Twilight Vs. Chocolate

by Space Jazz

Rating: everyone
Tags: Pinkie Pie, Random, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Comedy
Length: 20451

Pinkie Pie exposes Twilight Sparkle to her only weakness: chocolate.

Chocolate. The weakness of many, including everybody's favorite purple unicorn. Twilight has been in a constant love hate relationship with the snack, and even though it practically almost ruined her social life and her body, Twilight still actively enjoys the snack. Of course being friends with the living sugar filled time-bomb known as Pinkie Pie will lead to Twilight's loss of sanity. Especially when they are sent on a crash course towards Fillydelphia for the holy grail of chocolatiers.

Published 2013-01-18 03:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-06 22:35:54 UTC

Chocolate. Not Even Once

If there was one thing Princess Celestia forbid Twilight to be with, it was chocolate. Well, large amounts of chocolate to say the least. Twilight was able to curb her chocolate addiction in Ponyville, but she often caved in and ordered a few chocolate muffins just enough to keep her from suffering withdrawal symptoms. Her study sessions often came with her face covered in chocolaty goodness. Celestia made sure that her friends watched her chocolate intake in secret, going as far as having records of Twilight's purchases in Sugar Cube Corner. Of course the Princess forgot to account that Twilight would always be in close proximity to the ticking sugar time-bomb known as Pinkie Pie.

Twilight trotted into Sugar Cube Corner happily; she was anticipating a dozen of chocolate cupcakes that she would eventually eat. It mostly depended on her study habit, short sessions ended with one or two of the pastries gone, and longer ones caused the box to disappear and any other evidence of the cupcakes. Twilight eyed the bright colors of the inside of the bakery while she waited at the counter, ringing the bell every once in a while for service. Twilight stood there for a quiet two minutes, waiting for either of the Cakes or Pinkie Pie to show up.

A huge burst of Chocolate fudge came out the door and engulfed Twilight with the liquid cocoa. Twilight cleaned herself up with her magic as well as having a sample of the fudge.

"Pinkie! What happened!?" Twilight asked a large pile of chocolate shaped like a familiar pony.

"A little baking mix up. Nothing dangerous though." Pinkie answered, before shaking off the candy from her body.

"What did you mix up? Dynamite and birthday candles?" Twilight teased as she helped clean up the mess, and licking the stained spots every few minutes.

"No, laundry detergent and flour." Pinkie answered cheerfully, causing the unicorn to spit out the mouthful she had.

"What were you even trying to make?" Twilight asked while brushing her tongue with a toothbrush she conjured up.

"I'm making the most delicious chocolate cake that anypony has ever seen!" Pinkie continued, Twilight giggled to herself at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"And what exactly is the cake for?" Twilight asked.

"Jeez you and your questions. I'm making a cake for Choco-con 2013! Apparently Sugar Cube Corner's booth is one of the more popular ones, so I'm ready to deliver." Pinkie answered with her tone getting cheerier by the word.

"Choco-con?" She asked confused, but not turned off about the idea.

"Yes Chocolate Convention! From the wonderful ponies that made Choc-tober Fest!" Pinkie Pie explained to her unicorn friend.

"And when is this 'Choc-tober fest?' " Twilight inquired, looking for more information about the conventions.

"April."

"But that hardly makes any sense, why would? Never mind." Twilight quickly dismissed the failure to have clever wordplay with the convention's odd name. Pinkie payed no attention to the pun; in fact she didn't even get it and returned Twilight's question with a glassy eyed glare.

"Anyways I'm preppin' up to make the best cake ever. This is the first year I'm going alone since the cakes have their foals." Pinkie Pie explained.

"If this is going to be anything like the MMMM incident I'm not coming." Twilight answered.

"What? No it's not going to end up like that," she answered "anyway I think I covered the solve a mystery stage of my life."

"Well that's good. I guess,"

"I need to cross the 'have an adventure with Twilight' bullet off my list."

"But you had several with me."

"But not one with just you and me."

"I don't think I should." Twilight defended.

"Please? I don't want to go alone." Pinkie begged.

"I mean I'm so busy these days." Twilight shut down.

"They've included some free first class train tickets."

"That really sounds tempting and all but I just can't."

"I'm part of a really important booth so we can get all the chocolate we can carry." Pinkie Pie bargained.

"Fine. But only because I'm you're friend and I would hate for you to go all by yourself." Twilight agreed and was met with a cannon ball of pink to her side. Pinkie followed up with an uneccesary amount of thank yous.

"All right Twilight. This won't be that bad, right?" The librarian chuckled to herself uneasily.

~Squiggly!~

Thunk!

Twilight awoke abruptly to the sound of a pebble colliding against her bedroom window. She groaned to herself before opening the window with her magic. Two seconds later another pebble flew through the window and landed on her wooden floor. The pebble slowly rolled on the floor, and it seemed to have projected its noise just to annoy the magician. Twilight sat up on the bed and finally faced the window; only to be met with another pebble to her face.

"Twilight! Did I wake you up?" Pinkie asked innocently. Twilight repressed her need to strangle her endlessly bubbly friend.

"No, I've been up all night because I caaaan't wait to go," she answered sarcastically.

"You too!?"

Twilight Sparkle sleepily followed the bouncing earth pony that had seemingly endless energy despite it being four in the morning. Twilight cursed to herself about the coldness of the air as she trotted behind Pinkie towards the train platform.

"Tell me why are we boarding the train at four A.M?" Twilight asked; almost regretting the decision to attend the convention. The pink pony didn't answer, and instead ran inside the station.

"Pinkie! Wait up!" Twilight chased after her friend until they got to the right platform, and just as Twilight expected the whole area was empty. The flickering lights of station presented an eerie atmosphere and gave the unicorn chills, or it probably was the freezing steel floor. Twilight sighed to herself and sat on the nearest bench.

"When is this t-train coming?" she stuttered from the coldness of the bench.

"Eight-thirty!"

~~

Twilight finally was able to get her peace . She kept herself as far away from Pinkie Pie as the train's compartment would allow her to. She ignored her friend's ramblings hoping that she would not want to end up killing her friend before the trip was over. She was anticipating the the convention, hoping to get as much as the chocolate she could carry. At a reasonable pace of course. She tried to think of the last time she had been near a large amount of chocolate.

It was Twilight Sparkle's fourteenth birthday, and she seemed to more alone than usual. Her parents hardly had enough time to visit her and the same went for her older brother. She only spoke to the princess on a weekly basis to establish what she was learning. Her birthday dinner probably was the only time she could have a chance to even talk to the princess other than just her education. The teenage unicorn tried her best to pry information from various service ponies.

"So it's not access to stronger spells?"

"I'm required not to answer." The stallion guard said curtly.

"Of course you aren't." Twilight said slightly disappointed; she had been asking several ponies all day the moment she overheard that Celestia was planning something.

"Not even a hint?"

"Nope."

"Riddle?"

"No."

"Really obscure lymeric?"

The guard decided it was better off to stop talking to the filly. He kept his post, ignoring the pouting filly in front of him. Twilight slumped on her haunches and sighed as a last attempt to get him to spill the beans. The unicorn let her head hang low as she gave up onthe guard for any hints. Celestia appointed them for a reason.

Twilight continued to ask the servants, eventually she lost track of the time and was greeted by the sunset outside the nearest window.

"Crud, it's 5:30! I'm gonna be late for my own birthday dinner!" Twilight scolded herself for being careless. She rushed towards her room to get herself halfway decent looking before she goes to see the princess. She multitasked by styling her hair and looking through her wardrobe at the same time she was calculating the quickest route to her destination. The lavender pony stumbled; wobbling on three legs as she tried to slip on a dress that was given to her by her parents.

Twilight hauled herself towards the dining room, her efforts to look good for her celebration in vain as she ran through the countless halls of the castle. She occasionally bumped into objects if she turned a corner too quickly; causing her to swear silently to herself. Twilight made the mistake of running through the court yard; hoping it would cut down her time. Unfortunately her mane wasn't ready to handle a strong gust of wind. Her mane blew wildly in the wind; her mane covering her eyes. Twilight shrieked and hopped on her hindlegs; her back was pressed against a sculpture of Starswirl the Bearded. Her dress was caught against the chiseled cape, and she pulled away unaware of what had happened. When she heard the cloth ripping she knew it was too late.

"Oh come on!" Twilight watch the dress rip; some of the seams splitting at connection points. After the incident, her dress was ripped enough to expose her cutie mark. She groaned at the fact that her parents were probably waiting for her. She could only speculate the looks of shock or even disappointed looks on her parent's faces.

"I might as well not show up," she said to herself.

Twilight burst through the door; startling the ponies that were waiting inside.

"Twiley! I thought you weren't going to show," a familiar voice said from the table.

"What? I wouldn't miss my own birthday party right?"

"Twilight dear, you're not looking too good." Twilight's mother, Star Sparkle chimed in.

"What do you mean? I feel great." Twilight lied; putting a lackluster effort in convincing her mother.

"And your dress! What happened?" The older mare asked. Star Sparkle wondered how her daughter was able to ruin an expensive dress in such a short timeframe.

"Let us just appreciate that she is here and get started." Celestia dismissed the previous conversation. Twilight nodded and mouthed a thanks to her teacher. She trotted over to the nearest empty seat; the seat was at wing's reach of Celestia and adjacent to her parents that chatted amongst each other. She was right next to her older brother and she almost wished that she sat next to her parents. She knew Shining had a tendency to be a bit rough with her at times. Her BBBF was unaware of the fact that he might've been too rough on his little sister.

Shining was the conversationalist of the family, he was able to keep the dinner interesting and alive instead of having it turn into a deathly quiet meal. They talked about several different subjects. Including Twilight's academics and Shining's guard training. Twilight often answers the questions they asked her with simple one or two word answers.

Shining would occasionally direct the conversation to the birthday filly, but she would remain silent. Twilight hated being the center of attention, she was antisocial and a complete opposite example of her brother. He was more strength and weaker at spells, while she flourished in magic and was atleast... Fit enough to pass for healthy. When ever Shining sent the conversation to her, she would feign chewing on her meal or act like she wasn't paying attention. She put a hoof to her chin and lazily stuffed forkful after forkful of her salad.

"And then he turns to me and says, 'Shining! I you're going to be useless, you might as well be a Wonderbolt!' " As Shining Armor finished his monologue, the ponies around the room laughed while Twilight chuckled lazily; out of politeness of course since she didn't hear a word until the last sentence.

"Twilight, Sweetheart? Are you okay?" her father asked, Twilight nodded and acknowledged her father's question with a simple "yeah, I'm fine."

"Let us go right ahead to desert." The Princess suggested, the ponies nodded and Twilight still kept her head fixated on hher half eaten-meal. She didn't want to seem ungrateful, but she didn't see the point of her birthday. she figured it was her natural cynicism that followed her around. There was also the destruction of a new dress that she had liked. Twilight payed no attention to the chef that magically pushed a cart with a cake on top. The chef levitated the caked, and set it down carefully in front of the birthday filly. Twilight looked up and finally noticed the full extravagance of the cake.

It was a dark brown, and it had a fudge frosting. Twilight had birthday cakes before, but she has never seen one with chocolate. She wasn't necessarily eager to dig in to the dirt colored desert. Twilight's parents hardly gave her any sweets; she only got them on special occasions like her birthday or the time where she was taken under Celestia's wing. Her parent's were strict when it came to their children's health. As a result, Twilight never had the experience of having a cake this unhealthy. Twilight eyed the cake cautiously, looking towards her parents for a sign of approval.

They looked back at her; her mother nodded. Twilight looked at the chocolate cake uncertainly, she looked on the top of th cake to see thirteen lit candles positioned in a circle around a miniature unicorn whose horn was lit up as the fourteenth. Twilight's mother led the others to sing a traditional birthday song while the newly appointed fourteen year-old smiled; clearly not knowing what to do while they sang. The unicorn blew the candles out as the wrapped up the song, and sprouting a chorus of cheers and hollers. Twilight cut herself a generous piece, hoping it would perk her up from the bad events earlier.

The cake was soft and sponge-like. The chocolate fudge on the inside melted on Twilight's inexperienced tongue. She couldn't help but savor the completely new sensation of cocoa. She munched on the piece that happened to have her cutie mark in chocolate. Her family and teacher served themselves their own pieces, but their was still more than half of the cake left.

"I was surprised to hear that Twilight has never had chocolate before." Celestia mentioned to her parents, they agreed to her statement both sharing on how they were able to keep her and her brother away from too much sweets.

"I can't believe I was missing out on this!" Twilight yelled through her mouth filled with cake.

"Twilight, remember your manners," her mother scolded. Twilight apologized after swallowing her mouthful of cake.

