A Meteor Shower and a Show
"Okay! Here ya go, Strings!" Pinkie Pie called, sliding a pan blotted with uncooked cookie dough across the long kitchen counter.
He picked it up and chucked it into the nearest preheated oven. Altogether that was sixty cookies, but Strings wasn't paying attention to the numbers. "Okay, Pink, you think we should stop there? I mean, we have like, two hundred cookies!"
"No silly, that's only nine dozen!" She rolled out more dough. "That's not nearly enough for all of Ponyville!"
She really likes doing this stuff, he thought with a chuckle. "Okay, how many more? Isn't the meteor shower going to start soon?"
"We have plenty of time!" she replied cheerfully. "I'll make sure of that!"
"What are you gonna do when we run out, stop time?" Strings laughed. He turned to see her right in his face.
"I will if I have to", she whispered, staring him straight in the eye like a madmare.
"I seriously think you will!" Upon hearing a distinct "ding", Strings opened on of the ovens and extracted a long pan of, thankfully, non-burnt cookies. "Woo! Another batch not destroyed!"
"Good job, Strings!" Pinkie Pie flew into the air with another goody bag. She opened it wide to let Strings levitate the batch of cookies into it.
"Be careful, Pink, the spell's gonna wear off soon. I wouldn't fly around so much anymore", he warned.
"Don't worry, Pinkie Pies always land on their hooves!"
The unicorn rolled his eyes as he reset the timer. A teasing smile replaced his sarcastic one. "Well let's test that theory!" he reached up to Pinkie Pie and tickled her sides.
"Ah! Hahahahahaha!" she screamed before falling to the ground. She only barely landed on her hooves before falling to the floor.
Even though she was right about the landing thing, Strings kept tickling her. He loved to hear her giggle and laugh. He stopped tickling her only to conjure up a small feather. He held it up to let her get a good look at it and his evil expression.
"Oh, no", she laughed, "Nononononono!"
"Mmm…yes." He wiggled the feather all over her body, taking care to keep it on her more sensitive tickle spots. He found that under her wings seemed to be the best place to keep the feather, and held no mercy when she screamed.
"EEEEEEEEEE!" she cried. There was nothing she could do. Strings had her pinned down with the horrible torture device. She couldn't get up or even swat it away. She laughed and squirmed under the torment.
Strings decided that the tears were a sure sign she had enough. He removed the feather and waited for her to stop laughing. For a second he though he went too far; Pinkie Pie didn't seem to notice that he had stopped. "Hey, Pink, ya know I'm not tickling you anymore right?"
She nodded. "I-it's just that I'm g-going to get y-y-you back for this! Hahahahahaha!"
Ding!
"Huh?" Strings turned to see that the timer had just finished its countdown. "Oh, right, we're baking." He opened two ovens and levitated out four pans. Two bearing cookies, and the others holding cupcakes. "Okay, Pink, let's get back to finishing this thing", Strings said to the giggling mare on the floor.
She hopped up and snatched the cupcake pans out of the air. She slammed them down on the counter so hard that the cupcakes popped right out and landed perfectly onto a large platter, ready to be decorated. Strings filled five more plastic bags with the cookies while Pinkie Pie splattered the cupcakes with icing and sprinkles. "Why just one batch of cupcakes, Pink?"
"Because they're for us!" she replied brightly, "It'll take too long to bake them for everypony else!"
Strings nodded in comprehension. He levitated the pans back onto the counter and dealt out more globs of cookie dough onto them before throwing the sheets of aluminum back into the hot oven. When he turned around, Pinkie Pie had the twelve cupcakes fully topped with icing. She was so much faster at it now that she could fly above them. Strings watched in admiration, somewhat longing to be up there with her. He sighed. Even though she was so energetic, Pinkie was graceful while she flew. Strings chuckled at the fact that he didn't even know he liked grace.
When she turned around, he quickly looked away. He didn't want to get caught staring. He grabbed the nearest mixing bowl and began mixing its ingredients intensely. Unfortunately, he was only barely paying attention to what he was doing and flung the dough all over the flying mare's face. "Pinkie, I'm sorry! Uh, um, let me—"
She interrupted him with a giggle. Using one of her Pinkie Pie Abilities, she licked it all off with her extra-large tongue. "MMMMMmmmmmmm! Thanks Strings! That was so good!" she squealed.
