Truth or Dare -- Chapter One



“Hey!”

You look up from the book floating in front of you and come face to face with the largest and brightest pair of slate-blue eyes you’ve ever seen. Startled, you back away, the book flying high over your head. You stumble and topple backwards, the book landing over your face.

Pinkie Pie’s snort and subsequent laughter fills your ears, and it’s quickly joined with another familiar laugh. Peeking out from underneath the pages, you see Rainbow Dash laughing as heartily as her pink friend.

“Hey,” you say awkwardly as you use your magic to lift the book from your head and get back to your feet, dusting off your forelegs. You put the book into one of the saddlebags at your sides. “What’s up?”

“Listen-listen-listen!” Pinkie Pie starts, going into her trademark excited rapid-fire speech. “Listen! Twilight Sparkle’s birthday is tomorrow and we wanted to make it a surprise one! Yeah! And we wanted to take her to Sugar Cube Corner and make sure all the lights are out, and then we’ll drag her in there when it’s dark, and she’ll be all ‘What the hay is going on?’, and then we’d switch the lights on and all of her friends will be all ‘SURPRISE’!” She nods eagerly, her head bobbing quickly like a diving board after someone just jumped from it. “Yeah! And it would be completely awesome with tons of cake and streamers and hot sauce and sarsaparilla and—”

A blue hoof promptly shoved into Pinkie’s mouth by a somewhat blasé Rainbow Dash interrupts Pinkie Pie’s rant. “Yeah, it’s Twilight Sparkle’s birthday tomorrow, and we did want to surprise her.” She pulls her hoof out of Pinkie Pie’s mouth. “The thing is that we’re trying to cover all the bases so that there’s no way she can get out of this.” The blue pegasus glances away from you, a slight frown on her face. “Look, I know you’ve helped her out a lot since you’ve moved into Ponyville, and I know she’d want you to be there, but I know she’s going to pull the whole ‘the library can’t be closed’ routine. That’s where you come in.”

“You want me to watch over the library for the day?” you ask. “I can try, but you know Twilight…”

“So do you,” Rainbow Dash counters seriously, poking your chest with a hoof. “If anypony can find a way to get her to leave the library for any reason at all tomorrow, it’ll be you.”

You can see the challenge in her eyes, just begging you to try and prove her wrong. You nod resolutely.

“All right, I’ll do it.”

“Awesome,” she says with her cocky grin. “We’re picking her up at lunch tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there well before that,” you say in agreement. “You guys go do what you need to. You won’t have to worry about me.”

With a smile, Dash takes off into the air and Pinkie Pie bounces away humming a tune to herself.

“Tomorrow’s Twilight Sparkle’s birthday, huh?” you ask yourself. “I wonder what I could get for her?”

+ 	+     + 	+ 	+

It’s about a fifteen minutes before noon as you walk into the library the following day. Twilight Sparkle and Spike are working diligently (no surprise) putting away some books that were returned shortly before closing the night before.

“Good morning, Spike,” you say as you nod in his direction. You turn to the lavender unicorn. “Twilight.”

“Oh! Hello! I wasn’t expecting you to drop by today,” she says a little uncertainly.

You grin and tilt your head questioningly. “And why would you think I wouldn’t come by today?”

You see her cheeks take on a rose tint. “Oh, well, no reason…” She smiles shyly. “I mean, you don’t come by everyday, and you were just here yesterday to borrow another one of those silly fantasy novels…”

“I happen to think that ‘The Night Pegasus’ trilogy is a really gripping read,” you say, feigning offence. “I can’t help that I like somewhat dark fiction.”

“I-I’m sorry!” she stammers suddenly, lowering her head. “I didn’t mean…”

You look at her with an unamused face. “Twilight, I was kidding.” You grin and shake your head.

“I’m sorry! I should have—”

You approach her and put one of your hooves on her shoulder. “Twilight, it’s fine, really.” You walk over to the main desk and set your saddlebags down. “You’re acting weird today. You okay?”