Twilight continued to eat while her family talked to each other. The princess left the room after bidding Twilight a farewell and another happy birthday. Celestia reminded Twilight to meet her at the Castle's library to receive her secret gift. The purple unicorn slouched in her chair. She stroked her stomach and realized the calorie intake she just experienced. Twilight didn't care and thought one meal of one day wouldn't be so bad.

~~

"Twilight."

"..."

"Twi?"

"..."

"Twilight! Wake up!" Pinkie pulled the bed sheets from under the sleeping mare. The unicorn rolled off the bed and hit the ground with a thud. She woke up angry and stared at her pink friend with an intention to hit or atleast seriously injure.

"What?!" Twilight growled, obviously not pleased with her rude awakening

"The train's stopped." Pinkie Pie answered truthfully.

"And why is that?"

"The track is gone!"

~~

Author's Note

This is what happens when I don't take my medication. I think up stuff like this.

Buddy System

"We're sorry for the inconvenience everypony. Feel free to stay in your rooms or explore the area as you please. Everypony make sure you don't wander off too far." An attendant of the train tried her best to halt a sea of complaints that the passengers. She tried her best to answer each question that the disgruntled customers asked.

Twilight felt sorry for the mare. She knew it wasn't her fault but it seemed that they focused their collective anger on her. She fought the urge to go up and defend the pony, but it looked like she was handling it pretty well. Twilight turned away from the crowd and looked at the landscape with disinterest.

The train happened to be moving on the edge of the forest and a green plain grassland. She looked at the shaded forest and was compelled to get out of the sun's light.

"How long is it going to be until we can continue?" a stallion from the back yelled.

"Our repair team should get here by dusk and by morning we should be on our way." After she spoke the crowd of ponies groaned in dissatisfaction.

"Twilight! It's the adventure we've been hoping for." Pinkie Pie yelled, using her hooves as leverage to push her friend.

"The adventure you wanted." Twilight corrected.

"You said you would adventure with me."

"No, I agreed to accompany you."

"And you could accompany me to the forest." Pinkie said. The pink mare pouted and Twilight knew she would be going back on her word if she didn't follow Pinkie Pie around.

"Fine," she agreed through grit teeth, "but no longer than an hour."

"That's all I'll need!" Pinkie Pie ran out for the dense forest on the left side of the train.

"Just one hour of your time, and I'll have an undocumented weekend with all the chocolate I'll ever want." Twilight said to herself. She admitted to herself that it was wrong to use her friend as a gateway to her unhealthy habit of chocolate. She knew that she'd have to cut down at some point, and now she was planning to binge before she gave it up.

"Twilight! Come on!" Pinkie shouted from inside the forest. Twilight galloped fast enough to catch up to the pink mare. The unicorn found herself in a small clearing, but the party pony was nowhere to be found. Twilight sighed to herself and knew it was another of Pinkie's games.

"Pinkie! Where are you?" she looked around in circles finding no clues that could help her find the pony. "I'm not in the mood for any of this!" Twilight looked towards the trees and expected the baker to be in a branch somewhere. "Okay fine, I guess I'll sit here and wait for you to come out. I mean it's your time you're wasting." Twilight had a smug look on her face; she knew Pinkie would show.

Twilight waited, she grew bored after five minutes, and she fiddled with her magic. She juggled rocks with her magic and kept herself busy. Twilight grew worried and she stood up from her area.

"Pinkie. It's not funny anymore! Please come out!" She said growing worried for her friend.

"TWILIGHT RUUUUUUN!"

Twilight was spun around by a pink blur. Twilight followed the flash as she was instructed.

"Pinkie! What's wrong?" Twilight asked as she galloped next to the earth pony.

"The Seaponies! They're coming!" Pinkie explained. The purple mare noticed that Pinkie had a jar on her back.

"Seaponies?"

"They want their Seajelly back!" Pinkie shouted. The bubbly pony began running on her hind legs; she carried the jar of sea green jelly in her fore hooves. Pinkie dipped her hoof in and sucked the jelly on it, her face changed into a relaxed expression.

"Pinkie! We don't have time for that!" Twilight scolded. She levitated the jar beside her so Pinkie wouldn't be distracted.

"Quickly, to the edge of the plains!" Pinkie advised.

"Which way is the plains?"

"Umm, this way!" Pinkie said, she bolted towards the left, and Twilight followed behind. The two dodged trees, jumped over rocks, and cleared large gaps as an attempt to get away from the "seaponies" that Pinkie saw. The two ran for what seemed like minutes, and the two found themselves at another clearing. The only difference was that there was a large pond in the middle.

"Where are we?"

"Just watch my back! I need to make another go at this!" Pinkie ordered.

"What?! I thought we were running away from them, not going to their homes!" Twilight screamed.

"Just cover me, and tell me if they're coming." Pinkie said.

Twilight watched the earth pony jump into the pond. The water was murky enough to make Pinkie vanish on contact.

Again, Twilight played the waiting game again. She looked around and saw nothing, so she messed with her magic again.

squelch!

"What was that?" Twilight looked around for the source of the sound.

squelch!

"Pinkie? Is that you?"

squelch!

"It's not funny!" Twilight yelled. She stood up and held her horn up the source of the noise.

There was no reason for Twilight not to be astonished on what she saw. There was a pony that stuck its head out of the water. It looked back at her with a frightened expression. Twilight showed a weak smile to establish that she meant no harm. The seapony's expression changed from a scared to a curious expression. The seapony rose out the water, revealing a pair of gills on its neck. The seapony looked up at Twilight and opened its mouth wide,

"squelch!"

"So it was you." Twilight said, satisfied that she found an answer. The seapony smiled and did a small flip in the pond and flashed its fins. Twilight giggled and the seapony splashed a moderate amount of water at her.

"I can't believe seaponies are actually real!" Twilight said to the water bound pony. Twilight's spirits rose as the playful seapony did its thing in the pond. The unicorn had way too much fun to notice bubbles rising on the surface.

Pinkie rose up on the surface with another two pairs of seajelly and said,

"Twilight I got the seajelly! And none of them know." As soon as she finished the sentence, the seapony turned towards Pinkie. The water-born horse's face changed. Its eyes changed from its normal white eyeballs to pitch black. Its pupils midlife from blue to red. The seapony screeched a high pitched tone that rang through the two's ears.

"Uh-oh." Was all Pinkie could say as she ran out of the pond. "I told you to warn me when they're coming!"

"I thought they were harmless!" Twilight shot back.

"They're not when you steal their seajellies!" Pinkie explained. Twilight realized they were back in the same predicament they were in before. Twilight took the jars of seajelly and sent it to another location to keep from slowing them down.

"Wait why are we running if they can't leave water?" Twilight asked, slowing down.

"You don't know anything about seaponies do you!?"

"I didn't even know they were real!" Twilight stopped moving and Pinkie stopped along with her. The unicorn and the earth pony were quiet; both hoping they outran the creatures. Twilight faintly heard the same squelching sound, she waited for a minute and heard the sound repeated.

The sound repeated itself at a much faster rate, and they knew that there were a lot of them. They ran into a large cave while avoiding extremely ticked-off seaponies. The further in they went, the darker it got, and Twilight eventually had to resort to using her magic to illuminate the area. They heard the slimy sound echo through the cave, and the light from the magic shut off. The sound disappeared and the two let out a large sigh.

Drip!

Twilight used her magic to light up the room. They were surrounded by a large amount of the seaponies. They all seemed to have sprouted aqua colored legs that matched their coats. They inched closer to the terrified mares. Each step they took caused another one of their squelching sounds. The lavender unicorn flared her horn with magic; turning around in circles to ward off the attacking sea creatures.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" Twilight threatened.

"They don't understand Equestrian." Pinkie whispered. Twilight now knew that there was no getting through with them. The unicorn fired a bolt of magic at a seapony, and she watched it disintegrate into a puddle of water.

"What the?" Twilight said; she shot another one at an unsuspecting ocean pony. Once again it vaporized into water.

"They're made of water!"

"Duh, that's why they're called seaponies!" Pinkie's shouting caused the seaponies to circle in closer. Pinkie Pie grabbed Twilight's neck and aimed it at the attackers. "Back up! I have a unicorn and I'm not afraid to use it!" The party pony pointed Twilight's horn at a large group that covered the exit. She forced Twilight to fire by yanking her neck and yelling "Fire!" every seapony in the way was a puddle after Pinkie forced another shot.

"Come on Twilight! They won't be like that for long," said the baker as she dropped Twilight and booked it to the train. Twilight followed behind, obviously not wanting to deal with their wrath.

"How do we know that they're not going to follow us to the train?" Twilight asked her friend.

"Seaponies don't want to be discovered by regular ponies. It's in their nursery rhyme."

"The ponies from sea,

A sight to behold,"

"Not now Pinkie!" Twilight scolded while jumping over a giant root in her way.

"Fine, I'll finish it later." Pinkie Pie said; she lead the way to the train. After about a few minutes of running, they reached the train tracks without any more scares from the seaponies.

"I think.. We're safe now." Twilight said as she was regaining her breath.

"Twilight, look." Pinkie said. The two looked out back into the dense forest. There were bright turquoise eyes that stared at them. There were high pitched squeals and rustling in the bushes. There was a large collective hiss before dripping sounds signaled their departure. A stewardess of the train came out of the side with an annoyed expression on her face.

"I specifically told everyone not to wander off too far." She scolded.

"Well I guess I wasn't paying attention." She said, slightly ashamed.

"And I didn't care!" Pinkie said hyper actively.

"At least you girls came back." She said, "actually, I think nopony else noticed." The attendant left the two ponies alone and went back into a train car.

"Well! I'm going back to my room." Twilight said, trotting away from the Pink pony.

"Wait! You have my-" She was interrupted as the train door shut in front of her. Twilight was already inside the train, and presumably already in her room.

"Seajelly..."

~~

As Twilight napped she remembered the gift that Celestia kept secret. It was a decently-sized book of complicated spells that should have understood by ponies five years older than her. She was slightly embarrassed to admit to herself that she enjoyed the chocolate cake better. The book of spells kept her occupied in her down time, but it seemed a bit anticlimactic after the extravagant cake.

At first she was able to avoid chocolate for at least a week and a half. Though during the short time span she would often think about buying some on her own. She thought back to her parent's and remembered that they had an almost forced smile when they allowed her to eat the cake. She felt bad because she figured her parents worked so hard to keep her from eating unhealthy.

The student unicorn was off on her own for the afternoon. She walked down the streets of her hometown of Canterlot. She had seen some of the candy stores nearby and she felt tempted to buy a small bag of chocolates. She looked into the window and looked at the items on sale: Chocolate dipped strawberries, apples, oranges and rare fruits that she's never even heard of. It was the price that changed her mind into coming in.

"Seven bits for one strawberry!" Twilight complained, she admitted that Canterlot was a city with many tourists from around the world. Logically the city's prosperous economy seemed to make the prices of each store jump up higher than any other town in Equestria. She looked for anypony that might have worked there. But a small out for lunch sign made her turn away.

"I'll just go somewhere else." Twilight sighed to herself.

"Oh no you don't little madam!" An obvious fake French accent came from behind her.

"Aah! Who are you?" Twilight asked, The tall, slim stallion gave her a suave smile.

"I'm the proprietor of this fine establishment." He said, opening the door to the store.

"Oh okay." Twilight said awkwardly, I have never actually came here.

"Wait a minute, you've lived in Canterlot for how long, and you never came to The Three Chocolatiers?"

"Three Chocolatiers?"

"Clever right? Came up with it myself. Let's go inside and sell you some chocolate."

"I don't have much money." Twilight said a bit nervous, the stallion wasn't bothered at all.

"I don't necessarily care. I just need somepony to talk to." He said with a hint of despair.

"I never caught your name." Twilight said.

"My name is Choco-Jaque." He said, causing the filly to giggle at the strange name.

"Of course it is," she said after her giggling fit.

"What's so funny?" He asked, frowning slightly.

"Oh nothing, so you were saying you were alone?"

"Oh yes, I'm afraid I'm a lone chocolatier. My other two amicos-"

"That's not French."

"What? Of course it is."

"No it's Italian, and it has nothing to do with your accent."

"Now how's a filly like you going to tell me I don't know French?" Jacque asked with arrogance.

"I've studied a lot of languages in my spare time." Twilight said modestly, but the stallion seemed to be getting annoyed.

"Anyway my other two thirds of the Three Chocolatiers decided to go out to a very secret only known by true chocolate makers convention without me!" He said outraged, "I guess somepony had to hold down the fort this time."

"When I get my hooves on Coco Puff, and Dark Chocolate I'll... Well let's not worry about that just yet. Exacting revenge isn't exactly my forte," Jacque said, adding an extra syllable at the end. Twilight grimaced at the mispronunciation. "What?"

