Why is Romance So Hard?

Twilight Sparkle was slowly heading towards her beloved library as the sun slowly sank down, peaking out slightly behind the pink and orange clouds of the evening in Ponyville. A few mares and stallions were closing up small market booths and shops, taking inventory before the night sank in, or enjoying a stroll either alone or with their special somepony. Twilight's brain noted at least two new couples of same gender since she'd returned home from Canterlot just a few days prior to the meeting with her friends this very evening. A white stallion with an orange mane with the cutie mark of an orange juice glass, was curled next to his coltfriend, a brown stallion with shy gray eyes and a blue mane. Nearby them two mares reclined on a bench next to each other, reading passages from a children's book aloud to no one but themselves. One was a newer pony in town, a geologist that had come here from far away, and was studying the geography of Ponyville and all of its riches. Sitting next to her was her marefriend, a quiet mare with a blue and white mane kept into a braid, her eyes were a deep blue, and she had freckles on her cheeks. A golden necklace was a cross hanging around her neck shocked the lavender unicorn for a moment, for most of the time a cross meant a higher class member that was raised around older religious beliefs, dating back to Princess Luna's time era before Nightmare Moon.

She shook the thought from her head, choosing to ignore it. While she was the newest princess in several years, she was also just another common pony, and she shouldn't be one to judge her fellow ponies, especially on their mating habits. Twilight had came to a dead stop in front of the doors to the Golden Oak Library, her head was hung downwards in thought as her lavender eyes stared vacantly at the earth below them. Why was she beginning to question the other ponies around her? She'd never had a problem with same-sex couples and the thought of it didn't make her shudder or cringe. In fact, she recalled having a small crush on her teacher when she was a small filly, but she'd always been too caught up into her beloved studying and research that she never attempted to kindle a romantic fire with another pony. Since her transformation in an alicorn, she was becoming more sought after by suitors, but none whom were of any notable importance. She always shrugged her shoulders and politely declined, turning her head back to whatever work she was attempting to figure out at the time.

Perhaps she did have her eyes set on a special somepony, but never quite realized it until she was alone with her own thoughts for the first time in nearly two years. Whenever she wanted to sit down and to be alone, she always ended up reading a novel about astrology, or going out for an evening with the girls, and or Pinkie Pie would always somehow have a way to pull her out of the library, no matter what time of night, and to take her to a party or to a location where there was always plenty of food for the two of them. Twilight Sparkle had always questioned why the pink earth pony never seemed to want to be attached to anyone else but her nowadays, because ever since the Royal Wedding Pinkie Pie had seemed a bit clingy. She'd often stop by the library several times a day to visit Twilight, and bring her small gifts such as party supplies or cook books which she never needed. There was always a chocolate cupcake tossed somewhere in with the gifts, and she'd started a collection long enough to last her a month by now. Pinkie Pie was indeed an amazing friend and did create marvelous platters of food, but she always figured that her and Pinkie Pie were on a strictly platonic friendship.

Her thoughts were beginning to swirl as she weakly opened up the door to the library, pushing herself inside and glancing around. Most of the room was dimly lit with a dying lantern on the desk, but everything appeared to be in the same fashion she'd left it before her night out with her friends. She heard a loud snoring from upstairs, and noted that Spike had perhaps fallen asleep with his comic book once more. Ever since her and the girls were drawn into another dimension with a comic book villain, she had no longer allowed him to possess enchanted comics. While she moved her way upstairs, she turned to her right and followed a door outside to a balcony, the same one that Rainbow Dash sometimes enjoyed lying down and taking her daily naps on. In the evening, Twilight enjoyed coming out her to begin watching the sunset, before walking inside and falling asleep in her warm abode.

Tonight was a different night though, instead of watching the sunset, tonight she simply sat down on the balcony, and watched the sky with empty eyes. Her thoughts turned once more from this night to all the different memories she could recall of how Pinkie Pie treated her, how the smallest compliment that she gave Twilight was enough to make her feel warm, and safe. How the pink ponies beautiful blue eyes sparkled with mystery when she had an idea, and how she befriended any pony that set hoof inside of Ponyville. Pinkie Pie was full of nothing but purity for her friends, and Ponyville thrived from her naturally clean aura. Yet, why was Twilight Sparkle treated so much more personally than the rest of her friends? While her other friends would sometimes go to the spa and gossip, her and Pinkie Pie were perched on a cloud with a picnic basket, watching the stars. Or they were having a sleep over where Pinkie Pie insisted that she wanted to sleep in Twilight's bed because every other place in the room was too cold, unless it was in a 5 foot radius of Twilight herself.

