“Is anyone looking?”
“The hallway’s empty...” Lyra said, then paused. “I can’t call you Luna, can I?”
Princess Luna shushed her. She didn’t look much like Luna at the moment, though. She was shorter than Lyra was, a light blue unicorn with a dark blue mane. She’d wanted to disguise herself so she could have a totally normal Hearth's Warming shopping trip with her best friend.
She hadn’t thought much further ahead than that, though, so they were sneaking out of the castle.
Lyra grinned. “How about Moony?”
“You’re lucky I let you call me that,” tiny Luna muttered. “Call me Winter.”
“Winter?” Lyra raised an eyebrow.
“Winter Dreams. They’re...” Luna grimaced as Lyra stared at her for a moment. “They’re my favourite lunar lakes. I think it sounds pretty.”
Lyra grinned. “You are such a dork.” Luna blushed and peeked out from the column she was hiding behind. “You know the point of wearing a disguise is that nobody is going to recognize you from here on out, right? We only had to sneak out of your room.”
“Oh,” ‘Winter’ mumbled, stepping from behind the column, dusting herself off a little. “Right.” There was a little pause. “Why did you not say so, sooner?”
“‘Cause I thought it was really funny.” Lyra gave her most punchable grin. “I thought you’d want to be a pegasus. Unicorns can’t hide in clouds.”
“That’s exactly why I’m going to be a unicorn instead.” Some ponies were self-aware, but Luna treated introspection as gathering intelligence against her worst enemy. She had a tendency to be self-spiteful. “That, and it’s easier to carry shopping bags this way.”
A Guard appeared at the end of the hallway and started walking towards them, and Winter Dreams froze up, eyes wide. As far as Lyra could tell, she’d even forgotten how to breathe. Lyra rolled her eyes and shoulder checked her, gesturing to follow her.
As they walked past the guard, he squinted suspiciously at Winter, but didn’t say anything. She sighed in relief. “That was close. I think he was suspicious.”
“Winter, you froze up the second you saw a Guard. If he didn’t find that suspicious, I’d say you need better guards.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Yeah, he probably just thought your were eyeing the silverware or something, not that you were a Princess in disguise.” Lyra paused. “Do you want to practice this a bit, before we head out?”
“In truth, it’s not ponies noticing me that I’m unprepared for. I’m not sure what it’s going to be like to not be noticed.”
Lyra grinned and started skipping ahead. “C’mon, let’s go find a crowd for you to get lost in.” Winter jogged after her, realizing the alternative was getting left behind. In fact, she was so worried about not getting left behind, that she totally forgot to worry about any of the ponies they sped past paying her any attention.
Because Lyra was an amazing friend.
Winter Dreams giggled to herself the whole time as they walked through the Canterlot arcade. It was the feeling of not being noticed, of not being stared at She felt like she was playing a prank on everyone. The giggling always stopped if a pony’s stare lingered, then it was back straight, eyes forward, very-serious-expression Winter. As soon as they stopped looking, though,‘Winter Dreams’ was back to bubbling over again.
“You’ve really never done this before, huh?” Lyra asked.
“Never, ever.” Winter pranced. “Now, where should we go first?”
“Well, who are we shopping for, first?”
“Oh! Yes.”” Then Winter stopped walking so suddenly that Lyra had to take a second to walk back to where she left her. “I was hoping for your help on that. I’m trying to buy something nice for Twilight Sparkle.”
“Twilight? Oooof.” Lyra winced. “I can see why you’d need help. She’d say it’s the thought that counts, and she’d mean it, but she’s so hard to be thoughtful for.”
“To give a gift, you have to understand what it is that they want,” Winter agreed, “and Twilight is very much in want of nothing. Even before she became a princess.”
“Should have done this sooner, before it got too hard, huh?” Lyra joked, but Winter winced and bit into the side of her cheek. Okay, not a joke then. Then Winter noticed her noticing, and that pulled her out of it a little.
“Unfortunately, you have hit the nail upon its head.” Winter sighed. “I was of the impression that exchanging gifts was something one did only with friends and family. I thought it inappropriate to impose myself by sending one.”
“...But now you think it looks like you’ve been saying you aren’t friends?”
Winter grimaced. “Yes.” Then a moment of silence. “This is what happens when you let Celestia guide social customs by herself for a thousand years. Everything gets complicated.”
Then Lyra bumped into her side reassuringly. It wouldn’t have bothered Winter at all, but ‘Winter Dreams’ was still getting used to being the smaller one, and actually wobbled. “I wouldn’t worry about that, though. Twilight thinks the best of everyone but herself. She probably just thinks-” Then Lyra trailed off.
