> All Hallow's Eve
>  by Such A Chlorbag
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Fall Weather, Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Geography class.

One of Twilight’s favorite subjects. Well, aside from Math, History, English, Science, and Social Studies. Okay, so pretty much every subject was her favorite subject, she had to admit. Except P.E. She loathed P.E.

            Twilight studiously jotted down notes as her teacher lectured to the class. The subject was weather patterns and climate change, and you know that she was sure to write down the means of cumulonimbus cloud formation. It was just too exciting. Keeping the lead of her mechanical pencil precisely two clicks out of its retainer at all times, Twilight’s focus was honed only on the notebook in front of her. Which is why, a few minutes later, she jumped in her seat out of shock when she felt an intruding buzz stemming from her right pocket. Emitting a cute, little “EEP,” Twilight quickly settled down and glanced over to the girl sitting next to her, whose eyebrow was raised in annoyed concern.

            Twilight giggled. “Sorry!” she whispered.

            As the girl returned to her own note taking, Twilight quickly fished around in her pocket for her smart phone. Upon looking at its screen, Twilight saw a text message delivered to her by Pinkie Pie, with the phrase, “Wanna come over later tonight?” inscribed within. Now this was particularly annoying to Twilight, as not only was she in the middle of class, but also sitting a mere two rows away from the pink girl herself. Craning her neck around her desk partner, Twilight glanced over two rows to the left to see Pinkie Pie staring at her, her head resting on her hand and her eyebrows bouncing over and over again. Twilight tried to frown, but her friend’s constant silliness made it so she couldn’t help but stifle a laugh behind her hand. Returning her hands to her phone, Twilight quickly typed a response. “I would love to.”

            Now that she had been taken out of her zone, Twilight fancied a glimpse to the row on her right, her friend Rainbow Dash sitting one row in front of her. Dash was playing with her phone—which was not a wholly unique sight to see—but Twilight wagered to guess that she was replying to Pinkie Pie with the same response. She just wondered how long it would take Rainbow Dash to ask to copy her notes, as a quick glimpse at her notebook revealed only a crude drawing of a soccer ball with flames behind it. Well, at least she had a passion.

            Twilight resumed her note taking as the class went on without further interruption. Before she knew it, the bell rang and called for an end of the school day. With a satisfied sigh, Twilight placed her notebook and pencil in her bag and hefted it around her shoulder. Looking around for Pinkie Pie, she found that the girl was nowhere to be found. Curious. She thought that she’d be there to discuss details of the night’s plan. A cerulean blue hand landed on her shoulder.

            “That girl’s never there when you need her,” Rainbow Dash began, “and is usually there when you don’t want her.”

            Twilight turned around and smiled. “Hey, Rainbow. That’s not exactly nice.”

            Rainbow Dash chuckled. “I’m just kidding, Twi. She knows I love having her around. She ask you to hang tonight too?”

            Twilight nodded. “It is a school night, but if I go home and complete my homework as quickly as possible, I think I’ll have some free time tonight.”

            “And when have you ever gone home and not immediately done your homework as quickly as possible?”

            She scratched the back of her head. “Uh, hehe . . . there was this one time in second grade—”

            “That’s what I thought,” Rainbow said with a smile. “C’mon, walk me to my locker.”

            Twilight followed her through the doorway and out into the sprawling halls of Canterlot High. It had been almost ten months since she moved there from Crystal Prep Academy, but the constant love and attention from her new friends made the experience completely devoid of issues. It felt like she had belonged there all along, and was only now starting to reach her potential.

            They turned a corner and approached Rainbow Dash’s locker. Twilight stood aside as Rainbow began twisting the combination lock and unzipping her backpack.

            “Man, talk about a snoozeville of a class, huh?” Rainbow pitched, hoping Twilight would agree.

            “What?” Twilight asked. “You don’t like Geography?” She knew the answer, of course, but decided to humor Rainbow Dash anyway. Just for fun.

            “Um, duh,” she continued. “All he does is talk about, ooh, rocks this, and clouds that. I couldn’t give one less of a crap about any of that! I’d rather go outside and actually see the stuff he’s talking about, not look at a stupid slide show!” She thunk-ed a heavy textbook into her locker, which had not actually been opened once by its owner.

            Twilight shrugged her shoulders. “I happen to like it. To be honest, I like learning about just about anything. I think it’s fun.”

            “You would think that.”

            “Hmm.” She watched as Rainbow shuffled a few more knickknacks into her locker. A box of colored pencils, a notepad, an eraser with thumbtacks shoved into it so it looks like a pig. “I suppose Geography just isn’t your subject.”

            “Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “Or Math. Or English . . . or History.” She swung her head back and shut her eyes tightly in frustration. “Crap. That reminds me. History test on Thursday.”

            “And Geography . . .”

            “AND GEOGRAPHY?” shouted Rainbow, a bit too loudly. “Are you kidding me?”

            Twilight tilted her head. “Didn’t you listen? It was literally the last thing he said before the bell rang.”

            Rainbow gave Twilight a look. “Twilight, come on. It’s me. The only time ‘Rainbow’ and ‘listen’ are in the same sentence is if the word ‘doesn’t’ is in between them.”

            Twilight laughed. Rainbow could be pretty funny sometimes, usually when she wasn’t trying. Still, at least to her, she knew that this was a serious situation.

            “Okay, well, there is indeed a test on Thursday. It involves all of the information enclosed within chapters eleven through thirteen.”

            Rainbow put a finger to her chin. “Eleven through thirteen, huh? Were those the chapters about natural biomes?”

            Twilight sternly crossed her arms. “Rainbow Dash! That was chapter two!”

            “Oh no!” Rainbow placed her face in her hands.

            “Was that the last time you listened to the teacher?”

            “I am so screwed, Twilight!” Rainbow removed her hands from her face. “Uh, hey, so . . . Twi . . . could I, maybe, borrow your . . .”

            Ah, there it is. Twilight’s arms remained crossed, but her stern expression left her face. “Yes, Rainbow. You can borrow my notebook. I could help you study, too, if you want.”

            Rainbow Dash enveloped Twilight in a hug that could rival Pinkie Pie’s. “You’re a life saver, Twilight Sparkle! Thank you so much!” She released Twilight, who took a second to regain the oxygen in her lungs that she lost. “Coach Harshwhinny said that if I don’t get at least a ‘C’ on this quarter’s tests, then she’ll kick me from the team.”

            Twilight raised an eyebrow. “How well did you do on the first Geography test we took?”

            Rainbow hemmed and hawed. “Uh, well . . . let’s just say I didn’t get an ‘A.’ Or a ‘B.’”

            Twilight waited.

            “Or a ‘C.’”

            After rolling her eyes an excruciating amount, Twilight’s brow furrowed as Rainbow closed her locker. “Rainbow Dash, you need to take your classwork more seriously! This is your future we’re talking about here!”

            Rainbow held up a hand. “Woah, hold up there, egg head. It might be your future you’re talking about, but my future is gonna involve me running fast and some sort of ball being passed around.”

            “Rainbow,” Twilight shook her head, “if you don’t think that being well educated is an important part of everyday life, then I’ve got some bad news for you.”

            “Ah, it’ll be alright,” Rainbow said as she re-hoisted her backpack. “Like my dad always said, ‘Rainbow, don’t sweat the petty stuff, and don’t pet the sweaty stuff.’”

            Twilight huffed. “Your dad did not say that to you.”

            “No,” said Rainbow with a shrug, “but I think it’d be pretty funny if he did.” She gave Twilight a quick wink as a familiar face pulled up alongside her.

            “Hey, guys,” said Sunset Shimmer, a gorgeous smile on her face. Twilight paused. Sure, she was able to see Sunset Shimmer almost every day of the week, and goodness knows that she was thankful for it. But that didn’t stop her heart from beating just a little bit faster, and her tongue moving just a little bit slower every time she looked at her. She’d only known Sunset for a few months, but Twilight had quickly come to realize she had the biggest crush of her entire life on her new friend. She just hoped that it wasn’t too obvious.

            “HI, SUNSET!” she shouted, way, way too loud to be appropriate. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Twilight fought the urge to slap a hand over her mouth.

Sunset smiled, amused by Twilight’s reaction. “Uh, hi, Twilight. Did I startle you?”

            Twilight shook her head. “Uh, no? I mean—yes! You did startle me! That’s why I reacted like that. ‘Cause you startled me!” Smooth.

            “Uh . . . huh.” Sunset turned to Rainbow. “Hey, Dash. Did Pinkie ask you guys to hang out tonight, or was it just me?” Her demeanor changed. “Oh, man. Now I’d feel really bad if I brought it up in front of you and she didn’t invite you.”

            Rainbow Dash spoke up before Sunset could worry any more. “Don’t freak out about it, Sunny. She asked Twilight and me to go, too.”

            Sunset put her hands on her hips. “’Sunny?’”

            “What, you don’t like it? I thought it sounded cool.”

            “Heh,” giggled Twilight, “it’s like Sunny and Cher!”

            Rainbow pointed dual finger guns at Twilight. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

            “Me neither,” added Sunset.

            Twilight sighed and hung her head. “Oh, never mind.”

            “Cheer up, though,” said Rainbow Dash, wrapping her arms around Twilight’s and Sunset’s shoulders, “’cause look who’s headed our way.”

            Down the hallway of the high school walked the ever-peppy Pinkie Pie, textbooks in hand, scooting her way past teenagers eager to get home and relax. She smiled gleefully as she neared her three friends.

            “Hey, Pinks!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “What’s the plan for tonight?”

            “It’s a surpriiiise!” touted Pinkie Pie in a singsong voice, not even bothering to stop and talk to the three. To their dismay, it seemed the pink girl was in a hurry—when wasn’t she?—as she completely swiped past them and headed towards one of the high school’s exits.

            “Huh . . .” muttered Sunset.

            “Guess she’s in a hurry?” inquired Twilight.

            Rainbow shook her head. “Who knows with that girl? I’ve known her for years and I still can’t figure out what’s going on in her head.”

            “I’ve got the feeling I don’t want to know,” Twilight said, afraid of what horrors she’d face.

