Random Book Day, Twilight's favorite day.... That is, until she reads a magical book that makes her friends fall hopelessly in love for her. One thing is for sure, she won't last the day.
Twilight Sparkle picks out a Romance Novel to read on Random Book Day and ends up loving it. But afterwards it seems that everypony suddenly falls head over hooves in love with her. This won’t end well...
Collaboration with Trixie Lunamoon 13, an awesome partner and an amazing writer. Without them this story wouldn’t be as great as it is.
It’s a beautiful day in Ponyville, and for one unicorn, it was perhaps an even more beautiful day inside because-
“It’s Random Book Day!”
“Is that today?”
Twilight Sparkle was inside of her castle library looking around at the massive assortment of books she had collected over the years to make into one of Equestria’s biggest libraries. Her number one assistant Spike was there with her as well, although he didn’t share the same enthusiasm as his friend. He looked at Twilight and saw that her eyes were shimmering, a sense of wonder and excitement in them. She turned toward him with a huge smile.
“Don’t you remember? Every third wednesday of the month I pick out a random book from this library and read it.”
“How could I forget,” Spike said, rolling his eyes.
Twilight gazed at her massive collection one more time before closing her eyes and beginning to focus. Her horn got the familiar lavender glow to it and she began to pull off a bunch of books from the shelves, levitating them around her. After about ten seconds she randomly picked one out of the bunch, moved it over to her desk, and put the rest of the books away.
“Did I pick a good one?”
Spike responded to Twilight’s question by going over and taking a look at the cover, with Twilight still standing facing away from the desk in anticipation. “What will I be reading about? A book about the Yaks? The 7 deadly spells? The-”
Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted by giggling coming from the purple dragon behind her. She turned around fast and saw her assistant lying on the red carpeted floor laughing and gasping for breath.
“What’s so funny, Spike?” She walked slowly toward the desk and looked at the book she had picked out. It was a pink book, about medium-sized that had a lavender bookmark on it. The words Love in the Summertime, By: H.H. Holmes grazed the cover in an elegant cursive font in a white color.
Twilight blushed as she immediately guessed the reason for Spike’s laughter. She looked at the book apprehensively, and thought of some way that she could get out of it.
“Oh would you look at that,” she said nervously, “I forgot to go tell Rainbow Dash that I moved our Daring Do discussion to tomorrow. I better go and tell her.”
She turned around and attempted to make a hasty escape, but was stopped by the high pitched voice behind her.
“Twilight, are you afraid of that book?”
The unicorn screeched to a halt just before getting through the doorway and turned around to see Spike, just getting up from his fit of laughter, with a knowing smile on his face.
“What do you mean by that, Spike,” Twilight asked.
In response Spike crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Then why don’t you go ahead and read it right now? You always do on Random Book Day...or any day for that matter.”
Twilight rolled her eyes at Spike’s sarcastic jab at the end. It was true that she was Equestria’s biggest bookworm, and it was true that she could read a dozen books in one weekend if she wanted to, but she was slightly embarrassed by the idea of reading a romance novel.
The romance section of the library encompasses a very small section of the library, and it was likely only there for Rarity, who would often take out a book from there (and sometimes even Rainbow Dash, but she won’t admit it). Compared to the sections on pony history, potions, and magic that had shelves upon shelves, it was a far cry. So it was complete bad luck that she had chosen one of them.
“Look if your too scared to read it, then-”
“Scared?”
Spike looked up in surprise at the tone that his friend had used. Her face suddenly seemed sketched with determination as she levitated the book over to her with a smirk. She walked over to the nearest chair and sat down on it, opening the book to the first page, and looking up at Spike with a sassy look on her face. “Watch me!”
Spike just stood with a surprised expression on his face. After a few seconds he rolled his eyes, shrugged his shoulders, and walked out of the castle library, shaking his head. He looked outside and noticed that the sun was beginning to kiss the horizon, about to sink below and bring on Luna’s moon.
Spike yawned and scratched his back. “I should probably go to bed. Twilight should give up and go to bed soon.” He chuckled again as he moved down the hallway to his room at the thought of the studious and serious princess reading such a ridiculous book.
Morning had broken over Ponyville as a new day dawned. It was the next day and Celestia’s light had broken through the castle windows, waking up a baby dragon snuggled under his covers.