“Yes?”
“She really doesn’t think she’s that special,” Lyra admitted carefully, tiptoeing on broken glass because she just knew how her friend was about to take this, “so she probably just thinks you’re too important is all.”
“Too important?!” Winter shouted, then clapped a hoof to her mouth when everybody stared. In a stage whisper she continued; “She’s saved Equestria more times than I have limbs! She’s a princess! She thinks I am so far above her?”
“I’m just saying, she’s probably not offended.”
“She misunderstands. It is I who should be intimidated by her.” Winter muttered darkly, “She saved me. So I am grateful. It’s just... she saved me by outwitting me and overpowering me. I’m not used to that.”
“Right now I’m bigger than you.” Lyra frowned. “You could still outwit me though.”
“One at a time is perfectly acceptable,” Winter said. “It’s when it’s both that it’s a problem.”
“Yeah, watching Twilight, who got out of breath just running to class, dunk on Tirek was really funny.”
Winter stared at her in disbelief. “Twilight was ever late for a class?”
“Nah. Sometimes she just wasn’t early enough for her liking, though.”
“Aaah.”
They both admired just how white and clean everything in Canterlot was. All the stores looked like there’d been here for hundreds of years, but brand new at the same time. The stones beneath them, for instance, were new and neatly sweeped, but worn down into wavy shapes from centuries of ponies stepping on them.
“It’s funny to think that all of this is new to me, but already so old.” Winter pointed at one of the oak trees planted in the arcade, its roots pulling up paving stones. It had to be hundreds of years old. “I remember a time before that was an acorn.”
“You’re such an old lady,” Lyra said. “Telling me about the bad old days. I bet you had to walk here uphill both ways.”
“No, you only had to walk uphill one way,” Winter reassured her. “But we hadn’t invented stairs yet, so it was twice as hard.”
Lyra snorted, but Winter’s face was absolutely serious. There was no give to it. “You’re messing with me right now, aren’t you?”
“You’ll never know for sure, which is why I enjoy our time together so much.”
Lyra shoulderchecked her, but this time Winter was ready for it. She hardly wobbled at all.
“Things are harder now, actually.” Winter admitted. “Villains were easier back then.”
“What, really?”
“Everything was less intimidating, I think. I don’t know what happened. I come back, and the most powerful being in Equestria is a sarcastic librarian, and with the help of the first five ponies she could find she clears out my rogues gallery.”
Lyra snorted. “Yeah, it’s weird right? She makes everything look easy, and flammable. It’s like, you know she’d never hurt you, but she could also just kind of make you go... ‘poof’. Dust! Ash! Sparkles.”
“Yes!” Winter went to snap her wingtip in a ‘that’s exactly it!’ gesture but Winter Dreams didn’t have wings. She shuddered and grimaced until she found her pace again. “That was distressing.”
“You’ll get used to it, I bet.” Lyra paused.
“Look!” Winter skipped to the side of the path to a store with varnished wooden panelling and leaded glass windows. The kind of store that looked like it was stolen from a picture book at Hearth’s Warming time, when the snow rested on the panelling. “A bookstore. She likes books. Should we look in here?”
“I mean we can, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for a present,” Lyra admitted..
There was a moment of astonished silence.“You don’t think she’d like books?”
“Of course she’d like books. She loves books!” Lyra rolled her eyes and tapped Winter’s head, big-sister-like. “But she’s going to know more about books than you, and all her best friends will be getting her some. So unless you have a unique kindof book nobody else can get?”
Winter thought about it, then sighed. “We already let her have the library in the old Everfree castle.” She walked back away from the bookstore, lamentful. Leave it to the Princess to be able to pull off a good lament. “That would have been perfect.”
Lyra whistled low as she followed after. “Wow, that would have been a really good one. Her own ancient castle library? I bet you could hear her scream like a little girl for miles out.”
“It was really more of a sister-and-I gift though. Not from me.”
Lyra hissed air through her teeth. “So you’re worried even though she knows it’s from both of you, she’ll still think of it as a gift from Celestia with your name on it?”
Winter grimaced. “Is it wrong to think that?”
“She probably thinks it’s just ‘from the Princesses, but one of the Princesses was basically like my Mum’. So you’re like... the step-mother on the Hearth's Warming card, I guess?”
“Yes, exactly.” Winter sighed in relief, because if Lyra wasn’t judging her then she didn’t have to play jury or executioner to herself. “I was worried that my worry was... unfair to her. Twilight is a very good pony, she tries hard to be.”
