn't have dreams right now, aren't you?" Fluttershy asked. Yes...hey, how did Fluttershy know that? "Y-yeah. How'd you know?" "It's this place." Fluttershy explained. "There's just something about that keeps you from dreaming, it's very relaxing." Twilight cricked her neck. Now that she thought about it, she did feel quite relaxed. The most at ease she felt in weeks. In fact, if Princess Celestia was to drop down from the sky out of nowhere and give a her a pop quiz, she was sure she could answer it without panicking. "So, since we've just been sitting here for the last thirty minutes, can we go do something fun?" Spike asked, irritated. "Yeah!" Pinkie agreed. Twilight thought about it. She was feeling good, so she was up to anything. Perhaps they could go to Sugercube Corner...surely, Mr. and Mrs. Cake would appreciate an update as to how their top baker was doing. "Come on. Let's go get some sweets." Both Pinkie and Spike expressed quite well their approval for this idea. They left Fluttershy's pond place and started making their way across town. Along their way, Twilight noticed a rather dapper looking colt with a gray coat and black hair dressed in a suit. She didn't think much of him, but then she noticed Pinkie glaring at him rather intently. "What are you staring at Pinkie?" "Him." Pinkie pointed. "See him? That's the businesspony who tried to buy Sugercube Corner." Twilight's jaw dropped, and she joined Pinkie in glaring at him. Suddenly, the pony that she didn't think much of was suddenly the target of all her ire and rage. They kept glaring at him until they couldn't see him anymore, and they reached the Corner shortly after. They entered and saw Mrs. Cake managing the counter, looking surprised to see them. "Oh, hello girls! What are you doing here?" "What else? We're here to get some sweets, of course!" Twilight explained. "Oh, well, we have a quite selection, so take your time." Twilight raised her hoof, but stopped and looked at Spike. She needed to order she, him, and Pinkie could all agree with no argument or disagreement. "Do you have some chocolate cupcakes?" "You're in luck!" Mrs. Cake exclaimed. "We just finished making a fresh batch." She ducked down and pulled out a tray of chocolate-brown cupcakes that kinda looked more like muffins. Twilight gave Mrs. Cake the bits for them and took the tray. The group found themselves a table and took their seats. Twilight began divvying up the pastries evenly amongst them. As they sat there, munching their way though the chocolate, Twilight started thinking about her dreams, reflecting on them with a clarity from Fluttershy's therapy. She eventually started to notice something about them... Today, the sixth day, she had the dream about the effigy...which was kinda like when she tried to choke that stallion on the second day. On the third day, she had dreamed about the cart, and on the fourth day, she gone on a roller coaster with Pinkie Pie and dreamed about two ponies fighting...like when Applejack and Rainbow Dash fought each other... On the second day, she had a dream about pulling into water against her will, which was kinda like Flutterhsy making her sleep in the pond today... Everything that happened in her dreams happened in some weird round-a-bout fashion on the day of her Celebratory Week opposite the day she had the dream on! It made sense. If her dreams could see the future, why wouldn't they be able to see it from a slightly skewed angle? Which meant that her dream where the mannequin made out with her was going to come true in some way tomorrow! Oooh...not good. The door to Sugercube Corner rang, signaling the approach of a potential customer. Twilight and Pinkie looked over to see it was the businesspony from earlier. He approached their table. Pinkie crossed her front legs at him. "Miss Pinkie Pie?" He greeted. "I know that you have no reason to want anything to do with me, but I would like you to hear me out." "Go on..." Pinkie said, with a look that made it clear she was willing to listen, but only temporarily. "I've been engaging in some very unprofessional stalker-ish behavior as of late, observing from you afar." The businesspony explained. "I've consulted with a professional therapist, and we've reached the conclusion there is only one thing to do..." The businesspony backed away from the table and bowed his head. "Miss Pinkie Pie...would you do me the honor of going on a date with me?" Twilight's eyes widened. She buried her head in hooves and slumped against the dinner table. What did I do to deserve this?