            “Trust me,” shivered Sunset, “you don’t.” Twilight glanced at her. Sunset was the only one who’s had the chance to stare into Pinkie’s abyss, and—according to her—it most certainly stared back.

            Twilight stood up straight. “Well, I don’t know about you two, but I need to go home and finish my homework if I want to hang out with you tonight.” As much as she loved her friends, she still held school as priority above all else. Besides, the sooner she finished her homework, the sooner she’d be able to see them again.

            “Yeah,” Sunset said, “I’ve got a bit myself. My Geography test is on Friday, so I need to study for that, too.”

            “Booooring,” chimed Rainbow Dash as she pointed a thumb into her chest. “I’ve got soccer practice. But don’t worry, I’ll be there tonight.”

            Twilight crinkled her nose. “Don’t you think you should study for your test at least a little tonight?”

            “Hah!” Rainbow cackled. “I’ll tell you what I won’t do!”

            The two girls shook their heads in response.

            “It’s study!”

            “We got it!” they replied in tandem.

            “Wait,” Rainbow stared into space as she tried to bring something to the forefront of her mind. “Did Pinkie even tell us what time to show up?”

            Twilight and Sunset looked at one another. They both shook their head.

            “Ugh, come on, Pinkie!” Rainbow checked the time on her smart phone. “How about . . . six? That sound good with everyone? I’ll just head there straight from soccer practice.”

            “I can do six,” smiled Twilight, eager to be able to see all of her friends again. It had been about a week since they had last hung out outside of school, and she was excited to have some fun somewhere where the constant fear of social anxiety didn’t permeate every move she made. Huh, Twilight wondered, is that just a me thing?

            “Six is good for me, too,” added Sunset. “I’ll just drive there from my apartment, I guess. You need a ride, Dash?”

            Rainbow held up a hand. “Nah, my mom is picking me up from practice. I’ll just have her drop me off at Pinkie’s. I’ll be pretty sweaty, though.”

            Sunset raised her eyebrows. “Uh, good to know.”

            “And stinky.”

            “Hmm, yeah, no, we got that, Dash.” Sunset scratched the back of her head as Rainbow laughed at her discomfort.

            Twilight took a deep breath. “Well, guess that’s my cue to leave,” she said, finding the current conversation to be strange and awkward. Although, as she was finding over the last few months, strange and awkward conversations seemed to be normal for her little group of friends. In a way, she kind of liked it. “See you girls at six!”

            “See ya, Twi!” called Rainbow as Twilight walked away. “I’ll text everybody about the time! Pinkie included!”

            “Goodbye, Twilight!” said Sunset. “Hope I don’t startle you again!”

            Twilight blushed as she made her way through the double-doored exit of the school. No, Sunset Shimmer, she thought to herself. I entirely hope that you do.





            “Goodbye, Mom! Goodbye, Dad!” Twilight leaned down as she made her way towards the front door. “Goodbye, Spike. Be a good dog, okay?”

            “Ruff!” Spike called, cupping his mouth in his paw. “Have a good time, Twilight. And try to bring me back some food if you girls have some.” His whispers remained unnoticed by the house’s parental figures, and Twilight was adamant that it stayed that way.

            She ruffled the hair atop his head. “Will do, little guy. Promise I’ll be home by eleven.” Spike smiled as best he could as Twilight turned and opened the door. Waving goodbye as she closed it, Twilight locked the door and spun around before heading down the front steps of her house, the street lights illuminating her way in the darkened path that sprawled before her. An autumn chill permeated the air, causing Twilight to pull her hood over her head. Despite the slightly colder weather, she had elected to walk to Pinkie’s house instead of catching a ride there. She enjoyed the fall weather, and took any chance she could to indulge herself in its beauty.

            Twilight felt a small burst of glee as she felt and heard the leaves crunching beneath her gait. Sure, she could chalk it all down to the fall foliage losing their chlorophyll, an emergence of anthocyanins, and the evaporation of all of the water stored within the leaves’ cells, but around this time of year, Twilight often deferred to her younger sensibilities and just enjoyed strolling down the street hearing things crunch under her feet. She could be fun like that.

            She also began to take note of the houses that she saw on her way to Pinkie’s. On almost every porch stood a pumpkin, jack-o-lantern, or scarecrow, all eager and waiting to scare or entice the little trick-or-treaters making their way up the path for a small yet sweet reward.

            That’s right, she thought. Halloween is coming up. I’d almost forgotten. Twilight hadn’t gone trick-or-treating in years, on account of her age, so things like this often had a way of sneaking up on her. She wasn’t the most involved person when it came to holiday spirit. Then again, before ten months ago, she didn’t have anyone to celebrate holidays with aside from her mom and dad. And Spike, of course.

            After about ten minutes of walking, Twilight heard the familiar sound of the river nearby Pinkie’s house. Twilight thought it was rather neat that she got to live right next to a river, as loud as it may be, and often considered the idea of inviting Pinkie to do something fun with her there. In due time, of course. Twilight felt as if she wasn’t quite at the stage where she was comfortable suggesting hang out ideas to the group. It may be just a random social anxiety that she had, but she clung to that ideal just the same.

            Twilight rounded a street corner and began the stride up to Pinkie’s house. It was a quaint, picturesque little house, with a blue exterior and a pink roof. While they were obviously not as well off as Twilight’s family—something she would never hold against anyone—it seemed as though the Pie family had a cute setup going on. Twilight smiled as she saw the house lit up from the inside, illuminating the cardboard cutouts of ghosts, witches and pumpkins they had pasted to the windows. Pinkie’s idea, no doubt. Their porch, too, contained a rocking chair with a scarecrow perched lazily atop its wooden frame, a decidedly pink pumpkin resting above its shoulders. How exactly she dyed a pumpkin pink, Twilight decided, was something she would have to ask Pinkie when the opportunity presented itself.

            Twilight passed a recently shorn bush as she made her way to the front door.

            “BOO!” popped out a figure, clutching at Twilight’s shoulder.

            “OH MY GOSH, NO!” Twilight screamed, thrashing to-and-fro as she ripped herself from the talons that clawed at her very essence. She leapt away, putting as much distance between her and the bush as possible, her heart beating out of her chest. Is this how I die?

            It wasn’t until she was a few, safe feet away that Twilight was able to discern the terrible figure attempting to release her from her mortal coil.

            “Hahahaha! Twilight!” laughed Pinkie Pie, her torso sticking out of the bush. “That was the single greatest reaction I’ve ever seen in someone ever!” She clutched at her sides, laughing so hard that her body began to tense up.

            Oh.

            So maybe she wasn’t in eminent, mortal danger. Maybe it was just her friend hiding in a bush attempting to scare her so much she almost peed a little. Maybe she just embarrassed herself right in front of her. Maybe.

            Pinkie, you’re a butt.

            “Pinkie Pie!” Twilight called, taking a deep breath before she hyperventilated. “You almost gave me a heart attack!” She placed two fingers on an artery on her neck, making sure that she hadn’t, in fact, passed on to the great beyond.

            Pinkie snickered as she removed herself from the bush. “Oh my gosh, when I set myself up, I had no idea I would get a scare that good on my first try! Oh, Twilight, that made my night!” She cracked up again, the mere recollection of Twilight’s face sending her spiraling back into madness.

            “Heh heh . . .” Twilight sarcastically whimpered. “So funny.”

            “I thought it was,” a raspy voice called behind her. Turning around, Twilight shuttered as she saw Rainbow Dash making her way up the long driveway to Pinkie’s house.

            “Oh no . . .” Twilight said. “Rainbow Dash, you didn’t see that, did you?”

            Rainbow smirked and wrapped an arm around Pinkie’s still laughing waist as she whipped out her phone. “Got here before you did. Set up a little prank with the pink one, here. So not only did I see it, but I recorded it too.” She quickly tapped the face of her phone and spun it around, a video playing on its screen.

            “OH MY GOSH, NO!” Twilight heard herself scream, Rainbow Dash’s stifled chuckling in the background. Twilight cringed as she saw her reactionary flailing that she could only compare to those inflatable tube-men that stood in front of car dealerships. Gosh, she thought. Graceful as a pot of noodles being thrown on the floor.

            Twilight squeezed the bridge of her nose. “I’m never gonna live this down, am I?”

            Releasing her grasp around Pinkie, Rainbow took a step towards Twilight and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m gonna be honest with you, Twi. No. You’re not. Not even a little bit.”

            Twilight giggled and shrugged her shoulders. “Well,” she admitted, “guess I could’ve been filmed doing a lot, lot worse.”

            “Oh?” asked Pinkie inquisitively, wiggling her eyebrows. “And what exactly have you been doing that’s worse than that?”

            Rainbow chuckled. “Alone in her room? I can think of a few things.”

            Twilight blushed as she knocked Rainbow’s hand off her shoulder. “Not like that!” she cried, reigniting Pinkie and Rainbow’s vivacious laughter. Though obscene, it took Twilight all she could muster to not laugh along with them. As intelligent and mature as she considered herself, she could still find humor in the crude jokes the two often presented her.

            A truck pulled up alongside Pinkie’s lawn, as loud as it was dirty. Even if Twilight hadn’t seen it already, she could have guessed it was under Applejack’s ownership immediately. A bit surprising, however, was the opening of the passenger-side door to reveal Rarity had been brought in tow. The two quickly stepped out and made their way to the group as Sunset Shimmer’s motorcycle also made an appearance.

            “Sunset Shimmer, darling!” cried Rarity as she hovered over to Sunset’s bike, the latter of which was still removing her helmet. “It has been entirely too long since I’ve seen you!”

            Sunset placed her helmet on her bike’s handlebar and smiled up at Rarity. “Hey, Rarity! Has it been that long? I feel like I saw you on Friday.”

            “Well, you did,” admitted Rarity, “but I hadn’t heard from you in four whole days! It’s a shame we don’t share any classes together.”

            “True,” said Sunset, slinging her book bag over her shoulder and nodding towards Applejack, who was leaning against her truck. “But maybe you should’ve eaten lunch with us instead of skipping it the last two days. Where have you been, anyway? Pinkie just told me you texted her and said you couldn’t make it.”