"No prob, Pink", he said to shrug off his mistake. He smiled. She had the best ways to keep him from looking like a foal. He scratched the back of his neck. "It was—"
Splat!
A big glob of icing hit him dead in the face. The only thing he could hear after that was the sound of Pinkie Pie laughing her head off. His eyes were heavy with the thick pastry topping, but he was still able to open them.
"Told you I was going to get you back!" she laughed.
He levitated the mess from his face, glad that it was no longer sticking to his fur. He smiled at how good she got him. He noticed it was the same flavor he accidently got her with. He laughed a little and dropped the icing back into an empty container.
"Well, that was the rest of the cookie dough", Strings sighed. "Looks like we're not making any more."
"I could have sworn we had more than that!" Pinkie exclaimed. "We have to have more somewhere!"
"I don't know Pinkie Pie", Strings said, "I think this is what Zecora was saying from earlier…"
"You mean when she said, 'Not all you have will last, so get it out and fast'?"
"Yeah, I mean, we went through all of our cookie dough pretty fast", Strings said in parallel to Zecora's prophecy.
"That makes enough sense to me!"
"So what are we going to do about the rest of town? You said we didn't make enough." Strings switched the ovens off.
"That was before the last batch came out, silly!"
"What? You—eh, never mind." He rubbed his head. Sometimes Pinkie Pie could make no sense in the confusing way. "So, how're we getting the cookies to everypony?"
"By using the Pinkie Pie and Strings Cookie Delivery System, duh!"
He raised an eyebrow. "The what?"
She hopped back into the air. "Heehee! You'll see!"
She loaded the many bags of sweets into some of the baskets she lined up on the opposite counter. Strings saved them a heap of time by levitating every bag and filling the rest of the baskets equally.
"Hey!" Pinkie Pie protested. "You took all the fun out of it!"
"No, I kept it all to myself!" He snatched the baskets away. "Now to deliver them by myself too!" He made a break for the door only to be tackled immediately by Pinkie Pie. It wasn't enough to break his concentration on the levitation spell, but it sure was enough to knock him to the floor. Pinkie Pie held up her own, larger and fluffier feather now. His hair stood on end when he realized that Pinkie Pie was on the offensive and he was now the one pinned to the floor. She lowered her feather dangerously close to him.
"Wait wait hold it!" he pleaded.
She stopped her assault long enough to let him levitate the baskets of sweets to the counters.
"Okay", he said, "Bring it."
Pinkie Pie began her assault, but didn't get any immediate results. Strings held his laughs in almost effortlessly. "That all ya got?"
At that point she decided to ditch the feather and use her hooves instead. This time she got him. The laughs broke out as soon as she made contact. Her pink tickling weapons were way more effective than the flimsy feather. Strings did everything in his power to keep from pushing her away from him. It might have been torture, but he was enjoying it. He loved the way her hooves added an electrifying impact to the already sensitive areas of his body. Pinkie Pie didn't forget much. She immediately targeted the places that made him laugh most. He let her tickle her for as long as she pleased, which was until she noticed how dark it was getting outside.
She shot off of him, "Come on, Strings, that's enough foaling around! We'll miss the meteor shower if you keep letting me tickle you!"
Outside the kitchen window, the night's first stars were beginning to peak into view against the darkness. Together, Strings and Pinkie Pie grabbed the baskets and left the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner. Strings carried most of the load since Pinkie Pie insisted she fly instead of walk and could only carry four baskets with her hooves.
The streets of Ponyville were packed with its residents. "Whoa, full house, eh, town", Strings observed, "Looks like the shower's got everypony ready to party."
"Of course", Twilight said out of the blue. From the looks of it she was just passing by. "This particular meteor shower only happens once every one hundred years."
"It's a pretty big deal", Pinkie Pie added nonchalantly.
"I bet", Strings said, "In Melodyville meteor showers are the radist thing to happen. I skipped a birthday for one."
"Wow, they're something special for your town aren't they?" Twilight asked.
"We have an old story about them", Strings replied, "But can't tell it right now. Got a ton of cookies to deliver."
"Hey, the girls and I have a place at Pointy Peak we're going to watch the shower. Are you coming too?"
"No, Pink and me are gonna watch it on Sugarcube Corner's roof." He turned to leave with Pinkie Pie. "Maybe later or something, Twilight."
