After Twilight became an alicorn, her 5 friends started to act weird towards her. What could be the reason behind it?
It's been a week since Twilight became an alicorn and a princess. While walking around Ponyville, she meets each of her best friends, but they didn't act like usual. Twilight tries to figure out what is the reason behind it, she wasn't prepared for the answer she got. How did this happen? Which would be the best way to deal with this problem?
Twilight woke up as she felt a small amount of pain coming from her back. She slowly sat up as she opened her eyes and turned her head to look at the source of the pain. After taking a look she just dropped her head and sighed. "Not again," she said as she got out from her bed, the small amount of pain she felt was coming from her new wings, it had been a week since she became an alicorn but she still had trouble sleeping at night, this being the third time she woke up to find a sore wing. When would she learn how to sleep without damaging her wings? She just hoped that she would learn how to sleep without putting her wings to sleep soon.
She stretched her wings for a few minutes, moaning in content as the pain faded away. After this, she was wide awake. "Well, time to start the day, I have a good feeling about today." a racket came from the first floor of the library, she sighed as she made her way to the stairs, "Not again."
As Twilight descended the stairs, she saw a little dragon chasing an owl through the library. "Come back you coward!" The little dragon exclaimed.
"Spike!" Twilight shouted as the little dragon jumped in an attempt to grab his flying target. Spike had almost caught Owlowiscious, but the shout startled him and instead, he just landed with a loud thump to the floor. "Why are you fighting?" The alicorn asked with an authoritative tone.
"He's being a jerk!" Spike exclaimed as he stood up, glaring daggers at the owl, who had just landed at the top of a bookshelf . "I asked him to go wake you up for breakfast, and he just kept asking 'Who?'"
"Who?" said Owlowiscious.
"Aaaaaghhhhh!!" Spike shouted while running to the bookshelf. "Come here you piece of-"
"Spike, just drop it!"
"But Twi-"
"Just drop it," Twilight said while stomping her hoof on the floor, "just stop before you two start messing up everything like yesterday. You almost broke the Element’s crystal display." Twilight pointed at the five golden necklaces and the golden tiara that were placed next to the library's stair.
"I... I'm sorry Twilight." Spike said as he dropped his head to the floor.
"It's okay Spike, " she said as she walked close to the dragon and nuzzled him, "just go and make up with Owlowiscious."
Spike pulled away and nodded at Twilight, he walked to the bookshelf at which his nocturnal feathered friend was, just stopping one meter away from it, he looked up before he apologized. "I'm sorry."
"Who?"
"You son of a-"
"Spike!"
"Agh! Just forget it, I'm going back to bed." Spike went upstairs with a frown on his face.
Twilight took some time to clean up the little mess from the fight from earlier and after she ate the magnificent breakfast that her number one assistant had prepared for her, she left her home and started to walk towards the market. She wasn't going there to buy anything, she was going there hoping she could meet one of her friends.
Yesterday she hadn't met with anyone because she had stayed at home to read some important documents about Equestria that she needed to know now that she was a princess. However, today she had decided to take a break, and she knew that Applejack was in charge of the apple stand that morning. "I have a good feeling about today." She thought.
As she walked, she saw a white cloud in the sky disappear with a 'poof' and when she looked closer, she saw the iconic prismatic mane and tail of a certain cyan coated pegasus. Twilight smiled at the sight of one of her friends and started to flap her wings. It took a moment, but she was now flying a few centimeters off the ground, now moving her wings faster she flew directly towards her friend.
She was moving slowly, after all, it had only been a week since she grew a pair of wings, actually, it was surprising how well she was doing it considering the short amount of time. It helped a lot that she had read some books about pegasis anatomy and aerodynamic concepts in the past and that she was good putting into practice what she learned. "Woah, woow!" She yelled as she almost fell to the ground after a small wind passed her.“Well, you need practice before you can do something perfect.”
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called out to her friend as she was getting closer.
Rainbow Dash was about to buck a cloud when she got startled by the alicorn, causing her to hit the cloud in the wrong place. A bolt of lightning shot from the cumulus towards the ground, barely missed a couple that was passing by, a few seconds passed as the couple tried to calm down after nearly getting electrocuted, they glared furiously at Rainbow.
"Whoops," Rainbow smiled awkwardly, placing her hoof at the back of her head, "sorry."
"Hey Rainbow," Twilight said flying next to her friend, "I'm sorry for scaring you."
"Y-you, scaring The Dash?" Rainbow laughed, Twilight thought there was a little amount of nervousness in there. "Pssst, no, no, no, nothing scares me, I-I'm the bravest pony in all Equestria." Rainbow waved her front hooves around more than necessary while giving a weird smile.
"Rainbow, are you okay?" Twilight asked, giving her friend a confused look."You're acting kind of weird."
"Me? Acting weird? Nonononono." the cyan pegasus shook her head at full speed.
"Are you sure? maybe you are a little sick." The alicorn started to close the distance between the two mares, raising a hoof to touch the pegasus forehead, but she wasn't able to reach her objective, the pegasus was slowly flying away.
"I'mtotallyok,notsickatall,lookatthetime,gottogo,havetotakeoversomeclouds." As she finished, Rainbow flew away at full speed, Twilight just looked in confusion as her cyan friend flew to the distance, ignoring the clouds that she was supposed to take over.
"Well, that was weird." Twilight said to herself as she resumed her way to the market, she advanced a good distance before landing, she enjoyed to fly but it was tiring, she waited a few seconds before she started her walk.
Twilight finally arrived to the market, some ponies waved at her while others bowed when she got close to them. Her new status as a princess was well know in Equestria, she felt a little uncomfortable as they bowed. She had asked to the ponies in town to just treat her as usual. Some ponies did as she asked, others just continued their reverence, Twilight was reluctant in the beginning about their actions, but she had started to enjoy it. "I have a good feeling."
She was getting closer to the apple stand when a grin appeared on her face, not only was the country pony there, a white unicorn was also present. She walked faster to meet with her friends.
"Hi girls,"Twilight said as she slowed down.
The conversation that the two ponies were having was abruptly interrupted as they reacted in surprise to the new voice that joined them.
"Oh, hi there s-sugarcube," Applejack barely managed to say that last word, her face turned a little red.
"Hello d-darling," now it was Rarity the one having troubles saying one of her characteristic words, she just gazed to the ground after this.
"Uummm," Twilight tilted her head to the side, looking from the red faced pony to the white unicorn and back, "are both of you okay?"
"Never better" both answered at the same time.
There was a moment of silence, Twilight looked to her friends, but they didn't look back at her, she managed to see Rarity's face turning to a light shade of pink and Applejack starting to sweat, "There's something wrong here," she thought as she kept looking at her friends.
"So-" Twilight finally broke the silence only to be interrupted by her orange coated friend.
"Well, see ya, There are some trees waiting to be bucked!" Applejack said as she started running out of the market.
"Wait, Applejack, what about the stand?" Twilight said, but the earth pony was so fast that was already out of sight, she just sighed, "what's wrong with her?"
"I don't know," Rarity answered, she looked just as confused as Twilight was about her friend's action.
"And what's wrong with you?" Twilight asked to Rarity.
"Emmmm, ummmm" Rarity suddenly turned to a mass of nervousness, a stronger shade of pink appearing all over her coat, "Oh! look at the time, I have to pick up Sweetie Belle from school," she finally answered.
"School only started three hours ago," Twilight said her disbelieving eyes boring into Rarity, a frown appearing on her face.
"Ammmmm, bye," Rarity ran in the direction opposite to that which the earth pony had taken, disappearing almost as fast.
Twilight was totally confused now, “what did just happened?” She would have chased after the white unicorn, but she couldn't just leave the apple stand alone, she decided to take care of it. Maybe, with some luck, Applejack would come back and the lavender pony would take that opportunity to get some answers from her friend.
Time passed as she stood next to the apple stand, she sold some apples as customers showed up, she thought it would be harder. Applejack always appeared to be dealing with customers that tried to get a discount, but not a single pony argued with Twilight about the price, "The benefits of being a princess," she said inwardly as she chuckled.
As she gave a bag of apples to her last customer, she saw Fluttershy buying some carrots from Carrot Top's stand, "Hey! Fluttershy!" Twilight said as she waved to her yellow friend.
Fluttershy eeped and jumped at the sudden call, a reaction similar to the ones three of her friends had shown earlier that day. Then again, this was Fluttershy, it was normal to get this kind of reaction from her.
The yellow pegasus turned around and looked directly at Twilight, a little blush appeared on her face before she hid behind her mane, she started to walk backwards, running into some ponies that were talking behind her. "Sorry," she apologized before turning tail and running towards her cottage.
“Well, that was strange, what's wrong with everypony today?" Twilight asked to herself while placing a hoof on her temple, she closed her eyes and sighed, her 'good feeling' was now totally forgotten.
Finally, Twilight left the apple stand after Big MacIntosh showed up. He thanked her for taking care of the stand and for the good amount of bits she had acquired with her sales, then he apologized for his sister behavior. Twilight just shook her head saying that there was no need to apologize, and asked if Big Mac knew why his sister was acting weird, but he wasn't sure either, she was fine this morning.
It was now lunch time and the lavender pony was hungry, so she decided to buy something to eat from Sugarcube Corner, and, she would take the chance to look if Pinkie Pie was acting just as weird as her other friends.
As she opened the bakery's front door, a bell announced her presence, the place was full, something normal at this hour of the day, she just walked to the counter where her pink friend was smiling at her, "Well, so far everything looks fine," she thought as she walked.
"Hi Twilight" started the earth pony, keeping her smile on her face.
"Hello Pinkie," Twilight said as she returned the smile,"How are you today?"
"I was fine, but now I'm perfect," she answered with a bigger smile.
"Huh? wh-"
"So, what do you want to eat?" Pinkie interrupted Twilight.
"Oh! ummm, just give me a pie, you can choose the flavor,"
"Okie-Dokie-Lokie" Pinkie said as she went to the kitchen, after a few seconds, she returned with a pie on her back, "here you go, an apple pie."
"Thanks," Twilight was about to grab the pie when the word 'apple' made her think about earlier, "hey Pinkie, can I ask you something?"
"Sure thing Twi."
"Do you know if something happened to Applejack and the other girls"
"What do you mean?" Pinkie tilted her head to the side with a confused expression on her face.
"Well, today I met with everyone, at different times, whenever I called to one of them, they reacted kind of... weird, the conversation would be strange, and after a moment, they would just run away."
"Ummm," Pinkie said as she rubbed her chin with her hoof, "sorry Twi, I don't know."
Twilight sighed at this answer, "Thanks anyway, here," Twilight levitated some bits to the counter, "I'm gonna eat the pie at home," she said as she grabbed the pie with her magic, "bye Pinkie."
"Bye Twilight," Pinkie said as the lavender mare left the shop.
Twilight was feeling better now after her talk with pinkie, "It's good to see that at least Pinkie is acting normal," she told to herself, she just walked a few steps more before she realized something. She lost control of the magic that was holding the pie which flew some meters and landed over the head of a blonde pegasus with gray coat, this made Twilight snap out of the shock.
"Whoops, sorry Derpy" Twilight said as she got closer to the pony.
"Why?" Derpy asked as she licked the pie out of her face. "Apple is my favorite! Thanks."
"Ummm, well sorry anyways," Twilight was about to help clean the pegasus, but she just decided to let her be as she saw how much the blonde mare was enjoying the pie, trying to reach every place of her head, only using her tongue.
Twilight walked away and continued to think about the sudden realization she had before throwing the pie, Pinkie acted normal, not Pinkie-normal, but normal-normal. A cold shiver went downwards Twilight's back, this surely was the weirdest thing that had happened today, if Pinkie Pie was acting normal, there definitely was something wrong.
Twilight started to run "What's wrong with them?" Twilight thought as she passed some ponies that waved or bowed to her, "everyone else is acting normal, Spike acted like he always does, Big Mac and Derpy also acted like always, so why are my friends acting so weird today." Twilight was getting closer to the library, "But there's something in common, they started to act weird when they saw me, everyone was doing their usual stuff, but when I talked to them..." Twilight slammed open her home's door and entered in an instant.
"Spike, I need your help!" she cried out.
"I need some help too," a voice came from behind the open door, as Twilight closed it, a purple dragon appeared from behind, "ouch" he said as he rubbed his head.
"Sorry Spike," Twilight grinned apologetically, "but I need your help."
"What is it Twilight? you look really serious, is something wrong?"
"Well, I think it is," Twilight started to walk in circles, she was thinking hard on what to do, she finally stopped after some minutes.
"Okay, I need you to go and tell Rainbow and the girls that they have to go to Ghastly Gorge at five o'clock, if they ask why, just think something up, and don't tell them that I was the one who asked you to do it."
"Why can't I tell them?" Spike asked confused by what Twilight had asked him to do.
"Let's just say that I have a feeling," Twilight said with a worried expression on her face.
Spike just nodded and sprinted out of the library, Twilight watched as her little assistant disappear as he turned at the corner of a house, she then started to formulate the course of action she would take this afternoon on her head.
At five o'clock, the blue of the sky was slowly changing a tint of pink, there was a strong wind blowing in the gorge and five ponies were standing in the middle of it. Applejack was the one to show up first, followed by Rainbow and Pinkie, Rarity appeared a few minutes later, and lastly, Fluttershy, who had managed to build up enough courage to go to that place.
"What's going on?" Rarity asked as the yellow pegasus joined the group.
"Ah have no idea sugarcube," Applejack answered as she looked around, "Spike told me that Ah had to come here at Five, that it was somethin' important that required ma presence."
"That's the same he told me, but didn't gave me more information, not even that all of you were coming too." Rainbow said as she looked to each of the present ponies.
"So, umm... what are we suppose to do?" Fluttershy asked quietly.
"Oh, oh! Maybe Spike wants to do a surprise party, so he asked us to come here where no one could hear us planning it," Pinkie said as she started to jump around the other four ponies. "Wow, this is going to be awesome, a party planned by all of us, just imagine how great it's going to be, the balloons, the streamers, the music, the food, the piñata, the punch, the games, the decoration, the ponies, the fun, the-."
"Sorry Pinkie Pie, but this is not a meeting to organize a party," a new voice interrupted the pink pony's babbling.
Pinkie stopped jumping and the other four squeaked as they turned around, looking for the place from which the familiar voice came. From the top of the gorge, a purple pony spread her wings and jumped off the cliff, slowly descending to the place the other five ponies were standing. After Twilight landed, she looked at each of her friends face, they were surprised, eyes wide open, two of them had retreated a few steps.
"We are here to answer some questions," Twilight said with a tone that startled her friends, "my questions."
"What is this about?" Rainbow asked pointing a hoof at Twilight, but quickly lowering it as the lavender mare looked at her.
"You, all of you, have been acting weird, but, only towards me," her tone of voice dropped at the last part.
"That's not true s-su-sugarcube," Applejack said.
"No?" Twilight looked directly at Applejack, "A minute ago you said 'sugarcube' perfectly, To. Rarity. And just now, you barely managed to say it, To. Me." Twilight finished stomping her hoof to the ground.
Applejack started to sweat a lot, a nervous smile appeared on her face as she looked around her, finally her eyes locked in one clear path of the gorge and she started to run. Before she could get far, Twilight's horn brightened as a stone wall that was as wide as the gorge path emerged from the ground, blocking Applejack route of escape, a second one emerged from behind Twilight, and finally, one last stone wall was located above the group of ponies. They were trapped inside, in total darkness until a bright light emanated from Twilight's horn.
"I'm sorry for doing this girls, but no one is leaving this place before I get some answers, "Twilight said, her voice was low, but perfectly clear, "Why? Why are you acting like this towards me." Twilight paused for breath and continued. "Is it because I'm a princess now? Is that you do not feel comfortable around me anymore?" Twilight dropped her head, "Do you no longer consider me your friend?"
"Oh, Twilight," Fluttershy said as she approached the lavender pony, "Don't worry, not a single one of those things is true."
"She's right Twilight, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all still consider you our friend," Rarity said from behind Fluttershy.
"Yeah," now it was Rainbow Dash talking, "we are a hundred and twenty percent your friends."
"Really?" Twilight started, a single tear falling from her eye, "You... you don't hate me or anything like that?"
"Silly filly, we could never hate you," Pinkie said as a huge smile formed on her mouth,"in fact, I love you."
"Thanks Pink-" Twilight suddenly stopped as she realized what her friend had just told her.
"WHAT!" four voices echoed inside the stone cage.
"W-what did you just said pinkie?" Twilight asked with a light blush on her face.
"I said that I love you" three ponies had their eyes wide open, and Twilight was blushing so hard that she could illuminate the inside of the cage without the help of her horn.
"What do you mean that you love her?" Rainbow and Rarity asked at the same time.
"Well, that I, Pinkamena Diane Pie, am in love with Twilight," Pinkie answered as if it was the most casual thing of the world.
"You can't be in love of her," Rainbow said as she grabbed Pinkie by the shoulders.
"Why not?" Pinkie asked while smiling.
"Because... because... um," Rainbow let go of Pinkie's shoulders.
"Girls," this was the first time Applejack had spoken since Twilight trapped all of them, "Ah also have something to say," she gulped as she got near to Twilight, she hesitated for a moment, "Ah love you Twilight."
"What?" Twilight asked so quietly that it was barely audible, Fluttershy eeped and Rarity and Rainbow were wide eyed with their jaws hanging.
"Ah love you," Applejack repeated, she closed her eyes before continuing, "that's the reason why Ah was acting so weird today, Ah was so nervous in front of you, Ah didn't know how to act," she opened her eyes, looking directly at Twilight. "Ah don't know when Ah started to feel like this, but Ah suddenly realized ma feelings to you," a blush appeared on her face, and Twilight's blush just intensified.
A sigh was heard and Twilight turned to look the source of it, a white unicorn, "Well, now that we are being honest with our feelings," Rarity paused, got closer to Twilight and continued, "I love you, Twilight, and it's just like Applejack said. I don't know when this started."
Twilight's head started to spin, "What's going on?" She thought while she looked to the three ponies that had just confessed to her, her head slowly turned to look at her blue and prismatic friend, "Oh no, don't tell me that-"
"I also love you Twilight," Rainbow said while looking down as she fidgeted the floor with her hoof, "I-I was flying one day, I saw you walking around and suddenly, I had this weird feeling inside of my chest and my stomach..." she looked up to Twilight, "a cool feeling."
Twilight was wide open and shaking, so much blood was flowing to her face that the rest of her body color was starting to dim, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then she opened them and looked directly at the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy just nodded before hiding behind her mane, there was no need for more.
"Ummmm, uuhhhh," Twilight wasn't sure what to say, she was sweating as much as Applejack was before trapping them, this was so sudden, so unexpected, she wanted to run, "I... I..." Twilight backed a few steps before hitting the stone wall behind her, she panicked, there were five pair of eyes looking at her, "I'm sorry," Twilight finally said, a bubble of light surrounded her and suddenly, the stone cage was in total darkness.
There was a moment of silence that was finally broken by Rainbow, "Did Twilight just teleported out and left us trapped in here?"
"Well darling, what did you expected?" Rarity said as she illuminated the place with her horn. "After she heard the confession of love, of not only one, but five of her friends, I don't blame her for her reaction," she started to look to each one of the remaining ponies in the room, "I must say that I'm surprised, not as much as Twilight of course."
"So..." Fluttershy talked with her soft voice. "Its true? A-all of you are also in love of Twilight?"
"That's what it looks like," Applejack said while looking to her friends, "How did this happen?"
"Oh you little silly Applety-Jackity, It was unavoidable," Pinkie said as she started to giggle before continuing, "I mean, just look at Twilight and that flank of hers, wow."
Four faces turned like tomatoes, nobody contradicted that statement, there was a long pause, a little cough came from the country pony, breaking the silence.
"Well, we better get outta here, any ideas?" Applejack asked while examining the stone wall.
"Leave it to me," Pinkie said as she materialized her party cannon out from nowhere, everyone wanted to ask how Pinkie had done it, but the pink mare continued before they could, "go to the opposite wall and cover your ears, this is about to get noisy."
Four ponies did as they were asked, a few seconds later, a loud explosion resonated in the barely illuminated room, after the cloud of dust dissipated, the last rays of light from the day showed through the hole.
"Wow, nice job Pinks" Rainbow said as the group of ponies started to get to the new exit.
"No problemo."
"Well, what do we do now?" Fluttershy asked as she made her way through the hole.
"I guess we just wait to see what happens," Rarity said as she started to head out of the gorge, "Twilight needs time to think," four ponies nodded while they followed the white unicorn back to Ponyville.
Celestia's work had ended for the day, and now, it was the turn of the princess of the night to decorate the sky as only she knew how. The stars were slowly appearing as the last rays of the sun disappeared in the distance.
At that moment, a little dragon was alone in the library. Spike was sitting on a chair humming a song, looking directly at the clock, patiently waiting for the time to close the library.
"Oh yeah, the best moment of the day is near." He stood up and walked towards the library's door preparing for the moment of closure. "Come on, come on," he said as he waited that last minute.
The sound of hoof steps was quickly approaching the other side of the door. Spike felt a strange case of déjà vu. He turned his head slowly to look directly at the door's knob that was suddenly covered by a purple aura, "Oh buck."
THUMP!
The little dragon was now sandwiched between the door that had opened in less than a second and the wall. Through the entrance, a purple blur dashed inside and towards the stairs, passing the Elements of Harmony, disappearing in two seconds. In the second floor, the sound of a door being slammed was heard shortly afterwards.
Back to the first floor, Spike was lying on the floor,rubbing his head and looking at one spot of the wall that was slightly shaped like him, "Two times in a day. Twilight, you better give me some gems after this," he thought while standing up and rubbing his head. "Now, what happened to her? I hope she’s okay." Spike started to walk up the stairs.
The little dragon stopped in front of Twilight's room, he was reluctant of getting near the door at first, considering what had just happened, but finally reached it with his dragon claw and knocked.
"Hey, Twilight, are you alright in there?" Spike asked as he pushed his ear to the door, as he did this, the knob of the door was surrounded by a purple aura.
"Oh no, not this time!" Spike quickly placed his claws on the door, moved his foot a step back and pushed, that door was not going to open. Unfortunately, it did, but not in the direction the little dragon thought it would. He fell to the floor face first. “Doors 3, Spike 0.”
"Spike, are you okay?" Twilight asked while helping her little assistant to stand with her magic.
"Yeah, I'm alright, I'm getting used to this, more importantly," Spike paused and looked directly at Twilight. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"I-I..." Twilight hesitated for a moment, looked directly at her assistant, his face contorted in a worried expression, she finally managed to continue, "I'm fine Spike, it's just that so much happened today, I..." another pause to take a deep breath, "I don't know what to do... how to act after this."
"Ummmm, Twilight, I still don't understand what's going on, what happened at Ghastly Gorge?"
"Spike, they... they all told me that they l-l... love me." Fluttershy would be so proud of Twilight at how she said that last two words.
"Of course they do, you are best friends."
"No Spike, you don't understand," Twilight walked away from the dragon and sat on her bed, "They love me in a r-ro-romantic way," Twilight hid her face behind her hooves, only her ears showed the blush that was over her face.
There was a moment of silence, nothing was heard on the room, the quiet moment was making uncomfortable the alicorn. "Oh Celestia, Spike must be devastated after hearing this, after all, he has a cru-"
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha," the little dragon was now rolling on the floor with his hands over his belly, interrupting Twilight's train of though. She lowered her hooves and stared directly at the dragon.
"What's so funny?"
"T-This is hi-hilari-rious," the baby dragon was barely capable of talking, "Y-your friends, fa-falling for you, at the sa-same time, and yo-your expression just n-now... hahahahaha."
"You know Spike. When I say all of them, that includes Rarity."
The dragon suddenly stopped his laughing attack, he sat up, his face completely pale, eyes wide open, "Oh Celestia, Twilight, this is serious!"
"You don't say," she looked with a frown on her face to the little dragon.
"Hehe, sorry," Spike rubbed the back of his head, "but how did this happen, what did you do to get them like that?"
"Me? I did nothing?" Twilight lay on her bed looking at the ceiling, "I'm really confused right now Spike, how am going to face them tomorrow, they must be waiting an answer or something. What should I do Spike?"
"Hmmmm," the little dragon started to rub his chin with his claw, walking from one side of the room to the other, "Ok, I got an idea."
"Really?" Twilight's face brightened with a big smile, she stood from bed to look directly at the dragon.
"Yeah, this is what you are going to do," he paused to look around, making sure that no one else was there, not even Owlowiscious. "You go out and talk to Rarity, tell her that you can't be more than friends, she will be sad and heartbroken, but, I will be there to comfort her, to help her, and after she feels better, she will see that I'm just the guy for her, and we will live happy together." Spike finished with a huge grin on his face.
"Spike, you are not helping, and if I ever did that, what would I do with the other four?"
"I don't know, start dating them?" Spike shrugged.
"Aaaagghh," Twilight fell back to the bed, she turned her body and buried her face on the pillow, she took her time thinking, just a moment later, she finally pulled her face from the pillow and sighed, "I need to talk to someone else, no offense Spike."
"None taken Twilight."
"But with whom? I normally talk with the girls about my problems, but they are the problem."
"Why not talk with Princess Celestia?"
"Of course, now you are helping Spike," the dragon stood proud and puffed his chest. "Princess Celestia is the wisest pony in Equestria, she must know what to do in this kind of situation, or at least give me some good advice."
"So," the dragon started, "Do we start writing a letter to the princess asking for help?"
"No Spike, this is very important and personal, I need to talk to her directly, but send a letter requesting a meeting with her as soon as possible."
Spike nodded and hurried downstairs to start writing the letter, meanwhile, Twilight stood again from her bed and walked to her closet, she grabbed her saddlebags and started to pack whatever was essential for her trip to Canterlot and some extra stuff, just in case.
When she finished packing, she walked to the balcony, It was already night, the sky full with stars and one full moon, Twilight stared at them for some minutes before lowering her gaze. She looked at the distance and managed to see the roof of Sugarcube Corner, then moved her eyes from the building, placing them in the direction of where Sweet Apple Acres was, then looked in the direction of Carousel Boutique, Fluttershy's cottage and Rainbow's home cloud.
"What a long day," she thought while heading to her bed, she was exhausted from all the sudden revelations from her friends, as soon as she her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep.
It was nine o'clock when Twilight woke up the next morning, she stood from her bed and stretched. Not only were her wings sore, but her whole body was as well. Thoughts of her friends had appeared in her dreams, making it hard to sleep comfortably. After finishing her stretches, she headed to the first floor.
In the kitchen, a little dragon was sitting on the table, eating his cereal that had little gems on it, he turned his head as he heard hoofsteps coming from the other room.
"Oh, Twilight, good morning," he stood up and went to the fridge to take the ingredients he needed for Twilight's breakfast.
"Good morning Spike," Twilight said while sitting down at the table, "Say, has the princess answered my letter yet?"
"Yeah, actually, she answered yesterday, several minutes after I sent yours," Spike parted his eyes from the omelet that he was preparing on the stove, "I went to your room to give it, but you were sound asleep, so I just placed it on the desk next to the entrance. You must have been exhausted."
"I'm still exhausted," Twilight said as she walked off the kitchen to look for the letter.
The letter was exactly where Spike said, she took it with her magic and unrolled it.
From: Celestia. To: Twilight Sparkle.
Dear Twilight, there is no need for you to request a meeting with me. You can come whenever you want. I know that I'm busy most of the time, but I will always have time to talk, especially when something is bothering you. I'll be waiting, hoping that I can help with whatever your problem is.
Love, Celestia.
"Spike, I'm leaving to Canterlot, take care of the library and don't fight with Owlowiscious," Twilight said as she walked to her room, to grab her saddlebags.
"Sure, but first, eat your breakfast," Spike said while poking his head out of the kitchen.
"I don't have time Spike, I need to get going right no-" her stomach grumbled, interrupting what she was saying. "Uhhhh, on the other hoof, I will need some energy for the trip," she said with a light blush on her face.
Pinkie Pie was walking around Ponyville, happily waving at passing ponies. What a great morning. She didn't have to work until a few hours, so she had plenty of time to do whatever she wanted. Play games, think new ideas for parties, fix the flying machine that she had used when Gilda last came to town. She hadn't even tried to fix it afterwards, but in the last days, she had this amazing idea of flying over Ponyville and showering everything with chocolate milk, that would make happy a lot of ponies.