“Good morning Twilight,” Spike said, rubbing his eyes with his hands, “did you sleep well?”
Upon hearing no immediate response Spike turned to face Twilight’s bed, and was surprised to see the sheets as smooth and delicate as the night before. Nopony was laying on it.
Spike questioned this before deciding that Twilight had fallen asleep reading again, so he got out of bed, opened the bedroom door, and jumped back at what he saw.
There, standing with the book by her side and a big smile on her face was Twilight. She had bloodshot eyes with bags around them which Spike recognized as a lack of sleep from years of experience as Twilight’s personal assistant.
“Twilight,” Spike asked, looking concerned for his friend, “did you stay up all night reading...again?”
“Yes!” she exclaimed, scaring Spike a little. Her eyes all of the sudden shined brightly as pure excitement overtook her. She then levitated Love in the Summertime in front of his face. “I finished the whole book and I can’t believe how great it ended up being! No wonder Rarity likes these books so much! That Tenderheart is the most romantic stallion ever, and the way he tried to win the heart of Swirling Clouds is so...romantic.” Twilight sighed dreamily and walked over to her bed and lied down on it, the book clinched between her hooves.
Spike stood frozen in place, mouth agape as he stared at the dreamy- eyed, blushing Princess gushing about a stupid romance book. “You...actually...likedit?!” Spike then bursted out laughing and fell to the floor with tears in his eyes.
“Laugh all you want Spike,” Twilight responded, not moving from the bed, “but this is perhaps the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read.”
“Oh really? Even more beautiful than that reference guide on toads you read last week,” Spike managed to say in the middle of his laughter.
Twilight just rolled her eyes and stood up, trotting to the door and shutting it behind her.
“By the way,” she said before continuing down the crystal hallway, “I told you I would read it!”
She didn’t wait for a response before she continued down the hallway inside of her castle. Even after a while of living there, she still couldn’t get over the size and length of the main hallways of her castle, as well as the number of doors that led into a different room. Sure, some of the doors led into smaller hallways that she was more used to with only a few rooms in them, but even they could get overwhelming at times. The Golden Oak Library didn’t have nearly as much space, and most of that was being taken up by books anyways.
Twilight figured she could always teleport, but ever since Discord appeared in Spike’s bed looking for her, the little dragon had made Starlight Glimmer and her promise not to teleport without announcement. The dining room was only a short way from her bedroom anyway, so she figured there was no harm in just walking.
When she got there she saw her student, Starlight Glimmer, sitting in a chair at the table eating a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats and reading a book. When Twilight got closer she saw that she was reading Daring Do and the Griffon’s Stone, and seemed to be enjoying it a lot.
Twilight remembered how Rainbow Dash would gush to Starlight about how good the series was and often told her to read it sometime. Finally she caved and started to read the first book, and loved it so much that she had already started to read the second book.
“Good morning, Starlight,” Twilight said as she trotted into the seat next to her friend, smiling. She then noticed that a bowl and spoon had already been set out for her. “Thanks for setting a spot up for me! That was very kind!”
Starlight smiled but didn’t look up, her nose still stuck in the book. “No problem, Twilight. I saw you in the library reading last night and thought you might be tired today, especially since you were really into whatever it was you were reading.”
Both of the unicorns shared a laugh as Twilight levitated the box of cereal and a carton of milk, pouring a little of each of the contents into her bowl. She gazed over at the book in Starlight’s hooves, and saw that she was already halfway through reading it.
“Wow,” Twilight exclaimed, “I didn’t know you liked adventure books so much!”
Starlight rolled her eyes before she answered. “I don’t really even like the genre! If you had asked me a month ago if I would be this invested in an adventure series, I would have said you were crazy, but these Daring Do books are amazing! Who knew that I would love a series like this so much?”
Twilight laughed nervously as she brought a spoon of cereal to her mouth. Wow, Déjà vu, she thought, remembering her own experience from just a night ago.
Starlight closed the book, moved it to the side, and looked at Twilight for the first time since she had walked in. “So, what was that book that you were so interested in last night?”
“Oh...well...see it’s a really funny story. You see...” Twilight stammered looking for a way to get out of answering the question without raising too much suspicion. She realized, however, that since Spike already knew, he would probably tell her anyways, so she turned to Starlight to finish her answer but froze before she could.
