There you are in your room, trying to complete a test you had Princess Celestia mail to you, about the fundamentals of magic. And why are you taking a test related to a subject that you, as a human, are physically incapable of doing? Of course, to impress the girl--no, mare of your dreams: Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight has done so much for you ever since you’ve been accidentally transported to Equestria. When you first woke up in this land, the inhabitants, who were small, rainbow-colored ponies, were rather apprehensive about your appearance. Being a bipedal creature who stood almost twice as tall as them, the ponies had never seen the likes of you before, and thus, had no way of knowing whether or not you were dangerous…until a lavender-colored mare named Twilight Sparkle, apparently being the only pony who knew about your species, stepped in and acted as your advocate to prove that you meant no harm. She even went on to explain that she had made several visits to another dimension, where for every visit, she was turned into your kind.
It took some time for her to convince the other ponies, but eventually, they did accept you. You wanted to thank Twilight for sticking up for you, only to be met with her apologizing to you profusely, with tears of remorse dripping down her face. Upon asking her what was wrong, Twilight explained to you that she was the reason you were here, saying she was practicing a conjuration spell that went wrong and ended up taking you from your apartment in Chicago, while you were taking a nap, and ultimately brought you to Equestria. What made this even worse for you was when you and Twilight brought this up to Princess Celestia, who, for the next couple of days, looked for a spell to help get you back home. But in the end, she couldn’t find one. At first, you were devastated when Princess Celestia broke the news. Everything and everyone you loved was gone.
But Twilight and her friends, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, were all determined to keep you from falling into a deep depression, and to help you feel welcomed in this new land and start over. They gave you a grand tour of their hometown, Ponyville, and treated you to some of the prettiest sights you’d ever seen, nicest folks you’d ever met, and sweetest treats you’d ever eaten. And then they closed out the night with one of Pinkie Pie’s famous “Welcome to Ponyville” parties, all for you. After the party, Twilight invited you to stay at the Golden Oaks Library where she lived.
Ever since becoming a citizen of Ponyville, you’ve been on so many exciting adventures and made many great friends, with Twilight Sparkle being your closest friend. The Golden Oaks Library had become your home, too...until it was destroyed in the battle against Tirek a couple months ago. But fortunately, it was replaced with a beautiful, gigantic crystal castle, which Twilight had dedicated as the Castle of Friendship. But you and Twilight still missed your old home, and always had each others’ backs in comforting one another over such a tragic loss. The bond between you two only grew stronger and stronger to where, one day, you began to see her as more than a friend.
From the beginning, Twilight had stood out to you as the prettiest and most adorable mare, and the more you got to know her, the more you fell in love with her. You had feelings for Twilight Sparkle, and wanted nothing more than for her to be your girlfriend, or as they call it in Equestria, marefriend. But did she feel the same way about you? You couldn’t outright ask her about that, or else, you’d risk dampening the greatest friendship you ever had.
So you decided to try and win her affection, by looking deep into something that interests her. Ultimately, you chose to tackle the biggest one: Magic. Even if you couldn’t do Equestrian magic, you could still learn about how it works, and then you could impress Twilight with your knowledge and be at least one step closer to winning her heart. But you decided to do it in secret, as you wanted it to be a surprise.
So whenever Twilight went out with her other friends, you’d spend your time in her library, reading any book about magic Twilight owned. Some things you read in the books you found pretty difficult to understand (probably just because you aren’t a unicorn), but overall, you felt fairly confident that you got the gist of it. After going over every magic-themed book you found in the library, you then decided to put all that newly gained knowledge to the test, by having a test about the fundamentals of magic mailed to you from Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns...your ambition to win Twilight’s affection drowning out Princess Celestia’s warnings that the test might be too much for you.
And that’s how you got to where you are now, and you sorta wish you listened to Princess Celestia. So far, you have answered ten out of thirty questions in this test. You began to have doubts about whether or not you truly understood what you had read in the books. So once again, when Twilight wasn’t in the library, you went back and reread various chapters and paragraphs of the books you read. No matter how much you reread those books, a majority of these questions were still too hard for you to answer. You’d spent the past three days trying to answer at least one of these next questions, while trying really hard to keep this a secret from Twilight. You barely slept. You barely left your room. You barely ate any of the meals Spike made for you. You went through Celestia knows how many cups of coffee a day to try and stay concentrated. The stress of it all only keeps building and BUILDING! Deep down, you want to quit. But it’s that ambition to win Twilight’s affection that still keeps you moving forward with this--
“Hey. Are you still awake?”
You turn around to see Twilight Sparkle standing at your door, and quickly, you attempt to hide the test by filing it in your desk drawer.
“What was that you put in your drawer,” she asks as, despite your desperate protest, she walks over to you, opens the drawer, and pulls out the test. Then she looks at it and says, “This is one of the tests from my old school. Were you seriously trying to take this?” She chuckles a bit. “Is THIS why you’ve spent the past three days cooped up in your room, barely sleeping, and why I’ve been having to buy more and more coffee everyday?” You nod, embarrassedly. Suddenly, Twilight’s demeanor becomes more stern as she says to you, “Well, this has gone on long enough, mister! You’re taking a break!” Then she teleports the test out of the room, and guides you to your bed.
“Now lie down,” Twilight tells you, sternly. “You need a good night's sleep.” But frantically, you ask her where she teleported the test to. “No. I'm not telling you,” she says, but even more frantically, you insist that she tells you where she hid it. She sighs. “Alright. Meet me in my bedroom.”
With that, Twilight teleports herself out of your room. You then make your way out of your room, down the hall, and towards Twilight’s room.
Upon entering, you don't find the missing test. Instead, you find Twilight in her bed, lying on her side and looking at you amorously. She also seems to have casted a slight growth spell on herself, to where if she was standing up straight, she would be about as tall as Princess Celestia. You stammer a bit, before she chuckles at your dumbfounded attitude, good naturedly.