But what she wanted to do more than anything that morning, was to meet up with Twilight, but she couldn't do that. Rarity had told her and her friends that Twilight needed time, to not look for her, to let her be the one to speak first, and Pinkie understood that, well, what she understood was that she didn't wanted to make Twilight more uncomfortable than what she already was.
Pinkie's walk brought her to the train station, with no special reason to be there. She just walked aimlessly around the station. She paused once in a while, waving her hoof at some ponies that had just arrived to the station and they waved back.
"Hey Sparkler, how was your trip to Las Pegasus?"
"Great Pinkie, thanks for asking." The unicorn answered with a smile on her face before turning and leaving the station.
Pinkie knew everypony in Ponyville, and everypony knew Pinkie. She was happy to be there and see the familiar faces of a lot of ponies getting down of the train, and also happy to bid farewell to the parting ponies.
Pinkie continued her walk on the stations, when she stopped abruptly. She saw at the end of the platform a lavender pony, more precisely, a lavender alicorn that was preparing to board one of the train wagons, with a bulky pair of saddlebags on her back. The alicorn turned her head in the direction of Pinkie, she just stared directly at her before her face color paled, she hurried to enter the train without saying a word, a few seconds later the train began its march.
When Pinkie saw Twilight, she felt the urge to go there and embrace her with a rib cage breaking hug, but she remembered what Rarity had said, so she just stayed where she stood.
That look on Twilight's face, it was obvious that she felt uncomfortable the moment she saw Pinkie and Pinkie knew why, "The confessions..." Pinkie dropped her head, "If I hadn't talked without thinking yesterday, Twilight wouldn't be feeling awkward right now." Something clicked in her head, the paranoia she had gone through when she thought her friends didn't liked her anymore was showing again, "What if Twilight never comes back? Maybe she doesn't want to see any of us now, she will stay on Canterlot, find new friends and forget of what happened yesterday."
She stood there for a minute, then she lifted her head with a grin on her face, "Oh silly me, you know that Twilight wouldn't do that, remember your friendship report, believe in Twilight." Pinkie started to walk over the station platform, a few meters away she stopped again, "But what if this time it really is true and she is leaving?" Pinkie stayed there arguing with herself.
At the Canterlot station, the whistle of the train announced its arrival, slowly stopping in front of the platform, the doors opened and the passengers started to exit the train, the last passenger to get out of the train was Twilight.
She looked so paranoiac that all ponies around her kept their distance, she turned her head in all directions before letting out the breath she was holding. "Looks like Pinkie didn't follow me," she thought as she finally made her way out of the station and finally relaxing. During the whole trip, she kept looking around the wagon, under the seats, in the luggage compartment, even under a bit that was on the floor, with Pinkie pie, you just don't know what to expect.
When she saw Pinkie that morning on Ponyville's train station, she thought that the pink pony would give her a rib cage breaking hug and follow her non-stop, but apparently she was mistaken, and she was pleased with it. She wasn't prepared to confront any of her friends yet, not before, she had her talk with the Princess.
Outside the train station was a golden chariot with some royal guards around it, as soon as they saw Twilight they called to her, "Princess Twilight Sparkle," they said with a reverence.
"Ummmmm, stand... what is this about?" she asked looking directly at one of the guards.
"Princess Celestia knew you were coming today and asked us to escort you to the castle, now my princess, your chariot is waiting."
Twilight hesitated for a moment, she still wasn't used to being treated like a princess, but she just shook her head and boarded her carriage, four white pegasus with golden armor pulled the chariot, taking off in a smooth way, they were flying at a good speed and in question of minutes they were at the castle entrance.
"Thanks for the trip," Twilight said while getting off the chariot.
"Always a pleasure my princess," a guard said as he lowered his head, three other guards made shows of reverence.
Twilight proceeded to enter the castle, there, a pony escorted her to the Throne room. When they got there, the other pony directed Twilight to enter herself and left. Twilight took a deep breath before knocking the door.
"Come in," Celestia's voice answered from the other side of the door.
Twilight proceeded to enter. The room was huge and well illuminated. She could see the entrance to the balcony at the right, a large circular table decorated the room, with the symbol of the princesses of the day and the night carved on the middle of it. Opposite of the door, was a huge golden throne that was at the top of a little staircase, sat on it was Celestia. She was reading some documents before her eyes looked at the pony that had just entered.
"Twilight, its good to see you," the white alicorn said while she rose from her sit, leaving the document on a small table that was next to the throne.
"Good to see you too princess," Twilight said with a reverence.
"Oh Twilight, you don't have to do that. You have been my protegee for more than ten years, and now you are a princess, there's no need for formalities, just call me Celestia."
"Ummmm, okay C-Celestia," it was weird for Twilight to not call her mentor princess, after all, she had called her that all her life.
"Now Twilight, I suppose you want to start to talk about that problem of yours, how may I help?"
Twilight hesitated for a moment before she started, "Well prin- Celestia, the thing is that... ummm....." Twilight was struggling to find the best way to describe what had happened, "A lot happened yesterday... and I needed some advice, or a solution to it."
"Well it seems that is something that its really bothering you, but, why didn't you ask your friends to help you? I'm sure that with the five of them you could do anything."
"Do anything?" those words crossed Twilight's mind and it resulted on a blush on her face, "What am I thinking!" she shook her head furiously.
She looked directly at Celestia, "No pri-Celestia, I can't ask for their help."
"And why is that Twilight?"
"Because they are the problem," Celestia looked with confusion at Twilight, the lavender pony sighed and continued her explanation. "Yesterday, I walked around Ponyville, I met with Rainbow and she started to act strange, the same happened with the other four. So I decided to gather them in one place and ask why they were acting weird..." Twilight took her time to remember exactly what had happened after that, "it turned out that all of them fell in love with me."
Celestia didn't move an inch, her face stayed expressionless, there was no reaction at all, but Twilight knew that the princess was processing what she had just been told.
"So I came here to ask for a way to... deal with this, I'm just so confused. What am I supposed to do?".
Celestia just kept quiet, closed her eyes and turned her body to look on the opposite direction. After a moment the princess finally spoke.
"Hmmmmm, I see, well, there's only a solution for this." Celestia said, walking some steps to the balcony.
"Really?" Twilight's face illuminated with a smile.
"Yes," Celestia finally turned back to look directly at Twilight. "We will have to banish them."
Twilight just stood there, completely frozen, her face still displayed the smile from a second before. "W-What?" She managed to say.
"The only solution for this... event, is to banish all of them from Equestria."
"What? Why?" Twilight almost shouted, she was totally shocked by what the princess was saying.
"It has to be done, we can't have five ponies, more specific, five mares falling for the new princess of Equestria. It is unacceptable." Celestia finished with a serious tone of voice.
"N-no you can't do that, they are my friends, there must be something else that we can do," Twilight started, she was trembling a lot," this is not their fault, something must have happened to them. Maybe... maybe they are under the influence of a spell, or something," Twilight started to think of some excuses, anything that would help her friends.
"Yes, that must be it, this are not their true actions and feelings," Twilight looked with hope in her eyes to the princess, but she had this look on her face, one that said that she didn't believed in what Twilight was saying and that her decision would never change. "No princess, please don't do this." Her eyes started to leak, what else could she say to help her friends. All the memories from her time in Ponyville flashed through her mind, until a sound brought her out of her trance, made her snap out of it. This sound, it was... laughter?
"Hahahahahaha," the princess was laughing, "I'm sorry Twilight, but I couldn't resist."
"What?"
"I was just joking with you," she said as she wiped a single tear with her hoof, "I'm sorry, I know it was a little... cruel of my part, but I couldn't help it. This is the most that I had laughed in a long time."
"What?"
Celestia took a deep breath to fully suppress any bit of laughter left and stood firmly before she started talking.
"Look Twilight, I understand that you are confused about what happened... with your friends," she said as she saw that Twilight was still shocked. "But its not something that could be solved by someone else. You have to think, what are your feelings? I know that your bonds with the other five are strong, so if you decide that you don't want to be anything more than friends with them, they will understand. But if you decide to give them a chance, that is also fine, the only problem there would be how to choose one out of the five. Or maybe you want them all?" Celestia gave Twilight a smug grin before continuing, "so tell me, what path are you going to chose."
Twilight finally snapped out of the shock, "Uhh?... Oh!..... I... I don't know... no one has ever told me that they love me, and now my five friends tell me at once. I..." Twilight lowered her head and thought for a moment, then she lifted back her head, "I... I don’t know what to do, this is so confusing, but... maybe I could give them a chance."
"Good. And who knows, you could achieve a happiness bigger than anything else after this. Now all you have to do is go back and talk with them."
"But it’s going to be so awkward to talk to them. What if I end choosing one and the others feel so devastated that they don’t want to keep up our friendship."
"Twilight, believe in your friends. You will have to spend some time with each one of them to sort things out, maybe they will be a little sad at the beginning, but they will accept your decision with a smile at the end of this."
Twilight smiled to Celestia, "Thank you Celestia, this conversation helped me a lot."
"I'm happy to hear that."
"Well, I guess there are five ponies that are waiting for me, goodbye," Twilight turned to the door and opened it, she she was about to exit the room but stopped for a moment, "Oh, and Prin- Celestia, Don't joke like that again, please."
Celestia just gave a little smile before Twilight left. The Lavender pony made her way to the castle entrance and back to the chariot.
"Princess Twilight. Would you like us to take you back to Ponyville? We would be more than pleased to do so," the guard say as he pointed to the chariot.
"There's no need for that, thank you, but I would be happy if you take me to the station." Twilight said as she got on her ride.
"As you wish." He bowed before looking to the four pegasus that were attached to the chariot and instructed them to take Twilight to the train station.
Twilight could arrive to Ponyville in an hour if she had accepted the offer, but she just wanted the extra time from the travel by train to think, to prepare what she would say to the others, to gather courage for what was waiting for her.
Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Applejack was approaching the train station, a pony with blue uniform waved at her as she stepped on the platform.
"So, where's she?" Applejack asked to the pony in uniform, he only raised his hoof and pointed to the end of the platform.
There was a pink mare that wasn't moving from where she was standing, each ten seconds, you could see how the earth pony's hair would fall straight like a waterfall and ten seconds later it would be back to its puffy and bubbly form, this would be accompanied with a frown and a smile respectively..
"Come on Pinkie, ya have scared enough ponies today, time to get ya home," Applejack pushed gently her friend and they started their walk, Pinkie kept swapping her look during the walk from time to time.
The sunset was the most romantic time of the day. The moment when Celestia started to lower her sun, staining the blue of the sky with orange before the night and the moon could take their place on the stage of the night sky. What a perfect moment, and there was no better place than the hill near Ponyville that was being occupied by two ponies to enjoy it. One leaned against the other. The wind was gentle, bringing the essence of nature. Not a single sound disturbed the good moment, but one of the ponies dared to end the silence.
"This has been such a perfect date," a white unicorn said, turning her head to look at her companion. "Don't you think so Twilight?"
"You are right," the lavender alicorn answered while keeping her eyes on the distance, a smile formed on her lips as she spreaded her wing and wrapped the white unicorn with it.
"I'm so happy that you chose me, my Sparkle Kitten. I really love you," Rarity said as she placed her head on Twilight's shoulder.
Twilight closed her eyes and rested her head over her companion before speaking, "and I love you, Rarity."
"What did ya just call me?" a voice with southern accent asked, Twilight lifted her head and her eyes shot open. She turned slowly to look at the pony that was tucked under her wing, the once white coat had just turned in orange, the same color as the one currently displaying in the sky.
Twilight suddenly felt the need to believe that the sudden change in color was just an effect of the light, or a sudden tan from part of the pony, but as she examined her companion's face, she realized that the color of the mane was blonde and not purple, the eyes, instead of blue, were green with tiny white freckles below them, and lastly, the lack of a horn.
"A-Applejack?" Twilight asked, her eyes wide open, she was totally confused. 'Where is Rarity? How did Applejack get under my wing?' Twilight's mind was working at an incredibly fast pace, trying to figure out what was happening.
"Twilight, why did ya call me Rarity?" The now orange pony looked directly in Twilight's eyes.
"I-I-I..." Twilight wasn't sure of how to answer that. 'Because you were Rarity three seconds ago? That isn't a good answer.'
"Are you not happy with me? Am ah not enough for you?" Tears started to form at the corners of Applejack's eyes, she turned her head away incapable of looking at Twilight at the moment.
"No, no Applejack, I don't know why I called you Rarity," Twilight pressed her wing harder against her companion's body, "I, I'm happy with you, I-I love you Applejack."
An air current blew over the hill, Twilight closed her eyes, incapable of keeping them open due the strong wind. She could feel how her wing, that was filled with the warmth of a body, was suddenly feeling cold, when she managed to open her eyes, Applejack was gone. Twilight looked around, trying to look for her companion. The sun was slowly disappearing at the distance, it was getting darker.
With a last glance at the distance, Twilight managed to spot a pony, she started to run in that direction, but slowed her speed when she saw that the pony's coat wasn't orange but light blue.
"Rainbow?" Twilight asked while slowly approaching the pegasus, she could only see the back of the pony.
"So you love Applejack," Twilight managed to hear a bit of bitterness in Rainbow's voice, the pegasus head dropped a little.
Twilight waited a few second, thinking what to say, "Rainbow, I... I don't know what to-"
"Don't worry Twi, I suppose that Applejack is twenty percent cooler than me," Twilight could see that Rainbow was trembling a little, "just... I'm just happy for you." Rainbow said before starting to run, she just advanced a pair of meters before unfolding her wings and taking flight.
Twilight tried to chase Rainbow, but her wings didn't follow her command, she was flapping them as hard as she could, but wasn't capable of taking off, so she just ran after her.
The sky was now totally dark and Twilight had lost track of her feathered friend but kept running. A few seconds later she tripped and landed hard on the ground, but got back on her hooves almost immediately. When she turned her head to look for what had made her trip, she saw a pink pony lying on the ground, with further inspection, she saw that the pony was drawing sad faces and broken hearts on the dirt.
"Pinkie?" Twilight asked, keeping her eyes on her friend, but not daring to approach her, something looked different.
"Twilight?" the pink pony lifted her head from the ground and looked directly at Twilight. Her mane, instead of being all fluffy and puffy, was completely straight, just as her tail. She was frowning and her eyes were bloodshot. "What are you doing here?"
"Pinkie, what happened to you?"
"What happened to me?" Pinkie frowned even more, "What happened to me?!" Pinkie's tone of voice was serious, with a bit of anger that was gradually increasing. "Oh right, let's just play with little old Pinkie's feelings and then lets break her heart, right!? And after that, let's just pretend that nothing of this ever happened, RIGHT!?" the tears started to flow under Pinkie's eyes.
"Pinkie, I didn't-" Twilight started but got interrupted.
"I don't want to talk to you!" Pinkie cried, and slowly, started to vanish in the darkness.
"PINKIE!" Twilight shouted to the air, she was all alone.
"..........."
'What was that?' Twilight thought. She looked around but couldn't see a single thing in the darkness.
"................."
The sound came from above, Twilight raised her gaze up to the sky. There, in a starless night, was a moon painted in yellow.
"What?" Twilight asked more to herself than to the moon.
"Y.. .r. .o..g .. ..v. m." the voice was getting clearer and familiar.
"Fluttershy?"
A pink cloud materialized in the middle of the sky and started to fly around the moon. After a few seconds, the cloud settled itself over the moon, transforming in a silky and long mane. Two of the craters of the moon started to turn white, becoming a pair of balls that started to whirl until a pair of blue iris emerged.
"F-Fluttershy?" Twilight was completely shocked by what was happening up there.
Finally, a line started to stretch under the blue eyes, forming a mouth. Twilight could only see the head of one of her friends floating in the middle of the night. The giant blue orbs locked their sight on the lavender pony that was directly below. The mouth opened.
"YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE ME!"
Twilight was totally frightened, she was frozen in that place. The only thing she could do was watch how the Flutter Moon got bigger and bigger. It was falling from its place in the sky. It was going to crush her...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A lavender pony screamed in the middle of one of the train’s wagon. Some glares from the other passengers were directed at the pony, but immediately averted them as they recognized who was the one shouting. She felt really embarrassed, "Ummmm, sorry?" She said adding a nervous chuckle at the end.
She looked all around the wagon's interior before looking out the window, the last minutes of daylight were near, the sun slowly moving to disappear in the distance. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. 'It was only a dream,' she felt much more comfortable now, but the comfort didn't last long, Twilight still had to get back to Ponyville to talk to her friends, she was just glad that it would take at least another hour before the train arrived to her destination.
Twilight felt a small amount of pain in her back, she turned to see that she had slept on her wings, again. She just groaned before starting to stretch her wings.
Back in Canterlot, Princess Celestia walked out the throne room, her duties for the day were now finished, only leaving one last task, to lower the sun and let the moon rise. As she walked to her sister's room to wake her up, she couldn't help but remember what had happened that afternoon with Twilight and give a small laugh at the thought, 'Banish them, a classic.'
After a short walk, Celestia arrived to Luna's room. She lifted her right front hoof to knock the door.
Celestia waited a few seconds, but there came no answer from the other side of the door. The white alicorn decided to enter the room, slowly opening the door, and taking a quick look around the dark room. She heard the little snores coming from the king size bed that was in the middle of the room.
"Luna?" Celestia asked, but there was no answer. Approaching the bed, Celestia tried again to wake up her little sister, "Luna."
"Uhmmm?"
"Wake up Lulu, is time for the moon to rise."
"Ugh, five more minutes, the moon can wait." Luna answered while rolling on her bed, trying to get as far away from her sister without falling from her comfortable mattress.
Celestia giggled a little, 'and to think that she once wanted to keep the moon up for all the eternity.'
"Come on Lulu, get up, or you will regret it," Celestia's horn started to glow as a smirk appeared on her mouth.
"Four more minutes?"
"Wrong answer," Celestia's horn started to shine brightly. The light was so intense that you could say another sun was inside of Luna's room.
"OK, OK!" Luna shouted while covering her head with the blankets, "I'm awake now, just stop the light, it hurts my eyes." She rolled off her bed as she tried to cover from the light.
The strong light that was covering the whole room started to fade away and Luna emerged from under the blanket, "Ugh, Good evening Tia," Luna said while she tried to suppress a yawn with her hoof.
"Good evening Lulu," Celestia approached her sister and nuzzled her head gently, then she pulled away. "Up reading till late again?" Celestia smirked again while watching her sister getting out from the tangled blanket.
Luna gave a nervous laugh before answering, "Yes, there’s still a lot of information from this age that I have to catch up to." Luna walked to her bathroom, refreshed herself a little and then got back to her dark room. "I'm ready."
"Good, now let's go," Celestia exited the room, followed closely by her sister.
While they were on their way to the balcony, Luna noticed that her sister was in good mood. Normally, Celestia would scold her for staying up till late in the morning, but today, she didn't say anything. She was happy for that, but at the same time, she felt curious about this attitude of her sister.
"Tia?"
"Yes Luna?" Celestia asked without looking at her sister, they crossed the balcony door before Luna talked again.
"You seem to be in a really good mood. What happened?"
"Well this afternoon..." Celestia stopped and looked at the horizon, then turned to her sister and gave her a smile, "I'll tell you after you raise the moon." Luna just nodded.
Celestia's horn was covered by a golden aura. She looked in the direction of the flaming orb and stood on her hind legs. She lifted her forelegs to point directly at the sun, and slowly, intensifying the magic that was emanating from her. The sun last rays of light disappeared at the distance, only a faint tint of orange was left in the sky. Celestia stood back on her four legs. The glow from her horn disappeared. She then turned to look at her sister.
"The sky is all yours," she walked to one side of the balcony to let her sister stand in the middle of it.
Luna stepped forward and started to mimic her sister’s actions, her horn started to glow with a dusky colored aura. she looked at the horizon, but in the opposite direction of where the sun had settled. Then she stood on her hind legs and pointed her front hooves in the empty direction that she was looking. As she did this, the glow from her horn intensified. At the distance, a white object started to rise, making its way up to the sky. After the moon settled in one spot, the sky started to brighten slowly as the stars appeared, forming the constellations that enhanced the beauty of the night. Luna proceeded to lower the upper part of her body, to stand back in her four legs. After the glow from her horn dissipated, Celestia talked.
"Another wonderful night, good job Lulu," Celestia approached her sister to nuzzle her.
"Thank you," Luna smiled while returning the nuzzle. After a few seconds, she pulled away and looked at her sister, "now tell me, what happened this afternoon?"
"Well, this afternoon I had the opportunity to pull a 'little' joke on some pony," Celestia smirked smugly.
"Oh really? And who was it?"
"Twilight Sparkle."
Luna's heartbeat rate increased. She started to feel warmer by each second that passed. Her stomach suddenly felt full of butterflies and her cheeks had a small shade of pink over them. She slowly directed her look at Celestia and opened her mouth, but it took a moment before she could say anything.
"T-Twilight Sparkle was here?"
"Yes, she came this afternoon to speak with me, and that’s when I-"
"Is she still around?" Luna interrupted her sister, Celestia was a little surprised by this.
"No, she already went back to Ponyville."
"Oh," Luna dropped her head, but immediately turned to look back at her sister. "Oh well, what were you saying?"
Celestia looked with a confused expression at Luna. "Luna, is something wrong? Did you want to meet with Twilight?"
"Oh nononono, I was, I was just thinking that it would be nice to talk with her." Luna gave a nervous laugh, the small blush on her face increased two shades darker. She was avoiding looking directly at Celestia's eyes.
"Luna is everything-," Celestia stopped and observed how Luna was acting. She managed to catch the little tint of red on her sister’s face. 'Oh no, it couldn't be, could it?'
Celestia thought for a moment and then talked. "Say Luna, don't you think that Twilight is a really special pony?"
Luna's face lit with a big smile, "Yes of course, she so wonderful, she is smart, she is beau-" Luna covered her muzzle with her hoof. 'Breath Luna, you almost spilled it all out,' she took a deep breath and lowered her hoof, "Yes. You are right, she is a special pony."
Celestia turned her face away from Luna and smirked smugly, "Oh, I see little sister, so Twilight is a special pony. I think this merits another joke." She put her best poker face and looked back at Luna. "Well sister, as I was saying, Twilight came to talk about a little problem that she encountered the last day."
"And what was it?" Luna asked with a curious look on her face.
"Well, apparently, all her friends were- No, ‘are’ in love with her," Celestia could feel how her sister hold her breath after hearing what she had just said, "and Twilight wanted some advice, so she talked to me. And after that..."
Celestia looked away again and the smirk appeared on her face for a second time, "Time for a little fun," she continued. "She went back to Ponyville. Probably to choose who, of her friends, she is going to date."
There was silence in the balcony. Celestia kept looking away trying to hold back her laughter, but slowly, her mirth started to die as she realised her sister wasn’t reacting to what she had just said.
"Was I wrong about my assumptions of how Luna feels about Twilight? I was expecting to hear a loud 'WHAT?!' from her, or something like that. Not total silence.” She then turned her face to look what had happened to her sister, but she couldn't find her. She looked all around the balcony, but nothing.
A small object, that was flying away, caught Celestia's attention. As she strained her eyes to look what was it, her mouth started to turn into a smile. It was her sister, flying as fast as she could in the direction of Ponyville. 'Go for it sister.' Celestia walked back inside the castle and made her way towards her room. The reaction that she got from her sister was not the one she was waiting for, but she was happy anyways.
'First your friends and now my sister. What kind of magic is this that you have, Twilight?' Celestia entered her room and closed the door.
Back in Ponyville, there were five ponies reunited in Sugarcube Corner and four of them were dealing with a problem at hoof. Pinkie Pie was swapping from her usual cheery self, with a puffy mane, to one sad and totally straight maned look, and no one knew how to fix it. Applejack was the first that tried to get her friend to her usual self, but after some failed attempts, she decided that she needed help.
"Come on Pinkie, everything is going to be fine," Fluttershy said to her friend, she tried to say something else, but it was hard because the pink mare didn't said what was wrong with her.
Pinkie looked directly at Fluttershy, a smile showed on her face and her mane was as fluffy as always. "You are right Fluttershy, everything is going to be perfect," suddenly her mane deflated again, falling like a waterfall. "Who am I kidding, this is all my fault."
Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash groaned at the same time. Pinkie always answered like that to any attempt to make her feel better, and this had happened for the last two hours.
"Well," Rainbow started, "Pinkie’s broken. Who wants to come with me to this mirror lake or whatever is called and get a new Pinkie?" Rainbow smiled at her friends, but the only answer she got was a stern look from Applejack and Rarity, "Oh come on guys, I was just kidding."
"This ain't no time for jokes Rainbow!" Applejack yelled with a frown on her face. "Now, you better help us find out what's wrong with Pinkie or get out of here," she finished with a stomp of her hoof.
"I'm sorry, jeez. It's just that I'm really tired of this. We have asked her like thirty times what happened and she only answers with, 'It's all my fault'."
Applejack let out a small sigh. "Come on Pinkie, cheer up," the pink mare hair slowly got to its normal shape, and slowly got back to its straight shape.
"Well, this is enough," Rarity said. "I tried to play tic tac toe with you, you won twenty-seven times. Then Applejack baked you a delicious pie. After that, Fluttershy sung you a beautiful song. And finally, Rainbow... well, she just gave you an autographed picture of herself."
"Hey!"
"But nothing of that helped you to get back to your usual and "steady" self. Now, would you be so kind to tell us what happened so we can help you?"
"I already told you, it's all my-"
"PINKIE!" Three voices shouted at the same time while a yellow pegasus hid behind her pink friend.
"Ummm, well you see," Pinkie started. Her mane, that was totally straight, started to swell and a smile showed up on her face. "This morning I saw Twilight!"
"You went to Twilight's home?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Of course not Dashy, she was in the train station. She took the train to Canterlot,” her mane got back to its straight shape, “and she left and will never come back to shout to me that I’m going to love her." The yellow pegasus blushed of embarrassment after hearing that.
"Oh come on sugarcube. Why would Twilight never come back? Ponyville is her home." Applejack approached her friend and started to pat her back.
Pinkie’s mane swelled again, "Well, I confessed my love for her,” the mane got straight again, “ but after that, you all did the same and she was all like 'What?' and totally confused. So she just decided to leave. So she didn't had to deal with this."
"Oh darling, that's just ridiculous," Rarity said while sitting on her haunches in front of Pinkie. "Twilight wouldn't leave for something like that, and even if she would, she wouldn't leave without Spike, he's still here in Ponyville. I saw him cleaning the windows of the library this afternoon."
“Umm, Rarity,” Fluttershy said from behind Pinkie. “Well, if you don’t mind me asking. Why were you near the library?”
“Ummm, emmm, well you see... I was walking this afternoon-”
“You went to get a glimpse of Twilight, didn’t you?” Asked Applejack, Rarity only answered with a blush and a little laugh. “Weren’t you the one that said to give Twilight some space?”
“Oh forget it! The point is that Twilight is going to be back,” said Rarity.
Pinkie’s mane swelled, but not completely, “Then, can I throw her a ‘welcome back Twilight, it's great to see you and your flank back in Ponyville’ party?”
"Of course you can darling, but, don’t add the part about the flank."
Pinkie’s mane got limp again, "But then, why did she go?"
"Well, maybe she needed some time to think about everything that happened yesterday," said Fluttershy, " and she maybe went to Canterlot because it was hard to think here."
"Yeah," Rainbow flew over her friends and pointed to the door, "I bet she's going to cross that door soon. Maybe not today, but tomorrow, she is going to be here. Back in Ponyville."
The moment Rainbow finished talking, the door of the bakery opened, causing the bell of the entrance to jingle. A purple mare that carried a pair of saddlebags entered the building. She walked a few steps inside before stopping, she was surprised to see all the other ponies in that place.
"Oh! I didn't expected to meet all of you here, I suppose that this saves me a lot of time," Twilight said while looking a little nervous.
A pink blur crossed the room and tackled Twilight to the floor. Pinkie was now over Twilight. She started to rub her cheek against Twilight's. A few grunts were hear in the room. Pinkie then lifted her head and looked at The pony that was below her.. "You are back, I knew you were coming back, but then I turned into a silly filly and started to think 'she's never coming back', but then, I was all like 'Don't be silly little Pinkie, she will be back', but after that I turned back and was like-"
"Pinkie?" The lavender pony interrupted Pinkie's speech.
"Yes Twilight?" she looked down with a smile to her friend that was lying on the floor.
"Could you get off me?"
"Oh! Sure thing Twilight."
"Thanks Pinkie," Twilight stood back and looked at her friends, "Umm hi. Why are all of you here?"