Time seemed to speed up, and Twilight soon fell asleep with an eased mind. She figured that Pinkie Pie only treated her so specially because Twilight Sparkle was her best friend, and the one that she always depended on in extreme times of need.  While she slumbered, her mind flew far beyond the reaches of her worldly views, and reached into the dream realm, beginning to morph images of two shade ponies, sitting underneath a full moon together on a picnic blanket. They were obviously mares, and were wrapped in each others embrace, laughing mutely and pointing to the twinkling orbs of light in the vast sky above them. Compared to the world they were watching, they were nothing more than small observers on a plane of land that held no importance to the giants above. During the end of the dream, the two ponies had fallen onto the ground, tumbling and laughing, before coming into a blocked kiss, before the dream faded and Twilight drowsily woke up, glancing around. Nopony appeared to be watching her, and the street below her was empty except for the light wind beginning to pick up.

Twilight's lavender eyes watched the darkness, her eyes beginning to twitch as her instincts told her to remain quiet and to watch the emptiness. She followed her instincts, and within a few moments of her gaze staring down at the front of the library, she saw a figure begin to bound in and out of the shadows of the street lights below, dressed in entirely black. The figure was too quick for her to catch an intimate details, so she decided to cast a small spell upon herself, muting the flapping sound of her grand wings while she jumped into the air and off the balcony, roaming around the front side of the tree to silently perched above the doorway and to watch for the anonymous visitor. Within seconds of her perching, the figure emerged from behind a build and bounded to the front of the library, dropping off a small letter in front of it with a red rose. Twilight watched in awe as she waited silently for the figure to race off the way it had came, choosing not to follow it. Whoever it was, had decided to come dressed in an entire black outfit not to be caught, and since she sensed no threat from this pony, she decided to allow them to flee from the library, unnoticed.

Twilight's wings expanded and she flew to the front door, glancing around before opening the door and levitating the rose and letter inside after her. Her lavender aura surrounded the objects, and she galloped in an eager rush to begin unwrapping the letter to read it. She let a few of the candles around the library with a spark of magic, and slumped down at her desk, beginning to gently tear open the letter with her magic. When she opened it, the first thing that caught her eye was the name,"Twilight Sparkle" embroider in a golden glitter across the top of a neatly folded letter. She gulped down, and opened up the rest of the letter, beginning to read it.

"My dearest Twilight Sparkle,

I do not know if you will receive this letter in the morning when you awake from your beautiful slumber, the one that you look so much like an angel when you enter it. However, if you do receive this letter, I urge you to continue reading and to allow me to explain myself on why a lovely princess, such as yourself, should read an anonymous letter from an unknown source such as this, from a pony such as myself. I do not understand why I have fallen for you, dearest Princess Twilight Sparkle, but I have, so please read this letter and enjoy.

I will not reveal whom I am or where I am from, but what you may know is that we are indeed close friends. We often meet at secret locations away from the rest of Ponyville.. "

The letter was scratched out of these last few remarks, as if the author had wanted to change their word choice before sending it. The hand writing was elegant and free styled, showing a cheery personality.

"Oh what am I saying? I can't write this letter like a true gentlecolt, like a gentlecolt that you would like, to make you muffins and cupcakes and to tell you that you're beautiful each and every day of his life. That's what you deserve, somepony to make you happy and to call you beautiful, and I can do all those things, but I'm far from a colt. I'm a mare, a stupid dumb earth pony mare that loves nothing more than baking, and you. And I'm not some well known pony, I'm just a party pony that sits around all day, attempting to find ways to impress you. I'm also not a poet, Rarity was just helped me write that letter so that you would be interested in reading the rest of it, since you receive so many letters from colts and fillies alike each and every day of your life.

All those other ponies are much more deserving of somepony as great as you, because.. because.. they would be able to treat you right and to make you smile lots. I can't do a lot, but I can make you smile, even thought sometimes you do it as a fake smile because you don't know how to respond to something. I love your smile, it always makes me feel better when I don't feel good or I'm sad or upset about something. I dunno, maybe you just have that natural ability to make everyone feel better, kind of like how Rainbow Dash makes everyone feel coolers. Yeah, I'm not a Rainbow Dash though, and I prefer to keep my hooves on the earth, where I can feel and touch it. I just really wanted to write this letter to tell you, in the bestest possible way, that I love you.

And not the kind of love that I would love cupcakes in or anything, but the kind of love that I love you. The kind of love where I want to kiss you before we fall asleep each night, and or to cuddle with you on a beach, and to maybe one day raise foals with you. The kind of love of how Bonbon loves Lyra, and Octie and DJ are in. Yeah, not love, but -in love-. I think its a nice feeling of being in love, it feels like someone put a whole bunch of butterflies in my stomach and they are trying to get lose! Yet, they can't, kind of my like my feelings for you until you read this letter, if you read this letter. So if you are reading this Twiley, I love you, I love you a lot.

I love you a lot more than sprinkles. And cupcakes. And cake. And a lot of other treats. But most of all I love you far more than I love myself. I just wanted you to know that, in some hopes that maybe you'd feel the same way for me too.

