An Informal Study of Romance

Chapters

The Ethanol-Equine Effect
An Informal Study of Romance
High Stakes Stakeout
Fighting Feelings

The Ethanol-Equine Effect

In the normal course of things, so many residents of Ponyville would not have fit into the auditorium of the town hall, or if they did fit, they wouldn’t have had nearly as much room to move around as they did tonight. But it was the biggest indoor space available in the town proper and thanks to some rather complicated space warping magic courtesy of Princess Twilight Sparkle, the room was able to comfortably house the biggest party Pinkie Pie had ever hosted.

A huge dance floor and DJ booth, commanded by Vinyl Scratch herself, took up a chunk of the floor, about half the usual size of the room. Another section was dedicated to rowdy party games. A quieter corner with low lighting held a number of comfortable couches for relaxing and cuddling. And along the back wall were long, cloth draped tables covered in all sorts of food and drink, including several large barrels of Sweet Apple Acres finest aged hard cider.

“Oh my gosh, Twilight! You have to come see this, it’s hilarious!” Pinkie gleefully bounced along, head and shoulders above the crowd. Her bright pink mane was threaded with blue glowsticks as she called out over the music blasting from the magical speaker stacks. The erratic afterimage of soft blue light trailing behind Pinkie caught and held Twilight’s gaze.

One look at the pink mare told Twilight that Pinkie had visited the cider barrel more than once this evening. Each bounce sent her off in a slightly different direction, as if in a chaotic orbit around a strange attractor. Twilight had to wrench her eyes away from Pinkie’s hooves; the pink party pony had a different number of legs each time she hit the ground, and even with only one mug of cider in her own belly, the sight was making Twilight quite nauseous.

“What is it Pinkie?” The question had barely left her lips when ‘it’ came right up and hugged her. ‘It’ turned out to be Rainbow Dash. Twilight’s nose wrinkled as a strong smell of apples and ethanol assaulted her olfactory senses. If Pinkie was good friends with the cider barrel by now, Rainbow Dash had to have eloped with it.

One wing extended fully, the other folded and twitching to the beat of the music, Dash wrapped all four hooves around Twilight’s barrel and let out cooing noises like a dove while her eyes attempted to focus. A twinkle lit up her raspberry eyes as she seemed to finally recognize the pony she’d latched onto. Twilight sat, stock still and stunned, unable to look away from the bright, but slightly unfocused, eyes in front of her.

“Hehe, you should look the see on your face. You’re a laugh Spilight Twarkle.” Dash slurred and giggled before nuzzling her friend. She kept nuzzling a bit longer than was strictly considered friendly, but she let go just before reaching the embarrassingly intimate stage. Rainbow stumbled away toward her next victim, parting the crowd efficiently, but highly erratically.

Twilight, for her part, did have a rather strange mix of embarrassment and puzzlement etched across her red tinged muzzle that persisted even after Dash staggered away. She was used to friendly hugs by now, but she had never experienced such close and prolonged contact with another pony before. Her mind dwelt on the feeling of hooves wrapped around her body and soft coat and mane pressing against her face before a loud voice broke in on her musings.

“Isn’t she just the funniest drunk?!” Pinkie chortled, her variable number of hooves flailing in the air, as she rolled on the floor, giggling madly at Dash’s drunken antics.

“Are you sure we should just let her run around like that?” Twilight shook her head and frowned as she watched Dash stagger off, hugging every pony who crossed her path. It was some comfort to Twilight that Dash was saving nuzzles only for ponies she knew really well, though from the look of things, it did not comfort Rarity.

“She’s just giving out hugs. I do that all the time!” Pinkie flipped back onto her hooves, which had returned to the quite sensible number of four, and demonstrated by hugging Twilight, though more briefly than Rainbow Dash had. Twilight found herself staring into a pair of bright blue eyes for a moment, and then a draft of cool air replaced the warmth of Pinkie’s body against her own. She was surprised to find herself disappointed by the brevity of the contact.

“We can stop her if she goes too far, pinkie promise.” Before Pinkie could complete the requisite hoof motions, once again sprouting an extra hoof for the purpose, Dash’s voice, with surprisingly little slurring, rang out loud and clear over the noise of the party.

“Mmmm, Applejack. You don’t know how long I’ve wanted you.”

Twilight whipped around and trotted toward the source of the outburst.

The scene was only just shy of being public indecency. Applejack was sitting up on her haunches on one of the sofas near the dance floor. Her muzzle was a deep scarlet, while Rainbow Dash had her legs wrapped around her very similarly to the way she had hugged Twilight moments earlier. But instead of just a relatively chaste hug and a mostly friendly nuzzle, Dash’s hooves were roaming Applejack’s back and brushing her flanks, while the cyan muzzle peppered orange cheeks and neck with kisses.

Twilight was about to move forward to stop the drunken pegasus when she was checked by a pink hoof.

“Wait, Twilight, look.” Pinkie pointed to Dash’s back where Applejack had wrapped her forelegs around the athlete’s slim barrel and was returning a measure of the affection.

“It’s so hard to tell you, AJ. Every time you get near me, I go all fuzzy. Can’t think straight, can’t fly straight. You’re so hot, it’s drives me nuts. ‘Specially these.” Dash rubbed her forehooves gently over the apple cutie marks and grinned stupidly. “Hottest flank in all Equestria.”

Applejack said nothing, but simply kept her forehooves wrapped around Dash, a small smile turning the corners of her mouth up.

“I knew it! I knew Dashie had a thing for AJ!” Pinkie squealed happily. “And AJ’s got a thing back!” The entire crowd of ponies within earshot turned to watch and listen, including Pinkie and a somewhat reluctant Twilight.

“Man, if I can just get my head on straight, I’m so gonna take you out on a date.” Dash had stopped kissing Applejack while she was talking and contented herself with nuzzling against both cheeks and under her chin. “We can go out to dinner, some place casual, you know. Maybe go bowling, or we can go for a run, just the two of us all alone in the woods. Horseshoes, maybe? Something fun we both like.” Dash continued rambling on while Applejack and the crowd of ponies just listened in.

“S’long as it’s not awkward like most of my dates, but you’re too awesome to be awkward. Whatcha think?”

“S-sounds great, sugarcube.” Applejack spoke up for the first time since Dash latched onto her, but to no effect. Loud snores began to emanate from the inebriated pegasus at that precise moment as she slumped forward against her friend.

“Uhh, little help?” Applejack grimaced, looking around the crowd while Dash’s dead weight now threatened to topple her onto her back.

“I’ll help, AJ.” Twilight spoke up, stepping out of the crowd. She caught Applejack’s eye and received a smile of thanks. She was too busy to notice her heart flutter a bit. “The library is closest. Let’s take her there and put her in my guest bed.”

Pinkie started giggling madly again while Twilight rushed forward to help Applejack with their unconscious friend.

“All right, everypony! Who’s got bits to spare? I’ll give you five to one Dash actually makes good on her date plan!”

“Pinkie! Dash is drunk! No betting on anything she spilled!” Twilight groaned and buried her muzzle in her hoof. “I’m going to help AJ get Dash out of here, okay?”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!”

Twilight shot Pinkie a suspicious look before levitating Dash onto AJ’s back. The two of them trotted away, Twilight’s horn staying lit to make sure Dash stayed in place for the trip to the library. Pinkie watched them from the door frame until they rounded the nearest street corner, then turned back to the crowd.

“Okay, ponies! Get your bits ready.” Pinkie said enthusiastically, just as soon as Twilight was out of earshot. “You name your bet, I’ll name the odds.”

In seconds, Pinkie had set herself up a folding table, complete with notepad and till drawer, pulled from her usual nowhere space. She plopped down, slipping a green visor onto her head as hooves of all colors began shoving piles of bits in her direction and a cacophony of voices called out different scenarios.

“I hope you weren’t too embarrassed, AJ.” Twilight grimaced. She could practically still feel her own face turning beet red from what was just a friendly hug by comparison. Twilight couldn’t imagine how she would have reacted to Dash caressing her like that in front of a crowd of ponies. She actually did blush again at the thought.

“Nah, I’m alright.” Applejack replied, after a pause. “Most folks’ll prob’ly just chock it up ta Rainbow bein’ drunk an’ ferget about it inside a week. Now, if Dash remembers, she’s gonna be the one embarrassed about it.”

“I’m still really sorry.” Twilight sighed, giving a look back over her shoulder at the town hall, the spire still just visible over the row of houses lining the street. “Rainbow came up and hugged me before she made it over to you. I should have stopped her sooner.”

The two mares trotted slowly down the empty Ponyville main street, the only light provided by the sliver of moon just waxing from new, and the soft magenta glow of Twilight’s horn. Aside from their voices, the only sound in the still night were the soft snores of the unconscious pegasus on Applejack’s back.

“Don’t be sorry, sugarcube.” Applejack mumbled and tilted her head down so her signature stetson hid her reddening face. She silently cursed her honest streak and the three mugs of cider still clouding her brain.

“What?” Twilight’s voice carried a note of incredulity as she trotted a little faster to catch up and walk beside Applejack instead of slightly behind.

Applejack came to a sudden stop just outside the library door, a look of relief creeping onto her face to replace the blush. Twilight, distracted by the conversation and lack of a response, just barely managed not to crash into the wall of her tree home. Dash wobbled a bit on Applejack’s back between the suddenness of the stop and the wavering magic field, but she stayed put and went right on snoring.

“Let’s get Dash inside.” Applejack sighed. “Then we can talk, s’long as ya pinkie promise ta keep it ta yerself.”

“Alright.” Twilight’s eyes widened under the fierce emerald stare she received and she quickly mimed the promise before magicking the door open and hurrying them inside and up to the bedroom.

Twilight headed for the stairs after placing Rainbow Dash safely on her guest bed, leaving Applejack to tuck her in. Out of the corner of her eye she couldn’t help noticing Applejack stroking the rainbow mane. Her orange lips moved, producing some words too soft for Twilight’s ears to pick up, before leaning down to kiss Rainbow’s cheek. Twilight trotted downstairs all the more quickly when she caught a flash of green seeming to follow her from behind the blonde bangs.