"It's pronounced fort not 'fortay' "Twilight said annoyed a bit herself.

"It can be pronounced either way."

"Well that's because nopony could pronounce it right." Twilight bantered.

"It doesn't matter it's Italian!" Jacque raised his voice at his customer.

"Actually it's French." Twilight chimed, causing the stallion to groan indignantly.

"You know what? You could just leave."

"What?" Twilight asked angrily, the stallion opened the entrance door and signaled the unicorn to exit.

"Auf Wiedersehen mein mademoiselle." Jacque said as he forced the unicorn outside.

"So close!" Twilight shouted. In a matter of seconds Twilight was back on the streets of Canterlot.

"Well that was a great waste of time"

~One Day Later~

The teenage unicorn had another short break from her studies, and this time she planned to actually to have some chocolate before her break was over. She wasn't going to be distracted by the glamorous lure of expensive candy stores, or be sidetracked by snobbish ponies. She walked down a different street to the east of the Princess' castle. She walked around and eventually stumbled upon a shabby doughnut shop.

"I guess I'll walk in then," she said to herself. She opened the door, and she felt warmer than before. She nervously walked towards the display case in the other side of the shop. There was a large stallion behind the counter; his attention turned towards the donuts in the fryer. He had a cream colored coat and a messy brown mane, he had a large pink doughnut with sprinkles as his cutie mark. Twilight trotted over to the register and anxiously rang the bell.

The doughnut maker turned around and gave Twilight a large friendly grin.

"I haven't seen you around here. What's your name miss?" He asked nicely.

"Twilight Sparkle," she said uneasily. The stallion picked up on this and he gave her space. Twilight felt that the burly unicorn did not present himself as charmingly as Choco-Jacque, but she wasn't going to let it affect her.

"My name's Joe, but everypony calls me Donut Joe. How can I help you?"

"Uh, I'd like... One chocolate doughnut please." Twilight said, the stallion gave her an odd look.

"Anything else?" He asked,

"No." Twilight answered quietly.

"Would you like sprinkles?" Joe asked.

"No thanks." Twilight answered,

"That'll be one bit." Joe said, Twilight paid him quickly and he bent over to the case with donuts. The baker levitated two donuts and put them in the bag. She looked up at him and

"Excuse me, I asked for one." Twilight spoke up to get his attention.

"The price is one bit for two doughnuts."

"Well okay, I think." Twilight went over to an empty seat in the corner of the shop. She opened the bag up and reached for one of the recently fried doughnuts. She leaned forward and took a small bite; the taste wasn't as great as the cake she had over a week ago. Though she savored the first doughnut and enjoyed her baked treat with her inexperienced taste buds.

She finished the first of the two and felt a bit strange; the unhealthy, fried snack definitely didn't agree with her. Her stomach groaned in discontent. The snack wasn't that filling and she wasn't willing to find out the calorie intake of just one of the circular treats. She looked at the second chocolate frosted doughnut, and she was tempted to eat the second one, but she closed the bag up.

"I guess Spike could enjoy one of these." Twilight said, thinking about the infant dragon that lived with her. Ever since Twilight hatched the baby dragon, Spike was attached to her. Twilight theorized that it must have mistaken her as his mother, similar to what most birds and other egg-born creatures did by instinct. Twilight treated Spike as a younger brother more than an assistant in his earlier years.

Whenever Twilight studied, the purple dragon would try his best to help out by bringing her the books she needed, or the occasional snack. Even at a young age Spike proved himself useful to the unicorn. She decided that her assistant deserved a reward for his seemingly thankless efforts.

Twilight was caught up in her thought that she failed to notice somepony in front of her. On impact she dropped her bag, scrambling for it almost immediately.

"Oh sorry about that Miss." Twilight said.

"It's okay Twilight," a familiar voice said. The filly instantly recognized it as her mother's teasing voice.

"Sorry mom, I didn't know it was you." Twilight said, embarrassed by the fact she didn't even notice he own mother. Star Sparkle laughed it off and Twilight joined awkwardly.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Star asked.

"I'm off for at least half an hour." Twilight explained. Her mother gave the teenager an understanding smile.

"Twilight dear," her mother asked worriedly, "What's in the bag?"

"Just a snack for Spike," she said quietly.

"Another gemstone? I'm starting to think Spike's diet is too expensive." Twilight's mother added.

"Actually I decided to go cheaper," she said a bit triumphantly. She opened the bag and showed her mom the chocolate doughnut.

"Are you sure he's going to like that? I mean it's pony food and all." Star Sparkle asked, looking at the fried food in the bag.

"He liked the cake I brought him last week." Twilight said. Twilight's mother stared at her daughter with a transfixed expression. She wasn't paying attention and Twilight noticed after a brief rambling session. "Is something wrong mother?"

"Nothing, you just have something in your teeth." Star explained, pointing towards the section with the remains of the doughnut.

"At least I know where I got my perfectionist side." Twilight thought, trying to remove the evidence.

"Twilight, honey."

"Yeah mom?" Twilight asked her mother.

"You don't have to lie to me." Star Sparkle said, " I don't mind at all that you like chocolate. It's only natural."

"I wasn't lying. I didn't like the doughnut that much anyway." Twilight explained.

"When I was pregnant with you, I had the overwhelming craving for some chocolate ice cream every other day."

"Mom, stop." Twilight said, her face turning as red an apple. Twilight's mother smiled and stroked Twilight's mane.

"I remember your father bringing me chocolate cake at three in the morning, or chocolate chip cookies for breakfast."

"Mother, please you're embarrassing me." Twilight begged.

"Your dad always joked that you would be born with chocolate all over your muzzle." Star Sparkle continued, making sure Twilight wouldn't forget her story. Twilight's face showed how much she was embarrassed.

"Stop don't do this in public." Twilight said, hoping her mom would stop.

"What I'm trying to say is, don't go overboard. Eventually you'll start gaining more than you could lose. And if I wanted a fat little filly, I would've gotten one." Star Sparkle said, causing Twilight to chuckle.

"Okay mom, I won't." Twilight agreed, hoping her mother would go away.

"And don't even get me started on the acne!"

"Okay I get it. I have to go back now." Twilight interrupted, slowly backing away from her over dramatic mother.

~~

"Twilight get up!" The bubbly voice rang in her year. Twilight groaned, being woken up rudely again wasn't expected.

"Unless our train was stolen this time, I'm not getting up." Twilight complained.

"Well the repair ponies came by and their working on the tracks right now."

"Yay," Twilight cheered sarcastically, "Can I go to sleep now?"

"Nope! We're making s'mores!" Pinkie Pie yelled with glee. Twilight pondered whether or not to go out in the coldness of the night just for a few s'mores. The baker looked to Twilight with a pleading expression.

"Okay, if it'll make you happy." Twilight said, giving in to her friend's wishes again.

Twilight had a habit of making terrible judgments when it came to something seemingly harmless. She was freezing to say the least. She clutched the blanket to her body, trying to conserve her warmth. Twilight watched Pinkie fumble over the fire pit. Even though it was close to freezing temperature, Pinkie Pie showed no hint to being cold at all.

"The colt said all it takes is a good strike." Pinkie said, holding a match in her hooves. Twilight quickly lost patience and cast a fire spell at the pile of wood, not even caring that Pinkie might have been caught on fire.

The fire pit erupted into a giant ball of orange and yellow. The warm flickering light easing Twilight to take off the blanket and bask in the warmth of the fire. Pinkie stared warming her hooves against the fire. The sight of the inviting fire caused ponies to leave the train. After a few minutes there was a large circle with families, couples, and lone travelers. They spent their time telling stories and singing songs. After a few hours of a cliche campfire scene, the passengers decided to go back into the train; leaving Twilight, Pinkie Pie and the almost nonexistent flame.

"I think I'm going to bed." Twilight said, getting up from her position next to the fire.

"We haven't even made the s'mores!" Pinkie intervened, blocking the unicorn's path.

"But nopony else is out." Twilight whined.

"More for us then!"

Twilight sat down on the ground and cast a spell that caused the fire to rise up brighter than it was earlier.

"Twilight, bring out the seajellies!" Pinkie Pie shouted, signaling her friend to bring out the jars she stashed away. Twilight complied and pulled out one of the three jars they managed to snag from the seaponies. Pinkie took out the rest of the materials. Twilight prepared the s'mores with her magic, and she noticed the lack of chocolate.

"Where's the chocolate?" Twilight asked, "You can't have s'mores without chocolate."

"Says the pony who just tried them last year." Pinkie added. Pinkie brought out a few chocolate bars and tossed them at Twilight. The unicorn happily added them to the rest of the treats. Twilight was ready to set the snacks up to the fire.

"Wait don't!"

"Why?"

"Add the seajelly!" Pinkie instructed, opening the jar and gave it to the unicorn. Twilight added the sea green jelly on the campfire snacks. She had no idea how it might have tasted. She decided to sample the seajelly. At first she tasted seawater, and she decided she wouldn't try it again. She swallowed the seajelly and it gave her an overall warmness, making her retract her decision. She tried it again and the taste of saltwater disappeared; it was instead replaced by an almost honey type of flavor. She felt the warmness wash over her again; like a child wrapped up in blankets, sipping hot chocolate in front of a fire place.

"Like it?" Pinkie Pie asked, Twilight nodded before shoving another hooffull in her mouth. "Just don't eat it all."

"I won't," she defended, using a spoon this time to eat the jelly slowly.

"The first of many," the earth pony said while taking a bite of the s'more.

"Tons," the unicorn added.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie ate the s'mores talking about random subjects. While they talked, Twilight was absentmindedly eating the jar full of jelly. After a while Twilight felt numb; the seajelly's side effects causing her to lull into sleep.

~~

Twilight drowsily awoke to the sounds of a train's engine getting ready to leave. The unicorn felt numbness all over her body and she didn't care. Twilight was in a state of euphoria, and payed no attention; but she felt a dragging sensation pull on her. Twilight wasn't able to feel the jagged rocks and sharp twigs she happened to by scrape as she was pulled.

"Twilight! Wake up, we have to go now!" Pinkies panicked voice yelled.

"Hmm? No I'm fine here." Twilight mumbled.

"Trust me, we have to go now!" Pinkie continued, "The trains leaving! Twi' let's go!" Pinkie continued, forcing the unicorn through the dirt and muck of the ground.

"Just a few more minutes..." She droned, before she fell back asleep.

"You just had to eat the whole jar! After I told you not to!" Pinkie Pie scolded, wishing to herself that she was unicorn.

Pinkie's heart nearly stopped when she heard the creak of the breaks and the release of steam.

Twilight Vs. Flashbacks

Twilight Vs. Flashbacks

"Adventure!" Pinkie Pie beamed, and she spoke for the both of them since they now had renewed strength and renewed spirits. Pinkie Pie had learned from her mistake the day before and instead walked as opposed to skipping around mindlessly. The unicorn made sure to keep their stride and to not fall behind schedule; Twilight was good at keeping things to a schedule.

"If we walk at this pace for the next forty two hours we could get to the nearest town." Twilight stated using her knowledge of maps and the position of the stars in the pre-dawn sky.

"Which is?" Pinkie inquiried, thinking of the many cities in Equestria.

"If we choose not to climb to Canterlot, which is totally impractical. The next closest town is Hollow Shades." Twilight announced, causing the pink pony to look at Twilight in confusion. "Since you haven't brushed up on your geography in a while, Hollow Shades is the city in the woods. You know, the other gateway to Fillydelphia."

"Sounds like a nice place," she guessed, thinking about the city. The earth pony thought of it as a town situated in the trees. Homes were tethered to the trees and suspended bridges connecting the buildings together.

"Twilight, what are ya gonna do when we get to Choco-con?" Pinkie asked.

"Get myself a chocolate sundae," she answered fantasizing a large dish an ice cream drowned in chocolate sauce.

"Sounds nice. Me, I'll just eat the first thing I see, and it doesn't matter if I could buy it or not."

"You know what we could use?" Twilight asked, trying her best to straighten her mane.

"What?"

"A nice relaxing bath." Twilight answered, wiping the dirt and mud off of her purple coat.

"With warm water," the pink one added happily. They were counting down the seconds until they reached the nearest city; both of them eager to rest. Pinkie would begin to hum ballads, queuing the unicorn to join in every once in a while. Pinkie was the one who would often spark conversations, ranging from their friends to books that either of them have read before.

"What do you think they did with the luggage we left behind?"

"They probably sold everything inside." Pinkie answered in a straight forward tone.

"In just a day?" Twilight asked unconvinced. "The train probably hasn't even finished its course."

"Just being positive." Pinkie chided, balancing herself on the railroad tracks.

"So how was your childhood like? You know, growing up on a rock farm." Twilight asked.

"Boring." Pinkie summed up. "Everyday was just harvesting. The rocks just never stopped appearing."

