Author's Note

Research suggests that Anorexia Nervosa is as much a metabolic disorder as it is psychological.

I’m just gonna say this now: yes, I am a twidash shipper, BUT in this universe, they are just really, really, really close friends, who have a mutual understanding of each other that could easily rival some old married couples, but there will be no romance or ‘feelings’.
Because I cannot for the life of me write romance and relationship stuff. Trust me, I will ruin it. I cope by inflicting emotional pain and suffering on my characters, in case you somehow couldn’t tell yet, lol.
(You should see my Sherlock POTS/chronic illness series on AO3. If any of those readers happen to be here: you guys already know what you’ve gotten yourselves into when I’m the author, hahaha)

Chapter 37

“Don’t worry… I’ll get there.” Rainbow promises her sister, who is still clinging to her, looking utterly crushed at the news.

“Surely we can figure out a way to help?” Rarity asks the group.

Twilight nods. “Like flying with you,” she unfolds her wings for a moment in emphasis, “and I can always catch you with my magic, if need be.” She suggests to the pegasus.

“Oh! Oh! And a giant bouncy castle, so it’ll be fun to fall!” Pinkie shouts excitedly.

The others wince at the suggestion (and volume), but Rainbow can’t help smiling, feeling touched by her friends wanting to support her, instead of making fun of her, or straight up laughing at her.

“What do you think?” Fluttershy asks her.

“Honestly, I’m just surprised you guys aren’t laughing.” Rainbow confesses.

“Laughing?!” Her friends exclaim in disbelief.

“Why would we laugh at you?” Twilight asks, feeling somewhat hurt that Rainbow thought any of them would actually do that.

Scootaloo looks like she’s about to cry.

“I just…” Rainbow sighs. “I’m me. I’m a Wonderbolt. I was flying before I could walk.” Although not very good, at least to begin with. “How can I be afraid of falling? And so much so, that I can’t fly anymore?”

The others share saddened looks.

“Nope.” Pinkie speaks up. “Still no funnies here.”

“The sky is your element. I’ve never seen another pegasus fly like you do. Knowing that you can’t do the one thing you love doing the most, is anything but funny to us.” Twilight says gently but seriously.
She could still picture the pegasus randomly flying upside down, effortlessly, simply because she could. Not a single hint of doubt or fear at the danger she’s putting herself in, because she knew exactly what she was capable of. Because it was as easy and natural as breathing to her.

She now also understood why Rainbow hadn’t simply said something about it, days ago.
And Twilight could relate, to some extent.

She’s the Princess of Friendship, and she’s still embarrassed and upset about the way she had betrayed Moondancer. The unicorn is as much a bookworm as Twilight, they never had a single argument, and yet, her own studies have caused Twilight to simply drop her like a hat, and leave Canterlot without looking back. Her studies have always come first, she remembers guiltily.

Apart from Pinkie, she never told the rest of her friends about it, simply out of shame.
She doesn’t expect them to downright laugh at her for it, but she does expect some level of disappointment in her, at the very least. Even if none of them would really fault her for it, or take it personally, or think that she’s not real friend material after all.

Maybe I have a lot more in common with Dash than I ever thought I would. She muses.

When they eventually relocated to the throne room, Applejack asked Rainbow if they could talk for a minute, just the two of them. Rainbow saw Rarity give them a nod before joining the others, leaving the two most stubborn of the friend group to talk things out.

“So.. what’s up?” Rainbow asks once they’re alone in the hallway.

“An apology.” Applejack replies. “Ah haven’t been fair to you, and it’s put you in danger twice now.”

Rainbow frowns in confusion for a moment, until she realises what she’s getting at. More importantly, what her motives are. She facepalms. “Urgh, not you too.” She whines.

“…what?”

“Can you guys please stop blaming yourselves for something I did?” Rainbow asks rhetorically.

“You wouldn’ta done it if I hadn’t-”

“So we had a minor disagreement! Big deal!” Rainbow interrupts.

“That ‘minor disagreement’ led to you feeling like ya had to prove yourself to us.” Applejack points out. “And Ah wish that ya wouldnt’a ever been in that position, in the first place.”

Rainbow has to look away. She doesn’t want to talk about this anymore.

The farmer comes right in front of her, gently guiding her head so the stubborn pegasus is giving her eye contact. “Sugarcube, why didn’t ya say anything? Ah can’t help ya if you don’t tell me what you need me to do. Ah just wanted to help, but Ah only made things worse.”

