Lesson Zero
A couple of weeks had passed since Discord's defeat, and Equestria was back to its peaceful, normal self. Aside from the occasional Heartless attacks in Ponyville, it was nothing out of the ordinary. During that time, Kairi had returned after doing some patrolling in the universe, and, to Sora's delight, she brought several Gummi Blocks, just enough to make a small ship for himself, and with better pieces that won't break down or blow up on him. Though the Mane Six were fascinated and confused at the odd blocks, they did help him rebuild his ship, though they had to build it by hoof and not through the simple tools in a Gummi Garage. So far in the fourteen days, it was halfway built, and if no Heartless interrupt them, it could be fully built within the next week.
The seasons slowly began to change from summer to autumn, more clouds being pushed in and bringing a slight chill, helping decrease the temperature. And to Sora's delight, in just a few days was the holiday equivalent of his favorite time of the year; Halloween, or Nightmare Night. While taking a break from rebuilding his vessel, he had gotten the face paint and made a couple of important accessories to go along with his costume, and he turned in his outfit idea earlier in advance to Rarity. Until that day comes, it'll be exciting to see what differences are seen in Nightmare Night.
As soon as the sun rose in the sky today, Sora was up bright and early, working on building his ship. Later today, there was going to be a picnic in the park with the others, a perfect time to relax and hang out with friends. He was in the middle of figuring out which of the blocks he should fit next on the body of the ship for the cockpit to sit around, his back turned to the pink unicorn of a girlfriend as she snuck up on him. Using her magic, she covered his face with his hood, blinding him from staring at the Gummi Blocks.
"Guess who?" Kairi asked, turning him around and seeing that dopey grin on his lips.
"Is it...Donald?" Sora asked.
"Nope. Not even close." The mare giggled as he stuck his tongue out as he tried to "guess".
"Pinkie Pie?" He received a poke on the nose, obviously a wrong answer. "Pete?" Another poke. "Hmmm...I give up."
"You are such a goof." She moved in and kissed the pegasus on the lips, slowly lifting his hood off him as he kissed her back.
They broke their kiss, Sora nuzzling Kairi's snout as he chuckled. "I'm just messing around. I knew it was you because I saw the white aura."
"Well, if I use my hooves, then you're just going to throw me to the ground and 'attack' me." The couple giggled and embraced each other, Sora giving Kairi a few more kisses. After the mare got some breathing room, she looked up at the half completed Gummi ship. "Wow. It's looking good so far."
"Would have been a lot faster with a Gummi Garage, but doing this manually isn't all that bad. At least I won't have to worry about blowing up with the careful building and scare you again." Kairi rolled her eyes as Sora wrapped a wing around her. "But, maybe we can think about expanding our ships."
"Why?" Kairi asked. After a moment of silence, Kairi sighed, shaking her head. "Sora, we can't take them outside of their world."
"Try telling that to Twilight. She's asked me about learning how to use the magic we use when fighting the Heartless, but I'm only teaching her because of her curiosity." Sora rubbed his head as he groaned. "I've...kind of been delaying those lessons because she thinks she can help me fight the Heartless. I don't want any of them getting hurt, but she's a scholar who's persistent on learning...She even wants to see how my Drive Forms work after using my new Harmony Form when we stopped Discord."
"I know," Kairi said, getting many of the details about Discord's short reign on Equestria from the others. When she heard about what had happened to Sora, unable to recover from the injuries inflicted on him and nearly dying from a dangerous spell cast by the draconequus, she was understandably worried, unable to leave his side for at least a week. She hugged him tightly, pressing her cheek against his. "Why do you always get yourself into situations where you almost get killed?"
"I am a survivor. I can take on anything and live through it with a broken rib or arm." He grinned at her, trying to be comical, but seeing how serious Kairi was when she looked at him, he dropped his silly persona. "Actually, when I tried to fight Discord...it was impossible for me to even hit him. He could bend reality with just a snap of his fingers, and he knew of my worst moments where he could have broken me with his illusions." Sora could still remember that fake vision after the last couple weeks. He swallowed the lump trapped in his throat as he hugged Kairi tightly, his body shuddering at the scenario that felt more real than a nightmare. "It was like that dream I had a couple days before the island was destroyed...It was so real...I-I...I actually-"
"Sora, it wasn't real," the unicorn assured the panicked pegasus, kissing his cheek softly. "It's just a horrible nightmare, and I know you won't do anything wrong."
"I know. I just can't help but constantly worry. I was lucky my newest Drive Form didn't backfire." The couple sat in silence, holding each other tightly as Sora began to calm down a little. "I just hope my luck doesn't run out."
"It won't. You'll be fine," Kairi said. "Now, how about we get our minds off the negative and get some breakfast?"
Sora was about to retort, only for his growling stomach to answer for him. "...Well, maybe a full stomach can get my mind off things. And I can afford a day off from building my ship. To Sugarcube Corner!" he said as he pointed in the direction of town and ran on ahead.
"And he pulled a complete one-eighty just like that," Kairi sighed as she shook her head.
The unicorn hurried after him before he got too far ahead, not wanting him to leave her out with whatever the bakery had to sell for breakfast today.
