o----[ Chapter 11: Twilight at Dusk ]-----------------------o
"Stop pacing." I groaned in annoyance. For all the times I'd uttered those two words in the last few days, I was surprised they hadn't lost all meaning. Maybe they had. I didn't know anymore because Twilight wouldn't stop pacing all the time.
I knew that I was being too hard on her. It was already the night of her scheduled performance for the delegates from Saddle Arabia and one of the three princesses of Equestria. In the preceding week, she had understandably become a twisted ball of compressed anxiety that was only kept at bay by a large number of negligible checklists.
But now there were no checklists to hide behind.
"Stop pacing." I repeated loudly.
Twilight obeyed, throwing me a short-tempered glare. I knew she didn't really mean it. She spun away from me. "Spike is everything ready?"
"Just give me a minute." Spike responded from within a ring of animals. In one claw was a fountain pen that was slowly working it's way down a checklist in the other claw. Well, there was one more checklist to hide behind, and Twilight was going to continue bugging Spike about it until that checklist joined all the rest of them.
"None of you have to do this." Fluttershy fussed, almost bringing tears to my eyes with the sincerity of her voice. "There's no shame in coming home now."
"You should've been done by now." Twilight whined, taking a step to begin pacing once more. She stopped when I gave her a venomous look, which she returned in kind.
"Stop worrying so much." I gave her a more reassuring look. "We've checked every inch of the plaza and stage. We made sure nothing can go wrong." I bucked the back of the stage with one of my legs to illustrate my point, and the wood let out a healthy THUMP in reply. Twilight had constructed the stage vicariously through Spike and I by supplying us checklists to read off to the burly stallions actually doing the work.
Twilight nodded, though she still seemed just about ready to start pacing again. "Everything needs to be perfect."
"You've been practicing for this all day every day for over two weeks." Spike pointed out. There had been that day that Twilight had manned the check-out desk for me while I recovered from sleep deprivation, but that seemed a bit counter productive to bring up.
"I should've practiced more.” Twilight continued regardless. “I've only gone over the entire thing seventeen times! What if I forget the order? What if I mess up the pirouette? or the flip? I messed up both of those only five days ago! And what about the six-pointed star? What if it turns out lopsided? What if I forget a point? It won't be six-pointed if it only has five points! What if I embarrass Princess Celestia in front of the delegates and offend them? What if I start a war?" Her eyes were wide and her breathing labored.
"You won't mess up." I said bravely, my voice betraying no doubts.
"We'll be right here for you." Spike looked over the top of his checklist at his caretaker. "Won't we, Midnight?"
"Of course." I smiled. "Even in the extremely unlikely case of something bad happening, Spike and I will be right here for you."
"And so will I." Fluttershy agreed, looking up from the raccoon she'd been pampering. "But," Her smile suddenly turned venomous, "if you so much as scratch one paw, I'll- eep!" She was cut off as I firmly yanked her away by her tail, my wispy dark green magic contrasting with her silky pink tail. Normally I wouldn't use my magic so carelessly, but if nothing else, my magic backfiring would at least get Twilight's mind off of her nervousness.
"That's enough of that." I smiled timidly, awkwardly stepping between Fluttershy and Twilight. "The point being that your friends are here for you."
Twilight wasn’t quite looking at me though. To be more specific, her gaze was drawn to my forehead. "I don't think I've ever seen you use magic before."
"Um... Yeah?" I agreed, confused by the sudden shift in topic.
Twilight reached up with her hoof and pulled my head down to get a better look at my smoldering stump of a horn still burning with magic. I blushed awkwardly as my vision was filled with purple hooves on dimming dirt. "Interesting," She mumbled, "Why does your magic manifest itself in the form of a flame?" She asked herself, tilting my head to one side, then the other. "Do you find fire spells come more easily to you?"
Of course flame spells came more easily to me. Changelings were literally forged in fire and that fire still burned inside of us as the Flames of Change. “I guess.” I responded sheepishly.
