Chapter 7
The ambiance had changed, signaling the beginning of the play, and soon, all eyes would be on the stage, admiring this year's interpretation of Summerwind's “A Mid-Night Mare's Dream”. Despite it's outdated dialogue, and a few tedious scenes now and again, it remained one of the most popular plays of all time. Still, most of the audience showed up only to cheer on their fellow Ponyvilleans who partook in the play.
Twilight for one, didn't know any of the cast personally, but she still found it heartwarming to support and be a part of Ponyville's social culture, especially in something as neighborly as the play. It was also a great opportunity for her to get together with all of her friends. It seemed that as of late, they'd been seeing less and less of each other. It didn't help that it was harvest season, and tourism was up in Ponyville, making Applejack and Pinkie two of the busiest ponies in Equestria. Twilight had been seeing more of Fluttershy, especially since breeding season was over, and the animals didn't need as much attention. But even so, it had only been at the spa or their favorite café for a casual, rather meaningless conversation. Rarity was impossible to get to during business hours, and Rainbow was always either busy with the weather or enjoying a summer nap in one of AJ's trees.
However, this picnic was the perfect way to rekindle their close friendship, and battle the homogeneity of the past few weeks. A sudden motion drew Twilight's attention to Spike's movements, raising quite a few doubts.
“Where do you think you're going? The play's about to start!” Twilight said in a humored tone, poking fun at Spike with a bit of motherly condescension.
The reception wasn't as bright and cheery as she would've hoped for, and instead, Spike looked at her with a face filled with grief, nervousness, and determination.
“I know, but there's something that I just have to do Twi, and I can't wait until the intermission.”
The young dragon, usually more of a joker at social gatherings, had a certain atmosphere of maturity about him; His eyes shone with intense energy, and reminded Twilight of the time he chose to take part of the Great Dragon Migration, or when he'd decided to try and grow wings. Despite the disastrous endings to both of those situations, she knew when Spike set his mind to something, there was nothing he wouldn't do to achieve his goal, and he'd succeeded just as many times as he'd failed, if not more. Still, in this specific scenario, Twilight just had a really bad feeling about it.
“What are you doing Spike?” She asked, sincere concern seeping from her voice, and Spike's confident frame seemed to deflate, his spikes falling flat, his eyes sadly looking at the dry earth below. Despite his large size and deep voice, Twilight caught a glimpse of the small, insecure baby dragon that had shared many a hard time with her in their youth, not so long ago.
“I don't know... But if I don't do this, I know I'll regret it.”
“But... What? Do what?” Twilight asked, really looking for confirmation, already forming a pretty good idea of what he was planning. And factoring in the possible outcomes, there was fair chance that the night would not be as pleasant as she'd hoped it'd be.
“I'm pretty sure Rarity knows about my crush on her, but I want her to know it was more than that... Even if it's over, I want her to know.” He said, pained and distraught. To Twilight, it only seemed like he was just headed towards even more heartbreak.
“And then what? What happens after all this?”
Twilight leaned forward, unaware of her own movements, driven by sheer emotion. Spike on the other hand, turned away, refusing to speak or look at her, a crystalline tear falling to the grass, like a drop of dew from the morning fog.
“Spike, please! I... I just can't stand to see you hurt like this... but I'm scared that you'll end up hurting even more...”
“Twilight!” A voice called out from behind her, and instinctively, she turned to find the culprit. A Stetson waved through the air in the hoof of a familiar orange pony, quickly joined by two other hooves avidly beckoning for her to join them. As she turned to call out a reply, she heard the quick progression of footsteps that signaled Spike's departure. Looking back, she had time only to spot a familiar purple tail wave through a few clustered groups of ponies. With a sigh of defeat, she trotted back towards her friends.
“What was that all about?” Rainbow said, a half grin forming on her lips as she looked to where Spike had disappeared amongst the crowd.
Pinkie and Fluttershy put a pin in their conversation and turned to listen to the latest bit of gossip provided exclusively by her.
“You all know how Spike...”
Twilight turned towards Pinkie, quite possibly out of habit, as she was technically just about to break a Pinkie Promise. Pinkie just nodded, drawing puzzles expressions from the others, but they dismissed the action as she continued relating her story.
“Well, you all know how Spike had a crush on Rarity, right?”
“Duh,”
“ 'Course, everypony knew,”
“I didn't know...” Fluttershy replied with a whisper so fragile, the flapping wings of a butterfly might have carried it away on a breeze.