Sora and Kairi walked together into town after the small race and headed for Sugarcube Corner. As they walked inside the bakery, they spotted Twilight and Spike at the counter, the baby dragon holding a long list and a quill.
"Hey, Sora and Kairi!" Spike greeted.
"Uhh, what's with the list?" Sora asked. "Grocery shopping?"
"Yes, but it's mostly a checklist," Twilight explained. "And right now, I'm waiting for the cupcakes I ordered."
Sora took a look at the list and read it out loud. "Quills. Parchment. Ink. Extra ink. Extra extra ink? Double-check checklist? Double-check the double-check checklist to triple-check???" He and Kairi looked at each other oddly, then back at the unrolled list, which rolled out of the bakery and down into Ponyville. "...Oh wow. Twilight? Is this for the whole week?"
"No! For this morning!" Both ponies' jaws dropped, looking over at Spike for confirmation, which he just simply shrugged.
"This morning???" Kairi questioned as Sora rolled the list back up. "Twilight, do you really have to put down...ten different double-checking parts just for...a few items?"
"Kairi, I know you're smart. One can never overlook perfect planning." Sora facehooved, shaking his head as Twilight was giving herself more stress.
"Here we are, Twilight," Mrs. Cake said as she brought out a box with Twilight's order.
The unicorn opened the box, filled with vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting. "Wait, I see thirteen. I ordered a dozen."
"There was an extra made, so it's a baker's dozen," the chubby mare giggled.
"I can fix that!" Spike said, but as he tried to reach for one of the cupcakes, Twilight dragged him away as she looked at the pastries again.
"The extra cupcake's getting icing on the others and making them completely uneven," Twilight complained, making Sora facehoof again.
"Twilight, it's just icing. That kind of stuff happens. It's not a big deal." Spike winced as he backed away, along with Kairi as a bad feeling crawled up her spine.
"Not a big deal!?" Twilight nearly shouted. "I don't want anypony else getting more icing than the other when we're at the picnic!" Using her magic, the lavender unicorn grabbed a spatula from the back of the house and began trying to even out the icing on the cupcakes. "Ok, now, I just move this over here, and that little bit there..."
While Twilight mumbled, her icing spreading slowly began to grow more wild, sending pink frosting randomly flying out from the box. Some of them managed to hit everyone except for the unicorn, her face contorting to a manic expression, too engrossed with making everything perfect. As soon as she was satisfied, all that was left on the flaky pastries was a small dollop in the center of each one, barely enough to give them any flavor from the dry mini cakes.
"...Oh dear," Mrs. Cake worried, wiping some of the icing off her face.
"Perfect!" Twilight closed the box and carried it on her back. When she looked at Spike, Sora, and Kairi, the baby dragon was covered in icing, while the two Keyblade wielders' had some on their faces. "Oops. Maybe we should add 'Give Spike a bath' on the list." Using his long, reptilian tongue, Spike licked the frosting off of him, licking his lips as he tasted what would have been part of the cupcakes. "...Still giving you a bath. That was gross. We'll see you two at the picnic later!"
The lavender unicorn trotted off happily, Spike following after her with the mile long list as they left Sora, Kairi, and Mrs. Cake, their faces and part of the bakery splattered with icing. Sora looked at Kairi and grinned, licking the pink unicorn's cheek and tasted the frosting.
"Sora!" Kairi exclaimed, blushing in embarrasment.
"What? It's good." The pegasus licked his lips, tasting more of the delicious icing.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed a few napkins, wiping her face off of the sugary frosting. "You had to lick my cheek?"
"Your fur matched the color of the icing. And you taste delicious, by the way." Kairi cleaned her goofball of a boyfriend's face of any remaining icing.
"You're a doofus." Sora crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, receiving a poke to the snout. "But, I'm a little worried about Twilight. No one is ever that crazy with making a checklist where they have to double-check it so many times."
"Right. Let's get something to go and figure out what's up with her." After Mrs. Cake had cleaned herself of the splatter of icing Twilight made a mess of, they ordered some breakfast pastries to go and hurried after the unicorn.
Sora and Kairi entered the Golden Oak Library and found Twilight and Spike up on the second floor. They entered just in time to see them finally finishing up that long checklist, the couple snacking on some freshly made bagels.
"Ok," Spike said. "'Triple-check checklist to make sure we didn't miss anything when we double-checked the checklist.' Uhh, check!" As soon as the baby dragon checked off the last thing on the ridiculously long checklist, he winced and dropped the quill, his writing hand badly cramped up. "Agh! I've been holding that quill for so long that I got a claw cramp. Good thing we don't have to write friendship letters to the princess this week."
Twilight suddenly gasped, tackling Spike to the ground. "You mean we didn't send a friendship report to Princess Celestia this week!?"
"Is that a bad thing?" Sora asked, only to have him be tackled by the lavender unicorn.
"Bad!? BAD!? Of course it's bad!" Twilight shouted. "I'm supposed to send Princess Celestia a letter every week! Not every month, not every ten days! Every! Single! Week!"
Just as she was about to run off to find a calender, Sora grabbed Twilight's tail and pulled her back to him. "Twilight, I don't think Celestia even said anything about a due date for your letters."
"What day is it today!?" she asked.
