Twilight hauled her saddlebag on, yet lingered by the door of the library,
instead of leaving. This was because, due to her eagerness to leave, and
her exceptional organisational skills, she was once again, ready far
too early.
She looked up, back towards the literary forest behind her, and called out to her assistant; Spike.
“Spike!”
Twilight heard the soft padding of Spike’s steps, ricocheting delicately off of
the bounds of information, upon the shelves of the library. Twilight
liked how the library’s cavernous nature accentuated such sounds. It was
as if the books were helping her further than anypony thought they
actually could, relaying real world sounds to her.
Nevertheless, even though the sounds of his steps were all too obvious to Twilight,
Spike refrained from vocalising his movement.
However, Twilight was kind of expecting this. She suspected that Spike was still
rather annoyed from having to clean up behind her, and thus, would
probably try to make a point, and not speak to her for as long as he
could.
But, Twilight knew he wouldn’t hold out too long… After all, he had to speak to her, Spike was her assistant!
“Yes, Twilight?”
Twilight could see that Spike was trying to sound as dejected as he could, but
looking at the floor whilst doing so. She was sure that if she could
make eye contact with her assistant, he’d probably snap out of his act.
“Would you like to come to Pinkie Pie’s party with me?”
Spike’s eyes shot up, brightly, away from the forced melancholic stare at the
ground, apparently forgetting all disdain for having to clean up behind
Twilight.
“Oh boy, I’d love to, Twi’!”
Twilight grinned, and instead of replying, she just waited for Spike’s next inevitable question.
“Will Rarity be there?”
Even though she knew she’d have this question asked of her, Twilight was
hoping Spike wouldn’t ask it, as then, she’d have to be the bringer of
bad news, and twice in one day, at that! First the horrors of cleaning,
and now this!
“I’m sorry, Spike, but didn’t I already tell you?”
Spike looked blankly at Twilight, Obviously she hadn’t done so. Or perhaps he forgot?
No, Twilight thought to herself; Spike wouldn’t forget anything about Rarity.
“Spike, Rarity won’t be there…”
Spike exhaled loudly, disappointedly, and brought his gaze back down to the floor.
However, Twilight, used to his behaviour, carried on.
“She’s away with Fluttershy, on a spa weekend break, I recall her mentioning it last week.”
Twilight took a couple of hoofsteps towards Spike, and gave him a quick tap on
the shoulder, and attempted to act more like the mother figure, instead
of her normal role.
“I’m sorry, Spike…”
Spike looked back up to Twilight’s eyes, with a sad smile.
“It’s okay, Twilight, I’ll just stay here, I’ve still got some cleaning to do.”
Twilight let out a quiet chuckle to herself. Even if Spike didn’t mean to, he always put a grin on her face.
“Oh, but Spike, Rainbow Dash’ll be there too!”
Twilight immersed herself in thoughts of Rainbow, reminiscing just from the
combination of her name rolling off of her own tongue, mingling with her
left over scent, still lingering from the night before.
Twilight just couldn’t wait to see Rainbow, even if Pinkie Pie and Applejack were to be at the party too, Twilight was sure she could have Rainbow to herself, for the most part, anyway.
“Twilight, why do you keep mentioning Rainbow Dash? Other ponies will be there too, you know?”
Twilight felt a tad embarrassed, again, but managed to hold out on any blush,
this time. How had she managed to let Rainbow’s name slip out twice!?
Not that Twilight thought that she ought to hide what she thought the two
fillies had together. No, she wanted to run around Ponyville, declaring
her love for Rainbow. Twilight wanted everypony to know.
However, Twilight knew two things, both drawn from her time reading romance
novels. The first was that, in these novels, it was apparent that most
of the couples would wait to announce their relationship together, and
Twilight wanted to be gracious, and give Rainbow that opportunity.
The second was that, had Twilight done so, the whole thing would’ve been horribly cliché.
“Oh, Spike, look at the time! I’d best be off!”
Twilight knew she still had a few more minutes until she was actually scheduled to leave, but she’d decided that it’d probably be the best to leave early, after all, it meant she didn’t have to figure out how to vocalise all these thoughts in her head, and then find a way to convey it so Spike would understand it.
*****
Due to instinct, Rainbow Dash had headed straight home.
Yet,
as she lay, sprawled upon her cloud sofa, she couldn’t help but feel
that her relaxation was merely synthesised. Although, at heart, Rainbow
wanted nothing other than to be able to exist, to have it easy, she knew
that she was far from able to do such a thing.
The fillies that were running around within her brain were making sure of that.
Of course, Rainbow knew that there weren’t actually tiny
little ponies running around her head, but it sure felt like it to her.
