Chapters A Different Kind of Magic
*CUCKOO *
Twilight blinked a few times at the sound and looked up from her books, craning her neck just in time to see the mechanical bird retreat into the clock mounted above her bed — the bed that she should have by all rights been in by this hour. "One AM... the Princess will be raising the sun in a few hours, but... I'm still not that tired," The studious unicorn thought out loud as she turned back to her books; there was no way a quiet voice could awaken Spike at this time of night, and she had let Owloysius out an hour ago to find some food.
Thinking of her number-two assistant's dinner made Twilight a touch squeamish; she knew it was all part of the natural order of things, but creatures eating other creatures still felt wrong to her, no matter what logic dictated. She still cursed her curiosity for the day that she had asked Fluttershy how she fed her more carnivorous patients. The answer she had gotten from the timid pegasus had given her terrible nightmares for a week.
Shaking her head as though it would clear the nastiness out of her mind, Twilight threw herself back into her evening's studies: cross-referencing historical mentions of advanced transformative spells with their modern counterparts. She began to hum to herself as she got back into her groove, a passage in the modern spellbook prompting her to flip carefully through the older, mustier tome with her magic in search of a reference she had seen earlier.
So engrossed was Twilight in her studies that she failed to notice when her aimless little tune picked up a second part, harmonising seamlessly with her own. It was only when Twilight paused for a moment and the humming continued that the oblivious mare realized a suddenly terrifying truth: she was not alone . She turned to her right, where her vision was abruptly filled with energetic blue eyes and poofy pink mane, and she did what any sensible pony would do in such a situation:
Jump into the air and scream like a little filly.
"Shh! You'll wake up Spike!" the pink intruder whispered loud enough to wake the sleeping dragon herself, and Twilight managed to calm herself enough to notice that her unexpected visitor wasn't a terrible book thief, but simply Pinkie Pie. Taking a few deep, relaxing breaths, Twilight took a quick survey of her surroundings; she quickly confirmed that both doors and windows were as sealed against the library-disorganizing power of the spring winds as they had been when she had let Owloysius out earlier.
"Pinkie, how did you get in here?" Twilight asked, managing to hide most of the irritation in her voice. It wasn't like she minded a visit from Pinkie — indeed, a part of her that she had been trying very hard to ignore for the past few months was ecstatic about seeing the pink party pony — but she could have done without the near heart attack.
"Well, I was trying to get a good night's sleep, 'cause the Cakes need me to open Sugarcube Corner all by my onesies tomorrow, but—"
Twilight interrupted with her best librarian's shush; by some Luna-granted miracle, Spike hadn't been woken up by either the unicorn's scream nor Pinkie's extreme whispers, and Twilight wanted to keep it that way.
"—oh, right, sorry! So where was I, oh, right, well, I was trying to sleep, but my ears kept a-twitching back and forth, like a metronome or a pendulum or those funny clacking-ball things that important big shot ponies put on their desks so they can play with toys even when they say, 'Oh, no, I'm too big and important to play with toys!' I mean, who are they trying to fool!? Anyway, the twitchy ears with the perfect rhythm, that means that somepony is up way too late! So I hopped out of bed and looked out my window, and sure enough, the only light on in all of Ponyville was at the library, so I came over here!"
Twilight brought a hoof to her face as Pinkie's explanation came to an abrupt and unsatisfying end. "Pinkie, that was 'why', not 'how'! And I'm not up too late." She shot a hoof towards her clock. "It's barely past one AM! I stayed up way later than this all the time when I lived in Canterlot."
"Well, no wonder you never had any friends before you came to Ponyville!" Pinkie exclaimed, nodding to herself as though some great truth had been revealed. "I mean, Luna wasn't around back then, so your only possible friends would have been terrible vampire ponies, and let's face it, with a name like Twilight Sparkle, you probably shouldn't hang out with vampires." As Twilight blinked at the strange leap Pinkie's logic had just taken, the energetic earth pony turned her attention to the books Twilight had been studying moments earlier. "So what ancient and forbidden knowledge is worth losing a comfy night's sleep over, huh?" she asked, no sarcasm detectable in her voice despite the words.
Twilight flustered for a second as Pinkie's sudden movement shoved her tail right in the unicorn's face, but the thought of losing her place in the books quickly got her brain working again. "Pinkie, be careful! I don't want to have to find my spot in those books again, and the one is very old and fragile." She breathed a sigh of relief as her words had the desired effect, Pinkie's snout only a hoof away from touching the older tome before it stopped. "Thank you, Pinkie. Now, I'm not sure if you'll understand this, but—"
"Hey!" Pinkie's tone was indignant as she looked back up at Twilight, faint tears visible in her blue eyes. "I may not be the smartest smartypants in the world like you, Twilight, but I'm not dumb! I—"
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Twilight interrupted in a panic, mentally cursing herself for causing Pinkie Pie to almost cry. Placing a reassuring hoof on Pinkie's shoulder, Twilight gave her friend her most sincere smile. "Pinkie, you're very smart, and very perceptive. There's plenty you could teach me, alright?" Rubbing the tears out of her eyes, Pinkie nodded, a smile slowly returning to her lips. "All I really meant was that unicorn magic is very difficult to explain to a non-unicorn; it involves concepts that wouldn't even make sense to you. It would be, like... It would be like if you described a cake recipe to a pony who didn't know what baking was."
"What!?" Pinkie shouted, a horrified expression on her face. "There's a pony who doesn't know what baking is? Quick, Twilight, point me to this poor pieless pony, so that I..." A glare from Twilight made Pinkie trail off. "Oh, right, that was a metaphor, wasn't it?"
"A simile, actually, but yes."
Pinkie gestured to the older tome. "Well, if you want to be able to explain your spooky complicated unicorn magic to me, perhaps you should cast that spell." Blinking at Pinkie's sudden suggestion, Twilight walked back over to her books and began to read the ancient spell enshrined in the old tome's pages.
"Hmm... 'Exclaim's Exigency Exchange'..." Twilight mumbled out loud as she read through the spell's description and instructions. "'Requires focus on two ponies, the casting pony can be one'... Seems to last for sixteen hours from the time of casting, so a solid day... 'Best cast at night, as transformative magic is the domain of the moon,' really? Tell me something a filly in magic kindergarten hasn't already learned... 'Offers a new perspective to both ponies?' Ha!"
Shaking her head at what she had just read, Twilight looked up at Pinkie with a wry smirk, her friend's expression betraying her curiosity. "These old spells have this annoying habit of being deliberately cryptic about what they actually do, but 'offer a new perspective,' when the spell requires two ponies? This spell would switch us in some sort of way, Pinkie; either our minds would be in each other's bodies, or you'd become an unicorn while I'd become an earth pony." She closed her eyes and chuckled. "Not exactly the type of spell one casts on a whim, now is it?"
"Why not?"
Twilight could only open her eyes and stare at Pinkie Pie in disbelief, a flat "what" barely getting past her lips.
"Well, it's like you said, the spell tries to be all secretive but it's so obvious what it actually does, duh!" Pinkie replied, her excitement over what the spell meant making it impossible for her to stand still. "But wouldn't that be fun? I'd love to spend a day in the horseshoes of the genius unicorn Twilight Sparkle, favourite pony of the Princess! Mastering magic, snarking with Spike, offering helpful hints to overcome any hindrance."
“I don’t know, Pinkie...” Twilight trailed off, the lack of conviction in her voice evident. Pinkie’s enthusiasm was terribly contagious.
Pinkie smiled, the knowing smirk of one who knows she is about to win, and delivered her coup de grâce: “And I bet you’ll learn a thing or two about me as well...”
Logically, Twilight still knew that this was a bad idea, but between sleep deprivation, Pinkie’s silver tongue, and those traitorous thoughts in the back of her mind, she finally relented. “Alright, I’ll cast the spell.” Pinkie began to cheer, but was stopped before she could let a peep out by a purple hoof. “But! You have to promise me that you will be very careful with my magic. I know it might seem to you that I can do almost anything, and I will admit that I'm pretty powerful, but I have my limits, and more importantly, so do other ponies. So no lifting anything bigger than yourself, no using magic directly on yourself or others, and above all, think everything over twice."
The solemn look Pinkie gave Twilight as the unicorn finished laying down the rules filled her with hope that this wouldn't end in disaster after all. "I will follow all of your rules. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Twilight nodded and turned to prepare the spell, but was unexpectedly stopped by Pinkie's hoof on her shoulder. "And in exchange... My rules: have fun! Help others have fun! And do not, under any circumstances, think everything over twice!"
Twilight chuckled as she repeated the motions of the Pinkie Pie Swear, somehow managing to not poke her own eye this time. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Okay, the spell calls for us to be about five hooves apart - no more, no less - and it suggests that we lay down in case we lose consciousness," Taking her spot five hooves from Pinkie, Twilight tucked her legs under her and laid down before floating over the ancient spellbook to consult with.
As soon as Pinkie had made herself comfortable, Twilight started forming the spell in her horn, paying close attention to make certain she got it right. The horn's glow doubled and then doubled again as Twilight layered the spell's component matrices together, requiring more and more of her magical reserves to hold the spell together and prevent it from dissipating. "Okay, Pinkie..." she gasped out after a minute of concentration. "Brace yourself!"
In an instant, Twilight released the power she had been building up, and for a moment, she could feel everything about Pinkie Pie: the laughter, the songcraft, the insecurities that she held deep under the surface, every feeling and thought and fleeting desire the pink party pony held. And she knew that Pinkie would be feeling everything about her, and she suddenly felt a twinge of panic, knowing that those feelings she had been bearing for months would be laid open to Pinkie, a possibility she had never considered.
But before the panic could overtake Twilight, a torrent of unfathomable power hit her, and she lost grip of her consciousness, sinking down into bizarre dreams.
A Different Kind of Magic
*SLAM *
Before she earned her cutie mark and came under the tutelage of Princess Celestia, before she discovered the magic of friendship and the five mares that made her complete, Twilight Sparkle had cared for only four things in all of Equestria: her mother, her father, her brother, and books. And though she now understood how important her relationships with other ponies were, a part of her heart still belonged to her paper-and-binding friends. It was a mutually beneficial relationship; books would take her on wild adventures, impart unto her ancient secrets, and even cheer her up after a bad day, and in return, Twilight introduced them to new friends, kept them clean and well-maintained, and defended them from those who would dare rough them up.
So it was hardly surprising when, even in the midst of a magic-induced slumber, Twilight managed to recognize the sound of books hitting the ground hard. With a barely conscious groan, she mumbled harshly, "Be careful with those books!"
"Tw-Tw-Twilight, what happened to you!?" came the response, in the form of a panicked and all-too-familiar voice.
So it was Spike who had dropped the books. Strange, he was usually so careful, having lived with Twilight for years now and knowing how cranky she got when books got damaged... and with a thought that lucid, Twilight knew that she had lost the fight and it was time to wake up, no matter how much she'd rather sleep in.
Lifting her head and chest off the ground, Twilight smacked her lips, trying to get the awful taste of her own saliva out of her mouth and failing as usual. Opening her eyes after a couple aborted attempts, the mare blearily looked around and focused on Spike as best she could. "Spike, what... what are you talking about?" Spotting the books the young dragon had just dropped in front of his feet, Twilight concentrated on them, intending to place them on the nearby table.
The books firmly held their ground.
Spike finally managed to find his voice, blurting out, "Twilight, where's your horn!?"
Between his question, the books' steadfast refusal to move, and Twilight taking a cross-eyed glance at the empty void on her forehead, a spark was sent reeling through her mind, making her recall the spell that she had cast last night. Panic gripped her for a second — how could she have been so irresponsible!? — but it quickly faded as Twilight accepted that what was done was done. She trusted Pinkie Pie, right? The pink party pony had given her solemn Pinkie Promise to limit how she used her magic, and with those mitigating factors, all she could really do would be—
A vision chose that moment to cross Twilight's mind, one of the entire town chasing after a doll enchanted with a spell. A spell that, by the rules Twilight had laid down, was perfectly acceptable for Pinkie to cast. Panic found its home for a second time.
At this point, Spike had seen his now-hornless mentor and friend go through at least seven different emotions in the last five seconds, which was far past the need for concern in his book. "Twilight, should I contact Princess Celestia about... whatever happened?"
Invoking the Princess' name turned out to be the right move, as the dozen different tracks Twilight's mind had been running all suddenly converged into one focused thought: under no circumstances could Celestia learn about what had happened, lest she look upon her faithful student with disappointment for the fourth time in history. "No, Spike, I'm... fine, really," she managed to blurt out just as Spike was turning to go get a scroll and quill. "I... cast a spell last night on Pinkie Pie and myself, and seeing as you're still calling me Twilight, I guess it just made me an earth pony and Pinkie a unicorn." She reached a hoof up to her forehead, both to feel the strange sensation of a smooth forehead and to confirm that her coat was indeed purple and not bright pink.
