Praxis
Pinkie didn’t know how to feel. It was a really nice gesture, and the time off would be nice, but it was just like with the comment about Applejack’s baking. “You don’t need me anymore?”
“Not at the moment. Everything’s taken care of, for once. Normally I’d say you should spend some time with the Cakes, but I think that would be a really bad idea right now... Poetry and instruments?”
That sounded pretty nice, actually. “Okay. But you need to take a day off, too. Remember, that’s a thing you said you’d do.”
Twilight looked away, biting her lower lip. “Just reading together, right?”
“Yeah.”
“... There’s a lot of questions I have, that I need Moondancer to answer. That’s going to take some time for her to get back to me.” Twilight admitted, “But then it’s going to be burning the midnight oil on getting through what she sends back. Is that expression still relevant?”
“I know what you meant, so it’s fine. So...?”
The decision was made. Twilight’s shoulders set, and she got in her confident pose where she stood up straighter, looked taller than she was. “It’s settled. I just need to send everything to Moondancer but, to be honest, I got most of that done while you were in Ponyville. Come with me and find a comfortable spot?”
“You mean, now?”
Then Twilight’s confidence crumbled. “Why not now?”
“I don’t know why not now. Now is nice. I would like to do now. I just might make some hot chocolate for us first.”
Twilight’s stomach gurgled at that, and she winced in embarrassment, shut her eyes hard enough to pretend she wasn’t there. “Hot chocolate sounds really good. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday though, so the sugar might hit me hard.”
Twilight on a sugar rush? Something to look forward to. She cooouuuld get her a snack, but... “I’ll see if we have any marshmallows to toast over candles too. Like a library campfire.” Sugar rushes in Twilight were absolutely a thing she wanted to encourage.
Twilight was, fortunately, too hungry to see this as the obvious trap that it was, because it ended in toasted marshmallows for her. “That sounds fantastic. I’ll meet you in the library, I guess?”
Pinkie nodded three times, then made off to the kitchen where Applejack had gone. Owlowiscious was looking at her curiously. He raised an eyebrow that just screamed “Oh, really?”
Pinkie blew him a big raspberry. “You’re a great wingman, but you deserved that new look, you know.”
Owlowiscious folded his wings across his chest. He apparently disagreed.
Applejack had found herself a chef’s hat and a white apron, and was really letting a wad of dough have it on the kitchen counter when Pinkie entered. Like, she had sworn an oath of vengeance against it or something. Applejack noticed her noticing. “Always helps after a rough day. Then you get to eat it after.”
“That makes sense. Thanks for helping out.”
Applejack tipped her chef’s hat -- Twilight told her it was called a toque! -- and bowed slightly. “At your service. What are you in here for? I thought Twilight had a special assignment.”
“Yeah! I’m making hot chocolate, and then we’re going to go cuddle up and read poetry by candlelight. It’s going to be great.”
Applejack slammed the dough onto the counter and stared at Pinkie as she darted about the kitchen, putting the milk in the saucepan... finding all the ingredients she needed. “First thing I get to take credit for is you two hooking up? Ain’t sure how I feel about that to be honest.”
“I kind of feel pretty great about it.”
“Well, you would, wouldn’t you? You’re made for each other; you’re both crazy.”
“And she likes chocolate even more than I do!”
Applejack was doing her best to pretend to be annoyed, but it was obvious she just found the idea of all this really funny. “I guess it was like we locked you two alone together in a cupboard for two years, ain’t it? Here’s to the rebellion, then, I guess, bringing ponies together in the weirdest ways.”
“Yeah! Now, thanks to you, we get to be normal, functional ponies for a bit!”
Applejack barked a single, shouted “Ha!”. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Now, where do you keep the baking trays, I couldn’t find ‘em on my own.”
When Pinkie brought the tray with the pot of hot chocolate up, and the packet of marshmallows with the box of toothpicks to skewer them with, Spike was standing beside Twilight’s favourite desk, blowing green fire over document after document. Twilight watched with interest.
Pinkie put her tray of bits down where the last document had been picked up from, and passed a mug to Twilight. “Moondancer get everything?”
“She’s just as brilliant as I remember. It’s so nice to have someone I can talk to about magic again. And I forgot how useless I am at organizing things without Spike to help me.”