“I said earlier not ta be sorry that ya didn’t stop Rainbow.” Applejack confessed, when they were back downstairs. She sat across the small kitchen table from Twilight, each pony sipping from a mug of tea. “That weren’t exactly the way I woulda liked ta find out about her bein’ sweet on me, but I ain’t gonna complain neither.”

“You have a crush on her too, like Pinkie said,” Twilight stated, getting straight to the point.

“Yep.” Applejack said simply, and her eyes gained a faraway look for a moment. “It’s kinda comfortin’ ta know it ain’t just me, but I can’t pretend it don’t scare me a mite, neither.”

“Scared?” Twilight scrunched her muzzle up in confusion. “What’s there to be scared about? If you both like each other, shouldn’t that make it easier? I mean, everything I’ve read about dating—” Twilight stopped abruptly as Applejack held up a hoof.

“It ain’t quite that simple, Twi.” Applejack sighed, slumping and resting her chin on the table. “Ya see, Rainbow’s been on lots of dates. Lots and lots of first dates. I know because she used ta come talk things out with me when they didn’t work out.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been rough, given how you feel.” Twilight tried to sympathize, her ears drooping.

“Y’all have no idea, sugarcube, but that ain’t even the point.” Applejack swiveled her eyes around to look directly at Twilight. “You know how many second dates she’s been on, s’far as I know?”

Twilight shook her head, looking worried.

“Four.” Applejack’s tone was completely flat. “Outta dozens and dozens of ponies, she’s been on a second date with exactly four. Them ain’t what you’d call real good odds. An’…” The corners of her eyes began to glisten as her voice cracked and broke off.

Applejack cleared her throat after a few moments. “I’m sorry, the cider’s goin’ ta my head. Twi, I’ve seen how broken up she gets over a bad date. I don’t want ta be the one ta do that ta her.”

“But you two have so much in common, and you’re already good friends. That’s got to count for something, right?” Twilight blurted out.

“I reckon so. An’ that’s the reason I don’t just give up. I got some hope; I think we can make it work if we just get past the first date an’ have a good run on the second, but that don’t mean I ain’t still a mite scared.”

“I’m sure you have a good shot. I know Pinkie and I will support you, I bet Rarity and Fluttershy will too.” Twilight reached out to put a consoling hoof on Applejack’s shoulder and finally got a small smile out of her.

“Thanks, Twi. Thanks ta all you gals.”

Both ponies sat in silence for a short while before Twilight realized her hoof was still on Applejack’s shoulder. She felt the blood rising to her cheeks again and quickly withdrew it, searching for a distraction.

“So, are you going to ask her out? Do you need any help coming up with ideas? I’m sure I have a book or two that will help.”

“Slow up there, sugarcube.” Applejack chuckled, sitting back up. “Dash is a real ‘go get it’ kinda gal. I’m gonna give her a chance ta make the first move. Ya prob’ly heard all that stuff she said about wantin’ ta take me out, an’ all them date ideas.”

“I also remember her saying how hard it is for her to tell you.”

“I’m still gonna give her that chance. It’ll prob’ly make things go easier. But if’n she ain’t made a move by the time I figure somethin’ out, I’ll ta—” Applejack stifled a yawn. “take matters into my own hooves.”

Applejack gave her head a little shake and rubbed her eyes as she yawned again. “I guess it can’t hurt ta gather some ideas while I wait, but in the meantime, I’d better get back to the Acres tonight and get me some shut eye.”

“Are you sure? You can stay here if you don’t want to walk home.”

“Nah. If’n Dash does remember anythin’, it’d be all kinds of awkward an’ prob’ly mess everything up. ‘Sides, I can get home just fine.” Applejack blinked, forcing her eyes open as she stood up and walked around the table to give Twilight a goodbye nuzzle. “Thanks fer the tea and especially fer helpin’ with Rainbow.”

Twilight felt her face heat up for what felt like the hundredth time that night and instinctively moved to turn the nuzzle into a hug. She held the hug firmly, a bit longer than she usually would, but Applejack didn’t seem to pay the discrepancy any mind, simply wrapping her own hooves pleasantly around the alicorn. When they broke apart, Twilight’s face was still a bit flushed, but Applejack’s showed no sign that anything was out of the ordinary.

“Night, Twi.” Applejack tipped her hat and trotted toward the door.

“Good night, Applejack. Sleep well.”

Twilight climbed the stairs back to her bedroom and stepped in as silently as possible. Her gaze lingered over the pegasus snoring away in her spare bed, her thoughts a jumbled mess. Vague images of ponies hugging, and eyes of different colors swam in her head, while the cider in her stomach made her eyelids droop as she curled up in bed.

An Informal Study of Romance

“Twiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiight!” Pinkie yelled at the top of her lungs, bouncing her way down the street quite exuberantly. “Come quick, Twilight! It’s happening!”

Pinkie skidded to a stop in front of her confused friend and gleefully bounced on the spot, hitting the ground so hard that she was actually wearing a divot in the cobblestone street. Twilight reared and grabbed ahold of Pinkie with her forehooves. This did not entirely stop her from bouncing, but did put an end to the wanton destruction of public property.

“Pink—ie—stop—bounc—ing—please!” Twilight stammered out, her rear hooves leaving the ground slightly on each upstroke of her springy friend, then thudding back onto the street under gravity’s harsh pull. Twilight lost her balance as Pinkie came to a sudden stop, and she sprawled on the hard ground, legs and wings askew.

“Now, what in Celestia’s name are you talking about, Pinkie?” Twilight grumbled as Pinkie helped her back to her hooves and brushed the dirt off of her coat.

“AJ and Dashie!” Pinkie’s eyes sparkled and her muzzle split into the widest of wide grins. “Come on, we can’t miss this!”

Twilight let out a squawk and flopped to the ground again as she found herself being dragged bodily alongside Pinkie, her tail clenched firmly in the vice-like pink jaw of her friend. Her dock howled in protest as she frantically scrambled to regain an upright position. She found the feat quite impossible until Pinkie finally stopped at their destination in the town square.

She barely registered the crowd of ponies gathered round in a circle as she stood back up. Another squawk, of surprise this time, left her throat when she found herself flung onto Pinkie’s back and launched in the air. Twilight gripped Pinkie’s barrel tight with all four legs while the bucking pink bronco under her bounced high, attempting to get them both a better view over the gathered crowd.

After a half dozen bounces, Twilight felt that her skull could not take much more hammering and she instinctively spread her wings to join the crowd of pegasi hovering over the scene, Pinkie still clasped firmly in her grip.

“Ooh, that’s much better, Twilight. Thanks!” Pinkie gave Twilight’s chest a nuzzle with the back of her head and turned her full attention on the two ponies at the center of the crowd. Twilight’s heart beat faster, sending a rush of blood to her face, but her attention quickly shifted to the exchange between Applejack and Rainbow Dash below.

“Alright, sugarcube. I challenge you to a hoofwrassle, best two out of three. You win, you get to pick where we have dinner, an’ I’ll pick you up an’ pay; I win, I pick the chow an’ you pick me up an’ pay.” Applejack’s soft voice was surprisingly clear over the din of the crowd.

“You’re on!” came Dash’s excited reply.

The crowd gained in size as the two ponies below locked hooves on a nearby tree stump. An odd thing to find in a public space, except that Twilight recognized it as the remains of a tree broken by a storm the last winter. After being sanded and polished to smoothness by some of the town’s craftsponies, Twilight herself had cast the spell to protect it from the ravages of weather, insects, and time, rendering it an all-natural outdoor table. The perfect venue for chess, checkers, or in this case, an intense, impromptu hoofwrestling contest.

When Twilight snapped out of her contemplation, she noticed Dash hovering around the ring of ponies, evidently celebrating her victory, while Applejack calmly rubbed her shoulder and elbow. For a moment, she thought the spectacle was over and her musing had caused her to miss the entire contest. However, Dash quickly returned to the stump for another round.

She had no idea how long the first round had lasted, or whether the one she was watching now was the second or the third. Judging by the reaction of the crowd when AJ forced Dash’s hoof down, however, her friends were both evenly matched and now tied for points. Pinkie, in particular, was cheering and squirming so much that Twilight had to tighten her grip to avoid dropping her. The warm sensation of another pony held in her hooves, with their coats brushing together was only making that squirmy, yet somehow pleasant, sensation in her gut grow stronger.

Applejack gave a polite wave of thanks around the ring of ponies who cheered for her, while giving her foreleg another rubdown. Dash mirrored the rubbing of her own leg before the two locked hooves once again. Twilight watched intently as the final, tie-breaking round stretched on and on, neither pony gaining any ground for long moments. Finally, she gasped along with the rest of the crowd and clutched Pinkie closer to her chest as the orange hoof began to push the blue toward the polished wood.

The entire crowd erupted in cheering as soon as Dash’s hoof hit the stump. Applejack paid them no mind, instead leaning in to speak privately to Rainbow. As she did so, Twilight again caught that flash of emerald behind straw blond, exactly as she had three weeks ago. With her attention focused solely on Applejack’s piercing gaze, Twilight failed to notice the crowd of ponies exchanging bits, including Pinkie herself collecting quite a sizeable sum from Raindrops.

“You can put me down now, silly filly,” Pinkie giggled, shaking Twilight out of her trance.

“Right. Sorry, Pinkie.” Her gaze lingered in the direction of Applejack’s retreating form, then turned to watch Dash flying off toward a cloudbank. Twilight’s wings beat slower, lowering herself and Pinkie back to the cobblestones, finally placing the other two ponies out of her sight. Pinkie wiggled free and hopped the last foot to the ground, using the momentum to bounce around Twilight in a happy, if erratic, circle.

“That was so exciting! Did you see the way AJ went right up to Dashie and said ‘You, me, tonight, seven.’?” Pinkie mimicked Applejack’s southern drawl, then let out a squeal. “I can’t believe AJ’s being so bold! I totally thought for sure Dashie would be the one.”

Twilight shook her head. “AJ must have gotten tired of waiting. She said she would make a move if Dash didn’t.” Twilight cupped her chin with a hoof. “I do wonder what exactly she has planned…” Twilight trailed off; Applejack hadn’t spent much time looking for ideas at the library, but she had asked Twilight to keep things to herself. As soon as she closed her mouth, she found her vision suddenly full of pink, white, and blue.