“It’s fair to say it’s a problem in that it hurts you,” Lyra reassured her, “You’re not putting any blame on her, you’re just being...”
“Being?”
“Well. Mopey.” Lyra smiled and nudged Winter. “But in a reasonable, totally fair kind of way.”
“As long as it is reasonable and fair,” Winter said solemnly, “then I will feel no guilt for moping.”
“We can get a book for you, though, if you want?”
Winter looked at the bookstore. “I think I would like that. The castle library has many books, but I would like one that I picked out myself.”
“I need to see if they’ve got the translated collection of Cute Cute Kiss Boys in yet. Or see if they have an untranslated copy of Hopscotch’s “Theory of the Tunnel”.”
Winter stared at Lyra for a few seconds.
“What?”
“You’re allowed to like both of those things. What confuses me is when it’s at the same time.”
Lyra shrugged. “Sometimes you want to read about how the author is the enemy of language, and sometimes you want to giggle at cute boys kissing, it makes perfect sense. Why, what do you want?”
“... I’m not sure yet.”
“See,” Lyra poked Winter into the store, “You’re not allowed to criticize my taste until I know yours isn’t nerdier.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“And yet, seeing how it’s you, I’m sure we’ll find new and exciting heights of dorkiness yet unreached. So, let’s go exploring.”
The bookstore wasn’t big, but it was dense. There was barely enough space for two ponies to walk past each other in the bookshelves, which were filled shelf-to-shelf.
Some ponies would find it cozy, others, intimidating. Rainbow Dash, for instance, would probably have a claustrophobic attack and break something.
Lyra and Winter found it cozy.
A grey mare with golden hair and half-spectacles, even though she was far too young for them to have been in fashion in her lifetime, waved at them from a till in the corner. “Can I help you with anything?”
Lyra slid up to the counter, and made a pair of magical glowing hands just so she could fire off finger guns. “You got Cute Cute Kiss Boys here?”
The store pony grinned. “Ace of Spades comics gets them in at the start of next month. You think Lumen and Penumbra-”
Lyra answered in a high pitched squeal and bounced in place excitedly. Apparently this was the correct answer, because the store owner nodded enthusiastically. She took a deep breath and calmed down. “Okay, Hopscotch’s ‘Theory of the Tunnel’. How about that?”
The store pony hissed air through her teeth. “I don’t have that either I’m afraid. But we do have some of the original detective novels, like Miss Maple and Monsieur Pate.”
“That is exactly the halfway point between the two things I asked for,” Lyra said, without an ounce of sarcasm. “Point me to them.”
The pony pointed to a row of thick hard-bound books on a bottom shelf, and Lyra belly flopped next to them, flitting through the antique pulp.
“How about you, Miss?” The pony smiled sweetly. “What are you looking for?”
Winter was not prepared for helpfulness. She felt like she was about to disappoint her. “Ah, I’m not sure actually. I would like a book, but that’s as much as I have figured out.”
“Well, as you can see,” she pointed at Lyra, who kept making gasps and excited squeals as she rolled about the shelves, “I’m good at figuring out what to recommend.” She smiled, like this was just a fun game between friends. Or maybe she was just excited to get a pony reading.
There was an odd thought. Like, just being asked helped her figure out what she wanted. “Do you have any books about the future?”
“Well, do you like science fiction?”
Winter blinked. “I didn’t think science could be fictional. At least, not how... a friend of mine described it to me.”
“Oh, wow, you haven’t even heard of it. Okay, I think today’s going to be a very special day for you... I didn’t get either of your names,” the girl winced, and Winter recognized the expression well.
“It’s alright, we didn’t get yours either. I’m Winter Dreams.”
“I’m in love!” Lyra said, rolling around in her growing pile of books.
“She’s Lyra.”
“Well, my name’s Golden. You like space, right?” Golden pointed at Winter’s cutie mark, the moon replaced with a smattering of stars on black.
“Ah, yes.”
“I think you’ll like Chiaroscuro.” Golden went to a shelf and pulled a brass-and-bronze coloured book. “They’re retro-futuristic.” Winter blinked, and Golden gave a private smile, “It’s like, how the past thinks of the future. I think you might like that more than the newer stuff, which can be pretty depressing. The retro-futuristic stuff is romantic, and hopeful.”
Winter Dreams took the book off Golden. It was strange to see an earth pony running a store like this. It always seemed to be unicorns... “Thank you. That sounds like exactly what I need.”
Lyra called out from her growing mattress slash fortifications of books. “How much are these?”
Golden told her.
Winter and Lyra walked down the Canterlot high streets, only one book in the cardboard tote. Winter pointed at the mountain top above them, though not at anything in particular.
