More Stories from the Nightly Twilight Thread

by Rubick_Magus

Twilight versus the Seat Heater

”Anooooon!” Twilight dragged out. “It’s too c-c-cold!”

“That’s exactly why we’re going to the mall, Twi.”

The purple unicorn you cradled in your arms nestled into your body even more as you walked towards your parked car. Try as she might, Twilight Sparkle found no relief from the bitter temperatures biting at the both of you. The little pony’s coat had grown out as winter drew near to provide some much needed insulation, but the mild winters of Ponyville were absolutely nothing compared to the sub-zero temperatures Earth’s winter brought this year. It wasn’t just the temperatures either; Pegasi kept the snowfall to a minimum back in Ponyville, but here the recent Blizzard had brought the snow above Twilight’s knees and she couldn’t even trot through it without great difficulty.When you were in Equestria with Twilight all she threw on to combat the cold was a scarf, a saddle on her back, and some yellow boots to keep her hooves dry. It was all the winter-wear Twilight had and it still left her woefully unprepared. You needed to rectify that.

Twilight and you had been putting off Christmas shopping for far too long and this was simply the price you had to pay. More importantly, you two slacked off on heading to a department store to get her a winter pony coat. The sudden appearance of Equestrians opened up new markets all across the board, and new products appeared for equines on a daily basis. Even clothing corporations churned out apparel like no tomorrow, despite the little ponies’ habits of almost never wearing anything. You thought of ordering a coat online but had no idea how sizes worked for these pony garments. To avoid any hassle the two of you agreed on a date to head to the mall. Today was that day.

After trudging through the deep snow you finally came to where your car was parked. So deep were the mountains of snow atop the car they made it nigh impossible to see the make and model buried below.Numb, gloved fingers reached into your pocket and thankfully hit the unlock button without much difficulty. You moved to the passenger side as quickly as you could and yanked at the door handle.

Once. The snow atop it fell off.

Twice. You felt it give way and open a crack.

Thrice. The door swung wide open, brushing snow from atop the car and cracking whatever moisture had formed the frozen seal which impeded your progress.

You quickly and gently lowered your shivering companion to the car seat. As expected, the inside of the car was barely any warmer than the outside and Twilight let out a frustrated grunt as her buttocks settled in. Twilight didn’t complain, but as she curled up into a ball to conserve heat she looked up at you with pleading eyes like you’ve never seen before. She wordlessly begged you to help her.

“One sec.” You instructed as you slammed the door shut and jogged over to the driver’s seat.

After starting up the engine you immediately cranked the heater up as high as it could go. Much to your displeasure the heater needed time to warm up, and air that wasn’t even lukewarm blew from the vents. Though it would also take a few minutes to feel the effects, you powered on the driver and passenger seat heater as well.

“It’ll take a few minutes, but I promise it’ll get much comfier once we get going.”

“Okay…” Twilight mumbled, which you barely heard. “Do you have a blanket?”

“Yeah, of course.” You responded as you reached around to the back seats.

Your oversized winter gear made it an arduous task, but you managed to snag the plaid blanket as well as the snow scraper on your car’s back seat.You threw the squeegee to your side and focused your attention on unfolding the blanket around Twilight. The little mage wasted no time seizing the opportunity for warmth, and her hooves and mouth tugged at the corners of the blanket to tuck it beneath her. You helped as best you could by lifting up a foreleg and nudging the blanket beneath to get her comfy. As Twilight finished wrapping the blanket around herself you stepped back out into the frosty air with your scraper to swab away the snow. As quickly as possible you went from windshield to windshield brushing off all the offending white you saw. Thankfully while nothing was frozen to the car, the sheer amount of snow that had fallen down still required your attention.

Once you had hopped back into the driver’s seat you tossed the tool to the back floor, pulled off your gloves, cupped them in front of your face, and began blowing into your hands. Slowly but surely, feeling came back to your fingers and you placed them in front of a vent now puffing slightly warm air into your car. You glanced over at Twilight who again looked up at you with a look of concern, this time for your own safety.

“Are you okay?”

“Just a little cold. Nothing I can’t handle, Twi.”

