//------------------------------// // 3. Parties and Muffins and Kisses Oh My // Story: Longest Night, Longest Day // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// “What was that?” Trixie demanded as she got to her hooves, wondering if it was possible to overdose on adrenaline. She certainly felt like it after the shock she’d just received. Lyra bit her lip. “That was Pinkie Pie,” she explained, scuffing a hoof on the cobblestone street beneath her. “She moved here a little bit before I went to Canterlot. She’s probably run off to throw you a party.” Trixie blinked as she took in Lyra’s words verses the tone of her voice. “Why are you saying that like it’s synonymous with ‘she’s going to drag me into a basement and torture me?’” “She gives off that vibe, doesn’t she?” Lyra asked, stepping forward and putting a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder as though bracing the other unicorn for bad news. “It’ll be a surprise party. Probably when you least expect it. If you do see it coming, though, don’t run. She’ll just follow you and drag you there.” Trixie was beginning to grow seriously concerned. “What?” she asked. “Just enjoy her party.” Lyra said. “They are enjoyable. And this is your first so you’ll get to have a lot of fun. Eat, drink, and be happy, but for the love of Luna do not mention any reason for her to throw you another party. Because she will. And then another. And another. And another. And…you see where this is going.” The new representative of the Night Court raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?” she asked. “Just more parties?” “An infinite loop of parties.” Lyra said. “Her special talent is making ponies smile, and she’s good at it, I guess, but it is way too easy for her to go completely overboard.” Trixie did not like the sound of that. “Okay…so go to the party and enjoy myself but don’t look like I’m enjoying myself too much.” As she thought about that, she smiled a little. “So basically like the Grand Galloping Gala, then. Easy.” Lyra’s eyes widened a little at the casual mention of the most prestigious social event in all of Equestrian society. “You’ve been to the Gala?” “Five times,” Trixie responded with a nod, then grinned and pointed a hoof at her chest. “Luna’s protégé, remember? Of course I’ve been.” Lyra pouted a little. “Lucky…” Trixie shrugged. “Anyway,” Trixie said, stepping away from Lyra and consulting her mental list of destinations and ponies to see. “Last stop is music. Somepony named Fluttershy volunteered to – ” Lyra looked surprised once more. “Fluttershy?” she interrupted. “She volunteered? You sure you’re remembering right?” Trixie’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Completely. I have a photographic memory.” “Really?” “Well, no. But there’s a spell that lets you perfectly remember something for twenty-four hours, and I used it on my list of ponies I needed to see.” “Useful…” Lyra said, tapping one hoof to her mouth as she thought. “Fluttershy is…well, shy. Incredibly shy. I don’t know her very well…which means that if you and me show up at her cottage she’ll probably just hide under her bed and wait for us to go away.” Trixie’s eyebrow arched at that. “Then…why did she volunteer to do music?” “I don’t know, it’s not very in-character for her…” Lyra said as she continued to consider. “She barely even comes into town, usually just mail-orders stuff straight to her home – ha! Got it.” Lyra looked around a moment, getting her bearings, before pointing down one of Ponyville’s streets. “Okay, this way. We’ll probably have to recruit some help on this one.” Trixie blinked. “Help?” --- “Help!” a panicked voice came from inside of Ponyville’s post office. The unicorns spared each other a glance before dashing inside, horns glowing and ready to face just about any problem that might confront them. Except this one, “this one” being an impossibly large pile of envelopes, boxes, loose paper, stamps, mail bags, mail carts, at least one overturned shelf, and, for some bizarre reason, a half-eaten tray of muffins. Just barely poking out from the pile was a single hoof, waving frantically. The two unicorns once again paused, this time in utter confusion as to how such a gigantic mess could have been caused. They quickly went to work, however, magically hefting and lifting the piles of assorted mail and mail-related things off of the pony who was trapped beneath it all. After