"That doesn't matter now," said Applejack while looking at Pinkie that was bouncing on place. "So, 'cough' Twilight, how you doin'?" Asked Applejack while avoiding looking at the purple mare, all the others were doing something similar, except for Pinkie. There was a nervous tension in the room, they hadn't seen Twilight since all the love stuff, and they didn't know how Twilight was taking it.
"I'm fine Applejack," Twilight pause for a moment, she knew she had to talk to them now, she gathered all the courage she could before starting, "I have to talk to you. I'm here to tell you that I have been thinking about what all of you told me yesterday. I was going to gather all of you in the library. But now that we are here, I don't see why not to talk right now. A lot happened in this last two days, I thought a lot of each one of you and finally made my choice."
"And you chose what was obvious, right Twilight?" Asked Rainbow, barely managing to look at Twilight.
"Ummm, I think so."
"Yes!” The prismatic maned pony shouted all of a sudden. “You chose me, the most awesome and coolest pony in Equestria," Rainbow started to fly around the bakery. “In your face Applejack!”
"Sorry Rainbow, but that wasn't my choice."
The prismatic maned pegasus crashed against the wall.
"T-then, who did you choose?", asked Fluttershy from behind her mane, there was a glimpse of hope in her voice.
"Well, that's the thing, I d-"
"We command thou to halt this at once!" Some pony, with a familiar voice, shouted from behind Twilight.
“We command thou to halt this at once!” Some pony, with a familiar voice, shouted from behind Twilight.
Twilight took in the expression of shock on each one of her friends, except Pinkie, who just kept bouncing. The others had their eyes wide open and their jaws hanging. When she turned to look behind her, she was as perplexed as her friends. There, an the entrance of Sugarcube Corner, stood Princess Luna, covering her mouth with a hoof.
Luna cleared her voice before speaking. "Sorry about that. I still haven't got rid of my old way of talking." She said with a sheepish smile.
"Princess Luna?" Twilight asked while approaching at the pony in the entrance, "W-what are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to you Twilight Sparkle, to tell you something before it is too late."
"What is it Princess? An emergency?"
"Well not exactly. I'm here to tell you that I... That I-"
“That you want some chimichanga.” Interrupted Pinkie.
“Uhhh, no.” Luna looked back in Twilight’s eyes. “I was saying that I... That I...”
“That you want a chimicherrychanga?” Pinkie Interrupted again while bouncing even more.
“No! It’s not that.” Luna took a deep breath, then a few more deep breaths, and closed her eyes before continuing, "What I’m trying to say, Twilight, is that I-."
“Want a Super Mega Gigantic Chimicherrychanga with double-”
“NAY! WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO CONVEY IS THAT WE LOVE TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”
The room was in total silence, not even Pinkie was moving. Just a few seconds passed, but it already felt like an eternity to Luna. She was starting to sweat. “Oh sister, that didn’t came as I expected.” She was feeling uncomfortable with all the gazes over her. Finally, the silence of the room was broken.
"WHAT?!" Five voices shouted at the same time.
“What?” One of the ponies thought.
Luna flinched a little with the sudden outburst. There were six pair of eyes looking directly at her. She was sweating a lot now. She may have been one of the princesses of Equestria, but at the moment, all those judging eyes on her made her feel like a little foal who had just been scolded.
‘Cough’ “Well you see, I was just...” Luna stopped talking, there was a good reason for it.
A pair of eyes made her feel more uncomfortable than the other five. They were wide open, in a expression of total shock. Luna would had loved to keep looking those gorgeous eyes, but not at this moment. Those eyes didn’t had their usual bright. She lowered her head, and waited in hope that someone might talk and get her out of the awkward moment.
“Well, there’s only one thing to do,” to Luna’s fortune, or perhaps misfortune, Pinkie spoke.
“What?” asked luna.
“We should totally have a party, I was planing to do a party today, but then Rarity was all like ‘Twilight needs time for herself’ so I didn’t do a party, but now Twilight is back and she had enough time to think, also, one more pony loves her, and the pony is Luna, this is so great tha-.” A hoof found its way to Pinkie’s mouth.
“What are you so excited Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked. “This only means that there is more competition. Who’s going to confess her love next? Granny Smith?”
“Next?”
“Hey, don’t get ma Granny in this, Rainbow.”
“Oh come on Dashie, each pony is free to fall in love with whoever they want, even the elder ponies.” Pinkie finished with a huge smile.
“Well Rainbow Dash,” Princess Luna started, recovering her confidence, “I hope you don’t mind a little more of competition. Or is it that you are afraid? And if I’m correct, I think you and your friend just made fun of my age.” It was obvious that the comment had offended Luna.
Pinkie just jumped around while Rainbow laughed nervously. “Oh no Princess. You look great, for being over a thousand years old.” Luna lifted an eyebrow. “Ummm, I mean, you don’t look older than two hundred years.” Luna kept looking directly at Rainbow. “I mean, I... You... Oh forget it!”
Rainbow dash spread her wings and started to hover a meter over the floor. “And I’m not afraid of any kind of competition. Yeah, you can be the Princess of the night, but I’m Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash” The pegasus puffed her chest. “The coolest, awesomest and most radical pony in Equestria and winner of the Best Young Flyer Competition. There’s nothing to fear.” Rainbow looked back to her four friends. “All of you are so screwed. You don’t stand a chance now. Not that you had any at the beginning.”
“I’m sorry to discourage you darling, but you certainly don’t have it as easy as you think,” Rarity walked in front of the pegasus. “Yes, you are the -" She conveniently coughed before continuing. "—'coolest' pony, but you are not a good pairing for Twilight. She was born and raised in Canterlot, not to mention that she is now one of the princess of Equestria. Only someone more refined is capable of understanding her. And you, well, you don’t even know the meaning of etiquette.”
“If we are talking about being refined, then I think I’m the best option,” Luna said while extending her wings, the view was magnificent. “Who’s more suited than the princess of Equestria.”
“I’m sorry Princess, but I’m currently more suited than you for at that.” Rarity said while flipping softly her mane. “What do you mean with that?” Luna eyed uncertainly at Rarity.
“You were a ‘out’ of equestria for a thousand years. You barely manage to grasp the extent of how much society has changed. Social behaviour and the way to speak are way different than before. Also-”
“We already have knowledge of that!” Shouted Princess Luna. She opened her mouth to talk again, but the frightened white ball in front of her made it hard. “I- I mean, I already know that.” She finally managed to say, adding sheepish grin at the end.
Rarity tried to talk, but she was too afraid to speak properly. All that was heard were a few squeaks.
“Ummmm, what was that?” asked Luna, bringing her right ear closer to the white pony.
“Ah think she said that ya’ still have things to catch up to.” Applejack intervened. “And Ah think ya are mistaken sugarcube. Twilight is not interested in that sort of things. She could be a princess now, but she will always be a humble pony. She doesn’t care for the sophisticate life. Ah bet she would be happy with a simple and hardworking pony, living in a quiet home.” She ended while placing a hoof over her chest.
“Ummm, girls-” Fluttershy tried to talk but was interrupted immediately.
“You are right Applejack, well, almost.” Applejack looked at Luna and tilted her head. Luna understood that she had to explain what she mean. “Being a princess will eventually affect Twilight’s life. At the moment, she is happy living here, I’m sure of that .But eventually she will have to move in with me - I mean, to the castle, back in Canterlot. Her obligations as a princess will be hard to accomplish from this little town. She will have to move to take care of the country.”
“Then there’s no problem.” Rarity said. She finally had managed to recover some of her courage. “My business is becoming more popular with each day that pass. If Twilight has to move to Canterlot, then I will go with her. I will open a new Boutique there. It will be hard at first, but nothing will manage to get me apart of Twilight.”
“Girls, the-”
“Nothing except me,” Rainbow landed in front of Fluttershy, interrupting her. “She can go and live wherever she wants. I will be next to her. So there’s no big deal. Yeah, maybe I’ll be a little busy with the Wonderbolts. But no matter what, I’ll just go and fly to be with her.”
“There’s no need for that,” said Applejack with a stomp of her hoof. “Twilight is a really smart and capable pony. She loves Ponyville. If there ever happen to be a problem with her being here, she will figure out how to make things work. And if she doesn’t, then Ah will be there to help her.”
“Ummm, that sounds good Applejack but-”
“Come on everypony.” Pinkie jumped in the middle of everyone, interrupting Fluttershy, again. “Don’t be all grumpy jealousy meanie pants. We have to celebrate. Twilight is back. It’s time to partay.” Pinkie pulled her party cannon out of nowhere and started to shoot in every direction. In less than a minute, the room was filled with balloons and streamers. “Perfect. Twilight will be so happy with this that she is going to be all like, ‘Pinkie this is the best party ever’, and I will be like ‘It’s all for you’, she then will answer like ‘thank you Pinkie, I think I love you’ with a blush on her face, and after that there will be some smoochies, then we will have to excuse ourselves and leave to my room where we will be all awkward, but then we will lock eyes, our faces just getting near and near each other, until finally our lust will get the better of us and my hoof will start to trace down her coat until it reaches her-”
“That’s enough Pinkie.” Rarity interrupted.
“Okie Dokie Lokie. Who wants cake?” she pulled something out of nowhere, again. It was a pony-sized cake, shaped in a very familiar and attractive form.
The cake had the form of a pony standing sideways with the wings unfolded. Everyone carefully observed it and only one thought crossed their minds at the moment, ‘perfection’. The cake was mainly covered with lavender frosting, what most certainly was the mane and the tail had a purple color with pink stripe on it. There was a pink star on the flank, with some small stars around it. The horn was covered with purple colored jelly, giving the effect of it using magic. And finally, the eyes. It was just as beautiful as it was scary of how real those eyes seemed. Some of the ponies started to drool, they were eager to eat the cake that was shaped like Twilight.
“Oh, Pinkie, that cake looks good, but-”
“Pinkie,” Applejack got near the pink bouncing pony. “When did ya bake this cake?”
“This afternoon of course,” Pinkie answered with a huge smile on her face, “It taste the best when it is fresh.”
“But, but you... this afternoon...” Applejack's brain was having troubles trying to process it. “The hay? When did she baked it if she was all depressed the whole afternoon? And ah was with her the whole time she was here.” Applejack thought about it for a moment. She finally let out a small sigh as she remembered something crucial, that this was Pinkie Pie, logic doesn’t work here.
“Okay everypony, time to eat.” Pinkie started to cut the cake but stopped for a moment to look at the others. “I want the flank!” She shouted. A few grunts were hear from Rainbow and Rarity. Pinkie started to distribute the cake. She kept the part that had the big star shaped on it to herself. “My precious,” she liked her lips and slowly approached her mouth to the target to eat a piece of it.
“Girls!” Fluttershy shouted from behind the party pony. This made Pinkie to drop her piece of cake that was just half a centimeter away of her mouth.
A slow motion force field surrounded Pinkie and her cake. The other ponies in the room just watched as a slow motion Pinkie yelled “My cake,” while an equally slow motion pastry fell to the floor.
“How does she do that?” Asked Luna after seeing an earth pony break the laws of physics.
“Don’t think much about it or you will get headache.” Answered Rarity while wiping some crumbs of cake out of her muzzle with a napkin.
“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” Pinkie shouted while kneeling on her hinder legs and lifting her front hooves. “Oh! The five seconds rule! I still can eat it.”
“Your shout lasted more than that, darling,” Said Rarity.
“Ummm, I’m really sorry for that Pinkie,” Fluttershy put a hoof over Pinkie’s back, trying to comfort her in her lost. “But I need to say some things.”
All the ponies set their full attention on Fluttershy, “Well, what is it that you have to say?” Asked Luna.
“Ummm, well, I mean no offence, but all of you are getting a little ahead in the matter.”
“Whuft do youf meanf ‘Shuay?” Rainbow asked with her mouth full of cake.
“Well, while all of you were talking about Twilight, you all talked like if it was a fact that she would choose you. That’ not a problem. I also love to think that she will choose me to live happy forever.” She said with a goofy grin on her face. “But the thing is, we haven’t heard what her decision was. Maybe she has already chosen one of us. But it’s just as posible that she decided to not choose any of us, either because she doesn't want any problems between ourselves, or just the fact that she isn’t into mares.”
Everyone’s gaze fell to the floor. They knew that Fluttershy was right. Twilight hadn’t voiced her decision yet. And here, they were already discussing their view of their futures with Twilight, discussing her life.
“Ummm, and one more thing.” Fluttershy said in her usual and quiet voice.
“What is it, darling?”
“Ummmm, anyone knows where is Twilight?”
Everyone looked around just to see that Fluttershy was right. Twilight was nowhere to be seen. How is it that the target of the affection of six ponies could disappear without them realising?
“Oh no.” Pinkie dropped her whole body to the ground and her mane went limp. “She left because I didn't asked her if she wanted to cut the cake and even forgot to give her her slice.”
“Come on Pinks, don’t start again.” Rainbow brought a hoof to her chin and slowly flied around in circles. “Don’t worry, I think she’s still around here. At least it is for sure that she did not left through the main door. Luna is standing close enough to it, that she could have seen if anyone went out. It is also a fact that Twilight didn’t teleported due to the lack of a bright flashlight.”
The room was in total silence. Standing in a mist of confusion were five ponies. And each one of them was wondering the same question.
“Did Rainbow just think logically?” It was a real surprise. The brave pegasus wasn’t prone to think much. Rainbow was an intelligent pony, but she’s a mare of action. Her normal reaction would have been to go out and look for Twilight.
Rainbow landed and saw that the others were looking at her, their faces twisted in expression of total confusion. “What?” she asked.
Applejack shook her head, “Nothin’ sugarcube. Now, if Twilight is still here then, where is she?”
“Oh my poor Twilight. She was so confused after we confessed our love. And now that Luna did the same, she must be frightened after all that has happened. Oh!” Rarity lifted a hoof to her forehead. “I can see her, curled in the shadows like a little kitten. Oh my poor Sparkle Kitten!”
“Stop the drama sugarcube, but maybe ya are right. Maybe she went to hide after we started our little discussion.”
“Discussion?” Asked Rainbow. “We didn’t even got to shout.”
“Princess Luna shouted,” said Pinkie. “And she shouted three times.”
“Well, I-I wasn’t trying to-”
“Forget it Princess. Let’s find Twilight first.”
“Found her.” said Pinkie.
A lavender mare was sitting behind the shop’s counter, her back against it. The saddlebags she was carrying were in front of her. She had her hooves on her head. The other six ponies approached her. They could see that the mare was shivering. They managed to hear her mumbling something.
“No, no, no, no....”
“Twilight?” Rarity was the first to speak. “Are you okay?”
“No.” Twilight answered without looking back. “How can I be okay after what just happened?”
The six ponies that were standing on the other side of the counter looked at each other. All of them felt guilty.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Luna lifted one of her front hooves in an attempt to approach the mare that was sitting on the floor, but kept her distance. “I’m sorry for what just happened. That discussion was just-”
“My whole schedule is ruined!” Twilight interrupted with a shout.
Everypony in the room was quiet for a moment. After a few seconds, Fluttershy talked. “Ummm, what schedule?”
“What schedule?” Twilight looked back at fluttershy. She used her magic to open one of the pockets of her saddlebags and grabbed a scroll. Twilight unrolled the scroll and levitated it so the others could see it. The paper had the names of five ponies. In front of each one of the names were some dates.
“While I was in the train parting from Canterlot, I wrote this schedule. That’s what I was going to say the moment before the princess...” Twilight stopped with a blush on her face. “Before she shared her feelings.” She shook her head and continued. “But now this whole thing is a disaster. I can’t keep up with this!” Twilight started to shout hysterically. “There’s a mayor problem at hoof right now! This schedule needs to be reworked!” Twilight started to breath heavily. “Or possibly everything in what I have been thinking about needs to be redone. The confession of Luna changed everything! And what if what Rainbow said is right! What if there is a next pony to confess?!”
“Twilight, that won't happen. That was just a inoffensive comment, a joke.” said Rainbow. Luna cleared her voice. “Ummmm, well, “almost” inoffensive.”
“Did you know two days ago that the other four had... had... had feelings towards me?” she asked with a blush.
“Well, no but-”
“Did you know that Princess Luna was going to confess?!” She yelled with an almost maniatical expression.
“No but-”
“See?! You can’t be sure that there won’t be another pony confessing!” She lowered her head and set her hooves on her temples. “You understand how much of a problem this is?!” Twilight paused to take a deep breath. “I may never be able to make a proper schedule if this keeps up!”
“So, what ya are tellin’ us is that ya are upset and panickin’ because yer schedule is ruined, and not because of the fact that there could be more ponies onto ya?” Twilight nodded.
“And something even worse than that.”
“Yes?” Everyone asked.
“I haven’t studied or read a book in two days!”
There were some facehooves in the room, but everyone felt that some tension lifted from their shoulders. What Twilight had just said meant that she was willing to give everyone a chance. That she was so serious about this that she was willing to stop reading. That she was going to have some alone time with them.
“S-sugarcube, you need a rest. It’s been a long day fer ya.”
“But I need to reschedule everything!”
“Ummm, Twilight, please.” Fluttershy talked, but at the moment Twilight locked eyes with her, she hid behind her mane. “Ummm, just go to sleep. You must be exhausted. ” Twilight was about to retort when Fluttershy continued. “It’ll be hard to think a perfect new schedule this exhausted.”
Twilight gave a it a thought. After a moment she let out a small sigh. “I guess you are right.” Twilight calmed down little by little.
“Yes, d-darling, we can keep this conversation later.”
“Yeah.” Twilight stood up and took her saddlebags with her magic. “I guess I’ll see you later.”
Twilight trotted to the exit and opened the door with her magic. She turned to say goodbye to everyone. As she did this, she saw that the others were looking at her back, more precisely, they were looking at her flank. “Hey!” The other ponies immediately averted their gaze and started to act like nothing had happened.
Twilight gave another sigh. “This will be hard.” She clarified her voice to pick the attention of the others, “Goodbye girls.” The others said goodbye to Twilight and watched her leave.
“Ok,” Rarity said when she was sure that Twilight couldn’t hear. “We need to talk. We now know that Twilight is willing to give us chance, and I think I’m not the only one that will try to gain some points with Twilight before her, ummm, schedule is done. Right, Rainbow and Pinkie?”
Twilight walked back to her home. She was moving slow. Her head was filled with all that had happened and what she had just told Rainbow. “I’m being paranoid. There won’t be more ponies confessing. My new schedule will be done in no time.”
“Oh, Twilight!”
Twilight turned her head to look at a gray pegasus with blonde mane that flew towards her. “Hey Derpy. What’s up?”
Derpy landed a meter away from Twilight. She looked at Twilight’s eyes but immediately averted her gaze, she started to fidget the floor with one hoof. “Well Twilight. I-I just wanted to say that... that...”
The way Derpy was acting felt really strange. Twilight started to analyze her behaviour. It suddenly hit her. “Oh no. She’s not going to confess, right?”
“Well, after we met yesterday, I just realized that... that...”
“She’s going to confess, she’s totally going to confess!” Twilight breath was harsh. Her eyes were wide open. Her heart was beating hard. Her face was taking a small tint of pink that was barely visible in the night.
“That I love...” “Oh Celestia, what’s up with everyone?! Goodbye to a perfect schedule.”
Derpy paused, took a deep breath and finally. “That I love pies more than muffins now!” Derpy finally managed to say. It was hard for her to admit it. “Where did you buy that apple pie?”
Twilight stood still for almost a minute. She slowly moved to the gray mare. When she was finally next to her, she gave her a big hug. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.” Twilight was almost crying from happiness. It made her so happy not being loved.
“Ummm, so, you love pies better than muffins too?” It was hard for Derpy to talk while she was being hugged so hard. Twilight gave a light chuckle and let go derpy. “Yes Derpy. And I bought the pie from the Sugarcube Corner.”
“Great, thanks Twilight. See you later.” Derpy took off to the dark sky.
Twilight waved at the pegasus and then continued her walk to her home.
When Twilight finally arrived to the library she heard her number one assistant talking at the other side of the door. “Oh come on. Double or nothing. Please.”
Twilight opened the door to see a little baby dragon kneeling in front of an owl that was standing over a small pile of gems. “Spike. Were you betting again with Owlowiscious?”
The surprised dragon turned his head to look at the pony that had entered the room. “Twilight! We were just-”
“Save it Spike. How many times have I told you to not play blackjack against him. He’s too smart.”
Spike sighed. “I know Twilight. This won’t happen again.”
“Good. Now I’m going directly to bed. It’s been a long day.” Twilight started to walk towards the stairs.
“Oh! How was your talk with the princess?”
Twilight stopped and looked back. “It was good. She helped a lot. She told me to give a chance to the others.”
“Even to Rarity?”
“Ummmmmmm, yes?”
Spike crossed his arms. “Twilight, How could you? Pals don’t steal other pals chicks!”
“Spike I’m sorry but- Wait? Pals, chicks?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“Oh, well. Ummmm, Spike, I will talk to Rarity so she can sort this with you.” Twilight opened her mouth to let a yawn out. “I’m really tired right now. Let’s talk about this tomorrow. Goodnight Spike, goodnight Owlowiscious.”
“Goodnight Twilight.” Spike watched Twilight walk up the stairs and then heard the door being closed.
“Oh, I forgot to tell Twilight that the elements were acting weird this afternoon.” Spike looked at the five golden necklace that were shining. Spike got closer and looked at the element of laughter, “This afternoon, Pinkie’s element kept shining and switching off.” Spike kept thinking about it. At the moment, the elements had a small amount of light coming from them that was barely perceptible, but it was a light that wasn’t there before. “Hummmm. Well, I think is nothing. They look okay now.”
Spike walked back to the table. “Ok Owlowiscious. What you say? Triple or nothing. I’m going to get back those babies.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
Who?”
“Me! Spike!”
“Who?”
“Ugh, just deal the cards.”
The whole town was in total darkness right now. Well, almost total darkness. Sugarcube Corner still had light coming from it. Six ponies were standing in a circle inside the shop.
“So, we all agree?” Asked Rarity.
“Yes.” Came the answer of five ponies.
“Very good. All’s fair in love and war. We all love Twilight. So this is war between us. From this moment onwards, we are rivals.”
“Umm, so we are no longer friends?” Asked Fluttershy.
Rarity gave a light chuckle. “Darling, is just a way to say it. We are still friends. But we are also rivals in love. This will only consist of who manage to get Twilight’s affection before the others. Everything’s fair until she has an answer. And after that, no hard feelings. Right?”
“Right.”
“So our competition starts now.”
Everyone reached a hoof to the center. “May the best mare win!”
“Oh! Before you leave. Could you help me clean the shop. The Cakes will scold me if they see all the streamers and the...” Pinkie gulped, her eyes turning watery, “cake on the floor.”
Twilight laid on her bed. The reason for this had nothing to do with the fact that it was late at night, nor that she was extremely tired. She pulled the blanket over her head, taking the pillow as well and putting it on top of her head to try to muffle the small but annoying boom of music that was coming from the first floor.
“Lonely, I’m so lonely, I have nopony, To call my owwnnn.
I’m so lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely, I have nopony, To call my owwnnn.”
Spike had been listening to the same song for hours, and Twilight had already been tired of it after the first time it played. “Damn you Akolt, you and your stupid song!” She thought, trying her best to just keep her imagination on simple curses, rather than ideas of banishing the singer and forbidding his songs in all Equestria. After all, she did have the power to do so.
Suddenly, the music stopped.
“Thank Celestia...” she groaned.
“What is love, Oh baby, don’t hurt me, Don’t hurt me no more, Oh, baby don’t hurt me, Don’t hurt me no more.”
“Ugh!” Twilight whipped her head out from under the covers, tossing the pillow from the bed. She then climbed out from her bed. “I can’t take it anymore.” She let out an exasperated sigh before walking out from her room, making her way to the stairs.
As she reached the first floor, she glanced around, seeing a little mess in the room. A little purple dragon was lying in front of a phonograph - the source of the music. There was a picture of a certain white unicorn in his claws being held up next to his cheek. There were visible tear markings running down the side of his face. Nearby was an empty bag with the words ‘Property of Spike, Don’t touch’, which Twilight recognized as Spike’s emergency gem supply.
Twilight took a few steps toward him and, as she did, she managed to hear a tiny sound coming from her little assistant.
He was snoring.
“Oh, I don't know why you're not there, I give you my love, but you don't care, So what is right and what is wrong, Gimme a si--”
Twilight turned off the phonograph. ‘Finally...! If I had to hear any of those songs even ONE more time...’ She shook her head, ‘No, Twilight, that’s just silly. They may be annoying, but that’s just a silly reason to banish anypony.’ Twilight then proceeded to levitate the little dragon with her magic. She made her way to the stairs and up to her room. She then lowered Spike, being extra careful as to not wake the poor dragon. She kept in mind that his little heart had been thrown around and tortured recently, settling him gently his little bed. She watched him for a moment, feeling more than a little sympathy for him, before then let out a small sigh. ‘Sorry, Spike...’
‘It’s outrageous; how much has happened since that night...’ Twilight thought. It had only been two days since she decided to give each of her friends a chance, but it felt like two weeks to her. The events that had occurred in the previous days were extenuating, not physically, but emotionally. She had managed to feel angry, nervous, embarrassed, flustered, and sad. But on a seemingly-strange bright side, she couldn’t help but feel happy after it all. The events of the past two days started to flood her head...
Two days ago...
“Wow...! This is so beautiful,” Twilight said to herself as she gazed up to the night sky. The stars were shining brighter than any other moment of her life. She would have loved to share this moment with somepony else, but none of her friends enjoyed stargazing as much as she did.
She actually felt a little lonely, but she immediately shook her head to try and find a different feeling to dwell. She looked up once again to continue with the spectacle that the night had displayed for her. Her eyes scanned the sky until something caught her attention. Up there, a star shined like none other, but there was also something more to the star.
She had never seen it before.
“Huh,” she said, levitating a book about astrology to look through it. “I know that star wasn’t there before. I’ve charted the stars enough to know it, too. I mean, come on... I know stars as if they were my own cutie mark.” She stopped for a moment to chuckle lightly at her little joke, despite knowing it was childish and rather lame. She didn’t doubt her own knowledge, but she did want to make sure that what she was seeing and thinking were correct.
“It’s a new star.” She closed the book that had confirmed it. She then realized she had just discovered a new star in the sky. “I discovered a star!” she shouted with joy. “Oh my gosh, this has to be a dream! I’ve always dreamed of discovering a star and naming it after me!” Twilight was now dancing. However, “dancing” looked more like she had to use the bathroom.
“I see that you like it,” a voice called softly from over the library, causing the lavender mare to fall to the floor.
“W-what?” Twilight stood back on her hooves and looked for the source of the voice that had caught her off guard. “Princess Luna?”
“Yes, Princess Sparkle?” Luna answered, descending to the balcony.
Twilight waited for Luna to reach the floor before she spoke. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see your reaction to my gift.”
“Your gift? What gi-” Twilight stopped immediately. She turned to look at her discovery and then turned back again to look at Luna. “You created that star for me?”
“Of course,” Luna spoke proudly. “I wanted to give you something that shine as much as you do in my life.” Luna lifted her hoof, pointing in the direction of the new shining star. Then, when she contracted the appendage, the star was no longer there. “Here. For you, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna extended her hoof to Twilight. She was now holding the missing star, offering it to the lavender alicorn.
Twilight blushed, looking to the shining dot on the Princess’s hoof, and then to mare herself. Twilight felt an overwhelmingly warm feeling burning in her chest. She was lost for words. This was just too perfect...
‘Too perfect...’ she thought. ‘Wait, this is...’
She gasped. The stars began to dance up in the sky, they paired in groups of two and started to spin with each other. After a few seconds, all the dancing stars fell from the sky and surrounded the two alicorns. The little sparkles began flying around like fireflies. The light they emanated accentuated the dark coat and mane of Princess Luna. She looked completely dazzling. Everything was just so magical.
‘This is...’
Princess Luna grabbed Twilight’s front hoof with her own, and both of them, still surrounded by the stars, parted from the balcony floor to meet the sky.
“I love you Twilight.” Luna slowly started to move her face forward.
‘This is...’
“Luna?” Twilight said in a whisper.
“Yes, Twilight?”
Twilight brought her muzzle to luna’s ear. “Don’t get inside of my dreams without my consent,” she whispered.
“I, uh, ehm, you see, I--”
“Princess, you understand?”