"Pinkie's a unicorn!?" Spike's eyes widened even further, to a point where it had to hurt to be that surprised, and he turned once again for the scrolls and quills. "Never mind your problems, Twilight, the Princess needs to prepare for the end of the world!"
"Oh, Spike, you're overreacting!" Twilight admonished, using her magic to drag Spike back... or at least intending to. She had to get used to that for today. Instead, she rose from the ground and pursued Spike, the longer-legged pony easily catching up with the short dragon. She grimaced as she grabbed his tail in her mouth; that was another thing she'd have to get used to, tasting things that she didn't particularly want to taste.
Placing a hoof down on Spike's tail, Twilight spat out the scaly appendage and placed her other forehoof on Spike's shoulder, prompting him to look over his shoulder and into what she hoped was a convincingly calm facade. "Spike, really, you're overreacting. So am I, honestly, but we have to look at this logically. If Pinkie Pie's a unicorn, she has the basic magic of all unicorns. She'll be able to levitate items, and she'll have magic relating to her cutie mark, so she'll probably be producing party favours out of thin air." The former unicorn chuckled, her words as much to calm her own concerns as they were to calm Spike's. "Which she already somehow managed to do even without a horn."
"Well, I guess so, Twilight," Spike replied reluctantly, an answer that Twilight had long ago learned meant that the prideful dragon totally agreed with her. Twilight beamed at her assistant and released his tail, and Spike turned around to face her, rubbing his tail gingerly. "Ow! I think you put a kink in my tail."
"Sorry, Spike. I guess I need to get used to doing things the earth pony way—" Twilight resisted the sudden urge to break into a reprise of the Winter Wrap-Up song. That was strange; usually only really important matters sparked within her the natural pony instinct to break into song. "—er, without my magic. At least for today. What time is it anyway?"
"Almost six in the morning." Spike walked over to the books he had dropped, picking them up off the ground and carrying them over to the nearest table. "I was kinda surprised when I woke up and saw you hadn't even come to bed. Was nice to sleep in for a change, though," he added, grinning over at Twilight.
"Don't get used to it, buster," Twilight shot back, smirking despite the words. "But yeah, the spell took a lot out of me — or put a lot into me, or both — and it knocked me right out." A frown crossed her face. "I'm surprised Pinkie didn't stick around... So she wasn't here when you came downstairs?"
"Nope, I haven't seen her." Placing the books on the table, Spike's attention was caught by a stray sheet of paper. Glancing it over quickly, he then snatched it up and held it out to Twilight. "But she apparently left you a note!" A cross look from his mentor and a gesture of her head to the table reminded him of the situation. "Oh. Right."
Setting the note back on the table, Spike hustled out of the way as Twilight sat down and read what had to be some of the most elaborate hornwriting she had ever seen.
Oh my gosh Twilight I can write in unicorn script now! No more dashes and dots for this Pinkie Pie, and no visiting a scribe, not today! Not I can write a's and e's and g's and m's and o's! O's are so amazing, like loopty-loops! OOOOOOOOO— Twilight skipped past the next half page of more and more elaborate O's. —whoa, I made myself a little dizzy with all that looping! Oh, right, I started writing this note for a reason, and that was to apologize. I'm sorry I had to run off before you woke up, but I had to open Sugarcube Corner this morning, remember? Actually, I'm running a little late as it is, because I didn't get an itchy neck like I usually do when it's time to wake up. I would have woken you up before I left, but you were so cute and peaceful, I just couldn't! Anyway, I'll be off at two, so I'll see you then, unless you stop by while I'm working, in which case I'll see you even sooner! Love and hugs, Pinkie Pie!
Wisely choosing to ignore the faint blush she'd developed at Pinkie calling her "cute" in her letter, Twilight decided instead to concentrate on the more important details contained in Pinkie's ridiculous loopy writing. "Alright, I just need to get cleaned up a bit, and then I can head over to Sugarcube Corner and make sure Pinkie's adjusting—" Twilight had turned to Spike as she laid out her plan, but paused as she saw her assistant once again staring blankly at her. "Seriously, Spike? What is it now?"
Spike didn't tear his eyes off of whatever he was staring at. "Twi, remember how you said that Pinkie's magic would be limited by her cutie mark?" He didn't even wait for Twilight to nod with a confused look before he raised one hand and pointed. Twilight craned her neck further to look at her own cutie mark—
That wasn't her own cutie mark.
It was magenta and white, just like her cutie mark was, but it was no longer a starburst. It was a trio of balloons, one white flanked by two magenta.
It was Pinkie Pie's cutie mark.
Which meant, logically, that Pinkie Pie had Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark.
A cutie mark which represented magic itself. Specifically the magic of friendship.
Pinkie Pie was friends with everypony in town.
"Spike? We may want to reconsider overreacting."
It seemed like she was finally catching up!
If Pinkie was as honest as she could be with herself, if she could take Applejack's Element and strap it on herself for only a second, she'd have to admit, she had mixed feelings about what had happened last night — what she had convinced Twilight to do. Okay, sure, when she woke up this morning, she had been all excited about the possibilities, and being able to write with magic had been great, coming pretty naturally to Pinkie. But then she hadn't been able to find any of her usual shortcuts to Sugarcube Corner and had been forced to hoof it to the bakery the long way. Between her sleeping in and the longer trip, she ended up with only half the time she'd usually have to bake before the bakery's doors opened at 6AM.
And the baking! Oh, what a disaster! Levitation helped with the preparation, yes. Not having to use a mouth mitt to get things out of the oven, even better. But none of that mattered when batch after batch after batch of muffins and danishes and strudels were charred to a blackened crisp!
As long as Pinkie had remembered, she'd baked based on the tingles she got in her scalp. Tingle near the back of her head, muffins were ready. Tingle near her left ear, cupcakes. Tingle near her right temple, pie. Tingle across her whole scalp... well, that usually meant it was time to switch what shampoo she used. Pinkie had eventually been forced to dig out the Cakes' old cookbooks, coated in dust at not having been consulted by the expert bakers for years now, and read up on exactly how long things were supposed to bake for. And while her baked goods started turning okay after that, they weren't as good as she was used to making, so she started making little tweaks to the time she kept each batch in the oven.
That's when it occurred to Pinkie that this was what it was like to be Twilight Sparkle. Looking up the facts, experimenting, striving for perfection...! That was the turning point for her, when she decided that this had been a good idea after all. It never hurt to try to do things in a new way, and the magic she had borrowed from Twilight was helping make up for all the time lost.
Within an hour, Pinkie stood in the centre of the bakery, her new horn glowing a bright and vivid blue, as a storm of culinary creation surrounded her: eggs cracking into bowls, whisks mixing up batter, one tray exiting the oven just in time for another to take its place. It had taken her a few tries to get a handle on manipulating multiple objects at once, but with a bit of practice and thought, Pinkie was easily hovering around a half-dozen items at once, though she could only have one or two doing anything more complex than "move from Point A to Point B." She started idly whistling a tune, one that strangely brought to mind the idea of living brooms, as she watched the inanimate objects under her control.
It was almost time to open up for the day, and Pinkie was just about to put in the latest batch of pastries, when there was a sharp rap at the kitchen door. "Huh? Oh, it's Tuesday! Come on in, Applejack!" A blue glow surrounded the doorknob, and the door unlocked and came slightly ajar. Normally she'd have to leave AJ waiting until a lull in her baking occurred, but not today! Another success for magic!
"Good mornin', sugarcube!" Applejack said, her voice muffled somewhat by the large, lumpy sack she was dragging backwards through the door. "Got yer week's supply of apples right here. You want I should put 'em in th' regular spot?"
"Oh, don't worry, Applejack, I've got it!" A blue glow surrounded the sack of apples and lifted it off of the ground, depositing it neatly in the bakery's fruit pantry.
"Is Rarity helpin' out again today?" Applejack asked as she turned around, pleased that she didn't have to drag the sack any further and risk bruising more of her apples. "Ya know, Rarity, if you want to try yer hoof at bakin' somewhere a little more relaxin' than the Corner, I—Holy mother of Celestia, Pinkie, what is that on yer head!?"
Pinkie smirked on the inside, even as she adopted a look of mild concern for Applejack's benefit. "Oh, do I have some creme filling on my face? I guess that's what I get for sampling all the tasty treats I'm baking!"
Frustration entered Applejack's expression, though it had a long way to go before it could overpower the shock. "No, Pinkie, it ain't on yer face, it's on yer head! Why—"
"Oh, are you talking about my mane?" Pinkie brought her hoof up to the long straight locks that hung down the right side of her face. "I just can't seem to get it the way I like it this morning, so I guess it's all natural today." This was actually the truth; usually, if her hair had straightened out while she slept — often due to a bad dream of some sort — she just had to look at her cutie mark and remember the day she got it to make her hair poof out again, but that apparently wasn't working with Twilight's mark on her flank.
With that, frustration managed to win out over shock. "Darn it, Pinkamena Diane Pie, you know I'm talkin' about that horn of yers!"
There had been a couple times after they had first met when Pinkie's jokes and teasing had angered Applejack almost to the point of blows. The two were friends, there was no doubt about that, but Pinkie could definitely grate on the farmpony like few others could. So Pinkie and Applejack had worked out a deal: if Applejack was getting too irritated with Pinkie, she'd call her friend by her full name, and Pinkie would stop. It was surprising that Applejack had resorted to using her full name so quickly, though; something must have really have upset her.
"It's just what it looks like, Applejack, a horn." The horn glowed blue once again — proof that it wasn't just an elaborate prop — and an apple danish floated over to land in front of Pinkie's friend. "Twilight cast a spell last night that made me a unicorn and her an earth pony. It changed our cutie marks too—" Pinkie emphasized this point with a turn and wiggle of her rump. "—which is probably for the best because I'd have nooooo idea what I'm doing without it!"
"Twilight did this!?" Applejack exclaimed before narrowing her eyes. "That darn fool unicorn, who does she think she is, messin' around with nature like this? Why, I oughta—"
"Nonononono, Applejack, don't be mad at Twilight!" Pinkie rushed up to Applejack and gave the farmpony a calming hug. "I convinced her to cast the spell! I wanted to see what it was like, having all this magic, and so far, it's been pretty fun."
Applejack reluctantly let go of her anger — mostly — and hugged Pinkie back before taking a step out of the embrace. "I bet it would be fun — though it ain't goin' to ever replace some good ol'-fashioned hoofwork — but how'd you convince Twilight? I would think she'd be dead set against losin' her magic, even fer a day."
The truth was that Pinkie had a pretty good idea why, exactly, she'd managed to goad Twilight into casting the spell last night; the spell itself had seen to that, showing Pinkie thoughts of Twilight that she felt almost guilty for knowing about. But Pinkie hadn't yet decided herself how she felt about what she had been shown, and besides that, losing a friend's trust was the fastest way to lose a friend forever. So she replied with, "Well, you know me, I can be pretty convincing..."
"And I told you before, you need to be careful with that. You remember what happened with the Cakes' cake, right?" Pinkie nodded solemnly, and the farmpony took the opportunity to look up at the clock. "Shoot, it's already past six? I'd better get goin', before I get behind on what needs doin'."
"What, it's past six?" Pinkie looked up at the clock herself, even as her horn glowed and assorted baked goods started hovering in the air around her. "I have to open the doors, I'm already late as it is!"
The baker quickly trotted through the door to the storefront, and after a moment's thought, Applejack followed after her. "Actually, Pinkie, I think the farm can wait a few hours today. I think I'll stick around fer a bit, make sure things go smoothly."
"Why wouldn't things go smoothly?" Pinkie asked as she took her place behind the counter, the pastries settling into their respective spots in the display case. With a final blue glow, the "Closed" sign on the door flipped to "Open" and the door unlocked.
"Pinkie, a horde of baby bunnies was enough to drive this town into a tizzy. What do you think's gonna happen when word gets around about your newfound power?"
"Oh." Worry filled Pinkie's face. "Right."
A Different Kind of Magic
*CLATTER *
Twilight grumbled as the hoofbrush once again fell to the floor; that was the third time the terrible tangles of her bedmane had won out against the brush. Lowering her hoof to the floor, she slipped the brush's strap over her hoof after a moment's struggle, and lifted it back up to once again struggle against the mess of hair.
How long had it been since she had used a hoofbrush like this? Not since she had developed enough magical strength to lift a brush with her horn, the horn that she was sorely missing this morning. It was amazing how a little thing like losing the ability to lift things with one's mind made as simple a task as getting ready to head out go from taking a few minutes to taking the better part of an hour.