They went separate ways after Pinkie Pie gave Twilight her order of three baskets for her and the rest of their friends. Pinkie led Strings through the crowded streets to, from what he could tell, the center of Ponyville. She pulled out a giant map of the town and propped it against the left wall of Town Hall. "Okay!"
"Okay what?" Strings asked as he set the baskets down. He saw that the map had a ton of arrows, numbers, and "X"s littering the layout.
"I have marked on this map everypony who placed an order for Meteor Shower Cookies for tonight!"
"Then why are we here?" Strings jumped into the air in a very Pinkie Pie way. "We gotta get out there and deliver the goods!"
"Don't worry! I have a plan!" she declared.
"What is it?"
"I'm going to fly up and when I yell 'pull' you throw a basket right into the air!" she instructed enthusiastically. "I'm going to fly by, grab them, then get them delivered lickity split!"
He gazed up at the darkening time, wondering just how much time Pinkie Pie had left on her flight spell. Strings hid the uncertainty brought on by his gut's better judgment by readying a levitation spell. "Alright, sounds totally radical, let's do it!"
"Pull!"
Strings obliged by springing one of the baskets straight up. Pinkie Pie shot after it and snatched it up. Then, with a quick burst of her wings, dashed away into the darkening sky. Strings watched her until she was gone. This isn't good, we have to hurry up or she'll lose her wings in the air…oh man, if she gets hurt because of me…
"Pull!" He heard above him. He flinched, but still launched a basket into the air. The vessel carrying the sweets disappeared as soon as she flew by.
"That was insane", Strings said in awe, "How fast was she going?"
"Pull!"
He tossed another one into the air. "Dear Luna, she's cruising!" he shouted in disbelief. Strings figured she was moving fast enough to outfly the time it would take for her wings to disappear. By the time he got another basket ready, Pinkie Pie was flying overhead. The deliveries didn't take much longer. He didn't know how Pinkie Pie did it, but they were getting baskets out faster than he could shred his fastest solo. By the time most of the ponies left the streets for their observation points, Strings was down to only two baskets. He bet they were his and Pinkie Pie's since one of them was full of their cupcakes. The darkness overhead prompted the streetlights to flick on.
"Double pull!" Pinkie Pie shouted from the sky.
He was just about to launch them when he saw the inevitable happen. In a small flash of light, the pink Pegasus's wings disappeared. The unicorn's heart stopped dead as he watched her fall helplessly out of the sky. She was moving so fast that she was on a crash course to completely destroy the prank shop if he didn't do anything about it. He dropped the baskets and leaped after her. He missed the first catch, but threw a force field around them. He guided her softly into his hooves and landed gently on the cool grass. "Gotcha, Pink."
"Yay! That was fun! Let's do it again!" Pinkie Pie didn't get a reply. Nor did she ask why her unicorn savior stared down at her with wide eyes and a deepening blush. She felt so at ease in his hooves and could feel her heart picking up. She was sure it wasn't a sugar rush. She knew for a fact it was him. "Teehee! Strings rush", she giggled to herself. Twilight sure was right. She was definitely in love. Now there was something different swirling around inside of her head. She thought back to the conversation she had with the unicorn. There was one question she forgot to ask. How do I know if I want to be more than just friends with him?
To her slight dismay, he put her down. It took all of his strength to force his hooves to do it, but he still had to put the adorable mare down. Man, why am I such a wimp when it comes to feelings? "So, um…" he stammered, "To Sugarcube Corner now, or what?"
"Nope", she replied, popping the word loudly. "To the top of Sugarcube Corner!"
He didn't immediately follow her when she bounced away with the baskets in tow. Instead, he gave the nearest light pole an introduction to his forehead, barely missing his horn. "Ugh! I had the perfect chance! Stupid stupid! Why didn't I tell her!? I'm so stupid!" He banged his head against the poll with every self-insult until he was positive a nice red mark had appeared on his head. It didn't last very long since he didn't want to make Pinkie Pie wait. "Better get back before she figures out I'm not behind her…"
He took the darkest route back to the bakery. He was a little too depressed to talk to anypony about the fresh bruise next to his horn. However, the sound of a very familiar bass line echoing through the darkness made him feel way better. It brought a huge smile to the bassist's face, especially since he knew exactly why every note strummed was completely flat. He sped up his trot into a Pinkie Pie bounce. The sounds of his guitar got louder as he closed the distance between him and Sugarcube Corner. He was amazed Pinkie Pie got the guitar to play as loud she did. Especially since there wasn't an amp hooked up to it. He counted down the notes. "Three…"
Twang!