Luna let out a defeated sigh. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight let her eyes open slowly. She blinked a few times to adjust to the morning light and then let out a yawn.
‘I can’t believe she dared to flirt with me in my dreams!’ she thought with a frown. ‘It was only yesterday that I told the girls I would give them a chance, and Princess Luna has already made her move. AND she made me think that I had discovered a star! How could she play with my dreams like that? IN my dreams like that?” She felt the anger pilling inside of her, but the feeling subsided in a second, turning in a different direction. ‘But, it was really sweet and beautiful, that dream.’ A blush lingered on her face for a moment before she shook it off and made her way to the first floor. ‘Time to start the day.’
The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful. First, Twilight ate breakfast, Spike being her cook. Then she read a book or two... Or maybe six. After that she started to re-shelve some of the books with the help of her assistant. When they were done with that, Spike cleared his throat to get Twilight’s attention.
“Sooo, Twilight...” he started. “About yesterday... We talked... You still remember, right?”
Twilight let out a small sigh. “Yes, Spike,” she said. “I’ll talk with Rarity. I’ll let her know that she needs to have a talk with you.” She then grabbed a book with her magic.
“Great. After I’m done talking with her, you’ll have one problem less to worry about.” Spike was about to leave the room when a thought crossed his mind. “Twilight?”
“Hmmm?” Twilight answered from behind her seventh reading material of the morning.
“When you went to Canterlot yesterday, did you talk with your parents about this?”
The book Twilight was holding on her magic fell to the floor. Other than a loud thud, there was no response from the lavender pony, not even a blink. Twilight just stood there, completely frozen. The mare was so shocked that she didn’t even open her eyes as wide as she usually would.
“Twilight?” Spike waved his claw in front of the mare, but there was no reaction. “Hey, Twilight.” Spike tried to snap Twilight out of her frozen state, but it seemed to prove useless, as well. “Well, in this case there’s only one thing to do.” Spike made his way to the kitchen, grabbed something from it, and walked back into the main room. “Twilight, I’m taking the day off. If you're against it, say something.” There was no answer. “Perfect. See you later.” And with that, the little dragon made his way to the library’s exit.
Spike barely made it out before falling to the ground after colliding with something, or, to be more accurate, somepony. “Hey there, Spike, what’s the emergency?” asked Rainbow Dash. She was apparently about to knock on the door when Spike came out.
“Hey, Dash,” he greeted. “Sorry, but I kinda gotta get outta here before Twilight returns to normal. I’m not letting this opportunity slip through my claws.” With that, Spike made his way into town.
“Huh?” Rainbow looked quizzically at the dragon as he left, before entering the library. There, she saw the lavender pony standing in the middle of the room. ‘Return to normal? She looks fine.’ Rainbow’s cheeks turned a bit red. ‘Actually... she looks amazing.’ She shook her head. ‘Okay, Dash, just play it cool. Remember the plan. Ask for a new book, and take the chance to spend time with her.’
“Hey Twilight.” Rainbow waited for an answer, but continued after a few seconds. “I came here to see if you could suggest a book for me. I just finished the last Daring Do.” Again, no answer.“Uhmmmm, Twilight?” Rainbow nudged Twilight on the side, but the mare just stood there, like a statue capable of breathing.
What Spike had said before flooded Rainbow’s mind, but there was a certain part that caught Rainbow's interest. “I’m not letting this opportunity slip through my claws...” “Twilight,” Rainbow called while nudging Twilight one last time. Still nothing.
Rainbow bit her lower lip. ‘This could be my chance to give Twilight her first kiss, OUR first kiss.’ Rainbow dropped her head as a feeling of guilt filled her. ‘I’m really going to steal Twilight’s first kiss?’ Rainbow looked up as her expression of guilt changed to one of determination. ‘I’m not letting this opportunity slip through my hooves.’
Rainbow slowly moved her head to the front, in the direction of where the lavender pony was standing, looking directly at Twilight’s lips. Rainbow hesitated for a second. ‘Should I really be doing this? Taking advantage of Twilight in this state?’ She gave a glance to the pony in front of her. ‘Oh, buck it! It’s now or never!’ She took a deep breath and let her eyes close before her own lips made contact with...
...Twilight’s cheek.
‘Oh, come on, Rainbow... You can do better than that! Don’t be a scaredy-pony!’ She took another deep breath before her second attempt. She stood directly in front of the lavender pony, aimed at her lips, and started her way to them. She let her eyes close a few inches away from her target. She continued to advance, her lips prepared for her reward, but there was nothing.
“R-R-R-R-Rainbow?” Came a voice in front of Rainbow.
‘Horse-apples,’ Rainbow thought, carefully opening one of her eyes. She saw a pair of purple eyes looking directly back at her, one of them having a constant tendency to twitch. Rainbow took a step back to take a better look at the other pony’s flustered face. There was a noticeable blush all over the lavender face, and Rainbow was sure that her own face was the same.
Rainbow gave a sheepish laugh before clearing her suddenly dry throat. “Uhmmm, hey Twi. I was just--” Her explanation was cut off by a sudden flash of light, which blinded her momentarily. She blinked a few times and, after a few seconds, managed to see normally again. “Twilight, I...” She stopped as she realized that she was completely alone. Twilight was nowhere to be seen. Rainbow sighed making her way to one of the bookshelves. She then started to hit her head against it repeatedly. ‘Nice one--’ Thud. ‘--Dash--’ Thud. ‘--You and--’ Thud. ‘--your feathered--’ Thud. ‘--Brain!’ The rhythmic banging continued.
A few ponies jumped in surprise as a bright flash appeared in the middle of the town. A lavender pony, with a little tint of pink on her face, quickly emerged from the middle of it. Twilight ran away from the place, some ponies waved at her but there was just so much going in her mind at the time that she just ignored everything.
‘W-what happened back there?’ She thought as she made her way through town. ‘All I know is that I felt something warm in my cheek. And after that, Rainbow Dash was in front of me, with her lips...’ Her heart skipped a beat. ‘What happened before that? The last thing I remember was talking with Spike, and he asked about...’ Twilight stopped her run. The excess of red on her face drained in an instant and her eyes shot wide open.
“Oh my gosh!” Twilight shouted, causing a few ponies to look in her direction, but they quickly averted their gazes and continued with what they were doing. They didn’t want to get in on whatever business the new princess of Equestria was dealing with, not with the kind of problems she had caused.
‘I haven’t told my parents. But, what should I tell them?’ Twilight started to pace around. ‘I can’t just go and tell them that my five best friends and Princess Luna are in love with me, and that I’m giving them all a chance...’ Twilight stopped her pacing to grab her tail and start rubbing it to calm herself. ‘Okay, calm down. There’s a easy way around this. I’ll tell them when I have this all sorted out. ONLY, when it’s been sorted out.’ Twilight let out a content sigh. ‘Yes, that’ll work. After I make my final decision, I will tell them. And I will also tell Shining and Cadence. Surely everything will be more normal then. Or at least I hope tha--’ Twilight’s thought were interrupted by the loud but muffled rumble, the source of which being her stomach.
‘I haven’t eaten lunch yet... I guess I was just too distracted with what just happened...’ Twilight looked around to see where she was. To her surprise, she was standing just in front of Sugarcube Corner. ‘Ugh... Do I really want to deal with Pinkie after what happened today?’ Twilight started to walk away from the bakery, only to halt her pace when her stomach growled again. ‘I am really hungry, and the smell of pie is not helping at all. I didn’t get to eat the last one I bought.’ With a defeated sigh, Twilight turned and made her way to the bakery entrance.
She waited next to the door with her eyes closed, waiting to be tackled down to the floor by a pink pony, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes expecting to see the earth pony just a few inches in front of her, but the earth pony was on the other side of the room, behind the counter, waving her hoof at Twilight.. ‘Well, at least everything seems normal... I hope it stays normal.’ Twilight moved forward. The bakery was busy at the moment with a lot of customers.
“Hey, Twilight! How are you doing?” Pinkie asked with a big smile on her face.
“Hi, Pinkie. Could you give me one--” The growl of her own stomach interrupted her.
“Understood,” said Pinkie. “You want a pie. What flavor?” Twilight’s stomach growled again before she could answer. “Mhmm!” Pinkie continued. “Any flavor is okay as long as I give it to you as soon as possible, right?” Another growl. “Hey! There’s no need to use that tone with me.” Pinkie then left to the kitchen.
Twilight was so hungry that she didn’t give much thought to the conversation that Pinkie seemed to have had with her stomach. ‘So far, everything seems Pinkie-normal.’ A few seconds later, Twilight saw Pinkie leave the kitchen without her order.
“Here’s your order, Twilight!”
Twilight looked again at the earth pony, there was nothing with her, ‘She’ll probably just pop it out of nowhere, like she usually does...’ Twilight extended her hoof and waited for Pinkie to place her order on it. But instead of any baked goods, she just got a pink hoof.
“Uhhh, Pinkie? Where’s my pie?”
“Right here, silly.”
“What do yo-”
Pinkie leaned forward to whisper in Twilight’s ear. “Have you ever tasted a... Pinkie...pie, before?”
POMF.
Twilight’s wings spread wide open, both of them totally stiff. Twilight’s brain shut down. “Wha... you ju--... I--... You mean--...” she sputtered out in misguided syllables. Her face was getting redder by the second.
Pinkie burst out in an uncontrollable laugh, falling to the floor and rolling on her back. After a moments, she managed to calm herself, wiping a tear from her eye. “Oh Twilight, you are so adorkable. That’s why I love you.” Pinkie dashed to the other side of the counter and placed a blueberry pie on Twilight’s back. “There you go! It’s on the house!” she said with a wink.
Twilight proceeded to sputter another unintelligible phrase, sounding much like the last one.
“Ooh, ooh! I know!” Pinkie cheered. “Did you say thank you Pinkie, I’ll see you tomorrow, or I’ll take you up on your offer of the Pinkie pie?”
Another scrambled sentence.
“Did you say bye Pinkie, or bedroom now?”
Twilight was beginning to wonder if she’d ever manage to speak correctly again.
“Did you say Pinkie, stop it right now!,or Pinkie, I can’t wait, take me right here in front of all these ponies that have been eavesdropping since the beginning?”
“Ugh!” Twilight finally managed to blurt out. She turned around and walked to the exit, passing a group of ponies who were whistling like they had heard nothing.
“Okay, Twilight, see you tomorrow!” Pinkie said with a big smile.
Twilight tried to go through the door, but her stiff wings were making it impossible. She couldn’t teleport out due to the fact that her brain wasn’t running at its normal capacity yet. So she did the only option left. She sat on one of the bakery’s couches and ate her pie, waiting for her mind and wings to return to normal, and trying to ignore the ponies that were looking at her. And her wings.
It took awhile for Twilight’s wings to fold back to her sides, where they normally were. She then sighed, knowing she was finally back to her standard mental state. ‘What was Pinkie thinking?!’ She thought, walking through the streets. ‘No,’ she corrected herself. ‘She wasn’t thinking! She was just being herself! Her crazy, random and weird self! How could she say all that in front of that many ponies!? That’s just embarrassing!”
“Have you ever tasted a... Pinkie... pie, before?”
Twilight’s wings began to stretch out again, but she quickly retracted them before they caused anymore trouble. ‘She was just teasing me, but that certainly was bold of her. And she said that she loves me for being adorka--’ Twilight shook her head, trying to suppress the spreading blush that she hadn’t noticed until now.
“Howdy, Twilight.” The lavender pony turned her head to look at the orange earth pony who was calling her.
‘Oh, Celestia... What’s going to happen now?’ Taking a better look at her friend, she saw that Applejack looked like she had just run a marathon. She was covered in sweat and her breath was harsh. “Hey, Applejack. Uhhhh, why are you all... sweaty?”
‘Come on, Applejack, just act normal. Just tell ‘er y’all were buckin’ apples.She’ll believe that.’
“Ah was lookin’ fer ya all around town.” She smacked her face with a hoof. ‘What the hay was that? Okay, you can still save this. Just tell ‘er you wanted to have a friendly chat. Yeah, that’ll work.’ Applejack took a deep breath. “Ah bought ya some flowers.” Another smack to her face, before sighing and pulling a bouquet of flowers from her saddlebags.
“Oh!” Twilight tried to cover a blush with one hoof. “Thank you, Applejack. You shouldn’t have bothered.” Twilight smiled at the earth pony as she grabbed the bouquet with her magic.
Applejack could feel her hooves turning to butter with that smile. ‘Come on now... Just say it’s nothin’.’
“Anythin’ fer the pony of my dreams.”
Twilight observed her orange friend smacking her face for a third time. “Applejack...? Are you feeling okay?” Twilight watched her friend nod, noticing a few drops of sweat dripping down her face. Applejack looked like she was afraid of opening her mouth. “Okay...? Well, bye then. See you tomorrow.”
Twilight turned around and continued with her walk. She could have sworn she heard Applejack call to her, saying “See ya later, sexy...”, followed by a loud smack. But when she turned around, the country pony was already gone. ‘Weird. Just like the rest of this day.’ Twilight looked at the flowers that were in her magical grasp. Her head turned one shade pink. ‘It really has been a long and weird day.’
Twilight proceeded to walk around for a few hours before looking in the distance. The sun was setting at the horizon. ‘Time to go back to the library...’ she thought. ‘I hope Rainbow isn’t still there. It could get very awkward, very quickly.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Everything has been so awkward. But you know, I guess they all did what they did because they love me, not because they just want an advantage over all of the others.’ As she thought harder about it, she realized she could be wrong that. ‘Well, maybe not... Maybe they are just trying to impress me the most. Make me believe they’re the right choice.’ She then turned head in the direction of the library. ‘Either way, I just wish they would wait until I’m done with the new schedule.’
Twilight was about to arrive home again when she caught the sight of a white coated unicorn walking away from the library. ‘Oh,’ she thought. ‘I still have to talk with her.’ Twilight trotted toward Rarity and cleared her voice to get her attention.
“Huh?” Rarity looked in Twilight’s direction before showing a bright smile. “Oh, darling. I was looking for you, but neither you nor Spike were inside.” She then recomposed herself. “Well, that doesn’t matter; I wanted to see you.” Rarity examined Twilight and noticed that she was holding a bouquet of flowers. ”Oh darling, you shouldn’t have! I also have something for you. I just finished this.” She levitated a small box with a bright blue ribbon on it with her magic. “It’s an--”
“Rarity,” Twilight interrupted with a serious tone of voice, following up by clearing her throat again. “I believe there’s something you need to talk with Spike about.”
Rarity looked confused. “What are you talking about, darling?”
“Rarity, you know full well that Spike is deeply in love with you. Come to think of it, the whole town knows he’s in love with you.” Twilight could see that Rarity was getting slightly uncomfortable with the topic. “What I’m trying to say is that you have to make things clear, sort this out with him.”
The white unicorn sheepishly looked to the ground before replying, “I-I guess you’re right... It’s not very considerate of me to keep his hopes up like that now, is it?.” Rarity looked downcast for a moment, but a look of determination was seen in her eyes shortly after. “I have to tell him that our love is so strong and pure that I just can’t be with him.”
“W-wait, our love?” The flowers fell from Twilight’s telekinetic grasp.
Rarity slowly began to walk toward her. “Yes, my Sparkle Kitten,” she said. “Our love has set a giant wall between Spike and I. But Spike just can’t see it. He’ll just keep walking forward, until he bumps into the hard bricks again and again. Oh, poor Spiky. I know it will break his little heart, but I have to do it.” Rarity stopped her dramatic speech to grab Twilight’s hoof with her own. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but I have to go. I need to come up with the best way to tell him about us.” Rarity kissed the lavender hoof. “I’ll see you soon. Until then, I leave this for you.” She set the box on the ground next to Twilight. “Adieu, and thank you for these, my Sparkle Kitten.” And with that, the unicorn walked away with the bouquet of flowers.
Twilight was left a bit tongue-tied, much like her earlier visit with Pinkie. She had never blushed so much in a single day. She sat on her haunches, totally confused, and thought of what Rarity said. ‘Our love? Strong? Pure? Wall? Sparkle Kitten!? What was that? She acted as if she were talking about the weather! And that kiss to my hoof’ She looked down at her hoof. It was currently being held against her chest with her other hoof. She sighed for nth time that day. ‘Long... weird... exhausting... day.’
She then stood up, grabbed her present and made her way into her home. As she walked through the door, the first thing she noticed was a small crack on one of the bookshelves. She shook her head and waved it off, telling herself that she would take care of it later. She went upstairs to her room and placed the present inside of her wardrobe. ‘It’s probably something to gain some advantage over the others.’ As she trudged back to the first floor, she saw her number-one assistant sitting on the floor, ‘sorting out’ his gems, minding his own business.
“Hi, Spike. Did you enjoy your day off?”
The dragon stood up from the floor. “Oh, hey, Twilight. I sure did, I just wish that the cutie mark crusaders didn’t, get me... involved...” His throat suddenly felt dry. He then realized that she had used the same tone that she used when he was spotted in the kitchen with his claw in the cookie jar.
He gulped.
“Spike, why did you take the day off?”
He felt a strong urge to twiddle his fingers. “Well, you see, I was just--”
“You get to dust the shelves tomorrow.” Spike let out a groan before nodding pathetically. “And also, I think Rarity is gonna talk to you tomorrow.” Spike’s face then brightened before he ran to the kitchen to start with dinner.
The lavender mare was beyond grateful to have the rest of the day go uneventful. She even managed to make her so desired schedule before heading to bed. She would give it a second look tomorrow, but now, she just wanted to rest.
A small thought crossed her mind as she sat up in her bed. She levitated a single sheet of paper, bringing with in writing distance. She then levitated a nearby quill and began to write with it.
Assign Spike to fix the crack in the shelf.
She shoved the piece of paper under her pillow and laid back down softly, sighing contently with its comfort.
In Canterlot Castle:
“How am I supposed to make her fall for me without getting in her dreams?” Luna was pacing in her room. “I don’t know anything about... flirting... and much less flirting in this era.” She sighed in defeat. “I guess I will have to ask Tia for help.” She then walked out from her room.
In Rainbow’s cloud home:
“You--” Thud. “--are such--” Thud. “--an idiot--” Thud. “--Rainbow!” The pathetic pegasus continued to hit her head repeatedly with the hardest thing she could find in her cloud home, which happened to be her signed copy of Spitfire’s autobiography. “Now--” Thud. “--just think--” Thud. “--of a way--” Thud. “--to apologize--” Thud. “--and don’t--” Thud. “--mess it--” Thud. “--up--” Thud. “--this--” Thud. “--time!”
At Sugarcube Corner:
“Perfect! I have what I need.” Pinkie was literally bouncing in her room. “I wanted to surprise her today, but I guess I will have to wait till tomorrow...” Pinkie stopped her bouncing and brought a hoof to her chin. “Hmmmm, but tomorrow starts at...”
At Sweet Apple Acres:
“What in the hay is wrong with me? Ah know Ah’m a bad liar, but that was just ridiculous! It’s almost like when Ah’m near her, mah brain to mouth communication... thingy, just shuts down completely...” Applejack gave a loud groan, rolling over on her side. She then pulled the sheets over herself. “Consarn it, Element of Honesty! Don’t mess things up next time...”
At Carousel Boutique:
“‘Spike, I’m sorry, but I love Twilight. We just can’t be together.’” Rarity paused her monologue. “Oh, poor Spiky! I can imagine his expression after I break his little heart. He shouldn’t have to go through this so early in life. But alas... This is something that needs to be done as soon as possible!”
In Fluttershy cottage:
“So... I should go talk to her, maybe ask her if she wants to drink some tea with me.” All the animals in the cottage nodded, encouraging Fluttershy as she made her way to the door. “On second thought, I don’t want to be a bother to her.” There was an audible wave of face-paws. This had been the basic routine for the entirety of that day.
Almost total silence engulfed the town’s Library. The only sound that was disturbing it were the small snores coming from the bedroom, at two different places. A little basket where a little dragon was sleeping soundly, and the bed that was at the other side of the room, where a purple mare was charging energy after a long, weird, exhausting day. And the ‘almost silence’ continued for the next two seconds.
“.. … .. .....n..r. t. l.ve … k..w .h. r.le. .nd so .. I"
“W-what ish that?” Twilight slurred groggily. Letting out a big yawn, she looked out the window to see that it was still dark outside. The music got a bit louder.
“A f.ll .om..tme.t's ..at I'm thi...ng of”
“Ish that music? Ugh, what time ish it?” Twilight turned her head to look at the clock that was in the wall. “Ugh, it’s... twelve o’clock!?” Twilight got up from her bed and made her way to the balcony, where the sound of the music was coming from. As she approached her destination, the lyric of the song became clearer.
“I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand.”
Twilight reached the balcony door, opened it gently to step outside. When she was out, she calmly voiced her complaints. “WHO THE BUCK IS MAKING SO MUCH NOISE AT THIS HOUR?!”
It didn’t surprise Twilight to find out who it was that had woken her up. There, below Twilight’s balcony, stood a very familiar pony known for doing random things at random times. “Pinkie...” She was wearing a black jacket and sunglasses, and had set up a small phonograph to provide the “ambiance.”
“Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.”
Her audience acquired, Pinkie started to act in her normal bubbly manner, but caught herself mid-sentence, “Hey Twilig- Oh! I mean.” She stood on her hind legs, crossed her front legs over her chest and turned her head to the side while leaning coolly on the music player. “Hey babe. Do you like it?”
“Like what, exactly?”
“Everything!” Pinkie couldn’t keep her appearance of badcolt as she waved her hoof around her. Maybe Twilight was just really exhausted at the moment and hallucinating because of it. Because she could swear that just a minute ago the road was not covered in balloons and streamers.
Or maybe it was just Pinkie being Pinkie
Either way, Twilight decided to ignore it. “Pinkie?”
“Yeah babe?”
“Why are you outside of my house, playing a Rack Astley song, in the middle of the night?”
“That’s a silly question. It’s because you told me.”
A small voice in Twilight’s head was telling her to let it pass, to ignore it and go back to bed. But she just had to ask, “What exactly did I tell you?”
“You told me, ‘Thank you Pinkie, I’ll see you tomorrow,’ and I was all like ‘Oooooohhh,’ because I was planning to surprise you yesterday, and the surprise would be way better if I gave it to you at night, but then I thought ‘Pinkie, tomorrow starts at twelve o’clock,’ so I didn’t had to wait much to surprise you, so I came here a few minutes ago and waited for the correct moment while thinking, ‘You are such a genius Pinkie, now Twilight will be so extra double mega surprised,’ because who expects something like this at this hour.”
“Wow, Pinkie, that sure was brilliant,” Twilight said with a sarcastic roll of her eyes.
“Yeppers.” Pinkie now had totally forgotten her intentions of acting like a badcolt, bouncing in place at the false compliment from the lavender pony.
A small smile slipped on Twilight’s face. It was clear that the pink pony was really happy with the compliment, even if Twilight had not intend it in that way. “Well, Pinkie, is not that I’m not enjoying this, but-”
“Oh, you don’t like the song? No problemo, I have another one with me,” she said while changing the disc from the phonograph. When the new one was in place, she turned to look at Twilight, “Prepare to get Pink Rolled.”
“Pinkie that’s not-”
“My name is Pinkie Pie, and I am here to say, I'm gonna make you smile, and I will brighten up your day-’
“PINKIE!”
The music stopped. “Yes, Twilig- I mean, babe?”
Twilight let a big sigh escape her muzzle. “Look, it’s really late, let’s talk tomorrow.”
“Oh you silly baby, it’s already tomorrow, or are you talking about tomorrow-tomorrow, because that’s a lot of time to wait, or is it that you want me to surprise you tomorrow-tomorrow too? That wouldn’t be good because you would know that I’m going to surprise you, or maybe you mean that we will talk in the morning, because someponies are like ‘it’s not tomorrow-today until I wake up in the morning’, but it’s already tomorrow-today and-”
“Pinkie! Just go home and sleep!”
Pinkie brushed her mane backwards with a hoof. “Okie-dokie-baby.” And with that, the pink earth pony grabbed her phonograph and made her way to Sugarcube Corner.
“Pinkie! Who’s going to clean up all this streamers and balloons!” Twilight shouted, but the bouncing pony was already out of earshot. Twilight allowed herself a small grin while thinking about her friend’s antics. As confusing and/or infuriating as Pinkie was, she always managed to make her smile.
Twilight gave a defeated sigh, followed by a yawn of exhaustion. ‘I guess Spike will have one extra task tomorrow.’ Twilight got back to the room, stopping when she caught sight of the sleeping dragon. ‘How did he manage to sleep through that racket?’ Twilight looked at her assistant for a moment before another yawn made its way out. ‘Better get back to bed. I think tomorrow will be exhausting.’
“Today!” Pinkie’s shout sounded in the Library.
‘How... how does she do that?’ Twilight thought perplexed. ‘Oh sure. She can read my mind easily, but when I call to her to clean things upshe just walks away like nothing happens?’ With that last thought, Twilight slept for the rest of the night with a smile on her face.
Twilight’s morning was thankfully uneventful. All she had to do was give Spike a list of everything he had to do that day. He would be really busy, between cleaning the mess Pinkie left last night, dusting the bookshelves and repairing the cracked one. While he started his chores, Twilight sat on the library couch, thinking of all the things her friends did yesterday.
‘Well, they all seem pretty serious. It’s weird to see them act like that, but I guess I can deal with it,’ Twilight thought as she felt a surge of happiness course through her body. ‘They love me.’ It was like she just realised what that meant. She enjoyed the company of each of her friends, and now, she could get even more. ‘There’s something I have to do first.’ she grabbed the schedule she had just finished yesterday.
“Well, looks good. I guess everything that’s left is to decide the order in which I’ll be dating them,” Twilight let out a small sigh. Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Rainbow is really impatient, I guess I should go out with her first. And Fluttershy will probably need time to mentally prepare herself, so maybe I should leave her for l-”
A loud crash from her room made Twilight stop her monologue. “What was that?” she said while making her way up the stairs. When she got there, she saw a cyan-coated pegasus lying upside down next to the bed, a broken lamp next to her head and a few books scattered around.
“Ow,” Rainbow said while trying to get back on her hooves.
“Rainbow, Are you alright?”
“Oh, Twilight.” Rainbow started to paw the floor with one hoof. “What a coincidence to meet you here.”
“Yeah, what a coincidence to meet me, here, in the library, my home,” Twilight answered sarcastically.
Rainbow rubbed the back of her head and let out a sigh. “Okay, not coincidence. It’s just that, I need to talk with you.”
“About what?”
“About yesterday. Look, I’m really sorry about what happened.”
“OH! You mean the...” Twilight trailed off.
“Yes. I’m really sorry. I wasn’t trying to take advantage of you. It’s just that when I saw you, I just... I just... Ugh.” Rainbow banged her head against the wall, turning her back to Twilight. “I don’t know. I just couldn’t help it. I’m sorry.”
Twilight smiled and stepped closer to Rainbow. When she was close enough, she hugged her, drawing a soft gasp from normally-unfazable pegasus. “It’s okay Rainbow.”
“So you are not mad at me for trying to kiss you while you were like that?” Rainbow asked with the quietest tone Twilight had ever heard from her.
“No, Rainbow, is not that I’m mad. I just can’t be mad at you for that.”
Rainbow was a little confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you are the ‘Dash’, a pony of action. And you l... And you lo...” Twilight took a deep breath. She knew perfectly well that Rainbow loved her, that all her best friends loved her, and she had accepted it. But it was so new, and for some reason, saying it made her feel like a school filly. Twilight shook her head and steeled her nerves. “And you love me.” Twilight let out a sigh of accomplishment before continuing. “So a pony of action, plus love, equals what you did. That’s just how you are, and I like you just that way.” Twilight could feel her cheeks getting warmer. “But don’t try it again. I would like to be conscious when I get my first kiss.”
Twilight let go of Rainbow and stepped back so the pegasus could turn to look at her.
Rainbow smiled for a moment before a thought crossed her mind, then she started to fidget the floor again. “You know Twilight. You are conscious right now.”
“What do you...” Twilight didn’t need to finish to know what Rainbow meant.
The pegasus had approached Twilight to stand in front of her. She closed her eyes and started to move her head forward, preparing her lips. She felt weird and somewhat queasy, like the world was spinning around her, but she chalked it up to her nerves. The feeling disappeared just before her muzzle met a pair of lips. Rainbow enjoyed the moment for a few seconds before slowly opening her eyes, without breaking contact with the other pony. A pair of beautiful green eyes looked back at her while she enjoyed the taste of apples in the kiss.