“She just doesn’t want word going around that today’s her—”

“Spike!” The tip of her horn glows briefly and all of a sudden a moustache appears out of thin air in front of Spike’s snout. Immediately the moustache ties itself in a knot around the dragon’s mouth.

“S-sorry,” she apologizes again. “A girl has her secrets, right?”

You nod as she gives you a toothy smile and an awkward chuckle.

“You know you can tell me anything if you need to get something off your chest, right?” You take a couple of steps closer to her. “I like to think that I’m a friend of yours, maybe not as close as Rainbow or Pinkie Pie or the others, but a friend.”

“You are!” she says. “You’re such a great help around here, especially when Spike manages to sneak off to spend some time with Rarity. And you do a great job of helping out the other ponies whenever Spike and I are called away.” She looks away, ashamed. “I just don’t like many ponies knowing about—”

The door is suddenly thrown open with Pinkie Pie bouncing in, Rainbow Dash walking in calmly close behind.

“Hiiiii, Twiiiiliiiight!” Pinkie Pie says in a singsong voice. “Rainbow Dash and I wanted to take you out for lunch!” You can’t help but laugh as Pinkie starts bouncing in circles around the surprised lavender pony. “Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm! We can go to the café and have salad and hay fries and milkshakes! Ooh! I love milkshakes!”

“Pinkie…” Rainbow Dash calls out, letting out a slightly exasperated sigh. Pinkie Pie stops in mid-air and turns to Rainbow Dash.

“Uh-huh?” All eyes are on the pink earth pony as she hovers in the air for a few more seconds before landing on her feet.

“We’re not going to get a table if we hang around too long,” the blue pegasus says. “Come on.” She turns around and starts to head for the door, stealing a glance at you and flicking her gaze to Twilight.

“It’s all right, Dash,” Twilight says feebly. “I can whip something up here for lunch.”

“Nuh-uh,” you counter, taking that as your cue. “You’re not staying here all day when your friends are offering to take you out to lunch.”

She turns to you, a surprised expression on her face. “No, really! I can’t close the library during the middle of the—”

You trot towards her and nudge her towards the door. “And you won’t,” you interrupt her. “I can watch over the library while you’re out.”

“That’s not really necessary…”

“It’ll be fine, Twilight!” you say reassuringly. “I was just going to spend the day reading anyway. Now go.” You point with your muzzle at Dash and Pinkie.

“I’ve got research—”

“Which can be done later,” you counter. “Just go, Twilight! I’ll be fine here!” You turn to Spike, who nods, and the two of you start pushing her towards Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. “Have fun!” As soon as Spike crosses the threshold, you slam the door and lock it, immediately summoning a chair to you and propping it underneath the doorknob. You look out the window by the door to see Spike hop onto Twilight’s back as Rainbow Dash flies above and behind the lavender unicorn and Pinkie Pie hops gleefully behind her. As soon as they’re a fair distance away, you nudge the chair away and send it back to its place, letting out an exasperated sigh. “The things one does around here to get a pony to spend time with friends…” you mutter to yourself as you look towards your saddlebags and use your teeth to move open one of them, revealing a present wrapped with plain yellow gift wrap and tied with red ribbon. You smile to yourself.

“I’ll give this to her as a surprise when she gets back from her party.” You turn towards the stack of books that she and Spike were working on and start looking through the titles, thinking of how to efficiently place the returned books back to their proper places.


TWO


You’re just finishing helping out a deep blue male unicorn with a bright orange mane and tail when the tinkling of the bell attracts your attention.

“The book is due back in three weeks,” you tell the male pony.

“Thanks,” he says with a grin and nod, levitating the book and putting it in his saddlebag. As he turns to leave, you address the newcomer, who, to your surprise, turns out to be Rainbow Dash.

“Dash, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at Twilight’s party?” you ask.

“I…” She shrugs. “I just came by to thank you again for doing this for us. You know that sometimes we gotta drag Twilight away from the library once in a while to have some fun, and…”

You raise a hoof. “Say no more. I’m glad to be of help.” You tilt your head questioningly. “How’s the party?”