            A melodramatic hand rushed to Rarity’s forehead, and Sunset knew that the show was about to start. “Oh, darling, it was horrible! I’d promised to make a dress for a cousin of mine by Wednesday, giving me only two whole days to finish it in time. With school being a necessary component of my day, I took it upon myself to rush home during lunch and finish what I could so that I didn’t waste a single moment!”

            Sunset smiled. “Well, being that you’re here, I’m guessing that you finished it?”

            “Indeed, I have,” replied Rarity, exhaling deeply while closing her eyes. “And let me tell you, Sunset Shimmer, I am dreadfully tired right now. I feel as if I could pass out right in front of you.” She looked over to Applejack, who she beckoned with a wave of her hand. “That’s why I asked dear Applejack to drive me here. I couldn’t possibly have gotten here myself, with fear of falling asleep at the wheel being so likely.” She sighed. “Oh, I must look awful at the moment. Do I have bags under my eyes?”

            Applejack patted Rarity on the back. “Y’all look fine, sugar cube. Ah wouldn’t worry none ‘bout how you look. ‘Sides . . . it’s dark out.” She and Sunset began to chuckle, until Rarity’s stern face and crossed arms frightened Applejack enough to retract her statement.

            “Uh . . . that is, y’all would look good in the light too, sugar cu—uh, Rarity. Heh heh . . .”

            Rainbow’s voice thankfully broke the tension. “So are you guys just gonna stand over there, or what?”

            “Coming!” shouted Sunset.

            Twilight shook her head. Her focus had entirely been on the newest arrivals, and totally not just because one of them was Sunset. Definitely. As such, she had completely ignored what tangent Rainbow and Pinkie had been going off on, but she figured it probably wasn’t too important. Applejack, Rarity, and Sunset all made their way to the other three, naturally forming a circle that involved Sunset standing right next to Twilight. In a way, she was pretty happy about that.

            “Hey, Twilight,” Sunset said, elbowing Twilight in the arm.

            Sweet mercy, touch me again! “Good afternoon, Sunset,” smiled Twilight, excited just to be standing there.

            “SO,” shouted Rainbow Dash, interrupting any and all fantasies Twilight might have been having, “Pinkie was just about to tell me why she wanted everybody over.”

            Pinkie shook her head. “Nuh-uh, Dashie! Not until everybody gets here.”

            Rainbow looked around before rolling her eyes. “Ugh, where’s Fluttershy?!”

            Lifting her smartwatch up to her face, Twilight scanned the digital image that formed in front of her. “It’s exactly six fourteen P.M., meaning she is fourteen minutes past the expected arrival time.”

            “Thanks, Jarvis,” said Rainbow as she pulled out her phone. “I’ll just call her,” she said, annoyed.

            As Rainbow’s fingers tapped her way to calling Fluttershy’s cell, an SUV stopped in front of Pinkie’s house, with a demure, pink-haired girl stepping out of the back seat.

            “Thanks for the ride, mom,” Fluttershy called to the driver before shutting the door and running up to her friends.

             “Oh, girls, I’m so sorry!” she shouted. “I’m fifteen minutes late!”

            “Fourteen.”

            “I’m fourteen minutes late! I honestly didn’t mean to. But . . . Zephyr was causing some grief to Angel, who’s been getting sick lately, and I had to deal with that, then dad hadn’t gotten home yet so I had to ask mom to take me, and, um, she was getting ready to make dinner, so I had to stop her from doing that, and—”

            “Darling,” interjected Rarity, “it’s more than alright. We were not in any hurry, and Applejack, Sunset, and I had just gotten here anyway. There is absolutely no reason to be apologetic.”

            Fluttershy looked at the reassuring faces of her friends. “Are . . . are you sure?”

            Rainbow Dash gave a thumbs-up. “It’s all good, Flutters. Now Pinkie can tell us what we’re here for.”

            The group returned their focus back to Pinkie Pie. Or, rather, where Pinkie Pie had been, as she was nowhere to be seen.

            “Uh . . . Pinkie Pie?”

            Suddently, a bright, white spotlight projected onto the front of Pinkie’s house, blinding all who looked into it.

            “Where did that come from?” Twilight asked aloud, turning her body to the house.

            On the roof, a pink figure emerged. One wearing a top hat and holding a cane, for some reason. “Greetings, travelers from near and far!”

            Rainbow shook her head. “Here we go.”

            “Pinkie!” shouted Fluttershy. “No, don’t jump!”

            Pinkie Pie continued. “Tell me, my friends. What day is it exactly one week from now?”

            The girls looked at one another.

            “T . . . Tuesday?” asked Twilight.

            Pinkie pointed a finger at her. “YES, Twilight Sparkle. ‘Tis a Tuesday. And what, specifically, is on that Tuesday?”

            “Uh, uh . . .” Twilight stuttered. “. . . Taco . . . Tuesday?”

            Pinkie removed her top hat and threw it aside. “No! Well, yes, tee hee . . . But NO!” She grabbed a rope that hung next to her and jumped off of the roof, a pulley system allowing her to gently descend towards the ground and land in front of her friends.

            “Where did that come from?!”

            Pinkie took her cane in both hands and pointed it directly at Applejack. “You there! What is so special about next Tuesday?”

            Applejack crossed her arms. “You’re talking ‘bout Halloween, right?”

            “Ohhhh,” the others called.

            “YES, Applejack!” She grinned at Twilight. “See? My cousin gets me.” Pinkie spun around and struck a pose as her garage door “magically” opened up behind her. Whatever was going on, Twilight wished she had some popcorn. This was interesting stuff.

            The garage lit up, showing a plethora of orange, black, and grey. Halloween decorations were strewn about, from fake spiders to automated coffins that you place in your front yard.

            “Yes, my friends, it is Halloween!” shouted Pinkie, as she picked up an orange pumpkin pail. “A day of frights! A night of horrors! A cavalcade of . . . something else that’s scary! And we, after decorating our houses with these very decorations you see before you, are going to go . . .”, she paused for dramatic effect, “Trick-or-treating!”

            Pinkie closed her eyes, assumedly waiting for the wave of applause to hit her. After a few moments, she opened them back up to see that her friends were just standing there. A stray cough was audible. Twilight could literally hear crickets.

            “Uh . . .” began Rainbow Dash. “Not to say that that’s a crappy idea, Pinkie . . .”

            “Rainbow!” scolded Rarity.

            “But . . . aren’t we kinda, you know . . . old? To be trick-or-treating?”

            Pinkie put her arms down, surprised at the reaction. “Wh . . . what do you mean?”

            “Well,” Applejack scratched the back of her head. “Ah, mean, when was the last time you went trick-or-treating, Pinkie?”

            “Last year!” she replied with a smile. “I went as a dangerous harlequin!”

            “I remember,” nodded Rainbow Dash. “You wore it to school. So did half of the other girls there. Just didn’t think you would go door to door with it, too.”

            Pinkie frowned. “Why are you girls so against it? Do any of you even have any Halloween decorations up?”

            They all looked around, waiting to see if an answer would pop up. Twilight certainly knew that she hadn’t done anything.

            Fluttershy slowly raised her hand. “Um . . . my dad replaced the light bulb on our porch with an orange one. Does . . . that count?”

            “OMG my goodness, you guys!” Pinkie held her pail in Twilight’s face. “Halloween is, like, the super most funnerest fun thing ever! It’s all about going out with friends, and getting scared, and scaring others! Like I just did with Twilight!” Twilight blushed.

            “Pshh!” Rainbow crossed her arms. “Everybody knows that Halloween is all about one thing: getting candy!”

            Twilight pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Actually, Halloween is a derivative of All Hallow’s Eve, a Celtic ritual involving the end of the fall harvest.” She smiled proudly, happy to be able to educate her friends about things.

            “Wow,” said Rainbow, astonished. “That was literally the most boring sentence I’ve ever heard.”

            Twilight frowned.

            “Okay okay okay,” Pinkie interrupted. “Let’s go down the line. Rainbow, what did you do last Halloween?”

            Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. “I dunno. Watched a scary movie?”

            Pinkie pointed to Fluttershy. “Um . . . hid in my room.”

            Then Applejack. “Ah worked. Like Ah always do. Though Ah could get it off this year, supposedly.”

            Rarity. “I have absolutely no recollection, Pinkie Pie.”

            And Twilight. “Uh . . . studied?”

            Pinkie held her arms out wide. “See?! Look how boring you girls’ last Halloween was! Don’t you want to do something fun? Have a little get together? Eat twice our own body weight in candy? We’ll only be sophomores once in our entire lives!”

            “What if we go to college?” snarked Applejack.

            Pinkie giggled. “That was a good one. But you know what I mean! We won’t ever have a chance to be our age and go out trick-or-treating ever again! Aren’t you afraid of wasting that chance?”

            Rainbow rolled her neck. “Well, that candy part does sound appealing. But I haven’t gone trick-or-treating since I was little. That doesn’t exactly sound like fun. Now getting scared; that sounds like an idea. Know any haunted houses?”

            Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. “Haunted . . . houses?” She hid her face in her hair.

            “Um,” Pinkie put a finger to her chin, “I know of a barn house my old uncle died in once. But I don’t think his ghost is there.”

            Rainbow cringed. “Oh . . . yeah. Let’s not do that. Sorry.”

            Pinkie giggled. “It’s okay! I didn’t even know him. Buuuut, I do know a few haunted corn fields we could go to! If there are any ghosties in there, I’m sure we’d be able to find them!”

            “A corn field?!” Rarity exclaimed. “I am absolutely not going to get myself dirty in a . . . dirty, messy, unkempt place like that. Do you know how many insects could just be crawling around, eager to climb up onto you and bite you?! Oh, it’s just dreadful! And don’t get me started on the hay!”

            Applejack crossed her arms. “Keep talking, sugar cube.”

            “Oh, no, Applejack!” Rarity put up her arms defensively. “It’s nothing at all like an apple farm. It . . . um . . . has corn? Completely different!”

            “Mm-hmm.” Applejack removed her hat and ran her hand through her hair. “If’n y’all are wantin’ to hang out that night, Ah’d agree to it. But Ah reckon we can come up with something better than a corn field.”

            “Yeah!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “Something scary!”

            “Something safe,” muttered Fluttershy.