“We can find out!” Pinkie’s bright blue eyes sparkled, filling more and more of Twilight’s vision as she leaned in close. “Bring one of your black catsuits and meet me at Sweet Apple Acres tonight. We’re gonna go spying.”

The clock tower in town could be heard to strike seven as two ponies in black catsuits crouched behind a clump of bushes outside the Apples’ farmhouse. Twinkling blue eyes, and a pink muzzle poked out of one, looking excited and a touch worried. Somber violet eyes, and a lavender muzzle poked out of the other, looking both apprehensive and curious. A lavender horn and twitching lavender wings poking out of roughly cut holes rounded off the visible portions of the second pony.

“I can’t believe Dashie’s late. AJ’s going to be really sad if she doesn’t show up,” Pinkie muttered, eyes darting from sky to ground, eager to spot her target. “Can you imagine the party I’d have to throw to cheer her—” she stopped abruptly as her ear flopped, her knee twitched, and her eye fluttered.

”There she is!” Pinkie cried, pointing a black fabric-covered hoof down the road. After a moment, she lifted it to her chin. “My pinkie sense must be going haywire. Rainbow’s not in the sky, but she is beautiful,” she muttered, stars in her eyes.

“Pinkie, are you sure we should be spying on them like this? I’m starting to have second thoughts about this.” Twilight leaned close to whisper through the fabric covering Pinkie’s ear as Dash strolled past them on her way to the front door, completely oblivious to their presence. Twilight noticed that she was neatly brushed and groomed and did in fact look quite beautiful.

Before Pinkie could answer, the door opened, and Applejack stepped out. The scowl that momentarily stretched across her muzzle became a grin. “You’re a little late, but I’ll forgive ya fer bein’ so hot.” Applejack raised a hoof to toy with Rainbow’s mane. “Yer mane looks nice tonight.”

Pinkie stifled a giggle as Dash’s wings shot up and out. It was obvious they had been carefully preened. Twilight watched in rapt, but silent, contemplation. Her mind was busy reviewing everything she’d heard at the party and the conversation afterwards, trying to piece together Applejack’s probable strategy. She was broken out of her thoughts when her eyes seemed to lock together with Applejack’s as the latter looked up from checking out her date. Twilight was certain she was hidden, both by the bushes and the relative darkness, but she was also fairly certain in that moment that Applejack knew right where she was.

“Wings are lookin’ great too.” Applejack grinned and turned toward town, her tail brushing against Dash’s outstretched wings, while the latter pony remained frozen to the spot. “Well, come on sugarcube, this date ain’t gonna go on itself.” Twilight’s own wings twitched as she stared at Dash’s wayward appendages.

Pinkie waited until Dash and AJ were out of sight before she popped out of the bush, bouncing excitedly. “I’m so going to have to remember that one next time I date a pegasus!” Pinkie demonstrated by flicking the end of her poofy tail against one of Twilight’s folded wings as the latter stumbled free of the bush. Both of her wings responded to the touch by shooting straight out, tall and proud.

“P-Pinkie!” Twilight stammered, her lavender muzzle turning a bright scarlet.

“Hehe, oops! Sorry, Twi!” Pinkie giggled at Twilight’s predicament while the latter fought to fold her wings back by her sides. “You’re almost as excitable as Dashie! Come on, we gotta hurry and catch up!”

Wasting no time, Pinkie bounced off down the dark road, toward town. Twilight groaned and followed as fast as she could on hoof, her wings still defiant and outstretched.

By the time they reached the town proper, Twilight had her wings under control, and her muzzle had resumed its usual color. She stopped short, nearly crashing into Pinkie. The latter pony was pointing a hoof down the street, having spotted AJ and Dash stepping into Mare’s Country Kitchen, the all-night, all-you-can-eat-buffet restaurant in town.

“We’ll need a disguise.” Pinkie noted, while sliding out of her catsuit.

Twilight unsuited herself, too dazed to argue that they had already been wearing disguises, and found a pink hoof pressing something onto her formerly bare muzzle. Pinkie stuffed the suits into a nearby flower cart, left unattended by a street vendor, and produced a hoof mirror from her mane. She scooted up next to Twilight so they could check their new disguises.

Pinkie had outfitted her upper lip with a curly black handlebar mustache, and her left eye with a gleaming gold monocle. Twilight’s muzzle now sported a prench-cut mustache and goatee that matched her mane and tail, even down to the off-center pink and purple stripes.

“Perfect!” Pinkie grinned from behind the fake facial hair, rubbing her forehooves together.

“Pinkie! I don’t think this is going to—Ack!” Twilight let out a squawk, she’d been making that sound quite a lot today, as Pinkie’s head butted into her rump, shoving her toward the restaurant. Her scrambling hooves slid across the cobblestones like they were made of ice, and she found herself unavoidably setting hoof inside the building.

Pinkie scampered ahead as soon as her co-conspirator had been shoved inside. Despite the perfect disguises, Twilight couldn’t help noticing that Pinkie stayed low to the ground, ducking behind booths while looking for a seat outside their quarry’s field of vision. Twilight let out a low groan and did likewise, her curiosity to know just what AJ was up to driving her forward against her common sense.

Still wearing their crude disguises, they took up seats in a corner booth, not far away from Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but mostly screened from their table by a tall stand of decorative plantlife. Both ponies pressed their muzzles up to, and partway through, the mass of vines and flowers, each searching for a hole they could spy through without being seen.

Twilight could hear Pinkie giggling quietly beside her, and immediately knew why when she caught a glimpse of their marks. Dash was animatedly flying a slice of pizza around, evidently describing some kind of aerial trick. She finished her explanation by pumping both hooves in the air in apparent triumph, the slice of pizza still in her grasp.

“Sounds impressive, sugarcube. Mind if I come watch sometime?” Applejack’s voice was audible, if a bit muffled by their makeshift duck blind. She seemed to shift a little in her seat and Dash let out an entirely uncharacteristic squeak.

“I’ve only p.. pulled it off once so far. Uh... Usually I just end up hitting the water,” Dash stammered out, the hoof holding her pizza slice shaking a bit. Twilight’s eyes were glued to the big mushroom which was not at all securely glued to the pizza. She watched the mushroom in apparent slow motion as it slid and fell, stretching a strand of cheese behind until it snapped. The mushroom tumbled end over end, moved earthward by the inexorable force of gravity, and plummeted squarely into Dash’s water glass.

The rational part of Twilight’s brain decided that it must have been a particularly dense mushroom to cause a splash big enough to soak Dash’s face. The romantic part of her brain cried out in solidarity with Dash’s plight, and hoped Applejack would be compassionate.

Twilight’s ears flattened against her head, hearing AJ chucking at Dash, but her expression softened when Applejack leaned in with a smile to dry Dash’s face with a napkin. “Still worth watching, even if ya get all soaked,” Applejack murmured before leaning in closer to whisper right into Dash’s ear.

Whatever AJ said next was too quiet for Twilight to hear, but her attention was stolen away by something else. Not just one, but both of Applejack’s deep emerald eyes were staring straight into her own from under her soft, golden bangs. She felt sure that the only part of herself barely visible through the thick plantlife was her own eyes, yet there was no denying that Applejack had definitely noticed her this time.

Twilight only vaguely registered the loud squeak of Dash’s wings against the vinyl of her seat back as AJ’s whispered words had caused the latter pony’s wings to extend rigidly once again. She became aware that her eye contact with Applejack had caused the same to happen to her when she fell back into her seat and winced as her own taut wings hit the seat.

Pinkie fell back into her own seat next to Twilight, full of giggles. “This is too funny!” she squealed, trying in vain to keep her voice down. “AJ is putting the moves on Dashie so hard! I gotta get her to teach me some of this!”

Twilight buried her heated muzzle in her hooves and tried to think about cold showers and icebergs, but instead just ended up seeing two beautiful green eyes staring into her soul. Her thoughts passed over each time those eyes had locked with hers, finally settling on the first time, three weeks ago in her room.

Her mind began to move beyond mere sight. She could almost feel Applejack’s warm body, the memory of hugging her close that night bubbling to the surface. Her mind’s eye closed for a moment and suddenly, instead of hugging Applejack, she was muzzle to muzzle with Rainbow Dash. Staring straight into the phantom image of those bright raspberry eyes, she could feel Dash’s four legs all wrapped around her once again. Her thoughts shifted once more and now Pinkie had wrapped her up in a ribcracker, and all she could see in her mind was pink, white and blue.

All of her senses were so inwardly focused that she failed to notice a passing unicorn slip a sack of bits to Pinkie, and an earth pony collect a smaller sum from her moments later. Twilight only returned to reality when she felt Pinkie poking her gently in the ribs.

“Come on, Twi! They’re leaving and we gotta follow them. AJ said something about another date!” Pinkie hopped frantically beside the table, pointing a hoof out the door. Twilight was so befuddled, she couldn’t even be sure if it was a supernumerary hoof or not.

Twilight was only vaguely aware of the return trip to Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie had suggested flying after being unable to locate the cart she’d stashed their cast off catsuits in. Between the weariness of her legs and limber state of her wings, the small part of Twilight’s mind actually paying attention to the world agreed. Pinkie delightedly hopped up for a pony-back ride, her hind legs squeezing Twilight’s barrel softly, while her forehooves rested on her withers.

Several minutes later, Pinkie guided Twilight to a soft landing in the apple tree nearest the Apple family’s front door. Neither Applejack nor Rainbow seemed to notice the soft rustling in the tree. Dash’s wings were up again, and all of their attention seemed focused on each other.

“I’ll come pick you up Friday and you can pick what to do, but it’s still your turn to pay, remember.” Applejack practically purred at Dash.

“Right, yeah. I won’t forget, AJ.”

Twilight blushed a bit as she watched Applejack lean in and kiss Dash on the cheek. Her coat prickled pleasantly as she felt Pinkie shaking with glee, still perched on her back.

“Night, sugarcube. See ya later.” Applejack strode back into the house, and after a few moments of staring somewhat blankly at the door, Dash finally trotted away, looking nearly as dazed as Twilight herself felt. Twilight’s gaze followed Dash’s retreating form until she was lost in the darkness.