"Jeez, that was fast!" he laughed. "She must've destroyed that string!"
In her rush, Pinkie Pie left the back door wide open. He closed it behind him and made his way up the stairs to her room. From behind Pinkie Pie's closed door, he could hear the faint sounds of crying. The sounds made him stop cold. It was worse than anything he could ever have heard in his life. Pinkie Pie…crying? What am I going to do? I have to cheer her up! He looked around, but couldn't find anything to help him out. Think! Okay, what would she do? Wait…I got it in the bag now… He took a deep breath, concentrated some energy into his horn, and put on his best Pinkie Pie image.
Pinkie Pie sat on her bed, crying over Strings's now-broken guitar. All she wanted to do was surprise him by playing one of the songs he taught her. She didn't mean to break a string. The guitar just wasn't playing as loud as the last time she played it. She kept sobbing quietly until the door to her room slowly creaked open. She gulped as her imagination predicted the unicorn's angry yells over his guitar. She looked up, and instead of seeing an unhappy unicorn, she saw a happy bouncing Pinkie Pie.
"Hey, what's eating you? Bedbugs?" she giggled.
Pinkie Pie didn't reply. She only looked down at the broken guitar.
Her double looked down with her. "It's just a broken string, silly! You don't have to be so sad!"
"But it's Strings's guitar", the real Pinkie replied. "I played it without asking."
"You and Strings are such good friends you don't need to ask!"
"I still broke it…"
"Have you forgotten your Pinkie Fix-It Ability already?"
Pinkie Pie quickly looked up. "I have that!?"
Strings hopped on the bed. He gently took the guitar. "It's as easy as saying 'abc'!"
"'Abc'?"
"Done!"
When Pinkie Pie looked down, the guitar was good as new. It was like she never broke the string in the first place. She was so amazed at the fixed string, she didn't notice Strings drop his illusion until he hoofed the bass back to her.
"Strings?" She looked around for the other Pinkie Pie. "Where did—"
"Ready to give it another shot?" he interrupted with a toothy grin. He lit his horn up with his amp spell. "This time don't go so rough, okay?"
She gave him a weak smile. She sniffed and wiped the drying tears from her face. She took the guitar and got into strumming position. She brought her hoof down on the strings for a set of four open notes. She played the few warm up exercises Strings taught her. Strings closed his eyes to listen to the mare play one of his favorite beginner songs. She hit every note with deadly precision. In his head he sang the vocals but didn't dare voice them for fear of messing up Pinkie Pie's note streak. She finished with a little more flare than last time, adding a few more notes to end the song with a Pinkie Pie styled pop.
"Nice", Strings complimented, "I think you're ready for the next lesson."
"Really!?"
He nodded, "Come on, I'll show you on the roof."
Pinkie Pie brought the last of the blankets up to the roof as Strings continued to set up the sweets for their observation. He convinced Pinkie Pie to let him bring up his favorite flavored cake and a couple brownies to fully satisfy their sugar cravings. "No mattress?" he teased.
"Nope! Blankets work good enough!"
Strings shrugged. "I've passed out on worse."
He levitated the comforters from her grasp and opened them across the roof. Taking another awestruck look around, Strings was amazed no pony could see the flat, boarded portion of the Corner's roof. It was pretty big, and even featured a banister that ran the perimeter. "This is a really sweet spot, Pink."
"No, this is a sweet spot!" she shouted, pointing to the chocolate chip of one of the cookies.
Strings almost fell over after his failed attempt to snatch the cookie away in his jaws. "Almost got it!"
"You need more practice in the art of cookie nabbing!" Pinkie Pie pointed out. She victoriously chomped down on the helpless treat.
Strings chuckled. "We set up?"
She nodded energetically. "Not missing a thing!"
"Radical!" He levitated his guitar over. "Okay, ready for lesson number two?"
"Do you even have to ask?!"