            “Something clean,” said Rarity.

            “I have an idea!” said Sunset Shimmer, raising her hand. Twilight perked up, eager to see what Sunset had to say. Honestly, she was down to do almost anything the girls had suggested; she was just happy being able to spend a holiday with her friends. But, she had to admit, she was going to have an inherent bias towards whatever it was Sunset would suggest. Twilight just hoped, then, that the idea was good.

            “Okay,” Sunset continued, “so I have an idea that could satisfy all of you guys. I think. I’ve never actually done it before.”

            Pinkie’s eyes were like saucers. “Ooh! OOH! Tell us Sunset! I really, really, really, wanna know!”

            Sunset twirled a lock of hair with her finger. Twilight loved it when she did that. “So, I saw a flyer at school that said the leadership is doing some sort of . . . I don’t know, trick-or-treat Halloween event type thing.”

            “Lame,” said Rainbow.

            “Bear with me!” eased Sunset. “Each room in the school is being hosted by somebody—either a teacher or a student—and each room will have something different. Like, a lot of them will be giving out candy and allowing trick-or-treaters to come by, and some are hosting scary movies, some are doing costume contests, etcetera.” She looked around. Seeing some interest in her friends’ faces, she continued.

            “Plus! – the entire outside is being decorated, so much that the sports fields will all be combined and made into a giant maze! I think the drama department is putting that one together—with props and stuff. See? It has stuff for everybody.” Sunset pointed at each girl as she went along. “It has costumes and trick-or-treating for Pinkie, a safe interior for Fluttershy, cleanliness for Rarity, scary stuff for  Rainbow Dash, and, uh . . .” She lingered on Applejack. “Rarity will be there for Applejack!”

            Applejack put her hands on her hips. “Funny.” She looked over at the aforementioned girl. “That bein’ said . . . Ah’m in. If y’all are, of course.”

            Pinkie wrapped Sunset into a bear hug, spinning her around before setting her back down on the ground. “Sunset, that’s the bestest idea I’ve ever heard! And I’ve heard a lot of ideas! I’ve always wanted to go to one of those!”

            Rarity nodded. “I’m inclined to agree. That option does sound rather enjoyable, especially when compared to trick-or-treating at strangers’ houses. Besides, once we got to Canterlot High, we’d all have our own thing to do."

            Twilight frowned, her gaze suddenly drawn to the ground. This did not go unnoticed by Sunset, who immediately put a hand on her shoulder.

            “What’s wrong, Twilight?” she asked. “Don’t like the idea?”

            Twilight shook her head. “It’s not that! It’s just . . . this is my first holiday I get to spend with friends. I didn’t really want us to go to something together only to split up on arrival and do our own separate things. I wanted to spend time with you girls.”

            Her friends looked at each other, hopefully seeing the point Twilight was trying to make. Pinkie nodded and turned to Sunset.

            “What we could do, to make all of us and Twilight happy, is to do a little of each thing for everybody!”

            “How so?” Fluttershy asked.

            “Welllllll,” Pinkie began, counting off her points with her fingers, “we could show up wearing costumes and trick-or-treat for me, we could watch a scary movie or go through the maze for Dashie, then do the costume contest for Rarity, and then see if anything catches the eye of the rest of us! But we all stay together in one tight, cute little group for Twilight, because we love her!”

            Twilight smiled. “I’d really like that. If you girls are okay with it, that is.”

            “I’m in,” added Sunset. “That sounds like a great idea. I actually prefer the group, to be honest.” Twilight’s heart lit up.

            “Sounds wonderful to me, as well!” said Rarity. “We would get to stay in a nice environment the majority of the time, plus I would get to make my own costume and show it off for everybody! My mind is already racing!”

            Rainbow Dash laughed. “You should be a witch or dominatrix or something! Something tight, that really shows off your, uh . . .”

            “Personality?” Rarity batted her eyes.

            “Heh, yeah. Both of ‘em!” Rainbow snickered as Rarity rolled her eyes, a smirk on her face all the same.

            Applejack coughed. “Personalities aside, Ah’m down for this idea. How about you, Rainbow?”

            “Hmm,” Rainbow said. “Is the maze gonna be scary? Like pee my pants scary? Or worse?”

            Sunset blinked. “Uhh, it’s gonna be fun. I know that much.”

            “Alright,” Rainbow conceded. “I’m in. Mostly just to make Pinkie happy.”

            “AWW!” Pinkie said, hugging Rainbow’s arm. She turned to Fluttershy. “What about you, Flutterbutt? Are you in to going to this awesomely fantabulous Halloween bonanza?”

            Fluttershy teetered on the ball of her foot. “Um . . . I-I’m not sure . . .”

            “You’re allowed to bring a pet,” said Sunset.

            “I’m in completely.”

            “Yay!” Pinkie pie shouted. “Then it’s settled. Oh! And don’t tell anybody what your costume is gonna be! I want us all to show up and surprise each other.”

            Twilight shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” She said, not having even a semblance of an idea for a costume.

            “Um,” Fluttershy began, “should we invite Juniper? I feel like she might be interested.”

            Sunset thought for a moment. “Hmm, I don’t think she’d want to go out like that just yet. She’s still trying to lay low for a while. Which I totally get, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think we should put that pressure on her too quickly.”

            The rest muttered and nodded in agreement.

            Rainbow put a hand over her mouth, contemplating and looking over at Twilight. “But you know who we should invite?” She quickly glanced over to Sunset’s bookbag. “You got the journal in there?”

            “Um . . . yeah?”

            “Yoink!” Rainbow yanked the magic journal as well as its pen from Sunset’s bag and quickly put some distance between herself and Sunset.

            “Hey!” Sunset yelled. “Be careful with that thing! The least you could do was ask for it!”

            “Relax,” said Rainbow, penning a quick message to its four-legged recipient. “I’m just writing Princess Twilight to see if she’d like to come. She’s never experienced a human Halloween before. They have something weird over there, uh, what was it called?”

            “Nightmare Night,” Sunset said, angrily.

            “Riiight.” Rainbow pointedly added a period to the end of her sentence, indicating an end to the letter. “Well, whatever weird thing they call it, it certainly ain’t no ‘All Hallows Eve.’” She winked at Twilight, who smiled in return. “So maybe she’d want to get the full high school experience with us, yeah?”

            Rarity clasped her hands together. “Well I for one think it’s a marvelous idea, Rainbow Dash. That’s very considerate of you.”

            Rainbow shut the book closed and stretched in a somehow braggartly way. “Eh, what can you say? I’m a loyal friend ‘til the end.”

            “What can you say?” muttered Sunset, snatching the book from Rainbow’s hand and sticking it back in the bag. “Ask next time.”

            “Whatever you say, Sunny D.”

            “I—I don’t get that. What is that?”

            Twilight gulped as the group began to laugh. Princess Twilight, huh? Twilight wasn’t exactly nervous at the thought of her being around, but the idea that a whole other, more equine version of her existed in an alternate dimension was certainly something she still had to come to terms with. She had limited time spent with Princess Twilight, and in a way, she hoped she could put off seeing her again for a little while. Just until she had more time to understand things.

            “Whoopee!” cried Pinkie, bounding up in the air. “Seriously, you guys, this is gonna be best Halloween you ever had in your life ever!”

            “That can’t be too hard to do,” said Rarity. “I once went trick-or-treating dressed as the Pillsbury Doughboy because my father thought it’d be funny.”

            The others looked at her.

            “It wasn’t funny.”

            “AND!” added Pinkie Pie, “like I said, I have a surplus of Halloween decorations stored here—in case of Halloween related emergencies—” she whispered, “so feel free to take what you want and decorate your houses with them. As the Spanish say, ‘Mi casa’s Halloween stuff is su casa’s Halloween stuff!”

            Twilight smiled, touched by her friends admittedly eccentric generosity. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie. That really means a lot to me.”

            Pinkie immediately began counting heads. “. . . six, seven . . . Hmm. Assuming Princess Twilight doesn’t come, there would be seven of us going. Too bad we don’t have one more to go with us to even out the group.”

            The front door behind her creeped open and a loud—but firm—voice called from its doorway.

            “Pinkie Pie,” the voice called.

            Twilight looked up to see a girl, around similar age as Pinkie, with purple hair and a dark gray body. Aww, Twilight thought, she’s got cute little pajamas on! And they’re covered with—what are those? Rocks?

            “Huh?” called Pinkie, spinning around to meet eye contact with the girl. She gasped. “Maud!”

            “Mom says to be quiet. Marble is trying to sleep. I say it too, for the record.”

            “Maud, you’re perfect!”

            “I know.” Maud showed no emotion as Pinkie ran up to her and interlocked her arm at the elbow. Pinkie walked her down the stairs as she brought her over to the group.

            “No, silly!” said Pinkie. “I mean you’re perfect for our plan next Tuesday.” She looked over at Twilight. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I forgot! I need to introduce you to my new friend, Twilight Sparkle! OH! And this isn’t the Twilight Sparkle you already met. That was a Twilight Sparkle from a different dimension where she’s actually a two-foot tall pony that rules over a kingdom of other ponies just like her and has access to an inter-dimensional gateway located at the school. This is the Twilight Sparkle from our dimension, who is just a human like all of us—except she used to go to Crystal Prep and moved here after magic from the Equestrian dimension crossed over and corrupted her lust for power, turning her into an evil demon that almost tore apart both of our dimensions at once!”

            Maud blinked. “Hello.”

            “Uh,” Twilight muttered, holding out her hand. “Pleasure to meet you?”

            Maud stared at the hand for a moment, as if she didn’t know what to do with it. After a few tense seconds of waiting, she lightly grabbed hold of Twilight’s hand and shook it once.

            “Charmed, I’m sure.”

            Twilight giggled. “Your sister is pretty funny, Pinkie.” That was her being silly, right?

            “I know!” Pinkie enthused. “If you guys think I’m funny, wait until Maud comes with us to go trick-or-treating!”

            “I am?” asked Maud.

            “She is?” echoed Rainbow Dash.

            “Sure!” Pinkie said. “Maudie, pretty, pretty, pretty please? It would be fun! Plus, you’d get more quality time to get to know all of my friends!”

