It was a perfect day in the small but lively town of Ponyville. The weather was perfect, a sign that the pegasi had certainly done their job of clearing the skies. Many of the town’s residents were outside, playing games with each other and socializing among themselves. However, that was a different story for the young and talented unicorn, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was pacing around her library, unsure on whether or not she should actually stop her studies for the day and enjoy the sunlight, or continue on and be what her friend Rainbow Dash would call “an egghead”.
After a bit of pondering (and pacing), Twilight decided that it would be best to take a break from her studies and go out to get some fresh air. Fillydelphia Beach sounded appealing to her; she loved to go down there quite often to clear her mind and detach herself from the difficulties of the world. A life of studying sixteen hours a day can really take it’s toll on a pony, even one with the mental capacity of Twilight.
After packing a towel, a small bottle of Celestia Brand sunscreen and some shades that she had earlier borrowed from Rainbow Dash into her saddlebags, Twilight called out to Spike to let him know that she would be gone for the afternoon.
“Also, Spike. Don’t eat all the ice cream while I’m gone, you know what happened last time. I’m not going to clean up that mess you made again!” called out Twilight as she was leaving out the front entrance of her library.
“Yeah yeah, mum…” muttered Spike, ignoring Twilight’s advice as he walked towards the freezer.
As soon as Twilight left her library, she shook her head. She did not expect to come back to a pretty sight – Spike never listened to her advice. “I guess that’s his loss,” Twilight thought. “Because it’s about time he learned the hard way~”
Deep inside, Twilight knew that she could not live up to those words. She has a soft spot for the baby dragon, and couldn’t help but spoil him a bit too much. One day that would have to change, most probably when he grew up a bit. But that day did not have to be today.
Twilight quickly snapped her attention back to her goal. Setting her equipment down by her side, she concentrated on the image of Fillydelphia Beach. Her horn began to light up, and moments later there was a loud CRACK as well as a flash of violet light. Twilight had teleported herself and her equipment onto the sandy dunes of the beach. Twilight picked herself up and looked around the beach, which was surprisingly empty for such a beautiful day. In fact, there was nopony around to be seen.
Twilight found this rather peculiar, but in her own way considered it to be rather pleasing to be left alone with just her thoughts and the pleasant aroma of the salty ocean. After admiring the revitalizing scent of the ocean, Twilight slung her saddlebags over her back and made her way towards the shoreline. She loved everything about the beach, the soft sand beneath her hooves, the enticing aroma of the ocean, the cool breeze and the refreshing, aqua-blue waters.
“The ocean waters seem so smooth, not as choppy as it usually is,” Twilight thought to herself, observing the waters around her. “I could really use a swim”
Shortly after her trot towards the shoreline began, Twilight reached the brink of the waters and set her saddlebags down. To her left was continuous shoreline, and to her right a long jetty that looked perfect to dive off. Twilight headed towards the jetty and prepared herself for a dive. After making sure the water wasn’t too shallow and that there weren’t any rocks that could be a hazard to her, Twilight took a deep breath and leaped off the jetty. She hit the water rather softly, producing a very small splash.
When Twilight resurfaced, she shook the water out of her mane in a sensual manner that would’ve attracted any stallion around her.
“A perfect dive, if I do say so myself.” Twilight said aloud. Feeling rejuvenated, Twilight swum back towards the shore to prepare herself for another dive. She walked back down the jetty and did her usual search for rocks when a glint in the sand caught her eye. Turning her attention to the unknown shine, Twilight saw what was on first observation, a small silver locket on a chain that was half buried.
Her curiosity peaking, Twilight cautiously slid off the jetty and into the water. Twilight’s horn lit up as she concentrated on levitating the locket, but for some unknown reason she was unable to do so.
“Peculiar,” she thought to herself. However she thought nothing more of it and decided to just use her hoof. Being careful not to bury the locket, she felt around the sea floor for the silver locket and upon feeling it, she fished it out. After further inspection, Twilight noticed that the locket seemed to have a small inscription that she could not quite make out. It was also undeniably pretty, so much so that even a pony as picky as Rarity would have considered tasteful.
Locket still in hoof, Twilight swam back to shore. There was still nopony around the beach, which Twilight was becoming more and more suspicious of. Normally, this beach would be bustling with ponies on an average day, but today was a totally different story, even with near perfect weather. Maybe there was some event on today? Twilight was unsure. Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, Twilight trudged towards her saddlebags and set the locket down. Deciding that these minor events shouldn’t shun her ‘vacation’, Twilight headed back towards the water for a swim.
Ninety minutes later, Twilight was out of the water and getting ready to pack up. She picked up the locket and put it around her neck. Making sure that everything was in place, Twilight’s horn once again lit up as she concentrated on the image of her library. With a loud CRACK, she departed Fillydelphia Beach and arrived in Ponyville, saddlebags next to her and locket still around her neck. Twilight was pretty tired after her swim, so her first plan was to get a good sleep. She opened the library door, and as expected, there was a baby dragon that was writhing in pain on the floor. There were several buckets of ice cream and spoons littered over the immediate floor around Spike.