“I remember that there used to be a tribe of goats around these mountains that had the softest coats. Truly, they looked like cotton balls with horns. Very polite, I recall, and made excellent yoghurt. Unicorns used to make the most astounding garments from them. I wonder if they still do...”
Lyra blinked. “You want to get Twilight a fancy pair of socks for Hearth’s Warming.”
“I didn’t say socks, but... Is that a bad idea?”
Lyra grinned. “I think she might be the one pony in all of Equestria who’d really appreciate a good pair of socks for Hearthswarming. Alright, yeah, let’s go find a sock store. Does Canterlot even have one of those?”
Winter pointed across the way at one. It had a fancy glass front with mannequins wearing woollen garments which Lyra recognized immediately, because Bon-Bon always sighed dreamily whenever she saw them in a catalogue. The goats she’d been talking about were cashmere goats. “Ah, Winter, that might be too expensive for...”
Winter looked at her with the most wide, innocent eyes.
“Ah. Right. Yeah, let’s go check it out.”
The store, called ‘yarn’ in a lowercase sans-serif font, specialized in woollen and knitted accessories. Since ponies could make entire outfits work around just accessories, there were far more of them than conventional dress and clothing shops. More ponies wore scarves than pants.
There was a wall of knee-high socks. So many socks it looked like a room-size paint-swatch chart.
Winter Dreams skipped up and down the aisle. “Ooh. How do we know which ones? There’s so many!”
“Your best choices are complementary, monochromatic, or analogous colours.” Lyra considered. “I don’t like complementary colours. But that might be because mine’s salmon, and-” Lyra pulled a pair of salmon-coloured socks from the wall and stuck her tongue out. “Bleugh.”
“Oh?” Winter looked through, “And what would be complementary to my colour?”
“Gold, actually.” Lyra held a gold sock up to Winter’s coat, and it was Winter’s turn to make a sour face.
“Maybe for my sister.”
“Too much difference,” Lyra agreed. “Monochromatic is when you take a step more or less saturated. So, like, dark red and bright red. Or bright yellow and white, maybe. It’s really nice for jackets, but accessories need to ‘pop’ more.” Lyra went through the rack and pulled out pairs of pink and light purple coloured socks. “So, these match your coat now, and your mane later.”
Winter regarded her with an impressed look. “You know a lot about colours.”
“I do concert lighting, sometimes, with Vinyl. It really helps to think of colours as having chords, just like music.”
“That does not help me, but I find it interesting that it works so well for you. It is like... not being able to understand how someone else understands something makes you appreciate more how differently minds can work.”
Lyra blew a raspberry. “It’s just colours.”
“We are never impressed with the things we know,” Winter said cryptically, struggling to pull the pair of light purple socks on, the cashier wincing at how she was tugging at them, “because the things we know become simple to us for the knowing.”
“That’s very profound for a pony who can’t put on a set of socks.”
Winter blew a raspberry right back as the socks finally slid on. She stared at her reflection in the store mirror, wiggling her legs a bit. “I have come to a realization, friend Lyra.”
“Hrrm?”
There was a long suffering sigh. “I really want these, but there aren’t any in my size.”
“Well, we’ll just have to go out again, won’t we? You can wear them next time.”
“Next time...” Winter perked up. Her shoulders rose, her back straightened, she managed to make eye contact with the mirror. She smiled so wide that Lyra worried the top of her head might unzip and fall off. “Next time. Yes, I like the sound of that. We really must do this again!”
“You like the socks that much, huh?”
“Yes,” Winter nodded, “But I enjoy the company more.”
“Awwww.” Lyra gave a knowing look, “You’re allowed to like the socks too, though.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Winter Dreams sagged back down, sighing, “because do you not see how cute these are?”
“They look very comfortable.”
“They’re so soft!” She hopped from side to side, showing Lyra each of her hooves individually, “It is like walking through a shroud of bunny tails!”
“Well, let’s buy those and keep looking.”
“Yes!” The socks zipped off her hooves and balled immaculately. Winter bounded up to the counter, bouncing on the spot in excitement while the cashier took their time ringing them up.
He named the price and Lyra winced; that was a week’s salary for her. Winter didn’t even blink when she pulled the bits across the counter. The cashier put them in a fancy cardboard bag with the store’s logo tastefully printed in gold lettering in the bottom corner. The style that’s meant to advertise the carrier of the bag, not the store it came from.
Winter Dreams bounced back, tail a-wag, carrying her bag between her teeth even though she was still a unicorn.