Starlight was staring straight at her with a wide-eyed look, almost as if her eyes were examining every part of her for a second. Twilight gave her a confused look waiting for her to explain the change in behavior. When no explanation came, she assumed that it was her mane, as she had forgotten to brush it before coming downstairs, and it was often messy in the morning. She laughed before asking, “Is my mane really that bad? I know it’s probably messy but I didn’t think it was that bad.”
“No, not at all,” Starlight responded, her expression changing into a small smile, “in fact, it looks really...”
Twilight was confused at what Starlight said. How could somepony like Starlight tell her that? Other than Spike, which would make sense. Maybe she did stay up too late….. Or not.
“Your mane looks so beautiful Twilight. Has anypony ever told you that?”
Twilight looked at Starlight in shock. This had made no sense whatsoever! Unless…..
It’s him! I just know it! Twilight had no doubt it was him. She was sure of it, and she was going to prove it.
“Uh…. Oh! Look at the time! I got to go! See ya soon Starlight!” Twilight then left without a hurry, before Starlight could even say anything.
Later, Twilight was in Fluttershy’s cottage, nonetheless to find him.
“DISCORD! What did you do this time?! Making everypony fall hopelessly in love with me?!”
Discord looked at Twilight in shock. Sure Discord was the lord of chaos, but he would never go that far.
“Oh Twilight! My sweet friend! What makes you say that? I would never go that far! Not especially for you!”
(Uh….. breaking the fourth wall again Discord? Cause that’s what I said….)
“Discord! This isn’t funny! This is your work, and your stalling again! Just give in! It was you!” Twilight said with signs of pure rage in her voice. “Oh please! If it was me, I would make the whole world fall for you! But it wasn’t me. I’m reformed! Right Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy gave no response to Discord, nor even attention to Discord! She was too busy swooning over Twilight, by stroking on her mane. Twilight froze when she felt a hoof on her mane.
“You’re so pretty Twilight! Your mane is so soft….. I just wanna snuggle with you so bad…”
Now it was Discord’s turn to be in shock. He loved Fluttershy more, and he was not about to have somepony else for her to love!
“My will you look at the time! Nice of you to visit, but now it’s time for you to go! Bye!” Discord quickly teleported Twilight out of the cottage, exactly where Spike was.
“Uh Twilight? You okay?” Spike asked with concern. But looking at Twilight’s face, he could tell something was wrong.
“Ugh! What in Equestria is going on?! Maybe Celestia could help?”
“Uhhhh, you may wanna rethink that….” Spike hands the letter to Twilight, which she reads with surprise:
“Hello Twilight.
I’ve heard what has happened to you. I don’t know how to help, but I can tell you this:
Your cute! ;)
~Celestia
Twilight’s jaw literally had dropped to the floor as she read the entire note. She could not believe her eyes. Her mentor, princess Celestia, had called her cute! She had had it. She felt like she was going crazy, so she decided to go over to her other friends to see if they could help.
“Come on Spike! We are going over to Applejack’s to see if she can help!”
“Uh… is that really a good choice Twilight? I mean, the possibilities of what could happen are ENDLESS!” Spike said with worry in his voice.
Hours later, Spike and Twilight are at Sweet Apple Acres, home of the apple family, and Applejack’s home. Applejack, like the others, was paying no attention to what Twilight was saying.
“And that’s why I need your help! What do you say?”
“Your darn toonen cute like a sweet cute apple. Has anypony ever told you that?”
Twilight’s response was just a simple facehoof, meaning she regretted coming to Applejack, just because she had said the same thing both Fluttershy and Starlight had said. Did she really lose her head just reading a silly book for random book day?
“Uh, Twilight? I think it’s time we go……”
“You’re right. I’m not gonna put up with this nonsense. Let’s go see Rainbow Dash. Maybe she can help.” Twilight said with confidence. Though, she did have doubts…..
~later~
“Uh…. I….. don’t know how?”
Twilight had almost just about had it. Her rage levels were through the roof, and she was about to lose it.
“And what else do you have to say?”
“Will you be my-” She was cut off of Twilight’s quick teleportation.
“This doesn't make sense! Why is everypony in love with me?! WHYYYYYYYYYY?!” Twilight wanted answers, and she wanted them now.