"How about your family?" Twilight pried, imagining a filly Pinkie Pie harvesting rocks.

"They were nice, and my sisters were pretty cool, but the rock-farming life wasn't for me, so I left." Pinkie stated.

They stopped talking and continued their trek after Pinkie made it clear that she did not want to talk; a first for the pink pony and the unicorn. They stopped the moment when they heard the sound of running water.

"Please tell me that's Neighagra Falls," the lavender pony begged, wishing that the journey was at least halfway done. Twilight looked towards the ground, not wanting to spoil the surprise.

"No," the other answered, "It's just the Canterlot mountain." Twilight groaned at the news, and hung her head lower than before.

"Crud."

"And to your right you'll see the wonderful Foal Mountain chain!" Pinkie said, faking a tour guide's voice. The former rock farmer nudged her friend to assist in ending her boredom.

"And Clouds Dale is North-East, and I say it looks wonderful today!" Twilight chimed in, joining Pinkie's next attempt at mild entertainment. "And in two hours, thirty-two minutes and twelve seconds, we'll finally get to Neighagra Falls."

"What's up with you and Neighagra Falls." Pinkie Pie asked, noting the mentions of the waterfall during their walk. Twilight didn't have anything to hide, so she wanted to answer her friend's question.

"Nothing, it's just the halfway point to Fillydelphia. I just like keeping up with the schedule. It's also where we'll be spending the night." Twilight answered, earning a look of understanding from the filly.

"Makes sense," the baker replied.

"So what about you? Surely you had some great experience growing up in Canterlot."

"Meh, it was nothing but a lot of self-aggrandizing ponies." Twilight admitted.

"Like you?" Pinkie Pie teased, noticing Twilight insult her own hometown.

"Sort of," she bantered. The purple pony did like her childhood, but she felt that she needed to seem as self-loathing of her past as Pinkie Pie.

"You didn't answer my question." Pinkie Pie pointed out.

"What was it?" Twilight dodged. It was obvious that she was faking her forgetfulness.

"Your childhood." Pinkie reminded, looking at the unicorn.

"Fine." Twilight agreed, "I was fourteen, and I was beginning to grow a little... Portly."

"Nice," the element of laughter joked, giggling all the while.

~~

"Hey Twilight, do you want the usual?" Donut Joe asked politely, looking at the somber unicorn. The fact that she was referred to by name and had a "usual" didn't help her problem, so she sighed in discontent. The stallion noticed her change in attitude, and he racked his mind for something to help brighten her spirits.

"No just get me a chocolate doughnut. Extra sprinkles." Twilight ordered quietly, emphasizing her need for sprinkles. Joe nodded and went back to work, calling the names of ponies who had ordered food. Twilight sat back in her booth in the corner, sniffling quietly to herself.

"Is something wrong?" Joe asked, prepping the doughnut. The stallion began to pour her a glass of chocolate milk as a simple way of cheering her up.

Donut Joe placed the drink in front of her, and he walked away to serve another pony. Twilight muttered a thank you and began eating her treat. She would have liked to say the teasing had stopped after lunch, but it didn't and the constant gossip about her began to dig itself into her thoughts. Twilight used the thought that they were just jealous of her as a way to console herself. The idea was conceded, but it was enough to make her feel better. Twilight stifled an urge to cry out in public, so she took solace in the chocolate sprinkled doughnut and chocolate milk.

The purple unicorn let the sweetness of the fried good melt on her tongue; the bookworm chewed it slowly, cursing herself on her irresponsible snacking habits. It wasn't her fault that she would gourge on the chocolate, and she told herself if she wasn't deprived of the sweets as a filly she would have been better off. She pointed out to herself that he was being childish for blaming her problem on anypony but herself. She knew she had to admit it was her problem, but she found it hard to admit she had a problem.

"And you still ate it?" Pinkie questioned, raising her eyebrow at the unicorn.

"Well yeah, I was hungry. Plus it was free." Twilight reasoned.

"And you're still paying for it." Pinkie remarked snidely, and she smiled innocently after the comment to make up for the joke.

"You're not overweight sweetheart," the student's mother consoled; Star had seen the distress in the little filly's eyes, and she knew she had to cheer up her depressed daughter.

"I'm a portly pig! A Bloated Blob! Tubby Twilight! Fat Fu-" she was caught up in her unneeded anger, and she forgot about who she was talking with. Almost swearing in front of her mother.

"Woah calm down Twilight," she interrupted, forcing the frustrated filly into her forehooves. "It's okay, and with a little dieting and exercise you'll be back to your slim self sweetie. It's all about moderation."

"So I am fat..." Twilight countered, forcing her mother to feel a sense of guilt; Twilight didn't mean to react like that, but she had a certain thing in her mind that forced her to be brash to other ponies.

"No I didn't mean it like that!" Star retracted, knowing she was just making things worse. "I was j-just!"

"It's okay mother," she forgave quickly.

"We'll run every morning." Start Sparkle suggested, hoping to remove the sad look on her face.

"Okay," she agreed apathetically, nodding her head.

"So were you fat or not?" Pinkie asked.

"I don't think so, but I think I slimmed down after that point."

"One scoop of cherry chocolate sundae please," the purple filly ordered happily. The ice cream server smiled warmly, and she scooped up the chocolate ice cream, giving it to the waiting Twilight.

"You didn't learn anything."

"Nope, not at all."

"That's definitely different." Twilight sighed in discontent, peering down at the scale. Her weight had increased a bit more than the last time she checked. Her heart sank as the needle had surpassed the number of her previous weight. Her efforts in losing weight had failed, not exponentially, but it was enough to ruin her day. Twilight groaned to nopony in particular, slamming her head against the wall in despair. "Why. Can't. I. Stop. Eating. Chocolate!?" The Princess' student walked out of the bathroom; the unicorn checked the date and knew it was time for one of her weekly learning sessions with Celestia.

Twilight sprinted past the halls of the castle, hauling herself around to make sure she wasn't late. After a minute or two, she began to lose her pace, sweating and panting heavily. The filly finally reached Celestia's study, only to find Celestia sipping tea calmly. The princess' looked at the exhausted unicorn with a stunned expression.

"H-hi Princess," she greeted anxiously, breathing deep breaths after talking.

"My Twilight... You've... Grown." Celestia stated calmly, hiding a smug smirk behind her tea cup. Twilight on the other hand didn't know what to do with the comment made by her mentor. Twilight decided against making some sly come back and instead she chose to sit across from her. The princess began to demonstrate certain spells, lecturing the unicorn on the proper stances, the origin of the spell, and eventually, how to perform them. Hours passed, and Twilight found herself enjoying the time she spent with the princess. Twilight took specific notes, ad Celestia seemed to have been writing her own notes as well.

"I guess this will conclude our session." Celestia said, rising from her seated position. "Feel free to practice here if you like." Twilight nodded in understanding, and she looked back at a set of notes she had prepared during the lesson. Celestia left the room, and Twilight couldn't help but stare at the spell book across from her. She studied her spells before looking up at Celestia's spell book that she had left behind. Twilight would glare from her notes to Celestia's book, sliding closer to the edge.

"One look couldn't hurt," she reasoned; the curiosity finally getting to her. The unicorn trotted towards the open book; she saw the spells she had learned earlier along with an extra spell written in the bottom right corner.

Diet Spell

"A diet spell?" asked the slightly overweight pony. She thought back on her earlier experience since her recent promotion to a higher grade. The unicorn liked the idea of showing up to school skinnier than before, but she wanted it to be noticeable enough. Twilight knew it was better to lose weight in small installments instead of losing as much as needed like an irrational pony might have done, but she began to fight herself on deciding whether or not it was right to do it.

The unicorn thought to herself that it might have been left for her on purpose, and another half of her knew it was wrong to take the easy way out. Maybe it was another test from Celestia, or was she just trying to help? Twilight thought back on her teacher's comment and figured out that it wasn't a mistake.

She weighed the risks and the rewards, finding the rewards much more worth the risks. Twilight read the instructions carefully before writing it down in an isolated page in the notebook. Twilight made a mental note to thank the princess if it worked.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Twilight asked nervously.

"When are you going to learn?" Pinkie Pie sighed, knowing exactly what was coming next.

Author's Note

If you haven't noticed, I'm a really big fan of alliteration.

The Inevitable Plot Twist

"Who knew there was a hollowed out cavern right behind Neighagra Falls?" Pinkie asked. She looked out through the waterfall that the cave was convieniently hidden behind.

"Again, if you brushed up on your geography or Equestrian modern history, you would have known that. Neighagra falls used to be a tourist trap." Twilight answered, pointing towards a decomposing candy cart. The pink mare began to scavenge for any left over candy, finding stale taffy and a long expired bag of fruit snacks.

"Aw, somepony beat us to the good loot," she whined, chewing the rock solid candy; the sound of bricks braking echoing through the cavern. "Needs some seajelly." Pinkie turned towards Twilight with a facial expression that said, "hand it over." Twilight shook her head, denying her friend of the substance that had screwed them over.

"No way, I think the seajelly has done enough to us." Twilight refused.

"But it's all we have left for food right?" Pinkie begged, grasping the unicorn's leg.

"You're right," the unicorn answered. "We'll just have small doses if we need to, but for now expired candy will work." Twilight grabbed a large clump of taffy. "Mmm. Strawberries."

"I'm jonesing real bad Twilight. I need that seajelly." Pinkie begged.

"I had way more than you, and I feel fine."

"Well not everypony has a high tolerance to seajelly!"

"I ate a tree," she answered bluntly. "Which is a way better substitute than seajelly."

"But seajelly will make that tree taste like-"

"Chocolate, I know. That's why I ate it." Twilight said in a justified sense of embarrassment.

The night sky darkened as Twilight predicted, and she was glad that they were even slightly ahead of her schedule; besides the fact that they were left behind by the train and were missing the convention by two or so days. Pinkie Pie slumped against the wall, reaching out for the discarded sweets.

"Twilight, how long do you think it'll take until somepony actually goes looking for us?" Pinkie asked, looking beyond the opening of the cave. The view of Equestria magnified with the rushing water.

"The search will probably start the moment we reach Fillydelphia." Twilight joked.

"Two mares declared missing found ten minutes later in Fillydelphia." Pinkie Pie said, imagining the headline. They giggled at the silly thought and watched the water rush past them; the magnified view of Equestria at sunset giving them a breathtaking view. What was even more breathtaking was the train passing the waterfall. The two watched the train move by. accompanied with a chance of getting picked up along the way.

The sheer cold of the night was something that neither of them wanted to experience again. The water often splashed away from the path and would splash Twilight or Pinkie Pie with the near freezing water.

"Not again..." Twilight groaned, wiping the liquid out of her mane. She was absolutely freezing, and was forcing herself in a fetal position to keep warmth in her body. Twilight then thought of the seajelly; some of the after effects that produce a warm feeling finally presenting itself useful.

"If the situation called for it, I think I could risk another attack." Twilight conjured the jar in front of her; she stuck her hoof into the jar and ate a hooffull of it. Seconds later she felt her internal body temperature rise, and the warm feeling engulfed her again. Her second dose of the seajelly seemed to have been more responsive; the effects happening in seconds rather than minutes. Twilight thought it was a good thing since she had to eat less, but the hallucinations told a different story.

Twilight looked into the reflection of herself in the water. She saw that she had wings sprouting from her back; she tried to move them and they moved like she had commanded them to. She ran her hoof across the feathers, feeling the soft slippery feathers. She smiled a wide goofy smile and turned to her sleeping friend.

"Hey I have wings!" Twilight shouted, receiving a groan from her friend.

"Cool." Pinkie said lazily, turning to her side away from the unicorn.

"I'm just gonna go and take these wings out for a spin,' she said, looking to her sleeping friend for approval. Pinkie Pie only waved her hoof to give her blessing on an ill advised attempt at flying. Especially since Twilight had a pair of make believe wings.

Twilight looked out to the edge of the waterfall. The sounds of water smacking the bottom the only noise in the cave. Twilight bent her legs and prepped herself for an optimal running position. The purple unicorn took off running towards the gap; her hoofsteps echoing in the cavern. She reached the edge and jumped, blasting through the water. She closed her eyes and let the breeze hit her. She extended her nonexistent wings and felt the wind pick up more.

Twilight opened her eyes and found herself falling towards the basin in which the waterfall emptied out, and she didn't care that she was going to fall into a body of water that will give her hypothermia. She fell into the rough waters; she felt nothing but warmth in the pool. Twilight let herself just float lifelessly. The unicorn ran out of air in her lungs, and the water rushed into her mouth. Twilight didn't feel any pain and she let herself just drown, growing more and more unconscious by the second.