Gritting her teeth in pain as she once again awkwardly assaulted the knots in her mane, Twilight forced her thoughts away from the minor annoyance that was her morning... and immediately regretted it as her mind focused on the mare that was the cause of her morning instead. It was unavoidable, really; the entire reason she was going out was to check on Pinkie, and she knew that her friend was aware of her feelings after the spell last night.
Maybe it was time Twilight examined those feelings herself.
She had been avoiding this on purpose — a difficult task for one so prone to analyzing and over-analyzing everything — but Twilight feared that the feelings she had for Pinkie would prove to be too fragile; they would wither in the face of logical scrutiny, and she'd be left with nothing. And the feelings were too... too good to give up like that. So Twilight had purposely set those feelings aside without studying them, instead secretly revelling in the hot flush of glee she had experienced lately whenever Pinkie was around without actually thinking about it. But if this was all going to come to a head, it was time to bite the arrowhead and get it over with.
When had she first realized what she felt for Pinkie? Well, that was an easy enough place to start: the mission to Canterlot to stop time. Not Twilight's most brilliant moment, to be certain, but Pinkie had supported her every step of the way, knowing full well that it was a completely insane plan. Honestly, that could have been counted as a point against Pinkie; Twilight had to grudgingly admit that she needed reining in sometimes, but Pinkie wasn't the type to stop chaotic behaviour, generally encouraging it instead. But Twilight couldn't help but think of how it had felt to have Pinkie's full and unyielding support, even in the face of (supposed) impending disaster.
Not to mention how the pink mare had looked in her tight catsuit. Twilight normally didn't give much weight to the more physical aspects of attraction, but... wow.
But it wasn't like Twilight had only just started having feelings for Pinkie that night in Canterlot. It was more like a sapling that she had planted long ago and not seen in a while; it had been shocking to see the tree it had grown into. Maybe it had been Pinkie's birthday — not this year's, but last year's, when she'd seen that her friend harboured the same sort of fears under the surface that she herself felt. Maybe it had been the day of Pinkie's doozy, when she had first learned that she didn't need to examine every little thing about her pink friend, but instead simply accept her. Celestia help her, it might have even been the very day that she'd come to Ponyville, when Pinkie had thrown her a party and then taught her to laugh at the darkness.
That was the simple truth of the matter: Twilight could not identify precisely when her feelings for Pinkie had transformed from simple friendship to something more. Another perplexing puzzle pertaining to the pink party pony.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, both from how her feelings for Pinkie were still intact even after examining them and from how she'd finally managed to work her way through the last big knot in her mane. Running the hoofbrush through her mane a bit more to straighten it out, the once and future unicorn turned her thoughts to what she had learned of Pinkie's feelings during last night's spell: very little.
The insecurities were easy enough to identify, but most of them focused on all of Pinkie's friends, not any one in particular. Pinkie's positive emotions, on the other hand, were intense , simultaneously blinding and deafening on a magical level. It was impossible to tell what exactly any of the feelings were, only that they were very powerful.
Slipping the hoofbrush off onto an endtable, Twilight sighed as she stared her reflection in the eye, finally ready to head out — and lacking an excuse to procrastinate further. "Oh, Celestia, what am I going to do?" she whispered out loud. "Is she going to bring it up? Should I bring it up first?" Seeing just how worried she looked in the mirror, Twilight lifted a hoof to touch her reflection. "I don't—"
Her hoof went right through the mirror as though it were a sheet of water.
"—wha—agh!" Twilight cried as both the shock and the sudden loss of balance caused her to tumble forward. She desperately tried to catch herself with her magic, but she had no magic to use, and her body vanished through the mirror, a faint shimmer in the surface the only trace of where she had disappeared to.
"Ah-bhahahaha!" The innocent laughter of a foal echoed out under the noontime sun as Pound Cake once again found his tail clamped between the teeth of his father. That was the point of the game, after all; the young pegasus would make a big show of flying away, only for Carrot Cake to reach up and grab his tail at the last possible moment. Pound expected to be caught by his dad so much that he would hover back down within reach if Carrot happened to be too slow to catch him the first time.
Carrot Cake, for his part, was simply glad that they had bought that book of tips for earthbound ponies on how to raise baby pegasi; this game had been one of the many bits of useful advice he and his wife used to deal with Pound.
"Get back down here, you little rascal!" the stallion admonished playfully, his voice muffled by the strands of Pound's short tail. Bending his neck around, he deposited his wayward son back into the baby harness he was wearing today. More foalish laughter brought Carrot's attention to his other child, Pumpkin Cake laughing at the goofy antics of her brother and father. Nuzzling both of his foals, Carrot turned back to watch where he was walking, sighing to the mare walking next to him. "Why couldn't they have been that happy and playful at the doctor's, hon?"
"Oh, I think it went better than last time, don't you?" Cup Cake replied, taking a step back at the insistent tug of Pumpkin's magic and giving the filly a nuzzle of her own. "At least somepony kept her horn off the poor doctor's stethoscope today, isn't that right, Pumpkin?" she asked, prompting another burst of laughter from the foal.
The family rounded the last corner before the one they had owned and operated for a decade now, and as the familiar gingerbread-house styling of Sugarcube Corner came into view, Carrot and Cup shared a sigh of relief that it was still there. The relief was a bit selfish on their part; Pinkie had been working for them for years now. She had both opened and closed the bakery by herself numerous times. She had run Sugarcube Corner all by herself while the Cakes went on vacation. She had foalsat their children! And yet the Cakes could not give up that feeling of relief whenever they saw that Pinkie had not burnt everything they had worked for to the ground. It was a steady source of comfort.
Far from any nightmare scenarios the Cakes still harboured in the back of their mind, Sugarcube Corner was bustling today, ponies gathered outside in what may have been a very crude line or a somewhat organized crowd. "Oh, dear, I didn't expect it to be so busy today," Mrs. Cake commented, her face now etched with a more real concern for her sole employee. "I hope Pinkie managed to find some help."
"Well, if she didn't, we're here now." Mr. Cake nodded his head in resolve as the family approached the crowding ponies. "Ahem... excuse me... pardon me..." It took a surprising amount of goading to get the crowd to move — they all seemed preoccupied with trying to get a glimpse inside — but eventually Cup and Carrot managed to get through their own front door.
That was also as far as they got, as the sight before them shocked them far too much to think of stepping out of their doorway.
Hovering above the crowd of ponies crammed into the bakery were a variety of pastries — muffins, strudels, eclairs, the works — each held up by a light blue glow. More shocking than the floating pastries was the one holding them up; standing behind the counter was a pink unicorn who seemed the splitting image of Pinkie. But Pinkie was an earth pony, certainly not a unicorn! Surely this was some relative of Pinkie's the Cakes had never met who had just happened to show up in town today...
"Alright, who's next? Ahh, Pipsqueak, my favouritist pony from Trottingham, what would you like from Sugarcube Corner today?" the pink unicorn asked in a voice that sounded an awful lot like Pinkie's.
"Gosh, Miss Pie, you have so many choices," the brown-mottled colt said in awe as he looked at all of the pastries floating around him, the baked goods moving closer to Pipsqueak as he spoke. "Hmm... oh, how about the blueberry scone?"
"A fine choice, my good Pipsqueak... if a tad predictable," the unicorn behind the counter responded, adopting her own fake version of the Trottingham accent as she had all the pastries save for the chosen scone vacate Pipsqueak's airspace. "You know the drill, you watched the others. Tell me, how do you want this scone?"
A blush was easily visible through the white patches of Pipsqueak's coat. "Well..." The young colt propped himself up on the counter, gesturing for the Pinkie lookalike to come closer. The rest of the crowd began to murmur as she bent her neck over the counter, and Pipsqueak whispered into her ear, causing her to chuckle.
"Oh, Pip, no need to be embarrassed by something like that!" The unicorn's face scrunched up a moment in concentration, and the scone hovering near Pipsqueak began to take another shape. The body of the scone took on a slimmer shape as a head, legs, and impressive wings began to protrude from it. In less time than it took for Pipsqueak to relay his request, the scone had been reshaped into a perfect pastry portrayal of the Princess of the Night.
Pipsqueak looked on in awe as the princess pastry floated down to his level, only to be nudged into action by Applejack, who had been standing near the counter the entire time. "Come on, now, she gave you what you wanted. Don't mean to rustle you along so quick, but we've got a bit of a crowd, y'see?"
The colt nodded, pulling out a shiny bit and laying in on the counter. Grabbing his shaped scone gingerly as to not ruin the artistry, Pipsqueak managed to get out a muffled "thank you" before heading for the exit.
As the unicorn behind the counter began to help the next customer, Applejack gave the crowd a quick perusal, noticing the Cakes standing at the entrance for the first time as she did. "Ahh, 'bout time they show up... Excuse me, coming through!" The farmpony knew how to get through a crowd, and she was soon standing at the Cakes' side. "Howdy, Mr. and Mrs. Cake! I, uh, I suppose yer looking for an explanation as to what's going on here..."
Neither of the Cakes dared take their eyes off the spectacle before them, but Carrot managed to ask, "Applejack, that wouldn't be Pinkie's nearly identical twin cousin who just so happens to be a unicorn, would it?" The tone in his voice pleaded for Applejack to confirm that was the case, no matter how improbable it was.
Unfortunately for Mr. Cake, Applejack had never been the type to lie, even when a lie was what other ponies wanted to hear. "Afraid not, sir; that's Pinkie herself behind the counter. Seems that Twilight Sparkle got in her head to cast a little spell last night, so fer today, Pinkie has Twilight's magic."
Applejack's explanation was enough to shake the shock out of Cup, who turned to shoot the younger mare an incredulous look. "Let me get this straight: the same control-freak unicorn who fusses over how much icing is on her cupcakes gave all of her magic to Pinkie Pie for an entire day? " The annoyance in the mare's voice drew worried looks from both Applejack and Carrot, the former having never heard Mrs. Cake use such a tone and the latter only all too familiar with it.
"Well, you know Twilight. She means well—" Applejack put extra emphasis on that part. "—but sometimes she gets some right silly ideas in her head and you just can't get 'em out." The farmmare stepped beside the older couple and turned so she could look at Pinkie as well, watching as the unicorn-for-a-day created a strangely thin ape-like shape out of a muffin and passed it off to a seafoam unicorn that seemed somewhat familiar. "We were just fortunate this happened on the day of yer apple delivery, or the whole town might've gone up in a panic."
"Is that what all this is about?" Carrot asked, gesturing at the floating pastries and their mistress.
"Yessir, this was all my plan!" Applejack couldn't help but adopt a smug grin. "I figured, the only way to prevent there from being a spectacle is if we created a spectacle of our own. So Pinkie and I came up with a couple ideas for how she could use her magic, word got around the town, and soon enough we had a bigger stampede on Sugarcube Corner than that time with the cows!"
If Cup hadn't been a happily married pony who had never had an interest in mares save for that one little fling back in college, she would have kissed Applejack. As it was, she settled for a gushing "oh, thank you, Applejack!"
"Yes, if it weren't for you, who knows what might have happened to Sugarcube Corner?" Mr. Cake added, even as he finally took a step forward, making his way through the crowd and towards Pinkie. "Still, if disaster hasn't struck yet, we'd better not push our luck... Hello, Pinkie Pie!" he exclaimed as he got close enough to not have to yell through the crowd.
"Oh, hi, Mr. Cake! Hi, Pound! Hi, Pumpkin!" Pinkie exclaimed as she saw Carrot approach, leaping over the counter to approach the Cake family. She quickly trotted up to Pumpkin and gave her a nuzzle, eliciting joyous cries of "Pinkie Pie!" from both the young filly and her brother. "How did things go at the doctor's? Are Pound and Pumpkin as fit as forty fiddles in the Philharmonic?"
"Yes, the foals are in perfect health, Pinkie," Mrs. Cake proclaimed as she walked up as well, Applejack right at her heel. "It's your... situation that has us a bit more concerned right now, dear."
"Hi, Mrs. Cake! Oh, you mean my horn? Don't worry, I've got a good handle on it!" As if to demonstrate, Pinkie concentrated briefly and brought her various floating pastries down to hover near her. "See? The levitation is pretty basic, and I managed to figure out how to shape the pastries as well, all by myself! I can't wait to get over to the library after my shift is over, though; there's so many spells I've seen Twilight use that I want to use as well!"
Carrot saw his opportunity and struck quickly. "Well, if you can't wait, how about right now?" As Pinkie gave him a puzzled look, he continued. "See, we're both impressed that you stuck by your responsibilities, even with this... development. And having unicorn magic is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an earth pony!" At least, he certainly hoped it was once-in-a-lifetime. "We don't want you to waste that opportunity cooped up in the bakery, so how about you take the rest of the day off, Pinkie?"