"Hmm." Twilight hummed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Spike motioning for me to continue. Despite how incredibly awkward this was, I had to agree that Curious Twilight was preferable to Anxious Twilight.
"When my horn backfires, it usually defaults to a fire spell." I added, rolling my eyes to look at her purple chin, green in the light of my glowing horn.
"Could you cut off your magic please?"
I did as she asked, plunging the two of us into relative darkness briefly before Twilight lit her own horn. and I suddenly felt the unique sensation of Twilight's magic working through my horn. "T-Twilight, what are you doing?"
She muttered a reply that I didn't quite catch, but she seemed to know what she was doing, so I let her do her thing, doing my best not to squirm as she did.
"Your leylines are a disaster." Twilight announced not even half a minute later, concern dripping from her voice. "Dead ends and burned out lines are everywhere. I can't even find your focus! It's a wonder you can even cast magic, let alone backfire as little as you do."
"So that's bad, right?" I asked.
Twilight scoffed. "I'll tell you when I find something that looks like it should.” She continued to probe through my horn, inducing an even more excruciating feeling of what I can only describe as something literally crawling under my skin like a cat under a rug.
"And that's everything!" Spike announced, finally checking off the bottom item on his list. "Everything is set."
"Mmhmm gimmeaminute." Twilight muttered, waving a purple hoof. Her magic pushed further and further through my horn. “Your focus is completely gone! It should've been in an obvious place near the tip of your horn."
“Well,” Spike pointed out, “Her horn is broken.”
“Yeah, but a temporary focus should’ve been made near the new tip of her horn, and I’m not seeing it.”
I winced as an uncomfortable pressure started to build in the base of my horn. "Twilight..." I uneasily let out a warning.
"Just a minute." She mumbled into my ear. She was pushing harder now, like she was dropping elephants on a patch of plywood that was fighting the best it could to hold it up the massive weight.
"Twilight…” I cried persistently, “you're kinda..."
"Hold on, Midnight, there's something really weird here."
"It certainly feels weird." My voice cracked as I felt that patch of plywood snap. I yelped in pain and surprise, patches of my legs catching on fire that malevolently burrowed holes into my hooves. I roughly shoved Twilight away, and she fell in a tangle of limbs.
"Midnight!" Twilight cried out, struggling back to her feet. “I was almost done!”
"N-no more!" I exclaimed, eyes widening as I viewed my appendages. Large chunks had been burned to a sleek black, making a hideous amalgamation of pony flesh and changeling chitin. I felt my breath speed up, my heart punching my ears with each beat. I looked up to see Twilight already on her hooves, a question on her tongue.
"Midnight, are you alright? I didn't hurt you, did I?" She was concerned. My mouth wouldn’t answer, unable to process how she wasn’t horrified to see my true form poking through my disguise.
The setting sun. In the dim light, my indigo fur blended with my shiny carapace well enough to mask it from somepony who didn’t know it was there. I suppressed a shudder of relief as the realization came to me.
“N-no… I mean yes… I mean I’m fine." It was only a temporary solution. Sooner or later, somepony would notice, but I couldn't transform here. While the dim light of the setting sun worked to hide my deformity, it would also make the Flames of Change too noticeable. That was assuming I could even still my heart long enough to concentrate on the change in the first place.
"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Twilight persisted in a motherly tone, taking a step forward that I matched with a step back. "I know some unicorns can be sensitive of their horns."
"I have to use the toilet!" I announced loudly. "Very badly!" I shot off, fleeing into the plaza, thankful that the steadily gathering crowd hadn't yet grown into an intimidating monster. Dodging past milling ponies, I galloped into the first familiar building in sight: Sugarcube Corner.
I was immediately greeted by a squeaky voice. "Midnight!" Pinkie waved a pink noodle of a foreleg in my direction (as if I wouldn't notice the only pony in the front of the store). "Omigosh! I was just thinking about-"
"Can't-talk-gotta-go-to-the-bathroom!" I yelled at her, immediately rushing into the ladies room and bucking the door shut behind me. I could barely make out Pinkie's exclamation of how I must've really had to go.