Six eyes were now on the timid pegasus, and as expected, she hid behind her mane in fear of her friends' incredulous looks. Rainbow Dash was the first to try and stutter out a comprehensible reply.
“Wha... Bu... How could you... It was so obvious!”
“Yeah. No offense intended Fluttershy,” Applejack chirped in, “But ever since little Spike got to Ponyville he's been drooling over Rarity.”
Pinkie just munched happily on a small bit of celery, apparently ignorant of the ongoing dilemma, while Twilight opted for the easier course of listening to Fluttershy's reasoning. Despite her shyness and withdrawal from the conversation as the disbelief continued, she finally seemed to manage a response, which she uttered softly from behind her protective pink mane.
“Well, lately he's been spending most of his time with you, Twilight...” She said, turning to each of her friends respectively, “And, well, he was always so kind and generous with all of us...”
Dash scratched at the back of her neck as she looked towards some reasonably innocent grass, the same blush on her, as well as everypony else's cheeks. Applejack simply pawed at the ground, and Twilight felt like her stomach had been tied into a knot and used as a maraca. Only Pinkie seemed completely unaffected or happily oblivious to her statement.
“And I never noticed him acting any differently around Rarity in these past few months, so I assumed he was... I... I don't... meep!”
Once again, a pink barrier of long silky hair stood between Fluttershy and the world as everypony processed the information. Despite the awkwardness and tension that filled the air, Pinkie finally finished up nibbling on her celery by taking one giant bite, and swallowing the remainder of the green veggie whole.
“Spikey is the bestest best dragon anypony could ever wish for as a friend! What's wrong with that?' Pinkie asked, jumping to her friend's aid.
Nopony seemed to have an answer to her question, but at least it helped Twilight feel a bit more secure about the whole situation, and both Rainbow Dash and Applejack seemed more comfortable, nodding in agreement. Twilight couldn't tell however, if Fluttershy was nodding her head or shaking from nervousness. Finally, Applejack opted to break the silence and try to rid the atmosphere of the awful tension.
“So, um, you were saying, Twilight?”
“Oh, right! Well, Spike told me...”
“And me!”
“And Pinkie...” Twilight corrected grudgingly, much to the others' amusement, “That he was going to give up on chasing after Rarity.”
“Oh, is that all?” Applejack asked, a tinge of relief adorning her voice, while Rainbow Dash flapped her wings in annoyance.
“But then why has he been such a pill lately?”
“Rainbow Dash, hold your tongue!” Applejack snapped, drawing a childish raspberry from the accused.
“I think Spike still has feelings for Rarity, but he feels like he doesn't even have a chance with her.” Twilight reasoned out loud. In truth, despite the fact that that was basically what she knew, she had to agree with Dash partially. It didn't seem like Spike to become so depressed over something like this, even if it was important to him.
“Doesn't have a chance? Isn't that going a bit far?” Rainbow announced. It came out in a very controversial fashion, as though it were an injustice, and drew snickers from a few of her friends. Applejack nudged her with a teasing hoof as she giggled beneath her hat.
“Don't worry Dash, maybe now that Rarity's out of the race, you might get your chance!”
Rainbow Dash didn't resemble her name much as all the color in her face vanished, leaving behind two burning red splotches. Even Fluttershy stifled a giggle, while Pinkie threw confetti over the group and pranced around, singing.
“Spike and Dashie, sitting in a tree...”
Twilight couldn't help but grin, but something was troubling her; a feeling inside of her that she couldn't quite identify. It wasn't an entirely new feeling though, and she remembered feeling in such a way before. If only she could remember...
Rainbow Dash however seemed about ready to explode. If Twilight hadn't known better, she could've sworn she saw steam rising out from Dash's ears. Her eyes narrowed and her ears flattened against her head as she assumed an offensive position. Twilight almost thought of stopping Rainbow with magic, thinking she might try and tackle Applejack, but instead, the furious weather pony opted for a more effective method of retaliation.
“Oh yeah? Well, I've seen the way you glance over at Spike every now and again when he helps you out on the orchard!”
It was now Applejack's turn to grow pale, her pupils shrinking into almost non-existent dots as she suffered the wrath of her friend's revenge.
“Ah do not! That there's a doggone lie!”
Rainbow Dash rolled on the grass, laughing at AJ's distraught state, relieved to have passed the spotlight over to somepony else. Pinkie and Fluttershy giggled like school fillies at the show their friends seemed to be putting on, and all the commotion had even drawn a few shushes from nearby ponies. They simply went ignored by the rambunctious five laughing and enjoying themselves together for the first time in months.