Rainbow rolls her eyes and pushes her hoof away. “Yeah, like you would have believed me. Face it: nothing I could have said, would have made any difference.”

A bit taken aback, Applejack frowns as Dash turns away again. “Of course I would’ve! Ah am the Element of Honesty, Dash. I know when I’m being lied to or not!”

Rainbow glares at her. “There’s a difference between knowing when someone’s being honest, and actually believing them.”

“Now what in the hay is that sahpossed tah mean?” AJ asks, not understanding her point.

Rainbow rolls her eyes. “Nothing. You’re forgiven, so you can stop blaming yourself. Can we move on, now?”

Applejack glares.

“What?” Dash asks disinterestedly.

“How can you be so cold about this? You almost died, for pony’s sake!”

“Yeah, ever think about how that little detail might make me not want to talk about this anymore?!” Rainbow finally snaps, wings briefly flaring in anger.

At once, the earth pony realises her mistake. She’d just wanted to genuinely apologise for putting her friend in harms way. She hadn’t considered that maybe Dash would rather forget it ever happened. Especially now that they all know how that event is still affecting her.

Twilight suddenly comes out to the two. “Everything okay out here?”

“Fine.” Rainbow says sharply, and with that, passes the two ponies. She enters the throne room, where the atmosphere is a lot less tense.

Twilight turns her gaze from the closing door to the earth pony, raising a curious eyebrow.

“Ah just wanted to apologise. You know, for what happened at the festival. But she wasn’t having none of it.” Applejack explains. “Ah know she can be stubborn about tellin’ us what’s really going on, but she’s gotta learn one day that running away won’t solve anything.”

“What do you mean?” The alicorn asks.

“She didn’t wanna talk about what happened at the celebration, and I get that. But she refused to listen to anything I said, and told me to just stop blaming myself, for something she did.”

This sounds very familiar to the alicorn.

Applejack continues. “Has she ever talked to you about that day? Like, really told you what happened?”

Twilight nods. “She told me about your argument, and that she honestly hadn’t been feeling well enough to do the second show. If only I had been there,… I mean, I could have just told Celestia that we can talk later…”

“Now I get what she meant with wanting us all to stop blaming ourselves.” Applejack remarks ruefully. “Twi, if you’re gonna blame yourself for not being there, then I’m just as much to blame for saying the wrong things.”

They both chuckle at the irony of it all.

“Ah guess I can understand her now. Ah mean, if our roles were reversed, I’d tell ya to stop blaming yourself, too.” Applejack admits.

“I won’t say that we’re completely innocent, but I suppose we can stop playing the blame game, if it helps Rainbow move on.” Twilight suggests.

Applejack nods. “Let’s find a way to get her back in the sky, where she belongs.”

Later…

Inside the throne room, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow and Scootaloo are in one group on one side, with Spike handing out freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on a plate.

On the other side of the room, Rarity is half-heartedly talking to the alicorn about the upcoming fashion show, but the fashionista has more pressing questions on her mind than her own fashion line.

“Twilight dear? I have been wondering… if Rainbow lost so much weight in a matter of days, how on earth do pegasi deal with, let’s say… a stomach bug, or just anything that would make it so they can hardly eat for days?” Rarity asks curiously. “I remember when Fluttershy caught a bad cold, a few years back. Poor thing was practically only surviving off soups and teas for at least two weeks. But she didn’t turn into, um… pardon the wording, but, a 'walking skeleton'.”

Twilight looks stricken for a moment, but when she looks over to the others, they don’t seem to have heard her. “Under normal circumstances, the body adapts to the changes in food intake. If we fasted for a day or two, our metabolism would slow down after the body has gotten rid of all the toxins, and then switch to ketosis if we don’t start eating again. Our bodies can hold up homeostasis pretty well, this way.“
She sighs.
“In Rainbow’s case, her body is used to the… 'irregular feedings', after years of restricting and skipping meals, and combined with her heavy exercising, her metabolism didn’t adapt normally when she was starving herself. It must have switched to burning her fat and muscle right away, essentially eating itself to keep her steadily supplied with energy, just so that her body and organs could keep up with what she demands of it…
To be honest, it’s as fascinating as it is worrying, how used to it her body is, that she was still able to perform like that and didn’t collapse sooner.”

It’s part of the reason Twilight is afraid of missing a relapse in the future, if Rainbow is able to keep going, until her body is literally about to give out; the resulting weight-loss being the only outward sign, which is easily covered up.