several moments of working together, they finally pushed aside enough for the trapped pony – a gray pegasus with a yellow mane and tail, wearing the navy uniform and cap of a mail mare – to break free from her papery prison and get her hooves on a solid wooden floor again. “Ugh,” the pony groaned, rubbing her head a few moments. She opened her eyes and looked to Trixie and Lyra. “I just don’t know what went wrong…” Trixie realized she was staring, tried to stop, and failed miserably. The pegasus pony had yellow eyes, quite vibrant ones at that, but the two of them refused to focus, with her left eye focused mostly on Trixie, while the right one was pointed out and upwards, towards the ceiling. “Um,” Trixie said, extending a hoof mechanically, “hi.” The pegasus took it with both hooves, fumbling slightly as she did, and shook it. “Thank-you!” she said. “I don’t know how I would have gotten out of there without you two.” As she said this, she released Trixie’s captured hoof and turned to Lyra, shaking hers as well. “I was climbing a shelf to get to my muffins but then everything just started falling…” Trixie blinked a few times. “Climbing?” she asked, looking to the pegasus’ wings. “Why didn’t you just fly?” “Oh,” the pegasus said, grinning as she scratched the back of her head with one hoof. “I…forgot. Yeah.” “You forgot you could fly?” Lyra asked incredulously, though obviously believing the pegasus despite the question. Trixie, on the other hand, was fairly adept at recognizing lies when she heard them. “Yeah,” the pegasus said sheepishly. “Forgot I could fly.” She turned to look at the mess she had made. “Uh…I think the post office is going to close early today, so if you were hoping to get something mailed you’ll have to wait, um…?” She turned to look at the two mares. “Lyra Heartstrings,” the mint-green unicorn introduced herself. “And this is Trixie. And no, we weren’t here to have anything mailed. We were actually hoping to speak with the mail pony who makes deliveries to a cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest – ” “Fluttershy’s?” the pegasus asked. At a confirming nod, she tapped her chest. “That would be me. Oh, I’m Ditzy Doo.” “Great!” Lyra exclaimed, turning to Trixie. “Like I said, Fluttershy would probably hide under a bed if too many ponies showed up at her doorstep, so it should just be you and Ditzy Doo here who go and see her.” Trixie raised an eyebrow at that. “Are you ditching me?” she asked. Lyra opened her mouth to object, thought better of it, and instead nodded. “Yes,” she confirmed. “I have some things I need to do. I’ll meet you at your place later.” Lyra didn’t wait for confirmation before leaving the post office, a noticeable spring to her step and swing to her haunches as she did. Trixie wasn’t certain how she felt about the mint green unicorn leaving, but her contemplations on the matter were interrupted as she noticed a pair of yellow eyes focused on her. She turned, surprised to see that Ditzy Doo, apparently, could lock both eyes onto a subject if she wanted. “Hmm,” Ditzy Doo thought. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around town before, and I thought I knew everypony.” “You didn’t know Lyra,” Trixie pointed out. “I didn’t know her face,” the pegasus corrected, turning around – one eye lingering on Trixie for slightly longer than the other one as they became walled once more – and beginning to dig through the pile of letters she had previously been trapped underneath, searching unerringly despite the utter chaos. After a few moments, she held up an envelope, stamped with the magic academy’s sigil. “Lyra Heartstrings, 12 Hayseed Lane. Moved away three years ago to attend Luna’s school of magic on a music scholarship, just before I started my job here. I’ve been delivering her mail to her parent’s house because she never got a new mailing address.” Ditzy Doo’s eyes both narrowed at that. “I hate it when ponies do that.” Trixie blinked a few times. “You know all that?” She asked. “How?” “I read her mail.” Trixie stared. “Kidding!” Ditzy Doo said with a laugh as she used her head as a plow to begin shoving all the fallen letters away from the post office’s door. “I talk to her parents when I’m on my route sometimes.” “Oh,” the blue unicorn said, chuckling slightly in relief. “Well, yes. I’m new. I’ve been appointed as the new representative – ” “ – of Luna’s Night Court and official festival