Her books filled her mind with knowledge each and every day. The letters she sent back and forth between Princess Celestia of Equestria, her mentor, filled her heart with joy and excitement. The playful and random moments she got to spend with her only other roommate, save for her pet owl, filled her soul with a loving feeling that she never knew anywhere else. Her trips around Ponyville, her new home, with the accompaniment of her other pony friends filled her life with meaning. Yet, with each passing day, a new need continued to swell inside of her chest, until it was ready to burst at the seams.
The lavender mare didn’t fully understand or comprehend the feelings that she was sustaining. She would use her magic horn to craft brilliant, detailed letters with the aid of her favorite quill. She would stroll through her home, which was also a library, and pick out a new book almost every hour on the hour. While she read, she would jot down any new information that she did not yet know, or that she found particularly interesting. Sometimes, when it came to learning a new spell or sharpening her powerful magic skills, the unicorn would put her reading on pause and concentrate and trying to garner stronger and better ways to make her magic even more potent than it already was.
She would survey Ponyville and its residents on a constant basis, learning new lessons on friendship and aiding whoever needed assistance with their daily troubles. The pony would go on picnics, go on trips to Canterlot and other towns, go on hikes into the mountains, go for a stroll in the dangerous and exciting Everfree Forest, travel around in her hot air balloon and take notes on new changes to the scenery that she hadn’t noticed before, fight evil with the Elements of Harmony, and much more that could never be covered in a simple diary. Her life was busy. Her life was adventurous. Her life had meaning. But, her life still felt so incomplete.
Twilight Sparkle expelled a heavy sigh, her eyes drifting shut as the aura surrounding her horn silently closed the book she had been reading. The cover flapped shut with a dull thud, the image of a faded heart merged into the middle of the book. It was late at night, the clock drawing closer to striking midnight with each passing moment. The library was quiet, the only sound coming from Twilight’s soft and tranquil breathing. The unicorn, seated on her favorite purple cushion in front of her usual wooden study desk, was pulling another all-nighter.
Upstairs on the second floor, Twilight’s number one assistant, Spike, slumbered inside his small basket. The dragon was growing more and more worried with each passing day about Twilight’s dreariness, but no matter what he attempted to do, nothing seemed to work. What Twilight was currently attempting to study was not something that could be so easily understood. The heart was a difficult subject to fully understand. Some ponies had spent their entire lives trying to answer the many riddles the heart threw at them, but had failed. Solving the mysteries of the heart was something that Twilight was determined to complete, since it was one of the few things she could not wrap her hoof around.
“It sure is chilly this evening, even though it’s nearly summer.” Twilight’s voice came out tired and forced. The nearby open window allowed passing zephyrs to find their way into the library, chilling the pony to the bone as the night lingered on. Somewhere in the distance, a clock struck midnight. With her horn aglow, Twilight began to levitate the book with the faded heart crafted onto the front back to its proper shelf.
The aforementioned shelf was one that Twilight seldom used, due to the matter of subject the resident books contained within their walls of pages. Many of the novels were works of fiction, composed of tales of intimacy and romance. Several others were nonfiction biographies on ponies with rich, happy and successful lives, but were focused on what they did to find love. Twilight’s current night of research led her to this dusty bookcase, something she had never expected. The void inside of her heart was confounding, due to her lack of understanding of what it fully meant, but she thought that something along the lines of such unusual books would help her. So far, they did not.
Sliding her book back into its proper slot, Twilight groaned and settled onto her rump for a moment, her weary eyes traveling back and forth within her sockets as she tried to find another worthwhile book. Black bags took residence under Twilight’s eyelids, the lack of sleep evident from the massive amount of endless nights she was piling up in her quest for romantic knowledge. She was no fool; she could easily fill a leaflet with what she had learned from the books that she had scoured through already. However, that alone did not satisfy her. Her appetite was not yet sated. Each book continued to whet her hunger without filling her needs. Her answers had not yet surfaced, so she had to continue.
“The night is…still young,” Twilight stifled a yawn, attempting to formulate a weak smile to keep her spirits up, “I can still find…another book…to read…” What her mind wanted for her, the mare’s body refused to accept. Her stifled yawn soon bursting out and growing into an even longer one, Twilight felt her legs buckle underneath her. The unicorn’s mind went fuzzy as her vision began to blur. She fought to stay awake. She fought to regain her composure. She couldn’t let sleep overtake her.