Surprisingly, I didn't turn into a shaking mess, my mind immediately turning to one subject.
"Did anypony see?" I whispered to myself between gasping breaths of air. Normally I'd count ponies not screaming when I ran by them as a good thing, so the dimness seemed to have done a good job of hiding me.
Really, the only pony that stood an actual chance at seeing me was Pinkie Pie while I was under the bright florescent lights of Sugarcube Corner. That sat a bit uneasily in my stomach. Pinkie wasn't exactly known for keeping her thoughts to herself. Though I immediately felt bad, I found myself wondering if it even mattered if Pinkie saw. If she told anypony, would she even be taken seriously or would she be dismissed on the grounds of “just being Pinkie Pie?”
I swallowed around a lump in my throat. There was no point in thinking about it. She either saw or she didn't, and I couldn't stay in her bathroom forever. Taking a deep breath and pushing all my worries and fears into the back of my mind, I managed to change my body back to the way I wanted it to be. After I was sufficiently satisfied with the quality of my ponysona, I exited the cramped bathroom to find an frowning face waiting for me.
"Hi... Bon Bon." I waved nervously. "What, ah, brings you here?"
"I work here." She answered, unamused. Her love, which had so amicably mixed with Lyra's on the day I had been over, was cold and distant now. "We need to talk. Well, we don't need to talk. A certain pair of unicorns need to talk."
I swallowed. "I've actually been quite busy with Twilight, what with the whole show and such. In fact, I should really be getting back to her." I stepped to the side only to find Bon Bon's intimidating presence once more in my way.
"You will talk to Lyra. I don't know what happened between you two, but I want it over with, now." Her glare intensified, freezing my hooves to the floor.
"Yes ma'am." I nodded vigorously.
"Good." The glare disappeared, a small smile replacing it. "You'll find her in the corner over there. I've got to get back into the kitchen before my sugar burns, but I expect you two to have this resolved before Lyra drives me insane with her moping." She turned, trotting back behind the counter and into the kitchen with a bounce in her step. Pinkie couldn't resist the urge to wave to me when she saw me looking in her direction.
I steeled myself as I looked in the direction Bon Bon had pointed me towards, finding the familiar sight of Lyra sitting in a booth in that same strange way she always sat. On the table was her well-kept, battered lyre case, opened to reveal her polished namesake. Her gold eyes darted up to look at me, catching mine a second before she concerned herself with the latches of her lyre case.
I bit my lip as I approached her. I hadn't seen her since that night I met Saf, when I teased her so cruelly with my trust before kicking her away. I hadn't originally meant to avoid her, but by avoiding Saf, I had also been avoiding her, and then I had to pick up all the slack at the library while Twilight practiced every day. There just seemed to be more and more convenient reasons to avoid her, and it wasn't as if she was putting in the effort to find me. She knew exactly where I lived and worked.
Then another thought occurred to me. I hadn’t noticed her when I came in, but if she'd been sitting there then she might've noticed... No, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t there before, and she probably would’ve reacted if she had been. Pinkie was one thing, but Lyra was something else altogether.
Finally I stopped next to the corner booth, standing awkwardly as Lyra flicked the clasps up and down, making a soft click, click-a, click, click-a. Lyra was a pony of sound, and the relative quiet of Sugarcube Corner certainly didn't suit her.
"Hi." I said, unsure of how to start this conversation. I didn't even know what I was even hoping to accomplish; Lyra might not know exactly what my secrets were, but she definitely had some sort of inkling that they were there. It was dangerous to even talk to her anymore. Still, even without Bon Bon's insistence that I talk to her, I wanted to be friends with Lyra like we were before. To hear Twilight talk about it, Friendship was supposed to overcome everything, right?
Lyra looked up at me as if noticing me for the first time. "Hey." She forced a strained smile on her face.