Spike snorted. “You’re great at organizing things, you just suck at being organized. You put things down without thinking, then wonder why it’s not where it’s supposed to be the next time you go to pick it up.”
“I already thanked you, so shut up.”
Pinkie noticed Twilight do that all the time, but had thought she was doing it on purpose. Was she supposed to have been helping with that more? Or sorting that more? Spike wasn’t just taking her responsibilities from her, he was showing her just how much she’d missed.
Spike made her feel way out of her depth.
He saluted. “I put some apple cider vinegar with your flowers, too, so they should last longer. While I was cleaning your room.”
Twilight blinked. “That’s a thing?”
“You can do it with bleach too, but I think the vinegar works better. Where’d you get those, anyway? They’re beautiful.”
Twilight absolutely radiated pride and happiness. “Pinkie gave them to me. Aren’t they amazing?”
“I haven’t seen anything like them up in Canterlot. Then again, I spent most of my time in caves so...” Spike shrugged. “I’m going to go help Fluttershy some more, I’ll let you know when I start getting your mail back.”
“Thanks Spike, you don’t know how much I missed you.”
“I can guess.” He jumped up and wrapped his arms around Twilight’s neck.
Then Spike went to Pinkie. While Twilight was distracted with filling her mug from the tray, he snapped off a pair of approving fingerguns at Pinkie. “Cadance told me.” He whispered, “Don’t worry, I got you covered.”
“What?”
“I can look after her just fine, so you don’t need to worry about that anymore. Now you can focus on doing the things only you can do for her.”
Pinkie had no idea what to say to that.
Spike smirked, looking back over his shoulder to make sure Twilight wasn’t paying attention to them still. “Just go make each other happy or something.”
Then Spike skipped out, actually skipped. He spun and gave Pinkie Pie one last blast from the fingerguns before ducking out.
... doing the things only she could do?
Suddenly, Twilight had Moondancer to talk to about magic, and Shining and Cadance to support her, and Spike to do the things that had made Pinkie feel so needed... so what did that leave her with?
Pinkie snapped out of that thought when a mug of hot chocolate was floated under her nose.
“So, book-buddy,” Twilight giggled, actually giggled about that, “where do we start?”
Pinkie never used to feel overwhelmed by her emotions, because she’d just feel so much of everything. She felt the most sadness, the most happiness, the most anger and the most whatever it was she was feeling.
Twilight always felt the most panic. So, unlike Pinkie, who’d just sort of accepted being the most everything she could be, she’d actually worked out how to calm herself down, as long as somepony reminded her to do it.
So, thinking about what Twilight taught her helped. Just think about her breathing, count her breaths even when her mind wanted to run all over the place. In, two, three, four, out, two, three, four, in-
Think about how last time they’d planned this she’d called it a date, and that upset Twilight, but now she kind of wanted it to be a date but Twilight didn’t seem to think it was so would it upset Twilight to ask-
In, two, three, four, out.
Just reading together, that’s what she had said.
Out, two, three four, in.
A big pot of hot chocolate on a big lounge together, with Pinkie’s favourite books of poetry to show off. Dotty Parker, Firey Rime, Boy, Harp Weaver, all the stuff by They Might be Mountain Goats, -- oh wow, she hadn’t talked to Twilight about any of this before, had she? There was so much to cover.
Twilight waited for her dutifully on her side of the couch as Pinkie raced from bookshelf to bookshelf, trying to find the important ones and bookmarking them. Each time she found a particular one she liked, she put a ribbon in it and dropped it on a growing pile next to Twilight’s seat.
A record, she had a record, but that could come later. Music with lyrics would interrupt the conversation she’d want to have.
Twilight picked a book up from the bottom of the pile and started reading aloud the one Pinkie had picked out:
“A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me ponies, of life’s worth
Aren’t all the soul-and-body scars
A price too much to pay for birth?”
“They’re not all like that,” Pinkie reassured her, “I just really like that one.”
“Why?” Twilight sounded confused, “I mean, it’s pretty.”
“Because I think the answer is ‘yes’, yes it is, but it made me have to think about it. And I think it’s worth thinking about it sometimes, to make sure the answer is still yes.”
Twilight picked up the next one.
“Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!”
“I thought you’d like that one. It’s by Harp Weaver, she did the candle one too.”
“I don’t get it, I’m afraid. What does it mean?”