"Ohmygosh really!?" Pinkie exclaimed, joy filling her face, but that joy was quickly diminished as the crowd around them started voicing their displeasure; some of them had stood in line for a couple hours for their turn. "Oh, but I'd really hate to disappoint anypony. Perhaps—"
"Perhaps nothing , sugarcube!" Applejack interjected as she stepped forward. "Listen up, y'all! I know y'all wanted to have yer turn, and I know how long some of you waited, but don't you think that Pinkie deserves a bit of her own fun? Wouldn't all y'all take the opportunity if yer boss let you go early for the day?" Mumbles of grudging agreement were her only response from the crowd, and she nodded smugly. "That's what I thought." Turning to Pinkie, she made a dismissive gesture with her hoof. "Go on then, Pinkie, go have fun... and try not to cause too much chaos."
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" The entire Cake family and Applejack suddenly found themselves encircled in a massive hug from Pinkie. "There's so many thing I want to try, I-I don't even know where to start!" She let them go and began to make her way to the stairs, still babbling to herself. "Well, I better get cleaned up first, get all this flour and sugar out of my mane, and then I need to stop by the library, but then, what to do after that? I could go find Dashie..."
As the pink mare's voice trailed off, Applejack turned to the Cakes. "Well, guess that means my job here is done. I'd better get back to the farm; I'm gonna be awfully behind on my chores, and Big Mac's likely worrying about me by now. See ya later, Mr. and Mrs. Cake... oh, and Pound and Pumpkin too."
As the twins voiced their own unintelligible goodbyes to Applejack, Cup nodded to the retreating farmmare. "Thank you again, Applejack!" She paused for a moment, surveying the crowd and coming up with a plan like only a successful entrepreneur could. "Alright, everypony, I don't want anypony leaving here completely disappointed. Pinkie may have left, but she baked up plenty of delicious pastries with her magic, and I suppose we could offer a small discount on larger orders. What do you say?"
A bevy of cheers and murmured agreement filled the bakery, and Carrot Cake looked on in admiration as the mare who had won his heart once again took a potentially bad situation and turned it around in her favour.
For Pinkie Pie, bathtime was always fun. Creating mountains of bubbles, goofing around with her vast collection of rubber duckies and other inflatable toys, playing with Gummy in the one environment where he actually moved with grace and speed... It was all good clean fun, and it more than made up for the one minor annoyance, that of actually cleaning herself. It wasn't easy dealing with her mane, or scrubbing her back, or untangling the curls in her tail. There was a reason why she let Rarity talk her into a spa date at least once a month. (Well, besides how happy it made Rarity every time Pinkie said yes to a little pampering.)
As a unicorn, however, Pinkie learned that cleaning herself could be in itself a fun time. Where magic was involved, there were no unreachable spots, no bad angles to apply pressure from. It ended up taking her half the amount of time to clean herself better than she ever had before, and she almost found herself disappointed when she was finished, it had been so enjoyable.
Drying herself off with one towel, she wrapped another around her mane — a normally complex task suddenly turned trivial — and headed over to the sink to brush her teeth again. Pinkie tended to brush her teeth three times a day, since she knew she ate more sweets than the average mare and she needed to maintain her big, bright, beautiful smile. She levitated both her toothbrush and toothpaste, applied an even layer of paste to the bristles, looked in the mirror...
...and immediately fell back on her rump in surprise as she saw Twilight looking back at her.
"Pinkie! I need your help! I'm trapped!" The Twilight in the mirror was clearly distressed, her mane sticking up in places as it did whenever the scholar got worried.
"Oh, Twilight, you found one of my shortcuts!" Pinkie raised an eyebrow at her friend's words, even as she set her toothbrush and toothpaste back down. "But what do you mean 'trapped'?"
"I've been in here for hours, Pinkie! I fell through my mirror, but when I tried to get back through, the mirror was as solid as a mirror should be!" Twilight's voice was steadily rising in both speed and pitch as she recounted her dilemma. "So I tried looking for another way out, and this place is so creepy, a backwards Ponyville with no ponies in it, and I found other mirrors and tried to go through them but I still couldn't, but I could see through them and I think I've seen some things I really shouldn't have and some things I really didn't want to and—"
"Twilight, calm down, please!" Pinkie exclaimed, rearing up and placing her hooves on either side of her sink so she could get closer to Twilight. "I think I know what the problem is, but we're not going to be able to do anything unless you stay calm."
She watched her friend close her eyes and take a few deep breaths. After a few moments, Twilight opened her eyes and gave Pinkie Pie a sad, hesitant smile, but there was nothing hesitant about the grin Pinkie gave her in return.
"Alright, Twilight, you have to trust me on this." Pinkie held up one of her hooves, reaching towards the mirror and her friend trapped within. "You need to take my hoof. You can't think about it, you can't let reasons why you can't cross your mind, you just have to do it."
"But Pinkie, I-I've tried so many times! It doesn't work!" To prove her point, Twilight brought her own hoof up to her side of the mirror and thunked it against the too-solid surface separating the two. "See? I—"
"Twilight, please!" Though she kept her smile, Pinkie's eyes intensified into a stare. It was nothing like her friend Fluttershy's, of course — that was far beyond Pinkie's capabilities, even on a normal day — but she didn't have to convince a dragon to stand down, or a cockatrice to unpetrify its victims, or even an unruly bunny to sit down and eat. All she needed to do was convince her friend to do something that Pinkie was absolutely certain she was capable of. "Remember your Pinkie Promise. You agreed that you wouldn't think everything over twice. Right now, that is very important. You have to trust me. You have to let go of that little voice in your head that wants to know everything and just take my hoof."
Twilight nodded wordlessly at Pinkie's lecture, unable to break eye contact with the baker's pseudo-Stare. Hesitantly, she lifted her hoof once again and approached the mirror, stopping less than an inch away. Worry crossed her face once more, but Pinkie narrowed her eyes at the sight and Twilight quickly shook her head violently, as though she were clearing her mind of all her doubts.
She pushed her hoof forward, piercing the barrier between worlds, and as soon as enough of Twilight's foreleg had emerged for Pinkie to grab, the pink pony wrapped her arm around it and pulled with all her strength. Twilight let out a shout of surprise as she was yanked through the mirror. As soon as she was through, however, the laws of physics tipped in her favour as her full weight came crashing down into Pinkie as the baker fell backwards. The two ponies tumbled across the bathroom floor, spinning head over hooves for a few revolutions before they ended up in a strangely familiar position: Twilight standing over Pinkie as the latter laid sprawled on her back.
Of course, the last time the two had been in this position, Pinkie hadn't been aware of Twilight's feelings for her. (She had also been wearing a chicken suit, which probably didn't factor into Twilight's feelings for her.)
The two stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity, the air thick with the tension of their shared knowledge, before Pinkie politely coughed. "Oh, hehe, sorry, Pinkie..." Twilight said quickly, her blush visible even through her dark coat as she scrambled off of Pinkie.
The unicorn-for-a-day quickly got to her feet and favoured Twilight with a smile. "That's alright, Twilight! I needed to make sure you got through as quick as you could, or you might have thought about what was happening and we probably don't want to think about what would have happened then." Despite her words, Pinkie couldn't help but think about it and paled a little at the thought. Judging from the look on Twilight's face, she hadn't been able to avoid the thought as well. "Well, the point is that... that... that didn't happen! You made it through in one perfectly purple piece!"
"It was... it was really hard to do that," Twilight admitted, rubbing the back of her head. "Do you have to do that for all of your... abilities? Just not think about them?"
"Oh, no, not all of them! If that was the case, I'd probably have gone crazy ages ago!" Pinkie gave a nervous laugh at the thought, even as the analytic part of her mind brought up its evidence that she'd already passed that point. That part of her brain was being really loud today for some reason. "No, I can think about some of my stuff, and the Pinkie Sense happens whether I think about it or not." Mentioning her clairvoyant ability brought something to Pinkie's attention, and she cocked her head to the side. "Twilight, is your scalp tingly?"
"Huh?" Twilight realized she was still rubbing at the back of her mane, and nodded. "Oh, yes, I thought it was an itch, but now that you mention it, it's probably more like a tingle. It's probably because I had a hard time washing—"
"Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie suddenly interrupted by yelling at the top of her lungs, forcing Twilight's ears to go flush with her head in pain. "The muffins are ready!"
"Thank you, dear!" came the faint reply from downstairs.
"Ow, Pinkie, what was that all about?" Twilight asked in irritation, rubbing gently at one of her ears.
"Tingling on your scalp is the Pinkie Sense for baking," Pinkie replied with a firm nod.
"Oh, I see." Twilight responded with one of her own nods, and the two mares lapsed into another uncomfortable silence. After a few awkward moments, the former unicorn tried to break the ice with, "Pinkie, about what you might have seen last night..."
Pinkie shook her head at her friend. "Twilight, I don't think this is the best time for that talk."
"But Pinkie, I can't think of anything but that!" Twilight moaned in frustration. "It's all I've been fretting about all morning — well, no, okay, I kind of worried a little about you destroying Ponyville — but it's been driving me nuts! Normally I'm pretty good at keeping my feelings bottled up but now you know and all I can think about is how you know and I don't know how you feel because your feelings are so bright and shiny and—"
A pink hoof in Twilight's mouth stopped her rambling as Pinkie offered her her most understanding smile. "This is why we can't talk about it right now, Twilight. We're not really ourselves at the moment. There's some Pinkie in you, and there's some Twilight in me, and this is a talk that perfectly-Pinkie Pinkie and totally-Twilight Twilight need to have. I promise you, whatever feelings I might have for you, they will be the same tomorrow, alright?"
She wondered if that last part was a lie — could she really guarantee her feelings wouldn't change when she wasn't sure what they were in the first place? — but it was what Twilight needed to hear, and so Pinkie could deal with the wrath of the imaginary Applejack in her mind for the moment. Removing her hoof from Twilight's mouth, Pinkie could see that she'd managed to calm down her friend once again.
"Okay, you're right. You're right, Pinkie." Twilight let out a sigh. "I don't know if I'll be able to stop worrying about it though; I promised you that I'd have fun and help others to do the same, but I'm not sure I can do that with this hanging over my head."
And it was then that Pinkie had a brilliant and devious plan, and a brilliant and devious smile crossed her face to match. "Do you know what you need, Twilight?" The scholar raised an eyebrow in question, unsure of what Pinkie was getting at. "A party."
"A party?" Twilight repeated, her eyebrow still raised. "I don't know how you hosting a party would do all that mu—" The purple mare's eyes suddenly widened in shock as Pinkie's idea took hold of her.
"Oh, Twilight, I didn't mean a party hosted by me ," Pinkie explained in a quiet voice filled with barely contained laughter. "After all, I'm not the one with a cutie mark for hosting parties."
"Pinkie—" Twilight's face went through odd contortions as she struggled to contain her sudden urges. "—why am I suddenly filled with this... need to go get invitations made?"
"Well, my dear Twilight," Pinkie began, reaching for the appropriate lecturing headgear — and when nothing immediately came to hoof, she shrugged and continued, "as you are well-aware, a cutie mark is not only representative of a pony's special talent, but also an urge to do said special talent. The strength of this urge can vary from mark to mark, and while it can be overwhelming to a pony who isn't quite ready for her cutie mark — as we saw with dear sweet Apple Bloom — older ponies can learn to suppress this desire.
"When I first acquired my cutie mark, I found that my urge was very strong; it took only the mere mention of the word 'party' to send me into full event-planning mode. And though I do love throwing parties, even I could recognize that I needed to control my desire occasionally. It took me a good year to do so; I eventually travelled to the highest peaks of Neighpal to seek the counsel of the Grand Party Mistress herself—" Pinkie lowered her voice to a reverent tone. "—Surprise. She helped me harness my urges, so that I control the parties, and they do not control me."
Pinkie abandoned her lecture tone as she smiled her devious grin at Twilight once again. "Just like how I have your cutie mark but not your encyclopedic ensemble of esoteric spells, you have my cutie mark... but not my training."
Twilight's eyes blazed with anger... or possibly with the need to pick up party decorations. "Pinkie..." she whispered dangerously, her whole body trembling with her attempt to stay still, to not give in to the urge to party. Pinkie was surprised that her friend hadn't already given in already; before her training, she wouldn't have been able to hold herself for that long.
Still, it was inevitable; within a minute, Twilight finally gave in and ran towards the door leading out of the bathroom. "I'll get you for this, Pinkie!" she proclaimed in a huff as she made her exit.