Twilight Sparkle collapsed four seconds later, crumbling into a heap onto the sleek wooden flooring inside the dimly lit room. All four legs stuck out away from her body, tangled into an awkward angle that would create severe pain when the mare woke up. The hair in Twilight’s mane and tail stuck up in all directions, the sweat and stress from her arduous hours of romance studying destroying her coiffure. Her body was limp and ragged, in desperate need of a proper slumber. As Twilight Sparkle lay in a tangled mess on the hard floor, her mind forced the unicorn to dream, trying to push the thoughts of the straining number of hours studying romance aside for a more peaceful period of relaxation.
So, Twilight slept. As the hours raced by and the lunar princess’ moon slowly beginning to make its decline over the horizon, the unicorn received an unwanted night of uncomfortable but much-needed rest. The window to her library stayed open throughout the evening, something the purple mare would scold herself for allowing later on. She didn’t want the library to get cooled; she feared it would damage her books and create an unpleasant rest for her dragon companion in his bed. Twilight was a very considerate and caring individual, and despite her intelligent and pushy personality, she was always looking out for the wellbeing of others over herself. She would sooner starve to death before allowing her library to be thrown into disarray.
Around four or so in the early morning, the baby dragon’s body shifted and a soft moan escaped his lips. Despite being covered up by three quality blankets, his small purple and green body wasn’t resistant to the cold. Even though they were less than a week away from summer, the winter had been long and slightly disastrous, leading to a delay in the coming of the warmer months. The dragon, Spike, knew that Twilight sometimes left the window open at night so the cold would keep her awake, but she would usually always close it before coming to bed. Spike hated Twilight overworking herself, and even more so when she refused to inform him what was precisely keeping her awake at night. He cared for Twilight as a mother or even a big sister, and seeing her worried or in pain didn’t bode well for him.
“Ugh…hey, Twi…could you shut the window, please?” Spike’s groggy, muffled voice was barely audible, his face smothered under his blankets and into his pillow. When there came no response, Spike weakly lifted his head and called out his request once more. It took him a good two minutes to fully wake up and realize that Twilight had most likely fallen asleep in another place that wasn’t her bed. This wouldn’t be the first time, and the little dragon knew it. He was up in an instant a second later.
Throwing his blankets aside and not even worrying about where they landed, Spike nervously ran around the side of his basket and towards Twilight’s bed. As he thought, he found the unicorn’s sleeping quarters empty and tidy, meaning it had not been slept in all night. Spike rubbed his eyes a few times and double-checked, just to make sure, but no purple unicorn appeared in the bed. Gritting his teeth and shaking his head in a bout of frustration, Spike wrenched his head away and hurried towards the stairs. He knew he had to find Twilight.
“What is WRONG with that unicorn?” Spike muttered, his voice still coming out slightly groggy, mixed with a hint of annoyance but also combined with sheer worry. “Does she enjoy doing this to me? I’d like to get ONE good night’s rest without waking up and finding her sleeping on the floor or at her desk or propped up against her bookcase. It isn’t healthy, and it really worries me!”
Spike’s first instinctual habit was to check Twilight’s desk. The small reading light she enjoyed using was still on, so the dragon quickly turned the switch and flicked it off. He glanced down at Twilight’s cushion, trying to see if the indentation of her backside was still in place, but it wasn’t. Spike immediately realized that this meant Twilight had obviously fallen asleep elsewhere in the library and didn’t have time to come back to turn off her light or close the window. Spike was even more worried; he hated seeing Twilight sleeping in a place that was surely uncomfortable.
Ignoring the open window for the time being, Spike’s next intuition told him to check the kitchen. Twilight did enjoy making herself a snack sometimes to try and keep herself awake, not to mention once and a while trying to heat up glasses of warm milk or brew pots of instant coffee. When he found the eating area empty and untouched, Spike sighed and very nearly cursed. Closing the door to the kitchen, Spike scampered away to search the side rooms, which contained books that Twilight usually didn’t read as much as the ones out in the open. His face was twisted into a deep frown and his eyes narrowed into tiny slits as he came upon another empty room.
“So help me, Twilight Sparkle, if you weren’t a female…” Spike growled, clenching a fist and angrily slamming the door behind his back after another unsuccessful attempt to find his pony companion. “I swear to Celestia, once I get ahold of you, I’m going to tie you down in your bed for a whole day and make you stay there! I don’t care if you take away all my gems and give me two long lists of chores! I should send the princess a letter about this. What would you do then, huh?”
