Little Bits of Affection

by GreyTheGriffon

Rating: everyone
Tags: Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 2169

Pinkie's taken on a strange schedule of visiting Twilight once a week and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Twilight, being as romantically inept as she is, has no idea what this means.

Pinkie's taken on a strange schedule of visiting Twilight once a week and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Twilight, being as romantically inept as she is, has no idea what this means.

Written for TwiPie Week 2023 Day 1 on Twitter. I chose the prompt 'Cheek Smooch' today.

Update! Cover art by collum_warner on Instagram :3

Published 2023-04-02 01:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-04-02 01:50:00 UTC

Little Kisses

It was a quiet night in Ponyville, each resident either going about their nighttime routines or settling in for a session of the hobbies they enjoyed to wind down after a long day of work. It was the kind of night that Twilight Sparkle enjoyed the most. No distractions, nothing out of the ordinary that would disrupt her relaxation.

Twilight was sitting in her reading lounge in the Golden Oak Library, reading the newest Daring Do book by candlelight; she found that a candle provided better ambiance for reading than her magic light did. She was settled in nicely, a blanket draped over herself, warm cup of tea on the nightstand to the left of her chair being lifted to her muzzle at regular intervals by her magic.

Her calm reading was interrupted by a quick series of knocks at her door, the energy of which cluing her in as to who it could be. “Spike! Could you get the door please?” Twilight called, but her number 1 assistant had already called it a night. She groaned, then reluctantly threw the blanket off of herself and went to get the door.

She opened the door, half ready to be annoyed, but her annoyance was cut through effortlessly by Pinkie’s bubbly voice greeting her. “Hiya Twily!”

“Hey Pinkie, is something the matter? It’s pretty late out, even for you and your… lack of adherence to social norms.” Pinkie giggled.

“Don’t worry, silly filly, nothing’s wrong.” Pinkie started blushing a little, which caused one of Twilight’s ears to fold flat against her head in confusion. “I just wanted to stop by and give you a little present before I went to bed!” Twilight smiled, that was such a Pinkie thing to do.

“Well thank you very much, Pinkie.” Twilight replied with a smile “What is it?” Pinkie smiled a little wider, the blush on her cheeks becoming just a hint more defined. She walked toward Twilight until the two were as face-to-face as Pinkie judged was comfortable, which is to say, just a little bit too close.

Twilight was confused, but still held a polite smile. She was receiving a gift after all, no need to make Pinkie feel like she was being overbearing. Twilight was used to behavior like this, anyway, and although in the past she found it annoying, time had made Twilight find the wacky antics of the logic-defying earth pony to be quite endearing.

While Twilight was distracted thinking about how emotionally close she was with Pinkie and how happy she was with that fact, Pinkie had gotten a considerable amount physically closer to Twilight, eliciting a blush in her that matched Pinkie’s.

“P-Pinkie? What are you-” Before Twilight could finish her sentence, Pinkie had closed the distance between herself and her target, planting a quick but thoroughly affectionate kiss on Twilight’s cheek. She giggled maniacally before bounding away toward Sugarcube Corner a little faster than she usually bounded.

Twilight stood in the open doorway of her library for a few minutes, processing what had happened. The blush on her face was still prominent as she pondered, her head mostly swirling with confusion.

Eventually, Twilight regained the presence of mind to close the door and trot back to her reading lounge, though she found that she couldn’t get back into her book after what had just happened. So, she finished her tea, put her book with a bookmark tucked in her most recent page back onto the shelf, and carried her blanket up to her room, more than ready to call it a night.

Twilight was able to fall asleep easily enough, but her dreams were filled with fuzzy visions of spending more time with Pinkie Pie. The images slowly got clearer and clearer, but she woke up, all too soon, before the images got clear enough to be interpreted. She awoke with a strange wistful feeling, but there was a busy day ahead of her, so she got out of bed and got to work.

Twilight was sitting at her desk, writing up this week’s friendship report for Princess Celestia. Spike was nearby, comfortably nestled in a chair, reading a comic book. Twilight threw him a passing glance and smiled, glad he was comfortable.

Twilight set her quill into the inkwell on her desk and sighed, satisfied with the report she had written. She looked back to Spike to ask him to get ready to send it, but then she noticed how empty the room felt, as though something was supposed to be here, and was mysteriously absent. She frowned, then looked back to the report, rolling it into a scroll and sealing it with an official Canterlot wax seal. “Spike, could you send this to Princess Celestia?” Spike looked up from his comic and gave a salute.

“No problem, Twilight.” He grabbed the report out of Twilight’s magic and blew a gout of flame at it, reducing it to magical smoke that left through the open window toward Canterlot.

Only after Twilight watched the smoke leave did she notice how slow recent events had felt.

A week had passed since Pinkie had visited Twilight’s library in the laziest hour of the night, though normal interactions between the two occurred, neither bringing up what had happened. Twilight was mostly content to forget about it until she heard a familiar quickened series of knocks upon her front door.

“I got it!” Spike shouted as he got up to run to the door, but was stopped by Twilight’s hoof jutting out to block his way.

“Thank you Spike, but I’m pretty sure that’s Pinkie Pie. I’d like to be the one to greet her.”

Spike looked confused for a moment. “Oh, okay Twilight. Why?” Twilight stopped to answer, but found that she wasn’t sure why. She would’ve thought for a longer moment, but a second series of knocks tapped against the door, so instead, she turned to go open it.

On the other side of the door was Pinkie Pie, looking just as energetic as she did a week ago. “Hello Pinkie,” Twilight started, a strange sense of déjà vu settling in her mind. “Can I help you?” Pinkie was vibrating intently, a detail that Twilight missed as the sight of her brought back the thoughts she had been ignoring for the past week.