“You seem to be in a much better mood.” A moment. “Forgot to get something for Twilight, though.”
“While I may not have gotten something for Twilight,” Winter said, rustling the bag, “This was not a waste of our time.”
Lyra made a mental note to get her something like a bow, or a ribbon for her hair. She didn’t expect this much of a reaction out of her, but it seemed like she really enjoyed dressing up... well, cute. Maybe it was just nice not to feel like ponies should be scared of her.
She definitely couldn’t afford cashmere socks.
“She likes astronomy?” Lyra suggested, “Maybe get her a new telescope? Good ones are really expensive.”
Winter snorted. “Isn’t that a delightful message to send. Your present is a chance to better appreciate my work.” She shook her head.
“I’m sure she’d love it.” Lyra tried to sound reassuring, but it was token. This wasn’t a battle worth fighting, she could tell.
“Perhaps. But I fear it may come across as too arrogant, even if that seems absurd.”
Lyra noted that. She spotted another store that gave her an idea, this one with wooden market stalls with dark green canvas bunting spilling out of entrance, filled with bright brass pots and jars. Ponies who walked past it with closed eyes and a hint of a smile as they sniffed the air. In Canterlot, tea stores were sacred.
“Twilight loves tea, and coffee. Anything with caffeine in it.” Lyra bounced, trying to drag Winter towards it, “Let’s go try some out and see if we can’t think of something that just screams,” and here she threw one hoof around Winter’s shoulders waved the other towards the far horizon, to dare Winter to share her vision, “Bookworm!”
Winter chuckled, and pushed Lyra away. “It is a very good idea. However, I am afraid that it is a tradition my sister already has with her. Tea time is a valued bonding experience between them, and I do not think it would be kind of me to try to... ‘butt in’ on it.”
“Oh.” Lyra paused. “So they exchange teas at Hearth's Warming?”
“Or I’d get some for Tia, perhaps.” Winter said, though there was a sharp edge in her voice that surprised Lyra. “My sister is an easy fix, however. I just commission a black forest wedding cake, and have it delivered to her chambers. I don’t know where the glutton puts the Hearth's Warming lunch after.”
Lyra couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of that, then realized that might be considered a state secret. Or high treason. Hrrm.
“Coffee then? Twilight is bi-bevual, she goes both ways with her hot drinks.” Lyra pointed towards one of the side streets, “I think Bon-Bon told me about an amazing small batch roaster around here.”
Winter smiled at that, but whatever excitement that idea gave her melted away. “I would not wish to get a gift that would place me in competition with my sister.”
“What, afraid you’d lose?” Lyra said it as a joke, then immediately regretted it. Winter was looking at her solemnly, and even though she was shorter now, she still had the eyes of an ancient intelligence.
“I am not competing with my sister over Twilight.” She said finally, but there was something underneath that. The way she emphasized ‘Twilight’ and ‘sister’.
“Do you think,” Lyra got that far thinking out loud before realizing she probably shouldn’t ask, but now Winter had obviously braced for the question and there was no going back now, “do you think you’re competing with Twilight for Celestia?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Winter was looking everywhere but at her friend now, “I know we are in competition. I think that I am losing.”
Oh, wow. “Okay. We’re getting donuts.” Lyra grabbed Winter and dragged her towards Pony Joe’s, “and hot chocolate. Extra chocolate.”
“That sounds nice,” Winter said, her tone emphasizing she was trying and failing to be positive, staring up at the sky.
“Wishing you had wings so you could hide in some clouds right now?”
“I wish to go to bed, hide under the covers, and never come out again.”
It started snowing as Lyra dragged Winter out from the cobbled avenues of the shopping arcade and into the broader thoroughfares and metalled streets of the main roads. Pony Joe’s wasn’t boutique, which was what made it special. In a city where everything was as fancy and expensive as it was in Canterlot, it was the humble and homegrown that stood out.
The smell of fresh cinnamon, fried dough, and dirt-mud coffee made everything okay again. Winter breathed in deep, and everything melted.
“Forgive me, friend Lyra. I have caught a case of the morbs.”
Lyra tried not to giggle at that. Luna’s pouts were legendary, and she was much cuter as Winter. “Morbs?”
“Do ponies not say that anymore?” Winter’s head snapped up in surprise, “A pity, it was a useful expression. I am in a dark mood, and I’m saying morbid things. I have a case of morbidity.”
“Huh. ‘Case of the morbs’. I like it. It’s like a case of the ‘Mondays’, but for gothy teenagers.”
“I am not a-” Winter started, but then Lyra raised an eyebrow and she glanced away. “Alright. Perhaps a little.” They both giggled at that.