"Can I sit down?" I asked, looking over at the empty seat across from her.
"Sure." She muttered, returning to playing with the clasps on her case. I sat in a more familiar position. Click, click-a. I just wanted her to take it out and start playing something, anything. I looked over my shoulder at Pinkie. She waved a floppy noodle arm again.
"Bon Bon made you come over here." Lyra stated.
"Yeah." I scratched the back of my head.
"I thought you were avoiding me." Lyra added.
"I'm sorry." I apologized. "I didn't mean to. I've just been really busy lately." Excuses. It felt like lying.
"I thought you didn't want to be my friend anymore." Her voice stopped just shy of cracking. She continued, her voice hardly more than a whisper. "just like all the others."
"Lyra..." My heart jumped into my throat. I wished that she was angry with me. I had plenty of experience with ponies being angry with me. Granted, my usual response was to run away from those ponies, but at least it was a familiar emotion to deal with. This was something entirely different. How was I supposed to deal with this? How could I have been the cause of this?
"Lyra, I'd never want to stop being your friend." I reached forward for her hoof uncertainly, but stopped myself. She couldn't have wanted physical contact from me. "You're the best friend I've ever had."
Lyra's love, normally so closely kept while Bon Bon wasn't present, wisped outward from her in a fragile breeze, filling the air with the scent of mint. I saw her throat bob as she swallowed.
"I'm so sorry for making you feel like I didn't like you anymore." I pushed earnestly. Please stop being sad.
She looked up suddenly, a fierce look in her eye. "No!" She interjected, "I'm sorry!” She slapped the table with her hoof viciously, leaning forward as she spoke. “I let myself get carried away again, just like when I was studying freaking humans.”
“Lyra-”
“I was stupid. I was trying to get you to share something you obviously weren’t comfortable with sharing. I didn’t think. All I did was push you away like I did with everypony else I’ve ever been friends with!” She was holding back tears now.
"You didn't push me away." I interrupted her tirade, matching her fierceness with all the compassion I could muster from my burning changeling heart. "I..." I swallowed, stuttering for a minute as steel met flint. "I'm right here, and I'm not going to stop being your friend just because you got a little over enthusiastic and I was an idiot because I've never had friends before."
Lyra didn't answer right away, her fierce look slowly dissipating. "Still friends?" She inquired carefully.
"Still friends." I nodded.
Lyra collapsed into a relaxed position, a relieved smile dancing back onto her face. "Good!"
"Yeah..." I had to return the smile as Lyra’s returned to her normal grinny self, minus her misty eyes. Her horn came alive with a golden aura, pulling her lyre out of its case. She gave it an experimental strum before launching into a quiet song that filled the bakery.
"So what are you doing after the show?" Lyra asked.
My eyes widened, my head snapping to the window. "Twilight!" I shouted, abruptly ending that budding conversation. I sprang out of my seat, catapulting my body toward the door. "Sorry-gotta-go-it-was-nice-talking-to-you-Lyra-bye!" I burst free from Sugarcube Corner's sweet clutches to find that the crowd before the stage had thickened quite considerably, causing me to freeze in my reckless charge. It was now an impenetrable mass of excitable ponies frolicking and churning in the low light, raising a dull roar of conversation that tickled my ears and made my legs go numb.
I bit my lip. There was no way I could take the direct route to the stage through a crowd that thick; my heart would stop before that happened. I turned my gaze away, unable to even stand the sight of so many ponies. I didn’t even know that there were so many ponies in ponyville. Twilight’s show must’ve drawn a crowd from the surrounding towns, maybe even Canterlot.
Since going through the crowd wasn’t a choice, I turned, starting to pick my way around it’s less cringe-inducing outskirts.
"Midnight, wait up!" I heard before long. I turned around to see a charging unicorn toting her signature lyre case weaving through the ponies I'd made it by. She cantered up beside me, that cocky smile on her face. “You’re not trying to get rid of me are you?”
“Of course not.” I forced a smile for her even if my stomach was churning with every step.