Just as he was beginning to see red, due to his anxiety of not finding a pony he deeply cared for, Spike’s anger subsided when he pushed open a door to one of the back rooms that he had not expected to find Twilight. The dragon’s heart melted and his rage vanished instantly when he saw the fragile mare curled up into a ball on the floor. Very carefully, not wanting to wake her up just yet, Spike tiptoed over to the unicorn and peered down into her sleeping face. He almost wanted to cry when he saw the bags under her eyes.
“Oh, Twilight…what is wrong with you?” Spike clenched his fists again as he glared down at the sleeping form of Twilight Sparkle. He sniffed, and tears began to form in his eyes as he examined the unicorn. Seeing her beautiful mane and tail so ruffled and unkempt, seeing her fragile legs sticking out in a tangled web of nonchalance; it was all too much for the baby dragon to handle. He had to do what he had planned on doing a long time ago.
Tearing his soaked eyes away from Twilight, silently asking her to please stay there and to forgive him for what he was about to do, Spike’s overworked legs carried him back to Twilight’s desk. Finding the quill that Twilight had been using to write notes in her journal, Spike snatched it up in his right hand and pulled a piece of parchment out of the nearby drawer with his left. Setting the fresh piece of paper down in front of him, Spike placed the quill to the page and began to write. He didn’t need the shine of Twilight’s reading light. The moon still occupying the sky and overhanging the open window above Spike’s head took care of that.
The dazed dragon scribbled furiously, the quill dancing across the parchment as he made his wishes be known. He knew that Twilight wouldn’t approve of this, but sometimes Spike had to do what his heart told him to do. Casting nervous glances behind his back, as though checking to see if Twilight had awoken on her own yet, Spike continued to write. He wrote so fast that his right hand began to go numb. The dragon wrote the gist of what was troubling him, but he wanted to make sure he got it all down perfectly. He didn’t want to miss a single detail.
“Okay…this should do it.” Breathing deeply and trying to catch his breath, Spike’s throbbing right clawed hand dropped the quill onto the desk as his eye darted across the parchment. After proofreading what he wrote and being satisfied with his work, Spike used his left hand to fold the piece of paper into a spiral. “Forgive me for bothering you at this hour, Princess, especially when you’re about to go and raise the sun. But…this simply cannot wait. I’m sure you’ll understand.”
Looking up at the open window, Spike held the top of his letter to his lips and took a deep breath. Expelling with all his might, out of Spike’s mouth shot green transportation flames, instantly catching and singeing the parchment in his hands. He opened his claws a moment later as his letter vanished into a puff of smoke and danced out the creaking window above his head. The baby dragon watched until the smoke got lost into the dark blue sky before jumping up and gently shutting the window once and for all. One part of his task was complete.
“I know that you’ll think of something, Princess.” Spike’s whispered words echoed through the quiet library as he began walking back to Twilight. “Forgive me for bothering you so early. Maybe this is just me getting worked up about nothing, but…I have to make sure.” Finding the mare just where he left her, Spike bent down and carefully slid his arms underneath her back and belly. “I’ll do whatever I can to help, Princess. By your will, I shall follow your orders to help Twilight.” Giving a weak grunt and putting in a bit of excess strength, Spike managed to heft the unicorn up off the floor and into his arms.
Cradling Twilight in his arms like a foal or a puppy, Spike’s tired face gave a sad smile when he heard Twilight squeak in her sleep. She squirmed slightly, but then went limp in her assistant’s arms. Giving a nod of gratitude that Twilight’s sleeping form had given a silent approval to be carried, Spike slowly began to walk out of the room, toting his delicate luggage into its proper bed. However, just before he exited the back room, the curious reptile took a wandering glance over at the dusty bookcase that he had found Twilight sleeping in front of. He wasn’t entirely sure what that bookcase contained, and he had been organizing the library and following Twilight’s orders for a long time now.
Spike took notice of a book near the top shelf that seemed to be sticking out a bit further than it should. Twilight would never let that happen; she was much too neat to have that happen. Spike deduced that that was possibly the last book Twilight had been reading before her body gave way to sleep. He hated being nosy, but his curiosity was overbearing. When he finally managed to lift his heavy legs and pull himself out of the room, his lingering thoughts were to find out what was in that book. Nosy it may be, but if it helped to understand what Twilight had been trying to find out through these countless nights of unhealthy sleep habits, he would snoop.