“Afternoon, Lyra, and friend,” Joe waved at them, throwing a dishcloth over his shoulder and gesturing at the display case, “These have been sitting out a while, but they’re ready now. Or you could wait a minute and I’ll whip you up something fresh, just special for you.”
Lyra pointed to the display case. “Pick out which one you want, then we’ll wait to get it fresh.” She looked back up. “Mind if I jump the counter to make drinks?”
Joe snorted and trotted off into the backroom, towards the sound of the deep fryers. “Only if you want anything good. Ponies have been missing you, Minty.”
Lyra snorted and swung herself over the counter, Winter’s jaw dropping. There was the distinct feeling this shouldn’t be allowed, even when you got permission. Lyra looked back and waved it off. “It’s because whenever ponies came in here wanting coffee, if Joe offered to make it they’d ask: ‘Where’s that mint green pony?’”
“You used to work here?”
“Back when I was going to school with Twilight.” Lyra started fiddling with a milk frother. “Tried to get a job as a waitress just so we could get a discount because of how often we hung out here. The plan sort of backfired on me, though.”
Joe leaned his head back around and jabbed a spatula at her. “And why’s that?”
Lyra made a big show of looking annoyed, but it was obvious she loved this as much as Joe did, “Because everyone gets the friend discount.”
“You’re dang right.” There was a beat, “Unless?”
“Unless they walk in with their nose up, and call the place ‘quaint’. Charge ‘em double.”
Joe barked a laugh, then wiped a tear from his eye. "Like the daughter I never had.”
Lyra winked at Winter. “Don’t worry, he does amazing donuts. Just don’t trust the coffee.”
“What is vanilla cinnamon?” Winter whispered in amazement, “I didn’t know you could make cinnamon vanilla.”
“Oh! Wow, you’ve never had- okay,” Lyra called back to the kitchen, “Two glazed with candy bits, and a box of four dusted.”
“You’re a customer, not an employee, so what do I hear?”
“Pleeeease?”
“Coming right up.”
“He’s a sweetheart.” Lyra slid two milky, frothy, foamy, creamy hot chocolates with grated chocolate flake and a homemade marshmallow back over the counter, and jumped it again. “Try this, it’ll blow your mind.”
Winter’s eyes crossed as she went to take a sip, but her nose wrinkled just as the steam hit it. No amount of blowing would make it safe. “I’ll taste it when it won’t burn my tongue right off. Tell me, though. Four donuts? Are they really that good?”
“The first you’re not going to even notice. You’re just going to close your eyes, take a bite, then look down and it’s gone. The second one you’re going to try to be careful with, but the same thing’s going to happen. Then you’re going to think you want three more, but you gotta stop at two more or you’re going to get sick and hate yourself.”
“You have this down to an art.”
“If you can replicate the results? It’s a science. Also, Twilight wrote it down once, and writing it down makes it official.”
Joe came back out with a plate of six steaming hot donuts, the crisp and flaky skin crinkling as the gooey, wobbly dough shifted beneath it. “Here you are. Two glazed with candy bits for Minty, and four for the Princess.” He dropped the plate in front of them, and snapped off a sharp salute. “Enjoy.”
“Thank you very much,” Winter said, before her eyes went wide. “Did he just-” But Joe was already walking away.
Lyra pounded a hoof on the table. “Joe! You promised to stop doing that to my friends!”
“I forgot,” Joe lied. “Maybe I’d remember if you visited more!”
Lyra picked up one of her donuts and munched it. “Sorry about that.”
“How did he- how did he know?”
A shrug. “My working theory is that since detectives love donuts, and Joe loves donuts more than anyone else alive, he’s the world’s best detective. But the power only works so long as he keeps running a donut shop.”
Winter looked down. There were only three donuts on her plate. “The prophecy,” she hissed.
“I told you,” Lyra was still munching her first, “I didn’t want to talk them up that much but... ah, you got some sugar over your... ah, no point cleaning it up yet.”
“I need three more of these.”
“Actually try to taste the next one. And the hot chocolate should be cool enough to drink now. Joe makes amazing mallows.” Lyra turned in her chair and shouted at the kitchen. “You ever try toasting one of these?”
“Last one popped like a firecracker!” Joe called back. “Best not!”
Lyra frowned. “It’s best not to question Joe’s cooking. He’s obviously doing something right...”
Winter’s eyes were wide. She was holding the mug between two hooves and shaking. “Quaff thine own elixir, and tell me truly, is my taste in error or are we not in the presence of the divine?”
They both sipped their hot chocolates. “Yeah, it’s really good, huh?”
