Apparently becoming a princess didn’t strengthen Twilight Sparkle’s immune system.
The lilac-coated alicorn groaned in frustration from her bed and shivered beneath the blankets as she fought her first major cold in Ponyville, using the covers to shield her eyes from the harsh light of the setting sun. She clutched her head at a passing headache, and she sniffled while levitating a tissue towards her nose. After promptly and noisily blowing her nose into the thin tissue paper, she tossed it towards a wastebasket at the end of her bed, where it landed atop a small pile of other discarded tissues.
Of every mundane everyday problem Twilight had to face, none made her more miserable than a cold. It just made her feel gross. She ran a fever, she coughed and sneezed regularly, her head was light and her throat sore... all culminating in her sitting helplessly in her bed, sniffling and shivering and unable to do anything productive with her time. And with nothing productive to do with her time, she felt like a sickly waste of space.
“More soup, Twilight?” she heard Spike call from the stairway. She groaned and turned around in bed, awkwardly rolling on her belly to avoid dealing with her wings, and gazed upon her little dragon assistant. He held a steaming bowl of what appeared to be hay soup in his hands and wore an apron on his body. The smile he wore was a warm, loving one, though Twilight thought she detected a hint of selfish satisfaction. She suspected he was adoring all the extra work she was needing to give him in her unfortunate state.
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Just leave it in front of me,” she suggested, and Spike responded with a small nod. He swapped out the empty bowl already resting beside her and replaced it with the fresh one, a spoon already dipped into the soup and hanging from the edge of this bowl.
“I can feed it to you too, if you want,” Spike offered sincerely, taking the spoon and lifting it from the bowl.
Twilight, however, met his offer with another groan. “I’ve got my magic,” she insisted, somewhat more harshly than she intended. “I can feed myself.”
“Are you sure—”
“I’m fine!” she shouted, startling Spike and causing him to drop the spoon back into the soup bowl. The baby dragon shot his caretaker a dejected look, then huffed and turned away, heading back down the stairs and out of Twilight’s room.
Twilight let out yet another groan, levitating the soup-filled spoon to her mouth and quietly slurping it up. With a sigh, she dropped the spoon back into the bowl, letting some soup splash onto the bedside table. She then let out a grunt of frustration as she turned onto her stomach, burying her face into her pillow and sniffling again.
She didn’t mean to be that stern with Spike, she realized in hindsight. She always became irritable in her illnesses, and she overreacted when Spike offered to feed her. She supposed something in her snapped once the ability to eat on her own was at risk of being taken from her. She was perfectly capable of serving herself; she just probably should have explained that better to Spike.
After several more moments of bemoaning her pathetic situation, she heard faint chatter downstairs. One voice obviously belonged to Spike, and the other was so high-pitched as to be unmistakably Pinkie Pie. Though she could put faces and names to the voices, she was unable to make out any of the words they were saying. In any case, she was not in any mood or position to deal with any of her friend’s antics today, and she sincerely hoped Spike wouldn’t be sending the earth pony up to her room. Of course, considering he’d already just violated her request to not have visitors in the library, she could see it going either way. She groaned and turned away from the stairs.
Pinkie was already on the opposite side of the bed.
“Gah!” Twilight cried out, falling out of her bed and getting tangled in her sheets at the surprise of seeing her friend hovering over her bed. Pinkie giggled at the ridiculousness, bouncing over to Twilight and booping the alleged general area of her nose.
“Hi, Twi!” Pinkie greeted excitedly. She hugged the mass of blankets concealing her friend, squealing with delight at seeing her.
“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here!?” Twilight cried, her voice much more nasally than she realized at first.
“What’s it look like, silly? I came to visit my sick friend!”
Twilight groaned and removed the blankets entangling her body, summoning and blowing into another tissue. She then climbed into and unceremoniously plopped onto her bed.
“Aww, somepony’s grumpy,” Pinkie pouted. She sat at Twilight’s bedside, poking the princess and frowning slightly.
Twilight simply grunted, her wings twitching in the air as she coughed into her hoof. “Ugh... how did you even know I was sick?”
“Pinkie sense!” the bubbly mare replied simply. “And on top of that, Spike told me when I walked in the front door!”
“Which I told him not to open for anyone...”
“Why not?” Pinkie asked. “Also, you want me to pick your blankets up off the—”
“I’ve got it,” Twilight snapped, grabbing the covers with her magic and haphazardly tossing them over herself again.
“Jeez,” Pinkie exclaimed, frowning again at Twilight’s forceful attitude. “That answered my first question. Fortunately, I know other ponies who are grumpy when they’re sick, so I came prepared!”
“Prepared with wha—”
“I brought cupcakes~!” Pinkie interrupted in a singsong voice, setting a previously unseen basket beside Twilight’s head. The ill princess blinked at the basket, somewhat disappointed that her stuffy nose did not allow her to notice the pastries sooner.
“...for me?” Twilight inquired, tilting her head curiously.
Pinkie giggled. “Of course for you! You’re the sick pony!”
Twilight managed a giggle despite herself, but suddenly turned away, sneezing noisily into a tissue.
“Bless you!”
“Thanks,” Twilight replied, sniffling and discarding her tissue. She sat up on her bed, her blankets messily slumping off her upper torso, and placed the basket in her lap. Sure enough, when she looked inside, there were several small, clearly homemade cupcakes, topped with purple frosting and speckled with pink jimmies in the shape of her cutie mark.
At the sight of Pinkie’s hardship, Twilight managed to smile despite her cold.
The friends spent what little time was left in the day chatting idly and sharing the cupcakes Pinkie brought. In spite of herself, Twilight found herself smiling and laughing throughout her friend’s visit, and she would go so far as to say that, until the need to cough or sneeze returned, she forgot she even had a cold. Alas, the last rays of sunshine were quick to pass, and Twilight yawned, exhausted.
Pinkie giggled and smiled at her sleepy friend. “Awww! All tuckered out, Twilight?”
Twilight nodded sleepily. “I think it’s about time I tried to get some rest.”
“Alright, then!” Pinkie complied, standing up with her now-empty basket in tow. “See you tomorrow?”
“I’d love that,” Twilight answered with a soft smile. “And you can tell the other girls to visit, and let Spike know to let them in if they stop by.”
“Oh, absotively posilutely!” Pinkie exclaimed, giving her sick friend a quick hug before heading down the stairs.
Before stepping out the door to the lower level, however, the party mare turned back around to address her princess one last time. “And hey! Speaking of Spike, put that smile on for him some more too! He’s been working his scaly little butt off for you!”
Twilight chuckled softly and sighed, sniffling once more. “Thank you, Pinkie. I will.” Satisfied with the response, Pinkie giggled and bounced out the door, shutting it quietly behind her.
Twilight sighed contently and turned to face her window, snuggling up in her sheets and nestling her head into her pillow. She shut her eyes, finding that the small excitement of the day allowed her tired, sick body to doze off quickly.
The last thought that crossed her mind before sleep took her was that all it took to turn a crummy day around was a basket of cupcakes.