Twilight sighed heavily as she walked up the staircase towards her bedroom. Cleaning up would have to wait; she was much too tired for any of that. Twilight set her saddlebags down and placed the locket on her bedside table, then jumped into her bed. She thought of nothing that had happened today, sleep had hit her harder than Applejack beats Applebloom
The next couple of days were very eventful for Twilight. The morning after her trip to Fillydelphia Beach was a bad one, she had woken up with a pounding headache. By the afternoon her headache had cleared up, so she was free to do her normal chores, as well as a light twenty six hour session of reading and note taking. A few ponies had stopped by to see how the academic pony was faring, however were pushed out by none other than Twilight herself, who considered herself to be too busy to talk with anypony.
Yesterday, Twilight was forced out of her library by Rainbow Dash, whom was worried that she was going to start yet another pandemonium in Ponyville. The last few times Twilight studied for such a long period of time, she had caused a massive riot over a toy. All because she couldn’t think of a friendship lesson to report on and hand back to Princess Celestia. Not to mention how she sent all of Ponyville to fix up every nook and cranny that was out of place. Typical of Twilight, it was due to a message from her future self, ironically enough, telling her not to worry about said message she was receiving.
Twilight was then hauled into one of Pinkie Pie’s famous parties. In her current state, Twilight hadn’t exactly heard correctly. All Twilight could remember was something about Gummy’s after after after after after birthday party. The party was exactly what Twilight didn’t need. Too much dancing around Pinkie Pie can cause broken hips, especially when Pinkie slams you into a wall (by accident, of course) just after complimenting her on how she always throws the best parties.
Twilight had returned home that night extremely drunk and feeling sick. The ponies had peer pressured her into drinking as much punch as possible in a short amount of time. Twilight lost control of herself after two glasses, ending up drinking a pony record of 49 full glasses of punch. Her best friends could only sit and watch in awe as she continually downed glass after glass of the alcoholic beverage. They continually tried to get Twilight to stop drinking, knowing that she could get alcohol poisoning, but Twilight just pushed them away shakily and kept on slugging it down. In the end, Applejack had to resort to breaking the bowl of punch to get her to stop. It was not a pretty sight, Twilight was so intoxicated that she started lapping some of the punch off the floor.
And today, she sure as Celestia was paying the price for her actions. Twilight woke up at 6PM with what was probably the worst stomach and headache in pony history. Along with bruises along her side due to Pinkie Pie’s antics and cuts on her tongue, probably from licking up some of the shattered punch bowl.
“Oh my gosh…” Twilight muttered, barely able to speak without gagging.
“S...Spi…SPIKE!” she managed to yell. She sat in agony, waiting for Spike to run up the stairs to her bedroom and assist her.
Moments later, Spike’s head appeared at the top of the staircase, shortly followed by the rest of his body.
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Please… Get me a bucket…” Twilight whispered, almost inaudibly.
Seeing Twilight’s terrible condition, Spike rushed to her closet and pulled out the biggest bucket he could find. The bucket was big enough to be classified as a bathtub in it’s own right. How Twilight fit these sorts of things in her room was beyond Spike, but it didn’t matter right now. He hurried back to Twilight, setting the bucket in front of her. Not keen on seeing Twilight heave, Spike dashed back down the stairs and got back to doing his evening chores.
It took Twilight another six days and several trips to Ponyville Hospital, but she finally got back to her normal self after some intensive care. She was scolded for even agreeing to the ‘silly drinking competition’, as the nurse had put it. Twilight was also warned that if something like this were ever to happen again, it would be most probable that death would occur. Twilight took these words very seriously and vowed never to get carried away in such a manner ever again. As soon as Twilight exited Ponyville Hospital, she immediately bumped into Applejack, who had been waiting for her patiently.
“Mornin’ sugarcube,” Applejack said to Twilight, who was unaware of her presence until now.
“Oh, good morning Applejack…” Twilight replied groggily.
“So… are y’all alright? After that mad night of drinkin’, we were all worried about yah,”
“Oh… The nurse warned me of the consequences I barely avoided, but apart from that I’m doing better than expected.”
“Well that’s good tah hear Twi. Y’all should go home and get some sleep, ah really don’t want tah see yah getting worse. None of us do.”
“Thank you for your concern Applejack. But I’ve been asleep for nearly six days; I don’t think I can sleep until tomorrow at the very least. I’ll be careful with myself though, so don’t worry.”
“Alright, that’s good tah hear. Ah best be gettin’ off to the farm, Big Mac’s probably going tah need a hand with buckin’ all them apples. Stay safe Twilight!” Applejack spoke, finishing their short conversation.
Twilight trotted off towards her library in a hurry. She always loved a good chat with her friends, however she had missed out on a lot in the past week. Not only had she unintentionally neglected Spike for so long, but she had also missed out on a few events she was planning on going to, such as the annual bookworm day and the seasonal audience with Princess Celestia. “Too late for that now,” Twilight thought whilst still heading towards the library.
She seemed to spend most of her life crammed inside that musty old tree, but quite frankly she didn’t really care. Sometimes she wondered why she studied all the time and didn’t just go out and ‘get a life’. She was in the prime of her short life, she should be out there, having fun; talking to ponies; playing some form of sports and partying with Pinkie more often (but not too hard), but instead she was always reading; cleaning; studying and the likes. Things a filly in school should be doing, not a mare of her age. But she usually regarded that as ‘dangerous thinking’ and would go back to studying. In the eyes of Twilight Sparkle, such was life. Studying comes first; partying comes second. That’s always how it’s been for Twilight and she wasn’t about to change it.
But Twilight never got that choice.
