Incredibly Interesting Individuals

The sound of freshly dipped ink scraping across fresh parchment was all that can be heard in Twilight Sparkle's library. Multiple quills floated off in either direction, scribbling down a mixture between comprehensible symbols, and those that looked like they came straight from the back of a University textbook. Honestly, they probably were, thought Spike the Dragon as he finished up making Twilight's hay pancakes with her favorite home-made syrup. Taking another casual glance over at her lent Spike a genuine smile. She works too hard, but she wouldn't have it any other way, he thought, reminiscing on her past shenanigans. The faintest shimmer of light reflected off of his eyes as he thought about how she'd changed since she first moved to Ponyville, and his chest welled up with pride.

"Spike? Are you even paying attention?" asked the Princess, letting her tone play no small role in driving her frustration home. The Dragon quickly snapped out of whatever trance he was in, and realized the pancakes were mere seconds from burning. He blew out the flames of the stove-top as quickly as he could, sighing of relief to see that they did not ruin the food.

"Um, sorry Twilight. What were you saying?" he asked while simultaneously putting her plate together, making sure to add a small garnish into the cup of juice he made for her.

Twilight took a deep breath. "No, no, I'm sorry, Spike. I didn't mean to sound upset. I guess this whole Thesis paper is just really making me nervous; I mean, what if it doesn't get accepted, and I can't get my dream job of Magic Theory Specialist?"

"Twilight, you know you're smart enough to write a good paper on, on. . ." Spike lingered on the syllable as he tried to remember what she had called it, though nothing came to mind.

"The Thaumaturgic Temporal Trans-location Theorem," she said, somehow managing to enunciate every alliteration and phoneme. Spike wondered if she spent time in secret just to memorize the pronunciation or if this was really just natural for her.

"Yeah, that one." Spike laughed internally at the absurdity of the situation. "Don't worry, Twi. Just do what you have been doing, and you'll be fine." Twilight smiled as he finished. He always knew what to say to help her out with her, well, nerves, she thought. Even though she didn't admit it as much as she should, she loved that baby dragon with all of her heart.

Her thoughts came to an abrupt stop when the sound of two glass plates falling on a table top assaulted her ears. "Spike! You scared me," she said, clearly holding back a grin. The dragon smiled and sat at his end, practically inhaling what he had prepared for himself. Twilight levitated her fork and knife as she thought about how she'd solve an issue in one of her sub-clauses. Quickly enough, both the Dragon, and the Unicorn had finished their plates and Twilight levitated them to the sink for later. Maybe if she got some rest, she'd be able to figure out the dilemma within her Thesis.

But as luck would have it, her doorbell rang, despite it being morning, and despite her spell to seemingly cloak the inner library in darkness. She let out a small sigh but quickly perked up because she was sure she knew who was at the door. The Unicorn put on a smile and opened the door to her house, confirming her suspicions. Pinkie Pie had come over for no discernible reason other than to just be around her friend.

"Hello, Pinkie!" said Twilight, wrapping her foreleg around Pinkie's neck and leaning into a hug.

"Hi Twilight! Have you got any work done on your paper yet?" she inquired genuinely. As the hug ended, and Twilight removed her hoof from around her friend's neck, she smelled the always sweet fragrance of Pinkie Pie's perfume. The Unicorn gestured for Pinkie to sit at the table as she closed the door with her magic.

"Mhmm, and I talked to Spike about it. He made me feel a little less nervous." Spike was doing other things and didn't notice his name being mentioned.

Pinkie Pie's face contorted into an unnatural yet heartwarming smile, of which she seemed to be talented in making. At just that, Twilight felt an unnatural sensation of pure relief. "That's awesome! I came over to see if you were still stressing out or not, because I know how it must feel when you have all of these tasks to do, and with so little time, and nopony should feel nervous about that sort of thing, or really anything, and. . ."

Twilight, of course loved Pinkie Pie, but if one thing somehow didn't annoy her like it did other ponies, it was her enthusiasm to just talk, and she had really grown to love her long run-on sentences.

". . .but I totally understand where that feeling is coming from, because everypony feels that way sometimes, and even though it is like scared but also nervous, I always say the best laughter is medicine. Oh wait, whoops! I mean the best medicine is laughter, and. . ."

