Packing
Minuette set another box down in the living room and wiped the sweat from her brow. She leaned against it and grabbed a nearby glass of water with her magic. She pulled it to her lips and took a long sip.
“Guess she’s not coming,” Twinkleshine said as she walked over and sat down next to Minuette. She blew her pink mane out of her eyes as a melancholy smile spread across her face. “I’d really hoped she’d make it.”
Minuette smiled and wrapped her foreleg around the cream color Unicorn and pulled her close. “Don’t you worry. She’ll be here.”
“How do you know?” The two Unicorns looked over their shoulders as Lemon Hearts came walking down from the second story. She was slowly levitating a box down behind her. Her blue mane, which was normally loose around her head, was tied back with a bow so that it stayed out of her eyes.
“Simple,” Minuette said as she puffed out her chest with pride. “I burned the library down.”
“What?!” A loud crash came from the kitchen and a second later Minuette was staring at a pair of purple eyes hiding behind some rickety looking glasses. The two purple irises were wide with terror, and Minuette had to struggle to stifle her laugh.
“Of course—”
“Yep,” Lyra said as she walked out of the kitchen and nudged Moondancer with her flank. “I helped. Burned it to a crisp.”
Tears pooled in Moondancer’s eyes and her lips began to quiver.
“She’s kidding, Moondancer,” Twinkleshine said, jamming her hoof into Minuette’s stomach. “Princess Celestia would have thrown her in prison. And Twilight probably would have chew her mane off.”
“Literally,” Minuette said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck.
The relief that flooded Moondancer’s face was almost comical. “Thank goodness.” With that, she disappeared back into the kitchen, likely to clean up whatever she had dropped.
“Are you nervous?” Lemon Hearts asked as she joined the other three Unicorns in the living room.
“Nope,” Lyra said. “I’ll be fine. Bon Bon’s there, after all.”
“Yeah!” Minuette said with a smile. “Plus, Ponyville’s great. All the ponies there are so friendly. You’ll fit right in Lyra, I promise.”
A sly grin spread across Lyra’s green face. “I hear the wine’s pretty tasty too.”
Minuette’s face burned and she let out a laugh that sounded more like a cough. “Er, yeah. It’s…uh, it’s great.”
“And the serving girl is apparently quite a looker,” Twinkleshine added as she nudged Lemon Hearts.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Minuette stammered, but she knew the color in her cheeks said otherwise.
“Well neither do we,” Lemon Hearts chimed in. “Seeing as you’ve never introduced us. Lyra didn’t keep Bon Bon from us.”
“Look, she’s just a mare that I met there, okay?” Minuette said. “It’s not like that…”
“Bet you ten bits she wants it to be like that,” Twinkleshine said and the three Unicorns started giggling.
Minuette’s cheeks flushed even more because what they said wasn’t entirely untrue. But she was having difficulties breaking through that stubborn mare’s walls, and the fact that they hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right hoof wasn’t making it any easier. Minuette wasn’t sure bringing a bunch of her friends along to meet her was such a good idea yet.
“So…you about all packed now, Lyra?” Minuette asked, shaking the thoughts from her head and steering the conversation back on track.
“Pretty much.” The mint green Unicorn looked over her shoulder. “Moondancer? You got the dishes ready?”
“Yes!” Moondancer pranced around the corner, carrying three rather large boxes with her magic like it was nothing. The girl was exceptionally talented. “I arranged them all by size, shape, and crystal purity for the ones that have crystal in them!”
Minuette met the eyes of her other three friends and then looked back at Moondancer with a raised eyebrow. “You…can tell the difference just by looking at them?”
“Most of the time.” Moondancer adjusted her glasses and continued. “But for the ones that were really close, I just used a sound resonance spell. The different frequencies tell you the purity so—what?”
Minuette started laughing. “One of these days, you’re going to have to invite us over to your place. I bet even the dust is organized.”
“Dust?” Moondancer replied. “What? No, I make sure that I clean everything every day at…oh. You’re teasing me again, aren’t you?”
The four Unicorns laughed and Minuette wrapped her foreleg around Moondancer’s neck. The mare still went a little stiff whenever somepony hugged her, but Minuette noticed that it wasn’t nearly as bad as before. “Only because we like you.”
“Is, uh…Twilight here yet?” Moondancer asked as she tried to wiggle free of the embrace.
“Not yet,” Minuette replied as she let the shy Unicorn go. “But don’t worry. I promise you she’ll be here.”
“Okay…”
“In the meantime,” Lemon Hearts interjected, “is there anything else left to pack?”