Twilight continues. “I’ve read that pegasi already have a faster metabolism than the other races, since they need to be lighter in order to fly, and even more so if they’re athletes, which Dash obviously is. I guess it’s a good thing that Fluttershy isn’t nearly as active, if she didn’t lose much weight then, or maybe her metabolism is just slower in general, for a pegasus.”

After all, the timid pegasus doesn’t have a track record of needing daily, scheduled naps during the day. It just goes to show how different, individual and unique each pony is.

Rarity hums in thought. “In that case, is she going to keep taking those pills that Celestia gave her, for the rest of her life?”

Twilight shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. There’s a reason her metabolism is the way it is, and we don’t know about long-term effects. It was necessary, to save her life. But constantly slowing it down, at this point, could possibly cause damage to her body in the long run, and I don’t want to risk that.”

“Oh dear. I hadn’t thought of it that way before…” Rarity admits, horrified at the idea of the pills harming their friend in the long term.

The alicorn nods. “That’s why we’re going to try to get her off them soon, preferably even before winter is here.”

“So soon?” The unicorn asks softly, glancing back over to the pegasus, who is barely managing to participate in eating half of a cookie, (Spike is holding the other half), while the others are practically scarfing them down. She turns back to Twilight. “Is she really ready for that?” She asks, worried that this is not going to end well.

Twilight follows her gaze and watches their friends. Rainbow must have felt her eyes on her, because the pegasus suddenly looks straight at the alicorn. Their eyes meet, and a moment later, Dash finishes her part of a cookie, before laughing at something Pinkie Pie said.

“We had a few hiccups, but she’s been doing very well, all things considered.” Twilight says confidently.

“I just hope you’re right about this…”

“Well, if it comes down to it, we can just get her back on them, and try again at a later time.” Twilight reassures. “Besides, it’s not like she’s going off them completely, tomorrow. I still have to run some tests, make sure that her heart has fully recovered, go over my calculations again, see if I’ve missed anything,…”

Rarity just smiles as Twilight continues rambling on, being reminded that Dash is definitely in the right hooves.

The girls had fun telling stories of silly moments that happened during the last week. Even though they all have had to deal with angry town’s ponies and, in Rarity’s case, even the press asking for comments, but that is of no importance to the friends.

They rather laugh at the funny memories than to focus on the negative, and they’re all glad to see Dash laughing wholeheartedly again. It’s nice to have a break from the drama, the constant obsessive thoughts, and forget about her problems for a few hours.

Twilight was especially surprised when Rainbow had seemingly no issues eating with everyone else from the buffet they’d made. That is, until she saw the way Dash kept checking whether or not Scootaloo was paying attention to her, and only taking further bites if the filly was talking to her long enough to make it obvious if she didn’t, which only became apparent to the alicorn halfway through the meal, and more obvious as time went on.

For a moment, Twilight found herself a bit angry at Rainbow for not telling her sister. But she quickly realises with a heavy heart, that Dash is also still a role model for the pegasus filly, and probably just doesn’t want her to ever think twice about enjoying food. Maybe it really is better if Scootaloo never learns what eating disorders are, if only to prevent another pony from developing one, if they’re susceptible to it.

Not that that had stopped Rainbow Dash from developing one, so it was wishful thinking at its finest. Twilight could definitely sympathise with not wishing this disease on anyone, and she’s not even the one actively suffering from it.

Rainbow became noticeably quiet after lunch, but Scootaloo of course didn’t know why, and was getting worried that she had done or said something wrong to upset her.

The cyan pegasus would love to be able to excuse herself, claiming to just need a nap and going into her room, but sleep could not be further from her mind. She’s itching to go for a run around the castle hallways, or do a hundred wing-ups. Anything to get this anxiety to stop buzzing underneath her skin — and that is precisely why Twilight still forces her to stay with her or Spike after meals.

To her luck, she was starting to feel a need for the bathroom, and didn’t hesitate to inform the others of it before promptly leaving the room. She just needed a moment to herself, so she could get a grip on herself and-

“Keep the door unlocked.” Twilight quietly commands, having apparently followed her without her noticing.

Rainbow stops right in front of the bathroom door and turns to face her. “Seriously?”

The look on the alicorn’s face is all the information she needed to know just how serious she is.

“Fine.” Dash says, closing the door behind her, but keeping it unlocked. It wasn’t like Twilight couldn’t teleport inside, or just unlock the door with her magic or anything, if she truly felt like she had to intervene or whatever. Rainbow couldn’t fathom what the alicorn is apparently expecting her to do, that would require an intervention.

