Moving On For The Better Life

When the two arrived in the living room the eight other people were already set up in a circle in the living room. Each girl sitting next to her boyfriend.

“Pinkie noticed them and waved them over. “Come on you guys. We’re just about to play Pinkie bottle.”

Twilight sat down and raised an eyebrow. “Pinkie bottle?”

Pinkie nodded, and smiled. “Ya. It’s like spin the bottle, only Pinkie Pie style. When a bottle is pointed at the person, the boy picks out a card from the deck.” She pointed to a stack of orange cards sitting next to the bottle. “And he has to do the activity with his girlfriend. You get points of each task you finish and couple with the most points wins.” She pointed at the corner where a pile of what looked like junk sat.

Looking over Twilight noticed plastic targets, plastic bows and arrows, an inflatable kiddie pool, a sac of hollow plastic colored balls, chalk, baking tools, and behind all of it out through the sliding glass door she could see what looked to be a big pink playhouse for girls. “Took me and my boyfriend time to go party shopping,” said Pinkie as she hugged Bubble Goo in excitement, who was next to her.

“I did most of the shopping,” said Goo.

Tracker found the whole thing strange and looked to Twilight who shook her head. Twilight knew better then to question the pink pony in her’s, or any other reality.

For the next fifteen minutes, all the boys but Star Tracker got a turn doing activities with their girlfriends. Twilight payed attention to the couples to see how they interacted, she needed to know what made their relationship work and how she could apply what she saw to her own problems of building a relationship. If her time in ponyville had taught her one thing it was that as great as books where they couldn’t replace real world experience. When the next turn occurred the bottle stopped and points at Star Tracker who picked a card from the deck. When he did he found that the bottom part of the card was read rather then orange like the rest.

Pinkie immediately began clapping and smiling. “Goddie. You got a triple card. That means you have to do three activities.

Tracker looked down at the card, and read the instructions. “First you must find the white cube in the pool of bouncy balls, then you must paint a heart with sparkles on it and finally girlfriend must throw darts at a target while her eyes are covered by her boyfriend and vice versa.”

“That last one might be pretty difficult Pinkie because I don’t think Tracker has figured out how to full coordination of his body yet,” Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash smiled. “Sweet. That means I’m gonna win.”

“You,” replied Applejack. “In case y’all forgot we’re tied.”

Flash put his hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you both will do alright.”

Twilight blushed. Despite there relationship have ended she still felt attracted to him and how kind and supportive he was.

Tracker noticed the interaction and his eyes fell. Twilight had mentioned Flash was her ex. A fact that shocked and bruised his heart, and made him rethink if he was the kind of stallion who even had a chance with her. Seeing Twilight blush at his touch burned even more at it made him realize he likey wasn’t the type of stallion Twilight was interested in, and that her declaration they would only ever be friends was the truth.

The group walked outside as Pinkie brought the inflatable pool and Goo brought the sack of balls. Which a single deep breath Pinkie inflated the pool that was nearly six feet wide and almost three feet deep. Goo threw in an odd somewhat small white cube and then dumped ball into the poll until it was full.

Tracker’s jaw dropped at the display. “How did she…”

Twilight put a hand on his shoulder. “Tracker. If there is one thing I have learned is that Pinkie is the most uncertain thing in this or any other universe.”

Tracker felt like he should he refute that idea but stopped. Twilight was said to be the smartest pony in Equestria. Arguing with her would be stupid.

The two both got into the pool of balls and began. Walking around with their hands digging through the balls that came up to their waist. While Twilight would pick up and throw balls Tracker began walking around trying to feel the cube’s corners. After almost fifteen minutes Twilight began to grow frustrated. “This is impossible. There are too many balls.”

“Sorry Twilight,” said Pinkie. “I guess I made the white cube a bit to small.”

As Tracker searched he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings and bumped into Twilight’s back, causing her to stumble.

“Be Careful Tracker.” Twilight responded.

Tracker immediately backed up and chastised himself. Realizing he had made another error. “I’m very sorry Princess, I didn’t mean it.”

Twilight sighed. She wished Tracker didn’t react so harshly to her criticism. Tracker made it feel like he was scared of her. “We need a way thin these balls out,” said Twilight.

“Try dunking your head into the balls silly,” said Pinkie. Then demonstrated by walking over and bending down forward until her head was in the balls, then immediately pulling her head out with a bright red ball in her mouth.

“Why would we do that?” question Twilight.

Pinkie spit the ball out. “So it can look like your diving underwater and be more fun. I would have used a real pool, but the white cube would have melted, and filling up a pool takes forever.”

Twilight rubbed her forehead. Pinkie’s suggestion was unfortunately flawed. Diving under wouldn’t make spotting the cube easier like in real pool, and would likely be harder to wade through.