"Decor and Dishes off of Main has a sale on right now!" Pinkie called out after Twilight, smirking to herself. After a few moments, she let out a sigh of relief. That had been mean, but she really hadn't seen any other way to get Twilight to have fun — or to get out of that tense situation. Maybe if she was a smartypants like Twilight was, she could have come up with a better plan, but they hadn't traded their brains.
Pinkie had just unwrapped her towel and levitated over her hairbrush when a thunk echoed through the bathroom. "Huh?!" She quickly looked around the room, her eyes missing the source of the sound at first before they finally spotted what seemed to be a piece of paper embedded into the wall like a ninja star. Curious, Pinkie hovered over the paper, noticing fancy purple trim and elegant writing that she recognized as the work of a scribe she used all the time for her invitations. "'You are invited to a celebration for Ponyville's premier party pony today at 5:00PM at the Books and Branches Library,'" she read out loud. "'Refreshments and entertainment will be provided; all you need to do is show up. Hope to see you there.'"
At the bottom of the invitation was a crudely-drawn arrow indicating for Pinkie to turn over the card. She did so and was confronted by some of the messiest mouthwriting she had ever seen; it was as though the author hadn't written anything for years - and reading the dots and dashes quickly made it apparent that this was just the case. "'This stupid urge didn't force a reason for the party, so I decided to choose you. Two can play at this game. See you there.'"
Pinkie Pie smiled at the invitation. "Touché, Twilight Sparkle. Touché."
A Different Kind of Magic
*KNOCK–KNOCK *
The insistent nature of the knock, audible even all the way on the top level of the library, made Spike think that it wasn't the first knock at the door — just the first one that had managed to catch his attention. It didn't surprise him; he was admittedly distracted today, and who wouldn't be, if they had woken up to find their sister, mentor, and best friend transformed in such a fundamental way?
And then to make matters worse, there had been Twilight's mysterious disappearance from her bedroom. It wasn't like Twilight to head out without telling Spike that she was leaving — if only to make sure he was looking after the library — and it certainly wasn't like her to leave without actually going downstairs or opening any doors. Sure, if she was in a hurry, Twilight tended to start teleporting around everywhere rather than simply walk, but that wasn't exactly a possibility today, now was it?
Spike glanced at the clock as he headed downstairs, seeing that Twilight still had about forty minutes left. He knew how much having the Princess contacted about her problems worried her — though it was necessary sometimes — so he had resolved to hold off on sending Celestia a letter until a few hours had passed with no sign of her. Spike hadn't quite figured out what to do about the library in the meantime, however, and until he had heard the knock, it hadn't been important.
He made his decision as he reached the door: opening the library would involve having to explain where Twilight was, an explanation he didn't actually have , so he'd keep it closed. "Hello?" he called through the locked door, hoping his voice wasn't too muffled. "Due to, uh, some difficulties we're having, the library is closed for the day. We're sorry for the inconvenience."
"Spike, let me in!" came the exasperated reply, in a voice that made Spike's eyes widen.
"Pinkie?" he asked incredulously; she had been the last pony he'd expected to show up, but now that he thought about it, perhaps the party pony needed to talk with Twilight about her newfound powers.
Before he muster a longer response, the handle of the door was surrounded in a light blue glow, Spike's eyes widening as the lock turned all on its own. No sooner had the door unlocked with a faint click than it was violently thrown open, the sheer force of it knocking the young dragon head over heels into the bookshelves across the room. Shaking his head to clear his dizziness, Spike looked up from his position on the floor as a pink unicorn with straight hair and a determined look on her face strode into the library.
"I need books!"
"And so the transformation is complete," Spike muttered as he pulled himself off the ground, the motion of him pushing the fallen books off of himself drawing Pinkie's attention to him.
"Spike!" Determination was replaced with concern as she raced towards Spike, bending down to take a close look at him. "Oh my gosh are you alright I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you I'm so sorry I—"
"Relax, Pinkie, I'm fine," Spike said, forcing a small grin for the baker's benefit. "Thick scales, remember? Gotta say, though, if you're here to see Twilight, I've got some bad news..."
Pinkie shook her head. "Oh, I'm not here to see Twilight, I already saw her! No, I'm here for—"
"Wait, what?!" Spike interrupted for a second time. "You saw Twilight? When? Where?"
"Oh, she showed up at Sugarcube Corner just a little while ago!" As Pinkie spoke, her horn began glowing, and the books that had fallen from Spike's collision floated into the air. "She got stuck in the mirror, but I helped pull her out, and then we talked a bit about, um—" She glanced away for a second, suddenly very interested in the books she was reshelving with her borrowed magic. "—well, a few things. And then she decided she was going to throw me a party!"
Spike didn't know where to start. Did he want to know what Pinkie meant by "stuck in the mirror"? And what was it that she'd talked to Twilight about that she seemed very reluctant to mention now? The young dragon decided to skip those points and tackle the one at the end. "She's holding a party for you? Really?"
Pinkie chuckled nervously, sitting down to bring her forehooves together. "Eheh, yeah, I may have taken advantage of a tiny little weakness of hers in order to get out of an awkward conversation..." She closed her eyes and shook her head, smirking a little bit. "I didn't expect her to turn it into a party for me, though."
"Awkward conversation? Oh, come on, Twilight didn't choose today to tell you about— er, I mean—" Spike's mouth acted before he could think, and as Pinkie opened her eyes to give him an inquiring look, he knew he had just messed up.
"Tell me about what?" The perplexed pony stood up and walked up to Spike, not stopping until her snout was less than a hoof from his face. "Spike... do you know about Twilight's... feelings?"
Though the intensity of Pinkie's gaze was still making Spike a bit nervous, her question triggered a wave of relief through the dragon's body. He'd screwed up, big time, touching on a secret of Twilight's that not even the mare herself knew that he knew, but it seemed Pinkie knew about it already, so everything was alright. "Yeah. It's not like she told me anything, but... I've lived with her my whole life, y'know? Twilight's kinda an open book to me." Pinkie smiled at that sentiment, and that smile burned away the rest of Spike's nervousness. "So she did tell you about how she feels about you?"
"No, no, she showed me... although I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to." Finally shelving the last of the books in her magical grasp, the pink pony began to wander over to the card catalogue. "The spell she cast showed me her feelings — all of her feelings. I know that she likes me, I know how she feels about liking me, her nervousness about it, her doubt... Things I wouldn't have known about even if she'd come right up to me and asked me out on a date." She shook her head as her horn glowed once again, pulling open one of the drawers in the catalogue. "It's too much, too much! So I'm not dealing with it, not today, not when I have this opportunity!"
"Opportunity?" Spike asked as he walked over to Pinkie.
"In this very community!" Spike blinked at the odd response, giving Pinkie a chance to pull some cards out of the catalogue. Floating them in front of the baby dragon, she explained, "Magic, Spike! If I'm right in my party calculations — and I'm always right in my party calculations — Twilight will need approximately an hour and seventeen more minutes to finish acquiring what she needs for her totally super party. So I have just over an hour to learn all the magic I can!" She flashed a winning grin at Spike. "No problem when I have help from the librarian's number one assistant, right?"
Spike knew that his ego was being stroked, but he didn't mind. Grabbing the offered cards out of the air, he replied, "Sounds good to me! Where do you want to start?"
"Teleportation!"
When one's life is suddenly thrown for a loop, one takes extra comfort in that which hasn't changed, that which remains familiar.
So far today, Twilight Sparkle had awoken as an earth pony with her friend's cutie mark after a spell of her own casting, had gotten trapped in a strange and deserted alternate dimension for hours on end, had been forced to confront her friend about feelings she had long held but done nothing to act upon, and was now under the thrall of an irrepressible urge to assemble a mind-blowing party in a matter of mere hours.
To Twilight, the hastily-scrawled checklist on the ground before her was her best friend in the entire world right now.
"'Deliver Invitations,' check!" Twilight declared out loud as she pressed a check-shaped stamp against the corresponding square, leaving a black checkmark in its wake. "'Ignore Just How Fast You Managed to Deliver the Invitations—'" A strange twinge went through her face as she struggled to do just that. "—ugh, check. 'Purchase Checkmark Stamp so You Don't Have to Check Off Your List by Mouth,' check!" The former unicorn beamed at the three dark checkmarks she'd just stamped, before eyeing the twenty or so items still on her list. "I can do this, no problem! Pinkie won't know what hit her when she walks into the library. All I have to do is follow my list, and everything will be fine!"
Lifting up her hoof and letting the scroll return to its naturally rolled state, Twilight stuffed the checklist into one of her saddlebags as a steady drumbeat began to rattle off over the din of the busy Ponyville streets. She began to make her way to her next destination, her hoofbeats hitting the ground in time with the drums. Other ponies began to move out of her path, their instincts guiding them away from the mare in the spotlight. The drumbeat repeated over several measures as Twilight trotted down the street, gaining more and more complexity, until the eighth measure ended and Twilight finally joined her voice to the music.
"When I woke up this morning, my whole life turned upside down, I was told to smile, but all I wanted to do was frown, Now I am throwing a party, this urge I just can't resist, But I'll get it done, I'll do it right, I'll check it off the list! "
Dozens of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and clarinets blared their way into the rhythm as Twilight hit the final verse with gusto, picking up her pace and sliding through the door of Decor and Dishes, somehow acquiring a stylish purple fedora in the process. The drumline was reinforced by the deep tones of a double bass as the purple mare sauntered up to the counter.
"Hey there, how you doing, hear you got a sale, I gotta make it quick, then I'm gonna bail, I need streamers, confetti, whatever else I missed, Give 'em to me quick and I'll check 'em off the list! "
Unfazed by the lyrical request, the shopkeeper floated packages of streamers, confetti, and a set of serving bowls into Twilight's waiting saddlebag, even as the singing mare fished some bits out of her other saddlebag and tossed them nonchalantly onto the counter. With a tip of her hat in thanks to the shopkeeper, Twilight danced her way out of Decor and Dishes, making her way across the street to a house that seemed to thrum with a beat unrelated to the current musical number. Rapping on the door in time with the tempo, the scholar only waited a moment before the door was opened by a pale unicorn, a pair of tinted shades propped up in her electric blue mane.
"Hello, Vinyl Scratch, Pinkie says you've got the beat, My party needs DJ PON-3 to make it all complete, I know it's short notice, but you're a true artist, Here's my down payment, so I'll check you off the list! "
Vinyl chuckled in response to Twilight's stanza. "You're lucky I just happen to be free tonight. Sure, I'll play your gig." She grabbed hold of Twilight's offered bits with her magic and levitated the coins through her door. "Nice number, by the way. Kinda old-fashioned for my tastes, though it's got a swinging rhythm to it." She lowered her shades into place and flashed her new client a grin. "But tonight, I'll show you what a real beat is like."
Twilight responded with another tip of her fedora, the rhythm moving her hooves as she headed down the street once again. Her next destination was a few blocks away, and as she danced her way down Ponyville's main boulevard, ponies paused in their day-to-day routine to watch the latest musical number — and possibly join in should the choreography demand it. The brass section took up the slack left over by the lack of lyrics, a trumpet soloist providing colour to the rhythm as Twilight danced her way to her next stop.
The bell above the door was drowned out by the music in the air as Twilight waltzed — literally — into the sweet shop, setting her sights on the blue-and-pink-maned pony at the counter. The earth pony paused her conversation with a seafoam unicorn to look over at the new arrival, her eyes narrowing in annoyance. "Um, can I help you?" she asked, clearly not enthused by the prospect. In response, the music took on a darker tone, most of the brass instruments dropping out as Twilight began her next verse.
"Whoa, there, filly, I just want some tasty sweets, I'm throwing a party for Pinkie, they're her favourite treats, Without customers, your shop would cease to exist, Don't cross me now, or I'll check you off the list! "
The fitting music made the words a lot more threatening than they would have been on their own, and Twilight quickly found herself loaded up with all sorts of licorice and jelly beans and hard candies. Leaving her bits — but no tip of her hat in thanks — the dancing mare quickly shuffled her way out of the shop. As the door closed behind her, she heard the unicorn turn to her friend and begin berating the earth pony. "Seriously, Bon-Bon, I love you, but you need to stop being such a—" The shutting door cut off the rest of the seafoam mare's comment.
Back on the street, Twilight's instincts told her that she needed to ramp up her number, but she dithered on just exactly how to — that is, until a familiar unicorn strutted by, her perfectly-curled mane practically shining in the sunlight. "Rarity!" she called out, rushing towards her friend as fast as her dancing hooves could take her.
"Why, hello, Twilight," Rarity began as she saw Twilight rushing towards her. "Would you happen to know who— wait, what are you— whoa-hoa-hoaaaaa!"