Twilight teleported back to her castle, where Spike was waiting for her outside. At this point it was about five o’clock, and there was still a few hours of sunlight out, but many ponies were shutting down their shops for the night or going to get dinner. As soon as he saw his friend and walked over to her. He could tell from the look on her face that what he was about to be told wasn’t very good news. He still asked anyways, “How’d it go with Rainbow Dash?”
“Oh, you know,” Twilight started in an extremely sarcastic tone, “just the same as everypony else! Smiling, blushing, complementing, dreamy-eyed.” Twilight groaned loudly and put a hoof to her forehead in frustration, moving her head so that she was staring at the ground. “How is all this even happening? Discord is definitely behind this!”
“I don’t know, Twilight, I actually doubt it was him,” Spike said.
Twilight looked up bewildered at Spike, mouth agape in disbelief. “How could it not be him? This has him written all over it! He mind controlled everypony to suddenly be gushing over me, even Celestia!”
“Twilight?”
“I know he was reformed, but he still likes to pull his tricks, pranks, jokes...whatever!”
“Twilight?”
“When I see that lousy Draconequus next I’m gonna kick his snake tail thing so hard-“
“Twilight!”
The voice finally snapped her out of her blind rage and she looked in front of her to see the purple dragon with his claws on her shoulders. He often did this when Twilight went momentarily crazy, which happened less and less now but still could happen.
“I’m almost positive it wasn’t him!”
“How do you know?” Twilight asked with an eyebrow raise.
“Well, you know how me, him, and Big Mac, get together for guys night a lot? Well one time we were playing truth or dare and he totally told us that he had a crush on somepony else.”
“Discord has a crush?” Twilight asked, eyes wide.
“Yep, but I promised I wouldn’t say who it was. Anyways, my point is that he wouldn’t have wanted to put a spell on everypony because that would have made Fluttershy fall in love with you like it did.”
It took Spike a second and a knowing look from Twilight to realize that he had just revealed Discord’s crush. “Darn it! At least it wasn’t a pinkie promise, I guess.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and started walking toward the castle door with Spike following close behind. She used her magic to open the doors and they began to walk down the long hallway to the map room.
“I guess that would make sense, Spike,” Twilight said as they walked, “but I still think it might be him. Only extreme magic would be able to overcome Princess Celestia like that, and I happen to know that Discord has exactly that. For now, though, we need to find out what’s going on and why everypony is acting this way.”
“And why Discord and I don’t seem to be affected at all,” Spike chimed in.
“Yes, that to,” Twilight said as she opened the door to the map room, still lost in her thoughts. “We also need to find out...what in Equestria happened in this room!?”
The two friends looked around the room to see that it had been decorated to seem like a scene from a fancy restaurant. The map had been decorated with a ivory tablecloth with two red plates on top. In the middle there was a candle burning, and there were two wooden chairs lined up on either side of the “table.” Considering how big the map was it hardly looked like an appropriate dinner table, however it still looked rather charming.
Around the room were some purple flowers which Twilight instantly recognized as purple bellflowers, which were historically defined as the flower of...
“Uh oh,” Twilight murmured.
Love.
“Hi there Twilight,” a voice said from behind them. They turned around quickly to see Starlight Glimmer standing in a beautiful light blue dress with purple highlights that seemed to perfectly match her hair. She also wore a necklace of pearls that Twilight recognized as the beads she had been given when she helped to defeat the Changelings as gratitude.
“Uh, hey Starlight! What’s all this?” Twilight asked in a weak voice, already fearing the answer.
“Well, I thought I would surprise you with a dinner date to show you what a good special somepony I would be! After all, the most beautiful and special mare in all of Equestria deserves only the most beautiful and special of decorations.”
Twilight sighed and stepped forward, almost coming nose to nose with the other unicorn, whose face was super red.
“Listen, Starlight, this isn’t you,” Twilight started, “you aren’t attracted to mares and you don’t have any feelings for me. You aren’t thinking clearly.”
Starlight looked straight into her friend’s eyes, and Twilight hopes that it meant that she had gotten through to her. However, her expression didn’t show that of disappointment or rejection, but of determination and boldness.