Once Dash was well out of sight and earshot, Pinkie hopped down from the tree, branch by branch, and bid Twilight goodnight, saying that she had some business to attend to, and promising to meet up again on Friday. Twilight watched Pinkie scamper off and follow Rainbow’s path before she took to the air again, gliding toward the library without much conscious thought.

Twilight dwelt on the confusing melange of emotions coursing through her head. She squirmed pleasantly, thinking about Pinkie riding on her back, or vice-versa. Her heart beat faster and thumped audibly, remembering Applejack touching, nuzzling, and especially kissing Rainbow. To make things worse, her mind kept flicking between images of Applejack, Dash, and Pinkie, each smiling softly at her. Three pairs of eyes clouded her vision, and three sets of encircling legs made her coat stand on end.

“Hey, Twilight. You’re back late,” Spike remarked as she absently trotted into the library. “Uh, what’s that on your face?”

The absurdity of the question finally snapped her out of her reverie. Twilight sharply realized that amid everything that had happened since the restaurant, she had been, and still was, wearing that ridiculous fake facial hair. A deep groan gurgled out of her throat as she tossed the flimsy disguise aside and walked slowly to her bed.

High Stakes Stakeout

Three afternoons later, Twilight had been through the entire romance section of the library twice. Unfortunately, the books that Rarity so often praised didn’t offer much advice applicable to her situation. If nothing else, Twilight wanted a word or two that she could attach to her emotional state. She’d found many potential candidates, but never having experienced any of them before now, she could not be sure they were the right ones.

Off and on, especially during the first morning, she had considered writing to Celestia, or Luna, or even Cadance for help.

She’d rejected the first two options almost without thinking.

Writing to her long time mentor about her budding love life seemed incredibly awkward. Especially because Celestia had been such a strong supporter of her friendship with these same ponies. Despite her lack of definitive answers, she knew that what she was feeling was definitely beyond the bounds of friendship. In fact, she wasn’t sure which would disturb her more, Celestia being supportive of her making that leap, or finding her former mentor dismissive instead.

Writing to Luna carried the same potential problem. Either through Luna assuming the letter was misaddressed, or out of concern for Twilight, the letter could all too easily fall into Celestia’s hooves.

On the other hoof, she’d actually debated quite a while about writing to Cadance.

Her sister-in-law was only a few years older than she was and much more approachable about personal issues, especially in matters of romance. She knew Cadance wouldn’t go straight to Celestia if Twilight asked her not to, but there was a completely different problem there; her brother. She was not eager to discuss her barely initiated romantic interests with her B.B.B.F.F. quite yet, especially when she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it herself.

To top it all off, Twilight herself was a princess, not to mention being a full grown mare. She was supposed to be mature enough by now to handle complicated situations like this on her own. So she turned back to the methods that had held her in good stead all her life; studying books and reviewing notes.

At the very least, Twilight knew that she could be stimulated by close physical contact with another pony. In addition, she found looking into another pony’s eyes to be very stimulating, both mentally and physically. She was willing to stipulate, given the available evidence, that mares were most likely provoke these effects, but she also noted that the effect of stallions on her psyche was a relative unknown at present. There had been the incident with that one pegasus guard, but the circumstances at the time were so far out of the ordinary that he could hardly be counted as a reliable data point.

To cap off her mental list of facts, Twilight could name three mares, three close friends, who had demonstrably stimulated both her mind and body. A thought niggled at the back of her mind that if she hadn’t been so curious to see how Applejack would accomplish her goal of courting Rainbow Dash, she would not be trying to sort out these feelings. However, before she could take that line of thought any further, one of those self-same mares crashed in through the library door.

“Twilight! Twilight!” Pinkie’s sudden appearance and exuberantly sharp voice made her coat, mane and feathers all stand on end. “AJ just left the farm! She’s headed to Dashie’s place, come on!”

And to make matters even worse for Twilight, not only had Pinkie just crashed into the library, but the subject of Applejack and Rainbow Dash was the first thing out of her mouth. Before Twilight could raise any sort of objection or make a move to hide her piles of reading material, Pinkie had hopped onto her back and gripped her withers without a word of warning.

“Pinkie!” Twilight cried out. Her heart thumped against her ribs at the sudden physical contact; unwarranted, but not entirely unwelcome. “You have hooves too, you know!” She turned to glare at the pretty pink pony perched on her back, and quickly gave her head a little shake at the inclusion of that first P word.

“Of course I do, silly filly,” Pinkie giggled. Her hind legs twitched a bit against Twilight’s barrel, eliciting a blush. “But we need to be quick and I’m all out of disguises, so I think we should watch from a cloud today. And you’ve got the only horn and pair of wings between us,” Pinkie belted out cheerfully, giving Twilight’s folded wing an innocent poke with a forehoof. Both feathered limbs immediately shot to attention.

“Hi ho, Twilight!” Pinkie let out an excited whinny, giving Twilight’s barrel a squeeze with her hindhooves. Instinctively, Twilight’s wings beat the air, propelling her out the library door and into the evening sky. Pinkie perched on her back, forehooves on her withers, giggling as she steered them toward Dash’s cloud home.

Twilight laid herself flat against the cloud, her wings giving the fluffy mass a gentle push as soon as Rainbow took off from her front porch. As the cloud drifted lazily out from behind Dash’s home, Pinkie’s tail gave an excited flick beside her. She was laying against the cloud as well, thanks to the cloud-walking spell, and her head was already poked ostrich-like though their latest hiding spot. She apparently appreciated the view.

Twilight closed her eyes and held her breath as she stuck her own face through the fluffy mass. She didn’t mind the drier outside of the clouds, but she never really cared for the feeling of the moist insides. Twilight opened her eyes and breathed in again when she felt cool air take the place of wet cloud against her muzzle. The sight she saw nearly startled her right off her perch.

If Rainbow and Applejack had looked beautiful three days ago, tonight they were absolutely stunning. Twilight’s eyes drifted over both of them, taking in their styled manes and groomed coats.

She’d seen Dash wearing that same mane style for the Grand Galloping Gala, the hair on her crest pinned up in a flowing ponytail. But whatever shampoo she’d used on her mane and tail tonight smoothed them out and gave them a voluminous, flowing look, where they were usually flyaway and a bit unkempt. She’d preened her wings just as before, but her feathers had a slight shimmer to them tonight, and Twilight couldn’t help wondering what sort of product she might have used on them. Her own wings gave a twitch at the sight, causing the cloud to drift some more.

Applejack was even more striking. Her tail was in the same sort of braid as last time, but her mane was split in two smaller braids, one draped over each shoulder. And instead of her hat and her usual red hair ties, her braids were bound by pink ribbons that matched the large pink bow in her hair, probably borrowed from her sister. Finishing off the effect was a touch of blue eyeshadow that matched Rainbow’s coat. Even the shock of seeing Applejack wearing makeup and a pink hair bow by her own choice failed to give Twilight pause as she took in the gorgeous sights below.

“Hey there, good lookin’.” Applejack gave a grin before leaning in closer to Dash. Twilight could feel her heart start to race as Applejack nuzzled against Rainbow, her lips forming soft, but still audible, words against her ear. “If you’re tryin’ ta impress me tonight, it’s already workin’.” Rainbow stomped a hoof and nickered in response to Applejack’s advances.

Twilight watched Dash’s flight muscles flexing; she was clearly fighting to keep her wings folded. Her own wings gave a spasm and her ear flicked as she imagined feeling the warm breath of another pony tickle her. Twilight fought to make a mental note of the situation for later study, cursing her current lack of parchment and quill.

Her face was heating up and for once she felt grateful for the contrast of cool cloud wreathed around her neck as the fluffy mass began to jiggle softly against her. A quick glance showed Pinkie shaking with suppressed giggles. Twilight shook her head as she caught herself imagining that the fluffy cloudstuff shaking against her was instead Pinkie’s fluffy tail and told herself to remember that as well.

“So, where’re we goin’ tonight?” Applejack had backed up a pace, giving Rainbow, and Twilight, a chance to calm down.

“Got us tickets to a movie,” Rainbow said after fishing in her saddlebag for a moment. She held up the tickets for Applejack to see, receiving a bewildered look. Twilight couldn’t blame her. The movie theater in town was less than a year old, and while she knew of movies from her fillyhood in Canterlot, she suspected that most native Ponyvillians had never even heard of movies until the theater came along.

“Ain’t never been on a date to see a movie before.” Applejack’s face was still a mask of confusion, but Twilight was almost positive she was ticking the idea over in her head.

“Me either, but it’s Daring Do, there’s no way it can’t be awesome!” Rainbow reared up, pumping her forehooves in the air. Twilight smiled to herself, momentarily distracted from her other cares, as she watched Rainbow’s excitement for the action icon. Ever since Dash had given in and read the first book, she just couldn’t get enough Daring Do.

Applejack seemed to feel the same way, an amused grin on her face as she slid up beside Rainbow. A moment later, however, her aggressively sensual tactics returned as she wrapped her tail around Dash’s and leaned in close to her ear again. “Sittin’ in the back of a dark theater? I can see how that’d be fun. Lead the way, sugarcube.” Between her own emotions and the tickle of moving cloud against her neck, Twilight’s ear gave another involuntary flick. Her wings fluttered as well, causing the cloud to drift still more.

As Applejack and Rainbow Dash finally started a slow walk into town, Twilight’s attention of the retreating couple was broken by a gentle poke in the ribs. She pulled her head out of the cloud with a pop and turned.

“Come on, Twi! Get those wings going so we can follow them!” Pinkie’s eyes twinkled. Before Twilight even had a chance to flex her flight muscles, Pinkie had already pulled a paper fan from her mane and stuck it to the end of her poofy tail. She beat at the air ineffectually, attempting to waft the cloud along.

“Pinkie, maybe we should let them go on their date in peace tonight.” The words left her mouth before she had a chance to really think about them, but deep down she knew that her entire emotional state had been caused, and was still being caused, by spying on Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“Nuh uh.” Pinkie said firmly, bouncing forward and pressing Twilight’s cheeks between her hooves. “Dashie and AJ are our friends. It’s our duty as their good friends to make sure they have a good time together. Don’t you agree?” Pinkie’s eyes were twinkling, but unusually serious.