Not only due to the bizarre concoction of affection and animosity the
two conflicting fillies managed to somehow create within Rainbow’s
brain, but because it felt like they were trying to dig their way out of her skull.
Still, Rainbow was aware that that wasn’t actually the case, although the
wound upon her forehead had been conceived with one of the two ponies,
Rainbow was adamant that such a scenario would never occur.
That’d be crazy on a level higher than Pinkie Pie.
Thinking of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow had already made the decision that she wasn’t
going to attend her party. Not because of Pinkie’s craziness, no, that
was somewhat of a draw for Rainbow; it was fun, for a while, anyway.
No, the reasons behind her want for being alone were, yet again, Twilight Sparkle and Applejack.
Asmuch as Rainbow would’ve liked to meet up with Applejack, and make
amends, or to as much as an extent as she could, Rainbow knew that
Twilight’s presence would hinder that; and possibly even damage
Applejack’s and her own relation ship beyond repair.
But even if Rainbow didn’t go, would Twilight and Applejack’s encounter without her harbour even more problems?
Without her there, Twilight might stumble into problems with Applejack.
Yes, Twilight was a clever pony, but even she hadn’t learned of the relationship between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and, with this in mind, she could potentially ruin everything.
Rainbow wasn’t an idiot, and she knew Twilight. She knew that Twilight would be
itching to tell everypony about their newly formed bonds. Not because Twilight liked to brag, or because she wanted to gossip, but merely because Twilight would be happy.
Twilight wouldn’t want to hide her happiness. Instead, she’d want to spread the
reason for her happiness, so everypony could feel it, too, and without
knowledge of Applejack’s relationship with Rainbow Dash, there’d be no
reason for her to hide it.
Rainbow didn’t know how much Applejack knew of her night with Twilight,
nevertheless, Rainbow knew that after their imminent meeting, she’d
probably know everything.
Well, perhaps not everything. Rainbow hoped that Twilight would at least be a bit prudish with some of the details. Even though Twilight was smart, her naiveties within love could lead to revelations of more intimate scenes. However, Rainbow Dash supposed that not even Twilight’s naivety stretched to describing such… Scenes.
Anyway, even though the whole situation seemed incredibly daunting for Rainbow, without any certainties to rely on, she knew one thing.
She still wasn’t going to Pinkie Pie’s party.
*****
Applejack could still feel the cool breeze, carried down from Bloomberg’s hill,
yet it didn’t ruffle her mane as much as it could’ve done, as she’d
pulled her Stetson down tightly, in an attempt to cover her face. Or
rather, her eyes.
Applejack knew it was silly, if she was upset, that was all there was
to it, why bother hiding it? Yet, it had seemed the right thing to do,
to cover up her red, puffy eyes. She looked down at the floor, moving
below her, as she absent mindedly, slowly clopped her way over to
Sugarcube Corner.
She hadn’t really wanted to go, in fact, if she hadn’t stopped crying, Applejack probably
wouldn’t have left Bloomberg’s hill at all. However, Applejack knew
that she had to go; after all, there was at least a small chance that Dash would be there, and Applejack desperately needed to see her.
When Dash had left her upon the hill, Applejack hadn’t returned to help her
brother, like she’d said she would. Instead, she’d just remained,
pondering. Wondering why Dash had continued to be like she was, always
trying to look cool, all the time.
Yet, to Applejack, it was apparent that this ‘keeping up’ of appearances seemed to only apply to the relationship surrounding Dash and herself.
Not that Applejack would’ve realised this, had Dash not told her herself.
Applejack played back the groggy scenes from the night before, in her head: Dash
was nuzzling her, burying her tearful eyes into the orange of her own
neck, warming. Yet again, like their times before, Applejack had just
listened, absorbing Dash’s melancholy, desperate to make the pony she
loved feel ‘right’ again.
However, try as she might, Applejack couldn’t forgive Dash for her actions, not
yet, anyway. Despite Dash’s forlorn upset, and despite Applejack’s
dependability, her forgiveness, it would take a while for Dash to get the catharsis she so desperately desired.
Even though Dash was full of apologies, none of them were quite spectacular
enough to compensate for what she’d broken in to confess to Applejack.
Although the fact that Dash was willing to make an effort to confess showed that
she still had feelings for Applejack, and she knew where she’d gone
wrong, it still didn’t fix what she’d done wrong, but only showed that
she wanted to try.
The last variable was what pained Applejack. The variable that Dash may not
have even meant to come and confess to her at all; it may well have
been just the alcohol in her bloodstream that had taken over.
Applejack stole a glance upwards, and realised that she was nearing her
destination, Sugarcube Corner, as was another pony, from the opposite
direction. A purple filly.
