Operation Cupid (Prologue)
Twilight Sparkle was laying on her bed with her favorite book open in front of her, enjoying the feeling of having finished her entire to-do list and finally being able to relax. A faint beam of the setting sun shed a soothing orange color all across the room. After a little while, her eyelids began to droop, and the purple unicorn decided to call it a night. It had, after all, been a pretty exhausting day. Gently placing the sleeping dragon who had formerly been right next to her in his bed, she used her magic to close the blinds, and the room became dark. Just as she was about to get into her soft, warm covers, she heard loud, rapid-fire knocks at the door.
Needless to say, she was pretty upset.
"TWWIILLLIGGHHT!!!" a familiar, slightly-obnoxious voice called from outside.
Great. Twilight thought. What does she want?
Twilight trotted downstairs and opened the door, revealing the bright pink earth pony she knew would be there. "Pinkie, it's 6:30."
"So?"
"So, I was just about to go to bed. What do you need?"
"Oh, I dunno. I'm bored."
Twilight's ear flicked in annoyance.
"Well, go find something to entertain yourself." She closed the door in Pinkie's face, then stood there for a moment to make sure she went away. When nothing happened, she began to make her way back up the stairs.
"TWWIILLLIGGHHT!!!"
The unicorn groaned and walked back towards the door, swinging it open with her magic.
"What?!"
"I can't entertain myself just like that! Everypony else is busy!"
Twilight's eyebrows rose. "It's a Saturday. Who's going to be busy?"
"You seemed awfully busy today. Then again, you're you, so nopony was really surprised."
"What about Rainbow? What was she so busy doing? Sleeping?"
"Nah, Dashie's a spy now."
"A...spy?"
"Yeah. She just sat on her cloud all day, looking at stuff. I couldn't really tell what she was looking at, but she looked as though she was trying to be really sneaky about it."
"O...kay...what about everypony else?"
"Well, Rarity's on vacation, Fluttershy's at this social event thingy, and Applejack's doing even more apple-bucking than usual."
Twilight blinked. "Fluttershy's at a social event? That doesn't seem very much like her. But I'm glad she's trying to broaden her horizons a bit. And I didn't know Rarity was on vacation. Where did she go?"
"Appleoosa"
If Twilight had been drinking something, it would've been all over the floor right then. "Why the hay would Rarity go to Appleoosa?"
Pinkie just shrugged. "Dunno. Anyways, back to the point! I'm bored."
Twilight sighed. "Fine. Come inside, I'm sure you can find a book or something."
"YAY!" Pinkie bounced inside the library and immediately started looking at the vast variety of books. While she was trying to decide on something, Twilight decided she would bring her own book down and read. She wasn't really sleepy anymore. When she came into her room, she noticed that Spike had awoken, most probably because of Pinkie Pie.
"Hi, Spike."
The baby dragon yawned. "Hey, Twilight."
"Do you wanna come down and read with Pinkie and I?"
"Whoa, Pinkie's reading? I didn't think she could stand still for a second. But reading's not really my thing, so I think I'll go back to bed."
"Okay." Twilight grabbed her book and went back downstairs, where Pinkie Pie was still looking for something that was interesting enough for her.
"Hey, Twilight?"
"Yeah?"
"Who's 'Cupid'?" The pink mare pointed at the spine of a book that said 'Cupid: All You've Ever Wanted to Know'. A purple aura surrounded said book as Twilight lowered it the the ground. On the front of it had a picture of a red colt with a wavy white mane and tail and bright pink eyes.
"Cupid," Twilight began. "Is the ancient mythological god of--"
"He looks awfully young to be a god." Pinkie Pie interrupted.
"Mythological is the key word here, Pinkie. Anyways, he's the god of love."
"Ooh, like Cadence!"
"Erm...kind of. And that's Princess Cadence.
"But you don't have to call her Princess, right? I mean, isn't she your sister-in-law?"
"Well, yeah. But anyways, do you see that bow and arrow he's holding?" She pointed to the cover.
"Mm-hm."
"It's said that if he shot an arrow at one pony, and then shot another one at a different pony, they would fall in love."
"I betcha your magic powers are strong enough to do that! You are the element of magic, after all!"
"I wish." Twilight murmured under her breathe.
"What was that, Twi?"
"Oh, n-nothing!" She coughed awkwardly. "I just said that I couldn't actually do that, because love is really hard to alter, even for the most powerful of ponies."
"Oh, ok!" But, truth be told, Pinkie had heard what her friend had said, and why she said it was pretty obvious. Then, all at once, a plan began to unfold inside her head. "Wait, you said that Cupid was mythology right?"
"Yes. Nopony, even Princess Celestia herself, could enchant items like that. Like I said before, love is uncontrollable.
"Well, what if Cupid is real?"
"Pinkie. He's not."
"Why don't we make that a 'she'" Pinkie winked before sprinting out into the last sliver of sunlight, leaving a very confused unicorn in her wake.
*****************
Pinkie paced around her room in The Sugarcube Corner, depicting to Gummy her plan. "Okay, so my first my mission is find out ALL of my friends' dream stallions. They all have one, right? Rainbow Dash never spends all day at home. Fluttershy never goes to social events. Rarity would never go to an 'uncivilized' place like Appleoosa. Twilight...well... just those two words she said and the way she became so flustered afterwards makes it evident to me that she does, in fact, have fantasies of her own. As for Applejack, she's working exceedingly hard as usual, but I'm sure she has a special somepony in mind too. There's obviously something that's making them act this way! But I can do the finding out stuff later. Anyways, so then I'll trigger some event that'll send the meant-to-be-couples running into eachothers' arms! I SHALL CALL IT OPERATION CUPID!" She screamed that last part so loud that Mrs. Cake had to come in and make sure she was alright.
"Yeah, Mrs. Cake." She giggled. "I'm perfectly alright!" After Mrs. Cake left, she remembered something. "Oh, and Hearts and Hooves day is only in a week, so I'll throw a super-duper fun party to celebrate all the new happy couples!"
Gummy stared at her blankly.
" Aw, c'mon, don't look at me like that! Of course it'll work! I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"