~~

The filly Twilight glared at the bathroom scale that determined her current weight. The little red needle dragged itself across the insignificant early numbers of the scale. The scale began to sway from left to right; teasing the filly with its shakiness. It swung side to side, eventually slowing to a stop. The girl looked to the scale to see her weight.

She was five pounds heavier than the last time she checked.

The unicorn shrieked loud enough to be heard in the halls of the castle. She dove face first into her bed and shouted into the muffling fibers of the pillows. She cursed everypony she knew; she cursed Celestia, the school ponies, her parents, but not once has she mentioned chocolate or any other types of sweets that were most likely the root cause of her problem. It was a few minutes of her complaining and whining before there was a loud knock on her door.

"Twily? Is something wrong?" Shining Armor's concerned voice came from the other side of her dorm's door. She used her magic to open the door, letting in her worried older brother inside. The white unicorn noticed the purple lump that made sniffling noises on the bed. Her joined her on the bed and ran an armored hoof through her mane. He muttered soft words to comfort her, and she eventually stopped her wails.

"All better?" Shining asked, smiling warmly at her. Twilight nodded, and she sat up next to him. "Now tell your big brother what's wrong." Twilight nodded again and told him a long story on the teasing from the school ponies and her weight gain. She left out the details of the diet spell Celestia left for her. The filly didn't want her older brother to look down on her for using a spell like that. "Don't listen to what everypony has to say about you. There's always going to be that one jerk that will always come up with a snide comment, but it's nothing to be self centered." He paused for a minute to let the unicorn take in the advice that the unicorn had heard hundreds of times before.

"Now I have to. My commander's going to chew my ear off for leaving." Shining said, rising from the bed. Twilight had a look on her face that pleaded to her BBBFF to stay with her. "Who's your best BBFF?"

"You are," she said with a small hint of glee in her voice, finally connecting with someone that said something wise. Her mother was nice, but she wasn't a person to talk to in her times of needs since she would always tell embarrassing stories of her foalhood.

"I know," he said cockily, running out the door to rejoin his training schedule.

~~

Twilight began to cough and sputter; the seajelly's effect had worn off, and the unicorn was coughing up full glasses of water. The purple unicorn saw the pink pony that she had assumed had just rehabilitated her, and by the looks of her own half open mouth and strange scent and taste of cupcake on her breath and mouth, she did not want to know how. Pinkie muttered to herself something along the lines of thank Celestia.

"What just happened?"

"Hypocrite," the baker insulted, shunning the purple librarian. "You said I can't have seajelly, so you kept it all to yourself!" Twilight felt bad, knowing full well that she had told her friend to not eat the seajelly.

"Sorry, It's just that it was freezing and-"

"And you think I'm not?" Pinkie asked, gesturing to her straight, wet mane, presumably from diving in to save her. Twilight noticed that this was one of the first times that Pinkie Pie was genuinely angry.

"We're cold, wet, hungry..." Twilight came up with a short list of things to complain about. Pinkie's anger faded quickly, and she returned to her bubbly self as she now knew her friend was okay.

"I think we're all rested up." Pinkie said, picking up her fallen friend.

"Yeah the earlier we head out the better."

Sixteen hours. That's how long they have been walking. Sixteen long hours of nothing but walking, and by that point they ran out of any possible conversation other than a series of pained grunts and groans. Just saying that they were starving was an understatement. Neither of them had a proper meal in at least two days, and it was beginning to kill their stamina. The two did whatever they can to nourish themselves. Walking for several hours tends to bring out the hunger in ponies.

They scavenged berry bushes, stealing berries from angry woodland creatures if they needed to. Of course Twilight triple checked the berries to make sure none were poisonous, using her extensive knowledge of fruits and herbs. Twilight would levitate it in front of her eye, stare at it, and then deem it safe before eating it.

"Safe," the unicorn said before levitating another berry in her mouth. "Safe... Safe. Uh... Safe." Pinkie Pie instead shoved hooffulls of berries into her open mouth.

Of course with Twilight being too over cautious, she scolded the other careless pony on not being careful with her food. Pinkie Pie didn't seem happy by the constant nagging of her friend and said,

"Well I guess I'm not too over careful because of a ten foot pole up my butt!" Pinkie combated, earning a shocked look from the unicorn.

"I'm sorry..." Pinkie apologized awkwardly, stepping away from Twilight.

And no one ate dinner that night...

~~

"A pimple! I can't have a pimple!" Twilight shouted into a mirror. She had examined a minuscule blemish on her face. The zit had been conspicuously placed on her muzzle; the bright red pimple contrasted her purple coat enough to bother the filly. The obnoxious pimple was also enough to be noticed by anypony that looked at her face for more than a second. She stomped out of the bathroom and woke up the baby dragon that she shared her room with. Twilight retraced her steps, hoping to find the cause of her problems.

She had remembered her last night's study session. She was learning about the importance of communicating with other contrives that neighbored Equestria, and how they could improve the equine filled nation's economy. Of course she had her new study buddy chocolate to help her out. A sort of motivation to keep reading; she read a few pages at a time and then she would take a bite or two out of the chocolate bar. After an hours worth of studying, she noticed a substantial amount of chocolate on her muzzle.

"Chocolate doesn't cause acne. Right Spike?" Twilight looked at her assistant that slept in a basket by her bed. He didn't respond, so the cocoa faced filly used her magic to shake the baby dragon out of his slumber. He frowned at his caretaker and sat up from his makeshift bed.

"I don't know," he said in a rather annoyed tone. "I think it does..." Twilight planted her cheek directly against the table, groaning at her unwanted news. Twilight had heard countless times that the chocolate causes zits if eaten in abundance. The chicolate enthusiast often denied the statements, seeing no direct correlation between cocoa consumption and pimple production.

Her own thoughts weren't as bad as the teasing from the other students. It wasn't necessarily spiteful, but they pointed out her blemish followed with comments like "You're finally growing up," or "aww the foal's first pimple." Twilight was too embarrassed to lift her head up from the desk, anticipating another joke about her acne.

Another grueling day of school had passed, and her diet spell seemed to be useless. Maybe she didn't get something right, misspelling a word or a mispronunciation seemed to have been a logical reason.

"Ugh, just look at this!" Twilight yelled, grasping a layer of pudge around her gut. The filly was talking to herself again, using her knowledge of psychology to deduce her problems.

"Are you going to just do that all day?" Twilight's assistant asked, annoyed by the filly's complaining.

"Look at me I'm hideous!" Twilight screamed, exaggerating her lament.

"If you keep psyching yourself out it's only going to get worse," more advice from someone that Twilight should have taken to heart, but her denial for any logical advice seemed to get in the way so she could continue her consistent moaning. Just another tactic used by the common teenager to be cynical.

Well, she tried everything in her power. Everything except proper dieting and excersise, but who has time for that anyway? The unicorn decided to go straight to the interrogation. Celestia must have a method. The purple filly knew that Celestia had stuffed herself with cake. The personal protégée had accidentally caught her mentor in her time of... Feeding. It wasn't pretty. All she remembered was Celestia's jaw looking like it unhinged.

Memory wipe spells aren't at all accurate.

Luckily for her it was time for her another one of her weekly private lessons. Celestia and Twilight went about their business, doing the usual studying. Twilight began to count down the moments before Celestia had to leave to attend something important. It was now or possibly never since she might have not had the courage to confront her.

"This concludes our time for now. I'm going to have to-"

"Can I ask you something?" Twilight asked, looking up at her teacher. "Something personal..."

"I think you should talk to your mother about this."

"It's something I need you for." Twilight had said bluntly, surprising the princess with her straight-forwardness. Twilight began to pick her next words carefully: if she failed to capture her interest, Celestia would leave without saying a word, and if she hadn't articulated her words correctly Celestia would grow almost disinterested and uncooperative.

"I was kind of wondering if you left a certain spell for me on purpose..."

"No, I don't recall anything," she replied; Celestia kept a strange, stone faced formality to her cost faithful student. Twilight sighed, and she knew she had to find a tactic to pry information out of her.

"A specific 'diet spell,' does that ring a bell?"

"Nope not at all. I don't remember anything about a diet spell." Twilight was beginning to grow annoyed by the princess' stalling; the unicorn needed answers, and she was about to get them.

"Your made a comment on my weight." Twilight pointed out.

"Now that I remember." Celestia said, breaking her masterfully executed poker face with a teasing smile. Twilight seemed to have hated the insult, her expression souring at the useless information.

"Then what else do you remember?"

"I seem to recall a certain double calorie spell."

Author's Note

I use fanfics as a sort of self-therapy, but I'm pretty sure y'all noticed that already.

Also, if you think Pinkie Pie probably wouldn't say that to Twilight: take the most happy person on Earth, starve them, force them to walk for miles without rest, freeze them, have them craving for a certain off the market type of product; while their friend was enjoying it behind their back, and see if they're still cheery after that.

Civilization At Last

The rest of the walk wasn't awkward at all; it totally wasn't. At least that was what Twilight kept telling herself. The unicorn felt it was best to just let tensions fade over time; it needed a lot of time. It was very difficult to make Pinkie Pie angry, considering the fact she's the happiest mare in all of Equestria, but somehow Twilight found a way. She blamed it on their so called "adventure" which was mostly just walking and feeding on berries.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. Pinkie tried to make things right, and she almost failed.

"Okay..." Twilight replied, halfway accepting the apology. She wasn't offended at all and felt that she had to make the apology herself. "I'm sorry too."

"For what?" Pinkie asked confused by her friend's apology.

"For being prissy," she paused for a moment, "I kind of had it coming."

"And you know what?" Twilight stopped again to get her next words right. "I think that strengthened our bond. Being stuck with some pony like this isn't so bad."

"Twilight."

"I mean, we're friends. The best of friends."

"Twilight."

"We're like almost sisters now, closer than ever."

"Twi."

"Tied in a bond thicker than blood!"

"Twilight!"

"What!?" Twilight yelled indignantly, half angry that she didn't finish her monologue.

"We're here!" Pinkie Pie pointed out; Twilight then noticed that they were in the middle of a small town, presumably Hollow Shades. She then noticed homes that blended with the trees; yup, definitely Hollow Shades.

"Pinkie?" A cheery voice rang from the area. Pinkie turned instinctively at the sound of her name, only to see a cream white earth pony with a blue and pink mane. The only other chocolatier in Ponyville.

"Bon Bon!" Pinkie said cheerily, running over to her friend.

"Pinkie you look like..." Bon Bon trailed off, finding it hard to place an appropriate word without sounding rude. "A mess." Pinkie only smiled wider.

"I know," Pinkie responded quickly, changing the subject.

"What are you doing in Hollow Shades?" Bon Bon asked, keeping her cheerful attitude. Other than Pinkie Pie, Bon Bon seemed to be a pony who liked to brighten other ponies day.

"We didn't have much of a choice," she answered. "We kind of walked here."

"You did? From where? Are you two okay?" Bon Bon asked in concern for the two.

"Yeah, but I think we said some things we're not to proud of." Twilight answered.

"We're on our way to Choco-con, so we took a scenic route." Pinkie said, putting it lightly.

"You're not kidding, this route sure is pretty, but it'll cost you an extra day on getting to Fillydelphia. Lyra and I usually go through Hollow Shades before we go to Choco-con. I like the peacefulness of this town, but Lyra just loves to rush wherever she wants to go." Bon Bon rambled. The cream white pony looked over to Twilight and waved her over to join the conversation.

"So when are you going to Choco-con?" Twilight inquired, "didn't it start already?" Twilight trotted up next to the two other ponies that talked to each other. Bon Bon smiled wider as if it was a joke.

"Don't you know? Choco-con doesn't start until next week." Bon Bon laughed lightly at the expression that Twilight made. The answers didn't line up; Pinkie Pie said that the were missing the convention, but Bon Bon's answer was almost the exact opposite.

"I'm sorry it's almost as if you said it wasn't until next week." Twilight said, hoping Bon Bon would say something different this time. Its probably the lack of food, or the sun, sea jelly, extensive exercise. She wouldn't lie about the date

"That is what I said," she replied; Twilight's face imitated a melting candle as her naive smile disappeared. She twitched before she brought back an even stranger smile.

"Of course you said that," said Twilight through grit teeth. The unicorn kept her obviously fake grin.

"Pinkie, is this true?" Twilight asked, turning her head to the pink pony slowly. Twilight took to long to look over to her head and the pony she was interrogating disappeared without a trace. She sighed and mumbled to herself that she should have seen that coming. Twilight groaned loudly and trudged angrily to the nearest motel.

"Hey are you okay?" Bon Bon asked; she knocked against the door enough to grab the unicorn's attention. Bon Bon had remembered Twilight from seeing her around Ponyville; she had come in and bought some chocolate and chocolate related products. Twilight kept her conversations either short or nonexistent. Bon Bon had always figured she was shy, or she wasn't much of a social butterfly. Bon Bon had a habit of making sure everyone was okay, and it was a quality that Lyra had always described as, "sweet."