overseer,” Ditzy Doo interrupted, pausing a moment with her tongue clenched in her teeth in concentration as her eyes wandered – independently – over the pile of mail before her, before diving once more into it and coming out with a trio of envelopes in her mouth, one midnight blue, one white, and one plain brown. She trotted over to the surprised-looking Trixie. “Feef ah fah yoo,” the mail mare said, as best she could with a mouthful of mail. Trixie paused a moment before grasping the envelopes with her magic and looking them over. The midnight blue envelope was from Princess Luna, and bore the royal seal proudly on its back. The brown envelope also bore the royal seal and claimed to be from Luna, but given the color of the envelope it was more likely that it was from somepony who had been delegated the task of sending it in Luna’s name. The final envelope bore no seal at all, instead simply being addressed to her in elegant, flowing script – most likely a unicorn’s writing, as earth ponies and pegasi, lacking telekinetic magic, rarely had the mouth-and-tongue dexterity necessarily to write Equestrian with such elegance. “How did you…?” Trixie began, looking back to Ditzy Doo. The pegasus shrugged, pointing at the two from Canterlot. “Those two arrived just a few hours ago,” her hoof moved to the white envelope, “and that one’s been sitting here for weeks waiting for you. It’s from the last representative.” Trixie had actually meant how did you find these in all of that, and by the way how did you know unless you really do read ponies’ mail, but decided to let that slide. Instead, she turned her attention back to an earlier point of interest while tucking the envelopes away into her cape for now. “You can remember all of that,” she accused, “but you forgot that you could fly?” “Yes,” Ditzy Doo responded evenly. Her tone changed just slightly, however, to be noticeably defensive, as her eyes managed to come into focus on Trixie once more. Trixie stared, gaze switching from one of Ditzy Doo’s no-longer-wandering-eyes to the other. She put two and two together pretty quickly: wandering eyes would make even walking around a chore, never mind attempting to move in three dimensions, even just to get muffins on top of a shelf. After a few moments, Trixie nodded. “Okay,” she said. Ditzy Doo’s smile returned at that, this time looking grateful. “Okay,” she echoed. “Just give me a few minutes to clean this place up and then we’ll go to Fluttershy’s.” “I think it’s going to take more than a few minutes,” Trixie observed – although even as she did, she found herself stepping forward a few paces, horn glowing and lifting up a large pile of letters and separating them out for Ditzy Doo to look over. “Maybe a little,” the gray-coated pegasus conceded, as she used a hoof to slide her tray of muffins along the floor and over to in front of Trixie. “Muffin?” “Not unless you’ve got one with peanut butter, hay, and – ” “Pumpernickel seeds?” Ditzy Doo asked, pointing to one with a hoof absent-mindedly as she collected the levitated letters and began sorting them. Trixie nearly dropped them all on the pegasus as she stared at a muffin that she had thought any other pony would consider absolutely inedible. She’d had to practically threaten the chef’s family back in Canterlot to get him to make them for her, and yet…here one was, sitting next to an otherwise normal blueberry muffin. Trixie decided that she and Ditzy Doo were going to be best friends. At least until she found out where Ditzy got her muffins from. --- Lyra could not, for the life of her, understand why she was so nervous as she sat outside of the candy store, staring at its door as though it was holding her family hostage. This is stupid, the unicorn thought. I should just go in there. Right now! Get in gear! Pony up! Move, you silly filly! Lyra stood still. It’s not like I haven’t seen her. I saw her plenty over the last three years. Yeah, it was just for a few hours whenever she came to visit Canterlot or I went to visit her on the weekends…but come on, I saw her last – no, wait, that was finals week. Okay, but I saw her…no, I had an audition. Didn’t get it. Then there was…no…but…no, not then either…Holy hay, how long has it been since I’ve seen her? Lyra’s eyes widened as she realized. Oh…it’s been, like, a semester. A semester and a half. Eight months easy. I guess I got so busy that…aw, she probably hates