"Tuesday," Kairi answered.
"Spike, when was the last time we sent a letter to her!?" Twilight asked in more of a panic.
"Umm...last Tuesday?" Spike walked over to one of the drawers in the room and pulled out the calander, finding the last date they sent a letter to Celestia. "Yup. Tuesday."
Twilight began to panic, trampling over Sora as she ran to the window, watching the sun move across the sky as it it was the second hand of a clock. "No! I can't let this happen! If I don't send a letter to her by the end of today...I'll be tardy!" She fell on her bed and kept whining and complaining. "She won't take my studies seriously, and she'll send me back a grade!...No, worse! She'll send me back to magic kindergarten!"
While Sora got up and rubbed his stomped on chest, Kairi grabbed Twilight's sheets with her magic and pulled them hard, sending the lavender unicorn flopping onto the ground. "Twilight, you already went through school. How can someone throw you back that far in a grade when you're being taught by Princess Celestia? When you're a fully grown mare?"
"Yeah," Sora agreed. "You won't be sent back that far in school unless you dropped out at an early age. Which I doubt ever happened."
"...You're right, Sora." Sora, Kairi, and Spike sighed in relief as the unicorn finally understood. "Which is why I'm going to find a friendship problem before sundown!" Or not, the trio falling over comically as they groaned in exasperation. "Ooh! Maybe this week I'll send a relationship problem as extra credit!"
"A what?" Sora asked.
"So, Sora, Kairi, you two having problems with your romance? Any arguments, disagreements, verbal assaults, or any dislikes toward each other that need a third party to help solve those disputes and yelling?" Twilight asked, beaming brightly as she was growing desperate.
"...Twilight," the pegasus warned, having a theory as to why she was asking those questions.
"Don't worry, Sora. I'm not going to just steal you away from Kairi. I mean, I'm not that heartless, even when I almost turned into one out of jealousy, but that's all out the window and we're just good friends who help other friends with their issues!" Sora wasn't all that sure, and neither were Kairi or Spike. "Soooooo...?"
He sighed, rubbing his forehead as he felt a headache coming on. "Twilight, Kairi and I are doing fine. No problems between us...At all."
"Are you sure?" the unicorn asked. "Is she cheating on you with Riku?"
"Twilight!" Kairi exclaimed.
"Well, nopony knows what you've been doing when you were gone, Kairi," Twilight said.
"I haven't seen Riku at all while I was gone! What is wrong with you!?" the pink unicorn shouted, completely appalled by Twilight's accusation.
"Kairi, calm down. I'll try to talk some sense into her." Sora hugged the disgruntled mare, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Go see if there are any Heartless in town, take out your anger, and join us in the park later for the picnic." Kairi wanted to argue further, and maybe smack Twilight in the face for thinking she would ever abandon Sora after everything they went through together, but she held herself back. She kissed him deeply, his hooves gently caressing her back as he returned the kiss slowly calming her. She broke the kiss and left, snatching another bagel from their take-out bag, munching on it angrily. "...Twilight, that was the stupidest thing you could ever say, and you're lucky I'm holding her back while I'm the voice of reason for Kairi."
"B-But, it's possible, right?" Sora growled, making Twilight drop the subject entirely.
"Look. You're starting to get desperate, and you're close to losing it over this stress. All your constant scheduling, wanting every single thing to be perfectly done, it's going to give you a heart attack before you're as old as Granny Smith, or even younger." Twilight murmured something, half listening while half panicking. "I'm sure Celestia would understand if you were late one day, but I know she didn't say anything about you making a report on friendship for her on a weekly basis."
"But I'm never tardy," she whispered.
"Twilight, listen, you need to relax. I think you need another vacation, though not in Pooh's storybook. I mean a real vacation, like the beach." The teen reached a hoof out, gently resting it on her shoulder. "I know you've gone through a lot, and I can tell you still feel a bit guilty about...what happened between the three of us. And after what Discord did to you and the others, you're in a lot more pain when you believed your friends had turned against you.
"I'm here to help you, in more ways than one. You have to learn to have faith in others and see your problems solved, where you never have to face them alone." Twilight looked up at him sadly. She did have some things she wanted to tell him, but after having to be saved by him several times from her own self-consciousness and manipulated state of mind. She wanted his help, she wanted to tell her how she was feeling, but she didn't want to be a constant burden to him. "...You really want to consider trying to find some friendship problem before the end of the day and face Celestia's 'wrath' for being late for an assignment for one day?" Twilight nodded, making Sora groan with those big eyes of hers pleading him to help her. "...Alright. Let's find out if anyone needs our help."
"Thank you!" Twilight yelled, hugging the pegasus tightly.
She then ran out of the library, leaving both Sora and Spike on the second floor. "This isn't going to end well for any of us, is it?" Sora asked.
"Nope," Spike said.
While Twilight and Sora wandered around Ponyville to find the unicorn a friendship problem to solve for a simple report, it ended up becoming a bit of a stressful day for her when she shouldn't be stressing out. The first pony they tried to help was Rarity, hearing her screams from inside her boutique, almost as if she was being murdered by someone. Twilight was the first to respond, bucking her door open and leap in heroically as the fashionista's savior. Apparently, Rarity's "problem" was a lost diamond encrusted purple ribbon for a dress. Before she was able to look for it, Sora found it lying on the floor, in plain sight, Rarity thanking him and went back to work.