Carrying Twilight upstairs was a bit more difficult than Spike had imagined. The pony weighed more than him, so when he took a step upwards, he very nearly toppled over backwards with the heavy weight in his tiny arms. When he eventually reached the top step, he gave a momentary sigh of relief before continuing to walk towards Twilight’s bed. The weak unicorn in his arms gave no signs of life or protest, other than her gentle breaths out of her nose and mouth. Not even seeing her tail give little twitches as it normally did in its sleep nearly left Spike heartbroken.
“Goodnight, Twilight,” Spike whispered, softly laying the purple mare down onto her comfy bed and draping the covers over her body. It was now almost four-thirty, but he didn’t care. He was going to let Twilight sleep for as long as she needed it, and if anyone tried to bother her, they’d have to go through him. All Spike wanted to do was help Twilight and cure whatever it was that was ailing her or eluding her in her quest for knowledge.
The dragon assistant stepped back to watch Twilight cuddle herself into her bed. Her body seemed grateful at finally getting something soft and comfortable to sleep on, and Spike’s heart warmed slightly when he saw the slight smile return to Twilight’s face as she snuggled into her pillow and buried herself more under her covers. Giving Twilight a gentle pat on the head with his left hand, Spike slowly turned and began ambling back down the stairs. He was still tired, but Twilight needed sleep more than him. Besides, he had a book to read.
~~~
A week later, Twilight Sparkle was sitting inside her kitchen in the middle of the afternoon, taking a break from her newest research and sipping a cup of apple juice she had gotten from town a week ago. Spike was out somewhere, having left her an ambiguous note when she woke up that morning, explaining how he had somepony important to meet and that he would be back when he could. It wasn’t like Spike to just go off like that, but Twilight wasn’t going to hunt him down. She was sure he could handle himself. He may be little, but he wasn’t stupid.
“Mmm…this tastes good…Ponyville has the best apples in all of Equestria,” Twilight purred, licking some excess juice off her lips as she put the half-empty carton back into her fridge, “But, I can’t drink it all; I have to get back to work. I’m confident that I’m about to make a breakthrough on my studies!”
Twilight had given up on looking through the dusty bookcase filled with romantic books and other biographies on love. She wasn’t making any progress, and since she had a small inkling that she was starting to worry Spike with her late-night study sessions, she assumed that she wasn’t making any headway and that the answers were elsewhere. She had taken to studying books on psychology and anatomy instead. What she was finding out was that she might be either losing her mind, about to suffer a heart attack, or she was so far off base that she may as well just give up.
“Hey, Twilight!” The front door to the library suddenly slammed open, Spike’s excited voice ringing out and startling the stunned unicorn. “Where are you? I’ve got a big surprise for you!”
“Spike?” Twilight rose from her seat, pushing it in with her flank as she trotted out of the kitchen to greet her overzealous dragon. “What’s all the commotion about? Where were you anyway?”
Grinning from ear-to-ear, Spike ignored the latter part of Twilight’s question and focused on the first half instead. “Come outside with me, Twilight. A certain pony is waiting for you!”
“A certain…pony…is waiting for me?” Twilight tilted her head, confused, but allowed herself to be coaxed out of the library. She didn’t even notice Spike locking the door behind her back. When she got out into the midafternoon sun, she gasped when she saw just who the certain pony was. Standing before her in her golden chariot was none other than Princess Celestia.
“Ah, good afternoon, my dear student,” Celestia said, a bright smile on her face as she peered down at the shocked mare, “It is so very nice to see you. I know that it’s sudden, but I have something to explain to you and I had to come and get you to make it work.”
“Princess…I…I…this is so unexpected!” Twilight nervously checked her mane and even smelled her own breath. When the princess chuckled and made no signs of being annoyed, Twilight gulped and quickly spoke again. “What is it that you need?”
“Everything will be explained briefly.” Celestia beckoned towards her chariot, where Spike had already taken a seat. “I need you and Spike to come with me to Canterlot. Do not worry about your library or your friends. As I said, my reasons for being here will be known shortly.”
Twilight’s vast confusion continued to spread, but she didn’t dare disobey the princess. The fact that Spike had been asked along only worried her more, though; this had to be serious. Without so much as giving a sign of hesitance, Twilight hurried past the princess and hopped onto the chariot next to her little assistant. The big grin on his face made Twilight suspicious and gave her a feeling that Spike might know what this was all about. Otherwise, he would be just as confused as she was.