me… The mint-green unicorn turned and walked away, dejected. The mint-green unicorn turned and walked back, determined. BonBon could never hate me. She’s the one who said I should take advantage of that scholarship! I wasn’t going to, but she convinced me! And…well, and then I haven’t seen her for eight months. But there were still letters! We wrote each other all the time. So there. We’d write about… …oh, Luna, I don’t know. I can’t remember what was on BonBon’s last letter to me! What was on mine to her? Stars above, what if it was something major? Lyra hit herself in the head a few times. Think, Lyra, think! This is important! This is – Lyra felt hooves on her back, shoving her forward. She stumbled and ended up with her face planted firmly against the candy shop’s door. “Ow…” “Oops,” a magenta voice said. Lyra wasn’t certain how voices could be magenta, but this one was. “I thought it opened inwards…” the unicorn felt herself being picked up and brushed off, and realized she was staring at Cheerilee. “Wha…?” Lyra asked blearily as she struggled to clear her head. “When did you – gah!” The exclamation came as Cheerilee opened the door and shoved Lyra inside of BonBon’s Confectionarium. By the time she got her hooves under her, she was aware of a half-dozen sets of eyes on her. Two pairs belonged to a pair of fillies, an orange pegasus and a white unicorn who were standing by the rock candies; one of a brown-coated stallion with an hourglass cutie mark who had been on his way out with a bag of jelly babies; a blue unicorn stallion with a long horn and a safety pin cutie mark; a fifth set were claimed by an earth pony with a dark blue coat and blue eyes and a star cutie mark… …and the final, dark teal set belonged to BonBon, a cream-colored earth pony with a mane and tail striped in navy and bright pink, and who was the most beautiful creature that Lyra had ever laid eyes upon. She was standing behind the counter, mouth hanging open. “Uh – ” Lyra began, before being thrown a third time; in this instance, it was as a cream-navy-and-pink blur moved with speed that would have impressed the Wonderbolts from behind the counter, past the customers, and straight into Lyra, throwing her to the ground and knocking her Gatsby cap off, with the blur landing on top of her and revealing itself to be – unsurprisingly – BonBon. Lyra was frozen for a moment, before her body moved of its own accord, wrapping BonBon in as tight an embrace as the earth pony was currently giving her, burying her muzzle in BonBon’s mane and breathing in deeply. She smelled of sugar. She always smelled of sugar – she was a candy maker, after all. The smell was subtle, not overpowering, a faint background scent that brought with it thousands of memories of the two growing up together in Ponyville, best friends as fillies, something so much more than that as they grew older. It was the sweetest smell in Equestria. “Hi,” Lyra finally managed to say as she opened her eyes, and found herself staring into BonBon’s. “I’m back.” “I noticed,” BonBon responded, before leaning up and pressing her lips firmly to Lyra’s own. The unicorn’s heart stopped beating for a few moments before plunging into overdrive, and she sank into BonBon’s kiss. She was vaguely aware of the dark blue mare and brown stallion ushering the fillies and other customers out of the shop, knowing smiles on their faces and switching the sign on the shop’s front window from ‘open’ to ‘closed.’ Like all things, the kiss had to end eventually. In Lyra’s case, it ended with BonBon pulling away, offering a smile, and then hitting the unicorn rather firmly on top of the head. “Ow! What was that for?” Lyra demanded, rubbing the spot where BonBon had hit her. “Because,” BonBon explained as she put her hooves on Lyra’s barrel and forced her firmly to the floor, leaning down and touching muzzles, “you haven’t written me in more than six weeks!” “Oh,” Lyra said, and looked away. “I’m sorry, I lost track of time, these last few weeks have been – ” “You’re not sorry,” BonBon accused, before a grin split her features and she gave Lyra a peck on the nose. “Not yet, anyway.” With that, she got off of the unicorn and began trotting towards the stairs that would take her to her apartment on the second story of the candy store. She paused only to glance at Lyra, eyes half-lidded, and nodded her head upstairs. Lyra blinked a few times before offering a