The pegasus tries not to think about the alicorn standing guard outside the door while she does her business. Once she’s done, she takes a moment to splash cold water on her face from the sink. Her brain is still screaming way too high numbers at her, and she couldn’t believe she actually ate so much. The day isn’t even halfway over, how in Equestria is she supposed to add dinner and snacks to that?!

The pills. My metabolism must be getting faster. Otherwise I never would have managed all of that. She reminds herself. It’s fine. It’s all fine. I can do this. Just have to remember that I’m not as fat as I think I am.

She makes the grave mistake of glancing up at the mirror hanging above the sink, and all her resolve just cracks apart. She lets out an involuntary gasp at the (horrible, disgusting) sight-

“Rainbow?”

-Which of course Twilight heard.

Horse apples! Rainbow curses in her mind whilst forcing herself to take a slow, deep breath, and clutches the necklace under her clothes that she never takes off anymore. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’mFineI’mFineI’mFine- “I’m fine!”

“Are you sure?” The question is asked in a soft, careful tone. Rainbow prays that it’s not because one of the others is close and could overhear, least of all Scoot.

Rainbow forces herself to take another deep, slow breath. Then she mouths inaudibly, “everything is going to be fine, everything is going to be fine, everything is going to be. just. fine.” to herself.

When she exits the bathroom again, she held her head high and smiled at the dumbfounded alicorn.

The temporary bravado could only last so long. Rainbow kept getting lost in thought, presumably arguing with the demons inside her head.

Applejack found it a bit amusing, how the featherbrain had “the attention span of a rotten apple”, when none of them could keep the pegasus from mentally drifting away from their conversation.

“Aaaand she’s gone again.” The farm pony remarked when it happened yet again. “Whooo-wee! We really ought to get her flying again.”

“What does flying got to do with it?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Ya mean ya haven’t noticed how she usually can’t stay focused on topic unless she’s hoverin’ above our heads the whole time? Speakin’ of which, it’s an odd feeling, not having to look up all the time when I’m talking to her.”

Twilight made to say that Dash has been doing pretty well at staying focused, until she remembered the slowed metabolism, which they’re beginning to reverse.
Perhaps her rapid metabolism has something to do with the way her brain works… The scientist in her hypothesised. It did make sense, the way she could take note and memorise even the smallest of details when she’s flying. Featherbrain, quite literally.

“See what I mean?” Applejack pointed to the feathered appendages that remained folded on either of Dash’s sides.

Fascinating. The alicorn thought as she watched the pegasus’s wings repeatedly twitching, when Rainbow was (briefly) engaged in conversation with Scootaloo again.

When the time for dinner was coming near, Twilight could just tell that Rainbow was nearing her breaking point. Luckily, Scootaloo had been picked up by her aunts a while ago, so the only other ponies here were their friends, who understood when the alicorn casually called it a day and more or less ushered them out.

“Tell me what’s going on inside your head?” The alicorn asks, noting the way the pegasus is growing more and more fidgety and couldn’t stay still anymore.

It takes a while for the pegasus to reply, her eyes almost constantly flicking about as she starts to pace in a circle. “Too much.” She eventually says, and picks up into a steady trot.

Sometimes, Twilight wishes she knew of a mind-reading spell. Unfortunately, even if such a spell existed, it would most definitely be against the law.

“Could you be more specific?” She asks helplessly.

Rainbow continues to pace, and Twilight wonders if the pegasus had even heard her, or if she’s already lost in her own head again, as it seems to keep happening all day, today.

“Dinner is ready!” Spike happily calls from the kitchen, and Rainbow immediately brakes to a halt.

Twilight raises an eyebrow at the pegasus, whose eyes widen, as though she just got an idea.

“Can I serve my own portion this time?” She asks innocently, and almost excitedly.

Her sudden enthusiasm leaves Twilight more than suspicious of her motives. “No.” She replies firmly.

Taken aback, the pegasus falters for a moment. Then she keeps going, coming up to the alicorn. “Please? I’ll have to make my own decisions at some point again, right?”

She does have a point, but they are still faaaar away from that happening any time soon.

“Tell you what: I’ll do the portions, and you’ll get to choose your own from them. Deal?” Twilight offers.

They still got enough leftovers from the buffet, which Spike warmed up and just added some fresh, cut-up fruits, and a bowl of gemstones for himself, to it.

Putting her plan into action, Twilight fills three plates with adequate amounts of pastries, vegetables and fruit. Then she places all of them on the table, right in front of Rainbow, so she could choose.

