She Wants To Know What Love Is

by Elric of Melnipony

BONUS: Princess Cadance

Dear Twist,

I expect this letter comes as something of a surprise to you. I'm sure you already know that your town librarian is no ordinary pony; another important thing to know is that any friend of Twilight Sparkle's is a friend of mine. I've known her since she was a filly, back when we both lived in Canterlot. (Oh, and I married her brother not too long ago. He seems to think it's important for me to mention that. Stop reading over my shoulder, Shining!) So now you probably have an idea of how I heard about your situation. This may not be your only royal response, either – I've heard that Celestia was going to send something to you, but Luna volunteered instead. (You might even have that letter by the time you get this.)

As to why I'm writing to you, let's just say I know a little bit about the topic at hoof. (I also like to help ponies, except for the ones who keep trying to read letters while I'm writing them. Bad things happen to those ponies, Shining.) It's very sensible of you to want to learn more about love and relationships before “leaping from the cloud”, as the pegasi say. I know you're fond of books just like Twilight and me, so I'm enclosing a short list of titles you might be interested in. The one at the top of the list is one of the most beautiful novels I've ever read; the next one down is an impressive work from a professor in Fillydelphia, even if it's a little dry at times.

Since you'll no doubt have questions, please write back to me if there's anything I can help clear up for you. I'm also hoping you'll also write to me with updates – I want to hear how you win that colt's heart! And you definitely need to write to me if you ever plan to travel to the Crystal Empire. I'll arrange a place for you and your parents to stay, I'll make sure you get a tour of the palace, and we'll actually be able to meet unless something VERY unusual is going on.

There is, however, one other thing you should keep in mind: books and questions can only teach you so much about love. Friendship and love are closely related, and just like Twilight had to be sent out of her comfortable routine in Canterlot to learn about friendship, you'll eventually have to put yourself forward to learn about love. Like the old earth pony saying advises us, sometimes you just have to water the crop and see what grows. I won't lie about rejection and pain: they can happen, but you should never let fear hold you back from what your heart wants.

One last thing – I wrote “colt” because Twilight told me you were interested in one. If you ever find yourself feeling that way about a filly, that's fine. Love is love.

Your new friend,
Cadance

Mi Amore Cadenza
Crystal Princess, Keeper of the Crystal Heart, Regis of the Crystal Empire
Princess-by-Deed of Equestria, Steward of the Royal Equestrian Protectorate

I apologize. I said I was going to write a personal letter, and this is what they gave me. I swear, that's the last time I tell anypony I'm going to write a letter at all. Next time I'm just going to ask for a blank piece of paper and keep my mouth shut.

Author's Note:

I reject the headcanon that ponies have last names like humans do. I decided that a "full name" would refer to a pony's parents, much like in actual breeding of horses and ponies in the real world. You can learn about Twist's father Tango in my story "Special Talents".

Comments

[Jazzaman]

[Elric of Melnipony]

3539504
What can I say? I was stuck for a title...

[Shadow Shard]

Romance story + BronyMate ads =

[hawthornbunny]

Now that is an awesome chapter. :)

[Elric of Melnipony]

3541474
Thank you!

[Dusty Sage]

Nice to see Cadance giving some worthwhile advice. (None of my characters ever pay her the slightest heed, for some reason.)

[Elric of Melnipony]

3543402
Well, in all fairness, 3035052 gets credit for the involvement of Cadance in the story at all, but I was hoping that what I did with the idea would be worthy of the Crystal Princess. Sounds like I did okay. Also sounds like some of your characters could use a smack in the head from a certain pink alicorn. Too bad she's too sweet to hand (hoof?) those out...

[Dusty Sage]

3543512
"We'll see about that," said the scribe, the thousand words he'd ground out over the weekend (and failed, as usual, to edit in a timely manner) finally coming to mind.

And as we all know, I have a vested interest in Twist's future happiness, whatever direction it may take.

[Seether00]

This was super cute. Well done!

[Elric of Melnipony]

3587646
Thank you! Cuteness was the goal.

[Martian]

This was warm and lovely, and a very nice read to have on a chilly January night~

[Elric of Melnipony]

3726277
Is that Twilight/Pinkie, or Twist/Pinkie? Or just a request for more snack cakes?

3726344
Thanks! Compliments are always nice, but they're even better when they come from such a talented writer.

[Martian]

Twilight/Pinkie, though now that you mention snacks...