Your friend,

Pinkie Pie"

Twilight stared in awe at the letter, her eyes beginning to tear up and her cheeks blushing while she read it another five times. Each word had been written by her best friend, confessing her love for the mare herself. She'd never figured that Pinkie Pie would want to ever be mated to a mare, let alone a mare that was too obsessed with her classes and being tardy than romance. She stared vacantly at the letter for a little while, deciding on what to do now. She felt flattered, and a small nervousness was beginning to brew inside of her intestines, sending warm jolts up and down her spine, creating a tingling sensation. She stood in the dimming light of the candles, debating heavily. Two choices ran through her head; She could simply pretend she never read the letter and to move on with her life or she could go out right now, in the middle of the night, and find Pinkie Pie and question her about this. Each one was a risky situation, but she went for the latter. Unfurling her wings, she half galloped and half-flew out of the door and into the darkness.

Flying above the small town of Ponyville at night was breathtaking, as the small houses below were flickering with warm candle lights. The stars of Princess Luna's sky seemed to create a path to Sugarcube Corner, and the moon shone brightly on this night. While the small princess flew across the sky, the cool night air nipped at her mane, creating it a bit more windblown, such as Rainbow Dash's. When she flew, she could always swear that her tension was released, but no on this night. As she drew closer to Sugarcube Corner, she swore that the nervousness in her guts were growing more and more extreme with each passing second, causing her to slow down and to stop a few times in midflight, but deciding to continue on through the night time sky.  At last, she stopped and perched in front of Sugarcube Corner. There was a soft glow from a fire inside of the bakery, which indicated to Twilight that somepony was perhaps still up. Silently, she glanced at the window where the light was flickering from.

She decoded to take the chance of throwing a rock at the window, using her magic to levitate it. After a few more attempts to see if someone would open it up, she was relieved to see a sleepy Pinkie Pie standing at the window with a rather annoyed expression upon her tired face, her pink hair was in rollers and she was holding a cupcake stuffed animal. Her blue eyes glanced downwards and around, searching for where the rocks were coming from, but once they found the lavender alicorn standing just a few feet below her window, her eyes ignited with a loving spark. Quickly, she pulled the rollers out of her hair and stripped off her robe, running downstairs quietly to meet Twilight Sparkle, who stood in a small circle of light among the darkness. She waited while Pinkie Pie slowly opened up the front door of Sugarcube Corner and walked near her friend, dragging her hooves in the process while she drew closer to Twilight.

"Hello Pinkie Pie, I received your letter. I decided that I should come over and speak with you before the night was over.." Twilight's lavender eyes met those of the pink earth pony's and the two stared at each other in a long and awkward silence. Pinkie Pie had finally made her way to the alicorn, and her head was tilted to the side as if she didn't seem to believe that the purple pony would have actually came to see her at such a late hour and such a huge confession.

"Oh Twiley, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you all that stuff in a letter, but I just got so nervous that I wanted to see how you would react, and I just got caught up in the way that we were growing so close. You're my bestest most coolest friend in all of Equestria, and I never want to lose you, but I know that you being  a princess would jeopardize any chance of a relationship that we may have." Pinkie Pie's voice was much more low and silent now, as if she was afraid just to utter the words that she was saying, as if they were sins in her mouth and they needed to be purged. Yet, at the end, Twilight could hear the pain in her voice. Pinkie truthfully did care for her, and she'd never even noticed it.

"Please understand  that I don't want to intentionally harm you, you are one of my best friends, Pinkie. I just don't know how to respond to such a proposition, because I have never been in a partnership with another pony, and I don't think that this time period would be correct for a relationship of romantic intentions, especially with one of Elements of Harmony. I sincerely apologize if this hurts you at all, Pinkie Pie, but there is just no regulations for me to be in a proper relationship at the moment." Twilight Sparkle's posture stiffened and she raised her head to eye level to stare the pink pony directly into the windows of her soul. She was attempted to remain firm and strong, but those blue eyes always managed to get her to melt.

Pinkie Pie turned her head away, her blue eyes were beginning to have a shadow of fear over them at Twilight's stern voice and gaze, but her posture also stiff ended while she stared at the alicorn princess."You are always going to be my bestest friend, Twilight Sparkle. Never forget that, and I understand, but you should be going. There is one more than I forgot to deliever to you," Pinkie approached Twilight and turned her head away for a moment, leaving the lavender mare to lean forward out of curiosity, but when she was vulnerable, Pinkie Pie leaned forward and kissed her square on the lips.

Twilight appeared both shocked and appalled by this sudden action, and slumped down in shock. She'd actually leaned into the kiss, closing her eyes for the two seconds of euphoria, before Pinkie Pie drew away and galloped back into Sugarcube Corner before another word was spoken between the two. Twilight Sparkle could have sworn that from the corner of the pony's eyes was a glistening line of tears, and that her mane was slowly turning deflated and dull.