Next was with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the two walking up to the orchard as they saw the rainbow-maned pegasus mare flying through the old barn, tearing it apart. Sora knew exactly why she was doing that, but Twilight was too quick to jump the gun and think the two mares were fighting, and Rainbow Dash was destroying Applejack's property. The unicorn had the cyan pegasus lying down on a bench, acting like a psychiatrist as she tried to help solve the mares' issues. Sora quickly intervened before she allowed Twilight to give Rainbow prescriptions for her anger issues, telling her that the barn was supposed to be torn down, and Rainbow Dash agreed to help. They watched her destroy it, creating a massive mushroom cloud of rainbow dust, sending bits of debris around them, Sora protecting him, Twilight, and Applejack nearby from the pieces of wood and metal.
Next was Fluttershy, where the unicorn figured the timid pegasus would have some kind of fear she tried to overcome. When they reached her cottage, the two of them found her out back, and to their shock, was wrestling with a grizzly bear...and was winning. Fluttershy kept tripping it up and putting it in several different holds, bending its limbs and making it pound the ground in pain. The final straw that broke them was when she twisted the bear's neck, all of them hearing a painful snap as it fell and lied prone to the ground. Twilight had left after snapping out of her bewilderment, stuck in more of a panic, while Sora was frozen solid, mouth agape, his eyes glued to what he just saw. Miraculously, the bear was still alive, Fluttershy's "wrestling" more of a massage as she cracked out the kinks in its back. As soon as she noticed Sora watching them, he fell on his side in a flabbergasted state.
After he woke up, and met with Harry the grizzly bear, who wasn't as dangerous as he thought he was, the teen ran off to find Twilight, wherever she ran off to. Luckily, she was found near the park, though not too far away from where they agreed to set up their picnic. Unfortunately, the studious unicorn looked like a wreck as she laid on the bench: her mane and tail were frazzled, tears streamed down her red and puffy eyes, and she was muttering to herself in a blind panic.
"It's fine," Sora heard her say. "The day's not over yet, but it will be soon!" Twilight looked up, watching the sun tick by and groan in frustration. "All of my advanced studies, being in Ponyville, it'll all be over. No no, Twilight! You're an excellent student! You can pull this off!" Twilight began changing attitudes like she had a split personality, though she seemed to be harbored more on her insanity. "But what if I can't? You can!" she shouted at her reflection in a puddle of her tears. "You just have to keep it together! Keep! It! TOGETHER!"
"Oh boy. She's lost it again," Sora muttered. "...Only this time, no one's mind controlling her." Spike came walking up, carrying the box of cupcakes they had ordered earlier this morning, watching Twilight glare at herself in the puddle. "Has she really focused all of her time studying and keeping a schedule?"
"Unfortunately," the baby dragon answered.
They soon heard giggling coming from across the dirt path, a group of fillies playing jump rope. Twilight stared at hem, her ear flicking randomly and her eye twitched. She was about to have a nervous breakdown, and Sora quickly intervened before she lost it, lightly smacking her cheeks.
"Twilight, wake up!" The unicorn shook her head, hyperventilating as she looked around in confusion. "You're starting to lose it. Take some deep breaths, calm down, relax."
She didn't listen to him as she looked over at the fillies playing, rubbing her delusional eyes. "Yeah, Twilight. Sora's right." Spike held out the box of cupcakes to her. "You forgot about these when you left. Just go down to the picnic, hang out with the others, and-"
"PICNIC! Wonderful idea!" Twilight shouted, snatching the box out of the baby dragon's claws and ran off to meet the others.
Sora sighed, unable to break through to her. "Spike. Letter."
"I'm on it." While Spike began writing a letter to Celestia to help Twilight bring some sense to her student's stress, Sora followed after her before she could blow something up in her frazzled, mental state.
"Unbelievable!" Rarity said in shock. Kairi sat around the picnic blanket with the rest of the girls, having told them about Twilight's accusation of her cheating on Sora with Riku, both of them friends with him. "Why in Equestria would Twilight say something like that!?"
"She's apparently lost her mind," Kairi said. "I can clearly understand her being jealous of me involving my relationship with Sora, but making something up like that!? I actually wanted to slap her, almost as if she WANTED to cause a problem between us!" She drank her bottle of water, downing every last drop and crushing it in her hooves. "Until she comes back to her sanity and apologizes for trying to force Sora and I apart, I don't want to see her for the rest of the day."
She heard a thump behind her, the others gasping in shock at what was behind her. Kairi turned around to see Twilight, but before she could lash out at her, she was just as shocked as the others as she saw her appearance. The lavender mare looked like she ran through an insane asylum, became admitted into it, then escaped from it. She gave everyone a creepy smile, only making her look more out of it, accenting her messy and out of place hair. Sora walked up behind her, knowing how surprised the others were to see their friend so messed up.
"Uhh, Twi? Ya'll alright, hun?" Applejack asked.
"No! I'm not alright!" Twilight shouted, on the verge of tears. "It's just awful. I really really need your help before the worst happens!"