Lyra looked around her old home and a wistful smile spread across her face. The walls were devoid of the many pictures of her, Bon Bon, and the rest of her friends. The furniture was already loaded into the moving wagon outside, so only the indents in the carpet showed signs of their former presence. The living room was barren save for the boxes of packed stuff, just like the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom no doubt were.
There was only one room left in the house that needed to be packed up, and none of them could touch it just yet. It was driving Moondancer in particular rather twitchy.
“No ma’am, nothing left to pack,” Minuette said, puffing her chest out with pride. “I think we could give those professional movers a run for their bits. Who’s up for opening our own moving company?”
“I’m in!” Twinkleshine said as she raised her hoof. “I get to be the president!”
“No. My idea, I’m the president.”
“Vice president then?”
“Done.”
“I’ll deal with the contacts and setting up the appointments,” Lemon Hearts said. “It can’t be any more difficult than organizing parties for the castle.”
“That’s some forward thinking!” Minuette said as she pointed at the yellow Unicorn with exaggerated excitement. “You’ll go far in this company, young lady!”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Lemon Hearts said as she blushed.
“Lyra!”
“Er, sorry, Madam President, but I’m going to be a bit busy,” Lyra said. “Besides, I’m going to be in Ponyville.”
“Exactly!” Minuette’s eyes went wide and began to sparkle. “You can be our first customer! Tell all the ponies there about how great our service is. Spread the word. Why, if you do good enough, we’ll even give you a discount on our services for today!”
“What?” Lyra’s ears stood straight up, but Minuette didn’t let up. She turned and caught Moondancer in her gaze.
“Moondancer! How much does Lyra owe us for our services?”
“Hey!” Lyra protested.
“Well, um…” Moondancer shifted her glasses and looked at the floor. “The going rate in Canterlot is usually about…” She blinked and looked up. Minuette shot her a warm smile and it seemed to fill her with confidence. “Er-hm! I mean, she owes us two hundred thousand and thirty seven bits!”
“Perfect!” Minuette said, glad to see the genuine smile that went across Moondancer’s face. “Moondancer, you’ll be in charge of record keeping and billing. Now, Lyra, you have until the end of last Thursday to pay us, otherwise we’re going to move all your stuff to Manehattan instead.”
“Fine,” Lyra replied, sticking her nose up in the air. “Octavia will help me more anyway.”
A second later, all of them were laughing, Moondancer included. Minuette smiled at that. That pony was nearly as bad as Twilight when it came to socializing, but her problems seemed to stem more from shyness than just not being interested.
There was a knock on the door and the laughter stopped.
“Hello? Lyra? Are you home?”
“Hey! It’s Twi—” Minuette started, but Moondancer raced past her and opened the door in a flash.
“Twilight!” she said with more enthusiasm in her voice than Minuette had ever heard.
“Oh. Hello, Moondancer,” Twilight Sparkle said as she walked into Lyra’s house. “Hello, girls. Are you here to help Lyra reorganize her book collection too?”
“Uh…” Lemon Hearts said as she looked over at Twinkleshine, who just shrugged.
“Actually, Twilight, Lyra’s—”
“Yes!” Minuette said, bumping into Twinkleshine to silence her. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that the purple Unicorn didn’t notice the fact that Lyra’s living room was completely empty of personal belonging and the place was filled with boxes.
But the important thing is that she’s here! she thought.
“Right this way, Twilight,” Lyra said as she led Twilight up the stairs to the second story, with Moondancer close behind.
“You ever wonder what Princess Celestia sees in her?” Twinkleshine asked in a hushed voice.
“Twinkleshine!” Lemon Hearts scolded.
“What? I’m not being mean. I just don’t get it. Twilight’s nice in her own way, and she even has Moondancer beat when it comes to magic, both of which are very important to being Princess Celestia’s prized student, I’m sure, but…”
“But you’d think Princess Celestia would place a bit more importance on other things,” Minuette finished. She had to admit that she wondered that sometimes too. The three of them had adopted Twilight into their circle, probably without her consent, and they knew her. She wasn’t unfriendly, just distant. Perhaps that’s what Princess Celestia was hoping to change by taking her under her wing.
The sound of a gasp floated down the stairs, and the three friends knew what that meant. Grinning at each other, the climbed the stairs and walked into the last room that needed to be packed.
“I had no idea you owned so many books, Lyra!” Twilight said as Minuette and the others walked into the room. The purple Unicorn was practically drooling as she gazed around the room. One wall was covered from top to bottom with a bookcase, and the bookcase itself was filled to bursting. The rest of the room had books in piles, or scattered around the floor. Lyra wasn’t usually so messy, but Minuette had insisted. She knew Twilight would have a field day organizing them all.