He rolled his eyes and they assumed the lesson's position in front of the other. When Pinkie Pie had the instrument ready, Strings started them off. "Okay, so you know how play without the frets, so now you're going to learn to play with'em." He pointed to the neck. "When you play the lower frets, you get a higher pitch in the sound. And the higher you go, the lower the notes go. It's hard to get into since everypony thinks it's the other way around. It took me forever."
Pinkie Pie tried without being prompted. She strummed all four notes clumsily at the lower end of the neck. Then at the higher end. Strings let her practice by herself until it sounded like she got the hang of it.
"Now it gets weird", Strings said, taking her left hoof and placing the tip of it on the D string. "Almost every song's gonna need you to play a single note at a time. When you do, just push down on the string up here and play only that string."
Pinkie Pie nodded. Strumming like that was really weird, and pretty hard for her jittery hooves to do. She misfired her first few strums, giving the experienced unicorn a big reason to turn the volume down on his amplifier. "Okay, not bad. You're going to need to practice it a lot to get the hang of it, but you're doing awesome." Seeing her move her hooves from one string to the next reminded him of something. He gazed carefully into her face. Her concentrated frown jumped. "Pinkie Pie, stop", he said seriously.
She blinked. "Huh? What's wrong?"
He grabbed her hooves. They were red and swollen. He looked up at her in disbelief. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I wanted to keep practicing so I could get better faster", she replied honestly.
He levitated the bass away. "It's not worth destroying your hooves. Let'em toughen up a little before starting again."
She nodded and rubbed them together to ease the soreness. His scolding didn't hurt her feelings or scare her like he feared he did. Instead, she felt more tickly in the belly than anything. It felt really nice for him to care about her like that. She smiled up at him and held up her hooves in a double promise-like fashion.
Strings, getting the wrong impression, happily obliged her false gesture and warmed up his horn for a quick Healing Spell. A small wave of swirling neon vapor wafted from his horn to her hooves. It tickled, causing her to giggle until it stopped. "That'll make it better for ya."
"Thanks, Strings." She tilted her head and gave him a smile.
She's looking at me like that again…Oh, man, what do I do? He attempted to slow his quickening breath down, but only succeeded in speeding it up. He levitated a cupcake into his mouth. It only barely helped.
Pinkie watched in amusement as Strings's blue face slowly faded into deeper shades of pink until stopping on red. He reminded her of a bunny. Not just because he was kinda soft like a bunny. Because he was, well, there was no other word for her to use. He was cute, plain and simple as that.
If Strings concentrated, he would've noticed that Pinkie Pie was slowly moving her face closer to his. She had no idea what was about to happen. She only knew that her body had taken a mind of its own. The sounds of the night were drowned out by the pounding of her heart in her ears. A flash of light in the sky shook her body from its self-control.
She and Strings shot their gazes to the sky to see the tail of a shooting star disappear over them. Their eyes scanned the dark, speckled abyss for more. Strings's smile slowly faded into a frown. "That's it? No way", he complained. He bit into a brownie. "There's no way that can be it!"
His complaining seemed to do the trick. At once, hundreds of tiny fireballs streaked down from the stars. Sounds of cheering echoed from all over Ponyville, the loudest probably coming from Strings. "Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaa!" he screamed to the heavens. "SHOWTIME!" He snatched up his bass and lit Ponyville up with electric charges that launched and divided into the sky before exploding into colorful fireworks. It was then his eyes glossed over with abyssal light.
Pinkie Pie watched in utter amazement as Strings's coat released an awesome glow that brightened the roof of Sugarcube Corner. The lighter blue streaks in his mane and tale exploded with white light, making him hard to look at. With every new note he strummed, something miraculous happened. A bright circle of light formed under him and a gold star appeared over his right eye. Then, as his magic energy materialized into a physical substance, he grew magical wings. He shot into the air high above Ponyville, where the chords he played caused light to burst from his body in front the meteors burning through the sky.
The song he performed echoed for miles around. He never stopped, not even ten minutes after the meteor shower first started. Some of the ponies watching him could tell that his guitar and the meteors were in sync. The faster he played, the faster they fell. The more complex his performance, the brighter and more diverse the shower became. The light from his body illuminated all of Ponyville until it intensified into six gigantic spot lights that grazed the land. No pony could keep their eyes on just one of the amazing sights at one time for long. When one of them started to become less interesting, the other one would kick up and explode with more special effects.