The fashionista's greeting turned into a surprised yelp as Twilight caught up with her and immediately swept her up into her hooves. Twilight lifted both Rarity and herself onto their hind legs, spinning her impromptu dance partner around before dipping her low to the ground. "Rarity, my dear— "
"Wait!" Rarity's command silenced Twilight's lyrics, the music dying down to a rhythmic beat as the unicorn righted herself and freed herself from her friend's hooves. Raising a hoof, Rarity said, "Just one moment," before quickly rushing off. Twilight was left blinking in confusion at what had just happened, frowning as she took out a brass watch and glanced at it. No more than ten seconds had passed before Rarity suddenly reappeared, now clad in a stunning white dress that sparkled in the afternoon sun, no doubt due to the tiny diamonds that covered the otherwise rather simple outfit. Approaching Twilight, the unicorn took her hoof and flashed her an amused smile. "Continue, darling."
Twilight offered a grin of her own as she used the leverage Rarity had given her to lift her friend to her back hooves again. "Rarity, my dear, I'm so glad you came along, " she sang, the brass making its triumphant return to the song as she spun her friend over her back, leading Rarity towards the town hall. "I need a big dance scene to complete this song! " The two mares came apart as they danced their way up the steps of Ponyville's tallest building, where the band that had been playing all along was assembled on both sides of the wide front porch, mares and stallions alike wearing matching black suits and fedoras as they gave Twilight and Rarity something to dance to. "Let's show Ponyville something that shouldn't be missed! " Coming together again, Rarity turned the tables on her dance partner by spinning her around, bringing her in close as Twilight finished her stanza with, "Then I can go ahead and check this song off my list! "
The two came apart again to start dancing separately, Rarity employing some moves that Twilight easily matched with grace and style that the bookworm normally didn't possess. "Check one, check two, check three-four-five! " The two friends spun around each other hoof-in-hoof as they switched places up on the impromptu stage. "Checking off lists makes me feel alive! " Sliding across the porch, Twilight again put Rarity into a dip, before lifting her clear off of the ground and spinning around with Rarity in her forelegs. The band picked it up yet another notch as Twilight set Rarity down back on the ground and stepped forward.
"Tonight I'm throwing a party you won't want to miss, And all of it an effort to earn that pink mare's kiss, If I win her heart, I will know true happiness, And then you can check! Me! Off! The List! "
Twilight accompanied her final words with a toss of her fedora into the crowd that had gathered before the town hall. The band followed her up with a rousing finale of their own, every piece of brass blaring at once before the drums that started it all brought it to a close.
And just like that, the song was over. The impromptu audience in front of the town hall quickly dispersed as the spectacle faded, the band following after them as the ponies returned to their day to day lives. A few of the musicians complimented Rarity on her dress as they packed up their instruments, the fashionista almost absentmindedly acknowledging their praise as her attention was focused on her purple friend. "Twilight, dear, that was— why, yes, sir, I did design it myself— Twilight, why— oh, no, I'm flattered, but I have prior plans tonight— I really must know—"
The last interruption was from Twilight herself, the purple mare raising a hoof as though to say "just one second" as she dug through her saddlebags and pulled out her list. Laying it down on the wooden porch and rolling it out, Twilight uncapped the checkmark stamp still wrapped around her hoof and glanced over the list. "'Purchase Decorations,' 'Obtain Services of DJ PON-3,' 'Acquire Sweet Snacks,' and 'Sing Jazz Orchestral Number About My Love of Lists,' all check!" Rolling up the scroll and placing it back in her saddlebags, Twilight turned to her friend. "Yes, Rarity, I'm an earth pony today. I cast a spell last night that switched things around with—"
"Pinkie, yes, dear, I figured as much." Finding that her interruption only earned her a raised eyebrow on Twilight's part, Rarity elaborated, "The rumours have been flying around town all morning, darling, how Pinkie has somehow grown a horn overnight and is now showing off her newfound talents at Sugarcube Corner. I was just on my there now to ascertain just how much truth there was to the rumours, but I suppose seeing you like this has made that a moot point." The unicorn trotted around her friend slowly, taking note of Twilight's transformed cutie mark as she did. "I'd ask you what possibly possessed you to cast such a spell, but I think I have a good idea after that number you just sang," she continued, a sly smile crossing her snout. "You were obviously motivated by 'that pink mare's kiss.'"
"Rarity!" Twilight's cheeks burned crimson at her friend's remark, a combination of embarrassment and shock that Rarity would say such a thing. "You are the last pony I'd ever expect to be that rude! I was singing ! You're not supposed to bring up what I sang about!"
Having finished her circuit around Twilight, Rarity fixed her friend with a look that would have withered plants. "I never! Of all the things to accuse me of! I did not learn about your infatuation with Pinkie Pie from your musical number!" The primadonna looked away quickly, nose held high in the air. "I already knew."
"What." It wasn't a question. It wasn't even a statement. It was simply all that managed to come out of Twilight's mouth.
Rarity turned her gaze back to Twilight, offering her friend a generous and somewhat amused smile. "My dear, you aren't exactly the best at hiding your feelings. They've been an open book these past couple of months for anypony with even an ounce of romance in their hearts." The unicorn shook her head ruefully. "Which of course means only Fluttershy and myself have noticed. I had hoped you would eventually come to me for help, but—"
A perplexed expression had overtaken Twilight's features as Rarity had explained, until she finally had to interrupt her. "Wait, Rarity, what about Pinkie herself? I mean, I'm not the best judge of this, but I would say that Pinkie's a bit romantic herself... right?" She silently cursed how unsure she sounded; why couldn't these sorts of things be as easy to read as Ancient Equestrian?
"Ahh, well, I can only speak for what I believe, but Pinkie is very good at seeing and understanding other's feelings, with one terrible flaw: she can't figure out what other ponies feel about her in the slightest." Rarity gave a sad shake of her head, glancing down the street at the still-bustling bakery. "You saw it when we tried to throw her a surprise party, but that wasn't the first time it caused... issues."
Twilight nodded sagely, following Rarity's gaze for second before turning back to the unicorn. "Yeah, she totally misread the situation with Cranky as well."
Rarity seemed to hesitate a moment before continuing. "I'll confess, darling, that before you graced us all with your presence, we weren't all quite as close of friends with Pinkie as we are now. In fact, I'd say we were more... acquaintances. But I'm not certain Pinkie ever understood that. She tries to befriend everypony, as you well know, but she specifically latched onto a few, myself included, and gave us extra attention. And I... I resented her for it."
Placing a comforting hoof on Rarity's shoulder as she reminisced, Twilight offered a kind smile of her own. "Hey, I've been there. Remember how I spent most of that first party she held for me? Locked in my room, trying to ignore it." Rarity chuckled at the memory as Twilight continued, "Pinkie's affection is an acquired taste, to be certain, but once you really let her in..."
"Agreed, darling, agreed," Rarity replied with a nod. "I only regret now having not let her in earlier. How much different things would have been when I was just getting started in Ponyville!" With a smirk, she glanced slyly over towards her friend. "But enough dwelling on the past! We should be concerning ourselves with the future, a future where you hope to acquire a taste of Pinkie yourself..."
"Rarity!" Twilight yelled once again, her blush returning with even greater intensity.
"Now, about this party tonight," Rarity continued as though she hadn't just scandalized Twilight, "I shall attend, of course — you did send me an invitation, correct? — and I shall help you navigate those treacherous waters to Pinkie's heart."
"Rarity, really, you don't have to—"
"No, no, darling, I insist!" The fashionista glanced up at the sun, frowning at just how much Celestia's charge had moved across the sky. "Oh, and time is running short. There's so much to do, a dress to make, lines to practice, and so little time!"
"Whoa!" Twilight cried out in surprise as Rarity's magic suddenly lifted her off the ground, her trained instinct to immediately counter such an invasion of space doing her little good as she found herself suspended off the ground.
"Come now, Twilight! We're going to make you a star!"
She was going to fall.
No, she wasn't. Pinkie had to reassure herself for the tenth time in the last minute that she was not going to fall through the clouds and become a smear on the road running underneath Rainbow Dash's cloudhome. She had read and reread the spell a dozen times, she had performed it easily, and it didn't matter because she had obviously miscast it so it would only last three minutes instead of three days and Dashie would wake up to find her broken and battered body below—
No! Not falling!
Why was it that when Twilight had cast this very same spell on Pinkie, she had jumped out of a balloon onto the cloudy surface of Cloudsdale without a second thought? Sure, Twilight was a whiz with magic, but they'd traded cutie marks! Pinkie should have all of the purple pony's prodigious power at her disposal! And yet Pinkie couldn't stop worrying that she'd messed up the spell somehow, screwed up in some indeterminable way.
At least she had found that slow fall spell in case anything did go wrong. Pinkie was certain that she could properly cast magic that she had found in a children's book titled My First Cantrips .
...almost certain.
Kinda certain.
Desperate to stop thinking about the terribly long distance to the ground, Pinkie distracted herself by looking around at Rainbow Dash's frankly amazing house. Logically (and that part of her really was being louder today, it wasn't just her imagination), she realized that a library built into a tree, a boutique built to look like a carousel, or even a bakery that looked like a gingerbread house were all pretty spectacular places to live. At this point, however, she'd been to them so many times — Celestia, she even lived in one of them — that she had grown accustomed to them; perhaps she even took them for granted.
But Dash’s home was something entirely new and exciting, somewhere she had never been. So despite the nagging fear that she was going to fall at any moment, Pinkie took her time to explore every nook and cranny she could find as she tried to find the pegasus’ bedroom. She splashed her hooves through the numerous rainbow waterfalls that flowed from the ceiling (but was careful not to actually taste any). She marvelled at the ridiculous kitchen with pantries extending higher than she could reach even if she created a magical clone of herself and stood on her own shoulders (and she could, now, thanks to her reading). She said hello to Tank, who had his own room with a whole floor made of stepstone; Pinkie had learned about the magical stone, only found on those few mountain peaks that touched the clouds, on her trip to Cloudsdale, and she knew enough to realize that flooring an entire room with the stuff must have cost Dashie a fortune.
Eventually, Pinkie found Rainbow Dash’s bedroom, with the pegasus in question sleeping away the afternoon in the comfort of her own bed, an open copy of Daring Do and the Feather of Fate cradled lovingly in her arms. The pink intruder took a moment to appreciate the sheer cuteness before her, and then she cast her eyes around the room, looking for the best tool to complete the task. This turned out to be one of Dash’s own feathers, moulted in her sleep, and now picked up with the lightest touch of magic. Pinkie brought the feather over to Dash’s throat, brushing it gently against her coat. “Wakey, wakey, Dashie~”
Rainbow Dash let out a giggle as the ticklish sensation invaded her dreams, before muttering, “C’mon, Fluttershy, knock it out...” To say Pinkie was intrigued by this reaction would be an understatement, but there would be time for delving into Dash’s deepest desires another time. The pink unicorn redoubled her assault with the feather, and this time, the sensation was too much for Dash’s mind to deal with without waking up.
The pegasus shot up in bed, blearily blinking sleep from her eyes. “Huh-wuh? Huh?” Dash managed to focus on the pink blob at the foot of her bed after a few moments. “Pinkie Pie? Why—” She interrupted herself with a big yawn. “—why did you— wait.” Dash’s eyes widened dramatically, her pupils narrowing as realization after realization hit her. “Why are you in my room? How are you in my room?! Why are you a unicorn? Oh, dear Celestia, why is your hair straight?!”
“Well...” Pinkie sat back on her tail in order to tap one of her hooves with the other. “I’m in your room because I need your help for a totally awesome prank that I can only do today.” She tapped her hoof in a slightly different place than before. “I cast the cloudwalking spell on myself — which seems to be working alright so far — and teleported up here.” Another tap in another position. “Twilight cast a spell last night that traded our abilities for the day.” And Pinkie finished with a final tap on the side of her hoof. “And I’m not sure, but I think my hair is straight because of the spell. Can’t be a hundred percent on that, though.”
To her credit, Rainbow Dash managed to not blurt out any objections to Pinkie’s answers, and as Pinkie finished her last point, a look of relief washed over the pegasus’ face. She continued to stare at Pinkie for a few seconds, making the pink pony increasingly nervous, before she closed her eyes for a second, shaking her head slowly as she softly muttered, “Pinkie Pie, you are so random...” When she opened her eyes again, they were filled with nothing but enthusiasm. “So... a magic-fueled prank, huh? What do you have in mind?”
With a squee of delight at Rainbow Dash’s interest, Pinkie Pie jumped onto the pegasus’ bed, her weight jostling her friend around. “Dashie, we’re going to stage the best prank in Ponyville history!”