“Well, I think it’s about not living the safe life just because it’s safe and sensible. Her life doesn’t seem sensible at all, but she made something wonderful out of it.”
Twilight’s eyes went back and forth over the two lines over and over. “Oh! So it’s a metaphor for... I guess being the kind of person who throws everything away to live in a castle in the forest.”
“So how does that make you feel, knowing that?”
Twilight’s brow scrunched and her eyes went distant, which meant she was really thinking hard about it. “I don’t know. It makes me feel proud, but scared. Keenly aware of how reckless all the decisions I’ve made are, but more confident that they were the right ones. Trying to do what Applejack did, that would have been more sensible... but I could never have done it. That’s an ugly house on solid rock.”
Pinkie dropped another book on the pile. “It’s also just really musical. I like poems that are musical.”
Twilight looked down at the growing stack of books, which was already as tall as the arm of the sofa. “I think that’s enough, don’t you?”
Pinkie looked at them, and chewed the corner of her mouth. “It’s not all the book, and you’re a really fast reader.”
The books all levitated around Twilight’s head as she looked over them all. “I was hoping you’d read them to me, and explain them. I’m not very good at this.”
“Isn’t that the point of reading it though? To help understand it?”
Twilight grimaced as she flicked through some of Pinkie’s suggestions. “I don’t even understand what I don’t understand, that’s the problem.” Then, she looked at Pinkie with soft eyes, “And I really like how you explain it. I’d never have thought about the Rime poem that way, but it was beautiful how you put it. Besides, I want to know your reasons for picking these ones.”
“Well, yeah. But you don’t want to hear my reasons for all of them, do you?”
Twilight nodded emphatically, passing Pinkie one of the books and dropping the rest in a pile. Then she patted the spot on the lounge next to her, and scooted over to give Pinkie more space.
It looked like Pinkie was going to be reading poetry to Twilight and explaining why it resonated with her emotionally. Breathe in, two, three, four...
She looked at the one Twilight had picked out this one and smiled as she sank onto the couch next to her. They snuggled side-to-side so Twilight could read over her shoulder as they drank their hot chocolate.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,” Pinkie began reading. She really liked this one too. It was sad, but it was also determined and fierce and so she put as much emphasis as she could every time she repeated, “rage, rage against the dying of the light...”
When it was finished, and Twilight was silent, she explained that it was kind of a poem about dying, but really it was a poem about living, and fighting for life. About trying to overcome something that seemed inevitable, because the fighting was the important part.
Then she talked about how it was a villanelle, and the repetition and structure of it made it a really lyrical poem, to her, but she could only ever see it being read to violin, and she wasn’t really good at that.
Twilight stared at her. “I would never have been able to get that on my own. Any of that. Or even think about what kind of instrument would go with it. How do you do that?”
“Well, the words have a beat to them, and you can break that down into bars. Then you figure out what kind of emotion it makes you feel, and you think of an instrument that makes you feel like that. Violins are good at sadness and dramatic triumph, and that one’s both of those. Then you just fiddle around with scales you like until you find one that sounds right for it.”
“You just ‘feel it out’? I don’t even know where to begin, but you make it sound so natural. Like, you tell me how a violin feels, and of course it makes sense when you say it. But if you’d asked me, I’d have just said ‘violiny’.”
“They do sound ‘violiny’ though.”
“I just can’t make those kinds of connections in my head. I can understand it when it’s explained to me, but I’d never be able to think of that on my own.” Twilight beamed, rifling through the pile, picking up poems and glancing at them and then shuffling to the next one, “It’s always so fascinating seeing how your mind works.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m really bad at knowing how I feel. I don’t even notice when I’m getting too upset, or too worked up about something. You know exactly how you feel, as soon as you feel it, and you always know how I’m feeling before I do.”
Pinkie flinched. “Except when it’s really important-”
Twilight rapped a hoof twice against the arm of the chair, like an ‘ah-ha!’ in percussion, “But that’s exactly what I mean. I didn’t notice myself trying to pull away from you, until you were doing things to close the distance I didn’t realize I was trying to create. Even though you didn’t know what it meant, you were trying to fix the problem I didn’t know I had.”
“I guess...”
“Pinkie, I just thought my attention span was suffering. The only book in the entire library that had the answers I was looking for was meant for... you know,” Twilight flinched and blushed at the same time as her sentence ran her against an admission she couldn’t admit to, “I wasn’t exactly up to giving you hints, even when I did figure it out.”
