//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Experimental Senses // by Victoria_the_dragoness //------------------------------// Experimental Senses Chapter 1 “What am I going to DO!?” Spike kept his eyes on his gem treat, not really paying attention to what Twilight was panicking over. He figured it was some sort of letter dilemma that she’d gone crazy over again. “About what?” He asked, absentmindedly. “Have you even been listening to what I’ve been telling you?” “Uh…eheheh.” Spike answered, guiltily. Twilight facehoofed and groaned weakly. “Oh, don’t make me say it again. I…I think I like…Pinkie Pie.” She said once again with a bit of effort. Spike scratched his cheek with a claw. “Okay. Well, you are friends aren’t you? You should like each other, right?” Twilight shook her head. “Not in that way, Spike. It’s…like with you and Rarity.” “Ah, Rarity,” Spike said, sighing as he drifted into one of his daydreams about rescuing the white unicorn from some awful creature. “Oh no you don’t, Spike. Not this time.” The lavender unicorn grumbled, shaking Spike gently to bring him back to the real world. “You need to help me figure this out.” Spike harrumphed and crossed his arms, but gave up and sighed. “Okay okay, but what’s the problem?” “The problem!?” Twilight shouted, beginning to pace back and forth along the wood floor. “What if Princess Celestia hears about this? She’ll probably banish me for having feelings for another mare.” “Um, Twilight?” Spike asked, holding up one claw to try and get her attention. “I don’t know where she’ll banish me to, but I know it probably won’t be good…maybe.” “Twilight.” Spike tried again, but his voice was ignored. Twilight gasped suddenly, having an awful; terrible thought. “What if she sends me to the moon like she did Princess Luna? How would I breathe up there? How did Luna stay up there for so long with no air to-” “TWILIGHT!” Spike yelled at the top of his lungs. The lavender unicorn jumped slightly and she turned to face Spike. “What?” “Please don’t make another hole in the ground from your pacing.” Her number one assistant replied, pointing to the floor behind her. A gap in height was already visible from where she walked to the center of the room. The lavender mare sighed once more and slumped to her haunches, exhausted. She stared at the floor in silence. Spike looked upset at the miserable state Twilight was in, and walked over to rest a claw on her shoulder. “Aw, come on Twilight. I’m sure it’ll be okay.” Twilight didn’t react to Spike’s claws on her shoulder. She just kept staring at the ground. “But in all the records there’s never been a case where two mares like one another.” “Well…Princess Celestia is your friend and mentor…and besides, I don’t think she’d care who you like or love. Your heart is yours to give.” Twilight sniffed and turned to face Spike. “Oh, Spike, you always know how to cheer me up.” She gave him a big hug and chuckled gladly. “That’s what I’m here for.” Spike replied, returning the hug happily. “Well,” Twilight said. “That solves the first problem, but this second problem I really don’t get.” Spike pulled away from the hug to look at the unicorn. “What is it?” “Why – out of all the ponies in Ponyville…in Equestria – do I like Pinkie?” She asked, scratching her head and blushing a bit. “She is pretty much everything I don’t believe in; her Pinkie-sense and all of her crazy antics that defy gravity and physics.” Spike had to admit, that one was tough. He touched a claw to his chin in thought before it came to him. “Oh, maybe it’s because of that?” “Because of what?” Twilight asked, shrugging impatiently. “Because you don’t believe what she can do. Or gave up in trying to understand it at least.” Spike rubbed his chin again, trying to understand what he had just said himself. Twilight pondered that. It seemed somewhat understandable to her. She wished she could say the same for that pink party pony as well. “I think that makes sense. It’s like she’s a new science for me to understand…except there’s only twitches and ear flops to go on.” Twilight giggled softly at Pinkie’s ability to sense coming danger. It was sort of a fascinating thing to her, something she still would like to comprehend further. “But even if that’s true, then how would I talk to her now? If I saw her, what would I say?” Spike scratched his head again. “Um, hello?” He offered. “That’s not what I had in mind.” Twilight grumbled in response. “I’m not sure how I’d be able to react the next time I-” “La la lala la lala lalala.” A sing songie voice came from just in front of the treehouse. A voice Twilight immediately recognized as Pinkie’s. “Oh no, quick I’ve gotta hide. Tell Pinkie I’m not here.” Twilight whispered, suddenly speeding up the stairs and using her magic to teleport herself into her room. The door closed shut shortly after. “But what am I supposed to-?” Spike asked in a panic. Before he could finish, he heard a distinct knock on the door. It had a musical tone to it which calmed the dragon down a bit, although not enough to know what to say once he answered the door. Willing his legs to move, Spike made for the door. He gripped the handle and opened it to find Pinkie Pie smiling away patiently. “Hiya, Spike. Is Twilight home?” She asked, still in that sing songie tone of hers. “Uh, well, actually…no. She’s not.” Spike gulped nervously. Good, there’s the first part over with. “Twilight’s out, um…doing some grocery shopping.” “Oh.” Pinkie replied, sounding a little bit disappointed. Not too noticeably to Spike, but it still hurt to lie to a friend. “Yeah,” He continued. “She noticed this morning how we were out of a lot of ingredients for stuff, and decided to go get some more.” “Oooh, that sounds like fun. I love ingredients; especially if it’s for stuff. There’s all kinds of