“In my many years I have never come closer to pure bliss. Rapture in humble porcelain.” A silent moment of contemplation. “I only have one donut left.”
“Yeah, that happens.”
“I think I’ve had too much sugar.”
“Probably wasn’t best to do this on an empty stomach, but, it’s the best thing I can think of to get rid of the morbs.”
“I would have been happy for an entire thousand years if I had these donuts for company.”
“They can’t be that good.”
Winter shrugged. “In truth, it was more like sleeping. I was not aware of the passage of time. Though I’m sure this would have kept me well enough.” There was a pause. "Perhaps it is the sugar, or the question. Or I have natural defenses against being in a good mood. Do you ever think... hrrm. I may just be paranoid."
Lyra finished her second donut and pushed her plate forward, just so she had room to lean in close, elbows up on the table. "Now I'm really curious."
"The Elements. The magic, not the ponies.” Winter clarified with a wave of her hoof, “ Do you ever wonder why they banished me instead of destroying the Nightmare the first time around?"
"What do you mean? I don’t think those things came with toggle buttons." Lyra frowned. “Do they? I actually don’t know how they work.”
"Nobody really knows, which is why I may think I'm being paranoid. But then Twilight used them on me and they didn't banish me again. And when Rarity took on the Nightmare, it didn't banish her. The Elements turned Discord to stone, but then they undid it two years later, not a millenia."
Lyra leaned back off her elbows and slid back into her booth seat. "So now you're wondering-"
"Did Celestia even try to unbanish me?"
"Looks like we weren’t curing the morbs, just treating the symptoms.” Lyra sighed. “Have you asked her?"
"I’ve thought about it. Either the answer is 'no', and I feel awful for asking. And probably make my sister feel awful as well. Or the answer is 'yes', and I am the worst sister for having doubted her."
"So you're just going to let this eat you up inside until you die?"
"Or forever, whichever comes first." Winter shrugged. “I plan to live for a very long time.”
“I mean, I know this is some really grim stuff, but it’s hard to take it as seriously as possible when you’re still covered in sugar powder, because you basically ate those donuts with your entire face.”
Winter sipped her drink, closing her eyes the second it touched her lips and smiling around the mug. “I should probably not bring such worries to this sacred place.”
Lyra laughed so hard she banged the table. Winter levitated everything off it, panicked. “Oh my gosh, you know how I said this is where I worked in college to hang out with Twilight and stuff? This is where students go to cram for finals and eat chocolate to get over breakups. This is where Twilight went to panic over her exams. It’s one of the reasons I thought of this place first.”
“As long as you’re making the coffee, this seems like a very good place to study and relax.” Winter eyed the kitchen door carefully before continuing in a whisper, “From the smell of it, I’m not sure Joe knows you’re not supposed to put ‘ground’ in your coffee grounds.”
“I’m more of a glass of milk man, alright?” Joe shouted from the kitchen. Winter nearly had a heart attack, staring at Lyra in horror.
Lyra snorted. “Seriously. He’ll hear everything you don’t want him to, but he’s suddenly a deaf old man if you tell him it’s HIS TURN TO CLEAN THE RESTROOM.”
“Yeah, well what do I pay you for anyway?”
“You don’t!” Lyra cackled. There was an evil edge to it.
“Bah!” Joe shouted from the kitchen, “How could I replace you! You ruined me for other employees.”
“I’ll keep you in mind if the music thing doesn’t work out, huh, Joe?”
“Bah! You had to be talented, didn’t you? Never getting you back!” Joe skulked out of the kitchen with a bucket, and a mop slung over his shoulder, glaring at Lyra the whole way past. Lyra smiled and waved the whole time.
Finally, as the restroom door swung shut, Winter said, “Well, I’m glad to see someone who appreciates you as much as I do.”
“You’re both big saps.”
“I am but a Princess. He, clearly, is something far greater.” Winter licked her plate for emphasis. “Vanilla cinnamon. Miraculous...”
“He’s just really good at what he does.” Lyra paused. They’d gotten in such a good mood, but it really felt like something that had to be “You really worry about your sister and Twilight, don’t you?”
“My sister and I had a fight that lasted a thousand years. I come back and she has something as close to a daughter as she’ll let herself have. My sister and I are still... distant. Though all is forgiven, it’s not forgotten.”
“A thousand years is a long time to hold a grudge.”
“And, for all I know, she accomplished it. Celestia is very patient.”
Lyra winced. They’d just gone over that. “So, you’re not mad at Twilight?”