‘Wait... Green eyes... Apples... Oh buck.’ Rainbow eyes shot wide open. She slowly stepped back, breaking the kiss, to take a better look of the other pony.
Applejack was standing in front of Rainbow Dash. Her left eye was twitching, but other than that, she was completely still. Rainbow took a moment to inspect her surroundings, which had shifted from Twilight’s bedroom to Sweet Apple Acres. Apparently, Applejack was working on fixing the fence. It didn’t take much longer for Applejack to snap out of her stillness. She shook her head and glared at her pegasus friend.
“What the buck, Applejack!” Rainbow shouted before Applejack could say anything.
“Wait a bucking secon-”
“I can’t believe this!” Rainbow Dash interrupted with another shout.
“Hey, Dash, listen-”
“I can’t believe I did it again.” Rainbow was now flying in circles around Applejack.
“Come on Dash, Ah am starting to get angr-”
“Why did I have to try to kiss Twilight again! I ruined it!”
“You what?! You-”
“And stupid AJ ruined it too! I can’t believe AppleJack was my first kiss!” Rainbow shouted before she spat to the ground. “Ugh! Now how I am going to-”
Rainbow shouting got cut off by a lasso tying her muzzle shut. She tried to free herself, but was yanked instantly and now found herself face to face with Applejack. Those green eyes were staring back at her with enough force to freeze Rainbow in her tracks.
“You know, Dash,” Applejack started to talk with an almost casual tone of voice, completely opposite from the glare she was giving. “Ah am already have’n a bad day. Ya see, Ah can’t go see Twilight ‘cause ah have to fix this here fence...” She waved a hoof into the distance, where stretched nearly three miles of white picket fencing snapped off a foot above the ground. “...‘cause mah sister and her friends destroyed it yesterday on one of their crusades. And that will take the whole day.” Applejack pulled Rainbow a bit closer, their foreheads now touching. “And while I’m at that, you come out of nowhere, kiss me, start yelling at me, and say that you kissed Twilight?” Applejack added with a darker tone of voice.
Applejack let go of Rainbow, freeing her muzzle form the lasso. Rainbow took a few steps back and gulped. “I-I-I...” She shook her head, cleared her voice and tried to calm down. She was still was a bit annoyed at her actions and somewhat scared of Applejack, but she wouldn’t let it show. “I’m sorry for shouting, and the kiss. I didn’t kiss Twilight. I tried, but I guess she teleported me here before anything happened, again.”
That last statement seemed to be enough to calm down Applejack. “Well, that’s good to hear. And how come that ‘again’?”
Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, I tried to kiss her yesterday too, but she te- Hey, Why am I telling you this? That’s personal.”
“Okay, Ah will give two options. Ya can either tell me everythin’ that happened, or help me fix this fence here.” Applejack pointed at her tools.
‘Let’s see, work for the rest of the day, or tell how I failed to kiss Twilight.’ Rainbow let out another sigh in defeat. “Hoof me the hammer,” that was the obvious answer. Rainbow didn’t like to talk about her failures. Applejack was disappointed, she would have been happy to hear Rainbow’s failure with Twilight.
‘She sure likes to jump right to the action. It’s almost cute,’ Twilight thought before focusing her attention on the broken lamp. She walked to the nearest window and poked her head through it. “Spike, could you clean up the mess Rainbow left here?”
“Oh, come on Twilight. You have gave me enough work for the day, cut me some slack,” Spike said while he threw another bag full of confetti, balloons and streamers to the garbage. That was the sixth one, but not the last.
“Oh, sorry Spike. I guess I have been kind of bossy with you today,” Twilight said while rubbing her neck.
“More like a tyrant,” Spike murmured.
“What did you say?”
‘That you are a tyrant. Ugh, I wish I could say that.’ Spike lifted his seventh bag of party garbage.“Nothing, Twilight.”
“Okay. Then, keep up with that, I’ll handle this up here.”
“Finally finished cleaning all that stuff. I guess is time for a well deserved break,” Spike said as he made his way to the kitchen, walking next to the mare that was reading on the couch.
“Sorry Spike, but no breaks. You still have to dust the shelves,” Twilight said while she kept her eyes on the short novel. Now that she had her mind on the future dates, she needed to do a bit of research, and which better way to start than reading a two-mare love story.
“Come on Twilight, just a short break,” Spike pleaded. “I’ve been shoveling party supplies all morning! Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick up balloons with a shovel?”
“And you took off yesterday without my consent,” Twilight said without parting her eyes from the book, it was getting to the good part. Someone called at the door. “Spike, could you get that? I’m a bit busy right now.” Spike just walked to the door while grumbling under his breath. Twilight ignored it as she continued with her reading material.
Before she started walking back, she caught the image of something in the sky at the corner of her eye. Focusing on it, she managed to tell what was it. A flying chariot pulled by four white pegasus with golden armor.
'I got to tell her, tell her that I will miss her. If I don't, she will think I don't care about her,' she said to herself as she started to fly towards the chariot.
The chariot had a good lead, but Buttersky was slowly getting closer, she was flying like never before. Her mane was waving crazily, her eyes half shut from the wind, her wings flapping at the same time that her heart was pumping.
Finally she was close enough for her voice to reach the chariot that was some meters in front of her. 'But, what do I say now? No, come on, just say that you will miss her.'
"Bright!" she shouted.
The passenger in the chariot turned her head, "Buttersky?!" she was surprised to see her friend, flying some meters away from where she was."What are y-"
"Bright, I-I..." 'Come on, just say it,' "Bright, I... I love you!"
"W- what?" Was the only thing Bright could say, on her face, an expression of total confusion and shock.
"I love you!" Buttersky repeated, her face full of tears. "Please, don't leave, I love you! Stay with me!"
"I-I..."
"Please!"
Bright took a deep breath, "I-
Someone took the book out of Twilight’s magical grasp. “Hey! I was reading that.”
“And you certainly were really into it, darling. I have been calling to you for a while now to no avail.” Rarity was standing in front of Twilight. Spike was right behind Rarity with a lovesick expression on his face. Rarity levitated the book next to her so she could see exactly what Twilight was reading. She only managed to read the word ‘Love’ on the cover before Twilight took it back on her own magic aura.
Twilight gave a sheepish laugh, “Oh, sorry Rarity. I was just researching a bit, to know a little more about... stuff,” she said as she hid the book behind the couch.
“Darling, there are better ways to gain knowledge of what you want than just reading, like...” Rarity got closer to Twilight before whispering to her ear. “From actual experience. What you say, my Sparkle Kitten? Want to go out?”
Twilight blushed deeply, partly for getting busted reading a love story, partly for the pet name and partly for the proposal. “I don’t-”
“Yes, you are right. We can’t be together until I solve this situation with Spike,” Rarity kept whispering to Twilight, while trying to not bite the ear that was mere inches from her muzzle. She then walked away from the lavender pony to face Spike. “As much as I would like it, I’m here to talk with Spike. I really enjoy your company Twilight, but, could you let me talk with him alone?”
“Oh sure, take your time.” Twilight gave Spike a concerned look, she knew what was going to happen to her little friend. “I’ll see you later Spike,” she said as she made her way to the door.
Spike waved at Twilight. “Okay Twi. And don’t worry, I got this covered.” He turned to look at the white mare, “So, Rarity, I was hoping t-” Twilight couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation after she closed the door behind her.
‘It’s a shame I left that book at the library’ Twilight thought as she sat on a bench in the park. ‘Buttersky character was awfully similar to how Fluttershy is.’ Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. ‘Now that I think about it, I haven't met Fluttershy since I left Sugarcube Corner that night. I should go and visit her, at least that will give me something to do.’ Twilight immediately took off for a short flight to the quaint cottage on the edge of the town. She was still amazed at how much faster she could travel thanks to her wings, even if she still couldn’t even keep up with Fluttershy.
Twilight knocked at the door and waited for a moment, but no answer came from inside. “Hello, Fluttershy!” Twilight tried to call out to her friend, but still nothing. ‘Maybe she is out, taking care of some animal.’ Twilight turned around and was about to make her way back home when the door slowly opened. Twilight turned back. “Fluttershy?” she called again, and again no answer came.
Twilight made her way through the open door. She looked around the dark living room, “Hello?” Twilight called one more time, nothing. “Okay, this is weird. I guess I’ll be bac-” Twilight felt something hit her on the head before losing conscious.
Tiny steps woke Twilight. Her head hurt and she tried to remember where she was. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times to adjust them to the dark room. After looking around, she recognised the place. Fluttershy’s living room, the same place where she had blacked out. More steps sounded on the room. Twilight tried to stand up but it was impossible, she had her legs tied up.
“You know, I would be more scared if I couldn’t use magic,” Twilight said as she used her magic to untie herself. “Now to see who my captor is.” A bright light emanated from her horn and lit up the whole room. Despite now having a clear view of the assailants, she was, if anything, even more confused than before.
All around her, a small army of woodland creatures simultaneously face-pawed.
Twilight awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. “Ooookaaaay... So, why did you all do this?” A familiar white bunny forced his way to the front. “Angel?”
Apparently, the bunny told the others to leave. When they were gone, the little bunny approached Twilight and made some gestures with his little pawns, pointing over here and there, turning around, rolling on the floor and finished with punching his other paw a few times.
“You know I can’t talk with animals, but I think you just threatened me. Why? Did I offend you by entering or something?” Twilight said while dusting her coat and standing on her hooves. She looked at the rabbit to see that he was shaking her head from side to side. “Okay then, what did I do?”
Angel made his way up the stairs. A minute later, he was back with a picture of Fluttershy. He shoved it to Twilight.
“Fluttershy? But I haven’t done anything to her.” She watched as the bunny pointed at her and gestured something. “I still don’t speak animal.” Twilight said in with a bit of annoyance. “You know, forget it, you are a smart rabbit, right? You probably know how to write.”
Angel looked up at her before face-pawing again. Writing, of course, Why hadn’t he thought about it sooner. He made his way back to the second floor and returned with a pencil and a little notebook. He wrote something and gave it to Twilight.
‘You know that she loves you, right?’
“Of course that I know. She told me, well, not really. She didn’t said it, she just nodded. But in one dream, she shouted it, but that wasn’t the real her, so that doesn’t coun-” Angel hit her on the front right leg with the notebook. “Sorry. Yes, I know she loves me.”
Angel wrote something and gave it to Twilight. ‘You love her?’
“I’m not sure, I really like her and all the other girls. It’s just tha-” Angel interrupted her as he shoved another paper to her.
‘The others?’
“Oh, you don’t know? Fluttershy isn’t the only one that loves me. The other four, plus Princess Luna, confessed to me,” Twilight said with a little luminescent blush.
Angel looked at her for a while before writing something. ‘What do they see in you?’
“Hey! What is that supposed to mean?” Twilight thought about it for a moment. “But I guess you are right. I don’t know what they see in me, but that’s how things are. I’ll date them to see and see if things can work.”
‘Choose Fluttershy, screw the others.’
“Hey, I can’t do that. They all are special to me.”
A small squeak sounded from behind Twilight. The unicorn turned around to face the a yellow pegasus that was standing outside the cottage. Twilight walked to the open door.
“Oh, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy hid behind her mane, “H-hello Twilight. If you don’t mind me asking, What are you doing here?
“I was-”
“Oh! Is not that I mind that you’re here. I actually love that you came to visit. I love your company.”
“Well, I came exactly for that, to pass some time with you, but...” Twilight looked at the distance, the sun was setting. “It’s getting late. I should head home.”
Fluttershy seemed really sad about this. “Please, don’t leave. Stay with me.”
‘Where have I heard that before? Oh right, the short story. I got to finish it.’ “I’m sorry Fluttershy. I been here for a while now, and I have to go back home to see Spike.”
“O-ok Twilight. Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Twilight nodded and started to walk away when she thought of something, a smirk surged on her muzzle. “Hey Angel, why did you and the critters hit me and tie me up this afternoon?”
“They WHAT!?” Fluttershy turned to look at the little bunny that was trying to get out of the room. “Angel Bunny! What did you do to Twilight?”
And with that, Twilight close the door. She knew Fluttershy would take care of the bunny and the others. “Don’t mess with Twilight,” She said as she started galloping home.
The first thing that Twilight saw when she got back home was a little dragon, listening to a phonograph and crying as he dusted the bookshelves. “Spike,” she called to him.
“Hey, Twilight,” he managed to say between sobs.
“Spike, stop. You don’t have to dust the shelves,” she said with a reassuring tone.
“Thank you Twilight.”
“It’s okay Spike, it’s for the best. You have done more than enough, I'll take care of this later.”
“Yeah, I’m not in the mood of dusting right now,” he said as he grabbed a bag full of jewels that laid next to the phonograph. He sat there and started to eat them.
Twilight stood near the dragon for a moment, thinking of what could she say to make him feel better, but nothing came to mind.
“It’s okay, Twilight. No need to worry,” Spike said.
“No need to worry? But Spike-”
“It’s okay Twilight, I just need some time.” Spike grabbed a ruby of the size of an apple and ate it in one go. “ You know, Rarity really loves you. she cares a lot about you. I guess I’m at least happy that she let me down for you instead of some rich Canterlot snob like Blueblood.”
“Oooh, Spike. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault, and neither is it Rarity’s fault. This is just how life is,” he said before eating a sapphire only slightly smaller than the ruby. “So if you don’t mind, I would like to be alone for a while.”
“Of course, Spike,” Twilight said as she made her way upstairs. ‘I should go to bed early. I just hope I can get to sleep with this music.’ Twilight stopped in the middle of the stairs, she turned around and used her magic to grab the book hidden behind the couch. ‘Better finish this before I go to sleep.’
Back to the present.
Twilight approached her own bed, “Silence, sweet and beautiful silence.” Twilight dropped her body over her bed. “I can finally rest, I’m so tired.” Twilight let her exhaustion take over her. Her eyes shut close while taking a deep breath, enjoying the silence and burying her face on her pillow.
"Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you."
“Ugh!” Twilight lifted her head and glared at the wall through which the sound was coming, the balcony. “Pinkie!” Twilight hissed while walking to the balcony. She slammed the door open with her magic, and made her way out.
“Pinkie! I already told you yesterday that you... don’t... Huh?” Twilight stood dumbstruck on the balcony. She just couldn’t believe her eyes. There, outside the library, stood a pony that didn’t had pink coat nor pink mane. It was not an earth pony standing on her hind legs, with a phonograph on her front hooves, outside of Twilight’s home.
It wasn’t even a pegasus, nor a unicorn. “P-Princess Luna?” That was the pony Twilight least expected to be doing something like this, standing in the middle of the night with a leather jacket, sunglasses and a silver chain around her neck. “What are you doing?”
“Oh! Well, Celestia told me that in this days its really romantic to do something like this. And also-” Luna turned her head to let a yawn escape.
‘Celestia told her that? Why do I have the feeling that she must be laughing right now?’ Twilight frowned. ‘Would she prank at something like this?’ She detailed the clothes that Luna was wearing. ‘Most certainly.’
“I wanted to apologize entering in your dream.” Luna looked up to Twilight. “Did I surprise you? Do you like it?”
“Ummm, well, I...”
“You don’t like it. I knew I should have chosen another song, but Tia said that this song from Rack Astley was perfect.” Luna let out another yawn that Twilight noticed.
“Princess, are you okay? You seem kind of tired.”
“Yes, I’m alright. It’s just that I’m trying to sleep at night instead of the day.”
“Why?”
“To spend more time with you. After I got out of your dream, I stayed awake for the day and tried to sleep at night, but it’s hard to get used to it. I couldn’t sleep much last night.”
Twilight smiled at the princess, “Thank you for doing that. Now, go and try to sleep.”
“Before I go, answer me one thing. Did you enjoy the surprise?”
“Well, yes. It was interesting to see you like this.”
“Excellent. Goodnight then Twilight Sparkle.”
“Luna, wait.” Twilight said before Luna could take off to the sky. “Tomorrow, me and the girls have our weekly pets play date. Would you like to come?”
Luna smiled widely at that, “Of course I would. I’ll bring Ur with me.”
“Who is Ur?” Twilight asked, she didn’t know that Luna had a pet.
“Ur was my pet a thousand years ago. She was so lonely without me, so I’m sure she will be so happy to meet you all,” she finished with another yawn.
“Perfect, then see you tomorrow Princess.” Twilight watched Luna flying away from the library before going back to bed. ‘I really thought that it was Pinkie playing music again just like yesterday.’
“It was today and I know you liked it! Right,Twilight?”
‘Ugh, stop reading my mind, Pinkie!’
“Okie-dokie!”
A unicorn mare walked alone through the Everfree forest. She was getting closer to Ponyville, and with it, her goal. “Just wait a little more, Twilight Sparkle. The Great and Powerful Trixie is almost there!”
The howling of the wolves sounded in the forest.
“Trixie should stop shouting if she wants to escape these timberwolves.”
A ray of light landed on Spike’s face. He stirred for a moment, not wanting to wake up, but knowing the issue was already decided. Sleep no no longer being an option, he stared for a while at the roof, not wanting to do anything else. In his mind, he could only replay what had happened yesterday with Rarity.
“I’ll see you later Spike,” Twilight said as she made her way to the door.
Spike waved at Twilight. “Okay Twi. And don’t worry, I got this covered.” He turned to look at the white mare. “So, Rarity, I was hoping that we could have something to-” he just stopped. He was just too confused by what he was watching. Rarity was crying, silently, letting tears trace her face while she tried to choke her sobs. “Rarity, what’s wrong?”
Rarity tried to clean the tears from her cheeks, but it was a lost cause as more poured forth. “I’m sorry Spike. I just realized what an awful pony I am.”
“What?!” Spike was taken aback by what Rarity had just said. “Why are you saying that? You are a wonderful pony, one of the greatest I have ever met.”
Rarity let her head drop. “No, Spike, I’m not.” She lifted her head to look at the little dragon, but didn’t dare to look directly in his eyes. “You know what I was doing last night?”
Spike waited for a moment, thinking of where this was going and if he wanted to know. “No, I don’t know.”
“I... I was trying to think the best way to let you down Spike.” Rarity could see how the words hit Spike full force. “But I just couldn’t, there is no way to let a po-dragon down without hurting them.” Rarity continued her silent crying.
Spike just stood there for a moment. ‘So, this is how it is going to be? I never stood a chance?’ The only sound in the room were Rarity’s sobs. ‘I should be the one crying, not Rarity. I don’t like to see her crying. I have to be strong for her.’
“I see that you gave it a lot of thought, Rarity. If it weren’t like that, you wouldn’t be crying like this. I appreciate it, you can stop crying. You are not an awful pony-”
“No,” Rarity interrupted. “I am awful, Spike. I’m not talking about the part of letting you down, I’m talking of the part of why I’m doing this in the first place.”
“What do you-”
“Twilight was the one that told me that I had to make things clear between us, Spike! It wasn’t even my idea!” Rarity took a moment to calm herself. “W-what I’m saying is that I would have let you keep going for something that would never happen if she hadn’t said that.” She let some hiccups escape.
Spike kept quiet, trying to hide the fact that each word Rarity spoke hurt him. Not because he was being told that he had followed an impossible dream, but because Rarity was suffering with each word that left her mouth.
“It’s like I don’t care for anypony now. I hadn't thought of how I would make you feel. When I’m with Twilight, I act like she’s already crazy for me. I called her my Sparkle Kitten yesterday. She had a bouquet of flowers with her and I took them like she got them just for me, but I knew that one of the girls had gave it to her. I-I’m just...” Rarity couldn’t hold it anymore, she broke down, letting her sadness show in full force. She managed to compose for a bare instant, just to complete what she was saying. “I’m a horrible pony.”
“Rarity...” Spike didn’t knew what to say. He hadn’t expected anything that had happened so far. He just wanted to start crying, but he couldn’t. Not right now, not when Rarity was like this, there would be time for that later. “Rarity!”
Rarity stopped her crying to look at the little dragon that just shouted at her.
“Don’t say that you are a horrible pony, never again.” Spike walked up to stand in front of the mare. “You are a great pony.”
“But I have been acting horrible lately. I don’t deserve your kindness, and I don’t deserve the chance Twilight gave me to be with her.”
“No!” Spike shouted again. “I told you not to say that!” He put his claws on Rarity’s shoulders. “Rarity,” Spike started with a gentler voice, “You’re not horrible. You were just blind to your surroundings. You were blinded by love.” Spike proceeded to stroke the mare’s mane with a caressing touch. “When one is in love, it's like the only ponies that exist are you and that special pony. You aren't horrible. Maybe, you are just confused.”
“B-but I have been in so many relationships before, and I never acted like this.”
“That means that Twilight means a lot more for you than any of those other ponies. So, don’t worry anymore.” Spike pulled away from Rarity.
“I-I don’t know what to say, Spike,” Rarity managed to say, her tears had slowed their progress. “I’m really sorry. I came and broke your heart, and you are here, making me feel better. You are such a wonderful dragon, Spike.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about that.” Spike frowned thoughtfully, there was a question he wanted to hear an answer to. “Umm, Rarity, if you don’t mind me asking. Why Twilight? I mean, she’s great and all, but... Weren't you waiting for the perfect stallion?”
Rarity thought for a moment, “I don’t know Spike. I was sure I was waiting for my prince, but one day, I just realized that I loved Twilight, and each time I see her, I can feel that I love her even more.” Rarity had a silly smile on her face when she finished.
Spike was about to break, seeing the pony he loves talking of how much she loves another pony, he would not be able to keep his composure for much longer. He looked away from the pony, in the direction of the stairs. For a second, Spike could swear he saw a light coming from the Elements crystal display. Rarity didn’t have anything else to say and she could see that Spike could use some time alone after the conversation they just had.
“Thank you, Spike.” Rarity was about to make her way out when she stopped to look back at Spike. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Don’t worry about me, Rarity. I’m a tough guy.” Even with his back turned, he barely managed to keep his composure.
Rarity looked at him with concern; there was something about those words that did worried her. Not knowing what to do, she just gave the little dragon a big hug before making her way to the door.
“Wait!”
Rarity stopped before opening the door. “What is it Spike?”
“I think you would like to go to the bathroom first. Your makeup kind of got ruined by the tears.”
Rarity let out a gasp and ran to the bathroom. Her face was a disaster and she didn’t have the supplements to return it to it’s previous state. She decided to wash off all the makeup. With her face clean, she walked back to the room where Spike was, gave him another hug and ran out to her boutique before anyone could see her like that.
Spike stood still until the clop of the hooves disappeared. The pony he had loved with all his heart had left. He collapsed on the floor and started to cry. He lost the mare of his dreams, but he had done the right thing. He then proceeded to continue with his chores, adding some music to it, trying to get out of his mind what had just happened.
As the tears threatened to return, Spike decided to find something to distract himself with. ‘Better start the work of the day.’ He stood from his basket and looked at the clock. “It’s way past ten! I should have woken up three hours ago!” He made his way to the bathroom, taking a quick look at Twilight’s empty bed. ‘Why didn’t she wake me up?’ He got near the sink and splashed some cold water on his face to help him start the day.
Spike ran down stairs. “Twilight! I’m sorry I overslept. I’ll start with the work right now.” The little dragon didn’t get an answer. He searched for Twilight in the main room of the library and in the kitchen, but she was nowhere to be found. A little paper attached to the fridge door caught his attention. He walked up to it and grabbed the paper.
Spike,
I’m going to meet with the girls for our weekly pets play date. You can take the day off. Don’t worry about anything, just enjoy the day. See you later.
Love, Twilight.
‘A day off. Hmmm, what should I do?’ Spike thought for a while. Going to play with the Cutie Mark Crusaders was not an option, being near Sweetie Belle would constantly make him think about a certain white unicorn. Twilight was obviously busy with her friends right now. He couldn’t even spend the day sleeping because that would allow his mind to wander freely, likely bringing him back to what had happened that morning.
“Just great. I get a day off and the only thing I can do is work.” A sigh of defeat escaped his mouth. “Well, better get to it.” Spike grabbed the duster and walked back to the main room.
Twilight walked happily through the town with Owlowiscious following closely. She had a pair of saddlebags on her back, ‘Let’s see if I remembered to bring what I need for today.’ She used her magic to open a pocket of the bag and pulled a scroll from there. She unrolled it, ‘Let’s see, Owlowiscious, check. Owlowiscious snacks, check. My snacks, check. Schedules, check. Checklist of things I need to remember to bring for today’s play date, check.’ She rolled back the scroll and returned it to the pocket. ‘Perfect.’
Twilight got to the open field between the White Tail Woods and Ponyville, their usual meeting place for the date. She was happy to see that five of her friends were already there, playing happily with their respective pets.
“Hey, girls!” Twilight called out to them. All her friends turned to look at her in an instant, with big smiles, they rushed to meet up with her.
They all gave their respective greetings, though they all seemed to hesitate at the end.
All except Pinkie, who tackled Twilight to the ground and planted a big sloppy kiss on her cheek, causing Twilight to blush furiously, while a few gasps were heard around her.
“Twilight! I’m really happy to see you, and Gummy is happy too.” Pinkie lifted the little reptile over Twilight and he “bit” Twilight on the face.
“Pinkie! What do you think you are doing?” Rainbow Dash asked while trying to pull away the party pony and her pet from the tomato that was lying on the ground.
“What?” She asked when Dash set her on the ground. “Me and Gummy just wanted to give her a kiss like you did, Dashy.” Pinkie answered happily.
“Dash! Ya told me that ya didn’t kiss her!” Applejack was slowly walking to her pegasus friend. Her menacing stare made Rainbow swallow deeply.
“It was just a small peck to the cheek, nothing like what Pinkie just did.” She flew up to a safe distant from Applejack, then looked down at Pinkie. “How did you know that I kisse- No, forget it, stupid question, you probably know what all of us did in yesterday.”
“Yepers, and Applejack,” She dropped to the ground and started to laugh. “Your advance with Twilight was Gummy’s favorite part, it was like ‘love you’ smack.” She continued laughing for a moment, while Gummy approached her and started to munch her mane. After a few seconds of laughter, she stood back on her hooves. “Yeah, I know that everyone tried something, for example, Dashy tried to-” A blue hoof found it’s way to Pinkie’s mouth.
“Well, Pinkie, I’m sure everyone wants to listen a good story about me, but we came here to play with the little guys, so let’s get to it.” She added a nervous smile at the end.
“Yes, I agree with Rainbow Dash.” Rarity said as she helped Twilight stand. “Are you okay my Spa- Umm, darling?”
“Yes, Rarity, I’m okay, thank you.” Twilight turned to look directly at Rarity, she looked a little depressed. “Why didn’t you call me that pet name like last time?”
Rarity took a moment to think something, “Oh... I just thought that it was bothering you, is all.”
“No, it doesn’t bother me, I mean, it did at the beginning but I kind of...” Twilight turned her face and murmured something before walking away to play with Owlowiscious.
Rarity let a smile surge on her face. “As you wish, Sparkle Kitten. Come on Opal, let’s play.”
To Twilight’s eye, all her friends were enjoying themselves playing with their pets, just like she was with Owlowiscious. But if she had put a little more attention, she would have noted the quick glances they took at her, and how Pinkie was almost drooling at her behind her back.
‘Dat plot.’ Pinkie cleaned the drool with the backside of her hoof.
Fluttershy saw Twilight running on her direction, trying to catch Owlowiscious. ‘Okay, Fluttershy, do as Angel told you, be more assertive.’ She took a deep breath and walked up to meet Twilight, Angel was looking from afar with expectation. “Twilight, I-”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie has finally found you, Twilight Sparkle!”
Everyone, except Fluttershy who had been startled by the shout, turned to look at the new pony that had just arrived. An obnoxiously-familiar blue unicorn with a magician costume was panting heavily a few meters away from the group.
“Trixie,” Twilight approached the new pony, managing to see a lot of scratches that covered the unicorn’s coat. “What happened to you?”
“Give Trixie -‘pant’- just one second -’pant’- to recover.” Trixie took a few breaths, managing to compose herself. “Much better.” She cleared her voice, “Trixie had some inconvenience getting here. I had to-”
“What are you doing here, Trixie?” Rainbow Dash interrupted. She flew over Trixie, glaring daggers as she did so. “Did you come here to cause trouble like last time?”
“No, and Trixie already apologized for that incident.” Trixie tried to ignored whatever Rainbow Dash said to that. “Trixie is not here to cause harm. Trixie is here to fulfil her destiny, and she needs Twilight Sparkle for that.” She pointed at Twilight, who was silently listening a few meters away.