Turning and stepping back onto the chariot herself, Princess Celestia smiled down at the nervous mare and the eager dragon. Spike and the princess shared a little wink that Twilight failed to pick up on, and before the purple unicorn knew what was happening, she was in the air and being whisked away from Ponyville. When the princess sat down beside her, Twilight shyly fidgeted and tried to formulate the right words for a situation such as this. Celestia, however, took the initiative herself.
“Twilight, my dear, allow me to get right to the point,” the princess said, her voice serious as she glanced down at the fidgeting pony sitting to her right. “A week ago, Spike sent me a letter explaining your various lapses during the many nights before. He was very concerned for you, and what he wrote to me left me very curious. He would later send me another letter, explaining the certain books that you were studying. This left me at one conclusion.” She placed a hoof on Twilight’s left shoulder. “Twilight, my wonderful little student, you are starting to question love and desire the need for it.”
“PRINCESS!” Twilight squeaked, slapping a hoof over her mouth when realized how loud she had accidentally spoken in her shock. Her face lit up in embarrassment as she drooped her head, wanting nothing more than to crawl into a hole and hide far, far away from everypony. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Spike giving her a weak smile. Twilight growled and glared at him after lifting her head a little bit. “Spike, we’re going to have a long talk when we get back home.”
“Twilight, please listen,” Celestia went on, quickly making Twilight hesitantly return her attention to the solar princess, “You enjoy researching everything you don’t understand, correct? This is how you tried to explain your friend’s unusual ability to predict future events, correct? Well, instead of spending countless hours trying to study something that simply was not meant to be studied in that way, I have a way for you to experience love in a rather interesting format.”
“Oh gosh, this is SO embarrassing! Princess…whatever do you mean?”
“We will arrive in Canterlot before long. There, you will move into the Villa De La Vina, a 7,590-square-foot, six-bedroom, nine-bath home. It’s a beautiful home where you will take your research to the next level!” A curious little grin appeared on Celestia’s face. “My dear student, you are an amazing mare. You are intelligent, beautiful, caring, and everything a lot of ponies would want for a mare-friend. That is why, for you to experience love while at the same time studying it in your own fashion, Spike and I came up with a plan for you to compete in a love-based competition to find romance!”
“Well, that sounds nice, but…WAIT, WHAT?!?!” Twilight’s mouth dropped open as her eyes bugged out of her head. She didn’t think she had heard the princess correctly. “P-P-Princess, could you repeat that, please? Did you just say that I’m moving to Canterlot to compete in something to find love?”
“Basically, yes.”
“But…but…my home in Ponyville…and my friends…” Twilight’s ears began to droop, her heart sinking along with them. She would never go against the princess’ wishes, but she was already not liking the sound of this at all.
Seeing Twilight’s sadness, Princess Celestia gave Spike a quick nod. Knowing it was his turn to take over, and since it might help to hear it from his mouth instead, Spike resumed the conversation. “Twilight, we’re not moving to Canterlot forever; only for ten weeks. You see, this is how it’s gonna work. During the past few days, the princess has secretly been taking interviews in Ponyville from certain ponies and other Equestrians on possibly getting a chance to love you.”
“W-W-W-WHAT?!?! PRINCESS!” Twilight gave the sun goddess a look of stunned shock. Princess Celestia gave a sheepish grin, but said nothing.
“Twilight, the competition that you’re going to compete in will involve twenty to thirty ponies that Princess Celestia managed to convince to give you a chance,” Spike went on, “These ponies signed up to play in this game of love of their own free will, and they KNEW that you were the prize that they could win. The thing is, the game is going to basically work in whatever way YOU want it to work, Twilight. You get to spend time with these ponies, find out more about them, let them find out more about YOU, go on dates with them, travel the world with them, and above all get to study them! You know that you can’t just learn everything from books; you have to go out and experience it!”
Still beyond shocked, Twilight didn’t know whether to hit Spike or let him keep talking. When Spike paused and Celestia said nothing, Twilight’s brain calculated everything that she had been told and tried to make sense of it. Basically, there were twenty to thirty ponies that had been told she was looking for love, which was excruciatingly humiliating. However, just the thought that they WANTED her left her curious. Spike and Celestia were correct in saying that she was studying love; it WAS the void that she had let to fill in her life. She had a home, she had money, she had parents, she had friends, she had pets, but what she didn’t have was love. It was indeed what she had spent countless hours trying to figure out, but she hadn’t gotten far. Now, THIS was being sprung at her? It almost seemed like a dream.