A Different Kind of Magic
*WUBWUB*
Rarity's groans were almost drowned out by the heavy bass that rumbled through the library as DJ PON-3 got her equipment started. The unicorn shook her head as she turned to her friend, giving her a critical eye. "Really, Twilight, did you have to hire Miss Scratch to provide the, ahem, 'music' for your party?"
"Sorry, Rarity," Twilight replied, her sarcastic tone depriving the apology of any sincerity. "I looked into booking the Canterlot Philharmonic, but I just couldn't figure out how to fit them into the library."
Twilight was her friend, and was merely five minutes away from hosting a party that the poor dear seemed to be pinning all her romantic hopes upon, despite everything Rarity had said to reassure her that this was not her one and only chance to be with Pinkie Pie. She was understandably stressed at the moment, so Rarity could forgive Twilight's stinging sarcasm quite easily, and so she scaled down her response from scathing to reasonably calm, yet firm enough to dispel her friend's mistaken beliefs about her.
"I most certainly do not believe this sort of soirée—" She raised her hoof to gesture to the redecorated library, now festooned with colourful streamers and balloons coloured to match a certain earth pony's coat and cutie mark. "—to be the place for a classical ensemble; I was thinking more one of the more talented local rock bands, covering some of the basic staples. Princess' 'Bovine Rhapsody,' the Griffons' 'Hotel Equestria,' the Strolling Pones' 'Sympathy for Discord,' the sort of songs that really say something, rather than just being a beat to dance to."
Twilight was taken aback by the passion in Rarity's words, stammering for a moment before she found her tongue and managed, "Oh, I'm sorry, Rarity. I... guess I misjudged you." A thought visibly flickered over Twilight's features, and her expression turned to confusion. "Wait, but Rainbow Dash complains all the time about how you don't like rock and roll!"
"Is she still on about that?" Rarity sighed, closing her eyes as she recalled exactly why Dash would say such a thing. It wasn't a memory she particularly liked reliving. "I changed the music for our performance, yes, but I truly felt a more graceful number fit my wings better," she said.
Her train of thought was interrupted by a gentle hoof on her shoulder, and she looked up to see Twilight giving her a reassuring smile. It was still strange to see Twilight without a horn, though Rarity supposed that it would take more than a couple of hours to make her feel otherwise. "Thank you, Twilight, dear. I shouldn't dwell on such thoughts. Rest assured, my tastes encompass a wide variety of musical forms—" A whining, heavily distorted noise filled the air, joining with the heavy thumping of the bass in what Rarity could scarcely call a melody. "—though there are certainly exceptions," the unicorn finished through clenched teeth.
In stark contrast with her friend, Twilight was bobbing her head along with the beat of Vinyl's music. "Sorry, Rarity, I don't know why I like this sort of music so much, but I do! The beat really moves my hooves." The former unicorn smiled guiltily, turning her head to look over at the DJ. "And... and Pinkie really likes it. You know how much she raves about Vinyl's music; she even convinced Cadance and my brother to let Vinyl play at their reception."
Rarity decided that it was time to move onto the more important matter at hoof, and took advantage of the opening Twilight had just given her. "Ahh, yes, that is an important consideration, but we don't want Pinkie's attention on Miss Scratch, do we?" The unicorn lowered her eyelids into a sly look as she used a hoof to pull Twilight's eyes back to her own. "We want our sweet party-loving friend's gaze firmly fixed on you, my dear. To capture her heart, you must first capture her attention."
The fashionista released Twilight's chin and began to stroll slowly around her, taking in her latest ensemble with a critical eye, making certain that not a thread was out of place. Fortunately, Twilight's preference for simplicity in her dresses had made throwing together something at the last minute relatively easy, but an outfit consisting of less demanded more of each part, and little doubts nagged at the back of Rarity's mind as she inspected her creation. Did the sheer black material hang properly off of Twilight's body? Did the jewelled belt draw the viewer's eye to itself or to the part it complemented? Was white an appropriate highlight, or should she have used something more colourful, more attention-grabbing?
Rarity shoved aside her doubts as she finished her inspection; it wasn't as though there was time to change things now anyway. Besides, if Rarity was confident in her dress, Twilight would be as well, and confidence would do more to build attraction than any outfit. "You truly do look stunning in that outfit, Twilight," Rarity praised, bringing a rosy tint to Twilight's cheeks. "But appearance is only the first step. The right words, the right gestures, the right glances can all light the fires of a pony's heart."
Twilight sheepishly grinned, rubbing the back of her head. "But I've never done any of that," she admitted, her blush only growing more intense. "I–I don't even know where to start!"
"I know that, Twilight," Rarity said, and it was true; she had known, or at least highly suspected, that her friend had absolutely no experience whatsoever when it came to matters of the heart. How fortunate for Twilight that it had been Rarity who had come along during her big performance; she shuddered to think of what sort of advice Twilight might have gotten from Rainbow Dash or, worse yet, Applejack. "While we haven't the time for you to learn all that I know, I can give you a few basic pointers that should help you through this party. And of course, I shall be here all night, should you require my assistance."
"Oh, thank you, Rarity!" Twilight's relief was plain on her face as she hugged Rarity, letting her feel the tension in Twilight's body. She had known Twilight was under a lot of stress, but this was far greater than even she had imagined; Rarity wrapped her arms back around Twilight, hoping that the gesture would help calm her friend slightly.
After a few moments, Twilight let go and stepped back, looking at Rarity expectantly. Rarity immediately launched into her first and most important lesson. "The number one thing to remember, Twilight, is to not be discouraged. Your first attempt at wooing Pinkie may not go as well as you hope. Your second attempt may go even worse! But unless she has specifically said that she's not interested, that she only wishes to remain friends with you, then hope remains!"
Rarity's gaze left Twilight, staring off into space as she considered her own efforts of late. "It can be frustrating, I admit. There may be times when you feel like abandoning all your pretenses of romantic gestures, when you just want to go up to the mare you love, take her hooves in your own, look her straight in the eye, and declare that you love her! By Celestia, you love her despite her uncouth nature, you love her despite her casual disdain for what you do, you love her with all your heart and soul, and if she can't or won't love you back, if she won't run her rough, calloused hooves through your mane and kiss you deeply, then it is better that she break your heart now, so that it can mend all the sooner!"
"Um, Rarity...?"
Twilight's worried tone brought Rarity back to reality, immediately fearful that she had given away a bit too much. Turning to Twilight, Rarity smiled just a little too widely as she asked, "Yes, Twilight?"
Twilight gestured over to the open library door, where a couple of ponies were looking in, seemingly uncertain if they should enter or not. "I have to go play hostess now. When Pinkie shows up, could you please occupy her until I am ready?"
"Of–of course, dear. It won't be a problem at all!" Rarity answered, somewhat relieved that Twilight remained oblivious to her own hidden desires. Twilight gave her a nod and walked over to the door to greet her first guests, leaving Rarity to consider what was to occur tonight... and to hope that everything wouldn't end in disaster.
"This is a disaster!"
"What are you talking about, Twilight?" Spike's question was garbled by the appetizers he was loudly chewing on, his claws holding a pile of even more as he walked over to his distressed mentor. "This party's great! Everypony's having a great time, the music is awesome..." He swallowed his current mouthful and shoved a couple waiting mini-pizza bagels into his mouth. "...and the food is as good as it gets without visiting the jeweller's!"
"Yeah, sure, the party's great," Twilight said, her sarcastic tone tinged with very real frustration, before lowering her head to Spike and letting her irritation out in full, "if you ignore the fact that the guest of honour is an hour late!"
Spike's eyes widened, and he hastily swallowed his food to say, "Relax, Twilight. So Pinkie's a bit late. I don't see Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy here either, and you invited them too, right?"
"Except that Rainbow Dash has never been on time for anything in her life!" Twilight pointed out, exasperated that Spike didn't seem to be taking her seriously. "And Fluttershy isn't coming; I ran into her as I was passing out the invitations and she had to decline, since it's her 'nocturnal night.'" She sat down and wiggled her front hooves up and down a couple times as she said the last two words.
"'Nocturnal night?'" Spike repeated with a raised eyeridge.
"Every Tuesday night, Fluttershy changes her whole sleep pattern so that she can tend to the needs of those creatures who live their lives in the darkness," Rarity explained as she walked up alongside Applejack. "It is a true show of dedication to her work; I scarcely think I could change my schedule so drastically in such a short amount of time."
"Not to mention how ornery you get whenever you don't get yer beauty sleep," Applejack quipped, her grin growing even wider as Rarity turned to shoot her a withering glare. Moving on before Rarity could fire a barb back, Applejack looked over to Twilight and said, "Rare and I were enjoyin' this fine shindig you put together, Twilight, but we heard you over the crowd and decided to wander on over, see how yer doin'."
Turning away from Applejack with a look that Twilight had come to associate with her unicorn friend's eventual vengeance, Rarity nodded at Applejack's explanation. "You sounded a bit distressed, darling. Whatever seems to be the matter?"
"Well, as I was just explaining to Spike here," Twilight said with an accusatory glare at her young assistant, who simply shrugged in response, "Rainbow Dash is always late, and Fluttershy said she wasn't coming, but Pinkie Pie's penchant for punctuality is practically perfect! She's never late for anything!"
"I'm certain she'll show up, Twilight," Rarity said, gently placing a hoof on Twilight's shoulder; the touch had a calming effect on Twilight, reminding her that Rarity had pledged herself to helping in any way possible. "Give it a few more minutes, and if necessary, Applejack and I will go find Pinkie ourselves."
Applejack nodded affirmatively at Rarity's plan, and Twilight felt a wave of relief rush through her. They were taking her seriously. One way or another, Pinkie would show up at the party Twilight had thrown together for her, and then she would be able to put Rarity's advice to good use. Yes, the prospect of actually using that advice still terrified her, but at least she'd be able to get to that point.
"I don't know why Pinkie hasn't shown up, though." Spike's musings pulled Twilight's attention from her thoughts. "I mean, she talked about being at the party when she showed up earlier..."
"What?" The new information threw Twilight's calm for a loop, and she turned to Spike, her gaze filled with suspicion. "Pinkie was here earlier? After she left? What was she doing here?"
"Well—" Spike's explanation was cut off abruptly as the library suddenly plunged into darkness, drawing gasps and shouts of surprise from the ponies attending Twilight's party. "Whoa, what's going on here!?"
Twilight looked up, seeking out her magelights in an instant. The main level of the library had four of them that Twilight had installed herself – optimal lighting was important to proper study, after all – but while they occasionally failed when the delicate materials used in their construction deteriorated, four breaking at the exact same time was extremely unlikely. "Rarity, could you please nudge my lights back on? There must have knocked out by some sort of magical interference... though what could cause such a thing...?"
As Twilight mumbled to herself, trying to reason out what had happened, Rarity's horn lit up, her light blue magic encompassing the closest magelight. Her face screwed up in concentration for a second, before her horn's glow faded and she looked over to Twilight with a somewhat surprised expression. "I can't seem to, darling. As far as I can tell, your lights should be able to turn back on; they just won't. "
"That's what I'm getting over here as well!" The loud yell attracted the attention of most of the room, where Vinyl Scratch had her goggles lifted up, her magenta eyes filled with distress. "She should be spitting out the beats but she just won't get up and go! C'mon, baby! C'mon, sing your song for me, just like you always have! Don't you die on me!"
Rarity rolled her eyes. "How melodramatic!" She noticed Applejack's bemused expression as she turned back to her friends. "Yes, yes, I know, kettles and pots and all that!"
Twilight shook her head. "What is going on here? Alright, I've got some candles around the library, we can light them up and—" No sooner had she mentioned them than the candles did light up, but not with warm, inviting flickers of orange; every wick was burning with a blue flame that cast the room in an eerie light. "Ooookay, at this point, I think I'm going to have to recommend that we exit the library in a calm, orderly fashion," she announced to the partygoers.
"The door is locked!" Cheerilee yelled over the crowd, drawing a few more frightened gasps.
Cheerilee's shout spurred Applejack into action. She ran over to the nearest window and gave it a quick and ineffective shove. "Window seemed to be locked tight as well," she said. "Whatever it is that's causin' all this, it seems like it doesn't want us leavin' any time— Whoa nelly!" Applejack jumped back from the window as a flash of light filled the library, followed almost immediately by a thunderous clap. "A thunderstorm!? There's not supposed to be another big storm scheduled for another week! What in tarnation is going on here!?"
"Twilight, is the library h-haunted?" Spike asked, a bit louder than was necessary, and Twilight winced as exactly what she expected to happen occurred right away: the ponies gathered at her party began to panic, yells and screams replacing the gasps and murmurs.