“Horse apples, not another one.” Applejack said with an exasperated tone.
“What do you mean with ‘another one’?”
“Ugh, I knew there would be more ponies after Twilight!” Rainbow stomped her front hooves furiously, “After Princess Luna confessed to Twilight, I knew it was just a matter of time before someone else came out of the woodworks.”
“Princess Luna confessed to Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie eyes shot wide open.
Pinkie tried to say something, but Gummy had clamped himself onto her face and all that came out were some muffled noises.
“What did she say?”
“Umm, she probably asked if you came here to confess your love to Twilight too, just like we did.” Fluttershy said as she looked to the saddened Twilight that was holding a bunch of papers on her grasp. She looked like she was about to lose a son.
Trixie took a moment to process what she just heard, “Hahahahahaha, All of you confessed to Sparkle, that is just so- Wait, wait, wait just a second.” She took another moment to process the other part of what she heard. “Why would you think that I’m going to confess to her too?”
“Isn’t that why you are here?” Rarity approached the conversation. “You said that you were here to fulfil your destiny, to be with Twilight, isn’t it?”
“What?!” Trixie shouted. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t love her.”
“You don’t?”
“Of course not.” Trixie said while looking disgusted. “Why would anypony even love her?”
“Because she is beautiful,” started Rarity.
“She is intelligent,” continued Applejack.
“She is excellent with magic,” said Rainbow Dash.
“She is good with other ponies,” added Fluttershy.
“And she has a nice flank,” and finished Pinkie, who had freed herself from Gummy’s attack.
“Oh, please.” Trixie turned to look at Twilight, that was happily putting a bunch of papers back in her saddlebag. “What did you do Sparkle? Did you use some magic to make them fall for you? How lame.”
“I did nothing like that!”
“Yeah, she would never do somethin’ like that.” Applejack got closer to Trixie. “And now, if ya aren’t here ‘cause ya love her, then why are ya here.”
Trixie scoffed, “Trixie sure came for something more meaningful than that, otherwise, Trixie wouldn’t dare to make her way through the Everfree Forest.”
“You came from the Everfree Forest?” Rainbow, with an incredulous look, landed and poked Trixie on the chest.
“Yes, is the shortest way to get here from Manehattan.”
“Why didn’t you take a train?” asked Rarity.
Trixie looked down to the floor while fidgeting with a hoof. “Umm, Trixie doesn’t have enough money for a ticket.” She then regained her composure. “But once I’m done with the reason why I’m here, that won’t be a problem anymore.”
“Then, why are you here exactly?” asked Twilight.
“Trixie is here to... to...” Trixie turned to look at the distance, her eyes shot wide open. “I’m here to esCAPE FROM THAT URSA MAJOR!” Trixie ran to hide behind the nearest tree she could.
“What is she talkin’ about? What Urs-” Applejack got interrupted when the ground started to shake.
Everyone turned their heads in the direction Trixie was looking a moment ago, while a flock of birds flew in the opposite directions. A purple-tinted shadow fell over the group of ponies and the entire field around them. Everyone watched silently as a large beast with a translucent body and large fangs got closer and closer. The colossal creature stopped just in front of the group. For a moment, no pony dared to move.
Pinkie was the first to react, “Girls! Snap out of it, this is serious. We got to defend Ponyville from that.” Pinkie then jumped a meter to the front and stood on her hind legs. “It’s morphing time! Pink Pony Ranger!” Pinkie made some weird gestures with her forehooves before pulling some weird ball from her mane and throw it to the floor. A smoke cloud emerged, the sound of hooves galloping to the distance were heard before the cloud disappeared. Pinkie was gone.
“Hello everypony.” Came a lazy voice from over the Ursa.The group of ponies turned their head to look up for the source of the voice. Princess Luna was descending slowly with her extended wings while covering her muzzle with a hoof. “Twilight, I’m so happy to -’yawn’- be here.”
Twilight shook her head to snap out of the frozen state the Ursa had elicit, something similar did the others. “Princess Luna.” Twilight called out and waited for the alicorn to reach the ground before continuing. “I’m glad you came, and I suppose that this is Ur.” She gestured to the giant creature with a wing. “Is it safe to be near her?” Twilight nervously added, taking a step back away from the Ursa.
“Of course she’s safe...” The Ursa major lowered her head and growled at the group. “Er... most of the time. There are certain things than make her angry, like flashing lights or explosions, but don’t worry. If something-” Luna covered her mouth with her hoof to cover her yawning. “Sorry. As I was saying, if something happens, I know how to calm her do...” she trailed off, closing her eyes and dropping her head.
“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked getting a little closer to the princess. She managed to hear the snores that Luna’s snout were making. “Princess!” Twilight nudged Luna on the side, but the princess didn’t wake.
Twilight turned around to look at her four friends, “Umm, I think we should let Luna sleep for a while.” Twilight used her magic to levitate the princess, and placed her under the shadow of a nearby tree. “And she was so excited to come.” Twi smiles fondly at that cute scene before with Luna sleeping peacefully under the tree´s shadow.
“What happened to her?” Rarity asked while taking a closer look at the sleeping princess.
“Yesterday, when I invited her, she told me that she had changed her daily routine. She’s trying to sleep at night and stay awake at the day,” Twilight took another look at Luna. “She isn’t used to it, so I guess she hadn’t got much sleep for the last few days.”
“Umm, Twilight, what do we do with... that.” Fluttershy asked from behind Rainbow Dash, pointing at the Ursa Major with a trembling hoof. The Ursa had settled herself not far from the group, lying on the ground with her head over her pawns, not taking her eyes off from the ponies.
“Well, Ur looks like a good Ursa Major, so we’ll just let her be until Princess Luna wakes.”
“Her name is Ur the Ursa major? That’s not a very imaginative name,” Pinkie popped out from nowhere, surprising the other ponies.
“Pinkie, where did you came out from? And...” Rainbow barely managed to contain her laughter after taking a better look at her friend. “Ha, what are you wearing?”
“This is my power suit,” Pinkie struck a heroic pose, standing on threes hooves while flexing her front right hoof. She was wrapped up like a mummy in rolls of pink fabric. “I just made it ‘cause I remembered that I don’t actually have a real power suit. Can you believe it? I didn’t had a power suit! Thankfully, I remembered where I could find the fabric to make one. Now, time to face Ur, the stellar terror.”
“Um, Pinkie, let me say three things.” Rarity took a deep breath and cleared her voice before continuing. “First, Ur doesn’t seem to be a menace if you don’t provoke her. Second, even if she was a problem, I don’t think we could handle her, I mean, look at her size. And third, were did you get that fabric?”
“From your boutique, of course.”
“Pinkie!”
“Okay, the Ursa isn’t dangerous,” Twilight started, taking a quick look at the Ursa that had started to imitate Luna. “The princess just need to sleep and Rarity just has to buy more fabric tomorrow. I think we can get back to play with our pets.”
“There’s still one more problem to resolve,” Said Applejack.
Twilight turned to look at the country pony and walked up to her. “One more? What do you mean Applejack?” Twilight tilted her head to the side.
Applejack couldn’t avoid to show a goofy grin when Twilight tilted her head. “The problem is that Ah can’t get you out of mah mind.” ‘Smack’. “Ah mean! We don’t know why Trixie is here.” She quickly added, trying to ignore Pinkie laughing on the ground.
Trixie was still hiding behind a nearby tree, shaking from mane to tail. Her head peeked around the trunk, feebly protected by her raised hooves. Twilight took it that she was the one that had to calm Trixie, seeing that her friends didn’t wanted anything to do with the showpony.
“Trixie, don’t be afraid, the Ursa isn’t a threat. You can come out from there.”
Trixie lifted her head, “A-are you sure that it is safe?” Trixie laid her eyes on the sleeping beast. After that she looked at the other ponies that were looking back at her. “I mean, of course it’s safe. After all, the Great and Powerful Trixie it’s here, she can protect everypony with her magic, so don’t worry.” With the exception of Twilight and Luna, the other ponies rolled their eyes.
“Umm, thanks?” Twilight looked at Trixie while she made her way up to her, still shaking a little. “So, tell me Trixie, why are you here and why do you need me for that?”
“Trixie is here to prove she is the world's most powerful unicorn,” Trixie started to pace around. “You see, after our last encounter, Trixie has been training tirelessly to become even more great and powerful that she already was. After Trixie heard about your ascent to alicorn and new title as princess, she immediately made her way to meet up with you.”
“If you came immediately, how come you just arrived today? The coronation was over a week ago,” asked Rarity.
“Trixie already told you that she doesn’t have enough bits for transportation and...” She let a sigh escape. “She got lost a few times on her way here. But that’s not important. What is important, is that Trixie is here to challenge Twilight Sparkle to a magic duel!”
“Again?” Rainbow poked Trixie on the side. “You never learn your lesson, do you? You couldn’t beat her before when she was an unicorn, and now, you want to try again when she turned in a alicorn? Pffft, good luck with that.”
“This time is different! Trixie trained really hard to improve her powers. Trixie will show all of you that she can beat Twilight without the help of any kind of jewelry.” Trixie directed her gaze to Twilight. “So what do you say, Sparkle? Do you accept my challenge?”
Twilight looked at a nearby tree where Owlowiscious was perched, she just wanted to go and play with him. “I don’t know about that. I shoul-”
“Do it, sugarcube, accept her duel. She’s just gonna pester you ‘til you do.”
Twilight sighed. She just wanted to have a peaceful day playing with her pet and friends, but she wouldn’t get to it until she dealt with this. “I guess you are right, Applejack. Trixie, let’s duel.”
“Excellent. Once The Great and Powerful Trixie beats Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn and princess of Equestria, her name will pass to history as the greatest unicorn of the world. Now, don’t waste more time. Let’s take our places.”
Twilight and Trixie walked away from the group and set to stand back to back, they made sure there were a distance of twenty hoofsteps between them and then turned to face each other.
“Okay Trixie, you say when we start.”
“Just a second, Sparkle. Trixie is a showpony, she can’t start any kind of magic without making a great presentation first.”
Rainbow snorted, “Wasn’t she saying to not waste more time just a moment ago? She sure likes to show off.”
“That’s something you two have in common, sugarcube.” Rainbow just ignored that comment.
Twilight took a quick look at the Ursa, ‘there are certain things than make her angry,’ she remembered. “Trixie, whatever you do, just don’t make something-”
“Behold and be awed by the magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie materialized a dozen of fireworks that quickly made their way up to the sky. There were big colored explosions in the blue firmament, one of the fireworks created a message in the sky, ‘Need entertainment for a party? Contact Trixie’.
“Flashy,” Twilight finished when the last bang of the fireworks muffled.
For the second time of the day, a large shadow covered the area where the group of ponies were. The Ursa stood on her hind legs, lifted her head up to the sky and let an angry roar that made Trixie’s fireworks seem feeble in comparison.
For the second time of the day, a large shadow fell over the group of ponies. The Ursa stood on her hind legs, lifted her head up to the sky and let an angry roar that made Trixie’s fireworks seem feeble in comparison.
Everypony pressed their hooves against their ears, trying to muffle the sound, but it was useless. Twilight was preparing to use her magic and cast a sound proof spell around the group of ponies and their pets, but before she could do that, the angry roar ceased. The group tentatively lowered their hooves to the ground and looked up.
Ur was still standing on her hind legs. Her gaze focused on the message that Trixie’s firework left on the sky. When the sign started to vanish, Ur lowered her gaze and growled at the group at her feet. She let the upper part of her body fall to the front.
“Everypony move!” Twilight shouted to the rest of the group, but there was no need for that. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash had grabbed their pets and ran to the side before the stellar creature could make pancakes with them. As Twilight took a quick glimpse back, she saw that Fluttershy was frozen in place, a little white rabbit pulling from her pink tail, trying to make her move.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight shouted before turning around and running as fast as she could towards her pegasus friend. The adrenaline was flooding her in such way that she could see in slow motion how Ur’s front left paw was getting closer and closer to where Fluttershy was standing.
Twilight screamed while using all her strength to run as fast as she could, but that wouldn’t be enough. She jumped and batted her wings, trying to reach Fluttershy faster. Twilight wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy. A little bunny was on the pegasus back, kneeled and praying to the bunny god. Twilight took a quick look up to see that a purple translucent paw was just a foot or two above her.
“Twilight! Fluttershy!” Her friends shouted while Twilight closed her eyes and started to gather magic in her horn. A bright flash of light appeared just before the Ursa’s paws met the ground, shaking the whole area and causing a large cloud of dirt to lift. Everypony held their breath until a second flash of light popped just next to the group.
“That was a close call. I thought we would get crushed for a sec-” Twilight got interrupted when a group of ponies tackled her to the ground followed by a group hug. “Girls... I can’t... breath...”
“Sorry, sugarcube.” Applejack reluctantly pulled away, followed by Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Pinkie, on the other hoof, took the opportunity to move her hooves from Twilight’s back to a more inappropriate place in the south. Before she could reach her goal, Applejack grabbed her “power suit” and pulled her away from the alicorn. “It’s just that we were mighty scared for a second back there.”
“Me too, Applejack.” Twilight got on her hooves and turned to look at the yellow pegasus lying on the ground, and the stunned Angel next to her. “Are you alright, Fluttershy?”
“Y-yes. T-thank you, T-Twilight.” Fluttershy managed to say while trying to stand up. Angel remained on his back, staring blankly up at the sky.
Twilight looked back at the rest of her friends and Trixie. “I’m happy to see everyone is fine...” Twilight trailed off as she saw that they were still short one pony. “Oh Celestia, where’s Luna?!”
Every pony let out a gasp and looked around for the missing princess. “Oh no! I think we left her under the tree that-” Rarity stopped as she saw that such a tree no longer existed. In its place, only a house-sized paw and a mass of splinters could be found. “Oh my...” Rarity rose a hoof to her forehead and tried not to faint at the moment.
“No...” Twilight sat down and brought her hooves to her temples. “No, this just can’t-”
“Wait, I think I can see her” Rainbow shouted from just above the group, pointing with a hoof to a spot next to the big paw.
Everypony focused their eyes to where Rainbow pointed. As the cloud of dirt settled, they managed to see a mane of the color of the night, waving lazily on the ground. Princess Luna was lying just next to the large paw.
“She’s alive! She dodged the paw!” Pinkie bounced happily.
“Rainbow, you have to get her out of there.”
“I’m on it, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash immediately shot forward, flying towards the Ursa. She flew below Ur’s armpit and snatched Luna in a swift motion. She flew back to the group just as quickly as she got to the princess. Rainbow proceeded to set the princess on the ground.
“Princess Luna, Are you okay?” Twilight waited for an answer, but the only one she got, was the sound of Luna snoring. “She... She’s still sleeping? After what happened?” Twilight looked to Ur and then back to Luna. “Wow, she was lucky back there. I think she rolled over in her sleep just before the Ursa stomped the ground.” Twilight smiled as Luna rolled a bit more and murmured something.
“Yeah, yeah, she’s adorable,” Rainbow snarked, annoyed at Twilight’s reaction to the sleeping princess. “But we still have a problem over there.” She nodded her head towards the big creature that was looking back at them while growling through her fangs.
Someone cleared her voice and the rest turned to look who was it. “Trixie sees that you all are busy, so she will leave for the time being.” She then proceeded to stand on her hind legs and rise her front hooves to the sky.
“Trixie! Don’t d-” Just before Twilight could finish, a second set of fireworks with less power shot straight to the sky.
Ur let out another roar.
“Bye.” A blue cloud covered Trixie, but dissipated in time to spot the magician running towards town. It didn’t take long for Ur to follow after the running pony. Passing over the rest of the group, the Ursa Major made the ground shake with each step she took, getting closer and closer to her target.
“Trixie, Wait!” Twilight shouted in vain. The Ursa was gaining with each of her giant steps, and soon Trixie would be within her reach. And another thing that bothered Twilight was the direction in which Trixie was running. ‘I- No, We have to do something.’
“Fluttershy, could you...” Twilight was about to ask to her pegasus friend if she could use the stare on Ur, but she saw that Fluttershy was still shaken from the events of a moment ago. “Fluttershy, take care of the pets. Rarity, Pinkie, try to wake up Princess Luna, she’s the only one who know how to calm Ur down. Rainbow, Applejack, we have to go and save Trixie now.” When she finished giving orders, Twilight started to gallop after the Ursa.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly followed after the lavender pony. Rainbow could easily fly past Twilight and save Trixie, but there was something hypnotic in the view she was getting that just wouldn’t let her go save the pony that caused all this mess. ‘Yeah, Twilight, shake that booty.’
“Rainbow!” Twilight sudden shout made the pegasus snap out of her thought. “Fly me closer so that I can grab Trixie with my magic!”
“Why don’t I simply go and grab Trixie myself?” Rainbow immediately regretted asking that. This was the perfect chance of holding Twilight between her hooves, and she had just ruined it.
“I know you are fast, but that could be dangerous.” Rainbow felt relieved that Twilight still wanted to be held in her hooves, to save Trixie, but it was something that had to be done, no matter how much she disliked the showpony. “ If you carry me close enough for my magic to reach Trixie, I can get her out of danger from a safe distance.” Twilight watched as Ur’s jaw was just a few feets away from the showpony. “Rainbow, we have to move!”
Rainbow wrapped her hooves around Twilight’s torso, just below her wings, and flashed Applejack a victorious smile before taking off to the sky.
Rainbow managed to reach Ur in matter of seconds, close enough for Twilight to shout at the blue unicorn. “Trixie! Stop running!”
“Are you -‘pant’- crazy?!” Trixie was at her limit. She was not an athletic pony to begin with and had not recovered from her journey through the Everfree Forest. It was matter of seconds before the worst would happen. “If I -‘pant’- stop running, that thing-” Trixie tripped with a rock in that moment of distraction and tumbled to a stop. She didn’t dare to turn and look at the monster that had been chasing her. She just waited there, with her tail on the air and her head under her hooves.
Ur stopped and looked down at Trixie. In a swift motion, she lifted a paw to the sky and brought it down to crush the pony that had made her so angry. A smaller cloud of dust appeared. Ur withdrew her leg, staring at the empty pawprint. After a few confused seconds, she let out the third angry roar of the day. Where was the blue annoying unicorn? Two voices sounded nearby, so she turned to look.
“What took you -gasp- so long -gasp- to save me? -gasp- I almost -gasp- got crushed” Trixie said between breaths. She was hanging upside down by her tail, which was held just below Rainbow and Twilight in an aura of purple magic .
“You wouldn’t need to be saved if you hadn’t done your stupid presentation in the first place.” Rainbow answered angrily at Trixie. “And why the buck did you have to make more fireworks appear? Didn’t you see how it reacted the first time? But no, it must be more important to be a showoff than being alive, right?”
Trixie harrumphed and tried to point her nose up, but it was hard to do while dangling-upside down. “Whatever you say. Twilight Sparkle, you apparently were the one that wanted to see the fall of Trixie. Why else would you tell me to stop running?”
“Because you were leading a rampaging Ursa Major directly into town. The devastation it would have caused is just... inconceivable!” Twilight looked down at Trixie.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now just do your “superior magic” to save the day and rub it in my face like the last two times.”
“Trixie, I’ve never tried to rub anything in your face,” Twilight said softly, before lowering her gaze uncertainly. “And... I don’t know if I can do it. When I dealt with the Ursa minor, I had to use a lot of magic just to make it sleep and levitate it away from the town. This time we are dealing with an Ursa Major many times bigger than the Ursa Minor. I don’t know what to do. We will have to wait until Rarity and Pinkie wake Princess Luna.”
“But we have to do something before- Whoa!” Rainbow got cut off as she was almost smashed by a giant purple paw.
“What are you waiting for you feather-brained pegasus. Get us out of here!” Trixie shouted from her undignified position.
Rainbow ignored the insult and flew in the opposite direction of the town. Just as she was starting to get enough speed, a second claw swept in from the side. Rainbow barely managed to dodge the claw, but the sudden jolting made Twilight lose control of the spell that was holding Trixie.
“I curse you, feather brain!” Trixie shouted as she fell to the ground. Reacting quickly, she cast a wind spell, one of the few she had learned after her second defeat, and created air pillow that cushioned her fall. “Aha! You will need more than that to take down the Great and Powerful...” Trixie trailed off as she watched a big clawed foot getting even bigger.
A lasso grabbed Trixie’s front left hoof and yanked her away before the paw crushed her. “Not so fast!” Applejack shouted.
“Nice work, Applejack!” Twilight cheered from her seat in Rainbow’s hooves.
“Oh shucks Twilight, it was nothin’.” Applejack kicked the ground and blushed at the compliment.
“Applejack, move!” Twilight shouted.
“Huh? Move fro-Horse apples.” Ur was now aiming to step on the farm pony, but before that could happen, a blue aura wrapped Applejack’s body and moved her away from the paw.
“Trixie has returned the favor of being saved, not that she needed it in the first place.” Trixie said with smug satisfaction. “And if you don’t mind, let’s get out of here, now!” Trixie ran away from Ur, being followed by Applejack.
Ur wasn’t pleased, these ants were getting in the way. If she had to take down each of them to crush the blue noisy one, then so be it. Ur roared again and locked her eyes on the pair that was flying up in the sky. They were impressively high, but nothing she couldn’t reach with her size.
“Oh, come on Princess Luna, wake up.” Rarity nudged the princess side, she had been doing this from the moment Twilight asked her, but no matter how much she tried, Luna just wouldn't wake up.
“Uhm, Twilight, that tickles,” Luna mumbled low enough that the other two ponies near her couldn't understand her.
“Let me try something, Rarity.” Rarity stepped aside to let Pinkie get near the princess. Pinkie held her up in a sitting position, took a deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs, “WAKE UP, PRINCESS!” as she shook Luna with all of her strength.
“Pinkie, stop! that is no way to treat a princess.” Rarity moved Pinkie away from the princess. “You just can’t be that violent with-”
“AHHH!” A shout from the distance interrupted Rarity. When the white unicorn turned to look in the direction of the shout, she saw Twilight, being held by Rainbow, shouting while the pegasus dodged the Ursa Major’s swipes.
“Oh Celestia! Twilight needs help.” She turned back and grabbed the princess with one leg while hoof slapping her with the other. “Wake -‘slap’- up -‘slap’- Princess. -‘slap’- Twilight -‘slap’- is in -‘slap’- danger.” Rarity let go of Luna, but the princess remained asleep. That, or Rarity had woken her up and then knocked her out with one of her slaps.
“Wow, Luna sure is a heavy sleeper. No wonder she is the princess of dreams.” Pinkie said from behind Rarity.
“What can we do?” Rarity set one hoof on Luna’s chest. “She just wont- Wa!” She got interrupted as a pair of hooves grabbed her and dragged her to the ground. “P-Princess Luna?” she said after seeing the princess wrap her hooves around her, locking her in place.
“Oh, Twilight,” Luna said on her dreams, “I love you so much.” She started to nuzzle Rarity’s neck.
“Princess! I’m not Twilight! You have to-” Rarity gasped as she felt a pair of lips pressed to her coat, just below her jaw. Rarity’s face was getting hotter and hotter. “Princess! Please stop this at once! You don’t know what you-” Another gasp escaped Rarity’s mouth. She looked up to her horn.
Princess Luna was giving long, steady licks to Rarity’s horn. “Just stay quiet and enjoy the moment, Twilight.”
“P-Princess... please... stop... this.” Rarity tried to pull herself away, but even if Luna was just dreaming, she was still much stronger than Rarity, who was losing her own to the “torture”. “Pinkie...” Rarity lifted her head to look at her pink friend. Luna stretched her neck to follow, still giving small licks to the horn. “Help... me...”
“Wait a second Rarity.” Pinkie pulled a small notebook and pencil from her power suit. “So the horn is a sensitive spot. Humm, that could be useful for the future. Oh wait!” Pinkie jumped and landed just next to Rarity. “Do all unicorns have sensitive horns, or is it just something for a few?”
“Pinkie...”
“Oh! And if it’s a thing for all unicorns, are alicorns the same? Rarity, quick, give a lick to Luna’s horn.”
“Pinkie! Just... Help me!”
“Aww, okie-dokie.” Pinkie put the notebook and the pencil back in the power suit and extended her hooves to help Rarity get away from Luna, but before she could do that, she felt her tail twitching. ‘Something is going to fall.’
Pinkie turned around until she was looking in the direction of the Ursa Major. Ur had gotten closer to where they were standing, but her back was turned to them as she tried to swat Rainbow and Twilight out of the sky, missing her target by inches. Suddenly Twilight’s horn started to glow before letting off a bright flash of light directly in the Ursa’s face. Blinded and off balance, Ur teetered for a few moments before tilting backwards like a great tree sucumbing to gravity.
Ur was falling, and would land right on top of Pinkie, Rarity and Luna. As the sky darkened with her looming bulk, Pinkie looked at Rarity who was still trapped between Luna’s hooves. She grabbed both of them and used all her strength to throw them away just before Ur crashed into the ground, growling in pain.
“Girls!” Twilight shouted as Rainbow flew her next to the Ursa. “Rarity, Luna! You’re okay!” she cheered as Rainbow reluctantly let her go. She quickly moved to where the two ponies were and hugged them. After a moment, she pulled away. “Where’s Pinkie?”
“I... don’t... know...” Rarity answered, still in Luna’s dreaming gasp. She was thankful that the licks to her horn had stopped, at least. She didn’t know how much longer she could take such “torture” before her mind went completely blank.
“What? But she was with you just a-” Twilight saw a piece of pink fabric from Pinkie’s power suit pinned under the Ursa. “No...” Twilight slowly walked to the fabric.
“Twilight, what are you doin’?” Applejack shouted from the distance. “Get away from there! It’s too dangerous!”
Twilight didn’t listen. She just kept walking until she reached the pink fabric under the purple fur. “No.”
Ur stopped growling as her vision returned to normal. She looked up to the sky, searching for the flying ant that had blinded her momentarily, but she couldn’t find her. A small noise caught her attention, so she lowered her eyes to look at the sound that was coming from her right side.
“Move.” Ur saw the lavender ant that had blinded her. “Move.” Without thinking much, Ur lifted her right paw. “Move.” Ur placed her leg over the ant, and let it fall to crush her. “I said, MOVE!”
Twilight’s horn flared with a powerful light. She could feel the magic power running from her whole body to the tip of her horn, like no other time. The magic was powerful, more powerful than any she had ever experienced, and she knew exactly what she was going to do with it. Twilight cast a spell, and in a flash of light Ur was nowhere to be seen.
Everypony was completely slackjawed, except for Luna who was now gnawing on Rarity’s ear.
“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted as she frantically looked around.
“Yes, Twilight?” said a pink head that popped out of the ground.
“Aaahh!” Twilight readed back in surprise and landed on her rump. “Pinkie?” Twilight watched in bewilderment as the pink head was followed out of the ground by an equally pink body. “Pinkie!” She grabbed Pinkie in a crushing hug, one the party pony was quick to return it. “I’m so happy you’re okay!”
“Of course I’m fine, silly filly. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because I thought the Ursa had landed on you!” Twilight pulled out of the hug as the other ponies approached. “What exactly happened? How did you survive?”
“Well, after my tail started twitching, I realized that something was going to fall, so I turned around and saw the Ursa falling backwards. I had to move Rarity and Luna out of the way because they were all lovey dovey-”
“That’s not true!” Rarity cried, having finally pried herself out of Luna’s grasp.
“But after I did that, there wasn’t enough time for me to get away, so I decided to dig a hole where I could be safe.”
“Wait.” Rainbow landed next to Pinkie. “So, there was no time to move out of the way, but there was enough to dig a hole and bury yourself?”
“Of course! I am an Earth Pony after all.”
“But I thought Earth Ponies could only...” Rainbow started before throwing her hooves up in defeat. “You know what? Never mind!”
“Twilight.” Applejack walked next to the alicorn. “What did ya do a moment ago? Where’s the Ursa?”
“I think I teleported her somewhere where she wouldn’t hurt anypony. A place where she willbe alone and can calm down her rage.”
“That’s amazing!” Rainbow cheered. “Your magic is really incredible, Twilight.”
“Just as incredible as that flank.” -‘smack’- “Ah mean, glad ya did it before that Ursa had hurt any of us.” Applejack smiled awkwardly, hoping Twilight hadn’t heard the first part.
“I’m also glad that none of you is hurt, but I’m a little worried abou-” Twilight got interrupted as a pair of hooves grabbed her and shot up to the sky. “Rainbow what are you doing?”
“It’s not me!” Shouted the pegasus from below.