different sorts of stuff too; like candy and chocolate and punch, yum.” Pinkie smiled brightly and looked at Spike. “Well, if you see Twilight, could you remind her that we had planned to hang out today? I think she might have forgotten.” Spike nodded his understanding. “Oh, okay. Will do.” He responded, standing up straight and saluting. Pinkie giggled and ruffled up the dragon’s scales. “That’s a good dragon. Thanks Spike. See you later! Whenever that is!” With that, the magenta maned mare bounced out of the treehouse and into town. Spike sighed in relief. Something about the smile Pinkie gave worried him. He hoped she wasn’t onto him. He also hoped his lie hadn’t hurt her feelings too bad. Shaking those thoughts away, he turned and raced up the stairs to Twilight’s room. “Twilight? Did you hear that?” The door creaked open and a sad looking Twilight poked her head out. “Yeah. I can’t believe I forgot we had planned to spend the day together. I hope she wasn’t too upset. I just don’t know what to do right now.” “I dunno, Twilight. She seemed really excited to spend time with you.” Twilight stepped out of the room entirely and nodded gently. “I should see if I can catch up with her. A promise is a promise and she’s still my friend.” Spike grinned gladly. “Great. Have a good time, Twilight. I’m going to get back to drooling over this delicious looking gem.” Twilight giggled and hugged him again. “Thanks for all the help, Spike. Don’t know what I’d do without you.” Before Spike could even think of giving an answer, the lavender unicorn was already out the door. ***** Twilight trotted along the pathway, heading into the town square to look for Pinkie. She thought hopefully that the pink mare hadn’t gone too far. The trouble was, the little pony was very difficult to keep track of; and had a habit of disappearing and reappearing randomly. The lavender unicorn made her way into the marketplace, and began to look around for Pinkie. “Have you seen Pinkie Pie come through at all?” “Not since this morning,” An earth pony working a stall said. “She hopped by before, saying that she had to meet somepony for a big surprise today.” Twilight looked surprised enough to hear that. “Oh, thank you.” She felt worse about hiding from Pinkie now than she did before. The unicorn kept searching for the pony, poking her head into Sugarcube Corner. She asked the Cakes when they’d last seen her, but came up with the same thing as before. Disappointed, Twilight exited the shop with her head hung low. How am I going to find Pinkie here? And…even if I do…what am I going to say to her? “Ooph!” The lavender pony grunted, being tackled to the ground by something soft. “There you are, Twilight! I’ve been looking allll over for you.” Pinkie shouted happily, as she stood on top of Twilight. “Spike told me you were grocery shopping. I guess you didn’t really have much luck though.” The pink mare giggled, glancing around the area for any bags. As Pinkie spoke, Twilight lay back stunned. She had been thinking of what to say to Pinkie - like talking about the weather, or about what was new since the last time the two spoke - but now that she was here, the lavender mare couldn’t say anything. Blushing at how close she was to Pinkie, Twilight attempted (unsuccessfully, mind you) to wiggle her way out from under the earth pony. “…And anyway, after I beat the dragon that was rampaging through the city a while ago I had nothing to do. So I decided to look for you, and here you are!” Pinkie shouted cheerfully. She was still smiling from ear to ear and talking about…some story Twilight hadn’t heard the beginning of. Most likely because she was daydreaming about how cute Pinkie looked- Aagh! “Twilight? Twiiilight, yoohoo!” “Huh?” Twilight answered distractedly, still locked on the pony atop her. “Did you forget about our date?” Twilight heard that. “What? D-d-date?!” She stammered, crawling out from under the pink mare. “Uh, yeah. Remember? We had planned to hang out today? We set it up a week ago, because you had a schedule this week for tests and brainy stuff and had to make sure you could squeeze me in.” I would like to squeeze you. Yaah! Twilight shook her head to rid herself of that thought. “Oh, right. Sorry about that.” “Mm, it’s okay. Friends do forget about stuff. Even me. Like one time-” Pinkie began, but Twilight quickly shoved a hoof in her mouth. “I know, once you forgot that you had put that cake in the oven in Sugarcube Corner and it almost burned the sweet’s shop down.” “Yep. How did you know?” Pinkie asked, taking Twilight’s hoof in her own and moving it away from her mouth. “I…don’t know.” The unicorn answered, immensely confused now. “Well, that’s right. Fortunately, Mr. Cake had just bought a fire extinguisher thingie and luckily taught me how to use it. So I ended up cleaning up my own mess that time and they didn’t even know it happened.” “Uh…uhhh,” Twilight said, losing what voice she had left from before. Pinkie tilted her head to the side cutely. “Twilight? You feeling okay? You’re not usually this untalkative. Most of the time you’re going on about some big test you have to pass or lesson you have to learn. The only time you aren’t so talkative is when we’re in the library reading books, and I don’t see any books around here.” Swallowing hard, Twilight willed herself to speak. “I-I…h-have a s-sore throat?” She lied. “Oh no, that’s not good. You must be getting sick, and a pony as busy as you can never be sick. Come on, I know just the thing.” Pinkie grabbed Twilight by the hoof and galloped off into the marketplace. Twilight hated that she lied again to the pink pony, but nothing else managed to come out of her mouth. Besides, Pinkie was holding her hoof now and trying to make her feel better. Of course she wasn’t really sick, but that wasn’t the point.