Or at least, that had been the plan.

For any other pony, the decision would be simple: just take whichever one they prefer, in terms of taste preferences.

But not for Rainbow Dash. This isn’t about taste. This is all about numbers, and Twilight mentally kicks herself again for having triggered that part of the disorder back to life.

“Rainbow.”

“Yeah yeah, just, let me-”

Twilight could tell that Rainbow is desperately trying to calculate the calories of each option, so that she could choose the one with the least amount. Even if it was just a minor difference of 10 calories or maybe even less than that, it would be her obvious choice.

This is not on.

“Pick one. Now!” She orders.

“I will! I’m just trying to decide!” Rainbow defends, her eyes never leaving the three plates, trying to take in every small detail, guess the amounts of ingredients, go through the numbers inside her head, get a close enough estimate for every individual part, and tally them all up.

Twilight has finally had enough. She levitates the dishes up in the air and rapidly mixes them up, so none of them could tell which was which. The shocked and horrified look on Dash’s face told her everything she needed to know that she was right in her assessment.

Eventually, she places them all down on the table again, and just sets them out, herself. No more decisions for Rainbow today.

“Don’t even try to calculate them. Just eat it, without thinking about it.” Twilight warns when she sees the look in her eyes once again.

Spike only watches, keeping any remarks and questions to himself, and simply eats his own serving, trying to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary is happening.

“Easier said than done.” Dash grumbles. “I can’t help it. It just happens on its own.”

We have a lot of unlearning to do, still. Twilight thinks bitterly with a sigh. If it’s even remotely possible to not look at food and only see numbers, that is…

After dinner, Twilight had of course wanted to talk to her about what Pinkie Pie had said, but the pegasus stubbornly claimed that she was way too tired after today, secretly hoping that she’d get out of her before-bed-snack.

That plan worked, until the guilt of having disappointed everyone brought her back into the kitchen, fetching and eating one of the snacks once everyone else had turned in, after all. Partly because it now feels almost wrong not to follow Twilight’s plans, and partly because she actually feels like she needed something before she could fall asleep.

Of course that would prove to be a horrible mistake. Or at least in her mind, it is the final straw. The straw that broke the camel’s back — or in her case, made the disorder intolerably strong.

Why the hell did I eat all that? WHY?!

Rainbow could tear out her feathers at her own stupidity and lack of self-control. It’s close to midnight now, and she’s aggressively pacing around the halls, desperately needing to do something to rectify her mistake.

Why in Equestria did I do that? I’m not in that hyper metabolism state thing, and I’m not training for a show. There’s absolutely no excuse for eating all of that. What the hell is wrong with me?!

She keeps uselessly flapping her wings as she trots around, never taking off, but allowing her to move almost noiselessly. She couldn’t risk waking anyone. Not until she figures out what to do.

Which is, of course, a lot more difficult to do when you have someone constantly scolding you inside your head.

Just imagine how disappointed the Wonderbolts would be, if they could see you right now. Eating all that junk without a second thought. Not a care in the world.

Say, do you even know how much protein you got from that, today? I’ll tell you how much: not even half of what you’re supposed to get! All those calories, and nothing useful. I thought you wanted to lose weight, so why are you eating like you’re trying to become obese in record time?!

How do you ever want to be a Wonderbolt if you can’t even follow the simplest of rules? 90 grams of protein per day, minimum. More if you’re working out for more than four hours. You know the rules.

If you continue slacking off like this, you might as well quit the team right now, before you embarrass yourself even further.

She knows that she’d messed up today. The anxiety is keeping her heart racing away in her chest, unable to slow down to a healthy resting rate. The very feeling of all that food she ate, being digested and converted, is driving her up the walls.

Her rounds and rounds around the castle are put on hold when her stomach finally gives the tiniest hint of nausea rising inside of her, and she beelines to the closest bathroom. (It’s almost frightening how well she knows her way around. She’s definitely spending too much time in this admittedly huge castle.)

She waits for the inevitable to happen, her mind continuously tearing her apart for her mistakes. She regrets every bite, every crumb. She should have had more control over herself! That’s the one thing she’d always had, even when she didn’t have any friends, back when she’d utterly sucked at flying. When she was only known as the laughingstock.

Even when every other filly and colt hated her, she’d always had the strength to control herself. Because of the small, harmless, innocent voice, who was her only friend that never left her side, and who gave her the confidence to keep going, living right inside her head.
When the others were digging in like gluttons, even at a young age she wouldn’t stoop to their level. She was in complete control of herself. She was better than them.