"Well, what is it, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked as the others were concerned about her well being.
"Twilight's freaking out because she didn't send a friendship letter to Celestia this week and thinks she'll be sent to magic kindergarten for missing a whole day, even though the princess didn't even say she had to send one every week," Sora answered for the unicorn before she could delay the true reason any further.
The rest of the girls just stared at Twilight in silence, Kairi rubbing her forehead as she began to get frustrated. "Seriously, Twilight? You're still going on about this stupid thing?"
"It's not stupid, Kairi!" Twilight shouted. "My whole life depends on it!"
"Failing an assignment is not the end of the world, Twilight! Your constant stress and looking at worst case scenarios are making you completely insane!" Kairi stood up and approached Twilight. "No one will ever take you seriously if you keep following those stupid, overblown checklists and worry about failure! That's life, Twilight! Life's not meant to be followed perfectly to a schedule! Things happen, mistakes are made, and you forget about it! Quit being so pessimistic and get your nose out of those stupid books you hoard yourself under!"
The picnic was quiet as the two unicorns leered at each other. Sora could feel a confrontation coming up, between a mentally unstable scholar and a princess who was furious as said scholar accused her of cheating on the boy she loved. Before he could step in, he was too late as Twilight was the first to act, punching Kairi hard in the face and staggering her backward. The others gasped in shock as the pink unicorn turned her head back to face Twilight, rubbing her sore cheek.
"Don't you dare mock me, you useless excuse of a princess," Twilight growled, only further agitating Kairi.
"...Oh, useless, am I?" the pink unicorn questioned. "I'll show you useless you bookworm!"
The two unicorns soon began fighting as they kicked up dust around them. "Twilight, Kairi, stop!" Sora jumped in to try and stop Kairi while Applejack and Rainbow Dash helped pull Twilight away. "Kairi, I know you're still mad at Twilight, but you don't have to instigate a fight!"
"She hit me first!" his girlfriend shouted. "Are you seriously siding with her over me!?"
"I'm on no one's side! I'm trying to stop the both of you from killing each other when Twilight believes her problem really is serious and you yelling at her isn't helping with her mental state right now!" Sora pulled Kairi far enough away from the group while they tried to calm Twilight down, the pegasus turning his girlfriend around and force her to look at him. "Kairi, Twilight's been a student all her life. She's far too focused on being a grade 'A' student, putting that logic before relaxing for anything. You saw how much of a wreck she was after she came back to her senses after Maleficent manipulated her. She takes everything seriously, including a small assignment that isn't all that important for anything.
"She's still struggling and suffering, still learning about friendship and an emotional mess after being manipulated not once, but twice. She's still hurting, desperately needing her friends' help, including ours." Kairi pouted and looked away from Sora. "I understand how you felt about that hurtful comment she made back in the library. I was just as mad as you were. But Twilight's not like us, where we can let some bygones be bygones."
"She's just so frustrating to deal with," Kairi muttered. "Not one person can actually dedicate their lives to being perfectly organized, studious, and on time with everything. She needs to learn to grow up and quit freaking out over everything."
"Just take a breather, walk around Ponyville a little, and calm down. I'll try to bring Twilight back to Equestria, then everything will go back to normal. Ok?" The unicorn hesitated, but she slowly nodded. He hugged her tightly, peppering her neck with kisses. "Good. And don't worry. I'll get her to apologize after she realizes she went a little nuts."
"It's gonna take a long while before I talk to her again after all this. She so much as tries to punch me again or make up dumb rumors about me, I will zap her with Thunder." Sora lifted a hoof up to her head and began scratching one of her ears. "...What are you doing?"
"Calming you down by scratching your ear...Is it working?" While flicking her ear away from his hoof, she couldn't but smile a little, unable to hide a grin whenever Sora does anything silly.
"If by working, you mean slightly annoying...then yes." Taking her boyfriend's advice, Kairi went for a walk, staying far enough away from Twilight until she was brought back to her senses.
Sora headed back to the others, but there was no sign of Twilight anywhere. "Uhh, guys? Where's Twilight?"
"We tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't listen and teleported away somewhere," Rainbow said.
"What!? Where did she go!?" Sora asked.
Down at the other end of the park, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were busy having fun, playing catch with a ball. Unbeknownst to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a pair of purple eyes as small as pinpricks stared at them, twitching slightly under the guise of a bush. Twilight poked her head up from the foliage, a birds nest resting on her head, looking more desperate and insane than before.
"If I can't find a friendship problem..." Using her magic, she pulled up an old, ragged looking gray donkey doll wearing a pair of blue pants with white polka dots. "I'll make a friendship problem. Genius, Twilight. Pure. Genius." The crazed unicorn teleported into their boll, popping it and freaking the fillies out. "Hi, girls!"
"Twilight? What are you doing here?" Scootaloo asked.
"I'm fine! Just great actually!" Twilight's eye twitched, completely ignoring the question. "In fact, I'm sure a couple of GOOD FRIENDS like you three are practically inseparable! But not for long." She held the doll up in front of the confused Crusaders. "This is Smarty Pants! She was mine when I was your age, and now I want to give her to you three! Isn't that exciting!?"