            Maud looked around at the group, obviously not too familiar with any of them. “I suppose I could do that. If I don’t have any homework.” Twilight suddenly respected her that much more.

            “Hurray!” Pinkie wrapped Maud in a hug. “I’m sooooo glad you’re coming, Maudie! We don’t get to do much together anymore!”

            “Do I have to wear a costume?” Maud asked.

            “No,” Pinkie smiled, “you get to wear a costume!”

            Rainbow hid a snicker behind her hand. “What’re you planning on wearing, Maud? You gonna come as a rock?”

            Maud looked to Rainbow. “Would you believe Groucho Marx glasses?”

            “Um . . . no?”

            Maud blinked. “Well then I guess it’ll be a surprise.”

            Twilight laughed nervously. She wasn’t entirely sure when Maud was being serious, snarky, sarcastic, or none of the above. How exactly was she related to Pinkie? Oh my gosh, Twilight thought. Is Pinkie adopted? I’d never thought to ask.

            “Whelp,” Applejack said, stretching her arms out, “if that’s that, then Ah figure it’s ‘bout time Ah head on home. It is a school night, after all.” She turned to Rarity. “Y’all ready, sugar cube?”

            Rarity nodded. “I do feel like I’m on the brink of collapse. A good night’s sleep will do me well, I imagine. Thank you, Pinkie, for all that you’ve done for us. I’m sure this will be my favorite Halloween in a while.”

            “Anytime, Rarity!” Pinkie replied. “I’m just glad we all have something we can do together.”

            Twilight smiled. She felt that way as well. As everyone said their goodbyes and left Pinkie’s house one by one, Twilight kept grinning at the fact she was going to spend her first holiday with friends. It was exciting to her, without a doubt, and she found that she uncharacteristically couldn’t wait for the next seven days to go by. She also gets to spend a good portion of said holiday hanging out with Sunset Shimmer, which was more than an added plus.

            “Hey, Twily,” Sunset said, walking up behind her and placing a hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

            Twilight shrieked, spinning around to face her crush. In all of her mind’s inner dwellings, she hadn’t noticed that everyone had gone their separate ways, leaving her alone with Sunset on Pinkies’ front lawn. Oops, she thought. Gotta work on that whole ‘spacing out’ thing.

            “Uh, Sunset!” Twilight stuttered, scratching the back of her head. “You scared me again!”

            Sunset huffed. “Sorry. Guess I’ve got a habit of doing that, huh?”

            “Heh, yeah, I guess.” Twilight looked at the ground, finding it hard to maintain eye contact. “Oh, and, uh . . . for the record, my brother’s really the only one that calls me Twily.”

            “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know,” Sunset said, her voice tired and raspy. Which, Twilight found, was unashamedly sexier than her normal, more upbeat voice. “I feel it’s a little too formal calling you ‘Twilight’ all the time, though. That’s what I call the Princess.”

            Twilight nodded. “Oh, yeah, that . . . I can see why that’d be a problem. I guess there’s gonna be a lot of mixups regarding that. We’re kinda the same person.”

            “Hmm, not entirely the same.” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “In fact, you’re both pretty different. I’ve spent a bit more time with you, though, so I see a lot more idiosyncrasies in you than I did with her.”

            Twilight shrugged. “Is . . . that a good thing?”

            “Yeah,” Sunset smiled, “it’s a good thing. Now, what nickname should I give you?”

            Babe? Darling? Love of my life? “Uh, T—Twi? How about Twi? Rainbow and Pinkie call me Twi sometimes.” Try as she might, Twilight couldn’t stop the blush coming to her cheeks.

            “Hmm,” Sunset put a hand to her chin. “I guess that works. I’ll just go by the situation, I guess. See if ‘Twilight’ or ‘Twi’ rolls off the tongue better.”

            Twilight pointed a finger gun at Sunset. “H—hey, if you wanna sound cool, you could just call me T-Swizzle, heh heh . . .”

            “Uh . . .” Sunset scrunched her brow, “Why would I call you that? What does that even mean?”

            Gosh, so stupid! “Oh, uh nothing. It’s nothing. Gosh, why did I even—it’s nothing. Forget I even said that.” She hid her face in her hands. “Wow. That was embarrassing.” Why, why, WHY?! Could you not be awkward for, like, FIVE minutes?

            Sunset chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. Trust me, your dorkiness is endearing.” She paused a moment, looking around. “Hey . . .” Twilight peeked her eyes out. “You want a ride home?”

            “A ride?” Twilight cocked her head. “How? You’ve got a motorcycle.”

            Sunset slid her book bag off of her shoulder and held up her helmet. “Yeah, you just . . . I slide forward on the seat, you scooch up behind me, wrap your arms around me and hold on tight.”

            What.

            “I’d give you my helmet. Figure it’d make you feel a bit safer. I haven’t been to your house yet, though, so you’d have to give me directions. That okay?”

            What.

            “Twilight?”

            “OH!” Twilight shouted, being thrust out of her fantasy. It’s not every day that an Amazonian beauty offers you to cuddle up with her, arms locked around her tight body, hair blowing in the wind, hips connected . . .

            “NOPE!” shouted Twilight, again.

            “Oh . . . no? Why not?” Sunset looked confused.

            “Uh . . .” Twilight, what are you doing? This is your chance! It was her chance, Twilight noted, but she was far too nervous to take it. What if she messed it up? What if she looked silly in front of Sunset. Heck, what if she did something stupid and made them crash, or get hurt? Best to play it safe and have nothing happen at all. Even if it hurt to say no.

            “Sorry, Sunset,” Twilight said. “But my house is just around the corner, so I think I’ll walk it. Nothing against you, of course. I—it’s just . . . motorcycles kind of scare me. Or bikes. Or . . . unicycles, heheh . . .”

            Sunset smirked, but Twilight thought she saw a tinge of disappointment in her eyes. “Oh . . . okay. Well, maybe next time. I wanna give you a ride sometime.”

            Lord, I would ride you any day of the week.

            “Uh . . . yeah,” Twilight said, “next time.”

            Sunset stepped over to her bike and straddled the seat, taking a moment to put her book bag in a small box in the rear of the bike. “Guess, I’ll see you at school tomorrow, Twilight. Oh, uh . . . Twi.”

            Twilight smiled. “Sounds good, Sunset. Thanks for coming out tonight.”

            “Pleasure’s all mine. This Halloween thing seems pretty cool. Hope everyone gets something they like out of it.”

            “Yeah,” Twilight nodded. “I think they will.”

            “Me too.” Sunset raised her helmet, aligning it with her head. “Oh, and about comparing you to Princess Twilight . . . for the record, Twi . . . I think you’re a lot cuter.” Before Twilight could react, Sunset put on her helmet, turned on her bike, and rode off into the dark streets of their neighborhood, leaving a trail of smoke behind.

            “C . . . cute?” Twilight stuttered, beads of sweat trailing down her forehead. “She thinks I’m cute?” Her heart began beating out of her chest, a well of excitement and anxiety inhabiting her stomach. “She thinks I’m cute.”

            Twilight spun around on Pinkie’s driveway, her arms outstretched at her side.

            “SHE THINKS I’M CUTE!”

            She came at to a stop, catching her breath, an uncontrollable smile on her face. Any person—anyone in the whole world could have called her cute and she would have been happy with it. But Sunset? She felt her heart was about to burst.

            “I think you’re cute too,” a voice behind her called. Spinning around, embarrassment on her face, Twilight found herself looking at Pinkie’s window, the pink girl herself sticking her head out. “But it’s pretty late, so I think you should be heading to bed, Twilight. Wouldn’t want you to be tired in the morning, now would we?”

            Twilight blushed. “S—sorry, Pinkie.” She quickly turned tail and ran, excitement fueling her body as she sprinted as fast as she could back towards her house. Despite minutes upon minutes separating her, Twilight couldn’t help but repeating her conversation with Sunset in her head over and over again.

            She thinks I’m cute! She thinks I’m CUTE!!!



           
> Costume Quest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

            Twilight looked out the kitchen window as she scrubbed her loofah into the dirty plate she held. Alfredo sauce was, surprisingly, quite hard to get out if you let it sit there and harden for a bit. The warm water that passed over her hands soothed her, however, so she was complacent to just leave them be as she absentmindedly stared at the browning leaves flying in the wind.

            A few days had passed after the meeting at Pinkie Pie’s house, and not much had transpired since. They took their mid-term tests (Rainbow managed to scrounge up a “C”), had their daily lunches, and did their homework; all according to Twilight’s expectations. Her relationship with Sunset remained unchanged as well, much to Twilight’s dismay. Sunset didn’t seem to act any nicer or more coquettish towards Twilight than normal, making Twilight think that Sunset calling her cute was just a one-off thing; something girls say to each other without putting any real meaning behind it. Maybe she didn’t even really mean what she said.

            Maybe she doesn’t really think about me at all.

            Twilight sighed. Friday had come and her parents were out of town for the afternoon, meaning she had to prepare dinner for herself. Chicken alfredo was easy enough, and she resigned to quietly eating alone at the kitchen counter while reluctantly fantasizing about Sunset eating with her. Being alone wasn’t that bad when she went to Crystal Prep. The idea of having friends was so foreign to her that she could dismiss the whole idea and pretend that she didn’t need it, that it was beneath her. Now that she’d had a taste of what true companionship really was, she found it harder and harder to not want more out of it, to really feel loved by someone that she loved back. And Twilight had to admit, some part of her wished she had still retained those old ideals. Feeling lonely sucked.

            Twilight’s gaze drifted downward, spotting a cute reminder that she wasn’t ever truly alone, even without her friends or family around.

            “Hey, Spike,” smiled Twilight, still scrubbing away at the plate.

            Spike looked up at her, panting happily and with a small amount of drool slipping from his mouth. “Hey, Twilight. That Alfredo sauce smells really good.”

            Twilight giggled. “Is somebody hungry, mister?”

            Spike wiped the drool away from his mouth and chuckled. “So, what gave it away?”

            “Alright,” Twilight grinned, “I’ll get you your food when I’m done here. Should only be a few more minutes.”