Not anymore~. The voice sing-songs inside her head.
It used to be nice to her, helping her, coaching her, telling her what she had to do to be better, to become better, to succeed. She had known that she could trust it blindly.
But now it’s only doing the complete opposite. It’s mean, cruel, controlling and downright abusive, always criticising and never praising. Nothing she does will ever be good enough to appease it, and no matter how hard she tries, she just couldn’t escape it.
And she’s left wondering when and how that even happened.

Now you’re just like the rest of them. You’re no better than anypony. You’re a failure, a pathetic loser. How could you ever think that you were special? That you were above anypony else?

I mean, just look at yourself!

She does. Despite the darkness, she could still make out the silhouette of her own reflection on the mirror.

She’s disgusting.

Rainbow had to take off her clothes a while ago, having suddenly felt too claustrophobic in the light and stretchy, soft material. She’d seen Tank making a nest of it and sleeping in it, probably relishing in having her smell so close to him, before she left her room. But she couldn’t focus on that.

Her full belly is seemingly hanging off of her body, with not even a hint of her bone structure or muscles in sight anywhere. Everything that made her beautiful and proved her worth, is swallowed under a layer of shameful, disgusting fat. Even her once defined face seems rounded with chubby cheeks.

Now that she could see all of herself, she feels close to retching.

But nothing happens.

She feels ill. She hates herself so much.

So why isn’t she throwing up?!

Rainbow is now close to full-on panicking. She’d normally have thrown up twice by now, but for some weird reason, even with her stomach being all queasy, she didn’t feel like she would be actually sick anytime soon, despite getting dangerously close to hyperventilating in her panic.

Why isn’t she getting sick?! She should be-

And then, it hits her like a ton of bricks.

Twilight’s spell.

That spell she’d cast, that stopped her from throwing up.
It must have lasting effects, because this is most unusual for her.

The worst part is that she feels like she absolutely should be sick right now.

It needs to happen.

She needs it to happen.

She needs her stomach to be empty, right this second. It’s the only reassurance she could get, that would make it all okay again. She needs to redeem herself. She needs to get back in control.

As much as she hates it, she would give her left wing for the relief that it would bring.

Maybe it’s just a force of habit. She’s so used to it happening when she’s so overcome with worries and fears.
It feels like something is missing.
Something that she really, really could not live without, right now, in this very moment.

If it’s not gonna happen naturally, then you’ll just have to help it along. The voice tells her.

Rainbow considers it for a split second.
A horrible, utterly hopeless split-second.
Then.. “oooh no. No way. Uh-uh. Noo no no no no-”

“Dash?” Spike’s concerned voice startles her half to death. She gasps so hard that it catches in her throat, causing her to cough for a moment.

“Spike?! What are you still doing up?!” She demands, because she’d been so sure that the others were fast asleep. He’s standing in the doorway, which she hadn’t even closed in her hurry to get in here, and falsely assuming that no one would be up and about, anyways.

He crosses his arms. “I could ask you the same. Better yet: what are you doing here?”

She wants to snappily ask him what he thinks she’s in a bathroom for. If only she wasn’t sitting opposite of the toilet, clearly with no intentions of using it for what it was made for.

She’d been caught. Worse yet, who knows what he might have walked in on, had he only been a moment too late. She’s losing all control over herself, it seems. Anything could have happened, truth be told.

A very sad and shameful truth, that is.

“…please don’t tell Twilight.” She begs in a quiet voice, ears pinned back in shame and guilt.

Now he really knows that something is wrong. “You know that she’ll have to know. I’m definitely not going to keep secrets from her.” He tells her sternly.

“You don’t even know what I’m-… I mean, what would you even tell her?” She challenges.

“Well… I can always just tell her that I found you in the bathroom at night, and that you asked me not to tell her about it.” He replies simply, knowing that Twilight would absolutely chew her out for that one, until she got all the answers.

You really messed up, now. How could you be so stupid as to get caught like that?! You really can’t do anything right, can you?

Her stomach is still churning from all the heavy, calorie loaded food, and now she definitely has no choice but to keep it down. And at this point, that is simply not an option anymore. She has to get this out, now, before it could make her fat. Or, well, more than it already has, anyways.

But Spike is not budging, and if she does anything now, he’s sure to wake up Twilight, and then she’ll be in even more trouble.

Finally, the pressure just became too much. Trapped between only the wrong options, not knowing what to do or say to fix any of this, she just curls up on the cold tiles with a soft whimper, and cries.