Needless to say, she began to loathe the pun after its first use.

"I'm just great," the unicorn had purposefully kept herself shut in and kept away from civilization. Why would she need to be immersed with the social world, if she had spent three days without it? Twilight wasn't sure if the fatigue had finally had gotten to her, or if the true problem was Pinkie's lie. Did Pinkie Pie do this on purpose? She dismissed the theory immediately since Pinkie Pie did try to drag her back onto the train.

Twilight opened the door telekinetically and allowed the earth pony to enter the cheaply decorated room. There was a large sulking lump in the corner. Bon Bon instinctively trotted over to the quivering unicorn. On closer inspection, she noticed that the unicorn began carving tally marks onto the walls. Bon Bon turned around and finally saw the other tally marks that adorned the room.

"Four thousand-two hundred." Twilight said quietly, admiring her work for a second. Her voice as dull as the cheap paint in the room. Bon Bon began to fear for the unicorn's mental health.

"Huh?" Bon Bon was confused by Twilight Sparkle's statement.

"Minutes I have spent with Pinkamena Diane Pie." Twilight clarified her voice continued to stay monotonous.

"I don't think the owners are going to like this," she commented, chuckling nervously at her own joke.

"And I intend not to carve anymore." Twilight finished.

"That's not a nice thing to say." Bon Bon reasoned; Twilight's tone began to unnerve the earth pony.

"Have you found Pinkie?" Twilight asked, keeping her head fixed towards the engraved tally marks.

"No, but I think I might know where she is." Bon Bon answered. Twilight's ears instantly perked up as Bon Bon now proved usefull.

"Where is she?" Twilight asked, turning to Bon Bon with an interested look.

"Next door. This inn only has like, two rooms."

~~

"Oh hey... Sister." Pinkie said, trying her best to appeal to Twilight. The pink pony was sure that bringing up the earlier monologue would help in her case, but she was sadly mistaken. Twilight Sparkle didn't want to hear whatever Pinkie Pie had as an excuse. Twilight inched closer to Pinkie, and the earth pony backed away as far as she could until she came in contact with the wall behind her. Pinkie muttered soft curses and looked towards her angry friend.

"You lied." Twilight accused; her voice no longer seeming indignant, but she did have a quiet, disappointed tone. The sudden disappearence of Twilight's anger sending a chill down everypony in the room's spine.

"I just wanted you to let loose. Go on an adventure. Get you out of your library." Pinkie continued to sputter out reasons why she could have lied. Pinkie finally ran out of excuses before she said, "It was for your own good."

"My own good? What 'good' comes from days of walking!?" Twilight snarled at her friend; the angering Twilight began to flare back up from its dormant state. "I was perfectly fine keeping to my schedule, but some maniac of a pony had to invite me to a convention that was a week away!"

"But you could have said no." Pinkie reminded, looking up at her friend with watery eyes. Twilight turned away from her friend and tried to ignore the upcoming waterworks. Twilight knew she was in the right and had every right to be angry, but Pinkie's expected sobbing always found away to penetrate her cold, calculating mind. "I still don't know why you came with me." Pinkie sniffles a bit after she spoke, obviously hamming up the tears for the unicorn.

"Well I came with you because... You're my friend." Twilight lied, keeping her real intention of gorging on chocolate at the convention a secret. "And friends... Stick together no matter what." Pinkie's ears twitched and lifted itself upright. Pinkie Pie ceased her sniffling sounds and turned to her friend.

"Friends?" Pinkie Pie's tears had faded away almost instantly. Just as Twilight had expected.

"Friends. Now let's go get something to eat." Twilight suggested, extending her hoof to lift up her now completely cheerful friend.

Author's Note

I didn't find any fics mentioning the town of Hollow Shades. Out of all cities it seems like an interesting place; secluded in the woods, sounds sort of... Serial killer-ey.

The April Fools Chapter

We now interrupt Twilight Vs. Chocolate for something completely different.

"Have you accepted Princess Celestia as your lord and savior?" said a young colt, no older than the age of ten. He asked it with absolute interest and seemed that it was rehearsed. He was accompanied by another boy who stood to the side awkwardly.

"Where are you boy's from," Twilight asked, looking at the boys with a confused expression. She had never seen anypony do this during her years in Ponyville.

"The Holy Solar Empire!" The other boy answered enthusiastically.

Twilight studied the looks of the two colts. The one that initially said the line was a light orange, with a dark brown mane. He had a pair of thick glasses on his slightly pudgy face. The other was a bright gray unicorn with a fiery red mane. Twilight felt sorry for the boys as the presented a sort of brainwashed feel.

They train them that young?

"The what-now?" Twilight asked, looking strangely at the two boys who simply smiled up at her.

"We operate on the outskirts of town, so maybe that's why you haven't heard of us," he explained.

"Why don't you stay in Ponyville?" Twilight asked, feeling a bit sorry for the colts.

"To be honest, nopony here likes us..." The orange pony said gloomily. Twilight felt a small amount of depression by the kid's tone. "But inside, I know we're doing what needs to be done."

"Oh... okay." Twilight said, trying to lighten up the mood, but her efforts did not work.

"Here's a pamphlet!" The other shouted, giving the purple unicorn a pamphlet that had Celestia's solar cutie mark on the front cover. Twilight then carefully read the words on the page:

The Solar Empire: Ushering the world into a bright new era.

What the? Twilight was suddenly concerned by the wording and images in the brochure. "Okay boys have a nice day I guess." Twilight put on a false smile and closed the door. "That was weird."

"I like her," the boy with the brown mane said.

"I know right? She's one of the first few people who didn't slam the door in our face." The other agreed.

"Although... There was something strange about her."

Twilight browsed the pages to humor herself, but upon further reading, she began to notice the odd descriptions on the pages.

The sun, it will bring us life, and it will eventually lead us to the extinction of ponykind. It is a grim way to end, destroyed by the very thing that keeps us thriving. When the time comes where we bid farewell to the mother Earth, we will be prepared. We hare hoofpicked by Celestia herself to ascend to the heavens and rebuild a colony. We praise our goddess Celestia, so she and only she can enlighten us, and purge the world from it's sins.

"And they have little kids giving these out?" Twilight asked, feeling the need to alert the Princess about the presence of cults in Ponyville. "Spike! I need you to write a letter to the Princess." Spike immediately came down running down the steps, noticing the sense of urgency from Twilight's voice. Spike rushed for a quill and ink and gave Twilight a thumbs up for her to tell him what to write.

"Dear Princess Celestia, there seems to be a problem going around about a "Holy Solar Empire" and children are spreading the word. They worship you and believe that you have specifically picked them to rise to heaven after you completely destroy the planet. Hopefully they do not make any rash actions that might harm themselves... Or others. I have read books about legions cults that have existed, and not a single one ended positively. Apparently they have been forced out of Ponyville, but it seems like that are branching out this time. I hope you can do something to quell this problem."

"What's the dragon doing?" The colt with the orange coat asked, peering through one of the windows.

"He's writing something." The other answered.

"I know that already, but what is he writing?" The two boys watched Spike write down on a scroll, but they were unable to see Twilight instructing him what to write. They watched the purple dragon rolled up the scroll and sent it away in a puff of green fire.

"It breathes fire!" The gray coated earth pony shouted, almost getting them caught in return.

"Shh you're going to get us caught!" The brown maned pony shouted. They bickered for a few minutes until another spark of green fire appeared. The two boys spotted another scroll, this time it was wrapped in a blue royal seal, capturing the interest of the two ponies.

"A letter from Celestia!" The pony with the glasses exclaimed in surprise.

"From our goddess!?" the gray unicorn asked in disbelief.

"But that means..." The orange coated pony trailed off.

"We found our prophet at last!" They both said in unison.

To be continued... Probably never.

Author's Note

I'm not sorry

Choc-full of Chocolate

"Well? What d'ya think?" Pinkie asked, posing in front of an enormous sign made of chocolate. It had the Choco-con logo of a candy bar with the year inscribed onto it. It was surrounded by a small fence of velvet rope as a cheap way of keeping ponies from eating the edible sculpture. Twilight herself felt tempted for a an unnoticeable sample, but she resisted and turned her attention to the entrance.

"Why's it empty?" Twilight asked, noticing the lack of ponies buying entrance badges.

"As ponies that have a booth, we're allowed to come in early to set up and bake some of our signatures dishes." Bon Bon answered, trotting ahead to an entrance booth. Bon Bon was greeted by an official looking pony who glanced over an ID around her neck. The stallion smiled and allowed her to enter. Lyra followed behind and did the same.

"Uhh, Pinkie? I don't have one of those badges." Twilight said nervously. Pinkie only smiled and looked to her friend with a lighthearted giggle. Pinkie bounced through the queue, turning the sharp corners and reached the front of the line, while Twilight just walked around the empty line.

"Silly filly, we could just get one right now." Pinkie Pie answered, grabbing Twilight's side and dragged her to the same booth.

"Where are your badges?" The stallion asked, noticing they didn't have any.

"We didn't get our IDs yet." Pinkie answered.

"Alright then. Come with me," he instructed, leading them to a gray room. There was a list of names on the counter and Pinkie Pie saw Sugar Cube Corner's information.

"Alright what's the name of the booth?" He asked, keeping his neutral face.

"Sugar Cube Corner." Pinkie said straightforwardly.

"You are Mrs. Cake right?" He asked, causing the pink mare to giggle uncontrollably.

"Nope! I'm Pinkie Pie." Pinkie answered, continuing her giggling fit.

"Right, and this is?"

"Mrs Cake." Pinkie Pie lied. Twilight was about to speak up against that, but Pinkie shoved a hoof straight into her mouth. "Right? Mrs. Cake!?" Twilight was forced to nod by the hooves around her jaw.

"Okay then. Here's the location of the booth. Have a nice day." He gave Pinkie a small pamphlet and gave a straightforward cue for them to leave.

Twilight thanked the stallion and left the room with her friend. Upon exiting the room, Twilight questioned Pinkie on her lie about her being Mrs. Cake. Twilight sighed to herself when she figured out the answer. Twilight yelped loudly as Pinkie grabbed her by the side and whisked her away throughout the convention halls. Twilight's purple eyes scanned the booths around her that were setting up, marking places where she'd want to visit. When she did want to investigate a certain booth, she would hold her hooves against the floor just enough so it gives her some extra time to view the point of interest.

"Sweet Celestia, it's cold in here." Twilight complained, pointing out the low temperature in the room. Twilight shivered and rubbed her hooves together as a simple way of generating heat.

"Of course it's cold! You don't want all the chocolate melting, do you?"

In a matter of seconds, the two reached their assigned area and began to set up. Bon Bon eventually showed up with her items and took a spot adjacent to the Sugar Cube Corner booth.

"Looks like we're near each other again." Bon Bon remarked, happy with her location.

"Remember that one year where we got booths next to each other?" Pinkie asked happily.

"And we decided to merge them and call it 'Sugar Cube Confectioneries?' " Bon Bon reminisced.

"And we ended up giving the whole convention eating disorders?" Pinkie Pie finished, and they giggled happily with their memories.

let's not do that this year. Twilight thought with a sly smirk. Twilight helped with the set up and did her part. And when the baking came along, she stood to the side and supplied Pinkie with some of the ingredients. They spent nearly the entire morning buying supplies, so saying they were prepared was an understatement. They had entered the convention with various bags full of baking necessities like flour and sugar, but they also had excessive amounts of sweets, ranging from gummy bears to ice cream sandwiches, (so there might have been a good possibility about the eating disorders).

Pinkie Pie hummed an upbeat rhythm while she worked, and she would often mumble a few lyrics of whatever song she was singing. Pinkie would sing her baking cupcakes song to herself while pouring cups of flour into many different bowls. She worked quickly, but she still kept a gentle and almost masterful approach to the skill. Twilight would help in the preparation at times, but she groan a few seconds later and would ask for help from the bubbly baker. Twilight sighed and mumbled to herself that she preferred the eating part of the baking stages.

Twilight took it as a cue to leave when Pinkie placed the final tray into an over sized oven provided to most of the top earning and highly visited stands. Twilight wanted to visit the places she had marked earlier. She ambled slowly through the halls, watching groups work on their custom goodies. Twilight was particularly interested in a group erecting a gingerbread style house out of red velvet cake. She watched the small home begin to teeter off-center, startling the mint green mare working on it. Twilight magicked the sides in her telekinetic grip and saved the mare's sweets. The green pony thanked her and shook her hoof.

"No problem Miss..." Twilight peered down to the counter and saw the pony's name and almost struck herself straight in the face with her purple hoof. Thin Mints

Of course everypony's names has to do with candy. "Were you a filly scout?" Twilight asked. The mare only shook her head in annoyance at the reference.