            “Welllll, you could let me lick off some of that leftover Alfred sauce. There’s gotta be some left on the spoon at least, right?”

            Twilight shook her head. “Alfredo sauce has much too high of a concentration of sugar to be healthy for dogs, Spike. I couldn’t possibly be okay with letting you have any.”

            Spike’s ear twitched. “Hey, I’m here for a good time, not a long time, Sparkle. One little lick wouldn’t hurt.”

            Rolling her eyes, Twilight shut off the water faucet, laid the plate down to dry, and patted her hands down with a towel. Bending down to get closer to Spike, she booped him on the nose before making her way out of the kitchen. “Nothing but the finest refined dog chow for my little guy. Straight out of the bag.”

            Spike groaned. “At least let me eat some wet food tonight, huh? You have no idea how much torture human food is to me. It smells so good!” He followed her out of the kitchen and down the hallway to their laundry room, where Spike’s food containers lay.

            “Hmm,” Twilight pondered. “I guess you’ve been a pretty good boy, lately. You haven’t even pooped in my bed while I was asleep in a few months, so . . . that alone I’d say is worth celebrating.”

            “Hey!” retorted Spike. “A man’s gotta go when a man’s gotta go. It’s not my fault you like sleeping in on the weekends.”

            Twilight giggled. “A man?” She picked out a can of the wet dog food they’d recently bought.

            “What?” asked Spike. “Okay, a grown dog, if that’s what you mean. You know what I’m getting at.”

            “Hah! What I’m getting at is that you’re still a puppy.” Twilight bent down and rubbed Spike on the head. “A cute, wittle, baby little puppy. And one that I love very much.” She smiled as her teasing visibly got to him, making her way back to the kitchen as he scowled.

            Spike puffed his chest out as she picked up his dog bowl. “I like to think I’m pretty mature for my age. You know they say I’m about seven years old in human years.”

            Twilight shook her head as she poured his food into the bowl. “Seven years isn’t an adult, Spike. It’s barely even a kid. Do you know how little I was when I was seven? I was shorter than that chair over there.” She bent down and set Spike’s bowl on the floor, who excitedly went up to it and started eating, almost forgetting the conversation they’d been having.

            “You know,” Spike said as bits of chicken and other goop fell out of his mouth while he chewed, “now that I’m, uh . . . what was that word you used to describe me? Sentient?”

            Twilight grimaced at his eating habits. “Ugh . . . sapient.”

            “Right!” He dove back into his food and vacuumed more into his mouth. “Now that I’m sapient, would it hurt to put my food in the kitchen like the rest of the family? Makes me feel a little excluded.”

            Looking away from the mess Spike was making, Twilight said, “Okay, first of all—and I never imagined I’d have to tell this to a dog before—but don’t talk with your mouth full. It’s rude. Also, like, really gross. Secondly, mom and dad wouldn’t like that. Dog food has a certain . . . smell to it that is pretty distinct, and they don’t want the kitchen smelling that way. And I don’t want them finding out that you’re sapient.”

            “Hmm,” Spike mumbled, food somehow on his eyebrows. “That’s fair, I suppose.”

            Twilight stretched her back as she leaned against the counter. “Mmm, the weekend’s here and I still don’t know what to dress up as for Halloween. Is it weird to be so stressed out over that? OH! And I need to put up those decorations that Pinkie Pie gave me.” She massaged her eyeballs with the tips of her fingers. “Ugh, who knew celebrating holidays was so much work!”

            “Why are you so stressed about it, anyway?” Spike asked.

            Because I want to impress Sunset and have her compliment my costume. “Uh . . . I dunno. No reason?”

            Spike arched his brow. “Really?”

            Twilight giggled nervously. “Heheh . . . it’s just . . . one of those things, you know? It’s my first Halloween with friends, and I don’t want to be the only one there with a terrible looking costume. It would be embarrassing.”

            Spike, now done with his food, licked his lips of any remnants before looking suspiciously at Twilight. “Interesting. So, it has nothing to do with one specific person, or anything like that?”

            Blushing, Twilight gazed up at the ceiling. “Pssh! What? No! Why would—NO! I don’t even know what you’d be implying. What person? I don’t even know a person!”

            “Uh-huh.” Spike walked up to Twilight and stood on his hind legs, indicating to her that he wanted to be picked up. She smiled and did just that. “Whatever you say, Twilight,” Spike continued.

            Twilight pet under Spike’s chin as she made her way through their living room. “And what if the other’s costumes do turn out bad? What if this was a whole terrible idea to begin with and it’s somehow all my fault.”

            “Woah, woah, there, Twi.” Spike held up a paw. “There’s no way it could be your fault. And you’re all gonna make awesome costumes. All of you. You girls are probably the most creative group in town.”

            Twilight began ascending the staircase to the second floor. “What? Are we? I don’t think so. Maybe the other six, but not . . . not me.”

            “Look, Twilight, as a dog,” he paused as he noticed Twilight laughing at the notion of taking advice from a dog. “As a dog, I happen to get around a lot. You know, pee on a few fire hydrants, sniff a few buttholes, that kind of thing.”

            “Spike!” scolded Twilight. She reached the top of the stairs and made her way towards her room.

            “I’m just speaking the truth here, Twilight” he continued. “Anyway, people from all across town talk about you seven. Everyone knows about the ‘super talented girls of Canterlot High.’ And let me tell you, Twi, when they say that, they’re not talking about Trixie.”

            Twilight frowned. “Hey, don’t be mean to Trixie.”

            “I’m not,” said Spike. “What I’m trying to get at here, Twi, is that everyone knows how talented you are. Those girls have saved the world five times now—well, one of those times was from you, but still. And you are one of the smartest girls in the state, if not the smartest. Whatever issues you have going on in your life, Halloween costume or otherwise, I know that you have it in you to work past it and come out the other side. I don’t think it, I know. So, I’m not even worried about it, just like you shouldn’t be worried about it.”

            Twilight set Spike down on her bed, a rim of tears in her eyes. “Wow, Spike. That was really sweet of you. Thank you. It really means a lot.” She spun around and leapt backwards onto her bed, letting Spike cuddle up to her and rest his head on her chest. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe the right idea will just come to me.”

            Spike tiredly shook his tail. “Glad I could help.”

            Taking her phone out and resting it on her bedside table, Twilight pondered things for a brief moment before springing herself up in bed, unknowingly tossing Spike off of her. “I’m gonna call Rainbow!”

            Spike grimaced, rolling himself back onto his belly. “Or . . . maybe not.”

            Opening the Call app on her phone, Twilight pressed the button for Rainbow Dash’s number and held it up to her head.

            It rang once . . .

            Twice . . .

            The third ring was cut short, and the familiar voice of Rainbow Dash appeared on the line.

            “SUP?!” it said.

            “Hehe, hey, Rainbow,” Twilight began. “How’s it going?”

            She heard what sounded like Rainbow stretching on the other side. “Eh, it’s going pretty good, Twi. How ‘bout yourself? You must miss me. I know the past five hours since you saw me last must’ve been pretty hard.” Rainbow chuckled at her own humor, to which Twilight only rolled her eyes and grinned.

            “You’re funny,” she said. “And yeah, I’m good. I do miss you, for your information. At least a little bit. Whiiiich kinda leads me to my next question.”

            “Uh-oh,” Rainbow replied. “You finally gonna pop the question? I’m gonna tell you upfront, Twi, I don’t do wedding dresses, and I’m not gonna wait ‘til marriage to—”

            “NO! No, that’s not what I was going to ask, believe it or not. Wait . . . sometimes I have a hard time telling if you’re serious or not. Do you really want to—”

            Rainbow cut her off. “No, Twilight. I don’t really want to marry you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re really cute, and I like you a lot, but I didn’t really mean that. Except for the ‘not waiting until marriage’ thing. Totally meant that, hehe.”

            “Perv . . .” Twilight replied.

            “Oh, as if you wouldn’t!” shouted Rainbow. “Now, what was it you were gonna ask me again?”

            “Oh yeah! Um . . . so, I have no idea of what I want to wear for Halloween and I was wondering if you’d like to go shopping with me to find something.” She waited, a voice in the back of her head telling her that Rainbow was going to shut her down.

            “Uh, yeah, I guess,” Rainbow replied. Twilight sighed in relief. “Didn’t Pinkie say we were supposed to surprise each other with our costumes, though?”

            Twilight shrugged. “Yeah, but . . . I honestly have no idea and could really use your help. Even if it’s just going to some costume store somewhere.”

            “Wouldn’t Rarity be a better person to call, though?” Rainbow asked. “Uh, not that I don’t want to go or anything, ‘cause I totally do. You and I haven’t hung out one-on-one in . . . ever? Have we ever done that?”

            Twilight thought for a moment. “Um . . . we went and got ice cream at Ice to See You that one time. That was fun.”

            “Oh yeah, after school that one day, huh? Good times.” Rainbow cleared her throat. “But, yeah, um, Rarity is probably making a dress for herself, and I’m sure she’d jump at the chance to make one for you, too.”

            Twilight winced. “Yeahhh . . . Rarity’s a little too . . . good at what she does? If that makes sense? I just want a little thing that fits the holiday, not something that the Queen of Manegolia is going to wear.”

            “Hah!” Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah, I hear ya. She totally would do something like that.”

            “So, do you have any idea of what you’re going to wear?” asked Twilight.

“Heh, what, is rolling myself up in toilet paper a little too low budget?”

            “Haha . . . Maybe just a little.”

            “What if it’s used toilet paper?”

            “Ew, Rainbow!” Twilight laid back down on her bed. “That’s gross! You’re gross!”

            Rainbow cackled. “Yeah, well, I try.” She made a grunt which sounded like her standing up. “I’ll figure it out when I get there, Twi. No point worrying about it now. Or . . . ever, really. I don’t really care too much about the costume part.”

            “Fair enough,” sighed Twilight. “Sooo . . . tomorrow? That sound good? Around three at the Halloween Store?”

            “The Halloween Store,” Rainbow echoed. “’Bout how long you think it took them to come up with that name, Twilight? Five minutes?”

            Twilight giggled. “Maybe less. Probably less.”

            “Three sounds good. See you tomorrow, Egghead.”