“You’re sure? You know… If we can go back inside I can get my spell book and-“

“Uh uh, nope.” You interrupted.

“I could cast a warmth enchantment.” Twilight finished.

“Twilight, you know how… finicky magic is with human stuff, at least from what we’ve looked at.”

You learned that the hard way. The very first day Twilight came to Earth she broke your microwave trying to figure out what heating spells the machine used to warm up foods. The poor thing didn’t even survive beyond her basic probing spells.

Twilight grumbled to herself as she further snugged into the blanket.

“Just sit tight, the drive isn’t too long anyway.” You said as the car kicked up snow and slowly inched forward.

The poor, snow-caked condition of the roads was to be expected, but thankfully it served as a deterrent to other motorists as the streets were relatively clear. Under normal circumstances your inquisitive friend would have her head pressed against the window to take in all the sights you passed, but Twilight was so uncomfortable she kept herself bundled up in a ball on the seat. As you came to a halt at a stoplight you reached over and dug your fingers into the base of Twilight’s neck, giving her a loving rub. At least she’d stopped shivering. As the light turned green you decided to strike up a conversation.

“Feeling any better?”

“A little… Is this chair heating up?”

“Yup, real handy for the cold. Like it?”

“Mmm hmm.” Twilight answered, spreading herself out against the cushion to better warm up.

“Know what’s at the mall?”

“Never really looked it up.”

“We can stop at the book store first. They’ve got a nice coffee shop inside too. Can get some hot cocoa or something.”

“That sounds nice. Do they have any comic books?”

“Hmm? You mean for Spike?” You asked. “Yeah, we can pick some up for him.”

“He’ll like that. He’s been asking me to get him some for Hearth’s Warming.”

“Christmas, Twilight. Humanland has Christmas.”

Twilight blew a raspberry at you.

“So what’re you getting everyone for Christmas?”

“Everypony.” She corrected. A quick glance at her revealed the slightest hint of a smug grin.

“Well, Spike isn’t a pony. Him and me not getting any presents this year?”

“For Christmas, no. If you’re nice…” Twilight trailed off, bringing a hoof to her muzzle in fake thought. “I might consider some Hearth’s Warming gifts instead.”

“Gifts? I heard a plural word there.”

“Quantity isn’t necessarily better than quality, Anon.”

“You spent an entire afternoon working out that checklist of what to get, like, a dozen people.”

“Ponies.” Twilight once again corrected. “And there was also a big, dumb human on there too, but I can’t remember its name.”

“Can’t remember the name?” You asked with mock exasperation. “Here I thought you were the smart one.”

“I’d pull the scroll out and check, but that human’s understanding of the arcane arts is so primitive he’s afraid a little magic will blow his car sky high.”

“You haven’t seen enough movies; should be thanking that guy for saving your life.” You answered, pulling to a stop at another intersection.

Warming up had evidently loosened Twilight’s tongue. The purple pony had unfurled from her cat-like ball and had spread out to take in more hotness from the car seat. She sat herself up on her haunches, bringing herself nearly eye level with you. She pushed her fore hooves into the cushion to better press herself against the heating pad at her back, as if it would heat up more just for her. A barely audible coo came from Twilight as her spine was bathed in warmth. Her tail thrashed around beneath the blanket she was wrapped in, it almost looked like it yearned to break free.

“If you want, you can recline the seat if you hold down a button to the right.”

“Really?!” Twilight exclaimed.

She was much too enthralled by this, but that’s why you loved her.

Twilight used a hoof to fiddle with the buttons to her side. First the chair scooted forward an inch, then back one. She rose up, down too much, up again, and then finally managed to find the button to bring the back downwards. Twilight fell backwards as the car lurched forward and, though it wasn’t completely reclined, it satisfied Twilight’s needs well enough.

“Wait ‘till I tell Celestia about this…” She declared, shifting her body to look at you with half-lidded eyes. “The Canterlot Friendship Express could do with enchanted seats like this.”

“What, they never thought of enchanting their seats or whatever?”

“Maybe. I guess having a good unicorn maintain the spell would probably get expensive.”