“Yeah, well…” Lyra scratched the back of her neck and blushed a little. “I’m…uh, not sure they’re to your liking, Twilight. But I’d appreciate your—”
“Are you kidding me?” Twilight asked as she shot toward the bookcase. “Ancient Equestria Legends. Myths from Outside: A Guide to Forgotten Lore. And…Oh. My. Gosh! Is…is that a first edition of Lunar Guard: Nighttime Tales and Creatures?” Twilight yanked the book off of the shelf and treated it as though she was holding a withering flame. “This is from when Princess Luna was still here…”
“Princess who now?” Minuette asked, but Twilight apparently hadn’t heard her. She, along with Moondancer, were engrossed in the book.
The four Unicorns stood and watched the two bookworms for a few moments, until Minuette finally decided enough was enough. “So, Twilight, could you give us a hoof will all of this? Lyra needs to pack them up and—”
“Why?” Twilight asked, panic rising in her voice. “You’re not going to get rid of them, are you?”
“What? No!” Lyra protested. “I’m just—”
“Thank goodness. Because I’d be more than willing to take them if you were.”
“Bon Bon would probably be happy if you got rid of some of them,” Twinkleshine teased in a quiet voice. “You’ve been searching for humans since you were a filly.”
“At least she’s dedicated,” Lemon Hearts said with a smile. “So, Twilight, will you give the rest of us a hoof?”
“Of course!” Twilight closed the book, much to Moondancer’s annoyance, and then looked around. “First, we should organize them by category, and then by author, and then by…”
Minuette tuned the rest of the purple pony’s speech out. Twilight’s instructions were no doubt sound, but Minuette knew better. She wasn’t giving the instructions to the others in the room. She was giving them to herself.
That didn’t stop Moondancer from instantly jumping to follow the directions though. The other four Unicorns looked at each other, shrugged, and began to pretend to be busy around the room, pulling books out and setting them neatly on the floor.
Minuette reached the bottom of a stack and pulled out a book. She looked at the title and made a face. She didn’t know how to pronounce the words on it. Sue-something?
“Lyra?” she called. “What’s this—umf!”
Lyra’s magic instantly grabbed the book and stuffed it in Minuette’s mouth before the blue Unicorn could finish. She rushed over and yanked the book out, but immediately stuffed her hoof in Minuette’s mouth instead. “Shush!”
Minuette mumbled a question.
“It’s private, okay?” Lyra hissed as she looked over at the other ponies. She slowly withdrew her hoof. “Very private.”
“Aw, come on, let me see!”
Without waiting for an answer, Minuette yanked the book away with her own magic and held her hoof on Lyra’s horn, keeping her from using magic. The green pony desperately pawed at the book, but Minuette kept it out of reach. She flipped it open to a random page and—
She immediately closed the book. She avoided Lyra’s eyes and set it on the floor, where the other Unicorn snatched it up.
“What?” Lyra asked accusingly. “Bon Bon likes it when I use my magic for…things.”
“Things like that?” Minuette asked, her eyes widening.
“Hmph! Your wine pony would probably like it too.”
Minuette blushed even harder. The two ponies looked at each other for a few moments, and then they both went back to organizing books.
Twilight was a whirlwind of activity, pulling books from one shelf and placing them on another, or levitating entire stacks in the air, putting them in orbit around herself and Moondancer. Moondancer was busy pulling books out of the air and stacking them in boxes, somehow able to understand Twilight’s madness without a word being said between them.
Minuette and the others tried talking to the two book Unicorns, but the covernsations rarely lasted beyond a short answer from Twilight or a simple nod as she continued to shift books around the room and sort them into boxes. So instead, Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, and Lyra began to talk among themselves and build a little book fort. They joked about some of the more childish books in Lyra’s collection, including a copy of a bedtime story about humans.
Lyra managed to find a photo album and pulled it out, flipping through the pages and showing some pictures from when they were all fillies. Minuette smiled to see that Bon Bon was in quite a few of them, usually standing next to Lyra with a smile on her face.
“Your braces looked so cute,” Lemon Hearts said as she pointed to a picture of Minuette sitting next Lyra. Both of them were wearing huge smiles.
“Pearly whites like these dazzled even back then,” Minuette said as she flashed her smile. She looked over at Twilight and Moondancer as she did.
Moondancer kept sneaking looks at Twilight, smiling each time. She seemed so happy whenever she was around the Unicorn, and Minuette understood why. Try as they might, she, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Lyra just couldn’t connect with Moondancer on the same level. But Twilight seemed to, or at least Moondancer thought so.