She looked over at Tracker and saw him throwing balls out of the pool. “What are you doing?”

“Making it so there are less balls to search through,” he said, and continued to throw.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to do it that way,” replied Twilight.

Tracker shrugged. “No rule that says we can’t.”

Twilight blinked and looked to Pinkie who simply shrugged; having never thought about that loophole.

Twilight looked back to Tracker who was still throwing balls, and her face widened into a grin. Tracker’s idea was brilliant. By removing the balls they could systematically remove the obstacle impeding their progress. The law of averages dictated that sooner or later they had to find the ball. It was not only smart, but logical. Twilight immediately began throwing out balls along with Tracker.

After throwing out roughly half the balls Tracker finally found the small white cube. “Got it!” he shouted. Twilight rushed over and took the cube from him. Her hand touching his as he did. Something that made Tracker blush.

Twilight immediately realized the cube was actually a piece of paper folded down into a cube. She took off the tabe holding it in shape, and unfolded it to see the paper was black.

“Now you each have to paint half a heart on the paper, and fill it with with decorations of love. No matter how hard it is.” said Pinkie.

Twilight nodded. She took Tracker’s hand, and lead him out of the pool, and to a bench sitting on the porch near the back door that already had paint supplies laid out.

“Umm...Twilight. You’re still holding my hand,” said Tracker blushing. Lifting their joined hands.

Twilight blushed and immediately pulled her hand away. She inwardly wonder why she had done that but told herself she was simply so focused on the game she didn’t notice.

Tracker felt a bit saddened. It was so hard to get a beat on if Twilight was open to the idea of them being more than friends or not. He didn’t want to confess to her, be shot down and never get to see her again. “So, how do we paint without magic?” he asked.

“We use these,” said Twilight, holding up her hand and wiggling her fingers. She picked up a paint brush in her hand but found it a bit awkward. Last time she had gotten good enough to use a fork but it had been a while since she had been in the human world.

Tracker tried picking up the brush, but found his fingers wouldn’t comply. He had only tested them enough to get the hang of grabbing objects. Not wanting to disappoint Twilight he grabbed the brush, and put the end in his mouth. As he had been taught to do as a colt before learning to use magic.

Tracker dipped the brush in the paint. He had a hard time drawing the curve for the heart but managed to make a lopsided curve that at least resembled a heart.

Twilight faired a little better. She was able to draw the curve well enough but it was tougher then she had expected it to be. Apparently her time away had eroded her hand eye coordination when it came to human hands.

Tracker however was beyond frustrated at his inability to even draw a straight line, and finally spit out his brush. “This is impossible. I can’t draw anything but scribbles.”

Twilight felt a bit bad for Tracker. She remembered how hard it was to get the hang of using her hands the first time she was here. A skill she still hadn’t fully mastered.

She put down her brush, reached over, picked up Tracker’s brush, and put it in his hands. Fiddling with his fingers as she manually adjusted them to the proper positions.

Tracker’s face turned beat red, and his heart rate began to speed up as Twilight interlaced her hands with his as she positioned his fingers.

After a good two minutes Twilight finally got Tracker’s fingers appropriately positioned, and and picked up her brush again. “Now just follow my movements,” she said began painting.

Tracker gulped and nodded as he tried to get his blush under control. He kept his eyes focused on Twilight as he carefully mimicked Twilight’s hand movements. Twilight looked over and was surprised how well Tracker had done at copying the additional heart lines she had drawn to make it a multilayered heart.

“Wow. That’s pretty good Tracker. You learn fast.” Twilight replied.

Tracker smiled, and rubbed the back of his head. “Thanks. Following pony movements is something I’ve always been good at… Um not that I fallow ponies that is, I mean I do since it’s my cutie mark, but not like follow them like stalk them or anything, I just...umm...I’m just gonna shut up now.”

Twilight chucked at Tracker’s embracement, and the cute look on his face. ‘Did I just think he looked cute.’ Twilight shock her head, and went back to her work.

“So what kind of designed do you think we should add?” asked Twilight.

Tracker shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to me. You can pick the designs you want. I don’t mind.”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks Tracker. Sometimes I don’t get to make a lot of my own choices anymore.”

Tracker raised an eyebrow at that statement. “But your a princess. You get to make the rules.”

Twilight shrugged. “You’d think so. But being a princess doesn’t mean absolute power the way most think. It’s my responsibility to do what’s best for everypony. And a lot of times what’s best for everypony isn’t what’s best for me. I could just change a rule I don’t like but that wouldn’t be fair to all the ponies the rule helps. Rules were put in place to help ponies. And as Princess it’s my job to enforce the rules that work and change the ones that don’t.”