[Elric of Melnipony]

3823143
After some misunderstandings, the foals of Ponyville made her feel really welcome on Nightmare Night.
That's all.

And yeah, I'm pretty pleased with Teacher Luna myself.

[RemareShadows]

oh Sweet a bonus! it adds a nice fluffy cushion to land on.
nice story all in all.
it did it's purpose.
that prolog tho x.x.
4/5
yay for Twist!

[Elric of Melnipony]

3959535
I explained in another comment a while back, but he's this colt here.
(He looks better without all that ink all over him.)

[Blaze808]

Is it just me or did the song " I wanna know what love is" start playing in anyone else's head when they read the title?
great job on your stories there really good!! :)

[JumpingShinyFrogs]

Congratulations! This story has officially been deemed an Emerald by The Gem Hunters!

There's a few nitpicks here and there. Twist's lisp makes her dialogue hard to read at times, but it isn't too bad.

We don't really need a short little description of the characters every time we meet a new one. We already know Diamond Tiara is the spoiled rich filly, and that Twilight is a lavender alicorn. If someone doesn't know what the characters look like, then they shouldn't be reading this.

Overall though, it is a cute little read about love, which I'm not usually one for reading, so good job keeping my attention span.

[The Princess Rarity]

There is seriously only one word to describe this story - adorable. Just like the main filly who starred in it. It's always heartwarming to read about foalhood crushes. This was very nice. Looking forward to reading more of your stuffs.

[Elric of Melnipony]

4376983
So glad you enjoyed it!

[Stunt Monkey]

Nice story! I liked it a lot! Thumbs up!

[Elric of Melnipony]

4819014
Thank you.

[scoots2]

Very enjoyable, with extra points for the Alexandrian Library. I skimmed the comments. Did anyone else note that reference?

New cover is worth it!

[Elric of Melnipony]

4930755
I think you might be the first to bring it up, oddly enough.

And I'm glad you liked it!

[Digital Ghost]

5656271 Pinkie's actually smarter than she lets on, isn't she? I loved it when they showed her like this on the show and comics. Her randomness truly helps in thinking outside the box, and her personality perfectly masks her mental workings.

[Elric of Melnipony]

5658246
Exactly! I'm not going to claim I'm perfect with my depiction, but I like to think it's at least in the spirit of the character. There are so many writers on this site who just don't get Pinkie at all. (I also have a helpful and somewhat thoughtful Pinkie in one of my other stories; she indirectly assists a background filly in getting her cutie mark.)

[Digital Ghost]

5658376 And I really hope you continue portray Pinkie like that

[Elric of Melnipony]

5804688
Not going to try to reply to all of your comments, but I'm glad you're pleased with what you read, and as I've implied, I'm sort of proud of my depiction of Pinkie. And thanks for catching that with Rarity -- I was going for "Rarity who wants to help you improve your look", not "Rarity who wants to completely change you".

And as for Twist, I really wish more fans appreciated her.
roundstable.com/forums/images/smilies/awwtwist.png?wrap=true

[Twilight is the BEST]

And here I thought twist was going to be single. Anyways, very good story mate.

[Elric of Melnipony]

6520793
Thanks!

[Carnation83]

All in all, I love that this story gives good realistic advice about what it means to be in a romantic relationship. Kudos on that!

[Elric of Melnipony]

6709814
It's not often that I encounter someone enthusiastic enough about one of my stories to comment on multiple chapters.

I felt it was important to have Rarity be willing to accept Twist for who she is and not demand radical changes... while at the same time helping her make a slight change that might get her more attention. Rarity believes in bringing out everypony's individual beauty, not making them all conform to some arbitrary standards.

Communication is, of course, incredibly imporant. If the man won't talk about his feelings, or if the woman expects him to read her mind, or any of those other pitfalls, things will very likely fall apart. And even if they don't, they won't be as good as they could be. So I wanted to make sure that this point came up somewhere in the story.

I appreciate the kind words. Since almost the beginning, I've had a note about how there may or may not be some real-world adivce to be found in the story, but I can't recall if anyone ever commented on it before or not. Glad you liked the story... and since I see you're new to the site, welcome.

[Carnation83]

6709925 Thanks!

I just really enjoyed how this may be a story about ponies, but still had believability when it comes to love advice. It's something I wish would come up more often in most stories I read about romance. fanfic or otherwise.

[RaritySimper44]

Shes not very formal