That was true. Pinkie stuck a pencil through a marshmallow and held it over one of the actually lit candles, and appreciated how the flames rolled around the sides of it without quite making it catch. She offered Twilight one. Twilight waved it off.
“Thanks, but I sort of got my own while you were gone.” There was a ‘pop’, and Twilight held up a big slice of the cookie sandwich -- it yet lived! -- and ‘pop’ as it was sent back to the freezer. “I’m saving it though. Just the drink is nice for now.” She made a big point of sipping her extra-sweet, extra-creamy hot chocolate while Pinkie toasted her mallow nice and crispy.
Twilight looked through the other poems as she did that. Pinkie pulled her pencil back. Blow, blow, blow, munch -- Ow! Yum! Ow... more blowing next time.
Then Twilight looked through the books and passed her another one. “How about this one? To His Coy Mistress?”
“Oh! I love this one. Its language is so pretty, and it flows so well, and it’s really funny when you stop to think about it” Pinkie opened up the page and scanned down it, trying to commit it to memory so she could read it while watching Twilight’s expression. Then she remembered what the poem actually was about. “Uh. Maybe a different one would be better?”
“What? But you just said you loved this one. What’s wrong with it?”
Pinkie gulped. “It’s a really good poem. I just kind of expected you to read it to yourself. It’s a bit different when I have to read it to you.”
Twilight looked over the first few lines. “It looks fine. Weirdly chaste, even, for a romantic poem.”
“Yeah, they are. The first few lines I mean. That’s why I think it’s funny, and why you should probably get me to read a different one.”
Twilight was very confused. “How could it being weirdly chaste be a joke? I don’t understand.”
Pinkie took the book, because it was going to be way easier to just read this than it was to explain it. She held the book in front of her face, between her own and Twilights, so she couldn’t see just how red she was turning. She actually felt the tips of her ears burning. Hopefully Twilight was as bad at reading Pinkie’s emotions as she was at reading her own...
The first two stanzas were fine. They were all about chaste love, and all the platonic ways a relationship was totally perfect, and how they could do that until the end of time... oh but mortality was totally a thing, so, in with the third stanza. The punchline.
“Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
Yep.
“So, it’s about-”
“I worked that one out.” Twilight cut her off. “It was very...”
“See, when you read it on your own, it’s really funny.”
Pinkie didn’t lower the book, but she felt Twilight’s breathing stop against her side. They’d been pressed so tight together, and with every line Twilight had pressed herself just that little bit closer. Now, though, she’d realized what had just happened, and...
Well, knowing Twilight, she was fighting in her head over whether it was more awkward to be this close right now, or whether moving away would make it even worse and draw attention to it.
Wow, she really did understand Twilight that well. Maybe better than anyone else...
Twilight groaned, and Pinkie lowered the book in time to see her curl her face towards her knees. The cookie sandwich was back in front of her, but she was making a groaning noise.
“Twilight?”
“I just wanted one perfect day together as friends before I ruined everything.”
“Ruined everything?” The panic was rising in Pinkie’s gut, bubbling, “But we just got Applejack, and Fluttershy, and the others, everything should be okay right now.”
“Because now that everything is okay, I can finally ask you to go steady with me, and when you say ‘no’,” Twilight gestured at the ice cream sandwich, “I can get over it as quickly as possible, move on, and we can get back to saving the world. But we couldn’t have another day that was just like this.”
And the bubble of panic popped, and relief washed over her. “What if I don’t say ‘no’, though?”
“Pinkie, you have to say no.” Twilight patiently explained to her knees, “If you don’t say no, then I’m still in this purgatory state and I can’t move on. And I’ll explode the next time you read me a poem like that. Actually explode, with a blast radius. Bring a broom.”
“But what if I say ‘yes’?”
She sat up enough to look at Pinkie. Or at least twist her head toward her. “Pinkie, I don’t understand. What if you say yes?”
“Yes, what if I say yes, I want you to be my girlfriend?”
Twilight contemplated the ice cream sandwich floating in front of her, staring down it like it was a magic 8 ball. “Are you saying yes, though?”
“If you asked then yes, yes I would say ‘yes’.”