Tracker thought on what Twilight said. He had never really thought about what being a princess meant. He knew it meant power and fame, and prestige, but he never thought about the work that went into it. His job was to follow and report on celebrities, not understand politics.

“Not to mention my image. That’s the worst. People judge me on everything I do any little thing could have big problem. I can’t even go out and eat a hayburger without the company trying to use it as publicity and make me some kind of weird mascot.”

“Umm...well at least it was a restaurant you liked, right?” said Tracker. Not sure what to say to Twilight’s story.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Ya, at least that.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Ya, at least that.”

The two finished their picture and held it up for the others to see.

“Wow that looks amazing,” said Wiz giving his opinion.

“Yeah I love the shining colors.” Fluttershy commented.

“Ya, this is pretty awesome for people who are ponies from a different world,” said Rainbow said.

“Thanks. It was nothing really.” Tracker replied.

“But you still have one more obstacle.” Pinkie reminded as she took the heart and taped it to the back fence. She then rushed back, and handed three arrows to Twilight and Star Tracker. “Make sure that you block your partners his or her eyes at all times. You get a extra point for each bullseye. I know this is difficult but try you best.”

Princess Twilight looks at Star Tracker in a serious look. “Okay listen carefully. I never did this before with my hands so I want you to go first because I’m not prepared to do this.”

Tracker nodded. “Okay but I don’t think you should be overreacted to this. We’re only going to throw our arrows to at a target. We’re not going to hurt anyone.”

“It’s not that I’m not good at aiming. It’s just I can’t look straight at the target because we never use are hoofs to throw at home.” She starts to feel nervous but Tracker calms her down.

Tracker shrugged. “Relax, I’m sure I’ll have the same problems since I know even less about how to use hands.”

Twilight nodded. Considering Tracker was also a unicorn and had little experience using his hands he's likely be lucky to even hit the paper. The two walked forward toward the paper, and stopped behind a yellow strip of tape ten feet away. Twilight got behind Tracker and placed her hands over his eyes.

Tracker held the arrow up and gripped it fully in his grasp like it was a spear. He tried to concentrate on throwing the arrow but it was hard with the knowledge Twilight’s hand were touching him.

“I’ll give you a hint, it’s right in front of your face.” Applejack said.

“Thanks for the help but our aiming is still a problem.” Tracker said.

Deciding to help Applejack walked up to Tracker, and re-positioned his fingers and hand into a throwing motion. “Now when your arm is going down let go right about here,” she said lowering Tracker’s arm to the right position.” She finished demonstrating and went back to stand with the others.

“Okay, we can do this.” Tracker said to himself. He threw his first arrow which hit the fence just a few inches under the paper. “A little higher,” said Twilight. Tracker nodded and tried to correct his aim, hitting a above the target, but managing to actually hit within the paper. “Lower and a little to the left,” said Twilight. Twilight let go of him while he saw his targets.

“Wow! I did better than I thought?”

“I guess.” Twilight said. Though she wasn’t as competitive as Rainbow Dash, she still had an need to achieve perfection in any task she attempted. And that included sports. Trying not to be upset, and understanding this was Traker’s first time trying she took her place in front of him as he put his hands over her eyes. “Okay I can handle this, just need to stay calm.” However Twilight didn’t throw any of her arrows, she stood still while her partner feels concerned.

“Twilight… I think you can throw now.” Tracker replied but Twilight refused. She found it far too hard to concentrate with Tracker behind her. His body close to hers and his hands around her face. It brought force images of all the romance books she had been binging where the colt would sneak up on the girl and wrap them in a loving hug. She was in a similar position now but it felt all wrong. She felt his body against hers like the mare’s in her books but knew there was no love along with it, and it made the feeling seem wrong.

“NO! I can’t do it!” She let go of the arrows and took Trackers hands off of her. She ran back into the house as everyone was left shocked by her actions.

“I’ll go see what’s wrong,” said Sunset, following after the Princess.

Tracker was simply left standing dumbstruck and numb. He had a crush on had bolted the second he put his hands on her. Was Twilight so disgusted by him just touching her made her revolt? But she had touched him twice before and didn’t seem to mind. “What did I do wrong?”

Sunset found Twilight at the kitchen table with her hand holding her head. She pulled back a seat and sat next to the purple haired human. “What’s going on Twilight?” asked Sunset, putting a hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

Twilight sighed and looked at her friend. “I don’t know. It’s just having Tracker so close to me I felt weird. Like lovey dovey weird.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that good. That’s why you came here. To learn about love and finding a boyfriend. Sounds like you already found one.”