As Applejack gazed forwards at Twilight Sparkle, trotting gently towards
her, she remembered, once more, the words that Rainbow Dash had passed
on to her the night before, the words that had clouded Applejack’s
thoughts ever since she’d heard them; repeating, constantly.
“Applejack, I’m so sorry. I really am, but…”
“But I think I’m in love…”
“With Twilight…”
*****
Twilight Sparkle couldn’t contain her joy; it was only moments from her arrival at the party, she’d be able to see Rainbow again!
Escaping from her runaway scenarios in her head, Twilight began to focus back
onto the real world, after all, she was nearly at Sugarcube Corner, and
needed to pay attention to walking, if she didn’t want to trot into
anything.
As Twilight looked towards the entrance of the store, she could not only
see the ornate cakey exterior of Sugarcube Corner, but the contrasting
orange of Applejack, waiting by the door, looking to the ground.
“Hey, Applejack!”
Twilight called out loudly, yet she got no response. Applejack just kept gazing
into the ground, seemingly unaware of Twilight’s presence. Perhaps
Applejack just didn’t hear her, Twilight thought. It was rather blustery, and that could’ve just overwhelmed her voice, despite how loud she called out.
Reaching the entrance of Sugarcube Corner, Twilight sidled up to Applejack, with a smile.
“Hey, Applejack!”
At first, Twilight thought Applejack was just ignoring her, yet, as a
couple of seconds went by, it was clear that she was just being a bit
slow, pre-occupied.
“Oh. Hi, Twi’”
Applejack sounded rather dejected, to Twilight. Initially, Twilight would’ve just
put the tone of voice down to an accidental slip in Applejack’s
southern drawl, yet after reading her gait, Twilight couldn’t have
mistaken Applejack’s apparent emotions.
“Applejack, are you okay?”
Twilight nuzzled up to Applejack, she was clearly in a state of upset, and
Twilight wanted to fix that; Applejack was her friend, and she hated to
see any of her friends in such a state.
However, something then happened that Twilight wasn’t expecting; whilst she’d
thought that nuzzling Applejack would help her to feel at least a bit
better, instead of returning the embrace, Applejack shrugged her off,
and pulled away.
“Ah’m fine, Twilight.”
There was that tone again, Applejack certainly was not okay. Her voice was layered with trembles, immersed in despondency.
“Applejack…”
Twilight
stepped towards Applejack once again, attempting to embrace her, yet,
before she could even make contact, Applejack pulled away, mimicking her
own earlier actions.
“Just leave it, okay?”
Applejack’s voice was hurt, but irritable. However, this time, tone wasn’t all
Twilight had to go on, as Applejack looked up to her, making eye
contact, with a pleading gaze, through clouded irises.
Twilight didn’t like it, but if Applejack didn’t want to talk about it, there
was little she could do, Applejack was her friend, and she wanted to
respect her wishes.
She could have responded, but Twilight thought it was best to leave it at
that, with an affirmative silence in place of an answer.
Trying to move on from her friend’s melancholy, Twilight decided to move
towards the front door of Sugarcube Corner, ready to brave what was
undoubtedly going to be a rather over the top welcome from Pinkie Pie.
As Twilight reached forwards to push open the door, she noticed that the sign on the door read ‘closed.’
This seemed slightly odd, but Twilight assumed that the sign didn’t really
apply to them, and was probably there due to the party they were
attending.
When the door swung open, despite what it’s label tried to profess, Twilight
was met with an all to familiar sight; streamers, balloons, confetti,
banners and all. It was a trademark Pinkie Pie party. However, something
didn’t seem quite right.
Twilight stood in the doorway for a moment, with Applejack reluctantly in tow,
until she could put her hoof on what was feeling amiss.
“Oh, Celestia! Mrs Cake! Are you alright?”
Mrs Cake was laid on the floor, among the party detritus, below a banner that read “Pinkie Pie’s Pony-fabulous Party!” She clung to a piece of paper, pouring her tears into it.
Stuttering through tears, Mrs Cake mumbled into the paper, inaudible to Twilight.
Moving closer, Twilight lowered herself down on the floor, levelling
herself with the morose pony.
Attempting to give Mrs Cake a comforting pat, Twilight brought her fore-hoof down
on her shoulder, and did her best to make friendly eye contact with the
tear-stricken pink of Mrs Cake’s eyes, but they remained fixated upon
the content of the paper in front of her.
In a softened, consoling tone of voice, Twilight continued.
“I’m sorry Mrs Cake; I didn’t quite hear you… What’s wrong?”
In-between sobs, Twilight, caught the reason for Mrs Cake’s sorrow, escaping in
almost silent whispers, like she couldn’t bear to pass the words from
her lips.
“It’s Pinkie…”
“She’s…”
“Gone.”