Twilight made note of what she said, but simultaneously tuned into her paper, trying to turn the cogs to clear out any bugs in her spell. She wondered if she could secretly levitate a quill from upstairs in her room to just write down one thing, and then she'd be done. But Pinkie would see her horn glow, so she would need to put extra magic in to negate the emanating light. It took quite a bit of concentration, and admitidly, more than she had to also keep up with Pinkie, but this was such an important breakthrough for her thesis. She felt the quill from her room lift up, and Pinkie didn't seem to notice her concentrating to keep both the levitation spell and the magic cloaking spell of her horn going. Just a few more inches, she thought, sticking her tongue out ever so slightly to concentrate. The quill touched paper and she began writing.

But the quill fell to the floor when a particular pink pony pounced on the poor purple princess. Dazed from both the impact of the floor on Twilight Sparkle's head, and the unexpectedness of that encounter, Twilight had to do a double take to make sure she was both alright and awake. Though, quickly enough her eye's focused on her friend, and curiosity overtook her.

"I knew you liked hugs, but this is ridiculous, Pinkie!" said Twilight through no small fit of giggles. Pinkie Pie looked at her and smiled brighter than Celestia's sun.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted you when you needed to concentrate," laughed the pink mare, stepping off of her friend and lending her a hoof. "I just wanted to make sure that you were super-duper-extra not nervous."

"I promise, Pinkie. I'm super-duper-extra not nervous."

"Pinkie promise?" she said, staring deeply into her eyes but letting her facade of seriousness fall swiftly. Twilight said no words, but hoofed the motions of flying and sticking cupcakes in her eye. Pinkie seemed content with these gestures and said good bye to her and Spike before heading out the door of Twilight's library.

_ _ _

Octavia Melody stood there bereft of facial expressions, gazing at the magnificent decorations and statues that filled the rooms of Princess Luna's castle. It was night time, and Octavia was there on a mission, but that goal could wait, she thought, because she needed to look around this awe-inspiring place.

"I really enjoy the layout of your castle, Princess," said Octavia, looking around to fill her eyes with it's beauty.

"Thank you, Octavia, though we do prefer just 'Luna.' We doth apr- I mean, I do appreciate that."

They came into the main chambers where Luna would sit on her throne but something was odd about it. There were all sorts of electronic devices, Octavia noticed; The same kinds that Vinyl had in her house. She didn't recognize what most of them were, but she did pick out some kind of video-gaming system, that Vinyl also had (not to mention spent most of her time with, she thought), and one of those boxes with moving pictures. It was miles ahead of her comprehension, she decided, after the long conversations Vinyl would have about the lost technology that her and Luna apparently only shared. Vinyl's collection wasn't quite as big as the Princess', she thought, but Vinyl's was definitely more, um, embellished.

"It seems you have quite a few electronic devices here, Luna. Do you like them?" Octavia said, kicking herself for asking such an obvious question.

"I do enjoy them, Octavia. We- I've had most of these relics sense before our, um. . ." Luna looked away and toward the floor, remembering some awful memories.

"It's okay Luna, you can say it." Octavia put her hoof on Luna's shoulder to comfort her.

"Before our banishment. Still, some have found their way to me in recent years. I try to collect them, because their ingenuity is unparalleled," said Luna, smiling back at Octavia.

Octavia remembered that she was actually here for a reason, and started thinking of the best way to approach asking. Her hours spent in the mirror had not helped her at all, it seemed. She was about to start sweating really heavily when Luna spoke.

"So, I've been told you're not here for idle chit-chat, yes?"

"Oh, umm, that's c-correct," Octavia felt nervous, but decided to just ask. "I really wanted to know if you, um, well. . ."

"Yes, child?" Luna turned to face Octavia, serving to either calm or aggravate her nerves, she thought.

"Well you have the last copies of the vinyl records from the Pre-Classical era, right?" Octavia found herself rubbing her foreleg and quit as soon as she noticed.

"Why of course I do! That was many, many moons ago that I received them," said Luna, bobbing her head to some rhythm Octavia couldn't hear. The grey mare took a breath before continuing.

"Well, I wanted to know if maybe, well, I could borrow some of them, perhaps?" Full fledged fear fired into the refined filly's face. Octavia didn't know what Luna's reaction would be.

"For you, Octavia? Sure. I can't see why not, though I will ask you to be careful with them; they are the last ones in existence, after all." Luna levitated some of her ethereal mane out of her face. Octavia was just bewildered by how laid back the princess of the night really was.

"Thank you so very much, Princess Luna!" Octavia wrapped her foreleg around Luna's neck and leaned in for a hug. Luna seemed confused at first, but decided to lean in as well.

"For a Canterlot musician? We can spare it."