“What? then who-”
“Oh Twilight, I was so scared when I saw that Ursa attacking you. I thought she would hurt you,” came the voice of Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy, it’s okay, we all are fine now.” Twilight positioned herself between the yellow hooves to look directly at Fluttershy.
“And it’s all thanks to you, Twilight. You were so brave, so amazing, so beautiful. I just...” Fluttershy pressed her lips against Twilight’s. The pegasus enjoyed the warm sensation and the softness of the lips of the pony she loved. She slowly pulled away and opened her eyes. She saw a pair of wide open eyes, a red face and two wings spread at their full length. Realising what she had done, Fluttershy withdrew her hooves and covered her mouth.
Twilight began to plummet. Halfway to the ground, a gust of wind caught her wings and pulled her into a glide until she reached the ground, face first.
Fluttershy landed just next to Twilight and was about to help her stand when something caught her attention. The other ponies were completely slack jawed, with the exception of Trixie. Some eyes were twitching, and Rarity had fainted, but more than that everypony was staring at her. Fluttershy did what she did the best, hide behind her mane.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie broke the silence. “First an Ursa Minor, and now an Ursa Major. Trixie sees that she has a long way to go. Trixie admits her defeat, for now, but that will change. Feel honored, Twilight Sparkle. Trixie has decided that she will learn magic under your tutelage. Just wait and see, The Great and Powerful Student will surpass the teacher!”
Not a single one of the ponies present moved. They were still shocked by the actions of Fluttershy, the shyest pony of Equestria, that had stolen the first kiss of Twilight Sparkle and proceeded to drop her out of the sky. The only reaction Trixie got, was a long yawn from behind the group.
“Is my decision not amusing? I believe that the fact that I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, decided to stay in such a place is-” Trixie stopped her speech as she saw who was the pony that yawned.
“Uhmmm, I slept so well, and what a good dream,” Luna said as she stood and stretched her legs. She then walked up to the group. “I’m sorry I fell asleep, I was just so exhausted.” No one replied.”Ummm, did I miss something?” Luna looked around the area. “Where’s Ur?”
That night, Fluttershy was pacing around her cottage. The little critters just watched her go from one side of the room to the other. “Why did I do that? I’ve never done something so bold like that.”
“You can thank me for that.” Said a voice from behind the pegasus.
Fluttershy squeaked and jumped to hide behind the coach. “W-who said that? Who’s t-there?”
“Oh, my dear Fluttershy. Have you already forgotten about me. You hurt my feelings.”
Fluttershy popped her head from behind the coach. That voice, she recognized that voice. “I-is that you, Discord?”
Fluttershy looked around the room, trying to find the source of the voice, but she couldn’t see who was talking.
“Don’t look for me, Fluttershy. I’m not the one you call Discord; I’m your inner voice, the one who gave you the courage to do what you did with Twilight Sparkle. I’m here to tell you that I’m proud of you, you have matured, you have become braver, and it showed today.”
“Is… Is that true?” The room was silent for a moment while Fluttershy still tried to look for the source of the voice.
“Pffft, Hahahahaha, no , no, I’m just messing with you.” With that, a creature whose body was the mix of the parts of different animals popped out from behind Fluttershy. “Hello, Flu-”
A small ‘meep’ wasn’t what interrupted Discord, what interrupted him was the sudden jump the pegasus made after getting startled. Fluttershy landed on the couch.
“Hmm… I’d give it a seven in your score. The form was impeccable, but you really should work on your landing. Let me show you how it’s done.” Discord jumped high into the air and gave a graceful back flip before diving through the wooden floorboards with a mighty sploosh. An imaginary audience roared with applause when Discord emerged in front of the couch. He saw a wide eyed frozen pegasus lying there. “My, Fluttershy, are you okay? Maybe a little of water would help you.”
A silver bell popped out from nowhere and rang for a few seconds. After a moment of silence, a little white bunny in a butler suit floated from the kitchen, with a glass of water right over his head. “Thank you, Angel. Now, go prepare dinner,” Discord said as he grabbed the glass. Angel only answered with an angry glare, before he was levitated back to the kitchen.
Discord looked back at Fluttershy and snapped his fingers. The pegasus changed her position, from lying down to a slouched sit with her back against the couch. He lifted the glass to his lips and ate it in one go just as a bucket of water fell over the pegasus head.
Fluttershy waved her hooves frantically, shocked straight from her catatonia to the floor with the container still covering her face. After taking a moment to calm down, Fluttershy sat on her haunches and lifted the bucket enough so she could take a look around with one eye. There, in front of her, was Discord levitating a meter over the floor in a lazy position.
“Welcome to the land of consciousness, Fluttershy.”
“Discord, w-what are you doing here?”
“What? Not even a ‘Hello, Discord, good to see you again’? I think somepony needs a lesson on friendship.”
“Oh! I-I’m sorry, Discord, you are right.” Fluttershy pulled her head completely out of the bucket. A white towel appeared in front of her, she grabbed it between her hooves. “Thank you, Discord.” She began to dry her mane and coat.
When the pegasus was done, the towel disappeared. She sat back on the couch and took a deep breath. “Ummm, Hello, Discord. It’s good to see you again,” she said with a honest smile on her face.
“Good to see you too, Fluttershy.” Discord kept his position over the floor.
“Sooo…. What brings you here? I mean, if you don’t mind telling me.”
“Well, Fluttershy, I have been bored for a while, and I thought of visiting my favorite group of peril magnets.” Discord quickly moved to sit next to Fluttershy. “And it certainly paid off, hahahahaha. This was such a good day.” He wiped a tear from his eye.
Fluttershy smiled as she remembered the kiss, “Yes, it was a good day.” the goofy smile stayed in place until a more serious expression replaced it. “Wait, you were there the whole time? When did you arrive?”
“A few minutes before Twilight arrived. I just banished my presence the whole time. I thought it would be boring at first, but then-”
“Y-you were present the whole time and did nothing to stop the Ursa?!” Fluttershy interrupted. “You could have helped us! What if something bad happened to the girls? What if something happened to Twilight?!” Fluttershy frowned directly at Discord.
“Relax, Fluttershy, nothing bad happened.”
“But what if-”
“You remember that moment when Luna almost got crushed by Ur just like the tree?” Discord said as he summoned a little alicorn that resembled Luna in his hand.
“You… You saved her?”
“Of course not. That mare sure is lucky, rolling out of the way just before the paw touched the ground.” Discord took a deep breath and crushed the doll. “I have to admit, I’m a bit disappointed nothing serious happened.” Discord looked to Fluttershy, who was giving him a displeased look.”My point is, if any of you had been in real peril, I would have done something to help. But there was no need for that, so I just sat back and enjoyed the show.”
“I… I don’t know, you should have done something to help.”
“Come on, Fluttershy. At least be happy that I didn’t make things worse. I know I promised not to cause more chaos, but that doesn’t mean the I can’t enjoy a free show.”
“I-I guess you are right. After all, you are the embodiment of chaos.”
Discord smiled, but not from happiness. ‘She doesn’t need to know the whole story.’
Discord had been doing some jobs for the princesses of Equestria for a few weeks, some of which were entertaining, but most of them consisted of fixing a disaster like a flood or an avalanche. Such beautiful creations of the nature and he had to erase them.
One day, while Discord was doing a little job in Saddle Arabia, it was taking longer than intended. He had to fix a drought in a little town, but the residents weren’t exactly happy when he made chocolate milk rain from the skies. He finally was back in Canterlot castle after fixing what had already been fixed. As he walked through the walls instead of using the corridors he couldn’t help but hear the conversation that the two Alicorn sisters were having in the throne room. Discord moved out of the wall and pressed his ear to the door.
One guard that was passing by was about to ask him to stop doing that, but before he could, Discord turned him in a rocking wooden horse. ‘I’ll turn you back to normal when this conversation is over.’
“Tia, thanks for the advice you gave me yesterday. Twilight enjoyed it,” came the excited voice of Luna from the other side.
“She did?” Celestia voice had a hint of surprise, but she managed to hide it. “I mean, of course she did. I know my student very well. I was sure she would enjoy the music, Lulu.”
“And that’s not all, she invited me tomorrow to a date!”
“A date?”
“Well, it’s her weekly pet play date with the others. But she invited me! I can spend some time with her!”
“I’m happy for you, little sister.”
“I should go to bed now. I’m really tired, and I have to wake up early to go get Ur from the cave in Mount Karkonosze.”
“Alright, Lulu. Just remember not to use the Royal voice in front of her.”
“I will, Tia. Now, goodnight, a wonderful day is waiting for me.” Her hoofsteps were getting closer to the door.
Discord got away from the door. He touched the rocking horse with one finger. One second later, the guard was back to his original form with a blank stare.
“You have seen nothing,” Discord said as he snapped his fingers. He disappeared in the shadows at the same time the door to the throne room opened.
“Good night, Princess.” The soldier said as he moved away to let Luna pass him.
“Good night, Iron Hoof.” Princess Luna walked down to her room, where she would try to get as much sleep as she could, which turned to be none due to her excitement and her habit of been awake at nights.
Outside Luna’s room, Discord emerged from his hiding. “Let’s cancel tomorrow’s plan, this date might be quite entertaining.”
Discord was bored. Why had he thought that it would be interesting to observe the elements of harmony? They were just having a normal day, boring and without any kind of chaos. Things were a bit interesting when Luna arrived, but after that, nothing. The Ursa Major was sleeping and an annoying blue unicorn was challenging Twilight Sparkle to a duel. It was obvious to Discord that Twilight would win easily. He was tempted to cause some kind of commotion with his powers, but he had promised not to cause any more problems.
Discord was about to leave, but a loud explosion sounded in the sky, followed by an angry growl. That caught his attention. ‘Ha! And to think I almost missed the free show!’
The Ursa fell forward, almost crushing Twilight, Fluttershy and Luna. He was about to go help Luna, but seeing that she would be fine, he decided to just stay as a spectator.
Was that it? Would the Ursa just return back to sleep? ‘No, the fun can’t end here. There must be a way...’ Discord landed his gaze over the blue unicorn. ‘That could work. I promised not to create chaos directly, but that doesn’t mean I can’t influence it to happen.’
The blue unicorn kept a frightened look on the big scary creature. ‘Trixie should go, and return to challenge Sparkle when there aren’t monsters near.’
‘Yes, you should go.’ A voice said in her head. ‘But leaving without showing a bit more of your power? What a shame. Maybe you are not as great and powerful as you say.’
‘I will show you.’ A few seconds later, the blue unicorn was running for her life.
‘This is great and hilarious. I wish I had popcorn. Oh, wait! I do have popcorn!’ He materialized his desired snack just next to him and started to eat it. ‘What? No Butter? Fine, at least the show is entertaining.’
There wasn’t much need to interfere after that, but he did try to make things a bit more interesting. He was the one responsible of Rainbow’s and Applejack actions. When Rainbow kept looking at Twilight’s rump instead of saving the day and when Applejack got all flustered after Twilight’s little praze. And his favorite, he made sure that it was impossible for anypony to wake Princess Luna, but, he had nothing to do with the licking to the horn, that was a bonus.
But of course, Twilight had to finish the spectacle and teleport Ur away. ‘Killjoy.’ But it didn’t matter, Discord just had to do one more thing, and he would be satisfied for the day.
“Umm, Discord, what was that you said earlier about thanking you for that?” Fluttershy said, regaining Discord’s attention.
“Oh! That? I just gave you a little push so you could do what you did.”
“Umm, but, what exactly did you do? Did You control me?”
Discord rubbed his chin “Hmmm, I could had have some fun doing that, but no, I didn’t. I just gave you a little push, literally. You just needed someone to help you give the first step. After that, you flew out there and grabbed her.”
“But… Why did you do that? It’s not that I’m not grateful, but, what was your purpose?”
Discord smirked. “I just wanted my first friend to be happy.” That was almost a lie. He did it to help Fluttershy, but he also did it to see the reaction of the others. He would remember that for a long time.
“So, Fluttershy, have you thought of what you will do on the day of your date with Twilight?”
Fluttershy squeaked, “I… I don’t know. I’m so nervous, what if she gets bored on our date.”
“Yes, that might happen.” Discord said plainly, Fluttershy sighed in depression. “Maybe your little friend has some ideas of what you could do.”
The silver bell re-appeared and sounded in the room. Angel showed again in the room, this time, with a little maid outfit. The bunny was furious, he was swaying in the air, but couldn’t do anything about it. Discord tried to grab him, at which Angel answered with an attempt to bite his hand.
“Fluttershy, you should feed your pet properly, he seems to be starving.” He ignored Fluttershy answer to place the floating bunny over a table and got closer to him. “Angel, focus for a moment, you can eat later. You see, Fluttershy will have a date soon with Twilight Sparkle, maybe you have some ideas of what she could do.”
Angel thought of giving a kick to Discord in the face, but he knew that it would be impossible, Discord would manage to distort reality in such a way that Angel would end up kicking his own face. So he just took some deep breaths to calm down and started to say possible ideas for Fluttershy’s date.
Discord rubbed his chin. “Ahmm, right, I see,” he said as he added a nod here and there.
“Ummm,” Fluttershy said from behind Discord. “Discord, you can understand animals?”
“Of course not. I have no idea what this little guy is saying. I’m not some kind of crazy animal lover.”
“Ummm, if you want I could translate for you.”
“No time for that. I will have to pull out his brain and make some modifications to it so he can speak.” He pulled a silver scalpel from under his wing.
Fluttershy gasped at that, she quickly moved between Angel and Discord to protect the little bunny.
“I suppose that’s a no.” Discord sighed, returning the scalpel to it’s previous place. “Fine, I will just read his mind. The boring and not dangerous way.” Fluttershy relaxed and moved so Discord could lock eyes with Angel.
“Thank you, for today and for helping me get ideas.” She said in her usual quiet tone.
“No problem, my dear Fluttershy.” He continued reading Angel’s mind.
‘I should also “help” the others.’ Discord thought with a smirk adorning his face. ‘The six of them could use some assistance in their dates.’ His smirk got bigger as an idea popped in his head. ‘I wonder what does a certain unicorn thinks about Twilight planing to date six different ponies. Someone should send him a letter about this whole thing.’
Luna lay on her Alicorn-sized bed, rolling restlessly over the mattress, her mind in complete disarray. She just wanted to bury her face on the pillow and use her royal voice at full force, just like earlier that day. She felt a mixture of anger and disappointment about herself and, only a bit of envy, towards Fluttershy. If she was honest with herself though, it was a lot of envy.
“I still can’t believe she took Twilight's first kiss, and all that while I was asleep. I wanted to be the one to kiss her for her first time ever!” With a grunt she buried her face in the pillow while recalling today's happenings after she woke up from her deep sleep.
There was no answer, the group of ponies just kept looking with wide eyes and slack jaws to the yellow pegasus. ‘What is going on here?’ Luna thought, moving next to the Rarity who was closer to her. Luna nudged Rarity on the side without any kind of reaction. Then she lifted a hoof to her chin.
“Owww!” Luna exclaimed, quickly removing the hoof. She looked down at her appendage and slowly brought it back to her face. “Oww. Why… Why does my face hurt?” She winced slightly with each touch. “Could someone tell me what happened!?” She looked at each one of the frozen ponies.
The group of ponies were a fair distance from a big crater that Luna was sure wasn’t there before. ‘What’s going on?’ She gave another look around, her eyes focused on a lavender unicorn who had her face buried on the ground.
“Twilight!” She moved to meet the purple alicorn, a bit afraid to touch her. ‘What… what happened!?’ She got a bit closer and relaxed a bit when she saw that Twilight was breathing.
Trixie walked next to the princess and cleared her voice to get her attention. “It appears to be Trixie’s work to infor-” She didn’t get to finish what she was saying. A dark blue aura of magic grabbed and lifted her a meter over the ground.
“You!” Luna exclaimed, getting closer to the showmare. “Who are you? I didn’t see you when I got here! You were the one who did this to Twilight, right!?”
“What!? No no no! I have nothing to do with that, I swear. I-” Trixie wailing got interrupted when Luna let her spell disappear. The unicorn fell to the ground, she took a second to compose and get up to her hooves. Trixie looked up to Princess Luna, who was looking back with an expression that said ‘start explaining’.
“You see, your highness, Trixie came here looking for Twilight Sparkle, but for nothing dangerous.”
“Why are you here then?” Luna asked a bit more calm.
“You see, Trixie is here to fulfil her destiny, and for that, she requires Twilight Sparkle.”
“Hmm? Then, Why do you need… Twilight…” Luna paled a little. “Oh no, you love her and came to confess, right?”
“What!?” Trixie gave a step back. “No! I don’t love her, I already told that to Sparkle’s friends!”
Luna’s face recovered it’s color as she relaxed. “Well, then what is your reason to be here?” She looked back at the other ponies. “And what happened?”
“Trixie came to challenge Twilight Sparkle to a… friendly duel of magic. But before we could get to that, the Ursa Major broke in a rampage.”
“Ur got angry? Oh no, what happened? Was there any kind of loud noise or explosion?”
Trixie fidgeted the ground with her front hooves. “Emmm, Trixie thinks there was a loud noise, but Trixie doesn’t know what caused it.”
“And where is Ur now? Did she harm any pony?” Luna asked with concern in her voice.
“Don’t worry Princess, thanks to Trixie’s strategy of keeping the Ursa distracted, no one got injured.” Trixie said while casually brushed a hoof on her chest. “And about the whereabouts of the Ursa, after it made that hole on the ground, Twilight Sparkle teleported it away. Trixie doesn’t know where.”
Luna looked down at the floor. ‘Twilight teleported Ur? The changes to her magic are starting to show up.’ Luna sighed and lifted her head. “But then… What happened to them?” She pointed in the general direction of the other ponies.
“Oh, that? Trixie isn’t really sure. After Sparkle teleported the Ursa Major away, that yellow pegasus grabbed her and started thanking her about saving everyone. I wasn’t paying much attention, but I think she kissed Twilight Sparkle, so I’m guessing… that… Princess Luna?” Trixie said as she watched Luna’s face contort.
Luna walked to the middle of the group, took a deep breath and: “SNAP OUT OF IT!!” Luna shouted, allowing a bit of her royal voice to mix in the words. The other ponies, with the exception of Twilight, seemed to come back from their shock and Fluttershy from her embarrassment. They looked at Luna, she was walking slowly but firmly to where Fluttershy was standing.
“I-I’m sorry, I d-don’t know why I did that, I-I was just so happy. Don’t be mad.” Fluttershy tried to make herself as small as she could, all those looks over her, Princess Luna towering figure just in front of her. She was shaking.
Luna sighed. “No, Fluttershy, you did nothing wrong. If I remember correctly, a few nights ago we accorded that anything was valid. There’s nothing to be sorry.” Luna looked away and bit her hoof. ‘Why wasn’t I the one to get Twilight’s first kiss. Stupid Fluttershy.’
“Wait a second.” Rainbow started as she flew to meet with Luna and Fluttershy. “That really happened? Did Fluttershy just snatch Twilight’s first kiss? Please tell me that it was just a dream.” She looked around , looking for someone who could answer her, but the only answer she got was silence. “That… That can’t...” Rainbow couldn’t believe it. To think that the one pony that would beat her to get Twilight’s first kiss that would be her foalhood friend.
Rainbow’s face contorted in an expression of anger, but as she locked eyes with Fluttershy, the anger subsided. It wasn’t correct to be mad with her, not even if Fluttershy had succeeded in what she had failed two times. “Well, Fluttershy, enjoy it while you can. This will be the only time that you get to be a step ahead of me.” She said with a forced grin. 'There's still another first time for me to take anyway.'
“Yeah, Fluttershy.” Pinkie said with her cheery voice, but she didn’t bounce to get next to the pegasus, she just walked, and her mane was a bit less puffier. “Don’t be worried, I mean, that was kind of hot, but it would have been hotter if I was the one kissing Twilight, I would have used my tongue like this.” She stuck out her tongue and started to swirl it around.
Applejack reassured what the others had said, with the exception of Pinkie’s last part, just with a nod. She didn’t wanted to speak at the moment, who knows what things she might have said to her friend. Things she knew she couldn't take back, but in her guts wriggled snakes of envy and scorn. Forget kissing, she couldn't even speak to Twilight without smacking herself in the face. She knew she should feel proud that her afraid-of-everything friend had been able to overcome her shyness, but all she felt was the envy to not be in her stead.
“I think we should end our play date here. Twilight has had enough… excitement for the day” Rarity said, one of her eyes twitching, at which the others nodded. Just as she finished, their respective pets came out from the hiding spot in which Fluttershy had asked them to stay.
“I’m sad that it is not my case, but I will have to leave soon to search for poor little Ur. Also...” Luna touched her face, flinching a little. “I have to get home and take a look at my face. Does any of you know what happened to me? It hurts just to touch it.”
“Oh! That’s because when you were sleeping, Rar-”
“We have no idea, Princess.” Rarity laughed nervously while covering Pinkie’s mouth with a hoof.
“Okay, I’ll just ask someone in the castle to take a look at it.” Luna walked up to where Twilight was lying. “Now, I need to wake up Twilight so she can tell me where Ur is.”
Celestia’s call at the door pulled Luna out of her memories of the day.
“It’s time for you to rise the moon.” Celestia said from the other side of the door.
“I’ll be there in a minute sister.” Luna waited until the hoofsteps of her sister disappeared. She sighed. ‘Today didn’t go as I wanted.’ A determined look appeared on her face, ‘but that won’t be the case the day of my date with Twilight.’ With a smile, Luna exited her room to meet with her sister.
“Are we there yet? Trixie is tired of walking.”
Twilight sighed, “It’s been less than ten minutes.”
“Trixie already told you that she got here after a long walk through that horrible forest, and not to forget that I was running from that Ursa. Trixie is tired, she just wants to relax in a hot tub filled with bubbles and...”
Twilight ignored Trixie’s rambling and thought: ‘How did things turn like this?’
“There’s... no need for that, Luna.” The muffled voice of Twilight sounded just before she stood up on her hooves, with a slight tint of red over her muzzle. “I just needed a moment to calm down after… that.” The red tint got a bit darker.
Fluttershy was about to apologize, but she didn’t so for two reasons. First, she was embarrassed to speak about what had happened, and second, she wasn’t really sorry. She was dancing with joy on the inside, especially since no one seemed particularly mad at her.
“And you're right, Rarity.” Twilight continued. “I would like to rest for a while.” She turned to look at Princess Luna. “Luna, you can find Ur at the western part of the Everfree Forest. Sorry to teleport her there, but I couldn’t think of any other place where she wouldn’t cause much problems.”
“Thank you, Twilight. I wish to stay, but I have to go find Ur. She must be angry, but a little rub behind her front left paw will solve it. So I guess this is goodbye for today. I really enjoyed everything, I hope we can do this again.” ‘And with some luck, I won’t spend the whole time sleeping.’ She opened her wings, but before she could take off, Twilight stopped her.
“Wait, I almost forgot.” She grabbed her saddlebags with her magic. After few seconds of searching, Twilight took a few papers out. “As you may remember, The night when Luna confessed, I planned on making schedules for… The dates.” Another blush adorned her face, while Pinkie, Rarity and even Rainbow Dash, who tried to play it cool, squealed in joy.
“The first date will take place in five days, and after that, it will be an interval of two days before the next date.” Twilight started to distribute the schedules. “I researched a bit about dating, and with that, I planned the most optimum date, with the appropriate activities.”
“That’s amazin’, Twi.” Applejack turned to look at the pink pony. “Pinkie, let me see yer schedule for a moment.” When Pinkie finally managed to calm down her jumps of happiness, she gave Applejack the schedule. “Mhm, just what Ah thought.” She gave the paper back and looked at Twi. “Yep, ya planned the perfect date, the problem is, ya planned the same date for each one of us.”
“Is that something bad? I mean, I researched about what would be the perfect date, made some charts of the most appropriate activities that-” Twilight got interrupted when Rarity put a hoof on her mouth.
“Darling, We know you worked hard to come up with the best date you could think, but maybe you should allow us to come up with the plans for the dates. Let us show how much you mean to us in our own ways.” Rarity finished with a smile.
Twilight sighed. ‘So I should have just bothered with the schedule and not the dates itself?’ “You are right Rarity,” a smile formed on her mouth. “I can’t wait to see what you come up with, each of you.”
“Heh, just wait and see, you will be so-”
“Our date will be so awesome, Twilight, I can imagine it being like a full day party that takes place in-” Rainbow shut Pinkie with a hoof.
“Amazing that you will have to hold back the urges to kiss me.” Rainbow finished. “You can continue now, Pinkie.” Rainbow removed her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth, just to be replaced by a blue one.
“Yeah, yeah, dates, who cares?” Trixie said with a bit of annoyance. “So, Twilight, when do we start with Trixie’s training?”
There was a prolonged moment of silence. “What are you talking about?” Twilight finally asked.
Trixie sighed. “Right, you all were busy with your little problems.”
“What the hay do you think you-” A magic zip appeared on Rainbow’s mouth.
“Silence, feather brain. This is important and Trixie will only say it once.” Trixie cleared her voice. Rainbow glared at her and growled muffled expletives through the zipper’s teeth. “Trixie has decided to stay and study under Twilight Sparkle as her ward!” Another prolonged silence. “What, not even a praise?”
“Y-you are saying that you will be Twilight’s student?” Fluttershy asked in her usual soft tone.
Trixie rubbed her chin. “Trixie doesn’t like the sound of ‘Twilight’s student’. Let’s call it... an association of mutual benefit.”
“Mutual benefit? In which way could Twilight benefit from it?” Rarity asked.
“Oh please, she gets to see the incredible process of Trixie’s improvement. That’s more than enough.”
Applejack scoffed. “But she would have to put up with ya and yer problems. Twilight, there’s no need fer ya to… Uhmmm, sugarcube?”
Twilight had a big smile over her face, “I get the chance to teach magic!” She close the distance between her and Trixie. “This will be so great, we will study Star Swirl’s contributions to magic, We can practice new spells, and even better, we could discuss the effects of large amounts of opposite magical charges in an inanimate object!” Twilight jumped in joy. “This will be so awesome. I have always dreamed of teaching and sharing my knowledge in magic.”
Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity shared a look and dropped their heads in misery. Trixie was going to stay here in Ponyville longer than they would-
“Perfect, Trixie will stay in your home then.”
“WHAT!” Five ponies shouted, one tried, but the magic zip didn’t let her.
“Why the hay are you staying in Twilight’s home?” Applejack asked.
“In Trixie first arrival to this town, she lost her home after the event’s with the Ursa minor, and she doesn’t have enough bits to stay at an inn.”
“Also, if Trixie stays at my home, it would let her deepening in magic be more fluid.” Twilight added.
“Okay,” Applejack said with a sigh before getting in Trixie personal space. “But if ya try something fancy in ma Twilight-”
“Your Twilight?” Trixie asked.
‘Smack’- “Just don’t try anything.”
“Pffft, Why would I even try something?” Trixie looked at Twilight. “Then, let’s go, Sparkle. Trixie’s really tired, and she could use a bath right now.” Trixie started to walk away.
Twilight was about to say her goodbyes for the day when Fluttershy talked. “Umm, Twilight, it’s not that I’m complaining or anything but…”
“Yes, Fluttershy?”
“You haven’t told us the order of the dates. Who’s going first?”
“OH! how silly of me.” Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Okay, I first thought of which would be the best order for the dates, but finally decided to choose randomly the order. Just to not give the impression that one of you is my favorite for being first. I wrote your names in small pieces of scroll and put them inside a black bag. I asked Owlowiscious to pull them out one by one.” Twilight looked around, seeing how much attention her friends and Luna were paying her. “So, the first date will be with-”
“Stop daydreaming, Sparkle. When we arrive to your home, have one of your servants prepare dinner for Trixie.” Trixie said, a few meters ahead of Twilight.
The lavender Alicorn was starting to regret the idea of teaching Trixie the more time she spend with her. ‘Wait a second… Servants?’ Twilight quickened her pace to catch up with the unicorn. “Ummm, Trixie…”
‘Okay, just try to remember. How did I feel when Fluttershy kissed me?’ Twilight thought with a blush on her face. It was late at night and She was pacing around her room, holding a scroll and a quill with her magic. After getting back to her home, she decided that she had to document that special moment of the day, her first kiss. She had been thinking about it for more than half an hour and so far, in the scroll, she had written… nothing.
‘Ding-ding.’