“No, Twilight,” she began, “for the first time I am thinking clearly. I was blind this whole time to the beauty and kindness that you have, Twilight. I really, really like you, and I really want this to work so that I can hug, kiss, cuddle, and spend time with the most perfect unicorn in all of Equestria.”
Silence fell over the room as Twilight and Spike were both shocked by the declaration of love that Starlight had just gave, while the love struck unicorn anxiously awaited an answer, her eyes shining with excitement.
Spike then got an idea, but he needed time to pull it off, so he stepped forward and smiled at Starlight.
“This is amazing, Starlight, and I’m sure that Twilight would absolutely love to go on a date with you!”
Spike could have sworn he heard Twilight’s jaw hit the ground from behind him, but he kept his focus on the giddy unicorn in front of him. Before anypony else could say anything he continued.
“Let me just take Twilight to her room to help her get ready. You wait here, alright?”
Starlight almost jumped up in excitement before she ran over to Twilight and gave her a Pinkie Pie style bone crushing hug. “That sounds amazing,” she exclaimed before letting Twilight go. “See you in a few, cutie.“
She winked at the now stunned p purple alicorn before she walked over to the table, incorporating a little hip sway.
Spike turned to Twilight who looked like she was about to say something, so he quickly brought a hand to her mouth and started to lead her toward the hallway that led to her room.
“Alright, Starlight, she’ll be ready soon,” he stated, walking Twilight into the hallway and went a few doors down before relinquishing his grip on her mouth, which was immediately opened again.
“Spike,” she almost shouted, “what was that for! I don’t want to date her!”
“I only did it for some time to think,” Spike defended, “I didn’t think she would let you go so easily, especially after the speech. Because we don’t think it was Discord, and if it is we can confront him later, I thought we could go to that mini library in your room to see if we can find a solution to this mess.”
“Well we better find something, otherwise everypony will think I’m going to be dating my student.”
They walked a few more doors down before they found the one that led into Twilight’s bedroom, where Twilight opened the door with her magic and the princess and her number one assistant went over to a small bookcase in the corner of her room, where Twilight kept most of her personal reference books and any other books that she was currently reading.
Without hesitation, Twilight began to levitate all the books around her and started looking through each of them. The first was a big book on potions.
“Love potion,” she read, “a powerful potion that can make two ponies fall instantly in love with each other. No, I would have to be affected in order for it to work.”
She then turned to a book of powerful incantations. Want it, need it, an incantation which causes every creature to desire whatever it is cast on. Only a very powerful pony could cast that, and nopony has cast anything like that on me.”
She continued flipping through the books several more times, with Spike watching her from the side.
“Twily!”
Both Twilight and Spike froze as they heard the voice of Twilight’s “date.” Spike’s eyes darted from side to side as they quickly landed on the dress that Twilight had worn to her second Grand Galloping Gala. It was a light blue dress that was decorated with blue flowers at the bottom and an orange bow around the neck.
Without a second thought Spike rushes to it, grabbing it off the hanger so fast that he almost ripped it, and threw it at the alicorn.
“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed, “what are you doing?”
“I’ll stay and see if I can find an answer to everything,” he said in a whisper, “but you’re going to have go on the date with Starlight, otherwise she could get mad, or desperate, or both. And we know what can happen when that happens.”
Twilight opened her mouth to object when she heard Starlight’s voice down the hall.
“Twily,” the voice came again, “are you almost done? I can’t wait to see you again! I bet your so beautiful right now!”
Twilight then looked at Spike holding the dress, and then back at the door. It was true that she really didn’t want to go on this date, especially since she didn’t know what Starlight was planning, although Spike had a point. She didn’t know how powerful this was, and Starlight was capable of doing almost anything if she wanted to, and Twilight didn’t really want to know.
Twilight sighed, activated her horn, and got behind a changing curtain. “You better know what your doing, Spike.”
Spike gave a thumbs up and walked out of the room, where an excited unicorn was looking behind hoping to catch the first glimpse of her crush.
“Twilight’s almost done,” Spike said, before closing the door behind him, “she’s just changing into her dress, so she should be done soon.”
Starlight began blushing madly at the thought, seeming even I’m more eager than before. Spike noticed the expression and sighed, shaking his head.
“Good luck tonight, Twilight,” he thought, “You’ll need it.”