A wide smile lights up her face. “It’s going great! You should have seen the look on her face when we arrived at Sugar Cube Corner! Her jaw pretty much hit the floor!” She breaks out into laughter, and the mental image you see gets you laughing too.

“I hope somepony got a photograph,” you say.

“Somepony did, I’m sure,” she says. She glances out the window then turns back to you. “Listen, I gotta head back before anypony notices I’m gone. Promise me you won’t tell anypony I came by?”

You knit your brows in confusion. “Um, well…sure.”

“Thanks!” She suddenly wraps her forelegs around your neck in a hug. “You’re the best!” She trots out the door. “See ya!” In a flash of color, she’s gone. You’re left standing in the middle of the library, completely confused and mouth hanging open, wondering why, all of a sudden, Rainbow Dash hugged you, the first time she’s shown any sign of affection other than playful nudges or a competitive but friendly shove. Regaining your composure, you levitate the book that the blue unicorn returned and walk towards the proper section to reshelf it.

As soon as you put the book away, a knock on the door pushes away your thoughts.

“Library’s open!” you call out, wondering who would knock on the library door in the middle of the day.

The door opens and a gray pegasus with blonde hair and wearing saddlebags opens the door, the bell tinkling once again.

“Mfff cfff!” she says, her voice muffled by the package in her mouth.

“Oh!” You trot over to the mailpony and take the package in your teeth, placing it on the main desk. “Saw the note on my door, then, Ditzy?”

The walleyed pegasus nods. You trot over to your saddlebags and levitate a sealed envelope and a few bits. “If you have a sec, can you send this to Vinyl Scratch? It’s a thank-you note for the package.”

You make the letter and money float over to her and tuck it into one of her saddlebags. “Thanks for using Ponyville Postal!” she says and leaves the library.

Excitedly, you trot over to the main desk and look at the flat package. It’s wrapped in brown paper and has Vinyl Scratch’s styled scrawl:

Found Daft Pony’s ‘Dischoofery’ for ya. Ya owe me one.

You chuckle, wondering what kind of a favor Vinyl Scratch would have in mind as you use your magic to neatly unwrap the package, putting the wrapping paper in your saddlebag for recycling later on. You use your magic to open the case and lift the disc from it, glancing around expectantly for a player of some kind. Seeing none, you remember that Twilight never owned one and Spike never got around to buying one.

“Blasted things are on special order from Manehattan,” you mutter under your breath. You have one at home, but you did promise not to close the library, even for a minute…

The bell by the door tinkles again and you put the CD back into its case and levitate the case into your saddlebag. You turn to address the newcomer, surprised that it’s Rarity.

“Rarity! What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be at Twilight’s party.”

You see her eyes darting back and forth, trying to find a reason. “Well…” she stammers. “I saw Ditzy Doo flying by Sugar Cube Corner, heading in this direction, and, well, I wanted to see if the new fashion magazine from Canterlot was going to show an article on my designs. Hoity Toity did contact me recently saying he was impressed with my designs so much, and, well, I expected him to say something in a public piece.”

You look at her appraisingly, wondering if she knew that the monthly magazine deliveries wouldn’t arrive until next week. “You couldn’t wait until tomorrow for that? It’s Twilight’s birthday, you know?”

She looks slightly affronted and raises her head snobbishly, putting a hoof to her chest. “Well, I have to be prepared in case I get a sudden influx of orders for my designs.” A sheepish expression appears in her eyes. “Speaking of which, if I do get bombarded with new orders, you will help me gather the proper materials and help with deliveries, won’t you?”

You sigh with a small grin and shake your head. “If I have a bit of time, you know I’ll be more than happy to help.”

With a wondrous and thankful glimmer in her eyes, she hugs you tightly. “Oh, you are just the most reliable pony that anypony could ask for!” She raises her head and hurriedly kisses your nose. Immediately, she turns around. “I must get back to the party! I…I just wanted to check on those magazines.” She looks over her shoulder at you. “…Just promise you won’t tell the others?”