Her reddening cheeks squished against Pinkie’s hooves and she could not tear her eyes away from Pinkie’s stern gaze. After a moment of stunned silence, Twilight gave a small nod. Pinkie had a point; they were still her friends, no matter what kinds of confusing feelings might be cropping up. And a part of her was still curious about AJ’s plan.

“I guess you’re right,” she conceded. “Okay, let’s go.”

Pinkie flashed her a smile and released her face, giving her a pat on the head.

Twilight gripped the cloud with her hooves, spreading her wings and powering the cloud along with soft beats. Pinkie stowed her fan and hopped excitedly to the leading edge, peering down as they caught up with their targets. A pair of passing pegasi looked annoyed for a moment as the commandeered cloud passed, but they shrugged and said nothing after catching sight of the driver. Being a princess did come with a few perks after all.

Twilight was wary of following close enough to hear any conversation, still marvelling at the fact that she had not been caught by Applejack’s eyes tonight. They simply followed the route into town in relative silence; only the soft beating of alicorn wings and the gentle hiss of the air brushing past the mass of the cloud were audible.

She was glad of the momentary calm, though her wings did skip a few beats when Rainbow draped a wing over Applejack’s back and pulled her close part way into town. Twilight’s attention was so fixated on the couple again, and Rainbow Dash finally being the one to take action, that she failed to notice Pinkie tossing a small sack of bits to Lyra and Bon Bon hiding behind a bush beside the road.

When they finally reached the theater and their marks had disappeared safely inside, Twilight propelled the cloud toward the ground, allowing Pinkie to hop off. She dithered about what to do with their stolen conveyance, finally deciding that attaching the borrowed cloud to an existing cloudbank nearby was the most expedient course of action.

By the time she returned to the ground, Pinkie had already purchased two tickets to Daring Do and the Sapphire Statue and started ushering Twilight inside. Twilight cringed involuntarily at the change in title from the book, not even bothering to argue as Pinkie drove her on.

Cautiously, they poked their heads into the dark theater, searching for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Pinkie spotted them in the middle of the very back row, pointing a hoof as her mouth twisted into a frown.

They ducked back out.

“It’s going to be really hard to spy on them without being seen,” Pinkie muttered, tapping a hoof against her forehead as she tried to think.

“Maybe this is a sign that we should leave them alone?” Twilight mumbled, her words lacking conviction.

Logically, a small corner of her mind said, she knew she should leave them be. And that if she had just done so from the very beginning, she would not be agonizing over nor trying desperately to keep track of her mental state.

Her wings twitched and her heart thudded in her chest as she thought about the couple alone in the back of the dark theater. Logic, the rest of her replied, could go to Tartarus. Right now she wished she knew an invisibility spell.

“We need something,” Pinkie pondered, her eyes scanning from side to side, completely ignoring Twilight’s feeble protest. She spent several long moments of contemplation with her eyes fixed on Twilight’s horn before moving on. As her eyes passed over the view of the street through the windows of the theater lobby, her tail whipped from side to side and she gasped out loud. “Got it! Stay here, I’ll be right back!”

Twilight watched, her head cocked at an odd angle, as Pinkie rushed outside. A flower vendor had just rolled her cart up in front of the theater and Pinkie made a beeline for it. Her lips moved, saying something to the cart’s owner while she pointed emphatically down the road. While the flower vendor craned her neck and gazed intently into the distance, Pinkie retrieved the black catsuits she had stashed in that same cart three days previous and zipped back to Twilight’s side, leaving the flower vendor in a state of utter bewilderment.

“Hurry up, Twilight!” Pinkie shoved one catsuit into Twilight’s hooves and started wriggling into her own. “The movie’s about to start! We’ve got to get in there!”

Twilight’s hooves shook slightly as she pulled the black fabric over her body. Her eyes travelled over the darkening street outside, watching the flower vendor sell a delicious looking bouquet to a couple. Over top of the loud thumping of her heart, Twilight’s brain urged her to just trot away through the glass doors and leave the couple inside before things got any worse.

She licked her dry lips, still staring at the flower cart as her mind formed a hasty plan.

“I’ll just go and get us some snacks.” Twilight took a shaky step forward, willing herself to focus on her mind’s goal. Her hoof had barely touched the floor again when a pink and black blur took over her vision and spun her around to face the theater door again.

“No time! I’m hungry too, but we could be missing important stuff in there!”

Twilight no longer offered any resistance as Pinkie urged her bodily through the door again. The theater was almost completely dark except for the flickering light of the movie reflecting off of the screen, but she and Pinkie had no trouble spotting Applejack and Rainbow Dash still sitting in the same seats in the back row.

Pinkie plunked Twilight into a seat near at the end of the row, hopping over her to take the next one in. With their tails covered and Pinkie blocking the view of Twilight’s wings, their black suits rendered them nearly invisible in the dark. A quick glance showed that they almost needn’t have bothered.

Rainbow had the same sort of glassy-eyed expression she’d had earlier beneath her cloud home, but magnified. Applejack had leaned close, clearly whispering in her ear again. But Twilight couldn’t help noticing also the flickering light of the movie illuminating Applejack’s pink tongue as it traced along Dash’s ear. She could see Rainbow’s wings flexing quite hard against her seat back, eager to advertise her feelings in spite of being pinned closed. Twilight, leaning forward to see around Pinkie, was not as lucky.

Pinkie turned around to shush her at the sound of rustling feathers, and found a red-faced Twilight desperately trying to fold her wings back to rest. Shooting nervous glances back and forth between Twilight and the couple they were spying on, Pinkie pressed on Twilight’s wings, trying to help as quietly as possible. Her efforts soon proved to be both unnecessary and completely in vain.

All of Applejack’s attention was focused on Rainbow and fiddling with the armrest between them. Within moments, Applejack was cuddling Dash, a foreleg slung across her shoulders. And a few more moments later, the two unwitting marks had each other’s complete and utter attention, all else forgotten. Rainbow leaned in and pressed her lips firmly against Applejack’s. A small rock setting off an avalanche.

Twilight’s wings stuck out straight, stiffer than ever and vibrating like a plucked guitar string as Pinkie let them go. Her wide purple eyes were unable to look away from the kissing couple, and any ambition she’d had to keep mental notes tonight instantly evaporated.

Pinkie turned in her seat and leant forward to watch the show. Her poofy pink tail twitched as eagerly and excitedly as Twilight’s wings as they both paid rapt attention to the couple wantonly making out in front of them.

Twilight was barely aware of the motion of her body as the warm and slightly stuffy air of the theater was replaced by the cooler and fresher air of the street outside. Her wings twitched against a light breeze as the visions of her two friends lip-wrestling filled her conscious mind.

“Twilight.”

She continued to stare blankly ahead. The sound of the movie earlier had faded to white noise in her ears as she had watched Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s makeout session. Once she had begun to gawp at the sight, none of the shouts, booms, rumbles, or other loud sound effects from the movie had any effect on her brain.

“Twilight!”

One of her ears twitched. She wondered if she had just heard her own name in the movie. Twilight slowly reasoned that it could have just been a piece of dialog, but the inflection seemed a bit too forceful for it to have been simply a random word in a sentence. Another gentle breeze caught her feathers and seemed to waft away the image before her eyes of her two friends wrapped in each others’ forelegs, trading saliva as if their lives depended on it.

“Twiiiiiiiilight!”

Twilight Sparkle shot straight backwards, yelping as she collided with the outer wall of the theater building and collapsed in a dishevelled heap on the ground. Just for a moment, as she regained her senses, she’d had a vision of Pinkie’s face in close up. Pinkie had been close enough to kiss her if she’d been so inclined. Or close enough for her to kiss Pinkie, Twilight couldn’t help tacking on as an afterthought. A sudden escape had seemed prudent, until the pesky wall had stopped her cold.

“Geez, Twilight. You’re acting like you’ve never seen two ponies kissing before,” Pinkie giggled as she trotted over. “Though, I’ve never seen anypony kiss for quite that long. Woof!”

Twilight just mumbled nonsensically as Pinkie dragged her back to her hooves and dusted off her catsuit.

“The movie’s almost over, so we gotta hurry. Where’d ya put our cloud, Twilight?”

Twilight gave her head a shake and craned her neck, looking around to reorient herself. When she was sure of the direction, she scanned the sky, but failed to find the cloudbank that had been above the theater two hours previous.

“It’s gone.” She pointed a hoof at the empty sky. “The weather ponies must have cleared it away.”

“Foiled again.” Pinkie gave a snort, tapping a hoof against her chin. “Well, we still have our catsuits this time. We’ll just have to stake out the entrance and follow them on hoof. Let’s go!”

Pinkie bounced away, zipping straight toward a row of bushes in front of a shop across from the theater. Twilight followed, partly out of habit, but also because there didn’t seem to be much point in protesting. She repeated Pinkie’s words to herself, trying hard to sort out her thoughts.

“Dashie and AJ are our friends. It’s our duty as their good friends to make sure they have a good time together.”

She was close enough with Applejack that her friend had trusted her with her feelings about Rainbow. Dash was a great friend as well; between flying lessons and their shared passion for Daring Do, they’d spent quite a lot of time together recently. Rainbow had let that show at the party; she’d hugged Twilight more fiercely than anypony else, save Applejack. They were both wonderful friends and she lo—she wasn’t sure exactly what she was feeling now, but that was no reason not to support them.

Twilight’s mind churned over the possibilities. It was already pretty late, so they’d probably just go to dinner and then call it a night like last time. After all, this was only their second date. Applejack had been determined to get past this point successfully, so there was logically very little chance she would do anything unusual.

As she crouched down next to Pinkie Pie behind a particularly large bush, the vision of Rainbow Dash and Applejack passionately kissing each other bubbled back up to the forefront of her mind. Applejack had been the one to initiate the cuddling, but Rainbow was the one who had escalated it into kissing, and both of them had kept it going for nearly the entire length of the movie. That did seem a little unusual for a second date, at least according to her research.

As if replying to her thoughts, the ponies in question emerged from the theater right at that moment. Dash once again had her wing cuddling Applejack’s back, and their bodies were most certainly pressed closer together now than they had been on the walk into town. Twilight’s knees shook; logic and romance were clearly not compatible concepts.