"...Uhh, Twilight? Are you ok?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yeah, ya seem a little-" Twilight continued ignoring them, holding out a small notebook and a toy quill.
"And look! She comes with her own quill and notebook!" The lavender unicorn hovered the notepad to Scootaloo and stuck the quill over Sweetie Belle's ear. "That way, you can make sure she 'pretends' to do her homework!" Twilight began laughing with insanity, tilting her head awkwardly and scaring the fillies. "I only hope she won't be a problem, seeing as there's three of you and only one of her, and I don't want to cause a rift between GOOD FRIENDS!"
"...Twilight, I think you've gone crazy," Scootaloo voiced all three of their opinions. "As much as we...like Smarty Pants, none of us actually want her."
Twilight began to panic, her brain running a marathon as she tried to think of something as the sun was beginning to descend. Finally finding an idea, she turned back to the fillies, holding Smarty Pants up before her.
"Oh, you three are going to LOVE Smarty Pants, whether you want to or not!" Her horn began to glow as she began to cast a spell.
"Twilight, what are you doing!?" Twilight turned around just as her spell was fully charged, aiming a beam of magic that struck Sora as she called out to her. He fell to the ground, thankfully unharmed, though unsure of what spell he was hit with. As he looked up to the unicorn, she seemed to have snapped out of her insanity, staring at him in fear. "...What? What happened to me?"
"Sora, don't let anypony see you!" It was too late as the Cutie Mark Crusaders noticed the teen, though they began staring at him strangely.
"Twilight, what were you trying to do?" Sora asked.
"Ah want him," Apple Bloom said, her eyes turning into hearts.
"I need him," Scootaloo said dreamily.
"I really love his mane!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
"...Uhhh..." The three fillies ran up to him and crowded him, grabbing onto his forelegs.
"Hey, he's mine!" Sweetie shouted at the others.
"No way! I saw him first! He's my coltfriend!" Scootaloo argued back.
"Twilight!? Answers!?" Sora fell to the ground as they pulled him down hard, the fillies fighting on top of him while some of them tried to sneak a nuzzle or a peck on his cheek. "I love these three to death, but not like this!"
He quickly flew up out of their reach, the fillies jumping up to try to reach him as Twilight began to panic, dropping her Smarty Pants doll. "Oh no. This wasn't supposed to happen!"
While Sora hovered in the air, he didn't notice Ponyville's mailmare, a gray pegasus mare with blonde hair known as Derpy Hooves, fly by. As ditzy as her name was, she's always a hard working pony, even if she makes a lot of mistakes. The moment Derpy saw the teen, she was struck by the spell cast on him, her misaligned eyes replaced with hearts as she dove in after him.
"MY MUFFIN!" The mare tackled the Keyblade wielder and sent him falling back to the ground hard.
The fillies clambered on top of him and began fighting with Derpy over him. "This is worse than being chased around for those Gala tickets." Sora squeezed his way off of the mare and fillies, running up to Twilight. "Twilight, what did you hit me with!?"
"I-I'm sorry! I casted a Want-it Need-it spell, but it was meant for my doll! I just wanted to make a friendship report so badly that I...I wanted to make a friendship problem as a desperate resort!" Sora wanted to be mad at Twilight, but he had to focus on avoiding the enchanted females pining for him.
"Please tell me you can reverse this!" he pleaded as he leapt over Derpy, the gray mare sliding across the ground as she missed.
"Just hold still, I can cast the counter spell!" Before Twilight could even get the chance, Big Macintosh walked along the park to get Apple Bloom, only to be affected by the spell.
As soon as Sora landed, the red farm stallion charged into him, his eyes now hearts under the influence of the enchantment cast on him. "Howdy, Sora."
"Oh no. It affects stallions too!?" The teen felt Big Mac's hooves trying to unzip his jacket, thankfully failing because of his big hooves, but this felt more awkward than when he turned into a mare and he saw his newly changed behind. "I need an adult!"
"Ah am an adult," the hypnotized stallion replied.
"NOT LIKE THAT!" Sora quickly flipped Big Macintosh off of him and fled, the stallion unfazed and took chase after him along with Derpy and the Crusaders.
Twilight quickly chased after them, freaking out more as she just turned Sora into a magnet where anyone except for her is infatuated with him and want him. As he kept running or flying off, he caught the attention of a majority of the town, everypony leaping up at him and trying to drag him down to fight over him. The rest of her friends heard the commotion from the picnic spot, wondering what was going on.
"What in the name of all things oats and apples is goin' on around here!?" Applejack asked, right as Sora fell to the ground next to them after being tackled by more pegasi mares.
Before any of them could be charmed by the spell cast on him, Twilight quickly diverted their eyes away from him. "No! Don't look at Sora!"
"Why? What's happening?" Fluttershy asked.
"I accidentally shot a spell on him that was meant for my doll, and now everypony's crowding him, unable to resist him!" Twilight said as she tried to aim her horn at the dogpiled teen, but couldn't get a clear shot of him. "I was so desperate to make my friendship report that I wanted to make a friendship problem, and the day's nearly over!"
"Uhh, actually..." Applejack pointed up at the sky, the sun slowly setting on the horizon as it began to turn to night.