Twilight shook her head. “But it feels wrong. I barely know Tracker and yet my body is reacting to him. He’s barely my friend and I’m wanting him to hug and hold me. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. That’s not how it worked in any of my books.”

Sunset groaned and rubbed her temples. “Twilight we had a conversation about this. The whole point of this is so you can get to know him and see how you feel about him.”

“But the books all said…”

“Twilight no book in the world is a definitive guide for love. Everyone falls in love differently. When you fell for Flash did you fall for his body first or his personality?”

Twilight blushed and remembered how her heart had skipped a beat the first sight of Flash. “His body,” she mumbled.

“Then there you go. Your body know what it wants. You just have to figure out if the rest of him is something you want as well. You don’t have to force yourself to love him, if you like him the way he is that’s great, don’t get too caught up with this love thing.” Sunset smirked. “And even if love with Tracker never comes you could always try for a friend with benefits relationship.”

Twilight’s face immediately turned bright red. “Sunset!”

Sunset laughed at her friends embracement. “Just kidding. Just do what comes natural and take it one step at a time. Don’t try to force things if they don’t work.”

Twilight nodded and the two went back outside where everyone was still waiting, and she walked up to Star Tracker.

“Sorry I left, I’m guess I was just nervous.” She walked up to Tracker.

“It’s fine. Like you said in your book even princesses go through tough situations.”

“You mean my friendship journal?” questioned Twilight.

Tracker nodded. “Of course. I bought it and read it over and over.”

Twilight wasn’t sure what to say. It was nice to know Tracker enjoyed reading at least. And nice to know he cared so much about reading what she had to say. But his actions still sounded like that of a fan body with an idealistic view of her then somepony who really understood her. “I think we should get back to your turn now.”

Tracker nodded and handed her the arrows she dropped as they get back in position. Tracker’s hands block Twilight’s eyes again and Twilight prepares to throw her arrows.

Once again she felt her heart flutter slightly at being so close to a male and in a position that could be seen as intimate, but she pushed that feeling down deep, and snuffed it out. Her first throw was not that good. Hitting the lower right of the paper. Tracker and the others felt disappointed at first. “Aim five degrees up and three degrees to the left.” Twilight blinked. She hadn't expected his instruction to be to mathematical. She threw her second arrow and luckily it hit halfway between the middle bullseye, and the outside of the heart.

“Okay I think I should stop.” Twilight said quickly after she did her second attempt but Tracker stopped her.

“You have one more arrow left, keep it calm and relax and aim two more degrees left.” Tracker said kindly.

“Okay I’ll try.” She lifted her hand with the arrow and took five seconds to take a deep breath. Finally, she threw her last arrow and everyone went silent. Twilight heard no sound until Tracker took his hands off her eyes which were shut tight. She didn’t want to see her failure but soon everyone cheered, surprising Twilight.

“You did it Twilight!” Star Tracker cheered. Twilight looked at the target and saw her final arrow had been a bullseye.

“I got a bullseye?” She blinked her eyes.

“You sure did!” Sunset replied. Twilight was so excited she hugged Star Tracker tightly.

“Thank you Tracker, you really help me there.” Star Tracker was blushing like crazy, unlike the hug he got from Twilight back at the cruise, this one lasted for one minute. He didn’t say a word while Twilight still hugging him and to make things difficult for him, everyone is adoring this which makes Twilight break the hug when she noticed.

“Aww that is so cute.” Fluttershy said.

“I knew you were are perfect together.” Bubble Goo commented.

“We’re not!” Tracker shouted in embarrassment. Twilight looked at Tracker in a cute look which makes Tracker blush harder. “Uh...I need to go to the bathroom,” proclaimed Tracker and rushed off.

Twilight giggled. “You know. He’s cute when he’s trying to hide his crush.” Twilight turning to Pumpkin.

“Wait so you know that Star Tracker has a crush on you?” asked Pumpkin.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Of course. Tracker is more obvious about his feelings then Fluttershy. How could I not know.”

“But didn’t you only bring him because you wanted to hang out with us?” asked Rainbow.

Twilight nodded again. “Yes, but I’m getting to know him more and I think I’m starting to like him more than I thought.”

Sunset thought for a second. “I think this calls for a chance of plans. We should head to my room and discuss what to do next.”

“What about Star Tracker?” asked Twilight.

“We’ll tell him to wait in the living room.” Rainbow said.

The group headed inside and as they did Rainbow shouted in the direction of the bathroom. “Star Tracker! Twilight and us are having a conversation in Sunset’s room. You wait in the living room?”

“Why can’t I be in the conversation?” He responded.

“Because it’s very personal.”

“Okay.”

Everyone went upstairs while Star Tracker got out of the bathroom and waited in the living room.