“Enjoy the movie, sugarcube?” The husky sound of Applejack’s voice broke in on Twilight’s thoughts. She turned her attention back to the stakeout in time to catch Applejack nuzzling against a grinning and dazed-looking Rainbow. Before the latter could say anything coherent, there was a rumble of empty stomachs. “Y’all got dinner lined up for us?” Applejack’s cheek was still pressed against Dash’s.

“Yeah, just down the street.” As Rainbow led Applejack away, Pinkie motioned for Twilight to follow and sneaked forward herself. They took refuge behind a newspaper box, a produce stand that was closed for the night, and finally a line of planters filled with colorful flowers outside of Horte Cuisine.

“Mighty fancy place you’re takin’ us to. Ya sure that’s Rainbow Dash in there an’ not a changeling?” Twilight’s jaw dropped at the casual mention of changelings. While she pondered just how relaxed and euphoric Applejack must be to be so sedate on the subject, Twilight failed to notice Pinkie accept a hoofful of bits from a passing unicorn.

“Yeah, it’s me. This was my backup plan in case you didn’t like the movie. We can go somewhere else if you want.”

“Nah, sugarcube. Betcha got reservations an’ all. Be a shame ta waste ’em.”

Twilight felt a sense of deja vu. It was a different restaurant and a different day, but she found herself stripping out of her catsuit alongside Pinkie, getting ready to sneak in to spy on Applejack and Rainbow Dash having a dinner date. At least this time she was not being forced to wear a fake beard.

As everything that had happened since Rainbow had first hugged her at Pinkie’s party flashed through her mind, Twilight couldn’t conclusively decide which of the four ponies in question was most at fault. She simply let out a soft groan of exasperation at the direction her life had taken for the past few weeks.

“Hmm… This won’t be quite so easy as the other night.” Pinkie tapped a hoof against her chin, staring at the restaurant’s door. “I didn’t expect Dashie to pick a fancy restaurant.”

‘I don’t think we need to follow them anymore, Pinkie. They definitely seem to be having a good time,’ is what Twilight wanted to say. Her lips parted slightly, forming the first word, but all that came out was a yelp as Pinkie dragged her away.

“Shh, Twilight. I have an idea, just follow my lead.” Pinkie pushed and pulled Twilight around to the restaurant’s service entrance, stopping in front of the plain, handleless metal door.

“I gotta open the door. Turn around for a minute.” Pinkie twirled her hoof in front of Twilight’s face.

Twilight shook her head, her eyes focusing as she parsed Pinkie’s request. “There’s no handle, Pinkie. I don’t see how you’re going to open it.”

“That’s why you have to turn around.” Pinkie continued twirling her hoof, her eyes fixed on Twilight.

A sigh escaped her lips as Twilight finally turned around, sitting on her haunches. “I still don’t see how this supposed to h—” She spun around, her eyes bugged out as she heard a click and the sound of softly creaking hinges behind her.

“How did you do that, Pinkie?!”

“Magic!” Pinkie gave an extremely toothy grin before pulling Twilight through the open door. “Come on! We need to find the laundry before somepony catches us.”

Twilight’s legs shook as she followed Pinkie out into the restaurant’s dining room. Her wings and tail twitched, trying to escape the poorly fitting busser’s uniform Pinkie had forced her into a few minutes ago. Her horn glowed continuously, holding up the bus tub as she scanned the room for her targets, as well as a dirty table nearby.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Pinkie happily fulfilling the role of a waitress, apparently unconcerned about the chance of being spotted. Twilight reached a hoof up to adjust her hairnet, hoping that it would hide her distinctive striped mane. As she lowered her hoof, she heard a familiar voice, and soon found the ponies she was looking for.

“Need a little pepper, sugarcube? All ya had ta do was ask.” Applejack’s distinctive accent reached her ears from a few tables away. She barely registered the blank look on Rainbow Dash’s face as she looked desperately for a dirty table close to theirs.

Twilight had barely taken two steps forward when she froze at Rainbow’s reply.

“AJ, why are we dating?”

Twilight could feel her heart start to beat faster. The image of Dash leaning in to kiss Applejack flitted across her mind. She had been so sure in that moment that Applejack had broken through Rainbow’s dating trepidation.

“What do ya mean, sugarcube?”

Twilight began to shake. She had no idea what had caused such an abrupt change to come over Dash, but she did know that she didn’t like it and didn’t want to hear any more of it.

“Come on, you know what I mean. You didn’t ask me out, you just dropped it on me. And then you kept me distracted being all touchy-feely.”

Twilight bolted. A few of the other customers had looked up at the sharp tone of Rainbow’s voice, ogling both the spatting couple and the fleeing figure of Twilight, but she paid them no mind as she ran.

Despite Pinkie’s assertion that they had a duty to make sure things went well for their friends, Twilight couldn’t help running from the sound of Rainbow calling her date into question. Tears filled her eyes, clouding her vision; she blinked them back. Being logical was always so much more predictable than being emotional, and since emotions had gotten her into this mess, she needed some logic now more than ever. She kicked herself, knowing that ever since Pinkie had shown up at the library, she should have just stopped to think.

That thought stopped her in her tracks, only a few paces outside the front entrance of the restaurant. Running wouldn’t help her, nor would it help what was going on inside. Before Pinkie had shown up this afternoon, she was studying and thinking. That was her. That was Twilight Sparkle; a thinker.

Applejack had confided in her, and only in her, all those weeks ago and she lo—and she was one of her best friends. She felt the same way about Rainbow, especially after hearing about all of her bad luck in dating. Pinkie had been right that she had a duty to help if she could. Not only that, but she wanted to help them be successful. She lo—They were two of her best friends, and they deserved it.

Twilight turned back to face the main window of the restaurant, pressing her muzzle to the glass. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still seated and talking, at least. She wished she could hear what they were saying, especially when Dash pressed her face into one of her forehooves, looking pained.

Memories of Rainbow and AJ had been coming unbidden to Twilight for the past three days, but now she summoned them willingly, searching for anything she knew that might be of help. She thought back, past tonight’s date, and the date three nights ago; past the afternoon at the library and the late night conversation with Applejack, all the way back to the party itself.

She could hear Dash’s voice in her mind, as clear as it had been that night.

“It’s so hard to tell you, AJ. Every time you get near me, I go all fuzzy. Can’t think straight, can’t fly straight. You’re so hot, it’s drives me nuts.”

Then Applejack’s voice came back to her from later on that night.

“I got some hope; I think we can make it work if we just get past the first date an’ have a good run on the second, but that don’t mean I ain’t still a mite scared.”

The pieces were starting to fall into place for her. Applejack’s biggest concern had been finding a way to make sure Rainbow didn’t find the date awkward. Twilight thought back, remembering each time that Applejack had touched Dash and the effect it had on her. Twilight blushed, remembering the effect it had had on her as well, but she shook her head, trying to concentrate.

To her great relief, Twilight watched her friends grin and chuckle at each other. She took a deep breath, intending to calm herself, but her relief was short lived and her breath caught in her throat. As Pinkie bounced by behind her, a large and jingling sack of bits held in her mouth, Twilight watched Rainbow make a sour face at a very worried looking Applejack. Her heart beat hard against her ribs, using up the lungful of air she could not breathe out. Her eyes watered as she watched and waited in suspense.

After what felt like an eternity of silent facial expressions, Twilight exhaled in sharp relief. Rainbow had favored Applejack with a big smile and slid her chair around the table to wrap a foreleg around her and hold her close.

Twilight lifted a hoof to her cheek, wiping away a tear as Rainbow leaned in to give Applejack a nuzzle. Her heart still racing, she took another deep, calming breath. Before she could finish though, it too caught in her throat. Applejack had pressed her snout into the crook of Dash’s neck and both of her bright emerald eyes, lids slightly narrowed, were staring straight at Twilight through the window.

She fought to swallow the lump in her throat as she stood, frozen by Applejack’s gaze. Twilight felt certain that the busser’s uniform she was still wearing would not fool her friend. As Applejack continued to lock gazes with her, she felt her heart start to beat faster and her head going fuzzy just the way Rainbow had described happening to her.

As memories and emotions swam in her head yet again, Twilight finally admitted to herself the word she could unequivocally attach to her state of mind. Love. There was no getting around it, no denying it, and no point in studying to try to find another explanation. Twilight Sparkle had fallen in love. And that presented a big problem.

Fighting Feelings

A dozen candles, all melted down to mere stubs in waxy pools, flickered and cast their feeble glow around the basement of the Golden Oak Library. The soft yellow candlelight mixed with the lavender horn glow and shone through several glass flasks, casting some interesting diffraction patterns on the walls and floor. But Twilight Sparkle noticed none of it.

Her attention was focused entirely on the pair of chalkboards in front of her. The soft squeak of chalk against the surface signified the addition of another line of almost incomprehensible writing. The chalkboards clearly contained a plethora of Venn diagrams, as well as several lists, each adorned with many checkmarks, crossings-out, and cross referencing arrows. But the actual text was incomprehensible to anypony who could not read and understand Griffonian.

Twilight Sparkle sat back on her haunches, staring at the chalkboards once again. Her eyes flicked from side to side, tracing along the many arrows from diagram to diagram and list to list. Her brow furrowed and her feathers bristled as she read, mumbling out the foreign words as they ticked over inside her head.

She stood up and began to pace. Several days had passed since Rainbow and Applejack’s second date and Twilight had spent a significant portion of her time since then pacing and thinking. Under the gaze of those beautiful green eyes, she’d finally admitted to herself that she’d fallen in love. But in reality it was not nearly that simple.

Twilight’s pacing stopped short, her vision of the outside world becoming blurred with tears while her inner vision showed her a clear memory of the tail end of the date. Once Applejack had broken off eye contact and turned her attention back to Dash, they’d both looked so happy together, hooves wrapped around each other’s back in a pose reminiscent of the party where everything had started.

Wiping her tears away with a hoof, Twilight sighed and tried hard to compose herself again. Her eyes darted back to the chalkboards and fixated on a particular instance of a pair of words, repeatedly scrawled a half dozen times over the black surface. In Griffonian, the words were complete nonsense; but transliterated into Equestrian, they spelled out a name: Pinkie Pie.