Lyra gave me a weird look as she matched my pace. “Wow, you look terrible.”
“Gee, thanks Lyra.” I blushed, lowering my head. Every part of me was shaking, and every time somepony brushed up against me, I could feel bile burning the bottom of my throat. It was no wonder I looked terrible. Just one foot in front of the other. I shivered.
“I’m serious!” Lyra stepped out in front of me. “You look really sick. Get-to-the-doctor sick.”
“As if I didn’t know that.” I snapped back. “I’m perfectly fine. I just need to get to Twilight.”
“You don’t look fine.” Lyra argued as I shoved past her, quickening my pace. She bit my tail, pulling me to a stop. She continued talking through my tail hair. “And there’s a new bug going around. Six ponies are already in the hospital, and they never displayed signs of sickness before they went to the hospital. You were perfectly healthy in Sugarcube Corner.”
She spat out my tail.
“Look, I just don’t want to see you in the hospital, okay?” Lyra pleaded. “Let’s just go see a doctor at the… well, at the hospital. So I suppose we would be going to the hospital, but it’s better to walk there than to be carried there, right?”
“Look, Lyra…” I couldn’t think straight, not while all these ponies were around me. “I need…” I felt myself swaying like I had lost a leg. “I have a bit of a condition.” I had to sit down to steady myself.
“Another condition?” Lyra narrowed her eyes. I forced my attention to Lyra, trying to ignore the ponies around
“An anxiety disorder.” I clarified, cringing as I did so. To acknowledge the problem was to admit that it was a problem, but Lyra looked just about ready to pick me up and carry me off to the hospital herself. “I have enochlophobia.”
Lyra stared at me blankly.
“That means fear of crowds.”
“Oh!” Lyra rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you just say so!” Her eyes flicked around, her smile falling. “Wait a minute…”
“Fear really isn’t the right word for it.” I elaborated. Focusing on something familiar, in this case an explanation I had probed methodically every sleepless night I was paralyzed by anxiety, was a known way to lessen the impact of an anxiety disorder. Familiarity bred safety after all. “It’s more like I worry so badly that I get physically sick.”
“That’s terrible!” Lyra stamped her hoof.
I blushed. “I can live with it.”
"And why didn't you tell me?"
"You mean during that one week we were friends or during those two weeks we never spoke?"
"Point taken." Lyra offered me a hoof and I took it. "Feeling better?"
I nodded. “Well enough to make it backstage.” Immediately, I felt the crushing presence of all the surrounding ponies. Immediately, Lyra moved in close, our coats brushing. Like magic, the anxiety was pushed back. Ponies were physical creatures, but changelings were creatures with two foot bubbles. I should’ve felt uncomfortable brushing cutie marks with her, but I only felt safer with Lyra at my side.
"Thank you." I said so low I wasn't even sure if she could hear me.
.-~*~-.
Twilight visibly deflated when I arrived joined at the hip with Lyra. Spike gave me a venomous look that made me feel guilty for leaving him alone to comfort Twilight for so long.
"Thank goodness." Twilight smiled weakly. "I was afraid I really had hurt you."
"Relax." I returned a gentle smile. I stepped away from Lyra to put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I'm just fine."
"I'm about to go on." Twilight added, her relief at seeing me quickly fading.
"Is Princess Celestia...?" Unable to stop myself, I peeked over the top of the stage to get a look at the VIP box that was constructed along with the stage. my breath hitched at the sight of the absolutely regal figure I saw chatting with two oddly shaped equines.
"That's Princess Celestia?" I choked out. Neither Princess Cadence nor Queen Chrysalis could remotely compare to the princess of the sun. She was at least twice the height of a stallion with an intimidating presence that compounded with all the beauty her graceful body exuded. Her mane and tail indeed were ethereal, waving with a nonexistent wind and glowing with untold power. How Queen Chrysalis managed to even scratch such a radiant figure was beyond my comprehension.