Applejack chuckled in spite of her embarrassment, and couldn't fool a foal with her cheeks matching her apple cutie marks. But nonetheless, she tried playfulness in an attempt to avoid further humiliation.
“Humph! Yeah? Well, Fluttershy over there's the one givin' 'im googly eyes all the time!”
Fluttershy appeared about ready to faint, and could've passed off as a ghost, becoming paler than the moon. Applejack joined Rainbow's festivities, enjoying the embarrassing game of hot potato as the blame was passed unto the statue that used to be Fluttershy. Twilight set a hoof on her chest as her lungs fought for air, her diaphragm convulsing with laughter. It was all in good fun now, and the accusations had lost all seriousness.
As the fits of maniacal giggling continued, Fluttershy slowly composed herself, trying to join in the laughter, and do her best to remain conscious. The sudden rush of blood to her cheeks and heart hadn't done much good for her state of mind, and she was dangerously close to a self-induced coma.
Her state hadn't gone unnoticed by the group, yet before Twilight could lend a consoling hoof on her friend's shoulder, th ever-so-random pink party pony jumped up to the rescue of her shy friend. It was, of course, unnecessary, their intentions having been a bit of innocent teasing, yet Pinkie Pie never was one to conform to the social norms everypony else went by. However, there was a smile on her face, and she didn't seem to be acting on behalf of justice. Her cheery attitude and playful nature contradicted any seriousness in her message as she stood on her hind legs and put on as serious a face as she could muster. Twilight wasn't impressed, and had to stifle a giggle at her friend's erratic behavior.
“So what if Fluttershy or Dashie or AJ likes Spike? I like Spike just as much as all of you too!”
Recuperating at least slightly from her nervous tittering, Applejack chose to speak up in self-defense, especially since the uproarious weather pegasus convulsing in the grass didn't help the matter at all.
“We know sugarcube, we were just teasin'.”
“B-Besides,” Rainbow said, making an effort to stifle her laughter, “we didn't mean that kind of 'like'”
All seriousness had long ago been forsaken, yet Twilight felt the rush of blood to her cheeks once again, and a familiar tingling of butterflies in her stomach as Pinkie titled her head, urging her friend to clarify with a small, impeccant, “Huh?”
Rainbow Dash mutter a string of unintelligible sounds, clearly trying to find the best way to explain what exactly she'd meant. In another situation, Twilight may have reprimanded her friend's imprudence at the mention of such complex matters in the presence of Pinkie, yet at that moment, her mind was a maelstrom of thoughts an emotions, therefore unable to truly function in the real situation developing before her very eyes. Thankfully, before somepony was forced to put a muzzle on Dash, AJ intervened, providing a more tactful explanation.
“What Rainbow Dash meant honey, was that we were talking about... a different kind of likin'. Romantic-like... Like in a relationship?” Applejack turned her pleading eyes towards Twilight, “Twi, a little help here?”
Before she could utter a syllable of protest, Pinkie sat back on her haunches, a strange clarity expressed on her widened eyes and rounded mouth as she let out an elongated, understanding, “Oh... I get it...”
“But still, what's wrong with that? And besides,” she continued, not giving the others an opportunity to reply, although drawing a thankful sigh from Fluttershy, “if anypony would get together with Spike, it'd probably be...”
At that moment, as Pinkie turned towards the pony whose name she was about to mention, Twilight's mind went completely blank as several things all happened simultaneously, not giving her friend the chance to complete her statement.
As the curtain rose, a roaring cheer emanated from the audience gathered around the stage, muffling Pinkie's speech. Yet despite the spotlight shining brightly on Lyra's bright mint-green coat, all eyes, including those of the performers, were focused on the source of a piercing scream, and explosive commotion nearby. Twilight swung about just in time to see a white unicorn flee from the crowd, and a jet of green flames engulf a portion of the grass from whence several other ponies retreated. Screams of fear and uncertainty filled the air, followed by an even more frightening silence as the source of the disturbance disappeared from the scene behind a cloud of thick smoke, and the only ponies left were those with the same knowledge as Twilight and her friends regarding what had just happened.
However, there was no doubt that it had involved Spike as well as Rarity, and whatever had just happened would undoubtedly change the lives of everypony in Ponyville forever. Nevertheless, it would take a few minuted before Twilight or anypony else came to this conclusion. For the moment, they were all frozen in fear, all thoughts of the play forgotten, and silence dominating the ambiance.