“…could you please just tell me…precisely what I’m to do…without beating around the bush?” Twilight asked as politely as she could, trying not to sound pushy.
“Of course, my dear,” Celestia smiled, leaning down and giving Twilight an affectionate nuzzle. “So, to sum up everything Spike and I said, you both are going to live in a beautiful Canterlot home for ten weeks. Twenty to thirty ponies will join you both there, and they will become your romantic interests. Over the course of the ten weeks that you get to stay there, you get to study love in its fullest with those who wouldn’t mind loving YOU. Yes, it’s very possible that you will not want to love ANY of them, but since you’ve been spending too much time in your library, getting out to have a little fun and experience romance for yourself is what counts. Win or lose, it’s the journey that matters.”
“I’m going to play the host of this little competition,” Spike said, grinning proudly and patting his chest, “You see, Twilight, during certain points in each week, you get to eliminate ponies that you deem as not worthy of having your love…or, in nicer terms, just those that you don’t think would work when it comes to a relationship. The further into the game that you get, the romantic interests should start to become closer to a budding romance. That’s where the research comes into play. You’re going to have to do a LOT of work finding out about these ponies. That’s what love is, you see. It’s not about books; it’s about finding out what’s on the inside of those who want to try and love you.”
“This is all…happening so fast,” Twilight sighed, “I still don’t fully understand what’s going on, but I think I get the general idea.” She went silent for a moment before continuing on. “I still don’t know if I really feel comfortable with this…but, you both make a good point. I wasn’t really getting anything out of my books. For once, they didn’t make any sense to me. There…there is indeed…a part of me that I long to fill…and I just don’t fully understand how to do that. I know that it’s love, but…what IS love? If this game or whatever it is…can help me understand it…then I’m game.”
“So you’ll do it, Twilight?” Spike gasped, eagerly bouncing up and down and nearly falling out of the chariot. The fact that he got to be the host almost mesmerized him.
“Even if these ponies, who apparently want to get to know me…on a more intimate level…don’t measure up to what I think I need…as the princess said, the journey will have been worth it.” Twilight gave a weak nod. “I want to know more about what to do when we get there, but…yes, I’ll do it.”
“Excellent! I’m happy to hear it!” Celestia wrapped her foreleg around Twilight and pulled her into a gentle hug. “Please don’t think we’re doing this to punish you, Twilight. This is for your own good. I promise that you will learn something from this, and your heart will be happy that you made the journey to try and accomplish a great goal.”
Twilight gently hugged the princess back, even giving a little giggle in spite of her nerves. “I understand. This…this might even be fun! I can’t wait to see the stallions who signed up to try and…love me.”
“Stallions? Er…” Spike and Celestia exchanged embarrassed grins, each one sharing a private secret. Unfortunately for them, their secret exchange was caught by Twilight. The unicorn’s face paled when she realized that yet another secret of hers that she never wanted to reveal had been brought forth.
“…you two got mares, didn’t you.”
“Guilty.” Spike and Celestia both giggled as Twilight hung her head and contemplated jumping out of the chariot to end the humiliation. It was really no secret that Twilight liked mares; most of Equestria was honestly just like her. However, the purple unicorn had never wanted to face reality, but since it was so obvious that the princess and her own assistant knew, it made her wonder just what ELSE they knew about her. She wasn’t feeling so thrilled anymore.
“We’ll be there soon, my faithful student,” Celestia said, patting Twilight on the back and trying to make her feel better. “Cheer up. There is nothing wrong with loving other mares, Twilight Sparkle. Besides, you’ll be shocked to know that that’s all who showed up was mares. Apparently, you’re quite attractive to females.”
“Humph…colts and stallions are SO boring…” Twilight whispered, her face burning as her cheeks erupted into maximum redness. She appreciated the princess trying to cheer her up, though. Deep down, Twilight was slightly wishing the princess herself would compete for her love, but naturally that was not going to happen. She’d have to make do with whatever mares wanted her love.
“You know what? We need a name for this!” Spike announced, standing up in the chariot and tapping his chin, “A special name so that we all know the powerful struggle that Twilight is going through! A stunning, captivating name that will show what Twilight is all about! A name like no other name! This game must be called…called…” Spike trailed off, going into thought as Celestia and Twilight both looked at him. A minute later, he grinned and snapped his fingers.
“The Pony Bachelorette: The Twilight Mare!”