“I-” Twilight stared deep into the cookie sandwich, “I didn’t plan for this. I didn’t plan for this at all. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.”
There was a long moment of silence hanging between them.
“Twilight, if I say ‘yes’, you still get to eat the cookie sandwich.”
There was the first, nervous hints of a smile. Twilight gestured at it. "Does that mean I'd have to share it though?"
Pinkie giggled. She wanted to jump up and shout and scream and run around the room yelling but instead she just leaned against Twilight’s back. "It means we get to share it!"
Twilight’s back was shifting. She could keep the laughter from being out loud, but Pinkie could still feel it rocking through her. "Pinkie please say no I want this all to myself now."
"Twilight!" Pinkie grabbed a lounge cushion and smacked her with it.
"Pinkie I can't help it the sandwich... it's too great."
"Twilight I can just make you more if you want."
Twilight pounced all at once, hugging Pinkie tight and knocking her over to the other side of the couch. They were both giggling now, but they were pretending they didn’t notice yet. It was more fun that way.
"Is this what you want?” Pinkie demanded, “A relationship built on baked goods?"
"Honestly?” Twilight admitted, nodding into Pinkie’s chest, or nuzzling, it was hard to tell. Pinkie didn’t mind. “Yes."
"Okay good, me too."
Then there was more giggling, trailing off into nothing.
Pinkie became aware of her own breathing again. She wasn’t concentrating on it this time, it just felt heavy in her chest. Like she was running in place. Her back was against the arm of the couch, and Twilight was puddled against her, chin resting against her chest, eyes staring into her own. Just watching each other.
Twilight lifted off her chest, eyes half closed, mouth half open. She had no idea what she was doing. Pinkie leaned forward and melted into her.
Twilight’s ears folded down. She was smiling and wobbly, and her blush never went away. She looked drunk, except for her eyes. Her eyes. She shifted her weight lower, to kiss Pinkie’s neck.
“Pinkie, would you read me another poem?”
“... okay.”
“Like that last one.”
“You liked that last one, huh?”
“You’re so warm.”
“Like the sweet apple that reddens
At end of the bough--
Far end of the bough--
Left by the gatherer's swaying,
Forgotten, so thou.
Nay, not forgotten, ungotten,
Ungathered (till now).”
“I’m the reddening one, am I?”
“Y-you are.”
“I guess I am, too.”
“Aa.”
“Another one?”
“I’m not going to be able to read another one if you keep -- Ah, Twilight-”
“Mm. I read some interesting books. I’ve been thinking about this a lot...”
“I’m really, really, really not going to be able to- aaaAAaa-”
“You think you could try for me, though? Please?”
“The sweet companionship through quiet days
In the slow ample beauty of the world,”
“You’re starting in the middle?”
“Y o u are o n e to talk about starting in mid-- AH! --middles! .”
“I’ll keep going if you keep reading for me?”
“...”
“Yes?”
“yes.”
“Keep going.”
“And the unutterable glad release
Within the temple of the holy night.”
“I see why you picked that one.”
“please don’t stop.”
“Hrm? Mmm. M m m.”
“This isn’t fair! You haven’t done this before! You’re not allowed to beee this gooood!”
“I’m a quick student.”
“Aaa a a a a a a a a a a A !”
“There’s the first one...”
“F-f-first o-one?”
“Your teeth are chattering.”
“Y-ye-yeah.”
“That’s so cute.”
“fffirst onne?”
“You have given me infinite kindnesses over the last two years. I want to pay you back for each and every one.”
“you really dont have to.”
“I know. But I really, really want to. Okay?”
“okay.”
“Good.”
“should we maybe move to a bed?”
“Clever plan.”
“oh, and... if it’s... not too much of a bother...??”
“Mm?”
“could you maybe wear the... outfit... again for me please?”
“I think so.”
They landed on Twilight’s bed with a bounce. It was a very enthusiastic teleport. Twilight landed on top of Pinkie with a devilish grin and licked her lips slowly, like she was hungry.
Then something clicked. The fog went out behind her eyes, and she jumped off the bed like it was a hot pan. “I’m sorry!”
“Sorry? Why sorry?”
“I’m being way too forward. I shouldn’t have- I didn’t even ask-” Twilight was staring at her with blown out pupils, the kind she always got when she was having an anxiety attack.
Pinkie screamed in her head. NOW she does this!