"No," she answered with an irritated sigh. "I could never stand the teasing if I joined the filly scouts."

"Okay, bye Thin Mints." Twilight trotted away, feeling a bit too awkward about the situation.

"It's way too cold in here." Twilight complained to herself again. Twilight looked around for anything that could warm herself up. She glanced around and noticed a stallion at a stall of hot chocolate. Twilight approached the stand and tapped on the counter. The stallion's attention was easily captured by the sudden noise.

"Hey, miss. What can I help you with?"

"Is your cocoa ready yet?" Twilight asked, and the cocoa salespony only shook his head. Twilight groaned, walked away, and began searching for another source of warmth. Unfortunately, she found nothing that could warm her freezing body. The purple unicorn kicked at the ground with one of her fore hooves. She racked her brain with everything that could help her thermal problem, but only one thing came into mind.

Back at the Sugar Cube Corner station, Pinkie Pie helped her candy maker friend with her projects. Bon Bon skillfully poured the chocolaty liquid over the tips of strawberries. Bon Bon twirled the fruit around to get an optimal, yet inexpensive enough to sell. Pinkie did the same before sparking up a conversation.

"So I hear this convention's top earner gets a thousand bits." Pinkie mentioned happily.

"That's great, but I didn't bring any secret ingredients." Bon Bon complained.

"I did. And when everypony gets a taste, they'll just want more." Pinkie said with a hint of devious intentions.

"Sounds interesting, but didn't the officials ban 'secret ingredients?' Especially after three year's ago." Bon Bon joked.

"You and I both know that's code for-- never mind." Pinkie stopped herself mid-sentence as a mother walked by with her children, giving the party pony a nasty glare. Bon Bon looked over to her pink friend and mouthed, "how did she get in?" Pinkie Pie shrugged playfully and went back to spinning strawberries on the edge of a tiny chocolate fountain.

"I'm not sure how much of it I have left, but a limited amount could leave ponies wanting more. It could also attract more ponies to my booth," said Pinkie with pride. Bon Bon couldn't help but have a strange feeling about Pinkie's plan.

~~

"A double calorie spell?" Twilight repeated, swallowing a lump in her throat. Her sudden exponential gain in weight made sense now to her mentor's insight. Celestia kept a calm attitude to juxtapose Twilight's reaction. Twilight found it hard to form a coherent sentence other than just repeating "double calorie spell." Twilight hung her head in shame, knowing completely that it was a test from Celestia. And she failed, miserably.

"I'm so sorry, Princess. I'm pathetic." Twilight apologized quickly. Celestia harbored a smile behind her stony face and let it show each time Twilight would put her head down or look away. She would chuckle to herself, but mask it in the form of a cough. She had done the routine for as long as she could remember. Celestia combined the cough and laugh seamlessly through thousands of years of the same shtick. The playful prank was sort of an initiation; each generation of Celestia's personal student faced a joke that would test their patience. Or, at least that was Celestia's excuse.

"Nonsense Twilight. You just made a mistake. I'm sure it won't happen again." Celestia said sternly. Celestia had found Twilight's weakness early on. Twilight had feared disappointment; the filly would go the extra mile to avoid the disapproving glance. Twilight also worked herself up for situations that didn't matter at all, and it only took a few day's to find the egg head's weak points. Celestia stayed silent, stretching the tension as far as she can.

"I'm just very disappointed in you, Twilight." Celestia said quietly. There was the words that Twilight feared, and she dropped her ears in shame. "I expected more from you." She purposefully added the second part to mess with her student's mind. Celestia shook her head slowly, her slow movements causing Twilight to tear up.

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't take the teasing." Twilight explained.

"It couldn't have been that bad." Celestia assured, extending her hoof to lift the slightly sobbing filly's chin.

"Try erasing 'Twilight Porkle' from your locker." Twilight responded, giving an example of a nickname she was given.

"You won't believe the names I was stuck with." Celestia said to cheer her up, almost offering a competition. "You accidentally grope somepony one time in the second grade, and you never live it down." Her voice was spiteful at that point and Twilight picked up that rage.

"Did it really follow you for all those years?" Twilight asked, immediately guessing the unfavorable nickname.

"Yes." Celestia answered bluntly, "The press always has ways of getting information like that." Twilight actually smiled a bit with Celestia's reassurance; a little too much smiling.

"You were the first of my students to cave in." Celestia lied, passing on her now grim tone to Twilight. Whatever high point she was in right now, crashed as Celestia spoke. Twilight shrunk back away from her mentor and feared the inevitable discipline for her actions. If I'm the first to fail... Twilight stopped thinking, knowing full well that she was better off not imagining the punishments like termination of her lessons from Celestia, to being demoted back to magic kindergarten.

"Although, I give my students about three strikes before I just throw them out, but you did fail your first trial." Celestia deliberately pointed out the mistake to intensify the unicorn's guilt. Her lie was concealed expertly as it definitely wasn't Celestia's first "test" aimed at Twilight, but it was certainly the most obvious.

Celestia had found Twilight's weaknesses, but Twilight's unnatural study habits had blinded the purple filly from noticing obvious traps. The sun princess recalled a lackluster attempt at tricking Twilight, including a chocolate cupcake with cocoa frosting, topped with chocolate syrup. The treat was placed in the center of a dull white room to showcase the cupcake, accompanied with a large trapdoor ready for activation.

Saying it failed was an understatement. Twilight didn't notice the chocolate cupcake at all because of a copy of, An Introduction to Equestrian Physics Volume Three: How To Destroy the Fourth Wall Twilight literally had the book pressed against her face, somehow navigating through the halls with ease.

Celestia was glad to have finally gotten to Twilight this time; her efforts had finally paid off, and all she had to do was exploit the natural urge of losing weight without putting any effort. Her best pranks were usually on the spot and improvised.

"Please don't kick me out of your school." Twilight begged, early groveling on her knees. And Celestia enjoyed every second of it.

"I'm expecting a very detailed essay on shortcuts and when not to use them." A merciful judgement on Celestia's behalf, considering her borderline sadistic tendencies. Her other unfavorable nickname to mind, and she couldn't help but smirk slyly. Twilight shot up in graitude and relief, hugging the princess and saying several thank yous. Celestia dismissed her grateful student just so she could have a few minutes to herself. Twilight quickly left the room and galloped to her own dorm, leaving Celestia alone in a room to laugh wildly when she was in private.

~~

"You're kidding right?" Bon Bon asked skeptically. Pinkie Pie explained a long-winded story about seaponies and their seajelly. "That's just a story we tell foals." Pinkie immediately giggled at the sudden dismissal of the forgotten race of seaponies. All Pinkie Pie needed was the seajelly to prove her statements true. The only problem was that Twilight had the final jar of the sickly seagreen jelly stored in a personal pocket dimension.

"They're real! Just ask Twilight." Pinkie said, searching for the mentioned unicorn that was no where in sight. Feeling slightly disappointed, Pinkie just sat back on a chair and waited for Twilight.

At leas a half an hour later, Twilight came by with a stallion that ha a brown coat and a bright orange mane. Twilight levitated samples of tricolored chocolate pieces into her mouth as she conversed with him.

"Hey, Pinkie. You have to talk to this guy. He's a riot!" contradictory to Twilight's statement, he seemed to be slightly uncomfortable with her. Pinkie began to notice the slight slurs in Twilight's speech patterns, but she disregarded it and decided to humor Twilight by asking for his name.

"What's your name?" Pinkie asked, looking to the brown colt with sympathy on her face.

"Reese," he mumbled, causing Twilight to snort loudly and laugh.

"See isn't it funny? His name is Reese, and he also happens to look like the candy!" Twilight slurred at leased half of her words, making Pinkie Pie feel off edge. Pinkie brought her hooves to her head and rubbed the sides, feeling like she was becoming Twilight's foalsitter. For once Pinkie Pie wasn't the one acting ridiculous. Twilight's erratic behavior led Pinkie to believe that the aforementioned seajelly had something to do with it.

"I get it," Pinkie said, trying to stifle a giggle herself. "Stop teasing him... Poor guy."

"I know right? His parents must have hated him." Twilight guessed, ignoring the fact that Reese was right next to her. Reese opened his mouth to speak but immediately closed it as he figured out he could just walk away. The brown coated colt trotted away angrily, shaking his head as a way to curb the frustration. Pinkie huffed before turning to her friend that had lost her mind.

"What is wrong with you?" Pinkie asked, feeling like she should be the one being scolded.

"Just a little something I call, liquid courage." Twilight muttered quickly, making it hard for Pinkie Pie to comprehend the speech pattern. Twilight turned away from Pinkie as if to reach for something, but frowned when she didn't have anything on her back.

"I swear it was just hear a second ago," she said with a confused look.

"What?" Pinkie interrogated fearing what Twilight was going to say next.

"The seajelly of course! I must have left it behind somewhere." Pinkie sighed, knowing that her not so secret ingredient was now lost, and they were probably not going to find it amid the sea of ponies that will flood the convention hall.

"Bon Bon!" Pinkie called out in desperation. Bon Bon quickly trotted over with her friend's distressed call. "I need you to help me look for a jar about yay-high, and a blue-ish green." Bon Bon nodded and went a separate direction. Pinkie looked over to Twilight, who was currently in her own little world-- again.

"How much did you eat exactly?" Pinkie asked, concerned about Twilight's intake of the seajelly. Twilight stuck a fore hoof up and made a licking gesture to it. "About that much then..."

"Why? Am I gonna die?" Twilight asked, keeping an alarming amount of peace with a serious question.

"Yeah." Pinkie yelled worriedly, "so let's go get your stomach pumped." Pinkie Pie grabbed Twilight's leg and dragged the limp form.

"Okay," she mumbled. The ponies around them just watched as Pinkie Pie pulled Twilight through the empty halls. Pinkie managed to find Bon Bon searching the ground. Pinkie Pie yelled her name without hiding her desperation.

"What's wrong with her?" Bon Bon asked, gesturing to Twilight, who just kept her face planted on the floor.

"Seajelly." Pinkie answered shortly. "Mind helping out?" Bon Bon nodded and grabbed a loose leg.

"And you were planning to feed this to everypony!?"

"And? Why do you think hay-fries always taste good?" Pinkie Pie pointed out.

"I don't know what to say to that."

"Have you seen a jar of green jelly?" Pinkie asked. She had questioned every single pony that was in the vicinity with the exact same words, but each pony led her to a dead end or gave her useless tips. Eventually they grew tired of dragging Twilight on the floor and resorted to renting a foal stroller for her. After at least an hour and a half, (and long after the convention actually opened), the three managed to find a lead.

"I think that gal was using it," he said, pointing to an oblivious mare that had a suspicious sea green cupcake. Pinkie Pie immediately flocked to the mare that had the bright colored cupcake on display.

"You! Where'd you get that?" Pinkie pried, hoping to get a statement that would deny the use of the seajelly.

"It was in my bag," she answered, clearly startled by Pinkie's attitude.

The mare turned to a brown bag wit a rose stitched into the pattern. The sight of the bag ignited a spark of recognition in Twilight's face. The purple unicorn mumbled something about remembering the bag.

"Listen, I kind of need that since my... special friend kind of misplaced a jar of-- green apple jam." The mare in question nodded in understanding; she uttered words of apologies and went to grab the cupcake.

"Uh, I think your friend got to it first," she trailed off, her voice becoming quieter, showing that she was afraid of the pink pony that had questioned her threateningly. The unfortunate pony who was stuck with the jelly recoiled away from Pinkie Pie.

"She what!?" Pinkie yelled, turning over to where the green cupcake was on display. "The seajelly was not meant to be eaten like that!"

"Just what exactly does seajelly do?" Bon Bon asked, concerned about Twilight's behavior.

"You know when you have a lot of one thing and you build a sort of tolerance to it? Well seajelly's the exact opposite of that. And now Twilight has eaten an entire jar's worth in less than a minute!" Twilight began to laugh maniacally for a few seconds before returning to a calm state. Pinkie pounced on her friend and tried her best to restrain her now insane friend.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Pinkie begged. Pinkie had Twilight's skull in a tight headlock, but the unicorn did nothing to try to wiggle out. Twilight breathed heavily as a new feeling washed over her mind. She felt her brain go numb and lost all contact with any logic. Twilight's dark pupils grew wide and nearly took over the whites in her eyes. The unicorn's mouth began to foam slightly and Pinkie Pie was prepping her hooves for another cognitive rehabilitation. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but her voice came out quiet and monotonous.

"I'm sorry; the number you have dialed is unavailable. Please try again later."

