Friendship is Magic (and also cupcakes)

by bahatumay

Chapter 6

Spike’s eyes flickered open. The first thing he heard was a strangely familiar scraping. After checking the window to make sure it wasn’t a stray branch, he crawled out of his basket and made it to the doorway before slowing to a stop.

He looked over all the tripped traps, the empty nets, the books littering the ground, the cupcake wrapper on the table, and then at over Twilight, who had nearly filled a blackboard with scrawls and a drawing of a pony in the middle.

“Ah, Spike,” Twilight said, turning towards him, her smile a bit too wide, her mane askew and pointing in all directions. “I had quite the productive night last night.”

“You had… something,” Spike agreed uncomfortably. He had the sudden impression that he was about to be on the receiving end of a lecture.

And he was right.

She gestured at her board. “The Birthday Pony is real, but she’s not like any other pony I’ve seen. With her ears, wings, and fangs being so divergent from a typical pony’s, we are limited to two options. I had originally theorized her to be a mutant, but my current hypothesis is that she is actually a member of a hitherto undiscovered tribe, and I have decided to designate them for the time being as batticus poniecus.”

“Can you designate some time for Princess Celestia’s ‘make friends’ assignment?” Spike jabbed.

“Don’t be silly, Spike. And please don’t interrupt me while I’m in lecture mode.”

As if on cue, her stomach growled. She scowled down at it, as if annoyed that it, too, would interrupt her while she was in lecture mode.

Spike knew an out when he saw one. “I’ll get into breakfast mode, then,” Spike said, heading for the kitchen.

“Fine, but I’m not done yet. I will not believe in anything I cannot explain!”

“One of us needs more sleep, and I don’t think it’s me,” Spike grumbled under his breath.

---

Spike opened the door to the library and was completely unsurprised to see Twilight surrounded by books.

“Where have you been?” Twilight asked.

“Checking on a couple of the other ponies on your list,” Spike said, holding it up. “That Fluttershy mare in charge of the music seems really nice.” He straightened up a bit as he finished, “And she appreciates my natural dragon beauty.”

Spike was semi-serious, but this didn’t get any reaction from her besides a soft murmur of acknowledgement and lowering her head again.

Spike sighed. “Come on, Twilight. I really think you should give it a try. Princess Celestia did say-”

“I’ll have time later,” Twilight said. “The Summer Sun celebration is in a week and I still have no idea what to do about Nightmare Moon, but I do know that the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends.”

“If you say so,” Spike said.

---

Twilight’s ears flicked as she woke up. She let out a soft grunt. It didn’t feel like morning. Her eyes slowly opened.

And her vision was suddenly filled with blue.

Now very much awake, she yelped and fell out of bed, scrambling back to the wall.

The Birthday Pony was there, smiling widely, ears pricked and featherless wings spread.

“Hi,” Twilight said hesitantly, mostly because she wasn’t sure what else to say. She hoped that this wasn’t a bat pony threat in body language she didn’t understand. “What… what are you doing in my house?”

“Ee,” she chirped as she bounced in place.

Spike sat up. “I think she came to play,” he said. “Maybe she liked your traps after all.”

Twilight looked at the darkened sky. “A bit late for that, isn’t it?” she asked dryly.

She looked at the sky, too. Her brow furrowed.

Something occurred to Twilight. “Right, you’re probably nocturnal, like the vast majority of Chiroptera,” Twilight realized. “It’s probably early morning for you.” She suppressed a yawn. “I mean, it’s not for me...”

“Come on, Twilight,” Spike wheedled, clearly seeing a friendship opportunity here.

She looked at her with those big blue pleading eyes.

And it worked. Twilight sighed. “Fine,” she groaned as she pushed herself up. “What do you want to play?”

She pointed to a poster of a tailless pony on the wall that definitely hadn’t been there when Twilight had gone to bed.

“Pin the tail on the pony?” Twilight repeated dubiously. “A little foalish, don’t you think?”

Her hopeful smile remained, but her ears dropped a little bit.

“Wait. She probably hasn’t played it before,” Spike realized. “She’s been hiding for years. She probably only watches parties, but never gets to go.”

Twilight didn’t think going to a party sounded terribly inviting, especially not an impromptu one in her bedroom, but she obligingly took the blindfold Pinkie held out. She lit her horn and tied it on, and let Pinkie spin her around.

Any irritation that Twilight had felt at being awoken quickly evaporated. It wasn’t often that the subject of your research willingly appears in your room.

And it wasn’t often that Twilight was placing a tail on a wall like a filly half her age, but she would leave this part out of her report, anyway.

She took the chance to surreptitiously examine her when it was her turn to be blindfolded. She certainly looked like any other little pony, regular coat, fluffy mane, and flanks decorated with a cutie mark that looked like balloons with bat wings. The wings were different, tucked against her side, but they may have been larger than a typical pegasus’s? She resisted the urge to ask to measure them and spun her around so she could take her turn.

Before long, the poster (or rather, the wall around it) had multiple tails, most of them far from where a tail would normally be.

But the Birthday Pony didn’t seem to mind. The whole time, she was very enthusiastic, with wide, sweeping body language, but the only thing she said was ‘eee’, whether by choice or because she couldn’t form ponish words was still unknown. But Twilight knew better than to frighten away her singular specimen, so she played along.

And in spite of the late hour, Twilight found that she didn’t hate it. Even when she accidentally pinned the tail on the wrong wall entirely.
“Well, that explains your giggles,” she said flatly as she pulled the blindfold off.

The Birthday Pony managed to get her next tail on the flank. “Eee!” she cheered, jumping and spinning once in place in celebration.

Spike held out his claw for a bump. She didn’t recognize this at first, but she quickly figured it out, which made her even happier.

“Ok, that was a little fun,” Twilight conceded.

“Mm-hm,” Spike agreed.

The bat pony giggled, then looked up at the moon. She winced. “Eee,” she murmured softly, taking a slight step back.

Twilight looked up but didn’t see anything.

Spike figured it out first. “Do you need to leave?” he guessed.

She nodded regretfully.

“Yeah, we should probably get to sleep,” Twilight agreed. She glanced at the clock and winced, too. It was late.

She pushed open the window, paused to retrieve a pair of cupcakes from her mane, left them on the bedside table, and then disappeared into the night.

“Tomorrow,” Twilight said shortly, cutting off Spike’s question.

Spike didn’t push back, but that might have also been because he yawned. “Maybe friendship isn’t so bad,” Spike floated as he climbed back into his basket.

Twilight threw a pillow in his general direction, but she couldn’t suppress a little smile.

Comments

[Mindscape]

“Wait. She probably hasn’t played it before,” Spike realized. “She’s been hiding for years. She probably only watches parties, but never gets to go.”

Oh my heart! A Pinkie who's never been to a party?
That's so tragic, but it's so nice to see Twilight engaging with her