You turned the corner, bringing the mall into view down the snowy road. A minute of silence pervaded your conversation.

“Seriously though, what’re we gonna get your friends?”

“Rarity wanted some human fashion magazines, for obvious reasons.”

“No surprise there. We can find ‘em at the book store too.”

“Apple Bloom is obsessed with “hoomin” stuff right now, according to Applejack.”

“So AJ wants something she’ll just regift to Apple Bloom?”

“She was not subtle about it.”

“Sounds like Applejack. What about the others?”

“Pinkie wants any kind of candy that isn’t in Equestria. Mostly stuff for baking.”

“Well, she’s in luck, there’s a candy shop inside the mall.”

“Fluttershy wants a quilt, though I’m not sure if she wanted it for herself or for the animals.”

“Does it matter?”

“I’d rather we didn’t buy a nice blanket only for her to let the critters tear it to shreds.”

“Good point. Something middle of the road, in that case?”

“That or a bunch of cheap ones.”

“Eh, we’ll figure it out later. How about Ardee?”

“In true Dash fashion she told me she didn’t care.”

“Guess we’ll figure that out later, too.” You declared, pulling into a parking spot in the unsurprisingly quite vacant parking lot. It’s got to be hard to compete with both online shopping and the bad weather. You unbuckled your seatbelt and took a moment to savor the comfort of the car, and prepared yourself for the piercing cold just outside.

“Ready, Twi?” You asked, looking over to your passenger.

Twilight only groaned in response, trying to wrap herself tighter in her blanket cocoon.

“With the car turned off it’s only gonna get colder, you know.”

“Noooo…” Twilight stammered. “Too cold.”

The pony squirmed around in her seat, shifting around to find which spot was still the warmest. In her fidgeting the blanket fell low and exposed her underbelly. A grave mistake on her part. Quick as lighting you shot a hand over to her chest and began ruffling her fluffy purple coat. Twilight’s hooves tried to clamp down in defense but she was far too late, and she only ended up pressing your hand further down to her belly. Her cries for mercy fell on deaf ears as you stroked up and down her tummy.

“C’mon, grab your bags and let’s go.”

Twilight adjusted her scarf, fixed her boots on, and slipped her saddlebag harness over her back and, instead of opening her own passenger door, quickly scooted over the armrests and driver’s seat through your opened door.

“Ugh...” You sighed. “Someday I’ll teach you proper etiquette.”

“Hoo…” Twilight exhaled into the cold air. “And someday you guys’ll have pegasi to make sure the weather isn’t so crappy.”

Author's Note:

Posted on December 24, 2017
https://pastebin.com/zghrF5K6

I mostly wrote this to get some practice in with writing a longer conversation, one not necessarily punctuated by lots of action.

This is also the first time I wrote a “Ponies in Earth” scenario. I really like the concept of Twilight becoming amazed over some ridiculous, simple invention we take for granted, like a microwave or a car’s additional features.

Originally, I planned for Twilight to talk about what she wanted to give to her parents, Shining and Cadance, Celestia, and Luna, but I figured I was just dragging it on at that point.

I didn’t have much of a plan for the ending, so it just kinda stops for better or worse. I’m sure I’ll think of some good material later, like always, but the only thing I could think of was a scene of Twilight finding an escalator and talking about how ridiculous it is. Maybe I'll write another part with the reader and Twilight actually shopping in the mall.

Comments

[mycarhasaMoustache]

I love it. Twilights fascination with an electric car seat is truly adorkable.
It would be great to see another part where they actually shop at the mall.

[Rubick_Magus]

8925789
Thank you, those errors have been corrected.

Im guessing the 3 dislikes are from people that didn't actually read it

I believe so too, and that dislike problem no doubt applies to every story.
That's just the way the site is set up though. Can't do much about it.

[Zorrojugador]

Will this story continue?

[Rubick_Magus]

9683890
Whenever (or if) I come up with some good ideas for another story, yeah.
Can't make any promises, though I do have a rough outline for a Twilight story sitting on the backburner.

[Bumblebeau]

The cover art for this keeps melting my Heart

[Noobly60]

Fricken awesome