You give her a confused expression. “I guess…”

“Excellent!” She opens the door and gallops out. “Ta ta, darling!”

Your expression mirrors that of somepony’s after they’ve been slapped in the face with a cold fish. A kiss on your nose? Being called ‘darling’? And before that, Rainbow Dash giving you a genuine hug? It’s not even three o’clock and already your afternoon is turning out downright odd, to say the least.

+ 	+     + 	+ 	+

It’s been almost an hour since Rarity showed up, and it’s been quiet ever since. You blink your eyes a couple of times as you let the book you were reading fall flat on the desk. You crane your neck, hearing a couple of small satisfying cricks, when you suddenly hear the small growling of your stomach. You look at the clock and realize you haven’t eaten since before you got to the library, and you feel a small pang of guilt.

“I suppose I could raid her fridge,” you say to yourself hesitantly, “I did promise I wouldn’t close…”

As you get up and move towards her living quarters within the library, the bell by the door tinkles. You let out a slightly aggravated groan, wondering who could possibly think to come in as you were about to look for some food.

“Oh, I’m sorry…” a timid little voice says. “I’ll just…go…now…”

You whirl around in surprise. “Fluttershy?” You see her looking away, just about ready to high-tail it out of the library. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, um…well…” She sets her wing down, a picnic basket falling gently to the floor. “You see, I heard that you were watching over the library today for Twilight, and, um…I wasn’t sure if you’d had a chance to eat, and well…”

You smile. “Thanks, Fluttershy. I was actually about to head to Twilight’s room to see if she had any leftovers lying around.” You walk back to the main desk, all traces of annoyance replaced by relief and eagerness at the prospect of food. “What did you bring?”

Her face lights up and she seems to come out of her shy shell. “Oh! I brought you some salad, because I know you like those, and I thought you might like some hay fries. And I managed to take a bottle of sarsaparilla for you while Pinkie Pie wasn’t looking.” She pauses as she picks up the picnic basket by the handle with her teeth and places it upon the main desk. You use your magic to move the cloth over the promised lunch, and levitate the food onto the table in front of you, using your magic one last time to uncork the bottle of the fizzy sarsaparilla.

You lick your lips. “Mmm! This looks amazing!”

“Oh, it was nothing, really,” she says shyly.

You help yourself to a good mouthful of salad, enjoying the taste of the cool, leafy vegetables. “Is the party going well?” you ask after a second mouthful.

She nods eagerly. “Oh, yes! There’s a lot of music and streamers and food! Everyone’s really enjoying themselves, and…” Your gaze meets with hers, and she visibly shrinks away. “I’m so sorry, talking about the party when you couldn’t be there…”

You shake your head. “Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy. I agreed to look after the library so Twilight could have fun.”

She smiles brightly. “It’s so good and kind of you to help,” she says quietly. A confused expression crosses her features. “I have to go back. Just…just don’t tell anyone I came by, please?”

You fight the urge to shake your head and roll your eyes. Instead, you just swallow another mouthful of salad and nod. “All right, Fluttershy.”

As she trots out of the library and flies off, you can’t help but shake your head. This is getting ridiculous, you think. Next thing you know, Twilight’s going to drop by as soon as you finish your lunch, claiming to check up on things here, and then she’s also going to ask you not to tell anyone. You munch absently on a few hay fries. This is getting ridiculous, you repeat to yourself.

Truth or Dare -- Chapter Three


You just finish washing the dishes in the sink in the living quarters of the library. I guess I’ll have to sneak these dishes back to Sugar Cube Corner later tonight on my way home, you think. Your thoughts slowly start to wander as you walk back towards the main desk, gently settling the plates into the emptier of the two saddlebags and setting the empty picnic basket on the floor, hiding it for Fluttershy.

Why would they not want anyone to know they passed by? you think as you start to wander around the library. You pick out a book on advanced spells and float it over to the desk. They all have reasons to drop by, I guess, but they could just as easily see me tomorrow and thank me for holding down the fort… You chuckle to yourself. Of course, I’d probably starve if Fluttershy showed up tomorrow with lunch…

The tinkling bell grabs your attention again, though it’s immediately silenced. Surprised, you look up to see Twilight.