Lyra elbowed my ribs lightly, jarring me out of my reverie. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the image of Princess Celestia from the back of my eye lids.
"I'm ready to begin my speech." Mayor Mare trotted up. "Is everything all right here?"
Lyra nodded. "Just some pre-performance jitters. Nothing to worry about."
"Alright." Mayor Mare nodded. "My speech should take about five minutes. be sure she's ready by then."
"Don't worry. This is Twilight Sparkle we're talking about." Lyra forced a smile.
"She'll be ready." I affirmed.
"Yes, yes." The mayor nodded, trotting up the steps to begin.
It was a good thing she was gone, too, because as soon as she left, Twilight announced: "I think I'm going to throw up."
I was by her side in a minute. "Take a deep breath and it'll pass." Twilight complied, though she still looked quite unsteady. "You're letting your worries get the best of you." I of all ponies could understand that.
"I don't think I can go on." Twilight said, her wide eyes rolling about in her head, staring at everything and nothing. The starting line was in view.
"Shh." I shushed. "Keep taking deep breaths." I nuzzled her softly. "I know how it feels to be scared. I'm scared all the time, but you can't let your fears get the best of you." I had to be there for her like Lyra was for me. "You will go out on that stage, and you're going to give Ponyville a performance they'll never forget."
"But-!"
"But nothing!" I interrupted. "You're Twilight Sparkle, and I believe in you."
"We all do." Spike put a claw on Twilight's shoulder. "And we're here for you."
"Guys..." Twilight bit back tears. "You really think I can do it?"
"We've been trying to tell you that all afternoon." I nuzzled her neck gently. "Nopony else could be as capable as you."
"I don't know what to say." Twilight smiled finally, climbing to stand on all fours. She took a deep breath then let it out slowly. "I can do this!" She smiled attractively, more confident than she had all week.
When the mayor finished her speech, Fluttershy immediately paraded her conglomerate of animals onto the stage. Twilight hesitated for only a second, then she turned her back on me and strode up the steps to the stage with her head held high. The crowd, which had provided that dull background roar after the mayor finished her speech, went quiet at the sight of her.
"Hey." I heard a quiet whisper, a hoof set lightly on my shoulder. Bon Bon had at some point joined Lyra back stage, a small smile on her face. "Nice job." Lyra nuzzled her affectionately.
"Um... Thanks?" I replied quietly as Fluttershy descended the steps, her eyes watering.
"Oh, I can't look!" She cried, collapsing into Spike's arms.
Twilight showed no sign of her earlier apprehension as she wrapped each animal in a levitation bubble and pushed them into the air, sweeping them fluently through the night sky. She manipulated them into shapely spirals and elegant whorls, shapes and prisms that twisted and spun and changed. For over fifteen minutes, Twilight manipulated more than a dozen furry creatures all at once, and she didn't seem phased at all. She stood tall center stage, her horn pointed toward the heavens as if she were a princess herself.
Then as quickly as it began it ended, multiple fireworks rocketing into the sky to bloom colorfully.
Twilight gave her bow then curtly turned, her steps calm as she descended the stairs until she was out of sight of the crowd. She then let out an uncharacteristic whoop, jumping into the air. She was quickly joined by Pinkie who came clear out of nowhere and intercepted Twilight's jump arc with a pink hug of death. Twilight didn't seem to mind as they hit the ground together, rolling in the hug and letting out joyful giggles and strands of blended love.
"I did it." Twilight laughed as they settled down, panting hard as she stared up at the stars. “I did it!”
Fluttershy looked about ready to collapse from relief. She smiled weakly at Twilight. "It was a very, um, nice show."
"You know what this calls for?" Pinkie asked, a large grin set on her pink face.
Twilight smiled at that, and I did as well. I've been in this town long enough to know what that meant. "A nap?" Spike guessed, suppressing a yawn.
"A PARTY!!!" Pinkie Pie announced loudly, jumping into the air and exploding with confetti. "I've already set everything up at Town Hall, sent all the invites, and provided all the catering!"