~~

Twilight looked down a her blank sheet of paper. Failed attempts at writing what she learned surrounded her in crumpled messes. Twilight held her head with her left fore hoof and just stared, visioning what she would write next. She levitated her quill and set it on the paper. And every time she wanted to write what she had in mind, she often came up with nothing. Twilight sighed loudly and slammed a lavender hoof on the wooden desk.

That totally helped.

Twilight took a deep breath before taking a nibble from a chocolate bar. She cursed herself for taking another bite, fearing that the effects of Celestia's calorie spell was still in place. Although, after taking the bite, she was given a small amount of inspiration for her essay, and she began to drag the quill throughout the page easily. Hours passed, and she believed that she was finally finished with her works. With a quick flick of magic, she lifted the paper up to her face and read the words that said,

Dear Princess Celestia,

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait; I had to rewrite parts of this chapter, (and rewrite entire chapters of my other fics) several times after some technical issues. I didn't expect you guys to even like that Spike prophet thing. Considering this fic will be over in about a week's time, I think I might actually write that.

Choco-con or Bust

"Twilight! I need! You to! Snap! Out! Of! It!" Pinkie shouted, dragging her friend with every word.

"Snap is my favorite one." Twilight said sloppily, "Crackle and Pop should suck a railroad spike."

"Twilight, you're not making sense."

"Your mom's not making sense!" Twilight yelled back.

"Your mom jokes! Really?" Pinkie Pie scolded, "What are you? Six?"

"Six months younger than you, grandma!" Twilight continued; still in her hysterics. It was obvious that Twilight was fully awake and aware, but it was also obvious that she wasn't herself yet. The jar of seajelly seemed to have lasted far more than Pinkie would have liked. The earth pony shuddered to herself on the thought of Twilight having access to the other two jars of the hallucinogens.

"You know what Pinkie?" Twilight stammered, "We don't need to go to Choco-con. All the chocolate we need is here." Twilight began to laugh to the annoyance of her friend. Pinkie mumbled to herself that she never thought that Twilight would act like this. Then again, the large jar of jelly would make anyone go insane.

"There won't be a Choco-con if we don't catch the train!"

The train's wheels began to move, slowly inching away from the two (well one) ponies that frantically tried to board the train. Pinkie Pie pulled her friend with more force; while Twilight was happily shoved dirt and grass into her mouth under the illusion of it being chocolate. The train began to pick up steam and it began to move out of sight of the two. Pinkie's eyes began to water as any evidence of the train was gone. Pinkie began to bawl; impossibly large amounts of water began to flood out of her eyes.

"Pinkie? What's wrong?" Twilight asked, looking like she had gotten over her high. Pinkie's flow of tears did not stop for the worried question of her friend. Pinkie didn't answer her friend, and instead began to drone her out with her crying. Twilight moved closer to her friend and wrapped a hoof around her. Pinkie's wailing halted as Twilight began to pat her back; the moment was ruined completely when Twilight took a long sniff at Pinkie's pink mane and whispered,

"Your hair smells like strawberries." Twilight whispered in to the pink pony's ear.

"Thanks." Pinkie Pie said angrily. The unicorn giggled and rolled on the ground.

"It'll wear off," the pink pony said to reassure herself. Twilight was jumping around the empty field and was squealing around.

"Quickly Cotton Candy! The candy knights are coming!" Twilight screamed, running into the forest that they had stolen the seajelly from.

"Hopefully," she finished, chasing the high pony that went towards the forest.

"Twilight! It's been hours!" Pinkie begged, knowing she did the same thing to her the day before. There was a loud sound of an explosion nearby, startling the pony that was close to the blast. "Oh no. Not this." Pinkie Pie ran towards the source of the disturbance, hoping that what she thought happened didn't actually happen.

"Woo! I got another one!" Twilight screamed, galloping towards a broken tree that she had destroyed. Pinkie sighed in relief that her friend was okay and that she hasn't hurt herself badly. The purple unicorn inspected the charred remains of the stump. Twilight levitated a piece of the tree and lifted it to her mouth, chewing it thoroughly and getting small splinters on her tongue. Pinkie Pie cringed at the sound of the tree bark being chewed, knowing it would have hurt her friend.

"Twilight..."

"Ya?"

"I'm only doing this because I care about you." Pinkie Pie said, inching closer to her unicorn friend. The unicorn just stood there, munching happily on the grilled tree. Pinkie made sure not to keep eye contact, knowing her look would scare the stoned unicorn. Twilight aimed her horn at another tree, hoping to get another fresh supply of whatever she had mistaken the tree to be. Twilight had lit up her horn and was ready to fire another blast. Pinkie Pie finally got up to the unicorn.

"Now if we could just take this nice and easy." Pinkie continued, sneaking quietly behind her friend.

"Ah gots me another one!" Twilight shouted in a fake southern accent after taking down another tree. Twilight once again gathered the bark of the tree and placed it in her mouth. "This one's even sweeter!"

"Trust me when I say this'll hurt me more than it hurts you." Pinkie finished.

Twilight was positioned fire another blast, but she was spun around and saw Pinkie Pie's hoof coming straight towards her face.

~~

"Wow my face hurts." Twilight complained, rubbing a hoof to her face. Right after talking, she felt a sharp pain on her tongue, and she began to wonder why there were splinters in her mouth. "Pinkie. What was in that?" Twilight looked towards the pony that had struck her in the face. Pinkie Pie cowered away from her furious friend, hoping she wouldn't have to answer.

"Just seajelly." Pinkie confirmed, backing away from the ticked off unicorn.

"How long was I... you know?" Twilight asked, referring to her earlier state of mind.

"I don't know really. I couldn't keep count." Pinkie Pie answered quietly.

"Where's the train?" Twilight asked, beginning to fear the worst.

"Gone."

"How?"

"We missed it while you were... Tripping out." Pinkie stuttered, finding it hard to find an appropriate choice of words.

"I shouldn't have eaten the whole jar," she admitted, feeling ashamed of her irresponsibility. Twilight began to feel a metallic liquid on her tongue, knowing that it was the splinters lodged in her mouth.

"What's with the splinters?" Twilight asked, using her magic to carefully pick out the pieces of wood.

"You ate a tree," she said bluntly.

"Come on Twi' we should start walking." Pinkie ordered, dragging her friend with her. Twilight followed the pink pony back to the the train tracks. The princess' student hoped that the train was still there, but she wasn't disappointed when there was no locomotive at all. Twilight's head hung low as she knew it was her fault that they would miss the convention. The unicorn noticed that the chocolate filled convention would be the least of her worries. Her mind began to rack up the possible problems: The dangers in the forest, the sun, really ticked-off seaponies, and food, neither of them wanting to dig into the remaining jars of seajelly.

"This will be interesting." Twilight stated, following the tracks. The two just needed to get to get to the nearest train station, rest up, and continue on their way. Twilight trudged lazily along the side of the train tracks, but her pink friend on the other hand was bouncing happily on the other side parallel to the unicorn. Hour after hour, the two trotted along; both resting in the shade of the forest at time to time. Pinkie Pie hummed a cheery tune that coincided with her frequent hops. Twilight was annoyed by the optimistic mare's humming.

Dusk came around sooner than the unicorn wanted; the darkening sky telling them to find shelter quickly. Twilight panicked internally, thinking of certain solutions to their current problem. She thought about it for a minute and figured she should just keep on walking until either couldn't go on further.

"Let's just stop here," the unicorn requested, plopping straight down to the dirt.

"Yeah," the pink pony agreed, slumping on the ground lazily.

"Do you have enough energy to light a fire?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking at the tired unicorn.

"Let me try." Twilight replied, sending all her will towards her horn. Her lavender horn sparked and she answered with a humble, "I think I might." Pinkie brought a small pile of branches and logs over to their resting spot. Twilight lit it up with much more energy than she thought it would take. Twilight began to fall asleep, the spell had worn her out more than she had hoped.

"I'm going to to take a nap." Twilight said, closing her eyes.

"I'll wake you when it's my turn I guess." Pinkie answered back. Twilight nodded back before nodding off to her own dreams.

~~

"Okay so today we're going to introduce a new student. She's a lot younger than all of you because she has already passed all of her grade's curricular and then some." A teacher said happily, "She's part of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns just like anypony else, so just because she's younger doesn't make her any different." But speech still didn't reach out to anypony.

"When's she coming to class?" A student asked from the back of the class room.

"She's here, but she's still getting enrolled into this grade in the office."

"What's her name?" Another student asked.

"Twilight Sparkle." The teacher answered, glad at the fascination from her students.

"More like Twilight Porkle." A colt whispered to his friend.

"You saw her?" A mare asked the boy.

"Yeah she is fa-"

"I'm not fat..." Came a quiet voice from the doorway; she sounded hurt at the insult, but she showed no signs of anger. The colt quickly looked down at his desk in shame. The young unicorn wasn't fat, but she had gained a barely noticeable layer of pudge. The filly's diet habits were fairly moderate. Twilight would only buy her sweets in special occasions or the occasional snack. Her non-active lifestyle was enough to gain her the amount of fat that she didn't need.

"Hello Twilight," the teacher greeted, looking at the filly that stood shyly at the door. "Come on in, there's an open seat right there" The teacher pointed out an empty seat near the center of the class. The unicorn slowly trotted to her assigned seat; hearing several comments made from the students. They said things like, "She's so little," and others commented on the fact that she shouldn't be in the class. Twilight made sure to block out every comment and act like she deserved to be there.

The class continued without any hiccups, and Twilight made sure to take thorough notes to study later. Every once in a while there would be a comment about her whispered to another student, and she would pretend that she hasn't heard a word of what they were talking about. The class ended about a half an hour later, and when all the students arose, the filly got a comparison of herself to the older ponies. They were at least a head taller than her; which caused Twilight to stir in her desk uncomfortably.

It was time for lunch; it was usually scheduled for a different time for her, but because of her recent grade transfer she now had her lunch period about an hour earlier than her usual time. She stepped up to the line and got her usual meal, a dandelion sandwich with a side of hay fries. The lunch came with an obligatory carton of milk. When Twilight walked up to the lunch lady she was given a strange look from the mare.

"Sweetheart, I think you got your lunch periods mixed up," she explained kindly.

"Actually they bumped me up to a higher level."

"Good for you," she congratulated happily.

Twilight paid the cashier and said a simple "thank you." Twilight levitated her lunch. She looked around at the stallions and mares that sat on benches. Each group represented a stereotypical clique in the school.

"Hey little girl," a teenager called from one of the tables, and she waved her hoof for the unicorn to join.

"Me?" Twilight asked, surprised that anypony would reach out to her.

"Yes you. Is there any other filly in the room?" The teenager asked sarcastically. "Come over here."

"Umm, okay," she answered before approaching the group of older students. She felt their eyes examine her body, and could imagine the judgement made by the group of girls. Their glances making her feel self-conscience.

"How old are you?" The girl asked, causing the youngest unicorn to feel nervous.

"Fourteen," she answered silently. Causing the group of mare's eyes to widen.

"You can just skip years like that?" Another student asked. This time she had a yellow coat and brown mane.

"You have to get a lot of letters of recommendation." Twilight answered humbly.

"From?" They all asked, intrigued by the little pony's explanation.

"Some teachers, magicians... The Princess..." Twilight said quietly, earning a look of shock from the students. Usually when a student claims they met Celestia, they were almost always immediately debunked, but Twilight's age and recent transfer to a higher grade made it more believable.

"There's no way Princess Celestia wrote that letter," another pony with a bright red mane and a cinnamon colored coat. Twilight tried to look as humble as possible to the older students.

"Hold on a minute, she's the girl Celestia took under her wing!" The pony with the yellow coat stated.

"I thought she'd be older," said the mare with the yellow coat.

"Anyway. All of us here are at least seventeen, so there's not much of an age gap," the perky skyblue unicorn consoled. Twilight approached the group and stood by their sides. Twilight joined the older unicorns on the table, sitting next to the girl who welcomed her. The students talked about various subjects while Twilight ate her meal quietly, avoiding the subjects that were directed towards her. Of course the girls noticed the unicorn's discomfort, and they wanted to include the filly.

"How about you Twilight?" One of the mares asked the little filly.

"Huh?" Twilight mumbled, surprised that they would include her in the conversation.

"Is there a special colt you've been eyeing?" The yellow coated mare questioned.

"No, I guess not." Twilight said, unsure about herself having a crush on anypony.

"You'll find somepony," the blue unicorn answered, "And when you get older the boys will just flock over to you. Plus your smart enough to pick the right boy."

"Really?" Twilight asked, receiving a genuine smile from the older pony.

"Yeah, all you have to do is lose some of that baby-fat you still have."

"Gee thanks," the purple unicorn added sarcastically.

Author's Note

I was the subject of name calling once or twice, or maybe four years... Just letting you know the pathetic inspiration of this chapter.