The meteors in the sky started to become more and more spaced out at the same time Strings's began to play slower. His body steadily lost its glow and magical properties until he was no longer floating in the sky. When the final note echoed from his guitar, the unicorn fell from the sky. Pinkie Pie felt her heart stop. She was hopping from roof to roof the second she it happened. She made sure to keep an eye on him and the platforms serving as her main road to Strings's safety. Now that all of the light was gone from him she couldn't see him anymore. Fortunately, a watching unicorn shone a spotlight on the falling pony. But it didn't help. He was already too close to the ground and out of range of Pinkie Pie. She didn't stop despite the obvious fact she was not going to make it to him in time.
He fell out of her line of sight when he cleared the roof height. Reality hit Pinkie Pie with everything it had. She skidded to a halt just before. Tears immediately ran down from her face. That was, until she heard the distinct flapping of wings. She looked up from her hooves to see her two best Pegasus friends flying towards her with the unconscious unicorn and his guitar in their hooves.
"Don't worry, Pinks", Rainbow Dash called. "We got him."
Relief continued to wash over Pinkie Pie as Rainbow Dash set him down on the large reading couch in the library. Twilight suggested they go there instead of back to Sugarcube Corner since that's where everypony in town would go to see what was going on. She and the rest of the Elements of Harmony along with their guests to the meteor shower joined the transport of Strings to find out just what went down with the bassist.
"I don't know what happened", Pinkie Pie answered Twilight honestly. "He just got real happy about the meteor shower and then started flying like a Pegasus!"
"Perhaps it was an emotionally triggered magic surge", Rarity suggested.
"I don't think so", the librarian replied. "It lasted too long."
"Ah think we should just ask'im when he wakes up", Applejack interjected. "There ain't no sense in tryin' to figure all this out right now."
"I side with Applejack", agreed the Carousel Boutique's assistant tailor. "Our current odds for stumbling across an explanation are most likely between slim and knell."
"And I'm pretty tired, so let's just call it a night", Rainbow Dash yawned. A wave of nods and yawns circled the room.
"It's a good thing we planned the slumber party for tonight", Twilight said. "Okay, girls, let's get started!"
Rarity and Applejack rolled their eyes, but still grabbed their sleeping bags. Twilight led the group into the library's foyer to let Strings sleep. Pinkie Pie began to follow, but stuck around with Strings. He snored pretty loudly for somepony that almost became a pancake. Pinkie Pie watched him sleep with so many questions in her head. She wasn't exactly sure how to process all the different events at once. First, her body takes control without her mind. Then, Strings explodes with the best musical performance she had ever seen. And then, Strings almost went splat in the middle of Ponyville.
Her head wasn't the only one havin trouble keeping up with it all. Her heart was still speeding since the second she saw she wasn't going to catch the unicorn. Seeing him safe and sound on the couch didn't hamper its speed. If anything at all the sight sped it up.
Strings rolled over in his sleep. He mumbled something, but she couldn't tell what. Pinkie Pie became a tad bit drowsy seeing him snooze so peacefully. He rolled over again and shivered slightly. The Earth Pony looked around for something to throw over him. Unfortunately, the only things around were books and pillows. Strings didn't look like he needed it anymore now that he was snoring again. Pinkie Pie sighed at how adorable he looked. Her heart kicked up when she realized that her body had once again taken itself over. Her face got closer to his until her lips were planting a sweet, delicate kiss on his cheek.
She reeled back in shock of what she just did. Her pink face was now red enough to brag about. Taking a couple of steps back seemed like a good idea. So good, in fact, that her hooves shot her to the opposite end of the room. Her mind quickly tried to process the what and why of what just happened, but only focused on how much better she felt inside. The butterflies in her stomach were driven out by the bubbly feeling of fireworks exploding throughout her whole body.
It was then Pinkie Pie's mind clicked. She answered her one unanswered question. Now she knew what it felt like to be more than friends with somepony. It felt just like this. Now there was just one more problem. "I gotta find the best way to tell him!" she declared to herself.
Hoofsteps coming from the door caused the mare to whirl around to see that they belonged to Twilight. The unicorn was levitating blankets and pillows for the sleeping bassist to use for the night. She only got about halfway before Pinkie Pie blocked the path. "Pinkie—"
"Twilight! I need to know the best way to tell somepony you're in love with him, pronto!"