A different set of memories wound their way through her mind now. Her heart thumped harder against her ribs as she felt the ghost a feeling; Pinkie nuzzling the back of her head against Twilight’s chest as she hovered among the other onlookers in the town square. Her feathers splayed out as she remembered Pinkie giving them a flick with her poofy pink tail.

Things were definitely complicated.

“Geez, Twi. Are you still working on that translation thing?”

At the sudden interruption, Twilight jumped six feet and flailed all six limbs. In a calmer state, Twilight would have been forced to conclude that it was a pretty rational distance under the circumstances. But if she had been calm enough to work that out, she would not have been so jumpy in the first place.

A shaft of bright light broke over the tops of the chalkboards as the cellar door creaked open. Spike’s elongated shadow on the floor was all Twilight could see from her vantage point. “That’s practically all you’ve been doing for days now. I can’t even remember seeing you go to bed.”

“Spike! I thought I said no interruptions!” Twilight called from the floor as she lay like a sack of potatoes.

“You did. But I came to remind you that—”

“Rainbow Dash is here for your flying lesson!”

Twilight felt a sudden gust of air, followed by an intermittent soft breeze. She looked up to see the owner of that unmistakably confident voice hovering just above the chalkboards. Rainbow was grinning down at her and looking happier than if she’d just won tickets to a Wonderbolts show.

“Flying lesson?...” Twilight croaked out, staring up at Dash with wide eyes as she slowly stood up.

“Yeah, Twi. You know, that thing where we go outside and practice staying off the ground.” Rainbow hovered in place, gesturing out the cellar door with her forehooves. “About time too, you look like you’ve been cooped up in here for days. Totally uncool.”

“She has.” Spike said in a flat monotone. His foot tapped against the wooden stairs as he stared down at them with his arms folded. “I’ve been trying to get Twi to go out and get some fresh air, but she keeps insisting on finishing that project.”

“Well, I’m sorry Spike, but it’s just really important to me that I finish.” Her eyes darted toward Rainbow Dash and she willed herself not to blush as she stole a glance of her trim physique. “We should probably postpone—”

“Hey! Is that Griffonian?” Rainbow had hovered around to get a better look at the chalkboard. “You know, you mispelled—” Dash squawked as she was suddenly wrapped up in a field of lavender magic and dragged away in midair.

“You’re right, I should get some fresh air! Flying lesson it is!” Twilight blurted out and trotted up the stairs entirely too enthusiastically. A wide-eyed Rainbow Dash was towed along behind her while the chalkboard was unceremoniously shoved up against the wall.

Rainbow and Spike just shrugged at each other as they left the cellar.

Twilight sat on her haunches in the middle of the empty field beneath Rainbow’s cloud home. Her wings twitched as her gaze followed Dash around the sky. Her friend darted around above, arranging bits of cloud into an obstacle course. Despite the warm breeze and bright sun beating on her coat, Twilight shivered a little as she watched. Her overactive imagination kept turning the wisps of cloud into Griffonian words.

Scrunching up her muzzle, she tried hard to turn her thoughts toward analyzing the course Rainbow was setting up for her. Tearing her eyes away from a pair of cloud hurdles that suspiciously resembled the Griffonian word for ‘apple’, Twilight finally directed her gaze toward the ground instead.

She took a few deep breaths, taking in the relaxing fragrance of the colorful flowers dotting the meadow. Her eyes drifted lazily over the field, finally smiling just a little. The colors were too broken up to form any kind of meaningful pattern.

Turning around to take in more of the scenery, Twilight’s eye was caught by long, jagged lines of red, yellow and blue. In truth it was only a vague shape, but her brain was all too eager to connect the dots into a jagged lightning bolt pattern. Her feathers bristled and her heart rate climbed again as she wrenched her eyes away.

Everywhere she looked, she saw the colors of the rainbow: red, yellow, blue, violet, and worst of all, a smattering of orange flowers among some bright green clover. Twilight swung her head desperately and settled her gaze on the one color not in the usual spectrum: pink. She took in the sight of a soothing patch of bright pink flowers, partially darkened by the fluffy pink shadow of a cloud that looked suspiciously like—”Pinkie Pie!”

“Equestria to egghead! There’s no Pinkie Pies around here.” Rainbow chuckled as she landed with a soft thump. “Well, unless you spotted her sneaking around to prank us or something.” Dash swiveled her head from side to side, peering suspiciously around the empty meadow.

Twilight took a deep breath, doing her best to calm down and slow her heart rate while Rainbow darted around, poking a hoof into each patch of pink flowers.

“No, I didn’t see Pinkie anywhere. I was just thinking and her name came up. Sorry, I’ve been a bit distracted and jumpy lately.” Twilight stared at the ground, avoiding Dash’s eyes.

“No kidding. You really need to get out more, stretch your wings, ya know?” Rainbow landed in front of Twilight again and ruffled her mane a bit. “And that just happens to be step one, especially after you’ve been cooped up inside for a while.” She adopted her stern coach’s manner, plunking a baseball cap on her head as she stepped back a few paces. “Spread those wings, let’s see some stretches.”

Twilight did as she was told without argument, extending her still ruffled wings fully under Dash’s stern gaze. She winced as several of the misaligned feathers pulled painfully at each other.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop!” Dash mimed a timeout with her hooves. “Okay, stretching just got moved to step two. Step one is a thorough preening. Jeez, Twi, how’d ya let your wings get so bad in the first place?”

“Sorry, been distracted,” Twilight mumbled as she turned to spruce up her wings. The half truth brought to mind memories of several days worth of nervous and anxious feather bristling since she’d last preened.

Her imagination wandered as she clumsily straightened a few feathers. An unbidden image of Rainbow’s reaction if she let slip the real reason behind her ruffled wings caused her teeth to slip on a primary and she yelped in pain. Blinking back tears, Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder.

“Here, let me help, Twi. You’re gonna hurt yourself like that.” Dash’s voice was surprisingly gentle compared to her coach’s manner, or even her everyday brash mode.

Before Twilight knew what was happening, Rainbow Dash had already moved in close, sitting down on her haunches in front of and just off to her left. In the back of her mind, Twilight could remember the feeling of four legs wrapping themselves gently around her barrel from the last time Dash had been this close to her. She gasped as Rainbow leant over and gently began to straighten the feathers of her portside wing.

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating on keeping her breathing steady and even. She bit her lip; Dash’s warm presence coupled with the gentle tug on each feather as they were straightened and patted down was making her head spin.

After some time, both too long and too short in Twilight’s opinion, Rainbow pronounced her left wing done and switched sides, her muzzle passing close to Twilight’s own as she crossed over. Twilight’s eyes opened just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of raspberry irises. A raspy squeak left her parched mouth.

“You say something, egghead?” Rainbow looked up, letting go of the primary feather she had been about to align.

For a moment, Twilight considered simply shaking her head, but catching the look in Rainbow’s eyes, made her realize just how odd her behavior must seem. If she didn’t make some sort of effort to seem normal very quickly, Dash would guess something was up, and she didn’t think she could stand up under her shrewd brand of questioning.

“Just thanks,” she croaked out, faking a cough to give her a moment to compose herself. “Thanks for fixing my wings. You’re a lot better at it than I am.”

“No sweat, Twi. Lots of practice, ya know.” Dash grinned at her, giving her blue wings a little flap. “Besides, if AJ can learn to preen like a pro, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out eventually.”

“Applejack knows how to preen?” Twilight’s apprehension was momentarily stunned by the revelation.

Rainbow’s wings gave another twitch and her eyes had a slight glazed quality to them. “Like you wouldn’t believe. I could kiss the pony who taught her.” Rainbow dipped her head and went back to work, straightening and smoothing Twilight’s starboard wing, a hint of red shining across her blue muzzle.

Twilight closed her eyes again. She was acclimating to Dash’s presence, but the sensations rippling through her wing were still on the verge of overwhelming. Twilight cast her mind about for a distraction, and latched onto the first thing to stir in her memory. The brown, canvas cover of a book opened before her mind’s eye and the words inside began to recite themselves to her.

Although preening is necessary for efficient flight and is often performed in pairs for speed and ease solely for such purpose, among adult pegasi a variation of the act, more akin to a massage, is often used in intimate settings and is a skill usually learned by a pegasus’ partner in intertribal relationships.

Soon after gaining her wings, and shortly before a hooves-on lesson in preening from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, Twilight had read several books on wing care. This particular paragraph had been a cause for much giggling from Rainbow and much blushing from herself and Fluttershy at the time.

Right now, Twilight couldn’t help seeing Dash’s slight blush after mentioning Applejack’s skill in preening. Her mind drifted back to the gentle tugging and smoothing of the feathers on her right, and she unconsciously extended her left wing from where it was furled by her side. Her imagination filled in a second warm presence, an orange and blonde one, mirroring Rainbow’s actions. Twilight bit her lip again, breathing hard and hoping Dash would hurry.

Twilight’s mane was ruffled slightly by the soft, warm breeze. Her hooves shuffled against the soft mass of the starting cloud as she looked over the course laid out in the sky before her. She followed the twisting track of clouds with her eyes, silently reviewing each mistake she’d made on her previous attempts. As the course looped back on itself to the finish line only a few pony lengths away from where she sat, she consciously averted her eyes from the landing platform, knowing who she would see waiting there with stopwatch and whistle at the ready.

Almost as soon as she’d finished preening, Rainbow Dash’s stern coaching manner had returned in full force. Twilight had hardly had any time in which to be flustered as Dash put her through a series of stretches, a warm-up flight, a few sets of wing-ups, and finally the cloud obstacle course. She’d done reasonably well so far; Rainbow had pointed out her faults, but she’d also had plenty of praise to give.

Twilight flexed her wings a bit, tracing her eyes over the course once more. Each time Dash had complimented her flying, she’d felt a pleasant flutter in her heart, in stark contrast to the nervous flutter in her stomach she’d tried hard to stave off earlier. She wanted to impress Rainbow with her flying, and this would be her last chance today as Dash had pointed out that she had plans for later.