Too bad Twilight seemed to always be so buried in her books to notice.
“What’s the password?” Lyra asked in her best pirate voice as she stood behind the bookfort that she and Lemon Hearts had constructed. She had one of her eyes closed and was bending her hoof as best she could like a hook.
“Password?” Minuette said, a wicked smile spreading across her face as she joined the little game. “We need no password.”
“Aye!” Twinkleshine said. “We’re here to claim your fort as our own! Lower the gates and we may show you mercy!”
“Never!” Lemon Hearts said, struggling not to giggle as she tried to be a stalwart defender. “We’ll fight to the last.”
Minuette and Twinkleshine crouched low to the carpet and made ready to jump as the four friends glared at each other the flimsy wall of books. Each one of them was struggling to not burst out in laughter.
“What in Equestria are you doing?”
Minuette watched as the line of books separating the four of them was suddenly lifted up into the air.
“Hey!” she said, but when she looked over at Twilight and Moondancer, she came up short. All the books where gone, stuffed—no doubt neatly—into the five boxes that now sat behind Twilight and Moondancer. Only the bookcase remained, and they would load that later.
Lyra let out a whistle. “Wow Twilight…You cleaned this room up pretty quick.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said as she placed the last books in a box and then closed the lid. “Moondancer helped.”
Moondancer blushed.
“Well, guess we better get these boxes downstairs,” Lemon Hearts said. She picked up the nearest box with her magic and began to guide it out of the room. Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Moondancer all grabbed their own boxes and began to move them. Lyra went for one as well, but Twilight grabbed it instead.
“I’ll take care of this one,” the Unicorn said with a twinkle in her eye. “It has all the really valuable books in it.”
Minuette smiled. Twilight helped, and cared, in her own way.
The Unicorns brought the boxes of books outside and loaded them into the moving wagon. Twilight was a bit hesitant to release her box, but after a quick battle of willpower, she managed to carefully set her box on top of everything.
“Whew.” Twilight wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled. “That was fun.”
“And a lot of work,” Twinkleshine said.
“Oh! I know!” Minuette looked around at her friends and smiled. “How about we all go get some ice cream? As a reward for a job well done.”
“Sure!” Twinkleshine said.
“I think that sounds great,” Lemon Hearts added.
“I’m in too!” Lyra said.
Twilight made a face and Minuette knew right away what she was about to say. “Uh…sorry, girls. But I have a lot of studying to do. I already had to move a bunch of things around just so I could come over and help Lyra organize her stuff today.”
“Organize?” Lyra asked as she stared at Twilight. “Twilight…do you have any idea why we did all this today?”
“Of course!” Twilight said, and the four Unicorns breathed a sigh of relief. “Mid-Summer reorganization day!”
“…What now?” Twinkleshine asked. Lyra slammed her hoof into her forehead, Lemon Hearts shook her head, and Minuette smiled in defeat.
“And I thought I was the only pony who celebrated it!” Twilight continued without missing a beat. “Anyway, I better get going. I have a lot of things I need to catch up on. I’ll see you girls around Canterlot!”
Minuette and the others stood there and watched the purple Unicorn trot down the street, lost in her own little world.
“Well, she’s the same as ever,” Minuette said once Twilight was out of sight. “So. Who wants to get that ice cream?”
“Sounds good.”
“Yeah!”
“Okay.”
Minuette blinked when Moondancer didn’t answer. “Moondancer?”
“Well, uh…actually.” Moondancer adjusted her glasses and looked down the street after Twilight.
“Studying?” Minuette asked. Moondancer nodded. “Good ahead then. Odds are, she’ll probably be at the library.”
Without a word, Moondancer dashed down the street after Twilight.
“Do you think she’ll even notice I’m gone?” Lyra asked as the four remaining Unicorns began to walk toward the ice cream shop.
“Of course she will!” Minuette said with a wide smile.
“Or at least she’ll notice your books are gone,” Twinkleshine added and all of them laughed.
“Don’t worry, Lyra,” Minuette said as she put her foreleg around the green Unicorn. “We’ll miss you enough for Twilight, and then some. And if you need help unpacking all those boxes, I’m sure you can send Twilight a letter and she’ll come rushing down.”
Author's Note
Finally, an EQD Writer Training Ground that I actually managed to come up with a story for.
Minuette's secret little crush should be obvious for those of you who have read my other stories about her--or if you've familiar with her at all.
I tried to keep everypony's personalities correct as best I could. I hope you enjoyed reading this. 
