//------------------------------// // As You Are (TwiPie, Romance) // Story: Bombastic Bookpony's Bazaar of Oneshots // by Bombastic Bookpony //------------------------------//         Pinkie Pie was trotting down the street, humming a happy song that was bound to be stuck in her head for days, with the biggest smile on her face. Most would think this was no different from any other day, but for Pinkie it was. Today would be the day everything changed. For the better, she hoped. She felt it this morning when her tummy itched and her ears pointed up and her hooves tingled. She also knew that this had to do with her bestest friend, Twilight Sparkle. This wasn’t because of her Pinkie Sense. It was just because Twilight had a track record for bringing in awesome change. Why, in her first day in Ponyville she helped Pinkie make her five best friends in the world! And maybe, just maybe, it was the tiniest bit of hope that made her think Twilight Sparkle was involved.         Anywho, that was why Pinkie was trotting her way to the library. She saw Spike walk through the door. “Hiya, Spikey!” she greeted. “How are you doing?”         “Not good,” he grumbled. “Twilight’s acting really weird today. I just couldn’t take it, y’know? So I asked her if I could see Rarity. And the worst part?”         “What’s the worst part?” Pinkie asked, with a sense of foreboding.         “She said yes! Without any bargaining!”         Pinkie giggled. She was expecting worse. “Spike, maybe she’s just having a super fun day!”         Spike shook his head. “You don’t understand, Pinkie! She let me go,” he paused for effect, “despite the books still needing to be organized!” he dramatically finished, a loud gasp from Pinkie accentuating the seriousness of the situation.         “What madness is this, Spike!?”         “I know, Pinkie!”         “What if her brain’s been replaced with a piggy, or she’s being possessed by a ghost, or maybe her evil twin is replacing her!”         “I don’t know, and I don’t wanna know. Can you check up on her for me? I’ve been worked to my scales lately. I could really use a day off.”         Pinkie saluted him. “Aye aye, Spikey! Already was planning to! I’ll get this sorted out faster than AJ eating 155 apples in a row!”         “Yuck, don’t remind me. Still the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.” He walked off as Pinkie opened the door.         “Twilight?” she asked into the ponyless emptyness. She frowned. This was wrong. Twilight should be organizing, or writing her checklist, or reading, or reading her checklist bedtime stories, or whatever librarians did! But while she did hear noise, it wasn’t the noise she associated with those things. No, it was a sound she knew well. It was the sound of a pony being quiet for a-         “SURPRISE!” the librarian’s voice rang out right beside her, giving the baker quite the fright as streamers and a banner descended from the sky. HAPPY 1667TH VISIT TO THE LIBRARY the banner read. This was definitely wrong. Twilight never used her teleportation to surprise people, and she never threw parties over small things like this, or with this style. She looked her friend over. For the most part, Twilight looked the same, but her hair was out of her usual tidiness. It wasn’t the one associated with Crazy!Twilight, instead it just fell around her neck. And she had the most familiar grin on her face.         “Twi? What’s up with your hair and the party and Pinkie smile and and all of this?”         Twilight giggled, but it wasn’t her giggle, real and beautiful and her. It was high pitched, excited, it was a Pinkie laugh! “Well, I just realized I’ve been too much of a Stricty McSctricty pants! It’s time I lived a little! And there’s no better way of living than parties, am I right?” She giggled Pinkie’s giggle again. Pinkie was pretty sure she hated it more than anything she had ever heard before.         “Twi-”         A cake teleported over to them, held by the librarian’s magic. “Cake?”         “No, Twi-”         “Ok!” she exclaimed, teleporting it away and bringing a bowl to replace it. “Punch?”         “Twi-”         “I get it! You want to dance!” She sent the punch away and turned the record on. “C’mon!” She did her usual dance routine. At least that didn’t change. But not even Twilight’s fun, out of control, and real dancing could soothe Pinkie this time.         “TWIIIIILIIIIGHT!” she screamed, finally getting Twilight to stop in her tracks.         “Yes, Pinkie?” she said, blinking.         “Why-why are you making fun of me like this?”         “What?” The fake happy tone was gone, replaced with Twilight’s real concerned and regretful voice.         “I never expected you to do that, Twi! I thought you respected me! I thought you could see past the parties and the cake and the dancing and see me! But-but I guess I was wrong,” she choked out, turning away.         “Pinkie, wait!” Twilight exclaimed, teleporting in front of her. She grabbed Pinkie’s shoulders with her hooves. “I’m sorry. So sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun of you. You’re fun and hilarious and the greatest at throwing parties, sure. But you’re smart, maybe smarter than I am, and the realest person I know, and your eyes are so honest and blue and beautiful I could get lost in them forever and you have that mysterious quality that makes my heart quicken and all my books tell me that it means I lov-” she stopped, realizing she was saying too much.         “You-you love me? Is that what all this was for?”         “Yeah. I asked Applejack for some honest advice and she, blunt as always, said she didn’t see us working out. That-that we were too different to last. So I thought, ‘What if I changed myself for you?’ Guess that didn’t turn out the way I hoped,” she bitterly chuckled.         Applejack is going to get a talking to after this. She appreciated her trying to help her friend, but she was wrong. They could work. They would work. She went right up to Twilight and kissed her. She tried to show her that Pinkie loved Twilight, not Pinkie!Twilight.         When it ended, Twilight could only sputter “Pinkie wh-why”         She smiled. “I love you for being smarty pants snarky loving nice organizy you, Twilight. And I have for a loooooong time. I thought you would’ve noticed a lot sooner than this!” she giggled.         Twilight looked her and put on her realest, most beautiful Twilight Sparklest smile. “Yeah, how could I be so stupid?”