Winter smiled. It wasn’t self-deprecating, or weak, or anything like that. It was warm and hopeful. She unconsciously touched a hoof to her new book bag. “Resenting her hurts us both and accomplishes nothing. I hope that if we were closer, my sister and I might have something to bond over. And...” Now Winter’s smile was directed right at Lyra. “While I might have the best friend in all of Equestria, I could always use another.”
Lyra snorted. “See? You’re both saps. Ridiculous. You deserve each other.”
“I hope so.”
There was a comfortable silence. Things felt resolved, even if they weren’t. There was still the matter of the actual gift. An idea so obvious it felt like it had always been there made Lyra smile, then frown just as quickly. “I think I worked out what you’re going to get Twilight, but you have to let me explain it the whole way before you tell me you hate it.”
Winter sat up straight in her booth. “You have my curiosity, friend Lyra.”
“Why don’t you take Twilight on a stargazing picnic, and promise to answer any of her questions about the night sky? A master class on stars! A ma-star class.” Another flash of the magical fingerguns.
Winter Dreams flinched. “That sounds even more conceited than the telescope suggestion.”
“Hey, I said you had to hear me out. It’s the thought that counts right?”
“Right...”
“And you’re worried about being seen as too important to have gotten a gift for her before, right?” Lyra continued in that rising inflection that this was a back-and-forth, and she was going to wait until you admitted it until she continued.
“Yes...”
“And just spending a lot of money on her probably isn’t the right way to go, since that’s not a big deal for you” Lyra gestured at the cardboard bag with the socks in it, “So... if she thinks it’s because your time is too valuable...?”
Winter’s eyes widened. “Yes! Then I shall promise to spend time with her! I see.”
“And Twilight likes astronomy, and you know more about it than anypony!” Lyra beamed, making two glowing hands in front of her just so she could rub them together, “You know the night like Joe knows donuts..”
“I’ll make a schedule.”
“No, let Twilight make the schedule.”
Winter snort-laughed at that, understanding immediately.“That’s probably going to be most of the fun, for her.”
“Just... make a few suggestions for a good night. I don’t really know how the sky works, but I know there’s some days where special things happen, right?”
“Yes,” Winter said, wincing in pain, “close enough.”
“I’m the smartest pony in Equestria and your best friend,” Lyra agreed. “So give her an option of a few of those, so she doesn’t get stuck on choices.”
“Should I tell her it’s not a big deal, and to not stress about it?”
“Only if you want her to definitely panic.”
“I see,” Winter said sarcastically, “because telling her not to panic will just make her think there had to be a reason I said that, which-” then her face sunk into her hooves. “Oh, I get it.”
“Yeah, Twilight is beyond satire sometimes.” Lyra tapped the table in thought. “Speaking of ponies beyond satire, you should probably talk to her about all this at some point. All the stuff you told me tonight.”
“What?” And, in an absolute deadpan, “Twilight! How good to see you. Tonight we’ll be looking at a twin tailed comet and talking about how my sister loves you more than me, and you intimidate me too much to resolve that jealousy. Also I made coffee, I hope you like it.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t say it in those words, but more power to you if that’s what you go with. I’m sure you could pull it off.”
Winter frowned. “You have no words of advice?”
“Nah, you’re the expert at melodrama.” Lyra went up to the register, preparing to fight Joe on whether they were paying or not, “I’m just the plucky comic relief.”
Winter Dreams smiled, because the smartest pony in Equestria was her best friend.
Princess Luna wrapped the last book. She had asked the lovely store owner, Golden, for a list of the books Lyra had shown interest in, and been given a list of about 80 long. Apparently Golden was not expecting her to ask for all of them.
Luna hadn’t appreciated just how many books it was until she had to gift wrap them all individually. Each one silently appeared beneath Lyra’s tree when she was done, and the last one had a simple card;
To the smartest pony in Equestria
From Winter Dreams
She flopped onto her bed, finished, when a guard knocked on her door.
“Yes?” she mostly said, except for the pillow pressed into her face.
“Ah, Princess? A package for you. Happy holidays.”
Luna resented having to stand up, but a present was a present. The guard at least had the tact to leave the present in the doorway and close the door behind him, leaving her in privacy again.
It was wrapped in green paper, covered in peppermint print. Luna tore it open.
It was a gentle pink hair ribbon, a soft silk one.
To Winter Dreams
From the best friend ever
Let’s hang out again sometime.
There was a flash of magic, and an excited unicorn found that the ribbon was an analogous colour to her hair and her new socks.
The unicorn thought about spending Hearth's Warming lunch with Sunny Skies. It might be a fun way to spend her time before her evening plans with Twilight Sparkle.