But then she stopped screaming because she realized what had happened. Of course it was now, she hadn’t made any plans for what would happen if Pinkie said yes. Which meant that this was the first time she’d actually stopped to think about what she was doing. So it was just hitting her all at once.
So Twilight really needed to stop thinking right now and crawl back into bed because stopping right now was actually cruel and unusual punishment. It was way better when she wasn’t thinking, just making it hard for Pinkie to think.
“Twilight it’s okay. I’m really, really okay with this right now. Extremely okay with it.”
“I thought you’d say no, and then I got overexcited, and I just... I’ve been playing that moment over in my head so much--”
Pinkie cut her off again, “You’ve been thinking about that a lot?”
Twilight turned bright red. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
“So you’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now?”
“Is that okay? Is it... I didn’t think I had your permission to, so I shouldn’t, but I kept thinking of you anyway, and I couldn’t help it. I’m so sorry.” Twilight was practically curling up into a ball of shame on the floor now.
Pinkie slunk out of bed and wrapped her in the warmest, most reassuring hug she could manage. “Well, it’s okay. I was planning something too. When I tell you that, how do you feel?”
Twilight’s ears flicked. “You were?”
Pinkie kissed her cheek. “I asked you a question, sparklebutt.”
“... excited? Curious? Flattered?”
“So, why do you think I’d feel different?”
Twilight mumbled into her knees. “Because, you knew I liked you, so... that feels like it makes it different.”
“Well, now you know I like you a lot too. And I uh...” Now it was Pinkie’s turn to bury her muzzle in Twilight’s neck so she didn’t have to finish that sentence. But Twilight was just waiting patiently for her to finish. No escape. “... when you took charge like that just then? I really, really, really, really liked that...”
Twilight straightened up, the hairs on the back of her neck all stood to attention. “You did?”
Pinkie just nodded, because she couldn’t manage to make her mouth move to say ‘yes’.
“I wasn’t making you do anything you weren’t okay with? You weren’t just... doing it because it’s what I wanted?”
Pinkie wanted to scream in frustration and pounce her to the ground and that was probably counter-productive. Instead she just peppered Twilight’s face with tiny, rapidfire smooches. Now that she had Pinkie, now came worrying about hurting her, or losing her so soon. She didn’t have any frame of reference for what was or wasn’t okay yet. That was the solution, then.
“As my wonderful, super smart girlfriend who can overthink everything,” Pinkie whispered into Twilight’s ear. She shivered at ‘girflriend’, from the tips of her ears down to her tailbone, “I give you permission to think about me however you want. In fact, I’m going to go grab something real quick and when I get back, I want you to show me everything you thought about while I was gone.”
“Really? You do?”
Pinkie swallowed back the dry lump near the top of her chest. She knew what she wanted to say, but it was really, really scary. It was kind of big. It was the kind of big thing that feels like it won’t fit through your throat if you try to say it. “I’ve been thinking, since you told me you had a crush on me... and how I kind of really liked you too, so umm...”
“You have?”
And Twilight’s surprise, the feeling of her sitting up straight and attentively, just listening... that’s what pushed Pinkie over the edge to just say it. “I want you, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight didn’t move, had stopped breathing. When Pinkie stopped hugging her to look at her properly, she could see that her eyes were doing that far away thing, where she was too busy inside her head. Pinkie kissed her on the forehead, just below the horn.
“I’ll be right back.”
Twilight still hadn’t moved by the time Pinkie had closed the door quietly behind her, and started heading towards her own room.
She’d said it.
She’d said it, she’d said it, she’d said it, aaaah!
That was so scary and intense but she couldn’t just leave Twilight thinking that what had just happened in the library wasn’t okay. It really was so far beyond being okay in a good direction.
Her girlfriend -- hee hee hee hee hee ha ha haaa -- just needed some time to think. So she had given her the clear instruction on what to think about, and permission to think about it. Telling Twilight not to think too hard about something was like telling a housefire to maybe chill out a bit.
Work with the fact that her girlfriend had to overthink everything, not against it.
Let her focus on good, happy thoughts, while she internalized the fact that was a thing she was allowed to do now. That was a thing that got to happen.
Oh, gosh, that got to happen. Pinkie grinned drunkenly. Her legs still kind of wobbled a little bit just from their start on the couch. Twilight was... somehow amazing at everything she put her mind to, and apparently she’d put her mind to Pinkie pretty hard.