Twilight sank to the ground, her time was up as the day ended. She failed to turn in a report on time, and she was sure to be in a lot of trouble.
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" Appearing above Ponyville in a flash of light, Princess Celestia hovered down as she looked at the carnage of ponies fighting down below.
Her horn glowed as she dispelled the enchantment on Sora, the ponies all ceasing their fighting as they looked around in confusion. Looking at the center of the circle, they found Sora lying on the ground in a daze, his eyes spinning in his head while he was covered in bruises from being roughed around. They soon dispersed and headed back to town, not wanting to speak of this again, Big Macintosh picking up Smarty Pants where Twilight dropped her, running back to the farm to hide it. The alicorn landed and approached Twilight, looking down at her with disappointment.
"P-Princess...?" Twilight shuddered as she awaited the scolding she would receive.
"I wish to speak with you in the library. Now." Celestia walked off, the lavender unicorn's head hung low as she sadly trudged along behind her.
As the others watched Twilight leave as she was prepared to suffer whatever punishment she would get, Kairi came back after her calming walk, spotting Sora on the ground while badly beaten. "...Uhh, did I miss anything?"
Twilight sat on the balcony of the library, leaning over the railing, now calmed down from her manic state. She didn't get in any trouble at all, only making herself look foolish. Sora was right when Celestia told her that she didn't have to send her a friendship report every week after telling her mentor why she went crazy, and the princess herself specifically said only "when" she found something about friendship to send her at any time. Her friends barged in to try to help Twilight, pleading to Celestia that they were to blame for not helping the lavender unicorn with her problem, even if it wasn't life-threatening or dangerous. She gave them all a "punishment"; if any of them find an important lesson they learned on friendship, that one pony who discovered it will write a letter to the alicorn and give them their own reports.
Because of her spell, with everyone in town chasing Sora around and trampling him repeatedly as they fought over him, the stallion was badly bruised, but he was relatively ok. She had no clue where her old doll disappeared to, but since Smarty Pants was pretty old, maybe it was best to let go of her old toy, though who would want to take it was beyond her. If the Cutie Mark Crusaders didn't like her, then who did?
"So, you back to being normal, finally?" Twilight yelped as she heard Kairi next to her, leaning against the railing with no warning of her coming into the library.
"H-How did you get up here?" she asked.
"I climbed up. Being a Keyblade wielder, my stamina's increased more and I can pull off some feats I couldn't before." Both unicorns stood in awkward silence, Twilight lowering her head as she felt stupid for causing so much trouble for everyone. "Hopefully you realize that you shouldn't worry about every single thing that goes on in your life."
"...I do now...I'm sorry." Twilight didn't need to look at Kairi, knowing she still doesn't fully trust her. It was obvious the pink mare wouldn't after she had made an accusation about the couple's romantic life ending because of her selfless desperation to make a friendship report. "I really am stupid. Every single thing I've been doing in the past couple months has been nothing but mistakes and constantly panicking over the smallest things..."
"And what you said earlier today. Was that because you still have feelings for Sora after you've told me you finally got over it while also getting that 'relationship report' you were desperate to send?" Kairi asked.
"No...I don't think I deserve anypony after something like today..." Twilight looked at Kairi, flinching as she saw the stern glare she still held. "...I really am sorry, Kairi...I just...I didn't want to fail...I don't want anypony see me as a failure...but I have. So many times..." Tears began to well in the unicorn's eyes as she looked away. "I wanted to give up finding a way to stop Nightmare Moon when Princess Celestia didn't believe me about her return. I couldn't find the spark to awaken the Elements of Harmony, and Sora helped me find it. I kept my feelings for him inside after I heard about you and him, and I let it eat away at me until my conflictions were ripe for Maleficent to control me and almost kill the both of you.
"I even failed to stop the chaos Discord left, failed to save my friends, failed Equestria, the princess, even myself!" Twilight's tears streamed down her face. Kairi dropped her glare, hearing the depressed mare let out more and more insecurities about herself. "I'm intellectual when it comes to science, math, magic, history, anything you can read in a book...but I'm not smart...when it comes to doing things on my own...I-I always...needed somepony around...to help me...Spike's been the one who's kept me on track as he got older...I know I annoy him with my perfect organizational schedules, but he knows I'm practically useless without his help...
"And Sora...He helped me, even after what I said to you two...I don't deserve him as a friend after every selfless he's done to try and help me..." Kairi felt awful and pitied her.
Twilight has so many internal issues she struggles to try and solve on her own, but like today, they only festered until they got worse as she relied on her strive for perfection as a pacifier to keep her sane. It only did the opposite, stressing her out more to where she lost her mind and grew desperate to keep that perfection, even when it was impossible. And since she keeps them to herself, she has to be coaxed to tell others how she's feeling in order for her to finally let go of her struggles, to know that she doesn't have to be independent all the time and that it was ok to rely on friends or loved ones to help when she's ever in trouble. But during this afternoon, when the others didn't worry like Twilight had, she felt like she was all alone on this and no one would take her seriously.