            “See you then, jock strap.”

            “Hah!” Rainbow laughed. “That’s a good one.” Before Twilight knew it, Rainbow had hung up and a dial tone was all that remained.

            Twilight locked her phone, letting her arm collapse down beside her as Spike lay his head on her chest once more.

            “Sounds like you’ve got a plan,” he said, eyes closed.

            Twilight grinned. “I guess I do.”

            “I like Rainbow,” Spike said. “She’s funny.”

            “Yeah,” Twilight closed her eyes. “She is.”

            “Not as pretty as Rarity, but . . .”

            Twilight playfully swatted him on the butt. “Don’t get too comfortable, mister. We’ve still got to set up Pinkie’s Halloween decorations.”

            “Eugh, do we have to?” Spike stretched, getting all the more relaxed as he leaned in to Twilight.

            “We don’t have to, we get to.”

            Spike sighed. “Well lucky me.”

---

            Twilight tugged at the hem of her skirt as she approached the Halloween Store. The cheap banner with a stereotypical sheeted ghost swung daintily in the wind above the automatic sliding door, emblematic of the hasty preparedness involved in setting up the store itself. She checked her watch; three o’clock exactly. Twilight smiled. Another example of perfect promptness in the books.

            “Hey, Twi!” Rainbow’s voice called behind her, causing her to spin around. In all honesty, Twilight was surprised Rainbow had made it on time. She had a habit of being “unfashionably late” to things.

            “Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight retorted. “Nice to see you again.”

            “And on time!” replied Rainbow. “I knew you’d hound me for showing up late today, so I made sure I gave myself good enough time to get here.”

            “I’m impressed.” Twilight crossed her arms. “And I wouldn’t ‘hound’ you about it.”

            Rainbow rolled her eyes before using her middle finger to pantomime pushing a pair of glasses up on the bridge of her nose. In her nasally-est voice she could make, she said, “Mmm, Rainbow Dash, I told you to be here promptly at the strike of three, and here we are at three o’ two and I can’t see thy face anywhere! How dare-th thee?” She dropped the voice. “Sound familiar?”

            Twilight shook her head in exasperation. “Wait, was that supposed to be me?! I don’t sound anything like that! And why did you give me a Shakespearean accent?”

            “Bahahahah!” Rainbow exploded, slapping her knee in excitement. “I don’t even know! Sounds like something you’d do.” She wrapped her arm around Twilight’s shoulder as she, too, began to chuckle. “You read all his stuff, don’t you?”

            Twilight poked Rainbow in the side. “I happen to be both a fan and a student to many of his—”

            “Told ya.” She jiggled the rim of Twilight’s glasses. “Straight up nerd.”

            “Pffff,” Twilight sputtered. “Let’s just go inside. I’m wearing a skirt and it’s cold out.”

            The two made their way through the double doors as Rainbow pressed on. “Why do you wear a skirt in the first place, then?”

            Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s just my look, I guess. I don’t normally wear jeans.”

            Rainbow stretched the fabric of her shorts in Twilight’s direction. “You should totally just wear spandex like me. It’s warm when it needs to be, cool when it needs to be, and it really shows off what I got going on, you know? For anyone who happens to look.”

            “Yeah,” Twilight smirked, “I don’t know. It just doesn’t look too comfortable. Besides, I don’t really have anything ‘going on.’ Not like you do.”

            Rainbow snickered. “And that, Twilight, is where you’re wrong.” Making their way into the inner part of the store, Rainbow quickly looked at a nearby stand that caught her attention. “Holy crap, Twi, look!”

            Running over to an eight-foot-tall Grim Reaper statue, Rainbow immediately tested his scythe to see if it was real or not. Disappointedly, she found it was plastic. “Lame.” Spinning around to face Twilight, Rainbow said, “Hey, Twi, this would make a good MyStable profile pic, huh? Me standing next to this thing? Take a picture for me.”

            Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it a bit cliché? Showing the world how close you are to death, yet still avoiding its lethal touch?”

            Rainbow rolled her neck in irritation. “I don’t need the whole English-teacher-analysis here, Ms. Sparkle. Just take the picture for me, yeah?”

            “Alright, fine.” Twilight pulled out her phone.

            “Loooove you, Twi,” Rainbow called.

            “You too,” said Twilight as she aimed her camera at Rainbow, who posed with double sign of the horns with her hands.

            *Click*

            “Thanks,” Rainbow returned to Twilight’s side. “Just so you know, there’s gonna be a lot of that today. It’s, like, ninety percent of why going to Halloween stores is so awesome.”

            “Is it?” inquired Twilight. “I’ve never really been to one, actually. Only once when I was really little.”

            “What? Did you do anything cool with friends before us?”

            Twilight rubbed the side of her arm, embarrassed. “Not really . . .”

            “Oh . . .” Twilight could tell Rainbow thought she overstepped. She quickly moved to change the tone. “Well that’s gonna change right now. Come on.” She grabbed Twilight’s hand and began moving her spot to spot within the store.

            “Let’s look at the masks!” Rainbow directed. She brought Twilight over to a line of masks, the sight of which was slightly off putting to Twilight. She felt claustrophobic just at the sight of them. “So, Twi, what did you have in mind for a costume? You like nerdy stuff, right?” She picked out a white helmet and put it on her head. “Hey, look at me! I’m a, uh . . . trooper . . . guy.”

            “Stormtrooper,” Twilight corrected. “And to answer your question, I don’t really know. Although, to be honest, I wasn’t exactly planning on wearing a mask.”

            Rainbow took off the helmet and began scanning the lineup as she placed it back on its hook. “Let’s see, we got all the usual stuff. Godzilla, Skele-seer, Carnival Cat, evil clown—Pinkie would like that one—bloody hockey mask—is . . . is that William Shatner?”

            Twilight smirked as she picked up a feminine masquerade ball mask and placed it over her eyes. “Am I mysterious enough?”

            “Well,” Rainbow huffed, “it might look better if you put it behind your glasses.”

            “Oh . . . right.” Twilight took her glasses off and placed the mask back over her eyes, batting her eyelashes as she did so. “Ready to take me out on the town, Ms. Dash?”

            “I gotta say,” Rainbow admitted, “it does look pretty on you. I can imagine a scene where you and your star-crossed lover are staring at a giant fish tank together, only for him to see you through the glass and go, ‘Who’s that mysterious girl?’ And that girl would be you, Twi.”

            Twilight blushed, her mind immediately replacing said mystery man with a certain girl with a sunny disposition. Oh, if only it could happen like that. But I doubt there’d be a fish tank at the Halloween party at school, right? She cleared her throat, placing the mask back on the hook. “Interesting,” she said.

            “Don’t worry about it,” Rainbow said, noticing Twilight fantasizing once again. “I got the idea from some old movie. Oh, hey, check this out.” Rainbow took a pair of devil horns and placed it on Twilight’s head before placing one on her own. “Put your glasses back on, I’m gonna take a picture.”

            “Oh, okay.” Twilight did so as Rainbow took out her phone, put an arm around Twilight, and snapped a picture with the front facing camera. She looked at the picture. Aww, that looks nice, she thought. We’re both smiling.

            “Oh, I am totally posting this,” Rainbow said, tapping a few buttons so she could post it on various social media accounts as she dictated her caption aloud. “’Having . . . lots . . . of fun . . . with . . . my best friend . . .’”

            Aww. Twilight smiled. Rainbow could be so sweet sometimes.

            “’Hashtag . . . feeling . . . horny . . .” Her lips curled up, waiting for Twilight’s reaction.

            “WHAT?!” Twilight shriek-whispered.

            Rainbow waited.

            “. . . O . . . Ohhhh,” said Twilight, finally getting the pun. “That’s good. You’re good.”

            “See?” Rainbow snickered as she removed the horns. “I can be pretty smart sometimes.”

            Twilight nodded. “And that ‘sometimes’ is decidedly not when you’re at school, right?”

            “Hey!” Rainbow pointed a finger at Twilight. “. . . True. But it’s not my fault all our classes are boring. ‘Sides, with my head ADHD-ing around all the time, it’s hard to stay focused.”

            “I know it is.” Twilight placed a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “I’m just teasing you a little. You do fine at school. Could do a little better, but . . .”

            “Hey, check this out!” Rainbow pointed, changing the subject. She walked them over to a stand of plastic swords, ranging from katanas, pirate swords, medieval swords, and more. She took one of the pirate ones and tossed it to Twilight. “Catch!”

            “Oh!” Twilight fumbled over and over again with the sword, but finally managed to grab hold of it. “G—got it!”

            “En garde!” Rainbow quickly swiped at Twilight’s sword, making a “Hah-HAH!” noise as she did so. Twilight tensed up, closing her eyes to protect Rainbow from “damaging” her. She quickly thought better of herself, however, and positioned her hands around the grip of the sword.

            “You’re on, Captain Dash!” She swiped back at Rainbow, and the two quickly began play fighting in the middle of the aisle, taking turns making dramatic gestures with their swords.

            “That’s Rainbow Beard to you, scallywag!” Rainbow spun around 360 degrees and took a slow jab at Twilight’s lower leg. Twilight playfully screamed—quietly of course. “Hey!” said Dash, “What’s yer pirate name, landlubber?”

            “Um . . . ummm,” Twilight thought for a moment, still trading slow blows with Rainbow. “Twilight . . . Sp-arr-kle?”

            Rainbow had to clutch her stomach from laughing too hard. “Hahahah! You are such a dweeb! Oh, that is awesome! Sp-arr-kle! Hahah!”

            Twilight smiled. “I’m pretty proud of myself, thank you very much.”

            “Oh, you definitely should be!”

            In what Twilight had originally thought would be a quick in-and-out trip with her and Rainbow, she found that minutes flew by as the better part of an hour was spent with the two laughing, playing, trying on dumb costumes, and taking pictures with as many cute or dumb faces they could muster. As four o’clock neared, Twilight was feeling a great sense of satisfaction. Sure, she’d had fun hanging out with the girls in a group, going to whatever mall trip or summer camp they’d all agreed upon. But for the first time in her life, Twilight was spending some quality one-on-one time with what had to be one of the best friends one could have in the world. She almost felt like crying; all those years of solitude, isolation, and loneliness were finally over. She’d finally found where she was supposed to be.