‘Ughh! I don’t know what I felt!’ Everything had happened so fast, that Twilight wasn’t sure of exactly what she had felt. She could write what she felt right now while remembering the event. Her heart beat quickened, her face felt warmer and she had developed the habit of touching her lips with a hoof each time she remembered it. Even if her first kiss had been stolen from her, she just couldn’t manage to get angry, not even a little bit annoyed, far from it, she was… ‘Happy? Ugh, I don’t know.’
‘Ding-ding-ding.’
Maybe, that was exactly what she felt at the moment, but she wasn’t sure. She decided to change a bit the subject of what she was thinking. ‘What will I feel when I kiss the others?’ Twilight laid on her bed, burying her red face in the pillow. She could easily imagine it, kissing Fluttershy gently for a second time, or an intense kiss from Rarity. The taste of apples when kissing Applejack, or the sweet, sugary flavor on Pinkie’s lips. She could imagine kissing Luna under the starry night, or being above the clouds with Rainbow Dash. ‘“Or maybe you want them all?”’ Celestia’s words came to her mind.
‘Ding-Ding-Ding!’
‘What’s going on with me? Just four days ago I was freaking out over all the love confessions, and now I’m thinking about the possibility of having all of them for-’
‘DING-DING-DING!’
“Ugh, Trixie! What are you doing!” Twilight shouted, she stood from her bed and looked at the door of the bathroom.
Trixie slightly opened the door with her magic, just enough so that a bit of steam and a little bell surrounded by a light blue aura levitated out from the bathroom. “I’m trying to call that servant of yours.”‘DING-DING-DING!’
“What servant? I already told you that I don’t have any kind of butler or maid.”
“And what about that big lizard, Spine, the one that followed you around the other times.” Trixie said from the other side of the door. ‘DING-DING-DING!’
“First of all, Trixie, his name is Spike, not Spine. Second: He’s not a big lizard, he’s a baby dragon. Third: He’s not my servant, he’s my number one assistant. And finally, why are you calling him?”
“Trixie forgot to bring a towel with her for the bath, so she needed your assistant to bring one for Trixie.” ‘DING-DING-DING!’
“Trixie, please, stop using that bell,” Twilight said a bit annoyed. “Spike is sleeping. He’s tired after cleaning the whole library and I would appreciate it if you stopped ringing that bell.”
Twilight and Trixie had arrived to the library an hour ago. Trixie, with her dreams of being spoiled like royalty totally crushed after Twilight told her that she didn’t have servants and that she didn’t live in a castle, made her way upstairs to take a bath. Meanwhile, Twilight found Spike, wearing an apron, sleeping in the couch of the first floor, with a broom in one hand and a duster near his tail. Twilight grabbed him in her magical grasp and took him upstairs while admiring the incredible job he had done.
“I’ll bring you a towel, Trixie, just wait a second.” Twilight said while moving to the closet where she kept the towels.
“See, if you had more than one servant, you wouldn’t need to do this kind of things.”
“That Spike is not my servant, and there’s no need for them when I’m perfectly capable of taking care of things around here by myself.” That wasn’t true, Spike was the one who took care of things. He cleaned, he cooked and he did the shopping, that while Twilight studied day and night.
Twilight grabbed one of the largest towels from the closet and walked back to the bathroom’s door. “Trixie, here’s your towel.” Twilight waited for moment, but there was no answer. “Umm, Trixie?” Twilight slowly opened the door. A large amount of steam hit Twilight in the face. “Wow, Trixie, I understand that you haven’t had the chance to bath with hot water, but this is ridiculous. This is more like a sauna than a bath.”
“Ahhhhh!” Trixie screamed.
“Trixie, what’s wrong?” Twilight moved inside the bathroom, at the same time Trixie was going out. Both of them collided and rolled across the floor of the bedroom. The towel that Twilight was holding wrapped around both ponies more and more with each roll. Finally, they stopped, and Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see Trixie lying over her, muzzle to muzzle.
“Sparkle, get away from me!” Trixie said as she tried to pull away, but the towel wouldn’t let her move, not even an inch.
“Me? You are the one on top.” Both ponies struggled and tried to set themselves free. Trixie wet coat was pressed against Twilight’s. “Agh, Trixie wait, you are making me wet.”
“Just hold for a second,” Trixie said with a groan, “Just… a bit… more…” Trixie accidentally placed one of her hooves between Twilight stomach and her wing, which caused the alicorn to gasp.
“Trixie, not there… please,” Twilight said between moans.
In the second Floor of Sugarcube Corner, the eyes of a pink mare shot wide open. She sat on the bed for a moment and looked through the window, in the direction of the library. “My spider sense is tingling.” A frown appeared in her face, she kept looking for a while until realization hit her. “Silly me, I don’t have a spider sense.” Pinkie flopped back to her bed and started to snore. She returned to her dream, the one where she and Twilight were smooching in Twilight’s room after a good and refreshing bath.
Twilight’s wings slowly started to stretch as much as they could in the towel.
“Wait, Sparkle, it got really tight in here, I can barely…” Trixie stopped as she focused her eyes in something. Twilight tried to look at what caught Trixie’s attention.
From Twilight’s position, an upside down dragon was sitting in a basket, watching the two mares in the floor with sleepy, half opened eyes.
Twilight’s heart sank as she realized what this little accident might look like to the dragon. Her face started to get hotter. She tried to say something, tried to explain what really was going on, but her brain couldn’t think of anything. The silence in the room stretched for a moment until finally, one of the three who were present in the room spoke.
“Ugh, I must be really tired. I don’t need dreams of Twilight making out with that showoff, Trixie.” He plopped his tired body in the basket. “Let’s just go back to the old good dreams, where I’m sleeping till late.” A few seconds later the snores of the dragon filled the room.
“That little lizard!” Trixie harrumphed. “Calling Trixie a showoff, I’ll show him.”
“You won’t be showing him anything, he has already seen too much.” Twilight said as she struggled under Trixie. “Let’s just get out from this and go to bed.”
Trixie smirked. “I’ll have to decline that, Sparkle. Trixie already told you that she’s not interested in you, and she doesn’t want any trouble with your friends.”
“What are you tal…” Twilight’s eyes shot wide open. “Oh, nononononono. I’m not talking about that! I meant it like we need to go to sleep. Not together, you in the spare bed and I in my own.”
“Relax, Sparkle, Trixie was just joking with you.” Trixie tried again to move away, just to get the same result. “And going to bed without eating? What kind of hostess are you?”
“Alright. Now, Let’s just do the logical thing that we should have done from the beginning, use our magic.” Twilight purple magic surrounded the two mares, levitating them two feet over the floor. The towel was unwrapped and the two mares landed softly on the floor. Twilight then levitated the towel over Trixie head and dropped it so she could dry herself. “Okay, let’s go make sandwiches and after that we go right to bed.” Trixie opened her mouth but Twilight lifted a hoof to her before she could say anything. “You know what I meant.”
“What? Trixie was just going to say that sandwiches wasn’t what she expected to eat while staying with the princess. You know, if you had a maid, we could ask her to prepare us a proper dinner dinner.”
“Well, too bad.” Twilight walked out the room, Trixie following closely. “We will start practicing magic tomorrow.”
“Practice magic?”
Twilight stopped a pair of steps from the stairs. “You do remember that that is the reason why you are staying, right? To improve in magic.”
“Oh, of course, Trixie was just… joking with you again.” She smiled awkwardly.
Twilight sighed, resuming her way to the kitchen. ‘I’m starting to regret this.’
Four days Remaining.
Twilight woke up early the next morning. Trixie was still sleeping, so starting the magic lessons would have to wait. She just sat in the kitchen table and ate her cereal while reading a book about the history of cereals.
Steps from the main room caught Twilight’s attention. She closed her book and looked at the kitchen entrance to see her little assistant walking inside and scratching his back.
“Good morning Spike.” Twilight said as she used her magic to grab one clean bowl and placed it in the table.
“Yeah, good morning.” Spike replied, not as cheery as usual. It could be for the hard work he did in the library yesterday. Just this morning, Twilight realized how clean the ceiling was. But Twilight knew that it wasn’t the reason. Spike still needed time to get over Rarity.
“You did an amazing job cleaning the whole library.”
“Yeah,” Spike said barely audible. As the dragon grabbed the cereal box, he noticed Twilight’s worried expression. “I mean, thank you, Twilight. I know you gave me the day off, but I just didn’t feel like sleeping the whole day.” He poured some milk in his bowl. His mood slightly improved as Twilight levitated a topaz next to him. Feeling better, he decided to start a conversation. “You know, Twilight, I had this weird dream yesterday.
Twilight smiled at Spike’s improved mood. “Oh, and what was it about?”
“Oh, come on Spike, you can tell me anything.” She insisted, trying to keep Spike’s good mood.
“Umm, well, last night, I dreamed about you, and...” He coughed, the next part was hard to say, specially to Twilight. “This is the first time I have dreamed something like this, I don’t even know why I dreamed about it. I guess it has something to do with what has happened to you lately.” He took a deep breath. “You were, umm, making out, with another mare.”
Twilight’s body paled, “I-I was what?” Twilight had totally forgotten of the events of last night when she woke up that morning.
“The weirdest thing is that you were making out with that self-conceited of Trixie, gross.” He looked up at Twilight, who’s eye just kept Twitching, “Ummm, Twilight?”
A loud yawn and steps from the main room caught Spike’s attention. He turned his head, his eyes widened.
“Ugh, Trixie’s muscles are sore after all the action from yesterday.” Trixie walked to the table and sat between Spike and Twilight. “What’s for breakfast?”
Spike looked at Trixie for a moment, then looked at Twilight, who was even more pale than before. Spike jaw dropped. “Oh Celestia, it wasn’t a dream.”
“No, Spike, it’s a big misunderstanding. I can explain-”
“And you were at that while I was in the room? Twilight!” Spike said a bit annoyed and disgusted.
“I… I…” Twilight turned to look at Trixie, who had helped herself to a bowl of cereal. She wasn’t paying much attention to the discussion. “Trixie, help me here. Tell Spike what really happened.”
Trixie took the spoon with cereal and milk to her mouth. She chewed slowly and then swallowed. “Okay, Spine, what you saw yesterday is a big misunderstanding.”
Spike ignored Trixie’s mistake in his name, he rubbed his chin as he tried to remember the “dream”, “Really, a misunderstanding?” Trixie nodded. “Then explain this. The first thing that I remember was Twilight saying that you were making her wet.” Twilight’s face color did a complete turnaround, from pale to red in less than zero point ten seconds.
“I saw you both lying on the floor, Trixie on top. I remember Twilight moaning and Trixie saying that it got really tight in here,” he paused for a second, “and just now, Trixie said that her muscles were sore from all the action of yesterday.” Spike crossed his arms and looked at the two mares. “Okay, start explaining now, or call a psychologist. I think I will need it after seeing the pony who has taken care of me my whole life and a pony I don’t like making out in the floor.”
Trixie face was red, but not as much as Twilight. “Hmmm, It really looks like we were making out. Just don’t go saying it, Trixie has a reputation to keep.”
“Trixie! You are not helping!” Twilight pressed her hooves against her temples. “Look, Spike, we weren’t… doing that. I was just bringing a towel to Trixie after her bath. We crashed against each other and got we got tangled with the towel. Trixie was still wet from her bath, so while we were struggling to get out from it, she was getting my coat wet.”
“I…” Twilight blushed and made little circles on the table with her hoof. “I was moaning because, while struggling, Trixie placed one hoof inside my wing, and… I’m kind of sensitive there.” She blushed harder. “The part of getting tighter, that’s because my wings stretched a bit, making the towel tighten around us.”
Spike looked sceptical, “I guess that makes sense, but what about what Trixie said, that part of her muscles being sore from all the action of yesterday.”
“Well, I guess that’s because of our little problem yesterday during the pet’s play date.”
Spike rubbed his chin. “Hmm, that explains everything, except one thing.”
Twilight gulped, “W-What thing?” She asked hesitantly.
“What is she doing here?” Spike pointed at Trixie, who was finishing her cereal. “Don’t tell me that she has fallen for you too.”
“Trixie is not interested in Sparkle!” Trixie complained.
“Oh, right, I haven’t explained that.” Twilight cleared her voice and took a few breaths that helped to dismiss her blush. “Spike, Trixie will stay with us for a while. She’s going to start studying magic under my tutelage.”
“This is a joke, right? Please, Twilight, tell me this is a joke.” Spike waited for Twilight to answer, to tell him this was a joke, but she didn’t said anything. He pinched his arm to see if he was having a bad dream, but the pain was real. “This week just keep getting worse and worse.” Spike said in defeat while silently continuing to eat his breakfast.
“Spike,” Twilight said as she placed a hoof on Spike’s shoulder, “you can take the day off. You could use some time outside the library.”
“Yeah, I could use some time away from… her.” Twilight could easily see that Spike wasn’t fond of the idea of Trixie staying here, and she couldn’t blame him after what Trixie has done.
Spike finished his breakfast and left the library to find something to do. Twilight cleaned the bowls and moved to the main room of the library, followed by Trixie.
“Now that I think about it, Trixie, what made you scream last night?” Twilight turned to look at Trixie.
“Oh, It was horrible. Yesterday, after Trixie took her bath, she took a look at the mirror and found that… that she has a gray hair in her mane! This is a fatal blow to Trixie’s image!”
Twilight looked silently at Trixie’s mane for a moment. “Umm, isn’t your mane already gray?”
Trixie humped, “for your information, Trixie mane color its a beautiful pale cornflower blue.”
“It looks a bit gray to me, almost silver.” Trixie glared at Twilight. “Oh, oh, wait, you are right.” Twilight smiled awkwardly under Trixie’s glare. “Ummm, a beautiful color.” Trixie kept glaring, so Twilight decided to make a quick change of theme. “Well Trixie, let’s begin the teaching!”
That caught Trixie’s attention. “Oh, this will be good. What are we going to do first? Something to warm up like levitation? Or something more advanced like transmutation? Are we going to make something invisible? Ohhh, we can try that teleportation spell of yours.” Trixie said with excitement.
“Nope, we are going to read.” Twilight happily answered, levitating a dozen of books to the blue unicorn.
“Read? Seriously?”
“Yes, before you start doing magic, you need to comprehend the theory behind it.” Twilight opened one of the books and started to read through it.
Trixie sighed, ‘I’m starting to regret this.’ With that, she grabbed one of the books and started to read. They kept at that for the rest of the day.
Three days remaining.
It was the middle of the afternoon, Twilight was currently chatting happily with Spike in the kitchen while Trixie read books in the main room. Twilight was currently telling Spike about what had happened the day of the play date.
“And the second after that, the Ursa Major was nowhere to be seen.”
Spike had his eyes wide open, “that’s amazing, Twilight! I have never seen you doing something like that, well, except for the times you use the Elements of Harmony. But this is the first time you show so much magical power by yourself. That must have been even more power than the day of your magical surge!”
Twilight looked away for a moment, “That’s the thing, Spike. It was way too much magical power. I teleported an Ursa that is way bigger than this library, and, I teleported her from the Whitetails Woods to the Everfree Forest.”
“That’s surreal, Twilight. When did you get this powerful?”
Twilight looked directly at Spike, “I have a little theory. The last time I checked my magic reserves and magical energy, It showed that I have a bigger level than most of the unicorns, but not enough to do something like this.”
“Then what is-”
“But,” Twilight interrupted Spike’s question, “that check was half month ago, a few days before I accidentally swapped the cutie marks of the girls.” Twilight looked at Spike, but he didn’t seem like he was making the connection. Twilight sighed, “a few days before I turned into an Alicorn.”
“Oooohhhh, that means…”
“Yes, Spike. My theory is that I not only got a pair of wings that I can’t use properly yet. My magic reserves increased and the magical levels incremented considerably. I didn’t know this before because I haven’t checked my magic since that day. The first week after the coronation, I was busy reading a lot of important documents and learning things that I need to know as Equestria’s new Princess, and the days after that…” She blushed before continuing. “I was busy with all this love thing. So, after teleporting that Ursa, this is the most logical conclusion.”
Spike looked silently at Twilight for a moment, “Wow, is like you just evolved.”
“Ummm, what?”
“Yes, like a Ponymon!”
“A Pony-what?”
“A Ponymon. This is amazing, your basic stats improved and you evolved from a psychic type to a Psychic/Flying type.” Spike rubbed his chin. “It’s like you evolved from Twilight to… Twilord!”
“Spike, what are you talking about?”
“Oh, you see, yesterday when you gave me the day off, I went out and met Button Mash. He is in Sweetie Belle’s class. So we talked for a while and then invited me to play games in his home. He showed me this cool game called Ponymon. You have to catch them all and beat all the gym leaders to become a Ponymon master! That game is amazing and the new version just came out last week! Originally, there were only one hundred and fifty Ponymons, but now, there are over six hundred!”
Twilight looked a Spike, one thing crossed his mind, ‘what is he talking about?’ She shook her head. “Oh, ummm, I should go and look how Trixie is doing with her studying. Spike, if you want you can go and play again with, umm, Button.”
Spike eyes shone with joy, “Awesome. Thanks, Twilord!” Spike ran out from the kitchen and made his way to the exit.
“Don’t call me that!” Twilight shouted, but she was sure Spike didn’t heard her. She shook her head again as a smile adorned her face. Spike seemed to be doing fine and Twilight was happy to let him do something that would keep his mind away from anything related to Rarity. Sometimes she forgot how mature Spike was for his age. Twilight stood from the chair and walked to the main room, where Trixie was reading intently.
“Hey Trixie, I’m happy to see that you are so focused in that book.” Trixie didn’t answer, she didn’t even move. “Umm, Trixie?” She lifted her hoof to touch Trixie’s shoulder, but her hoof just went through her. “What? This is… a magical illusion?” A loud snore sounded in that moment from behind the couch. Twilight walked around it to find a blue unicorn sleeping on the floor. “Trixie!”
“Get away from my things!” Trixie shouted as she adopted a defencive stance. She looked around her to see that she wasn’t in one of the streets of Manehattan. “Right, Trixie is in Sparkles home.”
“W-what was that?” Twilight said a bit shaken by Trixie’s sudden outburst.
“Nothing.” Trixie stretched her legs. “Is dinner ready?”
“Dinner? It’s only tree in the afternoon. You didn’t slept that much.”
Trixie sighed, “sorry for falling asleep, but Trixie hasn’t done anything besides reading since yesterday. Can’t we practice some magic already?”
“Hmm, well, I guess we can.”
“Excellent! What are we going to do?”
“Levitation.” Twilight said simply.
“Levitation? But that’s the easiest of the spells!”
“Before trying advanced magic, one must master the basics.”
‘Trixie is definitely regretting this.’
Two Days remaining.
Rainbow Dash was clearing the sky over Ponyville’s train station. She had been busy this last few days, not only with her job, but also with planning her date with Twilight. That was hard for her, as she had never given much thought for romance. But for Twilight, she was willing to do whatever she could to make the most awesome date ever.
She kicked a few clouds before the arrival of the train to the station caught her attention. As the doors of the train opened, a white unicorn stallion ran out from one of the wagons. Rainbow Dash immediately recognised and was surprised to to see him. She watched from afar how the unicorn made his way through the crowds of ponies, while wearing a peculiar serious expression that Rainbow decoded as problems. He was moving to Twilight’s home.
“I should gather the girls, there might be an emergency.” She flew off in the direction of Fluttershy cottage.
Twilight and Trixie were back at reading books in the library.Trixie was at least happy to see that the content of this book was about some magic that she had never seen before. Twilight had also promised her that that afternoon, they would start some advanced magic after Trixie showed complete mastery of the basics. Meanwhile, Spike was just sorting some books that the pair of mares had already read and putting them back in the shelves with the help of a ladder.
“Well,” Twilight started as she closed the book she was reading, “Trixie, are you ready to put in practice what you have been studying?”
“Really? Are we really going to do some serious magic?”
“Of course, I think you already understand the concepts necessary for what we are going to try today.”
Trixie smiled with joy. “This will be so great and powerful that no one will-”
The loud slam of the door interrupted Trixie and made Spike fall from the ladder. “TWILIGHT!” The stallion shouted from the entrance of the library. Unicorn and Dragon looked quite annoyed at the moment..
“Sh-Shining?” Twilight walked closer to her BBBFF. He was breathing harshly, and wore an expression of total anger that she had never seen. “Why are you here?”
“Twilight, is it true?” He said as he gave a step closer to his LSBFF, who in return gave a step back as she started to feel scared. “Tell me,” he said with a stern voice.
“Shining, what are you talking about.”
Shining used his magic to open the saddlebags that he had in his back and pulled a scroll from inside. He levitated it to Twilight, who grabbed it with her own magic and unrolled it to start reading it.
“Umm, Spine, who’s that stallion,” Trixie asked to the little dragon that was rubbing his back.
“How many times do I have to tell you that my name is Spike, not Spine.” Spike said a bit annoyed. “And he’s Shining Armor, Twilight’s brother.” He looked at Trixie for a moment. “I’m surprised you don’t know him. He got married to Cadence, one of the princess of Equestria and current ruler of the crystal empire.”
“Well, that all must have happened while I was working at the rock farm. A lot of news didn’t reached that zone.” Trixie said with a shrug. “And why is he here?”
“I don’t know, but it seems to be something really important.” Dragon and unicorn watched the pair of siblings from the distance, Twilight had just finished to read whatever was written in the scroll. She was pale and shaking.
“Shining, I… I can explain.”
“Tell me, Twilight, why does this letter say that-”
“Dash, ya sure this is somethin’ serious.” Applejack asked as she ran along her friends in the direction of the library.
“I’m a totally sure, AJ. Shining Armor’s expression, it could only mean bad news. We have to get to the library fast.”
“Ooh, I just hope that we can help with whatever the problem is.” Fluttershy added as the group finally arrived at the library.
“-you are going to have six dates with six different ponies?!”
“Oh my, I think we should let Twilight to handle this… problem by herself.” Rarity said as they looked through the open door of the library.
“Shining, it’s… it’s complicated, but I can explain-”
“No, just tell me who they are and I will go and add a pair of horseshoes to their cutie marks.” Fluttershy eeped at Shining statement, making their presence known to the ones inside the library, and that was the only warning Shining got. A white blur ran to Shining Armor and gave him a buck in the flank that sent him flying towards one of the bookshelves. He fell to the floor and was buried by an avalanche of books. At some point, Spike and Trixie had gotten themselves some snacks and were spectating the show from the side.
“Change of plans, we are getting involved. No one is going to kick my flank just for loving Twilight.” Rarity looked at the lavender alicorn. “Ummm, sorry for kicking your brother, darling.”
Shining got out from his tomb of books, he shook his head and then looked at Applejack while he rubbed his temple. “I must have hit my head really hard. Did you just said that you… love… Twilie?”
“Umm, Shining,” Twilight started as she got closer to her brother. She sat in front of him. She knew she had to told him, but she first wanted to have things sorted out, to have the dates before having this talk to any member of her family. “The six ponies that are mentioned in the letter, you probably thought that they were stallions, but the six of them are mares, and…” She looked back at her friends. “Five of them are my friends.”
“Oooohhhhhh,” Shining didn’t expected this, “I… I thought… and that’s why I was… Ummm...” He looked directly at his little sister. “So you like… you are into.”
“I’m not… Well, I wasn’t… maybe. Ugh! I don’t know, I never gave much thought to that. So much has happened, I just…”
Shining looked around, his eyes landing on the pony sitting next to Spike. “So… I suppose the sixth one is that unicorn over there.”
“Why does everypony think that Trixie is in love with Sparkle?!” Trixie was getting annoyed of everybody assuming that she was in love of Twilight.
“Ummm, no, the other pony that love me is… Princess Luna.”
“Hmmm, I would be in a serious trouble if I were to kick her flank. Twilie, I think I will need the full version of this.”
“Then you should stay for the night, Shining. The story is quite long.” Spike walked to the big stallion that laid over the books. “At least this one won’t be as awkward as the one about you making out with Trixie three days ago.”
“Spike!” Twilight shouted at the same time Trixie facehoofed.
“They WHAT?!” Three ponies shouted, Rarity fainted and one mane made the sound of a balloon deflating.
“Girls, is not like that-” A crack was heard in the room. Fluttershy’s gentle aura had changed to one of danger, Rainbow Dash was snorting some steam from her nose and Applejack was stomping her hoof. Before Twilight could calm them down, Trixie used one of her stage tricks, the smoke curtain, to distract the other mares and make her escape through one of the windows. Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash didn’t hesitate in following.
“Trixie! I told ya not to try somethin’ fancy on Twilight!”
“You can’t move faster than me, Trixie!”
“You won’t get away from new Fluttershy.”
“Wait! Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy! This is a big misunderstanding.” The athlete, the caretaker and the farmer ignored Twilight as they chased after Trixie.
Spike evaluated the situation, the one he had caused with his slip of tongue and there was only one thing to say. “Whoops. Sorry, at least Luna wasn’t here. Who knows what might have happened.”
“Spike! You just- Ugh! Just stay here while I go and make sure they don’t kill Trixie. Shining, we will continue our conversation when I’m back.”
“Sure, Twilie.” Shining watched his sister ran out to the town.
Spike moved to the door of the library. “Twilord! Just use explanation! It’ll be super effective” Spike shouted.
“Don’t call me Twilord! And you better have the library organized when I come back!” Twilight disappeared at the distance.
“Spike,” Shining called to the little dragon that was closing the door. “What is this light?”
Spike looked in the direction of Shining voice. He was standing next to the Elements of harmony. He saw the light that vanished a second later. Only Spike and Shining managed to see the light, as Rarity laid unconscious on the floor and Pinkie Pie was busy talking with… a plant? “I don’t know, Shining, but this has been happening for a week. I don’t think is something to worry about.”
“If you say so.” Shining said simply.
“Hey, Shining, if you want you can go and eat something from the fridge. I would prepare you something, but I have to clean this mess.” Spike gestured at the pile of books in the floor.
“Sure, I haven’t eat since this morning.” Shining disappeared as he entered the kitchen.
Spike started to organize the library but took a little break to observe Rarity’s unconscious body. It still hurt to see her, but he knew, that with a bit more of time, he would finally manage to move on.
“My spider sense was warning me,” Pinkie mumbled to the plant. “But I don’t have a spider sense.”
One day remaining.
Yesterday had been a crazy day for Twilight, crazier than usual. After saving Trixie from three of her friends, and explaining that all had been a misunderstanding, she returned home to explain this to the others. Twilight’s friends were happy to hear that it had been all a misunderstanding. They left the library, but not before giving another warning to Trixie.
Shining Armor waited patiently for Twilight to finish talking with her friends, and when they left, he knew it was his turn for the explanation. Twilight started to tell him how all this had started, her talk to the princess, and the decision to date them. At this moment, Twilight was walking with Shining to the train station. He had to go back to the Crystal Empire.
“You sure you can’t stay one day longer?” Twilight asked as the pair of siblings walked through the station platform.
“I’m sorry, Twilie, but I have to go. I’ll come back another day, maybe that time you can present me your marefriend.”
“Shining!”
“I’m just teasing you, LSBFF.” Shining hugged Twilight affectionately, then pulled away and ruffled her mane. “And sorry again for… threatening your friends. I really thought, when I read that letter, that you were going out with six stallions, and as a big brother, I had to do something.”
“Don’t worry about that, BBBFF.”
The whistle of the train sounded, signaling that the train was about to depart. Shining got inside and found an empty sit next to the window. He opened it and continued his talk.
“So, Twilight, you are serious about this dates.”
“Yes, I’m completely serious about this and I can’t help but feel more excited with each second that passes.”
Shining smiled. “Tell me, you think the one perfect for you is among the six of them? Will you be able to choose one?”
“That… I don’t know. That’s something I hope the dates will help me with.”
“And what if you can’t choose one? Will they be okay with that?” The train started to move, slowly gaining speed. Shining just closed the window and left Twilight to think in what he asked her.
Twilight just watched the train get smaller in the distance until it disappeared. She then made her way to the library. She walked fast, as she had promised Trixie that today, no matter what happened, they would definitely start practicing some advanced magic. She gave some thought to what Shining told her. Tomorrow, was the day of her first date.
She felt a bit nervous and anxious. ‘What if I can’t choose one? Will they be okay with that? Will I be okay with that?’ She just couldn’t wait to know the answer of that.
She decided to change her thought to something that had been bugging her since yesterday. ‘Who sent that letter to Shining?’
Discord watched the lavender alicorn walk from up in the sky. “The fun starts tomorrow, and I don’t have any idea of what to do.” He tapped his chin, and shrugged, “I guess it will be a surprise, even for me…”