“Now I've got you.”
Then Twilight's horn starts glowing, and you feel yourself being lifted off your feet and held in midair. Your clothes get instantly swapped out with a comfortable pair of pajamas. A toothbrush materializes and brushes itself against your teeth. All the while, you're trying to break free from Twilight’s magic, but it's too powerful. Then she floats you over to her bed.
“But first,” she says before simultaneously casting a second spell. This spell gently travels up and down the inside of your body, and you feel something being removed from your bloodstream, making you feel more sleepy as a result. “I need to remove all that caffeine from your body.”
When the process is done, Twilight lays you down on the bed, snuggles you up against her magically grown body, rests her head on top of yours, and wraps her hooves and wings around you. Then she tucks herself and you in under the covers so you can’t get out. “Don't try to resist,” she whispers into your ear as she casts yet a third spell on you, gently soothing you to sleep. “Just relax, please. And let me help you fall asleep.”
Twilight sighs in content. “Good night, my little human,” she says to you. You close your eyes, but before becoming fully unconscious, you feel something soft and warm being planted on your forehead.
*-----*
The next morning, you wake up. Your giant alicorn friend is still sleeping, so you carefully wriggle your way out of her embrace and out from under the covers. Then, moving as quietly as you can so you won’t wake Twilight up, you walk over to her dresser, preparing to look through each drawer to find the hidden test…when you catch yourself looking in the mirror and noticing a big kiss mark on your forehead. Twilight had kissed you goodnight. You think to yourself, ‘Could it be that she already--
“You’re not still looking for that test, are you?”
You turn around to see Twilight Sparkle still lying in bed, but wide awake and looking at you with loving eyes. “Could we cuddle just a little longer, please,” she asks you in a sweet, innocent tone and stretches her hooves out towards you, beckoning for you to come back to bed.
This leaves you feeling conflicted. On the one hand, despite it leading to you taking that test, which then led to three days of nonstop stress, you still felt compelled to win Twilight’s affection. But on the other hand, here's Twilight right now, extending her affection to you for nothing. You sigh in defeat, turn back around, lean your forehead against the wall next to her mirror, and start hyperventilating as if you’re about to cry.
Twilight sits up in her bed. “Hey. No, no, no. Come here. Tell me what's wrong,” she says in a concerned, yet comforting tone, again, beckoning for you to come sit down next to her.
You nervously sit back down on the bed next to Twilight and proceed to explain everything. Your feelings for her, and the whole reason you tried taking that test: to learn about one of her favorite subjects in secret, impress her with what you know about said subject, and get her to return your feelings for her as a result. But alas, your plan is ruined, and you lower your head in sadness and embarrassment. There’s a long silence between the two of you, as Twilight seems astonished with what you had just told her and doesn't seem to know how to respond...
Then a large hoof enters your field of vision, grabs you by the chin, and gently lifts your head up. Twilight looks you in the eyes and says,
“I already do like you.”
Now it’s your turn to be astonished by what Twilight just said. Except not for long, because soon after saying that, she then pulls you into a hug, hooves and wings, and begins to rock you gently. “My poor human friend,” she says in a sad tone. “What made you think that you had to earn my affection? And by trying to learn about something you’re physically incapable of doing and driving your own sanity up the wall, no less!?
“You didn’t need to do that, you know? You already are an amazing pony--I mean, person, and a great friend. You’re kind, caring, and just an incredible joy to be around. You never once held it against me when I accidentally took you away from your home world. You were always there with me for better or worse, like all the adventures we’ve been on together, or when you comforted me when we had lost the Golden Oaks Library. You never fail to make me laugh. You never fail to bring a smile to my face. You never fail to make me happy.”
Twilight lets you go. “But then one day, you started only barely ever coming out of your room. You barely ever ate any meals that Spike made for you. You drink about five cups of coffee a day--I mean, that much caffeine is not good for you. Generally, I’d been watching your mood deteriorate as time went on. And you wouldn’t talk to me, except for, ‘Hi, Twilight.' And whenever I asked you what you were doing, all you'd say is, ‘Nothing, Twilight’. I was becoming very worried for you, and...I missed you...Now, I’m hearing you were putting yourself through all this unnecessary stress just to win my affection? You cannot imagine how sad that makes me feel.”
Now with tears of guilt, you apologize to Twilight. To which she responds by pulling you into another hug, and using her wing to stroke the back of your head. “Hey, shh, sh, sh, sh, shh,” She whispers in a comforting tone. “Don’t cry. It’s okay, my human friend. I love you…Could you do me a couple of favors, though?”
You start listening as Twilight states,
“One: Please…” She inhales deeply. “Don’t finish that test. I know, that sounds weird coming out of me.” She chuckles. “But seriously, I do not want you to put yourself through that much unnecessary stress again. Okay?”
You happily agree to Twilight’s first favor, and she continues,
“Good. Two: for the next couple of nights, come sleep here in my room with me. That way we can cuddle every night, and I can remind you about why I love you very much.”
You, even more happily, agree to Twilight’s second favor, and she continues,
“Three: Let me take you out to dinner tonight, and treat you to a good meal.” Your eyes lighten up when she says ‘take you out to dinner tonight.’ She chuckles. “Yes, I am asking you out on a date. What do you say? Will you be my coltfriend?”
You ecstatically agree to Twilight’s third favor. Then the two of you engage in a long, long kiss on each others’ lips. And when you break the kiss, she finishes, “And four: will you stay snuggled up with me like this for a couple more minutes?”
You agree, and the two of you hug it out.
And so, in the end, even if not in the way you intended, that stupid test did help start something beautiful after all.
