The Party Will Still Be There

"Knock knock," she calls out in time with her knock-knock against the doorframe to the castle's kitchen, "What's cookin' in here?"

"Applejack!" Spike exclaims, and you'd think he hadn't seen her for years the way his face alights when he looks up from the bowl he's stirring. He drops the spoon, wipes his claws against his ugly-sweater apron - a gag gift from Shining Armor several Hearth's Warmings back that he's worn almost religiously every year since - and carefully picks his way through the kitchen to wrap her in a big ol' bear hug.

"Oof. Hey there, lil' fella," she says, returning the embrace to the dragon twice her size.

"You enjoying the party? Did you get a chance to try the spinach puffs?" Spike asks with just a hint of boyish excitement.

"Guessin' those were yours?"

He nods eagerly.

"Heh, nah, not yet. I'll be sure to taste 'em once I get back out there."

"What are you doing in the kitchen, anyway?"

"Well, when you went and poked your head into the party back there I thought you should get a chance to enjoy it yourself. Figured I could lend a hoof, fill in for a bit," it's not a lie, not really, and she's gotten so much better at half-truths over the years, "Plus I wanted to chat with Twilight some more."

Spike's cheeks color a bit. He rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, you don't have to do that AJ-"

"Yeah, I know, but I want to," she interrupts in a tone that brooks no argument, "Go on, git. Go enjoy yourself for a bit."

Spike glances, a little uncertainly, over to Twilight. When she smiles and nods her approval he beams, thanks Applejack, and scurries excitedly off to join the festivities. It's an odd sight for a creature his size, and the two old friends share a laugh about it.

"Even after all this time, I can still see so much of that little kid I watched grow up in him," Applejack says.

Twilight scoffs, "I wish I had that problem. I can't look at him and not see my baby brother all grown up."

"I know what you mean," her response is wistful, "'Bloom's gettin' up there. Ain't the same, I know, but... ah, y'know."

"Yeah."

She clears her throat. "So, uh, what can I do? Mix up some more nog, stir the pudding?"

"You could make the filling for the pecan tarts."

"You got it hoss."

So they work; Twilight calmly methodical, Applejack frequently glancing at the other pony in the room. She's not eager to broach the subject on her mind, and Twilight seems content to work in companionable silence, but at length the tension only she seems to feel becomes unbearable.

"So, uh," Applejack clears her throat, trying to sound casual, "Pinkie's really doin' better?"

"She certainly seems to be," comes the nonchalant response, "There've been ups and downs, of course, but nothing on the level of last week. I think she just needed to spend as much time around others as possible this holiday season."

"And you've been happy enough to oblige, seems like."

"I have," Twilight's eyes stay down as she continues to roll out pastry dough, but a tiny smile crosses her face, one distinct from both the placid expression The Princess of Friendship wears at all times or the goofy, dorky grins Applejack is more familiar with, and rarer than either, "I'd hate for her to be alone if there's anything I can do about it."

"Right," if Twilight notices her response is a little hollow, she doesn't show it.

"I mean, she's always been there for everyone else - always. She does so much to make sure nocreature ever feels alone or lost, and now with Cheese gone, I- she deserves the same. She deserves better than her grief."

And Applejack sighs, sets down the spoon she was stirring with, turns with a slow and heavy clip-clopping to face one of her oldest friends.

"Twi... what are you doing?"

"What do you mean, Applejack?" The Ruler of Equestria asks innocently.

"I mean this..." finding the right words is suddenly so very hard for her, harder even than usual, because as much as she hates to see Twilight like this it's still Twilight; still that caring little nerd that brought them all together, "This... runaround you're doin'. It ain't like you, you're- you're better than this."

Even Applejack has trouble telling the incredulous chuckle The Princess gives her is forced, "'Runaround'? What-"

"Look, sugarcube, I know it's been hard for you, believe me, I really do," she rubs at a temple with a hoof, closes her eyes. It's so hard for her to look at her right now. "And I can't even really blame you if... if some part of you is a little glad Cheese is gone. Can't say I'm thrilled at the prospect, but I get it, I just- this ain't the way to go about it, Twilight. It ain't how things are done."

