Twilight Sparkle furrowed her brow, staring intently at the words on the page in front of her. Her heart began to pound faster with each rapid breath, and a single bead of sweat began to roll down the back of her neck. She leaned in closer, taking care not to skim over a single word.
The candle next to her began to flicker, causing the light to dance around the page. The words were almost a blur now. She drew a deep breath. There was a faint voice somewhere nearby, calling her name. But nothing could distract her at this point. What she was reading was far too important.
Her horn glowed as she turned the page over quickly. Once again she could hear somepony calling out to her, but she was so transfixed with the text that she once again disregarded them. If she stopped reading now, it could mean certain disaster.
As she moved closer to the end of the page, her eyes widened with fear. Her heart began to beat so fast it almost burst from her chest. She quickly put her hoof in front of her mouth, stifling a small scream…
“TWILIGHT!”
The voice snapped her back to reality, and she turned her head sharply to see Spike standing behind her.
“Oh my goodness Spike, you scared the living daylights out of me!” she exclaimed.
“Oh I’m sorry Twilight, were you doing something important?”
Twilight sighed and smiled, “not really Spike, I’m just so obsessed with the new Daring Do novel, I can’t seem to put it down lately. I mean you know what I’m like when I get stuck into a good book, right?”
“I sure do,” the little dragon said, opening some of the castle windows. Light flooded into Twilight’s study. “Remember the time we had hailstones the size of bowling balls raining down on Ponyville, and you were in the Library reading about the history of Griffons?”
Twilight chuckled, “of course, I only realised something was wrong when a hailstone crashed through the roof and almost hit me on the head!” With her horn glowing once again, she neatly placed a bookmark at the page she was up to, and closed the cover.
“So what’s so important that required my attention, Spike?” she asked, finally beginning to relax.
“Oh, I just wanted to tell you that Cadance and Shining Armor are here for lunch. You invited them last week, remember?”
The calm that she was beginning to feel vanished instantly. “Oh my gosh, that was today?! Spike, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I tried Twilight, but you were too busy reading your ne-“
“Never mind that now, what am I going to do? I haven’t prepared any food, the table isn’t set, and I wanted to go to the salon and get my mane done up nicely!”
Spike just smiled, “honestly Twilight, I sometimes think you forget where we are. You have your own castle! You do realise you have staff that basically do everything for you, right?”
As the realisation sunk in, she began to relax again. “Of course, we hired kitchen staff. Spike, what would I do without you?”
“Ah, you’d probably go insane and collapse into a world of entropy and chaos,” he joked.
“Well let’s hope it never comes to that,” Twilight said, “come on Spike, let’s go have lunch”.
* * *
“Oh Twilight, you should have seen the trees! Such magnificent colours, it was heavenly!”
Twilight smiled, “I’m sure it was Cadance, I’m very jealous of you both”.
“We had this amazing picnic Twily, it was super romantic,” Shining Armor boasted, “totally my idea, of course”.
“I’m sure it was, big brother,” Twilight commented, glancing at Cadance and winking. The two girls giggled at each other quietly.
“So tell me Twilight,” Shining Armor said, “we’re all dying to know, is there a special colt in your life you haven’t told us about yet?”
The question caught Twilight off guard. “Oh, umm… Well you know… I’ve uhhh…”
“Oh don’t put her on the spot like that honey,” Cadance said, scowling at her husband.
“What?! It’s not that big of a deal, I just asked if she was seeing anybody lately!”
“Yes, but you don’t have to just ask her out of the blue, you can ease into the subject!”
“Oh right, and how would that conversation have gone, pray tell?”
Twilight blushed, sinking back into her chair quietly as her brother and sister-in-law began squabbling in front of her, almost as if they’d forgotten she was sitting right next to them.
Simply put, she hadn’t gone on a date in a long time. In fact, she couldn’t even remember the last time she flirted with anypony.
“I’m sorry for the impoliteness of my husband Twilight,” Cadance said, now returning the conversation to Twilight.
“Oh um, that’s alright. I’m not exactly embarrassed by the subject, I was just a little shocked is all.”
“What ever happened with you and Flash Sentry?” Shining Armour piped in, “I remember you used to talk about him all the time after your adventure to that alternate universe”.
“Well since you asked, we never actually dated,” she said, getting up from her seat. She walked away from the table, turning to look out the window. “It was just a silly crush, I really don’t think something would have ever actually happened”.
Although she felt guilty for prying, Cadance felt like they were too far into the subject to turn back now. “You’ll never know unless you try Twilight,” she said reassuringly.
“Yes, yes, but I have far more important things to worry about than dating,” Twilight said. “I have a castle to run now, and every week there always seems to be some new problem in Ponyville that needs dealing with. Being a princess takes quite the toll”.
“You can take some time off you know, maybe a vacation?”
“I’d love that, but what if something happened while I was away? What if there was an urgent dilemma and only I could help to fix it?”
Cadance stood up and walked over to the window. “You have to realise you’re not always going to be able to help, Twilight. Give everypony a chance to solve their problems on their own”.
Twilight sighed. “I know you’re right, I just feel so guilty about wanting to take a break”.
“I understand, truly I do, but you deserve some time off,” Cadance said, placing her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Go to Manehattan for a week maybe, do some shopping, relax at a spa”.
“And maybe meet a dashing colt that will sweep you off your feet!” Shining Armor said, feeling left out of the conversation now.
Twilight giggled, “well I don’t know about that, but maybe I will go on a vacation. It’ll give me a chance to finish my new book in peace at least”.
“That’s the spirit!” exclaimed Cadance, smiling.
It wasn’t long before the three ponies began skimming through travel brochures, discussing in great detail which location they thought would be the most relaxing at this time of year.
Several hours passed, and it was only after the sun had begun to set in the horizon that the ponies realised what the time was. Cadance and Shining Armor soon departed, leaving Twilight to her thoughts over dinner.
As the evening grew darker, Twilight grew tired. She tucked Spike into his bed, and wished Owlowiscious sweet dreams, before turning in herself.
Ponyville was peaceful that night. Totally unaware of the events that were about to unfold.
Far above Equestria, something was moving in the blackness of the night. In the depths of space, a great object was hurtling towards the planet below at an incredible pace…