Ha ha ha. Wow. Wow.
Pinkie ran down the hall on her mission. Cadance was heading the other way, and they locked eyes as they were about to pass each other. As soon as she saw Pinkie, she raised an eyebrow. Pinkie wiggled hers back, smiling so hard that she was squinting from her cheeks pressing up into her eyes. Cadance smiled, and made an excited noise like a boiling kettle.
Cadance stuck her hip out as Pinkie ran past, and Pinkie gave her a proper bump as she ran past. The pretty pink pony signal of “Woo-hoo, sister!”
Then Pinkie was at her room, and throwing the door open. Then Pinkie was in her sock drawer, and found her planned revenge.
Four socks, pink-and-white horizontal stripes. She was going to absolutely destroy Twilight in these. This was the heavy ordnance revenge she had planned for that short skirt. She looked at her reflection in her bedroom mirror and... oh, yeah, her girlfriend didn’t stand a chance. This was basically lethal weaponry because of how much she was gunna knock her dead.
Pinkie started skipping fast back down the halls. This time she past Fluttershy, who was drifting past, carrying a bunch of neatly-folded linens.
Fluttershy saw the socks, and seemed confused for a moment. Then she blushed, right to the tips of her ears, and looked to Pinkie’s eyes for confirmation.
Pinkie grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. Yep.
Fluttershy zoomed past, and Pinkie cackle-snorted the whole rest of the way back to Twilight’s room. The look on her face was priceless.
She stopped laughing as soon as she opened the door. Twilight was wearing the outfit again, looking at her with the same eyes she’d had on the couch... except it was even more intense, now, with all the confidence that those boots gave her.
“Close the door,” Twilight said in that voice. Pinkie gulped and closed it. Twilight grinned that hungry look again. “I have good news, my sweet girl.”
Pinkie felt her knees wobble again. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. She was supposed to be knocking Twilight off her hooves. “Yes?”
Twilight picked Pinkie up with her magic and threw her onto the bed. Pinkie bounced once, twice, sprawled out on the bed. Twilight stalked up to the bed like a tiger. “I made a list.”
That was the trick to it. You couldn’t just tell Twilight not to think about something. That would never work. Instead, you had to point her in the right direction. Without direction all she thought about were problems, but with them she thought about solutions.
And considering the slow, precise methodology that followed, the way Twilight focused on experimenting and learning the best way to do everything she did, and the imagination of some of the stuff on the list? Pinkie Pie was just another thing she could figure out to solve.
The socks were a false hope for fighting back. She never stood a chance.
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For some reason, I can't picture Pinkie doing the horizontal tango without a bunch of foley going on. Possibly also confetti explosions.
That's a very good and appropriate title. You're making me react like Fluttershy over here. Oh dear.
So the bit with Twilight, and the reading poetry, and the distracting, and...well. It makes a very strong impression.
This is how you do really intense love scenes without actually showing anything explicit, because you really don't need to.
Pinkie getting Twilight to overthink productively...really, she has no one to blame but herself. Not that I think she'll have any regrets at all.
So, having just blitzed through the story up to this point, I'm interested to see how you're going to resolve the story, what with it being built around a band of villain protagonists.
I'm being at least half-serious here. Why is NMM the villain?
I mean, based on the S5 finale, we know that without the Elements, Celestia failed to defeat each of Sombra, Chrysalis, Tirek, Discord, and even frigging Flim and Flam. NMM, on the other hand, had kept Equestria functional and undefeated for the entire duration of the show up until that point. NMM on her own is more competent than Celestia on her own.
I, for one, welcome our new Lunar overlords.
9183916
I know you're joking, BUT...
We see one timeline ruled by a successful Nightmare Moon. One. We see many more where many villains were defeated in sequence by Celestia and her people before they were overwhelmed, even without the intervention of Equestria's destined heroes. That tells me that Nightmare Moon winning is actually an edge case. In most, one way or another she doesn't even manage to take over.
That said, I will admit that she absolutely has style.
9183916
“Sure, she sentenced the entire world to live in literal darkness and never feel the sunlight on their faces again, forcing them to work harder to adapt and survive so as to align themselves with her arbitrary preferrence for night. But the trains still run on time.”