“What in Celestia’s name are you doing here?” you say incredulously. “You’re supposed to be at your own party! Someone’s going to notice if you’re gone!”

“I know, I know!” she exclaims. “I just…” She glances around nervously. “I just…wanted to see how you were doing, that’s all!”

You give her a serious look. “Twilight, how many times have I looked after the library while you and Spike went off to do something or other?”

“Plenty of times,” she replies, “but…”

“And despite your constant need to check up on the library, how many times have you actually come to see how things are running?”

She looks away, ashamed. “None.”

You shake your head as you walk around the main desk and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight, you worry too much. Everything’s going smoothly. I’ve looked after the library before. You can trust me.”

Tears start to form in her eyes. “It’s not that. I do trust you, it’s, just, well…” She looks up at you. “You don’t resent me for making you do this for me, do you? I’m grateful, really I am, but I feel bad that you’re here just…”

You sigh with a small smile and shake your head, putting a gentle hoof to her lips. “Twilight, if you recall, I offered to watch over the place while you went out with your friends and had fun. Spike will agree with me that you need to get out more.” You dry her tears with a hoof and gently nudge her towards the door. “You better get back to your own birthday party before someone notices you’re gone.”

As she’s halfway through the open door, she turns to you and opens her mouth to speak.

You raise a hoof. “No one will know you were here,” you say, anticipating her request. “Just go on and get back to your party. Have fun, okay? I’ll be fine.”

With a reluctant but heartwarming smile, she calls forth a bit of magic, and in an instant, she disappears. You shake your head. What is the deal with everypony today? you think to yourself. Walking back to the main desk, you resume reading.

+ 	+     + 	+ 	+

It’s been a half-hour since Twilight passed by, and you walk towards the window by the front door to see the sun slowly moving towards the horizon.

“Hmm, it’s almost time for dinner,” you say as you hear a sweeping noise approach you. You turn to see a broom that you’re absently controlling sweeping a small pile of dust and dirt on the floor towards the door. You turn the knob with your teeth and open the door as the broom sweeps the pile of dust out of the library.

“Let’s see,” you begin, looking about the library, seeing the broom float in out of the corner of your vision. “I swept the floors, dusted the shelves, made sure that I didn’t leave any dishes in her sink…”

“Hidilly-hodilly, odilly!”

You jump in surprise and fall forward.

“Oh, you dolty-colty!” a familiar bright, cheerful voice says, followed immediately by a snort and merry laughter. You get up to see Pinkie Pie wearing a sky blue party hat with yellow polka dots on it, long yellow streamers sticking out of the top of the party hat. You see little bits of paper stuck in her hair and you know right away that it’s confetti. There’s a box tied up with twine at her feet.

“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here?”

“We just had the cake for Twilight!” she replies, oblivious to your disbelief. “It was an ultra-yummy triple-layer chocolate cake! Uh-huh! And it had white icing on it with light blue trim! Yeah! And it had chocolate fudge in between the layers of cake! It was soooo yummy! You had to have been there!”

You can’t help but smile at Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, you know I had to be here so Twilight could come to the party.”

She nods eagerly, seemingly anticipating your argument. “Uh-huh! Uh-huh! Uh-huh! I know, I know! That’s why I came by! I saved a slice of cake for you! I wanted to save you a slice for later, but then I thought, ‘This cake is so yummy, everypony’s going to want to eat a piece right away!’ So I cut a nice big piece of cake for you! Uh-huh! And I was gonna hide it, and then I thought, ‘I should go to the library and give you the cake before somepony finds it and decides to eat it all up!’ So I asked Mrs. Cake to put it in a box and I snuck away all sneaky-like and I came here to deliver it to you!”

With a slightly awkward smile, you pick the box up with your teeth by the twine holding it and place it on the main desk.