Finally casting her eyes at Rainbow, Twilight swallowed a small lump in her throat and flared her wings, raising them high to signal she was ready. Dash lifted her whistle to her lips and readied her stopwatch. At the sound of that shrill blast, Twilight kicked off hard from the starting cloud and flapped her wings as fast and efficiently as she knew how.

Her mane and tail whipped behind in her slipstream as she navigated the slalom. She silently counted each cloud as it passed by her wingtips, immediately pulling up into a steep climb as she passed the last one. She heard a cheer from the finish line, but resisted the temptation to look as she had done last time.

Twilight flapped hard, gaining the momentum she would need to clear the series of cloud rings too small to pass through with wings spread. She stretched both forelegs out in front of her as she raked her wings back. Her speed dropped off quickly as she coasted up through the rings.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion for a moment as Twilight watched herself slowly pass the final ring. She felt herself stall and spread her wings, watching for that telltale trail of cloudstuff clinging to her pinions which meant she hadn’t quite cleared the obstacle. She saw none.

An even louder cheer reached her ears as Twilight beat her arch-nemesis of the course. She had just enough presence of mind to pitch hard, clearing the vertical rings and starting a diagonal dive to gain maneuvering speed and head for the next obstacle.

Twilight headed straight for the series of hurdles up next. She concentrated hard on the clouds in front of her, avoiding looking at her one mare cheering squad. She spread her wings and carefully pitched up and down, passing the hurdles in a near-perfect sine wave.

The shouts from the finish line were even louder now, both from excitement and proximity. Twilight finally allowed herself a grin, despite the slight ache building up in her wings; she’d flown almost perfectly so far and only had one obstacle left to go.

Her path into the final, spiraling cloud track gave her an unavoidable view of the finish line. Rainbow sat there expectantly, her stopwatch raised so she could see both it and Twilight together. Fighting down the butterflies in her stomach, she strengthened her resolve to impress the lovely mare watching her and dove for the clouds.

Instead of just skimming along the surface to trail a ribbon of cloudstuff as she followed the spiral track to the finish, Twilight raked her wings back and went into a corkscrew spin, fighting the temptation to light her horn and use unicorn magic to guide her path. She flexed her wings and legs, pulling her body along the track, even as she carved spiral grooves with her forehooves and wingtips.

More than once she felt herself going off course and overcorrected a little, creating a less than perfect pattern, but she managed to follow the spiraling track all the way to the end. Unfortunately her risky maneuver backfired slightly as she skidded onto the the finish cloud upside-down and slid to a stop in front of Rainbow Dash flat on her back, eyes wide. She heard the click of the stopwatch.

“Not bad at all, egghead.” Dash’s enthusiasm belied her words as grinned down at Twilight and turned the stopwatch around for her to see; the time was several seconds less than her previous best. “I should add a few seconds for your landing, but that spiral thing was totally radical!”

“Th-thanks,” Twilight replied, blood rising to her cheeks. Her chest rose and fell steadily as she caught her breath. Time seemed to slow down again as her eyes met Rainbow’s. She hadn’t gotten a good look at them except in her memory since Pinkie’s party, and she wished now that she could stare into those raspberry irises for all of eternity.

“Hey, Rainbow! You up there?”

In a flash of rainbow color and poof of cloud stuff, Dash disappeared.

Twilight slowly rolled over onto her hooves and peered over the edge of the cloud. As expected, she saw the source of the voice which had broken her daydream. Rainbow stood next to Applejack, a wing over her back and coats pressed firmly together. The two of them were chatting with Pinkie.

For a moment Twilight considered staying out of sight on the cloud after seeing all three of her crushes gathered together. Unfortunately, Rainbow knew where she was and she had been trying to make an effort to act less suspiciously.

Twilight pushed aside the memory of the chalkboards and the preening and focused instead on the two hours she’d just spent training when she’d had no time for obsessive pondering. Spreading her wings, she fluttered down in what she hoped was a casual way.

“Well, if AJ doesn’t want them, I’ll take them!” Rainbow was saying as Twilight landed nearby.

“Dash, yer as bad as Pinkie. She’s been following me around with that bag fer days now. Ain’t neither of us takin’ them bits.” Applejack pressed a hoof to her muzzle.

“It’s only fair,” Pinkie moaned, drawing out the last word. “I totally shouldn’t have taken all those bets in the first place, but I did and bets are like a promise and I couldn’t break a promise, so I had to follow you around to know what was going on, and I made a whole pile of bits, but you two were really the ones who did all the work, so you have to take them!”

Pinkie sat on her haunches behind a sack of bits nearly the size of her head, her pleading blue irises shimmering as she made doe eyes at Applejack.

Twilight approached slowly. Her ears folded back as she heard Pinkie confess to spying on Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but she fought against the temptation to run away. Nopony seemed to be angry, so there didn’t seem to be any reason for further worry.

“Hey there, Twi. Rainbow said y’all just finished a flyin’ lesson.” Applejack turned to Twilight, seeming grateful for the distraction.

“We almost didn’t get started,” Dash laughed before Twilight could speak up. “Her feathers were totally messed up from being all cooped up in her basement, worrying over some eggheady project.” Rainbow gave Twilight her best toothy grin to go along with the playful jab.

Twilight felt her cheeks warming up. She cast about for a subject to steer the conversation away from that incriminating chalkboard, but Applejack provided one first.

“Couldn’ta been worse’n yours after that stunt over the lake.” Applejack grinned and gave Rainbow a little poke in the ribs.

“Hey!” Rainbow cried. Her feathers bristled a bit, but her expression was far from angry. “I told you I was still working on that trick. Besides, I got it right on the second try.”

“Sure did, sugarcube. An’ it was nice ta have an excuse ta fix ya up in between.” Applejack grinned, reaching out to spread Rainbow’s free wing and pull the tip toward her muzzle. A bit of color rose to Dash’s cheeks as Applejack punctuated her remark by straightening a few feathers.

Pinkie leant forward, planting her forehooves on the sack of bits and giggling to herself as she watched them. Twilight found herself transfixed as well, her wings giving a twitch as she watched Applejack’s cursory preening.

As Applejack moved down a few hoof widths, her head hiding Rainbow’s face from view, Twilight was once again caught by the gaze of an emerald eye from beneath those golden bangs. A lump formed in her throat. The look in that bright green eye was no longer alluring and full of excitement, instead it was concerned.

Twilight had seen that look of concern before, right after the incident with the cragadiles, but a twinge in her gut made her suspect that Applejack was not concerned for her safety this time around. The last thing she wanted was for Applejack to be upset with her over her odd behavior. Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat and took a calming breath before speaking.

“I definitely needed the break, Rainbow. Thanks for the lesson.”

“Hey, no sweat!” Rainbow grinned, folding her wing away as Applejack let it go. “Just make sure you keep up on your preening. Those alicorn wings have so many feathers, I thought I was gonna get lockjaw.” Dash waggled her jaw to illustrate.

“I hope ya set her a good workout after a treat like that.” Applejack’s tone was almost casual, but her brow had a slight furrow and her voice carried a hint of the flat, deadpan quality she used when something was annoying her.

“Of course.” Rainbow polished a hoof against her chest. “Stretches, laps, wing-ups and the obstacle course.” She pointed at the carefully crafted formation of clouds in the sky. “You think I’d half-flank a training session.”

“Course not, sugarcube.” Applejack nodded. “Well, we’d best be gettin’ along fer our date. Pinkie, Twi, if you’ll excuse us.” Once again, Twilight caught a bit of a flat tone when Applejack said her name.

“See ya! Have fun!” Pinkie waved goodbye as the couple left.

Twilight waved as well, but her hoof sagged. The look in Applejack’s eye and the tone of her voice played back in her mind. It tore at her heart, almost exactly the way she had felt when Dash had called Applejack’s motivations into question at the restaurant.

“Aww, hay! Applejack did it again!” Pinkie cried, shaking Twilight out of her thought process. She frowned and poked a pink hoof at the bag of bits still sitting in front of her while the other cupped her chin. “Maybe I can just give it to Big Mac and ask him to buy stuff for the farm.”

Twilight frowned, her attention drawn to the bag. “I did tell you not to take bets, Pinkie.” Her voice came out sharper than she intended and a pang of guilt hit her in the stomach as Pinkie’s ears drooped.

“I know,” she said sadly. “I told Applejack I was sorry and I keep offering to give her the bits, but she just keeps saying that an apology is enough.” Pinkie hung her head, her curly mane drooping along with her ears as she feebly poked at the bag.

Twilight’s own ears drooped as Pinkie spoke. She chided herself for upsetting two ponies in the span of only a few minutes. She wasn’t exactly clear about what she had done to make Applejack upset, but that was a problem for later anyway. Pinkie was a much easier problem to solve, and she could take care of that right now.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie. I didn’t mean to upset you,” Twilight apologized as she pulled Pinkie into a hug. Pinkie sniffed back her tears and wrapped her forelegs around her friend in return.

Twilight’s heart began to race as she felt Pinkie’s soft, curly mane tickle her neck. As she once again felt the telltales of her lately erratic behavior, two opposing desires flared up inside her. Letting go and running away at top speed seemed like a perfectly reasonable course of action, but holding Pinkie tighter and basking in her warmth was equally appealing.

Before Twilight could decide on either course, or even find a happy medium, Pinkie lept out of her grip with a gasp.

“Oh my gosh! I almost forgot about the pony pet playdate tomorrow! I gotta go polish Gummy’s scales!” Pinkie stretched out her neck, grabbed the bag of bits in her teeth, turned and ran for town, all in one fluid motion. “Bye, Twilight! See ya tomorrow!” she called out around the canvas as she ran.

Twilight fell to her haunches, her wings splayed out in surprise at Pinkie’s explosive departure. Her mind drifted to the calendar she kept in her bedroom, a room which she hadn’t seen much of in the last few days. As she mentally crossed off the days since she’d last taken a good look at it, the words ‘pony pet playdate’ stood out on the next free square.

Her mind drifted back to her flustered behavior and Applejack’s frosty tone toward her right before she and Rainbow had left. Twilight gulped, carefully refolded her wings, and stood up to go home. Thankfully, all six of them would be together at once. At least she hoped that hanging out in a group would make things easier than they had been today.