Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

The party still continued. While Jaunty Soul showed off his comedy skills to another group of ponies I was alone drinking some punch at the snack table. I was a little confused because of what I had seen a few moments ago, so I took advantage of the silence of the abandoned corner to sort out my thoughts. That, until a lavender pony interrupted me. Not that it bothered me.

"I'm sorry if Rainbow Dash insulted you, Silver, she's just..." Twilight Sparkle paused, looking for the proper words to explain her friend's rudeness towards my... tastes...

"Neh, It's ok... I understand. I won't stop doing what I like to do because some pegasus doesn't like it..." I had faced many ponies like Rainbow Dash who laughed at what I liked to do and how boring was "sitting all day in front of a table writing mushy stuff", but I learned how to deal with them; just ignoring them.

"That's a very... positive way of thinking" the purple unicorn laughed nervously "Anyway, what do you write?" Twilight served her own glass of punch.

"Poems... novels... almost anything." I stated.

"Interesting! I'd like to read your work sometime!" for some reason, she seemed genuinely enthusiastic about it, unlike... people from Manehattan "and I assume that you also like to *read as much as you like to write."*

"Of course! Though I can be a little picky on the genre." I could feel myself perking up a little bit.

"Oh! Doesn't matter! I have a lot of books in my library!" she rubbed her hooves together in delight "Romance, adventure, comedy..." she continued rambling about a lot of other genres almost as fast as Pinkie Pie rambles about parties.

...Wait... I didn't know Biology was a genre...

"...Um... Excuse me..." said a barely audible whisper behind me.

"Oh! Fluttershy!" she turned her attention at the shy mare "something wrong?"

"Oh, no... I kinda heard... well... I didn't know you had novels in your library..." I noticed she was trying to avoid eye contact with me.

She didn't? But... I thought they have been friends for years...

"I've always had novels!" Twilight said as a matter-of-factly. Suddenly, her eyes had a special shine to them "OH! I know! Why don't you both drop by tomorrow?" Both Fluttershy and I ignored the awkward air between the two of us and shared a confused glance.

And there I was. And I had not expected at all anything of what I saw... or heard.

When I entered the library/tree/house, the first thing I encountered were the shelves filled with many different kinds of books. It was empty at first, but then I heard some footsteps coming down from the stairs nearby. Not too long after... a small figure covered with purple scales was revealed...

A... dragon?

"Oh! Hi! You must be that "Silver Quill" Twilight told me about!" the dragon, who was now in front of me, extended his claws at me with a grin in his face "My name's Spike! Nice to meet 'cha!"

"Uh... well... Nice to meet you too... Spike!" I answered with a nervous smile, reluctantly shaking the small hand with my hoof. "So... uh... where's Twilight?" I asked retreating my hoof.

"Oh, she's writing to the princess at her room, she'll be here in a minute" Spike explained as if she, instead of writing to Her Majesty, Princess Celestia herself, was writing to her cousins. I could feel my chin touching the wooden floor in disbelief.

"Wh-what? Why? I-is something going on?" when I heard the dragon's laughter my worried expression changed into an annoyed one "What?!" I demanded an explanation to his strange behavior.

"Haha! Sorry!" the small dragon wiped his out tears while catching his breath "You see, Twilight is Princess Celestia's student. We used to live in Canterlot before but the princess sent us here to study friendship. So, every time she learns anything new she reports to the princess."

"Aha..." my expression was empty, I did not now how to react. For a few seconds there was an awkward silence in the room until I thought up another question "so... what did she learn?"

"Well..." he scratched his head with his claw deep in thought "I think she is telling the princess about you or something... I dunno."

"Me?" I said in a mocking tone, rolling my eyes as if he had just told me the worst joke in the whole Equestria "What do I have of interesting? Doesn't the princess have other things to do rather than reading a letter about a weird new pony arriving to town?"

"Twilight and the princess share a very special relationship, you know, like mother and daughter and that kind of stuff, so I guess she feels like she's talking to her mother... or something like that. And you just wait. Once you have a couple of days in here you'll understand that everypony here is... well... crazy"

"SPIKE!" yelled a familiar voice from upstairs. The dragon sighted and started to walk towards the stairs.

"I'll be right back" he said before disappearing into the second floor.

"...Kay..." I few seconds passed. I started walking towards the bookshelves while unconsciously humming a tune. After a while of reading the different titles I realized they were ordered in a very complex manner.

...By genre or subject... author... alphabetical order... Some mare spends a lot of time indoors...

Hm... By the way... Where's the other mare? The yellow one... Fluttershy was it?

And, almost as if I had called the pink maned pegasus through telepathy, I heard the wooden door opening. I turned my head towards the door and saw Fluttershy stepping inside without saying a single word. Once she closed the door she just stayed there, staring at her hooves. The awkward silence between the two was just...

...So... ridiculously... unbearable...

"Sorry about the wait!" Both of us turned our heads towards the source of the voice. It was Twilight, who had FINALLY finished whatever she was doing.

Twilight began showing us the whole library. Then she brought us to the bookshelves containing the novels. I saw Fluttershy taking particular interest in the romance genre, which seemed to surprise Twilight. "I always thought she was too shy to read this kind of thing..." had whispered Twilight into my ear.

...I thought she was too shy for anything...

As time passed, Fluttershy started opening up more and we got considerably closer. While we were talking about ourselves and telling childhood stories I could sense Twilight staring at us with certain happiness and pride.

It was already 5:30 p.m. when I finally realized I had to get back home soon since Jaunty arrived home 5 to 10 minutes later and he probably had a story for me about how his first day of work went. The books at Twilight's library were more interesting than expected, but while Fluttershy had taken at least 5 books, I decided to take only one.

I approached the door, Fluttershy behind me. I opened the door and held it for Fluttershy to pass, but she seemed hesitant. I gave her a gentle smile and she reluctantly left the library.

"Um, Bye, Twilight! Thanks for the book!"

"Goodbye! Hope to see you around here soon!" and with that, I closed the door behind me. I noticed Fluttershy was still there. It seemed like there was something she wanted to tell me.

"Fluttershy? Something the matter?" I could barely see the small blush painted on the shy pegasus' cheeks.

"U-um... no... nothing...." she turned around and left.

...Kay...

Though I I knew I had to arrive home soon, I decided I could take in a few sights of the town. I walked to a random direction and after a few minutes I found myself in the middle of a park. There were several ponies there. But I also noticed a few couples. I calculated around 5. It was an adorable sight that made the gears in my head turn. I started to think of various short romance stories I could write in one day but suddenly i felt like fleeing from the park and return as fast as possible to my home.

I could feel a slight pain in my heart... Jealousy.

All those ponies living the heaven I will never live...

Love...

You are such a cruel little bastard...