Sora told Kairi about how Twilight got her cutie mark, actually seeing her at a young age go on a study binge in a book that held hers and the other mares' memories on how they got their cutie marks. She was so devoted to studying that it was pretty much all she did for a living in her youth. Books upon books upon books, reading every single piece of literature her hooves could grab, never taking a break from her work to hang out with friends or have fun. And after being manipulated twice, one over her chance of finding love with Sora and the other over her friends leaving her and driving her crazy while they were under Discord's influence, she's now afraid to lose those friends, or be taken advantage of by someone again.
"...Twilight..." Kairi reached out and hugged Twilight, gently patting her back in the comforting hug. "I'm sorry, too."
"W-What? Why?" Twilight questioned.
"For not realizing you're struggling a lot more than I thought." Twilight was still confused as Kairi pulled back from the friendly embrace. "You're still keeping your problems bottled up. If you just told us you were having serious issues about yourself, and not with an unimportant assignment, then maybe we all would understand. You have some bad self-esteem issues, but that doesn't mean we're going to shun you because YOU think you're a failure and we would think the same thing.
"Sora and Riku both have things they're afraid to tell me, but they know I'm not going to turn them down just because of one thing that threatens to ruin our friendships," Kairi explained. "I mean, Sora had a huge secret he didn't want anyone to know because he was afraid of being rejected by everyone, and he didn't want to risk hurting me."
"...What secret?" Twilight asked, unaware that the goof of a stallion actually had an internal struggle aside from telling Kairi his love for her.
"That's something only he will open up to when he wants to." The lavender mare stared at the pink mare in more confusion, her words contradicting themselves. "I know what you're thinking, but his secret is a lot bigger than yours, so he has every right hide it until the time is right. The point I'm getting at, Twilight, is to not be afraid of telling someone what you're scared to talk about. It's scary just to try and say it, but it's better to let it all out sooner rather than later some years down the line."
"...So...you're not mad at me anymore? After...I told you what I felt just now?" Twilight asked.
"Not as badly as this morning or at the picnic, but I've simmered down enough to keep myself from blowing up in rage," Kairi said. "It's going to take me a while to completely forget about that remark, but we're still friends." She patted Twilight's shoulder before leaping up onto the railing. "Try to get some sleep. And...try to stay away from the books for a while. All this stress is going to give you gray hairs."
"...I'll try," Twilight muttered as she watched Kairi leap down and head off to her Gummi ship outside of town.
Back alone on her balcony, Twilight sighed as she looked up at the night sky. She still felt guilty about everything, but at least Kairi didn't get back at her as she expected her to do after both thinking she was going behind Sora's back with Riku and punching her after being told to stop freaking out and relax. In some way, she deserve to get hit back harder, but Kairi was far stronger than her, both physically and mentally. She probably needed another vacation, far from her studies and books before she ended up snapping again.
Growing tired, she walked back in her room to get some sleep. Nightmare Night was only a few days away, and she figured until the holiday comes, she would just be lazy until then. Just lay in bed, sleep, eat, do something that didn't involve studying or reading a novel. Be as aloof as Sora or Rainbow Dash and destress.
"...I have no idea how Rainbow Dash can stand lying around for hours and nap all day," she complained. "Relaxing's going to be harder than I thought..."
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i bet the seceret about roxas and xion story plus yes the luna eclipse is next hope i cant wait to see the intraction between sora and luna
guess it goes to show that Kairi is willing to keep giving Twilight a chance after finally understanding her deeply of why she relayed on books so much. question is, will Twilight ever find out about Sora's dark secret that only Kairi knows? and how will she take it when she finds out? how will all the mane 6 take it when they hear of Sora's secret or see it?
Wow...that was quite the chapter. LOVE IT!!! HOORAY!! Kairi is back!!!
7265634 i cant wait for the luna eclipse chapter and to see luna and sora intraction in the story
That line always makes me laugh. Truly it is a masterful classic of comedy.
On note of this chapter...... Lesson Zero was always a hard episode for me. I kinds have a love/hate going on with it. Twilight's little descent into madness and how her friends blew it off always felt wrong in a way. Still, what Twilight did this chapter was janked up. With how this Twilight is developing, what happens during the wedding is going to be completely devastating if it follows the canon in a similar way.
WHY DOES TWILIGHT ALWAYS THINK SHE'S ABOUT TO BE BANISHED TO THE SUN?!
This totally made my week
(Facepalm) well, let's see how many people make this joke..
I feel like everyone is going to get decked in the face
7510876
She doesn’t know any better.
TFS...XD This story just became a win! XD
los episodios de discordia fueron muy pesados
This chapter was just weird, funny, and disturbing... comparing it to the actual episode, some real serious stuff is occurring compared to the actual episode
Oh shit! Run sora run!!!!
Funny you should say that, Twilight, considering what you later feel at the start of Equestria Girls...and later on, as an official Princess of Equestria, you deceive the rulers of another nation and attempt to steal their national treasure - which us humans would consider very justified grounds for WAR, you useless Princess whorse. This, of course, alienates all your friends (no shit, you royal criminal scum; the Seaquestrians would've been justified in imprisoning collaborators) and results in you getting captured and caged.
So...yeah, you're gonna be the "useless Princess" soon enough, smart gal.
Hah,
GAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Daaaaaaamn
Oh for the love of God! He's been hit with the harem-master special!
Link is unavailable just so you’re aware