9183962
And Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, Flim & Flam, or anypony else won't doom the world if Twilight is having a meltdown, Fluttershy is escorting migratory birds, or some other stupid thing is happening during the same week and the Rainbow Friendship Laser is unavailable. But mostly the darkness and trains.
9183982
You know, the rainbow friendship laser doesn't actually get used very much. Nightmare Moon, Discord... who else? Tirek was long running divine intervention from the Tree of Harmony that that made artifacts specifically for the occasion. Thorax was his OWN Agape Laser, Cadence used the Crystal Heart to blow up Sombra, Flim and Flam get stopped by the Equestrian Civil Service (who presumably sacrificed themselves heroically to defeat some other evil in FlimFlam world. Maybe Discord, red tape vs Chaos...) Glimmer got stopped by Twilight personally, ditto Sunset, ditto The Storm King...
So yeah. The elements are a big deal but they are hardly the national security linchpin they get treated as.
Actually, Sunset and the girls mean that if they need the Elements and the usual bearers are taken out? They've got BACKUPS! With an Element of Empathy tossed in for good measure. And now I'm imagining Discord vs The Power of Rock...
9182462
Actually have a bit of aphasia from a seizure a while back. I make a lot of homophone typos.
9184054
Feel free to substitute "Bearers / Mane Six" for Elements. I mean, Celestia (and every other level of Equestrian government) couldn't deal with freakin' Flim and Flam without the Mane Six's help?
9184061
Like I said, in that world the government sacrificed itself in a great ritual to bind Discord in the Seven Ribbons of Red Tape. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Or the country was just on the verge of collapse from fighting off all the other villains in turn the conventional way, take your pick.
9183916
Hi, Rarity
I laughed hard when I read Twilight saying "I made a list" because it was so like her.
So I just remembered. There's a fairly well known sexy-art project that generated videos very similar to the bit with Pinkie trying to read poems while Twilight tried to...ahem...distract her. Inspiration, or just bibliophiles thinking alike?
9184536
Not well known to me I'm.... Afraid???
9184551
Ah okay. There were alot of Facebook articles floating around about it last year in the vein of "oh art, is that what they're calling it now". It was called Hysterical Literature. Videos of people, fully clothed so far as you could see, reading their favorite books aloud while someone got intimate with them under a table. So yeah, filing that under 'strange minds think alike'.
There is only a few stories that I actively follow on this site, Austraeoh series, Enchanted Library by Mono, and never find the want to read new ones really. This was a real breath of fresh air for me. Thanks MrNumbers, I'll be following this one just like The Mare who once Lived in the Moon.
9183916
Every villain successfully conquered the world and held it together against every other villain. That's not a big deal.
Besides, you're not advocating Nightmare Moon because you actually think safety is worth the compromises we've seen her make; you just okay with it because they're compromises that don't affect you.
9184061
Because her job is being a politician. She's not supposed to be in charge of defending the nation; she's in charge of keeping the trains running with resorting to brute force, 'enhanced interrogations,' and general tyranny. She's also aware of this and makes sure that people suited for the job are around to deal with them.
This is an A+ description of Twilight Sparkle.
Actually called a toque blanche (white hat). In Canada, a toque is a winter hat.
I'd rather have an ugly house built on a rock. That way I could have a really sweet motorcycle.
I've read lurid shitposts on this site. I've read filth that would horrify and disgust those that I know outside of this site. Truly I must reckon with the unbridled depravity that is imprinted on my mind.
For all the sexuality in those stories, they barely have an effect on me.
Stories like this make me blush.
9188837
t, right there.
I know, right? I actually felt ashamed! Like I was intruding, somehow. Das' some good s
9188837
Twilight's To Do List
✔ Pinkie
✔ Pinkie
✔ Pinkie
✔ Pinkie
✔ Pinkie
🔲 Pinkie
First off, poetic Pinkie is as delightful as she is unexpected! Also, hot damn this was some sweet, sweet Twi-Pie shipping.
9183916
Yeah, you've got the causality backwards there. Nightmare Moon is not the villain because Celestia banished her; Celestia banished Nightmare Moon because she was a villain.
9186683
I've never heard them called anything but toques. I thought those winter hats were called shakos.
...OH MY.
9184559
Do you happen to remember what they were called? I am more asking out of curiosity than anything.