"Pinkie," Bon Bon spoke up, "When did you have time to do all that? We've been working in Sugarcube Corner all day."
"Are you kidding?!" Pinkie excitedly ran up to Bon Bon. "I had at least two minutes and seventeen seconds after the end of Twilight's performance and five minutes while Mayor Mare was giving her speech! I even had time to make this!" She pulled a ship in a bottle out of her mane.
That caught my attention. "You made that?" Never before had I seen a ship in a bottle, nor did I think that an earth pony's hooves would be dexterous enough to assemble one.
"Yeah!" Was her reply. Then her eyes narrowed on me. "You! I wanted to talk to you back in Sugarcube Corner!" She chucked the ship in a bottle at Lyra. I didn't see whether or not she caught it because Pinkie Pie was suddenly invading my personal space, but I didn't hear the sound of breaking glass. "You know it's incredibly rude to ignore ponies!"
"Um... well yes, but-"
"Especially when I made you... this!" Pinkie Pie pulled a cupcake out of nowhere and perched it on top of my head. "Made with love!" She squeaked, nuzzled my nose for a brief second, then shot off screaming "PARTY TIME!"
"That was nice of her." Fluttershy tittered, following in Pinkie's wake.
"Yeah..." I agreed, looking up at the cupcake for a second. It gained a purple aura and dropped into my hoof thanks to Twilight.
"Pinkie does know you never eat anything, right?" Twilight grinned.
"I'm not sure." I shrugged, taking a timid bite out of the cupcake. I was a little surprise that it didn't cause me to gag. Twilight gasped.
"You- you actually ate it!"
"She ate it?" Spike echoed with the same shock.
"Of course." I replied. "She made it with love."
"I make things all the time." Spike grumbled, yawning again.
"Yes you do, Spike." I replied. "And we both appreciate you very much."
"Well..." Twilight eyed me warily as I took another small bite out of the cupcake, trying to lick off the frosting that subsequently was stuck onto my nose. "I'm going to go to Pinkie's party..."
"I'll take Spike home." I smiled wryly. "I don't think either of us are up for a party." And Pinkie only used the town hall when there was going to be a crowded party.
"Pinkie will probably be disappointed after making you that cupcake. I'll tell her you enjoyed it."
"Hey, I'm totally up for a party!" Spike insisted.
"Spike, why don't you go home and get some rest? You've been working so hard this week." Twilight smiled thankfully. "I'll let you stay up twice as long at the next party."
Spike crossed his arms resentfully. "Okay..." He was enveloped in purple, then dropped onto my back.
Before I could turn to start walking back to the library, Twilight suddenly snaked her forelimbs around my neck, pulling me into a hug. "Thank you." She said. "I couldn't have done this without either of you two." It was then that I found out that Twilight's love tasted like white chocolate: the nerdiest of all chocolates.
"Twilight, hurry up!" Pinkie's shrill voice carried over the now empty plaza. "Princess Celestia's about to hit the dance floor!"
Twilight pulled away from me, trotting off. I turned... to find Lyra's abnormally large grin right in my face, Bon Bon patiently waiting at her side.
"What's with you?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing." She continued grinning stupidly, raising her eyebrows. "So, you and Twilight, eh."
"Um... me and Twilight?" I asked, confused.
"You know..." She raised her eyebrows again.
"Oh, leave her alone." Bon Bon nuzzled Lyra. "I'd really like to see a princess dance."
"Oh, fine." Lyra prodded a hoof at me. "This isn't over."
"Um... Okay?" I blinked.
"C'mon Bonny, let's go dancing!" Lyra giggled, trotting off toward town hall.
"I'm not doing any of your weird human dances!" Bon Bon followed at a more leisurely pace.
Hmm... I munched on my cupcake happily. With an unprecedented spring in my step, I trotted in the opposite direction with a sleepy dragon on my back, wondering exactly how Pinkie had managed to cook love into a cupcake.