//------------------------------// // 2. The chapter ALSO about Twilight Sparkle and Spike // Story: This Is Not An Adventure Clyde Adventure: A Story About Twilight Sparkle // by horizon //------------------------------// EPILOGUE TIME The Epilogue Place ◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠ It was the day of the restraining order trial! Again. But this time the trial was not going to be delayed by lack of supremely delicious snacks! Clyde had already adventured for the lemon cakes! He entered the courthouse and walked through the corridor alongside Twilight Sparkle, staying at least 500 feet away at all times so she couldn't see him, avoiding eye contact because he didn't want to overwhelm her with his sexiness. And lemon cakes. Lemon cakes were pretty overwhelming. Oranges were better. Clyde suddenly gasped. GASP! He should have gotten ORANGE cakes! Now everything was going to go wrong! In the background, Inaction Dave cackled evilly, flapping his wings which were totally red and black alicorn OC wings and not some sort of quetzalcoatl wings because that, uniquely among every single possible thing about Adventure Clyde, would be stupid. "Nyah hah HAH!" he said. Adventure Clyde fell to his tonsils. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he wailed, his scream shaking the heavens in a breathtaking animated GIF which was really just the same picture being moved back and forth by a few pixels. ◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡◡ O o . Twilight pulled back from looking over Spike's shoulder as he set the quill down, then patted him on the head and smiled. "So that's what 'Adventure Clyde' was up to yesterday when I went to the courthouse to file my 321/B, huh?" Spike smiled back. "Yep. I even asked him to do the shout again, so I could double-check that I got the number of O's right." His smile wavered a bit. "You're ... not going to start arguing that he doesn't exist again, are you?" "No, I'm over that now," Twilight said, waving a hoof. "I mean, obviously, Discord was right, Clyde's just a metaphor for the internal issues we all struggle with and the way we push ourselves to reach outside of our comfort zones to address them, despite being held back by our own laziness and distracted by our tendencies to overdramatize our lives." She rubbed a hoof on Spike's headcrest. "But then I stopped to think about it, and I realized: I'm a lot more comfortable with the idea that you yourself assign external agency to these feelings and can handle yourself at an emotional remove from them, rather than forcing you to internalize everything and struggle with sublimated issues you don't have the life experience nor intimate vocabulary to resolve." "Huh?" "... We'll talk about Clyde when you're older." "If you say so." Spike glanced down at his story, then back up into Twilight's eyes. "But I'm still trying to help him get better! I mean, I know Clyde has his problems, but look. If you just give him a chance, he really is trying to set things right, and work with you to get the restraining order resolved." "Well," Twilight said, curling her neck to Spike's in a hug, "let's be clear, I don't want you modeling his behavior as appropriate. Adventure Clyde is still weird and creepy and reprehensible. But …" She chuckled. "I think you get that, and you really want to fix 'Clyde,' even if you don't know how just yet. Foal steps. Thank you, Spike." Spike threw his arms around Twilight's neck and hugged back. "Foal steps." JUST THEN 153 paces from her writing desk Adventure Clyde stared through Twilight's window, pressing his nose to the glass. A single tear rolled down his cheek as he watched the ultimate alicorn of all of creation demonstrate for him the love she felt even for inferior beings like her little fire-breathing toad. "Awww," he said. Next to him, Plot Twist Pete hopped up and down, trying to see through the window. "Dun," Pete said, and hopped again. "Dun." Hop. "DUN."