“Thanks, Pinkie Pie. I was starting to crave something sweet, anyway.”

She has a look of unadulterated satisfaction on her face. “I thought you would!” She nods excitedly. She suddenly stops, standing completely still, though only for the briefest of moments. “I gotta go! I think somepony’s looking for me.” She touches her nose to yours. “You gotta keep that slice of cake the most secretest secret ever, okey-dokey-lokey?”

“Why?” you ask, too surprised by Pinkie Pie’s over-the-top, in-your-face demeanor to not be surprised.

She conks you playfully on the head twice with her hoof. “You dolty-colty! If anypony asks where you got the cake from, they’ll know it’s from Twilight’s birthday party, and they’ll know I brought it!”

“But why…?”

Your question falls on deaf ears as Pinkie Pie jovially bounces out of the library, seemingly without a care in the world. Staring out the door at her form as she disappears into Ponyville proper, you shake your head, as if a hurricane just whirled around inside your brain.

Deciding to keep Pinkie Pie’s being at the library a secret, you take one end of the twine holding the box closed and pull, the knot on the top of the box unraveling. Suddenly, the lid of the box pops open with a small shower of confetti and the toot of a small party horn. You peer inside to see a nicely-sized portion of the promised triple-layer chocolate cake. Your mouth starts to water at the sight.

“Oh, stallion, that looks amazing,” you say as you tuck in.

+ 	+     + 	+ 	+

“Celestia’s flowing mane,” you mutter to yourself as you put the freshly cleaned plate that held the cake into the saddlebag with the other empty dishes. “This is getting heavy. The way things are going I might as well leave this here and lug it all back tomorrow…”

The tinkling of the bell rings in your ears as your muzzle is in your saddlebag. You look up, not surprised at all to see Applejack.

“Hey,” you say with a small smile, fighting the temptation to roll your eyes. Her gaze darts to the windows nervously. “Shouldn’t you be at Twilight’s party?” For Celestia’s sake, this is getting repetitive, you think.

She smiles shyly. “Well, there’s a bit of dancin’ and snackin’ goin’ on, and Ah noticed that there was only once piece of apple pie left,” she replies. She sets her saddlebags down and picks out a box from the top of one of them. “Ah managed ta sneak away when Pinkie Pie called up a conga line.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Really?”

She nods and laughs, a little more calmed down. “Heh heh, yeah. Twahlight’s jaw dropped like someone dropped a bushel of apples onto it!”

You both laugh, though you can still feel a bit of weight in the air between the two of you. As you pick up the box and place it onto the main desk, you glance at her out of the corner of your eye and see her fidgeting. She never fidgets, you muse to yourself. She’s normally just up front and honest about everything.

“Applejack, you all right?” you ask as you turn around to face her.

She looks down at the floor, idly brushing the floor with a hoof. “Ah…” She deflates momentarily before meeting your gaze. “Ah can’t tell yew ta keep mah bein’ here a secret, what with me bein’ the Element of Honesty an’ all, but Ah just don’t want anypony, especially th’ other mares, ta find out Ah was here.” She looks down at the floor again. “Ah hates keepin’ secrets, ‘specially from th’ others.”

You shake your head. It really wasn’t any surprise that even Applejack wanted to keep her being here a secret (for whatever reason), but you could tell it was hard for her to ask. As she said, she was the Element of Honesty.

“Don’t worry about it, Applejack,” you say solemnly as you give her a smile as you raise a hoof. “Pony’s honor.”

A small spark of relief lights up in her eyes as she walks up to you. “Thanks,” she says as she raises her forelegs up and pulls you into a hug. She squeezes a little tighter, nuzzling her muzzle into the side of your neck. “It means a lot t’ me.” She releases you from her embrace and holds you at foreleg’s length, her smile full of relief and sincerity. As she lowers her forelegs again and moves towards the front door, she hesitates and turns back to you. “Hey.”

“Hmm?”

“Yer not…yer not involved with Twahlight, are ya?”