"Ah," and despite the humor of her tone, The Princess' voice drops in temperature, and it's almost as if the air in the room drops with it, ignoring every degree put forth by the many ovens and stovetops, "So that's what you think this is about."

"Ain't no 'think' about it, I known you too long not to-"

"Not to what, Applejack? Not to suspect me of- of- of what, exactly? Manipulating one of my best friends while she's grieving for her husband? Just because I've been there for her, like friends are supposed to be?" The laugh The Princess barks out is humorless, accusatory, and just a little too shrill, like somepony flubbing a line they'd spent hours trying to get just right, "Where is this even coming from? Why the sudden suspicion? What makes you think I even think of Pinkie that way?"

"Twilight, c'mon now, it's insultin' to both of us for you to play that dumb. I ain't the only one who's picked up on your feelings. You're not that subtle."

Twilight Sparkle's face hardens, the indignant anger in her eyes chills into a still and quiet glare.

"Fine. You're right. But what's so wrong with that? After everything we've been through together- with everything we're sure to go through together, in the centuries to come?"

"Ain't nothin' wrong with it, Twilight, you know that ain't what I'm sayin-"

"Then what are you saying, Applejack? Please, enlighten me."

"You just..." she forces herself to look Twilight in the eyes, even though she hates what she sees there right now, "you can't take advantage of her like this, when she's so fragile. Even if you get what you think you want, and that is a mighty big if, it... it wouldn't give you the happiness you're hopin' for."

"I'm not taking advantage of her!" Twilight says, and Applejack thinks she hears a little waver in the indignation. She hopes she does. She hopes some part of Twilight doesn't believe what she's saying, "Like I said, I'm just trying to support her when she needs it."

"You're not listenin' to me," Applejack groans, frustration starting to tinge the concern she feels for both of her friends, "Of course I want you to be there for her, of course I know you want to support her, but you can't go cozyin' up with her the way you were at the party just now expecting her to fall into your hooves just as soon as-"

"I am listening to you! It's just that there's nothing more going on here! We've always been very physical with each other! We all have! Why should that stop just because-"

"You need to think about Pinkie's-"

"Of course I'm thinking about Pinkie!" Princess Twilight all but snarls, though her voice stays low enough not to be overheard by any casual passers-by in the hallway outside, never to be overheard, "I have always thought of Pinkie, every day for the past sixty-three years! The mare I love has consumed my thoughts for what amounts to a lifetime for most ponies, even as I had to watch her fritter away her time with that... that vapid, insipid, obnoxious little stallion! What, you think I don't know she's hurting? That's precisely why I need to be there for her! I have done nothing but think of Pinkie, of her feelings, her happiness, for so long! I have been patient without end. Don't we both deserve happiness, after all this time?"

Applejack doesn't flinch away at the outburst. She doesn't grit her teeth to match the sudden spike in Twilight's hostility, doesn't fold her ears back in fear, doesn't even set her mouth into a grim and judgemental line. Applejack hardly reacts at all, except to breathe in, slow, deep, and back out again.

With her next breath, she says, "Okay, Twilight. Alright. I ain't gonna keep tryin' to talk you out of this. Just... maybe give it just a bit more time, for both your sakes? That's all I'm gonna say. Take it or leave it."

But then she stops just before she crosses the doorway to join the rest of the party, and she says over her shoulder, "You know... it's a shame you never really got to know Cheese. I think you woulda seen why Pinkie and him got on so well, if you'd gave him half a chance."

She half expects Twilight to throw something after her, to hear a plate or a glass shatter against the wall beside her head, but she doesn't. She goes through the door and shuts it behind her, quiet as you please, not a glance spared for the no-doubt fuming mare in her wake. She turns to go back to the party, or maybe just to leave, depending on where her head's at by the time she gets back to the main hall, and finds Spike pressed up against the wall just to her side, eyes wide, claws over his mouth, looking for all the world as small as the day she met him.

"Sorry you had to hear all that, lil' fella," she says grimly as she walks off.