"Whoa, something touched me! Something cold!" a stallion yelled from within the crowd, causing other ponies to leap away from him as fast as they could.
"Somepony is whispering, can you hear it? It must be a ghost!" Lily yelled out just before she passed out from fright. Rose and Daisy immediately rushed to their friend's side to try to revive her.
"Enough!" Twilight's yell reverberated through the library, the force of it causing all the gathered ponies to grow quiet. Taking advantage of the silence, Twilight quickly jumped onto a table, raising herself up so that everypony could see her. "There is no need to panic. Even if I believed in ghosts – which I most certainly do not – I would have to point out that this library has never been haunted before, and I'm certain that nopony has died here recently. This is all some sort of..." The purple pony blinked at her sudden realization. "...prank. Spike, you said Pinkie was here earlier?"
The dragon nodded up at her. "Yeah, she wanted to look up some spells that she could use while she still had her horn. Well, uh, your horn... or is it... I still dunno how that works."
"I see." Twilight smiled thinly; it was obvious what was going on now, but some of the implications annoyed her greatly. "I suppose one of the books she looked at was Null and Void: Countermagic Made Easy , where she could find a spell that can temporarily disable magical devices within a field."
"Yeah, that was one of them! How did you—" Twilight glanced meaningfully up at her dead magelights, and saw realization come over Spike's face. "Oh. Right."
"Y-You mean this is just temporary?" Vinyl Scratch asked, and when Twilight nodded in her direction, the DJ visibly relaxed, her forelegs embracing her equipment as well as they could manage.
"Don't worry, Vinyl. As soon as the field is dispelled or your equipment is removed from it, it'll start working again. Now, let's see..." Twilight cast her eyes across the shelves of her library. She knew every book on these shelves, even she hadn't quite read all of them. "Burn My Dread: Mastering Mystical Flames would cover the eerie blue-burning candles." Spike nodded at that, confirming that Pinkie had consulted that volume. "My First Cantrips would be sufficient for the locked doors and windows and, well, the spell is called Ghost Sound." Another nod from Spike. "And The Unicorn Way: Magical Weather Control would have been necessary for the storm..."
Spike raised up a claw to stop Twilight. "Uh, Twilight, Pinkie didn't look at that book."
Twilight looked down at her assistant. "What? But that's the only book that has the sort of weather magic that can create a storm of this magnitude!"
"I dunno what to tell you," Spike said with a shrug. "Pinkie didn't ask for any weather magic, and even if she had, that book is in the restricted section, which only you can get into."
"Right, the restricted section..." Twilight repeated; now that she had been reminded, she remembered that The Unicorn Way was restricted, partly because of the power of the spells contained within and partly because it was a terribly racist book, stemming from pre-Equestrian times, and she didn't want any impressionable young colts and fillies reading it. "But then how did she conjure up the thunderstorm?"
"If you'll pardon my interruption, Twilight, I think that you're overlooking a bit simpler of an explanation." Applejack walked back over to the window and glanced over at Rarity, nodding to the window. "Rarity, can you undo the spell lockin' this window?"
"That shouldn't be too difficult, darling," Rarity replied, her magical aura encompassing the clasp at the side of the window. After a moment, the clasp popped open audibly, and the window swung open, the driving rain outside almost immediately soaking Applejack right through her coat. "Oh, Applejack, I'm sorry! I didn't mean for that—"
"Never you mind, Rarity, it's just a little water." Applejack stuck her head out into the rain, and looked up into the thunderstorm that filled the skies above the library. "Rainbow Dash, you cut out this nonsense right now before I come out there and give you a whoopin'!"
To Twilight's surprise, the pegasus in question suddenly appeared outside the window. Rainbow Dash was completely drenched, the rain soaking through her coat and feathers, but it wasn't enough to wipe the enormous grin off her face. "Aww, c'mon, AJ! I was just getting started! Soon I'll have thunder so loud that it'll shake the books right off of Twilight's shelves!"
Twilight groaned. "No, thank you, I like my books right where they are!"
"You heard the mare, Dash! You clear these skies right now!"
Dash visibly wilted beneath Applejack's loud words. "Fine, fine... Ruin all my fun..."
As the pegasus flew away from the window, Applejack turned back to Twilight, the window closing behind her courtesy of Rarity's magic. "See, Twilight? No need to jump to magic being the cause of everythin' when it could be a simple partner-in-crime!"
"But the partner of whom?" Rarity added, her horn floating a towel over to dry Applejack off. "You seem to think Pinkie is the one responsible for all this, Twilight, and while I won't deny that this is a prank worthy of her, the simple fact remains that Pinkie isn't here. You said so yourself, darling."
The thin smile returned to Twilight's lips. "Yes, but that was before I knew that Pinkie learned some new spells. Now it's obvious that Pinkie wasn't late at all, but that she read a book that I myself haven't managed to get the time to sit down with yet." She glanced back over the crowd, her eyes narrowed. "Isn't that right, Pinkie? You read The Art of Invisibility Spells , didn't you?"
"I sure did!" To her credit, Twilight only jumped a little when Pinkie's shrill declaration came from behind her, and she turned to see the pink pony fade into view standing right next to the table she was standing on, drawing gasps of awe from the partygoers. "Hi, Twilight! Hi, everypony! I hope I didn't scare anybody too badly with that prank!" She looked up at Twilight with a grin on her face. "I totally wanted to have a bit more fun, but Twilight's still the smartiest-pants around even without her horn."
Twilight tried to suppress her anger at having her theory proved right. "It was nothing," she said through gritted teeth. "Now would you mind cancelling your nullification field so the party can get started again?"
Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "Um... I don't think I read that chapter," she said.
"Pinkie..." Twilight covered her face with one hoof. "Imagine a soap bubble popping and then, while you're doing so, concentrate on your horn."
"Okey dokey lokey!" Pinkie's face screwed up in concentration, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. Her horn glowed blue for a second, and all at once, the library was once again filled with light and music. "There we go!"
"Very good. Now..." Twilight jumped off of the table, approaching Pinkie with a determined gait. "Pinkie, do you remember what you agreed to before I cast the spell last night?"
"Yep! No lifting anything bigger than myself, no using magic on others, and think everything over twice!" Pinkie's voice remained cheery, but Twilight could see worry in her eyes.
"You forgot the part about using no magic directly on yourself!" Twilight declared, pointed a hoof accusingly at Pinkie. "Magic like that invisibility spell you were using!"
"Hey, that doesn't count!" Pinkie protested. "It only bends light around a target. It doesn't actually affect a pony at all!" She stuck her nose up in the air, as though she were dismissing the claim outright.
Twilight shook her head furiously. "Oh, no, don't you try explaining it like that! The spell would still link intrinsically to the target it bends light around, making it a spell you cast on yourself!"
Applejack glanced back and forth between her two friends. "Okay, I'd like to step in and stop this arguin', but I haven't the slightest what you two are arguin' about. Mind puttin' things in plainer terms?"
"Fine." Twilight jabbed her hoof once more at Pinkie. "She broke a Pinkie Promise! Pinkie Pie herself broke a Pinkie Promise!"
"What!? " Rarity exclaimed, her eyes widening as she and Applejack both turned to Pinkie. "That can't possibly be true, darling... can it?"
"I... Well... You see..." Pinkie squirmed under the gaze of her friends for a few seconds before she threw her hooves up into the air, letting out a frustrated cry. "Fine! Yes, I broke the Pinkie Promise I made to Twilight! I cast Ingrid's Improved Invisibility on myself, and Cirrus' Cloudhoof, and Terminus' Terrific Teleport, and even Petunia's Perfect Perfume!"
"Hmm, I was wondering what smelled so nice," Spike commented in a low voice.
Pinkie took a step towards Twilight, a pleading look in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Twilight! When I made the Pinkie Promise, I totally meant it, a hundred percent! But today there's this little voice in my head saying that the promise is silly , that I know what I'm doing, and I-I resisted the temptation at first, but then I learned all those spells, and I'll never get another chance to cast them, and I had this great idea for a prank, and—"
"Stop." It was all Twilight could manage to get out as she processed what Pinkie was saying. She knew that little voice; it was the one that had tried to get her to fix Rarity and Fluttershy's friendship when it had been threatened by Fluttershy's modelling career. Only Pinkie's constant presence had prevented Twilight from breaking her Pinkie Promise at the first opportunity.
The spell that had switched things up between Pinkie and Twilight had given Pinkie that nagging little voice that insisted that it was right... and Pinkie had actually resisted it for a while, in a way Twilight hadn't even managed one bit. It was entirely Twilight's fault – or rather, a fault of Twilight's – that had caused Pinkie to break her promise, and that meant— who was tugging on her tail!?
Twilight turned to see who needed her attention so badly, but there was nopony with a grip on her tail. It was just jerking up and down of its own accord. Shrugging, Twilight turned back to Pinkie to apologize to her, only to be greeted by the wide-eyed stares of three ponies and one dragon fixed on her rear end.
And that's when it finally hit her. "Twitchy tail."
As one, the five of them dove under the table that Twilight had been standing on only moments before. The table wasn't nearly large enough for all of them, though, and they only succeeded in getting all their heads under the table and delivering a spectacle for the recovering party around them to behold.
After a few moments, when the only thing they had managed to succeed at doing was giving themselves kinks in their necks, Pinkie shook her head. "Ugh, it must be one of those really delayed Pinkie Senses," she said as she pulled herself out from under the table. "I hate when I get those. 'Oh, something's going to fall, but only three hours from now.' Really useful, tail!"
"So what, I'm just going to have this twitching until something falls?" Twilight asked, her voice unbelieving.
Pinkie shrugged. "Well, at least you can get used to a twitchy tail. It's not like it's—" She was interrupted as Twilight's entire body suddenly started shaking. "—a doozy..."
"A doozy!?" Applejack, Spike, and Rarity all exclaimed at once, before Applejack and Spike turned to give Rarity a curious look. "What? Fluttershy told me all about it at our spa session that week."
"A-A-A-A d-d-d-o-o-o-z-y-y-y!?" Twilight repeated, barely able to get the words out of her chattering mouth. She stopped shaking, and immediately turned to look at her tail, which was still twitching. "But my tail is still going! So does that mean..."
Twilight turned to look at Pinkie just as they both arrived at the same conclusion. "A doozy falling from the sky!"
"Quick, Twilight, you can tell where the doozy's are if you concentrate during the shake!"
"Okay, but it's not like I can control when I get the—" Twilight was interrupted as another full-body shake took control of her. After a few seconds, it stopped, and Twilight stared at the others in shock. "It's at Fluttershy's cottage!"
"Then we don't have any time to lose!" Applejack announced, already turning and heading for the door.
Rarity turned to Spike. "Spike, explain to Twilight's guests that we had to step out for a bit. Be a dear and see that they're taken care of."
"You can count on me!" Spike said as the three friends quickly rushed after Applejack.
As the ponies left the library, Rainbow Dash swooped down to fly alongside them. "Hey, what's going on here? I thought Pinkie's ghost trick sent you all packing, but Pinkie's here too." She looked over at Pinkie. "How'd the prank go, anyway? I just got done clearing up the storm."
"I can tell you all about it later, Dashie!" Pinkie said, only barely looking up at Dash. "Fluttershy might be in danger! Or she might just be having an epiphany."
"What!?" Dash shouted, the surprise causing her to fall behind for a second before she managed to catch up again. "'Shy's in trouble!? What kind of trouble?"
"Don't rightly know!" Applejack yelled back from the head of the group. "All we've got to go by is Twilight's Pinkie Sense. Or is it Twilight Sense now?"
"You had me at Pinkie Sense." Dash flew ahead of Applejack, turning in midair to fly backwards facing her friends. "I'll fly ahead, make sure that 'Shy is alright!"
"Yes, go!" Rarity growled, irritation in her voice.
"Going!" The pegasus turned around again and flew off ahead, quickly disappearing over a hill.
As Twilight watched Rainbow Dash fly off, she noticed something else in the sky, a brilliant object streaking across the starry field. "A meteor? But there's no meteors scheduled for tonight..."
Pinkie looked up at Twilight's words, her mouth hanging open as she panted; she was used to an earth pony's endurance, and the run was tuckering her right out. "Is... is it... getting bigger...?"
Twilight nodded. "I think it is!" As she watched the meteor, it clearly was getting larger and larger. The former unicorn did some rough calculations in her head, glad that her spell last night hadn't taken that from her. "Let's see, at the rate of its increase in apparent size and its movement across the starfield..."
As she reached her answer, she took a look back at her still-twitching tail and then at Pinkie behind her, her eyes filled with fear.
"That's the doozy! That meteor's going to land on Fluttershy's cottage!"