That was up front, you think. “Oh! Well, actually, I’ve been kinda wondering that for myself.” You give her a toothy smile and an awkward laugh. “I just don’t mind working at the library from time to time. We’ve gone out to lunch once or twice, but other than that, we really haven’t done anything.”

“Oh,” she says, looking down at the ground. “If y’aren’t, ya think there’s a chance, well…”

You perk up at the suddenness of the question. Applejack? Really? It’s not that you find the thought unsettling, but you’ve just never thought to visualize yourself with someone so strong-willed and independent, let alone someone as pretty as Applejack. Big Mac’s a big help in that, Ah’ll tell you whut, you muse.

“I…” You don’t want to let her down, but you’re pretty sure she could tell if you tried to lie your way out of it. “I can’t say for certain, Applejack. I’d have to straighten out my feelings with Twilight first.”

“Ah understand,” she says quietly. Just when you think she’s about to run off, she turns to you and kisses you on the nose. “Ah’m glad y’answered honestly.” A small spark of mischief glints in her eye as she winks at you. “I’d have ta make ya taste mah horseshoes real violent-like if ya hurt Twahlight’s feelin’s.” Your eyes go wide at her casually uttered threat before she giggles and trots off.

“Enjoy yer pie!” she calls out.

Once again, you’re left staring out into Ponyville proper slack-jawed. You shake your head, gathering your thoughts as you close the door to the library. You make your way back to the main desk and open the box, no party-related fanfare popping out at you this time. A plate with a rather large slice of warm apple pie is all that’s in it, and the aroma gets your mouth watering.

One thing’s for sure, you think to yourself as you start to tuck into the pie, I didn’t have to worry too much about food today.

+ 	+     + 	+ 	+

The cuckoo clock on the wall ‘cuckoo’s nine times as you look up from your book. You use your magic to close the book and send it floating back to its place. You yawn and crane your neck, wondering where the time went. Huh, you think to yourself, I just realized that it’s been two hours since anypony’s come by. You shrug to yourself. Oh well, time to close up. I suppose I can just wait here for Twilight and Spike to get back. You roll your shoulders briefly before heading towards the front door to switch the sign to ‘Closed’.

The sound of laughter sounds in your ears and begins to get closer and louder. As you open the door, you see Twilight and the others, Spike asleep on her back with a lampshade on his head.

“Oh!” you say, surprised. “Perfect timing! I was just about to close up.”

Twilight nods, a bright smile on her face. “Thank you. Really, thank you. I’m glad that you did this for me.”

You wave away her thanks as you feel heat rise in your cheeks. “Ahh, it was nothing.” You glance at Spike. “Tired out, huh?”

“He really tore up the dance floor,” Rainbow Dash says with a laugh. “You should have been there! It was awesome!”

You smile, but you feel a sudden pang of regret for not making it to the party. No! you think to yourself suddenly. It was Twilight’s party! You had to be at the library, otherwise it never would have happened!

“I’ll just put Spike to bed,” Twilight says as she enters the library and trots up the stairs to their bedroom.

“I’m glad you guys managed to get this thing together for Twilight,” you say as you walk to your saddlebags. Remembering her present, you open one of the saddlebags and use your magic to levitate it and set it on the main desk. “I should get going, though. She’s probably tired and wants to get some rest.”

“Now where’d’ja get that idea?” Applejack asks. You look at her, confused.

“What?”

“She said that she was going to put Spike to bed,” Rarity corrects you. “She actually has other plans for you.”

“What?” you ask flatly.

“You helped Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie get me out of the library for my birthday,” Twilight says as she steps down the stairs. You turn at the sound of her voice. “You didn’t get to go to my party, so the others and I thought to bring a little bit of my party to you.”

“Whaa…?” you manage to say as Pinkie Pie snaps a sky blue party hat with green polka dots on your head. Rarity gets a box out from her saddlebag as Rainbow Dash sets her saddlebags on the floor, opens one, and begins to take out bottles of sarsaparilla.

“You heard the filly!” Pinkie Pie says loudly. “Leeeeet’s party!”