“Heya Twily! I just wanted to give you a little present before I went to bed!” Pinkie punctuated her sentence with a giggle, a giggle that, now that Twilight thought about it a little, was rather cute. She was snapped out of that train of thought as she recognized the words Pinkie used, and that it had been a week since ‘The Event’, as Twilight took to calling it.

Twilight blushed as she remembered what Pinkie had done a week prior, but she really didn’t expect it to happen again. Last week was probably just a prank that Rainbow Dash had convinced her to pull.

That train of thought distracted Twilight long enough for Pinkie to lean over and kiss Twilight on the cheek again, lingering for just a moment longer than the last one. The simple action smashed Twilight’s train of thought into pieces, leaving her the same dumbstruck mess she was last week.

She stood in the doorway for just a few seconds this time around, debating whether or not to pursue Pinkie and ask why she had done that, but in the end, she simply turned and closed the door behind her, then went straight to bed.

Another week passed, and Twilight was doing nothing in particular when she heard the familiar rapid-fire tapping on her front door. This time, the tapping alone was enough to cause the thoughts regarding Pinkie to come rushing back, and with them, a blush upon Twilight’s face. She shook it off as best as she could and rushed over to the door.

Twilight opened the door, excited enough by the sight of Pinkie Pie that it affected her normal greeting. “Hi Pinkie!” Pinkie giggled her adorable giggle and Twilight’s heart skipped a beat, though she ignored it.

“Hi Twilight! Just wanted to drop by and give you a little gift!” Twilight smiled at Pinkie, not moving an inch. Pinkie moved toward Twilight, each hoofstep deepening the thump in Twilight’s heart. Time seemed to slow down as Pinkie once again closed the distance between her lips and Twilight’s cheek, the connection between the two feeling just a little longer than last time.

Pinkie smiled at Twilight and turned to leave when Twilight spoke up. “W-wait, Pinkie.” She was still blushing furiously and she found it difficult to form words, but on she pressed. “I just really want to know, why have you been kissing me on the cheek once a week lately?”

Pinkie immediately looked taken aback and guilty. “I-” Her lip quivered just a little. “I’m sorry Twilight!” She yelled as she turned and ran back home to Sugarcube Corner.

Twilight was so surprised by Pinkie’s sudden outburst that she couldn’t even yell for her to come back before she was out of sight. She sighed forlornly and went back inside, intent on clearing up this whole mess in the morning.

She climbed into bed, thoughts swirling uncomfortably. Pinkie’s reaction to Twilight’s question could really only mean one thing, and Twilight wasn’t entirely ready to face that truth, nor the truth that she could relate. She closed her eyes, a single unbidden tear escaping before the realm of sleep took her.

Twilight awoke feeling groggy and upset, but she didn’t let that stop her from getting out of bed. She was going to march right up to Sugarcube Corner, apologize for upsetting Pinkie, and try to coax the reasoning behind her outburst out of her.

Before she could even get entirely out of bed, however, she heard a slow, tired series of three knocks on her door. She folded her ears at the thought that it could be Pinkie, then steeled herself and opened the door.

Bathed in the morning light was Pinkie Pie, sitting down on the grass in front of Twilight’s door, looking embarrassed more than anything. “Hey Twilight.” She said dryly, offering a lazy wave of her hoof.

“Pinkie Pie, are you okay?” Twilight asked as she sat down to match Pinkie’s eye level. “Is this about-” Pinkie cut her off.

“About yesterday, yeah. I wanted to apologize for all of those times I came over and kissed you on the cheek.” She blushed and turned away a little. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I just, well, I don’t really know what I’m doing, do I?” She started to cry. The sight of it broke Twilight’s heart. “I started to want to get closer to you, so I did. I came over and visited more often and I feel like we got closer, y’know? And a few weeks ago, I thought ‘Hey, it would be pretty cool if I gave Twily a kiss’ and I just kind of went for it.”

Pinkie sniffled, giving Twilight a moment to collect her thoughts. She had been enjoying being closer to Pinkie lately, both emotionally and physically. And now that she was really thinking about it, she didn’t just ‘not mind’ Pinkie’s kisses on the cheek, she liked them.

As Twilight got close to an epiphany, Pinkie continued. “I really didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, it’s just that the thought was so strong and I’m so impulsive and I didn’t even take a second to think of how it was affecting you and, and…” Pinkie was silenced by a lavender hoof on her muzzle.

“Pinkie, it’s okay.” Pinkie looked up to meet Twilight’s gaze, surprised. Twilight had 30 different ways to try and calm Pinkie down written in her head, but no words are more effective than action.

Twilight stood up, gesturing for Pinkie to do the same. Once they were eye to eye again, Twilight took a deep breath, leaned forward with her eyes closed, and planted a quick and assertive kiss on Pinkie’s lips.

“It’s okay.” Twilight repeated in a near-whisper.

The two stared at each other for a while, neither knowing what to say next. After just a few moments that felt like an eternity, Pinkie’s guilt melted into her trademark smile, prompting Twilight to release a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “So how was that?” She asked, leading Pinkie inside to relax with her. Pinkie simply smiled and kissed Twilight on the cheek again.

Things had thankfully calmed down a little, but Twilight was ecstatic for all the excitement a future with Pinkie Pie had in store.

Author's Note

This is my first real 'one-shot' Fic! I'm pretty proud of it. Like it says in the description, this was written for TwiPie Week 2023, which will last until April 7th. I want to try to write a fic for each day, so expect more stuff like this. Cheers!