            As the afternoon rolled on, Twilight and Rainbow had found themselves near the back of the store, where the more “creative” items were available. Paper and bits of plastic for people to form into their own shapes, glitter, sparkles, and gels for them to decorate with. It was here that Twilight finally thought she’d find what she wanted, whatever that happened to be.

            “Hmm, perhaps I could make a wizard hat out of these stars,” Twilight said, mostly to herself. She looked at Rainbow Dash. “There’s actually wizards in Equestria! Did you know that? Princess Twilight told me last time I talked to her. Isn’t that cool?”

            “Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, obviously uninterested. “It’s like that one movie with the little boy wizard in it, what’s it called? Lord of the Flies?”

            Twilight went stone faced. “There are so many things wrong with that sentence that I don’t even know where to start.” She returned her gaze back towards the shelving before quickly glancing at Rainbow. “Although that is a good book, too, if you were to read it.”

            “I’ll take your word for it.” Rainbow crossed her arms as Twilight sorted through craft paper. “Speaking of Princess Twilight, Twilight—woah, that sounds weird…”

            “Told you it would be confusing!” interjected Twilight.

            “Yeah, well . . .” Rainbow continued, “anyways, Sunset texted me today saying the Princess wrote her back—me back—and said she’s way too busy with Nightmare Night stuff in Equestria to be able to come to our thing. Which makes sense, I suppose. She probably is setting it all up for Ponyville, or something. Isn’t that something a princess would do?”

            Twilight shrugged and mumbled an “I dunno.” Inwardly, though, Twilight was happy. She somehow, strange as it was, saw Princess Twilight as competition for the affection of Sunset Shimmer. If anything, Twilight thought, the Princess was probably way more impressive to Sunset than she ever was. It probably wasn’t a competition at all.

            “’Sides, it doesn’t really matter much,” Rainbow said. “We’ve got each other. And, we’ve got . . . Maud.”

            “Oh yeah,” remarked Twilight, “I forgot about Maud. She seemed, uh . . . nice.”

            “Yeah, Maud is, uh . . . well, she’s something all right.” Rainbow placed her hands on her hips. “I met her a few years back at a sleepover at Pinkie’s place. She, uh . . . hoo, she really likes rocks.”

            Twilight stood up straight and subconsciously pushed up her glasses. “Geology is fascinating, Rainbow Dash. I could see why Maud would take an interest in such things.”

            “No, you don’t get it, Twilight.” Rainbow placed both hands on Twilight’s shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. “She really . . . likes rocks. Really.”

            “O—oh . . .” Twilight stepped back. “Y-you mean like . . . sexually?”

            “What?! NO! What? N—no, Twilight!” Rainbow looked disgusted, if only for a moment. “Actually, um . . . maybe? Probably not. Ew. I hope not. That’s not what I meant.”

            Why am I so awkward? “Oh, okay. Sorry. I don’t know why that’s the first thing I thought of.”

            “Yeah, no, don’t worry about it. You’ll see what I mean on Tuesday. She’s . . . she’s a Pie, all right. Just, like . . . in the opposite direction as Pinkie. Still really strange. Not quite as cute. . .”

            “I see . . . Ooh!” Twilight picked up a burgundy sash, one that she quickly looped around her neck and swung over her shoulder. “With a shield, and one of those swords we played with, I could look like a Romane warrior or gladiator! Ooh, or the emperor! You know, like Marcus Aurelius?!”

            Rainbow blinked. “Uh . . . totally.”

            Twilight was practically shaking with excitement. “Ooh, this is so exciting! I love when inspiration hits me like this! I’m not very good at costume making, but . . . maybe if I found some armor over in the outfit section I could string some things together, make it look good! Oh, I think that’ll work. I’ll definitely look good and historical enough to impress S—” Oops. “Uh, impress . . . you . . . girls. With my costume. Heheh . . .”

            Rainbow smirked. “Uh-huh.”

            Twilight bent down and searched the bottom row of shelving. There was nothing there, of course, she just didn’t want Rainbow Dash to see her face burning a deep crimson. She slightly looked to her side, noticing that Rainbow’s body language was changing; a smug and confident lean against the shelving unit.

            “Soooo . . .” Rainbow began, a tease in her voice. “Does she know?”

            PANIC. “Uh . . . what?” Twilight still stared straight ahead. “Does . . . does who know? Who do I know? What?”

            “Mmm-mmm.” Rainbow squatted down, eye level to Twilight. “Does . . . she know?”

            Twilight looked away. “I-I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, Rainbow. W-what? Are you thinking of somebody else?”

            “Uh-huh.” Rainbow stared holes in the back of Twilight’s head, and she felt it. “Twilight.”

            What was she to do? Does she tell her? What if she does tell her? Would she go and tell Sunset? Rainbow hasn’t been one to keep things quiet. But on the other hand, she was a pretty good liar when she needed to be. She was one of her best friends, but what if her knowing would ruin everything? Ohh, what do I do? Where do I go?

            Twilight sighed. “No . . . no, she doesn’t know.”

            “Theeere we go,” Rainbow patted her on the back. “See was that so hard?”

            Twilight stood straight up and looked at Rainbow, who did the exact same. “It was, yeah. Kinda why I haven’t told her yet.”

            Rainbow’s face scrunched in confusion. “Wait a minute . . . Didn’t you used to like that Timber guy from Camp Everfree?”

            Twilight blushed. “Um . . . a girl can like . . . two things . . .”

            “Ohh,” nodded Rainbow. “I getcha. Same with me, kinda. Uh, only, I only like girls.”

            “Heheh,” Twilight chuckled. “I know, Rainbow. I can tell.”

            “What, it’s that easy to tell? What gave it away, all the posters of female athletes on my walls, or the fact that I’ve never talked to a boy, like, ever?”

            Twilight hid a snicker behind her hand. “A lot of things, Rainbow. Those included, yes.”

            Rainbow grinned in turn. “No, I knew you guys could tell. Just like I could tell you liked Sunset from a mile away.”

            “What?” Twilight panicked. “Y—you could tell?!”

            “Um, yeah.” Rainbow raised her eyebrow. “In fact, I’ve been thinking of a way to bring it up to you today, I just didn’t have a good in until now. Maybe it’s just ‘cause I have a knack for scoping out, um . . . girls looking at other girls, but . . . I can see the way you stare at her, Twi. It’s pretty frickin’ obvious. You practically drool all over her.”

            Twilight clapped her hands to her cheeks. “Oh no! I didn’t think I was like that. Oh, I must look like an idiot! Do you think she knows?”

            “Mmm, I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think the rest of us know, though.”

            “Really?” Twilight was shocked. She thought she was being subtle all this time.

            “Really. I mean, I haven’t talked to them about it or anything, but I think they know. It’s kind of an unspoken fact between all of us.”

            Twilight buried her face in her hands. “Ohh, I am not good at this. I’ve never had a crush like this before. I mean, I had one on Timber, but not like this.”

            Rainbow crossed her arms. “What is it about her that you like, anyways? Uh, not that I’m criticizing your choices or anything, she is pretty cool.”

            Twilight sighed. “She is.”

            “And hot.”

            “Oh, she really is.”

            “So, what is it?”

            “Hmm . . .” Twilight never really thought about it before. It just kind of was. “I don’t really know. She just has this sort of . . . charm about her. She’s smart, she’s cute, she’s funny. She’s cool. She was the first person to really connect with me once I moved here. And when I . . . you know . . . turned into an evil, magical demon, she was the one to look inside and see me for who I really was. She saved my life that day, not to mention everyone else’s. I tried putting my feelings aside for a while, not knowing that I was . . . like that . . .”

            Rainbow gave her a look.

            “N—not that that’s a bad thing!” Twilight waved both hands. “Obviously, heheh . . . but, I didn’t know that that was who I really was. But these last few months of hanging out with her, unable to take my eyes off of her, unable to take my mind off of her . . . it kinda became pretty obvious what was going on. It just took me a little while to realize it.”

            “Wow,” Rainbow smiled, “that was actually kind of beautiful. In a way. Ahem . . . if you like sappy stuff like that.”

            Twilight dug the ball of her foot into the ground. “Heheh, yeah. It’s kinda been on my mind for a while.”

            “I can see that.” Rainbow paused for a minute. “So, when are you gonna tell her?”

            Twilight rung her hands together and pondered the idea. “. . . I don’t know.”

            “Well you gotta tell her, Twi! You guys would go so good together!”

            “You think?” Twilight beamed. “That really makes me happy that you think that.”

            “I know that, Twilight.” She pantomimed blowing smoke away from her finger gun. “Trust me, I know a thing or two about girls being together.”

            “Wait . . .” Twilight pondered, “You’ve never actually been in a relationship before, have you?”

            “Pshh, buhh, uh, that’s not important!” Rainbow argued. “What’s important is that you tell her how you feel. She needs to know, regardless of how it goes down. You can’t live your life being in love with your best friend, Twilight. It’ll hurt too much.”

            Twilight thought she heard a tinge of pain in her voice. “Will it really?”

            “Yeah . . .” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her head. “It will. I’m not saying you gotta do it right now or anything. Just . . . keep it in mind as things go forward, huh? The chance to do it might come up sooner than you’d expect.”

            Twilight nodded. “Yeah, okay . . . Okay. I’ll try and find a way to tell her, eventually.”

            “Eventually,” Rainbow finished. “Now come on, let’s finish finding you that costume.”

            Rainbow lead Twilight around the store as they continued to gather supplies for their respective costumes. But while she was present in the here and now, the back of her mind was mulling over all that Rainbow Dash had told her. She did need to tell Sunset how she felt, else her heart might explode. Metaphorically speaking, of course. She didn’t know the time, and she didn’t know the place, but she did know that they were going to be together next Tuesday for Halloween. All she needed to figure out now was how to get the two of them alone.

            As she glanced over at the girl next to her, Twilight noted, a bright thought surfaced among the deluge of worry. No matter what Twilight does, and no matter the outcome, she would always have an amazing group of friends that will love, assist, and support her throughout any hardships. And that, Twilight thought, was worth its weight in gold.