"Spring Fever"
Traitors. Traitors, the lot of them. Such had Twilight Sparkle branded the fork-tongued monsters that pushed her. Her lips pulled back over her teeth, straining against the force guiding her across Ponyville, hooves tearing deep grooves into the earth. Her eyes bore into the orange backside that pulled the rope tightly wound to her waist.
"C'mon, Twilight!" came Rainbow Dash, the initiator of this heinous act. "It won't be as bad as you think!"
Twilight twisted her head toward the pushing Pegasus. "Are you even hearing yourself?! I can't do this!" she shouted.
"Now, now, Twi," came a maddeningly calm Applejack with a mouthful of rope, "the sooner we get ya to Sugarcube Corner, the sooner we can all look back on this and laugh."
Twilight's futile struggle briefly receded, if only to grasp the absurdity falling from AJ's mouth, "I fail to see what's so FUNNY!" she screamed, her struggle returning to full flare.
Terrified, Twilight then turned to Rarity, whom walked along side them without a care in the world. Twilight began heaving with unspeakable dread, realizing that even her fellow unicorn was beyond her pleas for mercy. Twilight wanted to cry. She wanted to break the shackles of self-restraint and gore the traitorous wenches with a flurry of magic. But, step by step, inch by inch, Twilight's terror would magnify tenfold, somehow making her forget even the most common teleportation spell.
And worse, these horrible, awful ponies were smiling about it.
"DID FLUTTERSHY EVER AGREE TO THIS SUICIDE?!" Twilight howled, legs flailing.
There was a slight crack in Rarity's easy-peasy smile, "We, uh... agreed not to speak of that day," she said with expertly feigned ease.
Twilight's pupils shrank.
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash chimed, "somethin' about having to tie her to her own couch for a three days?"
"I-I... What?" Twilight tilted her head at Rarity.
"It had to be done, darling," Rarity confessed with a bounce to her mane. "How else could I keep her from carving 'Scared for Life' into her chest?"
By now, many of the towns-ponies had hitched in their routine to observe a screeching librarian being dragged across town, and exchanged whispers with arched eyebrows. A few even had the audacity to snicker. And Twilight could only curse them too for allowing this to happen to her. After all she'd done for them. When Sugarcube Corner finally crept into view, Twilight swore, by the sun and moon, she would never assist the Winter Wrap-up again. Ever.
"Here we are," Applejack said, shooting the rope from her mouth with a proud 'pitooy!'
Twilight's lips quivered like string in a windstorm. She turned on her haunches clasping onto Rainbow Dash with wet eyes, and whispered only one word.
"Please..."
"Jeez, Twilight," Rainbow huffed with rolling eyes, "get a grip ,will ya?"
Rarity cleared her throat, if only to cushion Rainbow's abrasive behavior. "If it makes you feel any better, we all had to go through with it. Just ask Fluttershy... You know, when she unbars herself from the cottage."
"But... But-"
"Twi, y'all know why this is important," Applejack cut in, brows furrowed impatiently. "We told y'all what would come of Ponyville if this don't happen every Spring. Or do y'all like the idea of a lifeless home?"
"But... Why me?" Twilight was certain that she'd never sounded so pathetic. "Can't it be anypony else? You know, a pony with more-... w-who knows what to-... Who's into that sort of thing?"
A thin blush stained Rainbow's cheeks at the inquiry, "Twilight. Take it from us, and everypony who's done their village a service. If you don't know, Pinkie will show," she said.
Twilight didn't know whether to be relieved, or utterly horrified by the identical blushes adorning her other friends' faces. All that she found strength to do was shake where she lie, long since releasing Rainbow Dash. Twilight shielded her eyes as though the following silence would strike her in the face. She shook, and shook, and shook some more, wishing she didn't care so much about Ponyville and the rich splendors it shared. She wished Pinkie wasn't such an imperative key to those splendors.
More pointedly, Twilight wished Pinkie hadn't asked for her discriminately.
Whether she liked it or not, Twilight knew when to pony up. And this was a time, like no other, to do so. Without a single word, Twilight gave a long, heavy sigh, and stood to her hooves. Ready to 'bite the bullet', as they say.
Then a cyan hoof fell upon her shoulder, "Hey, don't sweat it, okay? You'll only have to be there for a full day. Then 'bam!' crisis averted," Rainbow Dash assured.
Whatever other words of encouragement may have been uttered, Twilight did not hear them. There was only her hoof-steps, patting unto the earth. Bringing her closer to, what was sure to be, the worst. possible. thing. But those thoughts were subsided, if only to focus on the goal. Twilight had to keep her focus in that direction as she knocked on the that impossibly delicious looking door.
And as said door swung open, the very next instant, Twilight couldn't remember when she wore such a fake smile.
"Twilight! Ooh, I'm so happy to see you!" Pinkie cooed, her eyes half-lidded.
And that nearly destroyed the barrier holding Twilight's excrement. Pinkie. Never. Cooed.
"H-Hey, Pinkie. You, um... wanted to-" Twilight was silenced as she drew a sharp breath.
"I missed you so much..." Pinkie cooed again, a hot blush burning her face as she buried her head beneath Twilight chin, "I'm so glad you're here. Lets go."
"Oh, uh, s-sure," Twilight muttered, not unlike a certain Pegasus, "But... Wouldn't you rather, you know... do something el-"
"Now."
"EEK! Yes ma'am," Twilight recoiled.
As Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow watched poor Twilight enter Sugarcube Corner, and shudder at the force of which the door was slammed, each of them gave their best prayers to their friend.
"Do you think Twilight will ever forgive us for this?" Rainbow asked, the back of her head suddenly very itchy.
"I'm sure that 'All of my Hate' was written somewhere in her body language," Rarity deadpanned.
Applejack could only bring her Stetson to her chest, honoring the unquestionable respect from the unicorn that took one for the team.