Guarded Emotions: The Final Season

by Alabenson

Dragon Dropped

“-and that’s when Trixie stepped on the tail of the second cragadile,” Moonwhisper said sourly. “Thankfully, Starlight and Greater Good were able to deal with it while I finished off the last of the timberwolves. I will admit, being a giant rockdog did at least come with a few advantages. By that point, we ran into Zecora, who was on her way back to her home, and she was able to finally reverse the spell.”

Twilight slowly nodded her head as she processed what Moonwhisper had told her. “Okay, I think I follow all of that, but I still have a question. What are you planning on doing with that bucket of glitter?”

“Oh, this?” Moonwhisper asked as he gestured towards the bucket he’d been carrying when Twilight had found him. “To tell the truth…I’m really not entirely sure myself. I had requested Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash’s assistance in devising some form of retaliation against Greater Good for the rockdog incident. I had considered handling it entirely on my own, but I presumed that simply bludgeoning him with a heavy object would be frowned upon. In any event, Pinkie Pie insisted that my supplying glitter to the project was absolutely essential to whatever it is that she has planned.”

“I…actually, you know what? If Pinkie Pie’s involved then whatever it is won’t be too bad, and beyond that I get the feeling I’ll probably be happier if I don’t know any more details,” Twilight said. “Just, whenever you’re done with whatever it is doing, could you give me a hoof with the trash? We have another fainting couch to get rid of.”

“Rarity?” Moonwhisper asked, receiving a nod of confirmation from Twilight. “Two in one week? That seems like a bit much, even by her standards. Is there something wrong?”

Twilight shrugged. “Spike’s been spending a lot of time with his new friend Gabby, and Rarity hasn’t been dealing with it all that well. I’m pretty sure they’ve talked things out by now, though.”

“If you say so,” Moonwhisper said while making a mental note to clear his schedule for that evening.

*********

Later that night, Moonwhisper was relaxing in his room pondering what Pinkie Pie was planning on doing with that many balloons when he heard on expected knock on his door. “Come in.” Moments later, the door cracked open as Spike poked his head inside.

“Hey, Moonwhisper? Could I talk to you for a minute?” Spike asked cautiously.

“Of course. What’s on your mind?” Moonwhisper replied, though he suspected he knew the answer to his question already.

“Well, it’s just…I’ve had a crush on Rarity for, well, ever since Twilight and I came to Ponyville. You probably already knew that, though. Anyway, Rarity and me, we spend a lot of time together, and we’ve became really good friends. But…” Spike paused as he tried to find the right words to continue. “I’ve been starting to wonder if Rarity’s ever going to, you know, want to be more than friends.”

Moonwhisper closed his eyes as he silently wished Spike had asked him easier, like the best way to fight a larger dragon, or the meaning of life. “Well, have you tried talking to Rarity about this?”

“What? I – no, I mean…I can’t,” Spike said as he hung his head in shame. “What if she doesn’t feel the same way?”

“Stirrupinger’s relationship,” Moonwhisper mused, earning a blank stare from Spike. “Sorry, Stirrupinger was an arcane theorist who was famous for coming up with a thought experiment to explain the concept of quantum superposition.” As this explanation clearly failed to clarify anything for Spike, Moonwhisper continued. “Right now, Rarity’s feelings towards you are an unknown; she simultaneously might feel the same way about you and she might not. Once you talk to her about this, however, her feelings become a certainty and one of those possibilities will cease to be.”

“Yeah, that’s…what should I do?” Spike asked.

Moonwhisper let out a sigh. “Spike, to be honest, I’m likely one of, if not the least qualified stallions in Equestria to answer a question like that. The best I can do is point out that if you don’t act eventually, you run the risk of having your question answered for you, and not in the way you’d prefer.”

“Maybe I should wait until after Twilight’s big coronation thing,” Spike suggested. “That way, if it goes wrong at least things might not be so awkward if it doesn’t work out.”

“That sounds reasonable enough to me,” Moonwhisper said with a shrug. “Then again, as I said, I’m likely no the best stallion to ask about this sort of thing.”

“Didn’t you have to deal with this sort of thing when you and Twilight got together?” Spike asked.

“Yes, and if Twilight hadn’t confronted me and dragged how I felt about her out of me I’d have likely kept my head down and mouth shut about how I felt until it was too late.” Moonwhisper said. “The right answer would probably be to talk to Rarity directly and get everything out into the open, but…if anything, I can understand that the right answer isn’t always going to be the best one in cases like this.”

“Yeah, you said it,” Spike replied dejectedly. “Well, it’s not like I have to make a decision tonight or anything, right? I think I’ll just sleep on it for now.”

“I’d say that’s probably for the best,” Moonwhisper agreed. “One thing that I am able to confirm is that it’s rarely a good idea to make an important decision at the spur of the moment. Things in those cases can wind up rather messy.”

*********

A few days later, Greater Good sauntered up to his office in Canterlot Palace in a remarkably good mood. It seemed that everypony involved in resolving Moonwhisper’s brief transformation had been too concerned about Princess Twilight’s stress levels to inform her about the incident, which meant he could dodge at least one unpleasant conversation. Better still, it appeared that nopony had thought to mention what had happened to Princess Celestia, meaning Greater Good didn’t have to try to avoid explaining how somepony like Trixie had gotten access to the scroll from the secret restricted section of the Canterlot Library that he wasn’t supposed to know about.

Greater Good was still mentally patting himself on the back when he noticed a small envelope taped to the front of his office door. Cautiously, Greater Good removed the enveloped and inspected it. To his confusion, the envelope was empty, and completely blank aside from a letter ‘M’ written on the front.

“Hmm, looks like Moonwhisper’s hornwriting, but why would – he’s left something in my office, hasn’t he?” Greater Good said to himself. “Well, after what I put him through, I guess he’s entitled to a little payback. Besides, the big lump has all the imagination of a rock, so I really doubt that whatever he’s thought up could possibly be that bad.” Despite his stated confidence, however, Greater Good took a few steps back as he magically opened his office door from a safe distance. The moment the door opened, Greater Good was treated to the sight of a small avalanche of inflated party balloons cascaded out. A quick glance confirmed that Greater Good’s office had been completely filled floor to ceiling with the balloons until nothing else could possibly be fit inside. “Huh, I don’t know what I was expecting, but this sure wasn’t it. I’d guess Moonwhisper probably enlisted on of Princess Twilight’s friends to assist, probably whatshername…Pinkie Pie, I think. Still, if this is what Moonwhisper considers to be fair payback for the whole rockdog incident then I’m not going to complain.” As Greater Good spoke, he levitated a long dagger out from under his cloak and jabbed one of the balloons lying on the floor. Upon bursting, however, the balloon sent a spray of glitter in all directions, leaving Greater Good’s face coated in sparkling powder.

“Touché, Moonwhisper,” Greater Good muttered as he wiped off his face. “Touché.”

Comments

[Onyx Quill]

Using glitter is just too cruel. Seriously. That sh*t gets EVERYWHERE, and it's impossible to clean up.