Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The following night, Twilight returned home to the library. As soon as she entered, all of the lights went on to reveal a lobby full of ponies, Pinkie Pie at their forefront, and all of them yelling "SURPRISE!"

A banner hung across the room: HAPPY THREE-WEEK ANNIVERSARY, TWILIGHT AND SNICKER-SNACK!

Twilight sighed and laughed, having to admit she wasn't that surprised. "Pinkie… Snick is still in Canterlot. He and the others are setting up a gig for Crazyface."

Pinkie scowled. "Well, that miffs me. I am miffed. It's your anniversary and he's out of town? You may have to let this one go, Twilight."

"Um… no, I'm not quite ready to let him go," Twilight said. "Tell you what: I will make absolutely sure that he's here for our three-month anniversary."

"Oh? And what about all the anniversaries between now and then?"

Twilight released a puff of air in amused exasperation. "I don't know, Pinkie. We'll eyeball it. For now, let's not waste this party."

Pinkie tilted her head. "You feelin' okay, Twilight?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing… it's just, when I'm being more OCD than you, that's… that's a bad sign. Are you Twilight from an alternate universe?"

Twilight smirked. "I'm still the same Twilight. It's just… I don't know, when it comes to this relationship, I feel better riding it out free and easy. It makes me happy. Happier than if we were sticking to schedules and whatnot. You can't have a relationship by-the-book."

"Okay," Pinkie said, smiling. "If you're happy, that's all that matters. Just as long as you're not a doppelgänger who's eaten the real Twilight's brain to absorb her memories and personality."

"Tell ya what, you keep an eye on me just to make sure." Twilight gave Pinkie a hug. "Thank you so much for putting this together."

She walked through a crowd of ponies, most of them friends, all of them familiar. "Hi, everypony! Thanks for coming, good to see you, I…" She did a double-take at Fluttershy, who was standing next to Big Mac and suppressing laughter. "Fluttershy? What are you giggling about?"

"Oh, nothing, Twilight, nothing," Fluttershy said. "Just thinking about how, uh, my three-week anniversary was quite a while ago, and yours is now, and yet you slept with your beau before I did with mine."

"What's your point?"

"Nothing, nothing… it's just nice to have the moral high ground," Fluttershy said, giggling uncontrollably. "Shame on you!"

Twilight snorted. "You're… that's silly. It's silly, is what it is." She laughed and nuzzled Fluttershy before returning to her scan of the party, noticing a pair of elderly donkeys.

"Oh, hi, Cranky, Matilda," Twilight said. "Wouldn't expect to see you two here."

"Why, we never miss a Pinkie Pie party," Matilda said proudly.

"Still?" Twilight said. "I would have thought you'd gotten your fill after she threw you the 'all-of-your-anniversaries-at-once' party."

"Would you have expected anypony else to stop going to parties after that one?" Cranky said, smiling wryly. "We're old, not dead. There's a lot of partying left to do." He grinned toothily, then leaned in toward Twilight confidentially. "Listen, Miss Twilight… do you know that filly?"

He ticked his head to the side, and Twilight glanced toward the wall where he was pointing. The individual he was indicating was unmistakable. She was quite small, but unmistakably a fully adult mare. Her coat was golden, as were her eyes, her tail, and what little was visible of her mane under her leather cap.

The cap was more of a helmet, with two protrusions guarding her cheeks and a third running down the bridge of her nose. She was fully dressed in what appeared to be a matched set of similarly protective leather garments; a sheet across her chest, another along her back and flanks, concealing her cutie mark completely.

Several other locations on her body were wrapped in thick leather bands: one around each hoof, another higher up on each leg, one around her neck, and three spaced evenly down her long, curly tail. In addition, every square inch of these leather garments were covered in sealed pockets, pockets of all sizes, including a huge one on her nose guard, just between her eyes.

The little mare's eyes met Twilight's, and Twilight had to look away in horror. Her golden eyes were smoldering with rage.

"Who is she?" Twilight whispered to Cranky.

"I don't know," the donkey replied. "She turned up a few days ago, started asking weird questions… like, if there have been any thefts in Ponyville recently, or if anypony's gotten hurt. And when folks tell her no, she just gets angrier and angrier."

"Can you talk to her, Miss Twilight?" Matilda asked.

Twilight blinked. "Who, me?"

"You're the most trusted pony in Ponyville," Matilda said, smiling. "We'd all like to help her, but we can't figure out what she's after. Maybe you can figure it out."

Twilight inhaled in preparation. "Okay, I'll see what I can do."

She made her way through the crowd to the girl, who was leaning against a wall of books.

"Hi there!" she said cheerfully. "Enjoying the party?"

The stranger shrugged. "Well, I actually came here to use the library, but hey, this is almost as good," she said in a viciously snide tone that didn't fit her honey-sweet voice.

The hostility only threw Twilight off for a split second. "What's your name?" she asked.

After a painful silence, the stranger responded, "Ve—ah, no. Gewgaw."

"Gewgaw… hi. So, I hear you've been looking for something, asking around. Can I help you?"

Gewgaw's lips thinned. "The information I need… I can find myself. It's got nothing to do with anypony else." Her eye twitched violently, her head snapped back, and she growled deep in her throat, before inhaling deeply and suddenly looking calm and serene.

"But I'll let you know," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. "If we ever cross paths again, yeah… maybe you can help me."

The strange leather-clad pony slowly made her way to the door, walking backwards through the light crowds, her calculating eyes on Twilight at all times.

She opened the library door just a crack, just wide enough to slip out and vanish into the night.

Twilight watched her go in silence and fear. She had the feeling it would be hard to enjoy the rest of her party.