full-toothed smile of her own, getting up quickly and prancing after the love of her life. --- Fluttershy’s cottage was about as far away from Ponyville as Sweet Apple Acres, but in a different direction, a route across the unclaimed, snow-covered fields that almost seemed to serve as a kind of buffer between Ponyville and the dangerous Everfree Forest. As Trixie followed Ditzy Doo, the blue unicorn noted that the skies over the forest were noticeably darker than over the rest of Ponyville. In the far distance, she could even see large thunderhead clouds forming. “Yikes,” Ditzy Doo said as she noticed the storm clouds herself, though she had to bend her head at an odd angle to get one eye to focus on them. “The weather ponies are going to have their hooves full…” “So I hear…” Trixie intoned. She realized after a moment that she was staring, once more, at Ditzy Doo’s eyes – and that the pegasus was staring back. Caught in the act, Trixie felt her face heating up in embarrassment as she quickly looked away. “I’m sorry – ” she began. “Just go on and say it,” the mare interrupted, her tone insistent and surprisingly patient, rather than bitter. “Your eyes are crooked and I don’t know which one to be looking at when talking to you which is really awkward because you seem nice and there is definitely nothing wrong with you but it’s just awkward for me but it has to be worse for you but I don’t mean mean anything by that I’m sure you’re a perfectly normal member of Equestrian society I mean you do have a government job and all plus you gave me that muffin and…” Trixie trailed off there, catching her breath and looking more away, focusing very intently on the dirt path beneath her hooves. Ditzy Doo blinked a few times at the rapid pace of Trixie’s exclamation. “Feel better?” she asked. Trixie didn’t want to answer. She used her magic to turn up the collar on her cape, hiding her face from Ditzy Doo’s. Frankly, she was surprised at her own actions. Back in Canterlot she would have had no problem keeping her thoughts on Ditzy Doo’s wandering eyes in check. She chalked it up to the day not going so well – the conflict at the Apple’s, the oncoming storm from the Everfree, being assaulted by Rarity, being scared witless by Pinkie Pie and threatened to be put in a perpetual party loop, and with a very distinct feeling that somewhere in Canterlot right now was a certain midnight blue alicorn princess with a knowing grin on her face as she watched Trixie suffer using a crystal ball or mirror or pool of water or telescope or something. For her part, Ditzy Doo let Trixie stew, which was exactly what the unicorn wanted to do. She only broke her out of it about half an hour later, tapping Trixie on the shoulder to indicate that they had arrived at a thatch-roofed, picturesque cottage near the Everfree forest, surrounded by small, hoof-crafted animal homes and even a chicken coup. “Fluttershy’s,” Ditzy Doo said, as the two trotted up to the front door. “We’ll have to go easy on her,” the pegasus explained in a soft voice. “Let me do the talking. And if she hides under something, just let her stay there until she wants to come out on her own.” Trixie blinked. “If she hides under something?” she echoed. Ditzy Doo nodded as they reached the door. Taking in a deep breath, the pegasus knocked softly on it three times. From inside, Trixie heard a high-pitched, panicked eep, then the sound of several things being knocked over and hooves pounding on wood, retreating from the door. To her surprise, she also heard another voice, this one somewhat scratchy. “Aw, no! Fluttershy, it’s probably just – agh,” the voice said with surprising intensity, at least compared to the volume that Trixie had been expecting. The sound of angry hoof-stomps began approaching the door. “Oh,” Ditzy Doo said. “I guess that Fluttershy has – ” The door flew open, and Trixie found herself staring at a cyan-coated pegasus with the most vibrant mane she had ever seen on a pony – it was literally all the colors of the rainbow, the ‘hot’ ones on the top of her head and the ‘cooler’ ones running down her neck. Her tail was similarly polychromatic, and on either flank was a cutie mark of a white, fluffy cloud with a rainbow-hued lightning bolt arcing from it. “Okay, what gives?” the pegasus pony demanded. Ditzy Doo pointed at Trixie. “Rainbow Dash, this is Trixie.” She turned to Trixie. “Trixie, this is Rainbow Dash.”